academic curiosity

It was in the middle of Herbology the following day that Alia Bashir finally broke down and asked Lily about the letters. Lily had read them the evening before and found a good deal of amusement in not mentioning them at all.

Professor Sprig was trying to yank Stebbins´ head out of a violent tree trunk, while the rest of the class tried to fend for themselves against their own trunks. Nann Green was being throttled, Debra tried to dislodge the root from her throat while leaning over to Lily and saying, "Can WE read them too!?"

"Yeah, but... Regulus Black," Lily offered as answer, "is a slimy, sneaky, no-good liar and next I see him I´m going to hex him out of his sorry existence!" In Lily´s opinion he had seriously exaggerated the relevance of the letters.

"Oh?" was Alia´s cool response. She was still insisting on being dreamy about James Potter, much to Lily´s growing annoyance. And she had a tremendously obnoxious amount of confidence in Potter losing interest in Lily soon, if he hadn´t already. Lily supposed this attitude got on her nerves because she figured as much herself.

Lily reached around a wooden bowl, containing her broken seed pods and dug for the bundle of letters that she had stashed in the pocket of her robes.

"That´s risky," Alia said nervously. "What if the notes fell out and James saw them?"

"Scared he´d think they were yours?" Lily teased.

"Well, yes. I don´t think the BEST way to impress a boy is to steal his personal correspondence!" retorted Alia.

Shamed, but for only two seconds, Lily tore open the envelopes under their tray and handed each of the girls one of the four sheets of folded parchment, she held one, which was her favorite.

There was a eager silence for at least half a minute before Alia slammed down the note she had been given and hooted.

"Woo! I was actually getting nervous!" she said to them, holding a hand to her chest. Lily and the other two girls at the table stared at her until she obliged them by reading the reason why she was suddenly relieved.

She did so in a slow, dramatic whisper that made the note rather funnier then it already was, even Lily was smiling.

"Dear Sir, Your lack of response to the missives of the previous two weeks has left me with no other choice but to pay a man for hire (very huge, very hairy) to break down the door of your mother´s house and kidnap you. Both the neighbours and Mario (his name is Mario) will appreciate if you refrain from screaming like a little girl. Any ways, it´s more a liberation movement than kidnapping. I suspect you´d jump into the arms of the first sailor to come calling with flowers. What are they doing to you Sir? I am losing my mind trying to keep up with the A Team all by myself. Mssr. Moony, who is here with me now, says to tell you that your mother is what evil would be if it was a very old woman with a bad hat (whereas Frank Longbottom´s mum is what a superiority complex would look like in a bad hat). No wait, that was me who said all that. Mssr. Moony has actually stated that your mother´s breath smells like a morgue. Now I ask, how does he know what either smell like? Disgusted and afraid for mankind, I take leave of you. Sincerely, Mssr. Prongs. P.S. If I sent a Owl to Lily Evans to ask about the inferi would that be horribly embarrassing? I wouldn´t know anymore, I hardly have any dignity left and only am curious so not to bring the popularity of my associates down with my own."

The girls were chuckling quietly, every now and then Debra or another would peek over the many plant trays to find Potter out in the crowd. He had dirt on his forehead and he was beating on the trunk at his table with a calculated fury. Peter was screaming and throwing a seed pod out the window. Wriggling maggot-looking things were scattered all over.

"So it sounds as if Sirius hadn´t written him back in a while before he sent this," Alia noted with a happy smile as she waved the note at Lily.

"Why do you suppose they hate his mum so much?" Debra asked.

"She´s a big dark arts lover," Lily replied, "and apparently her breath is funky."

"I don´t get it..." Nann was sighing. "You weren´t even mentioned until the post script! And all it said was that he wanted to ask about inferius! How stupid!"

"Thank you," Lily said in perfect agreement. "But the next two do get it a bit better..."

"I´ll read mine!" Debra volunteered. "Dearest Padfoot, I am shocked that I managed to get by with that cheek about the sailor. It shows that you are clearly in a good deal of emotional and physical duress. Naturally the only thing that can be done is to really break in to old Grimmauld..."

"Wait... So were reading this in proper order?" Alia asked. "So then Sirius never got the letter I just read... Regulus must have stole them right off Potter´s owl! That little sneak!"

"ANYWAY," Debra interrupted. "...Naturally the only thing that can be done is to break into old Grimmauld. Expect us at six in the evening, Sunday. I noticed that that´s about the middle of dinner time there, so save me a pork chop. Oh, and what are your parent´s feelings on deer?"

"He´s so weird!" Nann sighed, resting her chin in her hand.

"I got a letter from the manager of the Bigonville Bombers the other day," Debra continued, "Going to decline! See, I´m throwing away my Quidditch career because you´re the brains in our operation and I can´t make proper decisions without my brains. By the way, if you were curious (which you weren´t) I never did send that owl to Evans. But she is going to tell me all about the inferi, she just won´t know it at the time. It´s a plot. And speaking of plots, I have the most brilliant idea for this year. When you ask me what it is when you see me again, say the words `Maurader´s Map´. Got to go, Prongs."

"I´d watch out for veritaserum in your pumpkin juice!" Nann advised Lily in a fearful tone. "That could be how he plans on getting the information out of you!"

Lily laughed. "That would be very humiliating... My lack of knowledge on inferi and whatever else that would come out..."

"Let me read this one now!" Nann whispered and she unfolded the page Lily had handed her a few minutes before. "It´s all wrinkly," she muttered and then began, "Padfoot... Got your Owl. And don´t worry, were still coming Sunday. Like I said, save a pork chop for your forest friends. I enjoyed your map... It´s funny how we both got maps into our heads at the exact same time isn´t it? Did you get ALL that from the scamp? I do declare... Who´d have thought he would know any of that? The Slytherins must have been extra lonely without your ghastly cousins around. Has he eaten any flies lately? Har har... That really was my best work. Oh, that was Wormtail wasn´t it? Oh, Wormtail! So Venkmen really left? That lanky git. I like him better in Scandinavia or wherever it is you said. They have some pretty girls there. Here´s to them chucking their big wooden shoes at his stupid git head. That´s what pretty girls do to Know-it-alls in Greenland or wherever. And if you´re any proper gauge for pen pals in general then I suspect he won´t be writing much home. And when he DOES write it´ll be all about himself and won´t acknowledge any of the various things written in letters to HIM......... It´s almost as if the Owls I send aren´t getting to you at all. But that´s ridiculous. So did I mention that I found out that the Death Eaters are actually meeting at the bridge in Bath? I overheard yesterday evening off my dad and this Ministry git that they changed the place. The Pulteney Bridge is going to have a whole lot more morons in sheets then it usually has. Which is to say, I don´t think there are hardly ever morons in sheets on it. Unless Ralph Venkmen was wearing a sheet on it. Oh and I did owl that Evans girl and she was completely stupid about the inferi. Didn´t even know what one was. Poor thing, I just explained they were a kind of cupcake. No need to worry people who have nothing to do with it, right? No need unless someone wants their face pounded until it `s on backwards.

Sincerely, James."

"That was the best one," Debra said with a decided nod.

"It sounds as if he figured out what was happening," Alia pointed out, flashing Lily a curious glance.

"You didn´t tell us that Potter asked you about inferi!" Nann murmured as Professor Sprig marched past wielding a giant rake.

"Because he didn´t!" Lily whispered. "He must have cottoned on that Regulus was swiping his letters to Sirius and so he put in false information... And he..."

"Wrote that to protect you," Alia finished. "It would have been his fault if someone in the Death Eaters started thinking about you and inferi again... Remember that letter you received years back?"

Lily nodded solemnly and the other two girls stared.

"What letter?" Nann hissed.

"Lily got a offer to join them," Alia said with a grim smile.

Both girls looked from Alia to Lily with their mouths covered in horror.

"You didn´t!" sighed Debra.

"From WHO?" Nann muffled through the palm of her hand, still firmly planted across her mouth.

Lily shrugged. "It was anonymous... I thought it was probably a joke or something... A really nasty joke. But then not too long after that was when several students ran away from Hogwarts to join You-Know-Who. That whole time I figure Ada had also gotten a letter but didn´t tell me..."

"Or rather she didn´t get one but joined anyway," Alia replied. "Why would You-Know-Who want Ada? All she can do is shake her big fists and kick people in the shins and run away really fast. He wanted YOU because you have that zombie hoodoo nonsense happening."

"You know hoodoo?" Nann asked Lily, turning pale.

"No!" Lily hissed at them all.

"Why was James going to ask YOU about inferi?" Alia asked suddenly. "I mean, does he have a reason to think you know about them?"

Lily shrugged. Alia stared at her sternly until she said, "Well... I have been asked an awful lot by our professors to exhibit zombie squirrels... Zombie chickens... Zombie frogs. I seem to have accidentially made a bit of a talent out of it."

"I´m lost." Debra threw up her hands.

"Yeh, me too," added Nann, who was covered in goose bumps since the mentioning of You-Know-Who. "I´m just waiting until the part where we talk about boys again."

"Let´s sit and eat this candy until they work there way back to that," Debra muttered and they shared out of the purple striped Honeyduke´s bag she had in her pocket.

"Can you control them?" Alia whispered inquiringly of the various dead vermin.

"Yeah..." Lily replied. Though at the same time, she felt that the things she reanimated took on a life of their own too.

"Cool," said Alia. "Do you think that he wants you to use this ability and fight in the war?"

"Who? Potter?"

Before Alia could open her mouth to reply, Professor Sprig was upon them all.

Nann Green and Debra Skitter watched with their mouths open, filled with candy as the spry Herbology teacher unleashed a tongue lashing worthy of McGonagall.

"And YOU!" Sprig shouted at Lily, "A PREFECT too! How many SEED PODS have you HARVESTED may I ask?!"

"Three," Lily answered somewhat distractedly.

"OH. Well that´s more than the other groups. Good work."

As Sprig strode away half the class was revealed before Lily, glaring that they had gotten off though they hadn´t been doing any work for at least a half an hour.

Lily and Alia sat up and waved with a toothy smile at everyone. Lily´s eyes lingered on Potter for a second but he was turned away, talking to Sirius.

"Look at Frank, he´s going to strangle you girls!" Nann giggled and handed Lily back the note she had been reading from.

"That´s funny," Lily commented. "Oh, but I never showed you three the best part of what Regulus gave me!"

They turned as she unfolded the piece of parchment she had been holding and they all stared down at it solemnly for several moments before Alia said, "It´s the map... The one Sirius made James!"

"I recognize that place!" Nann gasped. "That´s right near my house! Cool!"

"It looks like a Quidditch game plan," Alia offered. And it did.

It was a rather rough sketch of some kind of hillside with a distinctive crest in the middle, which is how Lily figured Nann had instantly recognized it. To the right of the hill and below was a ugly little puddle that likely was some sort of scummy pond in reality. There were some hut-looking establishments to the left, all clustered together around a steeple with a crooked cross on top. All these things, quite naturally didn´t move. But in the center of of the map were a jumble of moving figures which it took a very close look to discern. They seemed to be made up of little masks and little pointy hats. Then there were a few equally little bird-looking ones. The little masks seemed to have the upper hand most the time Lily looked at the map, however they also had the most casualties in the foray as every time the battle played out between all the little drawings, many of the masks cracked in half and into little ink blots all over the hillside.

"How charming, is that entrails do you suppose?" Debra pointed out a jumble one of the marks became after a line of hash marks flew off one of the little birds.

"It looks like some kind of battle, do you suppose this really happened or is it made up?" Nann asked with a rather green expression.

"The dashes must signify spells," Alia muttered as she stared down at the map Sirius had created.

"The pointy hats remind me of the ones Ministry officials have to wear," Lily said.

"They don´t seem to be very good fighters," Debra offered cooly.

"Ooh... Look, here´s the bit where one of the pointy hats gets too close to the hill side..." Lily sighed.

She watched the other girl´s eyes narrow at the hillside in the drawing. Here and there were small lumps in the hill and each had a arrow with the label `Inferi Plant.´

The Ministry figure meandered over to one of the humps and evaporated into a splatter of ink as the lump erupted out a dozen skulls.

"That," Nann repeated in disgust, "is right by my house!"

"Then I would stay away from the hillside if I were you," Lily mumbled to her. The bell outside the greenhouses jangled and sent sprawls of students running towards the nearest exits and away from plants that tried to destroy them.

"Ew! Do you think this is real or what?" Debra cried, putting a protective arm around the trembling Nann´s shoulders.

Alia was giving Lily a significant look as they both did up their bags and wiped dirt off their arms and hands.

Eyeing Potter and Sirius Alia said under her breath so no one else could hear, "Those two are up to something... And you have something to do with it no doubt, Lily. Dumbledore even thinks you could help with the inferius problem... But there´s one thing that doesn´t make any sense at all..."

"Only one thing?!" Lily scoffed softly as dozens of students brushed past to flee.

Longbottom was cursing under his breath and Lily heard him admonish to Nann as he passed, "I have to leave this place... Trees that strangle you to death... Sometimes I just think I´d rather NOT know, thanks!"

"Yes," hissed Alia to Lily, "and that one thing is WHY exactly haven´t we heard about the inferi being unleashed upon a unsuspecting public!? You would like to think that if we had a little undead problem that we´d be TOLD."

"Not if you´re Frank!" Lily joked. "But, perhaps," she continued hesitating, "It hasn´t happened yet."

"Oh. Hadn´t thought of that," Alia mumbled, turning the same shade of green Nan had been earlier.

Both girls were solemn as they trudged towards the doorway. FInally Lily cracked a grin and said under her breath, "At least we got something to look forward too."

"Yeah, really!" Alia said with a laugh, shaking her head. "If you don´t write Dale about all this though, I will..."

"All right, Evans," Potter suddenly called out as he slinked through the greenhouse door at the same time she and Alia did. It didn´t get past either of the girls that he had ducked through several other students to catch them up. His friends were still behind, brushing the disgusting maggots that came out of the seed pods from their robes and hair.

Both girls turned slowly towards him, staring wide-eyed. He seemed to accept this as his due at first but when they continued for another few seconds to look as if they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, he was beginning to look like a deer in headlights. But finally Alia managed to cough out, "James! Good! Is practice soon then?"

Lily watched with vexation as Alia leaned towards him and looked up at him through her eye lashes.

"It´s in an hour," he replied. Obviously Quidditch was a subject he was comfortable discussing. "Glad you mention it actually... Was gonna ask if your friends were gonna come?" he said this carefully marking out each of the girls, including Nann and Debra who were trailing just behind, but watching Potter eagerly for any signs of love sickness.

"No... I have to go to the library..." Nann sighed regretfully at Potter. She was smiling and darting looks at Lily.

"I´m meeting Gonzo in fifteen," Debra said with sadness, as if she could possibly care about watching a Quidditch practice.

"Oh, well, that´s too bad," Potter replied politely, looking diverted as he watched the four girls. Nann was stepping on Lily´s foot, Lily has her arms firmly crossed, Debra was pretending to care and Alia was actively tossing her hair around and gazing at him.

Lily noticed that he was watching Alia with a strange expression on his face before saying, "We always have this gaggle of big blokes screaming violent things and waving sticks... A few girls in the stands would be nice for a change..."

"Well, could we have sticks?" Lily asked drolly.

"No, you should do girl things... Um, put on make-up. Whisper. Go to the bathroom," he joked.

"I could arrange it so your big screaming mates start doing girl things," Lily explained excitedly. "Ralph taught me this great hex-"

"Oh, yeah?"James interrupted quickly, "Venkmen, you mean? Wow... So how is he doing? Fighting for Dumbledore I suspect, what with all his skills..."

Lily, incredibly impressed, considering she knew that he knew exactly where Ralph was from the letters, could only answer, "No, he´s in Scandinavia or someplace." It took most of her will power to NOT add, "Getting hit with wooden clogs." Lily knew the other three girls were thinking along the same lines as they were tittering excitedly

Potter stared at them with nervous confusion and finally started to leave, but Alia, brushing past him rather closer then was socially acceptable murmured, "See you in a bit James..."

He halted and let her walk on out of sight before he turned to the girls with a huge grin. "So..." he said as they walked down the corridor, "She´s off Sirius then?"

They all laughed.

"She´s on you now!" Debra said a bit maliciously. Lily fidgeted.

"I´ll have to keep that in mind," he said with a shrug. "So you´ll be at practice, Evans?" he asked as if it were inconsequential and he was just trying to be polite.

"Um..." she replied. She didn´t make a habit of watching practices, because that was boring.

"You should go!" Nann said. "You´re so far ahead in your school work..."

"Well..." Lily replied seriously, "Not really, I have Advanced Charms. I´m filling Ralph´s shoes this year as tutor and Ossie is giving me a real run for the money... Ralph left me this huge list of new charms so I was thinking of going over them for next week. And I should Owl him and ask him what the hell the spells are! His handwriting is shoddy and I can´t read half of his instructions."

Both girls were looking at her as if she had flown to earth in a space ship. Potter´s expression hadn´t changed but his voice did as he replied, "Oh. Right. Well, when you´re writing him do me a favor and ask how he likes whittling wands in la la land while the rest of us are worrying about getting blown up by masked zealots."

And with that he marched off, presumably to the pitch.

They all stood in the corridor for a bit smiling foolishly and finally Nann, unable to contain herself any longer cried out, "Wow, he loves you!" Her hands were clasped together.

"If THAT´S love then I´m glad he doesn´t hate me," Lily replied, but she was still smiling. A warm feeling was beginning to spread all over her body. It was the same feeling she had when she had a warm drink after coming in from the cold.

"Lily, you should go to that practice. Obviously he wants you to go..." Debra intoned.

"Yes, yes," Lily consoled with a happy smile. "But I really do have a lot to prepare for and it´s not like... Well, he would be flying around wouldn´t he? Showing off... I think I prefer him with both feet on the ground, if you follow."

******

Lily had made good on her word about Owling Ralph and going over his chicken scribble of instructions for Advanced Charms. After two hours of this depravity though, Lily came to a important conclusion.

Tossing his instructions, all eighteen pages of them into the fireplace, Frank Longbottom came over to sit and annoy her.

"What are you doing?" he asked stupidly. That he really didn´t care was apparent.

"Burning my ex-boyfriend´s carefully drawn out lesson plans for a class that I have no business leading, why do you ask?"

"Just curious," he replied.

She fed the last of the pages into the fire and sat back again, thinking of how funny it would be to teach the entire class how to animate dead ferrets...

"You coming Wednesday night?" Frank asked.

"Oh, yes," she uttered, "I always go Wednesday nights. Go where?"

"You haven´t heard?" he asked with a new show of delight.

Lily rolled her eyes saying, "Believe it or not Longbottom, I don´t know everything."

"I figured you´d know THIS," he replied, ignoring her cheek. "It´s all Potter and his boys´ plot. You´re a scrappy thing, I just assumed you´d be involved..."

"Oh, get on with it," she drawled.

"No," he said, suddenly smirking. "If you don´t know, I think I´ll let it be a surprise. Want to go down with me though? It´s at six, by the Quidditch pitch. You in?"

"Sure, as long as you aren´t wearing that stupid Grodzisk Goblins hat."

******

Lily trundled down towards the pitch in the darkness by herself. Naturally Longbottom had made the stupid conclusion of meeting at the pitch rather than in the warmth and light of the castle.

"Moron..." she muttered into the late autumn night, kicking a stone ahead of her down the steep embankment she was trying not to tumble head first down.

The stone hissed back, "Thanks a lot, I was comfortable there!"

Lily stopped and accessed the situation.

"Is that you, Little Stone I Just Kicked?" she called out ruefully into the chilly shadows.

"Um, actually it´s Remus," the voice returned and wand light ignited revealing a pale moonlike face just a few yards down the hill.

Lily laughed. "What are you doing sitting on a damp hill at night all by yourself!?"

"Keeping a lookout," he explained stoically, sitting back down off the path. "I have great night vision so I´m always the one to get nominated for these sorts of things... Hey, I didn´t realize you were coming for this. I mean, James didn´t mention it."

"Why should he mention it?" she asked with a shy smile as she made her way towards him.

"He´s made a bit of a habit mentioning you, if you catch my drift. Not that I mind, I´m one of your biggest fans... Controlling inferi for the war, you know. I´m all for it," Remus said with a dry smile. His sense of humour was a bit worrisome for many, but Lily enjoyed it immensely.

"Well, what can I say... It´s my destiny. When I´m done with that I suppose I´ll shrivel and die," she joked back. His words had the gears in her head turning again. Obviously it wasn´t just Potter and Sirius who thought she had a place in the war. She wasn´t sure if she should be flattered or insulted. So she was neither.

"Ho hum..." Remus sighed, crossing his arm against the chill.

"So while I´m very happy to be wandering the night in confusion, could you possibly give me a hint of what´s to come this evening? Longbottom told me to meet him at the Quidditch pitch and like a fool I agreed..."

"By the pitch?!" Remus replied. "What a git... He´ll stumble right into them if he´s down there... Unless he´s behind the stands on the east..."

"So... Was that a hint? If so, that´s cheap man."

"Oh, sorry," Remus said, smiling congenially up at her from the ground which he sat. "No can do Lily. You can sit with me though... You know you want to ditch Frank."

"I thought you´d never ask," she giggled and sat in the wet grass next to him.

He smiled and let the wand light die out so that they were blanketed instantly in blackness.

"Wow, isn´t this pleasant," she joked.

"If you look just down the hill to the right you can see..." he mumbled quietly.

She focused in this direction and soon began to make out through a band of trees, the lake and the crescent moon peering through clouds.

"When we see them reach the Whomping Willow we need to send word to Peter down below in the woods."

"This plot sounds good," Lily commented. "Whose `them´?"

But Remus didn´t need to explain, because after a second she could make them out herself. It was a group of students in dark cloaks, walking along the lake and through the trees back towards the castle.

"They´ll go through the pitch as they always do," Remus muttered mostly to himself. "It gives a bit of cover... "

Much to Lily´s disdain, she could make out a nasty specimen of Slytherin named Sonia Otto in the group far below. Osman Shodwick was also among them and a few other recognizably disagreeable faces.

"I hope this involves them being severely punished," Lily said harshly. She could still remember the numerous times a few of the people below had called her a `Mudblood´, a hateful slur that hardly anyone said out loud... Even if they thought it.

"It does," Remus said simply. He raised his wand and whispered, "Expecto Patronum." A silverish mist erupted from the tip of his wand and fluttered down out of sight towards the trees.

"Was that a..." Lily began in wonder.

"No, I haven´t gotten the patronus charms down quite yet," he gave by way of answer. Distracted, he watched the trees until another silverish mist appeared from the trees in reply.

"Good... Ready to get out of here?" he asked, standing up and offering Lily a hand up.

"What are that lot doing sneaking off to the lake?" she asked.

"Oh, the usual..." he replied, "snogging and bragging about how they know someone who knows someone who says they know You-Know-Who..."

"Oh," Lily mouthed. "I see... So now what do we do?"

"Now we head towards the pitch like Longbottom said... We have to be careful to keep behind the Slytherins though... So try and not step on any branches or anything."

As they used caution down the path, a huge explosion ignited to their right and three boys came flying into them from the tree line.

"Dammit!" Remus hissed. "You´ll ruin everything!"

"They didn´t hear, don´t worry mate!" Eddie Carmichael said quietly, brushing back his dark brown hair hastily and dusting off his robes. He had Peter Pettigrew and Toggie Booth in tow.

"They were looking for puffapods in the forest... I HAD to let them in on it," Peter was hissing to Remus apologetically.

"The more the merrier?" Eddie asked Remus.

"Of course," Remus said with a shrug. "But I wouldn´t let any of them see YOU... Could be bad for business at the very least."

Eddie nodded solemnly. "I couldn´t agree more mate. Lucky thing that I happen to have my handy disguise that I keep for such occasions!"

They all made their way towards the pitch in silence the rest of the way, Remus holding out his wand light low to the ground.

"You´re playing a trick on your own house mates?" Lily asked Eddie and Toggie as they made for higher ground.

"This," Eddie replied, "is not a house matter."

Lily remembered that he was just as pure blood as she was. And all the people ahead of them on the path were disgusting about blood lines.

"I wish I knew what was going to happen..." Lily tried for an explanation again, but no one offered one.

"Trust me, a surprise like this one is always good," Toggie muttered over his shoulder at her and Peter giggled maniacally.

As they came off the path and were before the massive structure surrounding the Quidditch pitch, the boys broke into a quiet run along the east side of the pitch. The group they had been tailing were no where to be seen.

As they rounded the corner of the outside of the stands, empty and creaking in the autumn breeze, Lily caught sight of Frank and a few others, perched under the back of the stands and looking inside them through the other side eagerly.