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Somewhere….

I admit it; I left my pride in my other set of Gryffindor robes. Anyone with two brain cells to synapse would realize the stupidity of jumping into this hole.

Obviously, I have no brain.

Alice has even less brain.

And we're not really sure if Namie is even conscious.

Getting down to the matter, we have not landed in a friendly place. Actually we really can't see where we are but it smells unfriendly. You would think so too if you landed in something that smelled like rotting cabbage and poo.

This is the smell of success.

I quickly found Alice (her whining gave her away), secured Rai, and we made our way down a dark tunnel. I guess Dumbledore is trying to save money by not buying proper lighting. Everyone knows candle wax is really expensive these days.

Erlack. I have landed my exquisitely shined shoe in….mud. I hope it is mud. It should be against the laws of humanity to keep a place like this near a school. It looks like a rotting cave-swamp thing, only not so attractive.

Alice is rambling for Britain behind me. Between wheezing and sneezing from all the dust she said, "Lily, let's turn back. This place is awful. It leads nowhere!" She whined. I believe telling her that the tunnel obviously leads somewhere or it would be not be here and she is a fool for thinking it didn't lead somewhere would be a bit unfriendly. Honestly, I am nearly a psychiatrist. I should have a degree in listening to Alice's bellyaching.

We walked a bit further when I finally had enough. "This tunnel leads nowhere." I announced.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you this entire time!" Alice shrieked disbelievingly.

"No you haven't."

"Have to!"

"You only said it five seconds ago. That was not the entire time." I grinned which was an excellent display of triumph in anyone's book.

Triumph is fleeting, for Rai decided to bonk me on the head with her shoe and said "Spottie Bad Boy."

My eyebrows shot into my hairline. For the love of Merlin, who teaches her this?

"You are such a prat!" Alice announced. She shoved me aside and charged further into the cave, ranting in a stupid German accent. I'm hoping that was only the acoustics of the tunnel. I followed her grudgingly.

"I found her!" Alice's voice echoed through the tunnel moments later.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

It was indeed Namie, unnatural blue hair and all. There was a small gash on her leg, probably from the fall but nothing devastating, unlike paper cuts. Ooer they hurt.

We levitated Namie to the origins of the tunnel and out to the surface, before rocketing ourselves ("Ascendio!") out of the hole to pancake our bum-olies on the ground. Owie.

I discovered I have landed myself in a spot of niffler poo.

I am exhausted trying escape the loo of life.

Thursday 1 October

Namie has been fixed up to the best of Madame Mar's abilities; she and Rai have returned to Japan. Alice is back andall miserable at Beauxbatons. I still look like a man. Things are getting back to normal.

Brrrrrr. I am sincerely hoping Quidditch practice will be cancelled due to Antarctic conditions. But noooo boys LOVE Antarctic conditions, as I have found out. I have little body fat and slim chances of survival in survival-of-the-fittest events, such as Quidditch. Last time we had Quidditch practice in such frigid weather the keeper had to be taken to the hospital wing because he had frozen to his broom. Conveniently, it was Malfoy is the keeper and I actually got to play. Every cloud has a silver lining.

But that is life.

Or in my case - death.

I snuggled down into my bed and savored the warmth. I savored it like a piece of...pie.

My bed was a pie.

In that case I sincerely hope it is an apple pie.

After Practice

Stupid Quidditch.

Stupid Jet Streams.

Stupid Cold.

Might as well be living in Yakutsk. At least I can wear one of those nifty Russian hats.

Saturday 3 October

Today is a Hogsmeade visit day. Hogsmeade is the last all wizarding village in Europe and its down the road from Hogwarts. I'm told there are shops and attractions there. We're allowed to dress down too. I transformed, slipped on some jeans and dark green sweater and headed down to the common room.

Cliques of boys were already gathering before they ventured off to the Great Hall where we were supposed to meet. I quickly found Potter and Black who were huddled in a corner. Potter was kicked back on a daybed in worn dark jeans and a black silk shirt with two buttons undone. Sirius paced back and forth nervously picking at his snug navy blue jumper.

Bloody. Hell.

I wiped my mouth quickly to make sure I was not drooling openly. That would come across so…wrong.

"Wotcher Lee." Potter summoned me over.

I nodded my head and was careful not to run into any students on the way over. As I approached, I could see Sirius was clearly distraught. I wonder what's his problem.

"What's your problem Sirius?" I asked and quirked an eyebrow.

"I don't know what shirt to wear. See, I have this really snow-white one, but it's so basic and I've already worn it once. I have a red one but I wore that two days ago and wearing anything twice, let alone in the same week is out of the question. I thought about having a tie but they're so hot and I like au natural better. I was debating wearing black but James is wearing black and I don't want to pose off of his style." Sirius babbled and inhaled deeply when he was finished.

I stared. What a…girl! He worries about clothes more than anyone I've ever met and that's saying something.

Potter must have seen the distraught and pleading gleam in my eyes, and decided to explain.

"Sirius has a fancy for the Hog's Head Tavern Keeper's daughter, Rosemerta, who we will be visiting today." Potter said as he entwined his fingers behind his head.

"What's wrong with white?" I suggested.

"That's too simple!" Sirius growled and threw his hands in exasperation.

Yar yar. I am not Merlin and I really do not care about Sirius's shirt color deficiency. I have my own problems to worry about, such as the lurker that has decided to make a surprise appearance this morning. However I have had a stroke of niceness and decided to help Sirius out.

"I know this is a stretch for you Black, but you could just wear what you have on now." I said. He just stared at me like my lurker had inflated to the size of my head.

God knows I tried.

I wish that when I actually give good advice, people would take me seriously.

When it finally dawned on Sirius that I was serious about just wearing a blue jumper, he started laughing and slapping his knee. He was snorting and going "Hnnurknurkhhhhnnnuuuuurrrkkkk."

Remus the Bludger chose to enter at this exact moment.

"Sirius, did someone shove potatoes up your nose or is that your laugh?" He asked congenially.

"I was just laughing at silly Lee who told me to wear what I have on to see Rosemerta. Isn't he funny?" Sirius said.

Remus snorted.

Potter snorted.

I snorted.

We snorted - not because we had potatoes up our noses.

Sirius, who is not entirely normal at the best of times, then caught on that we were not snorting with him.

"Do I look like someone who is stupid and mad?" He asked meaningfully.

"You do not want us to answer that mate." Remus the Bludger said forlornly.

Potter and I nodded 'solemnly' in agreement.

Sirius got the mega hump and stormed up to his dormitory. And they say women are fickle.

It is nearly noon and Sirius is still having a fit in the dorm. Potter, Peter and Remus the Bludger tried to bribe him out with food. He claimed the House Elves had given him all the food he could need. He has a point actually.

Potter is tossing spells at the door left and right. At this rate we will spend the rest of our lives trying to get Sirius out of his dorm. I should get used to being a boy.

I can't. I would rather plunge my head into a basket of whelks.

This calls for drastic measures. I stormed up to his door. Peter was blobbed on the floor forlornly, whining about his ant collection being locked in the room with Sirius. Remus the Bludger tapped his foot impatiently on the ground while Potter counted on his fingers for which spells he had already used.

"Sirius I have a question for utmost difficulty for your intelligent mind. What swings around a cathedral wrapped in cellophane?" I asked.

I heard some pensive mumbling before the door creaked open. Sirius's head popped out the door with a puzzled look.

"Good question. I give up." He said meaningfully.

"The lunchpack of Notre Dame."

Remus and Potter both slapped their foreheads. They're just jealous that it was my wit that coaxed Sirius from the room.

Right?

--

Who cares…

They refused to acknowledge my wit.

I am giving up boys.

However I am too excited to care.

Onward to Hogsmeade!

--

Hogsmeade

I can just see the fresh hell that will arise today. We headed to Hogsmeade via a passage that the Marauders claimed would 'get us there faster'. I don't understand how leaping into a hole behind a witch's hump and walking through a deep, muddy passage makes things any 'quicker'. Absolute bollocks if you ask me.

We were deposited in the sweet shop - Honeydukes's - cellar. I might have been amazed if the dust bunnies were not the size of a teenage dragon. Remus the Bludger climbed a set of stairs and peeked through the door. With a series of hand motions, we were instructed to move upstairs.

The sweet shop was unlike any muggle candy store I had ever seen before. The store is packed for all it's worth of succulent-looking sweets. I stared agape. Sirius and Remus decided they were going to get Sirius a proper shirt to wear for Rosemerta at Manches' Tayloring Shoppe. (It was the only way he would come) In the meantime, I was supposed to 'hang out' with Potter and Peter. Normally I would have complained more, but I was a kid in a candy store. There was work to do.

The shelves were lined with toffees, hundreds of different kinds of chocolate and levitating sherbert balls. Barrels of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans were landmarked. Peter gave me a tour of festive peppermint treats like Pepper Imps and Peppermint creams. I could not resist buying some Droobles Best Blowing gum - you could blow gum bubbles that wouldn't pop for days. I also succumbed to sugar quills.

I noticed Potter was watching me analytically as I shopped. He couldn't still be suspicious of me, could he? I should be suspicious of him. Where did he run off to Open House night? Hah Potter! The road drives two ways! You're hiding something from me. I can feel it in my …..spleen!

"Are you through yet?" Potter asked expectantly.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Yes, I suppose. Why are you in such a hurry? Got a hot date?"

"Yeah."

Sweet Merlin. I was not expecting that answer said with all the anger of an angry hippogriff.

Potter headed for the door with his hands in his pockets. I nearly gasped. I assumed that at an all-boys semi boarding school that contact with the female population would be extremely limited to family and family friends. I was…crestfallen… that I was not the only girl. I really shouldn't have expected to be, but I had at least hoped that I would deserve a little more time of day from Potter then his 'hot date'.

Sodding boys. I have half a mind to strangle Potter with my bare hands for his stupid…stupidness!

Peter and I exited the shop, grudgingly mind you, behind Potter. Hogsmeade village looked picture perfect; little thatched cottages and shops were standing majestically amidst a flurry of falling leaves. It will make an excellent Christmas card when it snows.

Potter took up a quick pace which Peter and I mimicked. If he is trying to make my day miserable he is doing a bloody brilliant job of annoying my little polka-dotted socks off. Really, they are polka-dot.

"Potter, where are we going?"

"Not we, me."

"Excuse me? You can't just leave me here! I have no idea where I am!" I tried to block his path. Instead I tripped over my own feet while nearly knocking an elderly wizard off his pegs. It would appear I cannot exist without tripping.

"Find a map." He said to me, who is currently face planted on the ground, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Charming.

Can I ask what I ever did to deserve this treatment? Maybe I put chocolate pudding on toilet paper and stuck it to some Hufflepuff's feet last week, but that was innocent fun. They laughed after they realized it was pudding. I will probably do it again some time.

There was that fake vomit in the pumpkin juice too.

It was a bit mean to ruin their shoes and dinner, but I still do not deserve this from Potter. He's not mad about my heritage is he?

No, he respects Remus the Bludger despite his.

I am seriously concerned that aliens have taken over his body.

That's not possible. Aliceisn't here.

I whipped out my wand, thinking that I would show him who I really was, and he would be so gob smacked he would not be able to ignore me. Then I thought better of exposing myself.

I am just going to hex Potter in the face.

Incredibly mature course of action.

Put that on hold. He getting away through that crowd of sixth years.

You can run but you can't hide!

A bench.

He can hide quite well. Blast!

I have lost Potter.

Peter excused himself claiming he had an 'appointment'. If you all found a girl to snog why don't you just say so? I'm not jealous. I'm actually really glad that I'm not expected to join you as well as the fact you don't want me to join you. Really, I am.

Now I'm alone and lost in Hogsmeade. Thus I add an amendment to Lily's Rules of Life:

Rule 43: Get one of those nifty American cowboy hats and then lasso the Marauders. That way they can't ditch you.

The end.

Excellent advice.

I wandered aimlessly for a bit before stumbling upon Manches' Tayloring Shoppe. Sirius and Remus the Bludger! There is a God!

As I entered, a strange bloke greeted me. "Ahoy there laddie! Why dontcha come in and admire sum' of da finest threads 'n England.

What planet is he from and how do you not go there?

"Looking. For. Sirius. Black. Have. You. Seen. Him.?" I asked so slowly that a tree would understand.

The shop keeper blinked stupidly.

Pfft! Sitting on a bench

I was ushered out of the shop the moment after I opened my mouth. The shopkeeper thought I was foreign. The stupid shop only serves British wizards (and English speaking ones too which is obviously not me). That shopkeeper just lost a customer. I will most certainly never go back there again. I didn't find Sirius or Remus the Bludger either.

Is this what it's like to be pureblood? - to be overly selective in everything you do. There are a lot of good things out there that selective tendencies would never yield. If I have to be like that shopkeeper, I never want to be pureblood.

But there is a bigger dilemma at stake than how to tame wild purebloods. It is nearly nightfall; everything is starting to look the same. And I am lost in Hogsmeade. I have asked for directions, but naturally everyone is too busy to give me a straight or simple answer. I get untrusting stares because I do not have any definitive traits that connect me with a well-to-do wizarding family. Only rich families go to Hogwarts and I don't quite have the sparkle of richness about me.

Apparently I am a despicable posing scoundrel trying to run with the 'big dogs'

I might as well ask this small rock for directions. It has more intelligence.

Imagine that.

Am I the kitten that wants to be a tiger?

A little lost kitten for that matter.

Ahoy there! Aren't you all glad to see me? Actually you all are probably happier to see Little Lady back on track. You may all bow down and thank the wonderfully magnificent nature for depositing eight inches of snow upon my home and thus giving me a snow day to sit here and type chapter eight of this story.

I was proud of this chapter though the events seem mildly insignificant. I felt like I captured a handful of the real essence of Lily that will catalyze her drive to fight for the emancipation of the wizarding world from fear and Voldemort. I realize there are many gray areas but rest assured, I will clear them up in the next few chapters. Bear with me please!

As always, your reviews have touched and inspired me to keep writing. I was elated to see this story reach a milestone one hundred reviews. Thank you all so much for your support. I will continue to write this story faithfully!

Responses:

Anna - As the story summary indicates, this will be an L/J love story. They are destined to be together, and I would not think of writing otherwise.

Mystic Madness - I hope I'm not making reading difficult with all the British phrases. I'm American too, so I tend to go overboard with British slang. Let me know if I get too frequent with the drabbles.

J.E.A.R.K. Potter - Cookies for you! You hit the bulls-eye.

Unknown species - I have never read anything by Tamora Pierce. I will look into her writings though.

Fadingslowly -You've got the plot down. Although the boys will not find out Lily's identity for another number is unreadable because of ink spill chapters.

… (anonymous reviewer) - the British are normally schooled in French and German as a basic education. I try to bring that out as a token of validity that Lily is not some silly, aloof teenage girl and that she actually has values and intelligence behind her ramblings. I will try and tone it down in future chapters. Rei is an Asian name that can swing both ways.

PLEASE R.E.V.I.E.W!