Slowly Lily mounted the stairs to Dumbledore's office, rehearsing in her mind what she was going to say. She raised a hand and knocked gently.
"Come in."
She took a deep breath and entered.
Dumbledore looked up from his desk, peering at her over the top of his half-moon spectacles. "Take a seat Lily," he gestured to a chair in front of his desk.
She sat nervously and waited for him to say something.
"I believe you have something to tell me," he said at last, his eyes fixed searchingly on her.
Lily gulped and nodded, "Yes I…" she felt something change inside herself- why should she be nervous, she was not ashamed of who she was. Calmly, she raised her head to look him directly in the eye, straightened her back and when she spoke her voice was filled with certainty and conviction, "I am the Huntress."
He looked sharply at her, "The Huntress?"
She nodded, "one of the Moonlit Ones, sent to-"
He waved a hand, "yes, I have heard tales about her. For how long?"
Slightly startled by his lack of astonishment and no sign of incredulity she replied, "Just over a month now, since the beginning of November."
Dumbledore nodded, and was silent a pensive look on his face, "And how are you coping with this news?"
"Well I couldn't really accept it all at the beginning, I was so scared by it all I just kept telling myself that there had been some kind of mistake. That someone else was meant for this, someone more extraordinary," she smiled faintly, "but as the days went by things just kept happening to me- physical demonstrations of the power I could wield, inner yearnings to surrender myself to everything. But I think the thing that changed my mind was a conversation I had with a broken-hearted first year a few days back…" her thoughts turned to Paddy's face when she passed him in the corridors, his eyes over bright with unshed tears and his fists clenched as he strove to just make it through each day, "and all of a sudden I knew that despite all of the burdens that came with it I wanted the power. Not for its own sake, no," she shook her head, "definitely not for that, but for the ability to defend what I believe in and guard those that are too weak or outmatched by the powers that seek to kill all that I love and want to protect."
Dumbledore watched with a deep, quiet pride and said, "Then they have chosen well."
Lily smiled, she didn't know how to express the overwhelming sense of relief his words had triggered. She knew she didn't need it, but his approval meant more to her than she could express.
Rising he walked over to a heavily laden bookshelf to his right and pulled out a book, handing it to her.
"The Founder's of Hogwarts", she read out loud, "I don't understand," she said frowning slightly, "what has that got to do with anything."
"More than you know Lily. I understand you've been having some difficulty with that manuscript of yours. I think this will be of help and would suggest that if you wish to know more about your heritage then you should read it and search out their portraits, I know they're her somewhere within the castle, but I've never quite been able to find them."
Lily stared at the leather bound book in her lap and nodded. She looked up, "can you help me with the manuscript then?" she asked.
He shook his head, "I'm afraid you're on your own there Lily, there's only so much that I know. But I would be very interested in reading you findings when you do finally decipher it."
She smiled, feeling again his quiet vote of confidence in her.
Lily rested the book on her lap and broached the topic of the Death Eaters. As she had thought, he had known it was her that had sent him the message, and was keen to know as much as she could tell about the battle she had fought and what they had been trying to do. He listened patiently to her account of events and said,
"Thanks to your quick thinking, Lily, we've discovered the name of the leader of this faction. He calls himself Lord Voldemort. Apparently he's been amassing support secretly for the last five years or so, drawing to him witches and wizards who want to establish old blood supremacy, what they call 'purebloods'. It seems that last night Voldemort and his followers were trying to help him gain immortality-"
"What?" gasped Lily.
"Immortality," Dumbledore repeated, looking down at her over the top of his half moon spectacles, "while Voldemort is perfectly happy to deal death to those who cross him or seek to oppose him it seems that he fears it for himself. That night he was trying to outrun death through the complex magic you witnessed. Fortunately for us, not only did you prevent such a thing from happening, but also he won't be able to try it again for a very long time," his eyes twinkled from behind his glasses, "you see the correct planets are only in that precise alignment once every one thousand years."
Lily failed to find this as amusing as the Headmaster, how could he treat something like this with such equanimity? "So what happened to him? Did you catch Vole-Volde-"
"Voldemort," Dumbledore corrected, "and no, I'm afraid he got away."
A stone-like weight plummeted into her stomach and guilt overwhelmed her. Hadn't she sworn to Paddy that she would see to it that whoever killed her parents would be punished? And hadn't she spared Voldemort when she had had the chance? Something of her horror at this must have shown in her expression because Dumbledore interrupted her thoughts gently saying,
"The Wizarding World owes you a great debt of gratitude. Not only do we have more information about the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort but also thanks to the number of Death Eaters we caught I think it'll be a while before we see anything more from them."
"But I let him get away! After all I've said about wanting to protect people and- and- I could have stopped things before they could have gotten worse! But now I might not get that chance again and every time I see more deaths reported in the papers, every time I see a student run out of breakfast in tears because someone in their family has been killed, every time I'll know that it will have been my fault! That I could have prevented it! And all because I hadn't the courage to kill him when I had the chance!" she spat out the words bitterly and rose from her chair, her hands clenched tightly at her sides.
"Listen to me," Dumbledore said sternly, "If you had killed him then, while he lay unconscious on the ground, do you think that would have been an end to the Death Eaters? Do you think all the seeds of discontent and inflated sense of self worth that he had carefully sown would just die out with him? No. If not Voldemort, than another would have risen in his place. You have faced him once now, and he will not forget it," a shadow of a smile hovered over his lips when he spoke next, "I hardly think he will be proud of being defeated by a single seventeen year old witch."
Lily smiled faintly, hope beginning to blossom within her that Dumbledore was right.
"You must not allow yourself to feel responsible for his actions, you won a great victory for us that night. And who knows, perhaps it will turn out that the mercy you showed will turn out to our advantage."
At that moment Lily was finding it hard to think that such a thing could be true, but she was more than willing to trust Dumbledore's word on it. And hadn't her instincts been right before? Wasn't there the smallest chance that the voice in her head telling her not to kill Voldemort was telling her the right thing to do?
"You really think so?" Lily asked hopefully, a hint of the childlike innocence that was mostly lost to her came to the surface, seeking reassurance from the much venerated wizard in front of her.
He smiled kindly, "You have made a fine start; Destiny has made a fine choice."
Lily smiled back, perhaps things would turn out alright after all. Maybe it was a vain hope but one she would always cling to.
***********************************
James sat in the library in the corner that was out of sight of the main areas students kept to. He was really quite nervous about what Saffron had to tell him, unreasonably so. It was just he couldn't help but keep remembering the urgent tone in her voice and serious expression on her face.
The sound of footsteps coming towards him caught his attention and he looked up to see his sister hurrying towards him, a bundle of papers clutched in her arms. Her face flushed and her hair out of place, she sat down opposite him and deposited her load onto the table. He looked down and reached out a hand to pick up one of the leafs of parchment. Saffron shot out an arm and covered the papers. Her expression was earnest,
"James, I know that you'll keep secret whatever I tell you, but this time things are different, I'm going to tell you something that isn't my secret to tell. But we always said we'd never keep things from each other and I'm keeping that promise."
James nodded, his face serious.
"You have to promise to believe me James," Saffron said, "I know when you hear what I'm going to tell you you'll be sceptical, but it's the truth alright?"
"Sure," James frowned, "I'll always believe you Saff, you know that!"
She let out a long sigh, "I guess I should tell you then." She paused for a moment, summing up the consequences of what she was about to do. "James, it's about Lily."
"Lily?!" he started, whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't that.
"Yes, she's not quite what she seems."
"I know, she has some sort of weird magic surrounding her-"
"-oh that, that's just a Mediocrity Charm, you can see through that by saying revelio," Saffron dismissed this with a wave of her hand, "that's not everything, there's much more to it then that. James, have you ever heard of the Moonlit Ones?"
"Sure, I've heard the stories, mythical warrior to defend the weak yada yada."
"Well those stories are true, they're real. All the stories about the Huntress, they're not just stories and Lily…Lily's the Huntress."
"WHAT?!" James shouted, almost falling off his chair.
"Quiet please or I'll have you thrown out," the librarian called to them, frowning deeply at them both.
"You're not serious?" James asked his sister, lowering his voice.
"You see, I knew you wouldn't believe me!" Saffron looked irritated and frowned at her brother.
"No I do," he insisted, "It's just hard to take in, that's all." He ran a hand through his hair, frowning in concentration as he tried to understand what Saffron had just told him. "So you're saying Lily Evans is this superpowerful other that has appeared to fight for the innocent and all that?"
"Basically yeah," Saffron nodded.
He let out a long low whistle, "well who'd have thought it?"
Saffron giggled, "it does sound surreal doesn't it?"
"Just a little," he grinned
"You mustn't let on to her that you know," she said, grabbing his arm, her face serious again, "she doesn't know that I've told you, and I'm not too sure she'd be entirely happy that I have. I do feel sort of guilty about telling you, but it's not as if it can do any harm. Besides, she likes you."
"Alright," James nodded, "not a word." Then he paused, "she likes me?"
Saffron laughed, "Not like that! She thinks you're a good guy, not that my influence has had anything to do with it." She grinned at him, "don't you go getting any ideas matey! Anyway, she seems more Remus' type anyway."
"What do you mean?" James demanded.
"Well, he's more of the intellectual type, he and Lily would get on well," she smiled broadly, enjoying teasing him.
"I hope you're not implying I'm stupid, sister dearest," James retorted.
"Oh no, I wouldn't dream of it," she drawled, rolling her eyes.
He stuck his tongue out at her.
"Well, that's mature!" He scowled at her. "Alright, calm down," she said in a pacifying tone, "I was only pulling your leg." She relaxed and leaned against her chair, "so how are the Marauders? Any entertaining frolics you'd like to entertain me with, Prongs?"
He brightened and grinned at her, "well, now that you come to mention it…"
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A/N: Sorry for the long wait, had an exam recently and needed to focus on revising. But this was quite a long chapter to make up for it. Anyway, what did you think? People who didn't like Saffron telling James, do you still think it's mean of her?
Any questions people have, I'll bear in mind when I write my next authors note, but forgive me if I don't answer them. The longest part about updating is writing the authors notes, especially if there are a lot of questions that people want answered. Not that I want to discourage long reviews, I like them a lot.
Next chapter is called 'Two Blushing Pilgrims' that title ring a bell for anyone?