It was a few weeks later and so far no one from O'Brian's group had contacted him, as far as he could tell, anyway. It was perfectly plausible that one of them had tried to secretly contact him and he had completely missed it. Peter was hoping that perhaps they decided that he wasn't worth it and might have settled on someone else within the group. Or maybe they decided to drop the plan all together, and he wouldn't have to worry about it any more.
Peter was quietly walking the halls. This part of the building was pretty empty. The Aurors' offices were down here, and Moody kept them pretty busy. The newer ones, which included James, Sirius, and Benjy, were being trained on some of the nastier spells that Death Eaters were starting to use. The veterans were either out on injury leave or out in the field.
Peter stood outside of the entrance to the corridor that the Auror's offices were in. He heard nothing, so he figured it was all right to go in. His job was to check all empty rooms unless they had the Ministry designation on it. And not the Department of Mysteries, of course.
A few of the cubicles had their lamps on, so Peter figured that it wasn't empty, but decided to look around anyway, to see if there was someone to talk to. It was pretty slow today, for once, and Peter was getting bored.
Alice Longbottom was at one of the cubicles, and she raised her head to say hello.
"How are you feeling, Alice?"
She sighed exasperatedly. "Everyone always asks me that! It's like I was made of glass." She threw her hands up. "I would like to make an announcement!" She said to the nearly empty room. "I am not the first woman to ever have a baby! I imagine that I will not be the last! I-,"
"Um, Alice," Fabian Prewett had come from his cubicle and interrupted Alice in the middle of her tirade. She shot him a look, but he acted as though she had been behaving normally. Maybe for Pregnant Alice, that was normal.
"Alice, I finished my paperwork, do you suppose it would be all right if I took a break, maybe walked around with Peter on his rounds?" Fabian quickly looked at Peter, and Peter got the feeling that he better not say anything.
Alice suddenly became quiet and reserved. "All right, Prewett. But don't let it go too long." She said sternly.
Fabian accompanied Peter out to the hall way and Peter allowed himself to be steered into a hallway filled with what he knew was mostly unoccupied offices. The diplomats for the Ministry of Magic's offices were down there, but nowadays they spent most of there time trying to get other countries to make a unilateral effort against He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named. Peter understood why Fabian would want to use one of these offices. Reporters for the Daily Prophet had their useful points, but they tended to get underfoot when diplomatic conferences were being held. They weren't allowed to listen in on the talks when they happened, so they had spent a lot of time in the hallway before Moody got annoyed one day and had Silencing Charms put on the whole hallway, so the reporters wouldn't even hear anything if the diplomats chose to disclose details. The only way one could be heard down this hallway was if they were in one of the offices and the door was closed. Otherwise, the Silencing Charm would permeate the office. Fabian silently led Peter into one of these offices and shut the door. Fabian pointed his wand at the door and Peter heard it click. He was suddenly strongly reminded of being back in O'Brian's office, although these walls were pale blue and beige. He tried to quell the panic that was rising in his chest. Had he been found out? Why was Fabian the one to confront him? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have James or Remus or even Sirius do it?
Fabian turned and smiled. "Don't look so nervous, Pettigrew,"
Peter gulped and smiled back weakly.
"Don't worry, no one's died, you aren't required to take down fifty Death Eaters on the next mission, nothings wrong. I've just got to tell you we've got a meeting tomorrow night."
Peter gave a sigh of relief. He hadn't been found out yet. "What's the meeting for?" He knew that Fabian wouldn't tell him out right, but there were code words that they used to signify common meeting agendas. Fabian, however, shrugged.
"I don't really know," He said, but then he lowered his voice even more, though Peter couldn't guess why. "Orders came down from Dumbledore to Moody. Moody told me himself." Fabian shrugged again. "Usually it's just passed along. I do know that everyone's coming,"
"What do you mean, 'everyone'?" Peter asked, surprised to hear himself whispering as well.
"Everyone," Fabian repeated. "Everyone in the Birdwatcher's Club"
Peter grinned. That was their public name for the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore had come up with it himself. "How can everyone be there? Why?"
Fabian held his hands up. "I don't know, Pettigrew. A lot of us were supposed to go tomorrow night-,"
Peter nodded, he remembered it now. Usually he relied on his watch to tell him when he had an appointment. It was one of his weeks to go.
"And, it was only like Fenwick, Vance, Podmore, and Bones that weren't going. Dumbledore apparently poked around and found out that they were all free that night, 'cept Fenwick, he still had some Auror training to go through, I think it was his last bit, anyway, Dumbledore made Moody drop it." Fabian grinned. Peter smiled a little himself. The only person in the world that could make Moody go easy on an Auror-in-training was Dumbledore.
"So everyone's going to be there," Fabian continued. "It must be pretty important to risk it. Moody's annoyed about it. Although whether it's the security risk or letting Fenwick off easy, I can't tell. Anyway, according to Moody, Dumbledore said that we should let everyone know, just so we'll be extra careful. If we're all going to be there, that would be a big gain for You-Know-Who if he found out about it." Fabian looked at his watch. "We got to get back. Alice is supposed to be covering for me if someone comes in. The Ministry's been making a big deal about knowing where all the Aurors are at all times. Can't even take a leak with out signing in and out. I'm not saying that Alice can't cover for me, but, you saw how she was," Fabian said, rolling his eyes. They started walking back to the Aurors' hallway. "I think she's getting restless. We've only been having her do paperwork, so she won't get hurt, but she's getting bored. She's going to explode someday, either literally or figuratively."
"That's a rather nasty way of putting it," Peter said, wincing.
Fabian shrugged. "Why not? She says it almost everyday herself. You should hear what she calls Frank." In a few minutes, they came to the hallway. "See you later, Pettigrew,"
Peter waved back in response, then winced as he heard Alice start yelling at Fabian a few moments later. He continued on his rounds. He wasn't that far behind schedule, considering that he would have had to check the Diplomat hallway anyway.
With Fabian's news, he suddenly felt hopeful. Maybe O'Brian or someone from his group had actually contacted Dumbledore or Moody directly and they had reached some sort of agreement. Maybe the reason why Dumbledore wanted them to be all there was to introduce them to some of the spies in O'Brian's group. People would have to know, right? If that's what O'Brian's group was going to do, spy, anyway. If one of them were to approach a member of the Order talking about a plan of attack, the Order member would obliterate their memory in a second.
He was rambling.
He sighed out loud. How could he be rambling when he wasn't even talking to anyone?
He never should have been in the Order. He was just way too excitable.
By the time the end of the day came around, Peter had almost convinced himself that must have been what the meeting was going to be about. A big announcement would be the only reason that they would all have to be there. He was still nodding to himself and feeling pleased when he was getting ready to leave and was putting his cloak on (cloak again, why couldn't he ever remember his Muggle jacket?) when he heard someone call his name. He shut his eyes tight, hoping that it wasn't the voice that he thought it was. He opened his eyes again and slowly turned around, having to stop himself from groaning when his fear was confirmed.
"Pettigrew!" O'Brian said, smiling that huge, uncomfortable smile of his and wrapping an arm around Peter's shoulders.
"Hullo, O'Brian," Peter said, fumbling with the ties on his cloak.
"Getting ready to leave, eh? You don't mind if I walk with you a bit, do you? Get some fresh air and all? Such a nice day."
"I s'pose not," What was with people taking walks with him today?
They left the entrance of the Ministry together and started down the street. Peter waited for O'Brian to say something. It wasn't long.
"How are you doing, Pettigrew?"
"I'm fine-," Peter said.
"I'm doing well myself, Peter." O'Brian cleared his throat. "Peter, you've probably noticed this about me, but I like to be frank. Get to the point and be done with it. I'm just that type of fellow, right, Peter?"
"Er-,"
"Absolutely. Like I always say, Peter," O'Brian said, clasping his shoulder. "You can't get ahead in this world unless you say what you want to say and get it over with. Bore the living daylights out of people otherwise. Say it and get it down with, words to live by, am I right or am I right?"
"Er, ok,"
"In my opinion, those are the only people worth associating with."
"I guess so,"
"Anyway, Marlene McKinnon, you know her?"
"Yeah, she's in the--," Peter almost said the Order. "Ministry. I see her a lot in the halls."
"If I were you, I'd tell your group to keep an eye on her in the next three weeks."
"What?" Peter turned to look at O'Brian, which afforded him the chance to get out of O'Brian's friendly one armed hug.
"My people have been saying that you've been looking nervous lately. So I'm thinking that you don't trust us. If I pass true information on to you, maybe you won't be having second thoughts about coming to the meeting."
"You haven't even told me about the meeting yet," Peter protested.
O'Brian held a finger up to his mouth. "Right, I told you my group wasn't sure about this idea. We have to check up on you to make sure we can trust you. My sources have been saying that you seem to be a bit on edge lately."
Had he been that obvious? Peter wondered.
O'Brian continued. So I've been thinking that it wasn't really fair that we know all this information about you and you know next to nothing about us. Think of this tidbit of warning as a bit of reciprocation. But I'm telling you, just keep a close eye on McKinnon,"
"What do you mean, is she a Death Eater? A spy? What?"
O'Brian suddenly looked at his watch. "Sorry, Pettigrew, got to go." With a sudden 'Pop', he Disapparated. Peter quickly looked around to see if anyone saw. No one had seemed to notice anything. Peter leaned up against a building and resisted the urge to bang his head against it. After a minute or two, he sighed and continued home. Maybe he'd walk the whole way. It was, after all, a nice day.
Peter had found out where the meeting was from Remus, who had to come into the Ministry the next day for his job. Amazingly, Peter found his way without getting lost. It wasn't too far away from one of the stops on the Muggle Underground. He hurried down the street toward the building that he thought it was. He saw Benjy coming in the opposite direction. Peter resisted the urge to wave. Drawing attention on this night in this area definitely would not be a good idea. Peter started for the entrance of the building, but suddenly someone bumped into him.
"Sorry," Peter started to say, even though it wasn't his fault. Then he saw that it was Benjy who had bumped into him.
"This way," Benjy said, staring straight ahead and talking out of the corner of his mouth.
"Are you sure?" Peter mumbled.
"Moody said," Benjy broke into a longer stride. Peter waited a few moments so that people wouldn't think that he was following Benjy, then continued up the street, trying to watch Benjy without making like he was doing so to see where the entrance was.
Remus had told him the address, but the numbering on this street seemed to jump around, and the building the Benjy had entered was set back from the street, and most people walking down the street seemed unaware of its presence.
Shortly, Peter reached the door himself, and he hesitated for half a beat, wondering if he should knock. Before he reached a decision, Sturgis opened the door, and ushered him inside. There didn't seem to be a password tonight, but Sturgis cast a charm to reveal the presence of a Polyjuice Potion. Satisfied, Sturgis pointed him down a hallway.
The room was already crowded. Peter noted, with amusement, that James was trying to get Lily to stay sitting down, while Lily was yelling at him in very much the same tones that Alice had been using the day before. James looked worn out and it seemed that he was about to give in.
"Poor Prongs," Sirius said at Peter's side.
"Yeah, he looks exhausted."
"Well, he really didn't get a lot of sleep last night,"
"Why?" Peter asked. "Did Moody keep you guys late last night?"
"A little bit, but it's not that. Apparently Lily woke James up at three o'clock this morning and made him get her some chocolate covered cherries."
"Chocolate covered cherries?" Peter raised his eyebrows.
"Apparently Lily's mother used to give them out as a reward, you know like for getting good grades or whatever. According to James, Lily said 'If I'm going to keep carrying around your baby, I want some kind of reward for it!'"
Peter snorted.
Sirius, laughing, went on. "James had to Apparate all the way to Hogsmeade because Honeydukes is the only place he could think of that would be open at that time."
Over in their corner, it appeared that Lily and James had come to a truce of sorts. Lily was sitting down, but it seemed only because arguing with James had worn her out. She was sitting on a bench with her back against the wall, one hand resting on her stomach. She wasn't as big as Peter had expected a pregnant woman to be, but, as he reminded himself, there was still three going on four months to go.
Everyone else in the room seemed to be tense, and Peter felt his overwhelming feelings of anxiety envelop him again. He started to snap his fingers nervously. Why would Dumbledore need the entire Order to gather? Maybe to announce that You-Know- Who had given up, that the Order was disbanded.
Even Peter knew it couldn't be that. Even the Order couldn't keep something that big a secret. Maybe Dumbledore had realized that there was no way to beat You-Know-Who, and the Order could do no good anymore.
There were noises out in the hall, and then Dumbledore entered. Looking at him, Peter realized that could never be it. For one thing, Peter had never thought of the Headmaster as stubborn, but Dumbledore had too much. will, he guessed, to ever give up on anything. For another thing, Dumbledore seemed to be in a rather good mood tonight.
"Friends," he said. "I know it must seem foolhardy to ask you all to meet like this,"
There was a general murmur of consent, but no one said anything out loud. They all knew that there must be a good reason if Dumbledore set up the meeting.
"I think that we can all agree that we are working for posterity. So, I think it only fitting that posterity know who we are." He took out his wand and gave it a little flick. A camera appeared, revolving in the air. "One day, we will not have to fear being discovered. This photograph, if someone were to find it, could mean death or worse for everyone in this room. But that will hang over us only for a time. A picture is worth a thousand words, and then some. Some of us will leave our number, through no will of their own. When they are gone, this picture will still give us their voice." The camera stopped revolving. "If you wish, would you all gather around?"
There was a lot of background noise and confusion, and Peter found himself standing next to a man who bore a resemblance to Dumbledore himself, but this man immediately started talking to Peter about how a goat grows better if you charm it so its hair is pink. The only drawback, the man assured Peter, was that the milk couldn't be turned into cheese, but who seriously ate goat cheese anyway?
"Er-," Peter stuttered, trying to figure out what to say. He felt someone grab his elbow. To his relief, he found it was James.
"Sorry, sir," James said to the goat man. "I need to borrow Peter here. My wife wants to use his cloak to hide her stomach." The goat man nodded his head to James. As he turned around, Peter heard Sirius start to engage the man in conversation.
"That's Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth. I've only met him once, but Sirius has met him a couple of times. Says he's a little off in the head. Which, of course, is why Sirius likes to talk to him." James said in a low voice. He planted Peter on the bench next to Lily, who took his cloak while making faces at James.
"How can you go out on a night like this without a cloak?" She hissed. James shrugged. Lily draped the cloak over her stomach. Across the room, Peter could see Alice doing the same thing with Frank's cloak.
"Is everyone ready?" Peter heard Dumbledore ask. "Everyone smile,"
A flash went off and Peter was temporarily blinded.
A/N: I'm sorry that I took so long to update. I apologize. School started again and for some reason I got it into my thick head that I should take more classes then I need to. I swear I never was this ambitious before.