Disclaimer: Don't own HP, Darkness Within, or 1st two chapters.

AN: Well, here it is, thanks for the reviews, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda…

Terribly sorry for the wait…

Chapter 3- Killings

Lily gulped.

Lily was not amused. She had been looking forward to seeing James for over a fortnight now, and as soon as he had come, they both had not even been able to say two words to each other before Professor Dumbledore had requested an urgent Order meeting. James had not even been able to say hello to Damien yet. She sat with her arms crossed against her chest and was trying not to get her foul mood to show. Honestly, a couple of minutes with her husband were all she wanted, was that too much to ask?

All eyes were on Lily.

Honestly, she thought, how many of my thoughts are going to be made public?

Her thoughts were cut short when the room suddenly quieted down. James took his seat next to Lily and gently squeezed her hand. She looked up at him and gave him a half heartened smile. Looking around the room she saw all the familiar faces that were all looking tired and a little dishelved. There was the forever paranoid Mad-eye Moody, sitting next to Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt. Tonks was clearly noticeable with her bubble gum pink hair. There was Remus and Sirius sitting next to James. Professor McGonagall and Snape were sitting near the front and were currently eyeing Professor Dumbledore with curious looks. Next to them were two empty seats that Lily tried to ignore. She didn't think she could bear thinking about them again. She looked around, there were other members also present that she was not very familiar with, and most were from the Ministry of Magic.

Her attention was drawn to the Headmaster who now stood in front of all the members. Albus Dumbledore was looking immensely tired and worn out, pretty much like everyone else. He cleared his throat and the already quiet room hushed into complete silence. He could see the expressions most were wearing; there were a few who looked annoyed at the last minute meeting while others were looking as if they were trying to prepare themselves for more tragic news. Dumbledore decided to share the reason for this meeting.

The hall was listening with rapt attention.

"Ladies, Gentlemen. Many thanks for being able to attend this meeting at such short notice. I am aware many of you had to cancel or rearrange your plans so I will not take much more of your time." Here he gave a significant look at Lily who seemed to blush and lower her gaze to her hands in her lap.

"It's okay, Lils, No one else noticed." Sirius joked to her.

Lily threw him a sharp look but didn't say anything.

She did this again, and some snickering could be heard throughout the hall, lessening the tension slightly.

"The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the strange occurrences these past few months." Dumbledore carried on. "As you all are aware, there have been a number of attacks on Death Eaters in the past few months. Many were killed; some were gravely injured, but purposely left alive. Many of these Death Eaters gave themselves to the Dementors of Azkaban willingly to save themselves from any other attacks. This shouldn't be a cause of worry but since neither the Ministry nor the Order has taken responsibility for carrying out these attacks, it leads to the question of the identity of this attacker."

If anyone had been paying attention, they would have noticed Draco shifting, but they were all too busy whispering amongst themselves.

"That's so weird."

"I wonder who it could be."

Draco sat silent, he knew it was Harry.

The room was silent, every eye was on Dumbledore.

All eyes were on Lily.

"The most recent attack was carried out last night. A Death Eater named Jason Riley was killed in his home. The Ministry claim not to be responsible and we know that the Order didn't do this. It leads to the question of who is tracking down these Death Eaters and killing them." Dumbledore finished sounding very worried.

"What does it matter? Whoever this is, they are killing Death Eaters. They are helping us. Why should this be a cause of worry?" Moody asked in his gruff voice.

The majority of the hall mumbled their agreement, minus most of the Slytherins.

A few murmured their agreement to Moody's statement.

"It is a cause of worry since we don't know who is doing this and for what reason." Dumbledore explained.

"Maybe there is another secret society formed. Like the Order, maybe someone has formed another group to fight against You-Know-Who and they are targeting Death Eaters." Tonks supplied.

"That is a possibility." Dumbledore inclined his head in her direction. "However, I think it would be wise to find out the truth of this matter as soon as possible."

Lily noticed that there was something Dumbledore was stopping himself from saying. She had spent a lot of time with Dumbledore, firstly as a student and then as an Order member and finally as a member of his staff, to see that the age old wizard was unsure of saying what was on his mind.

"Dumbledore, is there more?" she asked wondering if he had some more news.

Dumbledore looked at Lily and his blue eyes fixed to her as he struggled to say what was on his mind. With a sigh, he began.

"I have a suspicion, and at this point that is all it is, but from reading the case reports on the deaths of the Death Eaters, I think Voldemort may be responsible for the deaths."

Draco shifted uncomfortably, the hall erupted into murmured conversations.

"Why would he do that?"

"I don't know; did they upset him?"

"Maybe they were trying to leave?"

There was a sudden intake of breath at the mention of the Dark Lord's name. Dumbledore gave a mental sigh. How many times had he told them that fear of a name was just plain silly. Voldemort wasn't going to appear if you said his name out loud.

"Why do you think that?" McGonagall asked, composing herself the best she could.

"As I have said, it is only a suspicion. What I do know for a fact is that if Voldemort's men had been targeted and killed like this, he would not be sitting back and allowing it to continue. From the reports we have, it doesn't suggest that Voldemort is planning anything to stop these killings. It seems he is actually happy with the demise of these men. It makes me think that maybe these men have wronged him in some way and so he has arranged to have them killed." Dumbledore finished.

James couldn't help but agree with this statement.

"But why would he want to kill his own men? It doesn't make sense." Remus asked.

The hall murmured it's agreement to that statement.

"I don't know. This is why I think it is a good idea to find out as much information as we can." Here Dumbledore turned to look at Snape.

"Severus, I have to ask you to try and find as much information as you can. I have a list of all the names of the deceased Death Eaters. See if you can find out what mission they were a part of before they died. See if they upset Voldemort in any way."

Dumbledore passed the parchment onto Snape who took it but didn't look at it. His dark eyes were fixed on Dumbledore.

"That is all for today. I thank you for your patience." Dumbledore finished with a polite nod at everyone.

James stood up from his chair as did the rest. His head was spinning with the news.

"What do you reckon?" Sirius asked. "Do you think it's another secret society or You-Know-Who has just decided he needs new followers?"

Lily sent him a glare but didn't comment.

"I don't know Padfoot. It does seem strange." James said.

"I'm with Moody. I don't think we should care who is killing them, as long as it's Death Eaters he's killing, we should be grateful." Sirius continued, walking his friend to the fireplace. He had nowhere to go as the Headquarters was his home.

James didn't say anything. He silently agreed with Dumbledore. If Voldemort was concerned about the death of his men, he would be doing something about it. The fact that he wasn't concerned could only mean that he was the one ordering the killings.

The hall erupted into whispers.

"What do you think?"

"Why would he kill his own followers? That's insane!"

"It has to be someone else."

"But who?"

"Mr. Black," Umbitch smiled nastily, "would you like to read next?"

Sirius took the book…

AN: So, so, so sorry about that wait! I have been super-duper busy with school (that's what I get for picking those classes) and then summer's been hectic, and will probably continue to be so, but I did warn you I would not be consistent. I'm am amazed that people keep following even though it's been so long since I updated, and I find it strange no one sent me a message to hurry up and update.

I did have a reviewer say that they wished I'd add more dialogue, and I tried, I really did, but this is that boring, just getting started part of the story that is difficult to write, I'll try to add more dialogue as the story goes on.

I also need to go back and re-read the original story, because it's kinda slipped my mind. I can also see why the last author gave it up, this is hard to write! If you have suggestions I would love to hear them, because I refuse to just completely give up on this piece.

Also, if I do bring Harry into this story it wouldn't be until after he was captured by the OOTP. So please respond to my poll. :)

~scrambledark