Note: Second to last chapter, here! We're almost done!
Chapter Eighteen: In Which Lily Returns
The Slytherin table is back in the Great Hall by lunchtime. "We're back, just in time for exams!" Lottie Rosier says sarcastically. The entire table is filled with loud voices, and the Great Hall is an explosion of green.
Scorpius Malfoy can be heard saying, "We should have a Quidditch tournament, give us the chance to get our own back—"
Bree Urquhart is still trying to get cereal out of her hair in between ecstatic cheering—
And the teachers have yet to tell the students-formerly-known-as-the-students-formerly-known-as-Slytherins to quiet down, which must be a record in and of itself.
Only Luther Dagworth is quiet, thinking of Lily and all they've sacrificed to get this result. It won't be long now, before she can return. He hopes the world will be ready for her.
Several days later, when Eve Malfoy has packed her bags and departed, and the entire school has settled down to the serious business of exam preparation, Lily Potter, hair returned to its natural dark red and artfully smudged shadows under her eyes, walks out of the Forbidden Forest and up to the doors of the castle.
She proceeds to the Great Hall without hindrance, takes a deep breath, and opens the door.
For a moment, no one seems to notice; then Sally Simpkins screams, pointing at Lily and babbling about ghosts and Inferi.
The noise swells, and Lily doesn't have to feign her sudden faintness—she feels like she's being assaulted by sound. Her eyes seek out her brother, sitting alone at the Gryffindor table in the midst of a crowd all clamoring to get a good look at her.
Al won't meet her eyes, and Lily shivers.
"Lily, you're alive!" Magnus Yaxley exclaims, beaming at her. "Er—you are alive, right?" he adds, no doubt thinking of Inferi also.
Lily nods.
"Excellent!" Magnus exclaims. "This is great, really—" and then he's swallowed by the crowd, and Tairi Malfoy has Lily in a crushing hug—she backs off only when the Weasley cousins, en masse but missing Al, surround Lily.
"Excuse me," says Headmistress Beaumont, "But I really must insist Miss Potter accompany me to my office—" and she sweeps Lily in her wake, closely followed by Professor Longbottom, who's snagged Al on his way past the Gryffindor table. Professors Joshi-Yap and Parkinson-Bulstrode are holding back the rest of the crowd, including Roxane, Louis, Hugo, Molly, Lucy, Rose, Dana, Melanie, Anne, Luther and Vulpecula.
Professor Beaumont waves her wand and a silver hawk streams away down the hall and out the doors, no doubt headed for Lily's parents. She gulps.
It only takes Harry and Ginny five minutes to Apparate to the front gates of Hogwarts and race upstairs to the Headmistress's office. "Lily's alive!" wasn't a very lengthy message, but it'll get them moving any time. They are accompanied by Hermione and Luna, who happened to be visiting for tea with Ginny at the time.
Harry doesn't even bother with the password; the gargoyle, recognizing him, also seems to sense he means business, and leaps out of the way without benefit of the password.
"LILY!" Harry shouts. "LILY?"
And there she is—his own daughter, safe and sound and not dead for two months—Harry's hugging her before he can think, and Ginny is right behind him.
Harry doesn't know how long it is before he finally lets Lily go enough to breathe; he does hear James say, "Oh, my Godric!" and turns slightly to see his eldest son standing in the doorway, leaning on Tairi Malfoy and eyes wide.
He turns back to Lily almost at once, though, in time to see Ginny pull her hand back and slap Lily, hard; the sound is shocking.
Furious, Harry rounds on Ginny. Her lip trembles, and she says, "Oh, Godric, Lily, if you ever do this again…"
"How could you!" Harry shouts. "She's been dead—she could be injured—I thought we agreed physical discipline was barbaric—"
Luna, meanwhile, is examining Lily. Although she isn't a Healer, Harry has every confidence in her abilities, so this sight affords him some relief.
"Everyone, please!" yells Professor Beaumont. "While I appreciate that this is an extremely emotional time, I must ask Lily to explain what's happened! So if you could all sit down and allow her to speak!"
About half an hour later, Harry, Ginny, Luna, Hermione, Neville, Albus, James and Tairi have managed to stand back and allow Lily space to breathe, which she does, sitting in the chair in front of the Headmistress's desk and looking nervous.
"What happened?" Headmistress Beaumont asks.
"I was kidnapped and nursed back to health by chain-smoking alien vampires," Lily says at once. Albus snorts, Hermione gasps, and Harry waits, reflecting that he's heard and seen much stranger things. Well—perhaps not much stranger. Lily continues. "After I—died—they rescued me from my grave. They thought I was one of them, because they could sense my magical signature, so naturally they assumed I would rise again. When I didn't, they used weird alien technology—like Muggle stuff, only way more advanced—to bring me back. I only just convinced them to return me here; they kept thinking I must belong with them on their spaceship."
"Vampires, huh?" Headmistress Beaumont says. "I see."
"The important thing is you're all right now," Hermione says forcefully. It's clear she's planning to either research alien vampires and the deleterious effect their habits of chain-smoking might have on the lungs of a thirteen-year-old, or else block the entire conversation from her mind. "We should probably get Madame Pomphrey to look at you just in case—come on, Lily dear—"
"Lily, I'm so sorry," Ginny is now sobbing. "If only we'd protected you—" Lily suffers herself to be hugged more, gray eyes still trying to find Al's.
James is there, too, and he, Harry and Ginny are all hugging Lily at once. "Thank Godric," James is saying over and over.
At last, the procession makes its way to the Hospital Wing. It's only Lily and her family; Tairi has gone off to find Vulpecula and Scorpius, Aunt Hermione to owl Uncle Ron, and Aunt Luna and Neville are still with Professor Beaumont.
A small, disloyal part of Lily wishes she were with them; she finds the affectionate attention of her family as cloying as it is reassuring. And Albus still won't meet her eyes.
"I can't believe it!" Neville says blankly. "She's not dead!"
"Everything's just falling into place, isn't it?" Headmistress Beaumont agrees happily. "Abolition repealed, now Lily Potter still alive…this has been a good week."
"Coincidence, I suppose?" mutters Professor Snape's portrait. He holds out little hope of being attended to, which is perhaps just as well; that vampire story aside, Miss Potter has impressed him, a fact he would prefer not to reveal.
"Naturally," Albus Dumbledore's portrait murmurs, those electrifying blue eyes gleaming. Even in portrait form, he still manages to seem as though he knows precisely everything that has occurred in the school, and why.
"This is more than our hopes," Luna says thoughtfully. "She is a strong girl."
"'Course," Neville says bracingly, grinning. "She's a Potter!"
But Luna remains staring into space longer than it takes to contemplate chain-smoking alien vampires and what food source, if any, they're able to find in space. She's thinking that Lily had better be careful how many more stunts she pulls like this—just in case.