Lily and Sirius followed Alastor Moody downstairs and into the now extremely crowded kitchen.

Marlene seemed to have taken the role as hostess, and though she'd only been in Lily's kitchen twice before, she seemed to have done a good job of locating mugs and tea bags. Minerva McGonagall was sitting at the kitchen table together with Albus Dumbledore and Frank Longbottom.

Fabian and Peter had been standing in a corner, but as they entered the room, Peter rushed over, looking petrified -:

'Lily! Sirius! What happened?'

'I think we'd all like to know that,' Alastor grunted as he took the final seat at the table.

Frank quickly stood up offering his chair: 'You both look dead on your feet.'

'Thanks, Frank,' Sirius said, as he nudged Lily towards the now vacated seat.

Sirius then put his arm around his friend's shoulder: 'I don't know how you do it, Pete, but you avoid trouble like the plague.'

'I shouldn't have left you,' Peter said, hanging his head.

'You didn't leave, I kicked you out, remember?' Sirius said. 'Anyways, that's the point of a surprise attack - you don't expect it.'

'Which leads us back to my question,' Moody said, his voice more insistent this time: 'what happened?'

Sirius managed to get through the first part of the story without much trouble, relating how a Death Eater using polyjuice potion had showed up on his doorstep.

'I sent some of my aurors to your flat, Black, once I got Lupin's Patronus. At least we will be one Death Eater richer from this mess. I don't suppose you know how they got a bit of you, Potter?'

'I think from St Mungo's,' Sirius answered, before Lily got a chance. He stood behind her, so she could't see his face, but his left hand rested on her shoulder and she could feel it tightening: 'They had clearly put Patricia Flint under the imperious curse - who knows for how long - and in any case we know they've been watching us. It can't have been that hard, picking up a couple of spare pieces of red hair lying around.'

'I am inclined to agree,' Albus Dumbledore said.

'The important thing is to be confident that they haven't gotten it from her here, because that would compromise all of our safety,' Moody growled.

The thought hadn't even occurred to Lily, who felt herself going cold.

'I've been keeping an eye out,' Sirius said quickly, 'nobody has been here.'

'Not last night, you didn't,' Lily said, 'and it was today they made the attack... you don't think-'

'They'd be idiots to take a piece of you and then let you butt in and destroy their plans,' Sirius said firmly. 'Even if they didn't want to kill you-'

'Which we can assume they would have no qualms about, you being muggle-born,' Moody interjected.

'Yes, thank you, Moody,' Sirius said coldly, 'even if they didn't want to kill you, they would have been wise to stun you or incapacitate you.'

'I agree,' Moody said, and looking at Sirius appraisingly he added: 'you'd make a good auror, Black, it's a shame -'

'That I am not going to sit around doing auror training for three years? No thank you. No offense, Frank.'

'None taken,' Frank said with a small smile.

'So what happened next?' Moody pushed.

Sirius started relating how Lily and he had apparated to St Mungo's but then he stopped. His grip on Lily's shoulder tightened more still.

'Okay so you got to St Mungo's and we know you didn't find Potter dead, so what happened? Did you make it in time to prevent an attack? If so, why is the boy unconscious?' Moody prodded when it was clear Sirius wasn't going to continue on his own.

Lily felt a slight tremble in Sirius' hand, despite his claw-like grip on her shoulder, and she realised that it was up to her to pick up the narrative.

'Well, we need to be thankful that their plan was flimsy and the attack enacted clumsily. It is not,' Moody said seriously once Lily was done talking, 'the sort of thing I like to be thankful for, nor is it something we should count on happening a second time.'

'Did we have any intelligence in advance of this attack?' Frank asked, cautiously.

'If you did, and you didn't warn us -' Sirius began, his voice hoarse and menacing.

'We did not,' Dumbledore said, and Lily who sat opposite Dumbledore saw the warning look he gave Sirius.

'We knew they were watching St Mungo's but we had hoped they would have been smart enough to leave it at surveillance - gathering intelligence on the Order. My guess, such as it is, is that they wanted to finish the job they started. They were clearly successful in locating your flats, Black and Prewett, and being unable to find this house - judging by the fact we're all sat here safely - they decided to attack before Potter would be brought somewhere they couldn't touch him,' Moody said.

'And we couldn't have done this guesswork before the attack?' Sirius said, his voice trembling from supressed anger - or fear - or both.

'It is always going to be easier to fill in the missing pieces once a hand has been played, Sirius. I know you know this. These events have shaken you -' Dumbledore began.

'It's shaken all of us!' Fabian interrupted, looking just as angry as Lily pictured Sirius to be.

'Merlin, this isn't just about the attack at St Mungo's,' Marlene added hotly, 'Dumbledore, this was a coordinated attack on four prominent Order members.'

'This shouldn't have happened,' Frank agreed. He was calmer than Sirius, Fabian and Marlene, but he looked just as serious.

'How do we know if any of us are safe?' Marlene continued, 'if they are coming to our front doors, they put all of us at risk - our families...'

'No one is safe, as you so very well know!' Moody said, looking annoyed. 'What do you think we're doing here, McKinnon? People in this room are going to die - that's just a fact. If you aren't greeting every new year as if it's your last, you've underestimated the risks we are facing. If we are lucky, the Ministry will bring about the end of You-Know-Who and his merry band of Death Eaters soon - with our help. Personally, I believe we're in this for a lot longer - and it will only get deadlier. The only thing we can hope is that by fighting we bring about the end of this war sooner, and save lives in the process. But if it's safety you want, you should break your wand and move your family to New Zealand.'

They all remained quiet for a while following that speech. They knew Moody was right. Order members had already been killed or disappeared, and of course there would be more deaths - more disappearances. It was naïve to believe they would all make it out of this war alive. And yet, as Lily's eyes scanned the crowded kitchen, she could not imagine losing anyone present. Everyone was so alive, so brave and so able.

'We all know the risks,' Frank said breaking the silence. 'The trouble is that we're taking unnecessary risks.'

Lily was surprised to see Frank push back against his own boss. It wasn't like Frank to argue, nor was it like the auror to look nervous: 'If the Death Eaters can't find us here due to Dumbledore's protection, we should do the same for the rest of our homes.'

'That can be arranged,' Dumbledore agreed.

'It sounds to me like we had a relatively easy escape,' Moody said, as if there had been little in the way of interruption.

'Tell that to James,' Sirius muttered, but Moody ignored him.

'They expected four recovering Order members to be easier pickings than you were.'

'What do you mean four recovering Order members? Fabian wasn't even hurt and I recovered fine,' Sirius said, louder this time.

'Have you? You're not acting like someone who's doing fine.'

This would have been too much for Sirius, Lily knew. If Madam Pomfrey hadn't opened the door into the kitchen at that very moment, Lily was sure Sirius would have tried to hex Moody.

'How is he?' Minerva McGonagall asked, looking pale and standing up quickly. Lily had nearly forgotten about her former transfiguration professor, she had been that quiet.

'He'll live,' Madam Pomfrey said, tight-lipped. 'Miss - Mrs Potter, please can I have a word?'

Lily felt herself going numb and she pushed her chair away clumsily as she stood up. Madam Pomfrey looked serious, and the mood in the room had grown considerably more somber, which given what they had been discussing, was saying a lot.

'Sirius, you should come too,' Lily said.

Sirius and Lily made their way out to the hallway with Madam Pomfrey. Sirius sank down on a step in the stairway.

'How is he?' Lily asked Madam Pomfrey.

'To answer that question, I need to know more about Mr Potter's condition, leading up to today,' Madam Pomfrey answered, and Lily had to, once more, relate recent events: this time the events of the fateful mission (as best as she could, as it looked like Sirius was done speaking for a while), and James' recovery since.

'I think you will see rapid progress over the first few days as Potter recovers from the damage that has been done today. My greater concern is continuing the treatment after that. The curse, while fading, is still doing considerable harm. I have given Mr Potter a potion that I want him to continue taking every hour between eight in the morning and eight in the evening. I've left enough to last you two days and I will come back with more supplies tomorrow. Then at nine in the evening, I want you to give him this.'

Madam Pomfrey held out a small bottle containing a dark purple liquid.

'It's not a sleeping draft exactly, but it will aid him in his sleep and manage the curse through the night.'

Lily took the bottle.

'I will bring more of that tomorrow too.'

'Thanks,' Lily said, as she wasn't sure there was much more to say.

'He's a strong man,' Madam Pomfrey said, with surprising warmth. 'We've been here before, and he made it that time.'

Lily nodded, unwilling to relive the events from their sixth year - it was bad enough dealing with the present circumstances.

'Can we see him?' she asked.

'I don't want more than one person around him for now,' Madam Pomfrey said firmly. 'I can't control you - or stop you - the way I could when you were at school, but I hope you're old enough to understand that I am only saying this to help Mr Potter's recovery.'

Lily nodded again. She looked over at Sirius.

'Sirius, I think, really, it'd be best if you stayed with James just now. I need to see to our guests.'

This was obviously not true. She hadn't cared about playing the hostess before, and she certainly didn't give a damn about it now, but she would be blind if she failed to notice Sirius' desperate need to be with James.

Sirius pushed himself up from the stairs unsteadily, grasped Lily's hand as a way of appreciation, and then left the two women.

'He'll be alright,' Lily said to a worried looking Madam Pomfrey, 'he just needs to see his best friend.'

'You'd think they'd be a little less co-dependent after school,' Madam Pomfrey said finally. Lily smiled. She didn't think James and Sirius knew any other way of being.

'Would you mind showing me the bedroom young Remus is staying in?' Madam Pomfrey asked. 'I'd like to check on him before I make my way back to Hogwarts.'

'Of course,' Lily said, showing her the way.

/

That evening Lily ate dinner alone, despite housing two guests.

Minerva had been the last to leave, and even Sirius, whom Lily could not get to leave James' side even to say goodbye to the others, had had the sense to leave the room for five minutes to let their former professor have some time with James. But that was about the extent to which she could coax Sirius away from the living room and his post by the sofa.

Lily had brought some food up to Remus, who had been awake long enough to hear how James was doing and to eat a few bites, before falling asleep again, looking pale and exhausted.

She had then tried her luck with Sirius:

'Sirius, you've got to eat,' she said quietly as she opened the door to the living room.

'I am not hungry.'

'I know that, but -'

'No,' Sirius said shortly.

Lily brought him some food just in case, leaving it on the floor next to the chair he had taken - the coffee table being too full with potions bottles to leave any room for a plate. She didn't expect him to touch any of it.

The next time she saw Sirius was at three in the morning. Lily woke up feeling fully alert - expecting at first to find that it was morning, only to realise it was still the middle of the night. This was understandable after everything that had happened. She knew it would take hours before she'd fall asleep again - her body refusing to relax after the danger it had been put through - and as she in any case felt the need to go down and check on James, needing to know he was safe, Lily decided to get out of bed.

Opening the door to the living room, she found James asleep and a great black dog lying at the bottom of the sofa, curled up at James' feet. On seeing the door open, the dog lifted his head and gazed at Lily. Remembering that two Death Eaters had decided to impersonate her, Lily held out her hands as she entered the room and tip toed over to Sirius.

'Padfoot, it's me,' she whispered as she reached out a hand to scratch the dog behind his ears. The dog relaxed and closed its eyes as she petted it.

'So I take it I don't need to worry about James - you'll keep him safe, won't you?' she asked, and the dog replied with a quiet woof.

Lily closed the door on the two friends and made her way to the kitchen to make herself a mug of chamomile tea. Once in the kitchen, Lily thought about Moody's grim speech that they wouldn't all make it out of the war. He was probably right, but if there was one thing James Potter had proven again and again it was that he was a survivor. And Sirius, well, he was always by James' side. The boys would be fine. She would be fine. They had to be.

A/N

The last few chapters have been inspired by a autobiography I read by a Norwegian resistance hero during WW2 (Max Manus), who described the New Years Eve of 1943 where he sat with some of his resistance buddies, including his best friend Gregers Gram, knowing they were facing a continued year of waring and knowing that they couldn't know if they would make it to the next year (I think... I read this fifteen years ago).

Gregers Gram was killed in November 1944, and didn't live to the see the next new year. Max never truly recovered from the loss of his best friend, and the way Max described that New Years Eve in 1943, you can sense that he wanted to show how they all knew - and at the same time didn't know - how dangerous it would be and how f** hard it would be to lose their friends.

Everyone in this story makes it to 1981 (but as we know, many don't make it any further).