A/N: Crossing Boundaries has officially passed its one year mark today. Woohoo! Accomplishment.. maybe? Congratulate me? I mean, it's not a really a matter of accomplishment, just a matter of time... But whatever. Happy News Years to you all. Hope it's fantastic and... well... better than Gracie's. That's all I'll say. Enjoy! x

Chapter Thirty-Two

My Mistake

"Don't go," Sirius mumbled sleepily. "It's cold."

"We have to meet up with the Order in two hours," I reminded him patiently. "And in case you haven't noticed, I am in no fit shape to arrive there."

"Oh, blimey. We should have never joined. Rest in peace, oh beautiful sleep."

I laughed lazily and ran my fingers through his sleep-tousled dark hair. "I'm going to lunch with Lily this afternoon, but after that I'm all yours."

He grinned. "Sounds good to me. Find me before we leave. I'll be the sexy one, hard to miss."

I rolled my eyes, getting up. "It is too early for your ego, Sirius."

"You love it."

As it turned out, there was a slight change of plans. The original plans had consisted of meeting at Order Headquarters and apparating to safe zones in pairs all throughout London. However, upon discovery that the trail we were following was false, a proper alteration had to be put in place.

"I hate trains," Sirius moaned.

The lead the Order was now following hinted that the Death Eaters were on board this muggle train to London, which was suspicious for a number of reasons. So instead of meeting them in London, we were following them to London. For all we knew, they were planning to blow up the train and all of its passengers, and if there was anything we could do to stop it, we would, by all means. And if not, we would continue on with the plan as discussed to infiltrate the Death Eater's numbers and dig up their motives. Their attempts to dissolve into the muggle community were increasing by the day, and if this wasn't concerning, I didn't know what was.

"Trains hate you," I told Sirius airily, as if Sirius banter was really desirable at that point in the day.

Remus threw up a hand. "Wait, wait. Let me predict how this will go. Sirius will proceed to make a childish gesture—such as say, sticking out his tongue, as this appears to be a favorite gesture of his—and Gracie will then follow by pointing out his relentless immaturity, which will only drive Sirius to attempt to redeem himself by some absurd means, inevitably only further proving Gracie's point—"

"Thanks, mate, really," Sirius interrupted, "you must have that Inner Eye Trelawney's always going on about."

"Well," I said, smiling, "I don't think he's too far off the mark, Sirius. No need to be sarcastic. Perhaps Seeing is Remus's undiscovered talent after all."

James yawned, stretching his arms over his head and nearly whacking Peter in the face. "I can't tell if you're all joking or dead serious. Anyhow, I reckon we're all feeling sentimental. I mean, when was the last time we were on a train together?"

"Graduation," Peter answered with a degree of pride in his face equivalent to that of answering a trick question.

Lily exhaled wearily, rubbing her temples. "I don't know about sentimental, but I am feeling a bout of motion sickness." She got to her feet. "I'm going to go find the lavatories, I'll be back."

"Lily," Sirius piped up suddenly, "if you happen to pass the trolley lady, would you find fetching a batch of treacle fudge? I'll give you the money—"

She gave him a hard look. "Don't be lazy, honestly, Sirius. Get it yourself."

When she closed the compartment door, James combated Sirius with a counter look. "Yeah, get it yourself, Padfoot."

Sirius sunk dejectedly in his seat before sighing with resignation and pulling himself to his feet. Just as he made a move for the door, however, it once again slid open and he cried, "Oh, Lily! I knew you couldn't possibly be that—"

"Sorry?"

A stern-faced woman with straight dark hair stood in the door, with a facial expression equal to that of loathing. The five of us seemed to subconsciously recede farther into the compartment away from her presence.

"Oh, Vance, it's only you." Sirius frowned.

Emmeline Vance stood straighter, eyes flitting past Sirius's. It was common knowledge that Emmeline was not one to be messed with. Apparently, in the last mission, Lily, James, Sirius and Peter had had a particularly messy run-in with her. That awkward stiffness was then currently so visible it was practically a blinking neon sign.

"Well, I'm pleased to see you as well, Black," Emmeline continued, disregarding him quickly, "I've just come to tell you all that it has been confirmed that there are in fact Death Eaters on board with us this morning, and it would be in your best interest if you all remained situated. Seeing as the Death Eaters are familiar with most of your faces, exposure could sabotage the mission entirely." She returned her gaze to Sirius. "And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

He grinned. "'Course not."

"Oh, but... Lily," Remus said slowly, brow furrowed.

"Oh, no," James muttered.

"What about Lily?" Emmeline inquired sharply.

"She went to find the lavatory—"

"I'll go find her," I announced at once, only to be cut down instantly by Emmeline's glare.

"There are about a dozen potential ways this mission could go dastardly wrong. Let's not add to that. Stay put unless otherwise informed." Upon delivering this message, she turned for the door and slammed it behind her, disappearing from sight and leaving an empty silence in the compartment behind her.

Sirius chuckled. "Well, she's a rough one."

"Yeah, way to get us all off on the wrong note." I glared.

"That is not of my sole doing. James had a large part in it. Notice how he didn't say a word to her?"

"I did, too." He squirmed. "Sort of."

Sirius crossed his arms, smirking. "Let's just say that I bet she checks her seat before she sits now."

My eyes widened, while Peter broke out into high-pitched laughter beside me. "What, did you put a tack in her seat? That's so juvenile, Sirius…"

"Actually, Gracie, love, it was a whoopee cushion." He said it with such a dignified posture, and if you hadn't heard what he'd said, you might have thought he was declaring himself the King of England.

"You mean—"

"Yes, she sat down and unleashed a terror of violent and explosive farts."

Remus had joined Peter in his fit of laughter, and James sat up straighter. "If you must know, it was Lily that told us the charm that enchanted it to sound so realistic and… lengthy."

I slapped myself in the face and left my hand there so I wouldn't have to look at the four of them.

"What did she do to you?" Remus asked incredulously, because oh-so-conveniently, he and I were the only ones that hadn't been there. "By the looks of that woman, I would've thought she'd rip you all apart."

"Oh, we obviously said we had nothing to do with it. We were very convincing." Sirius grinned. "I suppose Voldemort showing up afterwards helped in terms of a distraction, though." He looked sheepishly towards James and shrugged.

I groaned. "Shut up, this is painful to listen to."

Sirius chuckled, and I felt him come near to me, prying my hands from my face. "What's wrong, babe?" He kissed my lips, smiling wickedly. "Come on, we were just having fun is all."

I sighed, giving him a hard look before I involuntarily broke into a slow smile. "Fine. But you're all morons, that's for sure. Associating with the lot of you is tainting my precious reputation."

"You'd have done that on your own, anyway. Don't thank us." He winked.

James released a sound like a dying animal. "Could you both quit the flirt fest? I'm going to vomit all over the floor."

Sirius sighed wearily, and said to me under his breath, "But we've had to endure his shameless flirting with Lily for seven years."

I laughed and gave James the best over-enthusiastic smile I could summon.

"Oh, speaking of Lily, Prongs," Sirius said, nodding in James's direction, "how'd that thing go?"

He frowned. "Not well. I was going to try again this morning, but she's currently missing in action, and that is not helping things at all."

I raised my brows curiously, and Remus and Peter stirred as well. "What things?"

"Nothing." Sirius smiled cheekily.

"I'm feeling kind of antsy. I was completely confident last week, but prolonging it like this is making me nervous. Is that normal?" James asked, forehead creased with worry.

Sirius shrugged. "I dunno, I haven't done it before, have I?"

Looking quite uncomfortable, Remus cleared his throat loudly. "Are you both seriously talking about sex? Because that's pretty tactless, considering your company…"

"Oh, my God! Really? Seriously?" I covered my face with both hands, skin flushed red hot.

James began to laugh hysterically, and Sirius made a discontented noise. "What do you mean? I said I hadn't done it, so I couldn't possibly—"

"Sirius! Oh my God! Shut up!" I leaped out of my seat and onto his lap, covering his mouth with my hand. The boys were all laughing so hard they sounded like dying engines, James in particular. Sirius only smiled shyly and I just huffed and swat him on top of the head.

The door groaned open then, and my head swiveled instinctively in its direction. I almost started to call Lily's name when the red-haired man's face slowly came into recognition.

Fabian raised a brow at Sirius and me. "What's goin' on in here?"

"Oh, nothing," I sighed, chorused by the boys' snickers. I climbed off of Sirius and looked expectantly towards the Prewett twin. "What's up?"

"Train's gonna be stoppin' in a minute or two. Make sure tha' when it does, you lot are in the front of the crowd. No lingering 'bout. Head straight off. Meet at Platform Fifteen."

"Got it." I nodded.

"Yep. Thanks, Prewett."

"No problem, Potter. Platform Fifteen in two minutes. See you lot then."

"See you."

When he'd closed the door, we all exchanged frantic looks. James voiced the question on all of our minds: "Where the hell is Lily?"

"I'll go," I volunteered, and then muttered, "and I'll try to avoid Emmeline Vance, if at all possible."

Sirius protested to the look I directed his way, "Don't glare at me, Gracie. It was James and Lily's fault, too."

"I wasn't glaring. It was a look of endearment."

James choked on a laugh.

I gave him a similar look. "Don't say it. I'm going to find your girlfriend, remember."

He smiled sweetly. "Wasn't saying anything, Gracie."

"I know you weren't." I got to my feet. "I'll be back soon. Hopefully."

On my way in what I reckoned was the direction of the lavatories, I found myself glancing absentmindedly through the compartments as I passed. I was near the end of the long aisle and passed countless empty compartments until I noticed one that was occupied to its brim. I had started to move past it until my eyes fell upon a familiar face.

That face—where had I seen it before? I was immobilized at once, standing there, gawking like an idiot, until it occurred to me.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

I jumped out of sight as fast as I could, pressing my back against the wall. I didn't know his name, but the face was frighteningly familiar, a face that I'd seen revealed behind a dark, ghastly mask on the day that the muggle village in Dufftown had been raided on Easter.

Death Eaters. Here, feasible feet away from me.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment and let fear consume me for five whole seconds. Everything suddenly seemed to cave in around me, and the pressure of the situation was heightened tenfold; my blood was pulsing like liquid electricity, and the only thing I could think was, shit, shit, shit, holy shit…

But soon enough those five seconds were over and I apologized to my mental faculties for the poor choice of freak-out language. I reminded myself that being afraid at this point was only lethal, for me and the Order and very specifically all of the muggles on board the train. And the point of all of this was to ensure the very opposite, so I forced myself to get it together and collected the deepest breath I'd ever taken in my life.

I leaned forward slowly, peering in as inconspicuously as I could manage. I was determined to at least collect a head-count, or something valuable, anything at all. My head throbbed in particular at the thought that perhaps Voldemort was on board with them, and if that was true, then I was in deep, deep—

"Why are you spying?"

A breathy squeal escaped my lips before I could stop it, and with great tender force, a hand was clamped over my mouth to prevent further sound. I found myself staring wide-eyed at a serious faced Lily Evans, heart pumping so loudly I thought I might faint.

She released me, raising a finger to her lips, and I found myself wondering where on earth she'd gotten so much strength. "Let's go," she mouthed, yanking not very gently on my wrist and pulling me away from the scene. When we'd gotten a safe distance away, she muttered, "What were you thinking?"

"I…well," I said, fumbling for words, "I wasn't, really."

"Evidently," she grumbled. The train grinded to a stop beneath us.

"Do you—do you know who that man was, by the door? The one with the dark hair…"

"Rodolphus Lestrange," she answered automatically, as if she hadn't even thought about it. "How do you not know him? He's on practically every wanted poster in Britain. He's quite an infamous man."

There was something about her tone that was very peculiar, and I decided that I did not like it at all. There was a foreign expression masking her face, making her nearly unrecognizable. Desperate to change the subject, I asked, "Where were you for so long?"

"The loo. I told you that, didn't I?"

"Yeah." I blinked. "Do you feel all right now?"

"Peachy."

"I mean, what was wrong in the first place?"

"Just a headache."

"I thought you said you had motion sickness?"

She eyed me suspiciously. "If you know what I said, why are you asking me?"

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. She kept on walking, no longer bothering to make sure I kept up. I rushed after her, huffing irritably. "We're to get off right away… We want to avoid the… You know."

"Seems like you were doing a fabulous job of that."

"Look, Lily, I don't know what's wrong with you, but—"

We were on the steps on the way off the train when she spun on her heel and smiled wide, laughing. "I'm sorry, Grace, really, I've just been in and out of a sour mood all day. Please forgive me."

She seriously just called me Grace…

"Um, it's fine. Don't worry about it," I said, looking about for Platform Fifteen hurriedly so I could get away from the psychopathic woman. I tried reasoning that perhaps she just was in a bad mood. PMSing or something. And Grace was my name, after all. It didn't matter that she never called me it—it was just one syllable. "There they are."

"Where?"

I pointed to the platform. "Looks like they're waiting up for us."

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

And then she left me again. I followed close behind but suddenly had no desire to be too close to her. When we arrived in front of the group, Sirius met my gaze with furrowed brows. What's wrong? he mouthed.

I shook my head, because I really had no idea.

"Gracie, Lily—thanks for finally showing up," Gideon said, grinning crookedly at me. I just rolled my eyes, attempting to show that I was just as amused as he was, but I crossed my arms and watched Lily from my peripheral vision. James had flocked to her, whispering things with an evident look of concern in his expression. I heard her giggling as she leant up and kissed him, silencing whatever else he had to say.

Well, fine, that behavior was acceptable…

I supposed I'd just annoyed her. It was a very dumb move to think that I could spy on Death Eaters and come out unscathed. Luckily I'd had Lily to pull me away at the last moment. Still, she didn't have to be so abusive about it…

Mad-Eye called for everyone's attention. "Now that everyone's here, we'll discuss tactics. Those of you who have been spoken to already, please disperse at once."

Several people broke off into pairs and began walking away from the group in separate directions, greatly reducing the number grouped together. It appeared as if only the youngest remained, the boys, Lily, Frank and Alice, Marlene, Edgar and I.

"We're pairing strengths, so Potter, you'll go with Black. Lupin, with Pettigrew. Longbottoms, you'll remain together. McKinnon, with Bones. And Evans with Hachette."

Oh, perfect. So much for avoiding the psychopathic woman.

I chided myself internally. It was Lily. She was just in a sour mood. It would be okay.

Mad-Eye proceeded to assign us to our positions, giving us our respective orders and leading us away. Far too soon, Lily and I were walking away alone, on our way to a coffee shop a short distance from the station. I recited the orders in my head so I wouldn't have to speak to Lily right away: Blend in. Watch for suspicious activity. If anything suspicious occurs, get ready to defend yourselves and the civilians.

Well, it certainly wasn't much, but it did seem a deal more exciting than the bakery I'd been assigned to watch last time.

"So," Lily said, shooting me a friendly side-ways glance, "you excited?"

I sighed away the feeling that I was upset with her and shrugged. "I dunno. Are you? I feel like I've been assigned to some far corner again, excluded from all the actual excitement."

She nodded in understanding, and said, "Well, I'm excited."

"Was it scary? Fighting You-Know-Who?"

I felt kind of foolish asking it and I almost regretted it, thinking she'd snap again and call me out for my cowardice, but she didn't, only nodded again. "Frightening as hell. He's more powerful than you know."

"Oh." I bit my lip, pondering on that.

Bells rung as we pushed through the door to the coffee shop. We were seated and ordered plain coffees. Lily downed hers readily, acting as if she'd been longing for it all day. I gave her an odd look, but she didn't seem to notice. There was that look in her eyes again, that glazed over gaze, like she had no filter and was just running off of pure instinct.

"So, what did I miss while I was gone? Back on the train?"

The increased friendliness in her expression was weird. I was very suspicious.

Somehow, though, I forced myself to laugh, attempting to resume normal conditions. "You didn't miss anything good. The boys were being highly…" I paused. "Suspicious." Well, wasn't that a coincidental repetition of adjectives?

"What were they doing?"

"James and Sirius have this secret between them, and they won't tell anyone. Not even Remus or Peter. It was very frustrating."

"I bet it was." She glanced over my shoulder, in the direction of the window, and seemed to tense. "Hey," she said slowly, getting to her feet. "Come with me?"

"Where?" I glanced out the window quickly, but I didn't see anything too curious. "Was there someone out there?"

"Oh, no," she said, smiling, some feeble attempt at reassurance. "I've just got to use the bathroom. It's probably better if we stay close together, you know?"

"Okay, sure," I said, standing. We walked together to the back of the shop, where Lily pulled me past the bathrooms and instead towards the back room, where the sign clearly read Employees Only. "Lily, what are you—"

But an employee got to us before I could finish, a boy probably only a few years older than us, brown eyes deep as an abyss. And I don't know why I noticed that about him, only that I knew something terrible was about to happen. "Excuse me, ladies, you're not allowed back there," he was saying, and something was wrong, because one moment he was standing straight up with those bright eyes, and the next he was falling lifelessly to the ground.

I gasped, as did the employees around him, and in a flash of a moment I saw Lily with her wand drawn. My eyes widened. "Lily! Was that—?"

She yanked hard on my arm, pulling me from the chaos she'd created and into the security of the back room. My stomach lurched when the door revealed another employee, too busy making drinks that she didn't even look up. I stared as Lily cast a spell at the door, lighting the edges and sending a reverberating tremble throughout the frame.

Did she just bind it shut…?

I wasn't thinking straight. I had no idea what was going on. This made no sense. This was Lily, for Merlin's sake, Lily Evans, prefect and Head Girl, top of our class, star student, role model, prized child…

But when she pointed her wand towards the girl, I did the same without even thinking and beat her to it.

"Protego!"

This caused the girl to look up, and her eyes were wide and perplexed at the sight of us. She started to say something, but I was too distracted by the look in Lily's eyes.

It was like death.

"You're just doing all the wrong things today, aren't you?"

And before I could do anything else, she'd aimed her wand at me and with a blast of hot, wild color, I was flying towards the wall. There was a scream that rang out, and I wasn't one hundred percent whose it was. My head was ringing so loudly and the scream echoed through it so that everything I was screamed. It overcame all of my senses, ripping through me, and it felt like forever until the black cleared before my eyes.

Lily was standing over me, twirling a flash of metal in her hands. I blinked slowly, focusing. A knife. Where the hell had she gotten a knife…

"We can do this one of two ways. The first way, you shut up and let me do what I need to. The second, and probably the less desirable way, you run your mouth and I deal with you accordingly." She paused, eyeing her knife like it was some bloody treasure. "So much more intimidating than a little stick, don't you think?"

Green eyes glinting like Avada Kedavra, lips turned menacingly.

I groaned, pulling myself up from the remains of the shelf that I had crashed into. The girl from moments earlier lay crumpled on the ground, unmoving. I moved to dash to her, but the pain in my head made my movements sluggish and Lily grabbed me before I could make it.

"Well, I forgot to mention the other part. If you try any heroic little rescue, I'll have to deal with that as well."

I glared at her, clenching my jaw.

"But your chance is up. Sorry."

She smiled, eyes free of any trace of remorse, and lunged at me with the knife.