Lily in the Shadows

Chapter 20 (Edited)

Days turn into weeks and Kathryn recovers from her strange sickness. As she leaves the infirmary she reminisces over her time spent there. The long nights her friends would visit, occasionally allowed to stay with her. Working on her homework with Draco, he knows the answers to each of her questions. Her favorite professor checked in on her every day, giving her a rundown of his lessons and making example potions so that she will not be behind. Her brother came in for a moment but quickly left when he realized she was awake and well.

Arriving in the common room she is welcomed by her fellow housemates. Noticing her little friend group she goes to sit with them when Pansy leaps from her armchair practically tackling her to the ground.

"Oh my gosh I am so glad you are back, I've been stuck with stupid boys all week." Pansy groans, dragging Lily-Kathryn up to the dorms. They ignore the boys' shouts of protest. "You poor thing, stuck in that stupid room with all of those petrified people. You must've been so scared." Without waiting for a response Pansy drags Lily-Kathryn into the second-year bathrooms. Throwing a towel at her she gets ready to leave the room, "Go ahead and get a shower, wash off all of that sick feeling. I'm going to grab you some clothes, don't even worry about it. I'll be right back." Pansy leaves the room and Lily-Kathryn gets into the shower. Once finished she exits to see a pile of clothes set out for her.

Getting dressed in her blue nightgown and short pair she leaves the bathroom to see Pansy ready for a full gossip session. They chat for hours before going back down to the common room. Sitting between Draco and Theo on the couch she listens to them talk for a while before getting bored. "Can we do something?" She asks Theo, not wanting to interrupt the others' conversation. "Yeah," He says. "I was getting bored anyway. What do you want to do?" Lily shrugs, at a loss. "Hmm, how about painting," Theo suggests.

At Lily's confirmation, Theo gets up and runs to his dorm to get his painting supplies. He comes down with a large wooden crate filled with paints and sponges, cups, and pallets. He signals for her to follow and begins to leave the common room.

"Where do you think you're going?" Draco asks, standing from the couch.

"We're going to go paint, why?" He is confused as to why Draco cares.

"Painting? That's alright then," He nods. "I was just making sure you weren't going to be doing something too trying. Kathy is still healing. Can I paint too?"

Theo chuckles and tells him to go change, Draco runs off to their dorm. The rest of their group plus some of the older kids want to paint too. They all walk into the halls and Theo leads them deeper into the dungeons.

Reaching a dark corner that is semi-clean Theo and the rest set down their painting supplies. "Here we are, let's get started." He says, putting his hands on his hips.

"Where are we painting?" Lily asks, looking around the area in confusion.

"Here," Theo says, chuckling at her expression. "We're going to paint on the walls." He busts out laughing at her shocked expression. "Come on, let me be a bad influence."

"But what if we get in trouble?" Lily-Kathryn bites at one of her nails, looking around the hallway.

"No, one ever comes this far down into the dungeons, we'll be fine," Theo says with an air of authority. Draco walks over with some small buckets of paint.

"What colors?" He asks, holding out three or four buckets. Looking closely Lily reaches out and grabs a green and a black. Draco nods and walks away to start his painting.

Turning back to the wall she opens the green and looks around for a paintbrush. "Where are the paintbrushes?" She asks Theo.

He looks at her, hands covered in paint. "Oh, I don't have any brushes. Just paint with your hands." Her eyes widened. "You've never painted with your hands have you?" She shakes her head. "It's really fun, give it a go."