Working from home was miserable; my workroom was also my bedroom (or the kitchen table for a change of scenery), and except for the occasional supply run for the Order, I was stuck inside. All. The. Time. There was nothing to distract me from my own worries and depression. Plus, all of my letters from Remus were tucked away here, and I couldn't stop myself from looking at them nearly every day. By the second week, Lily started making me go to Potter's place during the day to get some fresh air. She said I needed it. She was probably right.

I was at Potter's place, puttering about in the garden and thinking vaguely that I should weed it since obviously no one else was, when the sound of two people apparating echoed from the other side of the house. Wand out, I crept along the side of the house and peered around the corner. Quiet as I was, they didn't see me until I stepped out fully.

James and Lily were back from whatever their most recent task had been, both of them a little sooty and frayed-looking. James was on one knee, Lily nodding her head frantically. Both were also beaming, and James was manfully suppressing tears, though Lily didn't bother and just cried.

"Genre!" she sobbed, seeing me. James turned with a wide grin and before I knew it the two of them had pulled me into a hug.

"We're getting married!" James swung us around.

"All of us?" I said dryly, and then slipped out of their hold. "Didn't think that was legal."

"Oh, Genre!" Lily sobbed again, and then showed me her hand.

The ring was quite lovely. A gold band encircled her finger, thin and fragile looking, twined over with even thinner strands. One large diamond sat square in the middle, and on each side was a smaller stone. Emeralds, like Lily's eyes.

"It's beautiful," I said honestly. "And I am so happy for you both -"

With a loud whoop, James caught Lily in his hold and swung her around again. Taking that as my cue, I blew a kiss at the two of them and apparated back home. They certainly didn't need a third wheel around to celebrate their engagement.

I puttered around at home, just as I had in the garden, poking in the fridge and wondering if I should cook. I didn't feel like cooking though; I was too wired. Mostly, it was excited happiness that surged through me. But deep down, jealousy surged a little. They deserved to be married, and they were wonderful people. But now Lily and James would be married. Mary was married, and had cheated on her husband with Sirius (I didn't know if that ended or not since I hadn't seen Mary since our return), and then there was me without Remus. Tucking that thought away after allowing a moment of misery, I made myself be happy instead. Lily and James. What could be better?

We had a party for Lily and James that very weekend; I did most of the planning, but Sirius had to do all the legwork since I was pretty much under house arrest. Peter was invited, of course, and Mary and her husband, as were several of the witches and wizards we had become friendly with at Order meetings. Even McGonagall stopped by, briefly, to wish the happy couple well. It was a fun distraction, and I had a blast ahead of time while I ordered Sirius around to decorate Potter's house in wide, swooping swathes of white and crimson and tried my hand at baking. It was edible, even if Sirius was a better cupcake decorator than me.

"Thank you," Lily hugged me after it was all over and all that was left was the three marauders, Mary (who had sent her husband home and said she'd stay back to help clean), and the two of us. It was almost like old times.

"You're welcome," I told her. "I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am for you and James-"

"I know," Lily beamed, her eyes watering a bit again.

"Don't you cry," I laugh. "If you cry again, so will I."

"It's enough of a madhouse without tears," Mary teased the both of us. It was a madhouse, I realized. The three boys, or men I guess they were now, were challenging each other to jump higher and higher to snag the banners and streams off the walls and ceilings.

"I have something to ask both of you," Lily began. Mary grinned, anticipating whatever it was. "I want you both to be in the bridal party. I'm not having a maid of honor - I love you both too much - but two bridesmaids of honor would be just perfect."

"Of course!" Mary squealed, throwing her arms around Lily's neck. "Oh, this is wonderful. We can help you plan the wedding and..."

I listened to Mary plan and celebrate with a grin on my face. I'd never been a bridesmaid before. This would be, I decided, probably the best experience of my life. And for the first time since I'd accidentally witnessed James and Lily the night they got engaged, the little nasty seed of jealousy was entirely gone. My time would come some day, and in the meantime there was enough happiness to go around.

Lily pretty much moved in with James after that. She still had the room at my flat, and she still stayed with me at least once a week, but for all intents and purposes she had moved in with him. I didn't resent her (or him) for that. Whenever I did see either one, there was a constant bloom of cheer in their cheeks, even when they were dead-exhausted. Plus, even if Lily only stayed over with me once a week or so, they invited me over for dinner even more than that. And Pavi and Sirius made more of a point of visiting me at home which was also nice. Oddly enough, Peter pretty much fell off my radar. Now that I couldn't go to meetings to spy for him, it seemed he had lost his interest in being my friend.

It was one of the few nights I had alone - no dinner with the happy couple or visits with my two braggarts of friends - that it happened. I woke up to the odd, pale light outside my window, just bright enough to pierce my closed eyelids. When I cracked the window open, a silvery doe stepped gracefully onto the floor of my room.

"Attack," Lily's voice said. "Wand shop ransacked. Pavi injured but alive. Meet at headquarters."

And just like that, my world was spun upside down again.

Chaos reigned at the headquarters; the smell of smoke tainted the air and witches and wizards were popping in and out of existence at the flick of a wand. Through all the chaos, I saw it. I saw red, I heard the choked off scream. And then I was there, somehow flitting through the crowd, and holding Pavi's shoulders back as he strained and jerked. The red I'd thought was Lily's hair was another witch - Molly, I vaguely remembered. Her belly bulged in a telltale way, but she was strong and firm and took no nonsense as she poured a silvery substance over the stump that had once been Pavi's wrist.

The silver pooled into three dips. I averted my eyes, putting one of my hands on Pavi's face and tilting his head back towards me.

"There, now," I said. "We'll have matching scars. I know you look up to me, Pavi, but did you have to wrestle a vipertooth?"

"Caught me out," he grunted through gritted teeth, and then another bit off scream twisted from his lips.

"Do we have a sleeping draught?" I asked Molly. There was a desperate tinge to my voice I hadn't expected.

"No, I said no," Pavi struggled against me.

"Calm him down," Molly snapped at me.

"No sleeping draught," I told Pavi. "I promise. But it will hurt when they draw the venom from those pits. I still have nightmares about it sometimes."

"Is that what you call a bedside manner?" he snarled.

I shrugged and stroked his sweaty black hair from his face. He shuddered in my arms. And though I'd never tell him to his face, never make fun of him for it, he fainted. It was a relief in my mind, because Molly had recruited another scrawny wizard to begin drawing the venom from the wounds. I was shuddering now, trying to avert my eyes but somehow drawn to it. The acidic, bilious yellow flowed into the air like threads, shimmering in the light. And after all of that, they were finally able to bandage off the stump.

Even after Molly and the other wizard left, I stayed with Pavi, stroking his face and alternating between hope that he would wake up and hope that he wouldn't because I remembered well the pain that would follow.

Lily, James and Sirius found me there.

"Where's Peter?" I asked wearily, examining each of them in turn. Except for soot and scrapes, and a dead look in their eyes, they were in one piece.

"Couldn't reach him," Sirius said, and flopped down on the floor to sit beside me with his knees drawn up.

I leaned into him, finally letting the tears leak from my eyes. He wrapped an arm around me, carefully avoiding the unconscious man who was propped up against me still.

"I'm so sorry, Genre," Lily said. She and James stayed standing, leaning against each other. "The shop…"

"Pavi lost his hand," I told her tearily. "I can't think about the shop right now."

"Fair enough," James said. He sank to the floor also, bringing Lily with him. Together, we kept vigil, taking comfort from each other, until Pavi began to stir again.

Sirius helped me carefully back up, easing Pavi to lay flat on the ground. I didn't realize that in the time I'd stayed there, my limbs had all become numb. I was happy for his support. Selfishly, I wished Remus was there too so I could honestly curl up against someone.

Pavi woke with the four of us around him. I think if he hadn't been so pale from blood loss, he may have flushed from embarrassment. As it was, there was no room for embarrassment.

"I'll go get Dumbledore," Lily said. "He'll want to hear what happened." Then, with a guilty glance at Pavi, she flushed. "Sorry, Pavi. There's no time to waste."

"Dumbledore's here?" I asked stupidly. After feeling Voldemort enter a room just by the sheer force of his presence, I guess I'd tricked myself into thinking the same of Dumbledore. But no, I realized now as Lily signaled to someone, Dumbledore didn't flaunt his power. If anything, he tamped it down to let everyone else shine.

Lily's signal must have been a signal for everyone. Friends and partners and acquaintances, including Jack, began filtering over. Hands and murmured condolences clamped on my shoulders and slid in one ear and out the next. Jack stayed by Pavi's feet, helping his friend to sit up. His red freckles looked almost fake against the staunch paleness of his face.

And then, as the last of them respectfully left. There stood Dumbledore, looking older than I remembered and more somber than I'd seen him since he gathered Cadie, Stan and I into his office to announce our parents' deaths.

"Professor," I greeted.

"Miss Pokeby," he said, and then nodded to the rest of us before letting his eyes settle on Pavi's. "And how are you feeling?"

"A bit like a dragon chew toy," Pavi answered.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

Between Pavi and James, who had been on duty for work, we got the whole story. It appeared our worst scenario discussion had come true: Tammy must've been found out, because Cadie and Stan had been called in. My chest froze, but I couldn't find the energy to worry about what happened to Tammy.

"A wyvern attacked down the path," Pavi explained. "The screams woke me up. You know they're nasty things, even if they're not as powerful as dragons. I barely made it down the stairs, and then they were there. Your brother and sister, and one other. Tried to subdue me and kept asking where you were. Said I was going to die anyway and I couldn't keep you safe." Pavi let out a pained chuff, almost a laugh. "Said that's what siblings were for."

Sirius's grip on my shoulder tightened. I appreciated it for what it was - acknowledgement of the irony.

"I got the upper hand for a minute. Stupefied your sister. But then the other guy, not your brother, he got pissed and did something I'd never seen before. Whatever it was, it exploded the entire downstairs, and then your sister was back up and they summoned the vipertooth. Said when you died, it'd be on me."

"All of Hogsmeade was burning, it seemed like," James picked up when Pavi faltered. "There were two wyverns by then, and witches and wizards attacking left and right and burning things just for fun it seemed like. I saw the explosion and rushed over. Lily was called in by that point and met me there with this other bloke, Kingsley. You know him."

"We killed the dragon," Lily said. Her voice was carefully calm. Her fingers trembled. "Pavi was half buried in rubble, and the dragon had a hold of him."

"Ate my wand," Pavi complained. "I loved that wand. And my wand hand."

"Blackthorn," I recited. "Griffin feather core, eight and nine tenth inches, sturdy as an oak but not inflexible."

"You can't remake it," Lily told me gently. Dumbledore's eyes were on me; everyone's were, I think. "You know that. Even an identical wand might not choose him."

"It doesn't have to," I told her. "Another wand already did."

"Another wand?" Pavi sounded confused.

"Could someone escort me to the remains of the shop?" I asked. "I'll be there just long enough to see if the wand survived and retrieve it, if possible."

"I'll go," Sirius offered. "I was on scene for less time than the two of you."

"You finish your report," I told James and Pavi. "I'll be back. I'll be safe."

"You better," Pavi threatened.

Maybe I'd managed not to cry during the report, my emotions too mixed to form a cohesive one. But now, faced with the destruction - a second time - of this beloved shop, the tears came and I didn't try to stop them. I welcomed them, in fact, since the smoke that stained the very air around us stung my eyes. Sirius stayed close to me, his cloak swirling around my ankles with each stride. When I glanced at him, he was alert, looking in each direction. My heart swelled, briefly, thinking for what was probably the millionth time that I had the best friends in the history of magic. And when had they grown up so well?

Sirius helped me clear some of the smoldering rubble aside. When there was an opening that seemed sturdy enough for me, I slipped in. The boxes of wands had been scattered in the explosion, but oddly enough they mostly seemed to be whole. I could see the damage at chest height that must've been caused by who I could only presume was Richard. The spell he used seemed to have been a relatively flat plane, spreading in all directions.

Because I was looking at chest level, at the damage, I didn't see it at first. I might not have seen it if it weren't for my incredibly stupid but loveable owl fluttering into the opening, surprising a cursing Sirius from the sound of it.

"Fluffy," I said in surprise. She held out her leg to me and hooted. The cramped handwriting was as familiar as my own heart. And then, my eyes followed the line of her leg and saw the velvet lined box, laying open. The wand was in one piece. I couldn't bring Pavi's hand back, but this - this I could do. I knelt down and swept the box up. And though I wanted to, I couldn't make myself take the letter off Fluffy's leg. How? I wondered. How had Remus attached a letter to my owl?

Everyone who had remained at the headquarters when Sirius and I left was still there when I returned. Jack was keeping Pavi propped up, though Pavi was beginning to look gray in the face.

"Here," I mumbled with no preamble and shoved the velvet lined box at Jack. He opened it for Pavi and whistled long and low.

"I can't take your wand," Pavi hissed between two pained breaths.

"It's not my wand, and I can't very well sell it without a shop," I pointed out.

The unicorn wand glimmered weakly in the box.

"The wand has to choose the wizard, anyway," Jack said. "Doesn't it?"

I pulled myself up in the best imitation of McGonagall that I could manage under the circumstances.

"The wand chose Pavi when he first started working for me. He chose not to accept it. Now he will."

Jack stared at me for a minute before giving a short chuckle.

"Aye, well, you can't argue with that, can ye mate?" he asked Pavi. "Not when your boss said so."

Pavi reached forward with his whole hand, supported subtly by James when he leaned forward. His fingers skimmed the wand, and then twisted around it. It chimed pleasantly at his touch, sparking faintly as he lifted it. As I'd surmised so long ago, the wand had chosen its holder.