Previously on Deals with Life and Lilies:
"I'm sorry, but I still don't recognize either of you," Lily said suspiciously, pointing her wand from the woman to the man and back again to the woman. The threat of the two unknown people in front of her were greater than some announcement that she still had three minutes to escape, if there really were Death Eaters close by.
"You don't know him, but you know me. I don't know how to let you know who we are without names besides telling you how hard it is to produce a Patronus, which is like asking a Muggle kindergartener to explain quantum physics to Harvard students."
The line stirred something in her memory, and Lily gasped when she pulled up the face that came along with it; she now knew who the woman was beneath the disguise and secrets.
It was Sage Rawlings.
Cruel Enemies
"S-"
"Shhh! We don't have much time, Lily."
"Wait, we need to know it's really her and not some Death Eater in disguise," growled the man. "You have Veritaserum?"
Rawlings rolled her eyes at the man and turned back to the girl. "Lily, who annoys you the most at Hogwarts?"
"Potter," she said instantly.
"See?" Rawlings turned back to the man, who glared at her.
"That's not good enough, girl. Everybody knows that. Ask her something only the real Lily Evans would know."
Rawlings bit her lip before asking, "Which of your friends did you tell about Stoughton's murder right after he died?"
Lily was about to say that Rawlings wasn't asking about a real event before she realized that it was a trick question because she was only able to tell Dumbledore; she hadn't told Alice until last year, and everybody else was still in the dark.
"Nobody. I only told Dumbledore," Lily answered.
"It's her. We need to get out of here now!" Rawlings said, and she quickly guided Lily out of the door, the man following them while glancing around.
"I don't understand. Are there really Dea- my family!" Lily cried. "They're sitting in there with no way to protect themselves!"
"Lily, we already have somebody planning on getting them, but they can't do it until you're far enough away that their magic won't set off the Trace. Now hurry," Rawlings guided her to a truck parked close by.
Lily obediently climbed in to the backseat while Rawlings took the wheel and the man seated himself beside Lily, still alert to any threat. Now Lily was sure beyond a doubt that it was Rawlings; Death Eaters would never stoop so low as to drive something like a car, something that belonged only to the Muggle world.
The engine hummed to life, and Rawlings gunned it almost immediately. Houses zipped by at speeds more suitable for an interstate, certainly enough to get Rawlings pulled over.
"I'm sorry, but what's going on? Who are you? Why are we using a car? Why not just use a portkey?" Lily asked the man.
"Not here, girl!" the man answered in a harsh voice. Lily flinched away, and Rawlings spoke in a much kinder voice.
"You'll find out in a minute, Lily, but right now we have to get there. Right now the Death Eaters think that you're with a couple of Muggles. The car is the most unsuspecting thing that we could think of."
"Remember, con-"
"Yes, yes, I think she's gathered that it's important to stay alert," Rawlings snapped, but Lily could hear the hint of a close friendship behind the tone.
"Seriously, where are we going?"
"I promise to explain everything once we get there," said Rawlings. She glared at the man. "And it wouldn't hurt to be nice."
Rawlings pulled into an empty parking lot, and Lily could see the disguises melt away.
She had cut her hair and dyed it, so now in place of her beautiful, luscious brown hair was a black, spiky pixie cut, but that wasn't what surprised Lily; her cheeks had lost all of the baby fat that had made her look so uniquely young. Lily noticed that her clothes hung more loosely, like she had gone for a couple of months without a single decent meal, and now she was completely devoid of any make-up she had worn as a teacher, the signature red lips now a pale pink.
Rawlings's eyes, which were usually full of life, had a glazed look, and there was a blotchy scar running around her neck as if somebody had continually used some sort of spiked rope to choke her over and over again. Lily could easily believe that Death Eaters had held Rawlings and tortured her for weeks.
It was as if Rawlings had aged thirty years in the span of less than two.
"Like I told you, Lily, there are some things out there that make Stoughton's murder seem like child's play," Rawlings said, noticing Lily stare at the scars on her neck; her collarbone stuck out much more than usual, and Lily had never seen such a fragile-looking person. "Courtesy of Salvatore Mulciber."
Lily stared at the scars in shock, unable to keep from connecting them to the people Severus had been spending the summer with.
"Yes, yes, we get it, you want revenge for a summer of nothing but moldy bread," said the man, and Lily got her first real look at him.
The only word to describe him was terrifying.
There was no other way that he appearance could be summed up into one word. Scars covered every inch of him, and in place of his left leg was a piece of wood. One scar was on the corner of his lips, so he was wearing a permanent scowl, but that wasn't the scariest thing: one eye continued to glare at Rawlings, but the other was an electric blue eye, whizzing in its socket, completely independent of the other one.
"C'mon," said Rawlings as soon as she was out of the car. "Follow me."
"Wait," said the man, holding out arm and stopping Lily in her tracks. He sniffed the air and withdrew an old-looking wand.
Rawlings glanced around before saying quietly, "The faster we get there, the sooner we can leave." Though the circles under her eyes were more pronounced than a vampire's, nobody could mistake her for not being alert.
Right after Rawlings finished speaking, Lily felt her hair stand up on the end and a trickle of fear seep into her head; somebody else was coming.
"Constant vigilance, girl." The man's eye rolled backwards, and he yelled, "Down!"
Boom!
Lily instinctively threw her hands over her head and a tree to their left exploded into a pile of bark and ashes. She was aware of Rawlings already on her feet and yelling at the man; Lily guessed that she was calling him Mad-Eye, which was indeed a fitting name.
"Crucio!" a hauntingly familiar voice screamed. Lily reacted automatically, rolling to the side as the hiss of a curse hit the pavement where she had been a few seconds before.
"Reducto!" Rawlings's voice bellowed, and the person who had sent the Cruciatus Curse at Lily yelped. Lily lifted her arms just in time to see Bellatrix leap from a broomstick and fall to the ground as Rawling's Reductor Curse hit her broomstick, reducing it to rubble.
"You said she was with Muggles, not Aurors! You'll have the Dark Lord to answer to, filthy half-blood!" Bellatrix screeched at a man wearing a mask. He was about to answer when Mad-Eye, or whatever Rawlings had called him, sent a spiraling jet of purple light at them.
It hit the man who collapsed with a squeal, and Bellatrix responded with summoning at least fifteen knives that hurdled themselves at Mad-Eye. A shield stopped them from hitting him, and Mad-Eye cast a Stunning Spell in retaliation.
"Lily, move!" Rawlings had grabbed her by the arm, and Lily jerked into action. Rawlings pulled her to the woods shadowing the empty parking lot that Mad-Eye was currently dueling all of the Death Eaters in.
"Imper-" a boy, no more than nineteen, yelled, but Rawlings cut him off.
"Silencio," she yelled, and the boy continued to move his mouth, but no sound came out. "Sorry, Vincent, but you should have practiced on nonverbal spells more when I was teaching you. We need to get away," she told Lily.
Lily kept up with Rawlings easily, but she stopped when she realized Mad-Eye wasn't following them. "What about Mad-Eye?" she asked.
"He's the best Auror the Ministry has had in a hundred years. If anybody can take on ten Death Eaters alone, it's him. Now hurry!"
"Stupefy!"
A jet of red light soared towards Lily, but she reacted quickly and ducked.
Prohibius, Lily thought, flicking her wand at the caster, and he was jerked into the air, frozen.
"Nice one," Rawlings said. "Uh-oh."
At least five Death Eaters blasted the bushes and trees away while Lily stood frozen with fear.
"Impedimenta!" Rawlings yelled, her jinx catching two Death Eaters at the same time. "Stupefy! Pertrificus Totalus! Reducto! Get out of here, Lily!"
Lily looked once at Rawlings, fiercely holding off the Death Eaters who were dropping like flies until there were only two remaining.
"I remember you," said one with an extremely messed up nose; somebody might have kicked him, hard. "Crucio!"
Rawlings, who had been too busy fending off the other one, was hit squarely in the back. Lily watched in horror as she collapsed and screamed, twitching and twisting her body while the agonizing fire that Lily had once experienced clawed, unseen, at Rawlings's already fragile body.
"NO!" Lily yelled.
"Mr. Mulciber, look out!" the man beside him yelled, and he looked up to glare at Lily, leaving Rawlings gasping on the ground, temporarily unaware of anything around her.
Looking into the man's eyes, Lily knew she could only be facing Mulciber's father, Salvatore Mulciber, the person who had given Rawlings the scars on her neck.
"Francis, take care of her," Mulciber snarled while turning back to Rawlings. "Make sure you do it right. I've got some unfinished business with little Sage here."
"No. Get out of here, Lily," Rawlings said weakly, struggling to her feet, but she didn't get far.
"CRUCIO!" Mulciber yelled, and Rawlings was too consumed by the pain to do anything but shriek.
It was just like the last time: Lily sat by watching as a Death Eater tortured Rawlings, just like Stoughton. Last time she was weak and unprepared, she had run. That had gotten her nowhere, but Lily wasn't going to do the same thing again.
The man advanced on her with his wand out, smirking at the fifteen-year-old, but Lily braced herself.
"Avada-"
"Reducto!" Lily cried, stopping the man short as he ducked the curse that did not come. Instead Lily had aimed at a large branch above the Death Eater, which fell free with a resounding CRACK!
Rawlings screams stopped as Mulciber dived aside to avoid it, unknowingly jumping into a ditch while Rawlings stirred.
The other Death Eater stumbled out of the branches, and Lily saw that his mask had fallen off, revealing a face that wasn't totally unknown to Lily, though she had only met the man once.
It was Francis Manumali, the man who had come to her house along with Professor McGonagall to give her the Hogwarts letter and explain magic to her parents. Lily recalled the unease she had felt around him, and saw that her first impressions were right; he was a Death Eater.
Manumali grinned at Lily's shock, a smile that sent shivers up her spine. "Finally found me out, have you, Mudblood. I hear you were catching on to my little side activity in Hogwarts a couple of years ago. Victoria, Magnolia, all those people were foolish enough to think I was their friend simply because I had told them about magic."
The shock held Lily still. Manumali? He was the person who had been behind the disappearances back in her second year?
"Why?" Lily choked out.
Manumali raised an eyebrow. "Filth like you don't deserve to walk this earth. I've been using the crazy kid and my status to track down any Mudbloods who could be threatening to our society. Wipe them out before they can do much. Besides, it's fun to watch them beg, thinking I'm their friend…"
While Lily fought hard to keep from fainting at the cruelty of Manumali's murderous ways, she noticed that it sounded like he knew beforehand which Muggle-borns would be successful, which was impossible for him to tell, even if he was a Seer.
An then something else came to her mind. If Manumali only visited the targets who ended up dead, and she had been one of the Muggle-borns…
"I would like to spend some fun time before getting rid of you, but alas, it'll have to be quick. Avada Kedavra!" Manumali yelled, but Lily was already expecting it and dived behind a log, her heart hammering.
"Reduc-" Manumali started, but Rawlings was up again.
"Clubo," she said weakly, barely managing to stay conscious.
Thud!
Manumali went slightly cross-eyed, as if he had been smacked over the head with a cast-iron frying pan, and collapsed.
"You bitch, Rawlings! I won't let you get-"
"Flipendo!" Lily yelled, and Mulciber went flying backwards before colliding with a tree and sliding to the ground unconscious.
Rawlings groaned and got unsteadily to her feet. "Nicely done, Lily." But Lily was still shaking from the thought of a hit list she had been on ever since she was eleven.
There was more crunching, and the two girls whirled around before realizing it was only Mad-Eye.
"Found the portkey. Now let's get the hell out of here," said Mad-Eye, holding up an old aluminum can that was starting to glow blue. "You okay, Sage?"
"Mulciber Sr. never really forgave me for breaking his nose."
Bam!
Lily groaned, landing on the floor. A pair of hands helped her into a sitting position, and Lily turned to the person who was helping her up.
"Emmie!" It was indeed Emmeline Vance, the Gryffindor alumni and one of Lily's first friends. In the few short years she had been away, Emmie had grown her hair down to just above her shoulders, and she had a very deep tan. Lily was having all kinds of reunions tonight.
Emmie wasn't looking at Lily though. Instead, she was training her wand on Rawlings and the man.
Rawlings held her hands up, completely calm despite having a wand pointed at her face. "My name is Sage Rawlings. I am twenty-two, sister of Shiloh Rawlings, and one of the people Dumbledore picked for the Order. I taught you how to produce a Patronus, which takes the form of a porcupine. My own Patronus is a tiger."
Emmie nodded, satisfied, and turned to Mad-Eye. "Name's Mad-Eye Moody, and I told you that you shouldn't keep your wand in you back pocket first time we met at a meeting because I've known a lot of wizards who've lost buttocks."
"Really?" Lily blurted out before she could help herself. "Who?"
Moody growled, and Emmie turned her own wand at Lily, who paled at the thought of Emmie, a trusted friend, ready to curse her on a moment's notice, but Rawlings just said, "It's her. We've checked. Do you really thing Mad-Eye would let us take an impersonator?"
Emmie lowered her wand, and held out a hand to help Lily up, which she took. "How've you been, Lily? Long time, no see."
Lily shrugged. "Confused. What am I doing here?"
Rawlings answered, "It's fine. Voldemort found out about you, so we had to get you out of there. You'll be staying at the Prewetts until he forgets about you. You should be grateful that he's only expressed brief interest in you.
"As soon as we put up the proper protective enchantments around your house, you'll be able to return. But right now, we'll be sending you to the Prewett's house. It's much safer than a Muggle home, and you can get all your school stuff later."
"What about my parents?"
"Some of our people were able to get them out."
"Why couldn't I have just taken the portkey directly from my house to here?"
"Because you need CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody barked suddenly, and Lily jumped nearly a foot in the air, not expecting the outburst.
"Because somebody's super paranoid," muttered Rawlings. "And look where that got us."
Thirty minutes later, Lily was standing on Alice's doorstep with a trunk in one hand and Marigold in the other.
After a meal from Rawlings and an extraordinarily long lecture about safety with 'CONSTANT VIGILANCE!' thrown in at least ten different times, Rawlings had taken her by Side-Along Apparation, possibly the worst thing ever invented by wizards. Lily wondered how people could willingly use it when it felt like you were being squeezed down a giant, black tube.
So here she was, ringing the doorbell of the Prewett's home with obvious impatience.
The door flung open.
"Lily!" Alice cried. She threw herself against Lily, giving her a much needed hug.
"Hey, Alice."
"Professor!" Alice said, realizing that Rawlings was also present. She stopped short at Rawlings's appearance, clearly as shaken as Lily was. "I didn't think it would be you bringing Lily."
Rawlings gave her a small smile. "Surprise. I need to go though. Your parents should be able to take care of things for now. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up after this blows over." She walked away with a wave to both of the girls that they enthusiastically returned. Rawlings then Disapparated with a loud crack!
As soon as Rawlings disappeared Lily rounded on Alice. "Did you really know that they were coming?" she asked, using a sharper tone than she normally would when talking to Alice.
Alice shuffled her feet and mumbled, "I wanted to tell you, but they made me swear not to. They tried to make it so the Death Eaters wouldn't know that they were even moving you, and the Death Eaters are still oblivious to the who, which is why it was important that Rawlings and Moody remained anonymous."
"Well, the Death Eaters know who they are now."
"Yeah, well...come in before my mother thinks somebody must've kidnapped us," Alice ushered her into the cozy home. "We can bring your stuff up to my room."
Lily followed Alice into the large sitting room. Moving photographs adorned the walls with everybody the Prewetts had ever known. Alice had taken up a large area with photos from her first birthday to the last day of term from fourth year. Lily noticed that she, Mary, and Marlene were also featured plenty, and she saw a copy of the photo Alice had given to her for Christmas in the first year.
"Lily, sweetie, how nice to see you again. How are your parents?" Mrs. Prewett appeared from behind one of the bookshelves, smiling kindly at Lily.
"They're fine. Mum has a summer before she has to deal with more five-year-old again."
"Well, make yourself at home. Alice's room will be big enough for the two of you."
"Thank you, Mrs. Prewett."
Carrying Marigold, Alice led the way into her spacious room. Lily had always loved Alice's place. Enormous windows let sunlight stream into the bedroom, illuminating the light blue walls with all the ornaments and trinkets. Alice's broomstick was propped up in a corner with her Gryffindor Quidditch robes hung up right next to the Nimbus 1700. The crate, which Lily knew to hold the Quidditch balls, quivered slightly.
"My mum can conjure up a bed for you, and you can put your stuff right next to my trunk." Alice pointed to her school trunk sitting right next to the walk-in closet.
"Thanks for this, Alice," Lily said.
"No problem. I would be weirded-out too if I some Death Eater chasing me."
Lily just smiled.
"Oh! Hogwarts letters came." Alice withdrew two thick envelopes addressed in green ink to Lily and Alice both.
"Yours is a little heavier. I bet you it's the Prefect badge." Alice tossed her the letter, which Lily neatly caught.
She ripped open her letter and, sure enough, a scarlet badge fell out. Trying hard to conceal her excitement, Lily read the Prefect letter first.
Ms. Lily Evans,
Congratulations on becoming Gryffindor Prefect!
In addition to your studies, you will be asked to complete Prefect duties. These include patrolling with another Prefect starting after eight o' clock , usually with the other Gryffindor Prefect. You may hand out detentions and refer to either Head Boy and Girl or teachers for point deductions.
You will be asked to attend Prefect meetings. The Head Boy and Girl will arrange these in due time. The first Prefect meeting will be in Compartment 1B at noon.
You and the other Gryffindor Prefect will escort the first years to the common room on September 1st.
Please note that any abuse of this position will strip you of your badge.
Sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall
"I'm Prefect!" Lily squealed.
"Congrats, Lily. I knew you would be McGonagall's choice. Ha! You can give the Marauders detention now. Revenge must be so sweet."
"This means that one of the Marauders is Prefect," Lily said, her smile vanishing quickly. The thought of Potter or Black as Prefects, roaming to school with no authority to stop them, was quite terrifying to Lily.
Alice froze for a second, then burst out laughing. "Pettigrew, Black, Potter, and Lupin. Hmmm, it's hard to decide which one will be given the badge." Alice put on a mocking thoughtful face.
"Lupin," Alice and Lily said together.
Wow! Emmeline, Manumali, and Rawlings all in two chapters. Whole bunch of people who came back. I wanted everybody to forget about Manumali so when he was revealed to be a Death Eater, it would be a surprise. (Though I hinted at it in some of the old Daily Prophet articles.)
I also thought it would be nice to see the lighter, more humorous side of Rawlings :)
So I would love to read some nice, long reviews about this chapter... (Hint, hint)
Thanks to my faithful reviewers: IllusiveButterfly, lynnnnyl, ItDidntMeanForever, alcatluvr13, and twilightstargazer. Love you all so much!
Your pre-Easter Muggle,
AlwaysRememberHolly 3.6.12
AN: I'll be posting three chapters tomorrow because I have most of them written, and I just feel like giving you guys an Easter present since I can't reach through the computer/iPod/whatever you're reading this story on and give you lovelies chocolate. If you don't celebrate Easter, pretend it's just an early/late birthday present or something.
Another AN: next chappie will be important because since the thirty-eighth chapter was cut off, I hoping and praying and crossing my fingers that my experiment worked and it won't cut off the next chappie. If it is cut off, then I'll have somebody else post it, but I'm hoping that I won't get cut off like last time.