A War of Nerves

CHAPTER 9: Capture

Snape watched as Lily rose from her table and made her way over to the Weasley boy. She looks magnificent, doesn't she?

Shut up.

But she did. Her attempts at covering her tanned skin with the flimsy, forest green fabric didn't work. It accented her every curve in a way Snape felt was very intriguing. He watched as she gave the Weasley boy fake smiles; fake because she didn't have that same spark in her eyes. He looked up her body again and felt his stomach go tight. He shifted in his seat and felt Dumbledore's eyes go in his direction.

"Is there something the matter Severus?" he asked seriously.

"No," he said smoothly, but perhaps a bit too quickly.

Dumbledore gave him a questioning look, then turned away from him and offered to dance with Minerva. Snape was distracted again by a flash of green. She had passed in front of his table, and he caught a forced laugh before she spun away.

He was getting very inappropriate visions of her. Her underneath him. Her nails digging into his skin. Her thick hair wrapped in his fingers. Her chest crushed against his. Her lips quivering on his cheek. Her hot breath against his neck. Her long legs wrapping tightly around his hips. And her thick, sexy accented voice saying into his ear, "Sev'rus."

And again, "Sev'rus."

And again, "Sev'rus."

"Severus!"

He jerked to life and opened his eyes to be facing Sybil Trelawny. He groaned inwardly.

"Yes, Sybil," he said as politely as he could.

"I've had a vision about you."

He swallowed his irritation and said, "Really."

"I saw your death. You fell into a volcano because you couldn't answer your favorite color correctly."

"That is crazy. My favorite color is blue. I mean yellow!" he said.

(A/N: Gotta love the Python.)

"Hm, it is as I thought. Good night Severus, I need to divine an answer," she said mystically.

Dumbledore sat down next to him again, "She's been drinking the punch."

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Come to think of it, I've been drinking the punch. I believe those twin friends of Miss Lily's have something to do with that," he continued. "Some American brew if I'm not mistaken; a little too sweet for my tastes. I also think they may have added an aphrodisiac as well. Funny types, Americans."

Snape rolled his eyes and took a drink out of his liquor tin, trying to forget the distastefulness of this whole thing. His eyes involuntarily seeking out Lily, knowing he would dream of her tonight. He watched as she looked around the Hall and made her way out quietly, having ditched the Weasley boy long ago. She licked her lips in the way he loved and hated, and backed out of the Hall.

This is silly, he told himself as he got up to follow her.

It would be silly not to follow her, his voice answered back

Shut up.

He stalked off to the exit, earning glances from most of his colleagues. He watched her as she turn the corner and walk down the first floor hallway in the direction of the library. He frowned, why was she going into the library? And perhaps a more important question, would Madam Price be in there?

But he heard her steps stop before she got to the library. He peered around the corner and found her leaning against the wall, eyes closed and arms crossed, breathing deeply and in strangled intervals. She licked her lips and one of her hands went to her locket. It flashed in the dim light as she opened it. He assumed there was a picture on the inside by the way she lovingly traced the edges of it. A single tear trailed down her face and she wiped it away forcefully.

"Mama," he heard her whisper as she closed it, "It's almos' done."

She stood there still, closing her eyes again and breathing more regularly than before. What is wrong with you? Talk to her, his voice commanded, Or are you scared?

Not scared. Slytherins are not without backbone, we are cautious, he replied.

Prove it, the voice said.

Fine.

He rounded the corner and Lily looked at him sharply, but didn't say a word. He just looked her in the eyes, those hauntingly familiar eyes. He should know them he knew.

"Come ta rub my loneliness in my face?" she asked coldly, but with a hitch in her voice.

And he couldn't speak.

"What, the Almighty Sev'rus Snape with nothin' ta say? Run an' hide, it's the end o' the world," she said sarcastically.

And he still couldn't find the words to say. No nasty comeback came to mind, no sarcastic line. Nothing.

"If that's all..." she said, walking past him quickly brushing his shoulder lightly. But she didn't walk away so fast that he didn't see the tear that fell down her cheek.

What was he doing there?!? She was beginning to forget before he showed his hide and ruined it for her. She wondered how long he had been watching her, if he had seen her cry. Well if he didn't see you before he surely caught your last bout as you left, she thought dryly.

She rounded the corner and walked up the stairs. She entered her room opened her window. It was going to be a long night. She sat on her window ledge, looking down at the campus. It was so quiet at night. The lake had an occasional ripple in it as it reflected the half moon. How long has it been since I've seen Mama? she wondered to herself. Or Auntie Hermione? A breeze made her green dress flutter and she leaned forward to catch more of it.

She heard a high pitched laugh traveling down the halls. Probably B-chan and that nice looking Ravenclaw. Or Katie or Gwen, she thought.

Then she leaned back into the wind, enjoying how it felt running through her hair. How far down is it? she wondered idly, kicking her feet. And how long would I fly?

She inhaled the sweet night air again and almost fell when she heard a soft but insistent knocking on her door. Probably B-chan, she thought.

"I don't want ta talk B-chan!" she shouted. "Go away!"

She waited a few seconds and when she was sure the person had walked away she turned back to the window.

Then the knocking came again, louder than the first time.

"Raja, if that is you o' B-chan just go back ta the dance. I'm not comin' out so don't make me hex ya!" she warned.

Then she heard her door opening and figuring it was probably Brigid coming to give her a piece of her mind, she didn't turn around.

"Look, B-chan," she said softly, "just leave it be. Go back ta that Ravenclaw...o' the dance. I really don't wan to have to beat ya up again. Las' year was really pathetic if ya rememba' clearly."

"No wonder you have so little friends," drawled a cold voice from behind her.

She should have known. Really, she wasn't that surprised. She deserved to get mocked after the way she had been acting. But there is no way I'll let him see that, she thought. Lily didn't even bother turning around.

"You," she hissed as malevolently as she could. "What are you doing here?"

By his silence, she could tell he didn't know either.

A bird called out into the night.

"I've always wanted ta come here," Lily said in a quiet voice, but she knew he could hear her. "My motha' and fatha' both came to Hogwarts ya know. Mama used ta tell me loads o' wonda'ful stories 'bout the old place. Where I come from, things aren't quite so nice, no' so peaceful."

She heard Snape scoff. "Peaceful, hardly."

Of course he wouldn't understand for another year, less now that she had tampered with things probably.

"Peace is of'en a thing people see from different perspectives," she said with a tinge of sadness.

"And what would you know of war and peace," he spat. "You grew up in a time of easiness. Voldemort wasn't hunting people down, your friends and family weren't dying before your eyes. You and your generation had it easy."

She turned her head sharply around and opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. She saw Snape was a few feet behind her, looking attentively in he direction, his face shadowed by her lightless room.

She sighed heavily and said in defeat, "You o' all people should know people have secrets. Mine is somethin' that only a few people know, an' you weren't meant ta."

He looked at her with an odd expression on her face and she really wished she knew what he was thinking.

She turned around fully and hopped down from the window ledge, but leaned up against it.

"I'll ask ya again, what do ya want from me?"

"Answers," he said simply.

She looked out the window again, "I canna help ya there."

He was frowning, she knew he must be. She brought her eyes to meet his again and practically whispered, "I can tell ya one thing though: the time is comin' soon when sides will be chosen and wars will be waged again. Voldemort is rising as ya must know, bein' a spy an' all. There is betrayal in the castle, an' I only have a short time ta figure out who."

Then she stepped closer to him and poked him in the chest, "Are ya sure ya can trust those whom yer trustin'?"

As she was about to turn away he grabbed her hand, a little too forcefully. She could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"You're not from around here are you?"

"No," Lily answered truthfully.

"Who are you?" he asked, almost desperately.

"Can't tell ya," she said in a whisper.

Then he sneered at her and turned to walk out of the room. But in the doorway he stopped, and not looking at her he said, "I will find out," and then closed the door, hard.

Lily moaned and put her hands on her face, stretching her skin and then letting it relax. Then she flung herself on her bed without even taking her dress off or anything. And she promptly fell asleep.

Lily woke some hours later to muffled noises. Were Brigid, Morgan, Katie, and Gwen in her room? She tried to move but found she couldn't. She frowned inwardly. Maybe she was dreaming. If so, it was an odd dream.

"Are you sure that was all that you were suppose to give her?" a muffled, feminine voice said.

"Yes," a husky man voice answered.

Give her what?

"It doesn't look like it worked," another feminine voice said.

"Maybe we should test it," the male voice suggested.

"Oh, yeah! Hey Merrins, can you move anything? No? Thanks a bunch, doll," the girl said.

"Sh! Someone is coming.

The voices died.

The problem was, she couldn't move anything! But she could hear damn well now. She commanded her body to move. It didn't. She tried again. This couldn't be a dream. If this were a dream, I could close my eyes and wake up in my bed, she thought. But she couldn't even move her eyelids. This isn't good. At this point I'm going to have to assume that this is not in fact a dream. In which case, I'm in a hell of a lot of trouble.

And how the hell did they get past my protective charms? Then realization dawned on her. She hadn't put them up again. After Snape broke through them she had forgotten to put them back up. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! How could I...argh! Smart Potter, real smart!

Then the voices started again.

"Whoever it is has gone," the male voice said.

"How were we suppose to take her there again?" the first voice asked.

Take me where? She asked silently, worry in her mind.

"The cloak you ass," the other girl voice said. "And the levitating charm, we went over this a dozen times."

"Oh, yeah."

"Well..."

"Okay, okay, I'm doing it," the male voice mumbled.

Lily felt a cloak fall over her and wrap tightly across her body.

She heard her door open, "Hurry up you guys," a second male voice said.

"Okay, now are you sure she only had to inhale it?" the first female asked.

"Yes," she second replied.

"Mobilicorpus!"

And Lily felt her body rise from the bed and her head lolled to the side. Where were they taking her? And a more important question, how were they not getting caught?

Lily felt like beating herself upside the head. How could she be so stupid? These people, whom she assumed attended Hogwarts, had been around her all year and she hadn't spotted them as the traitor. They were Slytherin most likely. The bastards, she thought. I wonder if they were smart enough to take my wand off me. Fortunately, her body shifted she that she could feel her wand, safely in its pocket in her sleeve. I love you long archaic sleeves that Morgan made fun of! She thought joyously as she felt her wand poke her again.

"Sh! Don't be so loud Cory!" a female whispered.

Cory...Cory...Cory McNair! The one Hermione warned me about! You're stupid Lil, she said to herself.

She concentrated hard on the female's voice.

"Darron and Goyle are distracting Peeves and Filch, but that doesn't mean we can't get caught by any other teacher!" she hissed again.

Definitely Millicent Bludstrode, the fat puggy bitch! And she said Goyle and Darron. Darron...Nott, Hermione said. So, there are six in this little conspiracy so far. But I wonder what they want with me? Why not Harry? Or some one closer to him? Ginny or Ron? She thought.

"Make sure to grab some of her hair before we leave, Joanne needs it if she's gonna do things properly," Millicent said.

"I know that!" the other female said hotily.

"Hey, watch where you're-"

But Lily never got to find out what they were talking about. Something rock solid hit her head...hard...and she passed out.

Harry smiled when he got up that morning. He had made sure to sleep in till noon that day, the first day of break always got that honor. He looked around his dormitories and saw it was only him and Ron, as usual. He put his glasses on and went over to Ron's bed.

"Ron," he said, shaking his wayward red headed friend. "Wake up!"

"'S too early Harry," he mumbled into his pillow, "go to bed."

"Lavender Brown is in here naked."

Ron shot up and said, "Huh? Where?"

Harry fell on the ground; peels of laughter could be heard even in the common room, had there been anyone who was there.

"Haha, very funny Harry," Ron said sleepily.

"It's nearly noon," Harry said, wiping tears from his eyes.

"And?"

"And I'm hungry."

"Come to think of it...give me five minutes," he said jumping out of bed and pulling on some slacks and a loose shirt.

Harry was putting on his shirt when he heard a shy knock on the door. Then Ginny popped her head in, eyes closed.

"Can I open my eyes?" she asked.

Harry laughed lightly and said, "Yeah, Ron and I were just fixing to head down for breakfast...lunch...whatever."

"Finally," Ginny sighed as she sat on his bed. Harry thought she looked cute in her pink shirt and white cut offs, red hair in a sloppy ponytail. "I thought you guys were going to sleep through Christmas at the rate you were going."

Harry shrugged and said, "We had to get up to eat."

Ginny giggled and fell back on his bed. Then she turned serious. "Harry, I'm worried about Lily. She didn't seem well last night and-"

"Ron danced with her. He said she was okay," Harry said off handedly.

"Ron is a stupid-"

"I HEARD THAT!" Ron shouted from the bathroom.

"-PRAT AND WOULDN'T KNOW IF A PERSON WAS HAVING PROBLEMS IF THEY SMACKED HIM OVER THE HEAD WITH THEM!" she finished loudly, causing Harry to flinch slightly. "And," she said, turning to Harry, "I want to check on her, to make sure she is okay."

"She'll be at lunch Gin," Ron said, coming out of the bathroom.

"Then let's get going," she said, jumping up and heading towards the door.

Sure enough, when they go to the Great Hall, which had been returned to its original state, there was Lily with Morgan to her left and Brigid to her right. Ginny automatically rushed over, a look of horror on her face.

Morgan looked at Harry and Ron sharply and then motioned with her head to the empty hallway. Harry looked at Ron and he nodded. They headed over to the hall and Morgan came a few minutes later.

"What do you want?" Ron asked nastily.

"Good morning to you, too, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter," she said in a sarcastically polite voice. Harry noticed a bit of anxiety when he looked at her, and he softened, perhaps she did have feelings.

"Good morning Morgan," he said uneasily. Ron looked at him weirdly. "What did you want to talk about?"

Morgan licked her lips and then frowned.

"You were the last person to talk to Lily before she left the ball. What did Lily say to you, Mr. Weasley?" she asked in a professional voice, but Harry could sense some worry in her voice.

Ron frowned. "She said she needed some fresh air and was going outside...come to think of it, she never did come back..."

Morgan snorted and muttered something that sounded like, "You were too busy trying to get laid I'd wager."

Ron's face reddened and Morgan smiled sickeningly sweetly at him in victory. "As I thought. Did she say anything else?"

"Um...no, definitely not. She didn't seem to keen on talking. Hey, does this have anything to do with-"

But she stopped short when he saw her head jerk towards Harry. Harry frowned, "What is going on?"

Morgan smiled at him and took him by the arm, much in the way Lily tended to do, "Mr. Potter, it was so nice talking to you. I do hope...Lily...feels better, do tell her I said so."

Then she pushed him into the Great Hall. Ginny caught his eye and motioned for him to come over. He was a little apprehensive, but there were only a few people staying over for Christmas break, an unnaturally large amount of Slytherin present. Two sixth years, Cory McNair, and Adam Dolohov. It seemed as though Draco had stayed this year as well as Pansy, Millicent, and Blaise Zabini. The thing that struck Harry as odd was that Malfoys beastly bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, were missing.

There seemed to be no Hufflepuffs, but a pair of studious Ravenclaws sat at their table, pouring over some books.

The only Gryffindors were Natalie, Ron, Ginny, Lily, and himself, and Lily's friends, Brigid, Morgan, and the twins, Katie and Gwen, if you could count them. The frightening pair of twins were missing in action, he suspected lurking around the castle somewhere. And Natalie was nowhere in sight, though Harry thought she might be on the pitch because she had told him she was staying over the break to work on her game.

He sat next to Ginny, who was talking quietly to Lily.

"What happened Lillers?" Brigid asked.

Harry had a bad feeling that he was going to have to sit through Lily's tears. He also had another feeling, one he couldn't quite pinpoint...

Morgan dragged the Weasley boy through the halls of Hogwarts and then out onto the grounds, and all the way to the Quidditch pitch. He was cursing her by the time she reached the pitch, but she was ignoring him. What she wanted to know was how much he knew. It could be important, very important. As far as she knew, the only people who knew the full extent of Lily's secrets were the twins, Brigid, and herself. And if Lily had made a mistake and told the wrong person, or if Ron had mentioned it to someone, very bad things would start happening, very bad thing indeed.

"Shut up will you!" she finally said when she had brought him into the locker rooms and put a silencing charm on the room.'

"What the fuck do you think you are doing? What is your problem?" he shouted at her.

"Oh, offensive," she said rolling her eyes at him, "been taking lessons from Lil? Merlin, British boys are ball-less wimps! Sure you weren't supposed to be in Hufflepuff?"

"Well excuse me! It isn't every day a girl drags me half way across campus by the ear to the locker rooms TO CRITISIZE MY SWEARING!"

"Well I'm surprised they would drag you for any reason at all," she said snidely.

"If you weren't a girl..." he threatened.

"You'd what? Curse like a man? Pu-leez!" she shot back.

"Why don't you just tell me what is up so I can get out of here," he said in a calm voice that somehow seemed a bit threatening to Morgan.

"Now that we see eye to eye, Mr. Weasley," she began. "Just how much do you know about Lilith Michelle Merrins?"

"How much do you know?" he countered angrily.

"Everything," she answered bluntly.

"What is her real name then?" he asked confidently.

"Lilith Michelle Potter," she answered.

Ron did a double take, "You know too?"

"It is only what I've been trying to say for the last ten minutes shit for brains," she snapped. "Have you told anyone about her?"

"NO!" Ron shouted.

"You don't have to yell, I'm two feet away, Mr. Weasley," she said dryly.

"Is that all?" he asked.

Morgan thought it over for a moment. She really only wanted to know how much he knew, there was no way he could help her in proving what she thought was happening.

Finally, against what she would normally call her good judgment, she told him, "I don't think that is Lily in there."

Ron looked at her, wild questions in his blue eyes. He really is quite attractive, in a rugged sort of way. I wonder how he kisses...

"What do you mean?" he asked carefully.

"Well, we Winds have a saying, 'If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and smells like a duck, what is it? A plot masterminded by a powerful and rich organization conspiring to brainwashing the public into thinking it is a duck,'" she quoted faithfully.

He gave her another blank look.

She sighed and growled out, "Some one is working very hard to convince us that that person in the Great Hall is Lily."

"Who would want to do that?" he asked.

"Malfoy, the Slytherins, Voldemort; take your pick," she said, noting how he didn't flinch as she said Voldemort. "I'm laying my bets on the Slytherin however, notice how many of them there are staying for break? We Winds never stay at school during break if we can help it. We might run into goody goodies like you, or those imbecile Earths."

Ron stayed quiet for a while, an action which disturbed Morgan. After a while he said, "Polyjuice."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Polyjuice Potion, it turns you-"

"I know what it does..." and then she put it together, "And that would explain why she is acting...and why she is drinking out of that canteen, hm, I thought that was alcohol...and the voice, it is too low, she complained of a sore throat...and her breath, ugh, believe me, that was not a pretty sight."

"Well, we've go to warn some one!" Ron said, "We've got to do something! Let's go, we have to save her!" he was becoming hysterical. "She might be in trouble! She might be dead! She might be under the Imperious Curse, or the Cruciatus Curse and is spilling her secrets! Or she could-"

But he couldn't say anymore because Morgan slapped him. Hard. "Get a hold of yourself Ron!"

He looked at her dazed, even in a new light, and said, "Sorry, sometimes I get a bit carried away."

"Obviously," she muttered, rubbing her hand. "Now before you go off and do something so Gryffindorically brave, noble, courageous and undoubtedly stupid beyond all comprehendible belief, let's analyze the situation Ron."

He blinked rapidly, not missing the fact she had called him Ron for the second time in one minute.

"Now, Lily, we assume that isn't her in the Great Hall, has been captured, we assume, by some Slytherin under the pretence of doing who knows what to her. They have done this so expertly that they haven't been caught, suggesting that they have had outside and experienced help as they obviously couldn't have thought up something so intricate and perfect without older help. We know-"

"For all we know she is dead!" Ron exploded.

"She isn't dead if they are using Polyjuice!" she snapped. "You learned nothing from your fourth year? You have to have your Polyjuice partner alive for the spell to work! We know they are using Polyjuice because none of them are advanced enough to perform that high a level of Transfiguration yet. Now may I continue?"

He nodded.

"Now, the first thing we have to do is prove that that person in the Great Hall is not in fact Lily. Then, we will have to go to Dumbledore directly, once we have sufficient proof of course."

"But by then-"

"Lily will be in the clutches of the Death Eaters and even Voldemort himself in which case you and I and anyone else you can possibly think of besides Dumbledore will be of no use to us."

"What about Harry?" he asked, loyally sticking to his friend.

"Has Lily told you what her future is like?" Morgan asked sharply.

"She said," Ron paused, "she said that Harry was dead."

"Exactly," Morgan said coldly.

"So if she knew this was going to happen, and when, why didn't she do something? Tell Dumbledore, tell Harry, hell, tell the bum on the streets as long as some one knew?"

"Because she doesn't know when!" Morgan said in an exasperated voice. "By her being here alone she disrupts the balance of time! Miss Granger and Mr. Potter surely told you their role in the little shenanigan in your third year? Time Turner and all?"

Ron nodded. Hermione had been furious with Harry for disrupting the flow of time, but she had gotten over it quite quickly.

"So as I was saying, she doesn't know when or if certain events in her history will even occur, only that it is possible that they will. Even she can be surprised by the event in this new time line she has created. She simply chose the wrong moment to let her guard fall. Which brings us back to our original topic, what to do."

"What are we going to do?" Ron asked.

Morgan thought on that for a moment. Then a wonderfully perfect idea came to her. "I'm going to have a try at her little bottle of liquor," she said with a smirk.

"Her Polyjuice you mean?" Ron asked.

She looked at him appraisingly and said, "Well, looks certainly aren't everything. Let's go Ron."

"Hey! What is that suppose to mean?" he said as he caught up with her halfway back to the castle.

She sighed and turned around, walking backwards, "I'm just teasing you, Ron."

She saw Ron's eyes grow wide and was about to ask he what was wrong until she bumped into something very solid.

"Who do we have here?" the cool drawl of Draco Malfoy said into her ear.

Morgan smirked at Ron and turned around, "You tell me, Mr. Malfoy."

"It seems that you and the Weasel were out enjoying an evening walk. But that can't right, I was under the impression people had to buy your affections."

Morgan had a wonderfully evil idea, "Ron doesn't need to buy my affections," she said, walking toward Ron and putting his arm around her waist and resting her head on his shoulder, which was a feat because he was a good three fourths of a foot taller than her. "I've always said actions speak louder than words, or money in this case, haven't you Mr. Malfoy?"

Then she walked past him, partially dragging Ron behind her, into the castle, leaving Draco with a sneer on his face and no come back in sight.

They entered the castle and Morgan let out a laugh that scared Ron a bit. "Well, that was fun," she said darkly, disengaging herself from him and heading into the Great Hall. "Now we have work to do Ron, let's go catch a fake."

Harry sighed in relief when Ron and Morgan walked in. They had been gone for over half an hour, and needless to say, it was beginning to worry him. He knew that Ron held no great liking for the dark featured girl, and the two of them, alone, probably wasn't the best of situations.

But Morgan walked promptly up to Lily, practically pushing Ginny off the bench. Ginny looked at her in disbelief and a bit of resent, but kept quiet. Morgan caught the eye of Harry and winked at him before turning back to Lily. Harry could tell that Ginny was doing her best not to explode and give the snobbish girl a piece of her mind.

But Morgan ignored her and put her arm around the waist of the near to tears Lily and say, "Come on Lil, you've got to snap out of this."

And Lily burst into a new set of tears and cried on Morgan's shoulder.

"Shh, shh, it's all right Lils. I think you've had about enough of this," she said, grabbing Lily's tin, which Harry assumed had a strong liquor in it considering Lily smelled heavily of it.

The sobbing Lily rose her head and looked at Morgan with something akin to fear in her eyes, "There, there, Lils," Morgan said softly, "Now what did I say about drinking hard liquor before noon. Now you'll have an upset stomach."

Lily had stopped crying, "I-I can take that, I won't drink anymore."

"I know what you're like when you're drunk Lils, you can't get enough. Let's get you cleaned up," Morgan said quietly, "You're making a scene."

"I wouldn't be making a scene if you'd just give my tin back to me," Lily hissed in a voice that Harry had never heard before, but then, he had never seen Lily drunk.

"My, my," Morgan said in mock surprise, "What has Miss Merrins been drinking?"

She popped the top off the tin and smelled it, "This is wretched smelling Lil."

Lily was desperately trying to grab the tin from Morgan, but to no avail. Morgan tilted her head back, swatting the hands of Lily away, and took a deep drought of the liquor.

She immediately made a disgusted face and looked like she might gag. Lily was sitting there, fear written all over her face, no speaking, but making short sort of choking sounds.

Lumps began moving around under Morgan's skin and her facial features started to change. Her skin became darker more tan, her hair short and straight, her eyes turned dark green, and she grew a few inches taller...and she was Lily.

Lily was scrambling to get up from the seat, but Ron came behind her and sat her down.

Ginny screamed.

They were uncommonly lucky that no one was in the Great Hall but them anymore.

And then Brigid walked back in the Hall with the food Lily had asked for her, and dropped into a faint.

But Morgan, or Lily now, simply smiled and looked at her hands. Then she looked down on her body, "Hm," she said matter of factly, "Lily wasn't lying when she said her boobs were bigger than mine. Go figure."

"Morgan?" Harry managed to choke out.

"In the flesh," she said, then paused, "Bad choice of words perhaps."

Then she turned to Ginny and said, "Miss Weasley, could you please attend to B-chan," and pointed her thumb over in the direction of the unconscious Brigid.

"And you, Mr. Potter, I'm sure you know the way to the Headmaster's office, having been there yourself no doubt several times, so you may lead us. Ron, please escort Miss Whoever She Is, don't be afraid to use force. I believe we have much to discuss with this Albus Dumbledore."

Harry's eye spasmed under his glasses and he nodded numbly, raising from his seat and walking them to the headmaster's office.

Morgan was smiling, which wouldn't have been so bad because she was Lily, but it made her look creepy like that, not Lily, but like Morgan trapped in Lily's body, which she was...It was all too confusing for Harry right now.

But he lead them up to Dumbledore's office with little trouble in guessing the password. He took a deep breath and opened the door, and found Dumbledore talking to Snape. This was going to be awkward, really awkward.

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow and said, "Well this should be fascinating, shouldn't it, Severus?"

Snape turned from one Lily to the other, then to Ron and Harry, "Yes," he almost hissed.

But the Morgan Lily smiled and said, "Oh, it is, is assure you Headmaster Dumbledore. You may not recognize me, but I am Morgan Estellan, one of the friends of Lily's that you invited over from Salem's."

"Ah, I thought I recognized your voice. Did I know your father, Jonathan perhaps?"

"No, that would be my grandfather, Jonathan Estellan. And he speaks so highly of you, I believe he calls you a 'Bumbly old coot' from time to time."

"Ah, Jonathan and his sense of humor. I can remember when we were in third year-"

"Albus," Snape snapped (A/N: ::shudders in joy:: I've always wanted to write that.).

"Oh, right, got a little off topic there, eh, Miss Estellan?"

The Morgan Lily smiled good humoredly and said, "I suppose I should explain all this..."