FINDING LOVE IN THE PAST
Chapter Nine
"John!" Lily shouted as
she and James knelt beside him. "Oh, my God, James. He’s bleeding!"
"He’s been stabbed!"
*****
John looked like he was in deep
pain. His skin was growing paler every second. Lily didn’t know if that was
from the loss of blood or the damp floor.
"Lily, give me something to
put on his cut."
Lily looked around. "Here.
Use my shawl." Lily gave the shawl to James, who used it to apply pressure
to John’s deep wound. "John, you’re going to be fine."
"Get out of here," John
said feebly.
"We’re not leaving
you," Lily said.
"No. Leave. Save
yourselves." His voice was getting quieter with every sentence. "Go.
Go up the stairs and…and try to find a way to the…lifeboats." When Lily
and James shook their heads in protest, he continued. "Promise me…both of
you. That you…won’t stay behind…because of me. You’ll leave…and get out of
here…alive."
"John, you’ll be fine."
"Promise."
James glanced at Lily, then
looked at John. "Fine. We promise."
John closed his eyes slowly, and
soon Lily and James couldn’t hear him breathing. Lily quickly put her fingers
to his neck and said, "Oh, my God. There’s no pulse." Tears started to
flow down her face.
They stood up. James took Lily in
his arms to comfort her. "Come on. We need to get out of here."
Lily opened her mouth to protest,
but noticed that the water was reaching her ankles. They ran back to the stairs
and walked up them carefully because of the seawater rushing down the stairs.
James held Lily to keep her from falling. They retraced their steps to Scotland
Road. James spotted a flight of stairs that they hadn’t noticed before.
"Lily, this way."
Lily took hold of James’ hand as
they ran up the stairs to find an empty room. They observed that no water had
reached this deck yet. There were stairs to their right. They were leading
down. "What should we do? This place is a labyrinth."
"We don’t have any other
choices," James said, looking at Lily. He wanted to tell her how he felt
about her.
"Let’s go," Lily said,
gripping James’ hand firmly. They ran down the stairway, hoping it would lead
them to a different place. "We’re in Scotland Road again! Are we in the Twilight
Zone?"
"Worse." They searched
the corridor frantically.
Lily shouted, "Over
there!" They ran down the passage and down another flight of stairs.
"This is a nightmare!" Lily said as she slipped on the flooding
floor. "It’s freezing!" They quickly searched through the endless
hallway. Splashing through the twists and turns of the flooding antechamber,
they found another staircase leading up.
When they reached the top of the
stairs, there was a gate blocking the way out. "This has got to be the way
out!" James said.
"It’s a relief to get out of
that water. It only came up a little past our ankles, but it was really icy! Is
it locked?"
James tried to open the gate.
"It’s locked." They began to shake the gate violently.
Lily glanced back and saw the
ice-cold seawater rushing up the steps. Lily shouted out, "Help, somebody!
Help, please!"
"Lily, this isn’t the time
to have a nervous breakdown."
"Well, then, stop acting so
calm," Lily said back. "I’m sorry. That was cruel."
"It’s okay. We’ll get
through this."
Lily screamed when the freezing
water reached their ankles. "James, what should we do?"
"I don’t know," James
said. "Lily, look at me." She faced him. He put his hands on her
face. She felt so cold. Her lips were turning purple and she was shivering.
"Lily, I want you to know that I’m sorry about earlier today, about Linda.
And that it’s not my fault…"
"I know. You don’t have to
apologize." The water was rapidly rising past their knees. Lily’s face was
getting paler.
"Listen. I need to say this
in case we don’t make it out of here." The freezing water was up to their
waists. "Lily, I…I love you."
Tears started to form in Lily’s
eyes. She wiped them away. The water level was halfway up to Lily’s shoulders.
"James, I love you, too." She looked around at the rising water.
"James! That’s it! Use your wand to unlock the gate. I can’t find
mine."
"Okay!" James began to
search his pockets for his wand, but he could only use one hand while the other
was holding onto the gate to keep his clothes from dragging him down. The water
was up to Lily’s shoulders now.
"James, hurry."
"I can’t find my wand
anywhere."
"Keep looking." The
water was now up to James’ shoulders and Lily’s neck. "Hurry!"
"Found it!" James said
a spell as fast as he could. "Parva magna!" The gate shot off the
hinges. The current pushed Lily and James through the opening and kept carrying
them down the hallway. They reached the dry part of the hallway. "How do
you get ‘blow up the gate’ from ‘I love you’. You all right?" James asked
as he helped Lily up when they got out of the rushing water and headed down a
hallway.
"I don’t know, but I’m fine,
just cold." Lily searched her pockets for her wand. She cast a drying
spell on herself while James did the same. "That’s better." They
looked around the beautifully decorated hallway. "Where are we?"
"My guess is second
class." James took Lily by the hand. "We have to get to a lifeboat
quickly. Let’s get going."
"Okay, but first, let me get
this straight. You love me?" Lily asked in an optimistic voice.
"Yes, I do. Surprised?"
James asked, smiling.
Lily blushed. That smile almost
made her knees collapse. "Yes. I mean, no. I don’t know."
James put his arms around her
waist and asked, "Well, what do you know?"
"I know that I love
you." Lily kissed James passionately for a second. They felt seawater
coming down the hallway.
"We’ll continue this later.
Let’s go to the boat deck." They ran down the seemingly endless hallway
until they reached a staircase leading upward. At the top of the stairs, there
was a sign that read, Second Class Stairs D-Deck.
Hogwarts
"Jacqueline, Remus,
April!" Sirius said as he reached them in the common room.
April stood up. "What is it?
What’s wrong?"
"Dumbledore wants to see us.
I think he might have found Lily and James," Sirius said quickly.
"Come on. Let’s go." With that, the four ran out of the room as fast
as they could and headed to Dumbledore’s office.
*****
"As Mr. Black might have
told you, we found Miss Evans and Mr. Potter," Professor Dumbledore said
to the group who was sitting in his office.
"Finally." Sirius
smiled. "Without James, we haven’t been able to play a decent prank on the
Slytherins."
Remus sighed. "He wasn’t
even gone a week."
Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"Please, let me finish. As I said, we found them, but I’m still trying to
find a way to bring them back from the past."
April sighed. "Are they
okay?"
Dumbledore looked away and said,
"Well, they are now."
"What’s that supposed to
mean?" the four asked in unison.
"Well, to make a long story
short, they’re on a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean."
"But shouldn’t they have
come back by now with the time turner?" Remus asked.
"They should have, which
means they must have lost it." Dumbledore crossed the room and added,
"Don’t worry. They’ll be fine."
1912
Lily said excitedly, "Now,
all we have to do is keep going up the staircase until we reach A-Deck."
James nodded and they took off running up the stairs. Soon, they saw signs as
they passed the different decks. C-Deck. B-Deck. A-Deck. "Look! We’re
here!"
"No, look. Another
stairwell. That should lead us to the boat deck." They ran up the stairs
to find two doors that led to the boat deck. "Finally."