Sorry it's been so long since the last chapter. I know it's been ages and I'm very very very sorry. I hope very much that this chapter is worth the wait. I know it's not very long, but I promise that the next will be better and longer, and coming along very soon. Hope you like it, and if you do, there's no better way to ensure faster updates than to tell me how wonderful I am in a review.
Chapter 17
Memories
"Did you see that?" Lily asked breathlessly. Emmeline, Dorcas, and Marlene stopped their discussion on Dorcas' trip to Spain and looked at Lily questioningly.
"See what?" Dorcas asked, looking excitedly at Lily. "Was it something to do with the… um…. you knowHH…. situation?"
"Well, I don't know really…." Lily said, glancing back out the window, but seeing no sign of the man or his frightening eyes. "It was just a man outside, but I don't know, I just got a bad feeling from him."
"What kind of feeling?" Marlene asked, leaning closer and whispering anxiously.
"A bad one," Lily whispered ominously, giving one last glance out of the train window, before Dorcas launched back into her description of Spain, and all thoughts of the strange man were forgotten.
*
The train had been moving for barely ten minutes, when the boys got the feeling that something had to be wrong. First of all, the train didn't seem to be moving nearly as fast as it should have been. The trees were merely gliding past the windows, instead of whirling past as they usually did.
Also, James noticed a certain feeling of calm settling over him, and it wasn't just him. The rest of the boys had stopped talking and laughing merrily, and had settled into a kind of contented quiet. The rest of the train, too, seemed to be feeling the effects of this strange occurrence. The cheerful laughing and yelling that streamed through the compartment door from the hallway had slowed to silence.
Sirius nudged James, and gave him a puzzled look, before pointing to Peter, who was sitting quietly in his seat, eyes closed, and a peaceful smile over his face. Remus was asleep.
"Do you feel it?" Sirius whispered to James, a look of worry on his face.
"Yea, I do," James replied, "It's like, a weird calm, trusting sort of feeling."
"Yea, it feeling like everything is going to be alright… like everything is fine and there's nothing to worry about," Sirius said, frowning. "But it's like a forced kind of feeling. It's fake."
"Something weird is definitely going on," James agreed, rising from his seat. "Reckon we should take a look?"
Sirius grinned. "Definitely."
James stuck his head out of the compartment door, looking both ways before stepping out into the hall. After one more look at sleeping Remus and strangely comatose Peter, Sirius followed.
James looked into the next compartment, where the results were much the same as in their own. Glancing at Sirius, who was peering through the window into another compartment, he whispered, "D'you reckon it's a spell?"
Sirius looked back at his friend, clearly worried. "What kind of spell? And why?"
"I don't know. But something weird is going on. And I intend to find out what it is," James replied, starting down the hallway toward the front of the train. He looked back, and noticed that Sirius wasn't following him.
"Don't you think we should check on the girls? Just to see if they're alright? Maybe we could take them with us. I mean, they do get a bit moody when they're left out of things."
The two boys looked at each other, considering it. "Well…" James started slowly. "I suppose we could always just tell them all about it later…"
"Tell us what?" Lily said, poking her head out of a nearby compartment. Not waiting for a reply, she continued, "There's something strange going on, and we intend to find out what it is."
James and Sirius just stood staring as Lily and Marlene emerged from their compartment.
"Everyone else is in a kind of trance," Marlene said, thinking out loud. "We've decided it must be some kind of spell to keep us under control. Someone's trying to pull one over on us. The question is-what are they trying to do?"
Lily took over and told the boys about the man she had seen with scarlet eyes, and they all agreed that there was something desperately odd and suspicious about all of it.
The four students set off toward the front of the train, intent on finding some explanation for this puzzling turn of events. But what they saw in the next carriage stopped them dead in their tracks. It was Professor Liefer, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, unconscious on the floor, and standing over him was… Professor Liefer, with his back turned to the Gryffindors.
The four students stood staring as the man turned around and looked at them. This was all a little much to be taking in. The puzzled students simply stared in complete confusion, until the man who looked like their professor took a step towards them, and his eyes gleamed a strange shade of scarlet. James gasped and made to take his wand out of his pocket, but the stranger was too quick, and before any of them had a chance to run or retaliate, the man had whispered, "Obliviate."
*
That's odd, Lily thought, stretching. I don't remember falling asleep. She sat up in her seat, and looked out the window. By the looks of things, they were almost at the castle. Emmeline and Dorcas were sitting together talking about nothing in particular, and Marlene was just sitting there, staring into space.
Lily stretched, and looked over at Emmeline and Dorcas. "How long was I asleep for?"
Dorcas and Emmeline stared blankly at her for a few moments before Dorcas said, "Asleep? When were you asleep? You two just walked in…"
At this, Marlene gave a jolt and looked around slowly. "I didn't even know I'd fallen asleep."
Emmeline sighed and turned the other way. "I don't know what you two are talking about, but it's getting annoying, so why don't you two go back to doing whatever it was you were doing outside."
Dorcas leaned over to the two girls, whispering, "Don't mind Emmy, she's just a little upset that you two went off and left us here. I think she's feeling a bit left out."
"What are you talking about?" Lily asked, utterly puzzled by this point. "We've been here the whole time, since the train left the station."
"Now that's completely untrue, and you know it," Emmeline muttered moodily. "Dorcas and I fell asleep shortly after leaving the station, and when we woke up a few minutes later, you two were gone. Then you came shuffling in here a minute ago with that same silly look on your faces, not listening to a word we said. And I, for one, have had entirely enough of it." At that, Emmeline turned and stormed from the compartment, leaving Lily and Marlene more confused than ever in her wake.
***
Hope it was good, and worth the wait! Leave a review if you liked it, or if you didn't, whatever. Anyway, the next update will be soon, and the story is going to be moving along quicker after this, so it's about to get good.
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