A/N: Sorry for the longer wait guys! It's been a crazy week and I barely had time to sit down for a half an hour straight and just write... but it's here now... please don't kill me D:


"Can you see anything?" James asked quietly.

"I can just barely see the entrance to the hall," Sirius replied. "Let's hope it's enough."

Sirius, James, Mary, Lily, and Marlene were hiding out behind a small hedge just outside the entrance of the manor. From their spot, they could just barely see the lobby Sirius had spoken of. Suddenly, they saw some blurred forms enter the room. After a few moments, there was a flash of colour from someone's wand.

"Looked like Expelliarmus," Lily noted. "Then I guess she's in the cellars."

"All right, Disillusionment Charms on and Silencing Charms on your shoes," Sirius ordered.

"I hate to suggest it," Marlene started, "but we're going to have to hold hands if we don't want to lose each other or if we need to Apparate out of there quickly."

"Marls, did you ever think about becoming an Auror?" Mary asked.

Marlene shrugged. "Too much work," she replied.

"All right, let's just get going before it's too late," Sirius said.

The five of them set their Charms and grabbed hold of each other's hands. Quietly and carefully, they managed to sneak into the front hall of the manor. They quickly made their way to the hall where the fighting was going on and Sirius led them to the entrance of the cellar.

Once inside, they took off their charms and looked around the grimy dungeons for Rachel. Seeing as she was the only moving object in the dimly lit room, she was pretty easy to spot. Rachel was sitting on the concrete floor, her back against the dirty wall and her wrists chained. When she heard her friends coming in, she looked up immediately.

"Merlin, what are you lot doing here?" she asked, standing up.

"Saving your arse, of course!" Marlene replied.

Lily unlocked the cell door and Sirius was the first to bolt in, breaking the chains restricting Rachel.

"Come one, the rest of us are upstairs," Sirius said.

"Can't believe you guys actually came," Rachel wondered aloud.

"What? You think this guy would've sat around waiting for the, erm, senior officers to save you?" James replied, gesturing to Sirius.

"You think we would've let him?" Lily added with a smirk.

"Let's go!" Mary exclaimed.

"Hands!" Lily ordered as they ran up the stairs. "We'll have to Apparate as soon as we can."

The six of them ran up the stone steps as quickly as they could. The moment they got upstairs, they spotted Dorcas, Alice, Frank, Remus, and Peter dueling with Malfoy, Bellatrix, and a blonde-haired woman Rachel could only guess was Narcissa Malfoy.

Dorcas spotted them immediately and backed up to alert the others. They joined hands and seemed to be about to Apparate. Rachel felt a small, tiny, surge of happiness go through her.

And that was when a spell hit Dorcas.

The bright blue light hit her shoulder and she stumbled back and fell. Rachel stepped forward, but she felt Lily grab her arm.

"Shit," she heard Sirius mutter.

"Ow!" Dorcas exclaimed, clinging onto her shoulder. Blood was seeping through her shirt. "What the bloody hell did you throw at me?"

"Doesn't matter because I missed," Bellatrix replied. "I was aiming for your head."

"Oh, boo-hoo," Dorcas said mockingly, getting up shakily. "You wanna try again?"

"I'm thinking of a different target," Bellatrix answered, turning around to face Rachel. Narcissa and Lucius turned around as well.

Rachel nodded lightly. "I think I preferred the cellars," she finally said.

"Cowering in a corner, mudblood?" Bellatrix spat.

"Shut it, Bellatrix," Sirius said through his teeth.

Bellatrix narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't tell me what to do," she hissed.

"Thanks for the completely unnecessary small talk," James started, his tone quick, "but we really should be going."

Malfoy scoffed. "You must be idiots to think that you're actually going to leave this place," he said.

"Well, the way I see it, and mistake me if I'm wrong, there are three of you," Sirius started, "and eleven of us."

"Ten," Bellatrix corrected. "Someone doesn't have her wand," she added with a smirk at Rachel.

"That's all right," Rachel replied. "In case you don't remember, I'm a Muggle-born. I don't need a wand to fight."

Bellatrix laughed loudly, an unearthly cackle in Rachel's opinion. But it sure had its effect. For a short second, Rachel honestly felt nervous and scared. There was only so much she'd be able to do once Bellatrix got her under the Cruciatus Curse.

But then everything looked up when a loud pop was heard.

The three Slytherin alumni turned around quickly only to find that the five people behind them were gone. Rachel, Sirius, James, Lily, Mary, and Marlene took their opportunity then to Apparate as well.


"Well, that was fun," Dorcas said once Rachel and her group had Apparated back to hers and Sirius's flat. "But I really don't plan on doing it ever again so don't get into any trouble or I'm going to kill you myself."

"Yeah, I got that," Rachel muttered in reply.

"Both of you need to go to St. Mungo's," Alice said as she tried to stop the bleeding from Dorcas's wound and observed Rachel. "I can't stop this bleeding myself," she said, turning back to Dorcas.

"Then why didn't we just Apparate to St. Mungo's?" Dorcas exclaimed.

"Because I didn't know it was this bad then," Alice muttered in reply.

"All right, Alice and I will take them to St. Mungo's," Mary said. "I should have quicker access seeing as I'm doing my Healer training right now. We'll call you when things clear up."

Mary grabbed hold of Rachel and they both suddenly Apparated.


"Hey, would you look who it is!" Dorcas suddenly exclaimed, causing the nurse tending to her wound to jump back. "The mastermind of the invasion plan himself."

Rachel looked up and smiled when she saw Sirius. She was about to jump off of the table she was sitting on, but the she remembered a nurse was bandaging her arm, so maybe that wouldn't be the brightest idea she had.

"Although, to be honest, we improvised the whole second half and me getting injured was never part of the plan," Dorcas continued. She turned and gave Sirius a pointed look. "Or at least I hope it wasn't."

Sirius shrugged. "Guess you'll never know," he replied. He turned to Rachel. "And how are you?"

"Pretty okay, maybe a little shocked though," Rachel answered. "But, I don't have anything major and I'm ready for training tomorrow!"

Sirius's face fell and he gave Rachel a stern look.

Rachel glared at him. "Don't give me that look, Sirius," she said. "I'm fine, okay?"

"Yeah, you're fine," Sirius said sarcastically. "It's not like you just got kidnapped and tortured by Death Eaters or anything."

"First of all, they didn't kidnap me. I walked in and got discovered," Rachel corrected. "Second of all, I'm fine stop fussing over me."

Sirius sighed exasperatedly. "Two days," he said. "Just two days at home. Please."

"He's right, Rachel," Dorcas said. "You could collapse or, you know, they could come back for revenge. Maybe it's for the best to rest and lay low for a couple of days."

Rachel sighed dejectedly. "Fine," she replied. "But only two days."

"Fine by me," Sirius said with a smile.


"Here you go," Sirius said, passing Rachel a mug of tea. He sat next to her on the couch and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"Oh, for crying out loud, I'm not handicap," Rachel scowled. "I can get my own tea."

"Come on, I have two days with you all to myself and you've been through hell," Sirius said. "Is it so bad that I just want to take care of you?"

Rachel sighed. "I just hate people fussing over me and making a huge deal out of nothing," she explained. "Yeah, I got tortured, but I'm over it. Crying and complaining won't change what happened."

"Well, excuse me if I care about you," Sirius replied sarcastically.

Rachel laughed. "You want to know what else I hate?" she asked.

"What?" Sirius replied.

"I hate sitting around and doing nothing," Rachel answered with a glare.

"Well, then…" Sirius trailed off and looked around the living room. His eyes landed on the telly Rachel had insisted on buying. He pointed at it. "That. You haven't shown me how it works or what it does."

Rachel looked at him oddly. "You're not joking, are you?" she asked after a long pause.

"No!" Sirius answered. "Now you wanted to do something, so hop to!"

Rachel laughed and got up to get the remote. She sat back down next to Sirius and turned on the television by pressing the power button the remote. She flipped through a few channels until she landed on a show she used to watch with her dad. Merlin… Dad. I wonder how he is? Rachel wondered to herself sadly.

"There," Rachel said, throwing the remote lightly at Sirius. "It's not rocket science."

Sirius frowned. "So what's it supposed to do?" he asked. "And what the bloody hell is rocket science?"

Rachel shrugged. "It just shows a film or a show and you sit down and watch it. They're like stories you can watch," she explained. Rachel waved her hand dismissively. "It's a Muggle expression, forget it."

"So we just sit here and basically watch a story?" Sirius clarified.

"Yup," Rachel replied, fixing her gaze on the telly.

"And what's this story about?" Sirius asked.

"It's a show—meaning that there's a bunch of episodes on the same story, like chapters—about these doctors in the army," Rachel explained. "And it's a comedy as well."

"And for how long does the average Muggle watch these shows and films?" Sirius asked.

"Depends," Rachel replied. "It's easy to get bored and lose attention as well."

"What will we ever do with the rest of the day?" Sirius asked sarcastically.

Rachel turned to face him, smiling. "I can think of a few things," she answered.

Sirius leaned forward and kissed Rachel. It was one of those kisses, just like always, that got her pulse racing and her mind going crazy. Rachel wondered why exactly kissing him always felt so bloody brilliant, but she always just stopped thinking after awhile.

After all, there were more pressing matters at hand. Like the large amount of clothes separating them.

Suddenly, Rachel pulled away as she realized something. "Shit," she hissed. "I don't have a wand! What the bloody hell am I going to do?" An Auror without a wand... practically useless.

Sirius laughed. "We'll go to Ollivander's tomorrow," he suggested. "I'm sure he can figure something out for you. But for now, I believe we had other business to attend to."

Rachel smiled. "I believe you're right."


Hehehe... yeah, sorry again for the late update :(

-1289345847384938 'I love you' points to whoever can guess what show I was talking about. It's old, so dig deep.
-Grammar/spelling?
-Please don't be too disappointed in me... I'm making a puppy dog face, if that helps :D

Thanks for reading! :)