Hello again! Sorry this took so long, I had a million mid-term tests because it's a big exam year for me at school. This is extra long, so I hope it makes up for the delay! Anyway, I've been getting less reviews lately, and I was just wondering what you think about where the story's going? I've no problem with criticism (no flames though, please), so whatever your opinion on my story is, I'd really love to hear it so that I can take it into account, even if it's just a smiley face!

Enjoy the chapter

Lissa's POV

I'd been wandering for weeks now, drifting from villages to towns to cities in a dreamlike daze. I couldn't believe that I was still alive, but then again this could all be part of the game. Let the little girl think that she was safe, wait until she slips up, and then pounce. I didn't want to die, but I was so sick of the uncertainty, of not knowing when I woke up if it would be my last day on earth. If Bellatrix was going to kill me, I was beginning to wish she'd just bloody do it already. I was so sick of playing the waiting game.

It was quite warm in York, seeing as how it was around the beginning of July, but I kept my jacket on. Every time I caught sight of those horrible scars the Death Eaters had given me that night, it made me sick to my stomach, so the heatstroke I was no doubt developing would probably be quite severe, if I was still alive to experience it. Sighing softly, I headed into a bar and sat myself down at a barstool, dumping my rucksack at my feet. About a week ago I'd come to the realization that people who lug wooden trunks around get odd looks, so I'd tearfully abandoned my school trunk in a storage locker in London and transferred my things to a rucksack I'd gotten off a stall at a street market.

"Can I get a malt whiskey, please?," I asked the bartender, as I slumped against my elbow on the bar. The bartender was tall and lanky, with spiked-up hair with blond highlights, sparkling butterscotch eyes and a shiny silver stud in his nose. He looked like he was about Jasper's age, maybe eighteen or nineteen. An unwelcome picture of James Potter popped into my mind as the lanky bartender leaned against the bar in a fair imitation of the cocky Chaser. "You eighteen?," he asked, eyebrow raised doubtfully.

I dropped my gaze to my lap, fiddling with the zipper of my jacket. "Sure," I lied. I knew that there wasn't much chance that this bartender would believe me, after all I wouldn't even be seventeen until August and at last count I was around five foot tall. So I got quite the shock when I heard the rattle of ice-cubes as the bartender prepared my drink. My head snapped up and I found myself staring into a pair of amused-looking butterscotch eyes, eyebrow raised questioningly. "You gonna take your drink, pretty lady?," the bartender asked cheekily. I flushed the color of a tomato before I reached out and took the chilled glass of malt whiskey.

"My name's Lissa," I murmured, a little shyly, smiling a small bit. This stranger seemed nice enough, cute, even, but he would never be Sirius. That thought made my smile droop a little. "Hey, Lissa," the bartender replied cheerfully, smiling so widely that a dimple showed in his left cheek, "I'm Elliot. Elliot Stuart."

I took Elliot's outstretched hand and shook it, a smile spreading reluctantly across my face. I reached into my pocket for one of my Muggle five-pound notes and tried to hand it to Elliot, but he waved it away with another cheeky grin. "It's on the house, Lissa," he chuckled. I smiled my thanks, I really couldn't spare much money. I didn't know how much longer it would have to last me. That thought sobered me up right away, and my smile dropped.

"Hey, hey, Lissa, why so sad?," Elliot asked softly, bending down behind the bar so that we were eye-level with each other. I sniffled a bit, refusing to let myself cry. I'd never been strong enough to hold it together- I'd spent the last six months crying and screaming from the pain and the nightmares, mourning the loss of my family heavily. I had always been a happy person, with a happy life. I'd never really been sad before, never really felt true grief.

"Lots of reasons," I sobbed softly, hating myself for falling apart in front of a virtual stranger, even a kind one. Elliot walked around the deserted bar and sat down beside me on another barstool. "Wanna talk about it?," he asked softly. I thought about that for a second. Did I really want to pour my heart out to someone I'd known for all of five minutes, about deeply personal things? Hell, I wouldn't be able to tell him the half of it- Elliot was a Muggle, if I mentioned how magic played a role in my life I'd be violating the Statute of Secrecy, and while I doubted that things could get much worse for me, the Ministry would come after Elliot as well and he didn't deserve that. I sighed, fighting back tears at the savage pain that reared up in my chest, and the light burn that reminded me of my scars. I would tell him, I needed to tell someone. I needed to let it all out (well not all of it- the Muggle-safe version), and who better to do that with than a complete but kind stranger?

I nodded my head slowly. Elliot sighed softly and settled back against the bar. I followed suit. "So," he began, what happened. Ignoring the lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes, I forced out the words. "My parents were murdered by my ex-boyfriend's evil cousins," I choked out, breaking out into hysterical laughter once I realized how stupid I had just sounded. Elliot looked a little concerned, and was about to open his mouth to speak when I shook my head, squaring my shoulders. I'd start again, try to make things clearer. Maybe Elliot could give me some cutting-edge insight into why my life sucked so much?

"Our house got broken into Christmas Eve," I began shakily, "They were there especially for us, my dad in particular. They tortured us for hours. My parents were so brave, ad my older brother. My father and brother- no matter what they did to them, they wouldn't scream. I think that only made them angry. They killed my mom and dad, but they left my brother and I half-dead on the floor in a pool of our own blood. When we got out of hospital my brother was gone, and I only found out where he was weeks later. He's still out there, with my cousin and two of their best friends, chasing the people who killed our parents, and everyone is trying to stop him. They started to send me letters, threatening letters. They made me break up with my boyfriend, the sweetest, most good person you could imagine, because they didn't deem me worthy of him. He was their cousin, see, even if his family threw him out, blood is still thicker than water. So I guess I don't really have much left now. They took everything from me, they took everything that night."

I was sobbing by now, not caring as the hot tears coursed their way down my cheeks. Elliot looked a little shocked, but he recovered quickly, slinging an arm over my shaking shoulders and pulling me to his chest. "Ssshh…," was all he said, all he really could say. I sobbed into his chest for what felt like hours, until my head ached and my eyes burned.

When I was finished crying, I lifted my head from Elliot's chest and wiped my runny nose on my jacket sleeve. Elliot handed me a hanky, and I took it gratefully. I blew my nose and tried to hand it back to him, but he insisted that it was a present. I raised my eyebrows, a small smile breaking out across my face as I shoved the used hanky into my pocket, resolving to 'scourgify' it and give it back to Elliot as soon as possible.

I glanced around the bar, only to find that it was completely empty except for Elliot and I. Looking out the window beside the bar, I saw that it was pitch-black outside. I gasped, whipping my head round to Elliot, waving my hand at the window hysterically. "Why didn't you tell me how late it was?," I asked hysterically, "I've wasted all of your time, your shift must have finished ages ago, everyone's gone, oh Merlin, I'm so sorry!"

We both froze. I wanted to smack myself on the head. Nice job of 'blending in', Lissa! You're pretending to be a Muggles! Muggles don't say 'Oh Merlin'! Wait, Elliot looks more shocked than you'd expect. For all he knows, you just enjoy reading Arthurian legends a bit more than you should! What's up with that?

Elliot was staring at me, eyes flashing as though he was seeing me in a completely new light. I fiddled nervously with my fingers while I waited for him to break out of his trance. Finally, he sighed and shook his head rapidly before turning back to face me, looking more than a little incredulous. "You're a wizard, sorry, witch, too?," he asked, amazed. I nodded, wincing slightly, practically expecting a lightning bolt to descend from the sky and obliterate me for breaking the Statute of Secrecy.

Wait, 'you're a witch, too?' "You're a wizard!," I exclaimed suddenly. Elliot jumped a little, but smiled affirmatively. "Yeah. I left Hogwarts two years ago- I'm nineteen now, twenty soon. I'm sure you can guess from the name 'Stuart' that I'm not exactly Pureblood, though. I'm a Half-blood, magical on my mom's side." He said all of this with a casual shrug, as if he regularly informed people that he was a wizard who had recently graduated from a magical school. I stared at him, eyes popping. "Prove it," was all I said.

Elliot grinned. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a long wooden stick and tapped my empty whiskey glass with it. Sparks flew, and suddenly my glass was a spotted turtle. Grinning at my shocked expression, Elliot changed the turtle back into a glass with another tap of his wand. "Your turn," he said. I recovered from my shock quickly, shaking my head. "Can't, I'm underage. I don't turn seventeen 'til August." Elliot laughed at that. "And what's stopping you doing underage magic? Afraid of getting caught?" I frowned nodding. "Something like that, yeah. What of it?"

Elliot chuckled lightly, leaning bar against the bar to fix me with a dubious look. "Nothing," he shrugged, casually inspecting his fingernails. "Just wouldn't have expected Danny Crawford's sister to be afraid of the Ministry, that's all." I almost fell out of my chair. "W-what…h-h-how…," I stuttered, bowled over, "How did you know that?" There really wasn't much point in denying it after all, because, judging by the smug look on Elliot's face he wouldn't be inclined to believe my bullshit anyway. Merlin, I hoped he didn't send for the Ministry. That would just be a crown to my already shitty day.

Elliot smiled smugly at my confirmation of his theory. "Well, Lissa, it was kinda obvious," he said with a cheeky wink, "I mean, I don't know many Lissas, and at the moment every witch and wizard in Britain knows your name, thanks to your brother. Anyway, we've probably even met before," he said with a careless shrug.

My mouth dropped open as I gaped at him, scouring my mind for any memory I might have of a cheeky boy three years older than me, with spiky highlighted hair, butterscotch eyes and a cheeky smirk. I knew he wouldn't have been allowed to wear the nose stud at Hogwarts, as James and Peter had found out the hard way when Remus had tricked them into getting their noses pierced on a Hogsmeade weekend. The color of McGonagall's face… I snapped out of that frame of mind- nostalgia was dangerous. I couldn't let myself think of what I'd left behind, that would only make everything hurt more.

"Where and when?," I asked Elliot, burning with curiosity. Elliot smiled again, eyes glazing over as he thought back to the past. I envied him the ability to reminisce painlessly, and I chewed my bottom lip so hard that I drew blood. I drew it into my mouth and sucked on it, almost retching at the taste of the coppery blood. DJ and I, lying on the floor in a pool of our own congealing blood, flanked by our parents corpses.

"Hogwarts, of course," Elliot said happily, snapping me out of my waking nightmare. He gave me an odd look before continuing. "I'm not sure if you remember me, but I was in your cousin's year. Jasper and I were in different Houses, of course, but we were pretty friendly, all of us actually. Me, Jasper, Harry, Jon, and Danny- for a few years we were the bane of the teachers' existence. I was in Ravenclaw, same as Harry but a different year, obviously. Like all good things, though, it wasn't made to last," he said, sad now.

I was instantly more curious. I couldn't remember DJ or Jasper ever mentioning an Elliot, but then again I'd never really spoke to them about their friends that much. Instead, I'd met them: Harry had been around since I was six or seven, a chubby little Wade in tow; and Jonathon almost as much, Marlene with him every now and then. I couldn't remember Elliot clearly, but thinking back (painfully, but still) through the few memories I had of my brother and cousin at Hogwarts, I had a vague remembrance of a scrawny lanky boy with spiky hair and a cheeky grin, planting Dungbombs under the Slytherin House table with Jasper.

"You never used to come around over the summer or anything, with the others," I remarked, narrowing my eyes. Elliot nodded. "Yeah, my parents missed me. I was an only child, and it was literally just the three of us. We didn't really have an extended family, not after my granny died when I was seven. It was hard enough for them to watch me leave for Hogwarts every year, I couldn't abandon them during the holidays as well."

I gave him a small smile. "So why'd you say that it didn't work out with the group of you? From what little I remember, you were all quite close." A brief expression of grief washed over Elliot's face briefly, but it was gone just as quickly. "That," he said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose wearily, "Is a long story. And speaking of long stories, would you like to elaborate on what you mentioned about earlier about your and Danny's parents?"

I froze. "Merlin, Elliot, you can't tell anyone about that. I've had Barty Crouch and Bellatrix Lestrange on my back for the last six months, if I slip up Crouch has promised me a one-way ticket to a cell in Azkaban. You know well how DJ's gonna end up- dead. Crouch is cut-throat, he'll do anything to get to the top, and that includes killing them all. It'll be an accident, of course, but you and I'll both know the truth. I've spent the last six months receiving letters from Bellatrix Lestrange about how she's going to kill me, so I ditched my friends. I broke up with my boyfriend. I ran away from all of them, for Merlin's sake, they were feet away when I jumped off the train and Apparated!"

Elliot leant back against the bar with a sigh, rummaging in his pocket. He pulled out a packet of cigarettes, slipped one between his lips and lit it with a lighter that I could have sworn had the Malfoy family crest on it. "Nice lighter," I remarked with a slight smirk, nodding at the offending piece of metal. Elliot flicked at the lighter, watching the flame dance, with an absent-minded smirk. "I know, right? Lucius Malfoy was just the most generous spirit when we were at school. Used to give us his family heirlooms all the time."

I was greeted with a flash of the last time I had seen Lucius Malfoy, platinum hair pulled back and smirking face covered with a Death Eater's mask. "Let me get this straight, Elliot," I spluttered in disbelief, "The five of you used to steal Lucius Malfoy's family heirlooms?" Elliot nodded, lit cigarette bobbing up and down between his lips. "As I recall, Danny still has the whiskey flask we stole in third year," he recounted carelessly. And I'd bet he uses it too, more than he should.

"I never saw what was so threatening about Malfoy, anyway," Elliot went on, "I mean, he was a major prick at school, but he wouldn't do anything without knowing he was getting something out of it. Too afraid to risk anything." I swallowed. "Believe me when I say, Elliot, that Lucius Malfoy is more dangerous than you'd think, whatever his motives," I murmured, "Because he was there that night, in that awful mask. And you can bet your ass that DJ paid in blood for that flask and lighter you stole all those ears ago."

Elliot and I sat in silence for a while after that, him with a distant glazed-over look to his eyes, me wondering what had split Elliot from the others. It must have been pretty bad, whatever it had been. Still, maybe Elliot had a good reason to not want to talk about it, and I didn't see the need to push him. When he finally spoke, he burst out into a fit of coughing first before continuing. Suddenly I could picture Remus Lupin as clearly as though he were standing in front of me, wearing that disappointed, exasperated expression he'd always worn when demanding that Sirius hand over the cigarettes for the last time.

"It's getting pretty late," Elliot said all of a sudden, still staring out into middle-distance, "You can stay here if you want. I've got a small apartment upstairs above the bar, it's got two bedrooms. Bit cramped, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's probably better than whatever you had planned?"

I nodded slowly, it certainly would be better than something similar to the dingy, creepy alley I'd spent the night in yesterday. "Sure, Elliot, thanks. I'll be out of your hair by tomorrow." Elliot shook his head. "You can stay for a few days, Lissa, it's hardly any trouble. You look like you could do with a few days of sleep."

This time I was the one to shake my head. "No Elliot, I'll be gone as soon as possible. There's a lunatic Death Eater on my tail, and something tells me that the fact that you're a Half-Blood and picked on her now-brother-in-law in school won't exactly encourage her to spare your life!"

Elliot rolled his eyes. "Lissa, I'm a Half-Blood living in the middle of Muggle Edinburgh. What do you think the chances are that Bellatrix Lestrange even knows that I exist, not a mind where I live?" I groaned in frustration. "It's only a matter of time before I slip up and they find me, Elliot, and I really don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me."

"That's my choice, Lissa," he said stiffly. "Anyway, let's just hope that if anyone does come looking for you here it'll be the Death Eaters, because if it's your brother and cousin… Let's just say that it won't end well, probably for me. We didn't part on the best of terms. "Why?," I asked curiously. Elliot shook his head, looking a little sad. I examined his expression closely for any sign of regret or guilt, but found none. I had a distinct nagging feeling that Elliot wasn't the harmless little Half-Blood bartender he made himself out to be. I did feel, however, that I could trust him, not that that really mattered anyway. If he happened to be a psychotic murderer who'd kill me in my sleep, I was sure that it would be a lot quicker than whatever Bellatrix had planned for me.

I yawned widely, feeling the weight of exhaustion pressing down on me. "Bed?," Elliot asked kindly. I nodded and followed him up the stairs to his tiny apartment, where I promptly fell onto the proffered bed and fell into a deep sleep. The last thing I heard before I dropped off was the scratching off a quill.

Jasper's POV

The four of us were crouched on the ground at the top of a windy hill somewhere in Yorkshire, probably Wade's idea of a joke. The kid had immediately replied to my invitation to meet up, filling me in on recent events in the meantime. He had straight-out told me that my little cousin had been receiving threatening mail from none other than Bellatrix Lestrange, ditched all of her friends on the Hogwarts Express and was currently somewhere in Britain (hopefully), intending to dodge Death Eaters for as long as she could. While Danny had punched a wall at the crushing weight of bad news, he had been somewhat delighted to hear that Lissa had broken up with Sirius Black. Sensing that Danny might have been a little unbalanced at the time, I'd wisely chosen to share the fact that Wade wouldn't be alone at our meeting only with Harry and Jonathon. When Wade and the others finally showed up (including Sirius Black), Danny was probably going to explode and murder someone, but hopefully in the heat of the moment of seeing his missing baby sister's ex-boyfriend, the dead body on the ground at the end of our encounter would be Black's instead of mine. Logic. Oh, and I may have had a little grudge against the boy who had dared go near my baby cousin, but whatever. Setting Danny on him would be more than enough as far as revenge went.

"Where the hell is he?," Danny grumbled, cursing under his breath as the wind picked up again. Suddenly several sharp cracks sounded out, and fifteen teenagers appeared a few feet away on the windy hill. Jonathon, Harry and I got up to greet them, teeth chattering, to greet them. Danny remained crouched on the ground, frozen with shock and what was probably fury as he glared unbelievingly at a depressed-looking Sirius Black, mooching moodily at the back of the group, looking as though he'd rather be anywhere but here.

"Merlin, Marley, it's good to see you!," Jonathon exclaimed, wrapping his cousin in a crushing bear hug until she turned blue. "Jeez, lil' bro, it's been too long," Harry murmured, he and Wade locked in a tight embrace. I just stood there like I always did, my spine too stiff and my expression too rigid. I missed Lissa, and a Danny that had been happy, and my Uncle Daniel and Aunt Melissa. My family was dropping like flies, unfortunately. I missed them, though.

Then Danny recovered, springing to his feet like a jungle cat. "What's he doing here?," he demanded, waving a finger (and wand, but anyway) in Sirius' direction. Sirius looked a little put out, to be frank, and suddenly his wand was out too. "The fuck do you mean by that, Crawford?," Black bellowed furiously, dark eyes flashing. Suddenly I was looking into the eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange, of little Regulus Black, of the dozens of Pureblood Death Eaters we'd dueled with. If I had had less of a spine I'd have stumbled back a few steps, like the short chubby boy who had been beside Sirius a moment ago, but was now several feet away hiding behind a boy who could only be a Potter, and a tall bemused looking boy whose scars, weary posture and fair hair with the slightest touches of grey marked him as a werewolf (at least to me, but I wasn't thick enough to run my mouth. Boy seemed more decent than Black, at least).

"YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN, BLACK!," Danny yelled, probably ripping his throat raw, but whatever like. I rolled my eyes and held out my hand to a boy about my height who had slightly cruel but amused smirk. "Jasper Crawford," I said politely, ignoring the scuffle that had broken out between Sirius and Danny mere feet away. The boy nodded at me, smiling briefly down at the slightly shorter girl who stood beside him. She looked familiar, but I was having a hard time remembering where from, something that was proving a unique experience for me. "Ian Harrington, and my girlfriend, Emmeline Vance," the boy said, politely introducing himself and the girl. "Pleased to meet you," I said with a nod, turning to the smirking girl. "You're Lissa's friend, aren't you?," I asked. Surely enough, she nodded.

I introduced myself to the other friends of Lissa's: Lily Evans, Mary MacDonald, and Jonathon's Marlene. There were five seventh boys with them that I vaguely remembered from school: Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Benjy Fenwick, and Frank Longbottom. It seemed that Ian had also been a seventh year, and that they were all apparently in Gryffindor House, as I had been. So were the Sirius Black's three friends: Peter Pettigrew, the slightly chubby one, James Potter, and Remus Lupin, the werewolf, but they were a year younger.

Apart from Wade, whose birthday was in about a week, they were all above age. That made me think- I was only a year, a year and a half, older than all of them. Still, I could tell that none of these children had seen the things I'd seen- yet. The Prewett boys and Frank Longbottom had spoken about entering the Auror program, and were trying to convince Ian Harrington into joining with them. Benjy Fenwick had mentioned being interested in a curse-breaking internship with Gringotts, but had stated determinedly that he would be joining the Order of the Phoenix. Most of the others had said that they probably would do. That made me a little angry, actually. They would become Dumbledore's puppets, forced to follow his cryptic commands blindly and risk their lives without really knowing why, because if there was one thing Albus Dumbledore was incapable of it was giving a straight answer. Still, I said nothing.

All through my conversation with Lissa's friends, Danny and Sirius rolled around on the ground throwing punches and kicks, cursing and swearing loudly and rather impressively, wands lying a few feet away, forgotten on the ground. "EAT DIRT, BLACK!" "FUCK YOU, CRAWFORD!" "OVER MY DEAD BODY!" "THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!" I rolled my eyes. "Is that really the best they can come up with?," Jonathon asked me with a bemused smile. I threw my eyes up to heaven, chuckling lightly. Danny pulled back his fist, complete with bloody split knuckles, and punched Sirius straight into the gut. Black meant double with a pained moan, defenseless. Danny carried on, unleashing an onslaught on the prone groaning Sirius even as his knuckles poured blood over them both. I sighed heavily, shaking my head. This was getting to be a bit much, and however much I may or may not have liked Sirius, he'd still be one extra body to help search for Lissa.

I pulled out my wand and flicked it in Sirius and Danny's direction, sending them flying in opposite directions. Danny thudded to the ground hard, and Sirius crashed into an alarmed Mary MacDonald. "ENOUGH!," I bellowed, as calmly as one can sound at that volume, "Today is supposed to be about finding Lissa, not about venting your frustration on each other. Get over it, channel it into the search, and beat the shit out of each other afterwards."

Just as it appeared that I had shocked everyone into silence, especially Danny and Sirius who were beginning to look a little ashamed (I was quite proud of myself, to be honest), an owl let out a great hoot and soared down for the sky, stopping to hover in front of me with a sealed letter in its beak. Everyone's attention switched to the owl as I slowly reached out to take the letter and break its seal with trembling fingers I tried hard to hide.

"Whose it from?," Emmeline Vance demanded impatiently. I rolled my eyes at the girl, then went to scan the through the letter, which was addressed to the four of us: Danny, Jonathon, Harry and I. My breath caught in my chest, and I could feel the blood drain from my face and leave me white as a sheet. I was too distressed to fell shame at my weakness. "Whose it from, Jasper?," Jonathon asked, his voice worried, concerned. I shook my head, lowering the letter from in front of my face. I tried to speak, but I could barely draw the breath needed.

"Jasper!," I snapped out of it quickly, gasping air into my lungs. "It's from Elliot," I breathed in horror, "Elliot Stuart. He wants to meet with us. He says that Lissa's with him."

Dramatic, huh? Did you expect Sirius and Danny to react like that? What do you think of Elliot? Any thoughts are appreciated, I love feedback and reviews are a major inspiration. So- please review, and I'll love you forever, basically