And this took forever. You won't have to worry about that again, though…

Credit to J.K., blah blah, other inspirations (see previous disclaimers), first chimaera reference is a twisted version of a line from Sarea and Jade Okelani's If Only You Knew, great story it's on my faves. I think. Cameo appearance by Diego is MINE.

--

Chapter Thirteen: The Beginning of the End

--

The next day I woke Lily up bright and early. In the hours before dawn, I had commissioned a squad of house-elves to knit us matching breaking-into-government-buildings suits, which I was quite pleased about. I had also gathered our forces (myself and mi amigo Diego from down the hill), arranged a surprise, and researched into spells that might come in handy.

I made three omellettes, too; one for each of us. It was going to be a big day.

"Mmm," Lily said as she came into the room, sniffing the air. "Do I smell basil?"

I wrapped an arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. "Careful, dirty spatula in hand. I made you omellette. This is Diego, he's coming with us on our raid." I slipped that in so she wouldn't notice. She plopped down with a sigh.

"James," she said, in a tone of voice that clearly said she was not pleased. Having finally wised up and run down to the store for earplugs, I was able to shove a pair in before she got going.

"I sincerely hoped you were kidding, but now that I –"

I smiled serenely, enjoying my toast, the sun, and the birds flitting about the yard. After quickly reviewing my mental check-list for the morning I dared to remove one of the plugs.

"IF YOU THINK YOU CAN –"

Nope, not yet. I started a sign language conversation with Diego under the table. He agreed that she was very pretty, but wondered whether she was quite stable? I informed him no, she wasn't, but that she should be winding up by now.

I removed the plug again.

"So I don't think I'll come."

"All right, dear," I told her. "We'll be back for lunch." Diego and I stood up.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

I looked at her very hard. "To the government buildings."

"But I thought –"

"Sh, sh." I laid a finger against her lips. "Bacilo, mia caro."

Kiss me, my darling.

She turned her cheek but didn't even flinch when I pressed a chaste kiss against her smooth skin.

"The sexual tension in this room is making me hot," Diego said, fanning himself sarcastically. I said,

"No, actually you're just sexually tense." I turned to Lily. "This is something we need to do, do you understand?"

She shot me a look that clearly said she was not impressed. I brought the condescension down a notch, skillfully managing to avoid further shouting on her part.

"With you, mia caro, it was love at first sight."

"Amore a prima vista," she murmured.

"Yes, as I've told you before. And I meant it. So be happy knowing that I have died to keep you safe –"

"What?"

I let go of her. "Well, this is a dangerous mission, isn't it?"

"It… is?"

"Isn't that why you don't want to come?"

"I don't want to come because it's stupid! You'll never make it through."

I turned to Diego. He cleared his throat. "James and I have done this many times, bella. It is not so closely guarded."

"What – who – why – why? The government buildings?" She looked at me, but it was Diego who answered.

"He wanted… how do you say farsi una ragazza?" He looked at me. Lily answered.

"You broke into the law offices to score with a girl? I hope she was bloody fantastic!"

Diego and I grinned at each other.

"All right," she said grimly, "I'm coming."

--

"I don't think we should –"

"Sh."

"But isn't this kind of –"

"Sh."

"Is this even legal?" Lily burst out. I turned to her.

"If you make another sound, and get us caught, I will lock you in a tower and feed you dried crusts of bread for the rest of your life."

"That isn't even humanitari-mmph!" She glared at me, and tried to bite my hand, but it stayed firmly over her mouth.

"One word," I mouthed, drawing a finger across my throat to signify her death.

Diego hadn't taken his eyes off the scene in front of us. "How long do you think they'll take?"

"I don't know." I checked my watch. "Five minutes?"

"They're just chimaeras," Lily said doubtfully, "I don't think they even take any pleasure in sex."

"Nope," Diego said, resting his chin on his fist in concentration, "that's only dolphins and humans. Aaand I think goblins here we go here we go." He patted frantically at my arm, and I snapped my head around to watch. When they were done I shrugged.

"Sort of questionable entertainment value. I always kind of wish I hadn't bothered."

Lily threw up her hands in disgust. "All right, now can we steal the bloody things and get out of here?"

"No no no. My sweet one, I hate to be the one to say this, but you lack the subtly we're carrying with us on this mission."

She raised her eyebrows in question. Diego lifted a Muggle camcorder.

"Surprise!" I grinned at her. "Just for you. See, it's Muggle!"

"It's mine," she said flatly. I hastened on.

"Chimaeras are illegal, as you know. We're going to threaten the government with this. If they don't want international law down their throats they'll have to cut a deal with us." I smiled at her. "See? Puts a stop to it permanently."

"Oh. What kind of deal?"

"Who knows? Dumbledore can handle it. We've got a lot else on our plates."

"We do?"

"Yeees," I said, putting an arm around her shoulders and starting to guide her out, "we have to go for lunch, and also deal with the French giant population, and make a Quidditch team, and study for NEWTS and all sorts of exciting, wonderful oh dear."

Diego closed in behind me, tucking the camcorder into his jacket. "Do we run?"

"No… no, I don't think we can make it by." I swallowed hard, looking around at the Death Eaters flanking the room. I didn't know how they'd gotten in without us knowing, but whatever the means it looked bad for us. "Unless…"

"James?" Lily said.

"Hold on, darling, I need to think. If you'll just make a long arm, Diego, and grab that curtain at my go, possibly we could –"

"James," Lily said, with a little more insistence. "Are they in a pattern?"

I glanced around. "Yes, what of it?" I thought a little faster. "You mean if we could break it up it might confuse them, because they're under such strict orders? Diego, maybe if we both –"

"Who are they under orders from, do you think?" Lily seemed perfectly calm under all this stress, which I was finding quite disgusting as I edged closer and closer to that vital (but terrifying) 'panic' stage in which I blacked out and didn't come to until everything was settled in our favour.

"Voldemort – Jesus Christ and sweet Merlin father of magic, Lily we need to – Diego, grab that curtain right now, we've got to get out into the gallery."

"No! James, stop him, they're all facing the –"

Diego had already ripped the curtain away. We didn't even try to run. I had never seen him before, but there was no mistaking the aura of dark magic around him.

"Voldemort," I whispered. "Bacilo, mia caro."

Lily grabbed my hand, and pulled out her wand.

--

Did anybody else notice the heavy foreshadowing of death? Hm? Hm? No, they don't die now, yes, they fight him twice more with the help of the Order, no, I couldn't be bothered to write it, yes, it would be very exciting if I did (or exceedinly lame. Voldemort, humour? Not so much). They also get married, have child and die. Oh, and James gets a handle on his panic attacks.

I feel like I have to justify this. It's completely rotten of me. If you like this story at all (and your reviews mostly say you do, except the ones who think it's crap) your brain is probably running something along the lines of "Why this no-good rotten author thinking she can just control the characters! Who does she think she is?"

Let me clear it up. I'm the author. I control the characters. Or at least I try, and when I can't do that I control the plot, except that in this story the plot is kind of borrowed from our lovely inspiration L'Harry de Potter (what an affinity for languages I have!). What I mean is, I'm just a medium here. I type the words, and I've been getting this crazy feeling like maybe the words need to stop, I need to go work on something else, my readers need to read the real thing if they want the rest of the story. So, adieu. Thanks for your feedback, hope you enjoyed. Don't forget about my other stories.

Ta!

--

FIN.