I do not own the rights to Harry Potter. If I did, the encyclopedia would have been out by now.

Distractions

It was Mid-October by the time the Order's recruitment was done. To divert suspicion from their true activities, Emmy arranged for several incidents to occupy the Aurors. Small things to keep them busy such as applying her revenge on Darren to the entire Ministry of Magic Law Enforcement Department. Or sending them cryptic notes with possible attack locations such as the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Harry Potter's destroyed house in Godric's Hollow.

The locations weren't just limited to the wizarding world, but the Muggle one as well. Locations such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Parliament. The Aurors had to take each threat seriously, even after the first couple attacks it was apparent the notes were nothing but red herrings. The one time the notes weren't taken seriously, might result in numerous, preventable deaths, a chance the Aurors couldn't take.

Sometimes the notes didn't contain attack locations, but were just a random string of numbers and letters that Emmy would send. She loved screwing with the Aurors, knowing that they had to spend countless hours over something as simple as 'I like eggs', just because it could be a clue, or hint to the Order's plans. It had quickly become her favorite form of relaxation, how to taunt the Aurors today, how many crazy things could she come up with? Ordering flowers, take-out, etc... from Muggle companies and directing them to St. Mungo's and the Ministry, with specific instructions to get the Muggles into the buildings. The delivery men were so desperate to be paid for their work, they'd do anything, including flushing themselves down a toilet, walking into a telephone booth and dialing random numbers, walking through windows and walls.

Then the recruitment process was over, and it was time for training. During training, the diversions would continue, but Emmy wouldn't have the time to do them like she was used to. Ever since her and Nick's disagreement, she had been staying away from Muggles, and had focused on her training schedule and screwing with the Aurors.

Emmy had told Ash it was a clash of their recruitment techniques, subtle vs direct, which was true. She was unsure what Nick had told her on the mobile and through e-mail, but there had been more to it than that.

The plan in the beginning, was for them to both start together in London. Once done with London, Emmy would head east to Canterbury, then follow the southern coast to the west, before heading north. Nick meanwhile would head north to Southend, and follow the eastern coast north into Scotland, before turning south. It was around that area, the two should meet up, letting them hit the cities in the middle they had missed, along with Ireland and the outlying isles.

They had barely walked out of the first house, before Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. "What was that?" he hissed.

"What was what?" she had asked, confused. His mood had been great going in, whistling that one song Emmy couldn't remember the name of, and had seemed happy inside. When had his attitude gone south?

The conversation with Erica Dewing, a thirty year-old lawyer with a witch for a sister, had gone pretty well in Emmy's mind. She had seemed interested in the Order. Posing as siblings who were lost and had a dead mobile, they had managed to talk their way into the house. Erica had offered to call their parents or take them home, but they lied, saying that their parents' mobile numbers and their address were all on the dead mobile, which needed to be charged. As Emmy took out the charger, she had also 'accidentally' dropped a Chocolate Frogs card from her bag, and Erica had picked it up, recognizing what it was. Emmy and Nick revealed they had a sister at Hogwarts, while Erica volunteered that she had a sister who was a beater for the Holyhead Harpies.

The three talked more, about finding out magic existed, and growing up with witches in the family. Erica revealed that her and her sister had a bit of a competitive streak, always trying to outdo each other since they were children. Her sister believed being a witch trumped being a lawyer, which was why Erica had gotten involved with politics and was hoping to be the Prime Minister someday. Of course, knowing her sister, that'd just push her to become Minister of Magic eventually. Due to the sibling rivalry, Erica was interested in the Order, especially if it meant getting ahead of her sister for once.

An hour late, the mobile was charged, and Emmy 'called' their parents, which was actually the voice mail of a burner mobile Emmy had bought for that purpose. Then they had left, and Nick had gone crazy.

"What was with the comment about how hard it is growing up without magic?"

Emmy blinked at him in shock. She barely remembered, the comment, she had only said it so Erica could better relate to her, Emmy didn't see what the big fuss was about.

"So?"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. "So? So? You've had magic your whole life, what would you know about growing up without it?" He ranted.

Emmy was grateful that no neighbors seemed to care or notice Nick's commotion, because it would have led to uncomfortable questions. Not that the git would stop for a second and consider the consequences for one second about having this argument out in public, instead of at the flat.

"It was part of the cover story," she tried explaining in a calm voice, still not getting what his deal was.

"You don't get it!" For once, Nick was right about something for once, Emmy didn't get it. "You have no idea what it's like, growing up and finding out magic is real, and not being a part of it. Alway's looking, never touching. For you it's all pretend, but for me it's real!"

Nick had issues with magic, Emmy knew that. She knew that he was torn between loving it and hating it. When they had first met, he would constantly be begging to see her do one spell, just one simple spell. Sometimes she would cave, and do a spell, enjoying the look of wonder on his face. Then, once done, his face would turn sour, critiquing the purpose of the spell and how Muggles could do it better. She secretly agreed that Muggles could do it better, but had gotten sick of Nick's mouth pretty quickly. A quick threat of turning him into a toad (not that she could, but Nick didn't know that), ended his requests.

"Are you PMSing or something? It was a lie, and you know I prefer Muggle means anyway."

"Whatever," he said, and rolled his eyes at her. "You're not one of us, it's insulting, so stop pretending to be something you're not." Then he had walked away in a huff toward a bus stop on the street corner.

Emmy had let him go, figuring he'd return to the flat the next day after he cooled down. Except he didn't, just sending a text that he would take care of the Muggle recruits on his own, without her lies. She fought back the urge to text him what a stupid idea it was, visiting over 1,000 people across the United Kingdom would take forever. However, she realized that it wouldn't be the best move on her part, and probably push Nick further away.

Instead, she texted him with a plan of creating a recruiting tree. Erica would be sent a list of names of people in her area she could contact, and those interested could contact others, and so on. Meanwhile Nick could continue traveling, reaching out to Muggles in other parts of the country, who could go on to do the same. His response to her plan had been short: 'Fine'.

Perhaps, that was the real reason she had started her incidents with the Aurors. Not just to distract them, but to distract herself from what happened with Nick. They had fought before, but he had never exploded at her, not like he had that day. Apparently his issues with magic went deeper than Emmy originally thought.

During the next month, Ash never said anything, so Emmy hadn't said anything either about it, she didn't need Ash mad at her too. Nick kept in touch, sending texts and e-mails about where he was at, who he was about to see, who had expressed interest. His messages always read like reports, to the point and free of emotions. Emmy didn't know whether it was good or bad.

Then, in Mid-October, Nick had showed up at the flat. Ash seemed to be just as shocked as Emmy was, she hadn't expected to see him either.

Once inside, he had approached Emmy. "I'm sorry... about everything. I was having a bad week, and took it out on you."

"It's fine," smiled Emmy, "Everybody has those days. Now we can move onto training."

The rest of the day was spent hammering out the details, and acting like everything was back to normal, back to the old days. Nick was insulting the Ministry, Ash was smiling, and Emmy was in command.

But everything was not alright. On the inside, Emmy was glad Nick was back and acting like his usual self, but she was also hesitant. What would happen the next time Nick had a bad week? Would he explode again, remain calm... or worse?

"They're stalling," said Harry, as he looked over the latest reports regarding the Order. "But for what?"

"Stalling? Why do you call the thirty pizzas that were ordered by a Mr. Potter the other day and delivered to the Ministry? Doesn't seem like stalling to me," commented Seamus, who was seated across from Harry.

"Given the frequency and threat level, they're nothing but pranks, probably meant to distract us from the Order's real goal," said Hermione, who had just walked into the office where the Aurors were gathered.

"Pranks that have caused us to have more overtime this month than all of last year combined. Delancey's so exhausted he mistook me for Harry the other day," snorted Seamus.

"And we're still not any closer to finding out who their leader is, or their next actual target," moaned Hermione. The pile of books she had in arms landed with a loud thunk in front of Harry, who was still studying his reports. He had become so used to the sound over the years, he didn't flinch at the noise, unlike Seamus.

"Or why they bothered with the book," muttered Harry.

The visit to Hogwarts a month ago had initially been for Hermione's benefit, learning more about Muggle technology. Lila Hopkins, the Muggle Studies teacher seemed to know less than Hermione did, going on about how computers used mouses which needed to be fed cheese daily to keep their byte counts high. Hermione may not have known much about computers, but she was certain they didn't use live mouses. After leaving in a huff that day, she had promptly enrolled in several technical computer classes at a local university, designed to help the 'older generation' use today's technology. Between her family, dealing with the pranks from the order (that's how she viewed them, pranks, distractions from the bigger picture), and going to class, she had requested a time turner to manage everything. Without it, she doubted she would have had time to sleep.

Instead it had been Harry who had walked away the most valuable information, that Deputy Headmistress Aurora Sinestra had detected that somebody had been in her office, and had been interested in the magic quill and book that had the names of Hogwarts students listed in it. There was no proof that the Order was responsible, or how they had managed to infiltrate the castle without being detected, but it was something that Harry promised to investigate nonetheless.

So far he had only speculations. Perhaps the Order was planning on kidnapping or ransoming students back to their families. If that was the case, why not simply grab the students there, at Hogwarts? Or perhaps it was to have a master list of Hogwarts students, but for what means? Nobody had been able to provide Harry with a concrete answer, just like nobody had been able to provide him with concrete evidence that the Order was responsible, and not some mischievous students.

Just in case the Order did return to Hogwarts, he had taken the precaution of giving the Marauder's Map to Neville, to be on the look-out for names that didn't belong at the school. After all, it wasn't like Teddy would be using it anytime soon. James had thrown a fit at that revelation, believing that he was next in line for the map. In Harry's mind, it was the last thing he needed, especially in such a time as this.

Other than that and reinforcing the spells surrounding the castle, not much else could be done. Dementors were not an option, they had never worked anyway while Harry was in school, nearly performing the Dementor's Kiss on him once. The best the Ministry could really do, was to send Aurors to the school, but the Order wasn't to that level of a threat. Yet.

**Author's Note**

Four reviews last chapter! I'd like to thank Son of Whitebeard, Mryna Maeve, noonface, and Wise Girl16 for reviewing. I will respond to signed reviews, so keep them coming!

This chapter was suppose to be training, it was. I was going to gloss over the Emmy/Nick thing, but realized I couldn't, that it would be better to explain it, and it took over the chapter. These last couple chapters have been more about the characters than the plot, and I'll be glad when training is over, and the overall plot is back on track. I think it was necessary for the character's to be more developed, but writing all of it is tiring.

Just to give you an idea of what to expect, next chapter is training, Louis will return, and other OC's will be introduced. The chapter after that is Emmy's next idea, and then the Holidays.

Thanks for reading, and if possible leave a review!