She knew she would never see her mother again, would never have a chance to, not unless she dug up her grave, which was morbid even for Lily. And now they would never be together again-and she hadn't gotten to say goodbye. Swallowing with difficulty the lump in her throat, Lily pulled on her Hogwarts robes. It was only twelve, but she still drew all of the curtains, closed the compartment door, and went into a fitful doze, waking every hour, and expecting to see someone who she, the next instant, realized she never would see again.
The train stopped when it was dark outside. It was only in the last few minutes that Lily noticed that no one had come in to visit her-she had spent her time absently brushing and re-brushing her hair with her mother's grandmother's silver filigree comb. Heavy-hearted and depressed, she pulled out the first Jungle Book volume and stepped off of the train at the Hogsmeade station, sheltering the book from the light drizzle. Climbing into a carriage smelling of moth balls, she arranged her robes around her and turned to the chapter about the Red Dog, still alone.
When the horseless carriages arrived at Hogwarts, she let herself drift along with the crowd to the Great Hall, sitting down next to Abigail and Sirius. She barely noticed as the first years were crowded in and the hat sang its song-the same tune as the year before this-but she did look up when Professor McGonagall picked up a scroll and started reading off students' names, instead of the hat doing that. Puzzled, Lily pulled Sirius' sleeve.
"Why isn't the hat calling out the names?"
Sirius turned around, perplexed, but then his frown cleared. "Of course-you weren't here at the last Sorting. Well-you remember what James did your first year here? At the Sorting, I mean."
Lily smiled-a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Of course I do. That hat was beating him around the ears and-well, anyway, go on."
Professor McGonagall and the hat interrupted. "Hitchmough, Bathilda!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"So, Professor Dumbledore didn't want to have that happen again. This is a new measure."
"Oh." Lily nodded. "I see." They turned to the stage in time to see "Hix, Rupert," become a Gryffindor.
The feast, wonderful as usual, was a bit wasted on Lily, who spent her dinnertime with half of a baked potato and her book. Sirius and Abigail were urging her to eat, but the idea of two hundred dogs of the Dekkan being drowned in a pool, with their bodies and large, dark rings plopping up sort of ruined her appetite. She would have explained this, but she didn't want to spoil anyone else's.
They went up to Gryffindor Tower some time later, the new password (Clam chowder) was passed around, and very soon, everyone was busy in the common room, talking loudly or playing a variety of games. Lily, strangely, although she had had several naps on the train, was dead tired and went to her dormitory as soon as possible, falling asleep before she could get her socks off.
Lily woke the next morning as soon as the sun pushed its rays over the horizon. At five in the morning, the dormitory was filled with gentle snores and wheezes, so she was extra quiet as she pulled a fresh set of clothes out of her dormitory, along with a set of Hogwarts robes.
Slipping quietly into the bathroom, she changed into the emerald green shirt and jazz pants her mother had sent her. The burns on her arm and back were still evident, and she had tried covering them up over the holidays by using bandages on her arm and always having something on her lower back. But one time when she had been in the pool, the bandages had slipped off, and Eva had been shocked by the black marks. Lily had found no explanation for them, so she had stayed out of her friend's way till Eva forgot.
Half-heartedly pulling her soft, silky hair about her face and pushing loose ends behind her ears, she emerged, first slipping into her black robes. Downstairs, an elf was scurrying out of the common room after lighting the fires, so Lily was able to bury herself in Robin Hood in peace. Of course, the word 'peace' was invented before James Potter came along, and no one had seemed to allow for that creature when they made that word. Whenever James Potter was within a one hundred mile radius of somewhere, there was never, ever peace. At least, peace as it was defined in the dictionary.
He came romping down the dormitory stairs, with an undeniable air of carelessness. Lily looked at him questioningly. He wasn't aware yet that she was up; since she had curled up in an armchair that had a dark blanket draped over it, and so she blended in nicely. It was only when he flung himself on the floor in front of the fire and stretched out his hands, to warm them, that he noticed her presence.
"Oh�you're here? Didn't notice you."
"I realize that."
"Well, geez�you don't have to be so mean! I just said hi!"
"I know you did."
"Well, then, what's wrong? If anyone has a right to be angry, it's me."
"That was your own fault. You didn't have to sign that thing."
"Yeah, and you took advantage of the fact that my mother would hold me to it. Wh�what's wrong?"
His face drew together in concerned lines as hers saddened and grew pale. Lily had only heard the words 'my mother', and she felt a sharp wrench somewhere in her chest. He had a mother, one that would hug him and forgive every little thing he ever could and did do wrong, one that would comfort or help in any way she could. As if it were a picture, the image of children being hugged and kissed goodbye at train stations jumped to mind. She hadn't noticed, back at King's Cross, how many parents there were, how many proud and sorrowful parents saying goodbye to their children, who were squirming to get free.
Lily had no idea her face had relaxed from its tautness and softened into a grieving sort of half-smile, the eyes half-closed, staring but looking through whatever it was.
"Is something wrong?"
She didn't answer, and he took her by one shoulder, shaking it. "Lily!"
Startled out of her thoughts, for an instant, James looked in two bottomless eyes, with naked fear and loss and hurt in them. Then, as if a curtain had dropped over the pupils, they returned to the ones he knew, forest-green, mocking, with a sort of shine to them.
"I'm fine. Don't ever do that again."
He peered closely at her, at the moist area where her eyelashes met whenever she blinked. "It's your mother, isn't it?"
She whipped her head around to look at him, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that she was pulling his thoughts out one by one, and examining every particle. What she had really been thinking�what she had been afraid of was that he might know everything about Tom�about what had happened that summer. The glance he had given her after he had startled her out of her ponderings had seemed as if he knew everything, had pulled away the coverings that hid her innermost secrets. But, after looking at his slightly puzzled, open countenance, she was satisfied and her fears receded. Then, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, she dropped her head to one side.
"I miss her. You don't know how much I did�how much I loved her."
He nodded. "I think I do."
"You couldn't possibly. You never knew anyone�anyone quite like her."
"No�but I know you."
Her head gave the little characteristic tilt again, as if she were comparing two vases she wanted to purchase. "What difference does that make?"
"Plenty. Everyone says you're so like her�and so, in a way, I did know her. I think everyone here would be devastated if you died."
His speech had sounded sincere, but it called to mind the aggressive faces of the Gryffindors after she had allegedly attacked Serena last year, and she pulled away.
"Don't think you have to flatter me. Don't even think that you have to try to comfort me�nothing you ever do will make a difference. I couldn't care less what this whole stupid school thinks about me, and the sooner you learn that, the better."
The anger and hate on her face had startled him greatly, especially as he had no idea where the attack came from. Like a wounded cobra, she had launched herself at him, spitting all the venom she could at him, and rejoicing if one of her drops of poison touched him and made him cringe. That was one of the moments when he started to understand some of her�some part of her that she kept veiled most of the time, and only let out when she couldn't help it.
She was capable of so much anger and hate�of so many emotions that had been detestable in others. But in her�when they emerged, it gave her the look of someone supernatural�of someone who didn't belong here and was fighting tooth and nail to be let out of her cage. And this frightened him, for he had no idea what she was trying to escape from but knew it was something even the bravest would shrink from.
She was one of the bravest people he knew, though he had no idea where that had come from, but it had settled in his mind and wouldn't be dislodged. He tried to, but it stayed there, firmly, as though it had been there from the first time he had met her.
James would have died rather than admit this to anyone, but that ferocity, that wildness, that figure of a panther about to pounce�it intrigued him, as if he could never find out what exactly she was, as though she was a mystery to all of mankind�a valuable jewel, locked inside her savage, fickle, easily bored mind and heart. And she was so independent�it seemed that no one was ever to find the key.
It was six-thirty in the morning, but Lily figured that, as breakfast was usually served at seven, it wouldn't hurt if she got there a bit early. Dawdling on purpose and going through several roundabout corridors, talking to the Gryffindor ghost�Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, but everyone called him Nearly Headless Nick, as his head was still attached to his neck by a half-inch of skin� she reached the Great Hall and only had to wait ten minutes before the tables were filled with food. Hungry�well, actually, more voracious than hungry�Lily attacked her plate, filled with buttered toast, eggs, bacon, oatmeal with cinnamon on top, and poppy-seed rolls. Around seven-thirty, the Great Hall was half-full, and Professor McGonagall went up and down the tables, handing out schedules. Lily's dropped on top of the book propped in front of her just as Eva slid into the seat next to her.
"Oh, good, schedules! Lemme see yours." Not waiting for a nod of agreement, she pulled it off of the book and studied it as she heaped her own plate.
"Darn, you're lucky�I hear Study of Ancient Runes is pretty good. You've got that first thing, by the way. And isn't that beautiful�you've got second with the Slytherins�why they have to follow us around in Potions I don't know, but I wish they wouldn�t�umm�wait�you're taking Anatomy? Oh, right�" She broke off into a series of snorts mixed with giggles. "Lily, look at this!"
As ordered, Lily took the schedule. "What?"
"You've got Anatomy right before lunch tomorrow and right after lunch on Friday!"
"So?"
"You're either going to be throwing up in that class or not eating anything!"
Lily calmly tucked her schedule away. "Wimp. You know me better than that."
"Who knows who better than what?" Sirius had let himself fall into the seat on the other side of Lily, and had coolly taken the schedule from her pocket as his own landed right in front of him. "You get first period with me�yippee�we all know how much fun that's going to be!" He gave a frighteningly large, sarcastic grin, but snapped back to normal after getting the weird looks from the rest of the table. "Oh, man, do we really have to ruin our first day back like this?"
"Like what?"
"We have Divination last. And right before lunch Wednesday, too. This is going to be a nightmare�"
Lily rolled her eyes, making a mental note to bring along extra reading material to that class.
They stepped into the Study of Ancient Runes class at nine. The room was interesting; it was filled with what looked like ancient scrolls posted all over the walls. When Professor Sartan stepped into the room, she didn't bother with calling roll, as usual; she simply gave them each an alphabet of some unknown language and told them to figure out which one it was by their knowledge of the scrolls pasted on the walls. They had a fun lesson, and, as this class was usually noisy, it provided ample opportunity for talking.
"Lily, you finally decided to do something with your hair?"
Lily shrugged. "Yeah�Mother didn't like it when I stopped, so�"
He cut her off. "I understand. Really."
She nodded her head in relief. "Thanks."
He squinted at her. "Lily?"
"Hum?"
"You haven't gotten over your mother's death at all, have you?"
With the same unveiled eyes that she had glared at James with in the common room, she now looked at Sirius, except that, instead of anger, sorrow and hurt was staring at him. "I miss her so much. I never thought I would�I never thought she was anything more than an annoying parent after I went here. And now�now� " She turned to her alphabet. "Now I know better, and it's too late."
Sirius put an arm around her shoulders, and with a start discovered that the very nerves in her were shaking, shaking uncontrollably. But at his touch she calmed down, breathing normally. That was the best indication he had ever received of the amount she loved and missed her mother.
He ignored for the time being the snickering looks that were thrown at them, the whisperings and gossip he knew would be all over the school by lunchtime. And Lily was too drawn inside herself to notice.
That day at lunch, she did notice the fingers pointing at her and Sirius, but, as she had told James that morning in the common room, she honestly couldn't care less about what the school thought about her. They had condemned her forever simply by being�well, the nicest word for that was 'different', strange, and impulsive, not caring what she looked like, and acting quite the opposite of a traditional girl. And she simply had responded to that by mocking the so-called etiquette she was supposed to follow, and, needless to say, no one had like that very much.
Abigail sat down next to her, nervously looking from her to Sirius, and looking quite like a sort of goldfish, Lily thought, but she kept her comment to herself.
"What? Is there an ax stuck in the back of my head or something?"
Abigail shook her head. "Lily, is it true, what they're saying about you?"
"Many things are, many things aren't, and chances are this is one of the aren'ts. What is it this time?"
"That you're going out with Sirius."
Sirius rolled his eyes, and Lily was overcome with an attack of mocking laughter. "Is that the best they could come up with? Yes. That was one of the aren'ts."
"Oh." Abigail looked a bit disappointed. "Oh." She turned to her salad.
Professor Zimmerman, as usual, was a bit clueless as to the extents to which James and Sirius would go to disrupt the lesson, so she gave them a free period while she tried to fix the door to her office, which kept swinging open and shut, ignoring the charms Professor Zimmerman was perplexedly casting as she tried to make it stay shut. So they got to spend an hour and a half of whatever they wanted to do; in Lily's case, this was her Potions and Study of Ancient Runes homework; in the case of the rest of the class, it was trying to squeeze out of Sirius what really happened in first period. His mouth stayed shut, however, and it was rather amusing to watch the disappointed and angry faces of the girls in the classroom that assumed he was simply not saying anything because he was too embarrassed to admit it. Sirius knew that denials would do no good, and, wisely, he refrained from doing so.
Divination went wonderfully well, for a change. Professor Trelawney had come down with a cold and had sent in a substitute, who knew absolutely nothing of Divination and only told them to answer the section review in their book.
Next day, Lily was surprisingly excited all through Transfiguration. Sirius was puzzled as to why, but his unspoken question was answered when she pushed her schedule over to him and he saw the title of her next period, which she had underlined and surrounded several times: Anatomy of Magical Creatures.
Lily stepped into the Anatomy room, which had formerly been an unused dungeon, but now was outfitted with a dozen lab tables, chairs, charts tacked up all over the walls, a large cabinet in the corner, locked, and an elongated sink, about eight feet long, with two gargoyle spouts serving as faucets, and several hundred spikes sticking out from the wall above the sink, serving as a drying rack for utensils. With an excited smile on her face, Lily slipped into her seat. She did frown a bit as the other half of the class came in, among them James Potter. The class wasn't just made up of Gryffindors; they had people from all four houses, though all of them were fourth years. Lily's frown intensified as James took a seat at her lab table, somewhat near the middle and off to the side, near the wall.
"What're you doing here?"
"Sitting."
"I can tell. Go sit somewhere else."
"Too late. Places all taken."
Lily would have humphed in response, but the entrance of a teacher made her quickly change her mind and pull out her Anatomy book.
The teacher that stepped into the room was tall, with dark hair hanging down to his shoulders and navy blue robes. He seemed to be rather sluggish, so the class was surprised at the speed at which he drifted over to the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote his name.
"Professor Maar. That would be me. Now�anyone ever taken Anatomy before?"
No one raised his or her hand.
"No one? Shame�we're going to have to start out with frogs, then. All right�" he clapped his hands once�"turn to page xii in your books."
They obeyed quickly, and when they did so, they found on it a complete drawing of the nervous, digestive, and skeletal systems of the frog.
"Everyone there? Good. Hang on just a minute�" He moved over to the cabinet in the front of the room, unlocked it deftly, and pulled out a flat box and a white plastic bag. Placing everything on his desk, he opened the box to reveal an elaborate dissection kit. The bag held two halves of a freeze-dried frog.
Professor Maar looked up at the class. "I might say now that if there is anyone in here who cannot stand looking at dead animals, they are free to leave now. As we advance, you will be looking at more complex creatures, some of them close to human, if not human. I am not sure on that point�I will need to contact the body farm for permission to use their subjects and settle some things with the Ministry of Magic. But I say again, if you do not wish to do this, you may leave now."
No one stood up, and Professor Maar smiled in satisfaction. "All right�everyone come here. You don't need to bring anything except something to bear down on, something for taking notes with, and parchment. You're taking notes."
Quickly, the class circled around his desk, taking notes frantically as they watched their teacher take apart the frog, which he did swiftly, as he did everything else. He lifted almost every particle of the frog, holding it up for the class to see and explaining its importance and jobs. And, forty-five minutes later, he had re-seated the class and given each lab table one frog. They were to sketch each part that he had commented on, from the front and back. Lily had to lift the brain and heart and other things when they were to draw the spinal cord, as she had a rather queasy partner.
Satisfied, she went to lunch after cleaning up. Sirius and Amanda attacked her the instant she came in.
"So, how was the class?"
"Very nice. Interesting, too. We had a practical lesson and started with frogs. I have the funny feeling James didn't like it."
"James signed up for that?"
"You didn't know? He did, and I'll bet you anything he's wishing he didn't. He didn't like lifting up the�"
"STOP!"
"Geez, Amanda, calm down!"
"I'm about to eat. Shut up�please," she added as an afterthought.
"Sure. What's for lunch?"
James came into the Great Hall, looking a bit sick. "Lily, you're really callous. Do you know, Sirius, she practically cut up that whole stinking frog without wrinkling her nose? There's something wrong there."
"There is."
James was puzzled. "Lil�why?"
"If you sign up for a class, you should expect that. I think it's a bit strange that someone that volunteered for a class would come out of it looking sick to their stomach."
Sirius laughed. "She has a point, James!"
James scowled. "Shut up!"
The next Anatomy lesson was held on Friday, after lunch, and it was probably a good thing that they didn't have a practical lesson. They were simply reading the preface and summarizing it, which prevented many trips to the bathroom because people were throwing up. They were going to be working on a fetal pig next Tuesday, Professor Maar told them, and he wasn't going to be letting anyone out to go throw up. If they wanted to do that, don't bother coming, but he wasn't letting them out.
He might be very strict, Lily thought, but he was likable and a very good teacher.
That weekend, Lily, Diana, Serena, Elspeth, and Abigail were awakened by a loud crash and a whizzing at six-thirty in the morning. When they managed to tear their curtains aside and look at the room, they found a hole in the window and a Bludger rocketing out of the hole in the glass. Running to the broken pane, stepping nimbly over the shards, Lily peered out of the window, looking straight into the face of Nigel Patil, the Gryffindor team captain, who was hovering at eye level on his broom.
"Oops."
"I should say so! What on earth was that doing in here?"
Nigel grinned. "Joseph!"
The clumsy Gryffindor Beater, Joseph DeVonn, flew forward just as Serena joined Lily at the window.
"Was that you?"
"Yeah..."
Serena shook her head. "You'd better be glad I'm too tired to go for my wand. As is, though�She reached back, and, before Joseph knew what was happening, had slapped him, hard, across the mouth. "Don't EVER do that again!" Not waiting for an answer, she slammed the window shut, making some shards that hadn't fallen yet fly onto the grounds, pulled the curtains, and stomped into bed. "I'm going back to sleep. And if ANYONE disturbs me, they're going to regret it!"
Abigail and Lily glanced at each other, and rolled their eyes. Lily walked over to the window, yanked the curtains open, letting in the light, and leaned far out. "You're staying away from this window!" she yelled at the retreating Quidditch team.
Laughing at Serena's enraged countenance, Lily pulled out her fencing team T-shirt and a pair of jeans, and, after pulling on a pair of interesting socks with Coke bottles printed all over them and her sneakers, she coolly got out her brush and stepped in front of the dormitory's mirror, ignoring the whispering Serena, Diana, and Elspeth. Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she fastened it with a black scrunchie and got into her Hogwarts robes. Lily grabbed her school bag, partly completed homework, and Hamlet, and went down to the common room, Abigail following her.
They finished up their History of Magic essay, and, by the time they were finished with the Divination questions and answers, it was eight o'clock and past time for breakfast.
When they stepped into the Great Hall, they were a bit surprised. Obviously, they had missed something, for the tables were a mess, food was everywhere, people were yelling wildly, and Professor McGonagall was handing out detentions right and left.
Lily slipped into a seat next to Sirius, who was one of the only ones not yelling. "What happened?"
"Food fight."
"I can tell. But how did it start?"
"Well�we had Quidditch tryouts at the end of last year to Ashley Thomas�that Chaser on our team. Well, one of the people that tried out and didn't get picked has a brother over in Slytherin, so the Slytherins started attacking us, saying something about discrimination against people with Slytherin siblings, and it sorta took off."
"Ah."
"It wasn't pretty."
"I can tell! But who did get picked?"
"Sixth year. Rebecca Oxley. She's not bad, but�well, this might not turn out so well."
"I can tell."
That Tuesday, tension was high between the Houses, and the Anatomy, Study of Ancient Runes (which they took with the Ravenclaws), Potions (with the Slytherins), and Herbology (with Hufflepuff) lessons were getting to be rather distanced. Each professor was trying his or her hardest to make the students get over this, but with no success. There were two groups of students in each House: those siding with a different House and those siding with their own. After hearing both sides of the story, however, Lily had formed her own, one-woman group: where no one cared either which way.
No one was too happy about that except the teachers, and in second period, before lunch, where every House had representatives, people had started flinging naval cords of fetal pigs across the room, causing Professor Maar to lose his usual coolness and give them extra homework. That didn't help any, and everyone left the room with jinxes sprouting out of the end of his or her wand.
It was only when Lily got hit with a Devil's Ear hex mixed with a temporary blindness one that she snapped and started attacking everyone in the direction the jinx had come from, sending several people to the hospital wing, among them Gryffindors. That sort of made her even more of an outcast among the students, not that she really cared, but some of her friends did.
Everyone was terribly relieved when Halloween started looming up ahead and people could mask the tentacles sprouting on their eyelids by saying that this was their costume. Normally, no one at Hogwarts dressed up, but this year no one had said they couldn't, so it was pretty much public that each House was having their own private party, with costumes and house-elf and Hogsmeade food. The teachers had no idea, and if they did, they pretended not to, for this took some of the tension away, as people were working on costumes. The theme that had been decided on was famous couples, with each couple to do a tiny skit, and Lily could have guessed Serena's and James' costumes in her sleep�they had decided to go as Romeo and Juliet. Remus, after ascertaining that the full moon wasn't on Halloween, had asked Elspeth to masquerade with him as Queen Guenevere, while he went as Sir Launcelot. That, at least, showed a bit of imagination. Lily wasn't planning to attend, since she didn't intend to go as Narcissus and didn't think she could find anyone willing to go with her. And when even Peter and Abigail had decided to go as Robin Hood and Marian, she knew she'd not be asked. Not that she really minded�it was to be expected.
As Halloween drew to only a week away, Lily had already asked her father to send her earplugs so she could block out the sounds of the party below her, as she was planning to stay in her dormitory. She was sitting moodily in the windowseat, trying fruitlessly to ignore Diana, Elspeth, and Serena squealing over the dress that Serena's mother had sent her�scarlet, with gold thread glittering everywhere, and on the front, the skirts drew aside to show a creamy white satin petticoat. Alisande was contentedly snacking on an Owl Treat, and, just then, another own rudely shoved her aside.
Lily jumped up. The newcomer had a small envelope tied to its leg, and, in a familiar scrawl, it had her name on it. Soothing Alisande's ruffled feathers, she untied the letter from its leg and slit it open.
Lily,
Hey, meet me down in the common room�uhh, right now's good. Bring a bunch of ideas.
Lily simply raised her eyebrows. Well then. Still, she stood up and left the dormitory, a bit puzzled.
She stepped into the common room, which was relatively empty. Moving towards the fire, she sat down next to the sender.
"Bring a bunch of ideas for what?"
"Oh, hi." Sirius whirled around. "Say, you haven't been asked to that Halloween thing, have you?"
Lily just stared at him. "The outcast, invited to a party? You should know better."
"Humph."
"Hey, that's my phrase!"
"I stole it. Anyway, you wouldn't consider going with me, would you?"
"I don't know. Let me consult my other self. Lily, Sirius just asked you to the Halloween party. What should we say?"
"I don't know, Lily, what do you think?"
"Lily, if we don't say yes, we'll spend our evening in our dormitory with earplugs stuffed into our ears."
"And if we go downstairs, we'll spend our evening in the common room with earplugs stuffed into our ears."
"Lily, I think we should go."
"What's this all about?"
"Oh, hi, Lily. Didn't see you there. Sirius has just asked us to go to the party on Halloween. What do you think?"
"Well, Lily and Lily, we really should say yes then. Who knows�we're probably last resorts."
"All right."
Lily turned back to Sirius, who was staring at her as if she was a dangerous explosive with the lighted fuse only an inch away from the dynamite. "Lily and Lily said I should go. So I'm overruled, two to one."
"Two to one what?"
"Don't mind me. I'm just being schizophrenic. Anyway, what should we go as? If you say Romeo and Juliet, I will scream."
"Don't worry; that wasn't anywhere near my mind. James and Serena are going like that, anyway."
"I know. She just got her dress delivered."
"Ah. Well, any ideas?"
"I'll also scream if you suggest Cupid and Psyche."
"Well�how about Antony and Cleopatra?"
"You idiot. I don't look the least bit Egyptian."
"You can pretend and see what happens," he suggested.
"Or not."
"Well�you want to go as someone nice or evil?"
"Sirius, you're talking to me here."
"All right. How about Cinderella and Prince Charming�I'm joking!" The addition did him no good, and Lily swatted him with a sofa cushion. "Fine. Fine. I give. James and Serena?"
"You want me to masquerade as a Barbie?"
"You could try."
"No."
He shrugged. "It would have gotten a laugh. We could try me and Coke," he said hopefully.
"I'm not stuffing myself into a glass bottle. Get Sirius, serious."
"Get what?"
"Aah! You're making me talk blarney. You stop, and I'll stop."
"That works. Macbeth and his wife?"
"That's not bad. We'll keep that in mind."
"Abigail Williams and John Proctor?"
"I'm not going as an insane adulteress! Anyway, John wasn't really evil."
"Uhh�let's see�evil, mean, famous�Lily?"
"Um?"
"Do you have a sort of pre-French Revolution outfit?"
"I can get one. Why?"
"You've read The Three Musketeers, haven't you?"
"Of course."
"Milady Clarik and the Comte de Rochefort?"
Lily's eyes started to widen and sparkle. Her lips curved up into a smile, and he knew he had picked something that caught her interest.
"So, you're willing to go as a traitorous murderess?"
"You'd be just as bad. Mother played her in theaters once!"
Sirius smiled. "We'll do that, then? But can you fit into her dress?"
Lily tossed her head. "Sirius, dear, Mother was short. And I have grown. If I don't fit, I'll wear platforms strapped to my shoes and walk like that. I'm not giving up this chance!"
He grinned and gave her a short hug. "Good. I thought that might make you happy. I'll try to get my dad to send me lots of black clothing. See you�well, later!"
Lily nodded. "See you, too!" She jumped up and ran upstairs, scratching a note to her father with amazing speed and sending Alisande on her journey.
Friday was pandemonium, and it was a miracle that none of the teachers had found out anything. No one paid any attention in Anatomy, and Lily ended up putting the heart of her niffler where the brain was supposed to go. Professor Maar, in an unusual spurt of generosity, had decided to let all the marks for that day not count, so everyone ended up in a pretty good mood. Their last period was Potions, and Professor Cauldwell, taking his usual nap, failed to notice that everyone was excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear. Well, all except Lily. She had no wish to disclose what she was going to be going as, and Sirius, patterning his manners on hers, also pretended not to want to.
The Halloween feast was marvelous, with live bats fluttering about jack-o-lanterns placed at intervals on the tables. And hardly anyone noticed that about a hundred of the bats were missing from the Gryffindor table when they stood up, but Lily had noticed, and she had also noticed Sirius' and James' repeated trips to the bathroom or to the common room or to the library. As she went upstairs to change into her mother's costume that had arrived that morning at breakfast, she made a mental note not to scream when bats came rushing out at her.
Lily didn't bother to change in the shelter of her bedcurtains; Serena, Abigail, Elspeth, and Diana were already doing that, so as to hide their costumes, and Lily saw no need to do the same, since they couldn't see her anyway. But, as she pulled the costume out of its box, she had to admit that her mother's costume manager had had taste.
It was a white cream gown, with a midnight blue overdress, covering her arms to the elbows and hanging down from there in wide sleeves that were edged with long, white lace. The overdress seemed to be sleeves attached to a midnight-blue corset, which had been laced in front, in the style of Disney's Sleeping Beauty's black one. And, hanging down the back and sides of the white cream skirt, was the rest of the overdress; a midnight-blue piece of material looking like a skirt with the front part cut out so one could see the white, both edged with white lace.
In delight, Lily found that she had shot up so far in the past two years that she could now fit into the gown without any difficulty, and without tripping over the hem, which she only had to take up two inches. And, everywhere on the overdress, someone had stitched gold fleur-de-lis', the king's symbol, but on the white, gold crosses were sported: the symbol of the cardinal. And the golden hairpiece that served as a sheath for the poniard went with this dress, and, with obvious excitement, Lily attached the flowing, twining golden mass to her hair, quoting to herself Milady's statement form when she was in prison and trying to seduce her guard, so as to escape.
"Then, as if to render and account to herself of the changes she could place upon her countenance, so mobile and so expressive, she made it take all expressions from that of passionate anger, which convulsed her features, to that of the most sweet, most affectionate, and most seducing smile. Then her hair assumed successively, under her skilful hands, all the undulations she thought might assist the charms of her face. At length she murmured, satisfied with herself, "Come, nothing is lost; I am still beautiful."
Mumbling that to herself, although she did not by any means consider herself pretty, Lily still felt that looked better than usual, and when the poniard was fixed in the sheath, her lips outlined in coral, and her eyes shaded in midnight blue, she felt she could almost accurately sustain the role of the beautiful, dangerous murderess.
Lily left the dormitory and slipped outside, simply because she felt caged inside. Here, alone, with the stars smiling down on her�or frowning, she couldn't tell�she felt something inside her clamoring to be let out, and with a start, she discovered that, somehow, she knew what the ruthless Milady Clarik felt like when she had been insulted and wanted revenge. The same hatred�though with no cause�boiled up inside her and wouldn't be appeased. Lily was grateful when Sirius hand landed on her arm and led her inside. She had no idea where that sudden hate and recklessness had come from, and she was glad someone was there to contain her.
Dressed in a black outfit, as the cardinal's right-hand man, Sirius also sported a large hat, black, and a long black cloak. He had attached a patch over one eye, and, with a sword fastened to his belt, he was the very picture of a dangerous cavalier. He noted, rather proudly, the stares they got as they walked through the corridors to Gryffindor Tower, and some of the glares. He had never seen anyone look as pretty as the slim, supple, temperamental redhead did when he pulled her in from outside, but he knew she would scoff at him if he told her that. The forest-green eyes, when shaded with the dark blue, darkened them and gave her a somewhat mysterious and fantastical look, matching attractively her medieval outfit. She also wore a necklace around her neck that he'd never seen before; it was on a gold chain, with five golden talons surrounding a midnight-blue stone. He was stunned she didn't know how nice she looked�and he privately thought he'd kill James for convincing her of that in her first year. Still, he refrained from telling her that, and they simply reviewed their skit as they returned to the common room.
When they pushed the portrait door open (clam chowder), Lily was surprised to see a stage set up, which was obviously for the skits. Several people were already assembled, and Lily took a seat next to Remus.
"Hallo!"
Remus turned. "Oh�Lily, hi. Sirius�whatcha going as? You wouldn't tell me before, but it looks good."
Sirius shrugged. "We almost did Macbeth and his wife, but Lily liked this better. I guess because she has the dress to go with it."
"Oh�and I thought our costumes were all right! I'm a bit put down now."
He did look nice, with a coat of chain mail underneath a scarlet cloak, and with a lance in his hand. And Elspeth did, too, with her eighth-century dress and hanging curls. But Sirius didn't bother to lift him from his delusion.
Lily was watching the arrivals. Peter made a pretty poor Robin Hood, for Lily had the idea that Robin didn't cringe and jump every time someone accidentally pointed a wand at him, but Abigail, in a simple white gown with a deep purple sash, was the perfect Marian. Nigel Patil had decided to go with Miranda, and Lily smiled to see the Antony and Cleopatra costumes�Sirius had given them a hint. Anya MacGregor, the Gryffindor Seeker, had resigned herself to going with Joseph DeVonn, and they made an interesting Pocahontas and John Rolfe. But the two that took up the most space in the common room were Jacqueline de Fort� and Frank Longbottom�they were dressed as Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, and Jacqueline was fingering a vase with cherubs on it, which she was to smash as a reenactment of the scene at Twelve Oaks in the library. Pretty soon, the last couple arrived�James and Serena�and though everyone, including Lily, had to admit they looked very nice together, they all thought Serena could lose the look that suggested that a horse had just done its business in front of her.
The first few skits were hilarious, and everyone laughed themselves sick when Peter was supposed to be shooting at an imaginary stag to show off and accidentally had his blunt arrow hit Abigail in the chest. She ad-libbed pretty well, though�"Oh, Cupid, you wonderful archer!"�and fell to the ground. She had to raise her head and glare at Peter before he came over and raised her to her feet and proposed, though.
Pocahontas and John Rolfe were interesting, but a bit bland, as were Romeo and Juliet, simply because the scene was so common and clich�. Cleopatra and Antony did a very nice staged death, and they managed to make the rubber corn snake seen exactly like a real asp. Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher were pretty good, mostly because Tom did lots of 'showing off' antics involving handstands, but the person playing Tom couldn't do handstands and kept crashing into Becky. There were several others, but one of the best were the Scarlett and Rhett scene�Jacqueline, if she had been the right age when the movie was filmed, would have made a perfect Scarlett. The only small flaw was that when Scarlett hurled the vase across the stage and shattered it, Rhett peeked up from behind the sofa and said his line with half of his mustache missing and Josephine curled over, laughing, as did the audience, some of whom were spitting pumpkin juice out of their noses.
Sirius had signed up for the last skit, and, with a final nod, Lily stepped onstage, bringing a table with her and a few sheets of her homework, then started ruffling through the papers. Sirius entered, and Lily started.
"Ah," both of them cried together, "it is you!"
"Yes, it is I."
"And you come?" asked Lily.
"From La Rochelle, and you?"
"From England."
"Buckingham?"
"Dead or desperately wounded, as I left him without having been able to hear anything of him. A fanatic has just assassinated him." A triumphant smile adorned her lips.
"Ah," said Sirius, grinning back, "this is fortunate."
"Do you know who I have encountered here?" Lily's face contorted mischievously, and Sirius seemed to feel he was really in the presence of the dangerous favorite of the cardinal.
"No."
"That young woman whom the queen took out of prison�M. D'Artagnan's mistress, whom the cardinal was unable to locate. Imagine my astonishment when I found myself face to face with this woman!"
"Does she know you?"
"No."
"Then she looks upon you as a stranger?"
Lily tossed her head triumphantly. "I am her best friend."
"Upon my honor," Sirius exclaimed, "it takes you, my dear countess, to perform such miracles!"
The audience sat, half in wonder, half under a sort of spell, as the inherited acting trait Lily had received from her mother shone through, and ran through the lines she and her mother had read so many times at home. Lily knew this character inside out, and the blood of Milady Clarik seemed then to run in her veins as she and the Comte de Rochefort planned the imprisonment of the mistress of D'Artagnan and the sending to the Bastille D'Artagnan and his friend, Athos, on the grounds of Milady's private revenge. Sirius finally stood up.
"Let us see: Buckingham dead or grievously wounded; your conversation with the cardinal overheard by the four Musketeers; Lord de Winter warned of your arrival at Portsmouth; D'Artagnan and Athos to the Bastille; Aramis the lover of Madame de Chevreuse, Porthos an ass; Madame Bonacieux found again; to send you the chaise as soon as possible; to make you out a victim of the cardinal in order that the abbess may entertain no suspicion; Armenti�res, on the banks of the Lys. Is that all, then?"
"Capital! Adieu, Chevalier." She fingered a small phial of red powder.
"And what is that?"
Lily's smile became condescending. "This is for Madame Bonacieux�the mistress of the D'Artagnan. It is at least my small act of revenge."
Sirius grinned, shaking his head.
"Adieu, Countess." He left the room, and Lily, looking furtively around her, poured the red powder into a glass, stirring it quickly. As the lights dimmed, they could hear her opening a door.
"Here�drink this�it will restore your strength."
