The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Fifty Three

Chapter Fifty Three

The first thing Lily did when they returned from the meeting of the Order was to start cooking dinner; it was her turn and, as she stood by the oven measuring out the spaghetti, she found her mind drawn to what had happened that evening.

It was no surprise to her when she had walked in and seen the Marauders talking urgently to each other and nor was she taken aback when Frank and Alice entered a few minutes after she had sat down beside Mary. A lot of the people she recognised as old members of Gryffindor but the other houses were well represented too. There were even two sisters who Lily thought had been Slytherin seventh years when she had first started and, when she saw Peter and Sirius shoot them suspicious glances she glared at the boys. It was hard enough to find the courage to join the Order and fight, and being mistrusted by the other members would only make it worse and weaken them.

"I don't like it," Sirius had hissed when they were leaving later that evening.

"Well you're going to have to like it Black," she had replied. "Dumbledore chose every member himself; they obviously deserve to be there and you had better get used to it."

As a scarred man spoke about various plans to discover more information and to prevent various creatures from joining forces with the Death Eaters, Lily felt her stomach sink. It was one thing to tell yourself you would join the resistance while still surrounded by the safety of the school, and quite another to leave and find yourself watch people volunteer for tasks which could result in their death. They were no longer protected by the walls of Hogwarts and their ignorance; instead they were adrift in the true horror of the mounting deaths, including some which nobody else knew about, and Lily had never felt more like a child.

Her palms began to sweat as she stared into the bubbles forming over the spaghetti and her heart pounded. She had never felt more terrified; not only was she completely unprepared for this but there was nobody in her family who knew what was happening. If she died she could have, for all they would know, have been murdered in her sleep, completely at random, and they would have no idea about the sacrifice she assumed she would have made.

By and by the feeling faded; Cassie shouted to her that their dinner smelt delicious as she sat flicking through her textbook, and Lily reflected that it was better, as she had always told herself, to go into something like this with her eyes open. It was much better for her to be a member of the Order, surrounded by like-minded people who knew what they were doing and who were fighting to make a difference and stall the swelling tide of evil, than to be left utterly isolated.

"That was pretty tough, wasn't it?" Cassie said as she twirled her spaghetti round her fork. "I think Mad Eye Moody warned us at least four times that we could die on any given day, especially if they found out that we were members of the Order."

"It's not exactly a comforting thought," she replied with a smirk.

"I wonder what my odds are," she mused.

Lily frowned at her and muttered, "Don't say that."

"No but," Cassie continued, "assuming I succeed in becoming an Auror... Well they're not exactly going to be pleased to see me, are they? So if I pass training, I'll be fighting them twice over. And they'll want to go get rid of me twice as badly."

"Can we stop talking about your suicide mission?"

Cassie frowned and eyed Lily worriedly. "Yeah sure," she sighed. "I just thought that maybe joking about it might make it less... oppressive. Besides, look at Moody... Although he's not exactly cheery."

"That he is not. And nor is he whole."

"I think if I come out of this with only one eye gone I'd view it as a success." A small smile threatened to tilt the corners of Lily's mouth and Cassie sighed. "Come on Lil, we've been over it hundreds of times."