That night, Heather had gone to her parent's room, only to find it exactly the way it usually was. She had avoided it till now, deciding that she needed to get over it. Neat and tidy, not a thing out of place. She collapsed to her knees remembering that he had killed them in their sleep, or so the Ministry thought. She could just imagine them peacefully in bed, waiting for the next day. She imagined the wards going off, and her father getting up to check on them, only to be struck down by Voldemort out in the living room. Their mother hearing no noise kept on reading, until footsteps came alerting her to someone's approach. Before she could reach for her wand, she too had been struck dead. Her father's body moved back to the bed, the book removed and discarded. Unconsciously Heather moved over to the place she imagined the book to be, and found one laying tossed carelessly on the floor. She looked at the cover; the title read Blood Magic: Spells and Wards. As she looked through the pages, she came upon the wards. There were several, one in particular caught her eye. It didn't need an incantation; however, it required the sacrifice of a loved one. The one who killed the loved one, would not be able to touch the one who had been warded. Heather realized how the boy in the dreams survived; Lily had used this particular blood ward. She had to show this to her. Maybe it would come useful in the future.
"Heather, are you alright?" a masculine voice said from behind her. She instinctively knew it was Sirius, he'd followed her anyway.
"Yeah, just thinking about how mine and James' parents died. I thought it was fishy, because Mum and Dad don't usually go to sleep till about 11 o'clock. The autopsy reports said that they died at 9 o'clock. They didn't die in their sleep, this book proves it. He didn't want the evidence to be found, so he moved Dad back to the bed, and moved this book." She said holding it up.
"Blood Magic: Spells and Wards. Heather, why would your mom be reading this type of stuff?"
"I suspect it has to do with the war" Heather answered honestly; she couldn't lie to her boyfriend. She really hoped it wouldn't stay just that, perhaps go farther.
"You ran off before I could ask you the question that's been burning in my mind for a few months now." He interrupted her thoughts.
"What is it?" she was crying just a little bit, hurt at what Voldemort had done.
"Heather Marie Potter, will you make me the happiest man in the world?" he asked. Realizing that she was not getting what he was leading onto he said, "Will you marry me?" Shocked at the statement, she stared at him with wide eyes for quite a few moments she hadn't quite realized what he actually said.
"Heather, are you okay in there?" he asked.
"Did . . . did you . . . just ask me to marry you?" she stuttered. He nodded, "Then my answer is yes, Sirius Black, I love you, you know that." He began to stutter out incoherent words, before opening a small box that he had pulled out just after asking her. He stopped stuttering, and put the ring on her finger, just before footsteps signaled someone's approach. They watched as James Potter appeared in the doorway, looking a little winded.
"D . . . Dumbledore . . . sent me to . . . get you." James said.
"Both of us?" Sirius asked, amused that his soon-to-be brother-in-law hadn't noticed the ring on his sister's finger.
"Yeah, both of you, we're to meet in his office, password's Blood Pop." James panted out. The young adult ran out, and they quickly followed him. Once in the living room, they Apparated to Hogsmeade and walked up to Hogwarts. Other than the odd absence of students, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That is until they reached halfway there.
"Stop." Sirius said, she obeyed, and they heard footsteps.
"Expecto Patronum!" Heather said, focusing on the memory that had happened not too long ago, Sirius proposing. A big dog appeared and waited for them.
"Go to Dumbledore; relay the message, out on Hogwarts grounds, might have someone following us." The dog seemed to bark, and then took off, minutes later the 'footsteps' came into view. A group of ten people in black robes were attempting to sneak into Hogwarts, once they were noticed; however, they began to fire off spells. The young couple fought to keep the group from advancing.
"Stupefy." Heather said, knocking a Death Eater unconscious
"Sectumsempra!" a familiar voice yelled.
"Protego" yelled Sirius erecting a Shield Charm to prevent it from hitting his fiancé. The curse bounced off harmlessly. "Hey Snivellus, how ya doin'?" He asked.
"Shut up Black, or I'll kill your girlfriend, right here, right now." Snape said, his cover ruined, he tore off his mask, and continued to assault Sirius with a variety of hexes and curses.
"Always knew you'd end up like this, Snivellus." Sirius taunted him.
" Avada . . ."
"Stupefy! Incarcerous Petrificus Totalus!" The three spells that seemingly came from nowhere, hit Snape and rendered him unable to move, if only for a second. One of his buddies cast the countercharms, and he got back up. The group of 9 that were left quickly ran as Albus Dumbledore approached.
"I am going to kill him the next time I see him, he was about to kill her." Sirius was saying to James, who'd arrived with Dumbledore.
"You could have used the Floo; you would have come into the Great Hall." James said, "But you had no idea he was sending them to attack, but I think they wanted to infiltrate the school, and try to do something else."
"Enough James, now to my office." Dumbledore said. After sending the unconscious body to the Ministry, they continued to the office. When they arrived, they saw something completely different from what they expected. It was crammed full of people. James led them to the area where Remus, Hermione, Lily, and Peter were all sitting.
"Well, you are probably wondering why I have called you all here." Murmurs went throughout the room. "For several months, I have been deciding that since the Ministry is incapable of dealing with the current situation, we need to take matters into our own hands. I have called all of you here to ask if you would join a resistance force. If there are any who do not wish to join at this present moment, then please, you are free to go." Dumbledore announced, however, no one moved.
"What would this organization be called?" a person, who Heather had never seen before, said.
"I propose . . ." Dumbledore started but was soon interrupted.
"How about the Order of the Phoenix ?" Heather spoke up. Everyone looked to her for an explanation. "You see, phoenixes are known to symbolize light, and we are essentially the light side of this war."
"Very good suggestion, very good suggestion." Dumbledore said. Everyone seemed to agree. "So we are to be called the Order of the Phoenix ? Everyone who agrees, please raise your hand." Over half the room, almost all of it accepted the name. Peter was one who disagreed. James had said that Peter didn't want to come, but eventually came due to the constant badgering.
"Any reasons?" When they shook they're heads, Heather felt it was probably because they just couldn't come up with a better. The funny thing was that the name had just sprung out of her memory. Heather listened back into the smaller group's conversation, just in time to see Lily look at the ring on her hand.
"Talk to you later about it, not right now." Heather whispered, knowing that Lily would hear. She nudged her head toward James, and Lily understood. The meeting, as Dumbledore officially called it lasted for about 10 more minutes, during which they were given instructions not to let anyone else know about this group until it gets fully underway. Sirius and Heather were the first to leave followed by Lily.
"Ready to go?" Sirius asked.
"Not quite yet, Lily saw, she's going to question me about it." Heather replied, giving her fiancé a kiss, "I'll meet you in the Great Hall." Sirius didn't question that, and headed off to the aforementioned place. Lily finally caught up to Heather a few minutes later.
"Damn it's only been half a day and I've already forgotten how long these corridors are." Lily said, Heather had to laugh outright at that.
"You wanted to know about this right?" Heather said pointing to her ring. Lily nodded. "You can't tell James yet, we want to wait until he notices it, but Sirius proposed to me."
"Are you serious?"
"No, I believe that would be my fiancé." said Heather. They cracked up at that, remembering how Sirius responded to that particular question.
"Go catch up with him then, we'll have fun tomorrow just us and Hermione. A girl's day out."
"Give the guys a day to figure out how to prank us, I'm in, they'll never conquer us."
"Oh, but they've already started."
"Not my fault I actually did fall in love with him that day on the train. I'm going to go, James is coming." Before Lily could protest Heather had run down the hall. James approached his girlfriend.
"What was that about?"
"I really can't tell you, but, you and the boys will get tomorrow to try to figure out how to prank us girls, trust me, you'll try and you'll fail." James looked at her before speaking.
"When I briefly saw Heather earlier, she looked like she had been crying, you don't think Sirius . . ."
"NO I DON'T!" yelled Lily, "She was upset at something, and then Sirius comforted her . . ."
"I'm going to go home and talk to her, see you tomorrow Lilyflower?" James asked.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Lily said, watching her boyfriend follow the steps that his sister did.
"Ready to go home?" Sirius asked.
"Yes, I have a feeling James wants to talk so we'd better hurry up." Heather said looking behind her. She could hear footsteps nearby, and wanted to stay away from her brother till the next morning.
"Okay, I believe I nicked some Floo Powder before I came to you earlier." Sirius said holding up the bag of Floo Powder that came from Potter Manor. They walked over to the fireplace, and Heather took a bit of the powder. She threw it in, and stepped in saying the name. She briefly saw her fiancé before she was rushed away from Hogwarts.
The next she knew she had stepped out of the fireplace in Potter Manor. She turned around, and watched as the flames roared, and literally spat Sirius out onto the floor, or rather on top of her. They weren't there for very long as the flames roared again letting James Potter step out of the fireplace.
"Heather, are you all right?" he asked, spotting her as she was dusting herself off.
"Yeah, just Sirius' bad landing out of the fireplace." She said.
"No I meant when I came to collect you both for the Order meeting earlier."
"Oh, I was just imagining what might of happened when V . . . Voldemort killed Mum and Dad." She explained, "I found a book, that he had tossed aside after killing Mum and . . ." She broke off, tears trailing in her eyes, once more.
"Okay, I just . . ." James started, and then catching the glare of the light off her ring. "What is that light?" Heather blushed, and moved her hand behind her back. Once the glare was gone, he looked around.
"James, what light do you mean?"
"It looked more like a glare. What did you have that caused it?" he said.
"You actually didn't see it during the meeting Prongs?"
"She had it during the meeting?" Heather pulled her hand out from behind her back while she and Sirius were trying not to laugh. Seeing the ring, his face became one of puzzlement for a moment, and then it dawned on him what had caused that glare.
"Where did you get that ring?" James asked, he didn't notice the tears of mirth running down their faces. That finally burst it and they fell to the ground. "Really, where did you get it?"
"James, are you . . ."
"Never mind, I . . ."
"Sirius Black, don't you dare?" Heather said keeping him from spilling, "I am going to tell him as he is my brother!" James looking worried at the two opened his mouth to say something.
"What is . . ." he was cut off by more laughing from Sirius, who apparently couldn't keep it in.
"James, well, you see, when you came up to Mum and Dad's room earlier, you'd just missed it. We're getting . . ."
"Sirius Black, you arrogant little . . . how dare you not tell me. We're friends!"
"N . . . not my fault!" he said, while trying to stop laughing.
"James, Sirius and I are getting married." Heather said. Time seemed to stop for that one moment, and then James turned to Sirius.
"Padfoot!" he said before changing into his Animagus form and chasing after the black dog that had taken Sirius' place. The next thing Heather knew, she heard several things fall over before the two re-entered the room with Sirius hiding under the couch. The James seemed to realize that he couldn't get him, so he turned back into a human.
"James Potter! I thought you'd actually be glad that he was going to become your brother-in-law!" Heather said, James ran from the room, as he, along with everyone else knew that you did not get Heather Potter mad. A few minutes later, however, she calmed down, and Sirius climbed out from under the couch. He re-transformed, and walked over to her.
"Sorry about that, you know how he gets when secrets are kept from him." He said.
"Yeah, somehow, I have a feeling Dumbledore's keeping more secrets than its worth trying to ask." Heather said, "And one of them happens to deal with me, Hermione, and Haley."
"Why would there be any secrets?"
"Well, explain how he seems to look away every time someone asks him about how we got to Hogwarts, I mean, it is very suspicious isn't it?" She said.
"I'll admit, when you arrived on the front gates, it looked like you had apparated, but everyone knows that you can't apparate onto the Hogwarts grounds." Sirius said, "Your magic could have overrode the wards temporally and allowed you to, though. Don't think about it, let's get some sleep, and then you get to go do what you want tomorrow. We'll also need to think of a date for the wedding."
The next day, Heather woke up to some kind of noise downstairs. She quickly dressed, and headed down to the kitchen, where she figured the noise was coming from. As she neared the kitchen, she noticed that the noise got lower, and lower, until she couldn't hear anything. As she walked through the door, she found the kitchen a complete disaster, and sitting in the middle of the mess, was Sirius.
"What did you do this time?" she asked.
"Well, I . . . er . . . tried to make breakfast, and made a mess instead." He said.
"That is why we never let you near a stove." Heather pointed out, "Let alone near the food while it is being prepared." She had to muffle a laugh though, as it was pretty funny.
"So, miss I know what I'm doing, care to help me make something?" he asked. She gave him a sympathetic look, before walking over to the fridge. She pulled out several items before turning to him. She set the stuff on the counter, before pulling out her wand, and enchanting it to cook the food.
"W . . . what was that?"
"That is the simple solution to an idiots mess, let magic take care of it. Now, go take a shower, and wake up James, will ya? I've got to watch this and make sure I did the charm correctly." Heather said.
It was about a half-an-hour later, when James and Sirius walked in. Sirius looked defeated in a way that only James could have made him be defeated in.
". . . and that is why you never try to prank me while I'm sleeping, I'll exact my revenge at the point of being woken up." James finished saying. Heather had the charm serve the food, and begin to clean the dishes. She sat down at the table, and regretted it almost immediately. The chair went out from beneath her, and started hitting her on the head.
"James! Sirius! Get this chair away from me!" she screamed.
"Oops, forgot about that, sorry sis, that's been there for a year, I put it there last summer." James said. He pulled out his wand and used the counter for it. The chair fell down to the ground and broke apart.
"Reparo." Heather muttered fixing the chair. She pulled it up beside the table, and sat down to eat. A few minutes later, she finished and put her dishes in the sink.
"I'm headed over to Lily's house, and then we're going to collect Hermione from Remus' place. At least that's where she said she would be staying." Heather said. The two men nodded, and she left the kitchen.
"Let stage two begin." James said under his breath.
"Stage Two?" Sirius asked.
"The chair was only enchanted for a few minutes, I seem to remember mom telling me to take that off at the end of summer. I did, and then while she was fixing breakfast I put it back on." James whispered, hoping his sister was far enough away.
"James, you are cruel you know that." Sirius said, "I'm planning on looking for a place for me and Heather to look into."
"And ruin our day that they're giving us to prank them?" James asked.
"First, prank, second, other things. It's the Marauder's code. I'll never forget it." Sirius said. James looked at him oddly.
"What is going on in that head of yours?" he asked. The young man just simply laughed.
"James, you should know by now shouldn't you?" Sirius asked. He walked out of the room, leaving a very stunned James Potter behind.