I know I said this chapter was coming in a week, but surprise! I just decided that it really helps the flow of the story for you guys to read it sooner rather than later, so here you go! Enjoy :)

The Order of the Phoenix Headquarters

January 8, 1980

...

TINWORTH STILL REELING AFTER RAIDS KILL 3

Sirius shook his head at the glaring headline and folded the Daily Prophet in half so he couldn't see the photos of wizards running from their homes, spells flying over their heads. No matter how many moving photographs he'd seen, ones like these always shook him to his core, and that unease was compounded by the fact that he hadn't just seen these particular pictures—he'd been there. He could still hear the screams of innocent witches and wizards as they were cursed in their tracks by attackers they could hardly pinpoint, much less identify. He could smell the singed wood where curses miraculously missed their targets, but ripped holes in house walls instead.

Dumbledore had called the emergency Order meeting on New Year's Eve too late.

By the time he had briefed the members who'd shown up on the situation, it had worsened. In their haste to get prepared and Apparate to the scene, Sirius had gathered that Death Eaters had closed in on the wizarding village of Tinworth, which was highly populated with halfblood families. As the Prophet reported the next morning, any witch or wizard the Death Eaters came across in their raid was given a chance to swear loyalty to Voldemort—swear it, or be killed. That was Voldemort's idea of mercy.

The melee had ended before Sirius and the others, along with a handful of other Order members, even showed up. On one hand, that meant no casualties for the Order, but on the other…well, Voldemort had gained eleven new followers by coercion and those who had stood their ground, stood no longer. Many had managed to Apparate and some had even fought back and lived, but the Daily Prophet unfortunately displayed an accurate headline: three wizards, and humble, law-abiding ones too, had been killed.

That was a week ago. A week since the only problem Sirius had to face was that he couldn't take Devin home from the bar. In the days that followed, he'd been too busy with the fallout from the Tinworth attack to see her again, or even drop in at her work, though he'd passed by it a few times. Now, he doubted she thought of him as anything more than the git who never contacted her again. If she's even still thinking about you at all, he thought.

As rotten as he felt about ignoring her, though, people in the wizarding community were quite literally dying, and the Order needed a real plan of action that went beyond just reacting too little and too late every time Voldemort's army struck.

However, that proved easier said than done as yet another biweekly Order meeting devolved into a debate.

"If we keep on sitting on our arses doing nothing, we're flobberworms in a barrel!" Lily was arguing. There was a rumble of assent from several others in the Order, but Dumbledore shook his head.

"We must wait to take action until it is absolutely necessary," he said coolly, and despite the chatter in the room, somehow his voice was perfectly audible. "Making any kind of offensive movement now would be foolish."

"It is absolutely necessary!" Lily rebutted. She opened her mouth like she wanted to argue more, but Dumbledore gave her a look and she sat back down in her chair, jaw clenched and arms folded across her chest. James rubbed circles on her back comfortingly.

"I think it's safer to lie low," Peter piped up, nodding towards Dumbledore. "We can still get intel, but we don't have the numbers we need to fight back. Vol—I mean, You-Know-Who's got hundreds, we've got what, forty?" he said after doing a quick head count. Peter then shrunk back into his seat, feeling embarrassed that he'd still been unable to speak Voldemort's name, and he regretted speaking at all.

However, Dumbledore nodded. "Precisely my point. Loss of life, and there would be loss of life, would be a much bigger blow to us than to Voldemort," he said, looking around those seated at the table. The seats filled with the young far outnumbered those filled with the old. "I'm sure you can all understand—would you like to say something, Sirius?"

Sirius had made a noise of disapproval, and all heads swiveled towards him. Unashamed at being called out, though, Sirius nodded and leaned forward in his chair.

"Respectfully, sir, I'm with Evans," Sirius said, still using her school nickname. It was a habit neither he nor James could shake. He caught Lily's eye, smiled grimly, then tossed the copy of the Prophet down into the center of the table. It landed face up, so that everyone could see the front page and the pictures of people they weren't able to help. "We could have stopped that. I know we could have, if we'd just known sooner."

"But we didn't," said Alice Longbottom, speaking for the first time in the meeting. "I agree with you, Sirius, but we were caught just as off guard as Tinworth itself was. We need to stay quiet and learn more about who we're fighting before we run into battle!"

"Yeah, we can't just guess where they'll be next," her husband Frank added. "Mind you, it'd be bloody convenient if we could, but at the moment…" he trailed off. "If we fight based just on hunches, we'll be off the mark more than on!"

"Speak for yourself," Sirius said. If there was one thing in this world he trusted, it was a good old fashioned gut feeling. When Sirius had one of those, no amount of logic or contradictory evidence could shake it.

The Order was split down the middle on whether to act passively or aggressively. Sirius was happy to hear both Lily and Remus's voices in the chatter, both arguing for more direct action; Marlene and Benjy seemed adamant as well.

"Silence," said Dumbledore loudly, "I will take all your concerns into account between now and the next meeting," he said as if that settled the matter. "Now. Let's go over where we do have feet on the ground. Mr. Potter?"

James coughed and sat up straight, pushing his glasses up his nose. Ever the perfectionist, he'd been assigned the task of keeping a log of where each Order member was at all times and what they were doing on their mission, and Dumbledore wanted an update.

"Dorcas Meadowes and Mary Macdonald have an assignment in Leeds, they're recruiting," he read off a scroll of parchment on which he kept track of everyone's missions. It was charmed in a manner reminiscent of the Marauder's Map, so that only people who knew a certain password could read it, lest it fall into the wrong hands. "Marls and Benjy were in the heart of the city, obviously you two are back now, and we've got one more Death Eater in Azkaban, good on you!" James said, and there was a smattering of applause in the room; Marlene and Benjy had just happened upon one of the more known Death Eaters, Walden Macnair, when they were stocking up on some Polyjuice Potion ingredients in Knockturn Alley.

James cleared his throat and continued.

"Hagrid's still meeting with Newt Scamander, he should have that list by Thursday of known creatures Voldemort's trying to convince to join him. And Fabian Prewett's with Kingsley, due back in London tomorrow morning," he finished.

"Yes, I got their owl last night. Thanks to their findings, we can rule out Crook's Manor in Little Hangleton as a Death Eater safehouse," Dumbledore said, and the folks around the table breathed a collective sigh of relief. Molly Weasley and Gideon Prewett looked especially relieved by the news of their brother's successful mission; Molly had been squeezing Gideon's hand so tightly his knuckles were turning white on the table.

"Oh, and Sirius and I leave for Spinner's End tomorrow," James added with a nod towards Sirius. "Ready, Pads?"

Sirius nodded. He was eager to have a mission again after weeks of lying about; he and James had been assigned their own recon operation in Spinner's End, where there had been whispers of Death Eater activity but no confirmation yet.

"Then you two had better get a good night's rest," said Dumbledore, clapping his hands together once to indicate the meeting's end. "Unless anyone else has anything of immediate importance…no? Well then, I, for one, must get back to Hogwarts in time for a nightcap."

With the deafening scrape of wood on wood, the present members of the Order pushed back their chairs and rose; the entire mood in the room always seemed to lift with the end of the meeting, as if everyone had done their thinking of doom and gloom and could now push it to the back burner until the next meeting. Or the next attack, Siriusthought dubiously.

"Padfoot," Sirius heard James say behind him. He turned to see James standing a few meters away. James cocked his head towards Dumbledore, who beckoned them both closer as the rest of the crowd filtered out.

"This mission is reconnaissance and reconnaissance only," Dumbledore said firmly. "Good fighters though I know you both are, two young wizards do not stand a chance against that many or potentially even more Death Eaters, do you understand? Even if you run into them, you are to observe only. Do not fight unless you yourselves are attacked first."

James's eyes flitted towards Sirius's for a moment, and then they both nodded.

"What kind of intel are you hoping for, sir?" James asked.

"Anything you can gather. Alastor did a sweep last week and saw no red flags, but you must keep out of sight. This might be an ideal time to wear that cloak of yours, James, unless it's lost its novelty after all the use I'm sure it got at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said knowingly.

James and Sirius grinned at that; it would be just like old times!

"Understood," said James. "We'll be careful."

Dumbledore nodded, dismissing James and Sirius, who joined Lily where she was waiting in the narrow corridor outside the meeting room. She had her arms folded across her chest and looked at James with fire in her eyes. He knew exactly what she was about to say and opened his mouth to cut in, but Lily beat him to it.

"I'm coming with you," she said determinedly.

James loved to have Lily by his side during missions, but this time, it was different. She couldn't, and what's more she shouldn't, and she knew exactly why.

"Lily," James began, but his wife cut him off again, looking amused at the notion that he would even think about telling her to stay at home.

"Spinner's End, right? That's where Severus used to live. I've been there, I know it there. If you're doing recon, you'll do it a hell of a lot faster if you've got me with you."

"I know," James said, then lowered his voice. He led Lily a few steps further down the corridor and leaned against the wall, effectively blocking Sirius out of the conversation before continuing. "But you shouldn't," he whispered, glancing subtly down at Lily's stomach. It wouldn't stay flat for much longer, which was a scary enough thought already.

Sirius couldn't hear a word they were saying. He furrowed his brow; it was unlike James to keep anything from him, especially if it was Order-related. From where he stood, all he could gather was that Lily was insisting yes, and James was insisting no.

"So I'm just supposed to wait at home and hope you don't get killed, or worse? I'm not even showing," Lily said under her breath. "I can do this. You know I can. I'm going with you."

James's faced bore a pained expression as he weighed the options. He knew Lily was smart, quick, and practiced in dueling—she could certainly hold her own in the field, and was in many ways an even better fighter than he was. But on the other, he thought as he lay a hand lightly on her stomach, it simply wasn't worth the risk. She was only a few months along—no one even knew but the two of them—and if anything happened to her or their unborn child, James knew he would never forgive himself.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he said softly, then kissed her forehead. As upset as Lily was, she could see the genuine concern in James's eyes. "How's this," James continued, opening the conversation up to Sirius again, "Lils, since you do know the area better than any of us, we'll all sit down tonight and you tell us what we need to know. We can make sure Dumbledore knows you helped."

"Fine," Lily said testily. "But you're being stupid."

"That's nothing new," said Sirius in an attempt to ease the tension, the reason for which he was still oblivious to.

Lily raised her eyebrows, but let out a short laugh. "Don't I know it."

Padfoot and Prongs awoke with the sun the next morning; A light blanket of snow had fallen in the night and London looked as if a giant had taken a bag of confectioner's sugar and had himself a field day. Had anyone with a keen eye been strolling the streets at sunrise, they might have noticed a set of footprints appearing in the snow; their owner, nowhere to be seen.

James Potter felt completely comfortable in exactly three situations—one, when he was riding a broomstick, and feeling every miniscule vibration of the wood in his fingertips, and the slight creak of the bristles on the end. The second was when he was with loved ones; as welcoming as his and Lily's house was, it was the people who filled it that made it home. The third situation was when he was wearing his dad's old cloak. He loved that he could see the entire world, and that world would be none the wiser, completely oblivious to the mischievous voyeur in its midst.

When James reached Sirius's flat, he didn't bother knocking; it wouldn't do any good. Everyone in the Order had been trained in protective enchantments, and instructed to guard their homes with spells of their choosing. Sirius was partial to jinxes, and the last thing James needed on the morning of an Order mission was to wind up with bulging purple pustules all over his face. Try explaining that at St. Mungo's. Although, it might be shocking enough to give a Death Eater pause, he thought.

Instead, James pulled a small shard of glass from the pocket of his robes and held it in front of his face; he could see Sirius in it, tying his shoes while a pot of tea whistled on the stove. Sirius caught a glimpse of movement in his own mirror and looked down, pulling a grotesque face at James. James chuckled; it was the same kind of face Sirius always made back when the two of them used the mirrors to communicate when they'd been given separate detentions. James watched as Sirius grabbed his wand, then paused as he picked something up from his countertop. It was a small slip of paper—James couldn't tell what was written on it—which Sirius considered for a moment, then crumpled up and tossed into the garbage bin.

A moment later, Sirius Apparated onto the walkway outside his flat. Feeling devilish, James snuck up behind Sirius and jabbed him in the ribs; Sirius yelped and whirled around, whipping the cloak off James in the process.

"Merlin's fucking pants," Sirius swore as he realized it was just James. "Give a bloke a heart attack, really nice of you," he said sarcastically as his heart rate started to slow down back to normal.

"We're on a mission, I've got to keep you on your toes! And I'd love to see Merlin's fucking pants," James replied cheerfully, "I bet they're quite raunchy. Probably assless chaps." Just his head was bobbing around Sirius's front steps.

"Fuck off, Prongs," said Sirius with a playful shove at his best mate, but he was chuckling. James finally threw the cloak over Sirius as well; it didn't cover them as well as it used to, but if Sirius stooped down and James watched his footing, they could manage. "My, my, what will Lily think?" Sirius joked, taking in his and James's close proximity.

"Only that she knew this day would come," said James cheekily. "C'mon."

The pair Apparated just outside a wrought-iron gate that marked the northern entrance to the village known as Spinner's End. It was less of a community and more like a drab collection of homes, all of which looked like the next, and all of which gave off an air of the unknown. Wands at the ready underneath the cloak, James and Sirius sidestepped the gate and began walking down the cobblestone street, filled with the excitement of fighting for a cause.

Hours later, though, their joy was waning. They'd canvassed the entire village and found no signs of Dark goings-on—everything in Spinner's End was eerie, from the one-legged crow they saw to a bunch of children with dirty hair, playing catch with an equally dirty ball, but eerie didn't always mean evil. Dreary though Spinner's End was, it seemed to be just that. Now, they'd holed up in the second floor of an inn run by a hag, watching the streets from above for any suspicious activity.

"Evans said Snivellus lived around here, didn't she?" Sirius said snarkily after another half hour of nothing. He jerked his head towards one of the dingier-looking buildings. "I reckon he's still here somewhere, can't have had anywhere better to go after Hogwarts. How about a little ding-dong-ditch?"

"It's a mission, Pads," James reminded Sirius. "You were the one who said you wanted to be in the field more."

"Yeah, kicking Death Eater's arses and actually fighting, not sitting in a shack watching the bloody snow melt."

"Whatever happened with that girl from New Year's?" James asked to change the subject and take Sirius's mind off of his boredom.

Sirius shrugged. "Nothing."

"Come off it," James laughed. "She was one of the most fit girls I've ever seen—she's no Lily, of course, but you're telling me you're alright with just letting her walk off?"

"It was just flirting on New Year's Eve, Prongs, everyone flirts on New Year's Eve. Nothing special," Sirius said, but if he were being honest with himself, that couldn't be further from the truth. He hardly knew Devin, but she'd managed to have him hooked in a way no witch or wizard had before.

"Didn't seem that way when you were looking like a lost pup after she got in that cab," James said knowingly. "You should call her, at least. Lily can show you how to use a phone booth! She showed me last month, it's fascinating—so many buttons!"

Sirius stretched out on the dusty couch he was sitting on, keeping his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary as he gazed out the window.

"Maybe, once this is all over," Sirius said nonchalantly, unsure exactly what "this" was. He knew he shouldn't bother getting involved with a Muggle girl—not now, at least. It was too difficult and frankly, too dangerous.

"Think about it. I know this whole situation is bloody awful," James said, referring to the growing war, "but it doesn't mean you can't have at least something good along the way, y'know? At least, that's how I look at it. If I didn't have Lily—"

James shut up immediately, as Sirius had raised a closed fist in the space between them, military style. Even though they were both well out of sight, they darted away from the window and behind a dusty old bed—someone was coming up the stairs.

Wordlessly, James rolled up the invisibility cloak and stuffed it into his robes; it would just get in the way if they had to fight. He and Sirius both faced the door with their wands raised and pointed right at the handle. They exchanged a look and nodded; even the musty air in the room seemed to hold its breath.

The intruder rattled the handle frantically, then it clicked open as they magically unlocked it. The door flew open and bounced off the wall with a loud thud, and a cloaked figure entered the room and promptly slammed the door shut behind them, breathing heavily. James and Sirius glanced at each other in confusion; this was no Death Eater, and James's eyes widened when the newcomer took off their hood.

"Lily?" He spluttered, lowering his wand as Lily ran across the room and flung herself into James's arms. "How did you—?"

"I shouldn't have followed you, I know, but—there are four of them—downstairs—I'm sorry, I Stunned one, and I managed to get some parchment from him, it looks like a map—there's four—" Lily was rambling and James and Sirius tried to understand what she was saying.

"Slow down, Red," Sirius said, and Lily took a deep breath. "What are we dealing with here?"

"Four Death Eaters. I think it was a patrol, they weren't doing much. But I was following you and I had to pass them to get inside here. James, I—I think they recognized me. And when they did, they followed."

"Anyone we know?" asked James solemnly. The Death Eaters Lily had seen must have just arrived, as there was no one in the entry of the inn when James and Sirius snuck in using the cloak.

Lily frowned, thinking.

"We know of them...Mulciber's there, and that one Evan Rosier that was in the Prophet last week, I think. I don't know the other two." Lily then froze, holding a finger to her lips as she glanced between James and Sirius. The three waited in tense silence as they heard at least three more people clomp up the stairs. Their footsteps stopped just outside the door and this time, the door was blow right off its hinges as four hooded Death Eaters barged into the room.

"Stupefy!" Sirius shouted instinctively, and though he did hit one of the three men, the other two were just as quick in their counterattack. Sirius ducked as a jet of green light whizzed past his left ear, leaving a gaping hole in the brick wall behind him.

It was too small a space to fight in.

"Impedimenta!" Lily fired the spell over her shoulder and subdued the Death Eater coming straight for her, then grabbed James and Sirius's arms and Apparated, taking them both with her out onto the street about a block away from the inn. Miraculously, they all landed on their feet, although Sirius hissed in pain as he realized he had blood flowing down his left arm where he'd Splinched just a little bit from the sudden action—there was a deep gash just above his elbow.

"Don't mind it, they're coming!" He told Lily, who was trying to conjure bandages to stop the bleeding.

Sirius was right—the two Death Eaters they hadn't subdued had revived the others, and all four came barging out of the front door to the inn, which was far too close for comfort.

"Let's go," James said, putting himself between Lily and the approaching Dark wizards. "Padfoot, let's go!"

But Sirius had started running towards the foe, brandishing his wand. He managed to bring one Death Eater to the ground in a full body-bind, but the others were closing in. With a panicked glance at each other, James and Lily ran after him, narrowly missing jets of red and purple light.

Lily was soon locked in combat with Rosier, while James, too close to one of the unknown men to fire a spell, simply punched the Death Eater in the face as hard as he could, then kicked him to the ground. The man's hood fell off and with a sinking feeling, James recognized the tell-tale glassy look in his eyes—the man was under the Imperius Curse. James Stunned him where he lay, making a mental note to tell Kingsley that this one, at least, wasn't acting of his own accord.

The next second, there was a deafening boom that shook the ground and caused Sirius, James and Lily to stumble. Lily had cast a Reductor curse towards a high stone wall running parallel to the road, and it began to crumble, sending tons of rubble and stone down onto the street. When the dust cleared, though, she was nowhere to be seen. The two young men exchanged a look and nodded; Sirius leapt to his feet to hold off the remaining Death Eaters while James searched frantically for his wife.

"LILY!" James called out, coughing on the dust and dirt in the air. His throat burned in protest but he kept yelling anyway until he was so hoarse he could barely breathe, let alone cry out anymore.

James looked over his shoulder to see Sirius taking down the last Death Eater, whom he recognized as Rowan Mulciber now that his hood had fallen off, while the others lay Stunned or otherwise out of action on the ground nearby. He scrambled over the destroyed wall, still calling Lily's name while Sirius cast a terrified glance his way after finally besting Mulciber and wiping a trickle of blood out of his eyes.

"Where is she?" Sirius barked, his voice higher in pitch than usual.

"I-I don't know," said James weakly. "Help me."

Sirius cast a spell to bind the Death Eaters' already immobile bodies with wiry rope just to be safe, then jumped into action and he and James set to moving rubble out of the way with their wands. James was frantic, tears leaving streaks in the dirt covering his face, and he haphazardly flicked his wand back and forth, magically clearing away the rubble and praying the only body he would find under it all was one of the Death Eaters.

"Stop," Sirius warned. "Prongs, stop! You're moving them too fast, you could crush her!"

He was right, no sooner would James charm debris out of the way than more would collapse from the force of the spell and fall in its place.

"Lily!" He cried out again.

"Here!" He heard a weak voice answer, and his heart surged. She was alive. She sounded hurt, but that was fixable, James thought.

"Keep talking, Lil," Sirius called, groaning with the effort of moving a huge stone by hand. The two young men followed Lily's voice and finally found her half-trapped under the beam of a street lamp that had been destroyed as the wall fell. It was slightly propped up where she was, but had she fallen just a foot to the right, she would have been crushed by the part of it that was now splintered on the ground.

James rushed to her side and she winced as she tried to pull her legs free. "Lily," he said, relieved beyond belief. "Are you okay? Where's Rosier?"

"M'okay," she groaned. "Stuck, though. Rosier got crushed. My wand…it's somewhere in there and I–can't–reach–it!" she said, punctuating every word with another attempt to get free.

"Slow down, love," James laughed weakly. He was still shaking, but knowing Lily was alive made the whole situation far less intimidating and he couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion at Lily's resilience. "We're going to get you out; are you hurt anywhere?"

"Her leg," Sirius said, nodding at Lily's foot, which stuck out at an unnatural angle. Her ankle was broken and as soon as Sirius pointed it out, Lily herself seemed to realize that she had in fact been injured; her face drained of color because of the pain the adrenaline had masked before.

James and Lily exchanged a meaningful look and both understood what they needed to do. They'd have to lift the beam and pull Lily out at once, and it wouldn't be pleasant.

"Just do it," Lily said, gritting her teeth. Sirius nodded with a grimace and carefully levitated the beam. Lily cried out, but grabbed her husband's arm tightly so he could pull her backwards and out of harm's way. "Fuck," she swore after the beam fell back into place with a thud. She looked down at her shattered ankle and tried to move it gingerly. "That is so inconvenient," she said, out of breath.

Sirius laughed at her casual observation as he conjured a splint to keep her leg still; he was rather gifted when it came to Healing procedures. The trio winced at the cracking sound Lily's ankle made as Sirius healed it with a complex little incantation, then he slipped the brace on. He and James both helped Lily stand, careful not to jostle her too much.

"I'll send word to Kingsley, tell him to bring a couple Aurors and take these three in," Sirius said, nodding towards the Death Eaters as he climbed over the debris again and disappeared on the other side. James turned to Lily and cupped her face in his hands.

"What were you thinking, coming here?"he whispered, stroking her dirty cheek with his thumb. Lily's chest rose and fell with her quick breathing–it was all catching up to her now. How Rosier had tackled her upon realizing she was too quick for his curses…her Reductor curse missing its mark and blowing up the wall, how scared she'd been because for a second, she thought the last thing she would ever see was a Death Eater. At the same time, she and James crashed together in a frantic kiss.

His lips were firm on hers and their teeth hit each other a little in their desperation, but neither cared. Careful to keep her weight on just one leg, she wrapped one arm around James's neck and rested the other over his heart. She could feel it thumping; he still hadn't fully calmed down and she hated that she had caused him even a moment of panic. James deepened their kiss slightly and a moment later pulled away after one, two, three more soft kisses on her mouth.

"Is he okay?" James suddenly asked; a horrible thought had occurred to him and he and Lily both put a hand on her belly.

Lily nodded. "I'd know if something was wrong," she assured him. "It's a he, is it?" She added.

James grinned sheepishly, realizing his little slip. "I guess I've just got a feeling," he said softly, and Lily's face fell as she realized just what kind of danger she'd put not just herself, but her child in. Hell, she still didn't even know if she actually wanted the damn child, but her gut was telling her she didn't want any harm to come to it.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice cracking. "I shouldn't've followed you, I—"

"I would have been shocked if you hadn't," James said fondly, and Lily smiled, then winced as another burst of pain shot up her leg. "C'mon, let's get out of here."

As soon as Kingsley arrived with two other Aurors in tow, Lily handed him the parchment she'd managed to snag from Mulciber; it was covered in scrawled runes, no doubt some kind of code only Death Eaters could understand.

"We've got a contact at Gringotts, a Codebreaker. He'll have a look at this; excellent work, Potter."

"Thanks," Lily said, "But this wasn't my mission…I shouldn't even be here."

"And Dumbledore will be made aware of that as well," said Kingsley. "Nevertheless, this map could be a significant breakthrough if we can crack it. Well done, all of you," he added, nodding towards the restrained Death Eaters.

After Kingsley and the Aurors departed, James, Sirius and Lily decided to Apparate back to Sirius's flat since it was closest, and there James, under Lily's instruction, brewed a quick Pepper-Up Potion for all of them.

"Dumbledore's not going to be happy," James said as they all sat around a toasty yet harmless fire that Sirius conjured on the coffee table.

"Why not? We didn't attack until we got attacked just like he said—stupid strategy, by the way—one more Death Eater's dead, and we've just put three away," Sirius said. "If he's not happy, then I'm quitting the Order."

"Two," James corrected; Lily and Sirius looked at him in confusion. "Only two of the ones that lived were really Death Eaters. The third was Imperiused, I could tell."

Sirius straightened up in his chair.

"A Death Eater's a Death Eater, mate. They were all trying to kill us. You think if it had been the other way around and one of us were under that curse, they'd have cared? No. So we can't either."

"I know," said James, but he still felt uneasy knowing that going forward, they could potentially be hurting people who, given the choice, wouldn't be fighting for Voldemort. The chances were small, but they were there, and that bothered him. "It's late," he said after another moment. "Lils?"

Lily nodded and she and James both stood. James took her mug for her and brought them both into Sirius's kitchen. When he came back a moment later, they said their goodbyes to Sirius, and Apparated back to their home in Godric's Hollow. Sirius let out a breath he felt like he'd been holding all day. He was exhilarated, angry, scared, and upset. As much as he thrived on the adrenaline high the day's skirmish had provided, he hated the circumstances.

He got up and brought his own mug of potion to the sink, then flicked his wand at the soap and sponge; they sprung to life and began scrubbing the various plates in the basin. With a sigh, he leaned against the counter and checked on his cut from before; where before there had been an angry gash, now there was just a thin white line thanks to his healing skills, and he rolled his sleeve back down with a grimace.

Something on the countertop caught his eye: it was a small piece of paper and Sirius frowned. He thought he'd thrown that away. He picked it up, smoothed it out, and glanced down at the wrinkled paper on which Devin had written her work address. In the corner was the same doodle James always added to the notes he and Sirius would pass in class—a small Snitch, and next to it, two words.

"Call her!"

Woohoo! Two chapters down, 26 to go (if I follow my outline lol). I'd love to hear what you guys think, and make sure to add this story to your follow list so you get an email when I post another chapter! CHAPTER THREE, TEA AND TENACITY is coming soon!

-C