The Other Marauders

Darkness Rising

ROWAN POV:

The time I spent at the Potter's house was probably the best part of my summer. The only bad thing was that people were disappearing rapidly-probably due to those stupid Death Eaters. Voldemort was rising and he was doing it so fast we have no time to stop him. It's starting to scare me too because he seems to be taking random witches and wizards...even some children.

"He's taking powerful witches and wizards to join his side. He's even got the rest of my family in on it," Sirius says, sighing and plopping down on the couch where in reading the daily prophet.

"I'm sure that's not true Sirius," I say. He just silently points to an article that says: Black Family on the run with Voldemort.

"Okay, I guess you're right then." He laughs and plants a sweet kiss on my mouth.

"PADFOOT! PLUMI!" James complains and I pull back, my cheeks turning scarlet. "Get a room!"

"We were in one, Prongs, until you so rudely interrupted us!" James just chuckles and sits down on a chair across from me.

"So what do you guys want to do?" I ask as Katie and Remus walk in, Lily following closely behind.

"Ooh!" Lily squeals excitedly, getting an idea. "Let's go shopping!" The boys all groan.

"Aw, c'mon, Siri!" I exclaim and he looks at me oddly.

"Siri?" He asks an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah...Siri. It's your new nickname." He looks a little displeased about it but doesn't say anything.

"Can we pleeeaassseee go shopping, James?" Lily whines and bats his eyelashes. Wow, she's good. James looks torn and looks to Sirius for support. I give Sirius a look and he shrugs. James nods and Lily squeals excitedly. This should be fairly interesting....

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"Okay, so we're going shopping, and you boys can go...erm...look at Quidditch stuff!" Katie declares and they just all shrug and head over to the little Quidditch shop.

"Alright, girls!" Lily says like we were her army and she was a boot camp leader or something. "Let's fan out and find a cute shop!" We all pause. "Ready....GO!" Katie all try our best not to laugh at her antics as she heads to a cute little boutique with a French name. We follow her in after looking around and not finding anything else.

"OH MY GODRIC GRYFFINDOR!" Katie screeches from somewhere in the back of the store. Lily and I quickly follow her to find her holding the cutest dress ever. Well, for her. It's a strapless white dress with sequins and a black strap in the middle.

"That's so cute on you!" Lily exclaims. "But what are you going to use it for?" Katie bites her lip.

"Well," she begins, adjusting her dress. "Remus didn't really want me to spread it around because he doesn't know if it's true...but I'll just tell you anyways!" She takes a deep breath, as if preparing for a long sentence. "Usually James's parents make him have this Christmas ball where he invites everyone from school, but he's managed to hold it off for a while because we were too young...but we're of age now so..."

"A ball? Really?" I ask while Lily gives an excited squeal. Katie nods.

"Well," Lily breathes. "We've got our work cut out for us, haven't we?" Lily then goes into her total fashion/shopping mode. She throws so many different dresses at me I can't even count them all-and even more for herself. Katie had gotten the white dress she had originally tried on, but it was taking Lily and I way longer to find our dresses. I end up choosing a beautiful turquoise dress that goes down to my knees and flares out at the bottom. It's not strapless but has two rather thick spaghetti straps on it. The whole dress is silk.

"It looks absolutely stunning!" Katie comments, but Lily doesn't say anything. Her eyes are darting back and forth between two dresses. One is a lovely winter green and the other is an olive green. They're both the same design-a long, summery dress that goes down to her calfs and has a long tail and is short in the front.

"What do you think girls?" Lily asks desperately, her eyes pleading. Katie and I both point to the winter green one and Lily sighs in relief. We all buy our dresses and head out, desperate to meet the boys. I gasp as a black shadow darts past me and with a 'whoosh!' hits the Quidditch shop window, shattering the glass. More shadows come and I can just make out James, Sirius, and Remus, who are pulling out their wands. The figures take the form of Death Eaters, who are wearing special masks to cover their faces. Lily, Katie and I all share a frightened look before darting into the battle. James, Sirius and Remus all stand back-to-back fighting a bunch of Death Eaters.

"Reducto!" I yell, causing the man James was fighting to fly backwards out of the shop. "Stupefy!" I yell at another one, and pretty soon I'm taking out Death Eaters one by one. Katie and I now go back-to-back, fighting more of the Death Eaters while the other people flee the shop. Chickens.

"Expelliarmus!" I yell, disarming a Death Eater. Before I can do anything else, though, he goes into his black shadow form and appears behind Lily. I'm about to yell something, but James beats me to it.

"LILY!" He calls, just as a Death Eater preforms a spell. He tries to push her out of the way, but gets hits with the spell while doing it. Blood starts poring from his torso. Lily is as white as a sheet as she stares down at James, who's fading into unconsciousness. I'm so distracted by what James just did that I don't notice a Death Eater advance on me. He yells some spell I've never heard before and I feel something wrap around my legs. I drop down like a stone.

LILY POV:

Why would James do that for me? Why would he sacrifice himself like that for me?

"J-James?" I ask, shaking him. He groans. "Oh, god, James!" I cry, tears spilling out from my eyes. I notice Rowan get knocked over by a spell, but I barely take note of it. All that matters is James. How could the boy who I hate so much, the boy who I'm a jerk to every time I see him, how could James Potter take a life-threatening curse like that for me? The battle goes on, but there's really only two Death Eaters left.

"Lils?" James asks faintly, his eyes opened just a crack.

"James?" I manage to choke out.

"It hurts..." I whimper again, for James's sake and immediately start using very advanced healing spells. I wanted to be a healer after Hogwarts, so I should get some practice in now, I guess. By the time I heal most of his wounds, the last Death Eater apparated out and the Aurors have arrived.

"Why would you do that, James?" I ask, tears still spilling. With much effort, he weakly wipes them away.

"Because-because I love you, Lily." And that's when I kiss him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

OMG THE ROMANCE! Sorry, I just had to put a Lily and James thing in there...but isn't that sweet? ASDFGHJKL!!!!

Okay, I'm good now.

So what did ya think? Cheesy? Amazing? Totally weird? Amazing? *cough* amazing *cough*

Jk jk jk lol

K peace out Potterheads!

-Plumi