"Lily! Lily!" James's voice woke up sharply from my slumber. I groggily pushed myself up from the cover, squinting to see the figures of James and Sirius in the doorway.

"What time is it?" I moaned, feeling around for the clock on the bedside table.

"I don't know," James said, sitting down next to me.

"It feels early so this had better be important. I was in the middle of an amazing dream, it had - "

"Me in it?" Sirius said with a smirk. I shot him an irritated look.

"Obviously not." I replied dryly although I was careful to smirk at the end so he knew I wasn't actually annoyed, "What is it, James?"

"Dumbledore replied to my letter, he wants to meet us for something." James said, sounding surprisingly excited given the fact that Dumbledore wasn't always his favourite person, "I mean I did send it a few weeks ago but he finally got back to me."

"What did he say? Did he answer all your questions?"

"Well... not really, he wants to meet us." I noticed that both he and Sirius had jackets on, "He said he would explain when he saw us in person, couldn't risk the letter getting intercepted or something."

"... please tell me we're meeting him here over a nice cosy breakfast." I said hopefully, but James shook his head. I slumped back onto the bed, burying myself into the duvet, "No, you can't make me get up."

"Don't try that, Lily," Sirius grinned, "Mrs. Potter has had to put up with waking us up for years now, you'll be no problem."

"When are we meeting?" I grumbled, my voice muffled by the blanket.

"In about half an hour so you have a while to get ready." With that, James darted out of the room. If we were meeting in half an hour why the hell did he have his jacket on already?!

"Half an hour's not enough," I complained whilst Sirius sniggered slightly.

"I've managed to look half decent in about ten minutes before," Sirius said.

"Well, you're naturally gorgeous like you, it's not hard," I said making a face at him. He gave another laugh so I shot him a glare, "What?"

"You were so dreaming about me earlier." He said with a laugh before following James and running down the corridor. I rolled over, covering my head with my pillow to avoid the inevitable waking up, it was not going to be fun and I wanted to prolong it as much as possible.

Finally, I accepted that I would have to get up eventually and dragged myself out of bed, not even bothering to brush my hair properly. James knew what I looked like on a bad day, Sirius didn't care and I couldn't find the effort to make myself look nice for Dumbledore. Besides, maybe we were meeting somewhere private where my appearance wouldn't matter too much.

The half an hour seemed to go by very quickly and I was impressed at my ability to look like an actual person rather than a total mess.

"You ready to go, Darling?" James asked, holding out his hand. Judging from the smirk on his face, he said 'Darling' and not my name just so me and Sirius would both reach for his hand.

Me and Sirius exchanged an awkward look before Sirius retracted his hand.

"I remember when 'Darling' was me, Prongs." He said looking genuinely a little offended, "That was cruel."

James looked a little sheepish, clearly not expecting that reaction before apparating us away befor anyone could say another word. We ended up on a random \lley in London near a huge shopping center and I was instantly glad that I had actually put a vague amount of effort in. The few times I'd been to London, mostly to get the train, it always seemed to be grey and drizzling although it seemed to be buzzing with life which always made up for it. I could see why Tuney had moved here from Cokeworth, it had a much nicer vibe to it like it was going places rather slowly becoming dead and obsolete. 

"Where are we meeting?" Sirius asked as we turned out of the alleyway and onto a relatively, busy street. 

"A place called Harrods, apparently it's a big place where you can get anything. My Mum told me." James said, walking briskly a few paces ahead of us. He lowered his voice as he said, "Did you bring your wands? Dumbledore said to be prepared."

"Don't worry I'm prepared, I could probably perform a cruciatus curse at will," Sirius said and James's head snapped around, concerned. Sirius raised his hands up, "I'm joking!... but I could." He said the last part aside to me so James couldn't hear and I gave him a withering smile.

"I've never been to Harrods but Tuney and Mum mentioned it, I think it's a big department store, did he say where he'd be? I think there are lots of sections." I said but James shook his head.

"I don't know, I guess we just have to wander around until we find him," James said with a shrug as we walked up to the impressive facade of Harrods. I remember being amazed by the buildings in London when I was a little girl but compared to Hogwarts, they seemed pretty but a little unimpressive. The three of us walked inside Harrods and I was instantly taken aback by how busy it was. Every corner of Harrods seemed to be alive and bustling with movement; I had no idea how Dumbledore expected us to find him nor why he'd chosen here of all places. Surely James's house would have been a lot safer.

"How are we meant to find him?" I yelled over the chatter but James simply shrugged, continuing to scan the room.

"We could use a summoning spell," Sirius mimed waving a wand, "Accio Dumbledore and he'd come skidding across the floor to me."

James didn't even respond, continuing to look around desperately. Sirius raised his eyebrows at me as I tried not to conceal a slight laugh about how serious James was taking this.

"Gosh, he's a bit serious today," Sirius whispered to me, behind James's back.

"No, you're Sirius, he's James," I replied, grinning broadly.

"I walked right into that - " Sirius began but was interrupted by James pulling us both forward and beginning to speed walk.

"I've found him!" James said, turning around and grinning.

"How did you manage that?" I asked with a laugh.

"I don't even know," James admitted, "But he's there."

He pointed over to the corner of one of the clothes' stores to where Dumbledore was casually browsing through several pairs of socks. He's chosen to wear his full purple robes, subtle as ever. He didn't notice until James sidled over and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Professor Dumbledore," James whispered so that we had to huddle around to hear, "We came to meet you here as you asked."

"Ah, welcome!" Dumbledore said, a grin appearing on his face, "Tell me, which colour do you think it more me?" He held up two pairs of socks, one pair red, and one pair purple.

"Purple," Sirius replied.

"No, definitely red." James said, "Actually, the purple does go with your robes nicely."

"You know what, I think I'll just get both," Dumbledore said, pocketing the socks. I opened my mouth to tell him to pay but he was already walking away towards a 'staff only' door, "Come with me."

"Professor, why did you ask us to meet you here?" I asked.

"Lily, please call me Albus, I'm no longer your teacher, we are equals." He said with a smile. He looked around carefully before unlocking the door with a non-verbal spell and gesturing for us to follow him. I was a little nervous that the staff would have an issue with us going into a staff only zone but they were all too preoccupied with the wealthy customers to notice us.

"Why did you meet us here? In a department store of all places?" James asked and Dumbledore gave him a small, mysterious smile.

"This was simply a meeting place, I needed to get you to Hogwarts but as you know, only a few people can apparate there, myself included." He held out his hand, "We'd best be going."

"But why here?" I asked as we placed our hand on his.

"Sock shopping. One can never have enough socks." He said before the four of us disappeared, reappearing in his office. Even though apparating was a hell of a lot better than when I first started, I still always felt a little sick after apparating and I doubted it would ever get better no matter how many times I did it.

"Take a seat," Dumbledore said, sitting serenely behind his desk, "Sherbert lemon?"

"I'm fine thank you," I said, gripping the sides of the chair as I sat down to steady my head.

"Don't mind if I do," James said with a smile, helping himself to a handful. Sirius gave him a sigh but sneakily did likewise.

"Now you're probably wondering why I brought you here today. As you know Voldemort is gaining more and more power every day and there seems to be no stopping him in the near future, at least no permanent solution," Dumbledore said, never one to beat around the bush, "But there is hope, there are people who fight back. The Order of the Phoenix - "

"Like Fawkes!" James said with a grin.

"Not just like Fawkes, named for Fawkes, named by me in fact."

"Humble brag," Sirius said, poorly disguising it with a cough. Dumbledore didn't seem to be fazed by it and continued on.

"It's dangerous work and I will warn you, it is... high risk to put it delicately. It is not for the faint-hearted but I know that none of you are faint-hearted in the slightest." Dumbledore said, pausing for what I assumed was dramatic effect.

"Are you asking us to join?" James asked.

"I find it a lot more effective to suggest than ask - "

"Just say you're asking us to join," James said. He had seemed so excited earlier that I thought maybe he'd forgiven Dumbledore for not imposing harsher punishments on Snape, Avery, and Mulciber but his curt tone suggested otherwise. 

"Yes, Mr. Potter, I am asking you to join. The three of you are exceptionally talented Witches and Wizards, as are some of your friends. We need as many people as possible for as long as people fight back, Voldemort will never truly win." 

"Professor Dumbledore, we're in." James said swiftly. He quickly realised that he'd spoken for all of us without consulting me and Sirus and hastily added, "Well, I am. I want to fight back."

After a long pause, Sirius hit his hand on the desk, "Me too. If we can stop Voldemort, think of all the people we'll save..." He trailed off but I was pretty sure I saw him mouth 'Regulus'. The three of them turned to me. I opened my mouth to say I was in too but I couldn't. My heart was pounding inside my head, so loud it was near defeaning and for once my face wasn't blushing, it was going paler and paler by the second.

"I need some time to think..." I squeaked, abruptly standing up and dashing towards the stairs, slamming the door behind me. My mind raced as I tried to remember what Euphemia had said to me about how facing your fears makes you brave or something but I couldn't think of it and it only seemed to get further away as the panic set in. I sunk against the wall until I was sitting on the floor, staring ahead of me trying to figure out what to do.

"Lily?" The door slowly creaked open and I looked up with a start to see James lurking in the doorway, "Are you alright?"

He slowly closed the door behind him before sitting down next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. I buried my face into his chest, cuddling up in his arms as I had done so many times before.

"No. No, I'm not, I want to be brave - "

"You are brave. You're a Gryffindor."

"I don't feel brave." I said in a small voice, "I know that you can still be brave and scared as long as you face the fear but I don't think I can. I want to fight against the man who's abusing muggleborns and killing blood traitors but I don't know if I can because I'm so damn terrified. I can barely think about it at home, safe in bed let alone fighting on the front line."

"I get it, it is scary. Nobody would blame you if you didn't want to."

I leaned up from him, looking him dead in the eye, "How do you do it? When Dumbledore asked us to join, without even a seconds hesitation, you said yes. How?"

James gave a slight laugh, "I'm very impulsive, you know that maybe a little too impulsive as you know from the Quidditch incident..."

I couldn't help but give a snort of laughter at this, "Oh God, I remember that. Didn't you dedicate a nosedive to me or something?"

"I believed I publicly announced that we were about to go on a date." He said seriously before turning to me and laughing again, "You got so angry with me. Didn't help when I made you late for class."

"See that right there," I jabbed him gently in the chest, "The Quidditch thing, you just did it. How do you do it, like where do you find the courage?"

"I guess I just follow my heart." He said with a smile.

"Don't give me that - "

"No, no, it's true. If I want to do something, I usually do it and I'm usually right." He said, adding a slight brag to the end, "I don't know, I think you think things through  a lot better than me, to be honest."

"It's not always a good thing." I said, sliding down against the wall so my feet touched the other side of the passage. I paused for a second before saying, "I should do it, shouldn't I?"

"What made you decide?"

"I don't know but I want to help too. There are so many risks involved, so, SO many risks but the good things that could come out of it are so big that I have to." I slowly pushed myself back up and using his shoulder as support.

"Good choice, Lily," He said with a smile before holding out his arms, "Help me up, will you?"

"Gees, you're stronger than me, Mr. Quidditch Superstar." I scoffed.

"Hey, I haven't played Quidditch in months now, I'm out of shape!" He argued, "I'm very feeble now."

"Oh go on then," I gave in, pulling him up, "Hey, you have to put some work in too, I'm not made of muscle!"

He gripped my hand as we walked back into the office.

"Professor Dumbledore?" He looked up from his conversation with Sirius, "I'm in."