You Stole My Heart

By Hazelmist

Summary: Prongs is the leader of the magical world's most notorious band of thieves: the Marauders. Lily Evans is the Auror-in-training that's been tasked with bringing him in. She's not exactly thrilled with her impossible assignment, especially when her partner Frank Longbottom accidentally resurrects her darkest secret, thrusting her right back into the Marauder's path and into the arms of her ex-lover: the man who betrayed her.

A/N: Hey guys I'm BACK with another L/J story. This one's going to be AU and very different from I'll Fight For You but there will be plenty of L/J action and there will be Alice/Frank as well. Warning: The first chapter is dark and takes place in the past, the next chapter will fast forward to the present and will be more familiar and not so dark, but like the prologue of I'll Fight For You it's important.

It was a quiet evening in the park. The night was cold enough that the usual homeless inhabitants had been driven into shelters and warmer doorways, while the rowdy juvenile delinquents had gone home hours ago, leaving a few less broken bottles in their wake. Even the late commuters that usually cut through the park on their way home had splurged on cabs just to escape the biting chill of the first official night of winter.

The silence was shattered by a loud ear-splitting crack as a young girl suddenly materialized out of thin air. Shivering, she looked around. The park appeared to be deserted but she shied away from the littered picnic table and stained park benches, ducking into the more wooded area. She felt safer here, well out of the path of any drunken muggle teenager. Diversion and invisibility charms were the first ones she had mastered after the fatherly Fox had taken her in, but old habits died hard, no matter how many times Fox or one of his crew reassured her that she was safe with them and that she could forget her past life.

She still couldn't believe how much her life had changed. Less than six months ago she had been miserable, starving and alone in London, and now not only had Fox given her a place to stay and a steady income, but he had saved her life by making her a member of his motley crew that was more of a family than her own flesh and blood that had cruelly rejected her at the first sign of her magical abilities. He had taught her everything he could so that she could flourish into the skilled witch she was supposed to be. And tonight, he was finally giving her the opportunity to prove herself worthy of everything he'd done for her.

She decided right then and there that she didn't give a damn what that pig-headed Prongs thought about her lack of experience. She was going to make Fox proud tonight and if she showed up stuck-up, condescending and doubtful Prongs in the process, so much the better.

"Tiger, can you read me?" Moony's voice crackled in her ear all the way from their headquarters miles away in the heart of London. Tiger pushed up her sleeve, bringing the enchanted wrist band to her lips.

"Copy that," she whispered.

"Good. Stay put. Wormtail?" Around her Tiger heard the others quietly checking in with Moony. It would be at least another two hours before they could start but after what happened the last time Moony wasn't taking any chances. She eased herself into a more comfortable position on the ground, preparing herself for a long wait in the cold. She knew that a simple heating charm could take care of the chill, but Fox and Moony had both agreed that the less enchantments they used the better.

"Tiger," Moony's voice was back in her ear again. "Prongs is on the move."

"Brilliant," she told her wrist. Moony sighed and lowered his voice, "I know I don't have to tell you this but don't get sidetracked again."

"I'm not going to distract him!" she snapped.

"I'm not worried about him."

Tiger was glad that Moony couldn't see the way she blushed in the darkness. It was hard to shoot a glare at someone who wasn't physically present. She activated the speech spell again, growling, "I'll try not to kill him until after we're done."

"Excellent, but you're finding me a new thief," Moony chuckled, switching off just as Tiger heard a rustling sound in the brush behind her. She spun around so quickly that she almost got speared by an antler. Biting back a string of curses, Tiger squeezed her eyes shut and counted backwards. It didn't calm her down, but when she opened her eyes the wild stag was gone and an equally dangerous young man was crouched in its place.

"Prongs," she said, nodding.

"Tiger." He grinned, tipping an imaginary hat to her.

"You know I hate it when you sneak up on me like that."

"Which is precisely why I do it," he reminded her, his hazel eyes twinkling mischievously behind his glasses. Tiger huffed and wrapped her arms around herself so he couldn't possibly see the way her heart was still trying to jump out of her chest. Tiger had only been working with the Marauders for a few months but she still wasn't quite immune to Prong's charms. Of course after what happened the last time...

As if he knew exactly what she was thinking, Prongs reached out to her. Tiger automatically gravitated toward him, her face tilting upwards. Her eyes fluttered shut as his calloused hand brushed over her face, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Got it," he whispered.

"What?" Tiger's eyes snapped open and she blinked. Prongs was grinning at her and twirling something between his fingers.

"You had a leaf in your hair," he explained, closing his hand. When he opened it there was a flower in its place. Tiger's breath caught, but Moony's warning echoed in her ear. No distractions. Not this time.

"No magic unless it's absolutely necessary. You could interfere with the wards," she chided him, shaking her head. Her words though were lost on both of them, as he carefully tucked the tiger lily behind her ear.

"I think It's a little too late for that warning," he said, smiling as he drank in the sight of her with the flower in her hair. "You've already cast a spell on me."

Tiger should've laughed at him. The pickup line was dreadfully overused by wizards. But there was nothing funny about the way he was coming closer and closer and closer…

Crap, she knew exactly where this was headed. She pressed a hand to his chest, trying to create a barrier between them. But despite the layers of clothing that separated them, she could feel the warm rock solid chest underneath it all. Instead of pushing him away, she was pulling him toward her.

"This is a bad idea," Tiger whispered to his cloak as she fought against the pull of his cologne.

"Probably," he agreed. "But we've got hours before Moony gives us the green light and you're already freezing." She couldn't deny it. She was losing feeling in her fingertips and she was starting to tremble. He slid his arms around her, pulling her tight against his chest. The warmth of his body bled through his clothing, enveloping her at once.

Tiger closed her eyes, nearly whimpering as her body automatically responded to him. She let him hold her and rub his hands up and down her arms and back. Two minutes, she told herself even as she allowed her body to meld with his much warmer one. Two minutes and then I'll be warm and we can get back to business and our strictly professional relationship were Tiger's last thoughts before Prongs slid his hand up to her cheek and kissed her.

So much for avoiding distractions…

"Tiger?!"

The crackling at her wrist broke them apart again. Tiger fell back against the trunk of the tree, breathing raggedly. It hadn't been two whole hours, but the length of time that had passed shocked her. It felt like only a few minutes had gone by, but whenever she was with Prongs time seemed to fly. Still trembling, she rolled back her sleeve and activated the speech spell embedded in her watch.

"I'm here. Checking in."

"Alright?" Moony, back in headquarters asked. Even here, miles away, she could hear the trace of concern in his voice and no doubt amusement. He had probably already guessed what had happened, despite his half-hearted warnings against that particular kind of distraction.

"Everything's fine," she informed him, blushing and avoiding looking at the boy beside her at all costs. She heard Prongs checking in with Moony, and then Moony's voice faded to a low rumble as he checked in with the others. In fact everything seemed to be fading into the background, except for the handsome young man that loomed over her.

"Ready?" His breath warmed her face but the intensity of his hazel eyed gaze nearly burned her. She knew that he uncomfortable with her running point with him on this assignment, but Padfoot was forced to lie low until he recovered from their last assignment, and their boss Fox had been wary about contacting one of their usual contractors after what happened to the last one. Of course, she had been trained and had participated in many of their jobs, but nothing had ever compared to the scale and skill required for this one.

"You can still back out now," he urged her. "I've got Moony in my ear and Fox, Wormtail, and Mongoose on the ground."

Tiger remembered how when the others had first suggested the idea, Prongs had fought it, insisting that Moony would be the more experienced option or even a contractor. But Fox was their boss and had ultimately made the final decision, telling Prongs that Tiger was just as good as the rest of them. Prongs had been furious, but he respected Fox too much to go against him. He had trained her thoroughly and had her go through the exercises over and over again. Even if he had grudgingly come to accept that she had perfected the routine, he had treated her coldly and kept his distance, until tonight. When they arrived on site the cold demeanor had vanished, and instead, not only had he been his usual mischievous self but he had drawn her into the circle of his arms and kissed her like that. Poor Tiger, was still trying to catch her breath.

Now, she wondered if it had all been a distraction and one last effort to persuade her to change her mind. If it had been, it hadn't worked. She was more determined than ever to prove that she was a worthy member of this gang. She wanted to impress Fox, the others, and especially Prongs.

"I'm ready," she told him, lifting her chin defiantly. He sighed and swore under his breath. Reaching for her hand, their fingers laced together for the last time. Tiger had only a moment to close her eyes before he apparated them.

CRACK!

Tiger opened her eyes again and the park was gone. Instead a mansion rose up before her like a pale full moon rising in the night sky. She had studied the pictures many times, but it was so much bigger and beautiful in real life. Hundreds of stained glass windows looked down the stories above her and the Greek columns that lined the front seemed to go on for miles. She craned her head back to see glittering turrets reached so high that Tiger thought that if she could only climb to the top she might be able to touch the stars. It took her breath away.

"Remember, it's just magic and manipulation," Prongs quoted Fox, their mentor and boss, but not without a little awe. "Nothing is ever what it seems."

Tiger sighed. She shut out the lovely vision and murmured a spell under her breath. When she opened her eyes again, the world was alight in shades of gold and red instead of silver. She could see the sparkling outlines of the wards like a giant tent that had been pitched over the mansion and fell in blankets around it. It looked snug and sealed up tight against the night, but Tiger knew there was always a chink in the armor.

A strategically cast spell that wouldn't raise an alarm was all it took for the sparks to go out. And then the tent was collapsing in on itself and the blankets were coming down like tapestries that bore the family crest, only to be pulled when a new master took over. Tiger was already spelling herself into the new wards she had recreated by the time Prongs had reactivated the tracking spell and checked back in with Moony.

He pulled out the Marauder's map and whispered the password. Already Moony's confident strokes and spidery handwriting were outlining the parchment and filling in the once blank parchment. Thanks to Padfoot, Prongs and Tiger had already memorized the blueprint for the mansion weeks ago, but with Mongoose, Wormtail and Fox on the ground and the wards down, the map was bound to change. Fortunately Padfoot's memory was excellent and the location of the emergency apparation point hadn't changed. Tiger pinpointed it before the spell wore off, exactly where the Marauder's map said it would be. They couldn't risk side-along apparation this close, so Tiger went first and Prongs followed.

They reappeared within seconds of each other inside one of the mansion's grand fireplaces that had no doubt once been used for flooing. Tiger landed on all fours in the still sooty hearth. Prongs had to help her to her feet, much to her embarrassment.

"This is why I hate traveling by floo powder," she grumbled as one of her hands left another black print on the wall. "I'll never be able to get this ash out of my clothes." Prongs reached up to gently brush some of it from her shirt.

"If you had apparated another six inches to the left you would've ran into the fireplace and we'd be cleaning up your blood right now," he scolded her, his fingers clenching around her shoulder.

Tiger bit her lip, sensing from the tone of his voice that this was about to turn into another lecture.

"I'm fine," she defended herself, knowing that this wasn't just about her miscalculation of a few inches. "I know what I'm doing, Prongs. Fox wouldn't have let me come along if he didn't think that I could do this just as well as you or anyone else on this crew."

"Tiger, you need to understand that this job is different," Prongs said, lowering his head so that they were eye to eye.

"I know, Padfoot's not here, the wards are more complicated, the mansion could be booby trapped, the artifact is more valuable and will be guarded, and this job is so much more bigger than anything I've ever done before. I know, Prongs, I KNOW!" She exploded, shaking herself free of him. She moved away from him in her frustration, but turned back to face him. For the last three weeks he had been treating her like a child and she was tired of it.

"You've told me the same thing a million times and you've tried to talk me out of this over and over again, but I'm not going anywhere. You trained me just like everyone else, but I learned faster. I worked hard and I practiced until I got good, almost as good as you. Fox told me that you even admitted it to him. He knows I can do this, so does everyone else, even you. So why don't you trust me to get the job done like the others?" she demanded, propping her hands on her hips.

He didn't answer her, at least not in the manner she was expecting. Instead he crossed the room in three quick strides and took her by the shoulders. She thought that he was going to yell at her, maybe tell her how ignorant, and inexperienced, and cocky she was for someone so young that had just joined the ranks of an elite gang of thieves, largely by chance, a mere six months ago. But he didn't yell at her. Something in him seemed to crack as her head tilted back to meet his eyes, and with a sigh, his hands slid up to her cup her face.

"Damn it, Tiger," he whispered. "This is my fault. You weren't supposed to get caught up in this."

And then he kissed her. His arms went around her, crushing her against him and lifting her up off of the floor. He broke the kiss almost as soon as it began and rested his cheek against her hair, but he did not relinquish his hold on her. He clung to her like he was drowning at sea and she was the only thing that could keep him afloat.

For the first time, Tiger saw a more vulnerable side of Prongs so different from the confident, charming handsome young man that was so alive that you couldn't help but be drawn to him. And for the first time, Tiger wondered if she really knew Prongs at all.

As he lowered her back down to her feet, loosening his hold on her, she heard him whisper, "I'm sorry, please forgive me."

It would be another fortnight before she could finally process everything that had happened that cold December night that marked the beginning of a seemingly endless winter, and another month before she would realize what he had been apologizing for. He had tried to warn her so many times that night but she refused to listen. She wondered what would have happened if she had taken his advice and backed out of the whole thing before it even began.

"Just follow our lead, Tiger," Prongs reminded her.

Shaken, she could do nothing more than nod and follow him. Fox, their leader with his kind eyes and his greying hair, met them at the bottom of the stairs. It was rare now that he did the actual legwork on these jobs, but he'd opted not to hire any outsiders this time to replace Padfoot. Seeing him now dressed in black with his sly eyes bright in his weathered face, she remembered who had founded this gang and who had led them in the years that followed. When she remembered him later, she always saw him as he was then, laying a fatherly hand on her shoulder and looking her over with pride.

"Brilliant work with the wards, Tiger," he complimented her.

Tiger beamed up at him, at that man who in such a short amount of time had become more like a paternal figure than her boss. He had saved her life and she would never forget that.

"You taught her well, Prongs. When the day comes I know that I will be leaving everything in capable hands," he said gruffly, turning his gaze on the young man that stood beside her.

"You're not finished yet, old man," Prongs retorted, but even as he smiled, there was something missing from it. His shoulder brushed against hers, and she could feel the tenseness there. At the time she had wished she had been able to reassure Prongs, now looking back she wished she had warned Fox that something was wrong.

"Who are you calling old?" Fox asked, eyes twinkling. "Come along, Tiger, let's show him what we can do."

He took her elbow gently, detaching her from Prongs. And together the trio descended into the darkness, unaware that Prongs would be the only one that would come back out alive.


Padfoot knew, long before Prongs crashed through the ceiling of the current Headquarters of the Marauders that the job had gone horribly wrong. Moony had lost contact with everyone over an hour ago and had been unable to reestablish the tracking spell or even pick up the slightest reading. But Padfoot and Moony had been trained thoroughly by Fox and knew that protocol was the only reason their gang had survived and thrived as long as it had. So they had been forced to sit and do nothing but speculate and curse and imagine the worse possible scenario for sixty agonizing minutes. Until Prongs came crashing through the bloody roof.

"What the –"

"Are you okay?"

"You know we have a door!"

"Shut up!" Prongs hissed at Padfoot, stumbling to his feet and shoving the concerned Moony aside. He lunged for the control panel and swiped out his arm. Moony's wand rolled off the desk and every single one of the intricate spells that he had in place were disrupted.

"What are you doing?" Moony asked, horrified.

Prongs pushed Padfoot out of the way, accidentally hitting the leg that had been injured during their last botched job. Padfoot cursed him and Moony kept interrogating him, but Prongs wouldn't answer either of them until he had unplugged everything and obliterated any sign of magic or technology. Only then, did Padfoot and Moony seem to understand what was happening. Their worst possible scenarios were proven and confirmed when Prongs told them to wipe the whole place clean and pack up immediately.

"I don't want anything left behind. No one can know we've been here. Get ready to go underground. We're going to have to lie low for a few months. No contact for at least six weeks, understood?"

"Where's Fox?" Padfoot demanded.

"He's dead," Prongs said, slumping against what was left of the control panel. He slid down to the floor, clutching one of his bloody arms to his chest. Padfoot and Moony gaped at him, struggling to process this.

"What about Wormtail and Mongoose?" Moony asked when he finally found his voice again.

"They could be dead, I don't know," Prongs hissed as he applied a healing spell to his arm. He shut his eyes and bit down so hard on his lip that Moony and Padfoot saw it start to bleed.

"And what about Tiger?" Padfoot asked, referring to the last and youngest member of their crew who they all knew Prongs had his eye on.

Prong's eyes flew open and there was a flame there that hadn't been there before. With a growl, he threw himself at Padfoot. He caught him by the throat with his good arm and pushed him up against the wall with bruising force.

"Don't ever mention her name again," he warned him and his eyes burned into Padfoot's until he was forced to look away. "She's dead, you hear me? She's dead to us."

"That's enough, Prongs," Moony said. With surprising strength, he pulled Prongs off of Padfoot. Prongs looked as if he were about to fight Moony as well, but Moony spoke with urgency. "We won't say her name ever again. Now, I think we all have work to do if we want to get out of here alive."

Grudgingly, Prongs silently agreed. The three Marauders quickly went to work erasing themselves from the Headquarters where they had spent the past year living together. Fifteen minutes later, the three remaining Marauders had gone their separate ways and there was nothing left but a ghost of a memory.


Tiger didn't remember much of the events leading up to that moment, but she knew the instant that she was thrown back from the explosion that she was already dead. She dragged herself up onto her knees in the dirt, and spotted Fox immediately. And even though she knew he was dead, she couldn't help herself from reaching for his wrist and searching for a pulse. There wasn't one, but unlike her he still gripped a lifeline in one of his closed fists.

She took his wand from him. He wouldn't be needing it anymore. Her hands were covered with blood but her mind was clear as she started to construct and deconstruct the wards in her mind.

When the Aurors arrived on scene, she was waiting for them. No one knew what happened that night, or what on earth she was trying to accomplish, but somehow the Ministry of Magic had wound up with the leader of the magical world's most mysterious band of thieves, revealing herself and begging them to kill her. The papers never told that side of the story, but they did create many more for the legendary Tiger and her mythical court of thieves.

Sometimes in the months leading up to her execution, she used to wonder what had happened to the others. But instead she kept her mouth shut, and let the papers make up stories, and let the rest of the magical world to speculate.

And when her death sentence was about to be carried out, she took those secrets with her to the Executioner's Chamber.

"Are you sure there isn't anything more you wish to tell us?" they asked her before she was led away from her cell.

She thought of the moment in the attic of the mansion when all of the walls had come down and Prongs had desperately apologized, minutes before he'd betrayed them all. It was on her lips, but something made her swallow it back down and shake her head. She had already been dead for months.

The first and only time she opened her mouth was when the executioner asked her if she was ready to die.

She told them she was.

Her executioner smiled, and turned away from the window, withdrawing her wand. Tiger closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of sun on her face for the first time in months and she thought that maybe the endless winter had finally come to an end and that she was free at last.

A/N: I know this is SO different from I'll Fight For You but bear with me. The next chapter will take place years later in the present and won't be so dark, I promise!