Lily faced the Death Eaters with a smile on her face as she heard the Hogwarts Express speeding away from danger. Raising her hands she brought a shield up in front of her.
To her surprise the one in front started to laugh, "You think this was about them?"
Lily's smile faded and she gazed coldly at them.
"You really think that the Dark Lord would waste his time killing defenceless children?" He gave a short humourless laugh, "well, not that he wouldn't want us to kill the mudbloods, but consider, it would hardly help our cause if purebloods were killed now, would it?" His eyes glittered as he stalked towards her, "No sweetheart, this was about you."
"Me?" Lily frowned in confusion, "what would he want with me?"
The figures behind the man who had been talking all kept their wands trained on her but he twirled his between his fingers, "The thing is, darling, that we've been doing a lot of research on you since our last encounter." He paused and turned his masked face towards her, his voice hard and angry, "The Dark Lord was most displeased at the inconvenience and damage you did to us last time we met." He resumed his pacing and his voice returned to its pleasant tone, "But he is very forgiving."
Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously, she didn't like where this was going. It unnerved her the way that they were talking and not duelling. That she had been prepared for, but not this. "Who says I want to be forgiven?" she replied in a neutral tone. If this was how things were going to go, she would play along. It might even turn to her advantage. "And he obviously isn't taking it very seriously. He only sent a faceless minion to do his dirty work."
The man paused and turned to gaze at her for a second. Then he shrugged and threw back his cloak to reveal a head of chestnut hair, reaching up he pulled off his mask and made her a mock bow, "Armand Lestrange at your service, my lady." He was a tall, good looking man, not much older than herself, early twenties she guessed. When she didn't say anything he raised an eyebrow seductively and smirked, "Aren't you going to say you're pleased to meet me?"
"No." She replied shortly.
"My, how rude." He continued to grin, "Well, we'll have to see what we can do about that. Once ladies meet me generally it isn't long before they tell me how… 'glad' they were to have met me."
"Quit fannying about, Armand and get to the point," a Death Eater to his right hissed.
Armand rolled his eyes and leant casually against the side of the compartment, a few feet from where Lily was standing, her back to the wall. "Well then, seeing as my colleague here is getting impatient I'll save the small talk for later. You see, love, the Dark Lord was most intrigued by how a young slip of a girl like yourself could wield so much power. So, as I was saying, he had someone look into it. Avery here," he gestured to the man on his left, "seems to think that you are something called the Huntress." He paused and gazed penetratingly at her.
Lily remained silent, returning his gaze with equanimity.
"Dear, dear, I'm going to have to find a way of loosening that tongue of yours," he said with a smirk, he smiled ruefully, "but business before pleasure, what the Master is offering you is an alliance. It seems that in the past people of your…let's say 'unique' talents, have been occasionally lured to "the Dark side", as idealists so unimaginatively call it."
Lily started and dropped her hands, "What?"
"Didn't you know, sugar?" he took another step towards her, "Of course ordinarily it was because the man they loved was…how shall I say this? A fundamental part of things. Of course the Master does not insist on this, and if other…members of his organization were to take your fancy, then he'd understand." He reached out a hand and ran it down the side of her face, his eyebrow raised and that slow smile creeping across his face.
"Don't," She jerked her head back and shot a look at him causing him to fly back into the group behind him.
Getting up the smile was gone from his face, "Well, Ice Queen, what is your decision? This offer will not be made to you again. And do not think that you are invincible. You are powerful, but I think we have proven tonight that you are not the font of all knowledge on anything. Think carefully."
"I don't need to think about it," she replied without a pause, "I don't know what possessed your Master to think that I would ever form any kind of allegiance with him, but you can tell him my answer is no, not even if hell freezes over."
Silence greeted her words.
"Well that's a shame," Armand replied casually, "I was looking forward to working on you," he smirked, "oh silly me, of course I mean working with you." He pulled his mask back on and said, "let's get this over with then."
***
"Wh-where am I?" Saffron said groggily, clutching her head with one hand as she pushed herself into a sitting position with the other.
"How are you feeling?" Peter asked, a concerned expression on his face as he crouched beside her.
"My head feels like a Cornish pixie is trying to pound its way out, but I'll live," she looked round at the people around her. Somehow the rows either side to of the compartments were gone, replaced by crude stretchers spreading from wall to wall. In them, unconscious students lay, with bandages wrapping heads, arms or legs. "What happened?"
"The train was attacked," Alex replied, coming over with a blond girl in tow. The girl crouched down next to her and pulled the stopped out of a potion she was holding, dripping a few drops onto a white pad. As the girl gently dabbed the pad either side of her temples, Alex glanced around him before adding in hushed tones, "It was Death Eaters. When they attacked lots of students were hurt as the train was stopped. Then, I don't know how, but we managed to get away. The last compartment broke off and the train lurched forwards. We're just starting to get things under control. Speaking of which, if you're feeling better we need your help to calm James down. Eliza is with him now."
She looked up through the glass door panel to see Eliza standing with her wand pointed at James, who was in the middle of getting up while a harassed looking girl was trying to hold a dressing to the side of his head and another girl on his right was trying to push him back down. With Alex's help Saffron got up and slid the door open.
"Saffron!" James exclaimed, fending off the two girls and stepping towards her to engulf her in a hug, "are you alright?"
"More or less. What's going on here?"
"I'm trying to keep your brother from doing something madly stupid," Eliza replied grimly.
James frowned and turned to explain, "When the Death Eaters attacked, it was Lily who fought them back- freed the last compartment. Only now, she's back there alone with them and Eliza won't let me go to her."
Eliza sighed, "James, you're hurt- you just can't go back for her!" She looked white, and bit her lip as she said it.
He glared at her and pointing at the side of his head, where a steady trickle of blood dripped down his face said, "This- this is nothing! I can't just leave her, even if you are willing to abandon her!"
Eliza took a step back and her eyes filled with tears.
"James, calm down," Saffron said, taking the dressing from the girl and holding it to the side of his head, "Eliza's not doing this to abandon Lily, it's for your own good. And Lily can take care of herself, you know that-"
The other girls exchanged glances, clearly showing they thought Lily was a lost cause. One of them turned her head away to hide tears.
"But against an army of Death Eaters-"
She silenced him with a look, he hesitated and one of the girls took the opportunity to wrap a bandage around his head, securing the dressing.
"But-" He didn't want to drop the subject.
"I think…" she hesitated for a moment before going on more certainly, "I know, that if Lily was in trouble I'd know about it."
"Saffron!"
She turned round just in time to be surrounded with another pair of arms as they gave her a fierce hug. She hadn't seen his face, but she knew from his scent that it was Sirius. He held her at arms length and scrutinised her.
"I'm alright, Sirius," she said with a smile, disentangling his grip and placing a hand on his arm.
James reached over and grabbed Saffron by the arm, pulling her away from Sirius to hiss in her ear, "What are you talking about? How could you possibly know if Lily was in trouble?"
"Let go, James, you're hurting me," she replied, tugging her arm out of his grip and rubbing it. Then in a low tone she added, "You know the deal with Lily, James. You have to trust her. And as for me, well…"
"What's the big secret?" Sirius asked, coming over and lowering his voice too.
"I-"
"Hey, if you guys are finished, we could really do with some help in here!"
They looked round to see the blond girl who had tended Saffron just a minute ago beckoning to them from the next carriage.
"Alright, Minette, I'm coming," Saffron replied, edging past James.
He caught her arm, "Saffron!"
"Later," she replied irritably, "there are more important things to see to now. You'll just have to trust me, James."
And with that, she followed Minette into the next compartment.
"Alright, what do you want me to-" Saffron broke off and gasped, clutching at her pendent from where a fierce, stabbing pain was pulsating, "What the-" Collapsing against the wall she slid to the floor, blinking tears from her eyes as she fumbled with the top of her robe to pull out the pendent.
The second her hands clasped round the crescent moon there was a blinding flash of light-
-The carriage rocked violently to one side, overbalancing suddenly. Broken shards of glass rained down and she raised a hand to cover her face. A bright red spell hit her and she flew backwards, crashing hard into the wall at her back. She slumped to floor, shaking her head in an effort to clear it and shakily getting to her feet, raising a shield just in time to deflect the series of spells shot in her direction.
With a huge effort she closed her eyes, throwing out her arms, a wave of sparkling fire shot out from her, blasting away any remaining glass from the windows and anything else that wasn't attached to the walls-
"Saffron!" Someone was shaking her shoulders.
She blinked and Minette's anxious face swam into vision.
"Wait there, I'll go get someone," she said, starting to get to her feet.
"No," Saffron shot out a hand and grabbed hold of her arm. The pain was gone now, just a dull ache remained, but the vision of Lily was still fresh in her mind. Thinking she said, "I just need to rest for a second."
Minette looked at her sceptically.
"No, really," she got up, resisting the need to hold onto the wall behind her to help herself up. "Go and get James and Sirius to help you with things, I'll just go and sit down for a moment."
"Well, alright then," Minette replied, still looking unconvinced, "you take care of yourself, you hear me?"
Saffron smiled and touched her arm, "You too."
She turned and headed off, looking for somewhere quiet. In the next carriage the corridor was empty. Taking her chance, Saffron took hold of the pendent again, this time she focused on following the link with every fibre of her being. Perhaps it would show her where Lily was and then she could fly to her. Her broom must be somewhere around here and she was sworn to help her friend.
She felt a jolt somewhere in the region of her stomach and then an odd, disorientating sensation before falling to the ground. Looking up she found herself lying next to the rail tracks. To her left was the wreckage of the train carriage. It reminded her of a crushed can of drink, both ends were concertinaed in and it lay on its roof. The ground was littered with broken fragments of glass and the contents of suitcases were strewed among various pieces of the carriage itself that had been flung out.
"Lily!" She jumped to her feet and ran as fast as her feet would carry her towards the carriage, pulling her wand out as she went, light blossoming at the tip as she muttered "Lumos. Lily, Lily, are you alright?"
"Saff? Is that you?" Lily's voice was faint and she sounded worn out.
"Yes, it's me, Lily, where are you?"
"Over here,"
From one end of the carriage Saffron heard the sound of someone knocking. She ran towards it, pulling away half empty trunks until she had uncovered a window. Lifting her wand so the light fell inside, she saw Lily lying on the ground, her head bleeding freely. She looked utterly exhausted but smiled when she saw Saffron.
"Merlin's beard, Lily! What happened?"
She coughed and tried to sit up.
"Don't try to move! Wait a minute."
Carefully she crouched down and crawled through the smashed out window to Lily, ignoring the glass that cut her hands and knees. Holding her wand, she muttered a spell under her breath, helping to slow the bleeding. She tore strips from the hem of her robe and folded them to make a crude dressing. Then using further strips torn from her robe she bandaged them round Lily's head.
"Sorry I can't fix you up properly, Lil. You know, I'm going to have a word with Dumbledore when we get back about starting teaching us useful things. Hardly anyone on the train knows any First Aid magic and they're having to make do with muggle techniques."
"How is everyone?" Lily asked as Saffron helped her into a sitting position and then sat herself opposite.
"A lot of minor injuries, but nothing fatal, mostly people are just in shock. It was just so unexpected, you know."
Lily nodded, "Well it wasn't about them anyway."
"What?"
"I talked to them- the Death Eaters. Well their leader, Armand Lestrange, and he basically offered me an alliance with Voldemort!"
"What!" Saffron exclaimed in shock, "But-"
"I know! But the thing is, that apparently Huntress's before me have turned bad so I guess they thought it was worth a shot," Lily shrugged.
"How did they know that?"
"I don't know, I guess he could have been lying but," she hesitated, "I thought he was telling the truth, somehow it just sounded right as if something in me was agreeing with him and that has to count for something right?"
"I guess so. And well, if you think so then I'd be inclined to go with whatever you think, you being the chosen one and all." Saffron grinned.
"Hang on a second, how did you find me?" Lily said, suddenly remembering, "And how did you get here?"
Wordlessly, Saffron took out her pendent and lifted it over her head. Holding it by the chain she offered it to Lily. She reached out to touch it and as her fingers brushed it the pendent started to hum gently, a soft white light emanating from it.
"Saffron, what-" her voice faltered and she stared in awe at the glowing crescent moon that illuminated her best friend's face. Her eyes stared back and Lily, the pendent reflected in them.
"I'm an Amazon, Lily."
"An Amazon?" The word sounded familiar and yet…
"I- we're helpers, companions to the Huntress- to you Lily." She paused for a second trying to remember something, "How did it go? Oh yes,
To she that stands alone,
The servant to them all,
Our mortal wants we all disown
And answer at her call
For we are always here
To wait for her to come
To guard all that she holds dear
She is our guiding sun."
Lily stared at her in amazement and confusion. Saffron smiled and told her about what had happened that day when she had gone with Yolaine. When she had finished she smiled saying,
"And I'm not saying you should expect great things from me, Lily. Honestly, I thought they'd made a mistake choosing me, but then I thought-this is something I want to do. You're my friend Lily- my best friend, and I love you. How could I say no to something that might help you? We're in this together now."
Lily smiled then threw herself forwards, drawing Saffron into a tight hug.
With tears in her eyes she whispered, "Thank you, thank you so much! There's no-one else I'd rather have with me in this than you!"
***************
A/N: Sorry about the wait guys, really didn't intend for it to take so long! Hope you liked the latest instalment, let me know what you think. And yes, for those of you who have read 'The White Fire' parents of the ppl in that will be sort of cameoing here, other than the obvious of course.
Um anyway, won't be undating for a while, I have big, scary exams at the moment, and can't afford distractions really. But they should be over by the end of May and I'll update again when I can. Thanks for your patience *bows* ;)