The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

Do You Want to Hold Her

He came 'round a bend and found himself facing the shop keep, who was staring at him, clearly suspicious because he'd done about twenty laps without pausing to actually look at anything, and he flushed, realizing he probably looked like he was casing the place for a robbery, so he ducked out and into the corridor with a sigh.

He decided to go downstairs and pop home by floo just long enough to update Sirius and then he'd floo back. Surely if he'd been waiting for an hour a five minute pop-in back home would be no big deal. So he took the lift down to the ground floor and walked out to the hall where the floo networks connected in.

There was a line for the floos and he stood, looking about and reading the placards under the portraits in the hallway, all of whom looked bored sniffy.

Suddenly, there was a commotion behind him, people shouting and Remus turned around to see the reception hall. In the middle of it was a very large, bright white patronus. A stag.

Remus stared at it for several long seconds, stunned, and then he abandoned his spot in line for the Network because he knew that Stag. He knew that Stag exceedingly well, and he rushed up the corridor - just as a second Stag patronus appeared and his eyes widened because it was the same - a duplicate, and the message it was delivering echoed - James Potter's voice coming from the stags mouths.

"Send immediate help to Dunlewey Village --"

"-- Giant attack, collapsed houses --"

"-- there's been a giant attack --"

"-- Dunlewey Village --"

And suddenly there was a third- and a fourth stag, and Remus could feel the crackling of the power coming off the stags, the desperation in the voice. The fourth stag sounded weaker than the others and a thrill of fear coursed into Remus.

"-- many injured, giant attack, collapsed houses --"

"-- children --"

"Send immediate help to Dunlewey Village --"

"-- Dunlewey Village --"

People in the waiting room were shouting in fear at the words giant attack, and there were whispers of You Know Who going up among them, panic rising up, and several people screamed in terror and a few ran from the waiting room. There was a surge of people racing for the floos and for the disapparation hall so that Remus was tarried backwards in the flow of the mad rush. He struggled to get out of the center of the crowd, pressing himself against the wall to one side and watching the people rush past, mania on their faces.

And then through the front doors there burst Fabian Prewett, carrying Edgar Bones, and Mad-Eye Moody stomping along side him, followed by several other aurors from the department, including Frank Longbottom and McKenna Alliston.

Mad-Eye looked around at the chaos and directed the others to go on and even though he himself had several deep wounds - including a gash on his face that looked very deep - he stopped in the waiting room and shouted, "EVERYONE CALM DOWN!" and there was a loud thumping sound as he thumped his wood leg to the floor and drew his wand. "Paxquillitar!" he shouted and a blast of light shot up, hit the ceiling and spread like a pale white smoke around the room.

A sense of peace fell over the room, calming everyone, and Remus felt his nervousness relax, felt the worries dull and fade, as though he'd been worrying for no reason, and he laughed at himself, at his own panic.

"That's more like it," grunted Mad-Eye, and he stomped off toward the corridor, past the smiling welcome witch.

Remus shook his head. Wait, he was worried for a reason - and he had to get to Mad-Eye. The stags, which had disappeared by now, were swimming in his mind and he rushed after Mad-Eye. "Moody!" he called, running after him.