[1] Exie Attia is one of the Boys ✓ | LILY EVANS

Chapter Thirty Two

Exie shot Peter a sympathetic grimace, "Oh dear, what happened?"

"Well, after we stumbled across one of the explosives I ran and didn't realise you hadn't all followed. So I went back to look for you but got lost in a crowd going the other and when I tried to push my way out, I fell down the stairs and twisted my ankle!" He gave the girls on either side a relieved smile which was not returned, "I'm so glad you two found me or I would have been there all night, probably blown to pieces!"

At this, Marlene scoffed, "Oh really, Peter, because from where we were stood it looked like you tried to push a bunch of third years girls out of the way who were just waiting for a friend before going down the stairs! Bet you weren't expecting them to push back - "

"That is not true!" Peter stammered, looking almost on the verge of tears.

There was no sympathy in Marlene's eyes as she shot him an evil side eye, "Some Gryffindor you are."

"I was scary, please stop being so mean!"

"Marlene, stop, this isn't helping," Mary said flatly, "That's only what the terrorists want more of, friends turning on friends but not my watch..."

"You know what else isn't helping? Him slowing us down, we'd be outside and have found the others by now if we didn't have him literally weighing us down."

"The others..." Exie realised the girls could hopefully provide some answers, "Do you know where Lily is? I saw you all together earlier."

"Not for a little while, actually we were hoping she'd found you," Mary admitted sheepishly, "We were all on the second floor near the Charms classroom when one of them went off right at the end of the corridor! She suddenly said she'd seen something, we assumed maybe it was you guys and then bolted off in the opposite direction before we could stop her!"

"Wait, you saw one of them go off?" Sirius pounced on it, "Did it look like a Firework?"

"Come to think of it yes, it did actually. Honestly, it was all a bit anti-climatic given all the hype, doubt that measly thing could have hurt anyone," Marlene sniggered, "It was so weird, it just began to spark then sort of rebounded off the wall. You know how fireworks are usually so cool and huge, this one just kind of exploded a bunch of measly white and green sparks."

"It looked like a shape of some kind," Mary admitted, "You know like those ones that make hearts in the sky. I thought it was going to become a cloud or a flower - "

"A white flower," Remus breathed, "A Lily... she must have figured it out. Mary, Marlene, how long ago was this?"

"I'm not sure," Mary pondered thoughtfully, checking her watch "Oh wow, it's only been about five minutes, time really does feel weird when things get crazy."

The boys and Exie exchanged a look: this was a lead. Even if they only found Lily, right now she was the best way of finding their missing friend and it would be good to check she was all okay too.

"Thank you so much," Sirius called back as the three of them all bolted off back upstairs once more.

"Hey wait, what are you going? What about me?!" Peter called.

Although she knew first hand how nasty it was to feel left out, they needed to act fast and with his twisted ankle, Peter would admittedly be a hindrance.