The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

So nice to see you again, Voldemort

Lily had never felt so foolish in all of her life. What an idiot she'd been!

A million and two different ways that the whole thing could've been handled went through her head. She could've demanded that Walburga wait while she go and get the locket. She could've had Walburga have Kreacher bring Regulus to the Evans's home. She could've refused to listen to the words Walburga was saying, could've denied ever having the locket, say that Snape was lying and she had never seen the locket at all. She could've got James. Or the Order. Or the Ministry. Or Dumbledore. She could've at least told her mother where she was going, or left a note, or sent an owl to Remus, or ---

But instead she'd acted impulsively on her desperate desire to see the locket - and Voldemort - destroyed.

And, honestly, a small part of her had wanted to believe Walburga - or perhaps did, the verdict was still out on the validity of Walburga's changed allegiance - because what if Sirius could have his mum back? What if the past could somehow be healed and maybe, just maybe, Sirius's family could be reunited?

There were no excuses for it, though. She'd acted stupidly, gotten herself into this mess, and there was no getting out of it now. She could feel the hot tears on her hairline as they ran rivers over her forehead as she hung upside down, her hair hanging down like a red curtain above her head.

Others had described the feeling of the crucio to her before, but Lily had never imagined it to be as awful as it was. It wasn't just the pain that wrecked through every nerve ending of her body when it was being held, but the longer the curse was executed, the more unhinged she felt in the mind. Things got fuzzy about the edge and she felt supremely disconnected from everything happening around her.

She saw Regulus Black when he came in the room, but she wasn't sure that she actually had spoken his name or if she'd just thought it in her mind. It was very easy to be brave and stand up against Voldemort in this state, she thought, and she finally understood James having said that death would've been a mercy. How he had managed to live for all that time being tortured like this... Lily felt a whole new respect for his strength, and a whole new hatred for Voldemort, for the things he had done to James.

Lily would've done anything to see James again. Anything at all.

The cruciatus was mental as much as it was physical. It made you feel and see all the things that you never ever wanted to see or feel. It made you hallucinate the most awful things. Like right now - as Voldemort held the curse on her steadily, his face ravaged with the hate and anger he felt, she thought that she saw James Potter there...

James had drawn his wand. "Bombarda!" he shouted, and the door exploded in a brilliant burst, sending wood flying inward, shards of the door spread all around the carpet of the library, and James stepped over it quickly, his wand at the ready, as Regulus, Voldemort, and Walburga looked up in surprise.

Voldemort grinned as he released Lily from the cruciatus and her body hung limply in the air before them, her eyes struggling to focus.

"James Potter! We meet again. You must excuse me, but I wasn't expecting you," Voldemort said.

James replied, "So nice to see you again, Voldemort." They were the exact words that Voldemort had said to James when he'd taken him away...

Voldemort hissed at this, his face turned into an awful sneer, and he raised his wand. "Cruico!"

"JAMES LOOK OUT!" Lily screamed.

"Silencio!" Walburga cried and Lily's shriek was cut off, though not before James had alreay cast his blocking charm.

"Protega Maxima!" James produced a flash of bright white light that blocked the curse and it rebounded and hit Regulus, who fell with a shout at his mother's feet. James felt bad, but there wasn't time to react. "Expelliarmus," he cried, waving his wand before Voldemort could react to the blocked curse.