Chapter 13

The next few weeks passed quickly for Lily. She studied, went to classes, hung out with Gemma and occasionally James, and tried desperately to figure out what was forming on her chest.

About two weeks after they got back, Lily walked into the great hall and searched for Gemma, not seeing her, she decided to sit by James until she came in. It was odd really, she though as she slipped in next to him, Gemma usually got down here before her, plus, she hadn't been upstairs when she had had her attack.

It was the searing, painful, burning unexpected flash; Lily had looked at the clock, saw that it was a little after 8, and then went to leave before collapsing. The attacks were getting more common, at least one a day. Even worse, her tattoo seemed to grow…

Not only in length. Although a good half a centimeter had been added on both sides, a strange weaving pattern that seemed to emanate from underneath the spider also appeared. It was like a curving octagon, quicky pushing out and expanding, almost like a spider web…

"Want an apple?" James asked through a full mouth, holding up the large red fruit to her.

"Sure" she said taking it from him and gathering food to her plate. "But I can hardly even eat it now after you and Tyler-"

"That was awesome"

"I had Apple juice in every crevasse of my body"

"I could have helped you get it off" he wiggled his eyebrows

"That's an offer I'll very gladly pass up, Thank you very much."

Lily reached across the table to take the salt from where it laid next to Sirius's plate.

"Do you mind if I…"

She trailed off at his and Remus expression. Their mouths where full, various breakfast foods hanging out. Their eyes darted back and forth between Lily and James. James smiled.

"Oh yeah," James said sling an arm around her shoulder. "me and Lily-flower here got awfully close over surprise weekend" He turned his face into her neck in an effort to kiss her for a split second before Lily pushed him away with enough strength to push him off the bench entirely.

"Hey!" he said as he sat back up off the floor where several people where looking at him. "We did!"

"Not like that," She said buttering a piece of toast, "nothing like that, the closest we got is that I can stand to actually look at you now."

"That's a good improvement." He smiled, showing all his teeth.

Lily rolled her eyes and looked up just in time to see Gemma run into the hall, see her, rush over, grab her hand and pulled her into the entrance hall. Lily stumbled behind her, tripping over herself until Gemma pulled them to a stop near the staircases.

"What? What is it?" She asked nervously. She had never seen Gemma like this before; she looked terrified, excited and exuberant at the same time.

"He asked me out!" She squealed grabbing Lily's hands and jumping up and down.

"Who?" She asked although she thought she already knew

"Ty!" Lily squealed to, jumping up and down.

"When?" She asked when they had calmed down enough to breathe normally

"Tonight, 7:45 or so, he said he'd pick me up from my dorm then." Lily smiled, this was good for Gemma, and she needed something like this, a break from worrying about Lily. She hugged Gemma again, twirling them around.

"Excuse me ladies, but we do have classes to get to." Sirius pointed out from where he, James, Remus and peter where standing. Lily rolled her eyes. "Fine"

The rest of the day seemed to take extra long. Although Gemma didn't stop smiling the entire d, Lily noticed that she to occasionally glance at the clock. At last, 6:30 came and the girls where in the bathroom connected to their dorms. Brushes, combs, hair scrunches, lipsticks and other various make-ups litter the table and floor.

"Do you know what you're wearing?" Lily asked, she and Gemma had discussed most of the day, narrowing down their wardrobes into 2 different options.

"I think I'll go with the teal dress and black sweater, it seems most appropriate." She said, Lily nodded she had hoped she would pick that one. Lily moved onto her make-up, keeping her outfit in mind. When she was done, they went into the dorm and picked out shoes and accessories.

"You look perfect." Lily said at Gemma, looking her over at 7:40. Gemma was wearing a teal dress that ended in ruffles around her knees; her black sweater was low around the shoulders, showing the dresses thick straps. Her blonde curled framed her face and fell behind her back, Lily's favorite green necklace shined at her throat, black heels made little clip clop sounds as she walked across the room to check her make up in the mirror.

"Really, Gemma, you'll knock his socks off."

"Definitely." Michelle agreed as she and Adrian walked into the room. They looked at her. "Good, you wore that dress."

"I thought it was better." Gemma said

"There both amazing, but his shirt is green and will match this one way better."

"You saw him?"

"Yeah, when we were coming up he walked out of his dorm, one of his buddies called him back in for something though. He'll be here soon."

Gemma took a deep breath. "I can't believe this is actually happening." She looked as though she would pass out from happiness.

A knock on the door made everyone jump a little. Gemma made no move to answer, nervousness creeping up on her face. So Lily did. She bounced off the bed where she was sitting, walked over to the door, and opened it.

Ty Michaels was standing there, looking as nervous as Gemma did. His shirt was a nice shade of green, tucked into brown pants.

"Hey, is Gemma there?" he asked, saying her name reverently.

"Yeah, hold on." Leaving the door open, she skipped over to Gemma and pulled her to the door. Ty looked like he stopped breathing all together. His eyes roamed over her body, not in the creepy undressing with his eyes way, but more like happy, soaking it all in way.

"You- You look amazing." He said to her blush.

"Thank you." She said smiling still.

"Um- You ready to go?" He asked, holding out his arm.

"Yeah, of course" She took his hand, picked her purse off of the table near the door and then left the room by his side." That door closed and the three girls waited for the sounds of footsteps to fade before speaking.

"OMG THEY ARE SOOOOO CUTE TOGETHER!" Michelle yelled at the top of her lungs, putting her hands over her mouth when she realized how loud it was.

"I know right!" Adrian squealed.

Lily laughed running and jumping around the room with the other girls.

"So, you and Potter snogging yet?" Michelle asked when they were sitting in a circle on the floor.

"What? No, of course not. What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"I do not. I don't even like him like that."

"It's ok if your crushing on the Marauders, at least they know you exist." Adrian said with a frown.

"Your-"Lily looked at her "You're crushing on the Marauders?"

She nodded, a blush creeping up her face. "Yeah, on Sirius Black."

Lily leaned against the bed frame, letting this sink in. That made sense; it was just… weird somehow.

"You know what we need," Michelle said "chocolate."

Adrian nodded," yeah, sense were dateless, we might as well have a party here."

"I like this plan." Lily said

"Yeah, "Michelle frowned suddenly "it 'barely 8, but it will have to be just us, considering the agents and all…"

"Speaking of agents where's Declan?" Adrian asked

"Oh, he's helping reinforce some of the charms around the lake, he checked with us when we got here, you guys were late."

"Hmmm." Adrian mused "That makes sense. So chocolate. And pumpkin juice and a lot of other sugary stuff from the kitchen."

"Let's go." Michelle said standing up.

"You guys go ahead, hurry back." Lily said heading to the bathroom."I'll wait up here."

"K, see you in a second." Michelle and Adrian left the dorm, laughing down the stairs. Lily opened the bathroom door, and started picking up floor.

It started as usual, nothing and then a flashing burn of everything at once. Her head was on fire, organs were being squished, lungs pressed together until no air could loosen them. She collapsed to the floor, conscience blinking on and off but the pain staying no matter. After what felt like an eternity but realistically was only a few agonizing moments, Lily woke up to stare at the bathroom ceiling.

As it had before, the pain on her chest did not subside. She groped up, her weak fingers trying to grasp the cold cabinet. She grabbed a small notch and pulled, her body screaming at every possible movement. Her legs couldn't support her; she fell against the counter, pushing her body to stand up. She reached up with her trembling fingers, her numb skin failing to capture the concept of undoing her button. Finally, she released the first three, with the back of her aching hand; she pushed her shirt of off her heart.

The spider tattoo and web were still there, only bigger. The scaling tentacles of the web were scalding up her. The edge of them was passing her collarbone on one side reaching to her shoulder on the other.

The dorm room burst open, Michelle and Adrian racing in, trays of pastries in their hands. They were laughing, completely carefree, completely unaware of her racing heart and slipping sanity.

"Lily?" Adrian called "Lily, are you alright?"

"Yeah." She called out, working to make her voice stand strong. "I'll be right out."

She stepped out a few minutes later, not able to push the tattoo out of her mind; she headed directly to her closet, worried they might see it.

Lily wore a closed neck shirt that night.

Kind of creepy huh, please review

LIZIES