Lily woke early, her restless sleeper of a fiancé sleeping next to her. It had definitely been a rough night—and it didn't help that she had work today, either. She sighed and stepped out of bed and hurried to the kitchen to make herself a pot of tea.

The tea warmed Lily's throat as she slowly swallowed it. She was endlessly tired, but she had to work. Not only was it going to keep her occupied during the day, but it would also help with the Order, not that she was going to tell James that.

After the tea, she dressed quickly and flooed herself to the Ministry.

People rushed around her, pushing and shoving their way through. She was used to this already—having being with the Ministry for a couple weeks now.

She remembered her first love mail she had received. Lily didn't even know you could get love mail. It was definitely something she wasn't expecting, let alone this job being a little difficult.

Dear Miss Evans,
Thank you so much for writing this column. I need to know who has died in this bloody war, and I thought they were going to cut off this column. I'll be looking forward to next weeks.

Thank you again. (P.S. I especially liked the paragraph on Anne Rodemacher. She was one of my classmates. Your description of her was nearly as accurate as I could put her as).
Yours Sincerely,
Jesslin Imbersesta

Lily remembered rereading that letter until the ends of the parchment were frayed. Actually, she still carried it around in her robes. It felt like her lucky charm—well, lucky parchment, to be more accurate.

Lily was now sitting in her desk, marveling her work. It never got old: the feeling that she got inside her stomach every time she finished. She felt that people needed to know these people's stories. It had her heart and soul, and most of her ink. She was sending it to the editor as soon as she possibly could.

"Stacy!" Lily called, walking up to her desk. She looked up instantly and smiled sweetly.

"Yes?"

"I have my column done." Lily answered optimistically, almost bouncing up and down in joy.

Stacy smiled and shook her head. "Give it here. I'm going in that direction anyway." She stuck her hand out and Lily placed the piece of parchment into her hand and walked back to her desk. She folded her hands and leaned against the table in joy. For being so tired, she felt very accomplished.

It was a few hours until she got another letter list of people she would have to write up. She sighed drastically, scanning the paper sympathetically. She quickly took a bite of the bagel in her hand (it was lunch time).

One name stood out of the whole group.

Annabeth Masen—Missing

Her eyes froze on the parchment. Annabeth. The Annabeth she went to school with. She was a half-blood, not muggle-born. Why, she thought slowly. How could someone do that to someone so innocent?

After a few more hours of working, doing nothing more than look at more depressing lists of names and continuous writing, she called it a day (technically night) and headed home.

Lily and James were going out tonight, with their friends instead of staying home and eat burnt meals. They decided to go to a muggle restaurant—they figured that no one in their ruddy minds would know what they were talking about, so it guarantee them some privacy.

"A booth," Sirius said, almost glaring at the waiter. The man nodded and grabbed seven menus.

The group followed slowly and sat down in the booth slowly. The waiter handed them the menus, then leaving them ad saying their waiter would be here shortly.

"When is it going to end?" Alice sighed, her eyes focused on the menu in front of her.

Lily cocked an eyebrow unsurely. "We just got here, Alice."

Alice shook her head, backtracking. She then looked up at everyone around the table; they were all looking curiously at her. "No. What I meant was: when is this ruddy war going to end?"

"I know," Remus nodded, glancing up at Alice after he had looked away.

The waitress had arrived. "Hullo, my name is Fran. What can I get you to drink?" she had a nasally voice. Her hair was a mousy brown and had dark, hazel eyes. Fran's noise was scrunched up, as if there was a bad stench in the air.

"I'll have some water," Lily said casually, folding the menu in front of her and folding her hands on top of it.

"Firewhisky," Sirius said, smiling broadly. Lily's eyes widened in shock. She kicked him under the table, along with the rest of the group. "OW!" the waitress, who was already wearing a weird expression, was now grimacing in shock. "I-I mean, wine would be a fine choice . . . ?" it came out more as a question than anything else.

Then the rest of the group submitted their orders of drinks and food, following a lot of laughter. They talk endlessly about memories from school—obviously bringing up Lily's distaste for James.

"Hey!" Lily said, a little laugh to the edge of her voice. "It's not my fault he was a big toerag!"

"Oh!" James said, throwing his arms around her shoulders. "You think I was a toerag now, eh?" Lily laughed. "I figure you thought I was a git too, huh?"

"You know that is how I felt about you!"

"Good thing I straightened up . . . or I might be getting glares every meeting."

"Speaking of meeting," Alice said. "When will you have a meeting for the lovely wedding of yours?" Alice had ended her question with batting her eyelashes. Lily rolled her eyes and laughed.

"I don't know."

Alice's eyebrows shot up her forehead. "What?"

"You heard me."

Alice shook her head, but didn't press on with it. "Hey," Lily said slowly, remembering the list at work. "Did you know Annabeth Masen is missing?" Alice's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Lily understood why—it had to be over a year since the actually talked to her.

"You mean the one who was all depressed in our seventh year?" Frank asked, taking a sip of his wine. Lily nodded quickly.

"Oh yeah!" said Alice, as if a light bulb had clicked over her head. "She was the one that used to hang around us—until she found the Ravenclaws."

Lily nodded, and then their food came. They ate in harmony, talking and laughing. She noted that they should get out more, together, and told everyone that. Soon, though, too soon Alice announced that she should get going (her hand was consciously on her stomach).

"We should get going too," said Lily, her face firm at a crestfallen James. He sighed and nodded at his friends.

"I'll talk to you later,"

A/N: Okay, this chapter is dedicated to iheartho96 and Malory14. Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I know it probably isn't satisfactory, but I'm going camping today and I wanted to get this chapter up. Today.

Oh, and I was going to do a hate mail piece, but I couldn't think of anything mean. I guess my brain is just dead at the moment.

I love reviews. Seriously, their beast.
~ChuddleyCanons~