Chapter 19

"Well, well, well," James mocked in a high pitched voice. Lily really disliked where this was heading. Lily knew fairly well that if this got out of hand, she would not be able to stop the Marauders fighting the Slytherins. Even Remus and Peter looked ready to go 'jinx crazy.'

"If it isn't Snivellus and all of his little cronies!" Sirius growled, but Lily noticed his attention was pointed at his brother, not on Snape. "Don't worry Snapey, I am sure all of you little friends will take good care of you." Sirius said in a high pitched, sing-song voice.

"Black," Snape snarled with an evil grimace. "You may think that I need cronies to jinx you all the way to hell, but I have faced you alone on many occasions, and I have beaten you. It is you, Sirius Black, that is the one who has to worry about protection." Sirius' eyes flared in anger. The girls quickly pulled out their wands.

There were not any teachers in the Great Hall. They were all searching the castle, and had left Lily and James in charge. Lily felt that it would defiantly not be a part of her duty to protect the students if she was forced into a fight with the Slytherins.

Several students who had been pacing the Great Hall, or talking to their friends, suddenly stopped. They watched the scene before them with such intensity, that Lily swore their eyeballs would pop out of their head.

'Bloody hell!' Lily swore in her head, as she looked at the unraveling fight before her. Barron and Bellatrix had turned towards the girls, smirks on their pretty faces. 'Like we do not see this every day.'

"Hello, ladies," Bellatrix said with a sneer. She stepped in front of Lily, blocking the boys from her view. Brittney jumped from her seat and pointed her wand straight at Bellatrix's head.

"What do you want Bellatrix?" Brittney growled. Lily could not help but grin at Brittney's behavior. She had always been overly protective of her friends, and she had gotten them out of quite a few rough spots.

"Nothing much," Bellatrix sneered, with a smirk on her face. "Just wondering how the mudblood and her friends are doing." At that time, about five different jinxes hit Bellatrix.

Brittney, being the closest, had thrown a terrible Babbling Curse at her. Bellatrix had stumbled with her words, but was still not able to throw a defensive jinx out. Not that any of Lily's friends gave Bellatrix any time to anyway. Alaina had hit Bellatrix with a body-bind curse, which caused Bellatrix to fall over on to her side in a very uncomfortable postion. Alyssa, who grew quite mad every time someone called Lily a mudblood, hit her with a Furnunculus Curse. Bellatrix's eyes had grown quite wide when boils popped up all over her face. James became

especially evil, had thrown a knee-reversing hex at Bellatrix. The spell itself was quite self-explanatory. Sirius, with so much family hatred inside him, cast the well known Bat Bogey hex on her.

So in the middle of the Great Hall, lay Bellatrix Black. Unable to move, she lay there as the bat-like creatures attacked her face full of boils. Angela shrieked for her friend, and tried to fend the bats off. The Slytherin boys all growled with rage and tackled James and Sirius to the ground.

Remus and Peter seemed to think that it was time to come to their friends' aide and sent jinxes towards the Lestrange brothers. They howled with rage and ran towards the other two Marauders.

Before Rodolphus could reach Remus, Alyssa sent a trip jinx toward him, that made him fall flat on his face. Rabastan turned his rage onto the unsuspecting girl, but her boyfriend leaped in front of her, his wand pointed directly into Rabastan's face.

"If you even think of touching Alyssa," Remus snarled, his brown eyes a glow with fury. Lily was

frightened to see him this angry, and with one look at Alyssa, Lily could tell she was too. "I will hurt you so badly, that you will not be able to walk until next Tuesday!"

Sirius and his brother were wrestling on the ground. At one point in their lives, there must have been a time that this brotherly act would be considered a joke. However, on this day, it was far from that. Alaina attempted to

push the two boys apart, but gave up when Sirius shoved her out of the way to stop Regulus Black from pounding on her, too.

James and Snape, on the other hand, were both on their feet. They were throwing so many jinxes at each other that it was hard to see which spell came from who. Several of the watching students were hit, as the two enemies circled. Lily rushed forward to break it up, but there was no need.

"ENOUGH!" Lily gulped as she looked towards the origin of the voice. Professor Dumbledore was standing in the open doorway, with much fury coursing through his eyes.

Sirius and Regulus broke apart and stepped as far away as possible from one another. Regulus was sporting a heavy nosebleed, and Sirius had escaped with what looked like a cracked rib, as he was holding his side awkwardly. James and Snape unwillingly stopped the fighting and stood with their respected comrades. Dumbledore walked forward with anger in his eyes.

"Which one of you started this madness?" Dumbledore said in a forcefully calm voice. "Who?" Lily looked down at her feet, with much guilt coursing through her. If only she had not been born a Muggle-born, than this fight would not have broken out.

"We did, sir." James and Sirius said at the same time. Lily's eyes widened at the sight of the two boys. They had their heads held high, and walked with dignity towards Dumbledore. The headmaster looked at Sirius' side with concern in his eyes. He sighed heavily.

"All right boys," Dumbledore whispered. "You know what this means. Detention." The two boys nodded, and were looking Dumbledore straight in the eye. Lily could not help but be proud of James and Sirius as they took what they were doing extremely seriously.

Alaina stepped forward and stood next to James. Dumbledore looked surprised to see her there. "I helped," Alaina said, as she rested her hand on James' shoulder. "It wasn't just them. I fought, too." Dumbledore shook his head gently and groaned.

"Very well, Miss. Riley. You will serve detention, too." Lily shook her head gently and covered her eyes.

Bloody hell.