Rating:
PG-13
House:
Schnoogle
Ships:
James Potter/Lily Evans
Characters:
James Potter Lily Evans
Genres:
Drama Romance
Era:
1970-1981 (Including Marauders at Hogwarts)
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
Stats:
Published: 07/21/2004
Updated: 06/15/2005
Words: 192,794
Chapters: 25
Hits: 69,299

Prelude to Destiny

AnotherDreamer

Story Summary:
They lived to defy Voldemort. They lived to enact vengeance. They lived in the shadow of better people. They lived to earn the respect of better people. Their story is more than the tragic beginning of the great victory over the Dark Lord. It weaves its way through heartbreaking love, games of magical tag, hours of learning animagi transformations, dates with the wrong sort of boy, and the bonds that death cannot break. This is the story of the people who will star in the footnotes of the great battles of Harry Potter- they who History deems unworthy of great attention and who worked diligently with Destiny to pave the path of the Boy Who Lived.

Chapter 12

Chapter Summary:
All heroes were children once, all legends began with a single word. You have heard of Peter Pan and Alexander the Great, you have heard about Troy and Atlantis, but haven't you ever wondered where these stories truly began? This is the beginning of Harry Potter's story- the true beginning, the one that most would rather forget.
Posted:
12/31/2004
Hits:
2,167
Author's Note:
Sorry that this took so long, but I was home and it's very difficult to write and visit with family.


Chapter 12

Another Round

"Don't you ever get sick of worrying your friends?" Tracy asked, walking into the Hospital Wing with a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolate frogs, and a reassuring smile. Christine bounced in a moment later. Lily scowled in response.

"I didn't mean to end up in here," Lily snapped. Tracy's smile faltered as she put the flowers on the end of the bed.

"Angry much?" Christine asked cheerfully, sitting down on a chair and riffling through the sweets that other people had already sent. Lily rolled her eyes at that pile of gifts. All of those boxes had cards with quip sayings attached: Get Well, We Miss You, To Our Favourite Prefect. If she read through a list of gift givers, she would probably only recognize half the names and only be friends with half of that number.

"I'm not angry. I'm frustrated," Lily replied, feeling guilt for making Tracy flinch. Then she felt irritated for feeling guilt. It was like an evil cycle that Lily couldn't escape.

It was nearly dinnertime on Saturday and Lily felt like she had been in the Hospital Wing forever. It was worse than St. Mungo's. Madam Pomfrey was a head case! Honestly, the woman never left. She either sat in her office or forced Lily to drink some disgusting potion or paced in the room just watching Lily. Didn't that woman ever eat? Didn't she have to visit the loo? Lily considered making a break for it, but figured Pomfrey was crazy enough to have put wards on the doors to keep patients from running away.

"How long will you have to be in here?" Tracy asked, standing beside Christine.

"Too long," Lily replied, kicking absently at her sheets and enjoying watching them puff up and collapse.

"And how long is too long?" Tracy pressed.

"At least another day."

"We'll have to reschedule the Game," Christine said unwrapping a chocolate frog.

"The Game?" Lily asked, looking away from the sheets and at Christine.

"Yes," replied Christine just before her chocolate frog jumped out of her hand, onto the floor, and under the bed. The blond girl, never to be deterred by minor obstacles, immediately dove after it. Lily turned to Tracy.

"We were going to play tonight, but don't worry. We'll play next week," Tracy said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I could play tonight," announced Lily, blatantly lying and deciding not to care.

"It's no big deal."

"I can play."

"Really?" Tracy asked, neither questioning nor accepting Lily's proclamation.

"Yes," said Lily, nodding emphatically and ignoring the sharp pain in her chest.

Christine's head popped up from under the bed, mouth covered in chocolate, before she said, "Liar."

"Excuse me?" Lily asked, quirking an eyebrow at her friend.

"You're excused," said Christine as she pushed herself off the ground, wiped off her robes and sat down on the chair next to Lily's bed.

"That's an annoying response," Lily commented, eying her friend strangely as the blond girl reached for another chocolate frog.

"You asked to be excused," Christine said, ripping open another package and squeaking when this frog also began hopping away.

"She's being evasive," Lily complained to Tracy, who still wore that disturbing, confused and pitying look on her face.

"Well, you know Christine," Tracy replied, looking over at the blond girl jumping after the chocolate frog.

"I doubt she even understands the word evasive," said a person walking into the room. Lily turned and saw Sam - Sam who was carrying various rolls of parchment in her hands.

"I know what evasive means!" Christine called, leaping onto an empty hospital bed and missing the frog by inches. "This frog is being evasive!"

"I thought they were only supposed to have one good jump in them," Sam whispered to Lily. Both girls laughed as they watched Christine shriek in frustration as she leapt over another patient's bed in order to capture the elusive frog.

"These are modified frogs," Tracy explained, picking up the package and handing it to Lily. Written on it in red sparkling ink were the words, A Gift from Us (Not Them).

"Who is 'us'?" Sam asked.

"Sirius Black and James Potter," Tracy replied. Christine returned to her seat, a frog leg dangling out of her mouth and still kicking. She crunched down with her teeth, and the leg disappeared as she swallowed it.

"That must be one of the most disgusting things that I have ever seen in my life. Ever," Lily said.

"It couldn't be the most disgusting," Christine said, trying to open another frog. This time, Sam took it out of her hands and exchanged it with a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Christine didn't even look fazed as she tore into the box.

"It's right up there with watching Daniel Smith's accidentally engorged toad sit on Professor Kettleborn, and looking at Petunia's face," Lily said.

"But it tastes so much better than either of those," Christine replied, popping a grey bean in her mouth. She made a face, spit the bean into her hand, and said sadly, "Concrete."

"Why did James Potter and Sirius Black send Lily a gift?" Sam asked, dragging Lily's thoughts away from her interesting dialogue with Christine and right into a topic that she hated and wished to avoid forever: James Potter.

"They didn't. I happened to have an extra box lying around my room. I thought she'd enjoy it," Tracy said, picking a bean out of Christine's handful, throwing it up in the air and catching it in her mouth. She smiled. "Watermelon."

More than anything else, Lily hated that she was disappointed by the fact that James hadn't sent the sweets. She should not care about whether or not he noticed that she was ill! He called her a Muggle. He was the reason she had run through the castle and ended up inflaming the infection in her chest, causing her to feel the chest pains. He was the reason she was stuck in the Hospital Wing and steadfastly suffering at the hands of the anti-social, overbearing Pomfrey.

Well, sure, the Death Eater who actually cast the curses that sent her flying into a table were also to blame, but Lily would have been just fine drinking her potion once a night for a month if it hadn't been for that stupid James Potter.

So why hadn't she reported James? Why had she claimed she never saw the person she was chasing?

Arg. Why did she still like him?

"In any case, I brought you a present," Sam said, pulling up a chair on the other side of the bed. Christine and Tracy began throwing the beans into each other's mouths, ignoring Sam and Lily all together. Sam set a pile of parchment next to Lily's right side.

"Blank parchment. Gee, thanks," Lily commented sarcastically. Sam smiled and made a half-hearted attempt at smacking Lily's shoulder.

"This, I will have you know, is nearly twenty feet of parchment."

"Again: Gee, thanks."

"Shut it, you. I remember how boring it is in the Hospital Wing once Pomfrey kicks guests out. This parchment is meant to alleviate that boredom, at least a little." Sam explained, handing a roll of parchment over to Lily's care. The redhead took it and flipped it over a couple of times.

"Is it special parchment?"

"Special parchment?" queried Sam.

"Does it change colour? Is it edible? Will it burn a hole in itself every time I write your name?" asked Lily, rattling off a list of not-so-distant possibilities for the parchment.

"No," Sam replied. "It's just regular parchment. That you write on."

"Except it makes your words dance around the page?" pressed Lily.

"No. Your words just sit there. Like normal."

"Like normal?" Lily repeated, disbelieving. She picked up the wand off the nightstand and poking the parchment.

"You're not going to find any hidden magical spells," Sam said, taking the wand out of Lily's hand and placing it back on the stand.

"Then I don't understand," Lily said. "You brought me nearly twenty feet of regular old parchment?"

"And two quills and four bottles of ink," Sam added, digging through her pockets and procuring the items.

"My joy is a little overwhelming. I may be too excited to continue speaking."

"Hey you, saucy redhead, the sarcasm is not appreciated."

"Duly noted," Lily said, taking the quills and ink from her friend without understanding.

"I brought the parchment because- well-" Sam glanced over at Christine and Tracy who were now throwing beans at each other from across the room, still trying to catch them in their mouths. "You went through something-"

"Sam, I already told you, it wasn't-"

"You went through something that none of us understand," Sam continued, ignoring Lily's interruption, "and you shouldn't have to keep silent about the whole thing just because we don't understand what you went through. So I thought I'd give you parchment and quills and ink and hope you feel more comfortable writing about what happened than you do speaking."

"Nothing happened," Lily replied weakly, looking down at her hands.

"You keep saying that," Sam said, "but that doesn't mean you don't have anything to write about. For instance, you could cover that entire twenty-foot space with James Potter's name encircled in hearts."

"Stupid bugger," Lily said half-heartedly, still too overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of her best friend to muster the proper amount of animosity at his name.

"James or me?"

"James, of course."

"How about him, saying you looked good enough to be on his arm?" Sam reminisced. Lily barked out laughter, remember James's stupid comment on New Year's Eve.

"That was so ridiculous," Lily said with a self-mocking smile

"I wonder if he thinks he's suave."

"Of course he does!" Lily replied, still smiling. "He also believes he's charming, handsome, clever, the greatest flier in the history of the world, and irresistible."

"Let's not leave out hilarious and graceful," Sam added. The two girls caught each other's eye and burst into laughter, thinking of James Potter and knowing that Lily whole-heartedly (and grudgingly) agreed with all of those adjectives.

"Just to clarify," Lily began, her laughter (though not her good mood) ebbing, "you brought me twenty feet of parchment on which to write my feelings. Why not just bring me a diary?"

"Magical diaries are creepy. They talk back."

"Ew! Like mirrors?" Lily hated talking mirrors. She hated that they seemed so much like people. She hated that she felt like she had to cover them with a blanket at night in order to give herself some privacy. To have a diary speak back, knowing your most private thoughts, was a horrible idea.

"Exactly, and I know how you feel-"

"Ow!" cried Christine. Both Sam and Lily spun to see what happened, the pain in Lily's side flaring with the motion. But the pain, she later decided, was well worth seeing Madam Pomfrey's explosion as she realized two girls were launching Every Flavour Beans across her Hospital Wing with the aim to hit the other person's mouth.

"Are you mad?" shrieked the irate Pomfrey, grabbing Christine by the ear and dragging her across the room, where she grabbed Tracy's ear. "You could have choked! You could have done irreparable damage to your oesophagus! Diving over a sick student's bed like that! What were you thinking?"

The yelling continued as she dragged the two wailing girls out of the Infirmary with the strong recommendation to only return when on the brink of death.

Lily winked at Sam before grabbing a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean bag, opening it, and popping one into her own mouth.

"I hope you don't think you're funny!" came the sharp voice of Madame Pomfrey. Lily turned to face the still-fuming matron as she marched back into the hospital wing and collected all of the bags of beans. "These are meant to be eaten, not thrown!"

"What about thrown and then eaten?" Lily asked, smiling. Sam shook her head, amazed at Lily's audacity as the redhead threw a bean into the air and tried to catch it in her mouth.

"No!" snapped Pomfrey, snatching the bean right out of the air before marching off to her office.

"Wow. She's got great reflexes. I wonder if she ever played Seeker," Lily commented, grabbing the wand and turning on the Wizarding Radio on her bedside table.

"You never stop, do you?" Sam asked. Lily shook her head, flicking through the stations hope to come across a recognizable song. She did not find one.

"Sam?" Lily began, still flicking through the channels as she considered the best way to broach the topic.

"Yes, Lily?" Sam replied, her tone serious. Lily stopped flipping through the channels and met her friend's gaze.

"What would you tell me if I told you I knew a werewolf?" Lily inquired. Sam laughed.

"First, I'd ask you where you met him. Second, I'd ask how you knew he was a werewolf."

"Well, he's this kid I met-"

"A child werewolf? That's so sad," Sam said, shaking her head. Lily looked at her with wide, confused eyes.

"It's not sad," Lily replied. "It's just something that happened to him. He'll deal with it."

"How?" Sam replied. "He won't be allowed to attend Hogwarts or get a job, really. The Ministry's restrictions are overwhelming. He'll have to grow up with prejudice and fear following him everywhere. It's a sad life."

"Why couldn't he come to Hogwarts? Is that a rule?"

"No. It's just that no Headmaster in his right mind would invite a werewolf to study here."

"Why not?" Lily asked, growing more and more irritated with the situation as it progressed.

"Because they're dangerous."

"How do you know?"

"Well," Sam said, "I just do. It's something every child knows growing up in the magical world."

"Including Tracy?"

"Especially Tracy. She grew up in a very pureblood home," Sam replied, as if that ought to have made any sense to Lily. Honestly.

"But Tracy lives in a Muggle neighbourhood."

"Only because the Experimental Charms Department moved her parents there. Before fourth year she lived in her old family home in a very Magical area."

"I still don't understand why that ought to matter. Tracy is so laid-back. She never fights with anyone"

"I don't know that I would call Tracy laid-back. Her opinions are as strong as anyone's; she just doesn't share them all the time. She was raised in a traditional, Gryffindor home. She dislikes Slytherins to extreme extents, even if she refuses to make a spectacle of herself by yelling at them. She also dislikes werewolves and mistrusts vampires. It's just how things are."

"That's stupid."

"It's how it is," Sam said.

"But it shouldn't have to be that way!"

"Miss Evans?" interrupted a voice in the doorway. Both Lily and Sam looked over and saw Professor McGonagall enter the room, a piece of parchment in hand.

"Yes, Professor?"

"You have received a summons." Professor McGonagall strode into the room and over to Lily's bed, holding out the parchment.

"Yay!" Lily cried, taking the piece of parchment and scanning it over. It looked official. "What's a summons?"

"The Ministry is holding an official inquiry regarding the events of New Year's Eve and you have been summoned as a witness."

"Oh. I take back my 'yay,' then," Lily said, leaning back and trying to read the boring letter.

To: Miss Lily Evans

Your presence is requested... blah blah blah... regarding the events of December 31st... blah... testimonial presented before the Wizengamot ... blah

"What does this say?" Lily asked, giving up on focusing and just asking the transfiguration professor.

"It says that you are to report to the Ministry at ten in the morning tomorrow, accompanied by Professor Dumbledore. As the proceeding may last all day, you are excused from tomorrow's prefect meeting."

"Professor Dumbledore?" Lily asked, shocked. Did he leave the castle? Silly question, that. Of course he left the castle, but Lily just couldn't imagine it.

"Yes."

"Why not you? Doesn't the headmaster have something more pressing to do with his time?" Lily asked. Sam smiled.

"Nothing that cannot wait a day to be settled," McGonagall said.

"But this isn't that big of a deal, right? I mean, I wasn't there for the worst of it," Lily commented, looking at Professor McGonagall for affirmation. Instead of agreeing with Lily, instead of soothing her fears and nodding her head and telling her that she understood, Professor McGonagall avoided Lily's gaze and turned toward the other end of the infirmary.

"I must speak Madam Pomfrey," the Transfiguration professor announced, walking away.

"That was odd," Lily said, looking over at Sam, only to have her dark-haired friend nod and look away just as quickly as Professor McGonagall had. Looking at Sam's profile, taking in the moist eyes and the tension so evident in her body language, Lily could only stare. What was wrong with these people? Why were they avoiding her?

And then Lily understood. She looked at Sam's turned head and she understood.

Lily had assumed that when she returned to Hogwarts, she could return to the life that she had led before. After walking through Diagon Alley and seeing it unchanged despite the tumult in her own life, Lily had assumed that nothing else would change either. If the alley, which was a symbol of the wizarding world in Lily's mind, didn't react to the attacks, why would anything else? Unfortunately, while Hogwarts itself and the people within it were not changed, their perception of Lily had undergone a transformation.

They looked away from her, unable to meet her eyes because they were scared. Not that they were scared of Lily herself, but more of what she represented. The terror of Voldemort had only been happening for four years, and to most of them it was a distant problem, one that the Aurors would eventually fix. At any rate, Voldemort was not their problem. Or he hadn't been, until someone they knew was threatened and hurt by him.

Until Lily.

To them - the people who had never experienced what she had, who had never known any experience in which their lives were threatened - Lily was unrecognizable. They could neither sympathise nor empathise with the girl. All they could offer her was twenty feet of blank parchment and a summons from the Ministry

~*~*~

Travelling on the Hogwarts Express had always been a fun experience for Lily. She always sat in the old-fashioned compartments with friends and laughed her way down the tracks. Sounds of owls squawking and frogs croaking calmed her mind as the ever-present aroma of chocolate calmed her.

The late trip to Hogwarts after her stay in St. Mungo's had been long and dull, lacking the chatter of friends and the soothing smells and sounds Lily associated with the train. But this trip was just awkward. Terribly, terribly awkward.

Originally, Lily had been disgruntled about the whole trip, convinced that giving testimonial to two different Ministry Officials ought to have been enough for forever. Her one consoling thought - the one that kept her morbidly content - was that this trip conflicted with a Prefect meeting. Professor McGonagall never let students skip the meetings, not for detentions, not for Quidditch practices, and certainly not for runs to the loo. But apparently, Ministry Summons were cause enough to miss a meeting.

"Would you care for a piece of chocolate, Miss Evans?" And there was the very source of the awkwardness: Headmaster Dumbledore.

"No thank you, Professor," Lily replied. Had he really offered her some sweets? Did people that old eat sweets? Apparently, they do, Lily thought as Professor Dumbledore munched happily away, his long beard bobbing up and down with the motion of his jaw.

What was she supposed to talk about with this man? She knew she could talk to him - her mother often said she could talk to a wall for hours if she were in the mood - but it seemed wrong to just talk to Dumbledore. Wasn't he a war hero? He had defeated the most powerful dark wizard in a century. Not that you could tell by the way he just kept munching away on that chocolate, blue eyes focused on Lily.

How long were these train rides? Another ten minutes of this silence would kill her.

"I'm sorry that you had to come with me, Professor. I know that you have more important things to do," Lily began, meeting his stare.

"More important?" he asked, those blue eyes unwavering. Something about his glance bothered Lily, though she was not sure what it was.

"Well, I'm sure you have other things you would rather be doing than baby-sitting a student," Lily explained.

"I am not baby-sitting you, Miss Evans." Seriously. Why were those eyes so unnerving? She briefly considered looking away but decided that would be rude.

"Oh. I know," corrected Lily, trying to eat her apparently-offending words. "I only meant to say I'm sorry that you were dragged into this."

"I was not 'dragged into this.' I insisted upon accompanying you."

"You did?" Lily asked, shocked. That wasn't what McGonagall had said.

"I wanted to be sure that you were as comfortable as possible at the inquiry."

"So you came along?" Lily said it before thinking, before realizing how horribly offending it must have sounded. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

"It is quite all right, Miss Evans," he said, smiling. Actually, he was grinning. This one hundred and twenty year old man was grinning at Lily as if she had told a most amusing joke. And just as with Mrs. Crouch at the Ball, Lily knew how to talk to him now. She knew what would make him smile and feel comfortable. But instead of beginning to talk to him, Lily decided to stare out the window and not be confused by the fact that the headmaster was so personable. It didn't work. Not two minutes later, she turned back to find Dumbledore prying apart two melted pieces of chocolate and laughed out loud.

"You could just eat them both, you know," Lily said. Once more, she wanted to grab the words that had spilled out of her mouth and shove them into her back pocket. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she just learn to accept social classes and distinctions? Why did she always treat everyone like her equal instead of what they were: respected headmasters and the wives of future Ministers of Magic?

"When I was a child, my mother always told my to eat sweets one at a time."

"Were there sweets way back then?" Lily asked in a falsely interested tone.

Oh goodness. Had she just made fun of the headmaster's age? She should just shoot herself in the foot. She was already making a big enough fool of herself that being bloodied and in real physical pain might make for a welcome change. When her embarrassed eyes met his, she was glad to see mirth in them.

"Indeed there were."

"I'm so sorry, Professor. I don't know why I'm saying these things."

"What things?"

"The stupid comments about your age and the way you eat and- oh goodness. I'm doing it again. I'll stop now."

"I am enjoying our discussion. Most people avoid telling me jokes."

"Oh. Um. Sorry?" Lily's hand flew up to her necklace and twisted it in her fingers. What was going on here?

"No need to apologize."

And so the train ride passed back into the silent realm and Lily stared out her window as her headmaster continued prying chocolates apart.

~*~*~

Was it possible for a building to be pompous and stuffy? Lily had not thought so until she entered the Ministry of Magic, but the moment she walked out of the telephone booth she realized that not only could buildings be pompous, they could also irritate people rather easily. Especially when they contained the most obnoxious art that Lily had ever seen. For instance, the most prominent, eye-catching object in the lobby of the Ministry happened to be a statue of a wizard being worshiped by other magical (sentient!) species.

"That's disgusting," Lily said, pinning her pin (Lily Evans: Witness) onto her robes.

"The statue?" Professor Dumbledore asked, leading her toward the guard by the elevator.

"Yes," replied Lily, still eying it with extreme dislike, "How conceited of us to believe that other races ought to look at us with such wonder. House-elves had their own civilization by 586b.c.e. when the humans began to hire them out as workers. Centaurs still aren't a part of the wizarding world and the goblins have little less than open hostility directed toward us."

"You do not believe wizards are the supreme race?" Dumbledore handed his wand to the silent guard and Lily did the same a moment later.

"No. They're just have the most deadly weapons."

"Many people would disagree with your conclusion."

"Luckily, I don't speak with stupid people," Lily replied, taking her wand out of the proffered hand of the guard and following Dumbledore into an elevator. She missed Professor Dumbledore's smile.

For a "magical" building, this place felt remarkably similar to her father's company building. They had a Muggle phone booth as their entrance, ugly statues, marble floors, and barren elevators that took forever to reach the basement levels that they needed to visit.

"How long will this-" The opening of the elevator doors and the flash of a hundred cameras interrupted Lily's question. "What in the world?"

"The press core has been invited. I would recommend that you answer none of their questions, though you may of course choose to do as you like," Professor Dumbledore said, walking forward and into the mass of men and women who had either a quill poised above a piece of parchment or a camera blinking at Lily.

Lily followed behind Dumbledore with her head held high and her back straight. She met the eye of every reporter and smiled at them, nodding to the ones who smiled back and ignoring the ones that did not. She would not let them intimidate her. They, for their part, seemed less interested in her once they saw her and realized that she was not a public figure like the other guests/witnesses.

And so Lily came to the door marked for witnesses, where Professor Dumbledore assured her there would be no press before telling her she would see him soon and walking away. Deciding not to be miffed by his strange departure, Lily opened the door and walked into one of the most beautiful lounges that she had ever seen in her life - couches lined one side of the room and a buffet of fruits, vegetables, and sandwiches was laid out on the other side. People were milling around, glasses in one hand, chatting with the other people.

Lily barely had time to take in the scene when someone rushed toward her and enveloped her in a tight embrace.

"Lily!" exclaimed the exuberant boy.

"Ian?" Lily asked, smiling in recognition as they broke apart.

"Hey," he said, grinning at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was summoned. Want to eat?" Ian asked, walking toward the buffet table.

"But you weren't at the Ball," Lily protested as Ian placed an empty plate in her hand and took one for himself.

"Exactly," he replied, scooping a mound of strawberries onto his plate and then onto hers. Not expecting him to do so, Lily's grip on the plate faltered and it fell from her hands. She began to bend over to pick up the spilled items, when they disappeared into the floors. Lily gave a squeak of surprise and then looked up and met Ian's silver eyes.

"My plate disappeared."

"I saw," Ian said, leaning past Lily to grab another plate and hand it to her. "Sometimes magic creeps me out."

"I know what you mean," Lily said. Ian scooped another bunch of strawberries and then looked directly at Lily.

"Are you ready to try this again?" he asked, scooper poised above her plate.

"I was born ready."

"Obviously not," Ian said as he deposited the fruit onto her plate.

"Obviously nothing. The evidence of any previous clumsiness has disappeared into the floor," Lily shot back, smirking as he reached a couple of rolls with one hand.

"Alas, magic foils my point..."

"Again," they both added, laughing at the summer-time joke.

The pair marched down the long table grabbing whatever food they wanted. Actually, grabbing whatever food Ian wanted as he was the one who did the actual grabbing. Lily kept both her hands on her ever-growing plate.

"You never answered my question," Lily mentioned as the pair took their plates toward one of the couches on the other side of the room.

"Which question?"

"Why are you here?" Lily repeated, sitting carefully on the couch as she balanced her plate in her hands.

"They probably want to know why I turned down my invitation to the Ball," Ian said, sitting beside her and arranging the plate on his knees.

"And why did you?" Lily asked, realising that she did not have a fork and deciding to eat with her fingers. She picked up a strawberry.

"I had a New Year's Eve party that I couldn't miss." Lily's hand stopped midway to her mouth as her eyes shot up to meet Ian's.

"You turned down the Crystal Ball in favour of Tracy's party?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Why hadn't you told me Sam invited you to Tracy's?" Lily asked, putting the strawberry back down on her plate

"Sam invited me after I'd already responded to your December owl. Besides, I was sure she must have told you," Ian replied, taking a bite out of a banana.

"Well, yes, but that's not the point," Lily said.

"What is the point? That you would have gone to Tracy's if I'd only told you I was going there too?"

"Maybe."

"Shut it," Ian said, finished the banana and putting the peel on the ground. It disappeared a moment later. "How cool is that?"

"Oh. It's amazing," Lily muttered sarcastically. Ian looked up at her and smiled.

"Don't be mean just because you made a poor decision when you chose the Ball over that party," he said. He was not a classically good-looking guy. Not really. His silver eyes sometimes glowed and freaked Lily out.

"I'm never mean. I am like an angel on Earth, really. People stop me on the street just to wonder at my kindness," Lily said flippantly, throwing her hair over her shoulder.

"And you're humble to boot."

"Humility is overrated," Lily said, laughing despite her best efforts. Ian smiled and shook his head at her words. Over the summer they had not been particularly close. The only time they spent together, Christian was there too, taking up all of Lily's attention. They'd had a good time, often laughing together, but it was only after the school year began - after she broke up with Christian - that they became close by writing owls to one another once a month or so.

"Seriously, though, why are you here?" Lily asked.

"Seriously, they want to know why I didn't go to the Ball," Ian replied, taking up another strawberry.

"Why?"

"Because the Ball was attacked."

"And?" Lily pressed, not willing to accept the implications of that sentence.

"And they want to know if I knew it was going to happen and avoided going in order to save myself," Ian replied, shrugging. Lily did not exactly think this was a shrugging moment. The Ministry had to be the most paranoid group of wizards ever.

"That's so stupid."

"No. They have every right to be suspicious. The Ball is a once in a lifetime experience and I turned it down for a school party? That's fishy." He riffled through the rest of his food as if trying to decide what he really wanted.

"No it's not. I wish I'd gone to that party instead of the Ball," Lily said, poking her fruit his her pointer finger.

"Sure you do," Ian said, his voice holding a suggestive tone that made Lily look up. When she did, Ian winked at her.

"What was that for?" Lily asked.

"What was what for?"

"That wink. Why did you just wink at me?" pressed Lily, confused.

"Oh that," Ian said, tearing his roll in two and munching away on half of it. "That was because I know the real reason you didn't want to be at the Ball."

"Voldemort and his Death Eaters attacked it and I was extensively injured?" Lily ventured, picking up her own banana and taking a bite.

"No, no, no," Ian protested shaking his head and looking at her with pity, as if to say her answer was ridiculous. "You wish you'd been at the party - where James Potter was."

Lily almost choked on her own tongue. Then she began coughing frantically. What? Had Ian really just said that? Had Sam told him? She must have. She was the only one that knew.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked between coughs.

"I'm talking about you and James Potter-"

"I don't know what you mean by that."

"Yeah, right," Ian said sarcastically. "You don't know about you and James Potter. But don't worry, I approve. It's a good match. I never understood Christian and you together. He's a good friend and all, but he's really boring and you really aren't. And I know I've only met James Potter twice, but I think-"

"Who've you been talking to?" Lily asked, reaching out and grabbing his arm before he ate another bite of that roll.

"Tracy," Ian said cryptically. And while Lily was sure that he kept on teasing her and eating his various fruits and breads, she was no longer listening. Instead, she was trying to figure out what Tracy had said to Ian. Tracy didn't know about Lily's obsession, did she? No. She couldn't have. Plus, there was no longer an obsession, Lily reminded herself. James had called her a Muggle and then he'd made that stupid comment on New Year's. But what did Tracy know - or think she knew?

"Well, they're calling my number."

"What?" Lily asked, looking over to seeing Ian standing up with his empty plate. The boy was like a garbage disposal.

"They're calling me in to testify," Ian explained, pointing toward a man standing next to an open door. "I don't think I can come back in here after, so I'll owl you soon."

"Oh. All right," Lily said, standing and giving him a hug good-bye. "Give 'em hell."

"Give who hell?"

"The inquisition," Lily replied, smiling. "I'll give you a sickle if you bring in some strawberries and throw them at them any time they ask you a question."

"Ah, you and your sickle bets." Ian tossed his plate onto the ground, smiled at Lily as it disappeared, and then walked out of the room and behind that dark door.

~*~*~

Ian, with his plate of fruit and rolls, was the first acquaintance she ran into that night, but he was not the last. The second came after two very boring hours of waiting, when the buffet table changed from fruits and breads into sandwiches.

"Lily Evans!" the voice screamed, dragging Lily's attention away from the buffet table and over to the door which had just opened. As it shut, blocking out the flashes of cameras, Lily saw Mrs. Crouch marching towards her with three bodyguard-looking types in tow.

"Mrs. Crouch!" Lily cried, standing up off the couch. Lily walked toward her and embraced her as if she were an old friend instead of a practical stranger, embraced her as if she were a missing relative, finally returned. She embraced her as she used to embrace her mother, when she thought Faith Evans could fix every problem in the world.

"I was worried about you. I heard that you were in St. Mungo's until three days ago," Cordelia Crouch said as the pair separated and walked back toward one of the couches.

"Yes, I was. It was not the most pleasant experience of my life," Lily replied.

"Nor of mine."

"How long were you in the hospital?" They sat down together, Mrs. Crouch's five bodyguards hovering uncomfortably close.

"Four days. Those house-elves nearly drove me batty." Lily smiled and nodded, remembering the way they cropped up out of nowhere in order to assist with every menial task. She glanced around at the five men surrounding them.

"I'm glad you're all right. I was worried and no one believed that I knew you," Lily explained, looking questioningly at Mrs. Crouch.

"Yes, the Ministry Official asked me to verify your story."

"So you spoke with her?"

"Her? No. I spoke with my husband's assistant. I believe he also spoke with you." Lily didn't understand. Had Director Brooks spoken with Mrs. Crouch or not? If not, why not? "I told him everything. You need not feel nervous about speaking today."

"I'm not nervous," Lily protested automatically. She took in the way she was shaking her legs up and down, her hands locked together on those legs, and the clenched muscles in her back. "Hm. Well. Never mind. I guess I am nervous. Why am I nervous?"

"Why wouldn't you be nervous?"

"Because my testimony hardly matters. I left early. It isn't like I saw the important parts," Lily explained. "I didn't go through anything, really."

"You didn't go through anything?" scoffed Cordelia Crouch. She leaned forward and placed her warm, comforting hands over Lily's. "I saw those spells that hit your shield."

"I don't remember much of that. I only remember shoving you - sorry about that by the way - and then waking up in the hospital."

"You're sorry about shoving me aside?" Mrs Crouch asked, incredulity lacing her words. "You saved my life."

Lily laughed aloud, extracting her hands from under Mrs. Crouch's.

"I did not save your life!" Lily exclaimed.

"Of course you did."

"No. You were in the way of my Shield Charm." Lily tried to dispel horrifying thought that Mrs. Crouch had told anyone that she thought Lily had actually helped her. Cordelia Crouch had obviously been hit in the head. Hard.

"You pushed me away from a Death Eater that was about to grab me. You pushed me right at a Portkey," protested Mrs. Crouch.

"I didn't mean to!" Lily stood up and crossed her arms over her chest and fingering the charm on her necklace.

"But you did." Mrs. Crouch stood up and Lily took a step backward.

"No. You just aren't remembering right. I needed to cast my charm and I would have hit you if you'd stayed where you were. It was an instinct." The bodyguards, interestingly enough, shifted ever-so-slightly left and right with Mrs. Crouch. It was like they were one unit moving through six bodies.

"You saved my life and I will never forget that. I owe you a Wizard's Debt."

"What? No. No, you don't!" Lily exclaimed, taking another step backward. By this point, Lily saw a movement out of the corner of her eyes and turned to look. What she found was that many guests in close proximity had taken note of the conversation between Mrs. Crouch and herself. She turned and met the gaze of each of them, smiling a large, fake smile. As she knew they would, they turned away once met with her own close scrutiny.

"Scaring away politicians?" Mrs. Crouch quipped, smirking.

"As always," Lily began, then turned back to the woman in front of her. "Listen, though. Whatever you think you owe me, you don't."

"It's a Wizard's Debt. You can't just release a person from that obligation."

"Yes I can, and I do. I release you. You owe me nothing. Please don't think you do."

Then a strange thing happened: air rushed out of Lily as if pulled by magic, leaving the girl gasping for breath a moment later, her hands resting on her knees as she tried to regain her breath.

"You," the strangely-raspy voice of Mrs. Crouch began. Lily looked up to find a bodyguard holding each of her arms. She shrugged them off and moved forward, holding Lily by the shoulder. "You gave up a Wizarding Debt?"

"What?" Lily asked, still confused and short of breath.

"I've never heard of anyone-"

"Cordelia Crouch!" interrupted a magically amplified voice. Both Lily and Mrs. Crouch turned, the latter's arm still grasping Lily's shoulder. "Cordelia Crouch, please come forward."

"I have to go give my testimony," Mrs. Crouch explained quietly, releasing Lily's shoulder.

"Please don't tell them that you think I saved your life."

Lily had expected her request to be met with an apology and an explanation about having to follow protocol. She had expected Mrs. Crouch to tell her that she needed to tell the council everything that happened. Instead, Mrs. Crouch's soft blue eyes met Lily's green ones and she nodded once. Then, Mrs. Cordelia Crouch - wife of the future Minister of Magic- stepped forward and embraced Lily Evans - simple, sixth year Muggle-born, Lily Evans.

"I've never met anyone quite like you. You just gave up your right- it's incredible."

Lily was not entirely sure she was supposed to have heard that last sentence. Mrs. Crouch sounded like she was talking to herself. To some degree, Lily was right. Until that moment Cordelia Crouch had lived in a world governed by rules and regulations - rules of society that she bent and rules of law by which she carefully abided. She married a man of equal stature in society with equal values. She had produced an heir and raised her son as best she could. She was everything she was supposed to be.

So why was it that Lily Evans's simple act of releasing her from a Wizard's Debt left her feeling incomplete? Why was it that a single gesture of complete selflessness shocked her and made her feel almost... frightened?

In the years to come, when the blacks and whites of Cordelia Crouch's world slowly danced together to form grey - when her husband authorized the Aurors to use the Unforgivables, when her husband began sentencing without trials, when she sat at the "trial" of her son and watched her husband throw him away - she would remember this unfulfilled Wizard's Debt.

Many took note of this last exchange between Cordelia Crouch and Lily Evans. They cared, at the time, because Mrs. Crouch was prominent and important in the Wizarding world. In thirty years, after the story of Bartemus Crouch Junior surfaces, this embrace will be remembered in a different light. It will be the last time these two women stood together, two women who would sacrifice their lives for their sons, two women who thought they were doing the right thing. Two women: one whose sacrifice would bring about the destruction of the Dark Lord, the other who would give the Dark Lord the tool to rise again.

Two women. Two sons. Two sacrifices.

One Wizard's Debt Unpaid.


Author notes: Thank you, Everyone.