Piece By Piece

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Clear a Path

      As part of the first wave Lily took off from her hiding place in the forest surrounding Malfoy Manor at the sight of her son's patronus. She sprinted to the entrance, flanked by dozens of her colleagues. Ahead of her she saw the Weasely Twins bring down the iron double doors with an assortment of explosives from their department. The doors came down and she could hear shocked yelling from inside as the Twins and any Auror in front of her rushed into the Manor. The battle had officially begun.

      When Lily entered Malfoy Manor she was immediately met with a stunning spell to the shoulder. It threw her back a few steps but she recovered quickly and sent one flying back in the same direction. The shouting she'd heard outside was much louder now. All around her Death Eaters and Aurors clashed in flurries of brightly colored streams of light. Any Death Eater that wasn't being driven back from the entrance by an Auror was either trying to help another or fleeing to one of the many hallways attached to the lobby. 

      Lily ran around and made it her job to disable as many of the Death Eaters who were ganging up to help their friends as possible. Since they were distracted by their attempts to overpower the Auror going up against them she found it easy to sneak up behind and fire any number of hexes and curses at them. Usually the spells were powerful enough to knock them out after two or three. And every time when the first Death Eater realized their backup had fallen they'd turn around and be ready to attack Lily, but the other Auror would still be there and use the same hexes Lily had on the distracted Death Eater. They'd fall to the ground within seconds and both Lilly and the Auror could move on to their next targets. It was almost too easy.

      Lily knew she couldn't stay in the lobby for the whole battle; Harry had said that they needed hallways to be clear as well. So she picked a hallway at random and ran towards it, keeping her wand out in front of her and level with her chest, just as she'd been trained to do. 

      Ahead of her in the hallway Lily could hear the laughter of the Twins followed by a few popping noises which she assumed meant smoke bombs or something of the like. It was then that she couldn't help but notice that she han't seen James at all since they'd said goodbye back at Headquarters. Or Remus, for that matter. Weren't they supposed to be with the rest of their department? Had they split up? Despite whatever assurances she could recite to herself Lily had trouble keeping her nerves in check. James was a skilled prankster and she'd seen him translate those skills into what he needed to use at the Manor, but he was also her lifeline. He was the one person for the past twenty-odd years that she'd been able to turn to for support. They were soulmates, for Merlin's sake! And she'd be lying if she said that his combat experience wasn't limited to today and the First Wizarding War over 20 years ago. Her nerves, then, weren't just for his sake; but for hers as well; she didn't know what she'd do without him. 

      Lily continued down the hallway she'd chosen. It was obvious to her that the a fair amount had been cleared out already, but it was too late to turn back and take another way. She walked carefully, keeping a watchful eye on her surroundings in case there was a Death Eater lurking around a corner, ready to ambush her at any moment. As she approached a corner she heard the sounds of a few different scuffles; and as she turned towards the noise she spotted a few duels. But instead of continuing towards them Lily turned the other way and ran down a section of untouched hallway. She figured there would be more Death Eaters to clear away in that direction.

      And she was right; nearly as soon as she turned another corner Lily was met with a pack of four Death Eaters with no opponents. 

      "A bit outnumbered, aren't we?" One of them sneered.

      Lily had no time for a back and forth of one-liners. These people wanted her dead; she wasn't going to give them that satisfaction. She flung a stunning spell at the center of the pack, hoping it would bowl them all over and give her a head start. To her dismay it made them stumble back only just as much as she had earlier. The one who had spoken to her fired back with a jinx that she managed to counter with a shield charm. The other three began to fire at will. Lily used all the dexterity she could muster to counter or dodge the spells that were thrown at her. It was only thanks to a shield technique that she learned in training that she was able to knock out three of the Death Eaters before she had the chance to use any offensive spells. All she had to do was push the spells they'd flung at her back at the source.