Voldemort's cruel laughter filled the air as he descended onto solid ground. "Did you really think I'd go upon simple request, Dumbledore? I'm afraid I've still got business," Voldemort sneered and waved a hand lazily, "to attend--"
"Terribly sorry," Dumbledore cut in, a slight smile upon his face, "but it wasn't you I was addressing, Tom." Dumbledore's fiery eyes flickered only momentarily to Lily and James before returning to Voldemort's face; Voldemort didn't seem to catch the movement, as seemed to be Dumbledore's intention. "Take the students and lead them back to the school, but do not take the roads. There is a safer alternative, once past the initial threat. I have the utmost faith that you are familiar enough with the portent so as to cope with it as per usual." Dumbledore continued to smile lightly; Lily and James understood that this was their instruction, though they did not move.
"Where are you sending your voice, Dumbledore? To your dear brother down the street?" Dumbledore continued to smile. "Dolohov!" Voldemort shouted, his quality of voice changing completely. "Seek the brother." He returned his gaze to Dumbledore, who was still smiling. "Why so amused, Dumbledore? I have just sent men to kill--"
"I assure you, Tom, your men have no chance of subduing Aberforth. He is a man of extraordinary stubbornness who wouldn't put up for a second with being killed. Go now," he added, with the air of someone who was commenting on the weather.
"Smart move, Dumbledore, telling him to run... maybe you're not quite as senile as you--"
"Actually Tom, that time I was talking to you. Leave this town. You have done enough damage here for one day."
"James," Lily whispered in his ear as Voldemort retorted, "ten more Death Eaters just apparated. We have to get everyone back to the castle... they're heading to the field... let's go..." James felt his arm being tugged; he reluctantly allowed his gaze to break with Dumbledore's eyes and stumbled quietly behind her. Moments later, Voldemort's cold, high voice sounded around their ears.
"Crucio."
Pain unlike anything James had ever known shot through his entire form; he screamed aloud, writhing--but then it was over, and he came to himself, lying in the street, panting beside Lily."Effective," James heard Voldemort say in a slightly pained voice. "You do not shield them, but you echo what they feel unto me. Thus, I cannot kill them or I kill myself... I am forced to let them pass..." Voldemort laughed cruelly. "I would give you the benefit of being called 'clever', Dumbledore, but for the fact you thought you could fool me. All right, children, flee, attempt to save your fellow students. Be rest assured, however; once I have done away with your Headmaster, I will pursue you myself--"
"Isn't it time we duelled, Tom?" asked Dumbledore loudly but calmly.
James caught sight of the fury on Voldemort's face as he was cut across once again; he raised his wand and cast a spell soundlessly against Dumbledore, which he blocked easily. James was vaguely aware that Lily had pulled him to his feet and was dragging him frantically by the sleeve in the opposite direction. Finally, something in James' brain clicked; he took Lily's hand instinctively and sprinted toward the field. "Kill the students," Voldemort's cold voice echoed over the city. Lily glanced at James, face pale, eyes darting; her legs were pumping just as fast as his were. She clung tightly to his hand as they continued to run, and James understood that she was running more in fear than in inspiration of Dumbledore's orders. Finally, the scene unfolded: Sirius, Aberforth and a handful of seventh-years were duelling four Death Eaters, flocks of children huddled in the field behind them. A line of already unconscious Death Eaters lay in front of everyone. James let go of Lily's hand, and the two of them simultaneously stunned a pair of Death Eaters from behind, catching them unawares. Sirius caught sight of them, grinned, and left Aberforth to deal with the remaining hooded figures.
"'Bout time, Prongs, I was starting to think you'd gone over to the other side," Sirius shouted. Even in the dark, he looked in worse shape than James felt; he had deep gashes on his forehead and cheeks, and his left arm hung limply at his side. All the same, he was smiling, obviously genuinely relieved to see James was all right."We have to get everyone out of the Hogsmeade. Voldemort's here," James panted, clutching at a stitch in his side. All his limbs seemed to ache; he wondered dimly if it was a result of the Cruciatus curse he'd just been on the receiving end of.
Sirius' jaw dropped. "Here?"
James nodded. "Dumbledore's facing off with him; he told Evans and I to get everyone out. We've got to... where's Peter?"
Sirius shook his head grimly. "Haven't seen him."
The blood drained from James' face. "Okay, take everyone and get them into the Shrieking Shack, then--"
"Are you mad?" Sirius cut in. "There are much easier ways to get back to Hogwarts, like, oh, say, the roads."
"Dumbledore said no," James said, scanning the landscape for any indication of his invisible friend. "There are probably Death Eaters just waiting for us. I don't know if you heard Voldemort's orders a minute ago--"
"Kill the students?" Sirius asked.
"Right. They probably know about a lot of the secret passages, and most of them are on the side of town where Voldemort is right now, whereas the Shack is right there," James said, pointing up the hill to the dark structure. "Dumbledore specifically said that the safest way is through the most familiar passage. So, mate, I know you're injured, but do you think you could keep Moony at bay while Evans gets everyone down into the tunnel?"
Sirius nodded. "I should manage. What are you going to do?"
"Find Wormtail."
"Okay, I'm sorry," Lily interjected, stepping forward angrily and pointing a finger in James' face. "You two seem to know what you're talking about with the Shrieking Shack and all that even though it sounds like complete gibberish to the rest of us, but now you're talking about going out there again after You-Know-Who said he was going to hunt you down personally. I can entertain your stupidity to a limit, Potter, but the odds are that Pettigrew's dead. I'm not going to let you risk your life again."
"Glad to hear I've got everyone's confidence," a voice grumbled from behind James. James turned to regard Peter, half-smiling, holding out the silvery cloak to James. James grinned and clapped Peter on the shoulder; he opened his mouth to say something when Aberforth shouted behind them."Why are you still standing here?" he yelled, finally stunning the last Death Eater and rolling up his sleeves in preparation for battle with the next wave of four that were heading up the road. "Get the students up to the damned castle!"
James nodded curtly and waved at the crowd. Some people were crying while others comforted; others were sitting in the fetal position, rocking back and forth; others still, James was relieved to find, seemed perfectly together. "Oi! I know you're all scared, but I--we're acting on Dumbledore's orders to get you up to the castle safely. I need everyone to do their best to pull themselves together and form two lines; stay close and, even if we seem crazy, trust us. We've got a plan, but you won't like it."
"How do we know you're not Death Eaters?" one boy asked near the back of the drove."We've kept you safe this long, haven't we?" James asked. No one questioned him after that. James nodded and turned to Lily, putting a hand gently on her shoulder and looking her in the eye.
"I know you won't like me ordering you around, but I need you to organize two groups of witches and wizards that are of age; one group to lead and one group to bring up the tail, prepared to curse any Death Eaters who might try to follow. I need you to lead; you're a Prefect, and you're good at it, people trust you to lead them. I'll head the back group."
Lily nodded, but her green eyes were still full of fear. "Are you sure the Shrieking Shack is our only option?"
James smiled grimly and hoped desperately she didn't think he was making fun of her. "Sirius will take care of the only horror that'll come our way. Trust us, we've had practice," he assured her and headed off to usher the students into lines.
Dumbledore must have done a good job of keeping Voldemort busy, and Aberforth must have held his own against the Death Eaters, because only a pair of the hooded figures attacked the procession of students on their way up to the Shrieking Shack, which James, Frank Longbottom and Kingsley Shacklebolt made short work of. As James had suspected, most students seemed eventually more willing to undertake the horrors of the Shack than they were to go back and face the horrors back in Hogsmeade. Some, on the other hand, decided there was no way they'd ever set foot in the Shack and stood outside its boundaries until a large, shaggy black dog with a severe limp in one paw growled in the shadows behind them, at which point they scurried up to the Shack and seemed to decide that they'd probably be all right as long as they stuck with their fellow students.
James closed the door to the Shack once everyone had been ushered inside, waving his wand and magically nailing the boards back into the wood as fast as possible. Everyone was huddled, cramped, in the hallway. The noises coming from the Shack had been masked by the destruction in town; now, however, they sounded clearly in everyone's ears. There was the occasional tremor beneath their feet; Lupin was clearly having trouble without his friends to keep him in check. James suppressed his guilt and pressed a finger to his lips to indicate silence to the masses; he beckoned to the black dog that had followed them in and sent him through a door at the end of the hall, which James had pushed open just far enough to admit the dog's slender frame. The dog seemed to steel itself before entering the room, which he did briskly but still tendering his front left paw. James quickly shut the door behind the dog and locked it with his wand before indicating to Lily that she should lead them down the stairs.
James braced himself for the moment when Lupin would catch a whiff of the dozens of humans inside the Shack, and it came as he was following the last third-year down the stairs. Moony's growls suddenly turned much more vicious; there was the sound of splintering wood, followed by a loud growl from Sirius and a heavy thump that indicated the two of them were in combat. James paused momentarily at the bottom of the stairs as Lily looked to him for direction. He glanced up at the ceiling, where another thump was causing dust to fall through and cover them lightly. Some of the smaller kids screamed, and James decided that getting them out was a bigger priority than subduing Remus. He nodded Lily forward into the next room, but caught hold of Peter's collar and dragged him back as the students started to file into the underground passage that would lead them back to Hogwarts.
"Sirius needs help," James whispered. "Can you transform and help him by acting distraction?" Peter stared at James, eyes darting nervously, but eventually nodded. He headed hesitantly back up the stairs behind James and immediately morphed into a rat, a form which James knew he was more comfortable in. James piled in after the last kid and closed the door behind him, turning and walking down the familiar passageway with a sincere feeling of foreboding.