Falling From the Ground

Chapter Four

James and the group soon found the best classes in which to perform their tricks. Defense Against the Dark Arts wasn't one of them. Professor Shea had given them each detentions and sent them to the Headmaster with forty points taken off Gryffindor for endangering the rest of the students.

Charms, it turned out, was perfect for the pranks they chose to perform. Professor Alsop laughed along with them and often let the prank continue until it stopped on its own without her doing anything. Yes, she would take obnoxiously amazing amounts of points off, but it seemed worth it. Still, in order to not become the most hated people in Gryffindor they tried not to loose too many points so they would mainly stick to making the students laugh with commentary instead of explosions and discoloring. Only on the rare and special occasions did they pull one in Charms.

As odd as it seemed, Transfiguration was their favorite place to prank. Most of the time Professor McGonagall was too shocked by someone not obeying the rules of her classroom to take away any points. She would issue detentions instead. It was an added bonus that she happened to react perfectly to whatever was happening. When something exploded she jumped up in the air. When something disappeared she jumped up in the air. When they charmed her desk to dance she jumped up in the air. And every time she did, the class would laugh hysterically to see their strict and dignified teacher looking horrified. Eleven year olds were never the kindest people.

~*~*~

The weeks soon melded into months and before Lily could say "lumos" it was Halloween. It wasn't until years later that Lily realized how important Halloweens could be but at the moment she was merely a first year and all that she knew was that the pumpkins were huge, the feast delicious, and the upper classmen hilarious. There were two Slytherins in particular that had an amazing talent for unruly behavior: Timothy and Joel. It was during the Halloween feast that Lily had her first encounter with them.

"I would just like to say a few words before we begin filling our stomachs," Professor Dumbledore said, standing tall in front of the entire student body of Hogwarts. As all of the students and professors alike quieted and turned to listen, two boys interrupted.

"Thank you, now eat children!" Timothy yelled, standing up. While the younger students gasped at his daring to cut off the most powerful wizard alive, the older ones laughed, knowing that interrupting Dumbledore was not where it would end.

"Tim, I don't think he was done yet!" Joel added; he glanced up at the Headmaster and then caught sight of Professor Shea who looked ready to expel Tim. "Nope, definitely not done speaking yet!"

"Professor, did you say a few words or did you not?" Tim argued.

"I must admit that I did speak few words before I was so politely interrupted." The old wizard's eyes glittered with amusement.

"I win! Let the feast begin!" Tim said, sitting down again. To those watching them it seemed like they were on an invisible seesaw- when one sat down the other stood up.

"Professor, although I am appalled with Timothy's actions I must admit that we would like to eat sooner rather than later if you would," Joel said.

"May I inquire as to the reasoning?" the Headmaster asked, as if speaking with someone of great honor.

"It's just that we made something for the Professors and we aren't very good at keeping things invisible," Tim replied

"Or floating" Joel yelled before Timothy went on.

"In fact I think that all of you should look up about now."

Even before he was done speaking some of the professors tried to jump out of their seats; no one made it. Twelve gigantic, floating pumpkins appeared above them and exploded. The professors, with the exception of one woman that was curiously off to the side, were drenched in orange muck and the children were laughing.

"I was going to attempt to continue my speech, but it seems the seventh years would like me to step aside," said the Headmaster, sitting down with all the dignity a man covered in Pumpkin could have. Professor Alsop took the opportunity to smother some of the goop on to his clean-seeming face.

Lily was laughing nervously when Sabine poked her in the ribs with her elbow and pointed her head towards James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius. They weren't laughing; it didn't even seem like they were smiling. Of all the people in the room Lily had expected them to be laughing the hardest, not having a secretive conversation, but it would be another six years before she truly understood all of their depths, and even then she continued to be amazed by the amount of work they put into whatever they set their minds to, but for right now she was simply grateful that Remus seemed to be fitting in so well with their group.

With that in mind she turned back to the Head Table just in time to see Dumbledore pour his glass of milk on Alsop's head without breaking his conversation with Tim and Joel who had run up to talk to him.

~*~*~

"WAKE UP!" Professor Alsop shouted, sending some of her floating pig statutes to circle Sirius' head and explode several times. His head, which had only moments before been resting on his desk, shot up and he looked frantically around the room for the source of the explosion. Another pig exploded right in front of him and he turned and glared at the professor. The other students who had been sleeping were quick to sit up.

"Professor, really! There's no need for you break your precious pigs just for me," Sirius said sarcastically. Another two exploded. "Seriously! You can stop that now!"

"It's the day after Halloween Professor," James continued, "mightn't we have a holiday?"

Sirius tried to swat a couple pigs away before they blew up, but it wasn't until Remus, after searching through his book for a while, pitched in with a spell that they actually left.

"I am fully aware that it is the Monday after Halloween, but that does not change the fact that we are in class Mr. Potter, and today I intend to teach you a spell that is sure to leave you feeling a bit light on your feet." Her eyes roamed the room to ensure the students full and undivided attention.

"It is called the hot foot charm. It's almost a curse but I have to tell you that today I'm getting so frustrated with your lack of attention that I am perfectly happy to bend the rules of my classroom a little. Hell, any of you want to learn the unforgivables?" Peter began to say something, but the professor seemed to think she knew what he was thinking.

"If you are going to suggest leaving, you will be the first to have the 'hot foot charm' administered and it will be by me." He continued to try to start his sentence. She interrupted him once again. "And you will loose fifty house points, but Mr. Pettigrew wants to talk, what is it that you would like to say?"

Peter did say anything, and even if he hadn't, Sirius jumped out of his desk and practically flew across half the room in order to knock his friend out of his chair and on to the floor. The Professor smiled.

"The charm is on page one-forty-seven of your texts. Begin."

Lily and Sabine set to work, trying to basically start a fire within each other's feet, neither one being very successful.

"This is a horrible exercise!" Sabine said as she saw a boy in Hufflepuff run from the room with his shoes on fire. It wasn't until four other students joined him that the professor felt the need to inform them of the cooling charm and by that then it was almost time for the class to leave.

"Professor, do you remember when you were teaching use Perfectus Totales and you made James, Remus, Peter, and I the targets?" Sirius began. After the Professor looked up with an amused look and nodded, Sirius continued. "I told you that you couldn't use magic as a punishment for us. And it is the same case here!"

"Mr. Black I am not punishing you, even though you deserve much, much worse. I still maintain what I told you that day. I am teaching you. As long as you are in my class practicing on each other it is TEACHING. I can even do this and call it extra credit," she muttered a few words and James and Sirius were slowly lifted off their feet and pushed against the back wall. There they turn against the wall like giant clock hands.

"Professor!" Tim shouted in indignation.

"This is a combination of the levitating and wind charms. I believe you will be learning how to block them sometime this year in your defense class. When you do please come back and retrieve Mr. Potter and Mr. Black," Professor Alsop was trying to sound serious but after James and Sirius continued to grin and give each other a high five on their way past each other, she smiled. When they whooped and said to go faster she flat out laughed. She obviously liked The Gang. Their antics were quite amusing and they clearly had talent. She undid the spell.

"You two are nutters, you know that? Do you do these things in your other classes or am I just special?" the Professor said. James and Sirius laughed, swaying slightly.

"You're special," James said.

"That was the coolest thing that I have ever done," Sirius said. James nodded and gave the professor a great big smile before leaving. The normally calm and collected woman laughed again.

"That was simply horrible!" Sabine began.

"No, it was fun, really,"

"I wasn't talking about the amazing revolving idiots; I was talking about learning that horrid charm. I mean, really, who wants to make someone feel like they are walking on lava?"

"I thought it was fun," said Sirius walking up. Lily heard a sloshing noise and when she looked at his feet she saw that his shoes were soaked. She hadn't noticed that while he'd been spinning.

"Who were you partnered with?" Sabine asked.

"Who do you think?" Sirius said, jerking his head towards James.

"Well, at least now I know I've perfected the cooling charm," James said grinning.

"Cooling charm! MY FEET ARE WET! This isn't cool; this is freezing. I'm going to get sick and die, and it will all be your fault. My mum will be none too pleased with you. My father on the other hand may give you a medal, but boy is my mum gunna be mad." Sirius trailed off with Sabine on his left and Remus and Peter close behind. Lily and James fell a little ways off.

"Do you realize that the cooling charm can't make things wet? Professor Alsop just told us that," Lily commented. James grinned and nodded. "So you purposely made his feet frozen?"

"Sirius should learn to listen a little more carefully and not make fun of people as they are rifling through their Charms book." Lily laughed a little and then found herself and James being separated as they walked into Transfiguration.

~*~*~

Hello again, this is Lily. I just wanted to tell you about what has been happening here at school since it has been a while since our last letter. I am really enjoying all of my classes, Defense Against the Dark Arts is difficult and a little useless in my opinion, I mean Professor Dumbledore destroyed the last big threat, didn't he? The professors are all really great. They seem to really be good at what they do. My friend Sabine and I found some secret passages between classes, which means we can get to History of Magic earlier than everyone else, not that anyone would really want to... Marduk is great and is still following my every step; though sometimes he will go off for extended periods of time. When he is around he is under my feet.

Hope you are well,

Lily

It was not until Christmas that Lily heard from her grandparents. They, apparently, were busy with work and business and didn't have much time to socialize with their granddaughter, but her parents wrote every week with the school owls, and though they were slow, they were also steady. Lily could always expect to receive a letter on Thursday at breakfast; the times when Petunia tried her hand at including a letter were Lily's favorites. She talked about school and how much fun it was, she said that she would miss it when her letter came but that she would have fun with Lily living in a castle. Sabine said that she couldn't wait either.

Christmas break came with a lot of stressing. Defense against the Dark Arts, though grueling, was becoming one of Lily's favorite subjects. It was a challenge to meet the Professor's demands and she decided to answer that challenge. While other students simply lied and copied other people's papers (subsequently failing the quizzes the next day) Lily read every chapter carefully. It all seemed confusing to her. The only other time she had heard the word 'goblin' had been in History of Magic.

She was also having a problem with the basic idea of the class. She wasn't sure she enjoyed hurting other people as the class asked her to do, but the professor seemed to notice this and the day before break started he took her to the side.

"Lily, how are you doing in the rest of your classes?" he asked. Lily was tempted to give the smart answer and tell him that he said he didn't care, but reminded herself that he would be teaching her for the next six years of her life and restrained herself.

"Transfiguration is really difficult but I am doing well in everything else," he nodded curtly.

"I have heard as much. Professor Mathews says that your one of his best, and Professor Alsop said that you are right on target in Charms," when he said this Lily blushed. She was sure it was the nicest thing that Alsop had said about her all year long. "I'm afraid that you are holding yourself back in my class."

"I thought I was doing good," Lily said and suddenly her stomach hurt.

"I know you could be doing better."

"No Professor," Lily said shaking her head. Then she noticed Marduk and picked him up before continuing, "I'm not holding back or anything. It bothers me a little that I'm learning how to hurt people, but that is the point of this class right? But... it's like that itching eye curse could really hurt someone, what if someone wanted to use it against their opponents in Quidditch?" His expression had changed, it was almost imperceptible, but it was definitely different than when he had originally asked her to stay after.

"Miss Evans, you must learn these skills because there are people in this world with less care than you. They will attempt the use of these spells, as you referenced, during Quidditch, which is exactly the reason why I show you the counter curse. You do the spell on your own in order to learn the feel of it as your classmates do them on you, to notice how the air changes before you're hit, the sound of their voice, the look in their eyes, the environment that you're in as you get hit. You must learn about these affects first hand, as no book can explain them. After you learn the curse in a controlled environment rather than right before you get hit in the real world you can learn how to protect yourself." Lily nodded but couldn't take her eyes away from his. She saw something there that she couldn't before, a glint of sadness.

"Now, you will be late for lunch, please accept my apology and know that I expect better of you after Christmas break," he turned on his heal and left without another word and Lily, still petting her cat, walked down to the Great Hall, not bothering to use any secret passages.

~*~*~

The next day, everyone left. The only people that stayed at the castle were a couple of Ravenclaws and that was because their parents were out of the country. The train ride back was louder than the first ride that Lily had taken on it. No longer were Sabine and Lily alone, but they found themselves with the six other people. Aleen and Cleopatra joined them and then halfway through the ride the four were joined by the four loudest people in their year. It wasn't planned or wanted but the four most troublesome boys were kicked out of their last compartment when they blew up the wall in-between the compartments.

The girls had only known them for a short while but Lily and Sirius were getting to be good friends. The other people in their year, Cleopatra and Aleen, were also Lily's friends but when she and Sabine were separated Lily tended to find herself drawn to playing cards or chess with Sirius rather than either of them.

Sirius had a life in him that Lily had never known a person to have. Everything he did, he did with complete enthusiasm. When he chose to do his class work he threw himself straight into it. And normally it all worked out for the best. But most of the time Sirius did not participate in class work, his thoughts always seemed aloof. They were always focused somewhere else. Lily had a suspicion that this was why most of their pranks worked out so well.

"Lets jump off the train!" Sirius said with the same amount of enthusiasm that she had just been thinking of. In fact, having looked at him for a little while after the odd suggestion Lily wasn't sure if he was joking or not, but that was often the case.

"You go first and we'll follow," James said carelessly making a move in the game he was playing.

"Really?"

"Just remember to tuck and roll okay?" James told his best friend. Sirius sat next to him for about five minutes, shaking his leg up and down in a fashion that made Lily wonder if he had a nerve problem.

"I'm really excited to see sister again," Lily said, deciding that normal conversation would be had best if she initiated the conversation and she figured that family was a good neutral topic.

"My father is in Jamaica and my sister is on a Safari," Peter said, not even bothering to look up from the game of gobstones he was playing with James.

"Why?"

"Father is in the department of mysteries. I've got no clue what he is doing and my sister is a bit off the mark if you know what I mean," he stared at the game a little while more as James made his move and then jumped up and pointed a finger at the other boy. "You cheated James!"

"I did not. Sit down and play again and I'll still beat you," James replied, laughing.

"What does your mum do Peter?" Lily asked before she caught sight of Sabine's warning look.

"Nothing much, just lies around all day,"

"My brother lives in Spain, but I'm glad to be going home to my parents," Remus announced, entering the conversation for the first time. "I've never been away this long before."

"You just visited your mother a couple weeks ago." Peter said.

"I know, it's just that it'll be ni... nice to get to see her and dad for a reason other than sickness," Remus said blushing.

"Does this mean that you guys aren't going to jump off the train with me?" Sirius said, still shaking his leg.

"Are you still stuck on that?" Sabine asked.

"I told you Sirius, jump, tuck, and roll. Then we will follow."

~*~*~

Lily ran through the barrier and into her parents waiting arms. She had abandoned her trunk to roll on its trolley until it hit someone (which it did a couple of times). Her parents clung to her and it felt wonderful, but it was when Lily swung Petunia around that the family felt whole again. Her father ran and grabbed her trunk before it ran into yet another couple and loaded it into their car.

On the way home she answered every question that they had, from how the food was to what it was like flying to who her friends were. Petunia wanted to see a magic spell but Lily had to try and convince her that she couldn't perform magic during the break, and after that didn't work, she tried explaining that she was slow and didn't know any spells yet. Her sister seemed to accept this and went on to tell her about the puppy that her parents had given her as a birthday gift. Lily hoped that the dog (named Ginger) and Marduk would get along, but she need not have worried, as they seemed to become as inseparable as Lily and her cat during the school year.

"Do you want some cocoa?" Her mother said, taking off her coat. Both girls exclaimed that yes they would love some cocoa.

It was a funny thing that happened to Lily that break. She had been at school for a little over three months, wishing that she could somehow make classes move faster. She wanted to learn a charm to help her speed through HoM and Potions, but it wasn't until she was home with her family that she seemed to have unwittingly placed that charm upon her the clocks in her house.

Time was fleeting and all the hot chocolates in front of the fireplace didn't seem to last long enough. Her hours listening to her sister talk about school didn't add up. She found herself opening presents before she could remind herself to savor the moment and packing to go back to school even sooner.

"Mum you don't have to help me," Lily said putting her clothes back into the trunk. It was the night before she was due to go back to school and she had put the sad job off until the last minute, somehow hoping to prolong her stay in the cozy home.

"I know that Lily, but I haven't had as much time to spend with you alone as I would have enjoyed," and so Lily and her mother worked side by side for two hours, folding and packing, then repacking just to squeeze out more time with each other. They were joined by Mr. Evans around ten at night but he left after a while sensing a silent displeasure at the fact that he intruding.

"And the fat lady is hilarious," Lily announced, continuing a story about all of the funny people that she knew.

"The fat lady?"

"Oh sorry! She's the portrait we Gryffindors have to pass through to get into the common room. She is always changing the password and singing about this or that," Lily put the last of her books on top of the stack, expecting her mother to proclaim something wrong with the trunk forcing them to have an excuse for another hour together as she had twice already. When Mrs. Evans said nothing, Lily turned around to see her mother looking pale. "Mum? Are you okay?"

"Oh yes. I just stepped on..." but Lily never found out what her mother had stepped on because an owl had tapped on the window. Lily walked over and even before she opened to the window her mother asked her who is was from. Normally she would have announced that she had no idea and moved on, but in this instance she knew exactly who it was from.

"You parents, who else's bird would stand that straight?" When she opened the window the bird moved closer to her and she tried to hold down her fear. Normally she had Sabine handle the birds in the dorm and in the owlery (a place she'd never been). She quickly reached for the letter, hoping that the bird would not attack her.

"My parents? Do you often talk with them?"

"No, they wrote me on the first day of school, knew what house I was in practically before I did. I wrote them back a couple of times but it has been a really long time since I have heard from them," Lily opened the letter carelessly, not noticing her mothers stricken face or the bird not moving an inch. "They say they are doing fine and that I will receive my gift when I come to visit them at the end of term. Am I visiting with them?" she turned to look at her mother, but did not really notice her mother's lack of enthusiasm as her head went up and down.

"I'm getting a tad bit tired and I think that you should be going to sleep too if you are planning on getting up in time for the train," Mrs. Evans stood up wearing a fake smile before hugging her daughter goodnight and heading down to hall.

Lily nodded and realized that she'd have to finish her homework that night. She'd procrastinated enough. It was for DADA and, as usual, she had left it for last as she found it easier after doing her other work. She wrote as thorough an essay as she could, trying to convince herself that Professor Shea would see improvement in her.

It took her a good while and when she was finally ready for bed it was late- very, very late. She brushed her teeth before walking in to say goodnight to Petunia, expecting her little sister to be asleep already and surprised to find that wasn't the case.

"Lily?"

"I just came in to say goodnight," Lily leaned over to kiss her sister on the forehead but as she got up to walk away her sister's tiny hand clutched her left wrist.

"Please don't leave me," Petunia said, sounding on the brink of tears. "Please don't go back to that school Lily. You can go to school with me instead. And when you go to school with me we can have lots and lots of fun. I'll paint you pictures like before and you can write stories about them."

"Petunia-" Lily began feeling her heart break in two at her little sister's innocent stare.

"You don't like my pictures anymore? You don't like me?" this time Lily leaned in and held her little sister tightly.

"I will always love you and like you, but if I don't go back to school I'll become mean and stupid just like Ms. Hidgecord next door." Lily found herself grateful that her sister was laughing; at least she was still able to be easily distracted.

"When can I go to school with you?"

"In a few more years."

"But by then Mrs. Cavanhol will have killed me," Petunia said choking back tears. Lily didn't take her seriously. She thought her little sister was exaggerating or something. She was only nine and nine-year-olds tended to say things without reason.

It was this moment that Lily realized later she should have done something, should have realized her sister never said anything metaphorical, should have cared, should have tried. It was that moment that Lily learned to regret for the rest of her life. Ignoring this conversation was one of the most painful memories she had to live with. But that would have to wait years to come true, at the moment Lily was glad to let her sister hug her until she fell asleep and then quietly leave the room.

Lily was just getting into her own bed when Marduk jumped onto her lap and Lily, with her head resting against the pillow could have fallen asleep in an instant had it not been for the loud voices of her parents that she suddenly heard.

"She's in the rival house," she mother proclaimed.

"And you said that they are keeping a running communications between them. They can't be that upset if they're writing to her."

"You don't understand!"

"What is there to understand? That Lily was placed in a dormitory with different colors than the one that your parents would have wanted her to be in? I know that red heads look nice in green but seriously this is taking it a bit too far."

"You aren't taking me seriously are you?"

"No."

"They are one of the three oldest wizarding families in the world. If something goes against what they want to happen they do not simply forgive and forget. They change what happened. There are more legends about them than any other family in history. There are also prophecies."

"Now I'm worried," Lily heard her father murmur sarcastically.

"There is only one prophecy I know about in which a Cavanhol is a Gryffindor. And it isn't good."

"You are worrying over nothing. She'll be fine. Your parents probably don't even care, alright?" and that, it seemed, was the end of the conversation, but Lily knew somehow that her mother wasn't asleep. That she wasn't even close. She was worrying about something. Something that had to do with prophecies and Lily intended to figure out what it was.