"How many people are here today?" Alice called, sticking her head around the corner and trying to count everyone. She and Dorcas Meadowes were in the kitchen, making dinner for the rather large group gathered at the Order tonight. Word had gotten around about the new members, and although they weren't exactly 'new' anymore, there were still many people in the Order who they hadn't yet met. Everyone had decided to spend Halloween at the headquarters, catching up on the latest news and enjoying one carefree night.
Benjy and Emmeline were leading Sirius, Peter, Remus, Lily and James around, introducing them to all people whom they had yet to meet. "That's Mad-Eye Moody, right there," Benjy said, pointing. "His eye creeps me out a bit…"
"Benjy!" Emmeline said sternly, "His real name is Alastor," she explained, "He's an amazing Auror. He's caught tons of dark wizards…"
Mad-Eye Moody turned, "Were you mentioning me, Fenwick?" he grunted.
"N-no, sir," Benjy said, nervously.
"We were just going to introduce our newest members to you, actually," Emmeline said.
"He can see through the back of his head," Benjy whispered into Sirius's ear.
Emmeline glanced at Benjy strictly, "Lily Evans, this is Alastor Moody. James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin…" Each person shook hands with Moody as they were introduced, "And Sirius Black." Moody raised his eyebrows slightly, and Sirius looked him defiantly in the eyes, or rather the eye, as the other of his eyes, a strange electric blue one, was whizzing around in every direction, and it was difficult for Sirius to follow it without feeling rather dizzy.
Moody gripped Sirius's hand firmly, however, and greeted him as politely as he had anybody else. "Benjy!" Alice was calling, "Come here and help me with these trays!"
"Sorry!" Benjy chirped, looking rather relieved to be rescued from Moody, "I'd better go help!"
Emmeline rolled her eyes and lead them over to the fireplace where several people were gathered, watching two young wizards with identical dark hair and faces demonstrate trick bookmarks, which proceeded to eat whatever book they were placed in.
"You've met Gideon and Fabian Prewett?" Emmeline asked, the marauders nodded and watched eagerly as the brothers advertised fake rolls of parchment which disappeared as soon as you touch them.
"Hello, James, mate!" Gideon called happily, "Sirius!" He slung an arm around Remus's neck and dragged them all over to the low coffee table where they were displaying a large number of magical pranks.
"Look at this!" Fabian exclaimed, showing them a map that would change the names of cities and countries around whenever you weren't looking, "Very useful little thing! I'll give it to you cheap!"
"Not right now, Fabian," Emmeline said, pulling them away. "Dinner is nearly ready, anyway," she added, looking disdainfully at the brothers' collection.
Everyone was quite used to the Prewett brothers' pranks and demonstrations. They'd originally been assigned to experiment with different defensive objects that the Order might be able to use, such as reliable shield charms and cheaper invisibility products, but they'd been sidetracked and were now considering a career in selling their newly invented merchandise. Everyone knew they weren't serious about this, however; the Prewetts were talented wizards and they were passionate about the Order. They'd only started the joke materials after they'd finished a whole line of protective gear with new spells on it that no one had even thought of countercharms for yet.
Besides, before this, the brothers had been assigned to track down Voldemort's spies using complicated spells to reveal disguised death eaters, and they'd begun writing a completely useless book on 101 ways to recognize a death eater. The book was useless because most of the 101 ways were things like 'tug their beards' or 'see if they've got the dark mark tattooed on their arm'. The brothers had decided to keep the real ways to recognize a death eater to themselves, one, because most of the charms included were much too difficult for your average citizen to perform and two, because if they'd explained the real ways, what would there be left for the Order to do? They'd considered selling their useless book too, but eventually they'd decided it was pointless and not particularly helpful to the Order so they'd done away with the idea and moved on to their next project.
"Enjoying yourselves?" Dumbledore asked, appearing behind them. Everyone nodded enthusiastically. People were beginning to edge toward the kitchen hopefully, and Sirius, after a furtive glance at their former headmaster had begun to sneak after them.
Catching him, Dumbledore laughed, "I won't keep you from your dinner…"
Mad-Eye Moody, however, it seemed would. He insisted that they all check the food carefully before eating it, so as to be sure it hadn't been poisoned by some rampaging death eater, and then just when they were about to sit down, Edgar Bones announced that since they were so seldom all gathered together they ought to properly document it. All of the less hungry people were in favor of this idea and soon everyone had been positioned in the great room. Someone found a camera, which Moody set up and they all were forced to smile and wave while picture after picture was taken.
Sirius was put between Dorcas Meadowes who was still holding a bowl of gravy which she'd been carrying to the table and Dumbledore's brother, Alberforth, who smelled strongly of goat dung. He ended up being very hungry while at the same time rather losing his appetite, and the whole thing made him a bit sick to his stomach, so he supposed he probably had a rather strange look on his face. All well, hopefully he'd never have to look at a copy of the picture…
A/N: I thought I'd add this in just for fun. When you're risking your life on a daily basis you need some humor, so I decided to give the marauders a break and put in a fun chapter... Thank you sososososososososo much to everyone who's reviewed and anyone who's even just read, though you might want to consider reviewing! Please? lol