I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY FOR THE HAITUS I'VE JUST BEEN SO BUSY!

Thanks to all who've reviewed last time!

Also, I need help with the quote so if you know any please tell me!

"You never knew what I could find,

What would come when we realize,

I don't want to compromise,

Yeah I'm scared but I disappear,

Running around before it corners you,

I can't go because my life's a wreck,"

– Foster the People 'Houdini'

Chapter Thirty-Seven:

Sarah was the one to drop me off at the station, for the last few days I stayed with her in her apartment. I looked after Elric when she had to work and found the right spell to change the locks on her doors.

Even now, when I was stepping off the train with Remus, my thoughts were still on her.

"C'mon, we'd better go," Remus tugged my sleeve and I followed him towards the carriages. I could feel the melting snow beneath me as I took care where I placed my feet. It was at that stage where it was no longer pure beautiful white, nor completely mixed in with the mud. It lay over the ice as a grey slush, a dangerous grey slush that caused more than enough sprained wrists and scrapped knees.

We approached, as usual, the last carriage. Nobody ever wanted it, people fought to get the early ones… it was always quite a rickety ride on the last carriage. I'd never tell anybody that I came late every time on purpose. I remember in my second year the confusion I'd come across, seeing the thestrals for the first time…. wondering why the others didn't see them too.

I found them to be quite beautiful creatures; elegantly sinister yet somehow oddly peaceful.

But truly, the reason I chose the very last carriage, was because of Imber. He was always the guider of the last one, and it was his fault the ride was always rickety. I'd always had a strange attachment to this particular thestral who he broke his leg when he was small and it never really healed properly. The injury resulted in an odd limp, to match his odd personality. Imber liked to stay away from the other thestrals; he was slightly quirked in his ways with a particular way of doing things. He liked doing everything his way and nobody else's. Like how he won't eat raw meat, it has to be cooked (something I find myself doing quite often). He also gets quite annoyed with Marvin while most other thestrals try to eat the small ferret that hides in my hoodie.

I approached Imber and stroked his silky black mane, holding out my last few pieces of beef jerky for him. He quickly licked them up and off my hands and I laughed, stroking his nose again, "Good boy, Imber,"

"How many times do I 'av ta' tell ya', Riley. Don't feed thestrals cooked meat," Hagrid scolded me as he came sauntering towards us.

I smiled, "But Imber likes it, he won't even eat raw meat,"

The giant man laughed, "Yea' an' I wonda' whose fault that mighta' been, huh?"

"Ugh fine… I'll stop doing it," I sighed and turned to climb into the carriage, a mischievous grin sneaking its way onto my face courteous of the blatant lie.

Sitting down on the bench besides Remus, I tried to ignore the side long looks a few Third Years were giving each other on the other side of us. They obviously couldn't see the thestrals and I tried not to glare as they exchanged whispers and smirks.

"Ignore them," Remus whispered in my ear and I realised I was fisting my scarf. Slowly I unclasped my fingers and rubbed my white knuckles away.

It wasn't my fault they don't understand. It wasn't my fault I watched my Oma die. I didn't even know she had died. I had been reading her a children's book and she just… fell asleep. Or so I thought. My Oma suffered severe alzheimer's and it got to the point where she would drag her childhood teddy along with her and wouldn't sleep unless somebody read her Grimm's Fairy Tales like her father did when she was little.

I remember once I asked Remus if he could see them, and he told me no. He said he was glad he couldn't see them, because then he knew that he had not killed anybody. A valid argument in my eyes. Sometimes after full moons he comes out to visit Imber with me, just to reassure himself that his hands are still clean.

As the carriage pulled up outside of Hogwarts. I missed its cold stone and hallowed halls, that distinct echo that rang down the halls as I walked. I missed the roaring fire in the common room and the even the paintings murmured speech, however The Fat Lady's singing brought on a whole different level of painful ear damage.

I climbed out of the carriage and with a thud my feet hit the ground.

"Bloody hell I missed this place," I sighed happily to myself, stuffing my fits down into my hoodie as Remus and I advanced the steps of our school. As we entered, a blast of warm air hit us and my breath no longer created little clouds (which I found to be slightly disappointing).

The two of us had taken approximately three steps before somebody jumped on me. I expected maybe James, or Sirius (that was until I remembered we were fighting and I hated him) and was quite shocked to find my red-headed rival and roommate Lily Evens looking quite puffed and red in the cheeks.

Without words she clasped my skinny wrist in her iron grip and tugged me away from Remus. The both of us were too shocked to do anything about it as I looked at her, jaw agape trying to form coherent words but none seemed to come.

"Follow," she commanded and let go, continuing to run.

And so I followed, running behind her through the empty corridors of Hogwarts until Lily final came to a screeching halt. It took me a few seconds to see where we were, but by then a little wooden door had begun to materialise, "I don't know what you're playing at…" I spoke with a mix of confusion and suspicion in my tone of voice.

"We need to act fast, just hurry, okay?" she snapped and handed me a cloak I knew very well.

I held the thin invisible material in my hand, "Okay, where the fuck did you get this? What the hell is going on, Evens,"

She just ignored me and threw it over us. I gave up asking, deciding I'd eventually find out and silently followed along behind her into the Room of Requirement.

The inside was not like I'd ever seen it; room was made of great grey stone, with a roaring fireplace settled on the far wall. The rest of the space was filled by a large round table in the centre of the room covered in what looked to be important documents and several books shelves. The rest of the wall space was filled with different sized and shaped mirrors, plus many maps of different locations around Europe and the United Kingdom, including both of Wizard and Muggle areas.

But Lily ignored all of this and b-lined straight towards the second largest mirror, slipping her hand out of the cloak she felt along the side of its frame until finding what must have been a sort of small latch. There was a small click and the mirror swang open slightly.

By now, I was entirely bewildered beyond any kind of comprehendible understanding as I followed her inside. I threw the Invisibility Cloak of myself to get a better look at my surroundings. This room was considerably small that the other and lit by a single candle; it consisted of a small wooden table and three chairs, a book self, stack of buckets, cupboard and stove. All looking quite worn beyond their years. The walls, much like in the grey room, were full of charts and many more newspaper clippings.

In anger brought on by pure frustration, I began to interrogate Evans, "Okay, I have a number of question and I expect and equal number of truthful answers. Firstly, how exactly did you come across James's cloak? Secondly, why are we in the Room of Requirement? And as an addition to that question, how the fuck to you even know about the Room of Requirement–"

"Because I told her," A familiar voice said, and I swirled around to see James entering from another door holding the Marauders map.

I looked at him, them back to Lily and back to Prongs again, "Sit. Explain. Now."

They followed my commands and sat down at the little round table, Lily casting a spell to brew us some tea on the stove.

James spoke first, "You see, Vix, we've become quite productive over the break–"

"–Oh yes, I can see that, I seem to recall asking you to 'lay low' while I was gone? –"

He gave me a sheepish smile, running his hands through his messy black locks, "I guess… I got a little restless, then. I doubt you'd be able to drop this for a week if I asked,"

"First explain her," I demanded.

Lily rolled her eyes, "I wanted to know what you and James were up to, so I… uh… riffled through some of his things and the found newspaper clippings, which I stole and read through. Wanting to know more, I confronted him and now I'm part of the team no matter what you're about to say,"

I scowled, "This isn't a 'team' we're not a bumbling band of renegade student. We don't need your help. We want to fight Voldemort. You're just a nosy sneak-thief,"

"I am not! Believe it or not, but you need all the help you can get. Now I know that you're not particularly fond of me, and I really ain't that fond of you, but as you quite well know this is a good cause and maybe, for now at least, we could just put out differences aside…"

I grunted, "Fine. Whatever. Welcome to the 'team', Lily,"

"I'm already on it, but your welcome is still obliged," she smiled smugly and I strained against a growl.

James noticed the obvious tension between us and spoke hastily, "You're probably wondering why we're in the Room of Requirement?"

"I assume it's some sort of hidden headquarters,"

He grinned, a mischievous glint in her is, "Aye, that's half true. This is actually a secret headquarters inside the secret headquarters, look at the mirror closer,"

The small musty room was dark, as I squinted at the back of the mirror. I soon realised the more I looked that I was actually not seeing my reflection, but also what was on the other side of the mirror – the grey room.

"What the hell," I deadpanned, and looked to Prongs for an immediate explanation.

"See these two doors on each side of the room, through them there is a passage that runs all the way around the Grey Room, which is also the Headquarters for the Order for the Phoenix," James smiled smugly and I nodded in understanding.

Lily continued, "So we can see and hear through each mirror stationed in the Grey Room via the tunnels, essentially. We know every move the Order makes as they make it, plus all new information of Voldemort direct from Aurors, teachers, the others and Dumbledore himself,"

"Well… that's… genius," I marvelled at their work. They had been busy over the break.

"Order meetings start every Sunday at eleven-fifty-nine precisely,"

"So tonight?" I interrupted.

She nodded, "We have to get here before them if we want to watch. Now we've only witnessed one meeting and it didn't have that much information than we already knew. They did mention emergency meeting procedures though, so there's a Muggle tape recorder in this room at all times in case we cannot get here before them," Lily informed me as she poured us cups of tea.

James kept speaking, "We think that there should be two of us here each Sunday, so we work in shifts. Also any information should be kept here in the Dark Room; it didn't take much for Lily to find my stash of info in my matrass,"

"Agreed. Also, no telling anybody about this at all unless we all vote towards it, yeah?" I added and they nodded along.

Suddenly, we heard voices approach and the doors into the grey room opened, revealing roughly the same people who were in the last meeting I spied on.

"Don't worry, they can't hear us. This room is charmed," Lily reassured me.

James turned to us, "Lily and I will cover the other mirrors, you stay here, okay?"

I nodded and the two left from separate doors into the passages, leaving me alone to watch Dumbledore call the meeting to order through the double sided mirror.

Slowly I pulled a notepad out of my back pack, "Might as well take noted, right?" I whispered to myself with a grin.

Just to note for those who don't know Oma is the equivalent to Grandma in German. And just to clear anything up, this is her father's mother who was born in Germany, while her Bonechild bloodline is of Irish heritage.