You Stole My Heart
Summary: Last time on You Stole My Heart, Tiger, Prongs, Fox and the rest of his band of Marauders attempt a robbery. But somehow things spiral out of control and Prongs comes rushing back to Headquarters and tells Moony and Padfoot that Fox is dead and they have to go into hiding because the job went wrong. Tiger doesn't really know what happened but once she realizes Fox is dead and that she's been abandoned and betrayed she turns herself in. Her trial ends with her being found guilty and condemned to death. Fast forward four years to the present.
A/N: Okay, so this chapter is set four years after the events of the prologue.
Chapter 1: The Assignment
FOUR YEARS LATER
The sun illuminated and warmed the front window of London's most expensive restaurant, but none of the muggles hurrying past could see it or hear the hum of the radio on the bar behind the odd couple seated at the only table with a view.
"And it appears that the Marauders have struck again, this time in the home of America's oldest magical community. American authorities reported late last week that there was a break in at the Salem Witch Museum and the only historical artifact in the collection with potentially dangerous magical properties has gone missing. The muggle chief officer of the Salem Police force described in detail what was found on the museum's security cameras and is already contemplating an early retirement, confirming that this was indeed the work of the magical world's most notorious band of thieves. The leader of Salem's magical community spoke to the press earlier this morning as well: "What I want to know is what the fuck those snobby Brits are intending to do about this. I mean come on, the Ministry of Magic has known about these guys for years and all they're doing is sitting around and drinking tea, insisting they already got this shit done four years ago when they caught the Tiger, but it's wicked obvious that they're still out there-"
"Turn it off," the distinguished woman ordered without looking up from her tea.
James Potter had to hide a smirk as a waiter obediently rushed over and switched the radio off, extinguishing the sounds of the WWN and the rough Bostonian accent of Salem's outraged leader.
Across the table from him, his grandmother finally set down her teacup and completely missed the saucer. James' head shot up as the tea sloshed out of the cup, dotting her sleeve. She didn't appear to notice as she glanced at her pocket watch impatiently.
"Are you unwell, grandmother?" he asked because she had paled considerably and she had missed the saucer and failed to see the stain on her sleeve.
"I'm fine," she snapped back at him, confirming that she wasn't. For a woman that never lost control, any sign of agitation at all was rare and if it did appear it always belied that some sort of catastrophic disaster was imminent. Sometimes it meant that the magical world was in grave danger, but usually it meant that she was disappointed in him again. James still had a very vivid recollection of the time when he was expelled from Hogwarts. If it hadn't been for Edward's intervention, James was certain she would've murdered him. But there was no Edward to intervene now, and if his grandmother had any idea of what he had really been doing since the day of his expulsion, he was sure that she'd make him want to die.
"Bloody Americans," she swore suddenly, heightening his alarm. "They'll leave me with no choice."
Abruptly, she got up from the table and hurried out into the street without paying the check as she always did when they met for their weekly lunch every Thursday. He could hear her muttering as she stormed off.
"She's not ready yet but it's our only option."
James Potter was suddenly set free from his obligatory familial duties, a realization that usually would have elated him and sent him racing back to his crew. But as he flagged down the confused waiter and signed for the check, all he felt was an exhausting and overwhelming sense of dread. Judging from his grandmother's unusual behavior, something awful was happening and he had a bad feeling that this time it would involve him.
Sighing, he stood up to gather his coat and vacated the table. He paused at the door and found the waiter was already prepping the table for the next regular patron. This week, there was another vase of flowers but instead of daisies, they'd opted for lilies: Tiger Lilies.
James ran out into the street before he acted upon the irrational urge to throw the vase and the Tiger Lilies at the stupid waiter's head.
One hour later and three blocks away, Frank Longbottom burst into the lower levels of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and desperately scanned the cubicles until he found her. Ignoring the glares of their more ambitious colleagues, Frank squeezed through the other cubicles, calling her name loud enough to be threatened with a silencing spell twice before he finally reached her at the very back.
"Lily. LILY!"
"Two minutes, just two more minutes," the girl slurred from somewhere behind a mound of paperwork that was spilling over her desk. But her partner and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement did not have two minutes. Two seconds later Lily Evans found herself flat on her back and staring up into a wide pair of brown eyes and a mortified Frank Longbottom instead of the dreamy, magical rogue of her dreams. She was instantly awake.
"Oh, Merlin, I'm so sorry, Lily," Frank apologized, helping her up off the floor. "I meant to just shake your chair a little bit I didn't mean to tip it over. Are you okay?"
Lily smiled, as he set her back on her feet. Frank Longbottom was one of the gentlest persons she'd ever met, but after a late growth spurt and three years of Auror training, he still didn't know his own strength.
"I'm fine, Frank. Honestly," she reassured him.
"Great. But we've got a meeting with ABC."
"When?" Lily asked, her pulse kicking up a notch upon hearing the dreaded acronym. For trainees like Frank and Lily it stood for the most feared and revered members of the Auror department: Alastor Moody, Bartimus Crouch and of course, the woman so frightening that everyone secretly called her the Crone.
"Two minutes ago."
Lily's hands went for her wand to tidy up her desk and then to her hair which had come out of its regular bun during her nap, but Frank grabbed her arm before she could decide on either action.
"No time," he told her, dragging her out of her cubicle. "It's in 7B."
Lily grimaced, struggling to keep up with Frank as they whipped through the disorganized chaotic mess of workspaces that were reserved for Aurors in the department of Magical Law Enforcement. It was one of the few things that Lily disliked about the magical world, their total disregard for the codes and rules that structured the muggle buildings that she'd grown up with. For once she'd like to be able to get through the Ministry without being attacked by a rogue banshee or a Devil's Snare. It made getting to important meetings on time, such as this one, virtually impossible.
The pair had narrowly escaped a bat bogey hex and were out of breath by the time they finally reached 7B. Fortunately, despite Frank's size and the brightness of Lily's hair, the pair had an uncanny ability to blend in and be overlooked. Well, usually that was how it worked. When Frank opened the door, they immediately saw that their invisibility skills weren't going to cut it this time.
There was no one in the room except ABC. Alastor Moody was glowering at them, no doubt checking them for hidden weapons and suspicious activity. Bartimus Crouch was looking bored and somber as usual, wielding his fat book of rules and regulations that no one but him cared about. But it was the presence of a woman by the window with her back to them that frightened the pair more than anything Moody could have done or Crouch could have said.
"Maybe we're early," Frank blurted out just loud enough for all three of the dreaded superiors to hear.
"Or maybe you're twenty-one minutes and eighteen seconds late for a meeting that should have already been over with." The woman snapped her pocket watch shut and turned to face the pair with a searing glare. Frank, a man who was twice this woman's size, audibly gulped and cowered behind Lily.
At first glance, the Crone didn't look like the type of person who should have struck fear into the hearts of almost everyone who crossed her path. She was a pure blooded witch of medium stature who could've been anywhere from forty to one hundred (witches and wizards aged more slowly than muggles). She wore her steel grey hair scraped back and neatly knotted at the base of her skull just as it always had been for the decades she had led the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. In fact the only thing about her that had changed since she had taken charge of the department was the gradual acquisition of more lines in her face and the slight fading of the mean scar that curled up one side of her jaw, disappearing behind her left ear. It was a battle scar she wore proudly and it was the real reason why she was so terrifying. Years ago, the Crone had single handedly defeated the last Dark wizard to threaten the peace of the magical world and she never let anyone forget it.
"Sit," she ordered them. She flicked her wand in their direction, and Lily and Frank felt the ground move out from underneath their feet, forcing them to fall back into two chairs that magically materialized behind them. Frank and Lily barely had time to compose themselves before she was looming over them, standing in the space between Moody and Crouch's chairs.
"You're late so I will be brief and you can do research on your own time instead of wasting any more of mine."
"We're sorry," Frank stammered.
"You should be," Crouch interrupted him coolly. "You have both been selected for a special assignment and there will be no briefing because neither one of you have respect for time regulations or the rules and requests of your superiors." He cleared his throat and flipped open the handbook resting on the table between them. Lily could've sworn Moody actually rolled his eyes as Crouch began reading, "According to rule 16, any and all pending assignments should be terminated if the superior feels that –"
"Bartimus," the Crone hissed. "That's enough."
"I am merely reciting what is textbook for every case assignment we handle," Bartimus sniffed, eyeing the pair disdainfully over his spectacles. "These two cannot abide by the rules and are therefore unsuitable –"
"Barty, you've made your point. Now I think you should shut up and let me make mine." It wasn't a request. Bartimus closed the book and retreated into a glowering silence.
"Even though, as Bartimus duly noted, neither one of you excelled in your first year of training or shown any inclination to do so in the future," both Lily and Frank flushed and glanced down at their hands, "I think you're long overdue for your first solo assignment," she grudgingly informed them.
Frank nudged her elbow slightly and Lily forced herself to look up and try not to look too excited. All of the other trainees had already received and completed their first solo assignments months ago, but Lily and Frank had been passed over again and again for even the simplest cases and had been restricted to boring mounds of paperwork and dull drudge work.
"If you fail to complete this assignment or choose not to accept it you will be dismissed from the program."
Frank fidgeted in his chair and Lily clenched her sweating hands in her lap to keep them from trembling. They didn't need to be reminded of that fact. This was it. This was their last chance to redeem themselves and then perhaps they'd finally have the ABC off their back and be well on their way to becoming full fledged Aurors. But if they messed this up…
"In the case of your pending possible termination, I strongly suggest you begin to explore alternative career options," Barty Crouch said smugly as he handed each of them a scroll. This time Lily was sure that Moody rolled his eyes toward the ceiling before allowing them to linger on each of the two young trainees, not with disdain or malice but something else that scared Lily almost as much as the Crone: pity.
With trembling fingers she tried to pick at the seal, completely forgetting for the moment that she had a wand at hand. She was concentrating so hard on her task that she missed Crouch's rare smirk and Frank's puzzled reaction.
But just as she broke open the seal and unfurled the parchment, she caught the sound of the Crone's rare bark of a laugh.
"I think you'll like this assignment Ms. Evans," the Crone chuckled.
Lily's heart sunk even before she read the task. All she had to do was look at the Crone and she knew exactly what she had to do and why it was going to be impossible to complete. Her fears were immediately confirmed. She rolled up the scroll without bothering to read past the first line. Frank cleared his throat beside her but the Crone just laughed at him.
"If you have any questions Mr. Longbottom, I'm sure Ms. Evans will be able to answer them for you. She's something of an expert on this matter."
Frank tried to catch her eye but Lily looked straight ahead into the eyes of the evil Crone. She could back out right now and perhaps save herself and Frank a lot of unnecessary trouble and grief, but she knew that Frank wouldn't accept defeat so easily and deep, deep down there was a part of Lily that didn't want to either. After all, maybe the despicable woman wasn't giving Lily her termination notice but instead giving her an opportunity to prove herself as an Auror, and as a witch that shouldn't be crossed. Perhaps, after all these years, it was finally time to find out what really happened that December so many years before and get her revenge on those traitors that landed her here in the first place.
"Will that be all?" Lily asked.
She stood and left without waiting for an answer, leaving three stunned men in her wake and a woman with a vicious smirk.
"What was that about?" Frank had caught up with her by the time she reached the lift.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lily lied but she was forced to wait for the lift and Frank was unwilling to let it drop.
"The Crone just handed us our first assignment, an impossible assignment that should have been handled by someone much higher than us, and she's telling me that you're already an expert on the matter."
"She was making a joke." Lily pretended to shrug it off.
"The Crone doesn't do jokes," Frank reminded her as the doors opened and they got on. "Or have you forgotten last April Fool's Day when she put the Prewitt brothers in the hospital because they transformed the Auror Department into a petting zoo and she suspended both of us for a week because the goats ate all the paperwork we were supposed to be working on."
Lily smiled at the memory but shook her head.
"I meant that she was making a joke of us, Frank. In case you haven't noticed Crouch, and the Crone, and everyone else here is rooting for us to fail." Lily expelled a breath and leaned back against the wall of the lift, suddenly exhausted. "I can't really blame them. We're not exactly Auror material. They should have kicked us out a long time ago…" she trailed off glumly, eyeing her scuffed shoes.
Frank cleared his throat and Lily quickly tried to take back her words. "Frank, I didn't mean you."
"No, I get it," he waved off her apology. "I flunked the preliminary exam twice before I made the grade. And if Crawford hadn't taken a nutty and I hadn't been paired up with you for that last training exercise I never would have been accepted."
"Frank…"
"It probably doesn't help that we were suspended twice and we're always late for those stupid meetings with Crouch. If he had his way we'd already be gone. I don't know why the Crone hasn't fired us yet." A gloomy silence settled over them as they rode the rest of the way down in silence.
"I think she keeps us around because she fancies you," Lily quipped as the doors slid open. The woman had to be three times Frank's age. Frank laughed and snickered, "Or maybe she fancies you." Lily grinned and shrugged as the pair got off together.
Lily didn't know why Frank hadn't been let go, but she suspected it was because Alaster Moody had a soft spot for him and could see his potential to be a great Auror if he just had the opportunity to prove himself. What she did know was that the Crone had taken her on and kept her around for one reason and it came in the form of the scroll that was still clutched tightly in her left fist.
They wanted to catch the Marauders and Lily was their only hope.
A/N: Thank you so much to those of you that reviewed! Okay, so now Lily's officially got her assignment to bring down the Marauders. Will she be able to do it? Look out for the next chapter soon. And I can assure you that several good looking Marauders will be making an appearance the next part.