Days past and neither girl heard from either of the boys. Marlene was either quiet or grumpy, clearly worried about them and Lily tried to keep busy. Lily felt like she had found something in the books she had purchased though. Hurtwell wrote about the artifacts he most admired a lot in his book but one she noticed he mentioned had something strange about it. Helga Hufflepuff's Cup was a magical cup that possessed many magical powers but Hurtwell said it was inconclusive the extent of these features. Most of the artifacts he mentioned were in the possession of Hogwarts school and were kept in either the Gringotts vault or in the school itself. However this one he vaguely mentioned was missing and hadn't been seen for years, however his description was vivid and it seemed like he had seen it first hand.

Lily bookmarked the page and as she got up preparing to note down her findings so she could owl Freya who she thought it would be best to tell first the door suddenly banged so loudly that she jumped into the air.

It sounded like someone was banging the door off its hinges and she was almost scared to open it but she heard a voice shouting from outside and recognised it as James. Marlene was out so she quickly ran to the door to open it. He looked a wreck, covered in sweat and a little dirty and his eye were rabid. He had a small cut above his right eye that looked fresh and a large bruise on his cheek bone.

"Sirius! Marlene!" He said barging in not even greeting Lily. Lily turned and watching him run into Marlene's room.

"They're not here James. Sirius is gone and Marlene's gone to see her parents. What's happened?" Lily asked following his frantic movements with her eyes. James ran over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a spare piece of parchment and quickly scribbled a note, his behaviour was so crazy that Lily daren't say anything.

"Where's Òir?" He asked suddenly, Lily paused then realised he meant the owl. Lily called out Morgan's name, not having changed it as it had kind of stuck for her. The bird flew in and James attached the note and quickly ushered the bird out of the window.

"Do you know where Sirius is?" James asked Lily pacing the apartment and scraping his hand through his hair anxiously.

"Marlene said he'd gone looking for his brother." Lily said and James swore loudly.

"Did she say anything else?" He asked, his eyes so serious that Lily almost felt scared of him

"No, he left two days ago." Lily said and James swore again and went to sprint out of the door.

"James wait!" She said running after him. She grabbed her wand and ran out of the door as he sprinted down the stairs of their apartment building. She managed to catch him as he reached the front door and she grabbed his arm.

"What's happened? Where are you going now?" She asked.

"I've been monitoring some of the high profile people that are suspected to be involved in the dark lords war and while I was there I overheard a few of them talking about Sirius. If he's gone after his brother and what they said is true then he's in deep trouble." James said swinging the door open.

"If you're going after him then I'm coming too!" Lily said suddenly, surprising herself. James turned and looked at her incredulously.

"No way, it' too dangerous." James said walking round the side of the apartment block and down a side alleyway so he could obviously apparate away. Lily took off after him though not letting him get away.

"No way!" She said grabbing his arm. "You're just going to barrel into a situation having no idea what you're getting yourself into." James stopped and looked angry.

"I need to go Lily, he's in trouble and this is just wasting more time!" James said sharing off her arm. He went to apparate and she grabbed him again and got pulled along with him into a spiral until they landed hard on the ground. James wobbled as he landed and then grabbed Lily harshly by the arm and dragged her over behind a nearby wall out of sight. Lily looked around and it looked like they were on the outskirts of a country estate, she'd spotted a big manor house in the distance.

"Are you crazy I told you this was too dangerous!" James said his voice low and furious. Lily rolled his eyes at his hypocrisy.

"You're here aren't you?" She asked.

"I'm a trained auror Lily. You're barely back a week using magic." James bit back furiously, Lily felt angry that he talked down to her this way.

"Well I'm here now so just shut up and let's find Sirius." She snapped back her tone final. He sighed angrily but knew they were wasting time.

"Just stay behind me." James said standing up and looking around.

"Where is this?" Lily asked quietly before they set off.

"This is the Malfoy mansion." James said and Lily shuddered, the Malfoy family were a notoriously dark family. She had many horrible memories of Lucius Malfoy from school she'd rather forget.

James led them over to an orchard that lead up to the house. The trees gave them cover as they crept towards the house. They couldn't see anyone around but they stayed low and had their wands out.

As they got nearer to the house James pulled out a cloak from inside his cloak and ushered Lily over. He pulled the cloak over both of them and she realised it was a cloak of invisibility. They crept towards the back patio of the house. No one was around but James carefully opened and closed the door and they snuck inside.

They'd entered a parlour room so grand Lily couldn't help but stare but the room had a cold essence to it. She looked at the wall and it was covered in stuffed heads of various magical creatures. Lily shivered getting a chill run down her spine. James had his arm round her to keep them both covered by the cloak and she liked the comfort of having him so close.

They walked through the room and just as they were about to walk into the next room which looked like the front entrance foyer they heard raised voices so they froze.

"I don't like this Lucius!" A woman's voice rang out. They moved as quietly as possible out into the hall and they could see the woman who was talking. She had white blonde hair styled up in a fancy coiffe and her clothes were pristeen.

"I don't care what you think Narcissa, this is what I've been ordered to do and therefore I do it! This brings us all favour with the dark lord." Lucius Malfoy said appearing from a room off to the side of the foyer. Lily froze when she saw Lucius. They stood still whilst the couple argued.

"I don't care, I'm not having this in my house. Keeping him here is only going to bring us trouble!" She said back, her voice filled with anger.

"This is my house Narcissa and what you think doesn't really matter." Lucius spat back coldly. Narcissa recoiled and touched her hair to regain her composure after his harsh words.

"If you think gaining favour means keeping blood traitors in our basement then you're a fool." She spat back harshly at him before turning and stalking away up the stairs of the grand house. He ignored her though and turned and went back into the room he'd come from.

James nudged Lily who was still a frozen and he motioned for her to walk. He mouthed the word "basement" and lead her around to behind the staircase. The house was huge and she didn't know how he knew the way but she didn't stop to question it as he lead them through to a doorway which he slowly opened and they went through.

The doorway led to a staircase down and they closed the door behind them and headed down. As they reached the bottom of the stairs it lead to a large door which creepily had a small window which had bars on it. James peered through the window and gasped and quickly waved his wand over the lock and the door burst open. He threw the cloak off and ran forward and Lily saw what he'd gasped at.

A crumpled body in the corner of the basement was barely recognisable.

"Sirius!" He said dropping to his knees next to his friend and rolling him onto his back. He shook him and tried to get him to regain consciousness. Lily ran forward and quickly checked his pulse.

"He's breathing," She said letting out a sigh of relief. James grabbed Sirius arm and pulled it around his neck and Lily quickly did the same almost buckling under the weight. Sirius face was completely unrecognisable and covered in bruises. He seemed to come round a little and let out a low groan at the movement.

"We need to hurry and get him out of here." James said starting for the doorway. Just as they walked through a house elf appeared in front of them and it froze in his place. James tried to shoot a spell at it but before he could move it disappeared with a pop.

"Run!" He said and Lily and him picked up the pace running for the exit. They had just reached the top of the stairs when they heard a shout and footsteps. They rounded the corner and Lucius Malfoy was running towards them shooting spells one after the other. James jumped to action and started shooting back defence spells and Lily strained to keep Sirius up. They back towards the exit of the house knowing they couldn't apparate until they were outside.

Lucius was snarling so angrily as he fired the spells it was like he was possessed. James fired back a spell and it hit him on the shoulders and he let out a snarl in pain and stumbled. This gave Lily and James the chance to make a proper run for it and they grabbed Sirius and ran through the house and back out onto the patio. Once outside James called for Lily to apparate straight to the hospital and then he and Sirius would follow. She quickly sweeped her wand and as she did she heard a shout from James but she disappeared before she could see what was happening. She reappeared in the foyer of St Mungos and James appeared a second later but she saw he was bent over breathing heavily and he was barely holding onto Sirius.

"James!" She called running forward. "Help - someone help us!" She shouted running forward as James collapsed next to Sirius who was still unconscious.

Healers ran forward and tended to Sirius first who was in the worst state. They took him away quickly on a stretcher. James was on all fours and he coughed and Lily could see he was gripping his side.

"Malfoy got one lucky one in before we apparated." He said pulling his shirt up to look and there was a big gash across his ribs. Lily winced and a healer came forward to lead him off to get treatment. Lily sat on the floor and caught her breath as she calmed down. A Healer came over to her and helped her up and asked her to come through to be checked over.

After she'd had her few cuts and grazes healed she was sat in a waiting room when Marlene suddenly ran in, her face was grey and her eyes were frantic with worry.

"Where is he?" She cried out barely holding herself together. Lily stood up and tried to still her friend.

"He's in with the healers, they haven't told us anything yet." Lily said.

"And James?" She asked.

"He had a bad cut but he's going to be okay." Lily said and Marlene collapsed into a chair and put her head in her hands. Lily sat next to her and rubbed her back to comfort her.

They sat and waited together for what seemed like an hour before James appeared seeming to be better although he looked exhausted. Marlene jumped out of her chair and hugged him tightly before stepping back and punching him in the arm.

"How could you be so stupid?" She said almost crying. He winced at her hit but just pulled her into another hug and she let out a little cry.

"Is he going to be okay?" She choked out. James shook his head.

"I don't know, they're in with him now doing all they can." He said quietly, his face wracked with concern. Lily stood up to say something and James let go of Marlene and looked at her.

"Marlene can you just give me a minute to talk to Lily?" He asked. Marlene agreed and walked off to find a water.

"I'm glad you're okay." Lily said quietly. James looked straight at her and looked like he was thinking of what to say.

"I honestly don't even know what to say to you right now Lily." He said, his angry tone surprising her.

"Why?" She asked taken aback.

"You jumping in and coming with me earlier was so reckless and stupid. I thought bringing you into the order would mean you'd understand more but I didn't think you'd lose your mind and decide to start putting yourself in dangerous situations." He said, his voice fuming. Lily blinked and took in what he said and then felt anger spread through her.

"If I hadn't come do you think you'd have even made it out of there?" She said back matching his tone.

"Yes I do. I would have worked it out. You jumping in and putting yourself in danger just gave me another thing to worry about. You just need to stay out of it!" He said pointing at her and she took a step back.

"You're ridiculous. I helped and nothing bad happened," she replied trying to calm the situation because people were staring.

"What about next time? If I have to worry about you jumping into dangerous situations I don't want you involved at all." He barked out.

She was about to respond but Freya ran into the waiting room and she ran straight over to James and hugged her son. Lily watched them embrace and felt like she should give them privacy so she went off to find Marlene. Marlene was waiting outside the room they were working on Sirius in. She had her head in her hands and Lily could see the tears streaming down her face. She sat with her friend and they waited patiently for news.