James' knees buckled and he landed on all fours, gasping for air as he struggled to breathe. The room seemed to spin for a moment and he stayed there for a moment, processing the news that the redhead had brought back from the forest - one of their own had been kidnapped by Lord Voldemort and he and his best friends were expected to go and save her. He had pulled his wand from his sleeve before he even noted what he was doing and was on his feet in a matter of seconds, stalking toward the portrait hole. His way was quickly blocked by both Remus and Sirius, whose arms caught his as Marlene grabbed his hand and tugged him back into reality, almost crying she was looking so desperate. "You can't fall into their trap," she protested, shoving him down into the couch as Remus and Sirius began interrogating Lily for information about the encounter in the Forbidden Forest. "They will expect you to go and save her and that will get you nowhere. You are adept will spells, I give you that, but you don't stand a chance against the darkest wizard the world has seen. We'll go to Dumbledore and the Order and everything will be fine. Hermione's strong, she'll be fine for a while." She seemed to be doubting this, and James shook his head adamantly.

"We can't leave her there," said James, shaking violently. "We can't leave her there to endure whatever they have planned for her. If we go to Dumbledore and whatever the fuck the Order is, we might not get there in time. I can't - I can't lose her like we almost lost her that morning... it's my fault that she's been ignoring us and it's my fault that she's in this mess. I'm going to get her out of there before they can do anything to her. He wants me to go there, I will, and she'll come home safe."

"James," said Lily softly as she sat beside him, quivering like a leaf in the wind. "James, you can't guarantee that. You-Know-Who has things planned for both you and her, she has been very vocal with her opposition to him and we all know she's planning to do much more than to stay neutral and wait on the sidelines. She's going to do more damage there than she will here, and you know how strong and brave she is. She could get herself out of there in two days flat. We can't say the same for you, though, so... let's go to Dumbledore and pray that whatever the Order is can help her where she is." James swallowed, but he allowed the redhead to pull him from the couch and to his feet. "James, trust me."

He allowed Sirius and Lily to tow him from the portrait hole, his wand still clenched tightly in his hand as he silently fought with them. He knew they were right, but he couldn't stand by and do whatever they were doing to her wherever she was, knowing it wasn't good and that she wasn't safe made him want to scream and yell and find her then and there. James choked, wondering whether the things that his father said they were doing to the muggleborns they were doing to Hermione, and he shook just thinking about it, shoving those thoughts of rape and torture from his mind. She would be safe in his arms by the end of the night, his health be damned, no matter what anyone else said, whether he was the one to bring her home or he be the one to welcome her back home. He had to say sorry, to apologise for not trusting her when she trusted them without fail, for taking liberties in saying something that made her feel hurt. He hadn't known how much they all had found themselves depending on her until she was gone and he was going to bring her back.

Mary blinked rapidly as she clung to Cassandra, who was stumbling as though drunk, both of them trying to hold the other up. It seemed the loss of their best friend had wounded them, but her kidnapping had been the lethal blow that had them both reeling. She saw Remus and Marlene discussing her kidnappers in whispers, both debating on the worst thing to do to them to repay them for taking Hermione, and she found she especially liked the werewolf's threat of castration; she had known the amber-eyed boy and the bookworm hadn't been as close as they would have liked to be, but for some reason Remus found himself very protective of the witch, almost brotherly. Mary found herself feeling both anger and sorrow as she mused the kidnapping and the brunette they had taken, finding herself blinking back tears that threatened to fall without heed.

"We'll get her back if it's the last thing we do," came Alice's voice from around the corner, and the blonde came, stumbling slightly under the weight of the brunette boy clinging to his wand and growling. "We can't go after her immediately, sweetheart, we have to form a plan. Frank, think rationally for once in your life, please, please don't go after her. It's bad enough that she's gone, and you know I want to go and get her too, but if you were in her place would you want us to go after you, endangering our lives?"

"Who told you?" asked Sirius, stopping the group outside the statues of the gargoyles.

Alice managed a weak and strained smile, but it didn't reach her tearful brown eyes. "Marls sent us a Patronus the moment she heard. I guess the DA is good for a few things after all." Marlene allowed a small grin to come onto her face, but it vanished the moment it came, and it left the others wondering if it had been there at all. She took up Frank's other side, both of the blondes holding him back from doing something stupid; they knew that, over time, he had grown very protective of the brunette witch, as he had been the only one of them she hadn't ignored, his words comforting and his trust in her fully showing every time they spoke. It seemed she had not revealed why she had been ignoring the others, but she had opened up a bit more towards him; she had let slip about two boys, Harry and Ron, and a girl a little younger than them, named Ginny, who had all died in the war efforts. She had closed up whenever he asked for pictures, and he had told them that she was very shut-off about the subject after that. Now that they might never get more information on her, that they might never see her again, clearly frightened Frank more than anything else could, apart from maybe it being his Alice. That might have driven him insane.

Frank turned to the gargoyle, his eyes narrowed. "Lemon Drops," he murmured, and they sprang apart, looking almost put out that they had known the password and had avoided their wrath. He led them up the staircases, with James stumbling most of the way, and soon they arrived at the top of the stairs. James forced himself to stop shaking as he reached forward and pushed open the door, walking forward in as Lily sniffed and wrapped her arms around her torso as if protecting herself. "Sir, call the Order together now. It's urgent."

Dumbledore, who sat behind a well-polished oak desk set apart from others by the several silver trinkets there, raised his eyebrows, but motioned to the phoenix sitting on the perch behind him and the firebird immediately sank into ash, but this time it did not pop up like most expected, but vanished completely. Lily sank into the nearest chair and hugged her knees to her chest as Frank and Dorcas, who had been strangely silent until that moment, began conjuring more chairs for whoever was coming to their aid. James couldn't meet her eyes and he sat down in the chair farthest from her, and he saw the brief hurt flash in her eyes before Remus sat in the chair beside her and slid an arm around her shoulders, leaning down to whisper something in her ears.

"I like you," he breathed against her ear, and Lily stiffened and turned an emerald gaze up at him, shining with hope and tears. "I really do." She managed a weak smile and snuggled into his chest, turning her face into his shoulder and burying it there, muffling all the tears of despair, sorrow, and happiness as they dribbled down her cheeks. "Lily, we will get her back. I promise. I'm sorry it took this to make me see I need you." She shifted so she was suddenly leaning into his chest, pushing her body flush against his.

"I like you, too."

Dorea Potter threw open the door to Dumbledore's office, dragging her husband, Alastor Moody, the Prewett twins, Molly and Arthur behind her, panting and breathing heavily. She knew something was wrong the moment she saw her son sitting in one of the chairs and immediately swept over to him to wrap her arms around his shoulders, pulling him to her chest. Dorea spotted the tear streaks on his face the moment she pulled back to inspect him for injury and immediately sat beside him, keeping a firm hold on him as she turned to the Headmaster, who looked as confused as she felt. "Let us wait until everyone is here, Dorea, and then I shall explain everything. I know as little as you do - it seems these children know more than we do in the matter, but I am assured that it is urgent I gather the rest of the Order. Frank, Cassandra, Dorcas, Marlene, and Mary know not to raise the alarm without it being so." Dorea nodded and tightened her grip on her son, assuming the worst. The lack of presence of the brunette that she had come to know well in the meetings was impending, and it took longer than she'd like for the rest of them to show up in the office.

"Miss Evans, as Head Girl, I hand this matter over to you."

Lily immediately stood up and began pacing. "Well - er - I'm not quite sure why, but Hermione has been ignoring us for the past two weeks and... and I don't know why."

"I told her," James' voice was strangled, and all heads immediately snapped to him, though most looked as though this was not worth their time. Cassandra had immediately put herself in Gideon's lap and was seeking comfort there, and it seemed he was all too willing to give it to her. "I told her that no one here trusted her - I don't know why, it just slipped out, and... and when she walked away and started ignoring us I realised that I did, that we all did, and we relied on her more than we realised. I'm sorry."

"So why is this 'urgent'?" Moody growled. "Teenage gossip is of no aid to the Order."

Lily cleared her throat and stood up, raking the red hair from her face as she stopped pacing and turned to Dumbledore. "I have recently made up with Severus, who has apologised for calling me a mudblood upon the school grounds. I have realised, with Hermione's help, that pushing them away is more likely to make them into servants of You-Know-Who than to turn them against him. He was taught that the word was alright and I didn't realise that. So when I was going down to the lake to meet him this morning, I was happy. But that was changed when I was grabbed from behind and dragged into the Forbidden Forest against my will; when I struggled too much, I was knocked out. When I awoke, Hermione was being dragged into the clearing, putting up a good fight against the Death Eater dragging her in. She stopped struggling when he pointed his wand at me," she choked, "she stopped to protect me. And then they started talking about me sending a warning to the three boys - James, Sirius, and Remus - about being recruited for the Death Eaters. He said something about already having Pettigrew on his side," she exhaled as those in the room stiffened. "They told me to tell them that they would be in Number 12 Grimmauld Place, and they would be waiting. Hermione bit down on the man's hand and threw him back into a tree; he started to bleed from a head wound. She grabbed my hands and told me to tell the Order, to not let the boys follow her, and to wait for her to come back. She told me to alert Dumbledore and that we would be explained to what the Order was. I think she meant for us to join whatever this is, and I think she meant now... anyway, she was grabbed roughly and thrown backwards into a tree, and then she was like a - like a ragdoll, and I felt so useless, I left my wand in the Tower. And then she and the Death Eaters grabbed a Portkey - it was an old wristwatch - and disappeared. Next thing I know I'm running. I told them and we decided to go to you."

Dumbledore's eyes flashed. "Number 12 Grimmauld Place... Mr Black, I believe that you live there, yes?" Sirius shook his head, smirking.

"I ran away this summer," he confirmed, and Dumbledore frowned.

"Well, you have once lived there, so you know the house more than anyone else does. Number 12 will be under siege as of tonight. All those willing to help must notify me immediately and we will plan our strategies - Miss Godwineson, I believe that this is your area of expertise; Fabian, Gideon, Sirius, you three go onto help her with the blueprints. Your knowledge of the house and battle skill would be an asset to the planning, I believe. When we have numbers that we can rely on, we will take the house and hopefully take Miss Granger back."

I am so sorry for the time it took me to write this chapter up. I suppose I'm an idiot for not posting. I hope none of you have given up on me. Also, I'd like to apologise for a mistake that I wrote in chapter 11 or 12, where I showed two points of view in the same paragraph, as pointed out by a reviewer by the name of Lionswing. Thank you for helping; I'm not going to change it, because I think that it is a symbolic representation that I am a total idiot and you can all make fun of me for it. I will read that suggestion as soon as I have time :)

I've been off sick this weekend. I get sick a lot. And I've had a recent obsession with Rise of the Brave Tangled Guardians, so... yeah. I know it's a lame excuse and that I should have updated anyway, but I'm so so so so so so sorry for it. Please forgive me, all of you.

Love,

Marlene