***VIOLENCE WARNING***

Disclaimer: Well, Harry Potter isn't mine, so… Mind if I borrow them for a bit? I promise that I'll give them back when I'm done! *crosses fingers behind back*

Also, for people who are squeamish, this might get a little bit graphic in places. As in gory. Just so you're forewarned.

.o.O.o.

Chapter 25

The two boys were out of the kitchen and dashing through the hallways before the echo even faded.

"The master bedroom?" Sirius asked as they ran up the main staircase.

"That's where it seemed to come from." James said, coughing. The smoke was thick throughout the Manor and getting worse as they reached the top of the stair. Sirius pulled his charmed cloth strip back up over his nose and mouth and James did the same.

"Come on." Sirius said, starting in the direction of the master bedroom. A boom echoed from the hallway he was about to enter and a section of wall almost fell on top of him. Smoke billowed out of the hole, stinging the boy's eyes.

"Ventus." James said, pointing his wand into the smoke. It blew out of the way in time for them to see a giant fiery snake slither around the corner at the far end of the hallway.

"Oh, shit." Sirius said, staring at where the snake had disappeared.

"Sirius." James said, his eyes widening behind his soot-streaked glasses as he stared at the fiery dog stalking through the hole in the wall. "Sirius, run!" The two boys bolted away from the feindfyre, running as fast as they could as the thing began to chase after them.

"This way!" James called, sliding into an almost invisible division in the walls, hidden in the shadows of an alcove.

"You have secret passages?" Sirius asked, running into the passage after James. The tapestry crackled as it caught fire, but the dog ran past, not noticing where the two of them had gone.

"How did I not know this was here?" Sirius asked as they started down the passage.

"It's called a secret passage for a reason, Pads. And you're not the most observant of blokes." James joked, in spite of the tension, or perhaps because of it. "Quiet now." James whispered as they neared the end of the passage. Voices drifted towards them.

"…just shut your fat gob, Potter." a voice growled.

"You Crucioed my wife, Alence." Barry said tightly. "I'm not about to take that quietly. Surely you know me better than that by now."

"Shit." James whispered.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Remember that murdering crackpot of a wizard down in Surrey that gave my parents so much trouble last summer?"

"Ogden Alence." Sirius said nodding. His eyes widened as he realized what he had said. "Oh, shit. I thought he went to Azkaban."

"So did I." James muttered. The conversation was continuing in the other room.

"Shut it, Potter." another voice snarled.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Barry asked, sound calm and collected. James knew that he was asking the questions to gauge the situation, to figure out why they were there and what they wanted.

"We're under orders." a shrill voice said. "From the Dark Lord. You're to come with us."

"Oh, we are, are we?" James could hear the underlying threat in his father's voice, but it seemed to skate over the three Death Eaters.

"Yes, you are." Alence growled.

"You have a choice, Potter." the shrill witch giggled. "You can come with us, or die." James and Sirius crept closer to the false wall the passage's exit.

"Videam." Sirius whispered, pointing at the wall. It slowly began to change from grey stone to a pearly white and finally became clear, allowing James and Sirius to see the master bedroom while the room's occupants couldn't see them.

Barry was kneeling with his back to the passage, his hands clenched angrily. James could see Barry's wand sticking out of his dressing gown pocket, but Barry wouldn't be able to reach it before one of the three Death Eaters cursed him.

Lying on the floor at Barry's feet was Theresa. She had fallen with her head away from the Death Eaters, pretending to be unconscious, but James could see her eyes were open and alert. Her wand was held loosely in her hand, waiting for the opportune moment to attack.

The three Death Eaters had spread out in the room and all of them had their wands out, pointing at the Potters. Two men and one woman. One of them had very stupidly taken his mask off and thrown it carelessly onto the bed, on which he now sat. James recognized him as Lemmy Oteri, a murderer who was currently on the run from the ministry.

James's attention snapped back to the scene in front of him as his father spoke, replying to the witch's comment:

"Well now, Shorrock, that's not much of a choice, is it?" Barry asked sarcastically. "Now, how about I give you a choice?"

"Get ready." James whispered to Sirius, drawing his wand and positioning himself in front of one of the attack holes that Theresa had installed when You-Know-Who really began to gain power. A feral grin crept across Sirius's face as he swished his wand experimentally before claiming a hole of his own.

"You can either leave," Barry said, and James recognized the que phrase. It was one of the first that Barry and Theresa had established. "Or die."

"Avada-"

Stupefy! James thought as Theresa rolled agilely to the side and calmly said, "Everte Statum." Shorrock and Alence were thrown back against the walls. James's Stunning charm connected with Shorrock and she fell unconscious from the combined force of the two spells. Sirius's Confundus charm hit Oteri who sat dizzily on the bed, holding his head in his hands. Barry flicked his wand at Alence saying, "Immobulus," as James and Sirius opened the false wall and stepped out into the room.

"Incarcerous." James said, targeting Oteri, who fell over on the bed as the magical ropes surrounded him and tightened sharply before attaching themselves to the bed posts to ensure that their captive didn't move.

"Good morning, Jimbo." Barry said, as though it were a common occurrence to be attacked.

"Have you seen what they did to the house elves?" James asked tightly, his anger returning as the adrenaline began to fade.

"What happened?" Theresa asked, concerned.

"Well, long story short, they're lying in the kitchen in pieces." Sirius said with a grimace. Theresa's eyes darkened with anger. "Hopefully we'll be able to find all the pieces."

"And the manor's on fire." James added.

"But that's not possible." Barry said, glancing sharply at his son. "The only thing that could burn the manor is…"

"Fiendfyre." Sirius said with a nod just as a loud crash sounded outside the door.

"We must leave." Theresa said, levitating Alence. Barry levitated Oteri and Sirius levitated Shorrock. James led the way back into the passage and, after extinguishing the tapestry at the far end, followed by Sirius with Barry and Theresa pulling up the rear, prisoners in tow. The house crackled and popped around them, smouldering and burning. The party made their way tentatively through the house, moving as quickly as they dared over the unstable upper floor. They finally reached the main staircase, but when James but his foot on the top stair, it gave way and he almost fell through.

"Careful." Barry called as James held desperately onto the railing and pulled his leg carefully out of the jagged hole. He winced as the smouldering splinters cut and burnt his leg. "Test the weight first, James."

"Isn't there a spell we could use or something?" Sirius asked.

"It will be too complicated to try to get the Death Eaters down there without injuring or killing them, and the magic use might attract the feindfyre." Theresa replied. "It'll be swamping the master bedroom by now, what with all the magic that went on there."

"We'll just go carefully." James said grimly, carefully stepping over the first stair putting his weight on the second, holding onto the banister for balance. "Come on." he said after progressing down a few more stairs. Slowly but surely the party picked their way down the staircase with James testing the beams for weaknesses. All of their attention was riveted on the staircase so none of them noticed when the Impediment Jinx began to wear off Alence until it was too late.

Alence waited until the spell had completely worn off before in one fluid movement, he pivoted in the air and drew his wand, pointing it at James and yelling, "Defodio!"

"Protego!" James said, angling his wand and the Gouging spell rebounded off the shield and connected with the stair underneath Theresa's feet. Before anyone could react, Theresa had fallen through with a scream, taking Alence with her.

"No!" James yelled, lunging towards the hole to try to grab his mother, but Barry caught him and set him back on his feet, preventing him from falling through after Theresa.

"I've just lost your mother," Barry said hoarsely, "Don't let me lose you too."

"We have to find her." Sirius replied thickly.

"Duro!" James said, pointing his wand at the stair which quickly turned to stone. James ran down the solid staircase, followed closely by Barry and Sirius who were still towing Oteri and Shorrock. James tripped over a protruding piece of wood at the base of the staircase and he went sprawling, cracking his glasses and his wand going flying. "Mum!" James yelled, coughing from the smoke and dust as he grabbed his wand and got to his feet. "Mum!"

"Mother Theresa!" Sirius yelled, his voice sounding thick and forced, as though his was talking around a mouthful of cotton balls. James looked over at his friend and noticed that Sirius had partially transformed into Padfoot. His face was an odd mixture of dog muzzle and human forehead and eyes. He cast about in the air, snuffling quietly.

"Anything?" James whispered hoarsely. Sirius shook his head, the muzzle melting back into a human nose and mouth.

"All I can smell is smoke." he replied regretfully.

"Ventus." Barry said, coming up behind them and blowing the smoke out of the way, revealing the shattered beams from the stair that Theresa had been standing on. But that was all. There were no broken bodies or bloody remains, only shattered wood, gently smouldering. As they watched, flames began to lick at the wood, turning it black. "We need to get out of here." Barry said as they watched it burn.

"No." James said angrily, rounding on his father. "We have to find Mum. We can't just leave her in here."

"Do you honestly think that I would just abandon her?" Barry demanded angrily. "Your mother can take fairly good care of herself. She's probably already re-apprehended Alence and is on her way out of the Manor now. Either way, we need to get these two," he gestured to Shorrock and Oteri, "out of here. The Ministry will want to question them."

"You care more about the Ministry than Mum!" James shouted.

"Enough." Barry roared. "I am not abandoning Theresa. We will take these two out of the Manor and if Theresa is not there, then you two will stay outside while I come back in to try to find her. I will not lose my wife and sons in the same day." he added in a gentler tone, meeting James's and Sirius's eyes in turn.

"Come on James. Barry's right." Sirius said, although it seemed to pain him to admit it. "Mother Theresa's probably on her way out right now. And we can't do anything for her if we all die in here."

"And aside from that, the fiendfyre's probably almost here. We have to get out!" Barry said. "You want to be an auror? It's time to start acting like it."

"Fine." James said. "Fine. Let's go." He turned and led the way down the hallway leading to the kitchen, the closest exit. Barry hissed in through his teeth angrily and the sight of the house elves. "Come on." James said quietly, walking through the destroyed room as though it were a graveyard. Sirius and Barry picked their way through the corpses and out onto the Manor grounds, coughing and hacking as the smoke billowed out of the open door, surrounding them and clogging their lungs.

"Mum!" James yelled as soon as he had his breath back. He took of his glasses and scrubbed at them with his soot-covered dressing gown, smearing the soot around rather than actually cleaning them. He sighed in disgust and pointed his wand at his cracked lenses. "Scourgify. Oculus Reparo." He set his newly cleaned and repaired glasses on the sooty bridge of his nose and looked around the kitchen garden. He cupped his hands around his mouth, yelling, "MUM!" as loudly as he could.

"Theresa!" Sirius shouted, adding his voice to James's.

"Go look for her." Barry said, setting Oteri down a ways away from the Manor and sitting down next to him. Sirius set Shorrock down on Barry's other side and transfigured the stone garden gnome sitting in the bed behind Barry into a squashy arm chair. The boys helped Barry to his feet and into the chair before setting off together around the right side of the Manor.

"She didn't make it out." James said after fifteen minutes of fruitless searching.

"No." Sirius affirmed sadly just as a scream ripped through the grounds for the second time that morning.

.o.O.o.

A/N: Ahh, you guys are amazing! So many reviews! But I'm greedy (as I fully admit) so… can I have more?

Tapi