Hey everyone, I know it's been aggggges, but I had a bit of writer's block. But today, I was reading it and everything went DINGDINGDING! So here it is.

Chapter Sixteen

Flying isn't that bad once you get used to it… Okay, I lied. It's terrifying.

My heart is beating overly fast as I hover in the air, trying not to move, in fear of falling off. Sirius is watching me, amused. Well, I think angrily. I'm not amused.

He winks at me and I feel my face go red in anger. "This is not simple!" I yell at him. "How do I get down? You know, to that thing I love, called the ground?" He laughs and flies over to me. We're on the quidditch pitch. Well, technically not on the Quidditch pitch… more like 100 miles above it.

I whimper. "Sirius!" I whine at him.

"C'mon Azura, stop being such a chicken. Just look at Lily." He points over to where my redheaded friend is whizzing around on her own broom, having loads of fun, with James right behind her. "You'll be fine. If you fall, I'll catch you."

Somehow, this doesn't comfort me. Not in the slightest. I wobble on my broom and grip it tightly. Okay, Azura Jane Lovegood, you can do this. Do it for Mattie. That way, when she gets back, you can show her and then kill her. Well, maybe not kill her… just hug her until she's out of air and turning blue.

"C'mon Azura," Remus says, coming up beside me. "Gryffindor courage." He says before whizzing off through the air and leaving me to balance myself. Again.

Remus is right, though. Gryffindor courage. With that thought in mind, I find myself moving forward at a slow speed.

"That's it!" Sirius encourages.

I move faster and soon I'm heading toward the bleachers and I can't stop. "Sirius!" I scream. "Help me!" He's in front of me in an instant, steering my broom with his left hand as he rides along beside me.

He grins at me. "You've got the speed thing going; now all you need is the steering." He laughs and I find myself laughing too. Mostly at how silly I was being.

"How do I steer, then?" I stop my broom and I'm hovering again in mid air. He hovers next to me and corrects my hands on the broom.

"You just let your body flow in the direction you want the broom to fly. Use your body weight to guide it and your hands to keep you balanced when you lean. It's pretty simple."

Simple? That's what he said last time. Oh well, here goes my life.

I fly forward like I did before, only this time I lean to the left and to my surprise the broom follows! I pick up speed and turn in the air, the wind rushing against my skin. I stop abruptly and nearly topple off my broom as Sirius comes up behind me chuckling.

"Didn't know you had it in you, Lovegood." He teases.

I puff out my chest and hold my head high. "Of course I had it in me. Gryffindor, remember." With that, I poke my tongue out at him and speed off, Sirius on my tail.

"Glad to see you're doing well!" James yells to me as I go past him.

"Thanks!" I say, beaming. We speed around on our brooms for about an hour, when the clouds roll in and all sunlight is blocked out.

"Time to go in." Sirius announces. "It looks like it's going to rain."

We all groan. "Well at least now we can plan our rescue better." Remus reasons. We all agree and head into the common room to do some planning.

AZURASIRIUSAZURASIRIUS

We're standing outside and it's raining lightly as we advance past the Hogwarts boundaries, brooms in hand. A feeling of doom overtakes us all as we mount and take off, following James, Remus and Sirius.

For some reason I'm scared out of my wits about going to save Mattie. But it's not going to stop me. She's one of my best friends now, and I don't know what I'd do without her. You see, I'm completely determined.

We pick up a steady speed and fly over Hogsmeade swiftly, the rain pelting across our bodies. James looks back at Lily, mouthing the words "I love you" and I feel my own heart fill with emotion as Lily mouths it back. I smile at Lily, who's beaming, and our faces once more become determined as we come up on a large building.

The building, though quite old, looks like a well built fortress. "This is it." Sirius says as we land on the ground.

"Blimey." Alice says, looking up at it. "How're we meant to find her in there?"

"A simple detection spell should do." Lily says. "I might not be able to find Mattie directly, but I will be able to locate any human forms inside." She informs us. "But I'm afraid we might find the wrong person, so we'd best be careful not to just charge in before we know it's her and not her father."

Sirius squeezes my hand as Lily flicks her wand at the building, chanting some words that I don't catch due to the rain, which has suddenly started pelting down on our heads in a much heavier fashion.

Suddenly, we hear a blood-curdling scream rip through the building. We all jump and I see the colour drain from everyone's faces. My face is no exception.

"We've got to go in there." Remus whispers. "She could be…" he lets it trail off, afraid of finishing that sentence.

"C'mon." I say taking the first step toward the building. "Lily, where's that map?" Just as I say this, an image of the inside of the building appears; two red figures in a room not far from the entrance and another just leaving. It's as if we can see their body heat.

"This way." James says, taking us to the main entrance. The doors have been barricaded over with wood, but there's a small gap in the wall that's big enough for a person to fit through. We file through sideways and stand in the dark silently until someone pulls out their wand and whispers lumos.

We're in a completely clean room with a wooden floorboards and a door leading into another room on one side and a staircase on the other. According to the image we take the door and follow through tot another room with benches. This room leads to another room which lead to three more, before we come across a room that leads to a room with a light on. This door is sealed.

James looks at Lily, who sighs and points her wand at it. "Vertigolas." The door glowed a little and a slight popping noise was heard before it creaked open a tiny bit.

I pulled on the invisibility cloak and pushed it open enough to sneak through without being noticed. There was a fire going in the middle of the floor and to the side of it there were two figures lying on the ground; one breathing heavily and the other barely breathing at all.

I walk over to them quickly and kneel beside the one breathing heavily. I notice that she's a woman in her early forties with dark blonde hair and tanned skin, slightly wrinkled with time. She appears to be bleeding from the lip and nose, and one of her arms looks like it's twisted unnaturally.

Her eyes flutter open, sensing me.

"Mrs. Blamey?" I whisper. Her eyes pop open and she tries to sit up. I push her back down, soothing her. "I'm Azura, one of Mattie's friends. I'm here to rescue you. There are others here as well." I pull the cloak off myself and look into her hazel eyes. She nods and closes her eyes again, still having trouble with her breathing.

I crouch over to the other body and push aside the sandy-blonde hair and my heart wrenches. It's Mattie. Her skin is pale and she's barely breathing. Her skin is slightly chilled as I touch her forehead and there's blood oozing from her head and right leg.

"Mattie? Can you hear me? It's Azura." Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at me with hooded eyes.

"Az?" She asks, barely a whisper.

"Yeah, it's me." I gulp. "We're here to rescue you. I'm so sorry I didn't help you… it's all my fault." My words are hurried as I whisper them in her ear, stroking her hair as her eyes flutter closed again. "Mattie, I need you to stay awake. I'll be right back."

Her eyes open again. Only by a fraction and she tries to nod.

I pull the invisibility cloak on again and slip back through the door to find James, Lily, Remus and Sirius waiting.

I reveal myself. "Mattie's barely alive and her mum looks pretty wounded. We've got to get them out of there." I whisper even though they've put a silencing spell up on the room.

"Alright, so here's the plan…" James says, thoughtful. "I'll go in there with Lily under the cloak. When we get in there, I'll carry Mattie back here."

"Why am I going?" Lily asks.

"You need to pull the invisibility cloak over all three of us and you can help if I need it." He tells her. "Then, once we've got Mattie, we'll go back for her mum while everyone else gets Mattie out of there and to St. Mungo's. Lily should be able to heal some of the injuries on Mrs. Blamey, but Mattie needs a lot more help."

We all nod and He pulls the invisibility cloak over him and Lily and they slip through the door.