Hello, my beautiful readers!
Thank you so much to all of you for your constant support, I cannot possibly convey my gratitude! Thank you to Beetle126, Marie0907, K, Adibaa, Raven that flies at night, madwamoose, .2017, mazeygrace18 and Anya for your reviews! Especially Adiba who left 4!
Also, the next chapter needs to be severly edited and I have exams coming up in two weeks so I apologise in advance for any delays.
This chapter is in honour of all those beautiful souls that lost their lives in Manchester, Rest in Peace xo
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." -Friedrich Nietzsche
Elizabeth inched closer to Sirius as fear consumed her, anxiety rushed through her veins as she looked upon the deformed monster that stood before him. The terrorist standing before her was the reason her parents were dead, he was the reason why her best friend had drowned, he was the reason her sister never spoke to her, he was the reason why everyone was afraid of even leaving their homes! In front of her was the man who stood and did everything she stood against, and she felt disgusted with herself because she couldn't bring herself to even breathe properly in his presence.
The group was standing in a triangular formation, at the front James, Lily and Mary. Elizabeth couldn't help but admire them, they stood so very bravely in the face of death, yet she cowered in fear, her body trembling as she stood before him.
"And you're not just any order members, you're some of the best…" Voldemort smirked and stepped down from the alter. Throughout the hall breaths hitched as he stalked towards them, closer and closer, his cloak trailing behind him. The death eaters themselves even inched away as he slid past them.
It felt like hours until he stood before Lily, who was standing at the very peak of the group. The man towered over her despite her generous height. Lily raised her chin in defiance as the man sniffed, disgust contorting over his deformed face. Voldemort summoned his wand to his hand, mindlessly and ran a finger down it. Elizabeth applauded Lily for not flinching as the man who could take her life before she could whisper mud blood, waved his wand around, meters away from her face. He raised his wand and from the side, fingering it delicately. The brunette could see Lily's breathing quicken and sweat dampen her pale skin. He moved even closer to the muggleborn.
Lily felt herself unwillingly inch away from the monster as he traced his wand agonisingly slowly down her damp cheek. She could smell his warm breath on her face and felt herself wanting to run away from this mess, to leave this war and everything she believed in behind. Despite her outward appearance she felt like she was going to vomit up all her organs at any moment. Her stomach churned and her hand trembled with nerves.
"You're rather beautiful, for a Mudblood." He hissed, His red eyes narrowing as he examined her soft features. "But as the filthy muggles say, its whats on the inside that matters." He shook his head and let out a chilling, cold laugh that made goosebumps appear across their arms and their hairs stand static. "And your insides are filthy." He spat, "You're Mudblood filth and that's all you'll ever be." He hissed.
Slightly behind Lily stood James whose trembling hands were rolled into fists, his eyes twitching and face contorted in rage as he watched this tyrannical maniac belittle the woman he loved. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears and his blood rushing through his veins.
He was so angry.
"Leave her alone!" James snapped, his deep voice echoing around the large hall, Voldemort froze, his wand poking into Lily's cheek. Everybody turned to look at James with fear in their eyes, for somebody to look Voldemort in the eyes, let alone raise their voice to him. Voldemort, however, looked at him with contemplation, it seems that everything he'd heard about James Potters brash nature was proven correct. He loathed to admit that he admired it in the boy, and he smirked in satisfaction as he imagined Potter, bubbling with rage and darkness, fighting next to him. But that was unlikely.
"James Potter." He hissed and turned around, walking with his wand raised menacingly, towards James. "I have heard much about you, you blood traitor."
"I have heard much about you, terrorist." He stated boldly. Voldemort smirked and let out a chilling laugh, what a delight.
"It's ironic how you find our actions to be those of terror." He hissed and stood in front of James, looking slightly down on the boy, relishing in the fear that was leaking through his confident, brash persona, "Yet I have the same sentiments about your pitiful order."
"We do not cause terror!" James spat, holding his wand out in between the two, trying to put as much distance between them as he could. "We help those whom you seek to harm! We minimise the effects of your atrocity's and try to bring peace to our society!"
"The true atrocity's in our society are not our acts of revolution, the true atrocities are that our magic has depleted because of the interference of those that have stolen our magic!"
"They did not steal magic!" James hissed and straightened his back, Voldemort sneered as he looked down at the shorter man. "Listen up Voldemort." He splayed his arms out mockingly, "Purebloods are dying out because they're all becoming results of incestuous relationships, Like joking about fucking your sister in the dorms is not a joke for those inbred idiots!" he let out a snort, "Secondly, more often than not muggle borns are descendants of squibs."
An infuriatingly smug smirk crossed Potters face, and many of those around him felt worried course through them at the boy's expression.
"Who knows, Voldy, maybe you're your own second cousin, want me to go check out Natures nobility and find out for you?"
Sirius bit the inside of his cheek trying to contain his humour and Lily felt her heart begin to race faster as she watched Voldemort's facial expression change to one of utter anger.
"Hey, or maybe you were lying to us the whole time and you're actually a muggleborn, Imagine the shame!" He gasped mockingly, waving his wand around.
Voldemorts eyes narrowed as anger flushed over his features, how dare this filthy blood traitor imply that he was of lesser stature than him, the ignorant, insignificant whelp. He lifted his hand and swiped his hand through the air, James flew backwards, the air leaving his lungs with a whoosh as he impacted the ground.
It all happened at once.
Pandemonium broke out as order members broke through the anti-apparition wards, popping in and causing gasps and exclamations of panic to sound through the hall. And then the first spell sounded, the bright green light zapping through the air at record speed, like a green lightening bolt. It impacted a lanky death eater in the chest and he fell to the ground like a marionette whose strings had been cut.
Then it started.
Spells flew from side to side, very little hitting the intended targets and lots hitting stray victims.
Elizabeth rounded around a pillar with a heaving chest and wide eyes after having amputated a death eater's four limbs during a duel. She felt nauseous at the thought of what she'd done, at the blood that was pouring out of the stubs left behind after her butchering. She had as good as killed him, all because of his misguided beliefs and devotion to a tyrannical maniac.
She leant heavily against the stone pillar, her breaths escaping her in sharp gasps. She felt as though she was breathing loud enough for every single being to hear. She took in a deep breath trying to calm herself, if she was to survive this fight, she had to calm down. She had tried to imagine Sirius's soothing voice whispering in her ear, his warm arms embracing her, but nothing could do it, nothing could calm her after the heinous act she had committed. she had disabled a man.
She was pulled out of her reverie with a gasp as she heard a high pitched cackle behind her. Her eyes widened even more and she felt her stomach turn inside out.
It was Bellatrix.
It was her.
Fear seized her heart as she caught the eyes of the woman. Sirius had warned her of the women's deceptive beauty, of her fierceness and passion, he had told her of her skills with a wand and her viciousness, he told her that if she ever came into contact with her, she'd have to fight like she did during that duelling tournament. She told him she never wanted to be in that position again, she never wanted the darkness within to rear its ugly head once more.
"I'd rather die, I never want to feel that again." She shook her head as tears rolled down her stained cheeks and dampened Sirius's black tshirt, he moved away slightly and put his hands on either side of her face, and bending slightly so he was looking straight into her blue eyes.
"Don't you dare say that." He clenched his jaw together and his eyes looked damp. "Don't you even consider dying in some misguided gesture to preserve your soul or reputation. If you come face to face with that psychotic bitch you're going to fight, and you're going to beat her."
"She's stronger than me Sirius! She's got the entirety of the Black library tattooed into her memories." He let out a small grin.
"Trust me, that doesn't guarantee a win. You have powers that she can't even imagine, you've got strength, determination and a thirst for revenge, you have the power of a fighter. I don't care if you immerse yourself in darkness to survive, because I know that your love for me and everybody else will always help you find your way back."
"Sirius."
"No Liz." He interjected, "She wont be the one that kills you, I promise; as long as you promise to fight with everything you have, that you will get out of it."
Now it struck her in the chest that she was in that position, now it was time for her to stay strong, she wouldn't break her promise to him, despite what she had felt during that conversation she knew that there was a blazing inferno within her heart and her anger and hate for the woman was like petrol. She felt her heat racing as she fingered her wand and flung it up, straight into the beautiful womans face.
She was very beautiful. Elizabeth couldn't help but muse in the back of her mind, She had a very tragic beauty. In fact if she looked close enough she could see many of Sirius's features on her own face. She same pointed nose, the same long dark lashes, high cheeks and pouty lips. Even the eyes, they had the same eye colour. But that's where it stopped, her eyes were tainted with a darkness that she rarely ever saw in Sirius's, there was no haunted memories in hers, there was a glint that was reminiscent of the devils.
The woman's eyes flashed with recognition.
"Oh." She cackled, "You're my blood traitor cousins whore."
Elizabeth felt anger rush through her veins, how dare she defile her name like that, how dare she call her a… a whore to her face. She had spent barely a minute in this miserable excuse for a human beings presence and she already felt the urge to decapitate her. She felt her cheeks heat up with anger and embarrassment at the woman's statement.
Elizabeth snapped her wand up in front of her in a defensive position, she wasn't going to let this bitch get the best of her. Bellatrix's lip curled into a smirk and her eyes widened. She put her nimble hand on her chest in mock shock.
"How rude!" She pulled her wand out, "Hmm, Reducto!"
Elizabeth quickly put up an advanced shield to absorb the curse. "Confringo!" Bellatrix batted the spell away with a simple protego and cackled.
"Come on!" she laughed, "You can do better than that, Avada Kedavra!"
Elizabeth felt her insides freeze as she saw her vision become spotted with green. No, this wouldn't be the way she would go, in her heart she knew, now was not the time. She fell to the floor in an attempt to evade the green curse. She felt her heart beat erratically in her chest as she felt the spell pass over her and then an indescribable relief.
"Well that wasn't very nice." Elizabeth retorted before flinging a spell in the direction of the cruel woman whom was smirking at her.
"Well I've never been known for my niceness, Mudblood." She hissed, "Crucio!"
She hadn't expected it.
She honestly did not expect her to do that.
An unimaginable, searing pain, ripped open her insides, twisting them inside out. She felt her entire body tense up as thousands of knives stabbed her over and over, ripping into her body. Her mouth opened in a bid to scream but no noise came out, her throat felt raw and dry.
She felt like all her limbs were being simultaneously hacked off with an axe, but at ten times the intensity.
She felt like death itself was ripping her soul apart.
Meanwhile, the battle had traversed onto the forest grounds. Masses of death eater swamped the minority of Order members. Curses flew all around, people leapt out of the way, ducked and swore as they evaded curses. Trees fell and rocks exploded all around.
Sirius let out a bark of laughter as he stunned a death eater, the more he got rid of the better. He turned around and stopped in his path as he saw James duelling with two death eaters simultaneously. He felt his heart beat faster as he watched James duel with them. He knew, deep down his best friend would be fine, but he couldn't help but feel panicked.
A wave of adrenaline coursed through Sirius as he threw a stunner towards one of the cloaked figures, who collapsed towards the ground in a pile of black robes. James turned to his best friend in surprise, not realising who'd done it.
"Padfoot!" James laughed as he wordlessly flung a stupefy over to the shorter death eater who stealthily evaded it.
"Prongs, do you have a plan?" Sirius asked as they begun to overwhelm the short cloaked man.
"Padfoot, I don't even have a Pla."
Sirius snorted, "Stupefy!", the cloaked man fell to the ground and Sirius turned to James with an incredulous expression, "Are you serious?"
James gave him an innocent look and shook his head, "No, that would be you, kind sir."
Sirius rolled his eyes and nudged him, "five o'clock." James spun around and his mouth dropped opened as fear coursed through his body. To his left, Lily was fighting several death eaters, singlehandedly. Now he definitely didn't feel as though Lily couldn't handle herself, but he feared for her because she seemed to have no fear what so bloody ever. Her ponytail flew around her face as she ducked and spun away from curses. James felt fear gnaw at his insides.
She would be fine.
He knew that, but he couldn't stand by and do nothing. He sprinted towards her, Sirius hot on his heels, with their wands in hand. Lily stumbled as she was hit with a knockback jinx. Anger raged through James as he watched her fly back through the air.
"Stupefy!"
Spells flew back and forth between the large group for several minutes until only one remained. Lily, with glowing green eyes, threw a stupefy towards the man who fell backwards over a rock and fell unconscious.
James let out a whoop and ran over to her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and let out a laugh. James felt relief course throughout his body as he felt her heart beating against his own. She was safe, she was fine, she was alive. He swiftly placed her on the muddy ground and placed a kiss on her lips, Lily drew him in closer as they embraced in a passionate embrace.
Sirius who was standing next to the pair rolled his eyes, "I thought we were going to have a group hug but okay." He nodded, obviously they didn't hear him, merlins saggy left balls, He looked around and surveyed the fighting going around them, he shielded the snogging couple from a curse and then stunned the death eater. "You know isn't isnt the time to get it on."
But they continued, Sirius let out a groan. "Oh merlin stop!" They were disgusting, Liz and himself were nothing like these two grots. "You two are disgusting." He turned and shook his head only to see an avada kedavra hit a stray death eater. "Oh would you look at that, someone just died."
It was then that the couple split apart.
"Fuck off Padfoot."
Sirius shook his head and waved his arms around, "I could've been killed and none of you would've noticed, like, oh whoops look at that Sirius is dead, when did that happen?" He shrugged. James turned to Lily with a massive smile on his face as he held her hand in his.
"Oh suck it up, you mutt!" Lily snorted and squeezed James hand.
James turned to her and looked into her emerald eyes, and whilst he looked into those gems, he remembered the golden ring in his back pocket. He slid his hand out of hers and tapped at his back pocket.
"James what are you-" He placed a free hand on her pink lips. James, hearing the snapping of a twig on the ground spun around at the same time as Sirius and before they could do anything, Lily yelled out,
"Expelliarmus!"The man fell to the ground with the impact and his yew wand flew into her hand.
James looked at her with admiration and placed his foot on the man's chest, trapping him in the position. Sirius raised his wand at the man's pants threateningly, causing the coward to whimper. She offered the two a relieved smile before turning to the death eater with malice in her eyes. She slowly, and deliberately picked up the man's wand and snapped it in two. The man stared at her with hate as he watched her drop the wand to the ground and then blast it into nothing but pieces of dust. Before the man could react, James conjured up ropes and tied the man up. Sirius flung the man unceremoniously into the corner and turned around to Sirius. The group of three forgot what they were all talking about and ran back into the flurry.
The group of three forgot what their previous conversation was about and ran back into the chaotic fight.
They took out death eater, by death eater. But Sirius became separated from the couple.
What seemed like hours later James was hoisted into the air by a green-eyed death eater and was spinning around unceremoniously in midair. Lily gasped and raised her wand at the cloaked figure who was chuckling deeply at James's predicament.
"Impendimenta!" The death eater stumbled causing James to fall slightly, a yell of panic escaped him as he nearly barreled towards the ground. Lily panicked hearing James's yell and yelled out, "Stupefy!" in sheer panic.
However as the death eater went down, therefore, so did James.
Lily let out a scream as he fell to the ground and she had realised the consequence of her actions. He grunted as his head smashed against a large boulder-like rock. She ran over to him and started tapping his limbs and checking him over frantically. "Oh my God, James!" she shrieked, "I'm so so-rry! I shouldn't have- Oh my God, SAY SOMETHING!"
James blinked dazedly up at her, trying to formulate what was going on.
"Thank merlin you're alive!" She exclaimed and hugged him, disregarding any possible broken bones or cracked skulls. "I'm so sorry! Erm…who am I?" he looked up at her, she stuck up three fingers, "How many fingers am I holding up? Who's at the top of the Quidditch ladder?"
"I'm fine Lils." He whispered and squeezed her hand, "You're holding up three fingers and Puddlemeare United." He smirked as well as someone who probably had a whopping concussion could.
He looked at her as well as he could with his head spinning. He couldnt help but notice how pretty her eyes looked with her purple top, and how her cheeks were flushed and her hair was falling out of her ponytail around her face. He smiled up at her dopey and let out a laugh. "You're so pretty Lils." She smiled at him softly as he rolled over onto his side. "I really, really like you."
"You're so pretty Lils." She smiled at him softly as he rolled over onto his side. "I really, really like you."
She let out a sob mingled with laughter, as she watched him pathetically try to pull himself together.
"I really, really like you too."
His hand suddenly dropped to his back pocket where he knew a golden ring was placed not so safely. James felt his palms begin to clam up and his heart begin to race.
James sloppily pulled himself up onto one knee and pulled the golden ring out of his pocket. Lily gasped as she looked down at his hand, tears welled up in her eyes as James' hand trembled excessively. It had diamonds encrusted around the sides and a large rectangular diamond surrounded by diamontes around it. It was huge!
"Can you…" he took a deep breath, trying to blink away the rainbow dots that were appearing around Lily. Were these the nargles that Xenophillius Lovegood was always badgering on about? He tried to steady himself and focus on the beautiful woman in front of him. "Can you please stand up Lils."
Lily's legs shook as she pushed herself up off the ground, holding one of his hands.
James opened his mouth to speak, and no words came out. He gaped at her for a moment as he tried to recall how his speech started. But for the life of him, with the throbbing of his head he couldn't remember if it started with "Lily, my dear flower," or "We are the Romeo and Juliet of our time." His mouth opened and closed like a fish and he swore under his breath. He looked up into her bright, green eyes and he knew, it didn't matter.
And he probably looked ridiculous.
"Lils." He started, his voice cracked slightly causing Lily to giggle. " I…I love you." He whispered, taken away by her ethereal beauty, Merlin she was perfect. He saw her mouth curve into a frown and he couldn't help but begin to doubt himself. Merlin what would he do if she said no, merlins he was going to say no and he was going to become a crazy dog man. He was going to be alone forever and go celibate and live with Sirius and Elizabeth, But then he'd always see Lily so then he'd just go live back with his parents... He tried to rid himself of negative thoughts but he couldn't do it, all he could see were rainbow dots and think about where he would live after she rejected his sorry ass. Before he could stop himself he just blurted it out, he couldn't help it.
"Will you marry me?"
Cliffhanger! I'm sorry guys, I gotta admit, next chapter also ends on a cliffy hehe :) Below is a sneak peek!
Voldemort, I am honoured to finally be graced with your presence.
I can't wait to see your reactions to this chapter and all the upcoming ones!
ALSO, GUYS, I GOT ED SHEERAN TICKETS! I just had to share hehe.
Love you all and Check in on Thursdays for an update x please don't forget to review and leave feedback!
Ruby x