Before || A Marauders Era Story

Chapter Seven: Lily

"Wake up! Wake up!" someone was shaking Lily's shoulder. "We have to go, remember?" 

Lily sat up abruptly, her head bonking with someone else's.

"Ouch!" she and Marlene chorused. 

"Sorry," Marlene stepped back to wake Dorcas up, who rolled out of bed complaining loudly. 

"Shhh!" came one of their dorm mates voices from behind the curtains of another bed. Lily, Marlene and Dorcas quickly got dressed before running down into the Great Hall. 

The Great Hall was pretty empty, except for a few older Ravenclaws who were reading at their table, three Hufflepuffs, a Slytherin, and Remus Lupin, who was sitting with his head on the Gryffindor table as he munched somewhat dejectedly on a chocolate bar. 

They sat down as far from the table from him but as close to the large tea kettle as they could, and Marlene grabbed the tea kettle an pulled it towards them. 

"Do you think it's in the tea?" Dorcas asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Probably not," Lily said, reaching for the kettle. She started fumbling with the tea cozy. "Here!" she pulled a piece of folded parchment. 

For L. E., M. M., D. M.

It read:

I can't tell you outright what is happening. Maybe I wish I could, but that's not possible. So I'll have to deliver the message to you one letter at a time. 

You'll find one of the letters of the first word in the restricted section of the library tomorrow at lunch.

"The restricted section?" Lily demanded. "But--that's restricted!" 

"We need permission from a teacher, don't we?" Dorcas asked. "I guess it's worth a try...?"

"Or we can try to sneak in." Marlene shrugged. "Why would they randomly let us go in there?" Lily stared at her.

"And if we get caught?"

"And what if we don't?" 

"Okay, fair enou--" Lily started, but was interrupted by Dorcas.

"No, no, I have a safer idea!" she exclaimed. "What of we found an older student, who might have permission, and asked them to let us in?" 

"Okay..." Lily nodded. "Yeah, let's try that."

"And we sneak in if we don't find anyone, right?" Marlene asked.

"Right." 

They turned to watch the entrance to the Great Hall, waiting to spot an older student. A couple Slytherins entered, but they were all first years. They asked a Hufflepuff, presumably in sixth year, but she was unable to help them. So were all the others that passed through next. Finally, a Gryffindor girl who looked only a little older than they did came skipping into the Great Hall, a book tucked under her arm.

"Excuse me?" Lily asked. "Do you have permission to go into the restricted section?"

"Um..." the girl, who had short brown hair, gave Lily a confused glance. "No. Why?"

"We, er, want a book from there!" Marlene said. Dorcas nodded vigorously in agreement.

The girl looked amused. "Well, sorry I can't help you. But I could get my friend Frank if you want. He got permission from Professor Sprout the other day." 

"Please?" Lily asked. Dorcas did puppy-dog eyes. 

"Sure." the girl laughed. "But you better not cause any mischief. You're all first years, right?"

"Yep." Lily stuck her hand out, smiling. "Thanks for helping us. I'm Lily."

"Alice." They shook. Alice shook hands with the others, then went to find her friend Frank. Lily, Marlene and Dorcas grinned at each other triumphantly. 

"This is Frank." Alice said when she came back, dragging a boy with dark brown hair along behind her. "Frank, can you give them your signed paper from Professor Sprout? Please?" 

"Uh, sure, I guess..." Frank peered at them suspiciously. "Why?"

"We need a book!" they chorused, probably too quickly.

"Okay..." Frank pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Lily. "Just tell me when you're going the library, yeah? I need a herbology book from the restricted section."

"Will do." Lily stuffed the paper in her pocket. "Thanks!"

"Welcome!" Alice grinned, and she and Frank headed to a spot at the table.

Lily, Marlene, and Dorcas sat back down as well.

"This is so weird." Lily murmured. "I mean, why give those notes to us? Why not freak out some other kids who actually might know what to do about this?"

"I don't know." Marlene said as she reached for toast. "But there's nothing we can do, is there? Oh well."

 ϟ ϟ ϟ 

Once Lily had finished breakfast, she headed to Charms. Their professor, Professor Flitwick, was short and had a very high-pitched voice, but he was nice enough. Besides, he announced that they'd start working on a levitation charm, which Lily found very exciting.

"Now, the charm is--" Professor Flitwick began, but was interrupted by a paper airplane from the back of the class whizzing by his head. The class laughed. Lily frowned. What about the charm?

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat. "Whoever that was--behave yourself. Now, the spell we will be using is Wingardium Leviosa. You will have to pick up your wand, swish it, and flick it. Come, do it with me." he held up his wand. "Swish, and--" he stopped. "Mr. Potter, put your parchment away. I don't want you throwing stuff through the classroom. That goes for you too, Mr. Black!"

Lily turned around in her seat, annoyed, just in time to see Sirius make and offended face and point at Remus, who punched him in the arm. She rolled her eyes and turned back around. 

"Now, class, swish, and flick." Professor Flitwick demonstrated. 

"Swish and flick." echoed the class, moving their wands accordingly. There was a loud noise and the whole class turned to see that the feather lying in front of Peter Pettigrew had exploded into a bright yellow flame. Peter yelped and jumped up, grabbing his book and trying to stamp out the fire with it. 

"Aguamenti!" cried Professor Flitwick, and the flames were doused by the jet of water that sprung from the tip of his wand. The class roared with laughter, and Peter sunk into his seat in shame. 

"Don't worry about it," James said as Sirius patted Peter on the head. "Have mine." he said, handing Peter his feather. "Professor? Could I get a new feather, please?" 

"Yes, of course," Professor Flitwick, who was starting to look rather stressed, gave James a new feather and then said, "Now, let's continue without further accidents, I hope."