AN: Sooo...Long time no see. Which is totally my fault. I would make some pretty lame excuses, but I'll just say I was busy. I really am sorry. I have about 2 months before I start Graduate School, so I'm hoping to get a lot of writing in. This chapter isn't actually finished, but I decided that it was getting really long and that I'd better post this and save the rest of this for the next chapter. Thank you to all of you have stuck with this story and put up with my sorry butt. I love you all! In case you are all wondering, no I do not own Harry Potter.
Lily woke when a chill drifted across her bare stomach. She opened her eyes and laughed when she saw an obviously fake spider web dangling from the ceiling above her bed. Perched in the middle of the spider web was an orange spider ring. On closer inspection, Lily saw that the web spelled out "BOO!" This was clearly James' work, and Lily wondered when he had done it. They had both gone to sleep pretty late. Lily reached up and carefully picked the spider ring from the web.
As she held the spider in her hand and examined it more closely, a sudden memory came to her. She watched as James stood before the linen closet door in their bathroom and a spider ran out toward him. She felt herself laugh as he screamed and took several steps backward. On the last step, his foot wobbled on the edge of the tub, but he couldn't recover. He plunged into the water behind him, and Lily raised her wand, a spell on the tip of her tongue. As soon as the memory had sucked her in, it spit her back out, and she suddenly remembered that day's pranks. She came back to the present and put the spider ring on her ring finger and shuffled out to the bathroom, pleased that she had remembered another memory from her past.
James was still asleep after Lily quickly showered, after she finished dressing, and even after she spent a few seconds listening outside of his door. Finally, after a glance at the clock on the opposite wall, she snuck out of their common room. She was slightly disappointed that she hadn't been able to steal another kiss this morning, but she knew that she would have a lot of time to spend with him later at the party. It wasn't rational for her to be disappointed that James had wanted to sleep in a little longer.
Lily sat down at the Gryffindor table, not surprised to see that the Great Hall was so empty. The only table that seemed more crowded was the Ravenclaw table, but that was normal as well. Lily began absently filling her plate with eggs and toast as she thought over the new memory that she had so recently remembered. Perhaps she should try another prank sometime soon. She remembered how fun it had been the last time. When Carrie arrived ten minutes later, Lily was startled to see that she had dark circles under her eyes. Lily was just about to ask her what was wrong, when Carrie shot her a pleading look and shook her head. It wasn't hard for Lily to guess that Carrie didn't want to talk about whatever was wrong.
"So, what are we doing today?" asked Lily as she passed Carrie a tray of toast.
"I thought we could do some shopping in Hogsmede, maybe grab some lunch, and help each other get ready for the party," said Carrie, forcing a slight smile onto her lips as she nibbled at the corner of a dry piece of toast.
"Sounds perfect," said Lily.
"The only thing that could make it perfect would be if Hannah could come with us," said Carrie with a sad smile. Lily observed Carrie's sad expression and wondered if this was what had bothered Carrie when she walked into the Great Hall.
"Yeah, she should be here with us," agreed Lily, wishing that she remembered more of her friendship with Hannah from before the accident.
"Do you think she'll ever come back? Do you think she'll ever be ok again?" asked Carrie quietly to the wooden table. Lily and Carrie hadn't talked about Hannah since right after the attack on Hogsmede, even though the thoughts were swirling through the air whenever they spent time together. Each glaringly felt Hannah's absence whenever they laughed or teased each other.
"It's hard to know. No one knows what curse she was hit with," said Lily.
"But this can't just be it for her life. It's too cruel," said Carrie. She looked up at Lily, her eyes shiny, tears just beginning to bud over the center of her eyelids.
"She's better than both of us; she didn't deserve any of this," said Lily solemnly, feeling a piece of toast scratch all the way down her throat as she swallowed it.
"If she hasn't come back by next weekend, I'm going to St. Mungo's. I don't care if I get expelled," said Carrie forcefully.
"We'll both go," agreed Lily.
"Lily Evans doesn't care about getting expelled?" asked Carrie with amusement as she blinked away the tears in her eyes.
"I never said that. We just won't get caught sneaking out," said Lily as she smiled impishly back.
"I never thought I would see the day when you would start sounding like Potter. You have been spending way too much time together lately," said Carrie, rolling her eyes.
"Did we not spend as much time together before my accident?" asked Lily, suddenly filled with anxiety that she was being too clingy.
"You two barely spent any time," began Carrie.
"We barely spent any time apart from each other. It made our friends quite sick, but it made us happy, so we didn't care," said James as he sat down beside his girlfriend and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Wasn't that what you were going to say?" His gaze flicked quickly over to Carrie, his lips pressed together.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," said Carrie with an odd tone to her voice. Lily looked over at Carrie. "You know I only speak the truth."
"Right," said James. "So what are you and your best friend Lily going to do today? She mentioned something about Hogsmede."
"Yes, and we were just about to leave. Come on, Lily," said Carrie. Without even looking at Lily, Carrie rose from the table and began stalking down the aisle to the doors.
"Just one second," Lily called after her friend.
"Do you have any idea what that was about?" asked Lily quickly as she gathered her bag and shoved a few last bites of toast into her mouth.
"No clue. I'm still trying to figure you out half of the time," said James with a smirk on his lips.
"I think there's something wrong, James. She looked so tired and sad when she first came to breakfast," admitted Lily quietly, hoping that she wasn't betraying Carrie's confidence, not that she had been asked not to saying anything.
"I'm sure she just misses Hannah," said James.
"You're probably right. Well, I'd better go. See you tonight," said Lily, giving James a quick peck before she hurried out of the Great Hall to find Carrie. "Oh, and thanks for the ring," called Lily as she stood in the doorway and turned back to look at him, holding her hand up in the air. She turned back again and hurried from sight.
Even though they planned to meet early that morning, James wasn't surprised to see Sirius, Peter, and Remus slink into the Great Hall a half-hour after they had agreed to meet. Before Hannah's accident Remus would have been the first to arrive, but lately he had been almost as bad as Sirius about getting out of bed on time.
"Good morning, Padfoot," said James with a snigger as he took in his best mate's disheveled clothes and unruly hair. Sirius hadn't even attempted to comb his messy locks.
"Yeah, just bloody grand, James. Why are we meeting this early, anyway?" asked Sirius as he sunk into the bench on the opposite side of the table from James and rubbed his tired eyes.
"I seem to remember that this mangy mongrel came up with a brilliant idea for once in his life, and we agreed to meet early so that we could get the plan all set. Not to mention we still need to get all of the food and drinks."
"Oh, right, the drinks. Well, I guess I can sacrifice a few hours of sleep so that I can ensure we have a decent supply of firewhisky," said Sirius.
"And enough impressionable girls who will perhaps kiss you after they have consumed said firewhisky?" asked James.
"Well, of course James. Is there any other reason to hold a party?" asked Sirius, flicking some of the hair out of his eyes as he grinned mischievously.
"Just so long as you don't kiss Lily again," said Peter with an impish smile on his face until James and Sirius shot him a glare.
"Well, hurry up you gits, we need to get down to Hogsmede and work a little bit of magic so we can catch those Slytherins."
"Carrie? Wait a minute!" called Lily as she tried to catch up with her best friend. Carrie was hurrying across the lawn toward Hogsmede. She had her arms wrapped around her stomach and was staring straight ahead as if she was seeing something other than the lush green grass and the covering of crisp, fallen leaves. "Carrie!"
"What?" asked Carrie turning around and glaring at Lily.
"Sorry, I was just trying to get your attention. You seemed like you were far away," said Lily apologetically while she wondered if Carrie was always this moody.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you. I was just thinking," said Carrie guardedly.
"About what? Are you ok?" asked Lily despite the fact that she could tell that Carrie didn't want her to pry. She couldn't help it, though. Aside from the fact that she was naturally curious, Lily also just wanted to help Carrie. There was obviously something wrong.
"I don't know, Lily. But I really don't want to talk about it now. I just need a day to relax and not think, you know?" asked Carrie.
"Then that's what we'll have. What do you want to do?" asked Lily. They were just entering Hogsmede now, and Lily gazed around the main street, impressed by how it had been transformed for Halloween. There were cobwebs wrapped around each lamppost, with spiders hanging down and dropping in front of unsuspecting shoppers every few minutes. Ghosts glided above the pavement, banshees materialized and shrieked at whoever was in front of them, and black cloak-clad pale men hovered through the street and asked shoppers for a donation of blood.
"Ugh, let's go somewhere away from all of this," said Carrie, frowning at the decorations, "I hate Hogsmede on Halloween."
"I think it's cute," said Lily. As she turned to look at Carrie a cloak-clad man appeared beside her and smiled at her, his sharpened canines dripping red liquid.
"Can I interest you in a free blood test?" the cloaked apparition asked.
"I have a feeling if I said yes he'd be a pain in the neck," whispered Lily to Carrie, who just rolled her eyes.
"Well, it would have been a pleasure to eat you, my dears," said the vampire before he spun around and disappeared. A large bat rose in his place.
"Now do you see why I hate Halloween here? Way too many bad puns," said Carrie. "Let's get off the street before another overgrown bat who thinks he's sexy waltzes over here."
"Where do you want to go?" asked Lily, a smile on her face despite Carrie's annoyance. Lily found the atmosphere fun.
"Let's have a spa day. We can get a massage, a facial, a manicure, and a pedicure. It will be really girly and really relaxing," suggested Carrie. "And we'll get away from all these Halloween freaks."
"Ok, but afterwards let's get some ice scream," said Lily.
"Lily?"
"What?"
"Stop with the Halloween puns or I'll turn you into a giant jack-o-lantern."
"Fine, I don't want pumpkin pulp for brains, so let's go," Lily agreed.
"What took you so long?" griped James as Sirius and Peter wandered into the secret location for their party hovering several crates of firewhisky behind themselves.
"If you wanted it to go quicker you shouldn't have sent Wormtail with me. I had to pry a vampire from his neck after I had only been gone for a few minutes during which he was supposed to be on the look-out," said Sirius pointedly to Peter whose whole face flushed a dark red.
"You really can't blame Wormtail. Those female vamps can be pretty seductive," said James, smirking in remembrance of previous Halloweens.
"Oh, well this vamp was tall, dark, and fully male," said Sirius.
"Wormtail let a male vampire suck his blood?" asked James. Sirius and James burst out laughing, and Peter's face turned an even deeper red color.
"She was not a male. She was just tall and had muscular biceps," said Peter defensively.
"She had an Adam's apple, Wormy," said Sirius.
"Now I wish I decided to go with you guys instead of looting the kitchens for food," said James regretfully.
"Don't worry, Prongs, I've already corked the memory. We'll borrow Dumbledore's pensive and have a look tomorrow," said Sirius with a growing mischievous grin.
"It was dark in the alleyway. You really can't blame me. His voice was very feminine," said Peter in agitation.
"Hey, you don't have to convince us. We are completely ok with your sexual preference, aren't we boys?" asked Sirius, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course you're ok with it. You and James are make a lovely couple," said Peter heatedly.
"Jealous, Wormy?" asked Sirius as he put his arm around James' shoulders.
"Get off me, Pads," said James, shoving Sirius away from him. "You know Moony is the only one I'd ever go for."
"And here I thought we had something special," said Sirius with a pout.
"Alright, that's enough," growled Remus from where he lounged on a cobweb chair, "if we're going to put a spell on all of the drinks we're going to need to start now. It needs to be complete before the sun sets if it's going to work."
"You're no fun anymore, Moony, has anyone told you that?" grumbled Sirius.
"Shut it, Pads," said James, smacking him in the back of the head.
Remus just rolled his eyes and grabbed a crate of firewhisky, breaking it open with his wand. A dozen bottles of firewhisky were nestled in the crate, and Remus began waving his wand over them in a figure eight motion muttering "Audiros susurrus."
"So what does the spell do again?" asked James as they began tearing the tops off of the rest of the crates so that Remus could cast the spell over them.
"This spell makes it so that whenever a Slytherin says "the Professor," "Death Eaters," "meeting," or "the Man in Black" we'll hear what they're saying. That way we can crash their meetings and know what they're planning," said Sirius.
"Brilliant. I'm still amazed that you came up with the idea," said James.
"Well believe it, Prongs. Behind these rugged good looks lurks a pure genius."
"Is that why you copy my homework all the time?" asked Remus.
"No, I copy your homework because I don't like to waste time that could be spent on a broomstick or with a girl bending over parchment and stopping every few minutes to measure it," said Sirius.
"Pads, are you ever going to grow up?" asked Remus.
"Not if I can help it," said Sirius with a wink.
"You just wait, Padfoot, one day your charm and your sly grin won't always be able to get you out of trouble," warned Remus.
"If there comes a time when they can't get me out of trouble, I know you and Prongs will be there," said Sirius.
"Don't forget about me," said Peter.
"Oh, I didn't. You'll be there, I just wouldn't count on you to get me out of trouble. Or in trouble for that matter. You just don't have it in you."
"You wait, Pads, you're going to regret saying that one day," Peter warned.
"Sure I will," said Sirius, rolling his eyes. "Well, all the crates are open, and Moony is almost done with the spell. I think it's time to get ready for the party."
"Yeah, I've got a hot date that I need to pick up," said James, beaming at the thought of dancing with Lily. "You ok finishing up, Moony?"
"Yeah, you go ahead. It's not like I have a date to get ready for," said Remus. His head was ducked over one of the crates and he didn't look up as James approached.
"You want to talk, Remus?"
"Not really, Prongs. I'd rather finish this by myself. Besides, you don't want to keep Lily waiting. You've spent long enough pining over her. You should enjoy it now that she's finally dumb enough to go out with you," said Remus, shooting James a small smile before he ducked back over another crate.
"Alright, I'll see you later," said James, feeling guilty as he walked out of the cave and trudged back across the lawn to the castle.
"I have to say, I never understood the appeal of doing things the muggle way until today. Miguel's hands are way better than even the best wand work," said Carrie as they entered the Gryffindor common room. The sun was just starting to set and the girls were headed back after a long afternoon at the only muggle-style spa in Hogsmede. The common room was busy with students rushing back from Hogsmede to get ready for dinner and the party afterward.
"I know! Carlo's hands were wonderful. I can't remember a time when my muscles have ever felt so relaxed," said Lily with a sigh as she pulled open the door to Carrie's room.
"Well, to be fair, your memory is a bit unreliable," said Carrie.
"Hey!" said Lily in protest.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. It was supposed to be a joke," said Carrie.
"Carrie's jokes were never very funny," said a voice from the opposite side of the room. Lily and Carrie both looked up and froze, unable to believe what their eyes were seeing.
"Lily, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
"I don't know. Are you seeing Hannah? In a sexy Red Riding Hood costume?" asked Lily.
"I think so, but how can we be sure it's really her? The Hannah we know would never show that much skin," said Carrie.
"Oh shut up you two and get over here!" demanded Hannah with a beaming smile on her face.
"Hannah!" Lily and Carrie screamed as the rushed at their friend and threw their arms around her. The enthusiastic hug ended with all three girls toppling over and giggling on the floor with their limbs all tangled together. Hannah erupted in a coughing fit and the girls untangled themselves and sat calmly on the floor. Lily and Carrie looked on Hannah with concern until she stopped coughing and glared at them. Hannah always hated to be coddled.
"What are you doing here?" asked Lily.
"Do you want me to leave, then?" asked Hannah with an impish smile.
"Of course not. What Lily meant to say is that we're surprised to see you. The last we knew you were still unconscious."
"Ok, don't get mad, but I kind-of woke up a week ago," said Hannah quietly, bracing herself for the ire of her friends.
"A week ago!" shrieked Lily and Carrie at the same time.
"And you didn't think we'd want to know! Lily and I were all ready to sneak out of the castle to see you! We were so worried about you and you couldn't have just sent us a note by owl letting us know you were alive!" Carrie exploded.
"But I was still in recovery and I thought it would be better if I surprised you once I was released," explained Hannah quickly.
"I'm too happy that you're here to be mad at you now, but don't you ever do anything like this again, Hannah," Carrie said.
"Fine, I promise that the next time I am hit by an unknown curse that puts me in a coma and I'm taken to St. Mungo's I will write you the second I wake up," promised Hannah sincerely.
"Good, that's all we ask," said Lily.
"You guys are ridiculous," said Hannah, "but I missed you!"
"We missed you too," said Lily, "and speaking of missing, have you seen Remus yet?"
"No, I thought I would surprise him at the party," said Hannah shyly.
"Is that why you're in that costume?"asked Carrie.
"Do you think he'll like it? Is it too much? Do I look alright?" asked Hannah suddenly, turning to glance in the mirror.
"There's our Hannah," said Carrie, pinching her cheek, "Remus is going to be drooling, you look fabulous."
"You know I hate it when you do that," griped Hannah, rubbing her sore cheek.
"No you don't. You missed it," said Carrie.
"I can honestly tell you that's the one thing I did not miss," said Hannah.
"Keep pretending," said Carrie, "But it's time for Lily and me to get ready for the party, so you can just sit on the bed and tell us all about what happened after you woke up."
"There's really not much to tell. I woke up, they ran a ton of tests, I lay in bed for way too long, and then they cleared me to leave," explained Hannah as she sank into her bed, swinging her boot-clad feet so they were hanging over the edge.
"So did they figure out what curse the death eater used on you?" asked Lily as she ducked behind the bathroom door and changed into her costume.
"Er, yeah. He hit me with a curse-amplifying spell and then crucio'd me a few times. That's why it knocked me out for so long," said Hannah.
"Hmm, that's odd. It must have been a pretty strong amplifier. I got crucio'd a bunch of times on the same night and I only blacked out for a couple of hours," said Lily as she wriggled into the material of her dress.
"Yeah, it is odd," said Hannah as she played with a loose string on her red cloak.
"Well, we don't need to talk about it anymore right now. We're just glad you're back. It's been so dull here without you," said Carrie. "Lily and I got along and everything. Not one fight. It was very strange."
"Do we fight a lot?" asked Lily.
Hannah burst out in laughter again which subsided into another coughing fit.
"Are you feeling alright, Hannah?" Lily and Carrie asked anxiously as they hovered over her.
"I-I'm fine," said Hannah in a strained voice, "I'm just thirsty."
"Well, let's finish getting ready and head down to dinner. I'm getting pretty hungry myself."
Carrie quickly dressed in her Snow White costume as Lily put the finishing touches on her angel costume. Lily curled her hair with her wand and put half of it up on her head so that curls cascaded down her head in a slightly messy style. Carrie completely straightened her hair and gave herself some bangs for the night. Lily added glittery eye shadow and lip gloss, as well as a glitter charm to her skin, and Carrie just added some bright red lipstick which contrasted brilliantly with her creamy skin. They were just heading out the door when a tiny owl flew through the open window with a large letter tied to its foot.
"Oh, poor owl, I bet that letter's heavy for you," cooed Hannah as the owl landed on the windowsill beside her. "Who is this for?"
"It's mine," said Carrie, who pushed Hannah's hand out of the way and snatched the owl from the windowsill.
"Who's the letter from?" asked Hannah curiously.
"I-I'm not sure. Maybe my parents," said Carrie distractedly as she tore at the string binding the letter to the owl's foot.
"Oh, well do you want us to wait for you?" asked Lily.
"No, no, you guys go on ahead. I'll meet you at dinner," said Carrie as she collapsed onto her bed and tore open the letter.
"Ok, see you later," said Lily as they walked to the door, but Carrie didn't respond. She was completely focused on the letter in front of her.
"Well that was odd," said Hannah.
"Yeah, she's been acting weird all day, but she won't tell me anything," said Lily.
"I'm sure she'll tell us eventually. You know she has a big mouth."
"So, are you ready to see Remus?" asked Lily with a grin. They stood outside the bustling Great Hall, and Hannah had a nervous look on her face.
"Are you sure I look alright?" Hannah asked again.
"You look beautiful, but it wouldn't matter if you were wearing a paper bag over your head and a trash bag as a dress. That boy has been so miserable ever since you left. He is so in love with you he'll just be happy to see you just the way you are," said Lily.
"Thanks, Lily, that didn't make me nervous at all," said Hannah, as she wrung her hands and fiddled with her fingers.
AN: SO I hope you enjoyed it! I should be posting the next chapter VERY soon. I am going to type it up right now! My goal is to be at least updating once a week if not more frequently. I basically have A LOT of free time right now, so feel free to badger me if I'm taking too long!
The next chapter WILL be the Halloween chapter. So there's still time to get in your suggestions for what costumes the boys should wear. I have Sirius and Peter all covered, but I would love suggestions for James and Remus. I will be PMing the winners with the next chapter by Wednesday and have the full chapter up on this cite by Thursday, if not earlier. This is my promise to you because you have all been so amazing! And I won't even ask for reviews for this chapter since I've taken so long to update, but just know that I have not given up on this story. I love it and want to finish it, but it may take me a while as we still have a ways to go. I plan to take the story all the way through the entire seventh year, so there's lots of time!
I love you all!
Littlemisskrissy