Thanks for the reviews and the favorites. Sorry it's been so long since the last update. I started uni this fall and it decided to kick my tush.

Lily Potter - Georgie Henley
James Potter II - Skandar Keynes
Albus Potter - Logan Lerman

Victoire Weasley - Amanda Seyfried
Dominique Weasley - Saoirse Ronan
Louis Weasley - William Moseley

Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 6 – … and Sinister Shadows

When the scarecrow lifted its head, Lily did the natural thing. She screamed. She heard Aron yell as the scarecrow pulled its arms loose and dropped to the ground, never taking its eyes off the three of them.

"Bloody hell!" she heard James yell, lifting his wand and sending a wordless spell toward it. Red light burst from the end of his wand and flew toward the scarecrow. It hit between the scarecrows hallow eyes and bounced, flying off to who knows where. "Shit! Run!"

The three of them turned and ran, Aron leading the way with James bringing up the rear. The thing moved with impossible speed. James set more spells at it, but like the stunner they simply bounced off or just plain missed the thing. Lily ran faster than she ever had in her life. She was vaguely aware of Aron leading them toward the abandoned barn. She stumbled several times, but thankfully did not fall and just kept running.

She heard James yelp behind her and turned to see the scarecrow had jumped on his back. He raised his wand, but the scarecrow grabbed it and snapped it in half.

"JAMES! IMPEDIMENTA!" she screamed. Of course the spell bounced off, but it got the scarecrows attention away from her now helpless older brother. It dropped her brother's now broken wand and turned its head toward her. She turned and ran, throwing spells over her shoulder as she ran.

Aron reached the barn a good ways ahead of her and struggled for a moment with the door before he got it open. He held it open and looked back at her, his eyes wide. "RUN!"

She approached a large rock and pointed her wand at it. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she yelled and just as she passed it, it lifted off the ground. She glanced back and ended the spell, letting the hovering stone fall on the scarecrows head. James was able to pass it and catch up with her before the scarecrow lifted the stone off its head and growled at them before leaping up and continuing to pursue them. They ran, Aron yelling at them to hurry as the scarecrow chased them. They flew through the doorway to the barn, Aron slamming the door closed behind them. It shuddered a few seconds later when the scarecrow reached it, growling as it tried to enter.

James and Lily came to a stop inside, panting heavily. Her legs hurt from the running and her ankle was sore from the few times she had stumbled. She could feel sweat dripping down her forehead. She let out a strangled gasp when she heard the creatures growling from up on the roof of the barn. Lily swallowed heavily. "What the hell is that thing?"

"I do not know," Aron replied. Lily glanced toward him to see him staring at the roof as well. "It's waiting for us since it cannot find a way in."

She looked back toward the roof. "Peachy."

"My wand," she heard James say. She looked over at him looking at his empty hands, seeming to be on the verge of tears. "It broke my wand."

Lily rolled her eyes as she pocketed her wand and then proceeded to walk over to her brother. She grabbed him by the shoulders. "Forget the wand. The thing was going to kill you."

He looked up at her. "But-"

"I'd rather have you with no wand than you being dead," she snapped. No wand and no way to defend himself was better than being dead. Sure, he was annoying sometimes and needed a good hexing, but he was her brother and she could not imagine life without him.

He looked at her blankly for a moment before nodding. "You're right."

"If you need a wand, use mine," she said, pulling out her wand.

He shook his head. "No, you might need it. If I need to use one, I'll use Al's."

Because he can't, she finished in her head. A look at James's face told her that the same thought had gone through his head. Apparently Aron had heard his comment, for when they looked toward him he was holding Albus's wand out toward James. James took it hesitantly and put it in his pocket.

Thunder shook the barn and soon after, the strong scent of rain. Lily looked toward the roof as she heard the rain begin to pelt it. Great. They had a psycho scarecrow after them, were stuck in this barn, James's wand was history, and on top of it all it was now raining. Oh, and she had broken the underage rule. That was bound to send up some alarms back home.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, looking away from the roof and toward the two boys with her., for which she was extremely thankful. "How are we going to get away from it? Spells just bounce off."

"We could just quickly fly out," James said, reaching into his pocket for his broom. His eyes went wide and he went to check a different pocket.

Lily frowned at her brother. "Let me guess, you can't find your broom."

He looked at her with wide eyes, looking as if he were on the verge of crying. "First my wand, now my broom."

She sighed. "Well, there goes that option because there is no way my broom is going to fit all three of us."

"Perhaps there is something in this barn we could use," Aron suggested as he glanced around the dark barn.

Lily nodded slowly. "Hopefully there is," she said as she pulled out her wand. "Lumos."

The tip of the wand lit, lighting up a small amount of the area around them. James pulled out Albus's and proceeded to light it and more of their surroundings became clearing. There was bales of hay, a few farm tools, some things covered by tarps, and a ladder leading up to the loft.

"What's under the tarps?" she asked, looking at a particularly large one in the center of the barn.

Holding up their wands, James and Lily approached it, Aron a few steps behind them. Using their free hands, the pulled it off. They stepped back as it flouted to the ground, emitting a large cloud of dust. Lily cough and waved her free hand before her face to clear the air. She looked up at what had been uncovered. Some sort of tractor.

She looked towards James, who had a smirk playing at his lips. "Now this we can work with."

Harry sighed as he looked through a rather dull report. Half the life of an Auror was action packed, the other half was paperwork. The latter was not something he considered fun. He would much rather be out on the field, or at home with his family. His eyes strayed to one of the pictures that sat on his desk, the corners of his mouth turning upward. It had been taken at a surprise party that had been thrown in honor of his fortieth birthday the previous July. Ginny stood beside him, his arm around her waist. Just over her shoulder stood James, grinning like he almost always was. Albus stood beside his father, who's other hand was on fifteen year olds shoulder. Before them stood Lily, leaning back against her father.

A knock on the door to his office made him look up. "Come in," he called.

The door opened a second later and Hermione stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. Harry smiled and stood from his chair, walking around to the front of his desk and leaning against it. Then he noticed her expression and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I was on my way down to invite you to lunch when I ran into Sophia," she replied, coming to a stop before his desk. He remembered Sophia. She was one of those that monitored the usage of underage magic. "She was heading here to tell you that Lily just performed underage magic."

Harry frowned. He knew the children had agreed well before the trip that it would be magic free. And Lily knew better than to use magic outside of school, no matter how much she sometimes wanted to hex her brother at home. "That's not like her."

"No, it's not," Hermione agreed. "But Sophia also told me the spells that she used. An Impediment Jinx, a levitation charm, and several stunners."

"Stunners?" he echoed. He felt a cold knot of dread in his stomach. "I need to get home. First I'll need to let people know I'm leaving early."

The corners of Hermione's mouth twitch upward. "Already done. Had a feeling you would be heading home after that bit."

Despite the feeling of dread, Harry smiled at her. "You're a lifesaver, Hermione. You coming too?" he asked as he moved around the desk to fireplace that set behind it.

She walked over to stand beside him as he grabbed the pot of Floo Powder from the mantel. "Of course."

"Ready?" James asked from his spot in the driver's seat of the tractor.

Lily sat just behind him, clinging to one of the posts that held up the roof over the driver. Across from her on the other side, Aron did the same. "Ready."

"Ready," Aron repeated, tightening his grip around to post on his side.

It had taken them a little while to figure out how to turn on the tractor, and to see if it had enough gas. Thankfully there was a little left in the tank. How far that would get them, she had no idea. She glanced back at the trailer that was attached to the tractor. There were a few farm tools within reach, which would hopefully work against the scarecrow if they needed to fight it since magic useless against it.

James turned the key and the engine started. The two lights above the driver flared to life. Lily tightened her grip on the post.

"Here we go!" James shouted just before he pushed down on the gas. The tractor lurched forward with surprising speed toward the doors of the barn. Lily ducker her head as it crashed through them. She felt a piece of wood hit her back, but her tight grip on the post kept her in place.

She looked up, but was forced to squint as rain pelted against them. The roof of the tractor was not protecting them very well from the rain, which pounded against them from the right due to the blowing wind. Within minutes, she was soaked to the bone. The tractor bounced through the field, causing her but to lift from its seat. Across from her, she could see Aron having the same problem. There was no way she was risking pulling out her want to cast a spell to keep them dry. She did not need to lose her wand. James's had already been snapped by the scarecrow.

"Any sign of it?" she yelled, looking up at James in the driver's seat.

She saw him shake his head, his wet hair flapping back and forth. "No! Any sign back there?"

Lily looked back at the trailer that was bouncing along behind the tractor. There was no sign of the scarecrow. She turned back towards James. "No sign of it!"

She hugged the post tighter as the tractor crossed the tree line and the bouncing got worse. She watched the trees flash by behind Aron, and a flash of something else. Lily sat up straighter, though kept a tight grip on the post. The thing was following them. But where was it?

Lily kept watching the trees that they drove past, but caught no other flash of it. And then came the thump from the trailer. She turned her head to fast, her wet hair slapped against her face so hard it stung. The scarecrow was crouched on the trailer, growling at her. It had dropped down from the trees above them.

She was forced to release to post and leaned forward to grab one of the farm tools. Just as her hand wrapped around a hayfork, the scarecrows hand wrapped around her wrist. She screamed and swung her free hand at its face. It growled and fell back, but did not release her wrist and took her with it. She felt her feet leave the tractor and landed in the small trailer with the scarecrow. Lily swung at it again and caught its face. Still it hung on.

It tried to pull her off the trailer, but her feet found the front edge of it and clung to it. She groped around with her free hand, feeling desperately for something to grab that she could use to hit the scarecrow. After a few seconds, her hand wrapped around a brick. She grabbed it and threw it at the scarecrows face. It released her wrist and she pushed herself up off her chest and to her feet.

As the trailer bounced again, she grabbed the hayfork and turned to face the scarecrow. It growled at her and she pushed the hayfork toward it. It missed. The trailer bounced again and Lily stumbled. The scarecrow lunged at her, but she got the hayfork up in time and stabbed its belly. It stumbled backward. She released the fork and turned back to the tractor.

"Release the trailer!" she yelled as she jumped from the trailer back onto the tractor. Aron grabbed her arm to make sure she didn't fall. She heard James pull something and looked back to see the trailer come free. It rolled after them for a few seconds before stopping, the scarecrow still on it. She laughed and looked at James, who was turned in the seat and grinning at her.

"James!" Aron yelled. Lily looked at him and saw that his eyes were wide as he looked at something past James. James turned around and Lily looked past him to see a fallen tree was across the path. She watched as her brother slammed his foot on the breaks, but nothing happened. The tractor just kept speeding toward it.

"Jump!" he yelled as he pushed himself from the driver's seat. Lily jumped over the left side of the tractor. The impact of the ground knocked all air from her lungs. The trees were under her, the ground above as she tumbled. She finally landed on her back, her eyes landing on a bird nest up in the trees above her, before the world went dark.

James groaned as he opened his eyes. How long he had been knocked out after jumping off the tractor, he had no idea. The rain had stopped, but drops were falling onto his face from the tree branches. He was sore all over from jumping off the tractor. He pushed himself up and looked toward a hissing sound coming from his right. He looked over to see the tractor. It had crashed into the fallen tree and sat there steaming.

He pushed himself to his feet as he glanced around the trees near him. He had seen Lily and Aron jump off before he had done so himself. They had to be somewhere nearby. "Lily! Aron!"

He walked back along the path he had driven the tractor along, looking for some sign of his siblings through the trees. He climbed a small rise and stopped at the top, looking down. A few yards away, he spotted something red. He cupped his hands over his mouth. "LILY!"

He saw it move and a familiar face turn toward him as something cracked under his feet. He looked down to see that he was standing on a piece of wood that looked to have been placed over a hole, and the wood was rotted and falling apart. He had just the time to look up to see Lily coming toward him before it gave away beneath him.

With a yell, he fell through the whole and landed hard on his back. James groaned and looked up at the hole he had fallen through that was at least ten feet above him. He pushed himself up and looked around. It was too dark to see anything. James pushed himself to his feet and pulled out Albus's wand and quickly lit the tip. The light revealed that he stood in a cave that was wide and narrow. To his left was a wall, but to his right it was lined with selves and then curved.

James was not usually very cautious, instead liking to throw it to the wind, but after all that had happened so far that day, being cautious seemed like a good idea. He slowly approached the shelves. Some were covered with objects, that upon closer inspection turned out to be gold and jewels. Gold crowns and jewel hilted swords. Books covered in dust and ancient scrolls that looked like they would crumble if touched. A treasure trove.

Some of the other shelves held small, empty glass bottles that were corked at the top. There were more of them than treasure. James frowned and brought the glowing tip of his wand closer to one. Why would someone have a bunch of empty class bottles?

Then a small ball of glowing blue light appeared in the jar his wand was held up to. He back away a step as it began whispering in a foreign language. "What the?"

Once the one appear, glowing blue lights began to appear in other jars. Whispering in a different language, though a few were in English and James could make out one word from the babble; help. In under a minute, all the jars that had been empty contained a glowing blue light. James extinguished his wand, the lights illuminating the room far more than it.

He jumped at the sound of someone coming through the hole he had fallen through and turned to see Lily pushing herself up from the ground. She spotted him and ran to him, wrapping her arms around him tightly. "We saw you fall!"

James looked over her shoulder to see Aron drop into the cave as well. Lily pulled away slowly and James knew that she had spotted the glowing jars. "Merlin's beard, what are they?"

"I don't know," he replied, watching her approach one of the shelves. Aron walked up beside her, looking at the jars carefully. "Aron, do you know what they are?"

Aron hesitantly picked one up, the light inside flaring at the touch The whispering of them increased in volume. His eyes widened suddenly and he gently placed it back on the shelf. "They're souls. Someone is pulling souls away from the afterlife and sticking them in a glass jar."

James looked around at all the glowing jars in the room. "These are all souls?"

He looked back at Aron to see him nod. "Yes," he responded, looking pained at the truth they had discovered.

"How do we send them back?" Lily asked.

James looked over at the jars on the shelf nearest to them. "Would just breaking them open work."

"No," Aron snapped. "I am one of them. My soul got drawn into your brother's body. Imagine what would happen if these were released?"

"They would get stuck in people's bodies just like you did," Lily said. "But what can we do?"

Aron sighed, running a hand through Albus's messy black hair. "A soul bridge would allow them to cross back, but I think that whatever brought these souls back is keeping them from finding it."

"So, whoever brought you and all these souls back has also done something to keep them here?" James asked, gesturing to all the glowing jars in the cave around them.

Aron nodded. "So it would seem."

"But who would do something like that?" Lily asked.

A chill went down James spine as the sound of a voice reached his ears. He looked toward where the cave turned. "I think I know a way we can find out."

Around the curve was a large cavern lit by flaming torches that were attached to the walls. The tunnel looked down on it and the only way down was a rickety rope ladder that hung over the edge. The floor of the cavern was at least ten feet below them. Lily, James, and Aron crawled to the edge and looked down into the room.

To the right, the wall was covered with shelves that were filled with boxes and books. To the left was a table covered in smaller objects that Lily could not make out due to the distance. In the center, a circle was painted onto the dirt with a star in the center of it. A small white rock was in the center of the star.

"A pentagram," Aron whispered beside her.

A figure stood before the pentagram, his back to them. He wore a heavy black robe and the hood was up. In his hands was a book and the words he heard were in a language that Lily had never heard before, but it caused the hair on the back of her next to stand up.

The second he stopped speaking, a glowing ball of light like the ones in the jars appeared within the pentagram. The voice of the soul sounded young, like a child. "Where am I?"

"Hello, young friend," said the hooded figure. The voice was distinctly male and caused Lily to frown. It sounded familiar.

"Where am I? I want to go home!" cried the soul.

"I will help you find your way home," the man replied. "But first I have a question for you. Do you remember the coat that your father gave you on your tenth birthday? "

The child's voice did not hesitate at all. "Yes."

"It was hidden when the Swedes attacked your village. Do you know where your father hid it?" asked the man, following the ball of light as it hovered around him.

"It is hidden under the fireplace," the child's soul replied. "Can I go home now?"

"Of course," the man replied, reaching a hand into his robe. "Come here, little one. I'll help you home."

The soul came to him as he pulled a glass jar from his robe. He held up a hand and the soul stopped moving. The child gasped. With a simple motion of his hand, the soul moved into the jar, which he closed with a cork.

Lily swallowed, her heart pounding in her chest. He was bringing souls back to steal their treasures and then capturing them in the jars. The man walked over to the shelves, opened a cage that sat at eye level, and placed the jar into it.

"That bastard," James whispered as the man crossed the room to the table.

"I do not understand," Aron muttered as the man reached the table. "What does he want from me?"

The man grabbed something from the table and held it up before him. Lily squinted to see it. It looked like a glass tube with some sort of figure attached to the outside. It began to glow with white light and a humming noise filled the air. From the end of it, something emerged. A shadowy figure of a woman. And then the man turned and looked up at where they crouched at their perch.

Lily gasped and pushed herself up. She could not see his face, but his eyes reflected the light as he looked up at them. "Aron Stover."

"Time to go," James said, pulling Lily away from the edge. Behind them, they heard the shadow creature shriek.

They ran back through the cave, the whispering of the other souls louder than ever. Lily glanced over her shoulder as she ran to see the shadow creature fly into the tunnel after them. She turned around just as her foot caught on something. She began to fall, only for James to grab her hand and pull her along after him. She heard glass shatter and glanced back to see one of the shelves had fallen to the ground, the jars shattering. Balls of light flouted through the air, causing the shadow to stop.

They ran until they were beneath the hole that they had come in through. James knelt down and put his hands out. "You first, Lils."

She placed her foot in his hands and he lifted her back up to the hole. She grabbed the edges and pulled herself through. She crawled away and then turned around as James helped Aron up. She grabbed his hand and pulled as James hoisted him up. She saw her brother glance back though the tunnel. She reached down as far as she could without falling in. "Grab my hand!"

James jumped and grabbed her wrist. Her fingers wrapped around his and she gritted her teeth as pain ripped through her arm from the strain of holding his weight. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aron come alongside her and grabbed James's arm as well. Together they pulled. James yelled as the creature shrieked and his body vibrated as he kicked.

"Stop kicking!" she screamed at him as she grabbed his arm with both hands and pulled him further out of the hole.

"The damn thing had my ankle!" he yelled back at her.

Once his hips were through the hole, his legs came easily. Lily collapsed back onto the dirt, panting. Her arms were shaking from the strain of pulling up James. But she could not lie there forever. She had to get up. They had to keep moving. She pushed herself up as saw James and Aron doing the same. "Losing a few pounds would not be a bad idea."

James glanced back at the hole, through which they could still hear the creature. "How come it isn't following?"

"The creature is made of darkness," Aron replied. "If it comes out here, it will dissipate. It can only survive in the light."

"Come on," Lily said, tugging on her brother's arm. They began running again. Where they were going, she had no idea. Just away from that cave. And they had no way of getting off the island. Her broom could not carry the three of them. As they ran through the forest, she spotted the glowing souls from the broken jars flying through the air around them.

They ran through the forest, weaving through the trees. She stumbled a few times on roots and rocks that she could not see in the darkness, but Lily kept running. That is, until they heard voices. Familiar voices, yelling their names. Two female and one male. Lily glanced over at James, grinning. It sounded like Victoire. She was probably pissed, but Lily could not care. It was a way off the island. They spotted wand light ahead of them and three figures in the light.

"Vic!" she yelled as they ran into a clearing in the woods. The figures had been searching all around them, but turned toward her at her yell.

She could see the relief clear on her cousins faces. "There you are! We've been searching for hours," she said. Then her eyes looked them over. "What happened?"

She, James, and Aron came to a stop before them. The search party was made up of Victoire, Dominique, and Louis.

"We'll explain back at the hotel, but right now we have to get out of here," Lily replied as she pulled out her broom and her wand. She did the counter spell and the broom returned to full size.

Victoire glanced at her siblings before pulling out her broom and unshrinking it. She noticed that James did not have his broom out. "Where's your broom."

He seemed to sag at the reminder of his broom. "Gone."

Victoire looked at him for a second before nodding. "Right, your with me then."

She extinguished her wand before mounting her broom. James climbed on behind her. Lily mounted her own and looked toward Aron as Dominique and Louis mounted their brooms. "Come on."

As he climbed on behind her, she heard the crunch of leaves under someone's foot behind her. She kicked off from the ground, causing Aron to yelp and quickly grab her waist and turned the broom to face the direction the sound had come from. The man stood there, watching them from under his hood.

"Get off the ground," she heard James mutter behind her.

"Who the hell is that?" Dominique asked. Lily glanced over her shoulder to see that they were now off the ground, hovering several feet in the air as well.

She looked back toward the man as Aron asked, "How are you still alive? We killed you."

The figure shifted. Out here in the dark forest, she could not see his eyes beneath the hood, but Lily had the strangest feeling that he was smiling. "You only killed my body. The moment before I died, I cast a spell that saved my soul. But I was too weak to take a random body, I needed a volunteer."

Lily swallowed heavily and felt her stomach churn. Someone had agreed to let this man into their body. And from the way that Aron spoke to him, she had a feeling that this was the necromancer that had caused the death of the woman that Aron had loved.

"As luck would have it, I found a scholar that was prepared to host all the power and strength I could give him," the man continued.

"But he must be dead by now?" Aron asked from his place behind her.

"Every twenty-five years I must find a new host," he replied and this time she could hear the smile in his voice. "Human beings, so greedy and ready to give themselves over for power."

The leaves in the trees above him rustled and from them dropped the scarecrow, who landed beside him. "Time to go," Lily said before turning her broom and flying upward through the trees. Once over the treetops, she glanced back to see the others following her on their brooms.

She searched the dark horizon and spotted the mainland and angled the broom toward it. "That was him, wasn't it? The man that killed her, Kara."

She felt his arms shift around her waist and his chin on her shoulder. "Yes," Aron replied. "That was him."

She thought back to what he had told them the night before, about how he had wanted the Book. It had been split up between the surviving members of the Legion, which had included Aron. "He brought you back because he wants to Book."

She heard Aron swallow. "Yes."

Lily focused on the approaching mainland. They now knew who was pulling back souls and why, but how were they going to free them and allow them to move on? She felt Aron put his head against her shoulder blade. How were they going to get him out of Albus?