“You can do it! You can make it!” Lily consoled herself softly as the tears rolled down her cheeks. True, she had gained herself freedom, but now, she was lost, horribly lost in the midst of the Forbidden Forest. To make things worse, wherever she went, she heard the sounds of critters roaming around, making her fear for her life as well as her safety.
Several times since she had escaped, which was now nearing to be almost a full day as it was 4:30 AM the next morning, she was sure she had heard voices of Death Eaters, following her, trying to kill her.
‘You’re being paranoid, Evans. Remember what you have accomplished so far! Not only have you escaped from a prison with nobody’s help, but you also managed to get away alive and safe. Plus, if you can handle Petunia, you can handle the Forbidden Forest. Lily smiled at her last thought and continued on her terrifying journey.
A branch cracking in the distance, Lily paused, shaking with fear. Already, she was covered with dark purple bruises and deep lacerations in addition to the multiple burns and pains that were caused by the death eater’s continuous curses. She was definitely not looking forward to going through that again. Resembling a frightened dear, Lily looked around for the source of the sound. Faintly, she heard voices that she recognized in the distance...
~~~~~~~
“Arielle, careful! If anybody hears us...” Nicole worried, “Anyway, as I was saying, I just do not know what I would do without her. You two are my best friends; I don’t think I can live without you. What are we going to do if we can’t find her?” Nicole confessed to Arielle, voice filled with trepidation.
“Listen Nicole, I know you are worried about what will happen to Lily, but for now, that’s going to have to wait for more pressing issues. We know almost exactly where James, Sirius, and Remus are now, so if we are able to find the boys, then we’ll have extra help to aid us in our effort to find Lily. We’ve even seen their prison site now, so there will be practically little effort to release the boys from their trap if we aren’t seen or heard. No doubt the rest of them are just as worried about her as we are,” Arielle informed. Hearing stifled sobbing from Nicole, Arielle paused and gave her emotional friend a hug. Pulling back she lightly scoffed and continued in a hopeful tone of voice.
“Nicole, you have to understand that I want to find Lily too; and so do the rest of her friends. Don’t you see? It’s not that I don’t care about her, because you know that I truly do. However, finding the rest of them first will help us to find Lily. So, let’s go help them first.”
“Well, I guess I’ll just focus on the positive points for now. After all, we escaped the clutches of Death Eaters, found out where the guys are being held captive, and we’ve managed to accomplish all of this with our hair still as beautiful as ever,” Nicole managed to giggle out in a watery voice.
“Way to organize your priorities in life,” Arielle jokingly muttered.
~~~~~~~
‘Are Arielle and Nicole really here? It can’t be; I must be hallucinating. With all of that horrible time I spent locked up, I must be imagining that I heard them talk about a plan of rescue for the boys. Wait a second, James, Remus, and Sirius, really are here? Does that mean the Death Eaters seriously were considering to kill them off if I didn’t give them the fake information they wanted? What nutcases. Even after I told them that I honestly did not know anything else? Whoever said that honesty is the best policy must have never encountered a Death Eater.’
‘But of course, that does not make any sense, whatsoever. It couldn’t make any sense, because Arielle and Nicole were not shouting distance away a mere minute ago... where they?’
‘Did I just waste one of my best hopes of escape? Maybe they’re still here! Maybe they will come sprinting back for me, they can go rescue James and the rest, and then we can all go back to the castle, finally putting all of this crazed terror behind us!’ Lily thought. Breathing large quantities of the fresh, cool forest air, Lily pursed her lips together, about to call out the names of Arielle and Nicole.
At the last possible moment, Lily pushed her breath out and shook her head.
‘What am I? Insane, perhaps? Death Eaters are crawling all over this place, looking for every single one of us. And here I am, one of the girls they’re looking for, about to yell out the names of the other two girls they are possibly looking for. Oy ve, I need to work on my timing.’
‘But I can just sit here and WAIT! I have to go find those two. Yes, that’s what I will do, I will go and find those two and allow them to heal me and take me away to safety!’
Thinking that she finally had the right idea, Lily lifted her right foot and was about to place it down on the soft, mulch covered floor of the Forbidden Forest, when she placed her foot right back down and decided against it.
‘Yes, now I am 100% sure that I am insane. How in the world can I trust that the two voices I heard, or maybe imagined that I heard, are actually the voices of Arielle and Nicole? They could very well be only the voices of Death Eaters, disguising themselves in an effort to catch me at my weakest. Great, just what am I supposed to do now?!’
Shaking her head in frustration, Lily stood rooted to her spot in the middle of nowhere, wondering what she should do next.
~~~~~~~
“But Arielle, how do we know that we can really trust James? Not that I am questioning James’s loyalty to his friends; I just mean, that how do we know that the person trapped behind that barricade of rocks truly is James and not some Death Eater impersonating him,” Nicole whispered as Arielle dutifully carried out the quick plan she had created in an effort to release the boys from their prison.
“Nicole, I am shocked at you! If you can’t trust James, at least have faith in Remus. He is after all your boyfriend...” Arielle muttered.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it, Arielle, so find another topic, now,” Nicole spoke through gritted teach.
After receiving a deathly glare from Nicole, Arielle attempted to assuage her anger and rephrased her sentence, “The least you could do is trust your own cousin. After all, Sirius is pretty trustworthy.”
Sighing Nicole nodded her head, “I just don’t want to appear in that cave to rescue them and then find out that it was all a clever trick from the Death Eaters. Think about it: if you and I get caught, then all six of us will be trapped and then who’s going to be able to help Lily? It’s not that I don’t trust Dumbledore to eventually find a way to get Lily to safety, I just want it done now, is that too much to ask?”
Taking a deep breath in, Nicole started one of her never ending rants. “In fact, didn’t Dumbledore once say that --,” Nicole abruptly stopped her rant as she bumped into the back of Arielle.
“They’re being taken out?” Arielle whispered, shocked and confused.
“They’re WHAT?” Nicole nearly shouted out loud.
“Well, no, it’s....,” Arielle said.
“Arielle, honey, more names, less pronouns.” Sneaking her head around Arielle shoulders, Nicole got the same view as to what was going on.
“Wait, is that who I think it is?”
“I can’t see a bloody thing! Why is it so foggy?”
“Maybe they don’t want anybody to see what is happening out there?”
“Nicole! I can’t believe it! It is him!”
“No, after he said -- no after he promised he wouldn’t say anything?”
“Maybe he didn’t say anything yet, Nicole.”
“But they’ll be able to figure out if he’s lying or not, won’t they?”
“Yes, that’s just what I am afraid of...”
“What are you talking about Arielle?” Turning Arielle around to face her, Nicole gave the brunette a questioning look.
Biting her lower lip in terror and apprehension, Arielle confided her fears to Nicole, “If we honestly took the truth out of that twit, then he must have meant it when he said he wasn’t going to tell anybody about our little conversation.”
“Exactly!” Nicole said happily, smiling. Seeing Arielle’s still worried look, she continued, “You don’t exactly look too ‘woo-hoo’ about this, Arielle. What’s wrong with what’s happening?”
Exasperated, Arielle elucidated, “Nicole! Don’t you see? They’ll try to get it out of him as much as possible. And there is no way in the world that our Veritaserum trick can stand up to something as powerful as, well, the Cruciatus curse for example.”
“Okay, now you’ve completely lost me,” Nicole said, confused.
“If they try to torture him using one of the Unforgivable curses, and you of all people should know that they are not beneath using that curse, than he will be forced to give up the truths he told us. Trust me, Nicole, the truth in these cases is a lot less valuable to a guy like him than his well-being.”
“So what you’re saying is...?”
“What I’m saying is that if we don’t hurry up and find a way to distract those Death Eaters while simultaneously freeing those guys, we are going to be in some major trouble. Once that brat spills the beans about what information we were able to scavenge from him and he tells those Death Eaters our whereabouts, we are going to be added to their ranks of prisoners,” Arielle spoke grimly.
~~~~~~~
“They should be here already! Why aren’t they here already?” Padfoot muttered as he paced the grounds of their cave. Sure, he had made progress on their hopes of getting out. One tiny corner of the rocks had been poked and prodded out, somehow unbeknownst to the Death Eaters looming directly outside of their prison.
Their escape time was not well planned out either. It was nearly mid-afternoon, the boys could tell. Golden streaks of light were poking through random cracks through the wall of rocks, especially through the large crevice Sirius has created. Once again, their chamber was filling with unwanted heat, both from the sunlight and the fear, radiating off in heat waves from the three Marauders.
“Don’t worry, Sirius, I’m sure they’re safe and well. Right now, I bet you they are finding there way back over here to take us to safety. I really wish you would sit and calm down. They’ll be here when they can; after all, if they rush and get caught, then we really won’t have a plan of escape,” Remus commiserated.
“It’s not the part about escaping that I’m worried about. It’s the fact that we can not communicate with the girls. How are they supposed to know our plan of escape and follow through with it if they are coming up with their own plan? It’s times like these that I wish I had more of those two-way mirrors,” Sirius grumbled. Pulling a James move, he pushed a hand through his hair, un-tidying his nearly almost perfect hair and causing him to look more like James than he thought.
“My worry is the same as yours, Black. What if the girls come over here and they aren’t quick enough to get us out of here? Or what if, we ask them to complete the plan that we came up with and they are not able to figure it out before a Death Eater notices their arrival?” James asked, his usual bright hazel eyes, cloudy and dark, his usual happy and deep voice, filled with despair.
Remus, seemingly the only one out of the three with any hopes, strong or not, of escape via the girls, stood up, ready to rejuvenate their hopes. “While I know you two are having your doubts about this route out of here, I have faith in Arielle and Nicole. Not only am I sure that they will be able to get us out of here safely, but I also know that they are smart enough to do so by attracting little to no attention to ourselves. Cheer up! Soon, we’ll be out of this horrible pit, and on our way to save Evans, get back to the castle, and live normal lives once again.”
Looking back and forth at both Sirius and James, Remus could see that while his words were a little lackluster, due to his unassailable fears of being caught, they were definitely brightening up the spirit of his friends.
“Give them just a little bit more time, you two, and you’ll see. We’ll be out of here before you know it,” Remus spoke his words in a more confident manner than he felt he was.
Peering out through a remote hole in the rocks, Remus bit his lip in apprehension. It was getting late. Where in the world were the girls?
~~~~~~~
‘Any day now, I will figure out a way out of this cursed forest, and never be caught anywhere near it, ever again!’ Lily thought to herself as she shook her head. She had already turned right and arrived, somehow, back at this very same spot. When she turned left, the same fate had been placed upon her. Going back from where she came was certainly not an option. However tempting the offer of leaving the spot that she had been standing in for, according to her watch several hours, sheer terror at the thought of moving along coursed through her.
‘I only have to rethink my options. There is always a way out of things. I just have to think. Come on, Evans, try a little. Use that Charms filled brain of yours and apply yourself!’ Unfortunately, the only viable solution Lily could think of was to continue onward.
‘I will regret this, I’m so sure that I will. I’m going to see the bodies of my friends either dead, or cursed, or possessed, something. Then I will be horrified, traumatized for the rest of my life. Physiologists will peer into my past and I will recall this moment. I should have listened to my inner voice, I will tell them, if only I had listened to my inner voice, I would have never found my two best friends that I have ever made, lying on the ground, lifeless. Never would I have found James, the object of my affection, the boy who has made me laugh, cry, scream, love over the past seven years lying in a puddle of unfortunate despair on the ground. His two best friends in the entire world, Sirius and Remus, will be taken from him, be taken from my two best friends, never to live again. And for what? Because I didn’t listen to my inner voice.’ Lily thought in a trance like state, urging herself to move forward, one foot at a time.
Turning the corner, she saw a sight she would never forget.
‘Hmm, yet another thing to discuss in therapy... joy,’ Lily thought as she beheld the sight before her. A screaming, pudgy boy, whom she could only assume to be Peter, was being tortured by Death Eaters. Yelling in agony, the poor scoundrel was being forced to utter something or the other.
‘Shouldn’t I be more terrified by this?’ Lily asked her inner voice.
Renewed hope filled her heart, however, as she saw the familiar shapes that she made out to be her best friends.
‘So maybe I’m not crazy... maybe. A little perhaps, but at least my friends are here!’ Lily nearly exclaimed. She allowed herself one quick leap in the air before she thought of a way to reunite with her friends.
~~~~~~~
“Is Peter actually doing what I think he is doing?” Arielle repeatedly prodded Nicole in the stomach.
“We are so not starting that again, Arielle!” Nicole rolled her eyes and she pushed Arielle’s finger away from her sore stomach.
“Well, look, is he?!” Arielle nearly spoke above her hushed whisper.
“He is, isn’t he? He’s managing to distract the Death Eaters. I think that they’re actually taking him farther into the forest and away from the clearing!” Nicole chirped.
“Do you think he took what we said to heart? About being disloyal to his friends, and hurting everybody that remotely cared about him?” Arielle hopefully whispered to Nicole’s stunned expression.
“Nope, I just think he’s trying to run away,” Nicole muttered.
“Well, either way, now we have an opening. But I doubt this is going to last for very long. Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this and that you know what our plan is?” Arielle whispered with finality to her voice that Nicole was scared of.
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll be fine. Don’t you worry, Arielle. I’m sure we can handle whatever is going to happen,” Nicole said, speaking the words, but unsure if she believed herself or not.
“Nicole, I just want to you to know that, you know, whatever happens. Just...,” Arielle tried to say.
“I know, Arielle. Same here,” Nicole said, giving her a quick hug around the shoulders.
“Well, if we’re both prepared, then, let’s go!” Arielle managed to sob out. ‘Soon,’ she told herself, ‘You’ll see them all again. You were meant to graduate together, and live a happy life. I’m sure it will happen. You and Nicole can do this together, I know you can.’
With these last encouraging words floating through her mind, Arielle and Nicole prepared themselves for the worst. Rapping each other hard on the head with their wands, they cast a Disillusionment charm on each other. Knowing that they were virtually unseen to the naked eye, they slowly but surely made their way across the floor of the Forbidden Forest, their destination: the clearing.
~~~~~~~
“What in the world do I do now?” Lily spoke aloud, in her softest voice, “Arielle and Nicole just left!”
“They’re probably going to try and safe James, Sirius, and Remus right now, and what am I doing? I’m standing here on this bloody hill, looking down on this scene unfolding before me. I can’t even see them; the must have actually learned something from my charm notes in the past years and remembered the Disillusionment charm!”
Angrily, Lily paced about for a few seconds. ‘Wait a second,’ she thought to herself.
“Evans, get your head in the game! Who am I doing any good by standing here? Nobody, that’s who; so all I have to do is sneak down to exactly where Arielle and Nicole were standing so that if they need help, I can sneak in without anybody expecting me! And Arielle thinks that I can’t come up with these things on my own...” Lily muttered. Carefully, she made her way downhill, occasionally hiding behind a tree, just in case. Lily could feel in her blood, she was going to see her friends soon; soon they would be reunited.
Always and Forever by jamesnlilyforever
Chapter Notes: Well, it took the longest time ever, but chapter 12 is finally here. I won't even bother apologizing for the wait - there's no excuse but my laziness. However, summer is here, and that means longer chapters, shorter waits [hopefully], and more reviews, please? Anyway, the title kind of explains the chapter, so here you are, enjoy: