A/N: Eep, it's been a bit too long… so sorry! School has, unfortunately, started for me and I have Math first semester… double eep. Anyways, I tried my best :| Hope you guys enjoy!


Rachel set down her mug of tea on the coffee table when she heard an urgent knock on the door. With a disappointed sigh that her quiet evening was being disrupted, she stood up and headed for the door to open it.

Once the door opened, Lily immediately let herself in. She turned to face Rachel.

"Is Sirius around?" she asked.

"Yeah, he's handcuffed to the bed," Rachel answered matter-of-factly. Lily gave her a shocked look. Rachel rolled her eyes. "He's out for drinks with James, remember?" she added with an obvious tone.

Lily sighed and closed her eyes. "Right, yeah," she muttered.

"You want some tea?" Rachel asked.

"Sure," Lily replied quietly, dropping on one of the couches in the small living room.

Once Rachel had the tea prepared, she brought it to Lily and sat next to her, picking up her own mug of tea.

"So, what brought you here?" Rachel asked.

Lily sighed. "I need to tell you something," she muttered in reply.

"Okay…" Rachel answered slowly. "Well, go ahead and tell me. Is this about Christmas dinner, because to be honest Lily, I don't care. It's more than a month away."

"What? Er, no, it's not that," Lily replied, her voice still quiet.

Rachel frowned. "What's up with you?" she asked.

Lily took a deep breath. "All right, here goes," she said. "Well, Rachel, it turns out I'm pregnant."

There was a pause of silence. "So why are you telling me?" Rachel asked afterwards.

"What?" Lily replied, confused.

"Why are you telling me and not James?" Rachel clarified. "Unless James isn't the father, in which case—"

"No! Merlin, no, that's not it!" Lily exclaimed. "I–uh, well, James is out for drinks with Sirius and—"

"You're his bloody wife, what' he going to do anyways?" Rachel shouted.

"I—" Lily paused. "Good point."

"Yeah, no kidding," Rachel huffed.

Silence fell in the room and Lily and Rachel glanced at each other. Suddenly, the two broke out into the widest grins the world had ever seen. They both jumped up and started screaming immediately.

"It's going to be so adorable!"

"I'm going to buy those cute little fleece blankets!"

"We could make clothes for it!"

"Aw, just imagine its tiny little feet!"

Suddenly, the two girls heard the front door opened. Out of instinct, Rachel grabbed her wand off of the coffee table and aimed it towards the door. She lowered it and let out a sigh of relief when she noticed it was just Sirius and James.

"Why's James here?" Rachel asked.

"Why are you two screaming and giggling like normal females?" Sirius countered.

Rachel paused and narrowed her eyes at him. "I asked first," she finally said.

Sirius sighed. "Fine," he said, defeated. "James is quite drunk, if I do say so myself, and Lily would have his neck if she saw him. Oh. Hey Lily."

"Wha—?" James exclaimed, hiding behind Sirius.

"All right, your turn," Sirius said.

Rachel shrugged. "Not for me to say," she replied.

Sirius scoffed. "Pathetic excuse," he muttered. He pushed James off of him lightly.

Rachel placed her hands on her hips. "Says the one that's drunk," she countered.

"I'm pregnant!" Lily suddenly shrieked. She immediately smacked her hand over her mouth.

Silence fell in the room as everyone turned their shocked gazes towards Lily, whose face was burning red.

"Hey, that's great!" James suddenly exclaimed. "Wait, is it mine?"

Lily gaped. "Of course it is you big dolt!" she exclaimed.

"Well, now that we've got that sorted out," Rachel started, "who else wants tea?"

"Ooh, yes please!"

"If you really wouldn't mind, that'd be great."

"Yeah, I'll get right on that," Rachel grumbled.


"Hey, who made the gingerbread muffins?" Marlene asked, sidling up next to Rachel, who was talking to Lily and Mary.

The Christmas party was practically full swing. Lily and Rachel had planned the whole thing and had decided to hold it in James and Lily's new house. They invited all of their friends from school, so on top of being a nice, cozy party in the midst of the war; it was also a friendly reunion.

"I did," Rachel replied.

"I didn't know you could bake," Marlene replied.

Rachel glared at Marlene. "Of course I can," she grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Hey, it's not worse than my situation," Lily said with a shrug. "I felt all of my present packages—they're all baby blankets."

"Uh, no, I got you a bottle of nice, aged Firewhiskey," Dorcas said, making her way into the small circle. "Not that it matters, you can't drink it for another eight months."

"Yeah, thanks Dorcas," Lily replied with a roll of her eyes.

"No problem," Dorcas answered. She gestured her mug of Butterbeer towards a small corner of the room. "At least someone's enjoying the evening."

The girls turned to the corner Dorcas was gesturing towards to see the Marauders playing an enthusiastic game of Exploding Snap. The gambling material seemed to be chocolate cauldrons and Muggle Christmas chocolates.

"They never grow up," Mary said with a smirk.

"Merlin forbid," Rachel said quietly.

"Splendid muffins, Rachel, by the way," Dorcas said suddenly.

"Yes!" Rachel exclaimed. "Someone knows I can bake!"

"Actually, Sirius told me," Dorcas admitted. "I thought Mary made them."

"I can't bake to save my life," Mary put in.

Dorcas shrugged. "Must be your faces," she said.

Rachel glared at her and said, "Yeah, okay, don't ruin the party, got it?"


Rachel skimmed her eyes over the pin board in the Order of the Phoenix meeting hall. All of the papers pinned to it were pieces of information on suspected Death Eaters. In a way, it scared Rachel that all of these people that she shared classes with could become evil murderers.

With a sigh, she moved her gaze down the board and read through the patrols schedule. Dorcas and Gideon were out that night, in Knockturn Alley. Rachel was supposed to be in Muggle London the following week with Emmeline.

Although Rachel liked being part of the Order and she loved being able to do something to help out with the war, she always got nervous when she or her friends had patrols. Patrols were in the early morning when no one was around to hear any screams. Basically, it was just two magical folk watching each other's backs.

"Hey, we've got to go soon," she heard Sirius say. "Don't want to be caught out too late."

"Right," Rachel muttered. She noticed Sirius appear beside her. "Sirius, do you ever worry when James is out on patrols without you?" she suddenly asked.

Sirius looked taken aback. His face softened as he answered, "Of course I do. He was my first friend."

Rachel couldn't help but sympathize. Especially when it came down to Dorcas, because Dorcas had been Rachel's first friend too.

The train seemed quite normal to eleven year-old Rachel. As magical as the school was, the train didn't seem very extraordinary. It was just a train. Of course, the train was also only so large and Rachel noticed that people liked to spread themselves out, so finding a compartment proved to be a bother.

Rachel pulled open another compartment door and felt her spirits being crushed when she noticed another girl about her age sitting there. "Sorry," she muttered, about to close the compartment door.

"You can sit here, if you want," the girl sitting suddenly said.

Rachel gave her a shocked look. "Uh, are you sure?" she asked.

The girl shrugged. "Sure."

Rachel walked in and sat down across from the girl. "So, uh, what's your name?" she asked.

"Dorcas Meadowes," the girl replied. "You?"

"Rachel Fredricks," Rachel replied with a smile. "Say what house do you think you'll get into?"

Dorcas shrugged. "Not sure. My mum was a Gryffindor, but my dad was a Hufflepuff," she answered. "Although I hear it's not always about your bloodline."

"My dad was a Ravenclaw, but I guess that it doesn't matter then, huh?" Rachel said.

"Nope, guess not," Dorcas said. "But I'll tell you something, Rachel. I hope you and I are in the same house."

Rachel frowned. "Why's that?"

Dorcas smiled. "Because I have a feeling we'll get along great."

Rachel shook her head to get rid of the memory. She gave Sirius a small smile. "She'll be fine," Rachel said.

Sirius nodded and took Rachel's hand. "Let's go," he said.


So sorry! I'll try to keep up and hopefully you'll have another chapter next weekend :)

-Grammar/spelling?
-How was the first year memory?
-Overall?

Thanks for reading! :)