Oh my god! You guys are well awesome! Well awesome! Thank you sooo much for all of your positive reviews! They are all greatly appreciated! This is the first time that I got no negative replies so thanks a million! Actually chapter ten is my personal favourite so far coz I feel that I am now fully comfortable with the story and know exactly where it is going and I think that I managed to achieve my goal which was to have the marauders be able to replicate each others feelings without speech. Especially regarding Sirius and James. So once again thank you all so much for your savage reviews and hope you enjoy chapter eleven which only for you would not exist! So I will shut up now so ye can read it! Lol.
Talk to ya!
Good Intentions.
James just sat silent for a few moments reliving the last few minutes in his head and contemplating Dumbledore s last words… "It is only the beginning……"
"James? James?" called Dumbledore in a distant tone to James. James looked up at the man he always greatly admired but presently who wished he could bash his head off his desk or curse him or hurt him in some way. He somehow found it in him to look Dumbledore in the eyes but anger was severely evident.
"James I do realise that all this information must be hard to take in at the moment." Said Dumbledore calmly. James stared him hard in the eyes. A few seconds later he replied coldly.
"Do you?" He then starred at the ground.
"Yes. I can imagine what you must be going through but fear not for Sirius shall be found."
James began rubbing his face with both hands vigorously and Dumbledore noticed this.
"James why don't you go on home and get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow and Ill take care of every….." James stared at him again and stood up and shouted at Dumbledore for the first time in his life.
"LEAVE EVERYTHING TO YOU? LEAVE EVERY……ALBUS IT IS BECAUSE OF YOU THAT WE ARE IN THIS POSITION! WHY THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU NOT TELL US ABOUT THE BREAKOUT LAST NIGHT?" James stood there with his arms folded across his chest, his brows furrowed and his dark eyes fuelled with fire. Dumbledore sat at his desk with his matured hands clasped. He took in everything James was saying before cautiously replying. He stood up at his desk and arched his hands at the edge of it while saying;
"James, I think we can agree that I am much older than you. Sometimes I feel that I am making the right decision but certain circumstances prevail and I realise that I am a foolish old man." At this James relinquished his anger and uncrossed his arms and listened to Dumbledore with compassion and admiration. I am sorry James for not conveying to you my suspicions but I honestly did not think that Sirius was in danger or any of you for that matter." He sat slowly back down again. "My mistake." He rejoined his hands and brought them to meet his nose. James took in everything that Dumbledore had said and realised that he genuinely thought he was doing the right thing. He approached the desk and took a seat opposite him. James just starred at Dumbledore anxiously for a few minutes in silence. Eventually Dumbledore lifted his face and starred at James, sadly.
"Sir I am sorry for shouting at you. Its just that it is so frustrating to think that for over three years there was tranquillity in the world and now….well now it is just like we are back to square one."
Dumbledore raised his hands to silence James as he closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Say no more James. I am fully aware of your concerns and I will not accept your apology because there is no necessity. It is my fault that we are in this situation but instead of playing the blame game I want to make amends." James nodded in understanding.
"Okay. So what do we need to do Sir?"
"Well first of all, as I said earlier we need to reassemble as many order members as possible. So I trust that you and Remus can manage that?"
"Yes of course." Replied James courteously.
"Well then the next thing we need is Severus." At the mention of Snape James rolled his eyes and sighed. "Don't be like that James. I understand that you, Sirius and Remus never had any time for him but please put your childhood rivalries aside for now at least. We have an important task on our hands and we do not have time to deal with this. Severus is a very important asset to us James because he was a death eater and therefore can perhaps discover where Sirius is being held hostage. So I need you now to leave and do as I have asked because unfortunately time is not on our side." James rose from his seat with determination in his eyes and as he walked to the door he turned back and asked;
"Sir why do you think they captured Sirius? Do they want something?"
Dumbledore nodded before saying "Oh yes James they want something."
"Well what is it?"
Dumbledore contemplated James for a few seconds, bowed his head, looked up and said gravely;
"Harry. Yes James. Harry is the only way Lord Voldemort may return. I obviously do not know this for definite but I imagine that that is their reason for capturing Sirius."
"So that is what you meant when you said time is against us?"
"Indeed. Now James please hurry and do as I have asked. I shall contact Alastor myself. We shall arrange something together and meet you at your home tomorrow morning.
"Ok." Replied James anxiously before leaving.
Back at home, Remus and Lily were clearing off after dinner when James arrived in the fireplace.
"Did you hear something?" asked Lily who was washing dishes in the sink while Remus was drying a plate in his hand.
No. Why?" asked Remus.
Just then James appeared in the doorway. Lily looked up and she smiled as she ran over to hug him. He reciprocated the hug but Remus noticed he did not smile. He put the plate he was drying down on the work top near the sink and asked "What's wrong mate?"
Lily released him and starred up at him worriedly.
"Where is Harry?"
"I just put him to bed….James what is the matter? You are beginning to scare me now."
He placed an arm around her shoulder and said;
"I'm sorry Lils but I have some bad news. I think you better sit down. Both of you."
Remus and Lily looked at each other quizzically while James shut the kitchen door.
After all three were seated he began to convey everything that Dumbledore had told him.
By the time he was finished Remus looked grey and shell shocked while Lily was wiping tears away with a tissue James had given her. All three sat in silence for a few minutes before Lily spoke.
"So…who are we supposed to contact? I mean did he give any names in particular or…"
"No. He just said to reassemble as many from the order as we could. However as I was leaving he did say that he wanted to contact Mad Eye Moody himself."
"I guess Andromeda will want to know about this. I'll go…go owl her now." Said Remus despondently.
"Thanks mate. That would be great." Replied James sincerely.
Remus smiled sadly as he got up to leave. "Ill see you guys in the morning."
"Wait! Stall the ball mate! Your….Your not gona stay here tonight? I mean you will be on your own and we have a spare room so there really is not any sense for you to….."
"No James. It's ok. Really. Ill see you in the morning." They all smiled at each other before he left.
"So were back to square one then." Said Lily with fresh tears threatening.
"No. Lils this is different. Voldemort is not around so we are not in any real danger."
"Not in any real danger? James…..Sirius is being held hostage for god sake! It is only a matter of time before they find us with or without Sirius help!" She wiped away fresh tears.
"WOW WOW! Now just hang on one second Lily! You really think that Sirius is gona tell Malfoy where we live? How can you think that of him? After everything we have been through! He has been my best friend since I was eleven years old and never once in the last twelve years has he EVER shown any signs of resembling his family!"
"I know that. I didn't mean to….."
"Who was there when we had our first fight in sixth year? Sirius.
Who made us reconcile after that stupid fight? Sirius.
"Who took you to the hospital when your waters broke? Sirius.
"Who helped us out after Voldemort tried to kill Harry? Gave us a place to stay, was a shoulder to cry on….. Sirius is who! And after all that and plenty more good hearted gestures from the godfather of our son you think that he is going to put us in jeopardy?" James saw how upset she was and knew she didn't mean it. He took her hands in his and said. "Lils he would rather die than give in to whatever torture he is going through."
"James I know all that and I didn't mean to suggest that but….I am just so scared you know?"
"I know." Replied James as he wiped her tears away with his thumb and tenderly pushed a lock of her behind her ear. She clasped his hand and held it tight as she brushed it against her face.
"Come on. Let's go and try to get some sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow love."
They shared a tender kiss before Lily said "Ok". They smiled sadly and headed up to bed.
Down in Malfoys dungeon Sirius was sitting with his back up against a cold, grey, cobble stoned wall. He was hugging his legs up against his chest and the cold concrete floor was penetrating up through him. The dungeon itself had a small square window at the top of the ten foot wall. It was a long, rectangular shaped cell with a tall, shabby wooden door with bars at the very top. Sirius had nothing to eat, nothing to drink, nowhere to sleep…..he was in hell. Someone would come in to him every hour and ask him where Harry was living but Sirius constantly told them how he would rather die than betray his friends and jeopardise his godsons' life. Each time he omitted this he would be cursed with "crucio" for about five minutes. The pain was relentless. It was like a person was carving a word into his back with a sharp knife. After they felt he had suffered enough they would stop and kick him hard in the ribs once or twice and leave. The pain would remain with Sirius for a long time and as soon as it left his system, someone would walk in and recommence the torture. Sirius was strong, very strong but he never in his life endured so much merciless pain before and he was not sure how much longer he could take it. The only thing he was sure of was that he was doing the right thing. He would rather suffer the price than see Harry as bait for Voldemorts return. The only problem was Sirius was dying. And Malfoy and the others knew that too. That was all part of their plan. Once they managed to weaken Sirius enough, they could perform occulemcy on him successfully. So with or without Sirius s co-operation, they were confident that they would find Harry and restore Voldemort to full power again.
It was 3:00 in the morning and James was wide awake. He was sitting on the chair next to the window and starring out into the night's sky. Lily who could not sleep but tried on numerous occasions unsuccessfully saw James and approached him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and James jumped a little but smiled as he took her hand and continued starring out the window.
"What do you think he is going through?" He asked suddenly.
"I don't know James." She answered compassionately.
"I can't stand it Lils. He is my best friend and to think because of us he is suffering for no reason. This is my entire fault." He said as he bowed his head in sadness.
"No. James don't you think that now." Lily bent down in front him and raised his chin a little so he was looking at her.
"I can't help it Lils. I mean if I just met him at our allocated time Sirius would be next door in bed possibly snoring his ass off….. "They smiled sadly at each other.
"You don't know that for sure James. They would still have come to get him even if you were there. You may have put up a fight but who's to say that ye would have won? It would be a hell of a lot worse if you were both captured. Think about James. Playing the "what if" game is not going to do you any favours. Our focus is finding Sirius not fighting, not beating ourselves up over what might have happened. The only people to blame here are the Malfoys."
James had tears in his eyes which he was holding back but they over powered him and began rolling down his face. He removed his glasses and Lily gave him a tissue.
"What if he is dead Lils? What am I going to do without him? He is my best friend."
Lily got up and hugged his head as he placed his arms round her and cried freely.
"Shh shh shh" Lily soothed. "James don't think like that ok? Sirius will be fine. I promise."
They stayed in that position for almost thirty minutes before James fell asleep and Lily helped him over to the bed where he fell into a deep sleep until six o clock in the morning. Lily however had a restless sleep that night.
Dumbledore was up most of the night discussing things with various aurors. They finally figured out a strategy that they were confident would work. Snape was unsuccessful in discovering where Sirius was being held hostage. However Dumbledore had his suspicions that it was the Malfoy Manor. His suspicions were confirmed by an unexpected visitor at 4:00 in the morning. Dumbledore had just set a certain number of aurors to guard the Marauders Mansions when he heard a pop in his office. He looked up from his desk to discover a creature that was a light chocolate brown colour with a shabby and torn looking toga around his small, abused body and huge bat like ears. It was a house elf.
"Pardon the intrusion Professor Dumbledore Sir but I feel that there is something you should know Sir." Said the elf in a squeaky little voice.
"Oh no no please by all means continue but may I ask your name?" asked Dumbledore calmly.
"Dobby sir. Dobby the house elf." He began twisting his fingers and shuffling his feet a little.
Dumbledore smiled pleasantly at him.
"Well, Dobby what is it that I should know?"
"Well you see Sir my masters Sir they is holding a prisoner Sir."
"Your masters? And who might they be Dobby?"
"The Malfoys Sir. "
"The Malfoys? Well that is interesting Dobby. Now could you tell me who it is?"
"I am not supposed to be here Sir. If my masters ever found out….oh the terrible things that they would do to Dobby sir. But no, Dobby must say sir. For Dobby does not want any human to suffer the way Dobby suffers you see sir!"
Dumbledore smiled kindly at him. "Well that is very noble of you Dobby."
Dobby smiled a little at him.
"Sirius Black sir. Sirius Black is being held by my masters in their dungeons professor Dumbledore sir. He is dying sir." At this announcement Dumbledore stood up and looked as if he was on the verge of a heart attack. "He is dying sir. You must help him sir! You must!" hollered Dobby.
"Yes of course Dobby. Now if I assemble some aurors are you prepared to lead us to Sirius dungeon? I know it is a lot to ask of you Dobby but we need to find Sirius and fast! So will you help us a little bit more?" Asked Dumbledore to an uncertain Dobby.
"As a house elf sir I am not to disobey my family."
"I understand Dobby." Replied Dumbledore disheartened as he resumed his seat.
"But like I said I do not want any human to suffer the way Dobby suffers Sir so I will do it Sir. I will help you rescue Sirius Black.