"Lily?" James asked as he came out from behind a pillar as she walked back from the library.
"Oh Gosh!" Lily exclaimed jumping back in shock "How on earth do you always know where I am?"
"It must be this psychic connection we've got going!" James excused as he shoved the map further down into his pocket "So anyway, it's the Christmas holidays"
"Good observation there" Lily laughed as she continued walking but James just jogged in front of her.
"What I was going to say is we should really go and do something" He looked expectantly at her "So how do you feel about going to London?" Lily laughed "What?"
"You've probably never even been to London apart from going to the Leaky Cauldron wizard-guy"
"Have too!"
"So you've gone to see the Eiffel Tower?" Lily stared at him.
"Pfh, of course I did, that was a fun day!" James lied.
"James, the Eiffel Tower is in France"
"Ohh, Eiffel Tower, I thought you said, urr, Parliament" Lily just decided to ignore the comment completely and move on.
"Why do you want to go to London anyway?"
"You'll find out when you say yes and we get there" James said suspiciously.
"Fine, I'll go"
"James, I can't afford this place!" Lily gasped as he directed her into Harrods.
"Lils, I'm treating you, you can pick anything in this whole entire shop and I'll get it for you" Lily went to refuse "My Christmas present to you!" So the two of them strolled around the shop, acting out scenes with the dolls and bears, messing about with the giant train set, and pretending to dance around in the fancy frocks, James got a lot of weird looks for that one. Lily almost fainted when she looked at the price tags.
"Oh my word!" She put the dress down immediately checking for finger prints on the shoulders.
"Don't worry about it, Lils, come on then what do you want? The emerald necklace? The purple dress? Ooh what about those earrings?"
"Actually, don't judge me, but…"
The person at the till gave the two of them a smile as she handed over the green bag
"Thanks James" She beamed as she hugged him and reached into the bag to pull out a little toy smiling monkey holding a love heart that the woman had just stitched 'L+J' onto.
"Right, there's the first part done, let's go get the rest!" James pulled Lil out of the shop and down the street.
"Really? The monkey's fine James! I don't need anything else" Lilt hated being given a lot of stuff because her mum would never have been able to afford it when she was younger.
"Lils, this is my treat for you, just enjoy!"
"Why London?" Lily asked as they sat in a coffee shop after a day of shopping, James had bought anything Lily had lingered her eyes on for longer than five seconds as she refused to ask for anything. He bought he a single emerald gem necklace, a topaz dragonfly hairgrip, a chocolate frog sat on a lilypad with her name swirled in green icing, a fluffy red scarf with a snowflakes, and a grey t-shirt with a Wonder Woman logo on it.
"Why not London?" James didn't actually want to tell her the reason, which was that Remus had suggested it.
"Ok then, smart guy, what was it that made going to London stand out for you?"
"I just thought we could go to muggle shops, somewhere you'd know, and anyway where else can you have a perfect date like this?" He thought quickly on his feet and Lily seemed half satisfied with the answer. After five minuted of tucking into a massive hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles Lily piped up.
"So what do you think's going to happen next?" Lily asked, looking more serious.
"Well I was thinking we could walk down the Thames then…"
"No, I mean everyone, you know, with the war" James was shocked by the change in subject so had to rush an answer.
"Well, we just, kind of, don't die"
"Seriously James, I'm scared, it's all I've been able to think about for months now, do you think we'll even make it to seventh year?"
"Of course we will, we've got Dumbledore haven't we?"
"There's going to be a point when Dumbledore wont be able to protect us anymore though, like when we've left Hogwarts. The thought terrifies me"
"Lily, if anyone tries to lay a finger on you then I will make sure they never see the light light of day again" He said, deadly serious. "Now! Let's go have more fun"
James and Lily walked down the Thames hand in hand chatting endlessly about just about everything until they arrived at the London eye.
"Oh we've got to go on it!" James jumped around excitedly.
"Sorry I forgot for a moment we weren't six instead of being in sixth year" Lily laughed at James' childishness.
"You must have also forgotten you're going out with a Marauder, now come ON!" James yanked at Lily's arm and excitedly jumped about in the queue.
"Extra fifty for it all to ourselves?" James asked hopefully when they finally got to the front as the people behind them all groaned, but after a lot of pleading they got on.
"Oh you can see everything!" Lily squealed running around the pod looking over at the snow dusted London.
"Me and the guys always planned on breaking it away from the base and rolling around London" James thought back to the hours of plotting and smiled.
"You know James, this had been an amazing day" Lily walked over and smiled up at him "The best Christmas ever"
"You've made it great just by being here with me" he beamed as they reached the top of the wheel, James briefly looked out of the window and wobbled "Did I mention I'm not all that great with heights?"
"You're a quidditch player, how could you not be good with heights?" Lily looked up at him in disbelief.
"I'm fine with that, you're in charge of where you're going and when you get down, you feel free. At the moment I'm trapped and if I fall there's no escape"
"Thanks for the thoughts there James" The pod lightly shook and James rocked forward in shock into Lily where he stayed his face in front of hers, they smiled at each other.
"You know, from here it isn't that bad" He laughed and softly kissed her, some tourists in the next pod clapped.
As they parted and met each other's eyes a loud bang echoed from the street below, and people began screaming as more sharp cracks fizzed through the streets.
"Oh my God" Lily watched in total shock as they slowly got closer to the ground.
"We need to get out of here" James looked around frantically.
"How, like you said we're trapped!" Lily was shaking vigorously "And we can't even use magic there's muggles everywhere"
"Lily, I don't think people using magic against the evil wizards trying to kill them using more magic is going to be seen as a bad thing" James drew his wand.
"Yes, but charging up to them and throwing spells left right and center is just asking for trouble! I have a better idea" They got off the pod and crept down to the water edge after hiding their bags behind a shops in an empty skip, but ended up running straight into a group of the wizards gathered around in a circle.
"Look there's two trying to sneak off!" One turned around and looked them straight in the eye.
"I, err, we, were, er" The amount of excuses he could have used were endless in James' head after the amount of times Filch had caught them but the words wouldn't leave his mouth.
"Can't have you getting away and ruining the plan, now, can we?" Another one piped up raising his wand to their faces.
"What now?" Lily whispered in his ear. Thinking on his feet James looked around and just before the wizard could attack them he'd thrown Lily into the water and followed her of the bank before dragging her downstream where they came back on land.
"Great, now what are we going to do? You've literally moved us about ten meters to the left" Lily gasped as she caught her breath as the Death Eaters began running towards them.
"Behind that building" James suggested before the two of them charged off, they shot hexes over their shoulders as they ran until they'd hid behind a low wall and the Death Eaters had run past. "Now Lily, do you have a plan?"
"Ur, I kind of thought you'd have one after you threw me into a river"
"Lily this isn't the time, I've got nothing"
"Ok then, James this is going to sound completely and utterly stupid and impossible, but you need to teach me how to make a patronus"
"What? Lily I don't know…"
"Don't lie Potter, I know you've been having those extra lessons some lunch times with Dumbledore in his office"
"Yeah but it took us a year to master…"
"What would you rather, give it a shot, or sit here before we're found again and they kill us both"
"Ok fine, but listen to everything I say, yeah? Ok then. This might sound silly but I need you to think about the happiest you've ever been"
"What? I don't…"
"Seriously Lils, when's the happiest you've ever been in your whole life?"
"Well, I suppose it would be, oh no that sounds stupid"
"It doesn't matter, just think about it, let it flow through you and fill you up, when you think you're ready say 'expecto patronum'" Lily dug down inside her and with the help of the looming chance of death and torture the powerful words flowed out of her mouth and the silvery patronus of a doe drifted out of her wand and stood proudly next her her.
"A doe, eh?" James winked at her as his stag patronus joined it, keeping in his words of amazement at how quickly she'd mastered the spell.
"Oh shh" Lily blushed as she looked at the two patronus' "Right here's the plan: we need our patronus' to run down the opposite side of the crowd and cause a distraction, from then on we literally just have to run for our lives"
"Well thought out" James remarked, but Lily just slapped his arm.
"Have you got a better idea? No? Ok then let's go"
The stag and the doe leapt over to the opposite side of the mass of dark wizards in cloaks, they all turned in surprise at the two silvery creatures, and attempted to capture them. In the commotion James and Lily crept around the wall they were hiding behind and charged down the street.
"Hey!" One wizard turned and saw them.
"James" Lily looked over worriedly at James but they continued to run as a spark flew past their heads and hit a nearby shop sign.
"Just… keep… running" he gasped as the two of them flew around the corner, the wizard was gaining on them. Just before the dark wizard turned the corner James looked around and shoved Lily into a nearby shop door and carried on running.
"I'll distract him, stay safe!" He yelled after her just before the wizard returned into sight. Not wanting to ruin James' plan Lily sat behind the shop counter breathing heavily praying for safety.
"Stop!" The booming voice instructed James as he charged on looking for help, knowing he could go on for much longer James stopped dead, whipped around and drew his wand "Trying to act like a big boy?" The wizard taunted, also drawing his wand.
"Yeah, so why don't you fight like one" James was terrified on the inside but his voice came out strong, in his extra defence against the dark arts lessons he'd been taught how to duel.
"Well if it's your preferred way to die, I'm a reasonable bloke" He snarled, his wand in the air. First they bowed to each other and began.
"Reducto" James yelled, the wizard instinctively yelled back.
"Protego" and James flew backwards, his head knocking against the hard stone cobbles. "What's wrong, can't take a little fall?" he cackled. Determined James got up again but wasn't quick enough with his wand.
"Crutio!" It was like a million hot pokers stabbing him the back, the pain was too much to bear as the heat seered through his body and wrapped around him like a cobra. He fell to the floor clutching his head, he could hear his mouth pleading for mercy.
"Oh, what a shame, you made it too easy" The wizard withdrew his wand and kicked James in the ribs, taking his mind off his wand just long enough for James to kick his legs up and knock it flying into the air and catch it with and expert seekers reflex.
"What was that again?" He flicked his wand up to the dark wizards neck "Show me your wrist" he instructed, the wizard reluctantly held up his wrist to reveal the dark mark writhing on his chalky skin.
"Just what I though" James gave him a disgusted look and began to walk away.
"What do you think this is?" The wizard had a thought flicker through his mind, an evil thought.
"I do know what a dark mark is" James stated, confused as to why the wizard was asking him questions.
"And do you know what said dark mark does?" He spat the words contently as he watched James' mind whir.
"It symbolises where you're trust lies, it symbolises your betrayal" He thought was the best way of describing it.
"Oh it does that, of course it does, but say I were to place my hand on it…" James didn't have enough time to react, he had been called.
"I can't let this go on" She thought to herself when the shouts from behind her started to get louder and louder.
"My Lord, what next?" a measly voice called out.
"We go find out what the idiot wants" A sharp, cold voice replied as a mob charged past the shop window.
"And what if it's nothing?" the same weedy voice asked.
"You know what we do with time wasters" the words flicked all too pleasantly of his lips as he smirked. Knowing that was the direction James had gone Lily instinctively leapt up and looked for a back exit to the shop.
Behind a cake counter Lily found an open door that lead onto a smoky backstreet where she ran to where the noise was loudest. She looked out into the opening to see James pinning a wizard in pitch black robes to the floor growling something in his ear just as the mob turned a corner.
"Oblviate" She heard James mutter before punching him in the head and looking around quickly, Lily gestured towards the street she was just in and they disappeared out of sight just before the mob reached the body that lay on the floor.
"You" The tall figure in black kicked the man "Why did you call me?" he scowled down at him, the body just seemed dazed and confused. The now furious tall figure flung his wand out of his robe and yelled "Avada Kedavra", the crowd all went silent as they witnessed the murder of a fellow follower.
"We've got to go" James pulled Lily down the side street, past the shop where they quickly grabbed their bags, and then didn't stop running until they were past the unconscious bodies of other people that surrounded the wheel.
"They were no match" James scorned as the marched quickly down the street "They were defenceless and the evil gits didn't even care"
Lily couldn't contain her tears any longer, falling into an alley nearby and sliding down the wall to the floor a coupled of streets away from where the attack was happening.
"Lily!" James slid down next to her and pulled him into his arms "It's ok, we can avenge those people"
"It's not just those people" She wept as James restrained her hands after she tried beating the floor "It's my dad"
James wondered why Lily had never told him what had happened to her dad and it was finally coming out so a sat to her holding her hand.
"I was 10, and I'd just got my letter from Hogwarts, and everyone was so happy, until it happened. We were walking back from the restaurant where we'd celebrated my acceptance, and Dad was the same as normal, making magic jokes, and saying he always knew I was weird." This sent more tears running down her face. "Then when we got to the house the windows were smashed and on the door there was a note that looked like it was written in blood saying 'Mudblood' and dad just cursed the vandals and went marching into the house – and that was the last time I saw him. We walked into the house to find him dead on the living room floor and the back door wide open."
James sat silent for a bit, stroking her hair and wiping away her tears.
"I won't rest until I've killed them" he muttered to her "I won't rest."
Authors Note:
I would just like to point out now that I've never been to Harrods in my life, but I walked past it once and always wanted to go in because of all of the things I've heard about it, plus I read about a character that went there, so at one point I'm just acting out my own fantasy through my characters. Can I just say now that I realise the London Eye wasn't around at the time of James and Lily, but it was cute so it's in there anyway.
ANYWAY what's your verdict? I was worried it was way too over the top – but come on they're in the middle of a wizarding war there's got to be something going on while they're still in school, and I can't wait for when they're fighting in Dumbledore's army to start writing about it.
-Mischief Managed