Blood Status || Marauders Era

Chapter 87|| An Orderly Easter

There had been rumours of a secret society fighting against the Dark Side, all coming from James and Sirius of course, and that was our only source of conversation during the first day of the Easter break. Two weeks which teachers advised us to study in, were used to swim in the Black Lake or play games of Quidditch - which we had in fact won last month against Hufflepuff, Edgar Bones was the only one in the team to congratulate me.

There was other activities going on, but that was what the boys did during the first week, along with playing a prank on Madam Zeroni (it was a long story), making a visit to Hagrid and politely denying his rock cakes, and generally annoying everyone but also making them laugh in the process. The girl's first week was rather similar except there was more talking and less pranking and less annoying people, a lot more judging them silently.

There was however an abnormality to the Easter Break, a letter, from Dumbledore himself, written to invite the reader to a meeting in his office on the second Monday at two pm. Another interesting thing to notice was that I was not the only one to get the letter, the Marauders, Lily, Marlene, and a few others in our year had received the letter, including, much to Sirius' annoyance, Milo Ravens.

Walking up to the two statues situated either side of the door to Dumbledore's office, James said the password that was written at the bottom of all the letters we received. As he said it far too enthusiastically, the door began to move and stairs appeared, they seemed to be spinning in a circle going upwards and so, without a second thought, I followed the rest of our group onto the climbing stairs.

As we reached the top, the door was opened, but not by a hand. The door swung open with nobody on either side stood to open it and as if it wasn't mysterious enough, a voice said from far into the room, "Come in, come in." Marlene and Sirius lead the group, shoving each other to be the first to walk in and in the end being pushed by Mary to hurry up. As more people from other houses arrived, there seemed to be a cramped space of people on the stairwell.

I stood with Lily, behind Peter and Aafiya, as we listened to Dumbledore thanking us all for turning up and getting ready to tell us why we were all here. "As some of you may know, there is a secret organization, one which I am willing to entrust you all to know. This organization is called the Order of the Phoenix, it is aiming to defend itself and others against the up and coming dark forces that seem to be penetrating our world."

The bearded man continued to speak, explaining how it worked and that it offered protection along with sacrifices. He told the group of students how he didn't expect us to agree, or agree just yet, but would be grateful if we thought about joining when we could. "Can we trust them Albus?" The gruff voice from the shadows scared everyone, including myself, the mysterious voice didn't reveal itself but stayed in the shadows, grunting.

"I trust these students Alastor, just like I've trusted the rest of the people joining, these are my top students, and ones I could see helping us win the forming battle," Dumbledore's reply came. There was many things to unpack in the situation as the low voice stepped from the shadows and revealed himself to be a heavily scarred, sarcastic looking man whom most students with magical blood knew to be Mad-Eye Moody, the legendary auror.

I could practically feel James' excitement radiating from beside me, I knew how much he wanted to be an auror and how much he admired this man. I, however, was a lot more hesitant with what the headmaster had proposed. I interpreted his speech as a plea for help from mainly underage students but also as a hidden meaning, telling whoever joined that they would be sacrificing their lives quite a lot.

After another speech from the headmaster himself, he dismissed us all and let us out of the door with a flick of his wand, leaving the two adults present to discuss. "Are you going to do it?" Sirius asked me, I felt his arm wrap around my shoulder as he spoke. I shrugged, I wasn't keen on the idea of working for my old headmaster but even less so on the fighting against the 'dark side' scenario. I knew what my everyone else's answers were however.

"I am, I want to defeat the evil in the wizarding world and if that means my family then so be it, I wanted to grow up somewhere without all of this business but instead, I might have to make that world myself," Sirius explained, I was glad he was giving me a reason and not just throwing himself out there. I did agree with him, if there was anyone that could sway me to accept the offer it would be Sirius, and that clarification was very agreeable.

There was a different thing to think about as our group stepped into the Gryffindor common room and watched as James practically bounced around. "I've just seen Mad-Eye Moody! In front of my very own eyes!" he said happily, as he smiled, we all smiled, it was quite infectious. "Well done Prongs, but calm down, we have to revise for our NEWTs and I don't want you to be acting high while we're doing it," Remus groaned, already tired of the hyper boy.

"Moony, you've said that a few times but what does that mean?" I asked curiously, he always talked about how someone looked or acted 'high' but I never fully understood him. Nevertheless, the only answer I got was 'doesn't matter' and then he got up, going upstairs to get something from his dormitory. Despite it being Easter, after he had dropped the huge news on us, it suddenly didn't feel like it anymore.

It seemed that Peter felt the same way as he finally spoke up from the armchair he was sitting in and he said, "I feel all weird now, like a huge amount of pressure on my shoulders." I agreed with him, because he had asked directly, I felt obliged to say yes. On the other hand, Sirius laughed, "What pressure do you feel Wormy? Is it that you haven't had anything to eat yet?" Sirius and James laughed in sync the former grinning proudly for the reaction.

I felt sorry for Peter in times like this, it wasn't often when the two boys teased their shortest friend but when they did, I knew how it made him feel, he often confided in me last year about how he felt like the odd one out and often left out. He talked of how he knew what they were all good at, Remus was the smartest and great with the teachers, James was a people person and he was talented at everything, Sirius was good looking and funny, he was always accepted.

"That's not very nice, don't say things like that," I said, slapping my boyfriend's shoulder, "It's okay Peter, I feel the same way, I'm going to be begging for a sandwich in the next few minutes." As Sirius rubbed his slapped shoulder, the corner of Peter's mouth quirked upwards as he realised it wasn't just him feeling like this and he sat up straighter, his head held the tiniest bit higher.

"Peter's going to steal your girl Pads, she likes him too much," James clapped, smirking like he had come to a realisation. Sirius glanced in between us both and shook his head smugly, "Nah, he won't she likes me too much. And Peter's too much of a wimp to ask her." Peter frowned, shaking his head defensively, while I raised an eyebrow, I was giving him a 'don't get too cocky' type of look, he always did.

"I don't trust that look she's giving you mate, anyway, screw revision, it's Quidditch practice, last game of the season in three weeks and we've got to practice if we want to win and claim all of our glory on the last year, just winning and being top is all I ask for, I want to see the look on Avery and Mulciber's faces," James announced. With this, he dragged Sirius, Marlene and I down to practice, the other members of the team already on the pitch when we arrived.

"Do we have to do it today? I have too much on my mind since that meeting with Dumbledore," Marlene complained, she had brought a hair brush down to the pitch and was brushing it as she walked. "Yes 'Kinnon, we do. We need to win this year, if you haven't realised, it's our last chance," James replied, opening the changing room doors and allowing us all to change ready for practice. He was very passionate about this.