Love Last Fall

part 4

The night terrors had grown worse over every night that Lily had dared to close her eyes and hope for sleep. Sleep paralysis would embrace her with cold arms and a menacing gaze, greeting her in the form of a little ghost boy that sat at the bottom of her bed.

"Why did you leave me, mama? You promised me you loved me." The words he said slipped into her veins and twisted them, making pangs of heartache dawn on Lily for the little boy who looked so much James.

She woke up with sweat gliding down her body and sore limbs as though she'd ran a marathon. And then she'd cry. Cry so much for the emotional connection she had to the child who came to her every night, asking her the same question over, and over again.

Why did you leave me mama?

Those words circled in her head until the lines of broken promises was blurred by the waterfall that fell from her eyes.

Was she going crazy?

Standing up from the bed reluctantly, she went to the bathroom to wash her face and with the very little energy she had, brush her teeth.

The reflection in the mirror stared back at her through a pair of soulless eyes and a face paler than the incandescent moon. Lily was losing herself ever so slowly, that it was more painful to accept that her innocence was over than look at the wreck of sadness she had become.

Who was this boy and why did he accompany her every night? Surely it was something of an omen, thought Lily. Nothing this strange happens for merely fatuous manners. Or maybe she was going nuts.

"I'm loony," She whispered to herself, chuckling lightly at the not so funny situation.

"Lily?" A raspy morning voice which belonged to Marlene yawned behind her. The blonde haired, eccentric beauty stood at the doorframe, rubbing her eyes as she had evidently just woken up.

"Good morning, how did you sleep?" Asked Lily smiling kindly at her beautiful friend.

"Not too bad, I guess. Had a weird dream about waffles but that's probably because I'm hungry. What's on your mind Lils? Heard something about you being loony," She yawned, laughing.

"It's probably nothing. Just my weird dreams as usual. You were sleeping so peacefully though, I was tempted to aguamenti you awake."

"Hey!" Marlene gave her a fake offended expression. "I need my beauty sleep, Evans."

Lily grabbed her hair brush, brushing through her tangled night hair and platting it into two French braids with a silk green ribbon to match her eye colour. She needed something pretty, something that hid the state she was in.

"Wanna go for breakfast, Marls?" She shouted across to Marlene, who had by now escorted herself from the bathroom and was lounging around the common room, reading a muggle magazine with a vinyl playing loudly in the background.

Lily walked out gasping at the loudness of the music. "Marlene, you're going to wake up the whole of the Gryffindor tower for Merlin's sake!"

"Queen can never be played too loud, Evans." She smirked, turning the page of the magazine.

The painting door swung open and Sirius came running into the room, resembling a dog with how he excitedly carried himself; you could almost see his tail wagging.

"Heard Queen playing. Marlene, turn it up, it's getting to my favourite verse!"

They laughed cheerfully at his antics and how the next second he was terribly belting out 'Bohemian Rhapsody' swishing his hair around and dramatically falling to his knees mid performance.

Lily sighed at the wholesome scene that without a doubt brightened her morning. Turning the volume down a notch, she grabbed her bag and left for breakfast before lessons would begin.

After a breakfast which consisted of James feeding her grapes and joking around until their faces were etched with permanent smiles, she headed for her first lesson of the day, divination.

She was upset that it had not been potions she started her day with, however remembered the snake like boy who she was unluckily partnered up with. Snape. The boy who called her a mudblood and then got down on his knees and tried to trip her up with his guilt tripping, seething words.

Lily reached the classroom, an uneasy feeling drifted into her being as she sat down at her desk, taking out her quill and parchment to take whatever notes she needed to take.

Something was off, as it always seemed to be these days.

A human form of sunshine sat down besides her, Dorcas Meadowes, the gorgeous brown skinned girl always seemed to brighten the mood whenever she entered any room, and Lily's heart beat a little slower when she arrived as she found comfort in someone so angelic in a sea of tears and tragedy.

"Hello class!" If there was someone more eccentric than Marlene, it was definitely their divination Professor, with her large nose and colourful robes she wore, she looked more loony than Lily felt.

"Today we will be looking through crystal balls," She paused, waving her hands around. "This is a very pristine topic and I am sure you all know not everyone shall we able to master it. However, I believe all of you have the ability. Now go, sweet children! The orbs are over there!"

It seemed childish, looking at your own reflection and the professor standing behind you, asking: "What do you see?" Every chance she got.

"I am seeing something!" Making Lily jump out of her seat, the professor  came running towards her crystal ball, pointing her crooked finger at it in an expression of terror. "Lily- James? Oh god my poor babies the future you have got is doomed! Doomed I tell you!" She cried, grabbing her head in her hands and sobbing uncontrollably.

Lily's heart drummed in her chest as she stared at the hysteric professor rocking back and forwards, snot rushing down her nose.

"What do you see?" Was all Lily could ask as she stood there, motionless. Unable to process what she had just told her, as if punching her right in the face.

"Death! You will die without making it to 22 Lily dear! And so will James! A dark wizard is behind this..." She couldn't carry on talking as her tears fell, creating a flood.

The whole class had come to watch this and they gasped, including Lily at what their professor had just uttered. Everybody knew that divination was a fraud, untruthful subject, that's what everyone said. Except that Lily soaked up her words and breathed them in, intoxicating her with a hopeless and ragged cut that binded the plans of her future.

She wasn't going to make it past 22.

Lily's eyes watered, she wiped the single tear that fell as she built walls around her heart.

"And your baby," the professor muttered breathing harshly. "Your baby, he will be all alone when you go up to the afterlife," Her words were simple, spoken directly, pointing cruel  fingers at Lily as she processed the information that had just been dumped onto her. A baby? Her baby?

This couldn't be the truth. This wouldn't happen. It wouldn't. The teacher is a swine and a liar. That's surely what she is. Right?

Right?

RIGHT?

She burst out of the classroom, pushing past the lunatic woman and slamming the door behind her. She had to find James, had to. Whether this was real or fake news she had to find him and share whatever was on her mind.

That's when she remembered the ghost boy that sat with her every night, whispering things so mundane that she could not even think about sleep. His messy brown hair, circle glasses and opulent forest green eyes.

She fell to the ground, darkness enveloping her as someone had hit her around the head, knocking her down into the welcoming arms of  unconsciousness.