Lisa: This story is in such a hard place to write for me I have no idea why.
Steph: At least it's getting done.
Lisa: Why are you here again?
Steph: Well Heather moved and is yet to get internet so I'm filling in while she's gone.
Lisa: Oh… okay.
Dark Lord Strikes Again
Sirius moaned loudly as he lay sprawled out on… a couch? He looked around and quickly realized he was indeed not in his home he was in someone else's. A slight panic ran over him as he wondered what he could have possibly done at James and Lily's wedding the night before. It was one hell of a night, he knew he got drunk but he also didn't remember much of the later part of the night, he had no idea where he was or how he got here.
He sat up further and gazed around the living room. It was homely and yet very, very familiar. Taking his fingers he massaged the bridge of his nose deep in though, he'd been here before, he almost had the room memorized he realized. If you walked down the hall you would enter the dining room, beyond that the kitchen and in the kitchen the back stairs. If you walked up those stone stairs you would enter the second floor, on the second floor was four bedrooms on the left and two on the right along with two bathrooms. Then there was another set of stairs along with a door to the master bedroom. If you walked up those stairs there was a door at the top. In his mind Sirius opened the door and saw a short hallway with two doors with one single light illuminating the way. He opened the first door and saw a Gryffindor themed bedroom with Quidditch posters, a Hogwarts trunk at the foot do the four poster bed and –
"Oh Merlin." He mumbled to himself as he got up swaying slightly. Now he knew where he was, he was in Mr. and Mrs. Potter's home, he must have been really hung over not to remember the house he lived in for several years. He mentally kicked himself for not remembering where he was and having to basically run through the entire layout of the house before remembering.
He stumbled his way into the kitchen hanging onto the walls as he went. When he entered he saw Mrs. Potter and another woman with auburn hair standing next to her helping her make breakfast. "Um… morning…" He greeted still a little confused as to why he was in the Potter home.
"Oh Sirius dear!" Mrs. Potter cried as she walked over top give him a hug. "You're awake; it's so good to see you up and about. You were so far gone last night we couldn't even get you to your bedroom upstairs."
"What time is it?" He asked.
"Nearing two in the afternoon me and Mrs. Evans are preparing lunch." She said disapprovingly. "All the rest of the kids are already up and outside playing."
He raised his eyebrows; she was treating them as though they were still second years after a big sleepover party. Not that her son was just married and he had a massive hangover. "Um, okay…"
"Go on, now, they're outside. Lily and Jamie are there too. I'm glad you're awake, their leaving for their honeymoon in a couple hours, its good you get to see them off. Now go on, out their." She ushered him out the back door and onto the patio where he saw them all sitting in the garden on the benches and on the not running fountain.
"Hey, guys..." He mumbled as he walked over to them tripping over his own feet a little bit. "What's going on?"
"Sleeping beauty awakes." Andy said with a smirk.
"Shut up." He said and sat down heavily on the bench between Heather and Remus. "Um, why are we here? Why am I not home and still sleeping?"
"Because," James began. "We all got the idea to have a sleepover thing just like the old days before me and Lil went to our honeymoon. We agreed all of us were a little to wasted to go home. So we all came here, along with Lily's folks her sister went home however. You probably wouldn't remember, you were so drunk."
"James and Remus had to carry you in the house after you passed out at the party," Heather laughed.
"Mmm…" Sirius moaned as he lazily reached over to give her a punch on the arm. "Merlin, I can hardly remember anything."
"That's no surprise." Andy said with a roll of her eyes.
"When are you two leaving anyway?" He asked James and Lily looking up at them with half closed eyes, still not used to the brightness of the sun.
"Tonight," Lily said with a grin as she looked up at her husband. "We're going off to Wales, only for three nights though, we don't want to be away too long. What with the war going on and all, the Order will need us."
Sirius snorted loudly. "Oh come on, I thought you were going to be away for a week? The Order can survive a week without you, you're not that important. Go and have fun, nothing bad will happen."
"Try all you like, mate, to convince them." Remus said shaking his head. "Won't work we already tried."
"Our minds are made up," James insisted. "We're going for three nights and it's final, we've already called the lady we're renting the house from and told her to make it a three night say."
"Then we're not letting you come back to the Order until the full week is up." Peter said.
"You can stop up from coming to meetings." Admitted James. "But you can't stop us from coming to help you if anything does happen."
"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Sirius sighed waving his hand around absently. "Nothing can happen in a week, it's not like Voldemort is waiting for you two to go away and then he'll strike! Like I said, you're not that important."
"It's true," Andy stated with a shrug. "You're importance to us is very low."
Lily reached out and gave her a playful tap on the shoulder. "Stop that, now I don't want any of you fighting while we're gone. Mummy and daddy will be back soon."
"Who said we'll fight?" Sirius asked.
James stared at him blankly for a moment. "I know all of you very well and I know that the second me and Lils leave you will start a fight and end up breaking a nose or two."
The gaze of everyone in the group slowly turned over to Andy and Sirius who were completely oblivious to it all for a moment before noticing. "What?" Sirius asked looking at them with a face of confusion similar to the one Andy was wearing.
"You know, there's a reason you two made such good beaters." Heather said.
"We also worked very well together." Andy said at a feeble attempt to defend her and Sirius.
"Yes, you worked well together beating the crap out of people." Laura said calmly.
"Andy, love… you know I love you more then anything." Remus said putting his arm around her. "But it's true you're unbelievably violent."
The argument would have raged on further into the afternoon but the French doors slid open and Mrs. Potter appeared on the patio whipping her hands off on her apron. "Come on kids, lunch is ready!"
Immediately they bolted up from their respective seats and raced each other to the patio, it was a good thing Mrs. Potter left because otherwise she would have been trampled. Lunch was heavier then a normal lunch would be, it filled them up like a dinner should, but none of them minded, it was a celebration of James and Lily's wedding so they had a right to pig out a bit.
When their lunch was finally over it was well past three o'clock, and since James and Lily had their floo appointment to get to Wales at four, they had to get moving. Their things were already packed and awaiting them upstairs so it didn't take long for them to prepare themselves to leave. By three thirty they were standing by the fire place with luggage in hand and ready to leave, they had to fill out a little bit of paper work before going on the honeymoon, you always had to when you traveled such a distance by the floo network.
"We'll be seeing you all soon." Lily said with a wave of her hand, she couldn't help but show a off a gleeful smile though.
"I hope not." Sirius replied. "I want you two to be up there in that cabin thing of yours for a full week. Making lots of babies, I want Mini Marauders."
"Oh!" Mrs. Potter cried with a grin and covered her face along with Mrs. Evans; both seemed amused and horrified at the conversation at the same time. "This is not a conversation a mother should be hearing!"
"You guys better go." Remus said giving James a pat on the shoulder in the direction of the fireplace. "Or you'll end up missing your appointment."
"Alright." James said and walked over to the fireplace with his entire trunk of luggage and a handful of the green powder. "I'll see you all in a few days then." He gave a wink to Sirius. "Ministry of Magic, Transportation Department."
With that a great green fire burst up and when the flames diminished James was gone.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to that." Mrs. Evans breathed. "Always makes me jump, if your father were here I'm sure he'd have something to say." Lily's father was at home with Petunia, they didn't want her to be alone in the house for too long, what with that new boyfriend of hers. He decided to stay with her since Mr. Potter was going to be away for most of the day, taking care of some of the legal business left over from the party.
"Don't worry, mum," Lily said as she grabbed a handful of the powder and made her way over to the opening. "It's completely safe."
"It looks perfectly safe; what with all that fire engulfing you… why should I be worried?" She asked.
"Bye." She grinned. "Ministry of Magic, Transportation Department." She said and threw the green powder down at her feet.
Mrs. Evans instinctively cried out when the fire covered her oldest daughter and caused her to disappear. She held her heart with her hand and took a deep breath.
"Come on." Mrs. Potter said leading Mrs. Evans into the next room. "Best get your mind off the honeymoon, I'm sure there's something we could occupy our time with."
"If you don't mind." Heather called out after them before they left. "I should probably head home, places to go, people to see."
"Me too," Laura said biting her lip. "I have so much I have to do."
Without making excuses for themselves Sirius, Andy, Remus and Peter nodded in agreement. The bulk of them probably wanted to go home, sleep, or shower in their own homes, but didn't want to insult the caring Mrs. Potter. Besides they all had a hell of a night and all were still a little hung over from the festivities, especially Sirius.
"Oh, well alright then." She said with a smile. "I can have your clothes owled to you when I've finished cleaning them." All the friends had clothes over at the Potters house leftover from when they stayed nights in their school years. Nothing extravagant, just some dirty old jeans, a couple shirts and some shoes. Not worth bringing home and not worth throwing away, so they stored them in a bow shrunken down to fit under James's bed. Sirius though, still had a whole wardrobe of old clothes he didn't take with him when he moved out.
"You don't have to clean them." Remus said.
"But I want to, dear; Merlin knows you kids have enough on your plate in this day and age. Not to mention you now have to find your way in the world, it's the least I can do."
"Okay well, thank you, Mrs. Potter." He replied.
"Remus, how many times have I told you to call me mum?" She asked in such a motherly manor it made him smile. "After all you've been friends with Jamie so long you practically are family."
"I know, it still feels odd though." He blushed.
Andy smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "Maybe to you, but not to all of us, thank you, mommy, we'd be positively delighted if you could clean and send us our clothes." She said for Remus.
"Now that that's settled," Sirius said as he walked over to the fireplace grabbing some floo powder as he went. "I think I am going to head back home now, if you can all withstand my absence, that is." He said his voice dripping with self obsession.
"I think we can manage." Heather spoke in a monotone. "Besides, we all have to go, it's just about four now."
"Hm," Sirius said glancing down at his watch. "You're right… for once, we better get going."
"It was lovely meeting all of you." Mrs. Evans called after them as they all began grabbing handfuls of floo powder, this had been the first time she met a couple of them since she wasn't in the wizarding world and all.
They all finished their goodbyes and quickly exited the large estate going back to their homes for the rest of the day and presumably night, you never knew when one of them got the urge to go out to a party. Mrs. Evans went home later that night after the two women did whatever it was women of their age did to occupy their time, the teens really didn't know.
&
The next day went by smoothly, no Dark Lord occurrences, no death eater sightings, no unusual deaths in the Muggle world… everything was going alright so far. They had an Order meeting tomorrow morning, very early in the morning since a few of the members had business to attend to later that night.
Sirius sat in his living room absent mindedly flipping through the channels on his TV, he may not have been completely savvy in the Muggle world, but he did enjoy TV. He stumbled upon a news channel they were reporting something about a break in at an apartment in East London. He shook his head as he watched the news cast, the Muggles were having enough trouble in their own world without the wizarding world going to war right next door.
He changed the channel and settled on watching some sitcom he didn't quite understand. But before he could get into understanding it he felt his flat shake as if an earthquake just erupted through the town. He shot up from his lounging position and bolted to the window to look out at the streets below. From his position up there he could see destruction down the street and quite a few people running for their lives. It seems he spoke too soon when he thought everything would be fine until James and Lily returned.
He didn't have to think twice, he didn't even pull on a pair of boots; he grabbed his wand and ran out of his flat in his ripped jeans and black tank. He momentarily thought of apparating down to the street, but then thought of the Muggles, they didn't need him popping up around them just to add to the confusion of it all. So he ran out the door, the quake had cause the elevator to temporarily go out so he had to take the stairs, shame he wasn't on the bottom floor. On his way down he conjured up his patronus and commanded it to call the rest of the Order, they had a crisis.
When he arrived down at the front door he swung it open and watched for a moment, no sign of any death eaters yet, but this was defiantly not a natural occurrence. He stepped out into the street, most of the bystanders were gone, but a few remained nearby. A couple people he noticed had minor injuries, a cut on their head, or arm, something thankfully not life threatening.
As he cautiously made his way down the street the ground beneath him shook once more. He nearly fell over but caught himself before he did so. He walked forward with his wand at the ready toward to explosions he was hearing. There couldn't be that many of them, it wasn't as bad as he had seen in the past, no more then twenty death eaters he would guess. He hoped the rest of the Order arrived soon; he was certainly no match for twenty death eaters.
As if on cue there was a crack next to him and there stood Benjy whipping his wand out from his pocket. "I thought things were going along to smoothly." He said giving Sirius a nod.
"Glad you came." Sirius breathed.
"Where's everyone else?"
"Not here yet I'm guessing."
There was another loud crack and they looked to their left to see Remus and Andy walking toward them both with wands. "Think again, dog boy." Andy said sliding into her shoes a little further.
"Where's the trouble?" Remus asked and looked out at the street. "Oh."
"Let's go." Sirius said walking in the direction he was before Benjy had showed up.
"Whoa, Pads, don't you think we should wait?" Remus asked grabbing his shoulder and turning him around. "There are only four of us."
"I don't think the death eaters are waiting." Sirius said as another explosion sounded off making the buildings shake and the lamp posts rattle.
"Shit, that was loud." Andy said removing her hands from her ears.
"Come on." Sirius said and shook Remus off his shoulder before leaving.
Benjy sighed and rubbed his face. "Well, can't let him go alone."
"No, we can't." Remus said and the three began following him just as another crack sounded out around them Laura and Marlene appeared walking quickly toward them.
"There's death eaters attacking the school!" Laura cried as she ran forward, in front of them. "Dumbledore, McGonagall, Moody, Gideon and Fabien are all there protecting it, all the stronger members are going there, we're on our own here."
Sirius sighed and nodded his head. "Alright, we're on our own then."
"Don't think that fast," Heather said as she stepped out with Chris following her, they hadn't even heard them coming. "Your brain can't handle it."
"Chris…" He said in wonder. "What are you doing here?" Chris was not a member of the Order; he was a civilian and therefore shouldn't be engaging in battle with them.
"I was there when Heather got the call, I don't care what's happening, I'm gonna help fight." He said firmly.
"Alright then." He said. "Now without further interruption, let's kick some death eater ass."
The group of eight walked down the street and into the battle they were sure to fight. As they entered the area to their amazement they saw them, the group of death eaters attacking in the open. Voldemort was getting bold, he usually attacked at night, this must have been a distraction they realized, for the attack near Hogwarts, Voldemort must have wanted the Order to not be at its strongest when defending the school.
They stared for a moment as they watched the spells fly and the curses kill, but it wasn't long until one of the death eaters spotted them and began the attack. They all braced themselves for the fight and then ran at the Voldemort supporters like it was the last thing they ever do.