A/N: Thank you for the reviews! This will be the last update for a few days/weeks I reckon, since I have writer's block :( Enjoy it!

Chapter Twenty Two

They moved fast once they were inside, minds obviously not on looking for bridesmaid's dresses and instead focused on the nearest way out. "Food court, over there," Helena pointed, grabbing Lily's arm and pulling her in that direction. She had no idea why she felt like Lily needed protection and she didn't—Alice was an auror, been trained for these situations, but Lily was only a healer. But then, so was she. But if these Death Eaters were like the last ones, then they needed her alive. They didn't need either of her companions.

They moved down through the womenswear and lingerie sections, none of them outwardly checking that the Death Eaters were following and yet absolutely sure they were. Neither could the Death Eaters be sure that they knew they were being pursued; they were moving quickly, but not running, and not giving any furtive glances over theirs shoulders.

Then the first shout went up. "Oi, watch it!"

Heads turned, but not theirs. Already rigid, their muscles only tensed a little more and they continued. Then more shouting; Helena chanced a glance in a mirror as they passed, and saw that the Death Eaters were shoving their way through the muggles, uncaring of the shouts that went up behind them. Unlike the three of them, they had not bothered with muggle dress, and their odd clothes were attracting attention.

"Bloody watch where you're going, freak!"

Nathaniel Parkinson stopped. "Are you addressing me, muggle?"

"You what? Yeah, freak, I'm talking to you! You deaf or something?"

Nathaniel went for his wand. "You would do well to hold your tongue."

The muggle only laughed. "What you gonna do with that, poke me eye out? Bugger off."

The wizard drew in a breath, and Helena pulled away from Alice and Lily, turning to face the Death Eaters. She heard them both swear, but do the same. "Don't do this, Parkinson," she warned. "You have no quarrel with these people."

"People? You call them people?"

Lily's hand went up to her neck and she began rubbing the pendant there furiously. Helena hoped the message got through, but just in case it didn't, she had to keep them talking for as long as she could.

"Yes, they're people! And this isn't their war—ours is on Diagon Alley, not out here!"

"Soon it will be everywhere, and you will learn that this filth is not worth protection from any one of us!"

Helena drew her wand. "We won't allow you to harm any of them. And I won't allow you to get your disgusting hands on me."

He smirked. "Sadly for you, the Dark Lord has issued his orders. Take her. Kill her only if you must."

Well, that was new. Not good, but new.

They didn't have to tell the muggles to scatter, since as soon as the first piece of clothing caught fire from an incendiary spell, they all got the message. With many screams and cries of alarm, the floor quickly emptied apart from them. None of the witches or wizards noticed them go, as they were all, good and evil, engaged in a fight to the death. Helena quickly decided she was very glad the only auror there was on their side—Alice Longbottom was not someone she'd want to be on the wrong side of in a fight. Honey was already in a heap of sale racks, unconscious, and she was rapidly taking Jonah Hammod apart, firing spells at twice the speed he was.

She ducked one spell from him, then yelled, "Expelliarmus!"

Helena finished it. "Incarcerous!"

Limbs pinned, Hammond was borne to the ground, unnoticed by either his enemies or his comrades; Helena had already gone to Lily's side, throwing up a Shield Charm quickly to protect herself from the Stinging Jinx Vines sent her way. She retaliated with a stunner, but it was Lily's Langlock which made it possible for her to cast a Trip Jinx. Unfortunately Sophia cast the same spell simultaneously, and they went sprawling together. Helena's wand had flown out of her hand into a smouldering pile of skirts, but there was the leg of a dressing room chair near her left; she picked it up and used it as a club to the back of Vines' head. Not elegant, but satisfying.

A hand appeared in front of her, and she took it and let Alice pull her to her feet. "Cavalry's here," she said.

"I've lost my wand."

"Accio wand!"

With a zipping noise, Helena's wand zoomed out of the pile of clothes and into Alice's hand. She immediately gave it back to its owner and, with a smile, charged back into the fight. There were now six of them—the three women and their exact male counterparts, who'd appeared out of nowhere. With Hammond and Vines down and out, the other two Death Eaters were battling hard and futilely. Honey locked eyes with Helena for a brief second and then grabbed Parkinson's arm. Helena shot another spell at Kurt, which split open his sleeve and his skin, but didn't stop him from disapparating with the other dark wizard. The suddenly-silent department store fell still. Lily still looked furious, and cracked her knuckles before lowering her arm. Her green eyes were fixed on James though. Alice looked the most composed of all of them, breathing quickly but not raggedly. Helena found she was bleeding from a cut on her cheek that she didn't remember getting. She almost didn't want to look at Sirius. She knew he'd be livid.

Not one of the men hesitated, and within three seconds all three of the women were in the arms of their husband, fiancé and lover, respectively. Helena closed her eyes and squeezed herself close as she could get.

"Are you hurt?" he asked lowly.

She shook her head. "I'm fine, apart from my face. But they came to capture or kill me this time."

"I can't believe they'd be so brazen."

"The muggles-"

"Are all fine. Minstry's doing Memory Charms now. By tomorrow it'll be something that never happened. Glad that's not my job though."

"Thanks for showing up when you did."

"Any time." He kissed her temple and then let go of her. She missed the security when he had, but smiled at James and Frank. "Thank you, both of you."

Frank tapped his own wedding ring. "We got your owl."

Helena walked over to Sophia Vines and removed the rope that gagged her. Then she put her foot on the Death Eater's chest and leaned. "What am I supposed to know?"

"Hellfire-"

Helena held up a hand for him to wait and leaned a little more heavily on Vines' chest. "What is so important that Voldemort'll send you lot into muggle London to get?"

Vines' eyes sparkled maliciously. "You don't know?"

"Helena, don't-"

"In a second, Lily," she snapped, eyes still on Sophia. "That should be obvious, now what am I supposed to know? What is in my head that he wants?"

Vines struggled against her bonds; Helena tightened them. "Oh, it's not in your head. It's in your-"

"Enough." Frank appeared at her side, replacing the gag with his wand and levitating her off the floor. "We need to get them to Azkaban."

"But-"

"We'll see you later," Alice overrode.

Helena vented her frustration on a growl and gritted teeth, until after the aurors and their collected Death Eaters had disapparated. "Why wouldn't he let me question her?"

"Because it's not your job," Sirius supplied softly. "You're not an auror, and frankly you did an amazing thing defending yourself against them for as long as you did, now they're down they need to be in Azkaban as quick as possible, simple as. If they're questioned, it'll be by aurors or the Wizengamot."

"But one more sentence-!" she cried, running a hand through her hair roughly. "I'm sick of this. I'm so fucking sick of it!"

Sirius put a hand on her shoulder, and she shrugged it off without acknowledging him, instead leaving the floor as quickly as she could. She did not want comfort right now, she wanted to punch—or better yet kill—something. Violently. She charged out of the department store by a back exit since she was sure the front one would be crowded with muggles and Ministry officials, and stormed down the street, walking with her head down and not having any idea what direction she was heading. After she'd walked for about a mile in a fine temper, she began to calm down. And to notice, via the hairs on the back of her neck, that she was once again being followed. But this time it was by a large, shaggy black dog. Knowing there was no chance of her outrunning him, she tried anyway, breaking into a spring across Regent's Park when she got to it. At the other side she collapsed into a bench, completely out of breath. Padfoot loped up and sat about ten feet away, panting a little bit.

With a sigh, Helena beckoned him closer. He licked her hand and then put his head in her lap so she could scratch his ears. "Sorry."

A comforting rumble from his chest was the reply, along with another lick.

"Am I being unreasonable," she asked, "wanting to know what I'm supposed to know? It keeps almost getting me killed, Padfoot, and every time I try and bring it up, everyone changes the subject."

He had no answer for that at all.

"There's something else, too. We were in the pub before we left, so we could have been overheard, but when Lily told me we were going into muggle London, we were alone. And when we were in the dress job, Alice mentioned she told her amongst friends. I don't see, unless they were in the Leaky Cauldron by chance, how they could have known where to find us. Unless…"

He growled, deep and long, and she knew he'd grasped her meaning. He didn't transform, and she didn't add anymore. They simply sat for a moment, girl and dog, each looking as worried as the other. Finally she patted him on the head and said, "Come on, Padfoot. Let's go home."

She was still brooding on it, Sirius thought, observing Helena carefully through the corner of his eye. She hadn't said anything more on the subject, but he knew they were both dwelling on what had happened—and how it had happened. The word 'traitor' kept rebounding off the insides of Sirius' skull, but when he tried to apply it to anyone he knew, it simply didn't stick. Besides, there was no guarantee that there was a traitor—Helena had said it herself that they could have been overheard in the pub, and it was very possible. The Cauldron was popular with all wizards, whatever side they were on. There was just a chance that…

Anyway, at the moment it wasn't his biggest concern. That was the fact that Helena wasn't letting it go. She wasn't accepting the excuses they were feeding her anymore, especially since Vines had been horrifyingly close to telling her everything. And he couldn't tell her that there was nothing to worry about; the Death Eaters had followed them into muggle London, they were that desperate to get their hands on her. And he knew her well enough to know that her mind, like his, was repeating Sophia's prematurely-ended sentence over and over, finishing it with any number of combinations. How long until she hit on 'veins'? She was more than intelligent enough to. He needed to distract her with something.

"We should have a dinner party."

She looked at him quizzically. "We should what?"

Sirius was equally stunned that that had come out of his mouth too, since he'd no recollection of actually thinking of it. If he'd thought of it he certainly would not have said it. But now that he had, it seemed as good an idea as any. "Dinner."

"You said dinner party. You. You said 'dinner' and 'party' together. Are you feeling alright, Padfoot?"

"Fine," he said patiently, "now what about it?"

She shrugged. "Why not? Who were you thinking?"

"The obvious."

"And Frank and Alice."

"Sure."

"No need to ask who's doing the cooking," she said, looking amused. "But that leaves you to the hosting. Alright, I'll start looking at a menu. Is four courses too much, do you think, or would it be better just to go with three?"

He rolled his eyes. "Three. Don't think we need a fish course."

"Alright. I'll start planning!" She got up and left the living room, heading for the kitchen and the few recipe books she had. Most of them, unusually, were written by muggle chefs, and had been gifts from Lily. Helena's favourite was a volume written entirely in French, its pages full of complex recipes and occasionally stained with ingredients.

Sirius grinned at her sudden enthusiasm for the idea. Right up until the point when she said, "You should get started conjuring a dining table then. And send the owls out! And we'll need some decent dinner service!"

Bloody hell.

Over the next two days it dawned on Sirius that he'd not actually got himself a distracted woman and a dinner party. What he'd got was somehow a middle-aged housewife and some kind of royal banquet, the way she was acting. He couldn't claim the idea hadn't worked—when not at the hospital it was all Helena talked about. Even their sex had taken on a food element, though naturally he wasn't going to be complaining if she wanted to bring melted chocolate into the bedroom again. At all. Of one thing he was certain though: the food tonight was going to be extremely good.

Helena was in the kitchen—where else?—when he walked in there, somehow looking immaculate in spite of all she'd had to do today. He knocked on the door as he came in, then poked his head inside cautiously. The last time he'd gone into the kitchen this afternoon, he'd had a baking tray chucked at his head. Instead he found Helena leaning against the work-surface with a glass of wine, sitting quite at her ease with the cream for dessert whipping itself. She was dressed in black knee-high boots and a halterneck black dress, looking unutterably sexy.

She rolled her eyes at his nervous entrance. "It's safe, Padfoot."

"Just checking. Keep your hands where I can see them."

"Just come in, idiot."

He did so, and opened the oven a crack. "Smells good."

"Of course it does. It's boeuf bourginion."

"I have a request."

"I'm still in the middle of your last request."

"Can I have my Helena back tomorrow?"

She blinked. "Your Helena?"

"Yeah. I can cope with the unreasonable temper and the ridiculous demands and the frankly alarming habit of thinking you're invincible, but I can't be dealing with this weird…Babbity Rabbity person you've turned into."

"What has that story got to do with anything?"

"Seriously, Hellfire."

"And what do you mean unreasonable temper?" she demanded, putting her wine down. "Has it occurred to you that if I weren't living with a man so bloody irritating he makes me want to pull my eyebrows out sometimes, I might not-"

He cut her off by kissing her deeply, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer. She reciprocated wholeheartedly, heat rising quickly between them. He pulled his mouth from hers long enough to ask, "How long have we got?"

"Long enough," she gasped, hands already at his belt.

She had it undone in no time while his hands pulled her underwear off and pushed her skirt up. She wrapped her legs around his hips as his hands slid under her arse and pulled her forward onto his cock. Helena's cry of pleasure echoed around the tiled kitchen. The rhythm was by necessity fast and hard, but that didn't stop either of them from being sucked in, animal instincts overwhelming conscious thought. Both felt the same thing in moments like this. Increasingly Sirius felt this was right. That she fit. That this woman was his. Blindly, his lips found hers, her breath hot and ragged against his mouth as she panted and moaned in pleasure. Within moments they were both coming undone, Helena first. Her cries built in steady waves as her muscles grew tenser and tenser around him, then she shuddered into orgasm, her whole body trembling as she came undone around him. With a low groan of her name, he came as well, spilling into her in a haze of unfeeling pleasure.

Helena's fingers running through his hair were his first clear sensation on returning to the land of the living, and then her laughter, low and clear. "Did I wear you out?" she asked, planting another kiss on his mouth.

"Just temporarily," he assured with a grin.

They both froze as the doorbell sounded. "Shit!"

He put her down, and she grimaced. "Can you answer the door? I have to…clean up."

He nodded and went to answer the door to the others as Helena slipped up the back stairs to the bathroom. The rest of the Marauders and Lily had arrived, so they stuck with the wine until the others turned up. A few minutes afterward, Helena came back down looking just a little bit flushed in the cheeks. It suited her very much.

Everything was going fine until Lily raised her chin and sniffed. "Um, can anyone else smell something…burning?"

Helena's eyes widened. "Shit, my meringue!"

She rushed out to the kitchen for a moment while the others laughed. Lily raised an eyebrow. "Seems unlike Helena to forget that."

Sirius kept quiet. He knew exactly why she'd forgotten the pudding, and he wasn't about to tell the others. Not just before dinner.

"Whose idea was this anyway?" Prongs asked. "Can't imagine you proposed a dinner party."

"I did actually. Needed something to distract her. She was thinking about it too much for my liking."

"We can't hide it from her forever," Lily said lowly.

"Yes we can," Sirius quelled. "We have to."

"Padfoot, there's no way to tell-"

"Done talking about this, Prongs. Nobody. Tells. Helena."

Alice and Frank arrived last but not least, and just after that Helena reappeared, happy that she'd managed to rescue her pavlova. Neither Frank nor Alice looked happy though, Sirius noted. "What's up?"

Frank sighed. "The Ministry. They're being wankers. They've decided to indict you—Alice, Helena and Lily, for breaching the Act of Secrecy."

"They can't do that!" Helena exclaimed. "We're allowed to use magic in front of muggles if its a life-threatening situation. I'd say the fact that we had Death Eaters attacking us counts!"

"Well unfortunately the Ministry doesn't think it does. They think that because no Unforgivables were used, or attempted, it counts as a breach. And of course the Death Eaters we have in custody are lying and saying you attacked first, so their coming after you three."

"Shit," hissed Lily softly.

"Are they actually going to arrest us?" Helena asked.

"No. But in the morning you're likely to get a summons to appear before the Wiznegamot. That's the talk on the pumpkin vine anyway."

"Utter bollocks."

Everyone agreed with Helena, but there didn't seem to be that much they could do about it. They were all thinking the same thing though: that Voldemort's reach must extend far into the heart of government indeed if he could order them arrested. It wasn't the first time Death Eaters had attacked in unexpected places, yet no one else had been blamed for defending themselves. If they were hauled in front of the Wizengamot, was it likely that they'd be able to avoid imprisonment, or worse? Sirius found his fists tightening. He would not let that happen, to any of them.

"Come on," he said grimly, "let's eat, shall we?"

No one really enjoyed Helena's starter as much as it deserved, though by the time the main course was cleared away wine and good company had worked their magic extremely well—they were all calmer and even laughing just in time for dessert, the pavlova that their…exertions had almost ruined; it in came in creamy glory, topped with raspberries and passionfruit. Unfortunately the juice from both fruits had mingled with the cream and turned it a sort of reddish hue…

"I know, I know," she said as she put it down, "it looks like a horrendous Quidditch accident. But I promise it'll taste delicious."

It did taste delicious, though in Sirius' opinion it could have been made slightly better if there were no one else in the house and he were licking it off Helena's body, but it was okay like this too. After dinner, the Longbottoms had to leave, citing early mornings and a long day. He didn't blame them for their really bad excuses; after what had happened today he didn't blame them for their need to reconnect with each other; that had pretty much been what the fast and furious sex had been about earlier. Making sure they were still the same as they had been. Would it get boring, once peace had resumed, he wondered? Looking at Helena, though, he knew she could never get boring. Even if she tried.

Helena had barely exited the room after clearing the plates when Sirius could himself unexpectedly cornered by Lily and James. "Well?"

He looked up. "Well what?"

"Are you and Helena-?" Lily tilted her head meaningfully toward the kitchen door.

"Are we what?"

"Are you together? Properly, I mean, not just sleeping together."

"Um…"

"Oh, come on, Padfoot. You've been in love with her for ages, surely you've told the girl by now."

Sirius looked between James and Lily. "You two are both insane."

"That's a no then is it?"

"I am not in love with her."

"Would you or would you not die for her?"

"Of course I would, but I'd die for you, you great prune."

"You love her," Lily stated in her Head Girl voice.

"I don't."

"Do you watch her sleep?" James asked.

"What?"

"After you've…y'know, do you watch her sleep? Do you purposefully stay awake just to watch her sleep?"

"No. Well, I- Not deliberately, sometimes she just falls asleep before I do and- Oh whatever," he snapped, seeing the smug expressions appear on their faces. "Neither of you have any idea what you're talking about."

"Yes we do," Lily said calmly. "We know love."

To prevent himself throwing up, Sirius left the room to help Helena. When James came in twenty minutes later to get a refill, he had a feeling he'd not helped his case to be found doing the washing up.

A/N: Review please!