"Nice t-shirts, guys!" Fabian Prewett grinned, gesturing towards Sirius, James, Lily, Peter and Remus's Order of the Phoenix shirts. Sirius grinned back, taking a seat in the row behind him.
"You can order them from us in three different colours and sizes. Had to do something to promote team unity, didn't we?" he smirked. "Especially since the Death Eaters got all those matching tattoos."
"How many times, Sirius?" Remus snapped irritably. "They're not tattoos. They are marks of extremely dark magic. It's not something to joke about." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"You've got to laugh about it," he shrugged. "Either that or become as paranoid as Moody."
"Speaking of Moody," James leaned over. "He's chairing the meeting tonight." Remus frowned.
"What happened to Dumbledore?" he asked, sounding slightly concerned.
"He's fine," Lily assured him. "He told me that he had Hogwarts business to attend to. Something about an interview."
"For Defence Against the Dark Arts," Peter nodded. "He asked Amelia Bones's father to step in but he refused. Apparently he didn't fancy the risk."
"What risk?" Sirius snorted. "He'd be gone in a year! They never last!"
"Yeah," James nodded. "He knows my Dad! That would've been great if he'd taught last year!"
"STUPEFY!"
Lily toppled off her chair and crashed to the floor, unconscious. James let out an enraged yell, Sirius leapt up from his chair, wand outstretched and Remus's eyes swept around the room urgently. Most of the other Order members had their wands out and looked terrified.
"Constant vigilance!" Moody barked, stepping out from behind a suit of armour, where he'd been concealed. "You need to concentrate!"
"There was no need for that!" James yelled, gathering Lily into his arms and pushing her hair gently out her face. Sirius was also glaring at Moody but Remus had sat back down, looking slightly irritated at having been caught out.
"That was extremely necessary, laddie," Moody growled. "Couldn't have gone for one of you boys now, could I? I'd have given you the impression that the Death Eaters will lay off Miss Evans just because she's a young lady and you'd be very mistaken in thinking that." Moody walked heavily to the front of the room and frowned at everyone. "The Death Eaters would kill every single last ONE of you, without hesitation. If you're not prepared for that," he pointed with a steady arm. "There's the door."
"Ennervate," James muttered, once he was sure that Moody had calmed down. Pale and shaken, Lily slowly opened her eyes and tried to sit up.
"Constant vigilance," Moody nodded again, for Lily's benefit. She refused James's offer to help her up and took her seat, whilst James continued to glare at Moody. "Excellent t-shirts," Moody added gruffly. Sirius looked slightly less furious.
"Tonight," Moody announced. "We will be discussing risk." He crossed his arms. "This is a dangerous organisation to work for." He conjured a blackboard and chalk. Everyone watched in silence as he wrote the number twelve on the board. "Who can tell me what that stands for?" No one spoke.
"No one?" Moody growled. "Miss Evans?" Lily shook her head, her face expressionless. "The number twelve represents the twelve Order members who have already died doing their duty." There were sharp intakes of breath and a few people gasped loudly. "This isn't a playground!" Moody barked. "You need to be prepared and you need to know the facts!"
Moody then scrawled the ratio 1:10 on the board.
"Who would like to have a guess as to what this represents?" he asked.
"Shit," Sirius muttered in James's ear. "I bloody hope that's the ratio of Death Eaters to Order members."
"It isn't," Remus shook his head, on Sirius's other side. "It's the other way around."
"Well done, Mr Lupin!" Moody barked. "Correct! That is the ratio of Order members to Death Eaters." There were a few more audible gasps. "As you can see," Moody raised his voice above the slight whispers. "We're outnumbered." He paused to survey his audience. "Still feel like joining?"
"Mr Potter!" Moody growled. All eyes flew to James. "What is the life expectancy of the average wizard?"
"Um," James frowned. "Eighty-three, isn't it?" Moody nodded.
"Exactly right! Mr Pettigrew, what is the life expectancy for a werewolf?" Peter looked terrified and shot the briefest of glances towards Remus before responding in a shaky voice.
"Isn't it… isn't it fifty?"
"Yes!" Moody barked. "Thirty-three years lower than the average. But," he paused to write a huge number five on the board. "Anyone care to guess what this particular figure refers to?" There was a long and uncomfortable silence in which no one exchanged glances and most people stared down into their own laps awkwardly.
"Is it five years?" Dorcas Meadowes asked tentatively, half-raising her hand. Moody shook his head.
"Wrong! Optimistic of you, Miss Meadowes, but incorrect." Lily bit her lip but didn't speak. "Any more guesses?" Moody was scrutinising his audience with narrowed eyes. "Give up?" He strode over to the blackboard and underlined the number five with a thick, white line.
"Five months," he announced gruffly. "That's your new life expectancy, should you join the Order."
The blunt truth was not met with any audible expression of shock or fear; it was only evident in the sudden freeze that had spread across the room. No one was moving. Facial expressions were frozen, skin had paled, yet no one spoke or even moved. Every mind was racing with exactly the same thought.
"That's the reality of the Order," Moody growled, although he sounded slightly less harsh than before. "This is war. You're out on the front lines."
"Fuck," James muttered. Lily grabbed his hand, out of sight to everyone else.
"Now the question is," Moody watched the young witches and wizards closely. "Who still feels like joining?" He waved his wand slowly and a blank sheet of parchment appeared, attached to the blackboard. "Sign up here."
Moody summoned one of the straight-backed, wooden chairs to zoom towards him. When it reached the front, he sat down down next to the board and stared unblinking out at the room.
No one moved for a few minutes. James was frantically stroking Lily's hand with his thumb, whilst he used his other hand to brush back his hair and stare, shocked at the opposite wall. Lily seemed to be having trouble breathing and she absent-mindedly twirled her engagement ring with her free hand. Peter was mumbling almost silently under his breath and Remus was gazing around the room, as if he was trying to memorise everyone's faces, just in case they weren't around in five months time.
"Oh, what the hell," Sirius suddenly muttered, rising and kicking his chair away. Amid whispers and a few whimpers, he strode across the room, conjured a quill out of thin air and stopped in front of the blackboard. In bold lettering, underneath the heading The Order of the Phoenix, he wrote Sirius Black. Breaths stilled across the room. The Order had its first new member.
"Mind if I borrow that quill?" Remus was suddenly standing behind Sirius, a sincere expression upon his face.
"No problem, mate," Sirius smirked, clapping his friend on the back and standing to one side. Seconds after the name Remus Lupin been added to the list, a hand plucked the quill from him.
"Can't let my best mates risk their lives without me now, can I?" James grinned, as he scribbled James Potter underneath the two previous names. "I solemnly swear, and all that. Marauders all the way." Sirius gave him a high-five as he joined them the other side of the blackboard.
"And whatever you say," Lily chipped in, grabbing the quill from a hesitant James. "I am not going to stand back and watch you fight without me. We're in this together." Lily Evans was carefully written, in a much neater script than the other three names. James looked as though he wanted to argue but Sirius grinned and threw an arm around Lily's shoulders.
"Welcome to the club, Evans," he muttered. Scurrying to the front, pale-faced and trembling, Peter Pettigrew almost reluctantly held out his hand for the quill. After three attempts at writing his name and murmuring something unintelligible about 'doing my bit', the hastily scrawled name Peter Pettigrew looked as out of place on the list as the wizard himself did amongst the other three Marauders. They stood at the front with a sense of pride, duty and loyalty whereas Peter tried to smile but his body language only highlighted the fear in his face. He looked more miserable than proud.
Next, two Ravenclaw wizards from the Marauders' year stood up abruptly to leave. Sirius stared after them incredulously but Lily shrugged sadly. She'd seen too many of her friends refuse to join the Order because they didn't want to die young. Her best friend from Hogwarts, Mary McDonald, hated the Death Eaters just as much as Lily did but she didn't have enough faith in her own spells and abilities to put them towards actively fighting against Voldemort. Too many people didn't have the immense courage that it took.
Marlene McKinnon rose confidently and walked to the front, smiling encouragingly at Peter as he handed her the quill. With a regretful glance at the retreating backs of their fellow students, two more Ravenclaws, including Dorcas Meadowes, made their way to the board and waited in a line behind Marlene. Then, the Prewett twins nodded to each other and rose from their seats, joining their fellow Gryffindors at the front of the hall. By the time there were ten names, at least six more people were waiting in line. One red-faced Gryffindor girl whispered a tearful apology before exiting the room but she was the last to leave.
Eighteen new recruits stood at the front once the seats were empty. Moody finally stood, nodding appreciatively at the group.
"This is the hardest part," Moody growled quietly. "Now, we fight. Some of you will die, but you've all accepted that risk." The group fell silent once more. "Be back here at eight o'clock tomorrow morning!" Moody barked. "Albus wants to address you all. Goodnight!"
"That was cheerful," James remarked sarcastically, as they made their way outside. "Couldn't have brought a few Death Eaters in for an example of a real duel, could he?"
"I don't doubt that the thought crossed his mind," Remus replied grimly. "Still, there's no point in sugar-coating it, is there?"
"I suppose," Lily sighed, gripping James's hand more tightly. "But to have it outlined so… bluntly…"
"It's terrifying," Peter squeaked. James patted him reassuringly on the back.
"Don't worry about it, Pete," he shrugged. "They didn't factor our Animagus forms into that little life expectancy estimate, did they? They've got to be worth at least another six months."
"You should tell Dumbledore," Lily sighed. "The Order could really use skills like that."
"No," James shook his head. "It'll only cause unnecessary trouble. Besides, we've already got McGonagall."
"True," Remus nodded, turning to Sirius. "You're very quiet tonight."
"Just thinking," Sirius muttered, keeping his gaze fixed ahead of them. Lily and James exchanged a worried glance.
"Padfoot, it's fine to be worried," James shrugged. Sirius frowned and didn't look at his best friend.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Sirius," Lily shook her head. "This is the most major thing that has happened in our lives up to this point. Of course we're going to talk about it." Sirius spun around to face them, so rapidly that Remus almost tripped in his effort to stop walking so suddenly.
"I said, I don't want to talk about it, OK?" Sirius's expression was suddenly murderous. "You know what? Forget it, Prongs. I think I'll just head home."
"Padfoot, come on, don't be like-"
"-no, it's fine," Sirius interrupted. "I'll see you in the morning."
With a sharp crack, he vanished. The remaining four were left staring at the place where he'd disappeared. Remus sighed.
"James, you'd better follow him. I'll take these two back to your parents' place."
"You can go if you want," James offered but Remus shook his head.
"I'll just irritate him even more," he smiled slightly. "It's fine. You go."
"Lily?" James turned anxiously to his fiancee.
"It's fine," Lily nodded. "Sirius needs you." James kissed her softly.
"Thanks," he murmured. She smiled and nodded. "I'll see you three later."
In the hallway outside Sirius's flat, there was no light. James rapped on the door loudly, eager to get out of the chilly night and into the warmth of the living room as quickly as possible. The door opened slightly and James saw the tip of Sirius's wand illuminating the darkness.
"Oh, it's you," Sirius sighed. He opened the door wider in resignation. "Come in."
"What's up, mate?" James asked, as soon as he stepped inside and Sirius had closed the door on the dark night. Judging by the temperature inside, no one had lit the fire so James directed his wand at the coals and flames immediately crackled into life.
"Cheers," Sirius replied quietly, as they sat down.
"What's wrong?" James repeated the question. Sirius sighed again.
"I just don't want to spend the next five months talking about this, if that's really all the time we've got left." His voice was heavy with sarcasm.
"I don't get it, Padfoot," James frowned. "You were the first one to sign up. You heard what Moody said and yours was still the first name on the list."
"No!" Sirius suddenly yelled, rising. "That's completely different!"
"What?" James frowned. "How is it different?"
"Because that's about me," Sirius spoke through clenched teeth. "I'm not scared of dying. I'm… I'm scared about one of you…"
"Sirius," James sighed, getting to his feet and moving to stand next to his best friend. "That's…that's the risk we take. That's what Moody was talking about. There's nothing we can do to stop it."
"But are you sure you have to do it?" Sirius continued urgently. "You're going to marry Lily in a month or so. Maybe if you didn't play such an active role in the fighting and…"
"Don't ask me that," James shook his head. "I'm not willing to leave the Order anymore than you are."
"What about Remus?" Sirius asked frantically. "Do you think I could persuade…?" James laughed dryly.
"You'd have even less chance persuading him than you would me."
"And Pete?"
"He'd never let us all risk our lives while he sat at home on his own. You know he wouldn't."
"Alright," Sirius breathed. "Fine. I'm doing this on one condition."
"What?" James questioned.
"We don't split up, the four of us. I don't want to be sitting at home, wondering about you and Remus on a different shift. If we're in this, we're in this together." James grinned.
"Of course we are," he laughed. "As if Dumbledore would split us up, anyway."
"Yeah?" It was unusual for Sirius to seek so much reassurance but James nodded.
"I solemnly swear," he smirked. "And I might have bribed Dumbledore with Chocolate Frogs so that he'd rig the rota." For the first time since the meeting, Sirius laughed.
"Well, you'll have him eating out of the palm of your hand, then."
"Let's get back to mine," James grinned. "I've got Firewhisky."
When they reached the front door, James stopped.
"Hey Padfoot, you know this wedding business?" Sirius stopped too and watched his best friend with a playful suspicion.
"What about it?"
"Lily's asking Marlene to do that maid of honour thing," James stated. Sirius nodded appreciatively.
"Nice," he grinned. "She'll look pretty good in the dress robes at least."
"Yeah," James grinned. He met Sirius's gaze. "So you wanna be my best man?"