Lily Snape [3]

Chapter Sixteen:

 Chapter Sixteen: 

After several minutes of crying, I'd finally managed to get myself together in order to read Ginny's letter and my others. 

One was from George, which went mostly on and on about pranks he'd pulled on Fred, and how much everyone missed me.  He hoped all was well and expected a return letter within a week or he'd send a search party out for me.  

Chuckling softly, I turned to another letter, the last that I didn't recognize.  It was very feminine writing and I realized quickly that it was a letter from Mrs. Weasley.  

I smiled softly as I read about how Fred was going insane without my sanity to keep him company.  She sent me a new recipe, Butter-Beer battered fish, that she thought I'd like if I could talk the House Elves that worked at Hogwarts into making it for me.  Though besides that, it didn't say much.  

Next and last, I turned to Ginny's.

Ginny's went on for pages, about how bored she was, how worried she was about Harry, Ron and Hermione.  They hadn't heard a word from them since they left.  She told me how someone had started Potterwatch, a sort of radio-talk show that gave people hope.  It broadcasted messages to Harry, in case he was listening in, supportive, loving messages from wizards and witches all over the world who wanted Harry to know how important he was to them.  

At the end of her letter, she signed "Love, Dearborn".  

It took me nearly three days before I realized what 'Dearborn' meant, but by that time my Father had already learned (I assume from one of the paintings of older Headmasters) that Neville, Luna and I had been snooping around his office, and he'd sent us into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid (who, truth be told, sometimes still scared me occasionally) as punishment. 

Dearborn was the password to the Potterwatch. 

I moved through the halls quickly, every once in a while still feeling the odd sensation of having a spider on me or walking through a spider web, even though it'd been two days since that dreadful detention.  They needed to bomb that forest with bug spray. 

I was pretty certain that it would haunt me forever. The massive spiders, the occassional haunting screeches of an owl or other unknown animals.  The entire time I walked through there, I felt as if something was watching me, just waiting for the perfect moment to strike.  

But nothing happened, the detention ended in the early hours of the morning as we'd gotten lost, and afterwards there had been no time to sleep, we all simply showered, changed and went about our school day.  

Luna had loved the detention and Neville kept stopping to pick up plants, while Hagrid wanted to find every single animal that made a noise.  

I just wanted out of there. 

Shaking my head quickly as I shuddered thinking about it, I quickly made my way back to Gryffindor Dormitories.

We only had another six weeks before school was out for the Christmas holidays and I was so looking forward to seeing Fred again.  Well the other Weasley's as well, of course, but mostly Fred.  I'd decided that that night, I'd get a radio and use Dearborn to listen in to Potterwatch after everyone else was asleep, and hope that I could find out something, anything, about how the Golden Trio were doing.  

Once I'd made it to the Common Room, I immediately took the radio from above the fireplace and left to my room.  Though it took me nearly an hour to figure out how to get to Potterwatch, I finally managed it and just in time for them to have been ending on of the letters addressed to Harry.  

I smiled when I recognized the voice at the other end of the show, immediately placing it as Jordan Lee's.  

Settling down into my bed, I curled around the device and closed my eyes, ready to stay up the entire night just to hear all that I could. 

*_*_*

Weeks came and went quickly, and I spent each night staying up as late as possible to get just a few words on how Harry, Ron and Hermione were doing.  Most days, nothing happened.  The dark circles around my eyes showed how tired I had become because of my new obsession and my grades were showing it.  I'd become too tired to function, I couldn't carry on conversations and I fell asleep in class regularly.  

But it was worth it.  

When Christmas holidays came upon me, I was packed and ready to go, so excited to get on that train and meet Fred at Kings Cross.  I had this whole scenario in my mind that played repeatedly, over and over again, how he'd run up to me and hug me and George would laugh and they'd start talking about their joke shop.  

Not too romantic as I knew Fred wasn't capable of something quite like that, but decent enough for me.  

If he didn't hug me though, I'd punch him in the kidneys. 

I put some Polyjuice Potion in a little container, adding a bit of Ginny's hair to it (and shuddering as I did so) before sticking it in my pocket for the ride on the train before grabbing my things and leaving Hogwarts ground.

Neville, Luna and I managed to find an empty compartment, and when the train started moving, I was happy that nobody else had joined up, it meant we were free to talk about almost anything we chose.  

"Have you guys heard anything about Harry?" Neville questioned, his eyes mostly on me as he knew how much attention I'd been paying to the radio and every single rumor that went around Hogwarts. 

Shaking my head, I grimaced.  "No, they were apparently spotted in London a few weeks ago but haven't been seen or heard from since."  Luna stayed quiet, reading her father's magazine, The Quibbler, upside down though she seemed rather out of it, as if daydreaming and her eyes didn't even scan the page.  

After a while, even Neville got bored of making small talk and dozed off in the seat, his head slowly made its way to Luna's shoulder as he snored softly.  Grinning at the two of them, I stood up to stretch before beginning to make my way to the bathroom. 

I hadn't even made it to the sliding doors before they were thrust open, three men in cloaks and masks barging into our compartment.  I could feel my eyes widen as my hand automatically went to my wand, but I felt something slam into my skull before I could grab it.  

Everything after that seemed to be in slow motion as I was slammed into the wall, a curse had hit me though I wasn't sure which one and my back sliding against it as I stared at the masked men.  They tied Neville up with what looked like vines before grabbing Luna roughly, knocking her out and leaving the compartment again.  

I couldn't see so well, and I couldn't hear anything besides a dull ringing.  Everything was blurred, even Neville's face.  I knew it'd be pinched with worry, and he seemed to be trying to wiggle off of the compartment seats in order to get to me but I couldn't see anything besides the general shape of his body.  

Blinking didn't seem to help and my head had begun pounding a fiersome beat, I felt as though my skull was most probably cracked open, and  I couldn't handle it.  I passed out soon after, just in time to feel the vibrations of Neville finally making it off the seat. 

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[[A/N: I hope you guys liked this chapter, though I don't feel its up to my usual standards.  I am so exhausted that it's ridiculous ._.  I plan to have this story finished soon.  Hopefully before the years end, and probably even sooner than that if I can keep up with my updates!  I have so many story ideas that I want to post, it's killing me to not bombard you with them but I WILL finish this story before I post anything else.  All my others will be single stories so it wont be as important if I finish those or not, while this is a trilogy and I would feel worse if I left a trilogy to rot lol.  Anyways, let me know what you think with your comments and votes, they're all so greatly appreciated! 

Peace and Love,
iJay]]