Lisa: Here's a real long two part chapter for you guys since I made you wait so long.

Heather: Lengthy.

Lisa: Yes, now OMG CHRISTMAS IS COMIGN UP! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! AND HAPPY WHATEVER THE HELL HOLIDAY YOU CELEBRATE!

Heather: Not to be offensive to any readers.

Lisa: Of course not I love you all, now, enjoy the chapter.

Fear Itself

James Potter and Lily Evans, soon to be James and Lily Potter. Engaged for three weeks now, everyone was ecstatic when they found out. Lots of girls screaming and men clapping one another on the back, wine was distributed and music was played. It was a great party by all the Marauders and Marauderetts.

But such parties could not last forever, and not all the friends were being friendly. Ever since the wedding Laura had been avoiding Sirius like the plague. What was worse, he didn't know why. He didn't remember a thing from the night of the wedding, but she did. Maybe some details were fuzzy, but she knew something happened, and it was something that was more then awkward.

People were also starting to notice. Andy, Heather and Lily had already approached Laura about the matter. But, she brushed it off and just said it was nothing, she was as bad a liar as Remus. They knew something was up, but they didn't push it. They'd find out eventually, or Andy and Heather would find out. They had a way of finding these things out, it was sort of scary when you thought about it.

James sat on his sofa, absentmindedly playing with a deck of exploding snap cards in his hands. It made him jump if one went off. But he couldn't stop staring at his soon-be-be wife, who was cooking dinner, the Muggle way, in the kitchen.

As he stared he didn't notice the glimmering white Patronus that ran into the room. In fact he didn't notice it until it had to jumped on his lap and practically glared at him. When it did, James nearly fell off the couch. He got a good look at the animal and sighed, waving his hand to let it know he got the message.

Standing up he looked over to Lily and began telling her. "Put dinner in the fridge, it's time to go." He said cracking his back.

Lily turned around dumbfounded. "Time? They called already? The Order meeting was just yesterday, who's Patronus is it? They must be joshing you." She said folding her arms with a wooden cooking spoon still in hand.

"Remus's." James answered. "Best put that in the fridge and we can head out."

"I can't believe this," Lily complained taking the food off of the stove and placing it on the counter angrily. "I was almost done, now it'll taste weird cause I'll have to recook it."

"Well, isn't the final, demise of Voldemort more important then dinner?" He asked while putting on his jacket to prepare for the cold March weather.

"No." She sharply responded, not skipping a beat.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The pair walked into Order HQ a few minutes later, following them was Moody, looking just as grumpy as ever. It was Moody who had let them in the HQ.

"Sorry we're a bit late." James said taking off his jacket and slinging it over the back of a chair. "Made-Eye gave us a thorough investigation; he made sure it was us." He widened his eyes and sat down on the chair next to Lily.

Remus smirked. "Well he did the same to us, don't think you're special now."

"I feel violated." Sirius said sitting in his chair arms crossed and almost pouting.

"Is everyone here?" Mad-Eye grumbled to Dumbledore who sat at the front of the table along with McGonagall who was next to him.

"We're just missing Gideon." Fabian answered rather then Dumbledore. "He couldn't get away from work without looking suspicious. If you really need him though, he said to send a Patronus to him and he'd be here in a second."

"Sturgis as well," McGonagall said. "He had some... personal things to attend to."

"Then, let us begin." The Dumbledore said and stood in his chair. "I'm grateful that you could all come on such short notice, even in the middle of cooking what I'm sure was a fine meal." He looked at Lily with a twinkle in his blue eye. She blushed and scrunched down in her chair a little bit. "We told you at our last meeting that we knew of an old abandoned house that had once held Voldemort himself, now it seems that we have found it's exact location but Voldemort has already moved on. All who resides in it now are Death eaters and possibly very valuable information to the Order. I want you to go in, in groups and find out exactly what he was doing there. He has thousands of other places to hide, I don't see why he would come to this place which is so close to us."

"So do we capture or kill Death eaters?" Sirius asked.

The older man turned his attention to Sirius. "Kill if you must, but I would not like one so young to have to live with such burden, try and paralyze them. If we can interrogate them they might give us valuable information. Now be prepared for anything, be ready to use your protection spells, and don't flinch at unthinkables. They will use them, and you have to be ready. I hate to put you in there, but it'll be a while before the ministry would let any of their Aurors in, and by then any information we need could be gone."

"When we goin' in?" Andy asked with a blank and yet serious face.

"I've prepared a Portkey." Mad-Eye said stepping into the conversation. "I want you split up in pairs, one weaker one stronger. Meaning Black, Potter, Prewett, Lupin, Volk, Longbottom and McKinnon, you pair up with one of the others."

They nodded and looked toward the people. "Hey Benjy," Maureen McKinnon said. "You're with me." She grinned.

"Of course I am." He moaned.

"Wait! I'm here!"

They all looked to the way of the door and saw Sturgis walking in. "Hey, sorry I'm late... but... yeah, personal stuff." He gave a nervous smile while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Podemore, how did you get in?" Moody asked glaring.

"I let him in." Aberforth Dumbledore said walking in from behind Sturgis.

"We're pairing up with people for the mission, do you even know what it is?" Moody asked bluntly.

"I filled him in, Alastor." Aberforth growled at him.

"Fine then, so where were we? Prewett? Who're you with?" Moody turned away from Aberforth and Sturgis, apparently he wasn't in any mood to be arguing with either for them.

The one Prewett brother nodded his head toward a man sitting in the back. He was one of the newer members of the Order, only got recruited a few weeks earlier, if they went into combat this would be his first battle. However, Fabian knew him well enough, he said he was smart and a good man for the job. Normally he would be going with his brother, they were the perfect team, but since he was unavailable at the moment he would have to make due with the new guy.

"C'mon Dora, you're with me." Andy said to Dorcas Meadows, Dorcas wasn't a combat witch, she was however excellent at concealing herself and was therefore a very good spy.

Mad-Eye wouldn't allow couples to go together. He said personal feelings could get in the way. So, James got paired up with Alice and Frank with Lily.

Heather and Sturgis were already talking so apparently they were going to get paired up together. The confirmed it when Mad-Eye looked at them and they nodded quickly before returning to their conversation. Sturgis knew Heather decently well, he was two years ahead of them in Hogwarts and had become friends.

Remus therefore decided he should be the one to look after Peter. "Wormtail, I suppose that places you with me." He said and Peter nodded as he walked over to his old friend.

Sirius moaned and looked over, it was only Laura and Caradoc Dearborn left. Laura still seemed to be avoiding him for some reason and she had already begun chatting it up with Edgar Bones. So that only left him with...

"I object." Sirius said and looked toward the adults who would be going in with one another.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Dearborn, I suggest that for tonight, you get along, for all our sakes." McGonagall said as she stood from her seat.

"But Professor..." Sirius moaned and Caradoc glared daggers at him.

"Believe me, Black, I don't like this anymore then you." He said.

Dumbledore with his loud calm voice interrupted the evil stares between the boys. "Come on then, time to go, we shouldn't waste time." He held an old broken vase and placed it on the table. "Everyone, grab hold."

They all took a firm hold and in seconds they all felt a tug at their naval and it felt like they were flying through a vortex. Seconds later they all landed back on the ground, some graceful, others not so much. It was like an abandoned backstreet, the sun wasn't even shinning through the thick clouds that covered the sky.

"This is creepy..." Laura voiced as she looked around at the old trees around them and hunching her shoulders in the cold.

"Sure looks like a place ol' Voldy would hang out in." Andy said as she looked around, trying to be aware of her surroundings.

"Scared?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow.

She smirked at him. "You wish."

"Start moving!" Mad-Eye Moody yelled out and started walking in a direction. Everyone looked at each other and started following with a jog to catch up with his ridiculously fast pace.

"Why didn't we Portkey straight there?" Benjy complained as they walked.

"Because Mr. Flitwick! Would you like to make the noise of Portkeys directly in front of their noses and have them kill you the second you arrive!?" Moody asked his voice rising to a dangerous level while still remaining somewhat quiet for the walk.

Benjy pretty much shut up after that. The must have walked for ten minutes before Moody stopped and turned around to face them all. "Meadows," He said in a quiet voice. "Help me cast concealment charms on everyone."

She nodded and walked through the group placing charms on each of them. "Now, we can see one another, but the Death eaters won't see us." She said as she walked through the group. "However, the second one of them knows exactly where we are they can start to see us, so be careful."

"The place is right around the bend," Moody said pointing down the road with his wand. "Earlier I investigated it and made sure to leave windows open and doors unlocked, it shouldn't be much of a challenge getting inside. However the house is large, much larger inside then it is outside, so be warned not to get lost."

"Well then, let's go," James said anxious to get started on this mission.

"Ol' Prongs is right," Sirius added. "Can't stand around here all day."

"All of you, be careful." McGonagall said. "We'll be going in one pair at a time as to not make too much noise."

The older members of the Order went in first, aside from Dumbledore who would be going in last to make sure everyone got inside alright. Maureen and Benjy were the last to enter. Then crawled in through a back window, they knew that Alice and James had used it earlier, but they were sure they were long gone by now.

"Come on, Ben." Maureen said grabbing his arm and helping him in, with her being shorter and thinner opposed to his rather muscular frame it was easier for her to crawl in. "Don't need you falling behind now."

"Like you'd let me fall behind." He said as he practically fell in, lucky for him, not making to obnoxious of a noise on the ground.

They looked around the large house, it seemed they stood in the kitchen now. The kitchen must have been the size the house appeared to be on the outside, it really was huge. "My gosh," she mumbled under her breath. "The things magic can do." She said, being a Muggle born, Maureen didn't grow up with magic and was still amazed at certain things.

"This is nothing." Benjy said as he walked further in. He on the other hand may not have been a pure blood, but he did grow up with magic all his life, this was noting new to him. "You should have seen what I did to my closet while I was at home, I threw all my rubbish in there."

"I can only imagine." She smiled as they walked into another room, which appeared to be a sitting room. There was a fire place, with hot coals still smoking in it. "Looks like someone was here not to long ago." She said and looked up at Benjy.

"Looks like." He said and walked over to the fire. he picked up one of the pokers and jabbed at it a few times making red sparks fly up out of it. There was a movement in the chimney and he looked up, startled by what he saw he gasped and fell back onto the rug.

Maureen, who was investigating another portion of the room, heard his gasps and turned around. "Ben, what –" she let out a gasp, cutting herself off and froze in her spot, her next action being temporarily paused.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"I swear, Dearborn, you say one more word and I'll hex you myself!" Sirius cried in a very hushed yell.

"I'm just saying, one pure blood to another, how can you like the Foulmouth Falcons!?" He asked, his voice very hushed as well. "How can you, as a pure blood, not like the Ballycastle Bats?"

"The Foulmouth Falcons have had the best beaters in history."

"But the Ballycastle Bats have the best chasers."

"In your opinion, but it has nothing to do with chasers, the beaters are the key. Without beaters the bludgers would be flying every which way, no control what so ever."

"You played beater, didn't you?"

"That I did." Sirius responded with a grin.

"Figures." Caradoc said rolling his eyes.

"Shh." Sirius said and put his hand up. "I think I hear something."

"Death eater." Caradoc said and raised his wand. "About time, we've been wandering around in here forever."

They stood in silence for several seconds wands out and at the ready. But, nothing came. Not at all. "Where's it coming from?" Caradoc asked. "Maybe we should split up and look."

"You heard what Moody said, we're in pairs for a reason." Sirius whispered back.

The Slytherin smirked. "Always do what Mad-Eye says, eh Black?"

Sirius shot a look at Caradoc. "You thick headed prick, even I know this is the time to be serious for once." He said, this time not even making the pun with his name on purpose.

"Well I'm leaving, you can stand here and wait for the death eater or whatever the hell it is to sneak up on you. But I'm going to go sneak up on him." Caradoc said and walked away from Sirius, who tried to protest but his whispered cried could only travel so far.

"Dumb bastard." Sirius mumbled under his breath and backed up against the wall since he no longer had someone watching his six. He looked around and waited for someone to pop out at him, but nothing came. Sighing he lowered his wand and began letting his guard down. It was probably just creaking, old houses did that.

He peeked around the corner he knew Caradoc had walked down. However, he did not see the arrogant Slytherin anywhere in it. Sirius grunted and figured he should go out and try to find him. He may not have been to fond of him, but he was still stuck with him and Moody would be mad if he knew he had let Caradoc wander off alone. Even if he was being a prick about it.

Sirius was about to travel down the corridor further but he heard a noise behind him, now this was defiantly directly behind him. Even though he knew whoever was behind him couldn't see him, he whipped around wand at the ready anyway. He lightly gasped.

"Regulus..." He said staring wide eyed.

His younger brother however, seemed to not notice him even though he spoke, he was shivering, looking around anxiously and whimpering.

"Oh Merlin..." Sirius muttered and lowered his wand at the state he was in.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Caradoc walked down another corridor. He no longer heard the noise, but now it seemed he took a wrong turn because he couldn't exactly find his way back to Sirius. "Bloody hell." He said as he turned down another hallway and still he found nothing familiar. However one thing did catch his eye in this barren hallway. A mask that lay on a table.

"What's this...?" He murmured to himself and walked over to it. Reaching down, he picked up the mask and almost dropped it immediately. It was a Death eaters mask. He looked around as if picking it up had summoned all the death eaters in the world, upon seeing none he looked down to the floor where it not laid. He bent down and picked it up one more time. Only too late did he realize his fatal error.

"Oh shit, it's a Portk-" he never got the rest of his sentence out before he was pulled by his navel and taken away.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

James stared ahead at the doorway to another room, but he couldn't go any further, he was frozen in fear. His breathing labored and his body shaking he reached back and tried to feel for Alice who he thought was still behind him. "A – A... Ali...ce..." He said.

Unfortunately Alice wasn't behind him, before any of this happened she had wandered a few feet away to check something out and in doing so she activated a jinx. She was trapped behind an invisible wall, her wand was useless in here, only James could get her out. "James, please, listen to me." She cried out to him, banging on the invisible barrier.

He didn't even acknowledge he heard her, he just stared ahead at the giant chimera that stood in front of him.

"James, please, I know you can hear me!" She cried out to him. "James, it's a boggart! I know you learned this third year! I know you did! Basic defense, please, just trust me!"

Slowly James's wand raised into the air.

"That's it James, now riddikulus, just say it! Say it and think funny..."

"F... Fun... Funny...?" James stuttered in a small voice.

"That's right James, it's a boggart, it's not real. It just startled you because you didn't know it was there. It's not a real chimera!"

"Not real... not real." James said and raised his wand to it. What was happening to him? It was just a boggart, no boggart has ever done this to him before. "Rid...riddik... riddikulus..." James said in a shaky voice and looked down.

"Where's that Gryffindor courage?" Alice called out. "Come on James, You're better then that!"

James took a breath and looked up at the 'chimera' ahead of him. He smirked at it, "just a boggart you are." He murmured. "Riddikulus!"

With that the chimera gave away into a small kitten that sat at his feet, with a meow the boggart disappeared into the air. James sighed and fell to his knees. He never really told anybody, of his fear of chimeras. Every since they studied them in fifth year he's been scared of them. He didn't even really know why. He was so scared of it, he didn't know a boggart had popped out at him, he honestly thought it was a chimera, one that was for some reason hiding out in this house.

He rubbed his face with his hand and then through his hair a few times to make it more messy then it already was. As he sat there in his thoughts he forgot about Alice who was still trapped within the jinx behind him.

"Uh, James?" She asked breaking his concentration. "I know you're kinda shaken up, but I'd like to... well get outta here now."

"Oh... um, yea, sorry." He said and stood on shaky legs and walked over to the jinx that Alice was currently trapped in. Since he had no idea what sort of jinx it was and he was never the very best at counter jinxes it took a few tries before he finally broke it.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked putting her hand on one of his tense shoulders. "You really freaked out."

"Yeah, I'm fine..." James said and shrugged her off. "Let's just continue on, right? That noise was bound to bring something out from hiding."

Alice sighed as he walked away from her, obviously he didn't want to talk. Maybe once they got out of this God forsaken house and he was with his friends again, and with Lily. Maybe to them, he'd stop being such a hermit. It was weird, calling James Potter, one of the most sociable people she knew, a hermit.

Quickly realizing James has starting walking on without her she caught up with him in silence. If he didn't want to talk, she wouldn't push him, she did however know three boys who would.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Sturgis, are you okay?" Heather asked walking up to the slightly older man. "I don't think there's any Death eaters in this house, I mean you think we would've found one by now."

"Heather, something's weird here."

"I know this place is creepy."

"No, there's spells I think. Spells, are cast everywhere I can feel them." He said walking around and looking around as if the walls were covered in poltergeists and ghosts.

"There's that bloody Divination kicking in, I don't know how you did so well in that class." She said looking around trying to 'feel' it too, but being very unsuccessful. "Think maybe you're just paranoid?"

He shot her a look. "Heather, I'm serious! This place isn't right, I think maybe Death eaters were here but they did something to this house, they knew we'd be here so they did something to sabotage it or something."

"Okay, so, what'd you want to do about it?" She asked, "Go send a Patronus to Dumbledore? Get out, tell someone? What?"

Sturgis didn't answer her, he walked down another hall trying to figure out what to do, with Heather on his heals. But then he stopped in the middle of the hallway and shushed Heather. "D'you hear that?"

"No."

"Don't move."

"What?"

"Don't move."

"Why?"

"The floor, it's creaking."

"It's an old house."

"No." He argued. "It'll break or something. Oh my God... look at the walls... Devil's Snare."

And it was true all down the walls were crawling large thick vines. It was Devil's Snare, Heather remembered it from Herbology.

"Oh damn..." She said looking around.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Peter was sitting on the floor eyes wide and wand on the floor away the room from him. In front of his stood the same problem that James was having moments before. A boggart was in front of him, taking the shape of a large gray werewolf. It was towering over him and snarling with white foam dripping from its mouth.

He stared up at him, trying to transform into a rat and scurry away, but he was unable to. This house did something, he's encountered a boggart before, he was able to transform into a rat and when the boggart no longer saw him it retreated back into its cupboard or into the closet or wherever it came from.

But he couldn't change. This boggart was different then the other ones he's encountered.

"Peter!"

He couldn't even look around and find who was calling his name his eyes were fixated on the werewolf standing ahead of him.

"Wormtail!?" Remus called out looking for his friend. "Where are... you...?" He trailed off as he walked into the room where Peter sat, a werewolf towering over him. He could describe the pain that jolted through him when he saw the werewolf standing above Peter. It was a boggart, he knew, he was always good at them. But why was Peter afraid of werewolves? Was he afraid of him?

Remus sighed and rubbed his face before lifting his wand and stepping closer to the werewolf. Before it could even transform into the full moon he was able to turn the werewolf into a harmless little puppy.

It seemed that he and James had similar ideas of defeating boggarts.

"Remus?" Peter asked looking up and seeing him walking away. "Moony, no, it's not that."

"Scared of werewolves? To the point where you're immobile to even a boggart?" Remus asked turning around. "How long have you been sacred of us?"

"I – I'm not scared of you," Peter said. "It wasn't a normal boggart, honest, Moony, it was weird."

"Yeah, I'm sure it was." Remus said and walked away from his friend.

Peter sighed and before running after Remus who was walking away from him at a quickened pace bent down and picked up his wand. "Wait, Remus, no. It was the boggart! It did something it was weird. Yes, okay, I'm scared of werewolves, but only when I can't transform and I tried transforming, I can't!"

Remus turned his head around and glared at him through yellow eyes. "Oh yes, you couldn't transform! You've only been doing it for five bloody years!"

"N - no, really, I couldn't! I think there's a jinx or something here, I couldn't change I don't know, Moony, I'm not good at this." Peter said getting into a panic attack. "Please, Remus, please, don't be mad I need your help I can't be here alone."

Remus knew he shouldn't be mad at his friend, lots of people who accepted him for what he was were still scared of werewolves in a whole. But it hurt, just to see how he reacted in front of it, what was he thinking when he saw him transform? Remus cringed and bowed his head, even his closet friends, were still scared of him. He ran his hand through his hair, he still heard the quick footsteps of Peter. He was having trouble keeping up, Remus was quite tall, a lot taller then Pete who had to struggle to catch up.

Remus opened up another door only to have another boggart jump out in front of him. "Oh shit, for Merlin's sake." A frustrated Remus said and held up his wand as the boggart turned into a silvery full moon. However, before he could cast the defense spell on it, he froze and stared at his hand.

"Remus?" Peter asked as he caught up to his friend and saw the full moon. "What's wrong? Kill it! Remus? Is it effecting you too? I told you, c'mon you can beat it."

"Run, Pete..."

"What? Moony, what's wrong?"

"Run." Remus said staring at his now fur covered hand with his once nails now becoming long sharp claws before his eyes.

Remus turned around to face Peter, who gasped when he saw long fangs growing out of his mouth. "Run, Wormtail... please."