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"Lily where have you been?" James said relived, the second Lily appeared in the fireplace. "Have you found him?"
"Found him? Who..?"
"Caradoc Dearborn!" James said anxiously, looking for signs that she might have hit her head or got into a fight.
"Oh!" Lily said surprised. "No, no sign." She felt guilty that she had just spent the evening in the company of a death eater, instead of looking for her colleague who had gone missing the previous week. He had after all, gone missing trying to fight the type of people that Lily had now promised top help. She must have appeared on edge because James realised that there was something wrong.
"Lily, what happened?" he led her to a chair and sat her in it, lowering himself to looking into her eyes.
"Nothing" she replied looking anywhere but his face.
"I know you're lying."
"I found a body." She lied still avoiding James's eyes.
"Good God… it wasn't..?"
"No I told you already I didn't find Caradoc! Don't ask me questions if you can't remember the answers!" she said angrily, the guilt leading her on.
"Who's body then?" James replied, trying to remain understanding.
"Just- a body! Some grave robbers dug it up!"
"What did you do?"
"I reburied it! What else was I supposed to do! It's muggle problems, nothing to do with us!" Lily yelled. James looked shocked at his wife's sudden outburst. But then, he concluded, that looking for the body of a friend would be enough to make anybody unhappy. He took hold of her waist to comfort her but let go immediately.
"You're hurt!" he cried, trying to examine the gash where Regulus had hexed her. Lily pushed his hand aside.
"It's nothing, stop bothering me!"
"Don't tell me that it's nothing, you're bleeding!" he persisted.
"I fell on the spade that's all!" she made up desperately.
"Where is the spade now?"
"For God's sake James leave me alone!" and with that Lily got up and stormed off to bed. James decided that he would ask her again when she was in a better mood.
Two days later, and Lily was still desperately trying to think of ways to help Regulus. She had no plans and no one to ask for help, and time was running out. James blamed her erratic behaviour on the fact that Caradoc Dearborn was still missing. It still hurt him to see her so lost. She barely spoke to him and always seemed lost in thought, frustrated with herself as though she should be doing more to help find her missing friend.
"Lily is that you?" James called down the attic stairs.
"What do you want James?"
"Just to see how work was, I haven't seen you all day!" James replied, sounding hurt.
"Fine, James."
"Aren't you going to come up and say hello?"
Lily stomped up the steps to the attic and found James immersed in boxes of old school things.
"Just having a clear out!" he said cheerfully to Lily who was eyeing the boxes wearily. The truth was, James just needed something to take his mind off of things. He was finding it tough coping with Dearborn's disappearance on his own. Lily realised how lost he looked so she sat down with him and started looking through his old books, as though looking for something that would save Regulus's life.
She raised her eyebrows as she pulled a long rod out of one of the boxes.
"Don't ask!" James said hastily looking at the object in her hands. She giggled in reply and began rummaging in the boxes again.
Lily had no idea what half of the things were- probably all tools in the various pranks that her husband and Sirius played at school. At the thought of Sirius her heart dropped- how could she be wasting time looking at useless objects when a young boy's survival depended on her.
She sighed and replaced the object she was holding into the box.
"Hang on!" James said suddenly, looking that the box Lily had just refilled. "What was that!" he leaned over and pulled out a very mouldy blanket.
"It's a mouldy blanket James." She replied without interest. She watched as James unravelled it and emptied it's content onto the attic room floor.
"Nope! It's a mirror!" he stated proudly.
"Wow. I'm so fascinated; in fact, I might just die with excitement! I'm going to go downstairs and write my will in so sure that I'm going to die with excitement." Lily had almost had it with James. How could he be showing off his stupid childhood games while the wizarding world was teetering on the edge of destruction?
"You're right. It's not that amazing." James sighed. Obviously nothing was going to cheer his wife up.
"It used to be though!" Lily raised her eyebrows. "Ever wondered how me and Sirius used to communicate without being in the same room?"
Lily shook her head feeling more and more guilty thinking about Regulus.
"Two way mirror! I had one, he had the other! Worked a treat! The teachers never knew!" he chuckled.
More to keep James occupied that out of curiosity Lily asked "So why is there only one mirror?"
"When Sirius left home, the other one got left at Grimmauld place. Quite a pity, but we coped." He sighed reminiscently.
"So the other one is at Sirius's old house?" Lily asked, now interested in the conversation.
"Yes I think so." James smiled pleased that Lily was now making an effort to talk to him.
"So how does it work?"
"You just say the name of the person you want to talk to in the mirror- providing they have the other mirror of course and tada!"
James stared uncomprehendingly at his wife who now looked more animated than she had done in a long time.
"That's really interesting!"
"There's no need to be sarcastic Lily!"
"I wasn't being sarcastic!" Lily smiled pulling James to his feet and kissing him full on the lips.
"Come on James, we don't want to be late for the Order meeting!"
"I'm very sorry Professor Dumbledore, but it seems that there is little hope for Caradoc." Hestia Jones concluded at the end of her report.
"I understand." Dumbledore inclined his head to her. "Mrs. Potter, I believe you were part of the search team? Have you anything to add?"
"No!" Lily replied very quickly. Too quickly she realised for she added "I have exhausted all leads now. I agree that there is little hope."
Dumbledore seemed contented with her answer. He nodded in acknowledgment and surveyed the group of people sitting in front of him. The order were being picked off one by one. In some ways he felt responsible, but it was all necessary work.
"Before we conclude this session, is there anything anybody would like to add?"
Lily looked around the room and saw Sirius Black raise his hand. Sirius usually shared all of his news with her and James; she was very curious as to what he was going to say.
"I have received news from Great Uncle Marius, that my brother has joined the ranks of the death eaters."
Dumbledore raised his head inquisitively. "Regulus?" he asked.
"Yes." Lily felt her body go cold. If the order knew that Regulus had become a death eater, they were sure to go after him and she had only just figured out how to save him.
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