Friends at Last

Work continued to give Claudia mixed feelings. The Colten case was interesting, albeit slow. Neither the initial interviews nor the case papers provided any new leads or clues. But, despite his constant barking and stand-offish nature, Barraclough was clearly exceptionally good at his job and she learned loads from him.

The rest of the team, however, continued to be a pain in Claudia's backside. Moody did not speak to her since the Order meeting and looked like he had not quite decided yet whether he was going to make her choose between her job and Dumbledore. Dankworth kept calling her 'sweetheart' which made her blood boil. Fernsby made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a groan every time he saw her and refused to speak to her at all. Adebayo continued to burry himself in work and barely interacted with anyone at all. But she would never give them the satisfaction and ask to be reassigned. She survived seventeen years with her family. This was nothing in comparison!

After yet another monotonous day, Claudia came home late. She was looking forward to crashing into the sofa and sharing some leftover dinner and beer with Sirius, but instead she found James pacing around the flat. He was fidgeting with his hands and was white as a sheet of parchment.

"What happened?" Claudia hurled out. James was barely ever panicking and seeing him like this worried her. Something must have happened to Sirius.

She exhaled when she saw her boyfriend emerge from the kitchen, seemingly in one piece, and smiled at him. He was fine.

"Nothing," James mumbled, answering a question Claudia forgot she asked. "Let's go for a walk," he added towards Sirius and left without as much as another look towards either of them.

"What's going on?" she whispered.

Sirius walked up to her and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. "He's freaking out," he uttered. "Having second thoughts about the wedding after the things your boss said at the meeting."

"Are you sure it wouldn't better just to let this be?" Claudia smirked. "Can you even imagine how annoying their kids will be?"

"Hilarious." Sirius scoffed with unmistakable sarcasm in his voice. "But now is really not the time. He's been freaking out for the last five hours. I need to sort it out."

"Good luck then." Claudia kissed him back, and Sirius walked out after James. She waited for a while, but the boys were still out at eleven, so she went to bed.

The next morning, she was woken up by Sirius whispering something. "So, it's all good, yeah?" she heard him say. "No more doubts?"

"James, you better not be in our bed," Claudia mumbled and turned over.

It was somewhat of a relief that James was not there. But Sirius was sitting up, half naked and holding something up in his hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked sleepily.

"Talking to James." Sirius chuckled. "Do you want to say hi?"

Claudia scrambled to sit up. "Hang on." She frowned when she saw what Sirius was holding in his hand. "Are you telling me that James got a mirror to talk to you, and I got a bloody notebook?"

Sirius blinked a couple of times. "Your handwriting is more legible than his?" he said tentatively.

"We both know that's a lie." Claudia smirked and jumped out of bed. Mildly annoyed, she walked over to the kitchen, made some coffee, and wolfed down a piece of toast. "I need to get ready," she hissed as she stuck her head back through the door of the bedroom. "Can you put that thing away so I can get dressed?"

"I'll just move to the living room," Sirius said. Whether he was talking to her or James, she was not sure.

Within five minutes, she was out of the flat and on her way to the Ministry. But she was not going to her usual office today, because today was the first day of auror training.

Claudia knew from Alice that trainee aurors spend pretty much every Friday locked in one of the Ministry's training rooms. What she did not know, however, was how exactly the timetable worked and what was being covered. Mr Smiley was not exactly forthcoming at the interview.

She was two minutes late by the time she found the right training room, which earned her a raised eyebrow from the old lady who was standing near a blackboard at the front of the room. There were only two other people there, Green and a blond guy she did not know.

"As I was saying," the lady said. "My name is Miss Sachs, and I will be your instructor for today."

"Where are the other trainees?" Green asked. "I was told that all the trainees will be taking these courses together."

"We are doing some basics today," Miss Sachs replied. "So, it's just the three of you. The others will join from next week."

"And what are we going to study?" Green spoke again. Claudia had to chuckle. Once a Ravenclaw, always a Ravenclaw.

"I was going to tell you at the end of the day," Miss Sachs said somewhat sharply. "But if you must know. This year, you will do two modules – Poisons and Antidotes, and Forensics. Next year, you will have Concealment and Disguise, and Advanced Duelling. In your final year, if you get that far, you will have Stealth and Tracking and Memory Charms, Legilimency and Occlumency." Claudia glanced at Green, who was writing everything down manically. The other guy just sat there, smiling.

Green's hand shot up in the air.

"You don't have to put your hand up, Mr Green," Miss Sachs said. "This is not Hogwarts."

"Sorry," Green mumbled. "But how come we are all doing these together. Wouldn't the older trainees already have done Poisons and Forensics?"

"No," Miss Sachs said through gritted teeth. Her patience was clearly wearing thin. "We rotate the courses. Every intake does them in different order."

"That makes sense." Green nodded, finally satisfied with the answers.

"I know," Miss Sachs smirked a little. "I designed the curriculum." Green's face went bright red, and the instructor continued. "Now, if you allow me, I will explain what we do today. You have a good basis from Hogwarts but there are some things that you need to know that no sane teacher would show you. We will start with the Unforgivable Curses."

Claudia's eyes widened. Start with the Unforgivable Curses? If that was the start, what on Earth were they going to teach them for the next three years?

"Obviously, I am not going to teach you how to cast them yet." Miss Sachs clarified. She must have seen the mixture of shock and excitement on Claudia's face. "I'm going to teach you how to recognise they're being cast at you and what to do."

"We've done these at Ilvermorny," the blond guy said with a yawn and a slight American accent. "Do I have to be here?"

"Yes," Miss Sachs said sternly. "American spell-casting is rushed at best…" She drew her wand and rolled up her sleeve. "Let's start with the killing curse. Watch my wrist."

Claudia watched carefully as Miss Sachs waved her wand to draw a shape of a lightning bolt.

"I presume you all know the incantation," the instructor said and the three auror trainees nodded. "Now, wands out and repeat the hand movement. Do NOT say anything and, for the love of Merlin, do not think about killing each other. The intent is key with all the Unforgivable Curses!"

They all stood around like complete idiots for ten minutes, drawing little lightning bolts in the air.

"Now, who can tell me what one can do to protect yourself from the killing curse?" Miss Sachs asked.

"Nothing," Claudia mumbled, remembering her DADA revision.

"Actually," the American jumped in. "At Ilvermorny, they told us there was this new spell. I can show –"

"No." Miss Sachs said resolutely. "She is right. Do not attempt to block the killing curse. You duck and hide. Understand?"

With no further protestations from the man from Ilvermorny, they moved onto the Cruciatus and Imperius curses. To Claudia's slight disappointment, learning about the Unforgivable Curses was the most interesting part of the day. For the rest of it, Miss Sachs went through Auror office procedures in mind-numbing level of detail. There were so many forms that needed filling out for every interrogation, arrest, the most mundane piece of evidence. Claudia would have to lie if asked whether she paid attention throughout. She would just need to ask Green about what was covered. He used several roles of parchment, scribbling everything down.

"We weren't introduced," the American beamed and extended his arm towards Claudia at the end of day. "My name is Newton Sanders."

"Claudia," she replied.

"I transferred to Ilvermorny after three years at Hogwarts," Newton continued. "My father moved to New York for work and wanted me to experience a different culture."

"Good for you," Claudia said, wondering whether he had to mention Ilvermorny every time he opened his mouth.

"Do you want to go for a drink?" he asked.

"Not really," Claudia replied. "I'm busy… But I'm sure Green here would love to go with you," she uttered, and walked away as fast as she could, leaving Newton frozen in the middle of the room.

The auror training marked the end of the working week and it was finally the weekend again. Sirius was occupying James in the garage, and Claudia set off to Diagon Alley to do some clothes shopping. Moody's refusal to let his team wear the auror uniforms meant she needed more clothes for work, as stealing the contents of Sirius' wardrobe was sadly not going to cut it.

The moment she set foot in Madame Malkin's, she noticed Lily in a heated discussion with a shop assistant.

"You said last week that you'll have them today!" Lily said, gesturing wildly.

"I'm sorry," the shop assistant mumbled. "There was a stock issue."

"Stock issue?" Lily barked. "What stock issue? This is simply unacceptable!" Lily's usual, sensible mannerism has completely disappeared.

Claudia had never seen her this worked up. She walked up to Lily and grabbed her by the arm. "Let's go get some tea."

Lily blinked a few times, uttered an apology towards the shop assistant, and allowed Claudia to usher her out of the shop.

"What's got into you?" Claudia asked.

"It's the wedding…," Lily sighed. "And James. He's been so useless lately. Refuses to talk about the wedding, didn't want to come today," she paused and frowned, "all he wants to do is spend time with Sirius and drink."

"They aren't drinking," Claudia said, trying to sound patient. "He's helping him fix the bike."

"I bet Sirius is trying to talk him out of the wedding," Lily said sharply, seemingly ignoring what she had just been told.

"You're so wrong."

"Am I?" Lily's voice was rising again. "He doesn't believe in marriage, does he? Probably just wants James to stay single forever."

"Oh, shut up," Claudia snapped. "If it wasn't for Sirius, you wouldn't even be getting married."

"What do you mean?" Lily whispered icily, her anger all gone and replaced with cold fury.

"Nothing," Claudia mumbled, regretting her words already. But Lily's eyes kept boring into her, so she continued. "James may have freaked out a little last week, but," she reached for Lily's arms to stop her from running away, "Sirius' sorted it."

"Sirius did what?" Lily gasped. "He wants James to get married? He doesn't think he's too young or whatever?"

"He said that you have enough sense for both of you."

"Did he really say that?"

"Yes." Claudia nodded and even managed a smile. "He really likes you!"

"I've been a real cow, haven't I?" Lily sighed.

"Let's go get that tea." Claudia nudged Lily in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron.

"I'm sorry," Lily whispered once they were sat down, and the tea was ordered. "I'm just freaking out because," she paused and took a deep breath, "maybe we are too young."

"So what?" Claudia shrugged. "You are good together."

"Not as good as you and Sirius," Lily said with a weak smile.

"Oh, come on," Claudia chuckled. "We've got nothing on you. The Head Girl and the Head Boy, the star couple of Hogwarts?"

Lily smiled and looked at her watch with a sigh. "I need to go. I'm meeting the woman planning the engagement party."

"Have fun," Claudia smirked, but froze when she noticed Lily was looking at her with a hint of excitement on her face. "No," she whispered. "You can't make me."

"Please," Lily pleaded with her. "It would be a tremendous help. And you'll be back in a couple of hours. There is a wizarding pub close to the hotel, we can get to Birmingham that way."

"Birmingham?" Claudia gasped, but it was too late. Lily was dragging her towards the gigantic fireplace in the corner of the Leaky Cauldron.

"My family is from Cokeworth," Lily explained. "It's not far from there."

Before Claudia could recover or run away, she was standing in one of the smaller function rooms in Grand Hotel Birmingham.

"Remember," Lily whispered urgently. "This is a muggle hotel. This woman has no idea who we are."

"Sure," Claudia sighed. That was the least of her reservations, however. She could not take her eyes off the place setting that the party planner had prepared. Everything was purple – the table runner, the napkins, the napkin ring, the flowers, the chair covers. It made her want to vomit.

"What do you think?" The party planner beamed.

Claudia looked over at Lily, who was gasping for air, seemingly unable to speak. "Help!" the red-headed girl mouthed.

Claudia closed her eyes, sighed, and began to speak. "We will need to throw in a contrast colour. This just looks bit sickly," Claudia said slowly. "Maybe bit of green."

"I disagree," the party planner said with a slight frown.

"Disagree all you want," Claudia smirked. "Where is your storeroom?"

Clearly annoyed, the party-planner pointed towards a door in the corner of the function room. Without a word or a look towards Lily, Claudia ran off in that direction. She rummaged through the boxes for good twenty minutes before emerging with her loot - a napkin ring made from green glass to replace the hideous purple one, some beautiful vintage glasses rather than the pure crystal ones, and much more toned-down napkins.

Under the watchful eye of the party planner, Claudia replaced the purple items with the ones she picked out. Then she took off the chair covers to reveal pretty wooden chairs.

"We'll also need wilder flowers. These purple lilies are just too much," she grimaced.

"But we got them dyed especially," the party planner protested. "Since the bride's name is Lily."

Claudia ignored her. "What we want are verbenas, cornflowers, maybe a white rose here and there," she paused. "If you want lilies, we should try freesia. It's more delicate and natural."

"I'll go get some," the party planner finally gave up and ran off.

"What do you think?" Claudia finally turned to Lily.

"How? When?" Lily stuttered with her mouth ajar. "I don't understand."

Claudia smiled weakly. "This was supposed to be my life," she whispered. "Planning parties, picking flowers. That was all I was ever meant to be good for."

"What do you mean?"

"My family is very," Claudia paused, "traditional."

"I know nothing about your family," Lily whispered. "Other than your father being, you know-" she grimaced.

"Trust me," Claudia smirked. "You want to keep it that way."

They stood around awkwardly for a minute or two before the party planner got back with a much wilder bouquet of flowers. Claudia rearranged it a little before placing it in the middle of the table.

"I have to admit," the party planner said. "This does look rather fresh! Let me bring a camera so I can take a picture."

"It's beautiful," Lily exhaled. "Thank you."

"Glad to be of service."

They spent the rest of the afternoon picking the menu, pairing the wines, even tasting some… Claudia did not even realise how much of this nonsense she absorbed growing up. She was very relieved, however, to leave both Birmingham and place settings behind and return to normality. Even auror paperwork seemed exciting by comparison.

A week or so later, the first of September had arrived. Normally, they would be getting on the Hogwarts Express. But this year, they were all on their way to the second meeting of the Order.

James and Lily arrived not two minutes after Claudia and Sirius got there. Lily's face was full of thunder.

"The party planner went rogue again?" Claudia smirked.

"James tried to help?" Sirius added, which made them both chuckle.

"I wish," Lily scoffed. "Your brother's mate just came to the apothecary where I work and tried to recruit us to join the Death Eaters."

Claudia stared at Lily with her mouth open. It made no sense. The Death Eaters wanted to eradicate muggleborns, not recruit them.

"You'll need to specify which brother's mate," Sirius said icily.

"Claudia's brother," James whispered. "Mulciber. But apparently it was Snivellus' idea."

"Can you not call him that?" Lily barked. "This is not a joke. It's disgusting. How could he ever think?!"

"How do you know Snape was behind it?" Claudia asked, trying to bring the conversation back to what really mattered.

"Because Mulciber said so," Lily explained. "He said that Severus told him I was smart and gifted and that they needed people like me in their ranks."

"Then, I walked in, so he tried to recruit me too," James pitched in.

"Never tried to recruit me," Claudia said bitterly, just as the rest of the Order began to trickle in.

"Right," Moody said when he barged into the room. "Dumbledore has school business and said not to wait for him. Any urgent matters?"

James raised his hand.

"Potter?" Moody barked.

"Someone just tried to recruit Lily and me to join the Death Eaters," he said.

"Did they actually use these words?" Moody asked sharply. "Death Eaters? Or Voldemort's supporters?"

"No." Lily shook her head.

"Then it's a worthless testimony. Next time, get them to be specific," Moody replied. "Anyone else?"

"Next time?" Lily whispered to James.

"Anything you want to share with the class?" Moody groaned.

Lily went bright red and shook her head. It was just like being back at Hogwarts again.

"Good," Moody said. "Now, I need two volunteers for a mission."

Claudia had never seen James and Sirius move quite so fast. Their hands were up in the air before Moody even finished the question, and a lot earlier than Claudia managed to volunteer herself.

"Put your hand down, Avery." Moody clearly was not too impressed. "You have plenty to be getting on at work."

Moody scanned the rest of the room. Remus had his hand up too, as did a couple of others. Peter was fidgeting and Claudia could not quite tell whether he was volunteering or scratching his head.

"Potter and Black." Moody said finally. "You'll do just fine. Longbottom will brief you and tell you what to do."

Few days went by, and it was finally time for Sirius to meet up with James and Frank in Frank's flat to get briefed and go on their first mission for the Order. It was late and Sirius was just about to leave.

"Wait," Claudia whispered urgently as they kissed each other goodbye, "I want to give you something."

She run over to the bedroom and took out her precious French Resistance insignia souvenir from the bedside table. She bought it on a holiday in France to remind herself of what was at stake, and to remember she needed to be brave.

"For good luck," she said as she pressed it into Sirius' palm.

"I didn't think you were superstitious," he smiled.

"Just shut up and take it!" She kissed him again.

Sirius placed the insignia safely in the breast pocket of his leather jacket. "I love you," he uttered and was gone before Claudia could tell him she loved him too.

The young auror struggled to concentrate on anything that evening. Cooking, reading, work. Nothing held her attention for more than two minutes. All she could think about was Sirius. She was cursing him for being overly cautious and not taking their two-way notebook they used to communicate in case he was caught.

Claudia's heart jumped when there was a knock on the door. Could they really have been back already?

They were not. It was Lily.

"What are you doing here?" Claudia asked, nearly forgetting they were on better terms since their trip to Birmingham. It was still very weird after three years of bickering.

"I couldn't be at home," Lily said. "And I thought you might understand why."

"Drink?"

"Please."

They sat down on the sofa, a bottle of wine in front of them.

They chatted about anything and everything and drank. But none of that was sufficient to keep their minds off where their boyfriends were.

"How am I ever going to be ok with this?" Lily sighed as she poured herself a third glass of wine.

"I don't know." Claudia replied, drained her own glass, and extended her arm to signal she wanted a top up too.

"It's scary. The Death Eaters don't seem to hesitate for a second," Lily said. "It's vile."

"Tell me about it." Claudia smirked. "I grew up in a house full of them."

"That must have been awful…"

"My father likes to pretend that I don't exist," Claudia began. "So as long as I kept my head down, it was fine. My mother, on the other hand…"

"Is your mother a Death Eater too?"

"No." Claudia shook her head. "But she's more awful than You-Know-Who himself. I never fitted into the box she made for me, and she made damn sure I knew that."

"She sounds just like my sister," Lily replied. "Everything has to be just right. No one can be different."

"What problem she could possibly have with you?" Claudia smirked. "The perfect Lily Evans."

"I'm a witch, a freak," Lily paused. "Bigotry works the other way too, you know."

"You can't win, can you?"

"No, I really can't," Lily laughed and took a long sip of the wine.

They looked at each other for some time.

Finally, Claudia laughed to herself and smiled. "I used to be so jealous of you. Slughorn liked you. You got to be the Head Girl. Everyone was in love with you."

"Do you know how annoying that is?" Lily exclaimed, a little louder than Claudia was expecting. "Everyone treated me like some kind of prized possession, chasing me around. Even James. It was just a game to him."

"James loves you."

"Not as much as Sirius loves you."

"Don't be ridiculous," Claudia scoffed.

"He'd do anything for you."

"Yeah, I know…" Claudia sighed. Occasionally, few months back in Slytherin's Apartments, for instance, that thought terrified her. But Lily did not seem to have picked up on Claudia's slight change in mood.

"And the others. You're like one of them," Lily continued. "I'm just James' girlfriend."

"It takes time," Claudia said as encouragingly as she could. "James used to hate me, and Peter still does."

"Does he?"

"Apparently, he thinks Sirius deserves someone nicer." Claudia smirked.

"I thought that too!" Lily laughed. "I was so wrong, though. You're so good together. Neither of you let anything hold you back."

"What do you mean?"

"This!" Lily gestured around the flat. "You don't care what people think, what they expect of you. I envy you that."

"My parents made it very easy." Claudia said with a sad smile. "They made me choose, and no one in their right mind would choose them."

"My parents are making it very hard," Lily sighed. "They treat me like a child."

"More wine?"

At around one o'clock in the morning, the door creaked open.

"Quiet, Prongs. Claude's sleeping." Sirius' hushed voice was coming from the hallway.

Both of the girls jump up from the sofa on which they were desperately trying not to fall asleep, and startled James and Sirius by flinging their arms around their necks.

"Lils, what are you doing here?" James gasped.

"I was freaking out," she replied, and kissed him. "I couldn't just sit at my parents', so I came here. Claudia's been so good looking after me."

"Are you ill?" Sirius whispered in his girlfriend's ear.

"Shut up," Claudia whispered back, and pressed her head against his chest. It was so good to have him back.

"Do you want me to take you home?" James asked.

Lily shook her head. "I'm not letting you out of my sight." She paused. "Let's do it. Let's move in together."

"But what about your parents?"

"They'll get over it."

"If you don't want to go home," Sirius began and looked at Claudia, who nodded, "you can stay here."

Lily and James seemed overjoyed by the suggestion, so Sirius and Claudia got out the spare bedding and made up the sofa. Soon after, they were laying in their own bed. It was very dark, but their faces were so close to each other, Claudia knew Sirius was still awake.

"How was it?" she whispered.

"Boring," Sirius sighed. "Just sat around for hours, waiting for this guy to turn up with a package. When he did, Frank took it, and we went home. I don't even know what was in it."

"I hope all your missions are this boring."

"I hope they're not. Or I might as well work at the Owl Post Office."