Working at night has several advantages if you want privacy but has its disadvantages too. James Potter was facing more disadvantages than advantages. Building a team takes more effort than giving orders as a Head Boy. Though with the help of his three friends he was able to build a team and was now connected from Ministry to Leaky Cauldron to Knockturn Alley to Hogwarts to Hogsmeade to St. Mungo's. These connections need to be strengthened but that will take time and what they had now was good and was working.
It was like a pyramid, each member recruits new members and becomes their leader, and then sends the messages to the person above him, at the top were three people James trusted and they would pass the useful information to him. It has a few faults, there were chances of error but they had been taking strict precautions.
James was glad that he has did this as it opened the entire Wizarding world in front of him, he was now getting the news which The Daily Prophet was either not getting all the news or these were not published for the sake of public morale, as the news that reached to James were terrifying and could break the morale of a person, can shake them to their cores.
The Prophet was just giving the upper look at the war, which was capable enough to generate fear among the public. The real and inside look at war was disgusting and James had to practice a lot to control himself and hold himself together after getting the information. The informations were like this:
>The Mayor of London, Sir Ramsay Ring was killed by the Death Eaters. (The muggle paper has mentioned the cause of death as a Heart attack.)
> Ten-year-old boy killed his parents under the influence of an imperius curse.
>Three muggles were hanged in a public place after being brutally tortured and killed.
>Five Aurors went missing two weeks ago, the body of two of them was found in a sewer in >Norwich, the cruciatus curse was used on them, and the other three are still missing, presumed dead.
>A muggle school was put on fire in Derby while the students were studying, four dead, and several injured.
>A family of muggleborns was killed and their bodies were mutilated.
>Four Ministry workers were found under the influence of the Imperius curse, they are now admitted at St. Mungo's.
>A witch named Pauline Shimizu, probably working for Dumbledore was found dead in front of her house, she was brutally tortured before being killed, and her right arm was missing.
> Brandon Denshaw, a well-known Auror's wife and kid were kidnapped by the death eaters after Brandon killed two important death eaters. His wife's mutilated body was thrown in front of the Ministry while the whereabouts of his three-year-old son is still unknown.
All this news was not published in the Prophet, James sat in his room after reading this information, his head resting on his hands, as he continued rubbing his forehead. He wish he could stay here for a long but that was not possible or it was possible but his priority was someone else, so he had to be patient, he will carry out the plans from Hogwarts.
He bid his goodbye to his parents, and this time he couldn't hold the tears, and neither could his parents, it was a long tight hug that they exchanged, and probably the last one too. His mind has gone empty and clouds of confusion have covered his mind now, he didn't know whether he wanted to leave his parents or not but has decided to leave with the hope to meet them during the Christmas holidays.
If anyone was to ask how Lily was, they were to receive an angry response as she was getting frustrated by all the work she has to do, which included Head duties and classwork, Remus and Mary had agreed to help her with Head Duties but their help was not enough as they had to do their classwork as well. And to make the situation worse it was during this time that McGonagall asked Lily to release the club details, and when Sirius found out that he was made the leader of the Drama club, he has made life worse for her since then, it was only after Lily has hexed him twice that he stopped complaining about being forced to join the club. Peter didn't object on the contrary he was very happy to be made a leader though he was nervous about it.
Lily herself was the leader of the Charms club, so her duties have increased there and she has regretted her decision as the first meeting has bored her out of her mind, and consumed a precious hour, though she knew that once James will arrive and joined the club alongside her then it will become easier to cope up with all these responsibilities.
After a tiring Herbology lesson she made her way back to the Great Hall for lunch, she still couldn't understand why Herbology was needed for becoming Auror. What use will plants come in a fight? She took her seat next to Mary and both of them began talking about whether they will allow them to visit Hogsmeade or not, soon the others joined in the conversation and soon the topic changed to the Auror raid the previous day.
"The star Marauder has returned!" said Peter excitedly and Lily jerked her head towards the entrance to the great hall that she nearly broke her neck, but it didn't mattered, she saw him and realized how much he meant to her.
All the fears regarding James' safety vanished, he has returned to her and that too in one piece, his letter had put her in worry, James tried to keep the letter cheerful but she has intercepted that something was not right, but that didn't matter now, he is here, her James is here, a wide smile appeared on her face, the biggest smile in days, and without thinking, without paying attention that the whole school, including teachers and ghosts, were present in the Great Hall, she stood up from her seat and ran up to him and hugged him, and he too mirrored her, soon they were both wrapped in each other's arm.
The others think that she was a foolish person and that they both are hopelessly in love but she alone knows what could have happened to James, one wrong action and she would have lost him forever.
And she now realized the grip, the hug that James was giving her, she recognized it, it was a hug he gives her when he is afraid, so not everything was right, he knows something that has disturbed him or he has faced something horrible, his grip was tight on her, a grip which told her that he was never going to leave her.
"Enough you two," shouted Sirius from his seat and it was now that they both realized that they were in great hall in front of the whole school, they pulled back.
"Umm...Hi," said Lily turning red and looking down.
"Hi," James said, "Let's go and take seats." He took her arm and lead her to the spot where she was seating.
James talked about his parents and joked around with the marauders while listening to their funny stories and Sirius' complaints about Lily. Sirius was talking like a nursery kid who has fought with another kid and was now complaining to the teacher, who was not much interested in it.
All the while James had continued holding Lily's hand, and she had a distinct feeling that James was faking his happiness and fooling everyone that he was happy. The Marauders began talking about a grand prank for Halloween and yet again Lily noticed that James wasn't interested in the conversation, he was unenthusiastic for the first time regarding a prank.
"Actually we are going to hold a costume party for Halloween," Lily informed them, "McGonagall informed me about it yesterday, so you lot are forbidden from doing any prank that night as being heads, James and I are in charge of the party."
"Excellent!" Mary's excitement couldn't be described in words. Lily observed that in these scenarios Mary was the exact opposite of Remus, who looked bored by the idea of a party.
"Hey! Will you join us in DADA class?" asked Marls to James.
"Yeah, I will, what are we going to study today? Any idea?" he asked to the group.
"Fighting the Imperius curse, Dumbledore after talking to the Minister has allowed us all to learn to fight against the Imperius curse, so starting from today we will fight against the Imperius curse for the rest of the week," informed Remus.
"That's awesome," said James. "It's the most dangerous curse, we all should be ready to fight against it."
"You think the imperius curse is the most dangerous curse?" laughed Sirius. "That's stupid, nothing is worse than the killing curse, though you can say the cruciatus curse may be worse, but not like the imperius curse."
James shook his head and when he spoke he was serious, "The imperius curse is the worst one, recently a kid was put under this curse and was forced to kill his own parents. The imperius curse is the worst, you can't really tell whether a person is under the curse or not, it can be anyone, you, me, Minnie anyone, and they can kill you without knowing, they can pass secret information without knowing. You would think that the person is the most trustable person and he might be put under the imperius curse, your best friend, your brother, can kill you or you can kill them."
"Blimey!" said Peter horrorstruck. "I never thought it like that."
"It's the bloody time that we all open our eyes because the outside world is a hell, worse than hell, many wizard families are thinking that they are far away from the war but the next day they are all dead," said James. "No one can escape it, it's way worse than anyone of us can imagine, the prophet is only giving information of light events."
The seventh year entered the DADA class, Professor White welcomed them all and began lecturing them about the imperius curse, its effect was similar to what James had told them before.
"Now, one by one I will call you in front and then perform the curse on you and you will have to fight it," said Prof. White. "Mr. Fenwick, if you will come forward please."
One by one all the students made their way to the front and tried to fight the curse but only Lily was able to show resistance against it, for which she received ten points.
"It was a tiring lesson," said Sirius rubbing his forehead as he jumped on the table lost his control, and fell to the ground.
"It indeed was," muttered Mary.
"You did really well," James said to Lily who smiled. "Any secrets?"
"Yup! But I am not telling you," grinned Lily.
"Please tell," James said in a pleading voice.
"No secret James, it was like I was determined that I will not listen to the voice, why should I? I don't want to follow the instruction, that's all."
"Being stubborn has benefits then," pointed out James.
"Yeah it does," winked Lily. "Hey, I have a question to ask, this is bugging me for ten days, this lyric is stuck in my mind but I don't know the rest of the song, can you tell what it is, it goes like this: I hear her voice in the mornin' she calls me and also something like West Virginia, come to mama."
James thought for about two minutes as he ran his mind through many songs, he has heard this, and he was close. "It's West Virginia, mountain mama," he told her while laughing. "And the song is, Take me home, Country Roads by John Denver."
Lily gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "Thanks a lot, now I remember."
"You are welcome," he said putting his arm around her shoulder.
"Do you think Gandalf is just like Dumbledore?" she asked him hopefully.
"Holly Molly! Yes! He is like Dumbledore, how didn't I realize it before?" James said laughing before hitting his head.
"Right?!" she exclaimed. "It's funny too."
"Yeah, good observation, Lils," said James kissing her temple.
"I missed you," she confessed. "I missed these conversations of ours."
"I know," said James. "That's why I returned."
"What?"
"I returned for you, Lily" James informed her. "I was planning on dropping out but I can't leave you."
"You were going to drop out?!" asked Sirius loudly who was walking behind them.
"No, I was not, I was just messing with Lily," James said instantly, the last thing he wanted was to Sirius know about his operations, he will force to join in and James doesn't want that, Sirius was more of a person who likes action and what James was doing was far away from the action.
"I don't believe you," Sirius said.
"Why would I want to drop out when I am a head boy and everything is going great?" asked James grinning.
"Okay," said Sirius though he was still looking at him suspiciously.
"We will talk about it later," James whispered to a confused-looking Lily.
But James was pushing away the topic each time they were alone and would find some excuse to push it for later. The truth was after that day when he has saw the look on Lily's face when he has told her about dropping out, he has lost the courage and was thinking of how to approach her and talk about it to her and how much will he tell her.
The week passed in a blur, and Lily was quite enjoying her time, with James back at her side things became much easier to handle, and the fact that she was leading in the DADA class was the icing on the cake, by the end of the week, she was successfully able to throw off the curse within a minute, and has received twenty points. The only thing worrying her was James, he was hiding something but he has dismissed the topic each time saying that he will tell her later.
"Did you see it? I was able to throw off the curse after three minutes," he said happily to her.
"I saw that," she replied smiling at him. Should she talk to him and force him to answer it now or should she wait, but before she could come to a decision, they were called by Minerva to plan the Halloween party.
It took their whole evening in planning the party and instructing the Prefects and Filch about what was to be done.
On their way back to the Gryffindor tower, they heard about the costumes others were going to wear to the party.
"Have you selected a costume yet?" she asked James.
"No, not yet," sighed James, he was looking really tired.
"Don't worry then I have a perfect idea, I will give your costume to you," she said. "I am sure you will like it."
The whole castle was excited about the Halloween Party, classes ended early so that students can get time to prepare for the party, and excitement filled in the air as everyone was excited to see what costumes others will wear.
James was the least worried of the four marauders, while the other three were worrying about getting their costumes and making changes in it through transfiguration James sat on his bed grinning and laughing at his friends and reading a book, his own costume was in the box given by Lily and was put on his bed, he didn't know what it was but whatever it was it would be good as Lily herself has taken care of that.
"Stop laughing," shouted Sirius at James when James laughed at Sirius as he fell to the ground in his attempt to get to his comb. "Help me change the color of my hair."
The four boys stood in the common room after they were dressed, waiting for the girls to arrive, Keeva arrived first, she was dressed as Rowena Ravenclaw, she greeted Sirius and stood by his side.
Soon the three girls arrived, Mary has the same dress as Remus both were werewolves, and Marlene was dressed as the devil, James noticed Sirius's jaw drop to the ground as he looked at Marls, James rolled his eyes and looked at Lily who has worn nearly matching costumes as James and then he realized what they both were.
"Hello Dumbledore," said Mary to Sirius.
"Werewolf, huh, clever," winked Sirius. "What are you both?" he asked to James and Lily who were now holding hands.
"We are Bonnie and Clyde," answered James.
"Oh! from that robbery movie which we watched during ester?" asked Marls, James and Lily nodded.
"A vampire, nice costume Wormtail," said Lily to Peter who looked proud.
"What did you say?" asked Sirius.
"Nice costume," replied Lily looking confusedly at Sirius.
"No, you called him Wormtail," he said.
"So, is there any problem?" Lily asked narrowing her eyes.
"Only Marauders can use that name," he argued.
"I deny that rule, I can use that name too, can't I James?"
"Of course, you can," smiled James. "Padfoot, Lily is not like others, she is a special one."
"We should get going or we will be late," said Remus, the others followed him and Mary out of the portrait hole.
"Did you like the costume?" Lily asked James as they walked behind the others.
"Loved it, you are really looking very hot," he whispered and Lily giggled.
"I knew you liked me as a fighter so I decided to go for it," said Lily.
The Great Hall was beautifully decorated, Lily was proud of her work, all hard work has paid off.
Sirius who has dressed like Dumbledore and has grown his beard and hair was the center of talk, even Dumbledore praised him.
Lily's happiness was visible on her face, she looked around at everyone all were just happy as she was, and then there was James standing by her side, if anyone else was to see him then they would say he was happy but Lily could easily tell that he wasn't happy, the smile on his face looked fake, his witty remarks about others were absent.
After the feast, Lily pulled James out of the party to the quidditch pitch so that she could talk to him and he doesn't get a chance to escape the talk, the moonlight fell upon the quidditch pitch.
"Looks like I am in for a treat," James said as Lily decided for the top of the stands, she came to a stop there and sat down, she then patted the spot next to her signaling James to sit there. James sat there, Lily turned to talk to him but before she could speak his lips crashed against hers, and all the thoughts of the talk were lost as her hands wrapped around his neck, soon she was sitting on his lap and his hands were under her dress, roaming around her stomach.
Control yourself, she told herself, and with a lot of determination pulled back, "James we need to talk," she said panting.
"That sentence is a nightmare for anyone," James said, and Lily knew that he was joking.
"Stop joking around," she said in a stern voice and caught his hands which were still roaming all over her. "It's important."
James understood that she really wanted to talk as he nodded, "Hmm, what it is?"
"You tell me what it is?" she asked, "What's bothering you, James? You have been down since you returned from home."
James didn't answer at first, he moved his head back a little so he could see her clearly, though it was nighttime, her face was clearly visible under the moonlight, he cupped her face in his hands and started running his thumbs over her lips, eyes, foreheads, temple, he was fully taking in her looks, memorizing every detail of her face.
"James," she protested, "talk to me."
"Shh, give me a moment," he whispered as he continued looking at her, he kissed her forehead, and he gather the courage and strength to talk to her, they say it helps to talk, and he hasn't talked about his parents to anyone, so he should talk to her as she is the only one left to him.
His eyes filled with tears as he looked at her, Lily's heart shattered as she looked at the pained expression on his face.
"It's mum and dad," he finally spoke in brittle, "they are . . . they . . . they don't have . . . much time left," Lily gasped. "The healer said. . . they have . . . six months left . . . at most. "
He buried his face in her neck and began crying, "I don't want to lose them too," he cried in her neck, Lily has never seen James so weak, how was he able to hold up this information without telling anyone and how was he able to put the happy face, she didn't know. She hugged him tightly and rubbed his back all the while saying soothing words, while he cried, her dress was wet from his tears for sure, she herself could feel the tears building in her eyes but she pushed them back as James needed her, she has gotten close to Fleamont and Euphemia over her only 14 days stay at the Potters over the easter break.
What do you say to a boy who is about to lose his parents, the boy who has already lost his aunt about 8 years ago and his uncle last year, she didn't know. So she said the only thing she knew, "James I am with you, and I will be with you until the very end."
James stopped crying after ten minutes but didn't raise his head, he was comfortable now, the one thing that gives him the power to fight everything else was with him sitting in his lap, her hands around him and his around her.
"Lily I don't want to put you in danger," he said raising his head and looking straight into her eyes, "I will not be able to live if something happens to you because of me, I am playing with fire here, and I don't want you to get burn because of me. I have gotten myself into a situation where I am dicing with death, a single mistake, if they get a slight hint that I am Thanatos, they will come after me and might kill those near me, and you Lily is the one who is closest to me, I can't live if I lose you."
Lily knew why he was so worried but she has to reason with him and explain to him, he is not able to see clearly, "Listen, James, I know you are worried about me getting in danger but did you forget I am already a target, I am a muggleborn, I have declined their offer, do you think they will leave me alone if I get away from you? No, they will not. And James you are forgetting this is my war as much as it is yours, I have not lost family members like you but I too have suffered, James. I too can't rest until the war is over, I will fight until my last breath."
"You really want to risk your life? Because there's very thin or no chance that I . . . we will come out of it alive."
"Death is nothing, I am not afraid of death as long as you are by my side. I will happily hug death if you will be by my side. Whatever the situation ahead is, however worse it is, I don't mind, I am not worried as long as you are with me."
"You are very brave, Lily, but. . ."
"I will fight James even if you don't fight I will, I will fight because I have already decided to fight in the war and no one can change my mind, not even you or god. You are afraid of losing me and trust me I am just as much afraid as you by the thought of losing you, but that fear is nothing when you are with me, be strong James, be brave."
"Well, if that's the case then we better finish this war soon and win it," smiled James, Lily too smiled.
"I am with you in this, by your side,"
"Then we are going to win as the best dueler is by my side."
"You are better than me, Thanatos."
James shook his head, "Don't you see, I use trickery and traps to defeat me, I avoid dueling with them and show myself only when they are weaken by my traps."
"Well then that's even better," Lily said. "Your tricks and traps and my dueling skills, we will be unstoppable."
James smiled at her, and kissed her temple, "We are unstoppable."
"So, are you going to tell me what you were up to and what's going on in your mind?" she asked him hopefully.
"It will be a dangerous path Lily," said James seriously.
"I ain't no ordinary girl, James, I am a fighter," said Lily in a determined voice.
He told her all the news and information that the prophet has ignored and watched her reaction. He gave her a few minutes tolet the news sink, and then asked, "You still want to join?"
"I still want to join and am now more determined to join," she replied in the same determined voice. "Now tell me how you got all these information and what you are planning."
"I am expanding the members covering the ministry, St. Mungo's, Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, they all send the information to Ryan, Adam and Tracey and they send it to me, I have been getting the news of a few upcoming attacks but haven't took action and I don't know whom to send as there might be infiltrators in the Auror office and I am afraid to send the information to Dumbledore, but I think I should.
"I am thinking of going in there myself and resume Thanatos, but am now focusing on building connection," he informed her.
"But how will we able to get out of Hogwarts?" asked Lily.
"Via Hogsmeade. . . what do you mean we?"
"I am coming with you wherever you go,"
James thought of a good excuse to prevent her from coming with him, "Thanatos is only one, he goes alone."
Lily scoffed, "Nice one Potter but I am a Valyrie and I am coming with you wherever you go."
"Listen Lily, I need you to help me plan and manage things first, I need you to tell me about muggle way for fast communication, then we will talk about going in the middle of the battle."
"I can help that but I will be with you during the night adventures,"
"You are very stubborn,Evans, aren't you?" he sighed.
"Yes, I am and you are going to take me with you,"
"Okay? I will, but promise me you will listen to me and let me handle things and when I say to run, you will run, no questions asked."
Lily began to protest, "I don't need you to protect me."
"You promise me or I am not taking you with me," James pressed.
"Okay, but I will do that as the last option only," Lily said, James wanted to argue but knew that there was no way around it so he gave in.
"What did you meant when you said you were thinking of dropping?" asked Lily resting her head on his shoulder.
"To be honest, I was thinking to drop my entire seventh year once I was in the Diagon Alley, but then Dumbledore came and asked me to return and that he will have a responsibility for me, so I returned, but to be fare this isn't what I wanted. Sure I have a lot to learn but I know enough to last in there, this head duty is not for me, I wanted to be in there, fighting and when I went to visit my parents, and then talked to my friends there and got information what's going on I decided to leave school and stay with my parents during day and fight during night, but then I heard a news of a muggleborn brutally killed and I thought of you and realized I can't stay away from you when there are death eaters lurking in the school."
"I am glad you came, I am addicted to you, I can't live without you," said Lily. "But James don't you see if you will drop out of Hogwarts then you will not be able to become an Auror."
"I don't want to be," James replied simply.
Lily looked at him confused, this boy who has always wanted to be an Auror is simply saying he don't to be an Auror. "Why?"
"Look it this way Lily, if I will involve in the program it will take me two years before I get into the field and by the look of things till that the situation will be way worse, and beside then I will have to work under the ministry and go by there rules," James explained. "I don't think that will be helpful, I now have lot of information about Tom Riddle and I knew about his things, so I am going to focus on those things and thus help in the war."
Lily thought about it for minutes and then nodded, "Yeah, you are right, enough with learning. We need to be practical now."
"You don't have to do this just because I am doing, if it's your dream to be an Auror then you should be one, if it's to be a potioneer then you should be one," James reasoned with her.
Lily shook her head, "My dream, James is of a peaceful world, and I want to be with you through thick and thin, the point of joining the Auror program was to fight the Death Eaters, but now that we have other way of doing it then I am in it."
James kissed her, "Let's just stay here for few more hours. It's peaceful, two of the most important things in my life are right here."
"So, I am a thing now?" she asked looking at with narrowed eyes and smiling.
"Maybe, not sure," James chuckled.