Frozen Lily

Chapter 11 - Dreamy Reality

"Finally found my wand, it was stuck behind a cushion." Will grinned, spinning it around in his hands. We'd caught up with him and one of his friends - who I didn't know - the next day after breakfast.

"What wood is it?" Chloe asked politely.
She was leaving the day after tomorrow - the Quidditch match - and was sort of happy about seeing her brother and jealous of us all staying. So she showed it by being eerily quiet and overly polite.

I had borrowed Mia's owl and asked my mum if I could stay, and like I'd expected she had no problem with it, which was good. My mum's a bit strict but fair, and she's always reminiscing about her days at Hogwarts. My dad's more laid back and when he's not working on a new Potion he'd help with my homework or we'd get free passes to a Quidditch match; one of his Apprentice Potioneers was a professional Quidditch player in his spare time.

"Beech and Dragon Heartstring, 14 inches." He pointed it at nothing in particular and flicked his wrist. Mia looked surprised.
"Mine's Beech and Dragon Heartstring too! But mine's only 12 and 3/4 inches." Mia pulled out her wand hastily and held it up next to Will's.
"Cool!" Will hummed.

I looked back down at my parchment and carried on doodling in the corner. It had started out as the parchment for my transfiguration homework (a three foot essay on the uses of human transfiguration. Three feet!), which I'd started, but eventually I hit a mental block and I was now colouring in a hippogriff in the corner, with the initials A.L. on its wings.

"Um, Lily?" I looked up, putting the parchment into my bag discreetly. "Did you ever find out who froze you?" He asked.
I shook my head.
"Nope. But there haven't been any 'freezes' since Halloween, have there?"
Will looked uneasy. "Professor Hubble said that a Slytherin got attacked - yesterday, just after we were hanging out in here."

"But it's not like they're getting hurt, is it? Just frozen." One of Will's friends suddenly spoke up.
Will made a face.
"Apparently they were half frozen... Like whoever did it suddenly couldn't..."
"Still, no pain?" His friend carried on.

"Well..." Everyone turned to me, sitting on the end of the desk at the back.
"It sort of does hurt. Imagine you're being filled with ice." Everyone looked at me blankly.
"Like... Have any of you licked a frozen lamppost? Like a sort of stuck, stabbing cold pain. But I guess it wasn't as bad for me, the Slytherin who got half frozen... It's gotta be worse for them, being half normal and half ice." I finished. Will's friend was quiet. It was the first time I had talked about what it had felt like. I looked around at everyone and they were all looking like someone had died or something. It was awkward. I opened my mouth to speak when someone turned the door handle suddenly. Out of instinct, Will hid behind the desk, pulling his friend down too. I hoped it wasn't Professor Birchwell. She's already told us off once, and even though I don't really care, she always hands out detentions when she feels like it and I wouldn't put it past her to give us one on Christmas Eve.
The door handle turned with a creak and me, Mia, Chloe and Jess all let out a collective sigh of relief. Professor Hubble stood in the door, her plump figure swathed in an ivy green cloak. She looked at each of us with an odd motherly gaze from under the rim of her pointed green witches hat.
"Have any of you seen a Slytherin boy here? Around 5'9", green eyes, brown hair?" When we all shook our heads she tucked her wand away and sighed. "What am I thinking... Will Thornton, he's in your year...?" She added. When we shook our heads again she gave up.
"Oh, well tell me if you see him." She huffed.
As she turned to close the door again Mia suddenly stepped up.
"Does it have something to do with the 'freezings'?" She suddenly blurted out. Internally I wanted to roll my eyes at her; not everything is a conspiracy. But I made no move, listening intently. Professor Hubble froze for a split second, one foot outside the classroom.