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"I love Halloween." James breathed, throwing his arms around Sirius and I, as we all trudged towards Hogsmeade.

Ah yes, Halloween. The time of year for candy, costumes and cryptic letters from your half-breed brothers.

"Potter," Lily called from my left as she fixed James with a glare "You do realise that we're all here to try and stop whatever's going to happen, not to carve pumpkins don't you?"

"But I thought you were here as my Hogsmeade date?" James answered with a roguish grin as he affirmatively nodded to a group of upset girls, causing all of us to stop and look at him incredulously.

"Since when do you lend pigs your broomstick?" I muttered from under James' arm.

"Okay people, let's focus." Evangeline stated as we approached Hogsmeade's entrance.

She and Rach had joined in after Sirius and I told everyone about the unhelpful note at James' party. Which soon became less of a party and more of a 'what is your brother on about?' gathering.

And everyone knows the only reason girls would willingly fraternise with boys is due to the awareness of an impending catastrophe.

"I think we should split up in pairs, and look around for anything suspicious." Remus added with a serious look, making the rest of us glance around for a shady man in black, a Death Eater pulling a little girl's pigtail or Voldemort hiding behind a bush. Preparation is key.

"Does Snape being out in public count as suspicious?" Sirius asked, signalling over to where Snape was watching Lily Evans from a shop window.

Maybe Jude meant Lily would gain a creepy stalker for Halloween.

Well, stalker is unkind. Really he's just a casually-stare-out-of-a Gladrags-Wizardwear-window-towards-the-love-of-my-life kind of guy. Or perhaps he was just really excited about their sale on scarfs or hair products.

"Okay, pairs." Remus continued, rolling his eyes as Snape abruptly walked into a hat stand as he realised we had noticed him. Make that an interest in berets.

"Lily and James should go together." I piped up, being rewarded with James' puppy dog look and Lily's glacier-forming glare. Antarctica used to be a desert until she visited.

"Why must we go together?" Lily asked the group, daring anyone to provide a legitimate reason.

Well, let's see if she can actually turn me into stone.

"Because you're both Heads. So you can get away with more snooping and interrogation-ing if you're together." I answered triumphantly, watching as she took in the truth of what I said.

Victory is mine, dear Evans. Never underestimate the power of made-up words and logic.

"Okay then," James called pulling Lily away "See you lot in the Three Broomsticks at twelve for debriefing?"

"And they never saw the Head students again." Sirius said solemnly, as James tugged the protesting Lily from view.

"Well we'll have to wait and see. Jude wasn't specific," Remus chuckled "Belle?"

Before I could agree to be Remus' investigating partner, Sirius snatched my hand "No way, Moony. You get her in potions, I get her for crime stopping."

Remus gave a knowing grin at Sirius' defiant look, before pairing with Evangeline and gesturing that they were going to go in the opposite direction.

I don't blame them. Run from the madman with hand snatching skills.

"Right, we'll head this way." Sirius said, clapping Peter on the back and nodding to Rach, as we headed off down some dodgy side street.

We began to amble, not really sure what we were looking for, as Jude's letter told us nothing.

It really should have been read with some sort of suspenseful music playing in the background. Or at least in the dark with candlelight flickering all over the page.

"I wonder if anything's actually going to go wrong." Sirius said, stepping to the side as some Hogwarts students invaded our lane.

"Maybe we should have told Dumbledore or a teacher or someone." I asked with worry.

"Well, we don't actually know what's going on, so what could they do?" He pulled me towards the tail end of the High Street and began to scan for Death Eater book club meetings. Or something else equally evil.

If only it were as easy as spotting some guy in a cloak, but the wicked generally don't hang about twirling black moustaches. Unless they actually have one that is. Which almost never happens.

I nodded absently at him before I spotted something up ahead. Was that actually a villain looking suspect as he exited the Hogs Head? I've been giving Aurors way too much credit. This stuff is easy.

"Hey!" I whispered, pulling Sirius into a crevice as the faceless evil guy headed our way.

"What?" he asked, pushing me behind him as he glanced around franticly trying to spot any danger. And why is my heart reacting so strongly to this?

The figure stopped at a shop window and began to study something intensely.

What more scarf sales?

"I wonder what's he's doing?" Sirius breathed pushing more of my body out of view, which didn't help with our stake-out.

I think the point of surveillance is that you're supposed to be able to see your target.

As he shifted again to completely block me from any other human sight, I tickled his sides in annoyance.

"Hey!" he half-cried, half-laughed indignantly.

"You were standing in front of me." I said innocently before turning back towards the shifty figure.

"Of course. We don't know what's going to happen he could-" Sirius began before I cut him off, as the figure had stepped into the light.

"Hey look that's Dolohov! What is he-" I started before being interrupted by another person.

Wow, chain of interruption. Manners be damned at Hogwarts.

"You two couldn't catch a vampire with a barrel full of blood," Came the sarcastic drawl of my younger brother "You forgot to wave frantically as you called him over, Belle."

He signalled to where Dolohov was watching us up the street, with a curious smirk on his face.

One of the requirements for Slytherin House must be the ability to watch people from afar. Bonus points if they combine crazy-eyes with the ever present smirk.

"We also must have forgotten that we invited you! Lucky we did though, or we would have missed out on all of your useless input." I said, grabbing Sirius' hand to walk away from Teddy.

"Well it wouldn't be the first time I haven't been asked somewhere by you," He answered as he stepped in front to stop us "And I think Black here provides all the useless input you'll need."

"So that would make you the whiny prat of the group then?" Sirius glared.

"Hmm. Well I actually came to tell Isabelle something so if you could please remove yourself from my sister and go wait by a bench or something that would be great." Teddy added, raising an eyebrow at our entwined hands.

After I had to physically push Sirius away to a bench across the street, that boy was born a human shield, I walked back to Teddy who looked at me silently.

"Yeah excellent point you've made there Theodore but if that's all." I said after his continued silence, making to leave but was thwarted when he did that step-block thing again.

"What are you doing?" he asked, giving me a stern look that could be traced right back to our prejudiced grandfather himself.

"Well, I was trying to enjoy Hogsmeade but no one warned me that they let your kind out of the dungeons to mingle with the normal people."

His eyes hardened at 'your kind'. I guess purists don't like it when you discriminate against them. Who knew?

As his glare was only intensifying with time, I added "Jude warned me that something was going to happen today so we're checking it out."

"Trust me. Whatever it is, Dolohov has nothing to do with it."

"Trust you? Like you have no idea what kind of super fun surprise the Death Eater's have planned for us today. You probably came up with it."

He smiled at me mirthlessly for a moment before saying quietly "Fine. You'll want to go to the Three Broomsticks for lunch then, if you're so curious."

He turned to go towards Hogsmeade before stopping himself and beginning some kind of internal debate.

If he thinks too hard, there may be some kind of implosion, so intervene in-

"I have a message for you, from Father." He hesitated, watching for my reaction.

"Well?" I scowled, which made Sirius jump up from his seat and stride back over.

"It was kind of long, so I wrote it down." He pulled a tattered piece of parchment out of his pocket and handed it over.

"Have you been hanging onto it until the perfect moment? Thank Merlin I ran into you." I said, winking at Sirius as he approached.

"Something like that," Teddy smiled ruefully before starting towards Dolohov who was still staring. He's nothing if not a dedicated starer.

"You kids be careful now." Teddy gave a final smirk as he walked away.

"More notes?" Sirius groaned at what I was holding.

"Looks like it. My family can only communicate in the epistolary style it seems." I grinned before reading it.

Be a good girl.

What was it with people not writing a proper note anymore?

"What'd it say?" Sirius asked throwing an arm around me as we headed away from the main part of Hogsmeade.

"Eh. Just more Archibald gibberish. It is Halloween after all."

"And this is why Christmas wins every time."

"Definitely."

"Except you can't beat the Halloween feast. They have about 40 different flavours of pie. You think Bertie Botts is creative."

He laughed as he pulled me up a hill, a dilapidated house coming into view.

"Wow Sirius it's so nice, why can't we live here?" I giggled gesturing to the building which seemed to be permanently slanted to the right.

The wonders of magic.

"No one lives here!" Sirius cried loudly before pulling himself together with an embarrassed smile "Except the ghosts of course."

Random, on the edge of psychotic, breakdowns go hand in hand with the Marauders apparently.

"Ah!" James called out to us, as he pulled a struggling Lily into the clearing. I doubt she'd gone anywhere with him today without him having to drag her there.

"Padfoot, Bells! You here for the Halloween experience too?"

"You know it. Having fun, Lils?" I called back, both Sirius and I cracking up into laughter at her desperate look behind his back.

"He hasn't let go of my hand!" She complained, scowling as he grinned delightedly.

I should become a psychic with my guessing skills.

"Yeah well, I thought Belle needed to know what kind of haunted buildings we have here at Hogwarts." Sirius supplied, giving a loaded look to James.

"Oh wow. There's no way it isn't haunted, just as there's no way anybody would ever live there, or even go in there."

"I don't even think you can go in there." Sirius continued.

"Excellent thought, Padfoot."

"It happens occasionally, Prongs." Sirius replies as both boys nodded at each other in a congratulatory way.

"Right." Lily said, giving me the they're-crazy-how-do-we-get-out-of-here-eyes.

Girls just know these things.

"Oh! We need to keep investigating the mysterious happenings!" She continued, as she remembered our escape option.

I clicked my fingers as I remembered "Oh yeah. Teddy came up and said we should go to the Three Broomsticks for lunch if we're curious about what's going on."

I'm starting to see why my family has the need to write our messages down.

James started, looking at his watch "It's half-twelve now! We have to hurry!"

The four of us ran back towards the town square to find it deserted.

Looking like a hurricane had come through. Like the zombie apocalypse had begun. Here. Like the most intense game of hide-and-seek I'd ever seen.

Remus and Evangeline came running from behind a building, sagging with relief as they spotted us.

"Where have you lot been?" he panted, trying to glare at us and look thankful at the same time. And failing at it.

"We've been looking everywhere!" Evangeline cried, glancing around shiftily.

"The Shrieking Shack, what's going on?" Sirius asked worriedly, looking at the broken windows and blown apart doors that looked as though they were destroyed by a pack of wild hippogriffs.

"Death Eaters. Just started doing random spells, trying to cause as much damage as they could. Luckily they didn't seem to be intent to hurt, just scare and most people were in the Three Broomsticks so they all got out okay." Remus added as he caught his breath.

"The people in the Three Broomsticks were fine?" James questioned whilst looking at me.

Clearly he was wondering why Teddy had sent us there too, then. He really isn't the fastest broom in the shed. Even Mulciber would have gotten the location right.

"Yeah, there's that back entrance and the Death Eaters started further up. We were worried something had happened to you guys." Evangeline answered gesturing we should go.

"So no one's hurt?" Lily asked, ever the Head Girl.

"Nope. The Death Eater's cleared off as soon as Dumbledore came. Cowards." Remus glared, as though daring a Death Eater to pop out and fight him right there. He was soon joined by Sirius and James. Boys.

As we headed back to the castle, Sirius asked "So what did Teddy actually want then?"

"To make sure I'm keeping away from Dolohov. And to give me that message from my dad."

"Why do you need to keep away from Dolohov?" Sirius and James asked in perfect unison. They'd definitely practiced that the night before.

Wait. Teddy said the message was long but it was four words. Surely Jude didn't drop him on the head that many times when he was a baby. There were only three that I know of.

I pulled the parchment out from my pocket, flipping it over to see if anything was written on the other side.

There was an advertisement that had been ripped out from a magazine. Did he get this from Witch Weekly?

"Do you guys know what Wolfsbane potion is?" I asked, wondering what he'd given me.

"No." All the boys said simultaneously as Evangeline nodded and Lily scoffed "Yes of course."

"Okay then, Lillers?" I laughed at her dumbfounded expression.

"It's a new potion to help with lycanthropy. None of you guys know? Honestly, we only had a test on it last week."

Lily and Evangeline looked at each other questioningly as everyone else stood frozen in shock.

So not only did Teddy attempt to help me today but he's also trying to help Jude? Curses, I might actually owe him. Looks like he's going out for estranged brother of the year.