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Flirting With the Enemy

By; Sierra Sitruc

Email: ChristmasAngel87@hotmail.com

Chapter 15 Voldie's Plan?

Lily awoke from her unconscious state only to hear the faint dripping of water and someone else breathing, and after she checked…she was breathing too.

She was lying flat on her back on a cold stone floor, and the faint glow of the room revealed a person with sandy brown hair lying aimlessly astray across the room from her. As if someone had just dropped him there carelessly, not caring if he broke his neck.

It took her a moment to recall what had happened…James, Death Eaters, too much stress…All led up to Lily fainting, and at the worst of times too.

She tried to sit up, but felt too weak to do so. She hated this feeling of helplessness, but she couldn't do anything about it. She knew she would die, and it irritated her that she couldn't even try and fight back because she was so weak. It was a definite obstacle when it came to dueling.

Lily continued to lie there, and stared at the man in there with her…He looked vaguely familiar, but with all the blood and cuts all over him it was hard to tell. And he was far away and she couldn't see him very well. She wondered who he was and if he was another Death Eater.

She struggled with her hands and legs and managed to get into a sitting position with her legs lying there practically useless. She continued to wiggle until she was up against the wall near the man, who was obviously unconscious on the floor.

She took in her surroundings, awed by its simplicity. Stone walls, stone floor, stone ceiling and one lone torch a light by the…door! Okay, so if she could get up, she would definitely have to examine that.

Lily didn't feel particularly inclined to use up all her energy to examine the door, so she decided to see if the anonymous man would wake up.

"Um…Excuse me, but are you alive?" She'd meant to say, 'Are you awake?' but sometimes her mouth spoke faster then her brain thought.

Surprisingly, there was a low moan in response…He was alive!

"Are you okay?" She asked uncertainly, after all, he looked like he was on the bad end of a fight with a Hippogriff.

Them man didn't answer, but carefully stretched his legs and arms. He sat up stiffly and eyed her, waiting for his eyes to focus he spoke. "I'm okay…Who are you?"

"Lily Evans." Lily said shortly, not sure where her name would get her with this man.

"Oh, I see the resemblance! You look so different from back at school, remember me? I'm Remus Lupin."

He was acting friendly…Then Lily remembered…Remus was a friend of James' from Hogwarts.

"Oh! What are you doing in this Hell hole?" Lily asked, suddenly worried, "Do you know if James is alright?"

"I was kind of hoping you knew that." Remus said sheepishly. "But I'm here, because they brought me here."

"I figured…You don't seem like the Death Eater type."

"Either do you." Remus said, and the sentence hung in the air for a moment and the air around the twisted into more uncomfortable-ness.

"So…You don't know where James is?" Lily asked dejectedly.

"No…how'd you get here, could you tell me what happened?" Remus inquired. "It might help us."

"Yes, of course…"

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(A/N I'm never good at making Voldie talk, so you might have to just help out with your imagination on this part…)

The silencing spell had finally been taken off James as he faced Voldemort, for the second time that week. He sat in a chair, tied up of course across from a standing Voldemort.

When Lily and James had landed in this odd dungeon like place, the Death Eaters had quickly escorted James here and Lily had been carried elsewhere.

So far Voldemort hadn't said anything, and James didn't exactly want to be the one to initiate the conversation with the most evil wizard of the century.

James busy taking in the looks of Voldemort—he was ugly! James never forgot a face, but in this case he would just love to make an exception. This…thing was hideous. His pupils of his eyes were red, and his pale skin made it look like he hadn't been out in daylight for years, which he probably hadn't. Not to mention, that his mere presence gave him the chills.

Finally James decided to say something it wasn't like Voldemort had told him not to ask questions. "What are you planning on doing with me and Lily?"

"Several things with Evans, one or two things with you." Voldemort said vaguely. "You have an important, but indirect role in my quest for immortality. Soon, I will be invincible."

James didn't like this guy…he was so demanding! And evil of course… "Care to explain that?" James asked, irritated.

"Evans or you?" Voldemort asked, apparently amused.

"Both." James said, wondering why the Dark Lord was acting… almost plesant, except for the fact that he had James tied up, they were acting like normal everyday people you saw on the street.

"Well…I was hoping you'd be selfish, but I'll give you some information about Evans. For one, if something isn't done soon she'll be dead." Voldemort informed James, having the 'decency' to not smile at this fact. "The traitor can be saved…but it all depends on You."

James shifted uncomfortably, he didn't like where this was going and he felt very alarmed that Lily was…basically dying, but then again you can't trust everything evil wizards tell you.

"What do you mean…'it all depends on me?'" James asked, knowing it probably couldn't be a good easy thing, like take her out on a date—no, it'd be more like put her out of her misery.

"First let me explain why I know you'll do this, and then I'll tell you what you have to do." Voldemort smiled forebodingly. "For one thing, I've been watching you and Evans travel all the way to the Hopkirks, it was in fact, I, who infected you two with the Wizard Flu. It was also I who made sure your path took you straight to the nest of the Arachanuba."

James stared, not quite believing what he was being told…This man had controlled so much.

"Most of it was testing you and just playing around with the two of you…okay so most of it was torture. I just enjoy watching my…pupils get scared silly." He said, speaking of the Death Eaters.

"You put on a rather entertaining show with the Arachanuba. I never expected you to escape, but it was just as well because I had my…friend, Mr. Smith make sure the two of you were exposed to the Wizard Flu before leaving his home….remember that hot chocolate? It had a good amount of the virus in it, but being amazingly dedicated to the art of potions, he even put a time set on it so it wouldn't activate for a while—that way you wouldn't suspect him."

James was sure he was gaping like a fish—but what could you do? Snape had ratted them out…

"Now I know what you're thinking, Smith was a muggle! Of course he *posed* as a muggle named Bob Smith….did you ever wonder about his boring name? He is in fact one of the strongest followers of Grindelwald left and has been hiding as a muggle for years…No one could possibly know his true identity but me, after all, we'd worked side by side during the 40's."

So it was all just a game to him…no point at all… James thought in shock at what he was being told.

"At first, I planned to just send my little 'minions' after Evans (kill her while they were at it) and to squeeze information from you…But then I saw the 'relationship'," Voldemort spat out the word. "The two of you were starting. The Arachanuba only proved it…you cared for the little mudblood. You wouldn't have bothered to save her otherwise; I know your style Potter." Voldemort grinned and James' astonished look.

"Almost everything was planned…Evans hadn't done as well as I'd wanted. Most that I've forced into following me eventually concede into the loyalties of being a Death Eater. She was going along with it…sure, but she wasn't using the power she has like I'd wanted her to. The whole entire reason I wanted her to begin with." Voldemort seemed disgusted for a moment, muttering, "Useless waste."

James gulped, wondering how much more Voldemort would reveal to him, before he got to what James had to do. Apparently, Voldemort loved to show just how well he'd tricked you—right before he killed you, because James was almost certain Voldemort was going to kill him or have someone else do it.

Would Voldemort really reveal to him why he'd bothered to take a muggle-born witch into his crowd of minions…

"I'll tell you why I want Evans…She has more power then any other muggle-born witch I've ever seen. I knew that if she fought against me, it'd be dangerous. So before anyone else could tell her otherwise, I started tempting her… scaring her, and finally succeeding in her joining me, knowing that if she was with me I'd have a much easier time gaining power." Voldemort smirked, "You were another I wanted, but Dumbledore thinking I would never want a muggle-born put his strength into watching out for you. It made it all too easy to get her."

"Too easy." He repeated. "When she SAID she'd be loyal if I let her go, I humored her and let you go back, before my giant had his way with you." Voldemort's thin lips gave James a grim smile. "So, just for the Hell of it, since she revealed to me she hadn't planned on being loyal much longer anyway; I knew our very first deal, to keep her parents alive was destroyed and so I immediately went and took care of them."

James was disgusted, but kept his mouth shut, hoping he could get more out of this, maybe something to help Lily….

"Patil would have been fun to murder…My own Death Eater chose her out to kill out of everyone else, and with good reasons. Though, when Evans went and interrupted THAT plan…That was the last straw with her. Her death will be slow… But I'm not sure how much of it she'll even feel. As she will be under going one of the oldest forms of soul stealing there is, it's a little less efficient then the Dementor, but it has the desired effect that I want."

James was very confused as to what Voldemort was talking about, but he didn't seem to want to talk any more about it.

"She'd have had much longer to live if she had full strength, but with Mulciber's poisonous dagger killing her off…" Voldemort trailed off, leaving James to think about it for a moment.

She's poisoned?! So it's not internal bleeding! James' brain yelled at him, immediately bring back the memory of Lily and getting to put his hands on her…Not that he enjoyed it or anything.

"IF, you go through with what I want to. She will have full strength and will be able live for a month, rather then a day or two. She needs someone willing to give them their power, they have to care about her, and since I know you do –all you have to do is agree and I will transfer your power to her. The poison will still kill her, but she won't die near as quickly. Stress can kill people you know." Voldemort said, James wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh or not.

"So, what happens if I say no?" James asked, just to figure out his options.

"I kill you. If you say yes *I* won't kill you." Voldemort told him, and James wondered what kind of deal he was making here.

"So my choices are die or death?" James managed to force out lightly.

"Yes."

"And this will help Lily, as well as you?" James asked, knowing Voldemort wouldn't be making this deal if he didn't get anything out of it.

"Yes, now all you have to think about is whether you want Lily to have a quick tortured death, or a slow happier one where she can say goodbye to her friends."

"Earlier you said something about soul stealing though and that she would die a slow and painful death," James pointed out.

"Oh, well her *soul* will die slowly in either case," Voldemort corrected himself, and his eyes flashed angrily at James in annoyance, and James knew he was pushing his luck.

James thought about it… He knew Lily probably just wanted to die, but she might want some time to straighten out her life before she died. Lily dying didn't exactly appeal to him. If he could just buy her a little more time, maybe they could save her soul. James really didn't understand what was going to happen to Lily, but he could tell Voldemort wasn't going to explain his 'evil plans' to him.

James began to wonder, if your *soul* died, if you didn't get passage to heaven or hell. What happened if your soul died, or was kissed away by a Dementor? It was something that had always bothered him. If there was anyway to ensure Lily died of natural causes, he was going to try.

"How exactly…do I transfer my power to her?" James asked, as he made his final decision.

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"Still no word yet?" Sirius asked, it was near midnight and all he'd managed to figure out was that it was more then likely two of his best-friends were in the hands of Voldemort. Alive…maybe, but still with Voldemort.

Peter had left earlier and Isabella was asleep in the sofa across from him as they stayed in the Ministry lounge.

Sirius was speaking to Albus Dumbledore who had apparated over; he said he had something important to tell them.

"No word yet…We do not know if they are dead or alive." Dumbledore told him, and Isabella stirred and sat up to hear what he had to say. "Things are not looking good. While James' fate is unheard of as of yet, Remus and Lily are both scheduled to… die, as a sacrifice to Voldemort I'm assuming—it's all very unclear, but they are going to be used to give Voldemort more power then he ever had before. He will no longer have to fear death." He said solemnly.

"Shit." Sirius said, and Isabella just gaped.

"Exactly." Dumbledore said, some humor coming into the horrible situation. It wasn't exactly funny, but Sirius' words were exactly what he was feeling himself.

"I just thought of something Professor." Sirius said out of the blue. "Tomorrow is the full moon—would they want Remus, because of that?"

Dumbledore thought about it carefully for a few moments, "It's possible, I'm not ruling it out. But—what would Voldemort want with a fully grown werewolf?"

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Chapter 16--