Lily hugged James close as she watched the sun set for the third time in their time in Lily's dream world. The last test; James'
"James?"
"Yes, love?"
"No matter what happens, just remember I love you, okay?"
"Always, Lils, and I love you too." Silence reigned again as the six walked through the slowly growing darkness.
"Lumos," all six said dully, created six dots of light as their wand tips flared to life.
"I hate this," Alaura said quietly, wrapping her arm more securely around Sirius' waist. Lily was thinking the same thing. Not knowing what was coming next scared her more than she would ever admit. They came to a fork in the road and Lily saw exactly what she had been dreading. The right fork showed the crystal rose, and the left showed a completely peaceful wizarding world.
"We… have to choose," Lily gulped.
"Then we're going for the rose. We didn't come down here to bring peace and harmony to the world," Alaura said turning to the right.
"But peace and harmony…" Remus began.
"Tanice is too high of a price to pay," Alaura countered.
"Is it?" James inquired. "Is one life too high of a price for the safety of millions?"
"Peace is never permanent," Lily pointed out softly.
"This one is."
"Prove it. We don't know how long that peace is going to last. In this case, Tanice's life it too high of a price to pay," Lily pointed out.
"Look at it, Lil! No one's attacking any one, every one's peaceful and serene, what more can you ask for?" Sirius replied.
"Peace never lasts, evil is never vanquished and that is why Tanice's life is too high," Lily reasoned. "As soon as we get used to the peace, the world will be once again plunged into chaos. It's a never ending circle and there's no way to stop it."
"Lily makes a good point," James conceded. "Peace never lasts, no matter how hard we work."
"You're going to gibe up harmony between species?" Remus asked quietly, the sentence laced with double meaning.
"It won't last. Very few things do," Liandra whispered, "and it shouldn't matter what other people think of you or what they say as long as you have friends and people who love you." Remus considered this a moment before nodding.
"You're right, it won't last." It was the last of that argument and so they began down the right fork, towards the crystal rose.
Lily hadn't expected the path to the rose to be so long, nor the wait for James' test so nerve wracking. They had been walking for days, resting when it got dark, and walking through the continuous sunlight. It wasn't until the fifth day of walking on the rose's path that they saw the sparking object standing upright on an amethyst pedestal. Approaching it carefully, Lily stretched out her hand to touch it.
"Don't Lily. We don't know if it's a trap," Liandra warned.
"But it's what we need," Lily countered, reaching out again. The delicate rose was light, as Lily found out when she lifted it down into her hands. It sparkled and hummed with magic as Lily passed it to James. She felt something poke the side of her head and an arm wrap around her torso, pinning her arms to her sides. Alaura's eyes widened and Liandra whimpered.
"Give me the rose or Red gets it," the hissing voice of Voldemort threatened, poking his wand even further into Lily's temple.
"Don't give it to him," Lily protested, wincing as the wand was driven further into her skull. James looked torn. This was probably his worst nightmare: having to choose between Lily and another thing that mattered a lot to him. His hand that held the rose reached out towards Voldemort.
"James, no!" Lily exclaimed, her eyes wide. Voldemort reached out with his own snake-like hand to take the rose, loosening his hold on Lily at the same time. His fingers closed on the rose just as Lily summoned the crystal object to her. Every eye was on the rose as it flew in the air towards the redhead. Voldemort raised his wand as Lily caught the object.
"Expelliarmus," he intoned sending Lily backwards and causing the rose to shatter into pieces, scattering the sparkling raindrops across the grass, path and pedestal, leaving a glowing ball of power, floating away in the sky. Cursing at his own stupidity, Voldemort left with a pop. Lily got up, crystal tears forming in her eyes as she scrambled on her hands and knees to pick up the scattered pieces.
"We can put it back together can't we?" Alaura asked, her voice uncharacteristically high.
-----
One heart can make a difference
One choice can change it all
One voice can travel the distance
And be heard all around the world.
-----
"I don't think so, Alaura," Lily responded dejectedly. "It's in too many pieces." No feeling Lily had ever experienced could ever match the foreboding sense of failure churning in the pit of her stomach.
-----
Would you make a sacrifice?
If you knew that it was right?
And the answer's there if you look inside
Would you run and hide?
Or will you fight the fight?
-----
"We failed?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.
"It looks like it," Alaura sobbed, her own crystal tears creating rivers down her cheeks.
"We haven't failed until we've all given up," James pointed out, "and I for one am not ready to make that sacrifice. We've come way to far to stop and give up now."
-----
There's a power inside you
There's a battle to be won
Every victory has a beginning
The way it always has begun
With the power of one
-----
James held his hand in front of him, palm down.
"Neither am I," Remus agreed, putting his hand on top of James'
-----
One day you'll realize it
That one hope is all you need
One dream we can all share
One dream we all believe
-----
"For Tanice," Liandra said laying her hand on top of Remus'.
"We make ourselves fail if we give up," Sirius thought out loud. "I'm in." He added his hand to the pile.
-----
And we'll make that sacrifice
Just because we know its right
And we'll face the answer that's there inside
We won't run and hide
We gonna fight the fight
-----
Lily looked to a tear streaked Alaura who was staring disbelievingly at the others.
"They're right, you know," she told her friend, meeting Alaura's gaze unflinchingly. "We don't fail until we allow ourselves to." Standing shakily, Lily walked over to her circle of friends, resting her own hand on top of Sirius'
"And I for one am not ready to give up just yet."
-----
There's a power inside you
There's a battle to be won
Every victory has a beginning
The way it always had begun
With the power of one
-----
Alaura's eyes darted from one friend to the other, taking in their determined faces. They weren't about to give up so why should she? Her sister was counting on them to help, so how could she just give up?
"United we stand, divided we fall," Alaura said adding her own hand on top of Lily's.
-----
With the power of one
We'll look inside
We won't run and hide, no
We will fight the fight
-----
An electric jolt ran through their hands as Alaura' palm touched the back of Lily's hand. They watched in awe as first James, then Remus, then Liandra, Sirius, Lily and lastly Alaura began to glow.
-----
There's a power inside you
There's a battle to be won
Every victory has a beginning
The way it always has begun
With the power of one
-----
The glowing intensified, as did the heat in their hands. Head were throbbing, limbs were aching but they couldn't take their hands away from the pile. The last thing Lily could remember before she blacked out was seeing her feet leave the ground as she was roughly propelled backward into the amethyst pedestal.
The song in this chapter is "One Heart" by O-Town.