Slipped Away

Disclaimer: Characters c/o JK Rowling (HP)

"Why James,…why?'

Lily stood in utter shock and silence, staring at the man she thought had been her loving and devoted husband. Loving and devoted. The understatement of the year. This wasn't the first time anonymous, sneaky letters were delivered to the house. For a while she'd suspected something was up. Now, her suspicions were all but confirmed. Her green eyes flared in anger harshly as she held up the letter. A letter she'd been holding in a death grip for the past thirty minutes.

"Tell me James. Who is she? Tell me right now."

James' face seemed to be expressionless as he stared blankly at the floor. Sitting on the couch for so long was starting to hurt his back, but he knew better to stay put. Never had he seen Lily this upset before. Moving even the slightest would be cause for his demise. Hearing his wife's words he slowly raised his head. Eyes seemed to hold a faint glimmer of emotion. One might say it was regret…regret for getting caught.

True, he had been caught and nothing he could say would make the situation any better.

"Lily, all I can say is that I'm sorry."

The words caused white-hot fury to form up in Lily's soul. In a fit of anger she tore up the letter and threw the shreds in his face. She then stomped off towards the bedroom and slammed the door.

~**~

Emotion poured from Lily like crazy. For what seemed like hours she sobbed to herself. Head buried into her pillow, the only solace she could find in that moment. Memories came and went so fast they sent her head spinning. Memories of the time they'd spent in the past before they were married. How they'd talk of how bright and wonderful their future would be. Words so promising. Thinking back, those words now seemed like venom seeping from a deadly snake's mouth. How could she have been so foolish to believe his words?

They'd been married for almost two years now . If things were this bad after two years, how bad would they get after five, ten, twenty? Who's to say she would even still be married after twenty years?

Why should you be worried about that? Quit acting like you're the victim in all this. You're just as guilty as he.

A small voice whispered in her ear, most likely her conscience. She snapped her eyes shut and willed the voice to leave. A small whimpering sound escaped her as she did so.

"That situation was different…different. Stop, just stop!"

Slowly she relaxed and opened her eyes.

As if this seemed to trigger something, her eye caught the time on the wall. It read 11:00 PM

A faint shock ran through her. She'd been in this room for over three hours now. Sitting up she stretched and headed for the bedroom door. James was probably asleep on the couch by now.

Her judgment proved correct. James was snoozing quietly on the worn-out sofa. A house warming gift from her sister Petunia. Or as Petunia liked to call it a 'get out of here and never speak to me again' gift. Not feeling sleepy in the slightest, Lily unlocked the front door and trotted out towards the night.

The cool night air really seemed to do wonders for her ill mood. Slowly after a few minutes the welcoming breeze calmed her frazzle nerves. But only a bit. She was still highly angered by James' treachery and sneaking around. Still, in the pit of all these swirling mixed up emotions, was the feeling that she didn't know what to do anymore. She'd tried everything to make her husband not stray. At first it seemed to help, but in the end he always went back to whatever floozy he was chasing.

She stamped her foot in fury. Why was he always like this? Was this how men in the Wizarding world behaved? Sure she knew that men in her world were like this as well, but still the thought truly upset her.

Keeping her head down she continued her quite, yet swift, walk down the sidewalk. Lamps and signs from various stores cast out a welcoming glow, but she ignored them lost in her own thoughts.

Suddenly, she collided with a solid form causing her to almost go off balance. Staggering, she caught herself before she made a rather embarrassing fall. As she righted herself she realized why she'd collided with the figure. It was wearing a solid black, hooded cloak.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" , the figure growled.

By it's voice it was male. The unknown figure turned to strike the person who dared to bang into him, but stopped when he noticed it was a female.

"Oh, sorry about that miss." his voice was that of a person trying to sound friendly, but deep down you still heard their malice and ill-intentions. It was also very gravely and intimidating. Lily was extremely cautious. She was out, alone at night and she foolishly had forgotten her wand. With this intimidating man standing before her, she knew she had to be extra careful.

"No harm done, I trust?'

His lips curled into a sickly sweet smile. It made her stomach turn. She had to fight hard not to show this man her fear. And hard it was. He loomed over her in height and had dirty grey hair and whiskers on his chin. His appearance alone was enough to terrify anybody. His eyes were was struck her the most. Wolves eyes they seemed like. They peered eerily through the darkness of his hood.

He was gazing at her like a ravenous dog almost. Suddenly, he reached forward like lightening, snatching her arm up in his crushing grip. He then jerked her towards him, that same sickly sweet grin on his face.

"You sure are pretty, but you already know that… don'tcha sweetheart?" He purred softly in her ear while caressing her cheek with his bristly beard.

Lily's heart was pounding in her chest. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as she stared, not registering anything. It was like someone pressed 'mute' She heard nothing in her fear.

She knew she'd have to do something fast or the worst would happen to her.

Acting purely on instinct, she grabbed hold of one of his arms and bit into him hard. She bore down as hard as she could, she'd bring blood if she had to.

A tortured wail from her assailant told her she'd succeeded. Barely the bone-crushing grip on her arm was loosened. Enough for her to elbow him in the chest. This didn't knock him out, but it startled him enough for her to bolt away.

As the figure watched his prey escape him, a smirk formed on his lips, revealing wolf-like fangs. He then turned and walked the other direction. Something told him this wouldn't be the last time they'd cross paths.

Lily ran and ran for what seemed like an eternity. She only stopped when her lungs screamed for air. Franticly she looked around, trying to see if her attacker followed. She saw only darkness. After a few minutes of only the sidewalk and random houses being her only audience, she decided that he hadn't followed and turned to continue walking.

It took her mind a while to process what had occurred. The realization came to her that she shouldn't have been surprised. There had been talk of strange folks wandering about. Quite talk, but talk nonetheless. Now she felt more foolish then ever for leaving the house at night. As she pondered these feelings, her surroundings began to look a little more familiar.

Slowly, she realized where she was and coincidentally, it was exactly where she'd wanted to go. An old run-down house sat on top of a grassy hill. It was the only house on that particular space of land. Nobody could miss it.

Aching and weary, she trudged as quickly as she could towards it. It only took three and a half knocks for somebody to answer. The door creaked open barely an inch. An eerie shadow loomed inside.

"Severus…."