James spoke in hurried tones as he frantically rummaged through a coat closet before he shoved something into a pocket of his evening robes, "We'll have to take the fight outside to give Lily time to secure Harry and activate the house's defenses. She'll back us up once she can; always has."

Severus nodded in agreement and held his tongue as he felt the urge to remind James that they would've had more time had they fled when first prompted. There would hopefully be time for such discussions later. Instead, "Good. We will need her help if we are to survive this night. Are you prepared?"

"As I'll ever be. He won't be expecting you; we can use that." James gave him a thumbs up then stilled as he looked furtively through the corner of a front-facing window, "I can see him."

They locked eyes and Severus nodded decisively before making himself invisible with a combination of the Disillusionment Charm and the Bedazzling Hex. This was followed up by spells to dampen the sounds he made, erase his smell, and conceal his body heat, among many others. Together, he hoped, they would buy him a chance at surprise.

James took several quick breaths, flipped his wand in his hand, and nodded to himself, "Right. Follow my lead."

Before he could respond, James threw open the front door and strode boldly outside with a cry of, "Good evening, Voldemort! It's just so lovely to see you again!"

Severus quickly overcame his shock and followed him outside, before moving to crouch beside one of the large bushes flanking the entryway, having barely missed being hit by the door as it automatically swung shut once more.

While he had been getting situated, James had made it partway down the path to the sidewalk and halted his stride before he confidently called out, "If you're here for candy I regret to inform you that your costume is rather drab and uninspired; very 'last year.' This house has standards!" He made an overly-dramatic thumbs-down gesture with his free hand.

Severus felt a stab of regret that he had irrevocably tied his fate to this madman when, to his shock, Voldemort didn't seize the opportunity to press an attack and remained standing there, regarding James as one might a particularly annoying insect.

The silence stretched unpleasantly, and from where he was crouched Severus could actually see beads of sweat rolling down the back of James's neck. The man had some sense after all, then. Very carefully, Severus began to creep along the back of the hedgerow.

Voldemort took a step forward, and both James and Severus tensed slightly, but he took no other action as he said, "Have you come to surrender? I assure you, my terms will be," he paused to grin, and the effect was deeply unsettling, "quite reasonable."

James let out a derisive chuckle that had absolutely no mirth to it, "Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing."

By now Severus had reached the end of the hedges and had begun to inch along toward the street, slowly drawing himself into a flanking position. His palms stung where his sweat mixed with the cuts from his earlier fall, but it and the burning in his calves and thighs from maintaining his crouched position barely registered as he waited patiently for the perfect moment.

"Ah, yes; the insolence." A heavy, overly dramatic sigh. "You're braver than most, I'll give you that, but you shall not evade Lord Voldemort again!"

At this pronouncement, James fell back into a defensive stance, and he got his wand arm up just as Voldemort unleashed a dark cutting curse with a violent, downward slash of his wand. The spell raced toward James, a dark purple crescent-shaped wave of a magic that left a smoky trail behind as it hurtled toward him; Severus watched as James seemingly just stood there watching the spell approach when, at the last moment, his arm shot out, wand trailing faintly glowing ghostly silver streamers as it moved through the air. His wand collided with the dark spell and, with a brilliant pulse of silver light, successfully neutralized the spell in its entirety.

Lord Voldemort had by this point begun to draw back his wand for another attack, but James was faster; his wand continued in its motion after the successful contact countercurse in an upward trajectory, until he was standing with one arm thrust in the air toward the Dark Lord as though in salute. At the instant his arm reached full extension James shouted an incantation and a spear formed from earth shot from the ground at Voldemort's feet, thrusting straight at his heart.

Voldemort's eyes narrowed and his free hand shot forward, suddenly wreathed in a purple flame that trailed golden sparks, and met the spear with a palm thrust just before it could make contact with his chest. The stone didn't so much explode as disintegrate where it touched the flame which was snuffed as, with a twist of James's wand, the stone became flowing water and Voldemort's form was briefly occluded by a burst of steam.

As Voldemort drew his wand across his body and up in a fluid sweeping motion twin ribbons of flame burning blue and black trailed in the path his wand left. As they intertwined, sparks of each color flew through the air. The motion of his arm was almost blurred as he moved with preternatural speed, and as he swirled his wand above his head once as if he were spinning a lasso, the ribbons of flame coalesced and began to form into a rapidly spinning sphere of swirling blue and black flame. Voldemort, his face a rictus of concentration, slashed his wand down and sent the sphere rocketing toward James, expanding greatly in size the closer it got to the man as the Dark Lord stood with both arms extended as he continued to manipulate the spell.

James, briefly overcome by shock, stared slack-jawed at the oncoming rush of the sort of fae elemental magic that was meant to be the stuff of myths. His desire to continue breathing for more than the next few seconds quickly took over; his mind seized upon the first possibly solution that came to mind, and with a brightly glowing wand leaving golden trails in the air as he whipped it through a series of measured, jerky movements, the air in front of him shimmered and then abruptly changed as he transfigured it into a large v-shaped shield formed from cold iron.

Severus, taking a chance that the amount of magic flowing through the air and the fact that the Dark Lord was currently maintaining a spell that should not be possible to cast would obscure his own casting, placed a strengthening enchantment on James's shield that cause it to glow with a brilliant silver light just as the now elephant-sized ball of flame impacted. There was a great flash of light accompanied by a deep tolling sound as the shield rang like a bell before dissolving back into air.

Voldemort's face showed a quick flash of shock at the fact that James was still drawing breath and Severus began to hope that, perhaps, they might survive after all.