Emmy's heart hammered against her chest as she crouched behind Thorfinn Rowle's back wall. Marlene was on the other side of the gatepost, wand gripped tightly in her hand as Caradoc secured the perimeter with a shielding charm so that any muggles walking past wouldn't see them.
No one in the house had stirred since midnight and it was now well past two in the morning. Witching hour was fast approaching and they'd delayed long enough, lying in wait to be absolutely certain he was asleep.
Emmy's nerves were frayed already, heart thudding loudly in her chest as she desperately tried to slow her breathing. She thought about what Sirius had said last night when they had stolen away to see each other.
"I'm so scared," she had whispered. It was something she only ever admitted in the darkness, something she only ever admitted to him.
"I'm scared too, Ems," he replied, bring a tentative hand to brush her hair behind her ear. "I can't lose you, not now. Not before we've won this war."
Tears fell down her cheeks, she could taste them on her lips.
The wind rushed through the trees and Emmy moved closer to him, resting her forehead against his. These precious moments they spent together where often all that sustained her in the days they spent apart. It was desperation, sheer desperation that led them to these risks. Sirius was hunted for his betrayal of the Dark Lord, the dark mark on his arm a permanent reminder of the price he had paid, and it was all they could do to make sure no one knew the one thing they could use to control him.
"I'll be careful, I promise. I'm doing this for us, there's no way I'm giving up on a chance for us to be together."
"I love you," he sighed, kissing her softly. "What did I do to deserve you?"
"How can you even ask that? I can't live without you, Merlin I'm barely even living now."
"It'll all be over soon, I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep," she choked, throat tight with emotion.
"We're going to win this war, you hear me? And when this is all over we're going to be so so happy. You and me."
He gently brushed the tears from her eyes.
"We'll get a house somewhere by the sea, you'll be a badass healer, saving lives... I'll stay home and look after the kids," he grinned.
Emmy laughed through the tears.
"And have dinner on the table by the time I get home from work?" she added.
"Every day."
"Sirius, you're an awful cook."
"I know... but it's the thought that counts, right?"
"Not in this case," she teased, lifting a hand to his cheek tenderly.
"But we'll be happy."
"We will," she agreed. She repeated it firmly; not a dream or some fantasy of her own imagination but an order, an affirmative that somewhere ahead of them was a beautiful, brilliant life just waiting for them. All they had to do was survive this war.
As she watched him walk away into the darkness, the world seemed a whole lot colder. And she felt so much more alone. That loneliness stayed with her now and she felt it most bitterly in times like this, when it felt like the whole world was against them.
She jolted out of her thoughts as Caradoc tapped her shoulder, signalled for them to move forward. Keeping close to the ground, they covered the short distance to the back door quickly.
"Alohomora," Emmy hissed on the off chance it would work and the lock clicked open easily. Too easily. There was no time to question now why he had no protective measures on his house as they edged into the kitchen, careful not to creak any of the old wooden floorboards. Emmy looked down at the tiny conch shells in her hand, enchanted to echo through identical shells back at the Potters' where the Order would be able to listen in to any conversations that took place. She whispered through one to test it was working and held it to her ear, breathing a sigh of relief as she heard Mad-Eye's familiar tones on the other end reminding her of constant vigilance!
She rolled her eyes and tucked it behind a photo frame on the mantelpiece. Marlene was busy placing a couple more deep in the fruit bowl on the table as Caradoc moved into the next room. Emmy followed, planting some near the front door on her way to the sitting room.
She passed Caradoc taping a shell to the underside of standing lamp in the hallway and he gave her a reassuring smile.
Emmy spotted Marlene out the window, creeping back to the wall, her job completed. She and Caradoc continued on to the last task, searching Rowle's office. They split up as they entered the room, Emmy going for his desk and Caradoc going through the filing cabinet. A floorboard creaked as she knelt down to go through the drawers and they both winced, listening out for the sound of anyone moving around upstairs.
After a tense second, they kept going, desperate to complete this mission and find some information that could save lives. Emmy leafed through a pile of paper in the top drawer and her heart stilled as she caught sight of a map of Diagon Alley and underneath, detailed notes of key targets and names of death-eaters who were going to be at the attack. She got Caradoc's attention and he leant over her shoulder. He swore as he saw what she was looking at and quickly began making copies onto the spare parchment he had brought.
"Excellent! Good work, can you check the other drawers quickly and we can get out of here?"
"Sure, you found anything else?"
"Just some lists of ministry officials that have turned and some records of missing muggleborns, possibly locations of a few bodies too I think."
The way Caradoc said it, like he was so accustomed to something so horrific, Emmy didn't understand what he was saying for a moment but she flinched when she did.
He put the files back where Emmy had pulled them out from and, with one last look over their shoulder they began to head for the door.
It happened so quickly that they barely had time to think. A knock sounded from the front door and floorboards creaked upstairs.
Emmy froze, glancing at Caradoc. They would have to get past the front door to escape out through the kitchen and the room they were in had no windows, only a skylight.
Caradoc swore under his breath and motioned for her to hide as Rowle reached the foot of the stairs. The door to the office was still ajar and Emmy could see the silhouettes of several robed men from her position behind the curtains. He ushered them in hurriedly and checked behind them as they entered the hallway.
To her horror, she realised within seconds exactly where they were heading. The sound of footsteps on the floorboards coming closer and the terrified look on Emmy's face was enough for Caradoc to work out what was happening from behind the bookcase in the corner of the room.
He brought his wand up to his chest, lips trembling as he took in a deep breath. He locked eyes with hers and he motioned for her to stay where she was. Emmy shook her head furiously, no way was she staying out of this.
As the office door swung open, he hurtled out of his hiding place and fired bombarda maxima, exploding plasterboard in every direction. The death-eaters cried out and took cover down the hallway. Emmy jumped down from the window ledge and hurled herself into the fight. A stinging jinx smashed through the window behind her as she threw spell after spell. Three of the five death-eaters were unconscious in a matter of seconds, no match for Caradoc's auror training and a Triwizard champion, but the others persisted.
Caradoc cried out in pain as he was hit with an incarcerous spell and thick swathes of fabric bound his limbs together, tearing painfully into his skin the more he resisted. As he went down the final spell cast from his wand fired into the ceiling and Rowle was taken out by rubble falling from above. He slumped against the wall, unconscious.
It was then that Emmy realised she was now left alone with Lucius Malfoy who she recognised as a Slytherin prefect that had graduated a few years before her. Only Caradoc's groans of pain intersecting the silence after the explosion.
Her ears were still ringing but she pulled herself off the floor and fired a quick impedimenta at Malfoy. He staggered but kept advancing forward. She scrambled backwards, disorientated by her loss of hearing when a flash of light fired from behind him and he smashed forward, landing mere inches from her feet.
Marlene stood behind him, wand still out in front of her, eyes startled. Emmy breathed a sigh of relief and crawled to Caradoc, casting the relashio spell to free him. He was barely able to speak so she let him catch his breathe before they had to escape.
"What do we do now?"
"We need to get out of here, right now," he groaned.
"Shouldn't we erase their memories?"
"They already know who we are, this won't make any difference. They saw us both at the Battle of Grimmauld Place so they'll already have tied you to the Order. As for Marlene, none of them saw her face anyway."
They nodded grimly, still out of breath from the adrenaline of the fight.
Emmy cautiously got to her feet and offered Caradoc a hand up. He gratefully took it and cast an eye over the room before they left, making sure the parchments with the key information was tucked inside his jacket pocket. They stumbled out of the house into the back garden and ran into the darkness. They regrouped ten minutes later in the cover of an old bus stop.
"Right, I'll report back to Dumbledore. It's best you two head home," said Caradoc.
"Are you sure? You're injured."
"Nah, I'm alright. I've healed most of the damage already anyway. Thanks for your help tonight by the way."
"Of course," Marlene replied.
They nodded and Emmy held out her hand to apparate the two of them home.
When she finally made it back to the flat, she felt the adrenaline finally start to wear off and collapsed in an exhausted heap on the bed.
Her shoulders were heavy with the burden of rebellion but her heart felt so perfectly light.
—————
When she woke up the next morning, Lily was sitting at the kitchen dinner. She held a letter in her hands and it took her a seconds to tear her attention away from it before she realised Emmy was standing in the door way.
"Oh god, are you alright? I'm so sorry, I fell asleep before you got back, how did it go?"
"Not great," Emmy groaned, pulling out a chair. "A bunch of death-eaters turned up halfway through the mission and caught us in the study. Had to fight them off and Caradoc was hit by a nasty incarcerous but apart from that we're fine."
"Merlin's beard!" Lily exclaimed, hand pressed to her forehead.
"Managed to plant the conch shells though so at least we'll be able to listen in to what their next meetings about as long as they don't find them. Hopefully they'll just think we were stealing documents anyway..."
"Let's bloody hope so."
Emmy stood up to make herself a coffee.
"What's in the letter?" she asked curiously.
Lily held it out to her and she took it cautiously.
Miss Lily J. Evans,
Petunia M. Evans and Vernon T. Dursley cordially invited you to celebrate the occasion of their marriage at St. John's Church, Cokeworth at 2pm on Friday, 28th June 1978.
Reception to follow.
"Lily..." she started.
"I didn't think they'd invite me," she murmured.
"Are you going to go?"
"I... I think so."
"You're braver than I am," Emmy replied, squeezing her hand in reassurance.
"I'm not sure about that."
"Well I am," she said firmly. It took so much strength to do what Lily did, always looking for the good in people.
"Thanks," she smiled softly.
"You know you don't have to go?"
"I know, but she's still my big sister."
"Of course," Emmy said. "But you can love her and never forgive her for what she put you through."
"But I think I want to forgive her."
Emmy swallowed a lump in her throat. She had never met someone as unfailingly kind as Lily Evans. She seemed to have an affinity for showing compassion in the face of the most terrible circumstances and always searching for the best in people, whatever the cost. She had never seen anything like it.