James yawned widely, his back aching from sitting still on the edge of the roof for hours.

"I didn't knew Thanatos needed sleep too," said a voice, he turned and pointed his wand at the person. The Aurors had arrived, the voice was of Frank Longbottom.

"Everyone can do with a good sleep," Thanatos replied. "These two are death eaters but I think the remaining three are under the imperius curse, I removed it but I will recommend you to do a proper test."

"Sure, thanks,"

"Welcome," bowed Thanatos. "I had to say that only, byee."

And he disapparated.

As he entered the house tiredly he saw that Lily was yawning and stretching. "Why you stopped behind?"

"A case of imperius," he replied. "Sirius and Peter went straight to their house."

"It was a long tiring night," she said laying on the bed.

"Indeed," he replied laying next to her.

"We should get as much sleep as we can," she said closing her eyes. "We have to attend the Order meeting later. The Prewetts said that they have something planned to cheer all of us up."

"Cool," grinned James. "Wish we Marauders could do the same but it's no fun to do a marauder party without Remus."

"Talking of Remus. In Marauder's map, why is Moony first, then Wormtail, then Padfoot, and finally at last Prongs?"

James shrugged. "When we were adding the last parts at the end of the fifth year, so we had gotten the nicknames. It was up to me to put the final design and our names intro. Now, Remus is the one who feels that he doesn't belong here, so I put him first to show him how important he's to us. Then Peter because he gets all nervous and people see him as someone who doesn't belong with us, then I put Sirius and then me."

Lily kissed him. "I am impressed."

"I am honoured."

"Prongs, why was my bed a jelly?" came the shout of Sirius.

"And why the floor was all sticky," shouted Marls.

"And why every food in the kitchen taste like paper?" asked Peter irritatedly.

"And why my books are all singing horrible songs?" asked Maty.

The four of them appeared in Potter's cottage angrily.

They were all looking funny, Sirus was covered in brown jelly. Marls' hair was sticking up, Peter was covered in white ash, and Mary had a book on her head as a crown, singing while she tried to get rid of it.

"Oh, it was very funny," laughed James.

"We got up early and you lot were all asleep when we arrived there so we decided to take advantage of the moment," Lily clutched her stomach laughing.

"You all look funny, Marls your toes are all big," pointed James.

"You both do know that we have to go to the Headquarters in an hour?" shouted Marls.

"You have got one hour, get ready," said James. "It only takes ten minutes."

"You both are gits," said Mary shaking her head. "Not expected this from you, Lily." Lily just shrugged and winked.

The six of them arrived at the Order's headquarters and were surprised to see Remus there.

"Moony!" Sirius hugged him tightly. "We missed you."

"I missed you too," Remus replied and the tone of his voice made Sirius suspicious.

"Are you alright man? When did you come?" asked James.

"Last night," Remus replied. "I just got here and decided to stay."

"Why didn't you come to our place, it'd have been fun," Sirius said, James and Lily snickered.

"Ah, I was just tired and decided to stay here," replied Remus.

The Prewetts brothers appeared. "Finally you lot are here, late but on time," said Fabian happily.

"When's the party? After the meeting or before the meeting?" asked Peter.

"After the meeting," answered Gideon. "We made Regulus do the decorations, and we regretted it instantly, his taste is different."

"You should see Sirius' taste then," laughed Marls.

Fabian laughed."We wanted to invite Molly and Arthur for the party but . . . "

Gideon joined. "But they are super busy with. . . "

"With their kids. . ."

"Five kids, of which. . . "

"The two newborns are twins. . . "

"I bet they will be pranksters. . . "

"Like us. . . ."

"They are only about five months old and have started showing magical signs. . . "

"And they began crying if you separate them . . . "

"We both are much better. . ."

"Hope they make us proud. . . "

"Continuing our legacy. . ."

"Of being the next-door neighbours." finished Fabian, both the brothers laughed remembering when they have used this joke on their mothers.

The meeting lasted an hour, they talked about providing tighter security in Hogsmeade and in Leaky Cauldron, about steps to take to prevent Death Eaters from hiring more people and trying to persuade people to join the order.

Then they were all given tasks. The Potters were paired with the Prewetts for a mission tomorrow, where they had to guard a Ministry Muggle-Wizard interaction official building in Sheffield, it was the location accessible to both wizards and squibs, who worked in the muggle world, this was there to ensure that any sighting of magic by muggle could be informed to the Law Enforcement department in the ministry of magic. Most of the workers there were muggleborns, squibs or those who were very interested and close to Muggles. They had been receiving several threats in the past few weeks and needed protection.

"Let's get the party started," shouted Fabian.

"I will be off then," said the oldest man then.

"Come on, Albus, you are not that old to feel excluded," said Gideon.

"Yeah, what age are you, 12? 15? 19? 25?" said Fabian.

"Oh, young age, you never get enough of it," said Akbus dreamily. "I have matters to attend at school my dears. I have left Minerva in charge, she won't be happy if I party here."

"That's a good excuse," snickered Frank. "Never cross Minerva."

"Indeed," and the headmaster was gone.

"Is it me or he's looking weaker and weaker each day?" asked Dorcas.

"He is getting weaker, I have noticed too," confirmed Alice and the others nodded.

James and Lily exchanged grim looks.

All of them entered the big room where the party was to be held, only Regulus was sitting there, looking bored. It was not much decorated but there were loads of food, drinks, and music.

"We thought a bit of cheering up is just what we need in these gloomy days," grinned Fabian.

As the party continued, James and Sirius walked up to Regulus. "How are you?"

"Bored out of my fucking mind, I am just locked here all day, doing nothing. Wish, Kreacher hasn't saved me,"

"Don't be stupid, it's better to be alive than being dead," scolded Sirius.

"And you can't even imagine how much you have helped," whispered James.

"Still," shrugged Reg.

"Aren't we losing enough people every day that you too wish to die?" said Sirius.

"And your permanent presence here, keeps the charm more strong, and you are helping in passing important messages asap," explained James.

"Yeah, you're right."

"James!" came the happy voice of Lily, he looked to find her standing near a table with the other girls. "Look how cool is this. Come fast."

James walked up to her and saw the table she was pointing at, "Awesome, table football. Where did you got this?" he asked Gideon, who was standing nearby talking to White.

"We saw it in an abandoned building while searching for Death eaters and took it," he answered.

"You stole it," pointed out Mary.

"No, it was an abandoned old building, and we took it, cleaned it, Mary"

"Tha's . . . um. . .but still. . "

"Don't worry, Mary, no one will ever come looking after it, if not for us, it would have been destroyed."

"I challenge you for a match, Potter," smirked Lily.

"Challange accepted, Evans," grinned James. "What's the prize?"

"Anything you want," winked Lily. "And anything I want."

They played many matches, and Lily won more than half.

"Alright what do you want, Potter?" asked James.

"I will ask for it whenever I want, I will think wisely before asking," grinned Lily.

"Where did you both learn to play it so well?" asked Marls.

"We have played it a few times before in Blackpool, and then when we went to a mall," answered James.

"Who's up for karaoke?" asked Dorcas excitedly.

"Excellent!" shouted Marls.

All of them initially sang songs made by Celestina Warbeck and Weird sisters, then they turned to Muggle music, they sang 'Can't take my eyes off you, When I'm 64, All you need is love, Bohemian Rhapsody.

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango!Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me
Galileo, Galileo
Galileo, Galileo
Galileo, Figaro - magnificooI'm just a poor boy nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go) Will not let you go
(Let me go)(Never) Never let you go
(Let me go) (Never) let you go (Let me go) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me,
For meee

Then they all sang 'Take a chance on me' and 'Waterloo'

And by the end of the song, Mary and Thomas were kissing each other, Mary turned deep red as everyone cheered and wolf-whistled.

"Hey! One more song, a new one, it's Y.M.C.A.," James shouted over the noises. Lily squeaked happily.

They sang along to the music of this one, James and Lily faced each other, singing, jumping and dancing together.

Young man, there's no need to feel down
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.

No man, young man, does it all by himself
Young man, young man, put your pride on the shelf
Y.M.C.A., and just go to the Y.M.C.A.Young man, young man I was once in your shoes
Young man, young man I was down with the blues, Y.M.C.A.

"So, how did this kiss happen, last time you said that he has only asked but you haven't gone on a date?" smirked Marls.

"We were dating for the past few times, we were keeping it low, wanted to establish it before making it public," Mary replied.

"So, it's obvious that you like him, but do tell me, how is he?" asked Lily.

"He's very caring, used to turn up to St. Mugo's every evening even though we had to disapparate but still it's cute, and he doesn't say or do much in public but when he's with me, we talk a lot, he does big gestures and expresses that he likes me," she has turned red. "He's a fantastic kisser."

"She has fallen bad for him," said Marls and Lily nodded.

"I think he might be mine, Prince Charming," Mary blushed.

"Who?" asked Marls confused.

"It's a muggle saying for supposed to be an imaginary perfect boyfriend or husband," Lily explained.

"What do you mean by imaginary?" Mary furrowed her brows. "Are you not happy with James?"

Lily laughed. "That's stupid. What I mean is that when we were children, we used to think of living in a palace or a big house, or will travel the world happy with our partner, that we'll have a perfect life, a life with no twists, sorrows, faults, disagreements or fights. But look at us now, we are in a war, and everyone has disagreements and they fight but that's what's a beautiful part of life. As long as you are with the right person, you'll overcome all those bad things and will be happy."

"Heavy words but true," Marls agreed.

Lily looked up at James, he was talking to Sirius but was looking in bad mood, by the looks they were on disagreement term over something.

She decided to talk to him about it later. The party lasted for another hour after which Moody called it off.

"I am tired, baby," Lily complained as they walked out of the headquarter.

"You are even able to walk after dancing so much, is a big deal. I am impressed, Evans, you wake up late in the morning and never do any exercises, and yet you have got the strength to walk," James chuckled as Lily hit him on the arms.

"I am not weak, I am very strong, I do exercise, see," she showed him her biceps, there were no muscles to show, she quickly hid it as James laughed. "See, I am strong physically."

"In your dreams, Potter," he showed her his own biceps. "This requires hard work to get." Lily scowled.

"James, earlier what was going on between you and Sirius, you were angry at him and then you both didn't even look at each other when we left,"

James shrugged. "Sirius is being stupid, nothing else. Let's disapparate, this is a perfect spot, I will talk about it at home."

Lily sat tiredly on the couch as James left to get a quick shower.

The shower was something that James loved as much as a cup of hard tea for treating tiredness and getting refreshed. When he exited the shower and walked into the room, he found that Lily has dozed off on the couch itself. He sat in front of her and looked at her peaceful face, she looked very cute in sleep, he felt the butterflies in his stomach, and he felt his heart filling with emotions of pure love. He was never going to get used to it.

He kissed her forehead and then picked her up, she murmured something as he laid her on the bed. "Uncomfortable dress."

"Lils, you are fully dressed, change into comfortable clothes," he said shaking her slightly.

She groaned, "Too tired, help me," she sat up and held her hands up so that he could help her change.

"Someday, Lily you'll learn that there's something called magic and that you are a witch," James shook his head, he selected a comfortable cloth for her, and then with a flick of wand, he interchanged them.

"Let's sleep now," she moaned pulling him into her. "We have a mission tomorrow, we need rest."

The next day James and Lily met the Prewetts, and together they went to Sheffield, they positioned in pairs of two near the building, James and Lily together covering the back while the Prewetts being the seniors covered the front. Though the chances of attacks were equal on both sides.

Lily had an odd feeling today, she felt as though she wasn't at her best or maybe it was just the harsh weather. The clouds had covered the sky, it has turned yellow, and there were silence, a creepy silence. She shivered at her spot, James looked at her concernedly, but she just shook her head.

They were sitting there for an hour or so when four death eaters appeared on the street in front of them and began to terrorize the people by attacking them and the buildings. James stuns one immediately, and then they both jump forward to engage in a duel of 3 vs 2.

Lily fired back-to-back blasting spells at them once she has made sure that no muggle was in the circle of harm, the death eaters were forced back and had to conjure shields back to back which were exploded. James took the opportunity to blast the balcony from the building behind them and drop it on them.

Two of them were badly injured, Lily and James then started sending offensive spells at them, a curse hit one of the death eaters and he fell to the ground, one of the death eaters disapparated while the other was disarmed and tied with his fellow companion.

James wiped the blood from his mouth there was a cut on his lips, Lily on the other hand had a black eye and a big bump on her forehead.

James walked up to the captures, the man that was struggling stopped as a smile appeared on James' face.

"Perfect, this is what I have been hoping for so long, nice to meet you again Rabastan Lestrange," James said detaching the man from the other and tying him separately. "I have to gift you to someone, he'll like to meet you." James pointed his wand at Rabastan's face and his eyes rolled and he became unconscious.

"What are you doing?" hissed Lily.

"I need him for a secret work," James replied. "We have to hide him somewhere away, away from Order and make a story so his brother doesn't come looking for him."

"Why?"

"I will tell you later," replied James, and at that exact moment there was a defeating blast behind them, they turned to see the building's top was blasted and was on fire, shoot rising high in the air.

"Merlin's beard!" gasped James.

It was now that they heard even loud shouting from the front side of the building, they both exchanged looks

"Fuck, we need to go and help The Prewetts, I will send the message to the Order." The stag emerged and shot off.

James hid Rabastan's body carefully by magic. "Let's go," he began running but Lily caught his arm.

"Wait James, it could be very dangerous there, we should use the cloak, it will hide us better than even disillusionment," Lily said hurriedly, her heart pounding.

James immediately took out the cloak and threw it over both of them, and they rushed to the front of the building. The scene in front of them was horrible, it shocked them.

Five death eaters were circling around the badly injured Prewett brothers, and even as they get a proper view, Fabian was hit by the green spell and fell to the ground. Lily gasped, and before she could even move another green spell hit Gideon and he too just like his brother fell.

Lily made to rush forward and attack them but James held her tightly and clasped her mouth.

"Shh, there are about ten more death eaters, look," he whispered pulling her back into a safe spot. Lily saw that on the other side of the road, many more death eaters were attacking people and destroying the place. "We don't stand a chance, we both will die too, let's wait for the Order."

Lily struggled for a moment but gave up as tears filled her eyes, she began sobbing in James' chest as he made sure that they were properly hidden from the death eaters. He placed a silencing charm around them for safety.

Lily tried to look at the Prewetts but closed her eyes when she found out that they were now kicking their bodies, and mutilating them. James stroked her back to calm her as his eyes too filled with tears.

"That's Antonin Dolohov, I have seen him before on an order mission, he has tortured and killed many," Lily said through the lump in her throat.

After thirty minutes the coast was clear and the Aurors along with Moody arrived, but James decided that they remain under the cloak for safety, they took Rabastan and disapparated.

"Where are we?" Lily asked as she landed in front of a wooden house in the middle of a forest.

"It belonged to dad, he used to come here to be in the middle of nature and do his research and experiment, later it was just a house we used to come to sometimes for picnics, it's in the forest near Potter's manor, now headquarter," replied James. "I wanted to keep it, it's very close to my heart and has only happy memories. There's a herd of stags and deers that lives nearby. I was hidden with them when death eaters were following me."

Lily nodded. "So, you want to hide him here?"

"It's the safest spot," answered James opening the dirty house, thick layers of dust covered the mostly empty house. "There might be a few couches and a bed, nothing more. I will lock him in the basement, the old potion room."

The basement was completely empty and very dirty too.

"It looks haunted," Lily commented wiping her tears.

"Let's go to headquarters and inform others too, there was supposed to be another meet today," James said wrapping his arms around a devastated Lily. "It's going to be alright, one day the war will be over. Shh." His eyes were watery too, and he was sad too but he has to be bold, not both of them can be weak and cry.

As they entered the Headquarters they heard happy cheering, Sirius came to them happily.

"We were on a mission together, we fucking destroyed the entire Death Eaters' house, they had set up a small headquarter, and there were about ten to twenty death eaters, we took them by surprise, killed some and captured others, only one escaped. Dorcas was fucking awesome, she killed four of them and defeated three," said Sirius punching the air.

"Fabian and Gideon are dead," James spoke and felt tears falling down.

Everyone instantly went silent as though someone has pressed the mute button.

"No, no, that . . . how do you know?" asked Alice breaking down.

"We saw it," James answered. "Moody and Aurors arrived later."

"We should have been with the Aurors," said Frank, rubbing Alice's back. "We had Order work today but White called it off at the last moment."

Soon, Dumblodore and other senior members arrived too.

Dumbledore, who was already ill-looking was looking even worse, he grimaced as he sat.

"We have lost two of our best members today. They both fought like heroes. Their sacrifices shall never be forgotten, and we will try our best to succeed in doing what they died, to get rid of the evil from the world," he said.

"It took five of them to kill them," said Lily. "One of them was Dolohov."

There was silence for several moments.

"Tell them the other news," said Moody, and all of them looked at them, holding their breaths.

"We think that we might have a spy in between us," Dumbledore looked at each of them. "Death eaters, somehow already knew some of our plans."

Everyone gasped and exchanged looks.

"That's. . . that's, why will someone betray us?" said James. "The death eaters might have just been lucky."

"You always think that," snarled Sirius. "You trust people so much that you will harm yourself."

James threw Sirius a dirty look before turning to Dumbledore, "Who do you think is the spy, sir?"

"I am afraid that I have no idea, who it is," he adjusted his glasses.

"Constant vigilance," barked Moody loudly. "Constant vigilance is our best weapon now."

They all sat in silence, Alice was sobbing over the loss of her cousins, few others had tears in their eyes too.

James rose from his chair and stood behind it, "I don't think that anyone in this organisation would ever sell us to Voldemort."

Everyone looked at him. Some as though he was stupid.

"But James, Dumbledore himself said there was a spy," it was Lily who spoke this time.

"I know but I don't believe or to say precisely I don't want to believe that one of ours could betray us. I mean. . . if somebody made a mistake, and let something slip," James reasoned. "I know they didn't mean to do it. It's not their fault. We have got to trust each other. I trust all of you."

"You're just a kid," growled Moody. "This is a war."

"I know very well that this is a war," James clenched his fist.

Lily sat sobbing in the bed, each day it was getting harder and harder to put up with, they had lost so many people but still, each time it hurt, this was the feeling one can never get used to. James came and pulled her into him, "They died in front of us James and we couldn't help them, that's the third time for me."

"It's not your fault, we couldn't do anything."

He stroked her back till she calmed down.

After an hour, Lily stood up. "I will go get us something to eat." She smiled at him weakly and he returned it.

She returned ten minutes with toasts and tea, and laid it on the side table, she saw that James was looking sad but also disturbed, as though in deep trouble, confusion.

"Are you okay, James?" Lily sat down next to him.

He nodded but then said, "No, I am not okay at all."

"I understand, none of us are okay. You encourage me always and now you are down yourself. We have to continue fighting and remember legends never die, they become a part of us. And we will respect them by defeating the darkness. Be bold James, lift your heart, we've got a big fight ahead of us."

James nodded again.

They were sitting cuddled together, in each other's comfort when Sirius came in.

"James, now that Dumbledore has said about the spy, and from what I have observed you have to agree with me," he said seriously standing in front of him.

"There's no proof, Sirius. You are being delusional," James shook his head.

"Wait, what are you both talking about?" asked Lily.

"Sirius here thinks that. . . that Remus since his mission with werewolves has joined them and is spying on us,"

"WHAT?! Sirius, that's a very serious accusation. Remus is our friend, he's a good person, and he can never do that," Lily was bewildered that Sirius would even think that.

"Don't you start acting like Prongs too," Sirius said frustratedly. "He believed people blindly."

"Remus is my friend," snapped James. "And I will believe you too blindly with my life but this is stupid."

"I am flattered that you trust me with life but not this," Sirius bowed mockingly. "Remus has been acting oddly ever since he has returned, he doesn't stay with us any longer, he was sulking at the party yesterday, and wasn't being his normal self."

"That doesn't makes him a spy," James shouted.

"He is a werewolf and living with them has changed him," Sirius reasoned.

James got to his feet, "Are you even listening to yourself, Sirius? Just because he has that problem doesn't means he'll join them. He was upset about living with them when I talked to him yesterday."

"Then why doesn't he leaves? He has the choice to leave them but still, he's going back at them each day."

"He is doing it for the order. You gotta trust him."

"Trust him and risk everyone's life? Why can't you just believe me? Do you even trust me or not? Or do you just simply say that you trust your friends with life to please them?"

"Hey! You take that back," James growled. "I will never distrust any of my friends, whether it's you, Remus or Peter. You are jumping to conclusions here, Sirius, I am sure Remus will never turn his back on us."

Sirius turned and punched the wall hard.

"Sirius," scolded Lily.

"Then who do you think is the spy?" he asked James who shrugged.

"I already said that I think there might have been a mistake,"

"You should be more alert, James, or it might harm you," Sirius shook his head and left.

"Do you think I am stupid, too?" James asked Lily.

"This is all very complex, I don't even want to think that we're in a war," sighed Lily. "But we have to be alert, we can't blindly trust anyone, now."

James and Lily attended the farewell of the brothers, and they met a devastated Molly, she cried during the whole ceremony, it broke Lily's heart and she too began sobbing remembering the scene.

"They both fought like heroes," James told Molly when they met her, Arthur was holding her. "We promise, Molly that we'll avenge their deaths."

Molly nodded.

"They both were very happy about your twins," Lily said. "Both Fabian and Gideon were legends, Molly, be bold for them."

"We wish that the war gets over and peace returns to our small magical world," grimaced Arthur. "You both, I suppose are fighters too?" James and Lily nodded.

"Take care of yourselves," sobbed Mooly. "This war is a nasty thing."

James and Lily were about to leave when they heard, "James," a pale looking Peter approached him. "Can we talk alone for a moment?"

Lily gave Peter a quizzical look, "I will wait by the tree," she said to James and left. She saw that Peter took James to a very private spot and then saw them casting what seemed to be a silencing charm.

"What did Peter wanted?" Lily asked once they were back home.

James grimaced, "He was scared of the previous deaths and wanted to work in headquarter itself and not on field. He was scared about the safety of his parents too and was asking if I know about any other secret spot."

"Sometimes he makes me think that he would have been better in Hufflepuff probably with his nervousness," Lily shook her head. "But I can understand, he is worried about his family like everyone else."