Hi All, here is another story and we have only five more left, I think we have one more in Hogsmeade and then we go back to the castle for the final few chapters, this story I don't think will go through to the end of Seventh year but it was more about the growth of James and Lily's relationship in the year that changed the Wizarding World forever-at least in my story.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
I hope to get this story tied up by Christmas, as I do a double update around Christmas please don't be surprised if you get three or four chapters all at once.
Please Read and Review.
The Beginning Of The End
Chapter 15-The Man With No Identity
Dumbledore arrives and all eyes are on him and Voldemort. And the battle lines between the students of Hogwarts are fully drawn.
Dumbledore was here.
Dumbledore was here.
Dumbledore was here.
Lily's first thought was Thank God.
They were outnumbered duelling with wizards who were better at killing than they were. They were all seventeen and with the exception of a few they had never dulled outside of a couple of Défense Against The Dark Arts classes. This was totally unprepared for and all Lily could think of (as bizarre a thought it was and she would, fully admit it was bizarre) was the photo on her mother's mantle of her great grandfather Harold Evans who had fought in the First World War. He too had been seventeen when he had gone to war, he too had, had a life that was upended through no fault of his own and he too had been thrown into a war with very little training mainly because everyone and everybody that could have done something to stop it had thought that it wouldn't happen, they had buried their head in the sand, the government back then and the Ministry of Magic right now and they had watched the world chew up and spit up a generation of men whose only crime was to be born in at a time where their world was falling to shit.
Lily was suddenly beginning to understand the feeling all too well.
In fact she was beginning to understand quite a lot of things in this moment.
But now was not the time. If she started thinking about things like that she was going to lose her shit. If she lost her shit right now then she was as good as dead. Even if everyone in the vicinity wearing the ties of the red house, the yellow house and the blue house all collectively sighed a sigh of…well…something at the sight of their headmaster running down to meet them.
(What the green ties were thinking Lily didn't want to think about. She did not want to think about Sev—no—no she couldn't think that. If she thought about that then she was dead. She could think about that when and indeed if, she made it back her dorm room in one piece)
Dumbledore came to a stop and with one wave of his wand the Death Eaters that had been circling closer were blasted backwards as the full force of his spell knocked into them. He waved his wand again and suddenly Lily was flying. She had only ever been up on a broomstick once and she had certainly never endeavoured to repeat the experience. Broomsticks might be for James but they were certainly not for her. Lily was of the opinion that both of her feet belonged on the ground.
This only enforced her belief that, that had been a very good decision.
The spell lifted them all backwards and threw them onto the ground and she felt a sense of intense heat that made her dizzy and made her want to stick her head into the mud just to run away from the heat. She kept one hand on her wand and the other was gripping something else as the wash of heat rained over the top of them. She saw some green flashes but she slammed her eyes shut because she did not want to look twice at what was happening. She was afraid that if she did then she would never be able to look at anything again. There was something intense about the heat that made her afraid.
Not that that was a new thing. She had been afraid many times tonight.
It seemed surreal that tonight of all nights, just a few hours ago she had been confessing her attraction (read love) to James Potter the boy she had once thought she hated with all of her being.
It was funny how things changed.
Finally the heat subsided and she got the impression that she had been locked in a furnace for about ten minutes. She dug her face out of where she had buried it (James's chest) and her other hand where it had landed (wrapped around Marlene who was on her left, Sirius on her other side and Remus on his—again where the fuck was Pettigrew?) and she looked up her whole body shaking as if she was coming down off some traumatic fever.
She pulled herself up off the ground but was still ready to drop at any minute and she turned looking behind her.
Dumbledore had created a ring of fire around him and Voldemort. Both of them were speaking but over the roar and the crackle of the flames neither one of them could be heard and Lily wondered if maybe Dumbledore had intended it to be that way. If maybe he had wanted it to be that way. She didn't like the look in his eyes. She didn't know if it was the look in his eyes or the fire that illuminated them but for the first time since she had known him she was frightened of their Headmaster. He seemed to radiate something that was beyond impressive. She didn't know what it was but Lily was suddenly aware that he had taken on Grindelwald and won all those years ago and perhaps…perhaps it was the same with Voldemort. Maybe all that had to happen was a duel between these two great, all powerful wizards and the nightmare would be over.
Or perhaps her optimism was just stupid.
Lily didn't know. Lily didn't care. Lily just wanted it all to end. She wanted to rewind the day so that she didn't have to think about this moment in time. She wanted to fall into her bed and sleep this nightmare away.
There was nothing that she could do.
But God she wanted to do something.
The two wizards in the circle of fire were duelling and Lily looked around expecting the Death Eaters to come around defending their master, to carry on with their mission to annihilate them all. She gripped her wand fully prepared to defend herself when all she wanted to do was to stop fighting and yet there was nothing. Nothing came at them, nothing went for them, they were alone.
And then she understood what the fire before had been and the flashes of green. Dumbledore had sent them away. He had sent them away, far away from his students in whatever floo network was available and so it was just him and Voldemort and the ring of fire separating the wizard from his students and his students from leaping in and protecting them.
Lily had never loved the man more because this man at her side dragging her to her feet despite the fact that her knee was screaming in agony would have gone in there. She had no doubt that James and Sirius and Remus would have gone in there to defend their Headmaster until the very end.
(She did not think about Peter Pettigrew. Looking back at the moment in time where her life would end, she would realise that that had been the moment that deep down, deep, deep, down, she had known)
And then there was someone by their side. All five of them leapt backwards wands in their hands but it was McGonagall and Lily could really have cried at the sight of their Head of House. Inflexible perhaps, unmovable definitely, but always dependable, solid, reliable, there. When you were in a crisis the fact that McGonagall was there was enough to get you through it. No matter what time or day it was the woman was there for her students, dependable and right now in this moment Lily had never loved her or admired her more.
"Professor" James breathed out and she realised with a jolt that James was still holding his arm.
"We didn't…they just…they just kept coming…"
"I know Potter" McGonagall said and her voice was creased with emotion. Lily had never seen the woman like this before and it sent shivers up her spine in a way she never wanted to feel again.
"I know…any of you injured?"
"James is bleeding" Lily said through numb lips. McGonagall smiled at her.
"I think you all are Lily" she said and Lily took stock of the use of her first name for the first time since she had come back to school after her father had died.
"Not all of us" Remus said and there was something in his voice that made them all look at him. Lily didn't understand it, she couldn't understand it because it brought back memories of her and Petunia waiting outside of the hospital room, the one time they had been close, the one time that her sister had ever asked her if magic could help with their father and they had held hands for the briefest of seconds before their mother had come out of the room and told them that their father had died.
There was a blasting noise and they all ducked backwards. McGonagall pushed them backwards her own wand out and her face prepared for battle but it was Dumbledore. The blast of his shield had knocked Voldemort backwards and then the snake that he had conjured out of fire was destroyed. There was a shattering and McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout (all of whom where out) and even Slughorn waved their wands and each and every student of Hogwarts was pushed to the ground regardless of house or allegiance as every window in Hogsmeade shattered. Lily watched even though she knew she shouldn't as the glass rose in quick formation over their heads. She watched as Voldemort sent it flying over towards Dumbledore and she wanted to scream but the words wouldn't leave her throat. Dumbledore however just waved it away and even as they buried their faces into the mud again expecting glass to hit them at every point of skin that it could it didn't. It became sand.
Sand.
It was magic the way Lily had never seen it before. It was magic the way that she had never wanted to see it before. It was duelling of a prestigious skill and without thought of who was watching. And yet out of the two of them you could not help but what Dumbledore. He had a quality that Voldemort did not have.
Dumbledore let out a blast of…something and she saw the eyes widen a little as Voldemort was caught of guard. He seemed to realise then that his followers were gone and he sent a look around each and every one of them and then…then he was gone.
There was no other word for it. He was gone.
She staggered upwards to her feet even though it made her head spin and she stared at the dust where he had been. It was impossible for her to believe that Voldemort had once been here and yet now he was gone.
McGonagall put down her wand and breathed in and then breathed out. She turned back to her students but Lily could still not look away from where Voldemort had once stood.
It was funny…throughout this whole thing she had not even considered calling him by his preferred moniker You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Instead she had called him what he was. His name, Voldemort.
"Are we all alright?" McGonagall asked and Lily was aware, (as if watching from an outsider's perspective) of James tugging her backwards towards the group his arm around her waist before he went back to clutching it. She was only half aware that Pettigrew had now re-joined them but she was suddenly aware (as if she was coming back to herself) that Remus Lupin who had survived more than most of them put together, had suddenly fallen to his knees as if the strings had been cut from the puppet. McGonagall took one look at his face and went white around the mouth. She had known Lily would know (later) what Remus Lupin was going to tell them.
"Lupin?" she said gently and Lily watched as Pettigrew suddenly looked away. McGonagall crouched down next to Remus who was shaking. James looked at Sirius who shrugged.
"Mooney?" Sirius said quietly but Remus was not listening to any of them and Marlene suddenly reached out tugging Lily out of whatever half embrace James and her where in and tugging her close to her.
Marlene had known she realised. Later. Later she would realise these things.
Right now she didn't. Right now she couldn't. Right now her brain couldn't connect the glaringly obvious.
"Mary" Remus said brokenly and Lily started because she had forgotten about Mary. Shit. She had forgotten about Mary.
She opened her mouth to ask where Mary was but Remus was talking over her. James made a muffled noise, Sirius's mouth was open, Pettigrew was not meeting anyone's eyes and Marlene was suddenly white. Lily didn't know what she looked like. She was hardly aware of anything other than waiting for the inevitable.
"Mary" Remus said and he looked up at his Professor her hand on his back and at her gentle nod he said that, the most terrible truth. The worst news that he could have given them in that moment.
"Mary…Mary is dead"
And Lily didn't remember much after that.
And there you go, stay tuned for the next chapter and I will do my best to bring it to you as soon as possible.
Next Chapter-Lily, James, Marlene, Sirius, Remus and Peter deal with the aftermath. But it is not over yet. Slowly the students whatever house they may be in have to deal with what has happened and what it means for the future.
