Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

18 June, 1996 - Stay

No one needed to be told twice. Everyone who had been sitting jumped to their feet and Moody started barking orders about where to apparate to to get into the Ministry as quickly as possible. Tonks pitched in, followed by Kingsley, forming a plan of attack. They needed to get into the Ministry undetected, then down to the Department of Mysteries undetected. Then they needed to find Harry. And they needed to protect him.

Lavinia barely heard any of it. The words, the plans, all of it meant nothing to her. She didn't know how any of the others had processed this so quickly. How any of them were functioning enough to be making plans because...

Department of Mysteries.

They all knew there was only one reason Harry would be in the Department of Mysteries. That was where the Hall of Prophecy was. And in the Hall of Prophecy...

But Harry barely even knew about the prophecy and though he'd been interested when Lavinia had mentioned it to him... It didn't make sense. He wouldn't go breaking into the Ministry on mere curiosity. And he had no reason to do so now of all times. Plus, Severus had said that Harry thought Sirius was in danger. Which could only mean one thing: this was a trap. Harry had been lured into a trap. And there was only one person in the world who would do that: Lord Voldemort.

Which meant Death Eaters would be waiting for them there. Ready to fight. If they weren't already fighting Harry.

The thought made Lavinia's muscles lock up, made fear become thick and painful in her throat. This was going to be a battle. Right in the middle of the Ministry. This was going to be a proper fight which meant... well it meant that it was starting. It was really, truly starting. And they were outnumbered. They were unprepared. They were going to lose.

"We have to go," Sirius snapped over the others' rapid planning and the words were loud in Lavinia's ear. Loud enough that they registered over her panic. And made a different sort of fear set in.

"You're not going anywhere," she hissed before she had the chance to think much at all about how well that would be received.

And indeed, Sirius levelled a scowl at her that would have sent lesser - or perhaps smarter - people running. But Lavinia held her ground. There was already too much on the line tonight. Too much that could go wrong. Too much they could lose. Sirius did not get to be one of those things.

Not that he was prone to agree with that.

"Of course I'm going," Sirius snapped back, his face very close to hers and his eyes holding a kind of wild anger Lavinia had seen only once before. On a night too like this. A night she had thought she'd lost him.

"You can't," Lavinia countered, but the words were soft, weak. Desperate and cracking with the force of her fear. The force of her cowardice.

"He's my godson," Sirius countered, the words hard and certain and awful. "If you think I'm going to sit on my ass while you all run off and save him then you don't know a damn thing about me!"

"I don't expect you to be happy about it!" Lavinia defended, something sharp and painful stabbing through her chest and she didn't know if it was hurt at his words or just fear. More fear. Like it wasn't already coursing through her blood and shoving down her throat and making it so damn hard to breath. To think. To exist outside of this storm in her head and heart that made her want to run and run and never look back.

"I'm going, Vin," Sirius snapped, still scowling at her, clearly expecting this to be the end of the argument. But Lavinia was not going to give up that quickly. Her head was finally catching up to her heart and now... now she had more reasons than just her fear. Just her cowardice.