"Who are you telling to shut up?" Sirius whispered to James out of the side of his mouth as the group surrounded the table.

            "You," James whispered back. "Since Dumbledore's here, everyone's going to get quiet, like they are now, and so everyone will hear what we're talking about."

            "I thought you were going to tell everyone tonight." Sirius whispered a little loudly. Peter noticed that everyone else had already found their way to the table and was looking over at them curiously.

            "Yes," James hissed. "When we're ready!" he looked at Lily, who looked like she was going to be sick. At the table Dorcas Meadowes coughed politely. James gave a strained smile and they made their way to the table.

            "Good afternoon," Dumbledore said to them all. "Anyone who has any news on Voldemort's--," Many people in the room, Peter included, cringed at the sound of the name.

            Dumbledore surveyed them a little sadly. "Please," he said.

            Peter looked down at his hands, pretending to examine a cut on his finger.

            "I don't know why you don't just give up, Albus. Just call him You-Know-Who, or even the Dark Lord." Moody said in a bored tone. "It'd make these meetings go a whole lot faster then if we had these bits of fluff gasp in terror every time someone says the name Voldemort." Peter could feel Moody staring at him and his face turned red.

            Dumbledore tooled with the end of his beard. "Everything that exists is named or will be named when it is discovered. To not name something is to be ignorant of its existence.  To be ignorant of Voldemort would be deadly. Thus 'He Who Must Not Be Named' must be named. To call him the Dark Lord bestows on him respect that he does not deserve and I refuse to give it to him. And, well," Dumbledore smiled. "To call Voldemort You-Know-Who all the time would only get confusing. Eventually there will be someone else, perhaps the guest of honor at a surprise birthday party, who will have to be referred to as You-Know-Who. It would be an insult to his person to identify him with Voldemort, it would get bewildering for the people planning the party, and rather frightening for those invited. We must take Voldemort down if only for these purposes."

            Next to Peter Sirius was laughing. Peter could hear someone else laughing quietly. Peter looked up at Dumbledore. How could he make jokes about Vol- hell, he still couldn't do it, even when he was thinking.

            Dumbledore was looking down at them with his eyebrows raised. "Well, I guess my sense of humor isn't as witty as I had hoped it would be. Alas, maybe in time it will improve, and we may all enjoy a good laugh. We must get back to business, however, though anyone with any with any new jokes may share them later. Perhaps I could pick up some pointers."  Peter looked around the table to see if anyone was following this. A few people were shaking their heads bemusedly; almost everyone else, however, was wearing similar expressions of bewilderment.

            "Come on, now, Albus," said Moody, the only person wearing an annoyed expression. "Get back to it." Peter had the feeling that Moody was the only person who would have felt comfortable saying that to Dumbledore. 

            "Quite right, Alastor," Dumbledore said mildly. "As I was saying, is there anyone with news on Voldemort's--," here he raised an eyebrow and Peter forced himself to not change expression. "And any Death Eater's movements?"

            "Well, you were saying that we should try and get more Aurors in." Elphias Doge said. "So I was keeping an eye on O'Brian. You know, he seems like a good kid and it looks like he knows when to keep his mouth shut. So I was keeping an eye on him, you know, to see if he was talking to Malfoy or Avery or any of'em that worked in the ministry."

            Dumbledore frowned. "Was he?"

            "Oh, no," Elphias said. "But every time I was near him, I'd see Rosier."

            There was a collective gasp around the table.

            "Oh, I don't think he was tailing me, or O'Brian even. But I think he might be suspecting me. I had 'borrowed' an Invisibility Cloak to get here today."

            "That's bloody stupid." Moody growled. "Invisibility Cloaks aren't fool-proof. You should have just stayed away. You're going to get us all killed."

            Elphias' face took on a pained expression. "Moody, I couldn't get here last meeting, I can't go next meeting, under orders, if I recall correctly, from you. You've told us not to talk to each other in public unless it's necessary, unless we would have talked anyway. How was I supposed to be of any use if I'm absolutely in the dark?" He started wheezing. Hestia Jones stood next to him and started hitting his back. "Calm down, El. No need to get so excited." Moody turned around and rolled his eyes. After a few minutes, Elphias's breathing turned to normal but his face was red and Peter thought that he said something like "stupid asthma".

            Moody fixed a cold glare on him. "Did you at least double back before you came here. Even a twat like you should be able to do that."

            Elphias took another deep breath out of the tube he had in his mouth and nodded. Moody leaned back in his chair, looking pacified.

            Elphias put the tube back in his pocket. "I thought that it would be best if I left O'Brian alone for a while. For the good of everybody. You know, after what happened before." He said, taking half a glance at Alice, who looked like she was going to start crying. Frank rubbed her back. Elphias continued. "Sorry, Alice. Didn't mean anything by it." Alice nodded. "Anyway, I asked one of the courtiers if he knew where O'Brian was and where Rosier was. I asked him a load of other questions so he wouldn't get suspicious, don't worry Moody. Anyhow, they were in two different places."

            "Maybe Rosier's trying to recruit O'Brian." Benjy suggested.

            "See, I thought of that too, but you know, O'Brian's a decent kid. I don't think he'd get mixed up in that stuff if he had a choice. And Rosier saw me, he knows I saw him, so if O'Brian was under the Imperious curse, Rosier knew that I'd be suspicious if I saw him around. So I don't think we have to worry about O'Brian, for a while, anyway."

            "Anything else?" Dumbledore asked.

            "Well, I was thinking of asking Syme—," Elphias started to say, but was interrupted by Moody snorting.

            "Syme? You'd be better off with Parsons."

            Elphias winced. "Well, anyway, he seemed rather boisterous. Draws too much attention to himself. I'm surprised they let him become an Auror."

            "Be that as it may," Dumbledore said. "We can use all the help we can get. Keep an eye on him. O'Brian, too. Just keep your wits about you while you do so."

            Elphias nodded and sat down in a relieved sort of way.

            "Anyone else?" Dumbledore asked pleasantly.

            Peter could see Lily's hand on the table twinge slightly but she and James stayed silent.

            "Um," They all turned to look at Frank, who had stood up. "We—uh," Peter saw Alice shake her head almost imperceptibly at him. Frank swallowed. "Well, I just wanted to say that I haven't seen Rosier around any of the Aurors around me."

            There was half a beat of silence. "Good to hear, Longbottom." Moody's gruff voice said.

            Frank's face turned red and he sat down quickly.

            "Anything else?" Dumbledore asked.

            "Um," Peter was surprised to hear Remus speak up. Usually if any of them had any news, they would tell each other before the meeting. He hadn't remembered Remus saying anything.

            "The Death Eaters are trying to recruit werewolves," he said, looking at his hands. "They've been having Macnair do it. Rather stupid choice, really…"

            Peter frowned. Had they asked Remus to join, or did Remus just hear about it from someone else?

            Remus looked up as though Peter had spoken these words out loud, but no one was looking at Peter so he must not have inadvertently spoken out loud. Remus suddenly grinned, though he really didn't look all that happy. "Well, at least that means they don't suspect me of being in the Order."

            "What--," Benjy started to ask, but Dumbledore interrupted him.

            "Well, Remus if anything else happens, you'll tell me, is that right?"

            "Yes, sir," Remus looked relieved and Peter was grateful that Dumbledore had prevented people from asking questions.

            "Well, if that's all for new business, we'll just start figuring out who does what," Dumbledore said, looking questioningly at them. He paused for no more then one or two seconds but Peter still had the feeling that he was waiting for someone to say something. Peter wanted to look down at Lily or James but had the feeling that to do so would attract attention to them that they probably did not want. When no one spoke up, Dumbledore started to say "Well, then--,"

            Simultaneously Lily stood up and Alice said "Hold on," Peter looked quickly down at James, whose face was blanched. He swung around to look at Alice who looked petrified and bewildered as she stared at Lily in shock. Frank next to Alice looked like he was going to be sick. Lily herself looked determined. Her lips were in a firm line and she was staring at Dumbledore, though Peter noticed that her ears were turning red and was clutching the chair she had been sitting in so hard that her knuckles were white.

            Dumbledore was tooling around with his beard again. "Well, it appears that Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Longbottom have an announcement to make." They both stared at him. "Would you like to make it together or is it not the same announcement?"

            Alice's face was turning pink. "We're pregnant," she blurted. There was a gasp around the room. Lily's face turned red. Peter wondered how Alice knew if Lily didn't tell her. Lily wasn't showing that much was she? Next to Peter Sirius was whispering, "Oh, that makes sense." Alice took a quick look at Sirius. "I mean, Lily's not pregnant," Alice continued. Sirius snorted. Alice's face got redder. "Well, what I meant was, you know was that I'm pregnant and well, um, Frank's the father," Frank's face turned even redder, "So that would be the 'we', you know? But I didn't mean that Lily and I are pregnant. I mean, I didn't mean to say that Lily's pregnant." Alice had been talking faster and faster until she abruptly stopped and sat down, breathing loudly through her nose.

            Dumbledore smiled at Alice. "Congratulations, Mrs. Longbottom, I'm sure your child will be a credit to you both." Alice snuffled and put her head on Franks shoulder, who rubbed her back awkwardly. "We must have a celebration," Dumbledore continued. "But perhaps Mrs. Potter would like to share her news first." He turned his smile onto Lily.

            Lily had returned her stare to Alice and she now had no color in her face or ears. "I am pregnant," she whispered.

            "What?" Alice said in a hushed tone.

            "I am pregnant," Lily said louder, but her voice started to break.

            "Well, then, this definitely calls for a celebration." Dumbledore said, taking out his wand, and the beat up table that they had been sitting around was covered with a yellow table cloth.

            Suddenly there was an explosion of noise. People were clapping James and Frank on the back and hugging and kissing Lily and Alice. Lily and Alice found there way around the table and were hugging each other and sobbing uncontrollably into each other's shoulders. Dumbledore took out his wand again and there were drinks on the table. Seeing Peter's questioning look, he said "Butterbeer, so that the mothers-to-be can partake."

            Moody stood up. He looked annoyed at the celebrating. Dumbledore quickly went over to him and whispered something to him. Moody nodded once and sat down, though he still looked annoyed and Peter wouldn't have liked to talk to him just then. A few minutes later, Dumbledore cleared his throat. Every one looked up at him, including Lily and Alice, who had still been crying into each other's shoulders.

            "Just out of curiosity, ladies, when are they due?"

            Lily looked at Dumbledore, her eyes all red and puffy. "Late July, maybe August."

            Alice started sobbing again. "Me too," They collapsed into each other's arms again. Everyone started crowding around them again. Peter glanced at Dumbledore again. Peter thought he saw an odd expression on his face, but someone passed in front of Peter's view and when he looked again, the look was gone, if it had even been there, and Dumbledore was smiling and making his way to Alice and Lily to offer his congratulations.