I don't own Harry Potter.
Thanks for reviews: phhsdj, hogwartsharpist, Professor Radar,Eawynne, Snapexoxo, Saint Snape, Jaspreet
Yay! A long chapter!
Chapter 38 "Another Death Eater Attack"
Lily's hands were trembling as she listened to Dumbledore speak. He had called an emergency meeting, via Patronous messages, due to an impending Death Eater attack.
"I have received word that the Death Eaters are planning another attack of a muggle town not far from here. Last time, we were too late and many muggles and Order members were murdered."
Lily swallowed hard, remembering Kingsley and that night only too well. Remus, who was standing next to lily, glanced over at her; her arm was pressed against his in the tight space and he could feel her shaking.
"I know this is your first time, but I'll stay with you. I've been through a couple of fights before." Remus whispered to her and Lily turned her eyes toward him, a grateful smile dressing her lips.
"Thank you." she breathed back, and suddenly she didn't feel quite as nervous as before. She reached out for Remus' hand and squeezed gently, grateful for a friend in these terrifying times. Remus' eyes widened for a moment, not expecting the little gesture, but gave her a little squeeze in return.
"We will Apparate in small groups, and to different quadrants in the neighborhood. Give a signal if the Death Eaters arrive in your location, and the others will immediately come." Now Moody, Dumbledore's right hand man, was talking. He stared out at the crowd of Order members with an expectant look on his face. When no one moved, he snarled. "What are you waiting for? We don't have all night! Break up into groups four to six and pick a location to Apparate to!"
Moody waved his wand and a map drew itself on the wall. It was a map of the neighborhood with several thick back dots positioned here and there. "After you have your groups and pick a location, erase the dot so there's no confusion and start leaving."
The Order members hurried to obey Moody's command. Remus tugged Lily toward the Prewett twins and they were joined by Emmeline Vance, who picked a dot on the map and erased it after showing the others.
"Come on, then." Emmeline gestured for the others in the group to follow her and they headed outside. "Everyone stay together now." Emmeline said. "We'll do group Apparation."
Remus, Lily and the Prewetts gathered around Emmeline and they all grasped hands. "One, two, three-" Emmeline counted, and they all spun on the spot, reappearing in the muggle neighborhood.
"Okay, wands out and eyes open." Emmeline whispered, looking around for any signs of the Death Eaters. It was very late, and all of the houses were dark and quiet. All you could hear was the light drone of insects and the occasional breeze whispering through the leaves. The others followed Emmeline as she stalked the street; she had been a member longer then any of them, and was therefore more experienced. They watched as she tilted her head as if listening to something, her wand held up, ready for action. Lily began trembling again, and Remus pulled her closer, acting on instinct to comfort her; he had never even released her hand after they Apparated.
"Be ready, Lily." Remus leaned close and whispered in her ear. "They always catch you off guard. One minute it'll be calm, and the next you'll be dodging curses."
Lily nodded, grasping her wand even tighter and staring straight ahead. They followed Emmeline as she paced up and down the streets for another ten minutes before she stopped dead in her tracks, eyes wide.
"Over there," she pointed to the sky, and they could see a faint burst of red against the dark night. "They're here." she started toward the direction of the signal, calling back, "Wands out! There could be more anywhere!"
Lily, Remus and the Prewetts followed her, running, their hearts and bodies pumping with adrenaline as they rushed to help their friends.
The scene that met their eyes as they turned the last corner was horrible. Already there were bodies on the ground. Muggle houses were burning and a few Order members were desperately trying to put out the flames so they wouldn't spread to other houses. Muggles ran past, their clothes on fire, screaming as their flesh burned and blistered. Some fell to the ground, trying to put it out by rolling, but it didn't work; the fire was magic.
Remus finally let go of Lily's hand and ran into the fray when he spotted Dorcas Meadows being crucioed by a masked Death Eater. He shot a curse at the Death Eater and the mask fell off as the person stumbled. Dorcas recovered enough to get to her feet and begin shooting curses at another nearby Death Eater. The one that Remus shot down cackled as she raised her head and Remus took a step back and paled when he saw who it was: Bellatrix Lestrange. She was renown for her love of torturing and killing muggles and her ruthlessness and bloodthirsty intentions.
"You want to play?" she giggled and slashed her wand through the air, blasting Remus back. He landed on his back, stunned by the slamming force of his fall. Bellatrix stood above him, raising her wand in preparation to work another spell, but Lily tackled her from behind, forgoing magic in her panic and simply crashing into Bellatrix. A look of shock crossed Bellatrix's face as she smashed into the ground, Lily on top of her. She quickly regained her composure and flipped Lily off so their positions were switched; now she was on top.
Remus quickly got to his feet, ready to intervene, but was intercepted by a huge burly Death Eater who shot him with a curse that made his skin bubble as if he had dumped acid in it. Remus winced, but ignored the pain as he shot a curse in retaliation, and dodged the Death Eater's return spell, and that was the last Lily saw of him; after that he was lost among the crowd of fighters and the jets of light that blew past.
"You must be a muggle born." Bellatrix cackled trailing a finger down Lily's face as she remained unmoving on top of her. "You choose to fight in the filthy muggle way instead of using magic?"
Lily fought to raise her wand up to curse the other witch, but Bellatrix was terribly strong, she had Lily's arm pinned against the ground so hard that she felt the asphalt cutting into her skin. Bellatrix grinned at Lily's frantic efforts to get away and traced a finger over Lily's lips. "Won't you learn that you're nothing compared to us? We will destroy you!"
Lily snarled at her words and opened her mouth, catching Bellatrix's finger in her teeth and biting down hard, drawing blood. Bellatrix screamed, not expecting that particular action, and released Lily's wand arm out of shock. Taking advantage of Bellatrix's sudden release, Lily pushed her off and got to her feet, but Bellatrix was quicker.
"Crucio!" she screeched, and Lily fell to the ground once again, and that familiar pain came back, and with it memories of James. His face popped into her mind as Bellatrix shot another cruciartus curse at her and pain ripped through her body. An instant reply started in her mind of James torturing her in the same exact way and she felt herself falling into that submissive mode, curling into a ball- no! This was a fight with a Death Eater, her life was in danger! She could not, WOULD NOT lay here. Lily stood up, struggling to her feet as Bellatrix blasted her with another crucio. Bellatrix raised her eyebrows as Lily stepped forward, panting with exertion.
"Well, well. That is certainly something I've never seen before. I guess it's not painful enough then?" Bellatrix smirked, but Lily dodged the next burst of light and shot a curse at Bellatrix, who dodged as well.
"Really? You think a mudblood is any match for me?" Bellatrix giggled, dancing around.
Lily burned with anger at the woman in front of her. These were the people that killed Kingsley and all those muggles. THEY were the filth, the slime that coated this world, and it was time to clean up the mess.
"I'm tiring of our little game, mudblood. It's time for you to die now." Bellatrix raised her wand, giving a cocky grin, but a rage suddenly leapt up inside Lily like she had never felt before. It could be compared to the rage she felt in the Shrieking Shack, when she was stabbing James, but this was much more intense, because it involved more then just her. It was like a fire that begged to burn brighter and hotter, using her thoughts of James and all the terrible things that the Death Eaters had done as fuel. Lily raised her wand, hardly realizing what she was doing, simply blinded by rage like that night at the Shack, and heard someone scream "Avada kedavra!", not even realizing until a second later that those words had flown from her lips.
Bellatrix looked amused at her try at the killing curse, until the green jet hit her square in the chest and she fell to the ground, a grin still on her lips.
Lily stared down at Bellatrix, that powerful feeling gone now...and what had she just done?
"Oh my god.." She had just killed another person. She felt numb as she looked at Bellatrix's still face, her eyes wide and blank, staring up toward the night sky.
"Lily! watch out!" Emmeline screamed from behind Lily as a jet of light flew past her ear, ruffling her hair. She spun around, snapping out of her daze and came face to face with a masked Death Eater. Lily blocked a spell that he shot at her and returned it with another spell and the two went back and forth, battling furiously.
The dead Bellatrix on the ground began catching the Death Eater' eyes as they ran past while fighting with Order members, and suddenly a Death Eater's voice boomed out, loud above the blasts and bursts of spells, "Retreat."
The Death Eater that Lily was fighting shot one last spell at her before he spun on his heel and disappeared. All around, there were sharp cracking sounds as the Death Eaters Disapparated one by one in a hasty retreat.
Within a minute, all the Death Eaters were gone, except wounded or dead ones, and there were only Order members left. Lily was still standing in the near vicinity of Bellatrix's body, which was starting to draw a crowd of Order members. Lily felt jumpy, still looking over her shoulder for blasts of spells or attacking enemies even though the Death Eaters were gone now. She gave a loud gasp and whipped around as she felt a hand on her shoulder but breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was only Remus.
"Lily are you okay?" he asked softly, and she nodded before bursting into tears. "That's how I felt after my first fight." he said understandingly, patting her shoulder to comfort her. She fell into him, pressing her face against his shirt and Remus stiffened as she cried into him. He stood quite still for a split second before wrapping his arms around her tightly and whispering soothing words of comfort into her ear.
Somebody pushed past Remus, and he looked around; it was Moody, heading toward the small group that had formed in front of them.
"What happened here?" he asked gruffly, pushing the others aside to see what was in the middle of the crowd, but he didn't need to as they moved aside to clear a path for him. He blinked as he stared at Bellatrix's body before a small grin broke his stern features.
"Bellatrix Lestrange, dead. I thought I would never see the day." Moody shook his head misbelievingly. He was silent for a minute as if brooding and then looked over his shoulder at the crowd. "What are you all doing?" he yelled and everyone jumped in unison. "Clear out and start looking for survivors!"
The Order members quickly scurried in all directions, fanning out across the area and looking for wounded, much like Lily and the healers had done on that night of the other attack.
"C'mon." Remus pulled Lily after him, a comforting arm around her shoulder as they followed the others. "So Bellatrix is dead. I can't believe it. All the people she's killed...and she was one of Voldemort's greatest followers. That's a big plus for us."
"I did it." Lily said quietly.
"What?" Remus said absently, not really paying attention but instead scanning the area for any bodies.
"I killed Bellatrix."
Remus looked at her, his eyes wide.
"I took someone's life." Lily slipped out of Remus' grasp to sit on the curb. "I can't believe it." she pressed her palms to her eyes. She felt Remus sit next to her and touch her arm gently.
"Lily...you don't have to feel bad. If she was still alive, you know how many people she would kill?"
"But how is this different from what Severus did? He killed a horrible person who did horrible things and he was imprisoned for it. Now I killed Bellatrix and everybody is ecstatic. How is that fair?" Lily removed her hands from her eyes so she could look at Remus, the need to understand written clearly across her face.
Remus shrugged, looking troubled. He didn't have an answer for her. When she put it that way, it didn't seem very fair. If Sirius was a Death Eater and Severus was an Order member, he would have never been sent to prison for killing him. But he wasn't in the Order, and Sirius was almost as bad as a Death Eater.
"I'm sorry, Lily. I don't know what to say. I don't have an answer. What I can tell you is that you saved a lot of lives by removing Bellatrix from the picture, so think of it that way." He stood up, looking around. "We need to help the others now." he held out a hand to help her up, and she took it, getting to her feet. "Come on."
They joined the others in searching the houses and streets for any wounded muggles or Order members, which took a fairly short amount of time since the Death Eaters didn't get too far because the Order was there to stop them.
Moody gestured at the Order when all the fires were out and the wounded were Apparated away to Saint Mungo's for treatment by a few select Order members. He cleared his throat, studying them all. "Tonight was a good night. This is a win for the Order. We had no casualties on our side, and only two muggles are killed. Bellatrix Lestrange is dead and we have five other Death Eaters in custody. Tonight...tonight was a great night." An explosion of cheering started up and Moody gave a small smile. It wasn't often that they had such a good battle. It was always rewarding when there weren't many casualties and especially if none of their own were wounded or killed.
Remus whistled, a grin on his face, but Lily still felt numb inside.
"Can we leave?" she asked quietly, and Remus face fell a little. "Yeah, okay."
"Albus and I will get in contact with everybody about the next meeting, and until then, stay safe." Moody called over the noise. Remus followed Lily as she walked away from the crowd and picked a spot to Disapparate. She spun and disappeared, Remus following and appearing next to her side in front of the potions shop a moment later. She was quiet, and Remus chose not to break the silence even after they were upstairs and Lily went to her room, closing the door behind her without a word. Remus settled on the couch and closed his eyes, wondering if anything he could say would make Lily feel better about what she did.
Lily curled up on the bed in her room, drawing Severus' robes to her chest.
"Sev," she whispered. "I need you here. I want you to come home." she hugged the robes to her face almost as if trying to suffocate herself but really just trying to breathe in any of Severus' scent that was left on them. She looked at the picture of her and Sev on the wall when they were kids, and reached out a finger to touch Severus' smiling face. "When you come home, we should go away. Go somewhere far away where everything is new and fresh and we could start a life together. No James or Sirius or Voldemort. Just us." Lily pulled the picture from the wall, holding it gently in her hand and running her thumb over Severus' face. A tear dripped from her eye onto the photo and she quickly wiped it off before it could ruin the picture.
Loud sobs escaped her, and she pressed her face into the robes to muffle them so Remus wouldn't hear, but soon a soft knocking started on her door. Maybe Remus' hearing was extra sensitive or something since he was a werewolf.
"Lily? are you alright? Please answer me." Remus knocked again before opening the door. He peeked inside and spotted Lily curled up on the bed. "Lily."
She looked up, her eyes full of desperation and he saw her holding the photograph and the robes. Remus went to her, and she sat up, holding her arms out like a child wanting to be picked up. He sat down next to her, wrapping his arms around her slight frame and rocked her gently.
"Is this about what happened tonight...or something else?"
Lily grasped the front of Remus' shirt tightly in her fists, struggling to breathe through her sobs. "I need Severus. I need him right now."
Remus moved his hand up tentatively and paused before stroking her hair. "He'll be back soon, Lily."
"But I need him now!" she choked out, shaking Remus.
"I'm sorry." Remus said softly. "You know that can't happen. They don't allow visitors, and Severus won't be coming back for a little while."
Lily shook her head violently, splashing tears across the bedspread and Remus. "I'll get there somehow." Lily pushed Remus away from her and stood up, trembling. Remus felt panic overwhelming him and he grabbed Lily's arm. "Listen, don't do anything stupid. You can't sneak into Azkaban."
"There are other ways." She said stubbornly, trying to pull out of his grasp, but he would not relent.
"What are you going to do, go commit a crime or something? I won't let you get arrested, Lily." Remus said. "How do you think Severus would feel if you got a life sentence in Azkaban? He would never see you again, because he'll be out here. Unless he does something to get thrown back in prison to see you, and then both of you will spend the rest of your life rotting away in a cell." He tugged her toward the bedroom doorway. "Come on. I'll make you some tea, you can relax. Maybe even take a sleeping potion." he suggested as he led her over to the couch. "Sit down and stay here, and I'll be back."
He disappeared into the kitchen and Lily heard him bustling around, heard the clink of mugs and the whistle of water boiling in a teapot. He came back balancing two steaming mugs and sat them carefully on the coffee table before sitting next to her.
"There, drink that." Remus gestured to the tea. He picked up his own mug and leaned back into the cushions, his body weary after the events of the night.
Lily just stared at her mug and shook her head. "Remus, I need-"
"Lily, Severus is not here, but he will be back soon. You need to be patient. I know it's extremely difficult, and I know you must be hurting inside, but you've waited this long already." Remus said firmly. "I know I don't compare to Severus in the slightest, but if you need someone to talk to, or just sit with you, I'm here. Even if you need something to take your anger out on, I am more then capable of taking a few punches."
Lily's lips twitched with a smile and Remus nodded with satisfaction. "Now drink your tea."
"Thank you." she whispered, her voice hoarse from crying as she picked up her mug and took a sip before placing it back on the table. The truth was she wasn't very thirsty, but she was extremely tired. Remus' shoulder seemed to beckon to her and she leaned her head on it and drew her legs up next to him.
"Do you mind?" she asked quietly, and he replied, "No, whatever makes you feel better." She sighed softly as she shifted, getting comfortable. Remus watched as her lids dropped lower and lower until her breath slowed and she drifted off. He summoned a blanket and threw it over her, trying not to move so he wouldn't disturb her. He finished drinking his tea in silence and then he too closed his eyes, leaning his head against the back of the sofa and falling asleep.
Please don't be mean to Remus in your reviews! I promise he is not trying to get with Lily, only be there like a friend to comfort her. Other then that, say anything you want.