Chapter Twenty-Two
"Come on, we've got to hurry. We're taking the bike."
Davie had certainly never seen a flying motorbike before, but she asked no questions as Sirius conjured a helmet for her and directed her to hop onto the back -- even through the helmet, the wind rushed in her ears as the shot above the clouds. Davie held tightly around his waist, the loose sleeves of his shirt on her small frame flapping in the wind.
They landed hard in a field of almost waist-high grass -- Davie could not tell where they were, but she saw a small town in the distance which seemed to be smouldering. The smoke reached her nose, and seemed to toggle a switch in her. She no longer looked bungling and disoriented, and, grabbing her wand from her back pocket, she looked at Sirius.
"The rest of the Order --"
"Should be here any moment," Sirius affirmed quietly, glancing around in the darkness. Sure enough, in moments a string of loud popping noises signified others arriving via Apparition. Lily, for one, looked quite recovered from earlier and shot Davie a brief, scrutinizing look when she noticed that the girl was wearing a large shirt that looked very much like the one that Sirius had worn to the party.
"Where's Dumbledore?" James asked, crossing his arms and looking around -- there were the Marauders, Lily, Davie, the Weasleys, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, the two McKinnons, Caradoc Dearborne, Benjy Fenwick, Frank and Alice, but McGonagall and Dumbledore were nowhere to be seen. They were seventeen strong in number.
"I don't think Professor Dumbledore can leave the school, even now, we're on our own," Lily pointed out, her forehead wrinkling in concern. "James, we can't wait around much longer --"
"This is the only clear path out of the town that I saw from the air," Davie spoke up, surprising everyone greatly; Davie had never been one to come up with plans, especially not when it came to situations like this. Davie had always been good at following; she followed her friends -- faithfully and courageously, without fail, but always followed. This coming from Davie, however, was something strange for them.
"I say we wait here for them to leave -- two or three stay out of the fray, start helping everyone in town," Davie said, glancing at Alice for support; she and Alice had attended Auror training together and seemed to be on the same train of thought.
"Right. Two or three go in and see what we're dealing with," Alice affirmed. "The rest of us wait here for the Death Eaters, they'll need a clear space to Apparate from. Peter, Molly, Marlene," Alice directed, pointing out the three of them. "Sneak around the perimeter. The rest of us will wait here."
Sirius Black looked at his girlfriend with a strange sort of admiration as the remaining Order members lined up in the tall grass, wands at the ready. For a good while, nothing seemed to be happening. Nothing seemed to be moving. Sirius had half the mind to walk over to Davie and ask her about how much she had really changed, when with a loud rushing sound, they all whirled to find a handful of dark-cloaked figures not approaching them head-on, but surrounding them completely. They were outnumbered -- nearly twenty Death Eaters if their count was correct. With the three they sent ahead into the town, there were only fourteen Order members left to face them.
"This is quaint," came the familiar voice from under one of the masks. "A bunch of schoolchildren sent to fight the forces of the Dark Lord --"
"This isn't school anymore -- Avery." James snarled suddenly, his grip on his wand tightening as he recognized the voice. "No one to take House Points if we happen to rip off any of your limbs --"
"He'll be lucky if it's just a limb," spoke a female voice -- everyone masked their surprise to find that of all the girls among them, the comment had come from Lily.
The onset of the fighting seemed almost instantaneous, quickly exploding into a cloud of light and smoke and hexes -- Sirius could not avoid his main concern from turning into Davie's safety.
A good five or ten minutes into the fighting, she and Alice were standing back to back, surrounded by three Death Eaters. Forgetting the task at hand, Sirius ran over, ready to attack them from behind Davie shot him a glance he knew how to read quite well - in what had to have only been a millisecond, she shared a glance with Alice, and the worry disappeared from their faces. Sirius froze momentarily, unheard by the attackers -- he felt his blood go cold when all three simultaneously yelled, "STUPEFY!"
Just as the spells left all of their wands, Davie and Alice disapparated with a loud 'crack' -- the spells collided in midair, blowing them all backwards with immense force just as both ladies reappeared next to Sirius. Davie left a peck on Sirius' cheek in passing, giving his arm a squeeze.
"Watch your back -- I rather enjoy the view," she smirked before rushing off to help the others. With the odds closer to even, the members of the Order began to slowly gain the upper hand -- the three that Alice and Davie had managed to injure had Disapparated to tend to themselves and their injuries, and slowly others were doing the same.
"I think we've got them!" James called loudly. However, just as he said it, there was a loud crack, and a burst of smoky red light which forced all of them to shield their eyes. When the dust settled and they were finally able to open their eyes, they found that all of the Death Eaters had dropped to their knees, bowing their heads. Now, standing in their midst was another cloaked figure that had just Apparated into their midst.
"My lord, we --"
"Silence."
The members of the Order the Phoenix glanced among one another in realization as the figured turned towards them, removing his hood and revealing his face -- they had never seen him before, but already they knew that this must be the man who called himself Lord Voldemort.
Was this a man? He was tall, with slightly thinning jet-black hair characteristic of a man in his middle ages. His cheekbones were chiseled and set high on his face in a way that may have once been handsome, had they not been set directly beneath deep, slit-like eyes that were an inhuman shade of red. His lips were almost non-existent and tight against his teeth, leaving his mouth in constant resemblance to a snarl.
They should have been fighting. They should have been hexing him to Kingdom-come by now, but they all felt cemented in place -- they were the younger members of the Order. Most of them hadn't even been out of Hogwarts more than a few months. Where was McGonagall? Where was Moody? Where was Dumbledore?
Voldemort circled the group, and laughed an eerie laugh that bore no semblance to humor or lightheartedness as his eyes scanned over all of them like a predator stalking his prey. "So this is Albus Dumbledore's vanguard," he hissed, baring his teeth in a terrible smile. "A handful of schoolchildren and their babysitters. Imperio."
He had calmly raised his hand, and everyone's eyes immediately began darting around, trying to pinpoint where the spell was aimed -- Sirius felt his stomach lurch as the spell hit Davie, whose eyes immediately appeared dazed and unfocused. She had been unable to fight it.
"Come to me."
The jerky motion of Davie's legs made it clear that she was trying to resist the curse as much as her will would allow, but in moments she was walking until she stood mere inches away from Voldemort, who eyed her with a cruel smile.
"I invited your mother and father to join me," he said, feigning pity for her, clucking his tongue and shaking his head. "Many a time, I did -- you look so like Celesta. Gifted witch. Your bloodline is as pure as snow. Shame. You would, I'm very sure, resemble her very much more, as a corpse -- perhaps we shall --"
"DON'T TOUCH HER!"
"STUPE--"
"Protego."
Sirius had been the first to speak up, but Lily, it turned out, would go one step further, raising her wand and beginning to shout a spell, which Voldemort countered as if it were nothing at all, knocking Lily off of her feet onto the ground.
"Lily Evans," he said with a snarl of a smile, and Lily's face showed extreme defiance at the recognition of her name as she rose shakily to her feet. "I have wanted very much to see you for myself -- Finite Incantatum."
Davie slumped to the ground tiredly as she was released from the Imperius Curse, and Sirius immediately ran to her, shaking her fervently until she stirred; Voldemort stalked toward Lily without hesitation, glaring down at her with a sort of vigor in his glance that could be nothing but unsettling.
"It's fascinating, how such extraordinary gifts appeared in such filthy blood, while your friend of proper lineage had to make due with second best -- a mistake of Fate, I expect." He reached a gnarled, pale hand out and took a hold of Lily's terrified face, her eyes glimmering slightly with unshed tears. "But no matter -- it is a mistake that is easily remedied --"
A loud bang erupted from somewhere below both of their faces, sending them both flying backward -- Lily's hand, it turned out, was still gripping her wand and she had cast a non-verbal spell. Voldemort stood, spitting on the ground in front of Lily and pointing his finger in her face -- and he started to laugh.
"Your defiance will cost you dearly -- how quickly, I wonder, can you reach the marsh?" he said, his grin manic, his eyes glowing evilly. He raised a hand to signal his remaining Death Eaters, and with a simultaneous crack, they all Disapparated.
It took Lily a brief moment to realize what had been said, but when she did, she immediately ran to Davie, immediately sobbing hysterically.
"The marsh! The marsh in Spinner's End, you've been there! Davie, my mum and dad --:
"Lily, come on, then!" Davie said, grabbing a hold of her friend's shoulders; Lily appeared to be frantic, looking as though she were trapped, hyperventilating. "We'll be fine, we can protect them if we go now --"
"They said they didn't want a Secret Keeper! I told them we could protect them! But Mum and Dad refused to have anyone put in danger for their sake, and I've --"
"Sirius, take Lily." Davie interrupted with an unfamiliar tone of authority in her voice, moving her friend sharply in the direction of her boyfriend - he seemed confused at the suggestion of being separated from Davie. "Take her on the bike, Sirius, she can't apparate when she's like this. James, we'll go first -- Remus, find Peter and bring him as well."
Davie gave one more nod, and she and James Disapparated. Sirius, meanwhile, gave Remus a nod before taking Lily by the arm and pulling her across the field to his flying motorbike. "C'mon. We need to go," he said gruffly, giving the bike a rev. "If Davie gets hurt --"
"Davie?!" Lily said, slinging her leg over the motorbike. "What about my parents --"
"Just come on!" Sirius barked, taking off of the ground. Lily was his friend, one of his best friends now, but in his mind, Davie was still more important than anyone. Lily, he would protect with his life, but the two most important people to him would always be James and Davie.
James, meanwhile, was the first to arrive at the marsh in Spinner's End, with Davie appearing less than two seconds later. They immediately broke into a run down the cobblestone streets which Davie had walked over many times during the summer she had spent with the Evans family. When they reached the home that belonged to Lily's family, however, the door had already been blown clean from its hinges -- a Dark Mark was already hovering over the home; noise was still emanating from inside, but a strange glow surrounding the house marked that it was hidden from the sight of surrounding Muggles in their homes.
Davie was the first to enter the doorway, and immediately, she saw a skinny, pointy-faced girl cowering on the ground, sobbing wildly while a cloaked figure had his wand pointed straight at her -- Petunia Evans already had a cut on her face, and had her hands up, shielding herself from whatever was coming --"
"CRUCI--"
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Davie yelled, hitting the wizard in the back - he fell forward and his wand skittered across the linoleum floor of the welcoming room; he hit his heads on the ground, appearing to be unconscious. Davie gestured fervently for Petunia to come away, and the girl obliged, though the expression on her face was not one of gratitude for the fact that Davie had just saved her life. In fact, she looked absolutely livid.
"MUM AND DAD!" Petunia sobbed wildly, jabbing a finger hard into Davie's shoulder. "It's too late and it's all your fault! If my sister wasn't one of you --if she wasn't like you or him --" she jabbed her finger accusingly in James' direction, but Davie grabbed Petunia's wrist and silenced her.
"What do you mean it's too late?" she asked in a low voice. "Where are your parents, Petunia --"
"They're gone! They killed them and they took them away--"
"You need to get out of here," Davie said, pushing Petunia hard towards the cleared doorjamb, not even allowing her to finish. "Go somewhere they won't think to look for you. Go to Vernon, go anywhere but just get out of this bloody house!"
Petunia's lip quivered in fear and sorrow and anger -- but she could find nothing else to say. She cast one last glare in the direction of James Potter and ran out of the house, her footsteps clinking down the street. James and Davie watched her go, but unfortunately, that meant they had turned their back on the lone attacker until they heard a spell cast.
"MOTOVERTIGO!"
Davie screamed as the spell hit her right in the center of her back -- she went flying upward, and hit the ceiling just as Sirius and Lily ran into the doorway -- James raised his wand to slow her fall, but she was already nearly unconscious before she hit the ground.
"Davie," Sirius said, feeling almost nauseous at the sight of the small girl, barely lucid on the ground. He eyed the attacker, and immediately felt his blood boil - his hand moved as though out of its volition, and he raised his wand, his teeth curled into a smile. This bigoted lemming who had to hide behind a mask would never take Davie from him. Never. Suddenly, as his mind reeled with everything he had been through with Davie, with anger at the nerve the hooded figure possessed at attempting to take her, his lips curled back in a snarl, and his hand gripped tightly around his wand. "Avada--"
"Expelliarmus!"
Davie had raised her wand and cast the spell in a frail but audible voice, disarming Sirius, and in the confusion, the Death Eater gave one last cackle before disappearing. Davie forced herself to sit up, despite a bleeding lip, and she cradled her arm lamely. She wasn't sure what in her body had broken, but it was surely there - her legs did not feel broken, but they ached, they were cut. That was all she knew. "If you became a killer for my sake, I don't think I could forgive myself --"
"Where are they?" Lily asked in a distant voice, her gaze flitting around the entire receiving room of her home where she'd been just earlier that evening; the Christmas decorations were in shambles, ornaments broken across the floor. "Mum?! Dad --"
"Lily, we came as quickly as we could," James said, grabbing Lily by her shoulders from behind. "But -- Petunia was the only one left her when we arrived, she said your parents were -- they were taken --"
"Taken!" Lily cried out frantically. "Then what are we still doing here? We need to find them! We need to --"
"They were already -- before they were taken, the Death Eaters already --" James began, though the truth was not easily told. "You saw the Dark Mark. Lily. It means they've killed --"
"NO!" Lily cried in a desperate sob, dropping to her knees on the ground, burying her head in her hands. Davie glanced at Sirius with a pained expression, giving his hand a squeeze before moving to kneel in front of her friend, wrapping her arms around her. Lily rested her head on Davie's shoulder, her tears now seeping into her shirt. Sirius' shirt. In the back of her mind, Lily remembered how she had been scandalized at the sight of it, had every intention of asking her why she was in such a state when she'd first arrived in the field with Sirius on the bike, but what did it matter now?
"Lily --" Davie said, tears streaming silently down her own cheeks as well, stinging the cuts on her face; she did not let it show in her voice. "I know. Lily, I know. It's alright -- you can cry," Davie continued, rubbing her friends back. "Just -- just cry, alright?"
"D'you think you're -- you're going to leave?" Sirius asked, brow furrowing and unsure of how to respond -- he remembered their sixth year, after Davie's parents had died, when he'd had to try and comfort Davie on the train. Davie was so much better at it, so much more compassionate.
Davie, however, could feel no pride in being better at anything -- the sorrow she felt was overwhelming as well. Everything about this was wrong -- Davie had felt her world collapse when she had lost her own parents, but at the same time, she had come to terms with it. She couldn't come to terms with what was happening to her best friend now. Lily Evans was perfect -- she was intelligent, and beautiful, and compassionate, and brave. She deserved the perfect life she'd had with her parents.
Lily's tears slowed when she heard Sirius ask her is she would leave the Order. Could she leave now, after what they'd done to her family?
"Never," Lily said in a strong, resolute voice. "I'll never leave."
At that moment, a tired-looking Remus came running through the door -- remarkably later than the others and very much alone.
"Sorry," he panted, shaking his head, resting his hands tiredly on his knees. "I was trying to come -- quickly as I could, but I couldn't find Wormtail, I'm worried he may have gotten scared and --"
"Couldn't find him," Sirius repeated gruffly -- James and Davie noted the different tone to his voice when he spoke to Remus. It was one of hesitation, of resentment. It was a tone of suspicion.
There was a stiff silence in the room, punctuated only by Lily's ragged breaths - suspicion had never come anywhere close to creating a rift between the Marauders. What was getting into all of them? It crossed all of their minds briefly that perhaps joining the Order had been a mistake. Davie glanced up at James, who received the hint to to take Lily into his own arms as she was still crying. Davie then stood up, approaching Sirius from behind and placing a hand gently on his forearm as he was still staring Remus down.
"Sirius, come on," she said, giving his coat a short tug. "We're all -- it's been a long night and we just need to cool our heads. Think things through --"
"What I'm thinking through is the fact that now you've had two Unforgivable Curses put on you since we've started dealing with these wizards, Davie. Two!" he said, wheeling around, holding up two fingers close to Davie's face as though she would be unable to understand the gravity of the situation otherwise. "Am I just supposed to sit and think while someone comes around to make it all three --"
"That's not important right now," Davie said calmly at the suggestion that she may be killed at some point, her gaze was slightly distant as she stared at Sirius. "Come on -- we'll go back to my house, all of us. At least if something happens there, no one outside of the Order will be hurt."
"That's alright with you?" James asked. Davie nodded without turning around. "I'll -- I'll take Lily upstairs to get some of her things, and we'll meet there --"
"Alright -- Sirius, I'll go with you on the bike,' Davie said, gripping his arm gently. "And Remus --"
"No pit stops this time, mate." Sirius said stiffly. "Let's go." He walked out the door, and Davie cast everyone apologetic glances as she followed Sirius out.
"Sirius," she said carefully, stopping him before they got onto the bike. "Why are you being like this --"
"What if Lily hadn't spoken up? If she hadn't distracted him?" Sirius asked throatily -- he didn't turn around to face Davie, but she saw his fist clench tightly. "He said he'd see you as a corpse -- if Lily hadn't spoken up --"
"This is my fault, isn't it?" Davie asked tearfully -- and suddenly, it sounded as if the months of training as an Auror in the harsh Bulgarian conditions had washed away. She sounded terrified and vulnerable and guilty and broken -- the way Sirius hated hearing her. That tone had been accompanied by tears many times. That tone reminded him of the days when she could not even admit that she loved him - days where she avoided him like the plague to avoid having to admit it to him. So much had changed, and yet the part of their relationship that had always made things hard seemed never to budge.
At first glance, anyone would think that between the two of them, Sirius was the wild one and needed Davie to keep him stable, that Davie was the constant that kept Sirius tethered to Earth. However, such was not the case -- Sirius, in all his hotheadedness and impulsiveness, committed to himself completely to everything he pursued or cared for. Davie was always intelligent, but flighty and indecisive -- she responded to things by running, by avoiding. Sirius was the one who kept her stable.
"It's my fault," she continued, now crying openly the way she hadn't been able to while still in front of Lily. "If Lily hadn't tried to protect me, if I hadn't let myself be controlled, this wouldn't have happened to her family --"
"Davie," Sirius said, wheeling around and taking her by the shoulders -- he looked strangely angry, instead of sad at the whole situation. "You matter to me. They all do, but if anything happened to you --"
"Nothing's happened to me, Sirius," Davie said, wiping at her eyes and wrapping her arms around him.
"Can't say the same for my shirt," he said with a weak laugh, rubbing Davie's back comfortingly. "We've been in the Order for a year now. Exactly a year -- and you've done a terrible job of keeping your promise."
"Promise?"
"A year ago today," Sirius said, stepping back as little as possible and holding Davie's wrist, relieved to see that the bracelet he had given her the previous Christmas was still there. "D'you remember promising not to get yourself blown up?"
"I'm not blown up --"
"Nearly --"
"Do we need to fight?" Davie asked tiredly. "I just -- I want to go."
Sirius gave a weak laugh, enjoying the brief glimpse at Davie actually being vulnerable. It was a rare sight, and he had expected it never to happen again after seeing her off to Bulgaria, yet here she was. "Alright. Let's -- let's go home then."
"Yeah," Davie nodded -- the pair got onto Sirius Black's flying motorcycle and heading back to the Maddux home.
***
A/N's
Well, that was a loaded chapter, wasn't it? Not every chapter is going to be this traumatic, but for a while, there will be a lot of action sort of fighting - I'm not the best at writing action scenes, which is why updates have been slower. I can never seem to write them to my liking.
Thank you to amrawo for your review, and to shewolf2118, Starlight Drama, and MissChristinaBlack for favoriting/subscribing!
Anyway, the next few chapters might be slightly slower to come, because it's where a lot of the bigger events are building up, and I'm really picky about how they sound. I'm really grateful you guys are sticking around and reading, even though my updates aren't as fast as usual. I'll try to be better about it, but I just want these chapters to be as good as I can possibly make them. It was so much easier to write a bunch of school kids! Tee-hee! Anyway, until my next update, cheers!