The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

Where the Sea Met the Land

Lily and James appeared, still holding hands, in the middle of the woods. They stood still, facing one another, palms interlocked, both looking about warily.

"Perhaps this is where the Safe House is?" James asked.

Lily's eyes were full of tears that hadn't yet fallen.

"Evans," James said, "Hey, we're going to find him... Perhaps we just need to try again. I think... maybe I thought of the forest and messed us up, or -"

"No this is it," Lily breathed, and she broke her hands away from his, walking as though dazed through the trees.

James trotted after her, his wand drawn, peering through the shadowy distance.

Lily followed a path that broke through the brush, which curved ever westward until it broke through the treeline and into a rock ledge that over hanged the sea, all teal blue under the stars.

"Evans."

Lily turned around. James was holding up a wand - not his own. She hurried back to him, her heart in he throat.

"Is that his?" James asked, nervousness in his voice.

Lily took it in her hands and she gasped, nodding.

James looked around the ground, his eyes wide as Lily clutched the wand. "James - if he doesn't have his wand - if they took him -"

"I know, Evans..."

"He's helpless without his wand."

"I know."

Lily closed her eyes, and the tears started falling even as James walked in slow circles, searching the ground. "There's no evidence of a struggle or anything..." he murmured.

Lily turned and looked at the sea.

"I don't think he was attacked - if he was, there wasn't any fight to it..."

Lily inched onto the stone precipice, holding Regulus's wand in her fist tightly.

"Perhaps we should bring it to Frank and have him do a priori...?" James asked, and he looked up to see Lily on the stones ledge. "Oi. Careful Evans!" he moved quickly up behind her and caught her hand and pulled her back from the edge. "Goes straight down that does... You'd be crushed on impact... I dunno the math, but Remus does, if you asked him, he'd tell it to you."

Lily stretched at the length of both their arms, trying to see down the cliffside.

"What?" James's fingers were twice as tight on hers.

"Well what if he --" Lily nodded at the cliff.

James frowned.

"Have you got your broomstick?"

"No... I'm not Sirius, I don't carry flying vehicles in my pockets," James said.

Lily leaned as far as she possibly dared; even knowing James has her hands, the cliffside was still intimidating. But it was enough.

"Oh no. Oh no. James! James he's - he's down there." Lily pointed.

James took a breath and peered over. Laying on a rock, still, limbs splayed, was Regulus Black.

He turned and rushed 'round to where the ground went down in a slope, a narrow clutch of ground to balance on. Lily followed, coming after him, and they threaded their way down on the impossibly narrow path. At the bottom, the water crashed against the stone wall of the cliff, washing in and out over huge boulders that lined where the sea met the land in the sharp, solid wall.