Lily and James took off sprinting through the forrest.
She didn't dare look, but Lily was fairly certain that the man in the mask had seen them. Her heart pounded in her chest, louder and louder with each step she took. James, who was just a stride or two ahead of her, whipped around to cast a spell over his shoulder. Lily heard a shout. James must have hit their chaser.
Still, Lily didn't look around. She kept running, as fast as she could, until she and James broke free from the forrest and were back on the side of the mountain. Lily collapsed on the ground and laid there, panting, for a moment. James had his hands on his knees, breathing deeply.
"You okay?" he asked Lily. She nodded.
"They're still here," said Lily in between breaths. "What do we do?"
"We shouldn't stay out in the open for very long. Damn, I thought they had left," cursed James. He reached out and helped Lily up. "We've got to get back to the cabin. That Death Eater should be waking up soon."
"What did you hit him with?" Lily asked as they started climbing back up the mountain.
"I just got him with a stunning spell."
Lily tried to concentrate on getting back to the cabin, but her mind kept wandering. She couldn't see a way out of this. Here they were, in a Muggle Ski resort, trapped on a mountain, with a load of Voldemort supporters on their trail. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but Lily was terrified.
When they finally reached the cabin, they were greeted with good news.
"Prongs! Remus is waking up," said Sirius. James managed to smile at Sirius, but Lily could tell that she was just as nervous as she was. As she watched the two boys go over to greet Remus, Lily saw James quietly tell something to Sirius. Sirius looked back to her with wide eyes.
"You've got to be kidding me," said Sirius. Lily wished that was the case. She walked across the cabin to join them and saw that Remus was just opening his eyes.
Remus groaned and coughed. "What's happened?" he mumbled, barely audible.
"Don't worry," said James, "there were just some... problems at full moon."
Remus' eyes shot open at that. "Who did I hurt?" he asked.
"No one," reassured Sirius and Remus calmed a bit.
"Wait, where are we?" he asked.
"I'll let James explain," said Sirius and then he pulled Lily aside. "What happened?"
Lily didn't know where to start. She especially didn't want to tell Sirius that she and James were just taking a break in the woods when they were supposed to be getting supplies for the others. "We were taking a shortcut through the forrest," she started.
"A shortcut?" asked Sirius with raised eyebrows.
"Yes, Black, a shortcut. It's like a faster way. But anyway, we were going through there when we saw a man in a mask and we started running. James cast a stunning spell at him and he fell over and then we came straight back here."
"Merlin, what do we do?"
"I don't know. All we can really do right now is stay here. Remus is still in no condition to be hiking back to the hotel and, as far as we know, that Death Eater could be right outside our door," said Lily. She was more nervous now than she had ever been before. When she was in the Muggle world, she never had to deal with magic or Voldemort. Here, at the Christophe Brazier, there wasn't any Dumbledore that could come to their rescue. They would have to fight alone.
"Maybe we could send an owl to the Ministry," suggested Lily.
"Do you see any owls here?" asked Sirius, shutting down her idea.
"What about a Patronus?" said James from across the room.
"James," said Lily, "it's Death Eaters we're facing, not Dementors."
"Listen, my mum and dad have been talking to Dumbledore and he's told them that he's finding new ways to communicate. He's found this way to make Patronuses talk, so that you can send people messages."
"Do you know how to do it?" asked Lily. This was the first sign of hope that they had.
"Kind of. It's like sending an owl. You cast the Patronus, you say the message you want to send, and then you tell the animal form where to send it," explained James.
"What are you guys talking about over there? And, Lily, where are the coats?" asked Cassie. She had come into the main room from the kitchen.
"Cassie, there's a problem," said Lily. "So, in the magical world there's this really bad guy named Lord Voldemort and he has these followers called Death Eaters."
"What's that got to do with us," asked Cassie, but Lily suspected that she already had an idea.
"They're trying to recruit me," said James. "They came here looking for me a week or so ago and now they're back. Lily and I saw one of them while we were going back to the hotel."
"Are they dangerous?" asked Bess, who had followed Cassie out of the kitchen.
"Yeah, I'd say they're dangerous," said Sirius. He went over to the window and quickly ducked down. "And they're outside right now."
Lily's heart beat faster and she clung to James, who she was closest to. No one dared to move. None of them knew what to do.
James held on to Lily and reached into his pocket to pull out his wand. He took a breath to say a spell, but Lily stopped him.
"James, what are you doing?" Lily whispered.
"I'm going to try to send the Patronus. It's the only way we're going to get out of this," he said, his voice quivering slightly. "Everyone, move to the kitchen, there aren't any windows back there."
Even though it felt like her feet were stuck to the ground, James managed to drag Lily back to the kitchen. Cassie, Bess, and Jill were back by the fridge in a heartbeat. The only problem was Remus.
"All right, Moony," said Sirius, "can you get up?"
Remus tried to sit upright. It took a little while, but he managed.
"I'm going to help you up now," Sirius told him as he hoisted his friend from his bed. Remus let out some grunts of pain, but Sirius put his hand over his mouth and muffled some of Remus' groans. The two finally made it to the back.
"I'm going to go to the pantry to cast the spell," said James. Lily nodded, but didn't want to let go. He was her life vest now, and she wasn't going to be separated from him.
They went to the little room, which was supposed to hold all the food. Now, it seemed deserted and dusty. Lily reckoned there were tons of spiders crawling on the counters, but still, this place seemed safer than the other rooms. She quickly pulled out her own wand and said, "Lumos." The pantry was automatically lit by Lily's wand and now she could see James clearly. He looked tired from the full moon and weary from the Death Eaters appearing and nervous. Nervous about everything in general.
James took a deep breath and spoke, "Expecto Patronum." A silvery mist flowed out of his wand and smoothly took the form of a stag. "Mum and Dad, we're trapped on the side of a mountain at the resort. There are Death Eaters. Please send help." Then James addressed the stag, itself. "Send this to Mr and Mrs Potter at Potter Mansion."
Lily almost commented on how posh "Potter Mansion" sounded, but restrained herself.
The stag started trotting around Lily and James and went through one of the walls. There was silence for a moment while the two begged that the spell had worked, but they were crushed when the stag reentered the room. It shook its glowing head and slowly melted away.
"What did I do wrong?" said James, frustrated.
"I don't know, maybe there's a different spell you have to use," said Lily. Things weren't looking good, though. It was only a matter of time until the Death Eaters came into the cabin. Every second waiting for the attack felt like an hour, dragging painfully.
"Oh Merlin," James muttered under his breath. He violently ruffled his hair and sat down on the floor of the pantry.
Lily slowly walked beside him and sat down. "Are we going to die here?" she asked in a whisper.
"Not if I can help it," he said.
James?" said Lily after a moment.
He turned his head to meet her gaze and she could see that he was distressed.
"I just wanted to say that, these past few weeks...," she paused to think about what she was going to say. "Well, you've been a really good friend."
James chuckled. "I think we both know that I've been more than just a friend to you, Evans."
"Excuse me?" said Lily, her cheeks turning a nice shade of pink.
"Face it, Lily, during this trip we've snogged, count them, two times," James laughed. He looked rather smug at the moment.
Lily was going to lash out, but decided against it. This was how James coped with reality. He was cheerful the day after his aunt and uncle died, and he was cheerful now. She wasn't going to strip that from him.
"Fine," she admitted, "we might have kissed, but that doesn't mean anything."
"Well, seeing as you couldn't even stand being within a five mile radius of me last year, I'd say we've made some progress."
Lily actually giggled and she had to admit that they, indeed, had made some sort of progress. And she had really meant it when she said he was her friend. Maybe next year, her sixth year at Hogwarts, they could be even more than civil towards each other. Maybe.
James kept talking and Lily understood that he was just trying to distract them both from the Death Eaters that were currently roaming the mountains outside their safe house. He told her about how much nicer the school grounds were at night, when everything was silent and at rest. Slowly, Lily forgot about the outside world completely. There wasn't a Sirius or Cassie or Bess or even Jill. The only people in the world were herself and James. It was only them and their pantry.
"And you wanna know the most brilliant location in all of Hogwarts? The Astronomy Tower. Climbing up all those stairs can be brutal, but man, the view is worth it. I swear, you can see every star from up there," said James. His eyes were glossed over, as though he was lost in a distant memory that he just couldn't reach, no matter how far he stretched.
"You're being awfully mature, you know that, Mr Potter?" said Lily with a smile.
"Please," said James, "Mr Potter is my father. Call me James."
Lily laughed at him and James laughed with her. They tried to laugh away their fears and worries, but they were still so scared. And if Lily wasn't so scared, she would have leaned over to James and told him how much she cared about him. Told him that she was so glad that he and Sirius had shown up at the resort. She would have leaned over and kissed him. But at that moment, the ground beneath them began to shake violently. The entire house seemed to roar. The shelves crashed to the floor and a lightbulb fell from the ceiling and shattered into a million pieces.
James grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her out of the collapsing room. He pulled her from their sanctuary and back into the real world where they were being attacked.
Jill shrieked and everyone dropped to the ground with their hands over their heads. It felt like they were being hit with an earthquake and Lily wondered what crazy kind of Dark Magic this could possibly be. Curiosity got to her in the end and she slowly peaked her head up to get a glance out the kitchen's window.
Her eyes widened as she saw, not Death Eaters, but a wave of deadly snow cascading down the mountainside.
Snowflakes by The_Dream_Team
Chapter Notes: Hey guys, sorry this is super late... I could give you a million excuses for why this chapter took so long, but you don't want to hear that! I hope you enjoy chapter nineteen, despite the long wait :)
Chapter Endnotes: Yeah, another cliff hanger :P Thank you so much for reading! Sorry, again, that this was so late... but thanks for sticking with me!