November 1

1:00 am

Sirius blinked. Okay. Frank and Alice first. He disapparated to the gates of Longbottom Manor and immediately put up Salvio Hexia, Protego Maxima and Protego Muggletum, in case of watching muggles or Death Eaters. He then sent a patronus to Frank.

Inside the house, a bright white deerhound bounded through the house towards Frank and Alice Longbottom. The message it carried was: Hi peeps, it's Sirius. Dumbledore sent me, and I need your help.

Alice jumped up immediately. "It's totally Sirius." She ran to the door and opened it up. Sirius walked in exhausted. Frank went to assist him.

"Oh god, I feel like James," he said sadly.

"Why? What happened? James? Why James? Why are you so battered up?" asked Frank anxiously.

"Frank, let him sit," reprimanded Alice.

"Thanks," said Sirius. He sat down heavily. "I hadn't realized how exhausted I was up till now. So Voldemort came knocking (Alice gasped and Frank looked angry), but thanks to the totally AMAZING safety system created and patented by me, Remus, James and Lily…err…anyways we found him when we came back with Dumbledore, but he basically blasted apart most of the house and disappeared. Everyone's fine, but James got tortured by Voldemort (they both gasped this time), and Dumbledore's called an Order meeting. Peter's a Death Eater ("WHAT?" they both shouted), and we need to talk about what's going to happen next. Voldemort seems to be specifically going for Harry, and I think the war's really at its peak. Also, now that we know what he really wants, we can find a weakness and a way to defeat him."

"Wow," said Alice. "That's a lot of information."

"Also, Dumbledore wants to have the meeting here. I also have to contact the other members of the Order. Can you two help me?"

"Yeah, hang on, I'll tell Mum," said Frank. "We need someone to take care of Neville while we're gone."

"Oh, how is he?" said Sirius interestedly. He'd been good friends with Frank and Alice at Hogwarts and often accompanied them on Order missions.

"Happy. And very interested in all the houseplants," said Alice.

"Yeah, he'll love Herbology," said Frank, grinning. "Okay, give me a minute…" He conjured his patronus, a lion, and sent it to Augusta Longbottom. "Okay, I'm ready." He stood up and grabbed his wand. "Who's first?"

"Er…Frank," said Alice.

"Yes?"

"You're still in your pajamas."

Frank blushed. "Riiiiiight." He transfigured his striped pajamas to deep red dueling robes. "Okay, so, where do we go now?"

Sirius reeled off a list of Order members. "And I'll take Remus, Arabella and Minerva. I also have to go home to help James and Lily set up, they're going to be living at my place at the moment."

"Cool," said Frank. "Let's get going." They stepped out of the boundaries of Longbottom Manor and silently turned on the spot.

Sirius appeared outside the Forest of Dean, where he knew Remus was with the rest of the werewolves. The full moon was in three days, so Remus was almost certainly staying with the werewolves. But where? And then Sirius remembered his mirror. He couldn't call him with it, that would be too conspicuous. So he settled for a charm that would make the mirror heat up slightly. He hoped Remus was carrying it around with him. He'd been at it for about five minutes, when he was pleased to find that his own mirror had begun to grow colder and colder in his hand. So Moony had gotten the message. About ten minutes later, as he was waiting on the bench of a nearby empty park, the mirror heated up again and began to vibrate. He pulled it out to see Remus' face on it.

"Hiya Moony!"

"Hello, Padfoot, what's wrong?"

"Order meeting in thirty minutes, we all need to be there. Very urgent - long story short, Peter betrayed us (Remus made an angry growl), Voldy came knocking, and then escaped. Meet me at Longbottom Manor at 1:45."

"Okay. Did the machine work?"

"Yes, it did!" said Sirius gleefully. "I can't wait till we can go back and see the footage!"

"Sirius, you know what? I'll just come with you. Where are you? I'll apparate."

"The park near the entrance."

Five minutes later, Remus walked through the gate of the park "Now where?"

"Could you go to Arabella? I've got to go to Hogwarts and then will you meet me at my house? James and Lily are moving in temporarily; the house at Godric's Hollow is completely destroyed."

Remus looked horrified. "Of course! See you in a bit!"

Sirius disapparated back to the gates of Hogwarts and sent his former transfiguration teacher a Patronus message that went: Hello Minnie. Order meeting at 1:45, Longbottom Manor, bring Harry too.

When Minerva received the message up in her office where Harry was mercifully sleeping after all of her best efforts, she was both annoyed and worried. Annoyed that Sirius Black had called her Minnie yet again, and worried because it was very odd for Albus to call an Order meeting at nearly 2 in the morning. Had something in their plan gone wrong? Nevertheless, she gathered everything, carefully picked up Harry and disapparated to Longbottom Manor. Best to be early.

Sirius went back to his own house afterwards to the sight of James and Lily levitating about twenty boxes into his houses. He was glad that he had at least two spare rooms and an attic full of space. "Hi guys!"

"Sirius!" said James. "Is Remus coming?"

"Yeah, should be here in a minute, he's got to apparate Arabella Figg over to the Longbottoms, and then he should be here. Need help?"

"Yes, thanks," said Lily. "Where's Harry?"

"Minnie's bringing him," he said. "Sent her a Patronus; she's coming directly to Longbottom Manor.

"Good," said James.

Sirius, James and Lily speedran the unpacking (they'd done a pretty good job, even if they did say so themselves) so that they had beds to sleep in after the Order meeting. Halfway through, Remus showed up and started helping, too. James stood back to admire their work.

"Very good, considering we only had forty minutes." Then he glanced at his watch. "Oh, no, guys, it's 1:44, we've got to go!"

(A/N: We know that in canon, Sirius didn't have a corporeal Patronus, but maybe it's because he spent so long in Azkaban, and he might've been able to produce one before the Potters died. So for this story, it's a deerhound, which is the type of dog that Sirius was as an animagus. We also don't know Frank Longbottom's Patronus, but it sounds like it would be a lion, based on what we know of him in the books. These were two rather...Sirius chapters (pun completely intended). The next one will be another comedy one!)