What Lies Beneath

3. ALICE, NUTMEG AND MELON HEAD

Lily looked around the crowded train station in despair. Her mother and Petunia had just dropped her off but when Lily had checked the platform she realized that there was no such thing as platform nine and three quarters; that she knew of anyway. While Lily was looking around the station hopelessly, she noticed a small group of girls walking past her.

"What platform is it again?" one of the girls asked.

"Nine and three quarters," her friend answered. Lily made up her mind to follow the girls at a discreet distance. When the girls reached the barrier between platforms nine and ten, they started to walk straight towards it. Just when Lily thought they were going to crash into it, they disappeared!

Lily did the smallest of double takes. She began to walk toward the barrier very slowly. As she was approaching it and fully expecting to crash into it, she closed her eyes and kept walking. Eventually, she realized that there was no crash and she opened her eyes again. She was on a platform but when she looked up the number read 'platform nine and three quarters'. A scarlet steam engine was waiting there, purple smoke billowing out of its smoke stack. There were hundreds of students standing around saying goodbye to their families and waving out of compartment windows.

Lily limped towards the train, wincing as she put weight on her cut foot which seemed to be taking forever to heal. She eventually managed to get her trunk on the train and into a compartment. She sat down, her foot now throbbing painfully. She settled back and became content with watching families say their goodbyes through the window. She only looked up when she heard the compartment door slide open.

A girl with long, blonde hair, a round, friendly face and bright blue eyes poked her head in.

"Hi! D'you mind if we sit with you? Everywhere else is full," she said.

"Sure!" Lily replied, smiling, eager to make friends. The girl was followed in by a tall boy with glasses, hazel eyes and the messiest black hair Lily had ever seen. He immediately began to stash his trunk in a corner. The blonde girl sat down opposite Lily.

"Hi! I'm Alice. Alice Anderson," she introduced herself.

"I'm Lily Evans," Lily replied. At this point, the boy returned and joined Alice in her seat.

"What's your name?" Lily asked him, politely. The boy looked up at her and his eyes widened. His mouth hung open slightly and he stared at her as if he'd never seen a girl before in his life. Wondering what was wrong with him, Lily began to feel awkward. Why is he staring at me like that, she thought.

Finally, Alice, who looked like she was just as much in the dark about the boy's reaction as she was, nudged him hard in the ribs.

"I...uh...um..." the boy managed to stammer. Lily became very amused now.

"Well, you just talk a mile a minute, don't you? Give someone else a chance, man! I mean, can't get a word in otherwise, can we?" she teased him. The boy turned red and managed a weak smile and Alice laughed.

"This is James," she said for him, "James Potter," Lily smiled at him, feeling bad about teasing him. She had seen how badly he had blushed when she teased him about not being able to introduce himself. They all looked up again when they heard the compartment door slide open yet again. Alice's face brightened when she saw who it was.

"Meg!" she cried, getting up and hugging the olive-skinned, black-haired girl that had come in.

"Hey!" Meg replied, "This is Melon Head," she said, indicating a girl beside her with beautiful, brown curls and soft amber eyes. The girl rolled her eyes.

"I made the mistake of telling Nutmeg here that my Dad sometimes calls me Melon Head, and I hate it!" she explained. Meg returned the look.

"And I made the mistake of telling her that my Dad calls me Nutmeg, and I hate it!" Meg said. Suddenly, James spoke up.

"My mum calls me Jimmy," he said, "but if anyone ever calls me that, they'll find themselves on the receiving end of an Unforgivable!" he said seriously.

"Yeah, I just bet they would," a new voice said. A boy with black hair that fell in his face and dark eyes had entered followed by another boy with sandy hair and warm chocolate eyes. James got up to greet them.

"This moron is Sirius Black," Meg told Lily, once she had introduced herself and Melon Head, whose real name turned out to be Melanie Haywood. Upon hearing himself being introduced, Sirius pushed everyone aside and grabbed Lily's hand.

"Enchante Cherie," he said in his huskiest voice and kissed her hand. Lily looked quite shocked and surprised.

"Sirius, lie down before you hurt yourself," the last boy said, "Hi! I'm Remus Lupin. Sorry about him, he's completely out of control sometimes," Remus apologized.

"That's okay," Lily replied.

"Oh yeah! Everyone, this is Lily Evans," Alice said. Everyone said hello and took their seats.

"What were you saying about an Unforgivable?" Remus asked James.

"What's an Unforgivable?" Lily asked curiously. Everyone stared at her. For a mad moment, Lily thought she had said something wrong, but then understanding suddenly dawned on their faces.

"You're Muggle-born!" Alice cried, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm what?" Lily asked, confused.

"Your parents weren't a witch and wizard," Meg explained.

"No," Lily confirmed. Remus took up the explanation from there.

"Unforgivable refers to the three Unforgivable curses. They're called that because if you use them on another human, it earns you a life sentence in Azkaban," Remus explained.

"Azkaban?" Lily questioned.

"The wizard prison," Sirius answered.

"Yeah. Anyway, Avada Kedavra is a killing curse, Cruciatus is the torture curse and Imperius is a mind-controlling curse," Remus continued.

"That sounds terrible!" Lily cried, horrified, "do people actually use those on people?"

"Dark wizards do," Alice said.

"That's why we do Defense against the Dark Arts at school," James explained. He was rapidly getting his composure back.

They all spent the rest of the train ride educating Lily on the ways of the wizarding world. When they got to the castle with its glowing lights and many turrets, Lily was already dying to start classes the next day. All of them were put in Gryffindor and when they got up to leave the table at the end of the feast, Alice, who had been watching Lily spoke up.

"Lily? Are you okay?" she looked worried.

"I'm fine," Lily replied, not knowing why Alice looked so concerned.

"You're limping," she said. As it turned out, all of them had noticed it. Lily didn't know what to say. Her mother had told her in no uncertain terms what would happen if she told people how she had cut herself.

"It's no big deal. I cut my foot pretty bad on a rock over the summer," she lied.

"Does it hurt?" Meg asked. Lily shrugged.

Later that night, while the girls were admiring the bathroom, Lily took the opportunity to change the bandage on her foot. She had just taken off the old one and was looking for a new one when she heard a gasp. She looked up. Alice, Meg and Melanie were gaping at her foot in horror.

"Ouch! Lily, that looks really bad!" Melanie cried.

"Guys really, it's fine. It looks a lot worse than it is," Lily reassured them.

"Are you sure that was from a rock?" Meg wanted to know.

"Of course I am!" Lily said defensively. Meg raised her hands in mock surrender.

"I don't know, Lily. Maybe you should see the nurse," Alice said, skeptically, "It might get infected."

"I don't need to see the nurse. I'm fine!" Lily sighed.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The following day, Alice, Meg and Melanie told the boys about what had happened in their dormitory the previous night.

"And she refused to go to the nurse?" Remus asked worriedly. The boys were sitting with a fat little boy called Peter Pettigrew.

"Yeah," Meg said, "and she got all defensive when I asked her if she was sure she'd cut herself on a rock."

"Definitely dodgy," Sirius agreed.

"Here she comes," James hissed and they all fell silent. Lily joined them, her limp more pronounced than ever.

That day was enough to show that they weren't the only ones who had noticed Lily's disability. Even Professor McGonagall noticed it. She pulled Alice aside and asked her if she knew anything about it. Alice explained what Lily had told them and also spoke of her doubts of the truth of Lily's explanation. McGonagall even asked Lily herself about it but she gave her the same explanation and said it was no big deal.

But by the end of the day, McGonagall, who it seemed, had been keeping her eye on Lily, had had enough.

She approached her at dinner.

"Miss Evans, are you quite sure you're alright?" she asked.

"Really Professor, I'm fine," Lily replied, quite taken aback at the interest her teacher was showing in her well-being. McGonagall sniffed doubtfully.

"Miss Evans, you are most certainly not fine! Your limp has grown worse since this morning and you are wincing with every step you take! You will come with me to the hospital wing right now!" Well, Lily couldn't very well ignore a direct order from a teacher so she allowed Professor McGonagall to lead her to the hospital wing.

The nurse, Madam Pomfrey, made Lily take off her shoes and the bandage. Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey gaped at the cut when it was revealed.

"How did you say you got this?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"I cut it on a rock," Lily replied, sticking to her story. She sighed inwardly. She'd never lied so much in her entire life. Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall exchanged looks.

"Ordinarily, some essence of Murtlap would sort this, but the cut is deep and it looks like it's already a bit infected. You'll have to stay the night," she told Lily. She then proceeded to mix up a paste to put on the cut and Professor McGonagall disappeared but soon returned with no less a person than the headmaster himself in tow. Lily frowned. Why had McGonagall brought Dumbledore? Surely, it wasn't commonplace for the headmaster to inspect the injuries of students. But that is just what Dumbledore did.

He bent down low towards Lily's injured foot and peered at it through his half moon spectacles.

"How did you cut yourself, Lily?" Dumbledore asked.

"On a rock," Lily answered, for what seemed the hundredth time. Dumbledore looked at her for a moment and she got the strangest feeling that he could see right through her, that he knew she was lying. But he shrugged it off and eventually went on his way.

By the next day, Lily's foot was completely better. She could walk and run without limping. Her friends' curiosity at the origins of her cut slowly died away as time went on. She, Alice, Meg and Melanie became very close. The boys were a different story.

A few weeks were enough to see that James Potter and Sirius Black were extraordinarily big flirts for first year students. They seemed a lot more immature than she thought was normal for eleven-year-old boys. The problem was James seemed to think that he and Lily were friends, more than that even and had taken to embarrassing her by calling her pet names like 'Flower' and 'Angel'. But she let him know flat out that she wasn't interested even though that didn't seem to faze him. After all, he was exceedingly arrogant.

And so, her sixth year found her with yet another injury courtesy of her 'ever-loving' mother. The problem was that her injuries seemed to increase in severity as she got older and so it became more and more difficult to think up a decent excuse for her friends and more importantly, her teachers, especially Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore who seemed to have taken a special interest in her.

4. FAMILY MATTERS

Lily stared out of the window at the swirling snow, completely lost in thought. Alice's voice snapped her out of her reverie.

"Lily! Are you listening?" she accused.

"What? Sorry," Lily replied turning around. "What were you saying?" Alice had just opened her mouth to answer when the portrait door opened and the Marauders trooped in. The Marauders were a self-named group of four boys: James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. The boys made a beeline for the girls and settled themselves in vacant seats or on the floor nearby. James looked over at Lily as he sat down and messed his hair in that incredibly annoying habit he had. Lily just rolled her eyes.

"Ladies," Sirius drawled, draping his arms in a would-be casual manner around Meg and Melanie who were sitting on either side of him. "Must be some serious girl talk going on here," he joked, "I haven't seen you guys talking this intently since you were trying to decide how Lily broke her leg."

"Oh geez!" Lily sighed.

It was true she had broken her leg. Her mother had not-so-accidentally pushed her off an upper floor balcony of their house over the summer. She had snapped her femur pretty bad and ended up with a cast on her leg and hobbling around on crutches. Madam Pomfrey had fixed the problem though, when she had returned to Hogwarts, but not before she had garnered many curious questions from both friends and teachers alike. Lily had cringed at the lying she had to do when she saw the looks of horror on her friends' faces but she told them that she had fallen out of a tree.

Lily knew, however, that her friends would try to decide what had really happened for themselves. Every year since her first year, Lily had returned to Hogwarts with an injury of some kind whether it was a broken arm or a sprained ankle, but always with various bruises from where her mother would grab her and hold her too tightly.

Lily forced herself out of these unpleasant thoughts when she heard the voice of Frank Longbottom who had just joined them. Frank was a fellow sixth year and quite shy although very friendly when you spoke to him. He took a seat across from Lily, next to James and Lily felt Alice sit up a little straighter beside her. Lily knew that Alice had had a thing for Frank for quite some time, but ironically, she too, was too shy to do anything about it. Lily locked eyes with Meg who smirked back at her, looking uncannily like Sirius on an arrogant day, which was really...well...every day!

"Hey guys," Frank greeted them as he sat down. "Everyone going home for Christmas?" he asked conversationally.

"Alice isn't," Meg replied, "she's staying here with Lily." Remus looked up at these words and frowned.

"Lily, you're staying at Hogwarts for Christmas again?" he asked her.

"Yeah," Lily replied as nonchalantly as possible. She had a feeling she knew what was coming next. The boys glanced at each other and the girls. Then, Remus spoke quietly.

"I don't mean to pry or anything Lily, but how come you never go home for Christmas?"

Lily just shrugged. This was getting way too personal. She needed to do something to get them off of this topic of conversation, and fast. James had a puzzled look on his face.

"Don't you want to spend Christmas with your family?" he asked. James could have sworn that Lily would be the type of person to whom her family would mean a great deal. He just assumed that, as a result, Lily would make a big thing about spending holidays, especially Christmas with them.

James had never heard Lily talk about her family. Not even to Alice, Meg and Melanie. Then again, Lily rarely enjoyed talking to him so maybe that had something to do with it. James didn't know why Lily didn't like him though. Everyone else did - all the girls that is. Between him and Sirius, you would have been hard pressed to try to figure out which one of them was more popular. However, whereas Sirius would bounce from girl to girl, breaking hearts and loving every moment of it, James knew there would only ever be one girl for him - Lily Evans.

From the first moment that they had met on the train in their first year and Lily had asked his name in that beautiful, melodic voice of hers, James knew he was a goner. Every time he saw her smile or heard her laugh since that day, his heart would melt into a wonderful puddle of love.

"Lily?" Meg asked tentatively, snapping James back to the present.

"What?" Lily asked distractedly.

"James asked if you didn't want to spend time with your family this Christmas," Meg repeated for James.

"What family?" Lily said dejectedly, without thinking.

"My sentiments exactly!" Sirius agreed. Meg glared at him.

"What are you talking about Lily?" she asked, confused.

"Yeah, Lily, you're making it sound as though you have a horrible family," Alice joked half-heartedly.

"There's no way Lily's family could be as bad as mine!" Sirius cried, vehemently.

"I concur," Peter stated simply. All heads turned to stare at him momentarily. They were all wondering the same thing. Where had Peter learned the meaning of the word 'concur'? Usually, he employed a very limited vocabulary.

"What?" Peter asked, looking around.

"What's so bad about your family?" Lily wanted to know. For a second, Sirius stared at her in disbelief and then finally spoke.

"Aw, man! Where do I begin?" he cried with a mock tragic look on his face. Lily laughed despite herself. That was Sirius for you. He could always make you laugh even when you were really depressed.

"Look at it this way," Sirius continued, "I am the first person in my family to ever be put in a house other than Slytherin. What does that tell you?" Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Let me guess. They're typical Slytherins?" she said.

"Yup," Sirius answered. Lily gave him a sympathetic look which quickly turned into a devilish grin.

"So, they don't like Muggle-borns, huh?" Lily questioned deviously.

"Hell no! My parents are all into this pureblood crap!" Sirius said viciously. His expression quickly turned curious. "Why do you ask?" he said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at her.

"You want a great way to really piss them off?" she said, winking at him. Sirius's mischievous grin was immediately in place.

"Whatever did you have in mind, Miss Evans?" he asked, mock innocently leaning closer to hear her.

James had to struggle to keep his jaw from dropping to the floor in shock. Where had this devious, scheming Lily come from? Had she really just winked at Sirius? What was that all about? On my God! Did she like Sirius? What about him? James forced himself to relax. Sirius was his best friend. He knew how much he liked Lily. He wouldn't return her advances ... would he?

Lily leaned in too.

"Are you ready for this?" Lily asked conspiratorially as the rest of the group leaned in to hear what she had to say. She addressed herself to Sirius.

"Introduce me to your parents as ... wait for it ... your fiancée!" Lily told him. Sirius threw his head back and roared with laughter. The others quickly joined in.

"That's a good one, Lily!" Sirius said. "That would be excellent!" he continued, tears of mirth now leaking out of his eyes. "I would love to see the look on my parents' faces if they thought I was marrying a Muggle-born!" he laughed.

James laughed along with them but his laughter was false, his smile forced. Where would Lily get a crazy idea like telling Sirius's parents that she was his fiancée? His heart dropped into his stomach as the realization hit him. Lily did like Sirius! And there was Sirius playing along with it! What was he doing? A surge of jealousy raged through him at the thought of Lily and Sirius together. As he watched them laughing leaning close together, he felt himself getting worked up but he didn't want to explode here with the rest of the house listening. He abruptly got up and bolted up to the dormitory as fast as he could. Sirius had called after him as he left but he just kept going.

"What's wrong with him?" Melanie asked, frowning.