Lily Black and the Twin Souls (Book Three)

Chapter Eleven: The Fake

The following weeks passed slowly in a haze of rain and grey skies. Lily was getting restless at being cooped up inside the castle, and therefore there had been a sharp increase in the number of furious students with singing hats, or robes filled with itching powder that could be heard at all hours of the day and night searching furiously for her. Of course, none of them could find her; not even Lavendar Brown could, and they literally shared a dorm. Though, Lily supposed that wasn't being quite fair: at the time, she had been in Ash's oasis. 

When Lily wasn't pranking or spending time with Teddy, she was consumed with Quidditch. Ravenclaw had positively flattened Hufflepuff in their match, which meant that Gryffindor was not out of the running for the cup after all. And of course, that meant that Wood had made their training schedule a thousand times harsher. They had been getting up at three in the morning three days a week, only to practice in the dark and while rain poured down from above. 

It really didn't help with her grades. 

Truthfully, Lily didn't care all that much about her grades. She figured she knew enough about each of the subjects that she would pass all of her exams at the end of the year, and besides, she never had time to study anyway. Between Quidditch, detentions, and her pranking (which she could absolutely not give up), she was swamped.

Still, she couldn't find it within herself to not be who she liked to be. She liked pranking, she liked spending time with Teddy, and she liked Quidditch. She wouldn't be giving up any of them just so she could get better grades. Acceptables were perfectly fine in her book.

Thus, it was really no surprise that the first next Hogsmeade weekend crept up on her while she was busy doing exactly what she wanted to be doing. When Teddy dragged her out of bed on a Saturday of all days, she had been furious. What else were Saturdays for, if not sleeping?! But then she'd seen everyone in the common room chattering away excitedly about Hogsmeade and it was as though a switch had flipped inside of her. 

She practically flew back up the stairs to her dormitory so that she could get dressed in clothes warm enough for tramping around in the snow she could see piled up outside. She tripped at least three times in her haste to get upstairs and determinedly pretended she couldn't hear Teddy laughing at her. 

When she was finally ready after pulling on her clothes and making sure, for what had to be the millionth time, that her hair looked good in the mirror, she met Teddy at the portrait hole and they walked down to the Entrance Hall. 

But before they could get anywhere near the Entrance Hall, Teddy froze, forcing Lily to stop as well. She glanced sideways at him and he nodded towards an old classroom. 

What is it? She asked through their legilimency link.

It's Harry, Teddy thought back, sounding oddly gleeful. Harry and the twins. And guess what the twins are finally passing on?

Lily's eyes widened incredulously and her eyes shifted back towards the door to the classroom. 

Are you kidding? The map? The fake one from first year? They still haven't figured it out?

Teddy shook his head gleefully, his ever-present smile widening. It seems they aren't as smart as we'd thought. To be honest, what I'm most amazed by is the fact that your spell had held this long. I mean, honestly. Three years? Seems a bit long to me.

Lily rolled her eyes. 

You're kidding, right? Three years is nothing compared to a thousand. Or have you forgotten about the very place we stand?

Teddy raised his eyebrows and glanced around. He huffed through his nose in frustration, but eventually rolled his eyes and nodded.

You're right, I suppose. Hogwarts is, after all, one of the longest-standing magical buildings in all of Britain.

Lily grinned smugly, but they both froze when they heard three sets of footsteps suddenly approaching the door. Lily panicked and stupidly turned into Flame, leaping into Teddy's arms. Teddy himself was left frozen, staring at the door to the classroom with Lily settled in his arms as Flame. Harry and the twins appeared at the door and also froze at the sight of Teddy, leaving him to wonder just how stupid he looked. Probably very, considering Lily had forced him to wear a beanie of all things as a hat. 

"Hey..." he said, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other. 

"Hi..." Harry said back, staring scrutinizingly at Lily.

Teddy inwardly panicked. They had the rip-off version of the map, and even though it wasn't the original, it still showed where everyone was in the castle, and that included animagi. Like Lily. If Harry decided to look at the map, they were screwed. 

He forced himself to blink out of his shock and straightened, a smirk curling his lips as a piece of dark hair fell in his face. He inwardly raised an eyebrow when he spotted a faint dusting of pink on his cheeks, but chose to ignore it. 

"Hello Harry, Messrs Weasley, what might you be doing in such a strange place?" He asked so casually he might have been commenting about the weather.

"Uhh..." Harry mumbled ineloquently. "Walking?"

Teddy snorted. "You appear to be standing still. All of you."

The twins seemed to take that as a challenge and immediately began walking down the hallway in the direction of the stairs. 

"We're walking," said Fred. "See ya."

Harry and Teddy watched them walk away, and as soon as they rounded the corner, Teddy turned back to Harry.

"Are you going to Hogsmeade? I was just about to go and meet Lily there," he asked. 

Harry nodded dumbly, his face still the tiniest bit red. Teddy raised an eyebrow and Harry seemed to realize what he'd said, immediately backpedaling and shaking his head vigorously. 

"Nope, I can't. Not allowed, see." He said, nodding furiously as though trying to affirm what he was saying.

Teddy rolled his eyes, and Lily secretly did too. Harry may be good at Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration, but he was terrible at lying. He should take classes. Perhaps Snape could teach them. Now that would be entertaining. 

"You're an awful liar," said Teddy bluntly, linking the arm he wasn't using to hold Lily with through Harry's and dragging him in the opposite direction of the Entrance Hall. "We both know you're going. Come on, I know a shortcut."

And with that, Teddy Walters dragged Harry Potter off to his first ever day in Hogsmeade.