I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know that was an evil cliffhanger and a long time!! I've been distracted; I've been flying through all the books before the movie comes out, but I've got a week left and I'm 200 pages from the end of OotP, so I think I'm doing okay. Anyway, here you go...
Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter twenty!!
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is a genius and created nearly everyone and everything in this story. If you recognize it, it's hers.
The Makings of Forever
~Chapter 21: Captured~
"Get up!" ordered the taller Death Eater, the one who had spoken before.
James scrambled into a sitting position, doing his best to shield Lily from the dark figures. "What do you want from us?" he demanded.
The other Death Eater pulled back his foot and kicked James squarely in the ribs.
"Don't!" Lily shrieked.
"We said to get up!" spat the second Death Eater.
"I'm okay," James gasped to Lily, though in truth he felt as though a rib might have cracked.
They stood up cautiously, glancing around for their friends. The moonlight was too weak to even make out silhouettes.
"What do you want?" Claudia asked furiously from down the road.
"You are not in a very good position to be asking questions," a voice said smoothly.
The tall Death Eater shoved Lily and James from behind, and they stumbled forward along the dirt path. As they neared the other group, James counted three unfamiliar shapes.
Seven of us against against five of them? This should be easy, if we can get our wands back.
"I'd like to know why the Head Boy and Girl are wandering around the village tonight," said a thin, wiry Death Eater.
"You shouldn't be here either, Avery," Remus said, scowling reproachfully.
"Shut up!" Avery growled, striking Remus across the face. "All of you, keep your mouths shut if you know what's good for you!"
"Let's go," said the Death Eater who had kicked James. From the way he kept looking around anxiously, James was fairly certain it was Rabastan Lestrange.
"Line up," ordered the black-cloaked figure who was rather smaller than the other four, brandishing his wand threateningly. "Single file."
The Gryffindors obeyed. James gently steered Lily in front of him, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. The Death Eater who had not yet spoken and who was holding the captives' wands made an odd, strangled sound, and a jet of red sparks shot from his own wand, burning the back of James's hand.
"Damn it!" James yelped, yanking his hand away from Lily.
"Stop it!" she protested. "There's no need, we haven't done –"
Avery flicked his wand; Lily's lips continued to move, but no sound came out. "I told you all to keep your mouths shut," he said nastily. "Now you're going to behave and follow me." He nodded to his accomplices. "You know what to do if they try anything."
Avery lit the end of his wand and started down the road. The Gryffindors trudged after him, first Peter, then Sirius, Claudia, Alice, Remus, Lily, and James. The other Death Eaters surrounded them, keeping their wands drawn.
They walked quickly past the edge of the village, beyond the little path that led to the Shrieking Shack, all the way to the base of the mountain. There they began a steep, upward climb over loose rocks and around massive boulders. Lily tripped a couple of times, and James reached forward to steady her, not caring what the Death Eaters might do to him. Each time James stumbled, the unspeaking Death Eater took the opportunity aim a kick at James's ankles or hit him in the back of the head.
Higher and higher they climbed, being forced to move faster and faster, until James could barely breathe. Clutching his aching ribcage, he noticed that the scrubby little plants on either side of the trail were beginning to thin out and then disappear altogether. He was wondering if this grueling ascent would ever end when Avery suddenly ducked into a thin opening in the rocky wall.
The others followed him inside. They were in a small cave, some thirty yards deep. An orange fire already crackled in the middle of the stone floor, throwing eerie, distorted shadows against the irregular walls.
In the firelight, James could finally see his friends' faces. Alice looked alright, but Claudia was sporting a small cut beneath her left eye, and dried blood trailed down Sirius's chin from a nasty-looking gash across his lower lip. A brilliant bruise was blossoming around Remus's eye where Avery had struck him. Peter stared straight ahead, looking unharmed, but his eyes were blank and vacant. The others' expressions registered fear, alertness, and determination all at once.
Avery turned around and gave a jerk of his head. The largest and smallest Death Eaters herded the captives toward the back of the cave. Then Avery spoke.
"How very convenient that we were all in the village tonight," he said, smiling dangerously. "We assumed, of course, that you four" – he indicated the Marauders – "would be stupid enough to come down here against the teachers' orders. We didn't expect the ladies."
"The more the merrier," Lestrange snorted.
"Yes, indeed," agreed Avery. "How very fortunate that we came across all of Dumbledore's little favorites together –"
"Precious Gryffindors!" the small Death Eater laughed mockingly.
"Stuff it, Bart," the big Death Eater grunted, shoving him roughly into the wall.
"– all of Dumbledore's prized students," Avery continued. "Even you, for some reason," he sneered at Peter, who looked down in shame.
"Perhaps you are wondering why we have any interest in you," Lestrange spoke again. "It's true, we normally avoid association with such an undesirable" – his eyes lingered on Lily and Remus – "lot. But service to one's master is not always a pleasant task, and the Dark Lord rewards his faithful. And so, favorites of that fool of a headmaster, tell us about the Order of the Phoenix."
Lily stiffened in surprise; beside her, James did the same. How in Merlin's name did they know about the Order?
"Tell us!" Lestrange insisted, his wand hand twitching.
"W-we don't know what the Order of the Phoenix is," Alice said quickly. "I've never heard of it before."
"Lying won't help you!" Lestrange shouted, striding forward and jabbing his wand into her sternum. She squeezed her eyes shut in fear as the Death Eater bellowed into her face. "We know the old fool's recruited you! Now tell us everything, or this cave will be the last sight you'll ever see!"
Lily, still under the Silencing Charm, waved her arms frantically. Avery rolled his eyes and casually flicked his wand. "Are you going to talk?" he demanded.
"We are in the Order of the Phoenix," she blurted.
The five Death Eaters exchanged a triumphant glance, their eyes shining through the slits in their hoods.
"Well, we're going to be in the Order," she continued. "But that's all we can tell you. We don't know anything else."
"Do you think we're stupid?" Lestrange hissed, turning away from Alice to stare venomously at Lily. "Names! Plans! Tell us everything, Mudblood, or –"
"I swear, we haven't been told anything," she interrupted. "Unless you want us to make things up, we're no good to you!"
Suddenly several things happened at once. Lestrange advanced on Lily, his wand raised; James darted forward as if to charge at him; the Death Eater who still had not said a word made a sudden, jerking motion; and the entire cave filled with thick, black smoke.
All around Lily, people were coughing and gasping, yelling and shrieking. She couldn't see a thing. She staggered forward, groping, trying to gather enough air to call out for James. A cold hand seized her own and thrust something between her fingers. Startled, she realized it was a wand.
"Expelliarmus!" she choked out, pointing the wand blindly into the clouds of smoke. There was a loud thump, and several bits of wood collided with Lily's body and clattered to the stone floor.
"On the ground!" she shouted. "James – Claudia – on the ground!"
"Stupefy!" yelled Sirius.
Good, so he'd found a wand. It seemed the others had too. Spells were flying everywhere through the dense smoke.
"Impedimenta!"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
"Crucio!" someone cried, and Alice screamed.
"Tergeo!" Remus finally thought to shout, and the smoke began to dissipate.
"Good thinking, Moony!" James hollered. Lily could see his silhouette through the thinning clouds now. Something moved behind him; it raised its wand and shouted, "Archum Projecto!"
A dozen tiny shapes hurtled toward James. Lily's heart lurched; she could see clearly enough to know that they were arrowheads, pointed and deadly.
"Expecto Patronum!" she cried, directing the silver mist toward James. It cantered forward, shielding him, and as the arrowheads struck the Patronus they reversed their course, flying back toward the Death Eater who had conjured them.
The Death Eater seemed to be frozen, staring, transfixed, at the silver doe that shimmered in the air. Then he suddenly realized what was hurtling toward him. Just as he ducked, Claudia yelled, "Stupefy!" and he fell over, smacking his head against the rocky wall.
Lily looked around and saw five black-robed figures lying motionless on the ground. The Gryffindors stared at each other in amazement. Somehow they had fought and won a duel, almost completely blind, and hadn't killed each other in the process.
"We did it!" Sirius cried gleefully. "Merlin's pants, I don't know how, but we did it!" Claudia and Peter whooped and cheered. Remus had his arm around Alice, who was shaking, her eyes red and watering. Lily and James crossed the cave quickly and silently, pulling each other into a tight embrace.
"You saved me," James whispered into her hair.
"It was nothing," she muttered, but she held him even tighter. Two tears leaked down her face.
"This isn't my wand," Alice said, and everyone held up the wand in his or her hand.
"That's mine," Claudia said to Remus.
"Here, Prongs," Sirius called, "I've got yours."
"We'd better get out of here," Remus said, once all the wands had been returned to their proper owners. "With all that noise and smoke, someone in the village may have noticed something."
"What do we do with them?" Peter asked, kicking a passed-out Death Eater.
"Leave them," Lily said. "They'll get back to the school somehow. We'd better just worry about ourselves."
Alice extinguished the fire, which had almost burned down to the coals, and everyone filed out of the cave. They moved as fast as they could down the mountain, but with only wandlight to show the way, the descent was even more difficult than climbing up had been.
"Are we going to tell Dumbledore about the Death Eaters?" Peter asked after a while.
"Of course not!" said Sirius. "We weren't supposed to be in Hogsmeade tonight, remember?"
Peter's nose twitched. "Oh, right."
"Who conjured that Patronus?" Alice asked. "Right at the end of the fight."
"I did," said Lily.
"But, Lil," Claudia said, "your Patronus is a dolphin. The one I saw was –"
"A doe," James said quietly, with sudden understanding.
"A doe to go with a stag," Lily murmured, reaching back to take his hand. She laced their fingers together. "I love you."
"I love you too," James said, ignoring the punch that Sirius gave his right shoulder.
"This is a really big deal, Lily," Alice said excitedly as they finally reached the bottom of the mountain. They started down the path to the Shrieking Shack.
"Changing your Patronus!" Claudia squealed. "Do you know what that –?"
"What are you doing here?" demanded an all-too-familiar voice.
The seven teenagers stopped in their tracks and gulped. Tentatively, Remus raised his lighted wand. There in front of them stood a seething Professor Flitwick, an extremely disappointed Professor Dumbledore, and the most formidable sight imaginable, an absolutely livid Professor McGonagall.
-.-.-.-.-
Thanks for reading!! Please let me know what you think!!
--A Chocolate Frog