IF THEY LIVED (Harry Potter)

26|CAN TODAY END ALREADY?

"You shall speak now," Voldemort said calmly.

"I don't want to," Lily blurted out as she sat up. Voldemort stood up again and circled around her bed. She was taking deep breaths  and tried to focus entirely on her breathing. She knew what was happening to her. "Veritaserum," she heard Slughorn say, "is a very powerful potion, a very advanced potion and an extremely dangerous potion. It will force its consumer to speak nothing but the truth and the truth only."

She has to stay focused, she has to block his voice, for James, for Harry, she must not give in to her urges. Does she actually know their location? Whatever she says won't actually be the truth, but just her predictions. She has to stay focused, look at the one dot in front of you, focus on the window, focus on the plant in front of it, focus on its flower on its red flower. Focus only on that, don't listen, don't feel-

her train of thought was stopped and thrown of its tracks by a burning sensation spreading from her skin towards her bones, twisting her bones and taking her breath away. She looked up as the pain stopped. All the neighbouring  beds were now pushed against the wall and Voldemort was standing in the middle of the room, his black robes taking over the white floor. He was pointing his wand at her.

"No Lily dear," he said, "you will have to listen to me in order for us to make this work."

Lily tried looking away, but just as she did, she felt her body rising off the bed and floating towards the most dangerous wizard in the world. She stared at him: at his cold eyes, at his wand pointed at her and at his free arm powerfully and slowly rotating in her direction. And in the next second her body got taken over by gravity again. She fell on the floor and as she tried to get up the previously used ropes travelled towards her hands - tying her to the bed.

"You do not look away from your lord Lily," Voldemort scold her, "we can be here as long as you want and you will not be able to fight it forever. I can assure you that."

Lily helplessly stared at him, trying to get her mind into a blank space again, trying to get her ears to stop working and her voice to get lost in her body, so it wouldn't be able to find her mouth.  She begged for somebody to come in and hit him over the head with a baseball bat.

"Now I will ask you a very simple question," he said and Lily braced herself, "where-"

"MIRIUM!" a voice interrupted him, "MIRIUM, WAKE UP!"

Voldemort's spine straightened as he looked towards the door.

***

Sirius jolted awake, as a heartbreaking scream took over the room. He sat up with his wand in his hand. He looked at his best friend who was also awake, looking around the corridor.

"HELP!" cried the voice again, "SOMEBODY HELP!"

Sirius staggered to his feet and sprinted across the corridor to the source of the voice. He entered the room and almost lost his balance as he saw Lily's healer lying on the floor, motionless, dead. Another healer kneeling next to her, shaking her, asking her to wake up. Sirius stared at Miriam's face, at her wide open eyes, parted lips and no sign of a possible struggle. His stomach slowly twisted as he backed out of the room, his wand raised. This was not her time. This was not her body giving in. This was another human beings work. He turned to Remus, who recognized the horror on Sirius' face. He looked at the closed door, separating  them from Lily.

"LILY!" Remus yelled and charged towards the door, almost jumping on the doorknob. Sirius followed him. Remus tightened his grip around the doorknob and tried to open the door, but couldn't. Sirius pushed Remus away in a panic and also tried forcing the door open.