the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 38: the clue

Now that the whole Order of the Phoenix was made up of graduated witches and wizards, they began to have meetings more often that most of the time extended into the early hours of the morning. Dumbledore had requested that they find a safe house, since having the meetings at Hogwarts could raise a lot of suspicion. The safe house was offered by Perla. It was the perfect little village to hide from the Wizarding Community; full of Muggles and far away from any major town or city.

Each member of the Order was assigned a role amongst three areas; recruitment, questioning and training. The training area was led by the Prewett twins, who helped the rest of the members of the Order to become better at the major spells they might need during battle. They also taught new spells that Dumbledore would instruct them to teach. These spells were taken from the Restricted Section, and the Headmaster was able to obtain a few books containing powerful defensive and offensive spells.

This is the area where the recent Hogwarts graduates would spend most of their time.

"This is bollocks," James said one night after training.

"I completely agree," Sirius replied, "We did not just graduate from Hogwarts to keep taking lessons... especially from those two."

Esmeralda rolled her eyes.

"Have you two seriously not learnt anything new in the last three weeks ?" she asked as she grabbed a green apple from her bag and took a bite.

Lily nodded.

"Let's put it this way," Lily began, "If what happened to Mer a few months ago were to happen now, would you two know how to help her ?"

Sirius and James looked down and nodded.

"And would you have known how to do said healing months ago ?" she asked, crossing her hands across her chest.

The two boys shook their heads.

"It's settled then," Esmeralda said, "These training sessions have been heavy, but we've learnt new things that could come in handy on the field."

"I guess Clara has been getting better at stunning charms," James said, trying to hold back a laugh.

Sirius let out a giggle.

Marlene, who had reached the four of them, smacked Sirius and James on the back of the head.

"It was an accident and she said she was sorry," she said, "Plus, it happened two years ago."

"Well, Marls," Sirius said, "It's not every day you see a girl fly across the classroom and for all of her teeth to fall out on impact."

"Dickheads,"

The next day, the group was waiting in the kitchen for the Prewett twins as usual, but someone else appeared in front of them.

"Professor Dumbledore," Remus said, "To what do we owe the pleasure ?"

"Good morning to all of you," he said, "I'm just stopping by to let you all know that your training sessions with the Prewett twins are terminated."

"Nice !" James and Sirius exclaimed as they shared a high five.

The Headmaster rolled his eyes slightly at them.

"Does this mean we'll go on missions now ?" James asked.

"When there is one, you all will," he replied, "But I must separate you into the two other groups that we have here in the Order. There is no more time to waste in training you all when the War is closer than ever."