September 1979

The jet lag had lasted for four days. For four days, Beth walked around like a zombie, drinking coffee like it was part of her religion and taking naps like it was her job. For four days, Beth reacquainted herself with people driving on the right side of the road and talking with her own accent. For four days, Beth hugged her family, met up with her friends, and adjusted back to life in the United States.

Now, four weeks later, her summer spent abroad was becoming more of a memory than a reality.

Everyone had wanted to know how the summer went when she'd returned. She'd obliged happily, telling them all about how her internship had progressed, raving about the connections she'd made in her field. She'd told them about James and Lily's wedding, going into detail about the decorations, the dress, and the colors. She'd talked about all of the touristy sights she saw, all of the tea she drank, and all of the fish and chips she'd eaten. When pressed, she'd even found herself talking about Sirius, telling everyone that it had not been anything serious, that they had had fun, and that they were keeping in touch through James and Remus' letters.

Essentially, she gave them all of the information she knew they'd want and held tightly to all of the information they could never know.

That had been one of the longest conversations she and Remus had had while they were packing: what she could and could not say. Remus had explained that, while magic did exist in the United States, it was just as secretive there, and any knowledge of her knowing anything about it could result in her memories being erased again. She'd argued against it, but ultimately agreed, and suddenly she was part of the very conspiracy that had torn her relationship with Sirius nearly apart.

How hypocritical.

But soon, people stopped asking her questions about her trip and started asking about her classes. They stopped asking about her summer romance and started asking if she'd go on a blind date with a friend. They stopped asking about her internship and started asking where she was thinking about applying after graduation. Slowly but surely, life began to move on.

Her advisor had praised her repeatedly for her glowing recommendation letter from her internship, telling her that she was almost guaranteed a job anywhere she wanted. She'd told him about their offer to have her back permanently, and a huge smile had crossed his face as he asked what she'd responded. Pushing aside the memories of what else had happened that day she'd found out, she'd told him she had considered it, but that it was more than likely not in the cards for her to return.

"Keep your options open," he'd told her.

"We'll see," she'd said.

Every couple of days, she'd find a new letter waiting for her postmarked all the way from England. James' letters spoke of situating himself finely into married life, which only intensified how strongly he spoke of loving Lily. "I don't think I comprehended what the idea of marriage meant when I agreed to it," he'd told her in his last letter. "I don't think I realized that this would be the rest of my life, living with one person, fighting over what to order in, and learning how to arrange throw pillows in the right way. I did not realize the amount of work that must be put forth to make it work, to create a forever. And now, I find myself incapable to imagine what life would be like without it. I do not think I could be happier if I tried."

Remus' last letter, in contrast, said this: "Peter apparently hooked up with a girl at James' wedding and didn't tell any of us, which is absolute bollocks considering he hasn't had a shag in two years, and now we are all questioning our friendships with one another. This also means that, in one night, James, Sirius, and Peter got laid while I spent it helping the staff tear down decorations. I have renounced my friends out of jealousy and spite, so please consider this a formal notice that I am moving away from them forever and will attempt to find love on the island of Fiji."

As more time passed, she found that they would mention catastrophic events more and more often. Nothing ever too intense or passionate, but talks of freak explosions and train crashes and floods became a reoccurring topic. Often, one or both of them would start an entirely new letter, and it was becoming very common to receive a new letter every couple of days. One would be an uproarious tale about their recent run-in with a beekeeper, and the next would be about lightning striking a power line and causing a fire. They both asked her about any crazy events happening where she lived, and she gave them whatever examples she could find.

"I feel like an investigative journalist," she'd written to James once. "I've read more newspapers and watched more news than I thought was possible, just to keep up with you!"

Occasionally, one or both of them would mention Sirius in a story, updating her on small moments in his life. At one point, she'd sat down and tried to write a letter to him, but after writing, "Dear Sirius, I hope you are well," she found that she could think of nothing else to say. With James and Remus, it had been easier to write about the cute guy that sits next to her in her class. With Sirius, she felt that even in their attempts to stay friendly and civil with each other, it would be too weird.

She also didn't want to open up the possibility of having to hear about the gratuitous amounts of sex he was having in response.

And so the balance of life began, and within these four weeks, the number of classes she was taking, the letters she was writing, and the plans she was making finally began to settle into a rhythm that she could depend on.

Which is why when she walked out of her class one day and saw Sirius Black outside the door, she nearly peed her pants.

He was standing there, smiling softly, hands stuffed in his leather jacket, leaning against a tree with a foot propped against it, looking almost exactly like he did the first time she met him. She froze in her place with a jolt, earning her a couple of choice words from the people who skidded to a stop behind her.

She didn't hear them, but simply stood there, mouth gaping, heart thudding, and nerves racing as he made his way over to her.

"What are you doing here?!" she practically screamed as he came closer.

"Hello to you, too," he replied, moving in to hug her. She awkwardly wrapped one arm around him, struggling with what to do with her books in her other hand. She was certain her face looked just as awkward as that felt.

"Is someone hurt?"

He chuckled. "No, no one is hurt."

"Then why are you here?" she asked, shifting her books to her other side.

He took in a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair. "Well, in all honesty, I came to tell you something, but you don't seem quite happy to see me."

She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "I'm just surprised," she covered quickly. "I didn't expect to see you so soon. You know, when I said, 'I'll see you soon' and you said, 'oh, not soon enough' I didn't think that'd mean—"

And now she was rambling. Great job, Beth.

"Yes, I'd rather depended on that," he laughed.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking down at his chest, which, of course, was the exact moment she remembered she'd traced the lines of his abs with her tongue. Her eyes snapped back up to his. "What did—what—um—what did you want to tell me?"

"Yes," he said, a sullen and serious expression coming over his face. "Beth."

Oh, God.

"Beautiful, wonderful, lovely, amazing Beth."

Her heart knotted at his words. Out of fear, disgust, intrigue, or hope, she did not know.

He reached out to her face, tracing his fingers over the shape of her cheek, and another image of him stroking somewhere entirely different came to mind.

What was he doing?!

"Precious Beth."

Oh God, what was he doing.

"I'm in love with you."

Her heart plummeted.

"Oh, you wanker," a voice behind her said. Beth whipped her head around to the person coming through the building. "That's not what we agreed on you saying!"

"James?!"

A big, toothy grin erupted onto her best friend's face, and he scooped her up and spun her around. "Surprise!"

"Oh, my God!" she screamed, hugging him back in full force. "What is happening?! Why are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm not here to listen to this prat try to shock you to death," he said as he put her back down.

Sirius was laughing. "Forgive me," he said, reaching out to hug her again. "The opportunity was there, and the look of absolute terror that crossed your face was priceless."

Skeptically, Beth wrapped an arm around him in response. "I beg to differ," she argued, uncaring of whether the look on her face was nasty or not. "I think there are about 20,000 different things you could have said that would have garnered a similar reaction."

"He told me he was going to tell you that Remus had finally found a girlfriend," James said.

"But then we figured that'd be too far-fetched."

"Oh, shut up," another voice called out.

Remus emerged, and Lily and Peter were coming in tow behind him.

Out of pure excitement and bewilderment, all of her books fell to the floor, and so loud was her yell of surprise that the people eating across the street looked up from their meals in disgust.

"So Peter," Beth said, situating herself on her couch back at her apartment. "I hear you have a girlfriend now."

He threw up his hands. "You told her?"

"You didn't tell us," Remus retorted. "Of course I told her."

"No, no, no, I shouldn't have had to tell you. If all of you weren't busy doing something else, you would have noticed."

"I was getting married, you idiot," Lily yelled.

"Alright, you two, fine," Peter said, motioning to her and James, "but the rest of you were so worried about Beth here that—"

Beth's jaw dropped. "Is it my fault?" she asked, a short laugh escaping her. "Are you blaming this on me?"

"I'm simply saying—"

"I can't believe—"

"I'm simply saying," Peter talked over her, "that if you weren't there, everyone would have known."

"That is so not fair!" Beth said.

"And now you are all in the dark about it, and will not know anything else."

"Oh, Wormtail, come on," James said. "Give us a small hint. What does her name start with?"

Sirius shifted forward. "Hold on, are we 100% certain it wasn't a bloke?"

"Of course it wasn't a bloke," Peter argued.

"Wormtail," Remus said. "You know there's nothing wrong with that." He gestured with his arms. "This is a safe space."

"I know there's nothing wrong with that, but what happened between Chastity and me—"

His hand flew up to his mouth as soon as the words came out as everyone else howled with success.

"You screwed a girl named Chastity?" Lily screamed.

"That in itself is almost better than my entire sixth year," Sirius said.

"I did not screw her."

"Did you make love to her?" Remus teased.

"Hey, at least I had someone to 'make love' to," he shot back.

Remus rolled his eyes as everyone laughed. "I resent that."

"Are you still seeing her?" Beth asked, taking a sip of water.

"Of course he is," Sirius interjected. "He's too desperate to let a one night stand get away."

"For your information," Peter said, "I never called her."

Lily's jaw dropped. "You never called her?"

"This was four weeks ago!" Peter exclaimed. "Do you really think that if I was still seeing her, you wouldn't have met her by now?"

"So let me just get this straight," Lily said, sitting up higher in her seat. "You legitimately came to my wedding, had a one night stand with someone, and it's not phasing you at all that you neither called her nor told us anything about her?"

"Sirius sees a new girl every week and we know just about as much about them!" he shouted back. "Why am I the one being questioned?"

Beth tensed, fidgeting in her seat a little as the group continued to playfully argue with each other. She wasn't mad. She wasn't mad. What was there to be mad about? She'd gone on dates. She'd gone on a lot of dates. Well, okay, two dates, but that was still something, right? One of them had been a med student, too. That had to count for something. And that one had actually planned another date with her Thursday night, so not only had she gone on two dates, but she was about to go on a third. Sirius was probably just off having little flings—

—like he'd had with her.

"A new girl every week."

She thought back to the bridesmaid with the black bob at Caitlin's wedding. He'd probably found her again, finished what he'd started. That would make sense. Or no, some tall and leggy blonde who did yoga every day and was super flexible and ate ice cream without gaining weight. That would make more sense.

But what did she care? She was going out with… Tyler? Connor? Whatever his name was, he was a med student. That's what mattered.

"So Beth," James said, drawing her out of her thoughts abruptly. "There is a reason why we're here."

"So Sirius could profess his love for me, right?" Beth quipped too quickly. Way to go, Beth, she thought to herself. Bring attention back to the idea of you two being together.

"Believe it or not, no, it was not so that Sirius could prove he's a dickhead," James continued, throwing a pillow at his friend to further prove his point. "We have a favor to ask of you."

"Oh?"

"We wanted to know if you'd be alright with seeing us every week or so," Remus said.

Beth laughed nervously as everyone stared at her expectantly. "What?"

"Remember the war we told you about?" James asked. "How we said we were all fighting in it? We're part of this group called The Order, and essentially what we do is monitor absolutely everything that seems suspicious. We go on missions and check for the safety of towns or eavesdrop on conversations or basically just whatever needs to be done. We have contacts in surrounding countries that provide us with any knowledge we may need regarding events that have happened."

"Remember the tornado that went through while you were staying with us?" Lily asked. "That was a planned attack, not a tornado."

"Right," James continued. "We train these contacts to be on the lookout for any specific wording given in the reports of what happened, and to detect whether malevolence was involved or not."

"It's a very crucial part to the way we run things," Remus said.

"Exactly. It helps us deduce where safe options for relocation are or where we need to send more spies, and it helps give us an insight into who the attack was against. Recently," he shifted in his seat uncomfortably, "the targets have been more Muggle-based, and we're trying to put an end to that."

"So what we want to know," Lily said, "is whether or not you'd like to be our contact for the United States."

"You wouldn't have to do anything you didn't feel comfortable with," Remus assured. "And we wouldn't ask for very much. Just stay on top of domestic events, watch the news, read newspapers, stay interested in the world, which, for a person studying global economics, will not seem suspicious in the slightest. That's why Prongs and I," he nodded to his friend, "have been asking you about what you've heard recently. We wanted to get a sense of how involved with current events you were."

"And frankly, you have more contacts than the UN, what with all of the different places that you've lived," James said. "Plus, your internship and whatever previous work you've done opens up all kinds of resources that we wouldn't have ever thought of."

"Also, we miss you," Peter added.

"We do," James nodded his head. "And this way, we could see you all the time. You could be like a little safe haven for us."

"So what do you say?" Remus asked.

Beth sorted through the gratuitous amount of information she had just been given, trying desperately to find out where they all should go. Question after question popped into her head, trying to make sense of all that had happened in the last hour. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Sirius had a new girl every week, for crying out loud.

"I have some questions," she admitted.

"By all means, yes, of course," James said. "What do you have?"

"Okay," she said, leaning up farther in her seat. "So you said you're called the Order?" They all nodded their heads. "So it's like Star Wars?

Instinctively, she looked towards Sirius, who was fighting hard against a grin coming to his face.

"No," James said, shaking his head. "No, it's not like Star Wars."

"There's an Order in Star Wars."

"Yeah, but they're the bad guys."

Sirius dropped his head into his hands and was laughing to himself.

"Well, you're the bad guys to the other guys, right?"

"Sweet Merlin, are we kind of like Star Wars?" Peter asked, astonished.

"We're not like Star Wars," James snapped.

"I'm just saying, there's an Order in both, they have lightsabers and the Force, you have wands and magic—"

"I think we're a little bit like Star Wars," Sirius admitted, still laughing.

"Okay, first off, no we're not," James said. "Secondly, do you have actual questions?"

"Yes, I do," Beth said. "Did you get the idea for the name from the movie Star Wars?"

"I can't do this right now." James stood up and headed for the kitchen. "Lily, you're up."

"Get me a water," Lily pleaded before turning to face Beth fully. "So yes, a tiny bit like Star Wars, but we had the name first."

"Alright, next question," Beth started, trying to grow more comfortable with this idea. "You'd be here every week?"

"Ideally, yes," Lily said. "But never on the same day."

"We took a device called a Portkey to get here," Remus explained. "It transports you to one secure location. They're ordered through the Ministry, though, and we cannot trust that it is completely Death Eater free, so we'd have to travel on seemingly random days, and almost never all at once."

"We thought what we could do is ask you each time we visit what day in the next calendar week would work best for you, and we'd plan it around your schedule," Sirius contributed. "Then we'd take turns coming to visit so that members of our Order won't be suspicious of one person leaving constantly."

"Though people honestly probably wouldn't even notice," Peter commented. "Too many other things going on in their own lives."

"Are you suspicious of the people you work with?" she asked.

Silence grew around them, and Beth felt the tension in the room start to rise. "We can never be too careful," Remus stated grimly.

No one else contributed.

Sensing the need to change the topic, she continued, "So it would just be you visiting, or would other members—"

"It'd be anyone you'd want to see," Sirius interrupted.

Beth nodded slowly. "Okay," she said. "And how long would you be staying?"

"However long you'd let us," Remus said. "Never more than, at the very most, ten hours?"

"Probably not even that," James said as he came back into the room, handing Lily her cup of water. "Just a quick check-in followed by three hours of gossip and catching up."

"Certainly much more effective than letter writing," Remus said.

"You don't have to say yes," Lily stated as she took a long drink.

"But it would be entirely selfish of you if you didn't."

Beth rolled her eyes and looked at Sirius, who was staring back at her with a smirk crossed over his face. It almost felt as if he was double-dog daring her to say no. Straightening in her seat, she raised her eyebrows. "I'm in."

James' face broke out in an infectious grin. "Really?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to be accused of being selfish, now would I?"

Sirius' smirk fell. She tried not to gloat in it.

The next ten minutes were full of teaching her the wording to be on the lookout for and trying to figure out how she could get access to the magical newspaper in the United States. Beth tried to keep up with it all, even going so far as to take out a notebook and write down some notes, but even with them detailing everything, she found it difficult to keep up. Remus caught her eye at one point and asked her if she was okay, promising that he would write down detailed instructions of what and what not to do. The effort to help her was appreciated, but still, she felt overwhelmed. Her semester had only just begun, and she had only one semester after this before she needed to be on the lookout for a job. She really hoped this didn't turn out to be more time-investing than it sounded like it would be.

When a lull finally was reached, Beth offered to order food, much to the happiness of the group. Walking to the kitchen, she listened for the group to carry on in their conversation before she leaned against the wall separating them.

This was a lot. A lot a lot. Potentially-saving-her-country-from-dark-forces-that-no-one-knew-existed a lot. And now it was almost entirely on her shoulders? She took in a deep breath and let it out, hating how shaky it sounded. They'd said it wouldn't be anything, right? "A quick check-in," James had called it. That's all it is, she told herself. A quick check in, then time spent with people she really didn't think she'd get to see again.

She looked at her kitchen, staring at a small patch of dust on one of her cookbooks. She'd have to clean her apartment more often now.

"Hey."

Beth's eyes flew towards the voice, surprised to see that it belonged to Sirius. "Hey," she said, walking to the drawer full of takeout menus, trying to act busy.

"You sure you're all right with all of this?"

"Of course," she said without making eye contact with him.

"Beth." She let out a small sigh and looked at him. His face was surprisingly genuine. "You can say no."

"But I said yes."

He nodded. "Yeah, you did."

Nodding once with him, she went back to looking for a menu.

"Listen," Sirius said, leaning against her refrigerator. "I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"For surprising you the way that we did."

"Oh, you mean when you said you were in love with me?" she asked icily.

He faltered. "I thought at the time it would be funny."

"It was hilarious." Her voice contained no expression at all.

"And for what Peter said." He shuffled his feet and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "The whole 'new girl every week' thing. It's not been…every week."

"I don't care," she shrugged, finally pulling a menu out. She glanced down at the options she knew by heart and walked to the phone. "We're not together anymore. You can see whoever you want."

He was quiet for a moment, and Beth finally looked up at him to see what he was doing. His eyes, however, were down too, and her heart began to beat a little heavier at the sight of seeing him so… defeated.

"I just wanted to—anyway, you're right." He turned to leave.

"Sirius." He turned around slowly, and she took a small step closer to him in response. "I'm sorry, this is just—"

"Weird?"

"It's weird," she nodded in agreement. "And I know, we need to just get that first awkward talk out of the way."

"Well, the last time I said that everything kind of fell apart."

"Yeah," she said, fumbling with the menu in her hands. She turned around back towards the phone.

"It's not imperative that I be here, or that I visit you at all," he said, taking another step forward. "If you'd rather I didn't, I won't be offended."

She shook her head. "I'm not going to tell you that you can't come. That'd almost be weirder."

"Good," He offered a small smile. "Now I can play the ex-boyfriend card and scare off any potential suitors," he teased.

"Well, you're a little late for that," she mumbled as she picked up the phone.

"What was that?"

She sighed slightly, turning back to face him. "I'm going on a third date on Thursday."

Okay, so it was a slight lie, but the implication for what was to come was higher for a third date than a second.

Also, she liked the way he slightly squirmed, no doubt suffering her torment of remembering what she looked like that night.

"Are you?"

"Yeah," she said. "You're not the only one capable of moving on." Quickly, she threw in a small smile, trying to alleviate some of the tension. It must have helped because when he did respond, it was a smile back to her.

"Well, I hope he knows just what he's in for."

Beth's eyes shifted. "What do you mean?"

"You're saying that it's the third date, which means it must be the second."

Her eyebrows furrowed. How did he figure that out? "How so?"

"Because the first date with you doesn't count."

Beth threw her head back and laughed. "It wasn't a date!"

"Beth, we ended the night kissing."

"That doesn't mean anything!"

"Yeah, if you're Peter, it doesn't."

This time Sirius laughed along with her. "I'm going to fight you on this for forever."

"Put up your Dukes then, Black," she taunted. "I've got until then."

"Oh, do you?"

"Oh, I do."

Sirius smiled, nodding once at her. He was silent for a moment longer, then shuffled his feet. "Beth," he said, "I know it's terribly cliche and awful to say this, but I think we could still be friends, especially if we're going to be seeing each other more frequently now. I think we need to decide to put the effort into trying, because, no offense, I am not going to lose my closest friends to you." A loud laugh came from the other room, and he turned his head toward the noise. "If you take them away from me, I'll never forgive you."

She saw the depth of absolution in his eyes and knew immediately that it was non-negotiable. She shook her head. "I wouldn't dream of it."

"Good, because I make very bad, very impulsive decisions when I get upset."

"That's not a good thing."

"No, you're right, it's horrible," he agreed. "I do things like showing up to a date with a girl sloshed out of my mind."

She thought back to that night, how embarrassed and awful she'd felt, and how much her heart had reached out to him when he'd explained himself. "You told me about all of that, though. You don't need to beat yourself up over it. I get it. It's understandable."

"Understandable, but not acceptable," he said. "You of all people deserved better."

She felt color rise into her cheeks, but she didn't try to turn her head away. He looked grateful for it. "Well," she said, "it's a good thing that we're just friends, then."

"Friends that have had sex, though."

She buried her face into her hands. "We're not going to be friends for very long if you keep mentioning that."

"I won't," he laughed at her embarrassment. "In a way, it works better though, because now we have that weird, 'I kind of want to shag you' energy out of the way."

She groaned in confusion. "What are you even talking about?"

"Do you not get that? I thought that was universal."

"No, I think you're just that obsessed with sex."

He nodded pointedly. "I do like sex. Did I ever tell you about Clarissa Tho—"

"Sirius."

"You're right, you're right," he said. "Friends, but not that close of friends."

"Yeah, please don't ever—"

"As long as you don't ever—"

"Right, right."

Sirius smiled, reaching a hand out to high-five her. "I think we're going to be great friends."

Beth smiled back, returning the gesture, and when she responded, she was surprised by how genuinely she meant it. "I think so too."

A/N: Back already! Thank you to all of the reviews that recently came in! Your support pushed me to write quicker, and look what happened! We got a new chapter very, very quickly!

Nimblescrivener, you are beloved for all of your help. Thank you for the insight on this chapter.

Keep. Those. Reviews. Coming. I have summer classes that started yesterday, so I'm going to need all of the motivation to write I can get!