Chapter 9

Remus couldn't believe what he just saw. One minute he saw Harry running towards him with, surprisingly Rora Weasley next to him. Then he saw a Death Eater shot a stunning spell at them. Harry pushed Rora out of the way, getting hit himself.

Remus had started running to get to Harry, when the Death Eater come next to Harry and disappear with a loud crack. He didn't know how long he stood there, staring at the spot Harry just disappeared from, but the next thing he knew was James voice calling out for him.

"REMUS! HARRY!"

Remus snapped out of his trance. He saw Rora staring at him with a frighten and guilty look on her face. He may dislike her views and beliefs, but he couldn't leave a little thirteen year old girl alone with Death Eaters still around, even if the girl was Rora Weasley.

"JAMES, I'M OVER HERE!" He yelled out as he ran over to Rora, who was still on the ground. He picked her up by the arms gently. To his surprise, she didn't flinch at his touch.

They started running in the direction of James's voice. Remus saw Sirius before seeing James. He had his wand out, having just finished off a Death Eater. "Sirius!"

Sirius turned in their direction. "Remus!" Sirius ran over to them. "JAMES! I FOUND REMUS!"

Remus saw James run out of a store. He looked around before running towards them.

James looked around and saw Rora, but no Harry. "Where's Harry?" He asked, panicking.

Remus started pulling Rora inside a building. "Not here." They followed him to the building, keeping a watch on any sudden movements. Most of the street was now abandoned. You can still hear Death Eaters in the distant.

They entered the building. James turned to Remus. "Where's Harry?" He asked forcefully.

Remus looked at the top of Rora's head. He found it strange she hadn't said a word or insult yet. Neither did she try to leave. She had a blank look on her face. Maybe she was feeling guilty, if that was possible.

"Remus, where's Harry?" James almost screamed.

"He's gone. A Death Eater took him." He whispered feeling guilty. Here he was supposed to protect him and this happened. If only chocolate didn't grab his attention Harry might be here.

James didn't say anything. He seemed to go in shock. Sirius though flipped out. "WHAT? A Death Eater took him!" He ran his hand over his face. "Could this day get any worse?"

After a few minutes of silence, James spoke up in a distant voice. "None of the Aurors are here yet." He noted as he glanced out of the shops window. "Where are they?" Just as he said this they heard popping sounds as the Aurors finally came.


James kept his head down, facing the top of the table. Rora was returned to her family. Mrs. Weasley had one loud voice. Especially, when she saw who brought Rora home; people from the Order. The Order she grown to hate with a fierce passion.

He looked up when he saw Tonks walk into the room. She looked fine, though a bit tired from last night. Her arm, though, was strangely in a cast. She sat down across from James and started picking at her cast.

James looked back down at the table, waiting for the rest of the Order to get there. They were going to be talking about the attack earlier today, about Harry. He felt this ping of regret and sorrow hit him. He tried to repress them, tried to tell himself that he only regretted a child had been taken, tried to tell himself there was nothing he could have done, but nothing truly hid the true reason why he felt that way. He blamed himself. If only he had talked the boy. If only he was there to protect him. It felt like he failed all over again. Failed his boy. Failed to protect. The one promise he gave to Harry when he was born.

Suddenly James found himself looking at a blurry tabletop as tears formed around his eyes. He is such a failer. Why couldn't he protect anyone? Most of all, his own family?

The sound of coughing brought James attention back to the present. Albus was at the head of the table waiting for everyone's attention to go to him.

"Now that I have everyone's attention, let us start. As most of you know there have been a series' of set attacks these past few days. Taking place at nine almost every night. Small attacks upon members of the Order. Severus didn't know the reasons behind the attacks." Severus nodded his head in agreement. "And until earlier today I still was confused about them, but it has come to my attention the reason for these small attacks. They were a distraction."

"Distraction?" Arthur Weasley asked. "A distraction for what?" Others in the room looked back at Albus for the answer.

Albus sighed before answering. "The Minister, as you know, has finally allowed trials to take place for all Death Eaters and what not. These past few days we have captured a number of twenty Death Eaters. We were all focused on, not only the next small attack, but also the trials taking place. So, like usual, everyone was waiting for the next attack to take place tonight and wasn't ready for one to take place in the middle of the day."

"They caught us unprepared." Sirius murmured, understanding what Albus was taking about. "Most people were tired from the trials and late night fighting. It was the perfect time to strike." He said more loudly. Albus nodded. Sirius turned to Mad-Eye Moody. "Why did it take so long for the Aurors to get there?"

Moody's eye looked at him. "At the same time as the attack in Diagon Alley, the Aurors that had nothing to do at the Ministry was called to an attack near the Isle of Dogs and Paddington Station."

"There's more." Severus spoke up.

"More attacks?" Sirius asked wide eye.

Severus glared at him. "No. More bad news." He caught James's eye for a split second before looking around the room. "As you know, or should know, the Isle of Dogs and the Paddington Station were decoy attacks. So, were the night attacks. The main attack was Diagon Alley. The Dark Lord ordered people to be captured not killed unless necessary. At some point between the attack and now, the Dark Lord changed his plans."

"What? Why?" Someone yelled out.

Severus glared in the person direction. "It has something to do with the boy's wand."

James sat up looking alarmed. "Boy? You mean, Harry?" He asked slowly, horrified at the thought of it.

Severus nodded.

Horror set in on the three former Marauders. "Voldemort has his attention set on Harry now?" Remus asked already knowing the answer.

Severus nodded again. "He does, but I don't really know why. I wasn't at the meeting where it took place. I was sent to the potion lab instead."

James sat throughout the meeting, too petrified to move or speak. To petrified to even listen to anything going on around him.

It was happening again, like it did sixteen years ago. Only this time Lily wasn't there with him. Why did Voldemort always have to have an eye on Harry? It happened then, it was happening now. And, as last time, James is afraid he won't be able to save him. It pained him. It pained him deeply that he would fail again.

James had never believed in second chances, but he now realized he was given a second chance. A second chance to be a father and he blew it. Lily would be so disappointed. He didn't know how to be a father to a teenager. Now, he might not have the chance to prove he can be.


When Harry woke up, the first thing he realized was his bloody headache. His head pounded just above his eyes and his glasses is missing. He opened one eye after the other to see only darkness. Harry looked around hoping to see any source of light to find his glasses and get out of here. Nothing.

He ran his hand over the floor, hoping his glasses fell off while he was in here. Where ever 'here' was. The floor felt like it was made of cold stone. It felt a little damp. If Harry had to guess he would say he was in a basement of some sort.

He found his glasses near where his feet were. He placed them on his face and groaned as he lifted himself in a sitting position. He leaned against the wall and focused on the sound of dripping water. In the distant, Harry swore he could hear the sounds of screaming. He rubbed his head to ease the pain.

He didn't know how long he sat there, but a few hours or seconds later, the sound of metal against metal came from the other side of the room. Harry sat up straighter.

Light hit his face as a door opened. Harry had to close his eyes to the brightness. He reopened them slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the light. With his eyes still unused to the light, Harry could only see two black burry figures walking towards him. He tensed. It wasn't hard to figure out who the figures were. They were Death Eaters.

One of the Death Eaters grabbed Harry by the arm and forced him to his feet before Harry could really do anything. "Get up!" He ordered angrily.

Once Harry was on his feet, the other Death Eater grabbed his other arm. He finally found the strength to struggle, even though he knew it wouldn't do any good.

The Death Eaters mange to pull him out of the room and into a well lit stone corridor.

"Stop boy or you'll feel the wrath of our Lord."

Harry stopped struggling momentarily. Our Lord? Voldemort! They're going to see Voldemort! Harry almost groaned. That was the last thing on his to do list. If Voldemort found out who he was…Harry started struggling harder than before. Wanting to get out of there before Voldemort catches onto anything.

One of the Death Eaters, Harry didn't know which one, hit him across the head hard enough to knock him out cold.

When Harry woke up again, he found himself in the mirror room from his vision a few weeks ago. He was lying at the bottom of the stairs. He wasn't the only one there. There must have been fifty or so people either kneeing or laying on the ground. The Death Eaters were lined up against the wall like statues.

Kneeing next to him, with blood running down her forehead, was a little girl of four or five. Her tears were mixed into her blood and she was murmuring under her breath.

"Mommy. Daddy, help."

Harry watched her for a few moments, knowing all about wanting your parents even though you know it was impossible. Sighing, Harry picked himself off the floor and knelt down next to the girl. He placed a hand on her back. "Shh…you'll be back to your Mommy and Daddy soon. Everything will be all right." He lied. Everything won't be okay, not with Voldemort coming.

The girl leaned into him for comfort. She clinched onto his shirt and started crying silently. Not really knowing who he was, but was glad for the comfort.

Harry's scar suddenly flared up with pain. He clinched his teeth together to hold back a scream of pain. He looked up the stairs and glared at the figure standing there playing with his wand.

Voldemort a.k.a Tom Riddle stood above them wand in hand. Something on Voldemort's waist caught Harry's attention. Harry gasped in horror. The wand in Voldemort's hand wasn't his wand. It was Harry's wand! The brother of Voldemort's wand!

The girl in his arms shook with fear. Harry rubbed her back absent-mindedly. He heard a woman scream in fear, but Harry wasn't really paying attention. His focus was on Voldemort.

"Good evening, mudbloods and blood traitors." Voldemort said smiling calmly. He took a few steps down the stairs. He looked at the wand before looking back at the prisoners. "This is a nice wand, don't you think?"

Harry cringed.

"I would like to know who owns it." Voldemort's voice had a dangerous tone to it. "If no one comes up to claim this wand, there will be…" He paused, then smirked. "…consequences." He hissed. Nobody did anything.

Harry felt his scar burn as Voldemort's anger rose. Using Harry's wand, Voldemort suddenly spun towards Harry and sent the Killing Curse at him.

Harry didn't have time to do anything, but watch as the green spell rushed towards him. To his outmost horror, the spell didn't hit him, but hit the girl that was still in his arms. Her body fell right into Harry's arms. For a moment Harry forgot to breathe as he stared at the dead body in his arms. Ignoring all those around him, he closed the girls dead blue eyes.

"Bring the boy to me." Harry snapped his head up, thinking Voldemort was talking about him. But to his horror, a Death Eater pushed a little boy about three or four. The boy must have had a silence spell on him. He looked really frighten, with the tears running down his face and his mouth open, like he was trying to scream.

Voldemort grabbed the boy from the back of his neck. "If you don't want to see this boy die, then the owner of this wand step forward, now."

Almost everyone, who didn't want to see a little boy die, started yelling at once.

"That's my wand."

"No, it's my wand."

"I can prove it's mine."

"My wand."

"My wand."

Harry couldn't stand it. He couldn't let a boy that young die, nor can he let some else take his place as owner of the wand. He gently placed the girl's body on the ground and stood up. "It's my wand." But Voldemort either didn't hear him or didn't believe him. He had to get Voldemort's attention. "It's my wand, Tom Riddle." Harry yelled. Voldemort would surly turn his attention to Harry now.

Indeed, Voldemort snapped his head in Harry's direction, not knowing who said it, but knowing someone did. "SILENCE!" Everyone immediately stopped talking. Voldemort glared around the room. "Who said that?"

Harry stepped forward. He was that scared. He fought with him four times, not counting Hollow's Eve night. And his world Voldemort was a lot scarier looking then this Voldemort. Of course this Voldemort was most likely more powerful, being alive longer then his Voldemort. "I did, Tom." Harry said trying to keep his voice even and confident. Though, his voice sounded confident, he wasn't inside. Inside his heart was beating really fast and his head was telling him not to do this.

Voldemort looked at him and glared. "How did you hear of that name, boy!" He hissed angrily. Harry opened his mouth to respond but Voldemort started barking orders. "Death Eaters, take the prisoners back to their cell. Leave the boy with me." He shouted not looking away from Harry. "We're going to need the leverage." He hissed, shaking the young boy in his arms roughly.

Harry took a shaky breath as he heard the Death Eaters take the other prisoners out of the room. This was going to suck.