A/N: Welcome back! We're straight back into the drama - well, smoke I guess. I just feel sorry for everyone's poor lungs.

Anyway, I'm sure you're dying to keep reading. I won't stop you!

Chapter Twenty-One

The fire was much closer now and, judging by its speed, Lily was sceptical that she could make it to the lane up to the school before the flames engulfed her and Marlene. She considered using magic to throw Marlene to safety. Someone would find her eventually, they would be looking for survivors, and there were plenty of spells Lily could use to cushion her friend's fall.

'What're you still doing here?' a voice thundered from behind her, distracting her. Moody.

'Getting my friend.' Lily replied stoutly, continuing to shuffle towards her destination since she was so slow she might as well have remained stationary.

'I can see that.' he growled, easily stumping in front of her. 'But you need to get out of here. You'll get yourself killed otherwise.'

'Really?' Lily said through gritted teeth, adjusting her grip on Marlene and taking another step. 'Are all Aurors this clever or is it just you?'

The fire had moved another metre forward. The faces Lily had seen in it before were now discernible from the inferno powering them. It was time to carry out her idea.

Carefully, Lily laid Marlene down on the ground, ignoring the furious growl from the Auror and pointed her wand at her friend. Slowly, she levitated Marlene in the air and then, with a whip-like motion, sent her tearing through the air and towards the safety of the lane. Instinct told her to look away, but Lily had to know when to cushion Marlene's fall. She slowed Marlene's descent so that her friend landed gently on the ground, unscathed.

'Not bad.' Moody said approvingly before gripping Lily by the shoulder and starting to drag her in the same direction as Lily had thrown Marlene.

'What kind of fire is that?' Lily asked as she stumbled alongside Moody. 'It's got faces.'

'You mean you don't know what Fiendfyre is? What do they teach kids these days?'

'Not enough apparently.' Lily muttered, more to herself than to anyone else, thinking of how basic her spells had been in the fighting.

'What's that?'

'Nothing.' she dismissed, wishing he wasn't quite so fast. Of course, she didn't want to be burned by the Fiendfyre but she was really struggling with her injuries to keep up with him. 'So, this Fiendfyre, can you stop it? I mean, it looks like it's cursed or something.'

'We're trying to contain it to the high street. It'll burn itself out by tomorrow morning if we're lucky.'

'Is that all? What about putting it out yourselves?' Lily banged her leg on a large chunk of wood but was spared from falling over by Moody's insanely strong grip on her shoulder. She wondered briefly if there was a chance he would crush it. 'There are probably still people trapped in there. I doubt everyone managed to get out.'

'There's nothing else we can do.' Moody told her gruffly and she stared at him.

'I think I can make it on my own, thanks.' Lily wrenched herself out of his grip, her shoulder protesting loudly. She strode off, ignoring how all of her body ached, spurred on by her sudden fury.

…

When Lily reached the school, she was caked in sweat, the only thing still making her haul Marlene over her shoulder being her own pride. She could have turned around and asked Moody to help her, he had followed her the whole way but at a distance. Levitating Marlene was, however, out of the question. There was a chance that some Death Eaters had decided to lurk along the path, and she would need her wand to defend them if that was the case.

Fortunately, she didn't come across any Death Eaters and the school gates creaked open, allowing her entrance without any problems. Rather stiffly, she nodded behind her at Moody and then slipped into the school grounds, lugging Marlene behind her. As the gates banged shut behind her, Lily put Marlene down, only to levitate her a second later. She wouldn't need to defend herself any more.

With Marlene floating beside her, Lily made her way to Hagrid's hut, seeing smoke was coming out of the chimney. An involuntary smile made its way onto her face and she rushed forwards, knocking loudly on his front door. Hagrid opened the door.

'Lily!' Hagrid pulled her into a bone crunching hug. 'Yer all righ'!'

'Yes, yes I'm fine.' Lily gasped as he let go, inhaling all the air that had been deprived from her during his hug.

'They're all up at the school o' course. Ruddy Death Eaters! When I saw they was all runnin' back up here – screamin' and shakin' – I knew they wasn't far behind.' Hagrid said darkly as he took in Marlene floating behind Lily. 'Yeh'd better get her ter the hospital wing.'

'Can you come with me?' Lily asked softly. She wanted the company of a familiar face, one she knew she could trust. 'I don't really want to go alone.'

''Course I will.'

Hagrid's eyes crinkled into a smile. He shrugged on his coat and then closed the door behind him. Carefully, he took Marlene's levitated body out of the air and carried her in his arms instead. Lily walked beside him, recalling how, when she had stepped off the Hogwarts Express for the first time, she had been terrified of Hagrid's massive form. Watching him gently cradle her friend, Lily could smile. She didn't know anyone she trusted more than Hagrid.

'Did you see that skull thing?' Lily asked as they made their way up to the castle. 'I don't know if you can see it from here.'

'I didn' see no skull.' Hagrid replied, glancing at her. 'O' course, can' see much from me hut.'

'I suppose not.' she agreed. 'Well, it was huge – still is – a great big green skull. It's just hanging there in the sky. I've never seen anything like it before. And then the Death Eaters set Fiendfyre on the whole high street!'

'Galopin' gorgons! Fiendfyre?' Hagrid tensed. 'Down in the village?'

'Yes, and the Aurors are letting it burn itself out.' Lily clenched her fists. 'That's what Moody said… There are people still in the rubble, Hagrid! In Madam Puddifoot's, when Dorcas and I got Mary out, there were other bodies in there and Marlene can't have been alone outside either.'

'Lily, sommat yeh gotta learn is tha' yeh can' save everyone.' He told her sadly as they neared the front steps. 'Yeh've done more'n enough jus' getting' Marlene out an' all. Don' go blamin' yerself fer sommat yeh can' change.'

'But – but they didn't even try! They –'

'How d'yeh know?' Hagrid challenged, interrupting her. 'Trust me, Lily. Them Aurors know their stuff. They wasn't chosen fer nothin'. Fiendfyre's terrible stuff – yeh can' jus' put it out. That needs curse breakers an' all sorts. Best yeh can do is trap it.'

'Still.' Lily started to protest but then stopped at the light chuckle that escaped Hagrid's lips.

'Yer too much o' a Gryffindor.' he said fondly, adjusting his hold on Marlene so that he could pat Lily on the back. Unfortunately for Lily, the force that Hagrid judged to be gentle proved enough to almost knock her injured self over. Thankfully, they were just entering the Entrance Hall so the hospital wing wasn't far away.

'Are you saying that's a bad thing?' Lily asked wryly.

Hagrid just chuckled.

…

'Come on, Dorcas.' Lily said gently a hours later, shaking her friend awake as she slumped by Mary's bedside, snoring. 'Come on, I'll stay with her. You need to go to bed.'

Dorcas tried to protest, mumbling sleepily, but Lily simply chivvied her in the direction of the hospital wing door and after a while she gave in. With Dorcas gone, Lily returned to Mary's bed, which, on the other side, was pushed up against Marlene's bed. In fact, there were many beds crammed into the hospital wing. A great deal of the village were taking refugee here, many were injured, and Madame Pomfrey had told her the Great Hall had also been filled with beds.

Sighing, Lily eased herself onto the floor at the foot of the beds her friends resided in. She had let Madame Pomfrey heal her toes and drank a potion to heal any burns or scratches but that had done nothing to help the aching of her right leg. Not that she told anyone. Lily coaxed herself into ignoring pain with a promise to herself that she would brew a painkilling in the morning. Tonight, she would watch her friends.

A yawn escaped her.

'You'll want some of this.' Lily couldn't help but smile at the sound of James' voice. 'I find it helps get through the night shift. I've had a lot of practice with Remus.'

She lifted her gaze to him, accepting the bottle of Pepper-Up Potion he offered her. Raising the bottle to her lips, Lily took a sip. James took a seat on the floor beside her.

'Yeah, I'm on the night shift.' Lily said, taking another sip of potion and then placing the bottle on the floor. 'The others have already had their turn. I pulled the short straw. Well, Dorcas would have stayed here if she could keep her eyes open.'

'Y'know, I don't get her at all. I mean, she was the one yelling at Mary that she was a Death Eater – and that was only this morning.' Lily shook her head slightly.

'It's complicated.' she said, resting her head back against the bed. 'There was a misunderstanding… Dorcas doesn't know the whole story… Mary doesn't want to tell her what really happened…'

'Girl drama. I'll never understand you lot.'

Lily laughed quietly.

'They're best friends. It takes a lot to change that.' Lily smiled at him. 'I'm sure you understand.' She nodded her head over to where Sirius and Remus lay asleep in their hospital beds, Peter fast asleep in the chair in between them.

'But she called Mary a Death Eater –'

'Well, more than best friends then.' Lily amended, and James stared at her.

'You mean that –'

'In the future maybe.' She grinned to herself. 'Don't tell Dorcas I said that. She doesn't know that I know.'

'And what about Mary?'

'Blind as a mole.'

James echoed her grin, nudging her lightly. She turned to him, cocking her head to the side.

'What?' she asked, amusement twitching in the corners of her mouth.

'I was just wondering if you're planning to set them up.'

Lily faced changed.

'Don't meddle, Mrs Evans.' she said sternly. 'We've got enough stressful things in our lives as it is. If it's meant to happen it will happen.'

'I s'pose.' James rested his head on her shoulder, pretending to yawn. 'Even if it's boring.'

'They're not just there for your entertainment.' Lily chided, chuckling.

'True, but you have to admit watching Sirius go after Marlene's bloody hilarious.'

Lily tilted her head slightly, so it leaned against the top of James head. It felt so nice to sit here and talk about trivial things. It was calming and warmed her heart, soothing her right leg's ache.

'You know, I'm not sure how much she actually likes him. I think she was more keen in the beginning, I don't know about now.' Lily mused thoughtfully. She wondered if Marlene would perhaps be more receptive to Sirius by now if her biological father had never contacted her. Concerning herself with the matter of fancying someone must have seemed quite pointless in comparison.

'Don't tell him that. He'll be gutted.'

'Will he?' Lily's forehead creased slightly. 'I'm sure he would get over it eventually…'

'Fair enough. He's not in love or anything.' James agreed and then snorted.

'What's so funny?'

'Sorry – I just tried to imagine Sirius in love…'

Lily grinned.

'Somehow the two don't seem to go together.'

'That's Sirius all right… the lone wolf.'

They were silent for a moment, comfortable to just sit in one another's company. After the chaos in Hogsmeade, sitting still was quite welcome. All around them were the soft snores of the hospital wing's inhabitants. Moonlight flowed in through a far window. It was quite beautiful. Lily could almost forget everything that had happened. Almost.

'You okay, Lily?' James asked, reaching out to take her hand. 'After everything I mean – not just from right now…'

'It just made me think, you know?' Lily replied softly, admiring how the moonlight made Madame Pomfrey's cabinet of potions glitter. 'I know what I need to do.'

'And what's that?' James sounded bemused.

'Become better – at duelling – at healing – at everything. What we learn in lessons isn't enough… I need to do more. I need to learn more.' Lily lifted her head from his, her eyes glistening with a sudden energy. 'Do you think McGonagall would tutor me? I came across a record of Hogwarts duelling champions once in third year. She led the Hogwarts duelling team to victory in an international tournament… three times.'

'Maybe,' James began, raising his head off his shoulder to look at her, a lopsided grin on his face. 'If I ask her for tutoring too…'

Hi, it's me.

I just wanted to say that this is the last chapter of A Doomed Existence. No, it's not the end of the story but I'm just tired of writing it. I'm kind of bored with it. I've got other story ideas and I can't get myself to enjoy writing this one anymore. Honestly, I started hating it sometimes so I think it's time to stop.

Maybe I'll do a rewrite one day or just keep going with this one - but I make no promises.

But I'd still love to know what you thought of this chapter, of this story, anything!