O0o0O

"Tell me again why Padfoot couldn't come instead of me? I'm not good with kids…" James complained to his wife.

"Because" Lily said. "Padfoot is even worse with kids. She's scared of him."

"Why?"

"She woke up to a strange man getting off of a flying motorcycle in a leather jacket. If you were her age, you'd be scared too." Lily explained, walking around to the back of the house since the front door was locked.

Fortunately, the back door was open and Lily walked in quietly. Looking over her shoulder at James, she whispered, "Be as quiet as possible. We don't want to scare her…"

Lily walked into the living room, and since Lina wasn't there, she walked back into the hall, and screamed…

So nothing bad had really happened, but seeing Rachel out of the hospital was shocking. She hadn't thought that she was going to ever get better.

"Hey Lily. What're you doing here? Ever heard of knocking?"

"Er… Sorry, Rachel."

"And who's this?" Rachel asked, looking over at James.

"James, my husband."

"Wow. I've missed a lot." Rachel said, closing the door that she had been walking out of. Last time Rachel had talked to Lily was two years ago, and at that time, she still hated James.

Lily nodded. "Listen, Taryn didn't mean to-"

"Don't worry, Lily. Lina told me the whole story. Taryn had to leave, so she called a baby sitter, which never came. Doesn't matter. Lina was only alone for a few hours. She didn't starve or anything like that."

Lily looked over at James, lost for words. Why would Lina lie to her mother, not tell her the truth, that Death Eaters kidnapped Taryn?

Deciding it was probably better to keep Lina's story until they got Taryn back, Lily nodded in agreement. "Taryn's going to be so sorry when she finds out the babysitter didn't come."

"No, it's okay, really, but when you see her, can you tell her to come visit sometime? I really miss her, and I haven't really seen her for months."

"Yeah, sure." Lily forced a smile onto her face.

"Do you want some tea?" Rachel asked politely.

"No thanks. We're in sort of a hurry."

"Life or death situation." James added, and Lily stepped on his foot.

"Okay then. See ya." Rachel said, getting the feeling that they didn't want to stay any longer.

"Bye."

O0o0O

"You guys have to be totally serious about this. No making jokes until we're back in safety, though I can't assure you that all of us will ever make it back to safety. Also, remember to try to avoid battle as much as possible, and don't question if it we get Taryn out without having to fight any Death Eaters." Sirius said to his three friends.

Remus, James and Lily nodded in understanding. "So Sirius, you can go ahead and turn into dog form. James, you and Lily can get under the invisibility cloak, and I'll disillusion myself."

Sirius nodded and began to transform into his animagus dog form as Remus tapped himself and said some magic words, then became the same color as what was behind him. It made him harder to see, but not as invisible as Lily and James were after they got under his invisibility cloak.

Sirius was the first to leave the house, and Lily and James followed, and Remus left last, closing the door behind him. They had agreed earlier that it was close enough to walk to Kings' Cross, as it wasn't that far away.

When they got to Kings' Cross, Sirius was the one to push the door open, just in case anybody was watching (It wouldn't have been good if somebody saw an invisible person walking into the station, especially a muggle.).

It was dark inside, even compared to the darkness outside, which wasn't really that dark due to the streetlights, moon and stars. It was very hard for Sirius to see anything at all, so he just followed the sound of his friends' footsteps, as they had better vision than he had.

"Platform seven, eight…" Sirius heard James count of very quietly.

"Nine and three quarters." Remus finished for him, even quieter. "Now, one at a time, go in. Be prepared for anything."

Remus went in first, then James and Lily. Sirius went in last, and was rather surprised to see that they weren't instantly attacked by Death Eaters, that it was dark there too.

Neither at them said a word as they just stood there, waiting. At that point, Sirius couldn't see anything, not even his paw in front of his face. His three friends could see, but barely any more than Sirius could. In that case, barely became enough, because on the other side of the train, a very small light was lit, that Sirius was too short in his dog form to see, but the others saw very well, and saw who was holding the wand that made the light.

Lily couldn't help but scream "Taryn!" and when she did, all the lights turned on, and the four saw the Death Eaters that filled the platform, that had been waiting for them after all.

Sirius immediately began to turn back into his human form as Lily and James thrust off the invisibility cloak. Remus, however, stayed disillusioned, as it wasn't really bothering him as much as the lack of being able to hold a wand would.

The four had their wands ready, and the twenty people in the room remained silent, not moving until Taryn muttered something under her breath and a purple beam came out of her wand, and would have hit James if he hadn't dodged it.

At that, the rest of the Death Eaters said their spells, and there were four spells coming toward each of the four members of the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius dropped to the floor to dodge the first one, and immediately jumped up to dodge the second and third, and dropped back onto the floor to dodge the fourth that was coming toward him. "Expelliarmus!" He shouted, pointing his wand at a Death Eater that looked too weak to do wandless magic, and the Death Eaters wand flew toward him. Snapping it in half, Sirius moved to the left to dodge another spell coming toward him.

Meanwhile, James was quickly dodging all the spells that were coming toward him, while casting spells at random Death Eaters (all those years of playing dodge ball at Quidditch practice came in handy…); Lily was struggling not to get hit by anything, and doing well; and Remus was getting targeted by the least spells due to the fact that he was partly invisible, and therefore casting the most spells out of the four of them.

After almost getting hit by the death curse six times, Sirius was really beginning to appreciate that he was still alive, and was really amazed that there were already ten Death Eaters on the floor, and none of his friends. He looked over at a Death Eater about to jump off of the train. He exclaimed a spell, a light yellow beam came out of his wand, and the Death Eater tripped over the edge of the train and fell face first onto the floor, her hand falling just two feet away from Sirius's foot.

The girl was close enough for Sirius to recognize her as Taryn, and he went over to her, knowing that unconscious she wouldn't do any hard to him.

Not realizing that his friends could possibly need his help with the remaining Death Eaters, Sirius looked down at Taryn. He had figured out by then that a Death Eater, who was probably got out of her body when she fell, was controlling her.

Taryn's eyes were closed but he was able to tell that she was still breathing. She was alive.

Sirius picked her up and looked around. James, Lily and Remus were still dueling with the seven Death Eaters around them. Supposing that they would be able to handle it, Sirius carried Taryn out of the platform and into the dark Kings' Cross station. Her eyes were still closed as he carried her outside and laid her down on the soft, slightly wet grass and examined her under the light of the moon. He saw that they had cut off most of her dark blonde hair, probably just to get her mad, and scars stood out a lot on her pale face.

Sirius picked up her hand and saw that it had been burnt. Placing it down gently, he looked at her clothes. She was still wearing the jeans and tank top she had been wearing the day they took her, but the jeans were ripped at the knees, and the blue top was very dirty. He took off the Death Eater robes they had put on her, and put them under her head as a pillow.

"S-S-Sirius?"

"Taryn!" Sirius exclaimed. Now that her eyes were open, he saw that they were bloodshot, and she hadn't gotten much sleep.

Taryn smiled weakly and tried to sit up but feel back down and the smile faded away. "Sirius, they told me… They told me they're gonna… going to kill you, Sirius."

"I know Tar'." Sirius said softly. "But that's not important right now. What is important is to get you home…"

"But-"

"No buts, sweetie. Close your eyes and go to sleep. I'll wake y-"

"What if I don't wake up?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

Taryn closed her eyes and told him, "They fed me poisonous food."

"How do you know?"

"They told me, but I had to eat it or they'd kill me right away." Taryn paused. "Sirius, I'm gonna die."

O0o0O

Oh my goodness! Sorry for the unusually long wait, but was having serious writer's block on chapter 23, and I have this thing that I just have to be five chapters ahead, so I couldn't post this until I finished that! Sorry! I'll warn you now, though, that the next few chapters are barely going to have that many happy moments, and there'll be another big skip somewhere around chapters twenty and twenty-one, though not as big as the one from the middle of sixth year, all the way to the wedding.
And I won't be posting another chapter again until after I finish Half-Blood Prince, but that won't take more than a day, so another one should be up on Sunday. :D Ugh, I keep forgetting the disclaimer…
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.