DISCLAIMER: I do not own any characters in this story apart from Sylvia and Timothy. All the rest is the product of the genius imagination of J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 15 - Lost and Found

Sylvia saw on her screen Sirius head looking around the corner, carefully, his back to the wall, while the rest of him stayed covered under the invisibility cloak.

"Nothing." He sent her. "It's huge though, much bigger than it should be. There is nowhere else I could see around here that might be their secret hideout. No trace of magic or of anyone, they might have a secret keeper like we do. " he got his head back to the wall with the rest of him and quickly put the concealing cloak over it before going on.

"This has to be it, we looked every where else and this is the only logical place in all the warehouse."

His frustration was growing rapidly to border on the unmanageable. Tonks and him have been wandering around for hours without any luck and tempers under a lot of stress were starting to snap.

" Do you think this would be a good place to plant the camera, then?" She said calmly, trying to send him a bit of cold rationality to calm him down at least a little.

It seem to work as he took at perfunctory few seconds of contemplation before answering, but she swear she could feel him cursing." I'm not sure it is the perfect place, and I really hate that, but yea, this is as good a place as any."

"All right then. We can put one here on a wide angle, as wide as I can manage anyway, to get the most coverage, and then we can surround the place with some more camera, just to be sure. After all, with virtual camera money is not a problem, I can get as many as I need!"

She felt more than heard the grunt he gave in lieu of an answer and had to smile at his bear like behaviour, witch of course alerted Remus sprawl on the sofa that something was afoot.

"What is it?" he asked eagerly, "Have they found the place?"

She explained while starting to take the camera higher. She soon discovered that this was a great idea but that it was going to be much more complicated than she had originally thought. She had to look constantly from the grey virtual environment of her computer, where there was no wall and no corner, to the view of the camera itself., but since she wanted to attached the back of the camera near the ceiling on the corner, she was not seeing what she was doing. Finally, after what seemed like an endless number of attempt and failures, she made the camera at least partially visible so that Sirius could give her some direction. Sirius, who had some time to calm down and even sniggered at some of her choice curses as she tried and tried without success, helped as much as he could by sending verbal directions as precise and clear as possible. They were both soon sweating with the concentration needed for the task. After a few attempt, she soon discover that it was getting easier and that she could actually see glimpse of things through his eyes and as he was sending her a pretty complicated string of direction, she suddenly received in full force the unmistakable stench of humidity, grease and fish that permeated the warehouse. In shock, she lost her grip on the mouse, and the camera sank through Sirius' head, making him jump and swear furiously under his breath.

"Watch what your doing!" he growled at her.

Annoyed with herself, she answered sharply, " Don't be ridiculous, it's immaterial, it can't hurt you."

She tried again, trying to see everything at once and follow the directions sent by Sirius. She grimaced when the odour came back, but this time she was ready for it and accepted it as part of the experience. As she did so, she started to see clearer images from Sirius side and that more than anything else made the difference in putting the camera where it belonged, right on the corner, up close the ceiling. She made the small adjustments needed to get the greatest and largest angle possible and relaxed in her chair with a weary sigh.

"There. That should do it." She finally said aloud with some satisfaction while rendering the camera invisible again. "What now? Do you go around on the other side where we could put another one?"

"I guest that shaking things up a little bit to see what could come out of it is out of the question?" He almost whined in a whisper to both Tonks and her. As she saw Tonks on the screen giving him a hard look, he made a great show of reluctance and continued speaking barely aloud for Tonks sake, "We might as well put your stuff up then Sylvia"….Then just for her inner ear, "I hope you're in good shape for this is taking more energy than I though it would."

"If you can keep up, so can I" She answered mischievously, thinking to herself that exhaustion could be just the right thing to keep him from doing something stupid.

It eventually became easier each time they put another camera up. So far they had three functioning and were currently installing the fourth around the big room. Not a sound of movement was heard during the last few hours of their work. They were all tired to the bone at that point and their only though was for food and bed as soon as possible. Remus was peacefully reading on the sofa, having quite clearly stated that he was not going anywhere until the mission was finished.

Sylvia was concentrating hard on the last camera, trying to put it underneath a lonely lamp swinging from the ceiling in the middle of a corridor leading to the big room, when a flicker of movement on her screen caught her eye. She glanced rapidly and gasped, losing all control over her mouse and her emotions.

"Oh my God!" Then, she regained enough control to make some sense to Sirius who, feeling her outburst, was desperately trying to know what was going on. Remus was already at her side, trying to understand as well.

" Sirius! There's a man moving in the direction of the second camera we installed. I swear he seemed to have come out of thin air! I can't see his face but he is wearing a black cloak so I doubt he's a Muggle. Wait!... Shit! The camera is acting strange, there's some sort of interference. I can't see anything half the time."

She could sense Sirius moving as soon as she started sending and could also feel his adrenaline kick and the suddenly focused and calculated intelligence coming out on the link. This was the kind of situation he was the best at. All fatigue was forgotten and nothing existed but the present situation.

"There is too much magic in the air around the camera in order for it to function normally. Don't lose him Sylvia.."

"Yea. And you stay underneath that invisibility cloak, you hear me." She studied the camera view intently, trying to see something through the distortion.

"He seems to be continuing along the same course. He looks kind of small from here. He should pass underneath the camera in the next few minutes at the rates he's going." She sent to Sirius.

"I'm almost there, I'll meet the Death Eater head on in the corridor. Tonks is just behind me, disguised as a street urchin. We will try and stun the guy before he can raise his friends." She could feel her lover was eager for action and that worried her.

"All right, but please, please be careful, ok?"

" Hummm" was all the answer she got from him, along with a flash of annoyance. She could tell he didn't like to be cuddled. It was not that she didn't trust him, it was that she knew how careless he could be when he felt reckless. She felt he wasn't taking this seriously enough. She backed down from trying to reason with him and tried to hide her anxiety from him.

The interference on her screen grew worse as the Death Eater approached the camera...and then suddenly all her camera windows went dead altogether at the same time. She felt Sirius' shock through the link and his scream. "Wormtail, you little bastard..." And an awful lot of pent up dark emotions rolling from Sirius' end almost toppling her with intensity. Then, a shout "NO! I won't be..." then nothing, only a huge void where Sirius used to be. She got to her feet with a wordless cry of horror and searched frantically to hear something, anything coming from him. The emptiness was unbearable and the feeling of loss so acute she could feel nothing else, she was drowning in it.

"SIRIUS!" She screamed over and over incapable of understanding or believing he was not there anymore to answer her. The shock was just too big, the abruptness of the severing of the link too painful, like an elastic that suddenly breaks and recoil, hitting you with dreadful force.

Actually, it was a slap in the face that brought her back to herself. Remus was standing in front of her, white as a sheet, shouting at her to answer him. She blinked and looked at him with some surprise. Only then did she remembered where she was and the circumstances of the situation.

"What happened?" said Remus, his voice shaking with fear.

She raised a hand to swipe at her tear streaked face, regarding her hand with detached curiosity. She had not been aware that she was crying. Part of her mind was still desperately trying to find something that was not there anymore.

"I...I don't know. Sirius recognised Wormtail and then, nothing." Was all that her croaked voice could utter. She cleared it and went on. "I can't feel him Remus. He is not there anymore!" She could hear her voice going higher in a wail full of hysterics.

Remus grabbed her and shook her a little bit. "Don't fall to pieces yet, Sylvia. He had his cloak. He could be just stunned. No need to think the worst."

She looked at him with big eyes. Sirius might still be alive. Abruptly, she disengaged herself from him, grabbed her purse and almost flew to the door, running with all her might. Sirius might still be alive and she needed to help him. That was all she could think of. She did not heard Remus calling her nor did she heard him cursing violently behind her. If she had, she would have been shock at the choice curses her gentle friend could spit out when the situation warranted it.

It's only once in the cab that the small part of her that was still thinking rationally observed that she was in Muggle London without a disguise, only streets away from Tim's flat. But the thought was dismissed pretty fast, crushed beneath the overwhelming fear and tension filling her. She knew she was not acting coherently, she knew that she should wait for Dumbledore and a team of Aurors, she even knew that she could make thing worst by running blindly in the middle of things, but she also knew that she was going to go crazy, completely lose it if she didn't do something. Sirius was her lover, her anchor to sanity, her protection from the panic attack and even possibly her only chance at happiness. She could just not stand by while others make calm, sensible plans to save him. She would fret herself to death. Screw calm and logic, she didn't care if this was going to get her killed, she absolutely needed to see him, to touch him, to understand what happened. The part of her that was sane could see that her reaction was too extreme to be just the fear of Sirius' death, it was the loss of the link that was the worst of it. She had grown dependant of it, and could no longer function without it, she could not face the horror of going through life without it.

The cab stopped in front of the warehouse as the sun was going down. She got out and paid the driver, looking around. She immediately spotted a gang of young punks loitering nearby. Remembering Tonks disguise it gave her the start of an idea. It was sketchy at best and pretty dangerous for both herself and the kids, but it was better than nothing. She hesitated at the idea of bringing innocent into this but a cursory pocking at the huge emptiness in what she have come to think as "Sirius' place" inside her, made up her mind. She resolutely walked toward the group eyeing her with suspicion. She was aware of quite a number of blade being drawn up and then hidden behind backs but she didn't relent and kept going.

"Hey kids!" she called "I need your help." They let her come closer, still unsure but visibly curious as to what she meant.

"Listen," she told them, talking fast, "I found by accident a huge cache of really good stuff hidden nearby. The Death Eaters are a rival gang who has been stolen from us for some time. We think it is high time for some payback. The problem is I'm all alone and there is a lot of good things in there. Enough stuff that I would be willing to share in exchange for some help in removing it before the owners came back. You can have a go at whatever catch your fancy in there and also..."

A young gangly man with bloodshot eyes shook his head and cut through her hasty explanation. "Listen sister, we don't want to be involve in no gang war. We could never hold up our end of things against a real organisation. So screw you and get going."

She smiled a tight smile and showed him the few high bank notes she fished from her purse. Dumbledore had given them some emergency money that could make salivate with envy anyone in that section of town. "Well, it's okay kid. This is for listening to me without cutting me to pieces first. Here take it. Of course you could have much more by coming with me, but that's up to you I guess." She pressed the money into his hand and made as to turn around.

"Wait!" She looked back at him. The bloke was incredulously goggling at the money in his hand. He gulped and looked at her with greed awash in his eyes. "Exactly how much money are we talking about here?" his eyes grew small and calculating "Maybe we could help ourselves without any risk at all."

She sniggered at his naivete with all the consummate skill of an actor while her mind was running in circle saying over and over "oh please help me, I have to find Sirius, please Sirius don't be dead, ..please..."

"Oh really! I'm not stupid enough to show you that much money and have more on me. My boss will triple that amount as soon as we have the loot. Beside, I could probably take all of you without much problem." She made a show of some impatience. "So are you in or out? I don't have all day you know." She could see uncertainty fighting with greed in the young leader's eyes. Finally, as expected, greed won out and he nodded.

"All right lady, we are all yours. Tell us what to do."

Her heart both squeezed shut at the thought of what she was going to get them through and flew with relief at the though of having a shot at her hasty plan.

She turned toward the warehouse offering them her back with a little shudder of apprehension and with a nonchalant flip of her hand ordered them, "Follow me then."

She heard them sluggishly walk behind her and nervously went in the direction she had seen Tonks and Sirius take on her screen hours before.

She lead them inside and recognised the layout immediately. She had seen Sirius wander the place in all direction after all and knew where to go. She took the right corridor and followed it until the bend before the long straight line that lead to the big room and the second camera. Excitement and fear tumbled inside her as she continued her little mantra of prayer to all the gods listening out there. She still could not feel anything coming from Sirius and her anxiety was growing every minute she spent without the usual, soothing contact.

She gestured the group to stop and be quiet and peaked a look around the corner. There was nothing. No sign of either Tonks or Sirius or even of any Death Eater. It was uncanny. No trace of fighting, not even a scorch mark on a wall, nothing at all as if nothing had ever happened, as if she had dreamt the hole thing, as if Sirius has never existed at all. Trying to put together some sort of strategy, she cast away, her eyes roaming her surrounding, looking for a clue, anything that could help her find an idea. To her amazement, she caught the sight of something familiar just a few step away from the corner, hidden in darkness. She came closer and fell on her knees as she recognised Sirius's wand. Her eyes filled with tears and a sob near her lips, she grabbed it tightly, a proof of Sirius's presence here, of his existence. Still on her knees she frantically and blindly searched every crook and corner around the place where she had found the wand, maybe he was still stun, hidden underneath his cloak... but after several minutes, she had to come to the heartbreaking conclusion that Sirius was not there. She gripped the wand firmly, trying to get some comfort from having found it and went back to the gang, it's member muttering among themselves and eyeing her curiously.

She took a deep breath. "Okay, this is what we are going to do. There is a huge room ahead of us in that direction, I want you to grab your weapons and put it in front of you like this," she explained, showing them the way she hold Sirius' wand. "You will run in screaming at the top of your lungs anything that you can think of, actually the less understandable what you say, the better. Do you understand?"

"Not really." Their leader answered.

"Just do as I said."

The young men shrugged. "Whatever, as long as you pay us..."

She nodded and took a long breath. "Alright, let's go." And she leaped into the corridor, Sirius's wand wavering in front of her, shouting gibberish as loud as she could.

It was pandemonium. As soon as they entered the room, screaming, the Death Eater let the illusion vanished, thinking themselves under attack. She could see rooms and offices and Death Eaters everywhere. She started kicking at wands and dodging curses. Her young group seem to have taking the bad guys by surprise, as most Death Eaters were unmasked. Suddenly she heard a number of POPS! In a dazed, she saw Remus and Dumbeldore and several others she did not know appear out of nowhere, their wands out , blasting the Death Eaters one by one. Still running, she jumped behind a desk to evade the curse the screaming Death Eater on her right was shouting. She looked about, searching where Sirius could be, when through the scrambling mass of fighting bodies, she spotted a dark hooded man running toward her. She put a leg out to make the running Death Eater stumble, and as soon as he was on the floor, she took a paperweight on the desk, and rapped his head sharply with it. "Here, take that you ugly freak!" That made her feel a little bit better, but the feverish feeling in her mind was urging her on. She was not here to deck Death Eaters, as fulfilling as it may be. Some far away part of her was wondering how she could still be in one piece with so many wizard intent on hexing her around, but most of her was interested only on staying alive long enough to find Sirius. Her mind was still desperately trying to feel him while her eyes roamed the place. She spotted a door leading out of the main room and she jumped out her hideout, running for it her head low, curses and hexes flying everywhere over her head. She ran first to a column behind witch she discovered a young Death Eater trembling, she surprised him and punched him before he knew what was happening, she then run to a corner just in time as a big red light missed her only by a few inches, and then finally, she made sure the way was clear then leaped and slid on the floor feet first to get to the door, opening it by the simple mean of slamming into it with enough force to make it close behind her.

She got to her feet and searched around, desperate to find Sirius, but only saw a long hall and doors leading everywhere. Despair almost stopped her then. "How can I find him? This bloody place is ten time bigger then it should be!"she winned. In her mind, the craving for the link she had grown accustomed to would not , could not let her stop. She jumped in and out of rooms, kicking doors open, yelling Sirius' name until her throat was so raw she could barely hear herself. Once in a while a Death Eater would get in her way and she would push through without finesse, kicking, jumping and rolling pass them, just wanting to be on her way to find her lover. She almost got lost in a maze of rooms full of strange apparatus but finally got to a place that had the look and feel prison cells have all around the world. She had no ideas how long she had been looking or even what had happens to those others that had come with her, there was no place in her for questions or any other feelings that her lost. She screamed with frustration when a locked grill impeached her going. She took the bars in her hand and shook with all her strength, cursing them at the top of her lungs. A hand on her shoulder made her whirl around, ready to gouge her attacker eyes out. She recognised with a grunt of surprise the young gang leader she had convinced, oh, a lifetime away it seems, to help her, and did a double take as his features started to melt away, revealing Tonks underneath it. Now that part of her that was still thinking, albeit very faintly, understood how she was able to come this far without getting hurt.

Tonks put her out of the way and sent a charm on the offending grate which obediently opened. Sylvia pushed pass Tonks at a dead run, searching everywhere. She had to wait for the young witch anyway as a number of doors in a long corridor were locked, and try as she might, she could not kick them open. She growled at her to hurry up and watch as each door was magically unlocked in turn. She visited every one of the chamber, not finding anyone and her fear mount to an unbearable level. Finally, they reached the last door. Tonks opened it with a charm and opened it before Sylvia could make a move and the two woman found what they were looking for, the sagging form of Sirius, hanging from manacles attached to the wall in a medieval fashion. Sylvia started crying as soon as she saw him, badly hurt but alive. Although she could still not feel him, she could see his chest moving and that more than anything else put her mind at ease at least a little. In about half a minute Tonks had him down on the floor and took out of her muggle jacket an old small teddy bear in a kerchief. She put it down on the floor and took Sirius' hand. She looked up at Sylvia with a commanding force.

"This is a portkey. It will bring us to safety. At the count of three, touch it with a fingertip. Do you hear me?" At Sylvia's nod she started counting. "One, two, three!" Sylvia touched the teddy and felt the usual uncomfortable wrenching in her stomach.

She came to in a white bed in what was unmistakably a hospital ward of some kind. Her first though was to search for Sirius presence inside her and not finding it. She shot out of bed, looking around frantically. She remembered finding him with Tonks, was it all a dream? Then she spotted his unmoving form in a bed not far from hers and relief flooding her, went at his side, grabbing his warm hand. He was alive, he was really alive and here where she could touch and see him, where she could make sure he was all right. She stayed there, with his hand in hers, crying softly, just basking in the knowledge that he was here, barely aware of what was going on around her.

"Sylvia?" a tentative hand on her arm woke her from a light doze. She opened her eyes to see Remus standing there with a warm cup of tea, smiling at her gently. He presented her the tea. "I thought you could use a cup. What about it?" She smiled her gratitude and took his offering, while he bewitch a chair to float to him. They sip for a moment in quiet comradeship, before Remus broke the spell.

"How are you feeling Sylvia?"

She made a face. "Like after a pretty violent panic attack. But not the worst for wear. What is Sirius condition exactly? What have they done to him?"

He shrugged, "They didn't have time to do much. Our guess is that he was still out from the stunners he received when you got to him. They roughed him up a little bit, but nothing too serious. Mme Pomfrey gave him something to sleep it off." He hesitated a little than asked her. "Sylvia, what do you remember exactly. I mean, after you lost contact with Sirius."

She looked blankly at him then started to blush. "Uh, I remember going to the warehouse and a fight, but it's kind of fuzzy. I guess I was kind of ...I don't know... kind of out of myself with worry or something." She shrugged half apologetically.

"Actually, Sylvia, the word you're looking for is berserk."

"What?" She exclaimed half laughing at the exaggeration.

"I'm not joking, Sylvia. You badly hurt four Death Eaters, kicked open doors that men two times your size could not, and ran so fast Tonks had problem following you, and Merlin knows she can run. From what she told us, you were barely able to understand things she said to you. When you arrived here you would not let anyone take Sirius from you, we had to stun you carefully in order to get to him. What happened to you?"

She was aghast at his description of her and turned even redder with embarrassment. "I'm ... I'm not sure." Then she looked at Remus face and lost all pretence. "Oh my God, Remus, it was because of the Arcanus Locqui. Losing Sirius presence inside was more that I could take, especially since it came so abruptly, it was like being suddenly amputated. " She stopped, looking at Sirius sleeping form, trying to get her mind into some sort of order, trying to explain how she felt and not wanting to see the worry in Remus eyes. When her courage came back to her, she started again, looking unseeingly at a point over Sirius' bed. "I...I think I'm ...falling in love really hard with him, but I don't know how much of it is because of the link and how much is real. The thing is, it feels both wonderful and easy but also terrifying and intoxicating. I'm not sure I could learn to live without either Sirius or the link now. It's all mixed up together. The worst thing is that I know that one day I will have to. One day this mission, this weird wizard stuff will stop and I will be either dead, or I will be alive but without Sirius by my side, and God help me but I would rather be dead. The mission is important of course, but sometimes I feel like I don't understand half of it, half the time. Sometimes it feel more like an excuse to stay in contact, to use the spell. I don't know how Sirius feels about it, we never talked of it, but I believe he is less dependant of it than I am." She finally had to look at her friend face, startled to see him smile and tears in his eyes. She gave him a crooked smile, "So, it makes you smile that I'm so screwed up?"

"No," he answered slowly, "It makes me smile that someone at last had the good sense to feel love for him. He have been so alone, he really needs you Sylvia, and he his one lucky guy to have found you." Remus suddenly stood, gave her hand a squeeze and was gone.

She took a sip of her lukewarm tea, her eyes fix on the door where Remus has disappeared, thinking about all he had told her, hoping against hope that he was right. When she lowered her gaze at her lover's bed with a sight, it was only to encounter his wide open eyes, intently studying her. She choked on her tea, sputtering.

He gingerly sat up in the bed, while she tried to regain some composure. When she could talk she shyly asked. "What did you hear?"

He grinned "Pretty much everything, from the time you started talking. Actually, it' your voice that woke me up."

"Oh, right, sorry." She licked her lips nervously. "I'm sure you're hungry, I'll get you a soup or something." She started to get up hurriedly when he grabbed her hand.

He looked at her with mischief in his eyes, and something else too, something that made her breath caught in her throat and her heart beat faster. A vulnerability and a wonder she had never seen there before. He squeezed her hand gently, "I'm falling for you too Sylvia. As hard as you do and... and I'm just as scared. We are in this together." He smiled at her with so much tenderness that her heart skipped a beat, "Thank you so much for coming to my rescue. I don't care if the Arcanus Locqui makes you a little bit crazy, since I'm pretty crazy myself, it makes us even... just don't worry about it, if it means we'll have to be together for the rest of our lives, I'm more than grateful for it's effect on you, and if not, then I'll make sure to always find a reason that will make you stay by my side," he brought her closer slowly until she was sitting on the bed and her lips were inches from his own, "forever if needs be." And he kissed her, slowly, deliberately as if sealing a promise.

TBC