Chapter Six:
"She'd make a wonderful Christmas present, don't you agree?" The Dark Lord questioned Bellatrix, red eyes shining bright despite the dim lighting.
Her dark eyes lit up at the idea of having a new plaything as early as Christmas day. What a wonderful holiday it would be!
"Of course, My Lord." She agreed quickly, thinking of ways to get the new deadline. She could send an owl, but where would be the fun in that?
Bellatrix thought for hours, long and hard, after the meeting with Lord Voldemort before finally deciding what she'd do. Now hopefully her dear brother-in-law still kept the habit of keeping vials of Polyjuice potion around...
-
“I'll talk to her about dropping two of her classes, Severus” Dumbledore replied to Severus' concern that his daughter would not be able to handle so much training.
It would take a toll, Severus knew, and that in turn could effect her performance and her concentration. Classes such as Care of Magical Creatures were not a necessity. Lillith needed to know how to protect herself, not how to touch a blast-ended screwt!
Professor Snape swept out of the Headmaster's office like a bat out of hell before descending to the dungeons. He had a lot of work to do and potions to sort out before the end of the week when Lillith would finally become her animagus.
=====================
After three hours of nonstop animagus lessons, I was nearly dead on my feet. My eyelids demanded to be shut, but I couldn't do that just yet. Thoughts were flying much too fast through my mind for me to be able to sleep.
Why would the Headmaster, McGonagall and Father all want me to become an animagus?
What was so important that I would need all these extra lessons?
I knew one thing, my calendar was booked solid for the next two months! I'd have no time for anything at all!
I had Occlumency and/ Legimency lessons Mondays, Tuesdays and every weekend.
Animagus lessons Wednesdays and Fridays plus extra Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays!
There was literally no downtime for me and I knew that I'd have to sleep every chance I could if I planned to be able to keep up with my regular lessons as well as all the extras. Hopefully I wouldn't fall too far behind, I'd hate to have to repeat an entire year of classes.
A pair of footsteps sounded throughout the corridors along with a raspy meow.
“A student out after curfew... Headmaster will not be pleased...” Filch's voice filtered through my cluttered mind. I turned to look behind me and grimaced at his grimy features.
“I was with Professor McGonagall.”
“No point in lying, girl! I'll have to take you to your head of house, come along...” I followed behind Filch's hunchbacked state with his cat, Mrs. Norris trailing behind. I knew there was no point in arguing, plus I also knew of his torture dungeons and despite them being illegal, I didn't want to take the chance of being the first to try it out in years.
“What is the meaning of this?” McGonagall scowled as she opened the door to Filch's banging and ushered us in before slamming the door.
“Found this one wandering the halls, Professor.”
“Of course she was! She's just come from my office!” Though her voice never raised, I could sense the anger rolling off of her in waves, not to mention the pure agitation!
“Lillith dear, why don't you head up to bed.” I was ushered out of the room and as I walked down the corridor, I could vaguely make out the arguing of Minerva McGonagall and Argus Filch.
* * *
My eyes were dry when I woke up to the sound of cheering the next morning and I had to work to make them open. They burned as did my throat while my body throbbed uncomfortably. I stood up, wobbling for a moment as the dorm room seemed to spin and my stomach clenched. I stumbled in a blind rush towards the washrooms before emptying my guts into a spare toilet.
Thank Merlin I made it in time, I thought to myself as I stayed bent over the ceramic bowl for a few more moments.
“Are you all right?” The familiar voice of Hermione questioned as she wrapped her arms around my waist, supporting my body as it staggered slightly. Her fluffy brown hair tickled my nose and I turned away to sneeze before nodding in answer to her question.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” I murmured before I moved away from her helpful embrace. “So what's the noise downstairs for?”
“The Quidditch tryouts are over. Ron, Ginny, Demelza Peters, Katie Bells, Drake Coote and Noir Peakes got chosen! Ron was brilliant, by the way, nobody can say that Harry chose him just for simply being best mates!” Hermione gushed, her eyes sparkling. I couldn't help but to grin at the obvious signs of love in her voice and eyes.
The only one in the group Hermione had just mentioned that I hadn't heard of would be Demelza...
I quickly got dressed and ready to head down while Hermione turned away, talking all the while. With the pair of pants I'd come to Hogwarts in and a large T-shirt that I'd somehow managed to talk Harry out of (one of his cousins, apparently) we both made our way down to the Common Room.
“Lily!” A voice called out, barely heard over the yells that surrounded me. I turned around, towards the voice only to be tackled, picked up and spun around. Ron's eager, almost unbearably happy face crowded my vision, but I still managed to catch a glimpse of Hermione's jealousy.
I laughed, though the spinning didn't help my original dizziness at all and begged to be set back down, only instead to be carried all the way over towards Harry and what I assumed to be the new Quidditch team.
Drake Coote smiled at the sight of Ron and I as did Katie and Noir. Harry smiled before turning away and staring at Ginny Weasley who seemed to not even notice that her long time crush was now crushing on her... and the one who I thought to be Demelza had my blood boiling.
I definitely remembered her now that I'd seen her face.
-Flashback-
~Yeah, Dumbledore asked every teacher at Hogwarts to adopt me, but only the very last one agreed to it~ I explained, as I told them how Trelawney didn't want to adopt me.
“Who was it, Lil?” George questioned after a few awkward and rather uncomfortable minutes.
I didn't write the name down immediately, too scared that my new and only friends would hate me if I told them. It was obvious that they all disliked Snape greatly, so would they dislike me as well for being his adopted daughter? I had not thought that far into the future when I began talking about my being adopted...
“Well?”
Everyone's eyes were focused on me, awaiting my answer. They all wanted to know, even the single student who had been so obviously eavesdropping on us. I breathed deeply, trying desperately to calm my nerves.
~Severus Snape~
Everything seemed to go silent, and time seemed to extend to years though in actuality is was only several seconds, and my heart felt as though it could break through my ribcage from how hard it pounded. Nobody moved, nor did they breathe it seemed.
Just as suddenly as it had begun, time restarted and the twins scooted closer to me.
“Wow, that must really suck. I couldn't stand it if he were my father,” some girl behind me voiced her unwanted opinion. I turned to glare at her, feeling the need to stand up for the man who actually adopted me, unlike every other teacher here.
~He's better than any other Professor here~ I stated, showing the pad of paper to her.
“He's an arse. He's rude and mean as well!” I barely reigned in my temper, but only just. My fist wanted to pound into her face...badly.
~At least he adopted me! No other would! That in itself shows he has more heart than any other here~
“...or maybe you're just as pathetic as he is and he simply felt sorry for you,” she taunted.
Flinching away from her words, I easily recalled my father saying much the same thing when I was eleven.
The girl giggled as if I had done the most funny thing in the world but what happened next I never saw coming...
All I knew was that suddenly the girl was on the floor with Hermione atop her and the stranger had a mysteriously broken nose, though by the smug look Hermione carried, her hand had delivered the punch that had broken it.
I felt my eyes widen at the bushy haired girl who had stood up for me twice in a single day.
-Flashback End-
“My, My... if it isn't Miss Lillith Snape,” Demelza sneered, and I jerked around as every other student stared at the two of us.
Demelza had just let the secret out of the bag! Nobody but my friends and the Professor's knew about Snape being my adoptive father, but now...
I could already hear the whispers taking off, circling through the Common Room. Students were shooting me un-surreptitious looks and glares. The only eyes that weren't on my body were that of my friends who glared at Demelza and stood beside me protectively.
“I-I should go,” I muttered, shaking off my dizziness and running to escape the eyes that followed wherever I went. My vision swam, and I felt like I could drown in the tears that threatened to escape my barrier. Nobody would ever treat me the same again besides Harry, Hermione and Ron...perhaps even Draco, though I'd not seen him hardly at all.
My head spun, my knees shook and my stomach lurched once again. Thankfully I'd already made it outside so I didn't have to worry about dirtying the corridors.
Afterwards, I walked towards the Quidditch field and plopped down in an empty seat on the stands. For once the sun shone brightly, warming my seemingly frozen skin. Despite the warmth it provided I still shivered and my teeth chattered. Why was it so cold?
“Lily!” I turned to see the bright eyes of Blaise Zabini and smiled lightly before waving him over. “What are you doing out here? ...Do you have a sunburn?” Blaise chuckled.
“No..I just came our here a couple of minutes ago.” I answered the second question, though I didn't for the first one. Blaise stared at me and I shook my head lightly as my eyes became unfocused and in one smooth motion, Blaise reached over and grabbed hold of me. The dizziness had swept over me with the quick movement of my head, and I'd nearly fallen off the Quidditch stands... thank Merlin that Blaise was there.
His wrist lifted to rest against my forehead, then both my cheeks and finally my neck.
“You're extremely hot, Lily!” He exclaimed as he wrapped his arm around my waist. “Come on, I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey.” He easily lifted me up as if I weighed no more than a toddler and slowly we made out way back into Hogwarts.
I coughed, feeling my throat burn horribly and I felt like crying. My entire body just hurt so bad, it reminded me of when I lived with the Deacon's and I was left to deal with my supposed 'father'.
We walked as quickly as was possible towards the Hospital Wing, and it must have looked odd to most. A Slytherin helping a Gryffindor, and I hoped that helping me wouldn't ruin his reputation or make him lose any friends.
“You could let me go Blaise, you shouldn't be seen with me,” I muttered quietly so that the other students had no chance of healing.
Blaise grinned, his bright teeth coming out of hiding before he shook his head. “What kind of friend would I be if I did something like that, huh?”
The rest of the way, neither of us spoke, instead just doing our best to stay upright and not fall over. My legs felt like they were weighed down by lead, making me stumble and stagger even with Blaise's help.
Once in the hospital wing, Blaise left to go find Madam Pomfrey after setting me on a one of the clean, crisp white beds.
* * *
“Tsk Tsk, dear. You've not been taking good care of yourself! Working too hard and not eating nearly enough! You, girl, need to relax desperately before you send yourself into a stress-induced coma!”
I sat through Pomfrey's long-winded speech about health, stress and management with a blank face but listening ears. She was right, I needed to relax, but I didn't have the time for that! I had my regular classes, extra classes and my friends. There just...wasn't enough time in the day!
“Yes ma'am.” I agreed with her easily, though I knew I wouldn't have the chance to relax. However Pomfrey seemed to believe me easily enough and sent me on my way with a fever-reducing potion and a sleeping-draught.
“What did she have to say?” Blaise asked as I was released from the Hospital Wing, he had obviously been waiting for me...
“Just a cold,” I lied before letting him walk me back to Gryffindor dormitories.