A Love Purer Than Blood

12. Protecting friends

Lily buckled down and flew through the rest of the year confidently, achieving full marks in all her practical exams, save for potions, the smell of the task overpowering her enough to vomit in her cauldron violently. Madam Hooch passed her purely for all the theory work she had handed in, her essay on the history of broom tail uses an example the madam would use for years to come.

Malfoy returned from over the Christmas break sullen as ever at the news of a fireworks show in the valley. Lily knew that the new year in Malfoy manor was a quiet one and he would have been lucky to even see a flash of light that night.

She high-fived Ron after she heard from the twins that he and Malfoy had got into a fight at the Gryffindor v Hufflepuff quidditch match. Malfoy's eye was a beautiful shade of purple for a good few days, much to Lily's pleasure.

She kept her head down and stuck to her friends like glue, always making sure to give Harry a tentative smile whenever they crossed each other's paths. One evening, as the summer came nearer, Lily awoke with an overwhelming desire to find the bespectacled boy, unsure fully as to why.

She apparated to the Gryffindor common room to find Neville frozen stiff, his eyes flitting back and forth. Lily blinked twice before pulling her wand to perform the counter curse, restoring the boy instantly. "Who? Why? Where?"

"Harry, and the others, they... they went somewhere... I don't know where." He managed to blurt out rapidly.

"Go get whichever professors you can find. I'm sure one of them will know something."

Before the boy could protest Lily had apparated to the stairs where the scents of the trio were still strong. She followed them to a corridor on the third floor and opened the door to see exactly why the corridor always smelt of wet dog.

"Poor thing always cooped up." She cooed at the growling beast, before roaring back twice as loud. The three heads fell silent and inched back to reveal a trapdoor that Lily leapt down easily. Using her wings to cushion her fall and her wand for some form of light, she studied her surroundings. The smell of burning was fresh, and the bits of shrivelling plant told her exactly how recent.

She made her way through a corridor and into a room of fluttering keys. The girl took a moment to admire the sight before advancing towards the only other door in the room. It was old, thick, and very locked, but Lily cracked her neck and her knuckles before breaking the door easily.

As she brushed herself of the splintered debris, Lily advanced into the dimly lit room before her before she realised the room to be littered with broken marble upon a checkerboard floor. In the middle of the floor knelt Hermione as she cradled an unconscious Ron in her arms.

"Lily!" Hermione exclaimed, relieved to see her. "He went through there. Be careful, there was only enough potion for one to walk through the fire." Hermione sighed and smiled as Lily gave her a pointed look. "Dragon, of course."

"I'll get to him, I promise." Lily encouraged as she headed through the door on the far side of the room. Sure enough there was fire of various colours that Lily wasn't sure which way to go.

"The black flames!" she heard Hermione's quiet voice as the girl shouted from the other room. Lily headed forward, her pyjamas singeing in the flames. Once she was through, she was met with even more fire as she walked into what could only be described as an arena.

In the middle of the room she watched as Harry fell unconscious, professor Quirrell screaming profanities while attached to him.

A few minutes later Lily came to as she crouched growling over Harry's body, blood covering her from head to toe. She froze for a moment at the fear on McGonagall's face, but it was not fear at her, it was fear for the children in front of her.

"Elizabeth?" Dumbledore tested, his voice soft. Her eyes flicked to meet his as she lowered her body over her friend. "He is safe, you can relax." Lily looked again at Minerva, who had stepped closer, her hands in a surrendering pose.

"Harry is safe, Lily." She cooed, stretching her hand out to the girl. Lily remained frozen in her stance, but Minerva watched the girl's eyes soften slightly as her tears began to fall. Slowly, Lily's muscles eased and she very carefully moved off the unconscious boy.

"Prakem jul voth sahqo miin. Rok fen kuz mii pah. Zu'u lost wah jaaril Terag, zu'u lost wah jaaril Terag. Harry, dii fahdon. Zu'u los sahlo, ni mul ganog. Mu kent sav enook vorey. Mu lost wah lahney. Kron prakem jul." Lily repeated over and over as she tried desperately to shake Harry awake. "Terag, vopraan. Lig vopraan dii fahdon."

Minerva inched near to Lily as she got more and more desperate to wake up the sleeping boy. The girl too distraught to even listen to his heartbeat. Once Minerva was close enough, she tucked a single strand of blood soaked hair behind the girl's ear and whispered. "Listen."

After a few moments, Lily heard it, the faint beat giving her more hope than Hogwarts had ever given her. "Terag, dii fahdon, Lig vopraan." She whispered softly as she stroked Harry's hair.

Eventually madam Pomfrey arrived with a stretcher and a bottle of dittany, but once Lily had given her permission to check the boy, she found no visible wounds. She turned to administer some to Lily, but the girl simply shook her head.

"I think Poppy." Albus began. "That the blood covering miss Elizabeth, is not her own." Lily nodded once to confirm his assumption, her eyes never leaving Harry's face.

"Come along dear, let's get you cleaned up. You can visit him when he is ready." Lily opened her mouth to argue with Minerva, but the woman's face was stern, unwavering. Lily nodded once again and allowed the woman to guide her out of the now fire free room.

"Lig kos ulaakei." Lily said before stopping herself to try to find the right words. "Talog... Harry... care... ful... lig... please."

"Of course." Poppy said softly, her smile warm. "I will be extra careful this time."

Satisfied, Lily allowed Minerva to pull her away to the room with the ruined chess set. The other professors stood among the rubble as most of them shook their heads.

"Eleven." Flitwick muttered. "Eleven year olds."

Severus noticed Lily and Minerva and made an effort to approach them, but McGonagall refused him with a stern shake of her head. "Lily dear." The woman whispered. "Any chance of apparating us to your common room?" Lily nodded and apparated them both in the blink of an eye.

McGonagall released a breath and adjusted her dressing gown as Waverly and the girls burst into the common room from the Hufflepuff bathrooms. "We got it from here professor."

Lily allowed the girls to walk with her to the bathroom where they were ready with warm fluffy towels, chocolates, a hairbrush, and two extra bottles of bubble bath gel.

After an hour of the girls tending to Lily, her blood-soaked hair proving more of a challenge than expected, they all took some time to shower themselves as Lily sat steaming in the boiling water. Eventually they made their way back to the dorm room, where they all huddled in their dressing gowns as they dried and styled each-others hair. After a few more minutes of brushing Waverly's hair, Lily stopped and sighed, finally calm.

"I love you guys." The girls flung themselves into a group hug and cried as the sun started to rise in the early morning sky.

(Snake man with the red eyes. He will take us all. I have to protect Harry, I have to protect Harry. Harry, my friend. I am weak, not strong enough. We must save each other. We have to live. Conquer the snake man.)

(Harry, awake. Please awake my friend.)