Deer Diary || Jily

Year 5 XXII

Lily and James joined Sirius and Marlene at the area where injured people were receiving quick fixes from the healer on site. Any injuries that were mildly serious were taken to Madame Pomfrey who stood ready with beds and supplies, but those that were extremely serious were immediately transported to St. Mungo's.

Marlene had received a quick spell that had closed up the gaping wound on the side of her head, but she still had to be taken to Pomfrey in order to assess the extent of the head injury and gauge the potential for a concussion.

Looking around the area, Lily saw many students with similar cuts and gashes to the ones caused by Severus when he lashed back at James. Dark magic.

Mary Macdonald was being carried out of the Three Broomsticks on a stretcher. Her body never stopped spasming and trembling from the aftershock of the Cruciatus Curse.

Lily felt bile rising in the back of her throat. Mary. Sweet, kind Mary Macdonald had been tortured. The sound of her screams still rang in Lily's ears.

There was still no sign of Alice and Frank and Lily prayed that they had reached the castle safely.

Little by little the area began to clear and Sirius had taken it upon himself to make sure Marlene made it to the infirmary safely. Lily was ready to trail behind them and make her way back to the castle when there was a sound of protest from beside her.

"Hey! What are you doing?" James shouted loudly.

"Back off, kid, and leave it to the professionals," Alastor Moody said apathetically.

"I'm telling you it's mine. It was in my pocket the whole time!"

Lily watched as Marlene and Sirius started moving back to the castle and turned back to James. "What's going on?" she asked.

"It's our job to scan the area for potential threats. We don't want anything dangerous lying around," the gruff, older man didn't seem too invested in the conversation, walking around inspecting the area while James trailed angrily behind.

"And I'm telling you my snitch isn't a dangerous threat! It must have fallen out of my pocket and—"

Mad-Eye Moody whirled around so quickly that James had to take a step back to avoid crashing into him. "You of all people should know better than to mess with an attack site."

His all-knowing eye narrowed in on the boy and James recoiled as if the man had physically hit him. He didn't need him to clarify what he meant by that. Everyone already knew about James's parents and the consequences of cursed objects.

"That's enough, Alastor," Kinsley Shacklebolt's voice demanded.

Moody responded with a disinterested grunt, before turning back to continue with his duties.

"I'm sorry about him," Shacklebolt said, the snitch that Moody had boxed for inspection was in his hand.

James's expression darkened. "Whatever." He walked away leaving Lily alone with the older Auror.

Shacklebolt watched him leave with a sympathetic look. "Kid's been through a lot," he said. He turned his gaze to Lily. "You all have."

Wiping away at the remaining tear tracks on her face, Lily nodded.

"Here," Kinsley said, handing her the box with James's snitch before leaving. "He probably wants this back. We just had to put it in the box for a moment to test if it was safe."

Gingerly taking it into her hands, Lily inspected the snitch that James took with him everywhere. It was obviously very precious to him that he had built a whole habit around playing with it.

James would take the snitch in his hands and roll it between his fingers. He would let it go, allowing it to fly on ahead before snatching it in midair and releasing it again. Lily had unknowingly memorized all the little movements and tricks he did with his snitch.

She opened the box and followed the golden snitch as it flew up in the air and zigzagged in front of her. Using her free hand, she grabbed the snitch and pulled it back to her.

Its pulse beat rhythmically against her palm and she could feel its fluttering wings.

With two fingers, Lily pinched the snitch and held it closer to her face. She noticed something scratched on the object and inspected it scrupulously.

When she finally realized what it said, she released a quiet sigh and put the snitch back into the box to give back to its owner.

The beautiful snitch was a gift to James.

Emblazoned on the side were the words: To my son: Keep chasing your dreams.