Goodbyes On The Balcony

by ByeByeBirdie

3 years after Hogwarts, James and Lily are back with old and new friends by their side. Their lives are motivated by fear, their world surrounded by immense danger. As they each fight for their lives and for their loved ones in a world centered around Voldemort, the struggle to survive the war against him is nothing compared to the struggle to survive the wars within themselves.

52. Of Game Plans, the Poconos, & Attics

A/N: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I know you are all eager to find out what happens next, so let's get right to it!

Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I'd like to be. But I am not. I merely enjoy using her characters to write my own version of her stories!

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Goodbyes on the Balcony

By ByeByeBirdie

Chapter 52: Of Game Plans, the Poconos, & Attics

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++JAMES++

"James!"

I was passed out on my balcony, partly due to firewhisky and partly just due to sheer exhaustion, when I was stirred by Remus' voice in the doorway. I peeked an eye out, glaring at him. "Kinda busy here."

"Gee, sorry to interrupt your drunken nap," he drawled, "But Sydny's downstairs waiting for you."

I frowned, stifling a yawn. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I don't know."

"You didn't ask her?"

"No, should I have?"

"Uh, yeah, so that I could figure out whether I wanted to bother with her or continue sitting out here in self-pity," I muttered.

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'd suggest the former."

I groaned as Remus disappeared, slowly standing up from my usual perch and heading inside.

As I wound down the stairwell, I saw her pacing back and forth in my foyer. "What are you doing here, Lafevre?" I muttered.

She jumped, whirling around to look at me with concerned eyes. "You said you went after Lily earlier, right?"

I gritted my teeth, taking a seat on the stairwell. "Seriously? That's what you came all the way over here to talk-"

"What time was that?"

I blinked, thrown by the question. "Er...two o'clock I suppose. That's when she was scheduled to-"

"And you talked to her?"

Alright, I was definitely groggy but the suspicious side of my brain was starting to grow very alert at the line of questioning. "Yes," I spoke slowly. "Well, sorta. I called out for her and-"

"And did she say anything back?"

I stared at her warily.

"Well?" she urged when I said nothing.

My lips pursed. "Why are you asking-"

"Did she say anything, James?" she snapped.

I let out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, the two most heartbreaking words she could have chosen at that moment: 'I'm sorry.' And then she grabbed the floo powder, said American Ministry of Magic, and suddenly she was gon-"

"You're sure she said American Ministry of Magic?"

"Sydny, what in Merlin's name is going on!?" I finally snapped, standing up off the stairwell to glare at her.

"James."

My fists were clenching with irritation but I answered her question. "Yes, Sydny, she said American Ministry of Magic. Believe me when I say, that I pretty much have that minute of my life very well-memorized down to what she was wearing, so you don't have to question-"

"What was she wearing?"

I shot her a look. "You really want to know what she was wearing?" I snapped.

"Yes."

"Oh for the love of all things magic, what the hell is this about!?"

Sydny grew quiet as she stared down at the foyer tiles, the wheels slowly turning in her mind. Her eyes frantically skid across the floor as she actively avoided eye contact with me.

"Sydny?"

She winced, the remorse slowly settling into her expression. I merely stared at her, waiting for her to tell me whatever bad news she was clearly about to tell me. I didn't have to wait for long as she hesitantly lifted her gaze so her eyes were locked with mine. With a regretful sigh, she said, "Lily's missing."

Everything inside of me turned numb. I couldn't feel a single limb as I stared at Sydny in what I could only presume was a combination of horror and panic. I don't know how long it took me to say anything, but it felt like hours. "What do you mean she's missing?" I whispered, my voice very hoarse.

And she started to explain. There was a break-in at the American Ministry. Four prison guards were dead. No one was able to get in touch with anyone from their Department of International Magical Cooperation. A fireplace had been used but there was no sign of what happened after. No prints or a sign of a struggle or a magical trail of any kind.

Still feeling numb, I found myself dropping back on to the stairwell as I tried to wrap my head around the implications of what Sydny was saying. "She was supposed to be safe there," I whispered.

"What?"

I shook my head with incredulity. "Leaving Britain was the best option for her. I…at least I thought it was."

"And yet you went after her earlier?"

I scowled. "Not the point right now."

She shrugged. "Look, we're going to find her."

"You don't know that."

Sydny hesitated. "No, but I'm going to do everything I can."

"Yeah, and I'm going to be right by your side while you do."

"I don't think so."

"I do."

"James, you can't-"

"I most certainly can!"

Sydny glared at me. "Don't you think you're just a bit too invested in the situation to see things clearly?"

"Don't you think you are?" I snorted, shooting her a look.

She let out a frustrated sigh, but I could see she was slowly caving. "You…you can't do anything, James."

"There's got to be some sort of plan being developed and so help me Merlin, I will be part of that plan whether you like it or not!"

"That's a very bad idea."

"I DON'T CARE!"

"You're already being irrational," she groaned. "Can't you just leave it to us to find her?"

"Not a chance in hell."

Frowning, she glanced at me curiously. Finally she said, "Alright, listen. We are having an emergency Order meeting and I was really sent over here to tell you not to show up, but I can't help if it Remus was the one to alert you of the meeting, right?"

I narrowed my eyes with confusion before realizing she was giving me a way in. "Ahhh, yes, that Remus. He was never good at keeping secrets."

She rolled her eyes. "Go get him and let's get out of here."

"REMUS LUPIN, GET DRESSED, WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY ORDER MEETING WE'VE GOT TO GET TO! AND IF ANYONE ASKS, YOU TOLD ME ABOUT IT!"

---

++REMUS++

The three of us traipsed down the stairwell to the Hogs Head's basement, James and I arguing the entire time. "This is really not a good idea," I groaned. "If Moody didn't want you here, then-"

"Like I would have ever been able to stay away from this meeting," he argued, whirling around to glare at me before descending through the basement door.

"This is not going to go well," I muttered, earning a chuckle from Sydny behind me.

"Sydny!" Moody groaned as James strolled up to the front of the room. "What in Merlin's name is Potter doing here?"

"It was all Remus' doing!"

I groaned, shaking my head in disbelief. "Yes, yes it is. I, uh, I had to tell James. Bro code and all. I don't listen to authority. I never follow the rules. Blame me for-"

"You're a terrible liar, Lupin," Moody said, shooting Sydny a pointed look.

Sydny shrugged, leaning up against the back wall. "Let's be real. He was going to show up here with or without my help."

"Can we stop this ridiculous idle chit-chat so that I can ask why the hell we are all convening in a dingy basement when one of our Order members has been missing for five hours!?" James shouted.

Moody sighed. "Frank and Alice have already been granted emergency floo licenses and are in the American Ministry now interrogating witnesses."

"Well, whoop-de-do for them. Why the hell aren't the rest of us there, too?!"

"James," Moody spoke softly, clearly recognizing he was on the verge of one of his usual panic attacked. "We unfortunately don't have much to go off at the moment. We don't know where she is. We don't know where she could be. What do you expect us to do? Just go scouring the entire United States of America without forming some sort of game plan?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I expect you to do!"

"James."

James' fists clenched as he whirled around at the sound of Dumbledore's voice in the entrance. "Please tell me you have better news than Alastor does," James murmured.

Dumbledore frowned and I knew immediately that we still had little to no information. "I got a hold of Humphries. He's alerted Banting and they're headed to the Ministry now to handle the situation. The Ministry is currently on lockdown so the only ones in and out have to have emergency floo licenses or have a Ministry ID badge."

"The Ministry is on lockdown five hours after the kidnap occurred?" James muttered. "Gee, I feel safer already."

I elbowed him in the side, but he merely glared at me.

"All we can do is wait for Humphries, Alice, and Frank," Dumbledore spoke, a weariness in his tone. "They're going to give us an update as soon as they can."

"So basically we've got nothing," James sighed.

Dumbledore offered him a sad sort of smile as he strolled up to the front of the room. "Basically, we need a plan."

I could tell that was the last thing James wanted to hear, but he said nothing as he followed me to the back of the room where Sirius, Peter, and Sydny stood. He crossed his arms bitterly and settled against the back wall beside me, the crease on his forehead growing with worry. I wanted to reassure him that everything was going to be okay, but I didn't have a clue if that were true so I said nothing.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice," Dumbledore started. "I know that we all have questions and concerns. As you are all aware, we are faced with a very grave situation."

"Gee, is that all this is. A 'situation,'" James muttered under his breath. I saw the edges of Sirius' mouth twitch upward as Sydny merely rolled her eyes.

"Lily Evans has been missing for over five hours. She had been traveling from the British Ministry to the American Ministry at approximately two o'clock this afternoon. We are under the impression that she did make it to the American Ministry but what had happened after remains-"

"It has nothing to do with an impression," James interrupted, earning a room full of swiveled heads to look in his direction. "She did floo to the American Ministry. She said 'American Ministry of Magic' plain as day and as skilled as these bloody Death Eaters are, I guarantee they have no way of rerouting the floo network. At least not on such short notice."

"James-"

"How do you know she said 'American Ministry of Magic?'" Sirius asked from the other side of me.

James shot him a look. "You can shut the hell up."

"I think it's a valid question."

The two of them glared at each other. "You know exactly how I know that, Black," he snarled.

Sirius shrugged. "I have a suspicion."

He crossed his arms without responding, glancing back up at Dumbledore. "Whatever happened to her, it happened in the American Ministry. What kind of security does the American Ministry have anyway? Please tell me they didn't get rid of those bloody prison guards they were so set on kicking to the curb! Oh, I swear to Merlin if-"

"There were prison guards," Dumbledore responded with an impatient cluck of the tongue. "But they didn't stand a chance against a band of Death Eaters."

James frowned, as did the rest of us. "So you think there was a band of Death Eaters?"

"The evidence suggests as much," he responded.

"What evidence exactly?" James dared to ask.

Dumbledore frowned. "Four prison guards were murdered and no one has seen or spoken to any of the senior staff in the Department of International Magical Cooperation since early this morning. Just like our Ministry, no one would have been able to make it in or out of the Ministry unless they had the numbers."

Silence filled the room. We had all been expecting that but hearing it made it far more real.

"Er…so am I now allowed to ask how James knew Lily said American Ministry?" Dorcas Meadowes spoke up. Once again, all heads turned towards James.

I smirked, earning a sideways glare from James before he faced the rest of the eager stares. "I…I saw her there," he said with a hesitant shrug.

"Oh, you did, did you?" Sirius said with a grin.

The glare James gave Sirius was frightening. "Yes, I was there!" he repeated, frustration emanating from his every word. "But so what? Can we stop bloody focusing on me and start focusing our attentions on the missing person at hand?"

"If you saw her last, don't you think part of our attention should be focused on you? It's not like we have anything else to go on," I suggested.

And now his glare was directed at me.

"He has a point," Fabian spoke from the front of the room.

I could see the vein beginning to pop in James' neck. "Yes, I was one of the few people to see her last," he snapped. "But I didn't even talk to her."

"You didn't?" Sirius winced.

James shot him another glare. "Don't you ever shut up?"

"Just trying to get to the bottom of what happened with your dearly beloved," he drawled.

There was no calming James down at this point. His eyes were filled with such rage behind his spectacles, his fists clenched tightly by his side. "You want to know what happened? Nothing.Zilch! Nada! I went after her, saw her standing in the fireplace saying her good-byes to Shane and Lunder, she saw me, and before I could say a goddamned thing she grabbed the floo powder, and said 'American Ministry of Magic.' So there's nothing to get to the bottom of because I've got nothing for you! We should be figuring out what the hell happened when she landed in the other fireplace!"

I met Sirius' gaze and I could see the sympathy in his eyes. He attempted to open his mouth to say something, but was cut off.

"Tell me, James, do you have an idea of what may have happened when she landed in the other fireplace?"

James grew quiet at Moody's stern question.

"Exactly," Moody sighed. "We will not allow ourselves to fly off the handle until we hear back from Alice, Frank, and Humphries to determine what our next steps should be. They are the only ones that are going to have information at this time so we will wait until they've finished their interrogations. No one goes after her until I say so.Does everyone understand that?"

Silence filled the room.

Moody's eyes narrowed. "I said: does everyone understand that?"

Sighing, we all murmured our reluctant concurrence.

As Dumbledore began to once again dive into details, I could tell that James wasn't listening in the slightest. I tried to find the right words to say, but as I was doing so, Sirius spoke up from the other side of me.

"So we're going after her, right?" he muttered.

"Oh, most definitely," James said, momentarily forgetting that he was supposed to be hating him.

Sydny met James' gaze. "Do you ever listen to Moody? This might be your worst idea yet," she sighed.

"I don't give a shit."

She shrugged. "Good enough for me. I'm in."

James met her gaze. "Moody's going to be pissed at you."

"If you're going after Lily, I'm going with you. It's how this whole protection detail works."

He scowled at her, earning an amused grin from Sydny.

"Where the hell do we even start?" I asked, needing to be the logical one.

The four of us exchanged curious looks before James spoke up. "We need to get to America."

"And how are we going to do that without emergency floo licenses?"

A half hour later, we were standing outside Shane Redford's door.

---

++SIRIUS++

I attempted to find something to say to James as we apparated to Shane's house. I could tell very clearly he was broken up not only by Lily missing but by the fact that he hadn't had the chance to talk to her before the flooed to Philadelphia. It explained the unmistakable surge of regretful anger he clearly felt. Everyone could see it in him even if he was trying hard to suppress it.

But what could I possibly say to him? There weren't any words of comfort. None. The girl he loved was missing and we didn't have a single lead. And what was worse, the last time he saw her he wasn't given the opportunity to tell her all the things he needed to say. She left before he could, and now she was missing, and I could only imagine the whirlwind of emotions swirling around in his mind at that moment.

"Uh…what are you guys doing here?" Shane asked when he saw eight people hovering outside his apartment. Needless to say, when Peter, Lance, Drew, and Fabian got wind of our plans to go after Lily, they hopped on board very quickly. At that point, we knew we would need all the help we could get and really, what was a few more emergency floo licenses when we were already breaking all the rules?

"We need emergency floo licenses to America and we need them about…hm, an hour ago?" James pleaded eagerly.

Shane blinked. "It's nearly seven o'clock a Sunday night."

"Thank you for the lesson on reading time," James drawled, "but if you couldn't tell, we are in a bit of a hurry, so if you could-"

"James," Shane interrupted with a sigh. "I can't just authorize an emergency floo license. I especially can't authorize eight of them! I would lose my job. First of all, I don't have the clearance to allow that. You know that you need a Ministry senior official to sign off on emergency licenses and that ain't me. You'd have to talk to Nyger about that. And second of all, even if you weren't asking for emergency licenses, just a regular floo license, I don't even have the clearance to authorize those to the States as I am not the liaison to the American Ministry. Sorry, but you are knocking on the wrong-"

"Yeah, well considering the liaison to the American Ministry is now missing, that makes it a bit difficult to ask her for the floo licenses, now doesn't it?" James snapped.

The color slowly drained from Shane's face. "What…what are you talking about?" he whispered in slight panic.

The eight of us all exchanged shocked looks before Sydny finally spoke up. "You don't know," she realized in a hushed tone.

"Don't know what?" he snapped.

"I…I assumed someone would have talked to you already."

"Stop messing around and tell me what you're talking about!?"

We all exchanged guilty looks before I took it upon myself to speak up. "Lily's missing, Shane."

He blinked and I could see the fear in his eyes before he shook his head. "No," he argued hastily. "She flooed to Philadelphia at two o'clock today. James, you were there. Tell them. She's…she's fine. This was planned. She's not missing."

James shook his head slowly. "Yes, she flooed to the American Ministry at two o'clock this afternoon. And no one has seen her since because the Ministry was infiltrated by Death Eaters, Shane."

The panic in Shane's face grew with concern. Shaking, he took a second to look at every single one of us before saying, "So, nine emergency floo licences then?"

"Nine?" James questioned.

"I'm sure as hell not letting you go without me."

James hesitated before nodding. "Nine floo licenses it is."

---

++PETER++

Trying to sneak nine grown adults into the Ministry without arising suspicion is not easy. Especially when there was a very high chance that Moody alerted security not to allow any of us in through the main doors.

Good thing working for the Order has provided us with tons of experience dealing with stealth.

Drew, Fabian, and Lance were in the lobby on watch while Sydny and Remus were guarding the elevators, leaving myself, James, and Sirius to keep watch outside Nyger's office as Shane broke in.

I knew that something bad was going to happen to Lily. I knew that since Voldemort got wind of her plans to travel to America a lot sooner than expected that he was going to develop a plan to stop her. I hadn't known that this was his plan. As James paced the floor in front of me and Sirius perched atop a desk as he stared eagerly at Nyger's door, I couldn't help but wonder where Lily was at that very moment. I knew that she wasn't dead. Not yet. But I didn't know how much longer she would remain alive.

"Will you quit pacing?" Sirius snapped at James who was nervously biting his thumbnail while pacing back and forth across the floor with heavy sighs.

James lifted his head to glare at him. "Gee, sorry, did you have another idea in mind? A tea party perhaps? Salsa dancing? Do you have an inkling to go roller blading around the office? Or maybe you wanted to sleep with another one of my ex-girlfriends? Kristina Reinhart is probably available."

I snickered, earning myself a glare from both of them. "How about we just let Shane do his job without annoying the peanut gallery?" Sirius muttered.

"I don't really give a shit whether I'm annoying you or not," he snapped, his fists clenching. "Lily has been missing for almost six hours. Six hours. So if I want to pace back and forth so as not to continue dwelling on that fact, that's my prerogative!"

Sirius frowned, glancing at me curiously before glancing back at James who had resumed his pacing. "Is it working?" he asked softly.

"Is what working?"

A sigh escaped Sirius' lips. "Is pacing back and forth pushing thoughts of Lily-bean from your mind? Because if it is, I may get up and join you."

James stopped pacing long enough to look up at Sirius with a curious gaze. "No," he whispered. "It's not working."

My heart sank at the pure devastation on my friend's face. Guilt rested heavily within my heart, but before I could dwell on it Nyger's door was thrust open and Shane spilled out into the corridor with a feeble smile. "Alright, licenses are activated for all of us. Signal to the others-"

Before he could finish that sentence, a patronus was trotting towards them.

"Nyger is coming!"

The four of us froze before quickly rushing towards the elevator, where Sydny and Remus clearly had received the message as well as they were gesturing frantically at us to hurry. "Well, I'm officially losing my job," Shane said, though he shrugged to make me think he didn't rightly care about that.

"How about we get out of here before that happens?" James hissed, hitting the down button for the elevator.

When the elevator door opened, we were all prepared to rush into it.

Our plans were halted when Nyger stepped out, his eyebrows narrowing at the crowd of people now hanging around his atrium. "What are you all doing here?" he asked sternly, his gaze finally resting on Shane.

I didn't know about the rest of them, but I certainly panicked and I had a strong feeling the emotion was very evident in my expression.

"They wanted Lily's itinerary," Shane blurted out. "Just to know who in the American Ministry was intended to greet her."

Nyger frowned. "Christoph Brandywine. You already knew that. And from what I hear, no one has been able to track him down. So-"

"Moody wouldn't tell us anything," James interrupted with a grunt. "All we knew is that Frank and Alice were sent to the American Ministry."

"I know. I had to approve their emergency floo licenses," he spoke, his eyes narrowing at Shane.

"I thought the Ministry was on lockdown," Shane said.

Nyger continued to look suspicious. "It's an International crisis," he reminded him. "The floo network has to remain open for emergency licenses only. You know that, Shane."

"Er…right. Well, we've got what we've come for, so we are-"

"Shane," he interrupted sternly. "What did you do?"

"Gave them Lily's itinerary," he argued.

"And you had to do that with…five other people?"

"Mr. Lunder," James spoke up, clearing his throat, "If your wife or your son had gone missing nearly six hours ago, do you think you would just sit back and wait for someone else to find the information for you?"

"I wasn't aware any of you were Lily Evans' parents or married to her."

I saw James' fists clench and I could tell he was only barely holding it in. He opened his mouth to argue, but it was Shane who spoke up. "Hold up, you approved Alice and Frank's emergency licenses," he said as if this only just dawned on him.

"Yes."

"So you knew she was missing."

Nyger nodded. "That's right. Alastor sought me out at home."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

Nyger frowned. "I'm your boss, Shane, and the Head of this Department. That means that there are plenty of privileges I am entitled to that you are not. That includes high security inter-Department confidential information."

"You thought I'd go after her."

"Yes, that too," he said with a curt shrug. Gesturing towards all of us, he said sarcastically, "Clearly I was wrong."

Busted.

Shane didn't seem to think so. "She's been missing for six hours, Nyger," he whispered hoarsely. "We were the last ones to see her. She was supposed to be going to America for a fresh start. Not this! Not to be thrust into the arms of a couple Death Eaters looking to settle a score. You expect us to just sit around and wait for her to die? No way in hell!"

"No, I expected you to approve illegal floo licenses and go after her."

That shut Shane up.

"And if I had caught you, you would have been in serious trouble. I would have had to fire you on the spot."

All of us looked confused, exchanging curious glances.

"Good thing I didn't catch you," he said pointedly, shooting his employee a look before slipping past him and heading towards his office.

I wasn't the only one with my mouth hanging open.

"What…what the hell just happened here?" Remus murmured.

"Who cares? Let's get out of here before he changes his mind," James snapped, vigorously pressing the down button to the elevator.

"Pressing it over and over won't make it come faster," Sydny pointed out.

That earned her an infamous Potter glare, just as the elevator doors opened and we piled in.

Once again, James was pacing. This time, right outside the third floor fireplaces as we waited for Fabian, Drew, and Lance to hurry their asses after Remus sent them a patronus, when Sirius spoke up, "Er…so exactly what is the plan here? We're just going to bombard the American Ministry and…and what, scour the entire country looking for Lily?"

Even I didn't know where Voldemort would have taken her. I knew nothing about his hiding spots in the States. Probably for this very reason. "Sounds like a pretty good plan to me!" James snapped, glaring at him.

"Can we be logical about this?" he groaned.

"Don't you ever just shut up?"

"Actually, he has a good point," Remus pointed out. "Don't we need a game plan here?"

"Well, yeah, you're allowed to ask that question. You're actually logical unlike Mr. Traitor over there," James muttered. "Where the hell is Drew, Fabian, and Lance?"

"Traitor?" Sydny spoke up, her eyebrow shooting upward. "Did I miss somet-"

"Do you think they got caught by security?" James interrupted, ignoring his coworker completely. "I swear to Merlin if they aren't here in the next five seconds, I'm leaving without them!"

"James!" Sirius groaned, shooting him a look. "Stop freaking out and start realizing that-"

"Don't you dare tell me to not freak out," he snapped, his eyes filling with rage. "Lily has been missing for nearly six hours! Who the hell knows where she is or how she's doing or if she's even still…" he trailed off, the words catching in her throat. His bottom lip trembling, he whispered, "Don't tell me not to freak out."

Sirius nodded slowly. "You're right," he spoke in understanding. "But I still think we need a game plan here."

"Have we had any recent contact with Alice and Frank?" Remus asked. "Have they had any-"

"No progress," Sydny sighed. "There were very few people in the Ministry at all when it was infiltrated and those that may have seen anything were killed or kidnapped and still not found. It's a dead end."

James' face crumbled. "So we've pretty much got no leads," he whispered, the helplessness settling into his expression. "Dammit, where the hell are Drew, Lance, and Fabian!?" James cried.

"I didn't say we had no leads," Sydny spoke up, clearing her throat.

All of our heads swiveled in her direction.

"Well?" I urged.

She looked like she was debating whether to say what was on her mind. Eventually she turned towards Sirius. "Sirius…" she said hesitantly.

She said his name as if he should be aware of a lead, but Sirius was clearly still confused. "Uh…yes?"

Her eyes turned wary as her lips pursed. A slow sigh escaped from her lips before she whispered, "The Poconos."

The confusion on Sirius' face slowly settled into hesitant realization, but it was Shane that spoke up. "Was that English?"

"The Poconos," Sirius muttered, the color on his face draining.

She nodded. "Yes. The Poconos."

"Will you quit repeating that stupid word and tell us what's going on!?" James snapped.

Sirius sighed, leaning up against the wall hesitantly. "The Black family owns a row of lakehouses in the Poconos in northern Pennsylvania. All of our families used to vacation there every summer when we were kids."

"All," Remus repeated. "Meaning…"

"Yeah," Sirius murmured, meeting his gaze. "Bellatrix included."

Silence filled the corridor at the implication of those two simple words.

The silence was broken by James' fist slamming against the brick wall. "Well, there's our goddamned lead," he snapped, the panic evident in his expression. "And I'm officially leaving the others-"

"We're here!" two voices boomed from behind us. Whirling around we saw Lance, Drew, and Fabian sprinting down the hallway.

"Sorry," Lance wheezed, trying to catch his breath. "Security was swarming the lobby, presumably on Moody's orders. We were hidden from them, but we couldn't get out-"

"Yeah, yeah, you almost got caught but you didn't. Now can we get the hell moving!?" James snapped, stepping into the fireplace. Without another word he reached for the floo powder and said, "American Ministry of Magic!"

Remus sighed. "Yeah, we really should have left him at home."

---

++SIRIUS++

"Will you quit being such a jackass and tell us the exact location of these bloody lakehouses?" James barked as he paced outside the fireplaces within the American Ministry.

"I'm not telling you where to apparate to until we have some form of a game plan!" I snapped.

"I swear to Merlin, Sirius, if you don't give us the fucking location, I will have no problem hexing you into a bloody coma!" James yelled.

"If you hex me into a coma you will have no one to direct you to the location of the lakehouse," I spoke dryly.

"Sydny knows where it is!"

Glancing to my right, I saw Sydny jump at the mention of her name, making me very aware that James and I had ignored the others as we trivially argued. "Uh…sorry, what?" Sydny asked, clearing her throat nervously.

James glared at her. "Gee, am I boring you?"

Sydny rolled her eyes. "If Sirius gives you the apparating location, you're going to be out that door and asking for a death wish. We need a game plan!"

"I'm not the one who has a death wish at the moment and that person has been missing for six fucking hours!"

Remus sighed. "James, you have got to pull yourself together right now so that we can figure out our game-"

"I SWEAR TO MERLIN IF ONE MORE PERSON SAYS WE NEED A GAME PLAN, I WILL-"

"You'll what? Continue to provide us with empty threats?" I snorted.

"Furnunculus!"

I yelped as boils began to break out across my face. "Are you bloody kidding me, Potter?"

As Remus muttered the curse to stop the boils from spreading, I saw a look of rage in James' eyes that I had never witnessed before. "Something tells me that wasn't just because I keep wanting to come up with a game plan."

"You fuck my ex-girlfriend, I fuck up your face," he snapped.

"Whoa, what?" was the unanimous response from Drew, Sydny, Fabian, Lance, and Shane.

I cringed, my heart sinking at the looks of judgment emanating from the five of them. Thankfully, James chimed in before any further questioning could continue.

"Ask him on your own time," James snapped. "Now can we please get the hell out of here? Lily is still very much missing and us standing around the bloody Ministry isn't going to bring her back!"

Glancing at James, I could see every bit of fear flickering behind his glasses. Frankly, he had every reason to freak out. I was freaking out. I was just showing it a little better than him. But it had been six hours since anyone saw Lily. Six hours since she had been kidnapped. Six hours of what I could only imagine was horrible torture.

Maybe a part of me was afraid to rush headfirst into battle because I was afraid of what we may find. But I knew we needed a game plan. They had six hours to prepare. They would be expecting us. If we ran into battle without preparing ourselves, it wouldn't just be Lily that would wind up dead. We'd all be corpses.

"Where did Alice and Frank go?" I asked, only then noticing that the two of them had disappeared.

"During your bickering match with James, they left to go give an update to Moody. He'll be expecting one and considering he has yet to figure out that we completely disobeyed him, Alice and Frank are following orders to give us more time," Sydny said.

"Right," I said, as I attempted to work out a plan in my mind. I was the only one who knew the Poconos house inside and out so I knew it was up to me to figure out what needed to be done. "Okay, listen up," I said, clearing my throat as I turned to the group. "Black Point consists of four mansions, a rundown guest lodge with old servant quarters way before house elves were ever enslaved, and an underground passageway that connects all of the houses together because why would a Black ever want to travel between the houses aboveground and risk the possibility of melting in the sunlight, am I right?"

"Sirius," James snapped.

Alright, so maybe this wasn't the time to joke. "Bellatrix's family used to stay in the largest house, the one at the end of the point, so there's a good possibility that that could be their headquarters since she knows all of the ins and outs. Though, I guess I wouldn't put it past any of them to try to throw us off our trail by using another one. They're all essentially the same give or take a bedroom or two. All of them have basements – dungeons if you will – as well as an attic. Most of them have an exuberant amount of bedrooms as well as living space both on the main level and the second level. There are tons of places to hide. Hell, each mansion has their own set of secret channels so we have to be wary of those. And unfortunately I only know the secret passageways in the home I used to stay at."

"So I think it's safe to say you should cover that house," Sydny spoke up quickly, glancing around the group before her gaze settled on James. "And I think it's safe to say that James shouldn't cover any."

"Not a chance in hell," he sneered, glaring at her. "I'm going with or without your permission, Your Highness."

Sydny glared at him. "James, we have to be practical here and all night you have been anything but!"

"Practicality went out the window the moment the six-hour mark hit!"

"Winding yourself up is only going to get you killed!"

"Sydny, we need him," Fabian sighed. "We have too much space to cover and we are slowly running out of time."

Her lips pursed irritably, but before she could argue, Remus stepped in. "Sirius, you said there are four houses and guest quarters?"

"Yes."

We all did the quick math, and it was Sydny who spoke next. "We have eleven people and five structures to navigate. I'm thinking we divide and conquer. Two people per house and one lookout?"

No one seemed to argue.

"And James will be the lookout, right?" Sydny said with a smirk.

"Like hell I will!"

Sydny rolled her eyes. "Then no offense, Shane, but I'm voting you to be the lookout," she said, sending him an apologetic look.

He scowled. "I do take offense to that!"

"Have you ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?" she said hastily.

He frowned. "Uh…no."

"The rest of us have. Enough said."

"How the hell is that enough said?"

"How about we explain later when we'll have more time for idle chit-chat!" James snapped.

"I vote not being paired up with James," Sydny muttered.

If the situation wasn't so solemn, someone may have cracked a smile. Instead, I said, "James and I can pair up as we often do on mission-"

"No, thanks," James snarled.

"Is this really the time to let petty drama get in the way?" Remus grunted, glaring at the two of us.

"It's far from petty," James snapped.

"It's fine," Sydny chimed in. "I can pair up with Sirius."

James shrugged. "Remus and I will take Bellatrix's house."

I expected Sydny to argue considering there was a good chance that was where Lily was, but she merely shrugged. Remus glanced over at Peter with a curious gaze since they were often partners in crime. "I can go with Drew," Peter said with a shrug, seeing as Dezzy wasn't there.

Remus shrugged, turning back towards James. "Alright, guess we're taking Bellatrix's house," he muttered.

Sydny shrugged. "Sirius and I will take his old summer home."

Once again, my brow furrowed curiously. I would have thought Sydny would have wanted to take Bellatrix's house seeing as she was always playing the role of the hero and there was a strong chance that Lily was sitting somewhere in that home. I didn't question it however, knowing it wasn't the right time.

"Drew and Peter can take the guest quarters," I said instead. "Frank and Lance can take Arcturus Dwelling and Alice and Fabian can take Pollux Place."

"If Frank and Alice ever get their asses back here," James muttered under his breath.

As if on cue, we heard rushed footsteps in the distance and seconds later they rounded the corner. "Moody asked Frank and me to meet up with Gordon Humphries in his office. He and Dumbledore are on their way now. When they show up and Frank and I aren't there, he's going to know something is up."

"Well, we have our goddamned game plan, so let's get moving!" James barked, turning to face me.

"If you haven't forgotten, the Ministry is still on lockdown," Shane spoke up. "That means the only way out is through the floo network with emergency licenses and-"

"And if you have a senior Ministry official's ID badge," Alice interrupted, holding up a badge that had a photo of Humphries on it.

"Or that," Shane said with a shrug.

James whirled around to face me. "Now can you tell us where to apparate to or did you want to continue dilly-dallying in Ministry foyers where every minute that passes could be the difference between life and death?"

A part of me wanted to throttle him. The other part completely understood where he was coming from. "Black Point," I said. "It'll put us in the woods directly behind the row of houses."

James took off running, the rest of right on his heels. Once we were outside, all I heard was eleven popping sounds.

When I opened my eyes, I was taken aback by how surreal it all felt. I tried not to think about what those houses represented as I pulled out my wand in order to disarm the protection charms and spells my great-grandfather had set up around the perimeters. As I muttered a bunch of countercurses, my childhood suddenly flashed before my eyes and I hadn't been prepared for the overload of emotions that settled into my heart. My gaze flickered across the landscape in front of me. The forest where I used to play hide and seek with my brother and cousins. The lake that once held numerous chicken fights. The small field where I had flown on my first broomstick. The smell of tranquility in the air. The houses that held so many secrets. A life I had said good-bye to as I began to grow up and realize what my family consisted of. I had given this up a long time ago. I didn't miss it. I had left home to get away from all of this. But it still represented my childhood. It represented a huge part of my life that I would never get back.

"You okay?"

I jumped at the sound of Remus' voice, forcing a fake smile on my face as I nodded and lowered my wand. "Yeah," I muttered even though I was far from it.

"Sirius-"

"Alright, listen up," I said, clearing my throat as I stepped past Remus to face the group. "Arcturus Dwelling is the house all the way to left, down that path there. Then comes Pollux Place. Next to that was my family's house. And the one all the way at the other end of the point belongs to Bellatrix' family. The guest quarters are just up that hill at the end of the path. It should take us about ten minutes to get through the forest before you'll see the houses come into view. I've already disarmed most of the protection shields, but be aware of other potential defenses. Er…well, I guess that's it."

"How do we get in?" Drew spoke up.

I frowned. "They have to know we're coming."

"Exactly. So how do we get into these homes without being-"

"Honestly? We don't," I sighed, shrugging. "We put disillusionment charms on ourselves to attempt to be undetected for as long as possible but the moment we touch any part of those houses, we're pretty much doomed."

Silence fell over the eleven of us.

"I hope that wasn't the uplifting part of the speech," Lance muttered.

Glancing over at Lance, I shook my head. I knew that we were potentially diving headfirst into a bloodbath, but what other choice did we have. I knew in my gut that Lily Evans was hiding in one of those houses. I couldn't be sure, but I had a feeling that Moody and Dumbledore was aware of Black Point and the reason they didn't want anyone rushing into them was because they knew it was a suicide mission. But this is what we signed up for being Order members. We fought for those we cared about. And every single one of us cared about Lily Evans.

"There is no uplifting part of the speech," I spoke. "We get in, we get the girl, and we get out. Any questions?"

Awkward silence followed before Frank spoke, clearing his throat. "Could you write that down for me so I don't forget?"

It shouldn't have been funny. The situation didn't warrant any form of jokes. And yet that single joke seemed to ease the tensions that had been heavy in the air since we apparated.

"Okay, let's do this. Shane, you stay here," Sydny continued. "I'm giving us all one hour to investigate our respective houses before we need to meet back here."

"But if anyone finds anything, send a mass patronus immediately," James insisted.

"Any questions?" I concluded.

Silence followed.

"Then let's go get Lily back."

---

++SYDNY++

Sirius was quiet. Unusually quiet. We had separated from the group at a fork in the forest and it was just the two of us, rushing through the brash as quickly as possible but without trying to draw any attention to ourselves. I didn't know what any of us were going to find, but I could feel in my gut that we were about to walk into a horrible situation. They had the upperhand here. It was brilliant on their part really, trying to use as much real estate as possible to split up our already small group of people. I don't get scared often. I face fear head-on. But I didn't have a clue what we were about to walk into and that filled me with a sense of dread I wasn't prepared for.

"This can't be easy for you, hm?" I said, glancing over at Sirius on my right. I could barely see him, the forest plunging us into total darkness.

"What?"

"Being here."

"Whatever. We're here to do a job."

I could sense the hostility in his voice. "We'll get her, Sirius."

"You don't know that," he snapped.

I sighed. No, I didn't. "How much farther?"

"Not much longer. A few more minutes."

I nodded as we trekked on in silence. Finally, I could see a slight opening in the trees in the distance and I knew we were almost there.

"Why did you choose to pair up with me?"

I jumped, almost forgetting that Sirius was there. "What?"

"Why did you choose my old house?" he asked curiously. "I would have thought you would have wanted to cover Bellatrix' old stomping grounds."

Glancing up, I saw the front of the house slowly come into focus, resting right across from the gravel road in front of me. It was huge. Larger than I had anticipated. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. The Black family did always have money. "You want the truth?"

I could barely see him, the moon and the stars outlining his silhouette only slightly. "Yes."

I felt my heart began to race as I crouched down behind the tree, narrowing my eyes in the dark as I glanced back up at the house that appeared dark and quiet. "I think she's in there," I whispered.

Silence followed, until – "What?"

"SHH!"

He shuffled his body so we were crouching behind the tree as well, his nose practically touching mine. "Why do you think she's in this particular house?"

I let out a soft sigh before saying, "This was just another tactic to try and draw James in."

Another pause. "Still missing the connection here."

My lips pursed hesitantly. "The two of you always pair up on Order missions."

He didn't say anything, but I had a feeling this time it wasn't because he was confused or taken aback. It was because the realization was slowly settling in. "And they would have known that I'd be the one to take on my old lakehouse."

I nodded before realizing he probably couldn't see me in the dark and said, "Yes."

Another round of silence and I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking. Honestly, I had wanted James nowhere near the house that was going to be filled to the brim with Death Eaters and possibly Voldemort. But I shouldn't have just thrust Sirius into a potential suicide mission without at least letting him offer himself up first.

"Well, if you think she's in there, then what the hell are we still doing out here?"

I took that as a good sign. "Let's go."

---

++LILY++

When I awoke, I knew immediately that something was dreadfully wrong. My head was pounding in overwhelming pain, my leg was numb, and taking a quick glance down, bruises and splattered blood covered my body. I couldn't be sure, but based off the strange angle of my leg, my guess it was broken. And I could see the bones protruding from my right arm, the flesh nothing but a mess of bloody gashes. I tried to move, which just earned a loud moan escaping my lips. Every inch of my body hurt. I felt the tears collecting in my eyes as I realized I was completely helpless. I rested my head back against the ground and prayed for unconsciousness to find me again.

Slowly, the events of the day flashed through my mind.

"Hello there, Lily Evans."

There were tears in my eyes, the thought of not saying good-bye to James constricting my heart, as I glanced up towards the voice.

Every bone in my body froze. "Bellatrix," I whispered.

"And so we meet again," she cackled. "Expelliarmus!"

I barely had my hand on my wand before she had disarmed it. "How the hell did you get in here?"

"The American Ministry is a joke," she sneered, her wand still trained on me. "Can't imagine why anyone would ever want to work here. Unless, of course, they're under the impression that that could save them from the wrath of the most powerful wizard in the world."

"I wasn't aware I needed to be saved from Albus Dumbledore's wrath."

"Crucio!"

That had been only the beginning. After a handful of curses (I could tell Bellatrix was angry that I had somehow thwarted her twice in the past six months), I had slipped into unconsciousness and when I had first woken up, I had been in what I could only tell was a dingy attic. There was a small unreachable square window in the corner that had allowed the barest amount of light to slip through. The room was practically empty, save for an old dusty couch, a broken wardrobe, and some old broken picture frames.

I had been awake the first time for only a few minutes before succumbing to unconsciousness once again. This time was no different. I couldn't fight the pain no matter how hard I tried. Moving my leg a mere centimeter felt like death was taking over and I didn't' dare attempt to levitate my arm from the floor. It took all the strength in the world to open my right eye. Bringing my hand up to it proved more difficult than ended, blood still trickling from a few cuts. As I felt above my eye, I winced immediately at the large gash that filtered into my eyelid.

As I coughed, I felt sticky liquid fall from my lips. I couldn't see, the room plunged into total darkness, but I knew that if I could see, I would see myself coughing up blood.

I wanted to cry but even the thought of doing so hurt too much. I knew that this was going to be where I died. I didn't' know how much time had passed since I ran straight into Bellatrix' trap, but seeing as night had settled in it had to be at least five or six hours if not more. Hell, I didn't even know if it was the same day. It could be nightfall days after my run-in with Bellatrix. Nothing made sense anymore.

"Well, well, well, I was wondering if you'd ever wake."

I didn't recognize the voice and couldn't see in the dark, but in a way, I preferred that. If he was going to kill me, I'd rather not even know who he was. Just get it done and over with. Put me out of my misery.

"Get up."

I didn't even try to move, merely letting out a groan.

"I SAID, GET UP!" he yelled, proceeding to kick me in my stomach.

I curled up in agony, my only response a mere whimper.

"You lousy sack of Mudblood, have your ears stopped working? GET UP!" he shouted into my ear.

Everything ached as I croaked out one word, "Please."

He cackled. "So you can hear me!" he cackled, the maniacal laugh sending a jolt of fear through my every vein. "You're not terrible looking for a filthy Mudblood," he continued, running his fingers across my hairline.

I couldn't even shudder away from it. I was too weak, too agonized to bother even attempting to scream or move. I felt paralyzed, unable to defend myself.

His hand traveled down my face towards my neck, and I felt the tears burning in the back of my eyes as his fingers slid down my shoulders, fingering the cuts on my robes until his hand brushed up against my breast. I barely recoiled, a mere tremor of pitifulness, that had him laughing at me.

"Don't try to move," he sneered, his lips centimeters away from my ears. "It'll only hurt more."

I whimpered, the tears prickling the back of my eyes as I realized where this was headed. His fingers slid down my side until they were perched at the bottom of my skirt. I could practically hear the smirk in his voice as his hands grazed my thigh. Slowly, it inched upward…

"DOLOHOV, WE'VE GOT COMPANY!"

He hesitated, clearly angry, before stepping away from me and whisking out of the room.

I should have been grateful, but I was in too much agony to feel anything but pain. I felt a tear slide down my face as I slipped into unconsciousness once again.

---

++JAMES++

My heart was beating a mile a minute. Not because I was nervous or scared to face a bunch of dangerous Death Eaters, but because I was afraid of what we may find.

If the last words Lily and I spoke to each other were ones of spite and anger, my heart would never be whole again. I wanted to hate her. I wanted to resent her. I wanted to be angry with her. But this was Lily Evans, the girl I had been in love with since a prepubescent eleven-year-old. I couldn't just flip a switch and suddenly not love her anymore. And frankly, I didn't want to.

I screwed up. A lot. I've made so many mistakes that has torn her apart and stripped her of trust and innocence. I was the reason for our downfall. And now I may lose her without telling her how much she really meant to me.

I felt unexpected hot tears prickling the side of my eyes, but I quickly brushed them away as Remus and I got to the edge of the forest. He hadn't said a word when we rushed through the forest and I was grateful. I was living far too much in my own head to deal with anything else.

But as we reached the edge of the forest, he turned to me and said, "Where do we start?"

It was an excellent question. I didn't doubt that there were Death Eaters in each of the mansions to throw us off our trail, and I knew that they were expecting us. The only element of surprise that we had was that they didn't know when.

But that time had come.

The moment we stepped foot on the actual property, we were going to be exposed. So we had to act quickly.

"With disillusionment charms," I sighed. They weren't going to last long. I knew the moment we walked into that house, there would be all sorts of spells to negate a disillusionment charm, but it was our only savior until we got into the house.

Remus nodded and seconds later, I couldn't see him.

"C'mon," I spoke softly to where he had stood seconds earlier, nodding towards the left side of the house where a group of shrubberies would be able to provide us with slight shelter from whoever was inside.

We crossed the road and rushed down a worn path, letting the shrubs shield us until Remus mentioned an opening amongst the bushes. I couldn't see him, but I reached out for his arm, the only way for me to show him I appreciated him being there without actually saying the words. With a heavy sigh, I reached for the door.

This was it.

The door was locked, but a quick "Alohamora," had us slipping inside into what appeared a dark corridor.

"If she's anywhere in this house, it's got to be the basement, don't you think?" I hissed. Glancing over my shoulder, I cringed as I saw Remus standing there. Nowhere to hide now.

Remus hesitated before shaking his head. "I don't know. That would be the obvious choice but there are doors that lead to the basement. There aren't any that lead to the attic."

I frowned. He had a really good point. Turning around, I headed down the corridor along the wall. It was covered in a thin layer of dust, and in seconds we stumbled across two doorways. Once again, they were locked. I heled up my wand to unlock it when everything changed.

"Stupefy!"

Remus grabbed me and pulled me down towards the floor as a jet of red light soared over our heads. We wasted no time in scrambling off the ground and pointing our wands at the two Death Eaters headed our way.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Remus shouted, aiming his wand over my hand.

Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I saw the blonde – I believe his name was Yaxley – stiffen and fall backwards.

I saw the sneer on Lucius Malfoy's face as he pointed his wand directly at me. As he held his wand out and yelled "Crucio!" I was quick enough to deflect it, stumbling backwards as Remus grabbed my robes.

"We've got to retreat," Remus hissed, sending a spell over my head towards Lucius just as a thunder of footsteps occurred right above us on the main floor. Which meant more Death Eaters were on their way.

"No!" I hissed. "Not without Lil-"

"I am not letting you get killed on a wild—Confringo!" Remus snapped, a jet of orange light heading straight towards Malfoy, who deflected it with ease.

As Malfoy lifted his wands towards us, two other Death Eaters appeared behind him and I knew we were heading straight into a suicide mission. But I was not leaving without Lily.

I shot a stinging jinx over my shoulder, ducking as a jet of purple light soared above my head, and was only remotely satisfied when I saw my jinx hit Mickey Mulciber square in the face.

"Stupefy!" he cried out, though his wand was pointed towards the ceiling as the clear pain settled into his face. One of the ceiling raptors cracked, providing me with an idea.

"Remus, duck," I hissed as he was attempting to fight off two Death Eaters. I could see a slash across his neck where blood was pouring out.

Glancing at me quizzically, he simply shrugged and did as he was told.

"Expulso!" I shouted, my wand pointed at the room on my right. Shouts filled the corridor as debris from the wall and the items within the room went flying in all directions. Everyone ducked in an attempt to shield their faces from oncoming rubble. I did the same, letting out a loud cough as the dust from the room filled the corridor. Peering into the room, it was filled with storage items to the brim. I grabbed Remus' arm and rushed into the room, hiding behind a stack of old bookshelves.

"We need a plan," I whispered frantically as I heard a rush of footsteps trampling over the wreckage into the room.

"Here's a plan: we retreat."

I glared at him, pointing my wand at his neck and producing a quick cleaning spell. It was all I could do without knowing what had really hit him. "If you want to go back to the woods, I can't stop you. But I'm not going anywhere until we search this house!"

Remus frowned, pressing his hand to his neck and wincing. "James."

I shook my head. "You won't change my mind, Moony. I'm going upstairs with or without you."

He sighed, glaring over at me curiously as we heard the footsteps grow closer. "Fine! I'll…I'll hold them off. Lure them back towards the door we came through so you can get to the stairwell. But you're going to have to act fast."

I shrugged. "A worthy plan," I said with a grateful smile. "Except that leaves you fighting it out against four Death—Stupefy!" I shouted as a Death Eater came into view.

"I can handle myself. Go, James," Remus insisted, shoving me out of the way as he knocked the bookshelf over to create a barrier.

I hated the plan, but we had no other option. So I did as he said and ventured towards what I could only hope was an exit that would take me to the stairwell.

I heard shouts behind me and saw random jets of light soar through the air. I prayed that Remus would make it out okay, but instead of focusing on him, I turned my attention towards a faint light and followed it. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the stairwell in front of me. Leaving Remus behind had never been my intention, but all I could think about at that moment was finding Lily and leading her to safety.

---

++SIRIUS++

"She's going to be in the attic," I murmured as Sydny and I put disillusionment charms over ourselves.

"What?" her voice cut through the quiet air.

"Lily. If she's anywhere, she'll be in the attic."

"What makes you say that?"

"There's only one way in and one way out of the attic. Everywhere else in this house has secret passageways leading in and out. She's…" I trailed off, my breath hitching in my throat. Clearing it out, I said, "That's where they're holding her."

Sydny said nothing but I practically jumped when I felt her arm on mine. "She's going to be okay," she urged.

I frowned. "Stop saying that," I sighed, stepping out of her grasp. "C'mon, see that back window over there? That's where we're breaking in."

She said nothing more but I could hear her footsteps behind me as I took the lead.

We both froze as we heard a scream erupt in the near distance. That could only mean that some of the Order members had met up with Death Eaters. And our cover was officially blown.

I slid through the window with Sydny right behind me, and glancing over my shoulder I let out a sigh as I could see her silhouette. No more disillusionment charm to hide us. I was about to point this out to her when all hell broke loose.

Rounding the corner came a stampede of hooded figures, their wands out and ready to fight dirty.

"Stupefy!" Sydny shouted over my shoulder.

Following her lead, I shot as many curses I could think of off the top of my head towards the six or seven looming figures, before grabbing her arm and hightailing it the room on my left. The room was full of storage, broken furniture and old decorations lining every amount of free space in the confinements of the already tiny room. She and I cringed, but were smart enough not to cry out, when explosion spells were targeted throughout the entire room.

"What's the plan?" I hissed.

She frowned, jumping out of the way of a shelf that was barreling towards us. "I…I…" she trailed off, nothing coming to mind.

Which was a complete first. I thought Sydny LaFevre always had a plan.

"We fight," I encouraged with a weak shrug. We were asking for a death wish, but we had no other choice.

She nodded, pulling herself out from behind the couch we had just been crouching behind and shooting a well-aimed jinx into the crowd barreling towards us.

I didn't know what jinx it was, but it knocked out three of the Death Eaters. "Nice shot!" I encouraged. "Stupefy!"

The Death Eaters were smart to duck it and I was about to send another one their way when suddenly, out of nowhere, everything seemed to shake as the entire basement appeared to have exploded. The next thing I knew, Sydny, the four Death Eaters we were still battling, and I were being lifted off the floor in various directions. Out of pure habit, I grasped at the dead air, hoping and praying to grab hold of something before something grabbed ahold of me. Screams and shouts filled the basement and I was completely helpless, unsure what had happened or where I was going to land.

Suddenly, I crashed against another object. Based on the loud breaking of glass, I had a strong feeling it was some sort of window. Groaning, I attempted to pick myself off the ground with very little luck. Without looking or feeling, I knew shards of glass were imbedded in my spine and all down my legs and arms. The only thing I had been smart enough to shield was my face. Tearing my hands away from my face, all I saw was blood dripping down my scared hands. But in that moment, all I could do was be grateful I was still alive.

"Sydny?" I cried out, not caring who on the other side was still alive and could hear me. It took a couple attempts before I could lift my body off the floor and every step I took felt like a million knives cutting through my every vein. But I kept going.

I kept calling out for her, climbing over rubble and attempting to push the clouds of dust from my face. I barely missed a weak spell from what I could only tell was a dying Death Eater. Cringing, I stunned him, knowing that that probably sealed his fate. Barely glancing at him, I realized that I recognized him as Owen Tennenbaum, a Slytherin who was a few years above us at Hogwarts.

"Sydny!" I cried out again, my stomach growing with pain every word I spoke.

I was beginning to lose hope, wondering if it was best to attempt to retreat, when I heard my name whispered faintly in the distance.

"Sirius," she said feebly. "I'm…I'm here."

I wandered towards the voice, dragging my legs with the mere hope that she was better off than I was. I found her piled under an old wardrobe, my heart tugging with fear at the realization that I did not have the strength or the energy to lift it off of her.

Until it hit me that I had a wand in my hand.

"Wingardium Leviosa," I muttered towards the wardrobe, levitating it off of Sydny and tossing it into a pile of wreckage. "Are you okay?"

She was holding her side as she attempted to sit up, groaning with every move she made. "Yeah," she wheezed. Looking up at me, I saw shock and panic in her eyes. "Oh my God, Sirius."

I smiled weakly. "It's not as bad as it looks," I lied.

She shot me a glare. "You look like death."

"But I'm not dead. So it's not as bad as it looks!" I said with an attempt at a teasing smile.

"Does this look like the time to joke?" she whined. She pointed her wand at my head to which I jerked away.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Healing you, you moron," she said, rolling her eyes.

I had no idea Sydny's skill at producing any sort of healing charm but considering my other option was to curl up in a ball and pray for death to take me, I sighed and leaned over.

"You'll still need some expert healing, but this should hold you for a while," she murmured, muttering a series of healing spells, some of which were familiar to me and some of which I had never heard of. A few seconds passed by – seconds that I was convinced we didn't have – until I felt a weird warming sensation throughout my body.

When she was done, I still felt stiff and sore, but at least I didn't feel like death was knocking on my door.

"Well, seven Death Eaters down," I muttered when she was done. "How many more do you think we're going to encounter?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "But I have a feeling that explosion wasn't even the worst of it. We have to find the stairs."

I hesitated, glancing around the darkened basement. What used to be three different rooms and a bathroom was now just one big pile of broken debris and injured bodies. "Sydny," I murmured, shaking my head. "The entire basement is caved in. I-I don't know how long the house is going to last without its structural integrity."

She frowned. "Then we better act fast."

Without another word, she whirled around and began climbing over the rubble in the direction where the Death Eaters had descended from originally.

Sighing, I followed.

---

++JAMES++

I hugged the wall, taking each stair as quietly as possible, ignoring the loud pounding of my heart against my ribcage as I sauntered towards the main level of the house. When I reached the top, I peered over the corner and jumped when I saw a figure gliding my way.

"Stupefy!" I hissed, catching the Death Eater off-guard as he hit the ground in one fail swoop. Slipping past him, I saw a familiar face. I couldn't recall the name, but I was pretty sure he had been a Slytherin in my sister's class.

I didn't waste any more time, no longer trying to be stealthy and just trying to be fast. I knocked down every door, whispering Lily's name frantically. I came across one more unsuspecting Death Eater who appeared to be guarding the stairwell, stunning him and only leaving with a broken nose I received by attempting to duck from his spell and ramming my face into a picture frame adorning the wall.

Ignoring the shooting pain in my face, I treaded the stairs up to the second floor. Tiptoeing up into the dark corridor is where I ran into more trouble.

"Well, if it isn't the Potter kid," a dark voice sneered. "Whatdya know, Hermes, Bellatrix was wrong for once!"

I didn't have time to consider what that meant because the hooded figure was thrashing his wand through the air and yelling, "Stupefy!"

I jumped out of the way to avoid the spell, only barely missing and wincing as my arm twisted against the stairway railing. "Petrificus Totalus!"

He ducked my spell, too, giving his friend the ability to shoot a spell my way. Ducking, I hastily retreated down the stairs, rounding the corner and silently waiting there for them to storm down. Being the idiots that they were, the clambered down the stairs after me and into an unexpected dual Stupefy spell from yours truly.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I stumbled over their crumbled bodies, my heart beating out of my chest as I neared the second floor. My wand was out and ready for the next batch of Death Eaters to come flying my way, but much to my surprise, I didn't encounter any more. As I peered into every room, unlocking the doors that had been locked, I was merely met with empty beds and dust lining the furniture. As I crept towards the last stairwell, the stairwell up to the attic, I felt in my heart that something was wrong. Very wrong.

I could barely hear myself think over the pounding of my heart as I tiptoed up the stairs, so much of me just praying and wishing that I would find the redhead I was desperately in love with. And that I would find her alive.

What I found was nothing.

There were only two rooms at the top of the stairs, a storage room to my left and an old bedroom to my right and they were both empty.

I knew then what had felt so wrong. It wasn't just the fact that I hadn't encountered a single Death Eater after the seven I had already battled. It wasn't just the fact that if Lily was up in the attic in one of these rooms, there would be a swarm of them just waiting to pounce on me.

It was the fact that as I got further and further into the house, the Death Eaters had become more and more unknown to me. They had been keeping their best Aurors on the bottom floor, knowing that that was exactly where we were going to be entering. And if Lily was in one of these attic rooms, their best Auror – in this case, Lucius Malfoy or Mickey Mulciber – would be up there watching guard over her.

No, actually, Bellatrix Black herself would be up there watching guard over her. And she was nowhere to be found.

I fell against the wall with a tortured cry, my wand gripped tightly in my hand as the fear and panic settled into my heart. I had put myself, and even worse Remus, in eminent danger and for what? A wild goose chase?

I felt unexpected tears prickling the edges of my eyes. I had been so sure, so convinced, that I was going to find Lily in that house. I had believed with every fiber of my being that I was going to be thrust upon a hoard of Death Eaters, fighting them off one by one and letting my adrenaline come out on top as I did everything in my power to protect and save Lily. And she wasn't even in the goddamned house!

At that moment, all I could pray for is a patronus from one of the other houses informing us that they found Lily so I could fight headfirst in the right battle.

"James?"

I jumped, frantically raising my wand in the direction of the voice, but it was only Remus.

"Whoa!" Remus said, ducking as a jet of light spilled from the end of my wand. I heard him wince when he moved, telling me that he was in some sort of lingering pain from his own battle.

"She's not here," I muttered in defeat, re-pocketing my wand.

Remus said nothing at first before commenting. "I know."

I let out a sigh, hitting my head against the wall in pure frustration. I said nothing and neither did Remus, of which I was grateful. He and I both could have been much worse off, especially battling as many Death Eaters as we did. Though I can only imagine the swarm of Death Eaters that awaited whichever twosome was venturing into the home where Lily was resting. My brow furrowed as a thought occurred to me. "Wait, what are you doing up here, Moony? I thought you were retreating back to the forest?"

"I was, though I was failing pretty bad at it," he murmured, slumping down against the wall beside me with an agonizing groan. There was barely any light filling the hallway, but I was okay with that because I wasn't so sure I wanted to see what damage had been done to my friend. "But Drew and Peter came to my rescue. I-I think one of the Death Eaters is dead. Or at least severely unconscious. All three of us hit him with a pretty powerful stunning spell."

"Drew and Peter?" I said in surprise. "What are they are doing here? Shouldn't they be-"

"The guest quarters were nothing but a death trap. Evidently, one explosion spell barely hit one of the raptors and the entire house came crashing down around them. They barely escaped. Drew is pretty sure that one of the Death Eaters was caught in the rubble, most likely dead at this point."

"Lily could be in there!" I choked out in a strangled whisper.

"No," Remus said, shaking his head. "Peter heard one of them, Goyle he believes, say they needed to get back to Bellatrix."

My heart pretty much stopped at that point. Remus didn't have to say his next words. I had already come up with the same conclusion.

"Wherever Bellatrix is, James," Remus whispered, "is where we'll find Lily."

The question was, where was that?

---

++SIRIUS++

As Sydny and I trampled into the kitchen, we were met with another five Death Eaters all waiting for us. Jets of light flew through the kitchen as each and every one of us shot spells and jinxes at one another. It was difficult to tell who had the upperhand, but it quickly became obvious when another couple of Death Eaters scrambled into the kitchen to help.

As the hoods fell from their faces due to the backlash of spells, I realized that I recognized most of them. Rabastan Lestrange was leading the pack. Malachi Selwyn was dueling with Sydny alongside a Hunter Travers and Jed Randolph, who were both playing double duty on both myself and Sydny. The last Death Eater remained hidden, but he appeared to be untrained as a simple full-body bind curse hit him square in the chest and he toppled to the ground with a yelp.

I was waiting for another explosion to occur, wondering if Sydny and myself could even survive another, as I shot every malicious spell from my wand I could think of. Beside me, Sydny was doing the same, but all we were doing was holding them off. We were nowhere close to getting upstairs to find Lily than they were to killing us.

Until Sydny shouted "DUCK, SIRIUS!"

Without knowing why, I jumped to the ground, shielding my face in the process, as she cried out "Expulso!"

Shutting my eyes tightly, I felt the room shake with the explosion. She had aimed it towards the side wall that was lined with windows and I felt the glass ricochet around the rooms. Screams erupted and when I was finally willing to peek an eye out, I saw that in replace of Rabastan Lestrange's eye was now a shard of glass. Selwyn and Travers had dived for cover, both trapped under a now broken kitchen table, and Randolph had slammed into the refrigerator, holding his side while emitting a cry of pain.

More cuts lined my body and I was really beginning to hate the whole concept of glass. Glancing over at Sydny, she had slammed herself against the kitchen island, her arm now twisted in a rather unusual way. "C'mon," she hissed, grabbing my arm and rushing out of the room towards the main corridor.

It came as no surprise when we heard the scramble of footsteps behind us. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Selwyn and Travers following us while the others clearly remained injured in the kitchen. "Stupefy!" I shouted, knocking Selwyn over.

Travers brought up his own wand with a sneer. "Crucio!"

I ducked in time, but Sydny didn't. She let out a loud shout as she fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

"Confringo!" I shouted, the sounds of Sydny's screams too chilling to comprehend.

Travers stumbled backwards as his robes caught on fire, breaking the Cruciatus curse from Sydny.

I could hear Travers igniting an aguamenti spell behind me so I knew we had little time as I bent over to ask Sydny if she were okay.

I couldn't even get the words out when another three Death Eaters came clambering down the main stairwell, wands out and spells shooting out of their wands.

With a bit of a wince, Sydny pulled herself off the floor as she led us into the dining room at full speed, just to duck away from any further spells if possible. I knew there was a secret passageway behind the dining room china cabinet that would lead us into the solarium. It was putting us further away from the stairwell, but it would at least get us out of harm's way for a few minutes.

"C'mon!" I said, pulling on a tall candlestick that then slowly revealed the secret passageway.

She looked momentarily impressed before she whirled around and shot two stunning spells towards the nearing Death Eaters.

"Petrificus Totalus!" I shouted and without bothering to see if I struck one of them, I grabbed Sydny's hand and dove into the passageway. With a flick of a switch, the china cabinet shut swiftly behind us, plunging us into total darkness.

But at least we were safe.

For now.

"We can't afford anymore explosions," I whispered as I began the trek down the dingy hallway.

"I know," she murmured. "That's why I aimed mine at the windows instead of anything substantial."

I wanted to believe it was smart thinking, but the shards of glass embedded in the back of my leg spoke volumes.

"Where will this lead us?" she asked.

"The solarium on the other side of the house. It's not ideal, but-"

"This house has a freaking solarium?" she snorted. "The Blacks are too rich for their own good."

I shot her a glare over my shoulder, but I knew she couldn't tell in the darkness. "More important issues at hand, LaFevre."

Silence filled the already creepy corridor before she said, "She's here, Sirius."

I said nothing because I knew she was referring to Lily and frankly, I had already gathered that information myself.

"Any secret passageways on the second floor?" she asked.

I nodded before remembering she couldn't see me. "Yeah, going from the playroom at the top of the stairs to the Master Bedroom at the end of the hall."

"Please tell me one of those is near the attic stairs."

I frowned. "The Master bedroom is right underneath it."

"Okay, then we need to get into that playroom and sneak into the Master bedroom as quickly as possible."

"Sounds like an easy enough plan," I snorted. "Oh, except for the fact that everywhere we turn, we run into a swarm of Death Eaters!"

I could practically feel her roll her eyes at me. "We've been fighting them off thus far!"

"But for how much longer?" I hissed.

"Guess we're about to find out."

"Look," I said, halting as I whirled around. I held my hand out, only slightly amused when she rammed into it and let out an irritated grunt. "Lumos," I whispered, letting the light cast a shadow across our faces. "We need to send a mass patronus out. It's evident that Lily is here. I knew it the moment I saw Rabastan Lestrange. If he's here, his brother is here. And if his brother is here, so is Bellatrix. And if that's true, which I think we both know it is, we're going to need all the backup we can get."

"Not yet," she insisted, shaking her head. "Not until we know for sure. If there's a chance that she's elsewhere and we pull everyone-"

"There's no chance of that!" I hissed. "Some of Voldemort's best men are out there and I can only guess that there are more to come. This is it. She's here. I know it. And we need help if we're going to save her."

"Not yet!" she insisted, shoving me to the side as she continued down the hallway.

I was going to interrogate her further when I heard her hand hit metal. We were at the end of the passageway.

"Whatever it takes, we need to get upstairs into that playroom in order for us to get to the Master bedroom."

I frowned, not liking that plan one bit. But I knew that every second we wasted arguing was another second Lily was in danger. "If you get there before me or…or without me, sing the first lines of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' to the Starry Night painting. It'll open for you."

Glancing over her shoulder, she frowned at me. "I'm not getting there without you," she argued.

It may have been the nicest thing she had ever said to me. "Then we should consider sending out a mass pat-"

"Not yet."

I grunted, not sure why she didn't want to call for backup quite yet. "Why not?"

"Do you want to stand here and chit chat or do you want to save Lily?" she urged, knocking lightly on the wall behind her. "How the hell do we get out of here?"

I sighed, reaching over and flipping a switch over her head. Seconds later, we tumbled out from behind the writing desk into an empty room.

We were alone for a mere few seconds before another four Death Eaters were rushing through the library into the solarium. Sydny sent books flying off the shelf of the library as the two of us ran towards the stairwell, shouting spells behind us every step of the way. We weren't anywhere close to finishing them off, but we were doing a damned good job of holding them off.

Until we were completely out of options.

As we ran up the stairs towards the second landing, my breath hitched as we came across Rodolphus Lestrange with another two lackeys. "So nice of you two to join us!" he cackled. "Crucio!"

I ducked, barely missing the spell as I sent a stunning spell his way. Glancing pleadingly towards Sydny, I pointed in the direction of a room behind us. The only saving grace we had in that moment was that the Death Eaters were coming at us from the direction of the Master bedroom and stairwell leading up to the attic, clearly thinking that that was the way we intended to go.

I shot another spell over my shoulder as I chased after Sydny towards the playroom, a room that had kept us kids occupied for hours and was now a mere room that had spent its years collecting dust. "It's the first room on the left!" I cried out to Sydny, giving away our plan but having no other way of informing her which room it was. As we ducked in and out of jets of lights, I heard a thunderous roar of footsteps barge into the house below us and I knew in that moment that Death Eaters that had previously been protecting other homes were now joining forces to bring Sydny and myself down. Glancing over the landing balcony, I saw a sea of faces. Sensing the look on Syndy's face, she knew we were in trouble as well.

We skidded into the playroom, barely missing an onset of jinxes, and as I stood in the doorway fending a handful of Death Eaters off, she sang to the painting in the back of the room. I heard the painting door creak open and Sydny cry out, "LET'S GO, SIRIUS!" I slammed the door shut to the room, giving us just a few seconds of freedom, before diving through the portrait hole right behind Sydny.

Once again we were plunged into darkness.

"That's it, Sydny, I'm sending a mass patronus to everyone now!" I hissed, pulling out my wand.

She slapped my hand over my wand before I could do anything. "No," she spoke firmly. "We tell no one."

I turned to look at her, jumping when I heard a clamber of footsteps below us. Grabbing her arm, I rushed down the narrow corridor. "Sydny, there are at least twenty Death Eaters out there, if not more! We cannot fight against them ourselves. I'm calling for back-"

"Don't," she pleaded. "You…you can't."

I froze, sensing desperation in her voice. I turned around to face her, though her silhouette was barely visible in the dark. "Why not? Why are you so insistent that we don't call for backup?"

I could see the guilt in her face and felt my heart flutter in anticipation of what she may say.

We both jumped, letting out short shouts when an explosion occurred nearby. Panic enveloped me at the thought that the house wouldn't hold for very much longer. "Sydny," I hissed. "We need help. We need backup. Tell me why you don't want to-"

"Because if you send that patronus, James will be knocking down the front door in a heartbeat, and that's what they want," she whispered pleadingly. "They're here for him. They lured him here through Lily. We can't let him know she's here, Sirius, or he's going to be the next one killed."

My heart stopped at that very concept. I opened my mouth to argue, but my mind was jumbling with so many thoughts and emotions, I didn't even know what to say. It hit me that she had never intended to tell anyone else. This has been her plan all along. "Sydny," I murmured as I wrapped my head around the present moment. I jumped again when I heard another small explosion coming from down the hallway. "If we don't let him and the others know she's here, we're going to be the next ones killed."

The little bit of light that shimmered through cracks in the foundation displayed the fear in her eyes. "We can't send a mass patronus," she whispered desperately.

I frowned, whirling around to glare at her. "What are you trying to prove, LaFevre? And is it worth dying over?"

She said nothing at first, leaning up against the corridor wall in sight defeat. "I-I was afraid it may one day come down to either her or him," she murmured.

I knew she was referring to Lily and James.

"But I'll be damned if I'm going to allow them to get into an either her or him situation under my watch. If James comes running in here, one of them or God forbid both of them will wind up dead. But if we keep James out of these walls, they're going to do everything in their power to keep Lily alive. She's their only bargaining chip—AGH!"

We were both knocked off our feet when an explosion hit way too close to home.

"If they continue blowing this place up, all of us are going down, Sydny!" I cried out, pulling myself to my feet.

She shook her head. "Then keep walking, Sirius!"

"Sydny-"

She shoved past me, slamming me into the wall with a groan as she quickly trudged on.

"Okay, here's what we need to do," Sydny murmured from in front of me. "You have to get back downstairs and go next door to Pollux Place. If no one's there, go to Arcturus Dwelling or the guest corridors. Get backup without going to Bellatrix' old place."

I frowned. "And what are you going to do?"

She hesitated and before she could say what her plan was, another explosion occurred ahead of us. I knew we were nearing the end of the hallway based on the shouts occurring around me. "I'm going to the attic," she responded hastily, pushing open the portrait and jumping out before I could stop her.

"What? Sydny, that's asking for a death wish! Stupefy!" I shouted as a Death Eater came barreling towards me out of nowhere. "SYDNY!"

I knew she could hear me, but it didn't matter. She was fighting Death Eater after Death Eater over the clouds of dust and rubble and I couldn't go after her, too many others coming at me with their wands raised. I saw Rodolphus Lestrange staring back at me as I attempted to stupefy him and knew we were getting even close to Lily. But I couldn't do anything about that. All I could do was fight like hell to stay alive against the crowd of Death Eaters heading my way and follow Sydny's plan.

Because if I didn't, both Sydny and Lily would be dead by the time I got back.

---

++SYDNY++

I could hear Sirius screaming after me, but I ignored him as I shot stunning spells and choking spells and explosion jinxes towards anyone that got in my way.

I clambered over a bleeding body in front of me, and let out a sigh of relief when I saw the final stairwell at the end of the hall. I took the stairs by twos, rushing on to the attic landing. "Stupefy!" I screamed when I rounded the corner, anticipating a Death Eater or two to be standing there. I wasn't wrong.

One of the bodies crumbled and when I looked the other one in the eyes, my heart stopped.

"Well, if it isn't Sydny LaBitch," Bellatrix smirked, twirling her wand in her hand. "You certainly weren't the one we were expecting, though offing another lousy Auror is certainly nothing I'm against. Crucio!"

I blocked it just barely, glaring at the woman in front of me. "He's not here," I spoke firmly. "You're going to have to be a lot smarter if you plan to outwit James."

"Outwit James?" she sneered. "Or outwit you?"

I shrugged. "Both I suppose."

Her smirk spread. "He'll be here," she snarled. "Just wait. The moment I kill you and then follow up with killing my pathetic excuse for a cousin, he'll have no choice but to make his way into this house."

"There's only one problem with that," I said with a cool shrug. "You won't be killing anybody. Expulso!"

She shrieked as the wall to our left exploded, debris and dust flying into the corridor and knocking both of us over. Ignoring the gash on my forehead, I waded through the wood paneling and scrambled into the room.

"Why you little-" but her voice was drowned out by me exploding the other wall opposite her, burying her in wood.

Wiping the blood pouring into my eyes, I let my eyes adjust to the darkness and was met with the most devastating and yet promising sight all evening.

There in the middle of the room lay Lily Evans.

As I rushed over to her, I knew I had just a few seconds before Bellatrix came running through the door.

"Lily," I whispered, shaking her hesitantly. Everything about her was off. Her leg was crooked, her arm was barely recognizable, her face was red with blood, and the single moan that erupted from her lips chilled my bones.

"Don't," she whispered, shaking her head only slightly as she let out another moan. "Trap. Go. He…he's…go."

"What?" I asked, leaning down to get a closer hear. "We know it's a trap. James isn't here. He's-"

"No," she groaned. "Not…not that 'he.'"

"What? Then who?"

"I believe she's referring to me."

Every inch of my body froze at the chilling voice behind me. Slowly, I stepped off the floor and turned around to face the owner of the voice.

Voldemort.

---

A/N: Dun dun dunnnnnn... This chapter was full of so much adventure! It was fun to write it. I know a lot of this story has been about the relationships and not nearly enough on the war side of things, so for those who wanted some action, you've got it! Question is - what happens next?