Lily Potter And The Secret Bewitchment

Chapter Twenty-Four - Exam Results

Friday - and results - couldn't come quickly enough. On Wednesday, Lily and Jayla found themselves in the common room after dinner, reading two enormous copies of 'A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration' and taking notes of important points. For their new topics and projects, a lot of subjects had asked them to read and take notes on the last five chapters or so of each textbook. Lily was nearly finished, but she knew that Hugo hadn't even started.

"I can't wait for homework to be a thing of the past." Jayla sighed.

"I know," Lily replied. "I love learning, but homework is just a nuisance."

"Lily, I've been meaning to ask," Jayla said as the last person left the common room. "About the reversals." She said, leaning in meaningfully.

"What about them?" Lily whispered.

"You know what." Jayla said, and this was true. Lily knew had been puzzling over what to do. Risk her friends or the wizarding world? Tell a teacher or keep it to herself that someone was blackmailing her? What if she wasn't being blackmailed? What if it was genuinely just in her head? A thousand questions spun around Lily's head.

"I don't know what to do," Lily confessed. "But I'm going to start looking up reversals again."

"Which is slightly terrifying?" Jayla asked, and Lily looked up.

"Legilimency?" Lily asked. Jayla nodded. "What can you do with it?"

"I can read very strong thoughts. Emotions, fear especially, and dreams if I really concentrate. But it doesn't matter to me. I really hate it." Jayla turned her face away from Lily.

"Why?" Lily asked.

"It reminds me of him. Of the fact that a quarter of me is pure evil." Jayla replied, an unusual bitterness to her voice.

"I don't think so. When I took muggle science I got taught that human brains mould and change in shape, to suit their surroundings. If you want to do the right thing, you can do the right thing, and be the right sort of person." Lily said. Jayla smiled.

"I haven't thought about it like that before. I thought Hugo was the budding philosopher."

"He is." Lily agreed. "He's smart, that kid, he just doesn't apply himself to school."

"Of course he's smart, with a mother like Granger-Weasley. Children get the majority of their intelligence from their mother. That's what I learnt in muggle science!" Lily nodded.

"Does he care about exam results at all though? Do any of the boys?" Lily said, slightly despairing.

"Well, Hugo doesn't want to be chucked out, but other than that he doesn't care. George cares more than he'll tell us, and Oli always wants to pass. And yes, I did read their minds." Jayla said, in response to Lily's quizzical look.

"Do you always read minds?" Lily asked. This power seemed to be incredibly complex; more so than Lily had realised.

"I can stop my Legilimency if I really try hard. Sometimes I'll read a thought without meaning to." Jayla said. Lily tried really hard not to think what she was thinking, but the thought drifted into her mind anyway. George's feelings for Jayla.

"I know that he likes me more than just a friend." Jayla said simply. "We'll see. We're only young, Lily. I don't want any relationship that isn't going to last." Lily considered this; she realised Jayla was right. Lily pushed her own feelings aside. What was right for her friendships was the best way to go.

"You're so right. Best for everyone."

***

The long-awaited exam results eventually came. On Friday at dinner, the headmistress made an announcement.