Edward was supporting most of Albus' weight as he and James pulled Albus through the narrow corridors. Rose had gone ahead of the three to find Hugo immediately, and Scorpius was trailing behind them. He hadn't said anything in the last few minutes, but James knew he was furious. In Albus' condition, he was right to remain silent. James, however, could only imagine what losing a lover to Division could feel like.

As James and Edward moved Albus into the infirmary, Hugo was already waiting near a clean bed with one of his assistants nearby. As soon as Edward and James managed to get Albus onto the bed, Hugo motioned for them to leave, and closed the curtain behind them. As James looked towards the doorway, he found Scorpius, who had been watched Albus for the few moments before the curtain closed around him. Then, Scorpius turned his gaze to James.

"I'm sorry." James said simply. There was nothing else for him to say. It was unfortunate he had lost his sister almost as quickly as he had found her, but he simply could not let Albus remain in Division's hands in those circumstances.

"How could you let her go!" Scorpius' voice was raised, and James had become defensive in response.

"Look at Albus!" James yelled back at him. "What was I supposed to do, Scorpius? Let him die?"

Scorpius, naturally, did not have an answer, but had held his position in the doorway, staring at James. James was obviously upset about the unfavorable conditions of their situation, but Scorpius wasn't thinking logically. James hadn't wanted to let Christopher Adler put his hands on his sister, but he trusted Lily's abilities to keep herself alive. Albus, on the other hand, proved himself unable to handle his position without Lily's guidance.

"Not now," Edward finally said as he stepped between the pair. James' eyes averted from Scorpius as he reached towards his back pocket. When James looked back to Scorpius, he tossed Lily's wand to him, and Scorpius caught it easily. Without anything else to say, Scorpius turned and left the room.

James and Edward lingered in the room, and Rose soon joined them. It had felt like several hours by the time Hugo left Albus' side, but it hadn't been nearly as long. Hugo had given Albus a sleep aid, but assured his sister and brother, as well as Edward, that he would survive his extensive wounds. For the time being, however, they could not speak to Albus. As such, James left the infirmary with no clear destination in mind.

Eventually, he had reached the eighth floor down of the Ministry building. The seventh was partly cleared, but would not inhabitable for some time. The eighth floor was covered with debris and broken furniture, but James had found a semi-clear path as he walked the length of the corridor. He didn't know what he was looking for or how long he'd been wandering the floor, but as he reached a door labeled as the Minister's office, he paused.

Abigail came to his thoughts, knowing she was his daughter after all. After a moment, James reached for the door handle, and slowly pushed his way into the office. A bookcase, which he assumed had been pushed up against the wall in the far corner at some point, was across the floor. Some of the shelves were intact, but the majority of the books and trinkets stored on them were scattered. On the other side of the room, a smaller piece of furniture with shelves was still intact. The many things on the shelves were tipped over.

As he continued to walk through the large office, he turned to the wall with the door he had walked in through. A glass case on the left was perfectly intact, probably kept in such pristine condition through the use of an excellently executed spell. James approached the case, narrowing his eyes at what was kept inside. Judging from the overall condition of the room, James suspected that only that specific case had been magically protected. As such, he assumed its contents had been of the most value to the former Minister.

Growing closer, James released that the majority of the contents of the case were frames pictures. On the bottom shelf, a golden snitch was sitting in a small stand. A necklace was laid out beside it. On the far right, an old beat up book was leaned up against the side of the case. James turned his attention to the pictures, and narrowed his eyes as he studied each one. The first few appeared to be the oldest and had been taken on the day of what appeared to be the Minister's wedding. James smiled as he continued to look at the other pictures, where three young girls were playing behind a tall imposing house.

Though the girls were young, James recognized one as Abigail. Her hair was pulled back in a girlish ponytail, and she was smiling brightly. Knowing the woman she had become, James was actually glad to find her smiling so happily. The next pictures were of the other two girls at an older age. He recognized their Hogwarts robes, and smiled at the cute Ravenclaws waving at their mother or father taking the picture. James felt as though he was watching their lives unfold through a series of well preserved pictures taken to document the moments which might've been insignificant at the time.

James knew all too well that the most insignificant moments were the ones that most wanted to relive. Knowing that Abigail and her family had been so happy at some point in time, had given James some kind of comfort. It was as though his hope had been restored through looking at three sisters growing up, completely unaware of the horrors that would be their futures.

"What are you doing down here?" A voice called out and James quickly turned towards the doorway where Abigail was standing. Her eyes were narrowed as she watched James. Slowly she shifted her gaze to the glass case he was inspecting before she faced him again.

"I was just wandering down here." James answered he stepped away from the case. "You look happy in those pictures." He commented and Abigail quickly looked away from him.

"Why are you down here at all?" She demanded and James shrugged as he turned his back to her to look around the rest of the office. He reached the desk near the back wall and started to pull on one of the drawers.

"I suppose, I'm just hiding away." James admitted as he surveyed the uninteresting contents of the drawer and shut it before peering up at her.

"From what?" Abigail asked as she relaxed her shoulders and stepped further into the room.

"Scorpius is mad about Lily. She um…"

"I heard." Abigail responded. "He hasn't been around all day."

"What time is it?" James asked curiously. He hadn't thought he'd been down there for so long.

"Dinner." Abigail answered with a shrug. She didn't really know the exact time, but gave a rough estimate nonetheless.

"And I'm sure Rose is mad about something too. She usually is. She wouldn't be Rose without being mad about something." James commented dryly as he ran his hand over the dusty countertop connected to the back wall. He pressed down on it with a good amount of force before he lifted himself up and sat on the edge.

Silence passed between the pair as Abigail peered around the office. Her eyes lingered in some areas where debris was scattered, but James assumed she was thinking of something entirely different. She probably had specific memories in those places, but he didn't ask.

"Why didn't you want to tell me who you were?" James asked curiously and Abigail's gaze turned to him once more. His tone was causal, and Abigail felt as though he didn't care one way or the other about the topic. If she'd declined to answer, he probably wouldn't have cared considering the number of far more important problems hanging over him.

"Being the Minister's daughter was what got me locked up in Division in the first place. I swore that when I got out, I wouldn't be that person anymore." Abigail answered and James nodded slowly as though he understood the logic.

"I remember a lot of people coming around the house when I was younger. They were always looking for my dad for something. He and Mum never said what. Only that we weren't to talk to them about anything. And then I got older and all of sudden, I became everyone's next choice."

"Whoever said heroism didn't run in blood?" Abigail replied and James actually smiled as he nodded and took a breath.

"I guess that's what everyone wanted to believe."

"Aren't they right? You're here aren't you? As your sister loves to point out, at least you didn't get locked up like I did."

James turned to Abigail as he shook his head. "If you took everything Lily said personally, it'd drive you insane."

"Here I thought, she just hated me." Abigail replied sharply and James laughed an odd laugh. As Abigail watched him, she got the distinct feel that James had lost hope. He wasn't nearly as guarded as he was when operating on the higher floors of the Ministry building. James was all smiles and hope for the future then. The James before her was almost broken even if he could carry on a conversation.

"Lily's rough on the edges." James commented. "You'll like Albus a lot better, I'm sure. He's softer. Reasonable. Sane." James was nodding as he thought about his younger brother. "He's basically all the things Lily and I could never be."

"Stuck in the middle of two opinionated siblings?" Abigail asked and James smiled as he turned to face her. Slowly he nodded, and Abigail nodded in response. Without saying anything, she turned towards the glass case and pulled open the right door. She reached up to take one of the pictures down and shut the glass door after retrieving it. "That was me for a long time." Abigail admitted as she turned back to James, but she was still peering down at the photograph.

"That's surprising." James commented and Abigail peered up at him. "I'd have thought you were the opinionated one."

"You'd be surprised how one changes after you're entire family has been killed." Abigail responded and James had quickly gone solemn. He still had his cousins, as well as his siblings, including Scorpius. As such, he knew he should consider himself lucky compared to Abigail, who's entire family he assumed had been killed.

"Your sisters?" James asked and Abigail peered up at him.

"One fled with her baby to the States." She answered. "I sent her an owl when I got here, but I haven't heard back from her. The other was killed with my father."

"I'm sorry. Rose always wanted to start a search program. If we win and can rebuild some kind of government. She wants to be able to have a database of people who have gone missing so that we can have specific names in mind when we look for family members and friends who just… never came back." James explained the details of Rose's program to Abigail, but his eyes darted around the room as he spoke.

Abigail hadn't responded, but she noted his words. He hadn't said when they win, but if. If anyone was to be unconvinced of James' hopelessness, she was unsure of what other proof could be made available.

"That's nice." Abigail said softly and James turned back to her.

"Hugo wants a school for Healers and Healing Assistance. Edward wants to have copies of all the books we find down here, and the ones remaining in Hogwarts to be stored in a universal library. Scorpius wants to rebuild Diagon Alley. Lily would like to see Hogwarts built up like it was in the pictures our parents had."

Abigail smiled at all the dreams James carried with him, but she had heard none that were his own. "And you, then?"

James only shook his head as he looked away from her. "It's silly to go on about something that may not even happen."

"If that have that little hope, how can you even be sure Lily will survive?" Abigail asked, and James' eyes shot towards her. He had wanted to argue, but if had learned anything at all, it was that arguing with Abigail was a completely pointless way to waste time.

"She doesn't have to survive. I just would like to see her again first." James answered, but his voice was different. It was the first most obvious sign of how broken James truly was beneath the fearless leader shell he wore around everyone else.

"And then she can just die?" Abigail asked and James' eyes screwed shut as his body tensed.

"It's not easy, but it's realistic." James finally responded as he opened his eyes and looked at her. "And at least Lily had Scorpius, for whatever time they had together. It's always easier to lose someone if they loved someone so completely."

"Why?"

"Because then they're not thinking of death when it happens." James answered, and Abigail could see the pain beginning to reflect in his eyes and face. "If they know it's coming, they have a piece of someone to hold onto. To think about just before it all ends. Sometimes, it's someone waiting for them after they leave this world."

"Awfully poetic for a man who has almost no faith in his own revolution." Abigail commented and the faintest of smiles appeared across James' lips.

"It's the only silver lining I can find when everyone I've ever known slowly dies around me. And for what? We're holed up in the ground? We haven't made any real progress. Nothing has changed, except that Division has certainly become stronger."

"Your message spread across the entire land mass before I was taken, James." Abigail told him and he stared at her intently. "Everyone has hope in you. Every time there was some kind of battle, whispers would start. Nobody wanted to hear that you'd been killed. There wasn't anyone to take your place."

"Where were you when you were taken?" James asked.

"I was on the run, but it was a few days after you'd attacked Division at some building and everyone was talking about how you were just like your father."

"I don't know what place you think nobody can fill, but I don't do much of anything here." James admitted simply as he let out a huff of air and shook his head. "Edward and Rose plan almost everything. We'd all be dead five times over if Hugo wasn't as good as he is. Scorpius was a fantastic dueler and so was Albus, years ago. There's nothing I do that can replace any of them. And without me, they can carry on, just fine."

"You have to mean something more than that, don't you think?" Abigail asked as she stepped closer to him. She set the picture frame on the corner of the desk before she looked up into James' hopeless brown eyes.

"Maybe I'm face of the revolution, but I'm not the force."

"Sometimes that doesn't matter." Abigail answered. "If you think your siblings, and your cousins want recognition for their part in this, you're wrong. They want schools and programs, and buildings, and life, just like everyone else. And if hoping that you're not dead makes all the witches and wizards terrified of leaving their homes feel a little safer, than you have a responsibility to keep up your position."

"I thought you were bitter." James commented and Abigail smiled as she attempted to hold back her laughter at his out of place comment. Watching her, James smiled as well, knowing she probably hadn't smiled so brightly in years.

"I was always an optimist at heart."

"When did you go cold, then?"

Abigail turned away from his gaze as she cleared her throat and reached for the picture frame. "That's a story for another day." She told him as she turned away from him and walked towards the glass case. She carefully replaced the picture to the shelf before closing the door.

"Does that mean you'll tell me, eventually?" James asked and Abigail nodded softly before she turned back to him.

"Maybe once you've learned that you have to have faith in yourself before you could ever have faith in anything else."