The Runespoor's Bane

~Chapter 2~

It was another cold day as Lily hurried down the crowded corridors to Defense Against the Dark Arts. She always liked their teacher, Professor Prewett, although he was a touch too intense and dramatic. She remembered how he used to enjoy frightening them all when they were first years. This was less successful with the fifth years to his sincere disappointment.

A group of scurrying second years rushed by her as she approached the entrance to the classroom. "I'm definitely not going to sleep tonight, what if one comes?" said an unidentifiable Hufflepuff. "Don't be an idiot, Dawkins," answered another second year, a Ravenclaw Lily recognized as Barty Crouch Jr. "Lethifolds are only found in tropical climates."

"But, but that story?" responded the frightened Dawkins.

Glaring at the Hufflepuff, Bartemius brushed past him.

Professor Prewett's bound to be in great form today, thought Lily. He always did pick up the pace of his lessons around Halloween. She walked into the classroom and just as she expected, Professor Prewett stood, grinning broadly at the front of the room. Lily spotted Davey and Miranda sitting on the other side of the room and went to join them. On the way she tripped over the edge of a desk. Bad luck? She'd been taking mental notes of all potentially bad luck incidences but couldn't distinguish between bad luck and simple clumsiness. She had just had to spend an hour listening to Professor Binns droning on about "revolutionary" advancements in wand technology during the 17^th century but she couldn't really classify that as bad luck since she'd been suffering through his lectures for five years now. She sat down between Miranda and Davey. "Prewett better have an exciting lecture today," exclaimed Lily, "I've already fulfilled my boredom limit."

"I know," said Miranda. "That lecture was horrid. It made listening to him talk about the goblin revolutions seem like the Quidditch cup. So, Lily, is the whole bad luck thing happening?"

"I don't know," Lily answered honestly. "I don't exactly have stellar luck. I haven't noticed any difference as of yet."

"I think the wands lecture was some of your bad luck," Davey said. "Why on earth would anyone want to know about the history of wand-making techniques? Not even Professor Binns could have enjoyed talking about that." Lily and Miranda smiled.

"Well Lily, you better hurry up and cure it before we all fall asleep in class and lose points for Gryffindor," laughed Miranda.

They made all of my worrying seem so pointless, maybe it was exaggerated after all, thought Lily. "Settle down, settle down," droned Professor Prewett sternly replacing his grin with an imposing frown. Just as Professor Prewett took his place at the front desk, Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus came running in. "Gentlemen, so good of you to join us today, especially considering the information I'm about to give you could save your lives!" Professor Prewett said sternly. He's definitely in fine form today, Lily thought. "Twenty points from Gryffindor!"

Lily and Miranda both snickered and then stopped, surrounded by the glares of their housemates. Professor Prewett gestured to a desk in the first row with his wand, indicating that James and Remus should sit there while Peter and Sirius headed toward the only other available seat behind Lily, Miranda, and Davey. Lily absently wondered whether the four boys consciously rotated who they sat with each class or if it was just random.

Lily noticed an intense glare on Sirius' handsome face as he walked by their desk. He always had to be 'Mr. House hero', Lily thought angrily. She heard his books hit the desk behind her with a loud thud.

"So," said Professor Prewett loudly. "Today we're going to learn about vampires. I know you've learned the basics last year but today I'm going to give you more detailed information about them, things which aren't common knowledge."

"Where are vampires from?" he asked abruptly. Lily didn't need to turn around to know that Sirius' hand had shot up. Most of the class mumbled a mix of Albanians and Transylvanians. "Correct," said Professor Prewett. "However, as you'll later learn in history, during the 1100s the vampires gained strength and numbers and infiltrated other societies. They were becoming a rather, err, significant problem in England until the 1600s when the great vampire hunts were established. Numbers have been plummeting since then."

Lily's mind began to wander back to Quidditch and seeking. Her mind briefly returned to the classroom to hear Professor Prewett dramatically hiss some inaudible words which seemed to involve an alarming surplus of consonants. "Thirsty, blood, I must have, I need. I'm sure you can all imagine what I'm talking about here; it's a phrase you'll all hear a lot if you ever have a desire to be vampire hunters. And of course they're easy to identify: pale, translucent eyes which turn red when they're in attack mode, fangs, and long nails. Not very pleasant looking things. They hide in the shadows and are very solitary and anti-social."

He paused. "Not all of those rules necessarily apply to the powerful Tuag Nerthol Rhyurai," he blurted out quickly, "and back to what I was saying..."

Professor Prewett liked to throw mysterious terms out and wait for someone to ask what it was. Lily decided to take the bait; "Professor?" she asked, raising her hand. "What is a Tog, er, that thing you were just talking about?"

"You mean you don't know what a Tuag Nerthol is?" Sirius hissed behind her. "You know you really should at least try to do the reading."

She never did get to hear what a Tuag Nerthol was, however, because at that moment Ewan Lestrange strolled into the room flaunting his prefect badge. "Professor, please excuse me, but Professor Dumbledore sent me to deliver a message to you."

"Yes?" said Professor Prewett, visible annoyed.

"He said I should give you the message in private," Ewan answered seriously.

Professor Prewett's scowl deepened as he followed Ewan to the door. "Class, please read page 35 from your books."

Of course nobody did that and everyone began talking madly about what could be important enough for Dumbledore to interrupt a class.

"I don't like Ewan," Lily whispered to Miranda. "He's so...stern, and now that he got prefect he thinks he owns the school."

"I heard that he's dating Narcissa Encins," Miranda whispered. Narcissa, being the most popular girl in the school and known in all four houses, had a social life which was always a topic of speculation.

"I thought she was dating Sirius," Lily whispered.

"That's just a rumor," Peter said loudly from behind.

Lily started; she'd forgotten that Sirius was sitting right behind them. Sirius had a bemused expression on his face. "I'm honored that you take such an interest in my dating life," he said sarcastically.

Lily ignored him and turned back to her companions, abruptly spilling her ink all over her desk and prompting more worried discussion about the bite to the background of Sirius' and Peter's laughter. "That's not bad luck," Miranda was telling Lily as the Professor walked somberly back into the room.

"No emergency," Professor Prewett said, hastily grabbing several ancient looking books from his desk. "Just, err, a minor break in at a gardening shop in Hogsmeade. I'm needed to go advise Professor Dumbledore on this matter so I regret to inform you all that class is dismissed."

A buzz of excitement rang through the classroom as the students gathered their books and quills. The Professor hurried out with his books, not even bothering to give an assignment.

"That's odd," said Miranda. "I wonder what the big deal is; a gardening shop..."

Lily was about to respond when her bag ripped in the bottom and her books all thudded to the floor. "Now that is bad luck," said Davey, bending over to help Lily. Peter Pettigrew, who was unfortunate enough to have a hard cover copy of Snidder's Complete History of Goblin Civilization land on his feet, helped them gather the books. "I hear you're trying out for Seeker," he said to Lily, handing her two books. "Good luck." He turned and followed James, Sirius, and Remus out the door.

"You better make the team, Lily," Miranda said, pointing her wand and performing a fixing spell on Lily's bag.

"Thanks," Lily answered, shoving her books into the bag and hurrying out of the classroom.

It was 8:00 and Lily sat alone by the Gryffindor fire, lost in thought. She'd gotten lost trying to take a shortcut to the Gryffindor chambers that evening, something that had never happened to her before. She had also had an unusual amount of trouble catching the Snitch when she went to practice again with Davey. Luckily, the day had been unusually clear, though a tad chilly, so the practice wasn't too miserable. Still, she was unsure whether this was her Malaclaw bite or if it was just normal.

The common room was unusually deserted that evening. Lily suspected most people had gone to watch the inter-house dueling club competition as Miranda and Davey had. Tonight was Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff. Lily stayed behind to construct a plan to get to Hogsmeade. Tomorrow was the perfect day. Their Arithmancy professor had made a clumsy mistake trying to teach a student how to do a difficult spell that had nothing to do with Arithmancy earlier that day and was still in the hospital wing, his Wednesday classes cancelled. This left a very tempting gap in Lily's schedule; astronomy was now her last class on Wednesday and it ended at 2. However, she wasn't sure how she was going to get to Hogsmeade, how she would find the shop once there, and most importantly, how she would get back before dusk. She contemplated consulting Miranda but then she would have to involve Davey and she thought the less people involved in her scheme, the easier it would be to pull off.

She was pouring over her Hogsmeade map when she heard voices outside of the portrait. "Ewan is having the most random practice times this week," one voice said. "We even had to miss the duels. And no practice tomorrow, that is bizarre, I would have thought nothing was more important to him then Quidditch."

Sirius Black and James Potter stepped through the portrait door. "Sneaking into Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, you're going to that talisman guy, we should have thought of that, Sirius," James said.

"Yes, but please don't tell anyone," Lily answered looking annoyed. Were they psychic? She could just imagine Sirius telling on her to Ewan.

"No, of course not," said James, looking startled that she thought they would tell. He sat in one of the chairs across from her while Sirius stood next to the fire, looking like he'd rather not be there. "Do you know how to get there?" James asked. "To the shop? I'm sure you know how to get to Hogsmeade," James quickly added seeing the indignant look on Lily's face.

"You don't need to worry about it," Lily said, "I can figure it out."

"Oh, really," Sirius said. "What's your plan for getting past the ghosts Dumbledore has set to guarding the gap between the Forbidden Forest and the Lake?"

Lily frowned; "Why's he doing that?"

"I thought that would be obvious," Sirius said. "To keep on eye on anyone who's coming toward the castle. There are strange things going on in Hogsmeade in case you haven't heard and there are scores of things here Voldemort's been trying to get his hands on."

Lily took mental note that Sirius called Voldemort by his real name. Probably just showing off, she thought to herself. Just then the portrait door swung open and in walked Peter Pettigrew. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Lily's trying to sneak into Hogsmeade," James said absently.

Lily gave him a very dirty look, now three people knew about her 'secret' plan.

"Oh, I know how you can get there," Peter said. "The boats. Remember that boat we stole last year and we keep hidden by the cliffs?"

Now Sirius was the one giving dirty looks, he obviously didn't like Peter telling of their boat thievery to Lily.

"Good idea Peter! You can use our boat, Lily, if you don't mind that we come too; I need to buy something at Dervish and Banges," James said in an offhanded way as if sneaking off to Hogsmeade was something he did regularly. Lily really didn't want to involve anyone but she also didn't fancy sneaking into Hogsmeade alone to go search for some mysterious shop in the forest on the other side of the town.

"Are all of you coming?" she asked.

"No," Sirius said swiftly, turning and going up toward the boys' dormitories.

"Well, I guess Sirius isn't coming," James said, "And Remus," he looked at Peter and Peter gave him a sort of minor head shake, "No, Remus isn't coming either."

"Mind if I look at the map?" James asked, picking it up and studying the small town. He set it down. "Probably better we have a small group anyway, less likely we'll get caught. So what time were you going to leave?"

"At two-thirty," Lily responded authoritatively. She didn't really like how James had sort of taken over her whole plan and was a bit suspicious of them being so helpful.

"We should make that 2:15," James said seriously, "so we'll be back by dark."

"But Arithmancy?" Peter asked.

"Cancelled," answered Lily and James simultaneously.

"2:15, alright Lily?" James asked looking back to her.

"Yes," Lily answered.

"Okay, meet down by the lake where it starts to get rocky at 2:15," James said swiftly standing to go. Peter also stood up.

"Oh, and bring an umbrella, it will probably rain tomorrow." He followed Peter up to their rooms.

Lily glared and made note not to bring an umbrella as she stood up grabbing her map. Last time I ever try to plan anything secret in the common room...

James had been right about the rain to Lily's great dismay. It poured sheets all morning. The morning crept by very slowly and everyone was talking about the duel from the night before. Lucius Malfoy had won after a long series of curses both ways by a sneaky 'expelliarmius'. Everyone thought it had been one of the most thrilling duels in the history of HIDC, Hogwarts Inter-House Dueling Club. Miranda and Davey were still talking about it at lunch.

"I never even saw him move his wand," Miranda exclaimed. "Lucius is definitely the best dueler in the school, even if he is a Slytherin."

Lily knew very little about the mysterious Seventh year, except that he was reputed to be a snob and was in the popular upperclassmen clique which consisted of Ludo Bagman, Narcissa Encins, Antonin Dolohov, Zora Gurner, and a few others. People had considered him a shoe-in for Head-boy but that honor had strangely been awarded to his fellow Slytherin Antonin Dolohov.

Lily looked at him sitting next to Antonin. Lucius and Antonin were in an intense conversation, and Lucius' piercing blue eyes looked especially sharp and hungry. She briefly wondered what he was talking about, but her thoughts were interrupted by Miranda.

"Lily, you're so somber these days, is it because of the bite?"

"Hmm," said Lily. "I don't think I'm especially somber."

"Why didn't you come to the dueling match then, you always come to them!" Miranda looked very suspicious, as if she expected she was being left out of something.

"I was tired," Lily answered. She couldn't tell them now, then she'd have four people sneaking off to Hogsmeade with her. Lily did feel bad though; she and Miranda had been best friends since their first trip on the Hogwarts' Express and had never kept any secrets from each other. She also knew that Miranda got very bored around Davey, although they were both very attached to him.

"Time for Charms," Davey said, prompting all three of them to get up. Miranda gave Lily another inquisitive glance before walking out of the Great Hall.

James waited by the side of the lake with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Remus was trying to explain stone skipping to Sirius and Peter, a concept that the two had no expertise in. "Muggles must get very bored, coming up with stuff like this," Sirius said turning away after being utterly unsuccessful with skipping his stone. Peter was improving slightly, however, under Remus' tutelage.

James didn't think that Lily was going to like the fact that everyone ended up coming. Both Peter and him had been sure Remus would still be too exhausted from his Monday night transformation to come on the trip. However, when they woke up that morning, Remus was his usual cheery self and was quite adamant about coming with them.

Sirius had held out that he would not be coming until 2, when he stiffly said, "I guess I should come, I don't think Remus remembers where the shop is."

"Oh, don't worry Sirius, I know where it is," Remus had said, knowing that Sirius didn't want to be left with nothing to do except for studying that afternoon.

Sirius had paused, trying to think of another excuse. "Well, I'm coming," he finally said, "spending a day in the unwelcome company of Lily Evans is better than sitting here reading A Complete History of Goblin Civilization."

"Are you unwelcome company to Lily or vice versa?" Remus had asked curiously. "Both," Sirius had answered darkly.

"She seems nice to me," Peter said brightly as they walked down the stairs.

"Well, you like everyone Peter," Sirius had answered as they pushed open the front doors. The rain was now drizzling gently and the Hogwarts ground was doused in a heavy mist.

The fog had intensified as they neared the lake. James was beginning to wonder if Lily decided to leave them and take her chances with the ghosts when he saw some movement through Hogwarts' resident cloud. She had a light blue cloak on, which he imagined had been charmed to be water resistant by its lack of wetness.

"Did anyone see you leave?" Sirius asked.

"I thought you weren't coming," Lily said grudgingly.

Sirius grumpily turned back to look at the lake.

"Sorry, we've had a couple additions," James said peaceably. "But don't worry- we do this all the time, and we haven't been caught yet."

"You do this all the time?" Lily said, raising an eyebrow.

Remus, Peter, and James just laughed. "The boat's this way," Peter said, beginning to head toward the cliffs. They made their way silently along an increasingly narrow path of land with the lake on one side and the towering cliffs eddying upward on their right. After a few minutes their path was so narrow that they were walking single file and one wrong step on the slippery rocks meant a fall into the lake. Peter was walking briskly at the front, he was used to walking on slippery rocks, being a native of England's overcast west coastline. Lily followed more tediously behind him, taking careful steps, trying not to slip. Remus walked behind her, poised ready to heroically stop her from falling into the lake if she slipped. James stifled a laugh. Remus always reminded James of an Arthurian knight, like Sir Percival perhaps, which James thought was rather ironic considering Remus was a werewolf. Sirius artfully skipped from rock to rock behind James.

James dolefully thought that he was the only one besides Lily who seemed to be having any trouble with their climb; he kept sliding when he stepped on mossy patches. As it began to rain, James started to wonder why he'd offered to help Lily. He wasn't quite sure, he'd just felt sort of compelled too. He wondered how far they were from the boat as he crept along the cliff side.

________________________________________________________________

Lily felt like they were walking inside a treacherous maze, with the thick, disorienting fog surrounding them. It was pouring and water cascaded down her rain cloak. Lily had purposefully worn a rain cloak rather than brought an umbrella; she didn't want to give any encouragement to James' display of bossiness from the night before which Lily considered to be merely more evidence of his arrogance. Walking along the edge of a cliff in these weather conditions didn't help either...The little path had gotten so narrow, sometimes it disappeared into merely a few stones that they had to jump between. She'd had several close calls with the lake, but Remus had stopped her from falling in each time. Lily wondered if Miranda had noticed she was missing and if she was worried. To ensure they didn't tell, Lily had left a note on Miranda's bed saying she was off doing something and would be back that evening, don't worry. She hoped Miranda would listen to the note.

"Oi!" Peter yelled back to the group. I've spotted it!" Everyone stopped behind him and squinted into the fog.

"The rope's broke, it's drifted," Sirius' voice came from the back.

Lily couldn't resist saying "Thanks, Mr. Obvious; it's lucky Sirius is here to tell us these things" following the comment with a simple Accio that pulled the boat toward them. Sirius was looking daggers at her and looked like he really wanted to push her into the lake but managed to restrain himself since she was a girl.

James smiled weakly and said a cheerful "Lets go then, good summoning spell Lily," and they all hurried into the boat. Sirius, being the last, pushed the small boat off, wading into the water, and then nimbly leaped into the boat, still looking very grumpy. James whispered some spell to the boat.

"We charmed it," said Peter to Lily's unvoiced question.

It was a rather gloomy boat ride across the lake. Sirius sulked in a regal sort of way. James was also very quiet. Remus and Peter made cheerful small talk to Lily about Dumbledore's Halloween preparations that Lily answered with sporadic "Oh reallys?" and "that will be nice". She wasn't actually listening to them, but was wondering why Sirius disliked her so much. She knew why she disliked him but she was still always polite, well, civil, anyways, to him. Could it be the pure blood thing? She knew that Sirius was from a very old and respected wizarding family. So was James. She wasn't sure about Peter and Remus.

As the boat drifted through the middle of the lake, it began to pour. Everyone pulled their cloaks over their heads and looked quite miserable; even Peter and Remus stopped trying to make small talk. After what seemed to be a very long time, the boat finally struck ground. This time, rather than getting into the cold water, Sirius tried a spell to get the boat over the shallow water and rocks it was scraping against onto the ground. The spell had no effect. Remus tried another one, but his had the reverse effect and pushed the book back out a bit.

"Oh, I think I know one that would work," Peter exclaimed excitedly. He pointed his wand toward the shore and said another spell that Lily had never heard before. The boat promptly flipped over.

Lily felt icy water surge over her head and kicked hard, pushing herself to the surface and grabbing at the side of the overturned boat. Her robes, which were most definitely not water proof, felt like lead in the water. The four boys were treading water alongside the boat. "Are you okay, Lily?" Remus called from the other side of the boat.

"I'm fine," Lily answered, letting go of the boat and paddling around to the shore side where the others were, kicking hard, encumbered by her water-laden robes. She expected everyone to be upset by this turn of events, but to her surprise James, Remus, and Peter burst out laughing; even Sirius, who seemed very determined that he was having a horrible day, was grinning broadly.

"Peter, please tell me you didn't do that on purpose," laughed James.

Lily, however, didn't think it was very funny. She was wet, cold, and miserable and something tentacly was hitting against her legs, probably seaweed but she couldn't help but think about the Great Squid that was reputed to live at the bottom of the lake. Not laughing, she swam by the boys until her feet felt land and then waded out of the water onto the muddy shore where she stood looking, she assumed, like how she felt, a wet cat.

All four boys swam to shore and waded onto the land. "Why are you sulking?" Sirius asked looking at Lily. "I don't think falling in actually got us any wetter then we already were." The others all laughed. Lily didn't as she turned on her heels and started walking toward Hogsmeade. The others followed her; they were all soaked and didn't even bother trying any drying spells since it was pouring rain anyway. Lily failed to see any humor in the situation at all.

"You okay?" Remus asked her, walking beside her. She looked at him; his robes muddy and dripping and his hair plastered to his head. Lily wondered if she, too, looked so disheveled.

"Yes, just a bit cold," she answered truthfully. Lily didn't think anyone could be cross with Remus.

"I'm sorry, Lily," Peter said trotting to catch up with her and Remus. "I really didn't mean to do that," Peter looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.

Lily heard Sirius mumbling something that sounded a lot like "uptight" to James, so she answered in the cheeriest tone she could muster, "it's okay, I guess that was rather funny in a strange, twisted sense of humor kind of way".

The village of Hogsmeade was rather like how I'd pictured fairytale villages, Lily thought. It was filled with thatched cottages and cobblestone streets. As it was a week before Halloween, Jack-O-Lanterns with magical lights inside them sat in front of most the houses. Chains of smoke furrowed out of the chimneys. Lily wished she was in one of those cozy houses as they walked through the soggy leaves and rain. The town was quite empty because of the gloomy weather.

The four boys stopped in front of a two-story inn called The Three Broomsticks. "No," Lily said resolutely, turning back to look at them. "Do you know how much trouble we would be in if someone told Dumbledore we were in Hogsmeade after he strictly forbode it? We'd be expelled."

"Well, first of all forbode is not a word, last time I checked," said Sirius.

"And second of all," continued James, "Madame Rosmerta won't tell if we tell her why we're here. She's our friend."

Lily still looked very determined not to go in.

"We're going in," said Sirius, "You're welcome to stay out here in the cold if you like."

"Fine!" Lily said angrily, brushing past Sirius and marching into the inn.

The inn wasn't very crowded, obviously few people were crazy enough to venture out into the nasty weather, and no one seemed to notice the five students.

Madame Rosmerta, a pretty bar maid in her late twenties, hurried over to them. "You're soaking," she gasped.

Lily guiltily looked down to her feet and saw that she was dripping all over the pub's floor. Madame Rosmerta swiftly pulled out her wand and performed a drying spell on the five of them and then on her floor. She walked over and warmly hugged Sirius and James. "I haven't seen you boys for ages!" Rosmerta exclaimed happily. "You know, you're not supposed to be sneaking out of Hogwarts right now," she added.

Sirius and James both flashed their most charming smiles. "We need to go to Truvey's Talisman Store," said James. "Lily... Oh, Madame Rosmerta this is our friend Lily," James gave a brief summary of the Mackled Malaclaw incident and the Quidditch tryouts.

"Poor dear," clucked Madame Rosmerta, looking at Lily. "You all better come and take a seat by the fire, you must be chilled to the bone; I knew it was raining out there but I had no idea how hard...you were soaking!" She led them to a table next to a blazing fire and added a fifth chair.

"Rosmerta," said Sirius, still smiling sweetly, "Technically we're not really supposed to be here, but we had to ,er, help Lily, you know we can take care of ourselves, especially all of us together. So, do you think you could maybe keep seeing us here a secret?"

Madame Rosmerta looked like she was going to object for a second but caved under Sirius' pleading gaze and finally said, "Alright, just this once though. Don't expect me to make a habit of lying for you."

"Thank you Rosmerta," Sirius smiled brightly. "We knew we could trust you."

This made Madame Rosmerta beam and she hurried off to go get butterbeers for everyone.

"You're horridly manipulative," Lily hissed at Sirius.

"I'm not manipulative," Sirius whispered back. "Everything I said was true," he looked at her coldly, "Well, almost everything."

James and Remus looked like they were starting to get sort of bored of Lily and Sirius' bickering, especially James. Peter, on the other hand looked rather amused.

"Well, in other news," James said, "We'll need to hurry to get back to Hogwarts by dark. "Peter and I have to go to Dervish and Banges to buy some things. Remus and Sirius, why don't you go with Lily to the Talisman shop. And no, Lily, you are not allowed to kill Sirius during the excursion. And the same goes for you, Sirius."

Madame Rosmerta returned with the drinks. The four boys had plunged into conversation about what Quidditch team would win the Autumn Invitational that the Chudley Cannons were hosting. Lily sipped at her hot mug of Butterbeer, which tasted comforting, like warm butterscotch. The warmth from the fire also felt uplifting after her swim in the lake.

Lily thoughts were broken to hear Sirius saying "next time we're in Hogsmeade, we should try going to The Hog's Head. Well, assuming we don't have the goody-two shoes brigade with us."

"I am not a brigade," said Lily angrily.

The others looked slightly distressed. "Well, let's go," Remus said swiftly, rising and pulling his coin pouch out.

"I'll pay for it all. I'm the richest after all," Sirius laughed.

Lily swiftly put some coins on the table; she was not going to have Sirius pay for her. The others all added a few coins and they left, yelling goodbye and thank you to Madame Rosmerta.

They all clanked down the cobbled street toward the center of town, their cloaks rapidly getting resoaked in the rain. Suddenly all four stopped, causing Lily to run into Remus. They were in front of the old Weatherby house.

It looked very grim and sad and deserted, though it was in the middle of town. The rain hitting the battered swing set in front intensified the tragic feel of the situation. They all stared at the house silently, the rain dripping down their faces.

Peter finally broke the silence. "I wonder if h-he was here?" he asked, shuddering.

"Who, Voldemort?" Sirius said loudly. "I doubt it; it was probably one of his stupid followers."

Lily had to give Sirius props for being brave. Though she usually had no problem naming Voldemort, she didn't thing she could say Voldemort's name here, right at the scene of his last killing. Especially considering how loudly Voldemort's name rang through the eerily silent street. She wondered if the stories were true that Voldemort was so powerful he could hear his name being said. A chill ran up her spine.

"We part ways here," Sirius said quietly. He looked at the clock tower farther down High Street. "Lets meet back here at say four?"

"Okay," James nodded. "Remus, I leave you with the job of keeping the peace."

Remus bowed mockingly as James and Peter hurried off down High Street. Sirius, motioning Remus and Lily to follow him, turned right and ran down a small path.

The number of houses on the path was dwindling and the vegetation was becoming wilder. Large trees and brambles loomed darkly on both sides. "So is this part of the Forbidden Forest?" Lily asked nervously.

"No this forest is unforbidden," Remus said.

"It's just as bad though," added Sirius from the other side of Remus. "Only Dumbledore isn't here to forbid it to anyone."

Lily heard a raven caw sinisterly. She moved in closer to Remus.

"He's kidding, Lily," Remus said kindly, looking down at her with his golden eyes, "This is just your ordinary forest. It's not connected to the Forbidden one."

They heard a strange blood-curdling screech echoing through the leaves.

"I'm sure everyone will use your phrase 'the Unforbidden Forest', when referring to the patch where they found three students' bodies, killed by a hideous screeching creature," Sirius said.

Remus seemed unruffled by the strange call. "I wonder what sort of bird that is," he said cheerfully.

It started getting rather dark as they crept deeper into the wood, because the day was so overcast and the trees so thick. The path also was becoming increasingly dense with brambles and tree stumps.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Remus finally asked.

Sirius looked slightly confused. "Yes, we should have come to the shop by now." They suddenly heard a loud crash behind them and all three jumped around. Lily moved closer to Remus.

"Who's there?" Sirius shouted clearly. A strange flutter and movement in the branches occurred to their right; they all jerked around again, but they saw nothing, Lily was now gripping Remus' arm nervously.

"Come out, we won't hurt you," Sirius said, holding his wand out in front of him. Lily thought this was a rather ironic thing for Sirius to say, considering they were all obviously worried about the reverse as she and Remus also pulled their wands out.

They heard a distinct thump where they'd just been looking and simultaneously turned and yelled "Expelliarmus". Lily caught sight of a figure flying backward and hitting a tree. A wand fell at her feet which she swiftly picked up.

Sirius walked quickly toward the fallen figure. Remus and Lily followed, Lily realized she was still clinging to his arm, instantly let go, embarrassed.

"Mr. Truvey," Sirius shouted running to the man's side. Lily and Remus also hurried to the man's side and crouched down beside him. Mr. Truvey had not merely been disarmed but the force of the three spells had caused him to fly back into a tree. Mr. Truvey groaned, his eyes still closed.

"Mr. Truvey, I'm so sorry," Sirius said with a shocked voice, "We had no idea it was you."

The gruffy looking man opened his eyes; "Just because I didn't have the talisman you wanted last time, no reason to try to kill me," the man croaked, he had a pained look on his face but his eyes smiled. Lily thought he looked like how she had always imagined a Viking invader. He had unruly, waist length hair and a long, bushy mustache the color of sand, tinted with grey. His long, unkempt hair had several large braids in it, adding to the savage-marauder effect.

"Sirius, me-boy," he said, cuffing Sirius roughly. Lily supposed it was Mr. Truvey's idea of affection. "I can hardly blame you during times like these," he said with a thick rural accent, "I would have done the same I'm sure."

His gaze turned to Lily, "Would you mind giving me my wand, lassie?"

"Oh, no, of course not sir," Lily stuttered handing him the wand. "I'm so sorry."

"It's my fault," said Truvey letting out a groan as he tried to get to his feet. "I should have been paying more attention."

"Do you need to lean on me, sir?" Sirius asked politely.

"No, no boy, I'm not that old yet." He let out a gruff chuckle.

"What brings you children into this neck of the woods?" The man started limping toward the bush where they'd heard the fluttering.

"To see you, actually," answered Sirius.

"Oh, really," said Truvey as a snow white owl flew out of the shrubs and landed on his raised arm. "Next time you children need something you should owl me. These are dangerous times for anyone, especially youngin's like yourselves to be walking alone in forests. And I'm not just talking about the dangers of paranoid students attacking foolish old wizards."

Remus and Sirius both opened their mouths to apologize again but Truvey shook his head, chuckling. "I don't mind, it's good you three got a chance to practice such a useful spell. He led the way up the path back in the direction of Hogsmeade.

"Sir," said Sirius walking alongside the talisman shopkeeper. "We seemed to have missed your house, we walked right past here."

"You missed it because it was invisible, young Sirius," said Truvey.

"You made your shop invisible?"

"Yes, I had to, so many problems. As you know many strange things have been happening in Hogsmeade these days. The Weatherby killings, the break in at the Garden shop. Sunday afternoon, this strange chap came by, too pale and I never do trust men who let there fingernails grow out long and sharp, he was asking all these strange questions about some obscure talisman. He gave me a very bad feeling and when he realized he wasn't getting the information he wanted he just stormed out. And then that evening after I'd come back from a visit to The Hog's Head, I saw the front door to my shop was ripped open, my talismans were strewn everywhere, drawers ripped apart; someone was looking for something. And then when I came back from a walk in the forest yesterday morning, I saw something was written across the front of my house in black paint. I recommend showing more respect to us next time, it read, or you'll be wishing you could get off with a trashed house. Now this was all mystery to me, I don't know what they want or who they are. I didn't tell the constable because I prefer to take care of meself but I didn't want anymore funny business so I put a translocation spell on the house moving it deeper into the forest and then an invisibility charm on it." He looked at the three walking alongside him.

"That's why it's not safe for ye' in these parts," he said seriously. "Follow me," he added, making an abrupt turn off the beaten path into the forest. They walked through the underbrush; the forest seemed strangely more docile with Mr. Truvey there.

"Appareo," Truvey's voice boomed. A cozy thatched cottage materialized before them. Truvey opened the door and they walked into the strangest room Lily had ever seen and she'd seen a lot of strange rooms since she'd first entered the wizarding world. Truvey's owl flew off his arm and landed on a perch near the window on the far side of the room. The walls of the room were covered in bookshelves, cupboards stacked with talismans, grizzled magical objects, and books. On one side of the room there was a crackling peat fire. Beside it was a large comfy looking chair and an enormous bookstand on which rested the largest book Lily had ever seen.

"So what are you here for?" Asked the strange shop's keeper. "Oh, forgive me for being so rude," he suddenly said, putting a hand to his head. "Who is your young friend? I suppose she has a better name then wand-stealer."

This prompted Sirius and Remus to laugh; Lily forced a gracious smile, still feeling bad about the incident.

"This is Lily," said Remus. "She's the reason we're here."

"Aha," said the older wizard. "Please take a seat," he said motioning for Lily to take the large, comfortable chair by the hearth. Truvey pulled to other chairs and set them by the fire. "Sit, please," he said to the two boys, setting off in search of a fourth chair.

"What a remarkable place this is," Lily mused, settling into the chair.

"Yes," Sirius said, leafing through the gigantic book. "It is, isn't it?"

"Like my book, eh Sirius?" came Truvey's voice behind them. Sirius jumped. Truvey had snuck in behind them and sat in a chair besides the other three. "If you wouldn't mind handing that to me, lad?"

Sirius bent over and tried to pick up the book, which was about the size of a well-fed Galapagos Tortoise.

"Hehe," Truvey chuckled. "A joke. Accio." The book stand glided over and stopped in front of Truvey's chair. Sirius looked rather indignant as he sat back down.

"So what would ye' be needing? A love talisman? No, you're far too pretty for that." Lily blushed a deep red and quickly became absorbed in analyzing the carpeting.

"She was bitten by a Mackled Malaclaw," said Remus.

Truvey was still looking at Lily. "Do you speak, girl?" he asked feigning concern.

Lily flushed again, "Yes, sorry. I was bitten by a Malaclaw like Remus said. But I absolutely cannot afford having bad luck this week. I've heard about a talisman that will postpone the bad luck while you're wearing it?"

"Hmm," Truvey looked at the book. "Mackled Malaclaw," he spoke to it. "I believe you're in for some good luck, probably your first batch of it in the last couple days. If I remember correctly I do have what you're looking for," he grinned at the three.

The book's pages turned themselves until it reached page 51,754. "Hmmm," murmured, skimming down the page, "A talisman that has the same effect of a Mackled Malaclaw's bite, ye' won't be wanting that. A map of Mackeld Malaclaw's habitats, not that either. Here it is, this talisman, mass produced during the '50s and '60s, due to an increase in the Mackled Malaclaw's population, temporarily deters the effects of the creature's bite as long as it is worn. And, yes, we happen to have one in stock. One minute please." Truvey stood up and limped into a back room.

"Here it is," Truvey called triumphantly. He walked back in, carrying a small box.

"Mr. Truvey," said Remus, his brown furrowed, "is this book a listing of all the items in your shop?"

"Goodness no," Truvey laughed. "This is a list of all magical talismans recorded in existence. "I have marked all which I possess in my shop and I list where you can locate many of those I don't."

Remus looked from the book to Mr. Truvey, obviously very impressed. "Here, lassie," said Mr. Truvey handing Lily the box. She opened in, inside was a small dark ugly looking rock with a whole through the middle. A leather string ran through the middle of it and formed a circle the right size to be worn as a necklace. "Thank you so much," Lily beamed at him, "You can't know how much this means to me... How much is it?"

Truvey looked down at his book, 300 galleons he said absently. Lily's mouth fell open. "Since it's for such a worthy cause, I'll loan it to you for say, two months for 150."

Lily still stared at him, stricken.

Sirius rose to his feet and pulled a small book out of his robes, "will you take a Gringotts check, Mr. Truvey?"

"Sirius, no," Lily said, "It might take me a while to pay you back." She hated this; she didn't want to be beholden to him. She held out a shaking hand with her money pouch in it. "I have fifty galleons, Mr. Truvey. Could I possibly pay you fifty and get it back to you next week?"

She was sure he was usually a serious businessman, but his face seemed to melt a bit at her young pride. "Get it back to me on Sunday and you can have it for fifty," he said. "Sorry to be so strict about it, but a buyer from Lancashire, a collecting wizard, is coming on Monday and he may want it, he mentioned an interest in luck charms."

"Sunday is perfect!" Lily exclaimed, jumping up and giving Truvey the money. "I'll be back on Sunday."

Mr. Truvey took the money and swiftly put it in a pocket in his robes. "If you happen to run into Madame Rosmerta in your way back through town, tell her I'm sorry will you? You know Mrs. Weatherby was a friend of hers and her second cousin."

"I didn't know that," said Sirius, who looked quite surprised at the news. "She seemed so happy today."

"She puts a good face on it," Truvey continued. "But it shook her up a lot. You know, the strangest thing happened a couple weeks ago, the last time I saw poor Weatherby come to think of it. He came by this very shop, asking about a talisman he'd found while hiking up North. It was a strange smooth green round stone. I couldn't give him any help identifying it, I'm afraid. Never seen anything like it. Poor bloke, had no idea I'd never see him again..." he trailed off, gazing into the crackling fire. He suddenly, looked back at Sirius, Lily, and Remus as if just remembering they were in the room. "Sorry...drifted off there, strange times, strange times."

He stood and started to walk them to the doorway. It looked as if dusk was about to fall as Truvey opened the doorway to a gentle rain. "Sirius, what time is it?" Lily suddenly exclaimed.

Sirius, who wasn't wearing a watch, looked to Remus. Remus looked at his watch and groaned. "4:45."

"James is going to kill us," Sirius said.

They all hurried out the front door. "Thank you so much, Mr. Truvey," Lily said, "I'll be back on Sunday."

"Make sure to come during the day and not so close to evening as ye' did this time, 'tis not safe. And bring someone with you, not safe to be wandering these parts alone with all the strange folks about."

"I'll come with her," said Remus, "If that's okay with you, Lily."

"Of course it is," she answered, smiling.

"See you then," Truvey answered, "Be careful on your way back, stay alert and keep together, although I'm not too concerned about you after your display earlier." He laughed. "I'll leave Hootims on the lookout for you on Sunday," he shut the door with another "Good night".

The three turned and stared into the damp grey evening, wondering what Wheatherby had found up north and if there was any slim chance of making it back by dark as they hurried through the wet underbrush toward the trail.