Chapter 36
The noises above them grew louder as they made their slow way up the stairs. Lily gripped her wand tightly, ready if she needed to use it. She still couldn't see exactly what was going on, but now the occasional jets of light were being shot past the entrance to the stairwell and Lily assumed that the rest of the Order was working its way through the building.
Lily and Seth pulled Sirius up to the top step but immediately tried to step back down so that they were out of sight. Lily almost fell over Moody when she stepped back and it took her a moment to steady herself and Sirius.
Both ends of the corridor were filled with Death Eaters duelling people Lily couldn't see. She thought she could spot the unmistakable purple uniform of the Aurors and wondered what they were doing here until she remembered the planned werewolf attack on the Ministry and she understood that they had come to get help rid of the threat. Lily was grateful for this, as the Order had nowhere near enough members to cope with the number of werewolves that were here.
"How are we going to get out?" Lily asked Moody, looking behind her. There was no need to keep her voice down; Lily could barely hear herself speak with the sounds of shouts and spells in the corridor.
"Where are they duelling?"
"Both ends of the corridor."
"There's a door opposite and to the left. Go through there."
"But, Moody, doesn't that - ?"
"Do you want to try to get these two through the corridors that are packed with people firing curses at each other?"
Lily didn't reply; Moody was right. It would be impossible to get through the narrow corridors without them being hit but she didn't think it was a good idea to try to go through the main hall in order to get out. Most of the werewolves might not be particularly proficient with magic but some would be and they were highly outnumbered. However, it was their only chance.
Steeling herself, Lily glanced at Seth, who she now noticed was looking rather pale. He must have seen her looking as he smiled slightly at her. Between them, Sirius was attempting to push them away.
"What are you doing?"
"I can walk on my own, I don't need help."
"You were just blasted halfway across the room, if you're fine then I'm a man," said Lily, gritting her teeth.
Sirius didn't stop struggling, and he carried on arguing with Lily until Moody interrupted them.
"Let him walk if he thinks he can manage. We're wasting time."
Sirius and Lily abruptly stopped at this. They looked over to where Remus was; he was growing steadily paler at the effort he was exerting trying to stand up, even with help from Emmeline and Moody.
Lily let Sirius go and Seth did the same. It took Sirius a second to steady himself but, when he did, he looked fine, if not slightly pale.
"Can't you three wear the Cloak?" Sirius asked Moody. "You'd be able to get through without the Death Eaters trying to attack you."
"I don't think it'll cover them all," said Lily. "Their feet will show."
Lily pulled the Cloak out of her pocket anyway and threw it over Moody, Emmeline and Remus. As she had thought, their feet and part of their legs were still visible. Half of a person was likely to attract more attention than if they were walking through normally.
Lily stuffed the Cloak back in her pocket while Moody gave instructions on how they were going to get across the hallway, and, hopefully, out safely. Lily and Seth switched with Moody and Emmeline so that they were supporting Remus, allowing the more experienced duellers to provide cover for them.
Sirius and Emmeline stepped out of the stairwell first, heading towards the door that led into the hall and shooting jets of light at the Death Eaters on either side; they were too preoccupied to be able to tell where all of the spells were coming from. Sirius and Emmeline were halfway to the door when Lily and Seth started to make their way across half carrying Remus, and Moody brought up the rear seconds later.
The situation in the corridor was worse than Lily had thought when she had briefly seen it before. Bodies of Death Eaters and Aurors alike lined the corridor and Lily couldn't tell if they were dead or merely unconscious. Littering the floor were bits of wall, floor and ceiling that had broken off when a powerful spell had hit it. Lily sent more spells into the battle that was raging as they hurried across to the door as quickly as they could. She didn't know if any of them hit their targets and didn't stop to check before she entered the hall.
It was marginally better in here than out in the corridor, but only because it was a larger space. Most of the werewolves without wands were huddled in a corner, trying to stay out of the way and avoid being hit, while some were tied up and left on the floor, the spell caster having been distracted. Lily guessed that the Aurors had been the first to get in the hall as so many of the werewolves had been tied up but the Death Eaters had quickly followed. Order members fought alongside the Aurors, against the Death Eaters and werewolves with wands. This made it hard to move without being hit, but the six of them did their best, edging their way along the wall so they wouldn't be noticed while Sirius, Moody and Emmeline did their best to block spells coming their way.
They hadn't got very far when new shouts could be heard from Death Eaters, pointing at the six of them trying to get out. Sirius immediately jumped into the battle, flashes of light coming from his wand, aimed at the Death Eaters in all directions. Moody and Emmeline joined him, leaving only Lily and Seth to deflect any stray jets of light that neared them.
Lily and Seth continued supporting Remus as they walked along the walls, doing their best to avoid or block stray curses. It was getting harder; the more they walked the less strength Remus had and he could barely keep himself upright. Lily and Seth kept moving, trying to go faster as Remus grew fainter.
It was hard work, even with the two of them, and before long they had to gently put Remus down so that they could rest. But even resting from carrying him didn't give Lily and Seth time to relax; Lily was constantly scanning the area for spells aimed at them and had to block more than a few. The longer they stood there, the more Death Eaters and werewolves noticed them and started sending jets of light towards them in between their own duels.
Nearby, a Death Eater won his duel and his opponent (an Auror Lily didn't recognise) went down with a scream. He turned towards where Lily and Seth were stood, panting, and Remus was sat against the wall.
Snape stood without moving staring at the three of them by the wall, and Lily wondered why he didn't attack them straight away. A moment later, Lily guessed that he had been catching his breath as there was a flash of blue light and Snape started duelling Seth.
Seth took a few steps away from where Lily and Remus were, but Lily tried to join the duel to help Seth.
"Get back to Remus, Lily. Get him out of here!" shouted Seth in between blocking an attack from Snape and sending a retaliatory spell back.
Lily hesitated. She knew that it would be best to do as Seth said and get Remus out, but she knew how good a dueller Snape was and Seth was likely to need help.
In her moment of hesitation, Lily stood watching Snape and Seth duel. As she did so, she noticed cracks in the floor starting to appear. Lily frowned. They were duelling hard, yes, but everyone in the room was and it was nowhere near intense enough for the floor to start cracking.
Then Lily remembered the duel happening below them in the basement. It looked like Lily had been right earlier when she had thought that the basement was beneath the main hall, and Dumbledore's and Voldemort's duel must have been growing fiercer by the second for the floor to start giving in.
"Seth, the floor!" Lily shouted. Both Seth and Snape looked down at the cracks beginning to create great furrows in the cement. As she looked, Lily saw more and more appear around the room and she wasn't the only one to have noticed them now.
No one had to be told to get out; a mad rush for the doors began. Even though she had been standing no more than five yards away from Remus, she had to push people out of the way in order to get to him.
He was almost being trodden on in the horde of people trying to get out quickly. Lily hauled Remus onto his feet unceremoniously and began to try to make her way to the nearest door.
Lily struggled with Remus' weight and the people pushing and shoving past gave no consideration to them. Lily stumbled forwards, refusing to give up, until she felt Remus become lighter and she looked around.
Sirius had found them among the mass of bodies. He propped Remus up with his shoulder and helped Lily get him to the door. It was difficult, as the three of them took up so much space and moved so slow while everyone else wanted to be the first to get out, but eventually they managed it.
When they reached the door, screams from inside the hall suddenly grew louder and Lily couldn't help but look over the heads of people running out of the room.
The furrows in the floor had started to join up and, as Lily watched, a chunk of the floor, not far from a group of werewolves who had been tied up, disappeared from view. The tied up werewolves shouted for someone to help them, trying to stand so they could escape, but no one did. They were all too busy saving themselves.
There was nothing Lily could do. She had to get Remus out, and - in any case – she wouldn't have been able to push against the crowd of people pouring out of the doors. Sirius gave Remus a sharp tug forwards and Lily was pulled with him.
More bodies littered this corridor and Lily did her best to avoid stepping on them, or looking close enough to be able to recognise them. She was one of the few that did, as most people let nothing stop them from getting out of the collapsing warehouse as quickly as possible and didn't pay any attention to whatever obstacles were in their way.
Lily and Sirius made it to the door with Remus and exited into the fresh air. They stepped to the side allowing others to exit and them to catch their breath for a moment, when a jet of green light came their way and they had to duck to avoid it. It left a hole in the wall behind them.
The scene outside much resembled how the one inside had been. Duels that had been interrupted recommenced, but now a number of Death Eaters were trying to flee. They were prevented by the line of Ministry workers stood by the fence who were incapacitating anyone who looked like they were going to make a run for it.
What looked like another group of Aurors Apparated beyond the fence and started running in through the gate when they had barely landed. The charms preventing anyone from getting in or out must have been disabled when the Aurors and Order members broke through, but it looked as if anit-Apparition charms were still in place.
They started walking again, doing their best to support Remus on their way to the gate. As they walked, Sirius started stumbling; his injury must have been worse than they thought because by the time they were nearly to the gate, Sirius was leaning on Remus as much as Remus was leaning on him.
"Come on, Sirius," Lily said desperately. "It's not far now."
They took a few more steps but Sirius had had enough. He stayed stood up, swaying dangerously on the spot. Fortunately, someone saw them and starting running in their direction.
The person drew closer and Lily recognised it as being Dedalus Diggle. When he reached them, he forced his way in between Sirius and Remus and helped Lily get them through the gate where it was finally safe to sit down and rest.
"Where are the others?" asked Dedalus. "Dumbledore, Moody and Emmeline?"
"I don't know," Lily panted. "Dumbledore's in the basement duelling Voldemort –" Dedalus looked shocked at this, but Lily carried on. "- The others went off to duel some Death Eaters. I don't know where they've got to."
Lily looked through the fence to the yard around the warehouse anxiously. Had the others got out okay? She hadn't seen Moody or Emmeline since they had entered the hall and she had lost Seth in the scramble to get out. What if they had been injured and left in the hall? There was no way they could make it back in to get anyone out and Lily was concerned that any rescue team would get trapped in there too.
She carried on searching for faces she recognised through the fence. People kept moving around, making it hard for Lily to spot anyone.
"Shouldn't those two be going to St. Mungo's?" Dedalus said, making Lily jump slightly; she had forgotten he was there. He was searching the crowd of duellers too, his face showing his anxiety.
"I couldn't Apparate with both of them. I don't – I don't know if they'd be okay Apparating." Lily looked down at where both Sirius and Remus were lay on the floor, worry swelling inside her. She pushed it back; they were going to be alright, she would get them to St. Mungo's as soon as she knew the others had got out…
This thought had only just entered Lily's mind when there was an earth-shattering crash and the sound of renewed screams filled the air. She looked up in horror.
One side of the warehouse had collapsed. People were running away from the building as fast as they could in case it completely fell down. Duels were still taking place and people ran straight into the flashes of light as they escaped from the warehouse. The whole situation was descending into chaos and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Lily sat and watched; she had to fight her instincts so that she didn't run straight back in there to help, but she was exhausted and was unwilling to leave Remus and Sirius.
In the confusion, Lily didn't notice the figure walking towards them until it was right in front of her.
"Seth!" Lily jumped to her feet and hugged him. "I didn't know where you'd got to, are you okay? Have you seen the others?"
"I'm fine," he said, gently releasing Lily. "I saw Emmeline and Moody get out, they're duelling over there somewhere." Seth pointed vaguely to the right of the collapsing building and Lily briefly saw a flash of Emmeline's black hair and Moody's distinctive frame.
Lily looked back to the warehouse. There was no sign of Dumbledore or Voldemort. Obviously she didn't care whether Voldemort got out dead or alive, but if something had happened to Dumbledore, if he'd been caught in any falling debris, it didn't bear thinking about.
"I thought the point of rescuing Remus was so that he was alright, aren't you going to take him to the hospital?" Seth asked.
"I won't be able to manage both of them. Sirius can barely stand."
"The three of us would manage, wouldn't we?" Seth indicated himself, Lily and Dedalus. "We should get Remus there as soon as possible."
Dedalus looked as if he didn't want to leave without knowing for certain that the others were okay, but he agreed anyway. He helped Lily and Seth pull Remus and Sirius to their feet and they made sure someone was on both sides of both of them.
Just as they were about to Disapparate, Lily glanced back at the warehouse and froze.
A lone figure was emerging from the rubble of the warehouse. A tall lone figure. With waist length silver hair and beard.
"Dumbledore!" Lily said to the others, pointing to the aged wizard who was calmly emerging from the half-collapsed building.
They turned to look, and the sight of Dumbledore seemed to convince them that the situation here was under control. After a moment, the three of them standing looked at each other, making sure they were all ready. There was no reason to stay now, it was best for them to get Remus and Sirius to St. Mungo's, as long as Dumbledore was there things would be fine. It was a rather naïve belief, but it was one that had never been proved false before.
After Seth had counted to "three", they Disapparated.
Leave feedback :)