DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter.
A/N: This is a three-part installment of the times that James and Lily Potter defied Voldemort before their demise.
Once
Lily Evans and James Potter were crouched behind an over-turned table, both of them shaking with fear as they heard the quiet approach of someone coming up the garden path of the house that they were in.
Lily tried to swallow the scream that was threatening to give her and James' position away. James took her hand, squeezing her fingers, trying to reassure his girlfriend that they still had a chance of survival. They were together, just as they'd promised each other before they burst in on the torture of Marlene McKinnon…
…Marlene had been sat at home, enjoying a rare moment alone of peace and quiet before a meeting with James and Lily. She had just turned the wireless on and had settled into her favourite armchair with a hot cup of tea, when there had been a knock at the door. Thinking it was her friends and forgetting about safety, she called to them that the door was open and they could come in. When she looked up she saw three masked figures, each of them pointing their wands at her.
She had put up a fight, determined not to give in. She was on her last legs, about to either die or be driven into insanity as the three Death Eaters tortured her, laughing at her, enjoying her pain, when James and Lily burst in, wands out, firing hexes and jinxes at the Death Eaters. The fight that followed had resulted in Marlene's death as a beam of green light bounced off the mirror above the mantle and hit her square in the chest…
Her body now lay in the middle of the room, defeated beyond repair. The front door creaked open and Lily gasped. James was taking deep calming breaths, trying to reassure himself that they were going to make it out alive. He needed to stay alive. He had promised himself that he would ask Lily to marry him. He needed to ask her. He needed her to say yes. It was either now or maybe never.
"Lily," he whispered, "I know now is not the best time, but I can't live without you. I want some incentive to get us out of this mess. I'm asking you to marry me, Lily."
She looked sideways at him, eyes wide with shock, hardly daring to believe that she was being proposed to when they could die at any minute. "You're right, this isn't the best time, James," she hissed. Then she saw the hurt look on James' face and added, "But that doesn't mean I won't answer. Yes. Yes, I will marry you. Now get us out of this!"
"Homenum Revelio!" A high cold voice pierced the air, making them quake with fear. This couldn't be happening! They hadn't been expecting Voldemort to turn up. Lily's breath hitched in her throat and James stopped breathing altogether. "I know you're in here! Now come out and I may just spare your life." His voice was getting nearer, the sound of his shoes making only the slightest of noise, his robes rustling as he stepped farther into the hallway.
"We're not going to get out of this," Lily whispered, squeezing James' fingers so tightly that he raised his eyebrows at her. Before she could say anything else, the door to the room swung open, making their hearts pound frantically as death came nearer. They lifted their wands and James mouthed, "One…Two…THREE!" They jumped out from behind their table as they both shouted, "Stupefy!"
Voldemort deflected their spells, sending something more sinister back. James pushed Lily to the ground so that the beam of green light narrowly missed them. When she was out of range, James made an armchair charge at Voldemort, but it burst into flames before it reached him, before turning into a giant, deadly snake that lunged at James to bite; who Transfigured it into a length of rope and sent it back as a lasso -
There was a ear-splitting crash as the wall blew apart to reveal Mad-Eye Moody, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Albus Dumbledore…
A/N: A review would be wonderful :)
