A/N: So it has taken me SO LONG to write this chapter. I'm not really confident with it because I'm still half dead from school. Exam season is just coming to an end and I have literally almost died from exhaustion. I have had SO MANY PANIC ATTACKS I cannot even count them. Three doctors and a pack of Kalms tablets later, I'm relatively fine, thank Merlin. But this should be a good enough excuse as to why this chapter hasn't been up sooner. Sorry, guys! I'll be better at writing these up now because I have my last exam on 20th June (Biology. Meh) and then two months off before I start the big college. Wutwut!

Dedication: First, to Maladict (don't judge, I can't proofread my own stuff very well! Plus, the chapters get better lol!), seafeather-ono (sorry for not updating sooner! Your love lists make me laugh, also), CLJR (I'm English, so technically, we can't take a driving test until we're seventeen, but if I want to, I can get my provisional licence now! Thanks for the review!), Nithusa (thanks! I sure hope it is…), KatiePotter (I KNOW! NO TYPOS! :O I've proofread briefly on this chapter, but you know me… I'm lazy when it comes to editing my own stuff… So thanks!) and LeilaTheRainbowNinja (yes, the vole scene made a comeback! Yays! Now, get your butt on 'the cornucopia' and get Keety interacting some more. Don't make me come over there!). Thanks a lot guys, you don't know how much I appreciate your reviews and birthday wishes!

Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, don't own the Potterverse. I wish I did, though. I also don't own the Quidditch team the 'Wigtown Wanderers'; I do own a copy of J. 's 'Quidditch Through The Ages' and, yes, the team is in there if you turn to page 37. That is all.

Chapter Eleven

We the people fight for our existence

- 'Little By Little', Oasis

Lily Evans was exhausted; she has spent the better part of three hours sat in Professor Dumbledore's office, discussing what had happened that night. She didn't know how many times that she had relayed the night, omitting the part about the Marauders' Map; one look at James told her that he didn't want anything to be said about it.

"Go over it again," Professor Tindall asked, various sheets of parchment with cluttered handwriting on and bits of broken quills strewn around her, like she was at the centre of some invisible tornado.

Even Lily, who never answered teachers back, who always did the right thing and was top of her year, felt the need to moan a little now. "Do we have to?"

"Start from when you began your patrol," Tindall insisted, dipping her sixth quill of the night into a pot of dark green ink. The nib was poised a few millimetres above the parchment. A drop of that green ink threatened to fall onto the empty paper; Tindall rolled the quill between her fingers so that it didn't fall.

"Okay," James began, noticing Lily's exhaustion. "We left Gryffindor Common Room before curfew. We passed a few people and then we were alone on the third floor corridor."

"Are you sure that you were alone? What were you doing?" Tindall pressed, scribbling frantically.

"We were just talking," James said firmly. "About... The Charms homework."

"And then?" Tindall asked, looking up at the two of them. "What happened then?"

"We heard a scream," Lily cut in, feeling like she had to relieve James of talking. "We didn't get there in time to see who it was that had Cursed Ellen, but-"

"You could have if you had hurried. What took you so long?" Tindall demanded, pausing in her writing.

"We couldn't get there straight away, obviously," Lily said. She was treading on thin ice, being so condescending to a fully fledged Auror and teacher, but she couldn't tell them about the Marauders' Map. She had the feeling that the staff wouldn't like the Map at all. "We had to determine where about the scream was coming from before we ran blindly around the castle."

"Okay," Tindall admitted. "That's true. But one of you stopped the Cruciatus Curse and the effect that it was having on Miss Lockford. Which of you did that, or did it fade on its own?"

"That was James," Lily said immediately, glancing over at him. He had a bemused look on his face. For the first time, Lily felt guilty - she had obviously never paid him a compliment before and he couldn't believe it. "I asked why we should just assume that someone was being attacked while we were heading towards where we found Ellen and he said that you always have to assume that the worst has happened so that you can pursue the correct action. When we found Ellen, he just jumped into action while I was in shock, or something. He muttered an incantation and then she just... Lay still."

"What spell did you perform, Mr Potter?" Professor Dumbledore asked James seriously. His blue eyes were twinkling with intrigue.

"I said 'finite incantatum' and then Banished the Curse from her body. It took a bit of concentration, but I guess that I was pumped full of adrenaline or something." James was actually being modest, Lily thought, bemused. Well, this was a first.

Professor Dumbledore looked at the two of them, scrutinising them over the top of his half moon glasses as he had with Leilani the previous night.

"It is late and I presume that you would like to go back to your friends and discuss what has happened tonight. However, I must advise you to be extremely cautious in what you tell them: I have no doubts that they would tell anybody else about tonight's happenings, but please do be careful of who may be listening into your conversations from now on. You know how the students are at this school... The best-kept secrets at Hogwarts are the ones that the whole school knows."

Lily and James nodded at the headmaster. "Okay, Professor, we'll be careful," James promised, holding out a hand to pull Lily from her chair. Together, the Head Boy and Head Girl walked from the headmaster's office and through the halls of Hogwarts. The suits of armour creaked as the moved themselves around to see who was walking past them. James ducked through a tapestry and Lily followed hesitantly, still nervous about using James Potter's shortcuts.

They got to the Gryffindor Common Room within ten minutes and found all their friends sitting around the fire, talking seriously, looking extremely worried. As soon as the two students walked in, Marlene and Alice jumped up. They hurried over and the two girls engulfed Lily in what Sirius always described as a bear hug.

"We were so worried, Lily!" Alice squealed. "We heard that there had been another attack and we didn't know what was going on. I mean, it could happen to anybody." Alice said earnestly. Marlene went stiff and turned away, sitting down next to Ylana, who hadn't moved at all, but looked relieved that James and Lily were back.

Alice seemed to notice Marlene's distress, as her face immediately looked apologetic. "Oh, Marlene, I'm sorry!" she cried, eyes filling with tears. "You know I didn't mean it like that,"

"It's okay, Al," Marlene said in an even voice, smiling a little. It didn't truly reach her eyes. She turned to Lily and James. "We're all just glad that you guys weren't caught up in it."

"They were," Sirius said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. He had spent the whole time that Alice was overreacting watching his best friend. "Right, James?"

Everyone went silent. Ylana glanced at Sirius before turning to stare at James aswell. Lily

recalled that Ylana was Sirius' cousin, and had therefore been friends with James a lot longer than she had been friends with Lily.

James nodded beside her, the dying firelight glinting off of the lenses in his glasses. "We were on patrol and we heard someone screaming, so we took out the map and found Ellen Lockford lying there on the floor of the fifth floor corridor, obviously under the influence of the Cruciatus Curse. I managed to get it off her somehow and then we hauled her to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey started to get her better while Lily and I went to talk to Dumbledore and Tindall."

Alice clapped her hands to her mouth while Peter squeaked and jumped. Marlene's eyes fluttered closed and she looked pained while Remus shook his head slowly. Sirius and Ylana looked at one another briefly. Lily caught it, but wasn't sure that anyone else had; she added a mental note to speak to the two cousins later about it.

There was a sound of feet on the staircase, and everyone whipped around just in time to see a messy-haired seventh year boy appear at the foot of the stairs. His hair was black and he had a serious bed head, emerald green eyes that were lighter than Lily's by a few shades and pale skin. He looked to be around the same height as James and Sirius and muscles were visible through the thin fabric of his Wigtown Wanderers pyjamas.

"What's going on?" he asked sleepily, rubbing a hand through his hair, yawning.

"Come and sit down, Seb," Remus invited, gesturing to a pile of pillows that had been discarded onto the floor. The boy, Seb, did so, collapsing onto the floor, stifling another yawn.

"Someone else has been attacked, Sebastian," Ylana informed him, poking at the flames in the grate with the tip of her wand; they sprang up again, a little brighter and warmer than they had been before. "Ellen Lockford, do you remember her? She used to be in our Charms before she failed out of it at OWL level,"

"Merlin, yeah," Sebastian replied. "Was it the ones who got Mar, d'you reckon?"

"We think so, yeah," Lily answered, perching on the arm of the sofa nearest to her, the one that the girls were sat on. "It was the Cruciatus Curse again, at least. We didn't get to see who it was that cast the Curse, but Dumbledore's got Tindall involved big time now. It wouldn't surprise me if she got some of her Auror buddies from the Department involved next, actually."

"Trust me, if Tindall's done that, the rest of the Wizarding world will think there's an all-out war going on out here. If she's going to involve more Aurors, it'll be done so that nobody outside of the school will know about it." James shared, looking and sounding more serious than Lily had ever seen him. Sirius nodded as if he knew exactly what James was trying to get at.

"That could also be because he doesn't want whoever is telling these people to Curse students to find out that he's onto them." Marlene ventured. "I've heard rumours about this guy who's been abducting Muggles and Muggle borns from all over the place. Do you think it could be him?"

"What, you mean this Lord Voldemort guy?" Alice asked, reaching into her bag, which was at the side of the sofa still. She pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet and showed it to the others. On the front was a large picture of a green, eerie skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. The sign was hovering over a building, which had purple floating tape around it, bearing the silver letters 'MoM: A. DEPT' - 'Ministry of Magic: Aurors Department'. The headline said 'Lord Voldemort strikes Muggle home in Herefordshire'

"It could be," Ylana admitted. "And Dumbledore could have told Tindall to keep the whole Auror situation on the down low because he doesn't want this Lord Voldemort to know, but if that was the case - and Voldemort is the one telling whoever it is to Curse students - wouldn't he already know?" she asked, blue eyes flickering around at the faces of her friends. "Because if it's students who are Cursing people around here, then Voldemort's already got spies inside Hogwarts. And if he's already got spies..."

"Then he already knows what Tindall's doing." Lily finished Ylana's sentence grimly.

"Do you remember what we were talking about at dinner the other day?" Sirius asked suddenly, appealing to Lily, Ylana and Alice. The others looked between the four Gryffindors curiously.

Lily nodded slowly. "Have you thought of something else?" she asked Sirius, who shrugged.

"It's just a thought, but-" he began but Remus interrupted him.

"Hang on," he demanded in that calm, quiet, thoughtful way of his. "What were you talking about?"

"Just about why Tindall's at the school in the first place," Ylana explained after a second of hesitation; she didn't feel that it was a good idea to mention that they had suspected Peter of knowing more than he was letting on. Or maybe that was just her. "Isn't a bit fishy that Dumbledore hired Tindall in the middle of August, and she just happens to be a working Auror that's at the top of her profession, when we've had two people be attacked with the Cruciatus Curse already and it's still the first week of term?" she asked the others in one breath. James frowned.

"It's a bit suspicious," he said slowly. "But... Dumbledore wouldn't know anything about this beforehand and not try to stop it, would he?"

Alice, Ylana, Lily and Sirius looked at one another. They hadn't thought of that scenario.

"What if he knew about it before he hired Tindall and tried his best to stop it from happening, but what he tried didn't work?" Peter put in timidly, making his presence known for the first time that night.

"Nothing's changed with the school itself, though," Sebastian argued. "He hasn't put in any special measures like different curfews,"

"That we know of," James added darkly. "He's the most powerful man on the planet; you can't tell me that he can't do magic that nobody else can detect, because he's done it with Hogwarts many times over."

Marlene glanced out of the windows and saw a tinge of pink along the ridge of the distant mountains. "Guys, it's nearly morning," she pointed out wearily. "We should get some sleep; we can discuss this more in the morning, after all."

There was a dull sound of assent as everyone pulled themselves up. The girls bade everyone goodnight and walked away. They didn't notice Ylana's absence. She remained behind with the Marauders, Lily and Sebastian, hesitating.

"What is it, 'lana?" Lily asked, curious.

"I need to speak to Sirius," Ylana replied.

"Listen, if this is about that revenge that you swore on Vixie, this isn't a good time," Remus pointed out, frowning. Ylana shook her head, smiling slightly.

"This isn't about that. I just need to speak to my cousin. Is that alright with you, Sirius?" she asked. He frowned, confused, but nodded anyway.

"Well... Okay, then. We're going to go over to the Head's Common Room and get some rest," Lily said. "You guys better not go out of Gryffindor tower, or I'll give you a detention." she warned them before James rolled his eyes and threw the Invisibility Cloak over the two of them, leading Lily out of the portrait hole and into the corridor beyond. Remus, Sebastian and Peter glanced at Ylana and Sirius before muttering a goodnight and walking up the staircase towards their dormitory. As soon as they were gone, Sirius turned to Ylana.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?" he asked innocently. Ylana wasn't buying it.

"You know what." she said flatly. "The family. You know what they're like; they'll be in on this, Sirius."

Her cousin's grey eyes hardened. "And what do you expect me to do, Ylana?" he demanded. "I can't just walk up to my mother and say: 'hi mom, sorry I've been a traitor and all, but do you know if some of our relatives has been Cursing Hogwarts students?'!"

"I know that," Ylana snapped, then took a deep breath to control her anger at her cousin. "It's not just that our dear relatives are probably involved. They'll come for us too."

Sirius clenched his fists, looking like he was going to punch something. "I won't do anything that they tell me to do." he said through gritted teeth.

"But me... I'm in deep, Sirius, deep." Ylana whispered. "There's only so many times that you can say no."

Sirius grabbed Ylana by the shoulders and bent his head until he could meet her eyes. "You are not in too deep, Ylana Thomson. Don't you dare give into them, Ylana, you can't. They're on the wrong side of this war, and we are on the right side. You need to remember that."

"There's something else you're not telling me," she said, suspicious. "I know you. What is it?"

Sirius sighed. "I ran into Regulus after the conversation we had at lunch the other day, that's all. He said that I needed to look closer to home if I wanted to find out who had Cursed Marlene." He then looked around like he had only just noticed something. "Where's Dorcas been, by the way? She's usually always hanging out with us, right?"

Ylana grimaced. "Yeah, Dorcas wasn't feeling well, so I told her to go to bed early. You know how it is."

Sirius backed away jokingly, hands raised. "Okay, point taken. But what do you think about what Reg said?"

Ylana thought hard for a moment. "Maybe about Peter being the first on the scene? I don't know, Sirius, I honestly think that he was just trying to scare you."

"But how would he even know Peter was the one to find Marlene in the first place?" he pressed. "Dumbledore didn't tell anybody, nobody else but us knows that!"

"I don't know!" Ylana exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. She began to walk back towards the staircase, talking over her shoulder to her cousin. "I'm going to bed, and you'd better do the same. Seriously, just ignore what Regulus says to you, he's just the same as the rest of them. Goodnight."

"Night," Sirius muttered as he was left standing there in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room, alone. He didn't believe for one minute that Regulus was just trying to rile him up; the younger Black brother knew something, and Sirius was determined to find out what.

( We don't claim to be perfect, but we're free )

Elizabeth Tindall was sat in her office, pouring over her notes on the Cursings that had happened recently at Hogwarts. She loved a challenge, and this was exactly what the term had been so far. The lanterns, which she had lit with her wand as soon as she had got back from the Headmaster's office a few hours previous, were flickering low, distracting her from her work, but Tindall didn't want to look away from the notes in case she missed something. She waved her wand vaguely over her shoulder, in the general direction of the lights, and missed. Shrugging, she turned a sheet of parchment over and continued to read.

Her mind turned as she skimmed through the transcript in front of her; it had come from her interview with Dorcas Meddowes. She needed to speak to more people, she decided, more of McKinnon's friends. And then there was the attack on Ellen Lockford that she had to deal with... She had spoken to a few of the other teachers, and none of them could remember seeing anybody who went around with the girl. She just seemed to be one of those people who didn't have many friends. That wasn't particularly good with her investigation, but there would be people who knew her, even if they weren't friends with her.

She grabbed a quill, a pot of ink and a clean sheet of parchment and began to write.

PROPOSED INTERVIEWS

James Potter

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Peter Pettigrew - need to see URGENTLY

Ylana Thomson

Alice Cotton

Sebastian Prince

Marlene McKinnon

She stared at the list for a moment before yawning. She really did need some sleep, and now that she knew exactly what she was going to do, she felt that she could truly rest a lot easier. She pushed her chair back and stood up, leaving her parchment where it was, scattered all over the table, and double checked that the doors and windows were all locked (she didn't want anybody to get in and see, or even possibly steal, her investigation notes) before she started walking towards the door that hid her bedroom. She paused at the door, pointing her wand back into the room, and whispered, "Nox."

A/N: So, there we go. I didn't get as far in as I wanted to (or as planned, should I say), but there's still enough here to further my plot. A request of you awesome dudes: can anyone guess what Ylana's little secret is? Feel free to try your hardest to find out. Leila, I ban you from telling any of them! Review!

- Lauren