Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Twelve

Much to Lily's chagrin, Nora and Cassie had reacted the same way Hugo, Eli, and Rudolph did when they heard of her suspicions of the two Sanger sisters, telling her that her theory was farfetched and that two eleven year olds couldn't bring down the Wizarding World. After a sleepless night of pondering the dissenting opinion, Lily had decided to just agree with her friends and threw her suspicions to the wind. Though her problems with the Sanger twins were resolved, her issues with the Gryffindor Quidditch Bonfire were not.

"You really don't have to go if you don't want to," Eli said as they left the common room the next night for the dreadful bonfire. "I'd understand if-"

"I don't want to go, but I'm going," Lily said, thinking back to her talk with James; she didn't mean to interrupt Eli, but her annoyance with the situation was taking over. "If I don't go, James will get the last laugh, and I won't let that happen."

"James shouldn't have said that stuff to you," Eli said with a nod. "It wasn't very nice of him."

Lily sighed, "I can take it. Living with James and Al for twelve years gave me a tough skin."

"Brothers," Eli said with an expression that could barely be described as a smile. "They're a pain. I should know; I have six of them."

"And I thought two brothers were a nightmare," Lily said with short laugh, not sure where to go from there; Eli usually refrained from talking about his family. "Are they all-"

"Religiously Slytherin?" Eli finished with an amused yet cynical laugh. "I think Matthew's the worst of them, but none of them were happy when I was placed in Gryffindor."

"My brothers wouldn't have been happy if were a Slytherin," Lily said before a question bloomed in her mind. She thought about it for a moment before asking, hoping it didn't come across too pushy. "Did you see your family at all during the summer?"

He shook his head, "I didn't; I haven't seen some of them since before I left for Hogwarts last year. I haven't even seen Nicholas here yet. I'd like to keep that streak alive, but I have a feeling that I'll see him soon."

"If you lived through last year with the both of them, you can live through seeing him," Lily said with what she hoped was a supportive smile as she thought back to the horrors Matthew and Nicholas put Eli through the previous year. "We'll just have to make sure we beat him in Quidditch."

"Agreed," he said with wide eyes and quick nods. "I'd never live it down if we lose to him. Hopefully, this new Quidditch referee isn't a Slytherin and won't be biased."

"A new ref?" Lily asked, stopping at the bottom of the stairs. "What about Madam Hooch?"

"You didn't hear?" Eli asked, stopping a few feet in front of her. "She retired this past year. Didn't you see the new ref sitting up at the staff table during meals?"

Thinking through her first two days back at Hogwarts, Lily tried to remember a new staff member at the table but couldn't, "I didn't notice him; I guess I like to think I'm more observant than I actually am."

Eli laughed and started walking through the castle again, "He's got brown hair and dark eyes. He looks about forty."

"I still have no idea who you are talking about," she said with a shrug and a laugh as they continued through the near empty halls of Hogwarts.

"We'll meet him soon enough, I guess," Eli said with a sigh. "I just hope he's an alright guy. Madam Hooch was incredible, but I don't know if he could live up to her."

"We'll have to see," Lily said, putting her hands in the pockets of her sweater. There was silence for a moment as they walked until Lily decided to break the silence. "Are you excited for the bonfire?"