Fools

"...We were outnumbered twenty to one by the Death Eaters and they were picking us off one by one... " - Lupin

"Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing ... The Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere ... panic ... confusion ... that's how it used to be.

... Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others." - Sirius Black

Night by night Gideon's eyes turned to flint.

The times were hard and little by little his good-natured features closed and turned to granite while he became lean and hollow-cheeked, almost sickly - even when he smiled.

The part of his mind that remained vain noted the patrician cheekbones suddenly visible and failed to determine whether this made him more attractive or less. They worked for Dearborn, but he had a tragic bony sort of look that was suited to it. Molly of course thought Gideon was looking far too thin.

His jaw seemed cast iron, lips locked steely and straight even when he was down on his hands and knees searching for Benjy Fenwick's fingertips only to find a bit of face instead and when he explained to Ambrosius Flukes what had occurred to the portly candy lover who'd worked at Honeydukes for over twenty years.

He heard Sirius Black mutter an atrociously inappropriate joke about how much of Benjy there was and fought the urge to laugh, a maniacal bubbling that made his lips twitch in the wrong direction and his eyes sting as the iron of his jaw turned molten and malleable.

He went out back later, unable to fight the terrible impulse seizing his throat, and retched instead.

He returned inside and pretended he hadn't heard Sirius alone out back, a hoarse chortle shoving its way out of the man's throat at an impossible, terrible volume; that he hadn't seen out of the corner of his eye the young man slumped back against the wall with his hands in his thick dark hair.

Pretending made it easier to smile later when his nephews climbed all over him and tugged on his hair with the chubby little hands they trustingly placed in his in order to yank him over to see their latest accomplishments or enter the games which inevitably ended with hurling balls at each other whether they were playing Mad Muggle or Vortigern Nigg, Treasure Hunstman of the Night, or Kill the Boy with the Quaffle, unless it was Dragons, which resulted in the destruction of the ancient toy broomsticks once belonging to Gideon and Fabian.

He roared at Molly's flustered tale of taking Fred and George to Mungo's for a Healer, George's nose and Percy's lips dreadfully engorged because Fred had gotten his chubby little hands on her wand while she'd been putting healing salve on Charlie's head, split after Bill goaded him into jumping off the roof to fly, which her second oldest had actually succeeded in doing in a jerking manner of levitation that placed him near enough to the ground that he survived.

George had bit the mediwizard attempting to inspect him with the pearly baby teeth coming in.

Molly was not amused; Arthur was but knew better than to show it, and Gideon and Fabian, admonished for their cackling, snorted into their sweet potatoes and tickled Georgie's ickle toes.

It amazed Gideon to find he could still smile, still laugh, clean up mashed peas tossed by a little arm across the room with the same hand drenched earlier in a friend's blood or his own.

He and Fabian were a team again, uneasily working their shifts with the Hit Patrol unsure if the next call would be an unlicensed Apparition or an attack on a Muggle street shattering all the shop windows that required bringing in blasted Obliviators and the Office of Misinformation to convince the bobbies it was just the Irish again with their bums. Arthur had tried to explain to him about bums, but Gideon had difficulty with the concept. Great difficulty.

Some nights he felt as if the Order of the Phoenix was a blind, stumbling entity, feeling impatient while patrolling a spot they might attack, feeling silly cutting deals with Mundungus Fletcher not to investigate some suspicious Mooncalf manure in exchange for rumors around Knockturn, feeling useless when they failed to prevent yet another attack and arrived too late.

Other nights he felt only relief.

Being fashionably late was suddenly out of style. The entire Order was half convinced Lily Potter, nee Evans, was dead when she was twenty minutes late from returning from a round of patrolling the Diagon Alley businesses run by Muggle-born shopkeepers.

She nearly was.

"Ge'off, Dearborn," Potter snarled, voice rising on an animalistic note. "'M warning you-" he threatened, and the table in the backroom of the Green Dragon Tavern shook wildly.

Gideon pointlessly pressed his weight against the table, attempting to keep it from clanging. He vibrated with it, teeth chattering.

Fabian had his heels dug into the ground, holding Potter's wand, which was surging back towards James' hand.

"You royal bastard," James hissed desperately, elbow arcing back painfully into Caradoc, who oofed loudly and stepped back. The slight release of James allowed him to turn on his captor, who he knocked to the floor with every intent of throttling. "You're KILLING h-"

He reeled back, clutching at a stung cheek.

Dorcas Meadowes' wand was firmly pointed at his face, and he stared at her in hurt surprise.

"You will not compromise your wife," she said calmly in a tone that was not to be brokered with. "You can either trust her to get back or we'll trust her for you and knock you silly if you so much as think about blinking in the direction of the door. Sit down."

James sat, sinking right to the floor, hand still on his cheek. "None of you understand," he muttered fiercely, glasses tilted lopsidedly.

"Mother of Merlin, where are his friends?" Dorcas demanded.

Fabian let go of James' wand, leaving it to shoot forward and hit Caradoc Dearborn smack in the face as he righted himself. "We're not his friends?" he asked innocently.

She glared dangerously. "Pettigrew, the Remus one, and Sirius."

The table had stopped shaking rather petulantly, but Gideon kept on shaking, understanding the inappropriateness of laughing.

James' eyes were fixed firmly on the clock as Fabian began to speculate where exactly Sirius had gone to, seeing as wasn't he expected here, and with a roar of "That's bleeding IT!" he charged upward, diving for his wand.

Podmore and Dearborn tackled him as there was a sudden knock on the door.

The group collectively froze, and Meadowes moved slowly for the door.

"Let us in, it's chilly," a familiar voice commanded.

James' ears perked up from where he was pinned to the floor.

"What's the watchword?" the dark-haired woman demanded, one hand poised above the knob, the other on the wand.

"The clomping Clabbert dwells in the cupboard of Bonham the Benevolent," the voice rattled off.

"Leaping Clabbert," a woman corrected, and James let out a whoop, with only the combined weight of Sturgis and Caradoc keeping him on the floor.

"Alright, the leaping Clabbert dwells in the cupboard of Bonham the Benevolent."

Meadowes cleared her throat. "Yea verily, the scarlet light seeps through the crack, but hark!"

"Har- Dorry, what the blooming broomsticks is- we all realize some dum-dum is sitting around coming up with this flobberglock, don't we? Don't we- ow, Lils- fine, the lollygagging vampire clambered creepingly up the be-haired tower-"

James got his hand on his wand.

There was a brief shower of sparks, a yelp from Sturgis, and a clang as he shoved past them, nearly bowled Dorcas over, flung the door open, threw his arms around- Sirius- pulled back, readjusted, and promptly kissed a surprised Lily.

"No kiss for me?" Black laughed, pushing away Dorcas' wand, still leveled in the direction of his chest.

Gideon let out a breath and cracked up, helping Sturgis to his feet.

"We're all lucky that wasn't a clever trick," Fabian commented quietly as he joined them. "We could have just loosed a bunch of hooded maniacs upon ourselves-"

"No one can imitate Black's idiocy that excellently," Podmore grumbled, adjusting his flopping straw-straight hair.

"Bet his brother could," Gideon retorted quietly, eyes turning to James and Lily.

The black-haired young man pulled back, eyes intent on hers. "A moment," he said softly, then swiftly snapped around and yanked Caradoc toward him by the collar, a difficult feat considering the height on the man. "The next snarking snallygasting piece of shit who tries to stop me from getting to her had better be prepared to spew his own entrails over his-"

Being married to Lily was somewhat improving James' insult vocabulary; he'd called Edgar Bones a pilgarlic the week before and half the Order had looked it up later.

"Drop him," Lily said tiredly, hand gripping James' shoulder hard. Her nails seemed to be digging into his shoulder from the way he winced. "You hotheaded nit, keep up on this overprotective balderdash and you'll have to start worrying about your own entr-"

"You're hurt," he interrupted, hazel eyes darkening as he eyed her bedraggled appearance before snapping over to Sirius, whose grey eyes were not half as mirthful as his voice would suggest.

Caradoc made a gurgling noise, and Gideon hustled over to tug him free from James' distracted grip.

"She's fine, Prongs," Sirius assured him.

"I'm fine," she repeated strongly, and lowering her voice, which only the nearby Gideon and Caradoc could overhear, "and we'll have to talk about you coming in hours late from work and expecting me to wait and you pulling this, mister."

"Don't talk to me like I'm a first year."

"Don't act like one."

"James," Fabian interrupted uneasily. "You and I are supposed to relieve Doge and Lupin at the Bones'?"

"Right," he said dismissively. "Someone can-"

Lily's green irises blazed, the intense color directing all the attention.

James loved the perfect shape they made when she narrowed them.

"I go out and risk my life and you-"

He rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "Yes, alright, alr-"

"-intending to just leave Remus hanging or make Sirius go for-"

"Alright, I'm not going to have to hush you up in front of all these nice people, am I?" he asked with an endearing smile.

"Weren't so nice a minute ago," Caradoc mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ooh, James Potter, if you th-"

He dropped a swift peck on her lips, gesturing to Fabian, who grabbed his Invisibility Cloak for him. "I love you," he said fiercely, cupping her face in his hands and tipping it up gently.

Gideon shuffled uncomfortably, Fabian looked away, and Sirius' gaze seemed fixed on the ceiling.

Her pink chapped lips rounded slowly upward into a pleased bow. "And I love you, Potter, but if you get yourself killed it'll be difficult for us to keep going out."

He seemed to take this warning under consideration. "How about maimed?" he teased.

"Try to steer clear of maimings, too," she advised. "You know I only put up with you because you're cute."

"Rakishly handsome," he amended. "I know."

Fabian cleared her throat and when James continued to simply stare at her, Lily's hands moved his slowly away from her face as she drew back. Potter kept his hand latched firmly on her right hand as she pulled away, then pulled it close and kissed her palm.

He swept towards the door. "Well c'mon then Prewett," he said impatiently, not looking back. "We're late."

Fabian hustled it out the door, and with a spring Sirius shut it behind him as Lily sagged.

Unprepared, Gideon still got his wand out in time to hold her up.

"Lily!" Meadowes exclaimed, as Sirius and Gideon helped Lily to a chair.

"It's nothing much," she assured them, though she looked pale. Her eyes remained bright.

"She's not wounded, I checked that, ninny," Sirius snapped at Podmore as he went for the bag with the Blood Replenishing Potions.

"My leg's asleep," Lily informed them with a faint giggle in her throat.

The room, except Sirius, collectively paused.

"It's what?" Dearborn wondered, blinking.

"Left or right?" Gideon asked sensibly, bending down to his knees.

Lily nodded to her left leg as Podmore ran his hands through his mop of hair. "A bit prickly and numb?"

"It's been Stunned," Sirius said loudly. "Bollocks, don't you think we tried Finite Incantatem, Prewett?"

"Doesn't matter what I think, did you?"

Black swore, throwing his hands up.

Gideon eyed the leg, tapping it with his wand. There was a slight flare of light, Lily watched it with faint amusement. "Was I meant to have felt that?"

"Should've hurt like the dickens," Prewett affirmed. "Who's got the Pepper-Up Potions?"

"What's that gonna do?" Sirius Black demanded before anyone could respond.

"I suppose," Gideon drawled, "you never Stunned a body part with your parent's wand as a child."

He shrugged. "I blew things up."

"Figures," muttered Sturgis.

"Pepper-Up Potions?" Lily reminded them.

They exchanged looks.

Gideon jabbed at Caradoc with his wand.

"You drank the last three," Dearborn informed him matter-of-factly.

He blinked. "I ought to recall that," he mumbled.

Sirius sighed, running his hands through his hair. "I'll go out and order some in the tavern- say, Dorcas-"

"What?" she snapped, plainly not in a good mood.

His brow furrowed. "Weren't you tailing Evan Rosier tonight?"

The shock of remembrance on her face smoothed away almost immediately. "Came for backup. Doc?"

He closed his eyes, jaw slack slightly in annoyance. "Righto."

"You good here then, Gid?"

He nodded absently, drumming his wand against Lily's ankle, above her limp and dusty sock. "As long as we have the potions."

Sirius slid towards the entrance to the main tavern and carefully made his way through the sealed door, Meadowes and Dearborn trailing out the side entrance.

Sturgis muttered something under his breath as Gideon looked up at Lily. "Close, then?" he asked quietly

Her lips turned up faintly but there was something in that almost-smile, the flicker in her green eyes that bespoke to Gideon something of the jarring shock of an Invisibility Cloak failing to conceal her from one anticipating it and having to hold off a hoard of them in time for the Muggle-born owner of 18a Diagon Alley to get away, of the horrible cold bouncing down to her toes as if she'd swallowed a Chocolate Frog whole when her leg suddenly ceased to feel like part of her body and suddenly became a foreign dead weight that crashed down like wood, of the beautiful and unexpected sound of Sirius' motorcycle.

"Close," she allowed. "But no cigar."

Gideon's gold-dusted eyebrows came together above the bridge of his nose as he considered this. "I could get you a cigar," he offered warily, studying her as if he were picturing her smoking it.

Podmore choked at the thought.

She laughed pleasantly and waved it off.

"Recognize any more friends of ours?" Gideon wondered dryly.

"Two were speaking in Russian," Lily informed him, musingly.

Podmore sat up straighter. "Russian? You're sure?"

"Have I ever been to Russia?"

"Have you?" Sturgis responded easily.

"It sounded like it to Sirius and me."

"Sirius and I," Sturgis offered helpfully.

Gideon and Lily exchanged glances, their mouths forcibly turning down.

Podmore seemed to realize he'd miscalculated, changing the subject back. "If the Durmstrangers are becoming involved, we have a problem."

"One more, anyways."

"One more what?" Sirius wondered, coming back in with a tray laden with bottles of Pepper-Up Potion.

"Buy a lot, did you, Black?" Podmore observed, eyes round.

"On the house," he said cheerfully, though his eyes belied concern as he set the tray down on the table.

Lily eyed the bottles. "Do I even want to know what in England you told them to get all of those?"

Sirius Black grinned. "I need some magical aid to feel up to- "

He was drowned out by the collective groan.

Podmore eyed the bottles with a mix between apprehension and curiosity. "Does that work?"

"I wouldn't know," Sirius managed loftily.

"How many did they reckon you'd need?" Gideon asked in mild amazement.

He grinned again and opened his mouth.

"Clearly the barmaids were optimistic," Lily said drolly. "Now before I'm forced to Stun any certain body parts, can you fix me!"

Sirius sobered, though whether it was from the threat or the reminder of Lily's dilemma was uncertain. "Prongs'll kill me if I've broken his wife."

"I figured you rescued her-" Podmore started with a frown, jabbing a finger towards Sirius.

"He did," Lily protested, even as Sirius dryly replied, "He tried."

Potter's wife began to protest, insisting he'd been simply ridiculously heroic, not to mention insanely stupid (but that was to be expected), in hurling himself in front of the curses heading her way, and simply because a few had deflected off the motorcycle was not his fault. Most she had stopped or since repaired.

"It would've been my fault," he said darkly, "if one've had been green."

"It would no-"

"Would to Prongs."

There was no arguing with that. "I'm fine, though."

Sirius smiled, and Gideon was chilled. "Yeah."

"What were you doing there?" Podmore asked innocently.

"Hmm?" Sirius muttered.

Gideon's flint gaze locked on him as he followed up. "At Diagon Alley. The Quill & Ink District." Near Knockturn, he thought to himself.

"Met with Fletcher," he shrugged, voice carefully devoid of expression as he met Gideon's blankly inquisitive gaze.

"Ah," said Gideon, filing it away. "Lucky."

It was a blatant lie. Mundungus Fletcher was being held at Magical Hit Patrol headquarters for attempting to sell suspicious meat cleavers to both Quidditch Quality Supplies and Muggle stores. He'd spent half the day trying to get Dung out of the jam.

Prewett uncapped one bottle and handed her the potion. "Drink it up, Lils."

"That'll do it?" she questioned.

"N'uh-huh," he said in the most noncommittal way possible.

She pinched her nose and drained it, as Gideon's wand shot back out and he quickly yapped out, "Pertusiare!"

Lily spat some potion back out directly in Gideon's face as a dot of blood appeared on her leg, as if she had been pricked by a large pin. Steam shot out of her ears as the sides of her eyes watered slightly, a teardrop trickling out the left corner and tracing the outline of her face.

"Had a Healer do that to my buttocks once to wrench a Doxy tooth out," Sturgis commented.

"Ow?" wondered Sirius.

"Ow," Sturgis agreed.

"OWWW!" Lily confirmed, kicking Gideon's shin for not warning her.

He winced. "Sorry," Gideon offered apologetically, tugging her up. He handed her another potion. "Drink this, walk the numbness off. Don't tell James I did that to his wife."

"Tempting, but the Order needs you alive, mate," Sirius said regretfully.

"I hate this," Lily grumbled.

"I'm sure it hurts," Gideon said sympathetically.

She crinkled her nose, gesturing to the steam traveling from her ears into her locks of lovely red hair. "It looks like my head's on fire."

"Don't worry," Gideon consoled sweetly. "It always looks like your head's afire..."

She swatted, he dodged, Sirius laughed and Sturgis pocketed a Pepper-Up Potion, and for a moment Gideon could pretend she was Lily Evans, the girl he'd taken to Puddifoot's when he was sixteen, who'd dumped a pitcher of tea on Potter's head for following them, who was surprisingly spunky and turned tomato red when angry or when caught reading an Enchanted Encounters book by Sirius who would proceed to read it aloud in the common room, and that the only concerns they had were Arithmancy tests and Transfiguration homework and Quidditch practice, and that Marlene McKinnon would come in any minute.

Then Dedalus Diggle's large silvery chipmunk of a Patronus streamed through the wall and Gideon had to make himself stop laughing and he remembered the woman next to him was Lily Potter when her lips tightened to a thin line and she tossed her burning hair over her shoulder, and Sturgis straightened himself and didn't look half so silly and young even with the floppy hair, and Sirius' barking laugh continued, but with more of an edge in the notes.

They set off to try to help.

Fabian's eyes burned. They sparked with purpose, the fire Gideon had in the beginning.

It felt pretty good sometimes. Rescuing Muggles from hooded Death Eaters and sometimes young bravos trying to imitate them, freeing witches and wizards trapped within their burning houses by their own excellent wards, saving the occasional damsel, it felt good.

They guarded. They protected. They did good.

There were no nights anymore when Molly's house did not have a secret guard patrolling it, no days without double shifts for the Hit Patrol, and more often or not they were working with the Obliviators.

Sometimes he flirted with Emmeline Vance and sometimes with a pretty Obliviator with a pixie cut whose name he could never remember. He wasn't as smooth about it as Gideon and he was certainly no Sirius Black, but he was handsome and charming enough to pass muster.

It made him feel a little less lonely, a little less bad when he passed Hestia Jones in the Ministry on his way to discuss the problem of the giants with the assistant to the Assistant Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, only to have her turn away with a faint smile and pink cheeks deepening to an unhappy red.

She didn't throw anything and he still had all his important bits so he reckoned they'd parted well.

They didn't have time for each other anymore. Other things got in the way and they didn't have time to make time anymore. His mind started commenting on how pretty Emmeline's hand looked as she flicked her wand and he heard through Meadowes there was a bloke at work she was starting to fancy.

He was more hurt by how little hurt he felt at hearing that, when he'd thought they'd be together forever.

But then he'd thought Marlene would be around forever, too.

He never expected Caradoc Dearborn would disappear, and that missing would somehow become synonymous with dead, with finding little pieces like of Benjy Fenwick.

He didn't think it was possible for Mad-Eye Moody to get any more scars.

It was turning out more and more that he was wrong about things, and more and more he began to wonder about Sirius Black as the steady targeting of Order members seemed to prove the existence of a long-feared spy.

Fabian Prewett realized slowly, watching the hawk-like gaze of Moody and the faint coolness in Dumbledore's eyes, that even within the Order of the Phoenix not all was right.

Sirius Black understood the slight chilliness towards him from Bones and Podmore, the wariness of others. He chose not to bring it to James Potter's attention. If the flint in Gideon's watchful eye disquieted him, he bore it with a grin and a black glint in his eye.

Fabian wondered if it could be that obvious. Undoubtedly Black was slightly unhinged, but then so was everyone in the Order except maybe Lily. But she'd married Potter so that was up for grabs anyhow.

He still took night shifts for the Wizarding Hit Patrol. It allowed him to get some of his friends out of trouble.

He got Potter cleared on a breaking and entering into a Muggle home, when he'd actually been following a Death Eater they thought was Wilkes in there to get rid of him. Gideon helped Meadowes out of a jam with the Ministry, nearly getting himself fired. Fabian got Podmore off scot-clean when he was pulled in on charges by a sneering man named Antonin Dolohov.

On sight, Fabian didn't like Dolohov.

Even Elphias Doge was stopped by a patrolman for exceeding reasonable speed and distance near ground without Disillusionment charm. He used the Prewett name to get himself out of a citation or overnight in Azkaban.

Fawcett, the patrolman who picked him up, placed a firecall to Gideon.

"Yeah, let him go," he responded, but being himself, paused. "But make him sweat," he added with a touch of glee.

As luck had it, the next firecall about a friend came through to Fabian, and not Gideon.

"I've got a Black here on a FWI, possession of nightswrath, and illegal enchantment of a Muggle artifact... Claims he knows you, Prewett..."

Good thing, too. Gideon would have felt a bit more than a wee bit of glee.

"I'll be right there," Fabian responded with only a touch of a groan.

Sirius was still laughing when he Apparated there and the WHP members who'd picked him up were getting more than a little edgy. They gladly stepped aside for Fabian.

He sobered up when he saw him. "My baby's alright, eh, Prewett? They didn't hurt her?"

Fabian's brow furrowed. "You had a girl with you?"

"No, you git, the bike. She's good?"

"Undamaged."

"Yeah, but the whips' ideas of not damaged and mine, they differ a bit, Gideon."

Fabian sighed long-sufferingly. "Fabian."

"Seriously? No, sorry, really..."

"We aren't really that hard to tell apart," he said mournfully, although these days that wasn't quite as true. The eyes were still different shades but Gideon had always been fairer, Fabian darker. Neither was getting much sun these days, so Fabian was paler and Gideon's hair duskier than most were accustomed to. At first glance they were getting mixed up more often or not, a problem they hadn't had since childhood except around Sirius Black. "But then you are drunk, aren't you, Sirius?"

He held up a finger. "Ah, but I am not so drunk as to not know that I am drunk, and I'm feeling better now." His eyes flashed. "Much better."

He didn't look better. He looked paler and murkier than usual, a little shaky. His hair was still sleek in that gracefully tumbling way that framed his face, his teeth a flashing white. His expression was nevertheless worrisome.

"Black, you know b-"

"I get enough lectures from Lupin," he snarled, and Fabian was suddenly concerned by the flash of danger he saw there. His temper was like a match, Marlene'd warned him once, and once she'd explained what a match was he understood. Flaring up in an instant and out after it's burned through. "I can hold a couple Ogden's."

"Wouldn't be here if you could."

The man shrugged in idle exasperation. "You'd think a man can laugh aloud on his flying motorcycle without getting pulled over because a couple of whips think he's cloud cuckoo land material."

Fabian digested that. "Please never say that sentence again," he advised.

Black gazed back at him evenly.

Sighing, Prewett took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself. "What's there in your life to drive you to drink and fly?"

"What's there in life not to?" he countered noncommittally.

Fabian wasn't sure how to answer that. "What, particularly, today?"

The other man instinctively looked down at his empty hands. He let out a puft of air and leaned back on his heels, rocking a little as he slid his hands deep into his robe pockets.

Fabian waited him out, arms folded

"Look, are you gonna let me off or not, mate?"

"Depends on what you were doing with the nightswrath."

He blinked at him, his lids heavy but eyes startlingly sharp beneath them. "Oh?"

It was a soft exhale of a word but it gave Fabian the creeps. A quiet tone, a gentle tone was not a good sign when it came with storms in grey eyes. "Yes."

Sirius Black stared at his large, slender-fingered hands, luminescent in the dark and moonlight, and failed to respond.

Fabian's arms unfolded and he gestured exasperatedly as he spoke. " I am trying to help you out here, mate-"

"Since when're you a mate o' mine?" the man responded quietly, in a low tone as he looked up from hooded eyes.

"-because it isn't good for our side-"

The handsome man's lips twisted into a sneer as he interrupted. "Our side, is it now, when-"

"-for you to take deadly hallucinogenic tonics-"

"-you and darling Hestia-"

By the time Sirius completed his sentence one of Fabian's hands seared across his jaw.

Black recoiled from the punch but caught his balance. He lifted his chin, swiping away blood with the back of his hand. He eyed it critically. "Well, you're no Gideon," he remarked callously, straightening his robes.

Fabian swore, still not past the previous comment. "That was crude, Black."

"That was nothing, Prewett," he said frankly. "I know shit about Jones that'd make your toeragging eyeballs explode and I don't think much of you and-" he paused for some colorful interjections- "your fagging cowardice and I'm not about to pretend we're swell 'cause you had a bleeding change of heart, hear? Mate? So hold off on the chummy bit and don't you stand there and judge me."

"Leave off of Jones," Fabian said sharply.

"Not your girl but not fair game?"

"Not fair game," Prewett said, and he was forgiving because Black was drunk but if the man uttered another word he'd Obliviate him back to first year.

"I haven't taken any nightswrath," Black said suddenly, grey eyes still downcast.

"Why do you have it?"

"It's not mine."

"Why've you got it, Black?"

He shook his head and laughed and shook it some more. "Of all nights... this isn't a good night, Fay. Bad moon rising," and he started laughing at some joke only he could understand.

Prewett quickly decided that as Gideon had always maintained, Black wasn't hinged quite right. He didn't quite know what to do.

"We played Quidditch together, Black-"

"Yeah. Remember. Henh. The Ballless Wonder."

Fabian winced. That slump had only lasted for a brief spell. "The point being," he sighed, "I got your back. This once. And you're damn lucky I'm not Gideon."

Black nodded. "He hits harder."

He barely restrained the instinctive guttural sound in the back of his throat. "I'll take you to Potter's."

"No," Sirius whispered, almost regretfully. "Lily's pregnant. You know."

He knew.

"She needs sleep," he informed him, almost gently. "I'm supposed to kill any sort trying to wake her unless the world's ending. I don't want to have to off myself."

Good to know, Fabian thought, resisting the unprofessional urge to roll his eyes.

"Lupin's then," he said matter-of-factly, taking hold of Black's arm.

Sirius' death grip in response halted him in his tracks. "Oh," his eyes flashed darkly, "no. I should think not."

He restrained a groan. "Pettig-"

"It'd do in his old mum," he muttered.

Besides, Fabian recalled belatedly, Peter was guarding at the Bones' tonight.

"I'm not putting you up," he warned.

"I think I'm gonna retch," Sirius remarked calmly, releasing his grip on Fabian's arm.

He was just beginning to register offense at the apparent slight at his hospitality when the man stumbled away and proceeded doing so, and only then did Fabian wonder how much firewhiskey Black had actually consumed.

When he could speak again, and smelling yet worse, Black righted himself. "Have a flat," he croaked.

He eyed him up and down, from the flop of hair that crossed the wrong way over his otherwise straight part, the storm clouds in his unclear eyes, the spittle streaking across his chin marring the motion of Black's perfect teeth, all the way down his clean robes to his untied shoes.

"Dorcas Meadowes'?" Fabian offered hopefully.

He laughed his bitter choke of a laugh.

"The flat," Fabian sighed. "And I'm alerting Potter- I won't wake Lily!" he hissed impatiently as a confusedly horrified look made its way to Sirius' face.

"You gonna walk me home, Prewett?"

"Sadly that honor's going to a greenhorn." Mentally he noted to be sure it was a patrolman and not a patrolwoman.

He lifted his wand in signal and two whips popped up behind him, warily waiting at safe distance.

"Nifty," Sirius commented. "Does that work with girls?"

"No."

"You tried it?"

"No."

"Enh, sodding lying cur."

"Son of a bitch," Fabian denounced, with some choice adjectives.

Sirius smiled and out of the side of his mouth muttered, "Arse."

"Gid's the arse, I'm the prick."

He eyed him muzzily. "Prick," he agreed positively, and swerved politely towards the waiting whips.

Fabian watched him stiffly walk away. "Black. Hey, Black!"

Black slowed but failed to stop.

"Did you love her?" Prewett called after him, his soft, wincing tone turning somewhat accusingly. "Did you even- " He broke off.

Sirius turned back, head over the shoulder, expression unreadable.

"She died this time last year."

The expression did not change; if there was surprise it was well-hidden.

He stared evenly back at the shadowy figure in front of him, at the taller thinner man.

"You a Legilimens?" Sirius' rough voice asked, again in that almost gentle tone, though his eyes did not change.

"No."

His eyes blazed with sardonic bemusement and his lips sneered back into a grin.

His words echoed in the patrolman's ears as he turned slyly away towards his waiting escorts.

"Well. Guess you'll never know."

His shoulders were stiff as he strode with a hitch in his easy walk but no stumble.

Fabian Prewett shook himself and wondered what had possessed him to ask such a damn fool question. Even when the other bloke was drunk, the other bloke was still a Black.

He did not sleep well that night or much at all.

They couldn't anymore, him and Gideon, when it could be Molly next, and Arthur with his bleating ideas about Muggle radios being announced at the Ministry to all the world and Wilkes.

There was no peace to be found anymore, no warm bed, woman, or whiskey or any combination of the three that could ease the death and danger. But since they were the Prewett boys, they attempted it anyhow.

Never much, though.

When the calls came they had to be ready.

One night they sat guarding the Burrow, sipping a shared bottle of Ogden's for their splintering nerves. A drop and a touch, never much, firewhiskey was too strong to meddle with in large doses.

Gideon looked up from his position sprawled amidst the fledgling vegetable garden as a Patronus shaped like a great bull charged towards them. He leaped to his feet, casting the bottle aside.

Fabian studiously examined a gnome attempting to sidle by him, then carelessly drop-kicked it while his brother hustled towards Bones' Patronus. It went flying and crashed into the shed wall with a "squeeeeeeeeeeee thud".

Gideon turned about, face grim as the silvery guardian faded into the dark. "We'd best hurry," he said ominously.

They Apparated at once to Brighton, finding themselves beneath a starry sky marred by the great green skull which in the eerie flickering of flame seemed almost to be drinking the smoke pouring upward from the house.

"Damn," Gideon bit, voice curling with hate.

There was a shout of a deadly spell to their left and they sprinted towards it. A dark-haired young man dove behind some trashbins to avoid the red spell that clanged off the tin in a deflection.

Without speaking the spell aloud to give himself away Gideon shot a stunner at the robed figure attacking James Potter.

Fabian looped around to give James a hand up, only to find the younger man on his feet and James' wand shoved at his throat in a jerk reaction.

The orange glow pouring from the house enflamed the red strands in Fab's golden hair, brought color to his cheeks. Potter, recognizing him, removed it.

His eyes were desperate behind his glasses. "Lily's inside," he said curtly without preamble.

The boy's wife was four months pregnant. Fabian gaped, then was tackled by James as another black hooded form shot a curse at them from behind.

Gideon surprised his original opponent, attempting to suffocate him with the Choking Curse, with a swift "Flipendo" Knockback spell and a stomping kick to the unseen face as the Death Eater hit the ground

"Go," Fabian told James Potter as the remaining Death Eaters charged.

He shook his head. "She's fine," he said firmly, lips trembling slightly.

A wall of the house suddenly exploded outward, and a coughing red-headed figure became apparent, rushing towards them.

"Told you," James managed. His lips were still trembling. "Stupefy!"

Fabian elbowed an advancing Death Eater where he presumed his nose was, then brought down his fist like a hammer in a more tender area. The momentum and force of the motion stopped the gasping goon in his tracks as Fab exclaimed "Protego!" to block a spell shot from one of the Death Eaters grappling with Gideon. His brother shoved one off and edged backwards towards Fabian, their backs colliding as they prepared to fight from both sides.

There was a sharp, sickening crack as Lily Evans brought down the immense and afire pin oak from the Bones' yard down on the three Death Eaters following after Gideon with an incredibly effective Severing Charm.

A tendril of hair whipped against her face like a flame and more locks clung to her beaded brow, and although her robes were smoking, her pale face was as stolid as stone as she levitated a Death Eater into the air by his ankle.

James muttered "Rictusempra," sending a Death Eater leveling his wand at his wife into a fit of convulsive laughter, then swiveling sharply on his heel and snapping out "Nullus," as a high-voiced Death Eater began "Fini-"

An accented voice called, "Incendio!" and fire exploded at James' feet, but before he could even lift his wand, Lily had doused it and Gideon was lunging forward to duel the Death Eater.

Luckily Fabian was on his heels, he barely knocked his brother and himself forward and out of the way as the Death Eater's wand jetted a whip-like purple light that darted towards them.

They sprang to their feet even as Lily was forced to let the Death Eaters spinning in the air fall to earth so that she could put out the gusts of fire blasting her way.

At once the collective hoard of them Disapparated with a crack! leaving their pinned comrades beneath the tree as the Apparition wards fell and Ministry of Magic WHPs and Aurors began to pop onto the scene.

James was by Lily instantly; she was white past milk and cream and into the chalk shades.

"They got them," she said dully, tilting her head towards the still flaming house while Fabian hustled over to clear things with the Ministry wizard.

James rubbed at a large red welt on his head and managed in the process to surreptitiously wipe his eyes. "Was afraid of that," he said wearily, and pressed his lips into her hair.

Gideon fixed his gaze on the glowing green mark floating above the house. "Well," he sighed, letting his hand fall, and there was nothing really more to say.

Some nights, when again there were dead children and dead friends and another fruitless effort, he really wondered why they bothered.

Another member of the Order and his family targeted and killed when the fewest numbers could come to aid, with the well-placed wards pushed through as easily as cobwebs.

They knew who they were.

It could be Molly next.

Gideon Prewett went over, pulled off the mask of a Death Eater firmly unconscious beneath a tree, and kicked a Rosier cousin once or twice before the rest of the Hit Patrol carted him away.

It hurt a smidge less maybe, to think about the way the light had glinted off Edgar's bald spot and gold tooth when he'd poured him and Fabian their first firewhiskeys, and the way the deep amber liquid glistened in its glass as the big man handed it over, after watching the smarmy little murdering bastard writhe in discomfort as he was carted away.

"Hurts a little less," he agreed when Fabian filled up his glass later.

"Like a wound that's slowly healing?" his brother wondered.

Gideon snorted. "Like I really have to piss and everytime I get a little relief, it's that much better and that much worse. You follow?"

Fabian shrugged and settled into the worn green chair beside him, twiddling his wand between the fingers of his free hand. He brought the glass to his mouth. "Will after a couple shots of this."

The younger twin laughed, the kind of laugh with eyes burning when the sound burbles up out of sheer instinct. He flicked his wand and the bottle bobbed over. "I wonder when our turn'll be."

Fabian froze, swallowing, then forced out a slight chortle. "Cheerful. I thought you were the optimist."

"I am." He grinned, flashing the dimples the Hogwarts girls had loved. "A couple of wonderfully proportioned blond Aurors'll show up in the nick of time."

His older brother eyed him over his drink. "We're talking girls, right?"

Gideon groaned and raised his brows. "With me? It's the one certainty of existence."

"Can't fault a man for clarifying." Idly he tossed a throw pillow at Gideon.

"Faulted blokes for less," he growled as he hurled the pillow back. It hit Fabian's drink, splashing it onto his robes.

The slighter man swore and swatted at him, and Gideon dove to snatch up the pillow to defend himself.

For the fight they had to be stone but with each other, they could always crack.