I'll Fight For You
By Hazelmist/Summerskies
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J. K. Rowling. Not me.
A/N: Didn't have time to respond to reviews but thank you for reviewing! Sorry I'm in a rush but I wanted you guys to get this chapter before I left for another week. For those of you that think this part is weird and pointless, here's the explanation. I'm sick of the same old stuff. I wanted to do something different. I promise it all ties together in the end so stick with me.
Chapter 14: A Deadly Discovery
I fall to the floor screaming. Covering my head with my hands, I try to protect myself from the bombardment of china as he tips the cabinet with a twirl of his wand and the plates, dishes and figurines slide forward and shower upon me. The glass of the shattered cabinet slices into my skin, cutting open arteries and bleeding through my clothes. I feel the pain, in my arms, in my legs, and I see it in a reflection of the glass, in my eyes, in the blood drenching my clothes and pooling around me.
"Why are you doing this to me?" I gasp.
Two blood red eyes lean close to my own and I forget about the blood, the pain, the shattered cabinet, and Mark, Gracie and Chris. A cold bony finger lifts my chin and he scrutinizes my face with a chilling grin.
"Your brother Harry took something of mine and I want it back."
My eyes widen involuntarily.
"I d-d-don't know w-w-hat y-your talk-k-king ab-b-bout," I lie. My teeth chatter and I shiver because I know that it has nothing to do with the cold hand on my chin and has everything to do with the bath I'm taking in my own blood.
"Don't be scared Hope, I won't let you die." He strokes my cheek with a cold-blooded laugh.
"I'm not afraid of dying!" I spit in his face, even as my hand reaches to stop the flow of blood from one of the wide wounds in my chest.
"That's what your husband told me," he whispers, leaning close to my ear. "Before I killed your son."
My blood runs cold and everything freezes over.
"Now tell me Hope, where did you hide it?"
I look down at a shard of glass, catching a glimpse of my black curling hair and two round brown eyes glazed over with pain and grief. My fingers curl around the edges, ignoring how it cuts open my fingers, and I hurl it toward his face.
"Lily, stop it!" I recognize James's panicked voice, even as I fight with an invisible foe.
"What's the matter with her?" Sirius asks, worriedly.
"I think she's having a seizure!" Gracie gasps. "Sirius, don't touch her!"
My wildly swinging fist smashes into something. The spell is broken and I break free from the nightmare returning to the hard cold floor of the mausoleum. I stare up at the ceiling, looking up at the coffins stacked one on top of another, rising up toward the massive dome.
"OW! What the hell was that for!"
Sirius reels back clutching his face. James seizes my arms pinning them down on either side of my body. Gracie kneels down next to Sirius to see if he's all right.
I catch my breath, my breathing returning to normal and my heart rate slowing.
"James," I whisper as his worried hazel eyes look down at me once more.
"Hey." His warm palm smoothes the creases from my forehead, tenderly pushing my hair out of my eyes. "Are you okay?" he asks, softly.
I shut my eyes, remembering the coffin with the body, the bulging inhuman yellow eye, the shattered china, the pain, the blood, the cold, the sinister grin and the chilling red eyes. I feel his hand take mine, his thumb rubbing over the backs of my fingers. Slowly, I open my eyes again.
"I'm okay," I whisper, looking up into his hazel eyes.
"Good." James manages a weak smile as he offers me a hand. I take it and he helps me to my feet.
"All right, Lily?" Gracie inquires, concern shining in her terrified white face. I think about telling her about the yellow eye and the weird nightmarish vision that followed, but she clutches Sirius's arm as if she might fall herself. She just found her mother was dead, again, and my heart goes out to her.
"I'm fine," I lie, even as James's eyes bore into the back of my head. "I just got a scare and took a spill, that's all. I've been watching too many Muggle movies!" I joke, forcing a laugh. The other three just stare at me and I remember that I'm the only Muggleborn here and hastily clear my throat.
"So, what do you say we get the hell out of here?"
"I'm all for it!" James agrees, leading the way.
"Oh, come on James, I know you love it here. Secretly, you want to stay in this cold, dark chamber with the skeletons and ghosts of your ancestors," Sirius quips as we follow James out.
"Yeah," James says dryly. "It's been my life long dream." He rolls his eyes.
Gracie and James lift their left hands, placing them on the door at the same time. The door shudders like it did the first time at the entrance, but it doesn't dissolve. Instead it bursts into flames. I scream as Gracie, Sirius and James are lost in the hot white fire that consumes us all in a fiery inferno. The flames lick the hem of my cloak, crawling upwards, but strangely I feel no pain. The fire blinds me, even as I reach out for the others.
BANG!
I feel myself being thrown back from the door by an invisible force. I fall on my side, sliding across the marble floor of the circular room. Slowing down, I twist around and notice too late that someone else has become an unwilling participant in this demonstration of Newton's law.
"Sir-oof!"
Sirius smashes into me, but we finally stop sliding and skid to a halt. I stare up at the dome high above us watching as the flames turn to smoke and then into a mist that fades and disappears. I catch my breath for the second time. I'm breathing, that means that I didn't burn to death. Groaning, Sirius sits up. My head falls off his back and onto the floor.
"Ow!" I cry out.
"That's payback for punching me." He smiles smugly as I clutch my head.
I chuckle. I untangle myself and sit up beside him.
"Gracie? James?" I call their names, looking around.
"Present!" Gracie answers and James gives a half hearted, "Here." To my left, James sits up grumbling and cursing under his breath. He's rubbing one of his arms and grimacing, but otherwise looks unhurt. On the opposite side of the room Gracie stands brushing off her now dusty cloak. The black material is coated with dust and cobwebs thanks to a particularly old passageway off of the room that stopped her.
"What was that?" I ask, shakily getting to my feet.
"I don't know, but it was fun!" Sirius pipes up, grinning.
I stare at him as if he's suddenly grown antlers, though in the Wizarding World it's probably not that uncommon. I mean, I've been in the same class as Alice and Frank for coming up on six years, I've forgotten what was once strange after all the unusual accidents they had when their spells went off target or their potions spilled. As I was saying, he's gone mad.
"Sirius, we almost died," I explain to him, since he seems to have overlooked this fact entirely.
"I know, and it was awesome."
Obviously, this kid's never been on a roller coaster before.
"Let's do it again!" Sirius exclaims, excitedly.
And obviously, he needs to get his head checked. His priorities seem to be out of order.
"Er, let's not and say we did," I say, nervously turning to James for back up.
"Don't look at me!" James says, throwing up his arms in front of him. "I'm just the best friend, not his brain, but I appreciate the compliment…" his voice trails off suddenly, his face taking on a puzzled expression, that quickly changes to terror as his eyes widen to three times their normal size.
"LILY, SIRIUS LOOK OUT!" Gracie screams from the other side of the room.
Sirius and I turn around, only to find that the formerly motionless statue of the ruby-eyed lion has left its former post by the Adam's tomb. He bounds across the room, straight for where Sirius and I are standing. He opens its mouth in a roar, exposing a set of sharp marble fangs that I'm sure he will have no trouble sinking into our flash regardless of the fact that he's not a real lion and used to be a statue. He isn't supposed to move, but he's now ferociously running toward us with flashing ruby eyes and a loud, hungry roar.
"Holy sh-" Sirius swears, and I suddenly feel as if my legs have grown roots and embedded themselves deep under the floor of the mausoleum.
The lion leaps, his paws outstretched and its claws lengthening like flashing deadly swords coming out from behind a knight's shield.
"RUN!" James yells.
Sirius and I obey. I uproot myself, scrambling out of the lion's path and diving toward James. Sirius runs in the opposite direction. The lion pounces on the spot where Sirius and I were just standing only seconds ago. The floor cracks and crumbles, as his sharp claws fiercely close upon what should've been us. Angrily, he roars his disapproval of losing his midnight snack (though he couldn't technically eat us…), and I hear him moving on, probably readying himself to make another turn and come back for us.
My foot slips and I unceremoniously fall on my face. I start to pick myself up and immediately discover what caught my foot. The lion created a hole in the floor and the cracks are spreading towards me. This time it's my whole leg that slips and drops. It never reaches the bottom but hangs suspended in the chilly air. I chance a glimpse over my shoulder as I fight to pull it out. Fearfully, I watch as the floor falls away into a black endless hole, and suddenly my other leg and my entire lower body is at the mercy of gravity as well. My stomach drops too, and it continues to fall as my hands and arms flail, desperately in search of something other than the slippery marble crumbling beneath my fingertips.
"Hang on, Lily!" I hear a familiar voice, and my heart leaps, but does a funny somersault and sinks. It's falling faster than London Bridges, reaching the same state as my bottomless stomach.
"No, James DON'T!" I scream, desperately hoping that he won't do what I think he's going to do.
Ignoring my protest, James foolishly crawls toward the edge on his stomach, doing exactly what I knew he would do. The marble beneath my elbows teeters and gives way. I scream as my fingers slip and instinctively reach for something to hold onto. James seizes my hand in both of his own.
Somewhere far away Gracie and Sirius are shouting and the cracks are widening the hole I fell into, but the only thing I see are James's large hazel eyes full of terror and fear. I watch as another large chunk beneath James trembles and melts into the hole, but he pulls back, still holding my hand tightly. Next time though, he won't be so lucky.
"James," I whisper.
He looks at me and I notice something in his eyes that I never took the time to notice before. Something strange, something foreign, something that causes my heart to flutter, which scares me even more than the dark bottomless pit, probably full of skeletons, that I'm about to fall into.
"Let go of me," I breathe.
"No," he refuses.
"LET GO!" I demand as a thunderous crack resounds through the room and I see the deadly jagged lines snaking towards him. I squirm and wriggle, but James hangs onto me.
"I'm sorry, Lily, I can't." James smiles sadly.
The floor beneath him suddenly plunges and our bond is broken.
"James," I whisper and watch helplessly as the dome shrinks, growing smaller and smaller even as the air becomes colder. I'm falling fast. Shutting my eyes tight, I pray for a painless death.
Let Gracie and Sirius be all right. And James, please, I'm begging you, let him live. I used to hate him, I used to wish at times that he would fall off a random cliff and die, but he's changed; he's different now. Honestly, he doesn't deserve to die anymore. Please, let him be okay, please…
I feel myself suddenly being lifted upward, high above everything else. Quick, painless, and now it's over. Everything's come to an end…
"Oomf!"
I open my eyes, looking down into the face of James Potter - the very first person I was hoping to see and yet at the same time the very last. I let my eyes flutter shut, laying my head back down on his chest. There's nothing I can do about it now, it's too late, we're already dead and it's my fault. I bury my face into the front of his cloak and start to cry.
"Sssshhh, Lily. It's okay, you're safe now," he reassures me. His arms go around me, one hand stroking my hair.
"Why'd you do that?" I ask him. "I told you to let go! You shouldn't have done that!" I pull away, glaring at his confused face.
"What?" James asks, lifting his head.
"If you had let go of me, like I asked you the first time-"
"ARE YOU TWO ALL RIGHT?" the familiar voice of my best friend interrupts me mid-rant. My heart starts pounding, realizing what this means.
I whip around and laugh joyfully. Grace Adams and Sirius Black are standing on the other side of the giant cavern the lion created, looking at us worriedly.
"I think so." James shoots a look at me.
"We're fine!" I answer, beaming before turning to James with a look of wonder. "James, how did you do it?"
"A levitation spell." James grins.
I laugh and tackle him in an unexpected hug. James wraps his arms around me holding me close and I inhale the familiar, soothing scent of his cloak.
"Oh, Lily," he whispers into my hair. "You didn't actually think I would let go of you, did you?" I shake my head, but shove my face deeper into his cloak. "I knew that the levitation spell was the only way, but I couldn't let go of you until that last second. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You know I would never let you go, don't you?" I nod, giving him a last squeeze before pulling away.
"You're crying," he points out.
"Because I'm happy," I chuckle softly, swiping at my streaming eyes. God, why do I have to be so emotional? What's this, like the hundredth time this week I've started to cry? Lily, you need to grow a backbone and get on some hormonal drugs.
"Come here." James reaches for my face, gently wiping away the tears. I reward him with a watery smile.
"ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE OKAY?" Sirius yells to us.
"YES!" James and I call back. "BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL, we can hear you fine," I add, laughing again.
"Good," Gracie sighs. "I was yelling myself hoarse." She sits down at the edge of the hole, as close as she can possibly get to us, I realize. Sirius sits down next to her and James and I scoot close to the edge of the hole that's separating us from our friends.
"Well," James starts, surveying the black hole dividing the room. "This is inconvenient, the room split in such a way that none of us can reach the door."
"So we're locked in?"
James nods.
"Great!" I say, sarcastically.
"Don't worry, Lily, it gets better." Sirius grins.
"Oh really?" I inquire, wondering how much better it can get.
"The only one that can get us out of here has to have the blood," he explains.
So, basically it's all up to Heather, James's mom. And the chances of her searching for us in the family tomb are slim to none.
"Can't we levitate ourselves over there or something?" I ask, hopefully.
"Um…" Sirius and Gracie exchange a glance. "I don't think it'd be too bright of an idea," Gracie mumbles.
"Why not?" I demand, jumping to my feet and taking out my wand.
A roar thunders through the room and James grabs my hand, pulling me down beside him.
"Oh," I squeak eyeing the marble statue fearfully. The lion, now back to playing a semi-normal statue, watches us with its ruby eyes but remains frozen at its post. I would've imagined that I dreamed the whole thing, but the lion did just roar at us again, and instead of watching over Gracie's parents' tomb, it switched sides so it could be closer to us.
I gulp, sincerely hoping that that thing doesn't decide to move again.
"I take it we sort of upset him," I mumble.
"Yeah, I'd say so. Opening up a tomb isn't exactly honorable behavior toward our ancestors," Gracie remarks, dryly.
"Does that mean you can't get buried here?" I wonder aloud.
"Does it matter?" Gracie chuckles. "I don't think we'll care if we're dead. Besides it was you, a Muggleborn, and Sirius, definitely not of the Moon lineage, who opened it. Not one of our brightest ideas," she sighs.
I look down guiltily at my shoes. I'm surprised we're still alive after our reckless mistake, though, come to think of it, we probably won't be alive much longer, now that we're locked inside.
"How long do we have until your parents get home?" I ask James, nervously.
James shrugs. It doesn't matter. I think the family tomb would be the very last place they'd search, and if they did come looking for us here, I'd have to wonder if they were sane. It's not every day that the kids decide to play in the mausoleum.
"Can we send an owl to them?" I suggest, hopefully.
"Yeah, hang on, let me just go and check if we have one buried in here," James quips.
"Do you have a better idea?" I snap, blushing in embarrassment. Good thing there isn't much light in here.
"Actually…" James trails off, his eyes brightening. "I might."
He unbuttons his cloak and starts frantically searching his pockets. Sirius copies him, emptying out a mad assortment of dung bombs, melted candy and a…dog bone? Gracie wrinkles her nose at the mess in disgust.
"What's this for?" she asks, picking up the dog bone.
"Hey! I thought I buried that one a while ago." Sirius grabs it out of her hands, tucking it possessively into his pocket. He eyes Gracie suspiciously as if she's been the one taking his bones, which he keeps for Merlin only knows what reason.
"Whoa, down dog! I haven't been touching your saliva-covered bones." She throws her hands up in front of her face and backs off.
"Ah ha!" James stops rummaging through his pockets, holding up a slice of glass that appears to be a small mirror. Talk about vain. He's worse than Debby McLaggen and he's a male! If it weren't for the fact that he used to date females (I can't recall anything recent, but I'm sure he has…) and happens to be obsessed with me, I'd seriously wonder if he was gay. Then again, he's not very neat and his wardrobe and hair need some serious work, so scratch that theory.
"We're in luck!" Sirius pumps a fist into the air and Gracie looks at me, equally confused. We're all going to be saved by a mirror, apparently. I think they've lost their minds and Gracie agrees with me, I can tell.
"Is that a mirror?" Gracie asks James, eyeing both boys warily.
"No, Gracie. It's just something that looks like a mirror." James rolls his eyes.
Darn. My eyes weren't deceiving me. They really did lose it.
"Remus!" James shouts.
And now they think they see Remus. I exchange another look with my fellow sufferer and very slowly we scoot away from our crazy companions.
"Remus!" Sirius echoes and James starts yelling again.
"Moony, wake up, you dolt!"
"Get off your lazy arse and answer the mirror!"
They think Remus is in the mirror, they seriously do. I look at Gracie again. I'm comforted to find out that I'm not the only one who's frightened by their behavior. I clear my throat meaningfully, turning toward James who's now swearing at the mirror.
"James, I don't think-"
Sirius waves a hand, silencing me.
"He can't hear with you talking."
"He's not going to hear anything!" I protest.
"Because you're blabbing."
"Because no one's in the mirror!"
"She's right mate," James sighs, ending our argument.
"What?" Sirius asks, incredulously. "Let me see that, I'll make sure he never screens his calls again!" He makes a lunge for the stupid mirror. Luckily, Gracie sticks out an arm, yanking him back, before he has the option of checking out the big black hole that he obviously forgot about.
"Down boy," she commands. Sirius growls but grudgingly sits back down. "Sit, good boy." Gracie pats his head and then turns to James as if just realizing something.
"Is that how you talk to each other?" she asks.
"I don't know what you're talking about," James says innocently, tucking the mirror out of sight.
"It is, isn't it? I knew it! Sirius usually has the other one, right? But you gave it to Remus and now you're going to tell him that we're stuck and he'll owl Auntie Heather and we'll be saved!" She grins and laughs in relief.
It all makes sense. Two mirrors, to connect James and Sirius, two people that seem to share a brain. It's a stroke of genius and it explains many incidents that were shrouded in a veil of mystery up until now.
"REMUS!" I shout at James, hoping that Remus in the mirror will hear me.
"REMUS JOHN LUPIN GET YOUR FACE OVER HERE, BEFORE I HURT YOU!" Gracie threatens at the top of her lungs.
If the dead aren't awake yet, they are now.
"SHUT UP!" James yells over her, and this time it's Sirius who has to hold Gracie back before she falls into the Grand Canyon.
"Stay, good girl," Sirius imitates Gracie, with a smirk. He reaches out a hand, but instead of patting her on the head, he pets her. Gracie doesn't like this at all.
"Pet me again, Black, and I will lock you in one of these coffins and never let you out."
Needless to say, Sirius gets the message and keeps his hands to himself.
"He's not there," James says, mournfully.
"WHAT!" I scream, scrambling for the mirror. I put my hands on Potter's chest, knocking him to the ground. We wrestle, and I try to feel him up-in search of the mirror, of course.
"Not here, Lily, Gracie and Sirius are watching." He winks, as he easily pins my arms at my sides.
"You have a perverted mind!" I hiss, wriggling in his hold.
Sirius suddenly groans, and both of us stop and turn. I sit up, smoothing down my hair and shoot Potter a disgusted look. Sirius looks as if he's on the verge of death.
"What's the matter?" Gracie asks, resting a hand on his shoulder, her face filled with concern. Sirius shakes her off, lying down on his back.
"It's a bloody full moon!" He hits the floor hard with his fist, and bites down on it, to stop the painful result of this stupid move.
"No kidding, what'd you think that bright thing out there was - the sun? Why do you think he's not answering?" James grumbles.
"But what does that have to do with Remus?" I ask, frowning.
"Yeah, it's not like he's out howling at the moon," Gracie laughs, but she's the only one that does.
Sirius and James pale and share a panicked look that doesn't go unnoticed. Gracie suddenly stops laughing, realization dawning, as she looks at me.
"Oh my god!" I gasp, clapping a hand over my mouth. Gracie's eyes widen.
"He's a werewolf, isn't he?" she asks softly, coming to the same conclusion that I did.
Sirius coughs, pretending as if he didn't hear her, and James looks down at his hands uncertainly.
"That would explain why he isn't answering…" I whisper.
"…and why he's at Hogwarts in the first place. He transforms there, doesn't he? He must…" Gracie trails off mumbling, and I continue.
"That's why he always gets sick once a month and his grandmother's died five times…"
"And that explains why he couldn't come to my parent's funeral. It was a full moon!" she finishes, still looking a little stunned.
How come I never noticed before? There was even a whole page dedicated to him in our O.W.L. written exam. It was so obvious! I'm so stupid! I slap my forehead.
"Lily." James looks imploringly into my eyes. "Please, I know you hate me, but don't take it out on Remus even though you know he's a-"
I cut him off.
"First of all James, I don't care that Remus is a werewolf. It doesn't change anything, if at all it does, it will only make me admire him more. He has this problem and yet he's functioning, overcoming prejudices and proving himself to be one of the cleverest in Hogwarts. He's a prefect and a Marauder."
"Why don't you just snog him for Merlin's sake," James mumbles.
"Second of all, I don't hate you."
He looks up at me hopefully.
"I don't hate anyone," I clarify, and the eager puppy dog look quickly vanishes. "Especially not you," I whisper, but I don't think he hears me.
I sigh, pulling my knees to my chest.
"Why don't we try the door again?" Sirius suggests.
"Be my guest Sirius, but I never took you as suicidal," Gracie replies.
"I'm not talking about me idiot, I'm talking about you," Sirius snaps.
"Do you want to die, Black, because we already tried that once and you and Lily came very close to dying. In case you haven't noticed, you're not exactly welcome here," she points out.
"Neither are you."
"Yeah, thanks to your stupidity," Gracie grumbles.
"Whose idea was this in the first place?" Sirius sits up facing her.
I hold my breath and James and I look at each other before snapping back to Gracie. She stares at the floor, hiding her face behind midnight black hair. Instead of exploding or dissolving into tears, as I expected, she merely lifts her head and smirks.
"You were dumb enough to go along with it."
Sirius gapes at her.
"Me? I was merely looking out for you!"
Sirius, the reckless Marauder, was looking out for rule-abiding-well, sort of-Grace Adams. I snort, and James's mouth twitches as if suppressing a grin.
"Looking out for me? You were the one that almost fell into that hole!" Gracie giggles.
"I wouldn't have almost fallen into that hole if you hadn't been panicking," Sirius scoffs.
"I was not panicking!" she protests.
"Admit it! You were so sick with worry about the fate of your beloved Sirius Black that you shut down."
"Um, actually, no. My best friend Lily Evans happened to be on the verge of death, in case you hadn't noticed."
"Excuses, excuses." Sirius shakes his head making a tsk, tsk sound.
"I was hoping you'd fall in," Gracie mumbles, just loud enough for all of us, including Sirius, to hear.
"I'm hurt, I'm wounded, Gracie." Sirius clutches his heart and gasps for breath. He pretends to die, dropping his head ceremoniously into her lap. Gracie rolls her eyes and shoves the dying Sirius off of her lap.
"Can we switch places, James? Lily? Please?" Gracie whines as Sirius, on the floor beside her, pretends to writhe in agony, acting out his final moments.
"Um, I don't think that's an option," I answer glumly, gesturing to the Grand Canyon. "We're kind of stuck like this, remember?" I remind her quietly.
"How could I forget?" Gracie sighs, staring down at her hands. Sirius gets bored with his dying act, and decides to resurrect himself. He makes a show of climbing back out of his grave, or at least that's what I'm assuming he's doing, and coming back to life. James doesn't laugh, and I don't find it funny, considering where we are at the moment.
"I'm alive!" Sirius shouts, dramatically. His voice echoes through the domed room and I shudder.
Gracie looks at Sirius. Sirius looks at Gracie. Sirius opens his arms up to Gracie, welcoming her.
"It's just you and me baby, and you're not going anywhere," he teases, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, still holding his arms open.
"And neither are you," Gracie purrs. She starts moving in on Sirius, like a tiger pouncing on its prey. But instead of allowing Sirius to suffocate her in a hug and smother her with kisses, she pulls out her wand and hurls a jet of purple light at him.
I blink as the light fades and clears from my vision. A wall now separates Gracie and Sirius. Gracie smirks, looking extremely smug as she waves to Sirius on the other side of her wall. A disappointed Sirius folds his arms over his chest and pouts. Gracie amuses herself by sticking her tongue out at him. How ironic, last time a wall separated the two of them, it was me who cast it and Gracie who was fighting to get to him and Sirius who was hoping that she would never cross the invisible line.
"There has to be some way we can get out of here." I watch Gracie and Sirius goofing off, but I address this comment to James.
"This is it, Lily." James opens up his hands, revealing the mirror. "But Remus, he'll be out for at least three days."
"I'm sorry. I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you just tell me that we'll be stuck in here for three days, at the least?" I repeat, looking up and over at him.
"I'm afraid so." James grimaces and I groan wanting desperately to bang my head against something. I chose James's shoulder. Again, this could be very romantic, if it wasn't for the fact that once again I've been thrown into the arms of Hogwart's biggest pig, and locked in not just any old dark place, but a tomb full of bodies. Did I mention that I used to have nightmares about zombies as a kid? Why does my life have to be a living nightmare? Did I do something wrong in my past life?
Gracie and Sirius tire of the game quickly, neither one of them have long attention spans. Gracie's wall dissolves when she loses interest. Gracie yawns several times and curls up. Within a few minutes she's asleep and safe from the dead demons that surround us. Sirius wisely follows her lead and soon he's snuggled up to her, snoring softly. James is lying down beside me, his back to me, and I stare up at the great dome ceiling wondering if we'll ever get out of here.
I can't sleep though. As much as I try, I keep thinking of those sounds. When we went down that one doorway, there had been moaning and groaning. It still brings chills to my bones. And the eye, that yellow bulging eye, that couldn't have belonged to anything human. I shiver.
"Are you cold?" James asks, rolling over onto his side to face me. One look into his concerned hazel eyes and I feel a little warmer.
"No, I'm all right. Well, no, I'm not. We're stuck in a bloody mausoleum for three days with a bunch of dead people and a psycho statue that wants to kill me just because I'm Muggleborn, but I'm not cold, I guess, though I feel like - "
"Ssshh," James cuts me off, smoothing the hair back from my forehead like he did before. I move closer to him, loving the fact that he's human, familiar, cares about me, and happens to be very much alive.
"I'm scared," I admit.
"So am I," he breathes into my ear, stroking my hair soothingly. In times like these, James seems like a different person. I've temporarily forgotten about what he's really like, blinded by my fear and the need to hang onto something, someone, anyone.
"It'll be okay, Lily, I promise," James whispers, wrapping a comforting arm around me. I allow him to pull me to his chest without protest.
"I hope you're right, James," I sigh heavily, wishing that I could actually believe him.
"Me too."
And my eyes close.
A/N: Decided to put this up since I'm going away for a while. I didn't have time to respond to reviews but I read all of them. THANK YOU!! I know this part in the story is extremely weird, but I wanted to write suspense and do something different from the same old stuff, you know. And I promise this all ties together in the end so stick with me. Reviews are greatly appreciated!
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