Chapter 39: Protection of Lies

Cressida draws her old desk chair up to the side of the bed, a small bowl of chicken and rice in her hold. She mixes the curry sauce around, her mind completely focused on trying to coat every grain.

"I can feed myself, you know?"

Her brown eyes lift to meet black ones. Sirius' lips are drawn into a soft smile of mirth. "I'd rather you didn't move," she croaks. Nevertheless, he tugs the bowl from her grip and her fingers let it go. He places it aside near his legs, but his grip returns to her arms just below her wrists. His thumbs caress over the tender skin. Her wrists are bruised from her struggle against Peter, and a reminder that it was real. "What if he was under the imperius curse?" she whispers, sniffling.

"He wasn't," Sirius says, his voice logical and firm. "He wouldn't have hesitated if he was. Pettigrew knew what he was doing. We knew there was a rat in the Order. I just hoped it wasn't one of us. Hoped. James outright refused to even think about it."

"People were thinking it was Remus," she recalls distantly. "I knew it wasn't. We all knew it wasn't him."

Sirius lets go of her wrist, moving to the back of her head. "Maybe they'll believe us now. They'll find his dead body in Death Eater robes." Cressida nods numbly. "What's your plan, Cress? You seemed to have one."

She nods again, this time with more purpose. "I'm not sure how well it'll work, but it was worth a shot. You left a fair bit of blood on our floor. There are two bodies with no blood. I cast the Dark Mark over the building which only Death Eaters are supposed to know how to cast. And they're only cast when they have killed. I'm hoping that people will think we were killed but our bodies were taken somewhere else."

"And who do you want believing that?"

"Everybody. It will be the conclusion that the Order comes to, and I'm just hoping with enough rumour spreading that the Death Eaters will begin to wonder if we are."

"And James?" Sirius questions, raising a subtle brow.

Cressida swallows, but she already had thought about her answer. "I can't not tell him. He knows about the Horcruxes, and I think letting him believe that we're dead would be the worst thing I could ever do to him." Sirius nods, affirming his agreeance with her decision. "I don't know how he's going take it though. Peter. Telling him that it was me."

He takes a long draw of air and presses his elbows into the mattress. Knowing any words of caution would be lost on his ears, Cressida simply helps him. Now resting against the head of the bed, Sirius grips her shoulder tightly. "Don't worry about that," he insists, dropping his head forward. "I was there. If the roles were reversed, I would have done the exact same thing."

"What if it was me though. What if I was the one standing over you and you killed me? Do you think James would forgive you?" she hisses.

"Cress, I think that's an entirely different situation." Despite the circumstances, he smiles gently. "Firstly you would never do something like that. Secondly, you're the love of James' life, so he'd be looking at the situation a little differently. James isn't stupid. He's not going to hate you for protecting us."

Cressida offers him a tight smile, gesturing to the bowl. "Eat. I want that finished by the time I get back."

"Where are you going?"

"To get James." Sirius watches her for a moment and she leaves the chair, travelling to her old closest. She pulls out a large jacket with a hood, shrugging it on. Turning around, she pulls out her necklace from her shirt, showing him the bluestone. He huffs slightly, reaching for his own neck and holds his up. "Let me know if you need help. I won't be long."

"Yeah, yeah. Bring him back here so I can see him worry over my wounded body."

"Always looking for attention," she whispers with a smile. With no wards yet in place except an alarm, Cressida apparates on the spot. She reappears on the base of the long street that the Potter manor resides on. Swiftly, she tugs the hood over her head and stuffs her hands into the pockets.

Cressida marches towards the manor, the walk taking less than ten minutes before she's shifting the gate open and slipping inside the grounds. It looks desolate, with dead leaves covering the stone pathway, the garden either dry and withering or overgrown. The heavy jacket in the heat of the summer sends a hot wave down her spine but she doesn't dare pull it off in the open.

Her knuckles rap on his door, testing the handle but it is locked closed. She digs into her pocket, pulling out a key and turns it in the lock. James isn't home but she can wait. Cressida wanders throughout the entire house. He hasn't changed anything. The only thing that he has added are more photographs.

She settles down in their room, laying her head on his pillow. After this all, she is going to move in permanently. Sirius would likely find someplace new, and Cressida knows that they'll both be perfectly fine going their own ways.

She lays there for an hour, thinking. Thinking about their next moves. But alas, this was as far as her makeshift plan had gotten her. The only thing she can think of doing is tidying or cooking him something for when he does get back but she knows that it would be a rather silly thing. 'Oh, hello honey. Yes, I killed one of our best friends of nine years, Sirius was nearly killed too, though not by me, and we're pretending to be missing and or dead depending on what you've heard. Here's a cake.'

Though the cake might add a nice touch to distract her.

But her deliberation over which type of cake to bake ends suddenly at the sound of the front doors banging against the side of the wall. Cressida snaps out of bed, dashing towards the door. She reaches it, a foot stepping into the hallway when another loud clash sounds. This time of breaking glass.

She leans backwards, fearing that someone has broken in. Then a heart-wrenching cry echoes throughout the walls. A voice that she painfully recognises. "JAMES!" The world blurs around her, only stilling as she focuses on the stairs to save herself from falling.

Her hand grips the banister at the end, spinning off of it to turn right into the main hall. James stands there, a broken glass vase shattered on the ground behind him. He doesn't welcome her with open arms, but a single raised one, with his wand pointed towards her.

With the memories of Peter standing in front of her with the same pose, Cressida immediately reaches for her own wand but her mind graces with sensibility before she can unsheathe it. "James?" she calls out.

His shoulders rise and fall with his chest. "When was the first time that we kissed?" he demands, not an ounce of softness behind his tone.

Cressida breathes heavily through her mouth, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Your dorm," she answers quietly. "There was a party in the Tower because we had just won a match." His arm lowers. His wand clatters against the floor and her eyes are too distracted with looking at it that she lets out a grunt of surprise when his arms engulf her. Her eyes widen. "James, are you alright?"

"Me?!" he cries. He leans back far enough to take her face into both of his hands. "I was just told that you and Sirius were missing! That you were attacked last night, and nobody knew if you were alive."

"I'm fine," she swiftly replies. "So is Sirius. He was hurt but he's fine. We're hiding. Why did you think I wasn't me?"

James runs his hands repetitively down each side of her head, Cressida's arms between them, gripping at his shirt. "You were just declared missing. I wasn't exactly expecting you to be here. I thought that maybe someone was impersonating you."

"Right. That makes sense. Sorry, I've just had trouble thinking properly."

"Merlin, Cress. What happened? They barely told me anything."

Cressida leans her head against his chest. "Why don't I take you to where we're staying? I don't want to leave Sirius for too long. We'll tell you everything that happened." James nods, eager to follow if it meant that he would receive answers. Her hand slides down into his, leading him back towards the door, but he stops just before it. "James?"

She half-turns back, expecting to see something of hesitance but instead he's smiling. "Thank you. For coming to tell me and not just leaving me out of this."

"Of course I'm not going to let you think I'm missing or dead," she laughs, pulling herself towards him. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner but I wasn't sure if my healing abilities were good enough and I wanted to make sure Sirius would be alright."

James presses a kiss against her cheek. "What about Remus and Peter?"

He hadn't heard? Cressida forces a weak smile. "We'll talk about that. I don't want them to think we're dead, but the fewer people that know, the better chance we might have."

"You really don't trust the Order, do you?" he ponders.

"I know you're finding it hard to and I know most people inside it have good intentions but if what we're doing happens to get out. We would become not only the Death Eater's top priority but Voldemort's himself. We were already attacked just last night and they didn't know so I don't want to imagine what our lives would be like if they did. James, not even Bellatrix Lestrange knew what the object she was hiding was."

"I believe you. And trust you," he assures swiftly.

Xx

Cressida sits back down in her chair, her hand travelling along her own shoulder to link with James' who leans against her side, standing over.

"You look right foul," he observes Sirius whose lips draw into a smirk. "Did you tell them to aim there so she'd have to take your shirt off? Gosh Padfoot, can't get enough attention, can you?"

Despite Sirius' pained laugh, Cressida wacks her fiancé's stomach. "Be nice. Though I did say something similar," she adds in an afterthought.

"It's only a physical wound," Sirius says. "It'll heal and leave a nice scar."

"Prepare to hear overdramatic versions," James tells her. Cressida laughs, resting her feet against the edge of the bed. "This is your old home, isn't it?" She nods, sharing a forlorn smile with Sirius. "Why here?"

"I have terrible memories of this place. I don't think anybody with sense would think that I would choose here. And those that would probably think it is too obvious. But we can't stay anywhere too long."

James nods, still looking around her room that he's never been inside before. "So I'm thrilled to hear that you're both alive and somewhat well but I wasn't exactly given a detailed run-through of what they found. I'm wondering which fucking arseholes I'm going to have to hunt down."

"Well, the two that came for us are already dead," she immediately snipes. "One was Rosier which admittedly I took a little pleasure in."

James' thumb rubs over the back of her hand. "The other?"

Sirius' brow pinches slightly and Cress nods as subtly as she could, confirming the choice of words that James chose. He doesn't know yet. She has to tell him. Her face turns into his stomach and James' hands instantly move to the back of her head and neck in a soothing manner. "Who was it?" she hears him ask Sirius under his breath.

Cressida prepares herself to answer, but she is beaten to it. "It was the mole," Sirius states. "The mole in the Order."

"The mole? Who?" he hisses. "Wha- are they dead? Did you kill them? Does the Order know?"

"I'm assuming they've figured it out," Sirius murmured. "But James…" At his pause, Cressida presses her face further into James' stomach. He leans over partially, enveloping her and hiding her from the world.

"Who was it?"

"…Peter. It was Peter, James."

She feels his muscles tense and move. "No," James bellows in denial. "Pads, he's our friend. H-he wouldn't. It's Peter. He's our friend."

"I know he was our friend," Sirius spits, though his anger not directed at anybody there. "But he stood over us in their robes and had his wand ready and aimed at us. Those bruises on her wrist. They're from him. He watched while Rosier tortured me." There is nothing but venom on his tongue.

The truth seems to sink into him as he sways. In a last attempt, he breathlessly says, "Maybe… maybe he was under the imperius curse."

"He wasn't." Sirius sounded so sure of it. "And I killed him."