Chapter 16
Call to Arms
Lily knocked on the door to Severus' quarters. She waited briefly then knocked again, louder.
"Sev?" she called out loudly. "Damn you."
Lily stomped angrily away and climbed the steep stairs leading to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and Severus' office. Again Lily knocked then she pushed the door open and stepped inside. She glanced around; there was no sign of Severus. Lily left the classroom and headed to the seventh floor. Down a long corridor she finally saw Severus as he paced by the tapestry with the dancing trolls.
"Is everything alright?" Lily asked.
Severus stopped pacing and looked at her. She noted how the anger in his face subsided as he looked into her eyes.
"I am fine."
"Do you want to talk about what happened with Sirius?"
"No."
"Okay then, how about why you're trying to get into here without me?"
"I do not understand why but I cannot seem to find the junk room."
Lily stifled a chuckle.
"Don't worry," she said. "You obviously don't need to find the diadem enough. Is there something else you want more? Something that was in the first room you opened the other night perhaps?"
Severus turned his back to her.
"Obviously this requirement room is suffering from faulty enchantments."
"You didn't answer my question before," Lily said. "Why didn't you wait for me? I thought we were a team?"
"Black thinks I should stay away from you."
Lily stepped up to Severus and touched his cheek gently.
"Since when have you done what Sirius says?" she asked. "I love spending this time with you Sev, we're a team… more than that, we're friends."
He nodded and Lily stepped back.
She closed her eyes and the door to the room of requirement appeared on the stone wall. Lily went inside and Severus lifted his hand to touch the spot on his cheek where Lily had touched him, then followed her in.
Starting at opposite ends of the large room, Severus and Lily once again began sifting through hundreds of years of disregarded items. After hours of searching, and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, Severus slumped down on a pile of musty-smelling clothing.
"This certainly is an ingenious hiding place," he grumbled. "Riddle should have considered hiding all his horcruxes in here."
From her place further down the aisle, Severus could hear Lily laughing. He followed her voice and found Lily waving her wand in the air. She had brought an old tuxedo to life, animated it so that the black clothing danced in the air above her head. Severus smiled at her as Lily continued laughing, childlike, as she manipulated the suit with her wand.
"Wait!"
Severus leapt forward and ran past Lily, who let the tuxedo fall in a crumpled heap on the ground. He climbed high onto one of the massive junk piles; he clamoured almost to the top and reached out to pluck something shiny out from amongst the random belongings. He climbed back down and handed the item to Lily, a silver tiara.
"The diadem!" Lily exclaimed, attempting to wipe thick dust away. "There's something written on it."
Lily finished wiping away the dust to reveal the brilliant shining diadem underneath. She read an inscription aloud.
"Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure… Merlin!" She looked up at Severus. "This really was Rowena Ravenclaw's!"
Lily gave a short squeal of joy and leapt into Severus' arms. She hugged him tightly for several moments then smiled shyly as she pulled away again.
"We need to get this to Albus."
"I am so proud!" Dumbledore beamed as he examined the diadem. "I cannot believe it was right under our noses this whole time."
On the office wall, the portrait of Helitrope sprung to life.
"You've found it! You've found Ravenclaw's diadem!" she exclaimed. "I've no doubt that's the real thing."
"That's reassuring," Dumbledore smiled.
He placed the diadem down carefully onto his desk and took Gryffindor's sword off the wall.
"Here," he said and handed it to Severus. "This must be your turn."
Severus took the sword from Dumbledore and raised it above his head. After glancing quickly at Lily, he slammed the blade down, pieces of the silver jewel shattering into the air. Severus, Dumbledore and Lily covered their ears as tortured screams escaped from the diadem before the room once again fell silent. Dumbledore picked up what was left of the shattered diadem pieces from Dumbledore's desk and hid them in the safe behind the portrait on the wall.
"I am proud," Dumbledore repeated, turning to face Severus and Lily. "You have both done a tremendous job, something I could not have accomplished without your help."
"But we have not finished have we?" Severus asked.
"The ring, the diary…" Dumbledore counted on his fingers.
"The locket," added Lily.
"The cup," said Severus.
"And the diadem." Dumbledore looked at his fingers. "That's five horcruxes we've destroyed."
"Severus is right that we're not finished," said Lily. "You told us you thought Voldemort would have made seven."
"Ah, yes," pondered Dumbledore. "The magic seven."
"So we need to keep searching?" said Severus.
"I have had an eye on one of Voldemort's companions," Dumbledore said. "The great snake."
"Who?" asked Severus. "Nagini? You think she is a horcrux?"
"It is highly possible," Dumbledore said. "A horcrux can be made from a living being. Voldemort, heir of Slytherin and a Parseltongue, could have seen great symbolism in making Nagini a horcrux."
"But the Dark Lord never tried to hide Nagini as he did the other horcruxes," Severus argued. "The snake is always with him."
"Why would he need to hide it?" Dumbledore noted. "If the snake is with Voldemort isn't it safer? However, if Voldemort is aware by now, as I believe he must be, that we are after his horcruxes, Nagini will be a lot harder to get to."
Lily had been biting the inside of her mouth, deep in thought.
"So how do we get close enough to Nagini to kill her?" she asked.
Dumbledore shook his head.
"There is no need to risk it," he said. "We will simply take care of Nagini and Voldemort at the same time. Voldemort himself carries the seventh and final piece of his soul."
"So we are ready then?" Severus pressed. "Are we finally ready to go after the Dark Lord now?"
Dumbledore walked his office in a wide circle and stroked his beard.
"It will be important to plan and coordinate attacks with the Order and Ministry carefully and thoughtfully. We must plan the best time and location for an all out war. I will inform the Order and we can start preparing."
The dark cloaked figure of Voldemort came flying from a cave close to a cliff face. As waves crashed around him and the wind howled, Voldemort let out a thunderous roar. His cry was so loud it drowned out the noise from the wind and the waves below. His fury was uncontrollable. Having discovered his locket missing from the cave, all his fears were at once confirmed; someone was hunting down his horcruxes.
"DUMBLEDORE!" he bellowed above the winds.
In the long kitchen at Grimmauld Place, an assorted group of people talked excitedly.
"Might I suggest a large open space," Remus Lupin said. "Like a field perhaps."
"And what?" scoffed Sirius. "Send Voldemort an invitation to meet us there?"
Arthur Weasley's eyes lit up.
"We need somewhere to trap them," he offered.
"Hogwarts?" a tall wizard with long grey hair suggested.
"What do we do with the students?" McGonagall asked. "Send them home? What shall we say to their parents? Sorry but we cannot teach any more, we have a war to prepare."
Discussion continued around the room with the initial excitement wearing off, slowly to be replaced by annoyance.
"As far as I am aware," Severus said. "The Dark Lord has taken up residence at the Lestrange home. We could go after him there."
"Just ring the doorbell huh?" Sirius laughed.
"It's a better idea than any of the others," Lily snapped.
"And we should agree," began Dumbledore. "That it would be what Voldemort would least suspect."
"What is the Lestrange home like?" Lupin asked. "Would it be feasible to stage an attack there?"
"It is similar to Malfoy's. It has a large grounds but the home itself is smaller. There are several rooms upstairs and several larger ones on the first floor."
"Any basement?"
Severus nodded.
"It could work," Lupin said. "It would be isolated so no risk of innocent bystanders getting in the way."
"And getting You-Know-Who at home would certainly give us the element of surprise," Arthur Weasley added.
Sirius thumped his fist on the table.
"That's all fine if Voldemort was our only target," he argued. "But we want them all and I doubt every Death Eater's gonna just be there waiting for us."
"So we plan simultaneous attacks," Lily offered. "Send different groups to attack at the same time; everywhere we know Death Eaters will be."
"That's brilliant Lily!" Arthur beamed. "It just might work!"
After several more minutes of buoyant discussion within the group regarding the logistics of the plan, Dumbledore instructed Severus, Lily, Lupin and Moody to go with a small group of Order members and Ministry Aurors to go to the Lestrange house.
"Why so few?" Sirius asked. "Surely a full-on assault needs to have more men than that?"
"We need only those we are sure can be trusted," Dumbledore replied. "We cannot risk letting those Ministry members under Voldemort's spell know what we are planning."
"Fine," Sirius grumbled.
"You four go straight to the Lestrange house and contain Voldemort and anyone else there for as long as possible until assistance arrives," Dumbledore said.
He continued his orders, instructing Sirius, Arthur and Minerva to target key locations and homes while Dumbledore and Kingsley would work with the Aurors to locate Ministry members suspected of being under the Imperious curse.
"As soon as your own locations are clear, everyone gets back to the Lestrange home as soon as possible," Dumbledore instructed.
"So when does all this happen?" Sirius asked.
Dumbledore looked around at their faces as he thought.
"There is no longer any reason to wait," he said. "If we are ready then why not tomorrow night?"
Dumbledore watched their reactions with amusement. While some were tentative, most were more than ready.
"Great," he finished. "Tomorrow at nine we strike. The final battle will begin."
The following afternoon Severus was finishing in his classroom when Lily entered.
"You want to go for a drink before the big event tonight?" she asked. "To calm the nerves."
"I am not nervous," Severus said, clearing away parchments from his desk.
"I am."
Severus looked up at her and smiled.
"In that case, I cannot refuse."
At the Three Broomsticks, Severus and Lily sat at a table in a quiet corner on their own. It was the late afternoon and the tavern was not yet busy. Severus took a swig from his goblet and watched as Lily stared into hers.
"Do you think you will be okay to go through with this?" Severus asked her.
Lily looked up.
"I'll be fine; I just needed some quiet time."
"Why are you so nervous? You are strong, more than capable of a battle like this."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Lily said. "It's just… well, I've never been in a fight like this. I think I've got a right to feel a little frightened."
Severus reached out to hold her hand.
"You do," he told her. "But you will have support and a lot of skills to rely on."
"There's another reason I wanted to come here tonight; I wanted to thank you for your friendship during the year. Your support has helped me find myself, find my life again."
"I have not done anything."
Lily shook her head.
"You've done more than you know. After I lost James and Harry I was full of anger and hate, I couldn't see a life without them. Now I have finally been able to accept that it's possible."
Severus looked down at the table as Lily squeezed his hand. She moved around to his side of the table and reached over to kiss him. Their lips pressed together, parting tentatively and Severus reached up to put a hand to Lily's cheek. She pulled away slowly and Severus swallowed hard as she let her head rest against his chest.
"I'm sorry," Lily sighed. "I'm not ready for anything more just yet. I hope you understand."
"I do."
Severus began stroking her long hair as Lily listened to his heart beat slow down against her ear.
"Are you ready for tonight?" he asked her.
"Can't wait!"