"Holding hands?" Remus chided.
"It's a portkey," Severus said.
"Let's be glad it's his glove," Harry joked.
"All right then," Lily laughed. "Shall we get this comedy club underway? How close is it taking us?"
"We have to appear in the air," Severus answered. "Since we don't know exactly where the island will be."
Harry looked over the Nimbus he held. "Thanks for the loan, James."
"It's a bloody good broom, I better hope you'll pay me back some time."
They mounted and all joined hands on Severus' glove. "Thirty seconds," Severus said and the countdown started.
Twenty seconds.
Fifteen seconds.
"Good luck," Sirius said.
"Ten, nine –"
"Don't screw up, Moony," James called.
"– six, five, four –"
Harry was nervous. The lives of the people he had met over both his lives hung in the balance. Things would happen very quickly now.
"– two, one –"
From the cliffs of the Black estate, they were catapulted into the windy sea skies. Everything was dark and it was difficult to know up from down. Harry steadied his broom. "Everyone in one piece?"
"Lupin, here!" Remus called, falling in formation next to Harry.
"Present!" Lily said, doing the same.
"This is stupid!" Severus said, fighting his broom. "These bloody winds."
Eventually they all formed up against gale, and looked below. Harry could only pick up the glint of the waves. "I don't see anything," he said.
"You think it's like the tomb?" Lily asked.
"Let's get lower."
They went into a slow descent, the sound of the churning water raising in volume. Just as he was about to lose hope, bubbles appeared from beneath the waves. "Up!" Harry said, watching as the seas below turned to a bubbling maelstrom.
Moonlight glinted off the frothing mass. Water broke away to reveal a rising stone spire, unnatural, but not obviously man-made. Then tall pillars, unadorned but sleek among black rock looking oily in the dark of night. The island, when the waves stilled, was no more than the footprint of Hogwarts. All rock, and as they swooped lower, they saw the green tint of algae stuck to its outskirts.
"There's an opening at the base of the spire," Severus said.
"Yeah," said Harry, "let's do this."
As they lowered to the flat outcropping, the smell of the sea was rich in the air. Salty mist from the waves reached all the way to the higher part of the island. Lily walked over to one of the pillars standing defiantly nearly a hundred feet high. "No runes, no inscriptions or decorations."
"This place is eerie," Remus said.
"It's what we're looking for," Severus said.
The island felt lifeless, preserved in time. The stillness of it felt like a warning. Keldran had said it would be dangerous. Harry stepped forward and looked into the opening of the cave. There was a way down, coiling underneath the spire. A shiver went up Harry's spine.
"This is the last time we can turn back… I think." Harry said, peering into the void.
"Why would we?" Severus asked.
"Don't doubt us now, Harry, oh time traveller extraordinaire," Remus said. "We decided on this a long time ago."
"Lumos," Lily whispered. "If we wouldn't be scared now, there might be something wrong with us."
They took turns leading the way into the dark twisting cave, careful not to slip on the slick black stone only guided by their wand's light. It wasn't clear where they were going. Up and down were pointless notions in here, where the shapes of the walls and ceiling seemed to bend impossibly. They trudged on for what seemed like an eternity. A bend to the left opened into an impasse, and in the middle stood a dais of concentric circles.
They stepped on it, and the stone below produced a grinding noise. The outermost circle detached and slowly made its way down. Lower down four guides lined the walls, and the naked rock flowed into ancient carvings. Endless scenes of men and other things, praying, congregating, fighting, and the unmistakable depictions of a great black maw with silver eyes. The carvings changed, in style, in age. Harry was sure his companions thought the same thing: they were but the latest four to take up the fight against something that had existed since the dawn of man.
The elevator dais came to a stop in another room. They widened their lighting charms to see further, and uncovered a large cave over a hundred feet high. At the end stood four carved archways. They crossed the distance and saw more engravings above the stone gateways. Similarly to the elevator shaft, more had been added over time.
"Oh God," Lily cried.
"Don't tell me it's worse than I already feared," Remus said.
"I'm not sure. Those inscriptions, in the middle above the doors. It says… 'There can be no power without sacrifice.'"
Harry's stomach turned. Hadn't they sacrificed enough?
"Let's stop torturing ourselves," Severus sighed. "The gates are numbered."
"Right," Lily said. "The gates in the middle are one and two, the ones on the outside are three and four."
"What does the first one say?" Harry asked.
Lily lifted her light charm above the door. "Breath… spirit. I don't understand."
"I do," Remus said. "Read the rest."
"Toil, effort."
Severus stepped forward.
"The third one is… life. It's mine. How do I know that?"
"The last one?" Harry asked in a shaky voice.
Lily swallowed, and looked at him. "It says 'fate'."
Harry's mind flooded with flashes of memory. Men and women standing before the gate, stepping through it, just like he would. "Keldran said… We're attuned to these things."
"So..." Remus said. "Wish me luck?"
"Wish we could come with you," Lily said.
"You can't, but thanks."
Remus, with a smile back, walked through the spirit gate. They stood listening, but his steps faded quickly.
Severus conjured a bonfire with a snap of his fingers and they sat silently around it. A while later Lily took out a long container and four cups, and poured tea.
"You can sit together," Severus said from above his cup. "It makes me nervous seeing you apart nowadays."
Lily rolled her eyes and sat closer to Harry, who put his arm around her. "Did you see it too?" Harry asked. "The ones who came before us."
Severus nodded.
"Yes," said Lily, her head resting on Harry's shoulder. "They're never the same, all so different."
"I could see hatred in some of them," Severus said. "I wonder if that's why they failed, because they weren't united."
"I hope so," Harry said.
"What are you going to do, Sev, when this is over?" Lily asked.
"I wasn't kidding. I really do want an Order of Merlin."
"Going to see Helena again?" Harry asked.
"She said I'd get free tickets to her games," he said with a smile. "If you ask nicely I'll get you some too."
"I was thinking we would travel," Lily said. "See the world, you know."
"I was thinking the same," Harry said. "I might have told Dumbledore you wouldn't be back to Hogwarts next year."
"That much was obvious," Lily said. "I wonder how many more caves and treasures the world is hiding."
"Many, I'm sure," Severus said.
As time passed and worry grew, he held Lily more tightly. Severus closed his eyes as if his composure might grant Remus some assistance. The fire was refuelled. A shuffle came from the gate. Standing inside it was a bloodied Remus. Severus ran over to him and so did Harry. Cuts and bruises ran over his face and arms. It looked like he'd fought a troll bare-handed. They sat him down next to the fire and Severus took out a vial of dittany.
"Are you all right?" Severus asked.
"Bloody exhausted," Remus panted. "I won. I won..."
Remus lost consciousness. Luckily his wounds were mostly superficial, but he looked pale. He would need a blood replenishing potion once he woke up.
"We'll take care of him," Lily said. "It's your turn, Sev."
"Thanks. I'll be right back," Severus said. With light at his fingertips he entered the gate of toil.
"What kind of sadist designed this place?" Harry mused.
"We're strong enough," Lily said, dabbing a damp cloth on Remus' healing wounds. "We all get out of this alive. There's no other option."
"You're right."
Remus was treated. Lily's hand was shaking as he took it.
"I'm scared as well," she whispered.
Despite the fire, he felt cold, so he held her close. He didn't know if he should kiss her, as if doing that would say this was their last. Her face came closer to his, and she made the choice for him.
"It's going to be me next," Lily said. "I need you to believe in me."
"I do," he said, running a thumb over her knuckles. "What do you think happened in there?"
She didn't answer. Something told him what was beyond those gates was a secret just for them. Something too deep for even the best of friends to share. He wondered what he would find behind his gate, but more importantly what was beyond Lily's. The only thing that kept his fear from going out of control was the heat of her body against his. He felt terrible for wishing Severus to take his time.
Remus woke as they stoked the fire again. He checked his arms, the cuts now starting to scar over. "Severus is gone?"
"Yes," Harry answered.
"We can do this," he said. "I had my doubts when I went in alone, but… we're ready. We were always ready."
"What makes you say that?"
"You'll see when you pass. What's in there, it's not a test. What I got from it wasn't as important as what I realized. We're ready."
He sat up and stretched his arms. "How long was I out?"
"Not too long," Lily answered.
Remus finished his tea when Severus came back, seemingly unharmed. They all stood. Severus smiled. "Easy as pie."
Lily didn't look at Harry, but he could see the same emotion in her. Fear, doubt, the sense that any chance of losing each other was too crippling to consider. She needed him to be strong, so he stepped forward and put a hand on her arm. "You're stronger than all of us, I'll be there when you get back, we all will be."
She swished her wand alight at her side, went for the rightmost life gate, and stepped through. Harry never felt such a sense of loss seeing her leave. He collapsed near the fire. His teeth chattered and he was shaking, the cold was now all-encompassing. He could only stare ahead at the gate as his heart pounded in his chest.
"Hey." It was Remus. "You get to freak out for a while, but you're going to need to pull yourself together when she gets back. We're going to need all of us."
"T – T – Thanks," was all he could manage.
His nerves eventually calmed down. He drank some tea, which Lily had left. It helped. His mind was plagued by all the memories of not knowing her. "So what did you find?" he finally asked.
"I can ground it," Severus said. "It's all going to come down to an instant I imagine. That's what I got from my trial."
"Some kind of spell?"
"Yes. It wouldn't work without this," he said, waving his glove. "I assume that's not a coincidence."
"It isn't," Remus said. "If I wasn't cursed as a werewolf I might not have come out of there, or I might have come up empty-handed. This place was built for us."
"Are you still set on killing Keldran?" Harry asked.
"I – That doesn't matter any more."
"There can be no power without sacrifice," Severus echoed. "Was that yours?"
"I think it's best we not talk about that part."
Harry tried to busy his mind with going over the arsenal of spells that might be of use in the coming battle. He had a decent idea what he had to do. The spell had stood out to him ever since he saw it in Keldran's library. And he was reminded of Abraxas, and how the scales behind its crest were thinner. If Severus could ground it, and Remus could distract it… He was taken out of his thinking by Remus stoking the fire.
"So what are you going to do when this is over," he said, turning to him.
"Keldran's not the only one who deserves retribution," Remus said with a glint in his eye. "But that's for later."
"You like Melissa, don't you?"
"What, we talking girls now?" Remus chuckled.
Harry shrugged. "Sure. I don't know, I'm just talking."
"It's easy to use the curse I have as an excuse. Seeing you come out of nowhere and snatch away Lily? Shocked me into action maybe. And now I'm cured. I'll write to her."
Harry stood up and stretched. Maybe he expected to be shown something, a reassuring vision of what would happen once he passed that gate, or maybe a vision of Lily coming back safely. Nothing came, only the dripping of water into the cave's interspersed pools of water. He wasn't sure of what he saw at first, thinking he dreamt seeing Lily's outline in the archway. Relief washed over him as he saw her come out, limbs and all. He went over to her.
She seemed rattled, and he draped his arms over her. "Hey."
"Hey," she said, smiling weakly. Her eyes were red.
"What happened?"
They went back to the fire, it took a while for her to speak. "I can protect us now. Harry, you have to go."
"You've been crying," he said. Lily didn't cry for nothing. In all the time he'd known her the only tears he saw were out of sadness for her loved ones. What had she seen beyond that gate?
"It's going to work out. It's like I told you, there's no other option. And now it's your turn. Be brave, Harry. We're so close now."
She seemed determined, and he didn't have a choice. Ever since they entered the cave there was no turning back. All the pain and regret in the world wouldn't change that. If things truly were desperate or lost, that would be a worry for later.
"Okay." He took a deep breath, and looked once more over to his friends. He didn't find more words to say. Leaving the warmth and light of the fire for the cold glimmer of his wand, he walked over to the gate of fate. He took one step forward into the darkness, went on. A few steps in, as the gate behind him was out of sight, he felt his entire being being pulled through the width of a straw, and the terrible nausea he recognized from many months ago. How could this be happening to him now?
He landed on hard stone, dim light filling the hallways he knew so well. He instinctively searched for his wand, but he didn't find it. He must have dropped it while being pulled into that vortex. Voices came closer from behind the bend. He looked around disoriented and spotted a door behind him. He pushed it open and quickly closed it, leaning against it, trying to catch his breath.
"You're not supposed to –"
The disarming spell was shot from his fingertips in an instant and he turned around to find a familiar vine wood wand flung into his hand, one he used before. And beyond a desk filled with ingredients,stood a bewildered witch with brown bushy hair looking at him in shock.