Rogue

Lily Evans' life lacks challenge. She's sick of bringing in Splinchers. That is until a certain blast from the past comes back on the scene and turns her world upside down.

Darkness is all around and closing in fast, even if it can't be seen.

Disclaimer:

Methinks as thou art scrolling,

It will be obvious to thee,

That 'Harry Potter' etc. belongs to J.K Rowling,

And most definitely not to me.

Previously, on Rogue:

Lily finished reading through the file. Her mind made up, she made the familiar journey down the hallway to Mr. Hildegard's office. After again being announced by a smirking Lolita, Lily entered his office and sat down.

"Well Miss Evans, I gather that you have made your final decision regarding this case. Are you up for it or not?"

"I think I can handle it."

"Congratulations Evans. You're on the case."

Chapter 2 – Irritatingly Loyal Friends

After work, Lily and Lolita met their friend Chhaya in a nearby café, where they had their weekly catch up.

Chhaya was already sitting at their favourite table on the terrace. As she sat down, Lily smiled at the familiar view that the table had of the bustling main street of Diagon Alley. For a second, she thought she might of seen James' dark head in the crowd, but the man turned around and revealed himself to be someone else.

"What do you want Lily?" Lily turned around to see Chhaya, Lolita and a cute waiter looking at her expectantly.

"Oh! A...er...just a peppermint tea for me...thanks."

Lolita smirked at Lily as she blushed.

"He was cute!" She remarked to Lily and Chhaya when he had retuned to the kitchen.

"Not as handsome as Arun." Replied Chhaya smugly. Arun Patil, Chhaya's fiancé, was always the most good-looking guy around, at least, according to Chhaya he was.

Then soon had to end their conversation, because the gorgeous waiter was back with their drinks.

"So Lily," Said Chhaya, stirring her coffee. "I heard, from a certain little bird, that someone was given a major case this afternoon!"

"Yeah, that's right!" Said Lily, shifting uneasily. James and Chhaya had been friends ever since they were small children. What was Lily going to say to her?

"So, who is it? Anyone I might know?" Lily and Lolita shared an uncomfortable glance.

"Chhay…Have you, uh, heard from James lately?"Asked Lily quietly.

"No, not for a couple of weeks actually, which is quite unusual, come to think of it. Why? Do you want to catch up with him, rekindle old flames?"

"There is no point in rekindling unrequited flames, Chhay." Lily scoffed, smirking

"So, why do you want to see him then? Wait a minute. This big case you got doesn't have anything to do with him does it? Is he alright? What's happened to him?" Chhaya looked very upset and worried.

Lily bit her lip and said nothing.

"I'm his friend Lily. I'm worried about him. Please tell me what's happened." She asked, increasingly anxious.

"Well...Ok. But you mustn't tell anyone about this." Said Lily, now very uneasy.

"Oh my goodness, what is it?"

"He's been accused of murdering one of his fellow officers." She whispered.

"WHAT?" Chhaya exploded. "Lily come on, you can't expect me to believe that, honestly! You're not serious, are you?"

"Unfortunately I am, Chhay. And now he's missing." Said Lily quietly.

"I just...I just can't believe this."

Lily placed a comforting hand on Chhaya's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Chhaya, I really am. This must be a difficult time for you and I know that it must have come as a shock, but it's the unfortunate truth. Now, are you sure that you haven't seen or heard from him recently?"

Chhaya stared at her for a moment and then glared and removed Lily's hand form her shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing?" She hissed. "Why are you all of a sudden treating me like, like some unfamiliar person who's a close friend of someone who you don't even know? It's almost as if you're pretending to feel sorry for me, so that you can get me to trust you, so that you can then squeeze information out of me like I'm a wet sponge! Well the fact is that you do know me and you do know James and even if I did know where he was, I don't know if I'd consider telling you anymore. You're supposed to be my friend Lily, not my interrogator. What are you going to do next, eh? Start referring to me as Ms. Madhubala?"

Lily was speechless for a moment.

"Oh Chhay, I'm so sorry! You're right, I was treating you like someone who's been brought in for questioning. I know that you're worried about James, but if you know where he is I can find him and question him and then maybe we could be able to shed some light on this situation."

"It's alright Lily. I guess I overreacted a bit. I've just had a tough day and hearing this about James is the icing on the cake. And on top of that, I'm going to have to cancel on you for Friday night. Arun's parents have invited us over for dinner again."

"Ooh, dinner with the in-laws-to-be." Said Lolita, wincing. "That should be fun."

"Oh, I'ts not that bad. Mr. and Mrs. Patil are very sweet, even if they are a bit protective of Arun. They still think he's a virgin, ha! It's not that I don't like having dinner with them, I'd just much rather go clubbing with you two."

"It won't be as much fun without you Chhay." Said Lolita sadly.

"You better be able to come next time." Lily added.

"I will, I promise!" Said Chhaya. Glancing at her watch, she sighed.

"Sorry. I've got to run. My next shift starts in ten minutes and if I'm late, Healer Breslin will eat me."

"You had better go then."

"Yeah. See you later!"

"Bye."

As soon as Chhaya had apparated to St Mungo's, Lily put her head in her hands and sighed loudly.

"Oh gods, I feel so awful! I can't believe that I did that to Chhaya! If I ever start going into professional interrogating mode with you, or any of my other friends again, let it be known that you all have my permission to hit me as hard as you want to."

"Relax Lils, it's okay. Chhay has forgiven you. If you ever try that with me though, I'll have to take you up on that generous offer."

Lily smiled at Lolita and put some money on the table.

"I've got to go too. I'm gonna go back to the office and find out some background info for this case, so I'll see you at home."

"Okay. What do you want to do for dinner? Take-away?"

"Of course!"

"Why did I even ask? Righty-o, see you later."

"Bye."

Back at the office, Lily pulled the files of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew out of the master filing cabinet and searched through them for their current places of residence. Ah, how Lily loved the master filing cabinet. It was a mine of useful information. All you had to do was swipe your clearence card in the magical scanner, say your key word into the voice recognition chamber and then say the full name of the person who's file you required. If your clearence card revealed that you had permission to view the requested file, it would pop down into the chute and slide directly into your arms. If however, you requested a file that you din't have permission to see, the machine would make a loud honking noise, causing every one within a 30m radius to turn around and stare at you dissapprovingly. Lily had never personally experienced that situation, but she had seen it happen and it didn't look particularly enjoyable.

Lily decided to visit Sirius first. He was James' closest friend and if anyone knew where James was, it would probably be him. Luckily, he lived close by.

Lily apparated to Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour an went up to the front counter.

"Hi Maddeline! Is your dad here? I need to ask him about something."

"Yeah, sure Lily. He's in the kitchens whipping up afresh batch of Pepper-Imp Paradise."

"Thanks,"

Lily walked behind the counter and through the door that led to the kitchens. Florean Fortescue himself was stirring an enormous vat of dark green liqiud with his wand, whistling a tune and occasionally tossing in a hanful of Pepper-Imps form a large paper bag stamped with the Honedukes label.

"Well! If it isn't Miss Lily! What can I do for you today love?"

"Well Mr. Fortescue, I'm actually here to visit Sirius Black. Can you show me how to ge upstairs? I would have asked Maddie, but she was manning the front counter."

"I certainly can love, the staircase password is Liquorice Wand, but I'm afraid that you won't achieve much. Young Mr. Black isn't here. Hasn't been for just over a week. Last Tuesday, he went to work, and he never came back. I know he's alright though, because he owled me a couple of hours ago and said that he was alright, he just would be away for a while. Said something had to blow over before he could come back. Gee, I do hope he's not in any trouble. You haven't come to arrest him, have you?"

"No, no I haven't come to arrest him, I just need to ask him some questions about something. Thanks for your help. If you do hear from him, I would really appreciate it if you contacted me."

"Will do, Miss Lily. Sorry that I can't be of better assistance."

"That's okay. It was nice to see you again."

"You too. Bye now."

As Lily walked back down the Alley, towards the Leaky Couldron, she sorted through the information in her brain. If Sirius had gone missing last Tuesday, which also happened to be the night that the murder had occurred, it meant that he probably was in some way connected and maybe even involved. Either that, or he had gone underground to help James hide. He could get into big trouble for that.

Now that her most likely resource had come to a dead end, she had to move on to the second name on her list. Sighing, she apparated to Remus'.

"Hi Lily. Haven't seen you in a while." Said Remus when he opened the door, giving her a tired, but friendly smile.

Lily threw her arms around Remus and pecked him on the cheek.

"I've missed seeing you around Remmy!"

"I've missed you too."

"So how's work been lately?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Splinchers, Misproper Use of Magicers, murderers..."

"Murderers?"

"Yes Remus, murderers. I'm afraid that this isn't just a social call."

Remus paled, and then burst into tears.

A/N - Review Responses

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