First of all, sorry for the delay. It's just, I'm really lazy to proofread this chapter before publishing and the time frame is off. Next, thanks for the reviews!!

Bookworm2butterfly, brazilian princess, I see dead people 999, magic is upon, midnight sun, and sparkling silver stars

Enjoy this chapter!

CHAPTER 16: THE STENCH OF…

"Prongs, can you cut off that dream state for a moment?" Sirius asked impatiently. "We're planning on our full moon escapade at this time, and not that Green Apple of yours!"

James looked at Sirius, dazed. The other marauders held their breath, nervous about that. It was not usual for James to look like that.

"What?" Sirius suddenly asked when James grabbed his sweatshirt. He gulped, looking once again at the weird-looking James.

"I'm hungry!" he roared, almost pulling Sirius down.

"Is that it?" Lupin asked, helping Sirius up. "It's your fault, James. You're thinking of your penpal too much."

"I just can't stop thinking of her, Remus," James said, pouting like a baby.

"Now, you've seen her directly, do you have any idea who she is?" Sirius asked. "I mean, come on, you knew almost everyone around here! You're the student buddy!"

"Except for the Slytherins," Peter meekly reminded, passing to James a plate of Pumpkin Pasties.

"Does that mean…?" Lupin started.

"This cannot be!" Sirius said, pretending to faint. Dear Prongs, in love with a Sly…"

"Shut up, Padfoot," James replied. "She cannot be a Slytherin because she knows Spencer."

"Kristanna?" Sirius asked. "Well, she's on a feud against Slytherins…"

"So, it's possible that she's from the other houses aside that dungeon-dwellers," James said, a light on his eyes. "And more possibly, she's in the same year as us and in Gryffindor!"

"Okay, so that narrows the candidates down," Lupin replied. He started to tick off the names of their Gryffindor batchmate girls.

"… That one should be trusted by McGonagall because she sent a student just to call for her," Peter reminded, eating some of the food himself.

"So, that narrows the list down to Kristanna," Sirius turned to an overacting stare, "And Evans."

"So, it's impossible for Kristanna to be that person because that girl was being asked to go to Kristanna," Lupin said, thinking deeply.

"Marauder people," James said, silencing the two, "It's impossible, really, for Green Apple to be Evans!" he said with a smile. "She cannot be. Green Apple is sweet, kind, and… sweet, but that Evans is a talking monster! She's got this really big mouth used for terminating people! Like a vacuum, she drains people's energy!"

"Oh, how did you know something like that?" Lupin asked slyly.

"Well, how can you be so sure?" Sirius asked. That removed the supposed triumph in James' part. "Anyone can be different in a letter."

"I agree," Lupin said, raising a hand. "Maybe that's another girl, not Lily. She's too busy doing things so she won't have time writing to others, right?"

James gave out a sigh of relief.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Urk! What was that smell?" Lily complained loudly as they made their way through the dungeons and back up to the glittery marble hall.

"I can't smell anything, Lils," Danicia said in a puzzled way. "Maybe that was the Slytherin essence," she joked.

"Not funny, Dani," Lily said, covering her nose. "It was really disgusting, that blackish smoke and everything!"

They arrived inside their common room and Lily gasped, making the person carrying that taller-than-human pile of books in the normal way tumble down. It was Lira.

"I'm sorry," Lily said, helping her up. She, however, immediately covered her nose because of the sudden waft of horrible smell.

"What's the matter, Miss Evans?" Lira asked in a pained voice.

"This… this is nothing. Let me help you," she said, trying to carry on moving with the horrible smell.

Lira left and as the two made their way up to the dormitories, Danicia asked her. "What is the matter with Aguerre that you're covering your nose? You look like you're gonna throw up!"

"She smells like the things I smelled down there in the dungeons. There was even black smoke around her. Didn't you see?"

"I bet she did not," a voice interrupted as they heard the dormitory room door close.

"What did you say?" Lily asked Eros once again. Eros appeared in front of her and Danicia.

"Forget about that. It seems like you have to move on to your next pair-up," Eros said, scratching his head. "You know, it's James Potter, my dear."

"This will be the greatest nightmare!" Lily said, turning around the room. She happened to hit her bed post where she found a blue ribbon. "Wait…" she managed to say when she took the ribbon. "What is this doing here?" she asked quizzically. "Dani, is this yours?"

"Yuck! You expect me to wear a ribbon? And a blue one?" Danicia asked in an annoyed manner.

Lily raised her eyebrow. "I feel something in this ribbon. Something fishy."

Eros frowned. Then he remembered…

FLASHBACK

"About people who are able to touch a god's power," Eros started.

Athena stopped on her tracks and said, "I asked the Fates about this. People who are able to touch a god's power are not just a coincidence. In short, she is a fated Homo sapiens. Do remember that there's no such thing as coincidence."

"What about her?" Eros asked. "She is the girl Aphrodite gave…"

Athena nodded. "The Fates told me, thousands of years ago, that a girl would handle a god's magic due to uncontrollable circumstances. She could feel, she could hear, she could even sometimes see. But that will not be always implacable. There are cases…"

END FLASHBACK

"Lily, can I see that ribbon?" Eros asked. He took the ribbon and examined it. Weird smoke came out of it.

"Why was it smoking?" Lily asked.

Danicia raised an eyebrow. "Smoking? I can't see anything."

"I knew it," Eros said, frowning. "The spy saw the pairing. She told Erida about this!"

"Is that the meaning of the smoke?"

Danicia looked at Lily, then at Eros, then at Lily again. "I can't understand you people."

"Danicia, try to hold Lily's hand," Eros ordered.

Danicia followed and at once she gasped at what she saw. "What the…?"
"See the black smoke?" Eros asked. "That is the trace of Erida's spy. I don't know, but I've got a strange feeling that this spy got a copy of the pairing I gave you once."

Danicia was about to throw up so she just let go of Lily's hand to ease the pain. "But, what does that mean?" she asked.

"Nobody could do a pairing without the original copy," Eros said. "But what is the point of copying the pairing, anyway?"

"Before any of this pairing stuff, I want to know why I could see those things," Lily said with urgency.

"You could feel, you could hear, and you could sometimes see," Eros said dramatically. "That is the gift given by the god to the person who was able to hold their power."

"Sometimes I hate to be someone like that," Lily said. "Now, things are appearing suddenly before me! People will think I'm dead crazy!"

Eros sighed. "Oh, I'm really sorry, Lily, but that is the Fates job," he said. "So, any ideas on how to pair-up James Potter and the Lyre?"

"Lyre?" Danicia asked.

"It's Lira Aguerre," Lily said. "They were the ones I am about to pair-up."

"We were about to pair-up," Danicia corrected her. "Honestly, Lily, you think you're working alone? Eros gave me the permission to join you. Besides…"

"…Two heads are better than one!" Eros finished the sentence happily. "Hey, Danicia, how was your sister?"

Danicia sighed. "Oh, Eros, this is getting bad. Helena started to ignore Melissa and my sister started to ignore Matthew."

"And Matthew, on the other hand, started to fail his studies, am I right?" Eros confirmed. "Love, love, the number one mind failure. Maybe that is the reason why Athena is always angry at my mother."

"I pity Matthew," Lily said. "I'll make sure that something like that won't happen to me," she prayed.

Eros looked offended. "I just hope so," he sighed. "There's still inevitability lying around."

"But I'm really curious why…" Lily started. She then realized that Eros was gone. "Why is there smoke around Lira? Is this something really bad?" she thought, looking at the window.

a/n: so, does Lira have this body odor thing? Well, use your head to figure it out. Have a cookie…

Have a cookie so please review. Flames are welcome but I should redefine flames as systematic and constructive criticism with a mixture of nonsense insult. But I'm really looking forward inspirational reviews!