“If you’re seeing this, it means that he has been defeated. I am glad, but I… I cannot stay with you. Like Lord Voldemort traded his humanity for immortality, I have traded my life for his death. Albus, Hagrid, Moony, Padfoot, I am sorry. I did something the Marauders would have been proud of.”
The projection of Lily coming from the blue crystal which was the only thing left besides ashes where the house once stood gave a sad smile.
“But… I know that I can trust you with rebuilding the country. Harry… I do not know if he is safe, but I dearly hope that he is.”
Dumbledore grit his teeth upon hearing that. He could not find any traces of the boy, he did not even know if he was dead. Hagrid and Lupin had similar reactions, each having an expression that would have been better suited for someone else in their little round. Remus just had a look in his eyes as if he was as old as Albus felt, and Hagrid had a look of fury on his face.
“To think tha’ bastard would go afta’ child!”
“Hagrid. We can’t change the past,” Lupin said, causing the half-giant to take a half-hearted swing at him.
“Take care, you all. Maybe, just maybe, this nightmare is over. You have been wonderful friends,” Lily said in the projection, tears falling from her eyes.
A second later, the crystal cut off.
“That’s it?”
“Y-yes. But… will you manage to defeat him?”
“Have a bit of faith, will you? You literally got me through a demon summoning ritual. Now that I think about it, where did you even learn that?”
“Faith in a demon. Heh… I guess there’s a first for everything,” she said, standing up and wiping the tears from her eyes.
“So… how does this work? Do you eat me? Or pull my soul out of my chest, or something like that?”
“Nothing of the like… you still have twelve minutes left, you know?”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked, blinking.
“That for twelve minutes, you will have the powers of a demon. I’ll remove your soul in turn, that way you can’t be killed easily, your magic will keep you alive and moving. More or less the only thing that could stop you is if you either get petrified completely or disintegrated.”
The cloud of smoke condensed into something that reminded Lily of herself, many years ago when she was attending Hogwarts. The girl standing in front of her had pearl white skin, black hair with a shot of blue that made it look like it was flowing ink, and a bunch of clothes that looked like they would be in ‘style’ in about three decades. She seemed about sixteen, but Lily was sure the being in front of her was actually many, many times older.
Her eyes, however, were pools of cyan, royal blue, and black; no white was to be found in them. They were completely different from Lily’s eyes, or from those of any human, for that matter.
“I’ll go up and take care of Harry. I will leave an illusion looking like him behind so that if he manages to kill you or fend you off for the little time you still have left, he will think he will attack a boy barely a year old when in reality he’ll set off the equivalent of a magic nuke. I want someone see withstand that.”
“Wouldn’t the fight be over quickly if you were to fight?”
“No, and for two reasons. One, I do not know how it feels to use magic in this world yet, so I should stick to subtler magics like illusion magic, and easy magic like just pooling so much in an area that it’ll flat out explode if poked. Two, I do not wish to reveal myself, in case he or another dark lord were to rise again. If I stay hidden, it makes it so much easier for me to find and evade dangers.”
“I see… still, this is far more than I could have hoped for.”
Then, Lily blinked.
“Wait! James could still be alive! If he’s still alive, can you save… him…” she said, trailing off as the girl(?) made a spirit materialize next to her which was undoubtedly James’ spirit. She couldn’t see any features on the spirit, but somehow, she just knew it was him.
She fell down, crying again.
“What are you saying?!”
“I want his soul as well. As long as you two are close, you are much more powerful than alone.”
“NEVER! He has nothing to do with this!”
“That may be true, but I shall warn you. It seems like you two are fated soulmates. What do you think will happen if only one of you gets born? I’m actually glad I discovered this before the summoning ritual got completed because this could have cost me (part of) my magic for violating a law of the same. But of course, if I get his soul, there needs to be something I have to offer in return.”
“Instead of being eternally bound to me, the moment I get reincarnated or well and truly die, your and your soulmate’s soul shall be returned to the circle of reincarnation. For souls, time is superficial, but for the beings they become, it is not. That way, you essentially have nothing to pay for my help.”
“How can I trust you?”
“I swear on my life, soul, and magic that I fully intend to do what I just said and will do everything in my power to make it happen.”
Lily knew why the girl(?) did not just said she would do it. After all, if something went wrong which she could not anticipate, she would be found guilty of falsely swearing upon her soul and magic.
But she guessed that this was infinitely better than the alternative – being bound eternally to this demon, not only damning herself but also her soulmate in turn.
Time resumed, and Lily found herself on the ground, blinking. She had forgotten that she had fallen over when summoning the demon. But there was something else.
She could feel a burning sensation in both her chest, where her heart was, and on her wrist, where she noticed her wristwatch had changed, now only having one intricate hand, which was very slowly turning around.
“Covering in fear. Just like you should.”
“Actually, I tripped,” Lily responded, standing up and turning around. She couldn’t see the demon anywhere nearby.
“I must admit, I am curious. I sensed a great amount of magic. Tell me, what did you do?”
“Are you afraid?” Lily asked, a smirk on her face.
“I am Lord Voldemort! I do not get afraid!”
“Then why do you not attack?” Lily asked in response, to which the dark wizard responded with his death curse.
It crashed straight into Lily’s chest, but nothing seemed to happen. The arm on the clock she wore, though, jumped a small bit ahead.
“Impossible! How are you not dead?”
“That’s a question I should be asking you in about a minute,” she responded confidently, raising her wand at him. It took naught but a thought before a jet of flames burst forth from her wand, nearly hitting the dark wizard in the head.
It seemed like experience would beat power, though, as the dark wizard countered or evaded Lily’s attacks while hitting her time and time again with his own spells.
Eventually, after about eight minutes of battle, he managed to knock her down, cast a petrification charm on her, and then buried her below conjured stones. She found that she could not move at all, but she still allowed herself a grin in the moment between her noticing the massive build-up of magic and being blown up by it.
“Gotcha,” she whispered, and that was the last thing she did before the magic destroyed her body.