We were waiting for the
Ministry guards to take Tom Riddle and escort him to Azkaban when
Voldemort decided to show how skilled he really was.

I was sitting on one of the
hard plastic Ministry chairs, drumming my fingers on my knee. I
looked over at Rachel, who was sitting beside me combing her hair
with her fingers. Her eyes met mine, and I let a sigh escape from my
lips. She was so beautiful.

Lily was looking at the door,
then Voldemort, then Dumbledore. Over and over again. She was
obviously nervous; we all were – but she seemed to sense something.
She narrowed her eyes when two guards came through the doors.

“We're here for Tom
Riddle,” the one on the left said. “To take him to Azkaban. You
have to stay here. We'll tell you when you're able to go back to
Hogwarts.” Dumbledore nodded.

“Very well. He's right
here,” he said. Voldemort gnashed his teeth at the guards when they
tried to grab him, so they just muttered a spell and guided Tom with
their wands.

We didn't know that Voldemort
was able to resist one of the three Unforgivable Curses until he did.

He thrashed around until he
fell on the floor. He rolled to Lily's feet and took her wand from
her handbag. She screamed and kicked him, but he didn't even flinch.
He jumped to his feet and killed the guards.

Dumbledore hopped from his
chair and muttered a spell. Voldemort dodged it easily and smiled –
though it didn't look anything like a smile, he was just stretching
his lips over his mouth.

He was no longer Professor
Delrid. He was Tom Riddle – Voldemort.

Lily head-butted Voldemort,
knowing that magic wouldn't work on him.

“Ah, you're clever, aren't
you, Miss Evans,” he hissed. “You would do well as a Death
Eater.” Lily's nose wrinkled.

“Never,” she said, and
punched him in the nose.

“I gave you a choice, you
chose the wrong one,” Voldemort said, and pointed his wand at Lily.
He was halfway through reciting the Killing Curse when Rachel ran in
front of her. Voldemort stopped abruptly.

“What do you think you're
doing?” he hissed.

“Helping my friend,”
Rachel responded.

“I could kill you easily,”
Voldemort said.

“So? I'd rather die than
have my friends die and live, knowing that they died and I could have
helped them live.” she said. Voldemort frowned, and lowered his
wand slightly.

“No, you don't,” he said.
“No human has that kind of love, kindness -”

“Sectumsumpra!”
Dumbledore shouted, pointing his wand at Voldemort. He fell to the
ground, wincing.

“Go get the Minister,”
Dumbledore said, pointing at Lily and I. He then looked at Rachel.
“You'll stay with me.” he said to her.

Lily and I ran out of the
room and through the halls to the Minister's office. We threw the
door open without knocking.

“Voldemort – killed –
guards -” Lily said, heaving. His eyes widened.

“What do you say?”

“Voldemort – killed –
the guards,” she repeated. “He's trying to kill others.” The
Minister leaped up from his seat and ran to the front of the desk.

“You're lying.”

“No time for that,
Minister,” I said. “Dumbledore and Rachel have got him for now,
but he'll be up soon.”

“Oh – oh my,” he said,
conjuring a Patronus and flicking his wand, causing the shadowy
figure to fly across the room and down the hall. “This is –
rather important.” He ran out of the office, leaving us alone in
the office.

Lily took a deep breath,
closing her eyes briefly, and ran her hands through her bright red
hair. “I've never been this scared,” she whispered.

“Me neither,” I
responded.

“I almost died,” she
said.

“Yep.”

“If it weren't for Rachel
-”

“I know.” Lily dropped
her hands to her sides and turned to me, staring into my eyes
determinedly.

“Remus,” she said, “if
I don't live -”

“You'll live,” I
responded. “We all will.”

“But if I don't, then I
want you – I want to tell James -” she rubbed her arms nervously.
“I want you to tell James that I really do love him, and that I'm
sorry that I had pretended to hate him for so long.” I smiled. I
knew it. I knew she loved him.

“But if I do live,” she
said quickly, “don't tell him. And no, I don't like him.” I
rolled my eyes.

“Right.” she smiled.

“Okay, okay, I do.” she
looked at her watch. “We should go see how Dumbledore and Rachel
are doing.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Let's
go.” We looked at each other and began running through the halls
again. Except, this time, we were running towards the danger.

Knowing that we could die.

And not being nearly as
scared as before.