| -=Lily's Third Year; Chapter One=- |
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| Lily felt a bit more cheered up when her family greeted her with large hugs. Amused, Lily saw Petunia standing off to the side a bit with her eyes bulging out at the nerve of Lily, carrying an owl in a public train station. They walked out to the car, Lily's father carrying her trunk. She told them all about the Quidditch match that had won the House Cup for Gryffindor and the tricks that James and Sirius were playing on Snape and Malfoy. Petunia was the only one who didn't laugh at the account of Snape's receipt pasted to the back of his robes, but she did snigger rather heartily when Lily told her mother about the freeze charm that had sent her to the hospital wing. They pulled into the driveway, and Lily, looking up at the house, immediately noticed that something was wrong. Her window, usually framed with creamy curtains that waved out of the window, faced the front of the house. The curtains were gone; in their place twinkled lacy white bits of rayon. Inside, Lily could spot a hanging plant throwing its leaves out of the window. Her father caught Lily's astonished glance and sighed. "Lily, dear, we had to remodel your room." "You what?" "Had to remodel your room. Petunia's blasted plants dripped dirt and leaves every time they were watered, so, naturally, we had to strip your room down." "I see." Lily nodded. "I thought I remembered something in my goodbye to Petunia, telling her clearly not to set a foot in my room." "She showed us a letter from you, telling her that she could hang up a few plants." Lily's mouth hung open. "She what? All right; that's it." She snapped her trunk open, pulled out her wand, and raced up the front door Petunia had left open when she saw the direction the conversation had been leading. Showing a bit of presence of mind, Petunia had barricaded herself in her room. Lily pushed aside the tempting thought of using the Alohomora charm and James' Tinrash Pfefferolus and dragged her trunk up the stairs, crashing into the wall and making a large dent. Breathing hard, Lily opened the door to her room, walked inside, and stopped, stunned. Ruffles. Nothing but ruffles. Everywhere the eyes peeked, ruffles. Around the tabletop of the dressing table with a heart-shaped mirror on top, ruffles on the dust ruffle, ruffled curtains and frilly pillows everywhere the eye looked. Lily felt sick. She stomped down all the way into the kitchen. "What did you do to my room?" "Oh, honey, it's just what the other girls have at your age." Her mother was smiling brilliantly as she stirred soup in a pot on the stove. "I knew you'd like it." Lily pointed to her frown. "Mum, see the look of intense joy pasted forevermore on my face." Her mother shrugged. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. But I'm not remodeling again. You'll like it in time." She turned back to her pot. "Oh, I also signed you up for ballet lessons. We want you to know more of life than wizardry." Lily almost was sick on the floor. "Ballet?" "Why, yes, darling. A real lady knows how to dance." Shivering, Lily let go of the chair's back. "Mum, why are you insisting on my becoming proper all of a sudden?" Her mother waved that aside impatiently. "Oh, Lily, dear, we don't want you to become an oddball like those girls who take up things like wrestling and generally act like no-mannered soldiers. I mean, we want to be proud of our Lily, and…" Her mother's voice trailed off as a mischievous grin spread over Lily's face. "What?" "Mum, if I give up ballet, may I take another sport?" "Why, certainly, hon. As long as you're happy, I'm-what's that?" Lily had drawn up a short contract on a piece of kitchen note-paper. "Can I have that in writing?" Her mother laughed, taking it as a joke. "Certainly. Here." She clamped the spoon in between her teeth and took up the pen, pasting it on the refrigerator. Lily immediately removed it and put it in her pocket. "Why're you doing that?" "I want my proof. Mum, I'm taking up fencing." Her mother looked dumbfounded. "You are what?" "My birthday's in three weeks. I'm asking you for fencing equipment." "But-but-" Lily waved the slip of paper in her mother's face. "I have this in writing." Sighing and slumping her shoulders, Lily's mother sighed. "All right. But don't blame me if you never get married and have to sit at home an old spinster because boys don't like you. You're a smart girl, Lily. That's what we girls do. And don't you want to be rich, married to a millionaire?" Lily made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a hurling sound. "Mum, this isn't the 1912 years. I am good for other things besides making a family tree, believe it or not." Two days later, Lily's mother, submitting to Lily and her father, who had maintained that girls who sit around and do their hair all day have no life, had signed Lily up for a fencing class three blocks away and purchased a mask, practice foil, jacket, and glove. Wednesday, Thursday, and Fridays were practice evenings, from five to nine, and her mother was driving her. "Mum, the car will go faster than ten miles an hour." "I know-oh, honey, won't you rethink this?" "Mum, think of this as my taking a very effective self-defense course." Her mother turned around. "How so?" "Think about it. If I come to the door with my foil in my hand, do you really think that old man down the street is going to try to make advances?" "Lily, darling, you're only twelve." "I know. The other girl down the street who got patted on the stomach by him was eight." Her mother accelerated. "All right." Lily leaned back in her chair and smiled. To be honest, she didn't have to use the foil-she'd found out that a butcher knife worked just as well. It usually helped if she had just been cutting meat and there was a bit of raw flesh hanging from the blade… On her birthday, Lily had advanced to the point where she was standing in position naturally, not having to think about it. Some of her old school friends had mentioned the odd way she was standing, knees bent, her left foot one-and-a-half foot-lengths behind the other and the heels perpendicular, the right toe facing forwards and her left foot slightly slanted. It had become second nature for her now. One day, Vernon Dursley, hearing that she was back from boarding school, had been made by his parents to come over and welcome her back. He had found her in her room, practicing feints, parries, and lunges, hitting the foil against a cushioned sort of blue tapestry hanging on one wall, clashing horribly with the pink walls and the white ruffles. Vernon had coughed solemnly, and Lily whirled around. She was still holding the foil. "Oh, Vernon, hello!" He made a few steps backward. "Hello and welcome back. I hope you enjoy your summer." Vernon turned around, headed for the stairs, and sprinted for the door. He was off of their property so fast that Lily hardly got a glimpse of him through her window as he ran into their mailbox. Lily grinned. "I will!" she shouted as Vernon sped around the corner. Her birthday morning, she woke up early. Six o'clock early. Tripping over the foil which she hadn't bothered to put away last night ("OW!"), she made it downstairs to the kitchen, which had about six packages lying on the kitchen table. Surprised, Lily went over to check the cards. Usually, her mother and father kept her presents under their bed until they woke up, so she was a bit puzzled. Her face broke into a grin, however, when she saw the wrapping paper. The one on top, besides sporting a card saying "From the queen of the universe, and, luckily for you, your friend, Eva," was wrapped in black paper with ribbons on it that moved and swirled all around the box. Next to Eva's was a gift packed in deep indigo, with lots of cats sleeping in the paper. A slip of parchment said: [To Lily from Miranda], but no card was attached. Underneath was a package wrapped in blue silky paper, with a small note attached and sealed shut with a wax seal that had a dog stamped into it. Lily turned the sealed card over and over, finally putting it aside, fingering the dog stamped into the wax. Next to the blue box was a pink present, covered with frilly ribbons and a large bow. On the wrapping, Amanda had written: I'm sorry about not having a card, but I ransacked the whole darn house and couldn't find a single sheet of parchment. I'll remember to get a card for your next birthday, though. Oh, and this is also from Vanessa. We shared the cost. Hope you like it and have a happy birthday! P.S: Mine is November 22nd. Lily grinned. There were two packages left, the most obvious one wrapped by someone who had not had much practice wrapping presents. The card was open and lying on the terra cotta paper with many large smiley faces on them. Lily raised her eyebrows. "It's a bit obvious who this one's from. Can't Peter even wrap a darn box?" The sides of the box were poking through, and Lily could discern a large C and a smaller H next to it in gold writing. "Probably candy. I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime." She sighed and let her thoughts glide to her trunk, filled with packages of Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizbees, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Toothflossing Stringmints, Exploding Raspberries, Ice Mice, and a few Pepper Imps that Eva and Vanessa had received for finishing their exams from their parents and had shared liberally with the dormitory. The last present was wrapped with great care, in emerald green paper with small sparkling studs all over it. A note attached to the side, said, in brilliant green ink, "For you, from James. I hope you'll find this useful-well, actually, I just hope you'll use it so I can see that I'm good at gift-giving." Lily smiled. Casting a glance up the stairwell and finding it empty of Petunia, she carefully broke the paper off of the wide, thin box. Once the paper was gone, a flat parchment-colored box presented itself to her. She smiled and broke the Spellotape at each end, lifting the cover off. She cleared the Daily Prophets away that were covering the gift and stood back, mouth open. Lily bit her tongue until it bled. How could she have been so stupid as to think that he was actually sorry for the way he had behaved? A cold fury building up inside her brain, she knocked the box off of the table and stalked upstairs, hugging her knees as she slid under the covers. A half-hour later, her lips were also bleeding, and her fury hadn't abated. Lily threw her feet out of bed, picked up her sword, and started stabbing at her tapestry, again and again and again. Not until she had managed to break the tip did she sink down on the floor, white-faced, and drop the sword. The smell of bacon and pancakes pervaded the house around seven. Finding Lily's door closed and not a sound coming from behind the locked door, she assumed Lily was still asleep. With a relieved face, Lily heard her mother's footsteps retreat down the stairs, then had her clenched fists re-inserted as she heard the whole family tramping up the stairs. "Happy birthday to you, 'happy birthday to you…" They knocked at the door, and Lily, not wanting to make her parents angry, opened the door, and, for the first time since she had received James' gift she smiled. Her parents were carrying a large traditional cake with twelve candles on it, but instead of the usual "Happy birthday, Lily," the cake sported a sparkly sort of icing with "To our favorite little witch" on the top. Close behind her mother was her father, struggling under a load of about ten presents, including the ones from her Hogwarts friends. James', she was happy to note, was not being offered. The next hour passed in smiles and laughter and lots of confetti, which insisted on settling in Petunia's hair and driving her nuts. When her parents retreated with the wrapping paper mess, Lily was surrounded by her gifts. Peter had given her a bag of Chocolate Frogs, Miranda: a book of "How to get back at Enemies" tricks by Donna Rickett. Remus' present had arrived around six-thirty, by owl express, and turned out to be a humorous collection of the Muggle author P. G. Wodehouse's books: the Jeeves series. Sirius, who had sent the silky blue package with the dog in the wax seal, had included a rather nice stuffed beary dog that went attacking all the Muggles it could find. Sirius had magicked it to attack Petunia, but Lily had set it on Vernon and Petunia. She didn't like Vernon much. Vanessa and Amanda had given her a wizarding clock they had found in Knockturn Alley: in addition to telling the time, the background was a large map, which told you wherever a certain person was. A slip of parchment had been added, saying that they were not quite sure that this was a legal item to have, but they had thought it was nice. Eva, with her usual sense of pretended superiority, had sent Lily a tiara. It was gold with midnight blue stones, and inside her card Eva had written: Now, since I know I'm the queen of the universe here, and since you're my best friend, I thought you might want to become the princess. I have a sort of twisted system here; where my friend, not my daughter, becomes my heir. Even if you don't want to rule all of those wretched mortals, the tiara looks nice, doesn't it? It did. It certainly did. It reminded her of something, though she wasn't sure what, and she doubted that it was anything very important. Lily leaned back against her pillow and smiled as she remembered Petunia's face as Sirius' dog had jumped out of the box and started to attack her. She was probably still in her room, shaking. Lily grinned blissfully. It was the middle of July, and Eva had sent a letter asking if Lily would like to come to visit her for two weeks. Glad to finally get out of the hot and sticky house, Lily had accepted gratefully. Her parents had consented after seeing how much nicer their environment would be without Petunia throwing fits every time Lily started mumbling meaningless "Abrakadabra's" under her breath. She was leaving that afternoon, as soon as Eva and Vanessa's parents got out of a Ministry of Magic meeting so they could take her over. Scheduled to come at three o'clock, Lily waited impatiently for the hour hand to move from two to three. She was sitting in her room, searching it with her eyes for any stray article that she might need. Catching sight of her fish tank, she jumped up and ran to her trunk, pulling out a quill and a slip of parchment. Mum, Please feed my fish. The neon striped one gets three flakes a day, the tropical ones get four each. Lily She propped it against the fish tank and sighed, remembering the most interesting fish she had seen in Diagon Alley. They sported gigantic flowing tails in different colors and emitted bubbles that formed words. Still, the reason that Lily was not in possession of one was that they were poisonous and that her mother didn't feel like spending two Galleons, seventeen Sickles for one fish. Yawning, Lily looked up at the clock again. Two-fifteen. "Have I forgotten anything?" Her eyes fell on Remus' present, and she remembered what James had given her. "Should I show Eva that? I think she could tell me what to think." Brooding on whether or not to take the package over to her friend's house, a whooshing in the room caught her unawares and almost knocked her off of her bed. She shook her head several times and found the room full of two familiar faces, ones that she had seen at Platform nine and three-quarters. Eva and Vanessa's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Doylen, were standing in the middle of the room, smiling toothily. "Well, come on, dear. Are these your things? Nigel, get them for her. Lily, dear, we won't be able to let you say goodbye. We're late as it is." Lily pulled the package from James and nodded. "I'll owl Mum and Dad. I'm ready." They smiled. "Ready? All right-go!" With a swirl of wind, they were off, each of them holding tightly to Lily's arm. A tiny bit windblown, Lily and Mr. and Mrs. Doylen arrived in the entrance hall of a large mansion. It was huge; almost half the size of the entrance hall at Hogwarts. Covered in thick scarlet carpets, draped with silk and velvet draperies and dotted with many old family portraits, the old hall looked amazing. "Eva! 'Nessa! I've brought Lily. See you for supper!" And with a whoosh, the two adults were gone, leaving Lily's trunk behind on the floor. Lily heard thumps from the floor above, and seconds later, Eva's face appeared on the landing. "Lily!" She raced down the stairs and hugged her friend, both of them ecstatic. "I'm so glad you could come. You don't know how boring summer is with only Vanessa and Basil here. Come on up!" Each of them took a handle of Lily's trunk and headed for the large moving part of the landing that lifted them up to the third floor. Lily set her trunk down and sat down on it. "Basil?" Eva nodded glumly. "He's my older brother. He left Hogwarts the year we came, and he's got all of his friends staying here in the spare bedrooms." She grimaced. "He's invited about seven of them over, along with a few of their siblings." Lily nodded. "Oh. Do we know any of the siblings?" Eva looked a bit edgy. "You do, but-well, "I'll let you meet it later." "It?" "It's an it. C'mon, this is the floor." Stepping off of the elevator, the carpet of which had changed from scarlet to a royal blue to match the carpet on that floor, they went into the fourth door on the right of a long hallway with many branches and other hallways. The room they came into was the sort of room Petunia would have loved to usurp, and even Lily liked it. Like the rest of the floor, the carpet was royal blue, but the huge mahogany four-poster in the corner of the room, near the stained-glass window was surrounded in dark blue hangings, tied back with pale blue silk ribbons. On the floors were several gold rugs intertwined with gold threads to form patterns, and the mahogany Queen Anne vanity along one of the walls had a flowing dark blue silk skirt. The window-seat was covered in velvet carpet to match the floor, and on it a black-and-white two-year-old cat was snoozing, blissfully enjoying a warm breeze. Eva's trunk stood in the corner, next to a library of Eva's favorite books: fiction and fantasy stories set in an elaborately carved mahogany bookcase. Lily quickly retrieved her jaw. Eva looked a bit worried. "Don't you like it? This one's mine, but I wanted you to meet Willoughby." She picked up the slinky cat and put him in Lily's arms. "Willoughby, meet Lily. Lily, this is my cat. He likes to be scratched under the chin, off to the right," she added as she drew the dark blue silk curtains open. Lily set her trunk down. "This is the most magnificent place I've ever been in." Eva smiled, then flinched as she ripped the pale blue silk ribbon off of the hook that enabled the curtains to stay tied. "That always happens. Thanks, though." Willoughby, purring, sprang down from Lily's lap and curled up in his previous place in the sunshine on the window seat as Eva started to drag the trunk through one of three adjoining doors. Lily, wishing that cats had no claws, picked up the other end of the trunk. They came to a winding staircase, carpeted with royal blue that slowly faded into green as they let the stair-case carry them up about twenty feet. The room they came out in was almost like Eva's, only done in millions of shades of green, from the dark green silk surrounding the teak four-poster to the stained-glass window, done in the shape of the Rose windows in the cathedral Notre Dame in Paris. Lily's mouth was open again. "This-this is my room?" Eva giggled. "Of course. Do you like it?" Lily stared at her friend. "Do I like this? I've had to live with white and pink ruffles for the last few weeks. Your-your house is amazing!" Eva tossed her head. "Well, of course. I do live in it, after all. Would the Queen of the Universe be satisfied with anything else?" Eva helped Lily to unpack, as did Vanessa who came rushing up a few seconds later. Lily was relieved to see that they were all wearing Muggle clothing; she had been afraid that she was going to look oddly out of place. When they came to James' present, both of them stopped and looked quizzically at Lily, who had carefully avoided that box. "What's this?" "What's what? Oh, that. James gave it to me for my birthday. I wanted to know from both of you what I should do." "What is it?" Lily sighed. "Open the box." Vanessa reached it first and started burrowing through the Daily Prophets, coming up with a sheet of parchment, laid on top of a smaller box that had been inside. "'I hope you will use this next year. You really should.' What's this?" Lily scowled. "Open the box. The second one." She watched with hard eyes as Eva lifted the top off of the second box and gasped. She had uncovered a beautiful teak casket, inlaid with gold settings. Vanessa undid the clasp and peered inside, drawing back almost as soon as she saw the contents. "Lily, tell him to go jump in the lake." "Or better, slap him a couple of times. That should sober his smart self down." "I thought of that. But how am I going to get hold of him before I stop being quite as angry as I am now?" "Erm…" Eva kicked the floor nervously-"That won't be so hard."' Lily raised her defensive eyebrow. "Stop it. You're not in tap class. Why not?" "Er-you remember when I told you that we had an 'it' and his sibling here?" Lily sat down on the bed. "So?" Vanessa picked Willoughby up, who had followed the smell of Lily's Owl Treats. "Well, the 'it' is Peter Pettigrew." Comprehension started to dawn on Lily's stunned countenance. "And?" Eva played a bit with the beautiful teak brush, inlaid with gold, that had been in the casket. Nervously, she fingered the mirror, made in the same way, and the delicate shampoo bottles. "Well, you know Peter never goes anywhere without his friends." Lily pushed the millions of cases of lipstick, eyeshadow, blush, and hundreds of other things out of Eva's reach. "I know. Get to the point." Eva fidgeted, picking at the green silk sheets. "Well-to make a short story shorter, Sirius, James, and Remus are staying in three of the Scarlet rooms downstairs." She looked at Vanessa with a question in her eyes. "Should I have said that?" Lily was sitting on the edge of the bed, burying her angry face in her knees. "You should not have said that." Eva groaned. "I thought so." Jumping off of the floor, Vanessa sped out of the door, the sounds of laughter, boys' laughter, coming from the floor below. Lily turned to Eva. "When did he arrive?" Eva shrugged. "About five hours ago. Don't worry," she added, seeing Lily's suspicious face, "I didn't invite him. Peter did." Lily walked over to the window-seat, pushing the drapes aside as well as opening the stained-glass window, and stared out over the neatly trimmed lawns. She stood there for so long that Eva went over to her, quietly, and touched her on the arm. Lily flinched as if she had just been shot. "What?" "Are you sure you're all right?" "Positive." Lily snapped. "Oh, honestly, Eva, I just don't want to see him after this present. Can't you see that?" Eva sighed. "Have I ruined your whole summer for you?" Lily regained some of her old mischievous grin. "Me, let that git spoil my summer here, when I'm away from Petunia, ruffles, and here in this magnificent mansion? Along with you and Eva? Oh, is that a swimming pool there, beyond that sculptured planter?" she asked, pointing to a glimmer beyond a carved hedge. Eva grinned, too. "I've got an extra suit!" Lily beat Eva down to the stairway. "I'm already halfway there!" Relieved, Eva followed. Dressed in a pale blue one-piece, with a short white skirt around her waist, Eva walked out to the pool with Lily, their bare feet pressing comfortably against the neatly trimmed grass. Lily wasn't too happy with the color she had been stuck with; she had been poured into a white suit and was looking a bit disgruntled at the choice of towels. Their maids had taken most of the towels to be cleaned, and the only ones left were pale lavender. But she had tied it around her waist, thrown her pants and wand into her trunk, and beat Vanessa to the humongous Acropolian back porch, covered in forest green carpeting and dotted with about twenty cream-colored tables and chairs, each set with a linen tablecloth, several crystal glasses, and a beautiful pitcher of lemonade. The swimming pool was marvelous. The basin alone was made of stone, with delicate statues at every corner. Several chairs were placed on the sides, and the water was a clear blue unknown to Muggle pools. No chlorine pervaded the water, as Lily blissfully discovered after diving in; it was kept magically clean. One side sported three diving boards, each feathering lightly and perfectly, each pedestal a carved masterpiece. Lily, who her whole life had practically lived in the water each summer, was in her own Eden. Racing Eva and Vanessa to the other side of the pool, she was in front of them by about six feet when a loud splash hit her arms and knocked her under water. Spluttering, she came up, fuming at a certain raven-haired, tousle-headed demon. His eyes blinked mischievously as he looked on her angry, coughing countenance. "Oh, oops, sorry, didn't see you." Lily glared. "Of course you didn't." Her temper getting out of control, she pulled her hands out of the water and reached for James, who veered backwards. "What the-" His exclamation was drowned as Lily pushed him underwater, hard, and held him there for a couple of seconds. When she finally let him up, he dove for the side of the pool, coughing up mouthfuls of water. Sirius and Remus helped him out, fighting back laughter. "James, I hate to say this, but you earned that." He looked wild. "Earned what? That girl almost drowned me!" Lily was treading water, peals of laughter echoing from her mouth. "Oh, I'm a girl now? Not a random Muggle and not an electrocuted pheonix?" James scowled at her. "Evans, shut your big fat mouth." Lily climbed onto the diving board and looked down on him, leaning on the carved stone rail, the wide, ridiculing smile still fixed on her face. "Why should I?" He stood up, throwing his towel into the pool. "Because I said so, that's why!" Diving into the water, Lily came up and shook her wet curls away from her face. "Oh, really. And who died and made you God?" He retrieved his sopping wet towel from where it was sinking to the bottom of the pool. "Evans, I'm going to say this again. Shut up or else." "You never said it the first time. I did." "Oh, shut up." Eva broke in, laughing. "James, you're losing this round." "Oh, really?" He removed his glasses and kicked Peter aside. "I'm winning the next one." He dived into the pool, straight at Lily and Eva. Coming up behind them, he grabbed both of their feet and rose to the surface, dunking them several times. Eva fought wildly, but Lily let herself be dunked until the third time. Then, when she was being lifted up for air, she pulled her feet back a bit and kicked forward. Hearing a groan of pain come from James, she propelled herself forward, using James as a makeshift side of the pool, and reached the other side, getting out before the blood from James' nose reached her. Eva was sitting on one of the adjustable lawn chairs, holding her stomach and collapsing with laughter as they saw James swim to the edge and hold his hands out to Remus and Sirius. "Help me out!" Both of them drew back, not wanting to come any closer to his blood-drenched form. Remus was fighting back a comment, which did him no good, as Sirius said it for him. "James, you just got the guts beat out of you by a girl." "That's not a girl. That's a demon." Lily was lying on a lawn chair on her stomach, lazily raising her head. "Funny. I thought the same thing about you when you jumped on me." Eva had covered herself with a towel. "James, you were right. You didn't win this round. Next one, maybe. Not this one." Shaking her head, the wife of the pool's caretaker trotted out of her small house with wet cloths and a wand, tutting and fussing. She pointed her wand and James and the pool, and instantly, the blood was gone and his nose stopped bleeding. Holding the cloth against James' forehead, she forbade him to get in the pool or even off of the lawn chair for the next five minutes, then clamped her wand under her arm and went trotting back inside her lodge, muttering about dangerous games. By the time the five minutes were up, Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had judged it wise to leave. They had run back to the mansion, which, Lily now noticed, was structured in the style of a cross between a beautiful castle and the Chateau de Versailles, using the good points of each. Eva had swiped a crystal pitcher filled with lemonade and three glasses, and they were sitting in Lily's room, because it was in a tower and they could seal the door. Willoughby had migrated to Lily's window-seat, but it was so large that it could have held about five people, the window being so large, so Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had seated themselves around the sleepy cat. "Lily, I'd say you paid him back for that present." "You definitely did. I was laughing so hard, I-" "Fell off of the lawn chair. I know." "Oh, shut up. C'mere, Willoughby. Does Willy like lemonade? Come, Willy, see if you like this. Come on-" Willy pushed his nose into the sparkling gold liquid in Eva's glass and snorted out a sneeze, spraying lemonade all over the three friends. Lily wiped a drop off of her cheek. "Willy does not like lemonade." Eva refilled her glass. "I noticed." Vanessa pointed out to the lawn, where four figures were racing towards the house. "They're coming back." Eva groaned. "Come to take their revenge?" Lily smiled. "They may try." Vanessa leaped up and followed Lily over to her trunk. "Lil, we're not supposed to use magic! Not during the holidays! You could be expelled-what's that?" she asked, puzzled, as Lily drew out her foil. "A sword?" Lily nodded, pulling on her black Hogwarts robes and pointing her sword at the door. "Exactly." They had no more time to talk, as they heard a stampede downstairs. Lily quickly unscrewed the tip, letting the sharp end of a screw point towards the boys, who were blockading the doorway. They stopped dead in their tracks as they saw a long bit of metal pointed straight at them. Peter was edging downstairs, pulling Remus with him. Lily, in her dark robes, holding a sword, was the very image of a Crusader of the old days. She looked dangerous as her eyes turned hard and received a perilous glitter. Peter was rushing out of Eva's room downstairs. |