Diagon Alley
Friday, November 30
It was a blistery Friday at the end of November; snow was starting to fall from the sky on its dance to the ground. Blinking the snow from my eyelashes, I bowed my head against the wind and cold. I was here in Diagon Alley because I needed to pick up several Potion ingredients from the apothecary. My friend from work, Justin McPhail, had sent me on this errand after work on Friday. He was meeting some of his old friends from his school days and couldn't be bothered to pick up and potion's ingredients himself. Unlike most of the other witches and wizards I know, Justin actually went to a school in France – I believe he said that it was called Beauxbatons – even studying abroad for a semester at another wizarding school in Bulgaria. I would have loved to explore the continent in depth, but my parents could never afford such a trip. Besides, it was near impossible to get out of the country now that Wizarding Britain was at war. Sighing discontentedly, I buried my nose deeper in my fuzzy white scarf. Some of the snowflakes were starting to slide down my neck, creating a distinctively uncomfortable sensation.
"Lily Evans?" called a voice from behind me. It was a man's voice that was completely unfamiliar to me. I tried not to panic and kept walking. I felt around in my pocket for my wand just in case.
Voldemort had been waging for ten years now and the Daily Prophet was a constant reminder of the atrocities the Dark Lord and his followers committed. Many people were found dead or mutilated, while some were not found at all. Anyone could be polyjuiced into another person and a close friend could be under another's power with an Imperius Curse.
Ignoring the stranger's hails, I continued walking. Maybe if I didn't respond to him, he would think I wasn't Lily Evans. However, my hopes were in vain. I was about to slip into Flourish and Blotts – I could easily hide comfortably behind a bookshelf and perhaps ponder over an Arithmancy book for a few hours – when suddenly, the stranger grabbed my arm. He gave it a sharp tug that forced me to turn around and I managed to point my wand threateningly at his chest. My hand was unsteady.
He was tall, so I had to look up to see his features more clearly. Glasses? Messy black hair? Merlin's Beard! Why do I have the worst luck in the wizarding world? "James Potter? What did you say to make me substitute for your Seeker in Seventh Year?" Let's see an imposter try to bullshit this question.
"I threatened to relinquish my Head Boy duties to Sirius if you refused." He gave me his signature lopsided smile. It was quite a nice smile; his eyes seemed to smile too. They were a nice hazel framed by very dark and thick curling eyelashes. I would sell my wand arm for lashes like that. "What did I say to you when we danced at the Yule Ball seventh year?"
"You said I was betraying Gryffindor by wearing Slytherin green."
I had seen Potter a few times over the years at Order meetings, but I avoided him as much as I could. This did not prove too difficult when we sat in alphabetical order. Luckily, there are many people with surnames between 'E' and 'P.' Besides, I'm a fairly fast runner. Though I guess it would be hard to avoid anyone forever. I realized that I had spaced out while he was talking to me. I decided to interrupt him.
"Can you let go of my arm? It hurts." It really didn't, but that would ease my ability to slip away from him.
When I turned around to walk towards the apothecary, he took up step with me. The audacity! Deciding to be polite, I asked, "So what have you been up to, Potter? It's got to be at least five years since we graduated. I remember seeing your name in the paper in the Sports section a few years ago."
"Yeah. I played Quidditch for a year. Then I went into auror training and have been one ever since."
"What do you do as an auror? Are you in strategy or in the field?"
"The field."
"How are you holding up with the war and all?"
"Taking each day one at a time," he said. "Like everyone else."
I could see that his auror work had caught up to him. He had very dark bags under his eyes that his glasses were unable to conceal and some fine lines on his face. Caused by stress from his job, probably. Nevertheless, he still looked very handsome. He was one of those people who were devastatingly attractive and knew it. Today he was wearing a green scarf knotted over his long black coat and red turtleneck. I suppose he had discarded his customary auror robes now that he was off from assignment. Though I thought it was a bit unusual that he preferred Muggle fashion.
Although his auror training seemed to be exhausting him, it also kept him in very good shape. He was still wiry as he had been in Hogwarts, but he looked very strong. He was also wearing his hair a bit longer than he had in school. Now it was curling a bit around his collar. I was amused to see that it was still as unruly as it had been. Snow was sticking to it and his long dark eyelashes very artistically.
He had grown up a great deal in those five years; we all had. War aged people like nothing else.
But an auror? I had heard stories about how quickly aurors burn out or are killed by Death Eaters. My best friend Alice and her husband have both been aurors for about as long as Potter, and I have nightmares at least once a week about them being killed by Death Eaters. Luckily, Alice and Frank are both in strategy; though, Frank might go for an assignment in the field once every two months. Apparently, you have to be extremely talented or extremely lucky to have lasted as long as Potter apparently had.
"How are you doing? You are looking… well," he said.
"Thank you." I held back a sigh. I only looked 'well' to his eyes. Not that I had expected a better compliment; I have found out through life experience that I am too plain and too intelligent to interest most men. In fact, one of my boyfriends from Hogwarts, a Ravenclaw, told me just that when he dumped me. I suspected he was just upset that I scored better than him on my O.W.L.S. Though, I have known all my life that I not a paragon of feminine beauty. My coloring and my figure is not at all like those tall, thin and perfectly proportionate blondes I am always seeing in Witch Weekly magazines. Alice is always assuring me that I am very pretty, but she's not really an unbiased observer.
We fell into an uncomfortable silence, which Potter broke by asking, "What are you doing here? Christmas shopping already?"
I waved my list at him. "No, not yet. I'm only after ingredients for work. We've run out of armadillo bile."
"We go through that surprisingly fast as well. Even faster than the armadillo shit," he smirked. "I was just picking up a gift for Sirius. It's his birthday today."
"I saw him at Alice and Frank's wedding last year. He was in good spirits."
"He's always in good spirits it seems. I don't know how he does it. We both work in Mad Eye Moody's sector of the Department. Sirius is actually my partner."
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You gits were always inseparable in Hogwarts. Though isn't it a bit late to be buying a gift?" I teased.
"I usually don't procrastinate this much." I looked at him suspiciously. "Well I do, but I just got back from assignment today." That explained the bags under his eyes. "What are you working as now? Muggle movie star? Empress of a small European country?"
I smiled. "Well currently I'm splitting my time between ruling a small province in the Balkan Peninsula and working for the Department of Mysteries."
"I've never been to the Balkans. Could you take me with you next time you go back? Introduce me to Parliament. I'll try not to embarrass you too horribly in front of your subjects. I'll try not to mention the incident with the handcuffs and the giant squid. It could have happened to anyone really. Nothing to be embarrassed about." He said, opening the door to the apothecary for me. I laughed and thanked him.
I stomped on the doormat to shake the snow from my boots and shook my head a bit to dispel the snow. I was surprised when Potter helped me to take off my coat. It was an unexpected gentlemanly action. Then he unbuttoned his own coat and loosened his green scarf and took my white one.
This was one of my favorite stores in Diagon Alley beside Flourish and Bolts. In Flourish and Bolts, I love browsing the titles of all the wizarding books because some are so hilarious – Every Floor Waxing Spell You Would Want To Know And Twenty-Seven You Don't, I've Always Wanted a Wooden Horse: One Hundred and Thirty of Civilization's Biggest Blunders.
The Apothecary, on the other hand, has its own charm with its dusty oak shelves filled with all manner of strangely shaped potion's bottles and unusual ingredients from all over the world. As we toured the store looking for the ingredients, we reminisced about our crazy Potions' teacher, Professor Slughorn, and his Slug Club gatherings. Potter blackmailed me into going as his date to one of them. As predicted, he brought it up in the conversation. Of course, the topic soon moved to Quidditch.
"What do you think of the Quidditch teams this season?" I said as Potter put some dragon toenails in my basket. My friend Alice Longbottom always teased me for being a closet Quidditch fan. She always said that her theory was proved when Potter blackmailed me playing seeker for him in my seventh year. I didn't do it because I'd been dying to play ever since I rode on a broom for the first time, discovering the beauty of flight and stole away at every occasion to ride the brooms in Madam Hooche's cupboard when no one was around; Potter's seeker was injured! Through some twist of fate, I caught the snitch!
"My old team the Magpies are doing great. They may well sweep the League this year. The Cannons are doing surprisingly well though," he said. "I'm betting Sirius 50 galleons that the Cannons'll beat the Harpies now that they've got Baron as their keeper."
"Fifty Galleons? That's a lot of money to be tossing around. You could spend it better. Maybe buy me a whole closet full of cute sweaters."
"Is the treasury in your Balkan Empire scanty with pocket money?"
"Scanty on wasting money on bad bets. The Cannons? They don't stand a chance. Ron London is rubbish as a seeker. I don't think he's caught the snitch once. He never actively seeks for it. Did you hear his proposal for the game against Puddlemere United? He asked to fly with a Niffler because he claimed to have a serious case of Dragon Pox!"
"But have you seen Baron?" When I shook my head, he continued bright eyed, "He used to play on the Arrows and had five perfect games. Five!"
"It doesn't matter how well you can defend. You can't win any games if you only play defense."
"That's a very good theory. You should talk to Deputy Minister Fudge about it. He thinks the only way to win the war is to play defense and hope the other team will tire out."
I sighed. "Can we not talk about the war? All it does is makes me depressed."
After I bought my purchases, Potter took all the bags, leaving me empty handed. "You don't need to be such a gentleman, Potter. I can carry some bags. I'm not completely helpless."
"But I was hoping you could be the gentleman and open the door for me," he quipped.
Suppressing a smile, I opened the door, holding it for the two men who followed after Potter, who eyed them suspiciously.
I lead the way towards Flourish and Boots. Potter's eyes were never still, constantly watching everything around us, especially the two harmless men who ducked into the Quidditch shop. With his wand, he tapped his glasses, whispering a spell.
"Those two men followed us into the Potion's store. They didn't buy anything and now they're behind us again. Four others have joined them now," he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
"What?" I said, starting to turn.
"Don't look!" he snapped. "Just keep walking. Damn it! Now they're walking faster."
I took a deep breath. I suddenly found it very hard to breathe. It was funny that all I could think about was how in Hogwarts Alice would always laugh about how Trelawney would always find the grim in my blob of tea leaves. Potter grabbed my arm roughly. "Don't you dare run off. They'll just stupefy you. Besides, Diagon Alley has anti-Apparation wards around it." I hadn't realized that I was starting to edge away.
"So what do I do?" I asked, looking up at him. "I've never been attacked by a Death Eater before. I know the defense spells but I don't think…"
"Don't think. Use your instincts. You must have gotten at least an Exceeds Expectations on your DADA NEWT."
"I actually got a Troll." Potter turned to me in surprise. "I got an Outstanding, Potter. Do I look like Crabbe or Goyle?"
"You're much too pretty." His infuriating smirk was back in full force. "Just worry about dodging all green spells and putting up a shield as much as you can against the other things. Remember a shield charm doesn't work against Avada Kevera. I'll take care of everything else."
"Should we wait for them to attack first?"
"You are quite the strategist today, Lily," he said. He then complimented my quick thinking by pushing me hard in the direction of a pile of trashcans.
"Potter, you idiot!" I yelled.
My momentum carried me all the way to the nearby trashcans. The right knee of my jeans was ripped beyond repair and my knee was scrapped and bleeding. Cursing colorfully at the jeans and the Death Eaters and the Pound to Galleon Exchange Rate, I performed a quick Episkey Charm.
"Reducto!" Potter yelled, aiming at the first death eater. Fascinated, I peeked over the trashcans and then instantly wished I had not. I had never seen Reducto used on a person before; now I know why. The man seemed to explode in a shower of blood and gore. All the shoppers ran screaming into stores or behind other trashcans. I sat behind my trashcan, shaking a bit. There were now five Death Eaters and I only had James Potter to protect me. And Potter was a bit frightening himself.
Well, at least he was protecting himself. I wasn't doing too well at that. I raked my mind for a spell to make the trashcans unbreakable. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I was too stressed out to remember it. In the Meantime, I used an Engorgement Charm so I didn't have to kneel on my newly healed knee. Stupid Potter. The only spell I could think of was Impervius, which would have made them waterproof, though that would helpful if it started to rain.
"Diffindo," Potter yelled at another, dodging a green light.
The unfortunate Death Eater he hit collapsed coughing up blood, a huge gash ran from navel to collarbone. His lungs were probably filled with blood, I thought grimly.
A Death Eater used a spell with which I wasn't familiar that cut open a huge gash in Potter's right arm. Potter only tossed his wand into his left hand and continued fighting. I aimed a Stunner at the Death Eater but he easily dodged it.
Seeing I was a bit hopeless on the offense, I decided to play a little defense. I levitated one of my trashcans in front of Potter and hit it with an Engorgio. I still couldn't remember the damned shield charm for objects. Could you use Protego on a trashcan? I'd have to ask Potter later. I saw him hit his trashcan with some sort of shielding charm. Why couldn't I remember it? Potter could! And for goodness sake, I had invented a new one last year that aurors were using now! Trying to distract myself, I levitated the large decorative broom poised above the Quidditch Shop and hit Death Eater in the back of the head with it. He didn't even see it coming! He fell heavily into the snow.
How thrilling!
The Death Eater was out cold. After I levitated it back above the store, I sighed in relief, now the odds were much better.
"Forget Potter! Get Evans!" called the tallest death eater. His voice sounded remarkably like that of Lucius Malfoy, a Slytherin who was two years ahead of me in Hogwarts. I'll always remember what a jerk he was as Head Boy when I was Prefect in 5th year. I shook my head, trying to bring myself back to the current time. I looked over at Potter helplessly.
Shooting off stunners at the three Death Eaters, Potter ran towards the trashcans where I was hiding just as the stoutest Death Eater threw a well-aimed Reducto Curse at them. Cursing my inability to remember the damned Unbreakable Charm, I rolled over and shielded my head. I felt a piece of shrapnel pierce my calf.
Potter yelled out angrily, "Iuguolo! Stupefy!" I could tell that he hit his two targets by the one gurgling scream and a loud crash as the other Death Eater made contact with the ground.
Cringing in pain, I rolled onto my side and found myself looking down a wand. The man holding the wand was wearing a mask but his white-blonde hair was clearly visible. He tugged painfully at my braided hair and I could vaguely hear myself give a cry. I suppose Alice was right to criticize me for not cutting my hair. I suppose long hair is easier to hold onto. I glanced over and saw that Potter had his wand pointed at Malfoy. Well that was slightly comforting.
"Drop it Potter, or she dies."
He didn't even hesitate. The wand immediately fell into the snow, not making a sound. Lucius Malfoy let out the breath he was holding. He looked at his five accomplices dead or unconscious on the ground and back to Potter with a glare.
"Imperio!" said the wand pointing down at me. "Stand up, Evans."
"Sorry, I don't really feel like it. Besides, a huge piece of shrapnel decided to take up residence in my calf. Even if I wanted to stand, I couldn't," I spat at him. Didn't he see the huge piece of shrapnel? I was sure it was probably at least as big as a Hungarian Horntail and it hurt just as much.
"You little bitch!" He slapped me hard.
The force of his hand forced my head to the ground. I touched my now bruised cheek and glared up at him. "Don't you know it's bad manners to hit a girl? Didn't your mother teach you anything? Though it is hard to imagine you ever having a mother, Malfoy."
He looked like he was going to slap me again and I looked over at Potter, who was glaring furiously at me. His cheeks were bright red either from cold or from anger. What was he mad at me for? Then again it probably isn't the smartest idea in the world to anger the man who was pointing a wand at your head.
"You should be glad, Mudblood," he spat out like a curse word, "that the Dark Lord wants you alive! Potter, however, he wasn't very specific about. Thank Merlin, because you've pissed me off for years," he said smiling.
As Malfoy turned away from me, Potter dived into the snow for his wand. He aimed a stunner at Malfoy even before I realized he was holding his wand. Potter's second curse almost tore off Malfoy's wand arm. Realizing he would soon be defeated, Malfoy disapparated just before Potter's next stunner hit. Lucky bastard.
Potter immediately ran over to me. "Merlin, that looks nasty."
"Now I can see why you're not a healer. Your bedside manner is atrocious," I said straightening out my leg. "Didn't you aurors learn any healing spells?"
"Not for cases like this. That bloody piece of metal is embedded in your leg!"
"Not a good time to become squeamish," I said, casting a spell to stop the bleeding. I looked at the red snow around and felt nauseous. Then I felt lightheaded.
"You're as white as a sheet," Potter said worriedly.
"Now's not the time to make fun of my complexion," I said faintly.
"Why didn't you hit the trashcans with an Unbreakable Charm?"
"I couldn't remember the charm," I said, dizzily.
"You couldn't remember the charm? I thought you were a charms expert."
"I thought you were supposed to be an auror. How does the person you were supposed to be defending--" I said, sitting up suddenly to better glare at him. Then I wished I hadn't. The stores of Diagon Alley spun around me at an astonishing velocity. Potter eased me back down.
"Just sit back. The other aurors should be here any minute now." His voice was now deep and soothing. I heard it say an anesthetic charm.
"Why would you kill those Death Eaters? You could just hit them with stunners."
"Well, I do have a license to kill. And Azkaban is full to bursting and if I stun someone, they could wake up while I'm still battling and catch me by surprise. It's one of those situations: kill or be killed. They had no qualms about killing me. And they wanted to take you prisoner. I think that's even worse than being killed. You heard Malfoy."
"I still don't know if I believe in that. Killing then so heartlessly doesn't make us any better than Death Eaters. Next they're going to be letting you guys use the Unforgivable Curses while dueling. It's bad enough that Crouch has basically eliminated trials. What if the Death Eater was under the Imperius Curse?"
"People can fight that. I think the ministry is developing a defense against Imperius. It'll be available to aurors soon. Besides, I learned that the victim has to have a certain propensity to want to carry out the deed for the Imperius Curse to be truly effective."
"That's just auror propaganda." I slurred. I hope this was only a reaction to the anesthetic charm. "What about people blackmailed or threatened into becoming Death Eaters?"
"They can come to us if they want help. We have plenty of double agents. And we will be sure not to harm them while battling. That's when we use Stunners."
"I'm not really in the mood for an ethical debate," I said, fainting.
I could vaguely hear a series of pops and then Potter's irritated voice yelling, "Laura, get over here now. She's got a piece of shrapnel embedded in her calf!"
"And she's out cold. Didn't you give her an anesthetic charm, James? She's going to need a blood transfusion and a Tetanus Charm.
"Rennervate!" I looked up and saw a petite dark-haired woman in auror robes, kneeling at my side.
"Not even a day back from your mission and you can't help but get yourself into another brawl. I don't know what I'm going to do with you, Potter." I looked around to see an older man in the front of the group. I recognized him as Mad Eye Moody, but his face was so changed from as it had been in my Hogwarts days. His face was heavily scarred and he now had a magical eye, which was looking around at everything before zeroing in on me. "Looks like Potter didn't take very good care of you. I know he might seem like an airhead but he's really a top rate auror. The name's Moody."
I missed his hand the first time and when I eventually did catch it, I said, "Lily Evans, nice to see you again. I saw you at Hogwarts several times."
"Lily Evans? I thought it was you. What on earth are you doing here?" I saw a dark haired man who was standing next to James Potter take a step towards me. If I hadn't known better I would have said they were brothers. They were roughly the same height with the same dark hair, though the speaker's hair was much neater. It was Sirius Black of all people. Bloody Hell! Was this some kind of Hogwarts reunion? He was still talking. I tried to focus on what he was saying. "…seen you since you were on my arm at Frank and Alice's wedding last year. You made quite a lovely accessory."
Frank and Alice Longbottom's marriage was last year. I had the honor of being the Maid of Honor. Sirius ended up being the Best Man at last minute because James Potter – the original best men – was seriously injured from an auror mission. Obviously, the Best Man and Maid of Honor have to walk down the aisle together.
I was suddenly distracted when the woman named Laura yanked the piece of shrapnel from my leg. "Bloody Hell that hurt! Merlin that thing's gigantic! Can I keep it as a souvenir?" I asked.
"If you want," Laura shrugged, clearly thinking that the anesthetic charm had addled my brains. Then again, maybe it had. She handed me the huge piece of metal, looking at me curiously. "Where did it come from?"
"The trashcans," I said, waving vaguely in their direction.
"Four dead, one unconscious," said another woman auror, running up. She was tall, blonde and beautiful; she probably would have been a model if we lived in a different era. She was looking over at Potter as she spoke and even winked at him! I was sprawled out on the ground now on a stretcher – when did someone conjure that? – with Potter standing behind me, so I couldn't see his reaction. "One from a Reducto Curse, others from the Throat Cutting Curse and a Severing Charm, the fourth was from a forceful blow to the back of his head with a blunt object, I'm not sure…"
"I hit him with a broom," I said immediately. Everyone stopped to stare at me. Presuming I guess that this was further evidence that the anesthetic charm had addled my brains. Strange though, I didn't think an anesthetic charm had such adverse side effects.
"A broom?" Sirius asked raising one eyebrow – I hate people who can do that! – at me.
"Yeah, the ceremonial one on top of the Quidditch store," I said, waving vaguely up at it.
They all seemed to notice the dried blood at the same time and burst into laughter. "I guess you forgot to clean off the blood before you put it back. I hope the owners don't complain." Potter drawled.
"Let's go to the Division Headquarter and discuss this in private," Moody said glancing at the shoppers who were now slowly stirring from their hiding places.
I protested as Potter lifted me into his arms, saying I could walk, which was clearly not the case. I was glad that Potter didn't put me down to spite me. It was much more comfortable than I would have thought, though his cologne was making me slightly light-headed – or maybe it was the anesthetic charm, or the blood loss….
I was slightly alarmed when a dark curtain suddenly fell over my eyes.
CCC
I will never forget that March day in my seventh year. Flying out of that classroom like a bat out of hell, I remember him grabbing my wrist. I must have let out a muffled scream. After I cursed my superstitious nature, I turned around to face James Potter. "Merlin! You gave me a fright."
"Are you alright? You looked really pale."
"Yeah," I said without much confidence, "What was that?"
"I'm not sure, but I have an idea." He peered at the doorway of the classroom with suspicion. He looked back at me. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Of course. I was just being foolish, I wasn't terribly scared," I lied. But I knew I could never purge the horrifying vision of that great black beast stepping out from the shadows and growling quietly. It moved with such assurance, with an almost human consciousness. "Can you walk me to the prefect meeting?"
"Sure," he said taking my arm. "I wanted to tell you that William Matthews in Hufflepuff wanted us to talk about managing Peeves again."
"What did he do this time?"
"Peeves dumped water balloons on people all day yesterday. I asked the Hufflepuff prefects to clean up because it was closest to their common room and he threw a fit."
"Merlin! Will peeves me more than that stupid poltergeist!" I said in exasperation.
I heard that growl again and glanced back at the shadow behind the door and could have sworn that I saw a pair of dark eyes staring back at me in the face of that beastly dog. Was I going to die?
