". . . realized by now . . . don't respond well to threats . . .random violence."

*Murmurs*

"You know what I think, mundane? I think you're a liar, and not a very good one."

* A thud, sounds of something knocking a chair over*

"You have one hour."

*Door slams*

Lily blinked rapidly, struggling to force the haze from her mind as she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. Her head throbbed angrily, though she couldn't quite remember what she had done to cause the pain. She was lying on a narrow cot, tucked into a little alcove with a curtain drawn across the space to separate it from the rest of the dwelling. The bedding was rough and scratchy beneath her hands, but it beat lying in an alleyway any day.

Suddenly, the curtain was drawn roughly back, and a haggard looking man appeared.

She flinched at the abrupt noise, fingers twitching as she subconsciously reached to her side, but her knife was missing.

Warily, she tried to push herself into a sitting position. Shaking his head, the man stepped further into the room, pausing to grab a rag and a pail of water as he knelt by her side.

"It's alright," he said firmly, dipping the rag into the water and attempting to sponge her brow. She knocked his hand away, eyes narrowing.

"I want my knife back."

He nodded, seeming unsurprised as he stood, moving to an old, splintered desk. Yanking the first drawer open, he rummaged inside for a second before pulling out the weapon in question. Handing it back to her (she had to force herself not to snatch it away), he knelt down and held up the soaking rag, with a look that asked her not to argue.

Reluctantly, she allowed him to go back to cleaning her forehead, only noticing the red stains as he moved to rinse the rag off in the pail.

"Seems the bleeding didn't want to stop quite yet. I apologize, I wasn't done dressing the wound when that wizard appeared. Bugger nearly broke my front door down."

"They aren't known for tact."

He snorted. "Won't argue with you on that one."

He continued to clean and dress her wounds for a few minutes in silence.

"I'm sorry for any trouble I've caused you."

He started to shrug her off and then paused, looking at her with a serious, contemplative expression.

"Did you do it?"

She had to flounder for a moment, struggling to think of what he meant, head still pounding. Then it came to her.

"With myself inside? You've got to be joking."

He nodded. Her answer seemed to only confirm what he'd already been thinking.

"That's what I tried to tell the others. That you wouldn't do something so stupid and reckless. Especially for no real reason. What could you have gained besides angering the State even further?"

"Let me guess, they aren't convinced?"

He lowered his head, choosing his next words carefully.

"They think . . . That you purposely led the patrols into a trap. The fact that you conveniently survived an explosion that killed five wizards . . ."

Lily sat up abruptly, ignoring his protests.

"A trap? You think I knew those wizards were going to look for me in that shop? I'm miles from my home territory. I was hiding for a reason!"

"You were coming to recruit followers."

She hesitated, eyes narrowing.

"And how would you know that?"

He held his hands to his sides in a gesture of mock grandeur.

"Leader John Waters at your service. Your cell has been corresponding with my village for about three months. We usually send a scout patrol to throw off suspicion while a second team comes under the cover of darkness to meet with your people. That second team is headed by a young woman with a scar on her lip named,"

"Anna," she finished, staring at him blankly.

He nodded.

". . .What happened, John? She never showed up. That's why I headed this way. She didn't show up, but a team of wizards did . . ."

She leveled her gaze on him, not accusing, but desperate for answers.

"I assure you . . . Lily, it was not our intention to bring any harm to your . . ."

"Your intention? Your intentions mean nothing to me, old man! I lost friends in that attack! Children died in that attack! My comrades wanted to come with me, to torch this place and everyone inside."

She drew a shaky breath, her fingers twitching as she flexed her hands unconsciously, as if they possessed a mind of their own and were itching to strangle the weary man in front of her.

"I stopped them," she continued in a quieter voice. "I . . . And a few others, didn't immediately jump to the conclusion that you had betrayed us. I came to find out what happened, to see if you needed help. Chances were that if they'd come after us, they probably came after you too."

"How very kind of you," he said coldly, his voice threatening to send a chill down her spine. Standing, he turned his back on her, leaning against the table, his calloused hands spread flat on the chipped surface. He didn't speak for a few moments. When he did, it was with the voice of one who has finally come to the point of giving up hope after far too many years of seeing it fail to bring results.

"Anna . . . Was my daughter."

Lily gaped at him, stammering, "You don't have any proof that she isn't still . . ."

He held up a hand to silence her.

"I hope, for her sake, that she has gone on to be with her mother. The alternative is too terrible to contemplate."

Lily opened her mouth, searching for words to reassure him, much of her former anger dissipated, but the look on his face caused her to close it again.

"I would never have sent my own child to her death, Lily . . . But someone did betray you and your people without our knowledge. That person fled right before the patrols came looking for you. We had . . . Begun to suspect treachery, when we received no word from either our people or yours. When Benjamin March fled, we realized, too late, what had happened. They were waiting for you when you arrived. I suspect the only thing that saved you was coming alone. It allowed you to just barely slip by undetected . . . For a time."

"Benjamin . . . March?"

He nodded grimly. "Yes, I believe he was once a part of your cell?"

"He's a bloody coward, is what he is! He abandoned me in the street to die, after I saved his skin. If it weren't for him, I might not have gotten caught . . . Luke might not have died," she said this last part in a whisper, willing away the painful constriction that was forming in her chest.

"I'm sorry, we didn't know. He only showed up a week ago, said he had left your cell because all of you had lost your minds. Started preaching tolerance and cooperation with the State. I'm afraid there were more than a few sympathetic ears to listen to his speeches. After the loss of our patrols. . ."

"But it's his fault. It has to be. Who else would have told them we were meeting?"

He sighed. "I'm not disagreeing with you, though, to be frank, he could have persuaded quite a few people to do the deed. I'm afraid my family and I have grown rather unpopular in the last few years. We've experienced a lot of hardships: crop failure, drought, disease. The situation only grew worse when we started corresponding. Many people want nothing to do with you or the rebellion. It's possible that my opposition sought to use this information as some form of retribution."

"Then your people are cowards, the same as March, and they deserve whatever's coming to them."

"Can you so easily cast judgement?"

"If it weren't for the State, many of these problems could be remedied. They have medicine, food . . . For God's sake they can create water with the wave of a wand. Cooperation won't solve a corrupt system, it'll only make people easier to walk on."

"It might stop their children dying for a cause many of them are too young to fully understand."

Lily looked at him steadily, her voice calm yet full of conviction, "With the way things have been going the past few decades, I think that's a fool's dream, John Waters."

A heavy, insistent knocking sounded at the door.

Waters cursed, stepping past the curtain. "He can't be back already. It hasn't even been . . ."

He ducked as the door flew open, three people swarming inside. Lily rolled off the bed, eyes darting around the room for a secondary exit, internally cursing herself for not escaping the minute she woke up. Unfortunately for her, no such salvation appeared. She straightened up, pulling put her blade as she surveyed the newcomers, two men and a woman, all armed to the teeth.

The woman glanced around the room for a second, muttering something to Waters about fixing the door, before her gaze fell on Lily. She grinned brightly, a somewhat terrifying sight when paired with her barely controlled mass of black hair and madly glinting eyes.

"Hello, Lily. I'm Bellatrix Black. We've been looking for you."