I hate stairs; absolutely loathe them. Unfortunately there are a lot of stairs to climb to get to the third floor. Now throw in the fact that I have a few bruised ribs and you have a very pissed off animagus. Why couldn't they be keeping Lily and James on the first floor?! The things I do for my friends...I should get an Order of Merlin First Class for this. Remus is still supporting me by my right arm, which I'm very grateful for. It's not like its really making it any easier to climb the stairs, but it's a bit relieving to have him by my side. I've always been a complete jumble of nerves, but he's always so calm and his control is helping me to keep a clear head.

Just a few more steps now and we'll be on the third floor landing. The Death Eater who issued orders to the others is nowhere to be seen. He must have disappeared into the room containing Lily and James. However, the hallway was not empty; three Death Eaters stood guard around the fifth door to our right. Remus gave me a shove and I staggered forward. I glared over my shoulder at him; I swear he's enjoying this. Remus pushed me again and I started walking towards the guarded door. One Death Eater opened the door and stepped back for us to walk in.

It was a small rectangular room, barely lit by four candles that were in varying degrees of melting. Three figures were in this room; two of them were seated in uncomfortable looking antique armchairs while the third - a Death Eater - stood studying a painting on the wall. The painting held my interest for a moment with its thrashing figures. It was of an artist's interpretation of Hell - nude figures withering in agony as the flames of Hades licked their bodies. Disgusting, and yet it held a horrible sort of fascination, like being witness to a car crash. At that moment I wished whoever had created the spell to make paintings move had been bashed over the head with a beater's bat.

Tearing my gaze away from that sadistic piece of art, I turned to face the seated figures. Immediately I recognized James' unruly black hair and the sleek red hair of the woman he loves. Both Lily and James were tied to their chairs and gagged. I stepped towards them, but the Death Eater who had been admiring the painting grabbed me by the back of my neck, throwing me to the ground. I hit the floor with a dull thud, rolling onto my back in order to watch for the scum's next move. Lily was trying to yell through her gag, and James was struggling against his bonds so much his glasses slipped off and fell to the floor. I tried to give them my usual cocky grin but, with my split lip, it was more of a grimace.

"So, this is the best Dumbledore has to offer?" The Death Eater prodded me with his foot and laughed. "I'd say that's a bit sad, really."

"Blow me, you daft bastard."

The Death Eater raised his wand and hissed, "Cruc –"

Remus grabbed the Death Eater's arm and brought his own wand into the dark wizard's face.

"Silencio!" He whispered fiercely while I scrambled to my feet.

"Untie them," Remus nodded towards Lily and James, struggling to hold onto the hushed Death Eater. "I'll deal with him."

I crossed over to where hostages One and Two were still immobilized. Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my most treasured possession - my all purpose jack knife. The knife cut through those ropes effortlessly, and soon a very pissed off James was stalking over to the Death Eater, who was still struggling against Remus. With a look of grim satisfaction on his face, James brought back his fist and smashed it into the prick's face.

"I think your boy toy needs to attend anger management classes, Lily." I quipped as Lily gathered James' glasses from the floor.

"Stuff it Sirius," she said good-naturedly. "By the way, you look like hell."

"You know, when somebody goes through all the trouble of rescuing someone else, that person could at least be grateful."

James walked over to Lily and passed his fiancé her wand, which he had taken off the now unconscious Death Eater, who was sprawled out along the floor.

"Did you say something, Sirius?" James asked while placing his glasses back onto his face.

I sighed dramatically and said in a long-suffering voice, "Never mind."

I glanced over at Remus, who, in turn, was watching us, seemingly amused. When he caught my gaze, a small smile graced his lips and a shiver ran down my spine. I looked away and cleared my throat, which had grown surprisingly dry.

I muttered to James and Lily, "Look, we had better get going. We need to alert the others that we have you and get the hell out of here."

Lily held up her left hand, "Just a minute, Sirius; you aren't going anywhere in your condition." She pointed her wand at my chest, "Hold still now, Sano!"

A warm, tingling sensation spread through my body and the pain left me. The redhead was an amazing witch all right. James has good taste, even if she did need more of a sense of humor. I grinned and winked at her in thanks, but she simply smirked at me, turning back to James. Standing a bit on tiptoe, she leaned up and kissed him sweetly on his lips.

"All right, now we can go," she chimed, smiling brightly.

I pretended to gag and Remus snorted, which brought James out of the daze Lily had left him in. He flipped us the bird and said some things that were inappropriate for my virgin ears to hear. Choosing to ignore him, I meandered on over to the door and tossed a wicked grin over my shoulder at my three associates.

"Right, so the stairway we took to get up here has at least half a dozen Death Eaters at the bottom so I suggest we don't take that route. Instead lets continue down the hallway, this place is huge and there can't just be one stairwell that leads here. There's probably a servants passage somewhere up here."

They all stared at me blankly then Remus spoke up, "You want us to run around the floor blindly until we find a passage way that could be anywhere."

I rolled my eyes and said, "Do you have a better plan? Would you rather walk knowingly into a large throng of Death Eaters? Or take a chance that we could possibly slip by undetected?"

He sighed and exchanged worried looks with Lily but said no more. James looked a little more enthusiastic and held his wand in preparation for battle.

"Ready?" I asked roguishly, placing a hand on the doorknob.

I didn't bother to wait for a reply and flung the door open. The three guards only had about five seconds to be baffled before they were thrown off their feet by four different spells. Deciding to take the lead, I ran down the hallway, searching for a window. Where the fuck are all the windows?

"Sirius, watch out!" Remus yelled from behind me.

I whipped my head around to face a Death Eater who had just exited a room to my left. The man spotted us and began raising his wand. There wasn't anytime to stop, so I tackled him. We crashed to the floor with a grunt, and immediately I sat myself up so I was straddling him. I seized the front of his robes and backhanded him in his face. Bringing my fist back again in hopes of striking him again, I was stopped by Remus seizing my arm and hauling me up. Lily and James had kept running and were coming up to a set of windows.

"Oi, Prongs! Shoot red sparks through the window!"

James skidded to a stop and threw open the window. Lily, who was right behind him, whipped out her wand and shot red sparks into the air.

"Which way, Padfoot?!" James called from down the hall.

Yeah, like I knew. "Right!" When in doubt, make shit up.

The two lovebirds took off right, leaving Remus and I struggling to catch up. I could hear Remus gasping for breath beside me, and I was beginning to feel my muscle's straining as well. But, with no time to stop and rest, we continued to sprint, our feet pounding against the plush red carpet. Just hurry up and get out of here. Once this is over, you can go and get completely smashed I thought to myself, and lie in bed for a week, I promise. Just hurry up! A door suddenly flew open beside Remus. A look of surprise came across the werewolf's face, and without thinking I turned and stepped forward to shield him. Moony stumbled forward in shock as I raised my wand defensively.

"Whoa, Sirius! It's me! Point that somewhere else!"

"Benjy? Christ, man, don't sneak up on me like that! I could have hexed you back into last week!"

Benjy opened his mouth to argue and Remus made a disapproving sound behind me, but before either of them could start berating me Edgar spoke from behind Benjy.

"Uh, guys? Death Eaters? Probable death? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"Yeah you guys, hurry the fuck up!" James called hastily from the end of the hall.

"James, look out!" Lily screeched, yanking him to the side. A fraction of a second later, a streak of hissing blue light flew past them, missing them by inches.

The four of us dashed towards Lily and James as more spells followed the first. The hallway dazzled with different colored spells, so many incantations being shouted that it was impossible to distinguish what spells were being cast. I went after the Death Eater closest to me, a tall man with sandy hair and too small a nose. The duel was more like a sword fight, our wands flashing, words being spat out of our mouths as quickly as we could think of them. He fell back with a surprised grunt and crashed to the floor. I had no idea what spell I used on him or if it had any unpleasant side effects, but I didn't have the time to care, seeing as Benjy had a Death Eater sneaking up behind him. I sent a stunning spell in the creep's direction and smiled as he fell to the floor. Benjy turned around with a start, called a quick thanks to me and then ran off to Edgar's aid.

There were now more Death Eaters lying motionless on the floor than there were standing, but those that were stunned would soon be back in action. Now would definitely be a good time to get the hell out of here. Moony must have had the same thought wave because he started yelling for us to make a break for it. Edgar and Benjy ran down the stairwell at the end of the hall, James and Lily following more slowly. Prongs' leg had been injured in the scuffle, and was now torn to shreds. He was leaning heavily onto Lily, who was just barely supporting his weight. I reached forward and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, grasping him around his waist.

I said to Lily, "Go on ahead; I can carry him better than you. Run!"

Lily opened her mouth to argue but James cut her off with a kiss, saying, "He's right. Get going and I'll see you soon."

She bit her lip anxiously, glaring at him tearfully. "You better, Potter, or I will track you down and hex you into oblivion." With a final glance back, she turned and took off running.

Remus moved to help me with Prongs, but I shook my head. "Watch Lily's back," I told him, gesturing to the disappearing redhead. James agreed, so Moony dashed off to catch up with Lily. Now left alone, James and I made our way slowly down the steps. He released a low hiss of pain every time he had to put pressure on his injured leg. I decided I might as well try to take his mind off his pain.

"You know, Prongs, this reminds me of our third year – remember when you tried showing off to Lily by attempting to tag the Whomping Willow without getting hit? Ah, the memories; you spent a week in the infirmary and another three weeks in detention."

"As I remember it, you spent four weeks in detention for telling me to do it."

"Injustice! I never said anything of the sort."

James snorted, "Yeah, and I never pulled down Snivellus' underwear in fifth year."

"Do you mind? I had finally repressed that memory."

He chuckled and apologized, quiet ensuing. A few seconds passed in silence, but we both cracked up and started laughing, trying to muffle the sound of our voices.

He glanced at me sideways and said, "I bet he's still right pissed about that."

"I bet he still hasn't washed his underwear."

We both snorted and tried desperately to stop laughing as we came to the bottom of the stairwell. He leaned against the wall for support as I checked to make sure the coast was clear. A doorway stood open across from us; we would be able to get outside through one of the windows. However, I also spotted a couple of Death Eaters walking down the hall, and I knew they would soon pass us. I quickly muttered Disillusionment spells for both Prongs and me, blending us in with the fading wallpaper. Leaning against the open doorway, I strained to hear what they were saying.

"...it'll be our necks if they aren't caught."

"Why are those two so important anyway? That Black kid has been more of a nuisance for our Lord then the two."

"All I know is it has something to do with them being engaged."

"That's it? He's finally gone stark raving mad."

As they passed us I grabbed hold of James again, still mulling over what I had just heard. The second Death Eater was right; Voldemort was stark raving mad. Pity it took the fellow this long to figure that out. Joking aside, why did it matter to Voldemort that James and Lily would be tying the knot?

Prongs and I made our way into the room opposite the stairwell and opened a window. I slipped out first and looked around again, then began helping James out. Outside of the manor, we were now able to Apparate back to headquarters. But first things first; I just had to ask James about what those Death Eaters had said.

"Prongs, those two Death Eaters were talking about Voldemort being interested in you and Lily because the two of you are engaged. What do you think that's about?"

He looked surprised and shrugged, "Maybe he wants an invite to the wedding." Then he disappeared with a pop.

Author's Note: Another big thank you to Kaltee/Kiwii for being my beta. Also thanks to cocoidie-18, DaredevilX, and Max for reviewing!