It was January 20, 1979 in the days before The Boy Who Lived, the days where Voldemort reigned with his faithful cohorts, Bellatrix, Lucius, Narcissa, Severus, Alecto, and Dumbledore fought back with James, Lily, Caradoc, Emmeline, Gideon, and the war was intense.
People died in larger amounts everyday, and little was being done to stop it. Giants, dementors, and other Dark creatures dominated the outdoors. Foreign allies huddled into their safeholds, terrified that any motion to help besieged England would draw Voldemort's wrathful eyes overseas and bring vengeance on their heads.
The Order of the Phoenix was overworked, trying to do everything at once, support the staggering ministry, protect muggles and wizards alike, fight against the Death Eaters, and establish diplomatic relations with at least one country.
Through all this, something thrived that made Lily Evans absolutely enraged. It made her more furious than the despair, hatred, and horror that was accompanying Lord Voldemort faithfully. It's name? Sexism.
"Is there anything else to discuss?" Dumbledore asked.
There were heavy rings under his eyes, matching ones to the ones gracing the faces around him.
"Oh, yeah." Sirius Black flashed a charming grin.
The rings were mysteriously shallower under his eyes. Lily Evans was surprised that anything less than perfect had the nerve to appear on Black's face.
"Found this in my dear mum's workshop before I ...erm...how to put this..."
"Ran away?" James Potter suggested. "Ditched? Left hell to come to heaven?"
"Yeah. Anyways, I managed to grab this without killing myself on the numerous protections while my mum was gleefully blasting my name off that damn tapestry." Sirius held up one long finger, elegant and smooth, to stop anyone from speaking. "Now, now, I know it looks completely ordinary..."
"But when it's in his mum's workshop," James interjected.
"Surrounded by hundreds of protection spells," Remus Lupin added.
"It's something definitely worth looking into." Peter Pettigrew finished.
Lily gazed at the plain looking object under discussion. It was a thin book, maybe a diary, with smooth creamy pages, and a pale green cover. All in all, totally extraordinary. Not.
Flitwick raised his wand. A golden flame danced around the edges of the book, but after it vanished the book was left looking exactly as it had been.
"There's nothing Dark about it."
"No matter." McGonagall cut across, impatient. "The book isn't healing injured victims, or defending innocents, or handling supplies. We might use it to take notes, but a single empty book has no importance in the middle of war."
"Hmph." Sirius crossed his arms. The movement knocked a bottle of ink over spilling black ink across the desk.
"Watch it!" Lily quickly saved the book from harm.
"Shit!" Sirius swore as he siphoned off the ink.
"Mr. Black, watch your language!" McGonagall admonished.
"Lily, you can take care of the book." Flitwick absently commanded.
Lily sat back as the plans for the next effort of staving off Voldemort flew around the table. She had been carefully observing the Order for months now, and she had evidence to support her hypothesis of sexism in the Order. For example, right now. The men were near the head of the table, absorbed by the planning. Even McGonagall, Dumbledore's faithful second-in-command was delegated a position after all the men were seated.
Another thing, all the girls were given busy work, useless assignments. The boys got the diplomatic relations, the defending positions, the battles, the rescues, in short everything interesting and worth joining the Order for.
Guess what else? When Lily had tentatively asked for a place in a defending position, her request was briskly and immediately shot down with "You're too young", "It's dangerous out there", and "That's not a very good idea". What the hell? Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew were just as young as she was, no one objected to their presence in the field. Danger was everywhere, there was no escaping it. And what did they mean, "not a good idea?" Black had come up with stupider plans but those were carefully considered.
Lily's hope for the Order had just about dried up. She hadn't done anything useful since 1977. The men in the Order were scrupulous about "protecting" the women, and anyone who did anything without the full and express permission of the entire Order(just the men) was firmly put into their place. No one bothered to try and even hide anything! Like now, McGonagall saying the book was unimportant, then Flitwick delegating the responsibility of it(oh yes, definitely time-consuming and difficult) to her. Did they think girls were stupid? Or maybe they believed women were doves, sheep, and cows, willing to be led here and there tamely and without objections.
"We need recruits." Caradoc Dearborn said wearily. "There's not enough of us."
Lily rolled her eyes. Everyone's load would be easier if the girls got to participate.
"How about Alice Longbottom?" She suggested.
People started in surprise that Lily had voiced an opinion. Heads turned, eyebrows rose.
"A girl?" Sturgis Podmore said in disgust.
Lily crossed her arms and gave him stare for stare.
"Alice Longbottom's been an Auror for seven years and has been the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for two. And those have been two very successful years, and very helpful to the Order. It'd be even better if she was one of us. And her husband is the head of the Aurors."
"Longbottom's a wonderful leader." Moody growled.
Lily's mood rose, and she felt very happy toward the world in general. Especially Moody. He could recognize a good idea when he saw it! There was hope.
"He's a fair and meticulous man."
Lily's hopes came crashing down.
"All in favor of inducting Frank Longbottom?" Dumbledore asked serenely.
"Hold it, what about Alice?"
Lily liked and respected Dumbledore, but he seemed to be stuck in the past, where women had no rights.
"Ah," Dumbledore was brought up short.
All the women in the Order stared at Lily like she was committing some sort of faux pas.
"You can induct her." Dumbledore flapped a hand dismissively. "Now, about Frank..."
Don't blow up, don't blow up, Lily chanted to herself.
"Lily?"
"WHAT?!"
Oops.
"Erm..." Emmeline Vance took a cautious step back. "It's time to go."
Everyone in the Department of Magical Artifacts could tell what mood Lily was in by the way she walked. She bounced when she was happy, her feet dragged when she was sad, she went willy-nilly in directions when she was thoughtful, and on the rare occasions Lily was angry, marched, stomped, and thundered. Ellie Mason had befriended Lily when she had first come to the Ministry. Thus, Ellie was privy to the privilege of seeing Lily in various moods in moderations of hilarity. Ellie could count on one hand the number of times she had seen Lily angry, she could count on no hands the number of times she had seen Lily in the mood she was in now.
All the workers' heads shot up when the door crashed open. They quickly put their heads down as the door slammed shut and a howling hurricane approached the information desk. The workers watched from the corners of their eyes, feeling much pity for the bewildered occupant of the desk.
Lily slammed a thin green book onto the desk, eyes blazing, daring the boy to object.
"Analyze this book!" She barked. "And if there is nothing bloody rotten out of the ordinary with the damn Godforsaken thing, burn it!"
And with that lovely greeting, Lily Evans swept out in a maelstrom of swirling papers. And no one dared to object.
Heads popped back up cautiously.
"D'you think Lily's been kidnapped and Polyjuiced?"
"Evans, you're in a mood."
Lily turned to see one of the last people she wanted to see at the time. She kept on turning and continued on her way. Lily heard a deep sigh, and a large, warm hand shot out and clamped down on her arm.
"If you slam those bloody heels of yours any harder into the ground, there'll be chips in the floor. And if you seethe any louder, the Minister himself will know and he won't be happy. He's in a rather tense meeting right now."
"Black, I suggest you release my arm immediately, if you wish to have your hand still attached to your arm."
Sirius Black raked a hand through his thick, shiny, neat hair. He flashed a smile that made normal girls swoon right into his arms, and the light glimmered off of the perfect teeth. Lily was this close to vomiting at his "perfection". Odd, most girls seemed to like it.
"Well, I can see why James likes you. You're different. Not like most women."
They were in a ministry hall, and plenty of women were hanging out of doorways watching Black. Lily supposed it was this sort of behaviour that led to sexism. Airbrained idiots that had nothing better to do than to gossip about what their peers were doing, check and reapply makeup, redo hairstyles that were exactly the same as their friends, make sure their clothes looked "fashionable"(another word for looking stupid, but thinking you look good), and drool over boys. Ick.
"Feeling analytical today, Black? Why don't you do some introspection instead?"
Black ignored her.
"I don't see why you had to break up with James." He whined.
Ugh. Childish behaviour from a grown man. What was the world coming to?
"You two were perfect." He continued.
Lily felt the beginnings of a headache start to build in her temples. If she had to listen to Black prattle on any longer...well, she wouldn't be responsible for her actions.
"You are mistaken. Potter broke up with me, under some stupid noble pretext that he was 'doing it for my own good'. I can decide that for myself, thank you very much."
"That was when he joined the Order, wasn't it?" Black said thoughtfully. "I can explain the noble complex; Diggle pumped him full of stories of heroism, sacrifice, glory, and the whole she-bang."
Black's words made hope rise up in Lily's heart. She ruthlessly crushed it down.
"Is there a reason why you sought me out? Because I'm getting tired of hearing you talk." Lily snapped.
"Ah, nevermind." Black flashed another 1,000,000,000,000 Watt smile. The ministry girls sighed. Lily felt her eye twitch.
"Trying to catch the stray thought in your dense little skull?" Lily asked acidicly.
"Bye, Lily Bear. I've gotten my quota of insults for today. If you ever want to talk to me about James, you know where to find me." He wiggled his fingers in a mockery of farewell.
"In the pits of hell." Lily muttered once she thought Black was out of earshot.
"You're not the one who decides that, Lily Billy." He called back, startling her.
"Would you stop with those ridiculous pet names?" Lily shouted. "You don't have the right to call me any of those!"
"Sorry, I forgot. Only 'Jamesie-kinns' has permission to address you with stupid endearments."
Mouth working soundlessly, Lily watched the impudent rascal blow her a kiss and saunter off like the world was at his feet. The eyes of many females followed him hungrily.
"You know him?" Patricia Nelson said enviously.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"How could knowing anyone so," she swooned. "Dreamy, be unfortunate?"
"Hah!" Lily snorted. "You'd be surprised."
She continued down the hall. She had better things to do than to converse with a new addition to the Sirius Black fanclub.
A thought made her pause. It was deliciously evil and every centimeter of it was a way to put a thorn into Sirius Black's side.
The doorbell rang, forcing the three men in the shared flat awake.
"Whaaa?" James Potter complained.
"Argh!" Sirius Black replied.
Remus Lupin's only response was to shove a pillow over his head.
Peter Pettigrew had wanted to get his own flat, which confused the other three completely, but they let it pass as one of Peter's oddities. Speaking of, Peter had quite a many oddities these days...
The doorbell rang again, insistently.
All three men decided to ignore it.
It rang again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
"God!" Sirius Black roared furiously. "Can't a man have some sleep?!"
He stormed out of his room and into the living room. He nearly tripped over some dirty laundry, filthy stacked plates, and Unidentifiable Furry Objects. He managed the rest of the way unharmed, and pulled open the door. Bright sunlight flooded his eyes, temporarily blinding him. He could hear reverent whispers. His instincts told him to run. Run away. Far away. Far far away.
"Get him!" A girl shrieked.
Sirius had spots dancing around his vision, but it had cleared enough for him to see the huge mob of girls rushing at him.
Poor thing. It just wasn't his day.
Ellie Mason looked up to see Lily grinning like a cat who had made off with a bowl of cream and a whole brace of fat, juicy fish.
"And where were you yesterday, miss?" Ellie planted herself firmly in front of Lily.
"You were looking for me?" Lily looked surprised.
Ellie crossed her arms.
"You come storming into my department, frighten one of my rookies until he near wets himself, cause disaster in the form of paperwork chaos, and go crashing back out, pissed to hell, and you expect me not to look for you?"
Lily blushed.
Ellie pulled a familiar green book out of her robe and slapped it against her arm.
"And for your information, this book has high magical LPQ, levels of potential and-"
"Quality, I know."
Ellie glared at her.
"You have a smart mouth, girl. Anyway, it also has NHI. It's not giving up any more secrets, but maybe if I work on it for a month..."
"NHI?" Lily murmured. "That's 'near human intelligence' right?"
"If you're so smart, you tell me."
"Oh, well, I see there's no talking to you when you're in a pet." Lily said wisely.
Ellie sputtered indignantly.
"When I'm in a pet? Who was the one screaming profanities here and there? Who is the one with the firecracker temper? Who-"
"Definitely not fit for conversation." Lily said cheerfully.
She left Ellie scowling.
"I swear, these Order folk..." Ellie muttered to herself as she viciously slashed at some paperwork.
"She's in the Order?" A surprised voice asked. "The Order of the Phoenix?" Alice Walker peered over the edge of the cubicle.
Ellie looked guilty.
"Don't repeat that." She ordered.
Alice saluted.
"Wouldn't think of it."
Sirius Black, bedraggled, exhausted, and traumatized, limped back to his flat.
"What happened to you, mate?" James Potter asked concernedly.
Sirius envied James for a second. There James was, lounging carefree on their filthy couch, munching on a snack. Remus Lupin came staggering out of his bedroom yawning hugely and blinking owlishly in the dim light. Remus tripped, caught himself, and hauled himself upright.
"You managed to find our couch again?" Remus asked in surprise.
"I had to move a couple of things, but yes, I managed to find it." James waved a hand.
"Did you vanish the stuff?" Remus wanted to know.
"Nah, I just moved it into Sirius' room."
"What?" Sirius yelled.
"Hey, it was the cleanest." James said defensively.
"Don't you think it was that way for a reason?"
"I don't get why you're such a neat freak." James grumbled. "If I had to guess by personality, I'd say Remus was the obsessive cleaner."
Remus grinned.
"Sirius is just our little oddball." He patted Sirius on the head. "Urgh! Your hair is all greasy!"
"What!" James exclaimed. "Sirius? Our Sirius? Sirius Black? Padfoot? The one that washes his hair everyday? The one that has more hair products that a girl?"
"I do not!" Sirius said indignantly.
James gave him a look.
"Sarah Eloise Richardson." James said slowly. "Biggest girlie-girl in the whole school. Got up at three every morning for her appearance. She had only, what, a hundred hair products? You have, what, 2 million?"
"Six hundred seventy-two and one-third." Remus smirked.
"Well, excuse me." James sniffed.
"All sorted by preference, then quantity, then color." Remus continued.
James snorted.
"Wizarding and muggle, and placed on every available surface in his bathroom."
"How do you know all of this?" Sirius and James gave him twin looks of worry and suspicion.
Remus shrugged.
"One day I was bored..."
"Moving on," Sirius said. "Why couldn't you use the magical energy that you used to move the stuff to my room to vanish the stuff?"
"Oh!" James said in a high pitched falsetto. "I'm so sorry! To think that insignificant little me," James put a hand on his chest. "Could do such a thing! Shame on me!"
"Can't you have some pity?" Sirius asked. "I was woken up at eight in the morning by a horde of rabid girls, was blindfolded, groped, tied up, and tortured."
"Ouch." Remus said.
"Painful and traumatic." James nodded.
Sirius glared at them and stormed off to his room.
Remus turned to James.
"By the way, how do you know all that about Richardson?"
James blushed.
"Not the point."
"You know..." Remus said mildly. "When he cleans his room and washes his hair, he'll start wondering how the hell did those girls find our flat." He went back into his room."
"How do you know us so well?" James grinned and stretched lazily out on his couch.
Hello! I'm wondering whether or not to make this an AU fic. Please vote on my poll in my profile!
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