My Gallant Lad - Part IV
So I got a wonderful anon telling me that this is their favourite Lily Rescues James fic, it’s part of my finished canon marauders fic We Can Be Heroes. But, because it works as a stand alone story, I posted it here in four parts. I hope you enjoy it! Set during the first wizarding war, Lily is very BAMF (but tbh so is James)
TW: angsty and violence
Part I here: After their worst row ever, Lily and James get captured by Voldemort…
Part II here: James tries to save Lily
Part III here: Lily tries to save James
PART IV
(PS this is not pro- Snape at all, quite the opposite, for this to make sense you’ll have to read the other parts, lol!)
Mulciber swallowed.
“Now help me lift Potter, and for fuck’s sake be careful, he’s perilously close to death as it is!” Snape said.
He was so angry his body was shaking in agitation.
Mulciber lifted James’ body as though it were made of glass.
***
“I’ll take it from here,” Snape ordered.
They were standing underneath the main door of the castle, which led into the courtyard.
“I thought we were bringing Potter and his vile mudblood to the Dark Lord?” Mulciber said, frowning suspiciously.
“Change of plan, Mulciber,” Snape said matter-of-factly. “I want to try and get Evans to talk, that way if Potter snuffs it, we won’t risk being beheaded by him.”
“What do you mean?” Mulciber looked at him in bewilderment. “If you attack Evans and manage to injure her also, we’re doubly fucked!”
“I won’t fuck it up, unlike you dithering idiots I actually know what I’m doing!” Snape says angrily.
Mulciber stared hard at him.
“Are you sure you’re Snape?” he said, narrowing his eyes and reaching for his wand. “You’re acting strangely and I-“
“He’s Snape all right, but under the Imperius Curse,” Lily interjected. “Expelliarmus!”
Mulciber’s wand flew into Lily’s outstretched hand.
“You?” Mulciber seethed. “How in Morgana’s hell did you manage to Imperio him? Last I heard you were wailing painfully awful songs from your cell, giving us all a headache! I thought you’d given up!”
“The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, for all their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad,” Lily shrugged. “You just hadn’t experienced the merry part yet!”
“You’re not a man,” Mulciber sneered.
“Ha!” Lily’s face broke into a harsh smile. “What Chesterton didn’t say about Irish women is that when they’re angry, all their wars are won!”
Mulciber stared at her sullenly.
“Not my fault that you consistently underestimate me, Mulciber!” Lily shot back. “You think you’d have learnt by now!”
Mulciber’s face looked like curdled milk.
“Too late,” Lily said. “Obliviate!”
Mulciber’s expression changed slowly to one of utter confusion as he looked between Lily, James and Snape. He hadn’t even seen the spell hit him.
“What happened to him?” he said, scratching behind his ear and staring at James’ body. “Where’s your Head Girl badge? Your uniform?”
“Quidditch injury,” Lily said flatly. “Vicious Slytherin tactics. One hundred points from your House, now back to your common room before I have you expelled!”
“Whaat?” Mulciber said, looking utterly bewildered.
“I’m counting till ten. Ten… nine… eight…” Lily said.
Mulciber stumbled and turned immediately, muttering incoherent protests.
“Not bad, Lily Evans,” Snape whispered with a vicious grin. “Not bad at all.”
***
“Outside! Now!” Snape ordered.
Lily Evans remained silent as she walked outside at a steady pace, Snape following her and dragging James Potter’s body along the ancient flagstones.
“Now, it seems that nothing will persuade Dumbledore’s man to reveal what has happened to the Dark Lord’s precious treasure, a book Dumbledore’s men stole! Potter nearly died refusing to tell us. I’m ordering you to tell me, or I’ll make you kill your own husband!” he called out.
“No, I won’t tell you anything,” Lily said with effort.
“Wow! That’s dope!” Villiers whispered loudly to Wilkes.
The two men were sitting on the battlements having a smoke and peering down with interest at the scene unfolding below them.
“Look what Snape is up to! I never thought he was into that shit!” Wilkes replied. “He usually lets us handle that kind of stuff, says it’s boring!”
They looked at each other and grinned.
“Massive!” Villiers giggled, bumping fists with Wilkes.
Snape picked up his wand.
“Last chance, Miss. Evans,” he said, dragging James closer to the middle of the courtyard.
He was holding two other wands in his hand.
“What is going on here?”
Snape whirled around.
Voldemort was standing at the castle gate, and with him Evan Rosier. Voldemort’s wand was pointed at him.
“I am quite simply trying to establish the whereabouts of your missing book, my Lord,” Snape said. “I thought this might work.”
“Rosier here tells me you have been acting exceedingly strange,” Voldemort’s voice was icy. “He thinks you may be under the Imperius Curse.”
“Rosier is neither observant nor intelligent, my Lord,” Snape said stiffly.
“Be that as it may, Severus, you are not yourself, you would not usually dare speak to me with this much courage,” Voldemort replied, stepping forwards.
“My Lord?” Severus replied.
“Let us see what happens, shall we?” Voldemort said, whirling around at the last minute and pointing his wand at Lily.
“Stupefy!” Voldemort said with a lazy swish of his wand.
Lily Evans crumpled to the ground. Snape stood motionless, as though unsure what to do.
“Ah, the spell fades, I see. I had hoped you would not be so easily overcome by it. You disappoint me, Severus, I thought you were stronger than that. I thought you knew the mudblood well enough to watch out for any tricks she might play? Or were you too enticed by her beauty to focus on doing your job properly?” Voldemort spat out. “You shall pay for this mistake! And the object of your affections will most definitely pay.”
“I’m afraid I underestimated the mudblood,” Snape said, with a condescending smirk at the Dark Lord. “I don’t know her as well as I thought I did. She should perhaps have been sorted into Slytherin. It appears that Lily Evans is a devious little bitch!”
Startling emerald eyes glared at Voldemort from Snape’s face. As the wheels in Voldemort’s mind whirled, Snape removed a leather bracelet from his wrist and tapped it, revealing a large glittering brass key.
“Póg mo thóin, Riddle!” he said, flicking the V at Voldemort (who looked momentarily stunned) as he grabbed hold of James’ arm and apparated into thin air.
“I don’t get it,” Rosier said, looking at Voldemort and rubbing his forehead as though in pain. “Was that Snape? No, hang on.. what was..?”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” roared Voldemort, raising his head as his blood-curdling screams carried over the courtyard and into the surrounding forest.
He kicked out viciously at Rosier’s leg sending him hopping around in circles howling with pain. A family of carrion crows, disturbed by the commotion, flapped and squawked upwards from the turrets and battlements.
“Which one of you is the imbecile who allowed Lily Evans to escape?” he screamed at Rosier. “Why did none of you stop her?”
Villiers and Wilkes ducked down behind the walls of the battlements, grimacing.
A splash of white bird dropping landed on Voldemort’s nose. Rosier stared at him.
“You have some…” he said, pointing to Voldemort’s face. “Just there?”
Voldemort looked ready to kill him.
“If you don’t permanently dispose of this group of crows by Salazar’s soul, I will feed you to them myself!” he shouted wildly, waving his wand at Rosier, and rubbing his face furiously with the back of his sleeve.
“A murder of crows, not a group, but whatever,” Rosier muttered to himself, looking peeved, as he aimed Avada Kedavras at the screeching birds.
Voldemort walked over to the body of Lily Evans and stared at the darkening hair and sallower skin, Snape’s eyes looking up at him.
“Legilimens!” he intoned.
The memory was tampered with, powerfully, so that he was unable to see some of the earlier incidents, but he could see the conversation between “Snape” and Avery, Fuck Voldemort, I hate that bastard! Avery running off to hide from him. Seething with rage, he grabbed Rosier’s arm and touched his dark mark.
He watched as all his followers apparated around him, all except Snape who lay half-stunned on the ground, and Hugo Avery.
“Find Avery, bring him to me, now, or you all die!” he hissed, the red veins in his sclera protruding menacingly. “Nooooowwwww!!!!”
***