Chapter One: The Order Reconvenes

It was June in central northern Scotland, where the sun rose early and set late. A tiny croft was nestled into a small dip, certainly nothing so grand as a "valley", between two stony peaks. The wind battered the croft with such force that the peat roof would surely have been dislodged any moment, were it not held on by magic.

At eleven pm, shortly after nightfall, a large, ferocious-looking shaggy black dog appeared at the front door of the miserable croft.

The dog leapt onto its hind legs, seized the door knocker in its mouth, and pelted the door with it. Then, he obediently dropped to sit on the doorstep.

The door cautiously creaked open, revealing a tall, thin man with a scarred face. He looked at the dog hesitantly. The dog wagged its tail, thumping the side of the croft, and the man let it inside.

The dog was immediately replaced by a man roughly the same height as the one who had opened door. Both were quite pale and thin, with high, prominent cheekbones, short beards, and greying hair. But there were few other similarities. The newcomer's grey eyes glittered with a ferocious intensity, and he had dark brown hair with few greys. The man who had answered the door had softer eyes, which seemed careworn, and a third of his light brown hair was grey.

"Sirius!" Said the man who had answered the door, almost overcome with emotion.

"Remus," remarked the newcomer. "I almost thought you didn't recognise the dog."

"Can I get you anything?" Remus asked.

"I'm fine, and we don't have much time," Responded Sirius. "Voldemort is back."

Remus's green eyes closed for a second. "Already."

"Yeah mate, sorry to say," Sirius reached out a hand to grasp Remus's bony shoulder. "Harry saw him."

Remus had dropped his head and was pinching the bridge of his nose. Sirius just stood there, patting his friend's shoulder.

"How can I help?" Remus asked at last.

"I've come to get you, to take you to our new headquarters." Said Sirius.

"Headquarters? Has the Order of the Phoenix risen again?" Remus's tone lightened.

Sirius looked vaguely apologetic. "Yeah, it has. And you're one of our first recruits."

Nymphadora Tonks galloped through one of the many low-ceilinged, twisting corridors of the Ministry of Magic's Auror department. At 22, she was the Department's youngest Auror. However, she clearly cannot have been insecure about her relative youth because she wore her hair in various bright, unnatural shades and usually sported multiple ear piercings. Presently, she wondered why she had been summoned to her old mentor's office. She mentally retraced her week for the fifth time, keenly searching for her mistake. But she came up empty-handed again. All of her paperwork had been filed on time - and regardless, Moody was too important, too high up to concern himself with a late report. She hadn't lost her temper with any of her colleagues in weeks. She hadn't carelessly leaked any information, nor threatened to hex any lecherous muggles.

However, she was the most junior member of a taskforce devoted to hunting Azkaban escapee and mass murderer Sirius Black - and the fact was that the taskforce had made no progress whatsoever. Black was still at large, and unconfirmed sightings were recorded from the Kamchatka Peninsula to Kerala, and from Islamabad to Islington. Black was everywhere and nowhere, a spirit in the wind.

Concerned that her paranoia suggested a guilty conscience, she decided to feign cheerful ignorance.

"Wotcher, Mad Eye!" She greeted her old mentor enthusiastically.

"Do you trust me?" He returned. This was unexpected, and alarming.

"Apart from fashion advice, yeah"

"Would you follow me into danger?"

Tonks frowned. "Mad-eye, what happened?"

"Just answer the question!" Mad-eye growled.

There was a pause.

"No. Not unless you explain," Tonks said nervously.

Mad eye cackled.

Mad eye kept cackling. "That's the spirit, Tonks!"

The young Auror continued to stare at him.

"How do you feel about Voldemort's return?" The ancient, craggy wizard asked.

"I want to believe it is not true, Mad-eye," Tonks said flatly.

Mad eye gave the ghost of a genuine smile. "Albus Dumbledore is setting up a militia to fight Voldemort," he said at last.

Tonks looked at him sideways. "That's reassuring, but unless I am-"

"We want to bring you on board. We need young, skilled fighters like you," Moody said gruffly.

Tonks stood, as if dazed, for a moment. She had often worried that the great Mad-Eye Moody viewed her as a liability. Clearly he did not, for he was still regarding her intensely.

"Will you join us?" Mad Eye's voice contained a note of fearful hope that she had never heard before.

"Absolutely!" Tonks said, with conviction.