Ch. 5 The Gang’s All In
The first thing I did when Sarah and Mack woke up was tell them everything that I had been waiting to talk to them about.
“You’re mad, Lils. You realize you almost got two detentions on your first day?” Sarah asked as we headed down for breakfast.
“That’s beside the point,” I said, waving my hand in dismissal.
“I’m really curious about all this stuff though. Your dad killed Voldemort twice?” Mack asked.
“I don’t know; that’s one of the many things confusing me. I know You-Know-Who and Voldemort are the same person, but that doesn’t make sense. You can’t kill the same person twice!” I said as we joined the guys at the table.
Siri, Jake, and James were laughing at some boys at the Slytherin table. I turned to follow their gazes and found three boys with neon green hair glaring at us.
“What did you guys do?” I asked, grabbing some pancakes.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a potion. This will pass in about an hour,” Jake said, waving at the boys.
“Who are they?” Mack asked.
“Gits,” Siri stated simply.
“Um, the one in the middle is Nicholas Riley, on his left is Thomas Sorenson, and on his right is Benjamin Krum. They’re in our year and we don’t really get along,” James explained.
“Obviously,” Sarah said, laughing.
“Hey! You changed your eye color! I’m so telling on you!” I said, pointing at James’ face.
His normally blue eyes were grey today and I know he wasn’t supposed to be using his morphing powers; strict orders from his father.
James blushed as everyone realized I was right. “If you wouldn’t have said anything, no one would have been the wiser,” he pouted, his heart shaped face set in a frown.
I watched with fascination as grey turned back to blue with a simple purse of his lips. I was about to voice my internal envy at his ability when I saw Dad heading our way. I leaned over, pretending to reach for syrup but instead, I quickly whispered to Siri, “If Dad asks, you were helping me with Potions yesterday; that’s why we were in the Library. Don’t say anything about the Prophet article!”
He gave me a puzzled look but nodded. James and Jake watched with interest as Dad stopped behind me.
“Good morning, Lily. Did you get much sleep after your midnight adventure? You look a bit tired,” he said.
“I’m fine, Dad,” I said, taking a bite of my pancakes.
“Why were you and Lily in the Library yesterday, Sirius?” he asked, turning to face my brother.
Siri glanced at me slightly and then looked hard at Dad. “Yesterday? The Library you say? Um…well, Natalie and I were, uh, studying and on the way out, I saw Lils and went over to say hi. She was working on a Potions essay so I helped,” Siri said, stuffing a sausage in his mouth.
Dad just looked at Siri. My heart started pounding loudly in my chest and my hands were shaking slightly. There was no way he was going to fall for Siri’s explanation.
“What, Dad? I swear I didn’t give her any outright answers! I just nudged her in the right direction,” he said.
Dad was still gazing at both of us, so I turned my attention to my plate to hide my face. I suddenly noticed that students had started to head to class and I seized the moment. “Where’s the Charms classroom? Sarah and Mack have already left and I don’t know where to go,” I said, standing up.
“We’ll show you; Siri has Divination in the North Tower so he’ll be late if he comes,” Jake said, jumping up.
I nodded, pecked a kiss on Dad’s cheek, and followed James and Jake out of the Great Hall. As soon as we were out of sight I flashed a smile. “Thanks guys, but I actually know where I’m going,” I told them, heading down the corridor.
“Yeah, but we don’t know what’s going on,” Jake said, pulling me into an empty classroom.
“And you have ten minutes to bring us up to speed,” James said, sitting at a desk and looking at me expectantly.
I sighed and set down my bag. “Okay, but you can’t tell anyone,” I began.
***
I arrived in Charms just in time and Aunt Fleur smiled at me. She was so pretty, it should be illegal. Her long, silky hair was twisted on top of her head and her slender figure was obvious, despite being hidden behind bulky robes. She flashed another smile at the class, showing off her perfect white teeth. I swear I could hear the boys drooling.
“Welcome to Charms everyone! This subject happens to be one of the most entertaining classes you will be studying. So, let’s start with Levitation,” she said, flicking her wand at Mack’s quill causing it to rise into the air. After living in England for so long, she had almost completely lost her French accent.
We practiced the wand movement and incantation with the promise that next class we would try it on an object, then Aunt Fleur dismissed us.
“Lily, can you spare a moment please?” she asked as I neared the door.
“Sure, but I have Transfiguration in ten minutes,” I said, approaching her desk.
“Don’t worry, this won’t take long,” she said, smiling.
“Bill told me you were late to his class yesterday and today you were only just in time. What is going on, dear?” she asked.
“Well, it’s an unfamiliar building and people are constantly trying to stop me to talk. I guess sometimes it’s just harder to get to where I need to be,” I lied.
She rubbed my hand affectionately. “Oh dear, I didn’t realize. I’m sorry for forgetting what your days must be like. I will pass the message onto Bill also. Now, hurry off to class,” she said.
I gave her a quick hug and bolted out the door.
***
“I can’t believe you were the only one who could do it!” I said to Mack as we sat down to lunch.
“Do what?” James asked, sitting down next to me.
“She turned her match into a needle today!” Sarah said.
As Sarah told James and Siri about Mack’s accomplishment, I saw Katy coming over, looking glum. “What…” I began only to be cut off by the look in her eyes.
“Jake told me what you’re up to, so I decided to help,” she said.
All conversation stopped and I glared at Jake. He shrugged his shoulders and avoided my gaze once Katy continued talking again.
“I skipped Ancient Runes because I needed to do research for my Arithmancy essay. But once I got to the Library, I changed my mind and grabbed a random Prophet archive,” she said, placing a copy across the table for everyone to see.
I looked at it, losing my breath with each word I read. “’Albus Dumbledor Murdered’!”
“Holy, Merlin!” Sarah whispered.
“Sarah, didn’t you already know that? Mom and Dad told all of us ages ago. Dad and Dumbledore were really close and Dad used to tell us stories about the man all the time,” I said.
“Oh yeah, I forgot I guess,” Sarah said, cocking her head to the side in thought.
Katy nodded. “That’s not why I decided to show this to you. We all knew Albus Dumbledore was murdered a long time ago, but this article has a shocking bit of information regarding his murdere. Look at this!” she said, pointing to a sentence toward the bottom.
“’Although no wizard has been caught in this horrible crime, it is rumored that Severus Snape is the wizard responsible for this tragedy’,” James read out loud.
“How the hell is Snape still alive? There has to be something more to this!” Jake whispered.
A million questions poured into my mind as Katy pocketed the article and headed off to class. Our remaining group began discussing theories when I interrupted.
“We need to get into the Headmaster’s Office,” I said.
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Siri said, smiling at me.
Sarah and Mack just shook their heads as Siri and I began planning our pranks. We decidedly needed assistance from Uncle Fred, but we didn’t want to cause him to grow too suspicious.
“Come on, Lils. We’ve got Defense in less than five minutes,” Sarah said, pulling my arm.
I groaned and followed them out of the hall.
***
“I’m Professor Potter and I will start by telling you that I will not answer questions pertaining to my personal life and I will not give detailed accounts of the battles I have been involved in. Is that understood?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” we all mumbled.
His face broke into his usual smile and he clapped his hands together. “Good! Now that that is out of the way, let’s move onto today’s lesson. Can anyone tell me what the most essential part of any wizard’s duel is?” he asked.
“Your second!” cried a boy from the back.
My dad smiled. “Not quite, but important nonetheless,” he said. “Anyone else?”
“A good Shield Charm?”
“Quick reflexes!”
My dad just stood there smiling while the people around me hurled wrong answers. I banged my head onto my desk and threw my hands up in frustration. “Your wand!” I said, looking around me.
“Very good, Miss Potter,” Dad said, smiling.
I glared at him. I knew he had set me up; I could see the laughter in his bright green eyes. He knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut when everyone around me was wrong. He knew I’d break down and show everyone he had already taught me more than they knew.
“You need your wand in order to do anything. Can anyone tell me how you would go about disarming an opponent?” he asked.
“Punch him!” the boy in the back yelled again.
The class laughed and my dad said, “That can work well but I’m thinking of a spell.”
I whispered something into Sarah’s ear and her eyes widened with recollection.
“Expelliarmus,” she said, proudly.
“Well done, Miss Weasley. Now, pair up and practice,” he said.
I paired up with Sarah because we both already knew the charm well. One of the few benefits of being related to Harry Potter was being taught defensive skills at a young age, whether you had a wand or not. As soon as Dad dismissed us, I dragged Mack and Sarah aside and waited for everyone to pass us by.
“What the hell?” Sarah asked, rubbing her arm where I had just grabbed her.
“I need you two to help me,” I said, looking around to make sure no one was listening to us.
“With what?” Mack asked.
“I have a feeling my dad’s going to figure us out at some point and I need you to find a place where our group can get together without raising suspicion?” I whispered.
“Sure, Lils, we’ll figure something out,” Sarah said, shrugging.
“Okay then, you two get to it,” I told them, heading back down the hallway.
“Where are you going?” Mack asked.
“I have some actual homework to finish,” I said.
To Find the Truth by hopelesslyhopeful
Chapter Notes: Sorry it's so short...please forgive me! Hopefully the next chapter will make up for it!