Dorea froze, her face paling and her hand slapping over her mouth. The words, it appeared, hadn't properly registered in her subconscious before they slipped out, and now she was paying the price. Hermione whirled around and turned to face her, eyes cold. "Do I have to answer that?" she growled, and Dorea shook her head frantically. Hermione sighed and turned to Dumbledore, whose eyes had lost their ever-present sparkle. "If you would say it, this meeting, I propose, would be better off finished next meeting. I'd like to get something done before we continue." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, frowning slightly and she felt him probing her mind. She sighed and shoved him out. He nodded approvingly and she turned on her heel and left the chamber.

Dorcas leaned forward to Dumbledore with a small smirk playing on her lips. "So… can we go back to school or are we just going to sit here until next meeting?" she asked, and Marlene elbowed her roughly before sending a pleading look towards Dumbledore, who shook his head.

"This meeting is not finished yet," replied Charlus, and Dorcas sighed before leaning back and yawning. "We have to make some battle strategies if anywhere is attacked. We must be prepared for battle anywhere, for we don't know where You-Know-Who will strike next."

"But I'm tired!" groaned Dorcas, and Marlene huffed and shoved her off the nearest chair, proclaiming, "Shut up, you look like an idiot, Cassie."

Cassandra Godwineson rolled her eyes and rested her head on Gideon's shoulder. "I don't know, Marley, I'm tired, too. Could we not call it a night, Dumbledore?" she yawned and closed her eyes, only for her wayward cat to leap onto her lap and startle her awake. "God, Hades, you scared me."

Fabian cleared his throat and leaned back, looking around the room. "I think the students should learn how to fight," he said, and Caradoc scoffed and shook his head. "Look, if they get out there without knowing how to defend themselves they'll die. If we teach them how to take care of the Death Eaters and protect themselves they'll fare far better than we did, right, Gideon?"

Gideon nodded. "We had to take muggle martial-arts lessons to prepare ourselves. Auror training was the most difficult thing I'd done in my life after we got out of Hogwarts, and it'd be a lot better for everyone if they could actually think for themselves."

"I always thought they should teach common sense, logic, and defence mechanisms at Hogwarts," said Dorcas approvingly. "When I moved last summer we were attacked and I couldn't defend the people in the village because I didn't know how. The students should learn how to defend themselves, at least if it's only in seventh year. Then we won't be completely defenceless."

"No one will be teaching defence in my school apart from the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!" broke in Dumbledore, frowning. "Yes, I completely agree that they should know how to defend themselves and I know they should have learned it early on, but this is a school, not an army camp! We can't expect the students to give up their free time to learn something that they may not need!"

Cassandra frowned. "With all due respect, sir, you once told me yourself that it's best to be prepared for anything the world can throw at you. If the world throws Voldemort at us, what should we do? If we don't learn to defend ourselves, then how can we?"

Dumbledore stood up and began to pace. "For all we know, Voldemort may be gone by the end of the year and then their training will be for nothing." Cassandra began to protest but he cut her off with a wave of his hand, sharply turning to her to frown sternly at her. "Miss Godwineson, I don't believe that you have a say in what goes on in my school, and I'd appreciate it if a seventh year student didn't question the Headmaster."

"Why are they in the Order, anyway?" interjected Caradoc, sneering as Dorcas stood up and made to swing a punch to the head for him. Had Cassandra and Marlene not grabbed her arms and yanked her back in her seat, she would've landed it.

"Last summer we were attacked," repeated Dorcas, "my parents and brothers were killed, so when I came back to Hogwarts, I told Dumbledore about it. I wanted to stop Voldemort at all costs, avenge my family, I guess." She paused and glared at Caradoc. "What I want to know is why you think you're better than everybody else, Dearborn. Pureblood, I assume?"

Marlene frowned. "My sister and I were in the woods one day, coming up towards Potter Manor for an afternoon visit for James, when something leapt out of the bushes at us. Dolohov killed my sister and I've been in the Order ever since."

Mary grinned at them. "Your reasons are pretty legit, but mine's just because I wanted to stand up to them. I got bullied in every school I went to because I'm muggleborn and I wanted to help others like me." Dorcas grinned back and patted her arm.

"I lived in a small town called Ottery St Catchpole," said Cassandra, and Molly and Arthur beamed at her. "I thought I was a Squib, so I didn't go to Hogwarts. See, I'd never shown much adept in magic, and my parents home-schooled me in muggle and magical things at the same time. It was fun, but when Molly told me about Voldemort and his Death Eaters I wanted to do something about it around the same time I started my fifth year and transferred to Hogwarts. But I only joined the Order at the beginning of the summer."

"So… you are pureblood, right?" asked Dorcas, leaning forward and glaring at him unashamedly as he nodded, shrugging as though he didn't care. Marlene sighed and dragged her back up by the arm, punching her.

"This is no time for petty squabbles, the both of you," said Fabian, leaning over and kicking Caradoc in the shins, as his twin snorted. "That's our job. Besides, this is getting us nowhere on battle tactics." Gideon nodded.

Cassandra nodded eagerly. "I love stuff like that," she said. "I'll never understand why you guys like the actual battle part. Blood and guts and gore aren't my thing and it should be no one's." She swatted Gideon, who grinned wolfishly down at her before she leaned in and pecked him on the lips, causing him to grin and kiss her on the forehead as he dragged her back down. "Right, so… how about we split into groups? It'd be much more practical than running around together while trying to take down as many Death Eaters as possible…" She trailed off when she saw the people staring at her. "I thought it was a good idea," she said in a small voice and Gideon grinned at her.

"It's brilliant," said Fabian, clapping her on the shoulder. "Almost as brilliant as that toilet-seat prank we pulled on Molly last week." His sister sent him a withering look and he grinned at her, causing her to intensify it and make him cower and hide behind Mary, who shoved him away.

"Yes, yes, it's fabulous, now can we get to the point?" said Alastor Moody gruffly. "How many in each group and who's going where?"

Dumbledore put a hand on Cassandra's shoulder and nodded down at her. "That was good thinking, Cassandra, well done." He looked at Moody, who gave her a hint of a gruff grin before glaring at the Prewett twins, who were trying to slip something into his drink. "We need some mixed generations here," continued Dumbledore, and Cassandra nodded. "Cassandra, Dorea, Alastor, Caradoc, Arthur, Dorcas, and Charlus, perhaps, should be the first group; Gideon, Marlene, Molly, Fabian, Hestia, Dedalus, and Benjy; myself, Rose, Susan, Lucifer, Jennifer, Oliver, and Avery would be third. Have I missed anyone out?"

No one said anything, and Dumbledore nodded for conformation, as Moody had been writing it all down, acting as the Order's scribe. He then stood up and dismissed the group.

Marlene and Dorcas immediately grabbed Cassandra's arms and began tugging her towards the Gryffindor Common Room when they reached the corridor below Dumbledore's office, but found the Fat Lady passed out against the frame. "Ugh, she's still drunk?" asked a familiar voice and the trio whirled around and faced Alice with beams on their faces.

"ALICE!" shrieked all three of them, launching themselves forward and tackling her to the ground. Alice attempted to shove them off, but the three of them were too strong and they ended up on the floor of the corridor, laughing and giggling as Alice tried to fight them off in vain. "Where's Lily?" bellowed Dorcas as Alice kicked her off the pile, grinning up at the four Marauders and Hermione who was watching them amusedly.

"She's catching up with Snape," grumbled Remus, and Hermione patted his hair patronisingly and ducked the swat he had aimed for her head. "I still don't understand why you convinced Lily to forgive him, Hermione, he's a right git."

Hermione snorted and grinned at the three, offering her hand to Dorcas, who took it eagerly and pulled her on top of her. "Severus isn't a git, Remus Lupin!" shouted a voice from down the corridor and a beaming Lily Evans threw herself on top of Hermione, who gave a small scream and rolled over to start wrestling with Dorcas.

Sirius beamed at all of them before saluting to James and leaping on top of the dog-pile, causing Marlene to shriek and flail around as he crushed her ribs. "My ribs – I need those!" she shrieked, shoving him off with a grin on her face as James leapt on top of Sirius and the two began wrestling, much in the same way that Hermione and Dorcas were.

At some point, Remus looked around at the corridor with a small smile playing at his lips. James and Sirius were back to back with Hermione and Marlene – respectively – pushing at their hands and attempting to push them down the stairs. Lily was slung over Sirius' shoulder and giggling as Dorcas tackled Sirius to the ground and sending all three of them spiralling to the ground. He shrugged and leapt at Cassandra, who was panting as she held herself up against the wall, having just escaped Sirius herself. She screamed as he grabbed her around the waist and twirled her around in the air, waving her arms around in an attempt to escape.

The corridor was full of screaming, squealing students messing around, flailing and wrestling around. Alice was propped up against the wall, using a camera to record the whole thing as Hermione rolled on top of James, standing on his knees and using his hands for a balance beam as she grinned down at him and he grinned up at her.

"What is the meaning of this?!" exclaimed the voice of Professor McGonagall, and Alice's camera caught a glimpse of her angered face before she quickly stopped recording and hid the camera behind her back, knowing it would be taken away if it was caught.

"Hehe," said Hermione, collapsing on top of James and rolling over to smile sheepishly up at the Professor, who glared at them all. "The Fat Lady got drunk and we were locked out so we… we started having fun."

"Fun?" questioned Frank Longbottom, showing up at her elbow and causing Alice to give a small scream. "Can I join in, please? I haven't had fun since last summer when I was…" He trailed off as McGonagall glared down at him and hurried over to Alice. "Nevermind."

I'm sorry I updated so late, but I had homework to do as well as celebrate Christmas and learn how to play chess. I'm sorry if this chapter really doesn't fit in with the story, but I felt that you all deserved a Christmas, fluffy chapter that could make you feel more happy; I hope you love reading this as much as I loved writing it.

Also, I've introduced Dorcas, Marlene, Mary, and Cassandra Godwineson a little bit more. What do you think of the pairings? I thought that Caradoc could be a little bit more like the argumentative type and that Dorcas could be competitive, and their personalities clashed a little bit. Like Lily and James, though they'll ultimately get together in the end.

James and Hermione's relationship will get a little bit more intimate as the story progresses, and then they'll ultimately get together. Lily has never liked him, but instead liked his best friend, Remus, because he was a bit more down-to-earth and studious, like her, so they clicked more than James had. Sirius is not going to really come into the equation much, apart from when he fancies Hermione for a while before moving on to... Oops, giving away something more than I should've...

Love,

Marlene