CHRYSALIS - FRED WEASLEY

CHAPTER 16

Since Lillie started her energy work in Hogwarts, she's felt this small tugging feeling whenever she scans. It changes directions, depending on where she is; but it feels like there is a small rope attached to her brain with someone lightly pulling on it. Like a compass, it seems to be leading her to a certain place within the castle's walls.

At first, the feeling was so slight that she resolved to just ignore it. However, the more she explored the castle's secrets, the stronger the feeling got. Last week, the feeling actually physically pulled her back, knocking her head against the flagstone painfully. She's come to understand it as important, something that could hold the key to protecting the castle. She has no real reason to think this, except her own intuition. She knows better now than to ignore that.

"I need your help," Lillie says to Fred. She's standing at his bunk on her tip-toes, her arms laid along the mattress and her head resting on them.

Fred has bewitched a piece of parchment to take the shape of a butterfly, its paper wings flapping gently as he points his wand around the room, controlling the butterfly's languid path. He looks over at Lillie, smiling lazily and pointing his wand slightly towards her. The butterfly floats down, landing delicately on her head, its tiny paper legs flicking against her fine strands of hair. She reaches her finger up, allowing the paper butterfly to crawl onto it, and sets it on the end of his bed. Fred stops the spell, and its lifelike movements cease, the folds that formed it collapsing into a wrinkled sheet of parchment.

"Lil, I already told you, I won't help you make the love potion for Flitwick. It's unethical."

Lillie laughs, happy that his usual joking, flirty personality seems to be returning, "But Fred, I love him!"

He laughs too, "What is it, then?"

"Come on, I'll explain on the way," she says.

Fred gets up, needing no further explanation; he's just happy he gets to spend time with her.

"Have her home by midnight!" George calls from the bottom bunk. Lillie laughs, and Fred ignores him.

"So," Lillie begins as she leads them down to the Great Hall, "I have to conduct an... experiment of sorts."

"Right. What are we blowing up?"

"Nothing, I don't think. Since I got here I've had this feeling, kind of like a compass, whenever I scan. It's pulling me somewhere in the castle."

"Cool, a secret magical mission."

"The problem is," she continues, "I can only feel it when I scan. And scanning requires deep concentration, almost like sleep. So if I'm gonna follow the feeling, I can't really do it alone. I need someone to guide me."

"Ah," Fred says, "I see."

"So basically I'm gonna go into scanning mode, but I'll be walking as I follow the feeling. I can see with the energy fields I'm using, but I'll probably trip if someone's not there to look out for, like, rocks and rugs and stuff," she says.

"Sounds easy enough," Fred says, nodding his head.

"Yeah, and you don't have to lead me anywhere, or anything. I'll just walk towards... well, wherever."

They arrive in the Great Hall, where Lillie figures is the best and most central place to begin. She stands in the middle of the room and grabs Fred's hand, then sinks into her scanning state. As always, she choses a happy memory on which to focus on. This time, she relives her and Fred's hug from a few weeks ago. The corners of her mouth tick up in a small smile.

The room around her becomes clearer and clearer in her mind, the image strengthening as her 'hands' reach out and feel the energy currents around her. She realizes she feels a warmth in her chest that normally isn't present while she scans; when her hands reach Fred standing next to her, she understands. His warm, dappled light yet again casts a strange sheen over the room, illuminating the scintillating currents of energies the way sun illuminates dust motes as it streams through a window. Where her fingers are locked with his, the energy swirls up her arm and all around her. Even in her state, she realizes the peculiarity of this, but enjoys the feeling anyway.