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I Said NO


“JAMES!” Lily struggled to her feet and felt along the bars for a door but there was none - the bars fed right into solid stone walls. “How the bloody hell did he get you into this thing?” she murmured, and she fought with her cardigan to pull out her wand and she aimed for the bars of the cell, “Liquescimus!” she commanded, and there was a sizzling sound, but the bars did not melt as they should have, not clean through. She tried again and again, the spell slowly cutting its way through the strong iron. “I’m coming. I’m coming, James. I’m coming!” It took impossibly long, Lily’s forehead was sweating from the exertion of it, and finally one bar came undone and she held her breath and squeezed herself through the gap in the bars, barely fitting through, the jagged edge of the severed bar catching on her dress and tearing it at the bottom. She didn’t even care. She shoved herself through and stumbled into the cell in her stocking feet, her footsteps shuffling across the stone floor…

“James,” she whispered as she dropped to the floor behind him, and her hand rested on his shoulder… “James.”

“No! No, no, no!” James cried at the touch, his cries barely a whisper, but his body trembling, muscles tightening at the touch. “D- don’t don’t don’t -- p - please.”

Lily lifted her hand quickly. “James…” she crawled around him to the front of him, and she gasped as she saw just how much damage had been done. “Oh my gods.” She covered her mouth, tears filling her eyes as she stared down at him.

His skin was pale, dried blood beneath his nose and over his upper lip and cheek suggested he’d had a severe nosebleed and no energy to wipe the bleeding away before it dried. His face was swollen, his eyes darkened by purple-grey bruises, glasses gone. His chest was bruised and his breath shallow, his shoulder dislocated, hanging at a sickening angle compared to how it ought to be…

“Oh James,” she whimpered and she reached down and softly moved a bit of his messy hair from his face and he trembled, his face twisting into a look that suggested he was anticipating another dose of severe pain. “Oh no.. no, shh...”

“No!” He pushed her hand away. James’s cheeks were soaked with tears as they poured from his squeezed-tight eyes. “Do it. Do it. Just do it. Please.”

Lily stared at him, aghast for a moment.

“No, please, no, just kill me, just kill me please. Please you’re right I’m begging alright? Please. Kill me! Please! I give up! Please just kill me!” James choked the words, his face contorted with pain, “I d-don’t care about what Mopsus said, I don’t care, just please, please do it, do it. I can’t… I can’t t-t-take anymore.”

Tears pooling in Lily’s own eyes, she realized what was happening. “I’m not Voldemort, James,” she whispered, “Open your eyes, it’s me… It’s me, it’s Lily.” She reached down and gently touched his face again.

His eyes slowly opened.

He stared up at her.

His breathing, already shallow because of his ribs, was even slower.

He stared up at her.

Moonlight was cutting through the dark window where the snowflakes were coming from… bright and pale white, the light came from behind Lily Evans and lit her up in a sort of ethereal glow and he stared up at her, he could feel the cracks in his chapped lips, could feel the tears drying on his face, and panic exploded in his heart.

“James, it’s me,” Lily said, “It’s Lily.”

I’m dead and she’s an angel. Or this is a dream. Or it’s cruel trick Voldemort is playing on me… this is more torture. She’s not real. Or if she is, she’s dead too…

The Dark Lord has killed Lily Evans.

“No, no, not you, not you,” he begged. “Please anyone but you.” And the tears poured across his face again as he stared up at her, kneeling there beside him, all beautiful and perfect, her hair hanging over her shoulders, dressed in this beautiful dress…

Lily’s heart nearly stopped. It was exactly like her dream. He knew it was her, knew it was her and he thought she was a jinx, he blamed her for all of this, she just knew it. She felt a sinking terrible horrible feeling in her stomach and she struggled to speak, “I know it’s - it’s not ideal, but - but I’m here to - to take you away from - from this place, James.” Her voice trembled. “And - and Sirius, too.”

“S-Sirius?” James whimpered. So the Dark Lord’s killed Sirius, too? He used the last of his energy to curl himself up tighter into a ball in the agony of the thought of Lily Evans and Sirius Black being gone.

“Shhh,” she whispered, “Sirius is coming, yes, James. It’s okay, I’m here.” She drew her wand and produced a handkerchief and dampened it with another flick and she brought the cool cloth to his face to wipe away the blood…

James flinched away from the gentle touch of the cool cloth, his eyes squeezing tight again as he cried, mourning the loss of his friends…

“Shh, don’t worry baby,” she whispered. “I swear James if you hold on… if you just… just hold on a little longer… I swear to you, I’ll give you that date you always ask me for. I promise. I - I know it’s not much of a consolation, given where we are and that it’s my fault, but I - I mean, if you still want --” she hesitated. This wasn’t the time. She reached down and pressed the cloth to his forehead. “James, I’m sorry.” She leaned down and softly kissed his forehead. “We’re going to get you out of here and it’s going to be okay. I - I love you.”

James opened his eyes and he stared up at her through the blur of the pain and the tears and just his poor eyesight…

And suddenly.

CRACK!

“Well isn’t this just adorable.”

The voice tumbled over James from behind and his muscles tensed up in fear, his eyes squeezed shut. Lily dropped the cloth and it hit the floor and she stood up, her wand clenched tight in her fist as she glared up at Voldemort. “Look at what you’ve done to him!” she cried, her anger shaking her every fiber, ringing in her like a high note in a song. She had never felt so much hatred in all of her life.

Voldemort smiled and he drew his wand. “Would you like a demonstration? Crucio!”

The spell struck James - hard - and his whole body began to convulse as he cried out, loudly, his voice strangled. And Lily could not handle it.

“NO!” she screamed and there was a snap of magic as she slashed her wand and cut off the jet of light issuing from Voldemort’s bone-white wand, releasing James and stopping his curse.

Voldemort looked surprised a moment, staring at his wand for a beat, and then looked up at her.

“You won’t hurt him again,” she said.

Determination burned in both of their eyes.

Voldemort raised his wand again, “CRUCIO!”

“I SAID NO!” Lily screamed and she waved her wand, producing a shield charm that burst around James like a bubble and the sparks of the cruciatus exploded, rebounding back and burning Voldemort’s own skin. He recoiled at it, shouting, and Lily’s shield shattered, but it had done the job it was intended for. She stepped around James, “Expelliarmus!” she tried, but Voldemort was faster.

Adustim,” Voldemort hissed.

An ice-cold burn struck Lily’s wand arm and she dropped the wand. It clattered onto the floor.

Voldemort laughed.

“And now, I’ll kill you both.” Voldemort raised his wand. “Avada k--

But before he could get the spell from his mouth, he was hit the back of the head by a jet of white light and a wreath of flowers spouted about his head, errant petals falling over the top and raining down past his eyes as he staggered forward from the shock of the strike.

Lily grabbed her wand from the floor.

And there came Sirius, pushing himself through the bars in the cell, followed by an actual flock of ducks that burst into the room like a great quacking, squawking firework - an explosion of feathers and honking and flapping wings. “NICE DAISY CHAIN, MOLDY!” Sirius shouted as he shoved past Voldemort into the room.

Evan Rosier was hot on his heels, but being far too wide to fit through the bars as they were, he was lodged quickly in the space and he hung there, a third of the way through, flapping his arm hopelessly, duck after duck coming out of his wand like it was a fountain of water fowl.

Angry, Voldemort’s face burned bright red and Sirius laughed as the Dark Lord raised his wand, and he announced, “Ah Voldemort! But you do ever so quack me up, darling.” And he flicked his own wand, laughing, “ANATICULA!”

And Voldemort’s wand spurted forth a duck.

Lily’s eyes widened.

Sirius grinned, “What’s a’matter? Is your wand ducked up?”

Voldemort’s face burned with anger… he raised his wand again…

“I do wish I could take your photograph to remember this by later, darling, but I just simply do not have the time. You see, we’re in the midst of making an escape.” Sirius brought his palm to his mouth, blew Voldemort a kiss, grabbed hold of Lily’s arm and tugged her down as ducks exploded from Voldemort’s wand as he cursed and hexed… Sirius grabbed James’s elbow and he winked at Voldemort as Lily shouted - Evan Roisier finally squashing his way through the bars - and --

CRACK!

Sirius disapparated them out.