Chapter 05

The Questions that matter

19th January 1994

Today was the second session of her tutorials to Lily. Professor Flitwik had enlisted Madame Bridget's help to start Lily with Runes. Lily was already good at charms; all she needed was extra research and help with runes.

"This rune that looks like Omega here is used to denote the connections and contacts. Are you even listening?"Narcissa snapped.

Lily was having her third day of tutorial with Narcissa. All of the runes she had studied till now somehow similar to old Latin alphabets; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon... everything was there. There were also some ruins that looked very similar to Ancient Indian languages as well as there were Hieroglyphics. She had stopped paying attention to Narcissa after Epsilon. They had gone through all of this in classes as well as the earlier tutorials.

"We are done with it already. I know what an Omega like rune means... Will you take the next lesson please?" an irritated Lily replied. Narcissa Just huffed and muttered something that sounded like 'Arrogant Mud-bloods'.

This had become regular occurrence in their sessions. They both at times would chat like best of friends and at others they would be ready to go down the throat. Today there was a surprise in order. Instead of fighting as Lily always did, she exasperatedly asked "Why the hell do you have to call me that and just how is my blood impure than yours?"

"Well you are from a muggle family and..."

"Oh don't give me that pureblood stigma stink. It is just political agenda put forth to create divide and gain votes and also make 'So Called Pureblood Families Insecure'. Magically, I am as strong as you, might be a bit better. You have the upper hand because your skills are honed, you have more knowledge of spells and this all comes because you come from a Magical Family. Now, tell me where does blood comes here?"

It was irrefutable logic Lily had put up, suddenly years of anti-muggle dogma Narcissa had been trained through was falling apart. It could not answer this question and yet here she was working for no proper cause, again, as she ordered House-elf in front of her to trigger events that could lead to death of her cousin.

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18th January 1976

"I heard from Malfoy, Dark lord is completely different now from what he used to look like. He has got this ghastly look. It's as if his flesh has disappeared. And now he is always wearing a hood. Lucius caught a glimpse of red shiny something inside the hood. I bet they were his eyes." Mulciber was recounting what he had heard from Malfoy while he was persuading Severus into taking mark to his under-years. Carrows, Borge, Juglus and few others whose name he didn't know.

"Tell me Mulciber could you smell pee in the air then? 10 sickles, I say it was Malfoy's." James jeered as Marauders appeared out of nowhere.

Then Sirius' Face soured as he spotted Regulus among the ones hanging onto every word Mulciber was saying.

"I see we have another Black in the group" Mulciber said as realisation downed him. He still was not sure of this Black. If he turned out to be a rebel and spied our discussions to Marauders. He couldn't be sure.

"Look! Snivellus has decided to 'dis'grace us with his present and Blondie girly Man is also with him!" Peter exclaimed. All heads turned towards them.

"I hear you peed in your panties Malfoy when that so called 'Dark Lord' screamed at you"

"Sod off Potter..." Snape growled

"Ah loyal as dog defending his master... I bet the dog feels insulted" James said throwing a wink at 'the dog' but he was not a bit amused.

"Mobilicorpus" Malfoy shot, missing the target James Potter by wide and hitting the door behind.

"Incendio" Sirius attacked Snape whose robe caught fire.

"Aguamenti" Mulciber hit Snape with a jet of water.

"Nice Job Mulciber, You gave him a shower... too bad there is no shampoo.." Sirius said through his laughs.

Snape was pissed now. He flicked his wand upwards then targeted it on James and again flicked it up while mouthing something he thought no one would see. The next moment James was upside down hanging in the air, screaming and threatening to put him down. It was Snape's turn to smirk.

"Expelliarmus" Remus participated, regretting it immediately as James thonked his head and almost passed out.

"What do you think you are doing?" Professor Ores shouted backed by Lily. The class Malfoy's spell had hit was where Lily and Narcissa had been doing there extra sessions. When Narcissa saw Malfoy and Snape and Marauders duel, she had instantly fled to Professor Ores, Head of Slytherin, also The DADA teacher, remembering the outcome of fight in train.

Snape was smirking again as Remus had his wand trained on him while he looked like an innocent victim. Malfoy was stinging by whatever red yellow curse James had cast and had acne on his minutes before clear face. Oh I love Evans! Snape thought to himself.

Professor Ores was curing the acne of Malfoy when she mouthed "Why?"

Malfoy just looked at his left sleeve and quietened. Again this interaction was noticed by Remus and so by Peter.

That's when Lily noticed; even though Narcissa had intimated Professor Ores she was nowhere to be seen.

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Sirius had taken the first chance to escape from the scene and corner Regulus.

"Regulus you really shouldn't be hanging out with that lot."

"Same could be said to you Sirius..."

The convincing had turned to defending and then just pure shouting attracting everyone's attention.

"Don't listen to him Regulus, You are a true black, your family would be proud of you." Malfoy said taking Regulus away from the scene.

"You four; From Monday, You'll be serving a week full of detention in with me."

"What about them?" Peter tried arguing.

"I see them as mere victims of your duel" Professor Ores said nonchalantly and walked away.

For the first time, Lily was feeling sympathy for Marauders and disrespect for a teacher.

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Narcissa was worried for Lucius. She had to check on him. She had seen the hideous face of Malfoy after the acne and almost puked. She had gotten away from the scene and now, worried for wellbeing of Malfoy, she was looking for him every where she could think of. She had decided to check in on the Hospital wing first in case he was brought there. She just found the buffoons who had started the duel aka Marauders. James was being tended to by Madame Pomfrey and Sirius' butt was exactly in range for an extra strong stinging hex. He received it too. She decided to go and visit Slytherin common room. Though near the Dungeons entrance, she saw Severus leaning against a broom closet and sounds of whispers seemed to be coming from it. Snape looked as if he was brooding. As she neared him, she could hear Severus think to himself. It seemed he was contemplating something about Evans.

"Hey Snape, what's with Evans?"

Caught off guard, he just decided to remain silent.

"I asked you something, I am working with her now. So if anything concerns her, it concerns me. So spill"

"Oh it doesn't Black believe me." Snape tried to avoid her attention.

"Oh! Really?" Narcissa arched her brows and suddenly smirked and said

"You were going to ask her out, weren't you?"

Seeing Narcissa was right on point, Snape decided to give in.

He recounted to her the sudden urges he'd been having and also the train incident involving Malfoy and Lily. Yet as soon as Malfoy's name was uttered,

Narcissa recalled the real reason she was there.

"Uhm... Snape have you seen Lucius?"

Narcissa asked interrupting his story in midst. At that exact moment, Malfoy came out of closet with Regulus. And Narcissa became busy fawning over Lucius, leaving Snape lonely and clueless as to what to do.

Snape just decided to take the bull by its horns and decided to approach Lily directly.

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'That was so unfair of Professor Ores. Lily thought to herself. She is being more and more partial towards Slytherin.'

Lily was sitting in library alone after Narcissa had preferred to leave her alone and go and check on Malfoy after the earlier incidence. Lily had then preferred to come to library and do a bit more research on Time turners and their properties. There was nothing, nothing at all that would help her with time travel. She found Magical books describing how time travel would be, what would be consequences if someone was to travel in time before his birth, theories and paradoxes about time travel; she even found Classic muggle book, 'The Time Machine' in restricted section, but nothing about Time Travel using devices called Time turners. She was out of her mind as Hogwarts Library had never disappointed her.

She had almost received a warning from ministry for illegal use of underage magic, but she hadn't. 'Time travel negates trace magic on you' Lily had inferred. Then her mom had come, putting a pause on all of her magical activities for time being.

Then she noticed four heads close together, two rows behind her. She recognized immediately the owners as Marauders and grew suspicious as they were whispering loud enough for everyone to hear but not make out what they were saying. As she strained her ears she could hear words like 'Mischief', 'Passage to the left', 'Professor Ores is a bitch', 'Lily, stop eavesdropping!' 'Are you even listening?'... Wait, something was wrong. Did she hear last two phrases right? As she slowly opened her eyes, she saw Snape standing before her with assignments for Wednesday.

"Why do you have to pay attention to those fools? You know what the only aim of James Potter is since you refused to date him, right?"

"Yes I do Severus; at least he defends me..."

Lily still had not forgiven Severus for train incident. She would never agree to whatever James did, but she did appreciate it, though to prevent it from being regular turnout she tried to discourage him.

"Lily, look I am really sorry. But you know they are my house mates, I have to live with them. I don't want them to think I am weak or something..." Severus tried to defend himself.

"Severus you have been telling me the same reason since first year now. What sort of mates are they to make you do and endorse such vile things?"

Severus looked really guilty and didn't have an answer to her question.

"All I have to say is Sev that I hope you don't become like them, join in their whatever 'Dark Lord' foolery they are doing, cornering muggle-borns and others. That's all I wish from you." Lily said with finality as she collected her satchel and left the Library, leaving behind a sour faced Snape.

'Lily, I wish you would just give me a chance, I promise I would never let you down.' Same thoughts were reverberating in two dark haired heads in library at the same time.

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23rd January 1976

Rookwood was frantic. It had already been a month and he had not been able to procure any results for his Lord. Unlike Lestranges, he had nothing to offer other than his talents. Yet he was treated better than any of those two. He even had had a glimpse of Master twice, but he couldn't tell what he looked like. The voice too; it was never similar twice. He was in a dilemma. He knew he had to fear his new master but what to make of his approach, he didn't know.

The Project he had been entrusted with was coming poorly. The impatience he had seen in master in earlier days had almost vanished. He still demanded regular reports, but it seemed like he was bidding his time; as if he knew what was to happen. He had just sparked the series of incidents.

A/N: Please review guys and let me know how you like the story so far and I am really sorry for the delay. Next update will be late too but stay tuned as mystery unveils.. And thanks to Golden Dragon Girl for being my beta.