Quick update for you all, since the last one took so long! I'm really, quite proud of this chapter. Though it's kind-of short, there's lots of action, and lots of drama, and I wasn't about to pack yet another scene into it, just to make it longer! I think you guys will enjoy it - but the only way I'll ever know is if you REVIEW! - Jen

Late Nights at The Leaky Cauldron
Chapter 5

It was growing dark by the time Lily got to her old home with Drake. The porch light was on, but the house was dark. She figured he wouldn't be home - lately, he spent many of his nights at the Ministry, late. Now she knew how suspicious she should have been. His secretary, late nights at work, how had she been so blind? She silently cursed herself for believing in the best in people. Why did she have to be so trusting?

She pulled herself up the front steps, and pulled out her wand. Taking a deep breath to mentally prepare herself, she taped the door-knob while muttering an incantation. The 'key' was a spell - all the better for safety. She heard the clicking of the door unlocking, and slowly wrapped her hand around the door handle.

Was she really prepared for this? Squeezing her eyes shut for a breif moment, she pulled the door open, and flicked on the inside light.

It was messier than when she left. Nothing too bad, but every now and then an odd work shirt would be draped over a chair, or the couch, and the dishes in the sink were piling up. Stacks of work papers covered the dining room table. Lily squeezed her eyes shut for a second time - she had a job to do. She was here for a reason. She had been putting this off for 3 days too long, maybe even more. She should have left before she'd even caught them in the kitchen. Perhaps she hadn't had ever moved in in the first place. Maybe she should have stayed home... should have waited... She shook her head, and pulled herself past the living room and past the kitchen, and into the bedroom.

She flicked the light on. The bed was messy, unmade. She wasn't surprised, really. She'd always been the one to make the bed. She had always been the one to do just about everything. On the bedside counter, a moving picture of herself and Drake smiled up at her. Lily quickly turned it over, so the picture faced the wood of the nightstand, and continued with her mission. She ignored the mess, and pulled a suitcase from the closet. It was a bit dusty - not many people traveled in this time. She then proceeded to pick her clothes from the closet and fold them delicately into the suitcase. Soon, the bag was full, and she had to grab another.

She was halfway into the second suitcase when she heard a door creak and soft laughter come from the living room. Lily froze, her body rigid and chills going up her spine. It sounded like a girls laughter, but that wouldn't make sense...

"Draaake." The girls voice cooed. Lily stopped breathing, hoping to make herself invisible.

Suddenly, the bedroom door slammed open, and if it were possible, Lily became more stiff as her ex boyfriend barged in, with a tall, blond girl with an extremely enlarged chest clinging to his lips, her hands around his neck. Lily recognized the girl immediately as Drakes secretary, Penelope Applerow. She remembered, sickeningly, the night she walked in to the two in the kitchen, her shirt on the floor, his pants around his ankles...

Lily didn't say a word as they fell onto the bed in front of her, making it quiver and creak. She couldn't think, couldn't breath, and couldn't move. She sat frozen, rooted to the spot on the floor where she crouched next to her half full suitcase, her clothes piled inside.

Finally, the girl broke away from him, breathing deeply, a huge grin on her face, and that's when she spotted Lily. She shrieked loudly, causing Drake to turn.

"LILY!" He exlaimed, half in surprise, and half in joy. Lily simply blinked, her mind still blank. "Oh god." He said more quietly, glancing back at Penelope.

"Who is this?" The girl asked, her lips curling in disgust. Drake ignored her, his dark gray eyes not leaving Lily.

"Lily... you're home!" His smile played across his face.

"No... No..." Lily shook her head quickly.

"Draakkkeee!" Whined the the girl.

"Shut it, Penny." He snapped at Penelope, who promptly sunk into the bed, and then he turned back to the red-head. "Have you come to stay?" He asked, jumping off the bed, causing the other woman to fall off and onto the floor with a yelp.

"No!" Scoffed Lily, her thoughts and her feeling finally returning to her. "Are you joking? I'm getting my things!"

"Please, Lily." Drake knelt down to where Lily was sitting on the floor next to her suitcase. "Please, don't leave."

Lily turned to where Penelope Applerow was straightening her skirt, attempting to regain her composure. She laughed, a sick and vile laugh she'd never expect from her own throat.

"Right. Great idea." Lily shook her head, and zipped shut the suitcase. "We can all just live here - the three of us - one big happy family! I'll sleep with the couch while you sleep with the secretary!" She snapped viciously.

"Lily! Stop being so stubborn!" Shouted Drake, as he followed her from the room. He latched onto her wrist as she approached the front door. "Where do you expect to go?" He growled.

"What does it matter to you?" She barked, pulling her wand from her pocket in the mean time, and pointing it at Drakes throat. "Now let go of me."

"You'd attack a ministry employee, at a time like this?" He laughed almost sinisterly.

Lily took a deep breath, trying to forbid her eyes from showing worry. "Are you... are you threatening me?"

"Let's just say it wouldn't look good, Lily." He growled. Disgusted, Lily yanked her arm away from him and lowered her wand. "Now be a good girl, and come home."

"Excuse me?" She snapped, anger boiling in her. "You don't own me, Drake!"

"Own you?" He laughed. "Lily Evans, I could ruin you."

"So you're going to black mail me into staying?" Lily gripped her wand even tighter, if it were possible. "You expect me to stay? You obviously have no morals. You never cared for me."

"Of course I cared about you! I let you move in so you could get out of that home that you shared with your scum of an ex-"

"SHUT UP." She screeched, her wand raising to his face again. "Don't you dare - don't you ever-"

"I never left you! I never bailed on you when things became too rough!" He sneered.

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

"I don't? I don't, Lily?" He laughed. "Do you have any idea how closely I've had him monitored since they day he left? Do you not even realize that we worked in the same department? Do you even know what he's been doing in his time away?"

Lily said nothing, her breathing deep and her wand hand slightly shaking.

"Do you really believe he still loves you? Even cares about you? He dumped you, and moved on. He's been on the road, did you expect him to stay loyal? To spend his nights thinking of you? Of course not! He spent his nights with whatever woman he could get his dirty hands on-"

She slapped him. His face was thrown back, and a red palm print shone across his left cheek.

"Don't you ever come near me again." She said, quietly and calmly. She grabbed her suitcases and stormed out of the door, apparating as soon as she'd made it past the anti-apparation zone, and stormed into her own apartment.

"Ah, you got your things!" James greeted her, smiling. He sat at the kitchen table, his hazel eyes peering at her over a notepad he was scanning.

"Don't you talk to me." She growled, and pulled her suitcases into the bedroom, leaving behind a dumbfounded James. She plopped herself onto the bed, and begged the tears welling into her eyes not to spill over. Her hand stung deeply from where it made contact with Drakes face. She looked down at it - it was much more red than her other one. She pulled it into a fist, and for a third time, squeezed her eyes shut, begging for sleep to come to her.

Who cared if James Potter had slept with other women? He'd left her - abandoned her in the middle of a dangerous war. He'd gone off on his own trip, doing god knows what. He owed her nothing, they'd separated. Whatever, or whoever, James was doing was none of her business.

She tried to remind herself of this continuously as she fell into sleep. James could do whatever he wanted. He wasn't tied down. Besides, it's not as if she still had feelings for him. She despised him for everything he had done to her. He never cared, no one who 'cared' would have left her. Not at a time like that. Not when, at any given time...

She shook her head. She wasn't going to be attacked. And if she was, she was ready. She was prepared for an attack.

And that's when the door to the apartment slammed open.

James jumped up from the kitchen table, his wand out of his pocket before he could even think about doing so. Three wands were pointed in his direction, but his only thoughts were on the safety of the in the bedroom behind him.

"Ah, James Potter. Long time no see." Spoke the middle man.

"What do you want?" James asked, his voice sounding braver than he felt. Three masked men in long black cloaks laughed, but before they could respond, jets of light were being thrown at him with wordless magic. James dodged them under the table, and out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the bedroom door swing open. Lily emerged, the whites of her eyes red and her wand hand wavering. With a quick stunning spell, one of the three men fell to the floor, solid as a rock. James took that opportunity to stun the middle of the three, but in the time he had done that, the third had his wand to Lily's neck, and hers lay forgotten on the floor.

"It's so nice to see the two of you back together. Now, do as I say, Potter, and she'll be fine." He spoke, his voice softer than James had imagined it to be.

"What do you want from us?" James growled, his want pointed at the masked man.

"James..." Whispered Lily, her eyes begging him not to do anything stupid.

"Un-stun one of my friends, Potter." Commanded the man. James caught Lily's eyes.

"James, don't." She whispered. The man jabbed his wand deeper into her neck, practically cutting off her breathing. Although nervous to take his wand away from the man who held Lily hostage, James quickly un-stunned the left-most person.

"Alecto, grab those papers from the table." The man called.

"What about my brother!" The girlish voice shot back as she pulled herself from the ground - the voice seemed sickeningly familiar to James.

"He's only been stunned, you idiot, the papers!" The man growled at her. The girl, who James now recognized to be short, and slightly plump, began to pile James' entire set of notes from his time away into a large bag. Moving his wand from the man who had Lily to the woman stealing his notes, he watched as every detail of the four years he'd spent away was taken from him. When finally the table was empty, and her bag full, the girl returned to where her brother lay spread eagle in the doorway.

"Grab him. You know where to go." The man who had Lily ordered. Suddenly, the three were gone. Lily collapsed to the floor, breathing deeply. James rushed over to her.

"Are you alright?" He asked, bending down to where she sat, offering her a hand to help her up. Lily nodded and ignored his gesture.

"I'm fine. Send word to Dumbledore." She ordered, grabbing her wand from where it lay on the floor. She rubbed at where the wand had been protruding into her neck.

James did as he was told, sending an immediate letter to Albus Dumbledore. As he jotted down, as quickly as possible, the important details, he felt his heart sink.

Every note, every detail, every whisper of his time away was now gone. All he had left were his fuzzy memories. Suddenly, everything he'd done felt like nothing, like he'd left for nothing. He peered over at Lily, who was scribbling a letter of her own. He'd left her for nothing.

"It was all very brief, Dumbledore. Neither of us got hurt, it was very quick... Just took my notes and left..." James spoke quietly as he handed the man a cup of tea. "They broke through my charms. Couldn't have taken them long to do - Lily had just returned home. They even lifted the anti-apparition charm." He ran a hand through his hair. "They took all of my notes. Everything. They know everything we know." James said guiltily. "I'm sorry..."

"Don't be sorry." Spoke the elderly man across the table from him. "You have your memories, James, and those are more powerful than any words you could have written."

"We didn't get much from them." Added Lily. "One of them was a girl... Alecto... short sort of round girl..."

"Ah, Alecto Carrow." Dumbledore nodded, feeling for his beard. "Perhaps the two of you remember her? Just a few years above your own. Slytherin, of course. And her brother, Amycus."

"Yes! She said her brother was with her." Lily racked her brain. "I can't remember them..."

James ran his hand through his hair yet again. A nervous habit, of sorts. Why did the two seem so familiar?

"Gringotts!" He shouted, surprising even himself. Lily jumped, but Dumbledore simply peered at him over his spectacles. "I met them at Gringotts! Just a few days ago... Or, at least, I think I did... It seemed just like them... Yes, it was definitely... I know that voice. They were bickering about something..." He ran another hand through his hair. "They knew... they were there when I grabbed my notes..." He put his palm to his face, hating himself for not being more secretive, for not insisting on a ride of his own... His heart felt like it was in his gut.

"Well, there's nothing to be done about it now." Albus sighed. "James, if you could gather whatever you have, we could journey into the pensive, soon. However, tomorrow is September 1st, and I must be returning to Hogwarts. I've replenished your charms, and added a few of my own. Be safe."

He nodded at the two, giving a short wave, and exited the room. James folded his head into his hands. He heard Lily's chair scrape back and her footsteps slowly disappear as she exited the room. He still had no idea why she was upset with him, he'd just saved her life as he let his entire work for the past four years slip away. Angrily, he stood up, trowing his chair out behind him.

"I'm going for a drink!" He shouted, not entirely caring if she heard him or not. He grabbed his cloak from the rack in the doorway, and stormed out of the apartment. He wasn't about to wait here for a girl who didn't even care enough to give him a thank you after he'd saved her life.

Jen Riddle
9-17-10

Please Review!