I'm so so sorry this is late, I really am, but life kind of took over.

All I own is Heather

"Heather, you okay?"

Not getting an answer Peter laid a hand on her shoulder, and wasn't too surprised when he felt the minute trembles running through her.

She'd left the library a little while ago and relocated to a room small parlour a few door down. Even with the lush furnishings and roaring fire there was an air of coldness. This primarily came from the cold-eyed, cruel-faced Malfoy family portraits staring down from the walls.

"I'm fine. How's everything going in there?"

With the consummate skill of a parent (or in this case uncle) he ignored her 'I'm fine'. That was her stock in trade response; she'd said it once after she'd got in a fight with a group of Death Eaters. After the shattered kneecap, broken ankle, three cracked ribs, bruised collarbone, the crushed throat that bore hand-shaped bruises for weeks, and of course the after effects of various curses, no one believed her when she said she was 'fine' anymore.

"They're getting there. Remus has decided to be sensible and he's casting anaesthesia spells as they go."

He wasn't entirely sure what her reaction to that would be, or what he wanted it to be. Wanting Lucius to suffer after everything he had done would be perfectly justified, but knowing she was part of the reason for his pain would only hurt her. But when she spoke it didn't have anything to do with that topic;

"How do I tell him about this? How do I tell either of them about this? How do I tell my boyfriend and his double that we tortured their father?"

She was practically in tears now, and snuggled her way into his arms like she used to when she was a little girl. Kissing the top of her head he sighed and pulled her closer, wishing it was as easy to protect her now as it had been then.

"Both Dracos hate their father Heather, and they both want to get rid of Voldemort. Just concentrate on that and everything else will sort itself out."

She let out a quiet little chuckle then. "You said that about Craig Disson when I was four."

"I was right wasn't I!"

"Yes, because while we were talking Sirius and Remus were cursing him. He couldn't talk about anything except hair-care and beauty treatments for five months!"

"It was a perfectly deserved punishment."

The smug and righteous look on his face started both laughing in earnest, and that was how Remus found them when he came out of the library, giggling and reminiscing over past Marauder adventures.

"If you two are quite finished?"

The humorous tone didn't quite match the tired and defeated look in his eyes. Peter didn't say a word when Heather backed further into his arms, without even seeming to notice that she was doing it.

"Are you finished?"

"Just about, those two are just putting some finishing touches on it. Don't look like that. They're sealing it up so that the poor sod doesn't bleed to death before dawn."

His distaste for both the job they had been doing and the man in question were clearly evident, and Heather moved from Peter's arms over to his open ones in an effort to comfort them both. Back inside the Library Severus and Sirius were wrapped up in each others, both glaring at the huddled and unconscious body slumped on the floor by the desk. The silence as they stared at their victim was heavy and oppressive, at least until Peter started chuckling, quietly at first, but it soon sounded as loud as one of those muggle flying, silver things.

His family looked at him as though he was stark raving mad, but he couldn't help himself. The more he tried to stop the worse it got, until his infectious giggling had enveloped Severus as well (unlikely though it seemed Severus Snape was a sucker for infectious laughter, he just couldn't help himself, despite numerous spells he had tried over the years in an attempt to stiffen his resolve). The resulting hex was as predictable as his helpless laughter. And Peter hopped around on a leg, looking absolutely ridiculous as he tried to explain himself, all the while laughing even harder.

"It's just that we were all standing around here, hugging each other, like the Winters'. And never tell Mrs Winter I said that!"

There were assorted snorts in response to Wormtail's ridiculous and inappropriate sense of humour, and at the prospect of telling their neighbour Wormtails opinion of her. But the sense of gloom had been lifted, at least for a little while, which in the end was all he'd wanted to do anyway. And they all gathered together as they prepared to leave, with Heather studiously averting her eyes from both the body of Lucius Malfoy, and the glass case Sirius was holding that contained acircle of plain white flesh, with the image of the dark mark emblazoned on it.

"You did what!"

"Will you keep your voice down."

Heather and co. looked around, as though expecting Draco (either one) to jump out from behind a tapestry. They were with Harry and all the others, from both worlds, and were currently being entertained with viewing a lot of tonsils as mouths dropped as they told everyone what they'd done.

"It means we'll be able to establish a much stronger link with Voldemort. The Mark was created for that purpose, the idea is that we just turn the spell around and bring him to us."

Harry was sitting in between the two Rons, who were each next to a Hermione, and was consequently feeling suitably squashed and weird. Add the news of what his counterpart had done and how it could affect Draco, and he was having a very strange day. And for him that was saying something.

"How are you going to tell Drake and Draco?"

Harry completely understood why they hadn't told them beforehand, even if his Ron and Hermione didn't. Yes Draco (both of them) hated Lucius (both of them), but this was...weird!

"Tell us what?"

Very slowly a crowd of heads turned around, very slowly a rainbow selection of eyes widened, and very slowly jaws dropped as the conspirators came face to face with Draco and Drake.

"Heather."

Drake pulled the two syllables into a long drawl. He knew that look, the only time she looked like that was when she'd got caught doing something she shouldn't, like the time she'd been caught going through Severus' office (she insisted it was under Sirius' orders but that didn't really help at the time). Add that to identical looks on the faces of the people surrounding her and even an imbecile could tell something was going on, and imbecile he was not.

"Hi Draco...uh Drake even...and Draco...how you guys doing...?"

Without showing any sign of amusement on the outside Drake inwardly shook his head. Heather might be one of the few people that Voldemort and all Death Eaters feared, she might have more spirit power and natural power than most other wizards combined, but that girl was absolutely pathetic when it came to lying to her friends. That was part of the game though, she tried to get away with it, he tried to chase her into a corner and then they fought to see who'd win, it was one of the keystones of their relationship.

The lack of a fiery response was a surer sign that something was wrong than the shifty and nervous looks that remained on everyone's face and increased in strength. Whenever Draco walked into a room anymore Harry couldn't take his eyes off of him (and vice versa), but now those emerald eyes seemed to be looking at anything except Draco. Not so with Heather, she was staring at him, eyes locked with his, teeth bruising her bottom lip, and...Merlin...her hands were actually shaking. What the hell was going on?

"Heath. What's the matter darlin?"

Shouldering Sirius out of the way Drake sat down by his girlfriend, barely noticing Draco being pulled onto a chair by Hermione (the alternate Hermione); he was too busy being scared. He'd only seen Heather look like this once before, when she'd had to curse Severus when he was still spying in Death Eater ranks. She'd been terrified that everyone would hate her and never want to talk to her again, it had been heartbreaking to watch, and this was the same look, she'd done something and was scared of what his reaction would be. It had to be him as the rest all seemed to know what was going on.

"Heather honey, tell me what's wrong. Come on hun, don't look like that."

This was beginning to feel very, very odd (Malfoy's always had a gift for understatement). Peter had huddled up to Heather's other side; he looked as scared to see this side of his foster daughter as Drake was. Sometimes it was easy to forget, even for those closest to her, that Heather could be scared, she was always joking and leading the charge (Merlin his mind got clichéd when he was panicked), a small, abstract part of his mind wondered if Harry ever had the same problem.

"Promise you won't hate us."

The nod was automatic but his mind was already working, 'us', it couldn't be any of this worlds crew, they didn't know each other well enough to get into this kind of trouble, their school crew would have told him before it got this bad, which left the Marauders. Their first loyalty was Heather, Severus was his godfather, but he was ridiculously in love with Remus and Sirius, and doted on Heather as much as they did. But at the same time they would never let her hurt herself, so it must have been necessary. He was thinking so hard he almost missed the others throwing in their two-pennies-worth.

"And no yelling."

"And no getting overly excited."

"Or reacting in any way whatsoever until we've finished telling you the entire story."

That was said to Draco as well as Drake, but by this time they'd both have enough and the furious "What the hell is going on!" exploded from two identical mouths at the same time.

Heather winced but got back a bit of her old spirit as se exchanged shifty looks with her uncles, trying to decide how to break the news.

"Well it's like this..."

Like I said I'm so so sorry this has been so long but writer's block and homework and broken computers have been getting in the way, I've had to borrow someone else's computer just to upload this chapter.

Grlkat: I think he probably will go, I haven't quite decided yet. The thing is I had a plan laid out for this story and then it went in a completely different direction so I only have the vaguest idea of what's going to happen. Anyway I'm glad you like it and I hope you like this chapter too.

Please review everyone; and I will try to get the next chapter up faster.