Hey guys!
So, I know I posted the first chapter less than 24 hours ago, but it had such a phenomenal response, and everybody wanted more, so I've given in. Here, I present to you, the second chapter of the story. And this isn't likely to happen again, because I haven't finished writing the third chapter yet.
Thank you to my lovely reviewers:
Happy Reveiwer (you spelt that wrong, if you're reading, by the way); Jessluvsharry; princessofdarkness23; Lycoris B (Team Ron :P);
Snatching At Dreams (sorry, you won't find out much more in this chapter either); and faceofboewearingafez (as Laura)
I can honestly say you guys made my day/night, and it meant so much to me that you guys read and reviewed! And most importantly, liked it!
So, enjoy this next chapter, and I would love your feedback for the first time, or again!
Love, gabiellexx
Just Keep Breathing: Chapter Two
Remus Lupin waited in the prefect's carriage for his fellow sixth-year Gyffindor prefect to arrive, ready for the meeting. This years Head Boy and Girl were both Ravenclaws, twins, and they decided not to start the meeting without all prefects present, but their patience was running thin.
"We're going to have to start," Kenneth James announced, half an hour into the trip. "Without Lily Evans," he clarified as Remus started to object. "First of all, welcome to our new prefects, from all four houses. Congratulations. It is an honour to be selected to be a prefect."
"Now," Hannah James continued, "we just have a few things to go over. Prefects are required to conduct patrols twice a week, on the first and seventh floors. This is so that we catch any students attempting to enter Hogwarts grounds, or any students planning on making their way up to the astronomy tower for a little midnight make-out session under the stars."
"In addition to patrols, Hannah and myself will occasionally ask you to do extra. For example, tonight, after the feast, the fifth year prefects will be required to lead the first years to their respective common rooms. Also, you will be required to patrol the train compartments before we arrive at Hogwarts. Fifth years will do this for the first two hours, followed by the sixth years, then the seventh years."
"The prefects also have their own bathroom," Hannah beamed. "It is not necessary that you use this, but it has an awesome bath!"
Kenneth raised his eyebrows at her.
"Anyway," she continued. "This bathroom is on the fourth floor, and the password is 'bubbles'. Are there any questions?"
Nobody raised their hands.
"On the table over here is a piece of parchment for Gyffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin prefects with your Common Room password on it. You must make sure everybody in your house knows this password, and nobody else, is that understood? Very well. Fifth years, go patrolling."
The very scared fifth years got up from their seats, grabbed their pieces of parchment, and headed off for the rest of the train, the rest of the prefects following.
Remus took his time heading back to join his friends at the back of the train. He would later pretend that he was just trying to clear his head, but he knew that he was checking every single compartment for the fiery red hair of his fellow prefect, Lily. It was extremely disconcerting that Lily had skipped the prefect's meeting, and it was even more disconcerting to Remus that she ended up not being on the train at all. When he finally reached the Marauder's carriage at the end, he had been biting down on his lower lip in nervousness so that it had started to bleed.
"Moony!" Sirius Black boomed, clapping his friend on the back. "We thought you'd gotten lost. We were about to send out a search party!"
"Yeah, Moony, what took you so long?" James Potter asked. "I was a little bit worried."
"I was just... clearing my head," Remus lied, which wasn't missed by his two black-haired friends. His other friend, Peter, on the other hand, nodded and returned to reading one of his spell books.
"What subjects are you doing this year, Moony?" Sirius asked, pretending not to notice that his friend was preoccupied. If Lupin wanted to pretend nothing was wrong, then Sirius and James would let that happen... for now.
"Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Arithmancy, Herbology," Remus replied, narrowing his eyes. "You?"
"Same, except I'm ditching Herbology for Muggle Studies," Sirius beamed.
"Muggle studies?" James asked. "Seriously?"
"Yeah," Sirius grinned. "There's this thing that I really want... It's called a motorcycle, and basically, it's a hunk of metal on two wheels, and you can drive it. It's sort of like a car."
"Well, I'm doing DADA, Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology and Potions," James said. "Yeah, I know, I'm boring, you don't have to keep going on about it," he added to Sirius.
"You're not doing an extra?" Sirius asked.
"Nah, it means I get an extra free," James said, obviously teasing his best mate.
At that moment, the compartment door slid open, and a blonde girl from their year popped her head in and looked around at them.
"This might seem like a bit of a stupid question," Alice started, "but have any of you guys seen Lily today?"
"Nope," James shrugged, "but she's avoiding me at all costs, so I kind of expected that."
"I don't think she's on the train," Remus answered. "Why?"
"Because that's exactly what I was afraid of," Alice smiled grimly. "Thanks, Remus."
"Hold on!" Remus shouted, as Alice started to close the door. She paused.
"Why were you afraid that Lily wasn't going to be on the train?"
Alice looked around the compartment and wondered whether she should tell them the truth. Well, she reasoned, they'd find out eventually anyway. "It's weird," she sighed, "but about three weeks ago, she stopped answering my letters. I went to go see her yesterday, and she told me that she wasn't coming back to Hogwarts, but she wouldn't tell me why. Do any of you guys have any ideas?"
"She's not coming back?" James asked, and his cheery mood from a few moments previously was replaced by something similar to heartbreak. "Why not?"
"I just told you, Potter, I don't know!" Alice snapped. "Sirius?"
"I'm just brainstorming reasons why she wouldn't come back," he said, pulling out a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill. Five minutes later, he had a list full of possibilities.
Snape; Snape; Potter was an idiot; Black was an idiot; She found out what Lupin's "furry little problem" was; Snape; Death in the family; She's lost her magic.
"Black, that's the stupidest list of reasons I've ever seen in my life," James said. "Honestly, how does somebody 'lose their magic'?"
"I've heard of it happening," Alice said. "I mean, it doesn't happen all that often, but... Well, I know it can happen when somebody gets tortured enough. Or when they've spent a while in Azkaban. Or when they've experienced a traumatic experience in their life, they can lose their magic."
"Okay then, next question: Alice, when you went to visit Lily, did she say anything about a death in the family?"
"I think that if there was a death in the family, she wouldn't want to stay at home," Remus said. "I mean, there would be no reason. I think a more likely reason for that one would be that somebody in her family is going to die."
"I didn't get that vibe from her," Alice said. "Sorry, guys."
"Okay, next item: Lupin's "furry little problem"," Sirius grinned.
"Crossing that off," Remus said, skirting around this discussion – he knew that Sirius had been joking when he'd added it to the list, but he still wasn't comfortable with it being mentioned in front of friends that didn't know about it. "We've got Prongs and Padfoot being idiots – jerks would be a more appropriate term – and Snape."
"No way, guys, Lily wouldn't stay away from school just because you guys are jerks, and because she's had a falling out with her best friend. She's stronger than that."
"Which means we're back to the other two reasons," Sirius said. "Either she's lost her magic, or somebody in her family is going to die."
"Or both," Alice said, with a sinking feeling in her stomach that told her that this may just have an element of truth to it.
"So," James said, a air of confidence in his voice. "What do we do to get her back here?"
While Lily Evans would normally be on the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this time of year, this year, she was on her way to the hospital where her father was currently staying. This had been the first time she'd brought herself to be able to leave the house, and it was only because she knew she wouldn't see anybody she knew, because they were all on the train to Hogwarts.
Wrenching herself away from her bedroom window hadn't been as hard as she thought it would be. At least, not for this. If she was going to school, it would be a completely different matter. But she was somehow content with the knowledge that if her father's condition worsened, she would only be a phone call away, rather than an owl and Knight-Bus trip away. Besides, she thought to herself, her magic wasn't working properly anyway.
She thought she'd be okay with this, she reminded herself as she walked into her father's hospital room. She definitely wasn't, however, as she realised when she broke down in tears upon looking at his frail form on the bed. He wasn't even strong enough to walk!
Petunia put her hand on her sister's shoulder, letting Lily know that she was there should she need her. And need her she did. Lily immediately buried her face into her sister's chest, choking back sobs. Now that he was sick, Lily realised that the five years she'd spent at Hogwarts was time she'd spent away from her family – a grave mistake in any case. If Lily had been at home, maybe she wouldn't feel as guilty as she did now for all the lost hours she could have been spending with her parents. She should never have agreed to go to that stupid school in the first place!
Eventually, she found herself holding her father's hand while sitting next to him on the bed. Not a word was said between them on that visit, but Lily walked away feeling as though it was the best conversation they'd had in a long time. And that night, Lily perused the Muggle paper, looking for a job that she could apply for.
Dear Alice,
Please, please forgive me. I know I was unnecessarily rude to you when you came to visit me. You were just trying to make sure I was okay, and that's one of the reasons I love you. To answer your questions, I'm not okay at the moment. But I stand by my earlier promise: you can't help me, as much as either of us want you to be able to. I still don't think I'm ready to share my reasoning yet, but I'm standing by my decision not to return to Hogwarts this year. It was wrong of me to go in the first place, and I am now facing the consequences of five wasted years with my family.
Don't worry about me, please. I applied for some jobs in my area, and a firm that sells drills answered! I'm going to be a secretary for them – basically, I'm going to be writing letters, filling out forms, answering phones, and copying things. The pay is good, and it means that I can stay at home with my family.
I'm really sorry, Alice, and I hope you can forgive me for the past few weeks. I've been a bit of a bitch, to be honest.
Love, forever and always,
Lil.E
"What on earth does that mean?" Sirius asked. He, James, Remus and Alice were sitting in a corner of the common room after everybody had gone to bed, and Alice had just read him the letter. "What did she say? 'It was wrong of me to go in the first place'?"
"Beats me," Alice said. "I don't know, maybe somebody in her family is dying."
"That would make sense," Remus said.
The other three stared at him. "What?" he defended himself. "She said 'I am now facing the consequences of five wasted years with my family.'"
"So?" James asked.
"Well, that obviously means she feels guilty," Remus explained. "Look, when my father died, I was at school, and I felt completely horrible for not being there, and I felt even more horrible when I realised that while I was at school, I wasn't even able to get to know him, or even talk to him. I went through a pretty rough patch there, if you remember."
"Yeah," Sirius said. "I remember. It was a full moon, wasn't it Prongs?"
"Yeah," James nodded, and Remus shot them both a warning look, the meaning of which was very clear: Alice doesn't know. "Okay, here's a question," James said, changing the subject. "What in the name of Merlin's saggiest y-fronts, is a phone?"
"Well," Sirius said, launching into an explanation, "it's this Muggle contraption, and I'm not sure exactly how it works, but you talk into it, and you can talk to somebody else on the other end. Sort of like how you can use the Floo Network to talk to other people, except you don't need a fireplace, and you can't see the other person's head."
"Oh, great!" James grinned. "Maybe we should get some of them so I don't have to see your face while I'm talking to you!"
"Hey!" Sirius laughed. "I resent that!"
"Um, can we get back to the letter now?" Alice asked, waving her hands and pointing down to the table.
"Right, sorry," Sirius said. "Well, she's got a job at a Muggle place."
"What does that mean?" James asked.
"It means she's given up on a career in anything magical," Sirius said. "If she wanted a magical job, she could have got one. Places like Diagon Alley and the Ministry of Magic and Quidditch places... stuff like that."
"Lily doesn't like Quidditch," James told him. "She's never even been to a school match."
Alice and Remus deliberately avoided eye contact. Lily had, in fact, been to every single school match where James would have been absent from the crowd, and she'd kept it a secret from him because she didn't want him to know that she had an interest in something he loved. Thankfully, James was too preoccupied on the meaning of the letter to notice this right now.
"Okay," Remus said. "I think she's doing it so that she can stay at home with her family – she said that she took the job because she can stay at home with her family, not that she's staying home with her family because she wanted a job."
"Good point, Moony," Sirius said. "So, this is what we know: Lily's going cold turkey on magic; she wants to stay at home; and she feels guilty for not spending time with her family while she's been at school."
"It all points to a sick family member," Remus said grimly.
"Poor Lily," Sirius said. "I can't begin to imagine what she's going through."