Chapter 46:

It started from a distance, like a wave sweeping through Diagon Alley. The far away sounds of shouting built in a crescendo until it sounded as if the whole world had erupted into insanity. The screaming exploded around them, the sound of running feet sending vibrations through the pavement.

'LILY, GET HARRY HOME. NOW!'

No more time was spared for arguing, as members of the public ran past them, screaming in horror. Not a moment was taken to consider calling for back up, or for making logical decisions, as people were splinching around them as they attempted through their panic to apparate away. Instead, as Lily left with Harry in her arms, they drew their wands and simultaneously sprinted against the tide of fleeing shoppers, straight for the source of such madness.

'OI, YOU!' Sirius' yelled, grabbing a man who was running passed them.

The man tried to struggle against Sirius' hold, but his grip was firm, and instead he stared at Sirius as if questioning his sanity.

'WHAT?' the man shouted angrily back at him, his eyes darted past their heads, checking his safety.

'WHY IS EVERYONE RUNNING? WHAT HAPPENED?' Sirius barked, trying desperately to be heard over the continuous screaming and shouting surrounding them.

'YOU-KNOW-WHO! HE WAS HERE! NOW, LET. ME. GO!' shaking Sirius violently, the man managed to break the grasp and apparated away from them with a resounding crack.

'You-Know-Who? Here?' breathed Elyse, her eyes widened with fear.

'Shit.' James muttered 'come on.'

With James leading them, the group continued, with more caution, to round the corner that everyone had been fleeing from.

'Alina? Anyone round there?' James asked quietly, pausing before he turned the corner.

Taking a deep breath, Alina closed her eyes and pushed her mind forward, carefully leading it around the corner before them, and searching widely for the thoughts of anyone else.

'Ollivander's hiding in a safe room in his shop...but that's it' she told them opening her eyes 'but be careful, Voldemort is far more skilled with Occlumency, I don't know whether I'd be able to sense his mind...' she warned.

Moving pain-stakingly slowly, the group edged around the corner together.

Scanning the area, Alina felt a moment of relief at their being no sign of Voldemort or any Death Eaters, but that sense of relief was quickly replaced with utter dread as she realised that the street was not, however, empty.

She saw the crumpled figure of a woman on the floor outside of Ollivander's, she saw the familiar dark red hair spread out around her face; and she saw the brilliant emerald green eyes, now glass-like and empty.

She felt the vibrations shoot through her chest as the scream tore from her throat, causing her to stumble backwards as her mind refused to accept what her eyes were seeing.

No,no,no,no,no,no,no.

'LILY! NO!'

It was the sound of James' cry, as he sprinting across the street, falling to his knees beside his wife's lifeless body, which brought Alina back from the hysteria she had fallen into.

'No.' She quietly voiced the words that her mind had formed 'No.' She repeated more firmly.

Her sharp eyes flickered to all of the faces of her friends; the tear stained cheeks of Elyse as she sobbed loudly, the darting of Peter's eyes as if he were waiting to be attacked, and the white face of Sirius as he stood frozen staring at the distraught form of his best friend, cradling Lily.

'James!' she snapped, causing him to look up at her in shock 'it's not her' she told him in a softer voice.

'W-wha-?' he questioned, between sobs.

'Lily took Harry home.' She said firmly, trying to convince herself of her words 'how can it be? It just – it just can't' she looked from James to Sirius in desperation, as if pleading for her words to be right.

She watched as Sirius frowned, as if considering her words. He met her gaze for a split second before staring directly at Lily's lifeless form.

He stood in silence for a couple of minutes, his gaze never wavering from Lily's face, his eyes narrowing with concentration. After what seemed like a year, his eyes widened slightly and his mouth dropped open.

'Prongs, Alli's right, look at her hair...'

They watched in stunned silence as the deep red of Lily's locks started to lighten, and decrease in length. Alice's sobs stopped abruptly, and were replaced by a gasp as Lily's green eyes suddenly changed to blue and her face became more round.

Numb

Numb was the only way Alina could describe how she felt at the sight of it. She couldn't feel the relief that James was clearly trying to hide, or the sudden despair that Alice quickly fell back into; she just felt the familiar dull tingle sweep over her body as her mind closed herself off from the situation.

It's just too horrible.

She wouldn't allow herself to comprehend the situation. She couldn't. She couldn't even begin to consider ways of how Remus would be told.

She felt Sirius' arms wrap tightly around her and she looked straight up at him, her eyes questioning him on how this could have happened. Squeezing her firmly he shook his head, his eyes darkened with sadness.

It was Elyse who managed to speak first, her face chalk white and her entire frame visibly shaking in Peter's embrace, she stared unwaveringly into the empty eyes of Dorcas Meadows.

'Why – h-how did she look like L-Lily' she asked, her voice cracking slightly.

'Polyjuice Potion' James replied, staring down at the girl who was still cradled to his chest.

'Let's get her home' Alina muttered quietly 'Dumbledore will want to see her body.'


Polyjuice Potion.

Elyse shook her head, clenching her fists as she tried to block James' words from her mind. The two simple words had hit her hard, causing her blood to run cold and her breathing to catch in her throat.

Surely not.

Her hands were shaking, as were her knees below her, yet despite the support, the touch of Peter's arms on her waist felt as if she were being pierced by a thousand knives.

No. Don't think that.

But she couldn't help it. She couldn't help that her skin suddenly crawled as she turned her head slightly to glimpse the man who was embracing her so tightly.

She couldn't help that she wanted to scratch out his pale blue eyes as they darted around like a deer caught in the headlights.

And despite the burning rage that erupted throughout her body, she couldn't help that her mouth stayed firmly shut.

You're wrong.

She knew that she could be. Paranoia could be playing games with her mind, taunting her for its sadistic pleasure.

But you don't think you're wrong.

She felt her lip tremble as the truth of her thoughts hit home. The voice was right. She didn't think that she was wrong, and that thought terrified her.

How had she got to this stage? How had she found herself suddenly finding it believable, that her Peter, the man she loved, could be responsible for such awful things?

She stumbled forward, breaking away from Peter's grasp as the others took action in moving Dorcas' body.

'I – I h-have to g-get home'

She heard herself blurt the words, yet her mind didn't recollect making the command to her mouth.

'I'll come with you...'

'NO!' she had shouted before she had time to prevent herself from doing so, and she grimaced slightly as her friends turned to her in surprise.

'Sorry' she muttered 'but you should go with the others...y-you'll need t-to help with the r-report...and...And...Remus is going to need you' her voice broke at the final word, as her mind turned to Remus.

Poor, gentle Remus. She closed her eyes tightly at the thought of how he would take the news, and barely registering her friends' agreements to her words, she apparated from the scene, not bothering to even glance at Peter before she left.

When she arrived home she didn't spare a minute to think. At lightning speed she ran through her house, skidding across the floor as she burst into the kitchen, and threw the bottom cupboard door open causing it to slam loudly.

Please be wrong, please be wrong, please be wrong.

'Please be wrong!' she pleaded her thoughts out loud, her voice sounding foreign as it danced on the edge of hysteria.

Like a woman crazed, her pulled bottle after bottle from the cupboard, depositing them onto the kitchen floor, completely emptying the contents of the cupboard.

Her heart was thumping wildly, making her feel as if it were about to burst through her ribcage.

'Come on!' she muttered angrily to herself, as her trembling fingers fumbled in her coat pocket as they aimed to get her wand.

Please be wrong, please be wrong, please be wrong.

If sheer will power were enough to grant wishes she knew what the result would be. She knew that there would be thirty bottles sprawled out onto her floor.

But as she muttered a counting spell, and watched as the jars shot into pairs, leaving one sole bottle alone, her heart sunk to the floor.

'No' she sobbed out, her chest heaving as she couldn't catch a breath 'please, God, no!'

But will power doesn't make wishes come true, and as the number twenty-nine formed in the air before her in crimson red, she knew that her thoughts had been correct.

The Order were being betrayed.

And Peter was the one doing it.


He was standing to leave when his wand started to vibrate in his pocket. Startled, he quickly pulled it out and blinked in alarm as the tip had turned a bright green colour.

Clenching his teeth as a wave of nausea hit him, he turned to give Polly's grave one more glance before he apparated back to Headquarters.

He had been sent the message too many times for him not to immediately know what the colour green meant.

Green meant dead.

Within a second he was in the hallway, the sound of sobbing reaching his ears immediately.

'Who is it?' he heard Sirius' voice sound from the living room.

'It's me' he replied.

Sirius was before him in seconds, and after the sound of heavy footsteps crossing the room James and Peter were soon beside him.

'Moony...'

It was the regret and compassion in Sirius' voice that caused the jet of fear to shoot through him. The softness and sadness in his friend's tone was so alien to him that he would not have placed the speaker as Sirius in a million years had he not been witnessing it with his own eyes.

'Who is it?' his own voice sounded a light-year away, as his mind suddenly became hazed with dizziness.

The moment he saw Sirius falter after opening his mouth to reply, he knew the answer. He could see it in his friends' eyes; the way they were waiting for him to break, for his soul to snap before them.

'It was Dorcas, Moony'

He closed his eyes as James confirmed his suspicions, and clenched his teeth tightly to hold in the sobs that were clawing against his throat as they begged for release.

'H-how?' he asked tightly, curling his hands into fists.

'She was in Diagon Alley...' Sirius began, but Remus quickly interrupted.

'What!' he barked, his eyes shooting open as they glanced manically between his friends as if waiting for them to admit to lying.

'...she was using Polyjuice potion' Sirius continued sadly, watching his friend warily 'and Voldemort found her there.'

'But why would she...? How did she? How did he know?' he looked at his friends desperately, his brown eyes begging for the answers to the questions that were stampeding through his mind.

'We don't know, Moony' James replied quietly 'we're so sorry mate'

Even through his earnest condolences the words still sounded so empty to all of them. Apologies and sympathy would not help; they wouldn't bring her back.

'Where is she?' Remus asked quietly, keeping his gaze aimed steadily over their shoulders.

'In the living room'

He didn't pause to reply, he barely felt their strong hands grasping his shoulder in a brotherly act of support as he brushed past them. All that he could feel was the tearing of his heart as another person whom he cared for was ripped from his life.

The room was full of the Order members, but his eyes were immediately drawn to the small crowd of people who were circled around what seemed to be a camp bed in the middle of the room.

Alina saw him first; she turned to him, her eyes, dry yet haunted by sadness, bore into his own. She stared at him for a brief second, not needing words to convey to him how she felt, before she nudged Lily and signalled for everyone to move away from the bed.

Then he saw her.

She looked so calm. So peaceful that she could easily have been sleeping. But he knew better.

She was too still, too quiet and as he gently stroked her cheek; too cold.

She was gone.

And he was alone.

Again.


'It's getting worse' Alice muttered, as they huddled in the kitchen whilst Remus sat with Dorcas.

'You're right' James nodded in agreement 'they're getting stronger. He's getting stronger...'

'I can't remember the last time we all laughed, or did something fun' Alina continued 'I hate how we're just waiting for the next person to die.' She shook her head angrily, letting out a loud sigh.

'The other side have casualties too...and they are getting caught, don't forget that' Frank reasoned, his expression grim.

'Frank's right, we're not losing!' Sirius agreed, frowning with determination.

'No, we're not...but the battles growing a lot darker.' Alina reminded them, before her hard expression turned to worry 'what's he going to do?' she asked, gesturing down the hall to where Remus was.

'I dunno' James shrugged, catching Sirius' eye 'but I'm worried about him...he's already been acting strangely...'

'I – I'm going to go and check on Elyse!' Peter announced suddenly

'S-she was really upset and I don't want to leave her at home alone...'

'Yeah, yeah course mate!' James quickly replied, flashing a reassuring smile at his friend 'thanks for coming to help...if you fancy a few beers later pop round mine, Sirius' coming too...'

'Yeah...erm...yeah I might do' Peter replied quickly, not quite meeting James' gaze.

Something in his tone caused Alina's ears to prick up, and she found her head jerking upwards to look at her friend. There was something in that nervous gaze; the way his eyes were darting once again that caused her mind to twinge, as if begging her to allow it to explore Peter's thoughts.

Frowning at the lapse in control, she pushed the urge firmly away, confused as to why her mind would have reacted so strangely.

'You all right Peter?' she found herself asking him, her tone slightly sharper than she had intended.

'What? Erm...yeah! Fine! Why?' Peter replied quickly, looking at her in alarm.

'Well you seem...' she began, but Peter quickly interrupted.

'I guess I feel a bit jumpy, I-I mean we've been betrayed again right? I just don't want to leave Elyse alone for too long...' he told her, and immediately Alina felt guilty for how she had questioned him.

'Oh yeah, of course, well we'll see you later' she replied softly, nodding her goodbye.

It wasn't until he had disappeared from the kitchen that she thought about his words.

We've been betrayed again, right?

He was right, and a wave of anger swept through her body.

Who was it? And why would they do it?

A/N: Thank you so much for you reviews I really do appreciate them all!

To answer a few points: I have been putting things up to break off the different character's sections, but for some reason they haven't been showing up? So i've tried a new way for this chapter so i'm hoping that it works this time?

But thank you DreamOfaKiss for letting me know about it! And also I KNOW i'm absolutely awful to Remus, but I do love him I swear! Unfortunately he's going to have to be put under suspicion so it's all leading to that... :(

ChemistryGoddess - 'I just hate his little rat guts' oh you summed up my exact emotions and that really made me laugh when I read it haha!

A big thanks/shout out to:

NymphadoraDescoudresRothBlac k

Naflower05

NeverSayNever95

93

Spannieren

Madhatter47

Love-cdc

ksks

Dreamwalker-Bibliophile

And if i've forgotten anyone, let me know and i'll give you a shout out!

Thank you so much to all of you you brighten my day :) x