Author's Note: I couldn't help but think about the final confrontation in the Chamber and what awesomely dramatic things could happen in there when I realized suddenly that I have barely grazed the surface of this book and am actually not that far into the school year. Yeesh! So while I have my eye ahead on events to come, I decided I definitely needed to get the ball rolling.
Anyway, reviews!
SilversunXD: Thanks!
M.v.j.M.: Thank you very much. :)
KijoKuroi: I think I mentioned in earlier chapters that the wizards don't know very much about Seasonals. I'll touch on it in a later chapter, but wizards pretty much view Seasonals as magical beings that have Centaur-like intelligence but aren't human. Since Snape thinks Lillian is his cousin, he's finding it difficult to believe she could be a powerful magical being AND his relative. So no, he doesn't know how they are chosen. He's just completely dumbfounded at the thought that he could be related to anything as powerful as a Seasonal and how that should be impossible.
I also can't wait for Snape to meet Pitch in Lillian's mind!
Crossover Junkie: Especially Professor Snape!
Chapter Thirteen: Meeting the Twins, Potions & Wind's Plan
The twins eagerly followed the flowers with a reluctant Lee Jordan trailing after them. The twins only had thoughts of how they could use Snape's cousin to their advantage, while Lee was wondering what the hell following a bunch of flowers had to do with finding a child.
It became clear to Lee that the child had taken a meandering path, as sometimes they went in circles or wandered in a sort of zigzag that had him shaking his head. The twins were so busy plotting that they hardly noticed that they too, were following the circles and zigzags when all they had to do was go straight forward. It was clear that the flowers were headed straight for the greenhouses.
Lee followed after the twins with a bemused look on his face as he took a more direct path to their circles and zigzags and had to actually slow down so that he didn't pass them, as Fred had clearly wanted to take the lead on their little expedition. Lee noticed as they approached the greenhouses that the flowers went right up to the windows, as though they had wanted to peek inside, but that was absurd.. right?
The twins were so intent on their conversation that they hardly noticed as they too walked up to the greenhouses, but when Fred nearly walked right into the wall, they noticed where they were with sheepish grins on each of their faces.
"The flowers go past the greenhouses," Lee called out from where he had stopped, to see if the twins would actually walk into the wall or not.
Lee had a highly amused look on his face and his grin widened as George looked back at him with a small scowl, as he had noted that his friend hadn't bothered to warn them to watch where they were walking.
Fred was the first to recover from their near miss as he saw that the flowers did indeed go past the greenhouses, as Lee had helpfully pointed out.
"Onward!" Fred called out as he pointed dramatically forward and began to walk in the direction of the flowers.
"Uh, guys.." Lee said hesitantly in the background as he was paying attention to where they were going and he noted with growing concern just where the flowers were headed.
"To riches!" George called out just as dramatically as he recovered from scowling at Lee to grin along with his twin.
"..Guys.." Lee said again, trying in vain to capture the twins' attention, but they seemed determined to ignore him in favor of their antics.
"To glory!" Fred shouted as he marched forward, eyes on the flowers and clearly not paying any attention to their destination.
"To Lillian!" the twins cried out in unison, clearly not listening to Lee even a little.
"GUYS!" Lee shouted in growing panic.
"What?!" Fred scowled as he whirled around to face Lee, his playful grin gone.
George also scowled at their friend for ruining their fun, but all Lee could do was point ahead, where the twins saw what Lee had been trying to tell them for the past few minutes.
"..Oh.." the twins said in unison, their scowls vanishing as their eyes grew wide as they looked in the direction Lee was pointing in.
They saw the imposing form of the Whomping Willow, and sitting at its base surrounded by a large number of spring flowers was little Lillian, smiling happily as she chatted away to.. well, as far as they could see, she was talking to nothing in particular.
The twins and Lee all shared a horrified look since they knew that tree, in particular, was extremely dangerous. After some misadventures in their first year involving the tree, the twins had learned to stay far away from it.
"What are we going to do?" Lee asked in a hushed voice, so as not to startle either Lillian or the violent tree.
"Ah.." Fred said, clearly at a loss.
"Well.." George was clearly as lost as his twin.
They heard Lillian's giggle as she smiled happily while the branches of the Whomping Willow swayed innocently in the light spring breeze.
"I'm so glad I got to come outside!" Lillian exclaimed innocently with a big smile on her face, unaware of the twins and Lee panicking as they tried to discreetly sneak closer to the tree.
It was as Lee was muttering in a panicked whisper that Professor Snape was going to kill them that inspiration struck Fred and he smirked as he saw all the spring flowers surrounding them.
"George, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Fred asked his twin quietly.
"I think so Fred, but where are we going to get weed killer out here?" George asked as he looked at where his twin was looking.
Fred facepalmed and smacked the back of George's head.
"No!" Fred quietly exclaimed. "What can we do with all these flowers?"
"Well.." George looked at them thoughtfully. "We clearly can't take over the world."
Lee overheard their conversation and despite his earlier panic he cracked up laughing at their ridiculous conversation.[1] He quickly stifled his laughter, so he wouldn't draw the unwanted attention of Lillian or the Whomping Willow. The last thing they needed was the tree freaking out and accidentally hurting Professor Snape's cousin.
Fred rolled his eyes at his twin and whispered into George's ear.
"Ohh," George said as he nodded in understanding. "That's a good plan."
"Clearly I inherited all the brains," Fred smirked as he began to gather up some of the flowers.
"While I inherited all the beauty," George smirked back at his twin as he, too, began to gather up flowers.
Quick as a flash, they both had made a rather impressively long flower chain.
"Now.." Fred said, drawing out his wand as George held the flower chain in his arms. He took careful aim and with a wave of his wand and a muttered incantation, the flowers transfigured themselves into a thin yet sturdy vine.
George hastily tied the vine into a makeshift lasso and began to twirl it over his head with a grin.[2]
"Yeehaw!" he cried out as Lee facepalmed in the background.
"Seriously?!" Lee complained. "This is never going to work!"
"Oh ye of little faith," Fred grinned at his friend while George threw the lasso at Lillian.
With only the aim of the truly inexperienced, George managed to accidentally lasso one of the tree's branches.
"..Oops," George said and a split second later he was yanked off his feet and found himself being flung around in the air.
"Nooo, put me down!" George screamed as he was flung every which way.
"..Huh?" Lillian looked up in surprise as she saw George clinging to the vine for dear life.
"Omigosh!" Lee cried out in renewed panic. "GEORGE!"
"Let go!" Fred yelled at his twin. "We'll catch you!"
"I don't want to diiie!" George screamed back at them, or at the tree, it was hard to tell.
Lillian looked very confused at all this since she had no idea why that boy had decided to lasso the Whomping Willow, as clearly the tree didn't like it.
She frowned at him since that wasn't very nice, but she noticed the tree was being far too mean in retaliation.
"HEY!" Lillian yelled at the Whomping Willow as she stood up and stamped her foot in irritation. Unseen by the panicking teens, her bracelet began to glow brightly as she stamped her foot. "Knock it off!"
The tree froze as Lillian yelled at it, but then gave a half-hearted flail of its branches in protest, causing George to cry out as he was flung around a little.
Lillian glared at the tree and poked its trunk forcefully.
"I mean it, mister!" she demanded. "Let him down!"
The Willow's branches drooped in defeat and with a sharp snap, the branch George had lassoed gave a hard jerk and George's grip slipped from the vine. He started to scream again, but it was cut off when he abruptly hit the ground, landing in a heap.
"Good tree," Lillian praised as she patted the trunk. She walked over to the dangling vine and gestured for the Whomping Willow to lower the branch, which it did.
Lillian had to stretch as far she could on her tiptoes, but she could just reach the branch, which had lowered itself quite far to the ground, as the tree leaned towards her helpfully.
Lillian struggled with the knot of the lasso while Fred and Lee rushed over to George, who was sitting up with a groan.
"..That.. was.." George said as he shook his head trying to get the dizzying image of little Lillians from flying around his head to go away.[3]
"Idiotic," Lee supplied helpfully.
"Terrible," Fred agreed cheerfully, although still a bit pale from George's accident.
"Really stupid!" Lillian chimed in as she threw the vine at them forcefully, having finally untied it from the tree branch.
The twins and Lee looked over at little Lillian in surprise, since they had never heard her be so loud. She was usually very quiet and subdued in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and she was normally not very talkative during meals in the Great Hall.
Lillian scowled at the teens, her emerald eyes darkening a little in her anger.
"The poor Willow is already hurt and you could have made it worse!" she chastised as she wagged a finger at them. "Not to mention you practically killed yourself!"
George sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
"We were trying to rescue you from the tree," he explained.
Lillian rolled her eyes at this.
"Did it look like I needed rescuing?" she asked sarcastically.
"You did a little," Fred said defensively for his twin.
"Besides," Lee interjected, "Professor Snape asked us to come and get you."
Lillian's scolding look immediately turned guilty, since she knew that he would flip out if he ever learned that she had come back to the Whomping Willow.
"He did?" she asked a little hesitantly. "Does he know I'm here?"
"No, I imagine he'd have come here himself if he knew," George replied as he finally got up to his feet.
Lillian sighed in relief, which caused Fred to get a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"But, since he did ask us to fetch you for him, he really should know," Fred said in a mock-serious tone.
"Wh-what?" Lillian stammered nervously.
"However," Fred continued, "we might be persuaded not to tell him.."
"..If you help us out," George finished for his twin getting an equally mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Just a small favor," Fred said trying and failing to sound innocent.
"Or two," George snickered.
"More like fifty," Lee muttered with a smile at their antics.
"What kind of favor?" Lillian asked as the twins approached her and each threw their arms around her, leading her away from the Whomping Willow.
"Kid - " Fred said with an evil grin.
" - This is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship," George finished for his twin with an equally evil grin.
"Oh boy," Lee commented as he followed them while shaking his head. But then he thought of all the pranks they could do with Lillian's help and he began to grin evilly too.
While the Weasley twins and Lee were tracking down Lillian (and totally not blackmailing her into helping them out with their pranks), Professor Snape was leading Harry down to the dungeons. Thankfully there weren't a lot of students about, and those that were assumed that Harry was in trouble. Again.
Harry himself didn't take much notice of his surroundings, so it seemed like only moments later that he found himself sitting on a couch with a hot cup of tea in front of him, with Professor Snape urging him to drink.
Harry blinked in confusion since wasn't he just outside on the Quidditch pitch?
"Potter!" Snape barked in irritation. "I said drink! "
Harry startled at Professor Snape's loud voice and his hands flew to his teacup as he took a big drink of the surprisingly good tea. As he swallowed, he instantly felt himself relax and for the first time since he'd seen Snape bearing down on him out on the field, he finally was able to breathe normally.
He looked over at Professor Snape quickly and noticed that those dark eyes were looking at him carefully. He blushed when he remembered how he had panicked when Snape had been screaming at him and looked down at his tea as though it were fascinating, just so he could avoid looking at Snape.
At the time, when Snape had been practically screaming at him, all he could think about was his Uncle Vernon and the horrible fight that had ensued after Dobby had smashed his Aunt Petunia's pudding in the kitchen. His Uncle had sounded a bit like that, and he didn't like it.
For one terrible moment he had been certain that Snape was angry enough to hit him, but then Snape had stopped screaming at him suddenly, and that was when things became a big blur.
While Harry was looking at his tea, Professor Snape was looking at Harry. He gave an irritated sigh and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. Potter had been in more dangerous situations than that, and the boy has a panic attack because he, Severus Snape, was yelling at him?
True, he had been a bit.. excessive, but really! The stupid boy had almost killed himself with that idiotic dive!
Professor Snape felt himself getting angry all over again and took a sip of his own teacup. He felt himself relax and was thankful that he had spiked both his and Potter's cup generously with a calming draught.
Once he was calmer, Profesor Snape took a more critical look at the boy. He remembered how Potter had been dressed when he arrived at the school, but now the boy seemed to be wearing more normal clothes. Students weren't required to wear their uniforms during their free time, but they still had to wear it when at meals in the Great Hall.
The clothes Potter had worn before were scruffy and overly large for him, but now he saw that Potter was wearing a normal pair of jeans with a Gryffindor red longsleeved shirt. Professor Snape frowned in confusion at the sight, since if the boy had clothes like these, why was he wearing those other clothes?
Come to think of it, he didn't remember Potter wearing casual clothes at all last year. He remembered the boy had worn his uniform the entire time, even during their free time on Fridays and on the weekends. Usually, the students couldn't wait to wear more casual clothes. Even Weasley had eagerly shed his uniform.
But not Potter.
They sat in silence for a moment, Professor Snape watching the boy and wishing he'd stop staring into his cup as though he wanted to crawl inside and hide.
After a few minutes of this, Professor Snape cleared his throat and Harry jumped as the silence was broken.
Professor Snape rolled his eyes and urged Potter to drink more of his tea.
Harry did so, rather reluctantly, and his shoulders relaxed from their resumed tense posture of a moment ago.
"So, Potter," Snape said dryly. "Have you recovered from your near-death experience?"
Harry felt his cheeks burn and he nodded silently as he still stared down into his teacup. He could never in a million years explain to Snape why he had really freaked out, nor did he want to - ever.
"Can.. can I go now?" Harry asked as he finally looked up from his cup to Professor Snape.
Harry saw Snape purse his lips in an Aunt Petunia-like fashion, which Harry knew meant that the question didn't sit well with Snape, but Harry could really care less at this point. He was desperate to get away and avoid any more awkward questions.
Professor Snape eyed Harry again, his frown deepening as he did so.
"Have you been eating properly?" he asked suddenly as he slammed his teacup down on its saucer on the coffee table harder than he had intended to. He had noticed that with Harry wearing more form-fitting clothes, that the boy was really too skinny and it wasn't sitting well with him. These inconsistencies with the boy were really quite annoying.
Harry jumped again at the sudden action and then mentally cursed himself for being so jumpy still.
"Yes, sir," Harry very quickly answered.
"Hmm," Professor Snape murmured, and Harry felt like Snape didn't believe him at all.
Harry fiddled with his teacup, and for something to do, he took another long drink from his cup, draining it in the process.
Professor Snape stood and gave Harry a half-hearted glare. He couldn't give Harry his scariest glare, not after believing he had frightened the boy so.
"Don't move from this spot," Snape spat at him and without another word of explanation, he stalked off to a hallway and disappeared into a room.
Harry blinked in surprise at Snape's sudden departure and shrugged to himself. He set his empty teacup down on its saucer and then looked around to see that he was in a living room of sorts. He noted that everything seemed rather dated (like much of the wizarding world) and that there weren't any electronics around, not that he expected any in Hogwarts, after all.
He noticed that there wasn't as much Slytherin green around as he was expecting. He had expected everything to be drowning in green, much like the Gryffindor tower sported a lot of red and gold, but he found instead that there were splashes of it around. The couch he was sitting on was a more neutral dark color, and the walls and floor were stone gray, of course. A Slytherin green blanket with silvery swirls lay on the back of the couch folded neatly and on the wall near a matching armchair that was nearby was a large bookcase, that was full of books of all shapes and sizes.
Harry got on his knees on the couch to peer back behind it, and he saw an archway that led to a small kitchenette. He quickly sat back down on the couch, lest Snape catch him snooping, and looked back to where Snape had disappeared to.
He could see a hall beyond the living room doorway and a few closed doors. He realized with a start that Snape must have taken him, Harry, to his private quarters, since this didn't look anything at all like one of the dorms nor did it look like an office.
He frowned a little as he fidgeted. He didn't even know where Professor McGonagall lived, and now here he was, sitting on Snape's couch!
Just as Harry was wondering how much trouble he'd be in for snooping in a wooden box he spotted laying out on a nearby end table, Professor Snape came stalking back in, as Harry guiltily looked away from the box and tried to rearrange his expression to something more neutral.
Professor Snape almost snorted when he saw Potter look away from the box and surmised that the boy could hardly contain his curiosity. He was surprised that Potter had actually listened to him for a change and surmised it must have been from him still feeling out of sorts from his earlier fright.
He resumed his earlier seat after handing Potter a vial that had a reddish-orange looking potion in it.
Harry inspected the vial curiously, having never seen a potion that looked like that before.
"It's a nutritional potion[4]," Professor Snape informed him. "You will find this in your goblet at mealtimes in place of pumpkin juice until I am satisfied that you are eating balanced meals."
Harry frowned a little at this, not liking Snape's demanding tone nor the implication that he had lied to Snape earlier. He had, of course, but still!
"I didn't give you that vial to stare at," Professor Snape snapped as the imbecilic boy continued to look at the potion as though he'd never seen anything quite like it.
Harry jumped at Snape's sharp tone and he looked up at Snape with slightly wide eyes.
Professor Snape sighed as he saw this and couldn't help but think that helping Harry was really more of a headache than it was worth.
"Well?" Snape demanded, trying to keep his tone from being too harsh.
Harry felt his cheeks heat up and he hastily uncorked the vial and downed the potion in one big swallow. He had expected the potion to taste foul but found this one tasted a bit like tomato juice.
He looked at the vial in surprise as he set it down on the low coffee table.
"Not all potions are horrible," Professor Snape rolled his eyes as he saw the surprised look on Potter's face.
Harry nodded sheepishly and fidgeted as he thought about asking to leave again. Before he could do so, he remembered the bomb that the Weasley twins had dropped on him before they asked him to an impromptu quidditch practice.
"Uh.." Harry started hesitantly. "Is.. is Lillian really your cousin?"
Professor Snape frowned at the impertinent question, then had to wonder why Potter would even care. Did he like her? Was Potter worried that he, Severus, might chop her up for potions ingredients?
"That," he said with a tone of finality, "is none of your business."
"Sorry," Harry said instantly, averting his gaze to his lap.
Professor Snape sighed again in annoyance.
"Yes, she's my cousin," he reluctantly answered.
Harry perked up at once and looked back up at Snape.
"But Mr. Weasley obliviated her for being a muggle," Harry said in confusion. "How could she be related to you?"
"That, Mister Potter, is the million-galleon question," Professor Snape said. When Harry continued to look confused, he elaborated. "No one seems to know the circumstances on how she found her way to the Weasley's or even to England. I'm waiting for more information from the Ministry, but I doubt we'll know until Lillian recovers her memories."
Harry blinked in shock.
"Recovers? She.. she can get them back? " he asked in disbelief. If she was recovering her memories, that would explain why she had recognized him earlier!
"It is an extremely dangerous and delicate process, but I believe I can help her recover the majority of her memories," Professor Snape said carefully.
"You're helping her get her memories back?" Harry gaped at Snape, still in shock from this news.
"I'm not heartless," Professor Snape snapped, the last of his patience gone. "She is my cousin and a child, of course I would help her! Anyone would!"
"I.." Harry said, feeling oddly guilty about being so surprised at Snape helping anyone. "..I didn't mean.."
"Go," Professor Snape said with another frown at Harry.
"Wh-what?" Harry asked at the abrupt dismissal.
"You clearly have recovered from your earlier fright and now it is time for you to leave," Professor Snape said in emphasis, his tone sounding incredibly irritated.
Harry stood from the couch and hurried over to what was clearly the entrance to Snape's quarters. If he had bothered to look back, he might have seen the hurt look on Snape's face, that someone thought that he could be so callous to even his family.
As Harry hurried away from Snape's quarters and back to the Entrance Hall, he felt the crinkle of parchment in his pocket and realized with a start that he had never read Mr. Lupin's letter.
Even though the sun was shining brightly, Jack Frost's eyes began to close yet again as he unintentionally flew lower and lower to the ground. He had dark shadows under his eyes as he had barely gotten any sleep since he had decided to go searching for Lillian.
Although it had only been a few days since his run-in with Jasper, to Jack it felt like it was much longer. He kept alternating flying back and forth across the ocean as he avoided Sandy, and all that constant flying in itself was exhausting. Truthfully, Jack had never gone so long without landing before, but he knew that if he did he'd just fall asleep for several hours and he didn't have the time to rest. He had to find Lillian.
As Jack dipped even lower to the ground, the winter wind that surrounded him picked up and a newspaper flew smack into Jack's face.
Jack let out a high pitched shriek in surprise and fright and flailed for a moment, nearly dropping his staff in the process.
"Wiiind!" Jack whined as he barely managed to keep a hold of his staff and grab the paper off of his face. "I wasn't sleeping!"
The Wind merely ruffled his hair in response and Jack huffed in annoyance at his friend. He glanced at the paper that had hit him and saw that it was an old copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Ugh, wizards!" Jack muttered in disgust.
He glanced down below to see that there was a town not too far off and surmised that it must have come from there.
The headline GILDEROY LOCKHART NAMED TEMPORARY GUARDIAN on the front page meant nothing to Jack when he looked back at the paper, holding that in one hand while holding his staff in the other, as Wind kept him aloft while he was preoccupied.
However, the moving picture caused him to stare in disbelief. He wasn't staring at what was unmistakably Gilderoy Lockhart, who was beaming jovially at the cameras but at the small girl hiding behind him with her little hands clutching at his robes, her head buried into them as she tried to hide from the flash of the cameras.
Even though he couldn't see her face and the picture was in black and white, Jack would recognize that curly hair from anywhere.
"L-Lillian?!" Jack gasped as he stared at the picture.
The Lockhart in the picture seemed to falter at not being admired by the viewer, while Jack's hushed voice caused the small girl in the picture to raise her head and peer out at him cautiously.
Jack saw what was unmistakably his Lillian.
Lillian was with the wizards?!
Jack hastily began to read the article and felt his heart clench when he got the part where Stephen Jorkins helped to elaborate on Lillian's backstory and explained that she had accidentally had a memory charm placed on her and seemed to have total amnesia now.
"..No.." Jack whispered, rereading that sentence in horror.
No! Lillian couldn't have forgotten all about himself and Pitch!
She couldn't..
Jack ignored the Wind's shrill warning in his ears and didn't seem to notice as he was jerked suddenly out of the way of an incoming bird as the words of the paper became a little blurry. Jack hastily blinked his tears away to bring the paper back in focus and began to read the article almost frantically now.
He saw that Lillian was set to live with Gilderoy Lockhart temporarily while the search for the remaining members of Lillian's family continued. Jack stared in despair at the paper. He knew that wizards could see the Seasonals as well as other spirits and sprites. It was why they all tended to avoid where the wizards were since they tended to cast spells first and ask questions later.
Now, unbelievably, Lillian had been hit by some spell and couldn't remember anything! Worse, it seemed she'd been kidnapped by the wizards who believed she was an actual human child!
Jack's train of thought was cut off as he was suddenly dropped rather harshly into a tree. Jack gasped and nearly dropped his staff again as the Wind whistled in his ears, chiding him for flying around without watching where he was going and saying he was a danger to himself!
Jack realized that Wind had dropped him into a tree so he could think without accidentally flying into anything and murmured his thanks. He had dropped the paper when he landed in the tree, not that he needed it any longer. He had already finished that terrible article.
As Jack straightened up on his tree branch, he desperately cast his mind around for anyone who could help him out. His first thought was of Pitch, but then he remembered the way Pitch had yelled at him and had ignored him when he had tried to bring up the fact that Lillian had been missing all summer.
He perked up again, however, when he thought of Sandy.. but then immediately deflated again when he remembered the last time he had seen Sandy, Sandy had knocked him out for being up too late and he had woken up at his lake before he had a chance to even talk properly with Sandy.
Jack realized he had absolutely no one to turn to for this, no one he could ask for help. He brought his knees up to his chest with his staff cradled in his arms and buried his face in his knees.
It reminded him of all those long lonely years before he even met Lillian and became friendly with Pitch. The only friend he had was Wind, and even then he had still been so terribly lonely.
He had Sandy sometimes, but now Sandy was more intent on him getting a good night's sleep than on having any conversations. He noticed that this had started when he started hanging around Lillian as well.
"What am I going to do, Wind?" Jack asked softly, his voice muffled by his knees. "Lillian's with the wizards and.. and she doesn't even remember me," he ended brokenly with a sob.
The Wind ruffled Jack's hair reassuringly and whispered gently into his ears.
Jack raised his head at Wind's response, his blue eyes dark with emotion and tears.
"Wh-what?" he asked, not sure he heard that right.
The Wind repeated its response and Jack clearly heard this time, shock written all over his face.
Go to the wizards.
[1]: Yes, that is a Pinky and the Brain reference. I was going to have it be funnier by having Lee get the reference, but when I looked it up, Pinky and Brain didn't even make their first appearance until 1993 and right now it's still '92. Ah well. I figured since it's the twins, Lee would find their silliness funny anyway.
[2]: Fun fact: I had rewritten the whole entire scene with the Weasley twins. Originally I wanted them to act more like in the Looney Tunes as they transfigured the flowers into a makeshift fishing pole and literally fished Lillian out of there. Then I changed the pole since I figured the fishing hook would be dangerous, so that they had a pole with a vine tied to it. Then I decided that I had them acting too advanced in their magic and scrapped that idea, until I came up with a vine and a lasso. I figure they would have heard of such a thing from their dad and his muggle obsession.
[3]: It's supposed to be a take on how in the cartoons they have little tweeting birds fly around their heads when they're dizzy and out of sorts. Now George has little flying Lillians instead. :)
[4]: I've seen nutritional/nutrient potions mentioned in other fics before but a quick google search didn't come up with much of anything, so I figure this is another fandom invented thing and not an actual canon thing. I think it's very useful, so I decided I'd stick it in there too. It's not unbelievable to think that there would be something like this available. I've seen it be green in fics but I wanted reddish orange since I'm imagining it will look and taste very much like V8.
Author's Note: I know I said Jack probably wouldn't be around more until later on/Winter or after Halloween but that was only because I couldn't think of a reason for him to turn up earlier. At first I was going to have him come across Lillian completely on accident while spreading snow or frost at Hogwarts and only have him be on the fringes, while frantically trying to think of a way to help Lillian who still doesn't seem to remember a whole lot.
Then I had to remind myself that this is AU. Even though I wanted to write it like I could insert this right into Child of Spring and the story would continue on like normal, this is a different fic. I can change things if I want to. The Guardians/Jack/Pitch can be more involved! That said, Jack still won't become a student and you'll just have to wait and see to find out just how involved Jack will be.
Also, I realize that Lockhart's detention with Harry is over and done with and yes, Severus really should have given Lillian back to Lockhart since he doesn't have Lillian's room fixed up yet, but he forgot about that. It will be addressed in the next chapter. We'll also see a snippet of the Guardians.
I've found a handy-dandy calendar of the Chamber of Secrets major events and nothing really happens until late October, which is disappointing. I'm having fun in non-book territory though, so we'll see what happens in upcoming chapters.
If you guys have any ideas on any Weasley pranks you'd like to see Lillian help with (or be blackmailed into) or non-book events you'd like to see, feel free to let me know! I have some ideas on where I want to take the plot, but nothing is set in stone yet.
As always, thanks for all the follows and favorites and sorry for my lengthy author's notes. I tend to get rambly late at night.