(Thanks so much to Chocolateluver @ TDA! Hehe this is my favourite so far.) :D
Witch Against the World
Chapter Five
I opened my eyes slowly and snapped them shut again really quickly as the weak winter sunlight filtered into the dorm room. It’s too bright.
I opened them again and glanced at the alarm clock.
“Hells’ teeth it’s half past eight!” I screamed, throwing myself out of bed and onto Jess’.
“OHMYGOD WHAT IS THAT!?” she shrieked, jumping up and trying to smother me with a pillow.
“WHO’S BEING MURDERED?” Nicola yelled, running at Jess’ bed, wand in hand.
“JESS WE’LL SAVE YOU!” Molly shouted, leaping on top of me and attempting to beat me to death.
“Guys it’s me, it’s me!” I yelped. The beating and attempted smothering ceased and I sighed in relief.
“Woops sorry Lil, so erm why are you on my bed?” Jess asked. I paused. Why was I on her bed again- OHMYGOD IT’S EIGHT THIRTY!
“IT’S EIGHT THIRTY WE’RE GONNA BE SO LATE!”
The others started shouting and scrambling around to find clothes and books.
“Where’s Abi?”
“IN THE BATHROOM SUCKERS!” she yelled from the other side of the bathroom door.
“That sneaky little-”
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
A little later we were down at breakfast and Molly and Sirius were arguing over the bacon like usual.
“It’s mine!” Molly grabbed the towering plate of bacon.
“No it’s mine!” Sirius grabbed the plate, sending a few rashers of bacon flying. They didn’t seem to notice.
“You dog!”
“You witch!” Great insult Sirius really, let’s be insulting by stating the flipping obvious.
“The power of the bowtie compels you to give me the damn and oh so irresistible plate of bacon!”
“You’re bloody crazy!”
“Ohhhhhhhhhh!” We all said in unison, “buuuuuuurn!” No one calls Molly crazy. That’s like calling a dog who thinks he’s a cat a dog. Or telling a child they’re adopted when they don’t know. My second cousin Sarah never forgave me for that last one.
She gasped, “how dare you?!” Molly looked over at us. “How dare he?!”
Then an evil smile spread across her face. “Your hair is greasy,” she whispered. Sirius’ mouth formed an O and his hands went up to grasp his shiny and perfectly groomed hair.
“Ohhhhhhhhhh!” We all said again, “buuuurn!” Sirius is a little crazy about his hair. I won’t mention the combs again.
“Lies!” he cried, standing up and pointing an accusatory finger at Molly. “LIES!”
She shook her head. “You look like Snivellus!”
He gasped and clasped a hand to his chest. “Take it back!”
“No!” Molly yelled.
“Take it back!”
“Hell to the no!”
I interrupted them. “Erm guys, have either of you done your Transfiguration essays?”
They both stopped in their tracks and stared at me open-mouthed.
“Damn!” Molly and Sirius ran off to the common room to do them before the bell went. So predictable. I looked at Jess.
“Have you done yours?” I asked. She glared at Remus.
“Yes,” she muttered. “Remus made me do it at the weekend.” I grinned at Remus.
“You training her?”
“Attempting to.” Jess playfully swatted at him.
I got up and swung my bag over my shoulder. “I’m going to head to potions. See you guys there.” I waved goodbye and headed out of the doors and down into the dungeons.
The temperature dropped as I neared the classroom. I hate coming down here, I always feel like I’m being watched for some reason. I reached the door furthest away from civilisation and walked into the potions classroom. Quickly finding my seat I took out my advanced copy of potion brewing. I heard the door open and looked up to see Severus Snape. His eyes met mine for a brief second and then he flicked his hair back in place over his face and walked to his seat across the room. I sighed; I really did miss him sometimes.
Severus and I had been friends’ way before Hogwarts and we continued to be the best of friends up until fifth year. Even with Jess, Molly, Niki and Abi; we were still as close as ever.
It was the summer of our fifth year of Hogwarts. We’d just come out of our Defence against the Dark Arts theory paper O.W.L and the girls and I were sitting near the beech tree by the lake with all the other students. The Marauders kept looking over at us but we ignored them because we weren’t really friends, until James and Sirius started bothering Severus. I wasn’t close enough to tell what they were saying but I could tell they were taunting him. Then James strung Severus up by his ankle using magic and I rushed over to help him. That’s when Severus called me a mudblood. I haven’t spoken much to him since.
He tried to apologize to me a few times but I wasn’t prepared to listen. I had to face facts, with Severus’ current besties by his side I was lucky that he’d only called me a mudblood.
I heard the bell ring and I shifted in my seat, waiting for the other students to arrive. There weren’t many as this was N.E.W.T level potions and most people didn’t get enough O.W.L’s to take the class. Slughorn is pretty picky.
Jess and Niki joined me at our usual table and they also got their books out. Abi didn’t do advanced potions as she didn’t see how it would benefit her future career choice and Molly wasn’t allowed in the dungeons anymore.
“What did I miss?” I asked them.
“Oh nothing much,” Jess waved her hand dismissively. “Peter offered Abi the last pancake a little too eagerly and sent the syrup flying everywhere.”
“Did it hit anyone?” I laughed.
“Yeah the Marauders and Abi,” Niki snorted. “They were not impressed.”
“I can imagine,” I giggled.
Professor Slughorn ambled into the room and made his way slowly to the board.
“Morning seventh years,” he said nodding to us and beaming through his walrus moustache. “Now today we will be making a very weak version of Amortentia.” We all gasped in delight.
“Can anyone tell me what kind of potion Amortentia is?” My hand immediately rose. “Ms Evans?”
“Amortentia is an incredibly powerful love potion which causes the drinker to develop a strong infatuation or obsession with the target.” He nodded.
“Very well done! Five points to Gryffindor. Does anyone know the properties of it?” My hand shot up again and Slughorn beamed. “Yes Ms Evans?”
“Amortentia can be identified by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen and characteristic spirals of steam. The potion smells differently to everyone according to what attracts them.” I quoted.
“Excellent answer Ms Evans, take another five points!” Slughorn said. “So we’re going to be making a very weak version of this as a powerful one could have disastrous effects if done wrong.” He looked over at a group of giggling Hufflepuff girls. “And no, we will not be sampling them, nor will we be taking any samples away,” he added sternly.
Slughorn waved his wand and the instructions appeared on the board. “Oh and before we begin I’ve decided to assign you partners.” We all groaned.
Suddenly James and Remus burst through the door and looked around.
“Sorry we’re late sir,” James grinned. “We had a little disagreement with a jug of syrup.” Slughorn waved his hand.
“No problem m’boy, no problem at all.” The two boys went to sit in their regular seats but Slughorn stopped them. “We’re having a little change around today which means new partners!” He glanced down at a piece of paper on his desk. “Now Mr Potter, why don’t you sit yourself over there with Ms Bones and Mr Lupin can you sit next to Mr Avery please.”
The boys groaned and strode to their newly assigned seats. I squeezed my eyes shut and crossed my fingers under the table as Slughorn started to read out the partners. Please not Snape, please not Snape.
“Ms Evans and Mr Snape I think, yes I like that. Ms Evans and Mr Snape,” Slughorn decided. Oh unknown deity you really do hate me don’t you? I took a deep breath and reluctantly made my way to Snape’s table, where he sat with Avery and a very awkward Remus. At least I’m not alone in this torture.
“Alright class, now begin!”
I kept my eyes on my book as I flipped it open and found the right page.
“I’ll get the ingredients,” I muttered. “You prepare the cauldron.” I glanced up and saw Snape nod slightly before I slid out of my chair and hurried to the ingredients cabinet. I met Nicola over there.
“Do you think Slughorn will believe me if I say I have a feeling this is going to end horribly and we should all just stick to making Pepperup potions at our normal desks?” I asked, rummaging for my ingredients. Nicola chuckled.
“You’ll be okay Lily. Just keep your head down and get the hell out of here as fast as possible when the bell goes,” she replied moving off, laden down with everything.
“Who’s your partner?” I called after her. She turned around and grimaced.
“Jess…”
I sniggered, “good luck.”
I procrastinated for as long as possible before going back to the cauldron and dumping the things on the table.
“Okay,” I said immediately taking charge. “I’ll do these ingredients and you do those. That way everything is one after the other and we take it in turns.” I pointed to the list of ingredients. Snape nodded again and silently started his work. I sighed and began my own.
An hour later and we were just waiting for our potion to simmer. Everyone else was almost finished and it had been a relatively quiet lesson. If you didn’t count the continuous giggles from Amelia Bones that is, she is really very irritating. I want to grab her by her brown curls and rip out her voice box.
Anyway, for the last five minutes I had been inhaling my three most favourite odours in the world. Freshly cut grass, sunflowers and a woody, pine smell that I couldn’t quite place. It was my favourite scent by far but I couldn’t remember where I had smelt it before.
Suddenly a loud bang shook the classroom and screams erupted everywhere. I couldn’t see and I felt my feet lift off of the ground and I was thrown backwards. I felt something hard connect with my back and I stopped moving.
I put my hands out and felt around making sure I was safely on the ground. The room was quiet but I could hear movement. I checked my body for damage, gingerly stretching out my limbs. Flexing my fingers, I then rubbed my eyes trying to clear the dust and god knows what else from them.
An angry shout broke the silence.
“JESSICA!” That sounded like Nicola. A very angry Nicola.
“Oh shit, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” And that was Jess.
“I specifically told you not to add the ashwinder eggs until the potion had cooled!” Nicola shouted.
“It was cool!”
“Well obviously not enough!”
“No shit Sherlock!”
I carefully got to my feet and tried to wave some of the dust clouds away.
“Is everyone alright?” Slughorn called. There were irritable murmurs and mutters from the crispy students, as they too gradually got up and began to clear away the smoke.
Once the dust had cleared, I walked around the room and saw James and Remus helping Niki and Jess to try and fix some of the damage surrounding them. Slughorn was anxiously flitting around trying to help where he could and the same annoying group of Hufflepuff girls were squealing and chatting rapidly in a corner. I sent them a filthy look. Their mere presence annoys me. Someone should shoot those pink bows right off their curly little heads.
Gee that sounded more than a little violent…
I passed them and reached my friends.
“Jessica,” I began.
“Don’t even start Lillian!” she interrupted me angrily. “Nicola has been on at me and I swear if I hear the whole speech once more, I may just have to throw you from the Astronomy Tower!” She stormed off and began to fix a table on the other side of the room.
“I didn’t know you were called Lillian,” James said, scratching his head.
“I’m not but I don’t have a full name so Jess calls me Lillian when we’re angry.” I explained, picking up cauldron fragments. How the hell do you blow up a cauldron?
“I see.”
The bell rang loudly and echoed through the classroom. The students dropped what they were doing, grabbed their belongings and left the classroom in disarray. We watched as Jess tried to sneak out unnoticed.
“Ms Clarke I’ll be seeing you at eight thirty tonight sharp. Don’t be late.” Slughorn said without looking up from his papers.
Jess stopped and stamped her foot in irritation before disappearing into the crowd.
“Well what did she think would happen?” Niki asked in amusement as we grabbed our things and walked out.
“Oh I don’t know but you know how much she hates getting caught.” Remus grinned.
“I’ve got to get to Arithmancy.” Niki said running up the stairs. “I’ll see you guys at lunch!”
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
It was twilight and the boys and I were sat underneath the beech tree by the black lake. There were streaks of midnight blue jetting across the inky purple sky and the crescent moon had already come out and was shining down weakly on us. Although it was autumn, it wasn’t yet cold enough to warrant a jacket; so we were lounging in our school jumpers. The leaves on the tree were deep oranges, reds and yellows and they had begun to cluster around the bottom of the trunks. I had a book out and was idly flipping through it but I wasn’t really paying attention. The boys were sprawled out, each one of them looking incredibly bored.
“I’m bored.” James moaned, moving himself up into a sitting position. He ruffled his hair with his hand –must resist urge to slap hand- and then fell onto his back, groaning as he did so. “What can we do?”
Sirius’ face lit up. This is bad; you could practically see the light bulb flashing above his head. It was my turn to groan.
He looked at me. “I haven’t even suggested anything yet!” Sirius said looking a little wounded.
“I know whatever it is won’t be good.” I replied, shaking my head. He grinned.
“Well I think that’s a matter of opinion.” He leant over and whispered something in James’ ear. James grinned and then repeated it to Remus and then Peter. It was like a game of Chinese whispers only I knew I wasn’t going to be included. I glanced around for a distraction and saw Snape sitting not too far from us, his school books spread around him. I looked back at my devilish company and saw the smirks beginning to form on their faces. This could not be good.
“Back in a minute my Lilyflower,” James smiled before getting up and jogging off in the direction of the castle with the others.
“Why can’t we just summon it?” I heard Peter ask.
“Because Peter we don’t know which one, we need to be specific.” Sirius replied impatiently.
I felt something akin to doom beginning to form in the pit of my stomach and I closed my book, laying it on the ground next to me. Maybe I should go and warn Snape? After that Potions lesson I don’t really feel like talking to him. I’m sure whatever the Marauders are cooking up won’t include him. They’re probably going to kidnap one of the merpeople or something foolish like that. I hope.
Before long the boys had returned and Sirius was holding a pink bottle. I eyed it wearily.
“What’s in the bottle Sirius?” I asked cautiously. “It’s not chloroform is it?” I added as an afterthought. He shook his head.
“No of course not.”
“Well what is it then?”
“Shampoo,” James grinned. “We’re gonna pour it in the lake and make it bubble over!” I raised an eyebrow.
“Really?”
“Hell yeah!” The boys began walking to the lake and they passed Snape on their way over. I stayed where I was sitting, a safe distance away.
“What do you want Potter?” Snape sneered. James sighed.
“Look Snape, we don’t want any trouble, we’re just going over to the lake,” James replied. Erm since when has James not snapped or tried to kill Snape?
“Go away Potter,” Snape said forcefully. “I know you’re up to something!”
Sirius stepped forwards menacingly. “Listen
Snivellus,” he growled. “Apologize to James or else. You shouldn’t be such a prat to the person who helped you!” What? How did James help Snape? When has he ever helped him?
Snape sneered again, “I don’t owe a blood traitor anything, just go back to your mudblood Potter.” He looked at me as he said mudblood. I swallowed the lump that had
suddenly appeared in my throat. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to him saying that so -so spitefully.
James looked absolutely livid. I watched open-mouthed as he opened the bottle and emptied the contents all over Snape. I got up quickly as the liquid started to pour down his face.
“MY EYES!” he screamed. “MY EYES!” I ran over to the Marauders.
“What did you do?!” I yelled at James and he looked surprised that he’d done it. Like he’d just woken up or something. I grabbed the bottle and scanned the label for the contents list.
“I- I didn’t mean to, it just happened.” I glared and fought the strong urge I had to beat him repeatedly with a bat.
“The bottle says it’s not supposed to burn eyes!” Sirius shouted. “LIES! LIES!”
“Why is it doing that!?” Peter screamed hysterically. “FALSE ADVERTISING!” Remus looked pale and frantic. I knew why. This was bad, really bad.
“Hey can you read this?” Sirius took the bottle from me and brandished it in front of Severus’ red face.
“MY EYES! I’M BLIND!” Snape screeched, frantically rubbing at his bloodshot eyes and still writhing.
“Right of course,” Sirius replied distractedly. Suddenly Molly appeared behind us.
“Who stole my Strawberry Twist?” she asked, hands on hips, eyes narrowed.
“Why is it burning his eyes?!” Remus shouted over Snape’s screams.
“Wait- what?” Molly whispered looking horrified.
“We may have poured the shampoo over Snape,” James muttered, looking down at his shoes.
“Its bleach you twats!” Molly exploded. We all looked at each other horror-struck.
“Why did you put bleach in your shampoo bottle?!”
“Uh in case I’m robbed! Why else?”
“That’s ridiculous how were we supposed to know its bleach?”
“Well maybe if you didn’t steal it-”
Suddenly Snape stopped writhing and lay still. His eyes were closed and his chest wasn’t moving.
“OHMYGOD YOU KILLED HIM!” I screamed, kneeling down next to him. My fingers fluttered over his chest and then his neck for a pulse but all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears.
This is bad.
So bad.
“Correction,
we killed him.” Sirius said.
“What do you mean
we?” Molly demanded.
“We’re all here, we all did it,” he replied nervously.
“You and your stupid friends are the ones who threw the godforsaken bleach over him!” Molly yelled. I got up and stood between them.
“This is getting us nowhere.” I interrupted, feeling tears on the verge of spilling over. “What do we do?”
“Well we get rid of him.” Peter answered.
“Peter!” I was shocked. “He’s probably still alive!”
“You checked for a heartbeat and I’m guessing you didn’t find anything,” Peter argued.
“I’m going to go,” Remus said quietly, starting to slowly back away.
“Oh hell no,” James roughly pulled him back. “We’re all in this together.”
“Where’s Jess when you need her?” Molly mumbled.
“Did someone say my name?” That sounded like-
“Jess!” I yelled. She came striding across the grass, with a grin. It was almost comical the way the smile dropped from her face the moment she saw us crowded around Snape.
“Oh shit,” she whispered.
“No judging! You’ve done tons of crazy stuff so you’re not allowed to judge us for this!” Sirius said quickly.
Jess’ eyes bugged out of her head and she looked scared. “I- err-” She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “I wasn’t going to judge you; I was going to say we need to get rid of the body before someone see’s us.” Jess replied, taking charge of the situation. She took a small box from her bag and opened it. Inside was a pair of black leather gloves and black tinted sunglasses. She swiftly slipped the gloves over her small hands and put the sunglasses on.
“What’s that for?” James asked.
“So I’m not recognized and so I don’t get my fingerprints on the body,” Jess replied, looking worried.
“What about our fingerprints?” Sirius cried. She shrugged.
“If we do this properly, no one will ever know. But if you balls this up, you’ll go down for first degree murder or manslaughter if you’re lucky and I’ll go down for obstruction of justice.”
I broke down into tears.
“I can’t believe we killed him!” I sobbed. Jess took me by the shoulders and shook them roughly.
“Lily we don’t have time for this, I need you to repent and feel guilty that you took a young boy’s life whilst he was in his prime later!” she said, looking into my eyes intently. I sniffed.
“Okay.” Jess nodded.
“Right; James and Sirius you take his shoulders, Peter and Rem you take his feet.” she ordered. The boys grabbed the lifeless Snape and held him between them, grunting with the effort.
“Now we need a place to bury him.” Jess mused. “But where?”
“BURY HIM?!” I shrieked.
“Yes Lily otherwise we’ll be found out and sent to Azkaban. Do you want to spend the rest of your life in Azkaban having tea with Dementors?” she demanded. I recoiled.
“No, carry on.”
This is horrible.
I am a horrible person.
I am aiding and abetting criminals.
I’m an accessory to murder.
I’m perverting the course of justice.
I’m burying my ex-best friend.
-Because I helped to kill him.
I deserve Azkaban.
And the tea parties.
“Thank you, now where to put him?” Jess paused; thinking, and then jumped up in triumph. “We’ll bury him in Hagrid’s pumpkin patch!”
“That’s not very concealed.” Molly pointed out looking dubious.
“Exactly, we’re hiding him in plain sight!”
“Erm I think that only works with books and smaller things. I don’t think it’s a great idea to hide a body in plain sight.” Remus replied anxiously.
“Who’s the leader of the criminal underworld?” Jess asked irritably. Remus sighed.
“You are,” he answered reluctantly.
“Right so let’s hide the body in the pumpkin patch.”
An hour later we were almost finished digging a deep enough hole. By now it was getting so dark we’d had more than a few accidents and tensions were running high.
“Dammit Sirius if you hit me around the head once more with that fudging spade I will knock you into next week!” Molly spat.
“Oh you will, will you?” Sirius taunted.
“Don’t push me Black.” she growled.
“Guys,” Jess interrupted. “I think we’re done.” We stepped back to admire our bittersweet handiwork. The hole was around 2ft deep and 6ft wide. It was pretty much person shaped as well. We’re good hole-digging murderers.
“Looks good,” Peter noted.
“Let’s just get this over with.” I muttered.
“Boys grab the body again,” Jess ordered.
“Snape,” I said. “He is not ‘the body’ his name is Snape.” Jess rolled her eyes.
“Fine, gentlemen grab ‘Snape’.” The Marauders picked him up again. “On three,” Jess began.
“You’re not just going to chuck him in?” I asked incredulously.
“Well duh. Lily he’s dead, he won’t feel anything.” I bit my lip as Jess counted to three.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
Snape was thrown unceremoniously into the pit and landed with a thump.
“Let’s cover him up.” We all picked up our shovels again and morosely began heaping dirt onto Snape.
There was a groaning. “Mmmm.” My head shot upwards, as did everyone else’s. The fear in my own face and eyes were mirrored as I looked around at the group.
“Mmmm.”
“What is that?!” I shrieked, running over and clinging onto James.
“Mmmm.”
“OHMYGOD!” Jess screamed hysterically, hiding behind Remus. The little bit of dirt on top of Snape began to move and there was a rustling noise. His head appeared out of the dirt and Snape sat up, looking extremely confused and covered in mud.
We were all paralysed with fear.
“Oh so I did add chloroform!” Molly announced from the other side of the pit. We all gazed at her in absolute fury.
“You mean he was only knocked out?” I asked through gritted teeth.
Molly frowned and stroked her chin thoughtfully. “It would appear so but chloroform doesn’t usually knock someone out for that long. It must have been a combination of the bleach and chloroform which kept him unconscious for so long.”
“Molly,” I said quietly.
She looked up. “Mm?”
“I’m going to kill you.”
*_*_*_*_*_*_*
Edited- 7.08.2012
Edit- 30/12/12
Edit- 08/04/13
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