Sorry it took so long for me to update. It's been a difficult few months with quite a few family problems, college crisis and job hunting. But I'm back now with a new chapter and I hope you all like it. Feel free to leave me any comments or feedback. It is appreciated.
Hugs and stuff
Katie
Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to anything mentioned, described and included in any Harry Potter related book/movie or product. This is just my interpretation of how Lily and James got together. All rights reserved to J.K. Rowling.
Summary: After a confrontation with James after potions, Snape decides to seek his revenge in a way James will never expect against an old friend. Will James realize what he's up to in time to stop him before someone important gets hurt?
Chapter Eight: Hedgehogs and Hat Tricks
Lily's P.O.V.
I glared across the room at James who was determinedly trying to avoid meeting my eyes as he tried to appear engrossed in some deep, meaningful discussion with Peter and Remus an attempt to try and fool me into thinking it hadn't been him who'd charmed the hedgehog I'd been given to transfigure into a tortoise to stick to the ceiling of the classroom with some twisted spell that he must have invented himself because none of the charms I'd tried to get it down had worked.
Footsteps approached my desk from behind. "Miss Evans," I turned to see Professor McGonagall gazing disapprovingly down at my empty desk. "Where is your hedgehog?" She asked coldly.
There would never be a good way to explain to McGonagall that my hedgehog was currently stuck to the ceiling and that I couldn't manage to get it down. If there's one thing that McGonagall will not tolerate, its people larking around in her classes. James will probably end up with a detention for this and though, to be honest, he did sort of deserve it for playing such a stupid, immature prank, he was only doing it to try and cheer me up.
It had been a bad morning with four students being pulled aside at breakfast by Dumbledore who had the awful task of breaking the news to them that someone in their family had been killed in a Death Eater attack. It had brought back all my worries and fears for my own family and I'd had to fight the urge to race to the Owlery and send my mum a quick letter demanding to know how they were. I couldn't do that. That would just make my mum suspicious and I can't lie to her, not even through a letter. She's my mother; she just knows me too well and can see through me every time I try to mislead her about something.
I just decided to bite the bullet and tell her, pointedly glancing up at the ceiling. "My hedgehog is stuck on the ceiling, Professor," I pointed up to where the poor creature hung.
"What on earth is it doing on the ceiling?" McGonagall demanded in exasperation.
A dry voice piped up from the front. "From the looks of it, just hanging around, Professor," Sirius piped up from the front. He'd been moved there earlier by McGonagall in an attempt to prevent him from causing any trouble with James. Fat lot of luck that that would ever work considering that the two of them are more that capable of causing trouble on their own without the other and I knew for a fact that they had a pair of magic mirrors that allowed them to communicate somehow whenever they were separated, thus enabling them to coordinate their pranks to cause maximum havoc.
McGonagall's lips thinned. "Thank you for that assessment, Mr Black," She said sternly, turning her head slightly to give Sirius a withering look before looking back at me. "But I would appreciate it if you would keep such observations to yourself, than you very much,"
I looked quickly down at my shoes, a sick feeling churning up my stomach, even though I knew I hadn't done anything wrong and that McGonagall probably knew that I hadn't had anything to do with sticking my hedgehog to the roof of the classroom. But still, I hate getting in trouble for anything; I just don't like people shouting at me. It just makes me feel so small and bad that I'll go out of my way to avoid getting in trouble.
McGonagall arched her eyebrows in that way that she had that said everything she needed to say without her opening her mouth and speaking a single word. However she chose to reinforce it with a dangerous controlled, "Miss Evans?" as she gazed down at me. I'd never noticed before that McGonagall was so tall. I always thought I was quite tall but next to her I was quite positively short.
Glancing back at James showed me he was watching McGonagall with a twisted grin on his face. He saw me look over and gave me a cheeky wink. I felt a childish urge to shake my fist at him or stick my tongue out but under the close scrutiny of McGonagall's gaze. "I was just about to transfigure my hedgehog when someone knocked my textbook to floor." I explained, suddenly realising that it wasn't an accident that my book ended up on the floor. "By the time I'd picked it up, my hedgehog was on the ceiling." I shrugged, blushing when I felt the eyes of the entire class on me. I hate being the centre of attention.
"Then why didn't you get it down?" McGonagall demanded. "You have a wand and Professor Flitwick says your charms work is adequate so surely you could easily have got it down and carried on with your lesson," She said coldly.
Adequate at charms? If I'm only adequate at Charms then I should just give up and go and live back in the Muggle world because Charms is my best subject. "If she's only adequate at charms the rest of us will have no hope in the NEWTS then," James piped up behind me.
"Be quiet, Mr Potter," McGonagall didn't bother to turn around and look at him. She knows from experience that that would be a huge tactical error with James who will argue himself blue in the face to make a point.
"I tried," I shrugged. "But none of the spells I've used will get it down,"
McGonagall sighed and pulled her own wand out. She gave it a violent swish and pointed it at the hedgehog. It glowed brightly and let out a loud squeak but nothing happened. It didn't budge an inch. She tried again to no avail and then tried a different spell, flicking the tip of the end of her wand as though trying to dislodge a fly from the tip and a series of violent sparks spat out the end of her wand at the poor hedgehog that must at this stage be terrified out of its little mind.
James at this stage was struggling to hide his laughter as a fit of coughing, Remus who was stood behind him rolled his eyes when I caught his gaze and Peter looked like he too was struggling to contain his laughter, his face twitching and twisting in a way that reminded me eerily of a mouse or rat. Their laughter and mischief was infectious and I suddenly found it hard to stifle my own giggles, sensing that it wouldn't improve McGonagall's mood and at the moment, it looked as though it was a foregone conclusion that James would end up in a detention and it wouldn't look good if both head students ended up in a detention over something as mundane and surreal as a hedgehog being stuck on the ceiling.
"Potter," McGonagall turned to where he was stood and glared at him. James had to consciously focus on keeping a straight face. "Get the hedgehog down off the ceiling now!" She demanded. "As Head Boy you should be setting an example on how to behave both in class and around the school, not causing as much trouble and disruption in class and in the corridors as you possibly can! Get it down now!"
"But it wasn't me!" James protested vehemently, perhaps a little too vehemently. "It's Sirius whose been practising levitating objects without using his wand!" Like when people watch tennis, everyone's head in the class swivelled to the front of the classroom where Sirius was lounging against the wall, whistling innocently, something he only ever did when he was in trouble.
"Mr. Black? Would you care to explain?" McGonagall demanded as her lips went even thinner.
I could see in his eyes that he was debating in his mind how to answer that one. Part of him really wanted to turn round and say that no he didn't care to explain but one of the things I've noticed about Sirius over the years is the fact that he has an incredible sense of self preservation and right now, saying something like that to McGonagall when she's under lord only knows what pressure at the moment.
"Technically it's only partly my fault," Sirius settled on making sure that if he was going to go down, he was going to take someone down with him. There was no way Sirius would want to be in detention on his own tonight. I was curious though as to how he'd manage to wriggle his way out of this one.
"Only partly your fault?" You'd think that McGonagall would know to expect anything from James and Sirius after all the trouble they've caused in the past, especially when it comes to the creative excuses and their ability to try and worm their way out of any trouble she looked surprised that Sirius would even attempt to get out of this one.
"Yeah, well it was James that put the sticking charm on it," Sirius said, his expression quite serious for once in his life. "I only intended to float it to the ceiling and then bring it back down. James was the one who stuck it up there,"
Almost immediately everyone's attention shifted back to James who glared back at Sirius. "Only because Peter said he'd found this spell in a library book that he reckoned could use to stick a person to the roof without them falling and I said it wasn't possible," James shrugged. "Lily's hedgehog just got in the way of testing the spell," Honestly, I really do think that that boy has more bravery than brains sometimes, which is saying something because he is an extremely talented student but that was just plain stupid. "So really, it's not my fault Peter for once found a spell that works and it's not my fault Lily's hedgehog getting in the way. It was just a series of badly timed coincidences."
"That's an interesting way of putting it," McGonagall agreed. "But it's not going to get you out of trouble. Detention tonight for both you and Mr. Black." She glanced back up at the hedgehog. "Now will you remove Miss Evan's hedgehog from the ceiling so she can carry on with her work?" It must be some obscure spell if McGonagall had to ask James to take it down. If she had the time to flick spells at it all afternoon, she could probably get it down eventually I think she has classes all day so she doesn't have the time.
James' mouth twisted apologetically. "I can't, Professor," He sighed.
"And why not?"
Peter spoke up at this moment, which was rather surprising to be honest. Normally when there's any sign of trouble, he leaves the talking to Sirius or James and to be fair to him, that's a smart idea because then teachers are more likely to focus their anger on James and Sirius meaning that he escapes some of the more harsher punishments. "Because someone ripped the page out of the book that had the counter spell written on it," He said earnestly.
I couldn't help the snort that escaped me and McGonagall sent me a quick glare before looking back. "5 points from Gryffindor, Mr. Pettigrew, for encouraging another student to experiment with non-curriculum spells in a classroom environment without knowing the relevant counter spell causing disruption to my lesson and other student's learning,"
"Well, when you put it like that, Professor, five points doesn't sound like a harsh enough punishment," Sirius said dryly.
"Sirius!" Peter glared at him. "Shut up!"
"Fine, will 20 points from Gryffindor suit you, Mr Black?" McGonagall asked.
"Well, no." Sirius shrugged. "That seems a little harsh,"
"Tough luck!" McGonagall arched her eyebrows as if challenging him to make some form of comment back in response. "Maybe in future you'll learn to keep your mouth shut." The bell rang marking the end of class and I swear McGonagall almost sighed in relief.
I grabbed my books and stuffed them into my bag, scooping my wand up as I did. All around the classroom everybody else followed suite apart from James and Sirius who knew from past experience that in their case it was a good idea for them to pack away until McGonagall excused them. As I headed towards the door, eager to get to lunch, I was half expecting for her to keep them behind to yell at them some more but in the head she just told them to show up at Professor Slughorn's office at seven o'clock tonight and then dismissed the class.
Slinging my bag onto my shoulder, I headed out the door, getting pushed and shoved by some of the Ravenclaw boys in our group who I'd overheard panicking about an unfinished essay for one of their other classes that they needed to finish before one o'clock or there would be much hell for them to pay with their teacher. They headed down the corridor towards the library while the rest of the group headed towards the hall.
A hand came down on my shoulder, making me jump. "Sorry about that, Tiger-Lily," Sirius grinned as he fell into step beside me. I glanced quickly to the left of me and there was James and Peter. Remus was no where to be seen. "We needed a reason to be down in the dungeons later on tonight and neither James nor Remus is on patrol tonight," He shrugged as though this explained everything that needed to be explained. "Sorry you didn't get to practise in class today but we all know would have completely outshone most of us today with you sheer brilliance,"
I rolled my eyes. "Why do you need to be down in the dungeons tonight? What trouble are you planning tonight?" I demanded with a sinking feeling that they were planning some sort of prank that would get them into serious trouble. "James, your head boy now, you can't be messing around in the dungeons like second years with too much spare time and delusions about their own abilities."
James met my gaze steadily, a pained look in his eyes as though he didn't want to upset me but with a stubbornness that told me that he felt that he felt that he had to do this. "We're not planning on playing any pranks or anything like that. We just want to try and get some information on what Snape's planning. That's all, I promise." His gaze was firm and there was something in his eyes that made me believe him.
"Trust us," Sirius shrugged. "There's only one thing more important than pranking the hell out of the Slytherins and that's making sure that no one in this school gets hurt because some pompous, self righteous pureblood nitwits think that some people aren't good enough to study here just because of their parents. Snivellus is planning something, planning to hurt somebody close to James and we're not going to let him do that,"
A wave of weariness came over me and I just shrugged my shoulders and the humour of the past five minutes died, replaced by the tension that had been present in the Great Hall at breakfast. I really didn't want to know anything more. The war has been something we all know about, something going on outside the school walls, something that could never touch us inside the walls. Deaths and attacks don't really touch the whole school because none of us ever saw the attacks. Sure on an individual level, it destroyed lives and caused untold pain, but nothing really effected the school as a whole. It's easy to forget what happens to other people's families and put it behind us when it doesn't touch our lives and for many, Hogwarts has become almost a beacon, a place where nothing can harm us.
Sirius was talking like he felt that war was coming to Hogwarts, as though even on these corridors Muggleborns would be targeted and terrorised. The logical part of me knew that this could happen, that as Voldemort grew in power, as more and more people were terrorised into doing what he wanted in order to keep themselves and their families saved, the sons and daughters of his followers would become more and more confident in their place in the school and they would start turning on those they deemed unworthy. They wouldn't do it openly when the teachers were around because that would just be plain stupid, they'd use the tactics that they'd always used, under hand and in secret when the teachers weren't around to police them. I'd always thought that it would happen, if it did happen, once I'd left Hogwarts, once I was out there in the real world, hopefully fighting to make a change.
Not while I was at Hogwarts. That was the last thing I'd thought about. I just couldn't imagine Hogwarts as anything but the safe, magical place I grew up in, where we could all explore the wonders of magic, to develop friendships that would last lifetimes, create memories of laughter and happiness to look back on fondly when we're all old and grey. It was a place where kids constantly wound up the teachers like James and Sirius had just done, got into trouble and where mischief and magic went hand in hand. Hogwarts as a warzone was not something I ever thought I'd see.
Logic is a cold, unfeeling emotion that can kill hope and suffocate happiness. It made me wish that I wasn't such a logical, academic person as the weight of these thoughts settled like lead in my stomach and unsurprisingly, I didn't really feel all that hungry anymore. I closed my eyes, dragging my hands over my eyes and pushing my hair back out of my eyes. I was growing up fast in a world that was getting darker and more dangerous as the days went by and I wasn't sure if I was ready to deal with it all. I wished I could go back to being the innocent, excited first year or even back to just last night, down by the lake with James when nothing seemed wrong with the world at all.
"Don't worry about it, Lily," Peter's voice broke through my thoughts as James grabbed hold of my hand, squeezing it firmly but gently in an attempt to reassure me. His gaze met mine again, concerned but comforting. "It's probably just Snivellus posing around for his little Death Eater friends, trying to panic James. I bet it turns out to be nothing," Peter lied but I nodded, pretending as though I believed him.
"Yeah," I nodded, pulling my hand away from James. "But I guess you just want to check just in case they are planning something,"
"It's better to be safe than to be sorry," James shrugged, putting his hand on my shoulder and pushing me down the corridor at a slightly faster rate than we'd been walking. In front of us, the rest of our group had already vanished and I could hear the distant thunder echoing up the staircase ahead of the rest of the school heading towards the Hall.
"I guess," I sighed, still not liking the whole idea. "Just don't hex anyone or anything. Just find out whatever it is you need to know and come straight back to the common room."
Sirius pulled a mock frown. "Oh but that will take all the fun out of the whole expedition," He said in a sulky voice, trying to lighten the mood by acting like the childish boy he could still be at times.
"I don't care," I snapped. "You're not going to sink to their level. If they attack you, you use reasonable force to defend yourself and then get out of there. No duelling in the corridor or using any unnecessary force. Promise me, James,"
He reached over and ruffled my hair. "I promise I won't even pull my wand out on a single one of them." He swore to me. "The Slytherins won't even know that we're there." I glared at him for touching my hair but he just winked cheekily at me and ruffled his own hair as well. I couldn't help it then, couldn't keep the childish urge inside me so I gave in and stuck my tongue out at him. His just arched his eyebrow. "That's real mature behaviour, Lily; you're an example to us all. How are we ever going to live up to those high standards?" He joked.
"Coming from the king of maturity himself," I snorted.
James ducked behind me and nudged Sirius in the arm. "You hear that, Sirius, Lily thinks I'm a king!"
"It was sarcasm, James," Sirius shrugged. "Really she just thinks you're a moron who stuck her hedgehog to the roof,"
We'd reached the stairs by now and started climbing down them. I was shaking my head at the pair of them. "You were the one who levitated it to the roof," I pointed out. "Your just as bad as he is, probably worse now that James is head boy and having to cut back on the trouble making,"
Sirius looked flattered at this, not the effect I was after but with Sirius it's very rare that you do, "Someone has to pick up the slack," He pointed out smugly. "We can't rely on some inexperienced second rate pranksters who are still learning the ropes and who don't know the tricks of the trade to get the job done. They'll screw up and putting the name of all Hogwarts pranksters to shame,"
"And we couldn't have that now, could we?" Sarcasm was clearly laced into my voice. "You couldn't make my life and the lives of the other prefects slightly easier by none making huge messes that we get drafted in to clean up," I knew as I said it that it was a vain hope.
Both James and Sirius gave me disgusted looks. "We can't do that! Just imagine what trouble you'd all get into if you didn't have to clean up after us," Sirius looked horrified at the thought.
"Yeah, because I couldn't use that time to get my homework done," I pointed out to him.
"Exactly, you should be thanking us for saving you from countless hours of unendurable boredom," James said seriously.
I hit him gently in his arm. "Yeah because I wouldn't have had to do the homework later, staying up to unholy hours of the morning trying to get back the time I missed." I said dryly and a little bitterly.
Sirius shrugged. "Unlucky. Just think, if you hadn't of been such a goody two shoes then you wouldn't have been made a prefect and then you woudn't have had to clear up after our messes. It's your own fault really,"
"You keep telling yourself that," We'd reach the bottom of the staircases and were crossing the main hall.
"Don't worry," Sirius grinned. "We will," He said cheekily, waving across the hall to a crowd of girls. He spotted his girlfriend in the group and without a word headed over to her, sweeping her up off her feet and spinning her round while her friends looked on, giggling away.
A hint of jealously swept through me as I watched them. I've never really had feelings like that for another person, never wanted that kind of a relationship with a boy. Even when all the other girls around me were getting crushes on different guys around school, I never really felt anything towards the guys around me apart from mere friendship with them. Not even when James was asking me out all those times did I really feel anything more than a certain fondness for him when he wasn't being the moron he could be. Sure there was a spark between us, but only because he seemed to go out of his way sometimes to provoke my temper.
"Come on," James took my arm and led me towards the Great Hall. Peter and Remus made to follow us but James gave them a pointed look and they smirked before heading over to Sirius. I watched them go before turning back to face James. "If we wait around for him there'll be nothing left for us to eat," He must have caught sight of something in my eye, my expression that troubled him. "What's up?" His eyes softened in concern. That's something I like about James' eyes, you can always tell what exactly he's feeling because his eyes always reflect what's going on inside his head.
I shook my head. "It's nothing really. I'm just slightly jealous of them," I indicated behind me to where the pair who were probably still carrying on.
James frowned. "Your jealous of her?" He asked incredulously, looking slightly hurt at this. "You fancy Sirius?"
I rolled my eyes. "Merlin! No!" Shock laughter spilled out of me as we entered the Great Hall and headed towards some spare seats at the Gryffindor table. "I don't fancy anyone. I'm just jealous of the fact that he does have strong feelings towards someone. I've never felt that way about someone,"
James looked reassured at this, which surprised me because I would have thought it would have disappointed him that I didn't have feelings for him or anyone else. "Don't worry about it," He shrugged. "It will happen when it happens," He laughed. "It will probably hit you like a bolt of lightning when it does. Lord knows that's what happened with me," He joked.
I sat down at the far end of the table and James crossed round to sit across from me. I didn't know what to say in reply to him so I busied my hands by pouring myself a drink and then took a long swig of it. James was staring intently at me as though waiting for some form of reply but for the life of me I couldn't think of anything to say. I mean, what do you say in response to something like that?
"Hey! Lily!" I could have kissed Robin Fitzgerald as he rushed towards where I was sat, breathless as usual and looking extremely nervous and twitchy about something, rescuing me from an awkward moment with James. He's a second year Hufflepuff who I'd met last year on prefect patrols when he got lost trying to find his way back to his common room. I hadn't seen him around the corridors so far this year so I greeted him with a smile. He was a nice kid, obsessed with Muggles and anything to do with them. At one point he used to follow me down the corridors asking me to explain in detail how a car engine worked or a washing machine worked. It was quite cute except on really bad days when I haven't the patience to explain that I haven't the foggiest idea how something works, having not shown a great interest in stuff like that when I was younger and not having spent enough time in recent years in the muggle world to gain even the most limited of ideas about how things worse.
I placed my goblet down on the table in front of me as he came and sat down next me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw James frown in frustration. "Hey Robin," I smiled at him and he seemed to tense up in front of me which I thought was extremely strange for someone who was normally one of the most happy-go-lucky people I've ever seen. "What's up? Is everything okay?" I asked in concern. He was really acting out of character.
"I'm fine, thanks," He tried to smile but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Everything is great!"
I patted his shoulder lightly. "How's second year going?" I prompted, wondering if maybe he was getting bullied or something. I made a mental note to keep my eyes and ears open in case one of the Slytherins were targeting him because of the fact he's a pureblood obsessed with Muggle things. He was the kind of person who would target because he's too good natured to fight back.
I saw the panic in his eyes momentarily before he forced himself to relax a little. "Second year is fine. The lessons are a bit harder but their more interesting." He sighed. "I just wish I was in third year so I could take up Muggle Studies," He confessed.
I saw James roll his eyes. "I do that course," James told him quickly. "It's not as good or as easy as people make it out to be,"
"That won't bother Robin," I laughed. "He'll finally be able to get answers to all the questions I can't answer when he does that course,"
"Yeah," He grinned, for the first time his grin reached his eyes which sparkled in enthusiasm. "Can I show you a muggle magic trick I learnt?" He asked quickly, seeming to find some confidence inside himself.
"Sure, let's see," I grinned, trying to encourage him.
"Muggle magic tricks?" James demanded. "But Muggles can't do magic!" He looked completely befuddled by this. I guess it was something they hadn't taught him in Muggle Studies. I guess they had more important things on the curriculum.
I laughed. "It's not really magic like we do, James," I explained to him. "They rely on the person performing the trick's hands to be able to move faster in order to place a card or object in a certain place or position faster than the person watching it can see," I frowned. That was a bad explanation but I couldn't think of a better way to explain it. "They use slight of hand tricks to hide objects and make them appear to disappear and then reappear or to do card tricks. One of the most famous ones is pulling a rabbit out of a top hat," That was a better explanation but it still wasn't a great one and James was looking at me like I was making the whole thing up.
"Pull a rabbit out of a hat?" He repeated doubtfully. "Why would anybody want to do that?"
"Because it's entertaining and Muggles like the illusion of it being magic while also trying to work out how the person did it," I shook my head.
James narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me. "You're making this up, aren't you?" He glared at me. "You're trying to get me to believe this and then when I go and tell Sirius about this, he'll call me the biggest idiot on the planet and embarrass me in front of the whole school or something,"
"She's telling the truth!" Robin piped up in my defence. "Can I do my trick for you?" He repeated.
"Sure, go ahead." I smiled and then turned and glanced pointedly at James. "Just ignore my ignorant friend here," James glared back and then stuck his tongue out at me.
"Go ahead, kiddo, dazzle me with your muggle magic," James encouraged him.
I don't know how it happened but as Robin reached into his robes to pull whatever it was out of his pocket he was going to use to do his trick, his elbow caught my goblet and sent the contents flying all over me, soaking my robes with pumpkin juice. He grabbed at my goblet futilely but it was too late. "Merlin! Lily!" He blushed bright red. "I'm so sorry!" He pulled his wand out and pointed it at my robes. "Here, let me…"
Call me paranoid but I never like it when people point their wands at me so I gently nudge his wand away from me. "Don't worry about it," I said kindly. "I'll sort my robes out, you just pour me another drink."
He nodded, and started apologising profusely about the mess. I ignored him and stood up, quickly flicking my wand in order to dry and clean the stain off my robes before sitting down. By then he had a fresh goblet of pumpkin juice poured for me and I took it from him, sipping it gratefully.
"Miss Evans?" Professor Slughorn appeared behind me and I groaned, not really in the mood to deal with him today. "Would it be possible for me to have a quiet word with you about something?" He asked, indicating towards an shadowy alcove towards the side of the teachers table.
"Sure," I nodded, gulping down a bit more of my drink, suddenly really thirsty. "Just let me finish this," Slughorn nodded politely but was clearly impatient so I quickly finished my drink and stood up. "Robin? Would you mind waiting till later to show me your trick?" I asked him, not wanting him to think that I wasn't interested in what he had learnt.
My head swam sickeningly as I stood there and I felt dizzy. "Okay, Lily, I'll come and find you later on."
Robin's face swirled and distorted as I stood there and I found it difficult to focus on his words. I put my hand out blindly as the dizziness increase and Professor Slughorn took it and began to lead me away. I was grateful for this as I used him to stay upright as the world continued to swirl around me. Each step felt incredibly hard to make as I stumbled my way along towards the teachers table. Every sense suddenly felt hyper aware, like I could hear every single conversation in the hall assault my eardrums, my nose filled with the scent of many different meals which made me want to be sick and the hairs on my neck standing up on edge as though someone was staring at me.
The alcove, which almost moments before had seemed so close to me, now seemed incredibly far away and each step I took seemed like a marathon as sudden ringing developed in my hears. My heart raced in panic. This wasn't normal. I was fine just a few minutes ago and now I was feeling like this. My ears started to ring and when we did finally reached the alcove I leant against the cold stone, turning my face towards the icy blocks which cooled my suddenly burning skin.
Slughorn was saying something but I couldn't follow what he was saying. I felt so ill and just wanted to curl up in a ball and fall asleep as my head started to ache painfully, worse than any migraine I'd ever had in my life. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to focus on what was being said. He sounded further away now and his words were distorted, as though he was underwater.
The last thing I remembered before everything went black was trying to stop myself from slipping to the floor and someone calling my name extremely loudly, causing my head to almost explode in pain. With that final slash of pain I drifted into deep unconsciousness.
A.N. My beta is away on holiday for two weeks and is unable to check this chapter so if you find any mistakes, want to make any plot suggestions or find any problems with the continuency of the story (aka where maybe I've said something in this chapter that contradicts something in another chapter) please leave me some feedback and let me know and I'll make the alterations/corrections.