Chapter Six
She woke the next morning with a crick in her neck and her mouth full of golden blond curls. Miss Bradlegrace was still sound asleep, it seemed to be quite early indeed. Another young woman was curled against Miss Bradlegrace, her skirts rode up indecently, and a simple spell straitened and smoothed them out without disturbing the girl. Lily was pleased to discover that she was at seventy five percent of her normal power and redistributed it, taking some from everyone in return, until they were all at equal strength.
"Good morning." Someone said and Lily yawned and smiled at the young man who passed her, heading towards the shelves.
"Good Morning Mr. Branson, your up early." She said and Mr. Branson smiled.
"I come to the library as soon as it opens, though admittedly I'd never have been quite so glad to be a bibliophile." Mr. Branson said and Lily sighed.
"Young boys, I do hope you were respectful of young Miss Valencia's dignity, the girl wears her skirts entirely too short." Lily said and Mr. Branson blushed. "Then again I did the same when I was in school, the uniforms are meant to attract the eye, but they are a bit unseemly. I always thought three inches, below or above the knee was a bit indecent, it should be six instead as it was a hundred years ago." Lily said and shrugged. "Yet you can't tell a teenager that they are dressing inappropriately, not with dramatic eye rolls." She said and laughed. "I had my skirt a good inch above regulation and no one ever caught me, it felt daring and I always wore cloth shorts underneath." Mr. Branson blushed and Lily smiled. "Now that I am older, I prefer to wear long skirts, partly because I like the way they look and partly because they are warm and I too like to read and often fall asleep while doing so." She said and laughed. "Its so very easy to make young wizards uncomfortable, it is not as though you did anything unforgivable, you simply came into read when the library opened. It is not your fault that Miss Valencia likes to keep her skirts right at regulation height. Though I might suggest being a bit more proper in future."
"You are correct Professor Potter, I had heard that you and Miss Bradlegrace had fallen asleep in the library and I should have gone to another part of the library."
"Indeed, you should have, but I don't blame you for doing what most young wizards did when I was in school." Lily said and laughed. "I actually believe I knew a Branson when I was in school, he was in seventh year, when I was in first, but he was kind to me at a time when I had few friends."
"That was my Uncle, my Father is a few years older than that." Mr. Branson said and Lily smiled.
"How is your Uncle?"
"He was one of the ones lost in the war, but I am glad that you remember him favorably. I never got to meet him, I would love to hear some stories." Mr. Branson said and Lily smiled.
"Well I might be here till breakfast, I actually met your Uncle in the Library, I was attempting to read about wizard history and he was doing a research paper on the Dark Lord Sinister."
"Sinister? Wasn't that in the eighteen hundreds?"
"Well it would be like you doing a paper on Grindlwald, I'm fairly certain that he wished to replace one of his poor test scores."
"You can do that?" Mr. Branson demanded and Lily nodded.
"Of course, if it's good enough, if its trash Professor Bins will rip it to pieces." Lily said and laughed. "He was actually a supporter of Sinister, although he was too old to fully support him if you know what I mean."
"Indeed I do, that explains much."
"Well after his Grandson and Granddaughter died when Grindlewald was being fought, he lost his enthusiasm for wizard history and dedicated himself to the goblin wars."
"I had no idea." Mr. Branson said and Lily smiled.
"He is actually the best history teacher you could ask for, though it takes some convincing to get him off his favorite subject. I got him to talk about sixteenth century wizard society instead, for the last year I was student but I had class with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff and most would wind up falling asleep. It was absolutely fascinating."
"You mean he'd might talk about that instead?"
"If you can manage to stay awake through the start of his lecture and do well on your tests, yes, he might at that." Lily said and smiled. "It was very different back then, but similar in some ways as well. It is in fact his favorite period in history. Though there was that nasty business with the goblin wars."
"You mean to say he's talking about sixteenth century wizard society?"
"No he's talking about the goblin wars and about the goblin people, not keen on wizards, Professor Bins." Lily said. "He and Professor Flitwick get on very well."
"Professor Flitwick likes Professor Binns?"
"Of course Professor Flitwick would like Professor Binns, he's part goblin after all and apparently Professor Binns was very kind to him, when Professor Flitwick was a boy, nearly eighty years ago now." Lily said and smiled softly. "I demand respect from my students, but beyond that I hope that I might come to care and guide you as my own teachers guided me. I was so lost as a child, my own sister hated me and so did many of my year mates, for my dirty blood. I had Severus for a time, but even he got caught up in the disease that is the belief of blood purity. Muggles are just as bad, though those that are considered to be inferior are of different skin color, rather than those who cannot trace back their wizard ancestry back to the time of Merlin. Turns out that my line is more ancient than most, but I set very little stock in that. I feel that the measure of a magic user should be taken through their own merits, rather than who their parents are. Yet that's just me and my personal beliefs, you can believe whatever you wish, as long as you allow others to live their lives and believe what they do."
"It seems like a very wise approach for someone who knows so many spells and can hold up two incredibly powerful shields all night, after being magically exhausted."
"Oh the shields are just feeding off the magical energy of the castle, Hogwarts was built on top of a series of ley lines and so its much easier to cast spells here than it is elsewhere. I just simply set it up and the magic in the castle did the rest."
"How do you do that?"
"Its fairly simple, once you know how to power share and feel the energy around you, you can easily enough take energy from different sources, if I wished I could even take it from you, or give it to someone else."
"You can do that?"
"As long as someone has a magical core, yes I can." Lily said and sighed. "Though its much harder when they aren't people in my coven."
"What does it mean to be part of a coven?"
"Your coven are those that you share a magical core with, the power flows between you, as it flows between ley lines. Though actually tapping into that power is another matter entirely. I'm going to teach my coven how to do it, but I will always be the primary source, because I started conducting the flow first."
"How does that work?"
"In ancient times the one that directed the power, the primary source was someone who the others all agreed was trustworthy. With my coven that's not the case, because I stepped in because I had to. It was a very steep learning curve, but no one has died from a working, since Luna's mother, though I've had to slam magic into people several times."
"You slam magic into them?"
"When I feel their working is unstable, I stabilize it, through giving more of the power that they need. Our magical reserves were always very strong, but now I think I'm at mage level and they are only slightly behind me."
"Mage level magic, but there hasn't been a mage in..."
"Five hundred years." Lily said and shrugged. "I looked through Blackfoot's almanac and I was able to do every spell."
"You can do those spells, as a cat?"
"Well I can do any spell I wish, but certain workings can lead to magical exhaustion." Lily replied and shrugged. "No one is infallible or invincible."
"How is that possible?"
"How is anything possible, I've yet to come across a book that states where magic comes from inequitably." Lily replied and shrugged. "It is because it is, some things don't need to be explained Mr. Branson, some things simply are. Like the sun and the rain and the stars. Your Uncle took me out at night and pointed out the stars to me, telling me stories about the constellations and famous wizards and witches. He wanted to be an Unspeakable and discover the deeper mysteries of this world. If he had lived, perhaps we would know so much more now than we do. How did he die?"
"Wrong place, wrong time, he was going to Borgin and Burks for a tome that was going on sale, of course that was when the Aurors had a crack down on Knockturn Alley, he was hit with a stray spell."
"My spells always find their target, there's a simple thing to remember when firing spells." Lily said and smiled at Branson. "There's the spell itself and the wand movements necessary, but really that's just an intention, then there is the aiming, you can either do that with your mind, or your wand. Then there is the desire to have your spell work according to your will. Its MAD, movement, accuracy or aiming and desire, if you remember that it will serve you well and you won't wind up hitting the wrong person."
"MAD you say?" Branson said and Lily grinned.
"I think all magic users are at least al
"Mage level magic, but there hasn't been a mage in..."
"Five hundred years." Lily said and shrugged. "I looked through Blackfoot's almanac and I was able to do every spell."
"You can do those spells, as a cat?"
"Well I can do any spell I wish, but certain workings can lead to magical exhaustion." Lily replied and shrugged. "No one is infallible or invincible."
"How is that possible?"
"How is anything possible, I've yet to come across a book that states where magic comes from inequitably." Lily replied and shrugged. "It is because it is, some things don't need to be explained Mr. Branson, some things simply are. Like the sun and the rain and the stars. Your Uncle took me out at night and pointed out the stars to me, telling me stories about the constellations and famous wizards and witches. He wanted to be an Unspeakable and discover the deeper mysteries of this world. If he had lived, perhaps we would know so much more now than we do. How did he die?"
"Wrong place, wrong time, he was going to Borgin and Burks for a tome that was going on sale, of course that was when the Aurors had a crack down on Knockturn Alley, he was hit with a stray spell."
"My spells always find their target, there's a simple thing to remember when firing spells." Lily said and smiled at Branson. "There's the spell itself and the wand movements necessary, but really that's just an intention, then there is the aiming, you can either do that with your mind, or your wand. Then there is the desire to have your spell work according to your will. Its MAD, movement, accuracy or aiming and desire, if you remember that it will serve you well and you won't wind up hitting the wrong person."
"MAD you say?" Branson said and Lily grinned.
"I think all magic users are slightly mad at least." Lily said and grinned at him. "It sort of comes with the territory, having such power and having the discipline to control it, to channel it and to not take too much from others. To share your power with people, even if you don't agree with them, well these are all things that most magic users have trouble with. There are others in my coven, who aren't human and I sense their energies, they feel different than mine."
"How so?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but if I fully open myself, without any of my shields, I can only do it for about ten minutes or so, before I start to feel myself slipping into becoming something else. Something other than who I am and so I don't do that very often. There are tales of wizards turning into goblins and centaurs, those who aligned themselves so closely with things not of their species that they became them."
"Is that possible?"
"Anything you imagine is possible, I personally choose to remain as I am, but yes I do believe that its possible and there's some truth to the old tales." She said and sighed. "I don't understand half of what I feel and the only books on the subject are ancient and unreliable at best. That's why I like to go to the oldest parts of the libraries I visit. Can't you feel the age of these books?"
"You mean this is one of the oldest parts of the library?" Branson asked.
"Oh there are older parts, but this is my favorite time period, the fourteenth century, very good time for magic and very good place to start if you want to do a bit of magical research."
"Really the fourteenth century, wouldn't you choose earlier?"
"No, because the earlier stuff isn't the sort of things children should be reading and I knew I might be followed." Lily said and shrugged. "The Parkinson's had a vast library, but theirs dates back to the fifteenth century and the founder of their line Augustus Parkinson." Lily said and Branson's eyes widened. "The Bransons have been wizards since the sixteenth century I believe?"
"That is accurate, that was when my muggleborn ancestor was born."
"Muggleborn or the child of a Squib?" Lily returned. "Seems like its pretty much the same thing."
"How do you think Squibs are created then?"
"Wizards drain power, as well as conducting it, do that for enough generations, without knowing how to properly maintain the balance and you wind up with some unfortunate results. It would help if you didn't marry your cousins, but who am I to say how you decide to have a family?"
"I think you might have a good point there, but I'm not related to Miss Bradlegrace."
"Well then I think whatever children you may have, if you were both receptive would be very strong indeed. You are both average for your age, when it comes to terms of power and so could easily enough align. However you could also just as easily join with someone outside your coven and create a triad and that would make both covens stronger, it was a common practice many years ago." Lily said and smiled. "I'm going to go and eat breakfast now, happy reading." She said and walked to the Great Hall, taking her seat at the table and piling her plate high with food, before devouring it.
"Good morning Mrs. Potter, its good to see you up and around." Professor Flitwick said and Lily smiled.
"Salutations whelp minder Flitwick, I return your greeting with one of my own. How are you today?"
"You know the language of my people?"
"Yes I know the goblin tongue, I had a lot of time on my hands, I know how the words should sound, but no doubt my accent is bad, being unable to speak it. Luckily the old head of Parkinson house was rather fond of taking her cat everywhere and allowed me to escape the basket, if she was at the bank for long and she was at the bank for a very long time, towards the end of her life. I learned entirely too much about that whole family's affairs." She said and Flitwick laughed.
"Yes well I didn't become a banker for a reason. I'm perfectly content with the amount of gold I have and do not need to acquire more than my salary."
"Which is wise, I too do not need to worry about money, but there are other concerns that keep me up at night." Lily said and continued eating, smiling when he saw Severus and Madam Pomphrey walk in. "Good Morning, it is a pleasant day, I think I shall go for a walk after breakfast, my first class is at eleven correct?"
"Yes you are teaching the basic etiquette class at eleven today." Headmistress McGonagall said. "Do you feel you will be ready to teach it, if you need a few more days to rest..."
"I am fine thank you Mrs. McGonagall, it's only a two hour class and it won't require the use of magic. I think we might start with table manners."
"That sounds like a fine place to start, you eat very well, considering how much your eating. Would you mind taking over my lessons, until I can find a teacher to fill my position?"
"It would be no imposition, there's one at one o'clock and another at three, if I remember your schedule correctly."
"Indeed you are correct, are you certain you wish to take on all four houses at once?"
"It will be a test of my patience and their ability to sit through my classes, I'm not going to waste my time on students that don't wish to learn." Lily stated flately. "Particularly if its me they object to, not in fact knowing me, but knowing of my history."
"Which is understandable considering what you have been through, what we all have been through." Severus said and Lily nodded.
"Thank you Sev, perhaps there is some of the boy I once knew, buried under the man you have become. I hope I can again recognize my childhood friend in you." Lily said and looked straight ahead, continuing to eat, refusing to let her eyes water. "War changes everyone and not for the better and we are all children of war."
"You are very wise."
"Well I lived among my enemies for many years and found that they were not so different than me." Lily said and shrugged. "Others don't get such oppertunities as I do, we all pretty much want the same thing, safety and security and we all defend ourselves when we feel threatened. However I feel some things never can be justified, some actions are unforgivable, for instance the killing of family, because they do not share your political views. That I feel is unforgivable."
"Who are you talking about, when you say that? James?" Severus asked.
"My husband was not killed by a member of his family, not a direct member of his family anyway, no it wasn't James I was speaking of, someone else entirely." Lily said and sighed. "I was speaking of Dumbledore, who killed his own sister, or perhaps it was Grindlewald who killed her, I'm not entirely sure on the details of that, but neither were they."
"Dumbledore killed his own sister?" Severus demanded
"Well no one knows if it was Dumbledore or Grindlewald, but when your fighting around someone who has the mental capacity of an eight year old at sixteen and hurling deadly curses, it doesn't truly matter from who's wand the curse was thrown." Lily said and sighed. "Then there's also Bellatrix Lestrange, who caused Alice and Frank Longbottom to go insane, I do believe that they were second cousins, but apparently not close enough of a relation to matter." She continued to eat finishing off the plate. "I don't want to put anyone off their food, but certain things must be discussed, if anything is ever going to change."
"Understanable, I know you Lily, or I knew you, I don't know who you've become." Severus said and Lily smiled.
"I don't know who you've become either Sev, I like to think I'm the same girl who loved to run through large fields of grass picking herbs along the way." She said and smiled. "Then your Mother would bake us pie and we'd have herbal tea."
"That was my favorite part of my childhood, but I remember the nights I'd sleep on your little bench just inside your window." Severus said and Lily smiled.
"I always kept my window open, until I was twenty and had to go into hiding." Lily said. "Then open windows were a luxury that I could not afford, but if you wish to talk, I am always willing to listen at least. You are my oldest friend after all and I think you'll find that we share more in common now, than we did at fifteen. I was such a rebellious and tempermental young teenager." She said and laughed.
"I was little better, I am sorry for what I said that day, if I could take it back I would. I would do so many things differently."
"Ah like your regrettable choice of tattoos?" Lily asked and Severus laughed.
"Indeed, that's something I wish I could remove."
"Well I wouldn't be too hasty, its simple enough to rework the energy that runs through it, I could do it if you liked."
"You mean you can remove my dark mark?"
"I don't think I could remove it, but I could change it." Lily said and took Severus' wrist, examining the Dark Mark. "Ah I see what he did, no wonder we're so strong, lets see now..." She started to chant in latin, spilling a few drops of her blood over the tatoo and it changed to a lily and a poppy.
"Poppies? Why poppies?"
"Because poppy flowers remind me of you, dangerous and beautiful." Lily said and smiled. "The lilies well that should be obvious, it is sort of my name." She said and Severus laughed.
"Its particularly feminine, but I like it."
"Well I think you could add some ink that's non magical if you chose to do so." Lily said and he grinned.
"Perhaps a sword?"
"Or a wand, or even the symbol for the Deathly Hallows, you were always fond of that story. I think James actually had the cloak and I took it from Harry, thirteen year olds have no buisness having invisability cloaks." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"Well that explains a lot." He said and Lily nodded.
"It does have a different energy than anything I've ever looked at before, the legends may in fact be true. After all Dementors exist, why not the Grim Reaper?" Lily asked.
"Don't forget the Grim hounds."
"Or perhaps they were hounds of hell?" Lily asked and Severus laughed.
"I'm not feeling well enough to handle a second year potions class, perhaps you could extend your lesson?"
"Well I've always been one for cooking, we could make some tasty and nutrisious tea and that wouldn't require magic." Lily said and Severus grinned.
"I'd like that, I think it would be best to wait another day, before I draw upon my core, it still doesn't feel quite right."
"Well of course it doesn't, I'm only at about fifty percent of my normal power and your at around seventy five percent of yours."
"How is that possible?"
"Different core strength, I've had to become very strong magically over a short period of time." Lily replied and shrugged. "I feel rather out of sort myself, I was sparking last night and I never spark normally, I had to drain some excess power off.
"I see you used a shield didn't you?"
"Yes well when the whole Slytherin Dorm starts demanding you answer their questions, its a bit unsettling." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"Try living there, I suppose I may have reacted the same way, if a host of Gryffindors started badgering me."
"Come now leave the Hufflepuffs out of this." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"Oh I assure you they are out of it, I do believe Madam Hooch is constantly discovering contraband and Marajuana."
"Come to think of it, the first time I had pot was in seventh year and it was a Hufflepuff student James bought it off of." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"I'm surprised at you Mrs. Potter, smoking pot, how uncivilized."
"Well we did grow up in the sixties, I wanted to try it. I actually liked it and when I needed to calm down, I'd buy some and mix it and make a tincture, before mixing it with a calming draught."
"How did that work out for you?"
"Well it worked out very well, you just needed to get the dose right, or else you'd wind up falling asleep." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"Yes I would imagine that would happen, considering the properties of pot tincture and the properties of a calming draught. It seems like something I should try at some point."
"Of course you need to listen to to the Wireless or have someone read old fairy tales, that was fun, I wish we had time for more fun nights like that one, but unfortunately there were few fun times to be had."
"Well we had interesting parties, rather nausiating affairs, peer pressure is a thing that should be watched out for." Severus said and Lily frowned.
"Ah yes, I do believe your friends were fond of torturing muggles and calling me nasty names, if not hexing me in the halls. I would imagine that such parties would be interesting, particularly the guests of honor, did they wind up in the woods?"
"No I do believe those guests were burned, it was something I thought was right, but I was wrong." Severus said. "I just wanted so badly to belong somewhere."
"We both did Sev, two kids from Spinsters End, I wish you would have seen that you belonged with me, instead of with them." Lily said and sniffed, dabbing at her eyes. "Well that was so long ago now, it hardly matters."
"But it does matter Lily." Severus said and took her hand. "You matter."
"Oh Sev." Lily said and burst into tears, Severus wrapped his arms around her and held her as she cried. She sobbed and she heard him crying as well, she knew she was making a scene but she didn't care, because she'd just learned that Brandon Branson had not survived the war and Brandon had been one of the few people who had been kind to her, in first year.
She managed to pull herself together, took out her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes, but Severus was still crying and holding her and she felt like he didn't want her to get up. Instead she wrapped her arms around him holding him, as he held her. She then sang an old song she'd read in a book somewhere. "Give thanks to the mother moon, give thanks to the father son, give thanks to the earth which they shine down upon as one. Give thanks to the magic, that flows through us all, give thanks to the wind and the sound of a birds call. Give thanks to all the creatures, both magical and mundane, the wild things that grow, in our hearts we know we are all the same under Mother moon and Father sun, we are all one."
"Sing another Lily." Severus said and Lily smiled.
"Well a wizard song, or a muggle song?" Lily asked.
"Just sing."
"Alright I know another good one, Where are you going child, where do you run, over hill and valley, through the rain, snow and sun. Where are you growing child, growing fast and strong, soon I will wonder where my little child went, I will wonder where they might belong. Sweet little child, running over hill and stream, sweet little child, if you listen, you will hear me in your dreams. Sleep now sweet child, know that you are loved, rest now sweet child and know that the wild will always call to you. Drink the dew from the leaves of the trees, dance in meadows and in fields. Grow and learn to be be better than those who came before, grow to learn to know when to fight and choose your battles wisely. Then my sweet child, your children might live in peace, with all creatures of this world, humans and magical beasts. For we are all wild things, this you surely know, embrace your wild nature and do not change too much as you grow."
"Another." Severus said and sniffed.
"If I sing another, we won't have class at all, we can't scithe off school like when we were kids Sev, we're the teachers now, not the students." Lily said and Severus gave a watery laugh.
"You would always give me a tongue lashing when you found me at the park." Severus said and laughed again. "Then you would sit with me and pull out your textbook and say, 'well Sev if you aren't going to go to muggle primary school today, we 're going to have our lessons right here.' Such a bookworm."
"You were equally bad, you'd always have your nose in some book your mother bought me, getting ink on them and smudging the pages." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"Well I do have a rather large nose and it took a while for me to learn to keep it clean of ink." Severus said and Lily laughed.
"Well considering my pants and dresses were always being torn on branches and ruined by mud and all manner of mysterious stains, I do believe ink was the least of our problems, when it came to our clothing and books." Lily said and Severus laughed as well.
"Your Mum would give us a hundred pounds and we'd go down to the second hand shop and get school clothes for the year." Severus said.
"Did your Grandparents ever aknowledge you?" Lily asked and Severus shook his head.
"Their estate went to some cousin or other."
"Wizards." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"Half bloods, we're the best of the lot."
"Or the worst, my half blood Prince." Lily said and Severus laughed again.
"I was such a haughty young man." Severus said. "I had forgotten about that."
"Wasn't I something equally ridiculous, I think I choose Lilyflower, like that's not obvious, or maybe that's what everyone started calling me, I'm not sure. I know you were the first and how it angered me when James used that nickname." Lily said and laughed.
"Well it fit you then, I'm not sure what would fit you now."
"I like Lily Flower just fine, among my friends, Mrs. Potter should suffice otherwise." Lily said and Severus smiled. "Or you could call me Precious Prissy Patricia's Prancing Particularly Prettily, that's what Old Miss Parkinson called me."
"Merlin that's a mouthful."
"Mostly it was here kitty, or they'd pick one of my names and I could dein to respond or not." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"I would have liked to see that."
"Oh I do believe I did scratch some little fingers that touched my fur wrong and pulled at it." Lily said. "Though they soon learned to pet me properly."
"You werent that beast." Marcus Flint said and Lily grinned.
"Oh but I was Marcus, I do think you learned how to approach an animal properly at least." She said and several of the Slytherins laughed. "I would suggest getting with someone a fair bit more intelligent and a few degrees removed from your family line."
"A good suggestion, the words swim oddly when I try to read."
"How do they swim?" Hermoine asked. "Because there are certain muggle ailements, though muggles call them disabilties."
"You mean to say its not just my personal affliction?" Marcus asked.
"Not at all, its actually fairly common in the muggle world." Hermoine said. "There should be a spell somewhere that should be able to help."
"Spells that deal with sight and perception of sight are not to be trifled with lightly, you could cause more harm to your vision attempting to fix it." Lily said and frowned. "There's some spells I know, but you should consult with a healer, why didn't you tell someone about this before?"
"Because I didn't know." Marcus burst into tears and Lily leapt out of Severus' arms and went over to Marcus.
"Well someone is rarely just stupid Marcus, there's often some underlying reason for it. Sometimes that is in fact intermarrying with magical creatures, who are considered to be less intelligent, sometimes its just ill luck." Lily said. "If you like I could run several diagnostic spells, but I never recieved my liscence, nor swore the healers oath."
"Will it be painful and can you reverse it?"
"It may be painful, but I should be able to reverse it." Lily replied and cast a series of spell, Flint cried out. "I'm sorry but you need to remain concious for this, hold my class book and try to read it, now what does the first line say?"
"In com...com... I can't read this." Flint protested.
"Right sound out the words, are they moving about on the page?"
"A little bit, but its not as bad." Flint said and tears sprung to his eyes.
"If you cry, I might mess this up and have to undo and recast several spells." Lily said and Flint wiped at his eyes, Lily worked through several spells fine tuning the spellwork, until Flint read a paragraph and burst into tears. Lily put a hand on his shoulder gently. "Tell me if anything changes, sometimes combining curses and healing spells can be unperdictable, but the spells I was using only effect vision and the mind's perception of it."
"I don't think you'll be able to get him to listen at the moment, thank you Mrs. Potter." Mrs. Parkinson said and Lily smiled fondly.
"Of course, Flint and I always got on alright, why should it be any different in human form."
"You used to sleep on my bed." Pansy said. "Why?"
"Because you were Harry's age and I missed my son." Lily replied. "Best house I ever lived in."
"Then why did you keep trying to run?" Pansy asked
"Wouldn't you? If you were trapped in the form of a cat, forced to be away from your family?" Lily returned and several children started crying. "At least I'm alive others weren't so lucky." She sat down, wrapping an arm around Marcus. "I knew a boy once, his name was Brandon and he was in seventh year, when I was in first. I was lucky, I had Sev and I knew something of this world, but not enough, not like a pureblood child knows it. Everyone was very mean to me, because of my blood, or my brains, or my ambition, but Brandon was kind. He would give me books to read and show me the stars, telling me stories and legends many of which were actually historically accurate. He encouraged my curiosity, he helped me to feel safe, when the world felt very unsafe to me. Most of all he was my friend, despite the years between us and I loved him like a brother. After he graduated, I wrote all the time and he wrote back when he could, telling me about what he was researching, sharing with me what he was learning and told him about what I was studying, how my classes were going and how I was being treated by the other students. He told me to check certain books out of the libary so people would stop cursing me in the halls, because sometimes the only way to get people to stop is to know more creative curses than they know. Or at least it was back then, every one of us knew that at seventeen we would either have to pick a side, or move out of Britan for at least a time, it was not a good time to recieve your education." Lily said and sighed. "Then after fifth year I lost touch with him, I wrote occasionally, when I could spare the time, as did he, but our letters were few and far between. Then I didn't hear back from him one day, a year after I graduated, I thought he must have been busy and I thought there would be time to catch up with my old friend, but I was wrong. I had to go into hiding soon after that and I just learned that he didn't survive the war, I believe he must have died in 1977."
"Brandon, what was his surname?" Pansy asked.
"He was a pureblood, not that it matters, he died, because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, going to wrong bookstore." Lily replied. "Never mind that he was a researcher and an unspeakable."
"He was an Unspeakable?" Branson asked.
"Didn't you know? He wanted me to join up, but I wanted to be a healer, then the fates chose the role of Mother to the Chosen One for me and all I wanted, all I still want is to protect myself and my son, as well as my family and those I consider to be family. If you threaten any of them, you threaten me and I want to make that very clear right now."
"That's understandable." Miss Bradlegrace said and Lily nodded her head.
"May I access your core Marcus?"
"My core, why?" Flint asked.
"Because the problem could be in part do to how your sharing power, sometimes the balence becomes unequal, if not shored up properly." Lily replied and Flint nodded, she put a hand to his forehead and had him chant the spell along with her, she shoved magic into him and several people gasped across the hall. "Before I redistrubute it, do come over here, its your cores I'm tinkering with as well." Lily said and started working, she pulled and pushed taking some power into herself, releasing other power into them through Marcus, until their magic seemed healthy. "You seem to be taking too much, it could prove to be dangerous Miss Bones."
"What do you mean, I'm taking too much?"
"Your taking too much from the others, that's why Marcus and I believe Mr. O'Donal aren't doing as well, because your taking their magic in order to shore up their own. Whatever your doing, you need to stop doing it, because your core cannot support such spells at the moment."
"What do you mean?" Miss Bones repeated and Lily sighed.
"Its all about forms of magic and your elements, Marcus and Mr. O'Donal are connected to the Earth, most of you are purebloods so you should know something of the anchient rights. If your lacking an element or a form of magic, or have too much of one source, you fall out of balence. For example Marcus should be casting more light spells and Mr. O'Donal should be casting more dark ones, naturally they are supposed to be grey wizards, but they aren't at the moment. You are the white witch for this coven and she's the dark one, that's just your magical inclination though. Would it be alright if I redistrubute your power and then lock it into place, so you get a feel for what I'm talking about. I'm afraid you'll have to set aside the more powerful workings for now Miss Bones."
"But..."
"What you are doing, if its causing this much disturbance is harming the balence, I'm picking on you because if I round on Miss Parkinson there will be hell to pay and your the safer target." Lily said and Miss Bones nodded. "If you don't listen to me, something bad could happen and you could loose a member of your coven. You shouldn't be preforming large working before your ready, I know you think your all grown up now that your in third year, but you aren't."
"That's why I always had horrible luck with my power, because all my coven are younger than me?" Marcus asked.
"Well these are just the ones brave enough to come over, there's still a couple in this room that didn't want to step forward and they should be careful as well." Lily said and shrugged. "Well you know where they are, if you change your mind, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, never were much for courage, but these people are in your coven, hurting them would be hurting yourself and vice versa." Lily said. "In fact its impossible to do harm to someone in your coven, its a way magic has of protecting those who deserve Darwin awards." Someone laughed so hard they choked on their food and Lily smiled. "You do know your supposed to eat it, not drink it Mr. Flannary."
"Yes Professor Potter."
"Good lad, now I'm going to redistrubute the power now, if you don't want this to happen and your in this coven, you better speak up." Lily said and waited a moment, before she started in, working the power so everyone had an equal amount before locking it down. "Now you will only have access to your own power, I'd suggest keeping it below a hundred spells in a day and avoid anything more complicated than Bernard's ward of sleep."
"What in the name of Merlin is that?"
"Oh its a fairly simple ward. I do assume that's what one of you is after, because nothing else would drain your core like this, not even spell casting. If I knew what you were trying to do, I could give you a better spell for it, so you stop endangering yourself and your coven. I'd suggest you read some books on warding, that's a fine place to start, for someone that's interested in such things. As for the ward of sleep, well it simply causes whoever crosses the set ward to fall asleep and wake up when the castor cancels the ward."
"But that's dark magic." Bones said and Lily shook her head.
"Grey magic, if it was a spell that caused someone to die, if they crossed the ward with ill intent, that would be dark magic." Lily said and everyone blanched and paled.
"You...you can do that?"
"Just because I can do something, doesn't mean I will Miss Parkinson." Lily said and smiled. "However I am very dangerous, luckily I can beat the imperious curse, so don't even try it, you won't like the results. The imperius curse is actually one of the tamer spells, but because it controls someone elses actions and makes them do things, they would not normally it is considered to be unforgivable. I know grey spells and dark spells, as well as light spells and there are certain spells that I wouldn't cast unless my life was in danger." As for Bernard's ward, well that's fairly simple." Lily cast silently and Marcus nearly dropped like a stone, snoring. She caught him however and set his head gently down on the table. "He needed to sleep anyway and I don't feel like arguing with him about it. I'll cancel the spell in a couple of hours."
"Why did you do that?" Pansy demanded.
"Because I know Marcus Flint and he'd argue with me about it throughout the rest of breakfast, until he passed out into his oatmeal Miss Parkinson." Lily said and several of the Slytherins laughed.
"You do know Marcus, not very gifted with books, but Merlin he's stubborn." Pucey said and Lily laughed.
"I would imagine your on the team with him, your in fourth year right?" Lily asked.
"Yes Professor Potter, I am, I'm in your second class out of the seven."
"Well you can always test out, once you prove yourself to be worthy of being in one of the higher level classes." Lily stated. "There were certain things that I felt you needed to consider, before I moved you to a higher class."
"Yet you moved Granger to the third class." Pucey said.
"I did, because she has a strong sense of ethics, as well as knowing the basics of wizard ettiocat and what she doesn't know, she'll catch up on soon enough. I was her cat as well and she's even more intelligent than me, if only what you could offer the world was valued above who your ancestors were, but that is not the world we live in. Kindly do not question me about Miss Granger again Mr. Pucey. Or else I shall have to remove points and if this is how you see fit to interact with me, I may take you out of my classes entirely. If you cannot be civil and treat your teacher with respect, well I highly doubt you will do at all well on the tests."
"There will be tests?"
"There are always tests in life, as well as in school, if I deem your preformace suiting of a gentleman of good breeding and a strong sense of empathy, you will move up in the classes I teach. If I find your preformance to be unsatifactory, you may well be taking classes with the first years, like Marcus." Lily said and smiled. "Though I do believe he'll be in your class soon at least, he has had the basics after all." She said and smiled fondly at Marcus. "What of the rest of you, do you feel over tired?"
"No Professor Potter, we're fine." Pansy said and Lily smiled.
"That's good to hear, usually the first working is at least a bit tiring. I wanted to make sure that Marcus didn't push himself at least, if you need a lie down later today, I'm sure your teachers will be understanding." Lily said and smiled. "Then there's always Professor Binn's class, I was one of the few that managed to stay up through them, when I was in school."
"How on earth did you manage that?" Miss Bones asked and Lily smiled.
"Sheer determination and stubborness." Lily said and Severus laughed.
"That and stimulant potions." He called from the high table.
"Oh hush you." Lily said and he laughed again.
"Do you know Professor Snape?" Parkinson asked.
"Well we've known each other since we were eight, he was my first love and my first heartbreak, it seems so silly now. He called me Mudblood and I refused to speak to him. I believe he decided to join the Dark Lord at seventeen, hungry to prove himself and find a place he belonged. Luckily he survived, but others weren't so lucky. He's a halfblood, you should watch out for halfbloods, just enough respectability to be noticed by the Purebloods, but they still slum it with the muggleborns. I would have liked to have been born a halfblood, seems like they have the most fun." Lily said and smiled. "Well my son is a halfblood, so he gets called other nasty names than I was called at least." Lily said.
"You seem very bitter."
"Well I did miss thirteen years of my son's life Miss Parkinson, when you have a child, you'll understand." Lily said. "Not only that but he was raised by my wizard hating sister and I doubt they treated him very well at all. They too are blood purists, I didn't associate with them, once I got out of school for a reason and I doubt that I shall attempt to reconnect now."
"Muggle blood puriests?" Parkinson asked.
"Oh they hate all wizards and everything magical, I suppose I cast one two many spells the summer I turned seventeen, but she was impossible even before that." Lily said and sighed. "We never got on, too different. One magical the other muggle, our parents were at their wits end, if it wasn't me flying the broom at odd hours, it was Petunia sneaking out to be with her boyfriend. Course because Sev spent the night, she demanded that she be allowed to have male friends over as well."
"Who's Sev?" Parkinson asked.
"I thank you not to use that nickname Miss Parkinson, to you I am Professor Snape."
"That answers your question nicely don't it?" Lily asked letting a bit of her accent slip through and several people stared at her in surprise.
"Your a Northerner?" Finnigan asked.
"Or a southerner, depending upon your point of view, I grew up very close to Scotland, my Grandfather was Scottish on my Father's side and my Grandmother on my mother's side was Irish. My two other Grandparents were both English, but Northern English, as apposed to Southern. My Grandmother always used to sit me on my knee and tell me wonderful stories, of a far off land and how one of our ancestors had been abducted by faires and perhaps I was one of the fey folk in disguise. For I was a wild and strange child to be sure and wild and strange things happened around me. Course they didn't know I was a witch, they thought I was a veela or some such nonsense." Lily said and a lot of the children laughed.
"Really your family told stories about the fey folk and faries, My Da used to tell the same sorts of stories."
"Well Mr. Finnigan, seems as though there's a strange paralell between the seelie and unseelie court and dark and light wizards to be sure." Lily said. "Such statutes must be followed strictly, but what if someone finds themselves betwixed and between, a witch born to muggle parents? Or a wizard for that matter, such stories were very comforting to me, when I was making my toys fly round the room and no Ministry employee was coming to my house to assure my parents that everything was alright, they just had been blessed with a little witch, instead of the muggle daughter they were expecting." Lily said. "I was very lucky to have met Severus."
"I was the lucky one Lily, I might not have survived my childhood, had I not met you. Uncaring Grandparents and a cruel father, I was a bit betwixed and between myself."
"Well we always fit in two worlds, haven't we Sev?" Lily asked.
"I thought it was always you that I fit the most with." Severus said and Lily blushed.
"Severus now is not the time."
"If not now, then when Lily, we're thirty four, how long would you have me wait."
"I'd like to get settled first and there's Harry to think of."
"I want you to be happy Mum and if being with Snape will make you happy, I say go for it." Harry said and Lily smiled.
"My dear boy, the thing is that I'm not sure anything could make me truly happy at the moment, but maybe that's simply how I'm feeling today." She took out a bottle from one of the pouches on her belt.
"What are you drinking Lily? It must be strong to make you grimace so."
"You know I'm not sure, I think that was whiskey, I need to organize these better." Lily said and took out another bottle from her belt sniffed and drank it. "Well that will teach me not to use a spell that brings forth what you most desire instead of what you most need, I was expecting a calming draught and got whiskey instead, I suppose I was thinking of my Grandpa."
"What kind of whiskey did he drink?"
"Oh he'd only drink whiskey that came from Oban, which is where he was from." Lily said and laughed. "I remember visiting him and running through the scottish country side my skirts pulled up so I could collect all the flowers and bring them back to him, he'd tell me their names and then we'd place them in a vase together for Grandma." She said and finished off the bottle.
"I suggest you stop drinking now, if that was a calming draught." Severus said and Lily grinned,
"Perhaps your right, I think I'll switch to pumkin juice, she poured some into both flasks and stoppered one, sipping from the other. "This is lovely, just the right balence, your right Sev, I shouldn't drink more than that, don't want to wind up passing out after all." Lily said and smiled. "That would be disgraceful and unfitting a lady of my station, if not my breeding." She said and several of the girls giggled, before Lily took out a fan and started fanning herself, flicking it just so, which made the girls burst into laughter."
"What's so funny?"
"Oh don't pay us ladies any mind Mr. Pucey." Lily said and started signing fan signs, soon half the girls in the hall were laughing, the other half looked confused and the boys were gaping at them and looking between them and Lily. Lily couldn't help but allow a small giggle to escape, which she covered with her fan, before taking another sip of pumkin juice. She started fan signing again shortly after and soon everyone was laughing and several more girls snapped out their fans and started signing as well, to each other and across the hall. Lily smiled, sat back and sipped her pumkin juice for the next thirty minutes. "Well if you wish to be punctual to your classes, you must leave now." Lily said and closed up her fan, before canceling the spell and gently shaking Marcus' shoulder, when he didn't wake up she shook harder, until he groaned softly. "Mr. Flint, if you wish to sleep, I suggest you do it in your own bed, or in the hospital wing."
"Wha?" He asked and Lily repeated herself. "Yes 'ofessor 'otter." He got to his feet.
"Could someone help Mr. Flint down to the dungeons, he seems a bit out of it." Lily said.
"We will Professor Potter, I think we're strong enough, to handle it if he knocks into us on accsident." Gregory Goyle offered.
"Are you certain, he's a good half foot taller than you."
"Yes Professor but we're strong." Goyle said and Lily nodded.
"Alright then, if your sure."
"We are." Goyle said. "We can take him down to the dungeons."
"Alright thank you Mr Goyle, do you wish to go too Mr. Crabbe?"
"Yes Professor Potter, could you help me as well Professor Potter."
"Well why don't I go with you, Severus you can teach them how to make lavender mint tea, I'll only be a moment."
"A moment in Lily time is an eon for everyone else." Severus said and Lily laughed.
"I think you'll find that I'm more punctual now than I was as a child." Lily said. "May these boys be excused from their classes for the day? I think that it was a bit more tiring than I anticipated, but his core seems to be fine."
"Of course Mrs. Potter, thank you for helping the students." Mrs. Macgonnigal said and Lily smiled walking with the three boys casting a few subtile lightening charms on Marcus until they got to the dorms and Marcus flopped down onto his bed in the seventh year dormitory, he was snoring a moment later. Lily built up the fire and pulled a stack of blankets that sat on top of Marcus' trunk off the trunk covering Marcus. She then went the other two boys to their dorm.
Chapter Six
"First lets do a power sharing, I'll start with you Gregory." Lily said and Gregory nodded, she opened the connection, redirected the power to flow more smoothly and then locked down the connection. "Try casting a simple spell, one you know by heart."
"Agentimi." Gregory said and water sprang in a flood from his wand, he stared at his wand and got hit full force with the spell, both Lily and Vincent laughed.
"You need to depend on more than just your muscels Gregory, think with your head a bit more. I know some people are told to solve things through strength alone, but I think that if you set your mind to it, you could be just as capable as everyone else, do you also have trouble reading, or is it focusing that you have trouble with, because that would make sense."
"What do you mean?" Gregory asked and Lily smiled softly.
"Your core is jumbled and disorganized, its all over the place, you were drawing power from everyone all at once, then you were simply pulling on your own power, before you drew from some people but not others, even when you don't know how to power share, it shouldn't be so disorganized."
"I do have trouble thinking about what I need to think about." Gregory said and scratched his head. "What were we talking about again?" He asked and Lily smiled softly.
"Well I can teach you a simple focusing spell, it should help somewhat." Lily said. "First however I'll need to see Crabbe's core and see if the problem is magical in nature or not. I can access his through yours, your both part of the same coven."
"We are, like Draco and Theodore?" Gregory asked and Lily nodded.
"Only a different coven, I think I know what the problem is, wizards use the element of earth all the time and as people who are closely attuned to the earth, of course you wouldn't be as sucessful as the others, because they aren't attuned to the earth. Sev got lucky, because he's brillant and we learned together and we're part of the same coven." Lily said. "However somehow its gotten all mixed up with you somehow."
"What do you mean?"
"Well the magical flow is off, I'll redirect it and that should help somewhat." Lily said. "Would you mind sharing power with each other, it may help you both."
"We wouldn't mind, we're good friends, me and Crabbe." Gregory said and Lily smiled.
"I'm good friends with Severus and the Weasleys, I hope to get to know the Lovegoods, Malfoys and Notts better." She said and pushed and pulled on their power, taking some and giving some, until she felt they were better balenced. "Now what about you Vincent."
"I think I'm the same as Gregory, I can read fine, its just focusing on the words."
"That would make sense, you should try working on logic based puzzles, sometimes that helps with focusing and don't get frustrated if you can't solve them at first, or it takes hours to do so." Lily said, before spending the next hour and a half teaching both boys a focusing spell. By then end they were both exhausted and Lily smiled at them gently. "Now I want you to get into bed, no sneaking off either of you."
"Huh."
"Take off the focusing spell you don't need to focus right now." Lily said. "But get into bed first."
"Yes 'offessor." Gregory said and both boys canceled the spells. "Wha we doin'?"
"Nothing child, just rest." Lily said gently undoing the buttons on their robes. "Get out of your robes at least, its not very comfortable to lie on your robe, I should know I did it often enough in senior year."
"Yes Mum." Gregory said half asleep and Vincent laughed.
"She's not your Mum Greg." He said and Lily laughed as well.
"No I'm not, but you boys both need to rest, what we did would be tiring for anyone, do you know how to cast the spell now?"
"Yes mam." Gregory's eyes drifted closed.
"Robes Mr. Goyle and you too Mr. Crabbe."
"Do I have to?" Gregory asked and Lily nodded.
"Yes you do." Lily said and both boys removed their robes tossing them on the ground. Lily smiled softly, stacking the blankets on them, before adding several logs to the fire. "I don't want you getting up for longer than it takes to use the bathroom, if you use your magic, I'll know, remember I have access to your magical cores right now, so if you use a spell I'll know."
"We won't."
"If you do points will be deducted." Lily said. "Rest well boys, come to class when you wake up, if you can manage it."
"Mmm okay." Goyle said and Crabbe started to snore, Goyle too was snoring before Lily left the room and walked to the potions classroom.