Jily one shots

the stones that slowed at your feet

disclaimer: written by argledpenguin (found on tumblr)

THIS IS AN AU (dark james and lily's in the order)

Mrs. Pettigrew is distraught at the news that her son is dead.

Peter is killed in bed, and the sheets are soaked in his blood. He was tortured before his death; the fingers in his hand were broken, twisted at odd, sickening angles, and she gagged him. He wasn't allowed to scream when she tortured him, when she stabbed him, when she slit his throat.

She must've taken such sick, vindictive pleasure in his death.

James is sick after he stumbles from the room. But he'll make her regret it. Make her pay for it.

—

(Her cheeks are pink with sun, and her eyes are closed, but he isn't quiet when he climbs through the window to join her on the roof, and she smiles at the noise. "Hello, lovey," she says, and smoke curls from her lips at the words. She is on her back, her curls as bright as blood in the sun.

He stares at her. "I'm in love with you."

She opens her eyes lazily to look at him, rising onto her elbows, and her lips are quirked with amusement. "My darling, you've been in love with me since the moment you met me," she says.)

—

Mrs. Pettigrew is distraught at the news that her son is dead, and he tries to comfort her.

His own parents died before he was able to know them, to remember them. Honestly, their death isn't the worst tragedy in his life, and he doesn't miss them as much as he misses what he should've had, what was stolen from him. They died, and he was passed from relative to relative.

Always, he was a burden to the family that was left to him.

But he learned how to live with them, and he made a family for himself at Hogwarts.

When they lower Peter in the ground, he remembers the funeral that they had for his parents. He remembers when Marlene McKinnon was killed, when Frank Longbottom disappeared. He remembers the smoke that stung his eyes when he searched in the ruins for her, how the soot blackened his hands, how Sirius dragged him off at last.

He remembers, and he hates the Order.

They are a small, sadistic group, and they aren't easily found, aren't easily fought.

But Mrs. Pettigrew sobs against his shoulder, and the hatred is heavy in his stomach. He'll find them. He'll fight them. They are a shadow that is impossible to spy until death is left in their wake, but he isn't afraid. He is an Auror, and he is going to stop them. He is going to stop her.

He knows she killed Peter, has killed a hundred others. She is called the Butcher.

She is a plague on England.

He'll find her, and he'll take her to Snape. He is a slimy, sycophantic man, but his ability to torture the truth from a soul is notorious. She'll be made to give up the Order, and she'll be killed.

—

Inevitably, it isn't as simple as that. He is tasked with the hunt for her, and Sirius is to assist them, but they don't know where to start. Little is known about the Order, and they are able to strike without a warning. James traces the magic in Peter's flat in hopes that it'll point to who she might be, but it isn't like a magic he's encountered, and he doesn't know what to do with what he finds.

Two weeks in, a body is found in Diagon Alley.

It's clear that she was responsible; her touch is recognizable. But nobody saw the murder. Or her.