Chapter 50! Huzzah, although please do stop me if I'm dragging, I never imagined there'd be so much of their story to write but I'm loving it and I hope you still are!
"Padfoot… you're up… on time?" Remus stared in shock from his bed as Sirius crouched on the floor shoving stuff into a backpack.
"Mooners, we're taking on the Ministry, you can't have a lie in" Sirius looked at Remus as he flopped out of bed onto the floor and whacked Peter on the head with a pillow before dragging himself into a pair of jeans.
"Can you believe it though? Death Eaters in the Ministry?" Remus mumbled in thought as he crawled around the room getting ready.
"Yes actually. I mean think about it, why go to the effort of taking down the strongest body of wizards in the world when you can manipulate them so they're actually on your side?" Sirius and Remus exchanged looks of worry.
Peter was doing an immensely slowed down caterpillar across the floor when James and Lily came bursting into the room wearing business clothing.
"Wow you guys are really going to blend in" James raised his eyes and Peter's pyjamas, Remus' jeans, and Sirius' hoody.
"Prongs I'm just too street for you, and if you can't handle that, I'm not prepared to be seen with such a loser" Sirius flicked his hair and proceeded to do his best gangster walk around the dorm before James tripped him up and wrestled the hoodie off him.
"Pads a rabbit is more street than you" James laughed and Sirius fake sobbed on the floor.
"Can any of you take something seriously?" Lily tutted from the doorway, Peter had only just reached his trunk.
"You know guys, I'm feeling a bit under the weather…" He tried arguing after rolling onto his back.
"For goodness sake Wormers get up" Remus joked tickled him but Peter just leapt up onto his knees, face bright red.
"I NEVER ASKED FOR ANY OF THIS" He shouted "LEAVE ME ALONE" After slapping Remus' comforting hand away he crawled under his bed and didn't make a sound.
"Wormtail" James called softly, jumping onto his bed and leaning over the edge "Peter?"
"Mrrgh"
"You know it's just a laugh right?"
"You know James by the looks of things I don't think he does" Lily pulled James off the bed and pushed him, Remus, and Sirius out of the room telling them to wait downstairs before getting on her hands and knees and peering under the bed.
"Peter, it's alright, you don't have to go" She tried to make eye contact with him from his curled up ball "Come on, I know more than anyone how bad those guys can get"
"I'm not a coward" He muttered from behind his sleeve "Just worried"
"I know, I know, we can't make you fight Pete, it's fine" Lily paused for a second to see if he was going to move before giving up and leaving to go and find the others.
"Is that… Alastor Moody? Duelling legend?" James gasped as they swung the back door to the Hogs Head open.
"What's it to you?" He shrugged, throwing back a chair and swinging down into it, leaning a staff against the table.
"You're just an idol to me" James tried to act cool, hoping Sirius wouldn't bring up a cut out newspaper articles of all of the Death Eater arrests Alastor had been a part of.
"You need to choose your idols more wisely then" He put simply, taking a swig of Butterbeer and spitting it straight out "Crap Aberforth, are you trying to kill the bastards with your drinks?" To which Aberforth just frowned at him before turning away.
"But you took ten Death Eaters prisoner in two weeks!" James persisted, shocked his idol was so nonchalant.
"Yes, boy, took prisoner. You don't want to follow someone too spineless to kill a murderous traitor" Shaking his head and slumping off James gestured for the others to sit at a table on the other side of the room with Alice and Frank.
"That's definitely Alastor Moody right?" James asked them as they sat.
"Ah, yes, the one and only" Frank answered sarcastically "Just don't tell him that"
"But why?" Sirius never stopped bragging about his brilliance so a famous Auror refusing it was new to him.
"He never looks at what he did, but what he didn't do. It's bloody annoying if you ask me, especially when you've just taken down a rogue rebel group you've been searching for for months and you've got that moody bastard telling you that you didn't pick up enough map plans"
Alice shook her head at Frank's moaning "He just cares more about protecting people than personal gain, I like it"
Before James could grill her more about Moody Aberforth came from the back room and coughed for their attention. Worried that without Dumbledore and McGonagall sticking up for them Aberforth was probably going to send them in as live bait to be taken prisoner James, Sirius, and Remus slid slowly under the table.
"The Ministry. The most secure building in the country, being caught trying to break in could result in a life in Azkaban for being a traitor, and also crawling with Death Eaters. Who's ready?" Most people whooped.
"So here's the plan" Edgar Bones spoke for the first time since they'd all signed up, rolling out a map of the ministry and scraping back his long hair from his face anxiously "We've got two members of the Ministry in the order, Alastor" Everyone turned to look at Moody who shrugged and took another swig of Butterbeer "And myself, our main targets are Occultus Morenti, second in command to the Minister himself; Azkus Drivelbold, head of the Magical Department of Law Enforcement…"
"Can't believe I work for the buggar" Moody scorned.
"Then there's Kurtis Flavendale from the Beast Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures; and Dale Windsley, from the magical office of law. Our hopes are that without the main leaders the others will have no power and can be taken out once we have strong links with the Ministry"
"What are we going to do? Run around the Ministry kidnapping key members unnoticed?" Sturgis Podmore remarked
"Of course not, we're not bloody idiots, there's a conference being held at the Ministry today, most heads of departments and sectors have been called so it's got to be important. As head Auror me and my team have been called so that's how we'll get in" Alastor got up and marched over to the map, pointing at the main meeting room at the Ministry "I can take max two of you as trainee Aurors without looking suspicious"
"We'll do it" Sirius called out, throwing up his and James' hand "I mean it's got to be one of us if it's trainees"
Shrugging Moody wrote their names next to his on the 'in conference' list and turned back to the group "There's corridors bordering the room, most are pretty well guarded apart from this entrance here" He pointed what seemed to be a dead end "The Minister's entrance from his office. Once you three have got the room's attention we'll come through here and stop the traitors from leaving, everyone clear?"
After an hour of marking locations and exit points Edgar picked up the evidence they'd collected against the Death Eaters and they took the floo network which flung them into a battered pub reeking of dry rot with only two customers slumped across the bar downing a fire whiskey at ten in the morning.
"I thought we were going to the ministry?" James looked around confused "Why aren't we going to the public entrance?"
"See, Potter, that's the thing about breaking in" Moody remarked, leading them through to a back room, throwing back a rotting table from the back wall and tapping the goldfish on the painting next to it "You don't stride in through the front door shouting 'look at us we're breaking in'"
Before their eyes the floor in front of the painting started to move, as if it had turned to liquid, and dissolved down into the darkness below revealing the staircase beneath.
"I give you, the Auror entrance" He sarcastically marvelled at it before gesturing for everyone to make their way down.
Remus inspected the creaking staircase and tapped it warily "I thought this would have been slightly safer Alastor" He sighed, wincing as he started down them.
Moody shrugged it off and stomped after them, the floor dissolving back into place after them.
They finally arrived in the Auror office, the walls were covered in maps and pictures, and you couldn't see the tables through files and forms.
"Ok, everyone with me to the Minister's office" Edgar gestured towards a mirror at the back of the room, a secret path made for the Head Auror to get to the Minister quickly in emergencies "James and Sirius you follow Moody to the conference room,"
The guards standing on either side of the door looked menacing, and had just thrown someone to the side to be carted off by more guards for trying to smuggle themselves in so James and Sirius shuffled awkwardly as they got closer.
"Trainees" Moody grunted to them as they glared suspiciously at both of them, and they were in.
The three of them shuffled over to their seats and sat facing the stand where Harold Minchum, the minister himself, was addressing the room.
"So as you can see, Azkaban will clearly be a target area for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. I think the only answer here is to send more Dementors" At the mention of the name the room started shouting objections at him.
"You're mental!" The representative from St Mungo's called out "We can't even deal with the apparently 'random' attacks on the guards now!"
"Mrs Ametio, trust me, the Ministry are looking into these Dementor attacks with great concern, but I promise you we're doing everything in our power to prevent them. I have no doubt even more Dementors will have no effect on completely out of character acts" The Minister calmly explained.
"He's blind" Moody muttered to James and Sirius "Sometimes even the Daily Prophet manage to see truth, we've got strong leads on Dementors being in league with Voldemort himself"
"Now that's settled we'll send in more next as soon as possible, Occultus what do you want to bring up?" The Minister turned to the Death Eater who gave a sly smile before getting up.
"I'd like to discuss a pretty important issue I'm shocked no-one else has noticed" He swivelled to look at Moody "The people that are attempting to take fighting the war into their own hands, a clear attempt of deceiving the Ministry"
"What?" Moody slammed his staff on the floor and leapt up
"I'm talking about your Order, Alastor, are you trying to throw out the Auror's you're in charge of?" Occultus raised his eyebrows "That'd give you all control over the defence of the Ministry"
"The Order was made to get powerful wizards, who aren't Aurors, on our side helping, it was made by Dumbledore himself"
"Aha! So Albus is turning on the Ministry, I knew Hogwarts wasn't in safe hands" The Minister sat nodding in agreement, frowning next to him "Minister I request the power to get rid of Dumbledore and replace him myself" Minchum nodded thoughtfully, but before he had the chance to make it official Moody shouted over him.
"EVERYBODY QUIET" Moody shot a flare up to the ceiling, silencing the commotion before he shoved his way you platform where the Minister stood.
"Alastor, get back in your seat!" Minchum tried to shout over the top of him, slapping the desk in front of him in protest.
"I'm sorry Minister, but no. We, as a Ministry, have been infiltrated" On the word 'infiltrated' Edgar jumped up to his right and grabbed Occultus by the neck, James was on Azkus, Sirius had grabbed Kurtis, and Moody slammed his staff across Dale Windsley.
"Release them or you're fired" Minchum growled, and gestured for guards to surround them. Before Edgar, James, and Sirius could be pulled away the door to the Minister's entrance burst open and the rest of the Order overpowered them.
After retrieving the evidence from his pockets Moody walked over to the Minister "We're not starting a rebellion, we just want you to open your eyes"
The room sat in silence as he flicked wide eyed through the photos of them at Death Eater conferences, paying off guards, and sneaking people into the Ministry "As head Auror, why didn't you stop this?"
"Would anyone here have believed the second in command to the Minister would be allowed to be a Death eater?" Nothing. "Precisely, it's time we weeded these people out, this is a bloody war!"
Minchum slowly put the papers down and turned to the guards "Get these pieces of scum to Azkaban. Without trial."
"NO! Minister don't listen to these frauds" Occultus shouted as he was dragged kicking out of the room "These people don't know what they're talking about! I told you they're trying to overthrow you! Dumbledore will kill you and sit in your place"
"I think it's more likely that you would do that, don't you" Minchum huffed, trying to hold back the anger of being betrayed. As Occultus realised it was all over his face dropped, the rage filling his eyes. He let out one scream before the door slammed shut behind him and the others.
I'm SO SORRY, I got annoyed with my mock Physics grade and have been revising straight for a month along with controlled assessment for Chemistry, it's just been a ridiculously busy time for me, so please forgive me!