James and Lily: A History

Chapter 7: The Death Eater Brigade

The darkness was deafening. It was always biting cold on Halloween night at Hogwarts, but Lily couldn't remember ever being so consumed, eaten, and swallowed by the pitch black night. She tried putting her hand out to feel her surroundings, but she couldn't. She couldn't see or do anything but follow Logan's footsteps as he guided her to wherever they were going. A long hood was drawn over her head, which Lily longed to take off ; yet she resisted the instinct, feeling this hood might be her only means of protection aside from her wand in the thick darkness.

"You know, you can see and talk now. I took the silencing charm and blindfold off you right when we left the castle," said Logan nonchalantly, as though anyone would have figured it out by now.

"I smell trees," replied Lily hoarsely. It was all she could think of to say, following one of her so-called Slytherin enemies through a place where there were lots of leaves, branches, and uneven ground littered with rocks and overgrown roots.

"That's because we're in the Forbidden Forest. Wow, you're awfully sharp today," said Logan dryly. "Careful, branch up ahead. Don't forget to duck."

"You seem to be wavering between treating me as your fellow classmate and your enemy," replied Lily. Although enemy might have been too strong of a word. Potter is such an arrogant bully, and I don't even consider him an enemy.

"Well, honestly Lily, I don't consider you an enemy. Actually, I admire you," said Logan. Surprisingly, his tone was quite serious, not amused or sarcastic. He seemed to mean it.

"What?!" sputtered Lily under the hood. "Are you alright Logan, or did you accidentally make a Confounding Potion instead of a Beautification Potion?"

"No, I'm serious. You think I enjoy taunting Black and you all the time? No! I have to live up to my Slytherin image--it's expected, although I gain some pleasure. It is quite amusing."

"I am so utterly... well, I'm bloody confused," replied Lily slowly.

"So people make a big deal--duck again--about how Muggle-borns are treated like dung in the wizard world sometimes, which is true. But, have you ever considered the other side? My father is one of the Dark Lord's closest supporters. I'm not sure, but I think he might have known him when the Dark Lord was a boy. Anyway, my father is a reckless tyrant, a dictator. When either my mom or I disagree with him, he throws up a storm, starts yelling, turning over chairs, and breaking everything. It's absolutely horrible. Therefore, to avoid that, I shut my mouth and obey him. I never seem to find the courage to do what Sirius does--rebel--or to do what you do... be outspoken," answered Logan, as his voice struggled to stay firm while revealing the weaknesses of his family.

"Wait, so you're a good Slytherin?" asked Lily, shocked by what Logan was disclosing about his family and his life.

"Good Slytherin?" replied Logan in disgust. "What kind of presumptuous generality is that? If you define 'good' as being moral, I'm definitely not good. I cheat on tests. I lie to teachers to get out of detention every single time. I ridicule everyone except myself. I'm a follower of beliefs I disagree with..."

"Okay! I get the point," interrupted Lily, annoyed. "That was stupid of me to say."

"Right you are," said Logan stiffly. "Now shut up. We're almost there."

Lily heard drums beating, and muttering as people gathered together for some kind of ceremony, but she still could not see a thing under the long hood. So she waited, ruminating and absorbing everything Logan spilled to her about his life, and realized--she might have been wrong in judging him.

Prongs, Moony, Padfoot, and Wormtail huddled outside the statue of a humped witch, knowing something had to be behind it only on Marauder intuition. It was a cold night, and the boys shivered under the invisibility cloak while they wondered what spell could open or move the humped witch.

"Prongs, what spell did you use on that that Ravenclaw first year last week who annoyed you about not being able to put a Quaffle pass Murray?" asked Sirius, his face fixed in absolute concentration, scrutinizing the statue of the humped witch to find a crack or a mysterious hole.

"Oh--it was Diffindo to cut open his bag and stain his books," replied James steely, as the memory of the first year's taunting still lingered. James did not like being ridiculed by a first year who worshipped Murray, Lily's almost-first boyfriend.

"Diffindo!" said Sirius, pointing his wand excitedly at the statue from under the cloak, but the most that happened was Peter stifling a sneeze.

"That didn't work," squeaked Peter, rubbing his pink nose.

"Thanks Peter," said Sirius in feigned shock. "I had absolutely no clue."

"What if--," said Remus slightly louder, but still in hushed tones to prevent any squabbling. "You tried something similar to Diffindo since the prefix 'di' is always used in words such as 'divide' or 'divisive' which mean in some way 'to split apart.'"

"Brilliant Moony, it's like a puzzle. Dissocio means to part..." trailed off Sirius, rubbing his chin and starring at his sneakers in deep contemplation.

"Uhm--McGonagall said 'en' means here, although I'm not sure if that would help," piped Peter, still holding his nose to avoid a sneeze incase Filch was around.

"Good idea Peter!" interrupted James. "So we've got action--to divide, place--here, now we need a translation for when...Damn! We're so close! I can feel it!"

"Dium--that means today, or now. Diss--en--dium," said Remus slowly, putting the puzzle pieces together and pointing his wand at the statue. Immediately, the secret door in the statue of the humped back witch opened, causing the Marauders to yelp in surprise before stepping back to admire their own cleverness.

"Lily, we're at the outskirts of our destination. I have to clear up a few things with you before I take you there. We'll be a little late, but not extremely late--which is good--actually, that's perfect. We won't attract any attention," said Logan in such a serious tone that it sent shivers down Lily's back. She could feel his grey eyes staring directly at her through the hood, without even blinking to convey the gravity of the situation.

"What is this place?" asked Lily, licking her chapped lips but finding it to be ineffective. Her mouth had suddenly become very dry, and she was seeing a glimmer of light which almost blinded her eyes. Logan must have lifted the hood a little bit higher, which was good. At least I won't suffocate to death tonight.

"This place is the Forbidden Forest. What you are about to enter..." said Logan, pausing and taking a deep breath before completing the sentence, "...is The Death Eater Brigade."

"The Death Eater Brigade?" questioned Lily incredulously. "What's a Death Eater?"

"Evans! Do you know anything! This is not the time to be asking questions!" whispered Logan furiously, extremely impatient. "A Death Eater is what we call The Dark Lord's followers. Death Eaters do his dirty work--kill Muggles, infiltrate the Ministry as spies, or recruit members who support his cause to purify the wizard world.

"Evans, Hogwarts isn't safe because there is a brigade setup by Bellatrix Black and the Lestrange Brothers. They set the brigade up to lure purebloods into the Dark Arts, so when they graduate, they will be prepared to join the Dark Lord and support his cause."

It seemed as though Lily was going to suffocate to death tonight after all. She felt her lungs struggle for air as she swallowed every single word Logan said. Her knees buckled as she struggled to control the dread coursing through her veins.

"And you couldn't tell me this?! You had to show me?!" cried Lily in disbelief. "Is this your view of a funny joke?"

"Would you have believed me if I revealed all this to you that night in the Charms corridor?" asked Logan logically.

"N--No," stammered Lily. "I wouldn't have. I would have thought you were pulling my leg. I would have left, laughing probably."

"Precisely," said Logan critically. "Now, rule number one Lily--don't say anything. Rule number two--keep your hood down. Rule number three--you leave when I leave. Got it?"

"Do I have a choice?' asked Lily in an icy voice, hoping this night would just be over right now.

"Not really," replied Logan chuckling, shaking his head and leading her into the edge of the Death Eater Brigade.

With the Invisibility Cloak tucked safely away in James' bag, the Marauders laughed and joked the way back to Hogwarts through the long, dark tunnel, as they always had done right after finding another secret passageway to add to the Marauder's Map.

This time, unlike Lachlan the Lanky, the statue of the humped witch was no dud. It led to Honeydukes' storage room. If they were careful, they could hide behind storage boxes and sneak out into the shop anytime to buy sweets, butterbeers at Madam Rosmerta's, and pastries for the Gryffindor common room after Quidditch matches or long weekends filled with nothing but studying. However, they didn't know whether Filch knew about this passageway, so they had to restrain themselves from their own boldness and cleverness. If they got caught, they would have an extremely long and hard time explaining to Professor McGonagall.

Before exiting the doorway, James threw the cloak over all his friends and himself again, and they walked out sideways out of the narrow passageway. Taking out the Marauder's Map, James gasped when he stared at the people moving towards their destination--they were cornered.

"Shite! We've got Filch coming right this way, only a few feet away, and we've got Professor Icthius coming towards us in the opposite direction. He's not as close as Filch, but we're definitely in trouble," said James nervously, beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead from apprehension.

"Then let's go back to the Gryffindor common room as quickly as possible!" hissed Sirius. "Or are you going to tell me McGonagall's there?"

"Right you are mate. McGonagall's standing right in front of the portrait hole talking to Mitchell. Shite. Come on, let's run."

Unfortunately, it had been a long time since the Marauders were caught in such a quandary. Just when James, Sirius, and Remus were beginning to run and pace themselves with each other, Peter stumbled clumsily, but Sirius caught him by the arm.If he fell under the invisibility cloak, they would all fall. It was simply too crowded.

"Did you see that Professor Icthius?" shrieked Filch in horror. "That was a boy's foot! In mid-air!"

"I know Filch. There are boys out of bed. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Potter and Black and their little gang. They are somewhere around here," said Icthius, walking towards where the Marauders were standing rooted on the spot and trying to smell their presence. Professor Icthius stopped in his tracks, and stood on the opposite side of Filch, with the Marauders hiding under their Invisibility cloak in the middle of them both.

"Guys--we have to run. Ready? Peter, stop squeaking. They know we're here. Alright, on the count of three, we're running up the right-hand side staircase up to the seventh floor. Pray that no one is there," whispered Sirius, his lips barely moving. "One... two... three."

The Marauders sprinted, falling into pace with one another up the wide staircase. Although the Invisibility Cloak kept people invisible, it didn't keep people from being solid or muffle their footsteps. Therefore, it wasn't surprising when Filch and Icthius trailed right after them, up the staircase, the first floor, the second...

Lily could now see with her hood pulled back a little, and she suddenly wished she kept herself blinded. She was standing in the last line of hooded Slytherins, while Bellatrix Black, the Lestrange brothers, Rosier, Snape, and Regulus Black stood in front, perched on top of a--large tree trunk? Lily could not make out what it was, but it looked like a wooden podium. All around them, black cloths covered branches and trees, and even the ground they were standing on was draped in black. A large black cloth hung in the background of the wooden podium, held up by a temporary sticking charm with branches at all four corners: a large skull with a snake protruding out of its mouth was drawn onto the backdrop. The moonlight shined upon the podium, illuminating Bellatrix Black's gaunt, pale face and the black blanket behind her. The skull glowed an eerie green.

"Fellow Slytherins! I know we have a lot more Slytherins than this pathetic lot, so we'll have to work harder in recruiting our cunning friends. We are all gathered here to spread support to the powerful Dark Lord, who seeks to purify the wizard world."

Pausing momentarily to look around at all her hooded figures, Bellatrix continued, her head pointing upward, as though she was making a speech for the heavens.

"This world was built by the sweat and blood of pure-blood wizards. Why should we allow those who do not fit into our creed into our own society? Why should we allow those who refuse to even acknowledge magic when it is right in front of them into our world? Why should we allow those into our world who would use anything as a scapegoat to hide our identity--'meteor showers,' or 'aliens' or 'crop circles.' They were not 'meteor showers,' but our wand sparks, celebrating holidays like Halloween or Christmas. They were not 'aliens,' but normal pets that we purchase from Diagon Alley. They were not 'crop circles,' but our own way of submitting our gardens into greenhouse competitions. Do you not see this? Do you not feel their need to completely cast us from their world? Therefore, why should be allow them into ours? The Dark Lord is right. It is now time to eradicate Mudblooods from our world. It is time to spill their blood to preserve ours," ended Bellatrix Black, holding up a vile of blood into the air.

That was the last straw for Lily. She obeyed Logan's orders and ignored his taunts for the past week: 11 'o' at the Heads' Room, the blindfold, the silencing charm, walking through the forest and almost tripping to death, and the damn, suffocating hood, but this was it. Bellatrix Black was psychotic--just because non-magic folk couldn't see what wizards saw, doesn't mean the innocent should suffer in return. There were many things Muggles made that wizards couldn't even fathom, such as the use of electricity or cars or toasters--just to name a few things. They were simply two different civilizations--no, worlds. A chill crept through Lily's veins, causing her fingers to go numb and her knees to tremble violently. Her head was growing dizzy; her mind was overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation. The trees, branches, and leaves swirled together in a whirlwind of black, green, and white above her, sweeping away the stars, the moon--all light.

Lily bolted. She didn't care anymore, as long as the hood was still covering her head. She sprinted out of the Forbidden forest, stumbling over tree branches, her face cut by sharp leaves every now and then, but she didn't care. She just wanted to get away from it all. She understood why Logan had to show her now. As long as the Death Eater Brigade existed, Hogwarts was a means for the Dark Lord to gather his supporters, breeding future Death Eaters to kill innocent life.

Yet, Lily might have fared better sitting out the whole ceremony, as just when she ran, Bellatrix Black stopped abruptly in her speech. Right when Lily turned away, Bellatrix caught the sight of a red lock of hair, and she knew that thick, red hair anywhere--the Mudblood Evans.

"Quick! In here!" said Sirius. "I'm tired of running back and forth in the same place, chased first by Filch and then that git Icthius."

"What is this place?' asked Peter, trembling in anxiety and still holding his pink nose, afraid he would sneeze.

"Well Wormtail, there are brooms," deduced Remus logically. "So I guess this must be a broom cupboard."

"What is a broom cupboard doing on the seventh floor opposite that ugly tapestry showing Barnabas the Balmy teaching trolls to dance?" asked Peter. Although he was slow on some things, Peter was quick to recognize certain portraits and statues around Hogwarts, which came very useful when they came together to plot certain places on the Marauder's Map.

"Yeah, and I don't think I saw this door the first few times we ran past this. It was the third time when Professor Icthius chased us that I actually recognized there was even a door," said James, confused. "Honestly, I've never seen this room until now."

"Should we put it on the map, Prongs?" asked Sirius.

"I don't think so," interjected Remus. "Don't know how accurate this room is. We should put that on our agenda for next week or something."

"Good idea Moony," agreed James, taking out the Marauder's Map. "Coast is clear. Let's get back to the common room as quickly as possible. It's been one bloody hell of a night."

Sprinting into the giant oak doors of the castle, Lily ran up the stairs, her thighs protesting in pain on each step. It was bad enough running out of the forest attacked by tree roots, leaves, and branches every two steps, but climbing up flights of stairs was putting a physical toll on Lily, who wasn't used to running. Arriving at the Portrait of the Fat Lady, Lily stopped, hearing someone call her name behind her.

"Lily!" cried Logan, sprinting half-way up the staircases and following her to the floor of the Gryffindor common room. "Lily! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing? Did you not listen to what I said? You leave when I leave."

"I listened perfectly Logan," replied Lily, her voice trembling. "And--and that was horrible. I can't believe you can actually sit and let Bellatrix lecture everyone like that. Don't--don't you have a guilty conscience? Do--do you not have feelings at all? Are--are you even a human being? Countless innocent lives have died under Lord Voldemort! New deaths are in the Daily Prophet every single day!"

"I know Lily, believe me I know," said Logan, clutching a side stitch and breathing heavily as he leaned against the staircase rail. "But I have no choice. I'm not like you or Black, Lily. I don't have the courage to stand up to these people, and I never will. I'm just going to live my life because I have it all made for me. I'll graduate from Hogwarts, my dad will bribe the Ministry officials to get me a job, I'll become a Death Eater, and I'll die a coward. This is my life, Lily. What right do you have to judge?"

"Why the hell are you in Slytherin?" asked Lily, her arms crossed at her chest, glaring into DeGrasse's grey eyes. For once, they had bags under them, and his glimmering dark, grey eyes were hollow and dim. He seemed to be tired of living up to other people's expectations, but had no choice because he had none of his own.

"Because I chose to be in Slytherin. Did you know that I haven't studied for a Hogwarts exam since my first year? I've cheated my way through life--with skill. That's the definition of cunning isn't it? Skill in deception. I fit perfectly. Path of least resistance, Lily."

"Why are you helping me?" she asked, upset. Her almond-green eyes dug into Logan's face, refusing to let him lie to her and run.

"Because Lily, you're awfully loud and outspoken. That's putting you in a lot of danger. I still have feelings you know. I am a human being--just one who lacks a few lessons in morality."

"A few?!" replied Lily, giggling unexpectedly and uncrossing her arms. "I have no clue how you cheated past McGonagall and frankly, I really don't want to know."

"So we're ok?" asked DeGrasse, his composure regained. He walked up the staircase to where Lily was standing and held out his hand for Lily to shake.

"Yeah..." said Lily hesitantly and shaking his hand lightly. "We're ok."

Watching Logan walk down the stairs massaging his side stitch, Lily finally knew what she was facing and was glad she finally found out. She could prepare to fight it. The Death Eaters were only a small group out of all the students. Three-quarters of the student body liked interacting with Muggle-borns, as they would have all been forced to marry their cousins if they stuck to pure-bloods only. Suddenly, Lily felt guilty. For once and probably the only time in his life, Logan acted bravely.

"Logan!" yelled Lily. "...Thanks."

"Thanks isn't necessary, Evans. I did this mostly for the joy of knowing I'm more clever than Bellatrix," smirked Logan vainly, turning and disappearing down another flight of stairs.

Exhausted, Lily trudged back up the staircase again and yelled at the Fat Lady to give her entrance. Luckily, the Fat Lady allowed her in, but kept her eyes shut as she swung the portrait hole open, not seeing the leaves tangled in Lily's hair and the cuts and bruises on her cheeks and hands. The Marauders, though, had been standing at the Portrait of the Fat Lady the whole time and saw everything.

Staring at the place where Logan had leaned against the rail, James cracked his knuckles, clenched his teeth, and said, "Can we please spike DeGrasse's potion tomorrow and crush his bones into pieces for tricking Evans?"

"Sure mate, sure. But first, let's get some sleep," replied Sirius, clasping a hand onto James' shoulder as the Marauders walked one-by-one into the portrait hole, in need of sleep after a long, Halloween night.

Ch.7