Living The Destiny's Path

Unbearable Sacrifice

  Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus were, once again, at Grimmauld Place. They were in the drawing room; James was playing – and losing – wizarding chess with Remus, though Sirius was trying, yet failing, to help. Lily was going over the notes she had taken from the last Order meeting, occasionally looking up to see one of Remus's players wrestling one of James's off the board. Nothing truly significant had happened since Dumbledore had left the school. She was about to put her notes away when something caught her eye.

No one was on duty tonight.

That's odd, she thought. "Hey guys, do you know why no one's on duty at the Ministry tonight?"

"No idea." James said. "But Mad–Eye, Tonks, and Kingsley are suppose to be here soon. Maybe one of them will know. And if they don't, Dumbledore's coming later...you can ask him."

That satisfied her. In the meantime, she watched James loose spectacularly to Remus and began a game with him herself. Kingsley and Tonks showed up with in a few minutes of each other; neither knew why no one was at the Ministry tonight. Just after Remus had narrowly defeated Lily, Moody came rushing up the stairs, the sound of his wooden leg creating a dull clunk with every other step.

"I just got a message from Snape," he said without preamble, "asking if James was here."

"Why does he care?" James replied.

Moody sent his Patronus out of the window.

"What was that all about?" Lily asked.

"More importantly," Sirius said, "Since when did Snape even care where James is?"

"I have no idea," James said. He turned to Moody. "Did he say why?"

"No, just asked if you where here."

XXXX

Nearly an hour and a half later, they received another message from Snape.

"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger went into the forest with Dolores Umbridge. I have been watching for a while, but they have yet to return. Earlier, while under Umbridge's eye, Harry said, "They've got Prongs at the place where it's hidden." It seems as though He–Who–Must–Not–Be–Named has planted a vision in his head to lead him to the Department of Mysteries. I'm sure you will all go, but someone needs to stay and tell Dumbledore."

Silence rang as Snape's Patronus faded.

"So who's staying behind." Sirius asked, not even bothering to question Snape's directions.

James looked at Lily, but before he could even say it, she said, "Oh, no, I'm going."

"Lil–"

"I don't want to hear it, James. I'm going, end of discussion."

"Well then who's going to stay?"

They looked around at each other for a moment before Sirius noticed Keacher poking his ugly head around the corner to listen.

"Kreacher, tell Dumbledore everything that has happened and that we went to the Department of Mysteries." Sirius commanded. "And no one else, and when I say no one, I mean you musn't  go babbling any of this to your Mistress Nacirissa or Mistress Bellatrix,"

"Yes, Master." Kreacher croaked unwillingly.

"There, problem solved. Let's go."

XXXX

Seven members of the Order of the Phoenix hurried off the lift and ran down the dark, windowless corridor. James pushed the door open to reveal a circular room, lined with twelve black doors, filled with blue flamed candles. Before everyone was even in, Lily ran across the small room and opened the door directly in front of her.