Chapter 12:

Winter was ending, and spring was coming. Hogwarts got it's last sheet of snow on one March afternoon. James, Sirius and Remus decided to say "farewell" to the snowy weather by thrusting snowballs at anyone who came out the castle doors. When Lily came out the doors, and Remus wasn't looking, James charmed five snowballs to follow her and hit her on the head, then quickly rebuild themselves. Having about had it with their playful pranks, she froze his robes and then melted all the snowballs that were following her.

Feeling quite proud of herself, she turned and went on to Hagrid's hut as though nothing had happened. When she knocked on the door, she heard the bark of fang and then thud of footsteps approaching the door. When he opened the door, Hagrid's bearded face broke until a smile—well, at least Lily thought it did, his eyes were twinkling anyways. Lily took this as a sign of welcome and came in through the door.

"So, how yer been?" Hagrid asked as she walked inside.

"Good…err…okay," Lily answered honestly. Ever since Lily had had returned from Christmas break, she had been pretty lonesome. Emmie had been pretty sulky and Remus had been hanging out with Black and Potter more than ever.

"Is there any thing you want to talk about? Don't worry, you can tell me anything you want." Hagrid said reassuringly, sitting down across from her.

"Dunno, not much to talk about—not much been going on." Lily shrugged.

"You're lives been pretty dull, ehh?" Hagrid asked.

"Yeah, ever since Emmie's parents died she's been pretty secluded, and Remus hasn't really hung out with me much since Christmas. He's been with Potter and Black a lot." Lily said thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry, do yeh…err…want some tea—I could make some biscuits fer yeh too." Hagrid offered.

"I'm fine Hagrid. I'm not really that hungry right now, but could I stay here and talk with you until Astronomy?" Lily asked, not wanting to pretend to enjoy Hagrid's tea biscuits.

"Sure, that's fine." Hagrid said.

"We're dead. McGowan, the editor, has given all future reports on attacks to Skeeter. He claims that Skeeter's version of events is 'much more informative' than mine. As if, that woman will go out on a limb to land a story. The woman isn't even a good writer!" Dorcas exclaimed when Dumbledore declared the meeting in session.

An article had com

"I know, I've heard Dorcas." Dumbledore coaxed, "All that you can do is stay with the profit and try to edit Skeeter's articles—hopefully you can change them so that they relay less information to the public. Also, present some information to Fudge that Skeeter doesn't have, make him want give the articles back to you…"

"Then duck-tape Skeeter and stuff her in a closet." A grungy looking man said jovially.

"Shut up, Dung." Moody said.

"Now, now, that's enough. Anyways—the first thing on our agenda for today is to make sure that the entire order is here." Dumbledore said, looking down at a piece of paper attached to a clipboard.

"Alastor Moody"

"Hmph…" Moody grunted.

"Benjy Fenwick"

"Here!" came the squeaky voice of a short young-looking wizard from the back of the room.

"Caradoc Dearborn"

A middle-aged man with a short brown beard raised his hand up a little.

"Rubeus Hagrid"

No answer.

"Rubeus?" Dumbledore asked, looking around the room.

"I don't think he's here." Benjy Fenwick said, standing up and looking around.

"Thank you Mr. Obvious," Sirius whispered to James, who snickered. The three boys were sitting in their usual closet in the secret room, watching as the meeting proceeded. This meeting had been a boring one, and they could tell that it was going to stay that way. If something important had happened, they would've discussed it at the beginning—they had never taken role before. However, the three boys couldn't get out of the closet without anybody noticing.

"Hmmm…Well no worries, he probably just had some duties to tend to."

"Aberforth Dumbledore."

"Isn't his name Albus?" James asked.

"Shhh…yes, of course his name's Albus." Remus whispered back.

"Maybe he has two names" Sirius shrugged.

"Of course not. Firstly, why would Dumbledore call himself for role? Number two, if he was calling himself, he'd acknowledge his own presence and move on—look at him he's looking around." Remus said, pointedly.

"Well they always said that he was a little mad" Sirius said with a suggestive tone in his voice.

Remus was about to say something when Moody started talking—well, growling more-like. "Dumbledore, your brother's never going to show. He's too caught up with his school in America to worry about our problems in England. The only thing that's going to get his ass over here is if these wizards pose a threat to the entire world."

"But he needs to get his act together—by the time these people pose a threat to the entire world it will be too late." Dumbledore said shaking his head. "Dorcas Meadows"

"You know I'm here, Dumbledore." said the reporter sulkily.

"Dedalus Diggle" Dumbledore called, ignoring Dorcas' comment.

"Here!" shouted the voice of someone that James couldn't see from the back of the room.

"Hestia Jones"

"Yeah, yeah," said a brown-haired witch, putting her book down.

"Were you reading?" asked a skinny witch wearing a green dress and a hat with a bird on it.

"Well, you have to admit that we aren't discussing the most…err…pressing topics today." Hestia said, blushing. "Sorry, Albus," she added, looking up at Dumbledore.

"That's quite alright, Hestia," Dumbledore said. "Thomas Potter"

"Here," came the familiar voice of James' father.

"Elizabeth Potter"

'WOW!' James thought, 'My mother's in the order too?'

"Erm…she's at St. Mungos." Hestia Jones said. "This morning somebody came in green and with leaves instead of hair. Ooze was coming out of their ears—they're not sure what happened."

"Okay. Mundungus Fletcher" Dumbledore continued

The only answer was a sleepy "no…peppermint…moron…"

"DUNG! WAKE UP!" Elphias Dodge shouted. The grungy-looking man did not, however, stir. A man who looked as though he had recently left Hogwarts picked up the nearest book and hit him on the head with it.

"What?...where's the cauldron?" Dung asked, looking around.

"Well…err…he's with us physically…" the man with the ponytail said.

The three boys stifled their laughter, and, through the crack in the wall, saw many people in the order trying to do the same.

Dumbledore chuckled a little, and then continued with the list. "Robert Dawlish"

"Here" Said an older looking wizard whom James swore he had seen before.

"Yanci Hess"

"Yeah, yeah" said a witch in her mid-twenties, wearing an eye-patch.

"Griselda Marchbanks"

"Hello" Said an elderly witch pleasantly

"And last, but not least—Amid Williamson."

"I believe he's made his presence known," said Dung, glaring at Amid.

"Next thing on the Agenda—Elphias, do you think that we will have any support from the ministry?" Dumbledore asked.

"Erm…I don't think so at the moment, sir." The young wizard said. "Millicent Bagnold hasn't showed much interest with these attacks—left them to others mostly. I've tried to notify her of the importance of them, but she doesn't listen to her Junior Assistant much. I'm looking for a promotion—Tremors is bound to retire soon."

"Ahhh…we don't need the support of the ministry anyways. Although I wouldn't mind it if they paid a little more attention to those masked guys and a little less to us people who are only stealing God damn cauldrons."

"On the contrary Dung," Thomas started, "The aid of the ministry would prove very helpful to the order. They could provide Aurors that aren't in the order, and they have sources that we don't. Also, they don't have to act in secrecy."

"Whether we having the ministry on our side is helpful or not is not relevant. We don't have their backing and that's that. The next, and final topic, is recruiting more people into the order." Dumbledore continued down his agenda.

"Err…from the ministry? I doubt we'd get much of a turnout. Most of them are most concerned with their day to day lives to want to get 'mixed up' in this." Elphias said, simply.

"What about Crouch? He's always been one to want to take action." Dedalus asked.

"Crouch? Nah!" Moody growled. "He pain in the ass to work with—he'd want to be in control."

"I'm not talking about people from the ministry, I'm talking about recruiting students into the order. Of course they would have to be in 6th or 7th year." Dumbledore clarified.

"What about Molly Prewett?" Professor McGonagall suggested. "She's a good student and is very reliable. She also stated when I asked her what profession she wanted to pursue that she wanted to do something worthwhile."

"Yes. You're right Minerva; I'll talk to Molly tomorrow," Dumbledore said, scribbling the name 'Molly Prewett' down on his sheet of paper.

"Well, Arthur Weasley has a lot of courage." Professor Agrippa said.

"Yeah, he does." Elphias agreed. "He went up and personally asked me make a law on enchanting muggle objects. It seemed like a good idea to me, but Millicent Bagnold didn't seem to show much interest in it."

"But that's just it, he wants to go into Muggle Relations" Caradoc said. "How do Muggle Relations have to do with what the order's doing right now? He probably wouldn't be interested."

"How does making broomsticks have to do with what were doing right now?" Benjy asked rhetorically. "Anyways, talk to him Albus. Just see if he's interested."

"Kingsley Shakleboltt's a good man—wants to be an Auror. I talked to him last week." Moody said in his usual growl.

Dumbledore then proceeded to write Kingsley's and Arthur's names down on the sheet. "Do we have any other suggestions?"

"Sturgis Podmore." Hestia suggested.

"Bobby Carlton and Edgar Bones are in 6th year this year." Thomas said. "They both want to work for the ministry and they're pretty good duelers. I think that they could be useful to the order. Also Bobby Carlton is the top of his class and possesses all the qualities needed to become one of the ministries top Aurors."

"It's settled then. I'll talk to Molly, Arthur, Kingsley, Edgar, Bobby and Sturgis tomorrow. This meeting is now adjourned," Dumbledore said, and leaving the room before anyone else did.

Most of the people followed Dumbledore out, but a couple of people stayed in the room and continued to talk about what had happened. Dorcas was still complaining about the Skeeter woman and James' father was commenting on the fact that Dung didn't bring anything to the order. After what seemed like 3 hours of useless chatter, the last people left the building and Sirius, James and Remus followed as quickly as they could. James didn't help but noticing that Remus looked a little pale.

"You alright, mate?" He asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Remus replied vaguely. "What time is it?"

James looked down at his watch, "10:45" he replied.

"Oh shoot!" Remus said, and with that, he sprinted in the opposite direction of the Gryffindor Common Room and to the nearest staircase.

"Where're you going?" Sirius shouted after him.

"My mums sick and if I don't hurry, I'm going to miss the train to go see her!" he called back.

"Hmm…I hope his mums okay." Sirius said.

"Dunno, he seemed pretty worried. He was all pale and shit," James said.

"Let's go grab our lunar charts and head to astronomy." Sirius suggested.

Emmie finally seemed to be overcoming her parents' deaths. In fact, she was acting quite naturally after Professor Scardsdale let them out of class. "I wonder where Remus was today. I haven't seen much of him lately." Emmie said thoughtfully.

Lily was about to tell her it was because she had been acting fairly sulkily, but thought better of it. "Yeah, I heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Scardsdale that he was sick before class today. I wonder wh…"

But James cut her off "What do you mean sick? He told us that he was visiting his sick mum."

"Dunno." Lily shrugged, not that interested in talking to James and Sirius. "Maybe he didn't want you to know that he was sick. Maybe he was afraid that you'd think him weak and you'd treat him like you treated everyone else."

"He seemed perfectly fine earlier." Sirius shrugged, ignoring Lily's comment.

"All I know is what I heard McGonagall say—don't badger me for information." Lily said.

"But we want to know what happened." Sirius said in a whiney tone.

"Then why don't you go ask Professor McGonagall?" Emmie mimicked his voice.

"Good idea Vance, I think we will." James said. James started walking off to McGonagall's office. "What are you doing, stalkers?" James added to Lily and Emmie, who were following them.

"You're not the only ones who are concerned about Remus." Lily said simply.

"Well were sure the only ones acting like it." Sirius scoffed.

The four soon found her on the fourth floor, talking to a man that Sirius and James recognized as Dung. When she saw them, her face contracted. "What in the devils name are you four doing out this late?" she asked.

"We want to know where Remus is." James said simply.

"He's sick." Professor McGonagall replied.

"With what?" Sirius asked, "He seemed perfectly fine when we talked to him earlier."

"Err…" Professor McGonagall seemed at a loss.

"He's didn't his but re-inflated." Dung said, wearing his torn robes and looking as grungy as ever.

"WHAT?" Sirius, Lily, Emmie and James asked at the same time.

Professor McGonagall gave Dung a questioning look that none of the students could see. They were all staring, dumbstruck, at the grungy wizard.

"Yes, he has a rare disease called…err…Glutonicism that causes him to loose blood in his…err…buttocks." Professor McGonagall stuttered.

As soon as she said these words, James and Sirius burst out laughing. Lily, however, gave them strained looks and turned to Professor McGonagall. "Will he be okay? Is it serious?" She asked nervously.

"He'll be fine, he just needs some rest. It happens every month around this time." Professor McGonagall reassured her. "I think that the four of you should go to bed now."

The four students turned and headed back up to their common room in complete silence. After a while, Emmie finally spoke, "I wonder why Remus never told us about his problem before."

"Because he knew Bevis and Butthead over here would react the way they did." Lily said, as though it were obvious. "That was really rude of you, you know."

"Is she bugging you?" James muttered to Sirius.

"Yeah," Sirius whispered back. "Think we should curse her?"

"Duh!" James said, and before anyone made another move James bound both Lily's and Emmie's legs together. He and Sirius then sprinted up to the common room.

The next night, Lily, Emmie, James and Sirius stood in the library, waiting for Remus to return. After what seemed like forever, Remus came through the doors and headed straight for where they were sitting.

"Hi!" he said jovially. "McGonagall told me that you guys would be in here waiting for me."

"Why didn't you tell us about your problem?" James asked.

"What? You know?" Remus asked, becoming pale. All four of them nodded. "Who told you?"

"McGonagall," James said flatly, though Sirius could tell that he was trying not to laugh.

"What…McGonagall…she wasn't supposed to…she said she wouldn't…" Remus stuttered.

"What big-head means to say is that, this other guy who McGonagall was talking with accidentally let it slip." Lily said, "But it's okay Remus, it's no big deal."

"No big deal! Of course it's a big deal!" Remus said loudly. "You know, I would understand if never talked to me ever again." Remus said quietly.

"Why would we not talk to you just because you had Glutonicism?" Emmie asked.

"What…" Remus began, but Sirius cut him off.

"Yeah, just because you have to get your but inflated every month doesn't mean we won't talk to you ever again. I mean, it's funny as hell, yes, but…"

"WHAT? Who told you I was getting my but inflated?" Remus asked, confused.

"Some grungy wizard who was…" Lily began.

"Dung," James interrupted.

"You actually believe what Dung said? DUNG?" Remus asked and James, Sirius, Lily and Emmie nodded. "WELL FOR YOUR INFORMATION I'M NOT GETTING MY BUT INFLATED EVERY MONTH! FOR YOUR INFORMATION I'M A FREAKING WEREWOLF! YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT A BLOODY HALF-BREED!" He added, seeing the shocked looks on their faces. He decided to get it over with loudly and quickly. He didn't mind that the whole library heard. News traveled fast around Hogwarts so they would soon know anyways. He figured that he better go pack up his stuff, parents would surely not want their students going to school with a werewolf. Dumbledore was crazy for letting him go to Hogwarts in the first place.

The four first years just sat there for a moment in shock. They couldn't believe that Remus was a werewolf. But as Lily sat there, thinking, she realized that all the pieces fit together—Remus was always "sick" during the full moon and he always came back pale and bruised. She had read a book on werewolves a couple of weeks ago and it all seemed to make sense. After a couple of seconds, James and Sirius ran out of the library to find Remus. Lily and Emmie just sat there until Emmie finally spoke. "I had no idea that he was a…werewolf."

"Yeah," Lily said, "but now that he's said it, it makes perfect sense. Firstly, the whole Glutonicism was completely ridiculous. And also, I mean he was always gone on every full moon and he always came back looking cut, pale and bruised. The book I read a few weeks ago said that if werewolves can't find any other creature to bite, they'll actually bite themselves, and of course the bites have no affect from them. I mean, they're already werewolves."

"I feel so bad for him." Emmie sighed.

"I think we should talk to him later—tell him we don't mind him being a werewolf." Lily said. When Emmie made no reply, she added "We don't, do we?"

"I dunno," Emmie shrugged, "all my life, I've been accustom to the fact that half-breeds are filthy and dangerous and that I should stay away from them. It's just something that comes naturally when you grow up in the pure-blood world."

"You actually believe all that crap? Just because you grew up in the pure-blood world doesn't mean you have to act exactly how your expected to act." Lily asked, surprised to even be having this conversation.

"Lily, you don't know what it's like to grow up in a pure-blood household. My parents would be furious with me if they found I had become friends with a muggle-born. Let's just say I'd even talked to a werewolf, let alone become friends with him. It's an unwritten law in our culture that half-breeds are untrustworthy and disgusting beings." Emmie explained.

"What makes you think that? I mean, look at Dumbledore—he let Remus in to the school. I bet you that no other headmaster would've done that." Lily asked, pointedly.

"I'm not Dumbledore—if I was a powerful 150-year-old wizard than maybe I'd consider defying my parents' wishes." Emmie said.

"Who's stopping you from defying your parents' wishes? I mean, for God's sake girl, your parents are DEAD!" As soon as Lily said those words, she wished she could suck them back in. The look on Emmie's face was somewhere between shock, sadness and anger. Without saying another word, Emmie got up and left the Library. Lily sat there for ten minutes, staring at the same page in her History of Magic book before deciding it was useless, slamming it shut, and leaving the library.

As she was walking towards the Gryffindor common room, she heard a familiar meow from behind the corner. She looked down at her watch—it was 8:56 and she was out almost an hour after curfew. She saw a nearby broom closet and quickly learned that it was occupied. Sirius and a girl whom Lily recognized as a Ravenclaw were in there—making out.

"What do you want Evans?" Sirius asked, breaking apart from the girl long enough to get the words out.

"Well firstly you might want to shut up; Mrs. Norris is right around the corner." Lily whispered.

"Damn Dumbledore for buying Filch that stupid cat for Christmas." Sirius swore under his breath.

"Also, what are you doing here, with her?" Lily asked, gesturing toward the blonde girl—who wasn't Sirius' girlfriend.

"Evans, I don't think that's any of your business." Sirius said. "Now get out before I make you get out!" Sirius warned, taking his wand out of his robe pocket.

Up in the girls' dormitory, Lily spotted Marlene talking to Casey Volley and motioned for her to come over. Marlene looked annoyed, but she slouched over anyways. "What do you want Evans?" she asked.

"I need to talk to you." Lily said.

"Sure."

"No, I need to talk to you alone," Lily clarified.

"Why?" Marlene asked.

"Fine if you don't want to know the information I have for you, I just won't tell you." Lily said annoyed, and she walked out of the dormitory.

Marlene, now interested, followed her to the staircase. "Fine Evans, you've got my attention. Now spill it." She said. "This better be good," she muttered.

"I was walking up to the dormitory when I heard Mrs. Norris. I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 8:56. And I thought 'oh shoot I didn't even realize…'"

"Cut to the chase, Evans" she interrupted

"Well I went into the nearest broom closet and saw Sirius in it with a girl—only she wasn't Kaitlyn…"

"Elizabeth Rapp, yeah," Marlene shrugged; she didn't seem surprised at all. "He's been seeing her ever since Christmas. Or so Rachel and I think."

"They were making out."

"WHAT? Sirius never made out with Kaitlyn before. I've got to tell Rachel!" And with that, she ran off to God knows where.

The morning Owl Post came as usual, and James was surprised to see that he had a package—his parents usually sent him things on Mondays. He opened it and decided to read the letter first.

Dear James (and Sirius because you're always nearby)

You may be wondering why you're receiving a letter from me. All I can say is open the package it will explain it all—I just wanted to thank you for the other night.

Yours,

Lily Evans

James proceeded to eagerly open the package, not really wondering why Lily would've sent him a present. When he opened the parcel, he was surprised to find gooey stuff that burned his skin. Sirius stood their watching. "ARGHHHH! What is this crap, Evans?" James shrieked.

"Undiluted Bubotuber puss," Lily replied smugly.

"Where the hell did you get it?" Sirius asked.

"You know Molly Prewett?" Lily asked. "Well her brother Gideon is in 4th year and they had to squeeze it out of the Bubotubers in Herbology. I asked him if he could get some for me and so he nicked it" Lily explained, shrugging.

"Get the hell away from me!" James said, pushing her angrily.

"OH MY GOD! POTTER! Look what you did to my robes!" Lily shrieked.

"Holy shit, Evans! Look what you did to my hands!" James said, holding out his hands for Lily to see. Lily didn't respond, instead she just stalked off.

"I could kill her," James muttered sitting back down, next to Sirius.

"Yeah, Evans is a bitch." Sirius agreed. "That puss stuff got all over my Transfiguration book!"

"Not like you're ever gonna open it, anyways." James shrugged. "I'm gonna go see Madame Pomfrey, see what she can do about this puss crap." James added grimly.

"You know, if James wasn't my mate, I'd say that girl was brilliant." Sirius said to Peter Pettigrew who was sitting next to him after James was out of earshot. The boy immediately broke out into girly giggles. After he was done laughing his head off, Kaitlyn came over to where Sirius was sitting.

"Hey Kaitlyn, fancy seeing you on this fine morning," Sirius said casually, looking up at her.

"Shut it Black." Rachel said, an annoyed look on her face.

"Sirius Black!" Kaitlyn began, reading off a sheet of paper. "What the hell were you doing in a broom closet with another girl? You are a stupid and…err…" Kaitlyn stumbled, evidentially loosing her place, "inconsiderate bastard. We are officially over and I hope you learned something from your…err…Marlene, what the hell does 'crud' mean?"

"It's not curd, it's crude—and it means 'extremely rude'" Marlene explained.

"Oh! Err…I hope you learned something from your crude action. Slap him in the face!...oh…whoops!" Kaitlyn blushed and then proceeded to slap Sirius in the face—harder than he would've expected from her. She left with Marlene and Rachel following behind her.

Almost immediately after Kaitlyn had left, Elizabeth came over from the Ravenclaw table and slapped Sirius as well. "Who's she?" she asked, anger seeping throughout her face.

Sirius didn't know what to say, so he just shrugged. This was not evidentially the best choice on his part, because it resulted in Sirius being slapped again before leaving the Great Hall.

Sirius looked around to see everyone in the Great Hall staring at him. "Okay! The show's over! You can all go back to your food now!" He yelled so that the whole hall could hear him. He then proceeded to slam his head down on the table. He sensed someone approaching behind him. He lifted his head and turned to see James behind him, with bandages wrapped thickly around him hands.

"Taylor Hall just told me what happened! Told ya you shouldn't have gotten yourself into this!" James said smugly.

Sirius didn't respond, he just slammed his head down on the table again.

A/N: Okay, there's chapter 12. I think that that was the longest chapter I've ever written—9 whole pages:-) Please tell me what you think! A lot happened in this chapter—tell me what you think of this chapter's events.

PLEASE REVIEW:-)