Author: Laurahonest

Chapter 6: Once Defied

Post Date: 9-14-2006

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. I just play with the characters to amuse myself and hopefully you.

Authors Notes: Thank Bluejello for editing this. Without her it would be full of my sad grammar. 'Voldemort' and 'Riddle' are the same person. 'Riddle' is used by James and his father to refer to Lord Voldemort in a way meant to strip him of the power of his name. This is similar to the way that Dumbledore calls him 'Tom'. It takes away his uniqueness, which he does not like.

James was amazed at how well Lily was flying. She was a natural; she was even good at Quidditch. Of course, Lily would be better with some training but she was doing really well. She had even made one of their goals and assisted with another. James settled back on his broom to watch her circle the pitch again. Lily dodged Sirius and stole the quaffle from Marlene. She was good. Too bad she refused to play for the Gryffindor team. Lily was on her way to the goal posts when James saw something black hurtling towards her. "Lily, look out!" he shouted. "On your left!" He stared at the object as she expertly sloth-grip rolled to avoid it and saw that it was a bludger. 'The bludgers are locked up though' he thought, as he conjured a beater's bat and streaked off towards her to get rid of it. Sirius was already there, but both bludgers were attacking her now. Sirius was keeping them at bay, but only barely. James pulled out his wand and destroyed one bludger right after Sirius knocked it away, but he couldn't get at the other one without endangering Lily. Sirius couldn't get enough force behind it to knock it more than a few feet away from her. It was almost as if it was magnetically attracted to her. It wouldn't leave her alone.

James glanced around to see if the others had noticed. Then he noticed someone acting very strange. Broderick seemed frozen, he wasn't moving a bit. He was just hovering there, staring at the far end of the pitch. Broderick's face went white and he streaked off the pitch towards the house, yelling. James looked where Broderick had been staring and yelled as well.

Everyone looked at him and he pointed. Five figures in black robes and masks were walking across the pitch towards them. Death Eaters. James looked back towards the bludger attacking Lily. Sirius hit it again and James saw his chance. He got off a lucky spell, which reduced it to a fine powder just like the first one.

By unspoken consent, everyone landed and turned to face the oncoming Death Eaters in a united line. James knew that it would have been hopeless to try and flee so did everyone else. Broderick had gotten lucky; he may have been overlooked entirely. Lily and Sirius were at James' sides. The robed figure in the middle started to speak and everyone's blood ran cold. "Hello children, how are your parents?" It was Lord Voldemort. What was Voldemort doing here on a Quidditch pitch, with a bunch of teens not even out of school as his targets? He had just called them children and everyone knew that Voldemort didn't think untested 'children' were worth his time. Unless he was just using them to cause pain elsewhere. The Potter family was very well-respected. Losing their only child would be a huge blow to the family and the community. It wouldn't get him support though. The Potter's were too well-liked. Very few people would join him because of any actions taken here tonight. So, what was he planning with this attack? Why had he come personally, when the target was just 'children'?

Voldemort stepped forward and raised his wand to curse them, but James started talking. Voldemort was that particular type of villain who likes to play with his victims and he couldn't curse James without giving him a chance to beg for his life first, and maybe provide some amusement as well. "What are you doing here, Riddle?" James asked. "You know that we will never support you or your cause. We stand firmly with Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic. Anything you do here tonight will only push people further from supporting you and unite them more firmly together against you. Killing any of us won't do you any good at all. The entire wizarding world will know that you attacked the Potter home with no provocation."

"I need no support from Mudbloods and blood traitors. Those are the only ones who don't support me already. I have all of the support I want. That isn't why I came here tonight though. Would you like to know my real reasons for being here?" he asked in a conversational tone.

"Not that I really care but, sure, enlighten me. Why did you come to my Quidditch pitch tonight? What is your evil plan?" James played along.

"I came here for you, James" was Voldemort's answer. Lily's blood felt like ice in her veins. "Do you want to know why?"

"Yes, bore me with the numerous, erroneous reasons that you came to get me," James replied coldly. He tried not to let on how unnerved he was by this whole conversation.

"You are quite impertinent, James. But never mind your bad manners; they won't matter much longer anyway. My reasoning is thus: it won't be hard for me to make it appear that you were secretly on my side. Your trusting parents will be devastated when they hear the news. Their only son gone over to evil and a supporter of the greatest dark wizard ever. The magical community will be outraged against you, and your parents will be doubted. Many will start to believe that they too are on my side. Perhaps, they will all say, that is why your dad can come so close to catching me but him and the aurors always miss me by just a few minutes. I will personally deliver the sad news to them. It is, after all, part of being the leader. One must take the stories of victorious deaths to the families of the fallen. This is what your parents will hear: you united with me and your best friends were forced to kill you. Ironic, isn't it? Really though, I will be killing you and your friends. It will appear to the ministry that everything I told your parents was true. Before you die, dear Jamesie, you will get to watch your friends die and even help torture them. Then you will have the joy of being tortured until you beg for death to come to you and release you from your misery. Now, let's get on with it, shall we?" with that he flicked his wand towards James.

"Protego," Lily's calm voice cut through Voldemort's chattering. Her powerful shield blocked his spell and a bundle of rope hit the ground in front of James.

"Well, you are quick with your wand." Voldemort sounded slightly surprised about that. "Let me see, red hair, green eyes and oh, a cocky attitude. You must be that little Mudblood pet of Dumbleore's. You will be fun to torture. Just think James, you can help me with her. It will be quite enjoyable. We can do all sorts of nasty things to her."

Lily's wand wasn't wavering a bit. Suddenly, Voldemort found himself bound and gagged in a heap on the ground. All of the Death Eaters abandoned their watches and ran to help their fallen master. During this distraction, the teens apparated to the Manor while all of their enemies had their attention focused on each other. Broderick had warned the adults of the situation, so they were prepared when the eight teens suddenly appeared on the doorstep. The all rushed inside, James slammed the door behind them, and it magically locked. There was a slight whoosh as the adults cast their pre-arranged defensive spells and charms on the house and grounds. As soon as the spells were in place, the adults turned to the teens for an explanation. Gerald was keeping an eye out the window while still asking for an explanation. The adults wanted to hear everything from the time Broderick left until they apparated to the doorstep. All it took to quiet everyone down was Lily uttering two words: "James, explain." Everyone sat down, except for Gerald, who moved closer to the window to keep an eye out on the grounds.

"Every detail, James," Gerald put in from his post by the window. "It may help us figure out who the Death Eaters were."

"Yes, sir. It started out while I was watching the game from above. I noticed a Bludger attacking Lily. I got worried because we weren't playing with the bludgers since it was so close to dark. Sirius and I conjured bats and flew towards her to stop it when the other one came and joined the attack as well. Broderick yelled before he came here to warn you and I looked down and saw four Death Eaters on the field. I disintegrated the bludgers and we all landed and huddled together. Riddle started talking..."

"Riddle was here?" his father asked.

"Yes, Riddle was here," James confirmed. Gerald cast a spell and a shadowy figure ran out the window and away to the north.

"Go on James, tell the rest," Lily prompted.

"Riddle was babbling on about how much pain it would cause you if he killed me and how fun it would be to make me watch him torture my friends and even make me help him torture them. He tried to bind me but Lily cast a shield spell and his spell missed all of us. He thought it was funny and continued on about torturing her and out of nowhere someone wordlessly bound him and I gagged him. The Death Eaters all ran to help him and we apparated here."

"Who bound him?" Gerald asked as he cast a penetrating look around the room.

"I did." Lily quietly answered. "He wasn't paying attention to me even though he was looking at me and taunting James about me. We needed to escape before he started to really pay attention and decided to kill or capture us instead of just talking about how fun it would be."

After that no one said a word. They all just sat there silently each lost in their own thoughts until a house elf came in with coffee and dessert.

Gerald cast another spell. This time a small puff of dust came out and disappeared out the window. A few minutes later the puff of dust returned. "They are gone," he said simply and sat down to eat coffee and cake with the rest of them.