Chapter Thirteen
Dung Bombs, Slytherins and Broomsticks
"Rise and shine it's that time of day again!"
Lily Evans moaned and rolled over onto her side. This had to be another nightmare. At this moment she wanted to do nothing but sleep, but Allison's cheerful voice would not permit this. She buried herself further into the sheets wishing that Allison would shut up and leave her alone.
"Wake up!" Allison said throwing open the window.
Light poured into the room and Lily dove beneath the pillows. She had no intention of leaving her comfortable bed.
"Come on you two get up!"
"Go away!" Lily replied.
Arabella answered with a series of grunts, she was having a harder time waking up.
"Guys..." Allison said warningly.
There were a variety of objects lying within her reach that she could easily in place of caffeine coffee to wake them up. Such as ice cold water, noisemakers, slimy substances, dung bombs, a wand, sparks and the options were endless. After all she was at Hogwarts. She grinned.
"You know, I do have a wand." Allison's mischievous eyes flicked toward the dung bombs in her trunk.
"That's nice." Lily muttered.
"And I do know how to use it." Allison said levitating a dung bomb.
"Okay, you do that. I'm going back to sleep." The red head turned over onto her side unaware of the dung bomb hovering above her head.
Allison shook her head grinning. Lily obviously didn't know her very well. Without another word she flicked her wand, letting it drop.
Lily Evans was about to get her first wake up call, Dung Bomb style.
*
"She did what?" James exclaimed.
"That little witch, she woke me up with a dung bomb." Lily huffed.
Immediately the boys erupted into laughter. Allison grinned sheepishly. Arabella scowled since she had been woken in a similar manner. Lily who had never experienced the effects of a dung bomb let alone heard of one was still trying to get over it. It had been quite a shock for her. She was still extremely upset and was not on speaking terms with Allison.
"It's not funny!" Lily insisted.
The boys just laughed harder. They were earning some queer looks from the other students passing them by in the hall. It was bad enough that the first years looked like they hadn't slept in a week, on top of everything else they were now making a scene by laughing hysterically.
Allison's grin grew wider until she could no longer control herself and started laughing also.
"You think it's funny!"
Allison didn't say anything because she was laughing too much.
"Well at least someone," She trailed off with a frown.
Arabella was now laughing as well.
"This is what I get for saving your lives. A dung bomb wakes me up for the first time in my life. I've never even heard of one before. And you're all laughing at me, not even listening. Fine, go ahead, see what I care." Scowling Lily stopped before them, blocking their passage. She folded her arms stubbornly across her chest and stood glaring at them. Her friends couldn't stop and continued to roar with laughter.
"It is not..." But a smile twitched across her lips.
"It's not, it's not"
It was a hopeless cause, the laughter was contagious. Lily Evans broke down laughing, joining her friends in making a scene in the hallway.
*
"What do we have now?" Allison asked too lazy to look for her own timetable.
The crew was back at the Gryffindor table finishing up their breakfast. The mail had already arrived and James and Remus had gone to visit Gloria, only to find that visitors were not permitted at this time.
"Hold on, let me check." Lily rummaged through her bag until she found her schedule.
"We have Flying Lessons." She announced.
The atmosphere instantly brightened as Sirius let out a whoop, and Arabella, Allison, James and Remus took on identical grins. Lily on the other hand was suddenly nervous. She had never been on a broomstick before. Peter Pettigrew, the other first year Gryffindor, paled. He looked like he was going to be sick. Lily was comforted slightly by this. At least she wasn't the only one.
"I can't wait to get back on a broomstick!"
"Finally a class I can pass!"
"I love Flying!"
The others launched into a heated discussion on Flying, broomsticks, and something-called quidditch. Poor Lily was completely forgotten as they became submerged in the details of House Teams. Lily used this time, brooding over how she was probably going to make a fool of herself. Her greatest fear was that she was going to fall off her broom. Lily wasn't afraid of heights, but for some reason the idea of sitting on an ordinary cleaning device, several feet up in the air, made her think of falling from the sky.
"Come on, we don't want to be late for class!" Arabella exclaimed jumping to her feet and grabbing her bag.
Lily and everyone else followed suit. This was one class that nobody wanted to miss. Except for perhaps Peter, who was lagging behind.
"Lily I can't wait to fly again! Don't you just love flying!" Allison had a dreamy expression in her eyes.
"I wouldn't know. I've never tried." Lily said sadly. Where she came from, it was considered a first rate sign of insanity. But Lily chose not to mention this.
"Oh Lily, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot that you were muggle born." Allison apologized.
"It's no big deal. I just hope that Flying isn't difficult."
"Don't worry Lily. You're going to love it." Allison reassured her with a smile.
They passed through the Entrance doors and out into the blinding sunlight. It took Lily several seconds to regain her sight. The Hogwarts grounds lay before her, rolling green hills stretching to meet the clear blue sky and the glittering, rippling lake that was dancing in the sun's rays. Far away in the distance a forest lay and at the edge of the trees was a hut. Turning to the left Lily saw that half of her friends were racing across the grass heading for four peculiar giant structures that reminded her of huge lollipops.
She would've stayed and pondered over this longer but Allison would not allow it. She grabbed Lily by the arm dragging her down the steps and after the group that was already fifty yards ahead of them. As they attempted to catch up to the rest Lily took the time to ask Allison about the four strange lollipops that were drawing nearer.
"What's that?" Lily asked pointing toward the peculiar structures.
"That's the Quidditch Pitch." Allison explained hastily.
"Oh." Lily made a mental note to ask more about it later.
"Come on let's race!" Allison exclaimed anxiously.
They ran, their bags making it difficult to run as quickly as they might've liked. But in a matter of minutes Lily and Allison had caught up with their friends. To their surprise, the group had come to a standstill and an uneasy silence had settled upon them.
"What's going on?" Lily asked Allison.
"I don't know." Allison whispered.
Pushing their way toward the front Lily and Allison suddenly found themselves staring into the cold eyes of another group. Lily instantly recognized them as the infamous Slytherins.
"What's going on here?" Allison demanded glaring at the Slytherins.
"Well if it isn't Dragonwood." A Slytherin girl sneered.
"Well if it isn't Icindrin." Allison said mimicking the girl with a toss of her hair.
"Are you mocking me?" The girl asked balling her fists. She drew herself up to her full height. She was a couple of inches shorter then Allison but her glaring black eyes seemed to make her a foot taller.
"Maybe." Allison remarked casually.
Lily and Remus stepped between the two girls before anything else could result from it.
"Don't we have class?" Remus asked turning to the two of them.
"Who do you think you are?" The girl scoffed at them. But her eyes were on Lily.
"Red head, what's your surname?" Icindrin asked.
Lily was not prepared to being addressed this way and chose to ignore the question. Besides she didn't even know what a surname was. She looked pleadingly toward the others for help.
"I asked you a question!" Icindrin said propping her hands on her hip.
"My name is Lily." She said meekly, wishing she knew what a surname was.
"Lily!" She snorted, as if she found her name funny.
"What kind of name is that? I asked for your surname, surely that must not be your surname. Because if it is then"
"Lily, such a pretty name." One boy interrupted. Icindrin stopped in mid speech and to everyone's relief shut up.
A brown haired Slytherin approached her. He was actually rather nice looking, but Lily saw through his thin lipped smile almost immediately. He reached for her hand in a friendly gesture but Lily hesitated drawing it back. Someone laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Back off Avery." James sneered.
He was now standing right beside Lily, his wand out in a threatening manner. His eyes followed the boys every move, as the false smile on the Slytherin's face suddenly became smug.
"Potter's got a girlfriend." The Slytherin taunted.
"No." James said coloring. He took a step away from Lily, removing his hand.
"Kevin Avery, and you are?" Kevin held out his hand to her waiting for her reply.
"Lily Evans." Lily answered but she didn't meet his hand.
"Evans, haven't heard that one before. You're not pure blood are you? Are you half and half?" He asked, his eyes growing darker.
"No I'm not." Lily didn't like this boy. She was beginning to get suspicious.
"You're not, are you muggle born?" His eyes were cold and his voice was now more of a sneer.
"Yes she is." James said stepping in front of her.
"Leave her alone Avery or else." Sirius hissed.
"Don't even think of touching her!" Allison exclaimed.
Arabella and Remus had pulled their wands out too forcing the Slytherins to retreat back.
"I wasn't going to do anything." Avery said throwing up his hands.
The Slytherins turned and left heading for the pitch. The Gryffindors dawdled, making sure that Lily was okay. They attempted to explain to her why they had been so quick to defend her. But they left out parts and were confusing Lily, avoiding the real topic as much as they could. In the end they said they'd tell her more about it later.
"Why can't you tell me?" Lily asked.
"Because Lily…" Allison trailed off, lost for words. Everyone looked awkward and shuffled their feet in the grass, suddenly becoming interested with their book bags.
"It's a touchy topic." Arabella finally replied.
"Can we hurry up?" Sirius pleaded.
The conversation ended as they hurried toward the quidditch pitch.
Class was just beginning when the Gryffindors finally arrived.
"Alright everyone um find a vacant broom and um stand beside it." The instructor was a tall witch with short black hair. She couldn't be older then twenty by the looks of it. She smiled when she saw them and gave Sirius a special wave.
"Oh no." Sirius groaned.
"It's Jesse, your favorite cousin." Arabella teased. Sirius glared at her but Arabella gave Jesse a huge grin and a wave.
Obediently the Gryffindors separated spreading out in front of the line of brooms. They were constantly aware of the glaring eyes of the Slytherins across from them.
The instructor "Madam or just plain Jesse Black" (Everyone turned to look at Sirius), had recently graduated from Hogwarts last summer and was filling in until a new Flying Instructor was hired. Sirius seemed to shrink lower and lower as she explained to the Slytherins that she had been in Gryffindor. To their surprise she began informing one particularly smug Slytherin, who had dared to comment on this, that Gryffindor was the better of the four houses and that Slytherins like himself were slimy inconsiderate gits. She would've gone on longer, but she was distracted when suddenly her broom leapt off the ground and nearly whacked her off the head.
"Okay, um back to class everyone!"
Jesse began telling them the basics of flying. But she soon grew bored along with everyone else and skipped half of the speech she had had prepared.
"You all know it anyway." Jesse said with a laugh.
She didn't seem to consider the fact that there were people like Lily, who had never been on a broomstick in their life. Lily had hung onto every word Jesse had said. Flying didn't sound very hard, but Jesse seemed to have left a lot out.
"Okay now say UP!" The broom beside Jesse leapt into the air racing past her hand and heading for the sky. It flew around her head a couple times, narrowly missing her, and then landed on her opposite side. The Slytherins snickered and Jesse sighed.
"It figures I get the broom with the attitude problem." She said earning a few laughs from the Gryffindors.
"Hopefully everyone else will have better luck."
The students said "UP" but only James, Allison and a few of the Slytherins had better luck on their first try. Lily was so nervous that her voice trembled and her broom didn't move. Arabella got hers on second try while Remus' took a little longer. Sirius was acting a little too confident. His broom seemed to find it increasingly amusing to hover between the ground and his hand, going neither up nor down. Sirius had to threaten it before it quit acting up and zoomed into his hand. Peter's didn't move at all, his voice was barely above a whisper. Lily bit her lip and tried again. Her broom jumped off the ground but then had second thoughts and dropped back to the ground.
"Have a little more confidence Lily." Allison said encouragingly.
Lily took her advice and on her next try the broom was safely in her hand. Jesse had to help Peter and a Slytherin girl with their brooms before they were finally able to move onto the next step.
"Now um mount your brooms. On three you will kick off the ground and well um just fly I guess." Jesse said shrugging.
Lily mounted her broom glancing nervously at her friends who were all relaxed and confident.
"One."
Lily caught a glimpse of Icindrin; she was staring directly at her.
"Two."
Icindrin grinned and mouthed something to the boy beside her, who nodded and turned his eyes on Lily.
"Three."
Lily kicked off the ground feeling the air rush through her hair. She went flying toward the cloudless sky. The ground disappeared beneath her as she flew higher and higher. Her heart soared and Lily laughed delightfully. She was fulfilling what most muggles would call a fantasy. She was flying, on a broomstick!
After experiencing the astonishment of flying for several minutes Lily eventually stopped her ascent and flew lower. She circled the pitch once slowly, enjoying the thrill of the broomstick. Finally she turned the broom jerkily and looked to see where the rest had gone.
Arabella was high above them racing neck and neck with Allison and Sirius. Remus was farther down below and Peter was no where in sight. James was only a few feet away from her and he was flying, fast. For a moment she admired the way he handled the broom. He wasn't kidding when he said he was good at it. He was a natural. Suddenly he looked her way.
"Hey Lily come over here!" He called.
Lily flew shyly over to him, aware of the fact that she looked like a complete idiot next to him.
"This is so strange." She said. It was new and foreign to her, but it was amazing.
"You get used to it after a while." James said grinning.
"I saw you out there. You were doing great for your first time on a broomstick. But you're holding it wrong." He remarked inspecting her grip.
He reached over and put his hands over hers causing a sudden warmth to run up her arm. He gently moved her hands, correcting her grip. Then he removed his hands and grinned.
"Other then that you were doing just fine. I really think you're getting the hang of it." He smiled and Lily couldn't help but smile back.
"Sorry to interrupt!"
Lily and James jumped. Allison had sneaked up behind them when they weren't looking and was now hovering, smirking.
"I was just showing Lily how to hold the broom." James insisted.
"Sure you were." Allison grinned slyly and Lily rolled her eyes.
Arabella and Sirius suddenly came toward them with Remus trailing closely behind them. They slowed to a stop beside Allison.
"Allison thinks she can out fly you." Remus announced.
"She does?" James said facing Allison with a smug grin.
"I don't know James, she's fast." Sirius said glancing over at her.
Allison blushed.
"You're taking sides?" James asked in disbelief.
"Perhaps." Sirius said with a half grin.
"Did Sirius actually complement someone? Am I hearing this right?" Arabella pretended to faint.
"I did not, I just said that she was faster then me. Well I guess I did." Sirius was mumbling.
"Look, why don't we just have a race." Lily interrupted.
They all turned to look at her as if they hadn't thought of this concept.
"Great idea!" Allison exclaimed.
"Okay, how about we all race?" Arabella said, obviously not wanting to be left out.
"I'm all for it." Sirius said grinning at Arabella.
"Oh Black thinks he can beat me." Arabella smiled.
"Maybe." Sirius flew higher and Arabella followed along with the rest.
"Prove it." Arabella taunted.
"I'll watch." Lily said holding onto her broom shakily.
"You sure?" James asked turning back to her.
"Positive." Lily nodded.
"Oh come on Lily!" Allison whined.
Lily hesitated.
"Come on!"
"Yeah Lily!"
"Don't be such a wimp." Sirius said grinning.
"Okay I'll join. But I'm warning you. You're going to have to catch me if I fall off my broomstick." She joked flying shakily over to the invisible starting point.
"That's the spirit!" Arabella said slapping her on the back.
"Oh I'm not worried about it Lily. James will be there at lightening speed." Allison assured her earning a few laughs. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Okay on the count of three we go." Arabella announced.
"Who's going to count?" Sirius asked.
"Me!" Arabella said grinning.
"You can count?" Sirius asked his eyes widening.
"Yes Sirius I can. I know it's above your intelligence but most people can count to three." Arabella retorted.
Allison snickered.
"Actually I was referring to the your intelligence." Sirius said sweetly.
"Black, you're a dead man walking." Arabella replied scowling.
"I'll count!" Lily exclaimed.
"One."
"Two."
"Three!"
All six of them shot forward as soon as Lily said "three". The wind whistled in their ears and their hair went wild with the amazing speed of flight. Lily hung onto her broom, wrapping her hands firmly around the handle. She was determined not to fall behind, but she wondered what she had got herself into. How was she going to keep up?
They fought to remain in the front of the line. Each of them was fighting their way to the finish line that was still a lap ahead. It was everyone out for one self and for a brief time the eleven-year-olds had transformed from their childish selves to a determined group of racers.
Remus was the first one out. He lost control of his broom on one of the turns and fell behind, unable to catch up with the rest. Lily was nervous that she was next but amazingly she found herself neck and neck with Sirius and Arabella. James and Allison were only an inch or so ahead of them. With that extra push Arabella and Lily left Sirius behind and pulled out to where Allison and James were racing side by side with sheer determination. The four of them were racing with all their might, concentrating on the finish line only yards ahead. Suddenly Lily turned to find that Arabella was no longer beside her but was fighting to come in ahead of Sirius. Lily turned to her left to find James and Allison still concentrating only on what was ahead.
Lily could see the finish line only feet away. She was nearly there, only a few more seconds. She accelerated forward lowering herself against the broomstick. But it was somewhere in those last remaining seconds that it happened. Lily felt a jolt and turned to look behind her. She saw a blur coming toward her. A grinning Icindrin came at her and her friend went soaring over her head. Lily swerved to the right to avoid them.
Suddenly she was face to face with one of the stands. Lily grabbed the handle and tried to turn, but it was too late. The broom was going too fast. She was going to crash! Lily turned the handle but it seemed to be locked almost. Lily knew the only way out was down. She pressed on the handle and suddenly she was plummeting toward the ground. She couldn't stop herself. Her knuckles turned white and her eyes filled with fear as the ground neared. Lily had just realized that she didn't know how to land. She was doomed!
50 feet
25 feet
15 feet
10 feet
5 feet
Lily shut her eyes and braced herself for the crash.
*
James and Allison were racing neck and neck. There was only a few remaining yards left and James or Allison would be declared the winner. James concentrated on the finish line only a few feet away. Nothing could stop him now; he was almost there.
"Duck!" Allison yelled.
James ducked and Allison did the same as someone swept past them overhead. It took a brief moment to get back on track. James saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned to the left. There was Lily and she was headed straight for the stands. She was going to crash! The race was forgotten as James left Allison and took off after Lily. Suddenly she plummeted toward the ground. James dove after her, following behind. She was gaining speed and lead. James made his broom go faster, concentrating on her dropping figure, he willed himself to catch up to her. He had to get to her before she reached the ground. Lily was out of control. He realized that she wasn't going to pull out of the dive on her own and that if he didn't reach her in time she would smash into the ground. He accelerated going faster then he had ever gone before, heading toward the rapidly growing ground below at a dead drop.
50 feet
He was nearly there; he just had a few more feet to go.
25 feet
He almost had her.
10 feet
He stretched out his arm toward the tail of her broom.
5 feet
He pulled hard, dragging her back and slowing the broom successfully down. Using all the strength he possessed he pulled himself out of the dive bringing Lily and her broom with him. With a mere three feet separating them from the ground he brought himself up beside her. They had come so close to crashing. Another second and they would have been dead. But James had been willing to take that risk.
Lily wasn't stopping. He reached out and grabbed her broom wrapping his hand around hers. The broom jerked toward him and then jerked to the left. It jerked again and then again and moved up and down. It was out of control! It moved faster and jerkily to the left and then to the right, swerving drunkenly. He had never seen a broom behave like that before. James was forced to let go of the handle but managed to keep up with the broom that was no longer plummeting but rising slowly.
"Lily stop it!" He yelled to her.
"I can't!" She exclaimed. Her eyes were wide with terror and her hands gripped the broom though she had no control over it.
James tried helplessly to grab the broom. Jesse tried unsuccessfully to aim at the broom with her wand. Red sparks shot over their heads as the broom shook violently. James thought fast. He had an idea, it was a risk, but it was the only way.
"Okay Lily you have to listen to me." James told her. Lily nodded, indicating she was listening.
"Let go of the broom." He instructed her.
The broom shook and Lily shot him a look as if to say "Are you crazy?"
"Let go Lily! You have to trust me on this one. Let go!" James tried to make her understand that he knew what he was doing. There was no time for explanations.
Lily bit her lip and once again the broom tried to throw her off. Lily glanced at James and made a fast decision. She let go of the broom. Immediately the broom jerked up, throwing her off like a bucking stallion. For a terrifying moment Lily was falling. Then James caught her. Carefully he shifted her so that she sat on the broom behind him. She instantly wrapped her arms around him hanging on for dear life. He could feel her shaking, still terrified from the experience.
The broom flew straight into the ground bursting into pieces. Lily gasped and tightened her hold on him, nearly cutting off his air supply. It would have been Lily had not James saved her. He quickly landed.
"Are you okay Lily?" He asked.
"Not really." Lily trembled.
He couldn't breath she was holding onto him so tightly. He tried to gently pry her fingers off of him. But she wouldn't budge.
"Lily I need to breathe." He gasped.
"Oh sorry." Lily removed her arms from him and turned red with embarrassment.
James got off the broomstick and then turned and helped Lily off. She was hardly able to stand; she was shaking so much. Her first broomstick ride had turned from a fantasy to a nightmare. If James hadn't been there, who knows what could have become of her. Lily didn't want to think of it.
"Lily!" Allison ran over to her and hugged her quickly. Arabella landed and came running over to her. She hugged Lily too as Remus and Sirius landed and came running over to them.
"Lily we thought you were going to crash for sure." Allison said, she was pale and only now was the color returning to her face. The others looked almost as worried as she did.
"This is too much for me. Two near death experiences in two days! I don't think I want to see what tomorrows like." Arabella said wearily.
Jesse came running over to them followed by Peter and a few of the Slytherins.
"Lily are you alright?" She asked worriedly.
"Yes, thanks to James. I'm just a little shaken up." Lily's voice was still shaky.
"I think you should go to Madam Pomfrey just to be sure." Jesse said. She turned around and faced the students.
"Whoever is responsible for this is going to meet the consequences." Her voice was dangerously quiet while her fierce gaze swept over the Slytherins. They cowered before her. Jesse picked up the remains of the broomstick.
"I'll be informing Dumbledore of this." She said glaring. Then she turned to Lily and James.
"James can you take Lily up to the hospital wing. Your efforts will be rewarded of course. I've never seen anyone fly as well as you did in a long time. I say 50 points to Gryffindor." James brightened as Jesse beamed at him. Lily looked over at him and grinned.
"50 points?" A Slytherin muttered in disgust.
"You two may go." She waved James and Lily away. James and Lily obediently left and started toward the castle.
"James?" Lily asked once they were away from the rest.
"Yes?" He asked turning to her.
"Thanks for saving my life. If it hadn't been for you, I probably wouldn't be here right now." Lily said grateful for the fact that she was alive.
"I'm just returning the favor." He said with a small smile.
Their eyes met and they both blushed. Lily felt like throwing her arms around him but restrained herself. They were eleven now, not ten. Lily suddenly became puzzle. Why did she remember hugging James before?
"Now we're even." James interrupted her thoughts.
"I guess you're right." Lily laughed.
Smiling they entered the castle.
*
If only it could have stayed that way. Lily and James walking side by side, happy to be alive and glad to have each other. The sun shining brightly, and smiles on their faces. Just strolling through the castle's doors on their way to the infirmary.
But behind the door of the infirmary, there was an unexpected secret that would change their lives forever, and end the life of another.
Chapter Fourteen