The Meeting Point

When he finished interrogating her Dumbledore told Nora the address she would be staying at and sent her through the Floo. He followed directly after her and showed her to one of the bedrooms upstairs.
The house was nice enough, a bit small perhaps but then, Nora was used to huge Manors. Everything was decorated in warm soft colours; light shades of blue, green, yellow and cream, accented here and there by large flowery patterns and bold splashes of deep red.
The bedroom itself had a single bed in the corner to the left of the door, a closet directly across it, there was a desk in front of the window a meter or so beside the closet. The walls were pale green and the bedspread was a nice emerald. The room was a bit bare but Nora considered it a necessary evil she would have to endure until this was over, one way or another.

"Congrats, guys." said a raspy voice from the bed. "Run your spells, Letha, then I can tell you what I've been doing."

Jessika watched as all movement (including breathing) ceased for the length of a heartbeat, before Aletha and Severus descended upon Peter and bombarded him with all sorts of questions, spells and, in Severus' case, potions. Kassandra slipped out the door, looking ill and something compelled Jessika to follow her. Closing the door, she nearly missed the bushy mane disappear around the corner and she ran to catch up. She found Kassandra hanging over the toilet, sobbing and dry-heaving.

"Would you like to talk?" The question made Kassandra's head whip around so sharply Jessika feared it might twist off her neck.

"No, not really." She answered and proceeded to empty her stomach into the toilet. Jessika was by Kassandra's side in an instant, rubbing her back with one hand and holding her hair away from her face with the other. When the other woman stopped retching Jessika got up and filled a plastic cup with water and handed it to Kassandra so she could rinse her mouth.

"You okay now?" she asked. Kassandra nodded but didn't say anything else while they returned to Peter's room.

The place was still a flurry of activity when Jessika opened the door but now the cheerfulness seemed a bit forced. Peter was sitting up in bed and smiling but Jessika could see the way he was playing with his fingers.

Kassandra walked past her to Peter's bed and planted a kiss on his lips.

Jessika closed the door and followed, holding out her hand. "Hi, I'm Jessika Reynolds. Pleased to meet you." Peter shook her hand and grinned. "I'm Peter Pettigrew but I'm sure you already know that. You're the girl Remus went to save a few months ago, aren't you?" Jessika nodded and grinned back. "I'm afraid that's enough of the pleasantries. How long was I out anyway?" he asked looking at Aletha.

She opened her mouth to answer when a loud cry interrupted the relative silence in the house. "Sorry, that's Pandora. I have to feed her." She said before she hurried from the room.

"Lily, Severus, James and Sirius. Come here, there's something we need to discuss. Kassandra, Jessika and Remus, you'll need to help too." While they gathered around the foot of his bed in a half-circle Peter began searching for his wand. Kassandra handed it to him, still silent. "Thanks. So, I spent the last week sorting through far too many visions to count and my brain locked most of them away but I found out a few very interesting things." He turned to Sirius and held out his hand. "I'd like to see that photograph Lily's sister sent." Sirius handed it over and Peter enlarged it and made it float. He pointed at Narcissa Malfoy with his wand and said, "She is the daffodil." Little Draco Malfoy was next, "He is the dragon." He reversed the magic he'd used on the photo and pointed the wand at Lily, "You are the fire lily." Then Severus, "You are the black mamba." James, "You are the stag." Sirius, "You are the Grim."

Peter waved his wand in the air and suddenly there was a picture hovering between him and his friends. A scene began to play out. They watched as a daffodil and a dragon grew pale and fearful and separate in the harsh light until a stag, a black dog, a black snake and a fire lily appeared. Once again Jessika watched the others' reactions. Severus' face showed understanding, so did Lily's. Sirius looked a bit confused and James seemed to be torn between understanding and apprehension and maybe anger. Remus' usual calm expression was marred by a bit of worry and Kassandra seemed completely unconcerned. "Ok, I think I get it." Severus said, "I only have one question. What or who is the light."

Peter waved his wand again, and the picture shifted, showing a figure inside the light. "Can you think of anyone whose name has something to do with light? Someone close to the dragon and the daffodil?"

Remus' face lit up a bit and he answered, "The Light bringer, Lucius means Light bringer. It's Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa's husband and Draco's father. If Petunia's photo's and letter are accurate, Regulus Black helped his cousin escape from Lucius, and by extension Voldemort. In that context, I think it's safe to assume Lucius will eventually find them, and Sirius and James are supposed to protect them while Lily and Severus help them escape. Did I miss anything?" Peter shook his head grinning.

"Nope, you got it all in one." His expression turned thoughtful. "I don't know when this is supposed to happen though. We'll just have to wait and see."

'Waiting and seeing' turned out to be much more tedious than any of them could have anticipated.

Kassandra and Peter spent most of the following week locked in Peter's room. In fact, Kassandra had all but moved in with her boyfriend.

Remus and Jessika spent quite some time preparing for the full moon. That was much more difficult in a house than it had been out in the woods.

Lily and Severus had and appointment with a Healer on the day of the full moon.

Sirius and Aletha were usually up all night because Pandora had started teething.

Since the day Peter woke up James had completely thrown himself into his work. He ignored all of his friends' concerns and somehow managed to solve every case he was assigned to. His behaviour had even Severus worried.

It was somewhat surprising that none of them even noticed the new houseguest. On the other hand, Nora always kept to herself. She ate her meals in her room and occupied herself with drawing in her free time.

On the second day of 'Waiting and seeing' Severus received a letter, addressed in familiar, delicate handwriting.

Dear Severus,

You'll be pleased to hear that I have renounced the Dark Lord. However, my reason for contacting you is a different one altogether.

I'm sure you've heard of Narcissa and Draco Malfoy's flight from Lucius and the Dark Lord. Narcissa would like to request sanctuary, and special protection for her son. As her cousin I'm willing to help her but I can only do so much.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Regulus A. Black

He immediately handed Lily the letter and went to write a response. The letter had them all excited for a few days but when no new letter arrived by the time three days had passed the general mood drooped back into a mix of helplessness and hopelessness. Only Kassandra and Peter could be seen giggling frequently while Lily began to have extremely violent mood swings.

The next letter arrived on day nine of 'Waiting and seeing'. It was a simple note asking Severus to go to a specific location to pick up Narcissa and Draco.

Severus replied with an equally short note saying that he would be there by noon two days later.

James, Sirius, Severus and Lily spent all of day eleven preparing for their rescue mission.

When they arrived outside the house everything was quiet. At least until a bright red blot of light shattered one of the windows. All of them drew their wands and James and Sirius led the way to the house. The inside of the house was inviting, friendly and open. The furniture and walls were decorated in different shades of blue. Lily's attention was pulled away from the decoration by a high scream. James and Sirius ran upstairs leaving Severus and Lily to investigate the ground floor.

They found nothing in the kitchen, and the library was locked with a spell Severus identified as Dark Magic. The bathroom was empty too. Lily tried to ignore the shouts and crashes from upstairs while she and Severus searched the living room.

Another scream nearly made her drop the bookshelf she was levitating. She put it down very slowly, trying to calm her nerves and watched Severus check the sofa. The woman upstairs (Narcissa, Lily's mind supplied) screamed again and this time she was joined by a smaller voice, somewhere on the ground floor. "Draco." Severus whispered and shot down the corridor toward a door under the stairs. Lily followed a bit more slowly. Just before Severus reached the little door it opened and a small boy shot out. He ran directly into Severus and started babbling. "Mummy, where mummy? Mummy hurt?" Severus picked the little boy up and was nearly suffocated when a small pair of arms wrapped around his neck.

The two adults exchanged a worried glance over Draco's head and suddenly Lily remembered what Peter's vision had said about the lily and the daffodil. She sent Severus another glance and ran upstairs.

The farther she got the louder the sounds of fighting became. Suddenly James crashed through one of the doors to her right, directly followed by Lucius Malfoy. Lily somehow managed to slip by him unnoticed. Sirius was crouched by Narcissa's side but he kept glancing out the door worriedly. "Go on." Lily said and took his place.

"Hi, I'm Lily. Severus has Draco, and James and Sirius are taking care of Lucius. Can you walk?" Narcissa nodded and smiled weakly. "He hit me with the Cruciatus but my dear cousin interrupted him before he could do damage. Let's go."

They made very slow progress and Lily kept up a silent tirade at the Anti-Apparition wards. After nearly five minutes, which felt like five hours, they finally made it to the front door. Severus was already outside and moved to help them as soon as he saw them. The four of them switched around a bit and left the house, Draco clinging tightly to Lily and Narcissa supported by Severus. They made it to the street without trouble but then Draco cried out in distress and Lily whipped around wand drawn. From the corner of her eye she could see Severus and Narcissa manoeuvring around to face the house once more. The thing that had scared Draco was his own father who was already halfway down the lawn, holding a wand to Sirius' neck. The idiot lost his wand, Lily thought.

"Leave! Don't let him get you! Severus, take care of Lily, and you should make sure he stays so nice, Lils. And have fun turning Malfoy's kid into a Gryffindor!" He was punished for that last sentence with a nasty but harmless hex from Lucius. Luckily for Sirius, James came running from the house in that moment and shot a Stunner at Lucius' back. He missed by an inch but only because Lucius chose that second to shift his weight. In reaction Lucius let go of Sirius and engaged James in a duel. Dodging stray spells, Sirius made his way over to Lily, Draco, Severus and Narcissa.

"We've got to get out of here. James is going to Apparate the moment he notices we're gone. Unfortunately this is the best plan we could come up with on such short notice." He glanced back at his best friend. "A word of advice, Apparate to headquarters separately and make sure to make at least three stops and then Apparate within walking distance. Good luck!" and with that he began shooting spells at Lucius.

Severus and Lily did as Sirius said. Lily arrived first, Draco crying in her arms. She was unbelievably grateful when Severus arrived with Narcissa ten minutes later. By then Draco wasn't crying so much as sobbing quietly. The moment he saw his mother he started smiling and reaching for her until Lily had to put him down to avoid dropping him.

They were welcomed by an angry Aletha, worried Jessika, relieved but calm Remus and a smirking Peter. Kassandra didn't really react, except to giggle whenever she looked at Lily or Severus. They spent another half hour worrying until a large silver dog came in through the closed window and stopped in front of Aletha. It opened its mouth and Sirius' voice said, "Everything's fine. We're on the way. Malfoy escaped." Aletha sagged as if someone had stunned her. Lily thought she heard her whisper 'Thank the heavens.'

Another fifteen minutes later the front door opened making Aletha jump from her seat and run to greet her husband. The others hung back a bit to let her compose herself before they intruded on such a private scene.

The moment the couple entered the living room Sirius was attacked with hugs and kisses (only on the cheek, of course) and 'Glad you're back's. Severus only sneered and shot a spell at Sirius making him glow in all colours of the rainbow. When Sirius was back to his non-glowing state Severus sneered again and said, "Too bad you weren't hit with anything worth noting."

Sirius laughed and kissed Aletha. They chatted for a while until Sirius began nodding off against his wife's shoulder and it was decided that it was time for all of them to go to bed.

To everyone's surprise it was Narcissa who asked, "Where is Mr. Potter?"