A/N: You'll notice that I put the ATC near the MoM and although it's supposed to be in London, I've conveniently place it outside of the city itself. Or perhaps it just has one of those charms about it that causes muggles not to take notice of the building...

Eressa, Irene, and Almathea! Thank you all. I'd already up-loaded the last chapter before I saw your messages and didn't have a chance to welcome you. Welcome!

Ashliegh - I assure you that in the world of WW&S our good Defense professor much prefers the ladies. (No matter how good-looking Sirius is.)

Hey T - hello, and thanks! Did I just write sexual tension? Huh! Next thing you know I'll be writing angst! *shrugs*

Nsngrl - Darlin', if I find a man like that , I'm not sending him anywhere! *grins*

LifeSenshi - Glad you like the story. Thank you.

The Auror Training Center ~*~

On the afternoon of Friday, October 31st, Remus went to the infirmary after his last class. He had to speak with Lorien before she left. When he opened the door, Lorien was standing just on the other side.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi. I was just coming to find you," she said.

"You were?" he asked, sounding surprised.

She nodded. "Yes, but since you're here, shall we talk in my rooms?"

He agreed and followed her down the hall to the second door.

Lorien sat on the couch and patted the cushion next to her, and Remus sat by her side. Neither said anything for a moment.

Lorien finally spoke first. "I'm glad you came."

"Are you?" Remus asked.

"Yes. Remus, I owe you quite an apology," Lorien began. " I wasn't totally truthful with you, and I'm sorry you had to find out the way you did. I avoided telling you I kissed Severus because .....I didn't want to hurt you."

"I understand. I won't pretend that it didn't hurt, but I know you'd never do anything to hurt me intentionally. I owe you an apology as well." He told her how he had been insecure about his curse, and somewhat jealous of her.

"How could you even think that matters to me?" she asked as she took his hands in hers. "It's who you are the rest of the time that matters."

"I'm an idiot?" he offered.

"Maybe." She smiled a little.

Remus spoke again. "Lorien, I'm sorry about the way I acted when I found Snape near you. I guess I was being a little....a little...." He searched for the right word.

"Territorial?" she finished.

"Close enough," he said. "I can't help the way I feel about you, Lorien."

"I know. Nor I about you," she said softly.

"You still feel that way?" he asked.

"Yes," she said quietly.

He knew there was more. "But?" he asked.

"But, I also have strong feelings for Severus," she finally admitted it to him.

He took a deep breath and let it out. "I know."

"I never meant for this to happen, Remus. It just did," she said, suddenly looking very saddened.

"I realize that," he said to her.

"I'm going to need some time to myself. I need to think. Severus has already backed off. He has offered for us to remain in neutral territory for now. Can you do the same for me?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Yes, but not just yet," he said softly. He took her into his arms and held her for a long time as he spoke to her.

"Take as long as you need, Lorien. I want you to be happy. You have been a true friend to me and have brought joy into my life in the time I have known you."

He could tell that she was crying, and he held her tighter as he continued. "It's ok, Lorien," he said, trying to comfort her and himself. "Whatever you decide. I promise it will be ok."

"I just don't want either of you to hate me," she sobbed.

Remus held her tighter. "I could never hate you, Lorien. It would hurt terribly for me to lose you, but I could never hate you."

He could feel that her crying had lessened and he wiped away the remaining tears. He smiled at her a little and she smiled a little back. It was then that he was finally able to kiss her and shut everything else out for a few fleeting moments.

"Now," he said, when he finally pulled away, "about tonight. I want you to be extremely careful and not take any chances. This may be a false alarm, but if it isn't things could get bad quickly. I want you to stay as close to Severus as possible."

She looked a little surprised.

"I know," said Remus. "I can't believe I said it either, but that's where you'll be the safest. He knows what to watch out for."

Lupin also knew that if the dark robed wizard felt half as strongly about Lorien as he did, that the man would do everything in his power to keep her from harm if things should go bad.

"If anything happens, Sirius and I will be there, ok?" He tried to sound reassuring.

She looked at him mischievously. "Are you done with the pep talk?"

"I am." He got up to leave, but stopped at the door. "Oh, and one more thing, I wanted to tell you."

"About being careful?" she asked.

"No, about your transformation the other day," Remus said.

She looked surprised. "What?"

"You make a very sexy dragon, Lorien." He winked at her.

He could still hear her laughter when he stepped into the hall.

Lorien was apprehensive as she prepared for the night ahead. She hoped that this was really a false alarm, and the thought of intentionally heading to where there might be openly hostile Death Eaters had her on edge. As a medical witch she had seen the results of what the minions of Voldemort could do, and the thought of dealing with them directly, rather than dealing with the aftermath of their attacks left her quite uneasy.

She discarded the pale blue robes she wore and replaced them with a loose black shirt, and black leggings. The open robe she wore over them was also black and she grabbed a heavy black cloak on the way out the door. The sun was sinking low in the sky and she headed to meet Snape and Dumbledore.

Dumbledore and Snape were standing together in a little used courtyard that they had agreed to meet Lorien in. The younger wizard was reiterating his request for the headmaster to try one more last minute communication with Fudge.

"Albus, it can't hurt." Snape saw the headmaster look briefly to his right and he looked to see what the older man had seen while he spoke.

"They won't try anything until after dark. There's still time...." Snape broke off as he stared at the witch walking rapidly toward them clad from head to foot in black. It took a moment for him to hear Dumbledore's question.

".....you saying, Severus?"

"What?" Snape turned back to the white haired wizard who was smiling at something.

"I asked what you were saying a moment ago," repeated the headmaster.

"Oh. There's still time for them to evacuate the facility," Snape said a little distractedly.

"I will try once more," Dumbledore agreed.

Lorien reached the two men. "Are we ready?" she asked, trying to sound a little more cheerful than she felt.

Snape nodded.

"Both of you be very careful. Stick together, and if things get bad get out. I don't want anything to happen to either of you," the older wizard said.

The two black clad figures agreed solemnly.

Snape spoke as he turned to face Lorien and offered his arm. "I believe we have a party to go to?"

She stepped forward and tucked her hand under his elbow. "I believe we do." They walked out of the courtyard toward the school grounds together.

The headmaster was left standing alone, hoping that they would be safe.

Mad-eye Moody stood waiting impatiently for the rest to arrive on the small hill that overlooked the ATC and the distant Ministry of Magic. He had been on edge since Dumbledore had told him about the possible attack on the training school, and waiting around was doing nothing to improve his mood.

He was angry that he had to be here. If that damn Fudge would only realize that the impending threat from Voldemort was quite real, he would have taken Dumbledore's warning more seriously and evacuated the whole place. Instead the idiot had ordered that a few aurors be moved to monitor the premises in case 'anything out of the ordinary happened.' Moody and Dumbledore both knew the half dozen extra aurors were not likely to be enough if anything actually did happen.

That's where he and the others came in. He was here to provide protection in an unofficial capacity, unbeknownst to the Ministry.

Six people had now apparated on the hill behind the school where he stood and approached him. Five of them were strapping young men of varying ages, dressed in the auror's blue robes. The sixth was a woman, tall and athletic with short dark brown hair. She was dressed the same as her male companions; the same as her brother and four cousins.

It was she that spoke to the veteran auror first. "Hello Uncle."

The rest of the Moody clan had arrived.

"It's about time, Kaneene," Moody growled at her.

She shrugged and indicated the men over her shoulder. "Talk to Keath, he's the one that's always running late." She was also irritated with her brother.

"It's not important. You're all here. It looks like we could be in for a bit of a wait tonight...if anything happens at all." He downplayed the situation a little, but something was nagging at him just the same. According to Dumbledore, Snape had been adamant that Voldemort was not likely to back down, and as much as he hated to agree with anything Snape had to say, he had the same feeling.

"Now, I don't know if this is going to pan out, but I want you all alert and on your toes. Don't get sloppy and stick together," he instructed them.

The six aurors patiently endured their uncle's lecture out of respect, but it didn't keep them from exchanging looks as he continued.

"Dumbledore's sending two more and they should be here any time. I want you all to cooperate fully, no matter what your personal feelings may be." He glared with his good blue eye while the other rolled a bit wildly.

The younger aurors knew what he meant. He had already informed them that Dumbledore would be sending Snape. All of them disliked the idea that they would be spending the night alongside a former Death Eater, but it appeared as though it was going to be a necessary evil.

There was only a short bit of daylight left when Lorien and Snape arrived on the hill behind the ATC. She could see that there was a woman in auror's robes standing next to an older man, and that they were waiting for them.

Lorien found herself a bit startled by the appearance of the battle scarred auror and tried not to stare at the wild eye that was apparently looking in her direction as she approached the pair. She looked to Snape to handle the introductions.

"Snape," Moody growled.

"Moody." Snape's voice was ice. He indicated the woman beside him. "This is Lorien Desjardins. Lorien.....Alastor Moody."

Mad-eye indicated the woman next to him. "This is Kaneene Moody. Kaneene...Severus Snape."

The woman nodded. "We've met."

Snape spoke next with disdain in his voice. "I assume that you must have brought...others?" He knew Moody would have brought more than one auror as back up.

"What the hell do you think, Snape? They're scouting out the place and will be back shortly."

Lorien was taken aback by the tense interchange between the two men. Her eyes went to the slightly taller woman, and she noted the hostile expression in the green eyes as the auror looked at the black robed wizard beside her. Her own eyes narrowed slightly as she felt herself angry at the fact that this woman was judging him. Kaneene's gaze turned to meet hers and the two women regarded each other coolly for a long moment.

It was only a few minutes before the remaining Moody men arrived back at the top of the hill to report in.

"Anything?" asked Mad-eye.

A young wizard with dark brown hair stepped forward. Lorien could tell instantly that there was a resemblance to Kaneene.

"Nothing," Keath Moody reported. "Not a trace of anything."

The elder Moody turned to Snape again. "Nothing, but it's early yet, don't you agree?"

"Yes. We'll just have to wait it out," Snape said.

Mad-Eye Moody nodded and turned to the others. "I want you to split up in pairs. Report back every half hour or so. Stay sharp tonight. I want constant vigilance!"

Kaneene Moody went with her younger brother as the others split up, and Lorien was left standing with Snape and the veteran auror.

Snape went off a short way to do a little scouting himself, and Lorien was left with Alastor Moody. He turned to her and spoke.

"So, you're the lucky one that Dumbledore decided to send. What do you teach?" he asked gruffly.

Lorien could only imagine what his first impression of her was since she was clad all in black and arrived with the former Death Eater. She decided she didn't care.

"I am the current medical witch at Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore thought it might prove wise to send me in case anything happens," she answered politely.

Moody nodded. "It might...if he's right." He indicated where Snape had gone.

"Do you have reason to believe otherwise?" she asked.

"Nope. But I reckon we'll find out soon enough."

Keath and Kaneene Moody had found themselves a vantage point from where they could see a good deal of the ATC.

"So that was Snape?" the younger auror asked his sister.

"Yeah. Friendly-looking chap isn't he?" she said with a smirk.

"Who's the witch?" Keath asked.

"Lorien Desjardins," she replied.

"Do you think she was a Death Eater too?" Keath had seen the witch in black sticking pretty close to Snape.

"Huh! No." Kaneene laughed. "She looks too nervous. I hope she keeps it together if anything happens. We have enough to worry about without having some hysterical witch in the middle of things."

"Tell me about it," her brother replied. "So what do you think, Sis? Are we going to see a little action tonight?"

"I don't know, Keath. We'd better be ready though." She patted the wand stuck in her belt.

Time was crawling along as the group waited. The sun had gone down and the waxing moon was providing a fair amount of illumination over the grounds. Snape was pacing near Lorien on the hill with Moody.

Something was eating at him. He knew that something was going to happen. He knew from experience that the Death Eaters would probably carry on, but when and how would they strike?

Lorien walked to where Severus was preoccupied and put her hand on his arm. "You're going to wear yourself out before anything happens with all that pacing."

"Something's not right, Lorien. I know it," he said.

"Maybe they decided that it wasn't a good idea if it wasn't a surprise attack anymore?" Lorien offered.

"No. It's going to happen. I know." He sounded adamant.

"I believe you, Severus," she said.

He continued. "It's just a matter of how and when." He looked past the witch at the moon rising further in the night sky. It had just cleared the spires of the silhouette of the Ministry in the distance.

The nagging sensation that Snape had been experiencing was gone in an instant, replaced by an urgent sense of alarm. "Merlin's beard! How could I be so stupid?" Snape growled.

"Severus, what is it?" Lorien was alarmed as well at the look on Snape's face.

"It's not when it's going to happen, it's where." He pointed to the Ministry. "Stay here!" He was running downhill before she could react.

"Where are you going?" she called after him.

"Tell Moody...Ministry!" he called back.

She ran to Mad-Eye Moody.

"What is it?" He knew something had happened.

"Severus thinks they'll attack at the Ministry," she panted. "That's where he's gone."

Moody's good eye went wide as the other rolled around to fix on her as well. "I'll be a....." He turned to Keath and Kaneene who were walking up to report in. "Get the others together and get back here quick!" he barked at them.

They jumped to comply without a question at the tone in his voice.

Moody turned back to Lorien. "Merlin help us if he's right."

Snape had descended the hill and was now running up the next one that overlooked the Ministry building. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of this sooner. When he crested the hill he stayed low to survey the area before him. At first he saw nothing but the occasional movement of the trees that surrounded the space around the building, but it didn't take long before he could distinguish the robed and hooded figures darting from shadow to shadow at the perimeter.

He ran back the way he had come. "Damn! I knew it."

He met all seven aurors and Lorien at the bottom of the hill.

"Well?" asked Mad-Eye impatiently.

Snape was breathless when he replied. "Death Eaters...in the woods...perimeter."

"You're sure?" asked the older wizard.

A large explosion rocked the ground they were standing on and lit up the night sky behind the nearby hill. Everyone in the small group reflexively ducked, and Snape spoke as he reached quickly for his wand.

"Pretty sure," was all he said.

A/N: Now don't you even think that our two beloved Gryffindors weren't invited to the party...