AN: Hey guys! Thanks for reading. Sorry if there's any wonky formatting with this one, i wrote is mostly on my phone. I wanted to still update even though I am traveling, so there you are. Wonky editing, but a chapter to read.
Enjoy and review please! I'd love to hear some feedback.
Lily's POV
"He's doing it again."
"I know," Lily hissed, adding rat tails to their Hair Raising concoction. They were in potions (Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs) and Mary kept glancing over to where Black and Potter sat. Black was prodding the fire with his wand to adjust its temperature and Potter throwing surreptitious glances to Lily.
"Pass me that ginger root," muttered Lily as she added the last tail. Mary handed over the ingredient and Lily examined it low in her seat; any excuse to keep her head down and pretend she didn't notice Potter.
"Have to be crushed more properly . . ." she murmured to herself. She reached across Mary to grab the cutting board and set to work.
"Is he still doing it?" She asked with eyes intently on the root.
"Yup."
"Has he looked away?"
"Once, but he's staring again."
Lily sighed and straightened in her seat to add the crushed ginger and the Hair-Raising potion fizzled green. The moment she dropped the last piece in the boiling pot she turned and glared at James.
He split into a grin, not the least bit embarrassed, and went back to cutting with that smile.
Sighing again, Lily went back to work.
Potter kept his eyes on his work and when he thought it was safe, glanced again at Lily. Black waited for the ingredient and kicked Potter under the table.
"Ten-till already?"
Lily sat back quickly as Professor Horace Slughorn looked at the watch on his wrist, caterpillar eyebrows raised. Standing, he stretched his arms and said, "Well. Let's have a look at these potions, shall we?" and a stifled gasp came from the back corner of the room.
He started to walk through the aisles and survey each potion's progress. Some of the students, like Terrance Jarcoll and Peter Pettigrew, were hastily stuffing whatever ingredients remained. Black and Potter glanced into their cauldron and shrugged to each another.
"Galloping Godric!" yelped Slughorn, drawing back at the sight of Marigold Good's outrageously large blonde hair reaching beyond her partner's workspace. "I think your potion works too well, Miss Good," he said with a bounce of his toes and waggling his finger.
"I don't see a difference." said Sirius loudly.
A few chortles echoed the room and Marigold grinned, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. She was known for her bushy blonde hair and kind disposition.
Horace Slughorn paused to peer into Lily's cauldron. "Well done, Miss Evans. Yes . . . well done." He bounced on his toes once more and his walrus mustache twitched with his smile. His eyes twinkled before he shuffled away.
She beamed.
Next was Charms, and a very familiar scenario ensued.
"Do you know Potter's ogling you?" Alice Prewett asked.
She had not been sure she had heard right over the scuttling of mice feet – but sure enough, there sat James Potter, eyeing her while lazily bouncing his mouse in the air by the tip of his wand.
As soon as Lily turned her head towards him, he pretended to be focusing on his mouse.
Black sat next to him speaking to Ajita Rubbi and shooting annoyed looks at Hank Crawford, who kept interrupting. Hank was known to have a shrewed disposition and annoying opinions he treid to press into everyone else. Next to them sat Remus whose mouse was immobilized except for the tail. He was gently explaining to Pettigrew how to freeze his own mouse.
Lily turned back to her work and cast a perfect immobulus on her mouse – the first in the class to do so.
"Yes, Miss Evans, yes! A beautiful charm!" piped tiny Professor Flitwick who was standing on a stack of books so he could see his class.
From the corner of her eye Lily saw Potter eye her work and then her; he seemed disgruntled that she had turned her attentions away from him.
A few more minutes passed as he started bouncing his mouse in irritation, and than with each passing moment fueled it with more aggression. In the end the poor creature hit the ceiling and flailed into the corner of the room. He sighed and stood to fetch it.
"Why does he keep doing that?" Lily muttered from the corner of her mouth. She un-froze her mouse to continue practicing.
Alice quirked her head. "Snape stares all the time, and you don't seem to mind."
"Sev doesn't 'ogle' me."
"He does," Mary quipped. "A lot. Kinda creepy."
"Well . . ." Lily tried to think of what to say. "Sev and I are friends. Potter and I aren't."
Mary and Alice exchanged looks.
"What?" said Lily.
Mary gave her a deadpanned stare. "Lily. You know why they stare."
Lily shifted uncomfortabley. Before she could respond, Flitwick called for the end of class.
"Keep pracitisng! And well done to those of you who have made progress."
Lily gathered her books and swept out of the room, concentrating on not making eye contact with a certain brown-haired boy.
"You going to say that again, Snape?"
"Why, are you as deaf as you are obnoxious? I doubt a person could have that many flaws."
"Sev!" Lily said.
Just as they raised their wands Madame Pomfrey walked into the room and gasped.
"What on earth are you doing! Dueling near my sick patient?" She grabbed them each by their ears and started hauling them out the door as they cried with pain. "I don't care if you are trying to impress the lady, do it elsewhere!"
Lily started with the door slamming shut. Lupin shifted awkwardly in his sick bed.
"Boys," Lily sighed.
"I take offense to that."
"Same here," Sirius said.
"Right. Sorry Remus..."
"So I'm invisible, am I? Great."
Lily pursed her lips at Black. He and Peter were sitting on either side of Remus' bed, playing cards sprawled across the blanket. James and the Gryffindor boys had been attending to Remus' sick bed when Sev and Lily had entered to get a headache potion for Mary.
Madame Pomphrey re-entered, wiping her hands as if just putting out the trash. (And in some ways, Lily thought, she had.)
"I'll get that potion for you, Miss Evans. It may take me a minute, I need to check my charts." Madame Pomphrey swept into her office.
"How're you doing Remus? You weren't at dinner."
Remus shifted uncomfortabley. "I, uhm, I'm not feeling well."
Lily didn't press the topic.
"I heard Christian Abbott got thrashed by the Willow. Did you see him in here?"
Remus shook his head. "Must've been dismissed before I arrived."
"Rad, isn't it?" Lily asked.
"What?"
"The Willow. Why d'you think they planted it? At the Welcoming Feast last year Dumbledore said they only just planted it and we'd do well not to go near it."
Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged looks. Remus paused and gave the impression he was choosing his next words with delicacy. "Yes, it does seem rather strange they put it there. But, there are a lot of strange things here at Hogwarts, don't you think? So . . . why question this one?"
"Well yes, but why wouldn't they plant it as a sapling?" Lily asked sitting on the edge of Lupin's bed. Sirius had to grab his cards quickly before she sat on them. He made a face. "Oops, sorry."
"Maybe . . . it's for protection purposes," Sirius said. Remus shot him a look. "From anything that might sneak in from the forest? I hear it can move."
"But that wouldn't be very logical. It's only one tree, even if it can move, the forest stretches on for ages. It can't reach that far."
"Perhaps they have a rodent problem or gnomes in the area," Remus said, keeping his face impassive.
"Or what if the tree was enchanted to instantly repair itself and used for firewood?" Peter said.
"Firewood?" Lily said doubtfully. "Well, I s'pose sending people into the Forbidden Forest with snow on the ground doesn't come across as a popular idea . . . Sounds scary."
"Oh! Maybe they're using it for medical research of some kind!" Remus said, looking quite pleased with himself. "I bet that's it. I'm sure Professor Sprout would tell us in Herbology if we asked."
Lily nodded. That scenario made a lot more sense than anything else they'd come up with.
"Here's your potion, Miss Evans." Madame Promphrey handed Lily a medium sized vial. "My regards to Miss McDonald. Let her know if she needs anything, I'll be right here."
Lily nodded and thanked the nurse.
"See you lot 'round. Feel better Remus." Lily waved and exited, looking for Sev .
Lily entered breakfast on Halloween to find the Hall abuzz with chatter. Clusters of people gathered around whoever had newspapers. Owls hooted and circled ahead in the chaos. Not a single person sat and ate, everyone was at somebody's side.
"What is it?" she asked. "What's going on?"
Mary craned her neck to see. "I don't know," she said. Alice led the way to Frank, someone she'd grown up with in the magical community, and who was holding a newspaper.
"Frank?" Alice asked, "What's going on?" Frank was a third year, and most of the kids surrounding him were pupils Lily didn't recognize. One she did, however, was Sirius Black.
"It's bad, Al." Frank looked up and Sirius looked grim. "He struck again. This time . . . Well . . ." Frank handed the newspaper to Alice. She held it open for the girls to see.
It portrayed black hooded figures with masks disappearing from above the Muggle Ministry of Magic and a smokey symbol was displayed in the sky. It was a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth, twisting and turning darkly in the night. The headline read:
THE DARK LORD STRIKES AGAIN!
His Name Is Cursed In More Ways Than One
WARNING TO THE READER: By order of the Ministry, NO ONE is to read the following article aloud.
The Dark Lord attacked at midnight on the Muggle Ministry, murdering 12 Muggles, one undercover wizard, and injuring more than thirty. The attack happened while the wizarding security detail was debriefing the Muggle Minister on the previous pureblood riot at the Squib Rights March last Friday and spoke the name "Voldemort." It appears The Dark Lord has put a curse on his name which now summons Death Eaters to the site of whoever spoke it. No less than 17 incidents have happened in the last six and a half hours, four of those resulting in attacks and two more dead with numbers rising. The Ministry is panicked over the chaos and all aurors have been working relentlessly since the first attack at midnight. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" continues to terrorize and attack Muggles and all those who sympathize with Muggles, Magical or not.
"It's madness . . . " said Prime Minister Eugenia Jenkins, who seemed at a loss for words in the wake of this tragic event. After some time Minister Jenkins ordered that "No one is to say his name. Make sure the people know. They can't say his name . . ." (ctn on page 2)
The article continued and Lily skimmed for any new information. She remembered that the Muggle Minister's Head of Security had disappeared for two weeks during the summer. The position was traditionally held by an undercover wizard. The paper suggested he was possibly under the Imperius curse and summoned Voldemort on purpose to make a statement for the first incident of speaking his name since the curse was put on.
Alice looked at Frank. Everyone was quiet. Lily looked at Sirius. He was staring at the photo with a dead look in his eyes. She wondered if he could identify any of the Death Eaters as his family members.
The rest of the day passed abysmally. Parents were writing to their kids to tell them of the news, students tersely awaited answers if their families were some of the attacked, and others to hear about their parents working relentlessly in the Ministry.
Dumbledore gave a speech at dinner that Lily could barely focus on. Something about dark times and banding together. Food tasted bland. Everybody was a ghost of their usual self.
Although Lily's family was not one of the affected, one thing was clear: things were changing