Lily Evans

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

       I watched Hermione clamber quietly through the door to Grimmauld Place, closely followed by Ginny, Fred, George and Ron, from where I sat, hidden beside the staircase on the floor above. Unfortunately, Fred didn't seem to have received his morning glass of common sense, and did some sort of running leap into the hall, which knocked over to coat stand and sent Mrs Black's portrait screaming again. Sirius rushed past towards the portrait and starting yelling back at it, whilst trying to close the drapes in a very forceful manner.

       "What exactly were you aiming to achieve in that this time, Fred?" asked Hermione, sounding excessively bored. Something told me he, or more realistically both of them, had been acting like this the whole way here. "I was testing to see how far I could jump." He shrugged, but then saw the expression on Hermione's face and hastily went to pick up the coat stand.

       "Can you not act sensibly for once? Lilly's brother is in hospital!" I only just heard Ginny mutter from the corner of the hall. "Speaking of, where's Lily?" Ron looked around the room, as though expecting me to suddenly jump out from behind the coat stand or something. I made no action to reveal myself, but instead stayed sitting in the shadows of the banister, comfortably out of sight. The group downstairs then decided to go into the kitchen (the smell of the sausages Molly was cooking was clearly sniffable from even where I was.)

       Harry walked up to me at the same as they were walking into the kitchen, and I didn't hear his footsteps, so when he touched my shoulder I had one of those mini heart attacks. "Why are you hiding?" Harry had sat down next to me, sharing the shadow. "I'm not hidi-"

       "Well then, why are you sitting, in a very hidden spot?" Okay, so maybe I am hiding, but I'm easily findable - as Harry proved. "Come on, they'll want to see you." But I didn't budge. Harry looked hard at my face, sighed and then pushed himself up and went down the stairs alone. The echoing cries of "Harry!" pounded my ears. I could hear chairs scrapping, being pushed backwards, and several feet pattering against the floor. One indistinguishable voice said, rather quietly, "where's Lily?", so I decided to leave my spot and go to the bathroom, not wanting to hear the reply.

       Once in the bathroom I decided to run a bath, even though it was the middle of the day and I'd already showered this morning (well I say showered, but, as expected, it was something quite far from it, this being a wizard's house after all.) I plunged my head under the surface and felt the waves thrashing above me. I had no idea why I was acting like this. Why I didn't want to see my friends. Why I'd simply lain in bed for an hour doing absolutely nothing this morning after I woke up, and why I'd spent the day so far in mainly silence. I'd been sitting in that spot above the stairs for probably an hour before they arrived. I hadn't seen Harry all day until just then, and I had supposed he was in his room the entire time, or doing something with Sirius. Possibly sending an urgent owl to Hermione and Ron about how much my life just got hit by a hammer.

       Though Dumbledore had kept his word, and yesterday evening I, along with Harry, had been escorted to St Mungo's to see Sammy. He hadn't said much, other than he liked the healer guy. And then I, along with Harry, had been escorted back to headquarters without feeling any better about anything. Afterwards, I had skipped dinner and went straight to bed.

       I sat in the bath for a bit, thinking miserably about life and how different reality, fantasy and nightmare are, and how I had no idea which was which now. Eventually, someone knocked on the door, and that someone turned out to be Hermione. "Lily? Are you in there?" I took a deep breathe and tried to sound as casual as humanly possible when I spoke. "Yeah, did you just arrive?" I could hear Hermione shuffling closer to the door, "Yes, we all came by the Knight Bus. And, Lily, are you... okay?" She shuffled closer. I'm guessing Harry's said something to them then. I heaved myself out of the bath and wrapped a towel around me, and then opened to door. Hermione was standing, practically leaning, on the door, and so stumbled back a bit when I opened it. "I'm fine, why?" Her eyes widened a fraction and she ran a hand through her bushy hair. "Well, you know, what happened to Sammy is terrible, and I wasn't sure on how things were with you and Harry now, is he talking to you again?" I frowned ever so slightly, so Harry hadn't told them. Hmm.

       "Can we possibly talk in a minute, I just need to get dressed." Hermione looked a bit surprised for a moment but then shuffled away down the corridor. I went back into the bathroom and dried myself, and then threw my clothes back on. I found Hermione sitting at the desk reading in our room, and Ginny was perched on the end of the bed. "Lily!" She yelped and then hurried towards me and gave me big hug, he flaming-red hair blowing into my face. "Hi... sorry about my bad timing for a bath by the way." She shook her head and smiled at me. I gave the smallest flicker of a smile in return. "We haven't been to Mungo's yet, how's Sammy?" Hermione had put her book down and came over to join us on Ginny's bed. "He's doing okay. The wounds aren't that bad, and the Healer says he should be allowed to leave in at least a week, they're optimistic."

       "And the Harry situation?" Hermione asked. I saw frown momentarily cross Ginny's face, but she quickly covered it up. "I think he's gotten over it, he said he wants to be friends again." It seemed like everything had gone back to normal between us, it was nice knowing that neither of us were blanking the other. "What exactly..." Began Ginny, who I could tell was trying to sound casual but was coming off kind of intrigued and confused.

       "He just got upset with me about something, not a big deal really..." Ginny stared between Hermione and I, we were both trying very hard not to look at each other. "Fine, don't tell me. I going to go help Mum." She snapped and then strode out of the room, and slammed the door. I sat silently for a few moments, listening to the footsteps fading on the stairs, and then turned to Hermione. "Harry told me something's happened, what is it? Does Dumbledore know?" It was apparent that she'd been desperate to talk to me about this for ages, I guess Harry'd refused to say any more.

       "It was actually Dumbledore who told me..." And so I repeated everything I'd said to Harry, and was deeply grateful that Hermione managed to hide all signs of fear and worry until the end.

       "I wonder if Dumbledore will start having private lessons with you too, to help you defend yourself." Hermione had told me the day after the meeting that Dumbledore was going to start having private lessons with Harry. "I doubt it, the stuff Dumbledore's going to teach him are things I already know."

       "Then he might ask you to help Harry. I still can't believe this... But as along as Dumbledore's here, you'll be safe." Hermione's hand unconsciously flew to her bushy mane of hair and tangled itself in it ever so slightly. I could feel myself wanting to do the same (with my hair, not hers, that would be weird, though her hair is surprisingly soft.) "Dumbledore can't protect me all the time. Harry's much, much more important, and Dumbledore can't even stay by his side 24/7. But I can take care of myself, and Sammy, somehow." We didn't' really say anything after that. Molly called us for lunch, I said the usual 'hello' to those who'd arrived this morning and had not yet seen me, and then lunch ended and I was asked to help finish set up the rooms for the others. I fluffed pillows, tucked in sheets, dusted shelves and sprayed a couple of doxys. I looked over at Molly, who was turned away from me, calmly wiping a table, and then snuck the doxys into a cloth and left (I wasn't just flouncing off, I'd finished). On my way back to my room I made a detour to Fred and George's.

       "Lily! To what do I owe this pleasure?" Fred grinned down at me with his hazelly eyes. He was actually rather good looking, I'd never thought about it before. "I was wondering if you were still experimenting with doxy venom?" Fred raised his eyebrows and gave me a very suspicious look. I just smiled in return. "We were, but then we lost the doxies in a raid. Pretty gutting, those skiving snack-boxes could have been a real money-spinner."

       "Well then you are going to love me. You can have them for free." I tossed the bundle of doxies into his arms and, for a fraction of a second, I thought I saw the tiniest blush on his face. His hands fumbled over the cloth and then opened it. "Whoa, there're loads, thanks! ... But you got here after we cleaned out the doxies, how'd you know-"

       "Just enjoy the venomous creatures. See you at dinner." I gave him a small wave and then walked back along the corridor, hearing the door close a few moments later.

*******Really sorry about the slowness, my hotel didn't have WI-FI (such inhumanity)!********