academic curiosity

"Lily..." Alia was calling for the fourth time down the corridor just before breakfast.

"Hold it, I´m trying to find a quill that hasn´t been smashed up into a million pieces!" Lily grumbled. Albeit, the reason her two finest quills were ruined was because she had dropped her bag off the side of a moving stair case three stories while also trying to eat a muffin (It hadn´t escaped Frank Longbottom to suggest that stuffing her face was the cause of it all). It landed on a stone spear wielded by a statue of Newt Scamander, ripped, and then smacked a huge Hufflepuff seventh year in the head for good measure, just in case not everything inside had been covered in the color changing ink that she would never buy again after this whole experience.

"Lily, have you seen the Prophet this morning?" Alia continued to say. When it came to news and people who hadn´t heard it yet Alia Bashir was shockingly perseverent.

"No. Why?" Lily asked, still fishing for a quill that was in tact, occasionally whipping out her wand to suck up inky goo her text books was swimming in.

"Rosses Point was attacked last night. By You-Know-Who´s lot. There´s a photo of the Dark Mark above the scene," she said, letting Lily snatch the newspaper out of her hand.

"Here, please have this coffee," Alia pushed a cup at her as they sat across from each other in the Great Hall. Lily took a big gulp and made a face. "Needs cream or something, could you?" Alia obliged, while doing so she turned to look at Longbottom and Potter who were still laughing about the muffin related mishap as they came in the the Great Hall. They looked as if they were going to try and sit near the girls, but one carefully directed glare from Lily had them realizing this was not a good idea and they sat at the far end, chuckling over their breakfast.

"It says that seven muggles were killed!" Lily moaned, absorbing the article with dismay. "This is right near where my grandmother lives! Well, I should say lived... She died last summer."

"Sorry to hear it, but have you read the list of names of wizard deaths yet? And have you got to the part about possible suspects that have been put into custody all the way in Azkaban pending trial?"

"They´re throwing suspects into prison before their trial? Has the blasted Ministry lost all sense of decency? Democracy..." Lily cried angrily so that a group of first years next to them jumped. "Right out the window! Fabulous work, Bagnold!"

Millicent Bagnold was the Minister for Magic, and generally Lily liked her. But she definitely had some failings and dealing with the war was one of them in popular opinion. Though, to be fair, most people did not deal with warfare that suddenly began raging in their homeland well.

"Yes, yes, yes..." Alia soothed patiently. "Now keep reading..."

Lily read on as best as she could while still in the heat of her initial anger. But her eyes stopped when they reached the names of casualties.

"Elaine Philips?" Lily sighed in disbelief.

Alia´s eyes blazed like coals. "The one and only... And here we always wondered what had become of her! It seems she was doing something for the Ministry all this time. She must have had some sort of inside information... The kind that got the whole Quietus family blotted out."

Elaine and Nico Quietus had been Ravenclaw girls in their year at Hogwarts. They had not made it long. Nico´s parents had been among the first publicized deaths attributed to the Dark Lord´s group the Death Eaters several years ago. Nico had been abducted but had died in what appeared to be a failed attempt at apparition to escape. Elaine had been a family friend and had been the one to find the house after the attack. Elaine made a disappearance from school soon afterward, though it had been hinted at that it was for less sinister reasons than Nico´s.

What the intentions of the Dark Arts movement were with the Quietuses, a middle class pure blood family that had no problems with their neighbours, was a mystery to all, let alone why they had bothered with carrying off a thirteen year-old girl.

Lily knew from personal experience that Nico was no pansy either. She had been loud, demanding and petulant. She had no qualms with blasting at people with the end of her wand if they brassed her off. She had likely not been an easy captive. What had been the reason for her abduction? Not for ransom. It was unlikely she had anything they wanted.

Lily, in a state of numb, emotionless surprise read through the next wizard´s name (Bob Hoskins, Hit Wizard) and stopped again at the third death, breathing the name, "John Lupin?!"

Lily looked up and saw that Alia´s eyes were welling up as she said, "I think it´s Remus´ dad!"

Lily turned automatically to the end of the Gryffindor´s table to look over at Potter. He was eating silently, Longbottom across from him arguing Quidditch scores with a few other boys in their year. They evidently didn´t know about the attack.

"It says here that the Ministry figures Lupin was murdered because he had displeased some member of the Death Eaters... Probably refused to help them!" Lily said indignantly.

"I´d do the same if it were me!" Alia replied softly.

"Yes... What other possible choice would one have in that situation?" Lily agreed fiercely. Blasted fiends... Poor Lupin... His mother a widow! It´s not right!"

"Lily, read the rest of the article..." Alia sighed, taking refuge in her cereal bowl.

Lily read on with ink smearing her hands as she moved along the page, a bad feeling beginning to rise into her throat. It was like some part of her knew what was coming next...

"Three possible Death Eaters were caught by Aurors of the Ministry. Prominent among them is Something-I-Can´t-Pronounce Yaxley, a well known... yadda yadda... And the youngest of the group apprehended being sixteen year old..." Lily stopped abruptly and stared at the name directly after this.

Alia looked as directly into her bowl as Lily did into the paper as silence filled the space between them for a full minute.

Lily swallowed and went on, "Ada Mac Fusty." She shook her hair off her shoulder and with a determined grimace and read onwards, "...All seven suspected terrorists are being held at the prison Azkaban until trials that are dated for this Spring. It is unlikely any will be set free unless it can be proven that they were acting under the unforgivable Imperius curse as some now are claiming was the case."

Alia was quiet, obviously waiting for some sort of reaction from Lily.

"Hmm... Once again, the Ministry seems to have got democracy backwards," Lily said, folding up the newspaper and getting up off the bench.

"Lily, where are you going?" Alia asked nervously.

"Over here to Potter and Longbottom and them. Potter should see this news about Remus as soon as possible."

Alia let out a small sob, she had always had a soft spot for Remus.

Longbottom and the boys were now busy submitting Potter to a rigorous inquiry over Quidditch. Potter, grayish circles under his eyes (obviously from a late night), looked extremely relieved to see that it was to be interrupted by a surprise visit from her.

"Alia and I found something in the Prophet this morning..." she began promptly without introduction, "The name is..." She glanced sidelong at the other boys who were not listening and so she continued in a low voice, "Well, we weren´t sure, but it sounds as if a relative of... Um... Maybe you should read the Prophet. Here," she forced out and set the front page onto the table by Potter´s bowl of oatmeal.

She noticed that he had seasoned it heavily with some sort of nutmeggy spice and loads of honey. The smell was overwhelming.

"Er..." Potter was looking at the headline TEN KILLED IN CONEY ISLAND ATTACK. "Should I be worried Evans?"

"It´s Remus," she blurted. "We think it´s his dad- I mean, it possibly could just be a coincidence in the name-" she tried to explain as he frantically flung the page open and scanned the heart of the article.

He flew out of his seat and ran out of the Great Hall. Alia sobbed more loudly behind Lily.

*    *    *

Lily wished that everyone had just forgotten Ada Mac Fusty ever existed. It had been years since the girl had even attended Hogwarts. But apparently, the students never forgot anything.

She could hardly span twenty feet distance in any direction, whether in class, corridors or common room without some smart mouthed jerk making a comment about her `Dark Arts-murderer best friend.´

"Hey Evans? Talked to your buddy lately? You know... The sociopath who killed Remus Lupin´s father?"

"Evans! What the Hell is wrong with you!? If I knew someone like Mac Fusty, I would have..."

"Are you supporting Ada Mac Fusty at trial?"

"You´re sick and your friend is sick and I hope you both rot!" came the most vehement one. It was a tiny, squat, frog-like third year girl from Slytherin. Lily took one step in this girl´s direction and the small thing scattered to the four winds.

"Screaming bloody murder. As if I was going to throttle her or something!" Lily seethed at Alia and Debra Skitter as they sat down to their last class of the day, Transfiguration.

"Well," Debra pointed out, "You were going to throttle her."

"Only just a little!" Lily protested.

"I wish you had!" Alia moaned. "Maybe I´ll do it... I do have a Beater´s bat handy up in my room too!"

"Have they been giving you hell too?" Lily asked her sympathetically.

"Yes!! And you´d think my being the most popular girl in school would protect me from these sorts of situations..." she replied looking both bewildered and disgusted. "Yelled at. Harassed. What´s this world coming to when even the pretty people aren´t safe?"

"Straight to cauldron," Debra said, petting Alia´s shoulder and blowing multicolored psychedelic looking bubbles with Zonko´s Rainblow chewing gum.

"Have either of you seen Lupin around?" Lily asked.

Before they could open their mouths to answer McGonagall was beginning class, looking unusually grim.

Luckily they had a practical lesson in store, so once they got through the first quarter hour of instructions (in which the Professor had to dismiss Cornelius Hopper out of class, docked twenty points from a Hufflepuff named Stebbins and confiscated a Teen Witch Weekly out of the hands of a very put out and stupid Dawn Hirsute) everything was relatively normal again. McGonagall though, occasionally shot them all death glares from behind her desk, her hands resembling claws as she plowed through writing several angry-looking letters.

"Tough as bags!" Lily whispered admiringly to other two girls at her table, "I wouldn´t want the Professor as an enemy!"

"Who´s she owling I wonder?" Alia whispered.

"I don´t envy them, whoever they are," Debra replied back in a hushed voice as McGonagall slammed her quill into a bottle of ink and went on to write a fourth vehement note.

"She´s writing out waivers for several students to leave school grounds for the funeral service tomorrow!" Jerrale Coleman leaned over Alia´s shoulder and said in scheming hush.

"Lupin´s funeral?" Lily asked.

The boy nodded. "They´re not having a mass memorial like the Ministry had for the MacDonald and Campbell families two months ago... That one didn´t go over well-"

"Yeah, well, a fight did break out!" Debra said.

"And Old man Campbell´s wig was tore clean off," Lily reminded him.

They all took this moment to snicker and then he went on, "I didn´t see all the names, right? But I did notice that James Potter´s name was there. And I saw the name Black, which must be Sirius... They´re all good mates so of course. But how long´s Potter going to be out for? He´s got a match against Hufflepuff tomorrow!"

"Wow, that´s true!" Alia sighed. "Maybe he´ll come back in time?"

"Nah, how´s he gonna do that short of apparating- and that´s not legal- still a year underage ain´t he?"

"What about the floo network?" Lily suggested to them.

The others all shook their heads immediately. "It´s been shut down," came Debra.

Jerrale whispered as Lily looked highly impressed with this bit of information, "Some Death Eaters used it to get into a few homes of Magical Cooperation workers at the Ministry. Sixteen people dead... They had to shut the whole system down temporarily while the Floo Network Authority comes up with a way to protect everyone´s floos from... From Him."

"You mean there was no protection from something like that before?" Lily asked, incredulous.

"Well, yeah. But He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named figured out a way around it apparently."

"Let me know about Quidditch tomorrow, will you?" Lily said under her breath to Alia as they all had to turn back down to their lesson because McGonagall had gotten up to stroll the room, still looking sour.

As the Professor made a round and passed them, Alia whispered, "You´ve never cared that much about the matches before! Why so concerned about `Quidditch´ all the sudden?"

"I dunno... Just let me know, will you?"

Alia grinned widely as she went back to trying to vanish her snail without leaving a trail of slime.

*    *    *

In the common room that afternoon Lily looked up from her Advanced Charms studying to see Sirius and Potter come down from the fifth year boy´s dorm room.

They were wearing their dress robes again, recognizable from the Winter Ball. Sirius sat on a table while Potter shifted from one foot to the other and stared at the floor.

"Why don´t you take a picture, it´ll last longer!" Alia hissed in Lily´s ear all the sudden causing her to nearly snap her neck, she was so startled.

"SSHH!" Lily demanded angrily and turned back to watch the boys.

Seconds later the dorm room above all their heads opened again. Everyone in the common room stared openly as little Peter Pettigrew appeared coming down the stairs in a bright yellow plaid three piece suit, completed with a oversized green bow tie and a matching cap.

"Fabulous," Sirius mouthed, looking either terrified or delighted, Lily couldn´t tell which.

"Do you like it?" Peter asked happily. "I borrowed it from Dung´s chum Goffey or whatever his name."

"Very Huggy Bear," Potter commented, his Muggle Studies education showing. "Let´s go."

"How are we going?" Peter whined. "I don´t want to get ash on this fly suit! You fellas know how daft I am with cleany charms."

"Were not taking the floo you prat," Potter sighed impatiently. "How many times do we gotta say?"

"C´mon, before the whole House is upon us," Sirius hissed waving a arm at the ceiling. It was a comical movement that obviously had recalled something specific that caused the other two boys to break into sudden laughter. Then they disappeared through the portrait hole.

Alia made a "hmmm" sound .

Lily didn´t say anything to her and went back to work, trying to not think about anything but Charms. And Ralph. Ralph and she at Hogsmeade in two weeks. It would be warmer then and she would be able to wear something besides a heavy coat and a muffler up to her ears. She thought about what she would wear on their date, finished her Charms homework and went to sleep.

*    *    *

Lily, having a personal tie to the case, kept a ear tuned for gossip, news, anything being said about the attack at Rosses Point.

It was only the day after the article in the Daily Prophet had been printed, yet everyone in the castle had become experts. 99% of this talking, Lily knew was utter bilge. For instance Abraham Canard, a Slytherin she knew in their year, began telling a tale with great zeal, in which Voldemort was a rabid werewolf who had torn John Lupin to pieces. A bit of gossip that Lily found seriously disturbing for more reason then one.

However the story was quickly stamped out by Alia Bashir in the corridor outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"He-Shall-Not-Be-Named," she sneered dangerously at Abraham and a group of Slytherins, "Is not a werewolf. And furthermore," she added primly with a smug smile, "The attack happened in broad day light. And just to clarify for you slug-brained yobbos, the moon rarely if ever comes out at eleven thirty A.M.!"

Lily was so happy she applauded. She loudly laughed along with the other Gryffindors until Abraham stalked off to his own class scowling angrily.

"I swear I´m taking out the beater´s bat soon," Alia sighed as she flicked her hair over her shoulder and looked very prettily put out.

"That was brilliant," Lily replied. "If you do get the bat, I want to be there."

"He´s lucky that Sirius and them didn´t hear all that talk," Frank muttered to them as they began filing into class. "They´re at Lupin´s funeral right now."

"We heard," Alia explained. "But do you know when they´re returning?"

"You mean to say you don´t?" Frank asked, surprised. "I was going to ask you! I was worried about the match tomorrow!"

"Potter didn´t say anything to us!" Alia whined.

"That´s irresponsible of him," Lily commented carelessly.

"Well his best mate´s dad did just croak and all," Frank grumbled and found a seat in the back corner with his friends.

"That is true..." Alia thought out loud as the girls went to share a table at the front.

"But still... Couldn´t have McGonagall said something to you guys? I mean, it would be nice to know whether or not your playing tomorrow wouldn´t it?"

"They must not know,"Alia concluded with a look of determination. "Yes... That´s it. They aren´t sure if he´ll be back in time or not."

"Wonder what method of transportation they used?"

"Not the floo, not apparition. Definitely not brooms..." Alia ruled out.

"Port key!" Lily guessed hopefully.

"Hey, yeah!" Alia agreed with a excited grin. "Cool! I bet that is what they did!"

"I wonder if we asked McGonagall, if she would tell us for sure..." Lily wondered.

Alia smirked. "Honestly, I´m not that worried about it. If we don´t play, then I have an extra night off. But why are you so curious?"

"What do you mean?" LIly asked her, staring at her friend´s face with a look of innocence fixed on her face like a mask, "Why are you smiling like that at me?"

"You are not a good actor, Lily! You only remember there´s a Quidditch match when you start seeing everyone in face paints and hour or so beforehand! Even when you were on the team you never bothered to know when matches were being held!"Alia started guffawing. "Now all the sudden your ultra-concerned about this one? You´ve got hidden motives! I can smell them a mile away you know, so don´t try and lie to me!"

Lily´s face eased back into it´s normal expression of friendly disbelief (a expression that Petunia also had on her face naturally though take out the `friendly´ and put in `irate´) and laughed lightly. "You´re mad," she sighed, shaking her head. She honestly thought that Alia was overreacting. She was just curious is all. Yes, she was newly interested in what James Potter and his friends were up to, but that was nothing. He was such a great big prat all the time that she couldn´t possibly start making considerations.

"Well," Alia put, "I do keep thinking of my bat... I could be going the way of Ada Mac Fusty."

At the mention of Ada Lily made a weak smile and began shuffling through her text book as if she were looking for a certain page.

Later, that evening, Bernie spotted the two girls going for the Gryffindor´s table in the Great Hall. Bernie was a Ravenclaw in their year who Lily had somehow become friends.

As he casually waved Lily down, she changed course and joined him by his house´s table for a moment.

"What´s up?" she asked.

"I heard that you were dating Venkmen. Is it true?"

That this was going to be the topic of conversation surprised Lily a great deal. She studied the boy´s face steadily as he stared right back at her, his scruffy head uncombed and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows revealing his thick, bulky and rather hairy forearms.

"Well... I haven´t gone anywhere with him yet," she teased, "But that was the plan. Why?"

"Well, see, a mate of mine was interested in asking you himself. I wanted to help him out and all... Would you like to know who it is?"

Lily realized that if she did the normal thing and said, `yes´, she would be showing Bernie that she was not serious about Ralph.

She paused to think of what order her priorities were in and when she saw that Ralph came in several places after her curiosity being satisfied she said bluntly, "Go on then."