A/N

First an apology – it's been a while, sorry

A thank you to Shroomy my Beta

And also I but Chapter 7 up and then just took it down because I realised I hadn't put Chapter 6 up. Sorry

The title is from Hamlet so obviously isn't mine – it's from the 'to be or not to be' part

Chapter 6
To grunt and sweat under a weary life

'Excuse me.' James calls out. He runs up to a man wearing a dark cloak who is standing next to one of the windows looking out onto the courtyard.

'Can I help you?' The auror replies, obviously annoyed that two kids, one dressed in a black cat suit and the other as James Bond or maybe Simon Templar, are running up to him at 2 in the morning.

'Where's Moody?' James says not out of breath at all, I on the other hand am about to collapse - I really need to get in shape.

'Kids, there's a curfew, go to your dorms and let us just do our job, and you can't just tell Moody you want to see him, ain't the way it works.' the auror tells us condescendingly.

James is about to speak when I walk up to the auror

'Excuse me Mr...'

'Auror Stanford.'

'Well then Mr Stanford why don't you stop acting like Moody's PA and just tell us where he is. And if he doesn't want to see us, we'll just go back to our dorms and cry our little eyes out.' I say sarcastically, the walking closer to him, 'But I assure you Mr Stanford if you don't tell us where he is, by tomorrow you will be his PA.'

Stanford stares at me, 'He's back in the office.' He tells us miserably

'In the ministry?' James asks

Stanford nods at us. James grabs my hand and pulls me along Hogwarts corridors and staircases.

'James where are we going' I ask

'Hogsmeade, then we can apparate into the ministry.' I nod at him, 'Lils you need to close your eyes and hold onto my hand okay and you can't let go or open them until I say so okay?'

I nod at him, squeezing my eyes shut and gripping onto his hand.

First it feels like I'm falling into nothing, then just as that feeling is ending, it feels like my body is being pulled and pushed all at the same time. It's over in seconds; my feet hit the floor with a jolt. Then there's a series of beeps and two loud sounds, a churning sound follows it and then we are falling again except this time it feels like I'm in a lift. The falling stops and James pulls me slightly and then instructs me to open my eyes.

'Excuse me,' James asks the blonde filling her nails at the desk, 'Where's the Auror Office?'

'Level Two, end of the corridor.'

'Thanks.' James tells her pulling me towards a lift.

'Wait, you can't go there, it's on lock down!' The receptionist shouts at us as we catch a lift.

We don't say anything until we leave the lift and walk to the door of the Auror office.

'Do we knock?' I ask him

James looks at me like I've lost my mind but shrugs.

I knock twice then wait. After a moment or two with no reply, James looks at me, shrugs and opens the door.

'James!' I hiss at him, gripping his arm tightly as we walk in.

The office is messy (and I realise I'm a slight neat freak but it is really messy). The walls are covered with clippings from the Prophet and wanted posters. And, of course, photos from PlayWitch are scattered in between the work clippings. The floor is littered with pieces of paper. The office though is split into divisions with a series of booths.

'Who are you?' A gruff voice from the left of us says. We both turn to find Alastor Moody pointing his wand at us.

'Moody it's us.' James tells him

Mr Moody just stares at us and cocks his eyebrow.

'James Potter, Lily Evans.' James tells him, but when he doesn't say anything in reply, James carries on, 'You asked us to spy for you, but didn't tell us what for.'

Moody just looks at us, then slowly puts down his wand and walks over to us, 'This office is under lock down.' He tells us gruffly

'We know Moody, the woman at reception told us.' James informs him

Moody just looks at us, then gets a strange twinkle in his eye with a half smirk turning up on his lips and says, 'Knew there was a reason we asked you two.' And then slumps off behind the door at the end of the office.

I look up at James to find him half smiling, 'Well come on'

Moody's office is as messy as the rest of the room, there are papers everywhere and the bookshelf in the corner is overflowing. In the middle of the room though is a large desk covered with papers. There is a large plush green chair behind it. Moody plops himself in the chair and with a wave of his wand two chairs appear on the opposite side of the desk. After James and I are sat down, Moody opens up one of his draws in his desk and takes out a bottle of Firewhiskey with some glasses. After pouring himself a glass he offers us both some. James accepts while I shake my head.

'So what you got for me?' he asks us, taking some Firewhiskey and flinging his legs up onto the desk

'We know who is was.' James told him

'How do you know that?' Moody asked not looking at us

'I pulled a favour from an old friend,' I tell him without showing emotion

Moody stares at me before he nods and looks back at James, 'Well come on then Potter,' he tells James in a gruff voice.

James looks at Moody then glances at me, looks out of the window behind Moody and begins to tell him what we had seen.

A few hours previously the Slytherin common room

I have no idea how the Slytherins spend any amount of time down here. You'd get depressed in seconds. But then, dungeons aren't meant to be happy places with unicorns dancing around and the place full of sweets and joy and joyness.

It also doesn't have comfortable floors. I am now well acquainted with the floors because that is currently where James and I are sitting. Our backs are against the wall, our knees tucked in with the cloak covering us completely. The common room is empty apart from a couple of 3rd years. James had already cast a spell over us so no one could hear us, a pencil and pad are poised in my hand. James quickly glances at his watch, only a few seconds.

'Scram!' The very evil but - I think I can say this - the very edible Bart Crouch orders the people in the dorm to get out.

Some people follow Crouch down the stairs while some others walk into the dorm from the main entrance

After a few minutes, Crouch turns the Black, 'We clear?'

'There aren't even ants.'

'Can we just get on with is, I've got places to be.' Rosier tells them, already looking bored with the meeting.

'Rosier you have nowhere to go, anyone you ever go anywhere with is in this room. So shut up.' Black says harshly to him

'Down boys,' Crouch smirks at them, 'Well we've got a few minutes.'

At this me and James glance at each other in puzzlement. But our attention is diverted again to the meeting by Crouch

'Snape.' he says when he starts to talk again, 'That Mudblood Evans talked to you.'

'Don't call her that.' he tells him under his breath. Crouch stares down at him. But Snape stands up and walks up to him, 'Don't think you're something you're not Crouch. But as far as Evans is concerned, what she had to say to me is none of yours or anyone else's concern. Okay?'

'Maybe we should see what the Dark Lord thinks of that?' Crouch replies, closing the gap between them

'Oh, well if you want to bother him with the fact that the head girl wanted to tell me something, go ahead. I'd love to be there when he tells you what he thinks.'

They just glare at each other until they both turn away and Snape goes and sits down next to Wilkes.

'Well?' Avery sneers

'Don't 'well' Avery, it was you who messed up.' Crouch seethes at him, leaning against the fireplace.

'I didn't mess up!' Avery half shouts as he stands up and leers at Crouch, who just stares at him with half a smirk and laughs.

'Oh yeah 'cause we wanted to murder 4 people.' Crouch laughs at him

'Does it matter?' Avery cuts back

'Yeah Barty. What's one less mudblood and 3 less half-bloods?' Wilkes chimes in. Snape gives him a look at this, but no one but James and I catch it

'Don't put words in my mouth Wilkes, I don't care about the lives of a bunch fucking traitors! We just risked everything by it. We had a plan and Avery didn't bloody stick to it.' Crouch glares down at him.

'It wasn't just me, Snape made the stuff!' Avery chimes in, almost whining

'Hey, I made it correctly, not my fault if you thought instructions were above you!' Snape snaps. At this they all launch into a full blown fight. Me and James are too busy watching them all fight that we don't notice the fire burn green and two figures to walk out of the fireplace straight after each other

'If I knew that you'd be acting like you were in a polygamous marriage I would have sent an owl ahead.' Lucius Malfoy says with that aristocratic air.

'Come, come, Lucius, its so fun.' cackles Bellatrix Black as she comes up behind him, smiling. Say what you want about her, actually I will, she's a fucking psychopath, but she is incredible to look at. 'So did little Avery get it wrong?' she mocks as she skips over to the sofa and sits down next to Snape, 'Drink Severus.' she orders

Snape gets up begrudgingly and goes to get her a drink from the side table on the opposite side of the room. When he returns and hands her the drink, she turns and says scathingly, 'I don't know why the Dark Lord likes you so much.'

Snape looks at her as he sits back down and says quietly, 'Don't know why he likes you so much either.' This earns him an evil look from her. She only turns her gaze away when Lucius clears his throat

'Can we just get on with this; I have a home to get to.' He says in a board voice

'Oh yes, dear Lucius has to get to dear old Cissy and that warm be...' Bellatrix begins but Lucius interrupts her

'Bellatrix.' He says slightly harshly then a smirk appears on his face, 'Sensitive ears around.'

Bellatrix laughs heartily then takes a gulp of whatever it was that Snape poured for her.

'Right then, to business.' Lucius says still bored

'What business is there? Four dispensable people are no longer on the earth. There's no problem.' Avery declares

'Avery, we don't care about those people.' Bellatrix reveals, reclining elegantly in the sofa, 'What is the problem, though, is that because of you lot.' She says harshly glancing at them all, 'there are Aurors running all over here. They know it was something to do with the school and they probably know it was you lot.' She shouts the ending, glaring at them all.

'Why does it matter?' Wilkes asks slowly

'Because, dear Wilkes,' Lucius says scathingly, 'You lot are the moles inside this place. Because no matter what you do, dear old Dumbledore will not chuck you out.'

'Oh,' Wilkes says

'Come on Bellatrix,' Lucius says walking towards the fireplace while Bellatrix stands up

'Yes Lucius.' He says sarcastically, 'Oh and boys.' She turns around and looks at them all, 'Don't do anything. We'd hate for something to go wrong twice wouldn't we? And don't do anything stupid, just be well...' she laughs at the end, that horrible evil laugh before she disappears into the fire

'Oh that was wonderful.' Crouch says sarcastically rolling his eyes at the room.

Back in Moody's office

'You're sure about this Potter?' Moody asks once James has finished his recount. Throughout the whole thing Moody didn't show any emotion. He just stared at James, occasionally taking a sip of Fire whiskey.
'Positive sir.'

'You two put yourself in a lot of danger tonight.' he informs us. But listening to him say that I get the feeling that he's saying it because he feels he has to, not because he actually believes it.
James just looks at him and shrugs
Moody takes one final glance at us, lingering on me. Nods and turns his head away from us.

James pulls me out of his office and into the corridor before I sum up the nerve to speak again, 'What do you think that he'll do?' I ask James

'Tell Dumbledore.' he pauses as we reach the lift, 'Inform whatever organisation they're part of' he adds

'Wish I knew what they were talking about,' I muse quietly, because I do. I wish I knew what James and I had just got messed up in. I wish I knew what we had got involved with. Because I've got this feeling that we aren't just going to walk away from this because they won't let us and we won't let ourselves.

'Maybe we could do some digging.' James says as we leave the lift and turn to leave the ministry

'Don't think they'd like that very much.' I tell him as the cold London air hits as we walk out onto the street.

'So, they employed us to do their dirty work, made us put our lives in danger.' At this I cast a look at him, 'Don't look at me like that! We snuck into the Slytherin common room to spy on a bunch of wannabe Death Eaters, that's a death wish.'

I shake my head at him, but grip his arm tighter and wish I had bought a cloak and wasn't wandering around London in a skin tight black catsuit. 'But even after that, they didn't tell us what we were doing it for or who. I'm finding out who we worked for tonight. With or without you.' James finishes with a hard line. It was the first time I've heard him speak like that in months, it's great to see James back, my James, the James I fell in love with

'I've got to help you haven't I? You're no good at research.' I tell him, leaning into him as we walk through the streets of London

'James..' I say unsure because he's slowly backing me against the wall in our dorm. We just got in from our eventful night and the first thing he does is push me against a wall.

'Yes' he says slowly, his face only an inch or two away from me

'What are you doing?' I ask slowly.

'Being alive.' He tells me just before he lowers his lips to mine.

Oh God...

A/N

If there were little things from tv shows or films that you didn't understand just ask – I don't think there was any this time around

Ken

XD

P.S. I Like reviews :D