"Azkaban? What the flipping hell are we doing here? You better have a good
explanations for this!" Lily snapped, clutching tightly to Sirius's arm,
who sighed ad nodded back to her, well use to - by now, he'd been working
as an auror since he left school - was well used to the stench of death and
suffering, ain, anguish, and the overall feeling of panic. However, Lily
had only been in the job for a year, and only here twice (due to her
consistent ""accidents," in which she'd be tailing a death eater for hours
*she'd never take the in dead.* having gotten close enough to catch him,
but letting him go as long as he promised to be good.)
"Relax," he said comfortingly to the trembling witch beside him. "They can't affect you as long as you know you did nothing wrong," it was a half developed theory he had been putting into use lately- he'd been accidentally locked in a cell overnight once, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. If it happened again, he wanted to be prepared.
Lily nodded timidly, but didn't loosen her death grip on his arm. He could see that her free hand had a grip on her wand so firm that her knuckles were going white. He clucked his tongue in sympathy and began counting the doors down to number 32, stopping a the second last door in a hallway. This place wasn't as depressing as the others. The dementor's influence was lax here. It was only for holding suspects and those who hadn't been charged yet.
This seemed to comfort Lily somewhat , enough to let the blood restore its flow to Sirius's lower arm and hand again. He found her hand and squeezed it slightly, before unhooking the keys and slipping in the door. There was definitely thick tension in the door as he turned the key in the lock, and put a quick shield sell on the corridor. Inaccessible. No-one went in and no-one went out until he took it off. Lily thumped her ears, and squeezed her eyes shut.
"Oh," Sirius said out loud, not at all startled that he couldn't even hear himself, "a bit strong?" the shielding spell had been so strong it had deafened them both,. he took advantage of this - so that he wouldn't have to hear what Lily had to say yet, and pulled her in through the door with him.
"hello, Mr. Malfoy! Has your little time-out done you good?" he asked cheerfully, knowing well that Lucius couldn't hear a word they were saying. He then hollowed out the spell so that they could hear again, in time to hear Lily complete a sentence she was in the middle of 'off of work, Sirius, it's not fair, I don't want to work now!"
"Alright, keep your hair on," Sirius replied, nudging her. She looked slightly upset, but sighed and silently agreed that she'd listen to whatever it was he wanted her to hear.
"Guess what? We're going to have a nice little questioning session. Won't that be fun?" Sirius asked Lucius, in a now deliberately irritating cheerful voice. He was a humane person, and he never usually teased prisoners so, but this guy deserved it! Lucius scowled in return. Lily prodded Sirius and told him not to be so bloody mean.
"I'm not being mean! Are you going to co-operate?" Sirius asked, looking sweet and sugary. He did it deliberately, this time, to put Lucius off guard.
"What if I don't? There's nothing you can do, Black!" Lucius snarled in reply. Sirius raised an eyebrow and shook his head in a disapproving fashion, and Lily had slumped against the wall, lose to tears once more.
"Then I can have you spilling out your secrets for us. Anything from 'What's the longest you've gone without changing your underwear to who's the first person you killed? Because it's obvious you're a murderer. The question is - are you going to give me the information freely, and tell me what you want me to know. or would you rather tell m everything against your will?" he asked sweetly.Lucius looked darkly at him, his upper lip curling as he nodded slightly in agreement.
"There you go, knew you'd see it my way. Now," he tapped his ear sharply, and there was a quick crackling sound.
"Which communications officer am I connected to?" he said, activating the micro-phone charm in his ear. 'This is Bella Fig. State your name and number,' Sirius grinned, and rolled his eyes. "Drop the procedure, Bella, it's me, Sirius. Connect me to Peter, Remus. oh, and James - yes, I know he's a civilian, but I've warned him you'd do this already. And feel free to eavesdrop." 'Can do! Done. You're not connected to CEO Lupin, Sweeper Pettigrew, COMM Figg and CVN Potter."
Immediately, Remus and Peter's voices sounded on the network, asking what Sirius - the utter prat - was doing, using magic in front o muggle like that. He shushed them in a sot voice as Lily began to cry in the background. The surroundings were getting to her, even though she was trying to be brave, she had just received the news that she was pregnant, and knew that she was fighting with her husband. It had all come crashing down on her at once in a shower of emotional agony. Sirius knelt beside her and put hi hand to her shoulder.
"'mon, Lily. Suck it in and try not to cry for five minutes. That's all I ask. Then you can cry as much as you want. She nodded, and wiped away her tears, looking pitiful still. She refused to move from her place on the floor beside one stone wall.
"Malfoy, tell me everything you know about James Potter," Sirius said, turning back to Lucius.
"His middle name is Harry, he was named after his grandfather, he's pure- blooded, he works in an apocethary -" Lucius rambled, purposefully taking what Sirius said the wrong way. Just because he had to co-operate, it didn't mean he had to be especially helpful about it. Sirius answered by shaking the bottle of Veritaserum in his hand and raising an eyebrow.
"And he was needed desperately as a death eater. He was made an offer to join, but refused point back. Since we needed someone so influential on our side, I was put in charge of his case. We told him that it would be such a pity if that young Miss Evans he was engaged to was to be. shall we say. killed in the line of fire? Died for her country? As some would say, we made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He wouldn't let Evans die, and so he joined us. He was most troublesome. Turned up for meetings, and did a few things in the background, but refused to even think of harming, torturing or killing. Well, I can tell you he wasn't much use at all. Refused to even spy! He wasn't much of a loss, when he tried to leave. but, by then he knew ay too much, and he was the husband of an auror. I tried to dispose of him, but Black, you just had to go and get in the way!" Sirius smirked at Lucius, in an extremely gloating manner. Lily was staring straight ahead of her, every now and then giving a choked sob. There was silence on the communications line, besides the light breathing of the two aurors and the operator. Remus was the first to speak.
"That's what was wrong? Lily was angry at him for that?" he said in an astonished voice.
"James is - was a death eater?" mumbled Peter faintly.
"And no-body bothered to tell Arabella?" finished Bella, distinct annoyance in her voice.
"How's Lily taking this?" mumbled Remus, so that only Sirius, Bella and Peter could hear him (Lily was listening to the conversation from Sirius's charm)
Lily sobbed, choked, and rose shakily to her feet, before looking at Lucius with an expression of such extreme hate and disgust that it was a wonder he didn't shrivel up and die on the spot. Her fists with clenched, knuckles white, fingers red - to mach her face. She took two steps forward, reached out and slapped Lucius across the face, shaking with un-explainable rage.
"How dare you? Your wife is about to have a son, isn't she? How would you feel if someone gave you the choice of betraying all your morals, everything you'd been brought up with, to exchange your sense of right and wrong, or have her be killed? That's the exact position you've put my James in! I'd like to know how you even sleep at night because if I were you I would be filled with such self-loathing that I would have done everyone a favour and killed myself by now! I hope they lock you up for life. better yet, I hope you get the dementor's kiss! No, I'd prefer it that nothing happen to you, so that your wife and your child have their loved one, and that you have to live with what you've done to an innocent man! " she said, starting off in a silent murmur and ending up nearly shrieking. Her voice as hoarse, although whether that was from crying or the utter indescribable fury that she felt at that moment.
And through all this, Sirius was wearing a huge, bright smile. Now, maybe things would get back to normal. And, as an added bonus, Lily was fun when she was infuriated. Especially when she was infuriated with Lucius Malfoy. Ah, the perks of being an auror.
"Sirius!" Lily said sharply. Sirius jumped and stood to attention, looking suddenly anxious.
"I knew Lily was one for making speeches, but. wow." Peter muttered.
She suddenly looked small and helpless again, and as her knees buckled from stress and tiredness, she fell onto her knees and whimpered as they struck the hard stone surface. He stopped herself from falling further by holding herself up, arms in front of her.
"Where's James?" she asked in a small voice. Sirius slipped his arm around her back, and pulled her to her feet, leading her out of the door once more.
"Lucius, who had been silenced until now, was smiling sinisterly.
"You think that's it?" he asked, Your troubles are only beginning, girl! Potter will be killed, you mark my words!"
Sirius scowled, and slammed the door shut.
* Prepare for the first and last non-dramatic part in this ficcie. It's also fluffy as an added bonus.
"Now you listen here, James Potter!" Lily said softly, snuggling closer to James, and laying her hand on his chest. She grinning and closed her eyes. "We're going to have some new rule in this house, now that I'm going to be home more often!" This had been due to Remus, Sirius and Peter all spinning some lies for Moody to tell Barty Crouch, in order to get Lily some early maternity leave. Apparently she was already there months pregnant, and apparently this was a very important stage in the baby's development. - so Lily simply couldn't do any work. Although it had slipped all of their minds that Barty had a son - he still wanted to get "That troublesome Potter woman," off of his hands so that she could stop letting death eaters get away like that.
"Should I be scared/" James replied, chuckling and stroking her cheek. She nodded sleepily.
"That's right. Number one: You tell me everything, even if it's boring. Two: Sirius can come over as much as he wants -" it had been a rule before that Sirius warn her, as his antics always caused some catastrophe. James opened his moth "-if he doesn't cause trouble. much. although I would like to see him empty that cauldron full of green stuff over your head again. ."
"Is that all? That's not too bad," James said, sounding a bit surprised. She sipped her arms around his waist and squeezed him in a weak hug. She smiled, looking more and more sleepy.
"Three: The baby is not going to be called Ringo," she murmured.
"But Ringo's a cool name. It's the name of one of the Beatles," James protested.
"I don't care if he was the prime minister. Our child isn't going to be called Ringo Potter. That's just cruel. " She opened her eyes and smiled, looking past the French windows at a beautiful waning moon, and a starry sky. He sat up, and slipped an arm around her, noticing what she was looking at.
"Do you think it'll always be like this?" she asked softly, closing her eyes again and sighing. . He nodded, and kissed her forehead.
"Always," he replied, confirming it. She answered him with a sot snore, indicating subtly (or not) that she'd fallen asleep. With a small smile, James pulled the bed sheets up to properly cover her, and keep her warm, before drifting off to sleep himself.
"Relax," he said comfortingly to the trembling witch beside him. "They can't affect you as long as you know you did nothing wrong," it was a half developed theory he had been putting into use lately- he'd been accidentally locked in a cell overnight once, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. If it happened again, he wanted to be prepared.
Lily nodded timidly, but didn't loosen her death grip on his arm. He could see that her free hand had a grip on her wand so firm that her knuckles were going white. He clucked his tongue in sympathy and began counting the doors down to number 32, stopping a the second last door in a hallway. This place wasn't as depressing as the others. The dementor's influence was lax here. It was only for holding suspects and those who hadn't been charged yet.
This seemed to comfort Lily somewhat , enough to let the blood restore its flow to Sirius's lower arm and hand again. He found her hand and squeezed it slightly, before unhooking the keys and slipping in the door. There was definitely thick tension in the door as he turned the key in the lock, and put a quick shield sell on the corridor. Inaccessible. No-one went in and no-one went out until he took it off. Lily thumped her ears, and squeezed her eyes shut.
"Oh," Sirius said out loud, not at all startled that he couldn't even hear himself, "a bit strong?" the shielding spell had been so strong it had deafened them both,. he took advantage of this - so that he wouldn't have to hear what Lily had to say yet, and pulled her in through the door with him.
"hello, Mr. Malfoy! Has your little time-out done you good?" he asked cheerfully, knowing well that Lucius couldn't hear a word they were saying. He then hollowed out the spell so that they could hear again, in time to hear Lily complete a sentence she was in the middle of 'off of work, Sirius, it's not fair, I don't want to work now!"
"Alright, keep your hair on," Sirius replied, nudging her. She looked slightly upset, but sighed and silently agreed that she'd listen to whatever it was he wanted her to hear.
"Guess what? We're going to have a nice little questioning session. Won't that be fun?" Sirius asked Lucius, in a now deliberately irritating cheerful voice. He was a humane person, and he never usually teased prisoners so, but this guy deserved it! Lucius scowled in return. Lily prodded Sirius and told him not to be so bloody mean.
"I'm not being mean! Are you going to co-operate?" Sirius asked, looking sweet and sugary. He did it deliberately, this time, to put Lucius off guard.
"What if I don't? There's nothing you can do, Black!" Lucius snarled in reply. Sirius raised an eyebrow and shook his head in a disapproving fashion, and Lily had slumped against the wall, lose to tears once more.
"Then I can have you spilling out your secrets for us. Anything from 'What's the longest you've gone without changing your underwear to who's the first person you killed? Because it's obvious you're a murderer. The question is - are you going to give me the information freely, and tell me what you want me to know. or would you rather tell m everything against your will?" he asked sweetly.Lucius looked darkly at him, his upper lip curling as he nodded slightly in agreement.
"There you go, knew you'd see it my way. Now," he tapped his ear sharply, and there was a quick crackling sound.
"Which communications officer am I connected to?" he said, activating the micro-phone charm in his ear. 'This is Bella Fig. State your name and number,' Sirius grinned, and rolled his eyes. "Drop the procedure, Bella, it's me, Sirius. Connect me to Peter, Remus. oh, and James - yes, I know he's a civilian, but I've warned him you'd do this already. And feel free to eavesdrop." 'Can do! Done. You're not connected to CEO Lupin, Sweeper Pettigrew, COMM Figg and CVN Potter."
Immediately, Remus and Peter's voices sounded on the network, asking what Sirius - the utter prat - was doing, using magic in front o muggle like that. He shushed them in a sot voice as Lily began to cry in the background. The surroundings were getting to her, even though she was trying to be brave, she had just received the news that she was pregnant, and knew that she was fighting with her husband. It had all come crashing down on her at once in a shower of emotional agony. Sirius knelt beside her and put hi hand to her shoulder.
"'mon, Lily. Suck it in and try not to cry for five minutes. That's all I ask. Then you can cry as much as you want. She nodded, and wiped away her tears, looking pitiful still. She refused to move from her place on the floor beside one stone wall.
"Malfoy, tell me everything you know about James Potter," Sirius said, turning back to Lucius.
"His middle name is Harry, he was named after his grandfather, he's pure- blooded, he works in an apocethary -" Lucius rambled, purposefully taking what Sirius said the wrong way. Just because he had to co-operate, it didn't mean he had to be especially helpful about it. Sirius answered by shaking the bottle of Veritaserum in his hand and raising an eyebrow.
"And he was needed desperately as a death eater. He was made an offer to join, but refused point back. Since we needed someone so influential on our side, I was put in charge of his case. We told him that it would be such a pity if that young Miss Evans he was engaged to was to be. shall we say. killed in the line of fire? Died for her country? As some would say, we made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He wouldn't let Evans die, and so he joined us. He was most troublesome. Turned up for meetings, and did a few things in the background, but refused to even think of harming, torturing or killing. Well, I can tell you he wasn't much use at all. Refused to even spy! He wasn't much of a loss, when he tried to leave. but, by then he knew ay too much, and he was the husband of an auror. I tried to dispose of him, but Black, you just had to go and get in the way!" Sirius smirked at Lucius, in an extremely gloating manner. Lily was staring straight ahead of her, every now and then giving a choked sob. There was silence on the communications line, besides the light breathing of the two aurors and the operator. Remus was the first to speak.
"That's what was wrong? Lily was angry at him for that?" he said in an astonished voice.
"James is - was a death eater?" mumbled Peter faintly.
"And no-body bothered to tell Arabella?" finished Bella, distinct annoyance in her voice.
"How's Lily taking this?" mumbled Remus, so that only Sirius, Bella and Peter could hear him (Lily was listening to the conversation from Sirius's charm)
Lily sobbed, choked, and rose shakily to her feet, before looking at Lucius with an expression of such extreme hate and disgust that it was a wonder he didn't shrivel up and die on the spot. Her fists with clenched, knuckles white, fingers red - to mach her face. She took two steps forward, reached out and slapped Lucius across the face, shaking with un-explainable rage.
"How dare you? Your wife is about to have a son, isn't she? How would you feel if someone gave you the choice of betraying all your morals, everything you'd been brought up with, to exchange your sense of right and wrong, or have her be killed? That's the exact position you've put my James in! I'd like to know how you even sleep at night because if I were you I would be filled with such self-loathing that I would have done everyone a favour and killed myself by now! I hope they lock you up for life. better yet, I hope you get the dementor's kiss! No, I'd prefer it that nothing happen to you, so that your wife and your child have their loved one, and that you have to live with what you've done to an innocent man! " she said, starting off in a silent murmur and ending up nearly shrieking. Her voice as hoarse, although whether that was from crying or the utter indescribable fury that she felt at that moment.
And through all this, Sirius was wearing a huge, bright smile. Now, maybe things would get back to normal. And, as an added bonus, Lily was fun when she was infuriated. Especially when she was infuriated with Lucius Malfoy. Ah, the perks of being an auror.
"Sirius!" Lily said sharply. Sirius jumped and stood to attention, looking suddenly anxious.
"I knew Lily was one for making speeches, but. wow." Peter muttered.
She suddenly looked small and helpless again, and as her knees buckled from stress and tiredness, she fell onto her knees and whimpered as they struck the hard stone surface. He stopped herself from falling further by holding herself up, arms in front of her.
"Where's James?" she asked in a small voice. Sirius slipped his arm around her back, and pulled her to her feet, leading her out of the door once more.
"Lucius, who had been silenced until now, was smiling sinisterly.
"You think that's it?" he asked, Your troubles are only beginning, girl! Potter will be killed, you mark my words!"
Sirius scowled, and slammed the door shut.
* Prepare for the first and last non-dramatic part in this ficcie. It's also fluffy as an added bonus.
"Now you listen here, James Potter!" Lily said softly, snuggling closer to James, and laying her hand on his chest. She grinning and closed her eyes. "We're going to have some new rule in this house, now that I'm going to be home more often!" This had been due to Remus, Sirius and Peter all spinning some lies for Moody to tell Barty Crouch, in order to get Lily some early maternity leave. Apparently she was already there months pregnant, and apparently this was a very important stage in the baby's development. - so Lily simply couldn't do any work. Although it had slipped all of their minds that Barty had a son - he still wanted to get "That troublesome Potter woman," off of his hands so that she could stop letting death eaters get away like that.
"Should I be scared/" James replied, chuckling and stroking her cheek. She nodded sleepily.
"That's right. Number one: You tell me everything, even if it's boring. Two: Sirius can come over as much as he wants -" it had been a rule before that Sirius warn her, as his antics always caused some catastrophe. James opened his moth "-if he doesn't cause trouble. much. although I would like to see him empty that cauldron full of green stuff over your head again. ."
"Is that all? That's not too bad," James said, sounding a bit surprised. She sipped her arms around his waist and squeezed him in a weak hug. She smiled, looking more and more sleepy.
"Three: The baby is not going to be called Ringo," she murmured.
"But Ringo's a cool name. It's the name of one of the Beatles," James protested.
"I don't care if he was the prime minister. Our child isn't going to be called Ringo Potter. That's just cruel. " She opened her eyes and smiled, looking past the French windows at a beautiful waning moon, and a starry sky. He sat up, and slipped an arm around her, noticing what she was looking at.
"Do you think it'll always be like this?" she asked softly, closing her eyes again and sighing. . He nodded, and kissed her forehead.
"Always," he replied, confirming it. She answered him with a sot snore, indicating subtly (or not) that she'd fallen asleep. With a small smile, James pulled the bed sheets up to properly cover her, and keep her warm, before drifting off to sleep himself.