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Remus was hurrying, dragging along both Ollie and Dexter behind him as he moved quickly. They’d gone to the Three Broomsticks to try to find James and Lily, but they weren’t there. He didn’t know what to do, he felt lost and confused and he wished very, very much that somebody was there that could help him - anybody. He would’ve done anything to see Newt or Tina Scamander, or Dumbledore, or --

He skid to a stop, and blinked in disbelief.

It was the gait of his walk that made Remus recognize him. His hair was long and unkempt, a thick beard covering his chin. He looked wild and thin, but strong in the arms as he always had, and Remus felt a surge of hope. “PROFESSOR!” The man was coming out of the doors of the inn - still shrugging on his jacket, a briefcase in his fist (it was black and sleek, not at all like Newt’s case, Remus noted) looking up and down the street - though not in response to the title. Probably because only Remus still called him that. Anyone else would have called him --

“NED! NED VEIGLER!”

The man stopped, turned, and Remus could see his face was dirty and the hair was matted and gnarled and his eyes searched the crowd around him for who had yelled his name.

“C’mon,” Remus gasped, and he pulled the two boys down the street toward the man, and as he approached he let go of their hands, running as the best as his knees would let him, and he threw himself at Ned Veigler, wrapping his arms around Ned’s shoulders. “Professor Veigler!” he cried out, leaning down to embrace the older, but still shorter, man.

Ned hugged Remus and patted his back solidly, “Rey,” he said, and his voice was thick, rusted as though he had spoken very little since his departure in December.

“Oh Professor Veigler, I’m so glad you’re here.” Remus felt like he had never been so happy to see anybody in all of his blasted life. He backed away and dizzily looked Ned over, “Where - where have you been?”

“Iceland,” replied Ned. “I’ve -- so much to tell you, Remus… so much to tell you and Newt and -- I owe you all apologies, so many apologies… I just needed time away. And it was so good that I took it… I’m here on business, to see Dumbledore…” His eyes travelled to the two anxious looking first years hovering behind Remus, staring up at the wild-looking man with wide eyed expressions of confusion. “Who’s this?” he asked.

Remus answered, “Oliver Kent and Dexter Cardwall. They’re first years. They’re - they’re -- Oh Professor, I need your help.”

“My help?” Ned Veigler’s brow folded in concern… and now he could see the worry in Remus’s eyes. He hurriedly pulled Remus into a small alley beside the inn, the two first years rushing over to stay close, “What’s happened? Newt’s here - isn’t he? I heard about that -- ridiculous claim, about the children, and that he’s been in hiding here and --”

“It isn’t here, no -- Newt’s gone - gone to New York City…” Remus said and Ned’s eyes widened, but Remus plowed on, “It’s the other first years.” And he told Ned Veigler everything that had happened.




“How do we get out of here?” Lily asked, feeling terrible to be the first to interrupt the moment between James and Charlus, but knowing that it was important they go before they got caught being there. “And how do we get the first years?”

“The fireplace in the dining hall is the Floo connection,” Regulus said, who had travelled to Malfoy Manor plenty of times by the Floo in Number 12 Grimmauld Place. “That’s right above us and to the left.”

“Is it the left or the right?” Sirius undermined him, getting up from where he’d been hugging Mrs. Potter, and going over to the stairs where Regulus stood. “I remember coming here when we were kids and --”

“Left,” Regulus argued.

“I think it’s right,” Sirius said.

“It’s not a time to fight about this,” Lily said, looking up from where she was kneeling, gently cleaning the wounds Harold Minchum had.

The house elf, Dobby, watched quietly from the corner as Lily Evans wound her wand about the Minister, his ears flat. He hopped foot to foot and pointed to the places that needed extra bandaging, though silently, making funny whimpering sounds as he did. After all, Dobby had been commanded not to bandage the wounds and he was getting dangerously close to breaching his master’s commands… When the two boys started fighting, he looked over with his huge bulbous eyes, “Dobby knows the dining room is left from the door! You turn left and it is there, Dobby goes up and down everyday, everyday!”

“Told you it’s left,” Regulus said, quietly.

Sirius glared at him. “Alright then. So it’s left.”

“That’s where the Floo network lets out. There’s always at least one person in that room for that reason. They hold meetings in that room. There’s a big long table. And that’s where they --” he paused. That’s where they administered the Mark, he finished in his mind.

“So that’s where the First Years are,” Lily said, “If they got through. But Sev and Rey were supposed to be stopping them at the Networks, so they may not even be here. But if they are - that’s where they’d be.” She looked up at the floor boards over their heads and wondered if they were there, just over her head, scared and waiting to be rescued….

“If they came, then they’re probably apprehended by the Death Eaters,” Regulus said. “If you walk into the dining room from here, there’s two doors. The door to the right goes to the front door and the door on the left goes to the corridor and down that corridor is the parlor and the stairwell that goes up into the bedrooms. The Dark Lord stays in the corridor at the end of the hall.” He paused, “They would’ve taken the first years down to see the Dark Lord if they came through the Floo.”

Lily had finished with the bandages and Harold Minchum was struggling to attempt to stand, his knees shaking, his muscles weak from months of sitting there on the floor of the house elf quarters. She helped him up, but he had to stand half bent, too tall to stand upright. “So what’s the plan, then?” Lily asked.

“I’ll go up first and get a diversion going and you lot… sneak out the front door,” Regulus said matter-of-a-factly, as though they’d discussed it already in advance, “I’ll catch you all up after with the first years.”

James looked up from the floor, a flash of Maryrose being dragged away by Rudolphus going through his mind. He shook his head violently. “No. No. We leave together or we don’t leave.”

Sirius nodded, “Yes, we all do this together.”

Regulus said, “But I’ll be alright.”

“We can’t split up, I’m not having another Maryrose situation,” James’s voice was firm.

“James.” Regulus stared at James meaningfully. “It’s not the same thing.”

“It is, Regulus, no.” James said.

Regulus’s face was red with frustration. His idea would work - it would - he just needed to go and keep the Death Eaters busy for a few minutes and then Lily, James, Sirius, Minchum, and the Potters could just walk right out the front door. He’d get the firsties and he’d join them right after, and everyone would be freed. He could do it - he was the only one that could… “James it is different, it is.”

“Regulus, I’m serious. No. New idea.”

“I have an idea!” Sirius said, and he started, “What if we use the reducto and blow up --”

“No!” Regulus interrupted Sirius, “We don’t need to blow stuff up! That’s drawing attention to ourselves and once we get outside we still need to get away somehow! We need time. I’m telling you, James!” And Regulus reached for his sleeve and yanked it up, showing the Dark Mark, bright black against his skin. “What good is this thing if I’m not going to put it to good use?!”

Sirius stared at his brother’s arm with a stoney face.

Lily gasped, staring down at it.

Regulus realized his mistake the moment he’d made it. He grit his teeth, though, it wasn’t the time to try to talk to Sirius about this, “James, you know it’s --”

Sirius took a step back off the stairwell, shaking his head. He glanced back at James. “Wait, wait -- you knew he had that thing?” he asked James.

“Now is not the time to discuss it,” James replied to Sirius. He looked at Regulus, “Reg… I already lost one person this way, I’m not losing another.”

“James. I can do it. I can. And honestly, there’s not much of any other choice to it. We go out that door all together and we’re going to get attacked by all the Death Eaters in the house - and depending what’s going on, this house could be teeming with them. You lot aren’t going to get away with wandering about the house. They will catch you, they will kill you. I’m the only one that has any reason to be here. It’s gotta be me.”

Sirius said, through grit teeth, “He’s right, Prongs.”

James shook his head, “But --”

“Mr. P’s going to be really hard to transport. We’re not going to go rushing out of here at any kind of an escape speed,” Sirius said.

“I can disapparate us away, one at a time,” Minchum groaned, wincing from the pain of standing for the first time in ages.

James looked at his dad, and his mum. Dora was staring, transfixed at the mark on Regulus’s arm. His throat swelled up. Regulus was right, of course. He was. It was the only way. But James hated it. He hated the idea of how scared it made him to imagine leaving Regulus to fend for himself... If something happened, it would be all his fault, again, and he wouldn’t be able to handle that. He closed his eyes. “Okay,” he breathed, quietly. There was no other options.

Regulus pulled his sleeve back down, flushing as he realized that Mrs. Potter and Lily were both staring at it with unease, and Sirius’s jaw was still set tight and he felt his stomach squirm inside of him uncomfortably. Please, understand, Sirius. Please see how it’s come in handy here, how I’m doing good despite it. Please. Please.

“Alright,” he said shakily. “Alright. I’ll… I’ll go and… once they’re distracted -- then… then you come out and you leave as quick as you can.”

Sirius said, “I’ll stand in the door and listen so we know. We need a code phrase.”

Regulus looked up at Sirius. “How about Snuffles?”

Sirius stared at Regulus. “Alright.”