A Tale of Two Brothers

Chapter 5

The moon illuminated the stream flowing peacefully through the forest. Frogs jumped in and out of the water, croaking in a strange rhythm. Occasionally, one of them was eaten or frightened by a small snake nearby. The owls perched on the birch trees kept hooting at the trespassers, eying them suspiciously. Somehow, the forest had escaped the biting cold of the winter.

It wasn't difficult to know that the place was under heavy magical influence.

Lily heard the squelching of yet another insect under her boots. She felt the disapproving gaze of Moody in her back, which she steadily ignored.

They had not known the exact time Voldemort's snake would come to hunt in the forest, so they had been standing here since the start of the evening.

Their plan seemed more and more exhausting and fruitless as the hours went by, their feet aching from standing continuously, arms and legs itchy by mosquito bites and the lack of communication making it even more unbearable for the past seven hours.

Lily wasn't even sure about that, since they had to refrain from using any spell until they were to spot Nagini.

Nagini being one of Voldemort's horcrux had always been in consideration, but the lack of knowledge about the existence of living horcruxes had made them wary from taking such a bold step. A few months ago, Fleur had come across some obscure texts about horcruxes which dated back to over a thousand years in her hometown. It was the only information they had acquired about living horcruxes, which had taken them months to decipher.

Living horcruxes required consent from both the parties, which made the whole thing either more undoable or secretive. Those who made horcruxes preferred not to do so, since the horcrux was destroyed with the beings' death.

The snake was supposed to be Voldemort's last horcrux, which would give them a clear shot to kill him once the snake was dealt with. A hope to end this decades long war. Maybe give them a bit of courage to go back to what they used to be before the attack on Hythe.

For the past months, the Resistance did only a few insignificant attacks on the Death Eater bases', rather preferring to catch them as captives in secret. They were too demoralised and fearful to plan a full-blown attack since what had happened in the village. This only made Moody and Kingsley quick to snap. Once in a while, someone stood up, going off about how cowardly they were being and all, but that person was quickly shot off by the majority of their side, reminding them of what had happened when they had done so.

Nobody had ever fully recovered from it. Lily did not think that they ever would.

But now, they needed to stand strong. The lowering morale and guts to take bold steps was turning out to be a huge disadvantage for their side. The Death Eaters razed villages, towns, cities even, all the while they just stood doing nothing.

Something drastic had to be done. Soon.

Killing the snake was one of them. Destroying the final horcrux.

They'd have to be careful though, as they feared that if they were unsuccessful tonight, Voldemort might get suspicious about their knowledge of those cursed objects' existence.

A hush fell over the place, and her senses became more alert. Lily strained her eyes to see for any movement around, and tried very hard to listen to the faintest sounds.

Regulus had said that Voldemort had placed several protection charms over his snake, though they did not know to what extent they were. He had strongly advised against using any kind of spell on her, for there must be some spells which will alert the Dark Lord that his snake was in danger. So they had to resort to using only the Sword of Gryffindor to kill her. And they would probably get only one chance to use it. The sword was currently in Sirius' hand, the only one with formal training in using the weapon. Others might mess up the strike, but Sirius won't. He was standing beside Jason, who had looked irate at the notion of being protected.