Lily Potter And The Hidden Room

Part Six - Mandrake

By the following Saturday, all of Hogwarts has learned of Lily's achievement. Some say she could be a more powerful witch than her father by the time she leaves school, though Lily highly doubts that. Harry has set Lily the task of holding mandrake leaves in her mouth for an entire month, suspending their training until this homework is complete. She has been granted special permission to chew in lessons - much to her teachers annoyance - so that she does not break her chain. So far, she has had multiple complaints from friends and classmates about her chewing disturbing their learning, but as it is a part of her safety it cannot be avoided. The last day she has to chew the leaves for is Christmas Day, which unalike previous years will be spent at 12 Grimmauld place as it is magically protected from other wizards.

Lily is sat in the gryffindor common room with Hugo, munching happily on her mandrake leaves. Him and her are playing a game of wizard chess, and Hugo is winning by miles.

"Knight to G6." Hugo orders with a smirk, his black piece sliding evilly towards Lily's King. It sweeps its sword viciously at her piece, before knocking it clean off the board. Lily groans, and places her head in her hands. Defeated, once again.

"You should try and beat the school's Wizard Chess Champion, Hugs." Lily sighs, packing away the chessboard. Hugo laughs and puts his players into his pocket.

"Not a chance - Albus would thrash me!" He exclaims, hands flaying wildly in the air. Lily agrees with his statement, and heads off upstairs to get ready for her first day of Quidditch training. James booked the pitch for the whole weekend so the team will have a good chance to get acquainted with the "new" player, as they have already begun training with a substitute chaser. Lily carries her Cleansweep and her quidditch robes with her out to the changing rooms, hastily changes and then hurries out to the field where the team is waiting.

"As you all know, our first match of the season didn't go to well, but over the next two days we will be fixing this mistake. The old captain, Victoire, wouldn't have stood for it, and neither will I. We will not have the other house and ex-players laughing in our faces, okay?" James asks, and the team cheers in recognition.

"Get into your positions. Chasers, you will be practising scoring in teams of two with Hugo. Roxie and Fred will be practising their beating with Kye. I will be overseeing the practise."

Lily mounts her broom and hovers around the far goalposts, Link and Violet soon joining her.

"Where's Amanda?" Link asks, wringing his hands in anticipation.

"She's just changing, I'm sure she'll only be a minute. Look there she is now! No need to worry." Violet answers, placing her hand sympathetically on his arm. Lily looks at it, and though the gesture is supposed to be friendly she can't help but notice something else there. She scoffs under her breath, and Hugo joins the group. They split off into teams of two, Violet and Link and Amanda and Lily. James tosses them a Quaffle and their mini game sets off. 

Practise continues until the sky gets so dark that the players can barely see their own brooms and becomes too dangerous to play. They all head back inside and change out of their sweaty uniforms. Lily is the last to leave the changing rooms, stopping dead in her tracks when she catches a glimpse of red in the corner of her eye, and a chill creeps up her spine. A hollow laugh erupts from behind her, the door to the girl's locker room slamming shut in her face.

"Hello, Lily Potter." The woman cackles. Lily turns to face her, the ugly scars making the second year grimace in disgust.

"What do you want?" She demands, sounding calm despite the panic building in her chest.

"Just a nice little chat, from... friend to friend." Twyla emerges from behind her, the girl's once joyous face now shrouded with darkness. She pulls her black cloak tighter around her, and drifts over to one of the benches nearer to Lily.

"You see, Izabel and I have a bit of a dilemma." Twyla clucks, inspecting her fingernails for dirt. "Filthy little Aurors have come snooping around our humble home, in search of my mother and I thanks to you telling on us last year. So we've had to lock them away somewhere secret where they will keep their silly little mouths shut." She stands now, fury burning in her features. 

Lily reaches for the doorknob, and turns it franticly behind her back. The door won't budge.

"Tut tut, Lily. Is that really how your mummy taught you to treat old friends?" Twyla lectures, circling Lily like a shark. She places herself between her only means of escape, and motions for her to take a seat.

"Now. You can listen to our problems, and when we are done, you can die. Pity really, I liked using you as my little toy. It was fun watching you squirm when we gave you the cursed necklace. Your poor cousin was horrified, no doubt?" Lily nods shakily. So it was them; she feels a weight lift off her chest - of course Dominique wouldn't do something like that intentionally.

"Good. Where was I... oh yes. Aurors. Nasty little buggers if you ask me, always digging their noses into other people's business. Your father is the worst of them." She says snarkily, spitting on the floor by Lily's feet.

"My father is a great man." Lily hisses, standing up from the bench.

"I said, sit." Twyla uses her wand and forces Lily to sit down onto the bench. Though she tries to resist, her legs are not under her own body's control any more. She can feel the room growing colder around her, and goosebumps are starting to emerge onto her skin's surface. "For Merlin's sake, if you keep interfering we will be here all day. Your father is a pain in my behind, and once I've finished with you I'm going straight after him."

"Like hell you are. Expelliarmus!" Lily casts, whipping her wand out of her pocket and disarming Twyla.

"Why you little-"

"Reducto!" Izabel goes flying against a wall as her spell rebounds off of Lily's protego charm. Twyla snatches her wand off from the stone floor, and points it at Lily.

"Ava-" Lily cuts her off once again with the full body-binding curse, and watches as Twyla stiffens like a twig, and slams to the floor. The second year snaps her ex-friends wand, watching the magic fall out of it like a ball of light.

"No!" Izabel cries in horror, jumping to her feet. "Crucio!" She storms over to where Lily is writhing in pain, ignoring the screams leaving her mouth and driving her wand closer. Izabel watches in pleasure as Lily's eyes roll into the back of her head, and foam begins to appear around her mouth.

Suddenly, there is a crash as the door to the room is blown off. Izabel leans over her victim, and whispers, "You will die, Lily Potter. I am going to kill you." then vanishes into thin air as she did not long ago. Harry Potter, Hugo Weasely and a Gryffindor first year barge into the room to discover an unconscious Lily still twitching as an aftermath of the curse and a petrified Metamorphagus.