Lily Potter and the Cycles of the Moon. {Year One} [EDITING]

Halloween

A scary spirit was in the air in the days before Halloween. Almost everything was enchanted to look ten times scarier. Halloween had always been one of Lily's favorite holidays, and Hogwarts made it a hundred times better. Jack-o-Lanterns replaced the traditional candles in the Great Hall, and the ghosts made an effort to scare people, the decor itself was eye widening.

Lily didn't see much if James as he triumphed in the Quidditch field, but when she did see him, she asked about the Dark Moon. He'd told her it was a joke, as Lily had suspected, but there was more.

"It was just some old myth I heard about and used to scare you, Lily. I lied about Voldemort and Salazar, it's a muggle myth anyway, and there only a paragraph of an article on it that I could find, even used one of the muggle computers to search it." He'd told her, half distracted as he worked on his Quidditch plays.

Lily knew there was something more, after all it was an actual myth, there could have been truth in it, and if Scorpius's father knew somethin about it, there had to be more, but it seemed she'd reached a dead end.

Lorcan had started to become distant, trying to reconnect with his Slytherin brother who had been missing from meals every so often. Lily told him not to worry about it, that Lysander probably just had homework to do, but honestly it even worried her some, so she gave her friend his space.

So, on Halloween night, before the feast it was just Hugo and her, and after some serious failures on her part of Wizard Chess, we decided to give it a rest. They too the time to relax, stting back and having some actual conversations with the other Ravenclaws. Our cousin Dom, who was 1/8th veela, was talking to us about the upcoming Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff Quidditch match when Lorcan burst through the door, out of breath and red.

"My God, Scamander!" Cassandra shouted, surprised. "What have you been doing!?" She didn't look as angry as she tried to sound. She was more concerned, Cassandra was a terrible prefect, Lily had learned. Though her compassion was much appreciated, she wasn't strict enough, often letting kids get away with anything.

"Nothing," Lorcan mumbled. "Just got lost and panicked." He lied, terribly and made his way over to Lily and Hugo, sitting down, opening a book as though he wasn't going to tell the story of what had just happened. Thwo two finished their story with their cousin, mostly to get her to leave, beofre confronting him.

"What happened?" Lily whispered, causing him to look up from his book. He looked around to make sure no one was still paying attention to him.

"Skip the Halloween Feast with me, we need to talk to my brother. He's been acting strange and I—" He paused to look around the room once more, making Lily nervous. "I saw him going into the Forbidden Forest. Right now, even though its forbidden and pitch black out."

Lily gasped, remembering Scorpius' words. "But Scorpius said animals were dying out there! He could be in danger," Lily expressed, concerned, but trying to keep her voice down.

"Or causing danger to others," Hugo whispered, causing the both of them to go silent. Lily hadn't even thought about that, not for a second. Sure, Lorcan was strange, but he wasn't killing animals, he couldn't even.

"No!" Lorcan was the first to speak, his voice a little too loud, earning looks from a few Ravenclaws, whom Lily apologized more than necessary to. "My brother would never, ever kill anything. Especially a magical creature. We were raised to love them." He said, sure of his words.

"Then why was he in the Forbidden Forest, Lorcan?" Hugo asked, the sentence alone providing a much stronger case than one question should ever be capable of, but still, Lily was far more worried about his well being than accusing him of slaughter.

"Lysander is not a bad guy," Lorcan replied, positive of his reasoning.

"We shouldn't go around accusing or ruling anything out just yet guys," Lily said, biting her lip. "All we know is that Lorcan could be hurt, no matter how aloof he is, we've got to make sure he's okay."

The three first years were all too ready to go diving into the dark and terrifying black forest that surrounded Hogwarts, walking down the halls and trying to be inconspicuous. Lily was afraid, of course, on a  night like Halloween, there was no reason to leave the castle, but her compassion got the better of her. Yet, as they made their way towards courtyard, Lorcan paused, and was staring, with his mouth open at his brother, walking the other way.

"But.." He whispered. "I saw.. Lysander!" He shouted, taking off after him, and leaving the two redheads to ponder what on earth had just happened. Perhaps they'd missed him, or he'd gotten scared and came righ back to Hogwarts, but no doubt it was an odd occurence, one Lily made a mental note to ask Lorcan about if he didn't share.

Wondering back to the common room, Lily stopped at the library, noticing her brother, Albus, at one of the tables. "I'm going to talk to him," she told him. "You should go enjoy the feast." WIth that, the two parted.

Walking up to her brother Lily saw the title of the book Albus  was reading: Dark Wizards Of Hogwarts.

"How did you get a book like that?" she asked, suddenly, causing him to jump and shut it hastily. "There is no way that wasn't in the Restricted section. Who gave you the pass?"

"Lily, when your as ahead in your classes as I am, your teachers willl be much more lenient with your side studying than if you are not passing their classes." He said, standing and making his way out of the library, book tucked under his arm.

"Hay, wait you!" She grabbed his arm, skidding him to a stop. "Dont change the subject. Why are you studying Dark Wizards? Ones that came from Hogwarts, no less."

"I'm not only studying Hogwarts' dark wizards!" He exclaimed, then sighed. "Lily, listen, I can't tell you much, but I think something bad is going to happen. I don't know what, but I'm studying Dark Wizards' behaivoral reports to try to stop another Voldemort from rising to power, I'm sorry I cant say more, I have to go." Lily let him go this time, finding her own way to the fest as well. Albus wasn't there, neither was Lorcan or Lysander, but Hugo's face lit up when he saw her.

He'd been talking to a second year, Naomi Macmillan. She was very pretty with thick, black wavy hair, and clear, pale skin. She was rather animated in the conversation, despite Hugo's unintentional dullness. The sight made Lily smile, because she obviously had a crush on him. Lily sat beside them and said hello to Naomi, who politely returned the favor before launching back into her story.

After the feast, all of the students returned to their common rooms, besides LIly herself, who went looking for Lorcan and Lysander. They hadn't shown up at the feast, and Lily had gotten worried, there was no sign of them, and it was past curfew, so Lily needed to return to her dorm before she got caught and lost poins for her house.

She found her way back easily enough, but the door was closed, so Lily knocked quietly, and the door spoke in it's eerily wise voice. "What has roots as nobody sees. Is taller than trees. Up, up it goes. And yet never grows?" 

Cassandra had said these riddles were easy, but Lily hardly thought this one was as such. She looked around nervously, trying to think of the answer, feeling an awful lot like she didn't belong in Ravenclaw, if she coudn't even get into the common room. Roots nobody sees? It must not mean physical roots like plants have, but ancient roots, meaning there for a long time. When she thought about it, it wasn't too hard. Something really big, and really old.

"A mountain." Lily said, and the heavy door swung open gracefully.