A/N: Hey guys! Just a few days before Deathly Hallows! Woo.! I have to work all weekend…I'm not looking forward to it. I'll be right of work and then speeding to the local Barnes & Nobles…maybe I'll get someone to stand in line for me. So I have a bit of good news/bad news…this is the second to last chapter of The Flawed. I know I said I'd have this one go till that fateful Halloween night, but I really need a break. I may continue this story in a third part, though, so don't be too distraught. Haha. Anyways, nice poll question answers last time—my favorites were ending poverty and ending global warming, being a bit of an environmental humanitarian myself. Oh, poll for this chapter—Do you think JKR will kill of Harry, Ron, and/or Hermione? I know you all want to answer that one! Well read and review! Thanks!
Chapter Thirty-One: One Hell of a Christmas
James, Lily, Sirius, and Charlotte moved in to house that James had bought months before the next day. Lily (with the help of Sirius) had long since decorated the place and furnished it accordingly, but between the mishaps with the Order and thwarting Voldemort, she had not yet had the chance to surprise James with their home.
He had loved the house the way Lily had made it, commenting on the furniture arrangement and the colors of the walls, although really, he would have loved it any which way, not really knowing anything about interior design, and was just happy that Lily would be living here with him. They had given Charlotte and Sirius the guest room, although they both swore they were only staying a few days, and that they would be gone for sure by the time the wedding rolled around, which was to happen in a few weeks time. James had insisted that they stay as long as necessary, to which Sirius gave him a dogged expression, claiming that he did not want to be around for the honeymoon stage, all the while winking and jabbing James in the ribs. James had hit him across his head, and Sirius shut up about the subject, temporarily.
Lily enjoyed having her fiancé and friends in her house, it made time slip by so much faster and it made the work for the Order so much more bearable, being able to know that when she got home there would be comfort and love. The next week and a half passed by very quickly, although James was no closer to outing Mulciber as a Death Eater, he had been successful in following him around and discovering his habits, the places he stopped at on the way home from the Ministry and the people he met there. James had informed Dumbledore what had happened to his flat, and Dumbledore had come personally to their new home, helping Lily put all sorts of defensive charms and spells on the house to keep it more protected. He had even suggested the Fidelius Charm, but Lily and James had been adamant against using it—they would be entirely isolated from the Order and helping stop Voldemort, and James felt that they would be skirting their responsibilities. Dumbledore had dropped the subject, and looked slightly relieved that they had decided against it. Between Order meetings and working on their separate tasks, Christmas snuck up on them quite suddenly, so Lily found herself decorating furiously Christmas Eve, before their small group of friends came for dinner the next day.
"James, can you help me please?" Lily called from their sitting room, a slight note of panic lining her words.
James had just returned from his evening task of tailing Mulciber and came home to find his fiancée trying to control a small herd of hyperactive pixies zooming around their downstairs. Sirius was currently trying to stun the few who were trying to make it upstairs and Charlotte was screaming as they pulled at her fine black hair.
He quickly pulled out his wand and began stunning as many as possible. Soon, the room was littered with frozen pixies.
"How did they get in here?" James asked, pulling an immobile pixie out of Lily's red hair.
Lily, panting, pointed at Sirius. "The tree he brought in hadn't been checked for inhabitants."
Sirius shrugged and looked apologetic. "Sorry…I've never had the task of getting a Christmas tree before."
Charlotte, free from the ravishing pixies, went to the bathroom to fix her hair and clean up the many scratches on her hands and face.
"Well, it is a beautiful tree." Lily said, as they all stood back and admired it. "I was putting the garland on when they came out." She pointed to the shredded garland and flicked her wand, repairing the decorations.
"How was dinner at your parents?" James asked, looking slightly guilty. "I'm sorry I couldn't make it…but Dumbledore sent me a last minute message saying Mulciber was known to be meeting a few alleged Death Eaters before going on a Muggle torture spree. It would be their idea of a happy Christmas."
"Did you stop them?" Lily asked, her face lined with apprehension.
"Yes, well, I think so…Frank, Alice, Fenwick, and the Prewett brothers met up with me, and they fought them off well enough to make them think twice about attacking anyone the next couple of days." James's face hardened slightly and he continued somewhat bitterly, "I wish I could have fought them and give Mulciber something to reckon with…but Dumbledore said I couldn't risk being seen."
Lily put her arms around him and rested her head upon his chest. "Don't be so eager to fight them, James. You'll get your turn soon enough. Is everyone on our side okay?" She looked him in the eyes and he nodded.
"Yes, for the most part—Frank got a pretty nasty cut on the side of his face, but it's nothing Alice can't fix. She's pretty amazing about knowing certain remedies for things like that."
Lily nodded. "That's good."
"So how was your parents'?" James asked again, returning the embrace Lily had given him as he pulled his arms around her body.
"Oh, it was all right. Petunia and Vernon were there, so it was a rather dry evening…Mum kept bringing up our wedding and I think it put them in right sour moods…but I can't really tell with them…they always look like they've just been fed lemons."
"Vernon's just jealous that I get to marry you in fourteen days." James said, kissing her on the top of the head.
"Yes, I'm sure that's it." Lily replied sarcastically as she untwined herself from James. "Now will you help me finish decorating? We have a lot to do before tomorrow…I want it to be perfect."
"Oh why did I have to be involved with such a perfectionist!" James complained teasingly. Lily shot him an intimidating stare.
"I don't know mate, but we're all suffering." Sirius replied, well out of reach of Lily's wrath as he strung garland around the banister.
Christmas Day should have been a good day. In any other place, in any other time, it could have been a happy day. As the world was currently torn between the struggle of good and evil, Lily knew it was naive of her to hope for a regular Christmas, where the meeting of friends, lovers, and family would be a time to celebrate.
The day had started out nice enough, she, James, Sirius, and Charlotte had hopped over to the Potters for a Christmas brunch after opening their presents. No one had gotten anything too expensive or exciting, no one had much time for excessive shopping lately, but everyone had managed to give and get something quite special and meaningful. Sirius had given James three books, one on the Chudley Cannon's Quidditch team (which was both guys' favorite team), one on modern defensive spells (which Lily made a mental note to borrow) and one that James tried very hard not to let Lily see. Being a cunning and creative woman, Lily was able to retrieve the book almost as soon as James had attempted to hide it.
"What Not to try With Your Other Wand: A Young Wizard's Guide to Preventing Magical Mishaps of the Worst Kind." Lily read the title, trying to stifle a giggle. "Classy as always, Sirius…I especially like this chapter title…Engorgio: Don't Even Think About It..." She turned to James, "Do I have anything to be worried about, Shnukums?"
"NO!" James said, huffily defending himself.
This caused Sirius, Charlotte, and Lily to laugh harder, and James resorted to snatching the book back. "I've never tried anything like this…and I'd like to think that I don't have a reason to." He gave Lily a narrowed glance, to which she immediately tried to stop laughing, but failed, as James was doing such a good job at being offended.
"Anyways, you looked like the real wanker buying it." James told Sirius, who grinned widely.
"Not when I asked to have it gift-wrapped."
The others laughed, but James continued to pout until Lily declared him a more than satisfactory lover and gave him an apologetic kiss on the mouth.
After the laughter had died down and the sitting room was cleared of the wreckage that comes with unwrapping presents on Christmas morning, the foursome set off for James' parents' place. Lily chose to wear her yellow hat and scarf Mrs. Potter had given to her for her birthday and they had a lovely time. Talk of the upcoming wedding continued around the table, and Lily and James, although they were both unaware of the others' feelings, began to get tingling sensations in their bellies that left them antsy all day.
When they finally made it back to their house, there were only a few hours before their other friends would be coming over for supper, so Lily set off frantically for the kitchen, accompanied by Charlotte and a handful of cooking books. James and Sirius weren't quite sure what to do, but eventually decided that they should probably help the girls in the kitchen, although they weren't quite sure if their aid would be more of a hindrance than help.
"James, put the turkey on the table, please." Lily said as she flicked her wand over the potatoes, forcing them to mash themselves into creamy white mounds.
When she first felt the burning sensation on her wrist, she just thought some of the steam from the potatoes had grazed her hand. As the warmth continued, however, she realized it wasn't any steam, but her watch, alerting her to some business with the Order.
She looked over to the table, where James had just sat the Christmas turkey. He was feeling it to, she knew, as his eyes wandered to his left wrist. Sirius soon reappeared in the kitchen with Charlotte, he too looked alert.
"Are you guys ready to go?" He asked them. Lily and James nodded, although Charlotte looked a little more than confused.
"Go where? Aren't Remus and Peter and all of them coming here?" she asked, her blue eyes darting around the room, from Sirius, to James, to Lily, and then landing quizzically on Sirius again.
"We've got some stuff to do, it's a bit of an emergency…it's for Dumbledore." Sirius said, trying to give his usual charming smile. "Why don't you go to James', we'll be back soon."
For a moment they all thought Charlotte wouldn't listen. That she would put up a real fight, which would eat away at the precious time they had. But she seemed to sense the vital nature of their work, and she merely nodded, before disapparating to the Potters'.
Moments later they found themselves in a small Muggle village far from the cozy home they had been in seconds earlier.
They had apparated on the outskirts of the town, but it wasn't hard to spot where they were needed. In the middle of the village a huge fire blazed, sending clouds of smoke and shrieks into the cold night air.
Without looking at each other they set off as fast as they could to the heart of the village.
Lily looked to the fire to try and figure out what needed to be done. The flames sprang from a muggle apartment complex and a muggle fire truck was currently trying to squelch the flames. These flames, however, were done by magic, and were impossible to kill with mere squirts of water. Before she could reach for her wand, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Easy there!" came a voice that triggered some sort of familiarity within Lily's brain. She turned around to face one of the Prewetts. She couldn't tell which brother it was.
"Death Eaters…I thought we scared them off earlier—I guess not." He said, frowning. "You start with some extinguishing charms—I hear your brilliant in charms—I'm going to look for those bastards, I'm sure they're still around—this is the part they love to watch. Be careful, Evans."
Lily gave him a nod and started swishing and flicking her wand towards the flames, casting the most powerful extinguishing charms she could recall. As the fire started to die down, Lily saw that her charms had been joined by Benjy Fenwick, Emmeline Vance, and Elphias Doge. The muggles that had come to watch the horrific scene stood transfixed at the magic that was currently dousing the fire. Lily gave them a worried glance, but soon saw that Ministry obliviators had arrived, along with Mad-Eye Moody and a team of Aurors.
The fire was soon squelched, although smoke continued to pollute the air. Lily tried spotting James in the confusion, and saw that he was joined by Dorcas Meadowes and they were currently trying to apprehend a Death Eater. They seemed to have the situation under control, as the Death Eater was soon stunned, and Lily made her way to the wreckage, looking for any muggles that remained in the scorched remnants of the building that had held their homes.
"Help me, please, help me!" Lily heard a woman cry. "My baby, my baby!"
Lily looked around for the frantic woman, spotting her in the corner of a charred room that appeared to have held their Christmas tree. Now all that was left was a thick black stick protruding from a tree stand.
"I'm going to help you." Lily said in a voice she hoped was soothing. She approached the woman cautiously.
"My baby!" The woman sobbed harder, and Lily could now see that the woman was cradling something black and burned in her arms—her baby. Lily felt her heart rise into her throat and tears threatening to gush from her eyes. But she held them in. She wasn't quite sure what to do, but she knew that she must not let this woman see her cry. She must be strong.
"Give her to me, I'm here to help, we'll get you both medical attention. Hand her to me, I'll help you." Lily said, trying her best to remain calm.
"No, no!" The woman cried louder. "You aren't going to have her, how can I trust you? How do I know you didn't do this?!" she started shouting, her voice growing louder and louder.
At first Lily was speechless. How did this woman know she could trust her? She had just seen a group of people in cloaks and with wands, things this woman had probably never seen, and they had destroyed her home, almost killed her baby (Lily refused to even think that the baby was dead, although she couldn't ignore it's quiet stillness), and injured her. Why should this woman hand Lily her baby? Lily didn't know much about motherhood, but she had the inkling that if she had been this woman, she would not hand off her baby to just anyone.
"All right, hold on to her, but please, come with me, I can get you both medical care, please, this building is not safe or sturdy."
As if to emphasize her point, the building let out a long groan, as if the boards above them had finally decided that holding all this weight was too much to be expected from them.
"I won't hurt you, let's go." Lily pleaded.
The woman looked down at her baby, and up at Lily, her blue eyes watering. "She's gone. Kill me, please." The woman begged in a hush whisper.
Lily's green eyes were losing control of her tears. "Maybe…maybe not. Come with me, please."
The woman wouldn't budge, and so Lily decided to take matters into her own hands. She put her wand in her cloak pocket and went towards the woman. Lily lifted the lady up, which was a miraculous feat, as she was a bit larger than she was and was no longer cooperating with any movement at all; the woman just cradled her child.
"Lily, are you all right?" came a voice. It was James. His hazel eyes met Lily's, and he looked at the woman Lily was trying to hold, standing against her and threatening to topple over on top of her.
He walked towards them and brought the woman into his arms.
"I've got her," He whispered to Lily. He then heaved her into his arms and walked out the door, looking very much like a young husband carrying his new wife across the threshold to their new home, in a perverse, terrible way. Lily thought she was going to be sick.
Lily and James arrived back at their home hours later, but they both felt as if it had been a year since they'd been home. It couldn't possibly be Christmas.
James grabbed hold of Lily's hand as they entered their house together. Sirius had gone to fetch Charlotte as he had promised and told them that he'd be spending the night at the Potters. They were all exhausted.
James caressed her hand softly, and Lily looked up at him, but they were both at loss for words.
They had been members of the Order for half of a year now—they had seen muggles being tortured, they had seen people die; they had fought the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort. But nothing they had experienced in the last six months was as disturbing to them as tonight had been.
The poor woman had been right. Her baby was dead. When the Healer announced this to the woman, in a soft and sympathetic voice, the woman had shrieked louder than any of the screams they had heard that night.
As they walked through the foyer Lily remembered that they had invited people over for the evening. Peter, Grace, and Remus were all in the Order, so she hadn't given it much thought—she just assumed they would be called into action too. Allison, Jacob, and Ellie, however, were not in the Order, and so she wasn't surprised to find a harassed owl with a note waiting for her. What surprised her was Grace Melbourne, Remus' girlfriend, sitting at the dining room table, looking as worried as anything.
"Grace, are you all right?" she asked, trying not to be frantic. Was Remus hurt? A harsher, wiser voice entered her head. Was he dead?
Grace looked up at Lily, her gray eyes sad. "Remus left me." She let out a sigh. "I was hoping I was just dreaming or something, or I don't know…that he had been kidding, that there was a surprise home waiting for us to move in together or something. That if I came tonight, he would show up…but we all got called to do Order business…I couldn't go, I thought he'd show up still, maybe…"
Lily's heart ached. Would this day ever be over? She'd had quite enough. She looked over at James, who had been writing a reply to Allison's frantic note. He was looking very uncomfortable.
"Was there a note? Are you sure he's all right and all? Just getting up and leaving you, that doesn't sound like Remus…" Lily tried to reason, although she would rather have Remus leave Grace on his own accord than him be captive to Death Eaters and Voldemort.
Grace smiled sadly. "Yes, there was a note, I know he left it…it's his hand writing and all…he said it's over, that he has to go away, get out of this place…well, more eloquently than that, you know how Remus is."
"Well, I'm sorry, Grace." Lily said, as compassionately as she could. "Would you like to stay here tonight, Sirius and Charlotte have the guest room, but the sofa folds out…"
"No, no, don't bother." Grace said, standing up from her lonely chair at the dining table. "I better get going…my parents will be worried about me. I thought I'd just make sure he wasn't with you guys…see you, Lily, James."
She got up and gave them what she must have thought to be a convincing smile and it pained Lily to return it. "Good night, Grace. Happy Christmas."
"Yeah, happy." Grace said softly, letting herself out.
Lily let out a long sigh once she was sure Grace was gone. "I can't believe Remus would do that. On Christmas and everything!"
"I'm sure he didn't want to." James replied, talking for the first time on the subject. Allison's owl had finally gone, and he just stood rather stoically in the corner. "Remember what he said Dumbledore wanted him to do, Lily?"
She remembered.
"He's gone to live with the werewolves." She whispered, horrified for Remus' sake. "How terrible. Poor Remus!"
James nodded and sighed before combing his hands through his hair. "This is one hell of a Christmas."
He looked so tired and worn out, he was paler than usual and had large dark bags under his eyes. Lily realized she must not look much better.
"Perhaps we should get to bed?" she suggested, without any real conviction in this offer. She felt so lost at the moment.
James shrugged and looked at his fiancée. "Don't you want to have some of the turkey? You've got to be hungry."
"I really don't think I can eat." Lily said dryly.
"Come on, Lily, I can hear your stomach growling from here. Let's eat." James suggested again, this time a little more forcefully.
"All right, but not too much…my stomach is in knots as it is."
Lily sat down at the chair James pulled out for her and let him make a plate of food for her.
"Happy Christmas," he said, smiling at her as he sat the plate in front of her.
"I don't know about that."
James shrugged as he took his seat. "We're alive, Lily, I think that makes it a happy Christmas."
Lily nodded, thinking James must be right, but not feeling much better.
It was later that night that she thought of it. In her futile attempts to find sleep, she discovered a plan that seemed like it would relieve one of the many knots that had formed in her stomach that day.
"James," she whispered, tapping him on the shoulder, trying to wake him.
James turned over to face her. He looked like he had just found sleep himself, and Lily felt a little guilty for rousing him. "What is it? Are you all right?" he asked tiredly.
"Yes, I'm fine, but James," She bit her lip in apprehension. "I have an idea."
"Yes?" he asked, reaching over her for his glasses.
"Let's get married."
James raised an eyebrow. "Aren't we already doing that?"
"I know, I know, but I mean. Let's run away and do it. Let's not have a big wedding, with all those relatives my mother invited, it's so public and well, what if there's an attack there? I couldn't live with myself if someone was killed at our wedding."
James looked down at Lily, considering this option. The details of their wedding didn't really matter to him; so long Lily was his bride.
"If that's what you want, Lily. If you're sure, I think it sounds like a fantastic idea." He smiled to show that he really meant it. "Can we talk about it in the morning, though? I really am tired…"
Lily smiled, feeling the happiest she had all night. One of the knots seemed to untangle itself from her stomach and she nodded. "Good night."
Don't forget to answer the poll: Do you think JKR will kill off Harry, Ron, and/or Hermione?
And thanks to my reviewers: An aspiring Author, Lazy Lilies, JustCallMeDollface, glowing-ice, Lia Amitair, Leanne, Princess Eclpise, messyblackhair66, and elise bentwin!