Living the wildlife

"You know what happens when a duckling emerges from its egg?"

I stared at Adams for a few second before responding: "What's with the pointless remark?"

"It's NOT pointless!" replied Street, sounding aggravated.

"Since we are the only ones in this tower who are aware of the details of this situation" remarked Adams calmly "I suggest that you shut up and listen".

I rolled my eyes. I was thoroughly impatient with all the secrecy. We had arrived at school already and after waiting for the bloody feast to end for what seemed like hours, I now had to endure a lecture on wildlife behavior.

"Well?" said Street impatiently.

I thought back to their question and said the first thing that came to my mind: "It sees its mum?"

"And…" drawled Street, sounding so patronizing I had to restrain my hands behind my back to prevent myself from reaching to my wand and performing the most powerful jelly-leg curse I know.

Remus seemed to sense my obvious inner struggle, because h hastily replied: "And it attaches itself to her?"

"Exactly" said Adams, sounding pleased.

"What does duck behavior have to do with anything?" asked Sirius, looking bewildered.

"It's a phenomenon that can be found in people too" replies Street.

"Mostly with people who have brain damage" added Adams "And that's exactly our problem".

"Lily has lost her memory," announced Street casually.

My mind froze, as did every action except for breathing, which simply slowed down, but I couldn't stay in shock; It wouldn't be useful to Lily.

Of course, breaking the news to me gently wouldn't have been an option with the sadistic duo. There was always enmity between us Marauders and those two, which was the reason people were so surprised when Lily befriended both groups. Some people thought that the duo sent her to spy on us. Others thought that Sirius and I were in love with the duo and that we sent Lily to get them to go out with us. Oh, the horrors…

The truth was that Lily befriended us first. She sat with us on the train to Hogwarts and stayed with us during the feast and that night she met the duo as they were sharing a dorm with her. Both groups liked her and neither one wanted to let her go, despite her appalling taste in female friends.

That's why I was less patient with those two then usual. One of the thousand explanations I had for Lily not writing to me was that the duo finally convinced her that being friends with us wasn't worth the exhaustion of dancing between two groups.

Now that things were getting clearer it was still difficult to forgo more than two years of ill wishing, it didn't matter now though: I had a bigger Slytherin to jinx.

Disregarding all emotion, I turned business-like. I was like that whenever I was face with a challenge. And this particular challenge, was more important than any other.

First: Background knowledge.

"How exactly did it happen?" I asked monotonously.

"Well, we weren't there" said Adams delicately "but by all accounts, Logan was dueling with some Slytherin and everyone knows hoe nervous he gets because he is insecure of his abilities".

"Anyway, apparently he tried to hex the Slytherin but messed up the incantation, whatever it was, not to mention his aim was totally off. Basically, he hit Lily who happened be in the same corridor at the time. She was thrown back by the hex, hit the wall behind her and fainted".

I twitched with unease at that point, thinking of how painful that must've been for Lily.

"Lily regained consciousness a couple of hours later in the hospital wing. During those hours, Marlin, very stupidly I might add" Adams voice was getting more annoyed by the second "got into a yelling match with Logan who already felt guilty and didn't need-"

"I can't believe you're defending him after what he did to us" interrupted Street and glared at Adams.

"What do you mean?" asked Sirius quickly, suddenly looking alarmed.

"What did he do to you?" added Remus, frowning.

"We're getting to that," said Adams soothingly "From that point onwards, it was all pure bad luck. Ril and I were sitting on one side of Lily's bed and Logan was standing on the other when Lily began stirring. Unfortunately, when she opened her eyes, she saw Logan".

"This is where the duckling business comes in" interjected Street bitterly.

"Lily fell in love with Logan instantly" said Adams in a quiet, but clear, voice.

There was total silence. Everyone seemed to wait for my reaction, but there was nothing to see. I remained expressionless and silent, fearing what I might do when I let those words sink in.

I mentally shook myself. 'Lily doesn't need shock on my part'.

"Why didn't you tell her the truth?" asked Sirius - my thoughts exactly.

"We tried to," said Street quickly, obviously having anticipated that question.

"But Lily trusts Logan and no one else's word matters. He immediately contradicted us, saying that the Slytherin he was dueling with hit Lily with the jinx and that we just wanted to hurt because we were jealous" explained Adams bitterly.

"Lily doesn't trust us, so we haven't talked to her of that matter since then" added Street miserably.

"We did try to just be her friends but Logan said something to her and put an end to it".

There was a brief silence before Adams spoke again, after exchanging a look with Street. "Logan came to see us several days later while Lily was out on the grounds. He warned us not to try and befriend her".

…" It'll only make her think worse of you and upset her" concluded Logan matter-of-factly.

"Fine" snapped Street "We won't try to tell her the truth again. But why won't you let us befriend her?"

Logan looked questionably at her with a raised eyebrow and an amused spark in his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, sounding almost sincere "She knows the truth". With that said he walked away, looking oddly calm and peaceful.

"Every time we would confront him, on the rare occasion he wasn't attached to Lily's hip, he would give us the same answer and sounding more sincere every time" said Adams, bitterly amused, "I think he is trying to mess with our minds, make us think it is the truth".

"Yes, well, that's not happening any time soon" commented Street "But if he's not careful, he'll end up believing it himself"

"Now there is no way it can get any worse," said Sirius darkly.

"Actually, it can" replied Adams reluctantly.

Street and Adams exchanged a nervous look and then there was silence, longer than the previous one, before Street spoke determinedly.

"The problem is we don't know if we should tell her the truth".

I frowned, staring at the two girls. What the hell were they talking about?

Sirius seemed to think along the same line, since he said angrily: "What the hell are you talking about?"

Remus appeared to be the only one who understood what was going on. He sighed and nodded slightly. I rolled my eyes in irritation.

"Now is not the time for bloody guessing games?" I snapped, "What's going on? Why don't you want to tell her the truth?"

"Because she's happy" said Street, Adams, Remus and, surprisingly, Peter all at once.

"They make each other happy" added Peter nervously.

"Before that day, Logan was always nervous and backed away whenever the leader of his group of friends had the spotlight" explained Adams.

"And Lily would go from guy to guy as though they were socks" said Street with a roll of her eyes and an amused smile.

"Now Logan is cooler and calmer and is even the leader of his group".

"And Lily makes more effort in everything. One of the reasons, I think, she was made prefect and now head-girl".

"They are almost always together and when they are, Logan's arm is around her shoulder"

"Every afternoon, unless there's a test the next day, they hang out with their group and they go on dates every Hogsmeade weekend"

"They often go to Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade during the summer as well" interjected Remus quietly, looking into my eyes and I got the hint. That's why they were so nervous…

There was, again, silence.

This time I was the only one who could break it. Everything was told and they were awaiting my reaction.

"But it's not real", I said slowly after a moment "She would want to know the truth. She always did".

"That's true," said Street.

"Besides her attachment to Logan, she seems the same," added Adams.

"Her hobbies changed, but her personality seems unchanged".

"Wait" said Sirius suddenly and everyone turned to look at him. "Not all her hobbies changed. When you said toy talked to Appleby while Lily was out on the grounds…" he trailed off, but I knew what he was talking about.

"What exactly was she doing?" I asked, trying not to get my hopes up.

Street's and Adams's eyes widened simultaneously and they turned to face each other. There was a split-second silence before they both screamed excitedly: "Ice Skating!"

The girls hugged each other, jumping and squealing. Peter looked slightly reminiscent, Remus smiled watching the girls and Sirius and I exchanged a smirk.

To anyone else, it would've seemed strange that we would get excited about Lily skating, but it was different to us. It was a step in the right direction. It meant there was still hope for getting her back.

-

-

-

AN: VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT!

Pg. 116 (American version) of the order of the phoenix. In the last paragraph, it was written that there was "a heavy locket that none of them could open".

According to the popular theory of R.A.B.'s identity, Regulus Black is the one who stole the real horcrux. What if Slytherin's locket is the locket mentioned above?

I take full credit for that particular addition to the Regulus BlackR.A.B theory.

And now to a very unrelated topic: I'm sorry it took so long for me to update, but I have been engrossed with my other story.

F.Y.I – the 'I had a bigger Slytherin to jinx' line, is like 'I had a bigger fish to fry'