an unexpected escape ; a james/lily drabble
An Unexpected Escape
RATING: PG-13.
PAIRING: James/Lily.
WARNINGS: Violence, blood.
SUMMARY: To escape one world, you must accept another. There is violence where she seeks solace.
DISCLAIMER: The Harry Potter series and its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am merely borrowing them.
Diagon Alley becomes her escape. She runs from her past, her present, what could be her future--she runs from her father's illness, from her mother's tears that Lily pretends not to see. She runs from her sister Petunia--her former best friend, who now can't even look her in the eye without contempt echoing back from every glance--and Petunia's terrible beau who was twice Lily's size and at least three times Petunia's. Lily hides in the corners of Flourish and Blott's turning page after page and drinking in the words of books, in the apothecary gathering tidbits of information from the shopkeep--she hides from herself and she blossoms into her own. It is just another afternoon amidst the shops and booths and she turns the page in Hogwarts, A History for the umpteenth time when she hears it--
--a shattering of glass, and suddenly screams echo across the cobblestone.
-----
"LILY, GET DOWN."
She tastes the metallic tang of blood from a cut inside her mouth as she crumples to the ground, her arm thrown in front of her face to shield herself from the shards of glass that rain down on them. She doesn't feel the pain that should be wracking her body and she wants to. She wants to take the pain away from the bodies strewn across the floor--she hears feeble moans and prays to the God she no longer believes in that they're alive. She winces at the sight of her own blood splattered across her shirt but she doesn't have time to care, doesn't think before she stands up to fight this fight of theirs. She sees some of her classmates around her--the Longbottoms had shoved Lily and the rest of them inside to keep them out of harm's way for a few more moments. Lily caught Alice's grim smile before she and Frank ran up the street, and everything else had been a blur.
There is a wand at her back and she Stuns the person without looking, hearing a satisfying thunk as the Death Eater falls to the ground. There is no time to tend to the injured and she braces herself, shooting spell after spell at the masked man in front of her. Something ricochets and she hears a cry and cursing but she doesn't have time to watch James Potter stumble backward--if she does, she'll die, they both will, all of them will be ghosts--and she sends a Stunning spell straight to his heart and watches as sparks fly when he falls.
Aurors are now streaming past the destroyed shop and Lily gasps for air, as though she had been holding her breath for the last hour. There is safety in numbers, she remembers dimly, as she turns around to find James sitting against the remains of the clerk's counter, soaked in blood and she can't tell if it's his own or someone else's, but there's a gash above his left eyebrow and blood is dripping down. His hand tries to stop the bleeding but she can see it's only getting worse; his hand slips and causes the blood to flow freely when it should start to clot.
She is no nurse, but she's seen her mother do this a thousand times. It doesn't look like a cursed wound, so she tears a strip off the hem of her shirt for a makeshift bandage, limping toward him. He tries to protest but she slaps at his hand and she sees his resolve weaken. "Hold still, Potter," she chastises, kneeling down and placing the fabric over his eye, wiping the blood from his cheek with her sleeve. There's a crack down one lens of his glasses and she mutters Reparo before he argues--they used to be at their best when they argued but even Lily couldn't play that game for so long--and she tears another strip of cloth, placing it over the other as his blood soaks through.
James watches her with his good eye and she doesn't want him to speak, but it's Potter and he never does as he's told. "Li--Evans, you're bleeding." She blinks once, twice before looking down at her arm. There is glass glittering in a deep cut and blood is slowly making its way down her pale skin, drip drip drip. She winces as the pain suddenly starts to take over and it feels like knives are slicing through her. She gasps and can't even manage to scream when her leg gives out, crumpling beside James.
"Episkey," she hears him whisper and she yelps as white-hot pain shoots through her body. She knows the bone is mending itself and she tries to murmur a thank you before she starts getting dizzy. Her mouth opens feebly and before she blacks out, she feels herself being lifted from the ground and hears James whispering. "Come on, Lily, we're going to Mungo's."
RATING: PG-13.
PAIRING: James/Lily.
WARNINGS: Violence, blood.
SUMMARY: To escape one world, you must accept another. There is violence where she seeks solace.
DISCLAIMER: The Harry Potter series and its characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am merely borrowing them.
Diagon Alley becomes her escape. She runs from her past, her present, what could be her future--she runs from her father's illness, from her mother's tears that Lily pretends not to see. She runs from her sister Petunia--her former best friend, who now can't even look her in the eye without contempt echoing back from every glance--and Petunia's terrible beau who was twice Lily's size and at least three times Petunia's. Lily hides in the corners of Flourish and Blott's turning page after page and drinking in the words of books, in the apothecary gathering tidbits of information from the shopkeep--she hides from herself and she blossoms into her own. It is just another afternoon amidst the shops and booths and she turns the page in Hogwarts, A History for the umpteenth time when she hears it--
--a shattering of glass, and suddenly screams echo across the cobblestone.
-----
"LILY, GET DOWN."
She tastes the metallic tang of blood from a cut inside her mouth as she crumples to the ground, her arm thrown in front of her face to shield herself from the shards of glass that rain down on them. She doesn't feel the pain that should be wracking her body and she wants to. She wants to take the pain away from the bodies strewn across the floor--she hears feeble moans and prays to the God she no longer believes in that they're alive. She winces at the sight of her own blood splattered across her shirt but she doesn't have time to care, doesn't think before she stands up to fight this fight of theirs. She sees some of her classmates around her--the Longbottoms had shoved Lily and the rest of them inside to keep them out of harm's way for a few more moments. Lily caught Alice's grim smile before she and Frank ran up the street, and everything else had been a blur.
There is a wand at her back and she Stuns the person without looking, hearing a satisfying thunk as the Death Eater falls to the ground. There is no time to tend to the injured and she braces herself, shooting spell after spell at the masked man in front of her. Something ricochets and she hears a cry and cursing but she doesn't have time to watch James Potter stumble backward--if she does, she'll die, they both will, all of them will be ghosts--and she sends a Stunning spell straight to his heart and watches as sparks fly when he falls.
Aurors are now streaming past the destroyed shop and Lily gasps for air, as though she had been holding her breath for the last hour. There is safety in numbers, she remembers dimly, as she turns around to find James sitting against the remains of the clerk's counter, soaked in blood and she can't tell if it's his own or someone else's, but there's a gash above his left eyebrow and blood is dripping down. His hand tries to stop the bleeding but she can see it's only getting worse; his hand slips and causes the blood to flow freely when it should start to clot.
She is no nurse, but she's seen her mother do this a thousand times. It doesn't look like a cursed wound, so she tears a strip off the hem of her shirt for a makeshift bandage, limping toward him. He tries to protest but she slaps at his hand and she sees his resolve weaken. "Hold still, Potter," she chastises, kneeling down and placing the fabric over his eye, wiping the blood from his cheek with her sleeve. There's a crack down one lens of his glasses and she mutters Reparo before he argues--they used to be at their best when they argued but even Lily couldn't play that game for so long--and she tears another strip of cloth, placing it over the other as his blood soaks through.
James watches her with his good eye and she doesn't want him to speak, but it's Potter and he never does as he's told. "Li--Evans, you're bleeding." She blinks once, twice before looking down at her arm. There is glass glittering in a deep cut and blood is slowly making its way down her pale skin, drip drip drip. She winces as the pain suddenly starts to take over and it feels like knives are slicing through her. She gasps and can't even manage to scream when her leg gives out, crumpling beside James.
"Episkey," she hears him whisper and she yelps as white-hot pain shoots through her body. She knows the bone is mending itself and she tries to murmur a thank you before she starts getting dizzy. Her mouth opens feebly and before she blacks out, she feels herself being lifted from the ground and hears James whispering. "Come on, Lily, we're going to Mungo's."