AN: Please review! I want feedback before I leave, I'm going to try complete and publish two more chapters before Saturday, but if I don't get any responses I might not. Just tell me, did you love it? Hate it? Was there a discrepancy or inaccuracy? I want to know!
Moonlight filtered through the treetops and reflected against the dew on on the grass. The trio, Lily, Emmeline and Gideon, walked in silence through the forest. They had cast a silencing charm around them, but did not want to compromise the mission. The Order had been trying to track down a camp of Death Eaters that was rumored to be camping out in order to plan attacks uninterrupted. Their orders were to track them down, but not to make contact.
A twig snapping stilled the group, Emmeline shot out a hand out behind her to stop Lily, while the other extended a wand. The other two mimicked her action, spreading out, heads turning to assess the situation. No one seemed to appear and Lily took a deep breath, hoping that this would be routine. James worried over her constantly and the fact that she volunteered in place of Sirius was enough to give him a coronary.
"Disillusionment," Gideon whispered, the sound was barely more than a breath. The two of them understood and quickly cast the spell, their bodies seeming to blend in with the environment around them. The next move he made is a slight twitch of his head to the left. They all turn and into that direction and walk just as quietly.
Something felt off. Lily knew that the disillusionment charm won't be enough, as one can never become truly invisible. Alice talked about how stupid she was to wear perfume the day there were practicing it at the Auror Academy. As they walked forward something unsettled her, they took two steps, Lily looked down, the blue flannel is starting to show through. "Gid…" she hissed, and in an instant there's a bright flash and they are knocked off their feet. "Emmeline!" Lily shouted, by some miracle she did not lose her her wand, it was still tightly gripped in her hand.
"Shut it," the older witch hissed.
It was then they saw the robed figures emerge, sneers on their faces as the Order members came into view . "This is all they send?" one questioned, before any of them have the opportunity to retaliate with magic, the same wizard muttered a spell under his breath and in an instant. In that instant Lily felt as if there was an invisible rope tightening around her entire body. She fought to stay standing, but her legs gave out when the invisible robe seemed to yank tightly around.
"Oh, we're in for a treat. I've seen these two before." He gestured to Emmeline and Gideon. "But this one...I was beginning to think she was scared of us." The man crossed over and reached for Lily's arm, trying to pull her into standing position. "Married that Potter boy, didn't you? Couldn't wait to taint his blood line…"
She tried to turn away, but he grabbed her face with his hand, squeezed it tightly, to make her look him in the eye. In that second, Lily wanted nothing more than for him to release her...She wished that James... "No." The word came out without her even thinking, but she could do this without him.
"No, what my mud blood darling?"
A smirk crossed her lips as remembered the revulsion jinx. Clenching her eyes she concentrated...In a few mere seconds purple light was leaving her wand that was still in her grasp.
"Bloody hell!" The man let go as he stumbled away from her. Gideon shared a smirk with her and a few seconds of wandless magic later, all three were free from their bonds.
"Think you can trick us?" Another man said as the three scrambled to their feet.
"Impedimenta…" Emmeline murmured and the group was thrust backward that, though was not the end of it. Flashes of bright light left their wands, white hot pain searing across the body as they tried to cast a shield charm.
"Expelliarmis!" Lily shouted. Despite it being a simple spell, it was unexpected enough for them to be caught off guard. A few recovered quickly, lunging after Emmeline and Gideon, fire in their eyes. The man that grabbed her earlier stepped forward, muttering the disarming spell and Lily's wand fell to the ground.
"Want to fight like muggles? I can do that." The crossed the short distance they were apart and grabbed at her. She pushed back, clenching her hands into fists, aiming at his face. "Feisty." He then grabbed at her hair, stupidly braided. "Not so willful now."
She took a swing at his face, her hair being yanked hard and then freed a second later. He grimaced at her, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before lifting it up. Pain filled every inch of her body as she fell to the ground.
"Get up and fight or is it to difficult? Ready to admit defeat?"
"Never." Fighting through her pain, she managed to kick his shin as he walked over, this broke the spell and gave her enough time to get to her feet. "You fight dirty."
"Just like your blood sweetheart."
It was then he hit her, his fist impacting her face causing her to stumble backwards. Lily wondered how in the hell she got the only pure blood wizard in the Dark Lord's whole damn army that would be just as eager to use hand to hand combat as he would his magic.
"I should finish you off, but that would be such a waste."
Cradling her cheek,she stepped backwards, and her eyes scanned the forest floor. It was still dim, but the sky was getting lighter, the sun would be up soon or at least she hoped. "Accio wand…" it came to her quickly, hitting her palm so hard she was sure it was would leave a mark. "Let's have some fun." She smirked and extended her arm. "Stupefy…" She put all the energy she could into that spell, it was enough to subdue him. Looking up ,she saw Gideon and Emmeline as they struggled. "Petrificus Totalus." She watched the spell take effect before taking a second to compose herself and joining in the fight.
As they stumbled into the building, Gideon kept an arm firmly around Lily's waist. "James is going to kill me." With great concern he looked over Lily as they halted in the lobby. She already took inventory of the injuries: a wicked bruise on her jawline, dozens of scratches, bruises near her ribs, a rolled ankle, wrist that may or may not be sprained….All in all it's nothing bad, just about as bad as when they had the dinner with Petunia and Vernon. However, she seemed to get the brunt of it due to that brute of Death Eater that seemed all to eager for a fist fight.
"It comes with the job," Lily replied, forcing her voice into a casual tone. "Really, I can walk by myself."
"Your ankle."
"Fine, but I'm walking to my flat myself."
Gideon forced a smile as they boarded the lift. Once off, he stopped at his flat and watched as Lily limped to her door and swung it open. A slight wave of the hand is the only signal Gideon recieved before she disappeared. Once inside, she shouted, "James, I'm home."
"Lily, you were supposed to be here hours ago." Arms engulfed her tightly, one hand resting on the back of her neck, the other the small of her back.
"Please, let go," she said through clenched teeth.
"Merlin, sorry," he muttered. "I should have gone too, what happened?"
"I don't know, honestly, one second was routine and the next we ran into a group of Death Eaters. We weren't able to locate the camp, we were lucky to get out of there."
He managedt o smile at her, a hand going to her shoulder. "Come on, let's get you fixed up."
"I can do it myself."
"Let me, please." He leaned forward to place a kiss gently on her lips. Lily hooked a hand around his neck in order to reciprocate the action with more force.
"I'm going to take a shower, you can help after that."
"How about during?"
With a shake of the head she went to the bathroom, turned on the shower and stripped. She used this as an opportunity to more thoroughly examine her body in the mirror. One thing she refused to do was let James see the damage before she could assess all of it himself. As her hand lingered on the bruise atop her rib cage, she could almost see James' face. With a feather light touch he would rest one hand on her cheek, the other would form a fist as his jaw clenched tightly. She did not dawdle, instead scrubbed out quickly before she hopped out and hastily dried off.
"My clothes were dirty," she said when she saw James sitting on the bed with a first aid kit.
"Let me see." The words were soft, controlled, but he tensed when he three small bruises on her bicep from where the man gripped her shoulder to pull her up.
Lily dropped the towel and walked over to the dresser. "I'm fine," she assured him. "Really, I bruise easily." Withdrawing one of his oversized t-shirts, she turned around to see him a few centimeters away, arms open. "I'll get you wet."
"I don't care." He's more careful now. His arms wrapped around her before his lips press a kiss on the top of her head. "I hate this."
Lily silently wondered what exactly he's talking about, but stepped back and pulled the shirt over her head. It only hit about mid thigh and is so old that that neck that should cover her collarbone drooped down, nonetheless she considered it acceptable and sat at the foot of the bed. James knelt beside her and directed his attention immediately to her ankle. With great care he wrapped it up. He worked his way up her body, murmured spells where necessary, until he reached her face. His hand ghosted over the bruise before he grabbed the balm that he used quite frequently after Quidditch matches and rubbed it over her jawline.
"Thank you." She ran a hand through his hair, when he sat beside her on the bed. "I'm going to get dressed in some real clothes now that I'm all fixed up."
"Don't."
"James, don't be absurd, it's eleven, I'm not going to waste the whole day in bed."
He shrugged his shoulders and got up to exchange jeans for sweats before he sat on the bed and patted the area beside him. "I know you're going to work tomorrow, and I don't know the next time we're going to be able to do this."
So they do spend the day in bed together. Lily eventually fell asleep propped against James, still damp hair spilled across his shoulder. When she woke, he is asleep too and has thrown a blanket across their legs. It was a few minutes later when his eyelids flutter opened, and he looked at her with a lazy a half smile. "Good morning."
"It's afternoon."
"Shh…" he kissed her on the cheek and tightened his hold. "Imagine, some day we'll be able to do this, have normal jobs…"
Lily gave him a look and he ignored it. James brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her.
"Maybe not sleep this late, if we have kids it'll be difficult, but we'll manage."
"Kids? As in plural?"
"Yeah," James says. "Enough for a Quidditch team."
"I don't think so."
"Why not? You can go back to school, to some Healer Program somewhere out of England, because every self respecting person knows that St. Mungo's has a bunch of quacks working there."
Lily doesn't try to stop him, just interlaced her fingers with his as she lifted her head. "What will you do? Go back to school to be an Auror?"
"No." The word came out quickly as James shook his head. "After joining the Order I don't think I could that for a living. I would get burnt out in about five years, I mean look at Frank, I don't know when he sleeps, let alone eats or spends time with Alice."
"What about your dad? He's been an Auror for ages."
"Yeah, and I respect him for it, but I couldn't put you through everything my mum went through. And if we have kids, I want to make sure they have a father…." He paused, broke free from her grip and turned his body so he's directly facing her. "Maybe I'll be a stay at home dad. We don't need to work."
"No!" Lily objected before she placed her hands on flat on his chest. "I love you, but you'd get stir crazy and the kids…." She shook her head as she imagined James attempting to control seven children that were spitting images of him when he was younger.
"Well, I'd like being a teacher. I'm a genius at Transfigurations and Defense Against the Dark Arts…" Looking down at Lily he sees her face arranaged into an amused smirk, her eyes sparkling. "It's not stupid! I'm actually quite good at helping people, I was a damn good Head Boy!"
"You'll get a taste of your own medicine."
"I suppose you're right."
Begrudgingly Lily returned to work on Monday, and James went on an Order Mission. She told herself to ask perfectly normal, professional, around Adrian and not bring up what happened. It was none of his business and quite frankly it was odd that he followed her up. So, hanging up her coat, she schooled an expression of neutrality on her face as she went to sit behind the front desk. Immediately she set to work, organizing files, arranging everything for patient check-in's and intake.
"Feeling better?" Edith teased as she went behind the desk and took the chair beside Lily's.
"Yeah."
"Doesn't look like it, what happened?" She gestured to Lily's face where the bruise had not yet faded despite the best efforts of her and James.
"Hiking accident," she replied and was glad that she wore a long sleeve shirt under her scrubs, because the finger shaped bruises would certainly be questionable.
"Hiking?" Edith looked her over. "You hike?"
"My friends insisted I come." Lily shrugged and the phone rang. "I'll get that." As she grabbed the receiver she smiled at the nurse while she said, "Wakefield Emergency Medical Clinic, this is Lily, how may I help you?"
While the topic is easy to avoid with the others, one person not so convinced is Adrian. He didn't spot her until he stopped in for a cup of coffee in the staff room when she's on lunch. As Lily's eyes scanned an ancient looking text, she ripped off pieces of sandwich. "Hello." She lifts her eyes to look him over, when he does that he can fully see her face.
"Hi…" He poured a cup of coffee before taking a seat down across from her. "Lily, can we talk?"
"About what, doctor?" She shut the book and folded the sandwich wrapper before she tossed it into the garbage can a few metres away. "Did you get the new patient file?"
"Yes, but this isn't about work." He leaned forward slightly and took a deep breath. "You've been working here for about three weeks, I consider you a friend."
"Alright…"
"I understand that your personal life is yours, but I'm concerned for you."
She knitted her eyebrows in mock confusion as she clasped her hands on her lap, doing her best to appear open and truthful. "Why? Because I had one too many beers? Edith did too and what I-"
"What happened after I left?"
"It's not any of your business, but I helped Sirius into my apartment, made a pot of tea and sat up with him until James got home."
"Wait, Sirius?"
"Yes, he's my husband's best friend, practically his brother." She took a deep breath. "He got some bad news that night, there was a family emergency and he wanted to speak to James."
"Oh, so..." Adrian ran a hand through his hair. "You're bruises aren't from-"
"No! Hiking, I had a bit of a spill."
"Well, I just want you to know that I'm availble to talk any time." The look in his eyes told Lily that he didn't completely believe the story.
Lily watched as he left the room, then let out a breath of relief. She was going to have to be more careful. There was no way she could allow Adrian, or any of the other staff, to get involved in her life. It was too dangerous. She would quit her work here before any other muggles died because of her magic. Granted, he was not suspicous, did not think anything strange, but he was still much too observant.