Lily Evans

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

*Harry's POV:*

     I kept on trying to talk to Lily for the rest of the day but in all of our classes she seemed to purposefully choose a seat on the other side of the room, and then during break and lunch Hermione told me that the reason she wasn't with us was because she was in the library starting the extra work our professors had asked her to do over the holidays to catch up, but I was pretty sure Hermione was lying because when I asked if we should go help her she went very pink and began stuttering some sort of excuse about 'wanting to concentrate'. I spent most of lunch time trying to get Hermione to tell me what was really going on, but every time I brought it up she pretended to be extremely interested in her Potions book.

     When it got to the end of our last lesson, and Hermione came hurrying over to me, blocking my path to the door, and asked me to help her clean up a bottle of newt eyes she'd spilled, at the exact moment the bell went and Lily practically ran out of the room, I finally decided something was definitely wrong. "Sorry, Hermione, I, uhh... need the loo," I muttered and then slipped past her. I saw Lilly a bit ahead of me on the stairs out of the dungeons. "Hey! Lily! Wait a second!" I called after her, jogging quickly with my bag painfully crashing against my side. "Oh, hi Harry." She was leaning against the side of the wall, her arms crossed in front of her in what was probably supposed to look relaxed, but instead looked defensive. She smiled slightly but it didn't meet her eyes.

     "I just wondered if you were okay, I haven't been able to talk to you at all since breakfast." Lily's arms tightened around herself before she answered, "of course I'm okay, I've just been busy, like right now, I have to go to the library... " More people started filing past us from the stairs, but I ignored them. "I know something's up with you, I'm not stupid." I said, using the exact words she had said to me just that morning. "Well you obviously are stupid if you can't work out what's 'up' with me!" She fired back in a stronger voice than before. "But-"

     "Just leave me alone Harry." She shoved past me and then ran through the Entrance Hall, up the stairs and out of site, leaving me feeling both confused and panicked.

     I stood there silently for a few moments, still staring at the stairs she'd ran up, but then Ron and Hermione arrived. Hermione gave me a sceptical look but didn't say anything, instead it was Ron who did. "Where's Lily, and I thought you were going to the toilet, Harry?"

     "What? Oh... right, yeah, um I was just going there now, see you at dinner." Though of course I didn't go to the toilet, instead I quickly dropped of my bag in the common room and then went to Library to see if I could find Lilly. I was only in there for a minute when Madam Pince spotted me; she shuffled towards me like a strangely tall ant, "why aren't you at dinner?" she shrieked in my face. "I was, uhh, looking for someone..."

     "Out you go! There's no one in here, out, out!" I didn't need telling twice, I thought to myself and then ran out of the library and down to the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione were waiting for me on the Gryffindor table, I sat down between them and pulled a tray of sausages towards me. "You've been a while." Ron managed to say through a very full mouth of sausages and Yorkshire pudding. "Yeah, I guess, but have you seen-"

     "Lily's over there." Hermione cut me off. She indicated with her fork in the direction of Seamus and Dean, the two boys were indeed sitting - unnecessarily closely in my opinion - around Lily, and all three of them appeared to be in deep conversation. I saw Dean put an arm around her and anger boiled inside of me. "What's she doing with them?" I said, unable to keep the spite out of my voice, but neither Hermione or Ron answered me.

     A few minutes later Luna came hurrying over to where Lily was sitting and gave her a note. I watched as Lily's eyes scanned the paper quickly, she gulped and then turned her head towards me. When she saw that I was looking at her too, she gulped again and then turned back to Dean and Seamus. I was too busy trying to listen to their conversation to notice that Luna had now approached me too. "Hi, Harry! Dumbledore's asked me to give you this." She said and then handed me a piece of paper similar to Lily's.