Chapter Thirty-Eight: Ruse in Hogsmeade

"And then he just went for it!" Lily could hear James telling Tonks and Sirius behind the door of the headquarters kitchen when she returned from a brief visit with Molly Weasley. She could hear all three chuckling uncontrollably inside as she pushed open the door. "We never actually told him the truth, and he just assumed that it was a coincidence!" Sirius and Tonks roared with laughter, and James looked up to see Lily. He was grinning wildly. "Lily!" he said. He sounded surprised, but pleased.

"What's going on here?" she asked him. Though the question was directed at all three, seeing as Tonks and Sirius were laughing too hard to reply, she looked to James for an answer.

"Oh, you know," James said, his grin widening. "Old time pranks and that fun stuff."

"I see," she said amusedly.

"Have I ever told you the Evan Rosier story?"

She shook her head. "Don't think so. Is that what they're laughing at?"

"Yeah," he said, grinning at the fact that Sirius and Tonks were still beside themselves. "How's Molly?"

"Good," she said. "Percy's still not responded to her, so she was a bit upset."

"Understandably," James said.

"It's a horrible thought, really," she said. "Imagine if Harry stopped talking to us."

"Don't want to think about it. I'm just glad he's not going through one of those anti-parent phases," James said.

"Like what you went through."

James chuckled. "You went through it too, as I recall. And mine didn't last long. My mum knocked sense into me pretty quickly… told me I wasn't too old to get kisses in public."

Lily laughed at that. She could very well imagine Dorea Potter, who had been a no-nonsense kind of lady, ignoring James' protests to bring him in for a smooch on the cheek.

Sirius and Tonks were finally slowing and gasping for air.

"Haven't… laughed… that hard… since Christmas," Tonks wheezed, grinning madly. "Whew. James, you should do… the first wizard sitcom. Or something."

"Sitcom?" he echoed, grinning though it was obvious that he was uncertain about what a sitcom was.

"It's a muggle thing. For the telly," she told him.

"Oh," he said. "The brown boxes with the rack inside."

"That's a toaster oven," Lily told him, stifling a smile. Tonks' chuckles began anew. "Remember that time we went to see Star Wars in the cinema?"

"Oh yeah."

"That's like a telly."

"Oh, okay. I thought it was called a cinema."

Lily laughed. "That's the location."

"I thought that was called a theatre."

"They're interchangeable."

James shook his head, looking exhausted. "I don't know how you keep it all straight. One world is enough confusion for me."

Lily laughed and was about to tease him about it, when suddenly the kitchen door opened and Remus came in, looking pale and worried.

"Moony?" Sirius said, the smile instantly dying on his lips.

"There's been an attack in Hogsmeade," Remus said. "Death Eaters are all over."

"What?" James said, turning abruptly to look at the werewolf.

"Minerva just sent her patronus. She is heading there right away, but she needs some help."

"We'll come," Lily said quickly, glancing at James, who looked pale at the idea of Death Eaters so close to Hogwarts.

"How many?" Tonks asked Remus.

"She didn't say. Kingsley's already there. I've already passed on the message to Mad-Eye, Arthur, Emmeline and the rest. I told them what's going on. Arthur's going to stay to watch the Ministry and Snape is staying at Hogwarts-"

"The Ministry?" Tonks asked him.

"They still haven't been alerted," Remus said. "I don't know how many Death Eaters are in Hogsmeade, but it sounds serious-"

"We'll leave right away," James said, and Lily took his hand as they and Tonks headed to the door. Sirius made a move to follow them, but James said firmly, "Sirius, no."

"I'm coming too," Sirius said, his face hard.

"We're not going through this again!" he said.

"You two are supposed to be dead!" Sirius said. "And if it's safe for you to be out in the open, then it should be okay for me too!"

"The Ministry officials aren't looking for us," James snapped, impatient at his friend's stubbornness. "They're looking for you."

"I've been pent up in here for months!" said Sirius. "I'm coming with."

"They could arrest you and chuck you back into Azkaban," James said. "Why do you think it's worth it? We don't have time to argue about this. We're not losing you just because you want to have a little thrill-"

"It's not a little thrill, James," snarled Sirius. "This means something. You can't change my mind."

They glared at each other for a long moment.

"Sirius…" began Remus eventually.

"Shut it, Moony. Don't even finish that sentence. I'm coming."

"Fine," said Remus. "James, come on."

With a growl of frustration, James followed Remus from the room.

They apparated into Hogsmeade a moment later, and were greeted with the sound of explosions. Though the sky was darkening, numerous fires licked the top of the buildings, lighting the area enough that the square looked as it did in the daytime. Blackened rubble covered the ground, and everything was in chaos. People were running for cover, and curses streaked all around the town.

Lily quickly pulled Tonks around a building corner as golden shards from an explosion whistled through the air towards them. From their spot behind the building, they could see a group of Death Eaters a little ways off, terrorizing villagers and setting fire to homes. Above them, the dark mark rested in the sky.

A second explosion caused Lily and Tonks to further shrink behind the cover of the building, but when it had passed and Lily had looked back in the direction of her husband, she saw that he, Remus, and Sirius were already gone.

"McGonagall's over there," Tonks shouted to Lily over the sound of another explosion. They could see the witch over in the center of the square, battling three Death Eaters at once with the ease of a dancer.

They took off towards her, shooting stunning spells at the Death Eaters on the outskirts. One of them crumpled to the ground, and the other two took off at the sight of Lily and Tonks.

McGonagall whirled around, her wand pointed at them. "Potter! Tonks!" she exclaimed when she saw it was them.

"What's going on?" Tonks said.

"We know as little as you," she said. "I received word that Death Eaters were in Hogsmeade about ten minutes ago. I don't know why they're here. I can't reach Albus. He's gone until the weekend."

"How many are there?"

"At least fifteen," Minerva said. "We had to split up to round them up. We thought they were looking for a fight, but they're not retaliating to our attacks, they're just fleeing and wrecking havoc elsewhere. It's becoming very difficult to incapacitate them."

"What are they trying to do?" Lily asked her. "Terrorize the village? I thought they were trying to keep Voldemort's return a secret."

"I thought so too," McGonagall said gravely. "But that doesn't explain their presence here, so close to Hogwarts."

"The school's okay?" Lily asked her, thinking immediately of Harry. "They won't be able to get up there?"

McGonagall shook her head. "No, it's well-guarded."

They ducked as another building exploded behind them. Lily shot stunning spells at the fleeing Death Eaters, but they were already too far away. The building burst into flames.

"Left!" Tonks shouted, and they ducked as a barrage of curses came their way. Lily felt one whiz past her cheek, and her skin felt hot as blood rose to its surface. She located the Death Eaters behind Honeydukes, and retaliated with her own set of stunning curses, but the Death Eaters ducked out of sight. Lily scanned the nearby buildings and quickly located two more weaving towards them.

"Watch out!" she said, and Tonks shot a quick succession of stunning spells towards them.

"Blast it!" Tonks cursed when none seemed to hit their mark. "We'll need to split up if we want to draw them out," she said, already heading around the corner of Honeydukes. "Stay in a close radius. I'll be on the other side of that building. Cover each other, okay?"

"Got it," Lily said, and headed off around the other side, dodging around rubble and debris as she went. Though it was a bit difficult moving through the rubble quickly, she appreciated the rubble for the protection it offered, especially since she didn't know when a Death Eater was going to strike.

She didn't have to wait long for Tonks to be proven right. Almost immediately after she had ventured off on her own, she heard the crackle of curses, and quickly rounded the building to come to Tonks' rescue. She soon located the Death Eater responsible crouched behind a cart of scorched puffapods.

Not waiting for the attacker to spot Lily and take off, she quickly fired stunning spells in his direction, and she was rewarded when, a moment later, he slumped over the cart, unconscious.

The feeling of victory didn't last long, however. Barely a heartbeat after she had dealt her targeted curse, the wall behind her was hit and she was forced to scramble away. Some of the curses scraped by so closely enough that she could feel their heat, but she managed to move to safety without being touched.

A moment later, the curses slowed, so Lily peeked above the wall. There were two Death Eaters running towards her, their wands raised. Knowing that they would see her in a moment if she stayed where she was, she stood abruptly as to catch them by surprise and fired a succession of quick stunning spells. Before they could retaliate, she ducked back behind the wall, waited an appropriate amount of time, and then risked rising. When she glanced over the wall again, she saw that one of the Death Eaters had collapsed, but the other had vanished out of sight.

She didn't have the opportunity to stay hidden for long. Soon, another explosion rocked the area, and the wall that she had been sheltered behind was hit. Large stones blew off of the wall, and rubble and dust rained down upon her.

She managed to roll out of the way, but two caught her anyway on her thigh, and she was forced to sit for a moment to regain her breath and wait until the pain had stopped. She gingerly touched where they had hit, and though she knew that her limbs were not broken, she knew there were going to be bruises tomorrow.

A sudden grunt of pain interrupted her examination, and Lily sprung up to see another Death Eater keel over, apparently having been hit by a curse. Tonks rushed towards her a moment later, a trickle of blood on her chin.

"You got him?" Lily asked her, massaging her leg. It was a bit painful to walk on.

"Yeah," she said, panting. There was some sweat on her forehead, and she had stripped off the sweater she had been wearing earlier in Grimmauld Place. "You okay? That explosion was close."

"Fine," Lily said. "Just bruised."

"I'm okay too." She massaged her ribs and tried to steady her breathing. "Dandy."

"Where's Minerva?"

"Heading towards Sirius and the others. It sounds like a good number of Death Eaters are fleeing, but the remainder is over on the other side of Hogsmeade."

"Is James over there?"

"I think so," Tonks said. "Haven't seen him. Wow, I'm out of shape."

"We should head over there," Lily said.

"Yeah, just a minute," Tonks said, leaning over to catch her breath. "I chased that last Death Eater down four alleyways."

Lily used the opportunity to try to relieve the pain in her leg, and after a moment of recovery, Tonks seemed to be ready. "Alright?" Lily asked her.

"Alright." And they took off in that direction.

The other side of town was even more rubble-strewn, and though Lily was expecting there to be a full battle in progress, she was surprised to find it mostly deserted. The only people in sight were Remus and Sirius, who were standing in the midst of the debris. The Death Eaters were nowhere in sight.

"They just fled," Remus told them when Lily and Tonks approached, apparently sensing Lily's thoughts before she vocalized them. He and Sirius looked mostly unharmed. "They spooked when they realized their numbers were dwindling and reinforcements was headed for them."

She scanned the area, but none of the others were in sight. "Where's James?" she asked him. "Were you with him?"

"He's fine. He was here a moment ago."

"McGonagall? Kingsley? Vance?"

"They're all okay too. Well, Kingsley was knocked out, and Vance took a pretty bad blow to the head, but they're okay. No casualties. McGonagall's with them. She called the Ministry to take care of the unconscious Death Eaters, and is taking them up to see Madame Pomfrey."

"The Death Eaters?" Tonks asked him.

"No, Kingsley and Vance," Remus said. "I think the Death Eaters are going to be imprisoned before they get treated. There were some dangerous ones. I spotted Rabastan Lestrange and Rookwood earlier…"

"Did Dumbledore say why Hogsmeade was attacked so suddenly?" Lily asked him. She was finding it difficult to believe that Voldemort would risk exposure just for a little bit of terrorizing. It was too convenient that the Ministry was already denying his return; why would Voldemort want to work against that?

"I don't know," Remus said, shaking his head. "Bit strange, isn't it all?"

"Here's James," Sirius said suddenly, and they followed his gaze to see James running towards them. James looked extremely pale and flustered, and had blood splattered on his collared shirt, though it didn't look like his. Very quickly, Lily realized something was wrong.

Sirius frowned. "Prongs, you alright?" he asked when James had reached them. "You look a bit pale-"

"It's a trap," James interrupted, and Lily felt her heart skip a beat.

"What?" Remus looked stunned. "What do you m-?"

"This was a trap to draw our attention here," James said. He looked like he was going to be sick. "Snape just contacted me. Harry had a vision. He tried to floo Grimmauld Place but no one was there. He headed for the Department of Mysteries an hour ago."

"No," Lily said, dread filling her. Merlin, it couldn't be true. "No. The mirror?"

"I left it at home," James said in a small voice. "Arthur, Molly, and Mad-Eye just left to go after him. The Death Eaters are already there."

Aaand here's a nice cliffhanger! Please review!