Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 2: A Bittersweet Reunion

Chapter 2: A Bittersweet Reunion 

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Lily Evans flopped backwards onto her four-poster bed with a sigh. She was completely exhausted after the long train ride, the Welcome Feast, and her prefect duties and thoroughly troubled by the amount of students who were missing from Hogwarts' numbers. As a Muggle born, it was easy for Lily to avoid the harsher realities of the wizarding world; during holidays she went home to Surrey where people had never even heard of wizards, much less any evil ones; her family was unaffected by Voldemort's reign of terror. Even when she was part of the magical community, she was within the relative safety of Hogwarts' walls; people said that where Dumbledore was would be the only safe place in the wizarding world because Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared.

Dumbledore. Yet another concern to add to a growing list. Lily could never recall Dumbledore looking as old as he had that evening at the feast. And that chilled Lily to the bone. Who could get wizardkind through this horrible situation if Dumbledore wasn't there to?

Lily's thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of three of her roommates, Morwenna Marchbanks, Dorcas Meadows, and Alice Prewett, looking as grim as Lily felt. The three girls had been in the Gryffindor common room catching up on any gossip they had missed at the feast, and by the expressions on their faces, Lily gathered that it had not been the trifling sort that usually spread through schools.

"Bad news?" Lily inquired apprehensively, sitting up. Morwenna sighed and made her way to her bed opposite Lily's before answering.

"Well, it's never good news anymore, is it? Frank Longbottom was telling us that there are two more missing from our year, from Ravenclaw. Dorothy Doge, she and her family went into hiding, people think, and Ronan Digby, no one knows what happened to him."

"Two more from Ravenclaw, that makes eight all together," Lily mused, ticking them off on her fingers. "Eleven Hufflepuffs, and of course the six Gryffindors, and we don't really know about the first years."

"Notice Slytherin doesn't seem to have too many missing from its numbers," Dorcas commented dryly from her seat on the bed next to Lily's. "I bet Bellatrix Black or Erebus Avery could tell us something about Ronan Digby or any of the others."

The girls fell silent for a few minutes, all lost in their own trains of thought.

"Er. would it be terrible of me to change the subject?" Alice finally asked in a timid voice.

"I could definitely do with a lighter topic," Lily said, smiling at Alice.

"You know Lils, Frank Longbottom told us a few other things as well," Morwenna said coyly. "About a certain party we all know."

Eager for some lighter gossip, Lily leaned forward. "And who might that be?" she asked, amused.

"Why, James Potter of course," replied Morwenna innocently, ignoring Lily's grimace of repugnance. "Rumour has it that he's still professing his love for you."

"Not that git! Why do the dreadful ones always fancy me? None of the fellows I would choose to date over an early death ever step up," Lily said in tones of deep disgust.

"You have had some rotten luck, Lils," Alice chuckled. "Remember in second year when." she trailed off as Lily shot her a filthy look.

"Oh come off it Lily!" Morwenna exclaimed. "He may be a bit of a prat and a definite show off, but you'd rather face an early death than go on one date with him? How can you hate someone so much that you don't even really know?"