James still wasn't back.

In his cell, there was no way for Sirius to keep track of time, but he was quite sure that James had been gone an unusually long time. With every passing minute, Sirius's sense of unease grew.

He knew every inch of this cell by now. It was a different one than he'd been in with James and Lily weeks ago, but it still had old graffiti on the walls. Sirius had read all of it by now, taking in none of it. The bars were fairly wide, although they were too narrow for a person to fit through.

Sirius had been staring at them for a good minute now, trying to assess whether they were too narrow for a slim dog to fit through. Sirius knew he had lost weight after their time travelling through Scotland, since their meals had been irregular. He doubted he could have fit through the bars when he first came to 1743. He was beginning to think that he had a shot now.

He pressed his face against the bars. There was no one close enough to watch him transform, and so he changed into his animagus form.

It was a tight fit. The bars pressed against his sides as he squirmed out of the small space, constricting his ribs. His paws scrambled against the stones underfoot, until he was able to pull the rest of himself through.

He let out a small, happy bark. If he had been human, it might have been a laugh.

The first obstacle came at the end of the hall, where the two guards were sitting at a table.

"Where did you come from, little guy?" one of them said, leaning down to scratch his ears.

Sirius did his best to act like a typical dog who didn't hate this wizard's guts, and he must have done an okay job, because neither of the guards stopped him from leaving after he endured much petting.

He made his way towards Severus Prince's torture room, getting lost a few times. At one point, he stumbled across a group of Slytherin students, who cooed over him until he managed to wriggle away.

I'm coming, James, he thought.

Brian was right; Hogsmeade was packed with students. Brian and Lily kept to smaller side streets, but they couldn't avoid them entirely. Many of the students they came across seemed too lost in their own worlds to pay much attention to them. However, as they reached the outskirts of Hogsmeade, one of the students squinted suspiciously at them, craning her head to get a closer look.

Lily walked a little faster, but Brian grabbed her elbow and slowed her down.

"We don't want to stand out," he murmured.

To Lily's horror, the student ran to catch up with them.

"You're Lily Potter, aren't you?" she said. "I recognize you from your 'wanted' poster."

It was more of a statement than a question, and Lily could only think how stupid she had been to agree to Brian's plan. She knew from her own time at Hogwarts that most of the students knew each other by sight; of course a student would recognize an imposter. Lily's fear only increased when she saw that this girl was wearing Slytherin robes.

"I'm not going to turn you in," she assured her, taking in Lily's expression. "I hope you succeed, actually. Do you know what it's like to have your dormitory in the dungeons, near Severus Prince's torture chamber? He should use a charm to at least muffle the sound, but he doesn't, so this morning was awful. I don't want to listen to anymore, so I'm on your side."

Her friend, another Slytherin, had caught up and was nodding rapidly. "Severus Prince is creepy. We don't like having him there."

"Well, good luck," the first girl said, a bit glumly. Lily thought she was probably anticipating a new set of screams in the dungeons.

Some of Severus Prince's fellow aurors were guarding the gates into Hogwarts, and Lily felt herself break out into a cold sweat as they approached them. Brian grabbed her hand.

"Pretend we're a couple," he whispered in her ear.

Lily forced a giggle. "You shouldn't say things like that!"

They continued through the gates, the aurors so lost in their own conversation that they let them through after only a cursory glance.

When they made it to the dungeons, Lily barely resisted the urge to run the rest of the way to James, but Brian kept a tight grip on her hand, keeping her walking at a leisurely pace.

Footsteps came down the hall, and Brian pulled Lily into a shadowed corner, putting his hands on her waist and his head close to hers. When the witch found them, they pretended to spring apart.

The witch rolled her eyes. "Youths," she muttered, walking away.

"Why didn't Cait come with you? Why did she ask me?" Brian asked quietly, once the witch's footsteps had retreated.

"Because she trusts you," Lily said.

"There's more to it than that, isn't there?"

"You'll have to ask Cait yourself."

She walked away once again, nearly tripping over a black dog in the process. She stifled a scream as the dog transformed into Sirius.

"Lily?" he said, looking as shocked as she felt. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing James," she said. "You too?"

"Yeah."

"You're an animagus?"

"It's a long story."

Lily was so glad to see him that she hugged him. After a moment, he hugged her back.

"I just can't remember where the bloody room is," he said. "These dungeons are a maze."

"I do," Brian said, moving in front of them to lead the way.

Lily began to follow, but Sirius grabbed her arm and held her back.

"How?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

Brian frowned. "How what?"

"How do you know where Severus Prince's torture chamber is? I didn't know you'd been there."

"Oh…" Brian hesitated. "Well… I… I was tortured there myself. A few months before you arrived. Didn't Cait mention?"

"No," Lily said.

"I'll tell you more later, but now's really not the time," Brian said, already moving back down the hallway.

Sirius was shaking his head. "I don't believe you."

Lily was beginning to feel her own twinge of doubt. Brian could have been the only person besides Cait to know that Lily had gone to the village, when she was captured with Bertha. Cait had insisted that Brian had told Anne and Graham as well, but now that Lily thought of it, the person who had probably told her that was Brian, and none of them had thought to verify it. Another memory was coming to the forefront as well. When James had been sick, and Severus Prince had been at the Ferguson castle, Brian had come to persuade her to hide with the other muggleborns. What was it he had said? He had asked if she'd known where the muggleborns were hiding, and he had offered to escort her there. Duncan had always kept his secrets close. What if Brian hadn't known where the muggleborns were? What if he had offered to escort Lily there so she could lead him to them?

She pointed her wand at Brian, only to find that he was drawing his as well.

"Expelliarmus!" Lily shouted.

His wand flew from his grip, and Sirius caught it.

Brian let out a small huff of laughter. "Are you going to kill me, Lily? It won't help you. They already know you're coming; it's too late to save yourself."

"Why did you pretend to help me?" Lily demanded, her voice shaking slightly.

"To prove to my father that I was loyal, of course," he said. "He hasn't trusted me for some time."

There were many things she wanted to say to him, mostly on Cait's behalf. When Cait found out that Brian was the traitor, it would break her heart. But there wasn't time.

"Petrificus totalus," Lily said quietly.

Brian fell to the floor.

"I don't suppose it will do much good to tell you to kill the bastard?" Sirius said.

"Good. You're learning."

"We should kill him."

"It would destroy Cait."

Sirius swore. "Lily… what are we going to do?"

Was it Lily's imagination, or could she already hear footsteps echoing through the dungeons?

"No one knows you're an animagus, so you need to leave," Lily said slowly. Sirius began to protest, but Lily cut him off. "There's no point in both of us getting captured; that won't help James. You need to regroup, wait for things to die down, and then try again."

"And what about you?" Sirius demanded.

Lily lifted her chin. "I'll be captured. Severus Prince told me in his note that if I turned myself in, he would let James go. I'll see if I can convince him to keep his word."

Sirius was staring at her.

"What?" she demanded.

"Evans… you're alright."

"That's Potter, to you," she said.

But she was speaking to a dog now. It nudged her once with its head before it ran off, leaving her alone in the cold dungeons hallway, except for Brian's stiff form. She took a deep breath and moved forward, towards Severus Prince and an uncertain fate.