Chapter Text
Chapter 12
Fight and Flight
The days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. The couple was caught in the bliss that was young love. They spent all of their spare time together, often in the room of requirement, or various empty classrooms, but on occasion, homework had to be done.
They both agreed to put the horcrux hunting off until a later date, and the discussion on whether to speak with the headmaster always ended with the two getting distracted rather than making a real decision.
The term was close to an end; the last exams were finishing up. There would be a last Hogsmeade weekend before the end of term. They had both happily passed their apparation tests the previous month. Lily and Severus were looking forward to a celebratory day, since they were both planning on getting jobs over the summer.
The June Saturday turned out to be sunny and warm, the perfect last weekend. The two held hands while waiting to be checked out from the list of students eligible for the Hogsmeade trip. The air was buzzing with anticipation for the summer holidays.
Lily wanted to stock up on sweets, while Severus maintained that he needed to look at a few books to have something to read over the summer. He had made a bit of pocket money by brewing potions for students that they wouldn’t want to get from the school mediwitch, such as sober-up, birth control, and wide-eye potions; which were always popular with OWL and NEWT students near exams.
He was happy to find he had enough money for the book he wanted, a decent pair of robes for job hunting, and enough left to treat Lily to a butterbeer. The pair was heading to the three broomsticks when they heard a commotion. Severus instinctively drew his wand, pulling Lily closer to himself, as the screams drew nearer.
“We need to get back to the castle, Lily.” He whispered.
“Severus, I’m a prefect! If there is a problem, I need to make sure the younger students are safe!” Lily cried.
“Gryffindors,” he muttered under his breath. “Fine, but we are not going to do anything stupid!” He growled. “Please remember that you are a potential target, as well as one of only two people who knows how to end this war.” She nodded her reply, drawing her own wand and moving toward a group of scared third years.
They instructed the younger students to stay together and behind them, telling them to hide if they saw anyone suspicious, and slowly headed towards the edge of the village. Before they made it out, they saw Potter, Black, and Lupin, caught up fighting two wizards in black with masks. Lily told the younger students to keep back, before following Severus towards the fight.
The marauders were managing to hold their ground, but the death eaters seemed to be getting more vicious. Black managed to hit one of them with a knock-back jinx but stopped to cheer, and the other disarmed him. Lily and Severus got there just in time to see him get hit with a crucio, jumping into the fight to try and stop it.
Lily threw a shield charm around herself and Severus, while Severus sent a body bind at the disarmed death eater. Potter and Lupin seemed to realize that the fight was still going after being distracted by the cries of their friend, and both sent jinxes towards the other death eater at the same time. Potters cutting curse and Lupins knock-back jinx were more than the death eater could handle. He fell back, realizing he was outnumbered, cast a finite to remove the body bind from his mate, and they both disapparated.
Lupin and Potter ran to Black; Pettigrew appeared out of seemingly nowhere to help them. Lily and Severus looked around, but the conflict seemed to have ended. The teachers that chaperoned during outings had started to group the students to get them back to the safety of the school. Severus put his arms around Lily, glad that this was only a small conflict.
“Remus, have you got Black, or do you need help?”, Lily’s asked in a shaky voice.
“We’ll be fine getting him to Pomfrey, you can go help the teachers,” her fellow prefect reassured her.
Lily and Severus made sure all the younger students they had grouped earlier were still there, before walking towards Hagrid, who was leading a large group of students back towards the castle gates.
“Everyone needs to make sure you check in with Filch when we get inside the grounds, and then Professor McGonagall wants everyone to go to their own common rooms so the heads of house can make sure everyone is accounted for,” the half giant boomed.
Lily sighed, knowing it would be hours before she and Severus could talk in private. “Meet me in our spot after dinner,” she whispered. She gave Severus a quick kiss, before they had to split off.
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It ended up being after breakfast the next morning before the two could get away, Dumbledore kept the castle on lockdown all evening, so dinner had been served in the common rooms.
By morning, the word had spread that 4th year Ravenclaw, Eliza Moon, had been killed. Lily all but threw herself into Severus’s arms, knowing that he had been scared for her, but needing his comfort after the shock of everything wore off.
“Do you think we could have prevented it?” Lily asked, needing to voice the thing she had spent all night wondering. “We have the books, and we waited to do anything about it.”
Severus tightened his hold of her before he responded. “What could we have done? Eliza Moon was Minister Minchums’s niece, which automatically put a target on her back. Do you think we could have destroyed all the Horcruxes and beat the Dark Lord in the past year?” His voice was firm, but soothing.
“If I had told Headmaster Dumbledore right away, maybe he could have done something,” she bemoaned, crying now.
“Or maybe he would have thought you crazy, or that someone was playing an elaborate prank, that is just as likely.” Her boyfriend countered. “There was nothing in the books to indicate such an attack, correct?”
She swiped tears. “There wasn’t. I know in my head that I probably couldn’t do anything, but I still feel like I should have. I can’t sit by while this happens again, Sev. Too many good people will die.”
Severus kissed her gently, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I know,” he said. “I think it’s time to go to Dumbledore. I’m still not sure I trust him completely, but it seems like our best shot.”
They sat on the sofa a while, planning on how to approach the headmaster and what they should say. In the end, they decided that Lily would ask Professor McGonagall if she could speak with him, being that she was a prefect and the deputy head was her head of house.
**********
Professor McGonagall was hesitant to speak to Dumbledore on their behalf, but she finally said she would let him know that they had information may help the war efforts. It would be up to him to decide if he wanted to speak with them.
Of course, the headmaster was curious as to what information two barely of age students could have about the war that he didn’t, so he sent a note to them both the next morning, asking them to visit his office Monday afternoon, before the leaving feast. Classes had been planned to let out the next Friday, but after the Hogsmeade attack parents were anxious to have their children home.
Severus and Lily met after their last class for the year, then marched to the headmaster's office, hand in hand. Lily gave the password, “Jelly baby”, and they took the moving spiral stairs up to the office.
“Lemon drop?” The headmaster predictably offered.
“Er, no, thank you,” Lily answered nervously.
“Very well, what did you wish to speak to me about?” Dumbledore asked them as he leaned back in his chair, his twinkling blue eyes and grandfatherly smile giving Lily an anxious flopping in her stomach. Severus noticed her unease and squeezed her hand in support.
She drew a deep breath, “We have information about Tom Riddle,” she let the words rush out quickly, before she could back out.
Dumbledore was clearly shocked, letting his surprise show for only a moment before re-schooling his face, no longer relaxing but sitting straight up in his chair. “Oh?” He said after searching both of their faces. “What do you know?”
The next hour or so was spent in explanation. Lily told him about the books arriving at her house nearly a year ago, that she thought they must have been a prank but later found too much about them to be true to believe them anything but from the future.
Severus told him about the horcruxes. Lily informed the headmaster that she had been working on the locations for all the horcruxes but was uncertain on a few of them, as well as not having a means of destruction for them.
They had decided not to tell him about other timeline’s Severus being a spy unless they felt they had to for credibility. They were both worried that Dumbledore would ask him to be a spy again if he knew, and they agreed that it would be dangerous, if not disastrous.
“I admit, this does sound like much of this information may be relevant, I do wonder though how you both became so convinced about this?” Dumbledore asked.
The couple looked at each other, then Lily answered. “I became truly convinced when some personal details were shared in the books by the future version of Severus. He shared things about our childhood memories and conversations that only the two of us could have known. I knew he wouldn’t have told anyone outside of a life and death situation.”
“I see,” the older wizard said. “And forgive me for asking, Mr. Snape, but I thought last year that you were planning on joining Tom’s followers. Have you decided differently?” Severus bristled but knew it was a fair question.
“I hadn’t made up my mind, but I admit that I was heading in that direction. However, Lily has been talking to me and trying to listen to my side. I in turn listened to her side. I realized that You-know-who and his followers don’t really care about wixen. They only want power, at the cost of anyone who gets in their way. When I stopped long enough to consider the real consequences of their actions, I realized I could never live in that world. I have told my contacts that I am no longer interested in joining them. I am ready to fight against him.” The young man was calm and collected while speaking, even though he was ready to choke back tears.
“Good,” the headmaster smiled. “You both wish to help with this horcrux hunt?” He asked.
“Yes,” came the answer from both.
“Alright, why don’t you put together the information you think I need to see, and I will come to see you at your house next week, Lily? I was planning on placing protections on the homes of all muggleborn students over the summer anyway; no one will even know I have another reason to be there. Now, I believe we have a feast to get to. Shall we?”