March 22, 1978

The Daily Ritual began as soon as Lily woke up. She stretched and groaned, since it was before noon and therefore too early to actually be awake. Once the groaning reached a level that annoyed her dormmates enough for one of them to throw a pillow at her, she extricated herself from her bed and went to the bathroom.

The bathroom was ritual in itself. At exactly 7:03 every morning, Lily emerged from the dorm, decked in her school robes and toting her school bag, and into the common room, where James was invariably waiting for her with great grin spread across his face.

This led to the march to the Great Hall where Lily and James enjoyed a relatively peaceful piece of toast before the tornado that was Sirius and the rest of their friends arrived.

On this morning however the Daily Ritual was disrupted. There was no reason for it, except that Lily was tired of the Daily Ritual. On this morning Lily got up early, shocked as she was. On this morning Lily got ready early. On this morning Lily left her dorm early. On this morning Lily went into the seventh year Gryffindor boys dormitories and on this morning Lily was waiting for James with a wide grin.

"Lily?"

"Get your arse up, Potter. We are going to breakfast early."

"Okay!"

Lily was in a good mood and nothing was going to make her feel bad. Well, almost nothing. Almost nothing turned up midway through breakfast in the form of the front-page of the Daily Prophet. Lily stared at it for a full minute before Marlene had the sense to wave her hand in front of Lily's face, jolting her to attention.

"What's a matter, Lils? What's the Prophet say?"

"There's been another massacre." Lily said quietly.

It seemed like the rest of the world fell silent. A collective intake of breath and then nothing. Lily's head shrouded in anger, she didn't hear a crash at the Ravenclaw table, she didn't hear the slytherins laughing, she heard nothing but the cold sound of blood rushing in her ears and the pounding of heart chained in her ribs.

"Anyone we know?" Mary shyly asked.

Lily was too angry and frustrated to respond. Instead Alice gingerly took the prophet from her and scanned the article.

"No, not that I can see." Alice said folding the prophet with a heavy sigh.

"How many?" Sirius asked, his knuckles turning white with his grip on his fork.

"112."

"How is the ministry not able to stop them?! They're basically running unchecked! It seems every other day I find an article about someone dying! This is ridiculous! Why isn't anything being done?!" Lily burst out angrily.

Everyone averted their eyes, equally disturbed.

"There is something…" Remus started.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Well there is something being done to try and stop them."

"What's that?"

Remus cast a furtive glance around him, then, seeming to accept no one was watching, said, "The order."

"What?" James asked. "What's that?"

"Shhh!" Remus exclaimed.

"What!" Lily hissed at Remus. "What's the 'order'?"

"The Order of the Phoenix. It's a secret organization that Dumbledore founded to try and stop Vol- stop You-Know-Who."

Lily could feel the gears turning in her head, cataloging the information and comparing against prior knowledge.

She opened her mouth to reply, but Dumbledore was looking in their direction from the staff table and smiling. Did he know what they were talking about? How could he? Lily had barely heard Remus and she was sitting right across from him.

Lily closed her mouth.

o0o

"Lils! Where are you going?!"

"Dumbledore."

"Why? We haven't finished our rounds."

"I'm aware."

"Then why are you going to see Dumbledore?" James had caught up and grabbed both Lily's shoulders so that she had to stop and look at him. She supposed she had been acting a little strange. It was only because she had been so mad that she couldn't concentrate on anything else. Why this particular massacre had caused her to boil in anger, but it had. Maybe it was because she had reached a limit, maybe it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

In any case James would know when they got there. Well he didn't have to come, actually.

"I misspoke, sorry. I think we should split up tonight so we can do the rounds faster and enjoy some excused alone time." She smiled her best innocent smile, hoping James would believe her.

He looked at her carefully. "Bullshit." He whispered. "You want to ask Dumbledore if you can join that order thing." He paused his whispers checking her reaction to confirm.

He must have decided that he was right from something in Lily's face because he began aggressively running his hands through his hair and cussing like a sailor.

"Merlin's fucking beard! Bloody shit! Fuck-"

"James!"

"Lils, I'm not going to stop you doing, but please Lily it's dangerous!"

"It's important!"

"That doesn't mean you're not going to be in danger!"

"James this is a bloody war! I'm already in danger! In case you hadn't noticed I'm muggle-born and right now that's not exactly the safest thing to be!"

James had a look of shock envelop his face before it recovered. He took a deep breath. "Fine. But I'm coming with you."

Lily gave a curt nod and marched to Dumbledore's office, James right on her heels.

o0o

"Come in." Dumbledore said before Lily had a chance to knock. She looked at James, who shrugged. So she lowered her hand and pushed open the door.

He was sitting behind his desk with his fingers pressed together and regarding them behind his half-moon spectacles.

"Ah yes. Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter, I thought you might come."

Lily and James exchanged a furtive glance before Lily strode forward.

"Professor, I assume that if you were expecting us you know why we are here?"

"Actually I do not, but I have a pretty good guess." Fawkes made a noise that was unmistakably dissent.

"Well then Professor I shall explain. I would like to join the order."

Dumbledore smiled at her the edges of his eyes crinkling in a sad smile. He turned to James. "Are you here to join the order as well?"

James thought a moment, looking from Lily to Dumbledore to Fawkes and back. "Yes, Professor." He said quietly.

"You are both of age?"

"Yes, sir." Lily said quickly.

"I would like first to ask you what you know of the order." Dumbledore said standing up and walking around the desk to the door.

Lily followed his movements with her eyes. "We've only just heard of it today. We only know that you fight Voldemort."

Dumbledore turned at the name. "You call him by his preferred name?"

"Yes, sir." Lily said confidently. "'Fear in a name only increases fear of the person.' I believe."

"Very good." He cast a quick spell on the door and returned to his desk. "Please sit." Lily sat at the edge of one of the seats facing Dumbledore's desk, while James sank wearily into the other.

Dumbledore folded his hands and considered them. "There is more that you should know. What we do in the order is very secret, the safety of our members depends on it. I am glad that you do not know much, it means we have done our jobs."

He paused and appraised them.

"What we do is, you are correct here Ms. Evans, fight Lord Voldemort. But we do this in various manners. For one, we monitor ministry information. The ministry doesn't know this and so anyone that works there and also is with the order is in danger. We also have several spies who help us get information about Lord Voldemort. And of course we try and take down his death eaters."

"Pardon me, sir, but you don't try and fight Voldemort directly?"

"Ah. Well Ms. Evans it has been my experience that Voldemort is a talented wizard and I do not wish to endanger to that capacity the members."

James made a noise in his throat.

"You have rather quiet Mr. Potter, which I must say is unlike you. Would you like to say something now?"

"People die in the order, right?"

"I am afriad that they do, as much as I may try and avoid it." James made the same noise.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "Sir, how can you say you want to protect those in the order and not let them fight Vol- You-Know-Who directly when they die anyway?!"

Lily's eyes bounced back and forth between the two, a silence coming down in the room like a fog.

"Mr. Potter I can assure you that any deaths within the order have been because I had incorrect intelligence. I direct everyone in the order and I would not send anyone anywhere if I thought their lives were at risk. Those who have fallen are dearly missed, but I must continue as if I have correct information if we are ever to bring peace."

James opened his mouth and closed it again apparently satisfied.

Lily, however, was not. "Sir? Perhaps you are being misled?"

Dumbledore turned slowly to look at her. "I suppose it is possible someone within our ranks is working against us."

Lily nodded unsure how to proceed.

"However I find it extremely unlikely. I screen everyone who joins thoroughly and continue to monitor them once they have joined."

"You corroborate your information though right?" Lily turned to look at James, she was shocked that he knew such an uncommon word.

She must have been gaping because James looked at her quizzically.

"For most things it would be difficult to retrieve the information in more than one manner. But I appreciate the idea Mr. Potter."

They were silent for a minute.

"Well I think that's enough information to be getting on with. You would still like to join then Ms. Evans?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Very well, very well…." Dumbledore seemed to wander into his own mind for minute before James cleared his throat.

"I would like to join as well, Professor."

The only indication that this surprised Dumbledore was a slight rise in his left eyebrow.

"We would be glad to have a master tranfigurationist in our midst Mr. Potter." He said smiling.

James gave a curt nod.

Dumbledore began to rise, "I know that you will likely want to tell your friends of this encounter and shall allow it as soon as you make absolutely certain no one is eavesdropping, I believe Ms. Evans you know of a spell that can accomplish this," Lily swore she saw the slightest wink at this, "I realize you are all of age and are therefore free to make your own choices, but I have great qualms about allowing students to join the order. You will have to wait until after you've graduated and I will be looking closely at your exam scores, particularly your Defense Against the Dark Arts score."

During his speech he had crossed to the door. He muttered something apparently removing the spell and opened the door widely. He smiled at them the corners of his eyes crinkling.

Lily stood and marched out, saying a grateful "Thank you, Professor." as she left. James followed.

"That went well, don't you think?" Lily said brightly as they walked down the corridor towards Gryffindor Tower.

James only response was a glum grunt.

"We'll have to study more in Defense, but I think we can both swing O's but at the least we should be able to manage E's…"

"Lily…" James muttered. Lily stopped talking until they got to the common room. She understood, James was not ready to fight as a soldier against Voldemort, nor was he ready to accept Lily fighting, but he was doing it for her. And she wasn't making it easier talking about it so much.

A/N: Hey y'all hope you enjoyed, leave a review, it siriusly makes my day ;)