"So Jamie, you never told me how the mission went." Lily said, pouring some maple syrup on top of the plate of pancakes she had just made.
"Nobody died. We managed to capture about half of the Death Eaters that were there, and the rest got away. Nobody died, but Sirius broke his arm, and got bruises and cuts all over himself, and I sprained my wrist but I got it fixed before I came back here."
"Did you get the papers back?"
"Yeah." James answered, grabbing a pancake and putting it on his plate.
Lily glanced at the clock and said, "It's kind of cool having breakfast at two thirty."
"That's 'cause you've been waking up at six o'clock even after we left Hogwarts, dear. It's not good for your soul."
Lily shook her head. "Honey, you're odd." She leaned forward and kissed her husband's lips lightly.
"Sirius and Taryn got back together." James told her.
"They did!" A bigger smile went across Lily's face. "That's brilliant. Taryn's not gonna be lonely anymore."
"Yup." James said, his mouth full of pancake.
"Jamie, don't talk with food in your mouth."
James swallowed the food. "Sorry Lil'."
Lily opened her mouth to say something but she closed it when she heard somebody yelling "James!" The strange thing was… It was coming out of James's robe pocket.
"I'll be gettin' that." James reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, square mirror. "Sirius?"
When Lily saw that Sirius's face was in the mirror instead of James's, she realized what the mirror did- let the two talk, sort of like a telephone, but you saw the other person too.
"Hey James. Sorry to bother you, but Remus and I need you and Lily's help on something…"
"Sure, but why Lily too? I got her reservations for a spa today…"
"She can go." Sirius shrugged. "But I think when she finds out what happened, she'll want to help."
"What happened?"
Remus came into view. "The Death Eaters got Taryn."
"What?" Lily shrieked, grabbing the mirror from James. "Taryn? My Taryn?"
"No." Remus said slowly before Sirius came into view.
"My Taryn." Sirius said.
"Same difference." Lily rolled her eyes.
James took the mirror back. "Want us to come to London? Anything we should bring?"
"Your wands and this mirror and your invisibility cloak and money I guess." Sirius said.
"Okay. We'll be there soon. Whose house should we floo to?"
"Remus's."
"'Kay."
O0o0O
"James, I missed you!" Sirius ran to his best friend.
"Padfoot, I just saw you a few days ago."
"So?" Sirius paused before saying, "Remus thinks that taking Taryn is part of this bigger thing, that it's not just trying to get us to go there so they could kill us."
"Maybe…" Lily began, sitting down on the couch. "It isn't. They want us to think it is and we'll bring half the Order, and then they'll end up killing half the Order."
"True." Remus said, sitting down next to Lily. "So we won't bring half the Order."
"Wait, wait, wait." James said, sitting down between the two. "We don't even know where they are."
"No we don't." Sirius agreed.
There was a silence, where the four looked at each other. Suddenly, Sirius stood up. "We need something to drink."
"Get me a beer, will you, mate?"
"Sure. Remus, Lily?"
"No thanks." They said in unison, then Remus added, "I'll just have coffee. 3 shots of expresso."
"3? Are you sure Moony?" Sirius asked, surprised.
Remus shrugged. "Better than getting drunk like you and Prongs."
"One beer does not get me drunk." Sirius protested.
"Not really drunk, but enough to make you too drunk to resist having six more."
"Whatever." Sirius said, pouring his and James's beers.
"So…" Lily started loudly. "We all love Taryn and we know that, but we can't let it get in the way of thinking logically. First thing to do is find out where they are, where they have her."
There was another silence, which was broken a minute later when Remus said quietly, "I know."
"You know? Since when? Sirius asked.
"Now. I just figured out the riddle."
"Which riddle?" James asked.
"The one we found in the letter we found in that guy's robe."
"That was a riddle?" Sirius confusedly said.
"Yes it was." Lily said.
"Well what did it say?" James asked.
Remus took a piece of paper and read his written copy of the note:
John Smith: You can find out where the sky will meet the ground even though they're feuding over many, many, many worlds that we might never meet. And I know that where they are, they know the truth of many lost lives today, which pretty much can decide whether or not change will happen. This is where some aspects of the things in our lives will start to decide when exactly to stop, speed up or repeat. Maybe if you know where the sky will meet the ocean, things will decide two pick up and pick sides, whom to decide to sever with, where to be at when they fall onto concrete.
Smithwick Johnson: I truly do not know exactly where and what's wrong. It cannot be visible no more; There is really, really no reason to stay at there any longer.
A. C. Moore: Where what is wrong, it cannot be you, can't be you who is to see others, so please, maybe, possibly, please can you help? When it's just you and me together, a trip is necessary for the truth to the long, far away from here past. To a place where I was not totally different, not stuck with you on land.
3463846129427402843927438293: But beware I am an idiot when you go away. For if I don't ever see you are seen- You cannot even decide to to go between. And when I find out that you're out of the country and toward the kingdom- When you're not even in or out of the town, city, street or church. You can't leave me Sally to go back in to the ocean. It was not even so extremely pointless research. I love you.
"How is that a riddle?" Sirius asked. "It's just a bunch of stupid sentences."
"The clues are within the sentences. For example, in the part to John Smith, it's every five words. For Smithwick Johnson, it's every seven and nine words. For A. C. Moore, it's two words, then skip four, then three, then skip four, then three, and so on. For the thing with the numbers, you add them up, and get a hundred twenty seven, so you do the first, second, and seventh, first, second, seventh and so on."
"And then what does it come out to?" James asked.
Remus read off of the paper once again:
Where the feuding worlds meet,
Where the lives can change,
Where things start to repeat,
When the two sides sever at concrete,
Where what's visible is no longer,
Where what you can't see, others can,
When it's a trip to the past,
To a totally different land,
But beware when you go,
For if you are seen,
You cannot go between,
And when you're out of the kingdom,
When you're out of the church,
You can't go back in,
It was pointless research.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked.
There was a pause, then James jumped up, his beer spilling all over his hand. "I know! The library!" He said excitedly.
Lily blinked. "Honey, sorry to spoil your excitement, but it's Platform Nine and Three Quarters, after Kings' Cross closes for the day."
"I don't get it." James said quietly.
"Well the part where it said kingdom and church pretty much gave it away, Prongs." Sirius pointed out.
"But other than that." Remus said. "There's a bunch of things in there that point to going to Hogwarts."
"So when are we going?"
"As soon as possible." Sirius said.
"And that's tomorrow night." Remus said.
O0o0O
It took me forever to write that riddle, but sorry if it's not that good…. Er… I love y'all!