Thank you for reviews! They encourage me so much since my last story was a complete failure compared to it's pre-quel and this story. Oh, and sorry but I forgot to spell-check that last chapie. Sorry people!

Ch.24, Meetings and Surprises

Len popped into Lily's house after her class. She still hadn't got a chance to tell the girls. So, she had arranged a meeting with them for right now, and Lily got James out of the house because they were having a girls day, since apparently Len had something important to tell them.

She was greeted by Lily who led her into the sitting room. Then Melissa popped in aswell, and joined them.

"So what was so important that it couldn't wait much longer Len?" Lily asked.

"Do you guys remember when we were at James' parents' place?" Len asked.

"Yeah, of course we do." Melissa said.

"And remember that first day when the boys woke us up with buckets of water?"

"Where is this going?" Lily asked.

But Len was going to draw out the drama for a bit longer. "And remember when you guys accused me of modeling for Remus?"

"Len, if you don't tell us right now..." Melissa said in a mock threatening voice.

"And remember that little conversation after-"

"Yes, we remember that day perfectly well Len, now TELL US!" Lily shouted with a playful tone of voice.

"Well I told you guys that 'if anything ever happened, I would tell you?'" she said, grinning and holding up her hands in quotes.

Melissa rolled her eyes, "What's the point- OH MY GOSH!" she shouted in sudden realization. Then, Lily's eyes widened as she realized the same thing.

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Of course, anyone who assumed that most of the Marauders would not try to listen in is a complete lunatic. James and Sirius were under the invisibility cloak, realizing what Len had intended for the ears of only Lily and Melissa. Ooh, this would be good for teasing.

In fact, that's exactly what the girls were doing, after the innitial shock had worn off.

"Now Len, don't go forgetting you're aura stone colours!" Melissa said, clapping an arm around Len's shoulder.

Len blushed. "I tested myself this morning, I'm not pregnant."

"Well yeah, but this is a big step in you're relationship with Remus, who knows how far it could get..." Lily said.

As Len blushed even more, the girls continued to tease. James and Sirius decided to go and do the same to Remus. They sneaked out, and used the fireplace in the kitchen to Floo to Remus' apartment. They found him flipping through the daily prophet, looking for a job.

"Oh hey guys. How are you?" he greeted.

"Well we are absolutely fine Moony!" Sirius said, and Remus looked to James for an explanation of why he was acting so strange. James mouthed the word 'gossip' to him, and Remus tried to hide his blush.

Unfortunately it didn't work. "We just happened to overhear what the girls were talking about Moony..." James said, holding in laughter.

"Oh... really." Remus said slowly.

"We just happened to hear that a certain Remus Lupin and a certain Remus Lupin's girlfriend-" Sirius got cut off by a daily prophet thrown in his face.

The next days before the group's first Order meeting passed quickly. The morning before, which happened to be a weekend, the group was visiting Len and Remus, who were currently getting brunch.

Melissa held up a money tin. "Now ladies and gentlemen, we are currently taking bets on when our dear friend Remus, will propose to our other dear friend, Len. I call her birthday!"

"I call Christmas for 10 sickles!" Lily put in.

"Darn. That was my idea. Well then I say New Years Day." James said, putting 10 sickles in.

"I say Valentines Day!" Sirius said, popping a few sickles in. Just then, Len came in carrying a tray of bagels and toast. She scowled when she saw what they were doing, but the group saw the blush that the scowl hid.

Then, at 7:45pm, the group popped over to the Leaky Cauldron. (I'm going to get tired of typing that over and over again, so from now on it will be called LC.) They went over to the barkeeper, Billy, and he let them in.

It seemed that being early was a fad. Everyone, including Dumbledore, turned to face the newcomers. James noticed that his parents were bent over a map, and not paying much attention.

Then Dumbledore stood up. Everyone turned to face him. "I'm sure that most of you noticed that we have some newcomers. Though I'm sure that a certain Mr. & Mrs.Potter already know them all. I would like to introduce Miss Lily Evans, Miss Melissa Smith, Mr. Sirius Black, all of whom are in training to be an Auror, Miss Lenilah Candel, who is training to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mr. Remus Lupin, and, another Auror in training, Mr. James Potter." Each person lifted their hand in greeting as their name was called.

The general population on the room noticed that James had the same surname as two of their members. They greeted the new members, and many looked to James' parents, both of whom were still bent over a map, and obviously hadn't heard a word said.

James noticed this, and decided to surprise them. "Hi mum, hi dad! How are you?" he shouted, with a smile on his face.

They jerked up, and whipped around to face him. "J-James? What are you doing here?" his father asked.

James smiled. "About two weeks ago, Professor Dumbledore asked my friends and I if we'd like to join the Order." he said simply.

"And obviously we all did." Sirius finished.

"B-But how come we weren't told?" Mrs.Potter asked.

Dumbledore answered. "I do believe that James wanted to surprise you. And it seems he did." he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Yo-you could say that again." Mr.Potter whispered.

About twenty minutes was spent with more personal introductions to the rest of the Order. But in the case of James' parents, the 20 minutes were spent worrying themselves crazy. Then, Dumbledore noticed this, and took his friends aside.

"You are both very worried." Dumbledore said seriously.

"Of course we're worried! We were just informed that our oldest son has just joined a secret organization that happens to put their lives on the line every other week!" Mr.Potter said, exasperated.

"What if Jamie gets hurt! Or worse!" Mrs.Potter added.

"Listen to me. Those six friends- as long as their together, they won't let anything happen to each other. Plus, James can look after himself. I wouldn't have asked any of them to join if they all weren't capable of that. They all, including James, were in the top of their Defense class. I don't blame you for worrying. But I repeat- they can look after themselves." Dumbledore finished.

Mr.Potter sighed, and looked over at his son. James was laughing at a joke with his girlfriend, Lily, told by one of the Prewet brothers. Just as he was about to say something, the barkeeper barged in, and shouted, "Death Eaters in the Alley! Death Eaters in the Alley!"

There was an uproar. The group immediately went to Dumbledore, asking what to do.

"Go to the Alley and try to protect the people shopping there. Be careful." he said quickly. James nodded and hurried out the door with the group following close behind.

The LC was so crowded with people trying to get away from Diagon Alley, that they didn't notice the 20 or so people racing down from the upper levels with their wands drawn.

When they got to the entrance, they found that it had been sealed. Then, Lily used her knowledge of charms to identify the kind of sealing spell used. After that, an Auror name Moody was able to open it.

The Order members raced inside and saw the sight before them. The Alley was completely empty. The Order crept along, and found something very bad.

When they got to Flourish and Blotts, someone called Marlene McKinnon used a pair of Omnoculars to look inside the window from a distance. There was a Death Eater outside the door so they had looked there. She took the tool from her eyes and reported to Moody, who was the senior Auror there.

"There's at least 20 of them. I'd say about ten hostages. All the bookshelves have been taken down, there is nowhere to hide there. No chance of getting inside." she said quickly.

"We need a decoy. Something to get most of them out of the building. Ideas?"

Melissa, ever the strategist, spoke up. "What if a few of us go down to the other end of the street and throw some Reductor curses at the building? Of course we won't actually hit it for fear of injuring the hostages, but it will make them think the Ministry is here."

Moody looked at her with a bit of respect in her eyes. "Do it. Take Ephilias and Sturgis with you. But it won't be enough. Any more ideas?"

Remus spoke up. "Len, what about that time when we were playing hide and seek, and you used you're camcorder to get passed me?"

Len's eyes lit up. "If we set my camcorder to audio playback, and turn up the volume, we can set it to a sort of accidental sound. Like coughing or sneezing. They'll hear it, and a few will probably come out to check who it was." she said.

"Where is you're camcorder?" Moody asked.

"I left it in my bag back at Headquarters. I'll be back in five minutes." she said and sneaked off. The rest of them made a plan. There were twenty of them in all. Ten would stay out here, and once the Death Eaters come out to see the distraction, they would attack. Then, the other ten would break in and fight off the other Death Eaters and save the hostages.

Then Len came back, and it was agreed that she would be one of the ten to stay outside. With her would be: Melissa, Ephilias, Sturgis, Dedalus Diggle, Lily, Mrs.Potter, Frank Longbottom, Alice Prewet and Edgar Bones. Going in would be: Moody, James, Sirius, Remus, Mr.Potter, the Prewet brothers, Marlene McKinnon, Benji Fenwick and Dorcas Meadows.

Lily and Len crept to the side of the bookshop. Lily set up the camcorder while Len found the same spot on the tape she had used on Remus. Seven minutes later, the two crept back, Len holding her wand, ready to turn it on.

"Ready? You three (he points to Melissa, Ephilias and Sturgis) go to the far end of the road. You three (he points to Lily, Len and Mrs. Potter) stay here. You four (he points to the others staying outside.) go to the other end of the road. The rest of you are with me." Moody instructed.

Ten seconds later several curses hit the ground and surrounding objects making a lot of noise. Many Death Eaters rushed out and saw the three at the far end of the road. They ran toward them, shouting. After they were dueling, Len turned on her trusty camcorder. The sound of a sneeze rang through the once quiet alley. Three Death Eaters rushed out, and saw the people at the other end of the street. Then, they started dueling. Now, they only needed three more DEs out to give the people going in a fighting chance. Mrs. Potter promptly sent a Reducto spell at a display outside the shop. Two DEs came out. Well that would have to do, because now Lily, Len and Mrs.Potter were dueling. Before the infiltration group left, the boys cast one more glance towards their fighting girlfriends.

"They'll be fine, come on!" Marlene said. They rushed inside, and sent stunners at the alert DEs. There were eleven in the building. Two weren't alert enough to block the spells. Now there were nine.

As James and Sirius started dueling with a few DEs, he saw out of the corner of his eye a DE sneaking up behind his dad. Who was to busy dueling to realize. James quickly stunned the DE he was dueling with, and sent a stunner to the one creeping up on his dad.

"Thanks James!" he shouted. But James couldn't respond, he was to busy helping Dorcas, who had three of them on her.

As they had hoped, There weren't enough of them to attack them all. Remus and Benji were freeing the hostages, and then Remus saw a pile of wands on a table. He grabbed them, and gave them to their owners. Who promptly apparated. But the sound of ten people apparating never went unnoticed. The remaining DEs saw their danger, and apparated out.

The inside team ran out, and found it was the same outside. Sirius went to Melissa right away, as she was sporting a burnt arm, due to a fire curse sent at her. There were no other injuries, everyone else was just exausted.

They headed back to Headquarters, and Melissa's arm was treated by the Warden from Hogwarts. She apparently didn't fight much, but just helped the injured after a fight.

"You all did very well. Luckily the Ministry just got here, and any awkward questions have been avoided. Now I think that that is enough for one night, I suggest you all go home and get some sleep. Mr.&Mrs. Potter, no not you James, I'd like to have a little chat." Dumbledore said as he welcomed them back.

The group shrugged and said goodbye. The sound of them apparating out could be heard from where they were. Dumbledore turned to Mr.&Mrs. Potter.

"Am I right in assuming that you're not as worried about James as you first were?" he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"He is better than we thought. He got rid of a DE sneaking up on me, and helped Dorcas with the ones attacking her. And you're right- he and his friends are a good team." Mr.Potter said.

"Their all smart. Those two girls- Len and Melissa? They came up with the plans to distract the DEs. Lily identified the charm that sealed the Alley, Remus got the hostages out with a little help from Benji, and James and Sirius make an excellent team. I think that they'll all fit in well here." Mrs.Potter added.

"Good. Have a peasent evening." Dumbledore said as he too left.

Sorry about the short chapie, but it's getting late and I want to post before I go to bed. R,E&R!