Chapter 31 Reunion
"There you are," the Healer said, tying off the end of Lily's bandage. Lily looked down at her swathed hand, grimacing. She'd actually been quite lucky that the Healer had managed to mend most of her cuts and it was just a few that had been deep enough to require bandages. And he'd knit together her ribs easily enough and had promised the pain from both the broken ribs and the Cruciatus Curse would fade in a few days. All in all she'd been very lucky.
She just wished he'd quit staring at her with that half-pitying, half- curious expression. The Healer was dying to ask her what had happened to her during the attack, she could tell, but Lily didn't want to talk about it yet with anyone, let alone with some Healer she'd never seen before.
"They aren't letting any visitors into the hospital right now for security," the Healer continued. "So your family should be in the waiting area they've set up outside. I'll just walk you out so they can sign the release forms." They stood up to go, Lily wincing slightly, but before they could leave the sight of two official looking wizards moving toward Lily purposefully distracted them.
"Are you Lily Evans?" the older one asked as they stopped in front of Lily. At Lily's nod, the wizard continued: "I'm Edgar Bones, and this is my associate Kingsley Shacklebolt. We're Aurors taking part in the investigation into the attack that took place last night at the Marchbankses' party, and we wondered if we might ask you a few questions."
Lily studied the two Aurors closely. Edgar Bones had been at the party last night if she remembered correctly. "Er - all right," Lily answered them finally.
"Excellent," Edgar Bones said kindly. "If you'll follow us, we'll find somewhere to chat privately."
The two Aurors led Lily into someone's vacated office and shut the door behind them. Once inside, they asked Lily to give them her version of last night's events.
"Miss Evans," Bones consulted his notes as Lily finished her story. "We've already spoken with several of the people who were with you during the last part of the attack last night, namely Dorcas Meadows, James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Frank Longbottom, and they all mentioned that Voldemort specifically gave orders to kill all of them but to leave you alive. Do you have any idea why he said that?"
"None at all," Lily answered truthfully. "Unless it was something to do with Bellatrix. He seemed rather specially - fond of her, for lack of a better word."
"That was another question we wanted to ask you, Miss Evans," Kingsley Shacklebolt spoke up in a surprisingly deep voice. "Can you positively identify that Bellatrix Black was one of the masked Death Eaters who took part in last night's attacks?"
"It was definitely her," Lily confirmed darkly. "That was her voice I heard, and her way of speaking. I've come into contact with Bellatrix often enough to recognize both."
Bones and Shacklebolt exchanged glances, trying to keep their expressions carefully neutral, but Lily could tell that her testimony had pleased them a great deal.
They asked Lily countless other questions, taking copious notes all the while, and finally told Lily that it was very likely that one of their superiors would contact her later in the week.
"Thanks for all your help, Miss Evans," Kingsley Shacklebolt offered her his hand.
"We'll be in touch," Edgar Bones added.
With that, the two Aurors left the hospital as suddenly as they had entered it.
* * *
Lily emerged from St Mungo's hospital a few minutes later, still stiff and aching and exhausted and now worried on top of it, and scanned the makeshift waiting area outside for familiar faces, the Healer who had treated her standing with her. The small space was crammed with anxious looking witches and wizards, all of whom were waiting for news.
"Lily!" someone cried, and Lily looked up to see her parents hurrying toward her looking as upset as she had ever seen them.
"Oh, Lily!" Tears streamed down Mrs. Evans' face as she embraced her daughter. "I've never been so worried in all my life!"
"Are you all right, darling?" Mr. Evans added anxiously.
"Er - yeah," Lily replied rather tightly. Her parents' rapturous hugs were squeezing her still-painful ribs. Over her father's shoulder Lily caught sight of James and Sirius, both grinning broadly, Mr. and Mrs. Potter behind them.
"You're sure you're ok?" James put in anxiously as Lily hugged him, careful not to squeeze her too hard. She looked terrible; she was still pale and dotted with tiny cuts, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
"Oh, Lily's healed up nicely," put in the Healer. "She had a few broken ribs that we mended, and some cuts from the broken glass. We healed up the smaller ones but some of the larger have been bandaged," he indicated Lily's bandaged hands, "And, of course, the aftereffects of the Cruciatus Curse are a bit painful, but that should fade away in a day or two."
Everyone but Mr. and Mrs. Evans looked down awkwardly, not quite sure what to say or where to look.
"Well," the Healer put in after a moment, breaking the silence. "I must be getting back, so if Lily's parents could just sign this release form - " he looked about uncertainly, beaming when Mr. Evans took the form from him and signed it. "Thank you. I'll be on my way now."
"And we'd best be going," Mr. Evans added. "Lily looks exhausted." He extended his hand to first Mrs. Potter, then to Mr. Potter, Sirius, and James in turn, and Mrs. Evans did the same.
"We'll see you in the next day or two," James whispered as he hugged Lily good bye and kissed her cheek.
"I'd love that," Lily smiled and returned his kiss. "Bye, James."
The drive home passed by in a blur for Lily, and as soon as the car stopped she went straight upstairs, peeled off her ruined dress robes, fell into bed, and slept for the next day and a half.
* * *
The first sound to enter Lily's consciousness was the buzz of voices in the sitting room below. Rolling over, Lily consulted her bedside clock. Two-thirty. The sun outside her window told her which two-thirty it was. Slowly, Lily sat up, wincing over the lingering soreness in her limbs, and pulled on some clothes before making her way downstairs to find out where the noise was coming from.
The voices grew louder as Lily stopped outside the sitting room and pushed the door open. "Lily darling!" Mrs. Evans greeted her daughter warmly. "You have visitors," she added unnecessarily, gesturing.
There, gathered round the room, were James, Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Peter, Dorcas, and -
"Kathleen! Remus!" Lily exclaimed as they rose to their feet to hug her. "I was so worried when we didn't - Thank Merlin you're all right," Lily finished, wincing slightly as Kathleen embraced her.
"Thank Merlin YOU'RE all right!" Kathleen exclaimed. "Is it true? Did Voldemort really attack you?"
Lily glanced round at her parents, both of whom looked more thana bit confused and worried. Intercepting the look, Mrs. Potter stood up. "Perhaps there's somewhere my husband and I could speak to you privately," she suggested to Mrs. Evans. "You must have loads of questions, and we would be happy to answer as many as we can for you."
"Yes," replied Mrs. Evans faintly, forcing a smile to her face. "Yes, I think that might be a good idea."
The four adults exited the sitting room, Mr. and Mrs. Evans still obviously quite concerned. "Behave yourselves!" Mr. Potter warned James and Sirius cheerfully on his way out, causing everyone to laugh.
"Perhaps I ought to go with them," Lily moved toward the door, but James stopped her.
"Let Mum and Dad sort them out," James advised. "They brought papers and everything for your parents, and nobody knows more about Voldemort than they do."
The word "Voldemort" caused more than one flinch round the room, but no one chose to comment on it.
"So what happened to you?" Lily asked Remus and Kathleen. "We were so worried when we didn't see you outside."
Remus and Kathleen exchanged a glance for a moment. "We were incredibly lucky," Remus said finally, launching into the story.
"Kathleen and I were - standing a bit apart from everyone else when the Death Eaters struck," Remus began, shooting a filthy look at Sirius when he snorted. "And with everyone panicking, we got separated from the others and decided the best thing to do was to find our own way out."
"We weren't sure if there was some other way out if the Marchbankses' house from the ballroom, so we started to make our way back to where we'd left everyone," Kathleen put in. "Then we ran into Wilkes."
"Or we're fairly sure it was him," Remus put in grimly. He showed them all a long gash on his arm that had, from the looks of it, been treated by a Healer. "Either way, it was close," he added unnecessarily.
"How did you get past him?" Sirius wanted to know.
Remus smiled ruefully. "Kathleen hit him over the head with a champagne bottle while he was coming after me."
"You were distracting him," Kathleen amended firmly, grinning. Sirius, James, and Peter all sniggered.
Shooting his mates a filthy look, Remus went on. He and Kathleen had gone to the corner of the room where they had all been standing at midnight, but nobody had been there. Then they'd noticed Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy hurrying toward the ballroom's main staircase. Since they looked as though they knew where they were going, Remus and Kathleen had decided to follow and see if they knew how to get out.
"But they weren't trying to get out," Remus said grimly. "They were letting someone in."
"More Death Eaters," Kathleen supplied.
Remus and Kathleen had watched as the Death Eaters guarding the stairs stood aside to let them pass, then Lucius and Narcissa had let the second wave of Death Eaters into the ballroom.
"Why couldn't they just walk in? Or Apparate for that matter?" Lily wanted to know.
"Most wizards have spells on their houses to keep uninvited guests from Apparating in," Remus explained. "That's why no one could Disapparate from the ballroom either. You have to be let in or out." He and Kathleen exchanged a glance before Remus continued with the story.
Mrs. Marchbanks had spotted Remus and Kathleen crouched behind a sofa, watching the Malfoys let the Death Eaters in. She had explained to them how to get out of the house through one of the rooms off of the ballroom and told them to take some Floo powder from the jar on the mantle and go find help. Remus and Kathleen had run to find the powder and had been about to make their way to the room when a loud noise had distracted them. Looking round, they had caught sight of the Marchbankses across the room.
"Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks were trying to hold off the Death Eaters as they came into the ballroom," Remus said. "They and a few others were dueling with some of them when Lucius Malfoy came down the stairs. I thought he was coming to help them, but all of the Death Eaters stood aside for him and the next thing I knew, he had drawn his wand, there were two flashes of green light, and Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks were lying dead on the floor."
After a moment of stunned silence, Remus continued the story. He and Kathleen had made their way out of the Marchbankses' house then and had run to the house next door, which belonged to one of the party guests, and had taken the Floo network to the Ministry.
After Remus had finished, everyone sat silently for a few moments, absorbing the shock. None of them could believe it; Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks had been killed not by the uninvited, anonymous Death Eaters that had attacked their party but by someone they had invited there who had turned out to be a Death Eater as well. It gave Lily an unsettled feeling; who else at that party had been a Death Eater in disguise?
"What about you?" Dorcas asked Lily a bit later, breaking the silence. "Your disappearing act had the lot of us scared stiff."
"Apparently Bellatrix wanted a private word that just couldn't wait," Lily smiled mirthlessly and quickly related her story, ending with the Aurors who had questioned her at St Mungo's. When she had finished, she noticed James and Sirius staring fixedly at the floor, apparently uncomfortable.
"What?" Lily asked uneasily. "What happened?" Sirius nudged James hard.
"Ouch!" James exclaimed, scowling at Sirius. "Er - Lily, the head of the Magical Law Enforcement division announced this morning who would be charged in the attacks after listening to the testimony from all of the witnesses at the party. They charged eight people with supporting and aiding Voldemort, but Bellatrix and the Malfoys weren't among them."
"WHAT?" Lily cried, furious. "But Bellatrix attacked me! And Remus and Kathleen SAW Malfoy kill Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks! How can the Ministry let them get away with it?"
"Someone inside the Ministry vouched for all of them, according to my parents," James was clearly disgusted.
"Who vouched for them?" Remus demanded. "That person can't have been there!"
"That's been kept anonymous," Sirius looked almost murderous. "Nobody knows, it's all top secret."
Flabbergasted, Lily leaned back against the sofa. What connections did Bellatrix and her sister have to get them out of such serious trouble? The others all were discussing the events of the previous night and that morning in heated voices, but Lily felt too sick to join in.
Lily felt someone's hand covering hers. Looking round, she saw James staring back at her with a concerned expression in his eyes. "All right, Lily?" he whispered, looking so sick with worry and apprehension that Lily's heart wrenched.
"All right," Lily whispered back, squeezing his hand and leaning against him. Needing no further invitation, James wrapped his arms round Lily and closed his eyes, holding onto her as tightly as he dared without hurting her ribs. Finally, he felt the slightest bit normal for the first time since he had looked up at the stairs and seen the Death Eaters coming toward them.
* * *
They all stayed at the Evanses' for several more hours, discussing everything that had happened to them over the last two days. This attack on the Marchbanks family, one of the most prominent and respected families in the wizarding world, and their guests, many of whom were also prominent leaders in society, had caused an uproar in the wizard community. The Marauders, Dorcas, and Kathleen filled Lily in on all of the news they'd heard and they all discussed it at length, trying to puzzle it all out.
Finally Mr. and Mrs. Potter and Mr. and Mrs. Evans reentered the room and after a bit more discussion, the Potters, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all rose to go. As Morwenna and Alice were in no state to host them, Dorcas and Kathleen would be staying with the Evanses until it was time to return to school on Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans were both a bit pale and it was clear that neither of them had liked hearing the information Mr. and Mrs. Potter had given them, but they seemed less worried than they had been; watching them, James reckoned it was better to know the worst than be kept in the dark.
But James couldn't blame them for worrying about Lily; he personally was beside himself. James didn't know if his parents had told Mr. and Mrs. Evans everything, if they had told them about Voldemort's interest in Lily and his orders to leave her alive. His mum and dad had told him that the Aurors were confused and a bit concerned by this; none of them quite knew what to make of it or whether or not Lily was in any kind of danger.
The very thought of Voldemort having plans for Lily made James feel sick. He almost wanted to make up some preposterous lie to tell the Evanses and bring Lily to stay with him so he could make certain nothing happened to her. Three days seemed like forever; Hogwarts was the only secure place in the wizarding world and until Lily was safely back inside its walls, James wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
* * *
With Dorcas and Kathleen there, the time between Friday and Monday passed by quickly for Lily. Though none of them said a word about it, Lily knew that both Dorcas and Kathleen were as relieved to be returning to Hogwarts as she herself was.
They had had a brief letter from Morwenna and one from Alice, letting them know that both girls would be returning to Hogwarts on Monday. As the attacks on the Marchbanks party had proved, there were few safe places left in the wizarding world anymore and Morwenna's gran and Alice's brothers felt that Hogwarts was the best place for Morwenna and Alice.
Monday morning came fairly quickly, or so it seemed, and Lily, Dorcas, Kathleen, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans struggled into King's Cross Station at twenty after ten, hauling a mountain of baggage and owl cages. Finally they stopped between Platforms 9 and 10, where Kathleen and Dorcas said good bye to Mr. and Mrs. Evans before going on through Platform 93/4.
Lily turned to her parents, who immediately crushed her in a tight three-person hug. "I'll see you at Easter," Lily offered, trying to reassure them. "You'll hardly even notice the time passing, what with helping Petunia settle in and everything."
"Of course you're right, darling," Mrs. Evans replied, crying profusely all the while. She fumbled for a handkerchief. "I'm sorry I'm being so silly."
"It's not silly," Lily said softly, regarding her crying mother and teary-eyed father. At that moment, she realized what it cost her parents to send her cheerfully off into a world they knew nothing of, a world that had recently been revealed to be full of dangers they couldn't protect her from.
After several more minutes of good byes and promises to be careful, Lily finally made her way through the barrier and onto the platform where Dorcas, Kathleen, Remus, Peter, Sirius, and James had all assembled to wait for her.
"Thank Merlin!" James exclaimed when he saw her, striding toward Lily to take her trunk. "We -"
"YOU," Sirius interrupted pointedly. James shot him a filthy look.
"Fine, I was beginning to worry that something had happened to you." James finished. Lily and Sirius rolled their eyes in unison.
"I'm all right, James, honestly I am," Lily promised, smiling at him as she led the way to the train and the Head compartment.
"Has anyone seen or heard from Morwenna or Alice or Frank?" Peter asked nervously as they enteredthe train.
"They said they were coming," Kathleen replied.
"There they are!" Lily exclaimed. Standing in front of the Head compartment with all of their baggage in tow were Morwenna, Alice and Frank, all of whom appeared to be completely worn out.
Alice's eyes filled with tears at the sight of them. "Thank Merlin you're all right," she said softly to Lily, moving forward to hug her.
After a highly emotional reunion, the Gryffindors moved into the Head compartment. Inside, they made a valiant effort to stow all of the baggage on the luggage rack and finally had to admit defeat and stack some of it on the floor.
Though the ride to Hogwarts felt awkward to everyone, the Marauders did their best to keep things light, entertaining everyone with jokes, stories about the various pranks they had pulled, and several high-stakes games of Exploding Snap, which culminated with Sirius setting Peter's hair on fire. Once they had put out the rather considerable flames, Sirius and James bought out the candy cart and at Remus' suggestion and over Peter's squealing, looked for a less flammable activity to occupy themselves with. It was a relief to everyone to arrive at Hogwarts and finally escape from the acrid smell of burning hair that still filled the compartment.
As he stepped into a carriage with Lily, Sirius, and Dorcas, James glanced casually across the lake toward the castle, towering invitingly in the distance. Filled with the familiar happy feelings he always experienced when returning to Hogwarts, James reflected that Hogwarts was one of the only places that felt safe anymore and realized with a start how little time he had left to be safe within its walls.
* * *
Author's Note: Wow, I'm SO sorry it's taken me this long to update! I didn't fall off the face of the earth or anything, this past week has just been really busy for me. Thanks for hanging in there, everyone, and as always, thank you to everyone who took the time to review. I felt like I had to wrap up some things in this chapter, but the next chapter will be more lighthearted; I'm starting to depress myself. The next update is coming soon. Don't forget to review!
"There you are," the Healer said, tying off the end of Lily's bandage. Lily looked down at her swathed hand, grimacing. She'd actually been quite lucky that the Healer had managed to mend most of her cuts and it was just a few that had been deep enough to require bandages. And he'd knit together her ribs easily enough and had promised the pain from both the broken ribs and the Cruciatus Curse would fade in a few days. All in all she'd been very lucky.
She just wished he'd quit staring at her with that half-pitying, half- curious expression. The Healer was dying to ask her what had happened to her during the attack, she could tell, but Lily didn't want to talk about it yet with anyone, let alone with some Healer she'd never seen before.
"They aren't letting any visitors into the hospital right now for security," the Healer continued. "So your family should be in the waiting area they've set up outside. I'll just walk you out so they can sign the release forms." They stood up to go, Lily wincing slightly, but before they could leave the sight of two official looking wizards moving toward Lily purposefully distracted them.
"Are you Lily Evans?" the older one asked as they stopped in front of Lily. At Lily's nod, the wizard continued: "I'm Edgar Bones, and this is my associate Kingsley Shacklebolt. We're Aurors taking part in the investigation into the attack that took place last night at the Marchbankses' party, and we wondered if we might ask you a few questions."
Lily studied the two Aurors closely. Edgar Bones had been at the party last night if she remembered correctly. "Er - all right," Lily answered them finally.
"Excellent," Edgar Bones said kindly. "If you'll follow us, we'll find somewhere to chat privately."
The two Aurors led Lily into someone's vacated office and shut the door behind them. Once inside, they asked Lily to give them her version of last night's events.
"Miss Evans," Bones consulted his notes as Lily finished her story. "We've already spoken with several of the people who were with you during the last part of the attack last night, namely Dorcas Meadows, James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Frank Longbottom, and they all mentioned that Voldemort specifically gave orders to kill all of them but to leave you alive. Do you have any idea why he said that?"
"None at all," Lily answered truthfully. "Unless it was something to do with Bellatrix. He seemed rather specially - fond of her, for lack of a better word."
"That was another question we wanted to ask you, Miss Evans," Kingsley Shacklebolt spoke up in a surprisingly deep voice. "Can you positively identify that Bellatrix Black was one of the masked Death Eaters who took part in last night's attacks?"
"It was definitely her," Lily confirmed darkly. "That was her voice I heard, and her way of speaking. I've come into contact with Bellatrix often enough to recognize both."
Bones and Shacklebolt exchanged glances, trying to keep their expressions carefully neutral, but Lily could tell that her testimony had pleased them a great deal.
They asked Lily countless other questions, taking copious notes all the while, and finally told Lily that it was very likely that one of their superiors would contact her later in the week.
"Thanks for all your help, Miss Evans," Kingsley Shacklebolt offered her his hand.
"We'll be in touch," Edgar Bones added.
With that, the two Aurors left the hospital as suddenly as they had entered it.
* * *
Lily emerged from St Mungo's hospital a few minutes later, still stiff and aching and exhausted and now worried on top of it, and scanned the makeshift waiting area outside for familiar faces, the Healer who had treated her standing with her. The small space was crammed with anxious looking witches and wizards, all of whom were waiting for news.
"Lily!" someone cried, and Lily looked up to see her parents hurrying toward her looking as upset as she had ever seen them.
"Oh, Lily!" Tears streamed down Mrs. Evans' face as she embraced her daughter. "I've never been so worried in all my life!"
"Are you all right, darling?" Mr. Evans added anxiously.
"Er - yeah," Lily replied rather tightly. Her parents' rapturous hugs were squeezing her still-painful ribs. Over her father's shoulder Lily caught sight of James and Sirius, both grinning broadly, Mr. and Mrs. Potter behind them.
"You're sure you're ok?" James put in anxiously as Lily hugged him, careful not to squeeze her too hard. She looked terrible; she was still pale and dotted with tiny cuts, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
"Oh, Lily's healed up nicely," put in the Healer. "She had a few broken ribs that we mended, and some cuts from the broken glass. We healed up the smaller ones but some of the larger have been bandaged," he indicated Lily's bandaged hands, "And, of course, the aftereffects of the Cruciatus Curse are a bit painful, but that should fade away in a day or two."
Everyone but Mr. and Mrs. Evans looked down awkwardly, not quite sure what to say or where to look.
"Well," the Healer put in after a moment, breaking the silence. "I must be getting back, so if Lily's parents could just sign this release form - " he looked about uncertainly, beaming when Mr. Evans took the form from him and signed it. "Thank you. I'll be on my way now."
"And we'd best be going," Mr. Evans added. "Lily looks exhausted." He extended his hand to first Mrs. Potter, then to Mr. Potter, Sirius, and James in turn, and Mrs. Evans did the same.
"We'll see you in the next day or two," James whispered as he hugged Lily good bye and kissed her cheek.
"I'd love that," Lily smiled and returned his kiss. "Bye, James."
The drive home passed by in a blur for Lily, and as soon as the car stopped she went straight upstairs, peeled off her ruined dress robes, fell into bed, and slept for the next day and a half.
* * *
The first sound to enter Lily's consciousness was the buzz of voices in the sitting room below. Rolling over, Lily consulted her bedside clock. Two-thirty. The sun outside her window told her which two-thirty it was. Slowly, Lily sat up, wincing over the lingering soreness in her limbs, and pulled on some clothes before making her way downstairs to find out where the noise was coming from.
The voices grew louder as Lily stopped outside the sitting room and pushed the door open. "Lily darling!" Mrs. Evans greeted her daughter warmly. "You have visitors," she added unnecessarily, gesturing.
There, gathered round the room, were James, Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Peter, Dorcas, and -
"Kathleen! Remus!" Lily exclaimed as they rose to their feet to hug her. "I was so worried when we didn't - Thank Merlin you're all right," Lily finished, wincing slightly as Kathleen embraced her.
"Thank Merlin YOU'RE all right!" Kathleen exclaimed. "Is it true? Did Voldemort really attack you?"
Lily glanced round at her parents, both of whom looked more thana bit confused and worried. Intercepting the look, Mrs. Potter stood up. "Perhaps there's somewhere my husband and I could speak to you privately," she suggested to Mrs. Evans. "You must have loads of questions, and we would be happy to answer as many as we can for you."
"Yes," replied Mrs. Evans faintly, forcing a smile to her face. "Yes, I think that might be a good idea."
The four adults exited the sitting room, Mr. and Mrs. Evans still obviously quite concerned. "Behave yourselves!" Mr. Potter warned James and Sirius cheerfully on his way out, causing everyone to laugh.
"Perhaps I ought to go with them," Lily moved toward the door, but James stopped her.
"Let Mum and Dad sort them out," James advised. "They brought papers and everything for your parents, and nobody knows more about Voldemort than they do."
The word "Voldemort" caused more than one flinch round the room, but no one chose to comment on it.
"So what happened to you?" Lily asked Remus and Kathleen. "We were so worried when we didn't see you outside."
Remus and Kathleen exchanged a glance for a moment. "We were incredibly lucky," Remus said finally, launching into the story.
"Kathleen and I were - standing a bit apart from everyone else when the Death Eaters struck," Remus began, shooting a filthy look at Sirius when he snorted. "And with everyone panicking, we got separated from the others and decided the best thing to do was to find our own way out."
"We weren't sure if there was some other way out if the Marchbankses' house from the ballroom, so we started to make our way back to where we'd left everyone," Kathleen put in. "Then we ran into Wilkes."
"Or we're fairly sure it was him," Remus put in grimly. He showed them all a long gash on his arm that had, from the looks of it, been treated by a Healer. "Either way, it was close," he added unnecessarily.
"How did you get past him?" Sirius wanted to know.
Remus smiled ruefully. "Kathleen hit him over the head with a champagne bottle while he was coming after me."
"You were distracting him," Kathleen amended firmly, grinning. Sirius, James, and Peter all sniggered.
Shooting his mates a filthy look, Remus went on. He and Kathleen had gone to the corner of the room where they had all been standing at midnight, but nobody had been there. Then they'd noticed Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy hurrying toward the ballroom's main staircase. Since they looked as though they knew where they were going, Remus and Kathleen had decided to follow and see if they knew how to get out.
"But they weren't trying to get out," Remus said grimly. "They were letting someone in."
"More Death Eaters," Kathleen supplied.
Remus and Kathleen had watched as the Death Eaters guarding the stairs stood aside to let them pass, then Lucius and Narcissa had let the second wave of Death Eaters into the ballroom.
"Why couldn't they just walk in? Or Apparate for that matter?" Lily wanted to know.
"Most wizards have spells on their houses to keep uninvited guests from Apparating in," Remus explained. "That's why no one could Disapparate from the ballroom either. You have to be let in or out." He and Kathleen exchanged a glance before Remus continued with the story.
Mrs. Marchbanks had spotted Remus and Kathleen crouched behind a sofa, watching the Malfoys let the Death Eaters in. She had explained to them how to get out of the house through one of the rooms off of the ballroom and told them to take some Floo powder from the jar on the mantle and go find help. Remus and Kathleen had run to find the powder and had been about to make their way to the room when a loud noise had distracted them. Looking round, they had caught sight of the Marchbankses across the room.
"Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks were trying to hold off the Death Eaters as they came into the ballroom," Remus said. "They and a few others were dueling with some of them when Lucius Malfoy came down the stairs. I thought he was coming to help them, but all of the Death Eaters stood aside for him and the next thing I knew, he had drawn his wand, there were two flashes of green light, and Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks were lying dead on the floor."
After a moment of stunned silence, Remus continued the story. He and Kathleen had made their way out of the Marchbankses' house then and had run to the house next door, which belonged to one of the party guests, and had taken the Floo network to the Ministry.
After Remus had finished, everyone sat silently for a few moments, absorbing the shock. None of them could believe it; Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks had been killed not by the uninvited, anonymous Death Eaters that had attacked their party but by someone they had invited there who had turned out to be a Death Eater as well. It gave Lily an unsettled feeling; who else at that party had been a Death Eater in disguise?
"What about you?" Dorcas asked Lily a bit later, breaking the silence. "Your disappearing act had the lot of us scared stiff."
"Apparently Bellatrix wanted a private word that just couldn't wait," Lily smiled mirthlessly and quickly related her story, ending with the Aurors who had questioned her at St Mungo's. When she had finished, she noticed James and Sirius staring fixedly at the floor, apparently uncomfortable.
"What?" Lily asked uneasily. "What happened?" Sirius nudged James hard.
"Ouch!" James exclaimed, scowling at Sirius. "Er - Lily, the head of the Magical Law Enforcement division announced this morning who would be charged in the attacks after listening to the testimony from all of the witnesses at the party. They charged eight people with supporting and aiding Voldemort, but Bellatrix and the Malfoys weren't among them."
"WHAT?" Lily cried, furious. "But Bellatrix attacked me! And Remus and Kathleen SAW Malfoy kill Mr. and Mrs. Marchbanks! How can the Ministry let them get away with it?"
"Someone inside the Ministry vouched for all of them, according to my parents," James was clearly disgusted.
"Who vouched for them?" Remus demanded. "That person can't have been there!"
"That's been kept anonymous," Sirius looked almost murderous. "Nobody knows, it's all top secret."
Flabbergasted, Lily leaned back against the sofa. What connections did Bellatrix and her sister have to get them out of such serious trouble? The others all were discussing the events of the previous night and that morning in heated voices, but Lily felt too sick to join in.
Lily felt someone's hand covering hers. Looking round, she saw James staring back at her with a concerned expression in his eyes. "All right, Lily?" he whispered, looking so sick with worry and apprehension that Lily's heart wrenched.
"All right," Lily whispered back, squeezing his hand and leaning against him. Needing no further invitation, James wrapped his arms round Lily and closed his eyes, holding onto her as tightly as he dared without hurting her ribs. Finally, he felt the slightest bit normal for the first time since he had looked up at the stairs and seen the Death Eaters coming toward them.
* * *
They all stayed at the Evanses' for several more hours, discussing everything that had happened to them over the last two days. This attack on the Marchbanks family, one of the most prominent and respected families in the wizarding world, and their guests, many of whom were also prominent leaders in society, had caused an uproar in the wizard community. The Marauders, Dorcas, and Kathleen filled Lily in on all of the news they'd heard and they all discussed it at length, trying to puzzle it all out.
Finally Mr. and Mrs. Potter and Mr. and Mrs. Evans reentered the room and after a bit more discussion, the Potters, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all rose to go. As Morwenna and Alice were in no state to host them, Dorcas and Kathleen would be staying with the Evanses until it was time to return to school on Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans were both a bit pale and it was clear that neither of them had liked hearing the information Mr. and Mrs. Potter had given them, but they seemed less worried than they had been; watching them, James reckoned it was better to know the worst than be kept in the dark.
But James couldn't blame them for worrying about Lily; he personally was beside himself. James didn't know if his parents had told Mr. and Mrs. Evans everything, if they had told them about Voldemort's interest in Lily and his orders to leave her alive. His mum and dad had told him that the Aurors were confused and a bit concerned by this; none of them quite knew what to make of it or whether or not Lily was in any kind of danger.
The very thought of Voldemort having plans for Lily made James feel sick. He almost wanted to make up some preposterous lie to tell the Evanses and bring Lily to stay with him so he could make certain nothing happened to her. Three days seemed like forever; Hogwarts was the only secure place in the wizarding world and until Lily was safely back inside its walls, James wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
* * *
With Dorcas and Kathleen there, the time between Friday and Monday passed by quickly for Lily. Though none of them said a word about it, Lily knew that both Dorcas and Kathleen were as relieved to be returning to Hogwarts as she herself was.
They had had a brief letter from Morwenna and one from Alice, letting them know that both girls would be returning to Hogwarts on Monday. As the attacks on the Marchbanks party had proved, there were few safe places left in the wizarding world anymore and Morwenna's gran and Alice's brothers felt that Hogwarts was the best place for Morwenna and Alice.
Monday morning came fairly quickly, or so it seemed, and Lily, Dorcas, Kathleen, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans struggled into King's Cross Station at twenty after ten, hauling a mountain of baggage and owl cages. Finally they stopped between Platforms 9 and 10, where Kathleen and Dorcas said good bye to Mr. and Mrs. Evans before going on through Platform 93/4.
Lily turned to her parents, who immediately crushed her in a tight three-person hug. "I'll see you at Easter," Lily offered, trying to reassure them. "You'll hardly even notice the time passing, what with helping Petunia settle in and everything."
"Of course you're right, darling," Mrs. Evans replied, crying profusely all the while. She fumbled for a handkerchief. "I'm sorry I'm being so silly."
"It's not silly," Lily said softly, regarding her crying mother and teary-eyed father. At that moment, she realized what it cost her parents to send her cheerfully off into a world they knew nothing of, a world that had recently been revealed to be full of dangers they couldn't protect her from.
After several more minutes of good byes and promises to be careful, Lily finally made her way through the barrier and onto the platform where Dorcas, Kathleen, Remus, Peter, Sirius, and James had all assembled to wait for her.
"Thank Merlin!" James exclaimed when he saw her, striding toward Lily to take her trunk. "We -"
"YOU," Sirius interrupted pointedly. James shot him a filthy look.
"Fine, I was beginning to worry that something had happened to you." James finished. Lily and Sirius rolled their eyes in unison.
"I'm all right, James, honestly I am," Lily promised, smiling at him as she led the way to the train and the Head compartment.
"Has anyone seen or heard from Morwenna or Alice or Frank?" Peter asked nervously as they enteredthe train.
"They said they were coming," Kathleen replied.
"There they are!" Lily exclaimed. Standing in front of the Head compartment with all of their baggage in tow were Morwenna, Alice and Frank, all of whom appeared to be completely worn out.
Alice's eyes filled with tears at the sight of them. "Thank Merlin you're all right," she said softly to Lily, moving forward to hug her.
After a highly emotional reunion, the Gryffindors moved into the Head compartment. Inside, they made a valiant effort to stow all of the baggage on the luggage rack and finally had to admit defeat and stack some of it on the floor.
Though the ride to Hogwarts felt awkward to everyone, the Marauders did their best to keep things light, entertaining everyone with jokes, stories about the various pranks they had pulled, and several high-stakes games of Exploding Snap, which culminated with Sirius setting Peter's hair on fire. Once they had put out the rather considerable flames, Sirius and James bought out the candy cart and at Remus' suggestion and over Peter's squealing, looked for a less flammable activity to occupy themselves with. It was a relief to everyone to arrive at Hogwarts and finally escape from the acrid smell of burning hair that still filled the compartment.
As he stepped into a carriage with Lily, Sirius, and Dorcas, James glanced casually across the lake toward the castle, towering invitingly in the distance. Filled with the familiar happy feelings he always experienced when returning to Hogwarts, James reflected that Hogwarts was one of the only places that felt safe anymore and realized with a start how little time he had left to be safe within its walls.
* * *
Author's Note: Wow, I'm SO sorry it's taken me this long to update! I didn't fall off the face of the earth or anything, this past week has just been really busy for me. Thanks for hanging in there, everyone, and as always, thank you to everyone who took the time to review. I felt like I had to wrap up some things in this chapter, but the next chapter will be more lighthearted; I'm starting to depress myself. The next update is coming soon. Don't forget to review!