Lily Potter and Foundation's Fall

Chapter Nine

Only a few short hours had passed after the start-of-term feast had finished in the Great Hall, but the four third-year Gryffindors were heading to the kitchens. Not to refill their stomachs but to meet their Slytherin and Ravenclaw friends to head up to the abandoned tower that Eli had discovered over the summer.

"Are you sure we can't make a pit stop at the kitchens and get some food?" Hugo asked.

"How can you still be hungry?" Rudy asked. "You ate non-stop at that feast. I don't even think I saw you stop to breathe."

"I'm a growing boy, Rudy," Hugo said.

Lily rolled her eyes, "No, we can't stop at the kitchens. We need to get up to the tower before we get caught out of bed. I don't want to get detention before classes have even started."

"Well, we wouldn't have had this problem if someone brought the Marauder's Map with them for this little trip," Hugo said. "But no, you didn't remember to steal it from James' trunk."

"You three are the boys. You three can sneak into James' dormitory more easily than I can," Lily said, crossing her arms. "You can't blame this one on me."

"Watch me do just that: everyone, it's Lily's fault," Hugo said, crossing his arms back at her.

"Honest to Merlin, you are a child, Hugo," Eli said.

"Hey, McGonagall, this is your fault, too," Hugo said.

"My fault?"
"This is the tower that you found, so you should have helped Lily get her act together and have stolen the Map from James with her or for her, at least," Hugo said.

"That's some convoluted logic right there, Hugs," Rudy said.

"I don't even know what convoluted means," Hugo said, sticking his tongue out. "Also, my name's not Hugs. I hate that name."

"Can we just keep going, so we can meet Cass and Nora down by the kitchens before next year?" Eli asked.

"Don't they know where the tower is?" Rudy asked. "Why are we meeting them?"

"Since we were only up there once before, they were worried about getting lost on their way up there. It's kind of a," Lily smiled to herself, "convoluted way up there."

Hugo groaned, "Can we, I don't know, stop saying that word? We've already established that I don't know what it means."

"Maybe I'll get you a dictionary for your birthday, Hugs," Rudy said with a laugh.

"That would ruin the shtick, and we can't have that," Hugo said, shaking his head and putting his hand on his chest, almost affronted. "I can't be knowledgeable about vocabulary. It would ruin my character."

"Yeah, yeah," Lily said as the group came to a stop at a corner. She crept around the corner, checking to make sure that no one was coming before turning back to her friends. "Let's just hurry up, meet Cassie and Nora, and get up to the tower. We don't want to get in trouble."

"You don't want to get in trouble?"

The hairs on Lily's neck stood up at the voice behind her. She swallowed and looked up at her three friends, who looked just as startled as she felt. Eli, who looked the most anxious, spun Lily around, putting her face to face with Dakota Samson.

"Hi, Dakota," were the only words Lily could get out of her mouth as she took in the Hufflepuff in the dimly lit hall. After the argument on the carriage, Lily certainly had no respect for the girl and was dying to tell her off again, but when caught breaking the rules by a known Gryffindor hater, she knew that it might be best to reel in her temper.