The room shifted back to gray.
"That was the end of your school days, but the beginning that determined the rest of your life." Maya said she looked at Sirius intently.
"It's the best decision that I've ever made." Sirius said.
* * *
"Voldemort is after something." Lily said as she cut a triple layered chocolate cake into pieces.
"He's always up to something." James spoke, studying the Daily Prophet meticulously. It was about brunch time. Looking up, James saw his three of his best friends hovering around his fiancée's cake as she continued to cut it into slices. They were wild-eyed and drooling.
"I love it when we have the Order's meeting at Prongs' house! We always get food!" Sirius said taking his seat after obtaining his slice of cake. "I know! Let's always have meetings here! Lily takes such good care of us!"
"Here, here!" Agreed the other two. Lily poured them each a glass of milk then laid a slice of cake with a cup of milk by James.
"Sorry guys, but you know we have to keep shifting the meeting place." Lily spoke as she gave James a small kiss. Then she continued to serve the rest of the table, which consisted of Dorcas Meadows who sat at the end of the table, Benjy Fenwick, who was sitting opposite Peter, Gideon Prewett, who was reading to the right of James, and two empty chairs.
"Voldemort's current lack of activity is just the calm before the storm. Fabian will … Thank you Lily… He's supposed to be coming with more information." Gideon said, examining a report of Voldemort's recent activities, which had been given to each member by Benjy at the beginning of the meeting.
"It's amazing now that at least ten people being killed by Voldemort's group a week is the 'calm before the storm.'" Benjy sighed. "Oh, thanks Lily. The cake looks superb."
Lily gave a piece to Dorcas. She took a bite then proclaimed, her brown eyes full of intent. "Lily marry me and ditch James!"
Peter sniggered at this. Lily smiled "For the third time, I can't."
"It's not fair. James doesn't even share!" Dorcas said taking another fork full of cake. "I simply love your cooking!"
"That's because your own cooking's terrible" Sirius replied.
"It's still better than yours, Sirius." Dorcas said as she swung her head in a defiant way. "Now let's see… If I can't marry Lily then I'll settle for… Remus!! Marry me!!"
Lupin smiled. "Sorry but I don't think that would work out." He said while blushing.
"But... but…" Dorcas lips quivered and, added with her pigtails, this action made her look like an upset child.
At that moment Gideon's brother, Fabian, entered. Though they were twins the two looked nothing alike. Gideon who had dark brown hair and blue eyes contrasted greatly with his shorter twin who had light brown hair and whose eyes are more of a mossy shade. "Ahh, what is that tantalizing smell! I'm starving!"
"Beware, Fabian. Dorcas is trying to marry herself off again today." Benjy warned, taking a bit of his cake. He gave a smile to Dorcas. Half of his face was covered with his dark hair; his bangs covered a scar that slashed across half of his face and the rest of his hair was pulled into a small ponytail. Still, he was very handsome. Dorcas smiled back.
"Thanks Lily." Fabian said as he took a piece of cake from her. He sat down. "I don't think that I'm in danger of being asked to be wed. If Dorcas is asking to be married then it had to be for food. And I can only cook Miss Faws' Magical One Minute Dishes." Miss Faws' Magical One Minute Dishes were a kind of instant meal in the wizarding world.
"It's, okay Fabian. Your cooking is still better than Sirius" Dorcas reassured while making hot sauce come out the end of her wand and onto the cake.
"I'll never understand how you can eat that." Fabian frowned.
"Easy, you take a fork and then." Dorcas inserted a forkful of cake soaked in hot sauce into her mouth then nodded in approval. The rest of the table laughed.
"So what's molol-ter-mmort up to now?" Dorcas asked, her mouth full of cake.
"Apparently nothing." Fabian spoke after taking a swing of milk. "He seems to be doing and planning a whole load of nothing from the information I'm gathering. All of his Death Eaters are apparently doing the same old muggle torture and nothing more. But my instincts tell me that there is something going on and, since most Death Eaters are keeping a low profile, I think is going to happen soon."
"Keeping a low profile? You should really see the wanted posters. I can barely enter the Auror's Office due to the large amount of wanted ads. A new one comes every day." Dorcas spoke.
"It would be a nice break compared to that whole train scandal from last week. Fifteen killed because a muggle underground was cursed." Gideon replied. We had to put a whole load of memory charms on a mass of them making it out to be an accidental wire short circuit.
"Sirius, didn't you hear something from Gringotts?" James asked.
"Oh that. There might be a very important piece of cargo transporting to here from the French department in about three days." Sirius spoke. "I'm not exactly sure what it is, but the goblins are going nuts."
"I would think they'd be happy to get more money." Peter replied.
"No, no. It's not money. It's something dangerous. The goblins are handling it like a hot potato ready to explode." Sirius replied. "Apparently it was passed from Bulgaria's branch before it reached France. And before that it was in the Egypt branch, and before that it was sent to New Zealand, China, Russia, and Spain. Apparently it has been seeing more of the world in a three-month period than a person during his lifetime could see. After we obtain it we are supposed to transfer it over to the Americas and have them deal with it."
"So that's what we were called to guard." James spoke. "I heard from our department that five people were supposed to go and safely guard the transportation of an object from France to here. It didn't catch my attention at first because usually a larger number would be assigned to something that was important, but there was a list of those who were assigned and both me and Peter are on it."
"But I'm not even in the Department of Transportation." Peter said.
"We are running out of people on our end." James spoke. "Since the attack for the energy crystal the death toll for our department is nearly as high as the one the aurors have."
"Not for long." Moody just entered the kitchen looking extremely scruffy, just like his normal self. He slapped something down on the table.
Gideon picked it up "The following members of the aurors' office will report to the Ministry tomorrow… What's this for?" He frowned. "And why is Sirius' name on here?"
Sirius looked up and snatched the paper from Gideon. "Me, Remus, and James only applied for the auror license for some quick cash. Now I'm a part of the auror's office?!"
"Sirius, everyone who has a license is considered to be a member of the office nowadays." Dorcas smiled then took the paper from Sirius. "Hey! Why am I not on here!" She pouted.
Benjy looked at the paper's back, he had the uncanny ability to read things backwards and as Corcas was holding it the light traveled through the paper, making some items readable from its backside. Benjy read the contents with ease. "My name isn't on it either."
"Oh good then they are only taking amateurs." Dorcas breathed. "I was afraid that my status had gone down."
"Who are you calling amateur?" Moody said, his eyebrow raised.
"Oh ha ha your name is on here too. Then I guess you're there to tutor them!" Dorcas smiled.
Moody's nonmagical eye rolled in exasperation while his magical eye watched Lily, who was cutting a piece of cake for him.
"From what I have gathered, we are supposed to be prepared to help a group to deliver a package of some kind on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow.
We were called in so they must suspect that the Department of Transportations has a rat." Moody's nonmagical eye was now on James, who smiled.
"I don't think that there will be much problem. I'm supposed to be in charge of the transportation of the package."
"Good." Moody answered.
Lily brought over a piece of cake and laid it in front of Moody. "Thanks." His magical eye went over the piece of cake then he took a bite.
"How come you never check Lily's cooking twice?" Dorcas frowned.
"Well, she, for one, wouldn't mistake nightshade for mint leaves." Moody spoke. Everyone laughed as Dorcas' face went extremely pink.
"That was an honest mistake that anyone could've made." She said.
"Speaking of food poising." Moody spoke. "Wh0s in charge of security for this meeting? I could hear you all the moment I apparated in the house."
"That would be me and Sirius." James said hand raised then pointed to the ceiling, which held a dome light fixture. "Finished it two days ago." he continued in a proud voice.
"Top in Goblin security, therefore top of the line." Sirius added.
"It shows." James pointed his wand at the fixture, instantly it flattened itself and formed a circular disk upon the ceiling. Its white glass designs shifted to create a perfect map of James' house and all of its surroundings. Brown triangles appeared upon it to symbolize the people that were in the room. "It warns us of any uninvited guests and, when it's activated, it bars people from apparating within the area shown. Instead they would apparate on the outer regions of the map. They would have to make their way to the house and then we could watch them every step of the way." Moody gave a nod of approval. Though his normal eye was on the cake below, his magical one was fixed upon the now flattened light fixture, fascinated.
"Of course we had help from dear old Remus here, he is, after all, the best when it comes to map making." James winked.
"Unhumm… well, since everyone is here I think we should start planning our counter mission for this upcoming affair." Remus said changing the subject.
"This is everyone?" Dorcas said, surprised.
"The others are still on individual missions which they must complete. An official meeting of all the members would raise some suspicion, so it must be planed properly." Remus explained. "Small matters we will just have to deal with ourselves for now."
"I wonder what's considered as a big matter anymore." Dorcas responded absent mindedly and with a sullen voice, which she did not usually use when she was in the form she was in then. There was a pause in which everyone was taken back by her words. Indeed nothing seemed to be considered a big deal. Not killing ten muggles on a bus; not the deaths of countless witches and wizards; not the fact that everywhere there was the dark mark; not the cries of children as they watched their parents slaughtered and finding themselves defenseless soon after... everything was so full of violence. It was their reality, and they seemed to be numbed by it. And it didn't really take the usually cheerful Dorcas to point it out to everyone.
"In any case, we have to plan how this will work out." Remus continued, breaking the awkward moment. He withdrew from his shoulder bag a large map of Britain and the rest of the continent.
"From what I've heard" Sirius spoke pointing at the map with his wand - the moment it touched the paper a blue dot was formed. "The package will start from the French branch of Gringotts and will travel directly to the branch here in London." Another dot was formed under Sirius's wand that pointed to the place where the London Gringotts location would be. "All I really know is that the package is not large, rather on the small side."
It was now James' turn. "Our travel route is going to be from here." He said pointing to Sirius' dot with his wand. "The French ministry members have agreed to meet us over the English Channel." He dragged his wand to the ocean - another blue dot was formed. "We are then to transport from here to London." He spoke, dragging his wand to the other dot Sirius has made previously. There was now a thin blue line that linked all three dots on the map.
"The aurors are going to be ordered to monitor the cargo beginning from France, I suppose." Said Moody. A green spot appeared overlapping some of the blue spots that had been there previously. "We are also to monitor the transaction and the handling. Our men have also been stationed here and here." He said, pointing to two other locations on the map. One appeared near the costal region the other between the coast and the London Gringotts dot. "Just in case you guys can't take the heat or need reinforcements we'll be ready." The group studied the map.
"There will be many Ministry members." Fabian observed. "We're not sure where some of their loyalties lie yet, so I will be following you closely." He decided after studying the map.
"I wonder what is it that Voldemort wants to get his hands on?" Gideon asked, looking intently at Dorcas, Benjy, and then Lily. The three were the very best when came to gathering information. Benjy had been supplying them with the latest profiles of most Death Eaters and their current activities since day one - using, if not illegal, but unorthodox techniques. Dorcas, though she didn't look it at the moment, was a cunning metamorphmagus who worked mostly undercover. When she changed it wasn't not only her voice and appearance, but her whole personality and soul changed with her. Lily is the only one who has access to a mysterious intelligence source that seems to be within the inner circle of Voldemort. She was the only one who had access to top-secret information regarding their activities, though her source rarely gave out any information, the information it did give was very critical. Dorcas, upon hearing that, had named the source 'No-one', which still caused some confusion among the group.
It was Lily who answered that question. After a careful study of the circular map above she regarded she spoke in a low voice. "The item Voldemort is so desperate to get his hands on is something that will help him extend his lifespan, believed to give the holder life or an extension of it. Therefore it is vital that he does not get his hands on it, it will cause him to become invincible. There will be a Death Eater cell mobilizing from here." She pointed to the map very close to where the exchange took place.
"In the middle of the ocean?" Peter asked.
"No. The Death Eaters are going to be on a cruise ship that will set sail here around the time the transaction will take place." She pointed to a spot near the coast. "I wouldn't put it past Voldemort to use the muggles on the passenger boat as bargaining chips, so we have to set up our own people on the boat as well."
"So Remus, I guess you were mistaken when you said this was a small matter." Fabian frowned.
"Fabian is correct, but we will have to pull this off somehow with the people in this room." Lily replied.
"What? This big of an operation with only nine of us?" Peter exclaimed, shocked at her proposal.
Lily nodded. "That's not all. Voldemort also has brooms ready at both ends of the channel as insurance."
"He really did plan for this, didn't he?" Sirius spoke with anticipation in his voice. "That's okay. I'm always ready for a challenge!"
Lily smiled. "Good, because we also have a problem with No-one. Voldemort is suspecting a leak in his organization."
"But he can't suspect No-one because No-one hardly ever talks to us! I mean it's been what, seven months since we got any information on anything!" Dorcas declared.
"I understand, but Voldemort is very cautious and the last time the Death Eaters blundered, he wiped out seven of his own men some without cause. He has given out different information to different people. Each of them has a piece of it. Thank goodness that No-one is in his inner circle, he has not yet been suspected, but we need to make it so that Voldemort gets thrown off track and catches another suspect." Lily said. "He has planned two other incidents. One is an attempt to rescue some of his members from Azkaban and the other is to assassinate the current minister of magic while he visits his relatives. We have to sacrifice one of these to help Voldemort pinpoint the leak and we have to arrange it so the boarding of the muggle ship seems coincidental."
"Just like No-one to give us a nearly impossible task." Fabian sighed.
"Maybe…" Peter began but lapsed into silence again.
"What is it?" Dorcas asked, her eyes wide. Apparently she hadn't been able to think up any plans.
"No, it's stupid." Peter confirmed.
"Just spill it." Sirius said, a little agitated. "You have an odd way of making up plans in your head, some of them are rather good."
"Well…" Peter stumbled, blushing a little. "Why don't we just use whatever it is that we are transporting to get rid of Vol-der-dermort once and for all?"
"Never mind I take back what I said before. Some time your plans are just plain stupid." Sirius sighed.
"I don't find it that stupid. Maybe it'll work out." Dorcas spoke. Everyone at the table stared at her. "What!?" she stated.
Gideon sighed. "Dorcas can you please morph into someone else. You in this form is extremely dense."
"Fine." Dorcas pouted then, her face full of concentration, her form slowly changed from a pigtailed girl into a woman with short maroon hair. Meanwhile, as Dorcas changed, the table began explaining to Peter the reason why they couldn't use the item that they would be transporting.
"First of all, it would be illegal." Sirius said.
"That's not very convincing coming from you, Padfoot." James mocked.
"Second of all, have you not figured out what that item is yet?" Sirius added.
"No, what?" Peter asked.
"Think, what's small and can extend a person's life? OH and I'll give you a hint, it can also turn things into gold." Sirius added.
"The Sorcerer's Stone." Moody said in a low voice, saving Peter from having to contemplate Sirius's hints.
"But Nicolas Flamel went into hiding before Voldemort came into power." Peter stated.
"I know, I was there. Dumbledore warned them that this would happen." Moody grunted. "But only he and his wife went into hiding. They thought that Voldemort was going to be a temporary thing. They underestimated the speed of which Voldemort would gather power and his ability to hold it. Therefore, their supply of the Elixir of Life is running out and they need the stone."
"Still, it doesn't answer why we can't use it." Peter continued.
Sirius sighed in exasperation. "Peter… Please use that brain of yours!"
Remus took over for Sirius in a much kinder tone. "The Elixir of Life is not to be taken lightly. It would mean a longer lifespan but you would have to take the Elixir for the rest of your life. Every time you get hurt either internally or a simple paper cut you would need another drink to live. You become a slave to the stone."
"Besides it's our job to deliver the stone, not to use the thing." James added. "We have to take it to its rightful owner."
"Anyone come up with a plan yet?" Sirius asked. Benjy, Gideon, and Fabian had been silently thinking for all this time, yet all of them shook their heads. Sirius looked to Dorcas, who had just finished transforming. She had pulled a pair of spectacles from her pocket to complete the picture. The room was silent again until…
"Hey, Lily dear. How do you feel about having our wedding on a boat?" James smiled moments later.
"What?" Lily said quite taken back by the question. They had been planning for their wedding to be at a time when things had settled down, but secretly both of them were tired of just being engaged. James had proposed to her during a Quidditch match. He had asked her to promise to marry him if they won the house cup - their last year in school. Lily was anxious to see her wedding take place and so was James.
"Think you can pull off a wedding in three days dear?" James asked hugging his fiancée. It was the perfect fit for both of them.
"Of course I can." Lily said giving James a kiss.
"It's settled then! We're going to have our wedding on that ship the Death Eaters are on. We need to modify some memories to make sure that there is room for a large party and Lily will take care of the wedding arrangements. I'll send word to the French ministry that the transaction will take place on the ship." James beamed.
"You can leave the distractions to me. The minister better have his own bodyguards because I've chosen to use the Azakaban ones." Dorcas smiled darkly. The table stared. Even after all the time they had known her, no one had gotten used to her changes. Each of her forms they had seen seemed to have his or her own personality and past. Her real form was that of the childish woman they had been speaking to twenty minutes ago, but now there was a feeling of deadly danger about her. Benjy looked at her then decided, "I'll go with you to set up the trap."
"I think I'll have to use my current source as bait." Dorcas said with such absence of emotion that it gave everyone a cold chill.
Remus gathered the map on the table and placed it back into his bag. Dorcas pulled a black metal chain out from her pocket. At the end of the chain there was a small clock with bones as dials and hands. She placed it about her neck. "I have a date with Gadar Fawzi in ten minutes, so…" She pointed her wand at the security measure on the ceiling. It changed back into the dome light fixture with floral design. She then dissapparated with a faint pop.
Remus reactivated the security system after she left. "Are there any questions as to what we are going to do?"
"I feel kind of sorry for that poor bum Gadar." Fabian spoke, not really listening to Remus.
"It's her job." Benjy said.
"I know it's her job, but it's how she does her work that bothers me. She's just so merciless." Gideon spoke. "The way she gains their trust and then uses them. When it comes time she either disposes of them herself or sells them out to another. I remember the first time I saw her with a Death Eater. Paulo, I think was his name. He really loved her… I mean her form. He was willing to sacrifice himself for her; you should've seen the way he looked at her. But in the end it was she who pushed him off the cliff."
"She was never was the same after Nicholas died." Lily spoke.
"Her job's dirty, but someone's got to do it." Moody said. "They would use the same tactics as well, if they could."
"But she doesn't have to become like them." Gideon said in frustration.
There was silence.
"We'd better start working, we need time to prepare and time is something we don't have." James stated. Then he pointed his wand at the ceiling. As if on cue, everyone dissapparated from the room.