A/N: The next chapter! Yay. Well it seems as if the subject most hated is between math and history. And a Chemistry. Personally, I hated Chemistry. But I love history, especially AP US. But I had a good teacher. I had several questions about Mad-Eye's appearance. Yes, he is supposed to be younger, I tried to make him appear younger, but I do think I made the mistake of him having the mad-eye. My apologies, but I think it really adds to his character, and I wanted to use it. Anyways, I have another poll, which my beta suggested. What kind of Harry Potter fanfics (or any fanfic) do you hate to read? So if you'd like to read and review and leave your answer in the review…that would be delightful. Well, enjoy!

Chapter Eight: The First Meeting

Lily entered her flat on the last day of July with the usual dizzying feeling she got after spending an evening with James. It was the day before she would begin her job, and she had been a complete nervous wreck. James, being the caring, loving fiancé he was, had invited her out for dinner when he had come home from his third day of training. He had been completely exhausted, but he had found the energy to be there for Lily when she needed him, and Lily was still smiling from the butterflies in her stomach the night had produced.

She let a yawn escape her mouth as she looked around her flat. Charlotte was away at a convention in Germany, something about getting the German wizards to cooperate with the French ones, and so far, it wasn't faring well. Lily almost felt relieved that she had chosen law over diplomatic work. The stories Charlotte came home with were enough to make Lily glad she only spoke one language fluently. Yes, magical law was sure to be an exciting and promising experience, and with these hopeful thoughts in her head, Lily was able to get to sleep quite easily.

The next morning Lily awoke to her alarm clock, and she scrambled out of bed to find her shower, her nerves for the morning had returned, and she was delighted to find an owl from James by the time she had made herself a bowl of porridge. She was having trouble getting the lumpy hot cereal down as it was.

My Lily,

Good morning, sunshine! I know you are already up…you probably got up an hour in advance just to make sure you wouldn't oversleep. Don't worry, Lily, you'll be great, because you are the most talented witch that the Ministry has ever laid eyes on. And you're beautiful too, so if the whole brilliant thing doesn't work out, just give them a wink. Kidding, love. They'll love you because you're one of the best people out there, I've never met anyone so loving and capable. So relax, you'll do fine.

I love you.

Your James

P.S. I want to see you tonight, so write me when you get off.

Lily smiled as she read the letter and then placed it on the counter. She took a deep breath and relaxed. James was absolutely wonderful. Nerves subsided; Lily ate and finished preparing for her first day as an intern.

Lily walked the halls of the Ministry of Magic was pure fascination. She had never been in the place with the Wizarding World's government took place, and it utterly excited her. It was a few minutes before eight, the time she was to meet with her mentor. She found the office her letter had guided her to and held her breath, watching the clock with anticipation as it ticked closer to eight. Her clock-watching was cut short by a small tap on her shoulder. Lily jumped in surprise and turned to see a young man facing her, smiling nervously.

He smiled at Lily's awkwardness and then he extended his hand.

"Hello, my name is Owen Scruggs. Are you a new intern?" he asked.

Lily nodded. Was this her mentor? He certainly didn't look old enough. He couldn't have been but a few years older than herself, he was tall, had neat, short dark brown hair, a thin, somewhat handsome face with piercing blue eyes.

He smiled kindly. "I thought so, you certainly look new…are you just out of school?"

Lily nodded shyly. "Yes, I just graduated from Hogwarts in June."

"You must be brilliant then, if Bones wanted you." he replied.

Lily raised her eyebrow and then looked down at her watch. It was a minute past eight. Lily inwardly cursed this man who had faltered her punctuality. She turned from him and knocked on the door.

She heard a woman's voice allow her to enter and Lily walked in.

A woman who couldn't have been over thirty-five smiled politely at her. She had short dark hair and thick eyebrows. She appeared to be a kind woman, and the peculiar monocle she had placed over her right eye gave her a wise expression.

"Please, take a seat, Miss Evans." she addressed Lily.

Lily smiled and then sat down in a chair in front of the woman's desk, the woman took the seat behind the desk and was about to say something when a knock came to the door.

"Come in." she said in a even, yet polite tone.

The young man Lily had met in the corridor entered, grinning shyly.

"Madam Bones, I have the papers you wanted on the Carrows." he said, focusing on Madam Bones and handing her a file of papers.

He backed out of the office in a quick manner and Madam Bones turned back to Lily.

"Owen Scruggs. He's a senior intern for me. He's rather brilliant, I prefer him than any other to do my paperwork, he's always very careful."

Lily nodded, and was keenly aware that she hadn't actually said a word yet to Madam Bones and wondering when the appropriate time would be to get a word in.

"So you're Miss Evans. Albus speaks most highly of you. I am expecting great things." Amelia started while going through a file on her desk.

Lily tried to peer over to get a look, but it was snapped shut almost immediately as Madam Bones began to talk.

"According to your references you should be absolutely brilliant. You will be expected to do background research for trials, you will be expected to attend trials, and you are to help me with any interview or other task I may need assistance with. The main object of your training as a junior intern will be to learn how the system works, what to do in certain situations, and how to prosecute and defend." She looked Lily over for a second and Lily impulsively smiled. "When I see that you are ready, you will be promoted to a senior intern. They do more work on their own and get more involved with the more dangerous cases. Then, you will take the steps to become a full time criminal lawyer. Once there, your opportunities are endless."

Lily nodded. "That all sounds very well, Madam Bones." she finally said, glad she had thought of at least one thing to say.

Madam Bones nodded. "I'll expect you to work Monday through Friday, nine to five, unless I need you to come in earlier, stay later, or I may need to call you in for an important task on a weekend. Do you agree to these terms?"

Lily nodded again. "Yes, I do."

"Alright then, I'll give you a tour of the office and the lobby, and then I'll show you your desk. Right now I'd just like you to go over the files of cases I'm working on at the moment so you know what we're working with. Then, I'll get you to organize some data for me." she continued with a sharp tone, but some how Lily didn't find her as threatening as some of her previous professors.

Madam Bones seemed likable, and Lily thought she could work with that.

"Lily, love! Glad you could make it!" Sirius exclaimed later that evening when Lily arrived at their flat. He opened his arms to her. "You deserve a hug, you intern, you!"

Lily laughed and then let Sirius give her a gigantic bear hug.

"Where's James?" Lily asked.

Sirius chuckled. "You both have such a one-tracked mind…'Is Lily here yet, Padfoot?'…'Where's James…' " After receiving a death glare from Lily, Sirius just smiled. "He's trying not to burn down the kitchen."

Lily nodded with a grin. "I better go and help him."

"Yeah, if we still want our flat that is. Personally, I've grown quite attached." Sirius replied sarcastically before checking his watch. "Well I better be off, see you two later!"

Before Lily could ask Sirius where he was going, James appeared from the kitchen, and to Lily's amusement, wearing an apron.

Lily began to laugh and James looked confused before looking down. Realizing what Lily was laughing at, his cheeks flushed slightly and he put his hands on his hips.

"I didn't want to get my clothes dirty!" he exclaimed, but his voice gave way to laughter and only joined Lily's.

Lily, as soon as she could keep a straight face, walked up to James and kissed his lips lightly.

"You look handsome, Precious." she said, grinning.

James smiled and then pulled her into a deeper kiss.

"You look beautiful too." He motioned towards the kitchen. "Now please, may I ask you to dine with me? And you can tell me all about your first day as an intern."

Lily grinned and nodded. "Yes, but please take off that apron first."

James pouted. "But I thought the pink brought out the color of my eyes…"

"Your eyes are hazel, James." Lily commented before laughing as James followed her into the dining room.

"That's beside the point." James stated, throwing the apron on the kitchen counter before pulling out a seat for Lily and then taking one for himself.

Lily looked at the table. It was covered with dishes of pot roast, ham, mashed potatoes, steak and kidney pie, green beans, and broccoli heads with a dish of mustard on the side.

"James did you make all this?" Lily asked in amazement.

James grinned. "I helped the house elves at my mother's when I got home from training. I just wanted to make sure the food was edible."

Lily laughed. "Then why were you wearing the apron?"

James pouted again. "I didn't want to risk getting my clothes dirty while setting up." Then, looking to distract Lily from the fact that he was wearing a pink apron he had borrowed from his mother's and forgotten to take off, pointed to the broccoli. "Look, I remembered you only ate broccoli heads and you dipped them in mustard."

Lily turned her attention to the broccoli and then smiled.

"I love you, James."

James grinned. "Well, I love you too."

The two smiled and then shared the details of their days, James listening first to Lily's first day as a junior intern, and then filling Lily in with the latest in his Elite Auror training. The topic of conversation had then moved over to the Order of the Phoenix meeting which was to take place the next night.

"Will you be off training by then?" Lily asked, remembering that James had to train on Saturdays as part of the Elite program.

James nodded. "Yes, I'll be done by six. Want to get a butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks before we go to the Hog's Head? That place can be quite…grungy."

Lily smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Sure, but how do you know what the Hog's Head looks like?"

James shrugged. "Sirius and I have been in there a few times…Peter and Remus too. It'll be the perfect place for a meeting…it's loud and there's a back room."

Lily nodded as butterflies entered her stomach, and she knew James was just as excited. Working for the Order to fight against Voldemort was something they had longed to do all summer, and now they'd finally have the chance.

The two finished eating; then ate cherry pie for dessert, and then James kissed Lily goodnight before she apparated back to her flat. James still had to be up early in the morning for training, after all, and Lily didn't want to keep him up too late.

James waited outside of The Three Broomsticks for Lily. It had been an exhausting day of training, Moody had seen to that, and he was dying to see Lily and to get a nice drink. He had owled Lily to tell her to meet him there at seven, and as he checked his watch, he realized that he had managed to be early.

Five minutes later, Lily appeared, beaming and looking as pretty as ever. Her hair was up in a loose bun with strands dangling by her face. James loved it when she wore he hair like that; it brought more attention to her beautiful eyes.

"Hello!" she said, smiling and giving James a kiss.

James smiled back at her. "Hi. You look stunning, could I buy you a drink?"

Lily raised her eyebrow playfully. "I don't know, I usually don't drink with strangers…"

"Not even real handsome ones?" James replied in the same relaxed manner.

"Well, there's always the exceptions." Lily stated putting her hand on her chin as she pretended to think hard, as if straining for a memory. "Like that bloke with the black mustache. He was absolutely captivating."

James pouted. "I'll just have to sit here and grow a mustache then."

Lily checked her watch. "Well we don't have time for that…I guess you can be an exception." she grinned and kissed James again and grabbed on to his hand, leading him to the pub.

Forty-five minutes later, James and Lily had two butterbeers each and Madam Rosmerta had insisted on them taking a pile of ham sandwiches, complete with a side of chips.

"Madam Rosmerta sure does like you." Lily commented as she patted her stomach lightly as she and James made their way down the street, walking towards the Hog's Head.

James held on to her hand and grinned. "No, she likes you. She never gave me such treatment until I started dating you. A free butterbeer now and then, but never ham sandwiches."

"So that's why you've dated me for so long…free ham sandwiches." Lily teased.

"Well, it's an added bonus." James replied, smiling all the same.

They followed the streets and James guided them to the Hog's Head, a place Lily could safely say she had never ventured to her entire Hogwarts career, if only because she had not the desire.

When they first walked into the stranger, less popular pub of Hogsmeade, Lily's immediate reaction was to grasp on to James for some sort of protection. That and to hold her nose. It had a dirty, old mildew smell about the place, and the customers of the Hog's Head were far grungier from anything generally allowed within the proximity of The Three Broomsticks.

James seemed to read Lily's mind. What was Dumbledore thinking, having them meet in this place, where all sorts of low-lives could hear supposed vital, confidential information.

"It's easy to blend in, to hide and carry on with secret information in here. It's so loud, and no one really pays any attention to you." James commented as they walked through the bar room, trying to find where they were supposed to meet.

Lily wasn't exactly sure what James meant about blending in, she knew she and James stuck out, looking young and wearing relatively clean clothes. And people were noticing them, she had seen creatures she had only read about in books staring at her in James, and it was making her uneasy.

The bartender seemed to know them, James at least as he beckoned them over to the bar.

James, not letting go of Lily, walked swiftly to the bar. The old man didn't say a word, but looked both of them over before motioning towards a door in the back. James nodded and followed to where the man had laid his eyes.

James gave a quick smile to Lily before turning an old knob that belonged to an even older looking door, which Lily noticed, you could barely see when in the bar.

They entered a room full of vacant chairs and tables, towards the back of the room was a statue of a witch with one eye.

James thought the witch looked awfully familiar and walked towards it, Lily trailing behind him, her mind racked with questions, while James's was filled with curiosity.

They reached the statue and a James smiled.

"Dumbledore is a clever man." he stated. Lily looked at the statue.

"There's one like that in Hogwarts!" She exclaimed as she recognized it. "But what is it doing here?"

James pulled out his wand and Lily watched him.

"Wha—" Lily began to ask, but James silenced her.

"Hold on to the statue." he said, smiling at Dumbledore's ingenious.

Lily looked at him with eyebrows raised but did as he said.

"Dissendium." James said with his voice only slightly above a whisper, one hand holding on to his wand with the other holding on to Lily.

A jerk was felt in James's and Lily's stomachs as their world went black.

Lily, who had never used a portkey was not used to the tugging sensation at her belly button, but was clever enough to guess what it was and where it was taking her.

She and James appeared at a classroom door. It was one on the third floor that was usually unused.

Lily smiled at James. "You're explaining this to me as soon as this is over."

James nodded and then opened the door for her before quickly following behind her.

The room was full of wizards and witches sitting in chairs, standing by the walls with heads together, talking. Most heads managed to turn to the door as Lily and James walked in however, and Lily found her cheeks tinged with pink due to the attention brought to herself and James yet another time that evening. The chatter almost immediately resumed once James waved and the people staring found it necessary to turn back to their conversations, it was rude to stare, after all.

Lily saw Emmeline Vance, Grace, and Remus standing in the corner, looking slightly out of place and unsure of what to do. She pulled James over to the obviously new members.

"Hey!" Lily greeted, smiling and then looking back at the crowd of people before turning back to the three people standing in front of her and the one standing beside her.

"Hi." Remus smiled. "Haven't seen you in a while, Lily, and James, I'm glad you remembered the password. Grace and I happened to run in to Emmeline here, so we were able to get in. I hope Peter remembers…"

James chuckled. "I knew the days of us sneaking around this castle would pay off."

Lily sighed. "So is this the first meeting you all have been to?"

Emmeline spoke up.

"Yes, I just replied to the invitation after getting my results."

Her tone was even, but she spoke rather quickly, as if she was anxious.

Grace then nodded as she joined the conversation. Lily found that she didn't speak much, and she wondered how the relationship between her and Remus faired. Hopefully better than his and Ellie's had.

"It's ours too. I'm so nervous. We're basically signing up for the war effort, we're putting our lives at stake for the better of something. It's nerve racking!"

"Yet thrilling all the same." James commented as he put an arm around Lily's waist and smiled.

Their attention was soon turned to the door, as Sirius and Peter came bounding in.

"Bloody idiot! How bloody thick are you? We've used that password for years!" Sirius exclaimed as they walked through to Peter, who appeared to have forgotten the password to the statue. The two also seemed to not realize that all eyes were on themselves.

Sirius straightened up once he noticed the attention they were receiving and tapped Peter, who was mumbling his useless excuses. Sirius just gave a charming smile and waved, whereas Peter gulped and shifted nervously.

"Good evening, Mr. Black, Mr. Pettigrew." Professor Dumbledore stated in his usual calm and steady tone that could call attention to crowds with a simple word. His eyes were twinkling characteristically through his half-moon spectacles, he smiled at the crowd. "Now that everyone's here, we may begin."

Lily's eyebrows shot up, and she looked at James, who looked around the room, making sure he hadn't missed anyone, and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing she was.

Where were Jacob and Allison?

Thanks to: Sappy1990, dreamergirl86, glowing-ice, scooter5910, myzteek, KTSweep08, anonymously morgan, chikichiki, Forest Unicorn, Kaean, Jude Harrison, maraudergirl87, zippy-wings, and Sharp Tongued!

And of course, my wonderful beta, hcgolfinfool. By the way, I thought about what you said about changing it from Madam Rosmerta to someone else, as you think she's too young. Well, I've always thought that too, but in book 3 she talks about how she used to always see Sirius and James..."The number of times I had them in here...".. .she just makes it sound like she was older than they were. Although she couldn't have been that much older, I mean, Ron fancied her. I've never really understood her age, but I used her in The Tragic Flaw, so I kept her. Thanks for your input though.