Two days later (not one and a half), Sirius came buzzing to my flat, all excitement and flushed cheeks. He picked me up in an uncharacteristic hug, spinning me in a quick circle before dropping me to the floor.

"That was so fun," he told me, his eyes glittering.

"What happened?" I asked, excitement flaring up in my belly at his own obvious delight.

"They saw me - looked right at me, in fact," Sirius crowed, "and didn't even realize who I was or that I was listening! I burped right at them and acted like I was staring at the mirror behind them to pick at my teeth. And they bought it!"

My heart hammered in my chest, adrenaline flaring at how close Sirius had come to being caught.

"What did they have to say?"

"About me?" Sirius quirked an eyebrow playfully. "Nothing in particular."

"Sirius!" I all but shrieked, dancing up on my toes.

"Fine," he sighed, "I'll tell you."

And he did. He told me everything he'd heard. The idiots hadn't even spoken in code, as our Order members frequently did outside of the headquarters. The Death Eaters were hiring a mercenary crew they'd hired once before to bring in dangerous creatures, including at least one reported Hungarian Shorttail and a nasty Peruvian Vipertail. But the creatures weren't the important part. It was the mercenaries themselves; a group of over forty witches and wizards with no moral compunctions to be spoken of. And we had the leaders name, now: Luis Alvarez.

I passed on the pertinent information to the professors who kindly met me in the staff room once more and vowed to start trying to intercept more messages from the Death Eaters. Pavi had very pointedly reminded me less than a week ago that I was the only Order spy that could still play out in the field. That meant I had a lot to live up to, didn't it? And I wasn't even alone. I had Sirius and Peter to help me on the field, and Aloys and Funke to help me strategically.

Speaking of Peter, I found that since we were working together, we were spending more time together even off the field. He made a point of stopping by the wand shop about once a week so we could discuss when and where we would next meet. We probably could have come up with some signal or something, but like Sirius, Peter hadn't found a job yet. He was probably lonely. What worried me about the visits was that Pavi was always quiet afterwards, but whenever I asked him what he was thinking about he had no answers.

Less and less during the days I thought about Remus. It was becoming a talent of mine, putting him out of my mind under the guise of being too busy to think about him (or my feelings). But at night, in the darkness, there was no hiding from my deepest and most secret self. I raged and cried and stared numbly into the blackness by turn. I missed Remus desperately. Worse yet, I wanted to talk to someone about what I was feeling, but I had so few options. I couldn't bring myself to discuss that type of thing with Pavi, and I didn't want to disturb Lily or James who were working so hard now. Lily pretty much collapsed each night, the second she got home from training. One day she came home with half her hair singed, but I didn't even have a chance to ask about it before she was snoring gently on the couch.

More than once, I considered confessing my nighttime thoughts to Peter, but then I would look into his flat, watery eyes, and something held me back. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Maybe it was just that his eyes were like mirrors, lately - they reflected what I said but it almost seemed like he had to wait for a verbal or visual cue first. Had it always been like that? I couldn't remember, but I thought maybe it was just that he was scared all the time now. It's easier to fake being brave when you can react with someone else instead of relying on your own gut.

Peter and I had a very close call at our next meeting. It started with the crackle of a bush.

"What's that?" one of the masked wizards asked, spinning around with his wand out. I recognized his voice easily, despite the muffling effect of the mask. In fact, my fur bristled instinctively. Severus Snape.

Another twig snapped. I shrank down as far as I could in the yellowing grasses just on the outskirts of the clearing.

A stag, large and brownish-gray, stepped into the clearing, just beside me. He wouldn't have, I think, except that his face was badly clawed and scabbed over. I think he was blinded, and in a fair bit of pain. He might not even have heard the wizards, since the wind was blowing in their favor, but now his large nostrils flared and his head jerked up.

"Avada kedavra!" Snape hissed.

The stag bellowed, but it was too late; I watched in horror as the green light enveloped it just inches to my right. Slowly, it sank to its knees. With little choice, lest I be caught under its heavy bulk, I leapt to the side.

"A fox!" someone cried. Snape's eyes widened in horror and then suspicion.

And then all mayhem broke loose. I ran.

I kept thinking that if only I could stop for just a second, I could transform back to human and use my wand to apparate out of there. But I couldn't; the spells that were flung at me bespoke of how close my pursuers were. Between the fleeing and dodging, I barely had time to even hope that Peter somehow managed to conceal himself. Though, I suppose as a rat he would have a much easier time than I.

Several of the brighter wizards began apparating, interrupting my path. Only my size helped - they could not crouch and apparate in the same movement, so I was able to dodge beneath their searching hands.

One spell hit me. I went tumbling chin under paw for two full rotations before finding my feet again, instinct moving me when my brain would have stuttered to catch my bearings. My tail burned fiercely. Still I ran.

My lungs burned as fiercely as my tail, and soon my paws did also. I couldn't stop though, not yet.

I don't know when I realized there were no more sounds behind me. Was it possible that I had outrun them? At loathe to trust that I was safe, I pushed myself on, slowing to a trot so I could listen more carefully.

And then, because I had to do it at some point, I transfigured back into human and apparated. Hitting the floor of the shop with a dull thud, I collapsed into a shuddering, sobbing mess.

"Genre!" Pavi thundered down the steps, wand out.

"P-puh-Peter," I managed to gasp out.

"You were separated?" Pavi asked grimly. I managed to nod, though my chattering teeth bit down rather sharply on my tongue. For a moment, I wondered if I still had fox teeth. But no, as I ran my bleeding tongue over my teeth, they felt flat and human-like.

"There's naught left to do," Pavi said, even more grim now. "He's sly. He'll stay safe."

Pavi disappeared briefly. When he returned, it was with Lily in tow. She took one look at me and tutted. Before beginning her training as an auror, she would have turned white and taken a moment to collect herself before taking charge. Now, she merely looked steely and firmly commanded Pavi to go get James, and tell him to bring his father's potions briefcase.

"Yes, ma'am," Pavi said, and then was off again.

"How bad?" Lily asked tightly, shining a faint light from her wand into my eyes.

"I don't know," I said, swallowing a hiccup. "I don't know where Peter is."

"You'll have to trust that he stayed hidden," Lily said. Then, with a tight-lipped smile, she added, "He's a fair bit smaller than you on the field."

"A fair bit," I agreed. I tried not to let the hope in my chest get too far - I would hate to be disappointed later.

Lily conjured gauze and a clean bowl, which she felt with water and then heated with a small fire she held in a jar beneath it. I watched the light from the flame flicker, and Lily began lifting my chin this way and that to examine the rest of the damage.

James and Pavi appeared in the room, accompanied by the loud bang of apparation, and immediately there was noise aplenty.

"Here," James said to Lily, thrusting the briefcase at her.

Lily took the briefcase, opening it beside her. She examined the labels quickly, scanning them with eyes that appeared forest-green against the somewhat dim light. I wondered if we should light more of the lamps in the room but dismissed the idea almost immediately. It wouldn't do for people to see a flurry of activity in my small shop at this time of night.

"Let's take your report," Pavi said. "Might as well distract you."

"This potion will sting," Lily warned, pulling my palm toward her. "James, get her shoes off - I suspect her feet are just as bad."

The potion did sting. Pavi asking pointed questions for the report did not distract me well enough.

"It was a stag," I said through gritted teeth, "that gave me away."

"A stag?" James asked, his hazel eyes widening as he looked up at me from where he was tugging off my trainers. I tried not to wince.

"An old one, looked like," I said. "Scars aplenty, half-blinded. Looked like it was attacked recently."

Lily grabbed my other hand and began scrubbing it with the stinging potion. Glancing down at my palm, I saw the potion had turned it a vibrant shade of magenta. The blisters were already beginning to flatten, though.

"Snape killed it," I said. "No hesitation."

"Snape?" Lily asked, faltering for a second.

"It was definitely him," I told her. "I recognized his voice; heard it up close and personal."

Perhaps in the biggest show of maturity I'd ever seen him exhibit, James refrained from saying anything about Snape, and instead watched Lily with a worried expression on his face. Seeing it, she gave him a brief nod, and then moved on down to my feet.

"The stag died, but it was right next to me. I had to dodge, or it would have crushed me."

"And then they saw you," Pavi guessed. "You had to give away your position."

"Exactly," I said. "And I don't know how many of them know about a fox in the Order, but I suspect it's gotten around some because someone said 'A fox!' and then they were sending curses left and right and apparating into my path. I didn't even have time to see if Peter was safe. I just ran."

"Peter will understand," James said. "He's slippery, anyway. Hard to catch. Hard to find, even."

I closed my eyes, and hoped he was right.

After Lily had finished cleaning up my palms and the pads of my feet, and checked the new superficial scratches I had on one ear and my upper arm, I was forced to tell her of another pain.

"I need the boys to leave, though," I muttered.

"We're hardly going to look," Pavi said in a disgusted voice. "Your maidenly modesty is outdated anyway. We've all seen female ribs before."

"It's not my ribs," I forced myself to say, pursing my lips and staring at the ceiling to avoid seeing anyone's reaction.

"...Oh." Pavi finally said. "Right. Let's go upstairs and make some tea, shall we Potter? We'll need some caffeine to keep us alert until your friend gets back."

"Coffee would be better, if you have it," James said. Their voices retreated up the steps that led to Pavi's apartment.

"Where's the damage?" Lily said without preamble. "How bad is it?"

"I don't know how bad," I said, "but it burns. Someone got my tail."

Stupidly, tears sprang up to my eyes again. I loved my tail, with the bushy fur and the white tip that tickled my nose if I happened to curl up as a fox.

"Right," Lily said after a pause where I was sure she had to stifle a chuckle. Really, though, the indignity was more painful than the injury at this point. "Let's see, then."

The injury, just at the bottom of my spine, turned out to be less grievous than I feared, but more damaging than Lily had expected given how long it had taken me to come out and say it. In the end it required stitches, something Lily could not manage with magic. I cursed my way through it, since we had no numbing agent, and Lily made some caustic comments I didn't expect. In the end, though, the wound was stitched up. Lily warned me against transfiguring, so I wouldn't know about the state of my tail until the wound had time to heal somewhat.

Lily called the boys down at that point, and we spent the next two hours sipping tea and coffee with increased nerves while we waited for the return of Peter.

Near dawn, he apparated into the shop, nearly green in the face, and collapsed on the floor.

Peter came to nearly immediately, and none of us commented on his passing out; after an ordeal like what we'd been through, I'd be worried if he showed no reaction whatsoever. After some questioning and encouragement (from Pavi and James respectively), we managed to piece together the story.

After I'd run, the witches and wizards began disappearing in a mix of apparation and columns of smoke. Peter thought he could simply wait them out, and then leave himself. But then the core group, the ones that had chased after me, came back to the clearing and cast a net he said looked a bit like a shield charm, and he could not get past it. From there, he said, he waited.

"What did they talk about?" Pavi asked sharply.

"What?" Peter asked, a little stupidly.

"In the net," Pavi said. "You were there for several hours. I'm sure they didn't meet in silence. What did they discuss?"

Peter shrugged helplessly. "Genre, I guess. How to catch her, how to figure out what she'd heard. That kind of stuff."

"Did they know her name?" Pavi asked, his voice even sharper now.

"'Course not," Peter grumbled.

"Good," I sighed. "And they didn't see you?"

"No," he said mulishly. "I didn't get caught."

"Neither," I said through gritted teeth, "did I."

"But you were found out," he said, his pale blue eyes narrowing on my face. "It was your fault that they found us."

"You said they didn't find you," Lily interrupted.

"They didn't," Peter insisted.

"Then Genre didn't give away your position, clearly," Lily said briskly. "Now then, it's nearly morning. Let's get some food into our bellies, and figure out a game plan, shall we?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself," James declared.

I narrowed my eyes peevishly at Peter. He narrowed his eyes back. We'd been getting along so well since we started spying together; somehow, I'd forgotten how much of a prick he could be when things didn't go how he expected.

Since I couldn't transform for nearly two whole weeks while my rear end healed (which was quite an indignity in itself), I had to instead direct Sirius and Peter and collect reports from them for Funke. Without me on the field with him, Peter's reports become much more direct and detailed, oddly enough. I wrote it off as him stepping up to the plate in my absence. Sirius, who was having so much fun going "undercover" that he'd started collecting disguises, began haunting areas where one might expect illicit activity. As such, he began reporting a great deal of things that may or may not have been related to the war. Pavi helped me sort through the information I collected from him so we could report the relevant information to Aloys.

When I was able to transform again, I left the meetings to Peter and focused my efforts on delivering and picking up messages, missives and the like. It was dangerous enough doing that, but at the meetings they were apparently now on high alert for foxes. Peter said they also cast the same net charm he'd seen the night of the stag, but he usually managed to get in before it was cast.