Comedy/Tragedy: The Story of a Doomed Existence

Chapter Eight: Accused

The weekend passed quickly; McGonagall had asked that Lily wait to do her detention until the next weekend, for the librarian was making some new coding system for the books and wouldn't trust anyone else to help her.

Lucy's anger with her friend had dissipated when Alice explained why Lily had been so angry. Both of Lily's friends were completely sympathetic toward her where 'Mudblood' and Snape were involved, but Lily wished they wouldn't be. Both girls seemed far more worried than she was about what had happened in the halls. Everyone else in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw were equally kind; they would pat her on the shoulder as they passed or tell her in wise saws that 'she would get over it eventually.' The Slytherins, however, were delighted with someone to torture; Lily could not walk down a hallway without being called a Mudblood numerous times, as well as being asked where her big, strong, man-at-arms was, so that he could defend her. This made everyone in other houses more sympathetic, though it had a different effect on Lily.

The forgiveness she had felt for James sank away slowly, to be replaced with a lot of resentment. She knew she had been right about not wanting him to defend her. He was having his time of it too; some of the larger Slytherins (of which there were many) had taken to beating him up and asking him why he couldn't attack them like he had done to the skinny, under-grown Snape. Before Lily could feel too sorry for him, James had resorted to cursing them with hexes, some he had made up. This made them particularly difficult to contend with, for it is difficult to defend against a spell you know nothing about. The first time this had happened, he had been in the Great Hall and had taught them a lesson in front of everyone; he instantly lost Gryffindor thirty points.

But rather than getting angry at him about it, the Gryffindors laughed heartily as Crabbe, the boy who had been foolish enough to get James into a headlock, was lead away by a simpering Professor Dulcissa. Crabbe was nursing an arm that had turned to a loaf of bread and was cooking in a speeded-up fashion, rising slowly until it was incredibly round. James had been welcomed into the innermost social circle of Gryffindor, and had become, if possible, even more arrogant than before.

Sunday afternoon found Lily, Lucy, and Alice relaxing in a small, cozy corner of the Gryffindor common room. Lily particularly liked it, for a large bookcase full of fascinating magic books half-hid them from view. The corner was also composed of a squishy armchair and matching pouf, a window seat, and a Victorian loveseat.

Lily really wanted to be outside, but the rain was still thundering down. This would have been more of a bonus than a problem, but Alice had told her, in a very motherly way, that if the redhead put one foot outside of the Great Hall in attire that wasn't rain-proof and approved by Mother Alice, Lily would get James set on her.

Lily most definitely didn't want an encounter with That Arrogant Prat, and being in rain gear spoiled the fun, so she contended herself with letting her mind soar through the glistening drops. While she stared out of the window, stretched across the window seat contentedly, her friends amused themselves.

Lucy, surprisingly, was not being dramatic for her usual crew of admirers; instead she was extended out on the loveseat, long legs drumming with the rain on the window. She was concentrating on her History of Magic essay, blotting out things frequently and cursing in muted tones, just low enough so that Alice couldn't hear and reprimand her.

But the round-faced girl wasn't paying enough attention, anyway. Frank had picked a seat very near to their hidden corner, so Alice had moved the chair around so that it was facing the common room and was curled up in it, pretending to read the largest of book she could find. But, she was holding Hogwarts, a History upside-down, eyes skimming over the spine to watch Frank laugh heartily at a joke one of his friends had made. Lily glanced over the tops of her friends' heads and past Frank into the depths of the common room. She wanted to focus on the rain outside, but something else had captured her attention.

James Potter was lounging in an armchair by the fire, draped artfully over it so that he looked as though he had flopped there with no purpose at all. Sirius was leaning against the fireplace, a bottle of some kind of drink in his hand and his bangs swept to one side. Peter was sprawled on the floor, eating his way through a giant package of fudge his mother had sent him. As for Remus, the boy looked rather peaky. He was reading a very big book and scratching his chin with his finger, forehead creased.

Lily's eyes turned involuntarily back to James. The boy's hair was the messiest she had seen it yet, and his legs appeared longer from the way he was lying with such apparent lack of effort. But Lily knew differently, for his right foot was hooked over the edge of the chair, clearly holding him up. But the girl who had come to sit next to him in the time Lily's attention wandered was smiling into his face, and didn't seem to mind at all. Lily didn't know why she cared that James was sitting with her - they were both such horrible people. But as she saw James sitting there, she felt a particularly strong pang of hate for the girl joining him.

Hana Suzuki was wearing robes of the kind Lily didn't know they had yet at Hogwarts. They were a very dark gray, the same color of Aristotle's feathers and the weather as it had been that night in the tower. Lily wondered vaguely why she had liked it so much. Hana's robes were very low in the front and back, and transformed into lace as they moved down her tawny legs. Lily glared at her, though she knew that the girl could not see her. Taking one last, contemptuous glance at Hana's vertically pinned hair Lily irritably turned her attention away from the smiling duo.

Suddenly the rain didn't seem so much of a distraction any more. Lily decided to go up to her dormitory in search of something else to entertain herself with.

Once in her dorm, she shuffled through her trunk's contents, shifting them around so that she could find something to do. She had already finished all of her homework, and she didn't want to read a textbook. In fact, for the first time in her life, Lily Evans honestly didn't want to read anything at all. Her hand lit upon something in her trunk, the one parcel she hadn't touched at all, something she hadn't had any contact with since her trip to Diagon Alley.

Lily pulled her copy of Orion Moonstone's Miniature Guide to the Night Skies out of its still-unopened packaging. It certainly was miniature. A box no larger than those that held muggle matches, it was round and had a small indentation in the center. Curious, Lily prodded this with her finger. She then pulled all body parts back in surprise; a partially transparent, tiny roan centaur had appeared where her finger was.

"Hello," he said in a musical voice, shaking his chestnut-colored hair back from his eyes. "I'm Orion Moonstone...the first Centaur to publish anything!"

"Um...okay," Lily wasn't sure what to say.

"You haven't heard of me?" the centaur sounded slightly put out. "Muggleborns..." he sighed, annoyed. "Well, I guess you are wanting help with your astronomy homework...press that button, there." He indicated a tiny knob on the side of the box. Lily had not spotted it. She pushed it hesitantly, and had to restrain herself from dropping the box. But it floated out of her hands anyway, strait into the center of the now quite altered room.

Lily gazed around, not trying to close her dislocated jaw. Covering every inch of the round room was a map of the night sky. Each constellation shone brightly, it's stars flickering in their magical way. Lily had a difficult time convincing herself that it wasn't real.

"Yep, pretty, isn't it? I did that myself," Orion Moonstone was speaking again. "First centaur ever to make one of these, pretty impressive, eh?"

"Sure..." Lily was too busy gazing at Uranus' pulsing light. "But - wait, this isn't the entire night sky!"

"No..." the centaur spoke as though that fact were obvious. "That's because you haven't adjusted any of the knobs yet. The display changes as you specify what you would like to see. There is a knob to zoom in, a dial to change time of the year, a turner to select time zones..." he rattled this off as though he had memorized it. "Of course, it starts off where you are right now, but you can change it if you need to. And I'm here to answer any reasonable questions you may have, though I don't doubt that will stop once your Astronomy teacher sees me, which he clearly hasn't yet!"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked him absently; she was very intent on a large cluster of stars in the distance.

"Oh, all the teachers of the noble subject - as well as those of Divination - have been given a special code to disable me from answering any questions other than how to operate the thing. When you have a first astronomy lesson, you bring the guides with you - with no knowledge of the fact that you won't be able to cheat. Of course, I shouldn't be telling you this, because now you are inclined to leave it here, I don't say! Small product glitch, but don't tell me that! I'll bite your sorry head off! I'm programmed right now to full mode, that means I have to tell you everything."

Lily indistinctly acknowledged his speaking; she loved looking up at the stars, but she wished that the centaur would be quiet. She ignored his muttering about all his credentials and lay down on her back, looking up at the sky. A moment later, however, the door burst open and all the lights in the darkness disappeared, leaving the dulled light from the clouds outside.

"What are you doing?" Leanna Thompson stared down at Lily, who had been lying on the floor and was now halfway sitting, massaging the ankle the mysteriously heavy Guide had landed on.

"What do you care?" Lily had forgotten how angry she was at the girl over what had happened to Lucy. "But I'm glad I got you alone actually," she continued. "I have been meaning to - discuss - with you what happened to my friend Lucy, the night after you burst in on us."

"Like I care," Leanna replied, but she was eyeing Lily's wand warily.

"That isn't very smart, because you'd better start worrying," Lily told her coolly. "I know each and every one of our text books front to back, and I have mastered a good half of he spells, whereas you cannot even take out revenge properly. I'd watch my back if I were you, Leanna Thompson!"

"I'll bet you wish you were me, don't you? I'm pretty, popular, and I'm not muggle-born scum. My hair is so light and fluffy, my face so clean and pure -"

"Leanna?" Lily spoke in a soft, simpering voice.

"Ye-es?"

"You had better start running, girl, because I am going to make you wish you never had to see a mirror again!" Lily shouted. "Densaugeo! Puteulanus blatta! Caudalous!

Leanna fled, trying to get rid of her new indigo hair, her elongating teeth, and her bushy tail.

Lily laughed. She hadn't meant to lose her temper, but Leanna deserved it anyway. She stood with baited breath, waiting for the explosion of mirth that would signal Leanna's arrival downstairs. But no sound came. Straining her ears, Lily could hear a few tiny coughs, perhaps covering snickers, but other than that - nothing. Maybe Leanna hadn't gone to the common room? No, that couldn't be it; the Densaugeous spell did not stop until you reached a qualified professional. Leanna would be trying to reach the hospital wing as soon as possible. Lily felt inclined to laugh and what Leanna might be thinking when the ancient, shriveled Madam Klagensteril touched her. But she was too curious as to why no one in the common room was laughing. She knew she would have almost cried with mirth if Leanna - or Hana, for that matter - had burst in on the common room looking like she did.

"You're in for it this time," the knight chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Lily snarled, rounding on him.

"You just wait..." he laughed again.

"Tell me!"

"Sir Knavekill doesn't squeal; you'll have to see for yourself," he drew himself up proudly. Lily wanted to smack him.

Rolling her eyes, she proceeded down the staircase. Why hadn't anyone laughed? What was 'Sir Knavekill' on about? She walked into the common room and tried to go over to her little secluded corner, but Lucy stopped her.

"You shouldn't have come down here," the tall girl told her out of the corner of her mouth.

"What do you mean?" Lily was very confused now. What was everyone on about?

Lucy gestured across the common room.

Leanna was crying maidenly, Hana's arm draped around her. From what Lily could hear from across the classroom, the Japanese girl was trying to comfort her friend. But Lily's attention was drawn away from them by something else.

James Potter was standing in the middle of the common room, staring at Lily with a new gaze; it was one he hadn't tried on her yet. He was glaring forcefully in her direction; there was nothing but a haughty hate in his suddenly cold, imposing hazel eyes. Lily had seen this expression only once before, and that was when he had been speaking with Snape.

"So," The short boy spoke out when he saw Lily's surprised countenance. "So."

This was one of those situations where it is not very bright to say 'so what.'

"I'm surprised at you, Evans." There was nothing but pulsing dislike in his layered eyes. "Attacking poor Leanna for no reason. Using - using the Dark Arts." He spoke the last word to the entire common room.

"What?" Lily was completely flummoxed now. "I never used the Dark Arts! What do you think I am?"

"Apparently, not what I thought you were. Evans, I can't believe you. You're a Gryffindor. Try to act like one!"

"B-but I am!" Lily wanted to know what was going on.

She hadn't used the dark arts - of course not! Why would anyone think differently? Then it clicked. Leanna - why had she thought Leanna would tell the truth? Leanna must have said that she used some dark spell. James hated anything related to dark magic, so it would be the perfect way to get him to hate her. They must have planned it all out; Leanna coming upstairs, knowing Lily would curse her if they were alone, Hana getting close to James so that she could whisper lies in his ear, then Leanna coming down and telling some story about dark magic - it all made sense now.

"She - she's been doing dark spells at night - gets out her collection of shriveled skulls and does this horrible ceremonies - goes into trances, speaks horrible languages -" Leanna called forward, pointing her finger at Lily. The redhead was forcefully reminded of the Salem Witch Trials she had read about a few years ago. "She tries to include the rest of us in on the ceremony - wants to convince Satan to eat us, I'm sure - she wears all these horrible charms, you can't see them because they're under her robes -"

"She tried to put the Imperius curse on me," Hana's cold, soft voice came out of the shadows. She seemed to be the sort of person who only spoke when it would make life worse for whomever she was speaking about. Though most of the accusations had come from Leanna, Lily decided that she hated Hana a good deal more.

A gasp went through the common room.

"She - she probably already has the Imperius curse on her friends, over there -" Leanna shrieked, taking her own friend's bait. Her teeth were slowly shrinking now, due to the aptitude of Sirius' magic. Lily was really angry now - how could they accuse her, how could they accuse her friends, of using such a horribly dark spell?

"James - James, I never -" Lily implored the tousle-headed boy, who had a look of pure fury on his face. He suddenly seemed a lot taller.

"They've infiltrated the goodness of Gryffindor!" Leanna shrieked. It was clear that she was attempting to seem hysterical, now. Hana tried to comfort her.

"Evans, do not call me by my first name. You lost the privilege a long time ago, along with the privilege to walk among the Gryffindors." James spoke in a soft, deadly tone.

"You - I didn't - you have no proof!" Lily tried to find a way to explain her way out of this, but she wasn't very good under pressure. She was, at the moment, trying to contain the part of her that wanted to lose her temper. If she lost control, she didn't want to know what would happen.

"An innocent wouldn't care if we had proof!" Leanna screamed. "She's a spy of that evil wizard, the one they're trying to keep out of the papers! Stay away from her!" she sank to the floor in a dead faint.

Lucy stepped forward.

"Leanna, you can get up now! Honestly...leave the acting to professionals," she drew herself up.

"Lucy, go away," Lily said out of the corner of her mouth. "This is my problem, don't get involved..."

"It's our problem too," Alice joined her friends.

"Go away," Lily told them quietly. "I can handle this!"

"Um, apparently, you can't," Lucy cast an eye over the angry-looking Gryffindors.

Lily rolled her eyes and stepped forward, hoping that no one would have noticed their little conference. Unfortunately, she wasn't so lucky.

"What are they talking about?" a sixth year girl surveyed the trio through her tiny eyes. "Plotting against us, are you? Leanna was right, they're in this together!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "In what together? In revenge against the Anna Banana twins? Well, yes, but they deserve it! Did no one perhaps wonder where my lovely self was for classes on Friday?"

There was some muttering, and a number of people nodded their heads.

"I was hexed -"

"Rather poorly," Alice added.

"Yes, I was hexed rather poorly into some attempt on an enchanted sleep. Now, unless you are suggesting that someone else got in through the locked door, or that the painting in our dorm can hold a wand, I think that the only people of possible blame in this instance are the Annas."

A couple of people nodded their heads, and Lily felt her heart rise, though she was still angry with her friends for bursting in on something that didn't concern them.

"I notice she conveniently left out the possibility that one of her 'friends' might have hexed her," Hana spoke from the floor, where Sirius was trying to revive the 'fainted' Leanna. Hana really had an uncanny talent of making everything worse than it already was.

"Yeah, I'll bet Lily'd be up to it!" a first-year Lily didn't know called out. A few people sized up Lily and snorted, but most seemed in favor of the boy's theory.

"Why are you portraying me as a super-genius?" Lily was finally able to get in a word. "I'm an eleven year old muggleborn with no prior magical experience. I may have read our books several times, but that hardly means that I am capable of using an Unforgiveable!"

"You've raised a good point," James spoke again. Lily started. Was he actually going to defend her?

"How do you even know about the Unforgivable Curses? You say that you are muggle-born; you've never come in contact with magic before you got your Hogwarts letter. But then how do you know about the Imperius Curse? And perhaps the others as well, for 'an unforgiveable' makes it sound as though there are more than one. Surely they aren't in our first-year books, not if I know the ministry!"

Lily's hopes fell through the air and landed on the fireplace with a resounding snap. She thought very carefully...where had she heard that term before? While she was thinking, a few other people wanted to express their opinions.

"Yeah...and how's she so good at magic, if she's never done it before?" the first-year boy who had suggested she'd be up to cursing Lucy called out. She decided he must have remembered how successful she was in Potions, Transfiguration, and Herbology.

"Of course the curses aren't written about in our textbooks," Lily scoffed as she tried to remember, cutting off a fourth-year who was about to speak. However, she finally got her first bit of luck that night, and it came back to her. "At least not obviously. But if you read the last page of Danger Where You Least Expect it: Rudimentary Defense Skills by Herman Horsepepper, you will find that the Unforgiveable Curses are mentioned. Let me see if I remember correctly...it was something about Mr. Horsepepper being under one of the Unforgivables. It mentioned what each one was, and what it did."

A few people gazed at her incredulously; some had a look of awe pass over their face.

"Pass me that," Remus Lupin told a third year girl standing next to him. She grabbed the book he had indicated and dropped it into his hands. "Danger Where You Least Expect it: Rudimentary Defense Skills by Herman Horsepepper," Remus said as he held up the book. "The last page...here we go: Herman Horsepepper managed to write this book while partially under the Imperius Curse. Horsepepper fought bravely against the Dark wizard Grindelwald, but he made a foolish choice. He decided to let himself be caught and work from within Grindelwald's forces, but was discovered. Horsepepper was killed by using the Avada Kedavra curse, (commonly known as the Killing curse, the worst of the three Unforgiveable Curses, which also include Imperius and Crucio) but his notes were discovered and the book was published as a tribute to his memory. It now serves as a major textbook in many schools around the world... it goes on to talk about this guy," Remus spoke in a quiet, scratchy voice, but it carried to all corners of the common room.

Silence pervaded the room for a while.

"Like she'd have remembered that," someone finally spoke.

"She's probably connected by the mind to someone evil, and they told her what to say!" Peter Pettigrew yelled shrilly, completely losing his head.

"She's just a first year, leave her alone!" The prefect, Kelsey Mullet, expressed her opinion, but she turned back to her homework when everyone in her vicinity glared at her.

"This is so stupid!" Lucy finally shouted. "You're acting like this is a...a trial, or something, but it's not! It's just some stupid first years that got carried away in their own cleverness, wanting to punish Lily. I'm sick with all of you...you honestly believe those girls, despite the fact that they have absolutely no proof?"

"We've got proof that Lily cursed Leanna!" Sirius told her angrily. "Look at the poor girl! And for no reason at all! Lily's dangerous, we should all stay away from her!"

"Don't bother," Lily told him angrily. "I'll be staying as far away from you as possible. I don't need to be liked by anyone in this stupid house, especially if you are all going to believe two girls who've got nothing but mashed banana between their ears!"

She grabbed her book bag and retreated to the dorm upstairs. Back in the common room, however, things were not over yet.

"You know, that doesn't explain how she knows what the Imperius curse is," the now tail-free, normal tooth-sized Leanna was saying as she looked over Remus' shoulder at the still-open book. "I think Peter is closer to right than any of you!"

Lucy snorted.

"Yeah, that's got to be it. The only possible explanation, other than the totally far-fetched 'you are all wrong,' is BRAINWASHING!" She spoke dramatically. "Ooh!" she squealed. "Run, it's brainwashing! Floo the authorities!" she prostrated herself at Sirius' feet.

"Oh shut up, Bones!" James told her condescendingly. "If you are going to remain friends with that girl, then get out of our sight!"

"Whatever happened to 'Pearl of my desire'?" Lucy asked him. The only representations of her animosity, other than the voice dripping with sarcasm, were pink splotches on her pale cheeks. She scrambled up from the floor and spat in James' face before hurrying up the corridor after Lily.

James wiped the liquid from his face, disgusted.

"I never called her that! And I never will! It was just a stupid joke! Everyone took it so seriously. I never liked that stupid Evans girl and I never will!" he yelled after her, incredibly angry.

Alice looked at his face, and then glanced around the common room. Her eyes lasted particularly long on the appraising, slightly disgusted face of Frank Longbottom.

"You all make me sick," she said quietly, before following her friends.

Strangely enough, it was the quiet, simple words of Alice that affected the common room the most.

James stormed out of the common room and into the hallway outside, clearly angry. Sirius followed, and Remus picked up his book and joined them. Peter tried to gather all of his chocolates, but at a meaningful glance from his amber-eyed friend, he left most on the floor. Hana and Leanna turned with the same intention, but each looked around the room first. They were less than satisfied with the consequences of their plot, however, because the expressions on faces were varied. Certainly, most looked angry and betrayed by Lily, but there were a few who were doubting or sympathetic. Among these were Nafeesah the second-year, Kelsey the prefect, and a group of pimply boys.

Back up in the highest dormitory, three girls seethed in anger. Each expressed their annoyance in their own fashion. Lucy paced around the room, arguing with herself. Alice scribbled madly in a notebook. Lily lay on her back, occasionally yelling angrily at her friends. But they knew her too well to respond in any way. The rest of the evening passed in bad temper, the rain drumming out the angry heartbeats of every Gryffindor. Before Lily fell asleep, she told herself that she would not let what anyone else thought of her get in her way. She was going to stop caring about what everyone else thought, because it didn't matter to her. It never really had. It didn't matter, school wasn't about popularity. She'd survive - she'd prosper - whether or not she was popular. She soon found out how wrong she was.