Chapter Three: All Down Hill

A/N
This chapter also skips around quite a bit! This is necessary so we can get to the heart of the story faster. Hope you like it!

The next year brought many challenges for Lily and Jack, but their relationship never wavered. Sure, they had their fair share of fights, but things were working out fine. Gryffindor won the house cup for the fifth year in a row and Lily and Jack started up the DA again at Hogwarts. The students really seemed to like the club and both Lily and Jack were brilliant at teaching. At the end of the year the two took their NEWT exams and passed with the highest percentages in Hogwarts history. They even had Hermione beat in some subjects. They were informed that some aurors from the ministry would be coming to Hogwarts five days a week to train them for the next two years, which would mean by the time they graduated Hogwarts they would be fully certified and ready to take jobs.
Lily made a surprise move and decided she also wanted to learn more about becoming a healer. The new Hogwarts healer, Madam Jefter, was thrilled to have a student show such interest in her line of work. She gave Lily a book list and on the days and nights she didn't have auror training, including weekends, she would report to the hospital wing for healer training. On the days she had auror training she would have to come later after dinner.
Between healer and auror training, the DA, and Qudditch, Jack and Lily were sure to have a very busy year. They had wanted to spend the summer before their sixth year in leisure after Qudditch camp was over. Unfortunately that hope was dashed when two strangers came knocking on the Weasley's door a week after Qudditch camp had ended…

"Hello, may I help you?" Hermione answered the door and holding it open, allowed the two men to come into their home.
The two men held out badges Hermione immediately recognized as auror badges. "My name is Cooks, Mrs. Weasley, and this is my partner Dexter. We're from the auror department and we need to speak with your son Jack and Lily Potter. We were told we could find her here."
"Lily lives here," Hermione answered, trying to stall and hoping that Ron would take a hint for once in his life and come to help her.
"It is a matter of urgency Mrs. Weasley. We need to speak to your son and Lily at as soon as possible," Cooks said in a stately tone of voice.
"Who are they Mum?" Jack asked, entering the room holding a bottle of water in his left hand.
"Might you be Jack Weasley?" Dexter asked, taking a step towards him.
"Yes and who would you be?" Jack replied apprehensively.
"We can discuss all that in private. We need to speak with Lily Potter as well. Do you know where she is?" Cooks questioned, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Lily's around," Jack said, looking at his mother for help. Hermione just shrugged her shoulders. She was quite aware of Jack and Lily's intentions of entering auror training, but it was too soon for them to be going on any real missions. Jack had only turned sixteen days before and Lily wouldn't be sixteen until October, though she knew both of them were wise beyond their years. It was not the first time the ministry had called on them for help over the past six years and it would not be the last. But for the most part they had dealt with a smaller branch of magical law enforcement, never aurors.
"Did someone say my name?" Lily said, emerging from the living room holding a thick black book and taking off her glasses. She only wore them to read, unlike her father who needed them on a regular basis to see clearly, but Hermione could not help but think of Harry when she saw Lily with her glasses on.
Lily walked over to stand next to Jack and he put a protective arm around her waist and pulled her close to his side.

"We need to talk to the both of you in private. I have orders to escort you down to the ministry immediately," Cooks said, opening up the front door and stepping aside, assuming Jack and Lily would follow him.
"Hold on a minute! What is this all about? Have we done something wrong?" Jack asked, sounding annoyed.
"No, you have done nothing wrong. The auror department obviously knows of your intentions to begin training come this autumn, and well…we need a favor. Rather the department needs a favor. You need to come with us now. Time is of the utmost importance," Cooks said, walking towards them and taking Jack by the elbow. "We'll hopefully have them back by dinner time, Mrs. Weasley."
Dexter did the same to Lily, and before Hermione could do anything the four of them were out of sight. They had obviously apparated to the ministry. "RON!" She turned and ran to find her useless husband who was never around when she needed him.

In a matter of moments Jack and Lily found themselves in a small and damp cave surrounded by half a dozen men in auror uniforms.
"Well this sure as hell isn't the ministry," Jack said under his breath, looking around.
One man stepped forward. "I'm sorry if we frightened you, Mr. Weasley, Miss Potter. But the secrecy is needed in this instance. We need two young people with an obvious magical connection and genuine love for each other to do some undercover work for the auror department and you're all we've got. I'm Richard Luis by the way. I'm head of the auror department."
Jack and Richard shook hands but Lily's hands remained folded across her chest. There was something about this guy that rubbed her the wrong way.
"We know who you are, but what kind of undercover work are you talking about?" Jack wondered immediately after shaking the man's hand.
"We need you to pose as a newly married couple and attend a party at a wealthy wizarding family's house. Jack you will be pretending to be a young death eater eager to please and Lily you will play his loving and supportive wife."
"Just what family is this?" Jack asked.
"Draco Malfoy's."
"You want us to go to a party at Draco Malfoy's home and expect us to convince him we're a bunch of death eaters. Do you know how much that man hates my family?" Jack responded as he put his hands in his pockets and laughed slightly. He glanced back at Lily who was becoming paler by the second, and she looked like she was having trouble breathing. She stared at the rocky floor with wide eyes looking completely terrified. He took one hand out of his pocket and grabbed her trembling hand, trying to bring her out of her trance, but the effort was useless. She continued to stare off at nothing.
"Well, you'll have to do some acting, and your appearances will be altered so that know one will know who you are," Luis reassured them.
"W…What do you need to know about this inner circle of death eaters anyway?" Lily asked finally, breaking her long silence. She spoke in a shaky voice almost as if she was going to be sick any minute.
"We know they're planning something. We just need to know what it is and why they're doing it. To tell you the truth, the less you know about what we know, the better off you'll be in case something happens," Luis said, glancing back at his colleagues.

"So you want us to go into this inner circle completely blind, is that it?" Jack asked.
"Your parents are being informed of our plan as we speak. We have to tell them everything due to the fact that you are not of age. As they are Lily's guardians they will be informed of her involvement as well. We are going to leave you to think about this and talk to each other. I'll have Cooks and Dexter waiting outside the cave to take you home. The mission begins tomorrow night. You do not have long to decide. As was mentioned before, time is crucial." Richard had just gotten the last words of this out of his mouth before he led everyone but Jack and Lily out of the cave.
Jack stood there stunned and Lily turned to face the wall of the cave, letting go of his hand. Jack spoke first, "So they want us to pose as just your everyday happily married death eater couple. Is that what you gathered?"
"You don't know death eaters, Jack. There is no such thing as a happily married death eater couple," Lily said under her breath as she ran her hands through her hair nervously.
Jack walked over to her and turned her to face him. She looked scared to death. "Lily, everything is going to be okay, you know that right? I'm not going to let anything happen to you if we agree to this."
"You don't know how death eaters treat their wives Jack," Lily said, looking away.
"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me something?" Jack asked, moving slightly so he was again in her line of vision.
She closed her eyes and reopened them slowly, as if to regain her composure. She spoke in a voice barely above whisper, "I can't tell you about that now. Please don't make me."
Jack took her in his arms and held her tightly. "I'm never going to make you do anything. And we don't have to take this mission. We can tell them no."
Lily pulled away ever so slightly so that she could look up at him. "No we have to take it, they're testing us."
After standing there for a few moments holding each other, Jack started walking toward the cave opening. "We'd better tell them our answer and get home before my parents freak out."
Jack and Lily returned home to find two very anxious parents waiting for them. They explained everything that had been said and discussed in the cave and the next day they attended the party. Neither of them was ever allowed to talk about what they had found out, but during the following months several arrests were made and a number of prominent people were sentenced to life terms in prison. Jack and Lily were always eager to avoid the subject of that particular mission.
Much to Ron and Hermione's dismay, the ministry used Jack and Lily to pose as the same couple at numerous social events throughout the summer and the following year. By the middle of the year they were also going on small weekend missions together, which they were also forbidden to talk about. Their lives seemed to spiral downhill from there.

Christmas was a bit more welcome than usual during Lily and Jack's six year at Hogwarts. They had been working so hard during the first term that it seemed to spring up out of nowhere. They hardly had any time to spend together when they weren't working on Quidditch stuff, prefect duties, auror training, or one of their weekend missions with the auror department. On top of that Lily had her healer training. Things had been rough the past few months and they were both thankful to have some time off.
Jack's family had decided to take a trip to America to visit his Aunt Ginny. But the auror department asked Lily and Jack to remain on call in England in case something happened, so they decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays.
They had the whole castle to themselves for the most part, because no other students stayed behind, except for the three other people who had gone to the same orphanage as Lily had before coming to Hogwarts. Lily was only friends with two of them, and the third none of them talked to because Devon had been sorted into Slytherin house and he had not been the same since. He made new and powerful friends and didn't want to be associated with his old ones. The truth was he was growing more dangerous by the day, and Lily was worried that he may be in over his head.
One afternoon about three days before Christmas, Jack entered the common room to find Lily wrapped up in a blanket reading a book by the fire. Her soft black curls were pulled into a low pony tale at the base of her neck sending curls cascading down her back and over one of her shoulders. Her hair was the longest he had ever seen it, about halfway down her back. She was so breathtakingly beautiful, and she didn't see to know it. It was small moments like this one that he would never forget for as long as he lived. He walked over to her slowly and she looked up at him when he reached her chair.
She smiling sweetly. "Hey, I was wondering where you'd gone to."
"I was in the library working on the background for that mission we have right after term starts. But then I decided to find you because I hadn't seen you today. You were still asleep when I woke up and I didn't have the heart to wake you," Jack said as he bent over and kissed her gently before taking a seat by the fire in another arm chair. Since no one was in the dormitory now that Christmas holiday had began, Lily and Jack stayed up in his dormitory, sleeping in the same bed.
"I was tired," she said, looking back at the fire and closing her book. "Any luck in the library?"
"No, not really. But I don't want to talk about that now. Why don't we go for a walk out by the lake? We haven't done that in ages," Jack said, standing up and grabbing Lily's hand, pulling her to her feet beside him.
"Sure, just let me get my cloak and shoes," she said as she turned and ran up to her dormitory. Jack sat back down in her chair and picked up the book she was reading. It was a healer book that Madam Jefter was having her read. He was lost after reading the first few sentences of the introduction; magical medical terminology was something he would never understand.
After a few minutes of flipping through the pages he felt Lily's arms encircle him from behind the armchair as she hugged him around the shoulders and kissed his cheek. "Is there anything in there you fancy Mr. Weasley?"
Jack stood up and cast the book aside. He walked around the chair and pulled her to his body, kissing the tip of her nose. "No, but I fancy you."
"Well, after all this time you've finally figured that out. You sure are slow…"She meant to go on but was silenced when Jack brought his lips to hers, preventing her from saying another word.
He pulled away and looked at her subjectively. "Now look at what you've made me do! I totally forgot what we were planning on doing!"
"We were going for a walk by the lake," she answered, taking his hand and leading him out the portrait hole, through the castle, and into the bitter cold. Once they were outside, she snuggled closer to him for warmth and he put an arm around her.

"I wish it could always be like this," she said with longing in her voice.
"Why, Miss Potter…am I to presume you are not totally in love with the life we lead?" he asked, nudging her a little to get her to look up at him.
"It's not that I don't love it, its just that sometimes I wish we could be just be a normal couple with normal problems and not have to worry about all these other things getting in the way." They took a seat by their favorite tree, the same tree where they had shared their first kiss.
"I guess I can understand that. Things have been rough lately. But as long as I have you, even the worst day doesn't seem so bad," Jack said, pulling her shivering body closer to him as she snuggled up to his chest. "One day we'll look back on this and think these were the best years of our lives."
"You sound like your father," she said, laughing.
"Yeah, he's always saying that to me. I guess it's because some of the best years of his life were while he was in school," he said, looking over at the frozen lake.
"It's funny to think how different our experience here has been compared to your parents' and what I know about my father's," she said, rubbing her hands together trying to get some warmth into her fingertips. They lost themselves in the winter wonderland around them for a few minutes. An owl took flight from somewhere in the castle and they both watched it fly off into the distance and out of sight completely.
Jack was the one who broke the silence, "What do you think it'll be like when our kids come to school? Do you think they'll have a more normal time than we have had?"
Lily looked up at him and smiled, "You want to have children with me?"
He laughed at her. "Yes Potter, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to marry you one day if you'll have me, and have dozens of kids with you, and be the happiest people in the entire wizarding world!"
"And are you going to give birth to all these children?"
"No, I think that'll have to be your job! I love you more than anything in the whole world and there is no one I would rather have children with than you."
"You know, I don't think I'm a very good influence on you! You've gone soft, Weasley!"
Jack jumped up from where he was sitting, grabbed a handful of snow, and held his hand up as if he would hurl it at her at any second. She jumped up and ran around the side of the tree. He followed her and soon they found themselves running around the trunk of a tree at top speed. Finally Lily stopped and held up her hands. "Ok I give up! I surrender!"
"And you think surrendering is going to save you Potter," Jack said, walking towards her with the snowball still in his hand.
"Please, Jack, have a little compassion! You wouldn't do that to me," she said, half laughing but trying her hardest to be serious.

"Oh, and why wouldn't I?" Jack asked, completely forgetting about the snowball and allowing it to fall out of his hand onto the ground. He walked over to her and put his hands on her hips.
"Because you're completely head over heels in love with me and you couldn't live without me if you tried," she said before standing on her toes and bringing her lips lightly to his.
"Someday I'll be able to show you just how much I love you," he said pulling her into his chest beginning to notice how cold she was. He was about to suggest they go inside when she looked up at him again. Her eyes were the most irresistible part of her. He often lost himself in their depth, and this time was no exception. He lowered his head to hers and kissed her full on the lips. As their kiss deepened he leaned her against the tree and his hands found her hair. After a good ten or fifteen minutes of intensity, Lily pulled away shivering slightly.
"I think it's time we get you inside, Potter. You're freezing and so am I. We can finish this in the common room," Jack concluded, as he started walking toward the castle with Lily under his arm.

Hours later the Jack sat alone by the fire reading a book. Lily had gone up to bed hours ago, but he wasn't quite tired enough so he stayed behind. Without even realizing it, he had fallen asleep on the comfortable couch due to the pleasant warmth of the fire.
Something in the back of his mind caused him to wake up suddenly and knock his book off his lap. The fire had long since gone out, and after checking his watch he realized that it was almost three in the morning. Deciding he'd better get up to bed, he stood up and kicked his book to the side out of his walking path. Climbing the stairs was difficult because there was no light. He nearly fell twice before he reached the sixth year boys' rooms. He opened the door and saw the shadow of someone rolling back and forth on his bed.
He walked over to the bed and found Lily asleep, but curled up in a ball with tears running down her face. She was having another nightmare. She had had a few of them over the past few months, but they were growing worse. Jack tried to get her to see a healer, but she utterly refused saying she was fine and that they would pass with time.
"Lily, wake up," Jack said, shaking her and turning her on her back.
"NO, PLEASE DON"T HURT ME!" she screamed, taking a strong hold of the wrists of his hands with a expression of terror that he could see faintly with the small amount of light coming through the window to their right. She was awake now and staring at him in disbelief.
He pulled her body up into a sitting position and held her close to him. He rubbed her back trying to make her feel safe. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'd never hurt you, you know that! Lil, you've got to tell me what happens in these dreams."
"I…I really don't want to talk about it tonight. Can't we just go back to sleep," she said, holding him tighter and showing how scared she really was.
"No, not until you tell me what's going on. You always say we'll talk about it later. This has got to be the fifth time I've had to wake you up from one of those dreams since last summer. And that's only when we're home so there's no telling how many times you have them when I'm not around," Jack said, growing angry. He was tired of her avoiding the subject.
"They're just nightmares. Everyone has them every once in a while. So what if I have them a little more often than most people do? And if you don't like being bothered by having to wake me up than I can just go sleep in my own bed and you won't have to worry about me or my stupid dreams!"
She pried herself from his arms and stood up walking towards the door. He ran after her taking her arm and spinning her around. "That's not what I meant and you know it, Lily Potter! I have never in my life thought of you as a burden! Now will you please come back to bed and talk to me about this."
"No! How would you ever be able to sleep if I have another one dream? You may have to save me again," she spat at him and ripped her arm from his grasp and left the room.
Jack stood there, stunned. How did this turn into an argument between the two of them? He figured she needed a few minutes to compose herself, or so he hoped, and he left her alone for a while. After about ten minutes he walked down the steps again and found the fire glazing once more. She was sitting in the far corner away from the heat of the fire and shivering.
"I'm sorry," she said, sounding like she had been crying. "I didn't mean to blow up at you like that. I'm just not ready to talk about the dreams or the memory they're caused by."
Jack took a deep breath and sat down on the cold floor next to her, putting an arm around her freezing body. She leaned against his shoulder and took his other hand.
"I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do. Just promise me you'll tell me one day soon?"
"I promise. Do you forgive me for being such a pain in the ass?"
He laughed at her blunt remark. "I guess that depends on if you make it up to me."
"What exactly do I have to do?" she asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.
"Come up to bed with me and go to sleep with no argument," he answered before kissing her suggestively. After a good ten minute snog session he pulled away and looked down into her now sparkling eyes. "You know I really had every intention of just going up to bed. I didn't mean to do that. You have that affect of me, Potter!"
"I'm glad to see I haven't lost my touch," she said, looking pleased with herself. She stood up and took his hand leading him to the stairs.

"Lily looks tired," Ron said to his son the night after they returned from their trip to see Ginny in America.
"She is," Jack replied nonchalantly, looking off into the distance. They were sitting on the steps leading up to the front doors. They often came here to sit and talk with each other when life inside the castle walls was a little bit to intense.
"Any reason why?" Ron pressed, trying to draw Jack out of his trance. He seemed very preoccupied at the moment.
Jack looked at him for a second as if he was going to divulge some information, but then thought better of it and looked away again. "No idea," he replied simply with no emotion.
Ron chuckled at his son's expression. "I sure hope they haven't been giving you lying lessons. Because if they have, then you most be failing miserably. I know you know what's going on. You can tell me, Jack. I love her too and I've noticed a change in her over the past few months."
Looking back to Ron, Jack took a deep breath and told him the truth. "She's been having these dreams lately."
"What kind of dreams?" Ron asked him.
"I have no idea. I just find her tossing and turning and sometimes screaming. She says she doesn't want to talk about them."
"Have you tried to force her to talk to you about them?" Ron asked, now worried himself.
"I have, but she kind of blew up at me. We had a huge fight about it and later on that night I found her in the common room. She looked like she'd been crying. Dad, you know Lily almost as well as I do. Lily doesn't cry unless it's over something big."

"I know," Ron replied almost regretfully looking off into the distance.

"I don't think it's such a good idea to push her to do things she isn't ready for. But I can't help her if I don't know what it is that's bothering her."
"When did they start?"
"After we went on that mission last summer--the first one."
"Her father used to have very vivid dreams all the time," Ron said, looking away from Jack this time. Even though Harry was out there somewhere, Ron and Hermione had spent years acting as if he were dead. Sometimes it felt like he really was dead at times.
"I wish he was here to help her through this. I'm completely useless," Jack stated, sounding overwhelmed.
Ron placed a hand on Jack's back. "You're not useless, Jack, not by any meaning of the word. You help her a lot more than you think you do. Maybe she just needs time."
"I hope that's all it is."
"Just try not to make her talk about it. Let her bring it up. But promise me you'll come to me if they get worse or change in any way. Her father left me and your mother to look after her and I don't want to let him down."
"I promise," Jack said, forcing a smile.
"Okay then, go find that beautiful girl of yours," Ron said, giving Jack a playful shove.
"I'll see ya around, Dad," Jack called over his shoulder as he walked up the stairs and into the castle. It was after eight-o-clock and the students were all in their dormitories by now. He made his way to Gryffindor tower quickly, hoping to find Lily in the common room. He hadn't seen her at dinner and wanted to know where she was. After saying the password (Sliver Qudditch Snitches), he was disappointed to find that she was not there.
"Dylan, have you seen Lily?" Jack asked his friend who was sitting on the sofa by the fire doing homework.
Dylan didn't look up from his book and pointed to the spiral staircase. "Yeah, she's up in our dorm sleeping. She was in there when I came back from dinner."
"Thanks," Jack mumbled as he walked up the stairs and to his familiar dorm room door. Praying that she wasn't having another nightmare, he pushed open the door. She was sleeping peacefully on her back with her left arm up under his pillow. Her tie was off and lying on the chair by his bed and her shirt had two buttons undone. He walked over to her slowly and sat down in the edge of the bed. He was about to leave her alone so she could get some rest when he saw a blue spot in the opening at the top of her shirt below her collar. He moved the fabric over and saw that it was a bruise, a deep blue and purple bruise that he didn't recognize. He knew he would be violating her privacy by doing what he was about to do, but he also knew he had to find out what was happening in her dreams. He gently took her hand and focused for a few seconds before entering her mind.

Once there, he saw the fuzzy image of whatever dream she was having. All he could really see was a large ridged stone wall and a little girl lying down next to it. The girl looked bloody and very sick. He was more alarmed when he realized the girl had long, curly black hair.
Unconsciously, Jack dropped Lily's hand at the sight of seeing the little girl. That couldn't possibly be Lily, could it? He decided that he wouldn't tell her that he had been inside her mind, because it might make her more upset. But he was going to wake her up and at least let her know he was there.
"Hey, are you going to take over my bed tonight or what?" Jack whispered, kissing her on the forehead as she began to wake up.
"Jack," she said, sounding very sleepy as she opened her eyes and blinked several times.
"Who else would be kissing you?" Jack teased.
"No idea," she fired back, placing her hands behind his neck, "What time is it?"
"After eight."
"I can't believe I slept that long!"
"You just go right back to sleep. I'm coming to bed too in a second. I just want to change." He decided not to mention the bruise. For all he knew it could be from Qudditch practice.
"I should go to my dorm," she declared, though she made no effort to get up.
"I think you should stay right where you are. No one here cares if you sleep in my bed."
"Okay, I'll sleep for a little while. But then I'm going back to my bed." She stated getting under the covers and curling up.
"I don't think so," Jack said as he pulled off his shirt and pants. He put a shirt on to go with his boxers and climbed into bed. "I like you right here with me."
"Is that so?" she said in a voice dripping with sleepiness.
"Go to sleep, love," he gently told her, closing his own eyes and closing the curtains using his wand. They were both asleep in seconds.

a/n- Tell me what you think!