Blimey! Omg deary god. I'm back. I did it. Shit. It has been so long. I actually can't hold my guilt back - I'm as bad as Darien! It's been since Christmas that I've had any steady writing of this story! But I put you lot in front of my Lomelen fans - this story is just so near the end! Ahhh! It's been so long, started this a year and a half ago...

Sorry for taking so long writing. I had to reread everything I'd already written. Plus I had to reunite myself with Lara and Alex and the Crew, needless to say Lara in particular was kind of annoyed at me for leaving her for so long and was giving me the cold shoulder. Do you know how hard it is to write for someone who has a grudge on you? She wouldn't tell me anything I didn't already know! Ahh, but we've made our peace now and with her they all forgave me, Al was very quick to follow when Lara agreed.

Well... here we go! This is a kinda shortish one (coz I'm evvvil) but the next should be out fairly soon! Then my crazy long epilogue.

To Jump

Lara

I am Larissa Grey. I was born just outside Berlin in my family manor house on May 25th, fourteen minutes before my brother Alexander. I am a pure-blood witch, a Legilimenatus who can do nonverbal wandless magic. I am as quick to curse as to heal, though my heart is one of a healer. My father was a pure-blood sadist, a Death Eater who scarred me for life, both mentally and physically. My mother was a coward, a brave coward who sacrificed herself for me and my brother. My boyfriend is a werewolf, my brother is gay, my best friend is a mudblood, my brother-soon-to-be-in-law is a blood traitor. I am neither good nor bad but I sure as hell won't go down without a fight.

Morning rose, I did not see it, I was cold in my cell with my eyes tightly shut and my arms and legs chained. I was waiting.

It was that morning, the morning, the Black's were going to come and get me to marry me to their youngest. I was sure they didn't really want it but to their mind they did not have a choice. I was to become a slave to a forced marriage and a curse that had already been fulfilled.

Only I wasn't. I was getting ready. I was getting out.

Outside the walls of Rosier Manor, my uncle's manor, there were others moving silently through the shadows. Severus beckoned his school rivals through the undergrowth and they watched in the darkness as the sun began to crest on the horizon. Across the garden they can see the large manor rising up, windows glowing in the half light.

"We're here."

"I don't like this plan."

"You'll get nowhere by charging in, only to your own death," the first voice sneered, "we wait."

"But for how long?"

They fall silent.

Inside my cells I hear the grating whine of hinges and my eyes open to the darkness. Light flashes under the door but it's too late – the points are all buzzing under my skin, the trigger is merely waiting to be pulled, the spell unleashed.

I'm ready – they're not.

I breathe out.

My body tenses, twists - every tiny connection tugs with the magic that pulls at every part of me possible. It clings to those tiny little anchors, protecting me from being ripped apart. They take the brunt of the magic and focus it on those tiny little points. Then, magic pulsating, they began to pull at me. The pain comes then, my bones scream but I keep the hundreds of points steady, clinging, in my mind, despite the pain. They warp and pull and I feel myself morphing, changing, into something new... something I have never been before. My brain swirls in confusion, so confused, but it is focused on those many beads, those immobile points inside the chaos. It recognised each one as a part of my old human body. Yes, that's how it works.

I hear the chains clink away as I land on the floor, hands stretching out to brace my fall. Except they're not hands anymore and I'm not on my knees. My nose is suddenly overpowered by new smells, vibes drifting through the air. I smell blood, sweat and urine. I smell dirt, coldness and dampness. I smell fear and pain and hate. Raw magic, old magic, dark magic.

I roll my shoulders carefully, feeling muscles stretch with power, feeling my aches drift to the back of my head. Paws, I have paws, and a tail. I have fur and my eyes are sharp and on the surface of my tongue I can taste – taste! - things I'd never tasted before. I shake out my limbs and look around to see my body in the shape of a dog, long haired and grey. No, I was a wolf, a wolf as silver as my human hair. My muscles were strong and ready and my teeth were sharp. I felt a growl rumble deep in my chest.

Well Remus, does this prove to you that we're meant together do you think?

I chuckled low in my throat at my bad joke. Wolf indeed.

The cell door opens, and I see red.

Alex

I bit my lip and my mouth filled with the coppery liquid while my brain focused on the pain. While my brain focussed on the hand on my back. While my brain focused on the manor house that contained my imprisoned sister, my imprisoned twin. I was so exhausted but yet my whole body thrummed with tensely contained energy. I was desperate to move, to do something, Merlin anything!

Behind me Siri pressed a kiss to my neck and some of the tension leaked out, replaced my fear. I licked my lips.

"Severus, how long do we wait." I levelled at the Slytherin slowly; he glanced at me, anxiety in his own thoughts, just barely visible under his shields.

"We have to give them a chance. Lara has a plan. Irvine has a plan."

Right. Plans. Everyone has a plan.

"Have you any idea what Lara will do?" Sirius asked.

I was silent as my thoughts whirled. Yes, I had an idea... I only hoped it would be enough. We were natural fighters; it was bound to show... it gave me a bitterly satisfied feeling to know... but it would break her, what with Remus...

"Alex?" Remus asked, breaking my thoughts.

"No."

Lara

I grunt as I pull the two bodies into the cell I had been in for so long and when I'm done my human limbs are shaking, aching, and I feel an intense exhaustion trying to take over my heart. I quiver, pausing, trying not to notice the coppery taste in my mouth, trying not to gag as I look down on my captors. For a moment I hate myself, looking down on what I did, and I want to vomit. Are you the monster now?

I wonder if there is a difference in what I did to the dark spells, the slashing, cutting, soul bruising spells that I had studies with my brother, that I had felt bite my own flesh.

I hadn't known what my animagus would be, yet I hadn't doubted that it would help me. Perhaps in the back of my mind I had always known that my inner animal would be capable of attack, that I myself was a being of violence. My father –

I grew cold and stood straight. Turning my back on the bodies, the blood, I exited the cell and with the flick of a stolen wand the heavy iron creaked shut and the locks clicked. This was war and it was a long time ago that I chose my side. To take part in war was to kill and to risk death and perhaps my way wasn't the most pleasant but I was the one walking out.

I looked around quickly, the damp floors, the lamp light shining dirty and grotesque shadows over my prison. I hated it. I hated my father for his attempts to use me. I hated the Rosier's for keeping me here. I hate the Dark Lord and his followers.

I left quietly and didn't look back.

Regulus

My mother was still glaring. Her fingers were tapping angrily at the arm of her chair. Anger. She was very angry at the situation.

"Just typical," She snarled abruptly, "forcing you to marry that revolting blood traitor then getting himself murdered. Deserves it in my opinion, slimy fool, that family is bad news and now - ! I should never have allowed that vow." She growled.

My father looked over at his wife, lips pursed, irritated.

"You needn't blame it so on Alexander," he said evenly, "we all agreed it was a good idea at the time, the Grey family has-"

"The Grey family have always been shifty," Mother sniffed, "Grey I tell you! The clue is in the name, who knows how far their tendency to jump between sides goes. At least we Black's know our loyalties!"

Father hummed before pulling out a watch and checking the face.

"Perhaps you should get her Regulus, it is high time..."

"The guards will bring her Father," I replied as calmly as I could, while my heart boomed in my chest, Darien's words in my thoughts:

Delay them as much as possible; we don't want people looking for her too early...

Darien

I looked my old friend up and down, the ratty clothes hanging off her figure, her hollow cheeks, the dirt encrusted on her. The blood on her face and hands. As I watched she stumbled on her feet and caught a nearby crate to stop her falling, her muscles obviously weak from disuse and torture. She looked up, saw me standing watching her, my mouth hung open, and her eyes were hollow. She looked down at herself, almost ashamed.

I'd known she'd get out – somehow –as impossible as it seemed, but, but... now I found I didn't want to know how. It caught in my throat, in the bubbling mass of guilt seething in my chest, seeing her –

Merlin. What had she done? What did I do?

We were in a storage room close to the cellar, full of large unidentifiable black boxes and the dry smell of dusk. There was one small window at the back of the room, tucking into the top corner, letting in a grey light. It was plan A.

"You got out." The words fell from my lips. I tried not to study her bloody face.

"Let's check out the window," she flinched and turned her back to me, hobbling to the back of the room.

I paused.

"The guards..."

"They're dead Irvine." She snapped.

Of course.

I gulped and followed her quickly; she was now reaching a hand up to the edge, just touching it, running long fingers into the furrows of the ledge. Dust motes lifted up under her fingers and danced through the air.

"I checked it earlier," I said quickly, "it's spelled shut but I don't know how – beyond my ability, I thought maybe you could tell..." she pulled her hand back ran it through her dirty hair nervously. In the mucky light her face made harsh shadows over her drawn, stained skin and the bright scarlet shined out. She twisted slightly and I saw how her sunken eyes carried dark purple rings that stood against those clear grey eyes and pale skin.

She pulled out a short dark wand from her sleeve and lifted it but I halted her with a hand.

"I'm sorry, I forgot..." I said pulling out the small bag from my pocket and handing it to her. She peeked at me shrewdly and pulled out the contents.

Inside was her white leather holster and the neat grey Aspen wand, so similar, if thinner and shorter, to that of her brothers. As she touched it a slight shower of white sparks flew from the end and the girl gasped and chocked back a glad sob at the reunion. Also in the bag she pulled out the delicate blue crystal tear drop necklace that Regulus had had the sense to take and give to me before Lara was taken. The silver head, my eldest friend, bit her lip as she raised it from the bag, it glinted in the light, the vibrant colour standing out sharply in the setting, and I saw a tear streak over her grimy face, leaving a pale trail.

"...Thank you..." she whispered, heartfelt tears slowly running down her face, "I thought... I thought I had lost them..." she sniffed and blinked, turning away.

"Give me a boost, I can't reach," she waved me forward, taking in quick breaths, "I'm getting out I tell you, just you watch me."

You shouldn't be here in the first place. I find myself projecting to her as I cup my hands for her to step into. Not again, not like this.

She grunted at I lifted up but she made no reply as she began to twirl her wand over the window.

"... spell, yes, pretty strong, shared bond..." I heard her mutter above me, "The locking spell is shared over many windows," she said louder, "Saves time and magic... but," she made another series of twirls and incantations under her breath, "blood magic – it's blood magic, I don't-"

Suddenly a voice sounded behind us and a spell hit me square in the back, throwing me back, Lara crashing down.

Everything went black.

Next chapter out soon! Promise! I'll be deleting that AN chapter when the story is finished so people who replied to that can still review this one! Hint-hint-hint ;) I'M SUCH A BAD PERSON SORRRYYYYY, love you all! (p.s. what the hell has happened to the site since I've been away! O.o)