***Canon Divergence Disclaimer (probably?): The whole timeline of the Potters going into "hiding" remains pretty vague, and the author has changed her mind about this a few times. Some sources say they went into hiding as soon as Lily got pregnant (which doesn't even make any sense because the prophecy hadn't happened until at least early 1980), others say they waited until after Harry was born. We do know that they were only under the protection of the Fidelius charm for less than a week before they were betrayed, so how long were they in "hiding" before this, and what did it look like? As far as we know, the Longbottoms were still pretty active with both the Order and the Ministry through their pregnancy and early parenthood (or at least it isn't mentioned otherwise), and at this point Lily and James were not yet aware of the prophecy or how important their child might be to saving their world. While it might be a bit divergent from canon, I love the idea of the Potters still choosing to fight before Harry was born because they wanted to help make the world better for their child. Enjoy.

From the playlist:

Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne

One Way Ticket - Eruption

Train Wreck - James Arthur

Monsters - Acoustic Version - Ruelle

Ch. 32 - The Train

The voice of Bartemius Crouch spoke through the charm: "The Death Eaters have attacked a train carrying the muggle Prime Minister. Bound from London to Edinburgh."

"We'll take the school brooms," Dumbledore announced as he headed for the fireplace. "This matter will have to wait."

Remus had to yank Emmeline away from Marlene and Sirius as everybody followed suit and took the floo network to Hogwarts to retrieve brooms.

James took hold of his wife. "Get yourself home."

"I'm coming with you," she insisted.

"Not after what happened last time."

"Alice is going!"

"Alice is an Auror!"

"Aurors or not, we're good in combat, and if the Death Eaters are mounting another attack of this scale, the Order will need everyone's help." Lily grabbed his hand and held it against her stomach. "I know it scares you, but I want the world this baby comes into to look better than the one we're in now, and I want to help it get there."

"...Damn it, Lily."

James took her hand in his and they went after the others.

…

"Down there!" Edgar pointed, diving the nose of his broomstick towards a train stopped on the snowy ground below. The rest of the company followed suit with militaristic coordination.

They were met by Death Eaters moving swiftly through the air on their own brooms, and had to begin dodging curses before they even reached the ground. While those more skilled at flying remained in the air, the rest of the Order continued their descent towards the train.

Ministry Aurors were already on site, but they were outnumbered. Remus landed unsteadily atop the icy train alongside Lily, James, and Frank, threw his broom aside, and began to fend off the Death Eaters nearest them. He looked around for Emmeline, but she'd stayed in the air.

Lily blocked a curse from hitting James, then turned to him. "Get back on your broom, Potter."

He sent a hex flying and shook his head. "I'm staying with you-"

But Lily had already summoned a broom back and was shoving it into his grasp. "They need you up there, Quidditch boy." Still, he looked at her apprehensively; so she pulled his face towards her and kissed him so hard that it made his glasses go crooked. "Go. I'll be fine."

"I've got her James," Frank promised from over Lily's shoulder.

"...She's got it," he said as he mounted the broom, addressing Lily more than Frank.

"I love you," she shouted as he took off.

…

Marlene and Sirius were able to fly in through the open windows of a train car toward the rear, dodging the heads of terrified muggles in the process.

"GET DOWN!" Sirius barked at the passengers as curses and jinxes flew between himself, Marlene, and the two Death Eaters patrolling the car.

"You aim, I'll block," Marlene decided, casting a shield charm.

Even through the blasts, he smirked at her. "Drives me mad you boss me around-"

"Not the time."

It quickly became clear that these were not the new recruits from the battle at the Minister of Magic's residence; these were witches or wizards with abilities equal to their own, likely former classmates of theirs from Hogwarts. Nevertheless, Marlene and Sirius managed to disarm and stun their opponents before they made their way to the next car.

…

The freezing January air made the battle in the sky almost unbearable without Quidditch goggles. It was hard for Emmeline to see at all with her eyes watering so much, let alone keep her balance as the wind battered her. To make matters worse, even in the heat of battle, she could tell that the other members of the Order were steering clear of her, unsure of where her loyalties lie.

This became quite problematic when the Death Eater she'd been pursuing whipped around to the back of her broomstick and was joined by a friend. They sped up and soon had her flanked.

She tried her best to fire off defensive spells on either side of her, but wasn't nearly fast enough to conjure spells toward the both of them and dodge their attacks. Without backup, all she could do was swerve to avoid getting hit. This could only go on for so long, however. The Hogwarts training broomsticks weren't exactly Nimbus-grade equipment, and the Death Eaters were gaining on her.

…

"Remus, get down!" Lily shouted, stunning the cloaked figure behind him as soon as he ducked.

"Thanks," he exhaled, kicking the wand away from the fallen Death Eater. That was the last of them on top of the train, for now.

Frank looked along the length of the caravan. "Which car is the Prime Minister in?"

"My guess is towards the front, but-..." Remus was unable to finish his thought. His expression went blank when he caught sight of someone up ahead.

Lily approached him. "Remus, what is it?"

He'd recognize the hulking frame and the matted gray hair anywhere.

The werewolf's image had been permanently burned into Remus's memory since childhood.

Frank looked off into the direction he was staring in, trying to discern who Remus had his eyes fixed on in the surrounding skirmishes. "What do you see?"

He was dragging some muggle passengers up into the foothills adjacent to the railroad.

Without another word, Remus jumped down to the nearest connecting car and ran towards him.

"Remus, where are you going?!" Lily shouted. She started after him, but her path was blocked by the three Lestranges, who had just touched down after fighting fiercely in the air.

…

"GREYBACK!"

The werewolf turned slowly when he heard his name shouted. His cold blue eyes narrowed on the man barreling toward him, panting and red-faced from trudging through the thick layer of snow.

The distance between them made it laughably easy for Fenrir to dodge the curses coming from the man's wand, but the teenage boys trapped in his clutches still whimpered when the blasts went by above them. Almost entertained, Greyback remained where he stood. He chuckled at the idiocy of this wizard charging towards him.

Oh, but even better. This wasn't just any wizard. When the gap between them had closed a bit, Fenrir realized that this wizard had the likeness of Lyall Lupin. His protégé had found him at last.

Yes, this would be far more amusing than either of the muggles he was going to kidnap. Having lost interest, he released the boys from his grasp and they scurried off as fast as their feet would carry them.

The teenagers ran right past Remus, but he couldn't stop now. He was going to finish what his father had started, and make sure once and for all that Greyback ended up in Azkaban where he'd never be able to harm anyone ever again.

"It must be my lucky day!" Greyback called out with a voice like sandpaper, as he drew his wand and nimbly deflected another curse.

Remus was growing exhausted from having to move through the snowy terrain, but pressed on anyway. He had to face him; he gave himself no other choice. When he came within a few yards' radius of Greyback, he raised his wand to conjure another curse; but the werewolf moved toward him with surprising agility and swatted it from his hand. It disappeared into the snow.

"You need to be toughened up," he assessed, winding his arm back again.

Remus did not have much time to react before Greyback delivered a blow to his jaw and knocked him flat on his back. He squeezed his watering eyes shut, dazed. He didn't think he'd ever been punched so hard.

Greyback loomed over him and lifted him up by the ruff of his collar. "Let me teach you something, young one. If you're going to fight me," he growled, "you're going to have to do it properly."

…

She tried every maneuver she ever learned in Quidditch, but no matter what she tried, she couldn't lose the two Death Eaters at her sides. They had chased her a great distance from the rest of the battle too, so help was definitely not coming. Emmeline's options were: a) succumb to their attack, or b) fall off her broom and try to make it to the ground, but probably get hit with a Killing Curse mid-air.

As if they had drilled it, the Death Eaters suddenly sped in front of her, leaving her no time to fly out of the way of a curse. But before that became necessary, one of the Death Eaters was disarmed by someone behind her. They lost their grip on their wand and dove after it.

"JAMES!" she shouted gratefully as he zoomed past her head. Thank goodness she still had one friend in the Order.

Having found another target, the remaining Death Eater then turned their attention to James and began to pursue him instead. It wasn't long before the second one had caught their wand and came back as well. At least now, the fight was even.

Together, James and Emmeline managed to turn the conflict around so that they were the ones chasing, not being chased.

"WE'LL STUPEFY THEM TOGETHER ON THREE," James screamed over the gusts of wind. "ONE, TWO-"

On three, one of the Death Eaters disarmed James of his wand, and the other sent a blasting curse in his direction. To avoid the curse, he dove off his broom and plummeted towards the earth.

"NO!" Emmeline tried to dive after him, but her rescue attempt was hindered by curses flying toward her.

…

Bellatrix cackled as she threw curses at Lily, who dodged and deflected them to the best of her ability atop the icy train. Rabastan and Rodolphus had set their sights on Frank, and had pushed their skirmish down into the train car below. Lily was all alone. One slip, and she, as well as her unborn child, were done for.

The thought of any harm coming to the baby inspired a new aggression in Lily - adrenaline kicked in, and she soon went from defense to offense. Bellatrix ceased her cackling when she realized that the mudblood was actually beating her. When she had inched Bellatrix toward the edge of the train car, she threw one final spell: "Expulso!"

A blue light shot out of the tip of Lily's wand and blasted Bellatrix off the top of the train, knocking her unconscious on the snowy ground below. Lily meant to follow through with a binding curse, but was distracted when she saw a body dropping out of the sky.

The person falling wasn't in a hooded black robe, which meant they were either a Ministry Auror or a member of the Order. It wasn't long before Lily realized that the person falling from the clouds was her husband.

"ARRESTO MOMENTUM!" In the nick of time, she was able to slow James's free fall and he landed with a gentle thud in the snow.

Pushing himself shakily off the ground, he looked up at her with wide eyes. "I knew marrying you was a good idea," he wheezed.

...

Marlene and Sirius had worked their way through the inside of the train, incapacitating the Death Eaters guarding each car as they went. Eventually, they made it to the passenger car which held the very frightened Prime Minister and her entourage.

Sirius extended a hand out towards the passengers crouching in fear. "Don't worry, we're here to-"

"Crucio!"

Sirius plunged to the ground writhing and screaming mid-sentence, causing the passengers to whimper.

"No- Sirius-!"

Marlene spun around and was met by Wilkes, who had been waiting for them next to the entrance to the train car. "Petrificus Totalus," he continued, and just like that, Sirius was frozen in his twisted form on the ground.

Wilkes was no amateur - he'd been in the same year as Marlene at school, and like his cohorts, he was not only well-trained; he was ruthless.

In the time it took her to blink, Marlene was having to deflect his curses, and struggling to do so without injuring one of the passengers. But (despite political differences,) she had to keep this fight away from the Prime Minister, so she retreated into the next train car. Wilkes chased after her as she hoped, and luckily the next carriage was devoid of any muggles.

"Blood traitors get what's comin' to 'em, McKinnon!" he shouted over the blasts from his wand, as Marlene ducked into booths to shield herself. "I'm going to bring Black back to the Dark Lord and he'll make him squirm, make no mistake!"

"Finestra!"

While he was making threats, Marlene had one split second to crumble all the windows of the train car and send the dust right at him. He held up his arms to cover his eyes, which gave Marlene a few seconds to create more space between herself and Wilkes-

"Expelliarmus!"

He disarmed her when she had her back turned. Now she was totally defenseless.

She wasn't ready to give up this fight. She grabbed one suitcase from the overhead shelf and flung it at him, then another. By the time she reached for a third, he was right in front of her and delivered a blow to her face which knocked her sideways into a booth. Wilkes had her cornered.

"I've just realized," he growled, his lips curving into an unnerving smile. "The Dark Lord won't need you. We can make short work of this..."

Marlene quickly realized that he did not intend to petrify her like he had Sirius, and that he had something a little more permanent in mind. She might as well have been petrified as she lay frozen in the booth, waiting to meet her end.

"Avad-"

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

A flash of green light sent Wilkes flying, and he landed in the back aisle of the train car.

Marlene sucked in a sharp breath of relief, hyperventilating a bit before slowly sitting up to see what had become of Wilkes.

He was dead. The muscles responsible for his ghoulish smile slowly relaxed until his expression neutralized.

She swiveled to see who had come to her rescue.

With her wand still outstretched toward Wilkes as if he could get back up at any moment, Emmeline stood over him, shaking violently.

Neither of them moved for several seconds. Finally, Marlene stepped out of the booth, gently lowered Emmeline's wand, and pulled her into a tight embrace. Emmeline hadn't even breathed since she uttered the curse, so she gulped for air.

"Oh-...Oh God-"

"Sh, it's okay-"

"Oh Merlin-"

"It's okay-"

"I-"

"You're okay-!"

"-I killed him-!"

"It's okay Em, you're okay-!"

"I didn't- I didn't even think, I just saw him standing over you and I-"

"-saved my life!"

"Are you alright!?" Emmeline screeched, pulling away so that she could examine Marlene; but Marlene only hugged her tighter.

"I'm so sorry, Emmie!" She began to cry tears of shame in her embrace. "I'm sorry for the things I said, I was so wretched-"

"I would never betray you," Emmeline scolded, her voice ragged.

"I know- I know, you're right! I thought I'd cracked some code, but I was just being stupid! I was so stupid!" blubbered Marlene.

Beginning to cry too, she placed her hand on the back of Marlene's head and pulled her close. "You're my best friend," she reminded her again.

"Can you ever forgive me?"

Her eyes drifted to Wilkes' lifeless body, an image that was sure to haunt her forever. She'd just killed for her. "I think I can manage forgiveness," Emmeline shuddered with dark matter-of-fact-ness as they held onto each other weeping.

Marlene pulled away and wiped both of their eyes. "C'mon, Sirius is back in the other car," she said, grabbing Emmeline's hand and leading her to him.

They found him still petrified in the aisle, but some of the muggles were examining him.

"Stand back please," Emmeline warned, shooing them away and giving Marlene a clear path for a healing charm.

"Reparifors."

Still in pain from before being paralyzed, he let out one final wail. The passengers exchanged fearful whispers among themselves.

Marlene helped him to his feet and grabbed his shoulders. "Good?"

"Good," he strained, his face still scrunched. "That never gets any more delightful."

"What the devil is the matter with you lot?!" one of the Prime Minister's entourage shouted. It would be far easier to obliviate them than to explain all of this, so they politely ignored her question.

"Wilkes is a dead man," Sirius snarled, panting, and leaning against Marlene.

Emmeline and Marlene looked at each other.

"...Wilkes is a dead man," Marlene informed him.

Sirius blinked. "Oh…Oops."

"Oops!?" Emmeline shouted back.

"What the fuck do you want me to say? 'Rest in peace'-?"

"Emmeline saved my life," Marlene interjected.

Sirius looked back up at her, his gaze softening a bit. "You killed him?"

Emmeline's eyes darted away and she nodded, shoving her right hand into her left to get it to stop shaking.

Understanding that this meant she was not a spy, Sirius reached for her hands. "...Thank you, Em…Em?"

But something distracted her. The other passengers had gone to look out the windows.

"We'd better get back outside," she suggested, moving towards the exit.

"Go," Sirius bade Marlene. "I'll stay with Thatcher."

"Maybe put in a good word for Scottish independence while you've got her attention, aye?" She set him down in a booth and kissed him quickly before darting out behind Emmeline.

When they stepped off the train, they realized that the skirmishes had ceased, and that the Death Eaters who were not in custody were gone. Around them, all the Aurors' expressions were twisted with disgust and facing toward the sky. That's when Emmeline and Marlene looked up and saw it.

A dark mark hovered high above them like an apocalyptic storm cloud, the snake coiling proudly around the skull. A symbol that the Death Eaters had killed.

Emmeline whipped her head around, searching to make sure that her friends and colleagues were alright. James and Lily were close by, as was Peter. "...Where's Remus?" she questioned.

"...Oh Merlin, the other passengers," Marlene exhaled, realizing that she had never gone back for the people at the end of the train. Seeing a nearby broom on the ground, she summoned it with a stretch of her hand, and sped off towards the caboose.

Frank and Alice were already standing outside the train car with sickened grimaces. Marlene didn't need to enter to see that all of its inhabitants were laying motionless in their seats.

Hot tears fell from her cheeks into the snow.

With her hands still shaking, Emmeline trudged frantically up to Lily, James, and Peter. "You okay, Potter?"

"Just glad not to be a pancake I suppose," he muttered humorlessly, his eyes still on the dark mark.

"Have you seen Remus?"

James' focus snapped to her. "He's not with you?"

"He dashed off into the hills after somebody, I'm not sure-"

"Which way, Lily?"

"Over there."

Emmeline looked up to where she was pointing. She started trudging in that direction when she caught sight of a silver, glowing orb hovering above the snow some five-hundred feet away.

A Patronus.

She picked up her pace, plodding through the snow as fast as her feet would carry her with Lily, James, and Peter following behind. Panting, they reached the spot the Patronus was marking…

…and found Remus bloodied in the snowbank. He'd dragged himself to his wand.

Emmeline dropped to his side. "No-!"

He'd been laying in the cold for far too long, his face had been beaten so badly that his eyes were starting to swell shut, and his sleeves had been torn off, displaying new bites up his arms - something Greyback had done just to torment him. Only half conscious and freezing, he struggled to breathe.

"Moony!" Peter yelped, his hands flying up to his head in a panic. "Holy hell…"

Lily knelt down beside Emmeline to examine Remus. "What happened to him?!"

"Greyback," Remus muttered, barely above a whisper.

Emmeline's eyes widened. "Fenrir Greyback was here?"

"H-he'sss a D-Death-th-th Eat-t-ter-"

"And you went after him by yourself? Remus, that's lunacy!" Emmeline admonished him.

"I'll get help-"

"No- Wormtail, wait! The bites!" James shouted.

"So what? It's not a full moon!"

"It doesn't matter. They won't have any effect, and it'll give them reason to suspect him; we can't!"

Lily ripped her gloves off, feeling the icy skin of Remus's bloodied face then underneath his jaw. "His pulse is really weak."

"If we can't get help, and we can't take him to a healer, what do we do?" Peter countered.

"I can treat the wounds at home, but we have to get his temperature under control." Emmeline rotated around and situated Remus's head in her lap, taking off her scarf and her coat. With everyone's help, she pulled the clothing underneath Remus so that he no longer had contact with the snow.

James had an idea. "A hot air charm-"

"-It'll heat him up too quickly and stress his heart. Cast it onto the fabric of the coat." Emmeline grabbed Remus's wand out of his limp grasp, then gently moved his hands to his chest. She breathed into her palms, placing them against his neck to warm up his blood flow slowly with her body heat.

James did as he was told, and Lily joined in. Together, they cast indirect dry, warm air onto the coat.

"How do you know all this?" James asked Emmeline.

"I made sure to learn after that day by the lake in fifth year." She looked down anxiously at Remus. "We have got to stop meeting like this, Lupin."