Chapter 8:

Here We Go

"Sorry I'm running a bit late- I got caught up. I hope you haven't waited too long!" Marlene called out to them, shutting the door to Lily's flat.

"Oh, only about forty minutes or so," Sirius smirked at her as she came into the kitchen and took the last chair at the table. She smiled sweetly, lifting her middle finger in reply.

"Classy," He noted, raising an eyebrow.

"He's exaggerating. It's only been about ten, but you're fine," Lily interrupted, hoping to end their little banter so that the meeting could actually start. She picked up the sheets of parchment in front of her and absentmindedly shuffled it. Over a month had passed since Alice, Moody, and Gideon were attacked, and finally, they were having their first meeting. Realistically, she knew it probably wouldn't be for another couple months until they would actually have some sort of solution, but it felt good knowing that they could move forward, that they were doing something.

Here we go.

"Can someone pass the biscuits?" Marlene called, having gotten herself a cup of tea. Hestia passed a large tray—really too big for the table—loaded with the products of Lily's anxiety baking. She watched as the tray went around the table once more, and winced when, for the sixth time, someone bumped elbows and knocked over their cup of tea. Really, she should have just accepted Sirius's offer of having it at his place. His table didn't need to be magically enhanced to fit five people, and still barely squeeze in the kitchen. James got the tray last, and Lily watched him out of the corner of her eye as he picked up three more biscuits for his plate. Who was he today? Hogwarts James or Guarded James from the cafe? Or someone else? He looked around at everyone, except for her. She glanced away, not quite sure what she'd been expecting. Since the night of his and Sirus's bar fight, they had another awkward but more productive planning meeting, and had finalized the team with Dumbledore. Dumbledore vetoed some people on their initial task force: Remus because he was invaluable as a spy right now. Frank and Fabian because he had a separate mission for them: guarding Alice and Gideon at St. Mungos. But he had accepted Sirius, Marlene, and Hestia.

"Right. You know why you are here. We must find the cause, the cure, and a way to prevent whatever happened to them from happening to anyone else," Lily couldn't help but notice the muscles in his neck and forearms contract and tighten as he spoke, and wished for more than just the three measly inches of space between them. Why hadn't she accepted Sirius's offer?

"I feel like you should have a gravel and a powdered wig, something to bang against the table to make this more official," Sirius mused aloud, the corners of his mouth twitching. James ignored him and continued without pausing.

" For the Order's survival, we have to succeed. We have no other option," He met the stares of all the other members of the team, even Lily's this time.

He leaned forward on the table, causing it to creak and his glasses to slip slightly farther down his nose, and began to explain in a terse manner what he had told Lily and Sirius the night they had gotten into a fight. Lily observed their reactions, wondering if she was right in picking them for this mission. Sirius doodled idly on the parchment in front of him. Hestia Jones, the Oblivator, stared at James with wide eyes. Marlene twisted a blonde curl around her pointer finger, face pensive as she listened to James.

"...Dumbledore believes that it's safe to assume that what happened to me, is what's happening to Fabian, Moody, and Alice, or at least, very similar," James leaned back into his chair, pushing his glasses up.

"How did you...wake up then?" Marlene asked, with no trace of her playful grin.

" Well, the Healers don't really know what made me wake up. They think it had to do with the right combination of potions they put in me, but, " He shrugged, "I don't know. I think it just wore off. I remember that the nightmares started becoming less specific, my "memories" seemed less convincing. I think that's what did it." The blonde nodded slowly. Lily frowned, thinking about the others in St. Mungos. James had been unconscious for 6 weeks, and they had now been unconscious for five. But their distress so far hadn't lessened. They still had to be injected with calming draught every 3 hours to keep them in a somewhat comfortable state.

"Can you clarify exactly what it did to you? What do you mean by nightmares and memories?" Lily hadn't asked that before. James's lips pressed together as he looked at her, really looked at her for a moment. His eyes were dark, still, cautious. Like he was waiting for a trap to spring. Had she overstepped?

"It was a lot like a pensive, I guess," He said slowly, turning his gaze from her to the top of the table. "It got a hold of all of my doubts, any moments where I felt ashamed, all of my worst memories and then twisted them, and forced me to relive them, over and over again. It was like I was watching myself-I was an observer to my own memories. And I started to forget what was true and what was a lie. After I woke up, I thought my parents hated me, my friends had betrayed me, and that the whole war was propaganda from the Ministry." She nodded, jotting down brief notes for later, noticing that he pressed his wand hand more tightly against the table. Was it trembling?

"Hestia, what memory charms do you know that could do this?" The brunette jumped slightly at Lily's unfamiliar brusque tone.

"W-Well, um, as far as I know, not a single spell could manage all of that. Muto Verum can change memories, Obliviate erases them. Pensives hold memories and allow us to relive them, and then there's Legilimency of course," The brunette seemed less timid as she spoke, more clinical, as she ticked off the spells, but by the end, she started to flush, uncomfortable with the curious stares directed her way.

"Could those memory charms ever be combined with a pensive?" James asked her quickly, a light blazing in his eyes.

"I don't think so. Memories are fragile. Normally, they are relatively easy to change. But when they are placed in a pensive, they're protected."

"What do you mean?"

"Pensives help memories hold their 'shape'—I guess is the right way to describe it—so that we can relive and observe them without causing any damage. So you can change a memory before it's placed in a pensive, but changing it while it's in a pensive just won't work. And when you go fully into a pensive—you are physically transported, not just your mind. I'm sorry James, but I don't see how they could have used a pensive even if they could change the memories inside of it. " The light in his eyes dimmed slightly, and he nodded. He broke off a piece of biscuit and chewed on it thoughtfully.

"What do we know about what Moody, Alice and Fabian were working on?" asked Marlene.

"Dumbledore was having them follow a man named Edward Knapton, who we think is acting as a smuggler for Voldemort. They were trying to understand exactly what he was involved with, and what he was smuggling. They followed him to what they thought was one of his drop off locations—and then the ambush happened," said Lily.

"So Knapton knew he was being followed. How much do we think this guy knows?" Sirius asked.

"We're not sure. We know he's not in the inner circle—Alice ran into him and was able to check for a dark mark: he didn't have one. But he has been seen a couple times with Evan Rosier." Lily said the name with not a little bitterness.

"Ah! I thought we had gone too long without talking about one of my cousins. Now it makes a little more sense. So, we're doing an interrogation?" Sirius asked

"Yes—not Rosier—he's a little too slippery to get a hold of, but we're aiming for Knapton." James said, energy returning again to his voice.

"We'll need to brew Veritaserum—which will take about a month." Lily said.

"But that will give us enough time to put a shadow on Knapton, learn his routine, and see if he gets in contact with Roiser again," James finished. His glasses slipped down to the tip of his nose again as he jotted down notes. "Who can make a potion somewhat decently?"

Lily and Hestia both raised their hands.

"Brilliant. You two make up a schedule to get it done before the end of April. I'll need the dates everyone has free for the next month, and then I'll put together a schedule for keeping track of Knapton and send it out to everyone. Okay?" James glanced around the room, "meeting dismissed!" He clapped his hands, and then ran his hand thru his hair, looking over his notes.

Marlene left first. After squeezing Sirius's right arm and whispering something into his ear, she saluted James with a smirk, and disapparated. Hestia followed soon after, telling Lily softly that she'd check her work schedule tomorrow and get back to her. Lily stood up to put the dirty teacups into her sink, leaving Sirius and James sitting at the table, talking in mumbled tones. Once out of sight of the others, she leaned her forehead up against the cool door of her fridge, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

It had been a long week. Voldemort's recent recruits needed some training, and so he set them off at Hogsmeade. It resulted in thirty new intensive care patients at St. Mungos. This, along with her desperate attempts to coordinate a meeting with her team, get the necessary information from the Order, and navigate a working relationship with James, left her feeling utterly exhausted.

In place of the adrenaline from the meeting (which was now rapidly seeping out of her body), she felt a familiar wave of weariness hit her. Opening the door to one of her cabinets, she eagerly took out a small glass vial, uncorked it, and quickly gulped it down before leaving the kitchen to join the others at the table.

"...could really work, you know? Finally, I'd get my answers..."James trailed off once he saw Lily and tucked a piece of parchment into his pocket. "Well, I guess I better be off. The Ministry will be expecting me," He nodded at her, and began heading toward the door of her flat. "I'll owl you with some times that could work for us to plan the next step tomorrow."

"Right, that should be fine," He nodded once more and started to lift his wand. "Oh and, um, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind seeing if the French Ministry could send over your file, so I could look it over? I want to compare how they treated you to what we have tried to do with the others at St. Mungos. I've put in a request, but I've been denied. Apparently either you need to request it, the head of St. Mungos does, or—," Lily shut her mouth and pressed her lips together before she could finish saying "your next of kin." James's parents had died in the middle of their 7th year of Hogwarts. Who had he put down as his emergency contact or next of kin? Was it Sirius? Maybe his fiancée? Dorcas was hers. Petunia didn't want anything to do with her after their parents died. Lost in these thoughts, she almost missed James's "Can do" before he disapparated. Sirius bumped shoulders with her. She looked at him a little blankly.

"Alright, Lily?"

"Yeah, of course," She cleared her throat, and went to grab the half-empty tray of biscuits. "So, Evan Rosier is your cousin. How did I not know that?"

"Well, we didn't really talk much when he was around at Hogwarts. But, if they're pureblood, who isn't my cousin? James and I are even related. We looked it up once. Something like 7th cousins twice removed," Sirius shrugged. "But Roiser is a nasty bloke. You and him had a couple run-ins, back in Hogwarts, right?"

"Yeah." said Lily. Evan Rosier was a couple years older, but he had been part of the Slytherin group that had swallowed Severus. He had admired Roiser, told her all about how smart he was, how powerful he was, and when Roiser started jinxing Lily whenever they passed in the hallway, Severus looked away. Because of Roiser, she'd mastered the shield charm before most in her year.

"You seem quieter than normal—you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired I think. I took a pepper up potion a while ago, but it hasn't kicked in yet." Sirius didn't say anything. He continued to study her.

"I'm really okay. But I won't be if you keep looking at me like that! Go on-get out of here," Lily said playfully, pushing lightly at his shoulder.

"Alright, alright, I'm leaving," Sirius pecked her on the cheek before disapparating. Lily shook her head, and went to sit on her lumpy couch, just as an owl flew in, bearing a letter with a crossed wand and bone imprinted on the seal. The redhead groaned and summoned her green robes.

A/N: This chapter was one of the ones that has had the most edits done to it. It's were a lot of the plot has become a bit more refined within some of these conversations. But the exciting thing is, this will be the last official meeting chapter for a while! After this one-things start to really get moving in terms of the action.