Two
Across the room, the group still watched what was happening. July saw where the girl's knee was now placed and grinned inwardly. What happened next had her frowning. The girl, from what she could see, had paled considerably, and nodded once to the man. She nudged Lily who was also wondering what was going on.
"She doesn't look too good. Almost as if she's weakening by the second." Lily commented, whispering in order to keep the conversation in the group.
James nodded. "Something's up. Think they're working together and something went wrong?"
"I don't know, Prongs. She looks scared, not worried, just down right scared." Remus commented, surveying the scene with narrowed eyes.
Sirius rolled his eyes turning away from the girl. Whenever he glanced at her an odd sense of dread settled in the pit of his stomach. So, he decided to avoid it. "It's just best to leave those things along, you guys. These days anything could happen if you get into anyone else's business.
July scoffed. "Sirius, we can't just let him bully her like that!"
"Always playing the hero. Nothing's changed with you either July," he replied sarcastically, looking away.
She frowned and turned her gaze to the other three. "Well?"
"If they are working together we can't simply walk over and interrupt them." James added, still suspicious about the entire thing. "Sirius may be right. We may want to mind our own on this one."
Lily sighed. "I'd feel awful if anything ever happened to her though."
April felt her burst of nerve dwindling as the man spoke to her of where she'd been the past week. And what she'd been doing.
"I know you were planted there to spy on us, Miss Stone." He smirked. "Alexis Stone. Twenty years old, hooker by profession, spy on the side? Ah yes, I can see I've been correct. You haven't overhead what you were there to hear have you? I can tell you right now that you haven't, we've been on to you for awhile. That particular bar doesn't hire new help very often. So, who hired you to do their dirty work? A Mudblood-lover no doubt. Dirty blood should be cleansed and that's what the Dark Lord has set out to do. Don't you agree?"
April nodded. She was thankful that he'd picked up her alias name, Alexis Stone, instead of her true name. Though she knew how unlikely that would be considering how she was "dead".
He glared when she smiled. "Don't take this lightly. You're going to come with me now and you're not going to make a scene. Or I'll just kill you here and now. Now you're going to be the," his gaze traveled up and down her half-naked body, making April feel stripped before his eyes. He cleared his throat. "You're going to be a well behaved slut and follow me out the door. And look satisfied about it." He growled the last bit out.
April nodded, a serene expression on her face. His glare wiped it off and she rolled her eyes. Mentally she'd decided to get back into Alexis Stone mode. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and smiled at him from underneath her eyelashes. "Well lets get going then handsome." She motioned with her hand for him to leave. "I'm right behind you all the way." She winked and ran a hand over his hair.
The young man seemed pleased and started out of the bar, making sure the hooker girl was still behind him every few steps.
At the table, the group rolled their eyes.
"Well, I feel like a complete idiot," James said grinning.
Sirius smirked. "I told you it was better we mind our own business. That guy's going to be one satisfied person by the nights end."
Lily gave him a disgusted look. "There's absolutely nothing respectable about a woman who would do that to herself you pig!"
"Would you two relax? Lily it's a great way to earn money," James started but winced under Lily's glare.
"You are completely despicable. No sense of right and wrong. Some things never change." She glared and was about to storm from the table, away from this place, when a shout erupted from the bar area. The four heads turned and each developed a look of pure shock on their faces.
The woman had whipped out a wand and shouted some type of curse at the man in the black trench coat. The young man had heard the beginning of the curse though and dodged it, turning around and pointing his wand at the hooker, a silent spell hitting her before she had time to react.
"Son of a bitch," James said hoarsely watching her whip her wand out and shout a curse at the man. His disposition changed completely when the man used a silent spell on her. Even more so when he figured out the spell used on her and who it was performed by.
July paled at the spell used on the girl. She'd seen the reaction to the curse countless times during her work for the Order and had been preached to about it constantly during Auror schooling. Lily gasped and reached for her own wand, the same reaction as Remus and Sirius.
Remus stood up with his wand at his side, ready to step in. He knew it wasn't wise to step in the middle of a confrontation between two wizards, especially when the woman had used a curse he'd never before heard of. But the man had used the Crustaceous Curse on the hooker. It was a curse used ninety-nine percent of the time by the followers of the Dark Lord Voldemort who were called Death Eaters. They were branded into servitude of their master and took pleasure in their task to rid the Wizarding world of half-breeds and Muggle-borns, and any Muggle-loving wizarding families.
April doubled over. The pain was nothing like anything she'd experienced in the past. But nonetheless, she continued shouting curses her wand shaking in her hand.
Finally, her wand clattered the floor in front of her. She gritted her teeth wishing she could will it away while also feeling herself becoming weaker by the second. She heard shouts and saw flashes of light in the distance before her world went black.
July saw the girl crumple to the floor after a minute of the brutality of the curse. The man grinned triumphantly, walking over to the girl and leaning down next to her, whisper something in her ear. By that time James and Remus had stood up and rushed over, disarming the man and cuffing his hands together behind his back with invisible cuffs one of them must have been carrying just in case. Lily rushed over to the girl while Sirius followed her, shooing away the crowd that had gathered around the hooker.
Within a half hour, the crowd had finally cleared and Ministry officials had arrived. July assumed someone in The Leaky Cauldron had sent an urgent owl to the Ministry explaining the situation.
The last person July would expect to show up was Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself. He had arrived only seconds ago She frowned wondering how important it could have been. He looked spitting angry in her own opinion and was muttering to herself. On his heels, Albus Dumbledore apparated into the inn, trying to calm the minister. It seemed they knew something no one else did.
July approached the Minister, offering her hand and a smile.
"July Merriwether, sir. Is something going on that is of some importance here?"
"Yes, I'm aware of you who are Miss Merriwether. I knew and admired your parents. If you'll excuse me," he said hastily avoiding her question. He rushed over to where Lily was kneeling next to the hooker, trying to get a response out of her. Fudge starting shouting orders to different officials. The officials took over custody of the man James and Remus held by wand point and more officials conjured a medical board to lie the girl on, carrying her up the staircase and into the first room on the right, more than likely to one of the rooms of the inn.
July turned to look at Dumbledore, a perplexed expression upon her face. Lily who felt as if she had been shafted aside by the officials glumly looked to the Professor. James and Remus stayed behind with Sirius, discussing possible situations under their breath.
Dumbledore didn't have the twinkle in his eye that he always possessed. He looked angry and frustrated, but when he spoke it was with the same mellow tones he always used.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, I would like to inform you that all of your theories are incorrect and you would never in many years guess what this is all about."
"Then, if you don't my asking, what is this all about?" Lily asked softly, looking around at the guards placed at all entrances and exits. She didn't understand how a hooker could be cause for so much commotion with the Ministry.
July repeated the question when Dumbledore didn't immediately answer. "Please Professor, if it's something to do with the Order, don't we have the right to know?"
"All in good time," was his only reply. "If you'll excuse me for a moment." Dismissing himself from their presence, he approached the guards at the front and back entrances, informing them to let no one enter the inn without the permission of either himself or the Minister. He didn't bother telling them not to let the group of four leave; he knew they wouldn't until they got the answers they were looking for.
Dumbledore was angry though. What would possess her to leave her post? She had specifically informed not to do anything she wasn't told to until she was informed by himself and himself alone. He still didn't know the full story and would have to speak with her later before he would. All he knew was that she'd had a rather nasty duel with another man. The curse used explained itself that the man was a Death Eater. He wasn't a yelling man, but he felt himself coming close to reprimanding July and the others. He knew that somehow April's being at The Leaky Cauldron was connected to them, though he wasn't sure as to how.
Without another glance back at the Marauders, July, and Lily, he walked up the stairs and into the room where April was being kept now.
July frowned. "He looks very upset…"
"I would be too, if one of the safest inns in London turned into a possible murder scene. Remember we still don't know if she's alive or not." Remus said.
Lily sounded horrified at the thought of the girl being dead. "She was breathing when I was with her! She was just unconscious."
July gave Lily a little hug. She looked around the group. James was sitting at the table, deep in thought. More than likely still trying to figure out what Fudge and Dumbledore knew that they didn't. Sirius looked pale. Remus looked frustrated. She herself was shaken. She was surprised that something like a hooker being killed, when so many others had died already, could shake them up like that. She decided to make it her job to get down to the bottom of this.
"Were any of us followed on the way here tonight?" July asked, looking to each person in turn.
Sirius shook his head first. "I highly doubt it, I flew here on my bike. They wouldn't have been able to keep up on brooms, and people can't fly."
"What about another bike?"
"Nah, I would have heard it and stopped."
She sighed. "I know I wasn't followed. I was here overnight and I've had my Sneak-O-Scope on me, it's upstairs now. Probably going off until that man's gone. And I haven't seen him before."
"I doubt I was followed also." Remus added. He preferred to keep his reasons to himself until everyone was less shaken. He'd yet to tell them why he'd called the group back together again.
"I came as a deer so I highly doubt I was followed." James said dryly, earning soft laughter from a few of them.
July massaged her temples with her fingers. "Why do we care? This is some hooker off the street who almost or might have been killed. No one we know and many better people have died, but I feel different." She voiced the thoughts of everyone else and received nods in reply.
"I know what you mean," James said glumly.
"I still say we shouldn't have gotten involved," Sirius said, scowling at the floor. Bloody hell, he was finally going mad. Looking at the girl on the floor, collapsed on the floor, had shaken him up. He'd seen worse during his work for the Order, much worse, so why this girl?
July shrugged and shook her head. "Well we got involved. Stop being so goddamn selfish Sirius. There are other people that need help that aren't equipped with the knowledge to do like we are." She said it wearily, not angrily.
Sirius merely narrowed his eyes at her and turned his gaze elsewhere. Lily sighed, hating the tension in the room. James didn't seem to notice as he was enveloped in his thoughts once again. Remus wanted to comfort July but knew he couldn't right now. They hadn't even been able to talk alone for a minute yet.
Fifteen minutes of silence passed between the group, each thinking their own thoughts. But each thought kept drifting back to the earlier scene, and the young woman upstairs. Each had felt his or her own pull and had been disturbed by what had happened but no one understood why. Yet.
It was the next morning. Upstairs, April moaned. Her head felt as if it was about to split in two and she ached everywhere. But it wasn't as bad as the night before had been. She semi-remembered being in an intense pain that she'd been told was nothing compared to what it would have been without the meds. Dumbledore had come in briefly but hadn't forced her to talk at that time.
As she awoke more, she started to remember what had landed her in her current state. An owl during an undercover mission had sounded quite urgent so she'd done the irrational thing and rushed to the inn. A man had been there, hitting on her. He'd cursed her, found out who she was. Found out who she was.
April sat bolt upright in the bed, crying out in pain as a sharp, seething pang darted down her body. As soon as she did, Healers came rushing into her room, calming her down and giving her a small dose of some potion. Almost as soon as she'd awoken, she drifted off to sleep for a short time.
Downstairs the rather large group was enjoying a breakfast made on the house by the kitchen staff of The Leaky Cauldron. The Minister sat at the head of the table in a deep discussion with Dumbledore and barely touching his own breakfast.
July sat with Lily and the Marauder's at the other end of the table. July hadn't been able to touch her food, but the others cleared their plates, James asking for seconds. July laughed lightly, envying his ability to make light of any situation.
A painful cry from upstairs had Sirius almost getting to his feet. But July noticed him catch himself and shake his head subtly as if reprimanding himself for doing that. She frowned at that, wondering what would make him try to offer help now. The previous night he'd seemed not to care whether or not the young woman was dead or alive.
Lily winced at the cry that traveled from downstairs. It was soft but still a little audible and made her cringe; feeling sorry for the pain the girl was in. The previous night had been a restless one for her, and it hadn't been the occasional cries of pain from the room down the hall. She'd had this feeling that something wasn't right. Remus had called them together again and suddenly that happened. She hoped it wasn't connected.
James became angry each time he'd heard the poor girl the previous night. What had been the reason that a Death Eater would attack a hooker, just because she didn't want to share his company? It made no sense and it was frustrating that Fudge and Dumbledore were holding out on the others. But his objection to the older men puzzled him; he had no connection to this woman but still felt the need to know what was really going on here.
Remus had the same feelings as James. But he had his own worries also. Such as keeping a low-profile. He'd called the group together to ask them for help, but because of the previous night's scene, hadn't gotten around to bringing up the subject. Besides, he was rather thankful for the intervening scene that had delayed the answer to July's question. He wanted the tension gone before he brought up his reasons.
July sighed, pushing her plate away. "This is ridiculous. I just have to know what's going on." She watched Dumbledore nod to a Healer who had come and whispered something only he and Fudge could hear. Dumbledore nodded, excusing himself from the breakfast table and followed the waiting Healer up the stairs and into the woman's room.
"We all want to know, Jules." Remus said. "But we won't know until Dumbledore decides to tell us, you know that."
"Well excuse me if I want to make sure that girl's okay." July scoffed, standing up from the table and marching up the stairs, slamming her room's door behind her.
Remus winced and shook his head, going back to his breakfast.
Sirius glared at his friend. "What's wrong with you, Moony! It's been a year and a half since you've said that much to each other and you go and blow it. She hasn't left yet so go kiss and make up because you're making me sick! All last night down here you kept stealing glances between the two of you but you didn't say more than a polite 'hello' to each other. Honestly, Remus. Learn to appreciate what you have before it's too late." With that, Sirius stood and walked upstairs to his own room that had been provided to him the previous evening.
"Remus, he has a point." Lily said softly, her gaze following Sirius up the stairs. "You don't know when something that could turn your world upside down is going to happen. At least James and I are talking."
"Talking minimally, Lily," James pointed out.
"But still talking," she snapped in reply. She frowned to Remus but when she noticed his troubled look, softened her expression. "Just talk to her. Not now," she added quickly when he made to stand up. "Give her a little while. Trust me, I know these things."
Upstairs, July paced her room, before deciding to confront Dumbledore again. She walked into the hallway again just as Sirius was coming down the hall from downstairs.
"You just don't give up, do you Jules?"
"Of course not," July replied, grinning.
Sirius scowled though. "You should go talk to Remus. You all make me sick." He left her to blink after him, wondering where that had come from. He entered his room that was, unluckily for him, next to the woman's, shutting the door behind him.
July sighed and had her fist to the bedroom door, about to knock, when it opened and she was faced with a rather grim-looking Dumbledore.
"Miss Merriwether."
"Professor." She replied. "Professor, please just tell me what's going on."
Dumbledore smiled suddenly. He patted July on the shoulder, "Don't blame her, Miss Merriwether. It's not her fault." Without any further explanation, he proceeded down the stairs, leaving the door open for July to enter.
"I will never understand him," July said to herself, walking into the room. She felt nervous all at once and felt like turning around and walking out again. But she didn't and proceeded across the small living room to the bedroom in the back. What isn't her fault? What is there to blame on her?" She shrugged and knocked lightly on the bedroom door before opening it and walking inside.