❝ he and i are closer than friends, we are enemies linked together, the same sin binds us ❞ | in which lilium snape is bound to harry potter by fate, destined to stand on either side of a war that will soon be waged. she is cursed by prophecy, or so...
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ACT ONE, chapter fifteen : cannot sleep, cannot think demons eating away at me
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While the quartet made plans, Lili had plans of her own.
She would not be going to sleep, under any circumstances.
Her sleeping patterns had never been particularly normal or even remotely healthy (nightmares and the like), but she had never actively avoided sleeping. Most often, it simply refused to come. But this time, she needed to stay awake — in case the Voice came back. Harry would sleep. She would make sure he would sleep, and he was well taken care of. But not Lili. She would be on guard, prepared, ready to hunt the Voice down the second she heard it.
She started on the weekend which seemed like as good a time as any.
One night. Two nights. Three nights.
She was going strong. She could do it. She simply had to occupy herself.
She drew in the margins of her textbooks. She organised and reorganised (and reorganised again) the clothes in her trunk, making an inventory because it seemed like a good thing to do. A good thing to keep track of, to keep her awake. Three robes, four pairs of slacks, four plaid skirts, seven shirts, two pairs of tights, one pair of black jeans, two hair ribbons, two red and gold ties, one black knit hat, one black scarf, three pairs of thick black boots...
Soon, she grew bored of this.
Desperate for any and all kinds of distraction, she turned her focus onto her assignments. She felt like Hermione, working endlessly on schoolwork to keep her mind busy.
She started exercising, like the Muggles did. Running in place. Push ups. Sit ups. Her spine bruised, turning black and blue, and she didn't stop even when it hurt. If anything, the pain helped.
She spent hours in the showers, turning her face up to the spray, letting the water run so hot that it burnt her skin a brilliant bright red.
She kept her hair loose from her plaits so she could keep hair ties on her wrists. Without fail, she continued losing them; these were the last two she had left. So, she used one to snap against the soft skin of her wrist. The sting kept her awake. Snap. Snap. Snap. This skin, too, was beginning to bruise purple and blue, but that was fine. It was a happy change to the faded black Mark a bit higher on her arm.
Still, there was no Voice to be heard.
When Monday came round, something very weird started happening.
Well, not just some—thing, many things actually.
It started in Potions class.
Paired with Hermione, it was Lili's job to collect the ingredients as she was rather an expert at finding the best of the best. But the problem was, her body wasn't cooperating. The girl stood in the storeroom and glared long and hard at her feet, forgetting what she was supposed to grab, forgetting what she was even doing in here.
