James and Lily: It Took A While

Chapter Twenty

We ran down the corridor towards Elle's hiding place. I could hear sounds of battle before we even turned the corner. When we finally reached the hall, I could see Sirius battling both Snape and Avery at once, and Mulciber laying on the ground several yards back from the fight, Stunned, his wand a few feet from his hand. James kicked it even farther away from him as we got closer.

Sirius yelled, and James rushed into the battle to help his friend. With it two on two, I figured they could hold out a little longer without me, so I began searching for Elle. I found her behind a tapestry a little farther down the corridor. She was Stunned.

"Ennervate," I whispered.

She stirred, then moaned, and then her eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright. "Oh my gosh Lily I'm so sorry I let you down! I heard noises coming from across the tapestry, and I peeked around to see who was out this late, and to my surprise, it was Snape, Avery, and Mulciber! I tried to hide again, because goodness knows I can't take three at once, I'm a terrible fighter, but Snape had seen me and he Stunned me and I ended up back here and I'm so sorry Lily I'm a terrible friend and-"

I interrupted what would probably have been a very long and apologetic speech that I didn't have time to listen to. "Elle. It's fine. It's probably better that you didn't try to take all three of them at once. I don't blame you."

I heard someone cry out from the fight, but I couldn't tell who it was. I needed to get out there; Sirius and James weren't as good at Legilimency and Occlumency as I was, and in one hesitation, Snape could have them down in a second. Snape may look weak at times, but I couldn't deny that his knowledge of Dark Magic was quite extensive.

"Come on, Elle, we have to get out there. Are you good to fight?" I stood up.

She jumped up after me, ready to redeem herself. "Let's go."

I raced around the tapestry, only to come face to face with none other than Lucius Malfoy.

I stopped in my tracks. "What do you want, Malfoy?" I spat.

He smirked. "Haven't you even figured out what we're trying to do tonight? Haven't you put your tiny brains together and understood our goal? You shouldn't even be here Miss Evans, so I suggest that you just go back to your dormitory and keep quiet like a good little girl."

"Yeah, right," I mumbled, and shot a spell at him.

He blocked it with a wave of his wand. "Gonna have to try harder than that!"

I closed my mind. I'd forgotten to in all the rush, and had totally let my guard down. Before I could send another spell in his direction, he ran to join Snape and Avery. Elle was already helping James and Sirius.

I chased after him, but he whirled around and sent a spell at me while I was running and I had to dive out of the way. I got to my feet just as I saw James bring Avery down with some sort of weird tentacle curse.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

Elle moved over to help me with Malfoy, and together we bombarded him with spells, but he blocked most of them. Sirius and James were fighting Snape. Malfoy hit Elle with a Full-Body-Bind Curse, and I was left fighting him alone. He was an okay Occlumens, and every once in a while I hit him with a spell that he almost immediately performed the counter curse for. He was a good fighter, I had to admit.

With all the noise we were making, I had no idea how no one had discovered us, but we were in a pretty remote corridor that no one came down at eleven-thirty at night.

Well, except for us.

We're just special.

I blocked a spell from Malfoy and in the seconds it took me to send another spell back at Malfoy, Avery had somehow been revived and he was up and fighting Sirius. James was still on Snape. Suddenly, a voice rant out from down the corridor.