CRACK!
Kreacher crawled across the bed, his ears flapping as he grabbed onto Regulus’s hand. “Master Regulus!” He shook his master’s shoulder vigorously. “Master Regulus must wake up. He must wake up very quickly.”
Regulus rolled, squinting up at the little house elf’s grey skin as he flapped his ears. “Kreacher?” he groaned, “What’re you doing here?”
“Master Regulus… it’s happening. What you asked Kreacher to tell you of is happened, Master Regulus.” Kreacher’s voice was a croaky whisper. “The Dark Lord is having his wishes fulfilled! The seer is bringing Master Sirius’s friend to Mistress Bella’s home, to the Dark Lord.”
Regulus sat up, rubbing his eyes, “Kreacher, you’re certain?”
“Yes,” Kreacher said, nodding, “Yes, Kreacher is certain! The Dark Lord is very happy, Master Regulus, very happy indeed!”
Regulus struggled out from under his covers, shoving the duvet back. Kreacher hobbled backward across the mattress, watching his master as Regulus paced quickly from his bedside to the desk and back.
“If it is getting to the Dark Lord’s side at this time that troubles Master, Kreacher will take you to Mistress Bella’s home, Kreacher will help anyway Kreacher can!” he looked desperately at Regulus, desiring to be helpful in anyway he could, crouching as though to bow or grovel.
“No, Kreacher, you’ve done what I asked. Go home to your nest, Kreacher.”
“Yes, Master, Kreacher is doing as Master says… Kreacher will always do as Master Regulus says - always, always…” The elf bowed and snapped his fingers, disappearing from the dormitory.
Regulus stared at the spot where the elf had stood, considering for a very long moment… He had to move quickly. He rushed to the desk, pulling a parchment from a drawer…
James woke up from a dream that he couldn’t remember the moment his eyes opened. He stard up at the ceiling, uneasy, as though every part of him was tingling. He sat up and looked over at Peter’s bed, “Peter,” he said, grabbing his glasses, “Peter, wake up, I think I’ve just had one of the dreams and --” but as he jammed his lenses on his eyes, he saw Peter’s bed was empty, his heart lurched. He got up quickly and looked around. Peter’s wand was gone from the nightstand, but his cloaks and shoes were all exactly where he’d left them… James grabbed his own wand and grabbed his jacket, shrugging it on over his pyjamas, kicking his feet into his trainers. He hurried to grab the Marauder’s Map from Sirius’s desk, and ran down the stairs from the dormitory.
Lily was just coming down the stairs from the girls dormitories, both of them arriving to the common room at exactly the same time, in exactly the same levels of disarray. Lily wore a lavender colored nightgown with a lace bibbing ‘round the front. James paused, staring at her - she was still tugging her jacket on, too, wand in one fist. She paused when she realized James was there. She looked at him, head to foot.
“Nice nightgown, you look like you’ve just stepped out of the 1800s,” James said.
“You’re one to talk, Mr. I-Have-Snitches-On-My-PJs,” Lily said, eyeing the gold winged balls pictured all over James’s pants. He wore a Gryffindor quidditch t-shirt over it that was slightly too small and hugged his skin so that every curve of his body was visible… Lily had no idea that he was so… shaped. She blinked to clear thoughts from her head. “What’re you up for?” she demanded.
“Peter’s missing.”
Lily asked, “Mopsus?”
“Maybe. Or else he went to get chocolate from the kitchens. Either/or. But he didn’t leave a note.” James was still staring at her nightgown. “Why are you up?”
“Ali’s not in her dorm, either,” Lily replied.
“Snogging?” James asked.
“Maybe earlier, but it’s really late now, isn’t it? I’m worried something happened. I was going to go check the hospital wing and see if they’ve had to go there for some reason…”
James’s nerves were tingling even worse than they were before… and a bad feeling came over him suddenly, a strange foreboding. He shook his head, “They wouldn’t have… followed… after Peter, would they? If they… if they saw him… going by…?”
Lily looked a bit on edge. “Dunno… where do you think Peter might’ve gone?”
“More like where Mopsus might’ve taken him.”
Lily looked quite terrified. “You think Mopsus might’ve -- but why?”
James hesitated. “Well… it seems Peter’s… important… to - to You-Know-Who somehow.”
Lily’s eyes widened, “Why?” she whispered. She didn’t mean it in a nasty way - only because, being a teenager, it didn’t seem that any of them should matter to the Dark Lord and, if any of them did, that it would be like Sirius Black, someone who had a connection to one of his followers or something. Not the bumbling little pudge-ball of Peter…
James bit his lip and hastened to the table to lay out the Map to see if they could spot Peter or Ali and Frank anywhere on it, “Well last year, when we were out on the grounds after Greyback --”
Lily blinked at James and interrupted, “You really weren’t just telling a story when you said you lot fought Greyback last year, then?”
James shook his head, “No, I really wasn’t just telling a story. We really fought Greyback and Sirius’s dad, and this nasty bloke named Rudolphus Lestrange. Terrible bloke, he was. Terrible. And of course Professor Veigler was there, but he wasn’t all bad, he just was under other peoples’ control and --” James stopped. “Anyway, Peter overheard the Dark Lord talking to Rudolphus, telling him he needed The Boy and how important The Boy was to his future plans and Peter thought they meant one of us other three, you know me or Sirius or Remus... but then Voldemort said it was him, and apparently somebody named the Blind Seer had told Voldemort he needed Peter. And now Peter’s been having strange dreams that have Mopsus’s voice in them and his mum and --” He paused. Lily’s eyes were very, very wide. “Sirius, Remus, Peter and I were going to work more on figuring out what’s happening and we were going to tell Dumbledore - once Sirius and Remus got back from the Shrieking Shack and --”
“Sirius is with Remus again out there?” Lily interrupted.
James stared at her. “Seriously, can we just not have that whole conversation again? I can’t really explain how it works better to you no matter how many times you ask me.”
Lily frowned.
“I’m sorry, Evans, just how it is.”
“But now Peter’s missing,” Lily said, finishing the story that James had been telling before she interrupted him.
“And now Peter’s missing,” James nodded.
“Have you told Dumbledore anything at all about what’s happening?”
James shook his head, “No. We haven’t. We really only just went up to his room the other night - when you followed us - and it was mostly to explore and see if we could find anything to back us up -- last time we went to Dumbledore without proof, nothing much seemed to happen…” He bit his lower lip nervously. “We were going to get everything we had together and go when Moony and Padfoot came back.”
Lily gave him a strange look for the nicknames but she didn’t say anything about them. “Bloody hell,” she murmured. She thought for a moment, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. “Well… well… blimey, we have to do something - we can’t have some insane blind person stealing our mates and doing Merlin knows what!”
“It’s just not conventional, really,” James said dryly.
Lily glared at him. “It’s not the time for jokes, Potter.”
“I am… quite aware of that, Evans.”
Lily turned to the Map, “Well c’mon, let’s see if we can’t find them. Quickly, now.”
James smirked at her tone - how she’d just taken over being boss of the situation so fluidly. She leaned over the table at his side, looking at the map urgently, her bottle-green eyes roving, speedily, her ginger hair hanging over the shoulder closest to James. He got a strong wafting scent of almonds and rose...
“You’ve changed your shampoo,” he said suddenly.
Lily looked up, “What?”
“You used to smell like vanilla and strawberries,” James said and he tilted his face up from the Map to look at her, “But now it’s like almonds and roses.”
Lily stared at him. “It’s lily, actually. Almonds and lily.” She couldn’t believe he’d noticed. It had only been since holiday that she’d changed it.
“Well. It’s nice,” he said, and he turned a bit red and turned away, looking back to the Map, his breath shallow as he avoided her gaze. After several long minutes, James finally said, “They’re not here.”
Lily’s voice shook, “Now what?”
James gnawed on his lower lip. “I don’t know.” He shook his head. Schemes weren’t his forte, though… schemes were a specialty of one very particular person… “We need to get Sirius.”
Lily nodded. “How?”
James took a deep breath. “Dunno… but it starts with getting Sirius.” He folded up the Map quickly, tucking it into his pocket. “It starts with going out to the Shack.” James hurriedly turned to the portrait hole. He was just about to reach for the handle when Lily’s hand shot out before him. “Hang on, you’re not going,” he said, looking at her.
“What? Of course I am. It’s my friends that are missing, too.”
James laughed, “You - a girl - are not going to the Shrieking Shack on a full moon. Absolutely not.”
“If you can, then so can’t I.”
“No.”
“Potter.”
“Evans.”
Lily stared at him. “I’m coming.”
James raised his eyebrow. “You’re staying here. Every time you’ve come along on one of our missions you’ve regretted it, and I’ve regretted letting you come. So no. You’re staying here, where you’re safe and I haven’t got to worry about you and risk my neck saving yours every five seconds.”
“Well that’s a bloody sexist thing to say!” Lily shouted at him.
“Not wanting you to get hurt is me being sexist then?” James demanded, “Trying to keep you from ending up in Voldy’s clutches is me being a sexist?”
“Yes!” Lily cried.
“Then I’m a ruddy sexist! Go to your dorm, Evans.”
“No!” Lily stood between him and the portrait hole. “I’m going with you.”
“Out of my way.” James raised his wand.
Lily raised hers right back. “Which of us do you think is going to win in a duel, Potter? You or me?”
He opened his mouth to argue with her, but she raised the wand even closer to his face. Rolling his eyes, he swatted the wand away with his own, “Bloody hell, Evans. I’m not going to duel you… put that thing away.”
She lowered her wand.
“Come, but if you get killed it’s your own ruddy fault, remember that,” he said, “And I’m not going to go jumping between you and the Dark Lord, remember that, too, I’ve jumped between you and danger plenty of times enough already. You jump between me and the ruddy danger for once, how’s that?”
Lily shook her head, “I’m not large enough to block you and your fat ego,” she replied and she yanked open the portrait hole door.
The Fat Lady let out a hoot of surprise as she swung open. “Thank goodness!” she said, a bit too merry with drink. Beside her in her portrait was the witch from the parlor downstairs, Violet her names was, and they held some of the bottles and glasses from the painting of the friars down stairs. “That vile boy was trying to get in there again! I’ve sent him away… sent him away… but not before he could deface the property with his ruddy sticking charms!”
James looked at where the Fat Lady was pointing and saw a parchment had been adhered to the edge of the Fat Lady’s portrait frame. He squinted and adjusted the placement of his glasses on his nose, trying to see what the script said… the ink splotted with hurry…
Lily was staring down the corridor. Was it her imagination or had she seen the shadowy figure of a robed figure with long dark hair turn the corner? ...Had it been Snape that had been lurking about outside the Gryffindor common room...?
“Evans, have a look at this,” James said.
She turned and looked at the parchment on the wall. The script was neat, calculated - dark from a fair amount of pressure on an over-inked quill…
Your stolen friend has been brought to the Lestrange Manor by the Blind Seer
in accordance to the will of the Dark Lord, Voldemort.
Beware the Dark Lord will stop at no ends to obtain the Boy, his obsession burns.
To save your friend may save another.
The note was unsigned.
