Chapter Seven: Bumps in the Road

Harry and Ron took a trip down to the auror training center to see how things were going. Hermione and Ginny were once again out shopping for things they would need at the wedding. Ron still had know idea what was going on, and Harry decided he should get him out of the house.

The wedding had been arranged to take place at the Burrow in two days. All of Ginny's brothers had been instructed by their mother to come over at around lunch time on Saturday. Mrs. Weasley had told them they would be spending the day together and having dinner.

Right now however, he was worried about both Jack and Lily. They seemed tired and disconnected since Christmas only days before. They approached the main desk where a small friendly looking black woman sat looking down at a sheet of paper.

"Hello," Ron said, getting the woman's attention.

"Hello, may I help you?" she said pleasantly, looking up from her paper.

"Yes, we're looking for Jack Weasley and Lily Potter," Ron said, smiling.

The woman looked down at the sheet of parchment in her hands and then looked back up at them. "Weasley just finished a training exercise and he will most likely be in the healer's office. It's the third door on the fourth floor after you get off the elevator. Potter is in a session right now so you won't be able to see her for about half an hour. You may go through that door and you'll find the elevator."

Harry was puzzled, "That's it? No third degree about coming to visit unannounced?"

"Aurors can visit whenever they like, it doesn't matter how long they have been inactive," she stated, smiling warmly again.

"Thanks," Ron said, pushing Harry towards the door.

"That was easy," Harry said as soon as they were alone on the elevator.

"Yeah, I was expecting a fight," Ron admitted as the elevator let them off at the third floor. Once the doors opened, they saw what looked like Jack walking away from them further down the hallway.
"Jack!" Ron called, trying to get him to turn around. When the young man turned around they saw that it was indeed Jack. His face lit up when he saw his father and godfather walking towards him. He did look tired and wary, however.

"Dad? Harry? What are you guys doing here," Jack happily wondered as he walked towards them.

"We came to see how you guys were doing. How was your training today?" Harry asked, patting Jack on the shoulder.

"It was okay. It could have gone better, but I'm a little worn out today so I guess I didn't have my head in the right place," he said, looking down. "Hey, why don't you guys come with me to the locker room? Lily and I have clearance to leave once she's done with her training."

"Sounds good," Harry said, following Jack down the hall.

He led them into a small room with two large lockers on one wall and benches all around. There was a sign on the front of the door that said: The Dream Team.

"What's this all about?" Harry asked, pointing to the sign.

"That's a department joke. They call us the dream team," Jack answered, smiling at the sign then entering then closing the door behind him. He walked over to the locker with his name on it and opened the door taking out his duffle bag and a bottle of water. He looked over at Harry as if he was going to say something and then thought better of it, turning back to the locker.

"What is it, Jack?" Harry asked, sounding alarmed. Jack didn't get that look on his face often, and when he did it usually meant that something had happened.

"Lily had another dream again last night," he said without further restraint. He decided he'd leave out the fact that he too had seen the dream and knew now exactly what she went through when she had them.

"How bad was it?" Harry asked, sitting down in the bench on the opposite wall from him. Ron sat next to him, putting his elbows on his knees and looking at his son gravely.

"Bad," Jack said, looking at Harry square in the eye.

"I didn't hear anything," Ron recalled.

"There's a silence charm on our bedroom. Lily insists on having one because she doesn't want to wake up the boys if she has a dream. She doesn't want to scare them anymore than they already have been. But anyway, I don't think she started screaming this time. She just pretty much went through the dream and didn't put up much of a fight."

Harry shook his head in disgust. How could a person like Malfoy posses so much control over a person? "Was she hurt?"

"She's got a few bruises. We got the ones on her face healed today when we came in," Jack said, nodding his head, "but don't tell her I told you. I think you may want to talk to her, Harry. Get her to tell you on her own. It may help for her to talk about it."

"Okay, thanks for the heads up," Harry said appreciatively.

"Does Lily know when she's going to talk to Robbie yet?" Ron asked, changing the subject.

Jack's face creased with confusion. "Robbie? Dylan's Little brother? Why would she need to talk to him?"

Harry and Ron exchanged looks. "She didn't tell you?" Ron asked while Harry remained silent.

"Tell me what?" Jack asked apprehensively.

"Dylan came by the house last night and asked Lily to go talk to his little brother because he is apparently being pursued by the American auror department and they want him to start training like you guys did," Ron explained briefly. "Dylan asked Lily to have a talk with him and try to talk him out of going through with the training at least until he's old enough."

Jack nodded his head in understanding, "So what did Lily say?"

"She told him that she'd talk to Robbie. She was pretty upset by some of the things he said or implied," Harry added.

"I can only imagine. I don't know why she didn't tell me about this last night when she came up to bed. I must have been asleep because I don't remember her getting in bed at all," Jack said, thinking back to the night before.

"She probably didn't want to make a big deal about it. You know how Lily is. She never wants to burden anyone with her problems," Ron said sadly.

Jack stood up without another word and started packing his things to leave for the day. He was nearly finished when the door to the locker room opened suddenly causing all of them to jump. In came Lily through doorway, holding a bloody cloth to her mouth. She looked startled to see her father and Ron there.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" she asked, removing the cloth to reveal a swollen lip. It looked like someone had punched her in the face.

"We came to see how you guys were doing," Ron stated. "What happened to your lip?"

She placed the cloth back in front of her lip. "It happened during the duel. I'll get it healed in a little while before we leave maybe."

Jack opened Lily's locker for her and handed her the duffle bag that was hanging on the hook inside. "How did it go?"

She looked at him seriously. "You don't want to know."

"That bad, huh?" Jack said cautiously.

"It was pretty bad," she repeated, putting the cloth down and starting to pack her things.

A short man with dirty blonde hair opened the door to the locker room and looked around. "Lily," he said spotting her as she faced the locker.

"What?" she asked as cheerfully as she could manage.

"This just came for you," he said, handing her a letter and then leaving the room.

Lily sat down on the bench next to Jack, who was putting on a pair of street shoes. She tore open the envelope and pulled out the medium size paper that was inside. As she read the paper her face grew paler by the second.

"What is it?" Jack said, taking the letter from her. Lily just sat there, staring ahead as if in a trance.

"What does it say?" Harry asked, standing up and walking over to Jack. Harry took the letter when Jack offered it to him and found that it was a short note written out of newspaper clippings. The note read:

"Let's settle this once and for all, Potter! Meet me at the heights tonight at nine. If you show up with company innocent people will die! The only person you may bring with you is Jack Weasley, just because I want to see his face when you fall. We shall see how brave the daughter of the famous Harry Potter really is. Meet me there at nine and do not be late. Tonight one of our fates shall be decided."

"Who is this from?" Harry asked, handing the letter off to Ron who was now standing anxiously over his shoulder.

"Devon," Jack said, looking over to Lily who was still in a trance.

"Who is this Devon guy?" Harry wondered, looking over to Ron.

"He and I grew up together at the orphanage and he came to Hogwarts when I did," Lily said, breaking her silence, "He used to be one my friends when I was younger, until he decided to make some powerful friends. He is partially responsible for the death eater attack at Hogwarts last spring. He's been missing every since."

"How do you know it's him?" Harry asked, taking the letter from Ron to examine it again.

"Because the last time I saw him during the battle he said he would find me one day if I made it out alive. He said that he would kill me himself."

"You're not actually thinking of going to this place are you? Where is it, anyway?" Jack said, sounding worried.

"The height is a place up in the mountains behind the orphanage. We used to play there when we were kids. And yes I am taking him up on his offer. You read it yourself. He may have hostages; I can't just not go and risk something happening to them."

"Lily, this is crazy. I'm going with you," Jack stated defiantly.

"If you go you have to promise not to interfere. This isn't your fight, Jack."

"And it shouldn't be your fight either," Jack said, looking over at Harry.

"Jack's right, but what does this guy have against you anyway?" Harry asked, taking a seat again.

"How should I know?" she asked him rhetorically. "People don't always need a reason to hate someone else. But he is the one responsible for Allan's death. That much I know. He helped the death eaters out with passwords and even helped them fight once they were in the castle," Lily said, picking up her bag and standing up. "Can we go home now?"

"I guess," Ron said as they all stood up, "You'd better not tell your aunt about this. She'll be worried sick. Harry and I are going to follow you two. We'll make sure he doesn't see us."

"Let's just go home," she said as they left the room and walked down the hall.

At seven o'clock that Jack and Lily were up in his room reading. They were both trying to keep their minds off what was going to take place that evening. Jack was sitting in the arm chair by the window and Lily was lying on her stomach on the bed with her book propped up on the pillow in front of her. Jack watched her for a minute. She was wearing her glasses and staring at the page intensely. She always took studying so seriously.

"I'm going to take a shower before we have to go," Jack said standing up and taking off his shirt.

"Okay," she said rolling over onto her back and gazing up at him. Jack took one look at her and couldn't force himself to leave the room. He sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned over to kiss her lingeringly. She responded by bring her arms up to his back and pulling him closer to her. When he pulled away her eyes were still closed, and they stayed closed for a lingering second.

"What was that for?" she asked when she finally opened her eyes.

"What, can't a guy kiss his future wife," Jack said playfully as he leaned forward again and kissed her neck.

"Yes, he can, but I thought you were getting in the shower," she said between fits of laughter.

"Care to join me?" he said, lifting his head up to look her in the eye with a raised eyebrow.

"And have my father walk in here and discover us in there together? No way," she said, laughing harder.

"Okay love, I'll be back in a few," he said as he got up and went into the bathroom.

Jack stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and another smaller towel he used to ruffle through his hair, trying to dry it a little bit. He looked around the room and found it completely empty.

On the bed he found a piece of parchment and knew exactly what had happened: Lily had left without him. He almost left the room to go after her without even reading the note, but then he realized he didn't know where to go. She was never specific about where this place actually was. He grabbed the letter and read it as he walked out of the room and down the stairs.

Dear Jack,

I know you're probably furious with me right now but I need you to keep your cool and hear what I have to say. I can't have you there when I fight Devon. He gave me permission to have you there, which means he may have other plans for you. He might even have people there to kill you in hopes that I would loose it. And I would.

There is another reason I don't want you there. If something happens to me tonight I don't want you there to see it. I want you to remember me as you saw me this afternoon just before you got in the shower. I want you to remember me as the girl you love and the girl who wants nothing more than to marry you and spend the rest of her life making you happy. Please don't hate me for this, Jack. I promise to do everything in my power to come back to you. But if I don't I want you to know that you have made me so incredibly happy in the time we have spent together. I've loved you my whole life, even before I knew you existed, and I'll love you forever.

All my love,

L.E.P.

"Jack what is it?" a voice said from far away.

He looked up and realized he was in the kitchen where his entire family and Aunt Ginny was sitting down to dinner.

There was a loud CRACK behind him and he turned around coming face to face with Dennis O'Connor, the new head of the auror department.

"You know about this, don't you?" Jack accused, holding up the letter that was now crumpled up in his hand.

"Yes Jack," Dennis replied, sounding sympathetic. "Lily sent me an owl at the ministry about five minutes ago."

"What are you going to do about it?" he demanded.

"What is going on?" Harry asked, standing up from the table. The rest of the family stayed put and remained completely silent.

"There is nothing I can do," Dennis said, completely ignoring Harry's question, "This is Lily's fight."

"Like hell it is! The ministry has been looking for Devon since the death eaters attached Hogwarts! Now that we've finally found him you're just going to sit on your hands and hope that Lily can handle him all on her own! We don't know who he's been training with. We don't know what he's been up to these past few months. And you and I both know that she is not in the right state of mind to be going off doing this."

"Will someone please tell me what in the hell is going on!" Harry shouted.

"Kids, I think you'd better go upstairs," Ron said, looking at the scared faces of his children around him. The boys did as they were told and left the room with no complaint.

"Lily went to fight Devon on her own, with no backup, and all she left was this note," Jack said, handing the letter over to Harry who read it quickly and then looked up in a rage. He handed the note to Ginny who gasped in horror.

"You're going to let my daughter go through with this!"

"It was Lily's wish that we not interfere. She explained the letter Devon sent her in the owl I received at the ministry. She doesn't want to bring anyone in on this. She doesn't want anyone to get hurt unnecessarily. I'm only respecting her wishes," Dennis said defensively.

"What about her getting hurt unnecessarily?" Jack asked with defiance.

Harry piped in. "She's only a kid herself! How can she make a decision like this?" he asked stepping forward as Dennis remained motionless.

"I met your daughter on the day she took the exam the ministry gave her and Jack to determine what classes they would take in their first year at school. And I can tell you without a doubt in my mind that Lily Potter was not a child then, nor is she one now. She is the most grown up person I have ever had the privilege of working with." Dennis said this looking Harry directly in the eye.

Harry took a cleansing breath to keep his temper in check. "She may not seem like a child to you, but she is my still my little girl." His voice had returned to a normal volume but was even more threatening.

Jack had heard enough. He turned away from Dennis to face Harry, "If you're not going to do anything about this, than we will! Harry, can you take me back to the orphanage where you sent Lily?"

"Yes," Harry said, grabbing his robe that was on the back of his chair

"I'm going too," Ginny said as she ran to the coat closet to get her cloak. Harry didn't argue as they both followed Jack, who was already out the back door.

The snowy mountains of Utah stood tall against the black vacant night sky as Jack and Harry raced toward the base of the mountain that stood behind a large complex of buildings known as Salt Lake City Orphanage for Magical Children. The air was crisp against Jack's face as he made a sudden turn to the left, in the direction of a cluster of tall trees.

"She's over here," Jack yelled over his shoulder at Harry.

Their pace quickened as they approached a clearing in the trees and saw a heap of robes lying on the ground. He knew the robes belonged to Lily and his breath caught in this throat.

They were too late. The duel had already taken place.

Harry heard Ginny take in a deep breath and say a silent prayer beside him as she took his hand reassuringly. They stopped dead in their tracks, and though Harry's mind willed him to go further, he couldn't move another inch.

"Lily!" Jack yelled as he approached her body and fell to his knees. He hastily turned her over and found her face pale and her lips blue from the cold. Her skin felt like ice when he touched her face gently with his fingers. Reaching down to her neck he felt for a pulse and was relieved to discover her heart beating strong.

"She's alive!" Jack yelled to Harry and Ginny who was frozen with fear several yards away.

"Oh thank God," Ginny breathed a sigh of relief.

Jack shook her shoulders and watched as her eyes fluttered open. "Lily, what happened?"

"Its over," she managed to croak out before passing out again. Jack picked her up in his arms and walked back to Harry who was standing over another heap of robes lying beneath a tree. Harry bent down and felt for a pulse along the man's neck, but there was none.

"He's dead," Harry said, standing up.

"Leave him there. We'll send someone back for his body. We've got to get her warm."

Ginny, who had been looking around to make sure there was no one else in the clearing, walked back over to the two of them. "We need to get her home," she told them taking one look at Lily's pale face.

Harry looked at Lily in Jacks arms and knew she was right. They ran back down to the orphanage and then apparated back home. Hermione and Ron where waiting in the living room for news. When Hermione saw Lily in Jack's arms she cried out in relief.

"She's alright Mum. I think we just need to warm her up," Jack said, leading the way up the stairs and into his bedroom. Lily was even beginning to wake up as he kicked his door open.

"Jack," she whispered.

"You're alright," he cooed as he laid her on the bed.

"I killed him," she said as tears escaped through the corners of her eyes.

"You did what you had to do," he said, sitting down next to her and holding her hand. "There was nothing else you could have done."

She shook her head and closed her eyes to keep her tears at bay. Jack was about to stand up and check on where everyone else was when she tightened her grip on his hand.

"Don't leave," she begged softly. "Please don't leave now."

"Okay, you just need to calm down alright, Lil? Everything is going to be fine," He bushed the hair out of her face, and saw scrapes across her cheek as if she had taken a branch to the face.

"I tired to get him to come back with me and go to the ministry. But he wouldn't listen. He said Allan deserved what happened to him. I didn't want to kill him, Jack. But he wasn't going to let me leave without killing me first. I really though I could get him to understand that what he did was wrong." She was now sobbing openly, and Jack took her in his arms properly.

"Shhh, it's okay. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Please Jack, you've got to believe me! I didn't want to kill him!" She begged, looking up into his eyes with her now tear-streaked face.

He kissed her forehead and whispered meaningfully in her ear, "I believe you, baby. It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong."

She only cried harder the more he tired to comfort her. He reached over to pull the down comforter over the two of them and got in bed with her, pulling her head onto his chest.

"I don't understand what I did to make him hate me so much. He used to be my friend," she said a bit calmer several minutes later.

"I can't answer that either. I don't know what he was thinking." Jack rubbed her back and felt her body slowly relax.

Glancing to the door he saw his parents, Harry, and Ginny standing there with worried expressions. He nodded his head trying to tell them that everything was okay. Hermione stepped forward and closed the door to give them privacy.

Just when he thought she was asleep, Lily spoke again. "He was going to kill you."

"What?" Jack said sitting up a little bit and turning her head to face him.

"He was going to kill you if you had come with me. He was going to kill you to get to me, just like I said he would."

"You still shouldn't have done what you did. You scared your father and me to death," he said, with slight anger in his voice.

"I wasn't going to let something happen to you because of me. I couldn't have lived with myself if I had."

Jack took one look at her and knew he would never be able to stay mad. She had only done what she thought she was the right thing to do, and if the situation were reversed he would have done the same thing.

"Never do that to me again," he said, pulling her back down onto his chest and holding her close.

"I did what I had to do to keep those I love out of harms way. And I'd do it again if I had to," she said forcefully.

"Well, then I guess I'd better watch you closer next time," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

She yawned widely and draped her arm across his chest. "I guess so."

"Go to sleep my love," he said, closing his own eyes and welcoming the comfort of darkness and a good night's rest.

a/n- Okay guys, hope you liked it! I am sorry the updates are slow but I've hit a road block in the story up ahead and I'm having some serious writers block. It would really help me if you all would review and tell me about what the story is missing or lacking. Please review! In the meantime, chapter eight is a REALLY BIG AND IMPORTANT CHAPTER! So here is a little taste of what's ahead!

excerpt from Chapter Eight: Coming Clean

"You've never really asked me about what I did when I was in America. Why I faked my death and left Lily the way I did? What I did while I was in hiding? Haven't you been curious?"

Nodding her head, Ginny answered, "I just figured you'd tell me what you were ready to tell me. I didn't want to push you into reveling things you weren't ready to."

"Thank you for giving me time. But I think I'm ready to tell you now. I think I need to tell you." A dark look crossed Harry's face as he added, "I need to tell you things I haven't even told Lily. Things I need to tell her about. I don't think I can keep all this to myself anymore."

"I'm here, Harry," she said sitting up further on the pillows. "I'll help in whatever way I can."

"Where do you want me to start?" He asked.