A/N: hey! Padfoot here, sorry it's been so long, we've definetly been bussy! But good news! The story is finished, so as a present I'm going to update, and finish it all today! Everyone thank Prongs! Hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 7: Caught

LILY'S POV

I woke up from my after lunch nap and stretched lazily in the sun. I looked to where Lyra had been and saw that she wasn't there. Before I panicked too much, I saw that she'd arranged sticks in an arrow formation, pointing towards the forest. I groaned. Trust Lyra to get bored and go exploring in the FORBIDDEN Forest.

I got up, raising my hands over my head and stretched my back before grabbing her broom. I looked at the blanket and basket and decided to leave them. I grabbed a stick and scratched in the sand 'Lyra- Went to look for you. If you beat me back, wait here. –Lily' before sitting on the broom and gliding nervously but quickly into the trees.

"Lyra?" I called, listening carefully for a response in between each yell. I heard something off to my right and angled in that direction. "Lyra?" I yelled louder.

"LILY, RUN!" I heard her scream, her voice breaking and sounding panicked. There was a loud thump and a curse. Oh hell no, she better not think I'd actually leave her! I whipped out my wand and shot in the direction of her voice, darting between trees like a professional, barely noticing when a branch whipped my face as I flew by.

I shot into a clearing with one tree in the middle. I immediately zeroed in on Lyra, wrestling with a very dirty, skinny man on the ground for her wand. I made my eyes flick around and gather everything else in. Lyra's father was unconscious on the ground and there was a ring of more dirty, skinny, slightly insane people surrounding the clearing. My blood froze as I realized they matched the pictures in this morning's Prophet, but I didn't have time to dwell on that fact. I urged the broom forward, screaming unintelligibly as I shot curses at the nearest Death Eater. I spun the broom to avoid answering hexes and my heart raced as I recognized the brilliant green jets of light that told me the Killing Curse was being fired in return. I stunned 3 and petrified another before I heard another thump. I saw the man Lyra had been wrestling, who I suddenly realized was Rookwood, push Lyra's limp body off him. I screamed in horror and dove towards him, intending to curse him into oblivion, but the overwhelming numbers finally defeated me. A curse hit the middle of my back and I felt my body go rigid. I lost control of the broom and it spun off course, slamming into a tree. I felt a sharp stab of pain and warm wetness trickling down my forehead, realizing that I'd been cut. The broom, now shattered, clattered to the forest floor and I dropped on top of it.

Rookwood sauntered over and leered at me, before bending over and plucking my wand out of my frozen hand. I glared at him with all the force I could muster, hoping to burn holes in his head. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He cocked his head to the side and studied me, then said "Why I do believe I have the pleasure of meeting young Lily Potter. I'm sorry we can't provide you with the luxury accommodations you're used to Miss Potter, but as you can see, this is the best we can offer." He spread his hands to indicate to forest. At the same time, he took the spell off enough that I could talk.

"What do you want, you mother fucking bastard?" I growled out, not at all amused by his play acting.

"Now now Miss Potter," he tutted "let's not use such language. It's not polite."

"Politeness implies respect, which I have none of for you. What. Do. You. Want?"

Why Miss Potter, we wanted you." He leaned in close to me, so I could smell his foul breath, and whispered hoarsely, "You've just saved us the trip."

They took us to Malfoy Manor and I felt a horrible déjà vu, though it wasn't my own. Dad, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione didn't like to talk about their time in this Manor, but I'd read books. Aunt Hermione was tortured in the living room we were walking through now.

"Lyra? Lily? Draco, what's going on?" I turned and saw Astoria, wand out, looking at our party with wide eyes. Draco didn't answer her. "Draco, I asked-"

"Be silent woman," Draco cut across, smacking her across the face. He then gave a scary smile. "We'll be entertaining guests for a while. Go get them something to eat." He turned to talk to Rookwood, assuming that his word would be carried out.

She stood firm, crossing her arms and standing with her feet apart. Her eyes blazed. "I will not."

Draco slowly turned around. "What did you say?"

She wavered a little, but one glance at Lyra was all it took for her to harden. "I said I will not. I will not help you shelter wanted fugitives, nor will I tolerate the sort of people you just let in this house. I have put up with your ridiculous prejudices, I have been your slave, always doing your bidding without question, and I have let you demean me and take away what pride I had. But I will NOT stand by and let you hurt one of your own children in a stupid drive to get revenge on a world that never wronged you-"

"HOW CAN YOU STAND THERE AND TALK ABOUT HOW THE WORLD NEVER WRONGED ME? HOW? IT DOESN'T TRUST ME AND WILL NEVER TRUST ME! IT'S FOREVER WAITING FOR ME TO TURN BACK TO MY OLD WAYS AND BETRAY THEM ALL!"

She looked at him sadly and with pity, before whispering "And you've just proved them right, haven't you?"

For a second, Draco's eyes flashed with pain and regret and he reached out, as though he wanted to touch his wife, hold her and take back what he'd just done. But then the anger and resentment slammed back down into his eyes like a steel curtain that matched their grey color and spun on his heel, already giving orders for her to be taken down into the dungeons with us. Astoria silently surrendered her wand and walked in front of us with a quiet dignity I had to admire, even through the anger that she'd done nothing to save herself or us.

One of the Death Eaters, Rodolphus Lestrange I believed, grabbed me by the arm and frog marched me down to the dungeons of the Manor. He threw Lyra and me in one cell and Astoria in another. "Wouldn't want the grown up giving the children any nasty ideas, now would we?" he asked with a sneer, before slamming the door shut and leaving us in total darkness.

"Why didn't you fight?" I hissed through the cell window.

"I pick my battles with times, places, and odds I can win against. What help would it have done for me to be beaten and dragged down here? This way I am in sound body if we need to move fast and I don't have to think through pain to come up with a plan."

Hope grew in me as she mentioned a plan. "Do you have one then? A plan?"

"Maybe. A seed, a germ, and idea. But it all depends on you and how determined and good at magic you are." As she was speaking, I felt something barely brush my cheek. I reached up and plucked it out of the air, running my hands along it. It felt like… a wand. Astoria had spares?

"What-"

"My husband will undoubtedly have spies listening, won't you Draco? Spying on us with magic is some of the only magic allowed in here. Many spells are perceived as a threat. It's almost as hard to break out of here as it is to break out of Azkaban."

Suddenly, the door at the top of the stairs flew open. I hurriedly hid the wand in the waistband of my jeans, under my shirt. Rodolphus had come back.

"It seems separate cells isn't enough to keep the wifey from spoiling the children's minds. She'll have to be in a separate part of the house altogether. It's up to the attic with you dearie."

Astoria did not resist as Rodolphus pulled her to her feet and led her out, past our cell. But I heard her mutter to me as she passed "Choose your battles Lily." I clung to those words as the door slammed shut again. I would choose my battles alright. And I was going to be one hell of an enemy.

Lyra's POV

When I woke up, at first I thought I hadn't even opened my eyes. I blinked a couple times to make sure, then began to panic when I still couldn't see. Childish as it seems, I was afraid of the dark. You can't see what's coming at you in the dark. You can't fight back.

"NO! No, let me out! DON'T LEAVE ME IN THE DARK!" I flung myself in the first direction I thought of, which happened to be forward, and slammed into a wall. "LET ME OUT!" I flew sideways into another wall, then backwards, slamming into something soft that let out a small gasp as I hit it. Something was here! Danger, danger! I immediately spun off whatever it was and backed into a corner, practically snarling.

"Lyra, Lyra! It's Lily! Please calm down. We're in your Manor's dungeons," Lily's voice wavered, probably affected by my blatant panic. I straightened up, still hyperventilating.

"It's dark Lily. It's too dark! I can't see! Lily, I can't see!"

"Shh," she said before I went back into a full scale panic attack. I heard her moving, then felt her arm brush mine. "You don't need to see. Come here, I'll teach you something James taught me when I was little." She led me to what I assumed was the middle of the cell and pushed me to sit down. "Shut your eyes. You don't need them," she whispered. "You can tell where I am, can't you? You can hear me." She paused and I listened carefully, hearing her breathing and the faint rustle of her clothes and pad of her feet as she walked in a slow circle around me.

"You can smell me." I took a deep breath and over the must of the dungeons I could catch a whiff of her strawberry shampoo coming from my left.

"You can sense me. You have magic in your body Lyra. Let it flow around you and cover the area. Let it wash towards my voice, let it cover the cell. Let it see for you." I struggled with this new sense, but I eventually felt a ripple coming from deep within me, a pure silver color. I quickly dipped into the spring of magic inside me and drew it out, spreading it over the small, square cell. And strangely… I could see, in a way. There was a picture in my mind in a strange, indescribable monotone color. It couldn't tell me details but I got a shape. I could tell there was nothing but straw on the floor, a door with a small window to my right and Lily was behind me, leaning against the wall.

I gasped and lost my hold on the magic, plunging me once more into the impenetrable blackness. But this time, I wasn't afraid; I could cast my magic out again at any time and see what was happening.

"What? How?" I spluttered.

"You're not afraid of the dark. You're afraid of the unknown. I've given you a way to know. As for how it works, I don't know. James taught me and he discovered it himself when he was little and he didn't like the dark. It's how he gets around a lot you know."

I laid down and gazed up unseeingly. "That's so weird."

"I know."

I shook my head to clear it. "Lily, how are we getting out of here? They took our wands of course."

She hesitated, then I felt something slip into my hand as Lily said carefully "Even if we had wands, your mother told me most magic is perceived as a threat to the blockage spells." I was running my hands over what she'd given me as she talked. It was a wooden rod about 12 inches long and skinny. It was a wand! I understood however that there would be people listening and latched onto a more important fact implied by Lily's words.

"Wait, they have Mum?"

Lily's voice was gentle. "Yes. She stood up to him for you."

I buried my head in my hands. My mother was being imprisoned or worse because of me. I didn't have to ask who he was. I knew. "Oh Lily. What are we going to do?"

I felt her hand slip into mine. "We're going to hope. And we're going to fight."

A/N: Please review! we want to know if we're doing good, what parts you like the best so we can add to our other stories, it helps our future writing! please!