AN: And here we are! This worked out perfectly really, ending this story on the first day of November! I can jump right into Nano now, without having to worry about falling behind!
This story has been so much fun for me to write and I'm so glad that so many of you followed along!
I hope you enjoy the last chapter! Thank you for all the kind messages you've left me!
The duel was a terrible display of magic.
It was like nothing that Lily had ever seen before. Magic that she hadn't known existed. Magic that she could feel electrifying the air between the two men as they threw spells back and forth at one another. Bright blue light flew from James' hands and green from Riddle.
With the sun disappearing over the dead forest, the spell light started bouncing off the ash and dust, off the soldiers at Lily's side and the Court of Death before her.
James was getting in some good shots, she could tell because she could see how Sirius was responding to what was going on, and she was relying on his reactions.
James was going to be fine.
She let the thought repeat itself in her mind over and over and over.
And when the duel was over, when James had won because Riddle waved his white flag, then Lily would have to step forward and…
She still didn't know what she was supposed to do. She didn't have any kind of plan, but standing here now, that didn't bother her as it had on the way here. Instead, she had a sense of calm about her that let her know that the land had a plan all its own.
That should have terrified her, but she didn't have room for any more fear while she watched James throw another bolt of blue light toward Riddle.
It seemed as though the endless onslaught of spells would go on all night, that they would continue to block and dodge the other's spells until the sun came up once again.
But then James' spell hit Riddle in the leg and he fell, giving James the opening he needed to hit him again, in the chest this time, and Riddle roared in pain.
Lily flinched, keeping her eyes on the action but tilting her head away from them.
The soldiers behind her were cheering James on now, vocally calling for him to bring about an end to Riddle, for him to kill him here on the land that Riddle had decimated.
And James did not want to disappoint his people.
He unleashed on Riddle, throwing everything he had at him.
Riddle disappeared in a glowing ball of blue light, Lily could feel the heat from where she stood on the sideline and as the fae behind her started getting more exuberant in their cheering, she started to feel dread creep up her spine.
James couldn't kill Riddle, she knew this to be true, James knew that. Yet he was still pouring all of his magic into this moment.
And Lily still didn't have a great grasp on how magic worked, but it required a sacrifice. Big magic, required a bigger sacrifice. James was going to be drained after this.
The light softened and then let up and Riddle was lying motionless on the ground. Lily could feel everyone else on that field holding their breath, but Lily was looking at James' shoulder. They rose and fell quickly.
Riddle pushed himself up onto his hands and then slowly rose to his knees. He started laughing, quietly at first and then louder as he got to his feet. His court started laughing as well. It angered something deep in Lily to hear them laugh, but she also knew why they did it.
Everything James had wasn't enough to keep Riddle down for more than a few moments.
Riddle wasn't going to surrender. James wasn't going to win.
"So much confidence." Riddle called. "And your people put so much faith in you. And yet…" He tilted his head toward James. "I will not let you go first this time."
James' shoulders were still heaving.
"You are too young," Riddle spat, sending a curse ripping through the air toward James. James was able to move in time, but just barely. "Too lenient," Another curse. James stumbled as he dodged. "You are the prince of a fallen queen, an ill king, and you are not fit to rule us." James sent back a curse of his own this time, and the two spells collided in the middle, sending sparks flying out.
"You rule your men with fear," James called back, his voice rough and raw. Lily had her hands clenched at her sides, her entire body was buzzing to the point where she felt as though she might explode. "You rule with fear and intimidation and that is no way to win the people or the land. You are not fit to rule, look! Look at what you have done-" Riddle didn't look, he threw another curse at James and James fell to his knees to avoid getting hit.
And the next curse hit him in the chest and he fell to his back.
"No!" Lily called out. James looked toward her for just a moment, already pushing himself upright.
"It is a shame that you were able to turn her heart so quickly," Riddle mocked. "Because now she gets to watch me kill you on your back." Another curse knocked him flat on the ground and then Riddle pulled his hands apart slowly, and there was no light now, only a darkness that grew between his wounded hands. It swirled like smoke and made a shiver run up Lily's spine.
Riddle started to move his hands forward, readying to effectively throw death at James.
"James!" Lily shouted. She needed him to stand up, to move out of the way. She needed to get out there and protect him like she had promised Sirius she would, like she had promised herself. But he wasn't moving, he wasn't getting up. The last spell that Riddle had thrown was keeping him where he was.
She had to do something now. There was no time to wait for whatever plan the land had for her, there was no time to sit back and think. Her feet felt as though they were stuck to the ground, but she was going to get to James.
She took a small step forward and felt as though the magnetic buzzing started pulling her into the ground itself. She had just long enough to question whether or not the land was going to prevent her from getting out into the middle of the field before everything went dark.
One second she was trying to run toward him, trying to force her body to listen to her, the next she couldn't see anything and she felt as though her entire body was being shoved through the eye of a needle.
And then she was between Riddle and James.
She saw the curse coming straight toward her and she knew that James was behind her. She heard him yell for her as she threw her arms out, letting the curse hit her square in the chest.
A bright white light shot out around her. It flashed once and then was gone.
She saw Riddle's eyes widen as she dropped to her knees, she heard him start to scream as his hands turned to ash, just as they had in her dream. It didn't seem to be stopping at just his hands.
She felt James' arms wrap around her.
And then there was nothing.
oOo
Bright white light made her flinch, she tried to close her eyes, and then realized that they were already closed. She tried to reach her hand up to cover her face, but her hand was too heavy.
After a few failed attempts to open her eyes, she managed, and found herself sitting on a bench at King's Cross of all places.
She jumped to her feet and looked around. She was back in the mortal world? Her stomach sunk to her feet in dread and disappointment. How did she end up here?
No.
That couldn't be. She wasn't really at the train station, if she was, where were the rest of the people? Where were the trains? Why did it look so clean?
"Lily?"
She jumped and turned toward the voice.
There was a woman on the bench now. She sat up straight and hand a regal air about her. Lily knew without knowing how she knew, that this was James' mother.
"I'm dead," Lily said, falling back onto the bench with a huff.
She had known that it was a likely outcome, that is why she had written that letter to her mother, why she had given Sirius a message to give to Remus, why she had spent as much of the day holding onto James as she could.
It still shocked her.
"Yes and no." Euphamia Potter reached up and patted at the side of her head, making sure all her hair was in place. She looked pristine. Lily almost told her so.
"Well, you are dead, your majesty, so if you and I are here talking with one another, then so am I."
"That is quite sound logic." Mia smiled at her. "I need to thank you for what you just did for James." Lily looked down at her lap. She was no longer wearing armor, but her jeans and jumper. She was still barefoot. "If you had not been willing to sacrifice yourself like you did, he would have surely joined me in the afterlife."
"I wanted to protect him," Lily said, pinching one of her fingers with the others. "But did it heal the land as well?"
"You are going back, Lily." Mia raised her brows. "You shall see for yourself what work you still have left to do." And then she smiled, a calm motherly smile and Lily wanted to curl up in her arms. It had been such a long week, and she didn't want to go back to only be thrown back into the thick of it again.
"I'm tired," She admitted, resting her head against Mia's shoulder.
"I should expect so. The kind of magic you just used… no one has ever seen anything like it."
"I didn't use magic," Lily shook her head.
"Of course you did," Mia argued. "If you did not, you would not be here with me."
Lily's frowned deepened. "Alright, I'll bite. Where are we?"
"We are at a crossroads Lily. I do not know this place, but it must signify change to you, yes? New beginnings and old things coming to an end?"
Lily thought about when she had gone off to college, her mum had dropped her off here. When her sister had moved in with her fiancé, they had dropped her off here. The King's Cross was a symbol of beginnings and endings for Lily.
"It's a train station. It's how mortals get to someplace that is far away."
Mia nodded. "Yes, well, it sounds as though one of these trains is coming now. Do you think that you are ready to get on it?"
She was quite comfortable where she was, and she was still so tired, but she knew that when the train appeared, she would get on it, so she nodded. "It will take me back?"
"If that is what you want."
"Is any of this real? Was I just knocked unconscious?"
"Of course it is real." Mia patted her knee and then stood up. "Thank you again for protecting my son, your highness. I know that the two of you will rule fairyland well, no matter what kind of partners you choose to be."
And then the train, swift and silent, was pulling up beside her. She stood from the bench and turned to say her goodbyes to Mia, but she was already gone.
She let herself feel the fear as the doors to the train opened, and then she took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
oOo
She woke up with a start, choking for oxygen.
"Lily!"
She pushed herself upright and tried to cough in her arm, but there were people grabbing at her.
"I thought you were dead!" That was Sirius.
"Sirius," And there was Peter.
"Lily," And James.
Lily turned her head and looked at him, trying to take a deep breath.
He had tears on his face and she cleared her throat to keep from coughing again as she reached out to brush them from his cheek. His eyes bore into hers. "You have your mother's eyes." She said and he pulled her to his chest.
"You are okay." He said.
"Yes," She nodded. "I told you we would come out of this together."
"You jumped in front of me,"
"I did. I'm not sure how, but I did."
"How are you not dead?" This was Sirius again, and James let go of Lily to get the answer to that question.
Lily shrugged. "Magic." And then she looked around.
The moon was still in the sky, but it was much later in the night now. The sun would be coming up soon. The court of death was nowhere to be seen, and the deadland didn't look so dead anymore.
She looked down at the grass beneath her and then toward the forest. She could see leaf buds in the shadows of the moon. It wasn't fully healed yet, but it was healing.
Her sacrifice had been enough.
"Where is he?" She asked, looking back toward where Riddle had fallen.
"He is gone." James answered. "He…"
"He turned to dust." Peter supplied. "He just vanished. A few of his men tried to fight, but it did not take long for them to all flee."
"The life started coming back to this place as soon as you hit the ground." Sirius said, reaching out and brushing his hand down her arm. "We thought it was your life, we were going to stay until it finished. Also, I would like it ack-"
"If you are about to say that you were right," James was nearly growling.
"Right," Sirius nodded, but then he winked at Lily and she smiled. He had suggested that sacrificing Lily's life might bring this place back to life when they visited here the first time.
"It wasn't my life that brought this place back. It was Riddle's. His life had been stolen and he had to return it. He couldn't kill me because... " But she didn't know why. Mia had said that she'd used big magic, but Lily wasn't sure what that magic was, and she was blanking now. "I don't feel magic anymore." She said, pushing the heels of her feet into the grass. "I think I've fulfilled my deal with the land."
"Why could he not kill you?" Sirius pressed.
Lily looked at James and tilted her head. The connection to the land might have been broken, so she couldn't use it to draw out information. But she had a pretty good guess of her own.
"Because I was willing to make that sacrifice." James closed his eyes and leaned forward, resting his forehead to hers.
"Please do not ever do that to me again."
"I'll do my best." Lily promised, leaning in further to kiss him.
And this time, when their lips touched, she felt magic race through her.
o
oOo
o
"Hurry up, Lily," Remus called from ahead of her in the woods.
Lily grumbled under her breath and debated throwing a branch at him. "I'm going as fast as I can! I am glad that you are feeling better, but I'm still not used to doing this!"
"Don't let him get to you," James said. He was in front of her too though. They were both good for nothing.
She hitched her purple JanSport up her shoulders and deftly stepped over a mushroom circle.
She hated walking through the wood. She could not feel the magic like she used to, but it was still there, and she could feel it slowly leaving. Every step she took toward the mortal world was a step closer to a world without magic.
It had been six months since Riddle had turned to ash in front of Lily.
Six months since she'd gone back to her mum's house and explained to her that she was moving. She hadn't wanted to overwhelm her mother, so she'd been giving her small bits of information about fairyland over the last few months.
She had not informed her mother that she was queen of said world, only that she lived there, that it was real, that she hadn't been just using her imagination as a child.
Remus called over his shoulder again and Lily smiled at him this time.
He was annoying her because she was easily annoyed on the way back to the mortal world, because soon the colors would dim and the sounds would become more harsh, but she was almost as excited as he was this time.
Most magic still seemed abstract to Lily, but it turned out that she had a knack for potions. Together, she and Remus had been able to modify an ancient potion that trapped shifters in a singular form, so that Remus could cross over into the mortal world without transforming into a werewolf.
He was going to get to see his mother today for the first time in almost six years.
Lily tried her best to catch up with Remus and James, and when he reached James, she reached out and grabbed his hand so he couldn't get ahead of her again. Maybe he could just drag her a bit, he would pay attention to where she should put her feet. He liked to take care of her in ways like that.
Many people throughout fairyland had started the story that James and herself were soulmates. That they were destined to be together. They claimed that that was why she hadn't died when she jumped in front of Riddle's death curse to save James. They claimed that that was why the land had chosen her. Because her and James falling in love, was written in the stars.
It was a nice story, and she did think that she belonged with James, but she knew that it was because of her choices and not anything in the stars.
She wanted to be in fairyland, and so she was.
She wanted to be with James, and he wanted to be with her, and so they were.
"Are you going to tell your mum this time?" He asked, squeezing her hand in his.
"No," Lily shook her head. "She managed to not get visibly upset when I introduced her to you last month, but that doesn't mean I'm going to tell her about being queen. I'm not entirely sure that she believes me yet anyway."
"You could bring her for a visit."
"She said that she's not ready yet."
"Because she doesn't believe you and she thinks that you are losing your mind." James muttered.
"Probably," Lily agreed, "But I'm still going to take things slowly so that she doesn't lose her mind." The birds singing started to sound off key and Lily bit her lip. "Are you sure that you two can't feel that?"
Remus looked back at her. "I didn't feel anything. Did it happen already?"
"Yes, we're almost there," Lily smiled.
"You still have a connection to the land," James shrugged. "I think you will always feel where fairyland ends and a new world begins."
The way he said a new world and didn't say the mortal world brought up some questions that she would save for later. She didn't' need to be learning about more worlds right before she went to tell her mum that everything was normal
"Maybe," She agreed.
There was a break in the thick forest ahead, and Lily knew that it would open up to the small neighborhood that she and Remus grew up in. So close to magic, and yet an entire world away.
Remus took a deep breath at the edge of the wood and Lily let go of James hand so she could go up and link her arm through his. They were already in the mortal world now, but Lily understood that stepping out from the shadows was a big deal for Remus.
They had come up behind his mother's house.
Lily looked toward a window she knew to be in the kitchen, and could see Hope walking past.
"Are you ready?" She asked Remus.
"You don't have to come with me." Remus said. "I can do this on my own."
"I know." Lily grinned at him and then at James as he came up on the other side of Remus. "But you and I have always made this trip together."
Remus smiled at her appreciatively and then nodded. "I'm ready."
"Then let's go."