Standing before Lily and her equally shocked friends were none other than ex-Headmistress Smithers and ex-Professor Jones. After the Neoma's Trance debacle of the last school year, the two had fled Hogwarts, and Lily certainly had not expected to see them again.
"Why, little Lily Potter, it's great to see you again," Jones said, his voice sickeningly sweet through his snarling facial features. "Are you still starting fights in the halls of Hogwarts, or are you reformed now that you're Minister's little—"
"What are you two doing here?" Lily asked, a fierce edge to her voice.
"Now, now, Miss Potter, it isn't nice to interrupt," Jones said with a tsk. "We haven't gotten through the roll call."
"You know who we are," Eli said. "We know who you are. Now, tell us what in Merlin's name is going on."
Smithers, who had stood silently, spoke up, "Mr. Harris—"
"Oh no, dear sister, you've got it wrong," Jones said, playfully patting his apparent sister on her shoulder. "He's a McGonagall now. Your successor as headmistress is now his legal guardian. Isn't she such a gem?"
"Minerva McGonagall is the greatest witch of the age," Lily said. No one was going to talk poorly about her Aunt Minnie; she refused to allow it—no matter the circumstance. "What do you two want?"
"Why, to sell all of these artifacts to help finance the revolution of course," Jones said. "Die Revolution kommt."
"It was you that night in the Forbidden Forest," Hugo said. Lily detected a small waver in his voice and prayed that he would stay strong. "You were the one who chased us out of the forest when we went looking for you."
"You're working with someone else though," Eli said with a little less fear in his voice than Hugo's. "You have to be. When I was in the Forbidden Forest, the cloaked figure I saw wasn't either of you two. I didn't get the best look, but I would've recognized you two."
"Not necessarily," Jones said. "We should show them, dear sister."
"Of course, my brother," Smithers said, her voice cold.
Lily's suspicion and slight terror melted into pure shock when she watched both Headmistress Smithers' and Professor Jones' physical features morph into completely other people. Two thirty-somethings now stood in front of the group of Hogwarts students. Lily would have uttered something about her astonishment at the two Metamorphmagi standing in front of her—had she not recognized one of their new appearances.
In Smithers' place stood a woman with very familiar curly brown hair. Lily's memories flashed back to the previous school year's battle in the empty hall of Hogwarts in the dead of night. When she, James, and Al had jumped out to face the Imperiused Olivia Smith, they had been immediately hit with a powerful Reductor Curse, which had sent them flying backward. In midair, Lily had caught only a brief glimpse of the spell's caster, and it certainly wasn't the blonde-haired Olivia. It was the woman who stood before them now—she was certain of that.
"You," Lily said, breathlessly. Though she wanted to everyone around her calm, she couldn't help but voice her knowledge of the woman. "You're the one who almost killed my brothers and me last year. You cast that Reductor Curse."
She blinked, and Lily realized that Smithers—or whoever she was—hadn't realized that Lily had caught a glance of her that night.
"Wait, what?" Hugo asked.
"ENOUGH OF THIS CHATTER!" Jones yelled before turning to face the Sanger Twins to continue his sick roll call. "Adeline, Rosemarie, it's a pleasure to see you."
Lily stepped in front of the twins and felt the others do the same.
"Made friends, girls?" Jones asked, giving them a vicious smile before it faded from his face as he looked to Lily. "You all do know you're defending two vampire thieves, correct? I thought that seven fans of the great Minerva McGonagall would have better morals."
"You blackmailed them," Eli said. "You two blackmailed two eleven-year-old girls for money and all of these artifacts."
"Now, we can't help start the revolution with an empty bank account," Jones said, his hands moving theatrically and his voice in a near coo. "What better place to find our money than at Hogwarts? And what better place to get our money from two, scared, insecure, little vampires?"
"You mean that there was no better place to steal your money from," Lily said. She hated the thought of someone thinking of Hogwarts—her home—as somewhere to take advantage of people and their finances.
Smithers' head snapped to her brother, a move so sudden that it made Lily jump, "Why are we prolonging this, brother? We should just end this. After all, that's what we came here to do today in the first place."
Lily shared a worried look with Eli, who stood next to her, as the two apparent siblings argued.
She watched his lips as he mouthed, "We can't let anything go wrong."
"You wanted us to meet you here to kill us," Addie said, her words breaking the chaos in the room.
For the first time in the months Lily had known her, Addie sounded scared. The quiver in her voice. The way her word broke off at the end of her sentence.
"An astute little girl, aren't you," Jones said with a scoff. "Surprised you two weren't in Ravenclaw."
"Well, this Ravenclaw's had enough," Cassie said, taking a step forward. "You aren't killing anyone tonight. None of us are going to die tonight."
"Would you like to make a bet, little girl?" Jones asked. "Baldwin, wasn't it?"
"Let's finish this now," Smithers said, her head turning to her brother. "These children all know too much about the revolution."
"Fine, fine, let's just kill them all then," Jones said, tossing his hands in the air as he spoke.
Lily would've prepared a sort of defense, but she hadn't expected Smithers to act as fast as she did.
Within seconds of her brother's approval, Smithers pointed her wand at the floor and yelled a loud, "EXPULSO!"
The force of the explosion threw Lily and her friends backward into the stone wall above the treasure stash. Though black stars danced in her eyes, some internal force pulled Lily to her feet. She had no idea what was controlling her body, but something was, and she knew that it was probably for the best.
Jones, who was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the room, dropped his shield charm, and clapped his hands together very slowly, "Impressive, you three."
Lily looked to her sides, where Cassie and Nora were both on their feet as well; Lily could not say the same for the rest of her friend group.
"You don't think—"
"No. It can't be, dear sister," he said. "I suppose we should put it to the test though."
Lily had only barely heard the siblings' words as she was too fearful for her friends, "If any of them are dead, I swear to you that I will—"
"You will what?" Jones interrupted. "You're nothing but a pesky child. You certainly couldn't do anything about it."
The strange presence in Lily's mind drew her eyes downward on the pile of Hogwarts property, and for some unknown reason, she watched as her hand—without her control—dived into the Sorting Hat and emerged holding the Sword of Gryffindor.
"Try me," Lily said, trying to muster up her Gryffindor courage as she wielded the silver, ruby-encrusted sword before her.
Smithers' cool expression hadn't changed while Jones looked absolutely astonished as he spoke, "My, my, my! You were right, dear sister. One out of four. One out of four. Looks like you're going to be the lone survivor tonight, Miss Potter. Try it again, dear sister, but try not to hurt the Potter girl. No one will be happy if she ends up dead."
As the incantation began to leave Smithers' lips, the force inside of Lily had shot her other hand into the air as a loud, "PROTEGO" shredded through her throat. A blueish force field erupted out of Lily's wand, covering nearly the entire room—only Smithers and Jones remained on the outs. It took her a moment to realize that Cassie and Nora stood beside her, wands raised, assisting her shield charm.
When Lily turned to Smithers and Jones, it was clear that something had made their plan go awry.
"That's three out of four," Jones said, his voice almost haunted. "Three out of the four. We have to go. We must leave."
"What about the stolen goods?" Smithers asked. "Should we just leave them?"
"We have to leave," Jones said. "We can't risk killing them."
With that, the two siblings Apparated with a pop, and Lily, Cassie, and Nora let down the shield charm.
Breathless, Lily sank to her knees, the Sword of Gryffindor clanking to the stone floor, "I thought you couldn't Apparate in and out of Hogwarts."
"Something's telling me that those two don't play by the rules," Nora said, bending over with her hands on her knees.
"What were they talking about?" Cassie, who was steadying herself against the wall, asked.
Lily coughed through her scratchy throat, "We shouldn't think about that now. We have to make sure that they're all okay."
The three girls crawled over to where their six other friends were sprawled unconscious on the floor. Lily arrived at her cousin first, who had his arm bent at an ungodly angle, but still had a faint pulse. Right beyond Hugo, Cecily stirred as Cassie and Nora checked on Rudy and Addie, respectively.
Knowing her cousin was still faintly alive, Lily moved over to Eli, who was in worse shape. Blood soaked his black curls, and though Lily didn't think it possible, his pulse was considerably weaker than Hugo's. Lily's breath hitched in her throat. She wasn't supposed to let anything go wrong. She wasn't supposed to let anything go wrong. She wasn't supposed to let anything go wrong, yet it went wrong anyway.
"Rudy looks like he might be stirring, but Romy doesn't look too good," Cassie said.
"I don't know if Addie's got a pulse," Nora said, her voice cracking.
"Hugo's is weak, and Eli barely has one," Lily said as she choked out a sob.
This was her fault. Had Lily not dragged everyone along for answers, no one would be in their current state. Cecily and Rudy wouldn't be injured, and Hugo, Eli, Addie, and Romy wouldn't be on the brink of death.
"What are we supposed to do?" Cassie asked, tears spilling from her eyes.
"Come to us for help, of course."
Lily looked up and was surprised to see the Hogwarts professors standing in the doorway, led by Headmistress McGonagall herself.
"How did you—"
"It didn't take long for us to realize that you had taken three of our boats, Miss Potter," Headmistress McGonagall said. "We are going to have a long discussion in my office, Lily."
"Yes, Headmistress," she said.
Though Lily should have been terrified of a lecture from Headmistress McGonagall, she couldn't be. Headmistress McGonagall had arrived with the other professors to help. Maybe not everything would go wrong after all.
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Two updates in one day? Yes indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for reading, voting, commenting, and sharing as per usual!!!!!!!!! You are all the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Be sure to let me know what you think is going on with Smithers and Jones and what you think could be in story for the revolution in the next books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm telling you: it's going to be a very interesting ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-aquaseahorse