Through Another's Eyes

By Neurotica

Four

"I'll catch up with you!" Harry said irritably for the fifth time as he tried to pry his arm from Lavender's death grip.

He'd been waiting impatiently all week for the Hogsmeade weekend to arrive and though he'd tried to convince his group of friends he had other things to do besides going to sit in Madam Puddifoot's all afternoon, Lavender wasn't having any part in letting him go easily. That morning, he'd been fully prepared to tell the others he was sick and not up to a Hogsmeade trip so they would go without him and he could sneak into Honeyduke's through the cellar, hoping to avoid a display like this. But when Lavender had started fussing over him, offering to bring him soup and sit with him all day, he'd resigned himself to finding a way to ditch her in the village.

"I've just got something to do," Harry told the girl. "I won't be long..." He sent a pleading look to Seamus and Parvati—Seamus smirked while Parvati managed to get Lavender to let Harry go by telling her she saw some robes at Gladrags she wanted to try on. Turning away for a moment so Lavender wouldn't see him rolling his eyes, Harry waved as Lavender was led away from him before turning a corner and locating Remus' bookshop. He pushed open the door and looked around, trying to find the older wizard in the crowd of Hogwarts students that filled the building.

"Harry!"

The boy turned towards a staircase and found Remus grinning and waving him up. Harry returned the grin and took the stairs two at a time. "Nice shop," he said approvingly, looking around.

Remus' grin widened. "Thank you," he said before lowering his voice so only Harry could hear. "How's your week been?"

Harry sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. "I really don't see how he got anything done with Lavender attached to him all bloody day." Judging by the chuckle Remus gave, he was well aware that Harry was referring to this world's Harry. "Er, do you have a moment to talk?"

Remus' brow creased a little in question, but he looked around a moment before nodding. "Of course," he said briskly, gesturing for Harry to head down the stairs.

They fought their way through the crowd of people checking out books towards the backroom. Remus said a few whispered words to the young witch at the cash register; she nodded, gave Harry an odd look, and went back to taking care of customers. Closing the door behind them, Remus nodded towards a pair of comfortable looking armchairs. Harry waited for Remus to get them both a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits Harry strongly suspected had been stolen from his parents' house—Lily had made a large batch just before Harry had left for Hogwarts.

"If I didn't take them when I had the chance, James and Sirius would have eaten every last crumb," Remus said, noticing where Harry was looking. "And they really are excellent..."

Harry chuckled and nodded his agreement, telling Remus about his first week back at Hogwarts. Nothing very noteworthy had happened before the other night when he'd gone out to the lake, but Harry held onto that for the time being, still uncertain how to explain what had happened. Regardless of his attempts to befriend Ron Weasley, the redhead still remained firmly set in his opinion that Harry was an arrogant twit not worth two seconds of his time.

"The problem is," Harry said through a mouthful of biscuit, "every time I try to talk to him, Seamus comes in and insults him, so Ron thinks I was only faking being polite as a setup for whatever Seamus decided to do."

He'd hoped Remus might offer some insights and advice on this particular subject, but it seemed he was far too busy trying not to laugh to be of any real use. "He'll come around," was the only thing Remus managed to offer. "Just be patient."

Harry rolled his eyes at this, deciding to broach the subject he'd come to discuss. Remus listened very patiently as Harry explained what had happened on the evening in question, and though he very obviously wanted to lecture Harry about sneaking out of the castle at night, Harry didn't give him the chance; he plowed on through his explanation of seeing his world's Sirius and Remus worrying about where Harry had gone. When he finished speaking, Remus was staring into his teacup pensively.

"What do you think it means?" Harry asked quietly when the older wizard didn't say anything for far too long.

Remus heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head, looking back up at Harry. "I don't know," he replied slowly. Harry's heart dropped to somewhere around his stomach. "It is very strange... If you can see into the other world, does that mean you can go back there if you wished?" Harry started to answer, but apparently it was a rhetorical question. "This also begs the question of what does it mean that you're no longer in that world, how thoroughly will this have changed things? Both worlds are currently at war, even if your world is fighting a silent one until the Ministry gets its head out of its arse."

Harry snorted a laugh at Remus' cursing; Remus gave him a look of vague apology. "As for what you should do... I don't know," the older wizard admitted again. "Unfortunately, we have a half a dozen pieces of a puzzle, but we're no closer to getting any of it put together. I wish I was able to tell you anything else, Harry, but..." He trailed off with another apologetic shrug.

Harry sighed resignedly, but nodded. Remus promised to speak with Dumbledore and his parents with the hope that somebody else might have some better insights. The rest of Harry's visit to the bookshop was spent discussing relatively unimportant subjects—both of them were trying to avert their minds from whatever it was Harry had seen. Judging by the look in Remus' eyes as Harry left the shop, they hadn't done a very good job of it.

Somehow he managed to sneak through a crowd of students that didn't consist of any of his group of friends and head back towards the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer. As he walked, the scar on his forehead began to tingle, and he rubbed at it absentmindedly, wishing he had more of an understanding of all this. He had the sudden desire to find Hermione Granger and tell her everything that had happened in the hopes that she might have some insight the adults in his life hadn't had yet.

Can't do that yet, though, he thought resignedly, ducking into the pub before Lavender and Seamus spotted him from across the street. She still doesn't completely trust me...

James Potter yawned loudly as he leaned back into the cushions of his sofa. Lily sat in an armchair beside him, reading, as they waited for the flames in the fireplace to turn green, alerting them of Remus' arrival. The werewolf had sent them an owl earlier in the afternoon stating that he needed to talk to them, preferably after Piper had gone to bed. Though Remus had made a point of assuring them Caleb and Harry were perfectly fine, James strongly suspected their talk would revolve around his oldest child. It couldn't be anything too horrible—Remus wouldn't bother with owls otherwise—and though he'd been trying for hours to convince himself there was probably nothing to worry about, James continued to feel more nervous than he had in weeks.

Quite apart from James' own emotions being severely stirred up after the last month's events, the entire Ministry of Magic was on edge. The wizarding world had become accustomed to expecting some sort of activity from Lord Voldemort and his followers at least once a week—whether it be some sort of threat, an attempt to infiltrate the Ministry, or a full-on battle. But the enemy had been frighteningly silent since the attack at King's Cross, leaving the entire law enforcement department nervous and twitchy to the point of paranoia.

At that moment, the charm on the fireplace chimed to announce an arrival, and James jumped several inches and pointed his wand at the green flames before Lily could even blink. His wife raised an eyebrow at him as he flushed a bit and lowered his wand, and they waited for Remus' form to fully materialize in the fireplace. James released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when he noticed the smile on his friend's face was completely genuine and he only looked minutely worried about something.

"Nobody's hurt," he said quietly after Lily retrieved drinks for the three of them. "I'm not even certain what to make of it..."

James and Lily exchanged a bemused look and waited for Remus to continue. When he finally did, James almost wished his friend had remained silent. He'd been filled in on Harry's visions of Voldemort during the last year in his old world. He'd even been filled in on how Harry had been getting memories belonging to this world's Harry. What he couldn't figure out was how this vision had anything to do with either. He glanced at Lily, finding with relief that she looked just as confused as he felt.

"Have you spoken to Dumbledore about this yet?" Lily asked quietly.

Remus shook his head. "Not yet. I thought, for once, I'd tell you first." He glanced a little awkwardly at James as both men recalled the argument they'd had when James found out his friend had known about this parallel universe business almost from the beginning and hadn't told James or Lily. Though James had apologized for how he'd reacted at Harry's hospital bedside, there was still a slightly bitter taste in his mouth when he recalled the memory.

"I did have a theory," Remus went on hesitantly. "Given what little we've learned about all this, it seems as plausible as any other..."

Lily's eyes darted to James very briefly before she nodded for the werewolf to go on. Remus took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak, and the lights in the house suddenly went out. Every hair on James' arms stood straight up as he recalled the last time this had happened. Within seconds, all three of them had lit their wands, exchanged a look, and began to investigate.

Sirius Black yawned and adjusted the grip on his wand as he looked around the empty alleyway where he waited, leaning against a wall. He'd received a message earlier that day to meet up with a contact he and James had made years ago within Voldemort's Inner Circle. Though the person hadn't been officially labeled a spy, they had been sending the two Aurors—Sirius in particular—messages regarding major attacks and information they wouldn't have had otherwise.

He raised his wand automatically at the faint sound of an Apparition pop. Turning towards the sound, his eyes narrowed as they adjusted to the darkness, trying to spot the newly arrived witch he'd come to meet. As he cautiously approached, he found a wand pointing at his face, the owner hidden by a disillusionment charm. Regardless that he'd known this person for so long and trusted her almost as much as he would a fellow Auror, his heart began to race in anticipation of an attack.

"Identify yourself," she said coldly, just as she did every time they met.

"Sirius Black," he replied evenly, tightening the hold of his own wand. "Last time we met, you managed to trip over a stick and fall head first into a tree."

The other's wand dropped just a little and she sighed in irritation. "You know, we really need to work out better ways of identifying each other," she said wearily.

He allowed himself a brief chuckle. "Your turn."

"First time we met in battle, I set a horde of bowtruckles on you, one of which crawled inside your robes and left some very interesting scars." He could hear the grin in her voice.

"You would bring that up," he muttered, lowering his wand fully. He waited until she removed the disillusionment charm, then gestured at a door leading to an abandoned shop Mad-Eye had procured years ago as a safe place for meetings of this nature. Mechanically, he muttered, "Homenum revelio," under his breath to check for anybody else who may be hiding out in the shop, and gestured at a pair of armchairs. "Your message sounded rather urgent," he said quietly when they got seated.

Elicia Bode, daughter of Broderick Bode from the Department of Mysteries, sighed as she lowered the hood of her cloak, revealing long chocolate brown hair. She had a rather unassuming face that Sirius normally wouldn't have looked twice at, especially given her position in the war. Over the years, though, as he'd gotten to know her a little better, he'd started to find her rather pretty, but hadn't acted on those feelings of attraction for obvious reasons.

She'd be a hell of a lot more attractive if I didn't know who she was affiliated with, he found himself thinking as she got her thoughts arranged into words.

"There's going to be an attack tonight," she began quietly. Sirius sat up straighter in his chair. "A couple, actually."

"When?" he asked briskly. "Where?"

She seemed very reluctant to continue. When she did, she averted her eyes from his. "The first," she started very slowly, glancing at her wristwatch, "began about ten minutes ago, just outside Godric's Hollow."

Sirius' brow furrowed at this information sank in. "Godric's..." he muttered, realization hitting him immediately. He stood so quickly that he knocked his chair over backwards. "James!"

Elicia stood as well, blocking him from the door. "There isn't anything you can do there now," she told him. He noticed vaguely she'd removed her wand from her cloak.

"What are you on about?" he demanded, withdrawing his own wand, fully prepared to curse her out of his way. "Move."

"I can't," she said softly, regret evident in her expression. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" he asked, bemused. "For what?" The blood drained from his face as she failed to answer. "Where's the other attack, Elicia?"

Her eyes begged him to forgive her. "Here and now."

The words were the last thing he remembered.

Once they'd successfully secured Piper's bedroom without waking her, James led Lily and Remus cautiously out the front door and into the yard, searching for whatever had caused the power outage. Lily was instinctively hanging back, close to the house, in case she needed to get to her daughter in a hurry. She could see James edging closer and closer to the line where the Fidelius Charm ceased to protect them. Though she knew he wouldn't cross the boundary until he deemed it perfectly safe, her heart beat anxiously, her instincts battling between going to defend her husband against any hidden dangers and staying close to her child. As though he was reading her mind, James stopped and looked over his shoulder with the don't even think about it expression. Remus must have seen it as well; she could hear his quiet chuckle as he continued scanning the yard and trees for danger.

James finished his own search of the front yard and met Remus to exchange their findings, or lack thereof. As they started back towards the house and Lily, the witch let out a quiet breath of relief. Whatever had caused the power outage hadn't been a sign of approaching danger—

A flash of red light from within the trees cut off her thought as it flew towards the wizards.

"Get down!" she shouted, raising her wand to cast a shield charm. James and Remus dropped to the ground instantly, but the light ricocheted off the invisible barrier of the Fidelius Charm.

James jumped to his feet, pulling Remus with him, and they both turned towards the attack as several more jets of light shot at them from dozens of different angles. After a few minutes of watching this, all three of them lowered their wands significantly and looked at one another in confusion.

"What the hell are they doing?" Remus asked quietly, watching the barrage of spells hit the invisible barrier.

"Testing the wards," replied James grimly.

But Lily began shaking her head slowly, coldness replacing the relief. "It's a distraction," she told them shakily.

Before they could do more than raise an eyebrow at her, Lily was yanking at the front door with the intention of rushing up to her daughter's side. The door, however, had other ideas; she knew nobody had locked it, but the handle wouldn't turn. Through her ever increasing panic, Lily managed to cast every unlocking charm she'd ever learned at Hogwarts and several more she'd learned from James—a few of which were illegal. When she failed to open the door, James pulled her away and made his own attempts, one of which was a Reductor Curse. Lily made a mental note in the tiny corner of her mind which was still able to think rationally that he deserved to be smacked for using that spell with Piper in the house, though if it had saved their daughter she wouldn't have said a word.

As it was, the curse failed to do anything, least of all to open the door, and James was now using his shoulder to ram said door while Remus ran to the windows, trying to get in that way. Lily tried Apparating directly into Piper's bedroom; for her troubles, she heard a loud crack and was thrown down the stairs onto the grass. Behind them, the barrage of spells continued to erode the barrier of the Fidelius Charm. Lily rolled to her knees, trying not to watch the hooded Death Eaters inching closer.

James was cursing, Remus was shouting, and Lily felt herself beginning to cry. Then as quickly as it all began, the attack ceased. A bright light shone through an upstairs window—through Piper's bedroom window—and all went silent and the downstairs lights switched back on. The three adults stared at one another in bafflement until the front door lock clicked and the door swung open of its own accord. Lily wasted no time sprinting past James up the stairs to her daughter's bedroom, silently begging for everything to be normal.

Piper's door was wide open. The blankets from the bed lay strewn across the room, and the stuffed wolf that so closely resembled Remus' werewolf form lay just below the open window. No little girl was anywhere to be seen.

Lily's vision blurred, and she only faintly heard Remus and James enter the room. Her husband said something about how she shouldn't panic just yet, that the charm they'd activated to transport Piper to the safety of the Ministry had probably just done its job; she couldn't help but hear the panic in his own tone, though. Remus sat down beside her on the bed, rubbing her back comfortingly while James raced down the stairs to firecall the Ministry.

"She can't be gone, Remus," she murmured into his chest as they waited for James' return. "I can't lose another one of my babies."

She felt Remus heave a shaky sigh and hug her more tightly. "We'll find her," he promised quietly.

They turned at the sound of footsteps outside the door. James, white as a ghost, leaned against the doorframe for support; somehow he managed to croak out, "She's not at the Ministry," before he slid down the wall to the floor.

AN: I think this is what they call a cliffhanger. Don't kill me. I can't update if I'm dead. Now please review. Thank you.