Deja Vu (day 17 Moody March Contemptuous)
Deja Vu
"Run, Lily, I'll cover you," Sirius Black shouted and Lily didn't argue.
Their mission was supposed to be a dud, pretend to be a loving couple out for drinks. The barman had looked through them, his face bland and uninterested. Still, they had ordered their shots of Firewhisky and sat at a table. Well, he was clearly imperiused for the Death Eaters had shown up before they could have so much as a sip of their drinks. Ill-timed bastards.
They hid under the table for a while, the chaos of the full-out brawl shielding them more than the wood. Until an explosion set most of the bar on fire and they were forced to move out.
Apparition was impossible.
Lily sucked in a breath as she saw six hooded figures working to take out drunk wizards and witches one by one. They worked systematically. As if they were looking for something specific.
That's when she realised, "They’re looking for us. Someone told them we'd be here."
Sirius cursed out loud and threw a complicated series of hexes that forced three of them to leave their positions. He pushed her out of their hiding place and told her to run, so that's what she did.
A flash of orange brushed her hair. It singed. She ducked her head and looked in the direction of her attacker. Stupid, stupid stupid. Another blast of orange hit her, pain exploding in her shoulder and arm. She almost lost her footing, but recovered with help of a lone bar stool still upright in the room. Sirius dragged her along and they somehow made it through a backdoor, through the kitchen. Around them things were still exploding. Thick smoke billowed in the kitchen, at least it was hard to see where they had gone.
Outside, Lily sagged against Sirius, her back against the wall. It was completely dark out. But they knew better than to make a wrong move. Someone was probably watching. The pain kept her breaths short and shallow. "I don't know what hit me, but it bloody hurts and I can't run."
Sirius didn't answer, he was mumbling spells, they needed a shield. She gripped her wand and conjured one as well as she could. Everywhere around the pub was much to open for them to just run. It would be too easy to pick them off from a safe distance.
"Sirius, If I don't make it out of here, I want you to do something for me."
Sirius scoffed and gave her a contemptuous look. "I won't leave you here, Evans. We're either both getting out or we go together, like ra ma la ma la ma something."
"Black," she said through clenched teeth. "Quit joking. I'm serious here, I need you to tell James—"
A tree to their left burst into flames.
"Quiet Evans, someone is out there. I need to see...where...the...Ah," Sirius had never stopped moving his wand about, like he was weaving a web, which Lily thought, he probably was. She sighed.
"Okay... that bastard is going down, then we have to run. Can you do that?"
"Sure, I'll race you," she said.
Grey eyes flashed over her face. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you."
She rolled her eyes but made an attempt to stand nevertheless. How she managed, Lily couldn’t say, but likely it was the thought that she hadn't told Sirius so she couldn’t very well die just yet.
A flock of hundreds of big black crows appeared out of thin air, Lily noticed the sweat rolling of Sirius's forehead. When she looked around again the birds were everywhere. Some flew inside, some flocked to the wizard who'd set the tree on fire, and groups of them flapped around wildly, moving away from the house. One of those groups shielded Lily and Sirius from prying eyes. Their walk was not fast, in fact she was crawling more than running, but they no one seemed to follow them and they weren’t hit by more cursed, so she just kept going.
They were almost fifty meters away from the pub and Lily felt far too vulnerable out here in the open street. The crows made them stand out instead of providing an effective disguise.
"Let's try from here," Sirius said and took her hand. With a loud crack they were gone.
She landed on her arse, Sirius as usual stood straight and unperturbed, as if they hadn't just barely escaped with their lives intact.
She felt her legs give out when she tried to stand up and the next thing she knew Sirius had lifted her in his arms and was carrying her to the safe house.
“So you were saying,” he said, “I need to tell James what?”
She scoffed. “Didn’t you hear me, I said if I didn’t make it out. We are safe now so…”
“So you’ll tell him yourself?”
Lily opened her mouth and closed it.
“Sirius, Li—, Evans! What the hell happened?” in another example of perfectly ill-timing, James Potter rushed towards them, Lily’s stomach did a strange swooping thing.
“Oh hi James, Evans was just about to tell me something, something that she asked me to tell you...”
Lily squeeked.
Sirius glared at James. “…Which gave me a very strong sense of Deja Vu.”
James turned red.
“Because, remind me, Prongs, was it our last mission or the one before that, that you asked me to tell Evans something important, in case you wouldn’t make it out…”