Chapter 27 ~ The Unseen

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Albus spent the rest of the day making his way round the castle in short, quick steps, the fast rhythm taking his mind off what he'd experienced in Hogsmeade. 

It was the first time he'd felt that way about someone, and seeing her with Malfoy made him shrivel up in rage, sorrow and confusion. He should have known it'd happen, after the yule ball and everything. It was like what Rose had said, it was expected. Albus tried to tell himself it was just Malfoy, that he was the one who was taking Lily along and she didn't really like it. 

But she was the one who had kissed him.

It was on the fourth lap of the fifth floor that Albus finally stopped trying to make excuses about Lily being innocent and the whole disaster due to Malfoy's endeavours. Lily had always liked Malfoy, he knew it, deep down. He just thought she'd liked him, too.

But he wasn't going to stop being friends with Lily. He needed her for the tournament and he needed her as a friend.

So at dinner in the great hall, when he finally stopped pacing round the castle to eat, he tried his best to make light conversation and small talk with Lily. She didn't know he'd seen her and Malfoy and he wasn't going to say. When alone in the common room when everyone had gone to bed, he thought she'd tell him then. But she was silent.

At eleven he left the common room, sick at heart. Why hadn't she told him? If she was his friend she would of. But did that mean he was more than that? Or was he in some awkward place imbetween?

The room was hot and stuffy and with all the thoughts racing round his head he couldn't get to sleep properly. He had strange, patchy dreams as he drifted in and out a half-sleep, the hazey images involving nightmarish versions of the upcoming third task.

Quarter to Twelve, he still hadn't manage to fall asleep properly. Sighing, he hauled himself out of bed, tip-toeing past Fred's bed, the owner emitting a loud snore, and into the bathroom adjoined to the dormitory. He washed his face, cooled himself down and tried not to think about Lily before slipping back out of the room. However, halfway back to his bed, there was a bang downstairs and the sound of someone swearing. Curious, he grabbed his dressing gown and put it on whilst going down the stairs into the common room.

He got there just in time to see a piece of forest-green silk be tugged out from under the portrait. And he knew the only person who wore that colour was his fellow champion.

He glanced at his watch. Quarter to Twelve. Nearly Midnight. Midnight. Midnight!

He remembered her strange reactions at the Yule Ball. Now he thought of it, she always went to bed late. When all the rest of them were asleep. Or did she? 

He raced back up to the dormitory and put some robes and a pair of shoes on before finding his invisibility cloak. He'd be needing it. He most certainly did not want to get caught.

The air outside was warm but fresh, soil slightly moist under his feet, trees whispering around him. It was a lovely night, the sky a dark blue rather than black. But after a small appreciation of his surroundings, he followed the dark figure he knew to be Lily into the forbidden forest. It was time he knew some more about Lily Archeron. Time he knew what some of her secrets, when she knew all of his. 

It was pitch-black in the forest, but he could see her. The strange luminous green glow of her eyes confused him but helped him follow her. He was getting nearer now, trying not to pant as he stumbled and ran after the striding girl. Twenty metres - ten metres - four metres away from her. And then the deep chimes of the clock came. 

She lifted her face towards him, but she was looking at the canopy of trees above with closed eyes, as if awaiting something, some one. The chimes seemed to ring louder, Lily lifting her arms to rest above her head. And then, on the twelfth ring...

Snaking ropes of green light burst from the ground and began to twist themselves in a web around her, changing her as the wrapped themselves in the net. Her clothes changed, she wore not her black robes but a bodice of dark green and tight black trousers. Upon her feet came  high, black leather boots, a bow in her hand, a quiver strapped across her back. But the change in her face was the most entrancing. Cheek bones strong and high, eyes burning even greener than before, her face became inhumanely beautiful, entrancing, like a veela. And her ears. They were high and pointed. 

Albus stood there, agape. What had just happened? Was he dreaming a bizarre dream? Yet as he blinked, he knew he wasn't dreaming. He wasn't stupid. The whole incident was real, it felt real and it was real. Lily was standing in front of him - was it Lily? She didn't look like Lily. This radiant, inhuman creature before him he knew to be his fellow champion. Was this her real form?

He slumped against the tree behind him, gasping in disbelief. 

But those ears were there for a reason. She spun round at his gasp, bow loaded with an arrow to shoot. She moved forward slowly towards him. No, no, no- 

She grabbed the invisibility cloak and flung it off him. He was still gaping, but she now mirrored him.

''Albus!'' Her face was rapidly bleaching white as she stepped back shakily, stumbling as she retreated. ''Why- why-'' Her changed voice, deep and pure, rang with panic as she tried in vain to talk. He held his hand up.

''Lily, I-'' But she was shaking her head wildly, eyes wide with disbelief. He tried again to speak but she was turning, running, racing away through the trees with that speed he'd witnessed at the first task.

''Lily!'' His voice rang through the trees, echoing through the inky night. 

But there came no answer.