All in the Family

Chapter 192: The Lost Diadem

The darkness solidified around them only enough to give shape to whatever the hell Remus smacked face first against. Things were fluttering down all around him, poisonous snow? Man-eating moths? They all groaned as usual and sat up, tentatively lighting their wands. The eight beams of brightness didn't encourage anyone to keep exploring.

You're not afraid of the dark, you're afraid of not being alone in the dark, his dad had once told him, and damn if that wasn't true right now as he tried to force his eyes to take in anything of use.

It was a desk. He'd landed on a wooden desk covered in paperwork that was only just now finished settling onto the cool flagstone floor. The laugh of relief that escaped him probably sounded hysterical and he didn't care.

"All good?" James was cautiously getting to his feet first and waiting for a trap to spring, his shape particularly eye catching for the glimmering yellow he still hadn't released like a prized snitch. He was eyeing all the pinpricks of the Lumos spell to make sure none would spontaneously vanish.

"Well no one's dead yet," Sirius slowly stood up with him along with the others cautiously doing so. "I call this another win."

"Especially as, I think we're back in school," Regulus was eyeing the familiar stone walls and the assignment currently under his boot, but then he frowned at the heading. "Um, but maybe not..." Mudbloods and their Madness was the header of this two foot long essay... his eyes skimmed the lines of dried ink seeing things his parents would have had him writing about over the summer holidays and it made him want to rip the drivel in half to know someone like Peter and Lily were out there in this time being chased like animals.

Peter looked over his shoulder and frowned just as uneasily. "Pansy Parkinson, that's definitely a girl in Harry's year who's been mentioned a lot. We must be at Hogwarts, but what-"

"We're in Burbage's old office," Sirius said in such a low, dangerous voice it made the others wince on instinct for what he was going to do. "Those foul cockroaches, we're in one of the Carrow's dungeons!" He set the desk on fire, but the highly flammable parchment only blackened around the edges before he waved his wand again, waving his hand in front of his face instead to clear the smoke and only sounding mildly more calm. "Right, bad move, screw this, I'm getting us out."

He summoned the golden book to him and clutched it in his non-wand hand for several moments like he was still beating down the urge to set it on fire too before violently getting the spine open.

"Padfoot, you idiot," James chuckled.

"I resemble that remark," Sirius said with pure pride and without looking.

"I, I think you mean resent?" Remus sounded more confused than anything for that response.

"I know what I mean," he corrected right back, his smirk only growing.

"He seems better," Lily told James and Remus.

"I'm honestly faint," James mock agreed, "he might get so tame Moony'll get bored."

"He's still got his looks," Remus snickered.

"I can hear you!" He huffed, still without looking up.

Alice took Frank's hand so tight he started mentally chanting, 'ow, ow, ow,' and yet pulled her in all the closer as they heard Neville...described. The scars, the torture, their little boy had been living as rough as Harry and appeared to be the resistance to what they were only catching glimpses of in this shadowy place.

"Neville's grown so much," Alice whispered as she clutched at the long ago retrieved picture of whom most definitely could be her son someday soon. "Remind me to thank your mother for a job she'll never have to do again."

Frank kissed her temple in agreement even as he said, "would you think I'm nuts if I'd be willing to go through all of this again from his point of view?"

She gave a soft laugh of appreciation, the best noise in the world in the middle of this dungeon. "Maybe, but I'd still go through it with you."

Neville's explanation for what had happened to their school and Harry's following traversion from the Room of Requirements up to Ravenclaw tower in search of just a hint of the Diadem felt like an eerie echo of what they'd been living through. Something that had an air of familiarity in the place around them, but so empty, twisted it would never feel normal.

Luna and Harry didn't get long to inspect the replica though, and as Sirius warned the chapter was about to wind down they all held their breath just for a moment it would all work out for him and the boy would, for once, make some easy revelation of where to head next, considering the chapter title promised it had to be nearby, right?

Nope, Sirius finished with a string of swear words Professor Carrow had arrived.