Something is wrong. The clock reads seven, yet there is no roar of green flames. There is no "I'm home!" There is no stupid smile and a "did ya miss me?" There is no Harry Potter.

Devlin looks over at Sirius, who had been watching him today. Sirius is busy playing tug-of-war with Zee. He turns back to the orange flames and worries his lip. He has a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

When their game ends and Sirius looks up, he finds Devlin's hand lying motionless atop the new Kneazle 'Emity', his eyes staring worriedly into the fire. He looks at the clock and feels a pang of worry himself, but knows if something truly horrible happened, he'd feel the change in the wards. Harry is still alive. Alexandra is still alive. He lets himself breath and moves to comfort the boy.

"Devlin?"

"Mmm?" His eyes are still on the flames.

"He's probably gotten some papers shoved last minute on his desk."

"Probably," he says, but his eyes never move.

Far away from the worried Devlin, something is wrong. Very wrong.

Emma isn't certain what is wrong, but she knows it is something that is outside the brick school building. The teachers have drawn the curtains and gathered the students in the largest classroom. She listens to their panicked whispers. They've tried Apparation and it hadn't worked. She hears them speaking about being trapped.

"We have to get out," one teacher says. They all nod fervently. Emma is quaking in her pretty purple shoes that she'd begged Mum to wear today.

She finds Freddie in the crowd, drawn to him because of his new connection with Devlin.

"What's happening?" She asks him softly, tugging on his robes. For once he doesn't call her a silly name or make to tickle her. He grabs her hand in a grip that almost hurts.

"Death Eaters," Freddie says, "it must be."

Emma quakes some more. He pulls her close.

"The teachers will know what to do," Freddie assures her, but Emma isn't so certain.

'People do stupid things when they're afraid, Emma.' That's what Daddy always said. The teachers look awfully afraid.

"Are those the scary men my Daddy hates so much?" She asks.

"Yeah, them." Freddie says, just as quietly. The whole room is hushed, almost like it's under a spell.

"He says they're awfully mean," she whispers, breathing quickly. Her heart is pounding.

"My Dad says that too," he says and his voice is dead serious. Emma has never heard him so somber in her whole life. She hadn't known he could be. It frightens her, like her world is tipping to one side and she's sliding away from reality.

"Attention, students!" It is the Headmaster of the school. Emma listens carefully. Freddie is still beside her, listening too. His grip never loosens. "Hogsmeade is being attacked. We have no choice but to run. We are going run, TOGETHER, to Hogwarts. Every older student is to grab the hand of a younger one. You are partners. We must all stay close."

"Freddie…" she sobs, fear clinging to her heart and making it hard to breath.

"Shhh, there's no time for crying Emma. We have to pay attention, alright?" She nods. He's right. "Don't be afraid."

She nods again.

The walk through the dead hallways is frightening in and of itself, but the moment the back door opens and the sounds from outside – yells, bangs, crashes, reach their ears, Emma feels true dread.

They're running now, behind all the buildings. They're too big to hide, so they must keep running. Other students are splitting up. Some of her classmates, too tired, are falling to their kness. Freddie goes after them, and tells her to keep running. She nods. They need his help.

She taps Danny Kite on the head when she finds him fallen down, crying. "TAG, you're it," she screams at him, trying to smile. He looks up and she sees that spark of hope alight in his eyes and he chases after her, as if it truly were a game.

"Don't let the Boogie Monster's get you, or they'll turn you into stone!" She screams, and together they dodge a spell that has traveled through one of the skinny alleyways. Danny tags Katie and tells her the same thing. She races with them.

And then suddenly Emma stops.

'If something bad happens, you stay here. Don't leave. This is where I'll come looking for you.'

Except, Emma was leaving. She wasn't anywhere Dad would look for her. He was probably at her school now, looking for her. He must be standing there, ready to rescue her. She turns to the group, moving around her and beyond her still form, and then looks behind her.

She's not sure what to do, but she knows her Daddy is smarter than her teachers.

She runs back to school. There is rubble from fallen buildings now. The alleyways have widened and suddenly main street and the back of the town are not so different. She is climbing over a fallen building, her hands scraped and bleeding now, when suddenly there is a pop and four people appear. She knows one of them. His son, Scorpius, had been sick from school today.

"My Lord, almost all the residents have fled. Those still fighting are fighting a losing battle."

"Do not report on such predictable things, Draco. I hardly care about the death toll. This was not the reason for the attack in the first place," it is an almost handsome man, except for his blood red eyes. Emma crouches low. She has to get back to her school. Daddy is looking for her there.

Scorpius' Daddy lifts a hood over his head and puts it on and suddenly his face is gone and it looks like a skull instead. The other man does the same, but the woman, tall with unkept black hair, stays where she is.

The two hooded beginning moving forward. Inevitably, one of them see's her. She tries to dash away, but he grabs her by the hood of her sweatshirt.

"Oh you very foolish little girl," Scorpius' Daddy whispers by her ear. He almost sounds afraid.

"What have you got, Draco?"

"A little girl, My Lord. I guess she didn't want to listen to her teacher. Big mistake that was, girl."

"Let me go!" She screams. "Let me go now!"

She tries kicking him, but he just holds her out away from his body.

"Bring her to me," the handsome man says. There is something about the way his hair falls that disturbs Emma. Or maybe it's his lips. Or his eyebrows. Or…she isn't sure what, but there is something disturbingly familiar about him.

The man drops her infront of the handsome man and she stares defiantly up at him.

He looks at her.

Suddenly she can't blink.

She can't think.

She can't move.

She is thinking of things she knows she shouldn't be. She should be paying attention to her surrounding's, but her mind is not under her control.

She's thinking about weeks ago, when Devlin had been sick and started shaking terribly in the bathroom. She's thinking about the first time she'd seen him shaking like that when mum and dad had brought him home.

She's thinking about him in the garden yesterday, showing her how he can turn a piece of grass into a snake without uttering a word.

She's thinking about her Mum saying "You were perfect, I told him, because you had the worst of the worst and the best of the best and that made you perfect. What more opposites could you find than Tom and Harry? Putting them together must equal perfection."

She starts to remember Devlin's party and him saying "I have to talk to some people," but that was private. Devlin liked that girl.

"No," she whispers, seething. "No, no, no, NO!" Her eyes blink and suddenly she can see him and the woman standing beside him.

"Why, aren't you a talented little girl; why didn't you listen to your teacher's, Emma?"

She goes still. He knows her name.

"Because they were afraid and being afraid was making them do something stupid." Of course he knew her name. Devlin had called her Emma in one of those memories he'd made her remember.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Where are you supposed to be, Emma?" She looks up at him, her lips tight together. She's not stupid enough to tell him!

"I won't tell you," she says.

He actually laughs.

"What a smart little girl. Isn't she smart, Bella?" He asks the lady to his side.

"Yes, my Lord."

"You're a good girl not to tell me. Your Daddy taught you that one, didn't he?"

"No." She says, being honest. "My Mum did."

"Ah, of course. You know, you would be a wonderful way to lure Potter out…but alas, it cannot be." He frowns. "Well, if you won't tell me where you're supposed to be…"

He reaches forward and before she can move, he has her wrist in his hand. He draws her against his body, even as she fights him. It feels like her body is being tugged through something very small. POP, they're somewhere else. It is the edge of town. He drags her, screaming and struggling, to the tree line. He grabs both her wrists and spells her silent.

"Stop that," he says firmly. "You shouldn't fight what you cannot win."

She breathes. She tries to imagine Devlin. How calm he was. How brave. She needed to be like him.

"That's a good girl," he says, softer. "Now, are you listening?"

She nods.

"You look very much like your mother," he says and when she looks up his eyes are no longer red, they are green. So green. Just like her Daddy's, only darker. "Except that," he says, pointing at her lips "that is all your father. So stubborn, aren't you?"

"Yes," she whispers, because it a comment she often responds too, in normal situations. Answering it makes everything else seem the tiniest bit more normal.

He laughs.

"You stay here and I'll make sure your father finds you. Do you understand?" She nods quickly. He releases her wrists. "And Emma?"

"Yes?"

"Please tell Devlin that I miss him and am not mad." She blinks, but before she can ask, he is gone.

What feels like hours later, she hears her Daddy calling her name and rushes to him. She doesn't tell him about the scary men – she doesn't want to see the hate in his eyes.

OoOoOoO

Devlin knows something has gone terribly wrong the minute his father steps through the floo. He doesn't need to see Emma's dust covered dress or her bandaged hands. He only needs to take a seconds glance at his father's face.

"What's wrong?" Devlin asks, moving towards them.

"There were men in Hogsmeade…" Emma whispers. "Scary men. They used their wands to hurt people…"

He looks questioningly at his father.

"We didn't think he'd get past the wards we've been working on for months, but he did. The teachers at Emma's school panicked and when they couldn't use Apparition, they gathered everyone and tried to have them run out of the village."

His father's face fills with anger. Even Devlin knows the strategy had been a stupid one. It would have been better to wait for Auror's. They would have made the school a top priority.

"I got lost…" Emma admits, looking at her shoes.

"But you're okay?"

"Ahuh…I ran really fast and then I hid…"

OoOoOoOo

"Devlin?" His eyes snap open to find Emma next to his bed. "I had to tell you something," she whispers, clearly anxious.

"Okay," he mumbles, sitting up. Mum has neatly braided her hair and washed all the dust and dirt off her face, but somehow Devlin can still see the disheveled girl that had landed in the living room mere hours ago. "What about?"

"I donno if I should tell Mummy and Daddy," she says quietly. He scoots over so she can climb into his bed.

"Tell them what, Emma?"

"One of the scary men that Daddy hates so much, he helped me."

"Why would that be bad to tell them?"

"Daddy doesn't like them."

"How did he help you?"

Honestly, unless given a direct order, a Death Eater wouldn't have wanted to harm Emma – she was clearly a wizarding child and they wouldn't have known if she was mudblood or pureblood.

"I didn't know where to go," she says, beginning to cry, "Daddy told me to 'stay at school' if something bad happened, but my teacher told everyone to leave."

Her blue eyes are shimmering with tears. Devlin has never comforted anyone, at least not that he can remember, and for one brief moment, he wonder's what the hell he is supposed to do, then it all makes sense. He tells her to lie down and tucks her in beside him and puts an arm around her neck, holding her close to him, and then he asks what happened next.

"I ran, like Miss Raven told us too, but then I remembered what Daddy said and I started to run back to school. Because Daddy would think I was there and Daddy is an Auror…"

"That sounds like the smart logical thing, except now you were running alone…"

"Yeah, all alone. And there were big booms and bangs and dust was everywhere. I could see my footprints in the street…"

"Were there people fighting?"

"That too. But no Auror's yet. So I kept running. Then there was a 'crack' like when someone appears, you know?" He nods. Someone had apparated. "And then four scary men appeared right in front of me. I was climbing stones and I tried to be really small so they wouldn't see me."

"Then what happened?" He whispers.

"Then Scorpius' Daddy, he saw me. He said I was a foolish girl and then the other man, with red eyes, he said 'what have you got, Draco?"

Devlin holds his breath, half uncertain if he wants her to continue.

"And Scorpius' Daddy told him he had a me and he put me in front of the man with red eyes. He looked at me and then I felt all funny."

"Funny how?"

"I started thinking about Mummy and Daddy and you and all of a sudden I stopped thinking about them and he was right here," she held a hand out a foot away from her face. "He looked at me…he was smiling. I told him I was running. He asked me where too."

"Did you tell him?"

"NO! I'm not stupid!" She says, staring at him defiantly.

"I didn't say you where." But inside he is relaxing that she hadn't.

"I said 'I can't say'. He didn't get mad at all, though Devlin. He told me I was a good girl for not saying."

"Did you tell him your last name?"

"No…I didn't tell him Emma, and he already knew anyways."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause he said: 'wouldn't you work wonderfully to lure Potter out.' Then he paused and got all quiet like and said. 'But alas it cannot be.' And he grabbed my arm and together we went pop and were gone and then we were at the edge of town. There were no more scary men. He let go and he said…" she trails off, turning her head to the side and upward so that she can look at him.

"Said what, Emma?"

"He said: 'Stay here and I'll make sure your Daddy finds you. Also, please tell Devlin that I miss him and I'm not mad' and pop he wasn't there anymore. I guess he was a friend of yours, where they kept you?"

"Emma, can you keep a secret?"

"Ahuh."

"This isn't a silly sort of secret. This is a real secret." She nods slowly.

"You met Grandfather."

"The man you think is our Grandfather?" She asked, as if someone had already coached her through the logic that Devlin must only be imagining the blood connection.

"I don't think he is, I know he is. Mum told me herself, when I was little. Then he kept me away from Mum and Dad and I think Mum decided not to tell you."

"What does lure mean, Devlin?"

"To trick someone into coming out or to a specific spot."

"So he wanted to use me to trick Daddy into coming somewhere?"

"Yeah."

"And then he would have hurt Daddy, right?"

"He would have tried."

"But he didn't use me to lure Daddy."

"No, he didn't."

"How come?"

"Because he had made a deal."

"A deal with who?"

"A deal with me. I made him promise never to hurt you."

She looks up at him and then flips her entire body and throws her arms around him, clinging to him.

They fall asleep this way.

Hope you liked this chapter. I really must go back and work on the other chapter. I kinda had a divergence of paths and thought of going one way, but then realized I still had to lay some ground work, so some stuff I should have followed up on, didn't get done. Like the Kneazle kitten. She's mentioned here and her 'delivery' should have been brought up before. I'll try to rewrite and write that in. Anyways, we're moving forward. Getting some action and extra angst, right?

And no, this isn't going to be a 'Voldemort isn't a bad guy' fanfic. He most certainly IS a bad guy and a monster, but he's also very narcissistic and Devlin is simply an experiment that he has grown attached too. Obviously he can feel attachment, because in the books Dumbledore thinks he cares deeply for Nagini.

P.S. because I am totally awesome, I have the next two chapters all written! Woot!

Upcoming: "I must admit; I am startled that they have let you out of their sights at all."

Please review! I posted this one before any reviews because I felt like the last chapter hardly deserved any reviews. Eeep…I really need to rewrite it! But, this is a pretty good chapter, right? What did you think of Emma?