James stood up from the table, dropping his cards and started toward the door. Lily started to follow him, but Remus stepped toward her and shook his head. "I'll stay with you, but there is no chance in hell that you're going down there."
"They're looking for me, aren't they?"
"All the more reason for you to stay up here," Peter said, rolling up his sleeves, as if he might be expecting some kind of physical altercation.
"I'm not going to march up to them and let them take me, but they came here to find me, and I want to meet this Riddle guy. I want to ask him what he did to the land."
"He is not just going to tell you," Sirius sighed. "I promise you that. And no, you should stay up here with Remus. We will go and straighten things out." He looked at her for a moment and sighed. "I usually like your fearlessness, but a bit of fear is healthy you know."
"I am afraid," Lily shouted. "But just because you're afraid of something doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it! I've always been afraid of this place and what it can do to me, but I love it here! If I never did something when fear popped up, then I would never do anything! Bravery is pushing through the fear, not the absense of it."
They were all quiet for a moment and then James spoke up. "Please stay up here with Remus." And then the three of them walked out.
Lily clenched her hands at her sides and stormed over to the window to see if she could catch a glimpse of the men down there who were looking for her.
"You can't defend yourself against them, Lily. It wouldn't be smart to go down there and antagonize them."
"I wasn't going to-"
"Yes you were."
"So?" Lily almost stomped her foot. "Look at what they're doing to the land! I know that you can't feel it like I can, but it's so bad! How are they even doing that? How am I supposed to fix that? Especially when you four won't let me confront-"
"I'm going to interrupt you again." Lily bit her tongue and glared at him. "Just take a breath and listen for a minute. You said you wanted more information, right? Well, I'll give you some more information. These men, they split off a few years back, when James decided that he was going to take being the prince seriously. It was about the same time his mother passed. They started going to the nobility and convincing a lot of them that James wouldn't be a good leader, that they needed to rally behind someone else, that they needed to break tradition and put new blood on the throne."
Lily, unwillingly, felt her shoulders relax as Remus went on. "We've been fighting these men for a long time. Peter was approached by Severus about a year ago, they told him that they could offer his sister and mother protection, that they would elevate him in their new court, and Peter thought the entire thing was a joke and laughed in his face. But then there was an attack on James' father, they tried to kill him, and so he asked Peter to go back and accept their offer.
"His father has been ill on and off since his mother passed, and he's been really sick lately, so we've figured they were going to make a move, we could feel it all building for a while now. I invited you here-"
"Because you thought I was-"
"No," Remus shook his head, fervently. "No, I invited you here because I needed a break, Lily. Because I thought we'd made it to the eye of the storm, that it would be safe enough, and we all needed a break from the spying and the plotting and the planning. I never would have dragged you into this, I never would have invited you here had I known that it would have entangled you in the fray of things. We've been fighting them for years. I know that at this very moment, they are after you because they think that you're the one that the prophecy is referring to, but it's so much bigger than that. James isn't going to let you go out there after everything that these men have done."
Lily was quiet for a moment, her frustration and empathy swirling around as she tried to figure out how she felt as she tried to make sense of everything. It was a lot of new information, and even if she was only getting it at this moment to distract her, she still needed to take it all in. James' parents, Peter, the nobility. She was once again feeling as though she was stuck in the middle of some movie.
"Okay, but I'm still a piece in this game now, and I don't like being locked up here."
"I completely understand," Remus nodded. "I don't like it either."
Lily narrowed her brows. "You offered to babysit me up here."
"Yes, but only because I knew if I didn't offer, I'd be told to stay up here, and I don't like waiting for James to tell me what to do. He's protective, and I love him for it, but… I mean, I don't have any more magic than you do." He sat down on the edge of the bed and then let out a laugh. "Actually, you might have more magic than me." He ran his hands over his face and Lily took a seat next to him. "And your body isn't broken."
"I'll help you find a way to break your curse if you want." She said. "I know that James said that you were all looking, but if you'd be alright with it, I'd like to help too."
Remus let his hands fall to his lap. "I'm sorry that I brought you back here."
"Please don't say that." Lily shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment. "Please."
"I don't mean it to say that I'm not happy to-"
"I know how you mean it. But you don't understand, Remus."
"Are you going to tell me about the dull colors in the mortal world again?" He was teasing her, which only let her know that he really didn't understand.
"It's not just the colors. Sounds are lifeless and food tastes bland. It's like sheet of grey follows me around, for days after I get back. And then sometimes it will just randomly hit me. I'll see something that reminds me of fairyland and then I'm in that fog of grey again. I'm not going to pretend like I wasn't completely shocked when I heard about the prophecy, or that people think that it's about me, but there was also a part of me that was… not relieved, but like, 'that makes sense,' you know? Because this is where I want to be. This has always been where I wanted to be. And when we were kids, it was easy to pretend that visiting was enough, that going on our little adventures was enough to scratch the itch.
"But not being here for five years," She sighed and tucked her hair back. "It was so hard. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't, that I was misremembering things and that I was content to just have my memories, but all it took was seeing your handwriting on an envelope and I was ready to drop everything, everything to get back here. I tried to get through the forest by myself!" She laughed and looked over at Remus.
He had his head tilted to the side and he nodded. "My mum used to say that you seemed more like a changeling than me." He pulled his feet up to rest on the bed frame, resting his elbows on his knees. "She was so angry with me when I first told her that I'd taken you, and of course I told her because I couldn't keep secrets from her to save my life."
"You mom had that quality about her. She'd just give you a look and you'd confess everything." Lily agreed.
"Exactly. And she was fine with me visiting. She worried of course, but she understood why I needed to go, why I wanted to go. But when I told her that I had brought you, she went white as a sheet and told me that if I ever did that to another mortal, she'd never let me go back."
Lily frowned, never having heard this before. Ms. Howell had never seemed as though she'd been uncomfortable with the activities that Remus and Lily got up to.
"Then you came over one day, your twin braids, your freckles, which mum called fairy kisses," Remus laughed, because he missed his mum, or maybe because the idea of freckles being called fairy kisses was a bit ridiculous while they were sitting in fairyland. "I know you just told everyone that you're not fearless, but you really did act like it. A week after she found out, she came to me and said that she'd changed her mind, and that I could bring you so long as I took responsibility for you, and taught you all the rules and made sure that you took them seriously."
Lily remembered how different their second trip through the woods had been. Remus had listed off five rules about a dozen times. Don't tell them any personal information. Never outright agree to anything, don't step in any kind of circle. Don't antagonize any fae creature, even the ones that look like they couldn't do much harm. And don't eat anything unless Remus gave it to her. They were simple and broad, and they had kept her safe while she'd been on the other side of the forest.
"And then the other stipulation was that we charmed you." He said. "And you wouldn't stop asking me to go back, so I figured you wouldn't mind. I didn't know that we weren't going to tell you about it, but mum said that it was best you didn't know. She said that it would strengthen the charm."
Lily stood up and walked back to the window. She still couldn't see anything, but her heart was in her throat. Anything could have happened to James, Sirius and Peter by now. She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. "It'd be nice to sit down with her and ask her what happened to change her mind."
"I think the prophecy is about you," He said, and Lily quickly turned to find his eyes. "I wish you could go back to the mortal world safely, but I also, selfishly, want it to be about you."
"I fit pretty well. My birthday, my parents, where I was born. I'm three for three." She shrugged, and then turned back to the window. Nothing but an empty street.
"But if it is you, then what about the last line?"
"True queen of fairyland? James said that prophecies are rarely so literal. Or maybe that line has nothing to do with me. The one with the power to vanquish the darkness approaches. The true queen of fairyland approaches. They are different lines, they could be about different people."
Remus nodded. "Usually, one prophecy refers to one person."
"Usually." Lily said, turning back from the window. "Can we go down there yet?"
"No." He crossed his arms. "I can't protect you down there. I can only distract you up here."
"Well you're running out of things to distract me with."
"Am I? You don't want to know anything about James?"
The look on his face said that he was sure he had her, but she shook her head without hesitation. "Not anything from you. If I have questions, I'll ask him."
Remus nodded, "I figured you'd say that." They were quiet for a minute. "I'm sure you've realized by now, but James fancied you when we were kids."
"Yes, I have noticed you all teasing him." Lily stepped away from the window and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "They're not going to hurt me if I go down there. They want me alive because of what that witch told them. She tilted her head to the side, trying to ignore the butterflies and trying to ignore the question that was on the tip of her tongue. Does he still like me? Now was not the time to be worrying about those kinds of things.
She knew then answer, she'd seen the way he looked at her. She just wanted to hear someone else confirm it for her.
But she didn't really want that person to be Remus. She wanted it to be James.
"I do like him." She said, answering his question from this morning before she'd passed out. "And he's out there right now, because of me."
Remus sighed and ran his hands over his face again. "Lily, I just explained to you that this was all bigger than you."
"And I understand that. But in this moment, those men are out there looking for me and so I feel as though James and Sirius and Peter being in danger right now, is my fault."
"I'm not going to tell you that you can go down there."
"Yes, and I don't need your permission. I'd just like to hear you agree with me." Lily said. "You always were rather obstinate."
She took a few steps toward the door, but before she could reach it, Peter opened it, looked back and forth between the two of them and then stepped inside the room, closing the door behind him. And then locking it.
Lily looked at Peter carefully, taking a step back toward Remus. Something about the look on his face and the exact moment that he'd walked in here had her on edge. She knew that Remus had said that he had no magic of his own to protect her, that being close to him wouldn't make her safer, but she didn't need protection from Peter.
She was almost sure that she didn't need protection from Peter.
"What's going on down there?" Remus asked, sounding perfectly calm, but the hair on the back of her neck was standing upright.
"Rabastan sent me up here. James wanted me to stay out of sight and wait for one of them to find me." He looked over at Lily. "I am not actually going to take you to them." He put his hands up and the look on his face softened.
"I know." She said, and then she felt guilty for being frightened of him in the first place. James had assured her that he trusted Peter, same as Remus and Sirius. "I don't know why I stepped back like that. You just looked… different."
"I mean, they did tell me to try to get to you. I do not know why they keep giving me tasks, as I am never able to accomplish them." He chuckled and smiled at Remus, looking like his normal self again.
Remus smiled back. "I mean, you give them enough to make it seem like you're trying, no?"
"Yeah, but they have to think that I am beyond dim." He shook his head. He was trying to make light of this, but it obviously bothered him. He was trying to be nonchalant, but those men scared him. She could see it in his eyes.
"You didn't say what was happening down there," Lily said, glancing toward the window again.
"Well, I do not really know. I was waiting for someone to come looking for me." He shrugged, looking toward the window. "Rabastan said that they were looking for you though, so it is probably best if we stay up here until James and Sirius come back."
"That's what I told her," Remus nodded.
"I don't like sitting around and waiting. I want to help, I want to do something."
"Well, right now it would be helpful for you to do whatever you want to do, in this room." Peter said and then walked over to the table and leaned against it. "I should go back out in a few minutes and tell them that I could not find you."
"You weren't followed, right?"
Peter gave him a look. "I have been doing this for years now, Remus. No one can track me, that's part of my appeal. But he specifically told me to search this building, so I had to come here, might as well give you two an update while I was at it."
"Who all is out there?"
"Rabastan mentioned Malfoy, Severus and then Riddle of course, but we figured that one." Peter took a deep breath. "I do not care for that man. Something about him is broken inside. And you can feel it when he talks to you, when he looks at you."
The hairs on the back of Lily's neck were still standing up and so she edged back over to the window. "They knew we were traveling together." Lily said quietly. Remus sat up straighter. She turned back to Peter, no longer fearful of him. But she had caught him in a lie. "They would know that you knew where I was."
He shrugged. "You do not need to worry about it."
"Peter, what's going on?" She asked. "Rabastan didn't send you to look for me, he knew that you knew where I was." Peter stood up and moved so that he was standing in front of the door, just as people in the street started to scream. Lily's head snapped toward the window in time to see flames coming from main street, but she still couldn't see what was going on from this angle.
"Pete," Remus stood up from the bed.
"James told me not to let her leave." He said, his voice less jovial and firmer. "He and Sirius will be fine, but he told me not to let her leave."
"What is really happening down there."
"Riddle is down there with the people that I mentioned, a few others. And they are looking for Lily, but they are also looking for a fight. Riddle is going on again about how James should not inherit his father's crown when he passes. He is making the claim that Lily should take the crown since the prophecy refers to her as the True Queen."
"We figured they would say that when it became known who the prophecy was about."
"We don't even know if I'm the queen or not," It sounded ridiculous, those words coming out of her mouth. She felt like she was playing a game. But people were still shouting in the street. "That's just the last line, it could be about someone else."
"It could be, but the way prophecies usually work, is that they are fulfilled based on how people interpret them. What happened with James' prophecy is not the norm. If no one ever hears a prophecy, it might never come to pass. The roads you take to avoid your fate and all that." Peter shrugged.
Lily shook her head. "I'm not trying to avoid anything, you two are keeping me up here-"
"What could you possibly do against fire, Lily?" Remus shouted. "We are safer up here!"
She shook her head and bit the tip of her tongue. "If I am the queen, then you have to listen to me. You both work for the crown, yes?"
"Lily-" But she was done arguing with Remus. She didn't know what kind of help she could offer down on the street, and she knew that there was a possibility that she would only get in the way, but she could not sit here and do nothing.
"Peter, move away from the door," She said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I am not going to do that, Lily," He said, even as he began to step away from the door. He blinked in surprise and then his eyes widened as he looked from his feet, to her.
"Lily," He said quietly, "What are you doing?"
Lily was just as surprised as he was and shook her head. She didn't have an answer for him, but she also wasn't going to wait for it to wear off, so she bolted for the door, leaving the boys with the option of staying in the room or following her. She knew they would follow her.
Lily was, on occasion, impulsive, but she was not stupid.
She ran down the stairs and paused at the bottom, taking in the tavern first. Benjy, Hestia and Gwenog were crouching behind the bar and she ran toward them. Peter and Remus were close behind her, shouting at her to stop or to go back to the room, but she didn't listen.
"Benjy!" Lily crouched down next to the three fae and they jumped, Gwenog screamed and put a hand to her heart. "Where did everyone go?"
"Most ran out the back," He nodded toward a back door that she hadn't noticed was propped open.
"And you three decided to stay here?"
Hestia shrugged. "Did not really want to run away, do not really want to fight."
"Plus, they saw everyone run out, so they probably do not think that there is anyone left in here." Benjy tried to smile, but he was a little too frightened at the moment to make it believable. "Do you know what is going on? I saw the Prince run out with Sirius."
Lily had been hoping to get a little more information out of them, but shook her head. "Riddle is here to get more power." She said, patting herself on the back when she remembered not to tell these strangers that she was what Riddle and his men were looking for.
Remus crouched down beside her with a huff and Peter, she could tell, was standing behind her. Probably with his arms crossed. "James asked us to stay in the room." He said, as though she would listen to him now if his tone was reasonable and calm.
Lily shook her head. "I don't really care what James asked us to do, the street seems to be on fire." She bit the tip of her tongue while she thought. "Do you three have any magic?" She asked.
Gwenog let out a humorless laugh and shook her head. "I am a healer, my magic is small."
Hestia's shoulders drooped. "I have a small bit of elemental magic, but nothing that will help get rid of the fire."
"You can douse it in water!" Benjy suggested.
"No, I can't! Those are magic flames, my water would evaporate before it gets close to the fire!"
"Could you contain the fire?" Lily asked, ready for them to laugh at her stupid question.
"No," Hestia shook her head. "I do not know how to do that. I can move some of it, but I cannot get rid of it."
Her wheels were still turning. "I think I've got a plan."
"I don't like your plan." Remus snapped.
"You don't know my plan! I haven't shared it yet!"
"Ten bucks says I know what your plan is," He frowned and stood up.
"Shut up, Remus, it's a good plan and it's going to work!"
AN: I apologize for two cliffhangers in a row, but I did make this chapter extra long to make up for it!
Reviews are amazing!