Kieffer: Thank you! Yes, a cliffie. The first place I posted it, that chapter was divided up into about 4 posts, so they had to sit through several cliffs. I was considerably nicer to you all!
HPFan: Sorry about the cliffie! It really was the most logical place to split the chapter. As I said, it could have been much worse! I'm so happy you enjoyed the "climax" so to speak. After this chapter, one more left and then we're done for Year 1.
Remus Black: Figg was under imperius. There were several clues to that. Unfortunately, no one ever catches them. Ah well…if you recall Lily's vision when she's in Figg's room, she sees the ceremony. There, everyone is in their deatheater cloaks except two people. Prof. Figg and Mr. Longbottom. You know Mr. Longbottom is there against his will…the fact that Prof. Figg is the only other person there without her face obscured is supposed to suggest that she's there against her will, as well. Voldemort likes to secrecy among his supporters, so that they don't know who's who, but he could care less if his supporters know who is helping him against their will. *shrugs* There are a few other clues throughout the series that suggest Figg is the "spy". She is the one who knew about their detention; Lily observes her arguing with malfoy when they are up in the astronomy tower, and so forth. I hope that clears it up!
Once again, thanks to everyone reading! One more chapter after this, and we're through.
Chapter 19: Waking Up from the Nightmare
Lily had no idea how long she had been unconscious by the time she finally woke up. She sat up slightly, and looked
around. Although it was dark, she could make out enough details to realize that she was in the hospital ward of
Hogwarts, though she had no memory of arriving there. A sliver of pain shot across her cheekbone, and she winced,
touching her fingers lightly to her cheek and desperately trying to remember what had happened.
Malfoy had kidnapped her and taken her to his home. Malfoy's father had used some horrendous curse on Potter, and taken the parchment, and then Alfie had come and rescued them. She'd told Dumbledore about the ceremony at Riddle Manor, and then-left with Professor Amos. Now it was all coming back to her. She'd gone with Figg to her potions room, and then she'd had the vision. Lily gasped and sat straight up in bed, struggling to throw her covers off. The vision! Dumbledore thought that the ceremony was going on at Riddle manor. He didn't know! She had to tell him! She stumbled out of bed, but then had to grab onto the railing to support herself as a wave of dizziness washed over her.
"Relax, Evans," a familiar voice called out somewhere in front of her. After the dizziness had subsided to some extent, she looked up to see James Potter grinning at her from the bed across from hers.
"But I have to tell Dumbledore what I saw! Riddle was near Hogsmeade-he wasn't at Riddle Manor at all!" Lily said frantically, trying to walk toward the door. Pain was searing through her cheekbone as she pulled herself along the railing, and the dizziness had not completely gone away, but she didn't care. She had to tell Dumbledore. She was the only one that knew!
"He already knows," Potter said soothingly. "I told him. Well, to be completely accurate, McGonagall told him, but I informed her."
"No! He doesn't know-he… You told him?" she asked as her reeling mind caught up with the conversation. "But you were in the hospital wing."
"I was," Potter conceded. "Until I realized that Dumbledore would probably leave you alone with Amos."
"But it wasn't Amos at all."
"No, it wasn't, but I didn't know that, did I? And it's a lucky thing I didn't, too, or else we wouldn't have found out. When Pomfrey went to her office to grab some sort of pain-relieving potion, I snuck out of the ward and went downstairs, figuring that Amos would take you to his office or something. I heard you screaming from the stairs."
"You heard me screaming?" she asked in amazement. Her plan had worked after all.
Potter smiled. "I think the whole bloody castle heard you screaming, Evans. You're louder than most trains!"
Lily laughed. "So you heard me screaming?" she said. "Then what?"
"I ran to get Professor McGonagall. I figured she'd have a better chance of helping you than I could. I wanted to go straight to you, but I still thought it was Amos that had you, and I knew that I didn't have a chance against him. Fortunately, I didn't have to look very long. She was in the staff lounge. She came running, and we ran into Amos in the hall, who'd heard me shouting for help. As soon as I saw him, I realized that it wasn't him who had you, so I told McGonagall what you'd said about the new location, and she left to tell Dumbledore, and Amos and I took off to the classroom. We got there just as Crabbe was creating a port key. It's lucky he's completely worthless with charms, or you'd both probably have disappeared before we could stop you. Anyway, it was Amos that brought you up here. Pomfrey nearly had a fit."
"I imagine, though she was more upset about your escape than about my injuries, if I'm not wrong."
Potter grinned. "Yeah, she yelled at me for at least an hour when I returned," he said. "She was threatening detention, too, but she didn't give me any." He looked at her oddly. "It was worth it, though" he added so quietly that she almost didn't hear him.
She gazed curiously at him for a moment before breaking eye contact, and sitting quietly, thinking. "Did he-he didn't, did he?" she asked finally.
Potter shook her head. "No, Dumbledore and the aurors arrived just before Figg was to add the final ingredient of the potion for Riddle to drink."
Lily released the breath that she hadn't even realized she was holding. "Did they catch him then?" she asked.
"No. One of Riddle's followers realized that they were surrounded, and shouted a warning. They all disapparated just before the anti-disapparation jinxes would have hit them."
Lily sighed heavily. "So he's still free, then?"
"Yes. But the important thing is that we kept him from achieving immortality. Nobody would have been able to stop him if we hadn't."
Lily grimaced. "I don't know how much I did to help," she sighed.
"Are you kidding?" he said in amazement. "You're the one that made it possible for Dumbledore to know where he was."
Lily shook her head. "No," she said. "You told McGonagall. If it hadn't been for you, he wouldn't have known."
"But you told me. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have known."
"Yes, but I don't even know how I knew-"
"What do you mean, you don't know how you knew?" Potter asked, clearly confused by this. "Didn't Malfoy or Crabbe tell you?"
"No," Lily said with a shrug. "Nobody told me anything. I saw it."
"You-what?" he asked, laughing. He stopped when he saw that she wasn't joking. "You saw it? Like-like a vision, or something?"
Lily nodded. "Or something. I was sitting on a stool in Figg's classroom, watching her make a potion, and the next thing I knew, I was there with him, where the ceremony was being held. It's not the first time it's happened, either."
Potter stared at her, quiet for a moment. An expression like awe slowly spread across his face. "So you were telling the truth, when you came back the night we were ambushed. You knew…?"
Lily glanced at Potter, a little startled at the abrupt change of subject. "I already told you I knew," she snapped impatiently, trying to get her mind around the idea that she might have some sort of sixth sense of which she'd been utterly unaware for most of her life.
Potter let out a low whistle. "Then you're a seer…?"
Lily didn't answer right away. She wasn't, was she? It wasn't like she walked around all day, seeing everything before it happened. She didn't get to choose when she saw something, and sometimes, like with the dream, it hadn't even been clear to her that she was having a vision. She shook her head. "No," she said. "No, I'm not. I can't be. I mean, it's not as though I knew that Malfoy was going to corner us outside the kitchens today. If I'd have known that, I'd have saved us all a lot of trouble."
Potter nodded in agreement. "But you knew about us being ambushed. You knew what was going to happen at the quidditch game," Lily glanced at Potter in surprise. "Alice told us," he explained. "And you knew that Tom Riddle was near Hogsmeade."
"No," Lily said again, not wanting to believe it. "No, I am not a 'seer', or whatever you call it. There's just no way. It can't be." They sat in silence for a moment. Lily cast around in her mind for a change of subject. "Is Frank's dad okay?" she asked.
Potter's smile disappeared. "Dumbledore asked me to let him talk to you about that," he said quietly.
Lily felt a flutter of trepidation course through her body. "He isn't-is he?" she said, unable to get the question out. "No, he can't be. I saw him-in my dream, I saw him. He was still alive. They couldn't have-could they?"
Potter didn't answer. "Dumbledore wants to talk to you about it. I'll go let Madam Pomfrey know that you're awake."
Lily held out her hand to stop him. "No," she said. "You're hurt worse than I am. I'll go." She stood up and padded quietly toward the door, the anxiety about the fate of Frank's dad taking root in her stomach, and growing stronger with every step.
**********************************
Madam Pomfrey summoned Professor Dumbledore after a considerable amount of pleading on Lily's part. Pomfrey thought
that it was best for Lily just to return to bed, and speak with Dumbledore in the morning, and it was only after Lily
promised to take a sleeping draught after Dumbledore had left that she consented. Madam Pomfrey had also agreed to let
them use her office, so that they could have some privacy. Lily perched on a chair across from Dumbledore, and looked
around while she waited for him to speak. The office was hectagonal. Shelves lining every bare wall from floor to
ceiling were full of books on healing, medicinal potions, and potion ingredients. The books and potions were in
separate sections, filed in alphabetical order by subject then, in the case of the books, author. The potion
ingredients lined one entire wall, and were situated in perfectly straight lines, also meticulously alphabetized. There
was not a speck of dust anywhere in the room, and all exposed metal gleamed in the lamplight. It was obvious that
Pomfrey's no-nonsense demeanor translated to her housekeeping habits, and Lily had the sudden urge to pull out a
book that belonged under the letter 'B' and move it to the section of shelving marked 'D', just to see
how Madam Pomfrey would react.
She stifled a laugh at the thought as Dumbledore spoke. "I understand that I have you and James to thank for stopping Mr. Riddle this evening," he said, his eyes twinkling kindly.
Lily flushed. "On the contrary, sir. If it hadn't been for us not following directions, he never would have gotten the page in the first place."
To Lily's surprise, Dumbledore let out a hearty laugh. "That is certainly an argument that could be made, yes," he agreed, "but I prefer to trust that you both will have learned a lesson from your experience, and focus instead on the positive outcome tonight. You and James stopped a man with very dangerous ideas from having the wherewithal to carry them out, Lily. Both of you showed a presence of mind that is quite remarkable in students your age."
"Thank you, sir," Lily said quietly.
"You are quite welcome," he said, leaning back in his chair. "And now I have a question for you."
Lily straightened up in her chair, knowing what he was going to ask. "I don't know, sir."
"You don't?" he inquired.
"No," she said. "Malfoy didn't tell me. Crabbe didn't tell me. I-I saw it, in my mind. I was sitting in Professor Figg's classroom, watching her add the ingredients to the potion she was making, and then suddenly, I was in a field with Tom Riddle, watching Professor Figg make a potion for him. Only I realized that I was having a dream, and so I thought maybe I can control it, maybe I can tell my mind what I want to see. So I did, and I saw a sign that said Hogsmeade, with an arrow pointing west…"
Dumbledore sat up and rested his elbows on Pomfrey's desk, peering intently at Lily, but not speaking. "Is that the first time you've had that sort of vision?" he asked finally.
Lily looked down. "No, sir. It's happened a few times. The night that the boys got ambushed, and even before." Lily paused, realizing that Dumbledore did not know about the ambush. But he nodded as though he knew what she was talking about, so she didn't explain any further. "I knew what was going to happen at the quidditch game tonight, only I didn't realize that I knew. I had thought it was only a bad dream. And then, one other time, I saw Frank's dad. That was when I saw myself at that place they took us tonight."
Dumbledore again contemplated her silently for a moment. "Do you know what a seer is, Lily?" he asked gently.
Lily nodded. "I do, sir. But I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. I'm not. I didn't predict anything. I just had a lucky guess. I can't make myself see what is going to happen. I don't have that ability."
Dumbledore remained silent throughout Lily's speech, and spoke only after she had fallen silent. "I'm afraid that the ability to see, to use one's 'inner eye' as our Divination professor is quite fond of calling it, is not as simple as that, Lily. It's not that you either have it, and you can see the future at will, or you don't. Those are but the two most extreme ends of an entire spectrum of ability. Most people, if not all, have at least some seeing talent-even muggles-they just don't recognize it for what it is when it happens. Instead, they dismiss it as intuition, or a lucky guess. You were much the same way before tonight, in fact, dismissing your dream about the quidditch match as only a dream. However, you seem to fall closer on the spectrum to predicting at will than the average witch or wizard does, meaning that you have now been forced to recognize your sight for what it is. You cannot possibly dismiss what happened tonight as a lucky guess, Lily, no matter how much you might like to do so." Lily again began to protest, but Dumbledore held up a hand. "Yes, I know that you can't see the future just by wishing that you could. Or at the very least, I know that it has never occurred to you to try, and that is well, but your seeing ability is far beyond that which your friends, Alice and Amelia, for example, are capable. And it seems to be activated when people that you know or care about are in danger. This is a very special gift, Lily. You would do well to stop denying it, and instead embrace it. I can't overstate the number of lives that your gift saved tonight."
Lily sat in silence for a moment, trying to take in what Dumbledore was saying. It would make more sense, however, if this ability had been with her for her entire life. It seemed to have just awoken during her term at Hogwarts. "How come I haven't had this ability my entire life?" she asked finally.
Dumbledore smiled. "I'm afraid there's no way to answer that question with any certainty without knowing more about your talent. It could be that none of your friends or family members was ever in grave enough danger to arouse your sight. Or it could be that being around the magic that literally lives in the walls of Hogwarts could have activated it. There are just too many possibilities to know for sure."
Lily again pondered this in silence. "I have a question to ask you," she said quietly, wanting to change the subject, and yet dreading the answer that Dumbledore would give.
Dumbledore nodded. "You're wondering about Frank's father, aren't you?" he asked her.
After the events of the evening, Lily couldn't even find it within herself to be surprised the Dumbledore had read her mind. "I am, sir."
The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes faded for a moment. "Are you sure that you don't want to discuss this in the morning, after you've had a good night's rest?" he asked her.
"I'm certain."
Dumbledore sighed heavily. "Very well, then. I'm afraid that after Mr. Longbottom had performed his part of the ceremony for Mr. Riddle, Mr. Riddle put a memory charm on him to keep him from speaking about his participation to anyone. I suppose it was originally in his plan to return Alexander to his family, in order to convince the Ministry that there was no dark magic about. It makes it easier for him to achieve his goals, you understand, if the Ministry is not suspicious of his motives. However, the memory charm was too strong, and it erased almost all of Mr. Longbottom's lifetime of memories. He was taken to St. Mungo's, but I'm afraid that any magic done to reverse the charm could end up making his condition worse. At the moment, there is nothing that the Longbottom family can do but wait, and hope that the effects of the charm will lessen over time, so that he will recognize his wife and child again."
Lily gasped, her hand automatically flying to her mouth. As she sat there in horrified silence, the awfulness of everything that she had witnessed that night hit her forcefully, and she began to cry, softly at first, and then in huge wracking sobs. Dumbledore walked around the desk, and gathered her into his arms, before Madam Pomfrey burst into the room and began chastising him loudly for upsetting her patient. Lily gladly took the calming draught that Pomfrey offered, and allowed herself to be led numbly back to her bed, where she quickly fell into a dreamless sleep.