Betrayed
IV
Summary: Will Lily find a way to fight the shadows of hurt and doubt and rescue James from Voldemort's clutches? Can she rescue him from the other greater hidden dangers...?
Disclaimer: I wish I was J.K. Rowling so that I can give off characters instead of measly items to my winners. Sadly, I'm just a lowly writer. That's right, folks: Harry Potter belongs to Rowling, so stop bugging me about it!
"My Lord," a strong voice whispered as an unknown man came creeping towards an intimdating dark figure.
The stranger kneeled in front of his master as he continued:
"My Lord," he repeated, bowing his head to show his loyalty. "Why is it...?"
Although he didn't finish his question, the other figure smiled cruelly. He knew what his servant was asking for.
"Why is it..." as he continued his question, his voice continued to tremble. "Why is it that Potter is your chief Death Eater... and not... not..."
The man spat out the word 'Potter' as if it was a disgusting piece of filth, and he didn't manage to finish his sentence because he suddenly started to tremble uncontrollably.
"And not... you?" his master drawled, sneering and enjoying the fear in his servant's eyes. "Lucius, I know as well as you do that he was once a Gryffindor who was absolutely loyal to Dumbledore. But times are different now... and so is he."
"Yes, of course," the master of the Malfoy mansion stammered quickly. "But... why is he your highest-ranking assassin? My Lord, do you not have any confidence in me? I can be as good or even better than Potter here..."
However, as soon as these words came out of his mouth, the man regretted them. His master's cold red eyes flared for a second with a livid light of contempt before he coolly grinned and replied:
"That is an easy question, Lucius. Because, you see, Potter –unlike you- isn't afraid of..."
Abruptly, the Dark Lord raised his wand and performed the Cruciatus curse. Lucius screamed out loud as he felt the extreme pain coursing through his veins.
"Of torture," his master continued, his malicious grin growing wider. "Or death."
----- ----- -----
"Today, the weather in London will be bright and sunny with only a few clouds. If we're lucky, the temperature will rise up to 25 degrees this afternoon! Also, recent reports show that mysterious murders in the nation have increased dramatically. Nobody knows who is responsible for these gruesome acts, but..."
The muggle radio was immediately turned off as the angry twenty-year-old man banged his fist on the table. Remus, who just came into the apartment, just sighed and said:
"Padfoot, you know that these things happen. And although they are certainly not right, you can't hit something every time you hear about them."
"Damn him," Sirius muttered, gritting his teeth.
Remus knew who his friend was talking about, and he sighed once more and shook his head regretfully, thinking about how little they could do.
"Here's the Daily Prophet," he said as he threw the newspaper to Sirius.
However, the moody man just looked at the newspaper once before shoving it away from him.
"Don't feel like reading more awful news," he mumbled, crossing his arms like a pouting child. "I wish I could find a job sooner... I can't believe I didn't qualify as an auror!"
Remus sat on the chair across Sirius and explained for probably the millionth time:
"You know that the Ministry of Magic is looking for several essential skills that an auror needs, and you just probably didn't have a few."
"Like what?" Sirius questioned, staring defiantly at his friend. "How is it that I didn't get the job when James did!"
Remus sighed, and instead of answering this question again, he just got up and went to the fridge to look for something to eat.
"Excuse me for saying this, but James probably worked harder to get the job," he finally replied as he came back to Sirius with an apple in his hand.
"Wish the guy came and lived with us," Sirius commented in a tone a little like Peter's. "But he just had to have his 'own personal space' as he called it and rent another apartment in... where again?"
"Somewhere near Surrey," Remus answered as he munched his apple.
"And where does Peter live?" Sirius inquired.
"Coincidentally, also somewhere near Surrey."
"Are you still looking for a teaching job?"
"Yes," Remus replied, tired of answering so many of Sirius' old questions.
"Must be hard trying to get a job... with your status and all," Sirius commented with a note of sympathy in his voice.
Remus tiredly smiled as he agreed:
"Not all parents are content with the idea of their children being taught by a werewolf."
Sirius shook his head somewhat apologetically before getting up to get the phone.
"I'm going to have a chat with Prongs," he declared.
"Why don't you write him a letter?" Remus asked, knowing how busy aurors were these days and how James would probably be disturbed if Sirius called.
"Nah," Sirius shook his head distractedly as he started punching the numbers. "It takes him a month to answer them and his letters are always boring anyway."
"Do you think it would be wise...?"
"Look, Moony: it isn't as if I call him everyday, or even once a week! Last time I called was two months ago and..."
He stopped as he heard somebody' voice on the other side of the line. Remus just sighed; Sirius was just lucky that the Ministry had just decided to install Muggle phones in the building in case of an emergency where the workers couldn't apparate.
"Hello?" a brisk voice could be heard.
"This is Sirius Black," Sirius answered, using a mocking strict tone; Remus just hoped that the person couldn't tell. "Can I talk to James Potter? He's an auror from Sec-..."
"A moment please," the voice abruptly interrupted him before the phone suddenly emitted classical music.
Sirius just groaned and rolled his eyes to Remus, who couldn't help laugh.
"Hello?" the brisk voice returned almost immediately.
"Yo, I'm here," Sirius replied, forgetting his past strict tone.
"I'm sorry, but Mr. Potter is currently unavailable... In fact, we haven't heard from him for the past month. His apartment is also now empty."
----- ----- -----
"Hey, Lily!"
Lily looked up from her newspaper. She turned to see her boyfriend, Amos Diggory, beckoning her into the kitchen. Smiling, she got up from her red armchair and followed him.
"Have a sit," Amos told her as he pulled a chair.
"Thank-you, Amos," Lily said, slipping comfortably in her seat as she waited for what her boyfriend wanted to say.
When Amos seated himself, he began to fidget slightly. Lily continued smiling, although when she looked at his pitch black eyes, she felt a sparkle of disappointment within her. For some reason, she thought about how dull black could never compare against the brilliant hazel... of James' eyes. But still... it didn't matter about the color of his eyes, because Lily was certain that it was Amos she truly loved... not him. She vaguely remembered the months she had spent in James' arms, but somehow all those good feelings disappeared when she first saw the handsome Hufflepuff in May about two years ago. When Amos came to her that faithful day in Herbology to ask for her name, it seemed as if James just... vanished from her mind.
And then... on the day of the graduation ball, when she saw his crestfallen face when she told him about it... she started to doubt herself and her feelings. But now isn't the time to think about him, she scolded herself silently, shaking her head slightly. It wasn't her fault that James wasn't truly the one for her; Amos was.
"What is it?" Amos suddenly asked her, frowning.
"What?"
"You shook your head just right now... did it mean anything?"
"Oh..."
For a moment, she couldn't remember. Then she laughed and reassured him:
"Don't worry about it: I was just thinking... about a past memory."
"Oh... okay," Amos nodded, and Lily couldn't help notice that he seemed somewhat relieved. "Anyway, Lily..."
As he said her name, she felt slightly disturbed, remembering how James never called her that...
"Hey, Lils: watch this!"
"James... this no time to fool around! Although... it is a little funny..."
"Then why are you giggling like crazy?"
James... she thought, and was surprised to realize that she felt a little depressed then.
"Lily... are you listening?"
She jerked as she remembered where she was, and she felt like hitting herself for not paying attention to Amos, who was now patiently waiting for her to respond.
"I'm so sorry!" Lily cried. "You know I don't usually zone out... I can't believe I did today! Sorry, but I didn't hear a word you just said..."
Amos frowned slightly before shaking her head and mumbling a 'it's okay'. Then he restarted:
"I know these days you're really busy with all the patients you have in St. Mungo's..."
He was referring to Lily's current position at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Ever since last year, Lily was a novice healer there, but these days, she received extra work... because of all the murders and attacks recently.
"But I would really like to ask you something, even if it would put you under a lot of pressure..." Amos nervously continued.
He then unexpectedly got up from his chair, came up to Lily, and went down on one knee.
"Lily Evans..." he cleared his throat. "Will you marry me?"
"Amos!"
Lily gasped as she stared at her boyfriend in shock. They had only been living together for only a year... and already he was thinking about marriage! Although she did love Amos a lot, she didn't know if marriage was appropriate, especially now...
"Lily?" he looked up and waited expectantly for an answer.
It took several moments for her to regain her speech ability, and even though, she stumbled on her words.
"Amos," she said quietly. "I... I..."
Fortunately for her, the phone they kept suddenly rang.
"I'll get it!" Lily sang a little too cheerfully as she hopped out of the kitchen and into the living room where the phone was situated.
Although it made her feel a little guilty that she was happy to forget –at least for a moment- about Amos' proposal, Lily couldn't help feel uncertain about it. I love him and all, but...
"Hello?" she spoke into the phone.
"LILY!" a hysterical voice screamed, almost knocking her ears off.
"Sirius...?"
However, she didn't hear anything from the other side of the line... although she did hear a few grunts of struggle. Finally, another calmer voice spoke up:
"Hello, Lily? This is Remus, and I apologize for Sirius'... unexpected outbust."
"Uh... it's all right," Lily assured him, alhtough now she really wanted to know what had made Sirius scream into the phone like that. "But... is he okay?"
"Oh... he's fine, Lily," Remus chuckled a little before his voice became serious again. "It's just that... we realized something sudden today."
"What is it?"
"You see... James is gone."
"What?" Lily frowned, unsure if she got it right. "What do you mean, 'James is gone'?"
"It means," Remus answered quietly. "That he's gone missing. Nobody in the Ministry heard from him for a month, and his apartment is empty. We tried to find someone who knows where he is, but so far no such luck. Sirius and I would just like to know if you've heard from him..."
"He's gone?" Lily gasped, completely in shock for the second time this day. "I can't believe it! And sorry, Remus, but I haven't heard from him since... the night of the graduation ball."
Remus was quiet for a minute, and Lily couldn't help feel resented; after all, she did hurt James that day, and as one of his best friends, Remus did have the right to somewhat dislike her for that.
"Well then," he said, speaking again. "Maybe you can help us search for him in Shadowmont Forest... that is apparently where he was last seen. Unless... of course... you don't want to..."
"Oh!" Lily answered, a little surprise at his last comment. "Of course I would want to help! Why would you think otherwise?"
Once again, the line went silent for a moment before Remus replied:
"Nothing really. Okay, be there tonight at seven. You do know where it is, I hope?"
"Yes."
"See you there."
And with that, he hung up.
----- ----- -----
"I now sure know why they call it Shadowmont Forest... I can practically see shadows everywhere!"
As Lily commented this, Sirius let out a bitter bark-like laugh.
"Get used to it, Lily," he told her, "because we're going to the very heart of this dark and eerie forest if we have to!"
Lily nodded and continued walking steadily along Sirius and Remus. It had been great seeing them; it had been quite a long time since the last time they talked. However, Sirius still held a small grudge on her, and even Remus seemed a little more formal than before.
But she was right about one thing: the forest was somewhat scary with shadows seeming to appear in every corner. It was dense with tall, swishing, green pine trees, and it was very easy for a traveler to get lost in this dark place. However, she couldn't find a reason for why James would ever come here...
"Why would Pr- -I mean, James- ever come to this kind of place?" Sirius voiced out her question, raising an eyebrow at their surroundings.
"Maybe he likes... the solitary aura that this forest gives off?" Remus guessed.
However, Sirius just snorted in disbelief as he heard his friend's assumption.
"Yeah right," he rolled his eyes. "As if he didn't get enough solitude from his apartment already!"
"You mean... he doesn't live with you guys?" Lily inquired, suddenly curious about their lives.
"No," Sirius answered distastefully. "Although me and Remus tried to convince him to. Really... what is that guy thinking?"
"He must have his reasons," Remus noted calmly. "And please stop complaining about that, Sirius: he won't come to live with us simply because you want him to."
Sirius just muttered a 'whatever' before hurrying up his pace, hopeful to find any traces of his best friend around. Sadly, when a couple of hours went by, it was obvious that they were making no progress. Not only that, but it also seemed as if the forest continued forever.
"New plan!" Sirius abruptly declared once he realized this. "We have to split up."
"Do we really have to?" Lily asked anxiously, trying not to whine or sound fearful.
However, Remus just nodded in agreement.
"We'll not going anywhere searching for him in a group," he said solemnly. "If we go our separate ways, we'll have a better chance at finding clues."
"Yeah... what he said," Sirius agreed. "And by coincidence, nature has given us three different paths!"
And he was right; although the paths weren't paved, they were evident, standing right in front of them.
"Okay, here's the new plan: choose one of the paths and try to find anything meaningful. When you give up, apparate back to your house and give the rest a full report tomorrow, you got that?" Sirius asked, looking at both Lily and Remus who nodded in understanding.
"I'm taking the right one!" he suddenly announced and ran to that route, immediately vanishing in the mass of dark green pine trees.
"And I guess I'll take the one in the center," Remus decided and started walking towards that path.
"And I'm taking... the left one," Lily gulped as she realized that the path she chose was extremely curved and narrow.
Maybe I can switch ways with Remus... she thought hopefully, but that hope disappeared when she realized that he was long gone.
"Gather up your courage, Lily," she muttered as she started going her way. "You're doing this for James..."
And abruptly she felt a pang in her heart. She didn't know what it was or where it came from, but she convinced herself that it was just because she felt guilty for dumping him, especially after...
Never mind about that, she angrily thought as she stomped her way through the creepy forest. She looked desperately around her, hoping to find a shred of a clue that'll help them find James. However, no matter where and how close she looked, she found nothing. This is getting frustrating, she pondered, walking deeper into the forest.
An hour probably ticked by before she realized that she was being followed. At first, it was just an unnatural sensation that she quickly shook off. But as she went closer to the heart of the dark forest, the sensation became stronger and stronger until she could no longer ignore it. Not only that, but Lily often caught a shadow that was certainly not her own following her. She bit her lip worriedly, thinking about the possibility that the shadow could be an enemy. Or worse... one of Voldemort's Death Eaters.
Don't think about that, she thought, walking faster. Once again, she noticed the shadow following her, and it also seemed as if it was moving faster. Lily touched her wand inside her pocket to reassure her, and she even started mumbling some charm spells. Time went by, and when Lily finally started forgetting about the lurking danger, something unfortunate happened:
For once, she wasn't so cautious on what she stepped on, and as she easily put down her foot, she failed to notice that she was stepping over a tree root. And before she could think, she had fallen onto the hard, dirty ground and sprained her ankle badly. She swore out loud.
And then, another unlucky thing happened: the shadow, hearing her cry of distress, abruptly decided it was time to attack. Lily's eyes widened in horror as an unrecognizable, domineering shadow loomed over her and cried:
"Stupefy!"
However, before her mind plunged into absolute blackness, Lily could've sworn that the voice was vaguely familiar...
A/N: Fourth chapter... DONE! does mini victory dance Anyway, when I said 25 degrees in the beginning, the unit is Celcius, because that's what the British use... right? Tell me if I'm wrong . Also, you might be wondering why Sirius and Remus have a lot of Muggle things at their house: well, the radio is to get in touch with the Muggle world (just to tell all you snobby people who like to point out stuff, they don't like the newspaper) and the phone is for Sirius who wants to have direct contact with James without apparating (Sirius is just lazy –no offense). And for the Amos thing... okay, I know that AmosLily is very disgusting, but I didn't feel like creating my own characters ducks as flying vegetables are thrown. And you can't help being surprised... right? I mean... a AmosLily fanfic? Who ever heard of that...? To be honest, I got the idea when I was wondering if good looks were hereditary (with Cedric and all)... and I thought maybe I would try it with Amos. But no flames on any of that please: I completely agree with you that Lily falling for Amos is just plain NOT right.
Also about Shadowmont Forest: I. Don't. Like. That. Name. Unfortunately, I couldn't think about anything else... and I still can't. But I guess it suits the forest somewhat well, because just like how I mentioned in the fanfic, the forest is just crawling with shadows, thus Shadowmont Forest... (readers just roll eyes) . What else would I like to add...? That this chapter was pretty boring? That thinking about Amos and Lily together makes 99.99 of HP fans sick (oops, forgot I already mentioned that)? Oh yeah! To the readers who almost fell asleep reading this chapter, I want to tell them that the next chapter will be 300X better than this one! GUARANTEED! That is all.
Now... for the best reviewer of the (last) chapter! Drum roll, bitte (I'm studying German now, just to tell you guys)...
Great Job 2 LeatitiaVia!
C'mon, you people (especially those of you who have won in the past): clap for the winner! (claps enthusiastically) And of course, now for the prize... LeatitiaVia, you're probably get Lily's wand, because rOkstA has claimed James' wand... I think . To rOkstA: if you don't want James' wand, maybe we can switch, but I hope not because that'll cause a few problems (plus, maybe you can make James appear with the wand if you practice hard enough lol).
And should I give credit to the other reviewers? NAH. chap. 3 reviewers hiss and boo and attempt to kill the writer Fine, fine: I would immensely like to thank Living In A Nightmare (you -as the only reviewer who has reviewed EVERY single chapter- are da BEST), LuluIsALobster, sarah, rOkstA (of course lol), and Kokiri fairy. I hope all of you will review this chapter and I'll see you soon! ;)
P.S.: Next winner gets to choose if he/she either wants a stag plushie, a black dog plushie (like the Animagus Sirius transforms into), a werewolf plushie (doubt anyone wants that), a rat plushie (nobody in their right mind would even consider that), a dragon plushie, or a unicorn plushie! More plushies coming in later chapters and all plushies are guaranteed to be 100 soft, cuddly, and CUTE! Arigato so much to Living In A Nightmare, who gave me the idea!