Dumbledore's Inside Information

"Lily?" James called out, cupping his hands around his mouth in the hopes of making his voice louder. "Lily, are you here?" James looked around the Heads dormitories, trying to find Lily. There were no signs of anyone ever entering the room. The cushions were still in perfect order on the couch. The curtains were still draped. The beds were still made, and there were no wrinkles on the covers.

James turned on his heels and broke into a run towards the portrait hole. He climbed out of it clumsily, not pausing to stop and catch his breath. He ran all the way to the Gryffindor Common Room and up the boys' stairs; where he barged into his old dormitory room, panting.

"Prongs?" Remus looked at his friend in disbelief as he sat up in his bed. "Prongs, what happened?"

Sirius was snoring loudly in his bed; he showed no inclination of waking up any time soon. James pulled out his wand and thought, levicorpus! Sirius was suspended in midair by his ankle, swearing. "That woke him up," James said, rubbing his hands together.

"PRONGS, LET ME DOWN!" Sirius screamed.

"Sorry, mate," James said, flicking his wand. Sirius fell onto his bed with a thump. "I'm distracted."

"By the lovely Miss Evans?" Sirius said, smirking.

"Yes!" James said, his eyes widening. "She's missing! I can't find her!"

Sirius's eyes widened. "Bloody hell, Prongs! Did you go to Dumbledore?"

James smacked his forehead. "No," he said, rubbing his forehead, which was now red from his repeated smacking. "How could I have been so thick?"

"Prongs, calm down," Remus said, pulling on day clothes and trainers while trying to take hold of his wand at the same time.

"Hark who's talking," Sirius said, jumping out of bed and forgetting completely to put a shirt on. "Let's go to Dumbledore."

"Shouldn't we wait until tomorrow?" Remus asked skeptically, holding his wand out shakily.

"You dolt, Moony," James all but screamed. "By tomorrow she could be DEAD!"

"Where's Peter?" Remus asked, wheeling around the room looking for him. "And weren't Jocelyn and Shayna supposed to be with Lily?"

"THAT DOESN'T MATTER NOW!" James bellowed, stamping his foot. "WE NEED TO GET TO DUMBLEDORE AND TELL HIM WHAT HAPPENED!"

"Okay," Sirius said, "let's go, mate. Moony will look for Jocelyn, Shayna, and Peter."

"No," Remus said sternly, frowning. "I'm coming with you."

They walked out of Gryffindor Tower as quickly and purposefully as they could without making too much noise. James was so distracted and worried about Lily that he tripped numerous times over his own feet.

"Prongs, you look like you got hit with a Jelly-Legs Jinx," Sirius said, trying to joke around, though his face was pale. He had never seen his friend so worried over anything before. James shot Sirius a dirty look. "Okay, I'll just shut up now."

"You'd better," James hissed menacingly, pointing his wand at Sirius's face. "I know a few hexes that'll glue your tongue to the top of your mouth, if you don't."

"Oy, guys," Remus said, putting one hand on Sirius's shoulder and the other on James's to stop them, "We've got to stay calm. Fighting each other isn't going to help find Lily."

"Good point," James said, starting to walk again and turning a corner at the end of the corridor. He looked back at his friends. "Come on, walk faster," he said, while still walking. "We need to get to—"

He hit something tall and turned back to find himself face-to-face with Albus Dumbledore.

"Is there something that you boys need?" Dumbledore asked serenely, his blue eyes looking at them, scrutinizing.

"Yes, Professor," James said quickly, sounding slightly out-of-breath, "It's Lily. She's missing. We can't find her."

"Yes," Dumbledore said, sounding distracted and distant. "Yes, I had a feeling this would happen."

James, Sirius, and Remus exchanged glances. "You had a feeling what would happen, sir?" Remus asked tentatively.

"Lily is currently in the hands of Lord Voldemort," Dumbledore said calmly.

A sharp intake of air filled James lungs as his head began to spin. "And you're calm about this…why?" James said accusingly. "Voldemort is the most feared wizard of the century! She could be dead by now!"

"No, no, she remains unharmed as of now, rest assured." Dumbledore's piercing gaze was focused intently on James.

"As of now?" James said, his voice rising and sounding panicky and urgent. "What do you mean, as of now?"

"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said sternly. "Such matters cannot be discussed in a corridor such as this. We would do better to talk in my office. Come on, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin."

They followed Dumbledore to his office, wands raised and robes billowing behind them soundlessly. The only sounds were their footsteps and their heartbeats ringing in their ears. When they got into Dumbledore's office, he motioned to them to sit down.

"Now," he said, staring at the three Marauders over the tips of his interlaced fingers, "Lily has gone missing tonight. That much is obvious. But from this point on, not much is known about where she is, other than mere estimates."

James just stared at the Headmaster, eyes wide. "Professor," he began, but Dumbledore cut him off.

"James, please wait until I am finished. I had my suspicions that Lily would be kidnapped, but I did not know when. It has come to my attention that Voldemort was debating between two spots to bring Lily to. One of them was the graveyard in which her parents are buried. The other is her old home. From what I have deduced from those two spots, Voldemort wants a certain connection with her parents. It is my belief that he chose these places because he thinks they will hurt Lily more than any other place in the world, because they are places she associates with her parents. I shall inform the Ministry to search the two places that I have just told you. However, it is most likely that the Ministry will not believe what I am telling them. They think that Voldemort is mere hogwash, and that the best way to deal with him would be to ignore him. If that is the case, then I will call on members of the Order to aid in the search for Lily. If a fellow student asks about Lily's absence, say that she is visiting her sister. I daresay she has not said much about her sister, so the truth will not be unveiled."

James opened and closed his mouth several times, looking like a fish out of water. "How do you know all of this, sir?" he asked finally, after finding his voice.

"I am afraid I cannot tell you that, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said, standing up. "Now, I suggest you all try and get some sleep. Oh, and James…what ever you do, do not go looking for Lily."

A/N: Hi everybody! I hope what Dumbledore said kind of explains why Voldie took Lily to her house…and, I'm not sure if this was clear or not, but the Death Eaters didn't apparate on school grounds but outside the school gates…I'm sorry if I got you confused. Well, erm, that's it I think…thanks for reading, & make sure you check out Love Throughout Time by SilverwingsJP! I swear it's amazing. Oh wait, I just remembered: Silverwings&I are writing a series of one-shots called When Worlds Collide…it's kind of a humor thing about when the Marauders mess up their apparation and end up in different stories (the one we have now is Pirates of the Caribbean meets Marauders), so go read it, I swear that's pretty good too…at least I hope so. Um, thanks for reading!! Review & I'll update faster!