Thursday 1st January 1981

Godric's Hollow, 12:30

"And Neville was watching Frank so intensely," Alice gushed. "It was like he knew exactly what was going on and how important it was."

Lily nodded politely, just like she was supposed to. Oh, she was glad that Yule had gone so well for Alice and Frank. She just had to squash down the feelings of inadequacy that were bubbling up due to her not being able to say the same.

It wasn't her fault or James' fault or anyone's fault that she couldn't say the same. And she knew in her heart of hearts that it wasn't shameful to have an unsuccessful Yule. Surely lots of people had done it half-heartedly or just skipped it? Current events didn't exactly make you feel festive or cheery after all.

But, for some reason, she didn't want to admit that to Alice and Frank. It was stupid but it would make her feel like a failure. And she didn't like feeling like a failure.

"Look at me, going on and on about Neville," Alice said with an affected laugh. "Where are my manners? How did Harry deal with Yule?"

She looked at Lily expectantly and suddenly she felt very uncomfortable. And embarrassed. Even though she knew she shouldn't. It wasn't anyone's fault that Yule hadn't gone the way it should have. It just didn't work this year. Nothing shameful about that, right? But still, she found herself not wanting to say that to Alice.

She didn't want to defend herself and her family's decisions. She didn't want to try and probably fail to explain. And she wasn't going to, Lily decided resolutely.

Though, she was going to have to say something to Alice. And Alice wasn't going to be satisfied by some vague answer. Oh, Alice may have changed a lot since school but her need for gossip certainly hadn't. And since she was no longer getting Auror Office gossip (apparently Frank didn't know what to listen out for), made her hungry for news.

"What's going on here? You talking about me?"

Lily breathed a sigh of relief. James was here. Maybe he could help out. He was better at spinning a tale than she was. He'd had plenty of practice. Against McGonagall, of all people. Surely Alice was nothing compared to their former Head of House?

"James," she greeted, standing up to give him a kiss.

He gave her a puzzled look at her tone.

"Lily," he replied.

"Alice was just asking me how Yule went," Lily said pointedly.

"Oh," he stopped for a moment, his mind working quickly. "It went well, didn't it, Lils?"

James didn't want to admit that it hadn't gone well either. What a pair they were.

Lily nodded, not knowing what to say but knowing that the truth wasn't really an option here. Because what had really happened was a pathetic attempt at the Sabbat. A humiliating attempt. No. There would be no talking about it.

Alice looked between the two of confusion. "That's... Good?"

"Oh," James nodded vigorously. "It was good. It was very good. Lots of fun, you know. Harry. Big eyes. Keeping the candle away from him. All that good stuff."

"I learnt a lot," Lily felt like she had to throw in there.

This felt so awkward but how else were they supposed to go about this?


Godric's Hollow Kitchen, 14:00

They left their wives in the living room while the two of them went to get drinks. They'd started talking about "itty bitty baby clothes" and neither of them wanted to stick around for that. No, no thank you.

"So, how did your Yule really go?" He asked, making James splutter over the sip he'd just taken of his tea.

"What do you mean?"

Frank gave him a look. He had known James since, well, forever. And sure, maybe once they hot Hogwarts they weren't as close but he still knew how to read him. It wasn't that hard. He'd seen how uncomfortable James was when the topic of Yule came up and how protectively Lily reacted.

"Yule was fine," he said stiffly.

All Frank did was raise an eyebrow. That's all that was needed to get James' shoulders to slump and the tea to be pushed aside.

"Everything just felt wrong, Frank," James said desolately. "Yule felt wrong. How can Yule feel wrong?"

"I don't know," Frank answered honestly.

Because Yule had never felt wrong to him. Actually, now that he was thinking about it, it didn't necessarily feel right either. It just happened and you took part in it. It was as simple as that. But for James to say that it felt wrong.

"It felt like I shouldn't be doing it," James continued. "That I shouldn't be leading."

"But Lily couldn't," Frank said simply.

James shook his head. "No, she couldn't. You know it has to be the Head of the Family."

Frank nodded; his own father had been the one to lead this Yule. Just like always. It was always comforting to Frank.

Oh.

"James," he began hesitantly, unsure whether or not he should ne even bringing this up. "Is this the first Yule you've celebrated without your parents?"

The silence that followed more than answered that. That had to be horrible, trying to celebrate when something, someone was missing. And when that someone was a father. And a mother. They mustn't forget about Euphemia as well. Frank closed his eyes, letting grief wash over them. They'd been like an aunt and an uncle to him. Merlin, they were, had been, his godparents.

"I miss them, Frank," James said brokenly, looking away from him.

Frank swallowed heavily, not knowing what to say to make this better. Could he make this better?

"Me too."


Friday 2nd January 1981

Just Outside Ministry of Magic, London, 17:30

Peter yelped as he was dragged backwards. Or rather, he tried to yelp but the hand covering his mouth prevented that. Yet another thing that was happening to him with increasing regularity. Well, not really but it had happened three times now so he thought it was safe to say that it was becoming a regular occurrence.

He was then shoved against a wall and a person crowded him so he couldn't see past their body.

"Avery?" He gasped out, with wide eyes.

The man gave him this weird, twisty smirk that was just plain unsettling.

"Hello, Pettigrew. Fancy seeing you around."

Peter's eyes darted everywhere, hoping that someone would realise that he was caught in this conversation against his will. But unfortunately, he had no luck.

Another person snorted, making Peter jump. He hadn't thought that there was anyone else here. Peering around, he came face to face with a cruel looming man. He thought he recognised him as Rosier. The man's face was plastered everywhere these days. Another Death Eater. Why did this keep happening to him?

And how did Rosier just casually be in London without anyone realising it? Granted, it was in muggle London but still! Death Eaters, especially wanted ones, should really be tracked better.

"We want to have a little chat," Rosier added.

"Why do you keep coming after me?" He asked pathetically, not knowing what else to do.

If he caused a commotion, they'd just kill him or something. It wasn't like he was worth anything to them alive. He wasn't anything special. He knew that. Everyone knew that. He was hardly someone anyone wanted on either side. Right? Poor, mundane, boring Peter.

Avery gave him a critical look, one that made him squirm.

"Because you're useful."


Thursday 4th January, 10:00

"Are you okay?" Marlene asked worriedly as Lily came out from the bathroom.

She wasn't looking too good, all pale and kind of trembly. Weak. It wasn't a good look on her friend. Especially when that look was a result of the retching noises she had just heard. Marlene could put up with all sorts of horrible noises; the squelch of someone's limb getting gouged and blood spurting everywhere, the last rattling noises someone made before they died, the shrieks of glee of triumphant Death Eaters. What she couldn't stand was the sound of someone throwing up.

"I'm fine."

"Well, you don't look it."

"I feel better now, though."

Marlene frowned at that. "You felt bad before?"

Lily shrugged self-consciously.

"A bit queasy," she explained.

"I could have guessed that. You all but sprinted to the toilet and threw up."

Multiple times but Marlene didn't think it would be polite to bring that up. She didn't really want to think about it anyway. Blood, gore and missing limbs she could deal with easily - you had to be able to in order to be a functioning Auror - but puke? No, thank you. She'd leave that to the Healers. She had never been so grateful that she hadn't really got morning sickness with Cassie. She'd heard some really nightmares of stories from her mum. Nope, no thank you. Pregnancy was hard enough without turning your stomach inside out every morning.

Wait. She froze. Morning sickness? She looked over to Lily who was messing with the milk and sugar.

"Lily?"

"Hmm?"

"How long have you been sick for?"


Monday 8th January 1981

Hog's Head, 20:00

"It's weird," Sirius said, sitting next to him with Cassie in his arms.

The Order Meeting hadn't started yet, Dumbledore wasn't here. Which was good because that meant they could talk and catch up for a bit. They hadn't exactly seen a lot of each other recently. Sirius had been working and gone to the McKinnons. James had, well, he hadn't been doing much at all, had he?

"What's weird?"

"You not being at work."

"It's only been a few days."

"Yeah, but we're partners. We see each other every day even if it has only really been in work recently. But now we're not."

James and Lily had taken the "lay low until they went officially into hiding" part of Dumbledore's advice quite seriously. That meant no visiting people, people had to come to them. No trips to Diagon Alley- not that people did much of that anymore. Moody even kept James out of the field as much as he could, which meant Sirius hadn't really been in the field recently either. Thankfully, they had been put on interrogation duty. That was ways interesting, if not downright frustrating at times. Why couldn't the idiots just admit it when it was obvious that they did it? It would save a whole lot of people so much time. And they'd probably get a lighter sentence for cooperating! But no that's not what they did.

"Oh yeah, who's your partner now?" James asked, trying but failing to keep the jealousy out of his voice.

"Dunno."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" James asked incredulously.

Sirius shrugged. "No one's really stuck around.

"Not Marlene?" James asked in surprise.

"Nope. We are definitely not going to be partners." Sirius said emphatically.

"Who's not partners?"

"Me and you," Sirius said. "At work."

"Yeah, definitely not," Marlene shook her head as she sat down next to him. "Bad idea."

"Frank and Alice were partners." James pointed out.

"Yeah, and they actually work well together," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes.

"We don't," Marlene added unnecessarily.

James raised an eyebrow. What on earth were they talking about.

"You two, the two of you. Who have a child together. Who live together. You don't work well together?"

"No," they both said at the same time, neither of them taking even a second to think about it.

James didn't know whether he should be amused or concerned. He went with amused because the horrified looks on their faces were just too funny.

"I even had Dawlish for two days before I basically dumped him on Moody's desk and said I wasn't working with him." Sirius complained.

James laughed at that and shook his head.

"No-one likes Dawlish."

"Got that right," they were interrupted by Emmeline as she walked up to them.

"Hey, Vance," Sirius greeted and then waved Cassie's tiny hand. "Hi Miss Vance," he said in a squeaky voice."

"Keep that creature away from me," said Emmeline, keeping a careful distance between her and Sirius.

Sirius looked down at his daughter and then gave Emmeline an offended look.

"Creature?"

"Child. Baby. Creature. Whatever," she sniffed. "Just keep its sticky little hands away from me."

"I'm pretty sure that her face is probably more sticky than her hands," James mused.

If she was anything like Harry, that was. Between milk and drool and snot, his face was always sticky.

"Disgusting," she pronounced, making Sirius' face contort oddly.

"Okay, I'll be taking her," James said hurriedly, lifting Cassie from Sirius' arms. "My goddaughter doesn't need to hear this."

"She's a baby, not some sort of swamp monster, Vance!" James heard Sirius exclaim as he walked away.

"No, you don't need to hear this at all," he cooed, rubbing his nose with hers.

She looked up at him with those dark blue eyes of hers, a very serious look on her face.

"You don't need to hear anything silly like that because you're beautiful," he continued. "And y- eurgh!"

Cassie chose this moment to flail her arm and bop him firmly on the nose. This brought her great delight if her happy shriek was anything to go by.

"You have some strength there," James said admiringly, rubbing his nose and standing next to Lily.


Thursday 11th January 1981

Dumbledore's Office, 21:30

"You said that it's experimental?" Frank said slowly, after exchanging a look with Alice.

Experimental didn't sound good. In fact, it sounded the opposite of good. Who would want to put their security behind an experimental charm?

Dumbledore steepled his fingers together thoughtfully.

"It is not entirely experimental," he said finally. "There have been many tests performed on it. A lot of research."

"But it still isn't a standardised and fully registered spell," Frank interrupted.

He didn't even feel bad about doing it, he just wanted to get down to the nitty gritty and not waste any more time.

"No. It is not."

Which meant that there were still things to fixed with it, in Frank's opinion. Spells only got standardised if they actually did what they were supposed to do without any volatile reactions when performed correctly. Which meant that it wasn't a good charm to use, right? Which meant that they should use it for protection against one of the strongest dark wizards ever. He didn't even have to look at Alice to make his decision.

"I think we'll play it safe, sir," Frank finally said. "The wards around Longbottom Manor are incredibly strong and reinforced."

The perks of your family residing in the same place for hundreds of years.

"Are you sure about this? It does provide an extremely high level of protection when performed correctly."

Alice was now nodding along with him.

"We are."

Dumbledore sighed heavily but nodded.

"And you can't be persuaded otherwise?"

"No, sir."

Another nod, this time of acceptance.

"I understand your concerns, Frank." He then turned to James and Lily. "And what about you two?"

James and Lily quickly whispered something to each other.

"Can we get back to you on it?" James asked, sounding unsure.

"We want to talk it over," Lily added.

Dumbledore nodded. "I understand."


Monday 14th January 1981

Longbottom Manor, 21:00

"Do you think we made the right decision?" Alice asked, biting her lip.

"I think we've been making a lot of decisions recently," Frank said tiredly, running a hand down his face. "What one are you talking about?"

"That Fidelius Charm."

Frank didn't say anything, making her feel even more nervous. Was he having second thoughts about it as well? Were they going to have to call a meeting with Dumbledore.

"I think we did," he said finally. "Make the right decision," he added unnecessarily.

Alice nodded unsurely. That's what she had thought as well but now she wasn't feeling too sure.

"I don't want to risk it failing and then we have no other wards as back up."

Because that was one of the technicalities of this charm. Any sort of protection interfered with it so they'd have to rely on it and it alone. Which didn't make Alice feel safe at all.

What made her feel safe was being under layers upon layers of wards like they were right now. The wards around Longbottom Manor where some of the strongest in the country.

"So, this is our best decision."

"I think so."

Alice nodded and leaned back, feeling somewhat more relax. That sense of uneasiness never quite left her though.


aWednesday 16th January 1981

Auror Office, 09:00

"Moody, I told you; I'm fine working alone!" Sirius said in exasperation as he trailed after the older Auror.

"No one works alone, you know that," Moody snapped.

Huh, that happened quicker than usual. Then again, Moody was in a bad mood these past few days. And he had a right to be because he'd managed to get injured in a Death Eater attack. Of course, the chances of getting injured were very high in that sort of situation but Moody? Him getting hit by something other than flying glass and wood was a rare occurrence. Especially when the injury couldn't be healed immediately and he walked around with a limp the following days. Of course, he was meant to keep weight off the leg and rest up but Sirius didn't think that Moody had ever rested in his life. And it was obvious that he didn't intend too now. One poor, newly minted Auror had suggested that he follow the Healer's orders and the glare and retort he got still had the poor man tremble in uncontrollably every time Moody so much as looked at him.

"Well, I want to work alone," Sirius said stubbornly.

If he didn't get to work with James then he didn't want to work with anybody.

"Tough. You don't get to make that decision. I do."

"But-"

"No."

"Come on, you don't ha-"

"You're getting a partner and that's that, Black."

Moody stomped away before Sirius could even retort. How rude! He crossed his show that he was unhappy with this whole thing, even if Moody couldn't see him.

"I'm not happy about this!" He called after him.

"Way to make a guy feel welcomed."

There was only one person that voice could belong to.

"Kingsley?"