All in the Family

Chapter 36: Dobby's Reward

Her ears were still ringing, vision blurry and unmanageable, but still Lily forced herself back to her feet, staggering into something very solid, stone-like. She froze, breathing so harsh it was hurting her chest as she fumbled around now realizing it was true and continued darkness rather than a lack of sight on her part.

She had to keep calm, she kept telling herself. Whatever was beneath her fingers didn't feel human, or snakelike for that matter, but the cold marble surely was one of their group only paralyzed and not truly dead! She was the only one proficient enough in potions to reverse-

"Lumos!" A now all too familiar voice spoke quietly from right behind her, Potter's wand revealing a solid stone wall icy smooth to the touch under her grip, the ceiling hanging low enough over their heads they could reach up and touch it. Small comfort though it was, it helped that the place was dry and stale, small and isolated, the opposite of the endless void like place from before. She turned quickly to the boy holding his wand aloft, eyes quickly scanning their surroundings. She couldn't blame him, though there were no snakes in sight, this place still seemed far too likely to hold more danger. There was nothing distinctive at all about the place, no clue where on earth they could be, and they didn't care, as she did another careful count. There were only seven people present, counting herself.

The Black brothers were still shaking from wet and fright as they sat up carefully, Lupin hovering over them both. Alice and Frank were assisting each other to their feet and keeping their wands aloft. The place was so bare, there was no way she could miss him, yet, "where's Pettigrew? Where's Peter?"

"Here," came the small voice from right behind Potter, still half crouched on the floor and remarkably pale, almost blending into the background. Lily did a double take, her eyes nearly popping out of her head as she stared at him, hard, and not entirely in relief, though it was there that he hadn't died back in the Chamber. She swore he hadn't been in this room a second ago.

"Good man Pete!" Potter declared, his voice shaking no matter how hard he tried to hitch a smile onto his face and beam around at everyone. "We all survived, I vote we not go for round two!"

"There is a first time for everything," the elder Black groaned as he took Lupin's hand and let himself be hoisted to his feet, then returned the favor and offered the same to his kid brother. He didn't take it, and hadn't yet moved to more than flip over and rest on his backside, chest still heaving as painfully as hers was.

Potter clapped his friend on the shoulder and helped him to his feet, still giving him a relived smile Lily couldn't shake. Perhaps he hadn't noticed his friend at first either? She just couldn't shake the idea-

"So where are we now?" Frank demanded, bending down and peeling the book from his shoe.

It was a fair question. Certainly nowhere they recognized, and nothing at all to indicate an answer. The only thing of note was a very sturdy door behind them the couple and even they had no urge to try it at this point. Merlin only knew what was on the other side, and for now there was nothing in here trying to kill them, so they'd take it.

"Who cares," Lupin groaned, hand still on his friend's back as he kept massaging his ribs. "We're not in the Chamber anymore, can we just enjoy this moment." He slumped back against the wall himself and closed his eyes like he was ready for a nap.

Smith returned with something and Longbottom began reading, but Sirius wouldn't even be distracted by whatever Dobby still had to do with this as the chapter title indicted. He crouched down next to his brother and quietly asked, "hey, you okay? You took a nasty hit."

Regulus didn't answer for so long Sirius started to grow worried before he finally got the answer, "it's all a lie."

"Err, yeah, most things in life tend to be," Sirius agreed with baffled chipper, anything to get his brothers eyes to focus, but they weren't. Longbottom had already read through Ginny getting to reunite with her parents and Dumbledore awarding Harry and Ron for this stupid stunt. Everybody was sinking to the floor in exhaustion and looking relived to just be able to do that for a moment. Yet Regulus still had a look upon his face like at any moment he'd turn his head and find his death.