FALLING WITH GRACE
by shiiki
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bait and Sinker
August, 1979
Lily tried to concentrate on her work, but she couldn't keep her mind off the slip of paper that seemed to be burning a hole in the pocket of her robes. Petunia had pressed it into her palm, whispering, 'I can get away to meet you then,' before hurrying away.
For the past two days, Lily had carried that bit of paper with her at all times. She didn't really need to; she'd already read and reread it so many times that the words it bore, Sunday, 4pm, the Big Ben, were firmly inked in her memory.
She hadn't told James, because she had a feeling that he'd forbid her to go, urging her to ask him or another Order member in her stead. But Lily couldn't do that. She knew Petunia; should a strange wizard (or even James, whom she'd always disliked) show up, Pet would scurry away quicker than a wizard could imagine possible for a Muggle.
No, it had to be her, Lily. James wouldn't understand, but then, he didn't know Petunia the way she did. If she were to coax Pet to calm down and accept help from the Order, she would have to do it alone, slowly, rather than enlisting an army of troops who would scare Petunia.
Nevertheless, she was still hesitating, although it was already a quarter to four. There was an Order meeting at five; James would have told her to bring the situation up then, and get help. But if she waited, she'd miss meeting Petunia, and what if she didn't get another chance? Lily couldn't let Pet slip away yet again.
You promised, nagged a voice in her head.
I promised him I would take care. I will be careful. I'll just go meet Pet, and persuade her to come with me, and we can be at the meeting at five and everything will be solved.
Her mind made up, she cast another glance at the clock on Liz's mantelpiece. Ten to.
'Liz?'
Liz looked up from their latest prototype – one that Lily was confident would succeed this time. 'Mm?'
'I've got to settle something before the meeting. I'll see you there, all right?'
Still lost in concentration over the spell web, Liz nodded absently. Lily showed herself out and extracted the slip of paper from her pocket, although she didn't really need to double-check her destination. Petunia's long, slanted writing felt reassuring, however.
The Big Ben, Lily thought, and she Disapparated.
---
Petunia was late.
Lily tried to convince herself not to read too much into a tardiness of several minutes, that her sister would show up any time, explaining why she had been detained. She couldn't, however, rid herself of that anxiety settling in the pit her stomach, which felt as though there were Billywigs buzzing inside. What if something had happened? What if it were too late? What if …
Her insides turned over with relief as she spotted Petunia rushing towards her from the direction of Westminster Station.
'Petunia!'
'Shh!' Pet put a finger to her lips, looking stricken. 'Not here, Lily –' She grabbed hold of Lily's arm and pulled her through the throng of Muggle tourists gazing at the clock tower. They were practically running along the pavement, through the Victoria Tower Gardens; a left turn here, a right there – Lily hoped Petunia knew where she was going … where were they going? She was starting to feel quite winded (how had Pet managed to go so fast, when she'd always hated running or even brisk walking?) when Petunia finally slowed down and halted in front of several dustbins lining the dead end of an alley.
'Pet,' said Lily after she'd caught her breath, 'you need to tell me what's going on.'
'Did you come alone?' said Petunia urgently.
'Yes, I –'
'Good.' Petunia cut her off and her face broadened into a strange, satisfied smile.
Confused, Lily ventured, 'Pet, what –?'
Petunia moved so fast that it happened all in a blur: the wand whipping out of her handbag, her shouted 'Expelliarmus!', the beam of red light striking and divesting Lily of her wand before she even had time to raise it.
A trap. Lily cursed inwardly for having been so easily fooled. James – oh God, if only she'd listened to James … but no, she'd been so blinded by her determination to help her only family that she'd played right into the hands of whichever Death Eater was standing before her now, impersonating her sister – did that mean they had Petunia, then? – and clutching her wand with an expression of wild, inhuman glee.
'Who are you and what've you done to Pet?' Lily demanded.
'Oh, I don't think you're in a position to ask questions, Evans,' said the Death Eater lightly. 'But rest assured, you'll see your darling sister soon.' She – at least, Lily assumed it was a she – laughed then, as though she'd said something incredibly hilarious.
The impertinence of the Death Eater impersonating Petunia's body and cackling out her laughter struck a nerve. Lily lunged at her, forgetting that she had just lost her wand, that she no longer had any means to truly fight back. Unsurprisingly, the Death Eater retaliated with a curse:
'Crucio!'
Lily hardly had time to think, So this is what it feels like, before a scream filled the air – a dim corner of her brain discerned that it was her own voice, but she was beyond caring what her vocal cords were doing. Her limbs, her muscles, her skin … it was all on fire; she was being pierced by a thousand sharp needles; she was going to explode at any moment.
How long had it been: a second, a minute, an hour? Pain was agonizingly divorced from time. What might have been less than half a minute seemed endless.
'I've wanted to do that for ages, Mudblood,' hissed Petunia's voice in her ear.
Not Petunia. The Death Eater.
'Give me a reason later, and I'll do it again.'
There was a bright flash of red – had a Stunner been cast? – and the unconsciousness that Lily sank into felt blissful.
---
Fifteen minutes into the Order meeting and half the members present were tapping their feet, twiddling their thumbs, or checking and rechecking their watches impatiently. Only Dumbledore sat serenely at the head of the table, waiting placidly.
James couldn't stop fidgeting, though it had nothing to do with wasting time, and all to do with the fact that Lily was missing.
She'd never been late before. And she wouldn't miss this one, not when they'd agreed to find a way to help Petunia during the meeting.
'Albus, I think we ought to get on with it,' said Professor McGonagall, with a last, disapproving look at her watch. 'When Miss Evans shows up, we can update her privately.'
'Very well, Minerva,' sighed Dumbledore. 'I had hoped that Miss Evans could be present, because she and Miss Ollivander will have much to do with the design of the Security Charms for the wedding.'
'Lily said she had to stop by somewhere before the meeting, Professor,' said Liz. 'I expect she's been detained.'
'And without having the courtesy to leave a message,' growled Moody. 'Not like her at all.'
James had to agree – Lily wasn't the type to disappear without warning. But believing that she had taken French leave was better than the alternative.
When the meeting had ended and still no sign of Lily, James took Liz aside and asked, 'Liz, did Lily say where she was going?'
Liz looked horribly apologetic as she replied, 'I'm sorry, James, I didn't really pry. She just said that she had to settle something. I didn't think anything of it … you don't think something's happened, do you?'
'Always assume the worst, unless proven otherwise,' said a grim voice, and Moody, who had overheard their exchange, stomped over. 'Get searching for her, Potter. I don't like the sound of this at all.'
Neither did James. His mind was spinning; where could Lily have gone, and what could have happened to her there?
'Liz, think, can you remember anything more at all?'
'I'm sorry,' said Liz. 'I – I was concentrating so hard on my work that I hardly even heard her … if only I'd paid more attention.' She sounded close to tears.
'Here, don't fall apart now, Liz,' said Moody sternly. 'We need a clue. What might this business of hers be?'
'I don't know … we've only been working on the Death Shield … and other than that, it's just the security for Frank and Alice's wedding … and raids, but if she'd got called, we'd know, wouldn't we?'
'I know something else,' said James, his heart falling as he realised the one other place Lily might have gone. 'Her sister might be in trouble. She may have gone to find her.' And the Death Eaters might have used Petunia as bait for Lily.
'Where's this sister live?' said Moody. 'We'll start from square one.'
James hoped Petunia and her husband hadn't moved since he'd last visited them with Lily nearly two years ago. Luckily, the door was answered by Petunia's beefy husband, meaning they'd got the right house.
'We're looking for Petunia Evans?' said Liz tentatively.
Petunia's husband, who was shorter than James but twice his width, took an unexpected swing at them.
'Kidnappers!' he screamed. 'You've got my wife! Police! Call the police! The bastards have come back!'
'Silencio,' muttered Moody, and Petunia's husband was cut off mid-howl. His face went redder than a tomato when he understood what had just taken place.
'Get inside,' ordered Moody, and they pushed Petunia's husband into the house. 'We're trying to track your wife down and get her back, so it's in your interests to co-operate.' Petunia's husband glared at them sulkily, and James did a quick Finite.
'What the effing hell do you lot want with us?'
'What happened to Petunia?' asked James.
'You probably already know,' growled Petunia's husband. 'Been gone four days already and I'll bet it's to do with your lot.'
'Four days?' echoed James in dismay. That meant … he thought back quickly to that last meeting with Petunia. Three days ago … but if Petunia had already been missing, then … He wasn't sure he really wanted to follow that thought to its conclusion.
'Can you tell us anything about how she disappeared?' said Liz.
'Disappeared? I'll give you disappeared, you cow, she was abducted. Bunch of ruffians charged in here and turned the whole place upside down and one of them knocked me out and when I came to she was gone!'
'Death Eaters,' confirmed Moody. 'You're lucky they didn't kill you.'
'Are you telling me they've murdered my wife! I'll have their heads –'
'No, you won't,' said Liz soothingly. 'We'll bring her back. We'll find her.'
They had the house secured, with Petunia's husband still inside. To say he wasn't too pleased about being magically locked in would be an understatement: he banged at the door, yelling and shouting and from the sound of it, throwing things at the walls.
'Should've silenced him again,' muttered Moody as they left.
'He's distraught … getting locked in his own home can't really help his mood –'
'He's throwing a bloody tantrum,' retorted Moody. 'And a pretty mess we'd have if we came back to find the Death Eaters decided to finish their job on him.'
James didn't say anything; he was still running through everything Petunia – if it had even been Petunia and not a masquerading Death Eater – had said to them on Lily's birthday, trying to find a clue. The only information he could gather on hindsight, however, was that he had been right and it had been a trap – but knowing that now wasn't any comfort at all.
He wondered if all this would have happened four days earlier if Lily had followed her sister out of Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour alone … Had the Death Eaters who had taken her sister planned to capture Lily there and then?
It would make sense. Petunia had been kidnapped four days ago. On the same day that they had taken her, she had shown up in Diagon Alley – James was convinced now that it was either Petunia under Imperius or an impostor using Polyjuice – and tried to lure Lily away. But he had been there, and he had followed them to that alley where the Death Eater responsible for all this must have wanted to overpower and seize her.
If that had been their original plan, then …
Suddenly, it dawned on him where they would find the first clue.
'We've got to go to Diagon Alley,' he said.