Lisa: here ya go guys, we're skippin' ahead a bit. I hope no one minds but I spent three chapters on one day and I'm not gonna do it again.

Heather: All unanswered questions will get answered, even though I don't really know if there were any...

Lisa: I don't remember either. Oh well if there were I'm sure I'll answer it eventually. But here is the next installment of this thrilling and exiting story I've got goin' on here.

The Reality of War

"But I don't even know what this… whatever it is, is." Sirius complained as his friends drug him into the building. He went with them, but that didn't mean he was happy about going with them.

"Oh, it's fun Padfoot." James said as he walked up to the counter. "Uh… two lanes for… three games please." He said and handed the man some Muggle money.

He took the money, counted it up and handed the change to James. "Right, go to lanes four and five, they're open." He said in a gruff voice, motioning over to the end of the alley with a pen in his hand. "You got shoes?"

"Yes, Sir, we do." James said with a polite smile. "Thanks."

All eight of them walked down to the end where lanes four and five sat. he sat down at the table and began writing on a scoring sheet. "Now I don't want any cheating." He said as he wrote down their names on the paper. "So I'm gonna take care of all the scoring, in pen." He said holding up the pen in his hand. "It'll be guys verses girls."

"Just as a heads up, ladies." Andy said looking to her female friends. "I suck at bowling, big time."

"I doubt I'm any better." Laura said as she looked at a bright pink ball that sat on the rack, she pointed to it. "I want that one."

"Come on guys, bring your feet over here." He said looking around to make sure no one was watching. "Like hell I'm paying for shoe rental." Using his wand as discreetly as possible he transformed his own shoes into bowling shoes along with everyone else's.

"My shoes are slippery, I want my boots." Sirius complained, normally he wore a pair of heavy duty combat looking boots, he said they matched his motorcycle. But now, his boots had become slick and clean bowling shoes.

"You can't bowl in boots." James said rolling his eyes, apparently he seemed to be the only one here who was at least halfway decent at bowling, this was going to be a long game.

"Okay, are we gonna bowl or just stand around here chit chatting all day?" Lily asked picking up a purple bowling ball from the rack.

"Flower, if you want to go first – " James said but was cut off as Lily's ball went sliding down the lane and knocking down every single pin.

She turned around and winked at them, upon seeing their expressions she narrowed her eyes and grinned. "What? I'm a Muggle born remember? Mum and dad are quite fond of the game."

"Oh sweet!" Andy exclaimed as she pumped her fist in the air and then high fived Heather. "We got a pro on our team!"

"I love you Lil, you know that right?" Heather asking, praising her red headed friend.

Remus sighed and shook his head as he watched the girls rejoice having Lily on their team. Then he stole a glance at Sirius who was studying his ball intently. "This," he began. "Is going to be a long and painful game."

"Why is it so damn heavy?" Sirius cried out as he lifted a ball off the rack and carried it over to his seat. As he sat down he stared at it in wonder and curiosity.

"Padfoot," James said with a furrowed brow as he watched him examine the ball. "You graduated Hogwarts as one of the top students. In fact you were top in potions-"

"Under Snivillus." Sirius growled glancing up for a moment at James and then back down at the ball.

"You're telling me you can't figure out a bowling ball?"

"Nope."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

It was about an hour later, the girls were whooping them. This was mainly because Lily had rarely not gotten a strike or picked up the spares. Andy was true to her word, she was quite bad at the game, at one point she just sat down and pushed it down the lane, she actually knocked down five pins doing so. Laura was along the same lines, she seemed more interested in no one else using her pink ball then anything. Heather was better then the two, but was no where near up to Lily's standards.

The boys… well, lets just say James was the only one doing anywhere near decent. Sirius was possibly the worst bowler on the face of the earth, he got more gutter balls then all of them combined. Remus wasn't exactly horrible, but he wasn't exactly ready for the pro's neither, same went for Peter. He was surprisingly good, or, he did better then they all thought he would.

They were nearing the end of their game when Lily walked over and sat next to James who held his head low in his hands. "Are we being a sore loser?" She asked playfully with a smile.

"If I had known… that you were this good, I would have versed couples." He replied looking up at her.

"Well we're getting married in two weeks. I thought it was about time you saw what I was really capable of."

"No, you just wanted a break from wedding planning."

She laughed slightly. "Maybe I did, or maybe I didn't." Giggling she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "My turn."

Lily walked up to the front and picked up her purple ball. From the sidelines James watched her knock down eight of the pins. It would be easy for her to pick up the spares on this one.

James felt someone else plop down next to him and looked over to see Remus, his turn had just ended and now Sirius was up. "Having fun?" Remus asked with a smirk on his face, obviously sensing James's annoyance with how well the girls were doing, or rather how well the girl was doing.

"Shove off." James said and smacked Remus on the arm.

"Oh come on," He said and put his arm over the seat. "You're having fun, you know it."

"We're verseing couples next time." James repeated.

"Well, I dunno how much Heather would like that, or Peter, or Laura or Sirius…" Remus started ranted on. "But I'm sure me and Andy could play a game with you and Lils sometime."

"What the hell!"

Remus jumped in his seat with wide eyes. "That wasn't exactly the response I was expecting." He said staring at his friend in confusion.

"No, Moody, he sent me a message." He said and reached down to his leg, around the area of his pocket. "You know he said if we're in a Muggle area and he can't get a hold of us through patronus, he'd shock us? I thought he was kidding."

"He actually shocked you? Bloody hell!" Remus said and clasped his hand over his pocket. "He shocked me!"

There was a small screech from up at the lanes. They two boys looked up to see Laura clutching her leg, in the same spot James had received his shock. "I just got shocked!" She whined.

Over the next thirty seconds or so the two boys watched as the rest of their friends receive a shock in the leg. By now they had gathered a bit of attention from the people surrounding them. "Just a little… static electricity is all…" Lily smiled sheepishly to the crowd around them. "Nothing more to see." She finished.

The eight of them walked over to the table and sat there for a moment in silence before Andy broke it. "Now what the hell was that?" She asked.

"Don't you remember what Moody said?" Remus asked her in a low voice.

"No." She answered quickly as if this answer were obvious. "If I did then I wouldn't be asking this question, now would I?"

"He said if he had to get on contact with us but couldn't send a patronus then he would give us a small shock in the leg. Now we have to report to HQ." he explained.

"Small shock?" Sirius asked disbelievingly. "That was not small, mate."

"Well none the less." James began. "It means we have to report to HQ now."

"Can't we just finish the game?" Heather pleaded leaning over on the table slightly.

Remus shook his head. "No, we have to report to HQ."

"You lot only want to finish because you're winning." Peter grunted at them with a sour face.

"Maybe." Heather smiled and upon getting no further response she stood up and walked over to the lane to finish off the game.

The boys sighed heavily but continued to play the game. It was a very good thing they only had a few minutes left. They just hoped that the entire wizarding world wasn't at war while they were playing this game and when they walked out everyone would be dead.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

About fifteen minutes later the eight of them walked up the stairs of the order HQ. James knocked on the door and in seconds the door opened to reveal Moody, he must have looked through the door and known it was them. "What are all your patronus's." He asked, it was a new question every time they showed up. They were wondering when he would run out.

"Big dog." Sirius said automatically, not bothering to ever figure out the breed of his patronus.

"Cat." Laura said meekly from the back.

"German Sheppard." Heather said tiredly.

"Wolf." Remus said.

"Same here, wolf." Andy said, it would be fairly obvious what theirs would be.

"Rat." Peter answered.

"Doe." Lily said from where she stood next to James.

"A stag." James answered.

Moody nodded his head and opened the door fully for them. "Very well, come on, you're late. I messaged you seventeen minutes ago. When I call you, you come immediately regardless what you're doing." He growled as he walked down the long hallway.

"We were in a Muggle area; we couldn't just drop what we were doing." Heather said rolling her eyes.

"Besides, those last two minutes were taken up for your little interrogation." Sirius murmured under his breath, but he had the suspicion Moody heard him and was glaring at him with his magical eye.

When they walked in the main room they saw many of their fellow Order members with their heads down on the table. They were all comforting one another and there were few who weren't crying at the table.

"Oh…" McGonagall said as she spotted them enter, she gave all of them a quick hug, as if to comfort them to prepare them for what she was about to say. "I'm so sorry, but Edgar… he… Voldemort…" She began crying and dabbed at her eyes with the handkerchief.

"What happened?" Laura asked fearing the worst.

Their former teacher composed herself for a moment and took a deep breath. "Voldemort got to him… he killed his whole family." She began explaining through the tears. "The whole family, they're all dead."

"Oh my God." Laura said and put her hand over her mouth as she fought back tears. "All of them? Not a single one's left?" It was common knowledge that the Bones family was fairly large; it would take time and effort to kill them all.

"All of them." McGonagall confirmed. "This was a planned attack, they took time and effort to do this."

"'E was a great man… a great wizard…" Hagrid said from the far corner, one of the older witches seemed to be comforting him. He was dabbing his eyes with a large hankie. "One o' the best wizards of our toime 'e was… One o' the best."

"Oh Merlin… no…" Sirius mumbled as he wandered off of the group and rubbed his face with his hands. "We're dropping like flies… like bloody common house flies…"

"No," James said and walked over to his friend. "No, we're not."

Sirius whirled around to his friend. "Oh yes we are! Admit it! First Caradoc went missing and I think it's safe to say he is dead, hell we had a funeral for him. Next we lose that nice girl, Cindy was her name? She came to one meeting before being killed on the street along with three Muggles. Now we lose Edgar, one of the bravest among us!"

Maureen stood up and walked over to Sirius. She stood in front of him for a moment, almost a head and a half shorter then he brought her hand back and slapped him. "Shut up, Sirius!" She cried. "Just shut up! Things may seem down right now but we will win this war, we are not all going to die!"

"How do you know?" He asked lowering his voice his and his eyes at the woman who stood in front of him. "Any one of us could be next. Tomorrow I could be dead… tomorrow, you, or maybe Benjy or maybe Frank or Alice… Any one of us could die in this war."

"Well that's war." James said. "I know you and Edgar were friends, but we were all friends with him. But you can't get made at it all just because you lost a friend."

"The hell I can't." Sirius said glaring James in the eye. "Voldemort killed my friend, and I want revenge. I want revenge on that bastard."

"We could have stopped it." Benjy said suddenly from the table. "The papers… the papers Sirius found in the house. Dates were circled. If you look at one of the newspapers the dates point to last night, the exact day and time. Sirius, whoever left behind those newspapers knew the time and dates of murders. They left them behind for someone to find."

"It shows more too." Dorcas said quietly as she reached over and picked one up. "More dates and times. You… you have to put it all together, but if you find it… it shows the dates and well times… obviously." She stuttered.

"Look, the point is." Benjy said with a faint smile appearing on his face. "If we figure the rest out we can prevent more murders."

"I wonder who it was." Andy said sitting down at the table slowly. "Ain't many people it could be… now are there…?"

Regulus, Sirius knew it had to be him. Who else would know the time and date of future death eater attacks? He was a death eater, of course he would know what they were planning, but then he left. He left still knowing what would come to pass. He left this behind for them, but why couldn't he just come out and say it? It must have been a death eater thing, maybe he physically wasn't able to tell anyone about the attacks.

"Do we know when the next attack is?" Laura asked looking up at Benjy? "Or, who it might be?"

Benjy shook his head sadly and closed his eyes. "No, but I'm sure if I slave over this stuff enough I can figure it out." He said and picked up the newspapers and stared at them.

"I'll help." Sirius said and sat down at the table. "I wanna meet the man who killed him, I wanna meet him and kill him myself…"

"Now, now, Sirius." Laura said and walked over to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. Daring to make physical contact since the wedding of Alice and Frank, ever since she and him… well… you know, she had been avoiding as much contact with him as possible. "You can't go plotting revenge so quickly. You'll end up getting yourself killed."

"She's right." Andy said leaning up against the door frame. "Ya gotta plan revenge."

Laura shook her head and began massaging his shoulders subconsciously. "Not exactly what I had in mind, but I guess Andy's right, you have to think these things through."

"And have maps." Heather added helpfully.

"Blue prints." Andy put in.

"Walkie talkies."

"Wires. Wires on everyone!"

"Cameras!"

"Notes!"

"Enough." Lily said calmly making everyone instantly quiet down. "Now, I know we're all upset here, I know we all want revenge, but we can't. We can't just waltz into battle, wands raised and almightily. We need a plan, we need a strategy."

"Lily's right." Remus said stepping up. "We can't just run in, we need a plan." He said repeating what she has said second before.

"I'm all up for a planed revenge," Peter said fiddling with the collar of his shirt nervously; apparently the death of Edgar had stirred him up a bit as well. "But, how? We don't even know where he's attacking next."

"And that." Maureen said taking some of the newspapers away from Benjy and examining them. "Is why we are going to study hard and figure this out as soon as possible. Before another member of the Order dies."

"You know," James said as he sat down at the table. "Three of us have died in just a few months, I'm starting to think maybe the Order is getting targeted. Maybe one of us is next."

"We have to figure this out." Sirius said looking at the papers. "I don't want to lose anyone else."

Lily sat down as well along with the rest of the young Order members. "And we won't die. We'll always be here helping you. No matter what happens, Sirius."

"She's right, Pads, even when you finally end up in Azkaban for life." Remus said with a crooked smile on his face.

"I will not." The dog animagus said as he reached over and gave his werewolf friend a smack on the arm. "James'll go before me, I'd never get caught."

"You get caught plenty." James murmured. "I can't go to Azkaban, I'm too pretty."

"Heh," Sirius laughed as he looked at the circled dates and numbers on the newspaper. "You keep thinking that, Prongsie."

There was a long extended silence as the large group of young adults ranging from the age eighteen to twenty five stared at the newspapers. And once again, Andy pulled off her infamous way of asking a question in dead silence. "So, what am I doin' again?" She asked making everyone look up at her.

Lisa: Verrrrrrry lazzzzzyyyyyy not gonna talk……