The moment they heard several small pops, Lily and Alice both shot up from the couch and hurried to the door.

Throwing it open so the boys didn't have to search for their key, Lily froze momentarily in the doorway at the sight of them; taking in the sight of Sirius' and Frank's bloodied clothing and pale faces.

"We're all right, it's not theirs," James quickly reassured them even before they could ask and relieved they stepped back to allow them entry.

"Thank Merlin, you all look like hell, though," Alice pulled her husband into a short hug, frowning as he tightened his hold on her and held her close with a shaky breath. "What happened?"

"Last information indicated we rolled up the entire operation," closing the door behind them, Gideon cleared his throat. "The first four locations went well and without a hitch but the fifth and last location….Merlin it was horrible. I mean, every location was horrible with what they did to those Muggles, the women especially, but this last one….it was bad."

"Why don't the two of you clean up and then we can all have hot chocolate? Everything else can come later."

"You can borrow some of my clothes," James indicated to Frank and the three disappeared into the bathroom while the twins disappeared into the living room without another word.

Their unnatural silence made Lily share a worried look with Alice. "None of them are all right."

"Clearly, let's just give them a bit to gather themselves."

Agreeing, they wordlessly went into the kitchen to put on water for the hot chocolate and prepare a plate of biscuits as slowly as they could before James and Sirius reappeared; both cleaned up and in fresh clothes.

The haunted look in Sirius' eyes and James' equally lost expression turned Lily's stomach as she knew whatever they'd seen was bad and she abandoned her task to move to their side and gently take their hands. "Why don't you sit down?"

She watched thin fingers make an aborted movement towards her stomach and knowing exactly what Sirius obviously needed, she took his hand with the intention of guiding him to the couch.

"Come," she paused momentarily at the sight of Remus sitting rigidly on a chair, staring at the twins nervously and she was briefly reminded of his horror at realising just what had occurred the night before, but as neither twin seemingly even noticed his presence, she chose to ignore his presence for now.

Pulling Sirius down on the couch with her, she rested his hand on her stomach while wrapping her arm around his shoulders to pull him into her side, but although his fingers flattened on her stomach, he did not relax.

To her utter surprise James dropped down on her other side with a glazed over expression and she realised he was so far out of it that he didn't even pick up on Sirius' obvious distress and her worry increased tenfold.

"I hope you don't mind that I dropped my clothes into your washing machi..." Frank trailed off as he spotted Remus and the brunet nervously rose to his feet.

"You know what? I don't give a rat's arse about you being a werewolf. It's pretty much the least important thing I've ever learned and no werewolf could ever be worse than the monsters responsible for what we saw today," and with that he brushed past Remus to drop down onto the other couch beside Alice even as both twins rose to their feet.

"What he said," Gideon shrugged, clasping a hand onto Remus' shoulder as the other stared bewildered after Frank. "Can you help me pour the hot chocolate for all of us? They shouldn't be separated from the girls right now."

"I...okay," slightly apprehensive and with a worried glance towards them, Remus allowed himself to be steered into the kitchen while Fabian squeezed himself onto the couch on Sirius' other side.

"You did the right thing, you both did."

There was no response from him and brown eyes momentarily glanced at James before Fabian clearly decided to sod it and shifted so that he could wrap his arms around Sirius without dislodging him from her side and she shifted her arm accordingly so they could all be comfortable.

They sat in heavy silence for a long moment before Lily detected the light but quick even rhythm Sirius was unconsciously tapping onto her stomach and for a long few minutes wondered what he was doing before realising the pattern was awfully like how he'd described her baby's heartbeat before.

He seemed completely focused on the sound only he could hear and her heart jumped in joy at the clear comfort the sound brought him despite how far his mind had gone and she realised he wasn't the only one comforted by the repeated taps as all the others seemed to deflate a little.

The tight expression on Frank's face eased the longer he looked at the rhythm Sirius' fingers were tapping out and eventually he took a slow, deep breath. "There were two little girls being held on the top floor of the last location and the things done to them…."

The tapping abruptly stopped even as Remus' steps faltered as he returned with a tray of cups but he went ignored as Lily immediately tightened her hold on her boys; swallowing back tears at the implications given and understanding perfectly why they were all so shaken.

"Oh Frank," clearly Alice shared her feelings as she pulled her husband into her arms and rested her cheek onto the top of his head as he slumped further into her hold.

"They were just little girls who had nothing to do with this war. Their parents just took them to the wrong place at the wrong time. Why did they do this?"

"I don't know, people can be monsters without a clear reason. That's why we're fighting, isn't it?"

"We might be fighting, but we're not stopping them," Fabian softly argued against Alice's words. "Nothing of what we do seems to make a difference and just more innocent lives are forever destroyed. What will stop those not captured today from not simply starting all over again?"

"We can't," Alice admitted. "But we can't give up either, that would mean they've won."

"I wasn't planning to, I just….I just feel so hopeless on days like these."

"Here, take this," looking up at the sight of Gideon holding out a plate to Remus, Lily wasn't surprised to see all the boys turn green at the sight of food. Not after what they'd obviously seen today.

"Just feed them, I have to go do something real quick," pushing the plate into his free hand, Gideon shared a look with Fabian before hurrying out of the door.

"Where is he going?"

"He'll be back in a little bit," it wasn't an answer but Fabian didn't seem worried at his brother's sudden action as he rose to his feet to take the plate with biscuits from Remus to place it on the far end of the table; away from all of them before taking a cup from the tray Remus was still holding in his other hand to hold it out before Sirius. "You need to drink this."

His only response was a shake of the head and sighing, Fabian glanced at James before refocusing on Sirius and Lily bit her lip as she felt Sirius curl further into her side without her husband giving a single reaction.

"I know you don't want to, but you need to drink," lifting the cup towards him, Sirius gave a tiny whimper of distress and James shuddered at the sound, his overprotective brother instinct abruptly shifting back into gear and he was off the couch and pulling Sirius out of her arms and into his own before any of them could do more than blink.

She clearly wasn't the only one relieved at his action and realised Fabian's push had solely been to shake James out of his own stupor as the other simply smiled as he sat cross-legged on the floor beside them.

After several moments in which Sirius had shifted fully into James' arms, her husband wordlessly took the cup Fabian was still holding from him. "You don't need to drink the full cup, but please just take a sip, all right? For me?"

As always whenever he was unwilling or non-cooperative towards the rest of them, James' soft plea was enough to make Sirius comply and shaking hands reached towards the cup, allowing James to help guide it to his lips and take a sip.

Almost immediately a bit of colour returned to his face as the chocolate did its work and he took a shaky breath while James dropped the cup back into Fabian's awaiting hands.

"James?"

"I'm here," James tucked his brother back into his arms and a strangled sob escaped Sirius as tears gathered in his eyes and to Lily's alarm he suddenly broke down into heart-wrenching sobs.

"Thank Merlin," she thought she heard Fabian murmur as Sirius clung to James and her heart clenched as it was clear they'd all been waiting for Sirius to break down the way he was now as all of them relaxed completely despite the clear distress displayed.

Fabian shifted so that he could wrap his arms around Sirius from behind; effectively shielding him between them and Lily couldn't help but slide to the ground as well to curl her hands around the fingers tightly clenching the material of James' shirt at his back.

From the corner of her eyes she saw Alice wrap her arms around Frank again as they looked down at their little pile with soft eyes while Remus awkwardly lingered near the table.

It was obvious that whatever had happened, Frank, and especially Sirius had taken it much worse than the rest of them and none of them had been able to full relax before Sirius had broken down; the stilted tension completely gone.

"We couldn't help them, so Sirius and I put them out of their misery," either Frank could read her mind or his timing was just that good as he spoke softly.

"How did you end their suffering?" Tightening her fingers around Sirius', Lily took a shaky breath and forced down her own turmoiled emotions as the last thing any of them needed right now was for her to break down herself when they were all so obviously distressed by what had happened.

"The killing curse," Sirius whispered. "It was the only way to prevent more pain."

"You took the right course of action," rubbing her husband's back, Alice cleared her throat. "It was the right thing to do."

"Doesn't make it any easier," shakily, Sirius pulled back from their embrace, brushing his tears away with his sleeve. "I'm all right."

"I don't think any of us is all right," Fabian reached out to brush the remaining tears away. "How can we be after that? And for them to then react the way they did?"

"What do you mean?"

"Vance, McKinnon and Fenwick disagreed with their action and were very vocal about it," James said; sharing a look with Sirius before taking the two cups Fabian handed over so they could both drink something.

"How could they disagree? If it was truly as bad as you're all implying..."

"They said that killing is wrong regardless of our reasons and demanded to know who decided where the line was to decide when killing was necessary," reaching forward to place his cup back onto the table, a wry laugh escaped Sirius. "It was kind of hypocritical when none of them ever take point and thus have never been forced to take drastic action."

"It's always easy for others to judge, especially when they've indeed never had to decide between life or death," Alice agreed. "Moody had you guys on point again?"

"As usual."

"We should let them take point for a change, see how they react."

"You're going to try and convince Dumbledore of that?" Fabian asked. "He knows better than to have anyone but his very best take point and unfortunately that's most of us. We should consider ourselves lucky he gave in when we gave hell about being separated."

"Like I would've let him decide to split me up from Sirius or you from Gid," scoffing, James ran a hand through his hair. "Everyone knows this group work best together and even thinking of splitting us up from our respective partners is just plain dumb."

"I'm sure Dumbledore knows what he's doing if he's suggested splitting you up," Remus tried to defend their old headmaster, but shrank back at the multiple glares he received in return.

"It would be wise to think more for yourself than to blindly follow Dumbledore," Frank wet his lips and opened his mouth to continue when Sirius abruptly sat up; causing them all to tense.

"Why…." confused eyes turned to Fabian, who immediately relaxed and smiled as he realised what had caught Sirius' attention.

"Because we could all do with a little innocence around us right now. Stay, I'll go open the door," with that he rose to his feet to go do exactly that and moments later the room was a lot noisier as the two brothers entered with four children.

"Uncle Siri, Uncle Jamie!" The oldest two exclaimed happily and immediately ran towards them to crash into their arms; making both James and Sirius laugh as they returned the little hugs.

"Unke Siwi," the toddler in Gideon's arms stretched out his little arms as he spotted Sirius, making the identical twin in Fabian's arms begin to wiggle to be let loose so their uncles leaned down to place them on their little feet.

Marvelling, Lily watched as the two unsteadily balanced on their feet for a brief moment before wobbling over to Sirius unaided, squealing in delight as they reached him and wrapped their little arms around his neck in unison.

"Hello boys," it was a delight to watch his eyes light up as he hugged the two toddlers close, the last of the tension left in him vaporizing as the four made a true racket of noise that made her ears ring but her boys seemed to enjoy immensely.

It wasn't long before the oldest discovered the plate of biscuits abandoned on the table and pulled on Sirius' sleeve. "Uncle Siri, can we have a cookie?"

"If you give your brothers one, too," he answered distractedly as he pulled one of the two toddlers away from the hot cups of chocolate. "And what do you think you're doing, Georgie?"

Delighted laughter rang out as the little boy was promptly tossed up with magic and Frank hurriedly shoved the cups to the middle of the table and out of reach of curious little hands. "Guess this will be good practice for when our own little sprout is here."

"Absolutely," though Alice looked almost as overwhelmed as Remus did at the rowdy children, she gamely conjured paper and pencils for the children to amuse themselves with and in no time the four were settled; the two toddlers sitting on Sirius' lap while the oldest had settled between James and Sirius and the second oldest squashed himself between Sirius and Fabian.

The one she thought was called Charlie absent-mindedly accepted the biscuit his brother held out to him as he was animatedly explaining what he was drawing to Alice and Frank.

The two had slid down to easily reach the coffee table from the other side and were half-heartedly drawing on their own gifted pieces of paper at the boys insistences while James helped the toddlers draw lines while Sirius took Charlie's biscuit from him to break it into more manageable pieces.

Rising to her feet, Lily joined Gideon in the kitchen to prepare some additional snacks for the children that hopefully the rest would eat something of as well.

"Good thinking," she softly commented as she watched how easily the children's mere presences washed away the last of the heavy atmosphere hanging in the room.

"When we found those girls, the littlest one tried asking for her mother so Sirius used Legilimency to try and find out who she was so he could find her," his voice was soft enough that no one heard it above the noise coming from the living room and she could only hope it also masked the way her breathing stocked as she abruptly realised just why Sirius was so much more affected than the rest of them.

"Shit."

"Yeah….shit," wetting his lips, Gideon indicated to the children between cutting up pieces of apple. "They seemed like a good way to take his mind off what he saw in there and give him some peace...although...I'd not say anything those four rascals do is peaceful as they are incredibly loud."

"Their racket is precisely what he needs right now, what they all need," patting his shoulder, she couldn't help but smile at him. "You are a good man, Gideon."

"If I were a good man, I'd have made sure he hadn't been the one to cast that spell. Frank is an Auror and has been trained for taking hard decisions, he isn't."

"Did you honestly think you could've stopped him once he'd set his mind to it?"

Abruptly he choked out a startled laugh as he no doubt realised the truth behind her words and sliding the apple pieces onto a plate, he grinned. "A herd of Hippogriffs is less stubborn than him."

"Can't argue with that," accepting the plate, she followed him back to the living room and after placing the plate down between them, took a seat on the couch besides him to watch them all. "I have to admit I have no idea what all their names are or how old they are."

"The oldest is Bill, he's nine."

"I'm almost ten!" Bill proudly contradicted his uncle.

"I do believe your birthday isn't until November, that's hardly almost as it's just January," Fabian cheekily corrected.

"Almost February so it's closer to me being ten," the boy's cheeks puffed up in irritation and the glare he shot at his uncle was truly impressive for such a young boy. "And then it'll be only a year before I start Hogwarts!"

"Very impressive and I stand corrected," there was no mistaking the massive grin on Fabian's lips as he ruffled his nephew's hair, making the nine year old squeak and deflate. "You are clearly almost ten."

"I'm Charlie and I'm seven," a toothy grin was shot her way as Charlie shifted to look at her. "And you're pretty! Isn't she's pretty, Uncle Siri?"

"Prettiest girl I've even seen, kiddo," Sirius laughed and a flush crept over her face at the genuine awe on the little boy's face, though it turned into a wide beam at Sirius' affirmative answer and James choked on a laugh as he leaned in to semi-whisper to the boy.

"I think she's very pretty, too, Charlie."

"You hafta think she's pretty, she's your wife! You don't marry someone you don't think is pretty!" Came the immediate answer as the little boy dramatically rolled his eyes at Sirius. "Uncle Siri, Uncle Jamie's being silly."

"Yeah, but he's our silly, Charlie bear. But how about you give your dragon a nose, huh? He looks rather sad without one, doesn't he?"

Immediately the seven year old gasped and returned to his drawing, making Alice stifle a laugh at his serious expression before looking at the toddlers. "And how old are you two?"

Identical blue eyes looked up to her momentarily before two heads leaned back in unison to look at Sirius questioningly.

"Go on, Auntie Alice asked you a question. Can you tell her the answer?"

"Too," one of the two mumbled from around his half slobbered on cookie while the other stuck two fingers up.

"Is that so? I don't think that's quite right," taking the pudgy fingers, Sirius gently folded one down. "You're still one, aren't you?"

"Wone, no!" Both giggled at him. "Too!"

"In two months you'll be two, but can you tell her your names?"

"Fed and he Gorge!"

"That's right, Fred and George are your names. And who is he?"

"Unke amie."

"That's me, Uncle Jamie," James grinned. "And who's he?"

"Unke Siwi!" Both immediately exclaimed in unison.

"Yes, that's Uncle Siri. And Freddie, do you know who that is?" James pointed to her and two sets of blue eyes snapped to her curiously before burying themselves into Sirius' shirt almost shyly.

"That's Auntie Lily," caressing their little heads, Sirius smiled as they both looked back up to him before fixating her with a wide eyed stare.

"Auwtie wiwy."

"Lily."

"Lily," one of the two managed to say. "Auwtie Lily."

"Good job Georgie," Sirius praised before abruptly leaning back as a drool covered piece of biscuit was nearly slammed into his face by a little hand. "No, that's for you buddy."

"Unke Siwi eat."

"Eat? Your hand? All right," making a big show of pretending to eat the little boy's arm, he made the toddler squeal in delight and quickly withdraw his little fist. "No? You don't want me to eat your arm?"

"No!"

"Then you better eat your cookie before I do so."

Both toddlers shoved the thankfully small pieces they were holding into their mouths, chewing loudly.

"This is what we have to keep fighting for, no matter how hopeless it sometimes seems," Sirius suddenly said, brushing a hand through Charlie's unruly red locks as the child leaned into him. "No matter what we come across, what we experience or happens to us...they're the reason we have to keep going no matter what."

"Yeah," Frank's voice hitched as his eyes settled on Bill as Alice caressed a hand over her stomach even and Lily found herself doing the same.

"We fight so that our children will never have to."

"That's a very good reason to fight," clearing his throat, Gideon looked over the group. "Even if it might be too late for us, being able to avoid the little ones from going through the same thing, it's a battle well worth fighting."

"What do you mean, it's too late for us?" Remus quietly asked, having taken a seat on the couch behind Frank.

"We're the lost generation, aren't we? Even if the war ends tomorrow, the consequences of what we've seen and experienced will always remain with us."

"I don't…."

"James is right. Growing up in wartime shaped us into the people we are today and the things we've seen and done will forever make us look at the world through jaded eyes," smiling down reassuringly at the toddlers as they looked up to him at his voice, Sirius wet his lips.

"There's no saving what we've had to become to survive, but these little ones are still innocent and if our continued fighting can ensure they'll grow up without a care...without fear, then I will never stop."

Understanding came to Remus even as Lily felt a lump form into her throat because every word they were speaking was true.

Even if the war was won right this instance, they would forever be changed by what had happened and as warm, determined grey eyes glanced at her stomach, she found herself nodding in agreement.

"We fight for the next generation; for our own children to be free."

"And so that we can try to prevent any more Emily and Bethanys from ever happening again," his words brought forth a near identical look of determination from the entire group. "But first, I believe we have some drawings to finish."

Immediately the grim mood lightened and they all laughed as he resolutely picked up the crayon George was reaching for and handed it over.

Refocusing on the children, Lily smiled as everyone seemed to have gained renewed strength for the battles still to come; unified by their desire to fight for the future no matter what.

And even if she hadn't been determined to fight already, the mere sight of two much too small coffins being lowered into graves a mere week later would have been enough to give her all the determination needed to ensure none of them would ever have to see something like this happening ever again.

It didn't matter what kind of horrors they would come across, they would bear it so that the children hopefully never had to and hopefully, one day they could end this war for good so they could try to find their own peace as well.