Chapter Sixteen – Up the Ladder
A palette of red and orange decorated the horizon, the sun hidden behind the mountainous island of Terceira. After two weeks at sea, it would have been nice to see land by the full light of day, but they'd already set sail for the Island of Prophecies. As soon as she'd woken up, Lily had run up to her favorite spot on the forecastle deck, only to watch the shadow of land disappear into the distance.
After getting the ship going, most of the crew had disappeared to the gun deck to get in a last minute nap. Sirius loitered in the crow's nest while James manned the helm, periodically adjusting the sails. If Lily had been a braver person, she might've kept him company. But her cheeks still heated when she thought about how he'd kissed her, and then rejected her—again.
There would be a better distraction soon enough if Sirius had done his calculations correctly, and if they'd read Bode's map as intended. She shivered in the cool morning breeze, and wrapped her arms around herself. If they'd got it wrong—well, if they'd got it wrong, they'd rethink. There was no point in wondering any longer whether they'd worked it out properly; they'd know for certain soon enough.
Being wrong would not be the end of the world, she told herself.
It didn't help.
She turned at the sound of someone climbing the staircase. Marlene trudged up, arms wrapped across her chest, her hair tucked into a simple braid.
"Couldn't sleep?" Lily asked as Marlene approached her.
"Too nervous. You?"
Lily nodded.
"Is it awful," Marlene said, "that I'm half hoping you were wrong and we don't have to deal with it yet?"
"No. Not at all."
"I reckon you'd like to be right, though, if only so you can get off the ship sooner."
Lily hummed noncommittally.
Even if they'd got it right, there would be another two weeks with the crew until Portugal.
Another two weeks with James.
Maybe she'd try and barter passage out of the Azores. Riding back with strangers would be less painful than the torment of having James so close but still out of reach, less agonizing than dealing with daily reminders of a world that she still wasn't really a part of.
Marlene toyed with the end of her braid. "Thanks, by the way. I didn't say it before, but thanks."
Lily smiled. "You're welcome."
"I was—that night, I wasn't thinking—"
"It's okay, Marlene. Really."
"Right. Good."
"I'm glad you're feeling better."
Marlene quirked her lips. "I still feel like shit. But at least I'm not—like I was. Thank Merlin."
"If you feel like you're slipping, come find me, all right? I'll have plenty of free time without the map."
"All right," Marlene said. "If you really want my company that badly."
"I really do. What, you think I want to spend the next two weeks watching Sirius trying to get his hair to fall just right?"
"Consider that my gift to you, then. More time with me, less with Sirius Black."
The promise of a brief breakfast eventually lured the rest of the crew up onto the main deck. No one spoke much, each too caught up in their own thoughts, and they emerged from the common room just in time to see another speck of land on the horizon.
Lily sprinted up to the forecastle deck again, beaming. When she'd convinced herself that it was real land and not an illusion, she let out a laugh of relief. Dorcas had followed Lily up the stairs, and she shared a grim smile with Lily before running off to help prepare for their arrival.
The sun had properly shown itself by the time the shape of the small island became clear, one short, verdant mountain rising up out of the sea. The wind had chased away the lingering morning clouds, leaving a brilliant blue sky overhead.
They pulled into a perfectly formed horseshoe bay with steep, jagged cliffs that came together to meet in a narrow strip of sandy beach.
The crew scrambled around, shouting instructions to each other and casting spells at the ship to keep it from moving any further into the bay. Lily was torn between watching the cacophony of spells behind her, the glorious sight of hard rock and grass around them, and the unfamiliar birds cawing overhead.
When the shouts of spells had dwindled, and the ship had stopped as near to the shore as they dared, she joined the others where they'd gathered around James on the main deck.
"Well, we made it," James said. Algernon stood at his feet, his head held high. "At least, we're pretty sure. But for now we're operating under the assumption that we didn't stumble across an island by pure accident, and that Lily and Sirius and Peter are bloody geniuses."
Sirius took a bow, and Remus accidentally-on-purpose bumped into him, so that Sirius stumbled. He stood back up and mock-glared at Remus.
"I know we've come a long way," James continued, "and that we're probably not all feeling our absolute best this morning. I know I've certainly felt better. But I ask that you use whatever strength you've got left for this one last push. Think of the journey home as our holiday, and all that stands between us and a more relaxing cruise is one lousy prophecy."
Dorcas smirked.
"Right." James gestured toward Caradoc. "Before we go ashore, Remus and Caradoc have developed a little something in their free time to help us with the mission. Gentlemen?"
Caradoc fished around and pulled something out of his pocket while Remus spoke.
"James requested that we work on a method of keeping in touch during the mission. We're going to be separated, potentially by quite a bit. Patronuses are best-suited for one-on-one, non-instantaneous communication, so we thought we should devise something more appropriate for this situation."
Caradoc walked around the circle and handed out something tiny and golden to each crew member. But when he got to Lily, he only offered a small smile, and moved on to Sirius at her side.
Disappointment was unwelcome and unnecessary, but it washed over her anyway.
Remus pulled back a short lock of hair, letting the sunlight catch on the gold stud decorating his earlobe. "Anything I say can be heard by anyone else wearing an earring, and everyone else can likewise hear me."
James inspected the earring and grinned. "I thought we were done playing pirates."
"I admit," Remus said, "the ruse was rather an inspiration."
"Fetch my hat, Algernon, would you?"
Algernon sent James a flat look, but darted off into the library all the same.
"Do we need to get our ears pierced?" Peter asked, looking a bit green.
Remus smiled. "It only stings for the brief moment until Marlene Heals you."
Peter nodded, biting his lip, while Caradoc held his wand up against Dorcas's earlobe. She barely twitched, and waved Marlene off when she took a step closer.
"See?" Remus said.
Dorcas cocked her head, listening, and slanted a smile at him. "Brilliant."
Sirius tossed his earring in the air and caught it one-handed. "Couldn't have invented this when we were at Hogwarts?"
"Yes," Remus mused, "how unfortunate we weren't able to use these for minor acts of theft and petty vandalism, and are instead reduced to utilizing them to help defeat You Know Who."
Lily folded her arms and watched everyone else experiment with their new jewelry. She'd sold off her last pair of earrings to get to Brest; and since James hadn't indicated that he'd changed his mind about her going ashore, apparently her ears would remain sadly unadorned for a while longer.
When Marlene had finished Healing Peter's ear—he kept rubbing it with one hand—James cleared his throat.
"If we're all connected," he said, "then there's not much more to say. I don't know what's ahead, but we'll get through it together—"
"Can we go yet?" Dorcas said.
James sighed, not seeming terribly annoyed. "Yes, Meadowes. To the rowboat."
He hung back while the others headed for the side of the ship, and beckoned Lily and Caradoc over.
"Under other circumstances," he said, "I'd love to take both of you with us. But we need someone to guard the ship, and Lily—well." He looked away, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sorry. But it makes the most sense for you to stay. Your cutlass is in the library. You know, in case you get bored and need to practice."
Lily watched her feet as she shifted her weight. Then she forced herself to look up and offer a thin smile. "Good luck."
"And you," James said, turning to Caradoc, "Mister Dearborn."
Caradoc smiled. "Captain Potter."
"I'd have been lost without you this year. I can't—I can't thank you enough for all you've done."
"I've enjoyed serving under all the Potters."
"Keep an eye on my ship, will you?"
Caradoc saluted. "Aye aye, Captain."
James firmly shook Caradoc's hand, a strange sort of look on his face.
"Oi, Prongs!" Sirius called from the rowboat. "You can snog Caradoc when we get back."
James flipped him a rude gesture and offered one last smile to Lily and Caradoc. "See you soon," he said, and headed to join the others.
Once more Lily stood idly by while everyone else fulfilled some purpose. The others were off to find a prophecy, and Caradoc was guarding the ship, and Lily was just there, watching Caradoc lower the rowboat into the bay.
She'd said farewell to James—in a way, just in case—but the others…if something did happen….
She ran over to the edge to wave frantically at them as they dropped away from her. Marlene waved back, Dorcas rolled her eyes, and Sirius blew her a kiss. Lily laughed, and blew one back at him.
A door snicked open, and Lily whirled to face the sterncastle, hand reaching for her wand. But it was just Algernon, walking backwards and dragging James's pirate hat by the mouth.
"Oh, Algernon," Lily said, her voice nearly breaking. She hurried over, sank to her knees, and eased the hat out of his mouth. "They've already left."
Algernon stared up at her for half a moment before rushing to the edge of the ship, but the rowboat had already landed in the clear waters below them. He meowed loudly, and Lily thought she heard something like a shout up from James, the words indistinguishable.
She donned the pirate hat and scooped Algernon up into her arms. "He'll be back," she said quietly, and scratched his ears while she watched the rowboat glide toward the beach.
Caradoc came over to join her, listening intently. If he could hear everything they said…well, they weren't exactly a subdued group.
Lily studied the beach in the distance. The cliff was least steep there, surmountable, although not an easy walk.
Caradoc pulled out a small telescope from his pocket and held it up in front of one eye. "There's a ladder tall enough to get you to the grassier part above that bit of cliff at the bottom." He paused, listening. "I can't really see much beyond the ladder. There might be a path. It's hard to tell from here." His mouth curved up at one end.
"What are they saying?" Lily asked.
But he shook his head slightly, not wanting to repeat whatever he'd heard.
She held Algernon a bit closer. It was one thing to be left on the ship, but it was another to be left out of the conversation entirely. Of course, if they'd bought the earrings in Portugal, they wouldn't have thought they'd need an extra for her.
The boat slid onto the beach, hauled up by what looked like Dorcas and Sirius. Lily caught Caradoc making an amused face next to her as the crew paraded across the beach and over to the ladder, where they began filing up.
Caradoc wordlessly offered Lily his telescope, but she declined; Algernon sat tense in her arms, eyes fixed on the land ahead of them, and she wouldn't force him to bear this alone.
"There's a path," Caradoc murmured to Lily, and she nodded in thanks.
The crew followed the winding trail up the cliff, curving back and forth in a single file line. Based on height, James led the way, with Sirius at his back and Remus bringing up the rear.
"No." Caradoc readjusted his telescope. "I can't see where it goes at all."
Lily glanced behind them to check the horizon, but it remained clear. At least if the Death Eaters wanted to find the island, they'd have to duplicate Sirius's route. They couldn't sneak up from another side of the island, unless they'd got there first. And maybe they were hiding out on the other side of the island somewhere, but it didn't change what Lily could do about it, which was nothing.
The crew had reached the top of the hill. Someone flung an arm in the air and waved—it looked like Marlene—and Lily smiled. Caradoc waved back, and the crew disappeared over the hill one by one.
"There's a cave entrance," Caradoc said quietly, this time to Lily. "Just down the path."
"Promising," she said.
It made sense, of course. The Ministry wouldn't have left prophecies out in the element, especially if, like Lily suspected, they were stored on paper.
She looked backwards once again. Still clear. Algernon fidgeted when she turned, unwilling to look away for even a moment from where James had gone.
"He's going underground," she told him. "You're definitely not going to see him from here."
But Algernon growled, and she stood still.
"Wait," Caradoc said quickly. "I lost James."
Her head snapped to face him. "What?"
He wasn't talking to her, though. "Sirius, did James go into the cave?" He listened closely for a minute. "Yes, now I can hear you. Try—yes."
Lily's arms closed in tighter around Algernon, but he didn't seem to mind.
"You'll have to go on," Caradoc said. "I'm not going to be able to help anymore anyway."
She scowled, but said nothing.
"Good luck," he told them, smiling faintly. Then he turned to Lily. "The cave interferes with the earring spell. They can hear each other but not me, and I can't hear them."
"We're cut off," Lily said, dread pooling in her stomach.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault – you had no idea what would happen." She forced a reassuring smile. "The earrings are brilliant, and if they can use them in the cave, then that's still worth something. A lot, actually."
Caradoc nodded, and turned toward the horizon behind them, crossing his arms.
Yet again, there was nothing she could to help the situation. She was just there.
But so was Caradoc, in a way.
"D'you mind being left behind on the ship?" she asked.
"Someone has to stay behind, and I'm happy to do it – I'm not the best dueler anyway."
"You're a far sight better than me, I'm sure."
"That's not a fair comparison. I got in all my years at Hogwarts."
Lily compressed her lips. "I still wish I could help more."
"You helped us get here. Don't forget that. Besides, you're keeping me company."
"And watching for Death Eaters."
Caradoc hummed and crossed the ship to stand on the other side, facing out toward the sea. Lily followed him, still carrying Algernon, who made a tiny roar of protest.
"It's fine," Lily said soothingly, and stroked Algernon's head. "We're playing look-out. Meow if you see anything, all right?"
Algernon grumbled and flicked the end of his tail where it hung over her arm.
Of course, Algernon didn't see the ship first. Caradoc did, his eye to the telescope, several minutes later.
"They're here," he said quietly.
"We knew they might," Lily said, "but I'd hoped…."
Somehow the Death Eaters had found them. It seemed surreal that they could be here, too. She and the others had only just found out about the island, and there was no chance that the Death Eaters had coincidentally solved it at the exact same time.
"There are loads of ways of tracking people and things," Caradoc said.
"I imagine so," she said in a hollow voice.
But he was clearly wondering the same thing she was, whether someone in the Order had told. Had been complicit, somehow. Had been convinced, threatened, or worse, had volunteered.
Regardless of how it had happened, though, the Death Eaters were there, and they needed to be dealt with.
"We've got to warn the others," Lily said.
"Patronuses don't work across large stretches of water. The earring was our only connection."
No one had explained what a Patronus was, but it didn't matter if they weren't viable.
"Then one of us needs to go warn them," she said. "I'll do it."
"Lily."
"We can't let them get surprised by an attack, and you can protect the ship better than I can. Why James thought one person—or one person and one effective Squib—would be enough to defend a ship…."
He gave her a smile that verged on sad; resigned, even.
Lily nearly dropped Algernon. "You're not supposed to protect the ship," she said slowly, "are you? You're just the canary in the coalmine."
Caradoc gave her a plaintive look. "We didn't know if they'd beat us here. There was always a risk of them following instead of them beating us here, but since we didn't know, it seemed safer for you to be on board. But now we know. I agree you should leave."
"What about you? What are you supposed to do?"
"James assessed the skills of his crew. I know what the mission priority is, and I'll do what I can to make sure he and the others have the best shot at destroying the prophecy—"
"Not taking the prophecy? Surely we want to know what it is."
"There's no point trying. The only people who can hear the prophecy are the people the prophecy's about – if you even touch a prophecy that's not about you, you go mad."
"This isn't even information gathering?" Lily said, her voice growing louder. Algernon squirmed in her arms. "It's just destruction? All over some bloody prophecy we're not even sure is going to come true?"
"I used to feel that way about them, too. But they do come true, one way or another."
"Caradoc," she pleaded, and she let Algernon hop onto the floor.
"You're best off hiding somewhere on the island – maybe in the caves. You should go before they get close enough to see you."
"What are you supposed to do?"
"The ship has defenses," he said simply. "They're only active in the presence of one of the original spellcasters, though. I cast them with Dorcas and James months ago."
"How strong are these defenses, exactly?"
"Oh, it depends on who's trying to break them. I wouldn't be able to do it, but that's also not my strong suit. But don't worry. I'll do my best to make sure you have a way home."
She raked her eyes over him, in case this was the last—
He had more than half a foot on her, but he'd never once loomed over her. He'd never been anything but genuine, and kind-hearted, and now she might never—
She flung her arms around his broad shoulders, hopping up on her toes to reach. He hugged her back, and although his eyes were calm, he clung back fiercely.
"Take my earring." He stepped back and reached up to his ear. "You'll get more out of it than I will. Oh, and your cutlass."
He pressed his earring into her palm and stepped into the library.
"Well, then." Lily crouched down to look at Algernon, and he stared up at her, his face serious. "You're in charge of protecting Caradoc, all right? And don't either of you die. Not under any circumstances."
She reached out and ran her hand over his head one more time, and he purred loudly, happily pressing his ears against her palm.
Caradoc returned, sword in hand, and offered it to Lily. She pressed the stud into her ear and strapped the cutlass to her side.
"I'll see you in a bit, then," she said, a few tears blurring her vision.
"See you in a bit," he said, smiling. He was always smiling.
Lily looked at him one more time, his dark hair a stark contrast to the vivid green and blue behind him, and spun around before she lost the nerve to leave him.
He lowered her to the bay in another rowboat, and she set off at once. She hadn't used her arm muscles in months, though. They ached within minutes, but soon enough she slipped off her boots, hopped out of the boat, and pulled it ashore.
Boots back in place, she wobbled her way across the beach—adjusting to land was hard enough on its own, much less on loosely packed sand—and over to the ladder. The Ministry staff had built it out of driftwood, now wind-worn and wrapped in dried seaweed around the bottom. She hauled herself up the ladder and along the path. Grass and flowers nearly obscured the trail, but the packed mud and rock held beneath her feet, leading her up the cliff.
She paused at the top, breathing heavily, and turned back to the bay. The ocean glittered before her, James's ship a dull shade of brown amidst a tableau of color.
It wasn't the last time she'd see it, she told herself. She wouldn't let it be.
She waved at the ship one more time in case Caradoc was watching, and headed down the hill.
Someone had thoughtfully built a steep staircase down into the cave, the opening into the ground ringed with plantlife straining upwards. Lily pulled her wand out of her pocket, cast Lumos, and took a deep breath. The sun and the wonderful sight of plants practically demanded that she stay above ground and savor them, but there was nothing to do but go, and so she stepped away from the beautiful island into a gloomy, dank cave.
Sunlight quickly gave way to darkness, her footsteps quietly echoing off the stone walls. Water dripped quietly in the distance, and she suppressed a shudder at a nearby flutter of wings.
Petunia had been afraid of the dark growing up, but not Lily. Her mum had told her that pirates couldn't be scared of the dark because they so often had to work in it, and since Lily had fancied herself a proper pirate at the age of five, she'd simply pretended that she was about to stumble onto buried treasure.
That was almost true now, only she wouldn't walk away with anything except hopefully her own life, and those of the rest of the crew.
The light from her wand guided her down and down, the air growing chill around her, a wet, clinging cold that seeped through her clothes. She stumbled, stepping down too hard on the next step—no, there was no next step. The stairs had given way to an uneven path.
She walked on, the caves now oppressively silent.
Her fingers smoothed over her pendant. She'd have to ask Remus to teach her a spell to keep the pendant in sterling condition, but that would have to be later, after they'd all got out of this endless cave.
Faltering through the tunnel would have been less eerie if she'd had the comfort the others had had, the voices and footfalls of other people to repel the darkness.
She wished, suddenly, desperately, that she'd thought to bring Algernon with. Caradoc might have been stubbornly attached to the ship, but Algernon might've come with her. Except Caradoc would need the company more than she did, really.
She walked on and on, past the occasional small tunnel leading off to the side, but she didn't take them. The others might have turned at some point, but the largest tunnel disappeared straight ahead, and it seemed the most obvious path. Hopefully the Ministry had hidden the island but not the prophecies themselves.
And then she thought she was fooling herself that it looked a little lighter ahead, dark grey instead of pitch black, but she hurried ahead anyway, her toes whacking into rocks.
As she grew closer, she smiled. Faint light poured into the tunnel from the right up ahead, and she ran the last few steps to the edge of an opening.
She cautiously stepped into a cavernous chamber and flicked her eyes around, searching for the crew. The walls of the cave stretched up overhead, arching over endless rows of wooden shelves stretching out away from her. The candleholders bracketed to the end of each shelf held normal-looking candles, but the steady flames burned blue, just bright enough to illuminate a number painted below each candle.
"Bertie Botts?" came Sirius's voice.
Lily spun around, but saw no one.
"What, really?" James said. "I mean, Sirius."
The voices coming from the earring were disconcertingly clear, and close, as though James and Sirius stood only a couple feet away from her.
"D'you imagine his empire was foretold?" Sirius asked. "And, more importantly, did he know about it?"
"Imagine the pressure one would feel," Remus said thoughtfully, "knowing one was destined for sugary greatness. The stress of creating salivating treats."
Lily muffled her laugh with her hand.
"I'm trying to focus," Dorcas said.
"Hang on, was that you, Marlene?" Remus said.
Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "It certainly wasn't Meadowes."
"It's me," Lily said, a few tears springing embarrassingly to her eyes. "Smith."
"Lily."
Her name alone was sufficient to identify James's voice: exasperated, disappointed, and, perhaps she was imagining it, secretly a little pleased.
"I told you, Prongs—"
"The Death Eaters are coming," she said over Sirius. "I had to warn you, and Caradoc agreed I should go."
"He was right," James said. "Constant vigilance, everyone. Really, this time. And, Lily, can you go hide in one of those other tunnels from where we came in?"
"I'd be a sitting duck. I'm safer with you lot."
"Are you at the entrance?" Remus asked. "I'm happy to accept some assistance. Come find me in row eighty-five."
James's sigh carried over the earring perfectly well. "Back to work, everyone."
Lily tried not to let it hurt that James wanted her to hide instead of help. She'd brought her wand and cutlass, true, but if these Death Eaters were as ruthless as the one that had attacked Lily—
She swallowed hard and strode down the cavern, looking for number eighty-five.
As she sped past the rows she caught glimpses of what they stored: each shelf housed dozens of dusty glass orbs that could easily fit in her palm. Not stored on paper, then.
She ducked into row eighty-five and spotted Remus halfway down, crouching to look at the prophecies on the bottom shelf, his wand held up as a light.
"Nice hat," he said.
"Thanks." She squatted down next to him. "What're we looking for, exactly?"
"The prophecy label should mention You Know Who or The Dark Lord." He spoke quickly, and softly. "We're attempting not to talk too much, but some of us find this an unprecedented challenge."
Someone that sounded an awful lot like Sirius scoffed over the earring, and Remus and Lily shared a smile.
She turned to the shelf, wand held aloft, and read. Each prophecy had a yellowing slip of parchment attached to the shelf underneath it that displayed a string of letters, or sometimes a name or event, in spidery writing.
There was no fluttering or dripping here; only the shuffle of their feet, the hushed noises of breathing, and the occasional location update from someone over the earring. And yet Lily strained her ears, dreading the echo of unfamiliar footsteps creeping up on them, as her eyes skimmed over shelf after shelf of prophecies.
The individual labels began to blur together, letters and dates and notes all mashed up together in her head, her mind hovering above, trying not to get lost in the details of the prophecies.
She and Remus moved down each row with as much haste as they dared. When they finished a row, Remus quietly announced the row they moved into. By the sound of the others' reports, they'd spaced themselves out fairly evenly and were all moving in the same direction.
The Death Eater ship would have made it to the bay ages ago by now. Caradoc might have defended himself and the ship, or he might have—
Lily wrenched her thoughts back to the prophecy labels, and reread the one she'd skipped over.
She could do nothing for Caradoc now, except help make this mission worth it—
Someone moved.
Someone close.
Lily and Remus both spun to face the end of the row. A masked person leapt out from behind the shelves, wand raised and mouth casting a curse—
Remus's shield snapped up into place around the two of them, and the bolt of blue light dissipated into the shield, which briefly warped around the impact.
"I take it they've joined us," James said.
Their attacker had donned a long, hooded black robe and a bone-white mask with slits cut over the eyes. The Death Eater fired off another curse, and Remus twitched his arm, his shield unwavering.
"An accurate assessment," Remus said tersely. "Lily, I can't hold this, you've got to—"
Another spell slammed into the shield, and though the jet of light vanished, so did the shield.
"Get out of here, Lily." Remus shook his wand hand in pain, grunting a bit.
Lily raised her wand higher. The Death Eater had already fired off another curse while Remus's shield fell, this one headed her way, and Lily shouted, "Protego!"
She could feel the strength of her shield through her wand, but whatever the Death Eater had cast shattered it instantly, and Lily stumbled back a step.
"I'm not leaving," she said.
Remus glimpsed back at her, looking more concerned than annoyed. He turned away in time to face a handful of fist-sized blades of light that the Death Eater had flung at him. He Conjured a wooden shield and winced as the blades sunk into it. He'd caught most of them, but one blade flew past him and toward Lily, who darted to the side to avoid it.
The Death Eater paused in his attack to erect a shimmering wall of light along both shelves, and Remus took advantage. A net of rope sprung from his wand, stretched itself wide, and hurtled toward the Death Eater. The Death Eater slashed his wand as it neared him. The net split in two, the pieces grazing by his side as they flew past him. A piece of the net caught on his hand, and he shook it off while erecting a shield with his wand hand. Remus's next spell, a muted yellow one, bounced off the shield, flew toward the shelves, and then bounced again off the shimmering wall, flying up over the shelves to disappear into darkness.
Spell after spell crackled through the air as Remus and the Death Eater volleyed back and forth more quickly than Lily could properly follow. Remus's wand moved with restraint and elegance, while the Death Eater's seemed jagged, his movements sharp and hasty.
Lily stepped back to give herself more space for any stray spells, and, she told herself, to better listen for any attackers that might come from the other direction. She kept an eye on Remus and the empty end of the row, dropping to the ground when another stray spell bounced off the shimmering wall of light, her palms scraping against the rocky floor.
"Protego!" came Peter's trembling voice.
Lily silently wished him luck – she couldn't speak without distracting the others.
A sizzling black spell ripped through another of Remus's shields, and Remus ducked, but not quickly enough. The spell tore along his left shoulder, leaving a bloody trail in its wake. Lily's mouth made a strange half-noise, and her fists clenched around her useless weapons. Remus curled in on himself, gasping in pain, and then fired off a spell of his own, one that struck low, glancing along the Death Eater's leg. The Death Eater staggered, and then righted himself.
"Death Eater joining me in row one-seventeen," Marlene said over the earring. "Impedimenta!"
Peter's and Marlene's voices called out Latin words and phrases that Lily was nowhere close to understanding, but their tone she could read well enough: determination with a vein of fear running through it.
Remus's next spell seemed to go awry – it bounced off a shimmering wall with a wide enough angle that it bypassed the Death Eater entirely, landing on the floor behind him. The Death Eater waved his wand in a huge arc that sent a noxious-looking arc of liquid at Remus, who heaved his wand upward, pulling up with it a wall of thin, black fire that consumed the liquid with a loud hiss.
Remus had barely let the fire vanish before he bellowed, "Serpensortia!"
A five-foot long, ebony snake erupted from the end of his wand and launched itself toward the Death Eater, who yelped and took a step back with his good leg.
And suddenly the Death Eater was tipping backward, his arms flailing as his leg slid out from under him—
Ice. Remus had cast a patch of ice on the ground behind the Death Eater.
The Death Eater's wand flew free of his hand to cartwheel in the air, and it clattered to the floor while he landed on his back with a thud.
Immediately he began to scramble to his feet, but Remus's Stupefy came swiftly, and perfectly, and the Death Eater dropped back into a motionless mound on the cave floor.
The shimmering walls around the shelves disappeared into an acrid-smelling smoke.
"Reducto!" shouted Marlene.
Sirius had been found, too, and laughed tauntingly in between spells.
Lily forced herself to focus on their own attacker, and guarded Remus's back while they approached the Death Eater.
"What do we do?" she asked.
Remus did not look at her, his attention fixed on the prone Death Eater. "We can't leave him." He raised his wand.
Lily did not know if he was going to—she dared not ask—and her eyes flicked around. "Can't we—I dunno—knock him out permanently? Or disable him?"
"Lily," Remus said, deathly firm.
She looked at his shoulder, where blood stained his white shirt.
"It's all right," he said, following her gaze. "I'm plenty scarred already."
She turned back to the Death Eater, his mask blue in the candlelight. "The prophecies," she said in a low voice. "Have him take a prophecy."
Remus glanced at the row behind them, and then back at the Death Eater. "Is that any better?" he asked, over Peter's shouted, panicked spellcasting.
"I really don't know."
Remus only deliberated for a moment before nodding, and Lily dragged the Death Eater by the arms over to the nearest shelf. Remus bent down, gently removed the Death Eater's mask with his good arm, and set it aside. Then he pulled up the Death Eater's arm below the wrist, held it over a prophecy on the bottom shelf, and let go.
The Death Eater's hand dropped down, knocking the prophecy sphere off of its stand. The orb rolled away, off the shelf and onto the cave floor, where a divot in the rock caught it.
"Did it work?" Lily asked.
"I don't know," Remus said, looking haunted. "But we've got to keep searching."
Over the earring came a steady stream of shouts, and gasps, and spells. From the sound of it, only James and Dorcas hadn't been discovered yet.
And then Dorcas chuckled darkly. "Hello," she said, and she began to cast in earnest, barking out spells the way she doled out chores on board.
"Carrows the elder has been dispatched," Remus said to the group. "On the ground outside row ninety-three."
"Good riddance," Marlene said. "Stupefy!"
"Help," Peter pleaded. "Row fifty-six."
"On my way," James called.
Lily and Remus stepped into a new row to search for the prophecy once more, and she let the abbreviations and the words on the labels fill up her mind. She did not think of the bloody drying on Remus's shirt. She did not think of the soft thud of the prophecy rolling off the shelf and onto stone. She did not think of Marlene's voice growing tired.
There was only shelf after shelf of labels to examine, and glances to check for more Death Eaters.
They moved to another row, and then another, battles raging in their ears.
"Oh, shit."
Remus's head snapped up.
"Shit," Marlene grunted again, and then she groaned. "Shit shit shit," she said, now breathing more heavily, as though running.
"Marlene?" James asked.
"May have, er," she said, panting, "lost my wand—gah!—in one-fifteen."
"I'm in fifty-two – can you make it?"
"We're in ninety-seven," Remus said quickly.
"I'm bringing company!" Marlene said.
Lily stood with her wand raised, waiting, while Remus kept searching, frantically scanning rows.
"You Know Who," Remus breathed, and Lily whirled to face him. He was bent over, fingers swiping dust off the parchment—
Marlene came bolting around the corner, arms pumping frantically, and Lily could hear another set of footsteps closing in on them.
Remus had to finish what he was doing, leaving Lily to defend the three of them, and she couldn't—
"Catch!" Lily shouted, and she tossed her wand toward Marlene.
Marlene was nearly to her now, and she stretched out her arm, palm open, and—
She missed.
The wand soared past her hand and clattered onto the stone floor. Marlene dropped to pick it up, and in that moment, another Death Eater skidded to a halt at the end of the row.
It was the woman who'd attacked Lily on James's ship, sans the robe and mask the others wore.
The woman raised a wand, and Marlene was just standing up again, and Remus was behind Lily saying, "I'm destroying it," and the Death Eater's bright red spell came hurtling toward Remus, right over Marlene's braided hair—
Lily watched, as though at a great distance, as the spell traveled toward them, her mind intuiting what would occur next.
Remus had to break the prophecy. He needed only a second more to do so, a second he would lose, perhaps forever, if that spell hit him.
Marlene could not stop it.
The cutlass could not stop it.
And so Lily took one step to the right.
Red light slammed into her chest, her body jolting back. And as her mind dimmed, her thoughts slipping away from her, her mouth curved into a smile at the delicate sound of splintering glass.