Over the next week, the homework load increased for the first-years. Lily, however, enjoyed looking up tidbits of magical information from the musty old books, while the others groaned. Luckily, it seemed that Sirius had forgiven her about the tree incident, as the detentions had ended. James had never seemed mad at all.
Lily fell into a routine. She was a little homesick, but she liked the atmosphere of a boarding school. Besides, she liked hanging out with Alex and Cadrian. James hung around them a lot, too, with his cocky, smug demeanor, usually dragging along Sirius or Remus, and always with Peter tagging along.
One day after Potions class, Professor Slughorn asked Lily to stay behind. She obeyed, a little anxiously, but she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. She strolled up to his desk.
“Miss Evans, you have quite an aptitude for Potions,” he began, somewhat loftily. “A very admirable quality. Maybe you should have been placed into Slytherin, eh?” he laughed. Lily didn’t see what was so funny.
“No, I don’t think so,” replied Lily politely. “I’m happy where I am.”
“Yes. I see that. Well. I just wanted to invite you to a little, ah, gathering, I suppose.”
“Gathering? Like what?”
“Just a little dinner with a few special students,” explained Slughorn breezily. “It will be nice. Food, friends, fun! It’s tonight in my office at seven o’ clock. Can you come?”
“Well, yeah, I guess so,” said Lily.
“Great! Just great! Now go on, get to your next class.”
Lily hurried out so she wouldn’t be late to her next class and met Alex and Cadrian a little ways up the hallway. “What did Slughorn want?” Cadrian asked eagerly.
“He invited me to some…dinner or something. I don’t know.”
“What are you talking about, Lils?”
Lily shrugged. “I don’t know! He said he was inviting some students. ‘Special students,’ he said. Like a dinner thingy. Tonight at seven.”
“Yikes, Lily,” said Alex. “Sounds like he wants you for the Slug Club.”
“The Slug Club?” asked Lily skeptically. “And what’s that?”
“My sister told me about it. It’s just a bunch of dinner things that he invites his favorite students to. Really talented ones or rich or well-connected. You know.”
“But I don’t want to be in that club thingy!” exclaimed Lily. “Sounds dumb. And boring. And besides, weren’t we going to go to the Quidditch try-outs tonight to cheer Chris on?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” said Cadrian.
“Skip the Slug Club meeting,” Alex advised. “You don’t really want to be in that club. It’s a lot of Slytherins and a lot of snobs and people will hold it against you if they aren’t in it.”
“But I told Slughorn I’d come…”
“Tell him you can’t. Too much homework or something,” suggested Cadrian. “Seriously, Lils. The try-outs will be a lot better.”
“You’re right,” Lily decided. “After classes, I’ll just go tell Slughorn I can’t come. Too much homework.”
The rest of the day passed quickly, and Lily and her friends really did have a fair amount of homework. Not enough to keep them inside, but definitely the most they had had in their time at Hogwarts. After Herbology, as Alex and Cadrian headed up to the common room, Lily made her way to Slughorn’s dungeon. The classroom was empty, so she left a note on his desk:
Dear Professor Slughorn, I am sorry, but I cannot attend your dinner tonight. I just have too much homework that I need to keep on top off. However, I’ll be sure to come to the next one. Your student, Lily Evans
“There,” she said, satisfied, leaving it in the center where he’d be sure to find it. Then she went back to the common room where Alex and Cadrian were sitting with James and his three friends, working already.
Lily perched herself next to Alex and pulled a long, dull History of Magic essay, a quill, and her book and laid them on the table. “How long is this essay again?” she asked.
“A foot and a half,” James said promptly. “I’ve already got seven inches. You can use some if you like.”
“Um, I don’t cheat,” replied Lily. “It’s not that much. I’m fine.”
James’s ears turned red and he went back to his essay.
The seven first-years were quiet, the only audible sound being the scratching of their quills or the pages of a book, until Peter said anxiously, “James, what are the properties of unicorn hair in potions again? I forgot.”
“Look it up,” was the disparaging reply.
“I lost my book,” Peter whined. Lily rolled her eyes, pulled her own book out, and thrust it at him. “Here,” she said.
Peter didn’t utter a word of thanks. Lily turned back to her own essay. She was very intelligent and a quick worker and only about a half hour later she had finished. She skimmed it over quickly and, satisfied, rolled it up and placed it neatly in her bag. “You’re done?” asked Cadrian in disbelief, her hands ink-stained. “I still have a half a foot to go!”
Lily just smiled and said, “So, all we have to do now is the diagram for Herbology, and that summary for Defense Against the Dark Arts?”
“Right,” affirmed Sirius.
“I think I’ll go upstairs and finish,” Lily said, standing up and swinging her bag over her shoulder. “What time are the Quidditch try-outs?”
“Seven,” said James. “After dinner.”
“Okay.” With that Lily went up to the dormitory, where it was quieter. About fifty minutes later she had completed everything. It was five o’ clock. She bounced down the stairs into the common room, where her friends were still working. “Alex, Cadrian, you guys almost done?”
“One sec…I just need two more words.” Alex scribbled out a little more on her essay and set her quill down cheerfully. “Done!” she announced, stuffing her things in her bag.
“I can do the diagram later,” said Cadrian. “It won’t take long.” She, too, began packing up her things. Then the three girls went down to the Great Hall where dinner was already on the table. Lily was starving and piled enormous amounts of food onto her plate. The girls stayed in the Hall for an hour and fifteen minutes, chatting and eating.
When she was so full she thought she might burst, Lily checked her watch. “It’s six-thirty,” she said. “Let’s head down to the field or whatever.”
“Pitch,” said Cadrian. “It stinks first-years can’t play. I love Quidditch. I’m definitely trying out next year.”
“What position do you play?” asked Alex interestedly.
“I’m a Chaser.”
“Cool,” said Alex. “I don’t play, really, just with my siblings and cousins and stuff. I’m not very good.”
Soon the grass started to slope downhill onto the Quidditch pitch. Lily, Alex, and Cadrian took seats in the stands. About twenty people were congregated in the center of the pitch. “Hey, look, there’s Chris,” Lily noted. He was standing towards the middle of the group, looking rather bored.
“Where are James and Sirius?” asked Cadrian, looking around. “I thought they were coming.”
Alex shrugged. “Haven’t seen them.”
Then the group parted. A tall girl with long, very straight dark hair blew a whistle and called for all Chasers to come out onto the field. Four players stepped out. Three of them looked nervous. One looked confident; he was clearly the player from the year before.
The girl, obviously the team captain, called out the Keeper and sent him up to the goalposts. Then she had each Chaser shoot 15 goals. A short, skinny boy who looked to be in about his 3rd year made the most, 12. The player from last year had only made 10, and was obviously upset by this. “Come on!” he yelled, his face beet-red. “I was on the team last year, you’ve seen what I can do!”
The captain didn’t flinch or back down. She just said very calmly, “Sorry, Joshua, but he beat you, fair and square. And besides,” she added coolly, as he turned to walk away, “I wasn’t all that impressed with you last year, anyway.”
So the skinny boy was made the new Chaser (they only needed one, the other two hadn’t graduated yet). The rest of the try-outs went smoothly. Chris made it back onto the team as Seeker.
Lily, Alex, and Cadrian got up to leave. “James never showed up,” remarked Alex, as she reached for the handle of the heavy tall door. Suddenly a voice called, “Help! Please, somebody help!”
Oh no, Lily thought, but she couldn’t just turn away. “Who’s there?” she called.
“Lily?” asked the voice. It sounded familiar. She knew who it was.
“James?” she called back, running over to where the sound was coming from. “Where are you?”
“I’m right here. Behind the tree.”
Lily turned and walked around a peeling birch tree. There was James, lying flat as a board on the ground. “What happened?” she asked, kneeling down, her hatred suddenly forgotten.
“Sirius’s cousins,” replied James grimly. “We were walking down to the pitch for the try-outs when they ambushed us. They used the Full-Body Bind on me, but it’s starting to wear off.”
“Where’s Sirius, then?” asked Lily anxiously.
“They took him down to the Forbidden Forest!” he exclaimed. “I don’t know what they did with him, but we’ve got to help him.”
“The Forest?” Lily glanced up. The trees formed one black solid mass in the gathering dusk and they did not look the least bit inviting. “Well, I guess we don’t have a choice.”
Alex and Cadrian had wandered over by now. “Do either of you know the countercurse for the Full-Body Bind?” Lily asked quickly.
Cadrian didn’t, but Alex did. “It’s kind of a necessity with older sisters like mine,” she explained, then quickly set James free. He sprang to his feet. “Okay, then, let’s go,” he said.
“Go where?” asked Alex.
“Into the Forbidden Forest,” said Lily. “Sirius’s Slytherin cousins took him down there and we have to help him.”
“It’s out-of-bounds,” protested Cadrian. “We’ll get in horrible trouble.”
“Sirius is going to be in a lot worse trouble if we don’t get out there!” James practically screamed. “The Forest is so dangerous at night! There’s werewolves and centaurs and lots of other things that you do not want to come across. Would you rather have Sirius dead, or get a couple detentions?”
Perhaps James had wanted this to motivate Cadrian and Alex, but on the contrary, it made things worse. Lily rolled her eyes, grabbed their wrists, and said, “Come on, guys, we’ll be fine.” Alex and Cadrian still looked uncertain, but at least followed Lily and James down to the forest.
The forest was so dark that the four first-years could hardly see the trees right in front of them. ”Lumos,” James muttered, and the tip of his wand sparked with light. The three girls imitated him and they proceeded on.
It seemed pointless, really. How could four first-years, with barely a week’s worth of magic under their belts, find Sirius in the immense, never-ending forest, when they had no idea what his cousins had done with him? But they trekked on, not talking, knowing that they had to help their friend.
After about half an hour of walking around, Lily saw the first sign of life in the forest: a flash of white that appeared and left so quickly, she wondered if she saw it at all. “Guys, did you see that?” she whispered. “That flash of white?”
“Don’t worry,” James said under his breath. “It was most likely a unicorn.”
“A unicorn? There are unicorns in here?” Lily liked the idea of a unicorn, so pure and harmless, in the midst of all this dark danger. It comforted her as they moved on.
Suddenly, however, there came a great thundering noise from somewhere in the distance. Lily, Alex, and Cadrian all screamed. “What is that?” Cadrian asked. They looked around wildly, but couldn’t see anything. The noise was getting louder and louder, as if it was drawing closer. James suddenly understood. “It’s a stampede!” he yelled. “Get off the path!”
Alex streaked past Lily, brushing her hand lightly, and she dropped her wand. Suddenly she couldn’t see anything. Her friends were seeking shelter behind huge trees, so she couldn’t see their light. She dropped to her knees frantically, searching for her wand, as all the while the stampede (of what?) grew closer. “LILY!” somebody yelled. James. “WHERE ARE YOU?”
“I’m here! I can’t find my wand!” she yelled back.
“GET OVER HERE! YOU’LL BE KILLED!”
“But my-”
A strong hand grabbed her own hand and pulled her off to the side. Not five seconds later the frenzied mob of centaurs, as it turned out, stormed through the path where Lily had just been kneeling. She would have died.
She turned to James. “You saved my life,” she said slowly. She was very confused. It would be hard to hate a person who had saved her life. (She’d find a way, though.)
James shrugged. “Are you okay?”
“I…think so.” Her legs felt shaky and she thought she might vomit, but she would be okay. “But my wand’s got to be crushed by now…”
Alex stepped over to the beaten down path and winced. “Well, yeah, it is…”
“Doesn’t matter. You can get a new one. Now, let’s keep going.” James was acting like nothing at all had happened. Lily appreciated this and adopted it for herself.
“Right,” she said. “Maybe we should call for him…?”
“No,” advised James. “That would bring attention to us, and that’s definitely not what we want.”
“Okay, then maybe we should split up,” suggested Alex. Lily didn’t at all like the mischievous sparkle in her eyes. “I’ll go with Cadrian, and James, you and Lily head that way.” She winked at Lily and turned away.
Lily felt a twinge of annoyance at her friend. She did NOT like James, even if he had saved her life. But just because he had saved her, didn’t mean she would suddenly fall madly in love with him. Of course not! Alex was crazy. Nothing had changed. Not really. Not much, anyway.
But Alex and Cadrian left, so Lily and James went the opposite way. They walked in silence for a while, seeing only what was illuminated by the tiny spark on James’s wand tip. Lily was jumpy and uneasy and every little sound frightened her.
Suddenly Lily tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. She jumped up and brushed herself off. “Lily?” a voice asked in amazement and utter relief.
“Sirius?” she asked, equally surprised. “Is that you?” apparently, it had been Sirius’s foot, not a tree root, she had tripped on.
“Yes!” he breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank God, I was so scared a werewolf was going to find me…”
“Sirius?” James had walked over now and from the light on his wand Lily could now see Sirius. He was tied tightly to a large tree. “Here, I’ll untie you.” He went around to the back of the tree and the ropes fell to the ground a few moments later. Sirius stepped away from the tree. “Thanks,” he said gratefully. “I thought I was toast. Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Lucius tied me to this tree and hoped a werewolf or something would get me…”
“That’s horrible!” gasped Lily.
Sirius nodded, clearly shaken. “Some cousins,” he muttered. “We better get back to the school soon or we’ll be caught.”
“We can’t leave without Alex and Cadrian,” Lily protested, as the boys started walking towards the silhouette of the darkened castle.
But in a stroke of good luck (excellent, really), they quickly found Lily’s friends and escaped the forest without any further incident. The Hogwarts grounds were deserted and quite eerie as the moonlight cast a pale glow on the grass. As they neared the castle, Lily spotted a short figure approaching the Whomping Willow.
“Guys, look,” she whispered. “Somebody’s going over to the Whomping Willow.” They all stopped to look, but they were too far away to tell who it was. The figure dodged the flailing branches and then touched the trunk. Instantly the limbs froze, and the figure disappeared under the tree.
“What was that all about?” James asked. “Let’s go after him!”
But the others refused to go, so James reluctantly followed them up to the castle. They tiptoed silently down the dark corridors and slipped into the Gryffindor common room unnoticed.
Lily, Blossoming by halfbloodprincess22
Chapter Notes: There is more trouble from Sirius's cousins.