confunded

Sweaters and Sorrys

Lily had stayed up in her dorm practically the whole rest of the day. Marlene and Alice
arrived back from Hogsmeade that night, hair tousled by the wind and cheeks blushing from the butterbeer.

"Lily, you should have gone, it was a blast!" Marlene said jumping up onto her bed.

"And what? fifth wheeled? no thanks." Lily said stubbornly.

"It wasn't like that Lil," Alice promised, "we spent a lot of time with Sirius, Remus, and Peter as well as Frank and Davey. You would've had a good time."

"How did you guys even stand to be around Marlene and Davey? All they do is snog" Lily laughed

"Did you at least get your essay done?" Marlene asked, changing the subject with a blush and an eye-roll.

"Yeah, I finished it. It was a very productive day," Lily assured in between shared giggles with Alice.

"Was James with you? I didn't see him in Hogsmeade." Alice wondered.

Lily contemplated telling the truth, but even talking about James made her heart hammer guiltily against her chest.

"Not that I saw. I probably wouldn't have noticed anyways, I was so busy with my work." Lily lied, her fingers playing absentmindedly with the pages of her book as she said so.

Marlene and Alice didn't question her any further about her day. Lily was given the full account of everything that happened in Hogsmeade that she had missed out on. She listened happily, the conversation carried on until after dinner.

"Are you doing rounds tonight?" Asked Alice. The girls were lounging in their favorite common room chairs, the sixth year boys nowhere in sight. Truthfully it was Remus's turn to do rounds, but Lily needed an excuse to leave and listen in on the meeting the professors were having that night.

She nodded.

"Shouldn't you be going then?" asked Marlene, confused. It was 9 O'clock which was when Lily usually started her rounds, but she knew the meeting wouldn't be until 10. That was the time she has overheard them agreeing to the night before.

" Yes I suppose I should." The red head said, quickly standing up and straitening out her clothes. She had traded her lounge shorts for a skirt and a sweater, her classic look.

Her friends waved goodbye to her as she crawled out of the portrait hole and into the hall way.

James POV

"Can't someone else go this time?" James begged, he hated listening in on the teachers meetings.

The marauders made sure to keep tabs on practically everything that was going on in the school. This included mindless gossip, secret passageways, and yes, The Order.

The boys had been monitoring these meetings for the past month, each of them taking turns being the "representative." They began doing this after noticing the gathering on the Marauders map three times a week. Peter had said it was probably important and the boys had agreed. It was important too. Most of the time, when listening in, they didn't quite understand what they were talking about. Always whispering names and calling themselves "The Order." The Order of what, James didn't know.

They eventually had figured out that it pertained to the war, and therefore counted as "important." James understood this and supported their decisions to listen in, but always regretted that choice once it was his turn to listen. The meetings seemed anticlimactic so far and he ended up more confused leaving them then before he showed up.

"I'm pretty sure it's Peters turn." James tried to reason.

"Nope, I went last week." Peter defended, even handing his notes on the meeting to James, surely enough the date at the top, written in Peters slanted handwriting, was from last week.