Trials and Tribulations

Summary: Harry Potter knew he was going to get shocked when he visited his parents graves. He knew that'd he'd see family he never met; like grandparents, uncles, and aunts. But one thing he didn't know was that he was going to meet his sister.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am not making any profit off of this fanfic.

Chapter Eighteen: Boom

'Today, of all days, there's a mass fight between Gryffindors and Slytherins.' Lily thought slowly making her way from Dumbledore's office. It had actually been roughly thirteen people, but surprisingly it wasn't the Marauders who had initiated the fight. They were actually nowhere to be seen at that time. 'But now I'm late.' Lily thought bitterly. 'At least I have a pass.' She looked at the pink slip of paper in her hand. 'McGonagall shouldn't mind. Merlin, I'm hungry.'

It was way too late for her to eat breakfast and the kitchens was absolutely out of the question. The pass only gave her seven minutes to get from Dumbledore's office to McGonagall's classroom. Lily sighed grumpily and hitched her bag higher on her shoulder. Against the Marauders better judgment, she was carrying a heavier load of books than normal because she was going to the library before and during lunch to study for N.E.W.T.'s. The Marauders thought it was a bit silly for her to be studying so early, but she chose to ignore their comments.

As Lily neared McGonagall's door, she stopped, swaying on her feet just slightly. She held onto the wall a moment and took a deep breath. 'That was a bit weird…' After a few moments of waiting for the swaying to disappear, she continued on her way to McGonagall's classroom.

From the sound of it, McGonagall must have been teaching an interesting lesson because someone had just shrieked. Lily opened the door and stood in the doorway, trying to figure out what was going on.

Sirius was in the middle of the classroom on his knees, and it looked like he was begging McGonagall not to do something. Lily's brow furrowed as she tried to focus on what was next to Sirius. She almost burst out laughing when she saw what it was.

"Black, that turtle is purring, and you were supposed to change him back to a quill ages ago. Turn him over."

"Please Minnie! I beg of you, let me keep him." Sirius slid closer to McGonagall on his knees.

If Lily didn't think this was as pathetic as she did, she would have laughed. It seemed like McGonagall was thinking the same thing, even though the corner of her mouth was twitching upwards just a tad bit.

"Black, turtles are against the school rules. You can't have him."

"But…But…I love him! His name is--" Before Sirius could finish, McGonagall pulled out her wand and flicked it at the purring turtle. The turtle slowly changed into a quill, and Sirius stared shocked, before looking at McGonagall.

"He was my pet, Minnie."

"You'll deserve a pet when you can respect your professors." That seemed to be the end of it, and McGonagall turned around, looking at everyone in the classroom. "I see everyone's done with their vocabulary, so I'll just hand out a pop quiz."

It seemed like that was the least of things that everyone wanted to do, so McGonagall took that as a no, that they weren't all done. She instructed that everyone do as they were told to do before, which was to write the exact instructions to transfigure a quill into an animal that wasn't large, and give the instructions to their partner and see how well they do when they transfigure.

After McGonagall was at her desk, Lily walked to her and handed her her pass. McGonagall took it and told Lily what to do and who to work with. Lily was about to protest, Violet wasn't her favorite person, but she held her tongue. Head Girl's were supposed to be able to work with anybody and do almost anything that a Professor asked of them. Lily walked towards her and sat down in her seat with a sigh. She took her bag off her shoulders and allowed it to fall to the floor with a plop. Then she opened it and pulled out a clean piece of parchment, ink, and a quill.

"Do you know what you're doing Evans?" Violet sneered.

"Of course I do," Lily replied, biting her tongue. 'Don't get nasty…just work.'

Lily thought back to the lesson where they learned what was easy to transfigure and what wasn't. 'This is the hardest class I've ever taken…Quills into rats, isn't that the easiest one?' Lily closed her eyes and thought hard. 'Well, that's the easiest thing I can think of.' She pulled her parchment and quill towards her and began writing, thinking of the way she needed to flick and twist her wand in order to get the rat to appear.

"Evans, I'm done!" Lily stared at the parchment that was being waved in her face.

"Can't you just wait?" Lily barked, nearly breaking her quill in half. She glared at Violet, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Can't you do anything right? McGonagall wants us to trade papers now!"

Lily quickly jotted down the last of her directions before snatching Violet's out of her hands. She stared at the parchment for a great deal of time before rolling her eyes. 'She doesn't even know half of the stuff she wrote down. She's just trying to make me fail…Well…I'll show her!'

Lily absentmindedly rubbed her stomach as it growled. Using her right hand she followed the exact instructions on her parchment, even muttering the ridiculous incantation that was with it. She noticed that McGonagall was standing over her shoulder, so she made sure she followed the instructions to a tee.

The quill that Lily was using exploded.

Lily nearly fell out of her seat when a flame burst up from the quill, but she didn't move fast enough and her robes were singed. She waved her hand in front of her face trying to clear the air so she could breathe, and then looked up angrily at Violet who was smirking at her. A moment later a black rat scurried across the table, it's fur on fire.

Lily quickly pointed her wand at the rat and water shot out of the end, drenching the rat.

"Poor thing…Maybe we should give that to Wormtail, eh?"

"What in the world happened Evans? Who's instructions were you using, a first years?"

Lily felt hurt from McGonagall's accusation, but she sniffed and shook her head. "I was using Violet's, Professor." Lily shakily handed the parchment to McGonagall, still a bit shaken up from the explosion. A moment after she handed them to McGonagall, she pointed a shaking finger at Violet.

"To Professor Dumbledore's office now. You could have seriously injured the students in this classroom! Be prepared to have a meeting with your parents this evening." McGonagall looked angrily at Violet as she stood there, her smirk gone from her face. "What are you waiting for? Go, now!"

Violet was gone a moment later, and Remus was cleaning up the acrid smoke that filled the air. During this confusion someone had opened a window, and the room almost instantly chilled. Lily pulled off her robes and looked at their singed front. Her hands were still shaking and she was trying not to cry, but it was hard. When Remus finished he looked at Lily. "You okay?"

"Fine," Lily mumbled. She ran a hand across her eyes and continued fiddling with her robes. The rat that had been drenched crawled onto the robes and stared at Lily, twitching it's nose at her. Lily change the rat back into a quill and set it aside, nearly flicking it away from her.

'Why today of all days? I'm hungry, I was late…and now my robes are practically ruined.' Lily shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. The door to the classroom slammed shut and everyone looked up. No one had noticed that McGonagall had left.

McGonagall was looking furious. Her lips were pursed in a tight line and her face was pale. "If anyone ever tries to do that again, you'll be immediately expelled! A joke like that is absolutely unacceptable, and you'll have to face the consequences. Understand?" She walked around to her desk and shuffled papers on them before looking up at her students. "I want a fourteen inch essay, don't you dare make that face Potter, and it is due by the end of the day! If seventh year students don't know how to act, then by Merlin I'll teach you how. Class dismissed, Evans stay back."

No one dared to make a sound as they packed up their supplies. There was nearly two whole quarters of class left, but no one said anything about it. If another Professor caught them in the corridor, then they'd just have to say that McGonagall released them early.

Lily sent James a sidelong glance, indicating that she wanted him to stay back for her, but James didn't seem to catch the look because he was in a deep discussion with Remus. She sighed and decided not to press the matter, she'd be able to walk to the Library on her own. 'Since class is over early, might as well get a head start on my N.E.W.T.'s studying.'

She swallowed hard and stood up. She thought she stood up too fast because she felt dizzy again, so she braced herself against her desk. When the feeling was gone, she was the only student left in the classroom. She picked up her bag, grunting from the weight, and shuffled towards McGonagall's desk, wishing she didn't have to go to the Library. She felt as if her shoulder was about to fall off as she neared her desk. 'Was it always this heavy?'

McGonagall sat down at her desk and eyed Lily wearily. "Are you all right?"

Lily nodded her head. "Fine Professor," she mumbled.

McGonagall sighed. "What possessed you to follow those directions?"

"She was acting like I couldn't do anything, so I just wanted to prove her wrong." Lily said. "Kind of stupid now that I think about it."

Lily didn't quite hear the response that McGonagall gave because someone had knocked on the door. The door was open, so Lily wasn't sure what was stopping the person from coming in. She swayed slightly on her feet and readjusted her bag. She shifted from one foot to another, thinking about skipping the Library altogether and taking a hot bath…her feet needed it at least.

"What is it Potter?"

Lily looked up. She didn't realized that it was James. "I was just looking for Lily."

Lily smiled at James and was about to say something when she felt extremely dizzy again. She swayed slightly and shifted the bag on her shoulder. Both McGonagall and James noticed the sway and James inched forward into the classroom. "Lily?"

Lily's knees buckled and she began falling forward. James quickly ran to her and caught her before she fell to the floor. "Lily, Lily, are you okay?"

"Fine," Lily murmured against his shoulder. She blinked rapidly against the darkness that was clouding her vision.

"Lily?" James voice was sounding distant. Before Lily's entire vision was clouded with the blackness, a jet of freezing cold water hit her face and it quickly brought her back to her senses.

"…Infirmary…" was all Lily managed to hear.

"I'm fine," Lily mumbled again. She lifted her head slightly. "Just tired."

"Really?" James asked, not convinced. "Did Violet do something to you?"

Lily somehow pushed herself off of James. "No she didn't. I'm fine, honest." She wiped the water off her face and gave James a not so reassuring smile.

McGonagall didn't seem entirely convinced either. "Are you sure you don't need to see Poppy?"

"No I don't." Lily swallowed audibly. She wasn't feeling very well, and maybe seeing Madame Pomfrey wasn't such a bad idea.

And that was the last thing she thought before she swayed and fell again, this time losing consciousness well before meeting James's arms.

xoXoXoXox

BB/N: Cliffhanger! Cliffhanger!

Thanks for the reviews!

My goodness. I've tried to updated several times, honest, but wouldn't let me do it! It's been really weird because I didn't get any reviews until yesterday in the mail, and then I haven't had story updates or anything like that either. At first I was scared that froze my account!

But it's all worked out now, I guess...

And I've been doing a lot of typing too! Yay!

Love,
Bob Bennit