Disclaimer: I own next to nothing.

Author's Note: Was the first chapter a success, then? I was rather fond of it, anyway. Thanks for the reviews and favourites and alerts that the story has already. One chapter and my stats have all gone up. It makes me happy.

Anyway, here's chapter two. I'm probably going to be uploading quite a bit for a while, seeing as I'm under house arrest. That's a good thing for the readers, though, right? Right.

Chapter 2: A day at work.

"Tell me again why we're not just apparating to the ministry?" Victoria asked as she dodged another stranger. She and Lily made their way up the stairs from the underground train.

"Because I'm muggle born," Lily said, brushing hair out of her face. "I was raised by muggles and I'm used to this."

Victoria paused for a moment. "Okay," she said, standing with her hand on her hip, "Just tell me why I'm not apparating?"

Lily laughed and turned away from her, walking towards the out-of-order phone booth, or, to those in the know, the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. The sight of Victoria there, with her hip cocked to one side, made Lily smile. It was just one sign of how little she had changed over the year that had passed. Her dark blond hair had been dyed brown, and she had the usual stud in her nose was replaced with a silver ring, but those were only changes on the outside. On the inside, Victoria was the same old fun-loving kid that she always had been and probably always will be.

"You're doing it because you love me." She said as she stepped inside, holding the door back for her friend.

"Oh, yeah." Victoria made a face and they squeezed into the little box.She bent her arm around Lily to twirl the numbers to the right spots, and like an elevator, the phone booth disappeared underground. After but a moment, Lily and Victoria were standing in the ministry, amidst the crowds of hurrying employees.

One of these employees, steaming mug of coffee in one hand and a high stack of folders in the other, was familiar.

"Morning, Remus." Victoria smiled, and she hurried forward to take half of the tipping reports.

He sighed in relief. "I was either going to end up drenched in hot coffee, or drop all the reports that took me an hour to put in order," he said, smiling gratefully. Though he looked a bit ragged with patches in his robes and his plain brown hair, no one ever noticed when he smiled.
"Good morning, Victoria, Lily." He then said.

Together, the three of them set off towards level two, where the Auror headquarters were located.

"Late." A voice barked at them as soon as they got off the elevator. Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody was standing there with his arms folded, one eye narrowed at them, his other rolling around madly.

Lily opened her mouth to apologize, but Victoria cut across her. "Almost late," she corrected him, staring down at her watch. She peered up at him, to see his frown deepen, and simply smiled as she brushed past him to her cubicle.

Remus followed her, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

"I hear this is your last test today, Evans," Moody said as Lily followed him down another hall.

She nodded.

"You'll do fine," he said. He stopped in front of a sturdy-looking door and opened it with a key. "Just do what they say, and you'll be an auror by the end of next week. Screw it up, though, and you'll be an assistant for the rest of your life."

And with those words, he turned and left, leaving Lily with even more unease in the pit of her stomach. She walked into the room and saw two aurors sitting at a long table. They smiled up at her when she entered, but Lily was too nervous to return the smile.

--

Two hours later, Lily re-emerged from the room, wand in hand. She closed the door behind her as she stepped into the hallway. Turning to walk back towards where she had come his morning, she found her path was blocked though. Lily jumped at the sight of some one standing there, leaning back against the wall.

"Merlin, James," she said, taking a deep breath. "You scared me!"

He laughed and she reached him, and took her hand. "Sorry."

"It's fine," she told him. "Just…don't hover outside doors anymore, okay? Or at least say something when I come out, so I know you're there."

He rubbed his fingers over hers. "Deal." He said, and smiled. "I'm meeting Sirius for lunch in about twenty minutes," he added. "Did you want to come?"

She thought for a moment. "Sure." She said after thinking, "Why not?"

"I can think of a thousand reasons why you wouldn't want to meet Sirius for lunch." He laughed.

Lily nudged him with her hip.

The sun was putting up a fight, struggling to shine through the clouds. It seemed to be in the lead, for it was fairly bright as they apparated outside a quaint little restaurant. James pulled the door open and held it open with one hand, his other on the small of Lily's back as he followed her inside.

They found Sirius at the back of the restaurant, chatting with a pretty waitress, nursing a cigarette between two fingers of his right hand. He looked just the same as he always had, just as handsome as he had always been. His dark, floppy hair fell into his equally dark eyes with a casual elegance that only he could achieve. He was tall and slim, and leaning back in his seat with his arm draped over the back of it. He grinned as they approached and sat down on the bench across from him. The waitress quickly took their drink orders and left. Wasting no time, Lily reached across the table and yanked the cigarette away from him, ignoring his protests and putting it out in the ashtray on the table.

Sirius glared at Lily before turning to James. "Can you tell her not to do that, please?"

James just shrugged, but Lily spoke for herself.

"It's a disgusting habit." She told him, unabashed. She folded her arms on the table.

"So is biting your nails." Sirius pointed out, eyeing her short, jagged fingernails.

"I'm not going to get sick and die because I'm biting my nails, Sirius." Lily argued, but the quarrel was cut short as the waitress returned with their drinks.

"Thank God." James muttered under his breath.

She took their orders and turned to leave again, but not before flashing a smile at Sirius that was a bit warmer than necessary. He was too quick to return it.

"How did the test go, Lil?" James asked quickly after she left, to keep them from resuming their fight.

"Okay, I guess." She shrugged. "I don't think I screwed it up too badly."

"Stop listening to Moody." Sirius laughed. "He just likes making people nervous."

"He's good at it."

"Maybe," Sirius qualified, before changing the subject. "So, have you two lovebirds talked anymore about your residential decision?"

James and Lily exchanged looks. "Some," James shrugged. "But we still haven't gotten anywhere."

"There's a nice little flat not too far from James' house," Lily said. "But we don't want to make anything final until we talk to our parents first."

"And we're kind of putting that off." James added.

"But it's a definite thing, now?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows. "You two are definitely moving in together?"

"That's the plan." James smiled.

"Scary." Sirius laughed.

There was a pause as the waitress came back with their lunches and set them down at their appropriate places. Lily noticed that there was an extra slip of white paper under Sirius' plate, and that the waitress walked off again with an extra sway. Sirius lifted his plate and unfolded the note, grinned and stuffed it into the pocket of his jeans.

"What's scary?" James asked, who either hadn't noticed the excessive flirting, or was far too used to it to really care.

"You don't remember the time, oh, two years ago, when Lily hated your guts, and you made an arse of yourself trying to win her over?" Sirius grinned. "And now you're sitting there talking about moving in together. It's scary."

James grinned at the memory, and at how things had turned out (definitely in his favour).

Aside from Sirius' jabs about how Lily needed to eat more than a salad, the meal passed well. They finished their lunches and paid the tab and rose to their feet as one to leave. Once they were outside, they began to walk down the street, instead of apparating back to the ministry.

Lily glared at Sirius as he pulled another cigarette out from a case in his pocket and lit it.

"Don't even think about it." Sirius said, eyeing Lily warily as he breathed smoke out his mouth.

James squeezed Lily's hand as she opened her mouth to argue. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." He told her quietly.

"You're okay with this?" With her free hand, she gestured to the grinning Sirius at her other side.

"His choice." James shrugged with a smile.

Sirius laughed. "And that is why he's my best friend, and you're just the annoying little red-haired girl that likes to get on my case about every little thing." He said.

"Thanks, Sirius." Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"You know I'm kidding, Lily Billy." He said, peace-making "You're like the little sister I never had, or wanted…" He laughed as he dodged the punch she had aimed at his arm.

--

The day was almost over. Outside, the sun was setting slowly behind the clouds. People around her were already packing up at heading home, but Lily still sat at her desk, organizing the aurors' files. She was gripping her hair in one hand, tapping the quill that she held in the other hand against the side of her desk.

"Really hard to concentrate when you're doing that, you know." A voice said from behind her, and she looked up, turning to face the source.

Anna was there, grinning down at her, with Victoria at her side, popping her bubble gum loudly. Dark curls tumbled to her waist, and her lips were painted cherry red. Her skin was still as fair as it always was, and the tiny girl hadn't even grown a inch.

"Ready to get out of here, Lily?" she asked, leaning over Lily's shoulder.

"Almost." She said, narrowing her eyes as they flickered back to her work. "I just have this one report to look over, and then I should be done."

"You work pretty hard for an assistant, Lil." Victoria told her. "The rest of them just hang around doing nothing. They don't 'assist' very well. I asked one of them to get me a cup of coffee and she completely ignored me."

"I agree," Anna smiled. "They're too busy raiding Sirius' desk whenever he leaves it to actually do what they're supposed to be doing."

Lily looked up suddenly. "Is that were his stuff keeps going?" she asked with a smile. "He was saying that he's already lost three good quills, two notebooks and a picture off his desk."

Anna nodded, then laughed. "Some things never change."

It was quiet, then, as the other two let Lily finish her work. After a few minutes, she sighed and closed the folder. "Done." She announced. She got to her feet and gathered all the files, crossing the room to the cabinet where she put them in their rightful places. She grabbed her coat, the last one on the rack, and smiled at her friends.

"Let's go." She said, and the three of them linked arms. "Are we meeting Lou at her house?"

"Yep." Victoria nodded. "She's probably already home. She only lives about a block away from St. Mungo's."

"I can't stay too late." Lily said.

"You can never stay out too late."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Think Lou has ice cream in her freezer?" Anna asked.

Lily grinned. "Lou always has ice cream in her freezer."

Author's Note: So, this chapter was pretty laid back. Nothing too important happened. Actually, nothing important happened, except that I reintroduced all the other characters, which I guess qualifies as important. But anyway. I wasn't sure if Moody was their 'supervisor' or whatever, but it's my story, so I say he was. I hope you liked it.

As always, please read and review, and thanks for the ones I've already got.

-Cait.