Lucius spoke first. "Mum-do you-do you think she's-she's-"
"I don't know. I'll find out, though-"
With trembling fingers, Mrs. Malfoy pulled out her wand.
"Ennervate!"
To the great relief of everyone in the room, Lily blinked once and sat up groggily. Then her gaze fell on the sheet she was clutching, and her lips went white again.
Severus approached her hesitantly. "Lily? You-you all right?"
She spoke in a croaking voice, all the beautiful entrancing tone gone; spoke out of cracked lips that bled, washing away the deathly whiteness of her chin in a stream of blood. "Yes. No. I-that is, I'm fine."
Severus and Lucius looked at each other, then back at her. "Lily, anything we-we can do?"
She shook her head. "No. Please-please go away."
"You sure-"
"GO AWAY!"
They flinched and left her to herself, closing the door. Outside, Mrs. Malfoy rushed to the small office to pen a note to a medical hospital, and Lily was alone.
She stood up with small, jerking movements. Like a wooden puppet, she moved over to the window, having caught a glimpse of a black figure moving towards her. She flung the window open and jumped out of the way as a large owl dropped off a package. It was wrapped in brown packaging paper, and Lily tore it off quickly, finding a small note.
Lily dear, this is what your mother wanted you to have. She left these things to you, and I know you'll take good care of them. Dad.
Biting her lip hard, she removed the rest of the packaging and discovered several things wrapped in newspaper. Unfolding one, she caught sight of something she knew all too well.
It was the set of golden candlesticks her mother had on the sideboard. They were delicately shaped and formed-they had been in the family for over three hundred years. Lily set them aside carefully and pulled another package out.
This one she also knew. It was the golden-hilted dagger her mother had worn in several plays when she was younger-along with the hair-ornament that served as a sheath. Flooding her came small memories of her mother-
Lightfooted, smiling, and laughing, Mrs. Evans was dressed in a medieval noble dress Lily had dragged down from the attic. She was inserting the poniard into her concealing sheath-then picked up the old script of The Three Musketeers. Striking a ferocious pose, she swerved towards Lily, pulling out the dagger.
"Ah, wretch! You have basely insulted me-and more, you have my secret! You shall die!" Running wildly towards Lily, who ran out of the way in pretended fear, she caught her small six-year-old around the waist and swung her high into the air, both of them laughing as their red hair got entangled with the other's.
The next thing Lily pulled out was a collection of books. The complete Agatha Christie-both cloth-bound Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Books, two series of Robin Hood adventures, Robinson Crusoe, the complete Shakespeare, marked at intervals with the parts she had played. Lily ran her fingers over the spine of the books, eyes closed, the closest to crying she had been since she got the first letter from the Ministry of Magic and her father. Warmth flooded her from the gilded, deerskin, leather, and cloth covers of the books her mother had most loved.
The lumpy package was one Lily smiled to see. They were her mother's old tap shoes-she had worn them in several performances of musicals, and Lily had never tired of putting them on and tapping around the house in them when she had been younger. Even though they were close to fifteen years old, they only had a few real scratches, and those could be easily fixed with shoe polish. Lily touched the small straps, smiling to think of the small feet her mother had had.
There was only one thing left; a dark blue box wrapped with pale cream ribbon. A note slipped in the bindings said, in her mother's handwriting, Happy birthday, dear! Lily paused, then, gently, removed the ribbon and top of the box.
Reaching inside, she touched something hard. Pulling the contents out, she discovered something she'd seen in a Muggle store and always wished for, but it had been too expensive…
A case of drawing pencils, along with drawing paper, was enclosed. A sharpener and eraser accompanied it; also a pack of paints and brushes. There was a book, too-Faeries-one with beautiful and exotic drawings of tiny fairies. Lily smiled as she thought of the pictures open to her now that she had a few models…
There was something else. Her mother had sent her a few clothes-Lily, dear, I just wanted to get these for you. I know you might not want them, but I'm making the gesture anyway. There were several shirts: one emerald green with long sleeves and sparkling earrings to match, another a deep burgundy, also long-sleeved, with deep garnet earrings set in gold, and a short-sleeved blue shirt with a sapphire necklace. She had also put a pair of black jazz pants into the pile, and two pairs of blue jeans, which, Lily was touched to discover, fit her perfectly.
She squeezed her eyes shut, then stood up. She quickly slid into the black jazz pants and the burgundy shirt, putting on the earrings and a gold chain with a garnet pendant that she had loved when she was younger. Slipping her feet into the tap shoes and brushing her hair till it shone in the glimmering light, she picked up Macbeth and went downstairs to the library.
As she sat in the large armchair, curled up with what seemed like her mother's hair surrounding her; it was so long, and whispering out loud the parts of Macbeth and seeming to hear a dramatic voice, the voice of her mother, speak the role of Macbeth's wife, she felt strangely comforted. She felt as if her mother was in the room with her, holding her in her arms. And so immersed was she in the past and the complete peacefulness of that moment that she almost leaped out of the chair in shock and astonishment when someone lightly touched her shoulder.
"Severus! You scared me half to death!"
He didn't say anything; he was merely looking at her.
"What? Did I just sprout a multicolored mole out of my head?"
He shook himself. "No-it's not-Lily, your mother just died, and you're walking around in red and gold?"
Lily had forgotten, for the moment, that her mother would no longer be there to welcome her home, and she turned away, to the fire.
"Severus-it's not-not-Mother sent these to me. She meant to give them as a birthday present…but it was too late-" Lily turned back towards Severus, and he was sorry he had ever mentioned her mother. The skull-like appearance her face had had was lost when he had come into the library, and now it was back, full force, and twice as pained.
He moved over to her and took her by the shoulders. "Lily, cry if you want to. We know how much you loved her…go ahead, cry."
A small vision passed in front of Lily's eyes. It was that train trip home during the Easter holidays, and James was in the carriage with her.
"Please don't cry-never mind. Cry if you want to-it's the holding back of tears that makes people so terribly hard. Cry if you want to."
Lily backed away, astonishment in her eyes. Severus looked a bit hurt.
"What? Did I do something terrible?"
She frowned. "No-no-no-" Her voice broke. "Please go away," she whispered in a rather croaking sound. Severus' face didn't lose its hurt, but he nevertheless complied and left Lily by herself.
She meant to go back to the armchair and resume her reading, but her gaze was intercepted by the sight of parchment, a lit candle, several quills, and ink. Moving slowly, she stepped towards the small table and picked up a quill.
Eva,
Mother died two days ago. I don't feel up to telling people why I'm walking around like a moving corpse, so please do that for me. And I'm probably not going to be coming the first few weeks of school; this is just to explain why. If you want to send me an owl, I'll be at Lucius' place. Lucius Malfoy, that is. I don't want to write anymore, but I thought I should pen this bit. Please don't write back giving me your sincerest sympathies; I feel as if I just might totally break down if I saw that written. I also want you to come to her funeral: three weeks from now. I'll tell you once I have the exact date and time and place.
-Lily
Folding the letter up, Lily stuck it inside an envelope, dropped a bit of cream-colored wax on the flap and pressed her small golden ring into it. Picking up Macbeth, she went upstairs to get Alisande to deliver her letter.
Watching her owl fly away over the treetops, she felt even more saddened, as if writing that her mother was dead had made it even more of a reality.
That night, she returned to the Alendoren Cove.
"Tom, I don't know if I can do this."
"What-why not?"
"My mother just died. I can't-I can't-"
He bit his lip, then fumbled through pages and pages of notes, finally stopping at one long roll of parchment.
"Lily, this is part of what's in the book. Read it."
A bit bewildered, Lily took the sheet and read the line at which Tom's finger pointed.
"Vomtodauferstanden spell. But what-"
"Read the explanation."
She complied, in a shaking voice, for she had comprehended the meaning of the swirly, curlicued title.
"Bringt Eure Verlorenen wieder auf die Erde. Mit nur einem Buch und nur sieben Zutaten werden Eure sehnlichsten Wünshe wieder wahr. Brings your lost ones back to the Earth. With only one book and only seven ingredients will your greatest wishes become true. Tom-" She broke off with a flaming desire in her eyes.
"Tom-really?"
He nodded. "Really. That's one of the reasons I'm so worried to get that book open-that's the book it's talking about. I want my mother-you want yours-don't you see?"
Lily nodded with a set face. "I see. List, please."
He handed her a short bit of parchment with some names written on it. "You're positive you want to do this?"
Lily turned to him. "Tom, I want my mother back more than anything else in the world. You know that. And I'll do anything to get her back, just as-just as I believe you would. Goodbye." She left the cave and went around to the other side of it, and there struck the elf-nymph necklace on the boulders. Spinning through a whirlwind of blackness, she landed on her bed at the Malfoys. It was still dark outside, and Lily blessed her stars for that. Quickly slipping off the tap shoes, all the jewelry except the elf-nymph necklace, and the burgundy turtleneck, she donned soft, almost slipper-like black velvet shoes with cloth soles that were in the closet, a black turtleneck with dark gloves, and the cloak Severus had given her. Pulling the cloak's hood over her head and tying it with the wide black ribbons, she bound a small bag about her waist and opened the window, letting in warm night air.
She had been walking around outside earlier that day, with Severus and Lucius, and she had made an especial note of how the walls were formed and which windows were placed where. Stepping deftly from one piece of carved stone to another, she managed to get down to the lawn without slipping once. A small shadow flitted across the lawns, and Lily was drifting nimbly between the trees of the dark forest.
On the other side, she came out on the edge of a meadow, and beyond the meadow, she could see the outlines of buildings, their backs to her, black against an even blacker sky.
Dashing across the meadow, silently, she reached the stone constructions and smiled grimly as she slipped through a side alley and found herself pressed against the walls of Knockturn Alley.
Lily could see that this place wasn't as well kept as Diagon Alley or Firestream Lane; hags were snoozing all around her, one with a pitcher covered with a slimy sort of liquid, another wrapped in a cloak that had once been animal fur, but the fur was falling out in patches and only left the greasy skin behind. Somewhere down the street, a few people were dancing around a fire and shooting red and blue sparks into the air, but Lily shrugged them off, putting all of her attention into the reading of the signs above the stores.
"Bromin's Antiques-no-Higginson and Dowell-nope…what's that?" Her eyes glistened with a wild fever as she spotted a small store, almost hidden in the gloom. "Hiscock's Potions!" Her lips curved up as she deftly wound her way around the sleeping figures and trash cans in the alley. The only noise she had made since she had left the house was when she had mumbled the names of the stores to herself, and now, just as silently, she pulled a small chisel out of the bag she'd tied to her waist in the dormitory and started to work on the faulty lock on the door. She had learned how to pick locks one afternoon when she was six and bored, so this was child's play for her.
After only about five seconds, the lock sprang open with a click, and, with a small creaking sound, the door swung open. Lily felt no fear, only a sort of exhilaration as she took another glance at her list.
"Hiscock's Potions-three tablespoons ground werewolf fur." Quietly as a shadow, she started moving through the store, checking shelves and pulling off boxes. With a small gasp of triumph, she spotted a box way back in one of the lower shelves, labeled Ww.Fur. She pulled it out and took a handful of the fur, stuffing it into her bag. Replacing the box and re-locking the door, Lily moved back out. No one had even suspected that there had been a thief in the potions shop.
When she re-emerged, she was quick to notice that there was a faint golden glow amongst the black clouds in the east. Flitting among the alleys and trees, she made it back to her room without anyone noticing her. She opened the window to admit her, slipped inside, and pulled the cloak close around her, hearing the soft pads of a house-elf on the carpet outside. She climbed into her bed, drew the covers around her neck, and partly closed her eyes.
A small elf, looking very like Minky, came in with a small house-elf baby strapped to her back. The baby, like its mother, had large, green, tennis-ball eyes and batlike ears, and it was sleeping peacefully. The mother knelt down at the fire, fussed a bit with tongs and the poker, and left the room with a roaring fire behind her. The baby started to cry just as she left the room, and Lily could distinctly hear the mother say, "Dobby, hush!"
Quickly, Lily sat up in bed and pulled the elf-nymph necklace out from under her shirt. Knocking it against the four-poster, she landed just outside Tom's cave. She had just time to hide the necklace before he emerged and came towards her with a greedy gleam in his eyes.
"You got it?"
Lily nodded. "Yes." She burrowed around in her bag and came up with the fur. "I'll get two or three tomorrow-it was just too late tonight."
Tom accepted the handful with a covetous grasp. He vanished into the cave, with a whispered, "Thanks a million. But you'd better get back; they'll be wondering where you are."
She followed his advice and got back to her room, changing quickly into her black nightgown. Lily even had time for a three-hour nap before Severus knocked at the door and took her down to breakfast.
The rest of the day passed in a flash. Lily had a hard time keeping her excitement about seeing her mother again soon, but she nevertheless managed it, without the help of makeup. They spent the day in the pool behind the Malfoy's mansion, and Severus and Lucius were relieved to see that she was being carefree once more, and that her face looked less strained after she beat them at the amount of laps they could swim without coming up for air. Lily won six to three to two and half.
The next night, Lily was off again, this time to Fraeden Square for the plant part of a two-week-old Mandrake. No one noticed the tiny shadow slipping in and out of darkness, least of all the sleeping baby Mandrake. She came close to being discovered when she accidentally knocked off the lid of a trash can, but the small homeless troll simply sat up, snorted a few times, and went back to sleep. Lily started moving again as soon as she heard the snoring.
The next place she broke into was a home. It was, like the Malfoy's mansion, large, grand, and imposing, but the difference was that this home had no magical alarm. Lily was a bit disappointed, as she had practiced her disabling spell in her room that evening, but she nevertheless made it inside with the help of the chisel and a screwdriver as long as her finger.
Moving silently through the house, she quickly found the study door. "Macnair Residence-Prisonta Drive-study. Grated horn of a bicorn…" The burglar's jemmy opened the door easily and she fumbled around the shelves. "Grated horn…no, that's powdered; grated…grated…" Almost panicking, she knocked a box to the floor, accidentally opening a hidden bottom in it. Her eyes dilated. "Grated horn! Wonderful." Lily picked up half of a handful and made her way out, cleaning up all the mess she had made. She hadn't been noticed by anyone, and, simply out of spite, left an almost unnoticeable trail of powdered bicorn horn all the way to the doorway.
The sun was deeper than it had been last night, but the gray glow made her quickly return, by back ways, to the Malfoy mansion. She found Tom in the cave, stirring a cauldron over a smallish fountain spouting boiling water. Wordlessly, she handed him the two ingredients, which she had knotted in separate parts of the bag to keep them from mixing.
Tom smiled as he took the Mandrake leaves out of the bag, and he placed them on a grate over a bright magenta fire to dry. The grated horn of the bicorn, however, he poured into a crucible, which he hung over the cauldron, leaving it to absorb the steam from the werewolf fur and Alendoren Cove dew mixture underneath it.
The residue of the ingredients he poured into an average-sized graduated cylinder and left it to sit in the very darkest corner of the cave. Lily ventured a question when he was finished.
"Tom, how long do you think this will take?"
He looked up. "What, the potion? It's finished as soon as we pour the last ingredient in, which, according to my calculations, should be about…" he consulted his notes, "six days. Yeah. Six. That okay? Well, that is, if you get everything in on time. See, I'd do some of this myself, but I can't get there; you can. Trust me, I'd do it if I could."
Lily nodded. "I'm quite willing to do this. You're bringing my mother back, after all."
He nodded. "Yep. And mine."
"Well, that, too. But still, thanks, Tom."
Tom nodded. "No problem. But you need to get back now-" he took a peek at his watch-"should be about six where you are."
"Oh, right." Lily smacked her forehead. "I'll see you tonight. Bye."
"Bye. See you tonight-Wait!"
Lily stopped at the entrance to the cave. "What?"
"Give me the list."
"OK-sure-" She fumbled in her bag and pulled it out, handing it to him. Tom immediately took up a quill and started to cross off things.
"What're you doing?"
"I made a mistake. Just realized that today." He handed it back to her after checking several books and a large map. "There."
"Wh-what'd you just do?"
"I have all the rest of the ingredients-and one of them on there I don't need. But there's another one I do. I've got the address down there and everything-all you need to do is get it. Should be fairly easy."
Lily read the new address. "I'll say! Only problem is, I live there."
"You do?"
"Yeah; look at this. 'Malfoy mansion, someplace in drawing room. Liquid Avada Kedavra potion'. I'm staying at the Malfoy's."
"That's a problem?"
"Well-no. Not really." Lily's eyes sparkled mischievously. "More of a challenge!"
Tom smiled. "That's my girl!"
Lily returned quickly to her room, strangely excited about what she intended and with a foreseen conscience twinge. Not even the thought of her mother could dispel what Tom had asked her to do-it was easy, snipping leaves off of plants, but these people she knew-they had done things for her, offered her a place to stay-
But, with the gift of acting she had received from her mother, she got ready for the task, knowing somehow without thinking what she was to do. She slipped into the emerald-green shirt her mother had sent her, along with the earrings that went with it. A gold ring with a stone of the same tint went on her right forefinger, and she slid into one of the new pairs of jeans. Lily pulled out a pair of tennis shoes, and then set herself to do something she hadn't done in about a year and a half. Raising an eyebrow, she pulled out the hair-ornament that served as a sheath for the small poniard.
Twisting and braiding her hair, curling under and running her fingers through the red locks, she managed to get the golden sheath fixed just exactly right, on the top and back of her head. Squinting critically at her reflection, she pulled down strands to cover her ears and frame her face.
Her lips were still a bit pale, and, with an improvised sort of paste she made from a pot of rouge in the next room and water, lightly daubed her lips with that. She ran her tongue around her teeth, smiled sweetly at her reflection, picked up the set of drawing pencils and the pad, and made her way downstairs to the living room she, Severus, and Lucius used.
Tucking one foot underneath her, she quickly started on a sketch of a head she knew quite well. Drawing with the help of a picture she had taken from a mantlepiece, the picture grew under her skilful hands to form Lucius' head. Lily checked her watch. He should be up in about a half-hour-Lily wrinkled her nose. She was ahead of schedule.
Flipping to another page, she started on a bust of Tom, and she was almost finished with it before she heard the graceful, antique grandfather clock outside in the entrance hall strike eight o'clock. When she heard lazy footsteps in the hallway, however, it seemed to take no time for her to hide Lucius' portrait behind a bookcase and turn back to his portrait. She was touching up a spark in his eye when he came to the door, a bit startled at the smile that adorned her lips.
"What's that?"
"What's wha-Oh, Lucius, hi." She made a deliberately clumsy attempt to cover up her sketch, and, grinning a bit, he took the book from her, turning to his own portrait.
"That's what? Er…well, it's pretty good."
She ducked her head, forcing the blood to go to her head and give her a pink blush. "Yes-well, Severus' been teaching me."
"Yeah-I remember-he said you'd be better than him pretty soon. Seems like you already are."
"Oh-" The blood rushed to her head again. "No-not really. But-" she continued, obviously wanting to get off of the subject, "is there any breakfast yet?"
It was intentionally a flimsy change of subject, and Lucius knew it. That is, he knew that she was trying to change the subject; he didn't know that she was faking whatever she appeared to be feeling. But he played along with what he thought was the game.
"I don't know-I'll go check." He left the room, and Lily, following him quietly, laughed to herself as he pulled out his wand in front of Severus' room and locked it. He hightailed it back downstairs and found a demure little figure, eyes downcast, but a bit flushed, shading the haunches of a rabbit.
"Nah-I guess we're up too early. The house-elves're still cleaning up from that party Mother had last night.
"Party?" she asked innocently, wide eyes fixed on the person in the doorway.
"Yeah-someone at the Ministry got promoted, and Mother offered to host a large one here. I think the last person left around five," he added, with a short, scornful laugh.
"Oh-I thought I heard something, but I wasn't sure…"
"Well, that was the night before you got that note about your-Never mind," he quickly added at seeing her smile droop. "Say-want to go for a walk outside? It's nice outside-warm, for a change."
"In opposition to the usual boiling hot? I'll come." Slipping her sketchbook off of her knees and onto the mantlepiece, she stood up and walked with Lucius towards the French windows that opened out onto the garden. They walked about a bit, talking of meaningless things, and finally, Lily deftly succeeded in turning the subject to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Yes-well, I suppose they teach us basics, but they're terrible when it comes to the real stuff."
"But, Lucius, isn't that the best magical education we could get?"
"Well, yes, but they're not informing us about the things that matter."
"Like what?" Lily was excited now; but she kept it hidden under disinterested eyelids.
"Oh-well, like the Unforgivable Curses. And poisons-only thing they're really preparing us for is if we decide to go and live in a grindylow-infested marsh."
"Oh-well, I suppose you're right."
"I am." He looked unconsciously pompous. "I'd show you what I mean if I didn't know that Mother and Father'd murder me for it."
"What?"
He stole a quick glance around him, then turned back to Lily, almost whispering. "We have our own stock of deadly poisons, and if I could get hold of them, you'd see that nothing you ever learned in that class would do you any good if you were encountered with them."
Several thoughts ran quickly through Lily's mind. Oppose his beliefs-or encourage them-She decided on opposing.
"I don't think so. Why, we're prepared for over half of the magical creatures we meet, and if you mean to say that our teachers don't know anything about what matters, then-"
"All right, fine; I'll show you." He was clearly a bit on the arrogant side, and if Lily had dared, she would have applauded herself. "Come; this way." He took her back through the French windows and through several doors until he arrived in a rather largeish room with the usual expensive furniture. "This is it.?"
Lily was honestly puzzled. "What is?"
"This room. Now watch." He pulled a bit of the green velvet carpet aside to reveal the dark mahogany floor.
"But, Lucius-" Lily had spotted where this was leading to, and she was on tenterhooks in case her 'innocent fool' act failed because she was too excited.
"Never mind the buts. Look here." He was feeling around on the floor for something; evidently he found it, for something clicked and he had a handle in his hand of the same polished mahogany as the floor. He thought he had concealed the place where it had been very well, which he would have had if Lily hadn't visited the Alendoren Cove before. The beams of her sight caught a small indentation in the wood, too small to be seen with regular vision, but deep enough for her to see. She gave a small gasp.
"Goodness, but that was smart! I couldn't ever have seen something like that!"
Lucius smiled. "Well, I didn't either. But watch!" He pulled the handle up, and, out of a clean, glistening floor without a mark in it, he pulled up a door six feet by four, two inches thick. Lily's eyes widened and she moved forward.
Bottles upon bottles of some sort of liquid were stored there, and boxes and chests of some unknown something. Lily tried to read the labels on all of them, but it wasn't necessary. Lucius dispelled that task by picking up the very bottle she was after.
Dark and ghostly, with an uncorked top, it glowed with a somewhat blue light. Lucius handed it to her.
"Liquid Avada Kedavra potion. So deadly you can't even imagine it."
Lily took it from him; to him, she was simply staring at it, in reality, she was scanning the bottle for any mark that would allow her to tell it apart from the others. Finding none, she contrived to run her nail along the cork, twice, making a crude sort of X.
"Lucius-but what's it good for? I really can't see-"
"It has some really neat properties. Like, a drop of it will kill you, same as the curse, but if you take just the right amount, it'll heal you if you've got a desperate wound or something like that."
Facts in her head quickly connected. This, then, along with all of the other things, would combine-they wouldn't just heal-they'd bring back to life. "Lucius, how much of this does one need for that?"
His answer came back with startling rapidity. "One mole."
"One what?"
"Mole. Six point oh two to the twenty-third power. One mole."
"Oh." Lily had forgotten. When she'd taken that Advanced Chemistry course, that had been in there-a mole of elements, it usually was. She'd calculated it when she was bored once-if someone had a mole of pennies, they'd be the richest person in the world and beyond, if that was possible.
"One mole of what?"
He shrugged. "A mole of a drop of that to the negative ten million trillionth or something like that. Never bothered to figure it out, though."
"Oh-I see. I don't blame you at all. Well-" she handed it back to him and he replaced it, closing the trapdoor and throwing the rug back over it-"you certainly showed me. I don't think I could defeat that with the stuff I learned at Hogwarts if I tried my best."
"You certainly couldn't," he agreed.
That night, Lily never bothered to even get her two-hour nap. As soon as all of the sounds in the house had ceased, she slipped into the clothes she had worn the past two nights and ran downstairs, thinking to herself, "I certainly overdid that Lucius thing. Now he's hovering around me like a moth around a lightbulb."
Nevertheless, after standing in the shadow of the entrance hall for a good twenty-three minutes to make sure the house was really asleep, she made her way into the drawing room, prised up the handle, and drew up the bottle.
This time, Lily had taken the precaution of slipping a test tube and cork into her bag, and so the transfer was the easiest thing in the world. She replaced everything just the way it had been, smoothed the carpet, pulled her necklace out, and, as silently as she could manage, hit it against the bookcase.
She landed rather farther away from Tom's cave than she had the other times, but that was foreseen. Dashing the fifty yards to the glow of white light issuing from the cave entrance, she approached it unnoticed by Tom. He was sitting at the cauldron, mumbling formulas and things to himself.
Meaning to surprise him, Lily quickly snuck up behind him, and, finding him immersed in the bubblings of the liquid in the cauldron, she was about to put her hand on his shoulder, but something he mumbled held him back.
"Damn, the girl is dumb. I don't know how many times I slipped up when I was explaining this junk to her-oh, man. I might be able to get outta this mess if her mum was a Muggle-could just explain to her that I wouldn't do this for her-oh, no, crap. I need her; that won't work. I could say that this won't work on Muggles…well, I wouldn't bother if her mum was one, anyway. But she's probably not…oh, darn…"
Lily had heard enough. She didn't know what exactly Tom would do if he knew she had overheard, so she left the cave. Outside, she ran over everything he had told her.
"The name of the book. If I could remember that-but why would he need the liquid Avada Kedavra to open the book? That's just it-he wouldn't-oh, man, this stinks. I wonder if that book was just a blind-I wonder if he only needs to perform a spell to get it open. What on earth was the name of that thing, though-something with Traum in it. Dream. Traum-something-oh, this isn't getting me anywhere. Traumwünsche? Wishes of dreams-oh, no, that wasn't it-something Tom would love to have-what did he tell me the other day-"
She looked up. A fire was kindling in her eyes, a fire that slowly grew and consumed her. "Power," she whispered. "Power above all mortals. Macht. Traum-Traummacht. Power of dreams."
Then, as if on command, her eyes narrowed. She pulled the corked test tube out of her bag and held it up to the pale light of the moon. Quickly checking to see whether Tom was still at his cauldron, she moved to the shore. Picking another tube out of her bag, she filled that with the deadly poison and poured a bit of the dewy waters of the Alendoren Cove into the used tube. It might have been accident that she left a droplet of the poison in the dewy container; it might not have been, but the color of the replaced substance was the same color as the poison.
Stowing the container with the poison in it in a hole she burrowed in the sand, she covered it up and ran lightly to the cavern door, knocking softly on the wall.
"Tom?"
He immediately stopped his mutterings and turned around. "Lily! Did you get it?"
She nodded, pulling the dew out of her purse. "Happy birthday."
He grasped it greedily. "Oh-oh, goodness-Lily, you don't know what this means!"
I'll bet I do, she thought to herself. And I'll bet you don't know that I know.
"Tom, that's all right. And what about my mother?"
His face set in immovable lines as he stared at the cauldron. Lily could tell he was thinking of a plausible lie.
"Lily, there's something I-" His eyes widened. "RUN!"
She stood rooted to the spot, but when he dashed towards her and grabbed her cloak, she obeyed his order and dashed as far away as she could. Something under the cauldron had exploded, and it had sent the whole thing blasting into the air. If they had stayed where they were, they would have been blown to bits. As it was, they had managed to get four yards away from the mouth of the cave before it exploded and they were flung headfirst into a maze of boulders. A few minutes after the explosion, everything was quiet.
