Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Five

"So let me get this straight," Sirius paced in front of James. He had closed the door and put a Silencing Charm on the office so that they wouldn't be overheard. James looked quite meek and quite ashamed of himself. "You bloody forgot to put the ring into the cupcake? How does one forget to put a ring in a cupcake that's intended to be his marriage proposal?"

"I'm an idiot?" James tried.

"Well that's for bloody sure!" Sirius spat. "I can't believe you! Stupid wanker..."

James looked at his hands stupidly; the offending ring was laying open in its box in his hand.

"In any case, we must not be deterred. We just need to come up with a different plan is all..."

"Right," James sighed, feeling lousy. He played with the edge of the folder that he was holding. Sirius was about to let him have it again, so he decided to try to change it to a subject that would make Sirius flustered enough to drop the whole dinner ordeal. "So how are things going with Dorcas?"

"Hm?" Sirius asked. "Oh, yeah...fine I guess. We aren't really anything...you know."

"Yes, but you've been shagging for a few months now," James pressed. Sirius was obviously concerned about something because he frowned. "There's got to be something there..."

"Bah, nothing, Prongs," Sirius shook his head. "At least, nothing like what you and Lily-love have..."

"But there's something?"

"I dunno..." he smiled wryly. "Unlike you, Prongs, we do not feel the necessity to aptly name our relationship."

"So you do have a relationship!" James pointed.

Sirius sighed. "I'm not going to go into it."

"Fine, fine..." James chuckled, dropping it. But Sirius seemed as though he wanted to talk about something along that vein, but didn't know how to approach it delicately.

"Prongs?"

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you a very serious question?"

James looked up. "Of course..."

Sirius looked around. Even though there was a Silencing Charm on his office he approached James and stood right in front of him.

"Does Lily ever...." he trailed off.

James waited a few seconds before prompting Sirius, "Does Lily what?"

"Does Lily name...certain parts of your body?"

James blinked. "What?!"

"I mean," he leaned in closer. "Has she named your dick yet?"

James stared at Sirius for a bit and then felt laughter building up in his stomach. However, Sirius didn't think that this was a laughing matter, so James didn't let it surface.

"Named...my dick... Padfoot?" James couldn't help but ask, "Why...has yours been named?"

Sirius turned his chair around so that he wasn't facing James. "Yes..." he muttered.

"What'd...she name it?" James grinned, biting his lip to keep from laughing.

Sirius mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I said, she named it 'Pepelillokins, the big, one-eyed pirate.'"

James made a sound, as if the laughter was threatening to explode out of his mouth. He managed to say, "My, that's a long name."

"Oh, that's its full name," Sirius grumbled. "She calls it Pepe for short."

This was too much as James exploded with laughter. Sirius whirled around and was about to hex him silly when Moody came in, cloak half-on.

"Get your coats, boys, we're going out."

Rain slammed against the window. Lily stirred a bowl of soup thoughtfully, watching the water hit the window as if the window had done something to offend it. She could hear the wind howling outside, and hoped that wherever her boys were, that they were dry.

She was where she normally was during a stakeout, at the safehouse, ready with her wand and potions to heal the wounded. The object was to get them back on the battlefield before they were hopelessly outnumbered.

She tried a bit of her soup and burnt her tongue as the rain came down harder. From all outward appearances, the rickety house on the cliff should have fallen over into the black sea below from the force of the wind upon it. But, as was the case with Lily herself, it was tougher than it looked.

She sat down on a couch and pulled her legs up to her, blowing on the steam to cool it down. Her wand was ready on an armrest whenever the battle brought wounded to her door, but for now, all she could do was wait.

She preferred to stay behind on these raids. Not because she was scared or because she was unfit to duel with Death Eaters, but because she found that she had a better skill being the Healer back at the safe house. As the war between Voldemort (Lily shuddered at his name) and the Aurors heated up, the regular Healers were less inclined to stay behind and tend to the wounded, as they might find themselves targeted.

Lily fancied Healing so much that she had thought several times about returning to a bit of adult class to brush up on some of the classes that she did not choose to pursue NEWT-level classes in, so that she could become a Healer at St. Mungo's. James was all for it, and even promised to help her study for her classes (he offered to go to some of the classes for her, but Lily reminded him that they probably would not admit a 'Lily' that was a man).

A worried smile came to her face as she watched the storm heat up again (it had taken a little break). All she knew was Moody came in and told her to go to the safe house and she knew that meant a stake out. She didn't know where they were or how many were there, or how many dark wizards they were expecting...

She listened to the old house creak and whine with the wind and found her soup was cool enough to drink.

She hated waiting. It was why she was so much better suited away from danger. She was so impatient that when the time came, she was too freaked out by them not coming that she needed a few minutes to sort things out in her mind before defending herself. Unfortunately, a few seconds could mean her death.

Here, though, she was far away from the anxiety over life and death. She worried though. Worried like the dickens about her boys.

She grinned nervously. Her boys.

She knew that they could take care of themselves far better than she could take care of them in battle. Back here though, it was a different story. She enjoyed being able to fuss over them, even if it was for a few seconds to mend their bones and heal their cuts and send them flying back into battle.

Of course, she always had this feeling of dread that when she sent them off that they might never come back.

The rain ceased and an eerie calm filled the room. Her heartbeat, already so loud in the silent room, sped up as she dwelled on her negative thoughts for a second. She always had to go through this period of wondering if she'd ever see James...or Sirius...or Remus....ever again...

Swallowing a particularly large gulp of soup, Lily returned to her positive thoughts, and the wind and rain came up again. She breathed a little easier and finished off her soup, curling up by the fireplace and grabbing a tattered old book from the table.

It was her old NEWT Potion book, and she was reviewing (to pass time) the proper ingredients for the Potions that might be required of her tonight. She got up and walked over to the store cabinet, making sure that she had a fresh supply of all the ingredients, as well as pre-made vials.

She heard a movement upstairs and jumped a bit, reaching for her wand, but after a few seconds, she heard it again, and sighed. There was an old, nearly dead tree planted out front that scratched at the windows sometimes. Returning to her couch, she tossed the Potions book aside and tapped her foot.

Hopefully, they had gotten a bad tip and there was to be no battle tonight. Hopefully, by dawn, James would come get her and tell her that everything was ok, no harm done...nobody dead tonight.

She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself tighter. She always had an eerie feeling as though someone were here; she often wished that she could have someone just to keep her company. Of course, that would reflect badly on her, and she might just be fired. Not only that, but there was barely enough manpower for one person to stay behind and be ready to Heal, let alone two.

Peering up at the clock, she realized that she had about three more hours until the so-called "halting point." No matter what anyone said, no battle ever started past five in the morning, as Death Eaters usually liked to work at night and after five the dawn was starting to break. If there was no action at five, then people would start to be let off. Moody always stayed until noon the next day, just in case...but nothing ever happened.

She lived for nights like those.

Unfortunately, most nights began the same way...the quiet house, the eerie silence (though tonight she was joined by the rain), and the solitude. Then, one would Apparate in, bleeding or in some other way damaged, give a full report of what was going on, and then, if Lily could set him or her right, they would Disapparate back to the battlefield.

The only problem was just waiting. Waiting for that first person to come. Waiting for that first injury.

The rain had stopped now, and she could see a break in the clouds where the near full moon was shining for a brief moment over the wet Earth. In a week, it would be the full moon-

Pop!

Speak of the devil.

"Remus!" Lily said, grabbing her wand and rushing over to assist him onto one of the beds laid out. He was wincing and clutching his chest, wheezing slightly.

"There's-aah-about ten real Death Eaters-dammit-" he cursed, as Lily laid him down. "But they've got-" he moaned when Lily had to move him to remove the top part of his robe "-about fifty people under the Imperious curse...so we can't hurt them too badly..." He relaxed when Lily started applying liberal amounts of painkillers to the giant bruise on his chest.

"From what I see, you've got some broken ribs..." Lily said, gingerly touching his chest.

"Can you mend them?"

"I can get them to hold together, but I don't think you should be going-"

Pop!

"Here, keep rubbing this in," Lily said, handing him the vial of goop. She rushed to the aid of another Auror, by the name of Eri who had collapsed in a heap on the ground. She assisted her up and laid her out on the bed.

She was coughing up big giant spats of blood and Lily was consulting her book when-

Pop!

"I'm going to DIE!" screamed another Auror, Alexander his name, as he clutched his leg which was sticking out the wrong way. Lily magicked him onto a bed, the one that was Remus' but she didn't notice that he was gone because of the screaming-

Pop!

An older wizard by the name of Benjamin had been clearly manhandled and was barely breathing.

Pop!

Dorcas, with a limp on her right leg, was hyperventilating, citing that she had just been through a Cructious curse, and that all she needed was a Calming Drought.

Pop!

Remus was back, this time with Sirius, and he was nearly crying in agony over his broken ribs; a Death Eater had taken his boot to him several times before Sirius could get him away.

Pop!

Pop!

Pop!

It went on like this for hours it seemed like. Every time Lily was halfway through treating one person, another would appear citing near death. She tried to sort them in varying degrees of deadliness; if they were near death, she would drop everyone else to see them first, if they were in excruciating pain, she would see them on varying degrees of scream levels. It was a gruesome rubric, but it was necessity.

She heard at least fifteen Pops at once and let her breath out. It was over. She set to checking everyone out, finishing up with the ones that were crying the most and then going down from there.

When she came upon Remus (she had thrust a Sleeping Drought into someone's hand to give to him), she finally saw James, and felt a great deal of worry lift from her shoulders.

"Hey," he kissed her cheek.

"Are you all right?" she asked, going over to begin mending Remus' broken ribs.

"Eh, nothing you can't patch me up when we get home," James shrugged, watching her fix up his mate. "Poor Moony. Got three hexes to the chest, and then, when he came back, one of 'em booted him in the same spot and was crushing his chest-"

She tutted. "He disappeared when I was busy with Alexander. I didn't give him my ok to go back. Hopefully this will teach him a lesson."

"Yeah," James looked around. "How bad is it?"

"Got a bit hectic, nothing new," Lily shrugged. "Nobody's permanently damaged, thank Merlin." She drew a sharp breath. "Anybody..."

"No," James shook his head. "We were lucky enough to save the Muggles that they were attacking, so they're ok. Sent to St. Mungo's for a check-up and memory modification and then they'll be good as new."

"Are you going home?" Lily asked, quietly. He shrugged.

"I'll stay here, see what I can do..."

"No, you've had a hard night, go home and get some sleep."

He stood up and kissed her temple. "Oh, there's something I gotta tell you when you get home, it'll brighten up your day."

Lily ended up finishing with her healing by eight-thirty in the morning. She had to send a few to St. Mungo's (including Remus), and they would have to stay the day and possibly the night. Then she had to make sure that none of the other Aurors had any lasting effects of the hexes sent their way and then, finally, she had to clean up the safe house, though it took her a few swishes of the wand to do so.

She Apparated to the main room of their house and was startled to see James and Sirius toiling over a crossword puzzle.

"No, it can't be 'Dungbomb,'" Sirius muttered. "That'd be too obvious."

"Right, how about 'Stinkpellet?'" James pointed out.

"Too many letters-"

"Why you two slave over that thing is beyond me," Lily grinned, falling into James' lap. "Why are you still awake?"

"Waiting on you, of course," Sirius rolled up his newspaper and tapped her on the head lightly with it. "Now, we can go to bed..."

And he bid them both a very good morning and walked through to his flat. James yawned and put his head on Lily's shoulder. She closed her eyes and leaned against him, very sore from the night's ordeal.

"So, what was that funny joke you were going to tell me?"

"Oh...yes...." James grinned. "Well, you have to promise you can't let Sirius know I told you."

"Right," Lily nodded.

"Well, he told me today that Dorcas had named his dick," James sniggered. Lily opened one eye at him. "No, no, no....get this: She named it 'Pepelillokins, the giant, one-eyed pirate!'"

Lily opened her mouth to retort, but James cut her off again.

"And it's 'Pepe,' for short."

"James, I don't see why you're laughing," Lily told him, getting up off of him and pulling him up into a standing position. "You certainly weren't when I named yours."