Disclaimer:
All characters you recognize as J.K. Rowling's are not mine.
Also, you may recognize a few things from the House of Night series by P C Cast.
Those are also not mine.
Previously;
"Goodnight, James, and thanks."
"No problem, Lily,"
Phase one of befriending Lily: Getting her to like me; Complete.
A F L O W E R S S P A R K
Chapter Four
F R U S T R A T I O N
--x--
Lily gazed out at the descending star. The dazzling shades of red and yellow merged into a vividly vibrant scene that could earn the approval of even the most criticizing being. Eyes tinted different shades of green, orange and brown, the reflection of the sunset was most evident. Her hair was twice as bright, which seemed almost impossible.
Her legs dangled out of a fourth story window. Within 5 hours of waking up the previous day, James and Lily had made it to a new hotel. It wasn't that well protected, nor posh, but Lily felt safe all the same.
As the last of the light faded down behind the shadowed far away hills, Lily pulled in her legs and walked slowly backwards. As the sky became a mixture of purple and blue, she could feel coldness taking place of the previous heat.
She sighed as she slipped out into the hallway. There were candles on brass mounts placed regularly along the wall, which casted dancing shadows on the paintings that lined it.
She lazily crept down the hallway, fidgeting slightly to ease her restlessness. She turned around and took a few lithe steps forward. Sighing once, she came to a stand still, unable to make her mind up about whether or not she should return down the familiarly shadowed hallway that seemed to be redolent of wine and cheap perfume.
She leaped up in fright, letting out an instinctual yelp as a voice coughed behind her. Her chest expanded considerably, as she let out a held in breath in a sigh of relief.
"Potter." She inclined her head forwards as a way of greeting him.
He returned her greeting with an amused smile. She blushed a terribly endearing color before passing by him, continuing on past her own door, wanting nothing but to leave.
She twisted and turned through a maze of corridors. Whilst walking down a lengthy hallway, a monstrously big shadow appeared from around the corner, only seeming to grow in size. The pointed figure's steps were unnervingly silent. That, or Lily's sense of hearing had been replaced with her rapidly increasing fear. Lily's eyes widened, before she took in quick, shallow breaths, making sure to make no noise. She'd seen this before… read about it… Nothing ever happened, right?
Wrong.
A masked figure turned the corner, clad in a billowing black cloak. Her heartbeat continued to quicken as she fought for control over her body. Fear seemed to take over and Lily felt paralyzed. Three more appeared from behind the corner, dressed the same.
It wasn't long 'til Lily realized it wasn't fear that currently had authority over her body, but a spell. She realized this about the same time she saw one of the deatheaters shout a foreign word. This was also the same time Lily had no choice but to submit to the blackness threatening to engulf her.
--x--
Tenderly stretching out his tired limbs, James pushed himself off the coarse bark on which he was leaning. There was a dull throbbing sensation that coursed through out his body, the source of which was his badly bruised thighs.
Each time he moved a leg, the pain split through him. It wasn't completely unbearable, but it was exactly comfortable.
Hours of running from a burning building had caused his body to capitulate to pain induced slumber. Waking up had not been a pleasant experience as the full force of his wounds hit him round the head.
Groaning, he stood up, before the memories of the night before flooded his thoughts.
"Lily!" I shout out. It's futile even trying; they have her in a firm grasp. She slumps lifelessly into the death eater's hands. Anger fills me.
Sure, she's annoying, hot headed, and seems to have a way of getting under my skin like no other, but in no world would I want this to happen to her. The death eaters are everything I detest, and everything my parents fight against.
My whole life collapsed because these people need to be defeated, because things worth fighting for called for sacrifices. Sacrifices such as leaving your kids behind... So, when I was brought knowing that killing these people was more important then me, how am I meant to stand here doing nothing?
So, I run after him, quite quickly too. I suppress a growl threatening to burst from my unsuspecting throat.
I reach out, grabbing a fistful of his black cloak. I spin him round, and he drops Lily in both shock and fright, or in preparation for a fight. He then swings back his hand, balling up his fist, confirming it to be the latter. I narrow my eyes and easily dodge his lazily thrown punch.
Pulling back my whole body, I throw a fake, slow punch to his face, which he easily catches in his right hand, and quickly knee him where it'd really hurt. He doubles over, releasing my hand and groaning. As he falls, a wand spills out from his pocket. In a swift, unseen movement, I swoop down and grasp it firmly. It gives me a sense of safety in situation where I was next to powerless.
He stands back up. I clip him in the neck, and send another kick down there. As he flies from my jab to his neck, my kick narrowly misses him. I hear him sigh in relief, and the frustration builds. He throws a roundhouse kick and me, which I duck under effortlessly. I punch him once in the face, so his head is thrown backwards, kick him in the knee, so he's pulled forwards and almost collapses, and punch him in the gut and chest consequently.
He collapses to the floor within seconds, bloody and bruised. To be honest, he is twice as bad as I am, and I am still inspecting my various bleeding cuts and rapidly appearing bruises.
I kick him in the stomach, which knocks the wind out of him. I gaze down at his retching body. He flips over on to his back, breathing heavily. His cloak flaps open, and I see the glint of a silver spherical shape, concealed with various buttons.
I resist the growing urge to smirk and look at the limp Lily. Her red hair is tossed around her paler-than-normal face, almost everything about her screams out 'dead'. My want to feel smug vaporizes, and anger takes its place.
Taking in Lily's appearance, I don't notice the death eater's quick recovery.
He smashes into my leg, throwing a punch that will surely leave a mark tomorrow. I let out hasty breath as I plummet into the ground. Another death eater rounded the corner, wand pointed and anger radiating from every fiber of his being.
Stopping his line of thought there, James focused on anything to take his thoughts away from the mind-splitting memories he was recollecting.
He took in the scene around him. The cold, hard forest floor was bestrewn with orange and brown speckled leaves. He looked up, extending his arms outwards in a stretching motion, to see a canopy of bare branches. The crack made between them showed a moisture-filled sky, almost pure white in color.
He sighed and looked to sideways. There was a large gap between the plants, trees lining either side of it, creating an evocative sight that you'd most likely expect to see in antique-looking photos, or a painting of sorts.
He sighed again, long and hard, before testing out his unsteady lower half with a few cautious steps. His leg quivered slightly and he stood straight.
Taking a few steps, more confident this time, his lips pulled up at the corners as he felt a sense of accomplishment fill him to the top.
He then remembered exactly why he was here, and he physically winced as the memory he'd tried to hard to avoid came back.
"What are you doing?" His voice is gravelly. It sounds like it physically hurts him to speak.
"The boy provoked me," He answers simply, though the underlying fear in his monotone voice is evident.
"And if you don't stop your behavior, you will provoke me." He replies sternly, leaving no room for argument.
The man nodded tersely, though his cloak leaves much to be imagined. He then grabbed my arms, restraining me. Gazing at the standing death eater, I don't register the action until it is too far done for me to do anything. Despite struggling, forcefully pushing and scraping his skin, his grip is too strong.
The other death eater then picks up Lily's inanimate form; carrying her round the corner before the anger boiling inside me reminds me of the wand in my hand.
The death eater then pushes me around the corner, and I form a rough plan inside my head.
The other death eater races ahead, the one constricting me having a hard time from my struggles. As I stop struggling and the only sounds filling the walls are his shallow breaths, I hear the regular beep from his chest. Beep, beep, beep.
I see a window adjacent to a couple of pipes jutting out from the wall. With the wand I whisper a complex incantation. He quickly let's go off me, burns forming on his hands. I push him roughly into the pipes. They break, so that most of the pipe is cantilevered by the top. I see the death eater impatiently striding away from the hotel out of the window. I sigh in relief. She won't be hurt.
I pull open his cloak, revealing my doubts to be true. I summon a handcuff. It flies into my hand, decorated with pink fluff. In another situation I would find this amusing. But I don't. I handcuff his struggling hand to a pipe that hasn't been broken. My fingers curl up above the button, every single bad ending running through my head. No timer? The death eater captures me? It doesn't work?
But none of them stop me. I press the red button…
And run. The beeps got rapidly faster until you could not distinguish the difference between one beep and another, they just became one long drone.
I feel a blast of cool air and look over to the open window to the left of me. I am two stories higher than ground level, but I have no other chance to escape. It was this or death.
With a moment's hesitation, I leap from the window, plummeting towards the ground at what seemed the speed of a roller coaster. My skin is pulled back as I rush towards the concrete floor.
I land with smack, my hands red from the impact, while the building I was previously in not two seconds ago exploded with a louder bang than I could've imagined.
Suddenly all hearing is cut off. The fire touches my skin, and I scream out in agony. Every moment pushed my outer layer of skin far too hard, and every breath tore into my lungs. I take in a lungful of smoke, pulling up my shirt around my mouth. I resist choking; it would hurt far too much.
The tears prickle at my eyes, before spilling without warning. I blink them away, but the smoke hitting them just creates more.
Shards of glass tear through my skin, grazing it and cutting into it. Bits of plaster shower over me, forcing me to duck for cover.
"You!" The death eater shouts out in his low, gravelly voice. He appears unharmed but I couldn't turn my head round far enough without it screaming for me too stop, and the smoke and tears mixing together made it too hard to see.
Fear fills me, the snapped wand, now futile, is grasped by my right hand.
I'm powerless.
He shakes his head, and counts his steps. Twenty-four… thirty-eight… fifty-three... It bored him, of course, but it was like counting sheep. Something to do; a distraction?
He groaned aloud. He would give almost anything to see Lily again. He would give even more for all of this to have never happened; for him to see the finely furnished Hogwarts beds. He'd never pushed himself so hard before, and his limbs were taking it for the worse.
It was while he pondered on Hogwarts that he heard a voice surprisingly familiar.
"Prongs, mate!" James shook his head, glanced behind him and blinked.
His vision blurred for a second and then refocused. He blamed it purely on hallucinations, and on lack of sleep. He carried on wearily treading through the half soggy, half crunchy mass of leaves.
"D'ya have to walk so bloody quick?" His best mate questioned. James spun round in one fluid movement that then caused him to feel slightly nauseous.
"Sirius?" He blinked, rubbing his eyes a couple of times.
"In the flesh."
"Wh-How... You… Lost?" James muttered a string of incoherent words, but Sirius understood.
"I'll explain it too you soon, but Dumbledore-"
"Dumbledore." James snorted, "Should've guessed."
Sirius winked at him and carried on, unfurling his hand. "Dumbledore made this portkey."
In it, there was a little golden lace, shaped like a skull. James, who trusted his life with his best friend/brother, touched it without hesitation.
Suddenly he was spinning out of control. All he could detect were color fields, as everything merged into one. Hazy shades of orange and brown just become a dark auburn as the blended together. The bare branches swiveled into nothingness, and James' felt as though is stomach content were threatening to come up.
It was as though a freak tornado and flown right by then and decided it would sweep him up and take him for a ride. He whirled turbulently, the hazy patches turning into fresh black dots.
Then, he felt the drooping sensation of falling suddenly. He collapsed to the floor, staggering. The hazy patches of color turned to darkness as he watched 'Sirius' merge into an unfamiliar face; a face that was laughing maniacally.
--x--
Lily wasn't oblivious to the fact she had been knocked out. Actually, the constant ache emanating from the bruise on the back of her head was incessant reminder of this. She looked around her, peering into the vastness of the dark that surrounded her.
She decidedly concluded that her eyes would be of no help, open or closed, and resorted to leaning against the cold stony wall behind her. Her eyelids fluttered down, and she twisted herself in an unorthodox position, in which the left side of her body grazed the hard rock.
After moments of restlessly turning, the overly dominant impatience within her burst outward, and in one burst of annoyance she stood upright. Sighing, she muttered profanities under her breath, before feeling the wall behind her. Relying mainly on her sense of touch, she roughly moved to the side, one hand always remaining on the boulder-like structure.
"That ain't gon' get yous nowhere 'ere." A crabby voice spoke out,
Lily jumped up, before gathering herself. A prodigious quantity of questions sprang to mind, and she was tempted to fire them at the unknown speaker. Instead, she methodically picked one.
"How can you see me?" She asked, squinting as she turned over 360 degrees.
"Yous gon' get use' to the dark," The rigorous chagrin was obvious in his statement.
Lily doubted that strongly. "Oh yeah? After how long?" She questioned him, curious.
"A month or two?" He pondered. "They kee' op'ning the doors, the light'll blind you and it'll take ya another day to get use' to it. Not that ya wan'."
She perceived a couple of shuffles and a groan. "Is there someone else here?" Lily asked, in a tone that was split between worried and inappropriately curious.
"Though' yous'd hav' know him." Lily deciphered his thick, southern American accent.
"Why?" Calling her current state confused would be a bit of an understatement.
" 'E was throw' in 'ere wit' ya." Lily furrowed her brow, fear brewing up inside her jostling stomach.
Her newly thought of fears were soon confirmed by the next statement.
"Lily?"
"James?"
--x--
She sighed as her the fermenting terror within her continued to increase. "Oh, f." She wobbled slightly, realizing she was still stood upright. Closing her eyes, she slid slowly down the harshly scraping barrier.
"James," She whimpered, all trivial rivalries forgotten in the moment. "What are we going to do?" Despite her will to stay strong, and her antagonism of crying, she couldn't help but let her voice break and quiver.
His reply was soft, yet stern. "Lily? Lily. Listen to me, I'll get you out of here." He trailed off into a subdued murmur, "I'll get you out of here," He repeated, more to himself than Lily.
Lily took in a shaky breath as she heard more shuffles. Sounds similar to the ones she had created when padding along the wall came from where a few seconds ago she could hear James.
"What are you doing?" She was feeling cramped and terrorized as she curled up into a ball, not caring that she was constricting her lungs or about anything rational at the moment.
"I'm going to get us out, Lily. They must have gotten us in somehow."
"I' tried that b'fore," The man's voice resounded again. James staggered slightly, taken aback by this new person. The unnamed one then jangled the chains which attached his wrists to the wall, preventing any chances at escape. "All they'll do is get yous in the'e." He finished.
James eyes, however, were rebellious as he shrugged nonchalantly, momentarily forgetting neither could see him. "So? I've got to try."
Lily found she admired James in a new light, but she was much to petrified to have acknowledged such things right then.
He jangled them regularly, but Lily concluded that it was because he was moving, not to prove a point.
"I was lucky," He said, "All they did was put me in chains. They'll kill most attempted escapees," He proved Lily's conclusion wrong, but remained silent afterwards.
James ignored him, but Lily was weaker, something she mentally kicked herself for, and felt herself wanting James to stop trying to escape. But she gathered up her strength, and kept her lips shut. Her breaths racked her body, as she tried to control her fright. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and she felt like punching herself for letting them. Her breaths turned into deep sighs as she tried to overcome the miniscule panic attack she had managed to find herself in.
"James…?"
"Mmm?" Was his lazy reply. Lily knew he was too busy to actually pay attention, and just shook herself free of any thoughts concerning doubts, "Oh, um… found anything?" She covered up quickly.
"No, wait…" His statement was followed by a several second pause. "I… I think so," He finished hesitantly.
"What do you mean, 'You think so'?" Lily echoed.
"I-"
"Found a door?" The third person interjected.
James nodded, before quickly adding, "Oh, yeah."
"I would' go through ther' if ya kno' wha's goo' fer ya." He drawled out.
Lily could practically feel the grin oozing from James, as he answered, "I never know what's good for me."
He tugged on the door, which, to his surprise, swung open with ease. A laser beam of light burst into the cooped up room. Lily gasped as she saw the third person. She recognized him, surprising seeing as the damage done to his face was pretty significant.
Purple and blue bruises could be seen on every piece of visible skin. Oozing cuts accompanied the healing red welts from previous hits. His face was paler than could ever be considered natural; shades lighter than Lily, who was fairly pale herself.
Two chains and shackles hoisted his arms up, which was cutting of the blood connection almost completely. Looking at the beaten and bruised man, Lily felt pangs of sympathy in her gut. She frowned visibly, wanting to murmur a soft 'sorry' or something of the sort but she couldn't seem to make her lips do anything but frown. Furrowing her brow, she heard James cough uncertainly. She twisted her neck in his direction, resulting in a click. Cradling her neck with her arm, she saw the guilt and sympathy swimming around in his gold-flecked eyes.
She nervously made her way to him, suddenly feeling very timid and very, very afraid. Sparing one last glance at the man in the corner, she followed James into the corridor of white that had so nearly blinded her not even minutes earlier.
--x--
Words: 3500
Pages: 10
Update date: 29th April, 2010; 8:52 pm.
Ahh, the long awaited chapter. Rewrote it completely like five times. It's on a track I'd quite like to keep pursuing. Sorry I took so long to update - a mild case of writer's block and laziness are my only excuses.