A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and I'm really sorry I couldn't reply to all of them individually. Life has been kind of crazy lately, but I'll respond to all of the reviews for this chapter, I promise. I'm super excited about the new interest in this story!! Special thanks to Valerie for pointing out the Lily Luna/Lily Evans mistake. I fixed it ;)
"Give it to me."
"No, it's not yours!"
"Now!"
"I said 'no.'"
"I don't—"
Lily whirled around and glared furiously at her friend, who had been following her ever since they had gotten off the Hogwarts Express yesterday. Laika had already tried stealing the locket twice already, but each time, Lily hit her back, thinking she was jealous of her newfound treasure and only wanted it for herself.
"Laika," she snapped. "I'm going to see Severus right now so if you don't mind, please leave me alone!"
Laika glowered at her. "Oh, I'll leave…once you give me that locket."
"Why should I?"
"Because it doesn't belong to you!" Laika shouted, her voice echoing along the corridors behind them.
Lily laughed harshly as the cold locket thumped harder against her chest. "It does now."
Spinning on her heel, Lily turned and ran for the Fat Lady's portrait before Laika could try and stop her again. A strange, exhilarated feeling came over her, but she ignored it— she was probably just excited to see Severus again.
On her way to the portrait, she collided head-on with a boy. Neither of them had been looking where they were going, and both of them fell backwards upon impact. Rubbing her forehead, Lily looked up and scowled. Just her luck. She'd ran into none other than James Potter.
He was already on his feet, with eyebrows raised and a stupid grin on his face that made Lily want to clobber him. For some reason, he didn't tease her, but instead continued staring down at her.
"I'm here to see Severus," Lily informed him stiffly once she had gotten to her feet again.
James smirked. "Oh, so sorry, but he's in the common room right now."
Lily frowned. "I know—"
"Slytherin brats aren't allowed in our common room."
His smirk widened to epic proportions as Lily stood there, unable to do anything but glare furiously back at him. There was no way she'd lower herself to Potter's level by asking him for help if she could avoid it.
"Ohhhhh…were you hoping I would go and fetch him for you?" he said with mock innocence. Lily looked murderous.
"You know, I'm not really feeling up to playing messenger owl today," James continued airily, twirling his wand in his hand. "Of course, I'd give you the password myself, but you see, I don't want any Slytherin prats freely wandering around our common room…"
The locket thumped harder against Lily's chest the madder she got at Potter. She gritted her teeth, trying to fight against it, but it couldn't be helped. A sense of overwhelming rage was consuming her like an out of control wildfire…
"What the— Evans!" James yelped as Lily jumped at him. She grabbed the collar of his robes— as though she was preparing to strangle him— with her left hand, and held her right hand up, threatening to punch him. He knew Evans was a bit violent sometimes— her knocking him off his broom all those months ago proved it— but this was crossing the line!
"What are you doing?" he demanded, but immediately fell silent as the girl prepared for the final blow.
James closed his eyes and braced himself for impact, but it never came. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that Evans was still readying to hit him. He looked into her eyes and instantly recoiled. Scarlet. He saw scarlet. Evans' eyes were supposed to be green. Why the hell were they scarlet?
He was rendered completely speechless as Lily suddenly stood back and held her head, moaning quietly.
"Evans?" he asked uncertainly, wondering if the red eye effects had been merely his imagination.
She looked up at him: her eyes were green. James sighed with relief. He had only imagined it. Stranger still, her entire personality seemed to change within seconds. The infuriated expression had been inexplicably replaced by a nervous frown, and she seemed to be too embarrassed to look up at him.
"Do you know where Severus is?" Lily asked finally.
James stared at her, completely bewildered.
"What?" Lily was equally puzzled; why was Potter giving her such a weird look?
"Uh…I was just…going to find Severus for you," James stuttered. Not wanting to hang around this bipolar Slytherin any longer, James spun around and sprinted for the Fat Lady's portrait; his screams for Severus only quieted when the portrait closed once more.
xXxXxXxXx
"Hi Sev," Lily greeted her friend warmly as he stumbled out of the portrait that led to Gryffindor's common room. Severus looked happy to see her, but he also looked slightly apprehensive as he walked towards her. As she went to hug him, she noticed him flinch slightly.
"How was you're Christmas?" she asked cheerfully, ignoring his odd behaviour.
"It was alright," he mumbled shyly. "How was yours?"
"Oh it was wonderful! Laika's house is amazing, Sev, you should see it sometime!"
"Yeah, I'd love to," Severus muttered sardonically under his breath.
Lily's excited grin faded and she suddenly became more serious. "And…I saw your mum."
"What?!" he looked up at her, clearly startled by this random bit of news. "At Malfoy's house?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "No…it's a long story, really, but I ended up Flooing home by mistake and your mom is the only magical person I know in our neighbourhood that might have had some spare powder and…she was very helpful."
"Was…was he home?" Severus asked her quietly.
"No."
Severus sighed and they didn't speak for several moments. He was glad that Lily didn't ask him any questions about his father; instead, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between them not to mention Tobias. The thought of his mother spending the Christmas holidays alone made Severus feel happy, rather than sad. Any time Tobias was around guaranteed plenty of suffering for those around him. Still, he felt slightly guilty for remaining at Hogwarts for Christmas while she was all by herself in that lonely home…
"James said you tried to attack him," Severus said suddenly, feeling extremely awkward from the prolonged silence. Thinking about his parents only depressed him, and they needed a subject change, pronto. Mentally, he hit himself, but he just couldn't bring himself to believe James' story until he heard Lily's side.
Lily stared at him blankly. "I what?"
Severus felt heat rising to his cheeks in embarrassment; he didn't like confronting Lily if he could avoid it. "He told me you nearly punched him."
"Is this some kind of joke?" Lily giggled, thinking it was hilarious that her normally-gloomy friend was actually joking around with her. She stopped laughing at the expression on his face however: was he actually being serious?
"I didn't do anything to Potter. I mean, we ran into each other, but I certainly didn't assault him!"
"Are you sure?" he asked quietly, wanting to believe her, but was unable to forget the look on James' face as he came running into the common room looking for him.
"You don't believe me?" Lily snapped, feeling the locket's steady pounding speed up against her chest. "You believe Potter over me?"
"Well, I can't really say he…wait! No! It's not that! I just wasn't sure…" Severus pleaded, but she was already stomping away. At his desperate calling, she paused and turned back to look at him. There was no sympathy in her strangely discoloured eyes.
"You know what? I just wanted to say hi, but I suppose I'll let you get back to your other, more-important friends now," Lily said coldly, then resumed her journey back to the Slytherin common room.
"Lily!" Severus ran after her, unsure of what he had said that made her so mad all of a sudden. He reached for her arm, but she furiously jerked it out of his grip and began sprinting away, leaving behind a hurt and very confused friend…
xXxXxXxXx
"Hi Sev."
Severus looked up from his Potions textbook and stared at his friend. She had a smile plastered to her face and her tone was light and calm today. What the hell…?
"Uh…hi Lily…so, you're not mad at me anymore?" he asked nervously, pulling up a seat for her. They hadn't seen in each other for a couple of days, since the Slytherins and Gryffindors only had two classes together.
Lily laughed, her green eyes twinkling curiously. "Mad? At you? Of course not!"
"But…" he couldn't explain what was wrong with his friend. One moment she was as angry as a Hungarian Horntail, the next she was sweeter than a fluffy bunny. Could two weeks at Malfoy's home really change her this much?
Suddenly, he noticed something he hadn't ever seen Lily wear. He wondered why she hadn't shown him that before…
"Nice locket…where'd you get it?" he asked suspiciously as Lily froze; apparently she had forgotten to hide it underneath her robes today.
"None of your business Snape," a different, colder voice answered from behind them. It was Laika. Severus glowered at her, as did Lily: ever since her recent acquisition of the locket, Laika had been in the most disagreeable mood. There were times where Lily had even come close to hexing her friend in order to get her away from her locket. She refused to tell Lily why she wanted it so badly; leaving Lily to assume that she was either jealous or greedy and only wanted it for herself.
"Oh, so it came from you then, eh Malfoy?" Severus spat, feeling his previously-dormant loathing of the arrogant girl returning.
"If it did, I wouldn't be likely to tell you then, would I?" Laika smirked, then turned to her friend. "Lily—"
"Don't even start," Lily snarled, tucking the locket away safely under her robes.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I dunno," Severus replied quickly, not wanting to anger her after seeing how she would act if he got her all riled up. "I just…I just want to make sure you're okay."
Lily sighed, shuffling absentmindedly through her Potions book. To be honest, everything seemed fuzzy to her lately, and she couldn't explain why. It seemed as though people were more asking her ridiculous questions than usual, which was especially irritating. She hadn't done anything out of the ordinary and everyone was treating her like an unstable mental case. Still, she didn't wish to share these feelings with her friend, who might just tell her that she was being paranoid.
"I'm fine, thanks Sev."
They returned their attention to the lesson for quite some time, but Severus found his mind wandering back to Lily's new accessory. It was a nice piece of treasure, no doubt, but who had given it to her? Was it a Christmas present from a boy she wasn't telling him about? What if Lucius Malfoy gave it to her? Was there a picture of him and Lily inside the locket? What if she liked him…?
"Can I see your locket?" he blurted out during a particularly demanding portion of the brewing process, hoping this would distract Lily from declining his request. He had to see what was inside the locket.
The question had been so sudden that Lily hadn't even been prepared for what he was asking. She was surprised at first, but after thinking it over, she felt more upset than anything. So, he wanted the treasure for himself, too?
He only wanted to sit next to me because he wanted to get to the locket first¸ Lily thought, ignoring the fact that Severus was always her Potions partner. She'd been handling the situation fine so far, but now she was becoming mistrustful of everyone around her…
Besides, did he really think she'd give it to him, even though he was supposedly her best friend? Over her dead body! Everyone wanted her precious locket, and the more they tried to pry it from her, the greedier she became. Nobody would get their hands on it…it was hers now and she would not allow for thievery of her possession. She knew it was valuable and she was so overprotective of it that she hadn't taken it off since she had first put if on.
All of a sudden, she felt dizzy and her head throbbed as all of her thoughts twisted and mingled together in her mind; each one making her more furious than ever.
"No!" she shouted unnecessarily loudly to the point where everyone— including Slughorn— was staring at her. "Get away from me!"
Alarmed by the gleams of red sparkling from Lily's eyes (or was that just his imagination?), Severus jumped backwards and hustled away from his seat, sitting down several tables away, in between Remus and James.
"Told you she's gone mental," James whispered as the four Gryffindor boys cowered under Lily's fierce glare.
Severus nodded numbly and looked down towards the Slytherin's table. Black looked completely bewildered by her friend's reaction, but Malfoy looked merely…amused. Without warning, she accidentally looked back at the four boys and made full eye contact with Severus. A tiny smirk briefly occupied her face, before she quickly hid it behind a carefully-practiced expression of complete neutrality.
"I think Malfoy's got something to do with it," Severus murmured to his friends, unaware that Laika was still able to hear every word he said…
xXxXxXxXx
Thunk.
A rock. It was a rock, Lucius Malfoy realized as he bent over and picked up the smooth black stone that had just clobbered him in the back of the head, forming a rather massive bump beneath his silvery blonde hair. Nobody was around here, as far as he could see. But rocks didn't fly by themselves…
"Show yourself, Laika," he growled, gently massaging the sore area on his head.
Off to his left, Laika pulled off a cloak, becoming visible once more. Lucius inwardly cursed his parents for buying her that damned thing for Christmas…she had been begging for one of those new, temporary invisibility cloaks ever since she found out that Bellatrix Black owned one.
"Your immaturity is astounding," Lucius said coldly as she strolled over to him; she was glaring furiously at him as though he had just denounced his family and informed her that he was going to start a Mudblood-rights advocacy group.
"And your stupidity is equally astounding," she spat, throwing the rest of her earthly ammunition at his feet and putting her hands on her hips. Lucius avoided her gaze; even though he was four years older than her, he felt somewhat intimidated whenever his little sister was seriously ticked off, as she was right now.
"I take it you weren't able to get it back yet?" Lucius asked stiffly, knowing that the bloody locket was the only reason Laika had asked him to meet her at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where they would be completely alone. It was very dark by now, and creepy shadows were cast all over the place. Lucius was used to this place, though Laika seemed slightly afraid— not that she would ever admit to it— and silently began having second thoughts about the security of this meeting place.
"Of course not!" Laika replied crossly. "Everything short of hexing her—"
"Why not?"
"I'm not going to resort to that! She'd go to Dumbledore if I used magic to steal it back from her!" Laika shrieked, feeling a mixture of desperation and rage towards her brother come over her.
"You're pathetic," Lucius cut in harshly. "A worthless friend means more to you than retrieving—"
"I'm pathetic?!" Laika shouted, paying no attention to her surroundings, certain that they wouldn't be overheard. "Who's the bastard who lost it in the first place?!"
"Silence!" Lucius hissed in his most threatening tone, forcing Laika to back off slightly. "The locket will be safer here—"
"—Gringotts is the only truly safe place for valuable treasures…Father said so himself!"
"I don't give a damn about what he thinks," Lucius whispered, his words laced with venom. "Gringotts recently had a break in; as I'm sure you've heard. Hogwarts is the only—"
"Then why you, huh?" Laika cried hysterically. Without thinking, she shoved Lucius backwards into a tree, which only angered him further, and he shoved her twice as hard. Laika tripped over a root and fell onto the ground; Lucius smirked triumphantly as she was forced to look up at him, making it appear that she was in a position of total submission while he was in control once more.
"The Dark Lord clearly intended for Mother and Father to protect the locket," Laika hissed, her chest heaving. "And you stole it. The Dark Lord wouldn't be too happy if he found out, would he Lucius? Find out that you lost his prized possession to an unyielding little first year…"
"I mixed up—"
"I know you mixed up the trunks," Laika cut him off sharply, getting to her feet now. "I'm tired of trying to get it back, and I'm done trying to cover up your mistake. You get it back…and if you don't; I suppose the Dark Lord will deal with you himself…oy!"
Laika's eyes widened nervously and looked back and forth between the wand poking at her forehead and Lucius, who was now grinning maliciously at her. His deathlike grip on her arm with his free hand made her arm go numb from lack of blood flow. He was livid.
"First of all, I don't listen to first years—" he whispered, jabbing her more forcefully with the end of his wand, "—and second of all, we will get the locket back."
"What do you mean 'we'?" Laika asked defiantly, but she cowered once more as her brother held the lit end of the wand up to the very tip of her nose, making her go cross-eyed in order to see it properly.
"Because you know that more than just my reputation rests on this…you will get it back."
There was no room for questions. It was an order, not a request.
Laika glared at him for a moment longer, but eventually broke the gaze first and lowered her head in defeat. No matter how hard she tried, Lucius would always win.
xXxXxXxXx
"Oh, what are we going to do with this hair, Lily?" Laika sighed dramatically as she swatted at Lily's long red hair. It had been a week since they had gotten back from the winter holidays, and time was running short. Now that she had Lily cornered— Narcissa's presence was hardly a hinderance on her plan— she needed to get that locket back.
"Petunia bought me a straightening iron for it last year," Lily mumbled, looking at her reflection in the mirror. She looked positively dreadful. Dark circles rounded under her eyes as though she hadn't gotten any sleep in months, and her hair was a disaster. Frankly, she could hardly care less. Personal appearances hadn't been of any real importance to her lately, and her image was suffering because of it.
"Straightening iron?" Laika asked quizzically, trying to keep Lily calm until she could nonchalantly take the locket away from her. "What's that?"
"Oh," Lily bit her lip, realizing that she had just slipped up again, no matter how insignificantly. "My sister told me about it…it's something Mugg—"
"—you have a sister?" Narcissa interrupted. "What house is she in?"
"Oh, she's uh, finished up with Hogwarts," Lily continued shakily, the same horrible feeling that arose in her chest whenever she lied to her friends was coming back in full-force. "She was in…Hufflepuff."
Laika coughed disdainfully. "I'd rather kill myself before being Sorted into Hufflepuff. Did she turn out alright?"
"Yes," Lily continued, ignoring the odd glances Narcissa kept giving her. "She works with the Ministry."
Laika considered this for a moment, then shrugged. "At least you were Sorted into a good house…Slytherin will open up so many opportunities for us…"
The room fell silent once more after Laika's ominous last words. Lily felt both excited and afraid to imagine what kind of opportunities Slytherin would offer her. Of course, Lucius and his parents were highly respected in the wizarding community; Laika and Lily could probably end up just as well-off as they were. And Severus had originally wanted to be in Slytherin, so it obviously wasn't as bad as others claimed it was…
As Laika played with her hair, Lily felt cold hands carefully grasping the chain of her locket. Laika was at it again.
"Will you stop it?!" Lily shrieked, temper flaring once more. She jumped out her chair, knocking it to the ground, and flung herself onto her bed to keep Laika away from her.
"I just want to see it!" Laika growled, furious that her plan had been foiled for the umpteenth time this week. Lucius was adamant about getting it back, however, and if she possibly ruined her friendship with Lily…well, that'd have to be a risk she'd have to take. Still, the sight of her friend trembling with fury was slightly disconcerting. Something was severely wrong with Lily, whether it was a personality disorder or what, Laika did not know. All she knew was that Lily had definitely changed in the last week.
"You've gone mental over that locket Lily," Laika snapped while Narcissa stared on at the scene, wide-eyed with fear. "You're yelling at everyone— you even scared Snape away; he's not even talking to you anymore, haven't you noticed?!"
That did it. Laika had gone too far, but she didn't care. Lily froze, and with tears springing to her eyes, she gaped at Laika as her painful words sunk in. As much as she wanted to scream that Laika was lying, she couldn't. It was the truth, and deep down, Lily knew it. Severus wasn't talking to her anymore. He wouldn't even sit near her, because apparently every time he did, she found more reasons to blow up at him.
How many times did I yell at him? She wondered feverishly. The problem was that she didn't remember yelling at anyone. But Laika's words certainly made more sense.
"Fine," Lily hissed, all emotions replaced with rage as the locket thumped against her chest, perhaps fearful that Lily was about to give it away…
"You can have your damn locket then!"
She grabbed the chain and tried wrenching it over her head, but instead of coming off, a horrendous feeling cut across her neck, as though someone was slicing an axe through her skin, further and further through her flesh the closer she came to taking it off completely. Her neck turned a blotchy shade of purple and red, as though all of the veins beneath the skin were about to explode. Even her hands burned as though she had set them aflame, leaving black scorch marks on her light skin where the locket touched her.
She screamed and attempted to bear the already-unbearable pain, but after just three seconds, she was forced to release. Her neck returned to normal, and the terrifying sensation of potential decapitation was gone. Still, she was gasping for breath, having nearly been strangled by what had originally seemed to be an ordinary locket.
With tears streaking unashamedly down her cheeks, Lily looked up at her bewildered friends and whispered: "It won't come off."
A/N: Okay...long explanation (in order to clear things up). First of all, yes it's a Horcrux. Also, I'm trying to stick to canon wherever possible; so with that in mind, remember the following: A) one can be possessed by the locket (Ron's eyes gleamed red before he stabbed the Horcrux in DH), B) when possessed, the person doesn't remember anything (see Chamber of Secrets), and C) the locket caused the trio to grow extremely short-tempered and irritable when worn for long periods of time (Lily's been wearing it nonstop for over a week; not only that, but the connection is more deadly for her because it's so close to her soul that she can't even take it off without suffering physical harm).
Lily isn't being a jerk because that's just who she is. She's actually a rather nice person. The Horcrux is stronger when kept close to a human soul (because it can control the person), so it goes crazy whenever someone tries to take it away from Lily. Also, Lily is inherently naive, which leads to negative consequences. Being a first year (and new to the wizarding world at that), her soul is still innocent (read: weak) and her mind is confused (think of the values she's been raised with and compare them to her new, Slytherin view on things). This makes it terribly easy for the Horcrux to possess her.
I guess we'll just have to see what happens next chapter. In the meantime, I really appreciate your comments on the story; they're more encouraging than you know! ;)