Mudblood
[A/N the end of story]
Thank you to Niamh and AJ for the beta xx
"Sev, I want to go back," Lily clutched her robe close to her chest as the wind howled violently around her. Her lips were getting number by the second and the Whomping Willow was thrashing more wildly than usual.
"Be quiet," the boy hissed back at her, his slick hair and bat-like robes flapping around him. She would have normally found it funny if she wasn't so cold and scared.
"It's not too late, we can go back…" she whispered, her voice getting lost in the furious wind. Under the glow of the unusually bright full moon, Lily saw her friend glare at her before he swiftly turned and continued following the group of Slytherins into the Forbidden Forest.
The only girl in the group stopped in her tracks and ordered the others to quieten down as she took a few steps away from them and surveyed the area. Lily's heart rate quickened as Bellatrix's eyes glanced momentarily at their hiding spot behind an overgrown shrub and barked out at the group to keep going. Her wild hair flew out behind her as she pushed past a short figure and the Slytherins disappeared into the trees.
"Bellatrix almost saw us, Sev. I'm going back!" she roughly wiped the grass off her jeans and robes and checked her robe pocket for her wand.
"I promise we can go back once we see what they're up to." his voice was barely perceptible as the wind whistled through the trees around of them. His hand reached for hers and she sighed as he pleaded for her to stay.
"They're dangerous, we shouldn't be following them around in the dark," she squeezed his cold hands and shivered as a strong gust of wind almost threw her off her balance. "Besides, the forest is really dangerous and we aren't allowed in there. It's called the Forbidden Forest for a reason!"
"Lily, I need to see what they're up to," he said resolutely as he pushed past her and strode towards the trees.
Lily was furious and sprinted over to him, pushing and punching his shoulder repeatedly in her annoyance. He muttered a few curse words as her hair blew into her face and momentarily blinded her. A moment was all he needed as he grabbed hold of her wrists painfully.
"Stop it! You're being daft!" he half yelled. While she was pushing him he had pulled out his wand and had it pointed at her, only half reluctantly. "I'm really sorry Lily, but you're going to get us hurt if you don't shut it." With an incantation and a wave of his wand, Lily felt an odd tingling on her tongue and when she tried to say something to him, all that came out were groans and mutterings. She put her hands to her mouth in shock as she realised that he had put a tongue twister jinx on her.
She fingered her wand that was sticking out from her back jeans pocket and huffed as she realised that, even if she got her wand out, she wouldn't be able to do anything with it – they wouldn't be learning how to cast non-verbal spells until next year. She thought about going back to the common room, but that would be fruitless if she couldn't utter the password to the Fat Lady. Lily glared at Severus before nodding warily and following him as he cautiously walked towards the line of trees on the edge of the forest.
Lily had only been in the forest twice before; once was a detention served with Hagrid and the other was when she furiously and quickly retrieved Alice Fortescue's remembrall that James had thrown into the trees in third-year. Only one of those times was at night, but without Hagrid and Spike next to her, the forest seemed far more sinister. The wind did nothing to assuage her nerves as they walked deeper into the forest and away from the safety, and the lights, of the castle.
To her left she saw something indistinguishable flashing past, followed by a howl and the hair on the nape of her neck stood up in fear as she remembered that there was a full moon. There would surely be werewolves roaming around and her heart bled as she thought of the painful transformation that Remus must be going through somewhere. She just hoped that he was somewhere other than this forest.
Severus was totally oblivious to the sounds of the forest as he treaded on carefully. The light that had been so abundant a few minutes ago was virtually gone and she wondered how the Slytherins were finding their way in the dark without a source of light. After a moment's hesitation, Severus pulled out his wand again and cast a spell. Less than a second later his face was flooded with light and Lily's nerves lessened slightly as she saw that there were no eyes staring back at them from the darkness.
"Are you alright?" he turned to face her and she glared at him, shrugging her shoulders as he bit his lip sheepishly and the hand on his wand twitched slightly. "I didn't mean to jinx you, you were just being too loud…" he muttered. Lily flipped the bird at him again and nodded ahead of them, Severus holding his wand aloft and leading them forward.
They were so deep in the forest that the wind that had howled so loudly was muted, no more than a faint rustling of leaves. She would have preferred the oppressive sensation of the wind on her senses rather than the haunting silence and stillness that enveloped them so claustrophobically.
Finally, after what felt like eons of time, they happened across a small clearing hidden behind a heavy thicket of bushes, tree stumps and vines. The light on the end of Severus' wand dimmed and they hunched behind a thick tree stump, listening as a man spoke in a deep croaky voice about an initiation, a meeting, and a mark of some sort. None of it made sense to Lily but she knew that it wasn't good. Whatever they were talking about had to be about something terrible and her blood ran cold as the voice uttered a single name: Voldemort.
"They're being marked," Severus sputtered a little too loudly.
The voices in the clearing stopped and the leaves rustled as they started walking around while hissing to one another agitatedly. Lily didn't need to see them to know that they were searching for them.
"I told you to come alone."
"We did! Nobody followed us," Bellatrix snarled. "Who's there?"
Lily licked her lips and felt a thin sheen of sweat form on her forehead as her legs trembled in fear. She shouldn't have followed him out, shouldn't even have entertained the thought; had she refused Severus' plea for her to stay, she could be blissfully warming herself by the fire and revising for her OWLs.
Without warning, a brilliant red jet of light thumped into the tree stump a few inches away from her head. A dry croak came out instead of a scream as Cassius Avery sneered at her and shot another spell above her head before calling over the rest of his group. A shorter boy joined him with his wand alight and suddenly the velvet darkness of the forest gave way to light.
"Severus, nice of you to join our little soiree," a long faced, dark haired boy snorted, his hands clutching a manky old hand possessively. Snape muttered something to her about a hand of glory and she ignored him. "Pity that you have a mudblood with you."
Lily's hands balled into fists and any fear that she had was quickly replaced with acute anger. She glanced at the black haired boy next to her and felt her anger intensify as he stood there rigidly, avoiding her gaze and lowering his wand shakily, but not before he subtly flicked his wand towards her and muttered a spell.
The tingling in her mouth quickly dissolved and she exhaled in relief before swiftly pulling her wand out and pointing it towards the group of Slytherins who had appeared in front of them. Her eyes scanned the group and she counted five people excluding the strange tall man, who certainly couldn't be a student. The probability of her escaping unscathed was unlikely, but at least the was a chance she would escape at all.
"Well, this mudblood's had enough, I'm leaving," she glared at the group before she pushed past the wall of Slytherins and tried to remember the hexes she'd heard Sirius and James mention earlier during lunch.
"How dare you!" a shrill voice snapped as Bellatrix Lestrange stepped forward. Her jaw was clenched and she looked more menacing than beautiful as the shadows danced along the angles of her pale face. Her usually immaculate hair was tangled and unruly and her teeth were bared as she pointed her wand at Lily. "You're not going anywhere." Without further warning, Lily crumpled to her hands and knees and screamed as intense pain seeped through all her veins and crippled her.
The pain lasted only a few seconds and as the ringing in her ears subsided and she stood up weakly, she heard the cheering and sniggers of the rest of the group.
"ANTEOCULATIA!" Lily gasped as Bellatrix's thick black hair morphed into antlers and her face contorted into fury as Lily narrowly dodged a red jet of light. 'Petrificus Totalus!' Bellatrix's grey eyes flashed before she froze like a statue, her hand outstretched and curled into a claw.
"You'll bloody pay for that!" Mulciber raised his wand and, without thinking, Lily barrelled into him and tackled him to the ground. She stuck the thicker end of her wand into his eye and he hissed in pain before she cast the impedimenta jinx on him.
Adrenaline rushed through her veins and she faced a black haired boy who looked like a carbon copy of Sirius, "Expelliarmus!"
A pale wooden wand flew into her hand and she pocketed it as she cast the stickfast hex on him. He was Sirius' brother and even if they both treated each other with animosity, she would never dream of hurting Regulus. She turned swiftly and faced the remaining two boys before something heavy hit the side of her head and Lily grunted as she fell sideways onto the forest floor…
Lily groggily opened her eyes and groaned as something thudded repeatedly somewhere off to the side. The light was painful against her eyes and she glanced to her side to see a window banging against its' panes due to the relentless force of the wind.
Her head was pounding and she gingerly touched the side of her head, prodding the sensitive area softly and hissing in pain.
"Are you alright?" a hesitant voice spoke from beside her and she smiled softly at Mary.
"What happened?" her voice was hoarse and her throat dry. Marlene handed her a glass of water and Lily sighed as the water slid down her throat.
"Snape brought you here, apparently you fell down and hit your head after dinner," Dorcas mumbled, her voice shaky as she furrowed her brows. "We don't believe him though."
"Do you remember anything, Lil?" Marlene added.
Lily did remember. She remembered the strange man in robes; she remembered venturing into the forest and finding the group of Slytherins; she remembered hexing Bellatrix Lestrange, and could see a peek of black hair in a cot behind her friends; she remembered flashes of Severus carrying her into the castle and handing her to Madam Pomfrey; she remembered him apologising before kissing her forehead and leaving. As she surveyed her friends' worried and tired faces, Lily couldn't bear to make them worry even more and decided that she would tell them the truth about what had happened another time.
"No," she sat up and grinned at her friends. "But Filch really ought to put some signs up after he mops the bloody floors. I could have died…"
Word Count: 2,026
Written for:
The Houses Competition
House: Ravenclaw
Category: Short
Prompt: Weather, Windy
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)
Assignment 5
Astronomy: Seasons
Task 4 – Write about someone who tries to be stealthy and fails
365 Prompts Challenge (HSWW[C&A] Forum)
294. Spell – Impedimenta
Golden Snitch Forum Event [IWD2018]
School: Beauxbatons
House: Melusine
Prompt: Malala Yousafzai – Write about a character standing up to an enemy despite all odds stacked against them
Bonus Prompts: (object) wand