"Why are you so against this arrangement?"

Lily whipped her head around to look at Alice. The normally chirpy girl looked unusually serious, and the difference it made was startling. Lily didn't doubt that this serious woman was a powerful auror.

"It's demeaning to you," Lily replied, looking away from Alice and out of the window instead. "You could be doing better work, like trying to save those children, or protecting more high-profile people in the world. You shouldn't be babysitting me."

Alice was silent for a while, and Lily hoped that she would just drop the topic. She didn't want to talk about her reasons for not liking Alice. They were irrational and she knew it, but she had no other way to get back at Ellie.

"You know that I don't work in the main auror division, don't you?" Alice asked.

When Lily glanced at her, she could see that Alice was looking out of the window as well. "Yeah, I do know that. You said you worked in the protection squads."

Alice hummed. "The protection squad is basically a group of witches and wizards who are paid to protect a particular person, for whatever reason. The Minister has a protection squad, and sometimes I do my rounds on that roster. But sometimes, I accept other requests, like the one Ellie brought me."

Lily squinted at Alice, and then crossed her arms. "You mean to say that Ellie is paying you to babysit me? That's hardly making me feel better about this situation."

"No," Alice said, shaking her head. "I'm not trying to make you feel better. If I was, I'd tell you that most of your fellow classmates have protection details. James Potter, for example, has a permanent guard during the vacations. A couple of the Slytherins in your year have one as well. So, it's a completely normal thing to have an auror with you."

Lily shook her head. If she had remained in the muggle world, the closest she would have gotten to a bodyguard would have been seeing them guarding someone else. But here, she had her own bodyguard, and she didn't understand how they could talk about that so casually.

She understood the need for Potter to have a bodyguard. From what she had understood of family inheritances here, he was next in line for the whole of his family estate and voting seat, so he would obviously be protected.

"What about Sirius Black?" She asked, curiosity about the magical world and their weird customs rearing its head. "Does he have a protection detail? A bodyguard?"

Alice laughed brightly. "No, Sirius Black doesn't have a bodyguard, as you call it. He's one of the few family heirs to not have a bodyguard, the other being Frank."

"Why not?" Lily shot back. "Shouldn't they want to protect their heirs?"

Alice gave her a long look before she sighed and rested her face on her palm. "The Black family teaches their children a lot of magic from the time they show potential. None of the children in that family are ever left unprotected, not even if their wands are taken away. They don't hire bodyguards as a show of their strength, and no one has ever managed to assassinate on of the Black family heirs, or anyone related to the Black family in general."

Lily stared at Alice in shock. There was no way that Sirius Black, jokester and fool of Gryffindor knew dark magic that he could use to protect himself. He didn't seem anything like the rest of his family, and Lily would know, having seen the rest of them picking on him before.

"Anyways, it works the same way for Frank," Alice said, leaning back on the bed and stretching her legs out. "His grandmother was a Black, and she passed down the protection spells."

Alice paused, looking up at the ceiling. "If nothing else, the Black family is thorough like that. They wouldn't let one of their own die for a petty reason if it affected their political strength, or their notoriety."

Lily shook her head. The people in the magical world really had an odd sense of priority. How could a family act the way Sirius' acted towards him, and still protect him at the same time?

"Why does Sirius even go back to his house after they treat him like shit in school?" Lily blurted, the question popping into her head. "I would stay far away from my family if they behaved like that."

Alice laughed again, easily. "Sirius did run away last summer. It was all over the papers and tabloids. According to the rumors, he yelled at his parents about controlling attitudes, said he would hang whatever posters he wanted in his room, and told them he'd never return home if he had a choice."

Lily let out an incredulous laugh. "There's no way that's true! Where did he even go?"

"Your friend James' house," Alice replied, lips turned up in a smirk. "It was pouring and he was completely wet, and James looked ready to throw him right back out."

Lily laughed at that mental image. She would've never thought about the two boys behaving like that. But then again, she would've never thought about the marauders if she was given the choice. As it stood, she couldn't help but want to know more about the people she might have to work with.

A thought ran through her mind. "But he went back home for this vacation."

"Sure he did, but that's because he's still heir of the family, and they don't want to lose him just yet. He has proved himself stronger than his brother so far, and the Blacks can't afford to have a weak heir."

Lily groaned, dropping her head onto the wall behind her. "I hate politics."

"Yeah, I understand that sentiment."

Lily turned back to look out of the window when she saw Alice closing her eyes. She didn't want to disturb her from whatever she was doing.

It was as she looked out, that Lily spotted a fast-moving object hurtling straight towards the window. Jumping off the bed, she threw open the window in time for the owl to crash land on the bed. The owl, to Lily's surprise, didn't even pause. It threw a bright red letter straight at Alice and jumped right back out of the window.

Alice didn't hesitate, ripping open the letter.

Lily had heard of the red letters before, called Howlers. She knew that they could be sent by anyone, and they worked by amplifying a person's voice to yell at the recipient. In Hogwarts, she had seen only one person receive Howlers and that was Potter. Not that the Howlers were mean or anything.

Which is why Lily was surprised when the letter didn't yell loudly enough to hurt her ears. In fact, the voice in the letter was fairly soft, even for a normal conversation.

"Fortescue, we're enabling emergency procedure 3. The Ministry is on lockdown until everything is clear. All active aurors are called back to their posts immediately. Check in with senior auror Potter before you go to your post. Your squad mates are Prewett, Prewett and Black. This letter will self-destruct now."

And as Lily watched the letter burst into flames. All that was left on the bed was a pile of ashes. Alice was rushing around the room, grabbing her auror robes from the wardrobe and attaching her wand to holster.

"Hey," Lily interrupted Alice's rushed mutters. "What's going on?"

Alice turned to her with a vaguely apologetic look, and rushed through the words to explain. "I'll explain later, okay? The Ministry is going into lockdown, which means that some aurors or hit wizards have found something in a precarious or dangerous case, and we're all acting as backups. We don't have enough people on staff, so all aurors are called back. I need to go now. Stay safe, okay?"

"When will you come back?" Lily asked, feeling worry blooming through her stomach.

Alice shrugged, lifting her wand up slightly. "Could be anywhere between three hours or three weeks. Depends on how bad this is."

With a crack, Alice disapparated out of the room and Lily was left standing alone. Her stomach was slowly twisting itself into knots, and Lily wondered what had happened that sent the whole Ministry into lockdown. Questions ran through her head, how bad was it? When would the news about this come out? Would the news be true or a cover up?

Not sure of what to do, Lily found herself walking down the stairs to the dining room. She still had to finish her chores, and she needed something to distract her from the rushed atmosphere as Alice left the house.

It was only a few more days to the New Year. They would get out of the lockdown by then. Lily convinced herself that's what would happen. Then, she could spend the beginning of the year with Alice, who was a great conversationalist, rather than her sister. And she would apologize to Alice for her horrid behavior when Alice returned. She would.