Chapter 21-Tragedy is a Lurking Shadow
"Anyone notice the bulletin posted in the common room?" Leah asked.
"Hogsmeade weekend is tomorrow." She said slowly.
Nobody really said or did anything to show that they had acknowledged the note.
"Well I think we should all go. It's been several weeks since the last attack and everyone's still moping about. It's time we all moved on with life." Leah said.
Everyone looked at her in surprise. Our looks were even more surprised when Charlie nodded slowly in agreement.
"What do you think Lils? It would be nice to have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks. Don't you think?" James said.
I looked at everyone sitting around me. They seemed to be waiting on my response with baited breath.
"I think it's a good idea." I said.
There was a loud collective exhale.
"It's settled then. We'll all meet up in the Three Broomsticks at two." Sarah said nodding.
"Two? Do you have an early date with Johnny then?" Sirius teased.
"I wouldn't really call it a date. There will only be enough time for quick shag before he has to grade assignments." Sarah said.
Sirius made a disgusted face. Sarah smirked and turned back to her breakfast plate.
"You asked for that, you know? She's probably tired of you always giving her such a hard time about dating him." Tiffany said.
"You're supposed to be on my side!" Sirius cried indignantly.
Tiffany only shook her head muttering something along the lines of 'drama' and 'baby'.
I snorted into my orange juice and James grinned as we glanced at each other.
I was sitting in the library later that day when James came in.
"There you are. I was looking for you." James said sitting across the table from me. I put down one of the many books I had collected and stacked on the table to read.
"What are you"-
"Shhhh!" The librarian gave James a hard look before walking away.
"What are you working on?" James said, this time quieter than before.
"I've just been thinking a lot about something and I needed to get some answers." I said.
"Vague." He said.
"Well, it has to do with the attack on Easter." I said.
James looked worried.
"But, it's not about Harry's death." I said quickly.
James looked a little relieved, but he still had a concerned look on his face.
"What then?" He asked.
"It's just, I had a nightmare and it made me remember something." I said.
"What?" He asked.
"Well, what do you know about wandless magic?" I asked.
He looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Not too much to tell you the truth. I know that it's a pureblood trait. But not all purebloods can control it enough to wield it." He said.
"On the night of the attack, Chris had me up against a pillar and my wand was on the floor. I shouted 'impedimenta' and he flew backwards. James, the spell worked and I didn't have my wand." I said.
"But Lily, you're not"-
"I'm not a pure blood? Yes, I know. That's why I'm researching this." I said.
James looked like he was going to say something but instead he stood up.
"If it puts your mind at ease…" He finally said.
"It will, at least I hope it will." I said.
He nodded.
"I need to go meet Sirius." He said.
"Alright." I said picking my book back up.
I stayed in the library until it finally closed. I had a lot of information on wandless magic, but not how it was possible that I accomplished it. Sure, you can perform accidental magic if you are angry or scared, but to actually say a spell and have it work without a wand? It is something only very powerful pureblooded wizards and witches can accomplish and even then they must be well practiced at it. I've never done anything like that before. I ended up going to my room even more confused than I was when I began researching.
The next morning was the day of the Hogsmeade trip. I got up early and walked into James' room to see if he was up yet. When I opened the door I found James sprawled across the bed on his stomach, blankets in a massive tangle around his body. I laughed and walked toward the window to open the curtains. What I didn't plan on or see was the body lying just on the other side of James' bed, effectively blocking my path to the window. I ended up tripping and falling right on top of it while emitting a screech of surprise.
"Was sat?!" James mumbled as he sat up sleepily from the bed.
The body I just so happened to fall on was actually Sirius. He only groaned a bit before he started snuggling into me.
"Oy!" James yelled after he poked his head over the edge of the bed and saw my predicament.
James tried to jump up out of the bed but was restrained by his own blankets. Because he was so entangled, he ended up falling off of the bed right on top of Sirius and I. Sirius finally opened his eyes and looked around.
James started to thrash about, trying to free himself of blankets. Sirius didn't seem to mind all of the commotion and leaned his face into the crook of my neck mumbling incoherent words.
"Sirius!" I tried to push him off of me but he refused to even budge.
James had finally managed to disentangle himself and stood up throwing the blankets across the room.
"Padfoot!" James yelled.
Sirius slowly pulled away from me and turned into his pillow instead, freeing me from his hold. James walked over and held out a hand to pull me up.
"I tripped over him, didn't even know he was here." I said.
"He came last night bearing gifts, climbed in through the window." James said.
I looked around the room and saw Honeydukes candy wrappers littering the floor around Sirius.
"Have a little party?" I asked as I also noticed the empty Firewhiskey bottles.
James must have seen what I was looking at.
"Those are mainly Sirius'. You don't see me with a hangover now do you?" James said.
"So why did he drink so much? It's no wonder he didn't wake up when I fell on him." I asked.
James gave me a look that clearly said 'I'll tell you later'.
"I guess I'll get ready. Meet you downstairs in thirty minutes?" He said.
"Sure." I said and walked out of the room.
"So… What's going on with Sirius?" I asked James as we held hands and walked down the road leading to Hogsmeade.
"He talked to his brother last night." James said.
"He has a brother?" I asked surprised.
"Yes, he has a little brother in Slytherin. He's a third year." James said.
"You know that Sirius left home. This past summer, he bought his own flat with some money he inherited and he tried to get Regulus to leave home and move in with him." James said.
"I think Sirius has always had it in his mind that his brother would follow in his footsteps. As it turns out, his brother is following their father's orders instead. He's too afraid to be disowned. Sirius thinks that he's a deatheater too. Or at least, he is becoming one soon." James said.
"But he's only thirteen!" I said.
"I know. It really upsets Sirius. He feels responsible for him." James said.
"So last night he tried to talk his brother into renouncing the dark arts?" I asked.
"Yes, only his brother was being a right git and told Sirius to sod off. Regulus also told Sirius that he would be fulfilling their father' greatest wish soon and that if Sirius did too, he would be redeemed in the eyes of the Black's."
"That's terrible." I said.
James squeezed my hand.
"It's a very sensitive subject for Sirius." James said.
I nodded.
We spent the morning in Honeydukes and Zonkos. The owner of Zonkos took James and I into one of the back rooms to show us some new items that hadn't been put on the shelves yet. Apparently the Marauder's are very frequent customers. James and Mr. Zonko himself were on a first name basis, greeting each other like two old friends.
At two o'clock we were in the Three Broom Sticks. Everyone was there except for Peter, Sirius and Tiffany. Peter was at the castle, sick, and Sirius and Tiffany had both developed a habit of always being late.
"They probably lost track of time." Remus said.
"And I don't want to know what they are doing to make them forget." James said.
Everyone laughed. I was seated next to the window across from Sarah. She was busy looking through one of her bags of purchases for something to show Ashley and everyone else was talking so I stared out the window for a bit. Remus and James were discussing Quidditch and Leah and Charlie were having their own quiet conversation. Personally I think those two have been acting rather odd lately. They keep to each other a lot, even when we're all together.
I watched many students traverse past the window outside and then one particular student caught my eye.
"There's Sirius. But, I think there's something wrong." I said.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to look out of the window in the direction I was pointing. Sirius was walking after some other boy with the most furious expression on his face. A ways behind him was Tiffany, looking extremely worried.
"That's Regulus." Remus said suddenly.
"Do you think we should go out there James?"
James didn't respond. Regulus turned around with his wand pointed at Sirius and Sirius punched him. He then grabbed Regulus by the front of his robes and slammed him up against the side of Honeydukes store.
James was on his feet in an instant. Remus stood up too and they shared a look between themselves.
"We've got to stop him." James said.
Before James could take two steps toward the door it was banged open furiously, gathering the attention of most of the people inside. Tiffany stood in the doorway and searched the room with her eyes. When she saw us she hurried over.
"There's going to be an attack! We have to send word to Dumbledore! Everyone is in danger!" She said between breaths.
"What? Tiffany calm down, what's going on?" Ashley asked.
We were all on our feet at this point and surrounding Tiffany. The other people in the pub were looking around anxiously after hearing what Tiffany had said.
"There's going to be a deatheater attack!" Tiffany said.
The volume inside the pub increased considerably as people started to talk in panic.
Seconds later the streets were filled with deatheaters that had apparated into the main streets of the town. People started screaming and running around in a panic. It was chaos as tables and chairs were overturned by people trying to run away. The window I had been sitting next to was suddenly shattered and glass went everywhere. James grabbed me as soon as we heard it explode and he pulled me to the ground covering both of our heads from the broken pieces of glass that flew everywhere. I looked up to see that the rest of our friends were also ducked on the ground.
"One of us needs to go to the castle and warn Dumbledore!" Tiffany said.
"I'll go." Sarah said as she pulled out her wand.
"Apparate to the main gates and then run as fast as you can to the headmasters office. The password is fizzing whizbees." Remus said.
"I can't! Anti-apparation barriers are up! Nobody can apparate out!" Sarah said.
"Charlie! What about your ring? You have to go to Dumbledore!" I said.
"I'm not leaving you here!" He said.
"You're the only one who can get there in time! You have to go!" I said.
Charlie looked at me for a second before rounding on James.
"Look after her!" He said.
James nodded.
Charlie kissed Leah's hand he had been holding before letting go and using his ring to apparate straight into Dumbledore's office.
James turned to me.
"Lily, stay in here and take cover under some tables." He said.
"But I have to go out there! I'm head girl! It's my responsibility to protect the younger students!" I said.
"And it's my responsibility to protect you! Now stay in here, I have to go find Sirius! He's out in the middle of this!" James said.
"I'm coming too!" Tiffany said.
"No, James is right. You girls stay in here and don't let any deatheaters in. We'll tell the kids we find to come in here." Remus said.
James kissed me and ran out of the Three Broom Sticks, his wand out in front of him. Remus followed him out.
I looked at the girls.
"Ashley, you stay here." I said.
She nodded.
I held my wand up and looked at the other girls. They all nodded to me and I led them out of the pub. We were all immediately emerged in duels. Spells were being fired left and right. There was a loud booming sound and when I turned around to see what it was I saw a huge hole in the side of Honeydukes and parts of the brick wall now littered the street.
"Lily! Lily, watch out!" Someone screamed.
I turned back around just in time to dodge a spell that was aimed for me. I looked up from the ground and shot a spell, grinning in satisfaction as the deatheater fell to the ground stunned. I quickly got back up to my feet and ran to help Leah who had shouted the warning at me. We battled deatheaters back to back for what felt like hours but was really only minutes.
Leah suddenly shoved me aside and I hit the ground hard as a green spell flew overhead. I got up quickly as Leah took off on a chase after the deatheater she had been fighting. I couldn't let her go alone so I ran after her. I shot as many stunners as I could as I ran past deatheaters. I was briefly detained by another deatheater, but as soon as I managed to stun him I continued to head to the alley Leah had gone into. As soon as I got there, I realized immediately that I had walked in on something bad.
"Lily! Run!" Leah shouted.
She was on her knees being held by a deatheater. There was about a total of seven death eaters in the alley. Blood was coming from her mouth and tears from her eyes. One of the deatheaters kicked her in the stomach for calling out to me.
"Don't touch her!" I screamed.
One of the cloaked people turned around toward me. I gasped in surprise.
"Ah, Miss Evans I presume?" He asked with an aristocratic air.
I stared at his red eyes.
"We finally have the pleasure of meeting. You've managed to get in my way once again it seems." He said.
"Voldemort." I said.
"How dare you speak the dark lord's name!" One of the deatheaters shouted.
Voldemort glanced toward the deatheater who had kicked Leah.
"Miss Evans, are you afraid of me?" Voldemort asked.
"You're a bastard." I said, not answering his question.
Voldemort smirked.
"Such classic Gryffindor attitude, Dumbledore would be proud. Do you know what you have interrupted here today?" He asked.
"You see, today all of my new followers are privileged to prove their loyalty to me. Miss Black, step forward." Voldemort said.
"Yes my lord." A familiar voice said.
"Show Miss Evans what your Cruciatus curse feels like." Voldemort said.
"With pleasure." She said.
And that's when it clicked. That was the voice from the Easter ball. The girl who helped Jaromen, it was Bellatrix Black.
She started to raise her wand to fire a hex at me.
But I'll be damned if I die without a fight.
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted.
Bellatrix' wand flew into my hand as she was slammed into the deatheater standing behind her.
"Well done." Voldemort said give me an intrigued look.
I snapped Bellatrix' wand in half and threw it on the ground.
"And I had such hope for you Miss Black." Voldemort said looking back to Bellatrix.
"Miss Evans, it is foolish to fight against me. The power of Lord Voldemort…"
"Is nothing compared to Dumbledore!" I interrupted.
Voldemort glared.
"You shall pay for your insolence." Voldemort said.
Once again I experienced the pain of the Cruciatus curse.
I opened my eyes trying to blink away the tears that flowed from the pain. I slowly looked up to Voldemort.
"That's it?" I asked cheekily.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort shouted.
"No!" Leah screamed.
I rolled to the side just in time.
Voldemort turned to Leah.
"Release her." He said.
The deatheaters let her go and pushed her to the ground before Voldemort's feet.
"You shall pay for Miss Evans' defiance." He said.
He hit her with the Cruciatus curse as I tried to stun him. The deatheaters managed to disarm me, after I took out two of them and disarmed another. They held me at Voldemort's orders and made me watch as he tortured Leah. She didn't scream once. But I did.
"Let her go!" I screamed.
Voldemort turned to me.
"You're a powerful witch Miss Evans. It would be such a waste of talent to kill you now, especially when you could be most valuable to me." Voldemort said.
"You could be one of my most esteemed deatheaters one day. All you have to do is join me." Voldemort said.
"I will never join you!" I said.
"Very well then." Voldemort said.
Leah had long since been on the ground. She wasn't moving.
Voldemort turned his wand toward me.
"Dumbledore!" One of the deatheaters screamed.
Voldemort turned to Dumbledore.
"Always out to ruin my fun aren't you Albus."
"Leave Tom, or I will be forced to make you." Dumbledore said.
Voldemort glared before disapparating. His deatheaters followed.
Dumbledore walked toward Leah.
"Miss Evans, are you alright?" He asked.
I nodded, but I knew I didn't have the strength to stand up.
Dumbledore conjured two stretchers and levitated Leah and I onto each of them. The last thing I remember was hearing James' voice screaming.