Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Thirty-Two

"You and everyone else," Addie said, looking up at Lily. "Romy likes to be reckless and let people in when we should be keeping them out."

"Some people think that's a good thing to do," Lily said. "You know, letting people in."

"Not when you're a Sanger," Addie said, shaking her head. "Can we just start this ridiculous session already? I just want to get back upstairs."

"Well, if you don't want me to teach you, then you can be my guest and go," Lily said, crossing her arms. "I'm trying to give you a chance."

"By telling me that you like my sister more than you like me?" Addie asked, putting her hands on her hips. "That was a nice chance for you to give me, Potter."

"Look, you've hated me since the first time we met, but your sister has been nice enough to try and get to know me," Lily said. "I've been nothing but decent to you, so I don't know what your deal is, Addie."

"I can't tell you what my deal is," Addie said, looking down and toying with her necklace. Lily watched the pendant twist around and around Addie's finger. "And I wouldn't want to tell you in the first place."

"What do you have against me?" Lily asked, throwing her hands in the air. "I haven't done anything wrong to you or your sister."

"I know that you and your stupid friends are up to something; it's like you're trying to sniff something out about Romy and me," Addie said, standing from her chair. "I don't know what you six are trying to get out my sister and me, but I don't like it."

Lily bit the inside of her cheek, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Addie said, narrowing her eyes and giving Lily a thin smile. "Don't try and play stupid with me. It's not going to work. I can see right through you. You aren't a good liar."

"We aren't up to anything," Lily said, ready to keep her lies going. "Is there something that we should be trying to find out about you and your sister?"

"I can't say that I know what you're trying to get at," Addie said with shrug, looking straight into Lily's eyes.

"You're the one who brought it up in the first place," Lily said, leaning in and looking right back at Addie. Lily was never one to back down.

The two redheads stood there for minutes on end in silence, staring at each other over the table. Neither planned on backing down or even blinking. They only dropped eye contact when their heads snapped toward the back of the Potions dungeon simultaneously after hearing footsteps approaching outside. Quickly, Lily ran around to the opposite side of the table, sitting down next to Addie as fast as possible. As much as Lily didn't like Addie, she wasn't ready to get in trouble for not tutoring her. Lily refused to have a detention caused by Addie.

"Now, you really need to make sure you follow this step here exactly," Lily said, pulling Addie's open textbook over and pointing at a random step. "If you don't, the entire potion will end up blowing up in your face. This is the one place that you can't cut corners."

"See that's the step I didn't think that I had to pay special attention to," Addie said, playing along. Addie grabbed her quill and circled the random step to which Lily had been pointing. "The next time we make this potion in class, I'll be sure to pay attention when I get to that step."

Despite their previous disagreement, the girls knew that they had to work together to pretend that they had in fact been hard at work and not fighting for the entire time that they had been left alone.

"Have you made any progress, ladies?" Professor Slughorn asked, looking through a stack of papers as he entered the classroom.

"We really have made so much progress in just a short amount of time," Addie said. "It's amazing how clearly Lily can explain these things to me."

"Glad to hear it," Slughorn said, walking by.

As he passed by the girls, a paper fell from the stack in his arms onto the open book in front of Lily. Before she spoke up, Lily noticed that it was a list of different magical artifacts scribbled down in black ink. It didn't take Lily long to realize what the list really meant.

"Professor, is this a list of all of the things that have been stolen?" Lily asked, wanting an affirmation from him.

Slughorn looked down at the list Lily held in her hand, "Perceptive just like your father, Miss Potter."

"So that's a yes?" Lily asked, hoping that he'd give her a solid confirmation.

He nodded as Lily handed over the list to him, "It's an unfortunate yes at that. I've never seen thievery like this in all of my years here at Hogwarts."

"Wow," Lily said, the gravity of Slughorn's words hitting her. "That's insane, sir. I can't believe someone would try to steal all of those artifacts."

"Those artifacts will gain the thief a pretty penny," Slughorn said. "All of those artifacts sold together for their actual price could result in a small fortune."

"Do you have any idea who did it?" Lily asked, genuinely wanting to know if the mystery had been solved. "You have to catch them somehow."

"We're trying our best, but we've had no luck so far," Slughorn said. "Like I said before, it's very unfortunate."

"Before my sister and I left for Hogwarts, our mother told us that our father told her that it was the safest place on earth," Addie spoke up. "I didn't think that that statement would be wrong."

"Adeline, what are you going on about?" Slughorn asked. Lily was relieved that she wasn't the one that had to ask the question.

"If Hogwarts was safe, then this stealing wouldn't happen," Addie said, standing from her seat. "That's a fact, Professor Slughorn."

"Hogwarts is the safest place in the Wizarding World," Slughorn said. "Why would you say something like that?"

"I call things as I see them," Addie said, putting her things into her bag. "I'm straightforward like that."

Neither Lily nor Slughorn could really believe what was coming out of Addie's mouth, and the two stared after her as she left.

"I'm just going to guess that tutoring didn't go very well between the two of you," Slughorn said as the two still looked at the now empty classroom.

"What makes you say that?" Lily asked, looking up to him.

"Just a hunch."

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I'm going to skip over the usual commentary to extend my prayers and thoughts to any of you readers affected by today's attack in Brussels. I can't comprehend how this evil exists in the world; I don't understand how one human being can go into somewhere that's supposed to be safe with the intent to kill innocent people. I sincerely hope that none of you were affected by this tragedy, and if you were, I extend my deepest prayers and condolences to you and your loved ones.

-aquaseahorse