Pure Sinners

It took a few days for Lily to convince herself she needed to visit the warehouse. She was getting nowhere. Her independent investigations kept falling short, Barty and Willmore were clean - their phone taps came back empty and her interrogation of their associates was useless. She was confident if they knew anything they would have told her, they were too stupid to have tricked her. 

Her investigation of Amycus was more difficult, he had been a member much longer than the others and was much slipperier. She had spoken to a few of his ‘students’ none of whom seemed to like the guy very much. She had concluded she would need to get the surveillance recordings of his movements, in order to rule him out as the spy. 

Lily pulled herself out of bed, shrugging on an oversized jumper that smelled like James and a pair of jeans she didn’t think had been washed in a week, she headed into the kitchen. 

“Mornin” Sirius greeted as he shovelled coco-pops into his open mouth. “Morning” Lily returned as she turned down Remus’s offer of eggs. She took a deep breath and spoke quickly knowing Sirius wouldn’t like the words leaving her mouth. “I need to go to the warehouse today” she said looking anywhere but the grey-eyed man opposite. “We're coming with you” Sirius said, and Lily sighed.  “I need to leave in ten, so whoever’s coming get dressed” she said turning away from the boys to pour a cup of coffee.  

25 minutes later they were on the train on their way out of the city.

The warehouse was roughly 35 minutes from London - a train, bus and 20-minute walk away from Lily's residence. Usually, the distance gave her peace of mind but today the journey simply gave her time to spiral. She didn’t know why this visit was distressing her so. 

She’d been to the warehouse many times over the years, the building was shabby and the Death Eaters that frequented it were the worst sort of people but she’d been through worse. Still, the uneasy feeling in Lily's stomach only grew as they disembarked the bus and began to walk along the brush-covered path. 

The warehouse was just that, a large barn-like building with no window and a fading paint job. As they reached the large metal door Lily fished out her key card, ignoring the hushed conversation the boys were having behind her as she pressed the card to the sensor pad. The door clicked and she pushed it open as it groaned in protest. On the wall opposite the door, a warning stood, written in black ink. The French letters had faded over time, Lily blinked as she remembered Sirius writing them. 

Children in a place children should never be. 

“What does it say?” James asked behind her, Lily waited for Sirius to speak - the only fluent speaker among them. He smiled as he stalled through the open door “Bienvenue en enfe” his voice was elegant but his eyes were severe as he turned to James. “Welcome to hell” he spoke with a smile. 

Lily pushed past him, she didn’t have time for Sirius’s bullshit. 

She wanted to be out of this pit as soon as she could. Turning knowingly down several different corridors Lily kept half an ear on the footsteps behind her, she didn’t want to lose her boys in here.

 Sirius’s voice was floating behind her, he was waxing the tale of the Graffiti but Lily had no time to relive old horrors. Turning left she finally spotted the records room. Pushing the door open she threw herself into the dark room, illuminated only by several security monitors in front of a desk chair. 

“Wow this is very…” James cut himself off but she knew the word  ‘cliche’ was the only word for this room. She sat in front of the computer and started searching for the security cameras around Headquarters. She sighed, this was going to take a while.

”what do you need?” Sirius asked and Lily was once again in awe of how easily he read her emotions. She looked shyly at her brother “I need the paper files from the second story storage unit.” She told him expecting him to baulk at the ask, it was a trek across the building and most of the lights down the west corridor were blown (and had been for years). Sirius grimaced “The blackmail unit?” He asked and Lily nodded. “Fine but you owe me” Sirius declared and Lily gladly nodded. Remus sighed before walking towards the heavy door “let's go then” he told Sirius, who raced for the exit. 

Lily turned back to the computer stopping the security a few weeks earlier. She sighed again facing her eyes to the focus as she searched in vain for Amycus to slip up. 

James moved closer behind her. “Whatcha looking for?” He asked, his breath making the hair on her neck stand up. “You see this guy..” Lily asked pointing at Amycus as he walked into the Headquarters gym. She felt James nod above her shoulder “Well I think he might be the rat…” she debated sharing more as James’s fingers brushed against her shoulder blade. “..he’s been in shit with Riddle lately for how he was treating his team. I thought maybe he’d sell us out..for the right price” She shrugged, trying to lighten the ammunition she’d just given the boy behind her. 

“What’ll happen to him if he is the spy?” James asked and Lily cursed his soft nature. “If he’s lucky death, if he’s not……” she let the threat hang in the air. She couldn’t see his face, not as she scrutinised the speeding footage in front of her but he sucked in a sharp intake of breath at the news, god James and his bleeding heart.    

Lily stared at the screen for so long James started tapping his foot impatiently.  As much as she hated to admit it Amycus was clean, he was an arsehole but not the spy. She moved to close the security log just as she saw Pandora moving quickly through the alley. Nothing about this would have been unusual had she not been glancing repeatedly over her shoulder. 

Lily glanced quickly at the timestamp in the corner of the screen.

 Tuesday, 10:54 pm, Lily blinked and re-read the screen. 

Pandora wasn’t scheduled at headquarters on Tuesdays. 

She sent a silent prayer to the universe that she was wrong, that Pandora wouldn’t be stupid enough to play with her life like this.

She zoomed in on the footage as Pandora ducked behind a dustbin. The girl slid a duffle bag under a green bin, Lily fast forwarded and watched as a man in a dark coat and hat came and collected whatever she had left. 

There was no doubt in Lily's mind. 

Pandora Rosier was the rat.  

James’s footsteps approached from whatever he’d been looking at across the room, Lily quickly closed the tab. She could talk to Pandora, she could convince her to come clean to Riddle and use this in with the police in the Death Eaters' favour. 

“Found anything?” James asked and Lily opened her mouth to tell him. 

“No” she blinked, unsure why she hadn’t told James about the new development. She stood, opening the door to the hallway, it didn’t matter anyway. She was going to fix it and Pandora would be fine, at least this way James would worry less. 

She was halfway down the hallway when the footsteps stopped behind her “shit” James called as Lily turned to face him. 

“My watch must have fallen off in there, I’ve gotta run back” He spoke quickly and Lily sighed stepping towards him. 

“No, love you stay here I won’t be a sec” He called already at the tin door. Lily shrugged, leaning her body against the wall beside her. Images of Pandora bleeding out filtered through her mind, and she wondered how she would die. 

A bullet to the brain? The chest?

Knife to the throat?

Drowned?

Burned?

Electrocuted?

Perhaps she wouldn’t die at all, the DE had done much worse to the living than Lily had thought possible. Her brain melted, flowing from her ears onto the steal flooring. 

She hoped Pandora died. 

Lily shook her head again, banishing her pessimism. She would save her and if she couldn’t save him she would kill Pandora quickly. She owed her that much.

A thud sounded somewhere down the hallway, Lily started. Her body freezing somewhere between fight and flight. It’s a lie, it’s just a trick. She knew better, yet she found herself moving towards the sound. She rounded the corner and found a dark door, much darker than any she had seen in this space before. She blinked, expecting the door to disappear as she closed her eyes - it didn’t. 

Lily's hand lifted of its own accord, grasping the door handle against her will. 

Lily pressed the handle down, pushing the door till it opened. A slither of darkness widened as she moved closer. Lily opened the door fully, the room was pitch black. Bathed in darkness so thick she could not see through. Her feet moved forward, taking her further into the dark room. 

The door slammed behind her. Lily blinked her trance-like state dissolving with the loud noise. A hand clawed its way across her back, light and sharp against her shirt. Her panic was rising, growing upwards through her bones. Her lungs were straining against her ribs, and there wasn't enough air. Lily's fingers fumbled against the walls before her, searching for a door handle.  

A thick lead weight was resting on her shoulders and Lily couldn't find the door. She pressed her hand against her chest willing her traitorous heart to still. “Breathe” she commanded weakly to her defiant body. No one answered, and the darkness grew deeper. 

Her hand reached out for the handle again, grazing across smooth planes of metal. She reached for her blade, pulling it from the side of her boot and holding it out towards the darkness.  She turned again, facing the space she had entered from. Her foot kicked outwards and she groaned as it met emptiness. 

Her breathing was sharp, a painful thing under her shirt. Lily's finger skated over the scar beside her heart. 

Lily felt the floor fall from under her. The empty air was all around, her feet were treading water, thick waves of pure oxygen. The floor met Lily with force that rattled bones. Panic returned, a vicious thing with nowhere to turn. Lily beat her fists on the floor, the sound echoing in the void. 

The floor began banging back, and Lily cried out “Let me out”, ‘Let me out!”.  The floor opened wide, a birth of light flooded the endless. Lily's eyes stayed closed, unwilling to look upon the creature that had found her in the dark. 

“It’s okay, you’re okay” the voice whispered as cold wrapped itself around her. Lily thrashed in the tendrils of darkness, and the voice called again. “Lily it's me, you’re okay. I’ve got you” Lily thrashed harder, “Open your eyes” the voice demanded. 

“OPEN THEM!”

Light flooded her eyes, painful and alien. Shadows appeared before her, lit by a sun Lily did not know. Blinking quickly she saw the faces of her friends, pale and frightened. “You’re alright,” Sirius said as he loosened his arms around her. Lily said nothing, her voice was lost to her and she waited for the darkness to return. 

She stood with the legs of a newborn foal. She whipped her head around expecting the cavernous space she had inhabited. The room was small, no more than a broom cupboard, if she lifted her arms she would touch both walls. She did so, standing in the centre of the void covered in light. She closed her eyes again, focused on the sharp sting of the breath in her body. 

“Lily, are you okay?” Remus asked hesitant as he stood watching her trace the walls. She nodded, unable to articulate a lie just yet. 

“Was it locked?” She looked at Sirius, eyes catching the way he glanced at the wall behind her. He shook his head, glaring at the men by his side. Daring them to say anything. Lily nodded, she was obviously going mad -  a Riddle family trait that must not have been genetic. 

“Let's get out of here”  her voice was steady, if a little croaky. The boys nodded, looking relieved and Lily's eyes burned. Sirius nodded ushering the boys along the hallway, Lily followed turning back as she remembered her knife. The object had fallen from her hold in her panicky state.  

Her eyes scoured the walls, the floor, even the ceiling but her blade was no where to be found. There were no idents in the walls, no sign of any damage at all. Lily looked in her boots, nothing. 

She blinked at the tiny cupboard. And slammed the door shut before turning quickly after her boys. 

She smiled at them as the walked down the brush-hidden pathway, she spoke gently to them about dinner, about which film to watch. 

The voice echoed through the darkness of her mind, a phrase in thousands. Finished only by childish ramblings, hidden in long forgotten memories, pages of yellowed books. 

‘It does not do to be afraid of the dark, Lily.’

Lily slept fitfully that night, tossing and turning for hours. She stood quietly as the clock read 3:13, she gathered her clothes from the floor, floated to the kitchen. The house was dark, quiet and empty - she felt hollow. A sense of peace drilling itself through her skin as it touched the black air, calmness driving itself into her bones. Lily sat at the rounded kitchen table, breathing through her nose as she placed Pandora’s recruitment file before her. 

'‘It does not do to be afraid of the dark Lily. It’s where the shadows live’

Pandora’s flat was empty, according to the landlady she’d skipped out on the last three months' rent and she hadn’t seen her for two. Lily tried the number of her burner, and then again. She tried to contact her friends; Barty surprisingly was the most helpful - telling her that Pandora had been acting strange since her brother had got his rank promotion.

Lily frowned - this particular promotion occurred almost a year ago, she wondered how much information the young girl could have leaked by now. Barty unfortunately had no idea where to find his friend (he did of course, but Lily wouldn’t push him - she would do the same for hers), meaning she had to inform Riddle of her suspicions and he would take over the manhunt. Barty knew the score: he would tell them or he’d run - it was no longer Lily's problem. 

She silently cursed the universe, she cursed Pandora and she cursed Riddle. She wanted to save her, she had wanted to help her and now she was to be her executioner. 

Lily breathed deeply through her nose. “I’m sorry kid. Mine before yours” her whisper died the second it left her lips. Lily dialled Riddle’s number. The phone rang four times before he answered. 

“Hello” Riddle's voice was soft, gentlemanly in a way Sirius tried not to be. “Hello” Lily greeted, voice emotionless as she fought the tears gathering in her eyes. “Ah, Kitten do you have any leads for me?” He asked as Lily heard shuffling across the line.  

Don’t 

 “it's Pandora. Rosier is the rat.” She spoke quickly, continuing when Riddle didn’t interrupt her. “Flats cleaned out has been for at least a month. Found her on the security records dropping a bag. I tried to tap her phone but she’s ditched it” Lily paused, hiding her hope they wouldn’t find her. 

Riddle sighed, as though the inevitable death of a young girl was a mild inconvenience to him. “Very good Lily. I shall set a team to lay some mouse traps” his voice was calm and Lily fought to find a single emotion in his speech. “I have another job coming up, I’ll need you on it” She nodded although he couldn’t see her. “..Good work kitten,” Riddle said generously before hanging up the phone. 

Lily's breath left her, blink once, twice.

She rolled her shoulders, hands shaking slightly as she walked back into her flat a false smile tattooed onto her lips.