Wednesday 1st November 1977

Auror Recruitment Office, 10:23

Frank sat across from the Auror Academy recruiter and tried not to let his eyes dart about everywhere. That would probably be taken as a sign of nervousness which would get him nowhere in the process. And he wasn't nervous at all. Okay, maybe a little bit. But only because this interview seemed to be happening an awful lot sooner than all the parchment work, he had received had indicated. The interviews for the Academy were supposed to happen just before Christmas so that training could start in the new year.

This was November. More than a month before that interview. Had they changed things up? Kingsley had written to him saying that they were speeding things up because of the literal war going on.

Yes. This whole business with a terrorist was now considered a war. A war. Frank was living through a war.

It was a war and he was sitting in front of an Auror Recruiter who had his application in front of him, who was wearing brand new robes. Robes of much better quality than what the recruiter was wearing, yet he was the one at the disadvantage here. What strange times was he living in?

"You've got good results."

"Thank you."

What else was he supposed to say to that? Or maybe he was supposed to be silent? He didn't know how you were supposed to act for interviews.

"You enjoy studying?"

"Only to get the results I want."

That was right, wasn't it? He didn't want to come across as a bookworm. Unless that was what they wanted. But surely, they wanted action driven people? Oh, this was all so confusing.

"Driven."

That wasn't a question. The recruiter made a note of something on the bit of parchment next to him. He had been making a lot of notes. In small handwriting that Frank couldn't read upside-down. Not that he could read normal handwriting upside-down.

"You've indicated here that you have no siblings."

"That is correct."

That's what a zero on the form meant, after all but he knew that this was not the time nor the place to be giving snarky replies. The man didn't look like he would even understand sarcasm.

"And you wish to sign onto the Auror Corps?"

"Yes."

He didn't fill out all that parchment work for nothing, after all.

"In the middle of a war?"

"Yes."

Okay, he let some of his impatience shine through there but he couldn't help it. The man was asking so many inane questions that he was literally asking for it.

Speaking of the man, he had removed his glasses and wiped a hand across his face before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Mr Longbottom, are you sure that this is a career pathway you wish to take?"

"Of course, it is!" Frank said hotly. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"You are the son, and only heir, to an extremely prominent family. Do you really think that this is a wise decision?"

"It's one of the best decisions I could make."

"Even without an heir of your own?"

"And why is that any of your business?"

That got him a long, hard look that made him squirm.

"The Auror department is just trying to understand why a young man with so much going for him would want to put himself at such risk."

"Why shouldn't I?" Frank retorted. "Surely a man 'of my stature," he even used air quotes, oh, how he hated that phrase. "Should he be setting a good example?"

"And this is a good example."

"Yes."

"Training to hunt, to kill, because make no mistake Frank Longbottom, you will be killing people, is setting a good example?"

Frank gulped. He knew, at the back of his mind, that being an Auror would involve killing people bit he had never expected it to be put to him so bluntly. And, what was worse, he didn't know how to respond. Not truthfully anyway.

"I, well, I..."

The recruiter, Frank still couldn't recall his name, nodded sharply and started gathering his papers together.

"Something to think about." He told Frank. "I would make sure you have the right answer before your actual interview."

And without any sort of dismissal, the man left. Leaving Frank sitting there, thoughts swirling about his head.

Friday 3rd November 1977

Professor Flitwick's Office, 19:00

"You didn't ask her out," Sirius said suddenly, after looking around.

They had, surprisingly, been left alone to complete their detention. Momentarily anyway. Flitwick had to apparently go deal with a crisis in his House. What exactly constituted a Ravenclaw crisis? Losing books? Finding out some fact was wrong? A broken bookcase?

Despite being Head Boy, James was not going to give up pranks. No way. And if the fallout from that was a detention, then so be it. He didn't want to suddenly be a goody-two-shoes. No way. He was still going to have his fun. It was just going to have to be more sophisticated. Most of the time anyway. After all, they were now adults, sort of. Their pranks should reflect their maturity. Okay, so it didn't tonight but growing up was a process, not a sudden action.

"Ask who out?" James asked even though he knew full well what Sirius was talking about.

"Evans!"

"I thought you were calling her Lily now?"

The two of them had become quite pally last year, much to James' disgruntlement. Oh, he knew that it wasn't going anywhere - Sirius wasn't interested in her. He was more interested in flirting with every other girl in Hogwarts and Remus. Not that Remus seemed to be aware of that but no matter - it was entertaining to watch.

"I call her both," Sirius said dismissively, waving his hand at James. "That doesn't matter. What matters is you."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"What matters about me?"

"The fact that you aren't acting normally."

"I am acting normally!"

That earned him an incredulous look. James didn't know why. It wasn't like he was doing anything weird.

"You didn't ask Lily Evans out at the end of a Quidditch march. I call that pretty weird."

"There's no rule anywhere that says that I have to ask her out at the end of every match."

Sirius snorted. "There may as well have been."

"Well, there's not so I didn't."

That was a very terse reply but he just didn't want to be questioned on this. It felt weird not asking Evans out at the end of a match - it had almost become a ritual each game. It had to happen as much as their warm up did, as silly as it sounded. But it had to stop, no matter how odd it felt to do so. It was the right thing to do.

It was just, well, it was so childish the way he had handled things with Evans, wasn't it? He wouldn't even like himself if he had been Evans. He had been so annoying. And Evans had made it quite clear that she wasn't interested. And yes, it stupidly took him this long to realise that. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

So, he had decided that he didn't want to be stupid anymore. Sure, yes, he still had more than a little crush on Evans but he tried to male it not as obvious anymore, help her feel more comfortable. They had to work together this year, after all, and they wouldn't be able to do that it one of them was acting like an idiot. And it worked! Sort of. Evans talked to him. Laughed at his jokes. Didn't get impatient with him. Well, mostly. But James would take that as a win.

"Come on. What gives? It's not like you suddenly don't want to date her anymore." Sirius said impatiently.

Couldn't he just let this go and let James do this? It really wasn't any of his business despite all of his attempts to make it so.

"Well, maybe I don't."

People could change, after all. Though, Sirius with his sceptical look would say otherwise, he suspected.

"And my mother is going to un-disown me," he said scathingly.

James gave him a sharp look. Sirius didn't normally bring up his family - especially not the whole disowning thing. Yes, Sirius had actually received a letter from his parents telling him that they had disowned him. Granted, it wasn't an official one from Lord Black so James wasn't sure of how official it was but still. It was definite more than a punch to the gut getting that. But Sirius had already moved on and was now informing him that he didn't change.

"I'm pretty sure that that's the whole point of growing up. Changing." James told him, vowing to himself to try and get Sirius to talk about his feelings later.

"Yeah, but you and your thing for Evans doesn't change."

"Maybe it does."

"No. I really doubt that so what's the matter?"

"Nothing's the matter."

Sirius just stared at him again, like he was trying to read his mind or something. James automatically strengthened his Occlumency shield even though he was pretty sure that the Black family didn't teach their kids anything more than low level Leglimency and James knew without a doubt that Sirius would never actually use it on him.

"I just don't want to be a nuisance anymore," James admitted, running his hand through his hair.

Sirius let out a short, barking laugh. "Prongs, you've been a nuisance to her since at least third year. You never cared about that."

"Well, now I do," he said softly.

He didn't want to be a nuisance to Lily Evans. He wanted her to like him. Be friends with him if anything further wasn't possible. And yes, he still wanted something further. How could you not with someone like Lily? But he wasn't going to keep pushing and being an arsehole about it anymore. Because that's what he had been. Merlin, how had he never seen it before? He knew he could be dense but that dense? Well, no more.

James Fleamont Potter was a changed boy, er, man. He was going to think before he spoke. He was going to be mature. He wasn't going to be a bother. He was -

Sirius chose that moment to flick him behind the ear. It stung.

James Potter was going to pummel Sirius Black so hard that he pleaded for mercy.

Sunday 5th November 1977

Gryffindor Girls Dorm, 11:30

Marlene looked down at the letter in her hand in wonder. She just couldn't believe the contents of it, she just couldn't. Even if Ciaran had absolutely no reason to lie about something like this. It was just so unbelievable. She had to read it again.

In other news, I really do have news. Quite literally. Big news. Ginormous news. The best and most biggest of humongous news. You aren't going to believe this Marley, but it's true. I saw it with my own two eyes or else I wouldn't have believed it myself.

It seems that our eldest brother, dear Kevin, had been hiding g something very important from us. Something incredibly important. The most important. The - well, you get the idea. Actually, maybe you don't because I haven't told you yet. Kevin, our Kevin, is in a relationship.

Yes, yes, I already see you rolling your eyes. Kevin is always in a relationship of some sort. The epitome of sowing his wild oats or whatever. No, this one seems to be far more than a simple fling or even a flirtationship. I honestly think this is serious for him. There's kids involved; you see. Two of them. Hers, of course. Wee ones, they are. Oldest can't be bigger than five, if even. And the littlest is only toddling. And they were having a grand old time with Kevin from what I very surreptitiously saw.

The rest of the letter was Ciaran planning out how he was going to follow their oldest brother and try and figure out who they were. Marlene frowned. Kevin obviously didn't want the family to know yet - she wondered why. Did he think that their parents would look down on the fact that his girlfriend (if that was what she was) already had children? Her parents weren't that shallow. She didn't think so anyway, it wasn't like that sort of thing came up in conversation.

But still. He should have said something, anything. Was it that easy to keep a secret from all of them? Had he told no one? Marlene didn't think she would be able to keep a secret like that to herself- she would at least tell Teagan or Ciaran. She was closest to those two.

Oh, there was a thought. Marlene reached for a new sheet of parchment and started writing.

Dear Patrick

Friday 10th November 1977

Head Boy and Girl Suite, 19:00

Chryssie couldn't help but smile as she watched James try to juggle three packs of cards. Apparently, he could do it but she had yet to see it. Of course, this might be due to the fact that Severus was subtly making one of the packs veer slightly off course. Very subtly. He barely moved his wand and he was silent casting. A skill she was envious of, having yet to get the hang of it. Oh, Lily said that it takes time and then everything would suddenly click but Chryssie knew that Lily had managed it before Christmas of her sixth year. Chryssie doubted that she would be able to do it before Easter.

"Oh! Drat it!" James exclaimed, dropping a pack again. "There's something wrong with these cards!"

Chryssie looked over to Severus and raised her eyebrows. He smiled and returned his want to his sleeve. She found herself struggling not to laugh.

"You're just bad at juggling, Prongs." Sirius said lazily.

"I am not!"

It was nice of Lily to include her in the Games Night she had been having with her friends and the Marauders (were they Lily's friends too, now?). She had been at a bit of a loose end tonight; homework all done but all her Ravenclaw friends were busy. And Tonks managed to get herself a detention. She still hadn't grown out of her fondness for dungbombs.

Which left Chryssie all alone and she didn't like it. She was not built for solitude, she really wasn't. It was too lonely.

"I still say that we could have played this with the Exploding Snap pack," Sirius was grumbling and he shuffled a deck of cards.

Muggle cards. Because Lily insisted if they were going to play muggle games that they should use muggle equipment. Nothing magical whatsoever.

"Black, I do not want cards exploding in my hands as we play Crazy Eights."

That was the game of choice tonight. No one was in the mood for anything slow moving or anything that required too much thought. So, card games it was. Not that Chryssie was complaining. Card games were fun and Crazy Eights was her favourite. She was always good at that.

"It would make Old Maid a lot more fun," Chryssie said.

Lily gave her a look and Chryssie shrugged. It would, in her opinion.

"Oh, we have to do that," Sirius said excitedly. "Or maybe exploding poker or something."

"No gambling either, Black."

"Oh, come on, Evans, don't be a wet blanket."

Lily gave him the look that always sent shivers down Chryssie's spine. You didn't cross Lily when she gave you that look. Thankfully, Sirius seemed to realise this and gulped and nodded.

"No gambling."

Lily beamed at him, which was rather disconcerting.

"Good boy," she said degradingly.

Chryssie thought she should have added a head pat for good measure but unfortunately Lily didn't think of that and it wouldn't be nice to suggest it herself.

Severus snorted next to her and Chryssie couldn't help but smile. It was nice to see him having fun with people and not being like some depressing black cloud or something like je normally was. It was a bit odd that he was like this around the Marauders but she thought that it was better that she just didn't question it.

"Deal the cards already," Marlene said impatiently. "I thought we were here to play games?"

"We still need to play those muggle ones, Evans," said Sirius.

"We do." Lily agreed. "Next time?"

"You keep saying that," James said. "It has yet to happen."

"Because we keep getting distracted."

"I didn't know you got distracted, Evans," Sirius taunted only to get a cushion in his face for his trouble.

Sirius grabbed it and held it up high as if he was going to retaliate only for Severus to summon it over to him.

"No pillow fights," he said as Sirius looked around to see who had stolen his cushion.

"It's a cushion."

Severus gave him a look. "No cushion fights either."

"You just don't want to lose."

"That has nothing to do with what I just said."

"Sure, it does."

It was kind of funny seeing Severus get worked up like this. He got all exasperated and red-faced. But, unlike when he was younger, he didn't really get angry about being teased. Sure, he couldn't exactly retaliate effectively (would any teasing have an effect on Sirius?) but it was still an improvement. He was cute when his face got those two red spots on his cheeks as well.

"Card game! Can we play?" Marlene asked in exasperation.

"Please?" Peter added.

Chryssie was pretty sure that that was the first thing he had said all evening. He really didn't talk much. Mice were noisier.

Anyway, that was enough for them all to get back on track and soon the cards were dealt out. Which meant the ridiculous heckling began but it was all in good fun.

It was also where Severus shone - he was always so witty and quick with comebacks. It was a wonder that the Sorting Hat didn't place him in Ravenclaw. Mind you, the Marauders could hold their own. It was all quite funny. Even Lily and Marlene thought so because they weren't telling them off.

Well, Lily wasn't telling them off because she was too busy staring at James with a silly smile on her face. His comebacks weren't even that good. Sirius and Remus were the snarky ones of the four.

But Lily always had this weird thing going on with James Potter. She insisted that she didn't like him but Chryssie knew her sister. Especially in the last year or so. Chryssie bet that if James asked her out again Lily would jump at it. If her silly pride didn't get in the way.

"Your turn, Chryssie," Severus interrupted her thoughts.

"Huh?"

She looked at him in confusion. Huh. She'd never realised his eyes were actually a dark brown.

"Your turn."

Sunday 12th November 1977

Head Boy and Girl Suite, 20:00

Lily opened her mouth and then had second thoughts and closed it again. No. She couldn't do this. Oh, but she had to. But, did she really? Yes, she did. No, she didn't.

She really didn't. Just because Potter didn't ask her out did not mean she had to turn the tables and ask him out. Neither of them had any obligation to ask the other out. They didn't.

Then why did she feel like she had to ask him out?

"Because you want to go out with him," a voice in her head whispered.

A voice she had been trying very hard to silence over the last year or so. She wasn't going to give into it.

Sure, she liked James. But everyone did. You couldn't help it. He was kind and sweet and funny and cheeky and considerate and helpful and not to mention gorgeous...

No, wait. She didn't mean that last bit. She didn't. James Potter wasn't that good looking, what with his permanently messy hair and hazel eyes always framed by thick glasses. What was attractive about that?

"A lot," that annoying voice whispered. "And his muscles," it added. "Don't forget about those."

Yes, the Muscles that hid under his uniform. James Potter wasn't the scrawny boy everyone thought he was. No, he had muscles. Nice feeling ones too. Well, from what she had felt with that brief moment of extremely close contact. What would they feel like if she could touch them for longer? She could feel herself blush at the thought.

"You have something to say, Evans?" James asked, not looking up from his copy of Transfiguration Today.

There was another reason why she liked him. He had passions. Academic ones too. The things he could transfigure was pretty cool. He was streets ahead of anyone else in their year. Except maybe Sirius. Sirius was pretty talented at it as well.

"Um, uh. No."

She could have kicked herself. That was her chance! What was she doing?

"Okay."

His head went even further into his nook, if that was possible. Argh, why was she like this?

Okay, deep breaths. She could do this. She was Lily Evans. Scared of nothing or no one. Except maybe that maniac running about in the magical world. But inside of Hogwarts there was nothing she was afraid of. She deflated a bit. Except of asking out James Potter.

No! That wasn't the way to think!

"Actually, yes. Yes, I have something to ask you."

"Oh?"

His hazel eyes looked straight into hers. It was how or never. Well, that was a bit dramatic. She could ask again bit she would probably be too embarrassed to if she didn't do it now.

"DoyouwanttogotoHogsmeadenextweek?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Excuse me?"

Couldn't he understand her babbled speech? She didn't think she could manage to ask that again.

"Um, uh," Oh, Lily just do it! You're a Gryffindor, aren't you? "Do you want to, uh, go to Hogsmeade next weekend?"

She couldn't look at him, she just couldn't. What if he was disgusted? What if he didn't like her anymore? What if she had been imagining it?

"I was already going to go to Hogsmeade."

Argh! Why did boys have to be so dense? That was not what she meant.

"I meant; do you want to go with me?"

He gave her a blank look. Seriously? She thought James was supposed to be intelligent? Was she going to have to spell it out for him?

"As a date," she added.

He didn't give her any reaction at all for a second before his eyes went impossibly wide and his mouth gaped open. He froze like that for about thirty seconds before Lily started getting somewhat worried about him.

"Um, James?"

That jerked him out of his thoughts and he shut his mouth and shook his head.

"Sorry, uh, I thought I heard you asking me to go out with you."

"I did," Lily said dryly, trying to ignore her rapidly beating heart.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Wow."

Now it was her turn to stare at him. Really?

"What?" He asked.

"You haven't answered..."

"Oh. Yes. Yes, I'd like to go to Hogsmeade with you on a date."

Now he was blushing bright red as well. What a pair they made.

Saturday 18th November 1977

Hogsmeade, 11:00

James couldn't believe this was happening. He couldn't. This had to be a dream, it just had to. But it wasn't. It was real. It was really real.

"James, are you okay?" Lily asked.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine," he said quickly, lest she thought he was weird.

He was on a date with her, you see. A date. With Lily Evans. Yeah, he couldn't believe it either. Sirius and Remus had confirmed it five times. Each.

"Okay, then." She said suspiciously but didn't pry. "What do you want to do first?"

"I honestly don't mind. As long as we end up in the Three Broomsticks for lunch."

"Well, I certainly don't want to go to the Hog's Head," she replied in a scandalised voice.

"Abe's alright. The place smells a bit of goats, though."

Moreso than alcohol, actually, which was somewhat confusing but a though that James didn't particularly want to dwell on.

"You've been in there?"

"Yes. Wouldn't serve us any alcohol, by the way, despite everyone's claims that he doesn't care if you're underage."

Quite the opposite in fact. James had seen him turn away seventh years in the past. And he probably would still turn away the Marauders this year. He didn't serve alcohol to anyone still in school.

"Huh."

Lily looked like she didn't know what to make of that. Time to change the subject.

"Don't want to go into Madam Puttifoot's?"

Now that got him a dark look.

"I'll take that as a no then."

He never honestly thought that Lily was a Madam Puttifoot's kind of girl anyway. But sometimes people did surprise you.

"A definite no," she reiterated. "A never-in-my-life no."

Wow. Okay then. Moving on.

"Honeydukes first?" He suggested instead.

"Definitely. And then I assume you and the Marauders want to go to Zonko's?"

"We're on a date," James told her.

"Yes but -"

"No, it means that the whole day is just going to be us."

"Oh."

Did she almost sound disappointed at that? Why would she be disappointed? Was she scared that he was going to bore her? Or that he wasn't going to be any good? Or-

She must have seen him start to panic because she linked her arm with his and smiled at him.

"I didn't mean it like that," she chided, giving his arm a squeeze. "I meant that I wouldn't mind having lunch all together or meeting up somewhere and doing something together."

James heaved a sigh of relief. Wait, did she not want to spend the whole day with him?

"I mean," she continued. "There really isn't a lot to do in Hogsmeade, is there?"

See? This is why they were a good match. He was all over the place with his nerves and jumping to conclusions and she was all calm and matter of fact.

"There really isn't," he agreed.

He would know, he had been trying to organise something really nice for their date but there just wasn't anywhere they could do that in Hogsmeade.

"So, we're agreed?" she asked him. "We'll spend the morning together, meet everyone for lunch and then sort ourselves out from there?"

"That sounds like a great idea."

Wednesday 22nd November 1977

Gryffindor Common Room, 19:30

Alice paused as she thought about what to write, her quill hovering over the parchment. She didn't have anything to write about. Nothing at all. Well, except to ask how he was doing, obviously. But she had nothing to tell him. Frank that was. She was writing a letter to Frank. Who else would she be writing a letter to? Well, she did her usual weekly letter to her parents, obviously, but it wasn't Sunday.

'Drip'

Drat it. She had been thinking for so long that she had completely forgotten about her quill. It had been full of ink. "Had" being the operative word there, now half of that ink had formed a rather large splotch on her letter. Not that it was much of a letter with only a sentence and a half on it.

Oh, what was the point? Alice scrumpled up the parchment and threw it into the fire. There was nothing to tell him. Absolutely nothing. Her life was just an endless round of studying, doing homework, eating, sleeping and Hogsmeade. There was nothing exciting or even interesting about that.

Not like Frank's plans for joining the Auror Academy. Alice hadn't known what to think about that at first but when she did think about it, she realised just how much it would suit Frank. He needed some sort of action in his life beyond managing his family's estates and politics didn't give him that thrill he needed. And she knew he would feel like he was doing more good fighting that debating with people. It really was perfect for him. Even if there was an awful lot of preparation for it.

Still, he was doing better than she was. He was actually doing something, for one.

Now, what could she do?

Monday 27th November 1977

Second Floor Corridor, 21:30

Tonks couldn't help but sigh a bit as they left the classroom the Defence Professor had let them use to practice a few things. Of course, they left out the little detail that they were doing a little bit of duelling as well as practicing spells. Duelling was as good a practice as any, right?

But anyway, back to her sighing. She was sighing because they were finished for the evening. It was nearly curfew and Remus had to walk the whole way up to Gryffindor Tower.

"Tomorrow?" Tonks couldn't help but ask hopefully.

It had been so much fun as well as being really useful. She really felt she had improved and she got to spend time with Remus. Win all around in her opinion.

"Sure," Remus agreed readily.

"Perfect, see you then?"

"I'll walk you to your Common Room," he offered.

She immediately blushed. "No, you don't have to do that."

"I want to."

This better not be him getting all overprotective or something. It didn't look good on him. And it a noted her.

"I'm a big girl, Remus. No one is going to get the drop on me."

"Of course, not but just let me? Two people are better than one, after all."

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "And what about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, you're going to be going back to your Common Room, right?"

"Yes?"

"And you're going to be alone." A look of realisation crossed his face but she ploughed ahead. "And don't give me any crap about me being a girl. I'm not defenceless."

"I know that," he reassured her quickly. "Actually, I definitely know that. I was the one that went crashing to the floor, remember?"

She couldn't help but giggle at that.

"I just wanted to keep talking to you for longer," he admitted.

"Oh."

And just when she thought she had her blush under control, there it went again. Remus was so sweet. And probably still a little chauvinistic but she would take it. He wasn't overbearing about it after all.

Not that a lot of talking happened after that because they were both rather embarrassed. But his company was nice. It always was.