Everywhere she went, people were drawing against the walls, and even Amanda and Vanessa were growing a bit twitchy around her. Sirius, Remus, and the Quidditch team always went mysteriously quiet every time she entered a room they were in, Serverus and Malfoy were being terribly overprotective, following her to classes and to meals, the nervous part of the school was avoiding her anxiously, and the rest, led by Serena, were just plain out nasty.
Eva was the only one who hadn't changed at all. She never raised her brow so much as an inch if the talk turned to Quidditch or famous games, and she never purposely tried to avoid the subject. She never glanced nervously at Lily's wand or spoke with a tremor in her voice. It was almost as if she never knew the whole episode had happened, and Lily was thankful for that.
It was drawing close to the Christmas holidays, and, by request of Professor Dumbledore, Lily was staying at Hogwarts, as she kept blacking out about once every four days or so. Most of the school had left, and Lily wasn't surprised, one morning, to wake up and find Abigail and Diana gone, the Tower quiet, and no mobbed chessboards in the common room. It was a wonderful relief.
She sank into one of the armchairs, watching Eva and Vanessa play Exploding Snap.
"Lily! It's nine-thirty!"
Lily sighed. "I know. I was dead tired."
Eva smiled. "Well, now you have a chance to sleep. Want to play?"
"Sure." Lily sank onto the rug in front of the fire, lazily watching Eva deal.
"So, do you know who's staying over the holidays?"
Vanessa nodded. "Most of them. I think-well, I know Serena and Elspeth are. Heather and Anne-those twins in our dorm who haven't broken the window yet with their snoring-yet-well, they left…so did Amanda…let's see…we have Cora Swinstead and Agatha Knight-they're seventh years-well, they're staying-so're Lucius and Serverus-but you knew that. The Longbottom kid's staying, and so are Sheila and her group. It can't be helped," she added as Lily audibly slumped onto the floor. "Well-Sirius and Remus are here, and-*"
"Sirius' staying?"
"You didn't know that? He is. And so is the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team."
Lily's small smile fell down several stories into the kitchens and into a bowl for used dishes, splashing several house-elves with hot water.
"James too, I suppose that means?"
"Unless he dropped out-and you know him-he'd never do that."
"Wish I didn't know him."
Eva stood up, moved towards Lily, and put an arm around her shoulders. "Lily, don't you think you two were happier when you were friends?" She was gentle, but Lily still snapped away.
"Even if we were, this can't be fixed. Not anymore. Not after Sikora came in and I got put under the Imperious Curse. Which no one believes but you two."
Eva and Vanessa looked at each other as if to say, "You know, she's right." She was, too.
They eventually got back to Exploding Snap. Lily didn't need to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast, as Eva had swiped a dozen scones, quite a bit of bacon, and a jar of marmalade. Vanessa went back down to get a pitcher of milk, and as soon as the portrait door closed behind her, James and Sirius came romping down the boys' dormitory stairs., James terribly wet and Sirius terribly amused.
"That was not funny."
"For Pete's sake, James, can't you take a joke?"
"No-yes-no-oh, shut up."
"It's not my fault. You set it off; I just installed it."
"How was I to know that the way to get ice-cold water dumped over your head was to sit up in bed?"
"Never sit up in bed. Nasty habit. I never do."
James snorted, wringing out his pajamas and dumping about three-fourths of a cup all over the carpeting. Lily shook her head.
"Don't snort. If you make a habit of that, you'll start doing that at the table. Nasty thing, milk, when it comes out of one's nose."
James raised his eyebrows. "And how would you know?"
"Experience. That is, making one's sister laugh when she is drinking fizzy things. But milk is best."
He frowned. "Evans, you're going to be hanged before you're eighteen."
"Mmm. Witch-hanging days are over. I should think that by now you would have slowly eased into that perception, especially as you never lived during those friendly ages."
"Friendly?"
"Oh, of course. Of course, it depends on your point of view. If you're perceiving someone being burnt at the stake, it is always nice to have that fire there to warm one's hands. If, on the other hand, you're tied to the stake, you have lots of fun with the Flame Freezing Charm. The only bad point of view is the fire's, because it gets put out sooner or later."
"You have problems."
"Please don't tell me you just noticed that. Your first clue should have been when I thought you were my friend. Then, one eases into the fact that I have a ridiculous cackling laugh, that I can hyperventilate on purpose, with a loud squeaky sound most like a car starting, and finally that I routinely stare at people, faint, and go off into another land."
"What, la-la land? You know, I could see that."
"No. The Alendoren Cove off of the coast of Albania. La-la land is so third year."
"Wh-what?"
"Go away. If you do, you'll sound less stupid, because you won't be sounding. At least not in my ears, which is the important thing."
James was clearly trying not to pull out his wand. "You better watch it, Evans."
"It as in it? Or it as in IT. Or as in It? Or just as in-go-away-leave-me-alone-it?"
"Follow your own advice."
Lily shrugged. "Fine." She stood up, dodged the sparks flying at her from James' wand, and shot up the dormitory stairs, leaving behind a rather puzzled common room.
"What got into her?"
"This is Lily we're talking about."
"Never mind. I shouldn't have asked. She's capable of anything. Remember what she did to James?"
The rest of the Gryffindors started to buzz excitedly about the events at the last Quidditch match, and Lily, hiding behind an open door, listened with a rather cold expression on her face.
She shook her head, which drooped a bit. "I really should stop with the smart comebacks. They do nothing for me." Debating on whether or not to give up her fun, she stepped into her dormitory, then stopped dead in her tracks.
The night before, she had removed her necklace and placed it under her pillow for safekeeping. It seemed that she needed to find a better, more secret place, for Serena was rolling the midnight-blue stone around in her palm. Discarded lay the gold chain on the floor, she had obviously kicked it half underneath the bed. Lily dashed into the room, and Serena jumped up, trying to hide the stone.
"Sikora, give that back right now."
"Give what back?"
"Don't play innocent with me. The necklace. Or at least, what's left of it. Hand it over."
Mulishly scowling, Serena threw the stone across the room and ran out.
Lily bit her lip as she dashed over to the stone. Strangely, it had not cracked, and it hadn't broken. She fitted it back into the gold claw-settings with ease and fastened it around her neck, boiling with anger.
"Serena's going to get herself killed one day. And I'll applaud whomever does it, if it isn't me. Which it probably will be." Tucking it under her robes, she bent down to retrieve her cloak from the floor. The necklace, though pushed under loose robes, managed to fall out and knock against the bedstead. With hardly any blackness at all, Lily immediately found herself on a rock in the Alendoren Cove again.
Lily drew several deep breaths and pulled her necklace out to examine it. It looked just the same as usual, but something had obviously happened to it.
"I'm going to kill Serena when I get back." She tucked it back under her robes, then, glancing up, her eyes fell onto two people sitting on the water's edge, one in the inch of sea, the other on the sand. Tom and Litharelen.
Lily tried to duck out of sight, still a bit edgy about Tom, but Litharelen saw her first.
"Lily! C'mon over here!"
Lily gripped the sides of the rock as hard as she could, then slipped off and started jogging through the pale tan and white sand, warm and fine. She reached Litharelen and Tom in no time, and she stood for a bit, nervously looking at Tom.
He realized soon that she wasn't any too comfortable and stood up as well, shaking the sand off of his robes. "Lily, you're scared of me?"
Lily stared at him. "Just a little."
"Was it because of what I did last time I saw you?"
"Oh, of course not. Last time we met, it was positively friendly. I do so love to be attacked by people with blazing red eyes who are formed from tea leaves."
He squinted a bit in the bright sunlight. "I told you-never mind. I didn't. I am now, though. I'm sorry."
"Don't ever do that again."
"I got out of control."
"I could tell."
Litharelen rolled over on her stomach, propping herself up with her hands, elbows in the sand. Her long, silvery tail splashed the water, which, Lily noticed, looked perfectly ordinary on the surface. "What did Tom do this time?"
"Oh-nothing, really. His eyes just went all red, and he started to get all angry, and to tell you the truth, I never want to come across him when he's angry, ever again."
Litharelen laughed. "I've never really seen him angry."
"Be thankful."
Tom coughed loudly. "So…Lily, how exactly did you land here this time? Was it on purpose?"
Lily, strangely wary of him, shook her head. "No. I just landed here. I have no idea why. As usual."
"Oh. I-" His voice turned off sharply, and Lily found herself back in her dormitory in milliseconds.
She picked herself up off of the floor and shook herself, sore all over. Squinting over her shoulder to make sure the dormitory was unoccupied, she then stood up, ran over to her trunk, and threw the necklace inside, vowing to herself never to let that happen to her again.
"I hate Serena! Oh, honestly, how I hate her! She totally ruined this, and cursed it for all I know."
The pre-Christmas days passed in a flash, and Lily found herself excitedly chattering with Eva and Vanessa about their anticipated gifts the morning before Christmas. They were in the twins' dormitory, curled up on Eva's bed.
"I do hope I'll get that package of clothing Mother promised me. I swear, one more day of holidays in these robes and I'll go crazy!"
"Vanessa, really. I doubt if they'll let you wear blue robes at Hogwarts."
"You're right…but they haven't forbidden it!"
"Yet."
"Oh, Lily, hush. What do you think your parents are giving you?"
Lily frowned. "I'm not sure. I haven't written them in forever; they're terribly busy and I didn't want to intrude. To tell you the truth, I'm hoping for the electric equipment for my foil."
"For your who? I mean, your what?"
"Body cords, metallic jacket, wires…the works. I'm hoping to go to a competition in London over Easter."
"Lily, you're odd."
"Thanks."
"Wasn't meant as a compliment. Anyway, what're you hoping for?"
"Hum. Besides the electric equipment?"
"Yeah, that stuff."
"Well-I'd like a few Agatha Christie novels…and I wouldn't mind the complete Sherlock Holmes collection. Short stories, novels, and all." Lily had recently shown a liking for mysteries, especially murder ones.
"You're strange. Why not go with that other mystery series-Nancy Drew? It's so much less violent and bloody."
"Ah, yes, but bloody and violent is life, and there's no use blocking out life."
"You have so much sense. Shut up."
Eva hurriedly interrupted. "So, any guesses from anyone as to what the human Barbie is getting from her Ken?"
Vanessa giggled; Lily started to cackle. "From her Ken. I like that one. I have no idea."
"I know. Everything that comes to mind is something too Valentines-Day-ey."
"Isn't it, though!"
They rearranged themselves on the bed, and Lily started to tell the girls about what she had found Serena doing that day in her dormitory. She hadn't found time till now.
Eva gasped. "But, Lily, she might have ruined it forever!"
"That's my worst fear."
"Well-do you think you could try to go to that A-place and ask Tom to fix it for you?"
"Albania or the Alendoren Cove?"
"Both."
"I knew that. But that's not such a bad idea. I might actually do that! Thanks!"
Eva smirked. "Very welcome. Do you have anything for him?"
Lily drew back, thinking hard. "Eva, I don't know him well enough."
"Well, you don't have to."
"Well, I don't quite know what he'd want."
"So? Well, you don't have to. Giving Sirius anything?"
Puzzled, Lily frowned. "Why should I?"
"Well…seeing that he's your friend…that sort of thing is natural, isn't it? I mean, come on, you've already got Lucius' and Serverus' presents wrapped, can't you give him a little thought? Or Remus, or Peter."
Lily sighed. "You're right. I don't have to be a banshee to people who're friends to someone I hate. Just to the people I hate."
"You don't have to do that either. It ruins your voice."
"You're still right. All right, come look at that joke shop catalog with me, will you?"
At around nine, Lily, Vanessa, and Eva found their last gifts and sent in owl-orders to Zonko's in Hogsmeade. They were lying on the bed, strangely tired from a day of doing absolutely nothing. Lily sat up, fast, startling everyone in the dormitory.
"Lily! What?"
"I've just had an idea. Come with me!" She flitted out of the dormitory door, and Eva and Vanessa, rubbing their eyes, followed.
They ran all the way to the entrance hall, which was lit only by the torches on the wall. The Great Hall was empty, and it was also rather chilly. Vanessa shivered.
"Lily, let's go back. This is crazy. What are we doing here, anyway?"
Lily laughed. She flung open the front doors and dashed out, into the snow.
"Lily! Are you mad? We can't go out there! It's freezing!"
They got an ecstatic laugh for an answer, and, running outside, they looked around wildly for their friend. "Lily, where are you?"
Another laugh made them look towards the side of the castle, where a black-cloaked figure was scaling the walls.
Lily had been lying on her bed in the dormitory, restless and energized. She wanted something to do, and, just for fun, she imagined what she would be doing if she had wings. She supposed she'd fly around the clouds, dipping and soaring-wait, wasn't the tallest tower in Hogwarts touching the clouds? It was. And if you went out and stood on top of that tree trunk near the lake, which was next to the walls-She had jumped up and raced for the door, ignoring the snow beating the windows. Dashing out of the entrance hall, she found the trunk and, with unexpected ease, lifted herself up, towards the sky.
She hardly heard the gasps of her friends and the "Come down, come down!" screams. Bathed in moonlight, she lightly stepped from one jutting brick to the other, from one turret to the next, on a planned path she had seen before her in the dormitory. The snow didn't make her slip; on the contrary, she found extra footholds on the rough ice lining the roofs.
By now, she was standing twenty feet above the ground and moving, moving upwards. She saw the dark crescent moon miles above her, though it seemed to be only ten yards away. Brushing off the years of laziness since she had climbed the trees in her backyard, she clung to one gargoyle and pushed off of the next. She hadn't used her hands and feet like this in forever and it felt wonderful. Free finally of silly rooms and walls, she leaned into the wind and felt herself blown along with it. Down on the ground, her friends were frightened to death and then some.
"What's she doing? She'll get herself killed!"
"She's too far away to hear us. I don't know what got into her!"
"She finally cracked. I told you she's dangerous!"
"Vanessa, stop. She's having fun. Look at her."
And, indeed, Lily was. She had never in her life fallen off anything she decided to climb, and this, this-this was beyond anything. The grounds were covered with white, white bordered with the black of the Forbidden Forest. The lake was stormy and wild, dashing white waves of foam against each other and exploding in a shower of droplets. Lily had never enjoyed the civilization of England much; she preferred the untouched land and trees to any row of houses. So now, caught in wonder between the magical beauty of the school and the excitement in the air, she could only laugh.
Below her, seventy feet below her, Eva and Vanessa clung to each other. From somewhere, they had heard a long, drawn-out howl and a short bark. Then, out of nowhere, the snow in front of them had sunk into itself, in the form of a jumble of footprints. Yet they saw no one and nothing.
And then, from thin air, four figures materialized in front of them. They recognized them from somewhere, yet they were strangely different. Pale faces, swishing, dark robes, drawn wands, and fanged teeth drew towards the sisters, and, in panic, they screamed.
Lily was stepping onto the roof of the North Tower by now, and faintly, she could hear her friends scream. Without the slightest bit of giddiness, she looked down.
Two blonde dots were clinging to the wall, while a clump of dark ones advanced on them. Vanessa screamed again, and Lily, summoning all of her present insanity and her power of voice, sent out a long, shrill, loud, frightening, ecstatic, enraged laugh out over the darkness.
Down on the ground, the four stopped. They froze in their tracks as the unhumanly sound swept over them, freezing their bones, and when it repeated itself, they fled towards the Forbidden Forest.
Swift as a sailor, Lily slipped down. It took her hardly two minutes, and she was no more out of breath than the twins were. Actually, she was less out of breath, for seeing her slide down from such a height at such a speed had taken their breath away.
"Who were they?"
Eva and Vanessa shook their heads, shivering. "Don't know. Don't want to know either. But Lily, that laugh was brilliant! Scary, yes, insane, yes, but brilliant! You-what're you doing?"
Lily had bent down to examine the ground. Her keen eyes, enhanced a bit by the magic of the necklace, had spotted a brown bit of something when she was twenty feet from the ground and sliding. She picked it up and unfolded it.
"What is that?"
Lily slowly shook her head. "I have no idea. It has Hogwarts drawn on it, though. And look here!" She pointed to a dot labeled "The Whomping Willow". "It has the secret passage on here!"
Eva scrambled over. "What? Where? What secret passage?"
Quickly Lily folded the paper back up. No matter how much she was fighting with James, she wasn't about to reveal his friend's secret to the world. "Nothing."
"You're a terrible liar."
"I know. I need to practice. Come on inside."
"Oh, good. Why this sudden desire for inside?"
"I want to see if any of those four were Gryffindors. We'll see them come inside the common room if they are."
Vanessa shook her head. "You can. I'm going to bed." She did, too, as soon as they stepped inside the common room. But Eva and Lily placed themselves behind a couch with a small hole in the back of it, through which they could watch the portrait hole. The clock stuck ten, then eleven. At eleven thirty, Eva fell asleep, despite all the chocolate she had been eating to stay awake. Lily, still strangely excited, wasn't in the least bit tired, and, after pushing Eva underneath the sofa, which had about a foot of room underneath, she propped her back against the back of the sofa, pulled out her drawing pad, and started to sketch.
At twelve, the mummy in its sarcophagus was coming along nicely, and she was starting to shade. She was getting very good at drawing; Serverus had given her a few lessons. Suddenly, she tensed and pressed her ear to the sofa.
Her ears, also enhanced by the necklace's magic, were picking up soft footsteps outside the portrait and a whispered, "Puritan hysteria". Quiet as the growing of grass, Lily set her sketchbook aside and put her eye to the hole in the sofa.
The portrait creaked, though nothing appeared in the doorway. For a long minute, Lily watched the opening and saw nothing. Then, out of nowhere, a voice resounded through the common room, a voice Lily was unfortunately all too familiar with.
"All clear. They're not watching."
"Are you sure?"
"There's no one there. Take this thing off!"
And, after closing the portrait, a figure materialized out of warm air, just as the four figures had done on the lawn. James spit out a mouthful of bright, blindingly white teeth with blood on the tips and removed his ragged and torn cloak. He wiped his sleeve across his face and Lily noted that the pale color came off onto his robes. He turned to the wall.
"All right, come out! No one's there; they'd have come out by now. Anyway, we don't want to take it off in the dormitory. Pettigrew tattles too much."
Another voice spoke. Lily knew this one well, too.
"You have a point. Peter, get off!" Sirius appeared, shaking something invisible off of his arm. "God's nightgown, you're the scariest little worm I've ever seen! Get out from under there!"
Remus emerged, scowling. "Peter, it wasn't as if we broke any laws, come on, we're not going to be sent to Azkaban for this!"
The invisible Peter whimpered. "But-but we broke a school rule!"
James snapped. "Peter, shut up. Give me my cloak!"
Whining and pouting, Peter threw off a silvery something, which he handed to James.
"Peter, I swear, if you keep this up, you're never going with us again!"
Peter cringed. "No--I promise-I'll stop. But don't you think-"
"PETER!"
Remus grabbed James' collar. "Shh! They'll hear you!"
James pulled his collar away. "Who 'they'?"
"Well, all of those nice sleeping students, for instance."
Lily smirked. She noiselessly stood up, startling all of the boys half out of their robes. "And the awake ones."
It had quite the effect she wished for. The boys all jumped, looked terribly guilty, Peter sank to the floor, Sirius tried to hide the silvery cloak Peter had thrown off, and Remus and James just sat there, openmouthed.
James was visibly shaking. "How-what-where-?"
Lily sighed, a long, drawn-out sigh, sounding innocent but fooling no one. "Oh, absolutely nothing. I didn't see anything. Not even that you own an Invisibility Cloak and were outside at midnight. I know nothing whatsoever of that."
James drew a deep breath. "You mean you won't tell?"
Politely puzzled, Lily looked up at him?"
"Tell what?"
"Oh, good. Thanks so much-"
Lily couldn't resist interrupting. "But, of course, cross-questioning by a teacher may make me reveal many things which I do not know, and-"
"Lily! Please!"
"Please what?"
"You cold-hearted little wretch!"
"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Thank you so much."
James shook his head. "We're going to have to modify her memory. Remus, you're best at this, come on!"
Remus just sat there, staring, and James sighed loudly. He picked up his own wand and pointed it at Lily, who just sat on the sofa, smiling disconcertingly up into his eyes.
"Geez, woman, stop looking at me like that! All right. Obliviate!"
A stream of glittering gold shot out of his wand, and swirled around Lily. It didn't hit her, though, and it didn't affect her.
Lily was seeing the room in a golden glow, and, on the alert for anything strange, she touched the elf-nymph necklace, which she had put back on that morning. It was growing hot, exerting energy, and the midnight-blue pendant was turning white. Clouds of smoke, gray-white smoke, were swirling around inside it, fast, making the outside start to burn with a smoldering fire. Her throat, where the necklace hung, did not start to blister, but instead turned slowly into a patch of creamy silver, the color of Litharelen's skin. The patch spread quickly, until every bit of her body was covered in silver, and then the gold around her faded.
James, Sirius, and Remus had slumped onto the floor along with Peter, staring at Lily. The former tousled red-head with a pale tan complexion and deep forest-green eyes had vanished, and in her place stood a creature none of them had ever seen before. She had silver skin, glowing with a beautiful pale moon color, pointed ears, deep green eyes criscrossed with silver thread, and deep burgundy hair streaked with silver strands. She didn't increase in size, but her attire changed, and on her figure appeared a long, silky white gown, flowing about her feet as if in a warm breeze. The necklace she wore had changed, too. The smoky gases had diminished, leaving behind a deep green, the perfect match of Lily's eyes, surrounded with silver talons and hung on a chain of the same metal. And the strangest thing was that Lily appeared unaware of her transformation-if this still was Lily.
It was, and Lily, sitting on the sofa, had no idea of what was going on. The only thing she knew was that the golden glow had gone away.
"James, you need to work on Memory Charms. That one obviously backfired."
He stared at her. "Well, of course it did, if you're wearing that piece of Dark Magic!"
She was the one to stare now. "What piece?"
"Um-nothing."
Lily stood up and advanced towards him. He sprang up and hid behind Sirius, leaving Lily behind, quite puzzled.
"Wh-what're you so scared of?"
A scream behind her interrupted anything anyone had been planning to say. Eva was letting out a piercing yelp that shattered everyone's eardrums.
"Eva, shut up!"
"Lily! Just look at yourself!"
Lily's bewildered gaze cleared into a look of fright, and she dashed upstairs to her dormitory, followed closely by Eva and the boys, who started after them a few seconds after.
They gathered in the exercise room, which, besides including mats, barres, and balance beams, had a whole wall covered in a mirror. Lily stared at herself and didn't say a word.
"Um-Lil?"
No sound.
"Lily?"
No sound.
"Are you all right?"
No sound.
"Lily, ANSWER ME PLEASE!"
No sound.
Eva turned to Sirius. "I don't know what happened. She's gone officially insane."
"That happened the day she was born."
"James, shut your mouth."
"Oh, good, you got her talking. Lil, are you all right?"
"Fine. Fine. I've just acquired silver skin, silver highlights, silver junk in my eyes, a dress I know I never owned, pointy ears, and-" she lifted her hands to her eyes-"silver nails. Am I all right? Mentally, I never have been, now I'm not physically." She turned away from the mirror, trying to hide the gleam of fright springing up in her eyes and masking it with annoyance. She didn't succeed.
"Lily, we know you're scared. I mean, so are we, but-"
"So I'm Lily now? Not Evans and not an electrocuted phoenix and not a rampaging cow and not an Orc?"
"Lily, please!"
"Please what?"
"Well-stop being sarcastic like that!"
Instead of answering, Lily advanced on him, eyes slitting in summoned anger and lips drawing back from pearly-white teeth. She raised her left hand as if to claw him, and, two seconds later, the door had slammed and Lily was hanging onto Sirius, shaking with laughter.
