Lily rushed into the night, hardly daring to breathe as she followed the tale of Nott's jacket around this corner, the whip of his shoelace into that alley. They were headed toward the park, she realized, and what's more toward the lake. She paused, crouched behind a group of trash bins as Severus paused on the edge of an alley with Nott, his hand lifted for silence. They stood silently thus for several minutes, and once Severus even peered over his shouder at the trash bins, his eyes narrowed, but seeing nothing had hurried on with Nott at his heels.
The two boys leapt a low fence and their trainers crunched across the crisp summer grass. Alexander Nott could not keep himself from sniggering in his mounting excitement and had to be jabbed by Severus three times. Lily let them get a fair distance ahead before she ran forward, leapt the fence, and followed at a good distance, creeping from sparse tree to tree and pausing to watch the boys hurry toward the lake.
In the distance, mist spiraled off of the lake's surface and pressed against a small, lopsided cabin with one window, which at the moment was dark. On a nearby jetty stood a gaggle of whispering teenagers, their hands in their pockets, their wands sticking from various pockets and belthoops. Severus and Nott hurried toward them and soon blended into the crowd like drops of moisture dripped into a pond.
Lily gasped at a closer distance to see so many boys from her school there: all were from Slytherin. She recognized one boy as a Black, Sirius's little brother in fact. Other teenagers she knew from school were there as well: Macnair, a boy with a certain sick disposition for animal cruelty, Dolohov, Crabbe, and a young blonde boy with a rather haughty air: Lucious Malfoy. There was only one boy she did not recognize and that was because he kept his hood up, but he was rather tubby and short and rubbed his hands very often . . .
Then a light came on in the window of the cabin and the door was flung open. The boys instantly fell silent and turned, watching as a tall man filled the doorway. Lily chanced a quick run towards a closer tree, waited a moment, and peered around it. She had to stifle a gasp. It was clear the man in the doorway was a Death Eater. He wore a white skull mask and a long billowing black robe. He held his arms wide open.
"Who will be the first to become a servant of the Dark Lord?"
While most of the older boys shuffled forward, fighting to be first, a small crowd of them hesitated. Sirius's brother and Lucious Malfoy were among those hesitating. Lily's heart sank to see Severus break from the crowd and somehow manage to reach the masked man in the doorway. He was standing with his chin lifted, a sort of defiant look on his face as far as she could tell. He smirked over his shoudler at Nott, who had been quite keen to be first, and marched purposely toward the door.
"That's it, that's it," said the man in the doorway approvingly. He stepped back and aside for Severus to enter and then the door closed.
The other boys stood outside complaining in low voices.
"No," Lily whispered, aghast. "No!" She completely lost her senses and flew in plain view toward the door, her wand out.
The boys waiting outside watched her in astonishment, and a few even stepped forward angrily.
"Hey, you can't -- !"
"What d'you think you're -- !"
"You can't go in -- !"
But each boy was blasted aside by Lily's wand. She tried Alhomora on the door, but it wouldn't budge, even after she tried Bombarda. At last, she hurried around the side of the cabin, still firing hexes at those boys who pursued her, and busted the already cracked glass in the window.
"Why didn't I think of that before?" she muttered, staring at the rock in her hand. She came to her senses again with a shake of her head, and threw the rock at the oncoming boys. It caught Nott in the face and he staggered back, taking the other boys down like dominoes.
Shouts of outrage were coming from inside the cabin, and when Lily looked in it was all she could do not to topple over unconscious on the spot or retch into the grass. There was a large, ornately carved wooden chair against the cabin wall, and seated in it rather like a king was a tall, thin, snakelike man with red eyes slitted rather like a snake's and a face so smooth and pale it was almost entirely devoid of facial features. The Death Eater from before stood at his arm, along with two others who were standing guard beside the door.
The man in the chair was holding Severus by the forearm, his wand touching the inside of his wrist as if he were drawing something there. Severus, meanwhile, stood looking very pale and drained, very weak as his face twisted in pain. Lily was shocked to see the blood dribbling down his arm, the sway of his unsteady legs, and finally: the black skull newly engraved on his flesh.
Voldemort nodded nonchantly toward the window and ordered in a fierce hiss, "What are you waiting for? Kill her!"
Lily screamed and ducked as several killing curses flew toward her. The boys waiting outside had recouperated and were upon her in a flash. Nott in particuliar took delight in lifting her with his arms around her waist and carrying her off with the other boys around the cabin. The door opened and the three Death Eaters emerged, gliding like dementors across the swishing grass. Voldemort stood in the door- way behind them, his arms folded as he watched the boys hold a struggling Lily down on the grass with narrowed eyes.
"No, not you!" Voldemort said suddenly, sharply, to the Death Eater who was raising his wand over Lily. His eyes hadn't moved from Lily's struggling body. Her helplessness seemed to delight him. He gestured carelessly over his shoulder and addressed someone in the cabin, "You!"
Severus had been left bleeding on the cabin floor. His face was pressed weakly into a pool of his own blood and he lifted it groggily as Voldemort turned and said harshly with spit flying from his mouth, "Get up!"
Severus did as he was told. Unsteadily, he climbed to his feet and exited the cabin. Someone shoved his wand into his hand and another person squeezed his shoulders and pushed him infront of Lily.
He recognized Nott's voice in his ear and sneered faintly as he heard the other boy hiss with delight, "I envy you!"
Lily was staring up at him, her face a mixture of outrage and fear. She watched with her heart hammering in her ears as Voldemort said quietly to Severus, "Kill her."
Severus's hand was shaking. His wand trembled as he lifted it, struggling to point it at Lily.
Lily watched with wide, horrified, disbeliving eyes as Severus, his face etched in lines of hatred, pointed his wand at her chest and yelled the killing curse. A jet of green light blasted her, her chest thrust forward as if she was having a fit, and she collapsed in the grass, her mouth a silent scream.