Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 43: The Important Thing

Chapter 43: The Important Thing

Lily raced toward the Death Eaters, James at her heels and Frank and Alice somewhere to her left. She was desperate to put a stop to the Death Eaters' Muggle baiting; her own parents were only a few blocks away.

Everything was in mass confusion around them. The restaurant patrons and employees were streaming out onto the street and Disappparating without regard for any Muggles that might be watching, many of them in the throes of complete panic.

Not that the Muggles had leisure time to wonder about the strange sights all round them. Several were spinning like tops high above the street, plainly terrified. Others attempting to escape were being used as moving targets by the Death Eaters, who laughed and shouted encouragement to each other as the frightened Muggles fell under the influence of various jinxes. And some were writhing on the pavement in the throes of the Cruciatus Curse.

Without hesitation Lily made her way toward a Death Eater tormenting an elderly woman and screamed "Expelliarmus!" at the top of her lungs. The masked wizard's wand flew into Lily's outstretched hand and the Death Eater stumbled. "Run!" Lily urged the woman on the ground, who managed to do so, sobbing her thanks as she went.

Slowly, the now wandless Death Eater turned to face Lily, his hands raised. "I don't know why you expect mercy from other people when it's rather clear that you haven't got any," Lily observed coolly, keeping her wand trained on the wizard in front of her. The Death Eater's grey eyes flashed from behind his mask, but he remained silent. Puzzled by this unprecedented cooperation, Lily got a firmer grip on her wand, staring the masked wizard down.

"Stupefy!" a voice shouted to her right. Lily turned to see another Death Eater, who'd clearly been about to sneak up behind her to come to the grey- eyed Death Eater's aid, now lying Stunned on the ground and James standing over the form, wand raised. Lily offered her boyfriend a relieved smile of thanks before turning back to the wandless Death Eater. Slowly, she held up his wand and very deliberately snapped it in two. Lily then dropped the halves to the ground and blasted them into smaller pieces with her wand before glancing back at the masked wizard to see his grey eyes bright with fury. Before he could react, however, James was there conjuring ropes to tie the Death Eater with. Task accomplished, Lily and James tossed him unceremoniously into a corner and turned together toward the chaos again.

It continued that way for what felt like several hours: Lily and James methodically worked their way through the crowd of Death Eaters together, doing what they could to give the Muggles a chance to escape and incapacitating the Death Eaters in any way possible. Frank and Alice were doing much the same, and it was plain to Lily that they and James would make great Aurors; none of them lost their heads in a crisis and they were all fast enough with brains and wands to stay ahead of the Death Eaters. Lily didn't feel that she herself was quite as good at it as they were. But she was surprised to find that she was able to hold her own. She knew a number of charms and jinxes that were useful and her reflexes were moderately good. Of course, a good bit of it was probably luck, not to mention, Lily thought wryly, her own experience with being attacked.

Unfortunately, their streak of luck didn't last indefinitely. Lily and James were duelling with a masked witch who'd been using the Choking Charm on a pair of Muggles. They had her more or less cornered and Lily was just preparing to Stun her when suddenly James wasn't next to her anymore. He was spinning upside down several feet in the air instead, looking just as astonished as Lily felt while a second Death Eater stood below, taunting James as he spun him faster.

Before Lily could do anything to remedy the situation, something dropped from the sky and walloped her squarely in the head. Rubbing the offended area resentfully, Lily searched the ground and spotted the culprit, a small black box. Realizing that it must have come from James' pocket, Lily tucked the box safely away before attempting to sort out James' safe release.