Not the Lily You Know

Easter Holiday Break: Scouting

"How're we gonna wake him up?" Marlene's muffed voice questioned.

"I'm awake." I mumbled, pulling the sheets over my head.

"Oh, then let's go." Alice said.

"I'm too tired and it's too early." I groaned.

"Do you want to help us get Lily or not?" Isabelle snapped.

"Calm down Isabelle, and are you getting up or not?" Marlene said impatiently.

"Do I have to?"

"No, but you do if you want to potentially find Lily." Alice cut in.

"Where's everyone else?" I peeled the sheets off my head and grabbed my glasses, putting them on my face slowly so I wouldn't stab myself in the eye.

"We sent Henry to wake Pete up and told them to meet us in the kitchens. So get up." Isabelle scowled.

"Alright, alright, I'm getting up." I sighed as I slowly got up.

"Good, we'll meet you in the kitchens in ten minutes, and if you're not down there then we're leaving without you." Alice said seriously as they left.

"Fine." I yawned as Isabelle slammed the door behind her.

I changed as fast as I could and walked quickly towards the kitchens to meet Isabelle, Marlene, Alice, Peter and Henry.

"Morning James, nice of you to join us." Henry said politely as I walked in.

"Morning Henry." I greeted tiredly, walking over to the closest table and taking a slice of toast off of the table.

"Eat fast James, we're leaving soon." Alice nodded.

I nodded mutely and proceeded to finish my toast and about a pound of a few other foods.

"Ready? You'll need a lot of energy." Marlene asked.

"Yeah." I sighed.

"We'll get her back James, and if we don't find her today, we can keep searching until we do."

"But what if we don't?" I asked.

"You've got to have faith in others and in yourself, James, it's a Lily Lesson." Alice grinned.

"I'm just being realistic."

"And I'm saying have a little hope."

"Fine, let's go." I sighed, getting up and rubbing my eyes to try and get the tiredness away.

"Alright, we're scouting out the city today, then, if we have time, we'll be getting a little bit of Germany in as well." Isabelle said, we nodded in agreement as we all began to walk out of the kitchens.

"That's good thinking, checking out other countries." I commented.

"Yeah, we checked out a bit of country France yesterday as well as the English countryside." Peter said.

"Have you checked out Scotland, Wales or Ireland?"

"Not yet." Peter shook his head and I sighed.

"It'll be alright James, we'll get her back, one way or another." Peter nodded.

"It's like Alice said isn't it? You've got to be optimistic and believe we can, not say we can't and be done with it."

"That was... very insightful Pete." I said, a little surprised.

"I have my moments." he shrugged before walking ahead with the others.

I lagged behind the whole time, up until we reached the gates and I was told to hurry up or I'd be left behind.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming." I grumbled as I ran up to where everyone else was standing, waiting for me.

"We're apperating to The Leaky Cauldron." Isabelle said shortly before she disapperated.

"James, I'm saying this as best as I can phrase it but, get your head out of your thoughts and into what we're doing, because if you get captured there's an extremely high chance of you being tortured and killed." Alice said.

"I know."

"Then start paying attention." Alice narrowed her eyes before she disapperated with Marlene, Henry and Peter.

'She's right. If I get captured then I'm only making things worse.' I thought before I too disapperated.

"Alright, we'll just have to change our appearances since we're in the city right? Then shall we split up or stay together or go in groups?" Marlene asked.

"Groups." we answered unanimously.

"Brilliant, Henry you go with Alice again, I'll go with James, and Isabelle you go with Pete." Marlene nodded as Isabelle and Alice started to change everyone's appearances.

Once that was done we were assigned areas, Marlene and I were around Kings Cross so I vaguely knew what was there.

"Alright, so we're looking for anything, and I mean anything, that could lead to either finding a Death Eater or stronghold, even if it's just a dumpster out of place, we check it out, got it?" Marlene asked.

"Yep."

"Head out of the clouds." Marlene narrowed her eyes.

"Alright, alright."

"Don't do that."

"What?"

"Don't say 'Alright, alright' like you have better things to be doing than finding Lily." she snapped.

"Al- okay, Marlene."

"Better, now, let's go." she instructed, beginning to walk down the street.

"Nothing, nothing! Not a bloody thing!" Marlene and I groaned, crashing into chairs in the Leaky Cauldron around seven hours later.

"I can't believe we found nothing." I blew my fringe off of my glasses before resting my forehead on the table.

"We're only teenagers, it's not like we'd actually find her second search." Marlene reasoned.

"I guess." I sighed.

"Don't give up hope, the Ministry hasn't even sent out Aurors yet." Marlene pointed out just before a waitress came up.

"Anything?"

"Coffee." Marlene and I answered similtaneously.

"I'll be right back." the waitress smiled kindly before hurrying off.

"When'll the others be here?" I grumbled against the wood.

"Any minute now." Marlene answered tiredly.

"Anything?" we asked about ten minutes later as Henry and Alice sat down at our table.

"No." they sighed, though Henry sounded half asleep.

"We got coffee." Marlene cheered helf-heartedly, pointing to the large thing of it.

"Yay." Alice cheered sarcastically, Henry didn't make a sound and almost as soon as he sat down, he fell asleep on the table.

"We'll let him sleep a few hours before we go again." Marlene sighed as she sipped her coffee.

"Not even Death Eaters?" I asked.

"No, sorry James." Alice winced.

"S'alright, Marlene already said it would take more than two attempts to find something." I shrugged.

"That's right, who knows how long it'll take, weeks, months, years..." Alice trailed off darkly, taking a sip of the coffee she just poured herself.

"Don't think like that, years is a bit exaggerated." Marlene scowled.

"Maybe, maybe not." Alice shrugged, taking another sip.

"If we don't have faith, if we don't believe, we may as well give up..."