Disclaimer: All the characters that you recognize belong to J. K. Rowling.
Author's Note: Thanks to x0x-Mystique-x0x, Deja-Vuu, themaraudersaremine, Miss Myrtle360, PruePotter, Trashcan, sunlitmist, milkywaypnay37, MissMrprk, soccerchic, and Katie Pie for reviewing! It means so much to me! And if you can believe it or not, it encouraged me to write this chapter sooner than I probably would have otherwise.
Miss Myrtle360: I actually found the name Araminta online. I have no idea if the family tree is accurate or not, but I gave it a shot. The website is in my profile, under the "Loving You" section.
James's heart was racing as he and Lily followed Professor Rander into her office. It was his fault that he and Lily were about to die a horrendous death; if he hadn't wanted to spy on their teacher, whom he was 99.9 percent positive was a death eater, then they wouldn't be in this situation right now. They wouldn't be about to take a truth potion, which would then reveal that they had indeed heard everything from Rander's and Voldermort's conversation.
He had to think of some cleaver way to get out of this, he just had to. Not only his life was in danger, but Lily's the one person he cherished more than life itself. If anything were to happen to her, on his account, he knew he wouldn't ever forgive himself. In fact, he would never be the same; he would never be the same without Lily at his side.
The hallway always looked dark, especially at night, but now it looked even darker. It looked gloomy and scary. The stone walls looked cold, and the only sources of light were the torches that hung on the walls, and the lantern in Rander's hand.
The walk to the office seemed to take hours, although in reality it was a mere thirty seconds. James searched his brain, but couldn't think of a single solution. 'Damn, I really screwed up this time,' he thought.
And then, they were in the office, the door shut tightly behind them. The room was filled with jars, each one holding different potions in it. Some were green and bubbly, others were deep red and thick looking. One was a light purple color. James gulped; he recognized that one as a powerful poisoning potion. Just one drop on your lips led to instant death.
James glanced over in Lily's direction, and noticed that she wore the same expression on her face as he did. He could tell that she knew exactly what he knew; they were both in enormous, death threatening situation.
"Sit," Rander ordered, her gaze strong and fierce.
Both Lily and James found their way into two chairs that sat opposite of the Professor's desk. Lily was biting her lower lip, a habit she had picked up since she was a child. She couldn't help the habit; it came natural whenever she was worried or frightened.
James looked over at Lily again, and this time squeezed her hand with his own. She squeezed his hand back. It made both of them calm down slightly, knowing that the other was there too.
"Now, I'll give you one more chance. Did you or did you not hear anything?" Rander asked.
Lily shook her head, unable to put together two words, let alone a sentence.
"No, we've told you already, Professor, we didn't hear anything," James lied.
"Fine," she responded, but summoned with her wand a tube of clear liquid. "Drink this, and then tell me."
She poured the liquid into two glasses, one for each student.
James took his in his hand, but didn't drink it yet. He didn't know what to do. He certainly couldn't drink it, but he couldn't not drink it either. He looked over at Lily; she also hadn't touched the potion to her lips.
Without any notice at all, James threw the glass to the floor, letting it shatter into hundreds of tiny pieces. All three people sat still, not knowing what to do next.
Lily looked at her boyfriend, wondering if what he did was very brave, or extremely stupid.
"You little brat, you liar!" shrieked Professor Rander as she raised her wand.
James was quick too though, and he had his wand raised just milliseconds after she did. "Incendio," James shouted.
A small fire appeared at the bottom of Rander's robes. She looked down, rather than being scared, she looked annoyed. She muttered another spell, this one sending water onto her robes to distinguish the fire.
But James was quick in saying the spell again, this time adding another one seconds after the first one occurred. "Impervius," he shouted. This spell was used to repel water, and it would buy him and Lily time to escape from the dungeons.
"James, let's go," Lily frantically said, motioning him to follow her.
Then it happened, the worst thing that could happen have happened. James was five steps away from Lily when he heard it. He turned his head to see Rander laughing, the fire gone from her robes. She had a smirk on her face, one that made James want to kill her.
He looked back at Lily, but where her head had been just seconds ago was thin air. He looked down and saw her body on the ground, heaving up and down. She was having a seizure.
His first instinct was to go to her and help, but he knew he couldn't help at all. She was under the Imperio curse, one of the unforgivable curses.
So, he did the only thing he could think of. He went over to Rander and punched her smack in the face. Blood gushed from her cheek bone, but James didn't care.
He remembered what his father had always taught him, never hit a lady. That was the number one rule, never hit a lady. Rule number two was to do anything and everything for the people you love. James was certain that in this scenario, rule number two was far more important. Besides, any man or woman that became a death eater was, in James's mind, not good enough to be considered a lady or gentleman.
"Flipendo," Rander casually said while touching her fingers to her cheek.
James went flying back, slamming his body into a large, wooden bookshelf. It began to wobble from impact; the large dusty books on top came crashing down. One knocked him right on the top of his head; luckily it was the skinniest book on the shelf. He had such a headache now, not even his worst hangover would compare with this unbearable pain.
He heard Rander let out a slight laugh filled with mockery. At that sound he forced his mind and body to concentrate on the situation: Lily was under the unforgivable curse, she could die from the seizures forced upon her body. He shook off the remaining books, seeing the cuts and bruises over his arms and legs. His robe was torn and looked raggedy, sweat and blood glistened his forehead.
He looked over at Lily, the muscle spasms stopped. The first thought that came into his mind was that Lily had died, and now all James wanted to do was cry. He wanted to curl up in a ball, hold her tightly to his arms, and never let go.
Then he saw her chest rise, and a sigh of relief came over him. She was breathing. James looked at her longingly; he still wanted nothing more than to hold her tightly.
Then it happened again, the seizures were back. James looked shocked. Could Professor Rander really have taken the curse off and then put it back on a couple minutes later. His eyes flickered over to her direction; it appeared that wasn't the case.
Rander saw him looking her way and said, "The seizures will go off and on every few minutes or so. I want her to be alive to watch you die."
James clenched his hands into fists and grinded his teeth together. He had to stand up and fight her. When he did, he could feel a sharp pain in his foot. James knew it was nothing more than a broken toe or two. Even if it were worse though, he was determined to complete this duel with Rander, he was determined to save Lily.
"Take it off her," James shouted.
"Why would I do that?" Rander asked.
"I'll do that same curse to you," James threatened.
"You don't have the guts," she plainly stated. "None of you people do, especially the Potters."
James stared at her, what on earth could she be talking about?
"You don't know, do you?" Rander asked. She could sense he didn't, but it was more fun to tease the boy than to cut straight to the chase.
"Of course I know," James lied, having no idea what she was referring to.
"That grandfather of yours, what a stupid wizard," she commented, knowing this would interest James.
He thought about it, his grandfather and grandmother had been murdered seven years ago. He knew that, everyone in the wizarding world knew that.
"Ah, you certainly don't know," she paused before saying, "He was in a situation quite similar to this. He could have saved himself, and probably that grandmother of yours too. All he had to do was use the killing curse on Malfoy, the elder one. He didn't though; he didn't have what it takes to cast it. He let himself and the grandmother of yours die."
James blinked, not believing her words. He didn't want to believe her.
Rander only smiled at him in that smile that James had grown to detest. Her eyes showed no sympathy, only hatred. Her lips were slightly curled, not exposing any teeth. She looked smug, as if she were better than James, as if she were more powerful that James, as if she had complete confidence in herself to kill both him and Lily.
"She could die, take it off her," James yelled, needing to change the subject. He backed away form Rander, closer to Lily.
He didn't know what to do now; Lily was in serious trouble, if this lasted much longer, she could die. But at the same time he knew he couldn't abandon he position with Rander, she could cast another spell, an even worse one.
With one hand on Lily, he took his wand and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"
Rander's wand was shot from her grasp, landing several feet behind her. It would be impossible to find now, among all those empty potion bottles. The curse on Lily, however, was still present, and would be until someone took it off her. James wished he could do it himself, but knew he was powerful enough to either conjure the curse or remove the curse.
"Fine, you want to play it that way, Potter," she stated, her eyes peering at him. She lunged for a bottle containing an ugly yellow-green mixture. James wasn't sure what it was, but knew it couldn't be good.
She flung the entire bottle towards James and Lily, the hot liquid pouring out all over the floor on its journey. When it did reach the couple, it was still relatively full. It splashed onto Lily, missing James by mere inches. James tried to stop it, but the liquid found its way into her gaping mouth. He could feel her getting hotter beneath his touch, almost unbearable to touch. In a matter of seconds she wasn't touchable. Although no one could touch her without burning, she was quite intact. Her body was physically fine, with the exception of the seizure.
"Why are doing this to her?" James shouted.
"Oh, because it's so much fun," she answered, completely serious. "Watching the mudblood suffer and die from seizures, and you, you pathetic boy. You can't save her now, and I know that's all you want to do. You want to save her, and the save the world from the most powerful wizard on earth. But you can't. You can't touch her, which means you can't save her. You can't win this battle, or even your life tonight, so you can't save the world either, Potter."
Anger was boiling up inside him; no one could talk to him like that, no one. No one could take Lily's life from her, no one.
He began to walk around the room, as did Rander. The two of them were circling the room, never breaking their eye contact.
"Did you really think that you wouldn't be caught?" James asked, not knowing where this question came from.
"Caught?" she sarcastically asked. "As far as the rest of the world will be concerned, you and that Evans girl were in here by yourselves, breaking the rules. You two stumbled upon my most dangerous potions, and drank them out of stupidity."
"That story will never work. Everyone knows that Lily and I are two of the best students at Hogwarts," James told her.
"Fine then, I'll set the room on fire. The two of you will have tragically died in the fire," Rander responded.
"But we both know the counter spell to fire, and the water charm, everyone knows those," he answered.
"I'll produce powerful spells using your wand once you die. They'll trace your wand and find out that you killed the mudblood, and then accidentally set fire to yourself because you were drunk. And yes, I'll put a bottle of alcohol by your side," Rander replied, getting very fed up with the situation.
About half way through her mini speech, James picked up a bottle in his hands, held behind his back. She hadn't seen him pick it up, wouldn't have even if her eyes weren't fixed on his.
"I'm not so sure I like that plan," James slowly, but confidently said, silently taking off the bottle's cap.
"Too bad," Rander smugly replied.
"Too bad for you," James told her, and then his chaser experience on the Quiditch team finally paid off. He threw the bottle of purple liquid at Rander's lips. Her eyes went wide with surprise, and bottle went straight into her open mouth. The purple liquid poured into her body, and the instant it did, she dropped to floor. Her breathing stopped, everything stopped. She was dead.
"Oh my god," he said aloud, but then rushed to Lily's side. She was still alive, but barely. If she didn't get this curse off her within the next ten minutes, she would surely be dead.
He urgently looked around, and then saw what he was looking for. A pair of dragon hide gloves were on top of a small table. James put them on, and was thankful that they reached to about midway on his upper arms. He then rushed over to Lily, now being able to touch her without burning himself.
He ran out of the room as quickly as he could. Luckily, Lily wasn't having a seizure now. But he knew it would be back in under two minutes.
"Help, someone help," he was shouting. He knew that none of the teachers would be able to hear him yet, not until he got out of the dungeons.
"Lily, I love you," he told her, breathless from the night's events, still running as best he could.
"Help," he shouted as loud as he could. He was now at the front entrance, near the Great Hall. Surely someone would come. He still ran though, ran and screamed like a madman.
A few seconds later, from behind him, James heard, "Potter, what is going on?"
He whipped his head around to see Professor McGonagall, wearing her nightdress and hair cap. She gasped when she saw Lily, who had started heaving up and down form he muscle spasms just moments before McGonagall found them.
"It's the Imperio curse, Professor" James explained, "Rander did it, and then made her swallow some potion, one that made it so no one can touch her without getting burnt."
"Oh my god," McGonagall said, she was still shocked. In an instant though, she regained herself and grasped her wand firmly in her hand. "Finite Incantatum," she said, removing all current spells, curses, and charms.
Lily's body immediately went limp; there was sweat along her entire body, exhausted from the seizures. She was pale, sickly looking. Her lips were dried and cracking, her breaths were small, and not frequent. She looked as if every ounce of life that she possessed had been drained from her body.
Just then Dumbledore ran over to them, his eyes wide open. He looked down at Lily's body, then over at James. Although Lily was clearly the student in serious trouble, James too looked awful. His hair was even more askew than normal, he had dried blood on his face. His robes were torn, blood lining the ripped robes.
"Headmaster," McGonagall started, but Dumbledore held up a hand to silence her.
"We need to get these two to the hospital wing. We'll talk there," Dumbledore responded. There was a certain light in his eye when he looked at James, almost as if he already knew what happened, yet like a child on Christmas, was eager to hear the night's event.
Professor Flitwick and Professor Ramsden (the Herbology teacher) both then rushed over to where Dumbledore and the rest were.
"What is going on here?" Flitwick asked, trying to move in closer to see what all the fuss was about.
When he finally shoved his way into the center of the group, he almost fainted. Lily Evans was his favorite student to have ever entered Hogwarts. Despite the fact that she wasn't in his own house, Flitwick and Lily both shared a love for charms. Lily was always top of the class, she knew every answer to every question, she was almost always the first to correctly work the charm, and was always volunteering to help others in class.
"She's unconscious," Dumbledore softly said, knowing that Flitwick had assumed the absolute worst. Flitwick looked somewhat relieved, but was still nervous about his star student.
Dumbledore leaned forward, placing a hand on Lily's head, trying to tell her temperature. He instantly yanked his hand away, shaking it from the heat. "What spell is that?"
"It's a potion, sir," James answered, not taking his eyes off of Lily.
"James, give me the gloves, I'll carry her to the hospital wing," Ramsden said. James looked up at him, not wanting anyone but himself to touch Lily.
Dumbledore sensed James's hesitation and said, "James, Professor Ramsden will be very careful with Lily. We would ask you to carry her yourself, but it looks as if you're in no condition to do so. You'll be needed to get your own cuts and bruises healed."
James looked once again at Ramsden. He was tall and strong, built like a beater in Quidditch. James eyed him, but took the gloves off and handed them over to the Herbology teacher.
"Well," Flitwick began, "I should go and alert the other teachers of this incident. I don't know the details, so I won't say anything other than Miss Evans condition…If Miss Evans wakes up before I get a chance to visit the infirmary tomorrow, give her my best."
Dumbledore then walked over to Flitwick, whispering something into his ear. Flitwick's eyes went wide, but he didn't say anything.
In a matter of minutes they all arrived at the hospital wing. Madame Lingwood was shocked when she saw her patients and guests. She shooed out Ramsden, but allowed both Dumbledore and McGonagall to stay.
Her attention immediately went to Lily, who was still lying unconscious. She searched her cabinets but could find nothing to reverse the potion. After half an hour of searching, and declaring that she couldn't find a single remedy, McGonagall was sent to The Owlery to send out an urgent message to anyone who may have a counter-potion. In the mean time, Madame Lingwood fixed James's cuts and mended his three broken toes.
"Madame, could James and I have a moment to ourselves?" Dumbledore sweetly asked the nurse.
She looked upset, insisting that James needed his rest, but in the end agreed that James and the Headmaster could talk as long as they needed. She would be in the other room, trying to find anything to revive Lily form her current state.
Once the door was closed tightly, James bluntly stated, "I killed her."
"James, Lily is going to be fine," Dumbledore reassured him.
"Not Lily…Rander."
James looked at Dumbledore, not sure what to expect. After all, he did it out of his and Lily's own defense.
"I was afraid that was what had occurred," Dumbledore replied.
"She was a deatheater. Lily and I saw her talking to You-Know-Who in the fireplace," James told the Headmaster.
"I'm aware of that," Dumbledore sadly answered.
"You knew! And you hired her?" James asked, now thinking that his headmaster was truly insane.
"I found out this morning. I was going to turn her in to the ministry as soon as she came back here, which was supposed to be on Monday morning."
The two wizards sat in silence for sometime. Neither one sure as to what was needed to be said next.
After nearly an hour, James finally told Dumbledore the entire story. He went into every detail about the eavesdropping, and how Rander had tried to force the truth-telling potion into them. He told Dumbledore all about the curses and spells, images he never wanted to see again.
Once he was finished, Dumbledore said, "James, I'm very proud of you."
James stared in disbelief.
"Not every wizard or witch could have come up with solutions as fast as you did. Not every man would have been able to cope with all the emotions around you, and still have the bravery to fight the enemy even though loved ones were around," Dumbledore explained.
"It was the only thing I could do, fight back," James answered.
"No it wasn't. You could have left Miss Evans there to die. You could have agreed to join the dark side just to save your own neck. But you didn't. You chose to protect Miss Evans, the woman, who if I am not mistaken, you love very much. You chose to stand for your own beliefs, and not take the easy way out," Dumbledore earnestly said.
"I could've used my wand to stupefy her," James said, slight tears coming down his cheeks. "I, I…"
"I know," Dumbledore softly said, not needing another word spoken. "James, don't blame yourself. You saved Miss Evans life and your own. Who knows, if you hadn't gotten to her, ten people could have been killed by morning. She could have attacked the students left and right, and no one would know it was her."
"But still, I, I, I never wanted to be like that…a murderer."
"You are not a murderer in any sense, and I wish you could see that. If anything, James Potter, you are a hero," Dumbledore told him.
"It was my fault that Lily and I snooped anyways, she told me we shouldn't. She told me that we should just go back to Gryffindor and leave Rander to her business…I didn't want to though. I had a feeling that Rander was a deatheater, and I wanted to find out for sure. I wanted to confirm it to the Ministry," James cried out.
"James, stop blaming yourself," Dumbledore kindly said.
"I can't," James admitted. He couldn't shake the fact that Lily could have died, all because he was being selfish. He couldn't stop blaming himself for committing a murder, even if it was to save his and Lily's lives. He just couldn't.
Author's Note 2: Hey guys! I really hope that you all liked this chapter! Just to let you all know, I found the spells on a website, which I will put in my profile. Please review!