forty-six - thunder

Lily curls into the sleeping bag, tucking her knees up to her stomach. (It's how she always used to sleep when she and Sev were little and camping outside in her Grandad's old army tent in the garden, when the darkness pulled down around them and the foxes and owls and cats and dogs were making the night-time noises that weren't scary from the comfort of her bed.)

She tugs the sleeves of James' Quidditch jumper down so they cover her hands, and leaves her fingers just peeking out so she can brush away errant strands of hair that fall in her face.

Lily blows out a shaky breath, lips trembling, and closes her eyes. She's waiting and wanting for sleep to whisk her away into the painless oblivion and let her forget tonight, but all she gets is McGonagall's call of Potter! She does it softly, as if afraid to disturb the peace, and, make sure Miss Evans is alright.

As James nods, disregarding his patrolling and navigating his way through the sleeping bags and sleeping students, Lily counts the stars in the blood-stained sky above the Great Hall.

The call had come from Rosmerta that Hogsmeade was under fire, and an ashen-faced Dumbledore made his way there to investigate. The attack on the village tested much faith in the safety of the school - if Dark magic could reach Hogsmeade, it could reach Hogwarts - but the first thundering boom resounding through the castle shattered any illusion staff and students alike had about their school as a haven. Thumps and bangs and crashes came from outside the Great Hall; inside the windows were rattling in their panes and many children were screaming.

The younger students were instructed to get under the tables and hide, keeping each other safe, and the older students, who had been given permission to fight if they wanted to provided they were of age, started securing the Hall while the teachers reinforced the double doors.

Lily doesn't remember much from the events from then on, but she'll never forget the moment she caught sight of the writing on the wall visible through the double doors that had been blasted away.

You're next, Mudbloods.

The terror shaking through the castle's foundations, shattering the ages-old stone, was shaking through her foundations, rattling her bones. Hogwarts, their last defence, had been breached, and she didn't know if she would make it through the night.

Now she buries her head in James chest and her body shakes, but she doesn't cry.

"They won't hurt you," he promises, stroking her hair and brushing her forehead with his lips. "I'm not going to let them."

"This is the part where I say I don't need anyone to look after me, isn't it?" she whispers, all childlike and vulnerable, and it breaks his heart.

Later, he asks her how she's feeling.

"Scared. Terrified." The words are released against his neck and he feels her breath, hot on his skin. "But I'm not giving in. I'm not backing down."

She pulls back in his embrace and looks at him. "That's what my Dad always used to say. The game's not over 'til you've given 'em what for. So I will. I'm gonna fight, James."

James smiles at her, eyes softening behind his glasses. Lily takes them off him, folds them and places them next to the pillow, swallowing as she does so. He waits, knowing she's working out what to say next.

"I have to fight." The words spill out quickly, and she looks away almost as soon as she's said them. "I have to." She leans her forehead against his. "All of this, it's about me and people like me. I want you with me, and I know I shouldn't drag you into it and I understand if you don't want to -"

"Lily," he whispers, "of course I'm going to fight. I have to, too. It's not the same, I get that. I'm a Pureblood. But I have to. I have to stand up for what's right, because it doesn't look like anyone else will."

Her heart beats a little faster. (James is not fighting for her; that would make him reckless, dangerous. He's fighting because he has to do what's right.)

"I love you, Lily Evans," he tells her. "I love you."

She smiles at him, a slow smile that spreads across her face and creases her eyes. "I love you, too, James. You know that, don't you?"

He lets out a laugh against her collarbone, breath tickling her skin. Yeah, he says, and he's kissing her, and underneath the blood-stained sky she holds him just that little bit tighter.

a/n: so if any of this is confusing, Death Eaters attacked Hogsmeade as a diversion for an attack on Hogwarts, but eventually got fought off. In the aftermath, students all slept in the Great Hall while the castle was restored and Prefects had to patrol on half-hour rotations to keep an eye on students in case they needed anything or whatever, much like after Sirius breaks in in PoA.

Boom.