Author's Note:  Hmm, only one review from last chapter.  I'm a little disappointed, but I'll live.  I don't want to be one of those people that go IF I DON'T GET TEN MORE REVIEWS BY NEXT WEEK, I'M DISCONTINUEING MY STORY!  All that tells people is that you're desperate and have little self confidence.

I don't know how to write fight scenes, especially between wizards, so the fight scenes in here are limited.  Yes, there are fight scenes in this chapter.

Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, so I own NONE OF THE HARRY POTTER STUFF, AITE?  However, I do own Anette and Caldwell.  On with the show!

My Demon Child

Chapter Six:  A Quick Retreat, a Sudden Loss

            "If you find the mudblood, at all cost take her to me," Voldemort said sternly to his frightened death eaters.  "I don't want her dead, and if she is dead, I will kill her killer by torture."

            Snape shifted uneasily among his fellow death eaters.  He wasn't sure what he was going to do if he were to find Lily.  He couldn't kill her, but he couldn't hide her either; Voldemort would find out about his treachery, even if he was good at occlumency.

            The other death eaters had looks of hunger and were awaiting to kill and torture other Muggles and Muggle lovers.  The signal from Voldemort was the only thing keeping them from yelling out the killing curse.  The whole raid of death eaters and Voldemort were all huddled up by the border of London.  Voldemort had sensed that Lily was residing here, and he was determined to find her.

            It was about one in the morning, and London was sleeping quietly.  In any moment, it would be full of chaos.

            "Right, go and raise Hell," Voldemort screamed.  The death eaters scurried away from each other shouting curses, causing mayhem, and looking for the redheaded, wretched, mudblood.

***

            Lily stirred in her sleep.  She was sleeping peacefully, but something wasn't right.  There was something or someone out there moving in her room.  She wanted to catch it.  She opened her eyes, but all she saw was the darkness of the night spreading its shadows over the living room.  The familiar shapes of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were sprawled over the floor snoring peacefully.  A set of wizard chess was on the floor, the pieces still broken.  She noticed that there were many empty bottles of butterbeer littering the floor.

            One of the smaller windows in the living room was open, and the curtain was flying with the night wind.  She could hear there was a great deal of commotion going outside, and she could see lights going on and off.  Lily could hear explosions, but she wasn't sure why.  Were they fireworks?  Lily squinted in the dark and saw the clock, and it read 1:14.  This was not the day nor the time for any gangsters of any sort to cause mayhem in London.

            It was then she noticed that James was awake, and he was on all four's on the ground looking for something.

            "James?" Lily whispered in the dark.  "What are you doing?"

            "Oh—Lily, I'm trying to find my wand.  Lily, keep your head down, don't let them down there see you through the window," James said in a rush.  "Can you wake up the rest?"

            "Sure," Lily said promptly, "but whose down there?"

            "Death eaters," he replied in a most solemn voice.  "Do not let them see you."

            Lily shook Remus's shoulder and said, "Wake up, come on—"

            "Hmm?" Remus said absentmindedly.  He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room.  Through a stifled yawn, he said tiredly, "Blimey, am I drunk?"

            "No, you can't get drunk from butterbeer," Lily grinned.  "Now, come on and get up."

            Lily prodded Sirius at his shoulder with her forefinger, but he didn't move.  She said in a firm voice to wake up, but he didn't stir.  Remus smiled at her failed attempts and sat next to Sirius.  In a quiet but firm voice, he said, "Snivelly is beating you in quidditch—"

            "WHAT?" Sirius bellowed.

            "Shut up!" Remus said while covering his ears.  "I had to say that to get you up."

            "Why?  It's still night time—"

            "Reason #1, you'll get a cold by sleeping on the ground.  Reason #2, if we don't move now the death eaters are going to come and kill us," James answered.  "Not very pleasant actually."

"You have got to be kidding," Sirius whispered, risking a peek out the window.  And sure enough, masked people were running around laughing while emitting curses into the air.

            After James found his wand and Peter woke up, the five people were ready to leave.  Lily retrieved James's invisibility cloak, and they strode outside the apartment building.

            The raid has just begun, so only parts of London now were covered in a fire and screaming victims.  James wasn't used to sitting out on the sidelines though;  he was more accustomed to going out and doing the saving stuff.  However, he knew Dumbledore was counting on him to keep Lily safe.  He had to because he already let Lily almost slip a couple of times already.

            "Okay, Sirius and I are going to go over and try to you know—help and—and wait for the reset of the Order members and Aurors to come," Remus said.

            "I am an auror!" James complained.

            "You are also on a job for Dumbledore, Prongs," Sirius reminded him.

            "Right, and don't worry James," Remus started when he saw James's irritated expression, "once you get Lily to safety, you can come and help us.  Now, go!  We'll, uh, we'll try to distract them for now so you and Lily will have a good head start, okay?"

            "Fine," James muttered.

            "James, stop making me feel like a burden," Lily said.  She outstretched her invisible arms (she was wearing the invisibility cloak) and tugged at James, startling him.

            They were walking towards another Order of the Phoenix stations in a hurry as Lily wanted to be safe and James wanted to fight.  Lily pulled the cloak around her, but behind her an explosion went off.

            "How can you just stand that?" James asked, with a hint of anger in his voice.  "Don't you feel any anger whatsoever or pity or anything?"

            "No, James, I don't feel anger or pity for anyone.  I'm a heartless girl who thinks torturing fellow "mudbloods" is just great fun.  Of course I care James!  But I can't fight and I'm not as brave as the rest of you.  Okay?  So, for now, I just want to get over to the Order place thingy so you can go out and be some girl's knight in shining armor," Lily snapped.  "Can't you walk any faster?" she continued, "If we don't get there soon I'm going to be limping over to the Order cause most likely, I'm going to be feeling that weird stomach pain again."

            James nodded and squinted into the distance, "Where are you?"

            Lily stepped on his foot to give him and idea where she was walking.

            "Ouch—thanks."

            They had walked twenty blocks when they heard another explosion with a big BANG!  Behind them, masked men were running around crazy shouting at the top of their lungs, acting worse than drunkards.  Trees were falling down, and muggles and other innocent people were running, hands over their heads.  But what made James really turn around was the high pitch screaming of a single girl.

            "Aaaaah!  Nooo!"

            "I know that voice…."  James said, his voice trailing off.  "Anette…"

            Lily hit her head and said, "James, aurors, hit wizards, and members of the Order are already there.  She's going to be okay."

            "No, no she's not," James said, his foot twitching.  "She's only a teenager."

            "If we can hear her from twenty blocks, Sirius and Remus will be able to hear her from two blocks, and they are two blocks away from her," Lily reminded him, but she too was getting worried about the safety of others now.  She couldn't block out their screams anymore.

            Then they heard another scream from the same location.

            "How come no one's getting into the apartment building?" James asked with rage.

            Then they heard another one of her screams, but this one seemed to never end.  She was in pain.

            "Okay, James, go—go help her out then," Lily said while waving her hand although no one could see it.  "The death eaters won't be able to see me in this cloak, so just tell me where the station is."

            "Can't, only Dumbledore can tell you cause he's the secret-keeper for all stations.  Lily, just—just wait here, okay?  And run if death eaters come up this way.  I have to go—"

            "I know you have to go—so GO!"

            James sprinted down the street and Lily saw him retreating into their flat.

***

            James dashed into the hallway of the building, but as soon as he entered the fifth floor, all he saw was smoke, ashes, and fire here and there.

            "Bloody death eaters," he cursed under his breath.  He coughed once or twice into his robes and put his wand in front of him.  He walked stealthily passed doors towards Anette's home.  About a minute later, he heard the voices…

            "We know she lives real close to you—girl, where is she?" came the voice of a man with a gruff voice and malice.

            "I don't know—I swear—please don't hurt me again," Anette whimpered through sobs.  She sounded so helpless and pathetic that James would have had the pleasure of strangling that death eater.  "Why would I know who she is anyway?"

            "Because we know she lives right across the hall from you," the death eater said more loudly.  James peaked into the room and saw Anette and her long hair draped over her shoulders.  She was on the ground on her back.  She was trembling like mad, but there were about five death eaters surrounding her with their wands pointed at her face.

            "Who lives across the hall from you, girl?" the same man snarled.

            Then a woman's voice cackled, "We don't have all day.  Now where is she?"

            "I DON'T KNOW!"  Anette screamed, still crying.  "The only people who live across the way is James and Bernadette!"

            "You lie," the woman said in a voice full of disgust.  "Crucio."

            Anette began screaming again.  James, full of adrenaline and hatred, bolted into the room and knocked about two death eaters unconscious onto the floor.  To his surprise, all of the death eaters were unmasked.  To his even greater surprise, he saw he knocked Severus Snape to the floor.

            He recognized the remaining three death eaters.  They were Malfoy, Lestrange, and Macnair.  He hardly knew them from school, but he still recognized them.  Apparently, they recognized him too.

            "Ah, James Potter!" Lestrange said with glee.  "I remember you, you were that annoying bast---"

            "Enough chit chat already!" Lucius screamed.  "Crucio!"

            James dodged the curse and ran next to Anette's lifeless body.  He took out his wand and shouted, "Petrificus totalus!"

            The spell was aimed for Malfoy, but he ducked and it hit Macnair right in the face instead.  He keeled over and fell as hard as a log.  James quickly pointed his wand at Malfoy again, but Lestrange jumped from behind and tackled him to the floor.

            "Sorry Potter," she whispered through gasps in attempt to keep James down.  "But you see, I never really liked you so I feel no pity for you.  You're probably here protecting Evans.  I, on the other hand, am trying to kill her."

            She stood up and kept her wand steady while pointing it at James's chest.

            "Good, Lestrange.  At least you're good for something," Malfoy snickered.

            "Malfoy, shut up.  I'm improving.  Soon, I shall be the Dark Lord's greatest supporter."

            "I'm assuming 'soon' is a couple of years then?"

            "No, 'soon' is now," Lestrange said with the widest smile.  "And do you know why Potter?  Because I'm going to present the Dark Lord a present of Evans.  And if I can't get that wretched mudblood, I'm sure you will do just fine."

            James took out his wand and was ready to curse her hair off, but Lestrange shouted, "Crucio!"

            James yelled with pain and terror.  He writhed and jerked over the floor just wanting to die.  He continued yelling, he could stop, but no matter what the pain would not be released from his body strong as it was.  He screamed and pleaded for her to stop, but it was a couple of minutes before Lestrange took the curse off.

            He remained like a heap on the ground unconscious.

            "Yes, Potter, I never liked you.  You came to protect Evans, and I came to kill her.  But I guess the Dark Lord will have to kill you first.  Malfoy, he's alive but not conscious.  Let's get him to the Dark Lord."

***

            Lily was frantic now.  It's been over an hour since James left, and still he hadn't returned.  Lily blamed it all on herself.  James probably couldn't find her, and Lily shouldn't have left him left…but still, she continued to panic.

            She had no idea where she was at the moment.  The chaos and hellish atmosphere had spread throughout London, and Lily didn't know where to go.  All she did was run until she found an area where there were no death eaters.  However, those spaces were nonexistent.  Lily was crouched behind a dumpster in who knows where praying that no one would find her.

            And then, it hit her.  The stomach pains began, and she was on the floor silently crying to herself.  She was desperately hoping that whoever Voldemort was torturing or killing right now, it wasn't James.  At the moment, Amos Diggory was not in her mind.

***

            Sirius, Remus, Peter and other aurors were fighting around the Leaky Cauldron.  Some Muggles were asleep, but most of them were crying looking out of their tweed windows.  By the minute, more people were falling to the floor injured or dead.

            "This is going to take one hell of a memory charm to make all these Muggles forget what they're seeing now," Remus yelled over to Sirius while cursing a death eater.  Just then, two death eaters pounced on him, but another auror came and cursed them.

            "You okay?" Sirius asked Remus while stunning a death eater.

            "Yeah.  D'you think James and Lily are okay?" Remus asked in return.

            Peter shrugged.  Sirius nodded.

            Surrounding the three Marauders and aurors were more masked death eaters closing in on them, but the positive side was giving a good defense.  The ground was littered in injured bodies, but this was a battle and a side had to win.  And they were winning.

***

            It took a better of an hour for Lily to walk back to her flat with James although if it the conditions were different she could have reached their in ten minutes.  Her stomach's pain would not cease to lessen, so she had to remain in agony.  It was a risk, she knew, to go back because death eaters could be there.  But she couldn't remain under an unsanitary dumpster.  And after all, she was still wearing James's cloak.

            To her surprise, all the death eaters around her flat had evacuated.  It was dead silent with only some lamp posts flickering.  It was relatively clean compared to other parts of London.

            Lily, with caution, made her way to the elevator.  She noticed that the windows were broken, walls were scratched, paintings ripped, furniture trampled on, and the once beautiful building utterly damaged.  The old grandfather clock was the only thing that was working.  It was three: thirty.

            When Lily reached the fifth floor, she limped over to her room while holding her stomach.  She wasn't sure if James was there since he never returned to her.  She saw the door to Anette's place open.  Inside, she saw Anette crouched on the couch hugging her knees.  She was weeping heavily and she looked badly injured.

            "Anette?" Lily asked in the dark.  Anette jerked her head to Lily and stuttered, "B—Bernadette?"

            "Huh?  Bernadette?" Lily questioned.  Then, when she realized that she had lied about he name before said, "Oh, right.  Um, my goodness, what happened to you?"

            Lily tried to keep a steady voice and act normal, but she was ready to just fall over.  She had muster all her strength, but her strength was waning.  She made her way over to a comfortable chair and rubbed her stomach.

            "The death eaters," she said in a deadly whisper, "they came…they tortured…he came…they tortured….they took…."

            "Hmm?" Lily asked again, only half listening.  "What happened?"

            Anette faced her and said in a choking voice, "The death eaters came here.  I don't know, but they were looking for someone.  Don't know why they thought the person was here."

            Lily stopped everything and looked at Anette with horror.  They had been searching for her, and they knew where she lived now.

            "They were looking for some girl named Lilac or something like that.  But I never heard of her, so they started to, to hurt me and stuff.  Then, James came.  He came.  He came."

            "Go on," Lily prompted.

            "He came.  And he fought them, but two of them caught him and took him….somewhere.  I don't know where," Anette said.  She began to sob nonstop.  It was then that Lily's stomach violently lurched in different directions, and Lily cried out in pain.  She fell off the chair and squirmed over the floor clutching her stomach.  It felt like her first cramp, and that cramp had been horrible.  This wasn't something she could just walk off but something that she had to endure until Voldemort stopped whatever pain he was causing.  And Lily had more than a hunch that the pain Voldemort was inflicting was on James.

***

            "Crucio," Voldemort said once again for what seemed like the millionth time that night.

            And for what seemed the millionth time that night, James Potter fell to the floor at the feet of the merciless Voldemort, screaming but unyielding any information.  There were many times he was close to say something about Lily, but he didn't.  Although nothing in auror training prepared him for almost an hour's worth of torture, he endured.  He wasn't on the brink of going insane yet, and Voldemort could now tell that there was no use in torturing this "Potter boy."  He needed a new approach.

            He took the curse off and sighed in frustration.

            They were in Voldemort's castle in the most largest hall.  All the death eaters that remained behind from the London raid were present at his tortures.  They all cheered Voldemort on, but he wouldn't crack.

            "So, James Potter, you decide to play the role of a chivalrous, modest, humble, heroic wizard, do you?" Voldemort snarled.

            James was too stubborn and weak to answer or move his head.

            Voldemort continued, "I'll take that as a yes.  But pray tell why you do this to yourself?  What is there to be gained to hide from me?  Nothing.  What is there to be lost by hiding from me?  Everything.  I'm not even going to kill Evans.  I just want to know where she is.  After all, whose child is she caring?"

            "The devil's," James managed to mutter.

            Everyone in the room laughed.  Voldemot slapped his thigh and cackled for the whole room to hear.

            "Potter, you do realize I take that as a compliment?"

            "You take it as a compliment, but then again, who even takes any heed of your existence?" James said quietly.

            "Potter, you just chose your death day," Voldemort snapped.  "And trust me, that day is very near.  I will question you later.  Someone—ah, Nott and Crabbe, accompany Mr. Potter to Evans's old room.  And don't hurt him on the way.  After all, he is our new guest here.  And you two better bloody make sure he doesn't escape."

***

            The next morning, it was obvious that Voldemort's raid in London was in vain and an utter embarrassment to him because it was truly unsuccessful.  But it was at a cost, for James Potter was never found.

            Sirius refused to register the thought that perhaps James was dead.  They were best friends since their first year at Hogwarts, and Sirius knew James like he knew the back of his hand.  He knew James could withstand enormous pain, and although Voldemort was one of the most powerful and terrifying wizards ever, Sirius believed that James was still alive.  Most likely, his stubbornness was due to the thought that if James was dead, he, Sirius, would be in too much grief to bear.

            Lily was removed from James's flat and into Dumbledore's custody.  She wasn't sure what to believe just then.  People might believe James was dead, but people once believed Lily was dead too.  And she was still breathing, wans't she?  And Lily figured that James was too an important of a pawn to Voldemort, that Voldemort wouldn't dare to kill him just yet.  James was just a vessel full of information on the one person Voldemort was interested in the most.  Yes, James knew just about everything about Lily and her whereabouts.

            However, the hours dragged on.  It wasn't long before Lily began thinking, "wasn't it just last week that James was scolding me for shopping?"

            James was taken on July 16.  Today, it was September 16.  Everyone, except Sirius, was beginning to think that James Potter was dead.

***

            There was one good thing that came from this mess.  Now that Voldemort knew about Lily and her being alive, Dumbledore had granted her more freedom.  She could now go out when she wanted without a disguise or chaperone of any kind.  There was no risk of exposure because she was already exposed.  But now, on this particular day, Lily felt no joy from shopping or going out in the public.  Today, it was officially announced that James was dead.

            Lily was taking advantage of her freedom and traveled to London, England from Hogwarts in Scotland by floo powder.  It was around three that afternoon, and Lily had been standing in front of the late James Potter's flat for an hour.  She couldn't let herself go in.

            Two hours….two hours…two hours since it's been official that he's been dead…

            His belongings hadn't been touched, so everything in there was the same.

            The infamous Amos Diggory, just happened to be walking down that very same street that day.  He spotted Lily and the look of grief on her face.  He, too, heard about James's death.  But to his surprise, there were no tears on her face.

            "Lily, dear?" Amos said.  Lily jerked from her trance toward the flat and looked at Amos.  For the first time, she didn't smile at his presence.  For a moment, Lily had forgotten that they were engaged.

            "Oh, hi," Lily said dully.

            "Are you okay?" Amos asked.  He closed the gap between them.  His face was just inches from hers.

            "Yeah," Lily sighed.  The closeness between her and Amos was something that she had been yearning for, but that had been before James died.  It wasn't the same anymore.  She didn't want that closeness with Amos anymore. She wanted that closeness with a man who was dead.  She wanted that closeness with James.

            With these thoughts, Lily turned to face Amos and sobbed into his shoulder.

            "No!" she exclaimed.  "I'm not okay!  He was supposed to be alive and here, but he's dead!  Amos, he's dead!  HE'S DEAD!  And what did I do to return his generosity and hospitality?  I shopped!"

            Amos didn't understand a word she was saying.  What was so bad about shopping?

            Lily continued to cry, but about after twenty minutes her tears began to subdue.

            "You know, Amos," she sniffled, "I reckon none of this would have happened—"  she hiccupped—"—if I wasn't pregnant.  If I didn't have my demon child."

            Amos hugged her tighter.  He said, "Shh, Lily, everything's going to be okay…"

            But among his shushing, Lily managed to say through hiccups and sobs, "Amos, I've been seriously considering abortion now."

            "What?" Amos exclaimed.  He let go of Lily and grabbed hold of her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes.  "Lily, this isn't like you.  You don't do this kind of rash stuff—"

            "No, I've seriously been thinking about this.  It's too late for any healers to do anything, I mean, I'm already three months pregnant.  But, there are other ways I suppose of extinguishing…"

            "Lily, I know you're going through a hard time, but make this decision after you're done grieving!"

            "Amos, you know you want me to get rid of this child.  Come on!  You're marrying a pregnant woman!  Do you really want to raise a child that was never yours?  Do you?"

            "No."

            "So, I've been thinking really hard about my kid and our wedding.  Amos, let's just have a quiet wedding.  Okay?  Let's have it real soon.  I can't—I can't—think about James.  It's too horrible.  I don't want to be crying.  So, I want to get my mind off things and think about our wedding."

            Amos began to perspirate.

            "Let's get married on Christmas.  I know it's kind of soon, but won't it be nice?  A small, Christmas wedding?" Lily asked eagerly.  She put her back towards the flat building.  Tears continued to stream down her face.

            "Lily, if you didn't want to think about James, then why did you come here?" Amos asked, daring not to answer the question.

            The tears began to fall faster now.

            "I hate to talk about this," Lily said.  "But I came here as a last good bye.  I guess.  A last personal bye because we both lived here.  I guess.  His funeral won't be all that personal to me."

            Amos nodded.

            "But Amos, let's not think about death.  What do you think?  A nice Christmas wedding?" Lily prompted.

            Amos stared at her.  He didn't want to see her grieve anymore, but the truth had to come out sooner or later.  The later he delayed this, the worse things would be between them.  But Lily was so vulnerable and pitiful.  And he did love her.  They did promise years ago to wed.  They did promise years ago to spend every last moment together.

            "Lily, I don't think we should get married," Amos said in a final voice and apparated away in shame.

***

            "I never thought the day would come when Mr. Potter's funeral would be planned," Dumbledore sighed out of heartache.  "This is just horrible."

            "Yes," Snape snarled, who was standing right next to Dumbledore in one of the Hogwarts court yards.  "Very, horrible," he added in a sarcastic tone that Dumbledore chose to ignore.

            "Severus, you are quite sure that Voldemort has killed him off?" Dumbledore asked.  To Snape, this was the thousandth time people from the Order have asked him this annoying question.

            "You already know the answer to that," Snape said.  "I don't know what became of Potter.  I have never seen him within the Dark Lord's castle, but everyone knows that he was once in there, if not still in there.  My rank within the dark circle is not high enough so that such information is disclosed to me."

            "Very well, very well," Dumbledore said.  "We better go inside now.  I heard it's going to rain."

            And as if on cue, a raindrop fell upon Snape's hooked nose.  His face turned red with frustration.

A/N:  Feedback time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (That means it's time to review.)

And I don't know what's my problem, but I can't manage to incorporate the rest of the Marauders into the story!  Garg on me!