4. Fight or Fight

"More, Avery? Or should I feed you to Nagini?" he said in a high, cold voice before screaming the dreaded words.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Neville woke up with a scream. Thankfully, he had silencing spells cast around his four poster bed. His gran taught it to him because, according to her, a Gryffindor should not scream like a frightened girl just for a mere nightmare. Easy for her to say, he thought bitterly.

He sometimes wished that he grew up in an orphanage rather than with his gran. In her own way, she cared for Neville, but she didn't love him because he was her grandson. She saw him as her chance to restore the Longbottom name back to its previous glory. He saw her just as the son of Frank Longbottom. She rarely mentioned his mother to him, and often hinted that she didn't approve of his father's taste in women. Thankfully, she didn't openly say it in front of Neville.

Neville often fantasized about standing up to his gran, but every time he tried, she got teary and mentioned how poor Frank was turning in his grave at seeing his son insulting his mother, which would crush him down with terrible guilt. After a few times he understood that he was never going to be successful in that, so he just stopped. After hearing the prophecy, he prayed that Voldemort was quick in murdering him. Because face it, even Dumbledore couldn't say exactly what powers he had to surprise Tom Riddle, so his death was kinda set on stone. Dumbledore wasn't such a realist, though.

He slipped out of the four-poster and went down to the common room. To his surprise, he saw a figure sitting near the fire, as if meditating.

"Um... Hello?"

"Hi Neville."

The figure turned towards him. It was Harry.

"Harry what are you doing here at this time?"

"Greengrass and I had a row so I left the dorm." He said brightly. Neville looked a bit confused.

"Not that I mind you here, but couldn't you go back when she falls asleep?"

Harry sighed sadly.

"I thought of that too. But she is just too much of a Slytherin. She is bunking in the Common Room and ordered the portrait to wake her up if I enter. I think she either wants me to apologize or yell some more. The portrait warned me before I tried as she can't disobey a command from a Head."

"You are the Head Boy. Why can't you command her to not wake her up?"

"It's the rule. If the two Head students ask her to do something contradicting, she is bound to follow the one who ordered first."

Neville shook his head. Head stuff was pretty complicated in his opinion. Though his gran expressed her disappointment too many times, Neville was very glad that he wasn't chosen as the Head Boy. Not that anyone except his gran expected him to be chosen.

"So what did she do this time?" he asked Harry, who scowled.

"Did I ever mention that she is a self-centred bitch?"

"Not this week, no."

"Well, she is. Here I was, perfectly minding my own business, and she just stormed in our common room and said that I need to get a life instead of being a childish arse. Just because I hexed Malfoy so that his hair was replaced by green grasses doesn't mean I had any intentions of indicating that she had an affair with Malfoy, does it?"

Neville considered for a moment before answering. "Well, I wouldn't think so, but since her name is Greengrass, you could tell why she might take it personally. Not that I think she is right, though." He added hastily.

"I know and I said that to her. But of course she thinks that the universe revolves around her arse and didn't believe me. She told me that other people were talking about it since Malfoy had shown interest in her a few years back." He said with a grimace. Apparently, the thought of Malfoy with Greengrass disgusted him. Because however bitchy she may be, she could do so much better than Malfoy….

"So what are you doing here at his time, Nev?" Harry asked curiously and Neville sighed.

"It's nothing, just... bad dreams, you know." He tried, but it was clear that Harry wasn't buying it. "Alright, I'll tell you, but-"

"I won't tell anyone, Nev. Go on."

Neville sat down beside Harry, crossing his legs and taking a deep breath. Then he started talking. He told Harry about the visions, the regular pain in his scar, even the prophecy. (Because Harry was the last person who would sell him to Voldemort or his Death Eaters) He told him how he was just waiting for Voldemort to come and get him.

"Don't think like that, Nev. He won't win. I'll help you, we all will help you." Harry assured his friend, who smiled humourlessly.

"I really appreciate it, Harry. But I don't think I can defeat him even with Dumbledore's help. I didn't tell gran because she would put more expectations on me and I might want to hide somewhere before I have to face Voldemort. At least when I die, I want to die like a man like my dad."

Harry clapped his friend's shoulder. He knew that Neville's gran was making his friend's life miserable, but for some reason he was reluctant to stand up to her.

"Neville, my parents were very good friends with your parents. Do you think it would be alright they paid your gran a visit? I heard that my mum can be quite persuasive."

Neville looked scared for a moment. Then he nodded.

"I guess that would be okay, but-"

"Don't worry Neville. It will be alright."

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In a dark room, a group of people were waiting for their master. Their faces each showed different emotions, and some didn't show any emotions at all.

Lucius Malfoy wondered if letting Rabastan join back was a good decision. The younger Lestrange brother always had a blank look and mostly ignored everything around him. The Dark Lord let them back because of their 'unwavering loyalty' towards him so no one dared to question about it further. Many of them wanted to see if the Dark Lord would forgive Rabastan for being slow in a mission.

Rodolphus was another matter completely. Azkaban really affected him, as the once ruthless man flinched at sudden noises, though he was getting better. He nearly killed Pettigrew when the rat sneezed suddenly. It seemed that his fondness of curses didn't leave him with his sanity.

Speaking of sanity, the only person who seemed unaffected by Azkaban was none other than Bellatrix Lestrange. The normal insane witch just seemed to be more insane and sadistic, if that was even possible. Her cackling unnerved everyone like before, if not more, and she became the Dark Lord's favourite again right away. Right now, she was crooning to a stuffed cat she got from a muggle child she killed on her way here. The others gave her a wide berth, even her sister Narcissa. She didn't seem to be bothered by it, though. In contrary, she enjoyed the fact that everyone feared her. Some Death Eaters joked that if the Dark Lord was a little late to start recruiting, it might've been him serving Bellatrix, not the other way round.

Nagini, who was silently curled up on a corner suddenly hissed and startled many of the Death Eaters. Right on cue, Lord Voldemort entered the room, hissing in parseltongue at his pet snake, ignoring the Death Eaters who all but scrambled on their feet and bowed deeply.

"Sit."

Like an obedient bunch of sheep, everyone sat down. Bellatrix leaned forward eagerly, giving Crabbe, who was sitting opposite to her, a nice view of her once magnificent cleavage. The man was torn between staring at it and looking away as quickly as possible.

"Death Eaters, you all know why we are here." Voldemort addressed the silent crowd. "We freed the loyal Death Eaters from Azkaban and now we need to remind the world exactly how weak their ministry is. They need to fear us!

"They are too blind to see that mudbloods and blood-traitors should be obliterated from the world. They say blood doesn't matter. How ignorant! Who was the last halfblood Minister of Magic? No one. Who was the last mudblood wand maker? No one. Who was the last mudblood headmaster of Hogwarts? No one! And yet they think that scum like them deserves any share of power. We must show them that without blood purity, you are no better than a farm animal.

"They need to witness, once again, how farm animals should be slaughtered. They need to remember what happens when they don't share our vision. Either they are our ally, or they are causalities."

He looked around for their expressions and was satisfied that most of them looked like they were eager to shed some blood.

"Our target is a village south of Richmond. Most of the habitants are either mudblood or blood-traitors and the rest are muggles. You do not need to keep anything or anyone in one piece. Consider it a celebration for the return of my faithful Death Eaters."

He waved his wand and a portkey arrived in front of everyone. He looked at each person in the eye before saying, "Do not disappoint me. Show them what happens when you support mudbloods. Show them what happens when they stand in the way of Lord Voldemort."

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"You should apologize." She said with a frown.

"Dream on, Greengrass. It is you who should apologize. I had to spend the whole night awake because of you!" he said angrily and she looked taken aback.

"I didn't ask you to stay away!" she snapped back.

"Oh yeah? Who was it sleeping in the common room all night so that they could yell at me for some stupid reason?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well excuse me for pointing this out to you, but the universe doesn't revolve around the mighty Harry Potter. I was doing my homework till late night and I asked the portrait to warn me in case you decided to sneak up and hex me. And the reason was not stupid."

He stared at her for a moment in disbelief. Then he said coolly, "I don't sneak up and hex anyone. If I wanted to hex you I would do it up front. And as for the reason, I quote you- the universe doesn't revolve around the mighty Daphne Greengrass. I just changed Malfoy's hair to grasses. The fact that most of the grass you ever saw was green is just an unfortunate coincidence."

He might've seen the hint of a smile playing in her lips but it went away as soon as it appeared. Her face went blank and she sat down.

"There is something you might want to know about, Potter."

"What is it?" he asked, half-irritated, half-curious.

"There has been a report against Parkinson saying that she assigned detention to a couple of Ravenclaws with no apparent reason. Her report says that those Ravenclaws were inappropriately dressed." She said in a bored tone.

"Detention for inappropriate dressing? That's rich, coming from Parkinson, seeing that she doesn't mind showing off her assets to the world." He commented with a frown.

"Regardless, I consulted a few witnesses and they said that those Ravenclaws wore nothing out of usual. They also hinted that Parkinson is simply jealous of them because Malfoy recently ogled at them. What do you think we should do?"

"We have to give her a warning. If she abuses her power again, her prefect status would be cancelled."

"Are you sure that wouldn't be an empty threat? Professor Snape would simply reinstate her and might even try to accuse you of abusing your power."

Harry looked at her thoughtfully. As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. Of course he could turn around Snape's accusations, but he couldn't stop him from reinstating her. Greengrass was smart, he had to give it to her.

"You are probably right. What do you suggest then?" he asked her.

"Firstly, I am definitely right. Secondly, she is hardly a role model for prefects and we could run without one prefect being active."

"I am not sure I follow you." Harry said with a frown. Daphne was tempted to retort with one of his stupid blonde jokes, but she wasn't going to stoop to his level.

"I suggest we deliberately overturn every detention she hands and ignore her in prefects' meetings until she learns her lesson. You know, make her feel powerless and useless."

"Did I ever mention that you can be a vindictive person if you want?"

"You have, actually. Multiple times."

"Just this time, take it as a compliment."

"Thank you." She replied with a mock bow.

"But is that even allowed?" Harry asked.

"Since when did you start caring about what's allowed?" Daphne asked with a raised eyebrow and Harry chuckled sheepishly.

"Touché."

There was a bit of silence and they both stared around aimlessly for a while, subtly avoiding eye contact. This has been a recurring event for the week that they had shared the dorm. When they had some duty-related discussions, they talked like responsible adults, even sharing a joke every once in a while. However, rest of the time was awkward at best. Of course they had several fights and a couple of rows within one week of their Headship, but when they were not discussing duty, or fighting, they hardly talked much. At first, that was just fine by both of them, but after a week of going over to the Gryffindor Tower for any friendly conversation, Harry felt tired. Greengrass was much more introverted than he was and she hadn't visited the dungeons nearly as much as he visited the Gryffindor common room.

"Where's Davis? Haven't seen her around you for a while." He commented and Daphne glared at him for a moment before shrugging.

"She's trying to get the attention of a boy, so she is kind of busy right now." She replied flatly. Harry couldn't decide if he heard any bitterness in her voice.

"Who is it?" he asked. She scowled at him.

"Not my story to tell."

Harry nodded. Slytherins were a secretive bunch. The few friends he made in the snake's house were quite tight lipped.

"So do you have a boyfriend?" he asked. Daphne glared at him for a while before answering.

"What business is it of yours, Potter?" she asked with a sneer. Harry held up his hands.

"Nothing. Jeez! I just wondered because I didn't see any guys hanging out here. I assumed you had a boyfriend in Slytherin that you kept secret from the outside. Probably tied him up in a private cellar or something."

"I see no girls here either, and yet didn't ask you the same question." She shot back, ignoring the last comment.

"Well I broke up with Katie Bell last year and everyone knew we were dating for over a year." He explained, feeling a pang in his chest for his old love.

"So why did she dump you?" she asked with a slight smirk. Harry ignored the jibe.

"We didn't want the burden of long distance holding us down. If we are both single after I graduate, we might give it another go."

Daphne nodded slightly. That made sense, and was surprisingly mature of them.

"So what about you?" Harry asked again. Daphne sighed. She didn't want to answer, but they were practically living together and he had already figured it out anyway.

"No. I am not seeing anyone." She answered in a tight tone.

"See? That wasn't so difficult, was it?"

"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.

"Admitting that you are a sad, lonely cow, of course." He answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She threw a book at him.

"You know, sometimes I begin to feel like you are actually a passable human being, but then again you go on and prove that you are a piece of horse shit like Malfoy." she replied, getting up and knowing that she had successfully hit a nerve.

"You take that back!" he shouted.

"Go fuck yourself Potter." She called back, walking towards her room.

"You first!" he replied childishly as she disappeared in her room.

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There were loud bangs and crashes outside the door. Lily knew it was the Death Eaters. For a moment she was confused. They were under the Fidelius Charm. They couldn't find the house unless…

Peter!

That fucking piece of shit!

She wanted to think that Peter had no option, maybe he was tortured, but she clearly knew that no one except the four of them even knew that Peter was the Secret Keeper.

If she got out of this alive, the rat was going to rue the day he was born, she promised herself. Then again, she saw little chance of surviving the night. The Death Eaters already put up anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards.

But why? Voldemort was gone. Little Neville saw to it, losing his parents in process. So why continue the assault?

The cackle that came from the hallways confirmed her of the identity of at least one of the Death Eaters. Bellatrix Lestrange had a habit of announcing her presence to her enemy. Tactically speaking, giving away your identity to your enemy isn't the best decision, but in Bellatrix's case, this was an advantage. Just knowing that Bellatrix Lestrange has come for you was enough to make most wizards and witches lose their senses in fear.

Shaking her head to concentrate, Lily sent a reductor curse at the source of the sound. The only silver lining she could see was James and Harry were not home. They have gone over to Sirius's place, ignoring Dumbledore's warning. Quickly she sent a patronus at the Aurors' office. James would just rush in without thinking and likely get hit. She sent another patronus at Dumbledore, calling for backup.

"Come out, Potter. Stop hiding like a coward! Weren't you a Gryffindor or something?" a gruff male voice called out, sending a powerful blasting curse at the ceiling.

"He's not home. Come another time." Lily shouted, changing position to get a better shot whenever the Death Eaters enter.

"Oh the mudblood's here! I think I will have some fun today!" Bellatrix cooed, practically shaking with anticipation. Lily shivered in disgust and a little bit of fear.

"Husband not good enough for you?" she called back. The Death Eaters now came into her view and she fired off a stream of curses, quickly running to take cover behind the sofa. She was taught not to stay in one place after firing a curse. Keep moving, or you are easier to get by the enemy.

"Shut up bitch!" a male voice shouted at her and fired a killing curse. Probably the said husband himself. Unfortunately, his killing curse blasted the sofa apart, forcing her to dive behind a table, knowing that the table won't last any longer, she set it on fire and banished it at the incoming Death Eaters.

"I don't blame you. I mean, who in their right mind would voluntarily come close to this… err… woman, I guess." Lily said, while sprinting to reach the staircase. She knew that she was quickly running out of spaces to hide, and while she was a pretty good fighter, she wasn't sure she could take on Bellatrix on a straight up fight, and from what she saw, she had three others with her. Unless backup arrived very soon, she was a goner. As soon as she got a little space to breathe, she sent another patronus, this time for James.

"I love you. Take care of Harry. See you on the other side."

With that, she let out a breath, took a moment to calm herself.

And then all hell broke loose.

Lily Evan's temper was a very well-known phenomenon to many. It was, according to James Potter, 'a beautiful apocalypse'. The Death Eaters had some taste of it.

For about three minutes straight, Lily's continuous barrage of spells, along with her graceful movements that made her pinning her down almost impossible, made even Bellatrix doubt their victory for a while. The four assailants were forced on the defensive, even taking a few blows. (Barty Crouch Jr. could never use his right leg again afterwards and Rabastan Lestrange could never see his manhood again)

But while dashing from cover to cover and firing off curses continuously, Lily stumbled upon a stray piece of debris. That was all they needed.

She dodged the first two curses at her way, even sending a cutter through to Bellatrix, which connected. But the sadistic witch didn't even notice. Within a moment, Lily Potter was put under the Cruciatus Curse. And while the curse itself was excruciating, the pain from four simultaneous Cruciatuses were impossible to bear. The first curse, cast by Bellatrix, felt like her body was pierced with a thousand white hot knives. When the other three joined in, she could actually feel her brain turning to mush with the unimaginable pain. It was like million tiny blades hacking away at every inch of her nerves. Her voice was raw from screaming and after a few moments, her vocal cord gave up and all that could be heard was gasp of air. If she could speak, she would beg for death to take her soon, but all she could do was scream silently…

"Lily…. Lils wake up."

At least James and Harry are safe….

"C'mon Lils, it's just a dream. Wake up."

"James?" she opened her eyes uncertainly. Still not sure which was the dream and which was reality.

"You were thrashing around. Nightmare again?" he asked her softly. She looked at him for a few moments and then instead of answering, she broke down in tears.

"Hey, it's okay, babe. It was just a dream." He tried to soothe her, but she didn't seem to be hearing him, so he just held her and rub small circles on her back, rocking her gently.

From her reaction, he guessed that she was relieving the night she got attacked. He couldn't even comprehend the amount of pain she was subjected to. It was still considered a miracle that her brain recovered from that ordeal. He had studied tomes after tomes on unicorn magic and after months of research, during which he took a sabbatical, slept no more than four hours a day and often forgot to eat, he finally came up with a rough solution. The healers in St Mungo's didn't think it would be effective, but he insisted on trying, and they haven't argued much. In their eyes, after all, there wasn't much to lose.

He remembered when he got Lily's patronus, saying that she loved him and Harry. He immediately tried to apparate back home, but found that he couldn't. He tried several times more. Sirius, in a surprising twist of events, calmed down first to realize that there must be anti-apparation wards in the place. He also logically deduced that there must be anti-portkey wards too. So they left the infant Harry under a sleeping charm and disillusioned him and then apparated to a spot about a hundred metres from their home. He found a number of Aurors and Order members were firing at the new wards erected by whoever was inside. By the time they broke through the wards, the damage was done. The only consolation was that the culprits were all captured, courtesy of Dumbledore and James. Some of the witnesses claimed that on that particular day, James Potter was far more dangerous than You-Know-Who himself. Sirius knew that had they seen the state Lily was left in, James would've started throwing Unforgivables without hesitation.

Shaking himself out of the memories, James looked at his wife, whose sobs were slowly dying. He handed her a conjured handkerchief. She quietly blew her nose on it.

"I'm sorry. I-" she began, but James cut her off.

"Shh! It's okay. No need to explain." He just held her tightly.

"I love you, James." She mumbled, closing her moist eyes.

"I love you too, Lils. Now, go back to sleep." He kissed the tip of her head and wiped her eyes. She gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

"Thank you."

"Anytime, beautiful."

Living almost twelve years without Lily had convinced James of one thing at least. He was never going to lose her again. Whatever the cost.

A/N: Many of you have asked for more backstory, and as you can see, I'm still slowly feeding them in. I hope you will continue to inspire me to write by leaving a review.