Chapter Fifteen: Believe in Me
Robert Ringleton was not a coward, and yet neither was he particularly brave. His job required him to come into contact with all sorts of people, but as long as they were only interested in his liquor and the use of his establishment, there was never a reason to be concerned about their presence. So it wasn’t courage that allowed him to easily trade jokes with criminals; rather, it was the knowledge that none of them were actually going to hurt him.
Unfortunately, that had all changed.
And now a very angry wizard was standing before him.
“Mr. Black,” Robert said patiently, trying his best to stay calm, “I really must insist that you refrain from charging into my bar and accusing me of… of whatever it is you think I have done.”
Sirius Black’s gray eyes narrowed dangerously. “I don’t think,” he said. “I know. Esmeralda told me.”
Robert raised his eyebrows at that. “Esmie? What did she tell you?” he asked sharply. There was no way that Esmie would have told Black anything damning. She understood what was at stake for him. She understood the consequences.
Black leaned forward, pressing his hands on the top of the bar and glaring furiously at Robert. “You lied. Everything you said on the stand was a lie,” he spat.
Robert shook his head in denial. “No, it wasn’t. It was the truth, all of it.” He folded his arms over his chest and continued, “When did you speak to Esmie?”
Black hesitated, then answered coolly, “A friend of mine spoke to her earlier today. Before the pub opened. She was terrified. She wouldn’t give us details, she was afraid of what would happen if she did. What did you threaten her with? How did you convince her to keep silent?”
His last words were laced with venom and disgust.
Robert looked away. The room was not yet crowded, but a few patrons had drifted in and taken spots along the bar or at the tables near the windows. Esmie was working quickly, moving in between the tables and taking orders with a bright smile and an occasional wink. She had yet to notice that Robert was being interrogated, yet to realize who it was who had entered the pub.
Robert looked back at Black. “Esmie doesn’t look scared,” he replied pointedly.
And it was true. She was smiling, even laughing occasionally, and looking altogether relaxed and at ease. But he knew her well enough to see that underneath the veneer of cheerfulness, the girl was worried. There was tension in her shoulders that wasn’t usually there, and an occasional wariness in her gaze when she thought no one was looking.
Robert glanced at Black. There was no way that the other wizard would pick up on those subtle signs.
Black glowered in response, apparently not at all swayed by Robert’s comment. “Why did you decide to side with Lestrange?” he asked in a low voice. “What did he offer you in return for your lies?”
“They weren’t lies,” Robert answered firmly, but with a bit of desperation in his voice. He was well aware of how he sounded, and some part of him wished he could come up with a better response. Any response besides this pointless denial. Black wasn’t going to believe him, no matter what he said.
“Was it wealth?” Black pressed, crowding into Robert’s personal space. “I can’t imagine you are in need of money. Unless…” he glanced around quickly, “you gambled it all away?”
“This has nothing to do with money!” Robert retorted, feeling frustrated. Why couldn’t Black just leave it all alone? Didn’t he know that he couldn’t gain anything from this conversation?
“Then what was it?” Black cried, his voice suddenly louder. “What made you decide to turn on an innocent witch?”
The Hungry Hippogriff was abruptly incredibly quiet, and the few patrons all paused in what they were doing to look over at Robert and Black. Esmie, who had been flirting with an old, seedy looking wizard, glanced up sharply and took a few steps towards Robert.
But he held up his hand to stop her. He’d already gotten her involved once, purely by accident. He wasn’t going to drag her into this again.
She hesitated, giving him a searching look, but then nodded once and stepped back.
Black had witnessed the entire exchange and gave a snort of disgust. “You won’t even let her talk?” he demanded. “Maybe she has something she wants to say.” And he whirled away, turning his back on Robert and marching towards Esmie.
Robert jumped forward, throwing out his arm and wrapping his fingers tightly around Black’s shoulder. “Leave her alone,” he hissed. “She’s got nothing to do with any of this.”
Black drew his wand. “Let go of me,” he said in a low and deadly voice.
Robert dropped his arm and stepped back.
“Leave him alone!” Esmie cried suddenly, apparently deciding to ignore his previous request. She darted forward, placing herself between Robert and Black. “Can’t you see that what you’re doing is wrong?”
Black stared at her, the disbelief in his expression quickly switching to anger. “I’m wrong?” he spat. Gesturing towards Robert, he said furiously, “He’s willing to send an innocent woman to Azkaban. He’s willing to threaten you to keep your mouth shut about it. And I am just trying to figure out the truth, so how can you say that I’m wrong?”
“Threaten me?” Esmie demanded incredulously. “What are you talking about? Mr. Ringleton hasn’t threatened me. He hasn’t done anything.”
“He lied on the stand! He committed perjury! He conspired with Lestrange to send Lily Evans to prison…” He was waving his wand around in a dangerous manner, and his eyes darted back and forth between Esmie and Robert. The blonde witch’s own eyes had widened in obvious fear as she stared at his wand, and Robert felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest.
“Esmie, get out of here,” Robert said in a low voice. He was not going to allow her to get hurt, not on his account.
“So you’re going to protect her but not Evans? Evans is expendable?” Black demanded.
Robert drew himself up to his full height and pulled Esmie behind him, away from Black. “She’s my employee. I am responsible for her safety while she is on my premises,” he said firmly, unwilling to let Black see how terrified he was of the other wizard.
How had this all spiraled so far out of control?
“Just tell me why,” Black said evenly, lowering his wand so that it was pointing directly at Robert’s chest. “Tell me why you are so willing to let Lestrange win. Or are you actually on his side? Are you one of Voldemort’s followers?”
“Who?” Robert asked, blinking in confusion. He didn’t recognize the name.
“Answer me!”
“Lestrange threatened him,” Esmie blurted out, seemingly no longer able to keep the truth a secret. Not when it was putting her boss’ life in danger.
Black faltered. “What?”
Now that Esmie had uttered the truth, the rest of the words just seemed to pour from her lips. They rushed together and she scrambled to get it all out, her wide eyes still fearful, still fixed to Black’s face.
“Lestrange came in the other day and told Mr. Ringleton that if he didn’t testify against Lily Evans, he would lose his family. Lestrange threatened to kill them. He said he knew that all you would have to do to get people to question Evans’ guilt was have her and Frank Longbottom both testify about how much she loved Lupin. He said he needed to prove her guilt He said all her arguments with Lupin had been about trying to keep him safe, and Lestrange needed something more than that. He needed someone to testify about an argument where Evans threatened Lupin, and he wanted Mr. Ringleton to do it. And he was going to kill Mr. Ringleton’s family if he didn’t agree. And I accidentally overheard the conversation, I didn’t mean to, but I did. And Lestrange said if I told anyone, he’d kill my parents. And my mum’s a Muggle, she can’t defend herself against him, and I just… I was scared and I didn’t know what else to do but keep quiet.”
And she promptly burst into tears.
A sudden, stunned silence met her words. Black slowly lowered his arm and pocketed his wand. The expression on his face was a mixture of pity and antipathy as he stared at Esmie. Then he lifted his eyes and met Robert’s gaze, silently asking a question.
Robert nodded once, confirming the truth of Esmie’s words, and Black’s lips thinned into a straight line.
Robert sighed and rubbed his eyes before looking around in apprehension. The entire altercation had just been witnessed by the patrons of his pub, and there was no way to take back all the words that had been said.
“Did you see this? This is great!” Sirius exclaimed as he tossed the Daily Prophet onto James’ desk. James glanced at it wearily, not particularly interested in whatever it was Sirius had found.
The first headline caught his eye. BARTENDER ADMITS TO LYING IN MURDER TRIAL. He flipped the page, found another headline. SUSPICION FALLS ON LESTRANGE FOR WITNESS TAMPERING. The Sirius placed a copy of the Quibbler on top of the Daily Prophet, and James read the headline on that one as well: EVANS GUILT QUESTIONED.
“It’s perfect, mate,” Sirius said, grinning wildly.
James frowned as he glanced over the article. “What happened?” he asked slowly.
“I meant to tell you last night,” Sirius replied, “but didn’t get a chance. I had to talk to Dumbledore, you know. Since you wanted me to tell him about everything you had learned.”
James waved his hand impatiently, gesturing for Sirius to get to the point.
“I went to see Ringleton, confronted him at his pub. He admitted to lying on the stand, and Esmie told me the whole thing. That Lestrange had threatened them both if they didn’t do what he wanted.”
“And someone in the pub overheard the conversation,” James finished with a nod, feeling a spark of interest. Although he had certainly suspected all along that Ringleton was lying, he hadn’t known exactly how they would prove it. But now maybe they did not even have to address the issue on the stand. Enough members of the Wizengamot would read the newspaper and be suspicious.
“More than just one person,” Sirius replied. “There were a lot of people. Enough that the argument ended up in both the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler.”
James nodded as he accepted this, but then shook his head and pushed the newspapers away. “Just because Ringleton was lying, it doesn’t mean that Evans is innocent.”
Sirius’ eyebrows rose at that comment. “It’s back to Evans now, is it?” he asked suspiciously. “Tired of calling her Lily?” He folded his arms over his chest and regarded James with a searching stare. “When did you start doubting her innocence?”
James ran a hand through his hair and gave a shaky sigh. “She’s lying, Sirius. All she does is lie. I’m getting tired of it. I can’t defend her. I can’t… I don’t know. I think maybe she actually did kill him.”
“You think she killed Lupin?” Sirius demanded incredulously, clearly unable to believe what he was hearing. “What happened?”
James hesitated, then said, “I talked to Longbottom. I wanted to ask him about his wife, about her death.”
Sirius’ eyes narrowed. “You wanted to ask if he knew that Lestrange killed her,” he surmised.
“Yeah,” James agreed. “Turns out Longbottom did know. He’s known for a while, maybe he knew all along. He, Evans, Lupin… they all knew.”
Sirius shrugged. “Yeah. So he knew. So they all knew. So what? How does that change anything?”
“Lestrange killed her as revenge against Frank Longbottom. He was Evans’ alibi in the trial, you know, and he did a lot of damage to the prosecutor’s case. Lestrange wasn’t happy about it.” James closed his eyes for a moment, picturing Lily’s face as she looked up at him, pleaded with him to just forget the past. How could she not understand that this mattered to him? He couldn’t just let it go.
“James?”
James expelled a sharp breath and looked up at Sirius. “It was a lie. The alibi. Longbottom told me, and Evans admitted to it. She wasn’t with him the night Malfoy was killed.”
Sirius’ mouth fell open. He stared at James for a moment in wordless shock, then said, “You think she actually killed him? Malfoy, I mean.”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. Longbottom certainly thinks she did.”
James pushed his chair back and rose to his feet. He started pacing as best he could in the small space, unable to completely contain the nervous energy building up inside him. Even if Lily hadn’t killed Malfoy, she at least knew something about how the wizard had died. Or else why would she have needed the alibi? Why wouldn’t she have simply told the truth about where she was?
He had thought through several different scenarios during the night. He hadn’t gotten much sleep, and had finally given up and gotten out of bed some time in the middle of the night. But sitting by his fireplace, holding a mug of tea between his hands, had not offered him any real solutions.
There was one possibility that he kept clinging to, one possible explanation that he desperately wanted to be true. Not that Lily was in any way involved in Malfoy’s death, but that she had known that she would be blamed for it and had needed a better alibi than the one she had.
But if that was true, how could she have gone to Longbottom for help the very night that Malfoy was killed? The only way that made sense was if she had known almost immediately that he was dead, and how could she have known that unless someone had told her?
Or she had witnessed it.
Or had actually killed him herself.
“You thought she was guilty at the beginning,” Sirius said after a long pause. James glanced at Sirius, confused, and the other wizard continued, “You thought she was guilty of kill Lupin, but you didn’t give up. You didn’t decide not to defend her. You didn’t care this much. So why do you care now?”
James ran a hand through his hair again, messing it up, and tried to think of a good answer. He knew exactly why it bothered him so much now, but he didn’t really want to admit the truth to Sirius.
He had a feeling he would never live it down.
But the truth was, he had started to admire Lily. Respect her. Maybe even fancy her. Longbottom had been right about that much.
He hadn’t cared about her innocence or guilt back when they first met because she had meant nothing to him. She had merely been just another client, and he had been much more concerned about beating Lestrange than about helping her. But that had slowly changed. Her earnest demeanor on those rare occasions when she was being honest, as well as her obvious devotion to Lupin and her desire to get justice for him, had somehow worked away at James’ defenses.
He actually cared about her now.
And that made it so much harder to find out that she had been lying to him all along. And that she probably was a murderer, despite what she kept insisting and what the Wizengamot had agreed upon years ago.
She had disappointed him. She had let him down.
She had fooled him.
Sirius finally appeared to grow tired of waiting for an answer and said irritably, “What does it really matter, anyway?”
James blinked and stared hard at his friend. “It matters to me.”
“But this isn’t about Evans,” Sirius replied heatedly. “It’s about Lestrange. It’s about stopping this Voldemort. Whether or not Evans killed Malfoy seven years ago is irrelevant to the issue now. And if she did… well, that’s bloody well good for her. Or did you forget what Malfoy was going to do to our world?”
James looked up, surprised. He hadn’t thought about the possibility that Lily knew of Malfoy’s involvement with Voldemort and his followers. If she had killed him, was it possible that she had done it on Dumbledore’s instructions?
But no… Dumbledore would have told him if that were the case.
“Focus on Voldemort,” Sirius continued. “You have to beat Lestrange. You have to stop him. Evans doesn’t matter. She just doesn’t.”
James nodded slowly. Just a day ago he had come to the conclusion that the world was going to war and he needed to pick a side.
Sirius was right. This wasn’t about Lily. It wasn’t about Malfoy or Lupin. It wasn’t even really about Lestrange.
It was about Voldemort.
The world was going to war, and James had already picked his side.
Sethos Avery settled himself into the witness box without even glancing in James’ direction. He stared instead at the Wizengamot, his gaze primarily resting on Alistair Bones. He looked almost bored by the entire proceedings, but James did notice that the one time Avery caught Lestrange’s eye, he gave a wolfish smile.
He had a blockish build, with broad shoulders and a square chin. He exuded physical, although not magical or mental, strength. But despite the fact that he would be more readily labeled as brawny than brainy, beneath the veneer or tedium, his expression was shrewd and almost calculating.
James glanced over at Lily. She was sitting in the defendant’s chair, the chains wrapped tightly around her arms. She wasn’t looking at him, wasn’t looking at anything in particular. Her gaze was unfocused.
But, surprisingly, her eyes were rimmed with red.
James almost leaned over to ask if she had been crying. But then he stopped himself. He didn’t want to start a conversation with her in this courtroom. He had to keep his composure if he was to find a way to poke holes in Avery’s testimony. It seemed unlikely that he would be graced with the same fortune twice, and so he could not hope that Avery would admit to lying in a crowded pub the way Ringleton had.
Marlene was at his side. She had asked no questions upon arriving at the courtroom, but James could tell by the way she looked at both him and Lily that Sirius had repeated their conversation for her. She clearly knew all of what had happened.
James forced a smile for her benefit, then turned his attention to Avery.
Lestrange had started the questioning.
“Please state your name and occupation,” Lestrange said briskly.
“Sethos Avery,” Avery replied. “I work at the Ministry in the Department for Magical Law Enforcement.”
“Are you an Auror?” Lestrange asked.
“No,” Avery answered with a smirk, “just a bureaucrat.” It was clearly an answer that he had given frequently in response to questions about his occupation and, as expected, it garnered several chuckles from the audience. A few camera bulbs flashed, taking his picture, and several reporter’s quills scratched against scrolls of parchment.
“How long have you known the defendant, Mr. Avery?”
Avery looked at Lily. “Since Hogwarts. She was in the same year as me. She was a Gryffindor, though, and I was a Slytherin, so I didn’t know her well.”
“And did you know the deceased?” Lestrange asked.
“Remus Lupin? Sure, Lupin was also in our year at Hogwarts. Also in Gryffindor. He and Evans were friends, but I didn’t know him that well.”
“But he and the defendant were friends?”
“Sure,” Avery said with a shrug. “They were together all the time. I rarely saw one without the other at Hogwarts.”
“And can you tell me what happened on September 16th?” Lestrange asked. As he spoke, he glanced over one shoulder at James, and his eyes were filled with loathing.
James merely smiled back.
“I had to meet with a few people “ something worked related, and I won’t bore you with all the details of it “ and was passing by Lily Evans’ home. I did not know it was her home at the time, of course, but I learned that later,” Avery said, shifting his gaze from Lestrange to Lily. “Anyway, as I was passing by, a man came running out. I recognized him as Remus Lupin, though he did look rather sick.”
“Mr. Lupin came out of the defendant’s home?” Lestrange said softly. “And then what happened?”
“He paused and looked over his shoulder. He seemed upset… and very scared. I approached him and asked if everything was alright. I asked if he needed help. I recognized him, and knew that he was a wizard, so I told him that I worked for the Ministry, for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I thought maybe he would trust me.”
“Did he tell you what was wrong?” Lestrange pressed.
Avery shook his head, looking away from Lily. Focusing his attention back on Lestrange, he explained “Not exactly. He said that she was being completely unreasonable and he never should have come. He was shaking with fear as he said it, and I was concerned, but I didn’t understand what he was talking about. I asked him if he could tell me any more, and he said that she would come after him if she knew and he needed to get away from her.”
“Did he say who this she was?” Lestrange questioned.
“No, but he kept looking at Miss Evans’s home,” Avery replied.
“And then what happened?”
“He said he had to go, and he ran off. It was all very odd.”
“No further questions,” Lestrange said, directing his attention to the Wizengamot. Then, with a brief look at James, he said, “Your witness.”
James glanced at Lily. He half expected her to be arguing with him, to deny that any of this had happened. But she didn’t. In fact, she did not seem to even notice his scrutiny. She was simply gazing at Avery, her expression thoughtful.
James sighed and walked forward.
“Mr. Avery,” he said, “was there anyone else around when you had this supposed conversation with Mr. Lupin?”
Avery narrowed his eyes. “No, it was just me,” he said coolly. “And Mr. Lupin, of course. But he can’t testify, given that he’s dead.” And here he paused long enough to give Lily a pointed look.
“I see. And what business was it that you were dealing with that morning, Mr. Avery?” James asked politely.
“It isn’t really important to this issue,” Avery answered. “It was work-related.”
“But what work does a Ministry official have in that area?” James asked skeptically. “As you said, you are not an Auror. Why would a bureaucrat need to meet anyone away from the Ministry? Don’t you have offices for that sort of thing?”
“We do,” Avery answered, “but this was… sensitive. The people I was meeting with did not want to come to the Ministry.”
“Why would law-abiding citizens not wish to come to the Ministry?” James pressed, feeling an advantage and intending to make full use of it.
Avery looked a little surprised by this line of questioning, and he was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. But his voice was steady and his words were firm as he answered, “People avoid the Ministry for many reasons. There are a lot of reporters there, and sometimes they don’t want to be seen. Particularly if they are giving us any kind of sensitive information.”
“Information that is conveniently too sensitive for you to won’t it to us now,” James said sarcastically. “So you cannot provide a satisfactory reason for why you were near Ms. Evans’ home that morning?”
“Objection!” Lestrange snapped, jumping to his feet.
“Sustained,” Bones said, his voice practically a growl, not bothering to hear Lestrange’s argument for why he had objected.
James glanced up at the Wizengamot bench. If everything his mysterious informant had said was true, if Bones was also working for Voldemort and if Lupin had really stolen something that Voldemort desperately wanted back, then Bones clearly had an interest in the outcome of this trial. He clearly needed Lily to be convicted, or else his own credibility would be questioned just as Lestrange’s reputation had been damaged seven years ago.
Bones dislike of Lily went far beyond her blood status or his own friendship with Bellatrix Lestrange. If she was guilty of killing Malfoy, then she had ruined quite a few plans that involved Bones and Voldemort’s bid to take over the wizarding world.
James glanced back at Avery. Bones might have insisted that he stopped this line of questioning, but at least he had planted some doubt in the minds of the other Wizengamot members.
Would that be enough?
“Do you have any more questions, Mr. Potter?” Bones asked dryly.
“Just one,” James replied. “Mr. Avery, can you describe Miss Evans home for me?”
Avery’s eyes widened. “Describe?”
“Yes. Does she live in a flat or a house? What color is the outside? Is there a garden?”
“I don’t… I don’t remember,” Avery answered. “I wasn’t really paying attention to those details. Didn’t know that I was going to have to testify. Didn’t know that Lupin was going to be murdered.”
“I see,” James said. He paused, then asked delicately, “But you can’t even recall if Miss Evans lives in a flat or a house? Surely that is a detail you would have noticed.”
“I don’t remember,” Avery said stubbornly.
James smiled. “Of course you don’t,” he said sarcastically, then nodded his head towards the Wizengamot on their raised platform. “No further questions.”
“I’m surprised,” Lily said upon entering the small room and taking her customary seat across from James. “I assumed that you had resigned as my counsel. You certainly indicated a desire to do that yesterday.”
James bit back the urge to snap a reply and said instead, “If everything you have told me about Lupin is true, then figuring out why he was killed may provide information that will help us stop Voldemort. That is what matters to me.”
Lily studied him for a moment. “You don’t think I killed him,” she said finally.
James hesitated. “I have not completely ruled out the possibility, but I do admit that it seems unlikely. I am hesitantly accepting your innocence… at least in this death.”
Lily flinched and looked away. “I see,” she murmured.
“And I am surprised at you,” James continued, feeling the need to talk, to fill up the room with words. Silences were dangerous around Lily, she seemed to have an uncanny knack for using them to convey some emotion that would lodge itself under his skin.
“Why?” Lily asked.
“I expected you to burst in here and insist that Avery was lying,” James said, “as you did with Ringleton.”
Lily licked her lips. “I don’t know if he is lying or not. I can hardly account for all of Remus’ movements on the day he was killed. Although I assure you, he had no reason to be afraid of me, so his behavior in that regard would make no sense.” She paused, then added softly, “But Avery was right about him visiting me the morning he was killed.”
“Yes,” James said. “You mentioned that.”
He wasn’t sure what to think of that bit of information. He was almost positive from the testimony that Avery had not witnessed any of what he had reported; that, in fact, he had never been to Lily’s home. But he had been right about Lupin’s presence there, and that was disconcerting.
But Lily had told him that Lupin was convinced that he was being followed. Was it possible, then, that whoever had followed Lupin had reported the information to Lestrange? But if so, why had they not testified themselves instead of placing Avery on the stand and having him lie?
And was the person who had followed Lupin also the one who had killed him?
“Are you sure he wasn’t afraid of you?” James asked finally. “Lupin, I mean. Are you sure the two of you did not quarrel when he visited you? You didn’t threaten him?”
“Of course not!” Lily seethed. “I would never…”
“Hurt him,” James finished for her. “Yes, I know. You’ve said that before. Of course, you also insisted that you didn’t kill Lucius Malfoy, and I am having a hard time believing that.”
“Can’t you just leave Malfoy out of this?” Lily cried in frustration. “Why do you keep brining him up?”
“Why do you keep lying to me?” James retorted angrily. “How much longer is it going to take before you tell me the actual truth? What more do I have to do to convince you that I am on your side?”
“Are you on my side now?” Lily shot back. “Because you seem to have left it completely.”
“I am interested in stopping Voldemort,” James replied evenly, forcing himself to stay calm. “I assume you are interested in the same thing. We are therefore on the same side.”
“Fine,” Lily snapped. “We’re on the same side. Great.” She folded her arms over her chest and looked away from him. “I never threatened Remus and I certainly didn’t kill him.”
“Did you know that Malfoy was poised to become the next Minister?” James asked.
Lily stared at him, her mouth partially open.
“Did you know that Lestrange was supposed to take over the Wizengamot?” James continued, the words pouring from his lips. “Did you know that Rookwood was to be the head of St. Mungo’s? That Voldemort had planned it all, that he wanted to take over those three institutions before starting his war? That Malfoy’s death and Lestrange’s inability to convict you of the murder stopped all that?”
He wanted to see how she would react, and the stunned look on her features was enough to convince him that she did not know all those details.
But then she said, “I knew what type of person Malfoy was, I knew what he wanted to do to the world. I didn’t know the rest of it, though. At least not the details.”
“Did you know that Voldemort ordered Lupin’s death?” James demanded.
“I… no… I didn’t…” Lily stammered, surprised by the onslaught of his words. She stopped speaking and silently shook her head, staring at him in confusion and wonder. “Voldemort ordered Remus’ death?” she asked at last, her voice quiet.
“So I have been lead to believe,” James said, thinking back to the confrontation in the alley and all that he had learned there. Then he gaze Lily a pointed look and added, “But I’ve been lied to before.”
“Ringleton was lying completely,” Lily said, ignoring James’ last comment, “and Avery was at least lying about Remus being afraid of me.”
“Why should I believe you?” James asked.
“You just said that Voldemort ordered Remus’ death!” Lily cried out. “So how can you also accuse me of killing him?”
“I don’t know what to believe,” James answered. “I don’t know how I can trust a single thing you say.”
Lily shook her head frantically, as though she could somehow erase his words. “What do you want me to say?” she asked, practically begging him.
“Just tell me the truth!” he answered furiously. “I’ve read the articles, Lily, and knowing that Longbottom was lying about your alibi, I don’t know what to think besides that you killed Malfoy! And I want to believe that you’re innocent, I do! But… Merlin, you argued with him at St. Mungo’s just days before he was killed. You said you would make him regret everything. Or do you expect me to believe that that testimony was a lie as well?”
“Stop acting like Malfoy is some innocent…” Lily started, and then stopped and shook her head, looking away. “He wasn’t a good person, Mr. Potter. He just wasn’t! But that doesn’t mean that I plotted to kill him!”
“Then what were you arguing about?”
“He knew! He knew what Remus was and he was going to tell everyone,” Lily answered, spitting out the words. “Don’t you see? He would have ruin everything Remus had tried so hard to build for himself.”
“He knew?”
“Yes… yes…” Her eyes were suddenly watery, and James was reminded of the way they had been rimmed with red that morning, of the indication that she had been crying during the previous night. “It’s why we argued.”
“What happened?” James pushed fervently. He was finally getting some kind of answer, and he knew that it wouldn’t help him figure out the details of Lupin’s death and that it would offer any aid in winning this present case, but he couldn’t stop himself from needing to hear what Lily was going to say. He couldn’t even explain the desire to himself, all he knew was that now that she was finally talking about what had happened with Malfoy, he wasn’t going to stop her.
“I was talking to Narcissa. I wanted her to think about everything. I tried to tell her that she needed to leave Malfoy. She needed to take her son and just go. But she wouldn’t listen. And then he came and interrupted the conversation. And Narcissa went off to talk with Augustus Rookwood and Malfoy told me… he told me…”
“Yes?” James prompted eagerly.
“He told me that he knew that Remus was a werewolf. I don’t know how he figured it out, but he was actually gleeful when he told me. He said he would tell everyone. He would make sure that Remus never had work anywhere in England ever again. He’d ruin his life…”
“So you slapped him and yelled that if he did that you would make him regret it,” James said, remembering what the article had reported about the witness testimony.
Lily nodded and whispered, “Yes.” The tears were falling from her eyes, making tracks down her cheeks. She looked so tired and so vulnerable and so unlike the composed and collected version of herself that had addressed James on so many other occasions.
James had to fight the urge to reach out and hug her. He wanted so much to show his support and offer his comfort. Just looking at her crying was breaking his heart.
But he had to stay firm. He had to get the whole story. He couldn’t let Lily get under his skin.
“I avoided Remus for the next two days. I didn’t want to tell him, I didn’t want to worry him. I kept trying to figure out what I could do to stop this, to stop Malfoy. I thought about talking to Narcissa again. I thought maybe she could reason with her husband. But she didn’t know what Remus was, and I couldn’t tell her. There was no guarantee she wouldn’t turn on him herself. I didn’t know what to do, so I just… I avoided Remus. I avoided Frank and Alice. I just… I was just scared. He had always threatened to ruin my life, but now he was going after Remus, too. And he wasn’t the only one…”
James inhaled sharply, remembering other parts of the articles he had read. “The Lestranges…”
“Bellatrix and Rodolophus Lestrange threatened me,” Lily said. “They knew that I was trying to get Narcissa to leave Malfoy, and they threatened… they said they would kill me. They said they would cause suffering and misery to me and to the people that I loved if I didn’t leave Narcissa alone. And Malfoy knew that Remus was a werewolf so it was only a matter of time before he told them, and… and I couldn’t let Remus or Frank or Alice get hurt. But how could I just give up on Narcissa? She was better than Malfoy. She was.”
“But what did you do? Why did you need the alibi?”
“The night he died, I went to the Cavorting Chimaera by myself,” Lily whispered. “I don’t usually go to pubs alone, but I was still avoiding everyone, and I just… I needed to think. But Malfoy was there, and he kept smirking at me, he kept… he would give me these looks and I… He was getting so drunk, and I needed to get away from him, so I left. He was still there when I left, and I think Narcissa had come to join him…”
She broke off and reached up to scrub away the tears that filled her eyes.
“And then?” James asked gently. “What happened next, Lily?”
Lily looked at him, and he could see the indecision in her eyes. It was clear that she wanted to tell him something, and equally clear that she wasn’t sure if she should.
He felt his own temper flare. When would she learn to trust him?
“Tell me!” he snapped, his words more of an order than a request.
Her own temper rose as well, and she spat, “I killed him. Is that what you want to hear, Potter? I killed him! I killed Lucius Malfoy. It’s what you’ve believed, it’s what everyone has believed. And they were right. Are you happy now?”