James spends most of the morning in his room (not his room – the guest bedroom of this muggle house) planning out another attack.

Black is out getting them more food (and wow Sirius cooks now) but James gets himself hyped up in the meantime. An hour later James rushes downstairs at the sound of the door opening, ready to give Black a piece of his mind.

Voldemort steps through with a swish of his black robes and harsh footfalls of his shiny dragon hide shoes, a handsome if cold looking young man with deep red eyes and pitch-black hair perfectly styled.

James stutters, stumbling back and knocking into the short bookshelf that he never took back upstairs. "Sorry, I think you got the wrong house."

Voldemort looks down at him with emotionless eyes – seems bored if anything.

Did Black accidentally give himself away? Was Black caught and interrogated? Is Voldemort here to 'take care' of James before the prophecy is even made?

A Death Eater follows the Dark Lord inside and in that split second of inattention, James grabs a thick book off the shelf and hurls it as a distraction, ready to run for the back door now that the wards seem to have come down.

The book slows mid-air and disintegrates. No spell, nothing, Voldemort isn't even holding a wand, he isn't even looking at James.

James swallows thickly.

"My Lord," the Death Eater says with a bow of her head. "The kidnapper isn't in the vicinity. No recent apparition trails to follow either."

"Set up a watch around the area," Voldemort orders and looks at James.

"I was going to offer you the book and my hand slipped," James blurts out.

Voldemort raises an eyebrow. "Your parents are very worried about you," he says, completely ignoring James' idiocy. "I offered to help find you as I am not one to stand idly by while a strong magical family is ruined."

"Gee thanks," James mutters. "Maybe stop killing everyone then?"

Shut up, James! screams a voice that sounds oddly like Sirius. Shut up! He's going to kill you! Don't bloody backchat the Dark Lord you little dumbass!

Voldemort smiles. It's not a nice expression. "Come, boy, I'll take you somewhere safe."

'Somewhere safe' turns out to be the Dark Lord's bloody mansion.

James is trapped in a new place now, much bigger and still unable to leave - but honestly he's too scared to try anything either. He can't annoy the Dark Lord into getting rid of him like with Black.

And wow, look at that, Black seems like a much nicer kidnapper right now. Bastard still has James' wand though.

James waits warily in the room he was deposited into but he's not that kind of person and soon goes wandering around – tries to leave and bounces straight off the wards. Thinks about bolting it as Prongs (most wards don't stop animals after all) but maybe he'll save that for a desperate situation.

He wanders around the first two days, trying to find secrets like he would with Hogwarts, tries to pretend like he's getting out of here alive. Finds three secret passages, two hidden rooms and seventeen giant snakes.

None try to eat him, and they all look particularly lazy but James is being cautious because he's heard things.

On the third day -still no Voldemort in sight thank Merlin- he hears muffled, frantic hissing as he walks out of the kitchen with a sandwich in hand and rescues a tiny snake from where it fell into a decorative flowerpot with dried snapdragon flowers.

It stays with him the rest of the day, and sure, maybe the Dark Lord is using it to spy on James but James just kind of needs someone right now.

Having the snake in his pocket feels a lot like sneaking out under the invisibility cloak with Wormtail peeking out over James' collar.

Sirius ducks back around the corner and drops the grocery bags because he just fucking lost baby James!

He takes a deep breath, lets it out. Sirius's jaw clenches and he takes another glance. Death Eaters are behind a muggle repelling ward and too self-assured to take further precautions so they're right there in the open, trailing through the house.

He takes out James' wand and does a quick point me spell which whirls around. It wouldn't do that if James was still in the house, not with the wards ripped down. If James was back in Potter Manor or in Hogwarts the spell would have also worked.

James has been kidnapped by the Dark Lord and Sirius will kill everyone if James dies again. The only reason he hasn't already started slaughtering his way through the Death Eater ranks already is because James needs protection and the other baby Marauders can't keep him safe yet.

Sirius takes a deep breath, lets it out.

Sirius is sitting on James' bed, staring at the anonymous letter in silence.

Remus is pacing in a tight, worried circle between the beds.

"What the fuck does it mean 'kidnapped by the Dark Lord'? Why – what – James isn't nearly fucking interesting enough for this shit to be happening to him! Why is this written in my handwriting? What – Remus, what the fuck?"

Remus' groan sounds a lot like a growl.

"Oh hi, Moony," Sirius says, too loud and manic. "Nice to see you again. James is still lost, if you were fucking wondering where we're up to on that."

Padfoot sits at the edge of the Dark Lord's wards behind the tree line, eyes locked onto the short glimpses of James he gets through the windows.

An owl cries above and circles once, a letter on its leg. Padfoot quickly scrambles away and doesn't stop until he's deep into the trees to shift back and read the letter – dissolving the tracking charm and the jinx first because he still knows Remus. He skips past all the threats and the angry questions about his identity.

"What the fuck does it mean 'the Potters know'? Know what? Did they have a part in it or did they just find out later? Why am I so shitty at writing detailed letters?!"

.

A/N: Sirius pissing off Sirius – as it is meant to be.