A/N) Thank you for all the reviews for the last chapter! You won't really find out what is happening to Sirius in this chapter however clues are given. We remain with James and Lily…

Twisting Time

Chapter 28

Saturday 4th April 1992

James stared at the spot where Sirius had just vanished. One second he had been kneeling there beside them, the next gone in a flash. His mind whirled as he looked first at Lily, and then up at Dumbledore and Remus who had turned just in time to see Sirius disappear, before James settled his gaze upon the shadowy form of Tom Riddle, which was steadily becoming more solid.

"Prongs… Where's Sirius?" asked Remus, his face white.

A sad look crossed Dumbledore's face as he turned his attention back to Tom Riddle. He already knew.

James swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. "Sirius… He opened Harry's hand. A… a stone fell out…"

"It was a Portkey," whispered Lily quietly, brushing the hair out of her son's eyes. He was so pale. "It's what Dumbledore feared…"

Tom Riddle merely grinned, placing his arms behind his back. "It can be so easy to trick others… I have fulfilled part of the planned role set for me." He smirked. "Now to deal with all of you and ensure my return."

"You will not win, Tom," stated Dumbledore. "I suspect you didn't anticipate me coming here."

The boy didn't reply but instead focused upon James. "Even if you do defeat me, you will never find your friend. He will be dead by the time we are finished here."

James gritted his teeth. This was all the clarification they needed to assume Sirius had been sent straight to where Voldemort was hiding. The Horcrux was working with his original self.

Remus shook his head. "You're wrong. All of this is an elaborate plot by your future self to capture Sirius. You're meant to distract us so we cannot find him. But some of us can leave here knowing we stand a high chance of rescuing Sirius before anything happens to him."

Riddle laughed a high, cold and cruel one. It echoed around the cavern. "This has been planned for months. You may have killed my Basilisk, something which we had not foreseen, but this place has served its purpose. Black will die by my original self's hand and your precious child is dying. And with his death I can live again."

Lily got to her feet, reluctant to leave her unconscious son on the stone floor behind her. "He won't die," she said, "because we can destroy you." Her green eyes focused on Riddle hard.

"Lily?" queried James, glancing at his wife. There was something in her hand…

"Did you forget what you need to survive to be able to live again?" Lily held up the object she was holding. It was the diary. She walked slowly forward, moving in front of the others. "Harry still had it underneath his clothes. This diary is the reason you exist. If we destroy it, we destroy you." Her tone was hard and unmerciful. Lily rarely showed that side of herself.

The few times James had encountered it, it had scared him. His wife could be truly formidable if you succeeding in getting on her bad side. They had come prepared for this hunt. Each of them had a Basilisk fang in their pockets. Riddle didn't know they had already been destroying Horcruxes which was an advantage they had.

"It is impossible to destroy me," said Riddle, though there was a flicker of fear reflecting in his face.

Lily smirked at him. "Really? Why do you think we killed the Basilisk? We know your secret, Riddle. We know what you did to survive. But you are the most advanced Horcrux we have seen so far. Your mistake here was letting Harry keep the diary on him before we arrived. Though… I suppose you didn't have to wait long for us to arrive, did you?" She walked forward slowly, brushing through a puddle of water that still lay in the middle of the Chamber. "This was all planned out. Lucius Malfoy had the diary. Your future self is with him, isn't he? It's the only reason this trap has been so well co-ordinated. You were meant to kill us with the Basilisk after you had sent Sirius to Voldemort's location but we killed the Basilisk years ago…" She slipped a hand into her pocket and pulled out one of the Basilisk fangs. "We needed these, you see? Basilisk poison… the one thing powerful enough to destroy a Horcrux."

"No…" Riddle hissed.

"You hurt my son, forced him to turn against his friends and his own family just so Voldemort could get his hands on Sirius. But you underestimated us. Voldemort thought he had the advantage against us by luring us here, but you do not. You may have taken Sirius but it is fairly obvious where he is."

"You know nothing, Mudblood!"

Lily didn't flinch from the insult. "It doesn't matter if I don't know anything. I have beaten you." Lily knelt down and placed the diary in front of her. "You're not powerful enough to stop me. You have nothing to defend yourself with." She was cold as stone. She could feel nothing, just anger at what this Horcrux had done to her son. "No Basilisk to save you this time, Riddle."

"Whatever you are doing, stop it!" yelled Riddle, advancing forward.

A sly smile quirked up on Lily's face. "No." She raised her right hand, clenching the Basilisk fang tight in her fist and brought it down, hard, embedding it in the centre of the diary. Blood spluttered out of the book and bled out onto the Chamber floor.

Riddle screamed.

Lily looked up at the monster in front of her. "This is for what you did to Harry!" She raised her hand again and stabbed the fang down into the centre of the book.

Riddle's screams got louder as streaks of light beamed through him. His features were falling apart and his wails were becoming more and more inhuman. Finally as he reached out towards the sodden mess of the diary he exploded into a million fragments as light penetrated through his body.

Lily climbed to her feet, kicking the diary away from her. "Well, that was easy." Her eyes focused upon her son, who still lay on the Chamber floor, however his breathing appeared to be easier and his face had a bit more colour in it than before. "Harry!" She rushed over to him and gently lifted his head into her arms. His eyes were open and he looked terribly confused.

"Mum?" Harry looked around. "Dad? Where am I?"

Lily pulled her son into a hug and let the tears fall down her cheeks.

James stood by Harry's bedside in the Hospital Wing. He was sleeping. Lily sat in a chair, holding her son's right hand in her own. Jack was sleeping, curled up in a chair next to them. They were at a loss. Though the diary had been destroyed they still had Sirius to worry about. Dumbledore and Remus had already left Hogwarts in an attempt to locate Sirius before he was killed.

Dumbledore had already intimated that he would be if they didn't find him in time.

"I wish I could help," sighed James.

Lily glanced at her husband. "We can't do anything at the moment. We have to hope that they find him."

"Lily… how did you know this was a trap for Sirius?" asked James wearily.

Lily shrugged. "I didn't. It was a guess. Intuition. You know I'm good at that."

James nodded.

"I think maybe it is because I considered why they chose Harry. Sirius said this didn't happen until Harry's second year but Voldemort still tried to take the Philosopher's Stone. But he already knew from Sirius' confrontation with him years ago that he was from a different future. Voldemort must have realised he has to be unpredictable now. He didn't return to Albania because he still had a willing servant in Quirrell which he didn't have before after that incident. He still had a body he could use. He could have gone to any Death Eater…"

James could see where his wife was going with this. "He went to Lucius Malfoy…"

"Yes, because Malfoy was his second-in-command after Bellatrix Lestrange," confirmed Lily, "and the Tom Riddle of the diary confirmed this was a plot that had been planned for months. Voldemort knew he had to do something to get hold of Sirius. He needs to know how much Sirius knows. I don't think he will kill him… Not until he gets into Sirius' head. Voldemort also needs a body… Originally he used Harry's blood and now…"

James paled. "He's going to use Sirius' blood."

She nodded. "Exactly. But we need Voldemort to return anyway so we can destroy him for good. I don't believe any of us envisaged it would happen this early…" She pushed a piece of red hair out of her eyes. "Nor would he use Harry in the way he has… If he had succeeded…" She couldn't finish what she wanted to say. The thought of Harry becoming a victim in Voldemort's plot hurt her. "I think… in some way… Harry was targeted because of the prophecy. This was Voldemort's attempt to kill him… He may view Sirius as the current threat to him now… But if he still believes in the prophecy then Harry will always be in danger, no matter what Sirius does to stop Voldemort."

Swallowing, James shook his head. "I hate this. Dumbledore even warned us that the Hogwarts wards didn't extend down as far as the Chamber of Secrets."

"It's not Sirius' fault. Neither of us expected them to slip a Portkey into Harry's hand. That's why Riddle shoved Harry towards Sirius to make sure he was the one who noticed Harry's hand was curled up. The Portkey must have been keyed to Black blood. Even if I had noticed it, only Sirius would have been teleported away."

James frowned. "But Sirius didn't have any cuts…" He knew there was old magic which involved using a bit of blood to activate specific Portkeys for certain people.

"No, he didn't. But if charmed correctly, Portkeys can register who is the right person to bring along with them without the use of blood. Magic has advanced a long way since the old days. Sirius is the most powerful Black in the country… His magical power would be detected by the Portkey…" Lily pointed out. "And none of us have any ancestry to the Blacks."

James scratched the back of his neck. "I do. But not directly. So, you think the Portkey would only have worked for Sirius and no one else?"

Lily nodded. "Yes. It explains why Harry was holding it. If it had been a normal type of Portkey he wouldn't have been able to. It must have had something special done to it."

It made sense, James knew. But still his best friend was somewhere they could not reach… They would have to wait for Dumbledore to return before they could do anything about Sirius' predicament. "Still… at least Voldemort doesn't know we've been destroying all his Horcruxes."

"Yet," noted Lily. "If he gets into Sirius' head…"

James shook his head. "He won't. Sirius is stronger than that. He has too much to lose if he crumbles." He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm worried I won't see my best friend again…"

"James, we will," she soothed him. "I believe we will. Even if things have planned out quicker than Sirius assumed, we are in a strong position. We are another Horcrux down. Voldemort has two left if we count the snake and we do not know if the snake exists yet or not."

"If it doesn't exist then we will be incredibly lucky," said James. "The problem we have is being unable to find the next Horcrux. We have no idea where it could be or what it is. Sirius hoped to have destroyed all the Horcruxes before Voldemort returned…"

Lily nodded quietly. "He did. We may not be in a strong position as Sirius would have liked but we can still benefit from it. Sirius will return to us."

"Do you believe that or do you hope for it?" James' worry for his friend was increasing with each passing minute. "Even if we find where Sirius is, how are we going to get there? Voldemort would surely have set up wards and guards to prevent anyone from infiltrating."

Lily caught her husband's gaze. "I believe it." She frowned then as she looked at Harry. He had started to fidget. His hands were unclenching and clenching at a quick rate and he twisting and turning in his sleep. "Harry?" she gently stroked his hair. "James, what's wrong with him?"

"He's having a nightmare." James walked round to the other side of the bed.

Lily shook her head. Her red hair fell past her shoulders. "He shouldn't be. Poppy gave him a Dreamless Sleep potion."

"Oh…" James felt baffled. There was no reason for Harry to be acting like this if he was under the potion. Nothing could interrupt the potion and it was meant to last twelve hours. Harry's shaking was getting worse. Tears were beginning to appear underneath his eyelids.

"Harry! Wake up!" Lily grabbed her son by his arms, shaking him.

But he didn't wake.

Even as Lily continued to attempt to wake him up, the doors to the Hospital Wing opened and Dumbledore and Remus walked briskly in. Seeing Lily shouting at Harry's sleeping, shaking form, Remus ran forward.

"What's happened?"

"We don't know. He just started to shake," explained James, feeling a bit useless, as he was unsure of what he could contribute to his wife's continued attempts to bring Harry out of his sleep.

"Oh." Remus sighed. "We know where Sirius is."

James' head snapped around back to Remus. "You do?"

"Yes. Little Hangleton. The Graveyard there. It's heavily shielded and warded. We tried to break down the wards but couldn't," replied Remus. "We couldn't see through the magical energy there either."

"So we can't get in?" James stared at his friend in dismay.

"No. Unless we have something that can bypass the wards..." Remus trailed off as he noticed James' mouth fall open. "What?"

Instead James turned to Professor Dumbledore who was watching Harry with a curious expression on his face. "Harry! Professor, Harry has a bond with Sirius, right?"

The Headmaster turned to look at James. "He does…"

Even Lily had turned to look at him, a realisation expression on her face as she too came to the same conclusion as her husband.

"Even though he's under a potion, the bond is still active! He can feel what's going on! It happened when he was a baby too…" James remembered the night of Voldemort's defeat and Harry crying over it before stating that Sirius had been hurt in the explosion. "And… the bond allowed Sirius to track Harry down when he was taken years ago!" A wide grin spread across James' face. "Harry is the key!"

"James…"

He ignored Lily. "If Sirius can follow the bond, couldn't Harry as well?"

Dumbledore slowly nodded. "He could, but is Harry aware he has this bond with Sirius?"

"We never told him," answered Lily. "But he is aware he has this deep connection to him. He's never really asked us about it but we see evidence of its existence. But if we ask Harry to help us we'll be putting him in danger. I can't risk my son like that."

"Harry cannot Apparate either. He's too young." Remus pointed out. "Sirius used the bond to Apparate to Harry."

"But…" James didn't want to risk his son either but if it helped them get past the wards surrounding Sirius' location… "Would it work? If neither of us can Apparate into the Graveyard itself or break down the wards, would Harry be able to get past them or would we end up outside the wards?"

Dumbledore was silent for a few moments.

Harry stopped shaking and his body stilled as he settled back into his sleep.

"Is it over?" Lily dared to ask.

"I do not believe it is," replied the Headmaster. "The effects Harry was showing were of the Cruciatus curse. If Harry is truly linked to Sirius this deeply then Harry's response here shows Sirius is being tortured. And still alive. I suspect this will continue at intervals. But as to whether Harry could get us through the wards preventing us from reaching Sirius… It is a possibility I cannot rule out. We know so little about their bond that it is impossible to say if they can break the barriers of magic. The only thing we can do is try however that would be up to you two as his parents as it would be putting Harry in a lot of danger."

James bit his lip. He didn't want to risk his son.

"You two need to discuss this," suggested Dumbledore. "If you agree we can form a plan to ensure Harry is safe. If we can get in, Harry can get back out. The only issue to this idea is Harry cannot Apparate however it is very possible he doesn't need to know how to Apparate as the bond does all the work. If the bond works how I believe it could then if Harry concentrates hard enough and links himself to Sirius, he should go to him automatically, bringing us all with him. It would be a very dangerous situation."

The Headmaster inclined his head and then left the hospital wing.

James blinked, thinking over all the information. "I don't want to risk Harry."

"I don't either," whispered Lily quietly. She was stroking her son's head. "But… Sirius… If it's the only way… We can't leave him there… He's done so much for us…"

James knew that. They owed Sirius their lives. And now he was gone, taken by the monster that could use him and wanted him dead for everything he had done to stop him. But how could they decide to risk their son to save Sirius?

"You know what we have to do, don't you, James?" said Lily. She had considered every option open to them but still could not think of a way that would allow them to reach Sirius.

James nodded. "We have to let Harry decide… But he's only eleven. He's not even of age…"

"I know," whispered Lily in return. "But he has this bond with Sirius and he'll hate us for not allowing us to let him help, especially when it is likely he can."

James sat down, putting his head in his hands. "Do you really think so?"

Lily nodded. "There is so much about their bond we do not know. I fear this is a risk we will have to take. But I did have an idea that might ensure Harry's safety."

"The invisibility cloak?" asked James.

"Clearly you've been thinking the same thing," retorted Lily, a slight smile tugging at her lips.

"We are married, Lils," grinned James, though the smile did not reach his eyes. "If Harry can use his bond to link with Sirius and take us to him, Harry can stay under the cloak. We might not know where he is but if we tell him to stay close to us we will be able to escape quickly if we need a quick exit. Harry can stay crouched down out of the way."

Lily nodded sombrely. "The only problem we have is Harry cannot Apparate. Even if he get us to Sirius without knowing how to Apparate, how do we escape since Sirius will be with us? They'll be together not apart."

James' face fell. She knew her husband hadn't considered that little problem. Truth be told, she had only thought of it herself just now.

"Someone will have to sit this out. After Harry gets us there, we get him out of the wards as quickly as possible," explained Lily.

"Or we make an illegal Portkey. Using one to get in is useless since Voldemort has constructed wards to stop anyone from getting in… But what about getting out? Would he consider that? We could give Harry a Portkey that will take him back to a safe place and once we've got Sirius, we can escape through him… if he's capable of Apparating with his bond."

Lily reached out to rub James affectionately on the arm. "You know that whatever we decide to do we won't be leaving today, don't you?"

James nodded. "I know…"

"We will get Sirius back," said Lily. She didn't want to abandon Sirius for long either, but right now they had no choice. "With or without Harry."

To be continued…

Please let me know what you think!

This chapter was meant to be longer than this but I felt this sentence was an appropriate ending for the chapter… The next chapter will focus on Sirius before the chapter after that returns to James and Lily.

Destroying the diary was easy for them this time round as they surprised the Diary Riddle with having already destroyed the Basilisk. Despite the amount of times Harry was seen in the girl's bathroom by Sirius, this is actually the first time he went down into the Chamber so Riddle has only just found out as well. He has no way to stop them killing him. Also I didn't know whether Horcruxes would work with their original selves but since that is a part in canon that isn't addressed, I figured if Voldemort had use for a Horcrux, he could use it to his own advantage – hence in this case using Harry to get Sirius.

I also figured that Voldemort would make sure no one could get in and out of the Graveyard, even if he is located. He's taking extreme precautions because he doesn't know how much Sirius knows about the old future he came from. I don't want Dumbledore being all-powerful either and being able to knock down the wards. It would make rescuing Sirius rather easy so in this case I have chosen to state that not even Dumbledore can get these wards down.

Naturally of course, the only solution to this problem is Harry's involvement due to his bond with Sirius… The only two things getting in the way is Harry's age, as he is still only eleven, and his lack of ability to Apparate.

This will be further explored…

The next chapter to Twisting Time will be posted next WEDNESDAY 24th August as I am working on Tuesday night and hence will be unable to update. Waiting an extra day will enable me to make sure I am really happy with the next chapter as it is quite a pivotal one!

Until then,

the-writer1988

James, Lily, Remus and Dumbledore confront the Hprcrux Riddle. They learn that this is a trap set by Voldemort to get Sirius. The Horcrux is destroyed by Lily.