~*Speaking of Lily*~
Written by: Cisselah
(Beater 2)
written for Cearphilly Catapults in The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Prompts: 13 & 14
~*-.-*~
Badly executed plans has always been James's strong suit, which was why it doesn't exactly come as a surprise when she has just enough time to see Black's terrified face before the giant stone doors slams shut and locks them inside.
"Potter," Lily slurs from her place against pillar. "What's goin' on?"
Well, James face seems to want to say, we're locked inside an ancient, magical sacrificial chamber and you're bleeding more than I'm comfortable with. So, you know, just another day in the service of the Order of the Phoenix.
But he doesn't say that.
"Nothing," he says instead. His voice is unusually loud in a desperate attempt to drown out the muffled sound of shouting that originates from the other side of the closed stone doors. "Just... Eh... A small, unforeseen complication"
The torches that hangs on the walls flickers animatedly and then goes out.
"Okay," James admits. "Maybe it's a big, unforeseen complication"
With a murmured spell, he holds up his mahogany wand. A white light spreads inside the sacrificial chamber, but it's too weak to illuminate the whole room and a part of it remains deep in shadows. Trying not to pass out, Lily glances around anxiously. The chamber is about the size of the Great Hall (Oh Merlin, how she misses Hogwarts) and made completely out of stone. The floor is made of stone, the walls are made of stone, the ceiling is made of stone and the altar (barely visible in the poor light) is made of finely polished sandstone. On the walls extinguished torches hangs and the ceiling is held up by thick stone pillars that are sculptured as naked trees.
But that isn't what worries Lily. What worries Lily is that the entire chamber is decorated with scratchy runes that oozes of dark magic and the floor hold a complex pattern of deep grooves that are made to act like canals for flowing blood. Everything in this place, from the treelike pillars to the scratchy runes, are a part of some sort of ancient sacrificial ritual, which is really bad considering Lily is bleeding all over the place.
Merlin's pink knickers, she knows she should have suspected something was wrong the minute those golden bull door handles started laughing at the other side of the stone doors. There is no sign as bad as laughing door handles.
She's an idiot.
"What?" Lily makes a fumbling attempt to stand but the pain soon forces her down again. "What did you do, Potter?" Her emerald green eyes sharpen with alarm.
"Nothing!" James says defensively. "Sirius was the one that insulted the door handle! It's not my fault it decided to take offense!"
There's a long silence following that statement. From the other side of the door, the shouting begins to fade. Apparently their companions have given up threatening the door handle into submission. She feels a flicker of admiration for the stubborn piece of furniture.
That is one pair of tough-as-nails door handles.
"Where are we, Potter?" She asks tensely. Her voice carries a permanent edge that has become somewhat familiar over the past two weeks.
"You already know, Lily," James answers tiredly. "And stop calling me Potter"
"I'll call you whatever I wanna call you!" Lily hisses. "You were the one stupid enough to get us locked into an ancient sacrificial chamber. We were supposed to seal it shut so that nobody could ever access it, not get stuck inside it like a pair of children. Professor Dumbledore trusted us to do it. This is a disaster!"
"I made a mistake!" James forces out. His jaw is clenched tightly, his hazel eyes are flashing dangerously and for a moment Lily has the strange feeling that she's looking at an avenging angel. "I panicked, okay? You were bleeding all over the place and I needed somewhere safe to put you before all the bats came back, and I panicked. I'm only human!"
A flash of horrified disgust sweeps over the redhead's face at the mention of the bats. Still, Lily has never considered herself a fragile flower (she had gotten into Auror Training, hadn't she?) and the mere hint that the raven-haired wizard has been trying to pull off some chauvinistic shit makes her burn in all the wrong places. Although, if she's being totally honest with herself, it has less to do with her capability to handle herself and more to do with what happened two weeks ago, but nobody quite does self denial like Lily Evans.
Still, she can't help how her thoughts wanders - no, strays - towards the forbidden subject that's (always) on her mind, even when she's injured and bleeding and locked inside a chamber whose last inhabitants had been a couple of crazy Egyptian wizards three millennia ago.
A wave of pain washes over her as she gasps, pressing her slippery hands against her shoulder.
"Shit, let me see," James says and bends down. He peels her fingers away from the wound and holds his wand above it to shed some light on the situation. Grimacing in pain, Lily turns her face away from him in a last minute desperate attempt to hold on to her pride and dignity. She'll be damned if she lets Potter see her in pain.
He murmurs a healing spell, pressing the tip of his glowing wand. The wound pulsates angrily once, but nothing else happens.
"It... It doesn't look that bad," James says in a voice that was far too cheerful to be real. "It's... just a flesh wound."
"Potter" Lily whispers, her wound forgotten and her eyes fixed on something behind him.
"You'll be fine," he swallows thickly. "You'll be just fine. We'll get you out of here and...-"
"Potter" Lily says, more urgently now. Her eyes are wide and scared.
"-... fix you up. You'll be just like new. In fact, if we-"
"James!"
His hazel eyes focus on her wide ones, then, as if guided by some long forgotten instinct, his eyes slides down to the floor where they stops.
"James," Lily breaths out in a soft, strawberry scented whisper that caress his face. Her emerald eyes are focused on the shadows."There's someone else in the room with us"
"I know" James whispers back, speaking so softly and quietly that at first Lily thinks she's imagining it. His eyes flickera up from the stone floor and drills into her emerald eyes meaningfully. "Lily," he whispers. "I think we've activated the summoning ritual that is etched into the room. Or at least you're blood did" He takes a deep breath. "The runes are glowing"
Morgana's moldy munchkins.
A quick glance sideways tells her he's right. The runes around them have started to glow in a vibrant, bluish light that has replaced James's Lumos. She's been so busy trying to keep the black spots from overtaking her vision that she hasn't noticed what has going on around her, and now she's going to pay the price. She shudders, and she isn't sure if it's because of the pain or fear or cold.
Oh Circe, it's cold in here.
Another throbbing wave of pain shatters her world and it takes several minutes (eternities) before she has awareness enough to realize that this is bad.
"Lily! Lily, wake up! Don't fall asleep, Lily!" His voice sounds like it came from far away.
Wait...
Who's voice?
"Lily, don't you dare die on me! Keep your eyes open, Lily! Keep your eyes open!" She opens her eyes (when had she closed them?) and a blurry face swims before her view. Hazel eyes and dark, messy hair that sticks up as if someone had electrocuted it. A strong jaw and straight nose and Merlin's dear dragons, look at those cheekbones. The face is perfect, like an angel's.
Had God sent her an angel?
"You're so pretty," she slurs at the angel. "So pretty, pretty, pretty"
"Hold that thought for when you're clear-headed again," the angel tells her and presses a glowing piece of wood against her shoulder to-
Merlin, that hurts!
Actually, everything hurts.
Lily moans as the world slides into focus once more. The pain in her shoulder is strong but manageable, which is too bad, because Lily would rather think about anything else than James's pretty face and her disorientated confession. She knows he's handsome (even though life would certainly have been easier if she doesn't), but there is no way she wants to admit that to his face (Merlin only knows what that'd do to his already inflated ego) and the slurred confession is bound to bring up awkward subjects (memories) - like what had happened two weeks ago.
Circe's nasty pigs, she doesn't want to think about what had happened two weeks ago.
She must still be disorientated from the brief period of not-fully-conscious-but-not-fully-unconscious, because she doesn't notice that James has stood and turned away from her at first. The realization comes as a complete surprise, like the chunk of time between Lily waking up and James turning away is missing, and she stares at his back with an open mouth.
"Show yourself!" He raises his wand, pointing it into the moving shadows with the characteristic Gryffindor fearlessness he's always possessed.
To Lily's surprise, the shadows listen. From the darkness, a pale creature emerges. It's unlike any creature Lily has ever seen before. It's shaped in a vaguely humanoid way with two arms, two legs and one head, but there the similarities ends. It's impossible to tell if it's a female or a male, but the delicate bone structure makes Lily suspect it is the former. The creature's limbs are long and pointy, its body so skinny she can count its ribs. Its skin is pale, whiter than any skin she has ever seen before, and dark runes adorns it in scratchy spirals. Its head is stretched thin like a skeleton but its face is swollen as if it has endured a thousand beatings. Eight black eyes stares out from the swollen flesh, thin lips twisted up in a predatory grin that shows sharp teeth. The creature reminds Lily of a deadly spider, its limbs moving jarringly but smoothly, its eight eyes observing everything as it glides out of the shadows like it's Princess Diana on a peach.
"Coming, coming, coming to answer the calling," the creature hisses in a raspy, singsong voice that drips with smug gloating.
"There's no calling," James tells it forcefully. He sounds strong and unafraid, but from her place against the pillar Lily can see that his hands are shaking. "Return from where you came"
The creature's grin widens.
"There's a calling," its raspy voice sings. "Come, come, come... Answer all my questions"
"There's no calling"
"Lies" the creature hisses contentedly, its black eyes shining with malice as it starts to sway back and forth over the stone floor. "All lies, little wizard. There's a calling. Come, come, come... Answer all my questions"
"Who are you?" James demands to know.
"A slave, an advisor, a whisperer of truth," the creature seems almost excited as it cracks it's head to the side in a mocking manner. "I am the Oracle. I speak of things not yet passed" The Oracle grins and flexes it's long fingers as if it's imagining the feeling of his throat under them.
James swears creatively. If her throat hasn't suddenly gone so dry, Lily would have joined him. Professor Dumbledore has told them about the Oracle, warned them not to ask any questions or listen to anything it says.
It may not be able to physically hurt you, he has warned them. But it'll talk you into doing it yourself. No man should know the future. It's a heavier burden than most.
"What's the matter, little wizard? Are you scared now? Do you want your friends? Do you want your daddy?" It grins viciously and slips closer towards him, its skinny, white body swaying hypnotically like a snake. "Ask for it, little wizard, and I'll tell you your future"
From her place against the pillar, Lily can see him swallow hard, but his face is obscured from her view and she can't get a good read on his facial expression.
Don't do it, she begs him in her mind. It's not worth it, James.
"And why would you tell me the truth?" There's a strange edge in James's voice, like he's trying to go for I-don't-believe-a-word-coming-out-of-your-mouth but leans more towards I-want-to-believe-every-word-coming-out-of-your-mouth.
The Oracle's grin becomes so wide that its yellowing teeth flashes into sight.
"Why lie," it purrs comfortingly. "When the truth always hurts more?"
A shudder runs through Lily's body. Maybe it's the predatory way it moves, maybe it's the raspy sound of its unused voice or the sharp looks that speaks of deceit, but Lily has the sudden feeling that it wants nothing more than to laugh while it yanks James's strings and makes him dance until he drops dead.
"Like this; you have three good friends you love very much. One will be a traitor, the other a prisoner and the third a lonely man that can never find peace" It makes a sweeping motion with its long arms that succeeded in seeming mocking, hopeless and triumphant at the same time.
"Shut up"
"Like this; you dream about her all the time" Its eyes turn towards Lily with a sadistic, jeering intensity that freezes her into solid ice. "You dream of her fingers and hair and lips, but most of it all you dream of her eyes. You haven't been able to forget her eyes, not after that night two weeks ago. You torment yourself over that night. It shouldn't have happened like that. You should have made it special. She shouldn't have been so drunk - you shouldn't have been drunk... Except you weren't, were you? You were just a little bit tipsy and you started it anyway, not because you were out of control, but because you had been waiting for that for years" It leers at Lily, its eyes gleaming with sick anticipation as it gauges her reaction. A pain stabs her heart that has nothing to do with her injury. "You risked your friendship with that little witch just to get a taste of your dreams"
"Shut up"
"Do you want to know your future? Do you want to know about her? About Lily and James? About your future?"
"Shut up!"
"About the baby that's brewing in little witch's tummy?"
The world stops.
"What baby?" James breaths out (he sounds positively terrified, Lily thinks hysterically). The Oracle smile like it's the cat that caught and ate the canary.
"The one you made two weeks ago. Your only son, your only child" It sings. "The one that'll be the death of her"
"No," James denies.
"Yes," It purrs in pleasure, stretching out and leaning forward like a snake about to strike. "She'll beg for mercy but none will be given. She'll beg for him to kill her and he will" It laughs a cruel, rasping laugh that makes the hair on the back of Lily's neck rise. "That baby will have darkness in it. So dark it'll scare even you're headmaster. Your baby - your son - will make the Ministry tremble. He'll speak to the snakes and the snakes will listen. He will stand underneath the Dark Mark and the Aurors will try to apprehend him and his companions. He'll help a prisoner of Azkaban escape. He'll break into the Ministry. He'll steal from Gringotts. He'll make a boy almost bleed out on the bathroom tiles. He'll be known as Undesirable Number One. Some will fear him and some will adore him. That's your baby" It smiles maliciously at James. "Stop all this and kill it now"
Lily wants to scream.
No!
This isn't happening.
This isn't right.
No! No! No! No!
She's not pregnant.
She can't have a baby (not with him), and if she can, it can't be evil (she'd love it too much for that to be true).
No.
She's not going to accept this.
Neither is James.
"You're lying," he accuses the Oracle. "I'm not having a baby. I don't have a son. You're lying. I don't believe you"
He lashes out, his wand whipping out to cast a spell at the same time as his body throws itself forward towards the Oracle as if he wants to rugby tackle the creature. Lily admires his skill from beneath heavy lids. He' fast - but the Oracle is faster. It moves too quickly for Lily's eyes to follow, but she catches blurred glimpses of pale fingers and angrily black runes as the creature drops the raven-haired wizard to the ground in a limp heap. James stays where he landed, lying in an uncomfortable position with his neck turned awkwardly towards her. His hazel eyes are awake and scared, but the rest of him is paralyzed.
"What did you do to him?" Lily croaks out. Her throat is dryer than the Sahara desert and she just wants to go home.
The Oracle doesn't answer but smiles.
"Your baby is going to suffer" It says smoothly instead, sliding over the floor towards her until it's standing just in front of her, glancing down at her with malicious eyes. "Just put it out of its misery while you still can. It's a mercy. He'll live for years in dark, cold place with only spiders as his company. His family will hate him. His friends will die. He'll be tortured, used, abused and manhandled. He won't live longer than seventeen summers and there won't be a year that doesn't bring him pain. They'll hunt him obsessively. Kill him now, little witch, before his suffering has begun"
Lily forces herself to relax. She cocks her head to one side, studying the creature silently before she swallows dryly and fixes her gaze on one of the Oracle's many eyes.
"You're scared," she states in a hoarse voice.
It's expression changes immediately. Suddenly it's right in front of her, its bony nose almost touching hers, its snarling lips and yellowing teeth only seconds from hers. Gone is the mocking malice and in its place is only fury.
"You should be too," it hisses at her, shifting smoothly and bending over so that its lips hovers just next to her ear. The whisper is silent, but there is no way she can mistake the words. They echo inside her, bouncing around inside her skull like a bad omen.
With a bang the stone doors slams open and Sirius Black marches in. Without hesitating or haltering, he throws a nasty looking spell at the Oracle. The creature shrieks and pulls back into the shadows as the others rush in. Lily feels herself being lifted up and gentle hands holds her while an even gentler voice whispers reassurances in her ear.
She doesn't hear them, though. Her mind is still filled with the ominous last words of the Oracle, forever immortalized in her memory.
"It will end badly"
-w-
It does.