***Canon Divergence Disclaimer (probably?): The whole timeline of the Potters going into "hiding" remains pretty vague, and the author has changed her mind about this a few times. Most sources say they went into hiding as soon as Lily got pregnant, others say they waited until after Harry was born. We do know that they were only under the protection of the Fidelius charm for less than a week before they were betrayed, so how long were they in "hiding" before this, and what did it look like? It seems like the Longbottoms were still pretty active with both the Order and the Ministry through their pregnancy and early parenthood (or at least it isn't mentioned otherwise), and at this point Lily and James were not yet aware of the prophecy or how important their child might be to saving their world. While it might be a bit divergent from canon, I love the idea of the Potters still choosing to fight before Harry was born because they wanted to help make the world better for their child. Enjoy.
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Ch. 33 - The Train
"We'll take the school brooms," hollered Dumbledore. He hurried out of the room with Alastor hobbling at his heels. "This matter will have to wait." Emmeline had to yank Remus away from Marlene and Sirius as everybody ran out after them.
James took hold of of his wife. "Lily, go find Minerva and Floo home."
"I'm coming with you," she insisted.
"I'll not have you fighting after what happened last time."
"Alice is going!"
"Alice is an auror!"
"Aurors or not, we're good fighters, and if the death eaters are mounting an attack of this scale, the Order will need our help." Lily grabbed his hand and held it against her not yet rounded stomach. "I'm doing this for the baby. We're doing this for the baby."
"...Damn it, Lily."
James took her hand in his and they ran out after the others.
…
"Down there!" Elphias shouted, diving the nose of his broomstick downward towards a stopped train on the snowy ground below. The rest of the company followed suit with militaristic coordination.
They were met by death eaters moving swiftly through the air on their own brooms, and had to begin dodging curses before they even reached the ground. While those more skilled at flying (including Emmeline and James) remained in the air, the rest of the Order continued their descent towards the train.
Ministry aurors were already on site. Remus landed unsteadily atop the icy train alongside Lily and Frank, threw his broom aside, and began to fend off the death eaters nearest them.
Marlene and Sirius were able to fly in through the open windows of a train car toward the rear, dodging the heads of terrified muggles in the process. "GET DOWN!" Sirius barked at the passengers as curses and jinxes flew between himself, Marlene, and the death eaters patrolling that car. It quickly became clear that these were not the new recruits from the battle at the Minister of Magic's house; these were witches or wizards with abilities equal to their own, likely former classmates of theirs from Hogwarts.
Still, Marlene and Sirius managed to disarm and stun their opponents. "Stay in your seats," Marlene instructed the muggles as she and Sirius made their way to the next car.
...
"Frank, get down!" Lily shouted, stupefying the cloaked figure behind him as soon as he ducked.
"Thanks," he exhaled, kicking the wand away from the fallen death eater. That was the last of them on top of the train, for now. He looked along the length of the caravan. "Which car is the Prime Minister in?"
"My guess is towards the front, but-..." Remus was unable to finish his thought. His expression went blank when he caught sight of someone up ahead.
Lily approached him. "Remus, what is it?"
He'd recognize the hulking frame and the matted grey hair anywhere. Fenrir Greyback's image had been permanently burned into Remus' memory since childhood.
Frank looked off into the direction he was staring in, trying to discern who Remus had his eyes fixed on in the surrounding skirmishes. "Lupin?"
Greyback was dragging some muggle passengers up into the foothills adjacent to the railroad. Without another word, Remus jumped down to the nearest connecting car and sprinted after him.
"Remus where are you going?!" Lily shouted. She started after him, but her path was blocked by the three Lestranges, who had just touched down after fighting fiercely in the air.
…
The freezing January wind made the battle in the sky almost unbearable without Quidditch goggles. It was hard for Emmeline to see at all with her eyes watering so much, let alone keep her balance as the wind battered her. To make matters worse, even in the heat of battle she could tell that the other members of the Order were steering clear of her, unsure of where her loyalties lie.
This became quite problematic when the death eater she had been pursuing whipped around to the back of her broomstick and was joined by a friend. They sped up and soon had her flanked.
She tried her best to fire off defensive spells on either side of her, but wasn't nearly fast enough to conjure spells toward the both of them and dodge their attacks. Without backup, all she could do was swerve to avoid getting hit by a killing curse. This could only go on for so long, however. The Hogwarts training broomsticks weren't exactly Nimbus-grade equipment, and the death eaters were gaining on her.
…
"GREYBACK!"
The werewolf turned slowly when he heard his name called. His cold blue eyes locked on the man barreling toward him, panting and red-faced from trudging through the thick layer of snow.
The distance between them made it laughably easy for Fenrir to dodge the curses coming from the man's wand. The teenage boys trapped in either side of his grasp whimpered and cried when the blasts narrowly missed them. Almost entertained, Greyback stood his ground. He chuckled at the idiocy of this wizard charging towards him.
Oh, but even better. This wasn't just any wizard. When the gap between them had closed a bit, Fenrir realized that this wizard had the likeness of Lyall Lupin.
Yes, this would be far more amusing than either of the muggles he was going to kidnap. Having lost interest, he released the young boys from his grasp and they scurried off as fast as their feet would carry them.
"It must be my lucky day!" Greyback called out with a voice like sandpaper, as he drew his wand and nimbly deflected another curse.
Remus was growing exhausted from having to move through the snowy terrain, but pressed on anyway. When he came within a few yards' radius of Greyback, he raised his wand to conjure another curse but was stopped by the werewolf, who moved toward him with surprising agility and swatted the wand out of his hand. It disappeared into the snow.
He did not have much time to react before Greyback delivered a blow to his jaw and knocked him onto his back.
"If you're going to fight me," he growled, "you should fight me like a man."
…
She tried every maneuver she ever learned in Quidditch, but nothing could lose the two death eaters at her sides. They had chased her a great distance from the rest of the battle too, so help was definitely not coming. Emmeline's options were: a) succumb to their attack, or b) fall off her broom and try to make it to the ground, but probably get hit with a killing curse mid-air.
As if they had drilled it, the death eaters suddenly sped in front of her, leaving her no time to fly out of the way of a curse. But before that became necessary, one of the death eaters was disarmed by someone behind her. They lost their grip on their wand and dove after it.
"JAMES!" she shouted gratefully as he zoomed past her head. Thank goodness she still had one friend in the Order.
Having found another target, the remaining death eater then turned their attention to James and began to pursue him instead. It wasn't long before the second one had caught their wand and was back to fight as well. At least now, the fight was even.
Together, James and Emmeline managed to turn the conflict around so that they were the ones chasing, not being chased.
"WE'LL STUPEFY THEM TOGETHER ON THREE," James screamed over the gusts of wind. "ONE, TWO-"
On three, one of the death eaters disarmed James of his wand, and the other sent a blasting curse in his direction. To avoid the curse, he dove off his broom and plummeted towards the earth.
"JAMES!" Emmeline tried to dive after him, but her rescue attempt was hindered by curses flying toward her.
…
Bellatrix cackled as she threw curses at Lily, who dodged and deflected them to the best of her ability atop the icy train. Rabastan and Rodolphus had taken their fight with Frank down into the train car below, so she was all alone. One slip, and she, as well as her unborn child, were done for.
The thought of any harm coming to her baby inspired a new aggression in Lily - adrenaline kicked in, and she soon went from defense to offense. Bellatrix ceased her cackling when she realized that the mudblood was actually beating her. When she had inched Bellatrix toward the edge of the train car, she threw one final spell: "Expulso!"
A blue light shot out of the tip of Lily's wand and blasted her opponent off the top of the train, knocking her unconscious on the snowy ground below. Lily meant to follow through with a body bind curse so that she could be arrested when the battle was over, but was distracted when she saw a body dropping out of the sky.
The person falling wasn't in a hooded black robe, which meant they were either a Ministry auror or a member of the Order. It wasn't long before Lily recognized the person falling from the clouds as her husband.
"ARRESTO MOMENTUM!" In the nick of time, she was able to slow James' free fall and he landed with a gentle thud on the ground below.
Pushing himself shakily up out of the snow, he looked up at her with wide eyes, shocked that he was still alive. "I knew marrying you was a good idea," he wheezed.
...
Marlene and Sirius had worked their way through the inside of the train, incapacitating the death eaters guarding each car as they went. Eventually, they made it to the passenger car which held the very frightened Prime Minister Thatcher and her entourage.
Sirius extended a comforting hand out to the passengers crouching in fear. "Don't worry Prime Minister, we're here to-"
"Crucio!"
Sirius plunged to the ground writhing and screaming mid-sentence, causing the passengers to whimper.
"Sirius!"
Marlene spun around and was met by Wilkes, who had been waiting for them next to the entrance to the train car. "Petrificus Totalus," the death eater continued, and just like that, Sirius was frozen in his twisted form on the ground.
Marlene gulped. Wilkes was not an amateur death eater - he'd been in the same year as her at school, and was one of several students anxious to follow The Dark Lord after graduation. Like his cohorts Avery, Mulciber, Rosier, and Snape, he was well trained in dark, vile magic.
In the time it took her to blink, she was having to deflect his curses, and struggling to do so without injuring one of the passengers. But she had to keep this fight away from the Prime Minister, so she retreated back into the next train car. Wilkes chased after her as she hoped, and luckily the next car was devoid of any muggles.
"Blood traitors get what's comin' to 'em, McKinnon!" he shouted over the blasts from his wand, as Marlene ducked into booths to shield herself. "I'm going to bring Black back to the Dark Lord and he's going to make him squirm, make no mistake!"
"Finestra!"
While he was making threats, Marlene had one split second to shatter all the windows of the train car and send all the glass dust right at him. He held up his arms to cover his eyes, which gave Marlene a few seconds to create more space between herself and Wilkes.
"Expelliarmus!"
He disarmed her when she had her back turned. Now she was totally defenseless.
She wasn't ready to give up this fight. She grabbed one suitcase from the overhead shelf and flung it at him, then another. By the time she reached for a third, he was right in front of her and delivered a blow to her face which knocked her sideways into a booth. Wilkes had her cornered.
"Perfect," he growled, his lips curving into an unnerving smile. "If I bring him Black, I won't need you. We can make short work of this..."
Marlene quickly realized that he did not intend to petrify her like he had Sirius. He had something a little more permanent in mind. She might as well have been petrified as she lay frozen in the booth, waiting to meet her end.
"Avad-"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A flash of green light sent Wilkes flying, and he landed lifeless in the back aisle of the train car. The muscles responsible for his ghoulish smile slowly relaxed until his expression was neutral.
Marlene sucked in a sharp breath of relief, hyperventilating a bit before slowly sitting up in the booth to see what had become of Wilkes. He lay dead, his dull eyes still open but vacant. She turned to see who had come to her rescue.
Emmeline stood with her wand still outstretched toward Wilkes as if he could get back up at any moment. Her hand was shaking violently.
Neither of them moved for several seconds. Finally, Marlene stepped out of the booth, gently lowered Emmeline's wand, and pulled her into a tight embrace. Emmeline hadn't even breathed since she uttered the curse, so she gulped for air.
"I killed him-"
"It's okay Em, you're okay-"
"I didn't… I didn't even think I just saw him standing over you and I...I-"
"-Saved my life."
"Are you okay?" Emmeline asked, pulling away so that she could examine Marlene's well-being. Marlene only hugged her tighter.
"I'm so sorry, Emmie," she said, beginning to cry in her embrace. "I'm so, so sorry for the things I said, I was so wrong-"
"How could you think I would ever do something to hurt you?" Emmeline responded, her voice cracking. Beginning to cry too, she placed her hand on the back of Marlene's head and pulled her close. "You're my best friend, I love you."
"Can you forgive me?"
"I just killed someone to save you, I think I can manage forgiveness," she said with dark matter-of-fact-ness. They held onto each other weeping.
Eventually, Marlene pulled away and wiped her eyes. "C'mon, we have to get back to the Prime Minister." She grabbed Emmeline's hand and led her towards the other train car.
"Reparifors." Marlene cast a healing charm to revive Sirius. Still in pain from before being paralyzed, he let out one final wail before Emmeline helped him back on his feet. The passengers exchanged fearful whispers among themselves.
"What the devil is the matter with you lot?!" one of the Prime Minister's entourage shouted. It would be far easier to obliviate them than to explain all of this, so they politely ignored her question.
Marlene embraced Sirius tightly, supporting his weight since his body was still reeling from the Cruciatus curse. "Emmeline saved my life."
Understanding that this meant Emmeline was not the spy, Sirius looked up at her with gratitude. "Thank you, Em," he panted. "…Em?"
Both Emmeline and the other passengers had gone to look out the windows and the large cloud of black smoke forming in the sky.
"We'd better get back outside," she suggested, moving away from the window towards the exit.
"Go," said Sirius, squeezing Marlene's hand. "I'll stay with Prime Minister Thatcher."
"Maybe put in a good word for Scottish independence while you've got her attention, aye?" She kissed him quickly before shuffling out behind Emmeline.
When they stepped off the train, they realized that the skirmishes had ceased, and that the death eaters who were not in custody were gone. Around them, all the aurors' expressions were twisted with disgust and facing toward the sky. That's when Emmeline and Marlene looked up and saw it.
A dark mark loomed over them like a black storm cloud, the snake coiling proudly around the skull. A symbol that the death eaters had killed.
Emmeline whipped her head around, searching to make sure that her friends and colleagues were alright. James and Lily were close by, as was Peter. "...Where's Remus?"
"...The other passengers," Marlene exhaled, realizing that she had never gone back for the people at the back of the train. Seeing a nearby broom on the ground, she stretched out her hand, summoned the broom, and sped off towards the caboose.
She didn't need to enter the passenger car to see through the window that all of its inhabitants were laying motionless in their seats. Hot tears fell from her cheeks into the snow.
…
With her hands still shaking from Wilkes, Emmeline ran frantically up to Lily and James. "Have you seen Remus?"
James turned to her, concerned. "He's not with you?"
Peter shook his head. "I haven't seen him either."
"He dashed off into the hills after somebody, I tried to go after him-"
"Which way, Lily?"
"Somewhere in that direction."
Emmeline looked up to where she was pointing - no Remus. She'd started heading in that direction when she caught sight of a silver, glowing orb hovering above the snow some five-hundred feet away.
A patronus.
Emmeline picked up her pace with Lily, James, and Peter following after her. Panting, they reached the spot the patronus was marking and found Remus battered and bloodied in the snowbank. He was covered in quickly-forming bruises, as well as new bites up his arms - something Greyback had done for the fun of it. Since Remus was already turned the venom would have no effect, but would still hurt like hell. Only half conscious and freezing down to his bones, he struggled to breathe.
"What happened?!" Lily exclaimed, bending down to examine him.
"Greyback," Remus muttered, barely above a whisper.
James dropped to his knees and felt the icy skin of his bloodied face. "He's got to see a healer."
"We can't take him to a healer, not with the bites," Emmeline cautioned. "I can treat the wounds at home, but we have to get his body temperature under control before he goes into shock." With no time to fuss, Emmeline knelt down and pulled Remus' head into her lap, taking off her scarf and her coat to lay across him. She grabbed his wand out of his limp grasp and handed it to James, then gently moved Remus' hands to his chest. She put her palms against his neck to warm up his blood flow with her body heat, then instructed Lily to take hold of his wrists.
"We have got to stop meeting like this, Lupin."
