TG - Harry Potter and the Descendent Covenant 8

“Harry!” Hermione almost screamed when she saw her old friend wandering out of the Great Hall following breakfast. “Sorry, I mean Lily. You need to come with me. Now!”
Lily was completely taken aback, and almost fell over as she was grabbed by the robes, and thrust out through the doorway, straight into the face of Ron, who was sheepishly trying to appear like he wasn’t a part of this rude meeting. After a moment, Lily regained her balance, and then stopped, not allowing Hermione to drag her along any longer.

“Why is it that it’s always right after breakfast that I’m running around Hermione?” she gasped, “I’ve got a full stomach.”

“Lily Potter, we’ve got something to show you, I think you’re really going to like it,” Hermione replied tersely, as if this was all Lily’s fault.

“What is it?”

“Sorry mate, if I’m not allowed to tell you, then I don’t think Hermione’s going to speak up,” Ron shrugged.

She wasn’t entirely happy with the mystery, but she went along with it, after all, she had to trust her friends. They stayed mostly silent as they walked the rest of the way through the castle, through the empty corridors, and with Lily wiping the sleep out of her eyes. The tiredness of working hard the previous night hadn’t abated yet.

“So how was detention?” Ron asked, trying to alleviate the awkwardness. Truth be told, he was having a hard time understanding what the big deal about Lily’s transformation was. To him, she was just the same old person, albeit in a different body. His rat had been a person in a different body for twelve years, and secretly he’d never minded that, though the man was a psychopath, he had to admit. All he kept thinking was, ‘that’s my mate, and she’s going through some stuff.’ He felt responsible to help out.

“It actually went pretty well.”

“Detention? With Snape? Went well?”

Before Lily could speak, Hermione butted in, still leading the procession.

“Can’t you see Ronald? The knotgrass on her robes? They’ve been brewing polyjuice potion down there. I think Snape’s trying to turn Lily back into Harry.”

Ron stopped in his stride, actually stopped, furrowed his brow, and then started up again.

“You’re bloody nightmarish sometimes you know Hermione. Is there anything you don’t know?”

She gave him a look, as if to say she knew a lot more than she was letting on about a particular Mr. Weasley. Ron just gulped, and rushed back up to Lily again.

“Polyjuice potion though, that’s going to take forever.”

“Three months,” Lily sighed.

“Three months?!” replied Ron and Hermione in unison.

“But Lily, polyjuice only takes one month to brew,” Hermione stated, confidently remembering the entire recipe off the top of her head.

They entered one of the exterior corridors, where the light was lazily entering through the windows. Morning was sweet at Hogwarts, and with the trees turning to their Autumnal browns and oranges, it was all that little more sweet. Here students who had finished their breakfasts were sitting on the lawn, practicing spells, and talking amongst themselves, having a rare time. Lily started to get self conscious, but Hermione noticed this, and tugged her along again very forcefully. She couldn’t worry about appearances if she was struggling to maintain balance.

“Usually Hermione, but Snape’s using this book he wrote or something, he’s been meddling with the recipe, and he thinks he’s managed a permanent transformation, or one that lasts a lot longer, apparently.”

“Well that’s great mate, hopefully you won’t need the femstrobes then,” Ron agreed, which elicited a very harsh elbowing from Hermione, telling him to shut up. “Bloody hell,” he rubbed his side, “Hermione you’re a vicious one today.”

“I’m sorry Ronald, but it was meant to be a surprise.”

While Lily did enjoy the increasing bickering between her two best friends, her mind was a million miles away. The Descendant Covenant. Should she tell the other two about the potential source of the necklace that had changed her? It would only worry Hermione, and prompt her to spent valuable study time researching a story that according to Dumbledore was possibly fictional. No, she’d keep it to herself for the time being, as well as the stuff Snape had told her never to divulge. If Hermione hadn’t noticed the knotgrass clinging to the bottom of her robe, then she probably wouldn’t have said anything about that either.

She kicked a shoe up at the offending patch of strangely shaped grass, and tried to get rid of it without causing too much of a disturbance to their flow. Keeping it to herself was probably better in times like this, she didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, especially her own.

Her thoughts may have been far, far away, but her eyes were not, and they were staring absentmindedly at the golden locks of a Draco Malfoy, who was walking down the corridor toward them. Suddenly she was back where she was standing, all distractions gone, and she accidentally made eye contact with him. Shock and shame ran through her, and she turned to Hermione, very obviously embarrassed at being caught.

Draco on the other hand had no idea why Potter was looking in his direction. Though he felt that he should say something about Crabbe and Goyle messing about the previous day, that would never do for a Malfoy to apologise. He was increasingly seeing less and less of those two anyway, so he wasn’t responsible for their idiocy. She was staring at him quite intently, looking above his eye line at his hair, which was bloody annoying, until their eyes connected. She did have quite pretty eyes.

He snapped his head away, feeling a pang of a blush, but headed off in a faster pace, he had work to do. As he left he did notice the very disgusted look from Weasley, but what did he care, they were a disgrace, there was no minding what they thought.

“Lily, he’s not been bothering you about the… changes… has he?” Ron turned, making sure that Malfoy was gone.

“No… No… He’s not said anything really,” Lily countered, trying hard not to think what she was thinking. There was something different about Draco Malfoy, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing. What she was certain of was that Malfoy and his two accomplices were definitely up to something. That had to be examined as soon as possible. After all, he could be dangerous!

“Little monkey face,” Ron scowled, “getting all over everyone’s business. Just say if he does anything Hermi-,” he corrected, “Lily- and I’ll have a word.”

Lily chuckled at Ron, he’d always been protective of Hermione, and now he was feeling like he had to protect them both. Were it somebody else then she would have had a definite problem with being seen as in need of protection, but Ron was being genuine, and just wanted to make sure his friend was comfortable. The last moment did a lot to counter the confusion of the earlier one.

-

Walking down toward Hagrid’s cottage was like coming home again. It was one of the only things that hadn’t changed drastically over the past few days. Her bed, her clothes, her hair, her body, and the way people were treating her had all changed, but Hagrid’s humble little hut, that never changed a bit.

The big lug was even stood outside of his door, hands on his hip and brandishing, instead of his usual pitchfork or sack filled with all sorts, a gigantic smile on his face. He could barely contain himself, and before Lily even crossed onto his lawn, she had a giant barrelling down on her. She was lifted up, off the ground, and held tightly for a moment or so. Big, bristling beard hairs rubbed her face roughly, but she didn’t care, it was Hagrid after all.

She was replaced on the ground, with Hagrid looking slightly embarrassed for his impromptu embrace. He was just so happy to see that Harry was doing fine.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” he grumbled, trying to play down his reddening face, “the kettle’s on the boil.”

He made eye contact with Ron and Hermione, but no further words were said. Before he could turn around, Lily stepped up, and offered a few words.

“Hagrid, it’s really good to see you.”

“Well it’s great to see you looking so healthy there young Harry, let’s get you back to normal in no time. As long as you’re here, you’ll always be Harry Potter to me,” Hagrid smiled warmly.

“Well, Hagrid, I’m actually going by Lily now.”

The giant’s face reddened further, as he realised he’d made a slight faux pas.

“Lily is it? Lily. Like your mum. Of course it is.”

She smiled, and took his hand as they walked back into the cottage.

“Of course it is, of course, just like your mum,” he repeated, getting more and more flustered.

“You can still call me Harry though, you’ve earned it I think.”

“No! No! If it’s Lily you’re wanting to be called, then it’s Lily you shall be called, no sense me sitting looking silly calling you something else.”

They stepped out of the morning light, and into the dank mustiness of the hut, the smell of burned cinders and something Lily couldn’t quite place, though it was most likely Fang. When they were seated, and comfortable, arranged in a half circle in front of Hagrid, Lily noticed a little too late that there was another guest in the room, someone she hadn’t noticed upon entering. A very pale, slight, girl, with a little cute face and long, almost white hair. Her eyes were lively, and a little too open, giving her a look of someone who’d drank too much butter beer.

“Lily Potter, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” she spoke slowly, and as if from a distance the words came out so dreamily. “I see you’re adjusting well to the change.”

Hagrid sighed obviously.

“Did everyone know about this except me?” he groaned.

“I think I’m doing alright,” Lily answered. “And you are?”

“Luna, Luna Lovegood,” she spoke back, while looking at Hermione and Ron. “Did you bring the femstrobes?”

Hermione sighed, a little shocked.

“But I thought you were going to bring them…”

Luna laughed in a sound that was immediately identifiable as very forced.

“Oh, I can find some in a jiffy, if you’d just let me back outside,” she spoke in her airy, Irish, brogue. She waited for Ron and Hermione to part their seats, and she skipped out through the door, not bothering to close it behind her.

“Where did you find her?” Lily asked, watching the girl move back and forth through the grass, coming the ground for something.

“She was in the restricted section when I was researching your… condition. She’s a bit odd, but she did seem to know a lot about the transformation, so I asked if there was anything she could do… Now we’re here,” Hermione shrugged.

“Yeah mate, thought we should try every possibility to get you changed back to normal,” Ron added, for support mostly.

Normal.

“Hagrid?” Lily turned around to face him, “I’ve never heard of femstrobes, are they part of the course for this year?”

Hagrid looked about quite unnerved, and then put a hand to one side of his mouth, making sure Luna wouldn’t be able to hear him outside.

“Bloody load of tripe if you ask me, I’ve been living in this cottage for nigh on fifty years Harry- Luna- Lily- excuse me, and I’ve never once even heard talk of femstrobes. I’ve been out in the forest night after night, seeing god knows what going on, and I can confidently state that there are no such things as femstrobes. No siree, no siree Jim, no siree Bob.”

“I’ve found them!” exclaimed Luna, holding in her hands a collection of struggling little pink creatures.

Everyone paused in their seats, and just stared out of the doorway, mystified.