Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 45: All the Sense in the World

Chapter 45: All the Sense in the World 

James stifled a yawn and did his best not to move any more than necessary as he crouched next to Lily behind a clump of bushes. They'd been on an Order assignment since seven, it was now nearing midnight, and James had just put in a full day of Auror training. All things considered, he was more than ready to go home to bed. 

He glanced over at Lily and couldn't help but smile in spite of his discomfort. Despite the fact that she looked nearly as tired and ridiculous as James felt, it was also clear that Lily was in her element. Though he would never in a million years have admitted it, James did realize that the Department of Mysteries suited her. 

And so did the Order of the Phoenix. In the two months since Dumbledore had established it, Lily had spent nearly every waking moment not spent working or planning their wedding on assignment for the Order, and of course, James was right there with her, enjoying it just as much as, if not more than, Lily did. 

Or usually he enjoyed it, anyway, but not tonight. Again, James stifled a yawn and shifted as surreptitiously as possible. Crouching in the bushes was uncomfortable, no matter how good the cause. 

He and Lily were huddled behind shrubbery shivering in the October night a mere week before their wedding spying on Lucius Malfoy. Because of Remus and Kathleen's experiences at the Marchbanks' New Years' ball, the Order of the Phoenix knew that Lucius Malfoy and his wife Narcissa were Death Eaters, or at least were sympathetic to Voldemort's cause. But Dumbledore, for reasons unknown to the rest of the Order, believed Malfoy to be one of the most significant Death Eaters, and that he would be holding a highly important meeting sometime that evening. 

In anticipation of this, Caradoc Dearborn had slipped a Locating Liquid into Malfoy's drink at the Patrons of St Mungo's luncheon earlier that day, and Order members throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening carefully monitored Malfoy's comings and goings. Lily and James' shift had begun at seven PM, and they had spent the first four hours watching their own cup of Locating Liquid, waiting for it to turn red to indicate that Malfoy had left his house. 

Finally, round eleven thirty, it had. More than halfway asleep by this time, James had been startled awake by Lily's exclamation and opened his eyes just in time to help her carefully pour a drop of the potion onto a map and watch with her as the crimson liquid had been drawn, as if by a magnet, to Hampstead Heath. Lily and James had exchanged glances; a public park at this time of the night would be perfect for a discreet meeting. After sending an owl to Dumbledore, they'd immediately Apparated to a location about a block away and sneaked up on Malfoy as quietly as possible; praying that he and the people he was meeting wouldn't spot them. 

That had been more than half an hour ago; evidently whoever Malfoy had arranged to rendezvous with was late. 

Malfoy looked just as impatient as James felt; he paced back and forth in the small secluded area, careful never to walk too close to the main path. He wore a black hooded cloak and his Death Eater's mask; clearly this wasn't intended to be a meeting of equals in public. James wondered for the hundredth time who exactly Malfoy was allegedly meeting and in regards to what. Was he planning on intimidating someone into Voldemort's service, or was this simply a weekly meeting to discuss routine Death Eater business? 

Before James' overactive imagination could generate more scenarios, he was interrupted by a resounding pop. James exchanged one more glance with Lily before they both focused every conceivable sense on the approaching figure. 

But as the hooded shape drew closer, it took on an ominous familiarity. Lily felt a chill of apprehension run down her spine. Please don't let it be who I think it is, she begged silently. Let it be someone else, anyone else.