Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JKR, anything you don't is mine.

A/N: Thanks to everyone for the reviews!

I know, I know, this has taken a while for me to get up. I'm soo sorry! I've been out of town a lot and I just haven't had a lot of time! I really am sorry! :(

Chapter 31

At first I was speechless. I could only stare at Riddle, dumbfounded, this strange and quiet noise of bewilderment escaping my open mouth. I started breathing quickly, feeling on the verge of hyperventilation. The pit of my stomach seemed to have dropped right out of my body, and my head was starting to throb.

"No, no, no," I said quickly, shaking my head and laughing lightly. No, he's not serious. He's joking, he has to be joking. "You're joking, I know you're joking." He blinked.

He wasn't joking.

"No!" I cried, flailing and trying desperately to get out of that stupid chair. Of course I failed. "No, you – you can't, you won't!"

"And why wouldn't I? You know I don't really –"

"Because I won't let you!" I yelled, pulling at my restraints again. I don't know why I expected them to open.

"And how're you going to stop me?" he asked curiously, leaning back slightly.

"I-I don't know!" I exclaimed. "But I'll stop you even if it's the last thing I do! I've already lost my father once; I am not loosing him again!" Riddle smiled slightly, as if he was enjoying seeing me tempted to murder him then and there.

"Well that's too bad then." My grimace turned to a frown, and I stopped struggling, becoming still and staring at him immediately.

"What do you mean?" I asked quietly. "What do you mean?" I repeated, screaming it, when he said nothing. He couldn't mean he already had James – he had just said that somebody hadn't gotten him his victim; besides, James had gone into work that morning, I had seen him.

Riddle stood up and spun my chair around in the same fashion he had several times already so I was facing the door when it burst open and two Death Eaters I didn't take the time to look at drug in – my breath caught in my throat – James.

His head was hung low in a final defeat, his hair falling in his eyes. He had to be injured, and badly; I knew he wouldn't just give up and let them take him. The Death Eaters let go of him, stepping to the side, and he fell onto his hands and knees, not even bothering to look up in my direction.

If I thought my stomach had dropped before, that was nothing compared to how it felt now. I felt like I could hurl everywhere any second.

"NO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs when I finally caught my breath. James looked up sharply at the sound of my voice, his eyes wide with fear. His glasses had been broken at an odd angle; there were scratches and bruises covering his face – covering most of his visible skin, now that I looked closely – and his clothes were ripped and torn in several places.

"Nick!" he exclaimed, his voice low and hoarse. His eyes drifted to Riddle, who was still behind me. "Look, I'm in no position to threaten you, but please don't hurt her, okay?" He paused. "Or I'll kill you," he added, as if asking a question. Riddle set his hand on my shoulder, making me jump. I knew he was just taunting James.

"I wasn't planning on hurting her," he said. James' eyes drifted to mine again, the familiar hazel burning into my skull. I knew that he knew what that meant. I knew it scared him, I could see it in his eyes, but he was still holding his head proudly and bravely. Just like the James I knew.

"No, don't…please don't…" I muttered so only Riddle could hear me. "I'm begging you, please…" He ignored me and simply waved his wand. To my surprise, the chains around my wrists and ankles disappeared and I fell forward, crawling to James and throwing my arms around him. He held me close, rubbing my back gently.

"It's going to be okay, Nick," he whispered. He leaned back and took my face in his hands, wiping away the tears that I hadn't realized had fallen. "Please don't wallow over it, okay? I'll be in a better place, and I don't want you to spend the rest of your life worrying about me and blaming yourself because there's nothing you can do."

I shook my head, trying to tell him it would be okay, I wouldn't let him die, but he kept talking.

"Just promise me something?" he asked. I nodded slowly. "When you get back, be sure to remind your mom how much I love her. And tell Harry that he's the man of the house now, alright?" I nodded again, more tears falling over my cheeks. He kissed my forehead. "I love you," he whispered. "You take care of my little grandbaby, okay?" I nodded.

"I love you too," I replied. But I had turned my gaze to Riddle, who was staring at me. I half expected him to be sneering or smirking at us, but instead his expression was almost…contemplative. I frowned. "You told me you didn't have him!" I accused.

"What are you talking about?" James asked, looking from me to Riddle and then back to me. Riddle rose his eyebrows.

"I told you that somebody," he glared at one of the Death Eaters, "didn't get me the victim I wanted so it was being put off for the time being."

"Exactly!" I exclaimed.

"Well first off, the original victim I wanted was Sirius Black, so that's not a lie. And being put off – well, it was supposed to happen right at noon, when you first got here, and it is now –" he checked his watch "– half past."

I wasn't upset anymore. Now I was pissed, and I knew Riddle could see it, because his eyes widened slightly.

He knew that he could easily overpower an upset Nicole Potter, but not an angry one.

"You think you're clever," I muttered angrily. "But you're not. You're not!" Riddle turned to face the window behind him and started to laugh. I used the time to glance up at the two Death Eaters by us. They were watching Riddle. I seized the opportunity and used my wandless magic to call James' wand back while I inconspicuously pulled mine out of my pocket.

"– so, I took the next best one," Riddle continued as if he thought I was listening to him. But I was looking over my shoulder, waiting for James' wand to come flying at me. When it did, I reached up and caught it effortlessly.

Of course, Riddle turned around at that exact moment and noticed me pulling my hand down. His eyes flashed dangerously as he practically ran forward, grabbed my elbows, and yanked both of my arms to the front.

But before he could pull them forward, I let go of both of the wands and they went rolling behind me. When my hands were empty, he glared at me only to notice James diving behind me to grab the wands, jumping to his feet and holding out one in each hand when he grabbed them.

I thought that would be it, he was a good dueler and if I stood up and took my wand we could overpower them, but naturally I was wrong.

Riddle grabbed my arm again and yanked me to my feet, pressing his wand against my neck and his free arm around my waist to keep me against him. I wasn't scared, but James looked almost terrified.

"Drop the wands or watch as I slit your only daughter's throat," Riddle warned. James, unsure what to do, lowered the wands slightly, but didn't drop them. Riddle flicked his wand, and what felt like a knife flicked across my left cheek. Blood dripped down my cheek.

James lowered the wands even more, but I shook my head.

"Don't you dare do it," I muttered. I don't know if it was because of James or me, but Riddle flicked his wand again and another, deeper gash flicked into my upper right thigh. It hurt, and I gasped quietly, but refused to show any other sign of the pain. I suddenly found all my weight pressed against Riddle's arm around my waist.

The wands slipped out of James' hand and clattered to the floor. One of the Death Eaters grabbed them almost as soon as they hit. I could just imagine Riddle's smirk as he dropped his arm from around my waist.

The sudden pain in my leg caused me to fall forward, but just when I thought I was going to land on my hands or my face, strong hands found themselves under my armpits, holding me up. When I looked up, I saw that James had rushed forward and stopped me, pulling me lightly by the arm away from Riddle as soon as I had regained my balance.

Riddle was laughing in a manner that nearly seemed hysterical.

"You think you can overpower me?" he asked after a moment, turning to face us. "You're extremely wrong." He lifted his wand. "Move, Sawyer." I shook my head, moving to where I was in front of James. Riddle sighed, rolling his eyes. "Just move or I'll force you to."

"Over my dead body," I snarled, knowing he wouldn't kill me. He shrugged.

"Suit yourself."

His lips formed the words I hadn't expected, but before he could James shoved me roughly out of the way. I fell, hard, and could only watch, sitting on the floor in a helpless heap, as he formed the words I hated, waiting for the light.

Just as the room should've exploded in green light, the masked Death Eater beside me was thrown against the wall and fell down, unconscious. I stared, confused, looking around for the source but finding nothing out of the ordinary.

Riddle didn't notice, his wand rearing back, preparing for the spell. But suddenly, his body seemed to lift off of the ground as he too was thrown back, smashing into the table and chair behind him, pushing them back until gravity pulled his unconscious body to the ground. I screamed, and James let out a yell of shock.

After a few moments, I slowly turned my head toward James.

"Did you do that?" I asked. He shook his head.

"I can't do wandless magic, so I thought you did!"

But then a sudden movement behind him caught my eye. The Death Eater left standing moved around James to look at Riddle. I noticed his wand was out, pointing at him, and he kicked him lightly as if to see if he would move. He didn't.

"You did that!" I exclaimed after a moment of shock. He ignored me. "Who are you?" I asked. He turned around, facing us, his wand lifted, but instead of cursing us reached back and pulled down his hood.

We were both silent for a moment, shocked and trying to figure out what was going on, before we suddenly regained our ability to speak.

"Sirius!" James exclaimed.

"What the hell?" I asked. "How did you get here?" Sirius held out his hand to me. I took it gratefully and he pulled me to my feet.

"Long story," he said, kneeling down to look at my thigh. "Shit, I don't know any healing charms, we'll have to wait –"

"What the hell is going on?" James asked. "We're not leaving until you tell us!"

"Shh!" Sirius and I both said.

"They'll hear you," I whispered. James rolled his eyes, but rose his eyebrows at Sirius as if still expecting him to answer him.

"You know how he said he didn't get me here? Well, that's a lie. He did. But I overpowered the Death Eaters holding me captive –"

"How?"

"Well, Death Eaters may be good duelers but they're not good at hand-to-hand combat," he said. "There were only two, all I had to do was knock their wands out of their hands to get them easy to overpower, knocking them out and stealing one of their robes so I could get out. But I was on my way out when I saw you –" he pointed to me "– coming here and when I followed you suddenly that other guy appeared with James, so I had to play my part until I got here and waited to make my move."

"You punched me," James said after a moment, flabbergasted. "And you let him nearly kill Nicki!"

"Shh!" Sirius whispered again, looking toward the door apprehensively. "I know, I know, I shouldn't've done those things but I was waiting for the perfect moment to knock him out and then he almost killed you and I froze and –"

"Okay, calm down Sirius," I said. "It's fine, I'm going to be fine, Dad's going to be fine, we just need to get out of here before they wake up."

"Here," he said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out two wands, handing one to each of us. "I had to make sure the other dude didn't take them before I could or we'd have even more of a problem getting out of here."

"Speaking of which, don't you think we should? Get out of here, that is?" I pointed out. The two looked at me, then at each other, and back to me before nodding simultaneously.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," James said. "Let's just Apparate to Grimmauld Place right?"

"Can't," I answered. "They have spells against that here." I paused. "Sirius, what are you doing?" I asked when I saw him pulling his hood back up.

"We need to make it look like we're not…out of place, I suppose."

"How?" James asked. Sirius shrugged, moving the hood to cover his face.

"Don't ask me, ask your daughter, she's the one who's always here." They both turned to me. I blinked.

"Thanks for volunteering me, Sirius," I muttered. I didn't really want to make up the plan – wasn't Sirius Head Auror anyways? – but I figured I did know this place better than they did. "Okay, Sirius, you're going to have to pretend like you're dragging Dad along behind you, like you're taking him to the dungeons or something. Dad, act injured, fight him but let him."

"And you?" James asked, raising his eyebrows. I bit my lower lip.

"I'll follow a couple feet back – it's a common occurrence that I'm here, they won't say anything to me."

"No," James said automatically. "How can I be sure you'll follow and not stay behind to…deal with Voldemort or something?"

"Besides," Sirius said. "I don't know my way around here. You lead." He grabbed my shoulder and pushed me forward, toward the door, roughly. I stumbled forward, pain shooting up my right leg. But I grit my teeth and turned back to glare at him.

"You better follow me, and if you don't, I swear to Merlin –"

"We'll follow you ten or so feet back, now go!" James muttered. I grimaced before I did as I had been told, closing the door partially behind me.

The hall was silent, which was odd. But I shrugged it off and started for the exit, limping slightly, my leg stinging. Blood from my cheek ran into my mouth, and I used my hand to wipe it away, staining my fingers and palm red as it dripped to the floor with the rest of the blood that was pouring down my leg, leaving a trail of where I was going.

At least it would be easy for Sirius and James to follow me.

As well as anybody else if they so pleased.

The stairs creaked beneath my feet as I limped up them, holding the railing to try to keep from stumbling back down the stairs, which I felt likely to do at any second.

Somehow I made it up the stairs, glancing back down the stairs before I moved on. Sirius and James were too far behind to see, hidden behind the ceiling and some corners. I was bleeding only a little less now, but there was still a trail behind me.

As I rounded the next corner, I noticed a few masked Death Eaters marching down the hall. I knew they had seen me, there was no way they hadn't, and it was too late for me to duck back around the corner and hide from them.

So I kept walking as if there was nothing wrong, nothing out of the ordinary for them to care about. The first two glanced at me as I passed but didn't say anything, but the last one stopped right in front of me so abruptly I ran right into their chest.

"Watch it!" I snapped, shaking my head. "Gosh –!"

Before I could finish, the Death Eater reached forward and suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders, shoving me sideways and against the wall so roughly the back of my head felt as if it had split in two. I grunted, my head throbbing.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed.

"I heard about what happened," he said forcefully, shaking my shoulders lightly. I didn't recognize his low and gruff voice.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, pretending to be confused even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"You know what I'm talking about," he replied, annoyed. "You knocked out the Dark Lord and are helping the prisoners escape. Where are they?"

"What prisoners?" I asked, trying to sound irritated. I could just imagine the Death Eater rolling his eyes at me, annoyed.

"I know what you're doing –"

Down the hall, where I had just come from, I heard a shout and an explosion in the distance. I knew James and Sirius were down there, and when I heard more shouts and saw flashing lights, I knew they could use all the help they could get.

So while the Death Eater holding my shoulders was distracted by looking down toward the shouts, I pulled my wand out of my pocket and pointed it at the Death Eaters chest.

"Stupefy," I said. He barely had time to turn back to me in shock when he was thrown backwards off of me and hit the other wall. I didn't even look at him before I took off running down the hall, rounded the corner, and –

Ran right into someone who had been running my way and fell backwards, my wand rolling out of my hand. I scrambled to grab it again, turning it on who I had run into.

"Draco!" I exclaimed, shocked. He was dressed in his Death Eater robes, but his hood had fallen off. When I ran into him, he must've fallen over as well, but he was already on his feet. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet.

"You have to get out of here," he said. I saw James and Sirius down the hall, running toward us. I noticed Sirius' mask had fallen off as well. "They know you've escaped –!"

"Oh really?" Sirius asked sarcastically, having caught up with us. "I didn't notice that when they started shooting the Killing Curse at us!"

"You need to hurry," Draco muttered, ignoring Sirius' comment. "Black and I should put our hoods up and pretend to pull you two along, maybe they won't realize until we can curse them." He and Sirius pulled their hoods up quickly. Draco grabbed my arm lightly while Sirius did the same to James.

When Draco's hand pulled me around to face the way we had to go, I gasped.

At least a dozen Death Eaters were coming our way, wands drawn, already shooting curses at us. I spun around, wondering if we could hurry the other way, to see a few Death Eaters coming our way from there.

"Draco," I muttered, taking my arm out of his grasp. "They might find out there's a spy if you do this."

"I don't care," he murmured. "I can't let you guys get hurt just because –"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence, because a nasty looking curse had flown at him from his right. He noticed it out of the corner of his eye at the last moment, turning toward it to block it, but he was too late.

I screamed as it hit Draco square in the chest. He flew backward through the air, landing with a thud against the wall, where he slid down to the ground and lay completely still.