It was hot. The kind of stifling heat that meant you could barely breathe, let alone talk. And watching James pace up and down was making everyone feel worse.
“James mate,” Sirius groaned, “would you sit down? Why have you got so much energy when the rest of us are dead?”
James stopped and looked at them. They had all came to the Potter Mansion, and had collapsed onto the comfortable furniture. No one had moved since, except James.
“I don’t know. I’m so restless. There’s always been something to DO in the summer holidays ... But we’re just sitting here.”
“It’s not the summer holidays,” Lola pointed out. “Because we’re not going back to Hogwarts in September.”
James sighed. “It’s so weird. What are we meant to do with our spare time?”
“I think it’s traditional to get a job,” Remus stated. Sirius, James and Peter stared at him.
“What do you mean?” Peter asked. Lola smacked her hand on her forehead, but Lily just looked exasperated.
“Are you honestly telling us, that it never occurred to the three of you that eventually you would have to get a job?” They blinked at her.
Sirius was shocked at himself. How could he possibly have forgotten? He had been so wrapped up in worrying about his NEWT results, spending time with Lola, and visiting Andromeda, Ted and their daughter that any thoughts of his future went clear out of his mind.
“Okay. Let’s talk about this. Me and Lily have both applied for the Healing Academy. Tara is working in that “Magic Touch” place. Remus is going to an interview on Saturday. But you three hadn’t even thought about what you want to do?” Lola asked them, incredulous.
“That about sums it up, yes,” Sirius laughed. “What “Magic Touch” place?”
Tara puffed herself up, proudly. “Well, it’s a Muggle beautician’s, technically, but the name is literal. It’s all owned and staffed with witches, but the Muggles who go don’t know that. I mean, I’m still being trained, but I’m actually quite good at it, everyone says,” she explained happily, speaking for the first time. Although she hadn’t totally forgiven Sirius, they were beginning to build up a friendship again. When she spoke about her job, she smiled, and it was clear she enjoyed it very much. “But stop avoiding the subject,” she told them sternly. “Don’t you have any idea what you want to do? Did you even GO to Careers Advice?”
“Of course they didn’t,” Remus laughed. “That would actually make sense!”
James flopped down next to Lily, and sighed. “I dunno. I always thought I would end up as a crime fighting superhero, but maybe that’s a little ambitious. Hey, I know! I’ll be a llama farmer!” he declared, grinning. “I’ve had enough experience with old Gerald. And it rhymes,” he added, winking.
“Or, maybe you could be an Auror ...” Lily prompted. He blinked at her.
“That’s a great idea! You’re so clever, Lily, why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because you’re stupid,” she muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear. They laughed, James included.
“I don’t know what I’d be good at,” Peter told them, sadly. “What do you think, Sirius?”
He thought for a moment. “You know, working in a shop doesn’t sound so bad. I could rent one on Diagon Alley with the rest of the money Uncle Alphard left me.”
“You don’t even know how to run a shop. And what would you sell?” Lola asked, interested in this idea.
“I’m not sure. We could go now, and have a look if anything’s for sale. And Peter, you could always help me in my shop, if you’ve failed everything.”
“Hey!” Peter protested. “I might not fail everything!”
They began to drag themselves up, and make their way toward the fireplace so that they could Floo to Diagon Alley and go shop-hunting. But Sirius stopped, and said, “Wait a minute. Lola, if you’re a seer, can’t you just tell me if there’s a shop for sale?”
“Sirius, if you relied on me for information, you would get even more lazy than you already are.”
“What’s the point of going out with a seer if you can’t be lazy?” he asked, laughing.
“We don’t know that I’m a seer ...” she protested. Even after about seven years, she still had trouble admitting it.
“For goodness sake, how long have you been “”
Lily cut in, quickly, “Come on, let’s go poach ourselves a nice little shop,” she ordered, reaching for the pot of floo powder.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you, there.” Everyone turned to look at the speaker. It was Lola. They were in the Quidditch supplies shop, and were talking to the owner.
“Excuse me?” he flustered, affronted. He was very small, with an odd handlebar moustache. Naturally, it had taken all their efforts not to laugh.
“You may not be selling the shop now, but you will be in about six months, am I right in saying? Just enough time to show Sirius the ropes, give him an idea of how to run a shop, and then he can buy it from you once you leave.”
“How do you know that “”
“She’s a seer,” Sirius told him.
“I might not be a “”
“She’s a seer,” Sirius said again defiantly.
“Oh,” the man mumbled, glancing away. “Well, since you already know my plans, I don’t see why I can’t give you a trial ...”
James whooped, and jumped in the air. They laughed, and Sirius shook the man’s hand.
“My name is Mr Humphrey. I would prefer you to refer to me as such, and I will continue to pretend that I am unaware of the fact that I am called Humph-Man behind my back ...” He shuddered, as they each concealed a smirk. “There are two other assistants. Penny does the accounts, and also designs any graphics we need doing, she’s good with a quill. Jack helps me with the sales. He’s the lad who you spoke to first.”
Sirius recalled the youngish assistant whom he had asked to speak to the manager. He frowned, “I thought that was a girl?”
Mr Humphrey grimaced, “Yes, well, he refuses point blank to cut his hair. He’s a good salesman, but if I had to pick out a fault ... That damned hair would be the first thing on the list.”
“You mean I was attracted to a man?” asked Peter, looking horrified.
“Peter, there are some things in life that you just don’t admit,” James said, laughingly patting him on the shoulder. Without warning they all burst into hysterical laughter.
Three months later, and Sirius was packing things up in the shop, along with Jack. He was only a year or two older than Sirius, and with his light frame, and dark blonde hair that was quite long for his gender, it was clear why Sirius had mistaken him for a girl on first glance.
“I like my hair,” he would say whenever challenged. “And I’m keeping it like this!” He was a good guy “ you could joke with him, and it was always a pleasant atmosphere when he was around “ he had an unmistakable boyish charm, despite his slightly feminine appearance.
Penny, who took care of accounts, and design, was a nice person also. Chinese of origin, but had been brought to live in England when she was two by her mother, a witch, when her Muggle father died. Her name wasn’t Penny, he had learned, but since she began at Hogwarts that was what she had always been called. “It simplified things,” she had said, shrugging. She was in her mid thirties, and although quite quiet, would always lend some advice, or a helping hand. Sirius knew that once he had bought the shop from Mr Humphrey when he left, he would keep the both of them on.
Someone apparated into the shop. Sirius looked up, “Sorry, but we’re about to “ Oh, hi Lola.”
“Hey. Evening, Jack.” She smiled. Jack greeted her back. “Ready to go?” she asked Sirius. They were going over to James’s for dinner that night.
But suddenly, there was a bang from outside. Penny came rushing out of her office at the back of the shop. “What’s happening?”
Sirius raised his finger to his lips, and began to creep towards the window and look out. Before he got there, the door banged open, and several hooded figures came through. Mr Humphrey ran through from the back of the shop too. He had just been about to ascend the staircase to his flat above the shop, when he had heard the door banging open.
“Who do you think you are? Get out of my shop!” he commanded, bravely. He knew exactly who they were “ Voldemort and his followers were now well known throughout the entire Wizarding Community, and there were reports of murders and disappearances every day.
“Avada Kedavra,” the nearest Death Eater said, almost casually. Mr Humphrey crumpled and fell, and Sirius felt something clamp on his heart.
He stunned Mr Humphrey’s killer, but then he was hit with a disarming spell, and his wand flew towards a female Death Eater, who caught it.
“Hello, cousin dearest,” she said.
“Come on, you can do better than that!” he spat.
“Sirius, you always were far too big for yourself. You always thought you were doing the right thing, but you’ll always make everything worse when you do. And I know someone who’ll testify that.” She stepped aside, and another figure came forwards. Her hood and mask concealed her identity, but Sirius thought he had a good idea who it might be.
Lola did to, and stepped forwards. “Get out!” she cried, and the Death Eater shot a green light towards her. Sirius jumped on his girlfriend, and the spell just missed her. They quickly scrambled up so that they were standing to face the Death Eaters.
“Shut up, all of you,” the Death Eater said. The voice was now filled with anger, hatred, coldness, but it was still unmistakable. It was LaLa.
“You all have a choice. These two,” she indicated Sirius and Lola, “are probably going to die anyway. But the other two may be able to escape that fate. If you join us.”
Penny and Jack glanced at each other. For a moment, Sirius could sense a feeling of indecisiveness. But then Jack shook his head ever so slightly, and Penny nodded the slightest nod in the world. And they refused.
A smile passed across Bellatrix and LaLa’s faces. “In that case, we look forward to killing you all.”
There were around ten of them in all. Sirius’s mind raced. Where were the others? There had to be more than this, there wasn’t only ten Death Eaters. Where were they all? But before he could dwell on that any longer, the four of them were fighting off ten. And he was thankful that there were less than there should have been. He stunned and fought and cursed for all he was worth. They had to get out of there.
He grabbed the nearest thing and muttered “Portus,” before continuing the battle. A minute later, he managed to get Lola, Penny and Jack all in one place, and they touched the item. It was a Snitch, he realised when they arrived in a heap at the destination. It was James’s house. He stood, and looked around. Furniture was overturned, wallpaper was hanging off the walls, and there were burn marks in the carpet. He fumbled desperately in his pocket and found the old, hand held mirror. “James Potter,” he whispered. His friend’s face appeared.
“Sirius,” he whispered. “Where are you?”
“Your place.”
James suddenly looked terrified. “Come down into the basement, and quick!”
Sirius frowned. And then he heard footsteps. Whoever had attacked the house, was still here. He looked round and saw the door leading to the basement. “Follow me,” he hissed, and they ran down the stairs as quietly as possible. There, they found James, Lily, Remus, Tara and Peter, who looked as if they had each been through a lot in a very short space of time.
They all huddled in the dark basement for what felt like hours, although it was only minutes. “We need to get to Dumbledore,” Remus muttered. “Can everybody here apparate?”
When everybody nodded, James counted to five, and they all disapparated, finding themselves at the gates of Hogwarts. They entered, and ran towards the castle, getting odd looks from a lot of the students. They reached the large gargoyle guarding his office, and began banging on it frantically.
“Uh, guys?” Remus said, a note of amusement in his voice. They turned, to see Dumbledore standing there complacently.
“Can I help you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
When they returned to James’s, much later that night, the remaining Death Eaters had been arrested “ although Voldemort himself was long gone. James and Lily, along with the others who had been at the house, had explained what had happened, and the ones who had been at the shop had told their tale also.
Dumbledore had listened, and nodded, and “Mmm”ed and “Aaah”ed. He had then told them of an organisation who worked against Voldemort “ he called it the Order of the Phoenix “ and asked them to join.
“Now that you have each refused Voldemort and his supporters once, you cannot go back on that. So if you’re against him, you can be against him along with others just as valiant as yourself. But it’s serious business. Can you handle it?”
It hadn’t taken long for them each to agree.
“What I don’t understand,” Sirius began, when they were still discussing it all late into the night, “is why, if James was the main target “ which he presumably was, since Voldemort had come here, not to the shop “ they sent ten Death Eaters to us. Surely, with James training to be an Auror, they would need as many as possible?”
No one spoke as they thought about this, until Lola wondered aloud, “Unless they knew that we were on our way there, and would have been able to help. They were probably sent to stop us “ especially Sirius and I, being strong fighters “ or at least to ward us off while they got to the main target.”
“But how could they know all that? And why would James be a main target?” Remus asked.
“Sirius said it “ I’m training to be an Auror. I guess the plan is to wipe us out before we get a chance to be properly trained,” James mused.
Lily sighed, and looked out of the window into the night. It wasn’t a full moon, but near enough. The silver light it gave made the rustling trees not eerie, but beautiful. An owl hooted. The stars shone, covering the deep black sky. “How can a world so wonderful, be so screwed up?”
AN: There was, of course, absolutely no underlying message in that last line ... *ahem*. And so, the darker, more action-y stage of the story begins ... Added a couple of new characters here, what did you think? And if you’re wondering “ although you probably weren’t “ I will be making many references to Jack’s hair from now on. He is named after my brother, who is just as effeminate. Well, I exaggerate (only a little) but you get the idea. He’s so going to kill me after he reads this, but there we go.