Chapter 16: Guardian Wizard

Lily had never felt pain like this in her entire life. Not only was her whole body immersed in it, but her mind was also being tortured and it originated there. She screamed for it to stop, just to let her break free of it…

"Kill me now!" she yelled ready to take her death over this.

Not only did her screams fill the air, but she could hear Natalie and Alice crying? Were they crying? She couldn't tell she was in so much pain.

James, she thought, I love you and I will see you soon…

"WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!" James bellowed, his heart breaking at the sound of Lily in pain.

"Prongs!" Sirius restrained his friend, grabbing his arms so he wouldn't hurt himself.

Remus jumped up, leaving the mirror behind, and ran outside. Peter was curled in a corner whimpering at the sound coming from their only connection to the girls.

It was absolute chaos but the only sound in the room to James was Lily's scream. Not only was the sound killing him from the inside, but before Lily had been kidnapped, James had placed his own tracking charm on her so he would be able to know where she was at all times. This was causing him physical pain also because the charm bound the two people to each other and would sometimes share emotions and feelings between the two. Sirius wrestled with him, but he writhed along with Lily even though they were distanced apart.

"Remus! What do we do?" Sirius yelled over the ruckus.

"It's been taken care of just try to hold him down!"

"Poor little Lily," the evil voice cut through the darkness, "didn't feel to good now did it?" He cackled like the black bird he was.

Lily panted, exhausted. Not only had she just lived through the most grueling pain in her life, she would not be able to fight back because it had drained her strength completely.

"No answer? You sure about that?" he raised his wand again, eager.

"Please! Don't!" Natalie shouted, tears streaming down her face.

Riddle paused and bore his eyes into the other two girls present, "Why don't you all just stay in here in the dark until we figure out some way of display for you?"

They stared at each other in silence until he retreated, locking the door behind him.

"James," Remus put a cold hand on his sweaty brow, "Can you hear me?"

"James?" "Lily?" he sat up immediately to the small voice.

"Lily?"

The mirror remained black but her fragile voice pierced the darkness.

"Lily? Are you ok? What's going on?"

"I...don't know…" she answered slowly, "We're still in the same room. Natalie? Alice?"

"Over here," Natalie answered, still crying.

James was a complete mess. The one person he cared about the most had just been kidnapped along with her friends, she was tortured and he shared her pain, and he still had no idea where they were so he could find them.

"Ok, just try to stay calm…I don't think Riddle will come back tonight at least. We are doing everything we can to find you, ok?"

"Alright," Natalie answered shakily.

Purely exhausted Lily had fallen asleep and was shaking in her bindings. James set down the mirror, dazed, the cave wall the last thing he saw.

"What have you done so far?" a strangely familiar voice questioned. James slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the damp ceiling. He was lying on his back and a throbbing in his head reminded him what really was going on. Lily.

He sat up and looked around meeting eyes with none other than Dumbledore.

"Hello James," his eyes twinkled as he spoke. He smirked back unable to really speak quite yet.

"How are you feeling?" Dumbledore spoke in a very calm voice, a voice that was soothing even though we were in troubled times.

"I'm fine," he lied, gritting his teeth and getting up, sore muscles protesting.

"Do we have a plan of action?"

"Actually I just arrived, you are quite on time yourself," Dumbledore winked at him.

"This is how we've been keeping in contact sir," Remus held out the mirror that was completely black as usual to him. Dumbledore inspected it and after a while, spoke into it.

"Lily?" he whispered, watching for any reaction. The screen remained unchanging but a shuffling sound issued from what seemed a small distance.

"Lily?" Dumbledore asked again patiently.

"Yes, I'm here," she answered back, voice raspy.

She's ok, James sighed inwardly.

"This is Dumbledore, are you alright? Do you have any indication of where you are?"

Lily was pretty banged up. Not only was she mentally drained, but he body ached and protested with every movement she made.

"I…think…I'm ok," she answered, shifting her wait and wincing in pain, "The only thing we know is it's a dark room in a house."

"Can you describe the room for me?"The small voice questioned.

"Well there's a door on one side of the room, a mirror, a set of drawers, and a small window…but that's all,"

"Can you get to the window and see outside?"

"Um…we're tied up, but I can try to make it there," Lily looked at the window and the distance between her and it, this was going to hurt. She inched slowly and as quietly as possible until her head thumped on the wall. Finally she peeked over the edge of the window and saw outside.

"Ok I'm here," she whispered over her shoulder, "the room we're in is pretty high up, I can see other windows but I don't know how many floors there are. It looks like a wide open space, maybe a valley? There are not many trees and I can only see one other house…does that help?"

"Thank you Lily, please be as quiet as you can, we will be there as soon as possible, ok?"

"Alright," she choked. James stopped and listened, that was a sound he had never heard from her before.

"Lily?" James took the mirror from Dumbledore and looked into the blackness, "It'll be ok, I promise."

"Ok," she whimpered back, tears brimming over and falling to the ground.

"Alright boys from the description Lily gave I think they are in the Riddle House."

"Tom's House?"

"Yes, his childhood home. A family lives there now; I wonder how he is in there without them knowing…anyways, James, Remus, and Sirius you are going to fly there under your invisibility cloak, if you have it?"

"I do,"

"Peter, you will stay here with the mirror, we might need to communicate to you to get help. If that does happen," Dumbledore clapped his hands and Faux, his phoenix appeared, "send a message to Professor McGonagall with Faux here for help." He turned to us, "We will be sneaking through the Riddle House to find the girls. I want you to land on the back side of the house and enter through a window on the third floor. Make sure you thoroughly check as to which one to enter, I will find you when you get there. Go!"

The three boys jumped on the bewitched broom, under the cloak, and were off. It was a quick ride, not far from their cave hideout. The Riddle house was a very confusing house, definitely a wizard house. It contained many odd levels with windows and doors jutting out at odd positions.

"Which one do you think we should try?" Sirius whispered.

James listened intently. He could hear some noise but nothing that would cause this house to be out of the ordinary. Lily had said she could see a house from her window. He looked around and he could only spot one house.

"I think I know which one it is," the broom zoomed silently in front of a darkened window with perfect view of the house. James slid the glass up slowly, moved out of the way, and listened, nothing.

"Let's go," Remus urged. They crept in and landed.

Lying on the ground were three still forms, one with bright red hair fanned out, and a figure stood near the door.

"You're too late," Bellatrix Lestrange laughed and then disappeared.

A/N: Hope you like it! Keep up the great commenting, it helps a lot to know what you think, and I'll write again as soon as I can :)