Lily Potter And The Secret Bewitchment

Chapter Thirty-Three - Explanations

All Lily felt was the acute physical pain in her sides and stomach. Her eyelids were heavy with the exhaustion of it, and her brain ached for its relief.

"Lily's hand just twitched!" Someone was saying. Her hand twitched? She had not noticed it.

"Is she awake? Is she awake?" An eager voice was saying. Lily so wished for the voice to be quiet, to let her sleep.

"They said she wouldn't wake yet, Hugo," a sceptical female voice replied. Hugo. He was here, as was someone else. Lily knew the sound of these voices, and so flickered her eyelids open to see who was with her.

"No, look!" Lily opened her eyes and saw many smiling faces. Al was there on her left, James too. Rosie seemed to be the one who had spoken to Hugo, as the pair of them were stood on the right. Oli and George were both sat on the end of the bed that Lily was lying on. Deryn was also present, hiding slightly behind George and Oli. Lily realised she must be in the Hospital Wing. The memories of what had happened came rushing back, making her feel lucky to be alive.

"Hey Lils," Hugo smiled at her. "Feel better?" Lily nodded.

"What day is it?" Lily asked weakly.

"You've been asleep for three," Al said. "We left here on Monday morning, and it's Thursday now. Just after lunch.

"You actually gave me quite a fright there, little sis," James smiled. Lily felt her sides twinge as she pushed herself upwards, and she knew she had winced.

"You alright?" Oli asked quietly. Lily nodded grimly. Everyone was here. Except...

"Hugo, where's Jayla?" Rosie and Hugo parted, and there, smiling widely, was Lily's best friend.

"Nice of you to join us, Lils!" Jayla said, smiling

"If you five hadn't got there when you did," Hugo said, "She wouldn't have made it." Jayla beamed at Lily and Lily beamed back. Everyone began to tell their own version of the story, and Lily caught little more than a few words of each.

"Guys," Lily said, cutting across the hubbub. "Start from the beginning. The whole story."

"Are you sure you want to hear it?" Al looked doubtful, but Lily nodded.

"I need to know."

***

"Well; it all starts with your birthday really," Rosie began.

"The lady who we believed was Nurse Alice was the one who caused Jayla's pain. It wasn't a Muggle condition; wizards can't get muggle heart conditions," Oli said, "She must have realised that we were detached from the other group and taken her chance. Then she sneaked back to the hospital wing and fooled us all."

"Why, though?" Lily was confused.

"Two reasons, according to Longbottom," James chipped in, "Firstly, to scare us. And secondly, because they wanted to kill Jayla at the end of the year, and a Muggle condition would be the plausible excuse."

"I have His blood in my veins. These people wanted to summon the old Death Eaters and resurrect the dark mark's power. That would be impossible to do without me feeling it, so they had to get rid of me. It was all Rita Skeeter's fault," Jayla said bitterly.

"She published that article as a secret call-to-arms, it was the signal that the Death Eaters had been waiting for to assemble," George said.

"But Rita Skeeter isn't a Death Eater?" Lily wondered aloud.

"You're right, Lily," Jayla said.

"Nothing this year has been real, except the learning," Al added, laughing hollowly. "Because the latest report from Azkaban says so. There were doubts about the only prisoner in the non-dangerous crimes section of Azkaban, Rita Skeeter. Anyway, someone broke into Rita's house last night on behalf of the ministry. You know how she was, never friendly. Anyway, they discovered a horrifically decayed body. Rita Skeeter's dead." Lily was shocked at this news, but she supposed it did make sense. Rita, she knew from her parents' stories, would never write bad things again for fear of exposure. She looked around for further explanations.