"Sev!" Lily yelled, running towards the gates that surrounded Hogwarts. "Severus, wait up for a moment!"
One of the last Death Eaters leaving looked back at the young woman he loved, and hesitated for a moment. Then he squared his shoulders and continued to follow the Death Eaters.
"Severus, please!" Lily begged. She had reached the Death Eaters, now. "I just need to talk to you for one minute! Less, even!"
"Go to your mudblood girlfriend," Bellatrix hissed at Snape. "Talk to her, and get any information you can. Then do your duty to the Dark Lord. Kill her!" Laughing, she shoved him forward.
"What is it?" Severus asked Lily coldly. "You've told me many times that we have nothing more to say to each other."
"That was before you started messing with my heart," Lily said, and for a moment, Severus's heart leapt. Was it possible that she loved him back?
"What...what do you mean?" he asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.
"I mean," she said, stepping forward and jabbing him in the chest with her wand. "Your duel with James."
Potter. Severus' head swam. "So he's James now?" he hissed. "Are you mad? He's going to take your heart, tear it to shreds, and spit it back in your face!"
"He can't betray me worse than you have," Lily retorted. Sparks flew from her wand as she pulled it back. In her mind, she yelled, Levicorpus! Snape barely managed to block the spells.
"Don't do this, Lily," he begged her. "Please don't do this!"
"That's Evans to you, Snivellus," she snapped back, throwing a stinging jinx at him. This time, he was faster to block the spell, but another was close behind. Soon, it was all Severus could do to stay on his feet.
"Kill her!" Bellatrix yelled. "Kill the filthy mudblood!"
For a moment, Severus hesitated. "Too cowardly, Snivelly?" Lily taunted him. Snape's face tightened and he sent a hex Lily's way. Her face was shining with perspiration as she fought, and her hair was flying every which way, most of it having escaped from her braid. Her clothes were ripped nearly to shreds; her skin was torn and bloody. A purple bruise flourished on her right arm, and her eye was blackened. Severus thought that she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
But she was Potter's now; she had chosen the boy who should be her enemy over her life-long friend. She claimed he had betrayed her, but hadn't she just betrayed him? Breaking his heart into a billion tiny pieces was betrayal, wasn't it? The more Snape dwelled on her incomprehensible love for Potter, the more he hated her.
With a snarl, he truly began to duel her. He was vaguely aware of Bellatrix screaming, "Kill the mudblood!" in the background, vaguely aware that a crowd of Hogwartians had formed behind Lily. But all he saw was the girl - no, the woman in front of him.
Lily, too, was wholly focused on Snape. All of Hogwarts knew that Lily's fury was a force to be reckoned with, but this was taking it to a whole new level. A blind rage had engulfed her when she saw what Snape had done to James; for all she knew, he could have killed the man she loved. All other concerns were tossed aside. All that mattered was that Snape pay for his crimes.
Finally, Snape had Lily in the place where he knew he should go in for the kill. "Kill the mudblood!" Bellatrix was still chanting in the background. It would be so easy, he knew. He also knew that if he hesitated, and any of his "allies" noticed, he would be killed. It's her or you, a small, nasty voice in the back of his head said. All right, then, his heart and soul replied. It'll be me.
In the second it took him to reach that decision, Lily saw that Snape's resolve was faltering. Knowing this could be her only chance, she snatched at it. With a triumphant yell, she threw one last spell at him, and that was all that was needed. As Snape fell to the ground, everyone heard his bones breaking, and winced.
"Get out," Lily said. Her voice sounded strangely like that of an angel to Severus, despite her harsh tone. "All of you get out, and never come near this place again. You can tell your precious Dark Lord that we're not afraid of him. Hogwarts will stand strong against him as long as he continues to kill and torture our friends and family. Voldemort will fall soon to us!" Turning to the crowd at her back, Lily raised her wand and yelled, "Dumbledore and Hogwarts!"
They roared back, some throwing a few last spells at the Death Eaters. Before the dark witches and wizards could respond, there were about 50 simulations pops. The Ministry had arrived.
Nobody had coherent memories about what happened next. Most of the Death Eaters disapperated. Those were still on Hogwarts grounds or who hesitated for a moment or two to send a last curse into the crowd were taken prisoner. The Hogwartians surged forward to greet their saviors, some of them nearly stepping on Lily, who had fallen to the ground. Alice ran to her and handed her a potion.
"Drink this," she ordered. "It'll help with the pain and exhaustion."
Wearily, Lily raised her head and glugged the potion down, gagging as it hit her taste buds. "What is that?" she demanded.
Alice grinned. "A nifty little potion Frank brewed up. It works miracles. Not Ministry approved, of course, but who really cares at this point?"
"We do," a dry voice said behind her. Alice and Lily both jumped out of their skin. Ptolemy Elphick, Minister of Magic, stood there, looking very imposing in his impeccable Ministry robes. "Would the two of you be so kind as to come with me?"
Alice stood up and said, with only the barest of quivers in her voice, "I'm sorry sir, but that won't be possible. Not for a while, anyway. We have a few things that we need to take care of, and Lily needs to rest."
Elphick's lips thinned into what, on a normal human being, might resemble an impatient smile. "I'm afraid I must insist."
"It's fine," Lily said. "Could you give us just one minute to get organized?"
Only Elphick's eyes showed his annoyance. "If you must," he said, and left, "Doubtless to go warn the others of how insubordinate we are," Alice said.
"Let's go find the others," Lily said. As Alice opened her mouth to say something, but didn't, Lily's stomach clenched and she said, "We can go see the others, can't we?"
"Of course," Alice said, forcing a smile. "They're just over here." She led Lily over to the Whomping Willow.
"James!" Lily cried, seeing him on his feet. He opened his arms, and she fell into them. "You're okay," she whispered. "I was so worried he had killed you."
"I saw your duel," he said. "And heard what you said. It was...impressive."
"Thank you," she whispered, pulling away and looking at the others.
They were a somber bunch. None of them had escaped unscratched. Sirius looked as though he had been in a barroom brawl, and Frank and Alice were both covered in blood, though it seemed to be mostly other people's. Suzy...
"Where's Suzy?" Lily demanded. "And Remus?"
The others exchanged looks. "In the Shrieking Shack," Alice said at last.
"Are they..." Lily couldn't say it.
"You have to see for yourself," Sirius said. He glanced at the sky. It was tinged pink by the rising sun. "Come on."
James picked up a stick and poked at a knot on the Whomping Willow, which stopped trying to whomp them and froze. One by one, they all slipped down the passageway towards the Shrieking Shack.
The first thing Lily saw as she entered was blood. It was everywhere; on the ripped chairs, on the floor, even on the ceiling. Some of it was dried and clearly very old; Lily winced and assumed that it was from when the Marauders would come here to keep Remus contained. Most of the stuff on the floor, however, was recent. Lily followed the trail it left, and found Remus, kneeling on the ground. His shoulders shook with sobs.
Sirius crossed the room and laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. James knelt down and wrapped an arm around him. Alice and Frank went over, too, but to the other side of whatever they were all crouched around. They pulled out their wands and went to work.
Lily went cold. There was only one explanation for all this, only one thing that everyone would be so worried about. She went over, and her worst fears were realized. Suzy lay there, in her own blood. Her body looked as though someone had tried to grate it, like you would cheese. Her face alone remained intact. That was the worst - the peacefulness of her face, as though she were asleep, was in sharp contrast to the rest of her body.
"No," Lily gasped. "Suzy! No!" She collapsed on the ground next to her friend. Alice was sobbing as she held Lily. When she could speak again, Lily asked, "How?" She didn't trust herself to say more.
"It was all my fault," Remus said. Instantly his friends disagreed.
"You couldn't help it!"
"It was our fault, for forgetting!"
"It was a full moon tonight," Lily said, suddenly realizing what must have happened.
Remus nodded. "When I changed, I came here. It was habit, I guess. Suzy..." He couldn't go on.
Sirius took up the tale, for once in his life channeling the emotion his name suggested. "She was here, with the house elves. You know how she loves...how she loved them. We think she heard him coming, because there were only a few house elves left when he got here." Lily noticed absently that Sirius wasn't using Remus' name, was trying to separate the monster who had done this awful deed from his friend. And they were completely different entities. But everyone in Group A knew that Remus wouldn't see it that way, that he would blame himself. Sirius was trying to spare his friend pain, and Lily distantly recognized that there could still be good in the world, though Suzy was gone.
"She defended them," Remus said, his voice choked with constrained sobs. "Tried to hold me off. I think part of me knew I...I shouldn't kill-" His voice broke, and with it Remus' restraint. His sobs escaped, but only for a moment. Remus had something to say, and he had to say it then. "I loved her," he admitted. "I never told anyone. Now...now I wish I had told her. We might have been able to spend some time together...I loved her, and I killed her."
There is nothing you can say to a confession like that. Sirius' hand on Remus' shoulder tightened, and Frank reached across Suzy and gripped the other one. James held him tight, knowing in a way how Remus felt. Alice and Lily held each other and cried. Separate, their pain was unmanageable. Together, there was a slim chance of survival.