Potter and Evans were just a blurred darker shape in the general gloom of the stairwell as Arthur descended. Somewhere below there was the rattle of feet on metal treads. Right, follow your ears, Potter. Part of the mass broke loose and slipped down into the well of black below them. The streetlight, such as it was did not penetrate past the first landing and as of yet, Arthur wasn't prepared to use any wandlight. No they'd just have to do this by feel, it seemed. As potter moved out of sight, Arthur padded up behind the girl and whispered, "Count to thirty, then follow."

Leaving her on the landing, he moved slowly down, his fingertips lightly brushing the concrete walls. Eleven, twelve, thirteen. Next landing. No, this was a little more corridor. Arthur crept along, vaguely aware of the sides of the tunnel, his hand held out in front of him to give warning of dead ends, changes of direction or other obstacles. Suddenly the texture of the flooring changed, and he squatted down and ran his hand over it. Metal. They had reached the next stage. Carefully running his hands along the flooring before him, he found the edge of the step and with it the handrail. It seemed likely that they had come to the entrance of the Tube tunnel itself. From now on he would be affectively exposed if there was any kind of illumination. There was no sign of Potter though, so he must have got down alright.

Backing slowly away from the edge of the landing until he was safely on the concrete floor again, Arthur turned toward the direction Lily would be coming from and, carefully shielding the tip of his wand, created a tiny glow. The single feeble ray escaping his fingers vaguely showed a moving form in the tunnel, which froze at once. Slipping back to intercept her, Arthur cupped his hand around her ear and barely breathed, "The stairs lead down into the Tube just ahead. Wait at the top. Don't move unless something happens or James or I come back for you. You're backup, Evans. If anything should go wrong, we're relying on you."

Somehow the distance to the top of the stairs seemed shorter than he remembered. Strange how that always happened. Crouching down for all the world as if the handrail would provide any cover, Arthur began his slow decent of the stairs. He was halfway down when he heard a clear metallic click, about twenty feet in front of him and slightly to his left.