Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Thirty-One

"Well it certainly wasn't a joke about milk," Rudy said, standing up.

"Salty, Rudy," Lily said.

"I thought the word "salty" was one of Hugo's many shticks," Eli said. "You might not want to say that in front of him, or he might get mad."

"Because of the hair?" Lily asked, trying to hold in a laugh.

"Because of the hair," Eli said, breaking out into a laugh. "But we all know how possessive Hugo gets over his shticks."

"Hey, I'm his cousin, and in his absence, I can take over his numerous shticks," Lily said. "Now enough of this, let's just get out of this lovefest common room and go get some breakfast."

"Aren't we going to wait for Hugo?" Rudy asked as Lily led the way to the portrait hole.

"Wherever he went, he obviously didn't wait for us," Lily said. "Plus, I'm pretty hungry right now."

"Such a very Hugo thing to say," Eli said, ducking out of the portrait hole. "In all seriousness, where do you think he actually went?"

Lily shrugged, "No clue. Maybe he did go down for breakfast early like Rudy said."

"It's a possibility," Eli said as the three started down the stairs.

"Hugo's a strange kid," Lily said, shaking her head, her orange bob swaying above her shoulders.

The three continued to hypothesize about Hugo's possible whereabouts on their way down to the Great Hall.

"Young ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make."

As the three young Gryffindors entered the Great Hall, they quickly took seats at the end of the Gryffindor table as Professor Slughorn had taken to the podium at the front of the hall. All of the students in the hall stopped talking and turned toward Slughorn.

"What's going on?" Eli asked, his voice quiet as he slipped into his seat.

"Don't know," Lily said, looking up to Slughorn.

"It has come to my attention that some of my very expensive and very rare potion ingredients have gone missing," Slughorn said.

"Not again," Rudy said, shaking his head. "Who would steal from Slughorn?"

"I don't have the slightest," Lily said, still paying attention to the potion professor.

"Whomever stole my ingredients will be found out, and I will make sure that you are punished accordingly," he said, nodding and stepping down from the podium.

"What if it's Neoma's Trance?" Rudy asked.

"Relax, Rudy, it's not Neoma's Trance," Eli said.

"But what if it is?" he insisted.

"Like Eli said, relax," Lily said. "It isn't. I haven't seen a light out of my window, and no one's gone missing, Rudy. There's no way it's Neoma's Trance."

"Guys!"

Lily looked up from her panicked friends to see Cassie raced through the open Great Hall doors. She stopped, putting her hands down on the wooden table as she tried to catch her breath.

"Cassie, what's wrong?" Lily asked, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"You have got to see this," she said.

"What are you talking about?" Eli asked. "We haven't even eaten yet."

"Breakfast can wait. You seriously have to see this, you guys," Cassie said.