Lily looked around. She saw Peter whimpering, Sirius snarling like a dog, Remus glaring cooly, James holding her protectively and Snape...Snape looking rather pleased with himself.
“You!” Lily cried moving away form Snape. James jumped, and followed Lily’s gaze. His eyes narrowed.
“You bastard!” James roared, he started towards Snape but the wands of the Death Eaters were all pointed suddenly at him. Snape walked cooly over to stand beside Malfoy.
“Sorry, Potter. But I’ve got better things to do with my life than follow the “Marauders” around, watching you befriend Mud-Bloods and not do anything about it. I had to act.”
“You’re disgusting,” Lily spat at him. “And an idiot! What do you expect to gain from all of this?! Do you think Voldemort is just going to let you go do whatever you want now? You’re a slave for him now, with nothing in return!” Snape sneered greasily.
“Do you honestly think me that stupid, Lily?” he asked, walking towards her casually. James bristled. “What would make you think that there is nothing in this for me?”
“What could you possibly want that Voldemort could give you? If you’re looking for shampoo he obviously doesn’t use it either, so you’re out of luck,” Lily said scathingly. Snape smiled.
“Oh, you can’t think of what I could possibly want? You’re the idiot then. How about I tell you what I want. I’ll tell you after a good, long session in bed, how’s that Lily?” Snape whispered, lolling his tongue at her in a sexual way, very unlike the Snape she had thought she’d known. James snapped completely. Ignoring the wands that were pointed at him, he leapt at Snape, Sirius and Remus joined in as well.
“STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!” James roared, pounding his fist into Snape’s deserving face.
“James Don’t!” Lily cried in horror. She could hardly see anything in the large pile of bodies. She ran to pull James out of the mess, but two large, beefy arms grabbed her. Her arms were pulled roughly behind her back. The next thing she heard was “CRUCIO!” in Voldemort’s sleek, raspy voice.
“No!” she yelled, trying to get free. She saw the spell hit the mass, praying it hadn’t hit James. It didn’t. Sirius stopped fighting at once, and was rolling on the ground in pain. James looked up and saw this.
“Stop!” he cried, trying to get to Sirius, who was nearly unconscious. Lily struggled even harder, but it was no use. As James was distracted with Sirius, he didn’t see the Death Eater behind him. Lily opened her mouth to warn him, but a hand was clamped roughly over her mouth.
Tears jumped into her eyes as another Death Eater put the Cruciatus Curse on James. Remus was jerked off the ground by another Death Eater, and was bound like Lily was. She looked around and saw that Peter too was being withheld. Then she saw something that made her eyes light up. Snape’s wand lay forgotten on the ground. Looking around, she saw that everybody else was too pre-occupied with James’ and Sirius’ torture. If she could get to the wand, she might be able to save James. She shivered at the risk, she could definitely lose her life. But before she even thought that, she had come to the conclusion that he was worth it.
With a swift movement, she jerked her leg up behind her, right up between the Death Eaters legs. She heard a grunt and a curse and she was let go. Now or never, Lily. She darted across the room and snatched up the wand. A curse was sent her way from a quick thinking Death Eater, but she dove behind Malfoy, and the spell hit him instead. He dropped to the ground, stunned. She grinned, but then stopped as she heard another cry of pain from James. God, these people would kill him! She leapt from behind the stunned Malfoy.
“PROTEGO!” she yelled, and her spell surrounded James and Sirius, they stopped moving completely. The only problem with that was that now all the Death Eaters, including Lord Voldemort, were focused on her. She saw Snape running towards her, but she balled up her fist and moved slightly to the left. Snape was knocked off his feet as her fist buried itself in his face, but that only made him angrier. She cursed herself. Her father had always told her, if you’re going to hit somebody, make sure they don’t get back up to retaliate. She had definitely failed that little lesson.
“Stupify! Stupify!” she yelled, pointing her wand around, hoping to hit somebody. Her first shot ricocheted off the clocks, knocking them off their shelves and clashing to the ground. Her second, however, hit one of the Death Eaters.
“Lily! Behind you!” she heard Remus calling. She spun around quickly, and accidently shovef Snape’s wand right into the woman’s eye. She looked around frantically and saw that James and Sirius still weren’t moving. Her heart nearly stopped. Were they dead?!
“What idiots!” an insenced cry rang throughout the room. Everybody shook, It was Voldemort. “You can’t even take on a skinny little Mud-Blood?!” Lily glared, but still didn’t stop trying to fend off the continuous stream of Death Eaters. “Complacento!” Voldemort cried. Lily was agile from playing Quidditch and she managed to dodge it, but as she lunged left, strong arms caught her.
“That will be enough from you, Evans!” Snape snickered in her ear. He wrapped his arm around her throat. She struggled for air, and dropped his wand. He caught it, and pointed it at her. “Confinesia,” he muttered, and ropes snaked around her wrists..
“You son-of-a-bitch!” She choked, but the ropes that had just finished binding her upper arms to her torso moved to her mouth, and stopped all of her cutting insults. Snape chuckled snidely into her ear, and he shoved her forewards. She tripped and fell, glaring at him.
“You’re even pretty when you’re mad,” Snape remarked. “And I must admit I do like the ropes, we’ll have to try that out together.” Lily said something, but it was garbled, and nobody could make it out. “That’s not very nice, Lily." Lily retorted with a hand gesture involving a certain middle finger. “Oh, don’t worry. We’ll be doing much of that.”
“Leave her alone, Snivilus!” Remus yelled across the room. Snape stood, sauntering closer.
“What’s this? Looks like Remus has lost his famous, Prefect composure,” he said. Then he looked at James. “Shame he’s not awake, I would have liked him to see this.” Remus struggled madly. Snape turned to Peter. “Have you nothing to say for your best-friends?” Peter whimpered something, and Remus felt a twinge of disappointment; he would have hoped Peter would be more supportive of his friends.
“Alright, that’s enough. I grow bored,” Voldemort said harshly. Snape looked terrified suddenly.
“Sorry Lord. May I take the girl then?” he asked, leering slightly. Voldemort seemed to think very hard.
“Not yet, I wish the Potter boy to watch. He isn’t yet awake,” he said firmly.
“Yes Lord. But when he is awake?”
“You may have her. But I want her as soon as you are done, Snape, or my gratitude to you will waver. I need them dead. And quickly,” Voldemort said smiling at the thought.
“Of course, my Lord,” Snape said, but Remus saw the resent on his face as his back was to Voldemort. Remus shrugged it off however, maybe it had just been his imagination. Snape saw Remus looking at him oddly, and shot him a warning look. Remus dropped his gaze. What was going on?
“Come, put them in one of the rooms and lock them in. There is a matter I need to discuss involving our plans once they all are dead,” Voldemort said, sweeping out of the room. A Death Eater moved to grab Lily, a slight grin of anticipation on his face. He was cut off as Snape cut in front and picked Lily up.
“Keep away from her,” Snape snarled. Malfoy grinned.
“That’s right Snape. Don’t let anybody take what is yours,” he said encouragingly. He patted Snape on the back. Lily frowned slighty, did Snape just grimace?
Many minutes later, they were all shoved roughly into the cell. Sirius woke up upon hitting the ground.
“Bloody hell,” he muttered, trying to sit up. Remus went to help him.
“You alright, Padfoot?” Remus asked. Sirius nodded.
“Man, I feel like I’ve just had sex with a rhinoceros,” he said. Peter squeaked. Remus grinned. At least he’s got his sense of humor back.
“Hey, mate, some of those girls did look like rhino’s,” Remus commented. Sirius grinned, but then stopped as his face paled. He saw James lying unconscious on the ground and Lily kneeling beside him, the roped still tightly binding her. Sirius tried to get up to help her untie herself, but received a great deal of pain.
"Go help Lily,” he grunted. Remus did so, pulling the ropes off of her.
“Are you alright?” he asked her soothingly. She didn’t say anything. Her eyes were filled with tears. She ran her hands over James’ face.
“He’ll...he’ll be alright?” she choked, holding one of his cold hands in hers. Remus nodded, though he wasn’t sure. Lily saw the uncertainty and let out a pent up sob. She looked around, seeing that they were in a jail-like room. She wondered why they needed one of these in the Ministry. She saw a table, a flipped over chair, and small, ratty looking blanket. Sirius stood up, testing his legs. “How come you’re awake and he’s not?” Lily accused.
“I don’t know,” Sirius said earnestly. “Glad to know you care so much about me though, Lil.” Lily ignored his comment and started dragging James over to one side. Remus helped her, and then retreated to a corner. Sirius looked around him, and saw Peter huddled in the corner. He eyed the ratty blanket and wrapped it greedily around himself. “You’re disgusting, Peter,” Sirius said, too sore to do anything about it.
They sat in that tiny room for hours. Peter dozed off first, snoring loudly. Then Sirius and Remus followed suite. Lily stayed awake however, laying next to James, trying to keep him warm with her own body. He started shivering after a long while, and she took off her robes, leaving only her school blouse and small skirt. She was freezing, but at least James was warm. She lay back down, tears staining her face. She had almost fallen asleep when James awoke.
“LILY!” He roared, and the first thing he noticed was that somebody was on top of him. He rolled over, pinning the person to the ground.
Whoever it was, they would pay. He felt the person squirming beneath him. He stopped the struggling easily, however, as he caught small wrists in his much larger hands and held them still.
“James...” Lily muttered, terrified. “James! It’s alright. Nobody is going to hurt you now!”
“Where’s Lily!” he said, rather stupidly, and then he saw the face beneath him. His eyes widened as he realized he pinned poor Lily beneath him. “Shit! Oh, Lily, I’m so sorry,” he said, rolling off of her and pulling her against his chest. She was breathing hard, he had scared her.
“It’s alright, it’s alright,” she comforted. James was crying, tears falling down his face. He hugged her to him.
“I’ll never let anybody hurt you again. I swear to god,” he muttered.
“I know, James. I know. I love you so much. Before we die, I want you to realize that,” Lily whispered despairingly.
"God, I love you so much it hurts. Just looking at you brings my heart to tears. You're everything I've ever wanted." He brought her forward into a heartbreaking kiss. Just then the door opened, and Snape strolled in, smiling.
“I thought I heard you wake up,” he said. “Come, we’re going to have a little fun.”