Chapter 6
"The start of the Weekend"
The next morning, Lily and Gemma made their way to the gate at the end of the Hogwarts grounds. There, they joined a line leading up to where government officials were using Side-Along-Apparating to bring students where ever they needed to go for the surprise holiday. Some were going home, some to relatives, some to hotels or any other places they could think of. If the latter, Professor Dumbledore had agreed to pay necessary cost for those who needed to stay abroad.
Lily had an uneasy feeling in her stomach as she slowly moved down the line. On her back was a backpack filled with everything Lily and Gemma would need for the weekend. Since it was only 3 days and they weren't bringing much, they had combined their bags and then used an expansion charm to fit it all in.
Next to her, Gemma was chatting cheerfully about all of her cousins and siblings that would be here, and about all of the things they would do. She was just as excited as Lily was nervous.
"Lily?" She asked seeing the uncomforting expression on her face. "Relax. This weekend is going to rock"
"I feel like I'm intruding"
"Don't. They'll absolutely love to have you. We all will."
Lily expression didn't move what so ever, so, sighing, Gemma took a letter out of her back pocket.
"Look at this response, Aunt Julie is almost move excited about it then the student body is."
Lily took the letter from Gemma and straightened it out. On the piece of parchment was a neat and tidy italic scroll;
Dear Gemma,
It's so good to hear from you. It's hard to believe that they are letting all of the student body go for the weekend. Good thing though, having just had my baby, James is dying to see him. We would very much enjoy having you over as well. It is, to my belief, that Marcus has planned a very long and eventful weekend, and knowing him, it might be a bit too much. As for the matter of your friend, Lily, we would positively love to have her, although we can be a bit much from time to time, I hope we don't scare the dear child. But if she is willing to brace herself for the Potters, she is more than welcome here. The kids will be thrilled and Lord knows I could use another set of hands to help if she wouldn't mind. We will try to make the house and activities most accommodating for her, a though I do not know what it is she likes. I guess I will have to wait until she gets here. I'm very much looking forward to learning about her, as all the stories (and there have been plenty) including her always portrays her as an amazing person.
I can't wait until you get here .I hope your journey is well and Marcus will pick the two of you up at the station seeing how he refuses to let me out of the house due to the baby.
Lots of love,
Aunt Julie
"She seems like a really nice person" Lily said looking back over the letter "but what's up with the whole lots of stories about me thing?"
"Well" Gemma's face was red as she looked at the ground." Come on Lily, you're my best friend and James fancies you. Between the two of us there had been some talk of you over holidays."
"Gemma!" She said folding up the letter angrily "Now I'm going to have some big reputation of being amazing to live up to"
"We both now that won't be a problem," Gemma replied as they stepped forward. "You are amazing without even trying. And besides, Aunt Julies is obviously very pleased to have you. You aren't intruding what so ever."
Lily wouldn't lie, reading the letter had made her feel better; anyone who seemed that exuberant about it just on paper had to be ecstatic about it in real life.
"Maybe your right, this might be really fun after all"
"Fun? This is going to be awesome!"
They had reached the front of the line, where a tall witch dressed in robes took their hands and asked them their destination.
"Godric's Hollow bus station." Gemma said clearly and with excitement. The witch nodded and Apparated with a small popping sound. Lily closed her eyes and felt the familiar yet uncomfortable sensation of Aparation. She opened her eyes as soon as the world stopped spinning. She and Gemma were standing behind a pillar in a slightly crowded bus station. The two girls walked out from behind it and easily fell into step with some other passengers from the nearby trains that were to the left of them on the tracks. They pushed their way outside and Lily looked over the town as Gemma scanned the inside crowd.
Godric's hollow was a quaint yet busy town. Paved roads and cobbled sidewalks mapped out the city. On the outskirts of the city there sat several smaller cottages while they gradually grew bigger near the center. Children played on the front lawns and parents of both Wizarding and Muggle worlds pocked their heads out occasionally to check on them. Lily's eyes lingered hungrily on a little girl who was bicycling, fell, and then had her big sister rush out to help her. Watching this scene caused far too many unwelcome memories to return. She turned to look back at Gemma.
And that's when it happened.
The pain was burning, consuming, knocking down all and any sanity in its path to conquer her mind. With a small scream, she was slightly aware of her physical body falling against the ground. She had experienced pain before, but nothing as intense as this. Thousands of knives were being thrust into to her body, hammers colliding with her skin and rocks were being pelted at her nerves. A crushing weight dropped onto her shoulders. Her bones melted, her blood froze, her skin boiled, her joints hardened.
But what were most shocking were the Images;
A building on fire, a lake freezing over, walls exploding, darkness in every direction, burst of lights in ever hue of red, green and silver. Tears being shed, teeth being gnashed, fingers being clawed, laughter being lost forever. The horrible litter of a car crash, an erratic heartbeat crashing to a stop, and a swarm of insanely placed music notes tying it all together with a cunning and terrible instrument of death.
A sucking sound, and then it all cleared. She was sprawled across the wooden porch of the station. Somewhere in the dim back round, she thought she heard Gemma shouting her name with a horrified tone. Slowly, and with all the resentment in the world, she cranked an eye open.
"Wha'?" She asked her voice croaking out of her throat. "Wha' happened?"
"I don't know" Said Gemma who looked like she was freaking out. "You were fine and then you scream and fell over and started shaking. I didn't know what to do" Poor Gemma, she looked like she was going to start crying. Feeling like she was going to scream, Lily stood up and picked up her backpack.
"I'll be fine Gemma; it was just a pain Attack."
"You've never had one that bad."
It was true; this had put a complete new meaning to the phrase "hurt like hell"
"Your right, we'll talk to Madame Vince when we get back."
At first Lily was confused at Gemma's expression. Then she recognized it as fierce determination.
"Oh no, we are not waiting the whole weekend to get you checked out, Aunt Julies a Medi-witch, we'll have her look you over."
"Gemma…"
"No whining. No excuses, something is seriously wrong."
Something was seriously wrong. Lily had never experienced anything that intensely horrifying in her life. And what made it worse, is that she had the strangest feeling that the worst was yet to come.
TADA I'm done with this chapter! I wanted to just keep writing but I figured this was the best place to stop. Kinda scary huh? I ran out of good adjectives to describe her pain attack. I like my metaphors though. Hope you like it! Please review!
Peace
LIZIES