Have a safe and happy holiday everyone!

26 – The Bends

Dusk had fallen over the Lost City and its buildings, which cast long, dark shadows leaving the illusion of sinkholes everywhere. Snape held Lily close as Voldemort steered the broom high over the city, back through the soda straw rock pillars, across Willow Gorge, and all the way to the entrance of Boggarts Cave where they landed.

"Why can't we fly over this too?" asked Snape.

Voldemort raised an eyebrow. "Afraid of something, Severus? It's better if no one from Hogwarts sees us together. We'll apparate to the fringe of the Forbidden Forest where you'll begin the plan." He looked at Snape coolly. "I have no reason to think you'll disappoint me. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Then repeat it back to me."

Snape's hand instinctively clutched his wand, making a few sparks shoot out, but they were hidden beneath his robe. He gritted his teeth and restated the plan which they'd discussed at the brown tower for what felt like hours: he would levitate Lily to the castle and immediately summon Dumbledore for help; he would explain that they were gathering roots in the Forbidden Forest for a potion to be used in the Christmas Challenge when a horned beast struck her; the horned beast was something he'd never seen before; he would claim that he was able to partially heal her wounds, but he wanted Dumbledore to specifically look at her; the horned beast had powers he'd never seen before, and if it was okay, he needed to speak to Dumbledore in private; and the reason he should speak to Dumbledore in private was… "What was the reason?"

"That's where you need to add your creativity to the story," said Voldemort. "You must have something to add."

"l—I'm not sure there's a good—"

"You must have something. All we need is one good reason."

"I…" Snape looked into Boggarts Cave. "What if I tell him the beast led us into the cave, and I saw my boggart there. I could tell him that I wanted to discuss my greatest fear with him in private."

Voldemort sighed. "If you tell him about this cave, he might figure out you were really here getting doppelganger root. We need Dumbledore to be completely unprepared for the Dark Tourist for it to work. Why not use Ms. Evans?"

"I don't understand."

"Tell him you need to talk in private about Lily. Explain that you didn't want to get her in trouble—in front of whoever else might be with you—and it was really her idea to go into the Forbidden Forest unannounced. Bring all attention to her, so it is removed from us."

"But it wasn't her fault."

Voldemort locked eyes with Snape. "Sometimes we have to make small sacrifices for the greater good. And once it's just you and Dumbledore, he'll surely take a closer look at Lily's injuries." He handed Snape several of the blue wafers made from the doppelganger root. "And voila. You can drop the Dark Tourist on him right then."

Snape shifted uncomfortably.

"One more thing, Severus." Voldemort handed him a Tom Riddle poster. "Get this into the Headmaster's Office. Find a way."

Snape held Lily in his arms as Voldemort touched his shoulder, immediately giving him a winter chill as they apparated to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

As Snape levitated Lily to the castle, he remembered the first time he ever saw her. It seemed like ages ago, and yet it seemed like yesterday. Like so many of his other childhood memories, this one centered around the Spinner's End Carnival, and it was at the The Bends, a game that challenged contestants to kick a ball past a goalie from the town's local club. Caesar Cordozo was the goalie that day, and out of the one hundred contestants, only one ball had gotten past him, but it was quickly disqualified when the game manager found the winner's friend distracting Cordozo by using a mirror to send the sun directly into his eyes.

"No one can beat him. Step right up, and try to get one past the impenetrable Cordozo!" The manager worked the front of the both, selling tickets as fast as he could. "One pound, one shot. One pound, one shot. To the boy in the goofy green, hat." The manager worked his way to the left side of the booth and took the boy's money. The boy moved to the center where a ball rested on a white chalk line.

"Okay, Cordozo. It looks like this lad has got a strong leg." The manager patted the boy on the back and then winked at Cordozo.

Cordozo bounced left and right, speaking to himself in a foreign language, and held his hands in front of him. The boy ran to the ball and kicked a solid, straight shot that went directly into Cordozo's hands. The goalie caught it with ease and immediately tossed the ball back to the manager. Then, he ran his hands through his brown, greasy hair and waved to the groaning crowd.

"Cordozo DOES IT AGAIN!" the manager emphatically announced, trying to build suspense where there was none.

Before the manager could even began his spiel about one pound for one shot, a boy Snape's age emerged from the crowd and handed the manager a pound, but Snape barely noticed the boy at all; he was staring at the girl who was holding the boy's hand, her red hair shining like a bright lollipop. Next to her, there was another girl who seemed rather annoyed that they were watching the boy at all.

"Tuney, it will only take a moment," said the girl with the red hair.

The boy leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek. "When this ball roars past him, you're getting that one." He pointed to a stuffed koala bear. It was pinned with other stuffed animals to the fiberboard on the booth's side. The girl blushed a little, and Snape felt a twinge of jealously, never having wanted to be with someone else so much in his life.

The manager placed the ball on the chalk line. The boy moved several feet back and then charged the ball. He struck it perfectly, making it take a sharp bend to the left, but at the last moment, the ball completely changed directions and headed back to the right, directly into Caesar's chest.

"OHHHHHHHH! So close, So close. Unfortunately another loser!" The manager practically danced with glee, but the rest of the audience watched dumbfounded. How had the ball curved back to the right so suddenly?

If a still picture had been taken of the crowd right then, the discerning eye would have seen all of the bystanders looking puzzled, all except one—Snape. He had a smile on his face.

"I was robbed," the boy said to the girl with red hair.

"Come on, Lily, this is boring!" Petunia was tugging at her sister's arm.

"One more try," the boy told her.

"He wants ANOTHER try!" the manager announced to the crowd, maybe seventy people in all. "Can anyone, anyone get it past Caesar Cordozo?"

"Don't worry, I'll get him this time," the boy told Lily. "I want you to have that koala bear."

Lily blushed for the second time.

Snape smiled to himself as the boy took a few paces from the ball. When he charged this time, he struck it perfectly again; it sent Caesar in the opposite direction, for the bend was to the right. The ball went over Caesar's hand and was going to clearly cross the goal line when it suddenly took a ninety degree turn into the post, ricocheted off of it, and fell into the goalie's hands yet again.

Caesar looked at the ball as if he'd just found a basket full of puppies in his arms. He had a strange giddy smile, and he did a little dance for the crowd, as the boy watched in shock.

"How is that possible?" he asked Lily. "There's no way that's possible."

"Come on! I don't want to waste any more time here," Petunia urged them.

"Wow! Wow! Wow! What an unexpected turn of events." The manager commended the boy for his efforts, spending all of ten seconds, and then was back at his sales pitch.

Snape didn't waste any time pushing his way between a few people in the crowd and stuffed a pound into the manager's hand. The manager looked at Snape as if he were crazy. "Hey, kid. You sure this is uh"—he eyed Snape from head to toe—"you know? You sure this is for you?"

"Yes," he told the manager, immediately taking a few steps behind the chalk line. Snape looked over at Lily, who seemed to be consoling the boy, telling him it was okay that he missed.

"We have our next Boy Wonder!" announced the manager.

Lily turned to look who was the next kicker, and she locked eyes with Snape for a moment. Snape smiled, and looked to the ground when she smiled back. "All right, kid," the manager said to him.

Snape took a running start to the ball, and though his kick started off weak in comparison to the previous boy's, it gained speed quickly, zooming past the goalie and hitting the back of the net with the whoosh sound that football players love to hear (at least for the ones doing the kicking).

"Goal? Goal!" the manager did his best imitation of a football commentator as the crowd erupted. The manager took Snape's arm and led him to the side of the booth. "I don't know how you did that," he said in a quieter voice to Snape. "Now, which one of these FABULOUS prizes do you want?"

Snape pointed to the koala bear. The manager laughed. "Cute. Really? Don't you want one of the cowboy hats or toy guns or swords? "

Snape shook his head.

"Okey dokey. Suit yourself, big man." He handed Snape the koala bear.

He took the stuffed animal from the manager's hands and immediately turned, scanning the crowd for the girl with the red hair. He rushed over to the side where he'd just seen her, the boy, and the other girl who seemed to be scowling the whole time, but they were nowhere to be found.

And then he saw them. Lily and the boy had just gotten on the Ferris wheel. As their seat climbed higher into the sky, he felt a twinge of jealousy in his body, a dull ache in his heart. He knew what was coming. Just as the Ferris wheel reached the top, the boy pulled Lily in for a kiss—and this one was much more than a peck. A few seats below them, Petunia shouted, "EWWWWW!" to them as loud as she could.

"Sometimes when we win, we don't really win." A man next to Snape, wearing half-moon spectacles, was also looking at the Ferris wheel. "Trust me," he said. "Ending up with the love of your life can be a tricky thing."

Snape turned and eyed the man's long, gray-white beard. "Who are you?"

"Before I answer your question, let me ask you one. When you kicked the ball, did you use your mind to get it past the goalie?" The man with the half-moon spectacles looked at the boy, already sure of his answer.

Snape didn't have the chance to finish the memory. Nor did he have a chance to rehearse Voldemort's plan in his head one more time. Now was the time to act.

Albus Dumbledore was rushing in their direction, and they hadn't even reached the castle.