A/N: I am back! I will let you all get back to the story.

Summary: James is imprisoned. One week ago, Bellatrix is seen torturing McGonagall. Lily asks Snape for help in saving James, Snape accepts.

And Please Review guys, it means very much to me.

Chapter 2: Bravado Sets Ball Rolling

'Crucio!'

The pain came in waves, Minerva felt like her body was being pricked at a thousand places, and her organs were being twisted. She forgot she was alive, she could swear she felt her life leave through her heart.

She was another person without a body and she hung carelessly over a woman, who looked much like she did if you cared enough to cover her with skin, and she was writhing, her hands were clutching and releasing an invisible object and her knees were bent at odd angles. She pitied the woman who looked in such pain that her body started drawing comfort in the pain and then for one mind-numbing moment, everything was still. She lay slumped by the wall. She looked like a lump of flesh, her spectacles were askew and her body twisted like clothes out of washing-machine.

'Beg for mercy', Bellatrix grinned.

It was the voice that brought Minerva back, the fleshless soul disappeared, or rather seeped in Minerva, but she was back to the agony. Minerva had surely lost her senses but even in her wretched state, the idea of begging before a despicable person like Bellatrix felt like a pain worse than what she had experienced.

'Never in my life, bitch,' she slurred but the anger was evident, the anger was real and she lifted her head a little, painfully, to look at Bellatrix then, to prove that power was not in the wand but in the wizard himself.

Bellatrix smirked and raised her wand.

'Expelliarmus,' someone yelled.

~x~

It truly seems wonderful what human beings can do even if their foundations have been shaken, when the solid ground beneath their feet is taken away. Maybe it is the absence of ground that helps them discover their wings. Lily woke up to a fresh day and held on to the small ball of light that was hope. Hope had never felt so tangible. She walked across the room to a mirror and found herself in a terrible state. This will not do, she thought. I must be strong and patient. I need to have faith.

After bathing and brushing, she descended the stairs to prepare breakfast for herself. She had not eaten in days. The last she ate was the night before Inquiry. The Inquiry! Lily wondered about the curious happenings that had taken place there, how had everything spiralled down there? All the Order members were so sure that James would be declared 'not guilty' undoubtedly. She was so sure that James would be left free. And he was imprisoned?

Just as she stepped in the kitchen though, the doorbell rang. Taking her wand out, she slowly opened the door. It was Dumbledore.

'Greetings, Lily. I must apologize for turning up unannounced but the matter I have in hands couldn't wait.'

'Please don't apologize, sir. You are always welcome. Please come in.'

They made their way through the tastefully furnished living room, James had furnished the whole house and made Lily promise never to tell Sirius that he had been the one to do it, and sat on the dining table. Dumbledore poured them two cups of tea and produced a plate of cookies, all out of thin air. Lily wrapped her hands around the cup and drew in its warmth like she would have done with James' hand. Dumbledore looked at her gravely for a few seconds before giving a small smile.

'I am really proud of you Lily. I wouldn't have expected you to take the news so well but you never fail to show me just how extraordinary you are,' Lily reddened at this point, Dumbledore wasn't one to engage in false flattery, 'and I heard that Snape accepted to help you save James. But Lily, you do realize that what you are about to do breaks at least a dozen of Wizarding laws, right? The consequences, no doubt, could be dire.'

'I do understand sir,' Lily spoke softly; she always felt such a surge of respect for the man in front of her that she couldn't ever imagine talking to him without self-doubt and fear, 'but you know as well as I do that James did no wrong. He instead prevented it from happening. He shouldn't be punished. Wasn't it you who said that we must fight for justice if it's the last thing we do? Here I am, sir, fighting for it.'

'I won't stop you, Lily. Instead, you can be sure that I will be there to help in any way I can. Now, my purpose of coming here is in no way pleasant but I had to make sure you found about it from me before you got cornered by somebody else with it. I guess you haven't had the chance to read the newspapers this morning, Lily?'

'No sir.' Thinking back, it had been weeks since she had read any newspaper which was unusual as she made a point of daily reading the newspaper, James had consumed her completely.

'Well, these are some of the copies of today's newspapers but before you go through them, Lily,' he took her hands within his, 'be strong,' Dumbledore said and put the newspapers on the table.

Lily knew it must be bad, but how bad was it? With a slightly trembling hand, she picked up the newspaper at the top. The Daily Prophet, it read on front page in bold, 'A Death Eater In Making?' and carried a picture of James but in the picture he didn't look like himself, his hair was wild –well, more than usual- and he was growling at the photographer and even Lily couldn't deny it, he looked sinister. It must have been after the Inquiry. James had lost every ounce of sanity when he had been declared guilty and given lifelong imprisonment as punishment. Lily shuddered as she remembered seeing him for the last time, just before he was dragged away from the room; he had looked so lost, like a child at a busy thoroughfare, and looked at Lily with such resignation. She had felt like James had been lost forever. And then as he was dragged away indignantly, like a cheap criminal, the anger had seeped in him and he had cursed at the press that had a field day with that vision of their darling James. Heroes falling had to be their most favourite thing.

She set it down and picked more of them,

Word of Wizarding World: James Potter in Prison. Rejoice!

The News: Reconsidering Your Hero: James Potter

The Messenger: James Potter and His Alliances

Witch's Weekly: Lily Seduces Sirius after James is Put Away

Lily was shell-shocked after she read some of them. No article had even hinted how James may be innocent, the ruling unjustified. And Lily couldn't help but snort at the last headline. Yeah, Sirius wishes. Wait, where was Sirius anyways?

'Sir, where is Sirius? I know he has been away on a mission but has he been informed of James' imprisonment? I dare say that he would be seething if he came back and found out that he had been kept out of the loop.'

'Lily, don't worry about that. But don't you see what the articles imply? James is now the bad guy for the people. That now puts you also under great public scrutiny. You have to be careful now, Lily, especially with your association with Snape. Neither the media, nor Voldemort should get as much as a whiff of this.'

'I will be careful, no doubt,' she said and the room fell into silence. Dumbledore looked at Lily as if he was reading her mind on her face. Lily looked at her cup uncomfortably, she didn't like it when Dumbledore looked at her like that and moreover, something didn't feel right.

'I guess I will take your leave now, Lily. I could you give a million pieces of advices but you don't need them. You will do well, my child.'

'Thank you, sir. Thank you for everything,' she said as she followed Dumbledore out of the kitchen and to the front door.

Dumbledore patted Lily's cheeks and turned to leave but then turned, as if he had forgotten something important, and said, 'Oh, and Lily take Ms Griffiths with you when you meet Snape. You shouldn't go alone and she may not look it, but she can be quite intelligent and be an excellent addition to your team,' and having said that disapparated.

Lily found the request very odd but she had to oblige. She went inside and quickly wrote a letter to Alice asking her if she would be kind enough to meet her for lunch at her house today. After wrapping it around the barn owl of James, she still felt a deep sense of foreboding. Something about Dumbledore's visit didn't seem right.

~x~

One Week Ago

Lily let the warm glow envelop her in a cocoon, her face was flushed and her skin glistening with sweat. She laid half on the bed and half on James who was caressing her hair and humming a tune. She liked this time the best, the voices that her mind had grown accustomed to would quieten down and leave a void, a void that was not empty though but filled with content. She lay in this comatose stage for some time and then turned to James, his hair falling away from his face, his eyes luminous and alive, his face as flushed as hers and his breathing a jagged symphony, and looked at him for a moment –a moment that would leave an impression in her soul forever, James humming a tune, and she looking at him, both of them satiated- and then James turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

'James, most men just sleep after you-know…,' she smirked.

'Presumably they don't want more like I do,' he suggested as he traced his fingers down her waist.

Lily smacked his arm and laughing said, 'James! Can you just not.'

'Don't act so innocent, Lily. Do I really need to remind you who seduced me just as I walked in the house, tired and ready to sleep?'

'Yeah, Mr Potter, you wish,' and then Lily leaned in close- he smelt of cologne and sweat, the combination made her head go dizzy- and added in a whisper, 'I love you, James Potter.'

They played this game wherein they both told each other those three words everyday but they would always try to catch each other off-guard, like James singing it to Lily through the door while she was bathing or Lily climbing into James' lap and kissing those words to his neck. However bad the day had been, and nowadays there were many, that moment filled the pores and paradoxically, added a thirst for more- a thirst to hear those words again, on another day, on an another surprising moment, a thirst to go on.

James smiled like a boy; he always seemed surprised to hear it, like he expected Lily to stop saying it to him someday, or maybe stop feeling it for him someday, 'I love you too, Lily Evans,' he breathed and kissed her deeply. Lily deepened the kiss and clutched James by his sleeves, there was a new desperation in her lips, and a voice that was incapable of forming words took the form of a kiss that hoped to convey much more the words could ever do. And then tears rolled down her cheeks.

'Hey, Lils, what's wrong?'

The eyes with which Lily looked at James broke something in James. Something went snap, something went missing. Maybe love was not a worthy bargain after all. The eyes were green, deep, and moist and looked like lawn grass must after rain, but in her eyes, it was in no way pleasant, it was earth-shattering.

'Talk to me Lily. What's wrong?'

Lily stayed silent for some time, as if organizing her thoughts, coming up with a way to say what she was feeling. After some minutes, she exhaled loudly and turning to James, spoke.

'It's everything. This is all so bloody wrong, James. Everything seems so much out of place. It feels like I was asleep and the poles shifted, and the world forgot to tell me about it. And now I am stuck here trying to determine if the world is crazy for not noticing it or am I just the one with a barmy mind? Or could it possibly be both?'

'Lils, what are you talking about?' James asked with worry. Lily rarely talked in such vague terms.

'You see, James, when I was little, I was easily the most ignored child. I was magical in a Muggle household and yet I was like a piece of furniture that helped her mother cook. I was not loved James and seeing people in it; this world seemed like a fantastic place to be in if you had somebody's love and I knew I would have it someday, never mind that my love turned out to be a stupid assgrin,' she turned to him and gave him a wet smile and James snorted.

'What did you say about by my ass, Lils? It is a win?' and smacking himself two times, he faux-wondered aloud, 'It sure is a win.'

'Shut up, snobpants. I am not finished,' James grinned but then adopted a serious expression and prodded her to continue, 'What I am trying to say is that now that I do have the love I always wanted and I wish it would last to my heart's desire; this world seems like the worst place to keep it alive. When did this world take on such an unprecedented route to destruction and why did we have to be at the cusp, with our metaphorical heads between its metaphorical jaws?'

'Aww, Lily. Don't talk like that. Sure, our situation is far from ideal and we are definitely caught in the thick of it but we have each other now, honey, and for me that's always been and always will be enough.'

James was no more a jagged symphony, he was her jagged symphony and surprisingly, it was for the first time that she had realized it completely, every nerve and blood cell had took note of the fact: James was hers. Surely that had to be enough? But just as the glow pervaded, a second force yelped out of the liquid it was drowning in; the liquid was shimmering and light-white and hissed very softly, like a sleeping snake prodded with a stick; and thrashed his hands around, and Lily recognized it only too well.

The force was a premonition that Lily had been keeping in for a few days. It started as a tiny glimmer in her consciousness, but it had slowly taken root and spread out its branches and it warned her that something was coming, something undesirable, and something would be lost in the process, irretrievably.

She shook off the feeling, again. She couldn't let James know that her head was getting all tangled up. He would be far too worried and he was already upset over the failed attempts at the mission James and Minerva had been assigned. No, she would have to keep this secret away from James, for his own sake.

'For me too, James, you have been and always will be enough. Maybe I am just over-reacting. It will all be alright,' she said and breathed in deeply, the cologne and the sweat.

James smiled and kissed her forehead and looking deep in her eyes, said, 'Dinner won't be so bad now.'

'You arse! But you are quite right, it's already nine-twenty,' she allowed as she tried to push James off her who had somehow pulled himself on top of her, his chest feeling the thrum of her beat.

'What can I say Lils, you have been quite an appetiser,' and licking his tongue he suddenly bit it between his teeth, 'Nine-twenty! It is nine-twenty! Oh, Dumbledore, is gonna kill me. I was supposed to go to Minerva's and inform her that the Order meeting tonight had been cancelled. Kingsley was badly wounded yesterday so they are there taking care of him,' James rushed on as he quickly grabbed his clothes from various places on floor and pulled them on but only making a mess of them, 'McGonagall is gonna be so worried.'

Lily got up and casually draped a robe round her, seemingly to mock James, as she stood by the cupboard and grinned at James. James was so adorable when he was all flustered.

He finally managed to button up his shirt and ran out of the door, but not quite, as he stuck his head around the door and said, 'Just one more thing, Lils. Never try to seduce me again,' and sticking his tongue out, left.

~x~

James should have rushed to McGonagall's house but Lily's words hung over his shoulder with their cold tails wrapped around his neck, weighing him down and making it impossible to even jog. He walked with his head bowed, his hands in his pockets, his left hand clutching his wand, and thought about everything Lily had said. He didn't mind dying much if it meant that the world would be left a happier place, it was his calling, after all, to rid the magical world of its long-held prejudices and conventions, but would he be as willing if he had to leave Lily behind, or if Lily had to leave him behind?

The memory hit him unexpectedly, like rain mid-summer. The droplets clung to his skin and he looked at them perplexed. It was not so much a memory as it was a dream he used to have as a child when he was in his first-year at Hogwarts. In his dream, he would wake up to find himself sitting on the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. But it was eerily quiet, and he would every time look up to realize that nobody was in the room. Through the window, he could see the dawn approaching, the pink tinge spreading away from the horizon and leaves turning bright, but even the nature had suspended its voices. He would also notice how the tables had been laid out, bowls brimming with breakfast in each of them but nobody was there, yet. Looking away from the tables to concentrate on his own food, he would look down to only be interrupted by a loud screech of an owl. It was his owl's screech, it always sounded like his bird was being strangled. The grey owl would land on his shoulders and produce a letter. The letter was just a small parchment but James never picked up the letter because somewhere a feeble voice warned him, it is the news of your mother's death. He would suddenly start sweating and then instinctively he decided he would rather not know. He would go his whole life not reading the letter, not talking to anyone or not going home. Anything was fine, but knowing something definitely. And he would slowly shake his head at the owl, as if the owl was expecting him to read the letter, and continue to eat his pancakes. The pancakes were drained of their taste. And then he would wake up. He always woke up just as he gulped down the first bite of his pancake.

No wonder, in third-year, when they had to face a Boggart, his was an owl clasping a letter and he had seen the weird looks that his classmates exchanged but nobody dared mock James then, he could already hex anybody's pants off.

And James realized why he had thought of that dream again, as the gravel crunched beneath his feet, after all this time; the nightmare was of losing the person he loved, and the nightmare still continued.

The cottage was just a right turn away and James' feet carried him subconsciously as he sighed over the wave he was riding. Just as he turned right, he momentarily looked up and stopped short; he immediately stepped back to the previous lane and peeked just a little to confirm what he had seen. There, just a metre away, stood Rodolphus outside Minerva's house. He had thankfully not noticed James as he had been busy looking in the other direction. A thousand thoughts ran over James' head, none of them pleasant. Rodolphus was not alone, James was sure, he was just keeping guard. He was probably with Bellatrix. The duo rarely separated. But why were they here? Where was Minerva? His heart quickened and bile rose to his throat. He gulped noisily and withdrew his wand. No, nothing has happened. I have to act fast.

With a weak optimism and firm resolution, he stealthily poked his wand towards Rodolphus from behind the wall and enunciated, slowly but clearly, 'Petrificus Totalus.' Rodolphus dropped like a log of wood at the very spot and James waited a moment, to see if they had more back-up but nobody came. He stepped out of the corner and took long strides to Minerva's house. The air was eerily silent, and he feared he would be easily heard but he kept going, careful of an ambush. Just as he reached the gate, he had confirmed that only the duo were here or else somebody else must have come by to check on Rodolphus. And then he heard the voice of Bellatrix, clear as a whistle.

Beg for mercy.

The sound made his skin crawl. But what came after that infuriated him even more, it was the broken voice of McGonagall. She slurred something but James couldn't make out what it was that she said, he just knew she must be in terrible pain.

He ran to the door and yanking it open, spotted Bellatrix standing just in front of him with her wand pointed at Minerva who looked unconscious, folded like a fallen pine.

'Expelliarmus,' James yelled.

And that shall be it for this one. :) Leave your reviews, I am eager to listen.