Lily was a bit overwhelmed by what she had found out in Sinistra's office. The fact that someone had poisoned the Whomping Willow was one thing, but that they'd been deliberately trying to hurt students was another thing entirely. She felt it was past time to tell Seth and Jane what she had heard in Diagon Alley. She sat down by them at dinner later that day. Her stomach grumbled in hunger.
"So how'd it go?" Jane asked as Seth took a bite out of his toast.
"It went well, I didn't get any punishment," she said.
"Lucky!" Seth said. "We have to serve detention with our respective house leaders tomorrow morning," he said.
"Seth, that shouldn't be too horrible with Professor Longbottom," said Jane.
"Hey it's not like Professor Bones is a hag either," Seth pointed out.
"Wait I didn't finish what happened," Lily said. "Apparently the gas was under the passage because the Whomping Willow was poisoned," she said.
"That's obvious," Seth said, although Jane looked surprised.
"Hold on!" Lily said. "She says it was hard to do and whoever did it was very smart, so they probably did it deliberately to hurt students," Lily finished.
Jane and Seth looked unimpressed.
"I think Sinistra's overreacting," Jane said.
"Why do you think that?" Lily asked.
"Because it doesn't make any sense," Seth answered. "If someone wanted to hurt students they wouldn't do it by poisoning a passage that no one will go in. Besides why would anyone want to hurt kids?"
"I don't know, why would a Centaur be evil?" Lily asked sarcastically.
"It's two different things," Jane said.
"All right then, how about this," she said.
Lily looked around to make sure no one was in earshot. Then she spoke again in a lowered tone.
"Remember when we went to Diagon Alley during the summer?" she said to Jane.
Jane nodded.
"I heard two people talking," she said and paused. "About the Dark Lady.
A look of seriousness came over Jane and Seth's faces. Seth spoke first.
"Lily," he said. "Please tell me you're joking," he said.
Lily shook her head.
"Then why in Merlin's name didn't you tell us?!" Jane exclaimed loudly.
A group of sixth year Hufflepuffs sitting at the table looked at them. Lily shushed Jane and the sixth year went back to their conversations.
"Could you be any louder?" Lily protested.
"Jane's right it's a pretty big thing not to mention," he said.
"Look I didn't want you guys to think I was paranoid, I mean it might even be a different person," she said.
"I don't think there are two many Dark ladies around," said Jane.
"This means we were wrong last year," Seth said. "Carrow is working for someone," he said.
They were silent for a moment. Suddenly, Lily didn't feel so hungry. She sat uncomfortably, waiting for someone to break the silence. She took the initiative and broke it herself.
"Do you guys think it could be connected to the Whomping Willow getting poisoned?" she said.
"I doubt it," Seth said. "As I said it was probably a student prank and no one can get into Hogwarts anyway. It's even more secure after last year," he finished.
Lily nodded. Seth got up.
"Where are you going?" Jane asked.
"I want to check the library for mentions of a Dark Lady," Seth said.
For the next few weeks all Lily could think about was what she had heard at Diagon Alley. Despite her talk with Jane and Seth she still didn't think the Willow getting poisoned was just a student prank and felt that what she had heard in Diagon Alley was somehow connected to it. Even if this wasn't true a Dark Lady existed and had undoubtedly concocted some kind of plan based on what she had heard. She had thought of writing her father many times but decided against it. What was she supposed to say?
"I heard someone mention something about a Dark Lady, so can you put off your important business as Head Auror to look into it?"
One day in the Hufflepuff Common Room Elliot Applebee walked over to her.
"Quidditch practice this Thursday," he said.
Lily gave a look of puzzlement before realizing what he was talking about. She had totally forgotten about Quidditch despite being Seeker for her House, and helping them win the Quidditch Cup the year before.
"Uh yeah can't wait," she said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Applebee looked at her strangely but said nothing.
To put it nicely the Quidditch practice went terribly for her. The team overall was decent, but she was so lost in though that she let the Snitch fly right by her head and barely dodged a poorly hit Bludger. When the team stopped for a break Applebee walked over to her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, just a lot on my mind," she said.
"Homework?" Applebee asked. "Because I could ask Professor Bones…"
"No it's nothing like that," Lily said.
"Okay well focus then," he said tapping her shoulder. "We can't defend our title without our Seeker at the top of her game," he said.
She nodded and tried to be more focused for the rest of the practice. But as the days went on she began to forget about her worries. She realized that whatever the "Dark Lady" was planning it probably didn't affect Hogwarts, and the poisoning of the Whomping Willow was probably just a student prank. And on the day of the Halloween feast she was in a great mood joking with Jane about using a Oblivoleave to forget Klara.
The feast was great, possibly even better then the Start- of- Term Feast. As well as food there were many sweets that Jane was taking huge handfuls of. She saw there were also scary decorations that hung from the ceilings. Somehow even live bats had been brought into the Great. The big blue jewel stuck out from the rest of the orange and black decorations. But Lily saw Jane was looking at something else.
"Who's that?" Jane asked pointing to where the teachers sat.
Lily looked to where Jane was pointing and saw by all the teachers was a strange woman with jet- black hair in a dark cloak. She had looked short and middle aged but in a way looked younger in the way she sat. She stared straight ahead not moving her head once. Lily could see other students were talking about the woman and pointing at her.
"I don't know," Lily said.
Then suddenly the woman shifted her gaze for the first time. And Lily saw she was staring at the Hufflepuff table. In fact she could have sworn the woman was staring at her. After half a minute she was sure.
"Jane," she said nudging her friend.
"What?" her friend asked.
"Isn't it weird how that woman is looking at me?" she asked.
"Doesn't seem like she's looking at you to me," Jane said.
Lily turned to see that the woman had now turned away and was talking to Professor Sinistra.
"Are you feeling all right?" Jane asked grinning.
"No she just was," Lily insisted.
But she saw that the Headmistress had stood up and was starting to speak.
"Attention students," she said. "I hope you are enjoying your feasts," she said.
She paused.
"I think some of you may have noticed that we have a guest," she said.
This seemed to be an understatement. The entire school was curious as to who the woman was.
"May I welcome Eve Sage who has come from the Ministry of Magic to inspect our school," Sinistra said. "She will be in your classes from time to time this year so I hope you will treat her with the respect that all the staff members get," she finished.
All the students clapped politely. Sage stood up for a moment before sitting back down. Lily didn't clap though. The way she had been staring at Lily was as if she knew her. Lily racked her brain and could never remember meeting her. That night Lily was almost asleep as soon as she was in bed, despite all the thoughts on her mind. But right before she drifted off she again heard the buzzing noise.