Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Thirty-One

The rest of the school week passed by without incident, and Lily was ready for a nice, relaxing Saturday. She was certainly not ready for the commotion in the Gryffindor common room Saturday morning. Still bleary eyed from sleep,

"What is going on down here?" she asked, flopping down in between Eli and Rudy. She yawned. "It's too loud down here."

"Good morning, grumpy," Eli said.

"It looks like someone's not ready for Valentine's Day," Rudy said, laughing with Eli.

The hubbub in the Gryffindor common room then made sense to Lily. All of her fellow Gryffindors were celebrating Valentine's Day with their friends and significant others.

"It's still too early in the morning for love," Lily said, shaking her head and wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

"Sounds like something Hugo would say," Eli said. "Speaking of Hugo, where is that bloke?"

"What do you mean you don't know where he is?" Lily asked.

"So you don't know where he went either?" Rudy asked, looking to Lily.

"You're the ones that share a room with him," Lily said. "Don't you two know where he is?"

The boys made eye contact before shrugging and turning back to Lily. Lily decided to take that as a no. The three sat in silence for a moment.

"So he was gone when you two woke up this morning?" Lily asked, reiterating what had already been said.

"Yeah," Rudy said. "His bed was slept in, but he was gone. His pajamas were on the floor."

"Yeah, along with the rest of his dirty laundry," Eli said, rolling his eyes.

"As much as I'd like to hear about your dorm, which probably looks like a tornado's gone through it, I'm more concerned about where Hugo's gone."

"Knowing Hugo, he might have gone down to get breakfast early," Rudy said.

"He doesn't go down to meals without us though," Lily said.

"You don't think..."

Lily looked over to Eli, "What are you thinking, Eli?"

"Never mind," he said, shaking his head of curls. "It's stupid. Ridiculous, even. I don't know why I thought it."

"Eli, what?" Rudy asked.

"Look, Hugo's disappeared a few times so far this school year. I mean, we'd look up, and he'd be gone. What if..."

"What if what, Eli?" Lily asked, her voice rose. She had a feeling that she knew where he was going, and she wasn't too thrilled about it. "Eli McGonagall, you spit it out right now."

"What if Hugo's the one that's been stealing from Professor McGonagall," he said.

Lily shook her head, "Absolutely not. Have you met Hugo? He would never steal anything."

"That's why I said it was a ridiculous idea in the first place, Lil," Eli said.

"Why would you think that about Hugo in the first place?" Lily asked, feeling her face get hot. She had to defend her cousin. "You're one of his best friends, Eli."

"Lily, calm down," Rudy said from her other side. "It was just a dumb thought."

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "I know. I'm sorry, Eli; I get a little hotheaded when it comes to family."

"Maybe it's the hair," Eli said with a smile, standing from the sofa.

"Was that a ginger joke, Mr. McGonagall?" Lily asked, getting up and crossing her arms. She felt a look of amused disbelief cross her face.