Choices
Summary: There's power in all of the choices we make. So, if some of Lily's choices had been different, she and her husband would have lived. But what are the consequences?
Disclaimer:Harry Potter is not mine. The whole thing belongs to J. K. Rowling and Warner.
LastChapter
They finally stood up and when upstairs to Sirius' apartment. Both of them were so lost in their own thoughts that they just opened the door and entered. As soon as they turned on to face the small living room, they found Bellatrix Lestrange smiling, pointing her wand at them.
"Hello, cousin!" She said. Behind her, Lucius, Mulciber and Macnair were also pointing their wands at them.
They had just walked into a trap.
"Bellatrix." Sirius hissed, narrowing his eyes. Bellatrix laughed maniacally, but her wand didn't even shake. Her eyes were fixed on her cousin, her mouth twisted into a sinister smile.
"Well, well, dearest cousin…" she said, showing all her teeth. "It's been a while. Why didn't you owl me? Why didn't you visit me?" her voice was childish, too sweet to be true.
"You're mental, Bellatrix." Sirius snarled. "Did Voldemort crucio you too much?"
"DON'T YOU DARE SAYING HIS NAME!" Again, her face twisted, but this time it showed pure hatred.
"You don't scare me, Bella. I think we've made this very clear." Sirius said, looking nothing but bored now. He was standing in the small corridor that led to the living room. Behind him, Sirius could feel Remus moving slightly to the sides to see what was happening. His cousin laughed again in that sinister tone.
"You know nothing, you large baggage of scum. You and your half-breed of a friend think you can handle us?" She said moving her head a little to see Remus. Sirius fumed.
"Now, you listen, you bitch, I'm not going to hear you say…"
"Enough!" Lucius cut. "Bellatrix, do what you came here to do and let's go!"
Sirius looked at the blond man. He didn't seem nervous, but his words showed some impatience. He was next to the woman, in the middle of the small living room. Bellatrix wore again that unnatural smirk she had been wearing when they arrived.
"You see, cousin, we came here to ask you a simple question. If you answer, I might let you and your freak of a friend die quickly."
Sirius laughed humorless. "What could you possibly want, you psycho?"
"I want to know where the little brat is." She said, her smile, if possible, getting even wider. Sirius inhaled, feeling his whole body tremble. The anger and hatred he felt was unimaginable.
"Bellatrix, I'll die before you get near Harry!" He said.
"DIE THEN!" Bellatrix screamed, laughing scandalously. And then the battle began.
Sirius jumped and rolled, barely missing being hit by his cousin's stinging hex. Remus, behind him, shielded himself from the spells cast by Lucius and Macnair and pointed his wand to Bellatrix:
"Stupefy!" and moved so he was in the middle of the room. Lucius and Macnair turned their attention to the werewolf, while Bellatrix and Mulciber continued looking straight ahead to Sirius. The red jet of Remus' spell was blocked by the only female Death Eater, who cast another spell at her cousin. This time, Sirius was prepared.
"Protego!" the hex hit some sort of invisible wall and was rebounded back to the woman. With a sharp movement of arm, she blocked the spell. Not waiting for her to prepare herself, Sirius sent a wordless hex that cut Bellatrix's arm.
She frowned and sent another spell at Sirius, at the same time that Mulciber used another curse at him. Sirius dodged both spells by rolling on the floor and going out to the corridor of the apartment building. He got back on his feet and pointed his wand at his cousin, still inside his apartment.
"Expelliarmus!" The red light ran towards the woman, but she managed to use a counter-spell to end it. She sent some curses at Sirius, but he either dodged or protected himself.
Mulciber, previously behind Bellatrix, finally managed to get out of the apartment. He started drawing shapes on the air, clearly performing a very strong incantation. Bellatrix screamed another curse that Sirius countered.
Inside the apartment, in the small living room, Lucius and Macnair showered Remus with spells. Strangely though, neither of them used any of the Unforgivables, which would have been difficult to dodge, because of the size of the room.
Luckily for him, the two Death Eaters could not be compared to the werewolf. Macnair had always been a violent man, dangerous for his ruthless act and massive physique, but he wasn't any smart, and his magical skills were almost nonexistent, which made him fairly similar to a troll. He continually cast either 'stupefy' or the stinging hex, but Remus' shields didn't even tremble.
Lucius was a bit more skilled, but that meant close to nothing. Being the coward he was, he only attacked when his enemies couldn't retaliate, were incapable of defending themselves or were massively outnumbered. The lack of decent duels made him rusty and slow. He knew a fair share of incantations, though, which he used against Remus. But even with that, the marauder's defensive skills were way better.
Lucius and Macnair cast two stunning spells and some stinging hexes, but Remus simply defended himself with a 'protego', which rebounded some of the spells back to the Death Eaters. Not waiting to see if those spells would hit, he turned his wand to Macnair.
"Everte Statum!" The white hex hit the man on his chest, throwing his fiercely to the wall. The strength was such that Remus and Lucius could hear his head hit the wall and the distinct sound of a bone snapping. He fell to the ground and didn't move anymore.
Lucius frowned and continued shooting curse after curse towards Remus, who either dodged, blocked or sent them back. With a different shake of wand and a few selected words, Remus created a whole swarm of bees that attacked Lucius. And while Lucius was trying to protect himself from the bees, Remus turned around and went to the entrance to see Sirius.
He felt the strange cold shock of dread on his spine. Sirius and Bellatrix were dueling each other, which didn't worry Remus. Even though Bellatrix was a skilled witch, Sirius was even better. Most of the spells and counter-spells were voiceless, but the amount of hexes was impressing. Sirius was perfectly fine, but Bellatrix had some deep cuts on her arms and face.
No, what terrified Remus wasn't the fight ahead, but the curse Mulciber was preparing. It was potentially deadly. Many Order members had already fallen to that specific spell, including her friend Marlene's dad. Remus knew that, if Mulciber finished the spell, Sirius was done for. The Order didn't know how to stop or counter that spell, and that's what made it so deadly.
"Sirius, Watch out!" Remus shouted. He pointed his wand to Mulciber and screamed "Stupefy!". The stunning spell hit the man on his chest, but sadly not before the curse was finally complete. The black cloud slowly moved towards Sirius. It couldn't be stopped, it couldn't be countered. Bellatrix laughed maniacally before the cloud finally made it to Sirius.
James was almost falling asleep when he felt it. It felt like a hand, a nasty, dreadful, foul hand crushing his heart, as if trying to slowly kill him. Suddenly, he couldn't even breathe. He sat on his bed, trying to get over the terrible felling he was having.
Lily, who was on his side already sleeping, didn't even feel him moving, but James was glad because of it. He didn't want to wake her up.
The pressure on his chest didn't cease. He knew he was breathing, but he couldn't stop feeling breathless. He stood up and almost ran out of the bedroom to get to Harry's nursery. He knew something was not right, but he didn 't know what it was, and if something happened to his son... James couldn't even think about it.
Harry was sleeping quietly. His small eyes closed and James could see his tiny belly going up and down as his son breathed. His son was okay, which meant the problem was else where.
"Gally" James said as soon as he got out of the nursery and closed the door. With a somewhat loud pop, mainly because of the silence in the house, the elf appeared.
"Sir?" The elf said. If he had been sleeping, James wouldn't be able to tell.
"Gally, can you please check the wards around the manor?" The elf bowed whispering a soft assent, and left with another pop.
James didn't have to wait for long, though. The fact that Gally was attached to the house, being its house elf, gave him the connection to rapidly check all the wards. Soon after, the elf was back.
"Sir, all the wards are intact. There's nothing outside."
James stared at his feet. His boy was okay. Lily was sleeping in their bedroom. The house wasn't under attack. Then why did that pressure on his heart continue? The putrid hand he could feel smashing his heart was still there, full force.
He finally got the two-way mirror he used to communicate with Sirius. "Sirius" He said softly, and waited. "Sirius" he said again. "Sirius!" He hated how his voice sounded like a plea. An then it downed to him, like a cold shower. His friend was in danger.
Remus didn't even have time to think. As he saw the cloud getting near Sirius, he did the only thing he could do.
"Depulso!" He shouted, pointing his wand to Sirius. He was thrown all the way through the corridor and fell right in front of the stairs. Bellatrix was completely blown away by the sudden turn of events. She stared at Remus and screamed what seemed to be a scowl.
"YOU! Avada kedavra!" She shouted, pointing her wand to him. Remus jumped out of the way and felt the green spell passing on his side. Bellatrix tried once more and Remus moved again, this time standing in front of the stunned Mulciber.
"Your excuse of a master is gone, Bellatrix!" Remus said, grinning. He normally wouldn't tease an opponent, but his plan wouldn't work any other way. Bellatrix's frown deepened as she showed her teeth in anger.
"Avada kedavra!" She hissed again. Then she noticed her mistake. As soon as the green light flashed, Remus moved again and the curse hit who was behind him: Mulciber. The man was already knocked down, but she knew he was now dead.
"NO!" She screamed. "YOU"LL PAY FOR THIS, YOU FILTHY HALF-BREED!" They started sending spell after spell against each other.
On the other side of the corridor, Sirius slowly stood up. He was dizzy and had a strong headache. Remus had really knocked him, but of course he understood the reason. He took a glimpse of the wall where the black cloud hit and saw the deep black mark on it. He subconsciously shook a bit in fear.
He watched as Remus and Bellatrix fought, and he saw the moment when Lucius shot a curse at Remus back and his friend fell. Sirius started firing furiously against his cousin and Lucius. Suddenly, he heard some pops inside his apartment.
Bellatrix smirked again. "Back up is here. Let's see what they do to you, dear cousin." She said.
"Sirius, run!" Remus said. Sirius faced his friend.
"No, Remus, we can make it!" Sirius said.
"Go, Padfoot. Save yourself. Tell Dumbledore about this and..." Whatever Remus was going to say was lost when Lucius hit him with the Cruciatus curse. "GO!" He cried between screams.
Sirius blocked another spell from his cousin and pointed his wand to her. There was a flash of light and Bellatrix groaned. Taking another look at his friend suffering on the floor, Sirius started running down the stairs. He could hear his cousin's heels tapping on the floor, but he didn't stop to acknowledge if she was or not near him, because, as soon as he got to the second floor, he felt the Anti-apparating wards gone. Throwing one more spell towards the Death Eaters, he finally apparated, leaving all that havoc behind.
"Lily... Lily, love, wake up... Lily, please, wake up..."
"Wh... What? James? What happened?" Lily sat on their large bed, looking to her sides. James almost never woke her up, so she knew something important was up.
"Lily, I'm sorry to wake you up..." James' face was distorted in pain.
"What happened, James? You're scaring me! Where is Harry?" Lily started to get up, but was soon stopped by James' hand.
"Harry is alright, darling. He's sleeping."
"What's up, then?" She said. She couldn't help feeling relieved.
"It's Sirius. I can't manage to contact him... I have this strange feeling that he may be in danger, and I called him on the mirror, and he has never taken a long time to reply..." James was frantic. He kept on passing his fingers through his hair, his most characteristic sign of anxiety and flutter.
"Jamie, calm down! Maybe he's just taking a shower, or already asleep..." Lily said, putting her hand on her husband's shoulder.
James stood up and started pacing around their bedroom. "No, Lily, he would answer. He would stop anything to answer if I called, this is something we have agreed. No, something happened..." He kept running his fingers through his hard, nervously. His wife could count on one hand the times when he had been so scared.
"How do you know, love?" Lily asked softly.
James turned to look at his wife. "I... I... I can feel it to my bones, okay?" He started pacing again.
"James, you can't forget this is Sirius we're talking about... He can defend himself very well... have you contacted the order?" Since the new events, there was always somebody from the order at the headquarters, so if something happened, they could do something as fast as possible.
"I sent them an owl. As the fireplaces are blocked, I couldn't floo call them." James answered, exasperated. Waiting and doing nothing was killing him slowly. He had to do something, he couldn't just stay there and let his imagination take over. "I'm going there, to his apartment."
"NO! No, James, you can't go! It's way more dangerous for you. If... If something happened to Sirius, he would be able to save himself, or send us a message, and then we'd ask the order to do something."
"But Lily, love, if I don't do anything and he..." James' frown deepened. He couldn't think about it. "...and something happens, I will never be able to forgive myself." He understood that he couldn't go out, of course, but he just couldn't stay there either.
"I know, Jamsie. Please, wait a bit more, if..." Whatever Lily was going say was lost because of a loud knock on the door. James, who was already stood, ran to it and opened it with a large pull. Gally was standing outside.
"Mr. and Mrs., Gally is very sorry to bother, but..." Lily stood and approached the door. "...but Mister Padfood has just apparated outside the wards."
Even before Gally finished speaking, James was already running out the door and going downstairs. Lily and the elf started following him, but not as fast as him. "Gally, can you please get him and bring him to the living room? I guess this way it will be faster." Gally snapped his fingers and disappeared.
James finally reached the first floor, but before getting out of the house, he saw Sirius and Gally standing in the middle of the room. He ran to his best friend's arms and hugged him tightly.
"Padfoot! What happened, buddy?" He said, breaking the embrace. He got shocked when he saw that Sirius was crying. It was a soft, silent cry, but the tears were falling freely. "Sirius, what happened?"
James saw his best friend inhale. "The Death Eaters attacked my apartment." Sirius' face twisted into a frown. "We fought and they ended up getting Remus."
Remus could feel he was going to pass out soon. The comforting blackness would be a blessing after being crucioed so much. He could only remember the pain he felt when Lucius or Bellatrix used the unforgivable curse on him. He knew he had been moved, and, by the coldness around him, he knew he was in some sort of dungeon or cave.
This time it was Bellatrix who was cursing him. "Ready to tell me where they are, you filthy beast?" She asked, her voice full of disgust and hatred.
Remus spat what he knew that was his blood. He didn't have strength enough to answer her, so he just stayed there. Bellatrix groaned and cursed him again.
"You're going to be sorry for stopping me from getting my cousin, you nasty half-breed." She said. Finally, Remus passed out, being engulfed by the soft embrace of darkness.
Not long after Sirius' arrival, most of the Order members had been contacted and a new meeting was organized at the headquarters, which, after her death, was at Augusta Longbottom's house. The meetings were held in the main dining room: a large, spacious room, all carpeted with a big black table in its centre. People were already gathered there, sitting on the large chairs, looking both tired and nervous.
This was the first official meeting from the Order that Lily and James participated since they went into hiding. They saw many familiar faces, such as Frank and Alice, Moody, Dedalus, Elphias, Emmeline... But all the empty places showed them how many dear friends were killed already. Marlene McKinnon, the Prewett brothers, Benjy Fenwick, the Bones. One seat was from the traitor.
On the other hand, there were some new faces. Molly and Arthur Weasley were quickly introduced, and James recognized Kingsley Shacklebolt, one auror he worked with. There were a few people they didn't know that weren't introduced, but again, it had been over a year they were hiding.
Finally, Albus entered the room through the living room entrance. He stood at the head of the table and looked at the Order. His eyes were dull and cold, nothing from the childish, slightly freakish glow they normally had.
"I'm sorry to have bothered your night, but something very important happened few hours ago." He said, in a low tone. "First of all, I would like to reintroduce James and Lily Potter, who were hiding for the necessary protection of their son, Harry. As a result of the well known past events, I would say they can return to our normal intimacy."
"You all know very well what happened on the day of Halloween, as I myself informed you about Voldemort's..." Apart from James and Albus himself, everybody flinched. "...fall. What I failed to inform you, though, is that the threat isn't over."
Albus was still standing, and started pacing around the table, his eyes showing how lost in his thoughts he was. He gently and slowly struck his long beard. "You may know that the Order is using this beautiful manor because of Frank's generous offer." he took a glance at Frank. "This is the house in which he grew up, and this is the house in which his mother lived... And I'm very sorry to say that this was the house in which Augusta Lombottom died."
Frank received some sympathetic looks, but his face showed nothing more than determination. Albus continued, not waiting for a comment. "Augusta was cowardly attacked by four Death Eaters, and, if you want the opinion of an old man who has participated in quite a few battles himself, four very skilled and capable Death Eaters. But they were nothing compared to Augusta. She managed to kill two of them and injure the other two before going down..."
Frank was still looking determined, and, on his side, Alice had tears in her eyes, but pride was visible in both pairs of eyes.
"Augusta was killed so a very dark ritual could be performed. This ritual is also very old, very little is known about it, even though some families actually know about its existence." Albus stopped again at the head of the table. He looked at some of the people there in their eyes. "Some people say that Morgana used this ritual on Merlin. According to the legends, that's why she wasn't killed many years before, as only Merlin could in fact kill her..."
"Wait. So that means that Bellatrix...?" Frank asked.
"My research appoints so, Frank." Dumbledore said calmly. "You see, my friends, Bellatrix Lestrange used this ritual to bond herself to the Potters. That means that they have to kill her, or she will kill them..."
Everybody was looking at James and Lily now. "But what happens if somebody kills her instead?" Shacklebolt asked.
"Oh, it's interesting. As this is not a very common ritual, there's very little actual information about it. But if you want a guess, a guess I should ask you to believe in, I would say that this person would die for interfering with the ritual." He said, simply.
"Well, that's not so bad, then?" Dedalus said. "I mean, the ritual is terrible, but James and Lily are way better than Bellatrix, so..." he let his voice die.
"Yes, that's correct, but Bellatrix holds the ritual. And if she decides she doesn't want it anymore, she can end it."
"How?" Dedalus asked. This time, Albus didn't answer. Frank Longbottom spoke instead.
"She would have to perform the counter ritual, killing somebody related by blood with my mother. That means me, my uncle or Neville." Gasps were heard all around the room.
"Another thing is, if Lord Voldemort comes back to his full power - and you know my opinion on the subject - The ritual will take everyone related with it. We can assume, though, that she will try to get the ritual ended if she can't kill Harry's family, as she wants to serve her Lord again." Dumbledore continued. "Of course, knowing that, we can't accept deaths in either families, Potter or Longbottom."
"We have to help the Potters get to Bellatrix, then." Moody said. "Who can kill her?"
"James, Lily, little Harry and Sirius Black, Harry's godfather." Albus said. Silence took over the room for some minutes. Everybody was lost in their own thoughts. Sirius got his head up and looked inside Albus' eyes, face twisted in pain, the plead obvious. He didn't want to stay there talking, he wanted to save his friend.
"Well, but this is not the main purpose of this meeting. I wanted to inform you of the ritual, and bring the Potters back to action, but the most important is that something happened this last night. Sirius is going to tell us exatly what happened."
Sirius told them everything that happened after he left the Potter Manor. The encounter with the boggart (he didn't mention the shapes of the boggart, though) and the trap. When he got to the moment in which Remus saved him, he felt he couldn't continue. James, feeling his best friend predicament, went on.
"Remus saved Sirius, so he could come back and inform the Order about Bellatrix's plans." he said.
"I ran like a coward!" Sirius said.
"Not, you didn't, Sirius! You did the correct thing. Both of you were already hurt, there wasn't a lot you could do. If you had stayed and duelled, they might have killed Remus..." James said.
Sirius stared at the table and said nothing. It was obvious he blamed himself.
"You all know about our spy within Voldemort's ranks. The problem is that Severus used to get all the information from Voldemort himself..." more flinches when Dumbledore said his name. "...so we don't know if he will get anything from the other Death Eaters. I'd like you to find information, anything that will help us save Remus Lupin. And I want you to prepare yourselves. We might need to attack them soon."
Being dismissed after this, people went home. One thing was common in all of them, though. Determination to save their friend.
A.N.: Hey guys! Here you have another chapter, I put some action in it for the action lovers. I hope you like it, It's a somewhat new style for me, because this is the first full duel scene I wrote. Tell me what you think, ok? There will be many more, so I need to know if it's good enough for you!
Thank you again for everyone reading this story. 3,7k views by far. THANK YOU so much for trying it. A special thanks for the people who reviewed last chapter, Quinthar, Gigi, JSC-HR and sad sabrin. Your attention was really appreciated, I hope you keep on helping me with your comments!
As I've been telling you guys, live's been hectic. I'll try to update in min. 10 days max. 2 weeks, ok? I hope I can get to do it.
Please, before you leave, tell me what you're thinking about the story. Oh, and if you have any special requests, just review it, or send me a PM, 'kay? Cheers!
