James and Lily sat next to each other with a certain awkwardness the next afternoon at the order meeting in the shrieking shack. Things had been a little tense since they refused to talk about the other night any more. James almost wanted to, if it would clear the air between them. But he was also a little embarrassed he had allowed that to happen.
Moody was laying out an attack formation for them. They had learned that the death eaters were planning another raid on the ministry tonight.
The ministry had probably already been compromised by death eaters on the inside, but they had to at least try.
"Where's marlene?" Lily leaned over and asked alice after moody had finished talking.
"I dunno. I'm just annoyed i could only get away with a one day honeymoon. Speaking of which… where did you and James go off to at the reception?"
That was his cue. James stood and walked over to where the other marauders were sitting across from him.
"Black, any idea where that girlfriend of yours is?"
"Yea, she and her family all caught this horrible flu from her cousin a couple days ago. It's not real pretty."
"You been to see her?"
"Apparated over into her room the other day. Poor thing can barely move."
"That's too bad, tell her i hope she feels better next time you see her."
"Will do," he gave a mock salute
"If you're all quite finished yapping we have a mission to complete!"
Mad eye's voice rang through the room, invoking instant silence. They couldn't mess this up. The raid tonight was supposed to be big and odds were they wouldn't all make it out like they did last time.
"Line up. One at a time apparation to the back alley. Twenty seconds apart. And remember-"
"Constant vigilance," everyone in the room got to it before he could
"Alright, alright," he answered gruffily "just so long as yeh get the point."
Everyone in the room lined up facing the door and began apparating exactly twenty seconds apart. James hadn't realized half a minute could feel so long.
He went to the back of the line where Lily was standing, looking solemn.
"Lily-"
"Don't."
"What?"
"I lost my dad, i'm losing my mom, and if we're being honest i lost Petunia a long time ago. I'm not losing you too. Don't you dare say goodbye."
"Alright," he agreed "...can i at least say i love you?"
She sighed and stared ahead like she wasn't going to answer him for a moment before turning and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek.
"I love you too," she said, her words as quiet as the kiss, before stepping up to her place in line and apparating to the ministry.
James didn't want to be here so many miles away from her. Twenty seconds seemed an unbearably long time.
Five.
Four.
"Focus, potter!"
Two.
One.
James felt the suffocation of apparating and then the instant release as he was let out by the back alley by the ministry. There was a short line of people standing quietly, waiting to go around the corner. They were to wait another thirty seconds after arriving to go into the building so it wouldn't look suspicious to have twenty-something people rushing into the ministry.
Hestia was to go in first and try to calmly get people out.
James could see some of those people around the corner, looking confused, but walking the opposite way down the street just the same.
The line moved until there were only about four people in front of Lily and James.
A scream sounded out. And then all hell had broken loose. A few dozen death eaters had stormed the building all at once and were firing spells off at random.
James, Lily, and the other four ran in to see pandemonium as spells littered the air.
Bodies fell left and right, most of them just injured, but a one or two fell dead from a well-aimed killing curse.
Some of the people inside the ministry were fighting back, but many were simply screaming and running for cover. Some went for the door, but they couldn't make it across the room in time.
James sent a hex at the death eater closest to the door, who was the main reason most of them couldn't get out. He dodged it easily and sent one back at James, who barely missed it. He ran straight for the death eater, casting a protection around himself and simply took an uppercut to the man's chin. Punching him square in the face wouldn't have worked because of the mask covering his featured, and this punch barely made it. James's last two fingers throbbed, having made connection with the metal anyways. But the good news way now the death eater was off balance and James was able to curse him easily.
He dropped to the ground, a loud smack issuing when his body hit the floor.
James whirled to see Remus fiercely battling a woman with streaky blonde hair. Remus was putting up a good fight, but one of her spells caught him off guard and he dropped his wand.
"Accio!" James commanded, and ran for Remus as his wand flew into James's hand.
"Moony!" he took a chance and threw the slender piece of wood across the room to Remus, who caught it in his left hand and fired a spell that knocked the female death eater off her feet.
"Thanks, prongs." he huffed
"No problem."
The two of them separated again, fighting their way through the room as fast as possible, but still barely a match for Voldemort's followers.
James put a freezing spell on a rather short death eater in front of him and turned to see Peter quickly losing a fight only a few feet to his right.
He heard the word "Crucio" begin to issue from the death eater's mouth, and before he knew what he was doing, he had lept in front of a shaking Peter.
