Fair warning for all: A few people mentioned they were a bit anxious reading the last chapter, so I apologise in advance for any heart attacks people may suffer when reading this one :p
Chapter 35
Lily and Sirius quickly and silently slid into the basement, and pushed the door closed behind them. Sirius whipped the Invisibility Cloak off them in one swift motion and they both lit their wands to illuminate the pitch-black room.
The basement was large, about the same size as the main hall upstairs and Lily guessed that they were directly beneath it. It had bare brick walls and a cement floor. The room was completely empty apart from a figure curled on the floor not far from them
"Remus," Lily murmured, running forward to kneel beside him. He lay in a pool of blood, some of it dried and some still wet. His robes were torn and Lily could see deep gashes through the rips, those that looked the most recent were still bleeding. Remus' face didn't look much better, he was covered in bruises and more cuts covered his face and neck. His wrists were tied together by a length of rope and Lily saw another piece of rope around his ankles.
"Is he - ?" Sirius croaked, stepping forward.
Lily placed her hand on Remus' chest where she could feel the rapid rise and fall of it, and the steady beating of his heart; Remus flinched slightly at the pain this simple action caused him and she withdrew her hand quickly.
"He's alive." Lily had to swallow to try to keep her voice steady and her hands were shaking. Remus couldn't have been here for that long, he'd only left Grimmauld Place two weeks ago – what had they done to him? "I don't know how we're going to get him out," Lily told Sirius, and then spoke to Remus, "Remus, Remus, it's me, it's Lily. Look we're going to get you out of here, don't worry."
Lily continued to speak words of comfort while she tried to untie the ropes. He didn't show any signs of recognition, which unnerved Lily but she carried on, not wasting any time. She did not dare use magic to cut the ropes as she thought that her shaking hand might accidentally add a few more cuts to Remus' list of injuries. Sirius stayed near the door, listening to hear if anyone was approaching.
Lily had managed to untie the rope around his wrists when she glanced up and saw him open one bleary eye at her.
"Lily," he breathed, and Lily was relieved at the sound of his voice. This relief was quickly replaced by dread when she heard Sirius saying her name sharply.
"There's someone coming, Lily. Get under the Cloak now!"
Standing up, Lily apologised to Remus and grabbed her wand that she had dropped on the floor beside him. She retreated to near the door where Sirius was waiting with the Cloak. He threw it over the both of them and they extinguished their wands just in time, as the door burst open seconds after the room had been plunged into darkness.
Candles were conjured and they floated in the air near the doorway, allowing Lily to see who had entered. There were two men: one was tall, wearing long billowing black robes and had his wand out, the other was rather shorter, plump and had a nervous look about him – Wormtail.
Voldemort stepped forward so that Lily could only see the back of him, and Wormtail followed behind closely.
"Well, well, Lupin… I am not accustomed to being summoned because a prisoner refuses to co-operate," Voldemort's high-pitched voice was calm and, Lily thought, slightly amused. Despite not sounding overly threatening or dangerous, she got goosebumps as he spoke. "I'll give you one chance to speak willingly before I use force – where is the boy hidden?"
It seemed to take Remus a great amount of strength to raise his head and look straight into Voldemort's face.
"I'd die before I told you." Remus' voice was weak but Lily had never heard him speak with such a cold edge to his voice before, spitting the words at Voldemort. Voldemort laughed – a cold, humourless laugh.
"Oh, there are always ways to make people talk. Look at Wormtail here – didn't you consider him a friend mere months ago? All I had to do was offer him something he couldn't resist, and wouldn't cost me too much effort, of course, and he readily turned against his friends."At this, Wormtail slowly moved so that Voldemort was blocking him from Remus' view. Lily felt Sirius beside her raising his wand to aim it at him. She didn't turn to see for certain; her eyes were fixed on the sliver of Remus' face that she could see and his were on Voldemort's. When he spoke again, his voice had lost it's calm attitude.
"I'll get Potter whether you tell me where he is or not. You're not saving him by refusing to tell me, you're just putting yourself in danger. If you tell me where he is then I'll let you free."
Remus stayed silent.
"I gave you your chance, werewolf. Crucio."
Remus screamed a heart-wrenching scream that seemed to cause Lily physical pain just hearing it. She watched in despair as Remus tensed in agony, curling up even more into a ball.
Voldemort lowered his wand and Remus' body went limp. His eyes were closed and he was breathing hard. Voldemort tilted his head to one side and considered Remus for a moment.
"I don't need you, werewolf. Your kind are no better than the mudbloods; I wouldn't allow you to clean the dirt off my robes. You filthy creatures should be locked up and left to die, which is what will happen to you if you don't tell me where Potter is. Answer me!"
"Is that how you talk to Greyback? You persuaded him to join your cause by calling him a filthy creature?" Remus' eyes stayed closed when he spoke and his voice was getting weaker by the second – it sounded like he was using all his energy when he was speaking. "If I told you where they were then I'd deserve to be left for dead."
"What is it you really want, werewolf?" Voldemort whispered menacingly, ignoring Remus' accusations. He was silent for a minute, in which time the only sound was Remus' heavy breathing and Wormtail fidgeting behind his master. Then, Voldemort laughed again. "I can promise not to kill her when I kill the boy, but that's not what you really want, is it? You want to play happy families with your dead friend's wife and son." He laughed once more "And they say my Death Eaters are sly."
Lily thought she saw Sirius turn to look at her out of the corner of her eye but she didn't acknowledge it. Voldemort had turned his wand back onto Remus and he was screaming louder than before – this time Lily couldn't handle it.
She felt Sirius attempt to grab her arm to keep her in place but Lily had already ran out from under the Cloak. She stopped in front of Remus, spreading her arms out as if to block him from view.
Voldemort blinked once as Lily stared into his face unflinchingly. He had lowered his wand and the room was silent.
"Well, well. I should have known that you would come for your, ah, friend." Voldemort grimaced as if he was reliving a bad memory. "But maybe this way is better – he'll tell me where your son is, or I'll kill you."
He said this with absolute certainty that his plan would work, and Lily thought it might have done if only Sirius had not also been hidden in the room. Not wanting to alert Voldemort to this fact, she decided to play along. Lily took half a step backwards, away from Voldemort, and quickly looked behind her; Remus had closed his eyes and his chest was barely moving. They had to get him out of here fast. However, no plans formed themselves in her mind. Instead, she decided that keeping Voldemort talking had to be the safest option as it might distract him for long enough for either her or Sirius to think of a plan.
"Not all of my friends are traitors," Lily said, much more bravely than she felt. "Remus wouldn't tell you a thing."
"Really?" Voldemort asked, sounding greatly amused. Before Lily could raise her wand, he had pointed his at her and a great force pulled her towards him. He grabbed her by the throat, turned her to face Remus and pressed his wand tip to her neck.
"Wormtail, take her wand," he ordered. Wormtail shuffled around so that Lily could see him. He kept his eyes downwards so he didn't have to look at her and she tried to fight him off. Voldemort dug his overgrown fingernails into her neck and Lily relinquished her grasp on her wand. It fell to the floor and Wormtail stooped down to pick it up. Lily had a sudden urge to kick him; she knew that this would only result in more pain for her or Remus so she decided against attacking him.
Apparently Sirius did not.
A jet of light hit Wormtail in the face, causing him to stumble backwards and slowed his movement. Voldemort threw Lily to the ground as he spun round to see where the spell had come from, his upper lip curling in rage when he saw Sirius standing with his wand in one hand and the Invisibility Cloak in the other.
"Of course – the mudblood would never have managed to get here by herself. She would need someone raised with the Dark Arts."
Sirius didn't say anything; he sent a spell at Voldemort who deflected it easily and then started duelling ferociously.
The jinx that Sirius had sent at Wormtail was beginning to wear off. Lily could see his eyes darting from the door to Sirius and back again. Lily crawled to where her wand had fallen and snatched it up. She looked back up to find Wormtail stood up and hurrying to the door.
"Colloportus!" Lily shouted, waving her wand wildly in the general direction of the door. A dull thud told her that she had performed the charm just in time as Wormtail ran head first into it. She quickly sent a Stunning Spell after it that struck Wormtail squarely in the back and he fell to the floor.
Sirius and Voldemort were still duelling, illuminating the room with brightly coloured flashes of light. Occasionally, one would be deflected and hit the floor or walls and a great chunk would be blown off, leaving the basement littered with bits of brick and cement.
Lily scrambled on all fours to where Wormtail was and searched his robes until she found his wand. She grabbed it before hurrying to Remus' side and pressed Wormtail's wand into his hand, just in case. Lily started untying the rope around Remus' ankles, her hands steadied by the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She managed to untie it eventually and tried to drag Remus further away from where Voldemort and Sirius were duelling in case one of the deflected spells came in their direction.
While she pulled Remus, Lily had her wand in her hand and sent the occasional spell in Voldemort's direction, trying to distract him from Sirius for a moment. She knew Sirius was a good dueller, but it was nothing compared to Voldemort's years of experience, and Voldemort was slowly but steadily advancing towards Sirius.
Once they were a sufficient distance away from Voldemort and Sirius, Lily stopped and knelt beside Remus briefly, one hand on his chest to make sure he was still breathing. When she was sure he was ok, Lily stood up in between Remus and Voldemort, and joined in the duel.
Voldemort snarled now that Lily was firing spells at him too, but Lily and Sirius still weren't making him duel at his full potential. At some point, he was going to get fed up and blow them to the side as if they were nothing more than smoke. All Lily could hope for was that Voldemort would make a mistake that would give them time to escape, somehow.
He didn't make any mistakes, he was too experienced a dueller to, and nothing that even resembled an escape plan entered Lily's mind while she duelled, ducking and dodging to all sides to avoid the spells cast at her. The best she could do was keep duelling and see if any opportunities presented themselves.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw something move. She glanced to the floor briefly after blocking a jet of violet light that had been sent her way. Remus was trying to move, to aim the wand Lily had given him at Voldemort so that he could fire a spell at him. Lily wanted to shout at him to save his energy, but that would have meant wasting precious moments, and Lily didn't have any to waste.
Instead, she stepped slightly out of Remus' way so he had a clear shot. Unfortunately, Voldemort spotted this and moved aside to avoid the spell that went his way a moment later. Lily had to act quickly in order to block a returning spell shot at Remus.
This seemed to anger Voldemort because he started swiping his wand through the air with renewed force and speed. He was pushing Lily and Sirius to their limit now and he knew it, a small smile growing on his face. Lily had to almost throw herself to the floor in order to avoid a series of spells aimed at her.
Lily looked up in time to see Sirius being blasted across the room, hit the stone wall and slide to the floor, unconscious.
Voldemort didn't bother to see if Sirius was unable to carry on duelling, he took slow deliberate steps towards Lily. She got to her feet quickly, gripping her wand tightly. Trying her best not to look scared, Lily looked Voldemort in the eyes. There was silence and she could tell what was coming. It was inevitable.
Lily stood her ground, only moving to raise her wand when Voldemort raised his.
Behind Voldemort, the door burst open revealing a small group of Death Eaters. Voldemort spun round in surprise, managing to keep his wand aimed on Lily. Voldemort quickly regained his composure.
"What are you doing here? I ordered you to not interrupt!" He hissed.
"You seemed to be taking a long time with the prisoner, my Lord. We wondered –" said one of the Death Eaters.
"There were intruders, the situation is under control."
There was barely a heartbeat of silence before the Death Eater who had spoken drew his wand and started firing spells at Voldemort. Two of the Death Eaters ran over to Remus on the floor and the other to Sirius, leaving Lily to watch what was happening, completely bewildered.
Lily watched as the two Death Eaters near to her bent over Remus and started murmuring spells. One of them glanced up at her and Lily's heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was Rosier.
"Don't just stand there, help us," he growled.
Lily had no idea what was happening. Eventually, her brain began to work faster and she realised that these weren't real Death Eaters.
"What - ?" Lily started, kneeling beside the non-Death Eaters, but the one who had taken on Rosier's appearance interrupted her.
"Polyjuice Potion," he growled. "We need to hurry up – it's nearly been an hour and we've got to get back out!"
"Come on, Lily," said a new voice from above and Lily saw the non-Death Eater who had gone to see to Sirius walking towards them. He was supporting Sirius, who was conscious again but looked unsteady on his feet.
The two Death Eaters either side of Lily hauled Remus to his feet. Lily thought his awareness had gone again because he wasn't making any effort to resist what looked like two Death Eaters picking him up. However, she didn't comment and went to help the non-Death Eater supporting Sirius by putting her arm around his other side.
They slowly made their way towards the door, avoiding the duel happening on the other side of the basement. That was, until Sirius started talking.
"The Cloak," he said. "I dropped it…"
Lily ducked out from under Sirius' shoulder and quickly looked around the room. The Cloak was just behind the door where she and Sirius had been stood. Lily ran over to pick it up - dodging spells as she went - stuffed it into an inside pocket of her robes, and then returned to help support Sirius.
The six of them managed to exit the basement and had got halfway up the stairs when the non-Death Eaters suddenly stopped walking. Lily wondered why this was until she spotted the skin of the one who was also supporting Sirius; it was bubbling and she understood that the Polyjuice potion was wearing off.
While they stood waiting for all of the potion's effects to fade, Lily heard the sound of loud bangs and shouts from above them. She craned her neck hoping to see what was going on, but nobody and nothing passed the small section of the corridor that she could see.
Lily was still trying to discern what was happening above them when she felt Sirius move, which indicated that they were moving again. She looked to her side and, with a shock, saw that Seth was the other person helping Sirius make his way up the stairs. Looking behind her, Lily saw Moody and Emmeline supporting the barely conscious Remus.
"Hurry up," Moody growled, pulling Remus up a step.
"What about – whoever it is still down there?" said Lily.
"Dumbledore will be fine. Now move!"
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