Chapter 2: Enervate

Lily Potter knew that something was wrong as soon as she entered the large dining room at number 12, Gimmauld Place. Most other members of the order were already gathered, either talking quietly together in huddled groups or sitting with frowns plastered on their faces. But that was not what had Lily worried. What worried her was the fact that her husband was already present and accounted for.

And James was never early.

Ignoring the polite greeting directed her way by Alice Longbottom, Lily swept across the room, entirely focused on the messy dark curls that adorned the back of her husband's head.

"Lily!"

The sound of a voice calling out stopped the witch in her tracks. The sound of her name was all the warning that Lily got before a pair of long hairy arms wrapped around her from behind, trapping her in a tight hug.

"Sirius, let me go this instant or I swear to Merlin I will hex you so hard that you won't even be able to remember your name!"

The threat worked as the limbs immediately dropped away... and as soon as they loosened, Lily spun around to face the infuriating wizard.

"Sorry, Lils." Sirius was sporting his usual 'innocent until proven guilty' expression. The man held up his hands in mock defeat as the tip of Lily's wand came to rest on his chest. "I guess you could say that I was excited to see ya."

The look on the man's face was enough for Lily's sense of worry to dissipate. Whatever had occurred certainly couldn't be as bad as she had feared. After all, even Sirius wouldn't be able to jest in the face of grave danger.

"Excited to see me?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "Sirius, you see me almost every day. You practically live at my house."

Sirius just shrugged. "What can I say, I'm fond of your cooking is all."

"I don't cook."

The man threw up his arms in mock defeat. "Fine. You got me. I just wanted to see the look on your face when you realised you were late to the meeting."

Lily crossed her arms. "Late? I am never late, Sirius. You, on the other hand, are always late."

"Well, I think that anyone who arrives after Padfoot should be considered late," the all too familiar voice came from behind her, "I do believe this is the definition he's is trying to convince you of, dear."

Lily spun around to glare at her husband, green eyes automatically looking him over for any sign of blood or bruising. James stood before her, his arms spread out, a sly smile playing across his face.

A smile that she realized looked uncomfortably similar to Sirius's.

"What?" James asked, his brown eyes twinkling, "You don't want to give your husband a hug, but you happily give one to his best mate?"

Lily would have whacked the auror hard across the chest with her bag if a loud voice had not interrupted them.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you wouldn't mind finding your seats. I'm afraid I won't be able to give you all as much of my time as I had anticipated... and seeing as everyone is already here, I had hoped to start early."

Dumbledore's voice did what it always did and immediately all of the conversations in the room dissipated, replaced by the sounds of chairs scraping against the rough wooden floor.

Lily glanced over at Sirius and whispered sharply, "I told you. I am always early," before she allowed her husband to guide her to their places further up the table.

"What is it, Albus? What's happened?" Molly's voice was tight with worry. "Has there been an attack on Hogwarts? Are the children safe?"

"I can assure you that all of your children who currently attend Hogwarts are perfectly safe, my dear Molly. You need not worry about them nor any other student who is under my care at the moment." Dumbledore offered Lily a sad smile at this last statement. She knew what he was referring to.

Harry would have been turning sixteen this year. He should have been in the middle of his fifth year at Hogwarts, Lily thought glumly. Suddenly she didn't feel so relaxed anymore.

"However, there was a Death Eater attack earlier this evening and some disturbing news has been uncovered as a result. Kingsley, if you wouldn't mind giving us your report."

Lily felt her heart sink even further. So she had been right to feel worried. She turned to give her husband a sharp look, hoping it would convey her unhappiness about not being told of this first. James just shrugged slightly as an apology before both returned their focus to the head of the table. Kingsley had now risen to stand beside Dumbledore. Lily vaguely noted that the man still wore his head-auror robes.

"This afternoon at a quarter past three I was leading a patrol near Hogsmeade following a report of a Death Eater sighting," the auror flicked his wand, and a small sliver disk settled in the middle of the long table.

Lily recognized the device instantly. A Griffis map. Highly valuable and reserved only for use by head-aurors. Kingsley muttered the activation spell and a second later a detailed map flickered to life, spreading out across the surface of the table. Soon after ten red dots blinked to life indicating the location of each auror when they had been attacked.

Kingsley continued, "We apparated in here." A blue light appeared near the outskirts of the Hogsmeade. "Before we started making our way towards the location of the sighting, which was here." A green light flashed into existence marking the new location. "We chose not to apparate directly to that location in case it was an ambush."

Lily nodded. This was standard auror protocol.

"We scouted out the area but found only faint traces of magic. Nothing recent, however, which led us to believe that this was yet another false sighting. We relaxed our defenses and this is what made us vulnerable to the attack."

By now the air in the room had grown heavy. Lily could hear James tapping his foot anxiously against the leg of his chair. She reached over and placed her hand on his leg under the table to still it.

"It was foolish of me. I didn't expect another ambush so soon and I didn't think that they would be so foolish as to directly attack a group of aurors in broad daylight." Someone, probably Sirius, snorted loudly. "Our first indication that they were there was a flash from a Killing Curse."

Hushed gaps and grumbles sounded across the room.

"It was aimed at my head," all eyes turned to Mad-Eye who looked almost proud to have survived the close call, "but the bastard that threw it missed. It hit the tree right behind me. Blew it to bits, too."

Lily felt slightly ill at the thought that it could have so easily been aimed at Sirius or even her husband.

"It missed and it gave away their position." Kingsley finished, not looking overly impressed by the interruption from his fellow auror. "It was a group of about twelve or so Death Eaters. At least that was from what we could gather. I think a couple of them apparated away as soon as the fighting began."

"Cowards," James hissed.

A second later, ten black lights appeared on the map. Since the Death Eaters' exact positions were unknown, the lights flickered and occasionally jumped around. Small yellow flashes of light indicated spells being launched between the two groups.

Lily watched transfixed. She had seen a Griffis map in use only once before and the amount of detail still amazed her. As she watched the scene unfold, one particular black light quickly caught her attention. This Death Eater had been the first to attack and now seemed to be letting off an almost constant stream of spells. Others too seemed to have noticed this.

"We think their target was Alastor," Kingsley continued, "But once they could see their Killing Curse missed and the mission was lost they fell into disarray rather quickly. After that, it was easy for us to start to pick them off one by one. Took about ten minutes or so before we had killed half of them. The others must have realized they were losing and apparated away before we could stun any of them." The black lights began to disappear into flashes of blue until only five remained. The dead death eaters.

Lily glanced toward Dumbledore. The ambush had occurred uncomfortably close to Hogwarts and worry was evident in the creases on the wizard's face.

"How many dead?" Sturgis leaned forward, looking far too excited for Lily's liking. "Did you manage to capture any of 'em alive? I sure would like my hand at torturing thos-"

"Podmore! Watch your words carefully or you will start to sound just as bad as the Death Eaters." Kingsley's voice was sharp, "We delivered five bodies to the Ministry after the attack. Our side reported only slight injuries. For your information, Podmore, we were not able to capture any of them alive."

"Anyone we didn't already suspect?" Sturgis did not appear to have been deterred by Kingsley's harsh reprimand.

"One. An Oliver Fenren."

Lily didn't recognize the name but several other order members seemed to.

"But he's a half-blood!" Bill Weasley exclaimed, "He graduated the same year as I did from Hogwarts. Ravenclaw, I think. I remember him talking about his dad who was a Muggle. There's no way that You-know-who would let him become a Death Eater. He would never do that."

"And that's what's got us worried," Dumbledore looked around the table at each of them. "What has changed that has Tom resorting to recruiting young Half-bloods?"

"Was he under the Imperius Curse?" Lily glanced across to where Peter Pettigrew sat. She could see the worry flooding his features. She offered her friend a slight smile to try and comfort him.

"Na. Checked the Dark Mark myself," Mad-Eye grunted, "It's the real thing."

Peter's face went a shade paler than it already had been and he sank back into his chair looking rather ill. Lily felt bad for him. The poor man had never been the same after they had found him unconscious and bleeding on the floor of Harry's destroyed nursery more than fifteen years ago. Since then the very mention of Death Eaters would cause Peter to sink into a state of panic.

"So what would you recommend that we do then?" Emmaline's voice was edged with worry. "If Half-bloods are becoming Death Eaters even after all that You-know-who has said about their blood status then…" Her voice trailed off.

"Then Tom is either growing desperate for supporters or he is planning something," Dumbledore finished.

"Planning to murder us all one by one," Mad-Eye muttered

"Either way means trouble for us." Remus's statement had everyone around him nodding in agreement, "If You-know-who's gathering together more Death Eaters, Pureblood or otherwise, that means that the attacks might very well continue at this high frequency. They might even become more targeted."

"You mean he might send his Death Eaters to attack us in our houses?" Molly's face had gone pale at the thought. Next to her, Lily felt James stiffen.

"Of course, he'll send his minions to attack us in our houses," Sirius all but jumped to his feet, "He did that to Harry didn't he? He had my godson killed in his own bed! Not to mention he murdered Benji in cold blood and tried to do the same to Peter." The room had now gone completely silent. "Don't you get it?! He killed a baby in his sleep! What is stopping him from doing the same to any of us?" Sirius sat down heavily, suddenly looking very old and tired. "I don't want to just lay around and do nothing. I can't lose anyone else the same way we lost Harry. It just isn't fair."

Lily could hear James trying to console his best friend as the room erupted into noise. Everyone was speaking over one another, giving suggestions, warnings, or statements of outrage, but she could hardly pay any attention to the arguments going on around her. Lily looked down at her hands that were clenched into fists in her lap, blinking furiously to try and stop the tears that had pooled unbidden in her eyes from spilling over. Harry's death had been more than a decade ago, but it still hurt just as much as the day it'd happened. Across the table from her, Peter smiled sadly.

The first thing Harry noticed was that there was something wet dripping down his face.

What in Merlin's name? Am I crying?

Harry opened his eyes and gently raised one hand to brush away the liquid slowly running down his cheek. His muscles screamed in protest at the simple action causing the teen to groan softly. He felt like he had been trampled by a Hippogriff before being then thrown off a cliff. Every fiber of his being was yelling at him; not to mention that he was already developing a nasty migraine. Harry ran his hand across his face, smearing the liquid before bringing it around to look at. It was bright red.

So not tears, Harry thought rather relieved, At least Dolohov didn't get the added pleasure of seeing me cry. I don't know if I could stand that much humiliation in one day.

Satisfied that anyone in the room had not witnessed him in tears, Harry next set about trying to sit up. Or at least roll over if sitting up proved to be too difficult. It had been well over a year since his father had seen fit to use the Cruciatus Curse on him. In that time he had somehow managed to forget how bad the after-effects of the spell were. Either that or his father had also used some other dark magic after he had passed out. A Deffindo or Deprimo perhaps.

Or maybe it was just the wall that did it to me.

Harry hissed as a sharp pain raced up his back and neck. The wall was a good guess, he figured.

After a long minute of grunting and panting, Harry managed to roll over and push himself up onto his knees. It was exceedingly ungraceful, but kneeling was still better than continuing to lie on the floor. He didn't want someone to find him in such a vulnerable position.

Now that he was no longer on the ground it was time to assess his current situation. But first, he wanted to find his wand. He felt naked and exposed without it. Sure he could do some wandless magic, but he'd never quite figured out how to do healing spells wandlessly and that's what he needed most at the moment.

"Where are you?" Harry muttered as he looked around the now-empty room. He was situated near the door and behind him sat the wall that would have sported a Harry-sized dent in it had it not been made out of solid stone. The door out into the hall was still wide open from when Harry had blasted it open... and nothing else had changed. Even the fire was still blazing.

But then Harry caught sight of it. There, sitting on the Dark Lord's desk, was his wand. Harry figured his father must have placed it there for him to easily find when he awoke.

How considerate, Harry grimaced as he held out his left hand, wandlessly summoning it to him, It's a pity he didn't think to also fix my broken nose.

But as much anger as he felt towards his father in that moment, Harry knew that he had deserved this punishment. He had let his anger get the better of him. Honestly, he should've just been relieved that there wasn't any more significant damage to his person. Nevertheless, Harry knew that this same situation would no doubt happen again, as it had numerous times in the past. He just found that he couldn't control his temper or his mouth when he was around the dark wizard. At least, not when his father never seemed to bother to control his own, anyway.

Wand now in hand, Harry turned the point of the slender stick at his swollen nose and muttered, "Episkey." The cartilage gave off a sickening crunch as it was snapped back into its correct position. Thankfully, the pain in the rest of his body overwhelmed Harry's senses to the point that he felt almost nothing from this action.

With a quick Tergeo, Harry siphoned away any blood that was on his face, clothes, or floor and dispelled it with a quick flick of his wand. Despite the numerous injuries he had endured throughout his lifetime, he had never been particularly good with the sight or smell of blood.

Right, Harry thought, Now that the nose is dealt with let's see what other injuries the bastard left me with.

The young wizard had just begun to try and assess the damage to his back when a voice from behind startled him,

"You know I wouldn't let him hear you call him that. I don't think the Dark Lord would take very kindly to being called a bastard."

Harry's neck muscles screamed in protest as he turned quickly to look at the figure in the doorway. "Snape," he said coolly, "I don't recall permitting you to look into my mind."

The man just gave his typical smirk and, as usual, it made Harry's blood start to boil. "Well, I seem to recall that the Dark Lord assigned me to teach you the art of Occlumency using any means I deemed necessary."

"And you deemed now to be the perfect time to start a lesson? Can't you see that I'm busy? I don't have time to entertain your silly mind magic right now."

As soon as it left his lips, Harry immediately regretted it... but it was now too late for him to take it back.

"Silly little mind magic?" Snape strode into the room and knelt so his face was level with Harry's, "You of all people should know what an Occlumens can do to a person. Especially to one as pathetic and weak-minded as yourself."

The teen quickly looked away from the Death Eater's sharp gaze as he felt the all-to-familiar presence of the wizard pressing in on his thoughts. He had always been complete rubbish at Occlumency and the prat loved to prey on this weakness. As he tried to frantically build up his mental shield, Harry found himself wondering how the man had been able to get into his head without him noticing. Was he truly that bad rubbish at this?

But as quickly as it had come, the dark presence in his head suddenly vanished. He looked back at Snape cautiously, trying to ready himself for another attempted invasion.

"Pain leaves the mind open and vulnerable to attack, Harry. It is the time when a wizard is at his weakest and this weakness can be easily exploited by others."

Harry glared at the man who still knelt in front of him. "So you came here to give me a lecture? I thought you were busy teaching your little potions class at Hogwarts. Or did the great Albus Dumbledore finally decide to fire you?"

Snape just scowled as one hand reached into a pocket in his robes, fumbling around, searching for something. "For your information, the Dark Lord requested my presence here tonight to discuss next week's attack. A meeting that, if I recall correctly, you were also invited to."

Shit. Harry shoved his wand into its holder and frantically pushed himself off the ground. Had he really been unconscious for that long? His father would not be happy if he was late to his first-ever Death Eater meeting.

However, as soon as Harry got to his feet his vision clouded to grey as pain and dizziness assaulted him from all sides. He felt himself sway drunkenly making him feel slightly nauseous before a hand came to steady him.

"Easy, Harry," Snape's voice penetrated the fog that had surrounded him, "You were in no condition to attend anyway. Besides, there is no rush now as the meeting ended a little over an hour ago. Your father sent me here to make sure there was no… lasting damage."

Shit. Harry's legs crumpled under him and he sank to the floor with Snape's help. How had that much time already passed? Before he could do the math to calculate what the current time must be, the teen's mouth was suddenly forced open and a sickly-tasting potion quickly flooded his senses. Harry instantly gagged, his eyes flying open in panic.

"Don't be difficult." Snape snapped, holding a flask up to the young wizard's lips, "It's just a pain reliever."

Spluttering, Harry reached up and yanked the bottle from the Death Eater's cold fingers before downing the entire potion in one go. The familiar salty taste made him grimace slightly as it coated his tongue and throat.

"I am fully capable of feeding myself potions, Snape," Harry had to resist the urge to not hex the man, even though he was incredibly thankful that the pain was already beginning to melt away.

Snape just raised an eyebrow and sat back on his heels, handing him several more potions to take. "You brought this upon yourself, you know. You should learn to control both your mouth and your temper better."

"Don't remind me," Harry said quickly finishing off all the liquid he'd been given. He couldn't recognise all of them, but he trusted the man not to poison him.

"And you need to gain better control of your mind. You had no Occlumency shields up at all when I found you."

"Just sod off, will you." Harry felt his temper flair. Why was Snape bringing all of this up right now? Couldn't the man see he had suffered enough already? "I don't need another lecture from you today. I've got enough on my plate as it is. I don't see why you care so much anyway."

Snape looked like he was about to respond when his eyes fixed on something behind Harry and his mouth snapped shut immediately. The Death Eater quickly rose to his feet and backed away from Harry, leaving the young wizard thoroughly confused. He turned to look at the open door that was now behind him, groaning internally as he saw his father enter the room. Thankfully, he was alone.

"My lord," Snape's voice sounded from behind Harry, "I have looked over the boy and there are no lasting damages."

Harry would have rolled his eyes had his father's scrutinizing gaze not been on him. Harry wanted to look away as he felt something press in on his mind. He clenched his hands into tight fists and instantly focused on throwing up his strongest Occlumency shields. He knew his father was checking to see for himself if his mind had been damaged during his punishment.

Voldemort's black eyes flashed eerily as Harry's mental walls flared to life. But after only a couple seconds the Dark Lord seemed satisfied and withdrew. Harry leaned forward onto his hands as his father whisked passed him, inquiring Snape as to his injuries. This gave the young wizard a minute to collect his thoughts. He was incredibly grateful for the pain reliever that Snape had brought him, otherwise, he knew that he would have had a splitting headache. A feeling that he was, unfortunately, growing far too accustomed to.

Harry took a deep breath pushing himself up off his hands and got shakily to his knees. Thankfully the dizziness and pain had dulled significantly, but his muscles still shook with the aftereffects of the Cruciatus Curse.

By this time, both men had retreated across the room to the large wooden desk that stood proudly near the wall. Snape had just withdrawn a letter from his pocket and was handing it to the Dark Lord,

"I must be returning to Hogwarts now, but I shall owl some potions for the boy. Pain relievers, bruise creme, muscle relaxer for the tremors."

His father quickly pocketed the letter before Harry could catch a glimpse of who the sender was. Someone at Hogwarts? Another spy?

Snape bowed his head in respect to the dark wizard before striding out into the hall, casting a strange look at Harry when he brushed passed. The teen turned to watch the potion master, curiosity prickling under his skin. He desperately wished he had not missed the meeting. Something important must have happened, but like always, he had been left out.