Living And Loving In Times Of War
Chapter 2: Inferno
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With a high-pitched ringing, the alarm went off.
Slowly, Lily regained consciousness. The alarm went off again.
Feeling content in James' arms, she didn't want to get up. The alarm sounded again, and now James started to stir.
Lily sighed as she sat up and turned the alarm off.
Grumbling a bit, Lily stood up, but was suddenly overwhelmed with a nauseous feeling. She barely made it to the bathroom in time.
"Lily? Hunny, are you alright?" James asked, getting out of bed too.
"I'll be fine love, I've - " The rest her sentence was cut off by another wave of vomit.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, give me a couple of minutes and I'll be fine."
James then retreated to the kitchen and soon Lily heard the sound of plates and cutlery. After a little while, Lily smelled eggs being baked. Normally Lily loved baked eggs in the morning, but now she only felt more vomit coming up.
Half an hour later, Lily made her way downstairs, a bit more refreshed, but still feeling a bit nausea. She was wearing her working robes.
James, who had a day off today, and was only wearing a pair of pants he had quickly put on, asked: "Are you sure you don't want to stay home?"
"Hmmm..." Lily leaned in and kissed James tenderly. "Yes. I've been away for a month now, ever since the wedding, and it isn't fair to take more days of. I'll be fine, don't worry."
James didn't look satisfied, but let it rest. He had learned a long time ago that Lily could be very stubborn, and it was never a good thing to cross her.
Lily sat down and took the Daily Prophet. As she read the most important headlines, she took a bite from her egg, but found out that wasn't such a good idea.
Another half hour later, Lily kissed James goodbye. "See you tonight, love."
"Bye. Don't work yourself too hard!" James called after her as she went to the alley besides their house to Apparate to the Ministry.
Lily worked at the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad. Like usual, it was crowded at the Apparition point and she quickly went to the elevator, greeting co-workers.
At the third level she got off the elevator and went to her office, finding a big stack of forms waiting for her.
Sighing, she sat down and set to work.
"Morning, Lily. How was your wedding?"
Lily looked up at her partner, Tim Rowtide, as he walked in, raising her eyebrows.
"Of course, stupid question!" Tim said as he sat down at his own desk. "I wouldn't want Death Eaters to walk in on my wedding either. But how was it, besides that?"
"It was great! At least the Death Eaters had the decency to wait 'till we were actually married." Lily half-joked.
They both got back to work, as their superiour ran in.
"Evans... I mean Potter, Rowtide, emergency in Manchester! Another attack!"
Immediately, Lily and Tim got up and ran to the Apparition point, Apparating to Manchester.
They arrived at an enourmous fire. The fire was spread over two whole blocks, and several Muggles with burning clothes were rolling on the ground to extinguish the flames. The smell of burning wood, mingled with burning flesh hung in the air.
With a few wellplaced Extinguishing-charms, the nearby Muggles were rid of their flames.
Lily and Tim worked hard for two full hours, extinguishing the many magical fires. Occasionally coming across other pairs. Fire was all around them and smoke sometimes made it impossible to see. But the two knew what they were doing, as were the rest of the Squad. As more witches and wizards arrived, they managed to stop the flames from spreading.
The fire-brigade was trying their best too, but the magical fire wasn't affected by their waterjets, and many firemen looked strange as suddenly, after trying their best, feeling like it was in vein, the flames were diminished and sometimes even vanished. Some others were placing wards to keep Muggles away.
As there were enough witches and wizards to keep the fire from spreading, and even slowly extinguishing it, Lily and Tim made their way closer to the flames, extinguishing as much fire as possible.
Suddenly, through the roaring of flames and over the sound of Muggles crying and yelling for their lost relatives and friends, Lily heard a sound that sounded a lot like a cry for help, coming from one of the houses. Without thinking, she ran forward, casting a Flame-Freezing Spell on herself.
"Lily! What the hell are you doing?!" Tim bellowed after her, trying to make himself heard over the roaring.
But Lily didn't hear him, she had her full attention to the call for help, which was getting louder by the minute, but seemed to be getter weaker all the same. Lily was oblivious to the fact Tim had come after her.
Then, Lily reached the house from which the cry was heard. It was probably a small child. She blasted the door open with her wand and rushed inside. Blinded by smoke, she cast the spell to create a Bubble around her head, as to keep further smoke from entering her lungs.
She let gusts of wind come from her wand to see momentarily and she made her way through the house. The ceiling was creeking and as Lily reached the stairs, she saw they were only barely standing.
Light as the quick tred of a fox, she ran upstairs, the stairs breaking after her.
She reached the first floor. As she rushed through the landing, she heard an odd sound coming from besides her. Swiftly, she rolled forward, just in time to avoid being burned to a crisp by the burst of flames that came from a door. The Flame-Freezing Spell only worked untill a certain degree, and was slowly starting to wear off, as it was being attacked so insistantly.
"Where are you?" Lily called.
She heard the faint sound of a voice come from somewhere on the right. She blasted all the doors away in her way, finally reaching the right one.
As she blasted the door open, a large piece of ceiling came down. Showering Lily with burning splinters and pieces of plaster. Taking no notice to the small burns on her arms, Lily ran inside, to the corner in which the five-year-old was cowering.
Lily picked up the scared child and turned around, ready to go back, as suddenly, the floor disappeared, falling down to the main floor.
Lily looked around, put there were no other exits. Not even a window.
'There's no way I can jump over that hole...' Lily thought. 'Unless...'
Without thinking more, Lily conjured ropes to bind the five-year-old to her back. She then transformed into a slim vixen. The magical ropes shrinking with her to keep the petrified child on her back.
She backed into the far wall, then turned around and ran, to jump with grace over the hole seperating her from the hallway. Keeping running, she transfigured back to her normal form and reached the stairs.
There waited another obstacle, since there was no more stairs...
Thinking quickly, like she was used to, she conjured another rope and tied it to the most solid object there still was... one of the pillars that kept most of the ceiling still in its place. The rope almost immediately caught fire, but Lily was already climbing her way down as fast as possible.
Just before reaching the ground, the rope gave in and Lily fell about a foot, but landed as gracefull as was possible in the circumstances.
There she was awaited by Tim. The exchanged looks and made their way out of the burning house, reducing a rafter that was coming down to a bunch of splinters and finally reaching outside.
Meanwhile, Lily had the child in her arms again and they started their way to safe ground. Lily was feeling exhausted, but kept moving. She was glad to see the line of wizards that were still fighting the fire.
She handed the child to a Muggle woman who was rushing towards her, followed by a man, and as soon as the mother had gotten her daughter, Lily collapsed on the ground, passing out.
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It took a lot of time, but I'm rather happy with the result. Please R/R