The woman in the boy dormitory

After a night full of dreams about the books she was woken up by seldom pokes and whispers around her. She turned around lying on her back her eyes still closed.

"Woah..." she heard a very young male voice say.

"It...it's a...a woman..." said another young male voice.

The whispers died out suddenly when she decided to squint carefully. There were five shadows around her bed. One second, five shadows around her bed? She quickly flung her eyes open and stared around. She wasn't in her flat anymore. She wasn't even sure to be anywhere close to home. The room she was in was circular and had a very high ceiling. The walls were built of greyish and old bricks that reminded of a castle. The five shadows around her bed were boys, maybe between 10 and 12 years old. One of them was black.

"Wow..." said a red-haired boy on the left side and eyeballed her not even trying to hide his curiosity. She knew this boy from somewhere but she couldn't yet remember where from.

Lillian examined them all one after another feeling like an animal in the zoo and then gulped as she reached the last of them. That boy was slender with messy black hair, glasses and as green eyes as herself. But the thing that frightened her most was the scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning-bolt. It hit her like an anvil and her guts felt like they were knotting up in her body.

"H...Harry...P...Potter..." she stammered and gulped. Harry himself was totally caught by surprise so he didn't answer, he just stared at her. Her eyes wandered from one face to the other quickly her face more and more a grimace of total astonishment. It was quite obvious that the other boys could only be his dormitory mates. The red-haired one was almost certainly Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend.

"Who...who are you?" a shy voice finally asked her. It was the round-faced boy next to Harry and in her opinion that could only be Neville Longbottom.

She opened her mouth to answer but no words came out so she closed it again just to give it another try a few seconds later, again no success. She then slowly shook her head and pulled her blanket over her face, closed her eyes and breathed in and out deeply several times.

"It's just a wicket dream, it's a dream..." she mumbled and counted to ten slowly. Finally she moved the blanket away from her face again and then opened her eyes slowly. She was still in this room and there were still these boys around her.

"He asked you something" said Harry in a voice that told that he was trying to be very brave.

She looked at Neville and took a deep breath again. "My name is Lillian" she finally said with all calmness she was able to gather.

The boys looked at one another and then Harry nudged Neville and whispered something. Neville nodded slowly and turned around to leave the room. He went over to a spiral staircase and as soon as he was gone Lillian was able to hear a young female voice asking:

"Good Morning Neville. What happened, why are you so pale?"

"There...there is a woman...in...in our dormitory..." he answered with a trembling voice.

"A woman? In the boy dormitory?" asked the girl with a hint of suspicion and concern in her voice.

A minute later there were steps outside and a girl with bushy brown hair in black robes entered the room. Lillian now was totally lost for words. But so were the boys around her bed. Only the girl stared at her with a piercing look and then turned around leaving the room again without saying a word. Approximately ten minutes later there were steps again and a severely looking woman in a midnight-blue cloak and a pointed hat in the same colour entered the room followed by Neville and the girl with the bushy hair.

"Go down into the Great Hall – now!" she ordered the boys and the girl, who in Lillian's opinion could only be Hermione Granger, and followed them down the spiral staircase. Apparently she wanted to make sure they really left the tower.

"But Professor can't we wait in here?" Lillian heard Harry ask but the woman only said:

"No Potter – you will go into the Great Hall!"

After a short moment she finally returned, her wand drawn to stand at the foot of the bed. Then she suddenly dropped the wand onto the mattress and quickly picked it up again without taking her eyes off Lillian. Staring at her with a, for some reason, unbelieving expression on her face she eventually spoke, her voice was calm but Lillian could hear the worried undertone in her voice.

"Lily?"

Lillian raised an eyebrow. Did this woman, who was obviously no one less than Minerva McGonagall the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts and the Head of Gryffindor House, call her 'Lily'? All of a sudden there were a lot of wild theories in her head about what this was all about but the only thing that was actually plausible was that this was a wicked dream. Slowly she sat up in her bed and looked around the room shortly before looking back at McGonagall again. She apparently really was in the first year boy dormitory of Gryffindor with its four-posters. Only she seemed to have her own bed with her that was standing where there was the most space in the room. She took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Yes and no." Now McGonagall raised her eyebrows but remained silent. "My friends call me Lily yes, but my real name is Lillian Ellen Block. I can't tell you why I am here and how it is even possible, but I know where I am and who you and the others are."

She must sound totally hilarious the way she said this but it was the truth. McGonagall seemed to be lost for words. She just went on looking at her with this unbelieving expression on her face. After a while, as if she wanted to check if Lillian was telling the truth, she asked:

"Where are you and who am I?" Her voice was quivering with excitement.

"I am in the first year boy dormitory of Gryffindor within the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. You are Professor Minerva McGonagall the Head of Gryffindor House and Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. The subject you are teaching is Transfiguration." For some reason Lillian's voice was totally calm as she said this. Actually she even sounded as if she had just read all this from an official letter.

McGonagall stared at her half excited and half worried then she breathed in deeply, swung her wand and a ghost-like creature shaped like a cat appeared. Lillian knew that this was a corporal patronus. The cat disappeared through the wall. No five minutes later a phoenix patronus appeared and said with the voice of a wise old man:

"Please meet me in my office and bring her with you." Then the patronus dissolved in the air.

"Was that the patronus of Professor Dumbledore?" Lillian asked and with another worried and unbelieving look McGonagall nodded. "Well he said to bring me around with you to his office but I unfortunately have nothing but this pyjama to wear..." she continued and finally got up from her bed. Professor McGonagall took another deep breath, swung her wand once again and suddenly Lillian was wearing a common jeans, a common T-Shirt, socks and even shoes. Also her hair was brushed and flew softly over her shoulders.

"Follow me," said Professor McGonagall and walked out of the dormitory down into the empty common room "and no word until we are there."

Lillian silently followed McGonagall through the common room and the portrait of the fat woman through different corridors and down several staircases to the third floor where they stopped in front of the stone gargoyle that led up to Dumbledore's office.