The Ghosts of the Past (The Marauders' Story)

THE THIRD DEFIANCE

The werewolves whom Remus had rendered unconscious were fully awake again. Voldemort watched in amusement as Lily and James darted through the corridors and stairs, trying to escape the werewolves shouting for blood.

After fifteen minutes of running and dodging, both of them were tired. In the middle of the third floor corridor, James gasped, "We need a distraction..."

"We need a lot more than a distraction to get out alive," said Lily drily. As their pursuers burst up the stairs, James noticed a barrel full of thick dark liquid kept along the wall.

"Have you got anything made of silver?" whispered James, as they backed.

"No," said Lily. Then suddenly she remembered her necklace.

"Distract them! I'll do the rest," said James.

Lily pulled off her necklace and charged forward, shouting loudly, brandishing it. As she had expected, the werewolf stepped backwards.

James smelled the liquid in the barrel and then lifted it up. "To the right, Lily!" he shouted.

As Lily scrambled up to the right wall, James jerked the barrel, slopping petrol all over the werewolves, wall and floor.

"INCENDIO!" cried James, aiming his wand at the nearest werewolf. Lily caught on and helped James to connect fire to the petrol.

Golden flames erupted in front of them. The last howls of the enemy faded as they burnt down to ashes. The fire was spreading alarmingly and the temperature elevated fast.

Voldemort appeared in the corridor, with his wand raised.

"GET BACK!" screamed Lily, raising her wand too.

"Or else what?" asked Voldemort.

James and Lily swished their wands, directing a gust of wind at the fire so that the flames touched Voldemort. Voldemort yelled with rage and disappeared.

"That settled him," said James in satisfaction, forgetting for a moment that they were surrounded with flames.

"How will we escape, James?" asked Lily, suddenly sounding frightened.

"Apparate...well, no," said James. "This heat is making it too hard to concentrate." There was a silence. Then James said, "The window?"

As they turned towards the window at the end of the corridor, they saw with dismay that a sheet of fire was obstructing it.

"A-Aguamenti," faltered Lily. Her wand shot a thin jet of water which evaporated in a second.

"That won't work," said James in despair. Lily clasped James' hand in hers as flames closed in around them.

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Soon after Sirius and Remus heard Voldemort's laughter, and they started running towards the building, the Order arrived. There was a commotion among the Death Eaters guarding the building, and in a few minutes, other Death Eaters began appearing.

Then suddenly the building glowed orange and golden as it erupted in flames.

"JAMES! LILY!" shouted Sirius in despair as he charged towards the building directly.

"Sirius!" Remus grabbed his arm hard. "Are you mad? You can't run at the flames!"

"Let me go, Remus," snarled Sirius, trying to twist his arm out of his friend's grasp.

"That's suicide, Padfoot! Wait—"

"Just because you are cowardly enough to let your friends die doesn't mean I have to be too!" shouted Sirius.

All around them, battle was raging between the Order and the Death Eaters.

Remus was so stunned and hurt that he dropped Sirius' arm. Sirius' heart sank as he realized what he had said.

He grabbed Remus in a bone crushing hug and said, "I'm sorry, Moony, I didn't mean it."

"Yeah, ok," said Remus, pushing him away. "Look, we need to stop the flames." He raised his wand and shouted, "Aquify!" A torrent of clear water burst out of his wand and started to quench the flames.

Sirius joined him. In a few minutes, they had put out all the fire.

As they reached the door of the building, the five Death Eaters still guarding it raised their wands.

"Stupefy!" said Sirius and stunned one of them as he dodged a curse. Remus tried to stun another, but three of the Death Eaters attacked him together.

Thin cords bound Remus' arms and feet and he overbalanced and fell. Sirius was fighting the fifth one.

"You betrayed your own blood!" snarled Greyback, casting a curse at Remus, whose arm began to bleed again.

Dorcas had been fighting in the forest; she ran in their direction, pursued by another group of Death Eaters. Sirius defeated his enemy and joined Dorcas in fighting the rest.

Sirius and Dorcas managed to hold them. Suddenly Greyback and his two minions simultaneously cast the torture curse on Remus. Remus' scream of agony echoed in the forest.

Sirius turned, blood pounding in his ears.

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM AGAIN!" roared Sirius, his eyes blazing with fury. "Avada Kedavra!" he shouted, pointing his wand at one of Greyback's assistants. He fell down, clearly dead.

Remus stared in horror as Sirius whirled around and cast the killing curse at Greyback, who dodged and ran away as fast as he could. Sirius freed Remus from the cords, and two of them turned to join Dorcas.

Five Death Eaters had surrounded Dorcas, who was wandless. Dorcas was one of the best fighters of the Order, but even she couldn't escape five killing curses hurled at her from five directions.

As Dorcas fell down for a final time, the door behind them burst open and James and Lily charged out.

James, Sirius, Remus and Lily defeated all the Death Eaters in their vicinity. Then they stepped around the building towards the forest.

The battle had stopped. Moody and Frank were tying up stunned Death Eaters on the ground. Hestia was bent over Alice, trying to stop the flow of blood from her left leg. Gideon and Fabian were talking in low voices together.

The Order had won the battle.

But once again a vital life had been lost.

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The moment James had time to reflect back on last night's events, he turned to Remus. He saw Remus staring at Sirius with a strange look on his face.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"Nothing," said Remus in a low voice. "I just never thought any of us would be able to cast a killing curse."

"Did he—" began James, shocked.

"Yeah...one of the werewolves."

Sirius overheard him and as he turned, he saw Remus and James both staring at him with that bizarre look on their faces.

"What?" he grumbled. "I only killed him because he had hurt Remus. I'm not a serial killer or anything," he added.

"You couldn't be a serial killer, Padfoot! That takes talent," said James, grinning.

"Are you suggesting that I—" began Sirius dangerously.

Remus felt an inexplicable rush of affection for both of them.

"Oh, Moony—you know it wasn't me and Lily speaking yesterday, don't you?" said James, anxiously, remembering suddenly. "Voldemort had put us—"

"Under the Imperius curse...yeah, Padfoot told me," said Remus.

James sighed. "Couldn't you have worked it out yourself?" he demanded.

"I guess I would have, eventually," admitted Remus, grinning, and all he could think about was that he was the luckiest person in the world to have these two men calling him their best friend.