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RON HAD RECENTLY been hospitalized due to the mead that professor slughorn had offered after he was put under a love potion from eating all the chocolates that were meant for harry.

quite funny if you asked lily, though not the poisoning part.

lily had brought some daises that she freshly picked from outside hogwarts and placed them next to ron's medical bed.

apparently since ron had called out for hermione, lavender was heartbroken and decided that it was over.

lily felt that teenagers were just overdramatic and a whole lot of unnecessary emotions. she was not thrilled to grow up, but excited to just be an adult already.

lily found it sweet that ron had finally admitted his feelings for hermione, though he was unconscious, and probably won't admit it once he is conscious. it was step one and lily couldn't wait until they reached the step where they got married and she'll be having a slice of their wedding cake.

and apparently ginny was dating dean thomas but that had caused harry to start realizing his feelings for the weasley girl.

though lily didn't know what love was like, she had assumed that it felt something like seeing someone offer her a whole bucket of mango pudding.

"where'd you get that book?", lily asked, watching harry flip through his advanced potions textbook.

"uh..professor slughorn's cupboard", harry answered as he stopped at a particular page.

lily was only curious as the textbook seemed obnoxiously older than the rest and the handwriting in it seemed oddly familiar.

"harry! katie's back", hermione whispered, making the male immediately stand up to go catch up with the girl that had just returned from st. mungo's (hospital for magical maladies and injuries).

lily glanced up at the recovered girl with harry as she noticed draco entering the dining hall.

quickly leaving hermione and ron, lily rushed over to draco, who was as pale as the moon compared to the dark night.

"dray, are you okay? you look like you're all bones and no meat", lily worried, to which the boy was about to respond before he caught the gaze of harry.

"drac—"

lily was quickly cut off as draco had swiftly left, leaving the girl utterly confused until harry had sped past her, clearly chasing after the platinum blonde boy.

call it a girl's intuition, but lily had an uncanny feeling about this.

hurrying to retrieve her father, she had memorized the general direction in which the boys had headed.

snape immediately rushed into the boy's bathroom with little lily hesitantly following her papa.

the little girl immediately covered her mouth as she gaped in horror.

even with all the sinks busting like water fountains, lily could clearly see the blood seeping through draco's white button up as he laid on the wet floor, one step away from the brink of death.

snape chanted something underneath his breath, counteracting the spell that was casted upon draco, as harry just stood there frozen like a deer in headlights.

"phoebe, bring draco to the hospital wing. some dittany will help with the gash", snape commanded as he immediately glared at harry, who's guilt had started bubbling in his stomach the moment the spell was casted.

lily hurried over towards draco's side, in which the boy was able to stumble up as his side had stopped bleeding.

the two headed out while snape had demanded that harry serve detention every weekend until the end of the year.

"draco, you scared me. please don't do that again", lily cried as she helped the pale boy apply dittany to his wound that was mostly sealed up thanks to snape.

"I'm alright", draco breathlessly said, laying down on one of the patient beds.

lily shook her head as she wiped her sorry tears away, crawling onto the uncomfortable bed as she clumped onto draco.

draco let a breath out as he had to hold in his frustration and tears.

lily snuggled closer as she sobbed out, "it's going to be okay".

//❁//

"are you alright lily? you're not eating anything", luna noticed, putting down her spoon.

"h-huh? oh yeah...I'm just thinking you know...after all that's happened recently", lily mumbled, stabbing her mashed potatoes consistently.

"how about a walk? we can take your mind off some things as we talk", luna smiled, to which lily hesitantly agreed.

the two exited the dining hall as they reached the outdoors, though still within the school itself.

"tell me what's been going through your mind lately", luna started, to which lily just hummed.

"luna..I don't know...when I saw draco bleeding to death on the floor...I was so scared! I thought he was going to die!", lily stressed, to which luna just nodded understandingly.

luna had personally seen her mother die; she knew what it had felt like seeing a loved one on the verge of death. especially since lily's only seven, she can't even imagine how traumatized she must be.

"and...harry...I know he was the one that did it. that's obvious. but..."

"but harry would never do such a thing without reasoning, am I right?", luna finished, making lily aggressively nod.

"I know the two never got along...and mione and ron would sometimes joke about hexing draco, but I know they'd never actually do it. they're not murderers", lily reasoned.

"indeed. so what's your concern?"

"I'm worried...I'm worried something's going on that I don't know about. I mean..I know I'm only a child and I shouldn't pry into their business, but I can't help but wonder what's going on, you know?"

luna nodded.

lily was curious, and there was nothing wrong with that. she just worried that lily was too young to know. perhaps if the girl were their age, things wouldn't be so confusing for her.

"I want to ask papa about it, but I know he won't tell me either", lily sighed.

"perhaps this isn't something you should know lily. perhaps you ought to enjoy your childhood while you can", luna calmly spoke.

"but something's wrong!! I can feel it! everything seemed fine until recently. draco's been ignoring me, not eating, and isolating himself. harry, mione, and ron seem more stressed than usual and I know it's not the n.e.w.t.s".

"you've read the news right?", luna asked.

"no, why?"

luna ever so slightly moved her lips from side to side, debating whether she should tell the eager little girl or not.

though there was no point in hiding it away from the sheltered girl, as she's bound to find out about it anyways.

"it's said by harry himself that..he-who-shall-not-be-named is back. and him and his death eaters are coming back stronger than ever", luna said.

"death eaters? what are death eaters?"

"they're his loyal followers. I don't know much about them, but I know their signature mark is a skull with a snake slithering out it's mouth", luna explained.

lily suddenly felt the breath in her lungs disappear as if it had apparated out her body.

'a skull with a slithering snake?'

luna watched as the girl tensed at the mention of the mark.

"are you okay, lily?"

lily shakily let out a breath.

"I'm great. just splendid", she lied, faking a smile.

lily had hoped and prayed that she was wrong. but her entire being knew that the tattoo on snape's arm was the exact same mark that luna had just mentioned.

lily refused to believe that her father was a death eater, a loyal follower of voldemort's.

lily refused.

'stop', the girl mentally scolded herself. 'you must trust papa. you must trust him. he's never hurt you and he never will. and you promised..you promised that you'd stay with him forever and always'.

"where are you going, lily?", luna asked, watching the girl abruptly stand up.

"I'm just going to go talk to professor dumbledore", lily smiled, waving luna goodbye as she immediately headed towards the great wizard's office.

lily huffed as she once again felt tears streaming down her face.

the girl was confused, lost, and certainly in denial.

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