"AHHHH! Get it off of me!"

"Who's dying?"

"Nobody move a muscle until we know what's going on!"

All of this was nearly drowned out by a loud, pounding noise like metal being slammed against metal. Head spinning, the cacophony likely to drive them all mad soon, "Lumos!" was shouted in varying degrees of panic. No lights appeared.

Sirius began turning crazily on the spot waiting impatiently for his eyes to adjust, then yelped in pain and felt his wand roll away from him. James and Remus darted to where they heard him, before they too cried out and their wands fell to the ground.

"Freeze!" Frank commanded with determination this time. "Do, not, move!"

Alice, Lily, and Pettigrew were all breathing raggedly, eyes darting around as they slowly adjusted to the natural light trickling in through the front window, to try and discern what was happening, keeping their wands closer to themselves now rather than aloft.

Trying to swallow around a painfully dry throat, Frank cast his eyes slowly away from Alice and forced himself to really look.

It was definitely somebody's living room. The furniture was old and worn, a highbacked chair closest to him seemed to be what was holding Potter hostage. He thrashed desperately against the woven cloth keeping him in place, but as Frank watched closely, it didn't seem to be doing anything but restraining him.

The pounding noise continued, but the other screams had subsided. Cautiously, never moving his feet as he kept shifting around to get the rest of the picture, he spotted Lupin and the older Black lashed to the couch in much the same fashion, and the youngest of them dangling from the ceiling light upside down in a tangle of chains. Craning on his toes, he could just make out the window onto a front lawn, and saw two dustbins slamming against each other as if both were determined to have all the trash contained in the other.

The rest of the house seemed just as inconspicuous. A tiny kitchenette was only just visible in the dim light, a worn bed in the far corner with the covers all over the place. At the foot of that was an odd looking trunk with seven keyholes, and it was shaking.

"Well?" Pettigrew hissed at him. Frank could barely make out his proportions, but could see his eyes locked on the others with far more worry than Frank would have given him credit for, considering how they'd been treating him lately. "Are we just going to stand here, or help them?"

"I think Frank's right," Lily called as she frowned up at Regulus still struggling, face already turning red from his position. "If we try to help, who knows what else in this place will attack us. Where are we anyway?"

"Haven't a clue," Alice shivered, "not sure I want to know."

"Think if we summon the book it'll come with its own trap?" Frank asked of no one, debating the pros and cons of this in his head.

"What if they don't come along with us when they're stuck like that?" Pettigrew snapped. "We have to get them loose first before we try."

"That's an odd assumption," Alice frowned at him. "The magic taking us around has actually gotten us out of just as many scraps as it's put us in."

"But we don't know!" Pettigrew insisted stubbornly.

The dustbins continued their horrid banging, it was giving Frank a headache. Before he could come up with any other conclusion, Pettigrew vanished from sight, just the slight glint of a bald tail visible along the floor was all that illuminated his path as he began darting around through shadows.

The very carpet beneath them seemed to come to life, a full sized human of pure dust began surging forward in pursuit, and then Pettigrew was squirming in hands he couldn't bite, screeching.

"Dammit," Lily hissed as she flinched at the sight and took an automatic step back, which was all this accursed house seemed to need to find her a possible threat. With a wild screech the fireplace opened up, and they all felt the gust of wind that dragged her off her feet and then sealed her up inside it.

"Lily! Oh, Merlin, Accio book!" Alice called in pure panic, anything to get them out of here now. The book did not appear.

He and Alice exchanged panicked looks now, and even as he watched her spell activated yet another trap, the coffee table rose up and flew right towards his girlfriend. It settled on her with a loud bang, upside down, pinning her beneath. The book came loose from it.

Frank couldn't breath. He felt like his head was going to explode any moment. If he so much as reached for the bloody thing, who knew what would happen next. The bedsheets would come to life? Trapped in that shaking trunk the rest of his life? Tossed right out the front door? Feeling every whimper of pain as Alice struggled beneath the sturdy table, he closed his eyes and forced himself to think. Magic was not going to get him out of this, but something had to.

They'd been speaking before, so it wasn't voice-activated. If he crouched down and leaned forward without losing his balance, there was a chance he could reach the book, but at this point feared any movement from his spot would set something else off.

The dustbins were still setting off the worst of rackets, he didn't know how long someone could hang upside down safely, let alone how well the others could breathe, Alice's whimpering pains were steadily growing louder. He clenched his fists in frustration, his wand threatening to drive splinters into his palm he was sure. How was it magic couldn't do anything, now of all times-

Then his eyes flew open, and he let out a softly uttered curse as he realized. He did indeed crouch painfully slowly, not letting his toes twitch one bit in his shoes, and extended his arm, and his wand in his hand, just far enough to tap the cover of the book. Applying as much pressure as he dared, lest he break the tip on top of everything, he gave it just the smallest of nudges towards himself, and froze.

Nothing happened.

Forcing himself not to hurry the process along, he scooted the book the rest of the way, and with a cry of relief stood back up with it in his hands, trying to ignore his shaking knees as he finally found the chapter title to get them out of here, Aboard the Hogwarts Express.

Giving one more soft utterance they couldn't have ended up there again, eyes flickering one more time to Alice in sympathy this chapter couldn't just be one sentence long, he launched into the almost mundane morning of another Weasley day.

Reading so fast he hardly a care what he was describing, let alone if anyone could understand his stuttering strung together mess of a tongue, he only paused once in surprise as he realized what he'd said, and then regrettably backtracked to figure out who else was in the vicinity of the most obnoxious dustbins.

"Mad-Eye?" He asked of no one in exasperation. "What on Earth does a lunatic named Mad-Eye have to do with Harry Potter!"

No one responded of course, so he tried to keep going with the same vigor as before, but couldn't help slowing down just a touch as he got a bit invested. They were in the house of an Auror! One past his prime, as far as he was concerned, and the name Moody. It nagged at the edge of his mind, possibly someone his mum had mentioned. The way Bill and Charlie Weasley spoke of him must mean he was of some prominence.

A muffled protest echoed around him, the squee's of Pettigrew still as painful to the ears as the exploding garbage, why he hadn't changed back must be more magic they had no hope of deactivating. Getting himself back on track, Frank pressed on with quite a bit of ire as the book itself went with a bit of cheek, teasing something else coming at Hogwarts. It was lucky he couldn't use a real curse, or he'd be sending one the Weasley's way for unnecessarily dragging this out.

Even Neville entering back into the story couldn't distract him any more than the trash talk of Malfoy nor mention of what other schools were like as he finally reached the final paragraph.

He hesitated there though, trying to swallow painfully once more. Pettigrew's worry lingered in him now, he looked pleading to Alice once more, for someone to bounce an idea off of what would happen. He did not want to try going through the rest of this alone, but what would happen to them? Would they be stuck in this time forever? Sent back to theirs, trip ended? He did not like the unknown, everything should have an answer to it, even if it was one not discovered yet.

Staying like this forever though wasn't an option, he'd swear little Regulus wasn't even squirming above him anymore and Alice was starting to wheeze painfully. Past experience was all he had to go off of, it would have to be enough.