Chapter Fourteen: In Which There is a Funeral
Tairi can hardly believe she is going to Lily Potter's funeral. Something is wrong with the world when twelve-year-olds—or is Lily thirteen now? She's sure V said something about Lily's birthday last week—die.
And worse—Tairi knows it was Rich Hamilton who murdered her. He has the audacity to continue walking and talking and eating and sleeping and giving his teachers a hard time, and Lily is dead.
Tairi has already vowed vengeance, along with the entire rest of Slytherin House—except Vulpecula and Luther, who are both too quiet and shell-shocked to do much of anything.
Now, though—now she is here for James. Eyes wide and staring, he hardly seems aware of walking as more than a reflex, much less anything else. Tairi guides him to their seats, in the front row, beside his brother, Albus, and his parents. His mother is crying silently, Albus is frowning at the ground, and his father is staring, with the same total shock that is on James's face.
Up front, the little old man who does this sort of thing—Tairi's seen him at weddings, too, and assumes he's a general purpose formal occasions kind of guy, not that she cares—drones on, all about how life is too short, and Lily was a genius, a star, a perfect girl—
Tairi thinks of Lily, tries to imagine her as the perfect girl, and almost laughs.
Then a deluge of memories assails her—meeting Lily for the first time in Diagon Alley, she and Vulpecula hitting it off at once…Lily's Sorting, which James took surprisingly well, and then Father and Grandfather throwing tantrums the next day over the Daily Prophet article about Vulpecula and Lily being exchanged at birth…Defending Lily from James's awful cousin, Dominique…Lily's campaign to save Slytherin House, her pride at having convinced Professor Longbottom, a die-hard Gryffindor if ever there was one, to help…Lily's frequent fits of the sullens, comparable only to Grandfather's in intensity, and considerably longer-lasting, too…Lily's Christmas present to her and James…
Tairi smiles through her tears, thinking Lily was almost like another little sister. She and V were incredibly close—so much so, that V and Luther aren't even at the funeral. Tairi won't ever forget V's expression when she said she just couldn't face it.
To distract herself from her thoughts, Tairi scans the crowd. Besides the Potters, there are most of Slytherin House, all looking rather murderous, and all the teachers, and of course James's cousins…Tairi spots Dominique, who looks less upset than bored, and scowls. She doesn't hate Dominique for wishing James had a different girlfriend, or for giving her a hard time because she's a Malfoy—she can take a curse or two. But the way Dominique treated Lily, her own baby cousin, is unforgivable.
Tairi hopes that wherever Lily is now, it's a better place.
"It's not every girl who gets to see her own funeral, huh, Lily?" Luther asks mischievously. "How does it feel?"
Lily, face pressed against the bars on the ledge of the Astronomy Tower and old Omnioculars from when her dad saw the Quidditch World Cup pressed to her eyes, swings her feet, dangling many stories above the ground, against the stone walls of the castle, and doesn't say anything.
"Well," says Vulpecula lightly, from Lily's other side. "At least you know people care if you live or die."
"Yeah, nothing like committing fake suicide to know who loves you," Luther says sarcastically.
"Stop, you guys, you know this is just Phase Two," Lily says crossly. "They'll be fine."
Luther laughs. "Of course, you want them to be fine, do you? Salazar, Lily, you're such a hypocrite!"
"It's not forever," Lily protests, stung. "I have a plan."
"Oh, Lily, I think they're going to try and make your father give a speech!" cries Vulpecula, squinting down through her own Omnioculars, and adjusting the sound on her Omniaurals (a new invention her own father had a hand in creating).
"Poor man," Luther says, shaking his head. "That's awful."
"What—" Lily takes a breath. "What do you think he'll say about me?"
"That you're the biggest liar since Severus Snape," Luther mutters.
Vulpecula reaches across Lily to kick him. "He was one of the good guys, remember?"
Lily waits, her Omnioculars so tightly pressed against her face that they'll leave marks around her eyes, for her father to give her eulogy.
She can't believe this is really happening.
"I can't believe this is really happening," Harry says bleakly. "I have been blessed with a wonderful family, and that I'm losing a member of it—well, I suppose I must be thankful that we had as much time together as we did.
"But," he continues, voice getting stronger and eyes turning hard, "I also swear that I will find whoever did this. My daughter will be avenged!" He looks down, as though ashamed of the violence of his speech. "I love you, Lily," he whispers, and leaves the stage before he can say anything else and put his vengeance mission in jeopardy.
He feels at once cold with fury, numb with pain, and heavy with guilt. If he weren't the Chosen One, the Boy Who Lived, the Savior of the Wizarding World—this would never have happened. Lily would still be alive.
He isn't sure he can ever forgive himself for that.
Luther and Vulpecula leave Lily at the entrance to the Room of Requirement. "You're sure you're good?" Vulpecula asks. "Eating right and everything?"
Lily hefts the shopping bag filled with food from the kitchens that Vulpecula got for her. The house-elves may have to accept payment and holidays now, but they all still go out of their way for a pureblood like V.
"Yeah," Lily says. "Remember to lay the groundwork."
V nods, and Luther gives her an enigmatic look, before they both walk away, steps matching and heads bowed in pretend (at least mostly) grief.
Lily stares after them for a moment, remembers she really shouldn't be standing around like this in plain view of anyone who gets back from the funeral early, and paces in front of the wall three times, thinking about her sanctuary.
The door appears, she enters, sets down her shopping bag, sits on the bed, and cries.
Lily never dreamed her scheme was going to be so painful—for her or for her family. Guilt assails her. There must have been another way—this is never going to work, and her reappearance is going to take some finesse, no question—is she really just going to let her family go on thinking she's dead? Who knows what Dad will do to Rich Hamilton, who, Lily is certain, deserves whatever he gets—but what if Dad does something really illegal and has to arrest himself? What if she's careless enough to wander out of the Room of Requirement without the Polyjuice Potion Luther swiped for her, now containing V's cousin's hair? Someone might see her and her whole scheme would be for nothing!
Lily shivers, feeling very alone.
To distract herself from her thoughts, she rummages through the few things she dared pack, knowing her trunks will be sent back to her parents. Maybe there's something here she can spend her time on—she's desperate enough to try homework, although it isn't like she can hand it in.
She pulls out a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, then frowns when a scrap of paper falls out.
Lily would be the first to admit she isn't very neat—or maybe the last to admit it, since Slytherins have a problem voicing their flaws—but she knows what's hers and what isn't.
She doesn't remember this scrap of paper, and she knows last time she read Quidditch Through the Ages she used a rag soaked in red ink as a bookmark. So what is it doing there?
Lily picks it up, gingerly, and unfolds the page. There, magically fixed to the spare bit of parchment, are more careful, oddly-shaped letters. Lily reads them, going cold.
Meet me toNight outSIDe the CAstle gates at midnight OR someone you LOVE dIEs. TeLl no One, you pathetic freaK of nature.
For a moment, Lily can't move a muscle, panic fixing her in place. Then she remembers—this can't mean tonight, how could it, everyone thinks she's dead—and if anyone who is in on her scheme decided to betray her, they would send her a blackmail note or tell the Headmistress, not tell her to meet them somewhere all mysteriously.
But then that means she's already missed the appointment, which means someone she loves is in danger—
Lily's breath stops for a moment, dizziness overtakes her—
But surely, if her anonymous, creepy stalker thinks she's dead, they have no reason to hurt her family—and she saw them, all there at her funeral just an hour ago—
So they must be all right, mustn't they? What about Luther and Vulpecula—her other cohorts, Louis and Melanie and Anne and Tairi and Bree and Magnus and all of Slytherin House? But she would know, if any of them were missing—even Lily's funeral isn't enough to ignore a missing student, they'd assume it was the same person, Lily's murderer and the kidnapper—
Dad thinks she's been murdered, he must be in hell—after what happened to his parents, how could she have been so selfish?
Who is her awful creepy stalker anyway? Too late, Lily wonders if she should have told someone about that, at some point…before her 'death.'
Salazar! She'll start to believe it herself, before long. Good thing Tairi wasn't in on that part—she and Bree and Magnus will think the big prank was the Gryffindor's pumpkin juice, not her death—Lily didn't tell Scorpius, or even Rose, who is weirdly practical enough to have gone along, for precisely the same reason: they wouldn't have kept it a secret from Al, same as Tairi wouldn't from James.
She honestly doesn't believe any of them, even her brothers if they somehow knew, would betray her to her stalker. Lily may be dead, and only thirteen, and hiding out in the Room of Requirement instead of telling the truth and taking her punishment (something at which she's never excelled), but she won't give in to someone who's been threatening her for months, lest her fake funeral become her real one.
Besides, it doesn't even take a Slytherin to read the rest of the note, the part in invisible ink reading, "P.S., this IS a trap."
Lily grins, a little of her confidence slipping back to her like a favorite cloak. Maybe, just maybe, with a boatload of luck and a little help from her friends, Lily's scheme will work after all.