The next few days brought a never ending whirlwind of people in and out of The Order headquarters. Harry had been attacked by dementors in his neighborhood and was now facing expulsion after using magic in the presence of muggles to defend himself. Mrs. Weasley could hardly contain her anger towards the situation and nearly broke more than a few teacups whenever the topic was brought up. Dumbledore never made an appearance, but there were constant meetings behind locked doors and tense tones from the adults in the house.

"It's simply preposterous!" said Hermione when they heard the news. "I'll bet the Ministry loves it too. They'll have more than enough ammunition to throw into their next article at The Prophet."

"Oh yeah," sneered Ron. "'Harry Potter says he says he sees dementors, is this a cry for help?' Bastards! They're all full of rubbish."

"Come on now Ronnie, have a bit more faith than that," said Fred. "I'm sure they'll use a much more creative title. How 'bout, 'Dementors, in Little Whinging? Or should we say, demented?'"

They had a bit of a laugh, but the graveness of the situation was not lost on them.

As James and the other teenagers were tasked with deep cleaning various rooms in the decaying old house, she found herself wondering what her parents were doing and if they were alright. She imagined that they might be worried for her but doing their best to carry on as normal, telling neighbors false stories to explain her sudden disappearance. There was some relief in knowing they would be safer without her presence but she hated the thought of endangering them in the first place.

Frequently, James caught George staring at her as they scrubbed moldy window ledges and beat the dust out of musty sofa cushions, but he made no move to approach her. At first, she thought perhaps she had coerced him into crossing a line that night at the concert, but his recurrent glances said otherwise. She began to grow angry as the hours passed, feeling that his numerous transgressions of falling silent instead of speaking to her directly had become offensive.

After several torturous hours of cleaning, her emotions began to bubble up inside her, and felt dangerously close to bursting out in a display of uncontrolled magical destruction. She decided that enough was enough and she was going to have it out with him.

Determined for answers, James marched upstairs and rapped on the door of the twins' bedroom where Fred answered. The stench of some new magic product instantly assaulted her nose. "Oh James, come try a-"

"Out!" she ordered, pointing her finger sharply towards the hallway. Fred faltered for a moment but then quickly obliged, the door forcefully slamming shut with magic behind him harder than she had intended.

George looked up at her from his seat on the floor where he was surrounded by crumpled papers, a small steaming cauldron, and what appeared to be a human ear tied to a piece of string. He looked astonished to see her, "Listen-"

"What's the matter with you?" she cried exasperatedly, no longer willing to keep herself composed. "If you don't want to be with me at least have the decency to tell me! You can't just- What are you-" and suddenly he had crossed the room and was standing beside her, a pleading hand against her wrist.

She sharply tilted her head to look at his face now that they were so much closer, and saw his golden brown eyes looking sorrowfully down at hers, surrounded by dark puffy eye bags. "I didn't want to presume anything," he mumbled, averting his gaze while taking her hand in his and running his thumb against it.

The feeling of anger subsided and became replaced with one of longing, but a small spark still remained. "Well presume it! I give you full permission. Or better yet! Why don't you be a big boy and tell me what you feel so I can stop running all these scenarios in my head about why you've barely spoken to me! Do you have any idea how this makes me feel? It's not fair for you to just suddenly go mute every, single, time! I swear to god, George-"

"-I like you."

"-I can't do this anymore if you won't fucking talk to me, I absolutely refuse-" she paused as his words caught up to her. "You do?"

"Gee," he smirked, nervously brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ears, making her shiver at his touch. "You Americans really do talk a lot."

James stared at him breathlessly. She wasn't sure what to say now that he had cut off her pre-rehearsed speech. "I-" she gaped.

Gently, and achingly slow, George kissed her. His touch against her cheek made heat come to her skin as though she had drunk firewhiskey. When they broke apart, she was left even more breathless than she had been before.

"You know I like your hair like this," he gestured to James's blonde hair which she hadn't bothered to braid like she normally did.

"Talk to me," she whispered, suddenly feeling shy.

George sighed and led her to the pile of cushions he had been sitting on before she had barged into the room. "I'm sorry, I really am. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just, I just wanted you to be sure that you liked me. I didn't want this to just be some thing you did because we were at a concert and everyone else was doing it too. I promised d- I told myself that I wouldn't get in your way, that it would be your decision."

James's expression softened as she tried to appreciate the care he had taken to protect her agency and decision making. "Okay, well I'm telling you my decision. What's yours?"

"I want to be with you. I want you to be my girlfriend."

"You do?" she was surprised by how shocked she still was to hear him admit it.

"Well yeah, you- make me feel crazy. It's like I can't breathe when you're not around, not that I feel any less nervous when you are but... I mean you're just the coolest person I know. And not to mention crazy beautiful. I think I was just so worried that I would mess this up that I-"

James beamed up at him. "Now look who's talking a lot."

He pushed her away playfully before wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into him. They stayed like that for a while, her head snuggled atop his shoulder under his chin, both afraid to move or breathe too loudly lest they disrupt their timid expression of teenage attraction.

"George?"

"Mhmm?"

She could hear his heart beating slowly and steadily beneath her, and the deep vibration of his voice in his chest. James did her best not to move as she spoke, as though afraid it might break some sort of spell. "Do you think this is smart? What we're doing, doing all this now?"

"Whad'ya mean?"

"Well, all anyone can seem to talk about is Voldemort. If he's really come back, what's going to happen now that he has, if we're going to go to war... I just mean that- what if something bad really does happen?"

She felt his chest rise as he breathed in deeply. "Well, I mean, look around us. Cedric Diggory died, Harry was attacked by dementors, Fudge has gone mad... bad things are happening all around us already. The Hogwarts Express could get blown up next month for all I know. It shouldn't mean that we don't get to be happy. If anything, we should do it now rather than never."

"Yeah," James murmured thoughtfully, feeling calm once more. "Now rather than never."


Two days later on August 6th, the headquarters of The Order was busier than James had yet seen it as the mission to bring Harry from his home on Privet Drive to Grimmauld Place was set into motion. The teens were kept well away from the commotion, all being strictly ordered to stay upstairs and not come down unless "a dementor bursts through the window" as Moody had put it.

Even in their exile though, the teens could not be stopped from gathering by the second floor window overlooking the street to watch as Remus, Moody, Kingsley, a woman named Tonks whom James had briefly been introduced to, and a spattering of other unknown witches and wizards took off by broom to fetch Harry under the veil of night time. When it was clear that there was nothing more to see and that no development would occur for hours, they retired to their rooms.

James collapsed onto her mattress wearily, feeling as though her entire life had changed incomprehensively in less than a week. At this point, though she cared greatly for the Weasleys, she wanted nothing more than to go home and see her parents. She didn't want to stay here where she was constantly reminded of the promises she had made to Dumbledore, especially now that Harry would be arriving soon. She had already kept one secret from him last year and it had nearly destroyed their friendship. How could she possibly keep something else, something worse, from him?

With nothing to do, seeing as all the adults remaining in the house were busy preparing for a meeting tonight, the time passed by slowly. "Are you nervous?" Ginny croaked from her bed, the stir of sheets sliding against each other breaking the silence.

"A little," James admitted, although likely not for the same reasons that Ginny felt. She turned to look at the red haired girl who lay in a fetal position staring over at her. "Are you?"

"A bit. What if something goes wrong?"

"I'm sure it won't, Moody seems like the type of guy to take all possible precautions."

As soon as she said it, James felt ill as she was cast into memories of the way 'Moody' had treated her last year during their training sessions, but it made Ginny snicker. "Yeah, Mad-Eye's a bit of work all right."

"Can we do something please? All this waiting is horrible."

"Cassettes or cards?" offered Ginny.

"Both."

Two hours later as the tape they were listening to finished playing, the sound of whispers downstairs followed by creaking footsteps on the stairs instantly captured the girls' attention.

"Do you think?"

"Yeah," smiled Ginny, throwing her winning hand of cards on the ground carelessly.

The girls crept forward towards the door, hoping to catch a glimpse of news about the mission and its success. No sooner had they stepped foot outside when the muffled sound of yelling rang out from Ron's room across the landing. "SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? ME, I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEY'S FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE-"

"Well, that'll definitely be Harry," said Ginny grimly.

James grimaced. "I didn't expect him to be so angry."

What's he going to think of me when he learns what I've done, she thought.

"He'll get over it. At least he's safe now" Ginny said looking rather pleased. "Should we go see if we can overhear anything from the meeting? It's a big one tonight."

James nodded, although truly she had no interest in being made privy to any more information about the workings of The Order. Her task of keeping Harry in the dark about the prophecy was more than enough to occupy her.

She watched as Ginny tossed a Dungbomb down the stairs towards the door where the meeting was being held. As though being pushed by an invisible forcefield, the Dungbomb arced away and landed on the corner of a rug where Crookshanks soon began to play with it. Ginny shook her head and the girls quietly retreated back to their room.

A few minutes later the yelling ceased and the door to Ron's bedroom could be heard creaking opening. Ginny ran out to greet them, and as if she hadn't overheard a thing said brightly, "Oh hello, Harry! I thought I heard your voice."

James followed behind her, not realizing how excited she had been to see Harry until she saw the messy haired boy with crooked circular glasses before her. "Of course," he scoffed when he met her eyes. "You've been here this whole time too."

"I-I've been here less than a week," she protested, unable to keep from noticing how scarily skinny Harry had grown. Hermione had previously divulged how the Dursleys treated Harry when he was home, but she had never imagined that it would be so bad.

Ginny turned to the twins who were eagerly standing by the stairs with a long piece of string containing eerily realistic looking human ears on either end. "It's a no-go with the Extendable Ears, Mum's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the door."

"Extendable Ears?" she questioned.

"New Weasley's Wizard Wheezes product," said Fred. "You just listen through one ear and put the other where you want to listen."

"Oh! Like a tin can telephone. I used to make those with my cousins when we were younger."

They all stared at her blankly, with only Hermione seeming to understand her reference.

"Yeah well it doesn't matter anyhow, 'cause Mum put a spell on the meeting room door and if she catches us with another set of these I think she might finally blow," grumbled Ron.

Fred heaved a deep sigh. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"Snape?" said Harry quickly. "Is he here"

James listened eagerly as the friends related news to Harry about what had been happening recently. There were several details that everyone had failed to mention to James. The most significant one being that Ginny's brother Percy was no longer in contact with the Weasleys after having earned a promotion at the Ministry and renouncing Dumbledore along with anyone who believed Voldemort was back.

The crack of apparition sounded loudly as Fred and George disappeared with their string Extendable Ears in tow. From down below Mrs. Weasley's voice rang up the stairwell, "The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now, everyone's dying to see you, Harry."

James followed Ginny down the stairs, leaving Harry to speak further with Hermione and Ron in privacy.

The kitchen was filled with more chairs than it had been the last few days, some of them still occupied by members of The Order who were hastily looking over scrolls of parchment scattered across the table. "Come help with dinner," directed Mrs. Weasley in a futile attempt to distract the girls from the documents.

After a nearly disastrous accident wherein George and Fred had attempted to magically levitate dinner onto the table and nearly spilled it all, they sat down to eat. The room was cheerfully crowded and filled with happy chatter.

James couldn't help but notice that Remus wasn't sitting next to Sirius, who was fully engrossed in a conversation with Harry, Ron, and a short balding man named Mundungus Fletcher, as he usually did during mealtimes. There was an outburst of laughter from that end of the table as Mundungus toppled out of his seat, apparently having drunk one too many flasks of firewhiskey along with his butterbeer. Mrs. Weasley glared disapprovingly at them.

The woman named Tonks, James quickly learned, was a metamorphmagus who could shapeshift different parts of her body without the use of transfiguration spells. Tonks happily transformed her nose into a pig snout and then a duck beak for Ginny, who marveled at the results. Even Bill Weasley, whom James had met once before at the Triwizard Cup final, was there intently talking to his father about his work at Gringotts with a purple feathered earring hanging above his shoulder. It would have all seemed rather normal if it weren't for the fact that they were living in a safe house.

The atmosphere changed instantly as the word "Voldemort," left Sirius's lips.

Mrs. Weasley's protective manner switched on like a light, her previously relaxed state disappearing like smoke. "You're too young, Harry."

Sirius took on an air of defiance, "He's got a right to know what's been happen-"

"Hang on!" interrupted George loudly.

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?" Fred asked angrily.

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," Sirius said calmly. "That's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand-"

"It's not up to you to decide what's good for Harry!" said Mrs. Weasley shrilly. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?"

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know."

At these words, James thought back to her own conversation with Dumbledore during her impromptu meeting with the Order. It had been Sirius who pushed to let them task her with keeping Harry unaware of the truth, so she couldn't understand why he would want to tell him everything now.

The argument continued to grow heated until, finally, Mrs. Weasley said," Well... I can see I'm going to be overruled. Very well, Ginny - Ron - Hermione - James - Fred - George - I want you out of this kitchen, now."

These words did not go over well.

George and Fred bellowed together "We're of age!"

"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" shouted Ron.

"Mum!" wailed Ginny.

"We have a right to know too!" cried Hermione in an uncharacteristic challenge to authority.

After much arguing and the realization that George and Fred were legal adults and that Harry would simply tell the others everything later, they were permitted to stay.

Most of what was said was nothing that James hadn't already heard or pieced together herself. Voldemort was trying to piece together his army back together and would stop at nothing to do so. Dumbledore's credibility in the public eye was lower than she had realized and the Order's connections within the Ministry were strained too. None of it was great news, but as the hushed conversation continued she felt George take her hand beneath the table and couldn't help but smile at the warmth. Her eyes flickered down and then back up where they met the emotionless stare of Mr. Weasley.

...

Author Note: I feel like this chapter is kinda all over the place lol. I'm trying to keep the story in canon as much as possible while also only keeping storylines that are relevant to James's character because obviously this is being told from her POV. Cutting scenes from the book can make the flow a bit weird, so sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter than normal. I'm so curious to hear why you guys think Mr. Weasley has been acting so strange! Also, how are we feeling about getting some more romance in here? It's so much fun to experiment with writing about attraction from a teenage perspective, and also getting all those fun flirtatious scenes in there. I try to remember how young these characters truly are and think about how that affects the way they deal with Voldemort's return. In your teenage years, I think you can be a bit more oblivious than you might think, so it's nice that they can still find happiness even amid the threat of impending war :)