BANG!
Lily’s voice caught painfully in her throat as she started violently at the sound of the deadly curse slicing through the cold night air.
She could feel her lungs tighten and the oxygen discontinue its fluid flow down her throat. She stared wide-eyed into the dark empty space.
All grew into a stifling silence.
The black ceiling seemed to revolve slowly around Lily’s dazed head.
The gruesome replica‘s grip on its wand slowly loosened. The wand slipped from its finger and dropped onto the floor. Its arms fell limply to its sides.
Lily could feel her own blood draining from her face as she stared at the constant stream of blood trickling from its gaping macabre eyes, down its wretched face.
A grotesque grin was still plastered on its face as it fell slowly forward.
Its head came to rest face-down on Lily’s shoulder.
With the a sickening feeling as if her stomach were being pulled out, Lily felt the warm blood spread over her shoulder and slowly soak the left arm of her robes. She could feel the wet fabric to stick to her arm.
With a sudden jerk, Lily finally managed to unclench her taut throat. With a scream filled with horror and disgust, she quickly stepped back and away from the monstrous creature.
It fell face-forward onto the forest floor and lay still. Lily, paralyzed, watched the blood seep from its hollow eyes onto the cold ground.
With eyes still wide, she spotted the large hole in its back where the deadly curse had struck. Black smoke began to curl up from the gaping hole.
Lily stared at it, her pupils small with fright, her breathing coming out in rapid gasps. She could feel her whole body shaking with shock and terror.
Her gaze soon lifted off the lifeless corpse to its attacker standing a short distance away in front of her. Her eyes locked on the attacker.
Alice was standing in front Lily, her feet firmly planted on the ground, her wand still poised in the position it had been when it had delivered the deadly curse into the back of her hideous replica. Her wand was still emitting curling wisps of black smoke.
Lily stared.
“Alice…is that really you?”
Anne numbly watched a tear escape her eye and slowly make its way down her cheek. It came to a momentary halt at the tip of her chin and quivered for a moment before dropping off and plunging into the bottomless darkness she was imprisoned above.
She had stopped struggling long ago. Remus was gone and there was no way to get him back. Struggling would mean that she wanted to survive and live, but she couldn’t survive and she certainly could not live if Remus wasn’t there by her side.
All Anne could manage to do now was yearn for a quick death so she could be with him again. She didn’t care what happened now, as long as she could see Remus and do what she had wanted to do for years now.
She would walk up to him and wrap her arms around him. She’d tell him that she didn’t care about anything else as long as they were together forever. No, not even forever. Forever wouldn’t be long enough.
She’d finally tell him that she loved him; loved him more than anything, more than anything in the world.
As long as he would stand by her, she would go with him to the ends of the earth. Even in this dark prison, all she could think about was him.
It didn’t matter what he was. It didn’t matter what had happened to her in the past. They just needed each other. If they had that, if they held strong to each other, if they truly loved each other, then nothing could get in their way. Nothing…
Something suddenly stirred in the vast blackness.
Anne slowly lifted her head. Her keen eyes focused into the empty black void in front of her. Something was coming.
She would be seeing Remus very soon.
A black blob suddenly emerged and twisted itself into an elongated mass eerily resembling a snake. It reared its faceless head and swiftly slithered towards Anne.
Anne watched calmly, with a crazed smile on her face, as the blackness slithered nearer and nearer.
She closed her eyes.
She could almost see Remus smiling at her.
Lily couldn’t break her eyes away from Alice.
All she could do was stare. All that was running through her mind was the doubtful thought of whether this person was truly her friend. Everything just seemed to be a hoax now. Nothing good seemed possible of even existing anymore. Only horror seemed to remain.
And yet, there was something like a sprout of hope suddenly emerging in Lily’s thumping heart.
Alice could only manage to return Lily’s gaze as tears began to fall from her eyes.
More tears painfully followed as Alice observed the scratches and blood covering the body of her dear friend.
“Alice, is that really you?” Lily asked once more in a tremulous and uncertain voice.
Alice tightly shut her eyes to squeeze out the remaining tears as she lowered her wand.
“Yes Lily. It’s me,” Alice replied, her voice choking with an amalgam of sorrow and relief. Lily simply stared back with blank eyes, but Alice thought she saw something like realization flicker in those brilliantly green eyes.
“It’s me. It’s your friend,“ she said softly, taking a step towards the suspicious and frightened Lily. Lily didn‘t budge as Alice came nearer, but quickly tightened her sweaty grip on her wand.
“It’s the Alice you’ve known throughout our years at Hogwarts. The girl you defended from bullies. The girl you showed so much kindness for. The girl you’ve always cared for like a sister…” Alice broke off as more tears trickled down her cheek.
Lily gazed at Alice’s glistening eyes. She watched a pearly tear slip down her smooth cheek.
They’re real tears. They’re not blood. They’re not empty. They’re real…
Lily suddenly collapsed on to her knees. “Oh Alice!” she cried out.
Alice ran to her and wrapped her in a mother-like hug. The two girls began sobbing onto each others’ shoulders.
“Where are the others?” Lily managed to inquire through her tears.
As if right on queue, Sirius suddenly emerged from the thorny bushes. He had his wand out and at the ready. He looked warily about before his eyes landed on Lily and Alice sitting on the ground.
“Alice! Lily!”
“Sirius!” the girls cried out in unison.
“Siri, you survived! Thank Merlin!” Alice cried tearfully.
He ran over to them and, after making sure that they were alright, plopped down onto the ground, completely exhausted.
“Wait! Don’t sit down yet,” Lily said, hurriedly wiping the tears from her eyes. “James-he’s hurt- quickly,” Lily turned around. Still too shaken and weak to stand up properly, she managed to crawl over to where James lay unconscious on the cold floor.
“Oh my goodness,” Alice whispered, as she scrambled after her. Sirius hurriedly followed on his hands and knees.
“What, what happened to him?” Sirius asked with bewildered eyes, as he gaped down at James’s bloody and limp form.
“And what in the name of all that is good, lethal, and shiny is that?” he exclaimed, as his eyes alighted on the magnificent sword still jammed upright into the dark soil. Alice gasped as her eyes settled on it.
“We were attacked. Attacked by a Manticore. James, he used that to kill it,” Lily said in a hushed and quivering tone, gently wiping James forehead with her sleeve. Both Alice and Sirius turned to gape at her with wide and fearful eyes, unable to utter a single word.
Lily didn‘t return their stares. She merely continued to wipe James’s blood-spattered face. She replaced his blood-soaked bandages with newly conjured ones. All of her movements were done with the absolute most care and gentleness.
As she finished tightly knotting the last of the bandages around James’s leg, Lily found herself gazing upon his pallid face. With all her scratches and scrapes, her heart was still the part of her body that ached the most. She felt like it was being wrenched from her soul as she stared at the face that she was so used to seeing flushed and alive with excitement. She felt like she was staring into the face of a stranger. His face looked so strangely thin and pale…
You had better not do anything stupid, Potter. You had better not leave me, or else I’m going to have to follow you. I don’t know what I’d do without seeing that messy black hair everyday. I don’t know how I could go on without that arrogant grin of yours. I know that I wouldn’t last long if you never told me you loved me one more time.
Lily suddenly felt more afraid than she had ever felt that entire horrible night.
Please, just say it one more time, James, and I‘ll finally be brave enough to give you the answer we‘ve both wanted to hear for years now.
Painful hot tears welled up in Lily’s brilliant eyes.
“James…”
Alice and Sirius remained silent.
Darkness swallowed the four friends with hungry jaws. The silence was thick and suppressing. All seemed to be hopeless and dire, but somehow, they knew they would make it.
They had each other now.
Anne calmly waited for the faceless snake to suction itself onto her, just as it had done with Remus.
She could feel her neck dripping blood. Her wrists and ankles pulsed with the pain caused by the embedded thorns.
Flooded with grief and fatigue, she let her head limply fall back.
The strange denseness of the quiescent silence began to press into her body, smothering her.
She waited, but nothing happened. All was still.
Confused and somewhat angry for having to wait to see Remus again, Anne straightened her neck and opened her eyes once more. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her.
The demented snake’s faceless head was mere centimeters away from her own. It had frozen mid-air, and, although it had no eyes, Anne could feel its empty stare piercing her body.
Suddenly, its elongated body began to shorten. Within seconds, its length was almost equal to Anne’s own height. Its entire form began to violently churn and twist itself. Its head stretched grotesquely and coiled itself like rubber before plunging itself into its distorting body.
Anne silently watched with wide and amazed eyes as the black blob continued to warp itself. As it continued to twist itself more and more, it began to take on a crude form resembling that of a human.
A head emerged first, its mouth gaping for air. Arms and legs then shakily twisted and shot out from the black mass that had been transformed into a human body.
Like the snake, this bizarre model of a human had no face. But like before, Anne could sense its silent gaze penetrating her.
All at once, the blackness began to melt away from the human body. Like a coat of tar being washed away, the blackness concealing the face and features of the uncanny being began to melt off, starting from the very top of its head and making its way down to its very toes.
The strange black shadow slowly dissolved to reveal a true human being, standing in its place.
Anne felt her heart stop as she looked into the eyes of the person that had appeared before her. As she did, she could feel hot flames of rage shooting through her heart and pervading every limb of her body. Her body felt aflame with hate. Tears of fury filled her eyes.
Bellatrix Black had revealed herself at last.
“Come on,” Sirius said gently. “We have to go,” he whispered, laying his hand on Lily’s shoulder. Silent tears were still running down Lily’s cheeks.
“Where are the others?” she asked quietly, not budging. Her eyes were closed, as if she was afraid to hear the answer.
“We split up into teams,” Alice said softly. “If we didn’t find you guys within two hours, we were going to meet them outside the forest. Seems like we made a big mistake in doing that…”
Lily’s mind froze. Her heart skipped a beat, as she fearfully wondered where Anne and Remus were. They could be anywhere in the forest, open for attack from who knew what? And it was all to save her and James…
Sirius heaved a stressful sigh as Lily scrunched up her face in a brave attempt to stop more tears from flowing down her face. He gently gripped her shoulders and turned her around to face him.
“Look, if Manticores are popping out of the woods and copies of ourselves are running around this place, I think that’s a hint that we should get our arses moving,” he said grimly.
Lily couldn’t help but smile at Sirius‘s morbid humor. Alice approvingly patted his arm.
“Come on, help me put James onto my back.”
As Sirius extended a shaky hand to lift James onto a piggy-back ride, Lily suddenly noticed a deep gash on the back of his hand. It was oozing with what looked like glowing puss.
“Sirius! What’s happened to your hand?” Lily exclaimed.
Sirius gave a surprised jump and hastily tried to conceal his hand with the sleeves of his robes, but Alice was too quick for him. Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Try as he might to wriggle quickly out of Alice’s clench, she managed to hold it long enough to fully reveal the extent of the horrible injury.
Both girls stared at him, horrified, as he hurriedly wrenched away his hand. He quickly loaded James on to his back.
“Come on. Let’s go,” he said rather nervously. The girls exchanged uncertain looks before starting to follow Sirius through the tall trees.
Lily suddenly halted in her tracks.
The sword.
She raced back to where it stood firmly in the ground like the sword of Excalibur. She gazed at it in awe before yanking it out with a grunt. Specks of dirt flew through the air as it came out with an echoing shing.
Patting herself on the back for choosing to wear a belt that day, she slipped the sword through the belt's side. It was surprisingly light. Lily checked to make sure it was secure before hurrying after the others.
In a matter of minutes, the four of them were plodding their way through the dark forest. Their eyes were wide open. All of their senses were alert and tense. Their wands were at the ready.
“Siri,” Alice’s voice, although lowered, seemed to crack the cold silence. “It was that thing that attacked us, wasn’t it? It gave you that injury on your hand, didn’t it?” she whispered, her eyes averted to the ground.
“What? Something attacked the two of you too?” Lily asked, a bit more loudly than she had intended to. Alarmed, she looked from Sirius to Alice for want of an explanation.
Sirius halted momentarily in his tracks as he heaved a deep sigh and hitched up James higher onto his back. He cleared his throat before continuing to walk.
“Let’s just say that that thing that tried to curse you- the one that looked like Alice- it wasn’t the only one walking around here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that there was another one- one that looked like me.” Sirius shuddered suddenly.
Lily waited silently and wide-eyed for him to continue.
“It was a way back from the spot where you and James were. They ambushed us. They attacked Alice. For a moment there, I thought she was…she was…” Sirius’s voice seemed to snap in half. He blinked and stared at the sky. Alice’s eyes brimmed with tears as she soothingly patted his shoulder. He gave another long sigh.
“Luckily, the thing only stupefied her. My replica, however, seemed completely out to get me. If it hadn’t been for a particular spell I had learned from James a while back for defense against Dark Magic, I probably wouldn’t be standing here.”
Sirius twisted his head around to give the unconscious James a grateful smile before continuing.
“Well, in that split second where my replica attacked me, Alice’s replica had already run off somewhere, leaving Alice behind on the ground. I managed to injure my replica and buy enough time to revive Alice. I told her to go track down her duplicate while I finished off mine. I’m telling you, it was one hell of a job trying to destroy that thing,” he paused, then lowered his voice to a barely audible voice. “It was protected by Dark Magic. I don’t know where it got so much power from, but whoever or whatever conjured it knew what they were doing.”
Silence stole over them once more as they quickly stepped over the dead branches and leaves blanketing the forest floor. Somewhere in Lily’s heart, an ominous feeling of nervousness began to ensnare her once more.
A/N: I’m sorry if you thought that Sirius had some really lame exposition, but it was the only way without writing another whole chapter on that one scene and frankly, I just didn’t want to write it! If you didn’t mind the lame expo., then I am truly grateful! REVIEW PLEASE!