Author's Notes: Let me just say: I am SO sorry about the wait.

I know, it's been two months since I last updated. Let me explain: I, being stupid, managed to break my computer and lost everything. I recently got a new one but haven't been able to write at all. I'm really sorry about that. I finally got some time to write, so here's another chapter.

IMPORTANT: Again, sorry, but I will definitely not be able to update the story every three days anymore. I'll try for at least once a week, but I'm not sure I can.

The tunnel was cramped and tight; the air so dusty and dank that Lily sneezed countless times only to be shushed by James, who seemed to be having a rather good time of it. Her back was cramping painfully from having to bend over the entire time; her head kept brushing the top of the tunnel, dislodging dirt from the roof and sending it into her eyes and hair.

"Is it much further?" she whispered unhappily to James, who was moving through the tunnel with such speed and familiarity that she was quite sure he had traversed it many times before.

"Not far at all," James whispered back, ducking to avoid a low-hanging root that sent dirt into Lily's face. She sneezed loudly, making James shush her. "And if you keep sneezing like that, the whole village will know we're here," he hissed back at her.

"I can't help it," she defended herself, wishing the tunnel wasn't quite so low. Her back was beginning to seriously hurt. James suddenly stopped dead and she nearly collided with him.

"What is it?" she inquired, rubbing a bit of dirt away from her eye.

In response he reached up and pushed. With a slight creak the top of the tunnel swung open and she realised that it was a trap-door. He clambered out, wriggling with some difficulty, then held out a helpful hand. She ignored it and pulled herself up.

"Where are we?" she said in a low voice, taking in her surroundings and pulling out her wand. James grinned and hopped to his feet, quite as though he hadn't just spent half an hour in a dusty old tunnel with no company but a crabby redhead. He spread his arms wide.

"Welcome to Honeydukes cellar," he said, helping her to her feet. "One of the many brilliant things we've discovered."

"And by we, you mean-"

"Sirius, Remus, Peter and I," James finished for her, pulling out his own wand and bending over. With another small squeak, the trapdoor swung back closed, nearly indistinguishably from the dirty floor.

"Lovely," she said with a grimace as a rat squeaked from the corner and sent dust puffing up into the air. "Well, let's go, shall we?"

James held out his arm for her to take and looked so pitifully expectant that she sighed slightly and took it.

"Let's go," he said with a cheeky smile.

James watched Lily peer into the window of an abandoned shop, red hair dancing behind her as she darted across the street. The quarter moon overhead illuminated the narrow street and lent her an almost ethereal look as she flitted in and out of empty stores.

"We work well together," he ventured, watching her open the door to a shop and peer inside, then shake her head and dart back out. She glanced back at her as she strode in front of him, green eyes almost glowing in the moonlight.

"Only out of necessity," she said, almost sadly, as he checked a broken-down old house. "If it weren't for the situation, you would try to flirt with me and I would argue with you. It would never work."

They both knew she wasn't just talking about their partnership of sorts, but James persisted.

"How could you know that? We're working perfectly fine right now," he argued. She frowned for a moment and considered it for a second.

"Well – well it wouldn't last!" she said fiercely.

"Only because you're determined it won't," he returned. They had stopped dead in the middle of the street; her facing him with her hands on her hips and him folding his arms across his chest. They were both equally determined-looking.

"Come on," Lily said after a moment. "We're supposed to be looking for Mary, not fighting."

He watched her turn away and hurry off, biting his lip but filled with a strange sense of satisfaction. He was fairly certain that this argument he had won.

The room was tiny, dirty and small, filled with boxes and barrels. A wooden staircase led to the house above and Mary pressed herself into the furthest corner from the stairs. Anyone coming down them would have a hard time spotting her amidst the boxes.

She could hear rough voices overhead and the occasional snatches of conversation or curses. She had sneaked inside a small family's home when the sound of Death Eaters drew close. She had escaped them several times, both times barely managing to deflect spells and jinxes and run fast enough to escape. This time the Death Eaters had tracked her into a dead end. The small street on the outskirts of the village was almost abandoned; the Death Eaters would almost certainly find her.

A family was hiding in the top most level, unaware of her presence. Two Death Eaters who had escaped the Aurors wandered aimlessly about the streets, occasionally pausing to set fire to a rubbish bin or melt a sign.

Mary had constructed a barricade in front of her made of random boxes and every other thing she had managed to find. There was nothing to do but hide and wait.

So she waited.

"This is ridiculous," Lily mumbled. "We're never going to find her!"

James's grim silence was all the confirmation she needed that he privately agreed with her. She kicked a rock irritably.

"What do you suggest we do, then?" she hissed, knowing that she had no reason to be angry with him, but not particularly caring either. James shrugged rather than answered and continued to check inside the abandoned and eerily silent houses on either side of the road.

"We shouldn't have been so stupid and reckless," she muttered, holding up her lit wand to illuminate a dark alleyway. "We should have told a teacher or brought one along. This was really, really stupid and dangerous."

"A teacher would have stopped us straight away; you know that as well as I do," James said from behind her. She could almost feel him rolling his eyes.

"Yes, well it would have still been more productive than wandering around an empty village for an hour in the middle of the freezing night!" she said miserably, shivering in a chilly wind that whipped her troublesome hair around her face, obscuring her view and making her wish she had thought to plait her hair.

"Stop whining," he said absently, poking his head inside a dilapidated old shack. She chose to ignore him.

"Why are we so idiotic?" she wondered idly, pulling her hair away from her face and following James down the street. A sign hanging crookedly above creaked slightly in the wind.

"Because you want your friend back and I'm a Marauder! How could I resist?" James said, laughing slightly. The sound echoed in the empty streets as the wind whistled through the buildings, making a chilling shrieking sound.

"Why do you lot call yourselves Marauders anyhow?" Lily asked him.

"Oh… er…" James said, running a hand through his hair. "No reason, really," he said with a quick and rather falsely jaunty smile at her, but she was not fooled.

"Right," she said, unconvinced, but noting that he seemed nervous and storing the information away for further consideration. James sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair again, not even seeming to notice what he was doing.

"This isn't really very effective," he said, raising his wand to illuminate a shadowy corner. The bushes swayed, making Lily whirl around, her wand pointed at it. A rat squeaked and darted off, making Lily jump. She shook her head in disgust and turned back.

"What else can we do?" she said, shivering in the biting wind. He shrugged glumly.

"Keep looking," he said helpfully, turning his head left and right so quickly that it made Lily's neck hurt just watching him. Somewhere in the distance, a dog howled mournfully, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

"Thank you for that stunning revelation," Lily snapped. James held up his hands in surrender.

"No need to be so cranky, Evans," he said. "I'm only trying to help."

She sighed and her shoulders slumped. "I know," she said in a defeated voice. "Sorry. I'm just…"

"Worried," James supplied. She nodded.

"Very," she replied.

Mary pressed herself more firmly into the ancient crumbling brick wall behind her, her wand clenched in her sweating hand. Her heart thundered in her chest, seeming inordinately loud in the silence. She listened, but the only sounds were the thumping of her heart and the soft whimpers of a child in the top floor. Someone shushed him softly as outside a man called mockingly to the woman accompanying him and was greeted by raucous laughter. There was a loud bang as the woman sent a rubbish bin slamming into one of the houses on the other side of the street, making someone overhead scream loudly.

There was a silence; a thick, tense, terrified silence that Mary felt she could have cut with a knife. The Death Eaters outside seemed to be listening just as keenly as the family overhead. Mary gripped her wand tighter, preparing herself inwardly.

There was a short laugh outside, then the woman's high voice shrieked a spell. There was the roaring sound of fire and someone above her screamed despairingly. Mary flinched, feeling the damp of the crumbling brick behind her pressing against her skin. She tried to sink even lower to the ground but it didn't work.

A baby began to cry upstairs as the fire crackled threateningly. There was a broken sob from overheard and laughter from outside. Mary looked around frantically. If the house had caught fire, she would be forced to leave the house. If she left the house, she would fall right into the welcoming arms of the Death Eaters. Honestly, Mary wasn't sure at all that she didn't prefer burning to death than to be caught by Death Eaters. Mulciber's sickening face seemed to swim in front of her and she swallowed back bile.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are!" the woman's voice sang from outside. "Come on, filthy Mudbloods, or you'll be roasted to a crisp. We won't hurt you… that badly." Her companion laughed uproariously.

Someone overhead began to sob in earnest. Mary could hear the fire now. It was crackling loudly and smoke was beginning to seep down the stairs, making her throat itch. She pressed her sleeve to her mouth, fighting the urge to cough.

Outside, the woman laughed.

"James!"

Lily's voice was shrill and shocked. He whirled around, wand at the ready, to see her pointing into the distance. From her tone he expected, at the very least, to see some sign of Mary, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"What?" he said, half angry, his heart thundering and looking around as if expecting a Death Eater to spring out of nowhere.

"I think there's something on fire," she said anxiously, peering at a distant street. "And considering Mary's knack for attracting trouble, I think we should-"

The rest of her words were cut off as something exploded. A fireball rose lazily from the street, smoke billowing around as screams broke out.

"MARY!"

James turned to see Lily sprinting toward the explosion, screaming Mary's name.

"Hey!" he shouted after her. "You can't just go running off; it's dangerous! HEY!"

She ignored him, streaking down the street and turning a corner, disappearing from view. Cursing under his breath, James ran after her.

The house was burning.

That was the one thought registering in her mind as she coughed and hacked and dragged herself painfully slowly towards the stairs. Her eyes were watering, her throat was burning, and she couldn't breathe. The family above was screaming in terror now.

She realised dimly that she was going to die unless she did something and sacrificed something very precious. She took a deep breath and immediately regretted it as the smoke stung the back of her throat. She closed eyes so that she would not have to witness it and ripped the sleeve of her expensive designer robe that she had bought with the money from her birthday. She whimpered slightly but continued to tear until a sizable chunk was hanging limply in her hand.

"A-Aguamenti," she coughed out, pointing her wand at the sad bit of cloth. Water soaked it and with fumbling hands she managed to tie the bit of cloth around her nose and mouth. She could breathe a bit better now but she was in no way safe yet.

She managed to pull herself to her feet, using the creaky wooden stairs. She climbed labouriously, still coughing but less frequently now. Her eyes swam with tears as smoke stung them. Overhead, the family had fallen silent now. She gritted her teeth and forced herself onward.

Lily ran through the streets of Hogsmeade, her heart thundering in her ears. Tripping over small stones and sticks, leaping fences and anything too slow to move, she sprinted on. There was a stitch in her chest and her breathing was laboured at best, but she pushed herself forward.

"Lily! Lily, come back! It's not safe!"

She could hear James shouting behind her but she ignored him. She was very close now…

Plumes of smoke rose overhead the little houses as another eruption shook them. Lily stumbled and fell, rocks scraping her hands, but she pushed herself back to her feet and ran on. She could hear mad laughter ahead and a chorus of screams.

She rounded the last corner and the full horror of the scene became apparent.

Three masked and hooded people were standing in the street, watching the buildings around them burn. Rubbish littered the cracked road and ash fell like snow. The houses on either side of the street were burning. People screamed inside of them as one of the Death Eaters raised her wand and sent another fireball into the air, laughing frenziedly.

Lily raised her wand but before she could do anything, something heavy and warm collided with her, knocking her to the ground. All of her breath rushed out of her as she hit the ground hard. Her assailant rolled off her with a small groan.

She scrambled to her knees, wand gripped tightly in her hand, and crouched, ready to run at a moment's notice, but she recognized her attacker a second later.

"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed at James, who was looking a bit dazed. His hair stuck up at odd angles and dirt puffed up in little clouds as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head.

"Sorry," he said. "But I can't just let you go charging off into battle without me."

"Go back to the school," Lily whispered desperately. Behind her, bangs and screams rang out and she pressed herself into the stone of the shop behind her. "Get Dumbledore, get the Aurors! I'll try to stop them from murdering anyone, but you need to hurry-"

"I'm not leaving you," said James sharply, looking determined. She hissed under her breath and risked a glance behind her. There was a roar and the flames billowed.

"This isn't a discussion!" she snapped, launching herself to her feet. "GO!"

It was astonishing, really, how fast she could move when she was in danger.

Mary scuttled up the stairs like some odd insect, then opened the door with a flick of her wand. Flames surged towards her and she reared back, nearly toppling down the steps before catching herself.

"Aguamenti!" she cried, and the flames receded with a hissing crackle. She advanced, shouting the spell again and again, and eventually the flames died. She pressed the dripping wet cloth more firmly to her mouth and nose, then sprinted for the stairs leading to the upper floor. She leapt over an unrecognisable smoldering lump, nearly tripped over a still fiery beam, then took the stairs two at a time, almost tripping over her own feet in her haste.

Mary reached the top of the stairs and burst through the door, only to be met with a plain hallway that was lined with doors. She stared around in panic at the many identical doors, then flicked her wand at each of them in turn. With a little creak, they opened one by one.

In the last room, furthest from the street outside, she could make out the huddled forms of several people. She sprinted forwards and burst into the room, only to trip on someone's limp outstretched arm.

Her head hit the table in the corner and she fell to the floor; for a moment, her vision exploded in white stars and she lay stunned for a second, then she scrambled back to her feet. Her vision swayed and she staggered woozily, then everything cleared and she stumbled towards the unconscious forms of the family in the corner.

She heaved a tall man to his feet and turned. Pulling him as fast as she could, she dragged him down the hallway back to the door leading to the stairs. She grabbed the knob and yanked-

She fell back with a yelp of pain as the searingly hot doorknob burned her hand so badly that the skin charred and bubbled. She pressed it to her mouth, whimpering in agony, fighting not to scream.

That's not normal, she realised as soon as her thoughts were somewhat close to coherent. They must have done something…

She was breathing in short little gasps as she tried desperately to pull the man back. Every time her hand even brushed his clothes she had to fight not to scream. She pulled desperately with one hand, the other sending stabbing, torturous feelings of pain every time she tried to move. It was impossible.

She was trapped.

Lily sprinted as quickly and quietly as she could, ducking around the corners of buildings until she was so close to the Death Eaters that she could hear the spells they cast, hear the woman's laughter. She knelt down, carefully poking her head around the corner of the little shop. She could see the three Death Eaters setting fire to the surrounding buildings, laughing.

Lily waited until the shorter man, who was the closest, had turned his back, then whispered a spell. He crumpled silently and Lily grinned triumphantly and turned to the woman, who was starting to turn around.

"Expelliarmus!" Lily hissed, flicking her wand at the woman. Faster than she would have believed possible, the woman whirled and blocked the spell. Lily barely had time to duck her own Disarming Spell before the woman sent a jet of fire at her, singing her face and nearly setting her robes on fire. The other man turned and started to advance on her. Lily backed up desperately, stumbling until her back hit the brick wall.

"Oh, you're a Mudblood from the school!" the woman said, laughing and deflecting a jinx from Lily with pathetic ease. "This will be fun, don't you think, Jugson?"

The man grinned at her, exposing extremely sharp teeth. Lily responded only with the dirtiest of looks, an extremely rude insult, and a disarming spell. The woman merely laughed again, the fire's light reflecting off her mask.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Lily ducked and responded with her own spell. The Death Eaters had not expected her to react so quickly and the woman yelped as the blaze of fire missed her head by centimeters, charring her frizzy hair. She screeched in fury and the man turned to look at her. It was all the distraction Lily needed.

She shouted a spell and sprinted forward at the same time. The man let out a yell and clawed at the sticky net covering his face. Lily shoved past him and slammed an elbow into the stomach of the woman, who doubled over, wheezing.

She was halfway across the square when she collided with something large and heavy. Her head hit something hard and they both fell to the ground. She could hear a small groan.

"Oww… Lily? Wha-"

"I thought you went back to the castle!" she said in astonishment, staring at James. For the second time that night, it seemed, James had got in her way again.

"I sent a Patronus."

"Get the Mudblood first!" one of the Death Eaters shrieked from behind them. James blinked and looked over her shoulder at them.

"Are those-"

"No time to talk now!" she cried, leaping to her feet and yanking him up. "Run!"

And they ran. They didn't get far.

It seemed to Mary that she had two options. One: she could sit here, moaning about her hand, and die a painful, fiery death, or two: she could get up and try to find a way out.

She chose option two.

She wrapped her hand in white bandages with a muttered spell and with another one, managed to rouse the unconscious man. He let out a hacking cough and rolled over to vomit onto the ugly beige carpet.

"Listen, your house is burning down, your family is unconscious, and there are Death Eaters outside," Mary said bluntly, kneeling by his side. "Now, are you going to help me or not?"

He looked up at her, stunned.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet.

Author's Notes: Sorry if it's not very good. I tried.

Thank you all so much for putting up with my idiocy.