/𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒\ [𝒔. 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌]

𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

𝟏,𝟎𝟑𝟒 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬

It was New Years Day, but Artemis and Sirius weren't feeling particularly festive. They woke up late, and for the first time in the long history of Marauder New Years Days, neither of them had splitting hangover headaches. The Potters' funeral had been held the day before, and nobody felt much like partying afterwards.

Sirius rolled over in bed to pull Artemis a little closer. On days when the sadness of the people they'd lost and the fear of the upcoming war got to be too much, he wanted to be as close to the one person who made him feel safe as possible. Artemis, on the other hand, had woken up feeling anxious.

"Sirius," she groaned, pushing him away and sitting up. "We have a meeting today."

"Not for hours," Sirius said gently. He sat up too and rested a hand on her shoulder. "We've got time, it's okay."

She narrowed her eyes. "I feel like I'm forgetting something."

"You're forgetting the massive hangover we're used to dealing with on the first day of every year," Sirius half joked.

This brought a smile onto Artemis's lips. "Yeah, that's fair. Come on, I need coffee."

Sirius had been planning on spending the morning in bed with Art, but there was no arguing it now. He followed her into the kitchen and tossed a sweater in her direction. The house was always cold in the mornings.

He brushed past her to start making breakfast, popping bread in the toaster and waving his wand to make two eggs fly from the fridge and crack themselves in a saucepan on the stove. Artemis dumped coffee grounds in the coffee maker and flicked her wand at it. It started to gurgle in the comforting way that sort of reminded Artemis of her childhood.

She jumped up on the counter and Sirius wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his face in her shoulder. She wound her fingers in his hair, kissing the top of his head gently. "You know what Mrs. Potter said? About, you know, seeing greater losses in the future because of the war?"

"Yeah," Sirius murmured into her shoulder.

"Sirius, I'm scared."

He stood up straight and gazed at her eyes. He'd known Artemis a long time, but he was pretty certain this was the first time he'd heard her express fear over anything. He set his hands on either side of her face, brushing her hair back gently. "I'm scared too," he said in a low voice. He didn't know how to comfort her. He didn't know how to comfort himself. "I'm scared too."

"I don't want to lose anyone else," Artemis whispered.

"Me either," said Sirius. "But there's nothing we can do right now. Art- there's gonna be good days and bad days, no matter what happens. So for now, let's just have some coffee."

"Yeah," said Artemis, hopping down from the counter and pouring them each a mug of coffee. "Yeah, you're right."

After breakfast, Sirius made the bed while Artemis showered. When she was done, Sirius took the shower while Artemis did her makeup in just her underwear. Sirius stepped out with wet hair, shaking himself off like a dog. "Sirius!" said Artemis, holding up a hand to shield the eyeliner she'd spent the last twenty minutes on. "You can do that as Snuffles the dog, but not as Sirius the grown adult man."

"Ah, glad we set that boundary," Sirius chuckled, pulling on a pair of jeans and wrapping one arm around Artemis's waist from behind. "You look really pretty, by the way."

"Lucky you didn't smear this, Padfoot," she said crossly, but leaned back into his chest and stood on tiptoe to plant a kiss on the side of his face.

He smiled at her reflection in the mirror. "Let's just stay home, Art."

"We can't."

He ran a hand over her bare stomach. "Please? It's cold out, and James can catch us up on whatever we miss at the meeting-"

"Sirius, we're both taking on the Order as pretty much a full time job," Artemis said in a gentle voice. She leaned against the sink to apply mascara. "We can't skip, that would mean letting Mad Eye and McGonagall down- not to mention our friends who are putting their lives on the line to keep us all safe."

Sirius nodded. "Well, when you put it like that it's a bit hard to argue."

"That's why you shouldn't even try arguing with me," said Artemis, shooting him an appraising look. "I always win."

She slid past him to her closet, picking out clothes for the meeting. Sirius watched her go, distracted for a second by how pretty she was. "Bullshit!" he said at last, a troublesome grin playing on his lips. "Remember that time we fought over school uniforms sixth year?"

"You only won that because you said I looked hot in my skirt," said Artemis, pulling on a pair of jeans and. "And I wanted to sleep with you."

"No way!" said Sirius. "I had a lot of good points."

They were still arguing when they apparated to the front walkway of the Burrow for the Order meeting. "I won the fifth year fight, though," said Artemis, leading the way to the front door.

"Neither of us won that!" Sirius shot back, turning the knob and letting Artemis in first. "We both admitted we were wrong."

"But you were more wrong," said Artemis.

The entire Order was sprawled about in the living room, chattering amongst themselves before the beginning of the meeting. James turned around in his seat and raised his eyebrows at the newcomers. "You're not still going on about fifth year, are you?"

"I won that fight, didn't I?" said Artemis perching herself on the armchair of his seat.

James scoffed. "I like to think you both lost that one, and the rest of us won by not having to hear you lot scream at each other anymore."

"Emmeline!" Sirius said, immediately distracted by the new face in the room.

Emmeline Vance stood up, giving Sirius and Artemis a lofting grin. "Hey, I'm here," she said, hugging them both. "Quidditch season is over and Moody said you lot need all the help you can get."

"He was right about that," said Marlene, crossing the room to join the conversation. She caught Emmeline's eye, smiled, and immediately looked at the floor. "Um- we're glad you're here."

Emmeline didn't break her gaze from Marlene. "Me too."

"Alright, everyone be quiet!" said a voice from the front. Mad Eye Moody had stood and the room fell silent. "We're starting the meeting now, Dumbledore can't make it to this one, but we'll manage without him."

Artemis and Sirius found seats on the couch with Remus and looked to the front of the room attentively. Moody cleared his throat again. "First order of business- patrol. We need to tighten up security. Potter, McKinnon, and Black, you take Diagon Alley. Shacklebolt, Bones, and Fenwick, you take Hogsmeade-"

"Mad Eye, are you sure tripling us up is the best way to go about this?" Kingsley Shacklebolt interrupted. Mad Eye raised an eyebrow at him. He stood up. "I mean, I think broadening the areas we cover would be better. The issue with patrol isn't that there's only two of us in every location, it's that the places we don't patrol are the ones that get attacked."

Moody frowned down at his notes. "Point taken," he said gruffly. "We'll talk after the meeting. For this week, this is how we're doing it. Jones, Longbottom, and Longbottom, you take the Forbidden Forest. Meadowes and Vance, I want you in Knockturn Alley. Dumbledore and McGonagall have Hogwarts covered, and those of us who work at the Ministry have our own assignments already."

He gazed around the room, ready for more objections. None came. "Alright, on to dark wizards." He gestured at the map on the wall behind him. "Malfoy Manor, the house of the Lestranges, and Little Hangleton are our hotspots right now. We're working on missions to infiltrate all three of these places, I'll give you more information on that next week. I have a list of known wizards and witches who have turned over to the dark side, and I'm working on assigning tracking pair-ups."

"What about Snape?" James called up to Moody.

"What about him?"

James stood up. "I heard he's going after a teaching position at Hogwarts."

McGonagall nodded sagely from the front of the room. "We're already working on that," she said. "Thank you, Potter."

"Right then," said Moody. "Another order of business, there's a shop down Knockturn Alley where a lot of known Voldemort followers have been reported visiting. We think it could be a front. I'm planning a mission to infiltrate and see what information they have there. If we can destroy whatever's going on in there, we can set the Death Eaters back pretty far. Blake and McKinnon-"

Artemis was pulled back to attention at the mention of her name. She caught Moody's eye.

"I want you two to come with me tonight."

Marlene and Artemis exchanged a look, then both nodded. "Yeah, we're in," said Marlene.

"Definitely," said Artemis.

~

That night, three hooded figures turned down Knockturn Alley and crept towards the shop front of Borgin and Burkes shop. Artemis kept her head down. Even with the polyjuice potion she'd taken to look like one of Moody's muggle nieces, she was worried about being recognized.

"Alright," Moody said as they lingered in the storefront. "We've got roughly an hour to get in and get out. Just- follow my lead."

Marlene and Artemis nodded in unison. Marlene reached up to touch her dark pixie cut, the look of another of Moody's nieces. "Yeah, let's go," she said softly.

Moody opened the store's door and let the two girls in first. Artemis strode up to the counter. She was a head shorter than usual and her hair was white blonde, but her confidence didn't waver once.

"What can I do for you, miss?" the shop owner asked, eyeing her curiously, but not suspiciously.

"Hello," Artemis said, disguising her voice to be much more high pitched than normal. "I'm looking for a certain type of skull to decorate my mantle with. It really needs to fit the look of my new house."

"A skull?" said the store owner. "Any particular magical purpose?"

"Well, my cousin, Lucius, has one that brings bad luck to anyone who touches it" said Artemis, grateful for the white blonde hair of her disguise. It was a risky idea, but Moody had come up with it, so she wasn't too worried. If she could keep the shop owner talking long enough about the people 'they both knew,' it would give Marlene and Moody a good chance to sneak into the basement. She didn't like being a decoy, but she knew why Moody had chosen her.

The shop owner peered over her shoulder and Marlene and Moody behind her. "And who are they?"

Artemis let out a girlish giggle. "Oh, these are my friends. We're out for the evening, and I really need to run this errand- they can entertain themselves."

The shop owner nodded shortly, and led her towards the back of the store. "You said Lucius is your cousin? Lucius Malfoy?"

"The very one," Artemis gushed. "Doing so much for our cause, isn't he?"

"And what do you know about our cause?" said the shop owner, giving her a testy glance.

Artemis's chest contracted, but she kept her smile light. "Only what I've been told. Anyhow, this is beautiful!"

She'd reached out to touch a crystal hanging from the beak of a sculpture of a raven. "Don't do that!" said the shop owner. "Careful now, some items in this store are not exactly safe."

"Oops!" said Artemis. "Sorry about that."

In the corner of her vision, she watched Marlene and Moody disappear down the stairs to the basement. Her stomach flipped in anticipation, but she was living for the adrenaline rush.

"So, what's the pricing on this?" she asked, pointing to a large mirror further back in the store.

She kept the shop owner distracted for a good forty five minutes before the trouble started. She was eyeing up a skull on the far back shelf of the store when the shop owner turned around and peered down an aisle to the left. "Where did your friends get off to, anyway?" he asked Artemis.

Her nerves spiked, but she kept her voice airy. "Oh, I dunno, they might be waiting outside. They're always teasing me for taking too long to pick household decorations." She laughed. "It's not my fault I just want it all to look wonderful for my husband!"

"And who is your husband?" asked the shop owner. "Perhaps I know him."

She hadn't planned for this. "S...imon... Hopkins," she said, and cringed internally at how muggle-ish the name sounded.

He gave her a curious look. "Hopkins? I've heard the name..."

Artemis wracked her brain for any Hopkins' she knew in the wizarding world. She couldn't think of any. At just the right moment, Moody appeared at the end of the aisle. For a split second, Artemis was relieved, and then it hit her. It was Moody. Not in disguise at all, the real man, his expression urgent. He signaled towards the door and Artemis nodded.

She turned to make up some excuse for why she had to leave, but at that moment, she felt her fingers growing. Then, it looked as though the shop owner was shrinking. She was getting taller, her hair growing longer-

"Thanks for the help, got to go," she said, and turned and ran from the shop.

Marlene and Moody were waiting outside. Moody looked cross, but Marlene was laughing. "The hell were you doing? Saying polite goodbyes?"

"Run!" said Artemis, grabbing Marlene's hand and dragging her up the street.

The three of them sprinted up to Diagon Alley, hurtled down a corner street, crossed to another side street, and found themselves next to the Hogs' Head. "In you go," said Moody, holding the door open and ushering both girls in. "Three firewhiskys, Abe, we'll be upstairs."

Without a pause, he led Artemis and Marlene up the stairs to a second floor that they'd never seen before. It was like a private room, with comfortable looking couches and a fireplace in the corner. "Over here," Moody grunted and settled himself on one of the couches. "We'll be safe here."

"Fantastic," said Marlene, kicking her legs up onto the table. "I'd call that a success then."

"A success?" Moody growled. He turned to Artemis. "Were you seen?"

"I mean-"

"Were you seen?"

Artemis raised her hands in surrender. "Bloody hell, Mad Eye. No, he didn't see my face. The second I felt myself getting taller I ran for it."

Moody let out a deep sigh. "Alright, then. Thank Merlin for that."

Aberforth Dumbledore shuffled upstairs with three firewhiskys. He placed them on the coffee table and Marlene and Artemis grabbed theirs at once. "Mission, Mad Eye?"

Moody gave a noncommitted grunt in response.

"I'm closing up at three, just be out by then."

Artemis checked her watch. It was only midnight, they had hours. "So," she said, leaning forward. "What happened while I was flirting with a man double my age?"

"You didn't have to flirt with him," Moody mumbled.

"It was great," Marlene gushed. "We found a bunch of attack plans, so Moody took them and then we found-"

"That's classified," said Moody.

Marlene shot him a look of sheer annoyance. "It's Artemis, Moody. Forgetting who's on your side in your old age?"

"I'm not that old," said Moody. "But whatever. We found maps."

"Maps?"

"Of where every dark wizard will be for... roughly four months."

Marlene was beaming. "They plan in advance."

Moody snorted. "Right. Also what I think is an official list of current Death Eaters and wizards they'd like to recruit... but I'll need to do some spellwork to un-encrypt it."

Artemis nodded slowly, taking the papers from Moody's hands and sorting through them. Then, she set them down on the coffee table and raised her glass. "To a successful mission."

For the first time all night, Moody smiled. "I'll drink to that."