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Snowflakes by The_Dream_Team

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Chapter Notes: Hey guys, sorry this took so long! I hope you enjoy chapter 20 :) Thank you so much, mortaldraco, for beta-ing this, you're awesome! It's been a while, so here's a catch-up: The gang is stuck in a cabin after Remus' werewolf fiasco and there are some Death Eaters wandering around outside and James tried to send a Patronus for help, but it didn't work. And that's what you missed!
Their little cabin was in the heart of an avalanche.

It was an odd thing to do, but Lily breathed a sigh of relief. She would take an avalanche over Death Eaters any day. However, there was still the problem of the house shaking. Glass plates were sliding off the tables and shattering on the kitchen floor. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw James' wand rolling across the room and under the sofa that had been occupied by Remus.

James dove for his wand, but it seemed like he couldn't reach it.

"Accio wand!" shouted Lily and James' wand came flying into her outstretched hand.

"Lily, get down!" yelled James, but Lily ignored him and pointed out the window.

"It's not Death Eaters, it's an avalanche!"

"A what?!" screamed Jill, panicked.

"She said there was an avalanche," Sirius told her. "Stay calm. This house will be strong enough. We just need to wait it out."

Lily's friends showed different levels of horror, but didn't say another word.

James made his way back over to Lily and retrieved his wand from her. "Something tells me this wasn't a coincidence," he said to her.

"The Death Eaters probably did it," she agreed. She jumped as a flower vase fell to the ground next to her. She winced with pain, for several shards of glass had cut her hand and arm and she had begun to bleed.

"Are you okay?" asked James while he tried to dab at the cut with his sleeve.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lily said. She cringed as she watched the blood dripping down her arm and staining her shirt.

"I don't know any healing charms," said James.

"James," said Lily firmly, "don't worry. I'm going to be fine."

It looked like he didn't believe her. He stared at her, intensely, for a minute before reaching for a kitchen towel to cover Lily's wound. She cringed, and tried to push him away. "Really," she said, "I'm okay. Just let me handle this." Lily grabbed the cloth from James and applied pressure to her cut. It stung, but in a minute she could perform a scabbing charm to heal herself. "See, James, I'm perfectly fine."

"Not for long," said James, pointing out the window behind Lily. She spun around to see a dark figure looking in on the cabin.

"Oh, Merlin. What do we do?" said Lily. She was finding it difficult to breath and she wondered if she would even be able to pronounce a spell if she had to. But she couldn't worry about herself right now. She had three Muggle friends in the next room over who were completely defenseless.

"Sirius, Remus, the Death Eaters are here," said James as he grasped his wand, ready to fight. Sirius sprung to his feet, but Remus was not so quick.

"Remus," said Lily, rushing to his side, "you're still too weak. We're going to have to hide you with Cassie, Bess, and Jill."

"No, Lily, I'm not leaving you guys to fight however many Death Eaters may be out there," said Remus. He tried to stand up a little straighter, but it only made him buckle from pain.

"We can handle it," said Lily. "You need to protect them." She pointed at her friends who were frantically looking for a place to take cover.

"Fine," said Remus, "but you have to promise me you guys aren't going to get yourselves killed."

Lily was frozen for a moment, shocked by Remus' words. She honestly hadn't even thought that there was a possibility of death. She knew they might get hurt or stunned, but she hadn't even realized that Death Eaters weren't afraid to throw around the Unforgivable Curses. A new wave of fear gulped over her, but she quickly pushed it away. "Don't worry, we'll make it out. I'm sure of it," she told him, even though she hardly believed it herself.

She quickly hugged Remus, wished him luck, and went to join James and Sirius. She barely had time to pull her wand out when they heard a crash on the door. Everyone held their breath as a man's voice yelled from outside.

"Alohamora!" shouted the man and the wooden door burst open.

He was very large, with billowing robes and a silver mask covering his face. It was unclear how he had managed to even get to the door, due to the raging avalanche that was still rushing past the little cabin. The wand that he held was long and sharp, almost knife-like in shape, and he held it as if it were a dagger. When he shouted a spell, his voice was deep and raspy.

Lily hardly had time to react to the curse that the Death Eater had shot at her. It missed her, only by a hair, because she had quickly jumped out of its way. The spell hit the wall behind them and Lily heard a crash as a portrait fell from the walls.

The Death Eater shouted out again, but nothing came from his wand. Instead, three more Death Eaters appeared all around the front room. Lily didn't know which way to look. At once, all the masked men raised their wands and the only spell that came to mind was the Patronus charm. That wasn't going to do any good.James was too quick for the Death Eaters, though. He had already cast a spell at one of the men near the door and the man had gone flying into the wall. Sirius started shooting flames at the man by the window and Lily heard him yell when one of the fireballs scorched his arm.

"Gotcha!" laughed Sirius as he continued to whip his wand around.

Lily was so caught up in the battles around her that she hadn't noticed the other two Death Eaters advancing on her.

"Come on pretty," sneered one of them, the shorter of the two, "you're the Mudblood, ain't you?"

Lily grasped her wand in her sweaty palm and yelled, "Locomotor Mortis!

It was such a juvenile spell, but still extremely effective. The Death Eater's legs were quickly locked together and he fell flat on his face. Lily took a shaky breath and composed herself now that she had some time. While the other Death Eater was checking his friend, Lily shot another spell at him, putting him in the same leg-lock. The only problem was that they still had their wands at the ready.

"Expelliarmus! Lily shouted twice and both of the men's wands came flying towards her. She smiled at herself, glad that her defenses worked.

She didn't have too much time to enjoy her victory, though. There was a bang and Lily was quickly brought back into the battle to help James. He was taking on a huge wizard, with broad shoulders and giant arms. Lily shot a few spells in his direction and distracted him enough for James to knock him out. So far, this battle wasn't going that badly.

Unfortunately, she had thought too soon.

In a rush that seemed as great as the avalanche, about twenty more masked men and women came flooding through the front door.

"What do we do?" yelled Lily at James and Sirius. Even more panic was welling up in her stomach, ready to burst at any second. She tried, desperately, to convince herself that she was a Gryffindor and that they would find a way out. This couldn't be the end, could it?

Realizing that they couldn't possibly take on all the Death Eaters at once, James, Lily, and Sirius ran to the kitchen.

"What... the hell... are we going to do?" asked Sirius, between breaths.

"We're going to fight," said James as he locked the kitchen door.

"Yeah," said Lily, "but if we fight, we die." The boys stared at her with hopeless expressions on their faces.

"What other choice do we have?" said James, already looking defeated. He quickly started blockading the door with chairs and the table. They could hear the Death Eaters on the other side trying to force it open from the other side.

"Just blast it open," said a muffled voice.

"Yeah, fine, I'll blast it," said another.

The three quickly backed away from the door when they heard a man yelling a spell from the other side. There was silence for just a moment as they waited for the explosion. A loud crack and a flaming burst of light signified the destruction of the kid's last defense. Sirius and James started shouting spells and curses at the oncoming crowd, but Lily knew that this wasn't going to be a fair fight. There was really only one option.

"Protego!" screamed Lily and a magical barrier sprouted from her wand, surrounding herself and the boys. A few curses, that the masked people were throwing, rebounded and wounded a few of the Death Eaters in the front of the group. "James," she said with a quivering voice, "try the Patronus message again. It's our only hope of getting out of this mess."

He looked terrified, but he nodded and raised his wand.

James preformed the same spell that he did in the pantry and the same silvery stag soared out from the tip of his wand. He spoke to it, gave it directions, but Lily could hardly even hear over the shouts from the Death Eaters..

"What's that the Potter boy doin'?"

"Come out and fight us like adults!"

"Don't be babies! You can't hide behind there forever, you know!"

Lily ignored their taunts and watched as James' stag pranced away and through the cabin wall. She hoped, more than anything that the Patronus would make it to the Ministry.

"You know," said a large man as he stepped through the parting crowd, "he could put an end to this." The man pointed his plump finger straight at James.

"What are you saying?" James said, his voice quivering slightly.

"All we want is for you to join us," the man continued in a raspy voice. "The Dark Lord wants you, Potter."

"So?" responded James with more confidence. "I couldn't care less about what your dearest Voldemort wants."

There was a collective gasp from the crowd of Death Eaters and a single, high-pitched shout.

"How dare you speak his name?!" screamed a girl from the back. She pushed and shoved her way to the front of the crowd as she shouted obscenities. Her dark, wild hair was the first they saw of her before she squeezed herself up to the front. "You should fear his title!"

"Bellatrix?" asked Sirius, taken aback.

"Oh my, little cousin," said Bellatrix with a sneer on her pale face. "But Auntie Walburga and Uncle Orion said you were off in Egypt! Won’t they be surprised to hear that you're running around with the Potter boy and engaging with filthy Muggles."

Sirius glared at her. "And just when I thought you couldn't get more rotten, you join up with this lot," he scoffed.

"Maybe we'll snag you for the Dark Lord, too," Bellatrix threatened.

"You won’t be taking anyone," Lily finally worked up the courage to say.

"Oh, it speaks!" cried Bellatrix in a maniacal fashion, throwing her hands into the air. She stepped up to the magical barrier, as close as she could get, and whispered, "Maybe the Dark Lord would fancy you as a play thing. Oh yes, we'll bring you along, too."

"That's enough, Bellatrix," said the large Death Eater who seemed to be growing impatient with the girl. "Someone just break this bloody barrier."

A few masked wizards stepped up and tried breaking Lily's charm, but it managed to hold. However, all three of the kids knew that it wouldn't protect them forever and it was just a matter of time before one of the Death Eaters broke through. That time seemed to come when a cunning looking man came up to the protection spell and spoke in German to cast a spell. With terror, Lily watched the barrier melt before her eyes. The fighting was on again.

Spells shot wildly around the room, bouncing off walls and people alike. There were so many wizards and witches that it made Lily dizzy, but she couldn't drop her guard for a minute or she could easily be killed. As she cast off every spell she could think of, Lily legitimately wondered if this was going to be the end. With a killing curse flashing right in front of her nose, it wouldn't be unlikely that one might hit her or her friends. There was simply no time to worry, though, not when Lily had to concentrate on the hunchbacked Death Eater approaching her.

"I've got the Mudblood!" he snarled, baring the few rotten teeth that were left dangling from his gums.

"Stupefy!" Lily started to shout, but she was grabbed from behind before she could finish the spell. It was Bellatrix.

Bellatrix held her wand to her own throat and cast a charm to increase the volume of her voice. "OI! YOU MEATHEADS, LISTEN UP!" she screeched. Her shouts were so loud that Lily could feel the floor vibrating beneath her feet. Everyone stopped fighting to locate the speaker. "ESPECIALLY YOU, JAMES POTTER. LOOK WHO I'VE GOT!"

Lily immediately found James in the crowd. He had a large gash running down his cheek and the Death Eater who he had been fighting still had the wand pointed right at James' chest. He was breathing heavily and had a panic expression on his pale face. He mouthed the word, "No."

With a swishing sound, Bellatrix took out a switchblade and held it to Lily's neck. "YOU'RE GOING TO COME WITH ME, POTTER, OR ELSE THE RED HEAD GETS IT!" yelled Bellatrix.

This couldn't be happening. Bellatrix couldn't be using Lily as bait. There was no way in hell that Lily was going to let James give himself over to Voldemort for her sake.

"I'll go with you, take me instead, please!" begged James, throwing his hands in the air as a surrender. Lily shook her head and tried to speak, but the blade was right against her skin and the words just wouldn't come out.

"Let her go, Bellatrix," said Sirius from the other side of the room. He seemed better off than James, with no visible wounds. Although there were a good number of hooded wizards surrounding him, so maybe his luck wasn't so great.

"Itty bitty Sirius wants me to stop hurting his wittle fwiend!" laughed Bellatrix, an air of insanity surrounding her. "Take him, too, boys." At her word, the hooded Death Eaters closed their circle and grabbed Sirius.

Lily's mind was racing. She had to do something and she had to do it quickly. But the knife against her throat limited her range of motion and her wand was stuck behind her back where Bellatrix had tied up her hands. And that was it. Lily still had her wand in her hand, pointed at Bellatrix. But what spell could she cast that wouldn't send all of the Death Eaters into a frenzy?

James was already making his way up to Bellatrix to surrender. He wouldn't break eye contact with Lily as he walked, as though he was worried that she was going to do something stupid... which she probably would. There was no time to think, so Lily cast the first spell that came to mind.

"Wingardium Leviosa whispered Lily. She quickly ducked down to avoid Bellatrix's flailing arms as the deranged girl started floating upward toward the ceiling. The Death Eaters standing around them were too confused by what was happening to realize that Lily had been the one to cast the spell.. James understood, though, and he ran up to Lily to untie her wrists while the thick-skulled masked men and woman simply stared at the screaming Bellatrix.

As she floated to the ceiling, though, Bellatrix managed to take a swipe with her arm big enough to catch Lily's neck with her knife.

With her newly freed hands, Lily clutched the side of her neck where Bellatrix had cut her. She felt the slick blood on her fingers and running down her shoulders. The pain pulsing from the gash was nearly unbearable and Lily felt more and more light headed as the blood continued to pour from her.

"Oh Merlin, Lily!" gasped James when he had seen what Bellatrix had done. The Death Eaters had seen it, too, and took it as their cue to attack. As they rushed forward, James jumped at Lily, pulled her to the ground, and covered her as though he was her human shield.

Lily waited for the impact, for the Death Eaters to pelt them with every spell and charm and curse they knew. She grabbed onto James' arms that were wrapped around her and waited for them to be killed by the deranged men and woman who wanted them dead. It was taking an awfully long time. Maybe, for these final moments, everything just was moving in slow motion. Lily opened her eyes to try and get a look at the Death Eaters, but all she could see was James' sweater, still covering her.

What she did hear were multiple cracks in quick succession. Then a lot of shouting. And a booming voice saying that everyone was under arrest under the Wizarding Law.
Chapter Endnotes: Thanks again, mortaldraco! I hope you all enjoyed this one! We're in the home stretch now, guys! Just a few more chapters of Snowflakes left, so thanks for sticking with it this long :)