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How It Should've Been

Chapter 21: Right Price?

"So you're telling me, that there is this war that you've been keeping secret?" Amelia questioned in disbelief. They were all sitting down except for Alex, who was standing in the front of the circle, arms crossed. She nodded.

"Yeah."

"How? No better question. Why?" Sirius demanded.

Sighing, Alex shook her head and paced a few times before stopping and address them again. "Because, fighting an enemy you understand is hard enough. But an enemy you know next to nothing about? I wanted to know more before I roped any of you into it."

"Any of us?" Amelia caught. "You mean there are others that know about this?" She wondered. This had all eyes looking back at Alex. She pursued her lips.

"Yes." She admitted reluctantly. "But-"

"Who?" Harry interrupted, eyes steeled.

"Jake and Hunter." Alex gave in.

"Hunter? As in Hunter?" Amelia clarified. Alex nodded not meeting her eyes.

"You said you wanted to know more before you told. So does that mean you know more?" Hermione questioned.

"No." Alex shook her head, lying. "I told because they've made an appearance now. And I can only wonder if that means they're moving forward with something big." She guessed.

"What were you going to say before the alarm went off?" Sirius cut in. Alex looked questioning. "In the office." He continued.

"I was going to tell you what happened to Tom." Alex answered, not wavering from his unyielding gaze. He eventually nodded, accepting it.

"Now what?" Harry questioned not exactly meeting Alex's eyes. Sirius stood.

"Now we think on this and wait till tomorrow. That's all we really can do."


Next Day – Dusk

The group entered the partially destroyed cottage only to see Hunter already there pacing back and forth in the foyer of the house.

"Did you tell him what was happening?" Sirius demanded turning to Alex as they approached Hunter. Seeing them, Hunter stopped pacing and greeted them.

"I-" Alex started.

"No. We did." A man's voice cut over Alex as a man came out of the hall way and into the foyer where the entire group was. Everyone looked to him with different levels of wariness.

"Where is she?" Hunter demanded, eyes darting around the room and surrounding hallways for something.

"So impatient." The man smiled. He lifted one of his hands from where it was rested on his cane and gestured with a flick. The group watched, breathe baited, waiting. Two figures could be seen approaching through the shadowy hall.

Coming into the light first was Luna, wearing magical suppression cuffs. Everyone's breathe released except for Hunters and Alex's. The woman that was holding Luna was also brought into the light. Allowing everyone to see her for the first time. What they saw could only be described as a shock for most of them. A woman with flaming red hair, and piercing emerald green eyes.

"That's not possible." Harry mumbled in disbelief. "I saw you die. A sword was through your stomach." The woman smirked.

"It's amazing how a few spells can make a person look and think like someone else. She died a noble death, playing the part of someone else isn't easy." She flicked her hair. Sirius looked her up and down. They're was no mistaking it. Yet, while it was impossible to mistake, there was a different feel to her. She was wearing black high leather boots, skin tight leather jeans along with a tight leather jacket and black half-tucked shirt. The jacket wasn't like one Alex normally wore but more flowing with sides folding.

"Lily." Sirius breathed out, stunned. The only one who hadn't reacted out of the group was Alex. She was staring at Lily with little to no emotion in her eyes, observing, calculating.

"Yes yes, can we skip the shock?" She remarked.

"I-I don't understand." Harry spluttered out. Lily tilted her head staring at him.

"Ah, and I thought having Alex as a guardian would make you smart." She mocked sadly. It was only then that Sirius remembered Alex was in the room as well. He glanced at her to see nothing that he was expecting. There was no shock, joy, amazement. Nothing.

"Can we get on with this?" Hunter barked after watching the not so pleasant reunion. This brought Luna's eyes to him, quizzically.

"Fine, if we must." Lily rolled her eyes and pushed Luna forward directly into Hunter. He caught her in a hug, bending slightly he put his head next to her shoulder without making it obvious.

"Remember that I love you and that I'm sorry." Hunter whispered into her ear, lips hardly moving, it was so unnoticeable that no one spotted it, but Luna heard it and frowned in confusion.

"Well?" Lily interrupted, impatiently checking an imaginary watch and looking at them with a raised eyebrow. Hunter took an intake of breathe and squeezed one final time before pulling away and pushing Luna behind him and into Harry.

"What do you want?" Sirius demanded roughly. Lily merely tilted her head. It was only moments later that Luna cried out in pain as she fell to her knees, grabbing her head in her hands.

"What are you doing to her?!" Harry shouted as he dropped to his knees next to Luna, holding her. Sirius and Amelia whipped out their wands in a flash and pointed them at Lily and the still silent man.

"Stop it!" Hermione exclaimed as she too was on the floor trying but failing to help Luna.

"Stupif-" Both Amelia and Sirius started but were cut off.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Alex's voice and new position stopped Sirius in his tracks. She was standing to his right, arm raised, left hand mere inches from his head crackling with barely contained electricity. It was by far more than enough to kill him if it made contact.

"Don't make me do this." Hunter's voice came from Amelia's left where he was also holding a ball of unbridled fire inches from Amelia's head in his right hand. Their cold voices brought about Harry and Hermione's attention as Luna's cries diminished to nothing as the pain dissipated. Looking up, the two shot to their feet next to Luna looking at the two immortals in shock. They were threatening the lives of their own family and friends and all the while protecting the enemy.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sirius demanded gaze shifting between Alex and Hunter out of the corners of his eyes without moving his head even in the slightest. Both Sirius and Amelia were standing impeccably still with their wand arms still raised.

"Their jobs." Lily answered smirking. She approached and stood in front of Amelia and Sirius before she pushed their wand arms down to their sides with her hands. They stood glaring at her. Never did either of them think they would ever be glaring at the person that was once like family with such contempt. Never did either of them think they would be at the mercy of two people they held incredibly dear, but alas, here they were.

"I don't believe it." Harry fought. "They would never betray us like that." He denied vehemently.

"Oh honey, believe it. For the right price, anybody will do anything." Lily smirked at his dismay. "And our time is concluded." Lily turned and left back down the hallway with the man by her side. Alex and Hunter hesitated before sharing a glance and lowering their hands back to their sides and turning and following without a look at anyone.

"Alex!" Harry shouted after her, Alex paused in her steps as she was a mere few steps from disappearing down the hall. She turned and met Harry's eyes without speaking a word. They held the gaze from a few moments before Alex broke it and turned and followed Hunter down the hall, leaving the remains group is disarray trying to understand the events that had just befallen then.

-Back At Potter Home – London-

"I don't get why they would do that." Sirius paces back and forth, hand at his chin, looking down, brows furrowed, thinking. Everyone was either standing or sitting around the living room. He stopped by the accent table behind the couch and swiped his hand down wiping everything off of the table and sent flying in anger. "How could they do that? We trusted them. And they betray us?"

"She said that anyone would do anything for the right price." Amelia repeated and shook her head. "But what would be the right price for them?" Amelia wondered silently. She knew there was something more to this, that Hunter and Alex wouldn't just betray them. She couldn't claim to know Alex well but she knew Hunter and he wouldn't do that. Something happened, and she planned to find out exactly what it was.

That was how Amelia, Sirius, Harry, Hermione and Luna all spent the rest of the night until they fell asleep.

-Elsewhere-

"What happened to you?" Alex questioned as her and Hunter walked side by side following Lily through a compound and a maze of hallways.

"You mean when my memories returned but I didn't?" Lily assumed but didn't turn to look at Alex. "Jameson found me. He… showed me my true self."

"What a sadistic bitch?" Hunter scoffed. Lily stopped causing them both to stop and turned to face Hunter.

"Aw, do you really think so little of me?" She pouted. Hunters eyes were hard and his jaw clenched as he nodded with a raging fire in his eyes. "Well it doesn't really matter. You will follow my orders, to the 't'." She turned and was about to start walking again when Alex spoke.

"What if we don't?" Alex questioned. Lily glanced back at her and them looked between Alex and Hunter.

"If you don't, it won't matter how powerful you are. You'll regret it." Lily promised and started walking again as Hunter and Alex exchanged a look and reluctantly followed.

Next time Lily woke she found her self in an all white room. There was a bed at one wall, a doorway that led to a bathroom and a closet in the far corner of the room. In front of the bed was a couch and a coffee table with two chairs on the opposite of it. There were no windows and the only other door was an impenetrable iron door.

The door slide open as the man from before entered and it closed behind him. He moved and sat in one of the chairs that was opposite the couch. He gestured to the couch. Lily hesitantly stood from the bed and slowly made her way to the couch where she sat and faced the man, a fire in her eyes.

"You have fire. Good, you'll need it." The man leaned forward and held his hand out to her. "I'm Jameson." He introduced with his hand still extended. Lily merely glanced at his hand before looking him in the eyes coldly. He sighed and lowered his hand. "I see this will be difficult. The ones with the strong will always are." He commented. Lily's eye narrowed.

"What will be difficult?" She demanded.

"Bringing out your true self. Allowing yourself to let go of this…" He gestured his hand to her. "Façade."

"You're crazy. Let me go, I just want to find my son."

Jameson lifted one of his legs and laid it over the other and laid his finger on his calf. He was wearing white and black clothes. A white shirt, a black leather blazer and white jeans coupled with black shoes. "See I can't let you do that just yet." When Lily opened her mouth ready to protest he continued. "I promise, you will see him. Just not yet. First you have to corporate." He said easily. Lily's jaw and fists clenched.

"What do you want?" She questioned hesitantly. Jameson smiled.

"That's more like it." He stood and made his way to the door, which was now open. When Lily didn't follow he turned and looked at her. "Let's go." He directed. Lily stood and followed him out of the room.

After a few turns and halls, Lily looked behind and now was positive no one was following her. The only person around was Jameson, who she was following behind. Making a split second decision, when Jameson turned the next corner, Lily turned around and sprinted in the direction they had came from. She ran as fast as possible through the halls recalling the path they had taken and knew she had got it right when she ran past her room. She continued sprinted through the maze of halls for at least another minute dodging a few people when suddenly the hall she ran down had two people standing at the end arms crossed. She came to a halt and spun around making at run out of the hall but only had to come to another quick halt upon seeing Jameson standing there calmly with two others behind him.

Lily cursed lightly when she felt a prick in her neck. Her vision blurred and the word spun as she fell unconscious.

It was a day later when she woke up. Shooting up from the bed her eyes darted around the room in hope that it was a nightmare. No such luck as she found the room was the same and Jameson was sitting in the chair.

They didn't talk as he stood and waited for her by the door. Frowning, she stood and again followed him out of the room. This time when following, she ran a hall earlier, hoping that it would change. Even with this change, she wound up running nearly the same exact path and was again caught and again drugged.

It was like clockwork. The same thing happened every time and every time she took a different path. Nothing worked. It was on the twenty-first day when Lily lost hope after yet again being drugged.

This time when Lily woke, she noticed differences. She wasn't just thrown onto the bed be rather was tucked into it. Sitting up, the covers fell to her waist as she looked around. The room was the same except for one thing. Jameson wasn't sitting in the chair. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for him but didn't find him anywhere in the room.

The door slide open and in came Jameson. He wasn't dressed in what she last saw him in. He was wearing white and navy blue instead rather than the exact same black and white combination she had seen for the last twenty one days.

"Ah, good you're awake. I was beginning to think you never would. I have to say, that's the longest someone's lasted that I've seen." Jameson went and sat down on the chair. But this time, it was the other chair, not the one he sat in everyday. Thinking on what he said, Lily shook her head in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" She asked rubbing her forehead.

"You've been in that sleep for seven days. Seems I was right about that strong will."

"I don't understand. Seven?" She questioned confused.

"Yes seven. But I believe it was twenty-one for you, yes?" At her reluctant nod he continued. "You see, you were placed into a reality like sleep, where we controlled what you saw. It was the same thing every time. And it lasted until you lost all hope. Until you broke. Twenty-one days in there. New record."

"You mean that wasn't real?" Lily shot up and out of the bed. Jameson shook his head.

"Not in the slightest. It felt real. That's the point, for you to think it's real. For your brain to think it is. Now you know what we can do. That was only the beginning."

Lily led Alex and Hunter to their rooms. They were near replicas of their own rooms back at their homes. When Lily turned to leave Alex's room, Alex called out to her.

"I have a question." Alex called. Lily looked at her but didn't speak, waiting, but not promising she would answer. "How did you seem to know everything that was happening?"

"You'll see tomorrow. Goodnight Alex." She paused and thought. "Oh and I wouldn't try to use your powers to get out, they won't work." With that Lily left and closed the door behind her.

Alex shook her head and walked towards the desk before turning back and looking at the door thoughtfully. She raised her hand and looked down at it and willed fire to appear. Nothing happened. She tried again. This time a tiny, barely visible flame appeared.

"Pathetic." She muttered shaking her head. She clenched her fist and glared at the door, fire in her eyes. She heard a bang come from the room to the left of her own. It was a fist slamming into a wall, a sound she knew all to well. She had done it enough in her lifetime to know the distinct sound.

No doubt Hunter came to the same realization she had. They were trapped here, until Lily came back the next morning, and they couldn't even do anything about it.


Hope you enjoyed! What do you think about that twist? I know it was a lot of fun to write and I've been playing around with the betrayal idea and it's something I really wanted to do. So hope you like it as much as I do. Thank you for all of the support. It is always appreciated. See you on the next chapter! -DS