AHH! What a crazy ride these past FOUR months have been! ^.^ Thanks for sticking with it and for ALL THESE AMAZING REVIEWS. I love each and every one so much. You guys have spoiled me rotten, and I'm going to the dark side because of it. Thank you 3 I hope this ending is a satisfying conclusion for most of you! Short little epilogue in a very 'I open at the close' kind of way out in 2 days.

ferfeita: Ah, no! That would be such a horror story :( I'd cry for weeks if I wrote that! Although, looking back, that totally looks like what I was alluding to, doesn't it? Hopefully you like this better! shivani: My bad :/ Who Nott has been sitting with a couple times (okay, maybe it was just once?) might clue you in to who he was working with. Hope all your schoolwork is happily finished! :D Guest9: YES, I DO! Her birthday is now officially cursed! :D cscs01: Gaw, you make me blush while smiling SUPER WIDE! ;D Hopefully this is a nice way to wrap up all those feelings! Nina: Hahahaa, exxxcellent ^.^ Yeah, the bj under the cloak scene was one I really wanted to do, but just could never make work :( Perhaps in another fic somewhere! And ooo, she IN in. Lol, having her lie to Mulciber and then tell James IMMEDIATELY was so fun XD I mean, James did always say she was a liar… And ha, that's just my head canon of where James wants to take Lily. To a beach on a tropical island and make love to her endlessly. Sigh. Let's see if ALL your suspicions are correct! I mean… ;) TanglledThoughts: Yup, she gone gone. In my head, Lily will still make Remus his Wolfie Potion for the rest of her life, and Remus will take them, but that will be it :( The friendship is just forever fractured :'( Heh, she's definitely changed her tune, from beating herself up for not having the strength to go through with killing to James, to being like HOLY SHIT, I nearly killed James? Wow, I was a monster back then, lol. Ah! Here's to hoping you don't work weekends :) mariaclara1400: HEY! So good to see your name pop up again ^.^ Yay! I'm glad that even when he's dark, James can still feel a little like his canon self! Thank you xoxo Shaniso: All the bridges *poof!* Laser focused, she is. And I think that's a great way to put it, James has always been this steady force in her life. Remus was too, but she definitely took him for granted and he was starting to make her feel bad about her life choices. James has her wrapped around his finger just as much as she has him! Here we go! Moon'zelle: Sorry. I love cliffies O:) Yes! She is definitely living her 'screw everyone else' phase. I think Remus will always be a hole in her heart that she will fiercely try to ignore! Possibly: Ah, thank you! I should have asked for help before ending the story! Haha. Alas, perhaps on the next one 3 Cheers! Guest: Oooooo, did you just LEAVE A REVIEW CLIFFHANGER? Damn. Taste of my own medicine I see! Brilliant! :D TurtlesTale: Oh, I hadn't even thought about it being a birthday surprise. That would have been rather nice. But no, it's worse than that! Love fics: SORRY! I can't help myself. Just like Lily being dark now ;) Here we go! Thanks for hanging in there 3 jilyorbust: ME NEITHER! What a crazy ride this has been :) I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I did writing it! AH THAT WOULD BE TERRIBLE. Nope, no, I don't like that ending! XP Maybe I'll do a pregnancy twist in another story, but NOT THIS ONE! Haha Dianne: They have good friends, that's for sure… even if some of them *cough cough* don't treat them right. Poor Remus. He really is showing us how far Lily has fallen. Yep, her roommates thought she'd died because of The Prophet. As for if the Order knows she's dark now, yes. Yes they do. I feel like Fawkes alerted Dumbledore to it by attacking her, and then he was like 'oh shit' and then came clean to McGonagall. Course Lily doesn't know for sure this is what happened, but that's what I'm picturing. Hahaha, same girl, same ;) And I want to write that scene! I have something somewhat similar in my previous story WAYDTM where he magically flicks her off in the middle of class, but I wanted to take it a step further, lol. Maybe in the next one! Here's to hoping you get that happy ending! I will definitely miss all your amazing thoughts! 3 3 3 Lunane: Haaaa, the harshest. But in her mind, these people have 100 percent wronged her. Dark Lily during smut HAD to be done. I kinda loved it, lol. AND OMG, I LOVE REVENGE OF THE SITH! That is such a compliment THANK YOU! My poor misunderstood Vader 3 Breanie: I do not know… I do not know… but I MUST! ;) He did kill her :/ Awkward. Funbunnypotter26: We will FIND OUT right now :D Haaaa, I love that. Thank you ^.^ theresthesnitch: Just a little fire will solve it O:) Good questions, we shall see! And she's only just beginning :D theroomofreq: AH! Thank you! I dig her evilness too! She deserves to be a little bad now ;) Lol. Thank you so much 3 Savannah5555: I love me some plot twists! Yes, let the hatred for his mother flow thru youuuu ;) The second body ended up being the poor house-elf :( And that's my fav type of evil too! (Clearly, lol) Hahaha, let's see how all your great predictions panned out :D

Warning: Very violent

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. Art work by the super talented blvnk-art (tumblr) aka potterbyblvnk (insta)

Song: Without You by Ursine Vulpine & Annaca

The Culmination

When Lily opened her eyes, she knew that everything had changed. Waking up by the magic of a wand was so much different than waking up naturally. It was as though a current had been shot through her body, opening her eyes for her and making her brain stand at attention. There was none of the haze or fog of coming to on her own — yet all of the confusion of suddenly looking at a whole new world where she knew she was not supposed to be.

"Ah, so our guest of honor has arisen." Lily didn't recognize the voice who spoke behind her, but she already knew she hated it with a passion. Much in the same way all the hairs on her body had stood up when in Euphemia's presence, they did so now, her brain doing nothing but screaming, 'Run, run, run.'

But she couldn't. Not because she was physically restrained, but because across the room from her, directly in her line of sight, she could see that James was. She would never be able to flee when she saw that he was in danger. "James?" she called out unsurely, everyone but her boyfriend a blurred blob in her periphery. It was as if her adrenaline was focusing her on the only thing that mattered. And… she was quite sure that his placement straight ahead of her was no accident. One of them was most certainly being threatened by way of the other.

But James couldn't answer her either. As well as being chained to a wall in glowing purple shackles — his arms propped high above his head — a thick black gag had also been tied over his mouth, looking painfully tight as it prevented him from making anything more than muffled sounds. Lily clocked that he had dried blood caked under his ears and the same deep internal bruising across his bare torso as he had once sported previously the night he'd snuck into her dorm. He had clearly been tortured already and looked so frightfully panic-stricken, tears glistening in his eyes, that it made her stomach clench. Whatever mess they had found themselves in, Lily instantly knew it was life or death.

"I've been waiting to meet the Mudblood that made one of my most loyal followers ready to risk it all…" the mysterious voice continued as he seemingly walked around her, "and here you are." Finally Lily could see him, and honestly, she was super surprised. In all the times that James had talked about his master — everything he expected of his minions and all his diabolical plans for world domination — she'd never imagined him… well, this hot.

Get your shit together, Lils, not all ambitious men who want to rule the planet are just automatically sexy now. Lily had no idea how James had linked the synapses in her brain for danger and arousal, but fuck was it a hard connection to break now. Then again, she figured that being able to fight with herself meant that she wasn't so frozen in fear that her mind essentially ceased to function. She was still in the moment, alert, and ready to assess the situation — namely, just how fucked we are.

Lily looked around the room and saw that forming a circle around her were, what she assumed, all the Death Eaters. The younger ones she knew, and some of the older ones looked like they could be their fathers. Bellatrix was just right of James, licking her lips in the absence of her usual breakfast knife. A second after Lily had the thought, the psychopath pulled her dagger out of her pocket and started playing with it, lazily dragging it up and down James' neck. That set Lily off. If she harms one precious hair on his body, I swear to Merlin, I'll gut her like a fish.

Voldemort must have seen the tension take over her frame, because he let out his own sad attempt at a human laugh. "Don't worry. She won't hurt him unless I tell her to. She's loyal."

Lily bristled at his words. There was so much to unpack there. The loyalty jab was obvious, but she couldn't stop pondering about who he meant was allowed to hurt James. Her hands morphed into fists, and Lily realized that she still had her wand on her. Voldemort underestimated her so much — saw her as so little of a threat — that he hadn't even bothered to disarm her. The realization made her blood boil. Sure, she knew she was outnumbered thirty to one, but the implication that she was that useless, such a Mudblood that she could do absolutely no damage on her way out? Oh, he has something else coming for him.

Lily continued scanning. Along the wall, it looked as though Sirius was also chained, which made sense, as there was no way he would have allowed James to be treated like this, but it seemed as though he was the only one. James had always said the other Slytherin students were loyal to him, but all she could see now were scared little boys with shifty eyes, looking around as though waiting for their fates to be decided for them. Cowards.

Closest to Voldemort, standing side by side, were Lily's two biggest enemies right now: Nott, who had been the one to hex and kidnap her, and Snape. Their positioning together made Lily think that they had worked as a pair to take her and James down — which made sense, Snape shared their room, unlike Nott who was younger. Snape could have attacked James while he slept, knocking him and Sirius out before bringing them to Voldemort. It would have been hard to levitate two unconscious bodies out of the their dorm undetected, but then Lily remembered the night she'd seen the Death Eater meeting in the woods. They'd never passed her to get back to the castle — they'd had access to a secret passageway to and from the Forbidden Forest all this time. Snape could have just taken James and Sirius to his master that way and instructed Nott to bring Lily later after the pair had been interrogated and Voldemort had summoned the rest of his followers for a meeting. Lily's only saving grace was the knowledge that James always slept naked. Knowing that Snape had found James completely starkers and had had to somehow wrangle some trousers onto him before he could sneak his body out of the castle was oddly hilarious. Serves him right. Lily hoped Snape was still dealing with the massive blow to his self-confidence that seeing James like that must have caused — she'd obviously never observed what her former friend was packing, but he'd always seemed to be overcompensating for a lack of something.

Snape could have been the one who touched my face. Her skin crawled at the thought. Of course the git would take advantage of Lily's unconscious state to finally get to caress her. She couldn't wait to get out of this room so she could get her hands around his throat and show him just what his unwanted contact would cost him and then she'd watch as the life drained from—

"Hm, a lot of anger I sense from this one," Voldemort announced to the room loftily as he continued his stroll around her as though he was walking through the park. "Surprising… but also not." Lily noticed that every person there hung off his every word, but not as though they cared by choice, but because they were nervous for what those words would spell for their own future. "Tell me, young Mr Potter, do you like this Mudblood because she reminds you so much of your mother?"

James protested violently against his restraints, but Lily spoke up, knowing he presently couldn't do it himself. "I am nothing like his mother." Lily hated that this wasn't even the first time she'd had to make this claim.

Voldemort looked back at her, linking his long bony fingers behind his spine. "And why's that?"

Because I'm smarter, because I'm better, because I'm alive. "Because I actually love him."

The corner of Voldemort's mouth twitched, and for a moment, Lily recalled what James had told her about Voldemort being the only other person currently alive who could read minds. She wondered if he'd taken a peek just now and seen the true wicked leaning of her thoughts. Fuck, I wish James had taught me how to protect my brain.

"How… cute," Voldemort said, leaving no room for misinterpreting just how foul he found their lovesick ways. He turned back to his henchmen at large. "You see, just as much as the Mudblood here is naive, Mr Potter has been foolish." Lily's eyes darted to James, watching as his brow scrunched and his body jerked, trying and failing to free himself. The more he struggled, the tighter the purple chains seemed to wrap around his arms, holding him taut. Lily couldn't even imagine the strength of magic Voldemort had to have employed to be able to keep James stuck in one place. "He foolishly believed that he had potential, that I was in fact grooming him to be my protégé, when nothing could be further from the truth." Voldemort spun, his robes billowing behind him as he faced James, wishing to taunt him directly to his face. Lily could tell that he thought that James truly loved him as a master and believed that saying the following things would actually break his spirit. "In actuality, he was always just the price I had to pay to keep his harpy of a mother compliant."

There was a general murmur across the Death Eaters and the attention seemed to bolster Voldemort, making his reddish eyes gleam a little brighter and his shoulders shift back the tiniest of bits. Lily realized that the megalomaniac almost got off on his little show, his speech, trying to project his wit and cleverness to anyone who would listen. After all, how would anyone know that he was an evil mastermind who had outmaneuvered everyone unless he got to brag about it? But just like with Euphemia, Lily couldn't help but hope that all his talking would become his downfall. Why do villains love boasting about their every move so much?! Lily knew she wasn't anything like that. After all, how long had she kept her secret about wiping Petunia's memory? She was different than this — I'm different.

"You see, your master has always known the benefit of having a person inside the ministry. Someone who can write our laws for us, and help make the general public see the way… And all she wanted in return was," Voldemort swept a pale, pale hand towards James, "her own blood to be mentored. To be given a spot in my inner circle." Voldemort smiled, and his unnaturally white teeth twinkled in the low, flickering candlelight. "Nepotism at its finest." A few older Death Eaters chuckled, but Lily wasn't sure if it was meant as a joke. "He actually thought he was special. That he was powerful. That he was a genius, if you'll believe it."

This time, Voldemort did wait for laughter, spreading his arms wide with an expectant expression, and he was naturally rewarded with it. Lily thought she could see the light in James' eyes dim for a bit, being both ashamed and humiliated by his public roosting, so Lily tried to catch his gaze. She was screaming, It's not true! You are those things, don't you dare believe him for a second! so loudly in her head, willing him to just look at her and read it there, but he wouldn't meet her stare.

Voldemort continued, "The only problem is, as my dutiful servant Severus just informed me, Mr Potter then went out and killed his own mother."

Fuck, Lily thought, realizing what was happening a few seconds before everyone else in the circle did. Not only had James never meant as much to Voldemort as he had originally thought he had — and really, had very heavily been banking on — but he had also murdered someone who actually was advantageous to Voldemort — Euphemia. Lily didn't understand how she hadn't seen it sooner, but of course Voldemort had needed someone on the inside to help do all his dirty work for him, instating the laws that allowed him to prosper and continue gathering lackeys… but she supposed, that's sort of what she felt like he had been using James for too. Perhaps the psychos always want blind loyalty, but are never really willing to give it in return.

But of course Snape ratted James out, Lily considered further. James had been complaining that the animosity between them had been festering out of control for weeks, but Lily had never thought it would end up like this. The wasted cum-stain truly was becoming the bane of her existence.

"So you see," Voldemort hissed, "young Potter is no longer of value to me."

Lily's mind absolutely short-circuited, a thousand and one ways of watching Voldemort kill James flashing through her mind, all variations of the same tragedy more horrific than the next. "Yes he is!" she yelped out desperately. "Of course he is. His mother is a martyr at the ministry right now; his name can take him far. He can be your newest connection. He can make laws. He's smart enough to get a job there!"

James finally caught her eye, and Lily hated the look on his face. His pride had clearly taken another hit by Lily having to beg for his life, and it seemed as though he was gearing up to fight so that she never would have to again.

"Silence, silly girl!" Voldemort commanded, upset that his demonic rant was being interrupted. He kept his regard on his followers, willing them to only pay attention to him and not her little sideshow. Lily could see that a few of the Death Eaters' gazes faltered, Mulciber and Avery side eyeing James, clearly not used to doing anything without his approval. It gave Lily a glimmer of hope. We can do this — we can still get out of this!

"All my true followers know that we act for the greater good. What we do individually is for our singular purpose: the bettering of the world for wizarding kind — and anyone who strays from that path is a danger to all of us." Voldemort raised his wand to point it at James just as Lily had her biggest involuntary shiver yet. She had already known that Dumbledore was deranged, but to hear words that she could so clearly imagine coming from his mouth being hissed by the serpent tongue of the enemy was almost too much. They were crazy, they were all fucking crazy, but James wasn't. James was her whole damn life now, and if either of them, Dumbledore or Voldemort, killed him, they killed her by proxy.

How unfair would the universe have to be to make her fall in love with James only to rip him away from her? How could life convince her just how much she couldn't live without him only to then try to make her do just that? Lily wouldn't allow it. As long as anything was still in her power, as long as her heart still beat in her chest, she would not allow the sun to rise on a world where James Potter was not still breathing, safe and sound in her arms.

Voldemort, living for the drama apparently, turned to Lily. "Then again, she is the one who jaded him. She is the reason my followers no longer practice their skills at school, and the reason why I suddenly have complaints about killing 'fellow wizards,' as if Mudbloods could be like us." The idea of Voldemort fielding grievances like a human resources manager, sifting through little anonymous notes from a suggestion box nearly had Lily giggling, but luckily she caught herself. What the fuck is wrong with me? Perhaps the prospect of being deprived of the love of her life had made her lose her mind and she was one of the crazies now. "I even have Death Eaters telling me she isn't so bad." A few of her classmates awkwardly fidgeted, but Voldemort's eyes bored into Lily's. Well, fuck. Lily didn't want to have to duel him one on one either if that's what this all came down to. She knew she was good — but she wasn't that good. Yet.

Snape unexpectedly piped up. "My lord," he simpered. "You said you were going to kill Potter, and Potter alone."

Voldemort looked almost exasperated by yet another interruption, but kept his eyes trained on Lily. "Yes, yes, Severus, I have not forgotten." He took a step forward, and Lily fought to hold her own footing steady with his approach. "But what greater way to punish young Mr Potter than by hurting his obsession?"

James made his wildest thrash against the wall yet, his shackles all but cutting off the circulation to his hands as his eyes pleaded his case. His wordless begging was all too clear: Take me, hurt me, kill me instead.

The anguished display only fascinated Voldemort more as a man who had evidently never understood love. Reaching out for a lock of Lily's hair, he let it slip between his cold fingers. "What about you has so many of my followers so intrigued?" Lily fought her trembling, trying to stand perfectly still. "What about you makes them lose their minds?" If Lily didn't know any better, she'd say he almost sounded… jealous?

"Why don't you keep us around and find out for yourself?" Lily sassed, only the slight twitching of her nose giving away how her stomach was all but eating itself with nervousness at the moment. A few of the older men couldn't help but snigger at the audacity of her cheek, but Voldemort's eyes merely narrowed, angered further still.

Lily knew he'd never let them go. Her palm grew sweaty, threatening to drop the wand still clutched ever so tightly inside of it. Should she throw out a hex? Obviously he'd see it coming from a kilometer away and deflect it, but she had to try didn't she? Or would that just piss him off more? Make him torture both of them more slowly before killing them solely out of spite? She didn't want to do nothing, but she couldn't risk Voldemort's retaliation, especially if it was directed at James.

The swish of Voldemort's wrist made Lily jump, expecting an escapable flash of pain, but instead, a door at the right side of the room croaked open, and two men in their twenties came stumbling out, almost tripping over themselves as though they'd been banging on the door for hours in a vain attempt to escape.

The blond one in front looked around the room in terror. "L-look guys, we don't want any trouble," he began, holding his hands up as though showing he posed absolutely no threat. "If you let us go now, we won't say nothin'."

The shorter guy behind him jumped in, "And we have terrible memories, so we won't remember any of you's faces or—"

Both men's blabbering was instantly cut off as they both clutched at their throats, faces turning oddly purple as they sputtered. Voldemort continued speaking like he couldn't hear them gasping for air behind him. "Muggles. Savage, infantile beasts." The shorter Muggle dropped to his knees, his eyes unfocused and bulging out of his skull as he choked. "Unlike wizards, they run on their baser instincts, never having developed the parts of their brain to know any better." He spun around. "It makes me wonder if you actually are a Pureblood, Potter, and not part Muggle. Because you truly should have known better than to try to cross me."

James, Lily said like a little prayer inside her own head, watching what was happening in front of her in slow motion. Do something, do something! she screamed internally. Bellatrix licked her lips in front of her, preparing for the feast of bloodshed that was imminent. Lily steeled herself, preparing for battle — like hell it was about to be her boyfriend who got devoured.

Voldemort flicked his wand again and suddenly the terrible rattling wheezes of the two Muggles stopped, both now crouched on the floor. Voldemort said an incantation, and a very sharp axe appeared in the blond man's hands. "Kill him."

The blond man looked up at Voldemort, his brown eyes wide as he gulped down the oxygen that still failed to meet his hunger. "W-what?"

Just as calmly, Voldemort repeated his instructions. "That shirtless man chained up behind you. Pick up the axe. And kill him."

He said it like he was ordering a cup of morning tea. "No!" Lily screamed, ready to race forward and intervene. As soon as she took a single step, however, she felt as though her whole body had walked into a rubber band, snapping her backwards, making her fall onto her bum. She scrambled to stand back up, yelling at the stranger with all her might. "No! Don't you dare touch him! Don't you dare—"

Another lazy whisk of Voldemort's wand, and Lily found her mouth moving wordlessly. She fucking hated when wizards took her voice from her.

"Do it, now."

"No," the blond Muggle said, eyes darting between Voldemort and Lily still pantomiming her protests. "Are you crazy? I'm not going to—"

"Shame." There was a blinding flash of green light, and Lily watched as the blond man slumped forward, his face smacking into the concrete floor with a sickening crunch. His eyes remained open and lifeless as blood pooled out of the nose he'd just broken on his landing.

"FUCK!" the other Muggle yelled, shaking his friend's shoulders. "What the fuck was that? Larry? Larry, man, wake up!" Even though he had no idea what had happened, Lily could tell that this Muggle could sense that his mate was dead. "Larry, man, get up," he whimpered, snot starting to drip from his nose. "Don't leave me like this—" He wiped the wetness from off his face with hands coated in his friend's blood, leaving streaks across his cheeks. It was a grisly sight.

"Now, let's try that again. Kill him," Voldemort demanded, now addressing the other Muggle, sounding bored.

Lily could feel her vocal cords ripping, screaming silent screams as she tried pushing through the rubbery, invisible barrier to no avail. She watched as the Muggle shook his head and picked up the axe, looking at it as though entering some sort of fugue state. It looked heavy in his hands, the weight clearly weighing him down more than just physically. Even through all her thrashing, Lily could see the moment the man decided he had to do what he had to do — and that he'd rather kill James than end up like his friend Larry, dead and bleeding out in some dingy room surrounded by scary, unknown men wielding sticks.

She was going to die. She was going to watch James die, and she'd feel that blade in his neck as though it was through her own. She could feel her heart ripping apart, the valves shutting down and deciding pumping blood was passé when they could just pull themselves in separate directions instead. The pain was unbearable. 'Magic is in your blood. It's in your very veins, and your heart is what's pumping it throughout your body, transferring it all the way to the tips of your fingers down to your toes.' Suddenly, she heard James' voice as though it was whispered directly into her ear. Her adrenaline altered state made her slow on the uptake, but she realized it was his words from in the Head office when he was teaching her nonverbal magic. He'd been all over her that night, touching her chest over where her heart was, and she'd been a wreck… but it had worked. Potter, well, James now, had taught her the way.

Lily watched transfixed as the Muggle got to his feet and turned around, making a beeline for her boyfriend. Her eyes strayed and locked with James', seeing a look she'd never seen there before. He looked apologetic, and regretful, and defeated. No. Fuck no, don't you dare give up on me now, Potter. Don't you fucking dare, she screeched in her mind. She could recall his previous words so clearly, all but egging her on: 'You have to imagine it… Feel it filling up every centimeter of your body. Feel what that does to you.' Without overthinking it, she raised her wand, pointing it at the Muggle's back. No one would take James away from her. No one.

Lily didn't even watch the curse hit the man's spine. She barely even registered that she'd cast a new spell for the first time, and that it had been a nonverbal one to boot. All she knew was that she'd had no other choice. She watched as the love of her life's eyes glowed green, the flecks of jade in his irises glimmering even brighter in the flash of the curse, and she relished in the fact that they were still full of the life she'd come to depend on so heavily. He was still here, with her, alive.

As the metal blade of the axe clattered loudly on the floor, something shifted in James' eyes as his jaw set. A switch had been triggered, and not a moment too soon. Come back to me, baby. It was as if seeing the lengths Lily was willing to go to keep them together reminded him just what he was fighting for — and just who he was. He was James fucking Potter, and his girl, the girl who had literally just murdered for him, needed him right now. If he'd been able to get around the Hogwarts wards, he could most certainly escape from Voldemort's magical prison now. He could do this — he could save them.

A second later, the purple shackles that had contained him clanked against themselves emptily, as James disappeared from sight, finally having Disapparated. There we go, Lily thought as the candles all shimmered ominously in the room before a harsh unexpected wind blew them all out — seemingly coming out of nowhere. There were various hoots and hollers from the Death Eaters before Lily heard another set of shackles hitting the wall — Sirius was now free too as James fully got back in touch with the sheer magnitude of his magical prowess.

Voldemort reignited all the flames at once, looking around oddly confused as though he couldn't believe that not only had someone been able to free themselves from his chains, but that they'd also somehow broken through his wards.

All of the Death Eaters except for Voldemort yelled as their bodies were flung back against the walls behind them at awkward angles, propped up there like mice stuck in a sticky trap. Lily watched as Peter Pettigrew screamed the loudest, trying to wiggle his body back and forth to extricate his arms from invisible glue, making absolutely no progress. Bellatrix was taking a quieter, less panicked route, somehow freeing one arm and painstakingly peeling herself off the wall one limb at a time.

"Potter, show yourself!" Voldemort declared, spinning around and waving his wand, casting all sorts of spells that Lily couldn't even begin to fathom.

The room rocked back and forth as though in the midst of an earthquake, but it wasn't until Voldemort set his gaze on Lily, remembering that she was a pawn in this fight that he could manipulate, that a chair in the corner of the room exploded into a thousand splinters and all launched straight at his face. Voldemort easily deflected them to his side, piercing one of his trapped older followers, carelessly killing him instead. "You can't hide forever!"

An angry howl behind him made Voldemort turn to Sirius as James reappeared on his other side, thus starting a brilliant battle the likes of which Lily had never seen. It was more apparent than ever that the duel Lily had had with James in Defense Against the Dark Arts when he'd completely dominated her had been nothing short of a fun little warmup for him as they each blasted out curses so powerful they were blinding and made her skin crawl. A second before the room was engulfed in a quick blue inferno, making all the Death Eaters shriek out in agony, Lily saw an iridescent shield charm surround her, ensuring her safety. Even in the midst of fighting the most evil wizard of all time, James was making sure she was okay and unharmed. He loved and protected her in a way that no other person in her life ever had.

She had to do the same for him. James and Sirius were clearly able to hold their own against Voldemort — much to the older wizard's extreme surprise — but they couldn't do that if Bellatrix indeed freed herself. Lily ran up to fight her just as she landed on the ground, perched on her hands and feet like a cat. She could take on this woman, it was the least she could do for her man.

"I've waited a long time for this," Bellatrix spat as she straightened her back, one vertebra at a time. "You'll pay for all you've done, Mudblood."

Lily smirked as she raised her wand. "Bring it, bitch."

Lily and Bellatrix volleyed and parried their own slew of curses, a few landing and scorching Lily to the core. Bellatrix was fighting to kill, she could see it in her deranged eyes, but Lily was fighting for love. It was this knowledge that spurred Lily forth, making her think she could win this despite Bellatrix having more practice in the art of being recklessly violent. At the end of the day, Lily would always love James more than Bellatrix hated her blood — it was just a fact.

In a stroke of brilliance, Lily realized she could use the truth to her advantage. Another bout of magic from either James or Voldemort shook the room, and one of the walls, complete with at least six Death Eaters still glued to it, toppled over out of sight. Lily had to assume that all of those wizards were now dead. Cold, outside, winter air laced with snow ripped through the space, blowing both girls' hair around their faces. "You'll never actually win his approval, you know," Lily hissed, lassoing a magic whip, trying to bind Bellatrix's feet together.

She jumped at the last second and snarled. "I don't deal with such petty things as feelings, Mudblood."

Lily grinned at the jittery nature of her opponent's counter-attack. "But you do." She slung another curse and smiled wider when it hit. "You hate to admit it, but you crave Voldemort's acceptance. You'd do anything for it." Bellatrix screeched and tried to sever off Lily's arm, but Lily easily blocked her desperate and clunky spell. "But you know it's true. He'll never see you as special either." Bellatrix cried out as Lily set her shirt on fire, having to frantically put it out before she could respond. "He'll never give you what you need. He'll never be able to fix something so broken, Bella."

Patting down the last smoking embers of her clothes made Bellatrix realize she still had something in her pocket, and Lily almost reacted too late when she watched her pull out her dagger and throw it with pinpoint accuracy at Lily's face. As if time had slowed down, Lily started falling left, trying to get out of the fatal path of the blade, watching as it whizzed closer and closer. She screamed as it sliced her cheek, only spattering the teeniest bit of her blood as it carried on — seemingly having a mind of its own on whom to bury itself into.

A second later, there was a choked sound, and Voldemort fell to his knees, blood gurgling up past his lips, and Bellatrix's blade embedded in his neck. "My Lord!" Bellatrix cried out, sounding more pained than Lily had ever heard her before as she realized just what she'd done.

But Voldemort didn't pay her any attention, snakelike eyes blinking in shock as he grappled for the knife in his throat before yanking it out, looking at it in complete disbelief as blood ran down the blade to his fingers. It was like what Lily had thought when she'd nearly murdered James with the exact same dagger — what poetic justice to slaughter Voldemort with a tool designed by Muggles, aka his biggest fear. He had always been so self-assured in his magical supremacy, his absolute omnipotence, that he'd never seen something as simple as a knife capable of bringing him down.

Bellatrix was still screaming, trying to run to him, but there was another flash of green light from the end of Sirius' wand, and she slumped forward, body skidding to Voldemort's knees. Another life lost, another obstacle overcome.

James strolled forward, summoning the wand that had fallen from Voldemort's limp fingers as he struggled to breathe, and snapped it in two in front of his face. His voice was quiet, and ice-cold, as he asked, "Who's the fool now, Tom?" Lily forced down a gulp of saliva as she drank in his every motion, mesmorized. So, so beautiful. And so very mine. James waved his wand and released all the remaining Death Eaters still stuck to the walls, inviting them to watch as he took down their old leader. They all scrambled to their feet, but looked otherwise unable or unwilling to do much else. "Look at me," James commanded, grabbing Voldemort's chin and forcing him to. Lily was surprised to learn that the monster must have had a heart after all, because his robes were soaked in the blood beating out from his neck in spurts. "We're going to do things my way from now on. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Voldemort took one last agonizing breath as James released his chin, and then fell forward to the ground just like the Muggle he'd killed earlier had. Only when his face connected with the concrete, there was no sickening crunch — almost as if his nose had no cartilage left in it to break.

Lily watched as James tilted his head up slowly, looking from Voldemort's corpse up to her, his eyes glowing a gorgeous gold as a smile slowly spread across his lips. The bands of muscle across his chest still expanded and contracted rapidly, recovering from his brilliant duel, and his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, and yet he was looking at her so enticingly, as though he'd never had a doubt in his mind that this was how things would always end up. He was grinning as though this was exactly how he'd always envisioned giving Lily the world. The image was haunting.

James Potter had always seen her for who she was and who she was meant to be. "Lily," he called as he raised his open palm in her direction, beckoning her forth. Even if he hadn't physically motioned for her to join him, Lily would have felt his call with every molecule of her being just the same. She was drawn to him — she always had been.

Her breath catching in her lungs once more, Lily saw nothing but him in a room full of people, her feet carrying her towards him as if magically summoned, her own hand outstretched to accept his. "James," she whispered as she stepped over Voldemort's body and stood by his side.

James tenderly tucked some of her hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger by her jaw, before leaning down to kiss her, sweetly, reverently, promising nothing short of forever. "I love you, baby," he breathed just for her before looking up around them at all the other Death Eaters expectantly.

One by one, they all fell down to a knee, bowing their heads, except for Sirius who just smirked and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Yeah, I'm not going to do that, mate. But you know where I stand."

James chuckled, taking in the sight of his new following, all devoted to him. Well, to us.

James interlocked their fingers, his thumb tracing featherlight circles on her inner wrist, and looked back down to Lily. "What should we do first, my Queen?"

Up Next: The Epilogue

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