A/N: Alright, here it is ladies and gentlemen! Chapter Twenty-One fo Points in the Right Direction! Debbie and I are once again sorry for the long delay in updating, but we can proudly announce that Chapters Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three are already being written. We hope you enjoy this latest installment and are prepared to stick with us to end. We can honestly state that we are attempting to finish this sucker before the end of September!
Points in the Right Direction
Chapter 21:
Almost Everything I Wish I'd Said the Last Time I Saw You
"I cannot believe we are doing this."
"It was your idea, Padfoot." James rolled his eyes as pointed his wand at his trunk, undoing the complex locking charms which secured the upper compartment.
"But still, I cannot believe we are actually going to do this." Sirius plopped down on James' bed, deserting his nearly empty rucksack which lay on his own four-poster. The bag sagged in half pathetically, as if the fabric realized it had been abandoned for the umpteenth time that evening.
"If you want to back out we can just stop packing and go down to the Common Room. We'll pretend like this never happened." James' eyes were hopeful behind the thick frames of his glasses as he paused with his hand partway extended toward his trunk.
"No. I want to do it! I just can't believe Remus is going along with it." Sirius shot a quenching glare in James' direction, who proceeded to remove the invisibility cloak from its treasured compartment with an air of resignation.
"If we are really going to go off and attempt to execute another one of your half-baked schemes, I would prefer if we were all properly prepared. So if you two wouldn't mind actually packing, I would appreciate it," Remus' muffled voice came trailing out from behind the top of his trunk as he joined James and Sirius' conversation.
"Come on Moony, this is at least a three-fourths of the way baked scheme," Sirius grinned as he sidled off of James' bed and made his way to his trunk.
"Oh yes," Remus began, lifting his head out of his trunk so that his voice was more audible. "This plan only involves three teenage boys sneaking out of a highly secured school to go off and find the headquarters of the most dangerous and feared wizard of the past half century. Then we're supposed to exact revenge upon him and your good-for-nothing brother with no combat training and really no idea what we're doing. This is the best plan you have come up with in the past seven years."
"See, James? Even Mooney realizes this is one of my better ideas," Sirius said, blatantly ignoring Remus' heavy sarcasm. He looked between his two best friends, his signature smile playing across his lips.
Before James could respond, the door to the boys' dormitory opened and Lily walked into the room.
"What's one of your better ideas?" Lily leaned against the open door, smirking slightly as she looked in on boys who seemed to have frozen in varying degrees of shock. "If Sirius has been planning again, I assume I should be slightly afraid of what is about to happen."
"Oh, it's nothing," James said swiftly as he walked over to her and ushered her inside. He shut the door quickly, hoping that she had not been able to hear their conversation through the heavy wood.
"What are you three up to?" Lily asked suspiciously. James' hand on the small of her back was forceful as guided her to sit on the edge of his mattress.
"Up to, Tiger Lily? You say that as though my dearest Moony, Prongs, and myself do not always have the best intentions," Sirius stated as he dropped his slightly fuller bag into his trunk and closed it, hiding it from sight.
"And why are you packing?" Lily's eyes narrowed in time with the echoing thud of Sirius' trunk lid. "Where are you going?" James resisted the urge to swear colorfully. Lily always had been too observant for anybody's good.
"Going? We aren't going anywhere," James said quickly as he sprawled himself across his bed, pushing his bag onto the floor with a loud thud.
"Then what was that?" Lily asked, arching an accusatory eyebrow.
"That? Well that was… Er… It was a…" James mumbled under his breath unable to come up with a lie fast enough. He shot his friends a look of sheer panic over his girlfriend's fiery head.
"We're going on a late night Hogsmeade run, Lily," Remus said calmly as he slammed his trunk shut and hoisted his full bag over his shoulder. "We should be back before midnight."
"Seriously? That's it?" Lily asked, her gaze shifting from one boy to the next. "A late night Hogsmeade trip?" Although she did not completely approve, she had long been aware of the boys' penchant for late night raids of the Honeyduke's cellar. She couldn't really complain as they had assured her they always left more than enough money on the counter to cover the cost of what they had appropriated. Not to mention the fact that she often partook of the results of such endeavors.
"Well, yeah," James sighed, hoping this lie would actually work. "We figured we would have to be a little more careful about it because of the added protection to the school."
"But if you're just going to Hogsmeade, why do you need packed bags? Don't you normally take empty bags to fill?" She walked over to Remus, reaching out to seize his bag.
"We are stopping by the Quidditch Pitch first to drop off some of James and Sirius' extra supplies," Remus replied smoothly, nonchalantly shifting his bag to his other shoulder before Lily could grab it.
"See Tiger Lily? One of my better ideas," Sirius pronounced proudly, shifting on his bed.
"Alright," Lily murmured, though she still eyed Remus suspiciously as she walked back over to James' bed and plopped down next to him.
Remus was not wholly convinced that Lily had bought into their story. He cast a significant look at James and subtly nodded towards the door.
"Hey, Lily, do you want to go on a walk? With me?" James stumbled over his words quickly. "On the grounds? Yeah, do you want to go on a walk with me on the grounds?"
"Er, okay," Lily said, looking at him questioningly. "Are you okay?"
"Me? Oh, yeah, I'm great. Excellent. Brilliant," James said, his voice an octave or two higher than its usual register. He grabbed Lily's hand and tugged her over to the door, gesturing for her to exit before him. He cast a quick look over his shoulder back into the room, before shutting the door behind him.
~ PRD~
"James, are you sure you're alright?" Lily asked once more, as they made their way past the Herbology greenhouses.
"Of course," James replied, his voice having finally returned to its regular pitch.
"You're running your hand through your hair," Lily stated with a pointed look.
"Old habits die hard," James said casually. He interlaced his fingers with hers to prevent himself from doing it again. He knew, as well as she did by now, that the action usually indicated he was anxious. "So, why did you come up to our room anyway?"
"The girls and I...Electra and I," Lily corrected herself loudly, biting her lip, "wanted to know if any of you fancied a game of exploding snap with us. I figured I'd done about as much of my homework as I could handle without damaging my eyes. Then I'd have to get glasses like you." She smiled up at him, but the expression didn't bring the sparkle to her eyes that it usually did. The reminder that Spencer was no longer there-that Lily's trio had been reduced to a pair- brought James' anger at Regulus Black boiling back under his skin. He squeezed Lily's hand, failing miserably at returning her attempt for a smile.
Lily, who discovered she greatly favored happy James over grieving James, reached up and plucked his glasses off of his face. She put them on, going slightly cross-eyed as the lenses slipped down her nose. "How do I look?" she asked flippantly, striking a James-esque pose.
James laughed and lowered his face to hers, squinting so hard that it wrinkled his entire brow. "I'd say ridiculous, but I actually can't see you without them."
Lily stood on her tip-toes to press her lips to his, giggling as his glasses pressed into her face. "How do you live with these things?" Lily returned the glasses to their usual perch and James blinked as the world came back into focus.
"I only live with them because they let me see you every day," he pronounced, pressing a kiss to her cheek as she laughed.
"That was awful, even for you," she stated, "I think you're losing your touch there, Potter."
Silence fell on them as they paced toward the lake, the sun dappling the water with flecks of gold. Lily stopped under the tree where he and Sirius had sat earlier, plotting their revenge on Regulus Black. The enormity of what he and his friends were about to attempt hit James with the force of a Bat Bogie Hex.
"Lily," James began, the words fighting to leave his suddenly constricted throat. It was imperative that he tell Lily how he felt right now, should anything go wrong tonight.
"Are you doing something for the Order of the Phoenix tonight? Is that why you're packing?" Lily burst out suddenly. She whirled around to gauge his reaction, obviously hoping that she had caught him off-guard.
"What?" James blanched. He sincerely wished that Lily would forget the name altogether. "No," he said with complete honesty.
"You promised," Lily reminded him, shoving him in the chest with frustration. She threw herself on the grass and looked up at him expectantly. "You promised to tell me about the Order."
"Fine," James sighed and sat down next to her. "I didn't want to tell you, because I don't want you to get involved." He avoided her eyes, unwilling to give her anymore sway in the conversation.
"Get involved in what?" Lily pressed, scooting closer as she sensed victory.
"Dumbledore sort of started this organization," James began, "you know, since the Ministry is questionable these days. It…well, it goes after You-Know-Who and his followers. Secretly," he added quickly. "Sirius and I aren't even supposed to know about it, but we, ah, accidentally tripped one of Dumbledore's detection charms when we tried to spy on the meeting they had at my house last summer."
"So are you a member now?" Lily asked hesitantly, staring out over the water.
"Not yet," James said carefully, discreetly eyeing her set jaw. "I was told I wasn't allowed to join until we were out of school."
Lily turned toward him. She seemed almost inhuman to him then, with her hair gleaming copper in the setting sun, her eyes glittering emerald. He wondered how he had gotten so lucky that she had come to consider it natural to be sitting by him like this. He knew with certainty that losing her was not an option. It had never been one.
She opened her mouth to speak but James cut her off.
"Please don't say what I think you're about to say," he implored.
"I'm joining the Order after school whether you support the idea or not," Lily replied earnestly. Her expression dared him to defy her.
James groaned. "You just said what I was hoping you wouldn't."
Lily took his hand in hers, pressing it between her smaller fingers. "James, he killed my parents, he turned my former best friend into something horrible, and his followers are responsible for Spencer… Can't you understand why?"
James brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, biting back a knee-jerk retort about how Snape had always been horrible. "I do understand," he mumbled, "I just don't like it."
"You don't have to like it," Lily responded, "you just have to accept it." She leaned up and brushed her lips against his impulsively, trying to smooth over the impact of her words. "This is my fight too," she whispered when she drew back.
James didn't answer. Instead, he pulled her onto his lap. His lips prevented hers from speaking further.
No, he thought as he twined his fingers in her hair, this is my fight. Forgetting about the outside world, he kissed her like it might be the last time.
~PRD~
"This is your house?" Remus asked, staring bleakly up at the twisted serpent door-knocker that glared forbiddingly down at them. He shot a sideways glance at James who stood with him behind Sirius on the worn stone steps. James' disgusted glance mirrored his own in the blood-orange glow of the muggle streetlamp. The light cast dim shadows across their faces and made the tarnished number twelve on the doorframe glint menacingly.
"Yep, this is it," Sirius replied darkly. "Cheery place, isn't it?" He raised his hand to rap on the door but stopped short. He heaved a large sigh, and turned around to face his best friends.
"Listen," Sirius started, not meeting their eyes. "You remember all that stuff I said about my mother being crazy?"
"Yeah, of course we do," James responded. "How could we forget? You always begin or end every sentence about your mother with 'That crazy bitch.'"
"Okay," Sirius huffed, as he swung his tall frame around to face the serpent knocker once more, "as long as you both know what you're getting into."
He rapped twice on the door. The metallic snake unwound from its coiled position around Sirius' hand, its diamond-shaped head bobbing through the air until it was at face level. "I am Sirius Black, son of Orion and Walberga Black." Sirius said the words as though they cost him a great deal of effort. "Toujours Pur."
James gave a poor attempt to cover his mirth at the discovery of Sirius' parents' names with a cough. Even Remus had to stifle a smile, though he had no room to be pointing fingers where names were concerned.
"Always pure?" Remus translated as the door swung open into a spotless and deserted hallway.
"Family motto," Sirius replied, drawing his wand and stepping into the hallway.
Remus immediately understood why Sirius despised the place. Swathed in shadows, there was something sinister about the house that made the hair on the back of his arms stand up. Or maybe it was merely the large umbrella stand, which he was fairly certain had once been a leg that belonged to a now crippled troll.
"It's certainly… tidy," Remus commented gently, attempting to find some sort of good point in Sirius' childhood home.
"Yeah, we have a house elf—Kreacher—who takes care of that. We've always had elves," Sirius explained as he moved through the tomb-quiet house.
Remus eyed the heads of the previous household servants that lined the wall, mounted on shining wooden plaques. "I see that."
"What Moony means to say is that we can see why you left," James said bluntly, lighting his wand and holding it above his head. "Looks like everyone else left too," he murmured. "Are those snakes on the wallpaper?" he asked incredulously.
"I've always thought that Slytherin himself came here and vomited on the walls," Sirius replied, peering up the staircase, with his own lit wand. "Come on," he went to take a step on the landing but his foot collided painfully with something propped up against the curved banister and he emitted a loud curse.
"Well, if anyone was asleep, I suppose they're up now," Remus muttered, sweeping his wand in several directions as the floorboards above their heads gave an ominous creak.
"What is it?" James demanded in hushed tones as Sirius' curse echoed to the rafters. He turned his wand onto a large square something draped in some sort of canvas fabric. Sirius ripped the cover off and practically snarled as the fabric pooled at his feet, revealing what appeared to be a half-finished portrait of his mother.
"Well bugger me if that isn't the ugliest thing I've ever laid eyes on," he grimaced, throwing the tarp back over his mother's only black beady eye.
"I'm just grateful it isn't finished, so we don't have to listen to her," James responded, jerking his wand upwards as floor above them creaked again. Sirius tugged his friends upstairs.
"Come on, what we're looking for will be in my mother's desk in the drawing room," He started up the stairs but found his way blocked by a small creature, it's ears quivering defiantly.
"Stop! You cannot go further than this landing, by order of my mistress," the house elf stated, holding out one gnarled hand.
"Oh, she ordered you to stop us, did she?" Sirius eyed the house elf with contempt. "Well, I order you to stand back." The elf let out a strangled whimper as it was tossed between the wills of two of its master. Sirius took the opportunity to charge past the elf onto the second landing. Kreacher reached out as if to stop Sirius but his hand froze in mid-motion before rebounding suddenly into his own nose. He bounced backwards into the banister with a dull thunk, fighting his own hand as it tried to inflict punishment for disobeying his first orders and attempting to disobey the second set.
Remus and James scurried behind Sirius as he rounded the corner bellowing, "I know you're here, so you can stop skulking in the shadows like the coward you are." He paused in the entrance to the grand drawing room, where his mother was standing, flanked by the floor to ceiling windows and enveloped in flickering light from the fireplace.
Her lip turned downward at the sight of her estranged son and his unwelcome friends in her doorway. In her glittering gray and black dressing gown and her shadow looming behind her on the wall, James thought Walberga Black looked like a deranged spider.
"Sirius," she intoned dolefully.
"Mother," Sirius deadpanned. Remus nudged James and directed his eyes toward the wand clutched in the woman's hand. James' gaze followed where directed, and he adjusted the aim of his own wand, in case the older woman decided she didn't want three teenagers barging into her house during the late hours of the night.
"I was hoping that you had returned because you had come to your senses," Walberga sniffed, attempting to stare down her nose at her son, an action which was rendered rather comical due to the fact that Sirius towered a good seven inches above her. "I see by the company you keep that is not so."
James had the sudden urge to blurt out that he was as pure of blood as she was, then mentally kicked himself for the thought.
"I just came to pick something up," Sirius replied.
The woman's eyes turned downcast in her sunken face, the wrinkles becoming more pronounced on her jaundiced skin. "But Regulus, you promised mummy that you would stay longer the next time you returned," she said, a pleading tone in her voice.
"What?" James muttered as Sirius' eyes narrowed dangerously. Mrs. e . Black took a step toward them, her arms outstretched as if to embrace Sirius. "Regulus, you aren't even going to greet me properly after you've been away so long. You're father is so busy that I hardly see him now and when he does come home he's too tired to spare much time for me. Come sit with mummy." She sat, patting the cushion next to her in the way one would invite a lapdog to join them.
James and Remus glanced at each other, comprehension dawning. Sirius' mother was not only crazy due to her fanatical pureblood beliefs. She was in fact, so off her rocker that she could not identify which of her sons was in the room with her.
"Sirius, you weren't lying when you said she wasn't... mentally sound, were you?" Remus asked delicately. He peered around his friend's shoulder as they took a few tentative steps into the drawing room, edging away from the loud scuffle in the hallway which was caused by Kreacher, who was still fighting himself.
"We've always known she was a crazy bitch, but... " James started as Sirius nudged him toward the dark paneled writing desk in the corner. Taking the hint, James made his way over toward the desk. He had just rolled the cover back when Mrs. Black began shouting.
"Thieves!" she shrieked, "How dare you enter my house and steal from me!" She raised her wand toward Sirius and faltered. "Sirius? Did your brother send you?"
James hastily began rifling through the pile of parchment on the desk. From what he could tell, Mrs. Black had a very robust social life among the families his tended to avoid. He couldn't fathom why she was complaining of loneliness. Out of the corner of his eye, James saw Remus move to position himself in between the desk and Mrs. Black who was back to pleading for Sirius to sit beside her.
"Orion, dearest, come sit down with me. I've missed you these past few weeks. You're always so tired. I know you're doing important work ridding the world of the filth, but I've missed you at dinner, and in bed."
"That's repulsive," Remus cringed in tune with Sirius' exclamation of "Gross."
"I don't see anything, Padfoot !" James shot across the room, his eyes rapidly scanning the addresses of the parchments.
Sirius swore as Mrs. Black turned on him, wand raised. "How dare you think you can just waltz back into this house after all you have done, Sirius!" Her eyes, truly lucid for the first time in several minutes landed on James. "What—" she flicked her wand, a flash of red light speeding toward James.
James ducked as Remus stepped in front of him, shouting "Protego!" At the same time, Sirius bellowed "Stupify!" Mrs. Black slumped backwards onto the sofa before slowly sliding down and landing face first on the floor.
James pushed his glasses up his nose as he raised his head over the back of the chair he had thrown himself behind.
"Did you just…stun your mother?" Remus asked into the shocked silence.
"She deserved it," James and Sirius replied in unison.
Sirius wended his way around the couch and over to the desk. He yanked out a drawer, turning it over so that its contents spilled onto the hardwood floor. From the doorway, Kreacher gave a muffled curse as he watched his beautiful drawing room messed up before his eyes.
Sirius reached into the drawer, tapping the bottom with his wand. "Alohomora." James and Remus heard the distinct sound of a lock clicking and Sirius pulled out what was apparently a false bottom in the drawer.
"A false compartment, really?" James scoffed as Sirius thumbed through the stack of parchment and glittering jewels.
"Yes, well, my mother was never as creative when it comes to hiding important things as your parents are." He let out a victorious "Hah!" as he held up a small rectangular piece of parchment of the thick, expensive persuasion.
"Is that an invitation to the Lestrange household?" Remus asked, surveying the parchment with wide eyes.
"Your mother thought it was important enough to hide in a secret compartment?" James asked incredulously, his eyes darting over to where Kreacher was apparently overcoming his self-punishment.
"Oh, you don't understand," Sirius replied, "this is an open invitation. My darling mother is quite good friends with the Lestranges. This invitation states that she and all her family is welcome at any time-"
"Which makes the house plottable to you now that you have it," Remus finished as Sirius stuffed the invitation into his pocket with a triumphant grin.
"Let's get out of here," James directed, heading toward the door, which was still blocked by Kreacher. "I never did catch if your father's lurking around somewhere or not."
"Agreed." Sirius roughly shoved Kreacher out of the doorway with a palm to his slight, wrinkled forehead. He made an 'after-you' gesture to Remus, who scowled as he crossed the threshold, disproving of Sirius' methods of clearing it.
~PRD~
Lily closed the book in front of her with a sigh, unable to read any further. Electra had gone up to bed an hour ago. Lily had chosen to stay in the empty Common Room to wait for the boys to get back. The silence had only served to make her think, so she had retrieved one of Spencer's well-worn romance novels, something about a black knight and his sword. The book so far had only served to remind her of her friend and the silly slumber parties they used to have in their dorm, where Electra would dramatically read aloud the steamy portions of Spencer's current read, while the rest of them daringly ate Bertie Botts and were overcome with fits of giggles.
Frowning, she checked her watch, it was almost midnight and the boys still hadn't returned. Perhaps they had run into Filch and had to take a detour to prevent being heard under the cloak, she mused. Her mind, now that it had latched onto its favorite subject, a certain bespectacled black-haired boy was loath to return to reading. So Lily let her memory wander back to the lake that afternoon instead.
She stretched languidly as something in her coiled pleasantly at the memory. She had asked James to bring her back some Sugar Quills, more for an excuse to see him again in hopes of a repeat experience, than for any great desire for the treat.
Twelve minutes later, Lily had begun to wonder if they had somehow snuck past her under the cloak when she hadn't been paying attention, despite the fact that she didn't remember hearing the portrait hole open at all. She set the book down on a table and made her way toward the boys' dorms.
She knocked, but opened the door anyway upon receiving no response. The dormitory was vacant, the bedspreads haphazardly tossed about. Piles of random books were randomly strewn about Remus' tidily made bed. There was a pile of crumbled parchment pieces strewn across James' pillow that drew her attention. She picked one up, smoothing it in her hands.
Lily,
I tried to tell you today at the lake how I feel because we're about to go do one of those stupid things you used to yell at me for.
We're going after Regulus. I couldn't let Sirius go alone and neither could Remus.
I l—
The rest of the note was covered in huge ink blots, indicating that James had grown frustrated.
Lily's heart seemed to plummet into her stomach and sail up into her throat simultaneously. They had gone after Regulus? But how? Regulus was probably safely ensconced within the Death Eater Headquarters at the Lestrange's, but Lily had never divulged the location to the boys…
But she had. Lily closed her eyes as the recollection broke over her, tinted with Firewhisky and chocolate cake. She had told the boys everything about her kidnapping, including the location of the headquarters. Knowing the three of them and the way their brains excelled when it came to trouble, they had probably already found a way to make the unplottable location perfectly locatable.
Lily swore colorfully enough to make Sirius proud before pelting down the stairs only to turn and head toward the girl's staircase. She paused on the landing, logic seeping through her panic. They would need help, but who?
As the image came to her, she raised her wand and thought of James' smile, his bright hazel eyes glinting behind his round glasses. "Expecto Patronum." The doe burst from her wand, glittering and silver. It turned around in a small circle as if awaiting instructions.
"Go tell the Potters that their son is in danger. He's gone after Death Eaters with Sirius and Remus. We need help. Tell them to meet me in Hogsmeade by the Shrieking Shack. Tell them to hurry." Lily fervently hoped that the message had sent as she raced the opposite direction. She hadn't had to use a patronus as a messenger since they had learned how to do so during class at the beginning of her sixth year.
"Electra!" she called as she burst in the door, running over to shake the other girl awake.
"What is it?" Electra moaned, turning over. She took in Lily's harried expression, sitting up. "What's wrong?"
"The boys, they went after Regulus. They're walking right into the Death Eater headquarters!" Lily raged, throwing a pair of jeans and trainers in Electra's direction.
"They went after him? Without us?" Electra pulled the jeans on with an indignant huff. "What's the plan?"
"We're going after them. I called for help. We have to meet them in Hogsmeade." Electra tugged a sweater over her head.
"Your secret passageway or mine?" Electra grinned as she drew her wand, ushering the frantic redhead toward the door.
~PRD~
"I still fail to see why we aren't attempting to just floo into the place," James commented as he picked up the grotesque mask and touched it with his wand. It elongated into a perfect approximation of the size of Sirius' face. He glanced out of the cover the trees and down the hillside to where the medieval manor house sat, protected by misshapen gargoyles which leered down at the house's courtyard entrance. The Lestranges' house may have actually beat Sirius' in the race for the creepiest home award.
"Because we know from Lily's account we can get out," Remus responded as he fastened a long black hooded cloak on Sirius. They had taken it from the pale, freckled young Death Eater they had stunned from beneath the cloak when they had accidentally wandered into what was apparently the designated apparition point for Voldemort's minions to access the Lestranges'. They had woken him up only to discover his name before knocking him out again. "Would you prefer to be trapped in the floo network?"
"Getting trapped in the floo network is probably safer than what we're about to do," James commented, passing Sirius the mask.
"You're starting to sound like Moony, Prongs," Sirius chastised him, the words muffled behind the mask. "All we have to do is get inside the mansion, get a hold of my good-for-nothing brother and get out using the second floor fireplace," Sirius made a dismissive gesture with his hand, as if he hadn't just spoken the near impossible. "What could go wrong?"
"Oh, I don't know," Remus retorted sardonically, "the entire house is full of Death Eaters. Not to mention the fact that we might get sent to Azkaban -if we make it out of this-for kidnapping and murder."
"You can always go back to school," Sirius replied as James drew the invisibility cloak out of his bag and shook it out.
"And let you two go alone?" Remus snorted as he stepped next to James. "Who do you think is going to bail you out when this whole scheme goes up in smoke?" He wrapped the cloak around them and they vanished from sight, leaving Sirius to stare at the twisted tree trunks that surrounded them.
"Lead the way, Padfoot. We're right behind you." James ducked his head and began shuffling down the hillside to where the pathway leading to the gate bent like an albino serpent in the dim light of the moon. James glanced at the slightly shorter boy next to him, who merely mouthed 'half-baked' before rolling his eyes and turning his gaze toward the uneven ground once more.
James gripped his wand tighter under the cloak. For the first time regarding one of their schemes, he agreed wholeheartedly with Remus.
~PRD~
Time passed slowly when your life was possibly on the line, James noted grimly as they finally made their way up to the gate. His palms were sweating and his heart was beating a cacophonous tattoo in his chest. Remus and he crept as closely behind Sirius as they could while trying to prevent their shoes from scraping against the cobblestones.
Sirius came to a halt in front of the wrought-iron gate which was guarded by two large Death Eaters.
"All hail the Dark Lord," he greeted. Beneath the cloak, James grimaced at the greeting while Remus' hand twitched noticeably on his wand.
Apparently, Sirius' salutation had not been as far off as James' feared because the guards returned it amicably. One guard pointed his wand at Sirius' chest. "State your name and purpose, brother."
"There's no need to threaten me, brother," Sirius responded. "I am Bartemius Crouch Jr.," he gave the name of the young Death Eater they had knocked out earlier. "I am on my way back from guarding the apparition point."
The guards swung the gate open and James breathed a sigh of relief. Sirius stepped in between them and paused. "I have a message to deliver to Regulus Black, do you know where I could find him?" Sirius asked casually. Beneath the cloak, James and Remus stood stock still behind Sirius, not even daring to breathe while the guard answered.
"In his room I suspect if the meeting's over."
James's blood chilled at the answer. A meeting? Did that mean that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was here? In the very house they were about to walk into? Remus had apparently had the same thought as his hand came up to grip James' arm painfully. James tried to shoot him a reassuring look under the cloak. Both knew that there was no backing out now, not without endangering Sirius.
Sirius seemed unphased however, as he politely asked, "And where is his room? I'm not very familiar with him. I was just told to deliver a message."
The Death Eaters' regarded each other for a moment. The one Sirius had been speaking to shrugged. "I'll take you," he gestured for Sirius to follow him, "my shifts almost over anyhow."
"Thank you." Sirius began to stride beside the man while James and Remus scooted forward, trying to avoid getting hit by the gate as it swung shut. They hurried as quickly as they could after Sirius, who was just entering the ornate wooden doors of the house.
"Slow down," Remus hissed darkly as scuttled to cross the threshold of the door, running in a crouch to prevent Sirius from getting too far ahead. James reached out with one cloak-covered hand as the heavy door began to close, praying that no one had seen the door mysterious remain open longer than usual.
Sirius was already across the shadowed flagstones of the torch-lit entry way. He had just been escorted through a door on the far left-hand side of the hall when James and Remus each took a step across the threshold.
There was a flash of blue light which seemed to hit him in the chest with the force of a freight train, knocking him backwards while a piercing shriek rent the air. He tried not to groan as he collided into the stone steps as Remus, who had mercifully been flung next to him scrambled to cover their protruding feet with the cloak.
"What?" James muttered, dazed, as they scooted out of the way. Ten or so Death Eaters came pouring out of the doors.
"The invitation only invited Sirius," Remus whispered urgently in his ear. "It gave away the location, but didn't lift the protection spells on the house. We can't get inside until someone lowers the charms." They pressed their backs against the wall next to the open door just in time. Rudolphus Lestrange came pounding out of the door, almost tripping on the cloaks of his panicking peers.
"What is the meaning of this?"
~PRD~
Sirius glanced behind him, startled as the shrieking alarm rent the brooding silence which seemed to encompass the entirety of the Death Eaters' chosen headquarters.
"What was that?" he turned to the face the large man beside him, successfully covering his gasp of surprise. The Death Eater had removed his mask somewhere along the staircase. Sirius recognized Crabbe, the Slytherin thug who had been the subject of many Maurauders' pranks before his graduation from the school a few years back.
"Security spell," the hulking young man grunted. "Someone who shouldn't be here tried to get in. Regulus' room is third on the left," he said as they came to the second floor landing. Sirius stomach curled unpleasantly as he realized what Remus had explained to James moments ago. Please stay hidden under the cloak, he thought.
"We should go back down. Help." Crabbe turned to lumber back down the stairs, glancing expectantly at Sirius. A strange part of Sirius' brain noted that the Slytherin still had not developed a talent for creating complex sentences.
"Let me grab Regulus and the others," he lied quickly. "The more help, the faster we catch them, right?" This argument seemed to make sense to Crabbe, since he turned and vanished back down the uneven stone steps.
Sirius turned down the hall. It was time to get his brother and his friends, and get out of there.
~PRD~
Regulus sat on his bed. The black robes which he had donned for the official meeting, which had ended some minutes ago, were tossed carelessly on the wrinkled bedspread.
In his hands Regulus cradled a creased photograph. From within the margins of the glossy paper, Spencer smiled up at him, licking her fingers of the chocolate frog which sat slightly melted on her lap. In her free hand, she merrily waved her coveted Hufflepuff card.
He had taken the picture from his brother's room. It had been left haphazardly on Sirius' unkempt bookshelf, abandoned two summers' before when Sirius had run away to live with Potter. Regulus watched as Spencer repeatedly brandished the card, the duplicate of the one she had given him. He could hear her now.
"Look Reg," she crowed with delight, "It's Hufflepuff! They're really rare. It took me until sixth year to get one, and I've been looking since I was a kid. Here, you take it. To remind you of me."
Regulus tucked the photo inside his robes, unable to bear looking at her anymore. He willed his tears back just as the door to his room swung open with the prolonged groan of ancient architecture.
"I thought I told you that I didn't want to be disturbed," he growled as he turned around to face the intruder, grabbing his wand from the bedside table. The door had barely slammed shut, plunging the room into darkness when he heard the cry of "Expelliarmus," and his wand went soaring. Regulus heard it clatter to the floor, but could not see where it went.
Wand light flared, stinging Regulus' eyes. Blinking, he registered with shock the glaring face of his older brother. The wand that was producing the light was pointing straight at his heart.
"I'm going to do much worse than just disturb you, brother," Sirius snarled, his eyes filled with ferocious loathing.
He drew his hand back, just as Regulus dove for his wand and the door slammed inward once again with a bang. The room flooded with flickering torchlight.
A spell hit the wall above Regulus' head, bursting a pane of glass in the window behind him. He bit back a grimace as the shards dug into his palms, the blood trickling down the floor in small rivulets as he crawled along in the shadows, feeling desperately for his wand.
His mind flashed back to grass, to the girl he loved bleeding, as her blood dyed the grass…
He ducked as Sirius let fly another wayward spell as he rounded on the unexpected company at the door.
"Regulus," a high-pitched voice trembled, "there's been a breach…" the short, pudgy and masked death eater gasped before running out of the doorway, screaming for help, tripping over robes that were slightly too long for him.
"Fuck," Sirius swore, tearing after the short Death Eater in an attempt to silence him. This was not going to plan. Sirius was too busy dealing with this latest unpleasant development, to see that his brother had finally regained his wand.
A/N: Review and we'll contemplate bringing Spencer back from the dead! Okay...so maybe not, but it will encourage us to work faster on the next two Chapters, which are full of action and romance! If that's not enough, there may or may not be scenes of...a...sensual nature about to occur. Yep. We just dropped that little nugget on you. ;)