Lily wasn't sure how long she had been in a body bind, limbs locked together as she lay on the bloodstained floor. There was nothing to mark the passing of time, not even a visitor. Severus Prince had done something even worse than his threats; he had left her, trapped and alone, to anticipate his plans for her.
Before, Lily had never feared death. Now, she was terrified. What if death would be like this, like being left alone in the cold and dark and silence?
At first, she had cried. She cried over James, who was kind and good, and didn't deserve to be thrown in the forest to die. She also cried for herself, because she had never been more scared.
Discomfort slowly crept its way through her body. She couldn't properly move, but she still shivered steadily. Soon, she was so stiff and sore from lying in one position that each breath began to catch in her chest, and she wondered if she might suffocate.
Then the thirst came, and the hunger, steadily clawing at her throat and her belly. She didn't cry anymore. She was too tired.
There was nothing to see in the dark, or to hear in this remote part of the dungeon. There was only cold and pain and the scent of blood, and she suspected her own blood would soon join James's, and whoever else had been unfortunate enough to be brought to this room.
When footsteps finally sounded in the hall, Lily wondered if she was hallucinating, because she hadn't thought she would see any person again. Then the door opened, and she squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden light as Severus Prince lit the room with his wand. In the candlelight, his face was still partly shadowed, but she could clearly see the hungry glint in his eyes.
"Finite incantatem," he said, flicking his wand in her direction.
With a gasp, she rolled onto her side, just to change the position she had been in. Severus Prince gave her a swift kick to the ribs, and she groaned.
"Get up," he said impatiently.
She wasn't sure she could get up. Her limbs felt like they had been replaced by rocks. But Severus Prince lost patience and forcibly pulled her to her feet.
His lip curled. "Well, well. We aren't looking at our best."
He was still holding onto her. She was torn between gratitude, because she thought she might collapse if he let go, and revulsion, because she didn't want to be anywhere near this man.
"Was it terrible, mudblood?" he asked, his grip tightening on her arm. "Did you want to die, by the end?"
"Fight me," Lily said. She forced the words out, each one painful.
He laughed. "Excuse me?"
"Let me duel you for my freedom."
"And why would I do that?" he sneered.
"Afraid to lose against a mudblood again?" Lily said, although the strength of the taunt was lessened by how weak her voice sounded.
"There seems to be one problem with your proposal," Severus Prince murmured, his breath hot against her ear. "You have no wand. What sort of witch has no wand? No witch at all, really."
Lily cringed away.
"Sit," Severus Prince said, shoving her into a chair.
She gripped the sides, waiting.
"I am sorry for what I did to you," Lily said quietly. "Truly."
Severus Prince shook his head, standing over her.
"Apologies won't save you."
"I don't expect it to save me. I just wanted you to know."
"Lily Potter, I have wanted you from the moment I saw you, ever since you threw yourself at me on that hill, do you remember? You thought I was someone else, I'm sure. And feeling your warmth against me, I knew I wanted you. I hated myself for it; what sort of respectable wizard wants to fuck a mudblood? But you're very beautiful, Lily, and I enjoy how you try to fight me. When you beat me in that duel, I knew I had to put you in your place.
"And I've been intrigued by your mystery. There's something odd about you, and I intend to find out what it is. I'm afraid I'll have to get the information from you in some nasty ways."
"Why do you like to hurt people?" Lily asked, her voice shaking. "I can't believe that you really enjoy it…"
Severus Prince's smile widened. "Oh, Lily, haven't you guessed? I don't just enjoy hurting people… I love it. It gives me great pleasure, in fact."
Lily shuddered.
"Now, take off your clothes."
Cait's expression was grim as she read the letter, James and Sirius waiting anxiously.
"Duncan says he can't risk open war yet. Not for one witch."
"So I'm doing this alone," James said.
Cait and Sirius both looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
"I'm coming," Sirius said.
"So am I," Cait added.
"It could be a suicide mission," James reminded them.
"Well, then, we'll die together," Sirius said, crossing his arms.
"I'm the reason Lily was captured," Cait said. "If I'd just gone with her in the first place…"
She took a shaking breath. "I'm going."
"So what's the plan?" Sirius asked. "Do you think James is well enough to go?"
"No," Cait said, biting her lip. "We'll have to wait at least another day."
James hated this: the forced waiting, and his friends talking about him as if he wasn't there.
"No," James said.
"You can't stand for more than a few minutes at a time," Cait said, unusually gently. "We're going to need you for this rescue mission. If you're too hurt, you're a liability, and that won't help Lily."
Sirius considered her. "You have a plan."
Cait hesitated. "If Severus Prince has been torturing Lily, he may want a less public execution. That's what he usually does, so people don't question his methods. Besides, she's muggleborn, and in his eyes, she won't deserve a proper execution. Usually, those sort of executions happen on the edge of the forest. If we can wait it out until then, we'll only have to fight a few people, instead of fighting our way out of a castle."
"Yes, you mentioned," Sirius said, frowning. "But that means leaving Lily to be tortured longer-"
"If we storm Hogwarts, we're going to be captured," Cait said. "It's better to rescue Lily after torture then to not rescue her at all." She caught sight of James's expression. "I know. It kills me, too."
James shook his head. "What if he doesn't want to execute her?" he said hollowly. "What if he wants to just keep hurting her, and-"
"He will," Cait said. "If you're right, and he's grown fond of Anne, that slimy bastard won't want Anne to see what he's doing to Lily. He'll want to destroy the evidence."
The three of them sat in miserable silence, until Cait said, "we'll give it a week. She's been here for five; that's just two more. If he doesn't plan to execute her by then, we'll think of something else."
On the sixth day, Graham sent a letter to Cait.
"Mrs. Potter is due to be executed tonight…" She hugged the letter to her chest. "Oh, thank you, Graham."
Even though Graham was a racist git, James found himself feeling warmly towards him as well.
James still felt horrible, but he had tried turning into his animagus form and had been able to walk all the way around the lake, so he thought he was ready. He had to be; he was going to save Lily from death, or die trying.
They apparated to near Hogwarts, then picked their way through the trees of the forbidden forest. Hogwarts eventually appeared through the trees, its windows alight. For once, James felt no warmth towards Hogwarts.
He turned his attention to the path from the castle to the gamekeeper's hut. No one was there yet, and James felt a surge of fear. What if Graham and Cait had been wrong? What if Lily was going to be executed in the castle?
As dusk fell more fully over the castle grounds, four figures made their way across the grounds. James felt his heart lurch, because even from a distance, he immediately recognized one as Lily, and he thought she looked very sick. Two of the figures were supporting her more than forcing her along; the one who led the way was Severus Prince, dressed all in black, walking in his usual prowling way. As they drew closer, James took in more details. Lily's face was bruised. She was dressed in only a white shift, which was spotted with blood. One of her arms looked broken again, and one of her hands was entirely red with blood. Whatever Severus Prince had done to her, he had not held back.
Near them, the two wizards holding Lily stopped. Severus Prince moved some paces back, and raised his wand. James had been expecting some sort of speech from Severus Prince, some sort of statement of sentence. None came.
And Lily, his beautiful wife, he expected to see some defiance from. He had seen it so often throughout the years. She would lift her chin, her eyes would flash, perhaps she would say something scathing. But she just looked tired. Her head hung down.
She looked ready to die.
And this was so contrary to what James knew of Lily that he had to force himself to react. He stepped out of the trees not as a wizard, but as a stag. He felt a hatred he had never known himself capable of feeling. He wanted to hurt Severus Prince.
Severus Prince's eyes widened, his mouth falling open into a satisfying expression of shock, as James trampled him underfoot. Sirius, in his dog form, bit one of the wizards holding Lily, and Cait stunned the other. Cait caught Lily as she crumpled to the ground.
"Go, go-" she snapped.
They could hear shouts already from the castle, and so James abandoned the still form of Severus Prince and galloped back into the forest. The others on his heels.
They hurried far enough away to apparate.
"Where are we going?" James asked.
"Ferguson castle," Cait said, disappearing with Lily.
They appeared at the edge of the Ferguson castle grounds.
"They won't want fugitives here, surely?"
Cait scowled. "If they have a secret room to hide muggleborns, they can hide us too. They owe me that much."
With visible displeasure, Duncan gave them permission to stay, ushering them into a hallway as though Severus Prince himself was on their heels.
"We need a place to hide," Duncan said, knocking on the wall in a complicated pattern.
A door appeared in the wall, and he ushered the four of them in.
"If you need anything, send an owl. Don't come out," he ordered.
They were in a spacious room that reminded James of the Gryffindor common room. Three rooms branched out from this one.
"One for me, Cait, and you two. Smart room," Sirius said, impressed.
"Like the room of requirement," James said.
Cait helped Lily onto a bed. James and Lily's room had all necessary things for an infirmary, and Cait immediately began rummaging for things she would need.
"Lily," James said, kneeling beside her.
Her eyes fixed on his face. "You're a deer," she whispered.
He wasn't sure what he expected her to say, but it wasn't that.
"A stag," he corrected with a small, watery laugh.
"I hope you killed him," she said, closing her eyes again.
James felt his heart clench. He had a feeling that the Lily who had come out of Hogwarts this time may not be the same Lily who went in.
Later, after Cait had helped Lily as much as she could, she left her and James alone. James climbed into bed beside her, and she grabbed tightly to his hand with her good one.
"Lily…" James hesitated, unsure of what to say.
"I don't want to talk about it," she said.
"Okay," he said. "What do you want? Can I do anything?"
Lily was quiet for a second, running her thumb in circles over his hand.
"In 1978, they have a pill you can take after sex that makes sure you don't get pregnant. Can you find out if there's anything like that here that I can take?"
James felt sick, but he nodded. "I'll ask Cait. Lily…"
"I don't want to talk about it," she snapped.
"Is there anything else you want?" James asked, a bit desperately.
It was a stupid hope, that he could somehow make things better, that he could somehow fix this.
"Yes." Lily swallowed hard. "I want to go home."
She began to sob, and James held her tightly.
"We can do that."