Petunia wasn’t all too happy with her mood. “Well, for gosh sakes, Lily, it’s only a stupid book!”
“Yeah, and I don’t want to order another one. Now come on!”
“Come on what?”
“We’ve got to now now. Dad!”
He rushed down from the attic. “Coming, dear. I’ll get the car started.” He dragged her trunk outside, with lots of groaning about the weight of it. Preoccupied and trying to remember where she’d left it last, Lily walked out the front door, running into a form outside it.
”Ouch!”
“Ow!”
Lily stepped back, holding her forehead. “You have a really hard shoulder, you know that?”
“And you a really hard head. What’s wrong?”
“Can’t find my Charms book and we’re late already. What’re you here for?”
James smiled sheepishly. “Well, first off, to return this—“ he pulled her book out from behind his back—“and secondly, to ask for a ride. My folks can’t take me.”
“And I suppose you thought we’d be glad to take you?” Lily snatched the volume from him, though she couldn’t suppress a smile.
“Well, that’s about the gist of it.” He was a bit unnerved now.
Lily took his arm. ‘You were right. “Come on—we’d better go. Dad’s already hassled enough, and if we miss the train, it’ll be worse.”
As it turned out, they didn’t miss the train, though they came awfully close to doing so. The clock over the barrier between platforms nine and ten showed three minutes to eleven when they pushed their trolley through the barrier, and there were thirty seconds left by the time that they got their trunks stowed in a compartment and sank into seats, panting.
“I do wish my mother hadn’t bought such a heavy trunk!”
“You’re telling me! I had to carry one end of it. How much does it weigh—empty?”
“I think somewhere around a hundred pounds…well, that’s what it feels like, anyhow. Remus!”
This last was to a form in the doorway. Remus Lupin had just pushed open the compartment door.
“Hi, all. We were wondering where you were. Thought you might have missed the train.”
Just then, a large toot rang in their ears as the train pulled out of the station. Lily rolled her eyes. “We came awfully close to it, didn’t we?”
“Yeah. Thanks to Lily here.”
“Hey! If I hadn’t been so late, you wouldn’t have gotten a ride!”
“True.” James looked at the seats next to him. “Moony, have a seat, why don’t you?”
Lily frowned. “Moony?”
Remus waved that aside. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a stupid nickname, that’s all.”
“Hmph.” James frowned. “Remus, she knows about your unnatural habits. Anyway, she likes fanged, furry creatures. Don’t you, Lil?”
In answer, Lily hit James in the stomach, hard, and had fun laughing at him when he keeled onto the floor of the compartment, wheezing.
“Remus, do you mind if they call you that?”
Remus shrugged. “Why should I? I am a werewolf; why should I bother facing it?”
“Good answer.” Lily slid onto the floor of the compartment. “Exploding Snap, anyone?”
Meanwhile, Sirius, Peter, Eva, and Amanda had joined them and they were in the middle of their third game when the compartment door slid open and Severus stood at the door. The four boys stood up, clenching their fists.
“What do you want, Snape?” Sirius spat out the word ‘Snape’ as if it were poisonous.
Severus shrugged. “I just want to talk to Lily, that’s all.”
James grasped Lily’s wrist firmly. “Don’t you dare. He’s probably jinx you as soon as you’re out of the compartment.
This was too much. Lily pinched his hand, hard.
“Ow! What was that for!”
“Don’t try to restrain me. I’ll do as I please. Severus, don’t mind these donkeys. I’ll be right out.” She ignored dumbfounded stares from the boys, rolled her eyes in response to suppressed laughter on the girls’ side, and stepped out of the compartment, shutting the door.
“What? You looked as if it was something serious.”
He winced. “Sort of. Remember what you told me, at that Christmas party?”
Lily squared her shoulders. “I thought you asked me to forget about it.”
“Well, yeah. But, still—you said that you didn’t throw me over because of Potter.”
“I didn’t.”
“Well, but you came into the Leaky Cauldron—er—holding hands with him, and then you’re volunteering at the place where he works—“
Lily had cut him off sharply by placing a hand over his mouth. “I was not holding Potter’s hand. He grabbed mine so as not to waste Floo powder. He only had a bit.”
“Oh.” Severus looked a bit relieved.
“And the only reason I was volunteering there was because I was bored out of my mind.”
“Oh.” Severus looked quite a bit happier now. “I was just wondering…”
Lily smiled. “It’s all right. Do you still need me or will I have to return to the controlling maniacs?”
“You mean Potter and Black and them?”
“Yeah.”
“That was all I wanted to ask. Thanks.”
“No problem. See you at Hogwarts!”
“Yeah, see you,” he echoed as she quietly pulled the compartment door open to face accusing faces from the boys.
“Lily, how could you do that? That’s betrayal!”
“He’s our greatest enemy! You know that!”
“And you could have been killed out there! You know he knows more curses than anyone else does! He knew more when he came here than many seventh years!”
“And you heard us tell you not to go!”
“Lil. why’d you do that? He could have done anything!”
Lily knew how to shut the boys up, and she did so as soon as she could get a word in edgewise.
“I didn’t know you cared.”
As soon as they had quieted down a bit, she launched into them.
“In case you were wondering, Severus is your enemy, not mine. He’s a very good friend, he’s sweet, he’s someone I can trust—more than I can say for any of you boys. I like him, all right, and you’re not going to mess up our friendship by your stupid bickering. I’m not your property! You’ve got no right to tell me what to and what not to do. You don’t own me!”
With that, she turned on her heel, slid open the compartment door, and banged it loudly as she stormed down the corridor.
She found Severus down the hall. As soon as he heard her footsteps, he turned. ”You look mad. What happened?”
“It turns out I’m their slave, and they can tell me who and how to talk to.”
“Ah.” Severus nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Where’s your compartment?”
“In here.” He gestured to a door to his left. “I’m just warning you; it’s a mess.”
“I don’t care.” Lily followed him inside. “It won’t kill me.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”
“I would.”
As it turned out, the Tarantallegra that was put on her the moment she entered didn’t kill her; it just made her legs start to jerk in a sort of quickstep. However, she spent quite a nice two hours in there before Eva and Amanda dragged her back into their compartment. “It’s not as fun when you’re not around.”
While back in her first compartment, she asked James something that had been bugging her for some time.
“James?”
“Hum?”
“Didn’t you say something about the Quidditch World Cup last year?”
“You don’t know? What’s wrong with you--oh.” He nodded. “I forgot; you don’t get the Daily Prophet. It’s Italy against Japan, next week.”
“Why not over the summer? Isn’t that usually when the World Cup’s held?”
“It’s being held in Egypt. They’ve got a large sandstorm going on there, and we’re not allowed to interfere with magic. We can’t stop thunderstorms or anything like that, so the logical (or illogical) thought process is that we can’t interfere with a sandstorm.”
“Oh.” Lily sat back on her heels. “Is that so?”
“Yeah…but students have permission to go see it on weekends. So we’re going then; it starts next Friday night. By the way—“ he turned to Remus—“remind me that Nigel owes me five Galleons.”
The rest of the talk excitedly turned to Quidditch; Lily had a feeling that they had been bursting to talk about it all day, but knew that she and Amanda would either fall asleep or leave.
They arrived at Hogwarts when it was pelting huge drops about the size of someone’s thumbnail. They had to stay in the train for several minutes till it cleared up and the gamekeeper could retrieve all the boats from the middle and bottom of the lake (someone had cut the ropes that had held them to the bank).
It gave them time to slip into their Hogwarts robes; Remus had also been made a prefect, as they found out when he pulled out his badge. No one expressed any surprise at all when they saw Lily’s.
When Lily stepped into the faintly damp, moth-ball smelling carriage, she was quite thankful she wasn’t a first year. She didn’t see how they could make it across that lake without drowning, especially since there was a nice giant squid that lived inside the stormy water.
By the time the carriages reached Hogwarts, everyone was reasonably dry, though they had to soak their robes as they held them over their heads in order to get inside without looking as though they’d just taken a quick dip in the oh-so-calm lake with their clothes on. Damp and dripping, everyone filed into the Great Hall, ready to welcome the first years, who filed in and stuck together in a large clump.
Professor McGonagall carried the Sorting Hat up to the three-legged stool that sat on a stage, and immediately, the hat opened its brim and lost it, with a plop. The brim, that is. It was simply a pointy thing with a patched, round bit of cloth draped around the stool. Everyone tried not to roar with laughter, but it was too funny not to.
Professor Dumbledore finally got the noise down to a semblance of quiet, flicking his wand and replacing the brim. Then, for the second time, the hat opened its ‘mouth’ and began to sing amid suppressed giggles.
In days when I was new and young
This school was bright and clean.
And the Four Heads of Houses swung
Small wizards into streams.
Gryffindor’s stream ran sunset red;
And into it he threw
The bravest from their safe, warm beds
And the daring from their pew.
The trickle of Hufflepuff widened large
Flowing with liquid gold.
And in the river rode a barge
Filled with a loyal, trusty mould.
Ravenclaw’s torrent took to the sea
Azure and blue and bronze
The smartest, the brightest one could see
For miles all around.
The silver watercourse among the rocks
Tinted with streaks of green
Took to Slytherin the smartest locks
The sneakiest in between.
And when they were quite old and gone
I was left instead
To do my best for wizards at dawn
Of their new life’s stead.
So try me on and do not shake;
Your insides are still there.
And I have yet made no mistake
Of this, your life’s first scare.
The Great Hall burst into applause. Lily turned to Sirius.
“It did pretty well, even if that brim did fall off!”
“It’s a talented hat.”
Lily laughed. “Yes!”
They were terribly hungry; the lady with the cart on the train had run out of food quite early, and everyone was more than ready for dinner. As Dumbledore stood up at the teacher’s table, several groans could be heard throughout the Hall.
“I trust you have all had an eventful summer; time for all that nice knowledge to seep out of your heads. I know you are all anxious to eat, but before you do so, I would like to say a few words.
“First, all of you who are excited about the Quidditch World Cup, we are allowing you to leave Hogwarts on weekends with permission from your parents. We shall be transporting you there and directing you to the group you shall be with. Needless to say, if the Cup lasts into the week, you shall be back at school.” The Great Hall groaned even more loudly. “Another thing, before I shall allow you to nourish yourselves. You are, as usual, not allowed inside the Forbidden Forest, and no one is to visit Hogsmeade without a signed form or when a visit is not announced.” Lily saw Sirius and James turn their heads to look at each other as Peter sat in his seat, looking smug.
“We shall be asking you, as usual, to pay strict attention to out prefects and Head Boy and Girl.” James stole a glance down the table to where Lily was sitting, and was surprised to find that she hadn’t displayed her prefect badge prominently, and that she wasn’t looking half as smug as Peter was. Her head was sort of down, and it looked like she had a faint sunburn.
“We would like to welcome two new teachers to our midst. Professor Flitwick will be your new Charms teacher.” He gestured to a small wizard on his right, the new teacher’s chin barely reaching over the top of the table. Thunderous applause flooded the Great Hall, especially from James and Sirius, who had mischievous grins on their faces.
“And, of course, our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; Professor Dorvan!”
The applause was just as loud for this new teacher, though she was in all ways different from the small wizard that could hardly see over the table. Tall and stately, she was wearing dark green robes, and her hair was a sort of brown. However, she resembled a tree more than she did a person—her hair seemed to be formed of branches and twigs; her robes fit her as did the summer coat of leaves on trees. Lily’s eyes widened.
“She’s a dryad!”
“She what?” Peter was confused.
Impatient at his denseness, Lily threw him an exasperated look. “The spirit of a tree is called a dryad. There are only few left, though. And—“ she stole another look at Professor Dorwan—“and I doubt whether she’s a pure-blood dryad. I’d say she’s half human.”
Sirius frowned. “Why would you say that?”
“Her eyes.” Lily pointed. “They’re not as dark and woody as they usually are. And she’s not as tall as they’re supposed to be.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
Lily motioned for him to shut up as Dumbledore began to speak again.
“And as that is all I can say, let us begin!” He clapped his hands once, and the golden plates in front of them filled with the usual delicious food. But, tired as everyone was and drenched as more than everyone was, no one really enjoyed the feast as much as they would have normally. When Dumbledore finally let them leave the Great Hall, the first moves of everyone were towards the common room fire. Lily was pushed in front of the mass of Gryfffindors rushing towards their Tower, and only a few feet away from the portrait hole did she remember that prefects gave the students the password into the Tower.
Her mind searched frantically for something, and finally, in a bit of drenched and dazed desperation, she hit on the first thing that came to mind; something out of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
“Greek fire.”
The Gryffindors, satisfied with their password, pushed the Fat Lady open and piled into the common room. Whether it was because they were wetter and colder than usual or that the fire was larger and higher than it usually was, it definitely seemed warmer. However, the space in front of it could only be occupied by so many people, so about a fourth of the Gryffindors had to go upstairs to the bathrooms so as to take hot showers. Lily did so, mainly because she was more than ready for bed, which she got into at about eleven; the feast had lasted so long. She said a quick hello to Diana, Elspeth, and Abigail before her head hit the pillow and she fell asleep. It was debatable if she was asleep before her hair touched the pillow or after, though if anyone had watched, they would be inclined to say the former.
Next morning, everyone woke up a bit later than usual. They got dressed, yawning, and went down to breakfast, where Professor McGonagall was busy handing out schedules.
Lily slid into a seat next to Remus and Eva. “Hullo.”
“Hallo, Miss Prefect.” Eva was in a good mood. “Tired.”
“Very. What’s for breakfast?”
“The usual. Have some sausages?”
“Sure; why not.” Lily watched lazily as Eva piled her plate.
Professor McGonagall went around handing out schedules, and Lily grabbed hers as it went flying onto her milk jug. “Remus, schedules!”
“Um.” His mouth was full and he had to swallow twice before it became empty. “I can see. What do we have first?”
“Potions. With the Slytherins.”
“Wow.” Remus rolled his eyes. “What a great way to start our day.”
"It won’t kill you. Really; it won’t. Come on—they’re not really all that bad.”
“To you, maybe.”
“That’s because I was nice to them. Come on, get rid of that stupid prejudice. Remember, they could say worse about you if they knew.”
“Oh, right.” Remus picked up his own schedule. “I’ve got Transfiguration second…how about you?”
James plopped into a chair across from Remus, next to Lily. “Anatomy.”
“And how would you know that?”
“I’m in her class. Come on, Rem, it’s almost time for—POTIONS!?” His voice echoed all over the Great Hall, and everyone turned to stare. James waved to everyone, a bit sheepishly, because Professor Cauldwell was seated at the teacher’s table.
“Hi, all?”
They laughed quietly, turning back to their breakfast. Soon, however, it was time for them to go to class, and they all filed out of the Great Hall quickly, grabbing book bags as they raced to respective classrooms.
Professor Cauldwell was more animated than usual; this time he actually had notes, and he gave a long lecture on the different potions that could be used to ward off Dark creatures. Lily had a roll of parchment of jotted notes on how to use them and what they were made of and how long they were to simmer. It was interesting, for once, and they had to research one of two potions he gave them; they would be making them on Wednesday.
Anatomy was next. Professor Maar had become even more demanding over the summer, and he told them that they would be studying unicorns before Christmas holidays and that he would be bringing a specimen into class. Everyone was excited and couldn’t wait, but their excitement was crushed when he told them that they had two rolls of parchment on unicorns due Friday.
Lily wasn’t the only one delighted to find that they didn’t have Divination that day. It had been moved to right before lunch on Tuesday, which was wonderful, since it didn’t get so hot in the morning. They had Herbology instead; they were planting a grove of small birch dryads near the Forbidden Forest.
Lily and her friends stayed up late that night in the common room, talking about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Lily would have her on Wednesday, and she could hardly wait.
Lily yawned her way through Divination next morning. Sirius and James were absent, and Professor Trelawney was teaching them about the different ways to use crystals when stargazing. It made no sense whatsoever, and she slid into her seat at lunch with an air that suggested that she wanted to go to sleep.
Sirius handed her a glass of pumpkin juice. “Tired?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Nope. We skipped.”
“I noticed.”
He shrugged. “Well, we’ve got a good excuse.”
She looked skeptical. “I see.”
“We do! Well, that is, we will once we think up one.”
“I see.”
They trooped into History of Magic at the end of the day, not at all looking forward to this. They were his first class after lunch, and he usually took a nap during lunchtime. And this year, he had an extra hour and a half to sleep, so when they walked inside it was natural for them to see an empty classroom. It was only when he didn’t show up for fifteen minutes that they began to get edgy.
“D’you think he’s all right?”
“Of course! The old git just overslept.”
“Well, something’s wrong!”
“Go get him, why don’t you?”
“I’m just worried about our teacher! Stop it!”
“Why worry?”
“Yeah; he never teaches anyway; what’s the point?”
“There isn’t one. Binns never has one; at least that I can discern.”
“No, but something could be seriously wrong!”
”All right then, Miss Prefect, go see what’s wrong while our other prefect supervises us unruly children.”
“James! Don’t call me that!”
“Touchy, are we?”
“Come on, Lily, give it a break!”
“Lily, we’re perfectly fine without him; we can even do the same thing we do when he’s here.”
“What’s that?”
“Go to sleep.”
“Yeah, Lily, go to sleep.”
“But something could be seriously wrong!”
“So what? Lily, you can be one of the most annoying people on earth, do you know that?”
“But if something happened…”
Remus finally lost it, too. “Good God, Lily, will you shut up? You’re the only one in here that cares or pretends to like our teachers—go find him then! And when you catch him coming out of some bathroom, I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so.’”
“All right then!” Lily was angry now. She slid her chair back and walked in the direction of Binns’ office; she’d been there once before to discuss a paper. It was around several winding stairways and corners; when she finally got to it, she wouldn’t have been surprised at all to find the door locked. It was open, however; ajar, even, and she pushed it open easily.
Professor Binns was dozing in a large armchair in front of a blazing fire. Lily walked towards him, coughing deliberately and loudly. When he didn’t wake up, she tapped him on the shoulder.
“Er—Professor Binns?”
No answer.
“Professor?”
No answer.
She shook his shoulder.
No response.
Harder.
No response.
“Professor Binns!”
His hand dropped from his robes.
“PROFESSOR!”
This time, as she shook his shoulder violently, her hand felt cold, as if she had just plunged it in a bowl of ice-cold water. Something started to dawn on her.
“Erm—Professor?” Meekly, this time.
She touched him again, and the coldness flooded her arm again. She shook him again, and this time his head dropped to one side, leaving a pearly replica of his head drooping on his chest. Lily’s breath started to come faster and shorter.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my…PROFESSOR!”
She heard running footsteps in the hall, and James and Sirius were at the door. “Lil! What’s up?”
With a shaking hand, Lily pointed to the transparent second head of their teacher. The boys moved into the room.
“Geez, what do you think happened?”
“How old was that guy?”
“I wonder how long it takes bodies to rot.”
“I wonder how long he’s been dead!”
“You think he’s really dead?”
“He’s a ghost, idiot!”
“No, I mean is his ghost dead?”
“Can ghosts die?”
“Get Dumbledore.”
“Yes. James, go with her. I’ll try to wake him up.”
James and Lily broke into a run as they headed for Dumbledore’s office. At the statue of the disturbingly ugly goblin, they stopped. Lily stemmed her fists in her sides.
“How are we going to get in? I don’t know the password.”
James gave his mischievous smile. “I do.”
“How?”
“Remember when I told you I had a good excuse? I got to file papers in his office.”
Lily scowled. “You little—anyway. Go ahead.”
“All right. Butterbeer.”
The goblin jumped aside as the two moved in the doorway, jogged up the winding stairs, and knocked loudly on the door, which swung open to reveal Dumbledore sitting at his desk, writing a letter. He looked up as they ran in, breathless and panting.
“Professor—we were in history of Magic—“
“Professor Binns didn’t come, so I went to go check on him—“
“She went inside his office and found his body—“
“Headmaster, Professor Binns’ dead!”
There was complete silence in the room after Lily came out with that statement, but after a good five seconds, Professor Dumbledore rose from his chair, beard and robes swaying. He left his office at such a speed that Lily and James had to run again to keep up. They rounded several corners and finally came to Professor Binns’ office. The door was closed and locked.
Alohomora was a useful charm, and they opened the door easily. But the only thing they found was a blazing fire and a body in an armchair. Professor Dumbledore touched the form. It was still warm.
He straightened up. “James, please go fetch Professor McGonagall. Lily, come with me.”
They left the room, James turning one way, Dumbledore and Lily another. They came to the classroom Lily had left a few minutes ago, and Lily was shocked to hear a familiar droning sound coming from the room. Dumbledore pushed the door open, revealing the entire class staring at their teacher in wonder, who apparently had risen from his armchair, walked into the classroom, picked up his notes, and started to read.
Dumbledore and Lily stopped at the door, a bit stunned. Collecting herself, Lily noted that Dumbledore was pushing her into the classroom, so she slid into her seat quietly. Professor Binns didn’t even look up.
That evening, at dinner, everyone at Hogwarts knew about Professor Binns. They were all pointing and whispering at Lily, Sirius, and James, who were huddled in a knot, talking about that afternoon. It was Sirius’ turn.
“Ok, so you two leave me, right? I yelled in his ear again, just for good measure, and he wakes up and tells me to get back to class! I tell you, that scared me! So I bolted and got into the classroom just as he was entering it through the blackboard. I wasn’t the only scared one!”
“I can imagine.”
“Ok, James, it’s your turn now.”
James leaned closer. “I went to McGonagall’s classroom to get her after Dumbledore told me to fetch her, and I walked in, but when I tried saying something, her class was too loud, so I had to yell, 'PROFESSOR BINNS IS DEAD!' It shut them up quick as anything, and then McGonagall just stared at me, and when I didn’t start to laugh, she swept out and banged the door loud. Next thing I knew, I was standing in front of his classroom and he was teaching, so McGonagall almost gave me detention, but then she saw him, and he was all ghostly and stuff, and she gave this really odd gasp, told me to get to class, and raced down to his office.”
Lily and Sirius had a good, refreshing laugh as they helped themselves to the last bits of chocolate cake.
That night in the common room, hardly anyone was in bed. They were all discussing Binns’ death, and for once, Serena had swallowed her anger and was as curious as everyone else. It was around two when the common room was halfway emptied.
