She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

Battle Of The Stairs

We stepped out of the bathroom, all of us soaking and most of us covered in blood that wasn't out own, except for Peter, who'd tripped coming out of the Chamber and hit his forehead on a sink.

"I'm glad that's over." Sirius murmured, as we stood around in the sunlight that seemed crude after the darkness of the Chamber.

I sighed. "Yes…finally over…"

"We need to get to the hospital wing," James was still carrying Lily, and she had fainted on the way up. I don't know what had happened to her – but suddenly I needed to know. I needed to find Carmichael Ackerly, and got a bloody explanation out of him – now.

So, I did what I do best – I ditched my friends.

I ducked behind a tapestry, ran down a small corridor, and then came out left, sprinting along a corridor until I reached a door, which I flung open. I had no idea where I was going, just that I would find what I was looking for if I went this way.

I ran across a deserted classroom – I really had no idea where the rest of the school was – and through another door, turning right and sprinting down a long corridor lined with paintings of Quidditch players.

"What's the hurry?" One asked me.

I screeched to a halt and looked at him – it was a painting of Roderick Plumpton in his prime (he was cute).

"Roderick, did you see Professor Ackerly come by this way today?" I asked him quickly.

He nodded. "He hurried off down that way," He pointed. "Muttering something about 'leaving before he's found out'. Wh.?" But I had already run off in the direction he'd pointed.

So, Professor Ackerly was trying to leave was he? Well, there was no way I'd let this sit. I'd stop him from leaving or die trying! There was no other option!

I burst through a door, and came out into the corridor that sits across the staircase in the Entrance Hall. I ran toward the staircase and, there, at the foot, was Professor Ackerly.

"ACKERLY!!" I shouted, drawing my wand as I ran.

He turned around, still looking beautiful as ever, but now I knew the truth about him.

He smirked. "I wondered when this day would come," He said, also drawing his wand in a swift, fluid movement.

"You set the Basalisk on all those muggle-borns!" I accused. My wand was trained on the former Professor. I was upstairs and he was down, and we were both staring at each other. "You let it kill someone!!"

"I don't deny that," Ackerly said carelessly. "But handing you over to my master will be a much more accomplishable feat, don't you agree, child of the light?"

I tensed. "What did you just call me?" I asked him.

Suddenly, his wand flicked, and I had the good intuition and sense to jump out of the way, as the silver and gold light came flying at me, the air around the spell became very hot, as it hit a stone wall.

I landed on the ground and raised my wand: "Stupefy!" I shouted.

The red spell was blocked easily by Ackerly, and a purple jet of fire came heading toward me.

"Protego!" I cried, raising my wand and blocking the attack just in time, as the purple fire flared out around my shield.

And Ackerly ascended the stairs faster than I'd ever seen anyone move, faster than any normal person can move, and he attacked me with the silver and gold light again.

I dodged out of the way, feeling the heat sear against the sleeve of my robe. As I stood up I asked: "What the hell is that?"

"Did you like it?" He asked, his face a mask of cruel enjoyment. "It's Flamma. It deals with heat rather than flames, and burns skin severely on contact." And he muttered the words, and I jumped to the side as the light streaked past me.

"Furnunculus!" I shouted, and Ackerly blocked the spell again, as I stepped back and he followed, both of us slashing with our wands, and none of the light able to make contact. I stepped back through an open doorway, and found myself in the tallest room in the whole castle – the one with all the moving staircases in it.

I jumped back onto a staircase, still slashing with my wand, and Ackerly followed me, as I stepped back, and then I noticed a platform that could easily be stepped onto, which I did, and then I sprung up, jumping and flipping up onto a staircase above my head, narrowly avoiding a nasty-looking dark blue jet of light.

"And where did you learn that?" It was amazing how Ackerly could sound so pleasant when he was clearly trying to injure me.

"Muggle gymnastics and callisthenics!" I replied, protecting myself from a beam of orange light as he hopped effortlessly onto a staircase that was moving closer toward mine. "Densuageo! You?"

"Special circumstances." He smirked, and aimed his Flamma spell at me.

I was getting really sick of it. I raised my own wand. "Flamma!" I shouted, and was delighted – and a little bit surprised – when silver and gold light streaked toward Ackerly, and burnt the side of his face.

He looked at me as I ran up to another landing, off the staircase I was on. The pleasant look was gone from his face. It was replaced by anger. "You dare use my own spell against me!? Crucio!"

I dodged that. "Stupefy!"

He dodged that, and aimed another spell at me, one I hadn't seen before because it was black, but I dodged it. Getting hit with it wouldn't be a good way to find out what it was.

I dodged behind a suit of armour as a red spell came flying at me, then moved up and yelled: "Furnunculus!"

Ackerly deflected it, and aimed a spell at me, but I used my wand to get the suit of armour to block it. I was fighting for my life – and possibly everyone else's lives too – and it was…fun.

Light streaked this way and that, never hitting intended victims, although a portrait of a blue-haired wizard was destroyed, and he ran for cover in a nearby painting.

"We got Lily back!" I said, as Ackerly and I climbed even further, heading toward the top of the castle. "Any minute now she'll be telling Madam Pomfrey it was you!"

"Don't you see, Pax?" He hissed, as I ducked from his Flamma spell. "That doesn't matter to me anymore! As soon as I can get you to the Dark Lord, then my mission will be over!"

"Not gonna happen!" I assured him, as he dodged a spell I directed at him. "Tell Voldemort that if you can!"

He snarled, and directed another Crucio at me. I Matrixed my way out of it, and twisted around, realising that we'd come to the very top of the room. Well, no matter. Ackerly's next curse missed me, and hit the door behind me, smashing it to bits and I backed through the opening, still dodging spells and occasionally deflecting them. I was frustrated that I couldn't seem to injure Ackerly, and we were in a corridor that I rarely go in. Windows lined the walls, large ones that were floor-to-ceiling, and I didn't want to think what would happen if I fell through one of them.

"Voldemort will never get his hands on me, for whatever reason he wants me so much!" 'Okay, that sounded weird…'. "Understand?"

"Crucio!"

I dodged it. I was getting tired – this was only my second real duel. It was…exhausting.

'I have…to find a way to get him to stop attacking me…' I realised, my heart was pounding, my breathing was becoming sharp. 'I know I'm not supposed to do this…but McGonagall's gonna do it in the future, so why not?' I pointed my wand at Ackerly and said, sharply: "Imperio!"

For a moment, I wondered if it had worked, but then Ackerly laughed mirthlessly, and I wondered why it hadn't.

I found out soon enough.

"You cannot cast the Imperius Curse in someone twice, foolish girl!" He spat, and directed a white curse at me, which I ducked.

"Crucio!"

I back-flipped – it was the only way I could get out of it. My bones and muscles that hadn't been used for this sort of thing since gymnastics screamed at me, but I landed safely on the ground, my wand hand raised and my left hand supporting me.

And, as I straightened up, and asked: "You're under the Imperius Cur-"

"Crucio!"

"Stupefy!" But that wasn't me – it was Sirius. He had burst through a secret door that wasn't really a door, to Ackerly's right, and the stunning curse hit him, knocking him back through a window, which shattered.

"No!!" I yelled and, dropping my wand, I ran, flinging myself onto my stomach and grabbing Ackerly's hand.

His body slammed against the wall, and he looked up at me, surprise in his eyes.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked me.

"Fight it," I groaned, because I'm not very strong and he was heavier than I was. "Fight the Imperius Curse…Professor, fight it!" I realised now how he had been able to run up the stairs so fast, and all those other things. Why his eyes had seemed so strange to me.

He looked up at me.

"Do it!" I shouted. "You are not Voldemort's puppet! Fight the Imperius Curse!"

His eyes seemed to change then, and he whispered: "I will."

But it didn't matter, because Ackerly's hand slipped from mine, and he fell.

"Nooooo!!!!" I don't know if that was his scream or mine. Perhaps it was both of us.

Remus was suddenly at my side, flinging himself onto his stomach and shouting: "ARESTO MOMENTUM!!"

Ackerly's body slowed, and then settled itself gently down onto the roof that was closest.

I was breathing heavily. I shimmied back from the window, and rolled over onto my back. "M-Moony…thank you…he was under the Imperius Curse…"

Remus suddenly appeared in my field of vision, leaning right over me. "I know," He said seriously, but his eyes were smouldering. "You wouldn't have tried to save him otherwise."

"You're right." I agreed.