AN: Hello, FF and Harry Potter fans. I do not own Harry Potter but feel free to enjoy this or hate it. If you enjoy it, please leave a lovely comment, if you hate it, then leave some constructive criticism, thanks!

Can You Take the Jump?

Chapter 73

The air was chilly and little flecks of snow fluttered to the ground as Lyana twirled around, flaunting her newly charmed red hair. "So? What do you think? Does it suit me?"

Lily laughed, "You can rock anything, you know that."

"Hm," Lyana nudged her playfully, "that's a lie, but I like the answer."

"It's not a lie!"

"Oh, c'mon you, people are waiting!"

Lily rolled her eyes and Lyana laughed when she noticed, their warm breaths forming tiny clouds in the crisp air.

"Ly, you are precious and so valuable. I can't ensure you what our futures are going to be like, but I can promise you that yours is going to shine so brig—"

Her heartfelt words lingered unfinished as Lyana's smile froze in time, forever etched upon her face, never fully hearing the grand promises she was about to make. Lily's thoughts shattered as Fabian's urgent voice cut through the moment, shaking her violently.

"EVANS!"

Blinking away confusion, Lily found herself crouched on the floor at the Ministry's Atrium, amidst a surging crowd. Fabian's urgency reminded her of the revolution she had joined, protesting against the Ministry's corruption and cruelty.

The man she was hugging wasn't her best friend like her imagination, but another innocent casualty in this senseless war.

"We need to move! We're going to get trampled on if we stay here!"

There was an unfamiliar churn in her stomach, not one of sickness like the day Lyana had died, but rather a churn from the white-hot rage she felt deep within her. How could they take a life so callously? How could they consider another person's life so small and useless, like he was less than a mere insect on the bottom of his shoe? Wasn't taking a life supposed to be difficult? Where was their humanity? Where was their morality?

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The cry she let out was not just for this man, but for Lyana, her childhood that these people had ruined, and the adulthood they were trying to cut short.

"EVANS NO!" But Fabian was too late, Lily was already up and running with the crowd, wand up and ready.

"Stupefy!" She shot at an Auror who was ready to fire at another civilian, catching him in the center of his chest. The stunning spell was dangerous at such a close distance, but Lily didn't care. They didn't care about using an Unforgivable in a crowded space, why should she care about a simple stunner?

"Impedimenta!" She shot another.

She was running, jumping, aiming, and firing at a precision and rate she didn't know she was capable of. All the training she had gone through with James after Hermione's disappearance seemed to have been a huge advantage as she easily maneuvered around the crowd.

"Bombarda!"

Lily gasped at the sound of the bomb spell cast toward the heart of the crowd. Bastards!

"PROTEGO!" Several of the civilians conjured a protective shield to deflect the spell.

"PUSH FORWARD!" One of the leaders cried. "DOWN WITH THE MURDERING GOVERNMENT!"

"Push forward!" Lily cried as she ran, firing every defensive spell she could think of on the spot.

"Argh!" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another Auror fall at the hands of the protesters.

They could do this, they could win! There was power in numbers and that was something they certainly had.

"TO LEVEL ONE! TO THE MINISTER'S OFFICE!"

"AHHHH!" Everyone charged forward.

"Petrificus Totalis!" Lily shot, freezing up another Auror who had rushed to their colleagues' aid. "Locomotor Mortis!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

"GET DOWN!"

A tackle from someone launched her to the floor, her head getting a nasty knock to the floor. Lily lost her breath at the impact. After the Avada flew over their heads, her saviour's words were muddled as they continued to shout something. Before Lily could figure out what was being shouted at her, they pulled her up from the floor and dragged her to the side to take cover behind a pillar. She was like a rag doll being pushed and pulled along to dodge spells from multiple directions. All Lily could note was that far too many of those spells were that terrifying shade of green the Avada was known for.

"I, I hit my head," Lily told the woman when they finally reached the pillar.

"Shit, sorry. Here let me see," the woman's voice turned soft as she gently moved Lily's head. "Open your eyes, Miss Evans."

Lily opened her eyes to take a better look at her saviour. With a worried furrow of her brow, Esther Bagnold inspected the back of her head.

"Y-you're…" Lily tried to move away, but her vision blurred and the nausea hit her like a train.

"Woah," she steadied her. "You have a concussion. I know a good spell for this, but you need to stay still and stay hidden for 10 minutes. So, no moving and no magic, understand?"

She winced but managed to let out a small yes.

"Relevare cerebri." A warm yellow glow covered Lily's head, and slowly, but surely, the headache, nausea, and dizziness were fading.

"You're…" she swallowed thickly, as the nausea settled to a tolerable amount. "Esther Bagnold."

"Good, you don't have any issues with your memory, that's a good sign."

"You… you questioned me af-after Lyana…"

"Yes, Miss Evans, you're correct, now stop talking."

"But… you're an Auror."

The woman shook her head, "I was let go 2 months ago. I tried to stay even though I couldn't stand the way the Auror department was running after Mr. Potter left. I wanted to ensure that there were still some Aurors people could trust, but anyone from Mr. Potter's time was being pushed out. Some of us were forced to quit."

"Th-they're killing people."

The woman's gentle voice turned grave, "I know, Miss Evans, I saw. It was a grey area to use the Unforgivables on criminals that were fighting back during capture, but on protesting civilians… what has this world come to?"

"They're not Aurors anymore. They're just monsters."

"You're talking without a stutter anymore. You're quick to heal. Ah, the magic of youth is sometimes greater than magic itself."

"How much more time?"

"You still have a few more minutes before you can move to find a fireplace to floo away."

"Floo away? Why would I do that?"

"You just had a traumatic brain injury, Miss Evans. You cannot stay in what is turning into an active battlefield."

"No, what I truly cannot do is go home when others are here fighting for people like me."

"Miss Evans, you don't know what you're saying. This is dangerous. You could die."

"I could live and make a difference. I can do this."

"Absolutely not."

Lily frowned, she looked around at the chaos that surrounded them. When her eyes finally landed on the man who had died in search of justice for his daughter, now lying still on the floor while others stepped and tripped over him to escape the chaos, a deep ache in her chest resonated once again. "I'm really truly sorry about this, Auror Bagnold." She threw some gravel at her face.

"AH!"

Lily pushed her aside and stood up.

"No!" Auror Bagnold reached out to pull Lily back, but quickly retracted her hand as a jet of green light nearly touched her hand. "Miss Evans!"

All Lily could hear was the sound of her own heart pounding in her chest and her heavy breathing as she ran through the crowds. She shot spells whenever she could manage, not particularly caring where or whom it hit as her nausea and headache were coming back at nearly full force. As much as she hated to admit it, Bagnold was right, it was too early for Lily to move. She took a peek over her shoulder to ensure that the ex-Auror was no longer following her. Satisfied at the distance she'd created over a short period, Lily headed into a much quieter corridor, not one of the wide ones where most of the mob and aurors were. She'd hide in one of the many offices until she felt better, at least better enough that she wasn't a liability to herself.

She turned the corner to see the supply closet that James had shown her once. "A good place for a good cry," he called it when he saw her wiping her eyes the day after her and Amos's breakup. "No one ever comes here," he'd promised.

Supply closets were usually cool and dark so that the inks didn't oxidize.

"A good place for a bad concussion," she muttered to herself. She grabbed the door handle to feel it stuck. She gave it a small jiggle to see if she could force it open to no avail.

"What the—" she muttered, but jumped as she heard the cry of a man echo into the empty deserted corridor she was in. The crowds on this floor were sparser now after her little sit-down chat with Bagnold, most of them must've moved onto a new floor, but she was still vulnerable in her state.

"Alohomora." She combined physical force and magic to burst the door open, only to gasp when the door swung open to reveal two wands pointed at her nose.

Two young women in their ministry uniforms were huddling close together. Lily thought she recognized them from somewhere. Receptionists maybe? Or secretaries?

Lily raised her hands into the air in defeat, "Woah, I'm just here to rest. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"And we just came here to work!" One of the girls with mascara streaking down her face cried.

"Please, I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I just hit my head hard on the floor, see?" She tried to turn around to show them the lump that had probably grown from the impact.

"Don't move!"

"Okay!"

The three of them stood at a stalemate, unable to move and unable to fire.

"How long are we going to stand here like this, guys?" Lily stumbled as spots started appearing in her vision.

"D-Don't move!"

"If you're not going to shoot me, just go!" Lily grunted in frustration as she started having tunnel vision and feeling chest oppression. "Most of the crowd has moved onto a new floor, you'll be fine."

Fainting with a concussion was not a good idea.

The ministry girls responded with something, but Lily couldn't hear them with the sound of her own blood roaring in her ears.

"Help." She managed to mutter as she stumbled to the floor. The two ministry women glanced at each other, before going around her and running away. Lily felt helpless as she heard their footsteps getting further and further.

Fuck.

She tried to think of the spell that Bagnold had done on her, but she hadn't seen it properly, nor heard the words properly either.

She managed to crawl to the back corner and put her head between her knees, stabilizing her head from the spinning world around her.

She shouldn't have run away from Fabian or Bagnold, what the hell was she thinking? Did she believe that she could help win this war just because she ran into the fight headfirst without thinking?

James would be so very worried by now, running around the hospital and eventually down Diagon Alley in search of her. He would see the remnants of the mob and easily put two and two together.

Nothing was working out in her favour.

Hermione…

It was funny that Hermione came to mind because most people thought of their moms in dire situations like this. Someone to hold you and make everything alright. But, for Lily, whenever she thought of receiving help, the very first person that came to mind was always Hermione. Her sister always had the best ways, tricks, and solutions. It didn't matter how small, like an unfinished grade school project that was due the next morning, or how large, like fainting with a major concussion on a battlefield in the Ministry, Lily was confident Hermione would have the answers.

The most powerful magic in the world is fueled by equally powerful emotions. All you have to do is want it.

Her sister's words echoed in the recess of her mind from years ago when she had tutored her in Transfiguration.

You have to…you have to mean it.

Lily pointed her wand to the most tender part of her head and meant the words she was whispering with all her heart. Slowly a similar warm glow to Bagnold's spell started to emit out of the tip of her wand and the same ease of pain covered her entire head like a bandage. She felt her heart flutter with awe and amazement but continued to whisper the same words like a prayer.

"Heal me so that I may continue to save others. Heal me so that I can help in this war. Heal me so that I can continue to fight."

She didn't know for exactly how long she sat there praying for her own magic to heal her, but eventually, the pain disappeared along with the spots in her vision and the nausea and dizziness that accompanied it. With a tentative step, she stood up and gently touched the back of her head where the impact was.

No pain, no tenderness, no throbbing, no nothing.

She gasped with amazement.

"Thank you, Hermione." Lily stood from the floor, still laughing with awe. "I owe you one, sis."

She ran out of the supply closet and headed toward the elevators only to see them out of service. It must have been the Ministry's doing to slow the mobs. Lily quickly headed for the stairways. She could hear the sounds of the fight echoing in the stairwell, but she quickly learned that the stairs themselves were a defence mechanism. The challenge of the stairs quickly doused her newfound vigour. Built back when the Ministry itself was built, the stone stairs were bizarre in their structure, even more bizarre than the moving staircases in Hogwarts. They spiralled and split into different sections, leading to god knows where. Now Lily was starting to understand why the elevators moved the way they did. Not only was the layout hard to map out, but the steps themselves made it hard to climb, uneven in their length, depth, and height.

"Bloody hell!" She swore and she nearly tripped on yet another step.

Lily was panting and sweating as she looked up at the old engraved markings on the walls that pointed in the directions to the next floors and different departments.

She smiled when she saw the sign that said Level 1: Minister's Office. With a burst of enthusiasm, she rushed to the top of the stairs and swung the door open only to find an auror standing right in front of the doors facing away from her.

"Expelliarmus!" She disarmed Auror out of sheer instinct but watched in horror as the crowd pounced on the now-defenceless Auror tearing them to shreds with their bare hands.

"AHHHHH! No! STOPPPP!"

She stood there shocked at the sight before her. There were other aurors beside him beaten and bloodied. He was the last one standing and she had just shot in him the back. He could have been one of the good ones like Bagnold. He could have been innocent. He could have simply been following orders and doing their job. Actually, Lily didn't even know if they were a him or a her. That was how fast everything had happened.

"Keep moving!" Fabian appeared out of seemingly nowhere and grabbed her arm. He pulled her forward, moving her through the crowd. "If you want to live, we need to keep moving."

Lily stumbled along ducking and dodging spells coming from both enemy lines and friendly fire. There were bodies on the floor, glassy-eyed and still. Lily had seen death before, she'd even come very close to death and had scars to prove them, but this was far too much. This wasn't the revolution she had wanted. This wasn't the revolution that would change anything.

"Lily, we have to keep going. Please."

She forced herself to look away, no longer being pulled along, but rather running on her own.

"What's the plan, Fabian? What were your orders?"

"While the mob goes to level one, we go to level two. Take back the auror department. Reestablish some semblance of order."

"Order?" Lily scoffed as she pulled herself and Fabian behind a wall. A spell flew past him, missing him by a few centimetres. "If you wanted that, you idiots needed to think of a better plan!"

"Help! Someone please, help me!"

Lily lurched forward at the cry for help, but Fabian pulled her back.

"Don't be stupid," he told her through grit teeth.

"Don't be heartless."

She reached the fallen auror who was crying and clutching their side. The auror was young, barely older than her. He was abnormally pale and trembling from pain. "Please please help me. I didn't do anything wrong, I was just—"

"Shhh," Lily eased him placing a gentle but firm hand over his chest. "I'm not going to attack you, but you have to let me see your wound."

"I-I don't know what hit me. It hurts. It hurts so bad."

Lily nodded with understanding as she lifted his shirt. Her eyes grew wide when she saw a large gaping wound. It was as though something invisible was embedded within his flank.

"What's your name?" Lily gently asked as she quickly sterilized her hand with her wand and touched the wound. She'd been right. Something invisible was lodged in this guy's side.

"D-Donovan."

"Hi Donovan, my name is Lily. I'm going to ask you a series of questions and you're going to answer them to the best of your ability, okay?"

"Evans, do you even know what you're doing?"

"If you're not going to help, butt out, Fabian."

"Can't we at least move him to a safer location?"

"No, I don't know what's damaged internally, moving is not a good option."

"Evans—"

"Do your job and protect me or leave." Lily stared down the man who was 12 years her senior. They battled with their eyes, but it was finally Fabian who relented.

"Bloody hell, you're just like Molly," he muttered. "Fine, but I really hope you know what you're doing, kid." He sighed before turning around and putting his wand up on guard.

"Me too."

Alastor Moody was a seasoned veteran, weathered by the changing tides of life. He had seen a great deal and personally thought he adapted to it quite well. For instance, his expectation of becoming the next Head of the DMLE had been disrupted when Fleamont Potter secured the position, an outcome he begrudgingly accepted. Fleamont Potter was competent and a logical decision as the head of the DMLE.

When Albus Dumbledore brought him in to save the youngest Obscurial in history, he accepted it despite harbouring numerous doubts. However, when the same man told him that they were going to go forward with a plan created by that same devil child as their very first real operation as the Order of the Phoenix, a sense of unease clawed at Moody's gut.

However, as he stood amidst the swirling spells that flew back and forth between his men and the Aurors that he had once trained as his own, he couldn't believe how brilliant this plan was. A level of complexity a 17-year-old couldn't possibly come up with on her own, but at the same time, it was far too underhanded for Albus Dumbledore to come up with. Sure, the man was brilliant, but his constant battles with his morality couldn't allow him to make a plan like this. To find this level of dirt on the government officials? Then using civilians? No, Albus Dumbledore would never make a

His voice boomed above the fray, barking orders with experienced authoritative precision. He glanced at the formidable barrier of Aurors who stood at the door of the Minister's office, their wands drawn, ready to quash them all. The very Aurors he had trained himself, not 3 months ago.

The crowd he was with were not trained Aurors. They were regular civilians, angry parents, family members, businessmen and women, some were simply swept here by the crowd like garbage in the tides. The only reason they'd come this far was because of the surprise attack the mob had created by growing so quickly from a protest to a mob within the hour thanks to their article drop.

"Everyone!" Alastor Moody, with his magical eye ablaze, stood unwaveringly at the forefront, a symbol of resilience in the chaos that surrounded them. His grizzled face contorted into a fierce grimace as he cast defensive spells. "You at the front, can you create a magical barrier? Do it! Do it now!" Moody lifted his wand and created a magical barrier far wider and thicker than the ones the others created, but it was better than nothing. "Everyone behind, create a physical barrier in between by lifting the marble and the rocks on the floor!"

"H-How?"

Moody looked back with disappointment.

"AHH!" One of the frontline shielders fell from the Avada. Moody grimaced at yet another casualty. He grabbed the person behind him and placed them where he stood. "Lift your arm," He forced their arm up and maneuvered it, "say protego!"

"P-Proteg-go!"

"AGAIN WITH CONVICTION!"

"PROTEGO!"

The translucent blue shield formed just in time to block a bombarda.

"Good, now keep it up. No matter what. Do you understand?"

His arms began trembling with fear immediately, so Moody held his arm even tighter.

"No matter what," he urged. "Everyone else, repeat after me! Terra Leviosa!"

People followed his orders, some with more success than others. Despite the mediocre success, the group now had a physical barrier (of varying strength and thickness) that separated them, allowing people to duck and cover when needed.

"Moody!" Someone from the distance shouted for him. He looked back and let out a sigh of relief. Elenor Bagnold pushed through the crowd.

"Get these people into defensive formations, now! We need to brace for an assault!"

"Wait!" She grabbed him and pulled him down to duck for cover. "I saw Lily Evans here."

Mad-Eye's eye rolled around with even more craze than before. "What?!"

"I saw Lily Evans here! In the Ministry! Alone!"

Moody started pushing her away, "Go! Find her and get her out of here."

"What? You need me here, these people don't know any tactics and most of them haven't duelled since their Hogwarts days!"

"NO!" He pulled her close and growled in her ear. "If that girl's twin sister gets word that her sister is here in the middle of a battlefield, she won't just come with fire and vengeance, she will come with death to us all."

Bagnold looked confused, but the serious look on her previous superior's face didn't leave room for questions.

"GO!" He gave her another push before turning back to the frightened mob. He grabbed and gathered everyone who was shooting blindly and whispered something furiously into their ears.

Bagnold hesitated for a second or two before running off to find the redhead she had lost before she brought hell to them all.

"We," Moody told the huddled group. "Are going to blind them as a distraction and immediately afterwards, while they are blinded and distracted, are going to fire as many attacks as possible. Whatever you can think of as strong as you can throw them."

"Blind them?"

"Lumos maxima. On my mark." Moody nodded. "Spread out, tell everyone who's not shielding. GO!"

His little freedom fighters ran off to the rest of the crowd, he gave it a few seconds before bellowing at the top of his lungs.

"3! 2! 1! FIRE!"

Blinding light shot out of dozens of wands in unison, temporarily activating all the photoreceptor cells in the eyes of their opponents for approximately 5 seconds.

"FIIIRRREEEEE!" Moody shouted.

Streaks of light of various colours coloured the air. There was a very brief but real moment of silence as everyone who could, watched with awe as the showering lights fell.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Various shouts of pain echoed from their opponents. It sounded like a unanimous success.

"CHARGE!" Someone next to him shouted and the crowd took no hesitation. Everyone cried their war cries as they rushed toward the double doors that led to the Minister's office.

Crack crack crack

The sounds of Apparition were sharp, bouncing off the walls.

"D-Death Eaters!"
"Death Eaters!"
"Merlin save us all."
"The Death Eaters are here!"
"RETREAT!"
"FALL BACK!"

Like a sinister tide, cloaked in darkness, the Death Eaters seemed to step out of the shadows as though they had been there the whole time. People were screaming and the panic in the crowd had gone up to the maximum, but all Moody could hear were their footfalls resonating ominously, a macabre drumbeat heralding their advance.

Everything moved in slow motion as the one at the helm of this ominous procession, started lifting their wand. The others followed suit, casting flickers of green Killing Curses with such ease that it trembled this old and hardened soul with fear.

"No." The word hung heavy like his heart in the charged atmosphere. "No."

Avery gulped loudly as he stood in the line of boys who were to be Initiated. The group was slightly different than the one from last summer. Travers, Mulciber, Rosier, and Yaxley were here to be Initiated from last year. The Carrow twins, Crabbe, and Goyle had been Initiated sometime after the fiasco last year. Now they stood there, fully-fledged servants to a murdering psychopath.

There was someone here who hadn't been here last year: Regulus. Avery half expected to be decked the moment Regulus walked into the Lestrange's, or at least a scathing glare, but nothing. The younger Slytherin made no interaction with him, whatsoever. It was ridiculous to admit, but he was hurt by their flippantness to his betrayal. As though, his actions weren't important enough to worry about. As though he wasn't important enough.

However, even if he did want to argue with them to feel at least a bit of relief from his grating conscience, there was no time. The said murdering psychopath walked back and forth in front of them, assessing them from top to bottom. Avery always found it fascinating how this terror of a man looked so handsome, angelic even, like a fairy-tale prince charming.

Avery couldn't help it when his head turned as Voldemort stopped right next to him, in front of Regulus.

"So, you're the youngest Black."

"Yes, my lord," Regulus spoke with surprising ease, not a hint of the terror he must be feeling inside. Hermione had trained him exceptionally.

"Pray tell, has your older brother's…views also clouded your judgement?"

"No, my lord. Regulus is my—"

"Mother." Regulus stopped his mother's interruption with a firm coldness. "My brother's views mean nothing to me. He's always been foolish and weak. I am ashamed of him, ashamed to even be associated with him."

"Your mind… it's blocked."

"Blacks are taught from a young age to occlude our minds in case of attempts of manipulation or theft. The Black family has a long history of power and riches, it became a natural part of our upbringing."

Voldemort's eyes flickered up to Orion Black, who nodded a confirmation.

"Perhaps you will be of use to me, young Black."

"I live to serve you, my Lord."

"Good, I shall hope your loyalty is unmatched." He turned to the rest of them with fire in his eyes. "My faithful, heed my words, for you stand at the precipice of power unimaginable. You, who have sought the dark embrace of magic's truest form, now stand among the chosen, the fearless, the elite. Today, you shed the constraints of the mundane world to embrace a destiny forged in the fires of ambition. Within these hallowed ranks, you are the soldiers for my legacy, a legacy that transcends the feeble grasp of lesser minds.

You are the harbingers of an age where fear is our weapon and dominance our birthright.

Know this, my disciples: our cause is unyielding, our purpose unwavering. Shed your former selves and emerge reborn, as instruments of my will, heralds of a realm where the weak shall cower and the valiant shall kneel.

Together, we shall carve our mark upon the annals of history. To those who dare defy us, let them tremble, for they shall witness the inexorable rise of our reign. You stand on the threshold of greatness. Embrace it. Seize it. For you are the chosen few, destined to reign supreme in a world cast in the glory of our undying might."

The Death Eaters at the sidelines suddenly walked up to the recruits, pulled their left arm and revealed their forearms.

Dolohov sneered a smile at Avery, "It'll just be a little sting."

"Morsmordre!"

Green smoke, in the shape of a snake, slithered out of Dolohov's wand and injected itself into Avery's forearm.

"Ah!" He jerked back, expecting pain, but felt nothing but a coldness that seeped deep and fast.

"That's it?"

Dolohov smirked.

Avery looked down at his blank forearm once more with confusion.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Travers was the first to start screaming, writhing on the floor as Alecto Carrow struggled to hold him still. Then it was Rosier, Mulciber, Regulus, and Yaxley.

Even though he couldn't feel it, Avery started pulling away from Dolohov's grasp, fearing the pain to come.

The coldness that had seeped was intensifying, so much so that it felt hot. It wasn't until the black ink started etching itself onto his skin did the pain truly began.

Avery couldn't breathe, the pain was so intense. He'd never been crucioed before, but he imagined it feeling similar. He felt like he would rather cut his arm off than endure the pain he felt on his forearm. He didn't know what sounds he was making or care whether he was drooling with snot and tears coming out in an unsightly way. He just wanted the pain to stop.

Then he felt it.

A comforting hand, not warm, soft and kind, but cold, small, and firm, but comforting in the sense that it was there for him like a sturdy rock. Squeezing him tightly as though it would be there to help him through the worst of it.

He knew this hand. It had pushed him, hexed him, and smacked him, yet pulled him up countless times.

The hand he betrayed.

He made a sharp inhale from the shock. He opened his eyes and peered through the tears, but saw no one there, despite that fact, it was as though this invisible hand was taking some of the pain because he no longer felt incoherent. The vice-like grip gave him the mental fortitude to put up his Occlumency walls to shield his mind from the pain.

He wasn't so good that he could get rid of all the pain, but it was enough. The brunt of the pain had subsided, allowing him to finish the process of the tattoo being engraved onto his arm.

"You handled that surprisingly well, Avery." Dolohov clapped him on the back.

"Right…" he responded with a hoarse voice. He looked around to catch a glimpse of Hermione's impeccable disillusionment charm.

"Congratulations, my dearest recruits for you have joined the new Revolution!"

The other Death Eaters and the subsequent families clapped with joy. Avery instinctively wanted to wipe his sweat away with his left arm, but found it too sore to even move. They had gone through literal torture, so why were these motherfuckers so happy? Weren't they supposed to be on the same side?

"Now, to test your devotion, I bless you with my very first command." Voldemort flicked his wand. Rabastan appeared on cue, dragging four people connected by cuffs and chains around their ankles, wrists, and necks.

"Mr. Rosier, Travers, Mulciber, and Yaxley. You are up first."

Dolohov pulled Avery and Regulus further back.

"These are muggles who thought it funny to laugh at the way Rodolphus was dressed the other day, weren't they?"

"Yes, my lord." Rodolphus nodded, smiling sinisterly at the four men.

"Each of you, show them your power as a wizard. Show them how small they really are. And remember… give us a show."

The four wizards walked towards the four muggle men with their wands drawn.

"We're sorry. Okay? We're sorry, we were drunk." One tried to appease the four. "Please. I don't know where we are or what is happening, but if you let us go, we won't tell anyone. We were just being stupid. Please!"

Avery could tell they had no idea what was in store for them. They had just been captured and locked up, so they were frightened, but not as frightened as they should be. They weren't tortured, he could tell by how healthy they looked. They weren't knowledgeable about magic in any way. They didn't know the power in the sticks those four wizards held, so to them, they were just four men, younger and somewhat smaller, carrying wooden sticks.

"ARGH!" One of the muggle men jumped up and tried to tackle Mulciber, but a flash of green light erupted out of his classmate's wand and the man slumped to the floor.

"Mikey?" One of the men reached out as much as the chains in his arms allowed. "Mikey? Mate? Get up."

"Don't you idiots get it?" Travers laughed. "He's dead."

"Mikey?" The other three couldn't believe it and Avery didn't blame them. "Mikey! Oh my god! Mikey! Sean, he's dead! Oh my god! He's really fucking dead! MIKEY!"

"Stop whatever sick game this is and let us go!" The first man who had spoken shouted, his eyes realizing the true gravity of the situation.

"Shut up," Rosier crucioed him.

The tortured man's friends rushed to him in panic as their friend screamed bloody murder, trying to figure out what was wrong with him all of a sudden.

"Leave him alone! What have you done with him? LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Avery looked around, hoping that Hermione would stop this, but there was nothing. No sudden appearance, no distraction, and damn no Obscurial in sight. He grabbed Regulus by the arm with wide frozen eyes.

They were next and there was a certain prisoner in the deepest dungeon awaiting an execution.

Lily was not great with blood or the texture of human innards. She found herself swallowing down her vomit every time she felt or heard the squelch made by the injured Auror.

Lily put the magically clean cloth that she ripped from her sleeves and held it to the Auror's side. Most of the bleeding had stopped, but this man was in dire need of Blood Replenishing Potion and an actual healer. Luckily, none of his major organs were damaged severely. Some of the spells she used to mend some of the damaged tissues were ones she learned when she had a brief stint with medicine because of Hermione's continuous illness.

"Duck!" Fabian pushed her head down as a stunner flew over her head as she scrambled to give cover to the unconscious and injured Auror.

"He's stabilized. We can go!"

Fabian let out a sigh of relief, "Thank Merlin. I have to admit, you are good."

Lily let out a sickly laugh as she pushed down another wave of disgust.

"We need to get to the Auror department as quickly as possible."

Lily turned to him with an actual smile this time. "I know the way."

Never had the distance between the Minister's floor and the Auror Department felt so bloody far. Lily remembered taking this route multiple times a day last summer, going back and forth to talk to James and Amos, but never in her memory had it ever taken this long. But then again, no one was shooting offensive spells at her to keep her away.

"How much further?" Fabian asked as they took a moment to catch their breath behind a fallen chunk of the wall.

"Just down this hall and around the corner."

"It's another straight and empty hall, isn't it."

"Yes, Fabian," Lily spoke through grit teeth. "Like every normal bloody hallway, it's a straight hallway with no nooks or crannies or statues to hide behind."

"Bloody fantastic."

"Did you or did you not say we needed the fastest way to get to the Auror's department to lessen the number of casualties?"

"…Yes."

"Then shut up."

Lily slowly poked her head over their little barricade, only to be immediately pulled down by Fabian.

"I'll shut up when you stop acting like you're the experienced duelist who's in a secret organization to bring down the newest bloody dark wizard!"

"Then what is the plan!"

"We'll keep doing what we've been doing!"

"We can't keep destroying the structures around us to give us places to hide! Our destruction is causing noise and more and more people to come here to fire their deadly bloody spells at us!"

"The more people coming to us is better for my team!"

"We need to be alive to help your colleagues. If we die when we're still several meters away from the Auror department, then they're just going to go back and rejoin the fight and it'll all be useless!"

"Fine!" Fabian scrunched his brows together in deep thought.

"SHHHH!" Lily slapped her hand over his mouth. She heard two footsteps approaching them from the way they came in.

The two Gryffindors moved impressively in sync despite the short amount of time they had to get to know each other. They both cased Silencio over their throats and waited with bated breath, their hearts thundering in their chests.

Please please please.

"Fabian!" Someone whisper-screamed.

It was Fabian who tried to look over their little barricade this time and Lily who pulled him down.

"Trust me." Fabian mouthed to her.

The two looked at each other for a while until Lily relented and let him go.

"Gideon? Deon! Boy, am I happy to see you, brother!"

"Fabian!" The two let out huge sighs of relief as they ran to each other and reunited in a strong embrace.

Lily slowly stood from her spot.

"Ian? Who's that?" A man who looked identical to Fabian pointed at her.

"Miss Evans!" A woman appeared behind him and rushed to her.

"Bagnold, you know her?"

Without answering Bagnold rushed to her and held her head. "Miss Evans, are you alright? How is your head?"

"Auror…Bagnold?" Lily blinked rapidly. "I'm… I'm okay. What's going on?"

"What's going on is, you're getting out of here."

"Good, please get her out. She shouldn't have been here in the first place."

"Then why is she here, Fabian?"

Fabian managed to look embarrassed.

"I forced him, via wand point," Lily defended. While Fabian and she had their disagreements during their little adventure, they still saved each other's skin on multiple occasions in a short period. Lily quickly learned to trust this man with her life, even if it meant going against Fabian's identical twin brother and Bagnold.

"You?"

"Hush, boys." Bagnold scolded. "Moody's second team should already be there, holding everyone off. We need to go and support them, bring the new Head Auror into the center of the mob and force him to call off his minions."

"That's the plan?"

"Nothing like being on the other end of the wand to give one the incentive to stop the fight." Gideon shrugged.

"That's right," Bagnold agreed. "It's a little petty, but being elegant hasn't stopped the corruption, so what's a little immaturity? Once the Aurors stop and the Minister and his cowardly team no longer have support, they'll wave their white flag."

AN: Hello everyone! I so wanted to post this on Christmas, but I was sooooo tired (and hungover haha). So this is my belated Christmas present to all my lovely readers! I bless you the happiest of holidays and a wonderful beautiful new year! Love you all 3