I'll Take it Shaken, Not Stirred

Chapter 22: The Lady and the Night

History: I own ur mom. I don't own Harry Potter.

Recap: Silth kills Praedam, almost killing James, but Gilbert Korcesh (Ministry guy) rescues him, and James goes to the castle to talk to McGonagall (Dumbledore is away from the school). He meets up with Lily, tells her everything, and she goes to retrieve her memories using Snape's pensieve. James can't find McGonagall and is forced to go to the Common Room. Lily comes to him later with directions to The Clearing in the forest, believing Silth is scheduled to meet "The Foreigner" there. The two sneak out. In the forest, James's memories begin to return in the same painful way they returned to Lily months before. But worse. Lily must go on alone, and James is left behind.

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"He that can't endure the bad will not live to see the good" –Jewish Proverb

It was quiet, Lily noticed. Unnaturally so. In fact, the only sounds that disturbed the almost flawless silence seemed to be her own footsteps on twigs and dead leaves, and the occasional hoot of an owl that never ceased to make her jump. Other than that, however, the forest gave the distinct impression of being wholly dead.

James was far out of Lily's sight, but not at all out of her mind. With every hasty step, a new wave of guilt flooded her. If something happened to him while he as incapacitated, it would be her fault. If someone (a Death Eater, for example) found him there... she shuddered at the thought. She quickened her pace and tried to concentrate.

As she walked, Lily was consulting her memory, the parchment, and her surroundings, but it was tedious work and did not completely occupy her mind. Lily hated this. It was dangerous. If her mind was not busy enough, she was allowed to be afraid, which was something she could not afford at the moment. James could not be thought of, for between Lily's worry, guilt, and whatever was causing that irritating pang in her stomach, that line of thought distracted her too much. Therefore, she occupied her mind with turning over everything James had told her of Gracechurch and Silth's conversation in the Three Broomsticks.

Elliot.

Well, that much made sense. It was among the few things that did. The letter on Praedam's... Gracechurch's, that is... desk on Halloween had been signed: "Elliot." It had not been written to Praedam, but by him. Then, there had been the "E" on the trunk in the office that day as well. Lily knew she had been an idiot for not seeing all this earlier. She shook off another guilty feeling and read the next bit of her directions.

"Large evergreen on right. Huge trunk. Turned right after the smaller tree immed. following..."

The large tree was some two yards ahead, and Lily recognized it immediately. She hurried up to it and followed the directions on the parchment. After that, the instructions simply read to continued straight for a few minutes until she came to a ditch on the side of the unmarked path.

As she complied, Lily's mind drifted again, only somewhat controlled. Silth and Gracechurch must have been thieves of some sort. Conmen. From what she could surmise by James's retelling, they were trying to steal something from the school, a valuable. That made sense if they were working for themselves, but if Silth had been hired by someone else, who would want something from the school? Or rather, if that someone was Voldemort, as Lily believed, why would he want something from the school?

Perhaps it wasn't Voldemort who had hired Silth.

Lily reached the hole. It was about two feet in diameter at the top, and about a foot deep. She could only guess the origins. Without stopping to investigate however, Lily read the next part of her directions, then continued on.