Am I allowed to tell you all how very lucky you are? Believe it or not,
I've been working on this story. and I thought I'd lost the bulk of this
chapter, but by some miracle, I'd posted it on the message board I
frequent, and was able to continue on for all of you!
~.~.~.~.~.~
It was Monday and the first day of class when Lily finally arrived back at Hogwarts- apparently, there had been a delay with the train, causing students to arrive at school around midnight the previous Thursday. Finding it unfair to send students to class when they'd be so exhausted, Dumbledore canceled the Friday classes. Lily found herself supremely lucky to only have a few classes to make up.
Yanking her heavy trunk and extra duffel bag along behind her as she proceeded to Gryffindor Tower, Lily glanced at her watch. "Last class would've started five minutes ago," she noted with some satisfaction.
After having to direct a few first years to their last class, Lily reached the portrait hole at last. Clearing her throat delicately to jerk the Fat Lady out of her doze, Lily uttered politely, "Pardon me, I don't know the current password, as I've just arrived. My name is Lily Evans, I'm a sixth year Gryffindor now. You might remember me from when I was in first and second year, and-"
"Oh, perfectly understandable, dearie," the Fat Lady beamed. "Professor McGonagall told me you'd be along today." After telling Lily what the current password was, she swung open to let the girl in.
Lily deposited her luggage on the floor of her room and observed her surroundings. Her bed was still far away from the door and near a window, with the couch set up next to it with the second bed nearby the door.
After hurriedly unpacking and pushing her trunk and duffel under the bed, Lily swung out of the window and up onto the roof. The feeling of familiarity nearly overpowered her as she raced along the straight pathways once again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Dung and a few other boys from the dorm had retreated to their room to complain about the amount of work that they'd received that day. One would think that if they truly had as much work as they made out, that they would complete it quickly as opposed to whining and complaining about it. However, such a work ethic as that can hardly be expected from a large group of teenage boys.
When the grumbling had finally died down, Sirius sat examining his right thumb.
"What are you doing?" Dung asked.
"Well, I have a pain under my fingernail. And it keeps tingling. And every time it goes 'tingle tingle,' a spot right here," he pointed out a soft spot below his collar bone and next to his shoulder, "goes 'tingle tingle' too. But it's a 'tingle tingle' that hurts."
The other boys gave him a look as if fearing for his sanity, but the one girl present whispered, "Yeah, that happens to me sometimes. Go soak the thumb in lukewarm water, it'll be fine." It was the only sixth-year Gryffindor girl, and since she had seen no sign of her mystery dorm mate still, she chose to chat with the boys.
At her word, Sirius disappeared into the bathroom and water was heard running. A few moments later, the comfortable silence that had fallen in the bedroom was shattered into bits by an ungodly shriek issuing from the boy's bathroom. A sound like that could only have come from Sirius- and nobody liked the amount of splashing that seemed to have occurred.
As the room's inhabitants made to stand up, a very miffed Sirius and a sopping wet red-headed girl came out of the bathroom.
Befuddled, James queried, "What happened?"
"I don't seem to have remembered the roof as well as I thought," was all the unfamiliar girl would say. It was also all she was able to say, because Sirius began babbling on.
"I was making the water lukewarm and she drops in out of the window, scaring the bejillies out of me, so while she's cracking up, I'm splashing her with water." Here he paused for a moment to take a breath, and Remus seized the opportunity to stem the flow of words.
"Chaos, maybe you should bring her to get some dry clothes," he said, watching the puddle forming at the red head's feet.
"Oh, I'm fine," the girl announced, quickly casting a drying charm on herself. "But I should be going now, anyway."
Once she'd disappeared out the door, Peter turned to the other boys and Chaos. "Who was that?"
All the others shrugged, though inside, Chaos knew just who the mystery girl happened to be.
'Lily's back!' she thought excitedly, excusing herself a few minutes later to go and see if she could find her old friend.
When she arrived back in her dorm room, she saw Lily sprawled out comfortably on the hot pink, leather couch, reading a book entitled "The Hobbit (There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale)".
She glanced up when Chaos entered the room, and smiled. "Hey, Chaos! Did you happen to take notes or anything today? I want to get caught up as soon as possible."
Overwhelmed with an amazing variety of feelings, Chaos simply nodded and took out a roll of parchment. After Lily had quickly copied the notes over, she went back to reading her book, trying to avoid the uncomfortable silence and even more uncomfortable questions that were certain to ensue once the silence was broken.
Chaos, cross-legged on her bed, tried to sort out the jumble of feelings prancing about in her head. The first clear thought that registered jumped out of her mouth. "Why did you leave?" Before Lily could answer, more questions followed quickly, including, "Where did you go? Why are you back now? Why didn't you warn me you were leaving? Why didn't you warn me you were coming back?"
Lily snapped her book shut and smiled up at her friend. "I left because my parents died and I wanted to go live with my aunt, uncle, and cousin in Laos. I had to leave too quickly to let you know, and I decided I wanted to come back this year. I. . . I'm sorry I didn't warn you that I was returning." She didn't mention the fact that it was mostly because she'd forgotten.
After a few more moments of uncomfortable silence, Chaos hugged Lily tightly.
"I'm glad you're back," she whispered into her friend's ear.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Sirius did WHAT?" Lily shrieked a few hours later, dropping the biscuit that she'd managed to scrounge from the kitchens.
Chaos laughed and nodded. "He pulled it off for three days, too! No one knew it was him." She quickly slapped some cheese on a slab of bread and tossed it down her throat.
"How did they find out?" Lily retrieved the biscuit from the puddle of chocolate chips on the floor.
She'd never been a huge fan of gossiping, not really having anyone to gossip with, but catching up on what had happened when she had been gone was very refreshing. Until Chaos inquired about the couch.
"Well, it was left in an old lady's will for me. I'd known her for about two and a half months, we'd had lots of fun in her apartment, watching movies. I went to get her to go for ice cream the night before I was supposed to come back here, but she was- dead. That's why I was late."
"I'm sorry," Chaos said sincerely, not having been wishing to refresh a tragic memory so new.
"It's all right," Lily shrugged. "Now, about making this television work here. . . I can't believe you've never seen a movie!"
"What do you expect? I was in an orphange for most of my life. . ."
The rest of the night was spent searching for different charms to make the television work without electricity.
The next day, after the History of Magic lesson, Lily was enthralled. "You mean, Avalon is real?"
"Yeah, I've known since. . . forever!" Chaos wasn't as enthusiastic as Lily about the most boring lesson.
Professor Binns didn't call role any more, knowing that everyone would show up for fear that the one day they weren't there, he'd decide to check up. This being so, and History of Magic being the first lesson, the Gryffindor sixth year boys still didn't know the mysterious girl's name. They weren't even certain as to her house, yet.
Lily glanced nervously over her shoulder at a small knot of the boys from her year. "Do you think they remember me?"
"Who?" Chaos followed Lily's gaze. "Oh, they won't recognize you or your name. They find the events of the past gloomy and overshadowed, and tend to shove specific details out of their mind for the benefit of enjoying the present."
Lily raised an eyebrow at Chaos's small show of being over-articulate and wise, but didn't comment. "What's next?"
"Divination," Chaos grimaced.
"Goody."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You, my dear, have had a dark past," the misty voice resolved into a wispy woman, pointing at Lily.
"Who hasn't?" Lily hissed at Chaos, grinning and winking. Putting on a tragic face, she proclaimed dramatically, "Yes, I have! However did you know?" and burst into tears.
"I am, of course, the teacher of the wonderful art of Divination. What do you see in my future?"
The question somewhat surprised Lily, but she collected herself and mustered up a decent response. "You will come to a devastating end when your favorite form of transportation fails you."
A gasp emitted from some of the listening students at the mystery girl's gall.
The misty tone lifted while the teacher exclaimed, "I believe you have the makings of greatness, my dear girl! Already spouting off predictions. . ."
Lily rolled her eyes and plopped down on a round foot-rest type of chair, gesturing for Chaos to take the comfy armchair.
After the class, when Lily was far away from the "loony room" as she'd come to call it, she declared that the class had been the biggest waste of time ever.
"Honestly, Chaos. The only thing you have to do is feed her a ton of miserable bull and she'll love you to death. You actually tried in that class before?"
The other girl grinned, shame-faced, and admitted she had. "But I didn't want to risk failing! I already have enough trouble with Defense Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies. . ."
"You take Muggle Studies? I can help you with that, no problem!" Lily interrupted, enjoying that she'd be of some use to her friend. "Let's go get lunch, I'm starved!"
Before Chaos could respond, Lily had dragged her off. It was amazing how the girl knew more secret passages than Chaos, when she'd only been in the school for a year and a half. Then, with a slight twinge of guilt, she realized that this was due to the fact that she'd had no friends, which was partially her fault.
A thought occurred to Chaos when a spoonful of mashed potatoes was halfway to her mouth. "Lily," she said, setting down her spoon. "Do you want to know what the others had me do during second year?"
Lily's interest was piqued. "What do you mean?"
{A/N: This was the last bit I'd had written. All the rest is new stuff.}
"Well. I didn't spend nearly as much time with you as I should've. I didn't exert my rights as a free entity at all."
"What in the world are you getting at, Chaos?" Lily demanded, carefully laying down her knife and taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.
Chaos drew in a deep breath and explained rapidly, "The-other-girls-told-me- not-to-talk-to-you-and-then-they-wanted-me-to-test-you-and-see-whether-you- were-still-a-snob-or-not-by-bringing-you-to-the-house-elves-and-seeing-how- you-treated-them,-but-I-wanted-to-bring-you-anyway,-but-I-never-dared-until- they-told-me-to,-and-I'm-such-a-horrible-horrible-person-and-a-terrible- terrible-friend!"
Lily nearly choked on her pumpkin juice when she understood. "So when you were close to me, it was because they were letting you, but then you let them pull you away?"
Chaos nodded nervously.
"I can't believe." Lily started laughing hysterically. "My God, Kay Oss, you had better've acquired some backbone since then, or else we're going to have some major problems."
Smiling, relieved, Chaos simply replied, "I've been spending most of my time with the guys. I'd hope I've acquired a backbone by now. Maybe two. Two would be good."
~*~*~*~ I love you all! And I'm sorry, but I've been un-motivated lately.
Oh, and wish me luck, everyone! I'm the Fairy God-Mother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and the show is next weekend! I'm so excited! "IMPOSSIBLE!"
It was Monday and the first day of class when Lily finally arrived back at Hogwarts- apparently, there had been a delay with the train, causing students to arrive at school around midnight the previous Thursday. Finding it unfair to send students to class when they'd be so exhausted, Dumbledore canceled the Friday classes. Lily found herself supremely lucky to only have a few classes to make up.
Yanking her heavy trunk and extra duffel bag along behind her as she proceeded to Gryffindor Tower, Lily glanced at her watch. "Last class would've started five minutes ago," she noted with some satisfaction.
After having to direct a few first years to their last class, Lily reached the portrait hole at last. Clearing her throat delicately to jerk the Fat Lady out of her doze, Lily uttered politely, "Pardon me, I don't know the current password, as I've just arrived. My name is Lily Evans, I'm a sixth year Gryffindor now. You might remember me from when I was in first and second year, and-"
"Oh, perfectly understandable, dearie," the Fat Lady beamed. "Professor McGonagall told me you'd be along today." After telling Lily what the current password was, she swung open to let the girl in.
Lily deposited her luggage on the floor of her room and observed her surroundings. Her bed was still far away from the door and near a window, with the couch set up next to it with the second bed nearby the door.
After hurriedly unpacking and pushing her trunk and duffel under the bed, Lily swung out of the window and up onto the roof. The feeling of familiarity nearly overpowered her as she raced along the straight pathways once again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Dung and a few other boys from the dorm had retreated to their room to complain about the amount of work that they'd received that day. One would think that if they truly had as much work as they made out, that they would complete it quickly as opposed to whining and complaining about it. However, such a work ethic as that can hardly be expected from a large group of teenage boys.
When the grumbling had finally died down, Sirius sat examining his right thumb.
"What are you doing?" Dung asked.
"Well, I have a pain under my fingernail. And it keeps tingling. And every time it goes 'tingle tingle,' a spot right here," he pointed out a soft spot below his collar bone and next to his shoulder, "goes 'tingle tingle' too. But it's a 'tingle tingle' that hurts."
The other boys gave him a look as if fearing for his sanity, but the one girl present whispered, "Yeah, that happens to me sometimes. Go soak the thumb in lukewarm water, it'll be fine." It was the only sixth-year Gryffindor girl, and since she had seen no sign of her mystery dorm mate still, she chose to chat with the boys.
At her word, Sirius disappeared into the bathroom and water was heard running. A few moments later, the comfortable silence that had fallen in the bedroom was shattered into bits by an ungodly shriek issuing from the boy's bathroom. A sound like that could only have come from Sirius- and nobody liked the amount of splashing that seemed to have occurred.
As the room's inhabitants made to stand up, a very miffed Sirius and a sopping wet red-headed girl came out of the bathroom.
Befuddled, James queried, "What happened?"
"I don't seem to have remembered the roof as well as I thought," was all the unfamiliar girl would say. It was also all she was able to say, because Sirius began babbling on.
"I was making the water lukewarm and she drops in out of the window, scaring the bejillies out of me, so while she's cracking up, I'm splashing her with water." Here he paused for a moment to take a breath, and Remus seized the opportunity to stem the flow of words.
"Chaos, maybe you should bring her to get some dry clothes," he said, watching the puddle forming at the red head's feet.
"Oh, I'm fine," the girl announced, quickly casting a drying charm on herself. "But I should be going now, anyway."
Once she'd disappeared out the door, Peter turned to the other boys and Chaos. "Who was that?"
All the others shrugged, though inside, Chaos knew just who the mystery girl happened to be.
'Lily's back!' she thought excitedly, excusing herself a few minutes later to go and see if she could find her old friend.
When she arrived back in her dorm room, she saw Lily sprawled out comfortably on the hot pink, leather couch, reading a book entitled "The Hobbit (There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale)".
She glanced up when Chaos entered the room, and smiled. "Hey, Chaos! Did you happen to take notes or anything today? I want to get caught up as soon as possible."
Overwhelmed with an amazing variety of feelings, Chaos simply nodded and took out a roll of parchment. After Lily had quickly copied the notes over, she went back to reading her book, trying to avoid the uncomfortable silence and even more uncomfortable questions that were certain to ensue once the silence was broken.
Chaos, cross-legged on her bed, tried to sort out the jumble of feelings prancing about in her head. The first clear thought that registered jumped out of her mouth. "Why did you leave?" Before Lily could answer, more questions followed quickly, including, "Where did you go? Why are you back now? Why didn't you warn me you were leaving? Why didn't you warn me you were coming back?"
Lily snapped her book shut and smiled up at her friend. "I left because my parents died and I wanted to go live with my aunt, uncle, and cousin in Laos. I had to leave too quickly to let you know, and I decided I wanted to come back this year. I. . . I'm sorry I didn't warn you that I was returning." She didn't mention the fact that it was mostly because she'd forgotten.
After a few more moments of uncomfortable silence, Chaos hugged Lily tightly.
"I'm glad you're back," she whispered into her friend's ear.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Sirius did WHAT?" Lily shrieked a few hours later, dropping the biscuit that she'd managed to scrounge from the kitchens.
Chaos laughed and nodded. "He pulled it off for three days, too! No one knew it was him." She quickly slapped some cheese on a slab of bread and tossed it down her throat.
"How did they find out?" Lily retrieved the biscuit from the puddle of chocolate chips on the floor.
She'd never been a huge fan of gossiping, not really having anyone to gossip with, but catching up on what had happened when she had been gone was very refreshing. Until Chaos inquired about the couch.
"Well, it was left in an old lady's will for me. I'd known her for about two and a half months, we'd had lots of fun in her apartment, watching movies. I went to get her to go for ice cream the night before I was supposed to come back here, but she was- dead. That's why I was late."
"I'm sorry," Chaos said sincerely, not having been wishing to refresh a tragic memory so new.
"It's all right," Lily shrugged. "Now, about making this television work here. . . I can't believe you've never seen a movie!"
"What do you expect? I was in an orphange for most of my life. . ."
The rest of the night was spent searching for different charms to make the television work without electricity.
The next day, after the History of Magic lesson, Lily was enthralled. "You mean, Avalon is real?"
"Yeah, I've known since. . . forever!" Chaos wasn't as enthusiastic as Lily about the most boring lesson.
Professor Binns didn't call role any more, knowing that everyone would show up for fear that the one day they weren't there, he'd decide to check up. This being so, and History of Magic being the first lesson, the Gryffindor sixth year boys still didn't know the mysterious girl's name. They weren't even certain as to her house, yet.
Lily glanced nervously over her shoulder at a small knot of the boys from her year. "Do you think they remember me?"
"Who?" Chaos followed Lily's gaze. "Oh, they won't recognize you or your name. They find the events of the past gloomy and overshadowed, and tend to shove specific details out of their mind for the benefit of enjoying the present."
Lily raised an eyebrow at Chaos's small show of being over-articulate and wise, but didn't comment. "What's next?"
"Divination," Chaos grimaced.
"Goody."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You, my dear, have had a dark past," the misty voice resolved into a wispy woman, pointing at Lily.
"Who hasn't?" Lily hissed at Chaos, grinning and winking. Putting on a tragic face, she proclaimed dramatically, "Yes, I have! However did you know?" and burst into tears.
"I am, of course, the teacher of the wonderful art of Divination. What do you see in my future?"
The question somewhat surprised Lily, but she collected herself and mustered up a decent response. "You will come to a devastating end when your favorite form of transportation fails you."
A gasp emitted from some of the listening students at the mystery girl's gall.
The misty tone lifted while the teacher exclaimed, "I believe you have the makings of greatness, my dear girl! Already spouting off predictions. . ."
Lily rolled her eyes and plopped down on a round foot-rest type of chair, gesturing for Chaos to take the comfy armchair.
After the class, when Lily was far away from the "loony room" as she'd come to call it, she declared that the class had been the biggest waste of time ever.
"Honestly, Chaos. The only thing you have to do is feed her a ton of miserable bull and she'll love you to death. You actually tried in that class before?"
The other girl grinned, shame-faced, and admitted she had. "But I didn't want to risk failing! I already have enough trouble with Defense Against the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies. . ."
"You take Muggle Studies? I can help you with that, no problem!" Lily interrupted, enjoying that she'd be of some use to her friend. "Let's go get lunch, I'm starved!"
Before Chaos could respond, Lily had dragged her off. It was amazing how the girl knew more secret passages than Chaos, when she'd only been in the school for a year and a half. Then, with a slight twinge of guilt, she realized that this was due to the fact that she'd had no friends, which was partially her fault.
A thought occurred to Chaos when a spoonful of mashed potatoes was halfway to her mouth. "Lily," she said, setting down her spoon. "Do you want to know what the others had me do during second year?"
Lily's interest was piqued. "What do you mean?"
{A/N: This was the last bit I'd had written. All the rest is new stuff.}
"Well. I didn't spend nearly as much time with you as I should've. I didn't exert my rights as a free entity at all."
"What in the world are you getting at, Chaos?" Lily demanded, carefully laying down her knife and taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.
Chaos drew in a deep breath and explained rapidly, "The-other-girls-told-me- not-to-talk-to-you-and-then-they-wanted-me-to-test-you-and-see-whether-you- were-still-a-snob-or-not-by-bringing-you-to-the-house-elves-and-seeing-how- you-treated-them,-but-I-wanted-to-bring-you-anyway,-but-I-never-dared-until- they-told-me-to,-and-I'm-such-a-horrible-horrible-person-and-a-terrible- terrible-friend!"
Lily nearly choked on her pumpkin juice when she understood. "So when you were close to me, it was because they were letting you, but then you let them pull you away?"
Chaos nodded nervously.
"I can't believe." Lily started laughing hysterically. "My God, Kay Oss, you had better've acquired some backbone since then, or else we're going to have some major problems."
Smiling, relieved, Chaos simply replied, "I've been spending most of my time with the guys. I'd hope I've acquired a backbone by now. Maybe two. Two would be good."
~*~*~*~ I love you all! And I'm sorry, but I've been un-motivated lately.
Oh, and wish me luck, everyone! I'm the Fairy God-Mother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and the show is next weekend! I'm so excited! "IMPOSSIBLE!"