Sirius dramatically dragged his snowboard behind him with each step he took.
Lily stood frozen with fear. A tall cloaked figure was gracefully gliding in and out of trees. However, Lily couldn't see any skis. James was still staring at her with a confused expression.
"What's wrong?" he asked. She slowly pointed a trembling finger at a silhouette some forty meters behind Sirius.
His eyes widened as he saw what Lily was pointing at. The shape in the distance was tall and broad and very menacing looking. The way he was eerily sweeping through the forest was just one of the many factors that set off the alarm in James' head. The other, was the cloak. And there was also the thin stick that the man was clinging too.
"Hey, Jamsie, what would be the best sticking spell for me to use so I don't fall off this blasted contraption?" said Sirius, much too loudly for James and Lily's liking.
"Shut up, Black,"whispered Lily, menacingly.
"Look, Evans, do you see any Muggles around? I didn't think--"
"Sirius, shut it!" James snapped. Sirius instantly went quiet. He wasn't used to being yelled at by his friend.
"Don't turn around," Lily told Sirius. "There's someone behind you."
"What are you scaring me for? Just a little skier? How old do you think--"
"Sirius, it's one of us, a wizard, but I don't think it's one that we want to be associated with." James put his hands on his head, trying to think of a way to get the others away safely.
Lily felt her heart sink deeper and deeper with fear. She had had five whole years of magical training, but for some reason, she couldn't think of any spell or hexes to use. What was she good at? Charms and Potions. What good were those now?
"We could apparate away," suggested James.
"None of us know how," pointed out Sirius.
"Guys, can we please think of something soon?" said Lily as she glanced nervously at the cloaked figure coming towards them. It's features were becoming clearer. Lily could see two eyes, a mouth, metal skin.... Her eyes widened as she realized the stranger was wearing a mask.
It had been her third year when Lily had caught a look at a metal mask, much like the one on this man. She had been coming out of the toilet when she ran into Narcissa Black talking to her ruddy boyfriend, Malfoy.
"...We don't want to be revealing that we're Death Eaters," Malfoy was explaining to Black with his signature sneer. When Malfoy had seen Lily standing there, shocked, she made a run for it. She didn't look back, not even when Lucius had yelled after her, "Don't go poking your dirty nose in other peoples business, Mudblood! Fifteen points from Gryffindor!"
The man who was steadily getting closer to the trio, was definitely a Death Eater.
She, James, and Sirius were just kids. They couldn't beat a fully trained dark wizard! Lily's fear turned to panic as the man in the mask slid closer to them.
"We'll make a run for it," breathed James. "On the count of three, okay?"
The other two nodded silently in agreement.
"All right, one... two... three!"
James grabbed Lily's hand and Sirius' arm and they took off. Lily had never skied so fast before in her entire life. The three of them were dodging in and out of trees and flying into the air every time they went over a small hill. Even Sirius was able to avoid the evergreens that usually gave him grief.
Their getaway wasn't going to last forever, though. It was a rather large jump that landed all three of the teenagers on their faces. As Lily spat freezing snow out of her mouth, she turned around to look for the cloaked Death Eater. She let out a dry sob as she spotted him just a little ways away.
Lily saw James and Sirius both slowly reach for their wands and aimed them at their enemy.
The man stopped suddenly and disappeared on the spot.
"Where did he go?" asked Sirius, nervously.
"I don't know, but I think we should go back to the others," said James, his voice shaking slightly.
"Should we tell them about... about that guy?" asked Lily.
"No. It would be better if we didn't worry them. Plus, we'd have to do a lot of explaining about why we were afraid of a man with a stick...," said James and Lily and Sirius agreed.
Once Lily, Sirius, and James had made it to the bottom of lift ten, they spotted the others. They were sitting outside of a restaurant and having lunch.
"Okay guys, act normal and cheerful. Don't let them know that anything is wrong," said Lily. As the three sat down with the rest of the group, they made sure they had huge grins on their faces. They proceeded to laugh loudly about a particularly funny joke that Sirius had told them while they were at the warming hut.
"What's wrong with you guys?" asked Cassie, eyeing them suspiciously.
Sirius cursed under his breath.
"Nothing's wrong," said Lily, a little too quickly.
"There's nothing wrong with a bit of laughter," said James with a forced chuckle.
They quickly sat down and pretended to examine the menu.
"Lily, Prongs," whispered Sirius, "that was very smooth. I don't think they suspect anything." He gave them both a thumbs-up before turning to the waitress and ordering two large burgers.
"I'll have one burger instead," said James, "and one hot dog!"
Lily rolled her eyes at them both. "One salad, please," she said politely.
****
"Oh, the pain!" yelped Sirius.
"Padfoot! What seems to be the problem?" asked James as he jogged over to his friend.
"He may be hurt," said Lily to the others. Bess, Cassie, and Jill all turned around to see Sirius spawned out in the middle of the courtyard, holding onto his foot. Many people were staring.
The French boys had gone to the airport to pick up another friend, so it was only the girls, James, and Sirius left.
"I want to DIE!" exclaimed Sirius as he dramatically put his hand to his forehead.
"Sirius, what's wrong?" asked Cassie.
"My... my... my...."
"Spit it out, Black," said Lily through gritted teeth.
"My toe," Sirius said. "It seems I have stubbed it pretty badly."
"I saw it! It was bad...," added James with a sincere nod. He removed his glasses, rubbed his chin, and put the specs back on again.
"Sirius might not be able to snowboard anymore," said Lily, sadly.
"He stubbed his toe," Jill pointed out.
"Yeah, he also had his boot on," said Cassie. "You should be just fine."
"I'd like to see you stub your toe! Then you would know how it feels!" said Sirius, very taken aback.
The group standing around Sirius watched as Cassie headed towards the closest wall and kicked it with all her might. They then watched her walk back perfectly normal.
"Your boot is better than mine," said Sirius after she got back.
"It is not, I have the same--"
"Better than mine!"
"Maybe," suggested James, "we should take a night off so Sirius' toe can heal properly."
"Genius," said Sirius, clapping his hands together.
"I think Potter is right," said Lily. All the girls turned their heads in shock.
"You think James is right? Lils, he only stubbed his toe! He doesn't need crutches!" said Jill, impatiently.
"Look guys, there are a lot of nice restaurants in town or we could just eat in. It would be fun and different!" said Lily.
"Fine," said Cassie at last, "I'm in."
"Could Danny and those guys come, too?" asked Jill as she played with her hair.
"No."
"Lily!"
"No! Just friends."
"But Lily, he's my friend," whined Jill.
"Friend? We're friends?" James had a huge grin on his face and he completely forgot about Sirius, who was now slightly twitching on the ground.
"What? Oh, well... we're.... Come on, let's just bring Sirius back to the room," said Lily, her face flushing a light pink.
"Together?"
"Come on, Potter!"
Together, they hoisted Sirius off the ground and headed to the Christophe Brazier as they waved goodbye to the girls who went off to ski their last run.
As the elevator door shut with a ring, Lily and James let Sirius fall to the ground with a huge thump.
"Ouch! That's no way to treat injured people!" Sirius said as he rubbed his toe.
"Come off it," said Lily. "I told you guys to think of a good way to get hurt that was believable! You could have fallen down the stairs or hit your head. You chose to stub your toe...."
"Well, at least everyone will be safe," said James.
"Unless the creepy bloke shows up for dinner that is," said Sirius.
"It's better than skiing alone in the dark," replied James.
"Yeah," said Lily, "we'll be safe tonight."
Snowflakes by The_Dream_Team
Chapter Notes: Sorry for the long wait, everyone! Here is chapter 7!
Chapter Endnotes: Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a review in the box below to let me know what you think! =D