Chapter Five

Where art thou

As she entered the classroom, Lily noticed that Severus was sat with a tanned, thickset boy with short cut brown hair. A crease crossed her brow and she sat at the desk to his right. He turned his head as she sat down and he smiled.

"Hey, Lily," he whispered.

She returned his grin. "Who's your friend?"

Severus glanced at the boy next to him, "Oh, Lily, this is Anton Mulciber," and he nudged the boy. "Anton, this is a friend from home, Lily Evans."

Anton gave Lily the once over, his eyes a pale watery blue that looked out of place with the rest of his visage. He took in her red hair and her green eyes and then sneered at her Gryffindor robes. "Didn't know you played with lions, Severus."

A flush appeared on Severus' cheeks and Lily could feel the heat rising in her own face.

"She's all right," Severus said, not quite meeting the other boys eyes. "She should've been in Slytherin."

"And yet, she's not. Probably too much of a Muggle-lover."

Lily's mouth dropped open but before she could say anything another girl spoke, "Is this chair taken?"

Lily turned to see a tall, pale skinned girl with a long, dark brown ponytail. "No, it's not. You can sit there if you like." Lily thought her eyes were interesting, an odd mix of blue and green that seemed to change in the light.

"I'm Isabelle," said the girl, pulling out 'A Beginners Guide To Defensive Magic'.

"Lily."

Isabelle smiled, "Ignore Mulciber," she said. "He tried to hex me in the Owlery on Saturday."

"Why?" Lily found herself asking.

"Because he can and because he's everything that's bad about Slytherin house. The Sorting Hat was telling me I could've done well there but I was having none of it. My family have been in Ravenclaw since we moved over to England and that was three hundred and fifty years ago." She didn't seem to think she was doing anything strange by rattling off her family history in the middle of Defence Against the Dark Arts. "So, what about you? What Houses were your parents in?"

But before Lily could answer the door opened and in walked their teacher. Professor Tollenworth was a short woman with a bob of grey hair and thick, round glasses. She swept to the front of the class and tapped the board with her wand. 'Defence Against the Dark Arts: Year One' appeared in bulky white writing.

"Please take out your books," she said, "And read introductory chapter."

The class lapsed into silence. Lily watched Isabelle out the corner of her eye as she bent down to her bag to extract her text book. The girl was already reading at such a speed her eyes seemed to blur. It made Lily feel quite sick.

Lily opened the book to the first chapter and began to read. Lily found the books wording quite patronising. She was eleven and definitely not a child and yet the book seemed to think she was. Scowling, Lily continued to try and read the short paragraph on Vampires (beings that enjoy the night, we call them nocturnal or night-dwellers) and then progressed to Ghosts (the see-through souls of the departed, I.E., the dead). The scowl on her forehead became more pronounced with each word she read.

Next to her, Isabelle had already finished the chapter and was beginning to flick through the book, stopping here and there to read more. Lily wondered if she was checking to see if the book was as patronising throughout. Surreptitiously, Lily looked to her left and saw that Severus had finished reading and was glaring at the witch sat behind the desk.

Bubbles of chatter began to break out across the room. Lily turned back to Isabelle and found the other girl staring at her. "Did you find this book beneath you too? I mean, I may be in Ravenclaw and I may have already read the entire works of Shakespeare but that doesn't mean that my reading level is that much higher than everyone elses, does it?"

Dumbfounded, the only thing Lily found herself saying was, "You know Shakespeare?"

"Of course I do," she said, frowning. "Everyone does. One of the greatest wizards of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although the Muggles never knew it of course. Managed to integrate into their society seamlessly, didn't he? But Elizabeth always knew what he was, it's why she was so desperate to keep him in favour. Obvious really, after what they put her mother through..."

"Shakespeare was a wizard?"

Isabelle frowned again. It gave her an almost comical look. "Of course, everyone knows – Oh."

"What?" asked Lily instantly.

"Are you Muggle-born?"

"Yes."

"Cool. So you've grown up thinking that Shakespeare was just a play write? That's so interesting. Could you -"

"As interesting as William Shakespeare is, my dears," came Professor Tollenworth's voice from right in front of them, "I'm afraid he has nothing to do with my classes." She tapped the desk with her wand and it split in two, separating the girls. "Both of you shall receive detentions for disrupting my class. You two will wait at the end of class with Mr's Black and Potter."

She sauntered back to the front of the classroom and told them all to continue onto Chapter One. No one spoke again until the end of class when Tollenworth dismissed them for their lunch.

Lily, Isabelle, Sirius and James made their way to the Professor's desk and waited. "I do not like children speaking during lessons," she told them. "You will each receive detention tomorrow evening. You will all be here at half past seven and if you are late, there will be consequences. You are dismissed."

Scowling slightly at Isabelle, Lily walked towards the classroom door. The two boys that had been kept behind with them were already talking rapidly under their breaths. Lily tried her best to ignore them, after all, they had been the two making fun of Severus on the train and she was not keen to befriend either, even if they happened to be fellow Gryffindor's. Upon exiting the room, Lily found two people awaiting them however, a short, dumpy boy, who squeaked, "I can't believe she kept you two behind!" and Severus. Lily beamed.

"She had no right to do that to you Lily, it wasn't your fault at all," he said, shooting a nasty glance at Isabelle, who shrugged.

"She seems like a very shoddy teacher, if you ask me."

"But we weren't asking you," said Severus.

The two dark haired Gryffindor's looked up from their conversation at this and the one with glasses said, "And I don't think she was talking to you, Snivellus."

Lily bristled, "And we weren't talking to you."

Quick as a flash, the three black haired boys drew their wands.

Isabelle tutted loudly, "Boys." Lily thought she even heard her eyes roll. "I'm going for lunch. See you in detention."

"Seriously, who is that?" said Sirius as Isabelle waggled her fingers over her shoulder from halfway down the corridor. James erupted into laughter. "And what's with you?"

*

"So, as we were saying before the old bat interrupted us," began James, piling cottage pie onto his plate, "Remus dropped off the face of the earth at some point during Sunday."

"It's definitely weird. We were wondering if he'd mentioned anything to you?" asked Sirius, waving his fork at Peter, who shook his head.

No. Sorry." Sirius looked agitated. "But it can't have been anything bad, right?"

"I guess not," said Jams. "I still think we should check the Hospital Wing, just in case though."

"What do you think has happened? He got jumped by a bunch of Slytherin's on his way back to the Common Room or something? What exactly would Remus have done to warrant that?"

James rolled his eyes. "I know, I know, but even if he's just come down with something. It's an idea and it's the only idea we've got, unless you can come up with something else?"

"Could just wander?"

"What and get caught by that Filch guy? Sirius, he's creepy. I mean, he's always watching."

A frown crossed Peter's brow. "We could always ask a Prefect?"

Sirius crinkled his nose in disgust. "Jesus, Peter. What are you thinking?"

"What about Nearly Headless Nick?" said James.

"Who?"

"Nearly Headless Nick. He's the Gryffindor House ghost. My dad told me all about him. How have you never heard of him before?"

"Whole family of Slytherin's James. The only ghost I've ever heard about was the Bloody Baron and he's almost as creepy as Filch."

James stared. "But you sat next to him at the feast!"

"But that ghost still has a head," said Peter.

"Ah," said a voice behind them, "And there in lies the reason why they call me Nearly Headless, young Gryffindor." A pearlescent man was behind them, floating an inch off the ground, decked out in full Tudor regalia. "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at you service," and he pulled his head by the ear, causing it to flop on a half inch of ghostly flesh.

Peter paled but both James and Sirius laughed.

"I've been here for centuries and still it procures laughter."

James smiled, "It's quite a talent."

"And it hurt a fair bit too," said Nick.

Sirius continued to laugh. "Oh, I'm glad to be in Gryffindor. You're so much more fun than the Bloody Barron, I bet."

"So, Nick," began James, before the ghost could open his mouth to reply. "We were wondering how you got to the Hospital Wing? One of our friends didn't show up for classes today and we were worried he might've gotten ill."

"Oh, the Hospital Wing? It's fairly easy to find, I can take you, if you want?"

"Lead the way," said James, getting to his feet.

*

Sirius coughed loudly. "Told you he wasn't here."

"How do you know he's not behind that curtain?"

"Fine, I'll go and check!" Sirius began to storm towards the curtained bed on the other side of the ward when a motherly looking witch appeared waving her wand. Sirius came to an instantaneous halt; he's feet having apparently glued themselves to the floor.

"And where, young man, do you think you're going?" she asked, her voice far more stern than her appearance suggested.

"Is Remus Lupin behind that curtain?" asked James, walking into the Wing, but keeping well away from the curtain.

"Remus who?"

"Lupin, he's a first year and he's our friend. We were wondering if anything bad had happened to him."

She shook her head. "I'm sorry boys, but there's a fifth year behind that curtain. A silly boy who was playing with potions. He's stuck with a furry face and you three," she said, pointing at Sirius, James and Peter, who was hovering around looking awkward in the doorway, "better not try and look. I doubt he would take kindly to you three taking a peak. Now get out of here before I have to call your Head of House."

Understanding that they were dismissed, Sirius, James and Peter left the Hospital Wing.

"Erm, guys, how do we get back to the Common Room from here?" asked Peter staring up the corridor.