Chapter Five:
"Lily...Lily!" someone called my name.
"Go away," I mumbled, swatting the air with my hand.
"Lily, you're going to miss breakfast," Aphelia said, shaking me. I tried to slap her hand away.
"Wakey, wakey!" she laughed. I tried to kick her off the bed. My feet made impact with something else that wasn't Aphelia.
"Woah! Watch it!" someone else cried. "I just did my hair!"
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Morning, Felicity," I yawned, sliding my feet out of the bed.
Felicity tossed her dark hair over her shoulder. "Morning," she said, stiffly, before prancing over to her bed and checking her reflection in her mirror. She added another sweep of eyeliner.
I changed quickly, managing to put my skirt on backwards first time around. After a moment rectifying this, I said to Aphelia, "We're going," and grabbed her arm and directed her out of the dorm.
"Hey, Lily!" Felicity called after us. I turned on the spot, my hair hitting Aphelia in the face.
"What?" I asked.
Felicity took a couple of steps down the stairs. "Seriously, put on more make-up. You look like the Giant Squid," she said, sincerely.
I pursed my lips, and then tossed some hair over my shoulder. "The thing is, Felicity, you look like a Blast-Ended Skwret even with make-up on. Don't deny it," I smiled at her, before running down the stairs to the common room. Lissy was sitting in a chair by the fire, reading a letter.
"Hey," I grinned, pulling her up from the chair. "Breakfast time."
Lissy hurriedly stashed the letter away in her bag. "Ok, hold on," she murmured, smiling slightly. I glanced at the folded piece of parchment.
"Who's the letter from?" I smirked.
She shrugged, still smiling to herself. "Just my cousin."
I raised my eyebrows. "Why are you smiling like that?"
Lissy shrugged again. "He's coming over. Meeting in Hogsmeade."
After a moment's pause, Aphelia said, "Whatever, I'm starved. Let's grab some food."
The moment we stepped outside the portrait hole, everything went dark. I gasped slightly, but Aphelia and Lissy were giggling, so it was nothing dangerous or exciting.
"See you later, Lily,"Aphelia giggled, and I heard them walking away. Suddenly I felt someone kissing me, and when they took their hands away from my eyes I saw it was Robert. After another moment I pulled away. We walked down to breakfast together. I was really glad that Robert was easy to talk to, not like other guys I gone out with in the past. There had been times, for instance, with Andrew McLaggen, where he had just never shut up about his dad's connections at the Ministry. Or Matthew, who had never been able to support a conversation. Robert was just easy to talk to. I could talk to him like I would chat to Hugo - easily. Sure, he didn't talk about the most interesting subjects, but he was cute and sweet, and would be easy to use in my plan for redemption. We were chatting about Quidditch, and I was assuring him that he'd been great until that fatal swing of his bat, when he suddenly changed the subject.
"Hey, did you hear Roxanne didn't turn up in her dorm last night?" he said, casually. My eyes widened.
"She didn't?" I asked. Robert shook his head.
"Nope, apparently nobody saw her after the Quidditch trials."
"I did," I said. Robert looked confused.
"Why, I thought you two hated each other?"
I rolled my eyes. "She's still my cousin. I mean, we used to hate each other. I think everything's ok now," I murmured. Robert's arm shifted around my shoulders.
"Roxanne is your cousin?" he asked, sounding surprised.
"Why, is that so shocking?" I pouted, speaking in low voice. I felt Robert shrug.
"No, it's just you don't look at all alike, and...well, I guess you're just not as close to her as Hugo," he said, the surprise wearing out of his voice.
"She looks like her mum," I said, simply. "But seriously, her last name is Weasley, didn't you make the connection?" I asked. Robert frowned.
"I always thought it was Bisley," he muttered. It took everything I had not laugh at this. Then I remembered how Roxanne had come into the conversation.
"She's alright, isn't she?" I asked, concerned. Robert laughed.
"Alright? Lily, she probably just met some guy after the tryouts and stayed out with him," he chuckled.
I raised my eyebrows. "Are you implying..." I trailed off, as Robert had shot me a look that showed exactly what he was implying.
I laughed. "Please, Roxanne is not that kind of girl!" In my head, I added, I hope she's ok.
I sat down at the Gryffindor table, and Robert went over to sit at the Ravenclaw table. I told Aphelia about Roxanne as soon as I sat down. She shrugged.
"I agree with Robert. She's probably fine, Lily," Aphelia shrugged. I looked to Lissy, who nodded, her mouth full of strawberries that had stained her lips a pale red.
Robert and I walked to Transfiguration together, and although I maintained a casual outwardly appearance, I was beginning to feel a bit nervous. I hadn't seen Roxanne at breakfast, so I was hoping she would turn up to Transfiguration. However, my feel of worry rose like bile in my throat when I saw her empty chair in the classroom. I finally managed to transfigure my quill into a completely normal lizard, however then Hippelby had me straightaway turning a lyre into a warthog. This was much harder, as it was hard to make the strings vanish, and if you tapped different places on the tusks it sounded like a musical instrument. In Charms, Professor Fizzit taught us about Epoximise, a charm that makes two objects stick together - for homework we had to practise it and bring what we managed to do to the lesson. Professor Longbottom had us studying the properties of the plant we did yesterday, which we were then reminded it was called Anginus Alis, a carnivorous plant that you couldn't let touch any of your skin, or else it would throttle you to death. Professor Longbottom also asked me if I'd mind telling my parents that he and his wife would love to have them over for dinner one night. Sufficiently awkward...In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dralicke issued us a foot-long essay on the usage of Cave Inimicum. Potions was tedious, as once again Agnes wanted me to help her with her Amortentia. This time I had to say no, and she retracted her offer of a makeover. No complaints there. I got mine to approximately the halfway mark, a feat I was immensely proud of - it was an incredibly complex potion.
But Roxanne still wasn't there. By this time, most people had noticed her absence. People who, unlike Robert, knew I was her cousin were coming up to me and asking her where she was. I could only honestly tell them that I had no idea. Scarlett Marks told me she wasn't in their dormitory, and she'd checked the Hospital Wing - no sign. By dinner, people were starting to worry. The hall was abuzz with gossip alluding to her possible whereabouts. Professor MacPhersonis even had to stand up at the front of the Great Hall and tell everybody not to panic, Roxanne was going to be fine - although I did notice that she muttered something to Professor Jollieminda when she sat back down about notifying Roxanne's parents is she didn't turn up soon.
"Where is she?" Lissy whispered to me. I shrugged.
"No idea," I replied, spooning tapioca pudding into my mouth. Hiding concern was one of the things I was best at.
"Aren't you worried?" Lissy persisted.
"I guess," I replied, "but Roxanne's a big girl now, she can take her of herself."
Lissy looked shocked. "But...Lily Potter!" she spoke in a tone I hadn't heard her use before. "She's your cousin!"
"I know that," I said, shrugging.
"She's in danger!" Lissy whispered dramatically.
"We don't have any proof of that," I pointed out. Lissy opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. She didn't like arguments, as she said they didn't get people anywhere. She preferred to accept that different people had different opinions. She sighed slightly, then smiled instead.
"Are you finished?" she asked.
"Done," I replied, walking out of the hall, Lissy following me.
"Hey guys, wait up!" I heard Aphelia call out. As she approached, I saw she was accompanied by Brooke, Agnes and Felicity. Agnes appeared to have told the other two about I wouldn't help her in potions, so they were being a bit frosty with me. Nevertheless, we walked out of the hall together like nothing was wrong.
The moment we walked into the Entrance Hall, I noticed Scarlett and Lucy standing by the doors, talking fervently to a bedraggled girl, who's robes were torn, with twigs and leaves sticking out of her tangled, knotty hair. I recognised the face, though, even if other aspects of her appearance had changed. I knew the face. I'd been searching for that face all say
"Roxanne!" I cried, running over to her. "Where were you?" I asked, when I got to her, panting.
She looked over from Scarlett at me, and her expression changed from one of weariness to one of hatred. "Like you care," she hissed, her eyes blazing.
"What?" I sighed, confused. "I thought we were fine now!"
Roxanne screwed up her face in disbelief. "Fine? We can't be fine! I was on the team for one year, then you just come along and take the only thing I had going for me away from me!" she hissed.
"Aren't you ok with that thing about the Quidditch team now? I said I was sorry!" I sighed, thinking back to our conversation last night.
"You know what? Save your fake sorry for someone who gives a damn," she spat. I rolled my eyes.
"Roxy, we talked about this last night, remember? You said you were ok with it," I sighed, frustrated. Roxanne's glare faltered.
"We didn't talk last night," she said.
"Yeah, you did," Aphelia had come up behind me and I hadn't noticed. "The three of us sat down and talked about it, you said you forgave her."
Roxanne frowned. "Now I know you're lying. I could never forgive her."
"But you did!" I exclaimed.
"But I didn't!" she replied, mimicking my voice.
"How can you not remember?" I cried.
"Try because it didn't happen, and you're just making up excuses, as usual! All that happened was you got picked for the team and not me!" she yelled, a red tinge in her eyes. I huffed, and stalked away, furious with her for not acknowledging that I was sorry. I heard Aphelia say, "I know you won't tell Lily, but can you tell me where you were?"
I waited just around the corner for Aphelia to pass by. When she did, I pounced.
"Did you see that? I said I was sorry!" I hissed. Aphelia, although a little startled, shook her head. She looked over her shoulder, checking nobody was there, then beckoned me to follow her into a corner.
"Look, I don't think Roxanne is...well, I don't think she's in her right mind," Aphelia frowned.
"Well, she seemed perfectly able to contradict me, as usual, so she seemed pretty normal to me!" I hissed. Aphelia glared at me.
"Hey! Don't take out your anger on me!" she said in a strong voice. I rolled my eyes. "I mean,"Aphelia continued, "for one thing, she has no recollection whatsoever of our conversation last night, and also, she says she was practising Quidditch until late last night, and then wandered into the Forbidden Forest and got lost. That seems kind of impossible to me, as Professor Matthews took our Care of Magical Creatures class into the forest, and there was no sign of her! I mean, she would have heard the lesson and been able to find us, wouldn't she?"Aphelia whispered, as a gaggle of fourth-years passed by. I bit my lip. "Maybe she went deaf," I said sarcastically, not sure what else to say.
"I don't know, but her story is pretty unbelievable. I asked her how she spent twenty-three hours in that forest without managing to find her way out, and she says she fell and hurt her ankle, but come on, you saw her, she'd only just gotten back, and her ankle was fine!" she said.
I thought about this. It was true that Roxanne hadn't seemed to be in any pain, and by the state of her robes and hair she had literally just gotten back.
"What are you suggesting?" I asked.
"Either she's lying, or she mad. I think something else happened in there she's either not telling us or unable to tell us."
"She's not mad."
"And she didn't look like she was lying!" Aphelia said, snappily. I sighed.
"What do you want to do about it then?" I asked her. Aphelia looked surprised.
"Do? There's nothing we can do. If she can't tell us, she can't tell us. If she won't tell us, she won't tell us. I'm just saying maybe lay off her a little bit," Aphelia shrugged. I opened my mouth in disbelief.
"Why should I? She sure as hell didn't lay off me!" I cried, throwing my arms up in exasperation.
"But she did last night!" Aphelia sighed. "Whatever reason she has for not acknowledging our conversation last night, the fact is that she did forgive you!"
"She's obviously changed her mind!"
"She might not be in her right mind!"
We stood in silence for a few moments, mine stony, Aphelia's pensive. Whatever kind of silence, it was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.
"Look, I know you're talking about trying to get rid of your 'bad reputation'," Aphelia said, after a long while, "I'm just saying that if you want to do that, maybe exercising sympathy and forgiveness might be better than anger and holding grudges," she said softly.
I couldn't deny that. I did need to be nicer to people if I wanted them to not spread rumours about me.
"Fine," I sighed. Aphelia grinned. Then I had a thought. "Does this apply to Sharon?" I asked her.
"Merlin no," Aphelia said, without hesitation.
"Good," I breathed a sigh of relief. "Come on, let's go up to the common room," I said, grabbing her arm.
We spent the rest of the evening doing the essay Dralicke had set us - Aphelia and I began using Spell-Checking Quills after about five minutes, to save time. When we both thought we were finished, we checked each other's essays.
"You've written your name as Lilz Pootir," she said almost immediately. I frowned at hers.
"Yeah, yours says Ahelpix Clookye," I muttered.
"And it was about Cave Inimicum, not Karwee Inymidget," she added.
"Give me that!" I squealed, snatching my essay back from her. I groaned.
"Crap! How old are these quills?" I cried, scanning my parchment for any word that wasn't misspelt.
"From third year," I heard Lissy giggle quietly. I looked up to see that she was just sitting down next to us. "You used them," she added, trying to keep a straight face.
Aphelia groaned. "Now we have to write the whole thing out again!" she moved as if to tear up her essay. Lissy put out a hand to stop her, then gestured for Aphelia to pass the essay.
"Tergo," she muttered, clearing the parchment of the spelling mistakes, then doing the same to mine. She fished around in her bag for a second, then pulled out three different quills.
"Use these instead," she said, passing us a quill each. I looked at it. It was long, curly and bright red in colour, with an indigo nib.
"What kind of quill is this?" I asked.
"They're Smart-Answer," Lissy murmured, beginning work on her own essay. Aphelia paused, then wrote down a brief phrase on a spare bit of parchment. She let out a laugh.
"I wrote, My name is Aphelia. Call me Lia, and it now says, I was named Aphelia by my parents, however I prefer my friends and peers to address me as Lia." She looked up at Lissy. "I'm never giving you this back, you know," she said, grinning.
Lissy smiled. "You keep it," she muttered, biting her lip slightly in concentration. I tried mine out. I wrote down;
My name is Lily Potter. My dad is Harry Potter, and my mother is Ginny Potter. I have two older brothers.
The parchment read;
My given name is Lily Potter. I was born to Harry Potter and Ginevra Potter. I have two male siblings, who are both possessed of more years than I.
I grinned. "I love this thing!"
Lissy paused to smile back at me. "It's yours then."
"You sure?" I asked. Lissy nodded, then returned to her work on the Cave Inimicum essay.
What with the Smart-Answer Quills, we finished the essays in just under thirty minutes. I gave us just enough time to practise the Epoximise for Fizzit. Aphelia managed to get a stringy, glue-like substance in between an Every-Flavour Bean and a Sugar Quill. Lissy successfully managed to get two sticks stuck together, and was extremely pleased when even Hugo couldn't pull them apart.
I aimed mine for a mirror and a comb. Aphelia stood next to me to watch. "Epoximise!" I cried, my jinx hitting the mirror right in the centre. The jinx rebounded in the mirror, shot right off the glass, and a jet of silvery light shot right back at my arm. I felt Aphelia's wrist touch my elbow. I looked at the comb - it wasn't stuck to the mirror. "Damn," I muttered, moving to shuffle them closer together. Aphelia still hadn't moved her wrist.
"Um, Lia?" I said, trying to get further away from her. "Mind moving your arm?"
I felt a peculiar tugging sensation around my elbow. "I...can't," she muttered. I looked up to see her eyebrows furrowed in either confusion, concentration or both. "What do you mean, can't?" I straightened up, and tried to tug my elbow away form her. "Ow!" I cried, when I felt as if my elbow were attached by some of my Grandpa's superglue.
I saw Lissy out of the corner of my eye, with a strange expression on her face. Like she was torn between shrieking or laughing. I felt my eyes bulge. I looked at my arm and Aphelia's, still attached. "Oh, crap!" I cried, trying to move my arm away again.
"Ouch!" Aphelia screamed before I could. "Don't! That seriously hurts!"
Then Lissy couldn't control herself any longer, and burst into fits of very Lissy-ish giggles.
"This is not funny!" I cried, which only made her laugh harder.
"You...y-you...Epoximised...y-yours-self!" she choked out before completely collapsing on the floor. By this time, everyone in the common room had heard Lissy's giggles, and looked up to see what she was talking about. Everyone started laughing at us. Even Aphelia let out a few nervous giggles. I saw Hugo walk up to us, who was probably laughing the loudest.
"Want some help?" he chuckled, reaching for his wand.
"What did you have in mind?" Aphelia asked, keeping her arm very still so as not to cause any more pain.
"Sectumsempra," Hugo said.
"No way!" I cried, reaching out with my free hand to prevent Hugo from casting that spell on us.
"Oh my Merlin, that is hilarious!" I heard someone say. I let out an inward sigh. I looked over Hugo's head to see Felicity and Brooke walking through the common room door. Felicity was shaking her annoying mahogany head in disbelief, and Brooke was actually crying with laughter.
"How the -" insert swear here, thank you Felicity, "did you manage to do that?" she asked.
Aphelia grunted. "She tried to Epoximise a mirror." This only added fire to Lissy's loud giggles.
Brooke tried to smile sympathetically. "If you want I'll lend you a thick scarf of mine to cover it," she offered.
I grimaced. "Thanks," I said. Brooked indicated with her finger for us to follow her away from the laughter of our fellow Gryffindors. Whatever happened to chivalry?
Aphelia and I, Lissy and Felicity followed Brooke up into their dormitory, where Agnes was sitting on her bed, waiting.
"Finally!" she squeaked. "What took you so...what'd you guys to your arms?"
"They got Epoximise-ed," Lissy giggled, pointing at our joined arms. Agnes fell about laughing.
"Ooh! That is the best thing I have heard all day!" she squealed, as Brooke threw us a scarf to wrap around the arms. Then she sat down on her bed, and Felicity went to sit behind Agnes.
"Want to have a sleep-over, Aphie, Lissy and Lily, Felicity?" Brooke asked, pulling on a pink jumper with the words Rich Bitch printed on it. Agnes bounced up and down and squealed slightly.
"I could give you makeovers!" she squeaked.
"I'd love to," Lissy smiled at everyone.
"Sure. Just don't call me Aphie," Aphelia shrugged. After that I couldn't have left even if I wanted to. Literally.
Three and a half hours later - after Felicity had told Roxanne, Scarlett, Lucy and some other girl I'd barely ever spoken to that they'd be in our dormitory for the night, to which I had received some scowls - my fingernails and toenails were such a deep red it looked as if someone had literally sliced at my flesh, my skin was covered with so much pale foundation I seemed to be glowing, and my eyes looked incredibly dark due to the amount of eyeliner Agnes had used on me. Lissy was sporting a pink and white look that I could tell she was itching to get off her face - I made a note to remember to pass her some make-up wipes in the night - and Aphelia had very red lips and bronzed skin. Brooke and Felicity had practically the exact same make-up on, except it suited Felicity a lot more than Brooke - on Brooke the dark lips and eyes made her look washed out, on Felicity however, she looked, well...mysterious. Agnes had a very natural look on her face, so she looked pretty normal.
When I looked at my reflection in Brooke's mirror, I looked more like myself than I had in ages. I was used to looking this way much more than my latest natural look. honestly, I thought I looked better than I had in ages. I loved looking like this. It made me feel naked in a way, wearing no make-up. Not because I felt the need to hide behind layers of slap. Because it was just who I was. Some people like to look natural. I like to look hot. Sexy too, if I can pull it off. That was a way in which Rose and I were completely different. I sighed at the thought that if I wanted to rehabilitate my image, I would have to go around looking a way I despised for a long time yet.
By the time we got into bed, around midnight - the witching hour, ironically enough - Lissy was so tired that she fell asleep immediately. Aphelia and I had to have neighbouring beds, with our arms stretched out in the middle of our two beds, Brooke's scarf wrapped around them.
At least I'll have an example of Epoximise to show Professor Fizzit.
Aphelia and I hurried to Charms to next morning, struggling through the crowds of students who were surprised to find that they couldn't pass between us. We arrived outside the Charms classroom ten minutes early and breathless, Brooke's scarf still wrapped around our 'd deliberated over using a Severing Charm, but it was much safer to have Professor Fizzit help us rather than Lissy, who burst into fits of giggles every time she looked at us. She'd headed up to the Owlery while we were dashing to Charms, eager to send a letter to someone. I was still waiting for Rose's reply, but to be fair she was in France right now, so it would take longer for letters to get through.
I felt Aphelia tug at my arm. "What?" I hissed.
"He's here," she said, trying to walk forwards, my arm being dragged in her wake. I saw Fizzit had just opened the classroom door, and before I could stop her, Aphelia had run over to him. "Ouch! Merlin, Lia!" I cried. My arm was throbbing like mad.
Fizzit's eyes widened as Aphelia unwrapped our arms. "Oh ho!" he said, rubbing his hands together.
I grimaced. "Can you fix it, Fizzy?"
Fizzit beamed at us. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. It depends how well it was cast," he said. I never thought being good at magic would have bad consequences.
"Can you at least try?" Aphelia said, sounding desperate. Fizzit nodded.
"Diffindo," he said slowly and carefully, pointing his wand very deliberately at our arms. I felt a sharp pain in my arm, and then the pressure of Aphelia's arm was removed. I looked at my elbow. There was a red mark there, as if I'd been burnt, and a large, deep gash. Fizzit pursed his lips.
"On one hand, ten points to Gryffindor - excellent charm-casting. On the other, perhaps it would be best to visit Madame Pomfrey, just to be on the safe side."
I glanced at Aphelia. Her wrist too looked as if it had been burned, but she hadn't been cut. I shrugged, glad to not be attached to her anymore. "Thanks, Fizzy," I said, grabbing Aphelia's arm and walking away, trying to ignore the pain in my arm.
"It's a shame," Aphelia said, suddenly. She turned to me and smirked. " I'd really grown attached to you."
I groaned. "Lia..."
"I was hoping we could stick together in this."
"Lia."
"But let's get the Hospital Wing over and done with, then split."
"Lia!"
I shoved her lightly on the shoulder. Actually, not that lightly at all. She stumbled backwards, doubled with laughter. She still managed to choke out, "I think it's time we went our separate ways!"