James wasn't altogether sure he liked Arthur Bones all that much. He was a bit of a supercilious prig, an a lot of ways. But James knew Dumbledore had picked him to lead this little mission, and that was good enough. Because honestly, as much as he would have preferred doing this job with Sirius or even Peter, it was good enough to be out in the middle of the action. Perhaps the only thing wrong with Arthur was the fact that he never seemed to enjoy what they were doing. Oh, he clearly understood the necessity of fighting the Death Eaters and beating them at their own game, but he was always so…. Ernest about it.

To be sure, it was dangerous. Whenever you were dealing with a wizard who would willingly use Dark Magic against you, it was dangerous. And in that respect James was a little unhappy about Lily being there. But they had discussed this all at length, and he didn't want to ever say he would rather she didn't take an active role in the Order any more that he would ever admit to worrying about her doing anything. He would be wasting his breath in any case. The girl he loved was a girl who would go out and fight whether he was there or not. And the fact of the matter was, as good as Arthur was, James actually felt reassured that they had Lily along with them. She was nothing if not determined. And so.. and so…. And so he would shut out all thought about Arthur and Lily other than as his team members and keep every sense alert for any sign of danger.

His team member put her hand on his shoulder, and James found himself smiling in spite of him self. Of course, she was just another witch, a damned good one. One he would die for. James shook his head and inched along in the darkness. No body was going to die tonight. This was a routine little scouting mission in force. Thee was no doubt a meeting of some kind was going to take place, the information had been quite clear. Their job would be to find out as much as they could, and if it was possible, take out some Death Eaters, one way or the other. Preferable the other, of course. Information would be very useful, prisoners so much more so.

But first they had to find out just what was going on.

James stood as if frozen, Lily's hand still resting on his shoulder. Not a sound. He half expected to hear dripping water, the air was so damp. H reached his hand along the wall. No wonder the water wasn't dripping, it was just running happily down the walls. Condensation. God, the place stank. Old socks and coal smoke. But no sound. They daren't let the target get too far ahead of them; there were tunnels all over the place here. Cautiously James lit the tip of his wand, hardly more than a soft red glow. He had been working to keep the light red; it seemed to attract less attention and only illuminated a small area around them. The steps lead downward without sign of side passage or doors. Well, that was simple enough. Half turning his head, he tapped Lily's fingers and gave a little waggle of his wand. Slowly they began the descent. A s they reached a kind of landing, he could hear Arthur's soft padding footsteps following them down. James knelt and leaned out into the darkness of the next flight of stairs.

Footsteps. He could hear them now… He reached up and gave Lily's finger s squeeze, then detached her hand from his shoulder. Alone he started down the lower flight.