The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
But how does one destroy death?
Is living forever defined as the conquering of death? No, because death is inevitable; it will happen eventually. One can prolong life in extraordinary measures, but never can they live forever, no matter how long they extend their days. Because on Earth, forever does not exist.
So how does one overcome the last enemy that is death?
When one accepts their death, and embraces it rather than fears it, death is no longer their enemy. By being unafraid of leaving the world is defying death and making peace with it.
This is the story of a witch and wizard who destroy death as their enemy through a different kind of magic. It has nothing to do with spells or charms or magical creatures. This magic is not born from a wand core nor does it involve flashes of green or red. It cannot be brewed or grown or cast.
This magic is called love.
(L&J)
"How come she married him?" asked Harry miserably. "She hated him!"
(L&J)
The sky was a swirling blanket of black and dark blues, with stars that twinkled like glitter across it. The Hogwarts castle stood in all it's grand glory, the lights from within the many windows making it appear to be glowing golden. The lake was calmly serene, the golden reflection of the castle wavering on its surface.
Except Lily couldn't see any of this. The sky was blocked from her view by the canopy of the forest around her and the castle and the lake were probably a mile away. The welcoming feast had finished a few hours beforehand and while most students were sleeping peacefully in their four-poster beds for the first time in the new school year, she was out-of-bounds after curfew during her first night as Head girl. The further she travelled into the forest, the colder she seemed to get which she found peculiar, not to mention creepy. All of her companions' wands were lit, making their surroundings eerily visible.
"You guys," said Marlene exasperatedly for the umpteenth time. "I still think this is pointless. I mean, if you can't see them then we might have come across them already and we just don't know. Can't we just ask Hagrid tomorrow?"
Dorcas rolled her eyes and waved the large bloody hunk of raw meat in front of Marlene and Lily's faces.
"See this?" she said pointedly. Lily nodded hastily and stepped backwards. Not only could she see it, but she could smell it.
"It's dragon meat. Threstrals love raw meat. As long as we keep walking, when we become even remotely close they will smell it and I will feel them come close even if I can't see it. But Alice and I will be able to," she said confidently, and spun around to keep walking, splattering Marlene in the face with droplets of blood.
"Where the bloody hell did you get dragon meat from?" said Marlene in disbelief.
"Hagrid," said Alice with a wink, and turned to follow Dorcas. Four pairs of footsteps crunched in the fallen leaves and dried debris.
"Why didn't you just ask Hagrid if you could see them then?" cried Marlene in frustrated annoyance and grudgingly followed them. Lily laughed and fell into step beside her.
Over the summer holidays, Alice and Dorcas had witnessed what they described as a "vicious, brutal murder of a cow". It had been Dorcas' muggle neighbours slaughtering it on their family farm, but the girl's insisted that it counted as seeing someone die and that they would be able to see Threstrals now. Alas, they were now walking through the forbidden forest close to midnight in the pitch black with a large lump of meat that Lily was sure not only Threstrals would be attracted to.
Yes, they definitely had had smarter plans than this in the past.
"Is no one else freezing cold right now?" asked Marlene with a shiver. Lily nodded frantically, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.
"AHH!" came Alice's shriek from ahead of them.
She was jumping around and waving her arms in front of her while simultaneously trying to pull a long, silvery substance off her that was clinging to her face and torso. Dorcas was doubled up in laughter beside her.
"Yuck, yuck, yuck," said Alice in a disgusted moan, her hands grabbing at her face to rid herself of the stringy substance which was still sticking to her.
"Is that a spider web?" said Lily, quickly helping Alice pull it from her hair.
Marlene giggled. Dorcas was now lying on the ground in a fit of silent laughter, her bloody clump lying beside her.
"Would have had to be a hella big spider to make that," muttered Alice, making a face as Lily pulled it off one of her eyelashes.
Dorcas sat up quickly. "What did you say?"
"I said 'what a wonderful evening stroll this has turned out to be, thanks to you convincing me that seeing a bloody cow-'"
"No, seriously," said Dorcas, standing up and grabbing the dragon meat off the ground.
"It would have been a hella big spider that made this," repeated Alice.
Dorcas swore and started pushing them back into the direction they had come from.
"What are you doing, Dorcas?" asked Marlene with a curious look. "I thought we still, and I quote you, 'had hours and hours to look because our first class starts at nine and we can skip breakfast'."
"I was talking to Hagrid a while back… in our textbook it says 5 Xs… it must be in this part of the- well fuck," she finished and pulled out her wand, pointing it at something behind Lily's shoulder.
Lily followed her gaze and bit back a scream. Standing barely 15 feet from where she was stood, was a massive, hairy black spider. It had eight beady eyes and pincers that clicked threateningly as it eyed them quickly before quickly advancing. It wasn't anywhere near the size of regular garden spiders, or even tarantulas. It was more the size of a small elephant.
It scuttled in a terrifying manner towards Dorcas, who was closest and picked her up with its front legs before she could think of a spell to aim at it. She swore loudly as it grasped her, and Lily heard her wand clatter onto a part of rocky ground below her.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Dorcas was cursing with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, as though determined not to look at its razor-sharp pincers or abundance of eyes.
Lily inwardly groaned as she could vaguely make out the dark shapes of more acromantulas scuttling towards them. She aimed a stunning spell at the spider holding Dorcas, at the same time that Marlene did, but it clearly had no effect. Lily reasoned that they were so large and contained so much magic already that their bodies simply absorbed petty spells like that.
Dorcas had opened her eyes determinedly and swore again as she saw the approaching acromantulas. The spider which had a firm hold on her was clicking its pincers seemingly towards its fellow companions.
"Get the hell out of here," screamed Dorcas to the other three girls.
"Shut the hell up Dorcas," came Marlene and Alice's simultaneous reply.
Blond hair flying, Marlene was firing jinx after jinx and curse after curse at the acromantula that was holding Dorcas, ignoring the looming threat of the others. Alice's face was contorted into a concentrated frown and her light green eyes were flickering between the acromantulas, Dorcas, the tree tops and the ground; Lily could tell she was doing some quick thinking in order to try and get them all out alive.
Just as the closest acromantula advanced on Marlene, who stumbled backwards in a bid to escape it while trying to help Dorcas, Lily was struck with a sudden bolt of inspiration.
"Expelliarmus!" she shouted at Dorcas' captor and Dorcas fell to the ground with a light thud. "Conjuntivis!" she shouted, aiming at it's eyes and praying that she hit her target.
The flash of pink hit the side of its head and seemed to fade slowly into its thick hair. Now aggravated, it scuttled forwards towards Lily, clicking its pincers menacingly.
She dove behind a tree, dimly aware of her friends screaming her name. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, composing herself, and when the clicking pincers seemed only feet away, she ducked out from behind the tree and shouted, "Conjunctivis!"
This time, at a shorter distance, the curse hit its target. The acromantula scurried to the left and began spinning around madly, losing its balance every now and then and falling sideways.
Following Lily's lead, she heard multiple cries of "Conjuntivis" from Marlene and Alice. She hurried towards them in time to see the two other spiders scuttle blindly around. Dorcas grabbed her wand from the ground where it had fallen.
Lily could tell that the curse was beginning to wear off from the acromantulas, as they were stumbling less with every passing moment. "Run!" she shouted, and the others didn't need telling twice.
They turned heel and sprinted together in the direction that they had come in. They didn't stop running until they had reached the edge of the forest and the grand Hogwarts castle was glowing within their view. Alice and Marlene had to wait several moments for Dorcas and Lily to catch up, both of whom were on the less fit side of the scale. Though both Marlene and Dorcas had a good three years of Quidditch under their belts, and both could endure a four-hour, hard-core, gruelling training session, Dorcas loathed running.
They walked back up through the deserted corridors to Gryffindor tower in a state of mild shock, not speaking a word until they entered their dormitory. Their fifth roommate, Sierra McEvoy, was fast asleep in her four-poster bed, which was slightly secluded from the others. She was facing the wall in slumber, so all Lily could see was her shoulder length, blond hair sprawled on her pillow.
Lily flopped back down on her bed, then sat up again and looked at her best friends. They were all sitting on their beds, too, gazing around at each other. And then, as if on cue, they all burst out laughing. Alice was sitting on the edge of her bed with her head in her hands, shaking her head and her body trembling with disbelieving laughter. Marlene had slid onto the floor, her head tipped back and laughing out loud and Dorcas was repeatedly banging her head on the post of her bed. Why, Lily wasn't sure. From the looks of Dorcas gasping for breath from laughter, possibly pure mirth and hilarity.
Lily herself was rolling back on her bed in a fit of giggles. If only someone had walked in, they would have thought that each and every one of them was mad. She glanced up and looked at her roommates again, gazing at each one in turn.
Marlene McKinnon, her closest friend in the world, with deep ocean blue eyes and wavy blond hair was the most fun-loving person she knew. She never took life seriously and that may have had something to do with being related to James Potter - cousins, or second cousins. She was loud, always joking, proud, fiercely protective of her friends and not caring what anyone thought of her. And of course, brave.
Then there was Dorcas. That dark-haired muggle-born girl who exasperated teachers beyond belief. Don't call her Dorky or it will probably be the last word you ever speak. Strangers always considered Marlene and Dorcas to be two peas in a pod. They couldn't be more mistaken. While both girls were loud, sarcastic and did whatever they wanted without a second thought of what others might think, Dorcas took things seriously. She often took the bait that the Slytherins consistently fed to her and would always charge head first into a battle. If you called her a mudblood, she would curse you so that walking in a straight line was difficult; if you called her friend a mudlbood, she would curse you back into the fourteenth century.
Alice Prewett was the last, but in no means the least, of Lily's best friends. With her dirty blond hair and light green eyes that were perhaps a shade away from blue, Alice was the quietest of the group. Lily thought that Alice and Dorcas' friendship was the prime example of how opposites attract. Though often the quietest, Alice was probably the most confident but also the most intuitive and compassionate. Rather than say what comes to mind, Alice observed conversations with people and her observance of the world was probably why no one had ever won an argument with Alice Pretwett; she had a way with words and could always describe exactly what was going on in her mind.
Though the four girls were all extremely close, it was always Marlene and Lily, and Alice and Dorcas who were that tiny margin closer.
"Lilyyyy, you're doing it again," said Marlene in a sing-song voice.
Lily blinked and it was as though her mind was resurfacing from a lake of thoughts and into the air of reality.
"What?" she asked.
"Zoning out and getting this dreamy faraway look on you're face," said Alice.
"Imagining Potter being decapitated again?" said Dorcas with a knowing nod. James Potter, who smoked too much, had probably snogged half of the female population at Hogwarts and hexed anyone who simply annoyed him just to flaunt that he was too cool to follow rules.
"No!' said Lily. "And how many times do I have to say, it was just a strange dream in our fifth year-"
"Do any of you bloody well mind?" came a voice from the other side of the room. It was Sierra McEvoy. She was standing in her nightie with her arms crossed, in front of the girls.
"Sorry Sierra," said Alice sincerely, looking guilty.
"Yeah, sorry McEvoy," said Dorcas breezily. "Sorry that we woke you up. Really and truly. Swear on Merlin's grave."
Sierra McEvoy looked surprised. She raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"
"Yep," said Dorcas sweetly. This was very uncharacteristic for Dorcas. "After all, we have to look at you every day so we want you to get all the beauty sleep you can." Ah, there it was.
Sierra's eyes narrowed. She was the odd one out from the Gryffindor seventh year girls. In first year, she had started out friendly enough but soon the four girls grew sick of her cruel constant remarks at people. By second year, she was hanging out with the Ravenclaws and by third year she had turned to the Slytherins. She had not started out caring about blood status, but Lily gathered that the other nasty Slytherin girls she had taken a liking to had influenced this. Also, Lily suspected that herself and Dorcas may have also been a contributing factor.
Sierra was basically a darker version of Dorcas. Both were outgoing and opinionated. Though while Dorcas honoured equality and integrity, Sierra believed in superiority and ambition and wasn't afraid to be nasty. It was natural that their personalities would clash.
Then there was Lily. For some reason, around halfway through their second year, Sierra had begun hating Lily. Lily suspected that it had something to do with her calling Sierra out on her cruelty. Marlene, Alice and Dorcas were convinced that Sierra was jealous of Lily. They claimed that she was intelligent, pretty, kind and everyone respected her, and that Sierra was envious of that. Lily very much doubted that.
So thus sparked her dislike of muggle-borns and her inclination to befriend some Slytherin girls – all pureblood of course. Lily wasn't sure whether Sierra's heart was as fully into the prejudice as she claimed, not like Bellatrix Black or Aisha Selwyn whom Sierra was rarely seen without.
"Seeing you get back here past midnight explains a lot about your face and how it correlates with your lack of beauty sleep," shot back Sierra with a scowl.
"We're really sorry for waking you up Sierra," interrupted Lily as Dorcas opened her mouth to retort. "We were really selfish to not think of you sleeping. Well, erm, goodnight then."
Sierra glared at her. "You think you're so noble, little miss perfect," she said and turned around to walk back to her bed. But she wasn't quite out of earshot when Lily heard her mutter, "fucking mudbloods."
Unfortunately, Dorcas heard as well.
"Ever fucking Merlin, repeat that why don't you?!" she roared and made a grab for her wand. Marlene, who was on the ground beside Dorcas' bedside table quickly snatched it up off it and held it away from her.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin," she murmured. "Dorcas, it's- no listen Dorcas, it's not worth it. Who cares what she says? I don't care that I'm muggleborn and I know that you don't, so why does it matter if some stupid prat like Sierra calls us some petty name for muggleborn. It's only offensive if we let it offend us. Okay Dorcas? Dorcas?"
"I hate that stupid fucking bitch," muttered Dorcas grumpily, slumping back onto her pillows. "'Night you lot."
Marlene cautiously returned the wand to the bedside table before climbing into her bed.
Lily flicked her wand and the bedside lamps all turned off. She was just dozing off into the blissful, relieving obliviousness of sleep when there was a purple flash that came from Sierras bed. Sierra shrieked and there was a thud as she tumbled out of bed; Lily heard a soft, satisfied laugh from one of the four-posters.
"Dorcas!" everyone groaned.
(L&J)
"Morning Lads!" came a booming voice, breaking easily into James Potter's dream, like a quaffle soaring through mist.
"Shut up, Padfoot," he grumbled into his pillow. Only, it sounded more like "Shdup Pafud".
"Stop throwing pillows at me Remus," came Sirius Black's brisk reply. "Now, listen up you lot. This is our last year at Hogwarts! I have to congratulate us all on our start of term prank yesterday evening; it really was quite genius if you ask me-"
"No one asked you, Padfoot," said Peter Pettigrew sleepily. "We still had an extra fifteen minutes of sleep left."
"Whatever you say, Pete," continued Sirius dismissively. "So, for the first Quidditch game – Slytherin versus Hufflepuff – I say we put a charm on the door to the pitch from the Slytherin change rooms so that just as they walk out, their robes will turn purple or some other colour. And we could lock Mrs Norris-"
But he was interrupted by a loud snore. He turned his head and looked at Remus Lupin with a frown, who had promptly fallen asleep again.
"Feeling the love, aren't I Moony," he said huffily. "Fine, if you lot aren't going to take our pranks seriously then I won't bother to come up with any brilliant ideas. We can just have a nice, long, boring, prank-free, homework-filled-"
"Merlin above Padfoot, it's not that we don't want to hear them. But I thought we figured out three weeks into our first year that depriving Moony from any extra sleep isn't a bright idea," said James, sitting up and running a hand through his tousled hair tiredly. He picked up his glasses from his bedside table and shoved them on his face.
"Right," said Sirius resentfully. He paused, then added hopefully, "Want to go get breakfast?"
James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I have some stupid meeting with Dumbledore and Evans before classes anyway. Give me a minute," he said, pulling a shirt over his head and walking to the bathroom.
Sirius' eyes lit up mischievously. Ever since finding out James had been christened Head boy, making fun of his best mate had been his favourite pastime.
"Sure thing! It'll give me a moment to lay out the red carpet down the stairwell, for Ye Headboyship," he called. He ducked the shoe James threw at him and laughed out loud.
(L&J)
"Potter?" came a weary voice from behind James and someone lightly tapped him on the shoulder. He knew it was Lily Evans, because that was certainly her voice and also their meeting started in about ten minutes. Remus and Peter had come to join him and Sirius, and the four boys were in the middle of shooting grapes at each other across the platters of food at the Gryffindor table.
He sighed inwardly and turned around. "Yes, I know. It starts in ten minutes," he said bluntly. "It doesn't take ten minutes to walk to Dumbledore's office, Merlin. Besides, when are you one to be on time?"
Lily looked surprised. "I never mean to be late!" she said indignantly. "And I'm not always late! Sometimes I get distracted but – will you bugger off Black?" she snapped at Sirius, who snorted at her previous words. "I'm not! But that's not why I came here. Someone's done a charm that's stopping people from being able to exit the Great Hall and apparently, it's been there a while. People can get in, but not out. I don't suppose you lot know anything about it?"
She was looking suspiciously at the marauders, specifically James and Sirius. They were genuinely surprised. James opened his mouth to retort but Sirius spoke first.
"No, we didn't. So bugger off Evans. I'm about to slaughter Pete here," he said. Peter had made a barricade out of toast, and Sirius had spent the last few minutes determinedly trying to knock it down with grapes. Peter was looking rather smug.
Lily looked annoyed. "Fine, but I have to bugger off with Potter, if you lot don't mind. Actually, scratch that. I don't care if you do or don't mind," she said, grabbing James' arm and pulling him out of his seat.
"But it doesn't start for another ten minutes! I told you-"
"Not that! I need help getting rid of the barricade at the doors to the entrance hall, and seeing as you're head boy and I'm head girl…" she said, pulling him towards the giant doors.
"Why don't you ask a teacher?"
"Because it's just some inconvenient prank someone has devised, meaning it should be simple enough to get rid of. I tried a few charms, like Priori Incantatem and-"
But whatever other spells Lily had tried to reverse the blockade, James didn't hear.
The entire Great Hall had suddenly plunged into pitch black darkness.
Lily cut herself short as screams echoed around the Great Hall. Even the light that would usually shine through the windows seemed to be extinguished somehow.
He reached for his wand and said, "Lumos," but nothing happened. He heard Lily do the same from somewhere beside him but clearly to no prevail. He tried to conjure a candle that he could perhaps magically light to see what the hell was going on, but his wand seemed to be broken. He could make out Lily trying to summon a torch from the Entrance Hall but it was no use.
He had never been in a situation where he couldn't use magic before. Sure, he had been disarmed occasionally or had forgotten his wand. But at least then, he knew what he had to do: find his wand so he could use magic. Now, he had his wand, but his magic didn't seem to be working and he couldn't see anything to get a grasp of the situation.
"Lily?" he said, reaching his arm out in front of him to check that she was still there.
"I'm here," she answered, somewhere to his right. He felt her hand clasp around his arm, as though making sure she didn't lose him.
That was when he heard the voice. It was high and cold, and spoke with almost a hiss. It reverberated off the walls and rang in his ears, clearly magically amplified.
"Students and teachers of Hogwarts: I am speaking to you... This year, your Headmaster and the Ministry of Magic have denied our request of purifying this school. They believe mudbloods should be allowed to steal our magic. They believe blood-traitors and half-breeds have the right to be educated on the magical arts. Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic refused our many requests, and as a result we will no longer play… nicely.
For every month you continue allowing mudbloods and half-breeds to learn the secrets of our magic, there will be consequences. As each month progresses, the consequences will become worse. By the time the tenth month is up, and the Ministry of Magic has not complied or Albus Dumbledore has not resigned, then destruction so terrible will be brought upon Hogwarts that it will be left in an irreversible state of devastation.
You have been warned."
The silence that followed was deafening. No one moved and no one spoke.
And then people were screaming and crying and panicked conversations had broken out. The darkness subsided, and James could see Lily beside him looking pale. At the same time, they both became aware of Lily's continued hold on his arm and James glanced at her curiously; she quickly let go. They were near the long Slytherin table now, and a small boy who was sitting on the very end was crying. Lily rushed over to him, knelt down next to him and took his hand, trying to comfort him.
"Hey, hey," she said softly, looking at him concernedly. "It's okay. The teachers will sort this out in no time."
"M-my friend, Bianca, is in H-hufflepuff and sh-she's a m-muggleborn. Will she get hurt? Will she have to l-leave the school?" he asked through his tears, staring up at Lily.
James saw Lily close her eyes briefly in a pained sort of way before quickly reopening them and smiling at the boy. "I'm sure she'll be fine. This is all just silly nonsense. Everything will turn out okay in the end, I promise," she said and pulled him into a hug.
When she left the boy and returned to James, he saw that her eyes were lined with a distinct wetness. He felt a sudden urge to hug her, and comfort her the way she had comforted the small Slytherin boy, but he figured that wouldn't go down too well.
"Do you really think the teachers will sort it out in no time?" James couldn't resist asking.
"Of course not," she said quietly, her eyes staring at the ground in a distant way.
"So you lied to him?" If any time James had ever wanted to punch himself in the face, it was now. He didn't think he could have chosen anything worse to say.
Lily's head suddenly snapped up and she glared at him. "What was I supposed to say? No, things are really shitty in the real world at the moment because there's a maniac killer who wants to do in all of your friends. That friend, Bianca, will probably be six feet under before she can graduate from Hogwarts thanks to said psychopath."
James winced, but didn't say anything. Lily was moving towards the teachers table where there was an unusual amount of activity.
"One more thing," said James cautiously, following her. "Do you really believe that everything will turn out okay in the end?"
"Yes."
Author's note:
This is my first fanfiction, and I hope you like it! I will be updating every few weeks. Please review if you read this chapter and let me know if you have any tips of feedback or suggestions!