7

The Cut:

" So I hate to be the one to tell you this, but seven of you do not have the magical skills necessary to be aurors" Moody said harshly on the morning they were meant to begin their physical training.

He had called all twenty of the trainees into the room and made them sit down in the chairs in front of him.

" Over the last week I observed you all and documented your magical ability" Moody began, " me and a group of senior aurors observed your disarming, stunning, and overall dueling abilities and ranked you all best to worst"

The surrounding atmosphere was silent. No one dared speak. There was a collective fear from everyone, seeing as Moody was cutting just under half of them.

" And as unpleasant as it is, this office can't have anyone who isn't the best" Moody grumbled.

He lifted his wand and rolled pieces of parchment flew to seven of the trainees. Doe looked quickly making sure Frank and Sirius weren't among them. They weren't.

" All of you with the parchment have been cut, you may leave" Moody told them.

Almost all of the seven, were girls, with the exception of two. Doe realized nervously that of the 13 of them left, the only girls left where her and three girls from Beauxbatons.

The seven trainees left, and Moody waited until they all had left the room to continue talking.

" Okay so for you remaining trainees" Moody said, " the physical portion of your training has begun"

Moody lifted his wand and the chairs disappeared from under them. They all fell to the floor, which was made of a springy, mat like material.

" The first two days of your physical training will be making sure you all are up to the challenge physically"

Moody raised his wand and the wall to their right disappeared as well, revealing what looked like a muggle gym with a track, several large punching bags, and a large ring with a mat that her mother had once told her muggles used for sport, 'boxing' she thought it was.

" This morning," Moody said, " you will all run around that track until I tell you stop"

Several members of the group sighed as they walked over to the tack and began to run.

It was exhausting. That probably was the point.

They ran around the track over and over, not stopping for what seemed like endless amounts of time. Moody sat near them and kept shouting things like " What would you do if there was a death eater chasing you?" and " You've got to be quicker than that if you expect to be successful".

Finally by lunch time, Moody released them to go eat. Doe's legs felt so numb that every step was painful. Sirius and Doe walked over into the lunch room quietly, both extremely exhausted. They were sweaty and their bodies felt heavy from exhaustion.

" Funny how McGonagall didn't mention this when we said we wanted to be aurors" Sirius said practically falling into his chair.

" A simple, it's exhausting would have sufficed" Doe agreed, letting her head rest on her arms, ignoring the food in front of her.

" There they are" Lily said happily, pulling James over to the table where Sirius and Doe sat.

Remus and Peter emerged from the elevator a few minutes later and joined them.

" Why do you two look so exhausted?" James asked Sirius and Doe. Doe just groaned from the table.

" Moody is really trying to break us" Sirius said leaning against his chair, " he had us running for the last two hours"

" You look tired" Remus commented from beside her.

" I am" Doe said sitting back up and taking a sip of the pumpkin juice in front of her.

" That sounds really hard" Peter said looking to Sirius.

" It is," Sirius said, " and the classes haven't even started this is just weeding the weak people out"

" I would never be able to do that" Lily said shaking her head, " it's the fear of being cut that would get me"

" Well lucky you don't have that worry about that in the Muggle Liaison office" James said with a snicker.

" It's actually very important work" Lily said flicking a piece of food at James.

" Oh I'm sure it is" James said with a smile.

Lily rolled her eyes, " You know what, Potter"

James grinned at her, smiling fondly at the phrase that once used to start vicious rows between the two of them. It seemed like that was so much longer than a year ago.

The rest of the day seemed as if it would never end. After lunch, Moody worked them tirelessly, having them work with the punching bags for hours.

By days end, her knuckles were black and blue. Some of the other trainees were good at it. Sirius and some of the Durmstrang boys were able to through all of their strength against the bag, while Doe came to the realization of just how weak she was.

" That was tiring" Sirius commented as they left the ministry several hours later. All of the trainees were sufficiently exhausted.

Doe held up her bruised knuckled, " You think?".

" Don't worry" Sirius said shaking his head, " you did great at the magical portion, you'll be fine"

Doe nodded, all though she was worried. Some of the other trainees had more physical strength than she could hope for.

" So what are you doing tonight?" She asked Sirius as she walked through the atrium.

" More like who" he said with a wide grin, " I'm going out with that intern from magical games and sports"

" You're a pig" She told him, shoving him in the arm.

He just smiled, " I am not likely to waste this" he said hands gesturing to his body.

She rolled her eyes.

" What about you?" he asked, " what are you doing while Remus is gone?".

Doe sighed. Tonight was a full moon, and Remus had already left for the cottage. Sometimes she missed him so much she considered becoming an animagus to go with him, but on the one occasion she had mentioned it to him, he had thought it was such a horrible idea to have her anywhere near him when he was like that, that she quickly abandoned it.

" Well James is going with him later, so Lily and I are just going to have a girls night in" she said.

Lily and Doe had been so busy lately that they had carved out tonight for girls time.

" Well have fun and try not to worry about Moony too much" Sirius said.

Doe gave him a look.

" I know, I know, You're going to worry either way. I don't even know why I said it" Sirius said shaking his head.

" I'll see you" he said and disappeared.

Doe headed out onto the street and apparated back home.

Lily was already in the kitchen when she got there. She was cooking something and the entire flat smelled delicious.

" Are you cooking?" Doe asked incredulously, looking over her shoulder.

She had bewitched the pot and pans on their stove and they were now stirring the sauces and noodles on their own.

" Yes I am" Lily said proudly, " I couldn't even look at another takeout container".

Doe grinned sheepishly. She wasn't much of a cook. So she kept the flat well stocked with 'easy' food and they ended up ordering take out in most nights, if they weren't eating out.

" Well it smells delicious" Doe assured her, pulling herself onto the counter so she could talk to her.

" How was training?" Lily asked.

Doe sighed, " Long and exhausting".

She laughed, " McGonagall warned you"

" I know, I know. It'll get easier eventually, when I'm worried about being killed by death eaters rather than Moody cutting me" Doe said with slight laughter.

Lily shook her head, " You, Dorcas Meadowes, are insane".

" Speaking of Death Eaters" Lily said leaning against the counter, " my entire office is Slytherin free, isn't that weird?"

Doe shrugged, " Not really, Lil. You work in Muggle Liason. Most Slytherins are purebloods who hate muggles. They're not likely to want to work with them".

" Still it's odd though, not even one like Andromeda Black?" she asked.

" Besides her and Slughorn, I can't think of a single Slytherin I like" she pointed out.

" Oh yeah," Lily said, " I forgot you and Severus are no longer friends"

Doe nodded.

" You never told me what happened with that," Lily said joining me on the counter.

Doe sighed, " Well do you remember when I told you I got hurt by the whomping willow?" she asked her.

She nodded, " Yeah, that was when you were mad at Sirius".

Doe nodded, " Well that was why actually, you see it wasn't the whomping willow that had hurt me, it was Remus"

Lily looked very confused.

" It wasn't his fault, it was an accident. It happened on a full moon" Doe told her quickly.

She still looked confused, " What does that have to do with Severus?"

" Well," she started, " Sirius had told Severus that 'the secret' the marauders were hiding, was where Remus turned, he sent him there hoping Remus would hurt him, but I saw Severus try to go in and I went with him, which was when I got hurt. So Severus found everything out and he was mad when I forgave both Remus and Sirius" Doe told her.

Lily looked shocked, " He got mad at you for that? Why?"

She shrugged, " He thinks both Remus and Sirius are bad people and didn't want to be around them, even by association"

Lily shook her head, " That is absolutely ridiculous" .

" I know, thats why we stopped being friends" Doe told her.

" You know, James told me he saved you that night, granted he didn't tell me how" Lily said.

" He did" Doe told her, " If it wasn't for James, I might not be here"

She smiled, " He really has changed hasn't he?"

" He has" Doe agreed, getting out our plates for dinner.

" You know if you had told me two years ago that I would be talking to you about you and James' relationship, I wouldn't have believed you" Doe told her.

" You?" Lily laughed, " I wouldn't have believed me".

And they both burst into laughter.