Chapter 5

"A Misfire and a Betrayal"

"When did Bartholomew the Benevolent come to power?" Ophelia turned to Lily and asked.

Lily, Gabi and Ophelia were sitting in the library trying to write their essays due the next day in History of Magic.

"You’re asking the wrong person," Lily said, and she nodded her head toward Gabi.

"Gabi?" Ophelia asked.

"1118," Gabi told her, not bothering to look up from what she was writing.

"Thanks," Ophelia told her and went back to writing.

"Done!" Gabi said. She set down her quill and picked up the parchment she had been writing on. "Lily, do you mind if I borrow Rainbow?"

"Why?" Lily asked. "Planning on owling your essay to Professor Binns?"

"What?" Gabi asked, sounding confused. Then, realizing what Lily was talking about she added, "No. This is a letter to my cousin Pilar in Barcelona. I’m not doing the essay." Gabi stood up and started rolling the letter.

Lily and Ophelia refrained from commenting. In the month they had been at school already, Lily and Ophelia had gotten very used to Gabi’s attitude. She was indifferent toward school, plain and simple. She went to class everyday, but only because she had decided to skip their second Transfiguration class, and McGonagall then "requested a meeting with her." Gabi never told Lily and Ophelia what had happened at that meeting, but Gabi had never missed a single class since.

Of course, this didn’t stop her from slacking off whenever she could. She cut corners at every turn and had figured out early on which classes she didn’t have to work in. The fact of the matter is that Gabi was bored. She had learned everything she needed to know the summer before school started, and she found it tedious to perform the work demanded of her. She still did it in most of her classes, but History of Magic and Potions were the two that Gabi refused to comply with; History of Magic because Binns couldn’t care less that Gabi never handed in an essay and Potions because Gabi truly detested Mortar. Gabi still had top marks in both classes, however, seeing as how she had memorized the textbooks in July.

After Gabi had left the room, Lily also set down her quill. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head.

"Don’t tell me you’re done too," Ophelia said.

"Nope," Lily responded. "I just can’t do this anymore. I’ve been writing this for two hours now, and I need a break. I think I’m going to walk around for a while. Care to join me?"

"No thanks," Ophelia responded. "I really want to get this done."

"Suit yourself," Lily told her and took off out of the library. Lily had nowhere in particular she wanted to head, so she decided to explore some personally unchartered areas of the castle. She made her way to the Great Hall and turned right. After walking a while, she realized she must be close to the Ravenclaw House, seeing as how everyone she had run into over the past few minutes was a Ravenclaw.

In front of her, she saw a large portrait swing open and watched two people step out. Not wanting to be seen, Lily quickly darted behind a large suit of armor. She heard two voices begin to talk, and Lily immediately recognized one of them as Aurora’s. She could only guess who the other voice belonged to.

"So, anyway, Rory," the other voice began, a dead giveaway that it belonged to Ariel, "I mean Trey Marks is okay, but he’s no Sirius Black."

"Does Sirius know this?" Aurora asked her.

"Of course not," Ariel said, her unusually light tone regressing to its icy hostility. "And if you tell anyone, you’ll be sorry indeed."

"You know I wouldn’t tell anyone," a timid-sounding Aurora responded.

"I know," Ariel said, now sweet as saccharine, "and that’s why you’re my best friend."

Lily tried her best not to move or even breathe when she heard the two sets of footsteps pass by the suit of armor. As soon as she couldn’t hear them anymore, Lily let out a deep breath and grinned widely. She had just struck gold.

Lily quietly retraced her steps back down the corridor toward the Great Hall. She didn’t want anyone to know she had been anywhere near the Ravenclaw House. Lily walked all the way back to the Gryffindor common room and felt her heart skip a beat when she Sirius and James sitting by the fireplace, engaged in a game of Exploding Snap. The common room was fairly empty; besides Sirius and James, the only other people present were a group of fifth-years working on a Muggle Studies project and a prefect asleep on one of the couches. Lily walked over to Sirius and James.

"Hi," she announced her presence. "Where are Peter and Remus?"

"No clue where Peter is," James told her. "Remus is feeling ill. He’s in the hospital wing."

"Again?" Lily asked. "Wasn’t he just ill not too long ago?"

James and Sirius looked at each other. James then just shrugged and asked her how her essay was coming along, eager to quickly change the subject.

"Oh, it’s coming along okay," Lily said, quite eager to change the subject herself. "Listen, Sirius, I was wondering if you could help me out with something."

"If you need help with History of Magic, I’d try asking your brilliant Spanish amiga first," Sirius told her, concentrating on the game.

"No, I sort of need help planning a revenge," she said.

Lily had said the magic word. Sirius lost all interest in the cards he was holding and sprang up out of the chair, dropping the cards to the floor.

"Absolutely!" he said.

"Don’t you want to know what it is first? What it involves? Who it involves?"

"Couldn’t care less, Lily," Sirius told her.

"Sirius," James said, still sitting in his chair. "Bad idea. You’ve already been warned by McGonagall not to pull anything else. This is not the kind of thing you want to become embroiled in right now."

At that, James set down his cards, stood and took his friend’s arm, leading him toward the portrait hole. "Sorry, Lily," James added.

"Now wait just a minute, James," Sirius began, shaking his friend off. "I can think for myself. I can make my own decisions."

"No you can’t Sirius, and that’s the problem," James calmly told him. Lily thought to herself that there was probably more to this conversation than what was being expressed verbally.

"You’re not my father, Potter," Sirius told him, staring his best friend in the eye. "You have no say in what I decide to do."

"Yes I do," James said, staring back, "because I’m always the one who has to fix every mess you make. I’m the one who has to constantly watch your back to make sure you don’t get yourself in too deep."

"No one’s asking you to do that, Potter."

"No one has to ask. I know I have to do it."

"Oh, come down off your high horse, James," Sirius said, walking over to Lily. Lily was now very sorry she had asked Sirius for help. "I can do what I please."

"So, you’re really going to do this?" James asked.

"Yes," Sirius said, laughing. "Why are you taking this so seriously?"

James just shook his head. He chose not to respond to Sirius’ question, but merely said "I see" and walked out of the common room.

After he had left, Sirius turned to Lily. "Now, tell me what we need to do."

A little later, Lily walked back to the library, feeling very proud of herself. She walked back over the table where Ophelia was and sat down, grinning involuntarily. Ophelia looked up at Lily and set down her quill.

"Uh-oh," she said. "Lily, what’s going on?"

"Just wait," Lily said, as she nodded her head toward the library door. "Ariel’s going to be in for a surprise."

Sirius walked in the door and started over to where Ariel was sitting.

"Lily, you didn’t!" Ophelia exclaimed in an excited whisper. "Haven’t you learned yet that these things always backfire? Didn’t you ask me to stop you the next time you tried something like this?"

Lily didn’t take her eyes off Sirius, watching him weave his way in and out of tables, saying hellos to people along the way. "Not this time," she grinned. "This time, everything is going to go off without a hitch."

Lily watched from across the room as Sirius took a seat next to Ariel, leaned in and started whispering to her. Lily wished she could be closer, to hear exactly what Sirius was saying, but Lily knew that was impossible. Lily watched as Sirius pulled two pieces of chewing gum out of his pocket.

"The one in your left hand," she whispered, knowing Sirius wouldn’t hear her reminder. The one in his right hand was a perfectly normal piece of gum. The one in his left hand, however, had come from Sirius’ personal stash. When Sirius was giving Lily suggestions, he had offhandedly mentioned something about gum that would make a person’s skin change colors. Lily immediately knew what would become of Ariel. Rainbow would live again.

Luckily, Sirius didn’t need the reminder as he stuck out his left hand and offered Ariel the piece of gum. Lily didn’t know what Sirius had been telling Ariel, but she was blushing profusely and beaming. Ariel took the piece of gum, and Lily watched her say thank you. Ariel began to unwrap the piece of gum and bring it toward her mouth.

Just then, the door to the library banged open, and most students jumped at the sudden volume increase.

"Ms. Julian!" Professor McGonagall shouted.

Ariel quickly took the piece of gum away from her mouth and tried to hide it behind her back as McGonagall walked over toward her.

"The gum," McGonagall demanded. "Give it to me."

Slowly, Ariel brought it from behind her back and handed it to the professor. "I’m sorry," she added, an innocent look on her face. "I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to have gum in the library."

"It appears you were almost the victim of a practical joke, Ms. Julian," McGonagall told her. "Mr. Black, outside please."

McGonagall turned and looked Lily in the eye. Lily quickly looked away. "You too, Ms. Evans," she said.

McGonagall turned and walked out of the library. Sirius sighed and got out of his seat, following behind McGonagall. He didn’t even turn in Ariel’s direction on the way out. Lily, however, did turn to look at Ariel and saw something she didn’t expect.

Ariel looked crushed. She face hung low, and she looked like she was fighting back tears. Lily at once felt sorry for what she had done. She had never seen this side of Ariel – this human side. She was considering apologizing when Ariel turned to her, all the emotion she was displaying a few moments before gone. This time the look was pure evil, much more nefarious than anything Lily had ever seen her give before. Lily’s heart plummeted as she realized Ariel had just declared war.

Lily walked out of the library, a feeling of intense dread settling in her stomach. She turned and saw McGonagall standing, hands on her hips, her back to Sirius. She was talking to – James? How could that be?

Lily walked over to them, and her presence prompted McGonagall to turn back around.

"Mr. Black, Ms. Evans, follow me," she told them. "Mr. Potter, you may return to the common room."

James turned and started walking, Sirius’ glare spitting imaginary daggers after him as he went. Lily followed Sirius and McGonagall down the Transfiguration Hall and into her office.

"I will not tolerate this sort of behavior," she told them before she had even shut the door behind them. "Now sit."

Lily and Sirius did as they were told.

"Mr. Black, I do believe I have already warned you of the consequences of your actions?"

"Yes, ma’am," Sirius told her.

"And Ms. Evans," McGonagall said, turning to look at her. Lily felt her hands begin to tremble. "I believe you were the instigator in all this."

"Yes, ma’am," Lily said, following Sirius’ lead.

"Well, then," McGonagall said, settling back in her office chair, "why don’t you explain to me why you did this."

Lily remained silent. What was she supposed to say? McGonagall was obviously not going to care about her on-going feud with Ariel, and Lily couldn’t very well tell her that she was snooping around over by the Ravenclaw House. Lily tried to think fast, but she couldn’t come up with even a mildly decent excuse for her actions.

So, she settled with, "Ariel had said some mean things, and I just wanted to get her back."

Sirius looked at her, closed his eyes and slightly shook his head.

"This kind of childish behavior will not be condoned in my House, and it will not be condoned by this school. Ms. Evans," McGonagall began, about to determine their fates, "you and Mr. Black have just lost your House 20 points, and both of you shall receive a detention.

"And Mr. Black," she added. "May this be the last time I see you in my office. Our next encounter will not be nearly as pleasant."

"Yes, ma’am," Sirius told her.

"You may both go."

Lily and Sirius stood up and walked to door. Sirius opened it and politely held it for Lily. Once outside, however, his courteous demeanor vanished.

"I just wanted to get her back?" he asked her angrily. "What in the world were you thinking, Lily? That’s the last thing you should have told her!"

"And what should I have told her?" Lily asked as Sirius began waking away.

"Oh, I don’t know," Sirius said as he stopped and turned back around. "But you probably should have tried to go the demon-possession route before ‘I just wanted to get her back.’" Sirius turned and kept walking. "Amateurs," he muttered.

Lily followed behind Sirius, but not too closely. Sirius was still pretty angry, and she didn’t want to get in his way. But once they reached the common room, Lily realized that Sirius’ anger toward her in the hallway was a field full of daisies compared to what awaited James Potter.

The portrait swung open, and James jumped out of his seat, walking toward them.

"Sirius …" he began.

"Just stop," Sirius gritted through his teeth, holding up a hand. "Don’t you come near me, Potter. As far as I’m concerned, we’re done."

"Sirius, please," James said, stepping toward them. "It’s not …"

"I said stop, Potter!" Sirius shouted. "Don’t make me do something that will get me expelled, because I swear to God, if you take one more step, I’m going to start swinging."

James stayed put.

"Now," Sirius continued, ignoring the crowd that had gathered around them. "I already told you that I’m done. Finished. You stabbed me in the back, and that’s not something that’s lightly forgotten. From this moment on, I think no more of you, James Potter. Our friendship ended the moment you betrayed me."

With that, Sirius walked through the circle of people standing around them and headed up to this dorm. The crowd all turned to James, and he felt the stares of all of them. He knew they all thought of him as a Judas, so James quickly turned and walked out of the common room. He didn’t return all night.

The next morning, McGonagall caught Lily’s attention as she was heading into the Great Hall for breakfast.

"You will serve your detention tonight, and I thank you to inform Mr. Black of this as well," she said.

Lily walked into the Great Hall and headed over to the Gryffindor table. James was noticeably absent, but Lily was surprised to see Remus was back. Lily walked over to the table and sat down in between Remus and Sirius.

"Glad to see you’re back," she told Remus. "James and Sirius told me you were ill."

Remus looked up, an expression settling over his face that Lily couldn’t quite decipher. "Thank you," he told her, adding "It wasn’t anything serious" before Lily could ask any more probing questions.

Lily turned her attention to Sirius. "I just saw McGonagall outside, and …"

"I know," Sirius interrupted. "I just saw her too. We have detention tonight."

Sirius was still strangely detached. Lily noted to herself that this was so unlike him. Sirius was almost never – for lack of a better word – serious. He had become one of the most popular students in the school in record time, primarily because he was light-hearted, good-natured, and an all-around comic. Sirius lived to make people laugh, yet ever since the episode with James the previous day, Sirius’ mood had come crashing from the heavens and plummeted straight into the underworld.

Lily looked over at Ophelia, who was sitting directly across from her. "Have you seen James?" she asked innocently.

"Lily," Sirius said, taking a bite of toast and pausing to swallow it before he continued, "You would best be served by keeping your nose out of other people’s business. No one likes a meddler, and frankly, that’s all you’ve been doing lately. It’s no wonder that Ariel Julian has something against you."

Sirius’ words stung. Lily felt her face getting hot, but she refused to let herself tear up over the comment. Again, she thought this was so unlike Sirius. If there was one thing in the world that Sirius Black was not, it was cruel. ‘It’s just James,’ Lily thought to herself. ‘He’s still hurting over what James did.’ Lily ate her breakfast in silence, staring down at her plate.

James hadn’t been seen by anyone in over 12 hours, but he made his first appearance that morning in Herbology. Lily was already in her seat, as was most of the class, when James entered the room. He didn’t look anyone in the eye as he walked past the desks that contained Sirius and Remus, and he walked to the back of the room and sat down in the far rear corner, continuing to look straight ahead.

Professor Sprout entered the room and asked them to pair up. Lily was still feeling the sting of Sirius’ comments at breakfast, and this was only intensified by the fact that Ophelia and Gabi decided to be partners. Lily looked around to try to weed out someone to work with, and she was surprised to find Severus Snape standing behind her, a sneer on his face.

"I notice you have no one to work with," he observed.

‘Ouch,’ Lily thought.

"Would you like to join me?" he asked, in a much kinder voice.

Lily was a little surprised. Severus had barely spoken to her since their first Herbology lesson. Still slightly confused, Lily agreed, but only because she didn’t want to wind up working alone. She picked up her books and materials and followed Severus back to where he was sitting. As she turned back around to sit, she noticed that Sirius and Remus were working together, which didn’t surprise her. What did surprise her was that Peter had chosen to work with Veronica Dressler, a nasty girl from Slytherin, rather than to be stuck with James. James had waited until everyone else had chosen a partner before being forced to team with Roderick Hanley, the only other person without a partner.

"Today, we are going to be working with the Lilliput plant," Professor Sprout told them. She walked around and placed a plant on each of the pairs’ desks. "Who can tell me what this plant does?"

Ophelia answered her. "It shrinks the person who ingests it to one-third their normal size."

"Exactly, Ms. Tannenbaum," Sprout told her. "Now, who can tell me how we identify the Lilliput?"

This time Remus told her, "It has unusual black and white stripes on the stem, and the edges of the leaves are red."

"Excellent work, Mr. Lupin. Now, seeing as how you all have the Lilliput plant in front of you, I want each of the partners to choose one person to ingest the plant. The other person will be responsible for taking notes for both parties."

Lily turned to Severus, who was shaking his head.

"I’ve already come into contact with the Lilliput plant when I was seven," he told her. "I’m extremely allergic to it. If I take it, I guarantee that I’ll be in the hospital wing for days."

"I’ll take it," Lily told him. Secretly, she was glad Severus didn’t want to try it. Lily always wanted to be the volunteer. She reached into her bag to pull out her Herbology log. They had to make detailed notes on every plant they studied. Lily looked through every item in her bag, but she couldn’t find the log. She pulled everything out and started flipping through all her books and notebooks, thinking maybe it had gotten caught. No luck.

"I think I left it at my seat," she told Severus and went back to look for it. Still no luck. Lily looked all around the desk, but she couldn’t find it. She turned around to walk back to the desk she was sharing with Severus when she saw it. It was sitting on the floor, partially hidden under the desk next to hers. ‘I must have dropped it,’ she said to herself.

By the time Lily sat back down, most of the class had already tried the plant. She looked around her and giggled. Gabi, Remus, Peter and a handful of Slytherins were less than two feet tall. Remus was skipping around his desk, singing an old Irish limerick, which was causing Sirius to laugh. ‘That’s good,’ Lily thought to herself.

Lily sat back down and tore one of the leaves off the plant. Hoping it wouldn’t taste too terrible, she rolled the leaf into a ball and popped it into her mouth. It didn’t taste like much of anything, which Lily thought was good. She sat back and waited to begin shrinking.

She felt something strange happening inside her. He heart began to tremble and she felt her arms begin to shake. All of a sudden, she felt herself lunge forward, and Lily put out her hands to stop herself. The problem was she no longer had hands. Or arms for that matter.

"Oh, good God!" she heard Professor Sprout exclaim, and Lily watched her sprint to the back of the room. Lily still didn’t know what was going on, but she felt very frightened. She knew something had gone wrong, and from the uproarious laughter coming from the entire room, Lily knew it couldn’t be good. She began looking around to see what had happened, and when she looked down, she gasped.

Lily had somehow been transformed into a giant slug. Not giant as in ten-feet tall; she was more like three-feet tall, but still giant compared to normal slug standards.

Sprout grabbed the plant off the desk, which sent her into a panic.

"How could I have done this?" she exclaimed to herself. "Oh, my. Lily, stay put." With that, she turned around and sprinted back into the storeroom. Lily could hear her muttering to herself, frantically trying to find what Lily hoped was the antidote.

Meanwhile, Lily looked around the classroom. Ophelia had a horrified look on her face, while Gabi had both hands up to her mouth. Lily could tell she was trying to suppress laughter. The rest of the class wasn’t nearly as subtle as Gabi was, however. Remus and Sirius were hunched over with laughter, as was every Slytherin she could see. Lily tried to crane her neck around to see Severus and was surprised to see that he too had collapsed into a fit of hysterics.

Lily’s anxiety began to turn to anger, which then morphed into humiliation. It seemed as if Professor Sprout had been gone for hours when she finally came back into the room, holing a very small yellowish plant. She walked over to Lily, opened up her mouth for her and shoved the entire plant in it. Lily chewed on the plant as best as she could for someone who now had no teeth and swallowed it. After a few moments, she felt the same lunge she felt before and came crashing to the ground, this time able to put her hands out to stop herself.

Lily jumped up and asked, "What happened?"

A look of relief settled over Sprout’s face. "Sit down, Lily," she said. She turned to the rest of the class and added, "That’s enough. This class will come back to order. Everyone in their seats now!"

The class quickly snapped back to attention and returned to their seats.

"I’m afraid that I was a little careless," Professor Sprout sighed. "Mixed in with one of the Lilliput plants was a Cerata plant. It is physically identical to the Lilliput plant, the only difference being a slightly different position of the black and white stripes on the stem. We were going to discuss the differences in the second half of the lesson. The Cerata plant, as we have just seen, will unfortunately transform anyone who ingests it into a rather large gastropod. I don’t know what I was thinking. I never do things like this. Lily, you have my deepest apologies."

Lily was still feeling a little embarrassed, and the feeling stayed for the rest of the class. Sprout collected the remainder of the plants and instead had them copy the history of the Lilliput plant out of the textbook.

After Sprout dismissed them, Lily began putting her things back into her bag. Severus stood up, grabbed his book and began walking to the door. Then, as if he had forgotten something, he turned around, dropped a note on the desk in front of Lily and then turned back around and walked out of the room.

Lily picked up the note and slowly unfolded it, dreading what was inside. She opened it up and read,

Lily,

Serves you right. Next time you decide to pull a stunt like yesterday’s again, I hope this makes you think twice. After all, I had Herbology yesterday, remember?

Ariel

Lily closed her eyes. Today’s fiasco hadn’t been an accident. Lily felt the tears well up in her eyes for the second time in less than two hours. She felt so stupid. Why had she thought Severus was being so nice to her out of the blue? She dropped her head and felt a hand on her back. Lily opened her eyes, blinked back the tears a few times and turned around. Ophelia and Gabi were standing behind her, and Lily was relieved to see the rest of the room was empty.

Lily handed Ophelia the note and sat back down. She felt the tears start again, and this time she didn’t hold them back. Tears rained out of her eyes as she thought back; from the misfire with Ariel to being the cause of the James-Sirius demise to Sirius’ harsh words this morning to Ariel’s slug-filled retaliation, Lily just couldn’t take it. Her emotions got the best of her, and Lily let them take flight.

She felt Ophelia and Gabi both come behind her, and she felt both of them embrace her. Lily leaned back and let her friends comfort her.

They were 20 minutes late to Transfiguration, and Lily bit her lip as they opened the door. She walked in and felt the entire class turn and stare at her. McGonagall had been writing something on the chalkboard, and she turned to look at them when she heard the door open. Something on Lily’s face must have told McGonagall to take it easy on her, for McGonagall merely told them to take their seats, and she turned around and continued writing. McGonagall didn’t mention it after class, either.

Gabi and Ophelia made sure the rest of the day was much easier than the morning had been. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, which they again had with the Slytherins, Lily ignored the snickering coming from the other members of the class, while Gabi shot them all dirty looks. Luckily, Professor Keita’s class was very amusing that day, and everyone soon forgot about the slug incident and instead listened intently as Keita told them about a run-in he had with a Griffin while he was on a Ministry of Magic dig in Greece.

That night, Lily and Sirius were waiting in the common room, as McGonagall had told them to meet her there at 8:00. Sirius still wasn’t saying anything, and Lily was in no mood to make polite conversation either. After a very uncomfortable few minutes of silence, McGonagall entered the room and instructed them to follow her.

"I am going to leave you with Mr. Filch tonight," she told them as they walked toward the caretaker’s office. "You are both very lucky that Mr. Randolph informed me of your plan before it was executed, otherwise things could be a lot worse."

Both Lily and Sirius stopped in their tracks. They were thinking the same thing, but Lily was the one who verbalized it.

"Randolph?" she asked. "Charles Randolph?" Charles was a sixth-year and a Gryffindor prefect.

"Yes," McGonagall answered them, stopping to turn around and face them. "Mr. Randolph apparently overheard your plan in the common room and quickly notified me. Now, come along," she said as she turned back around and kept walking.

Lily looked over at Sirius and slowly started walking again. Lily couldn’t describe the look on Sirius’ face even if she tried. She didn’t even want to imagine what thoughts were going through his head.

McGonagall left them at Filch’s office. Filch had just been hired that year, and already he had earned himself quite a hated reputation among the students.

"Tonight we’re organizing," he told them as he led them into a dark classroom. When he lit the room, Lily saw that everything in the room was very old, very cluttered and very much covered with dust. Lily had no idea what most of the objects in the room were, so she felt relieved when Filch told them everything had to be arranged by size. That she could handle.

Filch left them, and Lily picked up and old rag and began to dust off the thing nearest to her, an odd violet cylinder. Sirius followed suit and started at the other end of the room.

They didn’t speak for nearly an hour, when Sirius finally looked at her and said, "I’m sorry."

"What?" Lily asked. Sirius’ statement had been barely audible, and she really hadn’t understood what he’d said.

Sirius sighed and set down his rag. "I’m sorry," he said, this time louder and clearer. "I was very rude to you this morning, and I apologize."

Lily smiled. "That’s okay," she told him.

"No it’s not. I’ve always been one to speak without thinking about the consequences, and look where it’s gotten me. I hurt your feelings for no good reason, and …"

His voice trailed off, but Lily knew what he was about to say.

"I’m sure things will be fine with James," she volunteered.

"I had no right to accuse him like I did," Sirius said. "James would never do something like that. Never. He’d try his best to talk me out of it, but he’d never run off and tell on me."

Sirius stopped talking and sat down on a very large cube-shaped table. "I don’t think he should forgive me for this. James never would accuse me of something like this."

Lily set down her rag and walked over to Sirius, hopping up on the table as well. She looked into Sirius’ eyes and saw all the pain and anguish he was feeling. She thought to herself that too often people tried to pigeonhole Sirius as nothing more than the guy who’s up for anything, not a care in the world. Lily reached out and touched Sirius’ arm.

"James will forgive you," she told him matter-of-factly.

"Why should he?" Sirius asked.

"Because," came a voice from behind. "He knows everyone makes mistakes."

Lily and Sirius both whipped around. Lily was very shocked to find James standing there. Sirius was shocked as well, but nearly as much as Lily.

"How?" Lily began. "What?"

James smiled and held up his right hand. In it was an odd, silvery piece of cloth. She still had no idea what it was or how James had gotten there.

"It’s an invisibility cloak," Sirius explained, not once taking his eyes off his best friend.

Lily was still very confused, but she thought it best not to press the issue. She looked from James to Sirius, who were both staring into each others eyes. Lily knew she should probably excuse herself and leave the room, but, as any curious person would have done, she stayed put.

James and Sirius didn’t say a word to each other, but Lily knew that everything was alright between them. There are some friends in life with whom you have a deeper connection, where nothing needs to be said verbally. James and Sirius had one of those friendships, Lily thought.

Finally, Sirius softly asked, "How long have you been here?"

"I followed you since you left the common room," James told him.

"So, you heard McGonagall …" Sirius began.

"Well," James interrupted. "You two do have a lot more work to do tonight." He picked up another rag and began cleaning off a chair. "I suppose you’d like some help."

Sirius smiled. He jumped down off the table and went back to what he was doing. Lily did the same.

The rest of the night was spent joking and laughing and truly enjoying each other’s company. Granted, it was detention and they were being punished, but it was the best night Lily had had so far at Hogwarts.

Saitaina
*****
AIM-AsherJasonAnita or DracoMal   "This is what it's all been about. All the hatred and suffering and fighting and dying...over nothing
more then the colors that can be  found in a child's crayola box."   "Kids Mess you up...you spend the rest of your life yelling at something you don't  understand."    

----- Original Message ----- From: Saitaina To: Saitaina Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2001 8:51 PM Subject: Re: A Lily Story-Alpha

Chapter 4

"Behind Closed Doors"

Lily was having a nightmare. She dreamed she was being chased by a crowd of people, all yelling at her to leave, telling her she didn’t belong. Leading the pack was Aurora and Ariel, but Sirius was there as well. Lily was running as fast as she could, but she couldn’t outrun the crowd. They were getting closer and closer, and Lily noticed she was running toward the edge of a cliff. Lily skidded to a halt and whipped around to watch the crowd close in on her. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sounds came out. The crowd came closer and closer, now being led by Aurora. Aurora reached out and pushed Lily. She felt herself falling, further and further down …

Lily bolted up from her sleep and began panting heavily. She heard a gasp and looked over to where it had come from.

Ophelia was sitting upright in bed too. Lily had obviously surprised her. Ophelia had her hand placed on her right temple, and Lily’s glance in her direction made Ophelia jump. Lily watched the black satchel Sebastian had given Ophelia on the train fall off her lap and onto the floor.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked Ophelia, starting to feel very groggy, not able to fully assess the situation.

"I’m fine," Ophelia answered back, an obvious anxiety in her voice.

Lily was overcome with tiredness and laid back down, not bothering to ponder what Ophelia was doing up at this hour. In the back of her mind, the black satchel registered familiarity, but Lily was too exhausted to give it proper thought. In no time, Lily had fallen back asleep.

By the next morning, Lily had forgotten the incident with Ophelia the night before. Ophelia chose not to mention it to Lily either.

Instead, they chose to talk about other things over breakfast, first of all being the schedule of classes they had just received. Their first class of the day was Potions with the Ravenclaws, followed by History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs.

As they made their way down into the dungeons, Lily was overcome with a feeling of cold despair, and she soon found herself wishing the class was over, knowing it had yet to begin. They entered the Potions classroom and Lily shivered. It was a small room, lined with shelves containing strange objects floating in glass jars.

"Two to a cauldron please," the instructor said.

Lily and Ophelia decided to share, and Lily was surprised that Gabi and Sirius were sharing the cauldron on her right. Lily was sure Sirius and James would have shared. James, however, was peering into his empty cauldron, with Remus at his side.

"My name is Professor Mortar," the instructor told them, his voice low and drawn-out. "If you will excuse me for a moment, I will go fetch the supplies for today’s lesson."

As soon as he had left the room, James turned to Sirius and said, "You’re not mad at me, are you?"

"Oh no," Sirius responded. "Why should I be mad? I mean it’s not like my best friend in the whole world doesn’t have confidence in my impressive potion-making skills and deserted me for someone he thinks is more qualified. Oh no, wait …"

Sirius smirked and added, "No, James, that’s quite alright. I’m sure I’ll get over this." He took a deep breath and held his hands up to his eyes, pretending to blot away tears. "Besides, Gabi here is much better-looking than you are, anyway."

Lily smiled, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Aurora standing there.

"Hi!" Lily said warmly. "How are you doing? We’ve been worried about you. I mean, you seemed so out of it last night and we felt so bad about …"

"Yeah," Aurora interrupted, her tone unfriendly and detached. "Look, could you please move your cauldron over to the left a little, because you’re blocking my view of the chalkboard." And with that, Aurora turned and walked back to her cauldron, which she was sharing with Ariel.

Lily turned and looked at Ophelia, who shrugged her shoulders. Both girls lifted the very heavy cauldron and moved it over the left a little. Lily glanced back at Aurora to ask her if she could see now, but Aurora turned away as soon as Lily made eye contact.

"What is going on with her?" Lily whispered to Ophelia.

"It’s Ariel," Ophelia whispered back. "She does this. She likes to recruit followers and train them to be just like her. Funny, but I never thought Aurora would be one of them."

"I guess we didn’t really know her that well, though," Lily observed.

Just then, Professor Mortar reentered the room, carrying a tray of roots. He passed out a bundle to each of the pairs and took his place at the front of the room.

"What you have in front of you is called enca root. Who can tell me what it does?"

No one raised a hand.

"I see," Mortar said as he turned to a copy of the enrollment sheet and started scanning, randomly stopping on the name of his victim. The whole room held their breath.

"Mr. Black," Mortar said. "Where are you?"

Sirius raised his hand slowly and let out a muted sigh. He turned and looked at James, giving him a look that showed he was in trouble.

"Alright, Mr. Black," Mortar said. "What does the enca root do?"

"I’m not entirely sure," Sirius said, adding a "sir" as an afterthought.

"You’re not entirely sure?" Mortar asked, his voice again very low, but now even more drawn-out. "Well, did you read today’s assignment before coming to class?"

Lily panicked. They were supposed to read the assignments before class?! She looked over at Ophelia and was relieved to see Ophelia had the same look of panic in her eyes. As Lily glanced around, she noticed most of the class was sharing a similar expression.

"Um, no sir," Sirius said.

"Really?" Mortar asked, prolonging the word and sounding extremely disinterested. He turned to Gabi. "What is your name?" he asked her, picking up the enrollment list again.

"Gabriela Menendez," she answered him.

"Alright Ms. Menendez," Mortar said. "Why don’t you tell us what the enca root does." Mortar had a devious smirk on his face. Lily could tell he was relishing the fact that he was frightening the class.

"Well," Gabi began, closing her eyes and concentrating. "It allows an individual to reach a state of equilibrium, which will ensure that an identical number of particles per cubic gill of fluid will effortlessly fill both sides of the semipermeable membrane in the human brain, thus allowing the individual to be able to learn through osmosis. Of course, this is assuming you add ostramen to the enca root, because enca root by itself is useless. The potion lasts for 20 minutes and can only be taken once every 72 hours. The making of this potion was banned by the Ministry of Magic in 1754 and can now only be made with special permission by a Department Head."

Gabi opened her eyes and found the entire class open-mouthed and staring at her. Mortar, on the other hand, was glaring at her.

"Page 27 of the textbook," she added. "Five lines down."

"And five points from Gryffindor for showing off, Ms. Menendez," Mortar added.

"Oh, that’s really fair!" Gabi exclaimed. "I’m so sorry if I ruined your moment of egotistical glory there by answering your question."

"Ten points from Gryffindor," Mortar calmly told her. "Anything else to add?"

Gabi glared back at Mortar, refusing to look away. "No," she said.

"Alright then," Mortar said turning back to the enrollment list. "Mr. Marks, could you please tell me where enca root is most commonly found?"

The rest of the class continued on as such, Mortar calling on every person in the room. With the sole exception of Gabi, no one was able to answer a question. Mortar deliberately refrained from calling on her again.

When he finally announced "class dismissed," everyone breathed a sigh of relief and started packing up their things.

"Ms. Menendez, stay after class," Mortar said. "I’d like a word with you."

Gabi turned to Lily and Ophelia. "I guess I’ll meet you in History of Magic," she said.

"But you don’t know where it is," Ophelia said. "We’ll wait for you."

"No," Gabi answered her. "I don’t want you to be late. Just go. I can find it."

"She’s brave," Lily observed as they were leaving the class. "I don’t think I’d attempt to find anything around here by myself, let alone on a time crunch. And to stand up to Mortar like that, never."

"How in the world did she know all that?" Ophelia asked.

Gabi was five minutes late to History of Magic, but the instructor, Professor Binns, didn’t seem to notice, much less care. This might have had something to do with the fact that he was a ghost, but Lily couldn’t be sure.

History of Magic proved to be a very dull and uneventful class, but Lily made herself pay attention, desperately trying to copy down every word Binns was saying. Ophelia was doing the same thing.

Gabi, on the other hand, had put her head down almost as soon as she sat down. She was now sleeping soundly, a look of peaceful contentment on her face. Lily and Ophelia had to gently wake her on their way out the door, the class having ended.

As soon as they were outside the classroom door, Lily and Ophelia barraged Gabi with questions.

"What happened with Mortar?" Lily asked.

"How did you know all that stuff in Potions?" Ophelia wanted to know.

"Did you hear anything Binns said today?" Lily asked.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down," Gabi said. "One thing at a time. Mortar wanted to lecture me on the importance of respect and to warn me not to talk back again. I have what’s called a hyper-photographic memory, which means I remember every little thing that I read. That’s really not such a gift though, because most of the time my mind gets so cluttered with trivial details that I can’t concentrate."

Gabi started walking back toward the Great Hall. "And no," she added. "Did I miss anything important?"

"You really remember everything you read?" Ophelia asked. "So I take it you’ve read all our schoolbooks?"

"Yes," Gabi sighed. "I wish I could just take final exams now and go on holiday for the rest of the year."

"Wait," Lily said, taking her History of Magic book out of her bag and randomly flipping to a page. "Okay, History of Magic, page 409, three lines down."

Gabi gave them a look, but closed her eyes and obliged. "In 1281, Phineus Boshaulk founded the League of Magical Complacency, thus unifying the northern and southern Rolan tribes." She opened her eyes and asked, "Do I pass?"

Lily shut the book. "That is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!" she exclaimed. "You really could take exams right now, couldn’t you?"

Gabi shrugged. "I could probably take N.E.W.T.s right now. But then I’d miss out on the experience, or so my father says."

She walked into the Great Hall, ready to eat lunch. Lily and Ophelia followed shortly after, as soon as Ophelia had explained to Lily what N.E.W.T.s were. Gabi received a standing ovation from both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years, and word of the Potions lesson quickly spread to everyone else. All throughout lunch, people from all years and houses came over to the Gryffindor table to congratulate Gabi for standing up to Mortar.

"He’s the most horrible man I’ve ever met," a Hufflepuff fourth year told them. "But no one has ever had the courage to stand up to him before."

Even a handful of Slytherins came over, which was surprising, seeing as how Mortar was the Head of Slytherin House.

The last class of the day was Charms, where they again were to meet up with the Ravenclaws. Gabi had a slight scowl on her face as they entered the Charms classroom, probably due to the fact she was going to have to pay attention in this class. They had been told that charms were not the kind of thing you could learn from a book. Granted, Gabi had all the words you muttered during a charm down cold, but charms required plenty of practice using a wand. One flick of the wrist at the wrong angle could defeat a charm if you weren’t careful.

The three girls walked into the classroom and noticed most of the front row was empty. Sirius and Co. had already staked a claim in the back row, and there weren’t three seats together back there. So the girls filed into the front row, Ophelia in the middle, with Lily on her left and Gabi on her right. Soon after they sat down, the door opened again and several Ravenclaws came pouring in, led by Ariel. Lily panicked as she looked at the empty seat on her left. But luckily Ariel and Aurora took up the last two seats in the back row, and Lily was more than relieved when Trey Marks took the seat next to her. She looked at Ophelia and smiled. This was going to be a good class.

The door opened again and their instructor entered the room. He was very tall and very old, and he looked extremely cross. He also happened to be the Head of Ravenclaw House.

"My name is Professor Oberon," he introduced himself. "Charms work is very difficult, and many students fail to master its delicate intricacies. I expect some of you to fail in your early work. Hopefully you will eventually catch on."

"This is a great introduction," Ophelia leaned over and whispered to Lily. "He should be a motivational speaker."

Not only was Oberon inspirational, but he was also lively. He walked around the room very slowly, speaking in a drawn-out monotone, eyes focused on the floor. Gabi put both her elbows on the table and flopped her head into her hands.

"The first charm we are going to attempt today is the simplest charm known in the wizarding world," Oberon said. "If you haven’t mastered this by the time class lets out today, I dare say there is something wrong with you."

Lily glanced over at Ophelia, who had turned white. Oberon walked over to where they were all sitting and began walking up and down the rows, passing out buttons as he went.

"Place the buttons in front of you," he said. "Now, pull out your wands. That’s right. You are going to make the button move. Seeing as how the button is very small and inanimate, I suspect there should be no difficulty doing this. Now, who knows the words we say?"

Again, no one raised a hand. Lily glanced at Gabi, who shook her head. "I don’t want it to look like I’m showing off or anything," she whispered and kept both her hands in her lap.

Oberon sighed. "Reposa," he said. "We all say ‘reposa.’ Now, it may take you a few tries to get it because you first have to learn the wrist movements. It’s all trial and error, I dare say. Now repeat after me – re-POS-a, re-POS-a."

The class obliged.

"Good, good," Oberon said. "Now it is your turn."

Lily looked down at her button and stared at it for a moment. She heard Ophelia on her right and Trey on her left attempt the charm at the same time. Neither of them got it. Lily practiced flicking her wrist a few times, having no idea what she was really doing. Or supposed to be doing for that matter. She just thought it was fun. She flicked it to the left a little, then flicked it back to the right, until she found a movement that was fluid and comfortable. She looked at the button, raised her wand, flicked her wrist and said "reposa."

And the button moved.

Lily let out a small shriek of delight.

"Lily, you made it move!" Ophelia exclaimed. "And that was your first try too!"

Oberon came over, smiling for the first time all lesson. "Show me," he said. "Do it again."

Lily took a deep breath and stared back at the button. "Reposa," she commanded. Again, the button moved and Lily let another small shriek.

"Again," Oberon said.

Four times he asked Lily to do it again, and four times the button moved.

"Well, well," he said. "This is quite spectacular. What is your name?"

"Lily Evans," she said.

"Alright, Ms. Evans, I want you to come down here to the front of the class."

Lily’s heart dropped. Going in front of the class was the last thing she wanted to do. But seeing as how she very well couldn’t tell Oberon no, she got up and hesitantly walked to the front of the room. Oberon walked over the classroom door and opened it.

"Alright Ms. Evans," he said. "Shut the door."

Lily was a little confused. She reached out and swung the door shut with her arm.

Oberon gave her a look and opened the door back up again. "Might you try using your wand this time?" he asked.

‘Stupid,’ Lily thought to herself as the class started to giggle.

She stared at the door, concentrating. She raised her wand, flicked her wrist and said "resposa." Nothing happened.

"Excellent work, Ms. Evans," Oberon said. He noticed the confused look on Lily’s face and added, "The ‘reposa’ charm only works on very small objects like buttons. For larger objects, you need different charms, and we will conquer those later. Thank you for being my volunteer, Ms. Evans. You may take your seat."

Lily walked slowly back to her seat, feeling very foolish. She ignored the snickering coming from Ariel and Aurora and went back to charming her button. By the end of the lesson, everyone had made their button move except a Ravenclaw girl named Jolie Bean, who left the classroom in tears after Oberon dismissed them.

Lily took her time packing up her things, and she noticed Ariel was deliberately packing up slowly as well. She followed Gabi and Ophelia out of the classroom, but Ariel cut in front of her just before they went out the door. After she had stepped foot out of the room, Ariel whipped around.

"Nice job today, Lily," Ariel said sarcastically. "I truly enjoyed your door-closing skills." Ariel began to laugh.

"Would you like to see them again?" Lily asked as she reached out and slammed the door in Ariel’s face. Lily grinned to herself and started thinking how clever she was. Then it dawned on her that she was still inside the classroom, alone, and everyone else was out in the hall. She let the red drain out of her face for a second, then opened the door again. Ariel was still standing in the same place, smirking a devious smirk, and Ophelia was behind her, giving Lily a weird look.

"Excuse me," Lily said as she brushed past Ariel, bumping her out of the way. "I must be going now." Lily walked over to Ophelia and Gabi, and the three of them started walking down the hallway.

"Well," Gabi said as soon as they had rounded the corner, "I really want to tell you ‘good job,’ but you kinda fell short on the execution of that one."

"I told you," Ophelia added, "patio furniture, she’s not."

________________________________________________________________________

Lily took a lot of flak for her encounter with Ariel. As soon as she walked in the Gryffindor common room after dinner, James and Sirius sprung up off the armchairs they had been sitting in and presented Lily with a dramatic interpretation of the event, acted out through the use of pantomime.

James played Ariel and Sirius was Lily. Sirius began walking toward an imaginary door when James sprung in front of him and turned around, wagging his finger in Sirius’ face. Sirius stepped back and slammed an imaginary door, a big grin on his face. He then looked left, looked right, looked up, looked down, and put his hands out, miming that he was trapped in a box.

"Oh, really funny," Lily interrupted them, heading toward the stairs leading to her room.

"We weren’t done yet," James called after her. "Don’t leave at intermission."

Lily collapsed onto her bed. ‘What a great first day,’ she thought to herself. She sat up, shook her head and started laughing. ‘I guess it was pretty funny,’ she thought.

The door to the dorm opened, and Gabi and Ophelia came in.

"Are you okay?" Ophelia asked.

"I’m fine," Lily said. "I know I’m going to look back on this and laugh one day, so at least I know I’m not going to be permanently scarred. But the next time I try to be witty and clever, I’d appreciate it if one of you stopped me."

________________________________________________________________________

Their first class the next day was Herbology, which they had with the Slytherins.

Gabi, upon waking up, announced to Lily and Ophelia that she wasn’t going to join them. "I’ll meet you in Transfiguration," she told them, turning over to go back to sleep.

"Um, Gabi," Ophelia said softly, "I don’t think that’s the way it works here. I really don’t think the classes are optional."

"Plus," Lily added, "I overheard from the Hufflepuffs, who had it yesterday, that the first class is a practical lesson." Still no stir from Gabi. "You know, not the kind of thing you can read in a book."

That did it. Gabi turned over to face them and sighed loudly. She got out of bed and told them, "You know, I really think this is going to be my least favorite class."

As they were walking out of the Great Hall after eating breakfast, Gabi turned left, while Lily and Ophelia turned right.

"Where are you going?" Gabi asked. "This is the way to the greenhouses."

"Oh," Lily said. "I, uh, think we start out in the classrooms, then go to the greenhouses."

Gabi walked over to them. "Did you lie to me about the whole ‘practical lesson’ thing?"

"I wouldn’t call it ‘lying’ per se," Lily responded. "I would call it something like saving a friend from getting into trouble on the second day of school."

"Whatever," Gabi said as she took off down the corridor toward the Herbology classroom. Lily and Ophelia smiled at each other. They both knew Gabi wasn’t really mad.

They were the last three to enter the room, and Lily was dismayed to find that there weren’t three seats together. The only remaining seats were spread out across the room. Lily took the seat next to a small boy with black hair, who quickly turned away when she sat down.

‘Odd,’ Lily thought.

The instructor entered the room and introduced herself as Professor Sprout. She told them to partner up, and Lily turned to the boy with the black hair and asked him if he’d like to be partners. He agreed, but only because there was no one else close enough to be partners with.

"I’m Lily," she introduced herself.

"Severus," the boy said curtly.

Professor Sprout came around delivering a tray filled with plants and fungi to each of the pairs. "I want you to observe each of these and make notes on them," she told them.

"So," Lily started, trying to make polite conversation, "what’s the Slytherin house like?"

"It’s fine," Severus told her and went back to analyzing a fungus.

"Okay, um," Lily said, trying to think of something else to say, "do you have any brothers or sisters who go here?"

"No."

"Did your parents go here?"

"Yes."

"Would you like me to just stop talking?"

"Please," Severus said.

"Okay," Lily whispered to herself.

They spent the rest of the lesson in total silence, each writing down their own, separate notes about the plants. Lily was more than relieved when Professor Sprout dismissed them.

"So," Gabi said, walking up to her. "That was a great practical lesson."

"It was kinda practical," Lily said as he put her book into her bag.

"There are pictures in the textbook," Gabi said. "I didn’t learn anything here that I didn’t already know, except that I don’t like this class."

Their next class was Transfiguration, taught by Professor McGonagall. Lily thoroughly enjoyed this class, even though she failed to turn her match into a needle. No one managed to do this, though, so Lily wasn’t too upset by it.

After lunch, their final class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts, again with the Slytherins. Lily, Ophelia and Gabi got lost along the way, so they got to the class just as it was supposed to be starting.

Ophelia opened the door and held it for Gabi and Lily, letting them walk in first. Lily led the way and stopped once she got inside. The room was empty.

"Are you sure we’re in the right room?" she asked.

"I thought so," Gabi started, her voice trailing off. "But apparently not."

Lily looked around the room. It was like none of the other Hogwarts classrooms that she had seen so far. To begin with, the room was circular and the walls, floor and ceiling were painted black. There were no windows in the room, and there were no candles or light fixtures either. Given this, the room was eerily light.

"I think we should go," Ophelia said, still standing in the doorway holding the door open.

"Good idea," Gabi said as she left the room. Lily did another quick scan of the room and walked out, Ophelia shutting the door behind her.

The three girls stood with their backs to the door, trying to figure out where they were supposed to be.

"Excuse me," came a voice behind them.

All three girls jumped and turned around.

"Will you be joining us today?"

Lily’s mouth dropped to the floor. Their Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor was standing in the doorway of their classroom, which now stood exactly where the round black room had been. She looked over to Ophelia and Gabi, who were both stunned.

"But …" Gabi started.

"Yes or no?" the instructor asked, a smile on his face.

Lily blinked a few times and peered past him into the room. It was a normal classroom, and all the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years were staring at them.

"Yes," Lily said as she led the way into the room. Lily took a seat next to James, who was giving her an odd look. Lily ignored it and looked straight ahead.

"As I was just saying," the instructor continued. "My name is Professor Keita. This is my first year teaching this class. I myself graduated from Hogwarts only six years ago. I hope you’ll take it easy on me this year." He gave them a smile.

Lily thought it was a refreshing change to have a pleasant teacher, and she smiled back. But for the rest of the lesson, Lily tuned Keita out. She kept looking around the room, trying to make sense of what was going on. She would try to think of logical explanations for the occurrence, but the best she could come up with involved a complicated plot of kidnapping and sleepwalking.

"Do you think we should ask someone?" Lily asked Ophelia after class.

"Like who?" Gabi interrupted. "Professor Keita? Um, excuse me Professor, but my friends and I here seem to be able to magically transport ourselves to other dimensions. Is that going to get in the way of our schoolwork?" Gabi shook her head. "I think this is something we keep to ourselves."

"Do you really think we transported ourselves to …" Lily began to ask, wide-eyed.

"No," Gabi cut her off. "I made that up."

"I know Sebastian was telling me about weird rooms in this place that magically appear and disappear, never to be seen again. I bet that’s what this was," Ophelia said.

Gabi agreed, but Lily wasn’t too sure. She didn’t tell them about her doubts, but deep inside, Lily felt there was something strange about that room. She didn’t think they had seen the last of it, but she cast the thought out of her mind and followed her friends down the hall.

A Lily Story-Chapter Six-"And All Shall Be Revealed"