Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

4 March, 1980 - Battlefield

How Lily was calm was a mystery to Lavinia. But she was. As they stood looking down at the valley from their little clearing, watching the giants dozing in the early afternoon sun and the wizards bunched in groups looking bored, Lily was calm. And Lavinia was not.

She'd decided within about five minutes that she hated this. She hated the waiting hated the peaceful scenery around her and the chirping birds and the snores of the giants. She hated that the whole world felt balanced on a knife edge. The calm before the storm. The moment before the blow landed.

She had felt this before.

It had been years since this awful waiting and now, all Lavinia could remember was the moments when her mother looked at her with that awful disappointment, the resignation that reminded her that this was necessary. That Lavinia deserved this. She had been so certain this was behind her. So certain she had run from this. What else had she failed to leave behind?

It was an effort, an terrible, painful effort, to draw herself back into the moment, to make her eyes and her thoughts focus on the world in front of her, on the birds and the trees and the giants. On anything other than the feeling in the air.

But this reality was not terribly pleasant either.

Down in the valley no one seemed to suspect a thing, which, Lavinia reminded herself, was a good thing. It gave the Order the element of surprise. Which was a good thing.

She had to keep telling herself this, had to keep reminding herself because if she didn't, she started wondering who those cloaked figures were. She couldn't make out faces from up here but... But did she know any of them? Was William down there? Or Thomas? Or Severus? How close was this going to get to those nightmares that kept her awake so often these days?

But of course, she was far away. She was going to stay far away. She was going to do nothing but save lives. Help people. She wasn't going to hurt anyone.

Lavinia was jerked from her thoughts by a sound like a fog horn echoing through the valley. It must have been a signal because next thing she knew, the Order members were sprinting from the trees even as the birds scattered from the sound. Each witch and wizard had their wands raised and was firing spells before either giants or Death Eaters had any chance to react and though Lavinia's heart was in her throat, her eyes searching out the familiar clothes of her friends, she couldn't help but feel a wave of relief. At least the waiting was over. Not that what remained was much good.

Two Death Eaters went down within seconds and one of the giants was hit in the eye with a curse that didn't seem quite powerful enough to take him out. He went staggering, people on both sides running to avoid his trampling feet.

For perhaps ten minutes, everything seemed to be going fine. Only one Order member came up to her, dripping blood from a nasty gash on his arm that he offered no explanation for. Lavinia simply disinfected it with one of her potions, healed it and was about to tell the wizard to take it easy, when he disapparated. Lavinia stared at the place where he had vanished, dumbstruck and realizing this was not going to be like her normal healing. These people wanted to fight. And a newly healed injury, which would undoubtedly still be tender and vulnerable was not going to stop them.

When Lavinia glanced at Lily, the redhead merely shrugged and returned her eyes to the battlefield below, one hand on her swollen belly and the other fiddling with a chain around her neck. Evidently Lily had expected this. Not that it mattered, she supposed. It was what it was at the end of the day and there wasn't much she could do about it. So Lavinia joined her friend, putting a hand on Lily's shoulder as much to comfort the other girl as to ground herself.

Down on the field, she could see Sirius, his long black hair tied up and his black leather jacket shining slightly in the sunlight. She watched with her heart in her throat as spells went whizzing past him but... but the Death Eaters were few in number and falling back. One of the giants was down, whether dead or stunned Lavinia didn't know. It looked... like they were winning.