Raylynx's POV
"Mr. Ollivander." I addressed him at work the next day as I polished a newly made beech wand. "I recall you spoke of the Elder Wand before, during our lessons. I was wondering when its last recorded sighting was."
Ollivander looked up from his own craft and studied me for a moment before answering slowly. "Well, the last whispers I caught about the Elder Wand hinted that Mykew had it in his possession."
"Mykew?" I repeated, puzzled.
"Mykew Gregorovitch. A wandmaker."
"Oh!" I said. "Gregorovitch! I've seen his store in the Carkitt Market, just besides Diagon Alley."
Ollivander nodded. "Yes, that's him."
I had never been there before, but I knew many wizards towards Bulgaria and Serbia preferred Gregorovitch to Ollivander.
Trying to relay as much respect in my tone as possible, I cautiously asked, "Do you believe the rumors?"
"No," Ollivander said dismissively. "I presume it was rumor rather than truth. It was good for his business, you see. You were essentially marketing yourself to customers by making everybody believe that they were buying their personal duplicate of the Elder Wand."
I wanted to ask if Ollivander had ever gone to check himself, but feeling that question might be too offensive, I kept to myself.
Remus had managed to snag a job helping to unpack books at Flourish and Blott's, on the condition that he come after hours (sometimes very late at night) so that customers wouldn't see him and know he was employed there.
During the day he was busy filling out job applications. Most of these applications were based on Hogsmeade, as word of his condition had not spread there, and Remus and I figured he could Apparate betwen Hogsmeade and my home without much trouble. Hogsmeade would also be a convenient job location because Remus often reported directly to Dumbledore after our missions. Remus, James, Frank, and Dedalus were the ones who reported to Dumbledore most frequently. After last night's run-in with the dementors at Kensington Square, Remus had gone to Dumbledore just this morning, especially because I had hinted that James might require some recovery time before he had to think about dementors again.
When I arrived home from Ollivander's, I found that James and Peter were both over. They were sitting on either side of Remus with sympathetic looks on their faces. Worryingly, Remus had his head in his hands.
"What's going on?" I asked, sitting across from Remus and trying to look into his face.
"Have you read the newspaper for today?" Peter asked me.
I shook my head.
"There's a bit in there about new werewolf legislation," Peter said and winced when Remus moaned. Remus shook his head furiously without letting go of his hair.
"Don't shake yourself bald there, Moony," James said.
"Werewolves now have to register themselves with the Ministry and further, they have to write on every job application they submit that they're classified werewolves," Peter explained.
Remus' hands tightened on his hair. His knuckles were white.
I looked at the overflowing stacks of job applications all around Remus. He had worked so hard on these. And now the number of jobs he could apply to had effectively been whittled down to zero.
"Who the hell suggested a decree like that?" I said in disgust.
"Somebody called Umbridge," Peter answered.
Suddenly, Remus spoke, struggling to get his words out through gritted teeth. "That- awful- hag."
"Just let it all out, mate. No need to be polite and hold back," James said and clapped a hand on Remus' shoulder.
Remus finally sighed and sat up. He looked defeated. But then he said a word to describe Umbridge that I'd never ever heard him say before- and I knew he was still fighting.
I smiled brightly and applauded at his choice swear word. James and Peter whooped too. Although all of our smiles were forced, it felt important to keep the atmosphere as bright as possible for Remus' sake.
When Remus had left for his odd job at Flourish and Blotts and Peter had decided to head home, James turned to me. "There's another mission Friday night," he informed me. "Dumbledore decided this afternoon that it will be you, me, Lily, and Sirius."
"Alice and Frank are on their honeymoon. Marlene has her younger brother's birthday, so she's requested the day off," James explained. "Remus will cover your shift here. Caradoc and Elphias will be on shift in their respective places. And Dorcas and Jay will be on standby in case we need back-up."
"What do we have to do?" I asked.
"We've caught word that Death Eaters are planning to terrorize a Muggle neighborhood. We're going to prevent the attack," James informed me.
"Is it expected to be an ambush?" I questioned. "That is, the Death Eaters won't know we're coming, and we'll catch them off guard, right?"
James nodded. "They'll have no clue that we're there. It's us that will be laying the trap for them."
"Has someone scoped out the place?" I asked.
"Yes, we've mapped out a couple of ways to enter the village, but the path most used is a small bridge," James replied. "Lily and I will pose as a Muggle couple on the bridge to divert Muggles and keep a watch for incoming Death Eaters. Meanwhile, you'll team up with Sirius. You two will enter the village and track down the Death Eaters at a specific house. Our intelligence has learned that they plan to meet at this house to group together before starting the terror attack. We have the address of the house already. We just need you and Sirius to confirm on the day of before we go bursting in. So, you'll alert Lily and me when you've found them, and we'll send for more Order members depending on how many Death Eaters are there."
"How will I alert you?" I asked. "We can't send Patronuses with so many Muggles around."
"With these," James said, and he passed me a small dark silver ring. "We'll each wear a ring like this. If you hold it up to your mouth and whisper 'phoenix', all of ours will heat up."
I took the ring.
"Lily already knows and I'll tell Sirius when I see him tonight," James said, getting up from the desk.
"James," I said, thinking of how only yesterday he had almost had his soul taken by a dementor.
"What is it?"
"You all right?"
James smiled gently. "Don't worry about me, Ray. The best thing for me is to fight for the ones I love and the ideals I care about. That's what heals me best."
Lily and James, dressed as a Muggle couple in matching trench coats and scarves, looked adorable.
Sirius and I, not so much. I'd prepared for the mission by wearing one of Jamie's old orange and green stripped sweaters and light blue stonewashed jeans. And then Sirius had shown up- wearing a leather jacket, ripped jeans, fingerless leather gloves, boots, and a black shirt cut low enough that you could spot the edges of several of his tattoos.
"Merlin," I groaned when I opened the door and saw him. Behind me, Remus scratched his head, mildly amused, but also a bit overwhelmed.
"You have your own Muggle fashion style, do you, Sirius?" Remus commented.
It also did not help that Sirius and I were still on awful terms due to our fall-out after the chaotic mission with the sirens. We avoided making eye contact and answered each other stiffly.
James, who had been sitting in our living room with Lily, appeared in the hallway. Upon seeing us, James said, "Someone needs to change. You don't blend together at all. It's distracting."
Out of the corner of his mouth, Sirius muttered, "Well, I'm not the one with a closet here."
So, here we were in my room, rifling through my closet. Well, I was rifling. He was standing there, leaning against my wall, and looking bored. I didn't ask him to look through my clothes, because I already knew it was a lost cause. I didn't own a single leather jacket, much less anything resembling the rest of his strangely punk ensemble. How was I supposed to know he would come in dressed like Bono? And how was I supposed to match him?
"Even Muggles don't dress like you, Sirius," I griped, pulling out more old sweaters and flinging them on my bed. "What are you? The poster child for the teenage revolution? Can't you tone your style down?"
"To what? Boxers only?" Sirius retorted, irritated.
So, Sirius Black was a boxers type-of boy, was he? I snorted.
Behind me, Sirius finished his retort by saying, "I don't have any other Muggle clothes, Kingsley."
We're back to calling each other by our last names, are we? A flash of anger passed through me and looking up at him, I shot back, "Well, I guess you're just going to have to strip, Black."
For a second, he stared back at me with one eyebrow raised. Then, he said abrasively, "This is a mission. Be more serious."
I scowled, but I took him at his word and dressed more in his style. In fact, his grey blazer from the wedding was still hanging on my chair. When I picked it up, he said, "Hey, wait a moment. That's the only formal attire I have-" He fell silent when I glared at him. Otherwise, the closest I could come to his style was plain black jeans and a rather philosophic-looking black turtleneck. I tried to compensate with thick black eyeliner.
"There," I said, spinning around to face him. "H-" I suddenly caught myself. I had almost said "homeless enough"? Obviously it was meant to offend his sense of style, but to Sirius, there was a second, far more obvious meaning. I shut my lips immediately.
Sirius did not look impressed with my effort to mimic him.
"Are you going to wear those jeans again?" Sirius asked me, cocking his head to one side.
"No, I'm not likely to wear any of those clothes again," I muttered.
"Great," he said. Stepping forward, he pointed his wand at my knee. A small slit appeared in my jeans. He reached down and tugged at it and it ripped, creating a rather large and rather ragged gap.
"Merlin!" I cursed.
"Whoops," he said. "That gave way easily, didn't it?"
"I can feel wind from the Appalachian mountains on my knee," I complained.
Sirius rolled his eyes and muttered, "So dramatic."
Fed up, he said, "All right. We've been in here for long enough. Let's go, and don't forget your ring."
Sirius nodded at the ring sitting on my counter. I slipped it on and we left my room.
Remus looked at me with an inscrutable expression before his eyes fixed on the freshly created gap in my jeans at my knee. Finally, he said, "Sirius rub off on you, did he?"
I grimaced. "No choice."
James and Lily appeared together. Lily clapped her hands over her mouth, but I had already heard her burst into a peal of laughter.
"Come to think of it, didn't you buy Sirius a fairly normal shirt, Ray?" James asked me.
"Hey, wait, he's right!" I realized.
Shaking his head, James left the house. Lily followed him, still smiling broadly. They Disapparated to the mission site.
I turned to Sirius. "Why didn't you just wear the plaid shirt?"
"Too late now," Sirius muttered. "Let's go."
"Remus," I said, turning around to say good-bye as Sirius and I left.
"I'll be fine here," Remus assured me. "Take care, Raylynx, and take care of Sirius."
Sirius snorted a little, as if to say "as if".
"All right, all right, come on," Sirius said. He grabbed my wrist, though, remembering that I had been injured last time, he took it gently before pulling me outside the house boundaries.
With a final wave to Remus, we Disapparated together, our disagreements and petty back-and-forth disappearing as we both focused on the mission.
We materialized behind a tree situated in a park on the other side of the bridge that overlooked the river and led to the Muggle neighborhood we were responsible for protecting.
We walked on the cobblestone pathway without speaking, both looking for Lily and James.
I spotted a red flash that could only be Lily's hair, and spotted Lily and James waiting on the bridge, but just as I turned to Sirius, a little boy came running past us, only to trip fantastically on the cobblestones.
"Whoa," Sirius immediately reached out and hugged the kid to stop him from falling. The kid's hat fell off with a flop.
"Slow down there," Sirius said, setting the kid down gently.
I picked the kid's hat up and brushed off the dust with my hand. I handed it to the little boy, who sloppily slapped it onto his head.
"You lost?" Sirius asked him, his eyes scanning the pathway for an adult or a couple.
The kid shook his head and his hat started to slip off. Sirius reached up and straightened it. "All right then, you keep your hat on and watch out for yourself, okay?" Sirius said. The kid nodded and flashed a cute smile before running off again. He ran out of the park and then, luckily, out of sight.
I nudged him with my shoulder before subtly jerking my head over at the bridge where Lily and James stood. Sirius nodded and we quickly made our way to the bridge.
We gave no outward sign that we knew them, but my eyes met Lily's as we passed by the bridge.
"Zero ducks, zero geese!" James commented in a bright voice, which meant that no Death Eaters and no Muggles had passed over the bridge since they'd arrived.
Sirius and I entered the neighborhood quietly and with our hands in our jacket pockets, holding tight to our wands just in case. The other piece of information that relieved some of the stress I felt was that James had assured me that Death Eaters did not know we were coming.
I looked at the nearest house number: 688. We were searching for 564.
I headed down the street when suddenly I thought I saw the curtains of a second-story room move. I looked up. The curtains of all of the houses surrounding us were closed, but I swore somebody had been watching us. The feeling of unease grew as Sirius and I made our way further down the street, but I had no definite observation or evidence to go off of.
Finally, we came to 564.
Sirius and I climbed the steps onto the front porch.
"Cover me," I whispered to Sirius. He blocked me from view as I pulled out my wand and pointed it at the door.
"Homenum Revelio," I whispered.
Nothing occurred.
My heart sank, and the nerves began to spiral beyond my emotional and mental control.
"Sirius," I murmured. "There's nobody here."
"What?"
"The house is empty."
Sirius' brow furrowed. "Are you sure?" he whispered urgently.
"Yes," I replied numbly, starting to feel more and more fearful in our unexpected situation.
Then, I saw the window curtain draw back in the house across from us.
I inconspicuously pulled on Sirius' jacket sleeve and whispered breathlessly, "Look at the house across from us: House 565, Window.
Sirius looked over his shoulder subtly and he spotted the same dark and hooded pair of eyes that I had seen.
"Bellatrix," he snarled and his entire body stiffened.
I tightened my hold on his sleeve as a warning to appear relaxed.
He took a deep breath and muttered, "I thought they weren't supposed to know about us coming."
"That's what James told me, too," I confirmed. "We were supposed to get here first and set up the ambush-"
When I said the word "ambush," we both froze. Our eyes met.
"Oh…" I breathed out.
"It is an ambush," Sirius spelled out, "for us."
My eyes widened. "Lily and James!"
We both jumped off the front porch and started sprinting down the street when the door of house 565 burst open and a pair of Death Eaters sprang out. Neither of them wore masks, so we could see clearly that it was Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange.
Memories of Rodolphus fighting Professor Maudrick flooded my mind.
"You!" I shouted at Rodolphus.
Rodolphus' hollow eyes gave no sign of recognition. He merely pointed his wand at me and a nonverbal curse shot towards me.
"Protego!" Sirius' Shield Charm expanded in front of me.
Bellatrix took the chance to shot a curse at Sirius but I'd already shot a Stunner straight at her. Our spells collided and absorbed each other.
"Let me take Rodolphus," I said to Sirius as we squared off in the street.
"You watch yourself," Sirius muttered to me out of the corner of his mouth before he turned his attention on Bellatrix.
"Well, well, if it isn't my twisted as all hell cousin. You really elevated the standard of demented, even amongst us Blacks," Sirius sneered at Bellatrix.
"Says the poor blood traitor puppy who scampered away, whimpering, when his masters beat him at home," Bellatrix taunted, in a false whine. "Imagine how your tamers will thank me when I kill you! Morsus!"
With a harsh growl, Sirius deflected the spell. A fierce duel took off between them, sparks exploding at each other's feet.
My own attention was fixated on Rodolphus. His skeleton-like face betrayed no hint of action, but the minute he raised his wind, I reacted and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Our spells collided, but his non-verbal magic was far more developed than mine, and he had already sent another curse, which came soaring right after the first, when the collision of our first spells hadn't yet cleared away.
Adrenaline kicked in, and by I managed to throw up a shield in time. But that shield had barely shattered when a third curse was already on its way. I was afraid to risk ducking, but I knew that I had to if I was ever going to have the chance to cast an offensive spell. And I knew that it was imperative that I cast an offensive spell. Otherwise, it was only a matter of time before one of Rodolphus' well-aimed Dark Curses hit me.
Holding my breath, I ducked the third spell. I barely avoided it as it grazed my shoulder as the jet of light flew by. But thankfully, it did buy me enough time to send a well-placed Stunner his way. A loud crackle sounded as my Stunner was stopped by a Shield put up incredibly close to his wand.
It's your advantage now. Don't lose it! I told myself.
I attempted to pressure Rodolphus by piling endless Impediment Jinxes on him. He gritted his teeth as five Impediment Jinxes piled onto his Shield, which was starting to shiver. For a moment, I thought I had won, but then with a roar, he shoved back all five spells. A small explosion occurred between us and we were both pushed back by the force of the explosion, knocked off our feet and falling onto the ground. Dust from the ground mushroomed between us.
I used the moment of confusion to step closer to Sirius, who was staring with ferocious slitted eyes through the smoke, trying to find Bellatrix.
"Sirius!" I shouted through the dust, trying to speak without coughing. "Go! Warn Lily and James! I can hold them off!"
Actually, I had no confidence whatsoever that I could take on just Rodolphus, let alone Bellatrix and Rodolphus. But I couldn't shake off the feeling that an ambush had already been set up for Lily and James. The bridge was such an obvious strategic point that an ambush was not hard to stage correctly there.
A red jet of light soared through the dust and forced us to separate, but not before Sirius shouted back, "Like hell I'd leave you right now!"
I wondered whether I should use my ring to alert Lily and James, but I decided against it. We had planned for the rings to mean that Lily and James were to join us at 546 to ambush the Death Eaters. But that was not at all what was happening here and dragging them into this confounded mess was too risky.
In the couple seconds it took for the dust to finally settle, I realized I had to make a strategic decision. I had to force the Death Eaters' hands. Either they had to come after us or go after Lily and James. The way to do this was to introduce uncertainty into the picture. Right now, their plan was only too clear: Kill Sirius and me, and then go after Lily and James. It looked to be a winning plan, too, as Rodolphus managed to blast another Cruciatus Curse at me that barely missed me.
Inspired by the dust cloud, I pointed to the ground and murmured, "Surgesis."
Another, even stronger, dust cloud whipped up in front of me. Under cover of the swirling dust, I Apparated.
I appeared on the roof of 546, just as I had hoped. From here, I quickly crawled forward, knowing that Sirius would likely be killed if I didn't succeed quickly.
Peering down, I saw Sirius being pushed back, barely able to pull up enough Shield Charms as both Bellatrix and Rodolphus ganged up on him from my absence. They must have thought that I had run away or traded Sirius' life for Lily and James'.
But they had another thought coming. I hurriedly took aim at Bellatrix. "Stupefy!"
My Stunner didn't hit her straight on, but it just managed to catch her shoulder. She dropped her wand and halted because her arm was suddenly paralyzed.
Rodolphus growled and looked up, following where the spell came from. He immediately found me. He suddenly grinned devilishly and then Disapparated himself. I felt nervous. Here it was: Was he going to ambush us or Lily and James? I prayed it would be us, rather than Lily and James.
Then, I realized Bellatrix was gone too.
I started to shout, "Sir-!"
My shout was choked off as a hand roughly grabbed my head and pulled it back.
I growled and tried to resist, but a silver dagger suddenly appeared at my throat.
I attempted to step on my captor's foot, and succeeded. I stomped hard. With a pained shout that could only belong to Bellatrix, the hand and the dagger let go.
I turned around immediately, wand up, only to find that Bellatrix was gone.
Now, I knew. It was not the answer I had hoped for, but it was clear.
"Sirius!" I shouted. "Get to Lily and James!"
We both Disapparated then, picturing the bridge. A second later, Sirius and I appeared side-by-side just a few steps away from the bridge.
James and Lily were dueling fiercely with Bellatrix. But that was not the problem- I spotted Rodolphus at the river bank, pointing his wand at the bridge.
"Run!" Sirius shouted, seeing exactly what I was seeing.
Bellatrix grinned and turned, disappearing before James and Lily's spells could reach her.
"Protego!" I yelled, and my Shield Charm sped forward reaching them just as-
Boom!
The bridge exploded in a huge fireball.
Two arms encircled me from behind just as I was thrown backwards. I shut my eyes, expecting a hard landing that would knock the wind out of me, but instead, I landed softly, held against somebody's warm chest.
I lifted my head up to see Sirius looking down at me, a look of intense focus on his face.
I wanted to voice my thanks, but instead I choked out in a horrified voice, "Lily and James…"
We scrambled to our feet and ran towards what was left of the bridge. It was mangled, totally broken off. The center, where James and Lily had been standing, was blasted to smithereens. Fiery debris floated along the river. We stepped right up to the edge and worriedly scanned for them, but they were nowhere sight.
No, what if my gamble cost Lily and James their lives?
A little moan escaped me when I realized they weren't under the bridge and Sirius gritted his teeth as though in pain.
Then, about a hundred yards away, two heads broke through the river current, amongst the piles of scorched and burning wood.
"Sirius!" I gripped his arm to get his attention. "Look!"
"I got you!" We heard James yell. "Lily, I'm here!"
Sure enough, James was trying to stay afloat while holding Lily in his arm. He swam as well as he could to the riverbank with one arm, even as the current carried him further down the river. Sirius and I ran down the banks parallel to James. The trouble was, James had swum to the opposite side of the riverbank and Sirius and I no longer had a bridge with which to cross over.
"Lily!" I heard James cry out. He was still in the water, though now in much shallower and calmer grounds. I could tell that his feet had found the bottom of the river. He gently placed a hand on Lily's cheek and for a moment I thought the worst and prepared myself to dive into the water, but then, I saw Lily's eyes open and she gazed into James' face.
"Lily," James breathed out. "Thank Merlin. I thought I'd… I thought I'd lost you."
Lily smiled a bit and petted James' hair. "I'm right here, James," she said, a little hoarsely. "I'm not going anywhere without you."
James hugged her, burying his face in her neck.
Then, he slowly looked up at her and said, "Do you mean that? You'll stay with me?"
Lily nodded.
James wrapped his arms even tighter around her waist in the fast-running water, and he asked her, "Lily Evans, will you marry me?"
Lily looked deep into James' eyes and held them there for a long minute. What she found there, I couldn't say, but it was enough for her to answer, "Yes, I'd love to."
They kissed then, with James lifting her and Lily's beautiful red hair cascading down to cover them.
I didn't realize how hard I was gripping Sirius' arm until he muttered, "Bloody hell, Raylynx," but neither of us moved away from each other.
Finally, James and Lily got out of the water, with James helping her up to the bank. They suddenly seemed to notice us standing there.
Sirius yelled across the water. "You all right there?!"
Lily blushed, but James, beaming, slung his arm around her and called out to us, "Never better! Meet you back at ours!"
They Disapparated.
I was still holding onto Sirius. He turned towards me and I immediately made to let go, but instead he murmured, "Hold on," and spun into Disapparation, taking me with him.
But the mood when we got back to the Potters' was far from happy. Even James sobered enough to discuss the grim possibilities this event detailed.
"It was an ambush, but for us," I explained.
Sirius nodded and said, "Bellatrix was watching us from the moment we entered that village."
"How?" Lily asked, frowning.
James fell back in his chair, shaking his head. "I don't know," he said. "They shouldn't have known that we were there, or even coming. That was the one thing I was told I could be sure of."
It was this last sentence that confirmed each of our suspicions, because when could one ever be sure that the enemy didn't know about our plans, and when would one ever say that unless they wished to put their own teammates off guard and disadvantage them when they were attacked?
We all fell silent, unwilling to say it.
After a long and tense stretch of time, Sirius finally sighed and said heavily, "There's a spy in the Order."
We made sure that there was a guard stationed at the Muggle neighborhood the rest of the week. We learned that the Muggle residents of 545 had been killed over a week ago, and none of the residents in the neighborhood could tell you where the family in 546 had gone.
The Order also expanded its watch to include Hogsmeade as Dorcas and Alice had noticed an increase in foreign witches and wizards and managed to track a few to Death Eater relations. It seemed that Voldemort was calling all his allies to him, and that included foreign Dark wizards and witches. Of course, it was a major disadvantage to not know who these foreigners were or where they were coming for. So we had to make Hogsmeade a new scouting location as well.
The alliances were, as we already knew, not limited to foreign witches and wizards, but involved all sorts of Dark creatures, such as giants, acromantulas, sirens, dementors, vampires, and werewolves.
Dorcas, Jay, and Mad-Eye were sent on a mission to parley with the vampires.
And then, the worst mission of all came: not to me, but to Remus.
Dumbledore himself came to deliver the message. "Remus," Dumbledore said quietly. "It is in the utmost apologetic manner that I ask this of you, but I must ask that you parley with the werewolves."
I looked over at Remus with worried eyes. From what he'd told me of his encounter with the siren queen, Remus was still wholly unable to come to terms with what it meant for him to be a werewolf. And to be in that community meant that he would be seeing mirrors of himself from all sides, reflections of his savage nature that he spent his whole life denying, resisting…
"No." It took a second to register that it was me who said that aloud. "No, Headmaster, you can't-"
"Raylynx," Remus cut me off, and his voice was firmer than I'd ever heard it. There was an element of harshness in there, too, a bit of flint that I'd never detected in his voice before, and I realized Remus wanted to keep his pride intact before the Headmaster. "Let me make my own decisions," Remus said to me.
But you won't, I thought sadly. You'll do it because you feel obligated to. You'll do it to pay back Dumbledore, even though this isn't your debt to pay.
"I understand your reluctance, Ms. Kingsley," Dumbledore said, "but I'm afraid I have no other choice."
"Of course, Headmaster," Remus acquiesced, before I could say anything more. "I understand, and I accept."
He left that Friday night, with nothing more than his patched-up robes and a sad good-bye smile.
