Lily Evans was late.
She knew it was such a trivial, superfluous thing to be worried about, but when Lily was in a hurry, other problems slipped away to make room for the frenzied frustration taking over her mind. As she pushed through the crowded, Muggle-filled King’s Cross station, she barely noticed other wizarding families moving towards the same destination. They were huddled closely together, unsmiling, silent. This was unusual, especially in families with young children going to Hogwarts for the first time. Their excitement was normally uncontainable.
But these days, nothing was normal. Lily’s mind filled with the grim vision of Diagon Alley, where she had done her school shopping the week previously. The bleakness of it, the boarded-up shops, the darkly cautious people, all were enough to heavily dampen her joy of having finally got her driver’s license that summer. She had gone so far as to stop reading the Prophet, delivered to her house every morning, because it had only sent her spiraling into a dark chasm of grief and fear. She constantly dreamt of finding her friends in the obituaries, and had lost sleep accordingly.
Lily tried to push the image out of her mind, and physically shook her head like a dog trying to shake off fleas. As a result, she crashed into a passing Muggle, who gave her a reproachful look. She apologized quickly before hurrying onwards.
Lily slipped through the barrier surreptitiously thirty seconds later, and her ears met the screaming whistle of the Hogwarts Express. She realized with horror that it had started to move, so she bolted to the nearest door possible, threw it open, hurled her trunk forward, and launched herself inside just before the passing station turned into a blur.
Gasping slightly, Lily took a moment to regain whatever composure she had begun with before setting off to find the compartment her friends were in. As fate would have it, they were in the first one she looked in. She had a brief moment to look at two of her favorite people in the world before she was crushed by two squealing bodies. The squeals seemed to be coming from the masses of brown and blonde hair smothering her face.
“Oof!” she mumbled, for their bodies were muffling her speech, “Gwen, Bridget, geroff!”
They obeyed at once, Bridget exclaiming with what Lily thought was a little too much relief, “I’m so glad to see you!” Gwen nodded enthusiastically, and Lily noticed for the first time that there were dark circles under their eyes.
“I’m fine,” she told them both, more meaning in her voice than the average passerby would catch. “Nothing’s happened this summer. We’re all safe.” Both of the other girls sighed in relief. They knew that, of the three of them, Lily was in the most danger because she was Muggle-born. They were both pure-blood, and their lives had been far less affected by the war.
Lily glanced at her watch. “Bugger,” she muttered, and looked up at her friends. “I have to go to the prefect meeting. See you two later.”
To her surprise, Bridget burst into a fit of giggles, her short, blonde hair rippling with every heave of laughter.
“What?” Lily asked, curious. Had she missed out on an inside joke?
Gwen’s dark eyes sparkled mischievously. “Oh, you’ll see soon enough.”
Lily turned to Bridget again. “What?” she demanded, irritated now.
Bridget only smiled, attempting to stifle her giggles. “Just go,” she managed to say before collapsing on the floor with Gwen in a fit of hysterics.
Lily rolled her eyes and left the compartment, leaving the two to their antics. As she began to walk towards the back of the train, she wondered what could possibly have made them both so insane. Laughter at unexpected moments was, well, expected from Bridget, but certainly not Gwen. She was always the serious one, keeping the always-amused Bridget in line when she (so frequently) pointed her toe across it.
Lily smiled to herself thinking of her roguish friend as she approached the Prefects compartment. She turned and opened the door to find Remus Lupin standing in front of her, facing the window, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Oh, thank Merlin you’re here, Remus,” she sighed, flopping down onto a seat. Had he dyed his hair? “At least that’s one of us who’s not late,” she laughed quietly, realizing how ridiculous she sounded, talking about punctuality in the midst of the chaos, the terror of it all. “Hey, where’re all of our Prefects? Later than me… that’s new. How was your sum “?”
He turned to face her, and Lily realized with a sinking feeling that Remus had not dyed his hair, because it wasn’t Remus.
“P-Potter!” she stammered, unable to speak clearly out of astonishment. “This “ this is the prefects’ carriage! What are you doing here?"
He grinned that maddening grin that made her want to blast a hole through his head. “What else would I be doing here, Evans?”
She just stared blankly.
“I’m Head Boy “ no, I’m not joking,” he added when Lily raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Moon “ Remus felt that with all the classes he’d be taking this year, N.E.W.T studying to be done, and… ah, other issues, Head Boy duties would break the camel’s back. So, Dumbledore thought it best to give the position to me.” He smiled again, his hazel eyes lighting up.
“Proof that he’s barking,” Lily muttered. She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot, staring pointedly away from James.
“Weren’t you going to ask me how my summer was?” Lily noticed for the first time that, when he addressed her, James did not use the pet names he had in the years previously, always calling her darling, peanut, dearest, the list was endless. Lily was relieved he seemed to have kicked the habit.
“No,” she corrected, still looking at the wall and not at him. “I was going to ask Remus how his summer was.”
Lily couldn’t believe this was happening to her. Of all the people she would have to do rounds with, gold weekly meetings with, and (it was rumored) share a dormitory with, why James Potter?
“Well, my sum “” James began, but Lily cut him off.
“Where are those prefects?” She was beginning to grow extremely irritated.
However, her question was answered almost immediately by bloodcurdling screams sounding from the train.
“What the…” Lily stood up and went to open the door, but the train suddenly stopped with such a violent jerk that she was thrown backwards and into James’s arms.
“Are you all right?” he asked concernedly, holding a furiously blushing Lily by the elbows as she struggled to free herself.
“Yes, yes I’m fine. Now will you let me g “?”
BOOM!!!
The train shook. The lights flickered, then went out. The screams from somewhere down the train elevated. As if by instinct, James wrenched the compartment door open and stepped outside.
It was absolute pandemonium. Students were running around senselessly, screaming, sobbing, calling for their mums. James tried to call some order to the crowd, though his attempts were in vain, while Lily grabbed a passing student.
“What’s going on?” she asked the boy.
“I don’t know,” he replied. The terror in his eyes made Lily want to squeeze him and take him away. “Stacy Grant’s just told me that we’re being attacked. We’re stuck here!” he cried. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!”
“Shhh, shhh,” Lily said, patting his head awkwardly. “It’s all right. We’ll keep you safe.” Something in her bright green eyes calmed him, for he put on a brave face and nodded at her. She smiled and let him go, standing straight to find James.
“Potter!” she called. He was there in an instant, gripping her elbow as if she could be carried away any moment by the crowd. “What’s going on?” Lily yelled over the noise.
“No idea!” he yelled back. “Let’s go to the front “ see what we can find out!”
She nodded, and they set off toward the front of the train, struggling through the swarm of frenzied students. They were about halfway to the front of the train when they were stopped by a rather unexpected explosion. The wall to their right burst into large chunks that went flying everywhere, and a blinding flash of light burned into Lily’s retinas. James hooked his arm around her waist and brought them both to the floor, out of the way of the flying debris.
He’s probably just saved my life, Lily thought dazedly. She didn’t have time to thank him, though, because three cloaked figures came striding into the train at that moment. Under their hoods, Lily saw skull-like masks that made her body turn cold.
“Oh my God,” she gasped. “Potter! Death “”
“I saw them," he grunted, getting to his feet. They hadn’t seen Lily or James yet, and the former fancied they looked rather drunk. They were laughing raucously and staggering slightly.
A fourth year girl screamed from somewhere behind Lily, and the Death Eaters turned. They simultaneously drew their wands and began advancing towards the body of students, now in a worse state of panic than before. Suddenly, a jet of red light shot out from where James was standing, and one of the Death Eaters fell.
Lily watched in horror as a jet of green light shot from one of the Death Eater’s wands. She stood frozen while the train seemed to light up around her, spells coming from both sides. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe.
Move it, Evans, she thought to herself. Death Eaters were Apparating onto the train now. They seemed to multiply exponentially as the seconds whizzed by. You’ve got to move! You’re going to get yourself killed!
Through some miracle, Lily was able to snap herself out of her reverie. She drew her wand out of her robes and started firing. More than once, James crossed her vision, shooting spells at Death Eaters, barking orders at the other students, and somehow winning the battle. While Lily shot numerous stunning jinxes repeatedly at the body of Death Eaters, she wondered how on Earth James could keep such a cool head. He wasn’t panicking; he wasn’t cowering against a wall, desperately trying to fend for only himself.
He also didn’t have a very solid, very large knife careening toward his middle.
Lily screamed, but it was too late. Pain exploded in her gut, blooming out through her body until it consumed her. Somewhere nearby, a man was laughing. She toppled over.
Something hard and loud against her head.
Hot blood in her fingers.
“LILY!!!”
Darkness.
Reciprocation by LD Noble
Story Notes:
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Harry Potter - JK Rowling does - in case you didn't already know. I don't own Lily and James either, but I do get their storyline (this one) and any new characters I make up. Thanks tons and tons to my wonderful, amazing, splendid, lovely beta emerald_dolphin. My life would be have less meaning without you. Please review!
Chapter Endnotes: Feedback is amazing! Please please please review.