Lily Black and the Twin Souls (Book Three)

Chapter Eight: Accusations

More people than Lily would have hoped turned immediately to look at her accusingly. For once, she did not crack a joke, did not smile, did not try to cheer people up. Instead, she stood there quietly, her eyebrows furrowed and her lip between her teeth.

She wanted to know why Dadfoot had just done that. Why had he attempted to break into the  Gryffindor common room? She figured it had something to do with the rat, but she couldn't figure out what had made him so suddenly reckless that he thought it was a good idea to break into the castle on Hallowe'en.

And then it hit her like the Knight Bus. 

It was Hallowe'en.

Halloween as in the day that Lily and James Potter had been murdered by Lord Voldemort — she wasn't in the mood to call him Tommy, not even in her head — and the day that Peter Pettigrew had given away the Potters' location. 

It made sense, it really did. He must have been overcome by grief and anger and let his emotions get the best of him. It was too obvious really, why hadn't she thought of that before? It wasn't like her conclusion would really do anything other than make herself feel better though. 

She couldn't just tell everyone that her father had broken into the castle because he was feeling emotional. 

Yeah...no one was going to buy that. Except perhaps Teddy and Dumbleduck.

She did her best to ignore the whispers and the accusing glares from her classmates as Teddy wrapped an arm around her and led her through the corridors with the rest of the Gryffindors to the Great Hall. As soon as they entered, Teddy pulled her over to a corner and they sat down on a pair of squishy purple sleeping bags. 

"Are you alright, Flame?" He asked quietly.

Lily nodded unconvincingly and Teddy gave her a pointed look that made her sigh.

"It's going to get so much worse, isn't it?" She asked him, her voice uncharacteristically quiet.

Teddy sighed and wrapped his arms around her comfortingly.

"It'll get worse before it gets better, yes, but we both know Padfoot is innocent. Once everyone else realizes that too, they'll realize how horrible they've been to you and you can decide whether to forgive them or not." He said.

Lily smiled sadly. She knew he was right, she just wished everyone would stop being such pricks. It wasn't like she was the one who had killed all of those people, it hadn't even been Dadfoot to do it, so why was she getting blamed by her peers?

She supposed it was just a reminder that the world was unfair, not that she needed one. After all, she'd had three parents die on her and the remaining one was a wanted fugitive on the run from soul-sucking demons. Yes, she was well aware that the world wasn't a fair place.

So why was she constantly being reminded of it?

Eventually, Lily fell asleep curled up next to Teddy, who seemed the only one who wasn't glaring at her accusingly or whispering about her with his friends. She had never been more thankful to have a best friend like him.

✧✧✧

Over the next several days, Lily spent less and less time around people who weren't Teddy. The stares and whispers and accusing looks were painful to witness, let alone be on the receiving end of. She ended up spending a lot of her time with Ash and Maurader in Ash's oasis. When she wasn't in Ash's oasis or with Teddy, she was in her fox form, trotting around the castle. 

People didn't glare at her when they didn't know she was her. 

She ended up in Moony's office a lot in her fox form. At first, he had been highly suspicious of her, still thinking she might be an animagus, but he eventually discarded those suspicions and Lily was quite sure he liked her in fox form. She still found it hilarious that he didn't know who she was or even that she wasn't a fox.