Remus was beginning to wonder if this is what hell felt like. Being slammed around repeatedly and then, when he finally stopped aching from that, more shite falling on him! He groaned as he sat upright with the bricks rolling off, only to have something whack him in the face and fall back, admitting defeat to the world and just lying there as he gazed up at the ceiling.

James appeared above him with an unreasonably delighted smile, the git, but at least he offered a hand up which he grudgingly took. The floor littered with his tormenters was arguably better than his mouth, a proven fact when Prongs immediately teased, "I always knew you were my favorite Prefect, hanging around in the restricted section!"

He rubbed at his temple and gave a good look around to indeed find themselves in the library, he'd had the misfortune of not only colliding with a bookcase sending tombs down on him, but also whacking himself in the face with the sign cording off the specific forbidden information. At least it hadn't been any of those or he'd have lost both his ears most likely.

"What's this place got to do with anything?" Remus asked in confusion. "Hermione's already said she couldn't find out what those Horcruxes are in here, and Harry's fixing to find out when he shows Dumbledore that memory isn't he?"

"As if we've a clue," James rolled his eyes, and pouting when Moony summoned the book for the answer. It came sailing from the back and he caught the binding with a small little flinch for the color of the cover but otherwise seemed more than curious enough to find out for himself, but James grabbed his wrist and frowned at him.

"What did I do now?" He pouted.

"Nothing," James said quickly, dropping his wrist and raising his hands in surrender. "I'm just glad you got that lecture out of your system, I was going to hand in my notes first thing professor, honestly," he grinned.

Remus knew better, James was as pleased as Sirius had been he was still talking to the others about his werewolf life, even if he did still seem as confused about it. It had felt surprisingly good though, in a way he was used to feeling around all of his friends.

"Listen, Moony, about when we get out of this," James kept going in a slightly more severe tone than he was used to, something was really on Prongs' mind apparently. "I know we haven't really talked about it in a while, but I'm starting to lean against just, making them forget some of this."

"I don't think we could get away with that anyways," Remus sighed. "Doesn't feel right."

James sighed in relief and sat down on the little rope like a swing, bouncing his weight on it and still clearly agitated about something. "The problem's mostly still Sirius and Peter, everybody else seems pretty much on the same level, right?"

"Sirius is a level all his own," he snorted softly. "I thought you just said things are not going back to normal."

"I know," James shrugged, lifting his feet and actually balancing for a few moments before going back to bouncing. "It would still help if they even talked to each other once in a while, maybe lean off getting the two to avoid each other for a bit?"

Remus hesitated in answering, he didn't inherently disagree but that was easier said than done. His neck still tingled with pleasure even if he still felt sad for the last time Sirius had tried to bring up Wormtail back in Riddle's orphanage, he'd just sounded so sad even if it was now one of his fondest memories, Sirius holding him like that with no actual reason to do so. "We can try, but if they don't want to James, we can't force them."

"I know," he waved off quickly, "but that doesn't mean we stop trying." There was a heaviness in Prongs' voice now as he watched Remus closely, and his heart stuttered in concern for that look. James was really worried about something.

"It'll all balance out," he gently assured. Padfoot had good timing, he was creeping up behind James with a mischievous look in place, how he'd even gotten into the Restricted Section without either of them noticing was the real mystery they'd never get an answer to. Remus watched out of the corner of his eye casually like he noticed no such thing, hiding his oncoming grin well right up to Sirius opening the book behind Prongs.

It didn't scream.

Sirius dropped it in surprise, which did finally make James turn around and look at him oddly before he glanced down and noticed the same. He didn't even fall off the rope, the git.

"Merlin's pants this magic we're in gets stranger by the day," Remus said in awe as he reached out at random for another book right across the sign. There was no whispering. He flipped it open, and still there was no noise.

Somewhere in the bowls of this place, Evans must have finally noticed the same. "Nobody touch Harry's book! I'm going to see if I can't find some way to get us out of this once and for all."

"You're mad Evans," Peter still told her sincerely just as he had that very first five minutes they were in this. He'd watched her walk up and down forbidden isles with far too much excitement for this revelation of a pile of books.

"The only mad genius who has a hope of getting us out of this," Frank shrugged and defended as he followed her.

"I won't bet against her," James told him with a dopey smile still, watching her run past like a red streak of fire between isles now.

"Why would you want to stop at this rate?" Sirius huffed, reaching over and finally shoving James to the ground, who fell with a snicker of no regrets. "We're practically done, aren't we? A year and a bit left, if we just do Harry's school life anyways. What if we finally figure out what Dumbledore's been building up to this ruddy chapter and you cut us off?"

Lily ignored him, she'd put it to a vote if she found anything useful. In the meantime she was whisking off in a completely random direction but determined to find the potions section, begrudging Madam Pince more every second she'd never been allowed back here before.

Peter didn't keep going, but stopped with an easy enough smile at the three of them. He still hesitated and glanced back over his shoulder like he hoped something else would come along before any more awkward silence hung.

Remus and James exchanged a quick look, and Moony clearly decided to start with an easy one. "Think we'd get any homework done in this place if we brought it along, since we can't technically leave?"

Sirius snorted and gave him a scandalized look. "How dare you! Such blasphemy! You deserve that screaming book as much as Prongs did!"

"Since when do you need a book to make anyone scream?" Remus challenged back under his breath, which was a terrible idea really as Sirius gave him a flirty grin for the last time that had come up.

James grinned at Remus' little mutters just like always and said back at Sirius, "he's been converted, obviously he's spent too much time around those other eggheads."

"Maybe he's finally so smart he'll do all our homework for us now though," Sirius graciously tried to pin this as a good thing, even as he was mildly distracted by the image dancing in his head of getting Remus to replay the last time he'd been caught in here by Madam Pince, the Invisibility Section did not live up to its name that time and she'd thrown him out before he'd even fixed his pants-

"Why would you want him to?" Peter rolled his eyes, hopping up on the table and actually eye level with Padfoot and Moony and looking down at Prongs for once. He stopped in surprise to see James open, and shut his mouth as he finished, "last time he did Sinestra took off ten points for the drool marks on his own paper!"

Well that wasn't helping to stop Sirius' private thoughts, even if he snickered softly in agreement and Remus pouted at them. They could have kept going like that for hours, just snipping at each other for years again, but life always found a way to disrupt their little moments.

Regulus and Alice came into view, but it didn't feel as intrusive as it usually did when the youngest sat on the table next to Peter, something he'd never in his life do before all this with his implanted manners, and she sat casually on the floor even as James opened his mouth and began waving where the other two were.

"I figured," she assured. "I heard Lily though, and I'll leave them to it, they have a tendency to get lost in conversation and I need a map to keep up."

"I'd be happy to draw one for you if I had any more clue," James grinned.

Remus had almost forgotten he was even still holding the book at this point, but still shifted it to his other hand when Sirius came over and leaned on that side. Sirius did not miss this and gave him a disgruntled look for the clear dismissal, clearly ruining whatever he'd been about to say or do to his relief.

Sirius at least understood this time, it's not as if they could sneak off here without being noticed and he'd give him that, but he could still daydream while instead turning to Alice and giving her a show by demanding of Prongs, "and how would you do that when you still need one to get around this school!"

"Haha," James smirked, and she started laughing lightly for the boys teasing back and forth while Remus still muttered under his breath. Peter and Regulus didn't try to join in or even laugh along, but they didn't go away either.

Lily was already starting to feel a little dispirited in her quest as she finally found the potions section, and still hadn't even found the back of the library. They could look in here for literal years and still not come across some absolute remedy to get them out of this, and even if they did, who's to say they'd come across all the ingredients for it eventually? She was flipping through her seventh potions book, Reality Reactions, with some gruesome effects at just a few examples, still reading each page diligently in hopes even an ingredient or cure for an unhelpful potion would spark an idea, though admittedly skimming and outright skipping instructions until it worked.

Permanent Holiday- Never have a clear thought again

Ingredients Include:

Holly born of the thirteenth moon

Orange cat whiskers seeped in tabasco and dragon urine

Crushed hematite laced with tanzanite

Dorsal fin of an Irish mermaid

Cure; Why would you want to?

Instructions-

;

Essence of Dementor- Relive your worst memories forever

Ingredients Include:

Dementor's Breath

Hemlock soaked in nightshade for a month stirred counterclock wise every half hour and then stewed with seven poppy seeds born from a field of bones, soaked in a gulmarian giants blood, wrapped together with the hair of a unicorn tail less than a year old

The only cure; Dead Man's Water

Instructions-

Boil the

Be sure to seep

Add eleven cups of water a whisk at a time before

Should be glowing bright green

;

Forever After- A stasis state with no known cure

Ingredients Include:

Crushed bicuspid of an infants tooth

Twelve stocks of barley-

"Hey Lily?" Frank finally snagged her attention, surrounded by his own pile of books, and she eagerly set hers aside to see if he had any good news.

He however was just smiling as he showed her the spine of his newest book, Moste Potente Potions. She laughed as well for actually managing to come across the very book Harry once had, Hermione had impressed her so much with brewing a Polyjuice Potion out of that years before even she could. "You don't really want to stop, do you?" He asked, not even flipping through the new pages Hermione would one day gloss over as she tried to find some way to stop the Chamber of Secrets.

"No," she quietly admitted, looking back towards the others with something weirdly close to longing. "Even if, by some miracle we could, Sirius was right. We're so close to getting Dumbledore's answer, to maybe bringing it back to him now even if we couldn't do it ourselves."

"Had to try though, right?" He agreed. Even if he could send Alice safely away from this, he wasn't sure he'd get out of here alive without her anymore than the others at this point, they really did need each other.

"Yeah," she nodded stubbornly even as she gave in, "but Harry and Neville aren't done with us yet."

"Come on then," he sighed. "Might as well let those Marauder boys get their I told you so's out of their system now."

"We actually might find something of use by the time they're done with that," she huffed.

They walked back over to see James and Sirius giving Alice a show, telling some joke with false voices and everything about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun in a bar, while Remus watched with fond exasperation for something he'd probably seen a thousand times. Even Peter and Regulus were watching with mild interest.

Despite the fact she'd heard this one before, Alice still burst out laughing for the punchline at their level of enthusiasm more than anything, and kept beaming as James immediately offered to the two, "we can go again!"

"We'll live, thanks," Lily told him in exasperation already as she sat on the rope and began rocking on it like a swing. Frank sat beside his girlfriend on the ground and held her hand with a pleading look at Remus.

Sirius would not cave so easily, a taunting smile as he kept eyeing the pair and saying, "what, give up already? I thought it would take you two at least-"

Remus stamped on his foot and James said loudly, "hey Padfoot, I just thought of an even better punchline to that joke!"

Sirius ungracefully gave in these two were going soft on him but let Prongs deflect and nobody stopped Remus as he finally started on the chapter title to beat all, Horcruxes. Nobody bothered to try stopping Padfoot the second time when he laughed mercilessly and pointed obnoxiously at Evans he'd been so right even as he and James kept going loudly over each other for their own amusement in the light of such important information.

"I don't think those two will ever lose their obnoxious edge," Regulus told Peter quietly with disappointment. Even when the two were trying to be better for it, it still grated on his nerves, if in a lighter way than before, like watching drunks at his family gatherings.

"They wouldn't be themselves if they didn't," Peter quietly agreed. "I still think it's funny to watch."

Even the two most loud mouthed ones were listening intently to this most important of information though, Slughorn's real memory. Horcruxes, it turned out, were bits of his own soul keeping the Dark Lord alive. The rest of the pieces to this puzzle fit together a little too well, everything made clear with hindsight what Dumbledore had been teaching Harry all along.

There really was a way to stop all this. There were seven items out there, and they could name at least five of them. Harry had already been in direct contact with two, without even realizing it, and Dumbledore had been carrying around a third at the start of the book.

"How many do you think he actually has now though?" Frank asked in the deadly silence as Remus paused at the last paragraph. "Myrtle's long dead, and we haven't a hope of finding out where that diary is now without Lucius. Morfin's likely already dead for that ring, right? He's already killed Hepzibah surely, so he has at least those four-"

Regulus bit his cheek so hard he yelped in shock and spat out a bit of blood as he cursed more fluently than Sirius could when he realized, "that locket!"

The pretty, unfamiliar emeralds that had entranced him so in his parents study, was it possible Harry had so easily glossed over another one like he had?

"Reg?" Sirius leaned around his friend to look at him in concern while Peter tried to dig out one of the healing potions, but Regulus waved them both off as he explained.

"Back in our house, that locket that was described, it was in there! I found it and didn't say anything, but I, Merlin I think I, glory if only I'd taken it-" He was so woozy by the end he wondered if he was going to fall off the table and really appreciated Peter giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder. Was that finally it, the reason he died? Horrible scenarios began trampling his thoughts, how it had ended up there? Had Bellatrix killed him if he'd caught her stashing it away there to keep it secret?

"Well I'm glad you didn't!" Potter was looking at him white faced, as if legitimately frightened for the first time. "That diary was possessing Ginny when she had it on her, imagine if you had!"

"Right, yeah," he muttered to some agreement of that, still shivering and leaning closer to his friend for this revelation.

"This is insane, I can't believe all that's been under our nose this whole time," Lily shook her head slowly from side to side as she kept repeating it all in her head.

"We've got to grab them now though, if we do manage it again," Alice rebutted, even if she squeezed Frank's hand painfully tight while doing so. "There's got to be some way to keep them from possessing us and have our hands on them early, this can't all be for nothing."

"And do what with them though?" Sirius asked hoarsely, still watching Regulus with very wide eyes. "Prongs is right, we have no way to do anything about them, and we don't have any guarantees they'll even come along with us when we get out of this. At least, now we know where one is-"

"Will be," James grimly corrected, "and we have no idea how or when it got to your place."

"Could have been there all along," Sirius uneasily tried to joke with that old smirk, "barmy as that house-hold is, making everyone in it mad as Voldemort."

Only Remus and James gave an uneasy laugh.

"We can't just wait around for them to fall into place in the future," Lily said slowly, playing with her hair. "Dumbledore lost his hand getting that ring, we can't let it get that bad again, we'll need his whole body. Not to mention, I don't want to let that diary possess someone just to activate the basilisk and kill that bit."

"Not unless we have a course of action though," Regulus shook his head and started biting at his cheek again, easily ignoring the pain in the action. "Otherwise we'll just end up worse off."

"We've still got a lot of unanswered questions about this," Frank uneasily agreed, dropping Alice's hand and wrapping a tight arm around her. "We shouldn't decide anything until we have more answers."

"What if we do come across another one though," Alice corrected as she looked up at him, and then each of them. "We should decide what we're going to do about it, now."

The other three still looked argumentative enough, James cut in before a circle could even erupt and offered a solution. "We take it, but play pass the buck."

Sirius snorted in amusement for his best mate while the others looked at him in disbelief for a joke right now. Sirius raised his hand for a high-five, which James happily leaned up and returned as Padfoot explained, "maybe it'll come with us and maybe it won't, but we won't know until we find out, and better safe than sorry in the meantime. No one person will keep it for too long though, and we all know each other well enough that if something starts not feeling right, it goes to the next person. It took Ginny a year to get so badly possessed it tried to kill her, nobody will hang onto it that long."

Both Longbottom and Regulus opened their mouths with clear apprehension, but James superseded, "look, we've all got stakes on not wanting any of this to come to pass. Nobody will have to participate if they don't want to, and if we can't get it, it stays," James concluded with finality. "Nobody's getting killed on a possibility."

The flaw in the plan stared them all down, how long until they got out of this?

Remus and Peter watched their idiots in concern, well aware who was going to be the first to volunteer to hold these things if this became their new reality. Peter started biting at his nails and Remus leaned into Sirius, but nobody truly raised protest, the stakes were too high and there was something to be said for the short term goals.

Sirius gave Remus a little nudge then for him to finish, it would do them no good to sit around anxiously worrying about it in the meantime as a decision had been made, and nobody could protest. Harry's revelation of his own stakes in this swirled around them all as each felt they knew themselves well enough for that hypothetical. To walk or be dragged to that end, their own final moments loomed in every passage of these books.