Lil stopped in the doorway and took a good look around. Debi had asked her to pick up an order from that lovely girl Padma, and she'd arrived just as Padma ran out the door. She'd felt compelled to follow, and when Padma disappeared she'd felt equally compelled to apparate back to London and find this room, no matter what.
She stared at the billowing curtain (that was the Veil? It had looked so much more formidable in pictures!) and the battle. She'd never been much of a fighter, even when she was young, and unless Debi or Zach was here she really needed to -
A flash of light from the corner caught her eye, and she turned to see a smallish man take a curse that was headed directly for Padma. She dashed forward as the smallish man toppled backwards.
"Get out of my way! They're mine, you Muggle bitch!" There was a nasty gleam in the attacker's eye. Lil curled her lip and wished that she had a Time Turner and could give this one a good, hard, ticking off.
"Your manners are atrocious! Didn't anyone tell you to respect your elders?" She snapped her wrist in his direction, and his eyes widened for a second before the stunning spelled knocked him cold.
Lil waited for a minute to make sure he was really unconscious before she turned back to Padma. The poor child clearly wasn't much more of a fighter than Lil herself, and the sooner Lil could get her to St. Mungo's, the better.
She knelt to scoop the unconscious girl up in her arm and froze as she recognized the little man. It was the one Debi had called Elias - and if the shattered mask was any guide, he'd pretended to be her friend and then tried to kill her.
"I should let you rot, what you tried to do to my Debi and her baby - "
He groaned slightly, and she remembered him throwing himself in front of the curse before it could hit Padma. What was wrong with him? Was he good or evil? A split personality? Or what?
She reached out to take his hand and concentrated. "You have no idea how lucky you are, young man, not that I'm responsible if Zach and Hawkins are on duty - "