thanks so much for reviewing everyone. I try to get a new chapie in each night, and I hope you like them.

Ch.25, Birthdays, Christmas, and The Return of the Birds.

After their first exciting Order meeting, the group had trouble sleeping. They kept on talking in Lily and James' place. Sirius was worried about Melissa. If she had let herself be hit once, it could happen again, couldn't it? He didn't know what he would do if he lost her.

James was thinking along the same lines. Sure, Lily hadn't been hurt, but his aura stone colours wouldn't be nice enough to leave his mind.

Even Remus was worried about Len. He knew she was smart and a good fighter- but if it turned into a scenario where she had to run for it, she didn't stand a chance.

The girls seemed to sense this, because then Lily spoke up. "Listen, we know you're worried about us, but would Dumbledore have asked us to join with you guys if he didn't think we could handle it?" she said, looking at James.

"We know that Lily. We just don't like the idea of-" James was cut off.

"What James is trying to say Lily, is that we can't help but worry about you. We know that you girls are good fighters, and that you can look after yourselves. But I'm sure you're worried about us- and you know we can look after ourselves." Remus said, making sure James didn't screw it up. James gave him a grateful look.

"I should be going. I have lessons tomorrow, and I don't want to be late." Len said, standing up.

"Sure you got all you're homework done Len?" Melissa teased.

"How come all you guys always tease me about that?"

"Because it's fun." Lily said.

With a smile on her face, she stood up and apparated out.

"I better get going too. I have a job interview tomorrow, don't want to be late." Remus said, standing up.

"Good luck." James said. Remus smiled at them, and popped out.

Over the next couple of days, nothing worth mentioning happened. Remus got the job, and the Prophet reported that the Ministry had been able to handle the riot in Diagon Alley. At first the group had been offended, but then Mrs.Potter quietly told them that they didn't put an uproar about something like this, as they didn't want to draw attention to themselves.

Soon the chill of October came, and passed with an Order only Halloween party. It seemed that they did whatever they could to cheer themselves up in these hard times.

A soft blanket of snow fell across the grass as November came in. Len was away at one of her lessons as the group piled in to Lily and James' place. Then Mr.&Mrs. Potter popped into the living room.

"Everything is all set for tonight. When is she expected back?" Mrs.Potter said.

"About three. We'll keep her here for half an hour, then you come in mum and tell us that there is an emergency Order meeting right now." James said. But then Len popped right into the room. Everyone stared at her.

"What? Our last period teacher got the flu, we got out early. Oh hi Mr. and Mrs. Potter, how are you?" Len said as she sat down beside Remus.

James exchanged glances with his parents. Then, his father stuttered, "A-Actually we came to tell you guys that there is an emergency Order meeting right now. We need to go."

Len stood up, a determined look on her face. Remus almost smiled. The rouse was working perfectly.

James' parents had already apparated out, warning the others that there was a change in plans. So, when the group apparated to the LC, the barkeeper let them in and they let Len go up the stairs first.

The moment she opened the door, a group of about 25 people shouted, "SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEN!"

Len was so startled that her wand, which was tightly held in her other hand, let out sparks that hit the floor. The group behind her laughed at this, and a flash was taken of her startled face.

"Wh-what?" Len stuttered. But it was plain just what, by the large banner above the large table in the middle of the room. Which, in colour changing letters said, 'Happy Birthday Len!'

"Happy birthday sweetie." Remus said, kissing her on the cheek.

"S-so there wasn't an emergency?" she asked, still startled.

"No there wasn't. We just said that to get you here." Mrs.Potter explained.

"You should've seen the look on you're face, it was priceless!" Marlene said. She and the other girls had become quite good friends.

Then, Dedalus Diggle came through the crowd, and showed them a picture of her startled face. They then laughed at the blush on the real Len.

The party lasted hours. Lily and Mrs.Potter charmed the cake platter to refill itself. They had games, and presents. At the very end, Diggle came up with his camera, and took a group picture.

Then, since everyone was acting a little childish, Sirius decided to start a food fight. That night, everyone left covered with chocolate cake. The platter had been used because it never ends. Of course, James didn't exactly mind, Lily had been dumped with a pitcher of pumpkin juice.

"That," Len said to the group as they descended the stairs, "was the best birthday party ever."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. By the way, what's the time?" Remus asked.

"It's- holy cow! It's 12:45am!" Lily said, checking her watch.

"What? Come on Remus, we have to get home. Bye everyone!" Len said as she and Remus apparated out.

The next month passed, and James got worried sick when Lily came back from an Order mission with a bleeding ankle. He voiced his concerns, and they got into a small fight. But soon, the Christmas season evaporated this.

The Order had a huge party at Christmas. Since the LC was too small, Sirius and Melissa volunteered the use of their over-large flat.

The party was magnificent. James and Sirius made a point of hanging mistletoe on every available bit of ceiling. The girls noticed this, and Lily took down about half of it.

Dedalus Diggle seemed to be learning from James, Sirius and Remus. He and the boys were caught trying to spike the punch with Firewhisky. Marlene caught them. After the boys got a scolding from their girlfriends, and from Mr.&Mrs.Potter, Dumbledore stood up.

"I hope you all are having a good nigh-"

But then Billy, the barkeeper, popped in and used magic to magnify his voice.

"Listen up everyone! Our spies have new info that a major attack is planned for Hogsmead TONIGHT! Apparently all muggle-borns and all accotiated with them are gonna be killed! We gotta get over there!"

There was an immediate uproar. No one suspected that Voldemort would be so heartless as to attack on Christmas. But nonetheless, people grabbed their wands and popped out.

When they got to the city, the pops sounded like dynamite in the quiet environment. The Order realized this, and ran for cover as the DEs raced out.

But the DEs weren't the only things there. 20 Dementors glided out of a building to Lily's left.

She felt cold. Very cold. She heard a faint sound. But she couldn't recognize it. Everything was getting so dark...

"LILY!"

Lily barely recognized the voice as James'. She felt herself fall, just as a bright figure chased the Dementors away. Then, she knew no more.

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Lily woke up in a place she recognized as Sirius and Melissa's flat. The last thing she remembered was the horrible cold and a bright figure. She opened her eyes, and saw she was laying on the sofa, with a blanket over her. She rolled over. The moment she did this however, James saw that she was awake.

"Lily! You're awake!" The moment he said this, all eyes turned to her. She saw that others had injuries. Remus had a nasty cut on his shoulder, and Melissa was bandaging up Sirius' leg. Moody was holding a rag over a bleeding face.

"What happened? Are the people in Hogsmead okay?" she asked groggily.

James looked sad. Finally, he answered. "We were able to save some of the muggleborns in the city." he looked down, "100 dead."

Lily froze. 100 people, dead. "What?"

James explained what happened to her. The dementors, his patronus, the DEs, everything. By the end of it, Lily was speechless. Then, looking grave, Len came over with a large platter of double chocolate cookies for all those affected by the Dementors. Lily took one at James' insistence, even though she felt least of all like eating.

The New Years party for the Order was nothing like the beginning of the Christmas one. Hardly anyone was talking- they were still too caught up in the attack only a few nights ago.

Time passed. January came and went. February came and with a Valentines Day party, it went. Soon, March was upon them, and with it, Melissa's birthday. A large party was planned, and it seemed like everyone found it to be the perfect distraction from the Hogsmead attack.

Every single Order member (minus spies) was there. All night the couples in the group danced and ate and had stuff-the-most-food-in-you're-face contests, and tried to spike the punch, and snogged, and danced and many people got drunk.

The Order headed home, and the boys were 'only tipsy' as Remus said. Obviously someone had spiked the punch, but the girls didn't drink it. Whoever did was clearly a novice at the task, as the smell gave it all away.

At the end of March, the girls were having one of their ever-rarer girls days.

But when Lily sat down, a large er... sound was heard. She looked down at her chair and saw, to her horror, a whoopee cushion. Tied to it was a note.

April Fools is tomorrow!

Love The Marauders.

Lily showed the note to the others. Both stared at it, and then Len spoke up, a rare hint of mischief in her eyes.

"I have the slightest idea that that's a challenge." she said with a smile.

The other girls smiled too. "I couldn't agree more." Melissa said.

"If it's a prank-off they want, I say that that's what their going to get!" Lily said, her fist in the air, the note crushed in her hand.

The next day, James and Sirius met for their Auror lessons as usual. They signed in at the front desk, and entered the classroom. They found that Lily and Melissa were at one of the tables for two, so they wouldn't be sitting with each other today.

"Do you think they'll try to prank us?" James asked as he and Sirius sat down at a desk close to the girls'.

"Oh please. Len has teaching exams to study for, and we have exams too." Sirius said as he sat down.

Near the end of the day, at about 3:30, there was a knock on the door. Their teacher opened it, and in came a very confused front desk security guard.

"Um... I have two packages, one for each Mr.Potter and Mr.Black. The woman that delivered them said it was extremely urgent and she told me to tell them it was from er... Jamie's mother." he said awkwardly.

Everyone stared at James and Sirius, who were blushing. James saw that out of the corner of his eye the girls were silently shaking with laughter.

As the boys took the packages, he walked out the door. Then, James opened his.

He truly wished he hadn't. Someone, had done a very complicated charm and charmed a small TV to float out of the box he was holding. When Sirius opened his, a VCR floated out.

The boys paled as the two muggle devises activated.

The tape of them running around with only swimming trunks on played before the class of mature students.

By the end of it, the entire class was red with trying to hold in laughter. While James was trying to sink into his chair, Sirius took a note out of the box. He paled as he read it, and handed it to James.

You wanted a prank-off? You got one. The Birds are officially pranking again!

Love, The Birds.

(PS, look beside you)

James looked to his right with a look of horror on his face. He saw Lily, smiling evilly and waving at him. He looked past her and saw a brown owl with gold talons outside the window, shaking with laughter. He jabbed Sirius in the ribs and he looked the same way.

After they got out, the boys immediately informed Remus about the note. He was a little shocked, but agreed to help them. They handed him the first prank, and he was very cautious with it. He replaced Len's shampoo with the mixture. Sirius did the same with Melissa's, and James with Lily's.

Unfortunately it didn't work. The boys each received a note saying that the Birds weren't stupid enough to have a shower without testing their shampoo/body wash first.

But that wasn't the only method tried. The boys got the girls with colour changing hair charms, finger nail growing hexes, whoopee cushions, everything they could think of that wouldn't phisically harm them. But the Birds matched them prank for prank, everything from buckets of milk over the door, to conjuring an indestructible TV with VCR in the front hall of the Ministry.

But soon their fun ended. Both groups were contacted by members of the Order, they had heard whispers that a late night attack was planned for a small wizarding village in France. So, the group called a sort of unspoken truce, and proceeded with Moody, Marlene, and Sturgis Podmore to meet the operative who heard the tale.

They reached a small pub where the meeting had been arranged. They sat down at a table near the back, and waited for the person to arrive.

After twenty minutes of waiting, the group started to worry. He was late, very late. Just as Moody opened his mouth to speak, a large bang was heard from outside. The group rose to their feet, fearful that their operative might have been captured.

But they weren't quick enough. At least, Lily and James weren't anyway. Both were hit with stunners as the door opened to reveal a ton of DEs. The other seven were no match for them, and soon were stunned.

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James woke up to find himself on a cold, hard stone floor. It was slightly damp, like a dungeon. Rats could be heard scurrying in the background.

He groaned and rolled over. The moment he did this though, he felt ropes magically bind his arms and legs. He heard a door close, and heard Lily's voice.

"Are you up James?"

"Yeah, but it's going to be hard to sit up with these ropes."

After a bit of struggling, he finally sat up, and was just able to see in the dim torch light of the dungeon they were in. Lily was tied up like the rest, sitting against the dungeon wall. So were Len and Melissa. It looked like he had been the last one to wake up, as the rest were all sitting and tied up.

"Well, from what Moody heard the DEs bragging about, Dolohov was a spy feeding us false info." Marlene told James.

"Forget that now, we need to get out of here." Moody said.

"Yeah, like any of us can squeeze through these ropes! They tied them so hard, they don't seem to care if we loose a hand due to lost circulation." Sturgis said.

"I doubt they do." Sirius said.

Lily caught Len and Melissa's eyes. When Sturgis said that, it was like a light bulb had been lit in Lily's mind.

The girls could tell what Lily wanted, and they did feel they could trust the other people here.

"Do you think that someone's watching us?" Len asked, voicing Lily's last concern.

"No. That DE that tied us up seemed pretty confident after he tied James. I heard him muttering about a hot meal for a reward." Marlene said.

The girls glanced at each other, and Len and Melissa gave the slightest of nods to Lily.

Lily took a deep breath, and started to explain about them being animagus. Moody, Marlene and Sturgis' eyes all widened as the girls told their secret.

"Why didn't you tell us? You have no idea how useful that is!" Moody barked.

"We wouldn't be that good of spies, because I'm the only one that transforms into an owl. Though, gold talons aren't exactly normal." Len said.

"Well what about you two? What do you transform into?" Sturgis asked.

Lily gave a wry smile. "Forget spying with me, phoenixes aren't a normal sight."

"Back at Hogwarts, Len always did anything undercover. Plus, it's not normal to see a raven with black talons." Melissa said.

"Can you guys slip through these ropes?" Sturgis asked.

"What do you think gave us the idea?" Lily said as she and the other girls transformed. They slipped through the ropes, and returned to human form. Then, they quickly undid the other's ropes and walked to the door.

"It's locked pretty tight." Melissa said.

Remus got an idea. He turned to the girls. "Do any of you have a hairpin?"

James smiled as Marlene took one out of her hair. Remus took it and picked the lock.

"How'd you learn to do that?" Len asked.

Remus smiled. "I wasn't a Marauder for nothing. Come on."

"From now on, I'm locking my door with magic." Len muttered playfully as she followed Remus and Moody out.

The group slipped out of the small dungeon and into a narrow hallway. Unfortunately, none of them had their wands with them, so they couldn't even Disolution themselves.

It appeared to be a meal time, because the only DEs they encountered seemed full and were easilly avoided.

They came to a place that resembled a meeting room. There was a large table, and at the head of it was a winged chair. They saw their wands on the table.

They quickly grabbed them, but a DE just had to walk in right then. They stunned him, but he fell on a sort of alarm. The group exchanged horrified glances and raced for where they believed the exit should be.

The group ran off the property dodging every spell shot at them, not bothering to fight back. They then apparated out, but not before Len screamed and fell. They saw the look of horror on Remus' face, and the deep cut on Len's side near her ribs. Remus quickly but gently picked her up while Lily made a port key, since two people couldn't apparate at one time.

There would be a lot of explaining to do.

So sorry it took so long but please tell me if it was worth it!