They had told him to let it go, ordered him even, but it hadn't been as though they were watching him, and he had slipped away without so much as the aid of his invisibility cloak, though it was tucked inside his jacket in any case should he need to disappear at a moment's notice.
Of course, he knew better than anyone that he shouldn't be there, as he was the only one who knew the whole truth.
Family was everything, or so his father had once told him, and for all the respect he had for the man, he had known even then that he was wrong. In his experience, it was the people you chose, not the people who shared your blood that you could rely on most fiercely, and he knew that his friends would agree. And Lily? What would she have to say if she knew what he was doing while she slept soundly in their bed, unaware that he had slid away into the night?
He had never liked plans. A pre determined outcome could only mean the possibility of failure, and that was something that he couldn't allow. In the order, with so many people and variables involved in every operation, planning and precision were a necessary evil in the organization and priority of life. On his own however he was more than capable of taking on challenges as they came and to face his enemy head on. Now he stood at the end of the long winding lane, lined on either side with rundown houses and broken streetlamps. He could see the light on in the house at the end, and he could picture the dark, hook nosed haired boy haunting the rooms inside, thinking about her when he had no business to.