"This is going to be great!" Sirius said, bouncing on the balls of his feet as Remus fetched his cloak.
Albus had left, wishing them good luck and with last instructions to contact him if they ran into trouble or once they were finished.
"Only you would think that reconvening the Order would be a good thing."
"Well, no, of course not," Sirius admitted, stopping himself. "But it will be nice to see people again."
That was one way of looking at it, he supposed. And Sirius hadn't exactly had any normal human contact for the past thirteen years so no wonder he was eager to get started. Remus couldn't really hold that against him. But he did have to clarify a few things with him.
"Padfoot, you do realise that you've been a wanted criminal for the past thirteen years, right? And your antics from the past two years have only garnered you even more notoriety?"
"And?"
Remus sighed. Sirius was being deliberately obtuse. He just had to be. There was no way he was this oblivious.
"People may not be appreciative of you just showing up on their doorstep."
Sirius made a dismissive gesture.
"Aw, come on, Moony. We'll be fine."
Remus gave him a suspicious look but it wasn't like they could just not do this.
"Oh, alright," he gave in.
Sirius grinned at him at rubbed his hands together. "Right, so who do we go to first?"
They had decided that Dedalus Diggle would be the best person to start off with. He was probably going to be the one who would give them the least problems. Sure, he was excitable but he would take Dumbledore's word for everything - about the War and Sirius, Remus was pretty confident on that front. A nice, easy start.
And it had been. Once Remus had shoved Sirius away from the door to do the knocking himself and once, they had revived Diggle from his dead faint.
"In you go," Sirius said gently as he helped him to a chair in his living room.
"Sirius?" Dedalus asked faintly, accepting the glass of water Remus gave him. "Thank you."
"Yeah, it's me. You good?"
"Sirius Black is in my living room, helping me because I fainted," he said with a chuckle after a bit of colour returned to his face. "What do you think?"
That earned him a chuckle from both Sirius and Remus.
"Remus, why is Sirius Black in my living room without you trying to catch him?"
"Because he's actually a good person and helps people?" Remus tried.
"And innocent," Sirius piped in. "Don't forget innocent."
"Yes, that too."
That didn't exactly clear up the confusion on Dedalus' face.
That went a lot better than their next person on the list. Sirius chose this time and, honestly, that should have been an indication that this wasn't going to go well.
"Emmeline! You said you believed us!" Remus shouted as she sent a second curse at Sirius.
She had sent the first one before Remus could explain Sirius' presence which was fair enough but this second one?
"Oh, I do," Emmeline reassured him. "I just think that Black needs this."
"I really don't!" Sirius said from his hiding place behind a tall cabinet.
"You do because you're an obnoxious reprobate," she told him, trying to get a better aim.
"I'm not denying that," Remus said calmly, trying to get her to calm down. "But is it really necessary?"
"Yes."
"No!"
"But he didn't do any of it," Remus tried.
"Oh, I know that," Emmeline said, finally stopping to face him. "I've always known that he was innocent."
"Really?" Sirius asked hopefully, poking his head out of his hiding place.
She rolled her eyes. "Obviously. There was no way that Sirius Black would betray either Lily or James. You aren't capable of it."
Now that was something Remus agreed with but was amazed that she believed that. Huh.
"Well, with that out of the way, do you think you'll re-join the Order?" Remus asked, trying to get their conversation back on track.
"Of course," she said. "Just after one thing."
Remus gave her a confused look but before he could say anything, she had sent off another hex at Sirius. A stinging one that very much landed this time.
"Ow!"
Elphias Doge was, thankfully, just as easy to persuade as Diggle had been. Even easier, in fact. The man had a serious hero worship going on about Dumbledore. Even more so than the average person.
"I'll be there," he assured them, though he kept a wary eye on Sirius.
He had believed them on his innocence, because he believed Dumbledore more than anything, but that didn't mean he trusted Sirius. He had been a target for the few pranks James and Sirius had pulled on the Order. Nothing too distracting, all ones that changed the colour of something on your person. Apparently, Doge really hadn't been partial to the shade of fluorescent green they kept turning him.
"Thank you," Remus said gratefully, standing up- not wanting to overstay their welcome. "I'm sure Albus will be in contact soon enough."
Huh. Their most painless one yet.
Mungdungus Fletcher was thoroughly unimpressed by their news though, to his credit, he hadn't flinched at Sirius' presence. Then again, the man probably dealt with a lot shadier people.
"Come on, Dung," Sirius was saying persuasively. "You were a part of it last time."
Mungdungus was not convinced about the whole 're-joining the Order' bit of all this.
"And look where it got us all! Dead!"
"But we're not dead," Remus said as patiently as he could.
He really didn't have much patience for this man. Or even like him that much. But he was useful, those shady people were excellent connections for them. They could get all sorts of information from those sources.
"Yeah, an' I'd like to keep it that way!"
"You're safer with Albus' protection." Sirius said, knowing better how to deal with him. "You know that. You don't really want to be out there alone when things go upside down again."
That's what sealed the deal for Mugdungus, thankfully, and was quite eager to re-join after that. Thank Merlin.
"I always come away from dealing with Mungdungus feeling as if some shady deal has gone on." Remus complained as they left.
It made him feel all slimy and dirty and he didn't like it.
"Dung's harmless and he always will be," was Sirius' opinion.
Which wasn't wrong but still.