Ch. 22 �“ Spy Trouble
“I can’t believe we have final exams to worry about on top of everything else,” Sarah complained as we made our way to breakfast.
I simply nodded in reply. I was having trouble wrapping my mind around how drastically my life had changed in the span of one year.
“It’s only going to get worse, Lily. All of our lives are going to be continuously changing over the next few years,” Mack pointed out, causing me to realize I had spoken out loud.
“Well you’re just a little ray of sunshine this morning aren’t you?” Sarah mumbled as we sat down at the Gryffindor table.
“It sounds like three girls woke up on the wrong side of their beds,” Jake observed in an annoying, sing-song voice.
“You seem to be doing well though. It seems nothing about yesterday is hanging over your head,” Mack replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Let me share my optimistic view of our situation with you,” Jake began.
I, however, was not in the mood for Jake’s optimistic speech or my lemon poppy seed muffin. I solved both of my irritations by shoving the muffin into Jake’s open mouth.
“Nice one, Lily!” Sarah said with an appreciative smile.
“Should we work on our Potions essay after dinner tonight?” Mack suggested, her voice slightly louder in order to be heard over Jake’s coughing.
As Sarah and Mack made our study arrangements for the evening, I turned my attention to the end of the table. Siri and Natalie were laughing and sitting very close together, which only worsened my mood. Siri and I weren’t fighting anymore, we’d moved onto a worse stage instead; no interaction at all. He spent all of his time with Natalie now and it hurt to admit to myself that I had been replaced.
“Are you working on your nonverbal hexes?” James asked as he nudged my arm.
I blushed in embarrassment. “No, I wouldn’t do something like that with Dad and Siri around,” I admitted.
“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t do anything to Natalie at all. A nonverbal hex simply because she’s taking up all of Siri’s attention wouldn’t be a very Potter thing to do,” he pointed out.
I stabbed my eggs in annoyance. “Well, being a transcender isn’t a very Potter thing either, but that doesn’t keep me from being one. I just don’t like her, James. I don’t know why but she just doesn’t sit right with me,” I mumbled.
“She’s a good person, Lily,” he said.
“I better get to class, I’ll see you later,” I whispered.
***
My day did not get any better and after angering Sarah and Mack for what felt like the millionth time, I walked down to dinner alone. With the stress of final exams, Bellatrix and her clan of loonies causing havoc and, oh of course, the whole war prevention aspect of my transcender status constantly present in my mind, I was becoming quite moody.
As I reached the Great Hall, I changed my mind about dinner. I didn’t feel hungry to being with and the idea of getting into another argument with my friends wasn’t appealing. I turned around and headed back to the Common Room, deciding that a little extra studying would be more beneficial.
It was at the top of the staircase that I saw her and her fat little friend. They were both blocking my path and smirking at me. I exhaled through my nose and glared at both of them as I approached.
“Look Rita, we’ve found Loony Lily Potter. When did they let you out of your cage?” Rebecca Abernathy taunted.
“Oh, I guess it was about an hour ago. It’s a new law with Wizard Welfare, I’m entitled to my exercise,” I replied, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
Rebecca smirked again. “Well, I know something you don’t know,” she said in a sing-song voice.
“Okay, well, you have fun with that,” I said, trying to pass by both of them.
The fat girl called Rita shoved me back in front of Rebecca. “Stay,” she grunted.
“Nice to see you surround yourself with quality people, Abernathy. This one quite obviously has quite a large and intelligent vocabulary” I scowled, stepping back to avoid falling over.
“Whatever, Loony Lily, I have something to tell you,” she said, a smirk reappearing on her face.
This whole conversation was beginning to bore me. I was contemplating whether to slap her or use a more close fisted method to quiet her. Then I would run of course.
“She knows about you,” Rebecca hissed.
That simple statement caused my stomach to drop, chills to run down my spine and the familiar panic breathing to which I had grown accustomed, to commence.
“Who?” I asked, my voice rising slightly.
“Does it really matter which ‘she’ it is that I’m referring to?” Rebecca asked, a knowing smile pasted on her face.
I cleared my throat to give me a moment to think of a response. “Obviously it matters since I have no idea who you are talking about,” I replied in a voice of forced calm.
Rebecca’s smile grew larger while Rita continued to leer at me. The occupants of the surrounding portraits were watching us intently now, none of them making any noise. This observation only agitated me further because the whole school will know about this conversation in less than an hour.
“That’s fine, Potter. I’ll play stupid to make this easy for you. ‘She’ knows all about you. See, someone close to you has a loose tongue. Oh, how I love blind trust, it’s such a Gryffindor trait. You and all your friends have too much trust in people you shouldn’t be trusting,” she explained.
“And you’re telling me this because you want to help me?” I asked, failing to hide my disbelief.
“Of course not, Lily! I’m telling you this it will be oh-so-entertaining to watch your little clan self destruct. That alone will be worth letting this information slip. I love watching chaos emerge; it’s sort of like a hobby of mine. Besides, the damage has already been done,” she said, laughing.
I took a step closer to bring myself almost nose to nose with Rebecca Abernathy. I took every ounce of anger and frustration I’ve been harboring and poured it into the meanest look I could form.
“For your information, Abernathy, the Dark side has yet to destroy my family and I’m not about to let that fact change. You think the damage has already been done? Just wait, I haven’t even begun to demonstrate the destruction I am capable of,” I hissed.
At the sight of fear flickering in her eyes, I smiled in triumph.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get by,” I finished.
Rita and Rebecca stepped to the side and let me pass. I was turning onto the next staircase when I heard Rita grunt something.
“Don’t worry Rita, she isn’t even capable of sleeping through the whole night. Lily Potter can’t destroy anything,” Rebecca replied.
I smirked. Just you wait I thought. I knew that there was little I could do right now but I also knew loads of people who could do many things. With a nod to myself I took one of the tapestry shortcuts Siri had shown me earlier in the year. I was going to do something the right way for the first time; I was going to talk to my Dad.
***
My Dad leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face. I had just repeated my conversation with Rebecca Abernathy and Rita. After several minutes of silence, my anxiety peaked.
“So?” I prompted.
“Well, I’m glad you came and told me about this right away. Obviously I need to have quite the chat with Miss Abernathy. Perhaps she can tell me who the source of information is so we can put a stop to them,” he said, pouring us some tea.
“I would hope so, Dad. When you talk to her you better tell her that the next time she stops to talk to me, I’m just going to hex her and keep walking. If I’m feeling rather irritated I may just punch her instead,” I told him, ignoring my tea.
“Now Lily, I thought you were going to work on your tendency to act first and think later?” he asked, playfully shaking his finger at me.
“I’m beginning to think I should work on eliminating other personality flaws instead,” I answered with a smile.
“You are your mother’s daughter, dear so that means you have no flaws,” he complimented.
“I’ll be sure to pass that on, Dad,” I said with a laugh. We spent the next few minutes drinking our tea in silence. I had a lot on my mind and I think Dad knew I just wanted some time to think. Finally, I placed my empty mug down on the table and locked eyes with him. “Does the fact that someone told Bellatrix and Saiph about my talent bother you?”
“I’m very concerned about that, Lily, I really am. Spies cause problems that are difficult to predict and handle; problems that can cause deaths. I’ve seen the damage one person with poor loyalty can do and it often is the last person you suspect. Who do you think it could be?” he asked.
I nodded. I knew exactly who had been sharing secrets and who he had been sharing them with.
“It’s Siri, Dad. He’s been telling Natalie every single thing I’ve told him! I told him not to keep telling his little girlfriend every little detail but he acted like I was mad! He claims that since her parents went to school with you and Mum, she’s completely trustworthy!” I said.
I was shocked when my father’s reaction was a slight chuckle at my revelation. He noticed my disbelief and quickly wiped the small smile from his face, but my eyes must have exposed the hurt I felt.
Dad poked at the tip of my nose to make me smile slightly. “I will talk to Miss Thomas and Siri if you really think either of them could be guilty of sharing information with untrustworthy people, Lily. I just want you to be sure you are accusing people based on actual facts and not your own jealousy,” he said.
“Why would I be jealous?” I scoffed.
Dad’s face broke into a knowing smile which briefly reminded me of Dumbledore. I found the similarity quite annoying and met his look with a scowl capable of my dear Mum.
“Lily, you have been Siri’s favorite person since you were two years of age. Up until now, none of his friends could ever distract him from you in any way. Natalie is different though, isn’t she? Siri spends all his time with her, he tells her things he used to tell only you and she is his main focus now, not you,” he explained.
I felt my eyes burn but I refused to cry. I knew the day would come when Siri would get a girlfriend. I knew I couldn’t be his center of attention forever, but that wasn’t the issue here. Siri’s a big brother, and he wasn’t acting like a very good one.
“Dad, this year has been horrible for me. I didn’t even want to come here in the first place but you and Mum said you wouldn’t hire tutors for me. And now my life has turned upside down and most everyone thinks I’m off my rocker. Siri is my brother, he’s my big brother. He’s supposed to be helping me deal with this madness! Instead, he spends all his time with that girl and leaves me to cope all by myself. How is that right? How is he protecting me by doing that?” I asked, anger evident in my tone.
Dad was silent for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed and his green eyes thoughtful. “How about you let me protect you and help you cope? I’m your father, Lily, that’s kind of what my job is you know. I like to think we have a pretty open relationship so that means you should be able to come talk to me about anything,” he told me, rising from his seat and coming to embrace me.
“I know, Dad. That doesn’t mean I don’t miss my big brother though,” I mumbled into his shoulder.
“Well, I’ll talk to both of them and let you know afterwards what was said. Does that sound all right?” he asked, releasing me from our hug.
I nodded and sat back down. I felt so dependent on everyone around me for the simplest things. For Merlin’s sake, I was having my dad talk to my big brother for me, like I wasn’t able to have a simple conversation with a person I’ve known my entire life. Why is doing the mature thing feel so…wimpy?
Desperate to change my frame of mind, I grasped onto an unsettled subject. “So, what should we do about this spy thing until we know who we’re dealing with?” I asked.
Dad began pacing in front of me. His strides were long and slow, he wasn’t frantic, just deep in thought. I sunk deeper into the chair and waited for his response. He used to do this at home all the time when he had been an Auror. Mum always said he did his best thinking on his feet and then when he started his pacing thing, she told him not to take everything she says so literally. I still remember the way the two of them had smiled at each other when she said that. It was a secret smile and it made me wonder what was so funny and why they wouldn’t tell us.
Dad clapped his hands, causing me to sit up straight and focus on the present situation. “From now on after any dreams or visions or anything, you come to me. And when I say come to me, Lily, I mean come only to me. Don’t tell anyone else about anything. Final exams aren’t far off and I think eliminating the number of people aware of certain things will make the situation easier to manage. Once we get home, we’ll think of something better to do until we figure out who or what we are dealing with here,” he suggested.
“Okay, but I think people are going to notice that I’m not talking about any dreams anymore. And what if something happens during classes or mealtimes?” I countered.
“Well, you seem to always know when these visions are about to manifest, so if you get that feeling while you’re around people, try to go somewhere away from everyone. Try making it to my office or your room, go anywhere isolated. As far as people noticing your lack of dreams, I honestly don’t know if they will, Lily. You all should be studying non-stop and that will take up most of your time and energy. If anyone starts getting suspicious or angry, I’ll talk to them,” he said, nodding his head as if he was convincing himself this would be the right course of action.
“So, your solution is to purposefully isolate myself from everyone around me?” I asked.
“I know it sounds awful, but I don’t know what else to suggest right now. This won’t be the solution for an extended amount of time, just until we get home. I will notify the Order about this and we’ll spend all summer trying to track the person down,” he assured me.
I sighed because I didn’t have any other solutions to offer him either. We both gazed into space silently for a few moments before I stood up and gave an affirmative nod. Dad smiled and gave me a hug before I left to make my way back to the Common Room. The farther away from Dad I got, the more I assured myself that this was the right thing to do. I have become quite used to isolation lately anyway, how bad would it be for me to bear a little more? Besides, if Dad was getting the Order involved, this problem would probably be solved in no time. Someone would discover the spy’s identity, how the knowledge was received, who everything was being reported to and then take care of the problem. This whole thing would probably be nothing more than a memory next month.
Unfortunately, at the exact moment that final thought ran through my mind, my stomach did that odd twisty thing. As I whispered the password to the Fat Lady, I exhaled deeply and crossed my fingers. I truly wanted my gut feeling to be wrong, not just wrong but way off the mark. However, I have quickly discovered that my ‘talent’ wasn’t ever wrong, at least it hadn’t been yet, and if we didn’t get to the bottom of this soon, the road ahead could get pretty messy.
To Find the Truth by hopelesslyhopeful
Chapter Notes: Lily has another encounter with Rebecca Abernathy and a chat with her father.
Sorry it took so long to update. I hope you all enjoy.