A/N: For all of you who have been waiting patiently for this, here’s the next chapter for your reading and reviewing pleasure. It took me more time than I'd like, mostly because didn't want to add the chapter. D And everyone, please, please, please, please review! I want to know what you guys think.

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“Talking”

“Parseltongue”

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Chapter 16: Wormtail

Running away from Trelawney led Lily down, down, down the stairs. She ran all the way to the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts. The redhead might have continued down to the dungeons, back to Blaise and Draco, if she hadn’t happened on Hermione.

“Mione!”

The brunette looked up at her name and smiled weakly. “Lily. What are you doing here?”

“Running away from Trelawney. What about you?”

“Oh...” Hermione glanced over somewhere Lily couldn’t see. “I’m looking for some... No, don’t—!”

Lily frowned and took a few steps forward, worried about her friend, but stopped when she saw what had Hermione panicked.

“I can’t find him! Damn Lily. She didn’t have to shove him down my back. Stupid rat...”

“Ron...” Hermione moaned, closing her eyes.

“What?” The redhead demanded before he followed Hermione’s eyes to a very annoyed Lily standing just at the foot of the stairs. The boy snorted and looked back at the other girl. “What’s she doing her?”

“Lost your rat, Weasley? I’m not surprised. I wouldn’t stay with anyone who thought I was stupid either.”

“Oh, bite me.”

“I’d rather not. Wouldn’t want to get infected by any of the diseases you carry around with you.”

Hermione looked horrified at her friend’s words. “Lily!”

“See Hermione? Spending so much time with Slytherins has changed your dear Lilith.”

Lily growled as she walked forward, blue eyes flashing with anger. Her forehead ached and she didn’t want to deal with stupid Ron Weasley, but the boy wouldn’t leave her alone! Always insulting her. “Changed me? You are such a narrow-minded weasel, Ron! Why do you care who I spend my time with? This is my life, not yours. You’ve done nothing but insult me since first year, and I’m tired of it. So talk to me when you’ve decided to act a little more sane than you are now. Until then, stay out of my way and don’t ever let me catch you insulting my friends.”

Lily whirled around and started down the steps out the castle, ignoring Hermione trying to call her back. When she faced against Ron, an irrational angry burned to life inside her and she enjoyed saying what she had to the disgusting rat’s face. Was it odd that she should feel so...relaxed? The things she had said weren’t too bad. But the fact that she had blurted them out the instant they came to mind... Was time with Slytherins really affecting her? She didn’t think so.

So lost in thought, Lily didn’t notice where she was going. Her legs were leading her into the Forbidden Forest at dusk—when the truly fearsome creatures of the Forest woke.

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“Lily! Lily!”

Ron frowned at Hermione. The muggleborn girl seemed desperate about her friend. “She’s not answering.”

“I know!” Hermione was standing on her tiptoes. Her face strained as she tried to catch a glimpse of Lily. What had gotten into that girl? Why had she been so cruel to Ron? Well, not as cruel as Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini were when the redhead wasn’t with them, but cruel enough that it didn’t fit. “Ron, come on!”

The boy looked startled. “What? You want to go after her now?”

“Ron, just come on. I think I saw Scabbers going after her too. You want your rat back, don’t you?”

Ron rolled his eyes and reluctantly allowed Hermione to drag him along. “Alright, but if we bump into Lily, I’m not going to play nice.”

“What part of I saw Scabbers going after Lily did you not understand?”

“Anything after ‘I saw Scabbers’.”

“Boys!”

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“Damn Ron. Damn his stupid rat. Damn...damn Dumbledore!” Lily hissed as she rubbed her forehead. Her forehead had been aching terribly recently. When she thought about it, really started when she blew up Tom’s diary. There had been a small pounding in his head, but she hadn’t thought it was important at the time. Never had she thought that it would grow to become something that ached so terribly. It made her want to be cruel.

She stopped walking for a moment, ever rubbing her forehead, and thought harder. It made her want to be cruel? She was sure it did but Lily Black didn’t do cruel well. When Draco and Blaise tried to teach her insults, she always screwed them up. Badly. She could never get the proper inflections unless she was fuming and, if she had been fuming, she probably would have punched someone by then.

Lily sighed and closed her eyes. Thinking just gave her a headache. She should probably head inside and talk to Blaise and Draco. Or maybe Cedric. The thought of the Hufflepuff boy made her blush and look down, embarrassed. She knew she liked Cedric, but thinking about him made her heart flutter in an odd way and...and...

Lily blinked and stared at her feet. A small, balding rat squeaked pathetically, scrambling in front of her. Wasn’t that Ron’s rat? The same one she had dumped down his back a few hours ago. What was it doing out her. She crouched and scooped up the small animal. “What are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be back in the Gryffindor commons, trying to get into the girls’ dorms? Of course, if you try that again, I told Shadow not to go easy on you. I wonder how sshe likessss her rats...”

Scabbers squeaked again. The rat sounded terrified by her hissing and twisted desperately in her hands. Lily smiled at the animal’s futile attempts to escape her. She didn’t know why she felt glad at seeing such a tiny creature show such fear of her. A sigh passed through her lips. Maybe her Slytherin friends were affecting her more than she cared to admit.

Scabbers was getting desperate in Lily’s hands. It kept twisting and squeaking. It obviously wanted to get away from this being that sounded so like one of the rat’s natural predators. Unfortunately, the girl didn’t notice the rat’s more and more desperate attempts to get away from her. Blue eyes were more interested in the surroundings than the small, suffering animal.

“I wonder where we are. I don’t remember...” Lily paused for a moment and walked up to a nearly tree. “Oh...Oh, this isn’t good. I hope Aragog’s children aren’t out yet.”

Pushing the thoughts of the thousands of gigantic spiders that lived in the Forbidden Forest out of her mind wasn’t the easiest thing, but at least the rat hadn’t understood the significance of Aragog. The young Gyffindor turned and started heading in the direction that she thought the school was, wand drawn and paranoid as hell.

“...lily...”

Lily turned her head slightly, frowning. Had she heard her name? She took a few steps in the direction she thought it had come from. It wasn’t far off from the direction she had been heading in. “Hello?”

“...lily...”

Lily frowned. “Hermoine...? Hermoine, is that you?”

Lily glanced around, gripping her wand just in case the voice calling her wasn’t her friend, before taking a few steps forward. She reached the point where she could see the light of the Hogwarts through the trees when something cracked beneath her feet. She looked down, only to see the ground. Rocks and moss. But something creaked when she took another step, even though there wasn’t anything there that should crack or creak. No wood under her feet. Lily decided to ignore it and just get out of the Forbidden Forest—she was sure she could see two figures standing at the edge of the forest.

Just as she was about leave, the ground beneath her creak and cracked terribly. Snapping soon followed. Shortly thereafter, there was no ground to stand on anymore. And Lily fell.

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“Lily!” Hermione yelled as the redhead disappeared from view. She grabbed onto Ron, eyes wide. “Lily!”

“‘Moine, let go!”

Hermoine didn’t hear Ron, instead frantically looking for her friend. “Lily! LILY!”

Ron growled and shook the bushy-haired girl. “Hermoine, I said let go!”

Hermoine looked up at Ron. “B-but Lily—!”

Ron rolled his eyes and waved at the Forbidden Forest. “You can’t believe that she went in there, can you?”

Hermoine frowned through her tears. “But I saw... I know I saw her!”

Ron growled and turned away from both the girl and the forest. “You’re hallucinating, Hermoine. I bet she’s probably by the lake or visiting Hagrid. Come on, we should just head back to the castle. I’m sure Scabbers is in still in Gryffindor Tower.”

Hermoine turned to stare at Ron, aghast, before her eyes widened. “Yes, the castle! I’m sure Dumbledore will know what to do!”

Ron sighed as he followed Hermoine, who was now frantically running back to Hogwarts. “Hallucinating. Definitely hallucinating.”

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Lily groaned, pushing herself up. Her back ached from the roots that she had landed on. She opened her eyes to darkness and groaned again. Where had she fall to? She needed to get up and get out of here. What if she was in one of the spider tunnels?

Squeaking caught her attention, however, as did the weight on her chest. Lily blinked and grabbed at what was sitting on her. It felt like a rat. She shook her head as she held the rat up by its tail. “Ron was right. You are a stupid rat.”

“Wormtail, who have you brought to me...?”

Lily froze and turned towards the hissing voice. Cold, high and infinitely familiar. A figure stepped out of the shadows, wrapped in a cloak and Lily felt her insides go numb. “Voldemort.”

The figure looked down at her and laughed, making her insides freeze. She knew that laugh, and it was not Voldemort’s. This was one that usually sounded warm and kind, but it held a mocking edge to it this time. Hands reached up and tossed back the hood.

“Not quite, but close enough.”

Standing before Lily was her combat instructor. Uncle Sirius’s friend, who, if memory served, had cut short a vacation to return to Hogwarts.

Professor Delilah Prewett.