Title: Beautiful Addiction
Summary: Interesting…a new kind of love/hate. The whole school is involved; split down the middle into two opposing groups.
A/N: Hey! If this first part seems confusing or boring, I think it'll make more sense as we go along. At least, I hope =) Oh- and I got both group names from Latin. Don't take the subject, but I do think it's a cool language ;) Cavillor- to joke, and Ausculto- to hear attentively. Those aren't the main points of the groups; I hope that'll be more evident later on.
I feel sort of bad about writing this, let alone adding it, since I need to update my other stories. I'm sorry! I think I'm having a bit of writer's block, and I thought this might help….plus I seem to like the um….odd idea =)
Disclaimer: The majority of the plot ideas are mine. Besides that, it all belongs to J.K. Rowling! Heck, she can have the plot too…Lol, not that she'd want it.
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"I almost think that there is a greater war here at Hogwarts than in the rest of the wizarding world." Dumbledore commented, sighing. He watched as McGonagall approached, looking grave.
"Albus, we have a situation."
He chuckled, but she narrowed her eyes and he looked at her seriously. "It isn't only your House, Minerva. The whole of Hogwarts is split. Only Slytherin is still together, and they stick to themselves anyway."
"What good do they think can come out of separating? My House isn't Gryffindor at all anymore! Only the Cavillors and Auscultos!"
"It's the same in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Don't think it's your fault. They don't agree on the Voldemort issues- for the most part, although you know there are other things as well- and they don't know how to deal with it. So naturally, they refuse to speak to each other anymore."
"Naturally? This isn't natural! It's absurd."
Dumbledore smiled to himself. "Lead the way, Minerva. We'll see about this 'situation', shall we?"
The corridor outside the Gryffindor common room appeared to be filled with a mob. As they came closer, they saw the whole Gryffindor House- split into two and on opposite sides, facing each other with scowls.
In the middle of the two sides were James Potter- a Cavillor, and Lily Evans- an Ausculto. The newly appointed Heads.
"We can't have a Cavillor as Head Boy!" a boy from behind Lily yelled.
At the same time, someone from James' group announced, "I say, James, get rid of this one!"
Lily and James were in the middle of a heated argument with each other, and neither of them appeared to be winning.
"I am not going to be Head with you!"
"Oh, and I suppose that you think I like the idea?"
Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly. The students stopped shouting and looked sheepish. "There will be no change in Heads. And no protesting." He said slowly, so that they heard every bit of it. "You are obliged to work together, Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans- and don't even consider the fact that you're not of the same group. The rest of you will also cooperate with each other. As far as I am concerned, there is only one group now, and there always was." He walked away.
McGonagall added, "This has gone on too long." And she was gone as well.
The Cavillors and Auscultos glared at each other for a long time, before shoving their way through the portrait hole and proceeding to gather at opposite sides of the common room. Neither group acknowledged the fact that they were sharing a room with some of their worst enemies.
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Lily Evans pulled her long and dark auburn hair into a loose ponytail. She was furious. I am not going to spend my last year at Hogwarts arguing with that- that Potter. He's not an Ausculto, so I shouldn't have to even speak with him. What was Dumbledore playing at? The Headmaster knew that the two groups of Hogwarts had been around since Lily and James had been about twelve.
Sure, at first they had started out as merely debating sides- mostly about how to handle Voldemort and bring him out of power- but now they were oh so much more. Now, they were their own Houses, in a way. Only they were student-created, and that made them more powerful.
"You alright, Lils?" Kristen asked, brushing dirty blond hair out of her face.
Lily scowled, and then sighed. "I'm not angry at you. You know that. But the whole thing makes me angry. I'm almost ready to go to Dumbledore and tell him that I refuse to work with a Cavillor."
"So do it." Selene joined in. "Go tell him."
Lily smiled and turned to her other friend. "And you should know that I'd never do that." She thought for a moment. "But you would."
Selene backed up. "Oh no- you aren't getting me into this. No way."
Lily sighed. "It was a long shot anyway."
She glanced around at the five beds in the room. There had been two other girls living with them, in first year. But when the groups, or associations, were formed, they ended up being Cavillors. It was no longer boys to the left and girls to the right. Now it was Cavillors to the left and Auscultos to the right.
She didn't know about the Cavillors, but her group still had dignity. The guys slept together, farther up into the tower than the girls. Their dorm was the only one with any empty beds at all.
"I think I'll go walk around." Lily said, rubbing her temple. "I need to think about all of this."
"Want us to come?" Kristen asked. Selene nodded too, her hazel eyes watching with interest.
"No. No, I'll catch you guys later." She left the dorm before they came up with reasons for them to come with her. She wouldn't get anything done that way.
Without knowing where she was going or why, she descended the curving stairs to the Gryffindor common room. It was a shame that they still had only one common room. What about the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Auscultos? They were more associated with her than these other Gryffindors.
She found it empty of students. First night back, so as usual everyone was upstairs getting situated. She sighed and dropped herself down in front of the roaring fire.
"I shouldn't even be talking to you now." She heard a voice hiss from behind. It was obvious who it was- she closed her eyes, attempting to force it into a dream. It wasn't working.
"What are you doing here, Potter?"
He scowled at her. "I have as much right as you do. More. I've already appealed to Dumbledore, and he won't do anything about this…situation. I hate it as much as you do, but he's up to something. He's not going to change his mind." As he spoke, Lily watched his dark hair fall into his aqua eyes and all over the place.
It was as if both of their mouths were frozen
in a scowl. It was impossible to show any other emotion in the presence of one
another. "Fine." was all Lily said.
James watched her; stared at her for
awhile. Then he simply turned around and walked back up the stairs. She watched
him leave, pretending that she didn't take notice of him at all. He's good-looking, and I hate him for it.
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She closed the door to her dorm behind her and looked up at her friends, who were sitting on one bed together and talking.
They knew her well. "Oh- you didn't run into James, did you?" Selene asked, running a hand through her black hair quickly.
Lily nodded, aggravated. "You shouldn't call him James. He's not worthy of being called on a first name basis- too familiar." She tried to say seriously, but ended up smiling.
"So is he that bad, Lily? I mean- for a Cavillor- of course."
He's cocky, immature, annoying…nice, smart, cute. "Yes. I already hate him more than before."
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Lily, Kristen, and Selene seated themselves in the exact same seats they always did in the Great Hall. It was routine. To Lily, everything from the time she woke up to her first class was routine- and sometimes after that too.
It was the Ausculto table. If someone had mentioned a Gryffindor table to any of these students, they would have scowled, remembering unwanted memories.
"Good morning, students." Dumbledore smiled, casting a glance over the room. He frowned when noticing that the tables were indeed the same. Except Slytherin- who had always stuck together. Their reasoning for that was that the Slytherin House had no interest in getting rid of Voldemort at all. All you had to do was look at 'em to figure that one out.
"So what's the first class today?" Lily asked cheerfully, munching on an apple.
"Ugh, what else but potions." Selene said, holding up a piece of parchment with her schedule mapped out on it.
"We must be the most unlucky people ever." Kristen said, shaking her head. "Not only potions- but with the Slytherins again. Not that being with the seventh year Gryffindor Cavillors is not bad enough- we're outnumbered!" she added, grinning.
"With us three, you can't be outnumbered. Right, Lily?" Selene nudged the red-head.
Lily stirred her gaze away from the Cavillor table. "Oh- yes, right."
Her two best friends gave her a strange look. "Yeah- let's go, then."
They made their way down into the dungeons, and Lily noticed that James Potter and his three ridiculous friends were following them. Well, I guess I should be fair. I guess they aren't following us, exactly. They have to go to potions too. She cringed at the thought. She had to do it every year, but somehow it seemed worse every time.
They entered the cold dungeons, shivering and spotting Professor Jenkins at the head of the classroom. He might have been one of the first potions professors to not be head of the Slytherin House. Lily and her friends didn't like him either way.
"Soo…Rrright…" he said, drawling his words out boringly. It was impossible to pay attention in that class. And Lily would have slept, but every time that had happened, she would feel stubs (Jenkins had injured his fingers way back when) shaking her shoulder. Something about feeling half of a finger on her shoulder creeped her out.
"Today we'll be making a new kind of potion- a Nimbus potion. Bit of a fun one- all it really does is generate a rain cloud over your head when you drink it. Lasts for about 5 hours with the normal dose, but it depends on how much you drink. Now turn to page 104 in your books, if you will."
Lily groaned and set her book down heavily on the table, turning it to the right page and laying her head down.
"I don't know how you got Head Girl if you refuse to stay awake in-" Kristen tried to whisper in her ear.
A loud rumbling sounded from somewhere. Lily's head popped up. She couldn't figure out whether it was coming from the ceiling or the wall or what.
"Er-" Professor Jenkins didn't appear to have any idea either.
Suddenly, the wall containing the door out began to collapse. Shards of stone and rubble flew everywhere, and the noise was louder than anything Lily had heard before.
"Get out of the way!" Jenkins yelled, taking cover under his desk. The students were darting across to the wall with the windows- the only place that seemed safe- at the moment. James and his friends were still standing on the other side, frantically trying to pull something out of the subsiding wall.
Lily groaned, watching as the wall began to slip slowly at first, then faster, towards them. James' three friends noticed, and scampered back a little, trying to pull James with them. But he was still looking; he didn't glance up. He got a full blow in the face before his friends came back and pulled him away, panting. He was unconscious.
Lily shook her head. The idiot. You don't just stay under a collapsing wall. I wonder what he was looking for, anyway…
The rumbling stopped for a moment, and they all sighed in relief. And then, something loud was happening in the potions storeroom, which was adjoined to the classroom and rather large.
Professor Jenkins sprung up. "Everybody up- come help me with this! There's valuable stuff in there!" He glanced at James quickly. "Miss Evans, I'll require that you stay with him, since you're Head Girl. The rest of you- come on!"
Lily looked horrified as everyone ran out on her. She found herself alone, glanced back at James, and groaned. The raven-haired boy was sprawled out, his head leaning against the cold floor. She knelt beside him and scowled.
"Why do you have to be so stupid?" One of her fingers brushed back his unruly hair, revealing a deep gash. "Darn you." She pulled out her wand- which was amazing still clean, when everything else was covered in a thick layer of dust.
Muttering a spell, his cut healed quickly. She watched a moment, coming up with every bad thing she could possibly say to him when he awoke. Why do I always have to be the one? Couldn't one of your stupid friends have stayed behind? I'm bored already…and class should be getting out soon.
"Students and Professor Jenkins." Dumbledore's voice floated into the room magically. Lily turned her head in all directions, confused and looking for him. "I am outside all of this rubble, and so is the other staff. We're having- er- difficulties cleaning it up." There was a pause. You could almost hear the smile in his voice.
"Our magic ways don't seem to be having any effect. That means we'll be forced to use Muggle ways of cleaning this up. Which takes longer. Sadly, that means that you are all stuck down there until tomorrow morning, when we should be about done." He paused again, while Lily fumbled nervously with a button on her robe.
"We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience. But there are two rooms down there- if I am not mistaken- the classroom and storage room, which is quite large. To sleep tonight, you may split up into Slytherin and Gryffindor, or boys and girls, whichever you feel works better. In the mean time, I'm sure it won't be so bad. We'll be back with more news as soon as possible. Thanks for cooperating."
Lily looked dismayed. As if we have a choice. She scrunched her forehead up. At least she could blame it all on James when he woke up. But honestly, half a day and a night with the Cavillors and Slytherins? It was a nightmare come true.
Selene came back through the storage room door. "This is horrible." Lily nodded.
"But what do we do with him?" Kristen asked, joining them and nudging James.
"Well…" Lily tapped her chin thoughtfully.
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A/N: You read the whole thing! I'm happy! Let's try for thirty reviews? Lol- J/K!! But please do review if you can- I want to know if you guys like this.