"What the hell?" Remus questioned when their strange visitor (he was beginning to think their trust had been misplaced. Most likely the guy's name wasn't even Evan) seemed to lose consciousness before simply vanishing. Vanishing, as in one second there then gone, but without any movement of apparition.

"Why shouldn't we trust Wormtail?"

"The guy was insane!"

But then Peter started to look both defensive and guilty, slowly but surely all of them started to think it over.

"Now that I think about it, Peter has been absent quite often," Lily thought out loud. "Your Mother cannot be ill that often."

"That's true. It's like when Remus tried to keep his secret," Sirius compared.

Their conversation went on like this until they came to the point when Peter confessed being a spy.

Sirius stunned Peter while James ran to get his parents and Lily was calling the aurors. Remus was too busy holding himself back to do anything more than that.

It did not take long until Alastor Moody and his group of aurors arrived to arrest Peter.

"You reacted well," Moody complimented them. "Preventing him from fleeing and alerting both the auror office and the one already in the house, good job, kiddos. You're a good team. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Later that day the four nineteen-year-olds were lazing around in James room. Remus was sitting in an armchair reading what looked like Sherlock Holmes, Sirius had claimed the couch where he was lying on his back looking through something Lily was not sure she wanted to know more about and she herself was curled in her fiancees arms on his bed. The two of them were looking through a list of honeymoon locations, as they had just about everything else ready for their wedding (Lily liked to plan with enough time to replan. Also her parents insisted she had to be twenty before she could marry).

"You know, he's actually right," Remus spoke up after a while.

"Who Peter?" Sirius questioned, rolling onto his stomach.

"Nah, I'm talking about Moody. The more I think about it, the better of a motto-"

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" James interrupted.

"Constant Vigilance seems to be."

"Why?"

"Well, Prongs for one we would have noticed Worm- Peter without Evan's help."

"You're right," Lily stated, sitting up (which did not exactly please James). "We would never have gotten in this situation had we paid more attention and prepared ourselves for every eventuality."

The boys all agreed with her and so they decided they would do just that.

From that day on the four of-, no actually the seven of them (Lily's best friends Marlene, Emmeline and Dorcas had joined them) started to train, both magical and muggle.

More precisely, they all started run the morning runs (James, Dorcas, Marlene and Sirius quickly regained some of their stamina from their Quidditch training) as well as lifting weights (apparently werewolves were stronger than the average) and doing gymnastics (of course none of them were good in the beginning but they, especially Lily and Emmeline, were improving quite well) and they each selected two of their old classes (or some new ones) and reread the textbooks of these subjects before ordering further material. Remus chose Defense and some of the Dark Arts, Emmeline Potions and Herbology, Marlene Arithmancy and Runes, Lily Charms and technically Muggle Studies, James Transfiguration and Magical Theory, Sirius Astronomy (they might need it) and Care of Magical Creatures and Dorcas Politics and History as they all agreed that it might help them should they need help from the goblins or another group British wizards shared quite a history with.

The Marauders and Maraudettes also requested help from James parents and as they were glad to help Euphemia gave Lily, Emmeline, Marlene and Remus some lessons basic healing while Fleamont was giving his sons and Dorcas some above entry level Auror training (they were in training anyway, but their group had not quite reached the point when they were assigned older Aurors as mentors).

In conclusion, soon the seven of them were better prepared than half to three quarters of the Auror trainees and almost every member of the Order of Phoenix.

When they did join the Order three months later (in October), they inspired some other Order members (namely Caradoc Dearborn, Milton Smith, the Prewett twins and Benjy Fenwick) to do the same. Good for them.

"Sirius?" Emmeline spoke up during one of their ("just the two of us") study sessions in the middle of September.

"Emmy?" Sirius looked up from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Sirius found he quite liked Fwoopers. Maybe he'd get one one day).

"Isn't that your brothers owl?" Emmeline motioned towards the window.

"It is." Stunned he went to the window of his room, opened it so the black barn owl Hermod (after the Norse messenger god) could fly through and untied the letter.

Dear brother (this word was strikethrough) Sirius,

You were right and Mother was wrong. I have procrastinated telling you this for a bit over two months, but you were right about the Dark Lord (he is in the process of placing a taboo on his name, be warned). I'm not yet sure if you were right about muggles and muggleborns too, but I find myself surprisingly willing to listen.

I do apologize for not telling you that your (former, from what I gather) friend Peter started attending meetings, but I only saw him once before you found out and that was literally on the evening before, so I hope you can forgive me.

Now, the main reason I am writing to you is that I need your help. I would not be surprised should you not be willing to help me, but I need to try.

I (and from what I suspect Severus, but neither of are brave enough to talk about it) want out or at the very least secretly work against the Dark Lord. I am disgusted not only by what I have seen but by what I have done.

Especially by the Dark Lord himself. Do you remember Mother's lessons about horcruxes between your last two years? I have concluded that the Dark Lord made several! He used Kreacher to test the security for his newest one. I plan to steal and destroy it, but I need your help, as it is located on an island in a cave and the lake surrounding it is infested by Inferi.

I apologize for everything I put you through. I just wish I had left with you that evening. Or that you had not ignored me during your first year. I imagine I would have followed you into Gryffindor otherwise. Could you imagine how different our lives would be if either of us had made a different choice?

This is my twelfth try for this letter (the others have been destroyed of course) and I have still not decided whether or not I am even going to send it.

Love Regards

your brother (this was strikethrough too) Regulus

Sirius read the letter another three times before his brain had registered everything. Or at least he thought so.

"Sirius? Are you okay? You've been staring at that letter for about ten minutes," Emmeline's voice pulled him back into reality. She was still lying on the ground, but she looked at him with a frown.

"No," he replied, moving towards his bed to sit down. "No, I don't think I am."

"What's the matter?" she questioned, sitting up to join him.

Sirius was not sure he could put it into words, so he simply handed Emmeline the letter.

"These are great news! We - and possibly the Order, depending on Dumbledore's behaviour - get one or two spies, you and your brother might make up and we finally know why no one could kill him!"

"I know. I simply didn't expect it. Also I never stopped sending him letters in my first year."

"People change. Your brothers letter is not even the only example of that in this room."

"What do you mean, Emms?"

Instead of replying verbally, Emmeline leaned forward to kiss him. On the lips.

When the two of them ran out of air and had to force themselves apart the only thing Sirius could think of was, "I could get used to that."

Emmeline smiled. "Good."

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~Marvelgeek42