June, 1978: The Hogwarts Express

It was an inexplicably dark and gloomy day for June, gray clouds rolling morosely over the sky, damp, cold mists rolling over the land from the north sea. Well, thought James miserably as he turned from the window, it wasn't really that inexplicable – the Dementors were breeding again. It was moments like this (though he'd never admit it) that he almost wished he were a Muggle, blissfully unaware of what was happening, rolling contently through life – until things he couldn't understand would happen and his family would be brutally murdered, just because they were there, just because they were Muggles. He sighed. This was not how he'd imagined his life when he was eleven years old, about to start at Hogwarts, when all this terror was just a whisper and a shadow. He was not off to be the greatest Chaser the world had ever seen, winning every game for England – his infuriating Gryffindor pride made sure of that. No, he, along with all three of his best friends in the world, had applied to be Aurors, determined to help save the world. And because the ministry was so desperate for Aurors in these times, all but one of them had been accepted – and the only reason they hadn't even considered Remus was because he was a werewolf, and they'd said bluntly that 'werewolfs are considered a security risk'. He tried not to think about that fact that most Aurors lasted mere months in the service before they were blasted out of existence – he was young, he was only eighteen, he was invincible. He sighed again.

'James?' Lily waved on hand in front of his face. 'Are you listening, James?'

'Huh?' he said, looking around the compartment. It contained all of the graduating Gryffindors that had chosen to take the train back – himself and Lily, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Lily's friend Marlene. The other two girls, Hestia and Sally, had been picked up by their parents earlier at Hogwarts. There were other students that had vanished from Hogwarts years ago – he could hardly remember their faces. None had been in his dorm, or particular scope of friends. Sirius grinned at him.

'I was telling the girls about my flat where we're all going to live – they were surprised by your seeming lack of enthusiasm.'

'I'm totally enthusiastic,' James said. 'Here I was, thinking I was finally free of seeing your ugly mug every day, and then I agree in some drunken moment to actually live with you after Hogwarts as well.'

'Not only that,' said Sirius cheerfully, 'you'll get to see my charming self every day at work as well, seeing as we're all going to be Aurors together.'

Remus snapped his book shut. 'Can we please talk about something other than our future careers?' he asked, sounding very bitter. Marlene glanced at him, startled.

'Aren't you going-' she began. Peter cut across her loudly. 'Padfoot, pass me the chocolate frogs, would you?' Marlene glanced curiously from Remus to Peter, but took the not-so-subtle hint and dropped the subject.

And so, for the rest of the train ride, they purposely ignored their uncertain futures, the darkness that awaited them, and instead played a very loud game of exploding snap, filling every explosion-free gap with happy reminisces of their time at Hogwarts ('hey Prongs, remember the time we set the suit of armour on Lily at Halloween and she thought it had come alive'… 'yes, Sirius, and then she cursed the both of you so bad you were breathing fire for days afterwards'… 'that was kind of fun, actually, we set Davy Gudgeon's hair alight twice after that…you'd think he'd learn after the first time…').

It was towards the end of the journey that it happened; after they'd all singed their eyebrows to some extent and Sirius was happily collecting his winnings from the latest game – James' copy of the Daily Prophet, Peter's last chocolate frog, Remus' book, Lily's quill and Marlene's right sock. In quick succession, six flashes of flame burst into the compartment, and from each one, a feather dropped at everyones feet.

At the first flash, all six had leapt up and drawn their wands, Sirius pulling the door open to stare up and down the train, Peter peering nervously out the window.

'What on earth?' exclaimed Lily, bending down and prodding the feather with her wand. 'I can't see anything outside' said Peter. 'And we're not slowing down or anything.' The train rattled on at full speed, and they looked at each other in some confusion. James couldn't help but think how depressing it was, when mere feathers could cause such paranoia in six adult witches and wizards. He slumped back onto the seat and picked up his own feather, twirling it between thumb and forefinger.

'Don't play with it, James,' said Lily worriedly. 'We don't know what it is.'

'It's just a feather, Lily,' he pointed out.

'Yes, but it could be a portkey or it could explode or – I don't know, don't you find feathers randomly appearing rather suspicious?' She glared at him, and he shrugged and dropped the feather onto the seat beside him.

'They're phoenix feathers!' Remus said, having levitated his to the level of his eyes. 'D'you reckon its from Dumbledore's bird?' Sirius asked.

'Dumbledore has a phoenix?' Marlene asked.

Sirius nodded. 'Yeah, Fawkes. It's always in his office – it burst into flame once when I was there.'

'Why would Dumbledore send us feathers?' asked Lily.

Sirius shrugged. 'To use as quills? It'd be kind of fun to have a phoenix feather as a quill…they have magical properties, so you'd probably be able to write one hell of an essay with it.' He picked his up and waved it round. 'Or we could always sell them to wand makers – yeoch!' He dropped it as it burst into flame once more. James hastily flicked his own flaming feather off the chair and onto the floor. Once the last sparks had died down, rolls of parchment were sitting where before had been feathers. James glanced at Lily, who had her wand trained on the parchments like they were about to jump up and attack. Then again, the feathers had burst into flame again and blistered Sirius' finger (which he was cooling with a burst of water from his wand), so maybe she had a point.

'Should we – should we have a look, do you think?' asked Peter nervously. 'I mean, they've got our names on them.'

Remus unrolled the one addressed to himself with his wand and cautiously levitated it to a level where he could read it. The rest followed suit, James pushing his glasses more securely onto his nose.

If you are interested in the Order of the Phoenix, please be present at the Hog's Head on the 25th of June at 10pm. You will receive further instruction there. Do not speak to anyone of this.

APWBD

He looked up at the others, who appeared rather confused.

'APWBD, that's got to be Dumbledore, right?' asked Lily.

'Wait!' said Remus. He waved his wand around them 'Muffliato!' At Lily and Marlenes questioning looks he explained 'Anti-eavesdropping charm.'

Peter shrugged. James frowned. 'It all sounds a bit woolly to me…if it was Dumbledore, why wouldn't he just ask us in person when we were still at Hogwarts?'

'Ouch!' Sirius dropped his parchment as it too burst into flame, but this time, it burnt into nothingness. 'Why am I the person who always gets burnt?' he whined, blowing on his fingers. 'Noone else was thick enough to hold onto objects that appear to be routinely bursting into flame,' Remus told him, staring at the spot where the parchment had been just moments before.

'Should we owl Dumbledore, to make sure this is for real?' Peter asked.

'Yeah, and have the owl intercepted by Death Eaters if its for real – not the best idea, Wormy,' said Sirius.

'But I don't know if we should just turn up there,' Lily said nervously.

'Umm,' said Marlene. 'I think we should. I've sort of heard of this before.'

The rest turned to stare at her. 'When?' asked Lily.

'At home last holidays – I overheard my parents talking about going to 'Dumbledore's Order meeting' one evening; I don't think they knew I was there, and I didn't tell them I'd overheard.'

'Well, it couldn't hurt just to turn up and see what happens,' said Sirius.

'There will be six of us, Lily, it'll be fine,' added James as she chewed her lip worriedly.

'I suppose we can always apparate out if – if things don't seem right,' she said.

'Maybe – maybe we should all meet up at the flat first, and travel together,' Peter suggested. 'Just in case, you know?'

They exchanged glances again, and nodded agreement.

'So,' said Sirius, 'if you two' and he pointed at Lily and Marlene, 'floo over sometime before 9.30, we can apparate from mine to – somewhere near the Shrieking Shack would be best, noone ever goes there.'

'I don't have Floo access, my parents are Muggles, remember?' Lily pointed out.

'Right, so apparate then – there's a park opposite the building, no one will be there that time of night and James will wait out there for you,' Sirius said.

June 1978 – Platform Nine and Three Quarters

James dragged his own and Lily's trunks off the train, and loaded them onto nearby trolleys, while Lily held an umbrella above both their heads. It had begun to drizzle just as the train pulled in. 'Thanks for that, James,' Lily said, squeezing his hand as they began to move along the platform towards the barrier with Kings Cross Station. He smiled at her, trying to ignore the grim presence of Aurors, who were marching up and down the platform, wands at the ready.

'Are you sure you're going to be ok, off in the Muggle world?' he asked.

'I'll be fine – it's probably safer there than anywhere in the wizarding world at the moment,' she said. 'Anyone muggle-baiting that comes across me isn't exactly going to be expecting a fully-trained witch to be there. Besides, my parents miss me. They haven't seen me since Christmas – and they don't get to spend much time with me since I started at Hogwarts. I'm hoping to be with them until I get my NEWT results and job offers and so on.' She glanced sideways at him. 'Are you going to your parents, or are you going straight to the flat?'

'Straight to the flat, but Mum made me promise to come over for dinner Sunday night. Dad hasn't been very well – they're not exactly young, you know – and he wants to see me.' He paused as an Auror sent them one at a time through the barrier.

'I was kind of wondering if maybe you'd like to come as well?'

'Are you sure?' Lily asked. 'I mean, they haven't seen you in a while and I don't want to be in the way or anything…'

'No, I want you to come,' mumbled James. 'My parents – they sort of want to meet you, you see…'.

Lily giggled, then wrapped her free arm up around his neck and kissed him thoroughly. Behind them, someone wolf-whistled. 'Look at the two love-birds' crowed Sirius. 'Can't even wait to get a room!'

James turned and scowled. 'Remind me why I'm friends with you, Padfoot,' he said. Lily rolled her eyes. 'How are you four planning to get to the flat?' she asked, scanning the crowd for her parents.

'Remus's mother is dropping us off there – he has to go home for the rest of the week,' Peter told her.

Marlene came over, looking somewhat rushed. 'I have to go – I'll see you on the 25th,' she said, hugging Lily. 'Don't forget to owl me!' She waved to the boys, and hurried off to where her parents were waiting.

Lily spotted her own parents in the throng and waved enthusiastically at them.

'Mum! Daddy!' she called. 'James, could you bring my trunk please?'

James complied, trailing along behind her and studiously ignoring Sirius's sniggers of 'whipped'.

Lily was hugging both of her parents in turn. 'Mum, Dad, you remember James, right?' she said. 'He came over once in the Christmas holidays.'

James winced as he remembered that particular incident – after Lily had assured him it would be fine for him to apparate into her backyard, he had scared the living daylights out of her sister who had been on the back porch at the time – the girl had been practically hysterical. However, both Lily's parents seemed to have forgotten the incident and her father shook his hand heartily.

'You must come over for lunch sometime, James,' said Lily's mother – what was her name again? He couldn't believe he'd forgotten. 'Although, perhaps not when Petunia is home – she might not take so kindly to your presence.'

Maybe they hadn't forgotten after all. 'I'm going to dinner at James's on Sunday night,' Lily informed her mother.

'Do you want to apparate straight there, or do you want me to come pick you up?' asked James.

'No, its fine, I can apparate there,' Lily said. 'The front lawn under that massive tree is okay for me to apparate to, right?' James nodded. Lily's parents glanced at each other. 'And will it just be the two of you?' asked Lily's mother.

'Mum!' said Lily. 'I'm eighteen, for goodness sake, don't be so picky!' Her face had flushed pink. 'No, my parents will both be there,' James said. Lily turned to her parents. 'I'll just be two seconds, if you want to head off – I'll catch up.' Her father had taken the trolley with her things on it from James already. Once her parents had were reassured that Lily would be fine on her own for a few moments and started towards there car, Lily caught both James' hands.

'Take care, alright?' she said softly, staring straight at him with her bright green eyes. James grinned at her. 'Don't worry about me – I'll be fine…eating junk food…riding on Sirius's motorbike…trying to work out how to clean my own clothes.'

Lily laughed and hugged him tightly, and then they were kissing again, and he was thinking that Lily wasn't usually so prone to public displays of affection, but he didn't really care, because she was soft and warm and her hair had a sweet fruity smell…

'I'll owl you tomorrow, ok?' she said, standing back.

He ran his hand through his hair, then grinned cockily at her. 'You're my favourite ex-Head Girl of Hogwarts, you know,' he told her. She smiled at him. 'I don't really think you're a big-headed prat anymore, you know…but don't get too confident, the Giant Squid is still a contender!' He laughed, and waved, and watched until she'd caught up with her parents and walked out of sight.