Disclaimer: I own next to nothing.
Author's Note: So, it took a while to update (I realize that my last Author's Note in Chapter 4 said the update was quick; Sorry. I finished that chapter right after the third, but I didn't have the chance to update). I apologize for the delay, my school work took up a lot of my time, and I mean a lot of it. But it paid off, because it's end of term and my marks are super good. Now that terms over, I'm going to do my best to update a bit more frequently. Regardless, I won't let the story die (bad news for people who don't like my stories, huh? (;)
Chapter 5: The Order of the Phoenix.
"I'm doing paperwork! Can you believe this?" Victoria groaned, holding up the files she was leaning over as proof. Obviously disappointed by the way everyone seemed so calm while she was in such distress, she made a noise like an angry cat at the back of her throat and turned back to her work.
Lily laughed as she walked by, hearing her friend's complaints. "Are those the files Moody gave you for being late again this morning?" she asked, pausing to lean over Victoria's shoulder.
"Ugh," she said, rolling her eyes. "I was not late. His watch is way too fast."
Lily just laughed again and walked away, leaving her friend with her work and with an angry look on her face. She continued down the hall, stopping in front of a door with the name, 'Mad-Eye Moody' stamped across it. She lifted a fist to rap lightly against the door, but she never got the chance.
"Come in, Evans," came the rough voice from inside.
Lily started just slightly, and turned the handle on the door, letting herself in.
"I finished the reports on the Williams and Stones attacks. Penny mentioned you wanted them right away," she said, thinking back to earlier that morning when the new assistant had passed the message along.
"I did," he said, grabbing them and quickly scanning over the front page. "Thanks, Evans."
"No problem," Lily replied with a small smile, and she turned to leave.
"Wait," he barked, making her jump again, and she turned back around. "Sit."
Lily lowered herself into the chair in front of his desk.
"I've been meaning to talk to you," Moody said, leaning forward on his elbows. "Well, you and a few other people, but while I've got you here, I figure I may as well get it over with."
He paused for a moment, eyeing Lily across from him as she waited patiently for him to continue.
"You ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?" he asked, sitting straight again.
Lily shook her head.
"It's a secret organization," Moody began to explain. "Dumbledore's in charge of it and it's made up of people who want to fight against the Dark Lord. There are a few aurors among our ranks, but we're still recruiting. And for a while now Evans, we've had our eye on you."
She felt her eyes widen a bit in surprise. "You want me to join?" she verified in a small voice.
"Yes," he nodded. "But it's not something you have to do, keep that in mind. I'm assuming you know what you'd be getting yourself into." He added, staring pointedly at her across the desk. "I'll give you a while to think about it while we talk to everyone else. Hopefully I'll get it all over with today."
She nodded, then cleared her throat quietly. "Who else are you thinking of asking?" she asked, though she felt she already had a good idea.
"Potter, Lupin and Black for starters." Moody said, confirming her assumption. "And we're also thinking of your friend Finnegan and Pettigrew."
Lily nodded.
"Give it some thought, Evans," Moody said, nodding toward the door. Lily took it as a dismissal and, promising to mull it over, got to her feet and left the office.
--
The rest of the day passed smoothly, so smoothly that there was nothing to do but finish up paperwork and sit around waiting for the five o'clock dismissal. Days like this had been becoming a dying breed, what with the way the Death Eaters had been attacking, but a day without any deaths was far more than welcome.
"Any plans tonight?" James asked, leaning back against Remus' desk.
"Naw," Remus replied, glancing up from the folder he'd been closing. "Why? D'you have anything in mind?"
James shrugged. "I thought it'd be nice to get together. You, me, Sirius and Peter?" he raised his eyebrows as he waited.
"Sounds good," Remus said with a small grin as he rose from his chair. "Except Peter's still got a cold, and Sirius has got a date."
"A date?" James asked. "With who?"
"Victoria."
"What?"
Remus laughed and nodded. "They're going to dinner," he explained as he grabbed his coat off the rack.
"Huh," James said, frowning slightly. "Well, it's just us then. We can go to my place and play those snazzy games Lily gave me."
"The video games?"
"Yeah, yeah," James grinned, shrugging into his jacket. "Whatever. I need to get you back for the last time."
Remus snorted as the two of them began to walk out of the building. "Yeah right," he said. "Like that's going to happen."
--
The clock over the front door ticked just past seven o'clock. Victoria glanced down at the watch on her wrist, to be sure they read the same thing, and sighed. He was late, though she supposed she shouldn't be surprised – Sirius wasn't well known for following a schedule.
Her fingertips tapped idly against the cool glass that held her water, and she stared at them as they moved. She was so intent on them that she didn't notice at first when some one slipped into the bench across from her. She jumped when she looked up and saw Sirius sitting there grinning.
"I'm sorry I'm late," he said quickly, eyeing her as though he was waiting to be forgiven.
"It's fine," Victoria grinned. "You're not that late."
"Did you already order?" he asked, and watched her shake her head. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving," she laughed.
Sirius laughed with her, and nodded in agreement. "So am I." He waved over the waitress, who brought over two menus and set them down on the edge of the table. Both Victoria and Sirius grabbed one and held it up, reading through the meals. The waitress was back in a few minutes to take their orders, and then they were left to wait.
Sirius watched Victoria across the table as she glanced around the small restaurant and let her fingers graze along the rim of her glass. It made him smile.
When she looked back at him, she was surprised to find him staring at her. "What?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Nothing," he smirked. "You look really nice, today."
"Thank you." Victoria smiled.
"You're very welcome."
The meal passed without a hitch, and they talked and laughed, louder than any other the other customers' seated around them. The waitress that had served them seemed happy when Sirius waved her back over and handed her a few bills to cover the evening. He was the first to his feet, and he outstretched his hands to pull her out of her seat. But even as they were both standing, he didn't let her hand go. He held onto it as they wove through the tables to the restaurant exit and as they walked down the sidewalk. Sirius had conveniently chosen this restaurant because of how close it was to Victoria's apartment building. Together, they strolled down the streets, still laughing, until they stopped in front of the building where Victoria lived.
They turned to face one another at the exact same time, and this made them laugh again.
Victoria was still grinning as she spoke. "Thanks, Sirius," she said. "I had a really great time."
"Thank you," he said, running his thumb along the back of her hand. Sirius smiled and leaned down to kiss her lightly on the cheek, and when he pulled away, said, "I'll see you tomorrow."
Victoria was beaming as she nodded and waved once as he began to walk away (to disapparate, she imagined, away from the open area), and as she turned towards the front door to her apartment building and let herself in.
--
At this point, there were bottles of butterbeer and fire whiskey lying across James' bedroom floor. The two adults looked rather childish sitting at the end of his bed, fingers rapping quickly against the remote controls and each of them staring intently at the TV screen in front of them (Remus had had to hook everything up, as James still had trouble with the buttons and wires on Lily's old television).
A loud explosion came from the television set, and Remus laughed loudly. "Ha!" he said, setting his control down for a moment and grinning smugly at James.
"You cheated," James accused.
Remus sighed. "Stop making excuses. It's not my fault you suck at this game." He pointed out.
"I don't suck." He argued, but then laughed. "Okay, I suck a little. You know, Lily usually lets me win."
Remus snorted. "That's because she's in love with you," he said. "Don't expect that kind of treatment from me."
James sighed. "Not even once?"
"Not even once." Remus glanced at the clock, and made a face. "I better get going." He said, groaning as he struggled to his feet.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning." James said, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand.
Remus groaned again. "Yeah," he waved once and disapparated from the doorway of James' room.
The loud crack of it must have alerted his mother, for she came down the hall and stopped at the door in time to see James picking up the bottles off his floor and tossing them in the garbage.
"Remus left?" she asked.
James turned and nodded. "Yeah," he replied. "Just now."
Mrs. Potter stood in the doorway, gnawing her lower lip, looking torn.
James noticed. "What is it?"
She sighed and entered the room, sitting down on the end of her son's bed. James sat next to her.
"Your father told me to stay out of this," she said with a small laugh. "But you know how good I am at minding my own business."
James smiled and gave his mother a look that told her to continue.
"I was thinking about you and Lily, moving in together," Mrs. Potter said, looking rather guilty as she said it.
"You think we're too young," James guessed.
His mother smiled and nodded.
"We're a little young, maybe," he agreed with half a shrug. "But I love her enough that it doesn't matter."
"I can see that," Mrs. Potter smiled. "But I still worry."
"Don't, mum." James said. "You worry way too much."
She laughed. "So I've heard."
There was silence for a moment that seemed longer than it really was, where James stared at his hands, and Mrs. Potter stared at her son. But finally, James broke it, clearing his throat before he spoke.
"I'm going to ask her to marry me." He said, briefly looking up from his intertwined fingers to glance at his mother's face.
She was beaming. "I had a feeling you would," she said. "When?"
James sighed. "I don't know yet," he said honestly. "I have to buy a ring, and think of the perfect way to do it…"
"But?" Mrs. Potter prompted, sensing there was something more.
"I'm afraid she'll say no," he admitted.
Mrs. Potter sighed. "Honey, everyone feels like that before they propose. No one can be sure of how some one will react," she explained. "If you asked your father, I'm sure he'd tell you the same thing." She paused for a moment, carefully watching the expression on her son's face. "I can't tell you what her answer will be, but I can tell that she loves you very, very much, dear. Anyone can see that."
James smiled.
"Whatever you decide," she continued. "I'm sure it's going to work out wonderfully." She lightly kissed the side of his head and used his shoulder to ease herself off the bed. After affectionately squeezing her son's arm, she left the room and creaked back down the hall.
James sighed and ran his hands through his hair before collapsing backwards onto his bed, staring up past the ceiling, and up past the stars.
--
The next morning came quicker than he'd have liked, but he found he had nothing to complain about when his mother's voice carried up the stairs and into his bedroom.
"James, wake up!" she called. "Lily's here."
Groggily, he rubbed at his closed eyes with the palms of his hands and sat slowly up. He groped around for his glasses, and stuffed them on his face, and jumped as everything came into clearer focus, namely the figure standing in the doorway of his bedroom.
"Morning," Lily laughed from where she stood.
James smiled through a yawn. "M-m-morning." He said, slowly getting to his feet.
"Your mom said I could come up and wake you," she smiled at the sight of him, half dressed with his hair sticking up in every direction, messier than usual. "I thought we could head into work together today."
Grinning, James crossed the room and swiftly wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close against him. He lightly pressed his lips against hers, and was still smiling when he pulled back at looked her in the eye.
"I'll be ten minutes," he promised, letting her go and walking over to his dresser. He extracted clothes, and headed towards the door. "Wait here."
Lily walked over to his bed, and plopped herself down on it, ready to wait.
It barely took him ten minutes; he was back in what felt like no time at all, dressed with his wet hair still sticking up all over the place. He was adjusting his glasses on his nose as he walked back into his room and found his shoes.
"I don't know how you get up so early all the time," he said as he sat next to her so he could tie his shoes more easily.
"It's called an alarm clock," Lily said with a small smile.
"Do you want to be my alarm clock from now on?" he asked slyly. "Because I don't really mind if you want to wake me up every morning." He leaned over and kissed the end of her nose before getting to his feet and holding his hands out to help her up.
Lily beamed, but didn't answer him, and she let him close his big hands over her small ones and pull her back to her feet. She didn't let him go as they walked down the stairs and as he poked his head into the kitchen to say goodbye to his parents.
They apparated from the front hall to a place a few blocks from the ministry, intending to walk the rest of the way.
"Has Moody talked to you yet?" Lily asked as they strolled along the sidewalk hand in hand, avoiding the commuters hurrying along in opposite directions. "About the Order of the Phoenix…"
"Ah," James said with a sigh. "Yes, he did. He dragged me, Sirius and Remus into his office yesterday afternoon. Why? He asked you, too?"
Lily nodded.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"I told him I'd think about it," she replied, looking up at him.
"So did we," James nodded. "But I think I'm going to tell him yes."
Lily smiled. "I thought you would."
"Am I that predictable?" he grinned.
Lily peered up as she thought, and laughed once. "Maybe a little bit," she said. "But it's a good thing. I only knew you'd say yes because you're a good person, and you want to help fight."
James squeezed her hand gently and bent closer to say softly in her ear, "And that's why you're going to say yes, too, right?"
Lily laughed again and nodded.
James chuckled and kissed her temple before pulling her into the phone booth entrance to the ministry. With his free hand, for he still hadn't let her hand go, he reached around her and twisted the dial. The phone booth soon began to lower itself.
"Going down," James grinned, leaning back against one of the walls and pulling her against him again, bending his head to her level to kiss her again.
Author's Note: So, chapter five is up. Chapter five out of twenty two, I'm thinking, if there are no more changes in my plot. This chapter was originally going to be completely different, but I cut that one out and replaced it with this, so, I hope you like it. As always, read and review, thanks for the ones I've already got (seriously, thanks so much), and for the ones I'm going to get. (;
Cait. xox