Chapter Nine

Worst Fear

I gulped and dragged James behind our shelter, feeling my hands that were still gripping my wand begin to shake. I had never dreamed of being unlucky enough to see Voldemort in person and I knew instinctively that I was very likely to die today. And to think I hadn't even left school yet! What kind of unfortunate luck was this?

James grabbed my hand and peered over the top of our shelter. "Lily, we need to get out of here." He murmured quietly, as if this would keep us from being discovered. I didn't reply as I heard Voldemort laugh maniacally at something he was doing, I could only imagine the horrors. I didn't want to face it. I wanted more than anything to be in the safety of the castle.

But I was a Gryffindor.

So I sucked up my fear and nodded to James. "He's gonna see us." I whispered, gripping his hand tighter in mine.

"He won't." James promised, pulling me with him as he crawled forwards slightly to peer around the corner. He paled and whipped his head back around as a barrage of spells proceeded to hit our shelter. "Come on Lily, we have to go!"

I whimpered in fear but followed him anyway, narrowly dodging spells that were aimed for us and sending back the ones I could. Voldemort wasn't looking as us and for that I was extremely thankful, there was only so much I could take in one day and even being this close to him was making me sweaty and nauseous.

"We have to get a message to Dumbledore." I gasped, out of breath from the amount of magic I was using to keep the Death Eaters at bay. If they continued this attack, Voldemort would surely be curious enough to see who they were fighting. That was the last thing I wanted to happen.

James nodded at my statement, brow furrowed in concentration as he kept up his protective spells. I ducked at a particularly nasty curse headed our way, I sent a hex back at the Death Eater who immediately went down, grabbing at his head.

I opened my mouth to say that we needed to move, when a spell hit the building behind us, sending bricks and rubble down on us. I screamed in pain as a heavy brick landed on my leg, the snap I heard clearly showed it was broken. I levitated it off of me and whimpered at the renewed feeling of pain. I looked around for James but couldn't see him anywhere.

"Who do we have here." That voice turned my blood cold, the gently way that he spoke completely contrasted with what I knew to be true. That he was a violent mass murderer, and he was probably going to kill me. I looked up and my eyes connected with soulless red.

I gulped and tried to get to my feet, the pain that radiated from my leg made it impossible to do so however. Lord Voldemort looked down at me and smirked, fear spiked at the edges of my mind and I stifled a whimper that threatened to erupt.

"Filthy mudblood." He hissed, raising his wand to cast what I knew was going to be the killing curse. I raised my own and sent a disarming spell at him, catching him off guard. He erupted into a high pitched laughter and sneered at me. "That's not going to work on me, mudblood."

Before he could try and curse me, I managed to crawl out of his eyesight. He laughed again, chuckling horribly at me. "You can't hide from me mudblood." He shot a spell at the rubble I was hiding behind, sending me and it spiralling into the ruined building behind me.

"Leave her alone, Tom." A gravelly voice called. I managed to raise my head from the ground and let out a huge sigh of relief when I saw Dumbledore. I was going to be safe now.

"Lily, come on." James appeared from behind another piece of rubble and grabbed my hand. "Are you hurt?" He asked, bleeding from a cut on his forehead.

I grimaced as the pain from my leg came rushing back to me, as well as the new pain from my shoulders where I'd hit them against the wall.

"My leg." I whimpered, failing to move it at all. James bit his lip in concentration and waved his wand over it, closing up the open wound, but unfortunately not able to heal the break.

"That's the best I can do. I'm so sorry Lily." His eyes showed the pain he was clearly feeling at seeing me in my state. "Put your arm around my shoulders." He helped me move so that I could lean on him and now that I was standing upright I could see Dumbledore in a duel with Voldemort.

I stopped moving as Voldemort locked eyes with me and sent me a malicious grin. He waved his wand quickly and before I knew it a dark red spell was headed straight towards James and I. We were pushed to the side by an unknown force, I could only assume it was Dumbledore trying to help us, but what happened instead was that my leg was crushed under James' body and I screamed in agony.

"Get off!" I screeched, pushing at his body. He scrambled up with a pained look of guilt plastered to his face.

"Lily, I'm so sorry." He fretted over how to get me up and in the end just picked me up bridal style. I let out another screech as this jogged my leg. "I'm sorry Lily, but I've got to get us out of here." He dodged an incoming spell and through the haze of pain I managed to shoot off a few spells that enabled James to scurry into Honeydukes.

Voldemort was too absorbed in his duel with Dumbledore to pay us anymore attention and just as we managed to get through the door I saw Dumbledore send a sphere of water towards him. I gaped at the display of magic before the door shut and I couldn't see them anymore. James carried me down the stairs and into the basement.

"What are we doing in here?" I asked, frowning as the stairs hurt my leg with every step James took. He shook his head and stood me up against some of the more sturdier boxes.

"We came through here." He muttered and I nodded my head in remembrance.

Both of us raised our heads as crashes were heard in the shop above. "It's just a sweetshop." A Deatheater hissed. I gulped and James opened the trapdoor quickly, motioning for me to hop over. I did so but managed to send one of the boxes containing Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans sprawling to the floor, the packages opened and the little beans went everywhere. This made it a lot harder for me to hop over to James but I still managed it. "What was that!" We got through the trapdoor just in time for one of the Deatheaters to wander downstairs.

James put a hand over my mouth and motioned that he was going to climb down the ladder first. I nodded and held myself still on the ladder, listening for any sign that the Deatheaters knew where we were.

Another wave of pain went through my leg as I held myself there, my shoulder wasn't faring too much better and I knew I wouldn't be able to stay here for much longer.

"Lily!" James hissed quietly and I took this as my cue to climb down. It took me a while and when I got to the bottom James gathered me up into his arms again and began walking. "How are you feeling?" He asked, walking quickly but trying his best not to hurt me anymore.

I nodded queasily. "I'm alright." I felt the beginnings of darkness edge into the corner of my vision and I tried my best to keep it at bay.

He scrunched his eyebrows. "You don't look alright." He muttered, sighing before leaning down to press a kiss to my forehead. "I'm taking you to Madam Promfrey."

I nodded and didn't argue, I was in a lot of pain and she had the drugs. James leant me against the wall so that he could open the witches hump, I groaned when I realised I'd have to get up there myself. I placed my good leg on the step first and James held out a hand to help me. It was only when I was down that I remembered I was a witch, I could have levitated myself out of there.

"Mr Potter, Miss Evans, what are you-" There was a gasp, I looked up to see Professor McGonagall walking towards us, luckily the witches hump had already closed and now she just saw the two of us covered in rubble and dust, me with a broken and bloody leg and James with a gash of his forehead. "Come along, come along." She walked over to us and conjured a stretcher for me. "What on earth happened to you two!" She gasped, helping me onto the stretcher.

James was clearly debating about whether to tell her we'd snuck to Hogsmeade and shrugged in the end. "Deatheaters in Hogsmeade."

McGonagall stopped walking abruptly. "What on earth were you two doing in Hogsmeade?" Her lips had never looked so thin. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is! We're in the middle of a war, you should have never been allowed out of the castle!" She continued walking. James and I exchanged looks and knew we were in deep trouble. "Was anyone else hurt?" She asked quietly.

I didn't want to be the one to tell her so I kept my mouth shut. James did the same, and she took this to mean the worst.

"Dumbledore's down there." James told her. McGonagall stopped again, luckily we were now in front of the Hospital Wing and Madam Promfrey had spotted us.

"Poppy, these two need your help." McGonagall then took off in a flash, James and I both knew where she was headed. Because if Dumbledore was there, then that meant Voldemort was too.