James, Sirius and Remus arrived at the entrance to Dumbledore's office out of breath. "What's – the password?" Sirius gasped. "You're Head Boy – you should know."
James struggled to remember. "Um – it's – cockroach cluster!" He cried, remembering suddenly.
The stone gargoyle that was the guardian of Dumbledore's office
leaped aside to reveal the revolving staircase. They leaped on,
waiting for it to take them all the way up.
As soon as they
reached the door to the Headmaster's office, James banged on the
door. "Enter," called the voice from inside.
They barged in and all began speaking at once. Dumbledore held up his hands. "Boys! To what do I owe this late night visit? And why are you all wet?"
James looked down at himself. Crud. This would take some explaining.
Sirius, the king of excuses, spoke up first. "You see, I thought I had left my Transfiguration essay outside. I wanted to get it before it was completely ruined. James and Remus volunteered to help me." Remus and James nodded as if his story was true. Sirius continued, "We obviously couldn't find it in the pouring rain, but we did see something else."
James picked up his story. "Remus saw people in the distance. Then someone shouted something, and the Dark Mark shot into the air. There's Death Eaters here, Professor."
The only sign of the man's alarm was that his blue eyes suddenly lost their twinkle. He stood abruptly and crossed over to his window. The Dark Mark still hung there, menacing and threatening. Dumbledore turned to his phoenix, Fawkes. "We will need," he said softly, "a warning." The bird vanished in a plume of flame.
Dumbledore turned back to the three boys. "Thank you, you three," he said. "You've been a great help. Defenses will go up, and -." He was interrupted by Lily, who burst into the room. Her eyes fell on James, and she flung himself into his arms.
"James! Oh, I was so worried!" she gushed. Sirius faked retching behind her. Then she pushed herself away. "Where were you?" she asked, her eyes flashing angrily. "What was I supposed to think when I saw the Dark Mark out of my window and didn't know where you were? Especially after -." She broke off.
James looked at her. What was he supposed to say? "I'm sorry?" he tried.
Lily took a deep breath. "I forgive you." James was relieved.
Suddenly Lily seemed to remember that Professor Dumbledore was in the room. "Oh – erm – sorry, Professor. I'll just…go…"
"No, Miss Evans. You may stay. Actually, you could help us, as you're Head Girl."
Lily drew herself up. She was willing to do anything. "Tell me what to do."
"If you and Mr. Potter would please alert all of the teachers to the presence of Death Eaters and bring them to the Entrance Hall, I would greatly appreciate it." Dumbledore said. Lily and James nodded in unison and swept out of his office.
Lily looked at James. His face was hard and set. "James," she said softly, as they sped through the darkened corridors, "where were you really?"
James bit his lip. "Uh…I don't know if I can tell you."
Lily sighed. "You can tell me anything, James."
"I wasn't looking for Sirius' Transfiguration essay." He began.
"I thought not."
"I was helping Remus."
Lily stopped dead. "You were what?" she asked in a deadly voice. "You do realize it's a full moon?"
"Yes."
"Then WHY were you out THERE?" she hissed, trying to keep her temper.
"Lily, it's hard to explain – I can't show you in the castle -."
"Forget it, James. Just forget it." She walked away to alert the teachers. James hurried after her.
"Wait – Lily – are you angry?"
She spun on her heel to face him. "NO!"
"Then why are you yelling at me?"
She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "I'm not angry. I'm annoyed that you can't even tell me what's going on!"
"I can tell you," James said, "but you have to swear not to tell. And we have to hurry. We're running out of time."
Lily waited, tapping her foot.
Now it was James' turn to take a deep breath. "Okay. Long story short, Sirius, Peter and I found out about Remus in third year. We decided to find some way to help him. Two years later, we finally accomplished it. The three of us became Animagi."
Lily couldn't believe her ears. "Are you kidding me?"
"No. Sirius is a black Lab. I'm a stag. Peter is a rat – though we're not quite sure why."
Lily mentally calmed herself. "A werewolf's bite doesn't affect animals."
"Right."
"So you're safe."
"Exactly. Now we have to GO!"
They rushed down the hallway, alerting each teacher they came across of the danger that was upon them. Lily was scared to death. After what had happened to her parents, she'd never wanted to ever see a Death Eater again. Never. Yet here they were, inside the grounds of Hogwarts. How did they get in? She wondered. It's supposed to be impossible…
James was apparently thinking along the same lines. His brow was furrowed in thought or worry; she couldn't tell. Lily was suddenly guilty for being annoyed with him. He was only trying to help a friend. Wouldn't she have wanted him to do the same if it had been her in that position?
"I think that's everyone," said James quietly after a time, startling Lily out of her reverie.
"Now what?" she asked.
"We go back to the Headmaster." He looked at her carefully. She seemed shaken, but held together. He longed to comfort her, to take away her fear. But there was no time. He pulled her down the hallway.
They dashed up the revolving staircase to Dumbledore's office after giving the password and flung open the door without knocking. Professor McGonagall was already there, looking grim. "Has everyone been informed of the danger?" asked Professor Dumbledore immediately. James and Lily nodded, out of breath. Had they wasted too much time?
"Minerva, please round up the teachers and hold the front door." McGonagall nodded curtly and swept out of the room. The Headmaster then turned once more to James and Lily.
"Masters Lupin and Black have left to keep all students in their dorms, along with Miss Gassmann and Miss Kostencki. You have all done well. Now, I must ask you something – are you willing to help protect Hogwarts? I know that you are both skilled, though I hesitate to put you in any danger."
Lily's eyes narrowed. Her green eyes lit with anger. "I'm fighting," she said, "and there's no one who can stop me."
James thrust out his chin. "I'm going too. There's no way I could just sit in my dorm knowing that this is going on."
Dumbledore nodded, standing. "Then let us go."
When they arrived downstairs, all of the teachers were casting protective spells and wards on the door to the Entrance Hall. Becky and Alice were down helping too, while Frank was at the other end of the Hall. He was one of James' best friends, though not nearly as close as Sirius or Remus. Peter was slightly shifty this year. He, of course, was nowhere to be seen.
Leah rushed over to Lily to fill her in. "The Death Eaters are literally knocking on our front door. Every so often a spell or two will fail and we have to put them up again." She lowered her voice. "People are saying You-Know-Who himself is here."
Lily blinked. "I hope he is," she said with sudden menace. "He killed my parents!" She shouted the last sentence, but in the confusion, no one noticed.
James was already gone to help Frank. Professor Slughorn suddenly came waddling in as quickly as he could. "Some of my possessions have been stolen!" he shouted.
McGonagall, alarmed, came running over. "Which ones, Horace? Which ones were stolen?" she cried.
"I had been keeping some Muggle items in my office for experimenting on and now they're gone! They were…TNT and firecrackers!" he wailed.
"Why on EARTH did you keep those in the school?" cried McGonagall. "What do they do, anyway?"
Lily had gone pale. "They're going to explode the doors!" she cried, rushing forward and casting every protective charm she knew upon the doors. The firelight illuminated her panicked face as three things happened at once.
Erika and Katie ran in, shouting that another Dark Mark had appeared.
The doors exploded, shattering both the wood and Lily's un–reinforced charms.
Lily was blasted backward. She hit the wall and didn't get up. James cried out and rushed over to her.
"Lily! Lily, wake up! Wake up!"
She did not respond.
A/N: Okay, this chapter was getting way too long for my taste, so instead I broke it into two – The First Invasion Part One and Part 2. Oh yes, I repeatedly forgot to mention – this is my first EVER fan fic, so please not too harsh on those reviews! (At the moment I have one…people…I'm waiting very patiently…)
