The Tutor
When Lily woke the next morning she was greeted by Madam Pomfrey bustling around the ward doing small jobs here and there.
The first year girl stretched out from underneath the Hospital Ward blankets and let out a large yawn, loud enough that the school healer heard from the other end of the Ward.
"Ah good to see you awake Miss Samuels" she said as she made her way towards her only patient for the weekend.
"Morning" Lily yawned, clearly showing signs that she was tired.
Madam Pomfrey scowled, "You shouldn't be tired you have had plenty hours of sleep"
Lily wasn't quite sure what to say, she hadn't exactly gone straight to sleep last night, so instead she avoided eye contact with the healer which gave her away straight away.
"I see you were up late last night," Madam Pomfrey observed. "Concerned what would happen to the monitoring charm if you were to move?"
"Actually no," Lily smirked. "I figured out that either a monitoring charm doesn't exist or you simply didn't have one on me."
The Healers eyebrows became raised.
"And what brought you to such a conclusion?" she asked.
Lily smirked again. "I spent most of the night getting in and out of bed and walking around the ward"
Madam Pomfrey did not look amused. "You are going to be more trouble than your mother ever was girl"
Lily just smiled. In a way she was proud to have discovered the teachers lie and that her mother was in bouts of trouble during her education here.
The Healer's lips pressed into a line when she saw that her patient seem please to have gotten into trouble.
"Drink your potions," she said pointing to three coloured vials sitting on the stand by Lily's bed. "I will be back shortly with your breakfast" She was gone just moments later.
Lily stared at the potions bottles as if expecting them to rear up and attack at any moment. To be honest she wasn't keen at all to be chugging down unidentified coloured water that had lord knows what effects on her, yet she had no choice. If Madam Pomfrey returned with her breakfast to find that the potions were still on the bed side table untouched, then she suspected she would be in more trouble then she already was now.
Uncapping all the potions in front of her, Lily let out a slow breath and cringed as she reached forward for the first potion, as if a wave of pain was to follow every swallow she took. As quick as she could and with little registration to the flavour of each vial, Lily downed all the potions Pomfrey had instructed.
As she placed the final empty vial back onto the night stand, Lily turned to find the Healer walking towards her with a tray of food following her from behind, floating in mid air. Lily gaped at the tray. There were no trolleys under it holding it up nor wheeling it in, it actually was floating in mid air and magically followed Madam Pomfrey where she walked.
The school medical advisor noticed the surprised appearance of her patient and almost laughed, clearly she was not back into sinc with the fact that many students attending Hogwarts had never seen such magical performances before.
"It's a simpler hovering charm," Pomfrey explained. "I believe you shall learn it a bit later on in your Charms class."
Lily just continued to stared – mouth open, at the dish that still sat in mid air.
With a quick – almost unnoticeable, flick of her wand, Madam Pomfrey had the tray of food float over towards the first year Gryffindor and land on a sturdy table that had wheeled itself into place. This too left Lily in shock.
"Now eat your breakfast and I ...." The Healer never finished as a loud knocking bounced off the walls. Someone was on the other side of the Hospital Wings entrance and was asking for permission to enter.
"Who could that be?" Madam Pomfrey asked. She turned quickly on her heels and began walking towards the door, talking to herself on the way. "It can't be possible for someone to be injured already this early on a Sunday, surely."
Lily never heard Pomfrey's greeting to whoever was at the door, instead she helped herself to pile of food that now sat in front of her and not in the air. She had the selection of toast, fruit, bacon and scrambled eggs and to her utter delight one large chilled glass of milk.
Without hesitation she grasped the glass in a quick manner and raised it to her lips, letting out a satisfied breath as she swallowed. It was good to finally get a glass of milk around here. With one more, quick sip Lily turned her attention towards the pile of food that sat right in front of her in silence, as if daring her to try and eat the entire plate.
Lily felt compelled to accept that such challenge and began digging into her first selection of food, when the bustling of Madam Pomfrey's feet became louder and louder, obviously the lady was coming closer.
"Good to see you eating your breakfast Miss Samuels," she said as she walked to the bedside. "But I'm afraid i must take that tray from you now as you have a visitor here that believes you have a tutoring lesson to begin."
Lily had to think for a moment. What could the healer possibly be talking about? Tutor? It wasn't until her eyes settle on Cedric did she realise that today was Sunday – the day they agreed to begin Lily's lessons.
"Oh yeah" was Lily's reply.
Madam Pomfrey nodded her head and began walking around to the other side of the bed while Cedric pulled up a chair besides Lily's bed. Lily let out a grunt of protest – which caused Cedric to chuckle, when Pomfrey had the tray once more follow behind her, but the only difference was this time she was leading it away from Lily.
"I didn't even get to eat anything" grumbled Lily as she folded her arms across her chest and pouted.
Cedric only chuckled more.
"It's not funny" Lily grouched. "I get grumpy when i don't get to eat"
"I can see that" Cedric laughed – disguising it as a cough, the moment Lily turned a glare on him.
Clearing his throat, the third year Hufflepuff began rummaging through his bag, letting out a triumph HA when he produced a Chocolate from between all his books.
Lily squirmed in her bed at the sight of the bar. She had a weakness for chocolate and by the smirk on the boys face in front of her, Cedric had figured it out.
"Tell you what," Cedric began. "If your turning a match into a needle by the time I leave later, I'll give you the bar"
"DEAL" Lily all but yelled. "But answer me one thing."
"Sure"
"Does the wizarding world really have Cadbury Chocolate?"
Cedric's gaze darted to the floor momentarily before he made eye contact with Lily.
"No, They don't" Cedric answered, "My parents are both magical and well they don't really like Muggle things so I'm not supposed to have this but it tastes to good not to have....... What?"
Lily was laughing. "Who has the chocolate weakness now?"
"Oh well clearly you don't want any of it so I'll just put in away and ....." Cedric rebutted.
"no No NO" Lily said quickly.
"I thought so" Cedric smirked.
For a few minutes all was quiet except for the small rummaging sound of the third year pulling out quite a few, thick and heavy books from his bag, that had appeared when he first arrived, couldn't hold much.
"Wait, where did all of those books come from? That book can't hold that much....... can it?"
"Not usually" Cedric explained, "I've recently achieved an Undetectable Extension Charm on it, really tricky but I think I've got it."
"Fingers crossed it doesn't wear out on you one day in class, the bag might rip and the books go everywhere."
"Heaven forbid" Cedric exclaimed towards the schools roof.
"Can you teach me one day?" Lily asked.
"I will teach you every spell I know if i get the chance"
"Promise?"
"Cross my heart" Cedric said as he made the motion across where his heart lay beneath is skin.
"I'll hold you to that." Spoke Lily, "But for now what are all these books for"
"Well it would be best for you to know the background of transfiguration so you can understand what you are actually doing with your spell work, but before that is there anything else you're having trouble with? Can I go to class tomorrow without having to sit at anymore charred desks?"
"Yes" Lily said, "But i would be a bit worried with the one in the potions classroom, because i think i spilt my potion on it and i melted it slightly."
Cedric's eyes were widened with shock. He was speechless.
Lily could no longer hold her poker face. She started giggling madly. "I'm joking."
"Thank heavens. For a moment there I was thinking about running for the exit. If that were true I would say you were a lost cause. It was Cedric's turn to laugh madly.
"Gee Thanks" said Lily, clearly not impressed. "Now I don't even want to tell you what happened in charms"
Cedric's laughing stopped immediately.