Disclaimer: All characters herein except those otherwise noted belong to J.K. Rowling, who I think, on occasion, to be some sort of goddess. Inspired by another fic of mine, and throught out while sitting through much boredom at work. Spoilers for all five books, I suppose.
Notes: Thanks so much to Kathy, for beta, and for helping over rough spots plotwise. Love ya, babe. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and given me such wonderful feedback.
Through Time
Eleven: The Ensoluno Charm
Lily ran into the Gryffindor dormitories, and up the stairs into the boy's rooms, the other three travelers chasing after her.
"Brooms," she said. "We need brooms."
She was frantic, throwing Harry's trunk open, and rummaging about inside. She couldn't find it, and let out a yell of frustration.
"Lily," James said, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder. Lily looked up at him, eyes wide, composure gone. He crouched down in front of her, cupping her face in his hands. "Lily, sweet, we don't know where Malfoy Manor is. We couldn't ever get there fast enough on brooms, anyway."
"I have an idea," Remus said. James turned and looked at him.
"What?" Sirius asked. He had his arms crossed, and looked worried.
"Just trust me," Remus said. He turned and started for the dormitory door. James stood and pulled Lily to her feet. As a group, they left the dormitory and followed Remus out of the school and down to the gates.
"What are we going to do?" James asked.
"I know we haven't learned, but we're going to Apparate." Remus said.
"I don't think that's a good idea, Remus." Sirius said, usually the most reckless of all the Marauders. "I don't want to get splinched."
"You won't," Remus said. "Imagine yourself scattering into a million tiny pieces, flying through darkness and space and time, before falling back together again in perfect order, in Malfoy Manor."
"If we get splinched, I'm coming after you when they fix me." Sirius snapped.
James watched as Lily closed her eyes, still huddled in James's arms. James closed his own, and imagined every tiny particle of his body falling apart and moving, racing toward Malfoy Manor, concentrating solely on Voldemort, getting to Voldemort.
It happened. It felt a strange pull on himself, and felt it, a painless flying apart, and the tingling sensation as though his leg were asleep, but over his whole body. Everything was dark, heat, no cold, nothing. Then it stopped and he opened his eyes to find himself standing a stone corridor outside a set of massive ebony wood doors. Lily was wrapped in his arms. Beside him, Remus was panting, his golden-brown eyes wide, reaching one trembling hand up to brush his prematurely graying hair out of his face.
Sirius was there as well, still with his face scrunched up, his eyes closed.
"Did it work?" he asked. He was apparently afraid to open his eyes.
"It worked," Remus said. Sirius opened his eyes and looked around.
Lily pulled away from James and stepped up to the doors. Locked, of course. She drew her wand and aimed it at the doorknob.
"Alohomora," She said. James heard the locks click softly, and Lily put her hand on the doors.
"This is it, guys," She said. "You-Know-Who must be in there."
"Yep," James agreed. If he had gotten there by thinking of Voldemort, it made sense for the Dark Lord to be inside the room.
"If you don't want to go in there, you don't have to," Lily said, as though she expected all three of the boys—well, maybe not James, it was his son, after all—to Disapparate back to the castle.
"Lily," Remus said, giving her his most serious look. "We've come this far, and we're not going to turn back now. You had a plan, remember?"
"Right. I didn't learn these new charms for nothing," Sirius said. "And I suck at Charms."
Lily smiled, heartened. "Well then," She said, grasping the knob and turning it. "Shall we?" she asked.
"We shall," James said. He reached out and together, he and Lily swung the doors open, striding into the room.
It was sparsely lit with candles, enchanted blood-red flames that burned far higher than any other flame and of the Travelers had ever observed. The same went for the fireplace, before which stood a tall, slender figure, cloaked completely in black. At his feet were a slender, pale woman with black hair, and an older, tired, ravaged looking Peter Pettegrew.
The cloaked man turned, revealing a pale, harsh face, with glowing eyes. Lily bit back a gasp, holding her wand tightly in her hand.
"Bella," the figure—Lord Voldemort—hissed, "kill them."
The dark woman at his feet stood, shimmering black dress robes unfolding and falling gracefully to her feet.
"Bellatrix," Sirius gasped, his voice strangled somewhat. His cousin, though her beauty was gone from her long years in Azkaban, smiled at him, recognizing him immediately.
"So you are the ones that that idiot brought forward to defeat my master," Bellatrix said, walking forward. Lily watched the other woman, who swaggered as she walked purposefully across the room, a slender length of wood held lightly in her hand. "Stupid cousin, very stupid."
She raised her wand, at the same time as Sirius. Lily, Remus, and James were also ready, and Lily took a step towards Voldemort.
"Stupify!" Bellatrix screamed, turning to Lily. The redheaded girl ducked quickly, hitting the floor so hard that she lost her breath and lay there gasping. James started forward, ducking a jet of red light from Bellatrix's wand.
"Rictusempra," Sirius said, aiming at his cousin. Bellatrix shrugged off the tickling charm as though it was nothing.
"Crucio," Bellatrix said, turning on her cousin. Sirius wasn't quick enough, and fell to the floor with a scream, Bellatrix's laughter ringing in his ears. "My dear sister—rest her soul—would have loved to see this. She was positively delighted when she learned of your death. I'm sure she's watching and thinking what a delight it is for me to have the pleasure of torturing you this way."
Sirius began to struggle to his feet, trying to throw off the curse, the pain racing through every nerve in his body.
"Crucio." Bellatrix said again, then laughed delightedly as Sirius screamed again, collapsing back to the floor and twitching in pain.
More Death Eaters—only a handful, five at a quick count from Remus as he moved through the flickering shadows around the room—came into the room through the doors at the back. He stayed back, the only one unable to perform the charm that he and Lily had discovered to protect themselves.
"Ah, ah, ah," Said Peter as he stopped Remus's progress.
"Traitor," Remus snarled at his former friend. "Backstabber. Fiend—"
"I know, I know. Be a little more original, Moony," Peter said, and laughed wildly, a sound that chilled Remus to his very bones.
"Murderer," Remus snapped, feeling the wolf rolling within him, though it wasn't the full moon, and it would not come out. The smile dropped from Peter's face.
"That's going too far," he said, and raised his wand.
"Expelliarmus!" Remus said, disarming Peter with lightning-quick efficiency. He advanced on his former friend. "Looks like even after all these years, you're no better at dueling. And you know you can't beat me in a muggle fight."
"Oh, I don't know," Peter said, raising his silver hand. "I think things are different, now."
He began to reach for Remus with that silver hand, but Remus acted on instinct and moved, unwilling to have the hand touch him. He raised his arm and aimed his wand at Peter.
"You always wanted to be like us. I see that now," Remus said. "I tried to be nice to you. I tried to help you, and so did James. And look how you repaid him. Betrayer. You gave him to his death, and you're no better than and murdering fiend."
Peter let out a shriek of rage and lunged forward.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Remus shouted. Peter's arms snapped to his sides, and his legs snapped together, and he fell hard to the stone floor on his face. Remus gave a snort of laughter and turned back to the battle that was being waged.
"Ensoluno," Lily whispered, touching the tip of her wand to her chest, just above her heart. She suddenly felt different—older, more powerful, though at the same time, she was still herself. She had extra memories now, Harry's birth, holding him in her arms the first time… and her last moments, James telling her to run, to take Harry and get out, her own voice begging Voldemort not to kill Harry, to take her instead.
She looked up at James, and saw a difference in his eyes, a darker, more tired look to them. Older. He had performed the same spell.
Lily knew what it did. It brought a dead person's soul back into their body—but could only be performed by the dead person. Lily and Remus had discovered mentions of it in old books, and had looked the charm up. Then, she, James, and Sirius had painstakingly learned to perform the charm perfectly, making them temporarily invincible.
"Wait for me," she told James, her voice different, like two voices at once, and, on the spur of the moment, pressed her lips to his. She kissed him thoroughly, passionately, Adult-Lily sharing a kiss with her husband after death. "I love you," said a voice that did not belong to sixteen year old Lily Evans, but to Lily Potter, wife and mother.
She walked across the floor to her long dreamt-of confrontation with Voldemort.