Resistance

Chapter 4 - But

"Did you read Harry's letter?" Lily was sitting on a couch in the living room of Potter Manor.

James had just walked into the room, holding a stack of parchments in his arms. He put it on the coffee table and sat next to his wife.

"No, what does it say?" he asked, wandering why she brought it up.

"He's in Gryffindor,' she said shortly.

"Oh, thank the Havens," James exhaled.

'Don't say that," Lily whispered. "What are we going to do now? You remember what we promised."

"Of course I do," James didn't look at her. "But it's not our fault. You know as well as I do that no one could buy that Hat off. Sure, they made him sing those songs, but untruthful sorting? Never."

Lily sighed. "But he will turn to us, say it is our fault, that we didn't teach him rightly."

"And then what?" James stood up and started pacing in front of her.

"He can't threaten us with Harry anymore. The boy made a decision and Voldemort knows it very well."

"But what shall we do?" Lily looked desperate. "This is killing us both. Watching him grow up like that. Feed him lies we don't even believe in. Goodness, I don't even remember what we told him about my family."

"He knows you're muggle-born," James said quietly.

"Yes, but he hates it, he's ashamed of me. James, he's ashamed!"

James sat next to her and took her in his arms. "There's nothing we can do."

"We could turn spy," she whispered.

James laughed. "How long were you thinking about that?"

"A while."

"You know it's absolutely impossible, right?"

"Of course."

"Just checking."

Lily shifted in his arms to look him in the face and kissed him. "I better go get ready. You do remember the Gathering at Malfoy Manor, don't you?"

"Yes, of course. I'll just go through these things and we'll go."

She nodded and got up, going to their room. "I love you."

"Love you too," came the reply.

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Later that evening, Malfoy Manor

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"I may congratulate you, Narcissa," said Lily with a smile.

"Yes, thank you," the woman returned with a smile on her own. "I'm dreadfully sorry for you, though, it must be awful."

"Yes, he's taking it quite hard, I'm afraid. But as I see it, things could have been worse."

"Yes, it could," Narcissa shook her head. "I just hope all those filthy mudblood-lovers won't spin his head in the wrong direction."

Lily shook her head. "I don't even want to think about that."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, darling. I didn't mean to upset you."

"It's quite alright," Lily averted her eyes to the door. "James and I would make sure he wouldn't go astray."

"Lucius and I will be here whenever you need us," Narcissa assured her.

Lily smiled. "Thank you. I'm so afraid of doing this on my own."

The two women were sitting in a room on the second floor of the Manor. It wasn't very big but it was very airy as there were two large windows over looking the gardens. It was a room only Narcissa's closest friends saw and Lily always felt very proud of herself while sitting there.

The men had their own discussion downstairs in the big dining room.

It was the Monthly Gathering of Death Eaters. A way for the Dark Lord to honor one of his servants - announcing the Gathering would take place in that person's house. The last one had been in Potter Manor. Lily remembered how delighted Harry had been when James came home with those news. He kept bragging about it to everyone he knew, especially Draco.

Essentially, during the Gathering all the Death Eaters gave reports to the Dark Lord about the movement of forces, the tasks taken care of - a very dual business. What made the Gatherings so special was that usually, the wife of the honored Death Eater would throw a feast or a party of some sort and it would turn into a great social event.

This time, seeing as the children were in Hogwarts, Narcissa announced she wasn't feeling up to the task because of a medical condition and would not hold any kind of celebrations during the day. But she offered to throw the Christmas feast at their house as a compensation. She was Lucius' wife, and therefore had been allowed to do so.

That was the reason it were only the two of them in the room, the men being busy with their reports and no other Being, excluding the House Elves, in the house.

Narcissa leaned back in her armchair. "Oh, thank the Lord, they allowed me this time off. I hate these parties so much."

"I know what you mean. You remember my state after last month."

"Yes, I can't believe Martha would say such a thing. And questioning the Dark Lord's motions!"

"I was so proud of Harry," Lily smiled at the memory. Narcissa laughed.

"Oh, yes, I remember the looks on their faces when he came up to her, held out his wand and preformed Cruciatus." Lily brushed away a tear. "If the Dark Lord would hold the Gathering in the same place two times in a row, we'd be sitting in your house today."

Both women giggled.

"Yes, that would be lovely," commented Lily.

"Did you see the look on Alexandra and Oleg McNair's faces? I thought they'll perish from envy when our Lord put his hand on Harry's shoulder and said he would make a good Death Eater some day."

At this point both women were laughing.

"I remember Draco begging Lucius to teach him that curse days afterwards," continued Narcissa. "He was so angry when Lucius kept saying 'no'. How did he learn it?"

"You know how Harry is, always looking around in places he shouldn't. Probably found a book about it in the Library."

Narcissa nodded, her eyes twinkling in mirth. "I should leave more books like that lying around. Maybe Draco'll take a hint."

They laughed some more.

"When do you think they'll be done?" Lily asked suddenly.

"I don't know, an hour or two more," said Narcissa thoughtfully. "Why? Am I that bad a company?"

Lily smiled. "No, of course not. It's just that I'm waiting for an owl from Harry and I don't want to receive it with everyone around."

Narcissa nodded knowingly. "I understand, but there's not much to do about it, is there?"

Lily sighed.

"Oh, come on!" said Narcissa suddenly, jumping to her feet. "We can't have this bad mood all around. We aren't in a party! Let's go to the kitchens, see what we can make the House Elves do."

Lily smiled and followed her friend.

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A month or so later

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"You have noticed sabotages in our operations" the Dark Lord was standing in the middle of a large circle. These were his elite. The top of the top of his Death Eaters.

Voldemort was currently questioning James Potter, Minister of Magic. At first, he had been watchful for betrayal from that particular party, but as the years passed by, James became his second most loyal servant. He didn't dwell upon the reason for this, it didn't matter.

"Yes, my Lord," James' answers were to the point, as was expected from him.

"Why do you believe so?" Voldemort's eyes passed over his Death Eaters, most of them shivered.

"There have been misshapes which only lead to this conclusion, Master."

"Such as?" the Dark Lord drilled on.

"Our allay in Paris hasn't contacted us in over a month. The party we sent to the Netherlands last month has not returned or contacted. The Russian side is uncharacteristically quiet and uncooperative."

"This is a sign of treason, how?"

"Only those who are present in this room know of them, my Lord, some of them were controlled by me personally."

"So there's a mole." Voldemort walked around the circle of men in front of him. "Do you have any suspicions, Potter?"

"Not as of yet," James kneeled in front of the Dark Lord. "The reports came in yesterday evening and I received them today just before arriving here. I only had time to read through them once."

"And you came upon this conclusion?"

"It was the most logical one, my Lord."

"Unfortunately." Voldemort looked down as James. "Get up."

James did as he was told. When he stood, he stood proud and held the Dark Lord's gaze longer than anyone had ever dared to before.

"You are to investigate in the matter," said Voldemort.

James nodded and the Death Eaters continued discussing other matters.

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Some other time, some other place

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"You came."

"I was curios."

"You don't trust me."

"You're a Death Eater, of course I don't trust you."

"I guess I deserve that."

"You deserve more than that. You deserve prison, you deserve The Kiss."

The two figures were standing in an ally, dark, unplotable, magically hidden alley.

"You don't understand. We had no choice, not me, nor him."

"We're not here to talk about him."

"But it concerns him too, although he really believes in the Dark Lord's ways."

"And now you're afraid to say your master's name?" the figure laughed, somewhat bitterly.

"There's more than that," said the figure quietly. "If I say his name he will know it and then we're both doomed."

"Unlike right now where our future is bright and shiny."

"Don't be sarcastic on me," the figure hissed. " I came here -"

"At great personal risk," mimicked the other figure. "Yes, I know, you already told me that."

"Listen, I'm sorry -"

The other figure interrupted him again. "Don't give me your half-assed excuses. What you did was unforgivable. Two of my best friends, no less! I trusted you, goddamn it. We could have helped you."

"No, you couldn't," said the other figure quietly.

The first figure glared at the second, but it was lost because of the hood drawn over the figure's face.

"Let's talk business then," one of them finally said.

"Alright," nodded the other. "They are forming an expedition to Russia."

"Another one?"

"Yes, the others weren't as successful as we hoped, and the Dark Lord wants us to try again."

The first figure nodded to show it was interested.

"There's a man in Paris, he goes by the name J.K. Collins, he's an allay of the Lord."

The other nodded.

"There's a castle in Dublin the Lord likes to stay over often. If you want to take him over, you could take over at the castle."

"I think it's too early for that, don't you?"

The figure shook its head. "I was hoping it wasn't."

"You're one of the top Death Eaters and you don't know how bad it is for the resistance?"

"Sometimes one overlooks the things one doesn't want to know."

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A Death Eater Gathering

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Voldemort stood, like always in the middle of his circle of Death Eaters, regarding them all. His gaze halted on one of them. He smiled.

"It's time, I think," the Dark Lord said. "That you, James Potter, will learn how we deal with traitors."