At lunch, Dumbledore made a couple announcements.

"First of all," he began, "I'd like to meet with all seventh years during break after this in the Rodniffyrg Lecture Hall. We have some matters to discuss."

There was a murmur of curiosity throughout the Great Hall.

"Did we do something bad?" asked Peter.

"I don't know," I replied.

"Secondly!" boomed the headmaster over the commotion. "As I'm sure you all know, the Halloween Ball is in just about three weeks!"

There was an effusion of clapping and whistling.

"Remember the one basic rule: to attend, you must be in costume! It doesn't matter whether or not you have a date, but get dressed up! It will be on Friday, October 31st, from 8-11 PM. Our Head Boy and Girl, Lily and James Potter, oh I'm sorry, Lily Evans, will be arranging this."

The school erupted in laughter. Oh, Lily Potter. I was bright red, and James was just chuckling along with the crowd.

"If you two would just meet with me after dinner today in my study to discuss that," added Dumbledore, quite unperturbed. "Everyone is dismissed."

"Hey, Lily Potter, what do you think this meeting is about?" asked Sirius, getting up and taking Kemmy's hand.

"Padfoot, shove it."

Sirius kept laughing until I smacked him upside the head. It wasn't that funny.

In a few minutes, we were all seated and Dumbledore, along with Professor Longbottom, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress (also the Transfiguration teacher, but that didn't have anything to do with the current subject).

"We've gathered you here to discuss some pretty important current events," said Dumbledore. "I'm sure you all have either been reading the Daily Prophet or you have heard about this. Either way, this major issue is Lord Voldemort."

The class shuddered.

"Now, you're going to be hearing some things about calling him 'You-Know-Who' or 'He Who Must Not Be Named' or other pointless names like that. I highly encourage you not to. Fear of a name only increases fear of a thing itself."

Many students, along with Professor Longbottom, nodded their heads.

"Just to make sure we're all on the same page, let me explain to you the inner workings of this Voldemort's mind," continued Dumbledore. "Basically, he's obsessed with power. He's got it into his head that the best wizards are pure-blooded. That's quite an irony, considering he's only a half blood. Maybe you've heard of a muggle that had these same standards. His name was Adolf Hitler, and he was on a similar conquest in the forties. Yes, well, that's beside the point. Now this Lord Voldemort wizard- very few people know that he graduated here, from Hogwarts, about thirty years ago."

"Damn..." whispered James.

"His real name is Tom Riddle-"

"I know him!!!!!!" shouted Sirius.

"Excuse me, Mr. Black," said Dumbledore. "Would you define 'know him?'"

"No, not personally," laughed Sirius. "When I was in detention I shined a trophy that had Tom Riddle's name on it. I don't know why, though..."

"Yes, I remember that trophy," reminisced Dumbledore. "But, staying on topic, no one ever thought that Tom would turn out the way he did. He was the smartest student that has ever gone through Hogwarts. Ever."

"Excuse me?!" interrupted James.

"Oh please," I whispered, clamping my hand over his mouth.

"Moving on," continued Dumbledore. "He was Head Boy, this Tom Riddle. Perfect scores. Yet he always seemed distant. He associated with a few of his close friends. No one ever knew what they were up to. He never got in trouble, though. Well we know now what they were doing. They were planning for this elimination of Lord Voldemort's. They're trying to eliminate the half-blood (or less) race completely from this earth, starting with people with any magical blood in them, eventually murdering all Muggles as well. What would be left is barely anyone. You can hardly find purebloods anywhere these days. I know the Potters and Blacks are... let's see... oh yes, Lucius, the Malfoys are pureblood... I think that's it for our school. No, Pettigrew, you are too, aren't you?"

Peter nodded his head timidly.

"Yes. Well Voldemort has this band of supporters that he calls his Death Eaters. Only purebloods are allowed to be Death Eaters, and they are tied to him until death. They do his dirty work for him."

Everyone let the information sink in and contemplated the awfulness of it all.

"The reason I have gathered you all is to propose an idea to you. You, as the oldest students of the school, are the wizarding world's best hope. You can be our new Healers, our new dragon keepers, our new department heads in the Ministry of Magic, the new teachers here at Hogwarts, perhaps. Those are all great fields, but I wanted to suggest something else. Now, more than every with the rise of Voldemort, we are in need of Aurors. Dark wizard fighters. We must outnumber the Death Eaters to conquer them. With your help, I wish to found a group, the Order of the Phoenix. Led by me, we will start defense classes and planning and strategizing as soon as we get ourselves organized. Once you graduate, you work for the Order. You leave it only for emergency purposes. We don't want people turning spies."

Some people nodded, impressed, others seemed horrified to do such a thing that would take so much courage, and some people (cough:Lucius:cough) suppressed laughs. That ass.

"If you are at all interested, please sign up here on this parchment; I shall get in contact with you within the next few days."

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah!" I jumped. "A real Auror job right away!"

"Psh... Ya!" agreed James.

"Well Hunnybuns, if you're in, I'm in," said Sirius, earning a glare from James. "What about you, Kemmy?"

"Um... you know, if you can take it, so can I. I won't have to go to more school after Hogwarts, either."

"Well, Pettigrew?"

"I don't think I'd have much use... I'm so stupid, you know..."

"Oh, come on," said Sirius. "There's got to be something for you to do there."

"Oh well, I guess," said Peter reluctantly.

"You're all sure you want to do this, right?" I checked. "There's no backing out. You do realize we could die?"

"Me? Die? Never!" laughed James.

"You immortal," scoffed Sirius.

"I shall be thousands of years old when I start to wither away..." imagined James. "I'll have had hundreds and hundreds of children."

"Well if you're assuming that I'm mothering all of those children, count me out of that immortality," I said.

We all laughed.

"Do you think we should go ask Remus if he wants to do this?" I asked.

"Yeah he will," said James definitely. "Just sign him up."

"If you're sure..."

"Yes yes," said Sirius.

We went up to add our names to the, shall I say, quite guessable list. There were, of course, us, plus Frank Longbottom (the son, as well as the teacher), no Slytherins (surprise!! surprise!!), Cecil and Kevin from Ravenclaw, and Amos, Dung, Jamie, and Amelia from Hufflepuff.

I made my way over to Narcissa.

"How come you're not on there, girl?" I asked.

Her eyes were red, as if she'd just been crying. She also kept shooting nasty glances toward Lucius.

"I can't marry him!" she burst out in tears, giving me a big hug.

"Woah," I said, planting my feet into the ground so as to not fall over. "Uh... Cissa, no one said you had to marry him."

"Yeah they did!" She blew her nose on my Hogwarts sweater.

"Eeeew!!" I shrieked. "Cissa, let's go outside and see what this is all about."

I told the rest of the group that I'd see them at Care of Magical Creatures and headed out to the lake with Narcissa.

After we'd found a comfortable spot of grass, I asked, "So what happened?"

"I- I-"- she hiccuped and went on- "my parents- hic!- sent me a letter saying -hic!- that I can't be -hic!- with Remus. Ever."

She broke down on me again. I pulled out a few tissues and gave them to her.

"Why did they do that?" I asked, truly horrified. What would happen if I wasn't allowed to see James???? AHHHHH!!!

"They said- oh Lily it's so stupid- they said he's -hic!- not a pureblood!"

"That is really gay."

"I know! And I have an arranged marriage with-" she let out a hopeless kind of last tear and completely fainted.

"Oh my god," I whispered. "Come on, Cissa, up you go, to the Hospital Wing."

I wrapped her in my sweater (if somewhat boogie-stained) and levitated her to Crappy.

"What did she do?" the nurse asked suspiciously.

"She just fainted," I explained. "Stress, I suppose. Bad news."

"Well," said the nurse. "Tell your next teachers that she's going to be here until dinner, and you head on off so you don't miss class. She'll be fine here."

"Thanks a lot. I'll be back before dinner."

"All right."

I ran to catch up with the Maurauders to tell them the tragic story.

"Oh shit," said the boys. "Remus is going to be heartbroken."

"What about Cissa?" I said wildly. "She fainted!"

"I don't know," said James. "We have to do something. They were meant for each other."

"What the hell is this with pureblood shit?" asked Sirius furiously. "It sounds like either they're obsessed with inter-blood marriages or one or both of their families is full of Death Eaters."

"It can't be Narcissa's," I said. "They can't be Death Eaters. Maybe they want to stay pureblood, but they're not Death Eaters. Lucius, on the other hand, I swear I'm going to kill him..."

"You know what? Dumbledore'll know what to do," said Peter, speaking for pretty much the first time in long while. And that once, he actually had a good idea.

"Excellent, Peter!" I said. "Yes. James and I will talk to him when we go see him for the Halloween Ball planning."

"Yeah, and Remus will be out of the Hospital Wing by bedtime... we may or may not have to break the news to him..." said Sirius.

"Oh man, help us," prayed James.

"I have a feeling this is only a taste of the bad things to come."

Well, guys, I believe that was fairly soon! I did go on retreat with my class for a few days, or else I would have had it up by Monday. But oh well.

Thanks to the latest reviewers:

Jinger- No that chapter wasn't that bad. Lol. :) Actually, I'm not really sure why I had that whole stag crushing thing. It just came to me. I don't think it was a premonition, but then again, I work it into the story somehow. Tee hee.

little-angel123452000

Pranks Are So Siriusly Padfoot- No, you're right. That part of Draco will always live and thrive within me. :) Notice I always slip Lucius in this story. That's the Draco part of me right there! Yes I like the shower part too. It suddenly came to me, and I thought I had to write it.

One Feather- Yes, sir! Chapter up, sir!

Xaina- James is trusting Lily a whole bunch because he loves her, deep down inside, he just hasn't realized it yet. He's never really talked to her, but he feels like he's known her his whole life. You were also going on about the first person you have sex with isn't the best; it's the third. Well I just had Narcissa say that. Personally, I believe if you love someone, that person will always be the best. It's about the love, man! :)

Unblemished Lamb- As you can see, I'm not done with my story and I don't think I will be for quite a few months. It'll be a long 'un. I do plan to finish this by the spring at the latest. Man I know that's a long time!

Ano

the-insufferable-know-it-all

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