And welcome back for chapter 18! I'm so proud of myself. I have a really bad habit of writing a story and then abandoning it, so I am glad I have stuck to this one for so long. I still have lots and lots of plans for it. And for those of you wondering, the Graduation Ball is NOT far off wink wink hint hint. For some odd reason I have compelled myself to watching the movie Beauty and the Beast over and over again. Lumire and Cogsworth are so funny. I don't think the beast is that ugly; he is downright cute in his beast form! I wonder how many opera sings they had to go through before they found the right one for Gaston's voice.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is NOT mine. J. K. Rowling owns it. Accuse me of stealing it and I will cut off your head and give the shurken head in the Knight Bus a friend.
When someone reviewed they said that they had hoped for a show down between our favorite couple and the death eaters…well this is it…kinda…
Warning: make-out scene in here. No like, no read.
Enjoy
XVIVX
Lessons for the next day had been cancelled. All of the students were still stuck in their dormitories and the teacher's were up to their necks in patrolling duties, under Dumbledore's orders. It seemed that Dumbledore felt as if there was a threat inside the castle and he didn't want anything unchecked or student in danger. Both Lily and James were exhausted from all their patrolling duties. Professor McGonagall insisted that Lily and James split up on the third day to cover more ground in one last final check before lessons were to officially resume. Lily was enjoying all the time she got to spend with James and learned a great deal about him that she had not known before. James also felt the same way with Lily, knowing that they wouldn't have very much time to spend with each other once lessons resumed. N.E.W.T.'s were fast approaching and it was common knowledge that every teacher would drill and work them the very bones in preparation. Things had been hard enough when they had taken their O.W.L. exams, and even James made time to study in the library. He could only imagine how hard things would be for the N.E.W.T. exams.
The subject of N.E.W.T. exams was on James' mind until around noon when lunch was announced. The students were only allowed out of their common rooms for meals, and even then they were escorted with their Head of House. James, as well as Lily, were already seated in the Great Hall before everyone else had gotten there. Once the students started pouring in Sirius, Remus, Peter, Dorcas, Anthy, and Amberle found their friends and took a seat with them. Meal times were the only times when the students got a chance to free their minds from what was going on, but James was so tired from all his patrolling he found it impossible to talk. All he wanted to do was take a nap in the Room of Requirement, or go skip off into the Forbidden Forest, in his stag form of course, and run around. Sirius and Remus could see the exhaust in their friend's face, but Peter really didn't know when to keep his mouth shut. Twice Sirius cursed Peter's mouth shut to give James a moment of peace. Lily looked even worse. She had large circles under her eyes and exhaust drained the green fire from her eyes. "Well at least being Head Boy dose pay off, because we get the next lesson day off," James did manage to say during lunch, incidentally causing Sirius to turn green with envy.
"What? Now that's crap. They should give us a break too," Sirius wined.
"Yeah right, you're not the one wandering the school hour after hour for almost two days straight," Lily smiled. Earlier Lily had sneaked off to a darkened corner of the Astronomy tower where she took a half an hour nap, but only awoke in even more annoyance at the thought of even more patrol duties. "Man, once his whole thing is over and I get a day off, the first time I'm doing is sleeping till noon," she said.
"Amen to that," James responded and threw Lily a small wink. Lily blushed and turned her eyes back to her food.
Sirius and Remus smirked at each other at Lily's reaction. She still wasn't used to all the attention she got since she had been going out with James. Peter gave James dumbfounded look.
"I almost wish a Death Eater would break in, and then we would have some action," Amberle blurted out.
"Good, then you can fight them while I take a nice long sleep in my bed," Lily said. James had a particularly hard time getting the image of Lily on a bed, in a vulnerable position out of his head, but he did manage it eventually.
At the sound of the bell lunch was over and the rest of the students returned to their Common Rooms. Lily was on her way to the Charms Corridor, while James checked the Trophy Room. Lily sighed; this whole process was getting repetitive to her. She shared Amberle's sentiment. At least if a Death Eater suddenly burst in it would make all the lost hours of her patrolling Hogwarts not completely wasted effort. Half way to the Charms Corridor, Lily met up with Professor Flitwick who waved her a cheery hello. "Hello Professor," Lily responded.
"My, it appears that this whole search is taking a toll even on you," he replied. Lily grinned; she had a notorious reputation of being tireless when it came to school work. And technically, patrolling the school for Death Eaters counted as school work to Professor Flitwick.
"Yes it has. Even Potter is getting tired," Lily said, careful to use James' surname so as not to give away how she felt about him to a Professor.
"Well hopefully everything will be back to normal by tomorrow Miss Evans. Then you will get a much needed rest. Well I must be getting back to my duties, wouldn't want one of the ghosts reporting that we are slacking. Off you go," he said and waved Lily goodbye. Lily waved back and smiled. How could Professor Flitwick always keep such a sunny outlook on things? She liked that about her Charms teacher; his radiant warm attitude was contagious, even to people like Professor Lantis. She grimaced at the thought of Professor Lantis. The one time she had run into him in her rounds he had spat at her, screeching that she needed to pay more attention to her surroundings. He spat so much in Lily's face that her face glistened brightly as the shine of the candles reflected upon it. At that point, Lily was still patrolling with James, and it was very clear to the eye that he was having an extremely hard time keeping a straight face.
When Lily turned the corner to the Trophy Room she was surprised to find someone else already in it. Apparently James had cut his end of patrols short to meet up with Lily. She smiled. James was standing next to the trophy dedicating the winner of the year's previous Quidditch Cup to the Gryffindor team. In brightly polished brass letters it read "JAMES POTTER". 'Its enough to give any guy a major ego boost,' Lily thought silently. "Well well, what brings you here?" Lily said playfully.
"Nothing in particular. Just felt like seeing you again," James said with a smirk. "After all, ten minutes can seem like an eternity to some people". He said. Before Lily even had a chance to reply James had already claimed her mouth with his in a savage kiss. He could clearly feel her tension in the surprise of the moment, but it quickly died. Then James could feel her push her mouth against his with the same furious intensity. He heard Lily moaning and that only stimulated him even more. On the other hand, he was slightly surprised when he felt Lily's tongue brush up against his teeth. 'That little minx,' James thought lovingly. He cared about her more than anything, even more than his top of the line Broomstick. His heart belonged to her. If only Lily knew…she had so much power over him. The thought almost scared James, because he knew that evil scum-sucking bastards like Voldemort and his Death Eaters would not hesitate a second to use her against him.
Soon James' mouth left Lily's and began a trail of hot kisses down her neck. 'Her skin is so soft,' James thought as he continued down. Her neck seemed to have just the right curve to allow James' face fit against his. In a way, both were built to be perfectly molded against each other. "Lily…" James managed to say before he was engulfed with sensual pleasure. Slowly but surely, James moved Lily and him self, while still enjoying the taste of her skin against his, to a dark corner of the Trophy Room. In case a teacher or a ghost walked in, they would have a much better chance of not being seen. The couple hid behind a tall golden statue to Armando Dipped. Once safely out of sight, James continued his ravage with full force.
James wanted the moment to last forever. The fact that they were in danger of being spotted only aroused him further to continue his pursuit. As he buttoned open Lily's blouse he earned a savage moan from her. If indeed they were spotted anyone, James would just love to have to explain why he was snogging her right in the middle of an open room, in broad daylight, under the threat of Voldemort and his followers! The thought just exhilarated James. Life was nothing without a bit of danger. He could feet her hardened nipples under the thin white lace of her bra, and so wanted to get the annoying piece of fabric off.
However James plans were cut short as shower of red sparks was seen just out the hall. Lily also seemed to notice it as well because she immediately snapped into reality and drew out her wand. The shadows of two tall figures could be seen outside the room. While Lily was buttoning up her blouse, James was filled with panic. Red sparks! That meant Death Eaters had been spotted for definitely, or there was major trouble. James motioned for Lily to slowly walk out of their hiding place, and soon he too, drew out his long wand. Golden sparks shot out from the pointed tip (A/N: NOT that way!). Fear was glazed in Lily's dazzling eyes. James didn't blame her, he was frightened as well. Not so much for himself, but for Lily.
The two slowly walked without making a sound to the door and peered out from the corner. There seemed to be no one there. Figuring it was at least somewhat safe; James stepped into the hall first. His wand was in a defensive position. "Did you enjoy that little mudblood whore?" a voice gawked. Soon the two shadows emerged. They were dressed entirely in long black cloaks that draped to the ground and the definite line between them and their shadow could not be distinguished. Two grey masks covered what little showed of their face. Immediately James knew the voice that had spoken up. The cold icy grey eyes from behind the mask confirmed his suspicions as well. "Lucious Malfoy…you bastard," James growled dangerously. The other man who was slightly shorter and stocker, with dark brown eyes that reeked of decay, chuckled in amusement; his laugh sounded like a cross between a snake's hiss and a very bad wheeze.
Without warning a beam of red sparks flew at Lily who dodged it and ran out into the open hall to face the two Death Eaters in front of her. She tried to get as close to James as she could without seeming weak. The wheezy voiced man was recognized by Lily as Regulus Black, Sirius' brother. "James, the other one is…" she began but was cut off.
"Sirius' brother. I know. I could never forget that disgusting laugh," James sneered. Regulus was almost as slimy as Bellatrix Lestrange and her group. The only difference was Regulus knew nothing of stealth and secrecy, and could never hide his true intents without a mask. Bellatrix on the other hand could hide anything and was unpredictable. She could hide anything on her cold, black, eyes.
All four people began circling each other like hawks until Lucious spoke up, "So Potter, I bet you never imagined your last moments would be with that little whore of yours before I strike you down," he spat out. "Tell me; is she as fiery as her hair? Dose she scream your name in pleasure, or just make funny faces like all the other Mudbloods," Lucious mocked. James narrowed his eyes in anger. How dare he bring her into this like that! He would kill that scum if it was the last thing he did, James vowed at that moment. James aimed his wand squarely at Malfoy's heart but Lily got the first word.
"STUPEFY," Lily screamed at the top of her lungs. She hoped that someone, anyone, would hear her. With all the ghosts and teachers prowling the halls someone was bound to hear her. Even the paintings could spread news as they liked.
The curse was too strong for the shielding charm to work against it and Malfoy, with great effort, ducked out of the way. Regulus followed his comrade's act. Lily admired her spell casting abilities for a moment, but it was quickly forgotten. A jet of deadly looking sparks came from Lucious Malfoy's wand aimed at her and Lily didn't want to gamble that it was a simple spell that could be blocked. She ducked behind the door just as the sparks flew past her. Just then Lily heard James shout, "RICTUSEMPRA". That spell nearly scraped Regulus Black's left arm and Lily heard James curse for missing him by a split hair. But there was no more time to think about that because Lucious was coming back for the kill. 'Please God, let someone hear!' Lily prayed silently.
"Is the widdle mudblood scarded of mean Malfoy's wand?" Malfoy mocked in a disgustingly false baby voice that made Lily's insides churn. To her right, Lily saw jets of light of all colors being sent back and forth by James and Black. She could only hope that James didn't get hit but Lily forced James out of her head and onto the deadly opponent in front of her. Lily fired a wave of bright blue sparks that were from the Spell of Paralysis. Again Malfoy avoided the hit but this time sent back a much more deadly curse. Bright vivid green light was coming towards Lily. The Killing Curse! Lily ran as fast as her legs could carry her out of the path. There was no blocking it. The sound of shattering glass could be heard as the spell hit a window and continued its path outside. Lily only prayed that there wasn't some innocent student in its path. But she couldn't think about that.
Lily raised her wand to send out another deadly curse at her opponent but a sharp pain seared across her back and she blacked out completely. "LILY," James said. He gazed at Regulus. The bastard had hit Lily in the back with a powerful curse that James did not know. All he did know was that he wanted to inflict as much bodily harm as possible to the two blood-sucking bastards in front of him. "Damn you," James whispered violently.
"You should be more worried about yourself than your little whore," Regulus wheezed.
James turned red in the face with anger. How dare they strike at her! His free hand was clenched in a fist so tight that his nails drew blood. James' hazel eyes turned 10 shades darker out of the pure hatred that coursed through his veins. How dare they! "You bastard. I will kill you for what you have done," James spat out bitterly.
"Kill us? Think about your position. If only you weren't such a mudblood lover. You could serve the Dark Lord and his rightful purpose," Lucious said with out the tiniest trace of emotion. He raised his wand at James but soon another voice was heard, "ALIENTUS" it yelled. James looked to see both Malfoy and Black become rigid and their eyes cloud over with grey. Soon a loud thump could be heard as they hit the floor. Behind them was Albus Dumbledore wearing an expression that scared James. The twinkle in his eyes had completely disappeared and his faced was lined with heavy veins that protruded in anger. James knew in that moment why Voldemort feared Dumbledore.
The clap of footsteps could be heard as Professor McGonagall could be seen running up the stairs. She gasped when she saw the bodies of the two Death Eaters and Lily. Dumbledore spoke up in an oddly calm voice, but still shaky with anger, "Minerva I will leave you to deal with these two. They will not be waking up any time soon. Contact the Ministry at once. I want them out of my school and away from the students," he declared. James wasn't listening. He had dropped to his knees beside Lily and was anxiously feeling for a pulse.
He grabbed her limp wrist and checked it. After a few seconds of dread, a hopeful thrust of blood could be felt through her skin. James breathed a sigh of relief. She was still alive. He didn't know what he would have done if Lily had died. The faint rise of Lily's chest in breath caused James to almost break out in tears of relief. Lily was still unconscious but James could live with that. She would wake up eventually, as long as she got up to the hospital wing as soon as possible. James looked up at Dumbledore and said, "Professor, I am going to go take Lily to the Hospital Wing".
He did not wait for a reply and picked up Lily's limp form and managed to balance it on his back. James went as quickly as his legs could carry him up the many staircases to reach Madam Pomfrey in time.
IVI
The next day Lily still hadn't woken up. Lessons had resumed and the two Death Eaters had been taken to the ministry. James was excused from his lessons (although not from the homework) but he did not spend his time as he had originally planned. James was up in the Hospital sitting next to Lily's bed for a majority of the time. While Madam Pomfrey had said she would make a full recovery, James still wasn't reassured. During Lunch Dorcas, Anthy, Amberle, Sirius, and Remus were also up in the Wing. The school nurse had difficulty restraining her objection, but held her tongue. Remus had given James the homework he missed from Transfiguration and Charms. "Moony, do you ever stop working," Sirius joked. Everyone laughed.
When lunch was over everyone scattered to their classes and James found himself alone with Lily again. He had begun writing the essay for McGonagall when Lily's eyes darted open. Of all the things she could have seen when she woke up; James doing homework was at the bottom of her list. Lily laughed and finally said, "I didn't know you had the ability to do homework". James dropped his quill.
Lily laughed. "You would have thought I'd died," she said.
"You could have," James replied with all seriousness.
"Don't be such a worry wart," Lily said.
"That's a first, you telling me not to worry," James joked. Normally Lily was always on his back about worrying about his grades, or his finals.
"There's more to life than worrying," Lily said softly. As she lied there in the soft cotton sheets, Lily remembered the dreams that had haunted and pleased her.
IVI (dream/flash back mode)
The Hogwarts Express was gleaming in the bright autumn sunlight. An 11-year-old Lily Evans glanced nervously around her settings. She still couldn't believe she was a witch! Although it was the best and only explanation of how she had managed to turn her teacher's wig yellow by accident when she was mad. All around her were people just like her, who had magic. As a little girl Lily had always dreamed of magic wands, fierce fire-breathing dragons, and evil wizards. She would never have guessed in a million years that she would live them. However now she didn't think of the wizards as evil any more.
A loud roar of smoke came from the shining steam engine. Lily gulped in anticipation and nervousness as her final farewell to her old life.
(any time you see these three stars, it means that there is another dream)
Lily was 12 and at the Halloween feast in her second year of Hogwarts. As per norm, the Great Hall was decked out in hundreds of smirking Jack-o-Lanterns and the live bats flew around the hall. Lily suspected that Dumbledore summoned them every year for Halloween. The odd Headmaster could be seen drinking from his jewel incrusted, golden goblet. Sitting next to Lily was her two best friends, Dorcas and Anthy. Back then, Dorcas' light brown hair had been down to her waist and she didn't consider men an abomination. She was eagerly stuffing down two whole pork-chops and an entire plate of mashed potatoes. Every so often Dorcas would stop for a breath and a quick swig of Pumpkin Juice. Anthy looked quite the same as she usual did, only with a bright smile on her face. Her pale Grecian face glowed in the presence of the candles and she resembled, in Lily's eyes, one of the witches from the infamous muggle story Macbeth. Lily giggled at the thought of Anthy circling a boiling cauldron mumbling "humble humble, toil and bubble". Dorcas turned around, as did Anthy, and asked Lily what was so funny. "Nothing," she replied with a smile.
A large booming laugh came from the other side of the Gryffindor table. The three girls looked around to see James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin smirking in glee over at the Slytherin table. "Great, looks like the Marauders are going to end up playing another stupid joke on Slytherin," Lily said.
"Well not on Slytherin in general, just that weird Snape fellow," Dorcas replied with her mouth half-full of food.
"Snape is more of a toerag than Potter. Why dose he always mess with him," Anthy quietly mused. "Once Potter pranks Snape, then Snape will prank the entire Gryffindor House. And it will go on…and on," she finished. Anthy never did like the loud jokes of the Marauders.
"He's just a bone-headed numbskull," Lily said. She was about to tell of James as he raised his wand to Snape's back.
The dark moon showed high in the sky as a 16 year-old Lily was going through the woods to find a suitable place to relieve her aching stomach. 'Blast my parents and their stupid ideas to go camping,' she mentally cursed. After losing their dinner, the entire family had been sick to their stomach from the terrible canned beans that they had been forced to eat. It was either eat the beans or don't eat at all. Lily had already thrown up twice from them and now her other end had begun to hurt. Lily, who did not want to be caught with her pants down, had wandered into the woods for a safe place to relieve the pressure that had been building up. As she wandered more and more into the daunting woods she could hear two voices whispering to each other. Lily ducked down into the nearest bush for cover, not wanting to be seen by prying eyes. As she did Lily saw two dark figures in the distance, both cloaked in black, but vaguely outlined by the moon light. One was very tall and bone thin, while the other short and pudgy. Her heart stopped as she realized who the taller of the two was. His face, that was whiter than a skull, could be mistaken for none else. Lord Voldemort was in the small clearly just yards away from where Lily herself stood. Lily remembered the words," What of your 'friends' Wormtail," the voice of the Dark Lord spoke, placing a light touch on the word 'friends'.
The scenery changed again to a dark summer's eve outside a little cottage. It was a new moon, and the sky was dark and lightless. Through the windows of the tiny house little candles illuminated a tall man looking through the window at his wife and child. Just outside the door was wooden bench and perched on top was a young woman with thick rich red hair and a little boy with jet black hair that stuck out in all directions. The woman was summoning little creatures made of wisps of pale blue light emanating from her wand. A smile was placed across her beautiful face as the little boy reached out in a futile attempt to catch them.
(okay, end dream time. See, I didn't write that whole Voldemort confrontation for nuttin! And it plays in more in around 2-3 chapters)
Both Lily and James had free classes the next day as well. Madam Pomfrey would have had a thing or three to say to Dumbledore if her patient wasn't given another day to recuperate. James on the other hand, most likely talked his way out of classes. Lily was amazed that Dumbledore allowed him another day off, with excused homework! Lily made good use with her time by writing some letters to her family, and catch up on the work she had missed. During lunch, one of her three friends would come up to the tower and inform her of what she missed in her last class. Once even Sirius came up between classes. But for the most part, Lily was alone and spent most of her time with Nenya. Nenya had no problem with that, in fact, he seemed thrilled with the idea of spending the entire day being petted by Lily.
Around two in the afternoon while Lily was in the middle of a particularly sappy romance novel, an owl flew in through the window and dropped a letter into her lap. The letter was written on regular muggle paper. Scrawled hastily on the cover was "LILY EVANS, HOGWARTS" in what Lily recognized immediately as her sister's handwriting. She threw her book down to the floor and went about the process of reading the letter.
Lily,
Because you are a blood relative of mine, mother has insisted that you be part of me wedding to Vernon. You will be one of my bride's maids and I would highly advise you not to come wearing some freak outfit. The wedding will have normal people in it. It is going to be held the week after you come home from that weirdo school of yours. For the dinner after, you will need to have a dance partner (just don't bring someone with extra arms) and make sure he has manners.
From-
Petunia
P.S: DO NOT bring those friends of yours to MY PERFECT wedding. I will not allow you freaks to wreck it.
Lily felt like a fool. "Freak is it?" she growled at the letter. Dorcas, Anthy and Amberle were perfectly sane to the usual blonde bimbo's her sister hung out with. Lily couldn't stand the idea of being in a wedding ceremony with her sister's friends who only talk about make-up and the latest fashion trends. The one time Petunia had a slumber party had been bad enough. Lily had been 14, and Petunia 17. Because her sister was having a full-blown sleep over, Lily was allowed to have one of her friends stay over. Anthy was in Greece with her family, so Dorcas came over to keep her friend company. All had gone well until almost midnight. For several hours Lily and Dorcas had been playing Exploding Snap and Gobstones, while all of the older girls were locked up in Petunia's room. While in the middle of talking about how much they hated the Marauders, and their 7th game of Gobstones, one of Petunia's friends', Jasmine, had walked into the room wearing a complete seaweed facemask. Even though Dorcas was muggleborn, like Lily, the sheer shock of seeing someone barge into a room with a green face caused Dorcas to miss her shot and a wave of smelly green liquid shot out of her marbles. Dorcas had managed to dodge it, but poor Jasmine was right in the trajectory path. She smelled of dung for the entire night, and Lily had to deal with her sister's constant rants about how her 'freak of a sister could have ruined her social life forever'.
However as Lily remembered the incident she laughed and wished she had brought a camera to capture the priceless look on Jasmine's face when it was covered in smelling green liquid.
XVIVX
END CHAPTER. Well I did get this out a little sooner than I had thought. And here is the heroic Death-Eater confrontation. This is NOT to be confused with the three times Lily/James defied Voldy-kun.
Please R&R. Reviews will be greatly accepted and apriciated and will help get the next chapter out all the quicker.