If you planted hope today in any hopeless heart, if someone's burden was lighter because you did your part, if you caused a laugh that chased a tear away, if tonight your name is mentioned when someone kneels to pray, then your day was well spent.

~ Anonymous

Chapter Nine: A Nearby Fire

Lily had been up at the crack of dawn, as usual.

She had gone to the market and done the chores that her father needed her to do, as usual.

She had walked up to the castle smelling slightly of fish, as usual.

And then she had walked into Bella's room to find her already awake and sitting at her vanity, which was decidedly unusual.

"Good morning." She smiled brightly, determined to act as though everything was normal, something that she had been practicing with an imaginary Bella in her head since late last night. "You're up early today."

"Yes." Bella agreed, watching as Lily went about making her bed. "I don't need you today."

"Excuse me, my Lady?"

"I don't need you today." Bella repeated. "Go home."

"I-" Lily shook her head. "I don't understand, Lady Bellatrix-"

"Go home, Lily." Lily thought for a moment that Bella knew that Lily had followed her yesterday. That she had seen her and Remus sneaking away, or perhaps she had used her magic to find out somehow. "We have visitors coming and your presence is not required, or appropriate."

Lily nodded slowly. "Are you sure I can't get you anything before I leave? Some breakfast maybe?"

"No. Go home." She sighed. "I'm more than capable of taking care of myself."

"No one suggested otherwise, ma'am."

"Have a lovely day, Lily." Bella said as Lily walked out the door. Lily almost smiled at her sweet tone, before catching herself. Bella was a murderer, she didn't actually want Lily to have a good day, she probably wanted to tie rocks to her legs and then throw her in the lake.

This was the first day off that Lily had had without Remus in a long while, so she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. She walked through the courtyard for a while, talking with the venders and enjoying the sun before someone ran into her. She had been leaning over, looking at a tray of knickknacks and the force of the impact caused her to lose her balance and fall into a large pile of hay just to the left of the vender's stand.

"Excuse me!" Lily said, rolling over in the hay to see who had caused her to fall.

"Imagine that! Just the bird I was coming to find." Sirius grinned, reaching out a hand to help her up. "Funny how fate just knocks you into who you're looking for sometimes."

"Fate had nothing to do with it." Lily scoffed, refusing his hand and pushing herself up on her own. Sirius chuckled a bit at her expense but lowered his hand and stepped back. "As far as I can tell, you're still drunk from last night."

"So Remus already found you today then." Sirius sighed. "Do you know where I can find him?"

"He hasn't talked to me today. He told me last night that Arden made him babysit you."

"Last night?"

"Yes, last night." Lily snapped. "And I don't know where he is, but I assume James has him doing something or other."

"I checked the training grounds and James' room." Sirius shrugged. "They weren't around."

"Well, I'm not Remus's keeper, so I don't know where he is."

"You would like that though, wouldn't you?" Sirius grinned, giving her a wink.

Lily felt her stomach hit the ground and momentarily forgot how to breath. "He told you?" Sirius cocked his head to the side and drew his brows together.

"What are you talking about, lass?"

"I can't believe he told you. He promised that he wouldn't." Lily tucked her hair behind her ears and looked at the ground. She suddenly had a very strong urge to defend herself. "Look, I only kissed him last night because he was making it sound like he was alright with it. How was I supposed to know that he was trying to let me down easy when he was going on about how wonderful I am? It was poor planning on his part if you ask me and-"

"Whoa there, red. That's a whole lot of information that I'm needing to take in and I'm not feeling the greatest. You kissed Remus?" He asked, looking far more shocked than he should if Remus had told him about it already."

"Damn." She muttered, shaking her head. "He hadn't told you."

"Not yet he hadn't." Sirius laughed. "Oh, the poor sod. I told him. I told him that you fancied him and he didn't believe me." He slung an arm around Lily. "He's a right pain in the arse, isn't he? Completely blind and whatnot? Good mate though-"

"Don't touch me." Lily slunk out of his grip and stepped away. "You smell horrible."

"Well, I've been vomiting all morning and haven't bathed in a month."

"That's disgusting."

"You don't smell too great yourself." He leant over and shoved his nose in her hair. "Fishy."

"Don't do that." She pushed his face away and he laughed.

"Back to Remus though," Sirius put his arm around Lily again and started leading her through the courtyard. She didn't push him away this time. "What did he do when you kissed him?"

"I really don't want to talk about this." Lily sighed, not sure why she was following him.

"I do."

"Well, you can talk to Remus then." She snapped.

"But I've got you to talk to right here, and who knows where Remus is?"

"He didn't do anything alright?" Lily muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and looking down at her feet. "He just sat there and made me feel like a right prat."

"No, he's the prat. You're a catch, I promise. Remus is just too much of a goodie goodie to go after the girl his mates in love with."

"So it is James' fault?" Lily laughed. "Of course it is." Sirius laughed as well, tightening his grip on her shoulder. "Remus tried to tell me that it wasn't. Spouted off some nonsense about how true love is different and we both deserve it and how we're supposed to forget to breath or something." Sirius laughed again.

"Well, now I'm afraid I'm with Remus on this one." He said. Lily looked up at him and frowned.

"Honestly?"

"Yes. If you're going to stick yourself to one person for the rest of your life, you better be doing it 'cause you can't live without that person for a single day."

Lily's frown deepened as she thought about what he said. "That was strangely both cynical and romantic at the same time."

"I truly am a wonder."

"Apparently." Lily said under her breath. "Where are you taking me?"

"I thought we'd just go for a walk." Sirius shrugged. "See where our feet take us."

"I don't want to go for a walk with you."

"Oh, yes. You're working for my cousin right now, aren't you?" Sirius gave Lily an apprehensive look. "Remus tells me that you two get along just fine. You and Bella that is. Why is that?"

"I had forgotten that you were her cousin!" Lily said, shrugging Sirius's arm from around her shoulders only to grab it and pull him to the side of the cobbled road. "I need to talk to you."

"Well, you could at least buy me dinner first." Sirius laughed, happily following after her as she darted around people and buildings until they were in a secluded area near the river that ran through the city. When there were no longer any people about, Lily let go of Sirius's arm and started pacing back and forth, unsure of how she should start this conversation, or if she should have it at all. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours, red?"

"Shut up." Lily snapped, not bothering to look up at him. "I need to get my thoughts straight."

"Alright."

"The king isn't the greatest of people, right?"

"Sure, he seems like a real arse."

"And he's done horrible things, yes?"

"Kills people whenever he pleases."

"So he's got to have a lot of enemies, no?"

"I suppose so. I mean, I haven't been here very long but Dumbledore and Remus told me about the witch-"

"Did he kill Bellatrix's father?" She interrupted Sirius and finally looked up at him. He still had his mouth open, but his words had been swallowed up by what she asked. Something about him shifted as well. For all the time that she had known Sirius, personally and then through Remus as well, he had been a happy-go-lucky, drunk. Someone who, despite his name, didn't take anything seriously and was almost always laughing, and Lily had found that strange, because people can't always be happy, that's not how life works. When they are always happy on the outside, it's more for other people's sake than their own and there's always a reason behind it.

Sirius's eyes got dark and his jaw locked. He took a step closer to Lily and she took a step back. It wasn't voluntary, she hadn't thought about it, she was frightened just then and her body reacted accordingly. "Why do you think I know anything about that?"

It took Lily a moment to find her voice after that, and when she did, it was unsteady and too quiet, the sound of the river almost drowning her out. "Well, before I was just hoping you could tell me something, but after your reaction there…"

"Did Remus tell you something?" He all but growled at her, taking another step closer. "I knew that old man wasn't going to keep his mouth closed for very long, but he had no right, no right to tell anyone, anything about me."

"Calm down," Lily took a few more steps back and put her hands up. "All Remus told me was that you were Bella's cousin and that you thought she might have tried to kill the king. That's it, no one is talking about you behind your back. And Remus wouldn't do that, you know him. He's all for letting people keep their secrets."

"He should be." Sirius said, putting the emphasis on just the right words to give Lily the impression that Remus had a secret that he shared with Sirius. And if she hadn't still been slightly frightened of Sirius, she might have dwelled on that for a moment longer than she did.

"Yes, okay, so back to my original question…"

Sirius deflated a bit and walked over to the edge of the creek. "Yes, technically, King Charles is responsible for her father's death." Lily chewed on her lip and slowly walked over to him.

"You know I'm going to have to ask you, right?" Sirius sighed.

"A lot of shit happened within a very short amount of time about six years ago, Bella's dad, my brother, we both left. There was some confusion and a lot of anger and not all of it directed where it should have been."

"That just raises more questions than anything." Lily said softly, trying to avoid making him angry again. Sirius sighed and sat down on the grass and patted the spot next to him.

"Why don't you tell me why you're so curious first." He gave her a tired grin.

"Right, of course." Lily sat down, tucking her legs underneath her, feeling nervous again. "It's Bella. She told me yesterday she wanted to go riding by herself, only she told me that I couldn't tell anyone and that it was very important that the king didn't find out. So, naturally, I followed her-"

"You followed her?" Sirius looked at her incredulously.

"I took Remus with me." Lily defended, though after what she had found out about Bella, it didn't seem like very strong defense. Sirius however, not knowing what Lily was about to tell him, was satisfied with this answer. "Anyway, we followed her through the woods out to this little wooden house and we snuck up to the window to listen to what was going on." She took a deep breath. "Her sister was there."

"Cissy?" Sirius asked, not sounding as surprised as Lily thought he should be for someone who was finding out that Bella's supposedly dead sister was actually alive.

"Yes. And she was trying to talk Bella down." Another deep breath. "It was Bella. She tried to kill the king. And she has magic."

Yet again, Sirius didn't react quite how Lily was anticipating. He laughed, and not a tired laugh or a laugh of disbelief, but a deep laugh that started in his stomach and made him throw back his head. The sound bounced around their secluded area, making Lily feel like a fool.

"I'm sorry," She said, her cheeks getting red. "What's funny about this? Bella tried to kill the king, and she has magic. Which she uses too. She uses it and let's other people take the fall for her. She let's other people die because of things that she's done."

"Her having magic wouldn't be an issue if she wasn't a horrible person."

"Yes, okay, but she is a horrible person," Lily clasped her hands together and rested them on her knees. "She tried to kill the king and from what I heard yesterday, she's going to try again."

"Probably." Sirius nodded, picking at the grass and twirling it around his fingers. "She tends to throw fits if she doesn't get what she wants."

"Sirius," Lily sighed. "I need your help."

"Well, what do you expect me to do with this information? I'm not a knight, I'm not James, I'm not the king… I have no power. You're just telling me this to ease your conscious." Lily flinched at that.

"I am not. I want to know what you think I should do."

"But that's the thing, Lils." Sirius nodded. "You want me to tell you what you should do so that you don't have to decide for yourself. You know what you should do."

Lily wrung her hands. "Well, I told you what I wanted to tell you."

"Yes you did." Sirius picked at some more grass.

"You're not going to explain, are you?"

He sighed. "Look, I get that you and Bella are friends and you don't want her to hate you or feel like you betrayed her, but if you don't tell someone, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life. She's going to hurt someone that you really care about and that's going to be on you. And unless you want to end up like me," He waved his hands out, "A drunk, lowly bastard who hasn't bathed in a month, I suggest you start telling everyone you think should know about Bella."

"Your brother?"

"Yeah." He threw the strand of grass he had in his hand and rubbed his palms against his eyelids. "Reg was just a kid. This man, his name was Tom, he wasn't a good person. But I didn't say anything because- Because… Well, I don't really know. He seemed to hate everyone as much as I did I suppose. My father didn't like me, but Tom seemed to."

"I'm sorry." Lily pressed her lips together.

"Don't." Sirius snapped, turning to glare at her. "Don't bloody apologize to me-"

"I'm not apologizing for what happened to you." Lily interrupted, holding up her hands. "I know that nothing that I could say would make you feel any better about that, but I am sorry for the way I've been treating you. You're not a bad bloke, and I've been giving you a really hard time- I've been giving Remus a hard time for being friends with you as well. I'm sorry for that." Sirius chuckled and then pushed himself off the ground.

"I forgive you." He offered her a hand for the second time that morning, and this time she accepted it. "Now," He gave her a look and she nodded. "Let's go and do the right thing."

"Alright."

OOoOo

Remus and James had reached Lily's house only to find it empty. James walked up to the window and stuck his head inside. "No one's home." He said, after Remus had already come to that very conclusion a moment before. He might have said something to James about him needing to listen more, but Lily not being home was really worrying Remus.

"You don't think something happened to her, do you?" James asked, walking around to check if Lily was behind her house for whatever reason.

"I'm sure she's fine." Remus said, finding it hard to sound convincing.

"Bella said that she didn't show up for work Remus, unless you know something that I don't, it seems as though something has happened to her." Remus looked around and then sighed.

"I have no idea where she is."

"Then we should head back to the castle and gather some of my knights to go and look for her."

"Maybe we should check in with Bella again first." Remus suggested, hoping that if they went up to her room and it was empty, Remus could snoop around for some clues. "She might have just been late."

"If she had been late, we would have run into her on our way down here."

"Not necessarily." Remus said. "I know that she does quite a bit for her father before she goes up to the castle. She might have got hung up somewhere and just went a different way."

"She works far too hard." James muttered.

"She's fine, James." Remus muttered right back. "Normal people have jobs and things that they need to do for their families."

"Well Lily isn't 'normal people.'"

"Actually she is." The boys turned on their heel to find Lily's older sister Petunia standing behind them with a hand on her hip. When she saw that it was Prince James before her, she quickly ducked into a curtsy. "Forgive me your highness, I did not know that it was you." Remus had only met Petunia a handful of times and she had been exceptionally unpleasant on every occasion.

"You are forgiven." James waved away her apology. "Do you know Lily?"

Petunia gapped at him, unable to form a single word. Remus rolled his eyes. "Petunia, you were asked a question!" He clapped his hands near her face, feeling only slightly bad about it when she flinched away. "We're looking for Lily, have you seen her?"

"I thought you were sure that she was fine." James nudged him in the ribs.

"I lied." Remus rubbed at his side, still glaring at Petunia.

"She left for the docks this morning before I woke up." Petunia said, looking down at her slightly muddy shoes. She shifted her dress so that it was covering them. "Like she always does. Then she came back before father was awake to make him breakfast."

"You're Lily's sister?" James asked, looking far more shocked than was polite.

"Yes, sire." Petunia nodded, curtsying again.

"Stop doing that."

"What did she do after she made breakfast." Remus asked, pushing James behind him.

Petunia rolled her eyes and gained back some of her usual attitude, now that Remus had focused her attention on himself. "She told me to get a job, threw my cat out the window and then went off to the castle."

"She threw your cat-"

"Lily hates cats." Remus explained quickly. "So, Lily did go to work this morning?"

"Yes." Petunia nodded.

"You're positive?" James asked, stepping around Remus.

"Y-yes, sire." She repeated, looking as though she wanted to curtsy again.

"Thank you." James gave her a nod and then grabbed Remus's arm and started dragging him towards the castle. "We'll check in with Bella again and then we're getting the knights."

"I'm not arguing." Remus said. "If something happened to her…" His mind once again drifted to all of the awful things that Bella could potentially have done to her.

Just as they reached the courtyard, Arden, Frank and Lance came riding up to them on their horses. "James!" Arden called, tearing off his helmet. "We've been looking everywhere for you-"

"What happened? Is Lily okay?"

"Lily?" Frank asked, also taking his helmet off. "She's fine. I saw her walking around the courtyard earlier with Sirius."

"That's ridiculous, she hates Sirius." Remus said, furrowing his brow.

"Listen to me!" Arden shouted. "You two need to run to the armory and get your things, there's been an attack two towns over."

"An attack?" James asked, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Lily had never been lost, same as Remus. Who would attack one of Camelot's surrounding towns? That seemed dangerous.

"We'll wait for you at the edge of the city, but we have to get down there. People are flooding in, all injured. They need as much help as they can get." Lance pulled his horse ahead and Arden, shifted for a moment, uncomfortable following orders given by someone other than James, but Lance was right, so soon Frank and Arden followed him.

oOoOo

By the time that James and the knights of Camelot reached the town of Leefside, most of the surrounding barns and houses were on fire, and there were very few people left. The men that had stayed behind were frantically trying to save the animals that had been locked in the barns when the attack had happened, or trying to bring water up from the creek to put out the flames. James quickly directed a few of his men to start helping them, and Remus, who wanted to get off his horse as quickly as possible, offered to stay in town while James and the others rode off to try and find who had done this.

"Who would do something like this?" Arden asked, picking up a discarded bucket from the ground and jogging towards the creek. Remus knew that he could be more useful if he could just get to a more secluded area where no one could see him. He scanned the buildings to look for one that was not in any danger of burning to the ground. He spotted a house in between a couple barns that had somehow escaped the attack and took off towards it.

The door to the house was locked, but there was enough confusion happening around him that he felt safe to use his magic to get the door opened. There was no one inside, so he quickly shut the door and sat down in the middle of the room, closed his eyes and concentrated on what he wanted to happen. He had never attempted to do anything much more than summon an object before, and he knew that this was going to be difficult, but these people were going to lose their livelihood if he didn't do something to help them.

oOoOo

James knew that searching the surrounding area was a lost cause. They had waited too long to get out here and now they should be focusing on damage control instead of circling around and watching the town burn.

"Head back to town and get the flames out." James ordered.

Lance rode up next to James. "Why Leefside?" He asked. "There's nothing out here."

James could only shrug. There was no logical reason for anyone to attack Leefside. It was a small town that didn't supply anything to the castle, or anyone else for that matter. They made just enough to sustain themselves and that was it.

They rode back to the town, stopping just on the edge to survey the damage. "That wasn't there before." Lance said, pointing towards the sky. James looked up to see giant storm clouds rolling in over the tree line. The clouds were moving quickly and were soon over the town, the rain pouring down at an incredible speed and dousing the burning buildings, putting out the flames at a speed that the knights could not have hoped.

"Lucky, I suppose." James said, finding himself without another explanation. He was beginning to get uncomfortable, not having any of the answers.

"No," Lance disagreed. "I mean, that really wasn't there before. I think someone is… It just appeared out of nowhere."

"Are you suggesting that someone is using magic to put out the fire?" James asked.

"Yes." Lance jumped down from his horse. "Look, the rain is only falling on the town. We're not getting wet at all." James looked around and saw that the rain was almost forming some type of wall at the town lines, falling not in the forest surrounding the town, but stretching wide enough to cover all the burning buildings.

"This was a diversion." James muttered.

"What?"

"This was a diversion. EVERYONE BACK TO THE CASTLE!"

"Now that makes more sense." Lance sighed, jumping back on his horse and following James back towards the castle. It didn't take James' mind long to delve into all of the horrible possibilities of what could be happening back at the castle, and like an idiot, he had brought the bulk of his knights with him, leaving the castle virtually unprotected.

oOoOo

Bella was sitting in front her mirror, a brush in hand, but judging by the state of her hair, she had yet to actually run it through her hair. She was alone, having sent Lily away this morning at the request as her sister's note that had been sent late the previous night. Sending James and Remus on a wild goose chase had been a stroke of genius as far as she was concerned because now she knew that she would not be interrupted, she could sit in her room and wait for her sister.

Her sister had been able to talk some sense into her yesterday, and now that she had stepped back and was looking at her problem from a different angle, she understood where her sister had been coming from. It would be rash to kill the king herself, to do anything that could be traced back to her, and she wasn't sure if that's what she wanted. It wasn't as though she was afraid of what would happen to her if she did kill him, with the type of magic she had, no one would be able to do anything that would hurt her or contain her.

And she really did want to see the look on his face when he found out that it was her that was bringing about the end of his miserable life.

"Your sister sent me." Bella, not liking to appear as though she'd been taken by surprise, slowly turned her head to see who had entered her room without her noticing.

"Are you mocking me?" Bella asked quietly, placing her brush down and reaching for her drawer. She had no idea who this stranger was, but she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and wanted some sort of assurance. If she could reach into the drawer inconspicuously, the stranger wouldn't know that she was reaching for a dagger.

"Mocking you?" The man entered her room and closed the door behind him. "No, dear child. I wouldn't dream of it."

"Then why do you speak to me of my dead sister."

The man studied her thoughtfully. "I'm no friend of the king, if that's what you're thinking. Narcissa Malfoy told me that you needed help with something."

"Cissy sent you?" The man nodded. "And who are you?"

The man walked further into the room and ran his hand along her velvet drapes. "You haven't heard of me yet." He said softly, looking out the window. "Though, soon, there shall not be a man, woman or child who does not know my name."

Bellatrix raised a brow and stood up from her stool. "And why is that?"

"You can talk to your cousin if you wish." The man said, looking over at her now. "Sirius and I used to be rather good friends-"

"Any friend of Sirius is no friend of mine." Bella interrupted. "You can leave."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Please do not interrupt me when I am speaking." Bella laughed a bit and had half a mind to throw him out of her room.

"Who are you?" She asked instead.

"I go by Lord Voldemort."

"That means nothing to me."

"Not yet." He gave her a small smile. "But your sister insisted that I speak to you. She told me that you had magic, and that you were quite powerful."

"She told you that? That's a secret! She can't just-"

"Shush, dear girl. I have magic as well." Bella took a step back and turned her head slightly.

"You have magic?"

"Yes." He nodded. "And I hate king Charles more than you could ever imagine."

"He killed my family."

"He hired Dumbledore." Voldemort's lips curled up and his expression hardened. Bella, who had always found Dumbledore to be rather endearing and comforting, was confused by this, but she had never met another person who had magic, so she didn't asked.

"How did you meet Cissy?"

"Lucius Malfoy is an associate of mine." He turned back away from her and was now fiddling with a perfume bottle that was on the mantle. "But we can discuss this at length later. The knights should have worked out that the fire was a decoy by now. All I need to know at the moment, is that you will be willing to help me take down the king and his retched son when the time comes."

Bella shook her head and tried to process everything he had just said. "The fire?"

"It's unimportant right now. Can I count on your help?"

"Well, I mean…" She thought about it. She had been ready to kill the king just a week ago, she had attempted to kill him, sat at his bedside and held his hand while he drew what she thought would be his last breaths. But she didn't want James dead. He was like her brother. They had been together for so long and he was always there for her. They laughed, they joked, hell, she'd even cried on his shoulder a few times. "I can't let you hurt James." She finally said. "I have no qualms about helping you kill the king, in fact if you don't have a plan soon, I'll probably try it on my own again, but James is my brother, and no harm shall come to him."

"If that's how you feel now, I suppose that will do." Voldemort smiled. "Though, I will attempt to change your mind."

"Why? What has James done to you?"

"Nothing. But if you want to be queen of Camelot…" He smiled and started walking towards the door. "Well, we can't let the current heir live, can we?"

oOoOo

Remus got the fires under control rather quickly, sitting on the floor of the one bedroom house he had rushed into. When he opened his eyes, to check the flames, he noticed that the shouting had stopped. In fact, everything was very quiet, much quieter than it should be. Remus stood up and walked over to the door and peeked his head out to find the charred town quite empty. There were no knights rushing about, there were no men dosing their barns with water, there was just a mostly burnt town, and that was all.

"Remus?" Someone called for him from behind one of the barns.

"I'm over here."

"Are you alright?" Lance came rushing towards him, sword drawn, looking ready to fight.

"I'm fine." Remus assured him, putting his hands up and walking completely out of the house.

"Where have you been?" Lance asked, stopping in front of him and inspecting him through the slit in his helmet. It was always a bit unnerving to be around Lancelot alone. He always looked like one of the suits of armor that were decorating the corridors of the castle, without other people around, it was harder to convince yourself that you weren't imagining the whole scenario in your head. Especially when you had no face to put to his voice. Actually, Remus couldn't remember seeing any part of Lance at all. He was always in full gear, all the time.

He shook his head and focused on what was in front of him. "Where did everyone else go?" Remus asked, trying to draw the question away from himself and where he had been.

"What- James worked out that this was a diversion. They all ran back to the castle." Lance said. "He noticed that you were missing and sent me back to get you. We thought you were in trouble."

"I'm fine." Remus repeated. "What do you mean this was a diversion?"

"It's the only explanation for why anyone would attack this place." Lance shrugged. "But they need us back at the castle so…" He looked around. "I don't know what happened to your horse."

"You can run ahead." Remus said. "I'm not going to be much help in a fight anyway."

"No." Lance shook his head. "James told me I was to make sure you made it back safely."

"He needs your help, Lance." Remus urged. "My horse is somewhere at the edge of the wood. I'll catch up, I promise."

Lance didn't move for a moment, Remus figured he was thinking about it, but he couldn't be sure because he couldn't see the man's face. "Alright." He finally said. "But if you let anything happen to yourself…"

"I won't. I'll be careful."

"I'll see you back at the castle then." With that, Lance turned and ran off towards wherever he left his horse. Remus watched him go, and it was a lucky thing he did. While running, Lance swerved around a fallen log that was still burning, and just as he was getting back to the middle of the road, away from the crisped buildings, a chimney gave way and started falling towards him. Just as he put his hands up to block the incoming debris, Remus flung his hands up, freezing the falling bricks in mid-air.

It had been instinctual, to save him, to stop him from being crushed to death, but now Lance had unfroze from his previous position and noticed that the bricks had conveniently stopped falling towards him. He looked from the bricks, to Remus, to Remus's raised hand.

"How in the hell did you do that?" Lance asked, his voice raising an octave or two. "I should be- but you- the storm… Are you a wizard?"

"You can't tell anyone." Remus answered, moving his arm to the right and letting the debris fall to the ground away from Lance. "King Charles will have me killed if he finds out."

"You just risked exposing yourself to save my life." Lance laughed, his voice still a bit unnaturally high. "I'll cut off my left arm if you want." He shook his head. "Actually, my right arm. I'm left handed- but still. I owe you my life."

"You really don't." Remus felt his cheeks starting to warm up. He didn't know how to deal with this type of admiration. He had saved James's life, and people had thanked him, but he had also gotten the job of James's manservant about a minute after he saved James and he was able to focus on how upset he was at the time instead of how uncomfortable the attention made him.

"But I do." Lance rushed up to him, and threw his arms around Remus. "That chimney would have killed me." Remus froze, unsure of how to respond to this usually stand-offish knight hugging him.

"You would have done the same for me." Remus said, clearing his throat awkwardly. Lance took about three steps back after that and cleared his own throat.

"Sorry." He coughed. "I'm just- I'm very grateful. And if there's anything you should ever need, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you." Remus gave a half nod and then motioned towards Lance's horse. "But right now, I think you should be getting back to the castle."

oOoOo

James didn't know what to think as he ran up the stone steps on the castle. He had been so easily fooled, and an idiot. He should not have taken all his knights with him when he heard that the town had been attacked. He should have stopped and taken a moment to think about why the town was being attacked, remembered that just recently someone had attempted to kill his father and then split everyone up.

"Father!" He called out, running for the throne room. He skidded to a halt right before the doors and through them open. "Father!" Charles Potter looked up at his son with wide eyes quickly adopting the alarmed look that James had.

"What's the matter, son?" James looked around the room for any signs of trouble but all he found was the King and Queen of Durmstrang along with their daughters.

James cleared his throat. "Leefside was attacked." He began, regaining his mental footing and walking into the room. "It was all but burnt to the ground less than an hour ago. I believe it was a diversion. Where's Bella?"

The king looked around the room, as if noticing her absence for the first time. "She should be here by now." He said quietly. "I had assumed she was running late because her maid never showed up today." Lily. James cursed in his mind. He had forgotten that she had gone missing.

"I'll go and get her, I'm sure she's fine." James assured his dad. "I'll send some guards here to protect you. Everyone stay in this room. You'll all be safe here, no matter what's going on."

James ran up the four flights of stairs to Bella's room and threw open her door to find her standing near her vanity, attempting to put on a necklace.

"James?" She sounded surprised to see him, but didn't appear to be in distress. "Thank goodness you're here. Can you help me?" James looked around her room and didn't notice anything out of place. The window was open, but that wasn't a sign of alarm, just out of the ordinary.

"I need you to come with me." James said, taking the necklace and quickly fastening it around her neck. "To the throne room. The castle's been broken into."

"What?" Her tone was disbelieving. "How do you know?"

"I don't know for sure at the moment." James said. "But Leefside was burnt to the ground, and the only reason anyone would burn Leefside down is to distract us."

"I've never even heard of Leefside." Bella agreed.

"It was pretty bad." James sighed, putting an arm around her and pulling her out the door. "We're going to be out there all week rebuilding."

"Why?" Bella asked. "It's not as though your men are responsible for what happened."

"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't help." James said, giving her a funny look. Bella reached up and pushed some of James' hair away from his face.

"You're such a kind man, brother." She smiled at him and James' funny look became more pronounced. He then cleared his throat and dropped his arm from around her.

"Quick question, have you seen Lily yet?"

"What? Oh. No, I haven't. Did you look for her?"

"I was." James ran a hand through his hair. "But then I had to go to Leefside. I'll look for her again after I get this situation sorted out."

"Soon hopefully. I'm starting to get worried about her."

"I'm sure she's fine."

oOoOo

"I am not fine." Lily snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at the ground. "I'm supposed to be talking to James right now, but there was an attack on Leefside and now I'm tending to the injured."

"It's going to be alright, Lils." Sirius sighed, letting his head fall back. "And that's the last time I'm saying it."

"What if Bella had something to do with this?"

"Why the hell would Bella attack Leefside? There's nothing there worth attacking." One of the injured women looked over at him and cleared her throat. "You know I'm right." Sirius shrugged, not looking apologetic in the slightest.

"Keep your foot elevated." Lily said to the woman. She rolled her eyes and did as Lily instructed.

"We may not be a great town, but we are worth saving."

"I never said that you weren't." Sirius laughed. "I said your town wasn't worth attacking. It's a completely different thing."

"Can you stop harassing the injured people?"

"Lily?" Lily looked over her shoulder and saw a rather bewildered looking Remus walking her way. "Where have you been all day?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked, still helping a little girl wrap her leg with gauze. "I've been here for the last hour."

"Bella said that you never showed up to work and sent me and James out looking for you right before Leefside was attacked! I've been worried sick about you all morning." He went to throw his arms around her just as she turned to face Sirius. He was able to put his arms back down without falling into her, but it was still awkward. Fortunately, Lily didn't give him much of a chance to dwell on that.

"I told you!" She pointed at Sirius and stomped her foot. "She's up to something."

"Yes, and if it wasn't for these poor injured people who just lost their homes, you could have warned James as to who was behind what was going to happen anyway. Would you just take a deep breath and calm down."

"What are you two talking about?" Remus asked. "Also, why are you two talking. I thought you disliked Sirius."

"I did." Lily said, waving away his comments. "Also, I showed up to work this morning, and then Bella sent me away. If she had you and James out looking for me, it's because she didn't want the three of us in the castle today."

"Lily…" Remus sighed, "We have to tell people."

"I'm way ahead of you mate." Sirius said, slinging his arm around Remus. "Though I'm kind of upset that you didn't tell me about this already."

"When was I supposed to tell you, Sirius? When you were pissed drunk and starting fights, passed out on my floor or puking out my window?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Alright, yes, I get your point."

"Why did you tell him anyway?" Remus asked Lily. "Not that you shouldn't have told someone, but Sirius of all people?"

"He was there I suppose." Lily said, looking as though she was lost in thought. "Plus, she's his cousin. I thought he could shed some light on the matter."

"You heard her tell her supposedly dead sister that she wanted to kill the king and you needed to ask her cousin what that meant? A cousin who hasn't seen or heard from her in years?"

Lily looked around quickly to make sure that they were out of earshot from any of the refugees. "I know that this is all black and white to you," She said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him a little ways off. Sirius followed. "But you have to understand that I have worked for Bella for the last five years. She is the king's ward and the prince's sister. This isn't going to be an easy conversation. I'm not going to just walk up to James and tell him that his sister is trying to kill his father. That's not how this is going to go."

"I understand that it's a delicate situation," Remus said, not appreciating her patronizing tone. "But you have to understand that if you do nothing, everything that Bella does comes back to us. If she hurts someone…"

"I know that." Lily snapped. "And I'm going to talk to James as soon as I can." Then her eyes got wide and she smiled at Remus. "Or you could do it for me."

"I will be there with you if you'd like, but I'm not about to tell him all of that for you. I was only with you because I wasn't about to let you run off after her alone."

"And I appreciate that." Lily said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But, I would appreciate you more if you-"

"No." Remus shook his head. "Let's help these people now, yes?"

Lily sighed dramatically and then spun around on her heel. "Alright. But he's going to-"

"He's in love with you." Sirius laughed. "He'd probably prefer this news coming from you."

"He is not." Lily muttered. "And I wish you would stop bringing that up."

"That's probably not going to happen, love."

oOoOo

James and the knights didn't end up getting back to the castle until after dark. They were exhausted from rebuilding, and completely filthy from cleaning up all the debris. But they had made a lot of progress, and if tomorrow went just as smoothly, then they should be able to finish. The overall damage hadn't been as bad as they had originally thought, only a few houses having been completely demolished.

He had been looking forward to falling into his bed as soon as he reached his room, but he couldn't honestly say that he was disappointed to find Lily standing outside his door. He smiled hugely at her and ran up to hug her.

"Where have you been all day?" He said, restraining himself from picking her up and twirling her around. "You had Bella, Remus and I worried sick." He pulled back, leaving his hands on her shoulder and waited for her to respond. And that's when he noticed the look on her face, brokenhearted with a little bit of fear. "What's wrong? Did someone hurt you?"

"James," She said calmly, reaching up to put her hand on top of his. "I need to talk to you."

"Of course," He thought about showing her into his room but didn't want to give her the wrong impression. Instead he led her down the corridor to an alcove, and motioned for her to sit at the window seat. She did, wringing her hands all the while and then refused to meet his eyes. "Lily, are you alright? You were missing all day."

"I wasn't though." Lily sighed, finally looking up at him. "It's just… I have to tell you something very important."

"What-"

"Just let me talk, alright?"

"Lily?" Lily jumped unwittingly, turning towards the sound of her name, only to find Bellatrix walking towards them. "Oh, Lily!" The girl rushed up to Lily and wrapped her arms around her. "I've been so worried about you. Where have you been? Is your family alright?"

The look Bella was giving Lily, she knew that she was supposed to agree with her, but James spoke up before she got the chance.

"Her families fine." He said, looking between the two of them. "I went and talked to her sister earlier today when I was looking for her. Right before the attack."

"Oh," Bella clicked her tongue and raised a brown. "Then why didn't you come in this morning?"

Lily closed her eyes for a brief moment, trying to think of a good lie, "The gatekeeper," She said, hoping that she wasn't pausing too long. She had never been that good of a liar. "He had broken his leg. It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did, but- Well, you've seen him. He's a very large person. It took me almost two hours to get the bones set, and then the attack happened and I was in town helping everyone."

"You're such a sweetheart." Bella crooned, reaching over and patting Lily on the cheek. "I think I'll give you a bonus." She giggled, and then smiled. "And, you can have the day off tomorrow. I'm sure there are some more villagers that need you more than I do."

"Thank you, Lady Bellatrix." Lily said quietly, quite glad that she didn't have to work tomorrow. She didn't think she could, not with what she had heard, and what had happened today. "That's very kind of you."

"Yes well, just try and get word to me next time an emergency comes up like that. I truly was worried about you."

Everyone was quiet for a moment after that; Lily waiting for Bella to leave and Bella waiting for Lily to say something else.

"Well?" She finally prompted. "What were you going to tell James?"

James looked back towards Lily and raised his brow. Lily looked between the two of them and felt her stomach start to clench and her heart started racing. She then said the first thing that came to mind, that was sure to get James to dismiss Bella. She looked down at her hands, not having to force a blush since she was feeling genuinely flustered from having to lie so much in such a short amount of time. "Well… I mean, it's just…" She took a deep breath and peeked up at James through her lashes. "Nevermind. It's not important." She stood up and turned away.

"Wait a second." James reached out and grabbed her wrist. "It seemed rather important."

"It's not." Lily shook her head. "I've already told you that it's entirely ridiculous when you brought it up last…" James looked confused for a moment and then recognition dawned on him.

"Bella, could you excuse us, please?" He said, not taking his eyes off Lily. She felt bad almost, but after everything that happened, this could be her only chance to tell him what she knew. The way things were headed, Bella wasn't going to let Lily in the castle anymore, and she didn't even know that Lily had heard the conversation with Narcissa.

Bella smiled coyly at James and pinched his cheek. "Oh, James. Do you remember when I first thought that she had caught your fanc-"

"You can do this later, yes?" He looked at Bella long enough to give her a pointed look. She only smiled more. For a split second, when James looked away her smile changed from teasing to sad, and for some reason it terrified Lily. It chilled her to the bone and she wanted nothing more than to run the opposite direction, hide in a closet and never see Bella again.

"Of course." She said quietly. "I'll see you in the morning." With that, she turned on her heel and walked off in the direction of her room.

"What's ridiculous?" James said, pulling Lily back down onto the window seat. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Lily cut him off.

"I'm really sorry," She said, giving his hand a quick squeeze. She quite suddenly felt like crying. "I didn't mean to take advantage of your feelings like that, but I had to get her to leave."

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "What's going on, Lily?"

"It's Bella." Lily sighed, falling against the window. "She's not who you think she is."

"So you're not about to confess-"

"I already apologized for that. I really need to tell you something though." Lily interrupted again. She really should stop doing that, he was the prince after all. He blinked a few times and then took a deep breath.

"Alright. What is it?"

"It's about Bella-"

"I've gathered that." He interrupted this time, looking down at his feet. "What about her?" Lily would really rather him not be upset with her when she was about to tell him that his sister was psychotic, but these were the cards that she had drawn for herself when she opened her mouth and made him think that she fancied him.

"James, this isn't going to be easy to hear." She reached out for his hand and was surprised when he let her. She laced her fingers through his, trying to think of the best way to say this. She had been thinking about it all afternoon however and she doubted that she was going to be stuck with some genius idea now. So she took a deep breath, squeezed his hand and told him the truth. "Yesterday, when I came in, Bella was already awake. She was sitting at her vanity and as soon as I entered the room, she told me that I needed to help her make sure that she could leave the castle without anyone noticing. I was supposed to stay in her room and make sure that if anyone came by, they would think that she was resting, or in a foul mood or something. But that wasn't sitting right with me, I didn't want her to go off on her own and then get herself injured. That would be my fault, and I would have felt horrible." She looked up at James, he looked rather confused, but he was listening and didn't look nearly as upset as he had a moment ago.

"So I went to Remus, and asked him what I should do. Then I disregarded that and made him come with me to follow Bella to wherever she was going." James smirked a bit at this. "It wasn't just that I didn't want her to get hurt, she had me worried, the way that she had been talking. She had threatened to fire me if I let it slip that she wasn't in the castle." Lily took a deep breath, and looked up at James again. He had his brow furrowed.

"That doesn't sound like her."

"I know." Lily sighted. "That's why I followed her."

"You could have come to me." James ran his thumb along the back of Lily's hand. "It's not your job to chase after her-"

"James," Lily squeezed his hand again and he pressed his lips together. "I followed her to a small wooden hut in the middle of the forest. She was meeting with her sister. Narcissa." One thing at a time, Lily thought as she paused to allow him to digest this information.

"Bella's sisters all died with her parents, Lily." James said quietly. "Perhaps you were mistaken.

"She called her Narcissa and 'sister.' They also talked about their other sister. I don't remember her name though."

"Andromeda?" Lily nodded. "But if her sisters are alive… They should live with us as well. She doesn't need to sneak out to go and visit them." He started to stand up. "I'll go to my father with this at once. Thank you for-"

"That's not all, James." Lily pulled him back down to the bench. He looked at her skeptically.

"What else could there be?" She looked at James and felt her heart ache just a bit and she couldn't do it. She couldn't tell him what she had heard Bella talking about in the woods. Not right now at least. She could get him to understand that she was dangerous some other way.

"I did show up this morning."

"What?"

"I showed up this morning and Bella told me to leave. She told me that I could have the day off and then she told you and Remus that she wanted you to go and find me because she was worried about me." James looked at her blankly. "And then there was an attack on Leefside. You told everyone that you thought it was a distraction and Bella had gotten us all out of the castle-"

"What are you saying, Lily?" He pulled his hand away from her and she flinched slightly.

"Bella is up to something." That wasn't harsh enough though, that phrasing didn't hold any urgency. "And I think she means to hurt someone." Lily shook her head. That still wasn't good enough, but one look at James made her quite certain that that was all she was going to get to say on the matter. He stood up and ran his hands through his hair.

"What makes you think you have the right to talk about my sister like that?" His voice was gravelly. "You are a maid in the castle! You have-"

"James-"

"Prince James." He corrected. Lily raised her brow, but assented.

"Prince James," He nodded his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "I have been working for Bella for years, and I have thought the world of her for just as long. You know that I would not say anything like this if I didn't have good reason."

"Then what is your reason? She forgot that she gave you the day off? She found her sisters? Those don't sound like reasons to accuse someone of being behind what happened in Leefside today."

"There's more." Lily said, digging her fingernails into her palm. "It's just… She's your sister! I don't want to hurt you any more than I have to. It's- Well-"

"What?"

"It's what she was saying to her sister." Lily stood up from the bench and put a hand on her forehead. She really didn't want to tell him. She had merely suggested that Bella was a part of what happened today, and he had gone mad. How could she tell him that Bella tried to kill their father?

"What is it, Lily? My patience with you is waning very thin."

There must have been something in the look that she gave him that made James weary before she even opened her mouth. He took a seat on the bench again and started tapping his fingers on his knee anxiously. He stayed like that while she recounted what she had heard in the woods. Quiet, tapping his fingers and staring at the stone floor.

"I'm… so sorry." Lily said meekly after she had finished. He didn't respond, just kept staring at the floor, and Lily took a seat next to him.

AN: Reviews are fantastic 3