Rise

Practice and Distraction

The weekend went by so quickly Lily barely had time to do her work. Her family wasn't as protective over her. Which was a good thing. Reed wasn't as mean to her. That was what scared her. The thought scared her more than the thought of a basilisk. The second practice for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team was today at three and they were going to work with Aryon. By they, the team chose Lily to work with him. 'This is just great. He's a fourth year so why would he listen to me, a lowly first year.' Lily thought as she flew lazy circle around the hoops.                                     
"Yo, Potter. Why don't you come down for a bit so we can chat before practice." Relanee called. She was a chaser and a third year. In Lily's opinion, she came close to her mother's abilities and that's saying something.                                                     "Sure. Coming." Lily lowered her broom about seven feet above the ground and jumped off, landing softly on the ground.                                               "Impressive. Did you do that just to show off?" Aryon asked from behind.   "Yeah. Why? Someone jealous?" Lily joked.                                                              "I'm not jealous because I bet you can't do that from any higher without hurting yourself." He sneered.               "Cut it out and you two get to work. The rest of us are going to get in the air and set some plays."   
"Come on, Morrison. We are gonna run drill and do some physical training. We are going to run three laps around the pitch. Yes, I said run. As in on your feet and no magic." Aryon rolled his eyes.                                "That's muggle stuff. It also has nothing to do with Quidditch."              "Actually, it is related to Quidditch. The faster you run, the quicker reflexes you have which makes it easier to follow the snitch." Lily counted to three out loud and took off, leaving him shocked. He shook his head and raced after her. She finished a half second before he did.                "That was not fun." He said, breathing heavily.                                                 
"Not everything in Quidditch is fun. If you are having trouble breathing put your hands on top of your head and take deep breaths. It helps." After an hour of running drill and putting Aryon through what he classified as 'hell', Amara called time and gave a speech. Their first game was against, of course, Gryffindor. Luckily, it was next week so Lily could play.                "I'll tell my parents and see if anything is going on." Lily lied.                                 "Okay. No offense to you, Aryon, but I really hope you can play Lily. You're slightly better than Aryon. Plus you grew up with a few of their players so you know how they play." Amara looked apologetically towards Aryon. They walked up to the castle where Lily was met by Lysander.           
"See you 'round, Potter." Kurtis patted her shoulder when he passed. The moment he was out of sight Ly started growling softly.                                             "Hey! You know I am yours. Stop." He jumped when he noticed what he was doing.                             
"The fuck?!? What was that? Better question, why did I do that?" Lily shook her head laughing internally.       "It shows you fully have the 'furry little problem'. Males are protective and territorial over what's theirs for example their girlfriend. You were acting on instinct. That growl was both a warning and a.. a well.. mating tactic. It's done without thinking. It is supposed to basically calm the female that the male sees as a potential mate. It's only when the female is one as well. I didn't think to tell you sooner. Sorry." Lily started walking to Myrtle's bathroom. Figured she could have Kreacher bring her food.                           "Lil, you didn't upset me. I was just confused for a second. Where are you going?"                                 
"Chamber." She said simply.                 "Wait a minute. I thought you had to know-" He started.                                     "Parseltongue? Yeah. Dad still sleep talks in Parseltongue even though he lost that ability after Voldemort died. Because of my nightmares I would sleep in their bed and when I normally stayed awake so I memorized what he said. I've been practicing." Lily told him. She opened the door to the girls bathroom and heard a wailing whimper.                        "Who's there and what do you want?" Myrtle cried, looking out of the glass pan above the stalls.   
"It's Lily. We are going down to the chamber. What happened? Are you okay?" Lily walked towards her. Myrtle floated down and sat on the ground beside her. Well, as close to sitting as you can when you're a ghost.                                                             "No, the afterlife is as miserable as life. A student laughed at me for my glasses and the fact I was crying. It reminded me of Olive Hornby, the one who picked on me when I was alive. The one who found my body and who I tormented for ages. Her face was so scared during that time. But it made me relive the bad memories." Myrtle reduced to tears once more.                  "It's okay. It's over now. I will be here to support you." Lily soothed. Myrtle finished crying and Lily led Ly to the sink. She spoke in Parseltongue and somehow it worked. Lily laughed out loud.   
"You did it. You actually did it." Ly hugged her from behind. Lily looked down, took a breath and jumped down into the hole. She heard a scream above her and when she landed she saw it was Lysander. She stood up and led the way towards the chamber.
"We are almost there, Ly." He shivered. They reached the door and Lily had to think of how to say open. It's hard to remember sometimes. After a few moments, the door was open and they walked into the chamber.                                                       "Wow, I never thought this place would be so, well, pretty." He pointed at the ice above them. Lily pulled out her wand.                                                   "I want to try something. Lumos Maxima." She held her wand up towards the ice. The light refracted and created a chandelier like pattern on the ground. Rats skittered and scattered out of the light. It was quite beautiful. The basilisk skeleton was mostly decomposed.                                      "Kreacher." Lily said loudly. There was a loud crack that echoed in the large alcove. Kreacher bowed deeply and asked, "What does Lily require from Kreacher?"                                           "Can you please bring two peanut butter sandwiches here? Please?"        "Of course." Kreacher disapperated and five minutes later came back with their food.                         
"Kreacher, go eat something yourself. You look terrible." Lily told him.          "Yes, Ms. Lily." Lily sat down on the wet floor and started eating her sandwich. An hour or so later, they used ascendio to leave the chamber and traveled back to the Ravenclaw common room.