Last Chance
Chapter Eight: A First for Everything
Wednesday night came quickly. James had spoken to Sirius Remus, and Peter, and they had agreed to attend the meeting with Dumbledore, but Peter hadn't seemed as keen to join the Order as the others had been. Lily had convinced Daniela, Madeline, and Lydia to go, as well as Alice Prewett and Frank Longbottom.
They trooped up to the third floor and gave the gargoyle the password. Lily's friends gasped as the statue sprung to life and hopped aside so they could pass; the Marauders seemed unfazed.
"Exactly how many times have you been up here?" Maddie whispered to Sirius.
"Oh about," he thought for a moment, "forty-seven times."
Maddie laughed.
"And that's only when we've gotten in trouble." he added.
They reached the immense double doors that lead to the headmaster's office, and James reached out a fist and knocked on the door a few times.
Dumbledore's voice echoed from within the office. "Entre,"
The doors opened, and once the group was inside, they shut again with a dull thud.
"Welcome." Dumbledore said merrily from behind his desk. "Please, sit." Lily noticed then that there were now ten chairs on their side of the desk.
When everyone was seated and comfortable, Dumbledore folded his hands in front of him and said, "Thank you all for coming. I trust Miss Evans and Mr. Potter explained the purpose of this meeting?"
James and Lily nodded.
"Good." Dumbledore continued. "Now, I want you to realize that by joining the Order of the Phoenix you will be risking your lives. If you are unsure about joining our ranks, please desist. I do not want you in harm's way if you do not wish to be." He glanced pointedly at Peter. "Now, those of you that wish to join us, please sign this parchment." Dumbledore waved his wand and an ornate scroll appeared on the desk. It seemed blank but when James lowered his quill to sign at the top, the point of the quill would not touch the parchment.
"More toward the middle of the page James." Dumbledore said. James moved his quill halfway down the page, "There is fine." James nodded and signed his name.
"Er, why didn't it show up?" Sirius asked, confused.
James glanced at the scroll. "What are you talking about, Padfoot? It's right there."
Dumbledore cleared his throat, "Your turn, Miss Evans."
He indicated where she should sign, and Lily gasped as James's name appeared in perfect cursive above her own signature, along with the names of many others.
"Brilliant," she whispered.
"Why, thank you, Lily." Dumbledore smiled. "My own invention. Only those that have already signed can see the names of the Order's members. And, so that the previous signers' names are not obliterated, I have charmed the parchment so that it does not allow one to sign over the name of another."
James took a second glance at the parchment and noticed that he could now see thirty signatures above his own.
"Me next!" Sirius said as he took the quill from Lily, who rolled her eyes. Remus signed after Sirius followed by Lydia, Madeline, Daniela, Frank, and Alice. Peter was the last to sign, and he did so very slowly, as if he were unsure about his decision.
"The last order of business," Dumbledore said, "is to give you all your badges." He rose from his desk and in a flash he was standing before James's chair. "Hold out your hand please, Mr. Potter." James held his hand out to the Headmaster. Dumbledore placed the tip of his wand in James's palm and for a moment nothing happened. Then, slowly, something silver began to materialize in James's hand. When Dumbledore moved his wand away from, there was a small metal object where it had been touching the skin. James picked it up and turned it so that it caught the light of one of the burning torches on the wall. It was a tiny silver phoenix.
Dumbledore did the same with the rest of the new Order members. "Now, I want you to keep these badges on your person at all times, but you must keep them out of sight. When there is a meeting the badges will become cold, and they will turn blue. All meetings will begin at ten o'clock in the evening. When the badge changes colour, you will have exactly one hour before you are automatically transported to the location of our meeting, because it works as a portkey as well. If you are needed for anything else Order-related, the badge will burn red. If ever that should happen, you are to report here, to my office, before you go anywhere else. Do you all understand that?"
Ten heads nodded.
"Excellent. Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix. You may return to your common rooms now. Goodnight." Dumbledore stood by the door and shook their hands as they walked by and stepped onto the spiral staircase.
At the gargoyle James and Lily split away from their friends and headed for the Heads' dormitories.
Two weeks seemed to fly by as the students settled into the familiar lives of studying and Quidditch. Lily was amazed that she had actually caught glimpses of James studying for their charms class.
James and Lily had fallen into a strange pattern of waiting for each other in the mornings, and going to breakfast together. Their friends – and the rest of the school, teachers included – were amazed that they had not yet had a fight. Lily was trying to be friendly without getting too close to James. She could still feel her heartbeat quicken unexpectedly whenever he came within two feet of her.
And on Saturday morning, they did the same thing. When Lily stepped out of her room, ready for the weekend, James was there. He was leaning casually against the railing, staring down at the common room below. When Lily shut her door behind her James quickly turned to face her. "Morning, Lils." he said gleefully with one of his crooked grins.
"Morning," Lily said. She was preoccupied with what she had just seen. When James had turned to greet her she had noticed that his eyes seemed a bit duller. It was as if some great inner conflict was raging behind them.
She quickly shook the thought from her mind, and followed James down the stairs and all the way to the Great Hall, where they took their seats among their friends.
"Breakfast!" Sirius said as he came in and plopped himself down on the bench next to James.
"Quidditch tryouts!" James said, thinking that Sirius might have forgotten.
"Damn." James had been correct. "Hey Moony, are you going to try out this year?" Sirius asked.
"I don't think so." Remus shook his head. He never bothered trying out for the house Quidditch team, because he always considered himself the bookish Marauder, and thought that it would be best to leave the athletic business to James and Sirius.
"Why not?" Sirius pouted.
"Please, you've seen me fly. I'm probably worse than Wormtail!"
Everyone at the table snorted with laughter.
"What about you Lily?" James said. Lily noticed that his eyes were still dull.
"I think I'll leave the flying to Maddie." she laughed.
After breakfast Sirius, James, and Madeline trudged off to the locker rooms to change into their Quidditch robes. The others made their way to the Quidditch pitch to watch the tryouts. They may not have been joining the team, but they still wanted to watch the tryouts (and occasionally laugh at the hopefuls' failed attempts to impress James, the captain).
The five of them settled into the stands just as the current team members filed onto the field. James had apparently magnified his voice so that it could be heard loud and clear by those at the back of the exceedingly large crowd of people that had gathered on the field, because a moment later he could be heard throughout the stadium. "IF YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER OF GRYFFINDOR HOUSE, PLEASE LEAVE THE FIELD." Lily broke into a fit of laughter as twelve Ravenclaw students (mostly girls), ten Hufflepuffs (also mostly girls) and three Slytherin girls began giggling hysterically, grabbed their brooms and happily left the field to join those in the stands.
"FIRST YEARS PLEASE LEAVE THE QUIDDITCH PITCH, AS WELL." He seemed somewhat annoyed as what seemed like all of the Gryffindor first years retreated to the stands. "NOW, THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE LEGITIMATELY ABLE TO TRYOUT, PLEASE SEPARATE INTO GROUPS: CHASERS BY THE FAR GOAL POSTS, BEATERS BY THE NEAR GOAL POSTS, KEEPERS BY THE LOCKER ROOM AND SEEKERS BY ME."
There was a great rumbling of feet as the somewhat smaller crowd separated into four groups. Obviously, the seekers would be tried first. The last seeker had been a seventh year and had moved on to the "real world" as the adults would have put it. James released the snitch and timed each hopeful while they searched for and caught the small golden ball. In the end, the one with the best time was Riley O'Malley, and she was chosen for the team and given a set of Gryffindor Quidditch robes.
Next up were the chasers. Sirius tried out first (James thought that it was unfair to automatically keep previous team members when there may be other, even better, players out there that deserved a chance). There were only two chaser positions open on the team because James himself was a chaser. When the last hopeful had completed their task, James chose Sirius and a small third year by the name of Thomas was kept as the Gryffindor keeper, and two muscular fifth years called Billy Roman and Jeffery Lowe were chosen to be the new beaters.
After the tryouts the newly picked Gryffindor Quidditch team left for the locker room to receive a pep talk from James, and the immense crowd in the stands, and those left on the field, made their way back to the school.
Later that night Lily and James returned to their common room after two long hours of patrolling. James was fighting with his own mind. Kiss her, damn it! it said forcefully. What if it only makes her hate me again?
Hello? Don't you remember what Dumbledore told you on your first night back? He told you not to give up.
I suppose you have a point. But-
"James?"
He startled slightly. "Hmm?"
Lily was growing increasingly worried about James. "You've been a bit," she paused, searching for the right word, "distant lately. Is something wrong?"
"Wrong?" James decided it would be best to follow his heart as Dumbledore had told him. "Why would anything be wrong? I've spent almost seven years chasing after you and we've only just progressed to being friends. I love you, Lily, and I'm afraid that being just friends isn't good enough for me." He said sadly.
Unfortunately, James telling her his troubles did nothing for her nerves. "Oh, come on, James," she said nervously, "I'm not that great."
"See, that's another problem Lils. You don't even see your own worth, so you'll never be able to see mine. At this rate we'll always be just friends." James turned his back on Lily.
She reached out to touch his shoulder, but before she knew it James had her back pressed up against the wall. "I can't take this anymore." His voice was low, a growl, but not threatening.
"James I-" Lily was cut off abruptly by the force of James's lips upon her own. Unintentionally, her eyes closed. Lily hated to admit it, but James was an excellent kisser, and she was slightly disappointed when he pulled away.
"I can't." he said. Lily watched as he climbed the stairs. From the butterflies in her stomach Lily knew that this was all her fault.
"I love you, too." She mouthed to his retreating back.
[A/N]: Review, please. :]