"Hey, Lilykins, long time, no see!" Sirius exclaimed, clapping her on the shoulder.
"You lay off my girl, mate!" James laughed, as the three of them entered the large mansion with pale greenish, peeling paint and broken windows that was apparently the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.
"Hello, Sirius," Lily said, smiling. The friends entered the plain living room, glancing around nervously.
"Who's there?" someone suddenly called nervously from an adjacent room. Abruptly three people leaped out at them, their wands drawn.
"Tell us your names and how you got here!" a tall, balding wizard, exclaimed.
"No sudden moves!" another wizard, whose wand hand was trembling horribly, called.
Sirius and James glanced nervously at each other and Sirius saw Lily put her hand on her wand. James edged slowly in front of Lily, groping in his pockets, feeling for his wand.
"What's going on?" a familiar voice called suddenly. "Emmeline, who is it?"
"Pr- Professor?" Lily called uncertainly.
"Lily? Lily Evans?" gasped Minerva McGonagall, striding into the room. "What in the… How on Earth did you get here?" she asked them.
"You… You know these people, Minerva?" the nervous wizard with the trembling hand asked.
"Yes, I certainly do, Fenwick. It's quite alright, put away your wand, Edgar," she said to the tall wizard who had not yet lowered his wand.
"Mr. Potter? Mr. Black? What are you-" But she didn't get to finish because at that moment, the door behind them opened once more to admit Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.
"What's going on?" Remus asked sounding confused.
"Bit of a welcome party, apparently," Sirius grumbled.
"Is this the right place?" Peter whimpered nervously.
"Shut up," James said quietly to the three of them, glancing around. "Er… Professor…" James started, apparently unsure what to call Professor McGonagall now that he had graduated. "Well, Dumbledore said we could find the… the Order of the Phoenix here…"
"Oh, he did? I see. Well, you'd best come in," she said leading them to the large kitchen with a long table where she gestured for them to all sit down.
"He was going to bring us himself, but then something came up so he just told us where to go and said to come today and…" Remus trailed off uncertainly.
"Yes. I understand now. I can't say I'm not happy to have new members, but all of you must be warned-"
"Don't worry. Dumbledore's made absolutely certain that we know what we're doing," Sirius said.
"Oh… Oh, well in that case…"
"I want to apologize for surprising you three like that," the young witch in elegant purple robes who had jumped out at them earlier said.
"We're just so short on new members we've forgotten what they look like!" the shorter wizard piped in. "You gave us a bit of a scare! I'm Benjy. Benjy Fenwick." He stuck out his hand to James.
"James Potter," James said, looking slightly surprised at the suddenly relaxed atmosphere.
"I'm Emmeline Vance," the witch put in.
"And I'm Edgar Bones," the tall wizard said, shaking hands with Peter.
"P-Peter Pettigrew," Peter stuttered. He hadn't seemed to have gotten over meeting the three foreboding Order members when he'd first walked through the door.
"I'm Remus Lupin," Remus said, shaking hands with Emmeline Vance who looked at him oddly for a fraction of a second before abruptly letting go of his hand.
"Sirius Black," Sirius said, smiling.
"Lily Evans," Lily said.
"Hey, Joanna! Get us some of those cauldron cakes! We've got visitors!" Benjy called.
"Visitors?" a thin young witch with a sweeping curtain of black hair exclaimed, sticking her head around the corner. "By Merlin, we do! Who are you?" she said, looking around the table at all of them.
"New members!" Sirius said, he had begun to enjoy the effect this statement seemed to have on people.
"Alice!" the girl called Joanna shouted back up the stair behind her, "New members!"
"What are you talking about?" Another young witch with wispy blond hair and a kind, round, face came walking down the stairs.
"New members!" Joanna exclaimed again.
"Are you kidding around?" Alice asked suspiciously as she came into the kitchen.
Before Joanna had time to respond, however, Lily had leapt to her feet and Alice was crying, "Lily! Oh, Lily! I never thought I'd see you here!"
"This is my friend, Alice Evensleigh! She was in the year above me at Hogwarts!"
"Alice Longbottom to be, actually…" Alice said.
Lily gasped, "Oh, Alice, you should have written!"
"I would have invited you to the wedding, of course! We hadn't spoken in a while and I didn't think… Oh, but it's so good to see you, Lily!" she exclaimed, pulling Lily into a warm hug.
"When are you getting married?" Lily asked eagerly.
"We're not sure yet… There's so much to be done here and Frank's becoming an Auror, so I don't know…"
"You'll tell me, though?"
"Of course! If you're planning on working here, I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of each other."
"Excuse me… 'Black', did you say your name was?" Edgar Bones was asking Sirius. Sirius shifted uncomfortably and nodded. Edgar Bones raised his eyebrows at Professor McGonagall.
"I trust Mr. Black entirely, Edgar."
"Alright," he said, nodding, "If you're sure…"
"Mr. Bones, I am not proud of my family," Sirius broke in suddenly.
"Oh, I didn't assume… I wasn't… I'm sorry; I seem to be slightly prejudiced against the old pureblood families these days. I meant no offense, Mr. Black."
"None taken," Sirius said, "And please, it's Sirius. As I said, I am not proud of my surname." Edgar Bones smiled and nodded, passing Sirius a cauldron cake.
"Um… And that reminds me…" Remus Lupin said, "Just, let me get this off my conscience right away: whatever stereotypes you have heard about… er… half-breeds, such as me, most of them are simply based on fear. I am not in league with Voldemort, nor do I intend to set myself on anyone or place anyone in harm's way…" Remus glanced around the table, his eyes resting on Emmeline Vance a little bit longer than on anyone else.
Emmeline Vance gave the slightest of nods. "Understood," she said, "I work at the Ministry and in my department I've run across your name before. I am sorry if I made false assumptions about you and acted rashly because of them."
"Apology accepted," Remus said, not breaking eye contact with her.
All of the Order members seemed impressed at what Remus had said except Benjy. "Wha…?" He was looking uncertainly between Remus and Emmeline, uncomprehending.
Remus smiled, "I happen to be, out of mere misfortune, a werewolf, but like I said, I'm not the sort who will go around biting people just for the sake of it."
"Oh, is that all?" Remus and his friends looked at Benjy in surprise, most people's responses when they hear that they are sitting at the table with a werewolf are not quite as casual as 'Oh, is that all?'
Benjy laughed. "My second cousin's a werewolf," he clarified, "Perfectly nice chap."
As all the Order members, new and old, chatted amiably about family and life and passed cauldron cakes around the table, the marauders couldn't help but shoot each other quick smiles. They had never been anywhere, not even at Hogwarts, where they felt so included and so much a part of the group. As they left that evening, Peter said simply "I think I'll enjoy being a part of the Order." For once, no one could have said it better themselves.
A/N: I hope you liked it! Thanks to anyone whose read this and please, please, please leave me a reveiw, lol