Chapter 13:

Lily was the first one to awaken in the new house. She noticed she was in a large circular bed with five others. Jamie and Rawlins surrounded her while the Black brothers were still sound asleep on the other side. She was worried about the Snape sisters since there was more than enough room for them to also be in the bed. She figured that Sam must've already been up and slipped out of bed without disturbing anyone. She walked over to the door, praying that their captors continued their tradition of not locking the doors. They didn't. Lily was stuck inside.

But then the Lupin girl noticed that the room had a ventilation system. She walked over to the vent and pried it open since the thing was loose. She crawled into the system to the other side and popped out in the hallway. She looked in all the open rooms on her floor, but there were no signs of the Snape daughters anywhere. Lily climbed back into the vents and crawled around to see if she could find the adults. Maybe they could tell her what was going on, even if they didn't realize it.

Lily finally found the adults and she laid low, waiting and hoping they would reveal something. She saw Fudge stand up and wondered why she couldn't locate Lucius Malfoy. "I am now in charge," Fudge announced. "As you all noticed, both Narcissa and Lucius are missing."

"So, why are you in charge?" someone asked.

"Because when this started, Lucius said that if anything happened to him, I was to continue on. We'll lie low for a few days before I send a note to the parents with some demands. Keep up the contact. Now, are the children safely locked away?"

"Absolutely," another man said. "All five of them."

"FIVE!" a group yelled. Even Fudge looked nervous as did Lily. That meant both Snape girls were missing. "Five, you idiot, we started out with seven. Who do we have?"

"Well, we have those twins, their brother and the two other brothers," the first man ticked off.

"We're missing Samantha and Madison Snape," another said. "Who was carrying them?"

"I was originally carrying Samantha, but then Lucius took her. And before he cast a sleep charm on her, she was screaming about a bathroom. The little girl was actually telling us we were forgetting her little sister. I hope that brat didn't say too much when rescued," a large man said.

Fudge shook his head. "I doubt it, Lestrange," he said. "Madison is only two years old and locked herself in a bathroom. She probably knows very little compared to her parents."

Satisfied, Lily quietly crawled back to her room. By the time she got back, everyone else was up and she knew they would have questions. She crawled out of the vent and faced the group. "We're locked in," she started, "but can get out using the vents. Don't tip off the adults." They all nodded. "Our parents must've found us and came to get us, but the adults were tipped off. But little Madi was accidentally left behind."

"So Madi safe?" James asked. Lily nodded. "What 'bout Sam?"

"Yeah, Lil, where's Sam?"

"Apparently, when we left, Lucius Malfoy was holding her. He's now missing, as well as Narcissa Fudge," Lily said. Everyone looked at each other, suddenly concerned for their friend.

"He's not going to hurt her," Jamie suddenly said. "I think he's puzzled by her."

"But she's still with him and not us. Or her sister," Giachi said. Everyone nodded.

"Poor Sam," Rawlins replied, leaning on his hands which were resting on the head rest.

Severus rolled over and his arm bumped into something small and warm. He opened his eye a crack to see Kiki stroking Madison's hair. Their little daughter was lying between them in bed. "What's the matter?" he asked, sitting up a bit.

"When I went to go feed Garret, she was crying in her sleep. She was confused and disoriented, calling out for Sam. I went and comforted her, telling her she was home and had nothing to be scared of. But then she said she couldn't sleep alone just yet, so I brought her here. You don't mind, do you?" Kiki asked, concerned.

"Of course not. We'll do whatever it takes to make Madi better, right?" Kiki smiled and settled back down into bed. Severus also lay down and let Madison curl up next to him before falling back to sleep. The next thing he knew, his alarm clock was ringing. "Why couldn't it be Saturday?" he murmured, rolling over to turn it off.

"That's tomorrow, dear," his wife muttered, also stretching. "Then we'll have the whole weekend to ourselves and little Madi and Garret." Kiki motioned to their toddler, who was still sleeping in their bed. "Should we move her?"

"I'll bring her to the couch, that way she won't really wake up alone," Severus replied while changing. Once his robes were on, he lifted his daughter out of bed and carried her to the couch. He walked over to her room to grab a pillow and her teddy bear. His next stop was her sister's room, which he hadn't been in since the two girls were kidnapped.

Severus slowly opened the door to find the lavender colored room still dark. He lit one of the candles as he approached his daughter's made bed. He was magically enlarging his emblem blanket as she grew, never really wanting to separate her from it. Now, the blanket was tucked around her bed, clashing slightly with the pale blue sheets underneath and on her pillow. Her Gryffindor lion, Leo, sat in between her pillows. He didn't know why, but she loved that lion. But now, he pulled up the blanket and walked out of the room quickly. Severus returned to the living room and draped the blanket over his sleeping daughter.

Kiki was holding Garret in the kitchen while watching him. Severus walked back and sat down at the table, head in hands. She knew he loved all their children, but he and Sam had a special bond that she really couldn't explain. She had a theory about Samantha being a form of redemption to her husband, but she wasn't sure if that was all the bond was about. She balanced her son while pouring two cups of coffee, which she then levitated over to the kitchen table. "We'll find her," she told him. "Samantha will be home soon enough." Severus smiled and took the coffee before heading towards his office.

Once again, everyone was gathered at the Black house for an Order meeting. Mrs. Jennings decided to go out for a walk to give them some privacy. Alida, Arden, Garret and Molly slept in a small playpen set up in the parlor while Madison played dolls with Susan Weasley and little Maxim watched, clutching his teddy bear. The adults sat around talking, waiting for Albus to call the meeting to order. He in turn was waiting for Bianca to return from the news room. She fell out of the fireplace, but was standing before anyone could help her up. She stormed over to the main table and threw down a piece of paper before stalking away. With a huff, she plopped herself down on her husband's lap.

"What is it?" Ace asked carefully, not wanting to inflict the wrath of Bianca Mary Black on him. She did have access to that Spatula of Death Sirius was so afraid of.

"What is it?" she asked. "It is tomorrow's lead story. Three guesses who wrote it?"

"Evelyn Wita," Tonks and Riley responded at the same time. Bianca nodded.

Kiki hesitantly picked up the piece of paper. "So, what did she write about us now?" she asked.

"Oh, it's not about you and Severus. It's about Remus," Bianca replied.

"Me?" Remus asked. "What about me? That I'm a werewolf?"

"A specific werewolf," Bianca replied. "The Shire Werewolf."

"The werewolf who terrified the English countryside for three years back in the late eighties?" Harmony asked. "Impossible."

"Indeed," Remus said, taking the article from Kiki. "They think I did it? I wasn't in any of those places during the time. I was here in London, trying to hold down a job. Any job. So, I couldn't be the Shire Werewolf."

"Of course not. The Shire Werewolf's reign of terror was ended because he was killed by a werewolf hunter. Who is now in Azkaban for being a Deatheater," Dumbledore said.

Kiki threw up her arms. "So we can't count on him to disprove that Remus is the Shire Werewolf."

"You don't deserve this, Remus," Hermione said, shaking her head. "You've been a law abiding wizard—mostly—and are a war hero."

Remus shot her a look. "Thank you. I think," he said.

"We'll just have to do damage control," Harmony said. "Bink, you told them that Madi's back?"

"Running underneath the 'Remus is the Shire Werewolf' story tomorrow," Bianca said. "Not that anyone is really going to see it."

"We'll deal with it later. Right now, we need to deal with where Lucius took the other children," Dumbledore said, ending the furor.

"We know they portkeyed out of England," Ace replied. "But we don't know where. And we're picking up the magical residue of at least one other portkey so someone else portkeyed out of there as well."

"Or together. Large group, more than one portkey," Riley replied.

Tonks spoke up. "We don't know how many people are working with Lucius. It could be a small group or large group," she said. Everyone else nodded and started to debate how large Malfoy's group really was.

In the meantime, a large owl swooped into the house and collided right with Ron's head. "Oww," he said, rubbing the spot while his wife shoved him and called him a big baby. The letter was addressed to Sirius and Bianca, the former hesitantly took the letter. "It's probably Malfoy letting us know he remained one step ahead of us," Ron said.

Severus shook his head. "Malfoy still has his money from Canada and would use an eagle rather than a large owl," he said. "Something's not right."

"It's not from Malfoy, it's from Fudge," Sirius responded.

"Mutiny?" Severus questioned. Sirius shook his head and passed it off to Dumbledore to read.

"To Sirius and Bianca Black,

"As you can see, the Auror raid was unsuccessful at best. You may have gotten one Snape back, but we still have your sons. Therefore, we still hold some demands. I, Cornelius Fudge, am now in charge of the operation as Lucius Malfoy has deserted us. All of Malfoy's previous demands are now null and void. I have new demands on behalf of my supporters.

"The current Minister of Magic will issue pardons for anyone associated with Fudge's Army and for a list of Deatheaters I will provide when he contacts me. Second, he will announce his immediate retirement and I will be reinstated as Minister. Next, all heads of the departments will be asked to leave as I will be filling them. Ace Michaelson will also yield his position as chief Auror to Patrick Mandola.

"Lastly, your response to these demands are to be delivered to Jackson Herrington at the Hog's Head by Harmony Anderson-Lupin. If you give in, your children will be returned to you at the same place they were abducted from. If you don't, we will keep them. We won't harm your annoying brats of sons, though, but we won't return them either. Sincerely, Cornelius Fudge, Soon-to-be-Minister of Magic."

Everyone sat there, jaws nearly on the floor. Mrs. Jennings, having returned from her walk, took a quick peak in and then decided to go sit in her room for a long while. The minute her bedroom door closed, the ability to speak returned to some Order members. "Lucius has left them?" Kiki asked. "He just abandoned them for no good reason?"

"He knows that with the Aurors on his trail, it's only a matter of time. He's preserving himself. I wouldn't be surprised if that other portkey you all detected was him getting the hell outta dodge," Severus said.

"One, we gotta stop showing you old muggle American movies. Two, Cornelius Fudge is now in charge? How can this be?" Bianca said. Meanwhile, Moody had fallen over from laughing too hard and Ron was trying to help him up.

Harmony was shaking at the thought of having to put up with her old enemy and constant suitor Jackson. The last time they had met was at the Final Battle when he and Patrick Mandola had dragged her and Kiki out of the safety of the Shrieking Shack. Before that, he had triggered her labor with the twins when Lily wasn't turned around fully. He was the last person on earth Harmony wanted to see, let alone talk to. Remus put a protective arm around her and held her close. "Albus, is there another way we could contact Jackson without having to send Harmony?" he asked.

"There is, there is. We'll send Tonks disguised as Harmony to meet Jackson. And then she can arrest him. Maybe he'll know something," Albus responded.

"Can we get our letters from Hogwarts? He'll definitely have written to us as well," Kiki pleaded to Albus. He nodded and flooed Dobby. Within minutes, the house elf returned with only one envelope in his hand. "Just one?" Kiki asked.

"That is only letter Dobby finds, Mizzuz Snape," Dobby replied.

"That's okay," Kiki replied before turning on her husband. "Why wouldn't we get a letter? The Lupins got one and the Blacks got one, why didn't we? What if they hurt Sam? Oh gods, I hope they didn't hurt my baby!" She flung herself into her husband's waiting arms.

A/N: Tech Week is over and the show went fine! I only ended up doing lights for the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon shows, but all the alumni were up for the Saturday show. It was great to see all the theatre alumni from last year again! I'm (almost) all aboard to go to London (yay!) and I still have to make my schedule for next semester (boo!). Well, anyway, thanks to all my reviewers:

SarahtheBardess: Half-cocked. That's what I wrote, right? Where are they? I thought I wrote it down…oops. Well, you'll find out soon. Oh man, that's a great plot bunny, but you see mine was different. Severus and Kiki taught Madi well. Oh, and for my favorite line, you already responded to it. It was the "Dumbledore was allowed to procreate more than once with Minerva McGonagall!" line from Lucius.

cerzee: Nothing to worry about, I understand about chaotic weeks. Aww, thanks! I'm glad you started to read it, even if you thought it was just a romance. And that I got you hooked.

Oh, incase anyone cared about the friend whom I let borrow my characters…she isn't posting. You have just been saved. Trust me. I tried to help her and told her she couldn't just jump into a story without any exposition. And then she shoved it all down our throat. Sighs. Anyway, if anyone's seen those clips for the new Disney show "Johnny and the Sprites"…isn't it awesome? And it's for preschoolers. –Mac