Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Thirty-Seven

For a week, Lily pondered on the incident in the library. Like Hugo had said, it had been something else, and Lily knew it as she replayed the afternoon over and over again in her mind. Cassie and Nora knew that it was something else, too. Although everyone knew that that shield charm in the library had been something unprecedented by second year standards, no one could seem to pinpoint just what that mysterious thing was. As frustrated as it made Lily to let the problem go, she did. She had other mysteries to solve and refused to be sidetracked any longer—except for serving a Saturday detention in the owlery.

"I told you that this would be disgusting," Eli said, throwing a sponge in a bucket of hot, soapy water. "Owls poop everywhere. This is quite possibly the worst punishment in the history of Hogwarts."

Lily had to agree with her friend wholeheartedly. They had been in the owlery for half an hour, and the six friends hadn't even made a dent in the cleaning job ahead of them due to their not being allowed to utilize magic—that was part of the punishment.

"It's not that bad," Cassie said.

Everyone groaned in response. Anytime anyone made a single, warranted complaint, no matter how minuscule, about the disgustingness that was the poopy owlery, Cassie always retorted with the same four words: it's not that bad.

Now, Lily absolutely loved Cassie and admired her friend's determination to make a career out of studying owls, but even Lily couldn't understand how Cassie seemed to be enjoying their detention of scrubbing poop off of the floors and walls.

"You know what?" Hugo said, looking down from where he stood on the owlery's winding staircase to Lily and the other four second years in the room.

"What could you possibly want, Hugo?" Lily asked, not even bothering to look up from her scrubbing. She had been working on scrubbing this particular stain on the concrete floor for two whole minutes, and it stubbornly refused to come off of the floor. She was in no mode for one of Hugo's stupid interruptions.

"Douglas and Ike are a half an hour late," Hugo said. "We're doing an eight-person job with six people. This isn't fair."

"Hugo," Lily began, looking up at her cousin before blowing a stray hair out of her face, "I'm sure that they'll get in trouble. Let's just finish this as quickly as possible because Eli and I have Quidditch practice tonight."

"Yeah, and I want to take a shower before this because I am not going to fly around on my broom covered in owl poop," Eli added.

"Just add some feathers, and you'll be practically an owl yourself, Eli," Rudy said with a laugh.

Eli frowned, evidently not amused, and Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Come on, it's funny. Let's just hurry up and finish this."

"I think I'm going to take my time," Nora said, looking up at her friends with a grin. "I mean, I think we should be here all night. No Quidditch practice for you."

Lily laughed, "Nora, even if Eli and I miss our practice, we're still going to crush you guys in Quidditch."

"Don't think so. I hear the Slytherin Keeper is pretty awesome this year," Nora said, giving her friends a knowing smirk.

"She's pretty cute, too," Hugo yelled down from near the top of the owlery.

Lily watched as Nora blushed and pushed a strand of her long, blonde hair out of her face.