Her Single Rose (Remus Lupin)

One-Hundred & Six

It wasn't easy keeping everything with Dumbledore a secret.

James had already shared his suspicions with Sirius, who luckily shot them down.

Remus, however, was also getting rather frustrated. Time between him and Aries consistently  getting interrupted by something or someone. Whether it be tutoring James, sneaking off to Dumbledore's now regular meetings or teaching Regulus occulmency, something always popped up. 

To make matters worse, Dumbledore had thought it would be a wonderful idea to add Frank and Alice to the mix. He had invited them to join once he heard of Frank's desire to become an Auror and Alice's as well. 

With Alice and Frank now visiting Dumbledore in secret, Lily and Marlene were becoming increasingly suspicious. So much so that Aries had to fall into lies, telling the girls she had started going to Gladrags in the late afternoon on Thursdays for clothing design and prep delivery.

Honey had also been on edge, but with them being in two separate bands, he simply told her he was rehearsing with a bandmate and left it at that. 

It got surprisingly easy when Aries and Sirius's birthday rolled around, seeing as Sirius had all the attention on him. She had a nice picnic with Remus for the short time Sirius would allow before he made sure all the focus was yet again on him. 

They were of age now and had to make use of the whiskey, as he said. She attended his late night party, only to slip out half an hour later with the intent to speak to Dumbledore. 

To her confusion, by the time Aries had arrived in Dumbledore's office, a set of red haired twins were already seated. With the next mission coming close and accompanied by the very high threat of danger, he had told her the Prewett twins would be there alongside her.

Unfortunately the mission fell right around Christmas break when Aries promised Remus that she would stay with him for a week. He said it was important to him that she met his parents this Christmas.

Aries knew telling Remus that she would be spending possibly the whole break with her ex would be detrimental, even more so if she mentioned the Order. So, instead, Aries spun the truth to the best of her abilities. She told James that she would stay with him the second week of break to spend the first with Remus and she told Remus the exact opposite. 

In all technicality, Aries knew there was a small possibility that she might make it back before the holiday was over. But there was also a much bigger possibility she wouldn't.

The Death Eaters had already begun hunting down groups of Muggles and Half-Bloods. Virtually anyone who wasn't a Pureblood would be marked for genocide. 

Dumbledore had explained to them that so far all of the targeted areas the Death Eaters have been at best random. He had intel from a 'mole', as the old wizard called it, from within the Death Eater circle that they would be targeting Dufftown in Moray. 

It was rather close to Hogwarts which was why Dumbledore wanted them on this particular mission. 

So far, the Death Eaters had been killing by names on a list and only on that list. Maybe it was self-control to keep the ministry from doing much about a few deaths, or it could be from blackmail. Whatever the cause, it gave them the perfect amount of opportunity to save at least one life.

All they had to do was keep those names alive and bring a death eater in for the Order. Dumbledore showed us the meeting place in case we get that far. Aries hoped they got that far.

In order to stay at the castle for the mission, Aries had made up an excuse to meet James at his house the next day. He made her promise. So she did. 

The train left today, taking all of Aries promises with it.