They were a charming couple to behold as the pair walked down the street. The young woman had one hand in her pocket and the other one wrapped protectively around her companion's upper arm as her thick hair whipped about in the wind beneath the hat that covered her eyes. The young man, very tall compared to her and with long dark hair covering his pale face, kept his eyes roaming through the dirty streets, though it seemed that he never found what he was looking for. The couple contrasted with the stark neighborhood about them, which seemed to fade in comparison to their allure. One, two, three more blocks they walked down until they turned the corner at a run down pub. The woman briefly directed her eyes, brilliant and green, towards the rowdy evening crowd drinking after the work day. A group of men closest to them took notice.

"Hey sweetheart! Come down and have a drink so I can look at you better."

"Nice ass, lady!"

She casually flicked them off as the pair walked past, showing the rather large diamond ring that rested on her ring finger.

"Already claimed, pretty? That's a shame, marriage'll only kill ya."

"I won't tell if you won't tell!" shouted the man to his right, raising his beer in the air as the table erupted in laughter at his taunt.

"Prats," Sirius muttered as they continued to walk down the alley and spared the table an annoyed glare.

"I'm glad you're not James." Lily remarked, looking up to talk to Sirius. "He would've completely gotten off focus of what we're doing. Though, I think if we're posing as a couple, it would have been better to yell at them that you had 'claimed' me. Defended my honor and what not."

Sirius raised his eyebrows at Lily. "Like I need to protect you from a lot of drunken Muggles. Hell, I'd pay good money to sit back and watch the wrath of Lily Evans have a go at someone who isn't a Death Eater. It'd make a nice change. I'll leave that domineering codswallop to Prongs, love."

Lily rolled her eyes, but a faint smile had formed on her lips as her thoughts strayed to James and she turned the ring on her finger absentmindedly. She shifted her attention back to Sirius and mocked, "Don't tell me you're bored in the Order, Sirius? Nonstop action and a new way to get near killed every other night? This is the exact thing you need to be doing."

"Oh, don't act like you don't enjoy it every bit as much as I do," replied Sirius, grinning down at Lily as they turned a corner, destination nearing. "I've seen you fight, and I don't envy the poor bastards on the other end of your wand. Plus," Sirius smirked, "it's no secret that you and James shag like monkeys after missions or confrontations. You must love the Order for that."

Lily had stopped walking and felt the red blush creep up her neck and heat rise to her face as Sirius relished what his words had done. He would never properly admit it, but having Lily Evans in his life was way better than he imagined it would be— both of them had lost siblings to hate and ignorance, and after he had come around to the fact that she'd be a permanent part of his life if Prongs were to remain as such, they'd become friends, and eventually, family. In a way, she replaced the brother he lost, and he replaced her sister. It was the best they could do to avoid the real pain their siblings had caused.

Lily closed her eyes. "I cannot believe you just said that."

"Would you look at that, dear, we're here!" And with that, Sirius dragged Lily through the door of the run down inn that was the reason why they were posing as a couple and wandering about the desolate Muggle area.

It was a lead that Dumbledore wanted looked into. For weeks, the Order had been unsuccessfully tracking down the origin of certain illegal potions and poisons that Death Eaters were using on both Muggles and unsuspecting wizards, which resulted in a seemingly unconnected array of deaths over the last few months. Thanks to Dung and his –ahem- prestigious intell, Dumbledore and Moody had been able to narrow down the possible areas of origin to this Muggle inn (hijacked by dark wizards) or the pub five blocks down, where one would find James, Remus, and Peter on this same night pretending to work the crowd while taking detail of whomever passed in and out of the doors.

Lily rolled her eyes and followed Sirius through the small door, grabbing hold of his arm once more. She would at least attempt to salvage their couple cover story. It was late at eleven PM, but a man was still sitting behind the dingy front desk flipping through the newspaper. He glanced up when he heard Sirius and Lily stumble through the door.

"Room?" he huffed, looking none too pleased about the interruption from their arrival.

"Yes, my good man!" Sirius returned jovially, lifting Lily's arm enthusiastically. "Nothing for m'lady except the finest establishments in town."

He received a subtle stomp on the foot. "Forgive him," said Lily, rolling her eyes at her fake-fiancé smiling at the man and holding out some Muggle money. "He's just a bit excited, I rarely allow him in public. It's like letting a dog out the kennel," she finished, placing more emphasis than necessary on the last bit.

"Hmph," was all the inn keeper had in reply, eyeing Lily's hand and noticing the lack of a wedding band. He walked away, muttering something about "kids shacking up" and limped into the back room.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter once the inn keeper was out of sight. "The art of the subtle has been lost on you, Lily."

"I'm surrounded by you lot all the time, what do you expect?" Lily was walking along the side wall of the room, wand concealed in the sleeve of her jacket as she muttered incoherently. "Watch for him to come back, will you?" She continued walking along the next wall, muttering the same complicated charm under her breath.

"Would you look at that…" she heard Sirius mutter from across the room.

"Hmm?" was all Lily could say before there was a loud thud of something heavy followed by the sound of something scraping across the floor. "What in Merlin's pants-" Lily turned to find Sirius in the opposite corner, hunched over an old, dusty piano and begin to play –Bach?- fingers moving gracefully over the keys as continued through a few measures of the song. Lily stood where she was, listening to music. She'd never taken piano lessons as a child (too expensive) but she could recognize that Sirius had a major talent for playing.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he muttered quietly to himself, not moving his hands from above the keys. He began a new song, softer than before so that he could continue to talk. "The piano is an old, elegant, and proper instrument. Perfect for the Pureblood son to learn." Sirius practically hissed the last bit out, completely still now. Lily walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. Sirius would do this sometimes, collapse into the shell his family created. It took away his devil-may-care shield and left him miserable until someone (James) could coax him out of it. Sirius looked up at Lily.

"Sorry," He attempted a smile, but managed more of a grimace. "I shouldn't dump all this on you."

"What's a fake-fiancé for?" This got a small smile back to his face.

"I wasn't forced into piano lessons since I could walk and not learn how to use it against them, though." Sirius smirked as he played the opening riffs to Benny and the Jets, earning a laugh from Lily. "I'd wake up the whole household in the middle of the night with this. It'd drive Kreacher bonkers."

"Muggle rock, I like it." Lily laughed and turned away from the piano and back toward the wall, running her fingers over it. "I finished checking the place, but there aren't any secret rooms that we don't know about." They had spent the past few days planning and memorizing floor plans. Sirius joined her near the front desk again and finished her thoughts.

"So that means that if something is going on here, it's in one of the actual guest rooms or the basement," he muttered in thought. "That also means that we're going to have to manually snoop, and not by magic." A wide grin was on his face as his eyes lit up with mischief. "If only Filch were here, then it'd be just like the old days."

The innkeeper had finally returned from the back, bringing with him a set of keys.

"First floor, second door on your right."

"Thank you," Lily smiled gratefully as she grabbed the key from the man. Sirius led them to the corridor that the inn keep pointed towards, which was dark and dank, the smell of mold overwhelming Lily's senses at first. Sirius motioned for Lily to hand over the room key.

"An early honeymoon for us, Lily love," Sirius joked as he opened the door to reveal the "suite." A dirty mirror stood in the corner, left of the queen size bed topped by a dismal gray comforter.

"Goddammit, Sirius," came a voice, "if I ever hear those words from your mouth again, I swear I'm going to—"

"Prongs!" Smiling with boyish delight, Sirius reached inside his coat pocket for the mirror, "James, my good man, I see you're filling in your role as the jealous fiancé spying in on us. Oh, this is getting kinky."

"I'm going to strangle you," came the deadpan reply. Lily grabbed the mirror from Sirius to smile warmly at James through the glass. His tense expression didn't loosen.

"Hello, love."

"I don't like this," James confessed. "Dumbledore shouldn't have spilt us up for this. I don't like it."

"I know, but we'll meet up soon enough. Dumbledore knows what he's doing." She tried to soothe him, but James ran a hand through his hair in frustration, just as she had seen him do this entire week of mission planning. "Don't worry about this prat with me," Lily went on, trying to lighten his mood for both his sake and hers, "the poor thing thinks he's actually charming, and I don't have the heart to tell him otherwise." James finally smiled.

"I resent that!"

"She's right, Padfoot," but then James' scowl returned. "I have to go back out there, else I get suspicious for being in the loo too long. Be careful, both of you." He looked directly at Lily and said, "I'll see you soon, okay? Be safe." And he was gone.

"See?" piped Sirius, stowing the mirror back into his jacket. "He's just so good at that domineering crap."

"Well, I'm worried for them too," Lily confessed, "and the sooner this is resolved, the better." Sirius nodded and Lily dumped her purse on the bed to display its contents. "I've the floor map," she organized as she spoke, "a Secrecy Sensor, two vials of Polyjuice, and two bezoars I remembered to pack for us just in case."

Sirius pocketed his bezoar and opened the map. "We have two floors and a basement to cover, which means that we get a floor and a half. And, because you're a dirty cheat, you've got basement."

When the finer details of their mission had been worked out, Lily and Sirius were assigned partnership and left with the task of deciding who would handle what sector of the inn. The basement, of course, was the coveted area of investigation, being the most predictable place for any nefarious activity to be located. So a competition was made between Sirius and Lily through a game of Firewhiskey shots, that whoever could walk out the pub best whilst being properly sloshed would take the more exiting basement assignment.

Lily smiled sweetly in reply. "It was completely fair. I didn't cheat."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I still don't understand why I agreed that James could sub in for you. It was two against one."

"Ah," Lily protested, "but two against one Sirius Black. Look at the body index comparison. It would've been too easy if it were just me against you. Besides, I'm sure the witch across the bar would have been more than willing to help you out if you had just asked. I'd have allowed that."

He grinned devilishly in reply. "Oh, that she did, Evans. Helped me out a lot, you know, in my drunken time of need."

"I don't need the details."

"Fine then," he shrugged with a smile, then went back to business. "Our first sweep will be recon only, because if Dumbledore is right, there's going to be a pick up tonight and a one-on-one confrontation is the last thing we need. So, we'll do basement and second floor before meeting back on the first floor in about an hour." He glanced over at Lily. "You ready for this?"

"Always am," she nodded and picked up the vials of Polyjuice Potion, handing one to Sirius.

"Hold on," Sirius said, eyeing the bottle suspiciously, "I thought we were out of juice, which is why we're us at the moment."

"The Order's stocks are fresh out," Lily admitted, "and I've got two brews in the couldron, but those won't be finished for weeks. I may have nicked these two vials off Moody when he and Hagrid got a hold of the mead Dung had looted."

Sirius laughed. "Evans, you sly fox. Prongs would be proud."

"Who do you think gave them the idea to drink the mead?" Lily muttered, cheeks red.

"This is brilliant," he said, more than slightly amused.

"Yes, well, the potion lasts us the recon stage but nothing else." Lily instructed in an effort to regain focus. "If there's necessity for a fight after that, we do so in our true selves, as it should be."

"This Muggle will be my size, right?" Sirius asked, disdain dripping from his voice at the thought of being in a subpar body.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't be a diva," she told him, "I took the hair samples from our supply at headquarters." She still felt trepidation as she lifted her own vial to her lips. "Cheers." Lily closed her eyes and downed the potion— sour— in one gulp. The Polyjuice surged through her veins, and she felt herself grow a few inches taller, her boots resisting against her new feet, and looked down at her hair to see that her usual auburn waves were now blonde curls. Turning around, she saw a middle aged man standing in front of the mirror, poking his face with disgust. Sirius glanced at Lily.

"How come you get to stay pretty?" His voice was raspy, from smoking perhaps, and he pouted. "Ugh, my beautiful jacket is soiled by him. Never let me live to be old."

"God, you really are such a drama queen," she scoffed, her own voice high and icy, "and apparently I'm a bitch. Let's get going." As they walked to the door, ready to separate, Sirius grabbed Lily's shoulder gently.

"Honest, Lily," he said, "be careful. If anything happens… James…"

She kissed him on the cheek. "I could say the same for you." And with that, they exited the safety of the dingy room and began their mission. Lily made her way down the stuffy hall, listening for any noises besides Sirius' fading footsteps. The inn was still— other guests, if any, would be asleep at this hour (now past twelve). Walking as nonchalantly as possible, she crept to the door at the end of the corridor with a handwritten note taped to it: Basement. Off Limits to All Guests. She smirked as she pushed the handle, which immediately opened. She didn't trigger any alarms or immediate curse that should have been activated by her movements had there been anything worth protecting down there. Lily drew her wand and muttered quick Lumos as she held it aloft. Empty, she noticed, as far as the light could reach out, but there was still substantial area down the flight of stairs that would need inspection.

She shivered. Lily had hated the dark since she was a child. The first instance she could remember of being conscious of her magic was when her mum pushed her to remove the nightlight from her room. In her fright, Lily had to imagine floating lights all around her, and no sooner had she done that had her ceiling transformed into the sky, a full moon shining above her. But back then a full moon meant comfort, and now it meant terror. She still feared the dark— just a different sort. Darkness meant Dementors and Death Eaters and a whole manner of ways to die. It was in darkness that she fought Voldemort for the first time.

Lily rolled her shoulders, putting her mind back on the task at hand, and took her first step down the stairs. A steady drip, drip, dripping came from the back corner of the open floor below, but the darkness was too thick to penetrate much with her wand tip. The smell of mold hit her, overwhelming her, but there was something else, some other aroma, out of place.

Her foot hit the sixth step when someone hit her in the head with a section of plumbing pipe.


Boring. That's what Sirius realized his half of the recon was. The Muggle body he was in was uncomfortable and difficult to move around in, his clothes straining in protest of the beer gut he now sported. Why couldn't the Order stock some decent Muggles? It couldn't be that difficult to just yank the hair off of a twenty year old rather than a forty year old. Huffing in effort, Sirius decided it was fine to move on from the second floor and find Lily on the first. Half of their hour had passed, anyway. He shuffled past the one occupied room quietly— wouldn't want to relive the moment he realized there was a couple in there, er, sleeping— and walked down the stairwell once more. Now in the lobby, he saw the manager sitting at his desk again. Odd. He was supposed to be off duty for the night. Sirius gave the man a slight head nod, wary that he would recognize this middle age man was not one of his patrons. The man stared blankly ahead, still. Something's off, Sirius thought, walking up to the front desk. He snapped his fingers in the man's face.

"Thank you, sir, have a nice stay." Monotonous.

"What?"

"Thank you, sir, have a nice stay." And all at once, Sirius understood. He knew the signs of a poorly performed Imperius, after all.

"Shit, no. No." He ran to their room. "Lily!" There was no reply. "Bloody hell, answer me, Lily!" He stumbled back out into the hall, down the corridor and through the basement door.

The lights were on. The room was completely bare, save for three empty cauldrons and a blood stain on the sixth step.