For a week, Lily pondered on the incident in the library. Like Hugo had said, it had been something else, and Lily knew it as she replayed the afternoon over and over again in her mind. Cassie and Nora knew that it was something else, too. Although everyone knew that that shield charm in the library had been something unprecedented by second year standards, no one could seem to pinpoint just what that mysterious thing was. As frustrated as it made Lily to let the problem go, she did. She had other mysteries to solve and refused to be sidetracked any longer—except for serving a Saturday detention in the owlery.
"I told you that this would be disgusting," Eli said, throwing a sponge in a bucket of hot, soapy water. "Owls poop everywhere. This is quite possibly the worst punishment in the history of Hogwarts."
Lily had to agree with her friend wholeheartedly. They had been in the owlery for half an hour, and the six friends hadn't even made a dent in the cleaning job ahead of them due to their not being allowed to utilize magic—that was part of the punishment.
"It's not that bad," Cassie said.
Everyone groaned in response. Anytime anyone made a single, warranted complaint, no matter how minuscule, about the disgustingness that was the poopy owlery, Cassie always retorted with the same four words: it's not that bad.
Now, Lily absolutely loved Cassie and admired her friend's determination to make a career out of studying owls, but even Lily couldn't understand how Cassie seemed to be enjoying their detention of scrubbing poop off of the floors and walls.
"You know what?" Hugo said, looking down from where he stood on the owlery's winding staircase to Lily and the other four second years in the room.
"What could you possibly want, Hugo?" Lily asked, not even bothering to look up from her scrubbing. She had been working on scrubbing this particular stain on the concrete floor for two whole minutes, and it stubbornly refused to come off of the floor. She was in no mode for one of Hugo's stupid interruptions.
"Douglas and Ike are a half an hour late," Hugo said. "We're doing an eight-person job with six people. This isn't fair."
"Hugo," Lily began, looking up at her cousin before blowing a stray hair out of her face, "I'm sure that they'll get in trouble. Let's just finish this as quickly as possible because Eli and I have Quidditch practice tonight."
"Yeah, and I want to take a shower before this because I am not going to fly around on my broom covered in owl poop," Eli added.
"Just add some feathers, and you'll be practically an owl yourself, Eli," Rudy said with a laugh.
Eli frowned, evidently not amused, and Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, it's funny. Let's just hurry up and finish this."
"I think I'm going to take my time," Nora said, looking up at her friends with a grin. "I mean, I think we should be here all night. No Quidditch practice for you."
Lily laughed, "Nora, even if Eli and I miss our practice, we're still going to crush you guys in Quidditch."
"Don't think so. I hear the Slytherin Keeper is pretty awesome this year," Nora said, giving her friends a knowing smirk.
"She's pretty cute, too," Hugo yelled down from near the top of the owlery.
Lily watched as Nora blushed and pushed a strand of her long, blonde hair out of her face.
Lily also watched Eli pretend to gag and say, "Love. Disgusting."
Lily rolled her eyes at her joking friend and smiled at the thought of Hugo finally complimenting Nora in front of the group. Although Lily realized that they were only twelve and thirteen and that the young relationship meant little, it was still nice to see her cousin and friend happy as boyfriend and girlfriend—if you could truly call them that.
"But you know what," Rudy spoke up, "I hear these two Gryffindor second year Chasers are amazing. They've been killing it out there this year apparently."
"But they aren't cute!" Hugo yelled back down.
Lily's jaw dropped as she let out a laugh, "Thanks for that, Hugo."
"You're welcome, Lil," he called out.
As Lily opened her mouth to spit another retort her cousin's way, the door to the owlery swung open with a loud screech, revealing none other than Ike Thompson and Douglas Roth.
"Look who decided to show up," Rudy muttered under his breath.
"Yeah, it was nice of you two actually to decide to join us for the detention that Headmistress McGonagall gave to all eight of us," Eli said, his voice bolder than Rudy's.
Ike scoffed and stepped into the room, Douglas following behind her, "You all deserved more than that, but because McGonagall's practically your mummy, Harris, she let you all off easy."
Knowing full well that Eli would be angry at Ike's use of his former last name, Lily turned to her friend and whispered lowly, "Eli, don't say anything. We can't afford another detention with the Gryffindor-Slytherin match coming up. James will—"
"You two thieves better shut up and start cleaning like the rest of us," Hugo yelled down, his voice practically booming off of the stone walls. Lily nearly groaned—this was not how she wanted to confront the two. "We don't want to—"
"I'm sorry. Thieves?" Ike asked as both of the Slytherin second year boys stopped. "What are you talking about, Weasley?"
"Don't act so stupid," Hugo said, putting down his bucket and beginning to walk down the stairs. "We all know what you did."
Lily finally released her once brewing groan of frustration. Sure, she was almost positive that they were responsible, but she wasn't in the mood to start a duel with the two Slytherins as it most likely would not only result in more punishment but also a nice coating of owl poop on all of the participants—Lily was not all about that.
"Hugo, let's not do this now," Cassie said, echoing Lily's thoughts.
At least someone seems to have some sense, Lily thought.
"No. They're thieves, and they're the reason why we're here," Hugo said, stopping on the bottom step.
"Are you absolutely mental, Weasley?" Ike asked. "Please tell me what Doug and I have been stealing. I'm sure we'd like to know, right, Doug?"
"Oh, absolutely," Douglas said, crossing his arms like Ike. "What have we been stealing?"
Hugo inhaled dramatically, "Well, let's see—"
"The Hogwarts artifacts," Lily said, exasperatedly by the argument. "You've been stealing the Hogwarts artifacts. All of them. The Sword of Gryffindor. The portraits. The Sorting Hat. The list goes on."
A loud laugh split through Ike's lips, "That's what you thought? Are you six bloody mad?"
Lily and her friends didn't speak.
"Why would we want to steal all of that?" Douglas asked with a shrug.
"Money," Nora answered coolly.
"Do you have any idea how rich our families are, Nott?" Ike asked. "Do any of you? Our houses are practically built out of Galleons. My Gringotts account has been filled with money that's all mine since I was an infant."
Douglas nodded, "We're old money. We don't need old artifacts to get new money."
As much as Lily would have liked to refute the two boys, they certainly did have a point, but she still had some questions, "What about all of the sneaking around?"
"What?" Ike asked, turning to look at Lily.
"I've seen you lurking around Hogwarts at all hours of the day and night," she said. "What were you two doing about two weeks ago wandering the halls in the dead of night?"
"I could ask you the same question," Ike said. "What were you doing wandering the halls in the dead of night, Potter?"
"Someone left the Gryffindor common room in the middle of the night, and I followed to see who it was," Lily said plainly as she knew honesty on her part would be the best way to find out the truth from the boys. "What about you two?"
"I think we should tell them," Douglas said after the two Slytherin friends has fallen into a silence.
"No," Ike said decidedly. "That's a bad—"
"We're failing Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, so we've been practicing our spells at night in empty classrooms without a teacher's supervision or permission," Douglas said without listening to the end of his friend's statement.
Ike was surprisingly calm on the outside about Douglas's admission, but Lily was positive that he was absolutely brewing on the inside, "Why, Doug? Why?"
"Because it's the truth," Douglas said to his friend.
"If it's the truth, then what were the two of you doing in the restricted section of the library last Saturday?" Cassie asked before Lily could get the chance. "Plan on stealing some priceless books for some rich boy fun?"
The two Slytherin boys stood silenced by Cassie's dig before Douglas answered, his voice sheepish, "Looking for books that might teach us how to cheat on our final exams."
"Learning to cheat instead of learning your lessons," Cassie said with a disgusted scoff. "Real intelligent."
"You actually believe these two, Cassie?" Hugo asked, looking across Lily to the Ravenclaw girl.
"Why would they lie?" she asked.
"Because they're thieves!" Hugo yelled back.
Hugo's fiery accusation echoed off of the walls, leaving everyone listening to his words over and over again.
Not being the center of the argument for that spare moment allowed Lily to study the two boys closely. Although she had been so certain that they were to blame, she found her certainty fading as she watched their body language and the way they interacted with one another. Unless Douglas and Ike were criminal masterminds and fantastic actors, Lily knew there was no way that those two were guilty of theft. Lily's assurance was furthered when she factored in how poor both of the Slytherin boys had performed in class. No one performing so awful in class could accomplish an obviously intelligently-planned, complex robbery.
"Lily, what do you think?" Hugo asked, suddenly concerned with the opinion of his cousin.
She took a breath, knowing full well her cousin wasn't going to like what she was about to say, "I think they're telling the truth."
"I'm sorry. What?"
"At least one of you two cousins is smart," Ike said, shooting a glare at Hugo.
"One minute please," Hugo said before walking straight toward Lily. She could barely keep from shaking her head as he pulled her to the side. "What the hell are you talking about, Lil?"
"They aren't the thieves," she said, her voice matching Hugo's whisper to simply appease him. "They aren't. Just look at them. Did you see their body languages and their reactions? And anyway, they aren't smart enough to pull off an artifact heist. I'm not even surprised that they're failing classes."
"Whatever, Lil," Hugo said. "I still think they're guilty."
Lily shrugged at her cousin's definiteness, "Fine. Think that all you want, but I guarantee it isn't true."
"Fine. Think that all you want, but I guarantee it isn't true," Hugo said, his voice high-pitched and fast.
Lily stomached Hugo's mocking, for she knew in the end that she would be correct.
-+-
Here we are! As per usual, I want to thank you all for reading! You guys are truly thee best!!
And now...for some news!!
Okay, so, my goal is to post the final part of this on July 29th as that will be two years to the day since I finished and posted Neoma's Trance. There are about ten chapters left, so I think I should be able to finish it for then! Yay!!
Also, some shameless self-promotion!!
Check out Dragonlore, Letters That Need No Postage, Happy Trails, and Ollivander if you haven't had the chance to already! I think they're pretty good, but that's me talking about my own writing...so I guess you'll have to make that call for yourself!
On that note, I guess I'll promote my other one-shots since I haven't done that in awhile...so check out Our Fearless Leader, Tainted, Candy Hearts, One Week Later, and Halloween if you haven't yet! I also think they're pretty good, and evidently, someone thought Our Fearless Leader was decent enough because it won a one-shot contest about two years ago...so yeah!! Check those out if you like this and if you've got the time!!
Alright! That's all! Don't forget to vote, comment, and share if you've enjoyed this!! I'm also curious to hear any hypotheses about what you guys think will happen in the coming chapters!! So leave those in the comments below as well if you'd like!
Thank You!!!!!!!
-aquaseahorse