A/N: Longish chapter, I hope you like it. Thanks to Rue-The-Marauder for the rice!

Chapter 16

Dumbledore's Club

"As you will all be well aware," said Dumbledore, "I have not been accorded the privilege of teaching a class in several years. I suppose I could have accorded myself that privilege anytime I fancied, but that's rather not the point. The point is, that I do hope dearly that I'm up for it, because the subject is important and the timing is, to be rather blatant, dire. This class, or club, or whatever it is that you'd like to call it, will meet once a week, and the reason that I will teach it myself is that it is rumored by some that I have nearly impeccable skills in Defense Against the Dark Arts and related pursuits, and also so that I can get to know you, as you will soon be, if you agree to it, some of the first members of a group which will do what the Ministry should have been doing for years, and actually start fighting Voldemort."

The twenty or so students in the classroom applauded, leading Dumbledore to smile and fold his hands politely on the front of his robe. Lily had watched enough Muggle politicians to know that most of them had a way of raising their voice at the end of a point to lead the crowd into applause. Dumbledore had not done this. The applause had been spontaneous, unprovoked, or rather provoked only by the fact that all the students in the room believed that the idea of fighting back against Voldemort was worth applause in its own right. Lily felt good to be part of such a crowd.

"It will be hard, and for most of you who are in your final year, you will be sacrificing a letter grade in at least one of your exams by taking and practicing for this course. I did not accept everyone who wanted to be in the group. Some, I turned away because I did not feel they were sincere, others because I believed they could not handle the added strain that this will cause to your no doubt already stressful academic life. So rest assured that those of you who are here are here because I think you're smart enough and talented enough to be here.

"Most of what we're going to learn in here, at least at first, is going to be simple dueling, although to call dueling simple is rather ludicrous. I will start off this meeting by telling you a few things that you might not have considered from your usual Defense Against the Dark Arts training, but will be immensely useful in battle. Don't worry, though, since this is the Thursday night of the first week of classes, I shall try not to strain your brains too much," said Dumbledore.

A few students laughed politely. James figured Dumbledore could strain his brain as much as he wanted. It wasn't every day that you got to learn from the greatest wizard alive, and this club meeting was already the most exciting thing that had happened during this first week back to school.

"There are a couple concepts I need to clarify before anything else. Number one, you have always known that a well-performed spell is stronger than a poorly performed one. One with a lot of emotion behind it is stronger than one without. One conbsentmindedly cast a protego charm, and your enemy casts a strong cruciatus curse, that curse is going to break right through your shield. Now you might think it improbable that you would be absentmindedly casting spells during an encounter with death-eaters, but I can tell you, and some of those here could tell you from experience as well, there are many things that go through your mind when you're in a battle. For instance, if you are focusing on whether your friend dueling beside you is winning or losing her battle, and are simultaneously casting a protego charm, it may not be effective enough to ward off a well-concentrated-upon petrificus totalus curse. Another point to keep in mind, knowing that protective spells are neither full-proof nor as effective at disabling your enemy as a spell which is actually directed at them, is that most aggressive spells used in battle are mere beams of light. They are effective only if that single beam of light hits the target on his or her body. Charms, of course, are different, which is why the protego charm can protect your whole body if used properly, and there are protective charms which, in combination, can protect an entire house or castle. With these things in mind, what I want you to focus on tonight is casting protego charms, and trying to break through them. This will be a test not only of your concentration but also your overall magical ability and your force of will to break the spell. We will be using the petrificus totalus curse to try to break through. Whether or not you think your protego charm will be broken, it may be advisable to duck. Only if you are actually petrified will the match be considered a win for your opponent. The person trying to petrify their opponent gets three chances to cast the spell, and the defender may cast the protego spell as many times as necessary. Once the agressor paralyzes the defender, that match is one by the agressor, if they fail to do so, the defender win. Switch off every match. You may pick your own partners."

James glanced at Lily with a raised eye-brow. Lily assumed this meant, "Will you be my partner?" Lily returned an eye-roll and a smile, which meant, "Of course, you silly git." She wondered if James would catch the full meaning.

The room they were using for the club was a large classroom that hadn't held any students since the days when all four houses had their first and second year courses together. Still, this gave plenty of room to duel, especially once Dumbledore instructed the students to come to the front of the classroom so that he could stack all the desks and chairs at the back of the room without bowling down any unfortunate students in the process.

"Okay," said Dumbledore, once this was done, "each partnership should pick out a space, and put about twenty feet between you and your opponent. Have enough space between yourself and any other groups that you have a bit of room to dodge without knocking into anyone or getting hit by a spell. Of course, at least a couple of you will probably get hit by a rogue spell which is why for tonight, we're only going to use petrificus totalus, which causes no pain, and is easily reversible."

Lily and James stood 20 feet apart from each other, between the pairings of Marietta and Sirius and Christine and Andrea. Remus and Peter were partners as well. Chloe, who had not joined the club, figuring that doing so was basically the the same as joining the army that the club would feed into, was in the library studying healing spells.

"Okay, Potter, you want to be attacker or defender first?" asked Lily.

James, remembering that Lily had said before that during competition, he would always be "Potter" to her, he responded, "Well, Evans, as I would never attack someone as beautiful as you before I was first attacked, why don't you be the attacker?"

"Well, good thing all the witches on their side look like hags," said Lily, rolling her eyes because it wasn't true. For instance Narcissa, who had graduated from Slytherin the previous year, looked like she could be quite beautiful if her face wasn't always contorted into one form of hatred or another. "Anyway, you're on. Start on 3?"

Lily and James counted to three together, as beams of light carrying petrificus totalus curses started to shoot through the air around them.

Having counted to three, James put up a Protego Curse, thinking of nothing else. He'd be damned if he was going to let Lily beat him. Each of them had a competitive streak, and he was sure that Lily would lord it over him if she won more times than him. He certainly would do the same to her.

"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted LIly, with a strong conviction in her voice that James could only just barely hear over the shouts of "Protego!" and "Petrficus Totalus!"

At the same moment as Lily's curse bounced off of James' protection spell, Sirius came sliding across the floor to James' feet. "Sorry mate," said Sirius, as he looked up at him. "Thought my protego was going to break and I'd lose. Couldn't have that, because... well, you know how it is," he glanced at Lily with a grin.

"No problem mate," said James, rolling his eyes. He then cast a mobilis corpus spell on Sirius and plopped him back down where he was supposed to be.

"Oi! that's really weird when you're awake to feel it," said Sirius.

"Right," said Lily, shaking her head. "So I get two more chances and then it's your turn?"

"Yeah," said James. He looked at Lily. She was obviously disappointed that she didn't get the curse through the first time, and her face was a mix of frustration and concentration as they prepared to count to three. Her lips were pursed, her eyes were squinted, and her nose was crinkled, yet somehow she still looked beautiful.

They counted to three, but James, against his will was still thinking partially about how beautiful Lily was as he cast his "protego" spell. He was considering pulling a Sirius and dodging the spell, but Lily was too quick. She aimed the spell slightly off of James, toward Sirius, figuring that that's the way he would dodge (she could see in his face that he was distracted when he cast his protection spell). James managed to jump half a foot to the left. Right into Lily's spell.

"Merlin's dung!" snapped James. "I suppose you aimed there on purpose?" he asked.

"Of course," said Lily off-hand.

"You're a shrewd one, Evans," he said.

She stuck her tongue out.

So Lily was up one nihil. James was not happy about that, but hey, he'd come back from much worse deficits in Quidditch, so why not here?

The first duel in the next match went decisively to Lily: James, who was concentrating very hard and was confident that he had conjured a spell that would break any protego charm, was surprised to see the spell backfire on him after rebounding off of Lily's apparently impeccably cast defensive charm. James had to duck his own spell.

Lily laughed. James' face was priceless, and the velocity with which he dropped to the ground was enough to ruffle his hair naturally... not by means of that annoying little ruffling move he always used to do back in fifth year. She shook her head to clear it though. Round two was on the way.

Lily cast her protego spell, but James seemed to be having quite a hard time figuring out where to aim his wand. Lily began to hope he would cast it soon. Protego spells got weaker the longer they lasted, something Lily knew from her advanced study of charms but which Dumbledore had not mentioned in his speech. Perhaps he wanted to reward those who already had the knowledge, while allowing those who lacked the knowledge to find it out in practice. Lily wondered if James knew this fact or not.

As time went on, it became more obvious that he did. "This isn't fair," complained Lily.

"Isn't it, Evans?" said Potter. "Feel free to cast the curse at me if you feel I'm taking too long."

But as James and Lily both knew, casting another spell, even a replacement protego spell, would give James an opening to curse her without the spell.

Lily looked down. The protection was fading near her feet. The spell was getting weaker.

James had noticed the same thing she had. He was aiming his wand at her feet.

He began to pronounce the spell, watching Lily's knees bend, straight down, with no other movement in her body. She'd be jumping straight up, James knew. The spell would not leave the wand until the incantation was complete. Timing was everything here.

As Lily jumped, right toward the end of the incantation, James suddenly pointed his wand upward, to the spot where her head would be once the spell reached it, above the protection of the original spell, which protected approximately where her body was.

The spell hit Lily, right in the forehead, and because she was in mid-air and the spell had such force behind it, she fell backwards.

James, having not even a split second to revel in his victory, rushed toward his girlfriend.

He immediately undid the curse and asked, "Lily, are you okay?"

"What, we're not in competition mode anymore once you've knocked me on my ass?" asked Lily, joking although grimacing with pain.

"Where's it hurt?" asked James.

"Back of my head, mostly" said Lily.

"Should I get Dumbledore?" asked James.

"Nah, this is a simple bump. Why don't you let me teach you how to heal it?" asked Lily, sitting up with a bit of a groan. The back of her head was pounding with pain, but most of the rest of her back side was a little sore, only in a way that she knew the best remedy would be walking it off for a bit, rather than any sort of magical charm or potion.

"Er, all right," said James, hesitantly. He wanted to do everything in his power to undo the damage he had done, but he wasn't sure the best way to do that was to put in an amateur to do a medical spell.

"Seriously, it's the simplest spell for most household bumps and bruises, it'll be handy for when we- I mean when you and your wife have kids," said Lily, her face reddening, hoping that James had not realized that after only a few months of officially being boyfriend and girlfriend, she was already giving him advice on how to raise their kids.

James, who had caught the slip but decided politely to act like he hadn't, after all, it could have been a simple slip of the tongue instead of revealing her deep feelings, was still encouraged enough by the possibility that he became more confident about learning the spell.

"Right. What is it?" asked James.

"Just point the wand at the back of my head and say, 'meliorem vulnum,'" instructed Lily.

James complied, still somewhat nervously. He muttered the incantation and was slightly surprised when the area in question glowed blue for a moment before turning back to the natural red color of Lily's hair.

"Er... better at all?" asked James tentatively.

"Yeah," said Lily with a smile. "You're a good student. And a worthy opponent. We're one and one. Ready for round three?"

By the end of the meeting, James and Lily ended up at a dead tie of 7 to 7. Marietta beat Sirius 9 to 7. Sirius acted as if he was upset about this, but knew that Marietta and he were about even in dueling overall and the fact that she had beaten him tonight was something that he found kind of hot. Maybe they'd be able to find a broom cupboard for some snogging later on that evening. Remus, of course, beat Peter 10 to 4, and even the four wins were due more to Remus' own coaching of Peter than any innate talent on Peter's part. Meanwhile, Christine had beaten Andrea 10 to 6, something that Andrea was by no means happy about.

Dumbledore dismissed the club, telling them that he was happy with the progress he had seen from all of them that night, and that he was also glad that aside from the several Gryffindor 6th and 7th years there were also some Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs who had joined the club. As everyone else was filing out, Dumbledore asked James if he would stay behind.

Lily was curious as to what Dumbledore wanted to talk to James about, so she took a longer than necessary time packing up her stuff in order to catch James' eye and raise her eyebrows questioningly. James shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly but Lily could tell from his face that he was genuinely curious.

Lily shrugged too, and said, "I'll wait up for you," before leaving the room. She was the last one out, and there was no sign of the other Marauders or Marietta as she made her way along the first couple corridors which marked the normal path to the Gryffindor common room. When Lily stuck around with James they must have figured that James had been called on for some sort of Heads' business and Dumbledore had merely forgotten to call Lily's name.

No matter, she was a big girl, she could walk the corridors herself, especially before curfew. It was just a little ominous, dark since nightfall was so early these days, and the torches weren't really enough to light the corridors.

Then she saw Andrea walking a little bit ahead of her, in the next corridor. She was walking slowly, almost dejectedly, but Lily remembered that the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor common rooms were rather near each other, except that the one was up in a tower and the other down in the dungeons and along a corridor beneath it, so she called out to Andrea, hoping she'd found a companion for at least most of the journey back.

Andrea turned around, startled, but then her face got hopeful once she recognized Lily.

"Hey!" said Lily cheerfully. "Mind if I walk back with you?"

"No, of course not," said Andrea, but she still didn't sound happy.

"Of course, if you want some space to think or something, that's totally fine," said Lily.

"No... I'd like to talk to you, if you don't mind," said Andrea.

"Well I hadn't figured we'd be walking along silently," joked Lily.

Andrea gave a grudging smile and said, "Right."

"So," said Lily, urging her on, "what's got you in such a foul mood, then?"

"I'm rubbish at dueling," said Andrea.

"Okay, I'm sure that's not true," said Lily.

"Yes, it is," said Andrea, her tone suggesting impatience with Lily's failure to understand. "You and James were totally evenly matched, and Christine beat me 10-6"

"First of all, James and I weren't totally evenly matched. I was better at the Protego and he was better at the Petrificus Totalus. But we each had to think new things up each round. Like in our fourth round, I managed to jump to my left and cast a new spell at the same time so that James couldn't take advantage of my weakening Protego spell."

"Wait, protego spells weaken?" asked Andrea.

"Yeah, Dumbledore didn't mention it. But Christine might have known it already, like James and I did. Doesn't mean you're a worse dueller. Plus, you and Christine, both being Quidditch players, are probably about even in your dodging... If she knew even just a little bit more about the technicalities of the spells than you did, that could lead to 10-6. But in an actual battle, even if an opponent did know that they could wait around for your protego charm to wear off, they'd probably be hit by another spell in the meantime. And if you feel like you need help with the technicalities of spells, well... I'm in the library an awful lot, studying for N.E.W.T.s, you know? And I've always heard that teaching someone else is a great way to review, so... I don't know, I could teach you some stuff, if you wanted," said Lily.

Andrea beamed. "That'd be really great. Hey. Can I tell you something that might seem really stupid?"

Lily said, "Sure. That's what friends are for, right?"
"Well... I've always thought you were really cool. I mean... You know I'm not a muggle-born, but the whole school's been abuzz with how you're the "cleverest muggle-born" the shool's seen in ages, and I just don't understand why it's not the "cleverest witch." But you don't seem to mind all that, you take it all in stride, and you really are clever. And yet all the boys on my Quidditch team have complained about how you're almost too attractive to look at at one point or another, how the only thing that could make you more snoggable was if you actually played quidditch..."

Lily hoped her friend would get to the point soon. She was blushing from embarrassment, although she wondered with vague amusement what James would think if he knew that all the boys on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team wanted to snog her

"But now I've really gotten to know you, and you're even cooler than I thought, but you're so nice, too. And I'm just always amazed that I'm actually your friend, like that we're equals, you know? It's almost tempting to look at you as sort of a big sister. I've always wanted a big sister." Andrea said.

Lily laughed, but immediately regretted it. Andrea looked quite hurt. "I'm sorry," said Lily. "Just, I was thinking of my big sister, and she's... well, the worst kind of muggle, if you know what I mean. I mean, I've got nothing against muggles normally, but she's one of those muggles who hate witches. I'm pretty sure she's been trying to get me burned at the stake for years... It's just a good thing those laws don't hold much weight anymore. But you know what, I think you're right. You're one of my closest friends, and that's really not far off from sister, at least when sisters act their part properly. So friends are better than sisters really, and in times like these we all need as much family as we can get. So if you want to think of me as your 'big sister' that's fine, but not because I'm cleverer or cooler or anything like that, 'cause I'm not. You just need to give yourself more credit. But I am a bit older than you, so I suppose 'big sister' works," she smiled kindly at Andrea.

"Okay," said Andrea, seeming to get her confidence back. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to start going around calling you 'sis' or anything. I just really appreciate the offer for help on charms and stuff, and I wanted to let you know... you know, what you mean to me. I mean... especially in times like these. What with little Mikey Adel and all."

"I know," said Lily. Mikey Adel was a Ravenclaw 2nd year who had been killed by Death-Eaters, along with his family over Christmas break.

Lily gave Andrea a hug. They'd been standing and talking for the last minute or so at the staircase, going down leading to Hufflepuff's Common Room and going up leading to Gryffindor.

Lily said, "You're right about that, and I just want you to know that you mean a lot to me, too. It's hard to believe that I only really knew you since Halloween and that battle with the death-eaters. But you've been a really fantastic friend ever since then, and I can't imagine what I... what any of us... would do without you."

Dumbledore was leading James back to his office and he seemed purposefully to be avoiding any topic of any possible relevance.

"So, I hear you've got a Quidditch game coming up at the end of February," said Dumbledore, as they made their way down the hallway.

"Er, yes sir," said James, confused as to how he'd come to be making small talk with the headmaster.

"Sounds like it will be quite cold," said Dumbledore.

"Er... yes. Professor, am I in trouble?" asked James.

Dumbledore looked seriously at James. "Depends how you define trouble."

"Er... expulsion, detention, being stripped of my Headship?" asked James, who for the life of him could not figure out what he might possibly be in trouble for.

Dumbledore smiled politely, "Oh no. Your assignment will require none of those things. Of course, you're not obliged to accept the assignment, only I suspect you will."
"What assignment? Some sort of extra credit thing?" asked James.

"I'm afraid it is imperative that I do not speak any more about this until we get back to my office. We are not being listened to now, but it's before curfew, so many people are in the hallways."

"Er, right," said James. "So what else do you know about Quidditch?" asked James.

"Well, I know that Gryffindor is giong to win the Cup this year. But of course, I say that every year," said Dumbledore with a smile.

When they finally got up to the office, James sat across the desk from Dumbledore.

"Well, now we can get on with things," said Dumbledore. "There were two students from Slytherin who asked to be in the club. I have interviewed each of them personally and strongly believe them to be fit to join the club. However, I think that it would be dangerous for them to join the club openly, as they would no doubt be regarded as blood traitors of the worse kind. However, rather than turn them away openly, I offered the pair of them a taxing and quite dangerous tax. I suggested that they may, if they wanted, become our moles, first in the Slytherin House, as we have already seen dark magic begin to seethe to the surface within the castle from that house, and once they graduate, among the Death Eaters. Both have agreed, at their own great peril. But they will, of course, need a contact. However, both now and in the future, it is more plausible that they would meet with you, perhaps to try to convert you to their cause, given that you belong to two of the oldest magical bloodlines that we know of, than that they would meet with me. I believe that you are the best person for the job. I feel that you can be trusted. But you should know that if you let word slip to anyone, even Lily, that their position could be compromised, and that they could be killed, even in this very castle, for such a betrayal. Of course, if Lily, or any of your other friends, ask where you are going during these meetings, both the ones with them and then the ones with me to convey important information, just tell them you are on special business for me. Which will of course, be good enough. Are you willing to accept this dangerous assignment, recognizing that you will probably be killed along with them if they are discovered as moles?" asked Dumbledore.

James thought about it for a moment. If he was the best candidate, then he was obliged to do it. He could certainly see the importance of maintaining a line with moles, and it certainly made sense that it wasn't with Dumbledore. What if they were imperiused to kill him, or managed to hear some important information from him which could then be cruciatused out of them in the future. "Yes sir, I'll do it."

Dumbledore then opened the door of a small room to the left of his desk.

"James, meet Grant Ellington and Susan Manger. They're both seventh years, so they will be graduating with you and you can immediately transition into being their contact for their Death Eater Mission. I will leave you three to my office. You should take approximately the next hour trying to get to know each other, so that each of you will know the questions to ask to see if someone has taken Polyjuice to resemble one of your allies, or is under the Imperius Curse, given that people act just slightly differently when they are affected by this curse," said Dumbledore.

Dumbledore left the room.

"Er, well... I'm Grant Ellington, and I don't want to live under a tyranny," said the boy.

"I'm Susan Manger and I don't want to participate in genocide," said the girl.

"Er..." said James, "Well I guess that's a good place to start. I don't want to do either of those things."

A/N: Come on, if you've read this far, the least you could do is review. Also, I'd like again to make my pitch for freerice dot com. Please go to the site, win some rice for this story, and then let me know how much you've won for this story so that I can tell the rice-tracker for "fanfictioners against world hunger" Thanks!