Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter One

"Crucio."

The house was in a panic. Dark wizards in cloaks surrounded the house, torturing as they saw fit. There were half-drunken punch goblets scattered around tables, and decorations for a birthday party of sorts for a 'Miller Dougland,' a very sociable member of the Department of Transportation. Said "Miller Dougland" was lying dead on his punch-stained rug next to several dropped goblets.

It was his fifty-third birthday, and he was having a riotous time with his friends from work, near sixty or seventy of them, when the Death Eaters began appearing. He was the first to go, after three Death Eaters tired of toying with him. Then his friends, who were too scared to Apparate away, were next.

So it went on.

Of course, they tired quickly of their games and finished every last one who remained off. Then they were gone.

Over an hour later, the Aurors arrived. The door opened with an eerie squeak and the shadow walked into the room.

"Oh man...not again," Sirius sighed to himself. It had been a long time since there had been this many at one place. He felt the familiar squirming of his stomach as he walked into the house of death.

"Merlin," came the next Auror, Remus. He was looking pale, but the full moon was long past and was long to come. He quickly followed Sirius trying not to look too closely at the bodies of people he saw every day.

"James..." came one of the final two. They walked inside, hand in hand, looking around.

"This is sick," came the aforementioned James. "Bloody sick."

"Come on, let's go alert Moody that everything's clear," Sirius muttered, after looking around the house. "No more Death Eaters."

"Clear, yeah," James shook his head.

It had been nine months since they had left Hogwarts, and the world had turned for the worse as You-Know-Who had become the whispered fear on everyone's lips. Scenes like this had become more and more prevalent so the Minister of Magic had made the executive decision to speed up the training of Aurors to two years instead of three, therefore, they had finished only three months before. Fully trained Aurors, they had been called out the night that they had received their licenses.

And it had been random and near non-stop. Every week was a new place, new victims, no closer to stopping it. Most of the time, they had come across scenes like this. All dead, none surviving, no witnesses. The Dark Mark above the house was enough to know what had happened.

This would mean more paperwork to file, a press release to be drawn up and given to the Daily Prophet, corpses to be identified, drinks to take, feelings to sort through, it was all standard procedure now.

"Moody," James said, walking by Moody's office. "Lily and I are off."

"See you tomorrow then?" Moody grunted. James sighed and picked at the doorframe. Standard procedure was to give Aurors the week off after they were in a life-threatening situation. Standard procedure was out the window these days; the most they got was 18 hours before they had to return to work.

"Yeah...tomorrow," he nodded. He padded down, tiredly, to the bundle of offices that were his, Sirius', Remus', and Lily's. Sirius was staring out his window, Remus was drinking tea which James suspected had some whiskey in it...yes, he could see the bottle cap on top of the stack of papers, Lily was packing up, and looked up when she saw him.

"Ready?" he asked, holding out his arm. She nodded and walked to him, lugging her giant bag of papers. "Want me to carry that?" he asked.

"No...I'm...I'm fine," she nodded, shouldering them. And the next morning, she would be fine, they all would. It only took a good night's sleep to half-forget the sights they had witness, or to file them in with the countless other faces that they had seen.

Miller Douglas was half-Muggle, half-wizard, and most of the people at the party had been that too. It used to matter who was killed. Now, no one was safe, save the Death Eaters themselves, and even then they might not be so safe.

Appearing in the living room of their small flat, James waved his wand at the stove to start a pot of tea. Lily leaned up and kissed him, smiling tiredly and sadly.

"I'm going to go take a shower. Want to join me?"

"No thanks, Baby," he smiled. "Want me to make some dinner?"

"Don't we still have that Chinese?" Lily asked.

"I threw it out. We ordered it two weeks ago."

"Oh...do we have anything in there?" she asked, looking towards their refrigerator. He walked over to check and sighed.

"No...a few firewhiskeys and some butter."

She fell back on the couch. "Is that all?"

"Sorry love."

"Does Sirius have any food?" she wondered.

As if he had been summoned, Sirius popped into their living room and walked over to the kitchen.

"Prongs, you got any...oh..." he frowned when he saw the kitchen. James looked in all the cabinets too.

"How is it we get paid so much money and yet we never have any food?" he muttered, finding naught but a few scattered plates and cups and a box of old crackers.

"No time to shop, I guess," Sirius sighed. "Dinner at Wormtails, then?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Lily chided them. "It's past midnight, and I'm sure he has to work in the morning."

"He won't mind. We'll leave him a few Galleons," Sirius shrugged. James trotted over to her and gave her a kiss.

Peter, it seemed, was the only one who lead a normal life. Since leaving school he was a regular manager at Gringotts, and was pulling in enough to get by, and had enough time to go to the grocery store.

"I'll bring you back something. Don't forget about the tea," James smiled. He and Sirius Apparated to Peter's house, leaving Lily to tend to the tea before she took a shower.

"Mm...a whole chicken-"

"No! Padfoot! Nothing that looks like it took a long time to make," James grunted, slapping Sirius' itching hand.

"It's been so long since I've had chicken-"

"So go out and buy your own."

"News flash, Prongs, my shift usually ends after all the nice chicken-baking shops are closed."

"How about some cold cuts?"

"I don't eat cold cuts, Prongs."

"What are you two doing?" came the sleepy voice of the owner of the food that Sirius and James were pilfering through.

"Ah, morning Wormtail!" Sirius exclaimed brightly. "Just...grabbing a bite to eat, is all."

Peter yawned and trudged over to them, his house robe open to show his pajamas underneath. "Well do it quieter, some of us have to sl-sl-sleep," he yawned again.

"Busy day with those goblins, eh?" Sirius nudged him. Peter nodded but didn't look at him.

"Your day fairing well?"

"Horrible," James muttered, trying to open a jar of pickles rather unsuccessfully. "We-eerg- came-aaargh!-to-mmmph-late-bloody hell-"

Sirius rolled his eyes, grabbing the pickle jar from James and opening it without much difficulty. James glared at him.

"Show off."

"All dead then?" Peter asked, watching James fish out a pickle.

"Yeah, shame too, old Miller was a hoot to have lunch with," Sirius rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Suddenly, there was another pop and Remus appeared, looking quite sheepish.

"Hey Moony, what's up?" Peter asked.

"Oh...well I stopped by your flat James, and Lily said you were over here. Um...could I maybe have something to eat? I'll pay you, of course, but-"

"Hey, Moony, don't worry about it," Sirius waved his hand. "No need to look so nervous about it. Wormtail's glad to supply us with food that we have no time to get! Prongs, Lily-love, and I would starve if it wasn't for him!"

Peter didn't look like he was going to contradict Sirius' statement, as he was beaming. Remus nodded and approached their little group. James held out a pickle for him.

"Picwle?" he asked, one hanging out of his mouth.

"Do you want me to make you something?" Peter asked, suddenly in a host-like mood. "Anything at all?"

"Lily's at home," James nodded, running his hand through his hair. "Something quick, as she's looking pretty tired."

"Aw, Prongsie-wongsie needs to get back to his wittle misses."

"She is not my little misses, Padfoot," James shifted uncomfortably. "She's not even my wife."

"Yet," Remus muttered.

"Soup sounds good if you've got any," James ignored him. "I can just whip it up at home."

Looking crestfallen, Peter sorted through his cabinet until he found a can of soup that James could have.

"Here you go," Peter nodded. He looked to the other two, hopeful and ready to please."What can I get you two?"

"See you guys tomorrow," James nodded, Apparating back to his own apartment.

"Thanks, Baby," Lily smiled, putting her empty bowl of soup on the bedside table. James came out of the bathroom, clad only in his Snitch boxers, with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.

"Pete's a wifesavah, I don't know wha we do wifou him," James said.

"Can't understand you," Lily said, crawling deeper under the covers. James spat into the sink and came back.

"I said, Pete's a lifesaver. I don't know what we'd do without him."

"This is getting ridiculous..." Lily sighed, looking up at the ceiling. "Seven days a week is just too much."

"You know we're short on personnel as it is," James said, turning off the bathroom light and climbing into bed beside her.

"At least we didn't lose anyone tonight," Lily sighed. "Have you talked with Dumbledore lately?"

"I dropped in the other day," James said, putting his hands behind his head. "He's thinking about something, I can tell. But I just don't know what it is."

"Hm," she said, turning over and putting her head on his chest.

"What are you thinking about?" James asked, reaching down in the dark to take her hand.

"You," Lily smiled.

"What about me?"

"How much I love you," she sighed.

"What a coincidence," he chuckled. "I'm thinking the same thing."

"Great minds, hm?" Lily said, leaning up to kiss him. "Mm...minty fresh."

"You still taste like soup," James informed her. In the dark, she glared at him and left the bed, turning on the bright bathroom light, blinding him. "Gah!" he cried.

Lily stood in the light, brushing her teeth with feeling and looking at him, though he couldn't make out her face.

"Baby, I was just kidding," James whined. "Come back!"

"Nuh-uh, you want me to have minty fresh breath, then that's what I'm going to have," she told him as she spit out the toothpaste. Then she went for the mouthwash and gurgled for a bit.

"Ba-by..." he whined, rolling over on his back.

She continued to gurgle and then she spit out. James grinned and waited, and then frowned when Lily decided to gurgle again. She turned around, bathed in the light and washed the mouthwash around in her mouth, a smirk on her face.

"You're so mean," James sighed. She turned around and spit out the mouthwash, picking up the towel. She daintily tapped it at the corners of her mouth, making sure to get each drop that may have landed on it.

"Finally," James grinned when she put the towel down. He let out a string of sputters when she opened up the cabinet, intent on moisturizing her face.

"I don't think so," James grunted, rolling out of bed and marching to the bathroom. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, walking back to the bed, despite her giggles of protest. Putting her down none-too-softly, he joined her soon after, picking up his wand and shutting off the lights in the bathroom.