Anthony Mills liked to think of himself as a reasonably clever man. He might have even gone so far as to call himself intelligent, or scholarly, or "smarter than you, her, and that guy over there pretending not to hear me", but he'd only used that last one once. Regardless of what he called himself, though, he was at least clever enough to realize that this was, by far, the stupidest thing he'd ever done.

He hurried past the darkened shop windows of Diagon Alley, cloak drawn tight over his head. This couldn't actually be happening to him, he decided. He was a well-behaved, upstanding citizen... going to meet secretly with a wanted criminal in the middle of the night. True, said criminal happened to be his oldest and dearest friend, but that wasn't the point. He found himself willing this whole night to be a bizarre fever dream. In a moment, he would blink and wake up to another pointless day of writing letters and fetching beverages for the higher-ups at the Ministry. He would even try to enjoy it, because at least he would be safe and uninteresting there. Would the Death Eaters bother hunting down and murdering the coffee slave? Not likely. And now he was knowingly giving them a reason to do so with every cautious step. This was such a bad idea...

He paused in front of what used to be his favourite ice cream parlour, now reduced to peeling paint and boarded-up windows. Why had Lucy wanted to meet him in a public place? He had no idea. She had always been a little too bold- perhaps it was just the Gryffindor in her. In any case, Anthony peered about nervously as he knocked on the cracked door. He needn't have worried, though: the Alley was nearly empty, and the few people who were there seemed to be in just as much of a hurry as he was. He couldn't blame them, really- war tended to put people on edge.

Not receiving an answer, he knocked again.

"Lucy!" he hissed. "It's me, I'm here!"

After a moment, he heard a faint reply from within the old shop: "State your name."

Anthony scoffed in irritation. "You know who it is, now open up. I swear if you don't I'll just turn around and le-"

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground several feet away, blasted backwards by the exploding door. He scrambled for his wand, fearing Death Eaters or worse. However, he had to pause in confusion as his best friend bounded out of the wreckage and stalked towards him, wand pointed threateningly at his chest. What was going on?

He felt her hand latch on to his cloak, and cowered away as his hood fell back and he caught the full force of Lucy's death glare. He wasn't quite sure how she did it, but it had terrified him since they were friends at Hogwarts. Even as he saw it, though, it melted away into wide eyes and a slackened jaw.

"Anthony?" He heard her cry out over the ringing in his ears. "It is Anthony! Damn it, what have I done now? Here, let's get inside."

Dimly, Anthony felt himself be pulled to his feet and –with Lucy's help- shuffled towards what was left of the shop. He was worried for a moment about passers-by, only to squint around and discover that they were the only two left on the street. The explosion must have sent the others running, but he was sure they'd be back with help. "Help" that would probably torture and murder him. Terrific. He should've just gone home while he still had the chance…

Safe for the moment in the abandoned shop, he turned on Lucy, who suddenly became very interested in the floor.

"What… the hell… was that?"

"I'm sorry!" she blurted, looking up at him with imploring brown eyes. "I asked who was there and heard 'You Know Who'! I panicked! It wasn't my fault!"

Anthony stared at her blankly, completely stunned into silence. After a few tense moments, he tried for a sentence: "I… you… door… really?"

Apparently, that didn't express just how hurt he was by the situation, because suddenly Lucy was laughing as if he were the funniest thing in the world.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Lucy smiled at her sulking friend. "I know it's probably hard to tell, but I'm glad you're here. For a while, I didn't think you'd come."

Anthony opened his mouth to protest, but Lucy cut him off with a shrug.

"'Course, I couldn't blame you if you didn't. It's hard for everyone these days, especially at the Ministry." She smiled a little sadly. "I'm sure the last thing you need is to be caught with a Mudblood fugitive."

Anthony grimaced at the offensive word, regretting his earlier thoughts and resenting Lucy for knowing him so well. "Well… I'm here now," he said simply, blinking the last of the spots from his eyes. "Care to tell me why?"

Lucy hesitated before continuing, which did nothing to reassure him about what he was doing.

"I need your help with the Resistance," she finally said, and Anthony was not surprised in the least.

The mysterious "Resistance" was Lucy's pride and joy, although they rarely spoke of it. He couldn't blame her for keeping it quiet, Anthony supposed. After all, it was the reason she was a wanted criminal. According to the official Ministry report he had skimmed after accidentally spilling coffee on it, it was nothing more than a few raging Muggleborns and sympathizers trying to rebel. It wasn't much different from the other rebel groups sprouting up each day, save for the fact that Lucy was fairly good at covering her tracks. The details of her secret organization remained, for the most part, secret.

Although, Anthony thought wryly, it wouldn't be secret for much longer if Lucy kept blowing up public buildings.

"What exactly do you need?" he asked, leaning against the one wall that was still fully intact.

Lucy sighed and Anthony braced himself for a long story. "You know the Ministry is really starting to crack down on Muggleborns. They've got that ridiculous registry now, among other things." She scowled, as if the very word gave her a bad taste. "Point is, some of the more… vocal members of the Resistance have been talking about infiltrating the Ministry to stop it."

Anthony looked at her incredulously. "But… but that's insane! You know that He practically owns the Ministry now! They won't make it through the front gates without running into Snatchers! Maybe even Death Eaters!"

"Some of them already have," Lucy said darkly. "A whole band of them ran off and got themselves caught last week. I think a few escaped, but…" She sighed. "Only one came back. He said there were others, but I haven't heard from them."

Anthony looked at her sadly, wishing that he was more of a comfort. "What do you want me to do?"

"Almost half the Resistance has been taken in by that registry. We can't do anything with recruit numbers this low. I need to know what's happened to the ones who were caught, but for that, we need people in the Ministry… which is where you come in."

Anthony had the strangest desire to laugh. "Luce, I'm the coffee boy." He said bitterly. "I don't hear about anything because no one knows I exist. Hell, your people broke into the damn Ministry, and I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me." Merlin, he hated his job.

"But that's just it!" Lucy said earnestly. "You've already got a reputation as that guy no one notices. If no one notices you, no one suspects you! And, really, who'd ever suspect the coffee boy, anyway?"

Anthony wasn't sure whether or not he should be insulted, but Lucy did have a point. In any case, this would give him a chance to show his idiotic superiors that he was much cleverer than they gave him credit for. (And much cleverer than them, of course, but that wasn't much of an accomplishment.) Besides, being a spy sounded much more interesting than what he usually did every day.

"Alright, Lucy, I'll help you." He paused before continuing. "But I can't promise I'll find anything. Even if I do, though... the news won't be good. If your people were caught, they're probably in prison now… or worse."

Lucy nodded curtly. "Oh, I know. But I'd still like to be sure. I need to know who I can count on if we have to-" She looked at him pointedly. "If we have to rescue some people."

Anthony smiled. "You make it sound like you want to break into Azkaban," he joked.

Lucy simply stared at him. His smile faded.

"You can't be serious-"

"Don't worry about that," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "Just look into the registry for me and find names and locations. I can take care of the rest."

Before Anthony had a chance to clarify if Lucy was actually that crazy or stupid, she had hugged him round the neck and marched out of the shop. He followed her as quickly as his shaky legs would allow.

"I wish I could tell you more, but I've already kept you too long," she said briskly. "Someone will have heard the explosion, so we should get out while it's still clear."

"Lucy!" Anthony called desperately from the doorway. "Please… just tell me what you're planning to do so I can talk you out of it!"

She paused and turned to face him. The grin on her face sent Anthony's heart plummeting into his stomach.

"Take care of yourself, Tony," she said pleasantly. "Start digging around in the registry… but try to be subtle about it, yeah? I'll get in touch with you soon."

And before he could even say goodbye, Lucy disapparated with a bang that rattled the shop windows.

He stood dumbly on the charred steps, glancing back and forth between the wrecked ice cream parlour and the site of Lucy's impressive exit.

If this was her idea of "subtle", she would need all the help she could get.

The sound of approaching shouts and footsteps jerked Anthony out of his reverie. Flinging his hood back over his head, he hurried back the way he came. The darkened street already made him nervous, but his thoughts only made things worse. He would try to do what little he could for Lucy and her Resistance, he decided; but the sinking in his stomach told him that it would take more than research and names if Lucy's plan –whatever it was- was meant to work.

But even as Anthony Mills disapparated and some very confused people discovered the smoldering remains of an ice cream parlour, the very things Lucy's plan needed were about to reveal themselves. One was shivering over a fading campfire, hoping for everything he was worth that he would find what he was looking for. The other was in the town just below him, fast asleep and blissfully unaware that this would be the last moment of peace she would have for a very long time.