Resolutions

By Neurotica

Forty-Five

It was nearing midnight, and Sirius and Remus still hadn't come home from the Ministry. There'd been no owls to let anyone know they were going to be late—the last anyone had heard, the wizards had left the Ministry around nine-thirty. Naomi and Emmeline were working hard to disguise their worry, but Harry was doing no such thing. He paced around the living room, glancing out the curtains every so often, then looked at the clock. Harry had started to wonder if the clock was broken, since it didn't seem to be moving at all. He started having flashbacks to the night Hermione was attacked—she'd gone out on the grounds and hadn't returned for nearly an hour, so Harry went looking for her, only to find her lying in a pool of her own blood outside Hagrid's hut. It wasn't like Sirius or Remus not to contact someone to let them know they would be late; in these days, people had to contact their family, or said family would worry themselves into early graves. Kind of like Harry was doing now.

Naomi finally got sick of watching Harry pace and pulled him down onto the sofa. "You're not helping," she said flatly.

Harry rolled his eyes and started tapping his foot nervously on the carpet. Naomi glared, but didn't say anything.

"Well," Emmeline said, coming into the living room with Hedwig on her arm. "The letter we sent to the Ministry has been returned... Again..." She took the scroll off Hedwig's leg and tossed it onto the coffee table with the other two that had been sent. Hedwig hooted solemnly and flew out the living room window for her nighttime hunt.

"What should we do, then?" Naomi asked.

Emmeline shook her head. "I don't know. I could go to the Ministry I suppose..."

"Don't bother," Harry said tonelessly. "I already firecalled the security wizard, Eric; he said he spotted Sirius and Remus leaving 'round nine-thirty."

Sighing, Emmeline sat in an armchair. The three were silent for long minutes before Naomi finally stood up. "I'm checking the Order map," she said. "Maybe they stopped off somewhere and neglected to inform us."

"Do you think that's possible?" Harry asked Emmeline.

"Doubtful," the witch replied. "For one, they know better than to go off without notifying someone. And two, if they did, they won't live past tomorrow after Naomi and I get a hold of them."

Naomi returned a few minutes later with the map and unrolled it onto the table, using sticking charms to keep it from rolling up again. She scanned the map with Harry and Emmeline's help. After none of them found a sign of the two wizards, Naomi took out her wand and tapped the parchment. "Sirius Black," she said clearly. The map began to move, searching for Sirius. When that didn't work, Naomi tried again, "Remus Lupin." Still nothing.

"This is pointless," Harry groaned. "They're not on the map; if they were, they would have shown up."

Emmeline looked worried. "If they're not on the map, they're out of the country," she said quietly. "They could be anywhere..."

Naomi bit her lip. "I have an idea, but I hope I'm not right..." She left the room before Harry and Emmeline could ask her what she was talking about.

"What is she..." Harry began.

But Naomi had already returned, holding another map in her shaking hands, as though she hoped for nothing more than to be wrong. She unrolled it, and Harry recognized it immediately as the map he'd taken to Voldemort's hideout when he'd rescued Ron. Shakily, Naomi pointed her wand at the parchment again. "Sirius Black," she said in a wavering voice.

A small dot appeared immediately with a bubble. Inside the bubble, small script appeared reading Sirius Black. In a room beside it, another dot appeared—its bubble said Remus Lupin.

Harry's stomach dropped. He chanced a glance at Naomi and Emmeline who were staring at the map with wide-eyes. "Er, should we call Dumbledore?" he asked tentatively. Faintly, Emmeline nodded, and Harry crossed the room to the fireplace. Tossing a handful of Floo powder into the flames, Harry said, "Hogwarts, Headmaster's office," and stuck his head into the green fire.

Once the spinning stopped, Harry got a clear view of Dumbledore's office, and the Headmaster who seemed to be wide awake, even at this late hour, sitting at his desk. "Professor?" Harry called.

Dumbledore's head immediately snapped up. "Harry," he said in obvious surprise. "To what do I owe this late night visit?"

"Er," Harry began. "Sirius and Remus... They're in Voldemort's hideout."

Dumbledore was alert immediately. "You're certain?"

"Yes, sir," Harry said. "They never came back from work, and Naomi took the map out and we found them."

"Very well," the Headmaster said. "I will be there shortly."

Harry nodded and pulled his head from the flames, not wanting to turn and face Naomi and Emmeline. Almost as soon as he'd seen his guardians' dots on the map, reckless thoughts began entering Harry's mind. He knew everyone around him would try to prevent these thoughts from becoming actions, but that didn't keep Harry from thinking them. If Voldemort had Sirius and Remus, he wouldn't hesitate to kill either of them. The two wizards were hated by the Dark Lord almost as much as Harry was.

When Dumbledore arrived, he immediately requested to see the map with his own eyes. Looking it over, he'd nodded and sat beside Naomi. "We will need to contact other members of the Order. I do not know whether this is another trick of Voldemort's—whether he just wishes Harry to come after them—or something else. Either way, we will need assistance."

Twenty minutes later, half the Order had arrived. Harry was shunted against the wall while the members were all informed of what was happening, and people started calling out ideas. Elphias Doge was all for rushing Voldemort's hideout to rescue the kidnapped Order members, while Mad-Eye said it was better to wait and see what Voldemort would do with them. At this, Naomi and Emmeline had mutinous looks on their faces, and Mad-Eye sat back down.

Harry listened to them argue, and wondered if this was what had gone on when Ron was kidnapped. Didn't they understand how important this was? Didn't they realize that time was of the essence, and any minute Voldemort could kill one of them, or both of them? Harry started to move towards the Order, trying to call out to them, to tell them to shut up for just a minute. Dumbledore looked over at him, but everyone else was too busy to notice Harry was even in the room.

After five minutes of this, Dumbledore finally called the Order to quiet down. "I believe Harry has something he wishes to say," the Headmaster said, still looking at the younger wizard. "Go on, Harry."

Now that everyone was looking at him, Harry felt his face flush slightly. "I just wondered if you lot were going to actually plan something instead of arguing?"

Dumbledore's lips twitched and Naomi snorted a laugh. "Do you have any suggestions, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, not really, but this isn't like when Ron was kidnapped," Harry said, speaking quickly. "That only happened because Voldemort—" A few people shuddered, "—wanted me to come after him. But I don't think this is like that. Sirius and Remus have done a lot more than most people to fight against him, and he wants them dead. If we don't do something soon, they're going to die."

Silence met this. Harry glanced over at Emmeline who looked back approvingly. Dumbledore nodded. "I agree," he said. "As Harry so eloquently put it, we must construct a plan. I know none of you wish to see anything happen to Sirius or Remus, therefore I am certain we can discuss this like adults. Can we not?"

No one replied, but most everyone looked a bit sheepish over the bickering they'd been doing. "Well, then," Dumbledore went on, "let's plan."

Even after sunrise, with half the Order working on it, a working plan still hadn't been formed. Nobody could seem to agree on how they would go about rescuing Remus and Sirius.

"We have to assume they're not going to have their wands," Naomi said tiredly. "And Voldemort isn't stupid; he's going expect us to come after them, so he's going to have extra measures to prevent that. He knows his hideout has been infiltrated once before, and he'll know it can happen again if he isn't careful. Harry was right; Voldemort wants Sirius and Remus—he wants them to pay for what they've done over the past few years. If they're not dead now, it won't be long..."

At this point, Harry couldn't listen to any more. He retreated upstairs to his bedroom and locked the door soundly before pulling out his wand and venting his frustrations on his innocent pillows. While feathers floated slowly to the floor, he whirled around and aimed for something on his desk. He realized half a second after the spell left his wand that it was Prongs, his stuffed stag. He'd expected to see stuffing fly from its insides, but instead, there was a small explosion, like a bomb being set off. When the smoke cleared, Harry could only see the two beady hazel eyes of what remained of the toy.

Footsteps sounded outside the door, and someone tried to open it. When they couldn't, they began to bang on the wood. "Harry! Open the door! Are you all right?"

It was Emmeline. Still feeling a bit shocked and bemused, Harry went to the door and opened it for her. "It was my stag," he explained, recognizing faintly that everyone had followed her up the stairs. "I was... er... cleaning, and it exploded."

Emmeline looked around the room at the torn-up pillows, then looked at him doubtfully. "You're not good with cleaning spells, are you?" she asked flatly. He shrugged sheepishly and glanced over his shoulder at the other Order members. Emmeline approached the desk carefully and examined what was left of the stag. "I think it was a portkey," she said very quietly after a few minutes.

Dumbledore entered the room and stood next to her, doing his own examination. After casting a few spells, he agreed. "You haven't touched this?" he asked Harry.

Harry shook his head. "I only found it when I was packing, and I used my wand to float it into the box, then did the same when I was unpacking."

"It must've been placed in his room at Number Twelve, waiting for him to find it," Emmeline said to Dumbledore. "The destination is a bit scrambled, but I have a few ideas on where it was supposed to take him..."

"As do I," Dumbledore said, nodding. "If you don't mind, Harry, I'd like to check for other portkeys around your room."

Harry shook his head. "Not at all, sir," he said, backing into the hall with Emmeline. Naomi placed her arms around his shoulders and hugged him to her.

The Headmaster finished with the room ten minutes later and declared nothing else had been tampered with. He looked around at the other Order members. "Shall we return downstairs?" he said to them.

They murmured their agreement, looking worriedly at Harry, and turned to head back down.

"You going to be all right?" Naomi asked Harry before following them.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said casually, knowing she wasn't buying it. "I'll clean up in here, then I'm going to lay down for a bit, if that's okay."

"Of course it is," Emmeline said, attempting a smile. "When you wake up, I'll make you something to eat."

Harry nodded and waved half-heartedly as the two witches left the room, closing the door behind them. He looked around his room. Well, that was highly unexpected, he thought, waving his wand around the room to get the feathers back into their pillows and sealing the slashes in the material. When he finished, he collapsed on his bed, feeling completely and thoroughly exhausted. No wonder. It's nearly eight in the morning, and I haven't slept since yesterday...

He tried to stay awake, staring at his ceiling and thinking about his guardians, but sleep overcame him, and his eyes drooped shut.

Normally in times like these, Harry had visions sent from Voldemort, but when he woke a few hours later, his scar felt completely normal. It took him a minute to remember why he was so miserable and why there was still a smell like singed cotton, but everything from the past twelve hours started coming back to him. He stopped himself from thinking about what Sirius and Remus were going through right now, just to keep himself from going insane, and got out of bed, making his way to the kitchen.

The cottage was mostly silent. It seemed the Order had left. Emmeline, Naomi, Mira, Alex, and John were there, and only the babies were making any sort of noise. Harry went to the cupboard and took out a glass, then filled it with water before sitting at the table beside Naomi. Mira was on his other side and reached out to grab his shirt. He smiled a little and took her small hand, kissed it, and sat it back down on the table of her highchair.

Naomi and Emmeline were watching him. "What?" he asked.

They looked at one another, telling Harry that at some point before he'd woken, he'd been a topic of conversation between them.

"Do I have something on my face?" he said, wiping at his cheek.

Naomi smiled a little. "No, nothing like that," she said quietly. "Are you feeling a little better after attacking your pillows?"

He shrugged. "Not really," he replied. "I'd rather do it to Voldemort, but we can't always get what we want, can we?" He sipped at his water. "So, what's the plan?"

"We don't know," Emmeline said. "Dumbledore's gone to talk to Proudfoot, and they'll round up a few Aurors, but..."

"But what?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. "It's not like we don't know exactly where they are. I've been there, Sirius has been there, Naomi's been there... What are the Aurors going to do?"

"They can help," Naomi said. "Most of the Order isn't trained in combat—a few can fight, but Dumbledore doesn't think it wise to rush Voldemort and dozens of Death Eaters without help. Much as we hate it, he's right."

"Bollocks!" Harry snapped, pounding his fist on the table, startling Mira and the twins. None of them cried. "The Order is there to fight! They're supposed to rescue people from Voldemort—"

"Harry," Emmeline interrupted. "The Order doesn't exist solely to rescue people. We exist to fight Voldemort and rid the world of him, yes. But that doesn't mean we can just barge in there and start blasting people to bits."

"And why the hell not?" Harry demanded angrily. "That's what he does, isn't it? He comes into people's lives and does everything he can to destroy them. Now he's got my guardians, your husbands, and you two think we should just sit around and wait for Aurors? That's totally ridiculous!"

Naomi sighed. "Harry, we know you're frustrated—so are we—but we have to carefully plan this or Voldemort could kill them."

"For all we know, they're already dead," Harry said flatly, standing up and returning to his bedroom.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny arrived later that afternoon, probably when Emmeline or Naomi had called and asked them to talk to Harry. But Harry had nothing to say to any of them, especially Hermione, who seemed to side with Naomi and Emmeline. They didn't understand. They didn't realize that Sirius and Remus were probably going through complete hell right now, and the Order of the Phoenix, the group founded to protect the world, was just sitting around, twiddling their thumbs. The only person who may have had the slightest idea of what Harry was feeling was Ron, but even he agreed the Order needed to plan the rescue carefully.

"So you're on their side?" Harry asked his friends. "You don't care about what happens to Sirius and Remus, is that it?"

"Get over yourself, Harry!" Ginny said angrily. "We all care about Sirius and Remus, and you know it! You also know, however deep down it may be, that they can't just rush in to save them—it would be suicide, and Voldemort really would kill them afterwards. We know you're worried about them, but you have to relax a little; you're not exactly helping them by jumping down the throat of every person who tries talking to you."

"You don't get it," Harry replied in frustration. "They saved me from Voldemort when I was six, and now they need help. Nobody else is doing a damn thing to help them! They're probably being tortured as we speak, and according to the bloody Order, there's nothing we can do about it! Well, guess what, I'm going to do something about it. You three can try to stop me all you want, but it's not going to work. Any one of you would do the same for your parents."

"Don't know how that would be possible, since my parents are dead," Hermione said, staring at Harry coolly. "Do you know how many times I've laid in bed thinking about what would have happened if I'd been there too? They would have killed me. I never would have had time to try and save them. And Ron's and Ginny's dad... Well, much as any of us hates to admit it, that was an accident." She sighed. "Look, I know you want to go after Sirius and Remus, but you can't do it alone—the Death Eaters would kill you before you even saw them."

Harry swallowed the angry retort he was about to say and slumped defeated against his pillows. "I have to do something," he muttered weakly. "I can't let them die..."

Ron, who'd been in deep thought until now, spoke. "I'll go with you," he said quietly. The others looked at him questioningly, but Ron only looked at Harry. "You saved me from that place, and I owe you one. I'll help you rescue Sirius and Remus."

"Er..." Harry replied

"What's the plan?" Ron asked, ignoring this oh-so-intelligent statement.

"I... I don't really have one," Harry said, staring at his best friend.

Ron raised an eyebrow. "You mean to tell me that you've been sitting up here pissed off at the Order all day long, and you haven't come up with a plan. Somehow I don't believe that."

"Well, it's true," Harry said defensively. "And even if I did have a plan, none of you would be going with me."

"And why not?" Ginny asked. "You think we're just going to send you off to your death alone? And here I thought you were smart, Harry. If you go, we go."

Harry looked over to Hermione. His bushy-haired friend looked back at him stubbornly. "You all want to go? You want to go into a castle with Lord Voldemort, the most feared wizard in a century, and dozens of his Death Eaters just to help me rescue my guardians?"

Ron nodded, glancing at the girls. "Yes," he said simply. "So what's the plan?"

Though he still didn't agree with his friends' decisions, Harry started planning the rescue of Sirius and Remus. It took a few hours to ensure they hadn't missed anything. None of them thought it smart to go without somehow alerting the Order, but they couldn't do it until they'd left; otherwise, they'd probably all be stunned until Sirius and Remus had been rescued and taken to a safe place.

"The only idea I have," Harry said, "is for three of us to go, and the fourth to stay behind to tell them. That way, we can be miles away before they leave, and we can have a chance at this."

"Well, is there some way we can communicate?" Ginny asked. "The three that go can contact the one who stays behind when they actually find Sirius and Remus, then that person can tell the Order."

Harry thought. "Yeah, there is," he said, getting off his bed and crossing to his Hogwarts trunk. He dug through it until he found his two-way mirror. He spotted something else and hastily pocketed it. One never did know... He turned back to his friends. "I've just got to find the other one, then we can communicate between here and Voldemort's hideout."

"How are you going to find it?" Hermione asked.

Harry didn't answer, but went out into the hall and stuck out his wand. "Accio two-way mirror," he said, waiting expectantly. A few seconds later, he heard a whoosh of air and spotted the other mirror coming out of Sirius and Naomi's bedroom. He grabbed it out of the air and returned to his bedroom. "Got it. Now, who's staying behind?"

It was a toss-up between Hermione and Ginny. Ron had flat-out refused to remain while Harry went to Albania. "Well, there's only one way to settle this," Ron said after a good bit of arguing from the two witches. "Rock-Paper-Scissors."

Harry rolled his eyes, but watched as Hermione and Ginny stuck out their fists and started the game. After five tries, all of which were ties, Hermione threw out paper to Ginny's rock.

"That's decided..." Harry said, trying to block out Ginny's very grumpy look. "Now we just need to get out of here without being noticed and get to Albania."

"Well, we can Apparate," Hermione suggested. "Since you've been there, you can guide Ron and me."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, that'll work... One of us should go downstairs to see who all's here—if Mad-Eye came back, we're stuck here till he leaves."

Ron volunteered to scout out the cottage under the pretense of getting something to eat. He returned fifteen minutes later and reported Mad-Eye was nowhere to be found. He did, however, bring two people with him who would surely ruin the entire plan.

"Evening, kiddies," Fred said cheerily. "Ron tells us you've come up with a plan all by yourselves to save Remus and Sirius."

The other three stared exasperatedly at Ron while he looked rather grumpy.

"We want in," George took over. "Now, before you start arguing what I'm certain will be very good arguments, know that we've been to every Order meeting in the last several months, and we know a lot more than you little tykes. We've got information you're going to need in order to get into You-Know-Who's hideout."

Harry groaned. "Fine," he said after a minute. "We'll let you in on one condition: you have to call him by his proper name."

A wave of slight fear passed over each twin's face. "Voldemort," they said firmly, before looking over their shoulders in unison.

"You're in," Harry said, grinning. "Now, what do you know?"

"Well, for one, we know exactly where this fabled castle is," George said.

"And we've got a copy of the map the Order has of it," Fred said, taking said map out from the back pocket of his jeans.

"Then of course, you're going to want to know how to get in there without being detected—that's the hardest part."

"And we're sure you'll want to disguise yourselves against the charms and wards to keep yourselves under the radar, as the Muggles say, while you search for Sirius and Remus."

"Just for good measure and a little fun, let's throw in a nice diversion," George finished up. "Anything we missed?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I don't think so," he said, inwardly thinking about how much he and his friends had left out of their plan. "I suppose you'll want to go with us, then?"

"Of course," Fred said at the same time George said, "Naturally."

At sunset, Harry stood from his bed, extracting his hand from Ginny's, and crossed the room to the closet where he pulled out his jacket. He looked around at Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George. "It's freezing out," he said to their questioning looks. "I'm not going out there without a jacket..." He dug a little deeper through the closet and pulled out four other jackets, which he shrunk or enlarged and threw them to his friends.

"This is nice, mate," George said, running a hand over the black leather jacket he'd been tossed.

"Sirius gave it to me for Christmas a few years back," Harry replied, smiling at the jacket. "Right," he said, snapping himself out of his thoughts. "Ginny, you know how to work these, right?" She nodded. "Keep it with you at all times until we contact you. Then go downstairs and figure out what to tell everyone." There was one more check to see if Mad-Eye was in the house—he wasn't, so the plan was still working fine.

"Be careful," Ginny said when Harry opened the window and started to climb out. "All of you."

"We will be," Ron said, folding Harry's Invisibility Cloak and sticking into his jacket pocket.

Harry kissed her thoroughly and made his way out the window. He carefully climbed down the side of the cottage, seeing lights on through the kitchen window, and looked back up as Hermione started down. Once everyone had made it without hurting themselves, they waved at Ginny, and quickly made their way around the cottage and into the forest towards the road. The Fidelius Charm didn't allow Apparition any closer to the cottage than the main road about ten miles out.

"Do you even know where we're going, Harry?" Hermione asked, her arms wrapped around herself to keep warm.

"'Course I do," Harry said, his breath coming out in white puffs. "I lived here most of my life, didn't I?"

It took nearly forty-five minutes, but the five Gryffindors made it to the black road. Harry looked up and down it, knowing which way led to town and which led further into the country. He turned to the others. "So how're you lot going to follow me when we Apparate? Not all of you can Side-Along."

"We can always use a portkey," George suggested.

"But it's illegal to use an unauthorized portkey!" Hermione said.

Ron looked at her. "You want to go back to the cottage and ask Emmeline to authorize one for us?"

She glared at him. "We're not doing this illegally, Ronald," she said sternly.

"Too late," Fred said, holding an old soda can. "We've got one. Where'd you learn to do portkeys, Harry?"

"Remus taught me in case of an emergency," Harry replied, looking over at Hermione. "And this is an emergency."

Glaring, Hermione crossed her arms, but nodded. "Fine, but when you get arrested—"

"He's not going to get arrested, Hermione," George interrupted, patting her on the back. "How long do we have?"

"'Bout ten seconds," Harry said, holding out a finger to touch the can in Fred's hand. Everyone else followed his example. Six seconds later, they were all pulled by their navels into a whirl of color and sound.

Naomi was exhausted. She hadn't slept all day or the night before, and the entire day was spent worrying about what horrible things Voldemort was doing to Sirius and Remus. She knew exactly how badly the Dark Lord wanted those two—it was all he'd talked about for months when she'd still been a Death Eater and anything that hurt them only made Voldemort happier.

A plan was finally formed to rescue the two wizards, though it wasn't exactly what Naomi called brilliance. Part of the Order was going to go through the front door and start cursing the first Death Eaters they saw, then the other part was going to sneak in a back and save Remus and Sirius that way. No one seemed to listen to Naomi when she tried to tell them Voldemort wouldn't let this happen—Dumbledore seemed to know something the others didn't, and he didn't seem inclined to let any of the others in on his little secret. Naomi was seconds away from smacking the indulgent smile he gave them every time she and Emmeline asked.

Harry had been right earlier, she mused, watching Mira happily shove cereal into her mouth. Just sitting around and waiting for someone to form a plan wasn't helping Sirius and Remus one bit. She had to wonder whether Voldemort captured them to lure Harry to his hideout or just to capture and kill them. Probably a little of both...

"Naomi, do you want some tea?" Emmeline asked quietly, standing.

"Sure," Naomi replied dryly. "Put in a couple shots of firewhiskey, please."

"Not a problem. I'm having the same."

Harry and his friends landed knee-deep in snow and looked around at their surroundings.

"Is this it?" Hermione asked quietly.

"I think so," Harry said. "I've never been on the outside before, but..." he trailed off as his eyes rested on a large stone castle he'd seen in a few of his dreams and when he spoke next, he tried to keep the waver out of his voice. Judging by the looks his friends were giving him, he'd failed. "Yeah, this is it."

"And I'm guessing we can't just walk in through the front door," George said.

"Doubt it," Harry said. "Though, Sirius did... Then again, the place was abandoned when he was here."

"Hmm," Fred said, looking at the castle thoughtfully. "Well, before we do anything, we should probably use Disillusionment charms and all that."

After Disillusioning one another, then performing other charms to hide themselves from the wards and charms—Harry hoped they'd gotten everything—they tried to figure out what to do next. Voldemort must've known someone from the Order had been in his hideout after Nagini went missing, so Harry assumed the wards had been changed and strengthened. George, however, seemed to have decided the front door was still their best option.

"Hey, look, it's open!" he called, pulling one of the heavy doors wide open for his friends.

Raising his eyebrows, Harry followed Ron, Hermione, and George inside. They all jumped when Fred let the door slam shut on them. "Er, sorry," Fred said. "Wind caught it."

"Okay, we're in a castle with Death Eaters and Voldemort," Harry said as though talking to a five-year-old... or Sirius. "Let's keep it quiet, eh?"

"Sorry," Fred said again.

They were staring at a silver mist now. "It's just a disguising charm to keep the Death Eaters from knowing how to get out," Harry explained. "The only real way out is an Apparition chamber in Voldemort's quarters."

"Sounds fun," George said. "Will it hurt us to go through?"

Harry shook his head. "Sirius said no," he replied. "Who wants to go first?" His friends looked at him, their eyebrows raised in answer. "Figures," he muttered. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck," they all said as he took a deep breath and stepped forward. He got through the mist without any trouble and turned around to find the mist had turned into dark stone that matched the rest of the castle. A minute or two later, all his friends had joined him, and they silently made their way down the corridor, searching for an empty room where they could look over the map.

"Lumos," Harry muttered when they'd found a room. George unrolled the map and they all searched it.

"There," Hermione said a few minutes later, pointing at two rooms, rather surprisingly, just a few doors down from where they now stood. Harry saw his guardians' names and his stomach jumped a little.

"We should call Ginny now," Ron said quietly.

Ginny lay on Harry's bed, the two-way mirror beside her, reading one of his Quidditch books. Every so often, she glanced at Harry's alarm clock, and every time she did, her stomach tightened a little bit more—she wondered why they hadn't called yet, and if they'd been captured too. How would she be able to go tell the Order that?

"Ginny," said a quiet voice by her leg. She dropped the book and picked up the mirror, finding her fiancé's face looking back at her. "We're in," Harry said. "Sirius and Remus are down the hall. We'll wait fifteen minutes to give the Order time to get here, then I'm going in to get them."

"All right," Ginny said. "Take care of yourselves."

Harry smiled at her and his face disappeared from the mirror.

She got up from the bed and made her way to the kitchen. She tried not to wince when she spotted her mother sitting at the kitchen table with Emmeline and Naomi—she really didn't want to hear her reaction to this. "Er, excuse me," she said loudly to the Order of the Phoenix. They turned to look at her curiously. "I just thought you'd all like to know that Harry didn't think you were doing enough to rescue Sirius and Remus, so he, Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George went to Voldemort's hideout to save them himself."

Jaws were wide open all around the kitchen, and Ginny's mother stared, giving Ginny the you're in deep trouble look.

Dumbledore, however, only smiled and cheerfully said, "Well, we should probably join them, shouldn't we?"

Confident that Ginny had made it down to the kitchen and the Order was now on their way, Harry took his Invisibility Cloak, shrunk it—to the confusion of his friends—and transformed into his Animagus form. Hermione took the hints Harry was giving her—pecking at her foot—and dropped the cloak over him. He figured that on his way to Remus, if a Death Eater strolled through the corridor, Harry would have somewhere to go where he wouldn't be run into accidentally.

Fred checked the map again, and nodded to George, who opened the door with a whispered "good luck." Ron stood at the threshold of their room, pointed his wand towards the door Harry was heading towards, and used it to open said door. A moment later, Harry saw the map they'd been using soar through the doorframe, landing somewhere on the floor.

Harry entered the dark room, quickly transformed again, and closed and locked the door before retrieving his wand from his jacket. "Lumos," he muttered, moving the beam of light around the room. A wave of relief nearly knocked him over when he spotted Remus curled up in a ball in one of the corners. Just like when he'd found Ron, Harry grinned as he crossed the room and kneeled beside one of his favorite people in the world. "Remus," he said quietly. "Remus, wake up."

Remus groaned a little and his eyes snapped open. "You've gotta get out of here, Prongs," he muttered. "They're coming... You can't be here when they get here..."

Harry's brow furrowed in both confusion and concern. "Remus, I'm not Prongs; I'm Harry..."

"Get out've here, Prongs," Remus went on wildly, weakly pushing Harry away. "Save yourself..."

"Remus, what're you talking about? I'm Harry!"

A shadow passed over Remus' face and he shook his head slightly, his eyes focusing on Harry. "Harry?" he asked croakily. The boy nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you," Harry said slowly. "What's wrong with you?"

Remus shook his head. "Don't know," he murmured, trying to raise a hand to his head, but crying out in pain instead. Harry looked around the room, as though expecting ten Death Eaters to Apparate in at the sound. Harry and Remus were still alone. "They gave me a potion and I kind of lost it..."

"I'll say."

Remus managed a glare and Harry was relieved to see his surrogate godfather was still himself, regardless of whatever had happened. "Are you alone? Did the Order come with you?"

"Er," Harry began. "Well, the Order is on their way..."

"You came here alone," Remus said dryly. "Brilliant. You're turning into Sirius."

"No, I didn't come alone, actually," Harry replied defensively. "Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George came with me."

"Oh yeah, that's much better," Remus said sarcastically.

"Like I said, the Order is on their way. They've been trying to form their own plan to save you and Sirius, and I got sick of waiting."

"Well, I suppose I should thank you," Remus said resignedly after a few minutes. "Do you even know where your godfather is?"

"Next room over," Harry told him. "We've got a copy of the map of this place, and that's how we knew you were here."

Remus nodded. "How do you plan on getting out of here? This isn't like when Sirius was here and the place was abandoned. There are actually Death Eaters here, not to mention Lord Voldemort."

"Well, we kind of figured once the Order got here, they could figure something out," Harry said.

The werewolf looked at him in disbelief. "Please tell me you're joking," he begged.

"Of course I am," Harry said. "What do you think we are, stupid? Don't answer that," he added hastily when Remus opened his mouth. "But we've got to get you across the hall without anyone knowing."

"Do you have the map?"

Harry nodded. "Accio map," he said, pointing his wand in the direction of the door—the map zoomed into his hand. He unrolled and held it out so Remus could look too.

"You need to keep an eye on where Voldemort is at all times," Remus advised, scanning the map for the Dark Lord. He carefully held out his broken hand and pointed a shaking finger at the bubble labeled Tom Riddle. "On the other side of the castle, which surprises me; I'd have thought alarms would have alerted him that you'd come here... Well, count our blessings—he won't stay there the whole night, so we'd better start moving."

"Can you walk?" Harry asked cautiously, watching Remus try to stand.

"I think I may have a few broken bones, one of which is my ankle, so that's a no."

"Well, I don't know any healing spells..."

"Try Ferula," Remus suggested. "At the very least, it'll get me across the hall. It's a flick arm-motion."

Harry nodded, pointing his wand at Remus' obviously shattered ankle—it was pointed in a very odd direction. "Ferula," he said firmly, concentrating on the task at hand. Splints and robes shot from his wand and wrapped themselves around Remus' ankle and lower leg, straightening the ankle, causing Remus to hiss loudly in pain. "How's that?" Harry asked, helping the older wizard stand.

"Perfect," Remus replied, testing the ankle; Harry didn't miss the winces the older wizard made. "Not too loose, not too tight. You'd make a decent Healer with some training."

Harry grinned. "Tell Sirius that; he's already got me down for fall Auror training."

Remus chuckled and put an arm around Harry's shoulder, letting the boy help him across the room. "Check the map before we open the door."

Harry did, and found the coast was still clear. "Don't you think it's a bit odd that there aren't more Death Eaters on this end of the castle?"

Remus nodded. "Yes, but I'm not thinking about that right now... Get me out of this room."

Before opening the door, Harry removed his Invisibility Cloak and threw it over himself and Remus. The two wizards crossed the corridor quickly and Harry wasted no time opening the door. "Got him," Harry said once the door was closed and the Invisibility Cloak was removed.

Hermione stood from the floor and conjured a chair for Remus to sit in. "Thanks, Hermione," Remus said exhaustedly.

"What now?" Ron asked Harry.

"Now we get Sirius," Harry replied.

"It may not be that easy..." Fred said quietly, looking at the map he'd taken from Harry. "Voldemort's coming this way..."

Remus' eyes widened as he snatched Harry's wand from him, pointing it at the door. He muttered a quick charm, a light making the door shine for a moment or two. "It'll temporarily make him forget there's a room here," he explained to the others' questioning looks. "We'll have time to figure out how to get Sirius out of there."

Sirius lay on the floor of a dark, cold room, battered, bloodied, and bruised, but alive—his chair had disappeared, so he had no chance of standing and running out of the room, at least not under his own power. Still, he hoped he would be able to find a way out before someone was sent to finally kill him. He hadn't seen Remus since their arrival here, but he knew his best friend was just in the next room—he'd heard Remus' screams of pain when Death Eaters had visited him.

Bastards... he thought for the thousandth time. They're not going to break us...

Every time he heard Remus' cries for help, however, he wondered if that was true. Maybe Voldemort's plan to break the two wizards was to force them to listen to the other's pain. If that's what he's doing, I don't know how much longer I'll last. He can torture me all he wants and never get a word out of me, but once he starts in on my family, I'll crack in minutes.

Now I've just got to find my way out of here and to where Remus is...

His thoughts were interrupted, however, when the door opened and a silhouette stood in the doorframe. It didn't take Sirius long to figure out exactly who it was. He only wondered why he hadn't seen the Dork Lord before now.

"Ah, Sirius, I see you're finally awake," Voldemort said, entering the room, and closing it behind him. "Are you comfortable enough?"

"Sod off," Sirius choked out, as he tried to sit up. He fell back to the floor when his wrist snapped. He bit his lip, tasting blood immediately, trying to keep from screaming out loud. He wouldn't give Voldemort the satisfaction of hearing him scream—and more importantly, he didn't want Remus to worry more than he probably already was.

"Let me help you with that," Voldemort said softly, waving his wand. Sirius was pulled up by what felt like invisible strings to a sitting position. "That's better. I prefer speaking with people when they can look at me properly."

"What do you want?" Sirius said hoarsely, finding it difficult to keep his head straight.

Voldemort cocked his head slightly to better look into Sirius eyes. Sirius quickly averted his eyes to keep the Dark Lord from using Legilimency on him. Voldemort smiled coldly at the attempt. "I believe we have been through this before, Sirius. I want your family dead. And I would like you to join me," he said as casually as a wizard as evil as he was could.

"Never," Sirius spat, spitting blood onto the floor.

"Think about it, Sirius," Voldemort continued as if Sirius had never spoken. "Think about what I can give you. Think about what I've already taken from you. I could give all that back, you know."

Before Sirius could ask what Voldemort was on about, a picture began to form in the center of the room. It wasn't a normal picture, though, not even like a hologram—it looked real, almost like one of those Muggle films Remus and Harry liked to watch once in a while, only much clearer than even that. It was like Sirius and Voldemort were actually in the picture.

The room shown was a large living room with polished wooden floors. The furniture looked used, but still new, as though whoever lived here took good care of the place. Children's toys littered the floor; photos covered the walls and the mantle of the fireplace.

It was like Voldemort was taking Sirius on a guided tour; the picture moved forward through the house, stopping momentarily on a portrait of a family. There was a man, woman, and two children—one was no older than five, and the other was around Harry's age, maybe a year or so younger. The little girl had jet-black hair, and Sirius thought she was Mira until he caught sight of her eyes—they were dark blue, not his daughter's silver-grey; her brother had brown hair down to his shoulders and Mira's eyes. The man, unmistakably Sirius, stood behind the girl with one hand on her shoulder and the other around his wife. Sirius' breath caught in his throat—it was Julia.

"This is what you could have, Sirius," Voldemort commentated quietly.

The picture moved again, taking its viewers through a hallway and up a staircase. A light was on in one of the bedrooms, but only enough light for a father to read a story to his daughter. The little girl ("Jasmine," Voldemort said, as though he knew Sirius was vaguely wondering what her name was) was curled up in her father's arms, her thumb in her mouth, fighting sleep. After finishing the last page of the storybook, the man looked down to his chest, checking if she was really asleep, and laid her head on the pillow.

"Good night, angel," he whispered, kissing her forehead and quietly leaving the room. Sirius didn't miss the fact that in this place, he had full use of his legs and he wasn't confined to a wheelchair. He left her door open a crack and went down the hall to a closed door. Cautiously, he turned the knob and opened the door, winced, and slipped in before closing it behind him. He covered his ears as he looked around the messy room—a wizarding wireless system was blaring from a shelf—a silencing charm obviously had been placed around the room to keep the noise in.

He quickly trudged his way across the room, stepping on clothes, books and other possessions belonging to the teenage boy who lived here. Turning the volume on the wireless down to a much more tolerable level, he looked around the room and smirked. A boy ("Aaden," Voldemort said) lay on his large bed, his legs hanging off the side, his face stuck to a Quidditch magazine. The man moved to place his son on the bed properly, closed the magazine, and placed it on the bedside table. He covered the boy with a red blanket and moved the hair from his eyes. With a quick peck on the boy's forehead, the man left the room.

He entered his own room and found his wife lying on their bed, waiting for him.

"Are they asleep?" she asked, curling up to him as he got into the bed.

"A few sleeping draughts later... yes," he joked, earning a slap on his shoulder. He put his arm around her and held her close, staring at the ceiling.

She traced a finger across his bare chest, making him smile softly, and leaned up to kiss him. He didn't seem to be in the mood tonight, so she pulled away. "You're thinking about them, aren't you?" she asked quietly.

He nodded. "It's Halloween, aren't you?"

"Of course, they were my best friends, and I miss them every day," she said. "But it's been sixteen years, Sirius. We can't keep thinking about what ifs. We've got a family. Aaden is getting ready for his last year of school. Jasmine's a handful as it is..."

He chuckled quietly, sadly. "I know that, but... I don't know. Life just isn't the same. We never got to see Harry grow up. Remus and Naomi didn't even have the chance to start a family. And Lily and James..."

"Died like heroes," she finished softly.

He nodded. "All of them did... They died so young. What makes us so special?"

"We were smart," she answered as if they'd been over this numerous times before. "We got out. Sirius, we tried to convince them to come with us, but they wouldn't listen. If we would have stayed in England, we would have died alongside them. We wouldn't have this life or our children..."

"You're right," he said hoarsely.

"Of course I'm right," she said, kissing his chest. "Now, we've got an early day tomorrow. Let's get some sleep, hmm?"

He nodded and reached over to turn off a bedside lamp.

"I love you, Sirius," she whispered.

"Love you too, Jules."

The scene faded, leaving Voldemort and Sirius in the dark room once more. Sirius' heart clenched painfully from the vision of the life he could have had.

"Well?" Voldemort said expectantly. "I can give you all that."

"I abandoned them," Sirius said, mostly to himself. "I left them here to die."

"You did what was right, what was smart," Voldemort corrected. "And now you have a beautiful little family."

Sirius fought the pain in his neck to look up at the thing in front of him. "You killed them..."

"I did only what I needed to do. And you did what you needed to do." Voldemort smirked. "Think about it, Sirius. You could have your Mudblood girlfriend back at your side, little half-breed offspring that have your eyes and hair, and you'd never have to worry about this little war again."

"What's in it for you?" Sirius growled.

"Harry Potter," Voldemort said simply, as though it was as easy as passing the teapot.

Sirius' neck lost its strength and his head dropped to his shoulder. Voldemort seemed to think he could change the past, give Sirius the life he'd wanted for years. But at what price? Remus and Harry would be dead, as would Naomi, and probably Emmeline too. Mira, Alex, and John never would have been born. Sirius would never give up his family or his experiences with them, good or bad. If he did, he'd never get to see Harry marry Ginny, or hear Mira's first word... He'd still be mourning Lily and James' deaths as though they'd just happened...

Sirius looked up at the door as it opened and saw the sight that built up his courage once more. He looked at Voldemort, grinned as best he could, and said, "Go to hell."