A Malfoy's Potter // Draco Malfoy

Chapter Three

Lily tilted her head at the crude map that Snape had drawn up for her, showing her exactly where the Avarium was located. Lily was not quite sure if that funny object at the corner of the map, where the X marks the spot resided, was the Whomping Willow or the Forbidden Forest... and the oddly shaped person outside the castle must be Dumbledore... thanks to the wizard hat that the professor had drawn on him but Lily laughed when she wondered if Snape knew that he had drawn the professor without eyes.

Grabbing her bag that contained all of the creatures for the class as well as Ellery and Draconis, the girl headed out to figure out the puzzle of Professor Snape's map.

Once she was out of the castle out back where Hagrid's Hut and the Whomping Willow stood, Lily followed the dots on the map around the corner of the castle to the grassy field that was empty save for the memories that the students had of sledding there and playing games.

The lake was off to the right and there standing in the middle of the field where nothing had been growing last school semester, was a huge tree.

Upon closer inspection, Lily found it to be a Dogwood tree but it was the largest one that she had ever seen and the white blossoms were blooming.

As the girl approached the tree, she wondered if that was the Avarium.

Her thoughts were answered when she stepped underneath the branches that made a canopy around the tree and she felt like she had just walked through a portal.

Now as she looked upon the thick trunk of the tree, she saw shelves growing from the tree, made of thick bark.

They were wrapped like a spiral around the trunk from way up high at about 10 feet to the low roots at 5 inches from the ground.

Hanging down underneath the canopy were branches in the shape of chains with hooks on the ends for cages to hang from.

Last but not least, there was a stone staircase made of head sized rocks that spiraled up the tree and disappeared into the branches.

Setting her things down, Lily climbed up the stairs and when she emerged from beneath the branches, the high branches of the tree wove together to make small platforms in the shapes of seats!

The best part was that flowered branches surrounded the seats like walls and a roof giving the impression of a classroom.

Hurrying back downstairs, Lily pulled out each of the boxes and use the spell to turn them back to normal size.

Each time she did, she opened the box and the creature ran free but soon Lily notice that the creatures could not go out of the barrier.

It must be a spell that Dumbledore casts to keep critters in but let students in and out to prevent runaway Scoovis!

When all of the boxes were empty, Lily stacked them neatly on the shelves so that the animals would have beds to sleep in until she could get the students to help her make personalized homes for each creature beneath the tree.

Satisfied, Lily picked up Draconis and summoned Ellery as she left the shelter of the tree to head to class. When she looked back, she could not see any of the animals, nor the shelves or stairs.

The barrier kept it invisible to outsiders. When the girl came barreling into the greenhouse, she saw that she was the last student to show up but luckily Professor Sprout was not there yet.

Grabbing her apron and a pair of earmuffs, she took her place between Seamus Finnigan and Neville.

"what's the matter Potter?" Draco sneered, "too lazy to show up to your first day of classes?"