Chapter 30: Twice Defied
Lily lifted her hand to her head, running it over her hair to check it was all still in place. One strand lay softly along her shoulder, so she picked it up and pinned it in place at the back of her head. There. It was perfect. Next she smoothed down the non-existent wrinkles in her silk dress, adjusting it at the back so that the lace veil that cascaded down from her head lay exactly central. She wanted everything to be perfect today.
Because today, this ordinary, late October day, she was going to become Mrs. James Potter. Lily Potter. She had been planning this day since she was twelve years old, and it was finally here. Nothing would spoil it. Nothing.
There was a knock at the door.
“Yes?” she called. Her voice sounded strange, as if she hadn’t used it in a while.
“Can I come in?” came the voice from the other side.
“James? No! You’re not allowed in! It’s bad luck.”
“Pft. I don’t believe in bad luck. Do you?”
She walked to the door and opened it. “No.”
And there he was. Her James, standing in front of her with the biggest smile on his face. It dropped when he saw her.
“What?” Lily asked quickly. “Is it my hair? It keeps coming loose … “
“No, no,” he said, pulling her hand down from her hair and kissing her fingers gently. “It’s just … I’ve never seen you look so beautiful.”
“Oh … “ Lily said, blushing despite herself. “Well, you shape up pretty nicely yourself, you know.”
James shrugged. “I know. I can’t help it. I tried to look a mess, really I did … “
“Very funny. Now was there anything you specifically wanted, or are you here to tell me you’ve changed your mind?” The smile on her face was growing with every second.
“I just … wanted to see you. To make sure it was real. That’s all.”
She bent her chin up towards him and kissed him softly. “Well, now that you’ve seen me, don’t you think we should get this show on the road? Sirius will have sent out a search party.”
James chuckled. “Yeah, probably. Well, see you in there?”
“You bet.”
***
Two weeks after the wedding found Lily rushing along Diagon Alley. She was in a great hurry. James had received a message the night before from Dumbledore stating that he and others were required immediately for an important meeting. Lily had been waiting for him to return all day, but no word had come, until ten minutes ago, when his Patronus had appeared in the living room in a great hurry, with the message that she was to meet James round the side of Gringotts as soon as possible.
She had known something like this would happen, sooner or later. Being a member of the Order of the Phoenix meant that life was never going to be easy, or safe, but Lily had hoped that they might make it through a couple of months as husband and wife before anything dangerous happened again. Goodness knows there had been enough of that lately as it was. Besides, she had wanted to speak to James tonight. She had important news, and she needed to tell him as soon as possible, now that every day was precious.
She turned a corner and found herself facing Gringotts, its huge boundaries shining down on her in all their strength and complexity. She took a breath and hurried forwards, turning left before the steps and making her way down the side of the wizard’s bank, which eventually led to Knockturn Alley.
There was no one here.
The message had specifically said to meet James here. And yet there was no one in sight. She remembered James’s panicked voice clearly, with the message:
Lily!
Come quickly, we need you. Meet me down the side of Gringotts, towards Knockturn Alley. No time to explain. Oh, and be careful. They’re around.
Lily continued walking, in case he was further down, or around a corner. Was it a trap? It couldn’t be, not when James himself had sent his Patronus to Lily. It just wasn’t possible.
Anything was possible, she reminded herself sternly, taking out her wand and looking around for signs of movement. But everywhere was deserted.
Then, out of nowhere, James came hurtling towards her, his legs moving so fast that Lily wasn’t sure they were there at all. He threw himself at Lily, nearly knocking her off her feet.
“James!” she cried, “What on earth - ?”
“Lily! You shouldn’t have come! I mean, it’s my fault, I shouldn’t have sent for you, but we needed you, only now … look, just go! There are too many, and the others have managed to escape.”
“James, what - ?”
“I’m the only one left, I waited for you. I shouldn’t have sent for you, but I didn’t realise… we have to go, now!”
There were shots of green light coming down the road on their right. James took Lily’s hand and turned on the spot to Disapparate.
Nothing happened. Nothing except a crushing darkness and a pain in Lily’s head. James let go of her hand and they fell to the ground. There were footsteps. Dozens of people were headed their way. They were trapped. Lily held her wand between her two hands and muttered a spell under her breath, as the footsteps grew nearer. They were almost round the corner. Her wand shrank and turned into a small pebble, which Lily tucked into her sock, before standing up. She wouldn’t let them take that from her.
James was already on his feet, ready to fight. “They jinxed it, the sneaky little “ “
“James, there are too many, and we can’t escape. You have to “ “
“Of course there aren’t too many. Not for us.” But at that moment a flash of purple light came hurtling towards them, and knocked James to the ground. Stunned.
“James!” Lily yelled. But that was all she remembered, before everything went black around her.
***
A throbbing in the head. That was all. Nothing else had any feeling, just the throb throb throb of her head. She couldn’t even open her eyelids: they were too heavy.
Voices around her woke her to a more realistic consciousness. But she wished it hadn’t. It only increased her sense of pain, and there was plenty of that.
Listen, she commanded herself. Listen to the voices. They were blurry and far off, but she could just make out the words.
”’m tellin’ ya, ‘e wasn’t there! There was a bunch of ‘em, but not ‘im.”
“How can you be sure? You are not the most reliable of spies, Hawthorn.”
“’M TELLIN’ YA!”
But that was all Lily heard, before the throbbing in her head took over, and she was forced to make the involuntary movement of reaching her palm to her forehead to try to cool it. It worked, and everything came into clearer focus. She could see light from under her closed eyelids, and she was suddenly cold.
But someone in the room had noticed her movement.
“Oi! She’s awake! She’s awake!”
Lily quickly laid still, her heart throbbing fast now as well as her head. The last thing she wanted was for these men to think she was conscious again.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Hawthorn,” the second man said, “Not with the amount of sedative she’s been given. She won’t stir for hours yet.”
“But I saw “ “
“Exactly. Clearly, what you think you see or do not see is far from the actual truth. Which leads me to suspect, once again, that you are incorrect in telling me he was not there today, when other sources assure me he should have been.”
Lily ignored them. She needed to find her way out of here. Very slowly, and marginally, she opened her eyes. She was lying on the floor in a corner of a large room, which currently had three other inhabitants. Two were the Death Eaters arguing, seated on chairs by the door near where she lay, guarding the exit. The other, although Lily had not seen him at first, was a small yet chubby man, sitting hunched in the darkness of the other side of the room, so that Lily could not make him out clearly, especially with her eyes only open a fraction. And yet there was something distinctly familiar about his form that she couldn’t quite place.
She put her mind to the task. Her wand, she remembered, had been as a pebble in her sock before they had knocked her out. She couldn’t turn it back without touching it, as she needed physical contact with her wand to do any magic. But she couldn’t move to check if it was still there without giving herself away. So she reached out with her senses, desperate to feel if it was there. She moved her ankle slightly, rubbing it against the floor. Yes. There was something there, unless it was only because she willed it to be there so much. But why would they suspect a pebble of being her wand? It was harmless, as far as they knew.
The two men arguing were becoming so heated that she doubted whether they even remembered she was there. The man in the corner, well, she would have to take her chances.
In one swift movement, Lily reached down to her shoe and extracted the pebble, muttering the counter-spell that turned it back into her wand, and springing to her feet. The Death Eaters turned around, but Lily was too quick, stunning them both in under a second. They fell to the ground, unconscious.
She turned to face the other man. But he was gone, the door behind him that Lily hadn’t noticed was open, and she could hear frantic footsteps. Never mind, she thought, it’s time to get out of here. The door the two men had been guarding was clearly the way out, so she stepped over their bodies and turned the handle. It was locked. Just as she was about to whisper “Alohomora,” she heard the whipping of wind behind her that meant only one thing: people were Apparating into the room.
“Hold it,” one voice said. Lily turned around. Now facing her were six armed Death Eaters, with more and more appearing. The other man must have alerted them, she thought.
“So. You’re awake. And you’ve nicely dealt with our two guards, I see. Well, the game’s up. Drop your wand, you’re outnumbered.”
Lily panicked. She didn’t know what else to do. There were just too many of them for there to be any chance of survival. But she refused to drop her wand.
The lead Death Eater sighed. “If you’re going to be like that, then you may as well be useful. Where is he?”. His voice was low and gruff, and his wand was pointed at Lily’s heart.
“Who?” Lily replied.
“Don’t play games with me, girly. Albus Dumbledore, where is he?”
So that was the man the two Death Eaters had been arguing about. She decided to play it cool. “I suspect he’s at Hogwarts. He is Headmaster, you know.”
“Don’t you cheek me!” the Death Eater shouted. “You’re outnumbered. You’ll tell me where he is, or you’ll suffer.”
I’ll suffer anyway, she thought miserably, but I won’t let them take me.
“So what’ll it be?” he asked, his yellowing teeth showing from behind the hood as he smiled. “It’s twenty against one.”
“Two, actually,” a voice spoke from behind them, as a hand rested gently on her waist, and James stepped forward to take his place by her side, wand raised threateningly. Lily had no idea where he had come from, but she had never been more pleased to see him.
“WHO LET HIM IN?” the Death Eater shouted, turning his wand against his fellows in his anger. “HE WAS MEANT TO BE LOCKED UPSTAIRS!” In his moment of preoccupation, James and Lily quickly took their advantage.
“Stupefy!” they yelled together, James’s spell hitting the main Death Eater, Lily’s causing the one to his left to topple over with him.
A jet of green light flew past Lily’s right ear. She stepped aside and shot curses in all directions, not pausing to think. “Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus! Incedio!” Shot after shot, the Death Eaters fell. Their reflexes were far too slow, although the spells they did use would, Lily was sure, have been deadly if they had hit their targets. She didn’t even recognise most of the Dark magic, but her heart was beating too fast to pay attention.
Back to back with James, they fought their way gradually towards the door. There were still over a dozen Death Eaters against them, and suddenly it was all Lily could do to defend herself from being killed. From her left, someone shot purple sparks towards her, and as she jumped aside they missed their target but hit her left hand instead.
Pain shot up her arm in short spasms and she screamed out. She made to cradle it with her right hand, but James shouted, “NO!” Don’t drop your wand arm, Lily! Keep fighting!” He turned his back on her again to fight the man behind him, but as he did so, another Death Eater took turned his wand on James. Ignoring her pain, Lily pointed her own wand at the attacker. “Stupefy!”
He dodged the spell easily and cast his own at James’s back. “Avada Kedavra!”
“Impervius!” Lily shouted just in time: the Killing Curse rebounded back at its caster and hit him full in the face. He fell to the floor, dead. One more down, she thought, turning to face the next one and trying to push the dead weight of her painful left arm out of her mind. There were more important things to do.
James was doing well. There seemed to be only half a dozen left to fight. Some of the more stupid Death Eaters were getting in the way of spells, too slow to dodge the curses shot at them from their own side. Soon there were only two left standing, although one man lying on the floor tried to trip Lily up as she advanced towards the door, which was now almost reachable. She stumbled but managed to keep on her feet as she swung round and shot a curse at the man who had tripped her. He fell back to the floor, unconscious.
As she had stumbled, she knocked into one of the two remaining Death Eaters, whose hood had fallen back off her head. Once Lily had turned back to face her, she recognised the face as a fellow older Hogwarts student, Gwen. Determination flared up inside her. The thought of innocent school children with whom she had shared lessons and meals being twisted into malicious killers spurred her on to finish this war. She pointed her wand at the Death Eater, but was too slow and was forced to roll aside as Killing Curse flew past her ear. On her hands and knees now, she caught sight out of the corner of her eye of James and the other remaining Death Eater battling a few feet from her. They might not both make it out alive. No, she thought, I have to tell him! The thought spurred her on to stand and shout, “James! I’m pregnant!”
It wasn’t the way she had planned on telling him, she thought as she deflected curse after curse from Gwen. But then nothing was supposed to be this way. They weren’t supposed to be caught up in a war in their first month of being husband and wife. She had to tell him, just in case.
James, meanwhile, had stopped dead at the sound of Lily’s voice. “You what?” he called, utterly bewildered. But Lily didn’t have time to respond, and James was forced to duck as a Killing Curse whistled past him. Focusing on the task at hand, he turned back to the man before him and put Lily out of his mind.
Lily was finding it hard to battle surrounded by all the dead and unconscious bodies. She kept losing her footing, catching a foot on a robe or tripping over a protruding arm or leg. Gwen laughed maliciously. “Ickle girly can’t even stay upright! Shall I kill you now, ickle girly, or take you to the Dementors?” She shot a jet of purple out of her wand towards Lily, who ducked and tripped again, sprawling over the ground and badly hurting her knee. She could hear cackles of laughter from above her, and let her reflexes and instinct take over as she yelled “Avada Kedavra!” over her shoulder. The thud of the body hitting the floor resounded in Lily’s head. This was the worst part. Killing people. She wished she didn’t know Gwen’s name, it made it so much more difficult to turn around and look into the woman’s hard, expressionless face. “Sorry, Gwen” she whispered to the motionless body. “But it has to stop.” She wiped blood away from her knee and turned away.
A yell from behind her woke her to he situation. James was still battling one on one with the last remaining Death Eater.
“Reducto!” the man shouted from behind his mask, and the force of his spell, although badly aimed and hitting the wall instead of James, forced James off his feet as the wall was blown apart and bricks went flying everywhere. He was slammed into the ground, his wand falling in amongst the rubble. The Death Eater might have been a bad aim, but his reactions were fast, and he took advantage of the situation, sending rubble towards James and Lily, who had rushed to his side.
“Impedimenta!” she yelled, causing the bricks to slow down enough for James reach for his wand and shout “Evanesco!” over his shoulder, so that they disappeared.
“Good one, James,” Lily said, as he threw himself forwards towards the Death Eater, landing harshly on top of him so that they both fell hard on the ground, struggling against strength, rather than wands.
“Lily!” he yelled, between breaths as fists came rushing towards his face, pounding relentlessly. “Lily, I can’t hold him much longer!” The man got his legs up over James’s. Any second now and he would be able to flip them both over so that he was on top. “Lily! Now!”
Lily took one more step forward. She hated doing this.
“Lily!”
“I don’t want to hit you, James!”
The Death Eater’s foot found the back of James’s leg and dug in, causing James to buckle. It was now or never. She raised her wand.
“Avada Kedavra!,”
The struggling stopped immediately. Neither of them moved.
“James?” Lily asked hesitantly. Had she hit them both?
A groan emerged from the mass of bodies and rubble on the ground. “Good aim,” came James’s voice, weak but alive. “Help me up, would you Lily?”
She advanced on James and the dead Death Eater, taking James’s hand and pulling him up out of the rubble, before enfolding him in a warm embrace, “I’m so glad you’re alright.” She was trembling.
“Lily? What’s the matter?”
“I hate it. All of it.” She could still see the flash of green light emerging from her wand. It wasn’t the first time she had killed, and it wouldn’t be the last, but that didn’t stop her from shivering with regret.
“I know. But we have to battle on. It’s the only way at the moment.”
“What’s going on? Why didn’t they just kill us when they caught us the first time?”
“They wanted Dumbledore to come and rescue us, I suppose. I guess he’s not dumb enough to fall for that, though. He knows we can handle ourselves.” He grinned weakly.
“I don’t understand.”
“The whole thing was a trap, Lily. We were called away on an urgent mission, but it was all a trap. I should have realised. I shouldn’t have sent for you.”
“You weren’t to know, James.”
He shrugged, and looked at Lily, considering something. “Hey, did you mean that? When you said you were … “
“Having a baby? Yeah, I did. I’m sorry I yelled it out at you like that. It wasn’t supposed to be done that way.”
“I can’t say it wasn’t a big shock, whilst fighting Death Eaters, but … “ he smiled and put his arms around Lily. “We’re going to have a baby?”
“Yeah, I guess we are.” They looked in each other’s eyes, and saw the same expression reflected on both their faces.
Love Conquers by dumbly_dorr
Chapter Notes: Ok ok - i know its been AGES since i last submitted a chapter, but in compensation i've written a really long chapter which i hope you'll really enjoy. To recap - James had just proposed to Lily at Frank and Alice's wedding. In this chapter, both their lives are put in danger. Enjoy! and please review. It makes me happy :)