A Chance You Only Get Once

Chapter Thirteen
The Only Way Out

Had the Marauders once bragged that they knew every inch of the Forbidden Forest? Oh the egos they had had back then! Even at their peak, in mid-sixth year, they of all people should have known how fickle and unpredictable the forest was. It was more than a match for their skill at the time and enough to keep anyone on his toes. Sixteen years later, the Forbidden Forest was proving its treacherous nature to one of the Marauders all over again. Sirius Black was beginning to realize how little they had ever really understood of it.

Sixteen years had been the death of all the pathways that he knew of except for Hagrid's which had been much extended into the interior of the forest, not merely leading to the Spider's Lair any more. If some of the larger landmarks hadn't remained roughly the same distance and direction from each other and the castle, all would have been lost. Imagine, a Marauder lost on Hogwarts Grounds! Peter would have no such problems, Sirius said to himself while grinding his teeth. He'd probably been all over the castle and forest gathering new secrets so that Sirius, sixteen years out of practice, couldn't compete. Once again, little Peter had proven himself the cleverest of the Marauders.

If he hadn't been in his dog form, Sirius never would have made it. Two feet tired sooner than four, but the forest was beyond a match for his waning endurance. So when he shambled into the tiny clearing, beyond weary in body and spirit, he barely made it to the snow-woman. After swimming fifty miles until he nearly drowned and washed up on a small island, another twenty miles to the mainland, traveling across the country and the final perilous trek through the Forbidden Forest with his wits already dull from exhaustion, the sight of her had never been more welcome.

Nor had it ever been more comforting. Sirius limped to the white firgure that, in mid-October still surrounded by green grass and colorful leaves, looked more like a marble statue than a snow-woman except for the delicate fragileness of it. Whimpering at the beauty he had forgotten for twelve long years, he laid his shaggy, bedraggled head at her pristine feet. He found himself sobbing, something far more difficult in his animal form when his emotions were generally less intense or at least less responsive to his surroundings.

But there was no repressing his reaction to this. It was more real than the sight of land or England or the castle or anything else that signalled that his hell was over that this angel was before him again. Her limp, stiffening body and glassy, unseeing eyes had haunted him every day for the last twelve years until he had doubted he could even remember her living face. Now all the good times flooded back to him, her radiant smile a balm to the deep lines that would never leave his face, the scars of Azkaban.

He had wondered once all those years ago if he was in love with her after all, but he had never loved anyone as much as he loved her for this moment, for the peace she brought after the torment and trials of his soul. Her sweet, powerful presence was with him now, her memory flooding his troubled mind. She had promised that she would always be with him. The truth was, she had lied. For twelve years he had lost the memory of everything but the attack, her collapse, and her death. But now, in his first true peace since entering Azkaban, the pure sweet memories almost too lovely to bear after so much sorrow, he could forgive her for that lie and so much more. Even for haunting him so in Azkaban, even for encouraging him to reach out to Peter.

And she had been right, as they should have known by then she always was. But those thoughts would not disturb the tranquility of this moment. Not even Peter could do that.

As his heavy eyelids began to close, he thanked Marissa Fletcher who had been his angel of comfort in so many lesser ordeals for this moment. No crying himself into a nightmare-ridden haze even more vivid than his waking hours, but the first untroubled sleep of Sirius Black since the death of Lily and James Potter.

---

The house was not what he had expected from his blindly wizarding point of view. It was rather like the houses along the same street as his own, yet even grander and more ornate. It was a rather intimidating house which, as Sirius thought with a snort, was probably her father's intention when he bought it. Not, of course, that it stood out particularly from the others along the street. It was no more or less impressive than its neighbors. Though, standing on its own, it would have been enough to turn heads.

It was in all accounts the wrong house for Marissa Fletcher to have grown up in. It was imposing and grand and ornate and showy and everything that Marissa, for all her fabulous sense of showmanship, was not. Standing on the street looking up at the house and down at the number almost dubiously, Sirius Black found himself in the same predicament as Peter Pettigrew had six months ago. The house did not look like Marissa Fletcher belonged there. She probably didn't.

Sirius had considerably less trouble figuring out the knocker than Peter had, having made several visits to James's house without a muggle in tow (Peter's mother really didn't let him do anything once they stepped outside of the house and his father was just as bad in the wizarding world). In fact, Sirius was a little disappointed that Marissa did not seem to have a doorbell. Or was that what that hanging thing was? At James's house it was just a button...

"Sirius, come in," Marissa said cheerfully, for all the world as if she had been expecting him. "You and Peter are both very lucky that we tend to prefer the foremost rooms of the house. We'd never hear even that huge old knocker if we were in the back."

"You do have a bell?" Sirius heard his voice and was shocked at the depressed quality of it. He'd been in that house too long. He should have left the first day. He had known then what the rest of the summer would be like; he had known that it would eventually come to this. Why had he bothered to try and stay longer?

"You think a house this size would lack for anything?" she laughed as she mockingly gestured to her surroundings. Sirius smiled weakly, wishing that he could throw off the shadow his family had put on his life as easily as he had given them the slip. "Here, let me help you with your trunk," Marissa said, stepping outside and nimbly lifting the other end of the trunk before Sirius could protest. "Mavi will kill you if you scrape that along her precious floor."

They didn't carry it far into the house. They left it waiting in an out of the way corner in the foyer. Sirius, though he had seldom seen his house from the outside, was reasonably certain that it would fit comfortably in a space the size of the foyer, dining area and kitchen that he saw in rapid succession. The kitchen looked as if it were built to accomodate ten to twenty chefs, but there was only one apron hanging by the oven.

There were two teacups sitting out, however, and two pieces of cake were laid out on dessert plates. The real cake stood just a little to the side. Sirius raised an eyebrow at her, a quirk she had often said she envied, when she sat down calmly at one of the chairs and gestured for him to take the other. "Been expecting me?" he asked when she showed no sign of explaining.

"Of course," Marissa replied infuriatingly and took a dainty sip of tea. She seemed determined not to give up her secret yet. Sirius was annoyed. He'd had enough of subtle games this summer.

"How could you possibly know?" he all but snapped.

Marissa didn't flinch at his tone, though she did put her cup down and regard him seriously, "Well, the Howler your mother sent this morning helped."

Whatever he had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. Now that he thought about it, however, it was just like the old boot. He heard Marissa continuing over the furious ringing in his ears, "Don't worry, none of us will heed it. She said to warn you she sent one to 'all your little friends the filth and blood traitors' warning them not to harbour you. Apparently, the sky will fall on us if we cross her." Marissa sounded amused again as she took another tiny sip of her tea.

"Worse than that, Riss," Sirius said candidly. He wasn't quite sure whether he thought the old witch meant it, but he didn't like any of his friends taking that gamble.

"I put wards on the house long ago, Sirius, so did my mother, I now suspect," Marissa told him seriously. "I know the days we live in will be dark. With or without an old lady in Grimmauld Place out for my blood."

Sirius didn't know quite what to say to that. He was relieved that she had thought to protect herself - somehow Sirius had always pessimistically thought Marissa too optimistic to ever realize that she might be in danger. "Have some tea, Sirius, you look as if you need it," she urged.

Obediently, Sirius raised the cup to his lips and the piping hot liquid slid into his mouth and down his throat. The aftertaste that lingered, however, was decidedly alcoholic to Sirius's well-trained palette. "So is that the secret to your cheerfulness then?" Sirius asked with a brave imitation of his customary smirk.

Marissa laughed briefly. "I picked the lock on the liquor cabinet this morning. I thought you might need a drink, even if it is just Muggle whiskey. Don't know how you drink that stuff personally, I tried a taste of it and ended up spitting it out in the sink."

"That's your story," Sirius said impishly.

Marissa laughed again. "I don't have an owl, but you can call James from the phone whenever you want," she told him. "With that trunk, Mr Potter better come pick you up in his car."

"You have this all worked out?" Sirius said in surprise and gratitude.

"You did your part in cutting ties with those - " Marissa cut herself off before she spoke ill of anyone. Sirius was impressed that she had come that close. She leaned forward and said earnestly, "That took a lot of courage. I'm proud of you, Padfoot."

Sirius barely registered that it was the first time in five years that she had called him by his chosen nickname. He was too focused on the closeness of this girl who could make him laugh and forget his family this of all days. She was still leaning toward him when he quickly closed the distance between them.

Sirius was rather proud of his reputation as a good kisser. He was realist enough to realize that he tasted of old man's whiskey and had taken her by considerable surprise, but he was still surpised to feel her pull away.

Marissa, for her part, looked directly at him and said, "I think you need a little more of this." She produced the whiskey bottle from somewhere and poured more into his teacup.

Sirius stared at her for a moment. Then he burst out laughing. "Don't be stingy," he said amiably, tilting the cup back and gulping it down the minute she finished pouring. He wasn't sure how he felt about what had just happened. Obviously Marissa had decided that it wouldn't affect their friendship, and he could accept that. It might even be best. He fell so often in and quickly out of love that he was beginning to doubt that the real thing existed. Look what the closest thing he had yet seen had brought James.

Marissa was a great friend, a rock in the storm in so many ways. It was imperative for him to have her in his life right now. Trying to make them a couple, particularly against her wishes, would only jeopardize her ability to be there for him. How could she be there to cheer him up after they broke up? Or had a fight? Who, if not she, would tell him to get over himself and apologize? Well, all right, Remus could do that, but even so, Marissa had a vital role as a friend in his life.

No, a relationship with her wasn't even really what he wanted. He had reached out for comfort from a friend, but it was a comfort that she couldn't give. He would be glad later that she hadn't, he was sure.

The alcohol was hitting his system just in time, he decided. Just before he could begin to wonder what it would be like to have her for his girlfriend. Just before he could start to wish in earnest that he had someone like James's Lily.

Sirius smiled over at the girl who seemed a perfect match for him in many ways, except for the fact that she was so open and candid. She played coy games, but she always let her feelings show to those who cared to look. It was enormously refreshing after the noble and most ancient house of Black.

"I'll never meet anyone else like you as long as I live, Marissa Fletcher," Sirius told her seriously, smiling at his friend.

"Nor I you, Sirius Black," Marissa replied seriously though the perpetual twinkle in her eyes was still apparent. "You're one in a million." She was almost teasing him now.

"I'll do you one better," Sirius said, "You're one of a kind."

"Everything's a competition with you, isn't it, Sirius?" Marissa laughed.

"And I always win," he replied.

By mutual consent, they raised their teacups and hit them together lightly to signify a toast before draining the liquid inside.

---

James was positively roaring his approval of Sirius's flight when he arrived at Marissa's mansion. Mr and Mrs Potter looked uncharacteristically nervous and timid in the grand environment, but once Marissa ushered them into the kitchen for tea they seemed much more comfortable. They knew Marissa, and, even if her house did, she was not the type to put on airs. Any uncomfortable awareness of the different levels of luxury the two families enjoyed was greatly dispelled by the sight of Sirius, Marissa, and Mundungus all clustered around the piano (which no one who lived in the house now knew how to play) singing very loudly very off-key.

Marissa invited them to stay for lunch and Mr and Mrs Potter in turn offered to take them all to lunch. When both offers were graciously refused, the business of moving Sirius's trunk began in full swing. As the Potters and Mavi stood about debating the best way to accomplish this and arguing heatedly over who was stronger and better able to carry the other end of the trunk to help Mr Potter, the three teenagers sat in the (relatively) small reading room that the Fletchers had long ago adopted as the most comfortable room in the house. Jerome Fletcher didn't host dinner parties or receive guests in it, but when the three Fletchers had an evening all to themselves, that was where they chose to spend it.

Marissa had ended up in the chair usually left reverently empty for the late Livy Fletcher but found it ironic rather than painful. "So, are you going to tell us what the final straw was, Sirius?" she asked when they had all settled in.

"Regulus," Sirius said simply. James and Marissa said nothing but continued to look at him expectantly until he sighed and realized that they were prepared to wait him out. "He's just so bleeding proud of being a junior Death Eater! And not that junior anymore. He's got his first assignment on Friday night, and you should hear that old battle-axe going on about it as if he's been elected to Parliament."

"Parliament?" Marissa cried in surprise.

"You and Lily have been jabbering nonsense about muggle politics and history at meals for five years and you don't think we've picked up any of it? James even used to join in on your discussions," Sirius replied in a slightly annoyed tone.

"No, I was just imagining your mother's reaction to Regulus really being elected to Muggle Parliament," Marissa said in a highly amused tone.

Sirius rolled his eyes in her direction. "Well, I couldn't stomache it. For all she knows he's going to be committing blackmail or threatening someone or even killing someone - "

"And are you going to do nothing?" Marissa said sharply.

Sirius stopped, looking profoundly confused. James snapped the idea right up, "She's right, you know, highly unchivalrous and almost cowardly of you not to say something about it."

"First of all, it will probably be rescheduled if Regulus mentions that I knew about it," Sirius began, "Though I'm not sure that he would. Secondly, what am I going to say? You know the spells my family put me under prevent me from turning in my family directly."

"So we'll find a way to do it indirectly," James said irrepresibly. "Don't be timid, Padfoot. This is important."

"How did you get involved in this, Prongs?" Sirius almost snapped. "And this is Death Eaters. Never forget that."

"Don't you either," Marissa said mildly, looking at him earnestly. "If you can't tell the Ministry ahead of time, the least you can do is follow him on Friday night and call the Ministry anonymously to report where he's going."

"You know, that actually might work..." James said, the wheels dangerously starting to turn in his head.

"This isn't the muggle world, Marissa. He doesn't have to leave the house to travel, how on earth am I going to follow him?"

"We can find a way, Padfoot, we're the Marauders."

"Which is all very well and good on Hogwarts Grounds where the worst that can happen is a detention, but this is the real world and we're playing with fire."

"So is Regulus," Marissa said seriously. "And whoever he's going to be attacking."

"We don't even know that it's an attack," Sirius protested.

There was silence for a long moment. Then Sirius sighed, "Of course you're right. You're right. And I can see you won't let me do it alone, James, but Marissa, at least you promise me that you'll stay home for this one?"

"I've got a ball on Friday night or I'd put up more of a fight," Marissa replied. "I know it's dangerous, Sirius, but so is Regulus if he's truly become a Death Eater now."

"Wouldn't be much of a Gryffindor if I did nothing," Sirius said resignedly. "But I would have thought I'd done enough for today to turn on my family and suffer their wrath."

"You just wouldn't be our Sirius if you stopped there," Marissa said with an encouraging smile at him. "One in a million."

Sirius snorted and Marissa let out a giggle. James looked confusedly back and forth between them as they shared their private joke, then shrugged nonchalantly. Before anything else could be decided about the proposed expedition, the adults came in to announce that the trunk (despite their best efforts) had been safely stored in the car.

---

It seemed that no sooner had James and Sirius driven off in the Potters' car than the Walkers' car was pulling into the driveway. Calling to Mavi in the house and Mundungus out playing in the street, Marissa rushed excitedly out to meet them and slid into the car. "Lizzie!" Marissa cried, giving her friend a hug.

Lizzie immediately returned the hug. "How've you been?"

Mrs. Walker snorted. "I'm sorry, girls, but you're acting like it's been ages since you've seen each other. It hasn't even been a week," she said laughing. Lizzie and Marissa chuckled self-consciously.

"Riss, meet the bluntest woman alive, Mum, the craziest girl alive," Lizzie introduced them impudently. The girl looked positively giddy, but then a young woman on the way to pick out her wedding dress was entitled to that.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Fletcher," Mrs Walker said with a serenity that belied her previous comment.

"Marissa, please, Mrs Walker," Marissa corrected immediately.

"Very well dear," she said. "I spoke to your father and he said you were to pick out a dress as well?"

"Oh so you did decide to go to the ball!" Lizzie cried gleefully. "You asked Remus, didn't you? Oh I know you did!"

"Lizzie, you're embarrassing the poor girl, she's ten shades of red already," Mrs Walker admonished.

"It's only fair, Mum. She's the one who threw Gideon and me together until we finally clicked. It's my turn to meddle in her love life now," Lizzie said with a decidedly mischievious gleam in her eye.

"Leave the poor girl alone. If she's asked this boy to a ball then she's obviously taking enough of her own initiative," Mrs Walker said reasonably.

"It's all right, Mrs Walker, Lizzie does have a point," Marissa said, recovering her natural skin tone. "I think I deserve just about anything Lizzie can dish out after bewitching their first kiss so that cupids sang all around them and fireworks exploded."

Mrs Walker laughed, turning to the backseat to regard the giggling girls, "I didn't realize that you meant that literally, Lizzie," she said in a surprised voice. "I just thought that you were young. If that boy hadn't been so mature and responsible when he asked your father and me for your hand I'd swear that you were both far too young to be married. Now it's only you I worry about."

The three laughed. By the time they had driven to the wedding boutique, anyone would be completely convinced that they had known each other their whole lives. Anyone would swear that Marissa must be Lizzie's younger sister (the fact that they did resemble each other helped) rather than just a friend. Mrs Walker was just as motherly toward her as if she had been her daughter rather than a strange witch that she had met only half an hour before.

And if there was one thing that could be said about Marissa it was that she was strange. She spent a good ten minutes chatting up the salesgirl, pulling quarters out her ear and entertaining a nearby flowergirl for another bride who looked extremely grateful. Her distraction was easily forgiven when they were given priority service once her attention finally returned to the dress search. They even managed to attain in the fairly busy store two salesgirls for Lizzie and one for Marissa who modeled several ball gowns before they found the perfect one.

Lizzie's wedding dress was a far longer affair, but then her dress was for a far more meaningful occassion than a witch coming out in Muggle society.

They went through princess dresses and Gone With the Wind replicas. They rejected frilly dresses and ones so simple they could be worn for any occassion. Bell skirts and hoops skirts and flat skirts and petticoats were all tried on and ultimately dismissed. Dresses decorated with flowers and bows and lace were all returned frustratedly to the racks. They had almost decided on a sleeveles dress before Lizzie caught sight of herself in the full-length mirror and decided that her shoulders looked too large in it.

Marissa was beginning to make good-natured cracks about being there until it was time for the wedding itself when they found it. They all knew it the moment that they saw her step out of the dressing room. None of them could quite have said what made this dress so different from all the rest except for the fact that it was indisputably the right one.

The skirt fell in a bell-like curve from the torso section with was embroidered with tiny, delicate pearls sewn into the intricate design. The collar was decorated with a gold thread that looked almost like necklace hanging about her neck. The sleeves continued the pattern of the torso and ended elegantly at her wrists with a slight curve to complete the dress.

Lizzie spun around in the dress and the skirts swished as they followed her. She was positively radiant as she looked back at them. Mrs Walker had tears in her eyes. "That's it," Marissa whispered reverently and unnecessarily.

"Marissa Fletcher, you had no right to steal that from me, it is a mother's perogative to say," Mrs Walker said in a weepy voice, her eyes fixed on her daughter. "Especially at a moment like this, when I realize she's all grown up."

"Oh Mum," Lizzie sighed, unable to suppress her smile or the light in her eyes that the thought of marrying Gideon produced. Now here she was in her wedding dress. It was all really happening. She was really going to be Lizzie Prewett.

"But it's true, Lizzie," Mrs Walker wailed, now crying uncontrollably. "You've grown up and fallen in love and now you're leaving me. You're a woman now. Whatever happened to my little baby? The day I put you on the Hogwarts Express you started growing so quickly it just wasn't fair!"

"Oh Mum!" Lizzie cried again, picking up her skirts and rushing over to give her mother a hug. She stopped halfway there and gave a yelp of alarm and abruptly switched directions as she dove back toward the changing room.

Startled, Marissa and Mrs Walker turned around confusedly to see what had disturbed her. There stood Gideon and Fabian who had just Apparated into the store. "Gideon!" Lizzie wailed in an aggrieved tone as she whirled upon finding the dressing room door locked. She ducked behind the inefficient cover of a small pillar. Mrs Walker heaved a great sigh of frustration.

Marissa was more vocal in her protests. "No! You blustering idiots! What do you think you're doing here?" she scolded them furiously, using her purse to beat at Gideon with her eyes flashing. "It took us hours to find that dress! It's perfect! And now you've gone and seen her in it we can't get it!"

"Gideon! You cost me my dress!" Lizzie added in a highly distressed tone.

Fabian chortled at that comment, elbowing his little brother with a knowing look on his face. "You've undressed her again, little bro!" he said suggestively

Gideon stamped on his foot to show his lack of appreciation for that little joke in front of Lizzie's mother. Mrs Walker shook her head at both of them and walked over to where Lizzie was still trying to duck behind cover. She took her by the hand and led her out into the center of the room again. "It's already been ruined, dear. You might as well let him see you in it," she said reasonably with a knowing smile on her face.

Gideon looked thunderstruck. "Oh Lizzie," he whispered in a hushed tone of voice. "You look beautiful. You can't have been meant for me. I don't deserve something that perfect."

Fabian snorted. Gideon turned to him, "Oh like you looked any different when you saw Anna walking down the aisle. As best man I had a superb view of your shocked face." Fabian laughed again, but his eyes all too soon clouded over with the old pain. Gideon had already turned back to Lizzie who turned slowly to let him see from all angles.

Gideon walked up to her and took her face in his hand. "You're lovely," he whispered, not caring that her mother was only a foot away on the other side of her.

Lizzie smiled at him, but punched him on the arm that wasn't holding her cheek. "Yes, and you've gone and ruined it. What on earth are you doing here anyway?"

"Well I was - ow!" he began, pausing to rub his shoulder where her second blow had struck him. "Looking for you, actually. Your father said this is where you'd be. We were supposed to put up the wards on your house today, if you remember."

"Oh my goodness, is it that late?" Lizzie cried in surprise, her gloved hand flying to her mouth.

"In fact, by the time you change and take Marissa home it will probably be too late," Fabian said, snapping abruptly out of the trance that had been beginning to alarm Marissa who alone was watching him.

"Can we put them up tomorrow?" Lizzie asked in a tone of apology.

"I'm on assignment until late afternoon Friday. It's until just after the daylight hour, unfortunately. It will have to be Saturday morning," Fabian said clinically and almost robotically.

Lizzie looked at Gideon for explanation of his brother's formal and reserved speech. Gideon shook his head at her. "I don't like leaving it that long, but I suppose there's no helping it. Just as I suppose there's no convincing you not to throw this dress away so lightly," Gideon said turning to Lizzie. "You look truly spectacular in it."

"Gideon," Lizzie said pointedly, "as a very young couple without jobs yet, without a place to live, without having dated for more than four months, with both of us in danger, I think we have enough odds stacked against us to bring more bad luck into the picture."

Gideon laughed. "I love you, Lizzie Walker," he declared loudly.

"Not for too much longer," she said with a smile.

"I made a promise to love you forever," Gideon reminded her in slight confusion.

Now Lizzie laughed. "No, silly. I mean, I won't be Lizzie Walker too much longer," she explained. Seeing the look of intense relief in his eyes, she laughed again and said, "I love you, Gideon Prewett."

"You're giving me a tooth ache, both of you," Fabian added, breaking the trance that they had cast upon each other.

"Oh hush! It's so sweet," Marissa gushed with her hand on her heart.

"The moment's passed, it's all right, Riss," Lizzie replied, moving toward the changing room. "You don't have to guard them so carefully anymore, either. We have a lifetime of them ahead of us now."

She smiled and winked at Gideon before ducking into the now open changing room.

"She's a good one you've got there, little brother," Fabian said unexpectedly in the abrupt way he had acquired in recent months. "But I suspect that she is still singularly angry with you for seeing her in that dress."

"I am too for that matter," Marissa added. "It took us hours and hours to find the perfect one!"

"Funny, I knew the perfect one the moment I saw her," Gideon said and, from his tone and the way his eyes were fixed on the door to the changing room to catch sight of Lizzie the moment she emerged, no one thought that he meant the dress.

---

Friday night was clear and the stars shone down beautifully, almost making the guests wish that the Queen's Annual Cotillion (not actually attended by the queen) was held outside. As the most expensive and ostentatious place for a girl to come out into society during the summer, only the most exclusive and rich had made the very tight list. When Marissa arrived with her hair plastered so firmly in its position she didn't think that she would ever be able to get it out of the elegant but overstated hairdo, she took a quick tally and decided that she was nearly the only girl being presented without any title whatsoever.

Of the few others, she was fairly certain that their escorts would be titled. Then again, Remus was titled, just not a title that any of these girls would recognize. Marissa wondered how he was doing with all the little Muggle lordlings.

That brought her sharply to thoughts of how James and Sirius were doing trailing Regulus and how whoever Regulus was going to threaten or attack was doing. Luckily, her mind was jerked back to the powder room by Mavi's arrival with a great deal of make-up in tow. Being dressed up like a doll was fine and distracting while it lasted, but afterwards, it left her with far too much time on her hands to contemplate the worries going around and around inside her head. There was Remus and what he interpreted this dance as, James and Sirius risking life and limb at her prodding, whether or not they would even be able to save Regulus's victim...

Marissa let out an almighty sigh and flopped back against her chair. "You'll smush your dress that way," a girl said from behind her.

She turned slowly and fixed her gaze on a girl who looked vaguelly familiar. She furrowed her brow, regarding the girl with grass green eyes much like Lily's and dark brown hair that fell in thick, lustrous waves down her back. All of a sudden, it clicked, "Meredith!" she cried in surprise.

It had been almost a full six years since she had last seen Meredith Smith, but the girl had been her salvation through many a torturous cotillion when they were younger. She had also learned several of her troublemaking tricks from the girl. "Marissa Fletcher," Meredith replied, formally extending her hand.

Marissa took it in formal greeting out of a long-standing habit that six years of disuse had not rid her of. "Are you being presented tonight as well?" she asked in some surprise for Meredith was two years older than she.

"No, no, my little sister," she said, pointing to a dainty flower of a girl who had Meredith's long hair but unremarkable dark brown eyes. "Who was, until a moment ago, the prettiest girl being presented tonight."

"Oh, who just came in? Should I worry about her stealing my escort away?" Marissa asked pleasantly.

"Very funny, Marissa. I remember you being quicker than that," Meredith said and now Marissa realized why it had taken her so long to recognize Meredith. It was not the subtle changes that six years had brought to her face. It was the coldness in her eyes. "I suppose you always were rather self-depreciating, but going off to some fancy, exclusive, invitation-only boarding school for years, I rather thought you would have given in and become what you were meant to be. A first rate snob."

"Excuse me?" Marissa cried in surprise at the unexpected attack.

"Oh you have all the makings: beauty, brains, contempt for the institutions of society, people love you, you could rule," Meredith continued in a decidedly icy tone. "And your arrival from wherever you have been would upstage all here even if you were not prettier."

A few of her near neighbors were beginning to eye both of them unappreciatively for Meredith's comments were insults to them as well. "I appreciate the compliment, but you are rather mistaken to think me the prettiest girl here. Why, look around us, Meredith. Look at your sister. Surely these beauties are more defined than myself."

"Refined yes," Meredith replied, "they will always have that over you, Marissa Fletcher."

"It's been wonderful seeing you again after all this time, Meredith," Marissa said politely though pointedly nodding at her in farewell.

"Yes," Meredith said, nodding as she strode away.

Marissa sighed again as she watched her retreating back. I suppose the wizarding world doesn't have a monopoly on prejudice and snobbery.

---

Remus was having a distinctly difficult time with the Muggle tuxedo Marissa had provided for him. The shirt, slacks, and jacket were about the only thing that seemed to make sense to him. The other pieces seemed like a practical joke that she had played on him. It was just the sort of thing that she would do, too. Then again, this whole ordeal seemed rather like a practical joke to him. Not that she knew how he felt about her, but he found himself wishing that this were a real date rather than a favor to a friend. It was favor, however, that would require him to take on many of the postures of a boyfriend. Fate certainly had a sense of humor that it inflicted willfully on Remus Lupin.

Remus tried watching another boy expertly twist the mishapen ribbon into a bow fastened tightly about his neck. It looked even more uncomfortable than a tie. How he wished he could take his wand out and fasten it magically. He sighed. He knew that it was pushing his luck even to be in possession of it tonight.

"You must be Marissa Fletcher's mystery escort," the boy he had been watching said, noticing his scrutiny. Remus jumped in slight surprise. "We knew that she was bringing someone from her exclusive boarding school. Tell me, is it just a brilliance thing or is it a special talent that makes them seek you out?"

Remus recovered his composure, "I'd rather say that it was a special talent, being rather out of the ordinary even," he replied.

"You say with perfect modesty," the boy said in a friendly way as he let out a bark of laughter almost like Sirius's. "Then again, anyone with Marissa Fletcher on his arm can afford to feel proud of himself."

"You know her well then?" Remus said in agreement.

The boy laughed again. "Of my early memories of these functions, the only pleasants ones are due to some of the trouble that she caused. Never improper, of course. That was what was so remarkable about her. Anyone can throw the rules and norms out the window, but she stirred up trouble within all the restrictions and boundaries."

"And she hasn't lost any steam at school, I can assure you," Remus said with an affectionate smile for his mischievious friend.

"If she hadn't gone off to that school..." the boy trailed off, returning abruptly to the mirror to adjust his impeccable appearance.

"What?" Remus prompted, not quite willing to let go of even this slightly uncomfortable conversation just yet.

"It's just that we all thought that it would be one of us who escorted her when she came out into society," the boy replied. "I suppose it's rather a matter of soul-preservation. We all know that we're destined for semi-arranged marriages in this crowd. I suppose we all just thought that Marissa would be a rather pleasant match. Not a conniver or a brainless socialite or a brilliant woman willing to do little with her life. There are other such women out there and even here tonight, but Marissa would have been..."

"There's just no one quite like her," Remus finished for him. The boy looked at him for a moment with an expression Remus couldn't read on his face.

"I suppose that's just it," he agreed carefully.

---

"James, take off that ridiculous face paint," Sirius snapped in annoyance. "You've been watching too many muggle spy shows. This isn't some stupid game or prank at Hogwarts. This is the real deal."

"It's not like we've never played with fire before, Padfoot," James said though he obligingly wiped off the face paint. "It's not like we haven't broken the law before either."

"Yes, but it was always our own lives we were risking, not anybody else's," Sirius snapped back at him. "This is entirely different from anything else we've ever pulled before. Whether you want to admit it or not."

"Just stick with the plan, Padfoot, and we'll be all right."

"You don't know that, Prongs. And for once I'm entitled to be scared about that."

---

Remus and Marissa met in the hallway between the two great changing rooms. Marissa took one look at him and burst out laughing. Remus blushed from embarassment at his inability to put the tuxedo together and how very startlingly pretty she looked in the elegant white dress that fell to her feet, clear slippers that looked like glass just peaking out from under them.

Remus didn't know anything about dresses, he couldn't even figure out his own clothes, so he had no idea if it were a particularly beautiful dress in itself, but it suited her perfectly. It was simple but also oddly spunky. Marissa was still laughing, largely unaware of his awed scrutiny.

"Come here, I'll fix it for you," she said when she could speak again. She walked over to him and took the cumberbund from around his neck and, her eyes still dancing with laughter, slipped it around his waist. She then applied herself to the tie, Remus standing still as if afraid to move lest this moment vanish. She made quite a show of straightening his tie until it was just perfect. "There we go, you look much more presentable," she said with a warm smile as she looked up at him.

Something caught in Remus's throat at being so close to her. "You should wear your hair down," he heard himself saying. He reached his hands up tentatively to her head.

Marissa laughed and made to snatch his hand away, "Remus, there's so much hairspray in my hair right now I'm not sure that I'll ever get it down."

"No, just a minute," he said and with one graceful movement of his hands her natural curls fell free of their tethers and bounced lightly down around her shoulders. The golden curls looked stunning against the white dress. Remus smiled down at her in appreciation.

"How did you do that?" she whispered in surprise, touching a strand of soft hair.

"Sirius," Remus replied with a shrug that didn't break the temporary spell. He worried that she surely must see the emotions so carelessly displayed on his face (for those who knew how to look), but at the moment he couldn't quite care. "He learned all the tricks for styling his hair. Why do you think he always looks so good?"

Marissa let out one of her lilting laughs that tugged at his heartstrings. "James should have tried them," she said with a mischievious look in her eyes.

Remus's heart sank. James. He must not forget that even for a moment. She belonged to James. He couldn't ignore that. Ever. Or moments like this happened, moments of acute disappointment and longing to have a moment back that had never really existed. "Oh he tried," Remus said, recovering himself. Marissa blinked at the abrupt change of his tone, however. "Just didn't do him much good. The Potter hair is very stubborn."

Marissa smiled slightly. "As stubborn as its bearers," she replied. Then she too abruptly switched her tone, "You're sure about this? Wearing my hair down?"

"Yes," Remus said firmly.

"All right," she said, finally taking a step back, "I'll trust you."

---

"Remind me never to trust you or Marissa Fletcher ever again," Sirius said as they waited outside in the dark of an alley across the street from the house where Regulus was walking up the driveway. "I'm not listening to either of you ever again after you talked me into this."

"Don't be such a pansy, Padfoot, just send the owl," James said.

"We have to wait until we actually see him using magic or they'll just redirect us to the Muggle police the minute we tell them the neighborhood," Sirius snapped. "Let's just hope that he breaks in."

"He's knocking," James said.

"I can see as well as you can, Prongs."

"Well what now, do we have to wait for signs of magic?" James asked. They looked at each other. They both knew that it would be too late before they had cause.

"They're opening the door, they're letting him in!" Sirius cried in surprise.

"Look!" James said, pointing at dark figures moving swiftly up the street toward the open door. "It's an attack. Let's go!"

"Where!" Sirius shouted, springing after James who was already running down the street, ducking in and out of shadows to keep from the notice of the men sweeping up toward the muggle house and its innocent victim.

"The Leaky Cauldron!" James shouted back. "We can't fight all of them, we need the Aurors now!" Sending an owl if the Death Eaters were having a meeting was one thing. If it was only Regulus who they arguably could have fought off themselves, they could have held him there until they arrived. They needed help immediately.

When they ran full out into the pub and collapsed against the bar, Tom was too surprised to throw the underage wizards out. "Floo powder, man! As fast as you can!" James gasped out, Sirius already running toward the fire, knocking any ahead of him out of his way.

"Young master Potter, what are you doing here?" Tom asked in surprise.

"Not now, Tom! We've got to get word to the Ministry! Death Eaters are attacking a house!" Even before the word Death Eaters, Tom was scrambling for the floo pouch just from the urgency in James's voice. He handed it to James who immediately threw it across the room to Sirius who had no sooner caught it than thrown some on the fire.

James threw himself across the room just as Sirius stuck his head into the glowing green fire. "The Ministry of Magic! Auror Headquarters!" he shouted in such a rush it was a miracle that the Floo network understood.

"Hello! Hello! Someone!" He bellowed the moment that his head stopped spinning and the darkness beyond the fireplace began to sit still. There were vague shadows in this room, the one beyond it was lighted. "HELLO! It's an emergency! HELP!" he hollered even louder.

At long last, a dark shape came into view. "You! Help! Over here!"

"I know, I see you," a voice Sirius recognized vaguelly as Fabian Prewett's replied. "Is that Sirius Black?"

"Yes, and you've got to listen to me. Death Eaters are attacking a muggle house." Sirius shouted.

Fabian's face went from curious to disturbed. He dropped down on a knee and look into the fire at Sirius's earnest face swimming in the flames. "You're sure?" he asked in a low intense voice that made it quite clear why he had been chosen to be an Auror.

"We followed my brother," Sirius said, his eyes wide with the need to convey that which spells prevented him from saying.

Fabian understood but asked quickly, "But he's so young. Even at your age, very few are recruited."

"They were trying to recruit me," Sirius said, his face contorting with the need to make him understand.

"What exactly did you see, Sirius?" Fabian asked. "The Dark Mark? Did they use magic? Pull out their wands?"

"How do you know they were Death Eaters?" Gideon asked, dropping down beside his brother from out of nowhere.

"Look, I can't tell you. Please just believe me!" Sirius cried in frustration. "James and I can't fight that many by ourselves! We need Aurors now! They could be dying as we speak."

"I know, Sirius, but we need cause to go," Fabian said in a tortured voice.

"Then you at least!" Sirius shouted at him. "They've already been at 15 Fourth street for ten minutes now!"

Gideon gave a strangled cry and dove forward. "Get home now," Fabian barked at him. "Gideon, I've got to punch out and grab my distress signal, do not go without me. The last thing we need is to go in their unadvised. It's probably a trap set for us."

"What's going on?" Sirius cried in surprise that overpowered even his relief.

"It's Lizzie's house!" Gideon cried in anger and anguish.

---

"It's Marissa Jane Fletcher, daughter of Jerome and Olivia Fletcher, escorted by Remus Lupin," the announcer, who sounded uncommonly like an auctioneer, annouced as Marissa and her father reached the top of the stairs. She descended them regally, looking as stately and elegant as her mother had. Although most fathers gave their daughters a peck on the cheek before handing them over to the escort, Jerome Fletcher offered Marissa merely a slight smile. Marissa understood that that was effort enough for him.

She slid her arm in Remus's who led her to the area where all the other girls were standing with their dates. Other girls came down the stairs and took their places. At the end, all the girls stepped forward and curtsied prettily as the assembly clapped their appreciation. They then took the hand that their escorts held out and the music swept up as they began to dance.

"So that's it? No inspection? You have to show them your teeth? Let them run through your hair checking for lice?" Remus asked, spinning her out before she could answer.

When she spun back in, she replied with that twinkle in her eye, "Not until later."

"Ah, respecting the moment, I see," Remus replied, pulling her closer than the strict rules of courtesy required. She did not protest.

"Yes, this one is rather nice," she whispered.

---

"Well?" James demanded as Sirius yanked his head out of the fire.

"Give the floo back to Tom, we've got to go," Sirius said, diving for the door. "Here's a galleon, keep the change!" he said as he threw a gold coin at the innkeeper.

"What's the matter, Padfoot, you look as if you've seen a ghost!" James said as he followed Sirius out into the night.

"It's Lizzie Walker they're attacking. That's why she let him in. Gideon and Fabian have gone. It's got to be a trap. We've got to get there whatever Fabian said," Sirius replied.

They came to the conclusion at the same moment and, taking the risk near a wizard establishment in the incomplete darkness of the city of London, transformed without breaking stride.

---

Remus and Marissa stole out of the grand hall, his hand in hers as she pulled him along to the lawn just beyond it. She kicked off her shoes and twirled around with her feet in the grass. Remus laughed and loosened his bowtie. They could still hear the orchestra playing from where they were. Now, however, the stars were their ceiling and the trees and grass their ballroom.

They were laughing and breathless, "I was about to punch that last one who tried to cut in," Remus said.

"So was his date, did you see her face? Either him or me," Marissa laughed.

"Well, I have you all to myself out here. Care to dance, Lady Fletcher?" Remus asked, sweeping a graceful bow.

"As I'm unlikely to have any reputation left after this little escape, I might as well make the most of it," Marissa said with a smile as she took his offered hand. They danced cheek to cheek, both resting in the closeness of the other. They danced under the stars, never leaving each other's touch, a celebration of all the freedom and beauty of youth.

Somewhere very different in the same city, those only two years older were learning that youth had fled these unhappy times and coming to believe that such beauty had forsaken their war-stricken world.

Gideon and Fabian had come in blasting, but they had been expected and were quickly disarmed. "Check to see if your brother's gone home or if he's planning on playing the hero more tonight," one of the masked men said to the shortest of them.

He went to the door, "Nothing stirring but a stray. They couldn't have made their way back yet running."

"Stray what?" the man, who was obviously the leader, snapped.

"Stray dog. It's in the yard, but it's not even barking. Just looks curious," the boy replied.

The leader snorted. "Some watchdog you're little girlfriend has," he snarled in Gideon's face. As Gideon's face contorted in anger, a chandelier dropped abruptly from the ceiling and the leader had to dodge out of the way just in time. The young man's eyes were smoldering dangerously. Outnumbered and wandless or not, the Prewetts would not go down easily. Especially not with that determined set of their features and the woman Gideon loved on the line.

"Where is she?" he snarled at the leader, looking him right in the ice cold blue eyes that showed behind the mask. There was no fear, only determination, in his voice. It was strong and brave and in control. He was dangerous and powerful as he had never been before, because before he had never had need of the strength that he found now.

"The garden shed," he replied simply, as if the situation amused him. "Let's join her shall, we? Give all the Muggles along the street a real show."

"Where are the Walkers?" Fabian demanded, not daring to catch Gideon's eye and hoping that he caught on that it was merely a decoy question to distract them.

You could almost see the malicious smile on the leader's face through the mask as he turned and pointed to the two still bodies one lying spread across an armchair and the other strewn along the floor. Fabian and Gideon faced their direction, but the moment the leader's and the ones near them's gaze had left them, they dove at the Death Eaters closest to them and wrenched the wands from their shocked hands. The cackles cut short instantly as the two now armed brothers faced them, wands trained on the leader.

"Let her go or I swear I don't care if we go down with you, I'll kill you," Gideon hissed at him as all the rest of the group quickly aimed their wands at Gideon and Fabian.

"The first of you that fires better be damn good at ducking," Fabian roared to the others who looked ready to end the stalemate. "Unless you think you can hit us both, and I warn you, anyone who says a word except about Lizzie Walker will be the first to die."

"You're still outnumbered, and even if you kill us, the one guarding the shed will kill her before you can reach her," the leader said in a calm voice though it no longer sounded amused. It sounded like a hunter regarding its trapped prey.

"Bring down the whole thing on her head!" he shouted in a taunt as he moved his wand away from the brothers and directed it at the house support. The reaction of the rest of the house was almost instantaneous as the room sagged and ceiling and walls all started to cave in toward them.

The Prewetts leapt apart, firing randomly to cover themselves as they ran toward the window and burst through it, showering glass on the lawn as they landed in a somersault and lept to their feet. The Death Eaters Apparated with pops all around them in a circle. The boys stood, their backs against each other, turning slowly to train their wands on each of their enemies in turn. "Here she is, Gideon, say hello."

"Gideon!" Lizzie shrieked, her voice slightly muffled as it came through the door. Another masked Death Eater stood there, not joining the fight, merely training his wand on the shed calmly. Everyone knew that he was the only one who kept the stalemate, for the Prewetts would not fire as long as he stood there, protected from harm by his fellows and ready to crush Lizzie Walker with the weight of the brick building and heavy stone roof.

"Lizzie! I'm here! We'll get you out, just don't panic!" Gideon shouted at her, glaring at the leader's face and stopping his rotation around the circle. Gideon was facing down the leader and Fabian was covering the rest of them. They both felt defeat like icewater in their bellies but refused to give in to it.

"Really? And just how will you manage that?" the leader drawled carelessly, his eyes never leaving Gideon's. "The moment you fire on one of us, the others will pull the shed down on top of that poor little trapped Mudblood. Or do you really think that you can disarm us all at once?

"Now, let's be reasonable. You know you can't save your little girlfriend by fighting. You can die in the attempt very bravely and very nobly, or you can save her life," he said, hissing like the serpent to Eve. "By surrendering to us. We'll let her go if you and Fabian come with us, no wands, no tricks, and no returning. Might as well be honest about that part. What's one Mudblood to the secrets Fabian harbors and the personal joy seeing you dead would give the Dark Lord? Well, It's nothing to me, but It seems to mean something to you. What do you say, will you trade yourself for It?"

"Don't Gideon!" Lizzie shouted.

"Will those be the last words she ever speaks, Gideon?" he mocked him. "It's entirely your choice. Just lower your wand."

The choice warred within him, but, as on that fateful day in Hogsmeade, it did not seem like a choice at all. Not really. He knew what he would choose from the outset. The only thing now was to make sure that he was not betrayed. He doubted he could trick them.

But Gideon never got to declare his fateful choice, for Lizzie's voice rang out in the night as she screamed desperately, "They let me see who they are!"

Instantly, as if this had been the signal that everyone was waiting for, everyone attacked at once. Gideon and Fabian understood instantly what that implied. They would never let Lizzie survive this night. They would not trade her or let her be saved. They had never intended that she do anything but die. There would be no deal, and the only way that she would possibly be permitted to live was if all of them were stopped. She knew them, and so she above all must die.

The night might have ended very differently if Sirius and James, hiding in the bushes, had caught on that quickly. Even if they had been in a position to attack the Death Eater guarding the shed, they might have attacked him immediately when the pandemonium first broke loose. But they weren't, and they didn't.

Spells and hexes were flying all around the yard so thickly that it was impossible to tell who was winning the fight. What the two boys hiding precariously in the shadows (lest they miss their chance to catch the Death Eaters off guard) saw distinctly was limited to the sudden abrupt collapse of the shed in which Lizzie Walker was trapped.

Nodding to each other briefly, they each set their aim on two of the Death Eaters and carefully picked them off with stunners. They ran in different directions before any of the other battlers could notice where those spells had come from.

With the Prewetts fighting like heroes, desperate ones, and James and Sirius roaming around the perimeter taking careful aim at one and then the other of their enemies, it wasn't long before the leader was the only one left standing. He dispatched the brothers with one flick of his wrist, rendering Fabian motionless on the ground, unable to move though his eyes were spread wide to watch the scene unfolding as the leader circled the now wandless Gideon whom he had forced to his knees.

"Is this your wand, by any chance, Prewett?" he drawled in a deathly whisper. "That would have poetic justice, would it not? But not enough, not enough for one such as you. It will do for Fabian. By his brother's own wand. Let the wizarding press make of that what they may. But first," he flung the wand to the ground and pulled out of his robes the last thing that any of them had expected.

It was a gun. A plain, black, metal, Muggle gun. "A muggle weapon for a muggle-lover," he said, placing the gun up to his head and preparing to fire.

"Expelliarmus!" James shouted, jumping out of the shadows and disarming the leader whose ice blue eyes widened in shock as he was thrown back. James, wand out, advanced on him. Sirius came behind him, bending to try to remove the binding curse to release the Prewett brothers. As he stood over the Death Eater, James's face contorted with a series of emotions so quickly that it was impossible to tell what each individual one was. "I hoped it would be you. I hoped that I recognized your voice," he whispered. "I so hoped this day would come, when I would see this very different look in your eyes, Malfoy."

"You'd do better to try to catch smoke," Lucius replied. "Or better yet, the boy," he said, nodding toward a Death Eater who had indeed stirred and made to run for help.

"Sirius!" James bellowed back behind him, not taking his eyes off of Lucius. Sirius was already off after him, wand out. The figure apparently hadn't bothered to grab its wand when it ran, for Sirius tackled him to the ground when he reached him and held the wand to his throat unchallenged by a hex or curse.

"Not so easily will you escape this time, Malfoy. You are out of allies and have at your throat the wand of a wizard with every motive to kill you as you lie there. And I will too. For what you did to Lizzie. For what you tried to do to Marissa. I can kill for the likes of you," James said in a steady, furious voice.

"I don't doubt it, James Potter," Lucius said calmly without sarcasm or doubt though still plainly contemptuous of James himself if not his threat.

"Prongs! Help!" the voice, so like Sirius's, startled him and made him look away. He did not even have a chance to see that it was Regulus pinned under Sirius who had yelled before he caught Malfoy's dive for the nearest wand out of the corner of his eye. It was also clear that he would be too late to stop him.

"ACCIO WANDS!" the real Sirius yelled, his wand stretched back behind him. The Prewett wands, James's, and all the Death Eaters' wands shot toward him. However, Lucius Malfoy grabbed for one of them and snatched it out of the air even as it zoomed toward Sirius. He had Disapparated before anyone could blink.

As the wands hit Sirius, he lost his grip on his brother, and Regulus too struggled free and grabbed one of the waiting wands and Disapparated.

Sirius, panting, dejectedly picked up one of the wands and released the Prewetts from the binding spells, "Finite Incantatem." His voice held defeat.

Fabian sprang up, "Collect the wands and bind the bodies," he commanded instantly. "Thank you," he added grimly as Sirius tossed him a wand.

Gideon collapsed to the ground and crawled to the pile of rubble. "I will return with Healers," Fabian said in a dead, defeated tone. Gideon was pushing aside the bricks and broken stones desperately to uncover Lizzie. "I'll return soon, Gideon," he said. Then, with a pop, he too Disapparated.

James and Sirius quickly collected the wands and bound the prisoners as Gideon tried to find his beloved. They stood aloof uncertainly as he, with a great cry, pushed the bricks off of her limp body and looked at the blood trickling down from her head onto her deathly pale white face.

"Lizzie, oh Lizzie," he cried, wrapping his arms gingerly but desperately around her head and shoulders, the only part of her he had yet uncovered. He leaned over her, staring desperately into her eyes for signs of life. They were there, but weak and the pain in them was almost unbearable. He pushed the bricks off her chest and arms and made to move to free her legs when her hand weakly reached up to stop his arm.

"Gideon," she whispered and blood filled her mouth and choked her in her throat and lungs. "Gideon, I...I love you," she whispered with difficulty.

"Don't speak, don't speak. Fabian's gone for the Healers. They'll make you as good as new. You'll see. Just hold on until they get here. Just hold on a little longer," he told her desperately, tightening his hold on her as if it would keep her clinging to life. "Everything will be all right, Lizzie. You'll see."

"No, love," she said, slowly and tiredly bringing her hand up to his face. Her other lay limply at her side, broken. "No it won't."

"Don't talk like that, don't Lizzie, don't," Gideon begged, his voice betraying that he was crying. "You'll be fine. They'll be here any minute and you'll be okay."

Lizzie tried to smile, but it was too hard. "I'll miss you. Don't be too long. Get them - " She gave a great wheeze that left blood spilling out of her mouth and down her chin. Gideon immediately wiped it away with his robe sleeve. "Make them pay for parting us like this."

"You're not going anywhere!" Gideon protested in anguish.

"I'm sorry - " more blood. "I'm sorry I didn't get to marry you." Then she choked on the blood and this time, her eyes went glassy and her hand limp.

"No," Gideon cried, grabbing her hand and pressing it desperately to his face. "No, Lizzie. Come back. Come back, please. I need you. Please." He put his head down against hers and sobbed as he held her to him. "Please come back Lizzie. Please. Please. I love you. Please."

The Healers and Aurors arrived a few shell-shocked moments later. The only sounds that split the night air were the dry heaving sobs of Gideon Prewett as he mourned his beloved. James and Sirius stood witnessing the pain of this man feeling like boys being forced to grow up in the space of only those few minutes. Surely they would never witness anything as powerful as this. Gideon Prewett mourning his precious Lizzie.

Somehow getting out of classes, pulling pranks, and fighting with the Slytherins would never be able to mean the same thing to them after this battle with true evil that was greater than they. The rejection of Lily Evans would never wound James the same way after seeing this true grief for a lost love that would never return. No recriminations would ever affect them like the self-blame of this man grown old before his time.

Nothing would ever be the same again. How could it? Lizzie Walker was dead.

---

©KatyMulvaney12/8/2004 to 12/19/2004
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