Aurora looked up and immediately saw the three girls, who were standing, wandless and very scared, at the end of the hallway. She smiled slightly at Lily, but Lily was too petrified to return the gesture.
Slowly the wizard advanced on them, obviously enjoying the looks of sheer terror on their faces. Lily looked around desperately for something to defend themselves with-a rock, a stick, anything…Oh, why did I let them talk me into this? she thought angrily, as she felt behind her, hoping for a loose brick in the wall.
She didn’t find a loose brick. The wizard was halfway across the hallway now, still walking slowly and cat-like. With each step he took it got harder and harder for Lily to breath.
“Run!” she mouthed to Aurora, but Aurora didn’t do anything. The wizard was practically on top of them now, his wand outstretched menacingly. Lily could smell his rank odor; she gagged on it and looked away, down the hallway they way they’d come.
She had never been happier to see James Potter in her life.
And what was that flying behind him? Some kind of bird, Lily thought, squinting to make it out better. The bird was magnificent, with vibrant red feathers edged with shining gold, a majestic, curving beak, and beady, intelligent dark eyes. James pulled out his wand and the bird flew ahead.
“Ahh!” the wizard stepped back as the bird clawed into his face, flapping its wings frantically. Lily, Alex, and Cadrian took the opportunity to run over to Aurora. She was lying stiffly on the ground. The sight stirred something in Lily’s memory: James, lying board-like under the tree on the night of Quidditch try-outs. Alex, apparently, had the same thought and performed the countercurse like before.
Aurora staggered to her feet, leaning on the wall. “Are you okay?” Lily asked, watching the brilliant-colored bird as it snatched the wizard’s wand away.
Aurora just nodded. Lily remembered that the wizard had bewitched her to not be able to speak. But nobody knew the countercurse for that one, so they overlooked it.
“James, what’s that bird?” Lily asked, as they edged around the corner. The bird’s wings were still flapping frantically so that the Dark wizard couldn’t see a thing.
“It’s Fawkes. He’s Dumbledore’s. He’s a phoenix,” James explained. “Pretty powerful, when he wants to be.”
“Yeah,” breathed Lily. “So how did you know we were down here?”
“I saw you guys leave and I figured you’d get yourselves into trouble. Don’t know how Fawkes knew, though.”
“It’s a good thing he did!” said Alex, in awe of the phoenix. “He’s absolutely amazing!”
“He’s down here! I can hear him!” they heard somebody yell. Lily immediately pegged it as being Professor Looper’s. Her stomach tightened. “We’re going to be in so much trouble,” she moaned.
Sure enough, Professor Looper, with Professor Jangledon close on his heels, turned around the corner a few seconds later. He stopped short when he caught sight of the four first-years and Aurora, but quickly recovered when he noticed Fawkes and the wizard.
Looper and Jangledon ran past Lily, her friends, and Aurora and quickly called Fawkes off the man. Lily saw that he was unharmed except for a few small scratches and was glad. She couldn’t stand the sight of blood, even an evil man’s. Fawkes flew gracefully over to the fivesome and rested on James’s shoulder. James patted him appreciatively.
“You were great, Fawkes,” he praised.
Looper and Jangledon had tied the man up and enchanted his body to float behind them as they walked. They came to a stop in front of Lily and her friends. “What are you four doing down here?” Looper asked icily. Lily felt her blood run cold.
“We were…um…”
“You could have been killed!” Looper screeched loudly. It echoed off the low ceiling unpleasantly.
“Yes, we know, sir,” said Alex quietly. “We probably would have been if it weren’t for James. He saved our lives, him and Fawkes. Don’t punish him, he was only trying to help us.”
Looper sniffed. “You still do not have a valid excuse for being down here, girls,” he said. “You will each receive a detention, except James, and I am taking twenty points from Gryffindor.” Lily shot Alex a dirty look. I told you we’d get into trouble! she mouthed. For once Alex didn’t have a snappy retort ready. She just averted her eyes from Lily’s angry green ones.
“Now, come on. The Fat Lady returned an hour ago, so you can get back into your common room.” Aurora moaned-the spell seemed to be wearing off- since she couldn’t speak, and followed them slowly. The look on her face conveyed extreme pain with every step. She didn’t look that great, either: she was grimy and dirty from being on the dungeon floor, a purply bruise was spreading up her leg, and her arms were scratched with a bit of dried blood spilling out.
Aurora opened her mouth and her words were very soft. The spell was still affecting her a bit. “How can I ever thank you?” she croaked.
“It’s thanks to James, really,” piped up Cadrian. Lily winced. She hated that that was true.
“I suppose,” said Aurora, her voice growing stronger, “but you three had the guts to come down here, too. How can I thank you?” she thought, and then a smile grew on her weary face. “What if I give you all tickets to my Christmastime concert?”
A huge grin spread over Alex’s face. “Oh, wow!” she enthused. “That’d be great!”
Cadrian and Lily exchanged grins, and James said, “Er, do you mind if you give me an extra ticket? So I can bring another, well, boy?”
Aurora laughed. “Of course. I’ll mail them to you. Well, thanks again, but I really need to go home now. See you later!” she hurried away.
“See, Lily!” said Alex as she left. “It didn’t turn out completely horrible. We got free tickets to Aurora’s Christmas concert! I’ve heard those are practically impossible to get, and really expensive.”
“I told you we’d get in trouble,” said Lily sourly.
“But we saved Aurora’s life. That’s a little more important.”
“Technically,” broke in James, “I saved her life.” He smirked. “Speaking of saving lives, Evans, doesn’t this make twice that I’ve saved your neck?”
Lily winced, but James was right. “Yes,” she muttered, staring at the ground. She didn’t want to see the look on James’s face.
James laughed. “Wow. Pretty lucky I’m here, isn’t it?”
The sound of his cocky, arrogant voice was making Lily sick with anger and disgust. She hated him…hated him. He was a horrible, idiotic jerk, and she wasn’t the least bit grateful to him for saving her life twice…okay, maybe a little.
She maintained her huffy silence all the way up to the common room and when they entered, she stomped up to the dormitory, steaming.
Why had she let Alex and Cadrian talk her into that, anyway? They were always getting her into trouble, especially Alex. She could have been killed today, if it wasn’t for…James. What a jerk. So he’d saved her life twice. Big deal. He’d never let her forget about those two times, she was sure.
Lily lay on her bed for an hour, too angry to go back downstairs. Alex and Cadrian never came up to see where she’d gone, and that only incensed her anger. She lay on her bed fuming until she fell asleep.
* * * * * * * * * *
Lily woke up abruptly in the middle of the night. Groggily, she reached for her clock. It was one o’ clock in the morning.
Lily sat up and looked around. Alex and Cadrian were sleeping peacefully. Her earlier anger ebbed away as she watched her friends. They had saved Aurora’s life. And at least life was never really boring with them around. No, she couldn’t be mad at them.
With a jolt, Lily remembered a long History of Magic essay that was due tomorrow. Her eyes burned exhaustedly, but her essay was only half-done. Sighing, she swung out of bed and tiptoed downstairs as quietly as she could.
The common room was dark and empty, the last dying embers of the fire burning out slowly, providing little to no light. Lily stuffed more wood into the fire and the sparks hopped onto it, igniting the wood. The fire wasn’t terribly bright, but it was good enough for Lily to hurriedly finish up her essay.
A snore sounded loudly and suddenly, making Lily jump. She looked around for the source and spotted it almost immediately. A few tables over, she could see Chris, his head slumped onto an open book. She walked over to him and touched his arm gingerly. “Chris?”
His head sprang up, his hair sticking out in odd places. “What’s going on?” he croaked.
“Chris? I think you fell asleep.”
He blinked a few times. “Oh, hi Lily. Yeah, I was trying to finish up this essay and I just…” he let out a huge yawn. “Fell asleep.” Then he grinned. “I heard about your adventure today.”
Lily sighed and sat down next to him. “Don’t even bring that up.”
Chris frowned. “Why?”
“I…what?” Lily narrowed her eyes. “What did you hear?”
“That you saved Aurora Beam’s life,” said Chris. “And that James kid, too.”
Lily’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“James said you three saved his life, and if it hadn’t been for you he would have been toast.”
“He said that?” asked Lily, shocked. “But…why? It was exactly the opposite. He saved our butts, Chris.”
Chris looked genuinely confused. “That’s not what James said at all.”
“Well…I don’t know why he said that. I thought he was going to rub that in forever,” said Lily.
Chris shrugged. “I don’t know. Guess he just has another side that you don’t see much.”
Lily liked this idea. “Yeah. Well, I should go finish my essay, Chris. See you.”
“Yeah. See ya.” Chris staggered up the stairs and Lily heard him close the door. She finished her essay quickly and then went back up to bed.
Just before she fell asleep, a disturbing thought entered her mind:
Maybe James isn’t so bad after all.
But she quickly chased it out, startled. James was so bad. I’m just tired, she reasoned with herself. That’s all.
Lily, Blossoming by halfbloodprincess22
Chapter Notes: The magical world belongs to JK. Darn it.