The Worm That Turned

Chapter 4 -An Uneasy Alliance

There was a stand-off, all four pointing their wands at each other, frozen. Severus' heart was doing strange things, his eyes flicking again and again to Lily, hardly able to process the amazement that she was there. In a minute someone was going to snap and cast a hex, after which all hell would break loose. Severus was trying to think desperately of a way he could not only avoid harming Lily, but protect her as well, without Lucius realising. Potter - for of course Lily's companion was his old enemy - made a movement, and Lucius tensed in response. The next minute two spells collided in mid-air with a shower of sparks.

'No!' Lily's cry caused both to hesitate, and then to Severus' horror, she threw herself between them, hands up. 'Wait, stop!'

Lucius' wand, pointed and ready, faltered as he hesitated. Severus thanked his stars that he was with Lucius and not some of his more trigger-happy colleagues. If that had been Bellatrix, Lily would be in little pieces by now. Severus shut his eyes momentarily at the thought. He hated being reminded of Lily's foolish courage.

'Stop,' she was saying again, in a much quieter voice. 'Thank you. We know the Death Eaters haven't threatened anything. We heard you - we know you want to protect the Pillar. And that's why we're here too. We want to protect it. From the Ministry.'

Very slowly, Lucius moved his wand and touched it to his mask. When he spoke, his voice was distorted and unrecognisable. 'Why should we believe you? You're part of Dumbledore's Order. You're all at one with the Ministry.'

James Potter made a disgusted noise from behind his wife, and Lily shot him a quick glance. 'That's not quite true, at least not about this. We don't really know what might happen if the Pillar were to be destroyed, no one understands it well enough. And we don't like the way the Ministry is lying about it - we think it's important to preserve justice and integrity, even at war.'

Are these fools for real? asked Lucius via his Mark, the incredulity audible even through the static. Out loud he sneered, 'How very noble of you.'

'I wouldn't expect you to understand,' said Lily with contempt. 'I am right, though, about you wanting to protect the Pillar?'

'Destroying the Pillar is against everything the Death Eaters stand for. If people were less stupid, they'd realise that.'

'How come there's only two of you, then?' demanded Potter, belligerently. Severus could see that talking to Death Eaters had not been part of Potter's plan.

'How come there are only two of you?' returned Lucius promptly.

'The rest are at the Ministry end. Saboteurs. There's not that many of us, it's true. Not everyone agrees about protecting it,' said Lily bluntly. 'But in our organisation disobedience isn't punishable by death.'

Severus and Lucius exchanged the smallest glance. Neither really wanted to think about their action as disobedient, or the imaginatively nasty punishment Voldemort reserved for those who did fall into that category. But Lucius sounded very cool and calm when he replied. 'I imagine that's because so many of you get killed off on a daily basis it's hardly in the organisation's interests.'

'Amusing as this little chat is, I think we should break it up now,' said Potter, eyeing the glow in the sky just above them that represented the Pillar. 'Since we're evenly matched, we'll give you time to disapparate. Can't say fairer than that.'

'Except that anyone trying to disapparate here would probably end up in little pieces,' said Lucius icily, although the distortion from his mask simply made it sound like he had a bad cold. 'Since you're on the 'side of good', why don't you walk away? If those idiots in the tents caught you - which I doubt - you could play the Dumbledore card.'

'And trust a pair of Death Eaters not to attack us as we went? Cold blooded murderers like you...'

'I can assure you, neither I nor my companion has ever murdered anyone,' cut in Lucius haughtily. Which was true in an extremely narrow literal sense, Severus supposed, but he had a feeling rather a large number of people who'd died as a result of their actions or inactions might not be inclined to agree.

'Listen!' said Lily impatiently, and everyone turned reluctantly to look at her. 'I know it sounds crazy, but I think we should work together to protect the Pillar.'

'What?!' exclaimed three voices in almost perfect unison.

'Have you gone mad?' asked James Potter.

'You know we'll never manage to protect it on our own, even if the others succeed. You need at least four people around it to stop them rushing you from several directions at once. Even with four it will be hard, but we've got double the chance than if we go it alone.' She turned and spoke directly to James. 'I don't like the thought of working with them any more than you do, but we've got to be realistic.'

James scowled past his wife at Lucius. He was still holding his wand ready. 'Well? What do you think, Death Eater?'

Team up with these idiots? Lucius asked via his Mark. I suppose the mudblood has a point though. Out loud he said, 'How do we know we can trust you?'

'Ha! You're the Death Eaters, we should be asking you that.'

'We will have to make a gentleman's agreement,' said Lily solemnly. Severus could have wept at that moment, overcome with love for her. No one but Lily could speak of a 'gentleman's agreement' as though it was a sacred vow that no one could break.

'These aren't gentlemen!' James reminded her harshly.

'No, but we're all here now, so we might as well get on with it. If any of us try to escape, we risk giving the others away.' She smiled winningly round at everyone. 'If we want to protect the Pillar, we'll all just have to grit our teeth and put up with it.'

After a pause, Lucius said, 'Very well. We have a deal.' He held out a hand towards Potter. Lily stepped forward but Lucius moved away. 'No, him.'

'Scared to touch a mudblood?' asked Lily scornfully, as James edged forwards, face etched with disgust, and gave Lucius' palm the briefest brush.

'We're working together for a common goal but that doesn't change how I feel about you any more than it changes how you feel about me,' replied Lucius. 'I suppose you have names?'

'I'm Lily Evans, and this is James Potter. What about you?'

'I am D1, he is D7. So, do you two have a plan for how to protect this thing? I suppose it's too much to hope you have some inside information?'

Lily sat down on the grass and indicated for the rest to do the same. It took a few uneasy moments before the three men reluctantly did the same, all keeping their wands ready and eyes on each other. 'We know the Ministry will act soon, tonight or tomorrow. Apparently there is some sort of prophecy that foretold the Pillar being threatened, or destroyed. But we don't know what it says.'

Lucius made a dismissive sound. 'Prophecy? Portents and omens and all that? So much rot. Most of these so called prophecies only come to pass because they are self-fulfilling. The rest are so vague they could be applied to any set of circumstances that transpire.'

'Some people take them seriously,' said Lily. 'There's a whole area in the Ministry devoted to their preservation and study.'

'There's a whole department in the Ministry devoted to catching Death Eaters,' scoffed Lucius.

'The prophecy is unimportant,' interrupted Potter. 'Our friends reckon the Ministry plans to use some sort of Muggle stuff to blow the Pillar up, but we reckon they'll have to come quite close to do it. So Lily and I have been staying close to the base. We thought we might attach ourselves to it somehow. Apparently Muggles do the same to trees and things.'

'Ha!' Lucius' snort of disbelief was rather loud, and everyone shushed him.

After a few moments of anxious listening, Potter continued in an even quieter voice. 'We know the Ministry can be corrupt and misguided, but we didn't think they'd condone killing two peaceful protestors.'

'You're willing to take that chance?' asked Lucius, adding to Severus via his Mark, 'If this is the best the Order of the Foolish has to offer, I'm not sure why we're so worried about them!'

'We're not afraid to die,' said Lily with a quiet dignity that chilled Severus' blood.

Malfoy found that statement so funny that he had to spend the next minute stifling his laughter. Severus took the opportunity to activate the voice distortion on his own mask. 'Well, if it's all the same to you, we'd rather come out of this alive.'

'That's something else we'll have to agree to differ on, Death Eater,' said Potter, with a contemptuous glance at Lucius.

'How long have you been here?' Severus asked Lily, ignoring Potter.

'Since this morning. We did something similar to you, triggered the circle charm and sneaked across on the other side whilst they were investigating.'

'You did that in daylight?' he asked, surprised.

Lily looked a little uncomfortable, and Severus knew she wasn't being entirely truthful. He wished his legilimency was more advanced, so he could tell what she was hiding. 'We found a way,' she said, moving on quickly. 'When the charm triggered again tonight we wondered if someone else had done the same thing, so we came to look. You were saying you thought you could try some protective charms?'

'I think so. I want to do some calculations first. With four of us, we have the option of trying something stronger and more advanced.'

James Potter interrupted. 'Doing advanced magic up here? Sounds like a very bad idea to me, Death Eater.'

'Then you are more of a coward than you think yourself; an intellectual coward,' spat Severus, just about preventing himself from using one of his favourite derogatory nicknames for his old enemy. 'Chaining yourself to the Pillar is passive and pathetic. At best they will remove you, at worst they'll blow it up with you still in place.'

'We're here to protect the Pillar, not conduct a piece of research,' shot back Potter, hand tightened around his wand again. 'If you think I'm afraid to use magic up here, just try me, Death Eater.'

'Oh, with pleasure. I could take you in a duel with a hand tied behind my back.'

'Stop it!' hissed Lily. 'Can't we manage to have a sensible conversation for five minutes without it dissolving into insults? I think D7 is right. Some sort of protective charm is worth a try.'

Malfoy and Potter grudgingly agreed. 'We ought to move up the hillside,' said Potter. 'When it gets light we'll be too exposed here. You can't see the base of the Pillar from the tents, the angle is wrong, so if we stick close by there's less chance of being seen.'

They crawled the short distance up to the crown of the hill. The Pillar was suddenly before them, breathtaking in the intensity of the magic radiating from it. The colours seemed deeper and more vivid close to, never staying the same for an instant. It was deathly quiet up here, except for a faint hum that you felt in your bones as well as your ears. Despite himself, Severus gasped and stopped for a moment. 'It's incredible, isn't it?' Lily whispered. 'Haven't you seen it before?'

'Not like this,' he replied, wishing he didn't have to maintain his cover. Glancing sideways at Lily, he felt the same sense of wonder he had at the sight of the Pillar, even though Lily's face was so very familiar to him.

Now they were there, no one was quite sure what to do. There was a lot of shuffling about in the semi-darkness and unnecessary examination of the ground. Then Potter said, 'Well, we should get some sleep. We ought to leave someone on guard.'

'Very well, my colleague and I will go first,' said Lucius. 'We'll wake you in three hours.'

'You must think we're stupid,' snorted Potter. 'Do you honestly think we're going to go off to sleep with two Death Eaters to watch over us?' Lily echoed her husband's derisive laugh, to Severus' disappointment.

The ice in Lucius' voice was apparent even through the distortion. 'Fine. One of you and one of us then.'

'OK, I'll go first,' said Lily at once. 'I'm not that tired.'

Lucius glanced at Severus and communicated via his Mark, 'You'd better go first. If I leave you and Potter alone together you'll almost certainly have killed each other by morning.' Out loud he said, 'That's settled then. Wake us in three hours.' He walked away from them, removing a sleeping bag from his broombag.

Hardly able to believe his luck, Severus looked sidelong at Lily. Potter seemed reluctant to leave her. He heard her whisper, 'For goodness sake, James, I can duel at least as well as you! I can look after myself. We can't both stay awake all night. Go to sleep.'

Lucius and Potter settled down to sleep as far apart as possible from each other. Severus was painfully aware of Lily, just a few metres away. They sat in silence, staring out over the darkness. A few orange fires still glowed from the camps at the foot of the hill. Lily herself was visible in the strange multi-coloured light from the Pillar. He watched her closely, hardly able to believe his luck that he had this opportunity to be close to her again. She shifted suddenly, tensing as she raised her wand. Immediately alert, he scrambled over to her, wand ready. 'What is it?' he whispered, as softly as he could.

Frowning, she continued to peer into the darkness, before shaking her head slightly. 'Nothing,' she said, in a similarly low voice. 'Owl, I think, or a bat maybe.'

Now he was this close to her, he didn't want to leave her again, so he settled himself next to her and resumed his apparent scrutiny of the darkness, whilst all the time stealing glances at her. She kept her wand ready, he noticed, and he saw her eyes flick in his direction several times. Eventually he said, 'So, do I take it all is not rosy between the Foolish and the Ministry?'

For a moment he thought she was going to blank him, but eventually she said, 'The Order and the Ministry are separate organisations. Broadly, we're on the same side. That doesn't mean I agree with everything the Ministry does.'

'And Dumbledore? Do you agree with everything he does?' He knew he was pushing his luck, but he couldn't help himself. These were all the questions that he'd asked her in his head so many times.

Now she rounded on him, eyes flashing. 'Of course I do,' she whispered furiously. 'If you think you're going to... convert me, you've got another think coming!'

He laughed at the thought. 'I have no intention of 'converting' you. I merely was curious. It seems odd that you are here alone, just the two of you. I thought you Order people were practically inseparable.'

'If you're fishing for information about our numbers or how we work, you're wasting your time, Death Eater. Just because we're forced to work together this once, doesn't mean I like it and doesn't mean I've forgotten what you are.'

'And what is that exactly?' he asked, needled.

'An evil, bigoted, murdering...' she began.

'We told you already, I never murdered anyone in my life. Listen to me, not all Death Eaters are like that. I don't deny there are a few that delight in torture and killing, but they are the minority.' He ignored her disbelieving snort. 'No, come on. Think about it properly. You're intelligent. How many people really want to go round committing horrible murders? Far fewer than are Death Eaters.'

'Oh, and the rest of you read to sick children and rescue orphaned puppies, I suppose? You think that not being a murderer makes it OK to be signed up to an organisation that does such awful things? Well, it doesn't! You're all pureblood supremacists, you all think Muggles and muggleborns should be killed, even if some of you are too cowardly to act on those beliefs.' The disgust in her voice was obvious, even though she could barely raise it above a whisper.

'So now you're criticising me for being a coward because I don't murder Muggles?' He laughed bitterly at this irony. 'You think you can sit and judge me, when you know nothing about me! What about the tactics that the Ministry use, that your Order uses? We both know some of their crimes are as bad as those of the Death Eaters. Does that make you equally guilty?'

Colour flared in her cheeks. 'I already said, I don't agree with everything the Ministry does. The Order's completely different...'

'Is it? You have Aurors as part of the Order - oh, don't look all coy. We know you have Aurors - we know who all of you are! Alastor Moody, for example; everyone knows he's a 'maverick', which is how people describe people on their own side who're as bad as the ones they're fighting. So are you to be held responsible for every action of his?'

'I can't believe you're trying to take the moral high ground! You are a Death Eater!' she spat.

'I'm not taking any moral high ground, I'm simply pointing out that you can't have one rule for me and a different one for you. If I'm guilty of the crimes of other Death Eaters, you are guilty for the crimes of the Ministry and the Order members.' His heart was pounding as he spoke, exhilarated to be debating with Lily again, even though this had a much tenser feel than their quarrels as friends.

'It's different. If we have to do things that aren't... good, we do it because we have to, in order to stop you lot! No matter what we do, it's got to be better than Voldemort taking over!'

His heart froze at the name and he grabbed compulsively at her, earning a wand almost in his eye in return. 'Don't say His name!' he choked.

Lily pushed him back with an expression of utter contempt. 'He's your master.'

'Yes, and if you knew anything about Him... if you knew what He's like... Lily, you mustn't say His name. You don't understand...'

Maybe something of the desperation in his voice softened her a little, because she bit back the contemptuous remark she was going to make. Instead she said, 'Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. That's what Dumbledore always says.'

'Exactly. And where the Dark Lord is concerned, fear is a very healthy and prudent emotion!' There was a short silence after this exchange. Eventually he picked up the thread of their old argument. 'So what you're saying is; the end justifies the means? It's OK for your side to use dirty tactics, because your aim is good and pure.'

'Maybe,' she replied cautiously.

'But who's to say your end is the right one? In the Death Eaters, we believe our goal is the right one. We believe it's worth fighting and dying for. Being a Death Eater is risky, you know. We don't do it just for the sake of it. We believe in the cause. We're freedom fighters, and just like freedom fighters everywhere, the regime labels us 'terrorists'. But it doesn't mean we're wrong.'

'Of course you're wrong. You want to a society where wizards rule over Muggles, where a powerful few subjugate the many. Look at you - you're terrified of your own leader, even you! Do you really think a man like that is going to make the world a better place once he's gained power? You talk about freedom; do you really think anyone is going to be free under a man like him?'

He opened and closed his mouth, irritated to remember her skill for turning an argument against him. Well, two could play at that game. 'So what's your aim, then? What's the purpose of the Order of Foolish - sorry, Phoenix?'

'To fight against you lot, of course, stop you in any way we can.' She thrust her chin out defiantly as she spoke, and he felt his heart constrict at the passion burning in her eyes. 'You think Death Eating is risky? The odds aren't exactly great for Order members either. But I'm prepared to risk it, because I want to make the world a better place. I don't want to see the magic world here ruined.'

There was a short silence following this pronouncement, then he said, 'I want the same thing too.'

She shook her head hopelessly, and turned away. Hands shaking, he removed a book from his broombag and a self-inking quill, and tried to focus on the text - which was about the Pillar and its powers. He made a couple of notes in the margin. After what felt like eternity, she asked, 'What are you doing?'

'I'm trying to calculate the size and distribution of the thaumic forcefield,' he replied, scribbling a few figures in the margin of the book. 'Then from that we should be able to decide what spells to protect it with.' He felt her breath and realised she was looking over his shoulder. It was so exciting that it was a second before it occurred to him that Lily would recognise his handwriting, and his habit of making marginalia. He quickly covered the page with his hand, heart thumping. Did he want Lily to realise it was him, or not?

But Lily made no comment, and looked away with a shrug. She began to hum, very softly under her breath. If it had been anyone else he'd have told them to shut up. It was very hard to concentrate on his arithmantical calculations knowing that she was so nearby, and he had to recalculate the mean thaumatological force three times before it looked right. After what seemed an impossibly short time she stood up and stretched. 'It's time to swap over,' she said, yawning, and without further ado walked over to the sleeping James to wake him with a kiss.

Sickened and angry, he woke Lucius with an unnecessarily powerful shock across his Mark. Malfoy sat bolt upright, hand on his wand. 'What is it?'

'Your turn,' said Severus out loud, wondering if he could settle down closer to Lily without it looking suspicious and deciding he couldn't.

Lucius modified his voice before saying, 'You nearly burned my arm off.'

'Sorry,' replied Severus, remorselessly. He prepared to lay down in the sleeping bag vacated by his friend. Across the hill, Potter was sitting up and canoodling with Lily. He turned his back and closed his eyes, but he couldn't sleep. The hairs on the back of his neck kept rising as he imagined Lily so close to him. He tried to hear her breathing, but of course there was nothing but the wind.

As he lay there uncomfortably, feeling the knobbly ground through the sleeping bag, he wondered if his words would have had an effect. Was it possible that he had planted a seed that would make Lily come round to him eventually? When the Death Eaters had won and he had saved her? It was possible, he decided, definitely possible. For goodness sake, here he was, metres away from Lily, having spent several hours in her sole company! If that could happen, surely anything at all was possible.