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No trial this chapter, sorry! I mixed up the chapters!
Chapter 18 "Counter-Curse"
"We found it," Kingsley said excitedly to Severus and Lily. The three aurors were back at the Evans residence, and Kingsley was delighted to see Lily's face light up at his words.
"Oh, thank you!" Lily hugged Kingsley tightly, surprising him, but he was pleased at her reaction.
"Great." Severus looked relieved. Even if he did get chucked in Azkaban, at least Lily would be free from her bind to Potter.
Kingsley pulled the wrinkled paper out of his pocket, along with the Dark Magic spell book and placed them on the coffee table. Gordon picked the book up and looked at it in interest.
"It might take a while to break the curse and potion, though," Kingsley warned. He decided not to mention that they might not be able to be broken, and Frank shot him a look, but didn't say anything. "Frank, Andria, why don't you take a look through the book, and see if you can find the potion that Potter used on Lily, and Gordon can try to find a way to break the mind control curse." Kingsley prodded the old paper. "I want to talk to Severus about the trial tomorrow."
Frank grabbed the book, and Andria followed him into the kitchen. Gordon grabbed his assignment and joined the other two aurors in the kitchen.
"Now, about the trial." Kingsley sat down, and fear crossed Severus' face. "As I told you before, I don't know how they're going to rule. I don't want to give you false hope. But I'll take you there and stand for you, even if it costs me my job."
Severus started to argue, he didn't want anyone to get in trouble for him, but Kingsley interrupted. "And don't tell me no, because you need me there. And when I took this job, I wanted to help protect people, and that's what I'll be doing for you."
"Thank you," Severus said quietly. It still felt strange to have somebody on his side for once.
"The trial is early tomorrow morning. And Lily, you can come as a witness. I think once they hear your side of the story, they might be more forgiving. I will try my best to help you, but I can't promise anything. Now, the trial is in a few hours, so why don't you two get some sleep, and I'm going to go look at those curses, see if we can't find an antidote. I'll wake you when it's time to go, alright?" Kingsley gave them a reassuring smile before flicking his wand to turn off the light and leaving.
"He doesn't sound too optimistic, does he?" Severus said hopelessly and Lily hugged him. "I'll convince them not to lock you up, Sev. I swear. You won't go if I can help it."
Severus smiled and buried his face into Lily's red hair. It was strange how Lily's hair always comforted him, even in school. All he had to do was look at it, and it would bring him to different places. Watching a burning sunset over the ocean, walking through a forest and crunching on red fall leaves, picking bright scarlet apples in a peaceful orchard.
"You should get some sleep," Lily pushed him down onto the couch, and snuggled next to him, wrapping her arms around him protectively and laying her head on his chest.
Severus was going to object, saying that he couldn't possibly sleep with the thought of imprisonment loomed before him, he was going to suggest that they go and help the aurors try to break the curses, but Lily's warmth relaxed him. They might as well enjoy this last night together. Severus kissed Lily's forehead lightly, and she hugged him tighter. Severus stared at the ceiling and listened to the aurors muffled voices in the other room as he drifted off.
"I will protect you, Severus Snape. Just like you protected me. I will be here for you always," Lily whispered in his ear. Now that she could be called up as a witness, she would not let them take Sev from her for doing the right thing. That evil bastard deserved to die. Severus did the world a favor, and he shouldn't be locked up for that.
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"What about this one?" Andria pointed to the next potion. They had been going through the Dark Magic book for at least an hour and a half now, and Andria's eyes were starting to hurt.
"No, it's missing the lacewing flies that Severus told us about," Frank said. Severus had told them all the ingredients he could remember from the list Potter had given him in the potion's shop.
Frank turned another page in the Dark Potions chapter, and Kingsley inhaled as he looked at the squiggly writing. "Read the description,"
"Binds the recipient to the brewer forever. They will not be able to rebel, fight back, or leave. They must do as the brewer commands, and they will be unable to mostly on slaves and man servants."
"Yeah, but Lily said she broke the connection for a minute in the alley. How was she able to do that if they can't break the connection?" Frank frowned.
"She must have incredible mind power in order to do that. If she could break it with her mind, we might be able to find an antidote to break it." Andria said.
Frank looked skeptically at the page. "It says here it'll bind Lily to Potter forever, though."
"We can at least try," Kingsley said, giving Frank a look. Sometimes it seemed like he gave up too easily. "Alright. we're gonna need some ingredients though. We might have to brew the potion first to make an antidote."
Gordon grunted, and the three others jumped; they had almost forgotten he was there. "I think I can break this curse. It really isn't difficult." he said quietly.
"Great!" Kingsley restrained himself from pumping his fist in the air. "Well, when you figure out the exact spell, we'll go perform it on Lily. Then at least she'll be free of that. Meanwhile, I'm going to go ask Severus about potions ingredients."
"He really wants to help them," Frank whispered to Andria as Kingsley left. "but he's not taking into account that maybe they can't be helped."
"Frank, will you stop? Don't be so pessimistic." Andria shook her head. "Kingsley is very enthusiastic, and I respect him for that. There is always a chance, always a reason not to give up hope. And Kingsley always finds it. So jump on the bandwagon with us and help."
Frank grumbled under his breath. He was not a pessimist, he was a realist. But he didn't want to argue. He would always be there to help his friends, even if he didn't agree with what they were doing. He knew they couldn't just leave Lily like this, that would be a terrible way to live. So he gave in. Maybe they could find an antidote.
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"Severus," Kingsley leaned down and shook his shoulder gently, trying to avoid bothering Lily, who was sleeping next to him. Severus opened his eyes. "Is it time already?"
"No, I just wanted to ask if I could get some ingredients from the potions shop you work at."
"Of course. Did you find an antidote?" Severus said excitedly, and Lily stirred beside him.
"No, not for the potion yet. But Gordon thinks he could take the mind control curse off."
Severus grinned. Well, that would be at least one good thing. "Yeah, take anything you want. There are some protective charms on the shop you'll have to take off before you can enter." Severus told him the spells, and Kingsley jotted them down so he wouldn't forget.
"Thanks. Sorry for bothering you."
"Do you want help getting the ingredients? I could come and.."
"No, I think it's safer if you stay here with Lily." Kingsley smiled. "I have the others to help me."
"If you're sure.." Severus wanted to get up and help them, help them save Lily before he was locked up.
"Yeah. Don't worry. Hopefully we'll have this sorted out soon." Kingsley stuffed the piece of paper with the protective spell into his pocket and left again.
"Sev, what happened?" Lily asked sleepily.
"Nothing. Just go back to sleep. Everything is going to be fine." for you, Severus thought. You'll finally be free of Potter.
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"Okay, I'm going to get the list of ingredients that we need to rebrew the potion from Severus' shop, and then we can work on an antidote." Kingsley said to the other three aurors. He quickly scribbled what they needed on a piece of paper, and disappeared before they could say anything. He was back with the hour, and they set up a fire and a cauldron in the middle of the kitchen after fire-proofing the room first.
The potion was almost finished when Kingsley glanced at his watch. The black liquid boiled sinisterly in the cauldron as they added the last few ingredients, and then Kingsley said that he had to leave to bring Severus to his trial.
"Gordon, you have the counter-curse yet?" he asked the quiet auror. Gordon had been staring at that wrinkled old page while the rest of them were working on the potion, occasionally mumbling and swishing his wand through the air.
"Yes, I think so. I could try it on Lily if you want to see if it'll free her."
"Yeah, we'll do that before we leave." Kingsley motioned for Gordon to follow him, and asked the other two to keep working on the potion.
"Severus," Kingsley nudged Severus again. The sun was starting to shine through the window, and illuminated the couple on the couch. "Now it's time."
Severus sat up, gently pulling Lily up with him. "It is already? Can't I just stay here?"
Kingsley thought Severus was joking, but then he heard the serious tone of his voice. "I'm sorry, but we have to go," he smiled sadly. "But before we go, Gordon's going to try and lift the curse from Lily."
"You found the counter-curse?" Lily exclaimed, fully awake now.
"I believe so. If it works, you should feel lighter, like weight being lifted from you." Gordon explained. "Are you ready?"
"Yes!" Lily said fiercely. She was about to get rid of one of the horrible things that was binding her to James. How could she not be ready?
Gordon touched the tip of his wand to Lily's forehead before chanting under his breath as the others watched. Lily gasped as she felt cold wash over her .
"Lily, what's the matter?" Severus said, staring at her. Her usually rosy red cheeks had gone pale, and her eyes were glazing over. She collapsed to the ground as Gordon pulled his wand away.
"Lily!" Severus shook her frantically. He glanced at the aurors. "Do something!"
"I was sure that that would work," Gordon murmured.
"Well, it didn't. What did you do to her? Lily!" Severus shook her again, her head lolling back and forth. Suddenly he couldn't breathe. Lily was dead. After everything, Lily was dead, because a stupid auror did the counter curse wrong, and he was going to prison with the dementors and Lily was dead and James was free and Lily was dead.. Severus began hyper-ventilating and Kingsley looked at him worriedly.
"Severus, are you all right?"
"She's dead, she's dead." Severus choked out between his heaving breaths.
"Severus, I don't think she's..."
"Look at her, you've killed her!" Severus cried.
"I think you're over-reacting, she's fine." Kingsley placed a hand on Severus' shoulder, trying to comfort him, but he shook it off, still clutching Lily tightly.
Lily suddenly gasped and opened her eyes. Severus looked down at her in shock and she smiled.
"Oh my God, Lily. Are you alright?" Severus found his voice.
"I'm fine. I feel so much better, like I'm free. I can still feel the potion, but the curse is gone, it feels so good!"
"Don't do that ever again!" Severus hugged her tightly, relief washing over him.
"I'm sorry about that," Gordon said apologetically. "I didn't know there would be a side effect of the counter-curse."
"I feel so good!" Lily laughed. "I don't care if I grew horns, thank you so much!"
Gordon smiled at the young lady. It made him feel good to help someone like this. "You're welcome. If you don't mind, I think I'll go back and help the others now."
"Alright, now that that's over, it's trial time," Kingsley said. He was happy to see that Severus had calmed down since Lily came to, but that incident had showed him how much he really cared for her. He had practically gone into shock at seeing her 'dead'. If she had died for real, Kingsley had a feeling Severus wouldn't be long behind. He wouldn't be able to live without her.
"We're apparating there?" Lily asked Kingsley, and he nodded. He led them to the front door, and replaced the protective charms once they were all on the stoop. They started down the walk, Lily behind the two men, so they had their back to her when she was hit with the stunning spell.
Next is a James chapter. And then, hopefully, the trial!