Adeline apparated to her apartment, where she sent a patronous to Dumbledore. As she waited for his response, she changed out of her clothes, which were covered in dust from the ceiling collapsing. She pulled the object Regulus had given her from her pocket, unwrapping it from the paper it was wrapped in; it was a plain leather bound journal. However plain it might be, holding it gave Adeline the most foreboding feeling she'd ever experienced. It made her entire body tingle; made her feel as though every decision she'd ever made would one day come back to haunt her.

Adeline dropped it onto the table, and sat on the couch to wait for Dumbledore's answer. It didn't take very long; before she'd even crossed her legs, his familiar phoenix patronous had flown into the room.

"I've connected your floo to the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts. Please come immediately. Tell no one," the patronous spoke in Dumbledore's confident voice. Adeline got up at once, shuddering as she grabbed the journal from the coffee table. She made her way over to the floo, and disappeared into the green flames.

Within seconds, she was stepping out into the Headmaster's office. Without preamble, she dumped the journal onto Dumbledore's desk, and dropped into a chair. She looked at him, not saying a word, as he picked up the journal and closely examined it. He turned it over in his hands, his brow furrowed.

Adeline knew what he was looking for; enchantments or protective charms that may have been placed on the object. Adeline hadn't been able to feel any during her brief inspection of the journal, but she figured Dumbledore may be able to see something she hadn't picked up on – he was, after all, a much more practiced wizard. While her nine months of training may have taught her some tricks, she was nowhere near Dumbledore's level of expertise. Adeline's breath caught as she remembered Gideon and Fabian – their dead eyes staring unseeingly, their bodies limp.

Adeline allowed Dumbledore five more minutes of silence before she cleared her throat hesitantly. Dumbledore put down the book, and looked at Adeline. "I'm sorry," he said politely.

"That's okay," she said. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing at all," Dumbledore said, slightly perturbed. "This most certainly is a horcrux, but I detect no protective enchantments on it. How did you acquire this?"

"Regulus. We were ambushed at St. Mungo's…we were there waiting on…"

"Dorea and Charlus," Dumbledore supplied solemnly. "I am very sorry for your loss, Adeline."

"Are they…?" Adeline looked up sharply. Dumbledore was looking at her with an expression of pity.

"They passed ten minutes ago," Dumbledore answered her unfinished question. "Within moments of each other, as fate's cruel mistress would have it."

Adeline closed her eyes briefly, letting herself feel the burst of pain in full for just a second before burying it down deep, next to her grief over the loss of Gideon and Fabian.

"Gideon and Fabian are dead too," Adeline said. "Killed during the fight. Regulus pulled me aside during the ensuing chaos and gave me the journal."

"Did anyone see you?" Dumbledore asked sharply.

Adeline shrugged. "Sirius may have, but I'm not sure. Sir, Regulus told me that someone in the order…"

"Is a spy?" Dumbledore guessed. "Yes, yes I'd come to that conclusion myself. It is good, however, to have it confirmed."

"Do you have an idea who it may be?" Adeline asked.

"An idea, yes – I have many. Do I know for sure – no. I have an idea, and my ideas are usually, if I do say so myself, correct, but I think airing on the side of caution is wise."

Adeline frowned, but nodded, acknowledging that he was not going to share his suspicions with her. "Sir," she said hesitantly.

"Yes, Adeline?" He answered, not taking his eyes off of the journal.

"Were you able to find another one?"

Dumbledore studied her for a moment, finally lifting his eyes to meet hers. He seemed to be considering his words before he nodded succinctly. "Yes. I tracked down his family home; it is heavily guarded – however, I feel that with your assistance, we will be able to break the enchantments and enter."

"And do you feel that it's time to start collecting them? We know for sure where…three of them are? And we still need to find two of them?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Not yet. I want to know where each of them are, before we start destroying them. Once we've destroyed them, we must kill Voldemort as quickly as possible – before he has time to realize what we've done."

"And one of the might be here, at Hogwarts?" Adeline asked.

Dumbledore nodded. "Given that the one he placed here is the one that he will have the hardest time checking on or moving, I'll admit I haven't spent much time looking for it," Dumbledore said with a slight grimace.

"Well, with your permission, sir, I'd like to take a look around."

Dumbledore thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I'd like for you to borrow James's invisibility cloak – I'd rather not have anyone asking questions as to why a former student is back poking around the halls. Tell James that I have need of it, and we will keep it here when you are not using it – I have business with the cloak as well."

Adeline nodded. "I'll ask him for it."

"Send word when you are ready to return."

With that dismissal, Adeline floo'd home.

She didn't bother to do much other than change out of her dirty clothes, before she apparated to Godric's Hollow, to James and Lily's cottage. She approached the front door, noting the smoke billowing from the chimney – they were home. She knocked tentatively, and waited a moment for the door to open.

Lily opened the door, her eyes lined with red. Tears slid down her cheeks as she saw it was Adeline; she brought her in for a hug, closing the door behind her. Adeline wrapped her arms around Lily's small shoulders as they shook with sobs. "I'm so sorry, Lil," she whispered, rubbing Lily's back.

"Come on, James and Sirius are in the sitting room." Lily pulled Adeline into the next room by the hand. Sirius sat on the couch, a cup of tea in his hand and a distant look in his eyes. James sat in the armchair, his head in his hands. Lily broke away to sit on the arm of the armchair, wrapping an arm around James's shoulder; he leaned in to her.

"I'm so sorry, guys," Adeline said to the room at large. James looked up at her, smiling weakly before dropping his head back down. Sirius didn't acknowledge her existence. "Where's everyone else?"

"Peter had to go to work, and Remus went home to change. He should be coming back soon," Lily said, when neither James or Sirius made any move to answer. "Mary, Alice and Frank went to go tell the Prewetts about…"

Adeline nodded, understandingly. "Peter couldn't call off?" Adeline asked, incredulous.

"He's already called off so many times for Order missions, I think he's on the verge of losing his job," she explained. "He said he'd probably stop by afterwards to check on everyone."

Adeline nodded, and walked across the room. She dropped into the seat next to Sirius, noting that he seemed to pull away from her imperceptibly. "Are you ok?" She asked him quietly, as Lily and James spoke softly to each other.

He looked over at her, as though he'd never seen her before. As though she were a stranger. She burrowed her eyes at him, confused, but a moment later the expression was gone. He looked so heartbroken that Adeline brushed it off; she slid her hand into his and squeezed gently. "I'm here for you," she said softly. He didn't respond, but she hadn't expected him to. He didn't remove his hands from hers either, although he did not squeeze hers back.

They all sat in silence for a while, broken only when Adeline got up to refresh everyone's tea. Lily accepted her cup gratefully, taking a deep sip before smacking her lips. She cradled the cup between her two hands, warming them. "What did Dumbledore have to say?"

Adeline sipped her own tea, sitting back down next to Sirius. "He sends his condolences. He also asked, James, if he could borrow your Invisibility Cloak. He needs it for something or other; he didn't tell me what." She bit her tongue at the half-lie. Truthfully, she didn't know why Dumbledore needed it, just that she needed it.

James looked up from his hands at her, nodding absentmindedly. His eyes were bloodshot. "Tildy."

With a pop, the small elf appeared, bowing low. "Yes, Master," she said squeakily, her own eyes bloodshot.

"Can you please bring Adeline the invisibility cloak?"

Tildy nodded, and disappeared briefly. She returned, handing the cloak to Adeline before asking if James needed anything else. He shook his head, and she was gone as quickly as she'd arrived.

"Thanks, James. I imagine he'll let you know when he's going to return it."

James shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

They sat in silence for some time after that. Remus returned, handing out glasses of firewhiskey to everyone. Sirius shot his back, refilling it without another thought. James followed suit, grimacing slightly at the burn. Lily sipped at hers, though she held it like a lifeline, her knuckles turning white. James and Sirius kept drinking heavily for the next hour; Lily said nothing, although typically she would have advised them to slow down by now. Adeline followed suit, letting the boys grieve the way they needed to.

Nobody seemed to know what to say, or what to do. It was just like the day they'd all spent sitting in Mary's living room the day after Lily's parents had been murdered. The day after Finnegan had killed them. Adeline shot out of her chair with that thought, walking briskly into the kitchen, her throat constricting. She grabbed the sink with both hands, leaning over it, letting her hair fall into her face in a curtain of blonde. There had been so much loss today – the Potters, the Prewetts. Adeline felt the familiar weight of guilt settle in her stomach, just as it had that day they'd mourned Lily's parents. She blamed herself – she blamed herself for the Prewetts' death. Regulus had orchestrated the attack in order to get her alone – in order to give her the horcrux. Because she was there, Dolohov had come, and he'd killed Gideon and Fabian. Once again, she was the catalyst for the deaths of people she cared about. People that her friends cared about.

She heard footsteps coming from the living room, so she grabbed a cup from the cabinet under the pretense of getting water.

"Oh," Sirius said, stopping abruptly, wobbling on his heels. "Sorry." He hadn't seemed to have realized she'd gone into the kitchen. He was holding his glass of firewhiskey, heading towards the bottle for a refill. By the look of him – and the bottle – he'd already had far too much to drink. He looked at her oddly, as he stood in front of the table, and she readjusted her facial expression quickly, sure that she was wearing a look of immense guilt. He blinked twice, before grabbing the bottle.

"That's okay," Adeline said, taking a sip from the water she was holding awkwardly. "How are you?"

Sirius chuckled darkly. "Fan-bloody-tastic, Adeline. Fan-bloody-tastic," he slurred, holding his arms out in mock jubilation, not realizing that he had slopped half of his drink down his robes.

"I think you need some food," she said gently, putting her glass down, and walking over to take his from him. "Come on."

"No." He grabbed the glass back, drowning it in one. Adeline made to grab for it, and he said loudly, "NO!"

Lily walked in to the kitchen to see what the commotion was. She took one look at Sirius, pursed her lips and ushered him towards the front door. "Go take a walk," she demanded. "Walk it off, Sirius. You and Adeline go into town and get food. And don't you dare come back without…"

"I'm not going anywhere with her," he said angrily, gesturing to Adeline with his head.

"What is your problem?" Lily asked, furrowing her brow and taking a step back.

"Nothing," he scoffed, crossing his arms and taking an unsteady step backwards towards the front door. "I don't have a problem. Do you, Adeline?"

Adeline was stunned, too confused to answer. She fumbled for a response, but she genuinely had no idea why he was acting the way he was. She thought they'd come to an understanding – a ceasefire, of sorts. She thought that this hostility was behind them, and she had no idea what she'd done between last night and tonight to earn back his anger. "I – I…." She stuttered.

He scoffed again. "Fuck this," he said angrily. In a flash, he'd turned into Padfoot and run out the front door.

Remus had gotten up off of the couch, walking up behind Lily. "James passed out – I think he had too much…where's Sirius?"

Adeline's heart was beating too quickly for her to answer. Lily, a look of equal confusion on her face, said, "He…ran. Turned into his animagus and ran. No idea why…"

Remus looked at Adeline subtly, looking away before she noticed. "Sirius…he's under a lot of stress. Probably just needed to cool off."

Lily and Remus walked back into the living room, talking about what they were going to do for dinner, but Adeline stayed where she was, looking out the still open front door. Unless she was mistaken, she realized as hurt bloomed in her chest, Sirius was under the impression that she was the traitor. And as she knew Sirius better than he knew himself some times, she knew that she was right. As if she'd ever given him a reason to think she would betray their friends – everything she did, she did for them! Her hurt turned to rage, quickly, and she stalked out of the front door, slamming it behind her. How dare he think so poorly of her that he would believe for one second that she would betray her friends – that she would betray him. As much as she hated him right now, she would never hurt him. She was going to find that tosser, and give him a piece of her mind!

She shivered against the cooling air, stomping into town, muttering under her breath. She'd walked for ten minutes before she realized that she didn't know where he'd gone, or how far he could've gone in animagus form. She came to a halt in the center of town, the lilting voices coming from the pub behind her bringing her back into reality. She took a deep breath, trying to think what her next move should be, when she saw blazing lights coming from one of the abandoned streets behind the church – abandoned at this time of night.

She took off at a run, whipping her wand out. Her rage turned to pure, unadulterated terror, and she ran faster that she thought possible. Of course, Sirius would manage to find trouble in the 15 minutes he'd been out alone. By the time she came skidding around the corner, into the alleyway, Sirius was on the ground, motionless. Three death eaters surrounded him, the tallest one looking down at him and chuckling. Sirius was laying in a puddle of his blood, and he was so torn up that she couldn't tell where it was coming from. Fear gripped her heart and without thought she, for the first time in her life, shouted "Avada Kedavra!" The green light struck true, hitting the tallest death eater square in the chest. He fell backwards, lifeless, and the two other death eaters turned to her, eyes widening. Before she knew it, they were both advancing towards her.

She deflected their curses with strong shield charms, allowing her panic and fear to guide her. She took every ounce of training that Sirius, James, and Moody had been providing at Order meetings, throwing all of her cunning and cleverness into this fight. It was life or death – there was nobody here to protect her. She had to protect herself. She had to protect Sirius.

She threw herself sideways into the doorway of a house to avoid a shot of red light, which missed her by inches. Following it was a flash of green light, which heated her face as it zoomed past her. She took a deep breath, peeking her head around the doorway; she shot a stunning spell off, which missed one of the death eaters so closely that he brought his hand up to check it hadn't taken off his ear. She used his second of distraction to send another stunner, grinning to herself when it hit and he fell backwards.

Her and the last death eater squared off for a moment, before footsteps coming from the other end of the street, behind him, spooked him. Adeline shot off another spell, but with a panicked look, he disapparated. Her spell just missed him, hitting the garbage can behind him instead, which caused the can to explode loudly.

Adeline didn't care what muggle discovered them right now, she pushed off of the wall she was leaning on and ran towards Sirius. She skidded to a halt, tearing her knees open on the asphalt of the street. She cradled his head in her lap, leaning down to check that he was breathing. He was, though his pulse was slow. It looked as though he'd been hit in the chest with a slicing hex, cracking his head open as he fell onto the ground. "Sirius," Adeline cried, rocking him back and forth. She applied pressure to the wound in his chest, blanching when she felt how quickly her hands filled with slippery blood. "Oh, Merlin, what do I do?"

She wouldn't be able to carry him back to Lily and James's cottage, and she couldn't levitate him through the village – not with all of those muggles coming in and out of the pub. She didn't think in his condition that it was safe to apparate him. "Fuck, Sirius, hang in there, okay love? I'm going to go get help; I'm going to figure this out."

"Sirius!" Someone shouted from behind her. Adeline shot her head around, hoping to see Remus or Lily; but it was Regulus, sprinting down the alleyway. "Fuck!"

"Regulus?" Adeline screeched, incredulous. "What the fuck are you doing here? Where'd you come from?"

Regulus fell to the ground on Sirius's other side, examining him quickly. "It doesn't…help me move him," Regulus snapped distractedly, not looking at her.

"Where?" Adeline snapped back.

"Into this house," Regulus said, lifting Sirius up and throwing one of his arms around his shoulders. "Take his other side."

Adeline listened, allowing Regulus to lead them into the house behind them, breaking in through the front door. He marched them into the living room, and dropped Sirius gently into a chair. He went over to the fireplace, waving his wand in a complicated pattern and muttering a spell under his breath. As he did so, Adeline ripped open Sirius's shirt. She nearly vomited when she saw the giant, gaping hole in his chest, blood still pouring out. She waved her wand frantically, using every form of healing magic that she knew, but the damage was too severe for any of the training that she had.

"I don't know how to…" Adeline muttered, panicking. She was shaking, unable to contain the immense fear that Sirius was about to die.

"Adeline, sit down before you pass out, and shut up," Regulus snapped sharply, but not unkindly. He waved his wand over the wound, muttering a charm under his breath that sounded like a song. Adeline watched in amazement as the skin on Sirius's chest began knitting back together, the place where the wound once sat only identifiable by the bright red skin that now lay there. Regulus did the same thing for the wound in his skull. He finished by siphoning off as much of the blood as he could. Adeline watched as Sirius's breathing evened out, though he still remained pale.

Regulus turned to Adeline, who had watched him work, her eyes wide. "Do you have a blood replenishing potion at home?" Adeline nodded, dumbly. "I connected the fireplace to the floo network temporarily. Take him home, give him a blood replenishing potion three times a day for the next three days. The spell that they hit him with…it's something that has become popular with the death eaters. Only a specific healing charm will work to heal it. It's simple, let me teach you – then you should teach the rest of the Order, so that they know. Tell Dumbledore, let him do it. They'll think he figured it out on his own, no one will second guess where you got the information from."

Adeline nodded, allowing him to quickly teach her the song-like charm. Once she'd mastered it, he nodded. "I should go, He'll be wanting a report from me. We're supposed to be looking for something of Godric Gryffindors – he's trying to make another horcrux, I reckon. I'd slipped off to try to make sure..." He trailed off. Adeline scoffed; there was no reason for him to hide that he was worried about Sirius, not from her. "Seems that they found him before I did. I'd finish off that tosser outside, if I were you. Or I suppose, I could do it. Doesn't matter…"

"Regulus," Adeline interrupted him. "I have to tell him."

Regulus snapped his mouth shut, narrowing his eyes at her. "No."

"The only reason he got himself into this situation is because he ran from Lily and James's place – he's gotten the idea in his head that I'm the traitor because I'm hiding things from him. Not telling him was supposed to protect him, not have him throwing himself into more danger," Adeline said angrily.

"No," Regulus repeated.

Adeline screamed gutturally. She put every pent up emotion she'd been holding back into that scream, letting the tears fall. "I'm done. Nothing I do is good enough – I can't protect myself, I can't protect Sirius, every fucking move I make is the wrong one. I won't let Sirius put himself into danger because I'm keeping something from him – I was a fucking idiot to think that hiding the fact that Voldemort has horcruxes from Sirius would do anything but make him act even more irrationally that he already does! I was an idiot to think that anything I did could protect him – he's the one who protects me, not the other way around. I've just gone and made everything even more fucked up by agreeing to help you destroy the horcruxes!"

There was a moment of silence where Adeline and Regulus stared at each other, Adeline breathing heavily and Regulus's eyes open in shock.

"Voldemort has horcruxes?" Sirius gasped from behind them, sitting up so quickly that he nearly passed back out again.

There was a moment of such stillness, that Adeline didn't think even her heart was beating. And then she choked, as all of the air was cut off from her airway, like an invisible hand had closed around her throat.