"Operation Sabotage is go," James whispered in Remus's ear as the Marauders traipsed into the Potions classroom. Remus had to bite back a grin as James rushed past him; while it had taken him a while to come around to the Marauder's rule-breaking ways, he couldn't deny the brilliant rush of excitement that he experienced when carrying out a plan.

Finally, after hours of careful planning, the Marauders were ready to steal the last few potion ingredients from right under Professor Slughorn's nose. Even Sirius had been pulled out of his recent doom-and-gloom mood over the past few days as their ideas solidified and the prank became almost tangible.

Remus glanced at Sirius now; he had yet to speak to the other boy about the kiss they'd shared. It had only been yesterday that he'd finally allowed Sirius to get him on his own, and the almost-animagus must have realised that Remus wasn't ready to talk about it because he didn't bring it up. Instead an awkward silence fell between them, broken only when Peter came bounding into the dorm, announcing gleefully that Severus was in the Hospital Wing with a vole-shaped head.

James and Peter had not been oblivious to Sirius's recent mood; however, they'd been totally clueless about the cause of it. He'd noticed them both looking between him and Sirius upon occasion, though, and he'd wondered whether they suspected it had something to do with him. He dismissed the notion quickly; no good could come from a feeling of paranoia over every sideways look he received from his friends.

They took their seats with a suppressed feeling of excitement coursing between the four of them. Remus sat with James today; it was more believable that Sirius would allow Peter to make such a horrendous mistake than if it were Remus who was working with him. Originally, James would have been Peter's partner but Sirius had announced the change in the plan at the last minute the night before. The sudden variation made no difference to the dynamics in the long run, although once more James had given the pair one of his suspicious looks.

"I still think you should have the cloak on," James muttered to Remus as they began setting up their cauldron.

"Well it's too late now," Remus replied. "And I've told you – it would have looked suspicious trying to smuggle a great lump of fabric around under my shirt. I can't exactly carry my bag into Slughorn's back room, can I?"

"I still don't like it," James muttered.

"Your concern is touching," Remus said dryly. "Now we're going to need a pound of doxy eggs, an ounce of newt eyes, and several crushed billywig wings. Off you go."

James frowned but did as he was bid. He'd once complained about how bossy Remus was in Potions; the next lesson, the werewolf had sat back and let him do all the work, not even correcting him when he made a mistake. They'd ended up with a green lump of something very solid sitting in the bottom of their cauldron. Needless to say, James kept his mouth shut from then on. That way he got to keep his eyebrows and got top marks in Potions.

"You should have started adding ingredients to your cauldron by now!" Slughorn announced from the front of the class. Remus quickly started lighting a fire; arguing with James had put them behind.

It was an extremely tense period of Potions. Remus cut up his gurdy roots far too finely and James kept letting the bouncing Burlaff pods jump away from him – both their minds were preoccupied with the anticipation of their plan.

Behind them, Peter and Sirius were doing just as terribly – but that was no surprise. Sirius could make a passable potion without putting a lot of effort in, but he was sitting sulkily in his chair and leaving Pete to do most of the work. Remus felt a flash of concern.

"Don't forget to add the sleepwort," Remus hissed under his breath as he passed Peter on his way to get ingredients. It didn't matter if the rat-like boy forgot every other ingredient, so long as the sleepwort was in the mixture to react with the narwhal pus. "In fact, put in double what the book says."

Peter nodded nervously as he grabbed some more gurdy roots. Remus went to return to his desk, but then turned back. "By the way," he told his friend, "you're cauldron's overflowing. And your potion is definitely not supposed to be green."

Peter swore and hurried back to his desk with Remus close behind him (he was the desk in front). By the time they reached the rows they were sitting in, Slughorn was already at the cauldron. With a wave of his wand, he vanished the contents. "I'm sorry, boys," he told Peter and Sirius. "It looks like this one hasn't worked out. In fact, it was melting of your cauldron." He turned it over and showed them the hole in the bottom. "Pack up your things and begin a two page essay on what exactly you did wrong."

"But sir," Peter squeaked, panicking. "Can't we start again?"

"Sorry," Slughorn said, not looking that sorry at all. "There isn't enough time left. Besides, you don't have a functioning cauldron." And with that he swept back to the front of the classroom, his robes billowing after him.

The four Marauders exchanged worried looks; how could their plans have gone awry so early into the lesson?

"What are we going to do now?" James asked Remus as the werewolf frantically added more gurdy roots, trying to get the colour to even out.

"It's fine," Remus said. "We'll just have to use our potion to create the explosion."

"If we do that, Slughorn will notice you slipping into his storeroom," James muttered.

"Sirius will have to do it then," Remus said reluctantly. He hadn't wanted James or Sirius to risk their necks for him any more than they already were, but it didn't look like they had much choice now. "And he'll have to do it right," he added. Their potion had been going to be the backup one – the one they'd explode if they needed a second distraction. Now, there was no safety net. If Sirius got caught, then there'd be no getting him out of it.

"I'll let him know," James said. "You get the Narwhal pus."

Remus nodded, hastening to the store-cupboard once more. He looked around furtively as an idea struck him; no one else was around…

Whipping out his wand, he non-verbally cast an enchantment that removed the "Narwhal Pus" and "Essence of Lavender" labels from their bottles and swapped them. He stifled a grin as he returned to his seat; now it would look less suspicious than if he and James had just failed to read the bottle. Slughorn would assume the fault lay with whoever had labelled the bottle and divert eyes from what the Marauders were doing.

"Right," Remus muttered to James, handing him the bottle. "Pour that in and stand back when it starts to bubble."

He ducked out of the line of fire and tapped Sirius on the shoulder. "Here's the list," he said, stuffing it into Sirius's hand. Sirius nodded and slipped into his pocket. Without a word, he turned and headed to the back of the classroom, as though he was going to fetch more ingredients.

Then everything happened at once. Their potion began to bubble and spit liquid everywhere. James had moved out of the way of the flying droplets just in time, but Trevor Crawly, who was working in front of them, got a great big blob on the back of his neck and immediately let out a cry of pain as he began turning purple.

Meanwhile, the range of the cauldron was getting larger and larger, and James pressed himself back against the wall next to Remus. "Professor," he called out, not taking his eyes off the explosive cauldron, "I think we've done something wrong."

Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Sirius slip through the door into the storeroom.

Slughorn hurried over, although he kept well away from the flying droplets of potion. "You two had better get up to the Hospital Wing," he said to Crawly and Thicknese, who'd also been hit by the potion at this point. "What did you boys add?" he asked, pulling out his wand.

"Exactly what it said in the book, Professor," Remus said innocently.

The next five minutes were dedicated to the catastrophe that was their potion. But, as Slughorn began to get everything under control, Remus starting worrying.

Sirius still hadn't returned.

James noticed as well, because he muttered to Remus under his breath, "Where is he?"

"Alright, you boys had best pack up your things as well," Slughorn sighed as he vanished the last of their potion.

James and Remus exchanged looks. How was Sirius supposed to get out of the storeroom now? "I told you that we should have brought the cloak," the other boy muttered to Remus.

"Don't go on about it," the werewolf sighed. "Even if we had brought it, I'd have it, not Sirius."

"How are we going to get him out of there?"

"I don't know."

At that point, Brad sidled up to him. "Sirius stuck in the back room?" he asked under his breath.

Remus's eyes widened. "How did you…?" he asked, amazed.

Brad waved off his questions. "I was watching you," he said. "What did you put in your potion to make it react like that?"

"The Essence of Lavender bottle on our bench," Remus said. "It's actually narwhal pus."

"You owe me one," he said and, before Remus could ask what he was doing, he strode over to the bench and picked up the bottle.

"Moony, what's your boyfriend doing?" James asked, confused.

"No idea," Remus said, "but I think we should be grateful he's doing it."

The pair watched with wide eyes as Brad poured a large measure into cauldron. As it began bubbling, Brad pulled his partner back a step. "Erm, Professor," he called out. "Our potion-"

He was cut off as, exactly like James and Remus's potion, the liquid began to spit drops everywhere. Brad ducked out of the way; his friend was not so lucky. He got a splattered full in the face.

And, with no small amount of relief, in the extra drama the second explosion was causing, Remus watched as Sirius slipped back through the door.

"I think the bottle's been labelled wrong, Professor." Remus could see Brad earnestly harassing Slughorn as the Potions Master attempted to right the wrong the Narhwal pus had caused. "It doesn't smell right? See."

Weaving through crowds of people heading to the Great Hall for lunch, he caught up to Brad and fell into step beside him. As he gently grasped the other boy's hand, Brad smiled at him.

"You were brilliant," Remus murmured, just loud enough for the Ravenclaw to hear. Brad flushed with pleasure.

"You looked like you could do with a hand," he replied modestly.

"C'mere," said Remus, pulling him to the side where they wouldn't be stopping in the middle of a corridor. Leading him to an empty classroom, he searched it for a teacher before pulling Brad inside out of sight, leaning up and lightly kissing him on the lips. "Thank you," he said. "We would have been in so much trouble if it weren't for you."

"No problem," Brad said, a little breathlessly.

Without another word passing between them, Brad grasped Remus's hand once more and the pair made their way back out into the corridor. "So what were you stealing?" Brad asked as they rejoined the throngs of people flocking for lunch.

"Ingredients," Remus said with a cheeky grin.

Brad rolled his eyes. "I guessed that," he said, "Somehow. What were you stealing them for?"

Remus grinned again, inwardly wondering how far he could push this. "A potion," he said ambiguously.

Brad let out a laugh. "My man of mystery," he said, and thankfully dropped the subject.

"How's your friend?" Remus asked, a little guiltily. "He didn't look so good when Slughorn lead him away."

"He'll be fine," Brad said, but he bit his lip.

"Madam Pomfrey can fix anything," said Remus reassuringly. "Believe me."

They reconvened in the common that afternoon during their free period. "Did you get all of them?" James asked Sirius, almost before the other boy finished clambering into the common room.

He grinned and threw himself on the couch opposite, pulling several vials from his cloak and placing them on the table.

"Not here, Sirius," Remus hissed, quickly sweeping the off the table and into his bag. "What if someone sees?"

Sirius casually lounged back on his chair. "What does it matter?" he asked carelessly. "We got away with it, didn't we?"

"Just barely," James said, frowning. "If it hadn't been for Bradley, you would have been caught for sure."

"But we got away with it," Sirius said.

"That doesn't mean we still won't be caught," Remus cautioned him. "What we're doing is highly illegal. If we're found out-"

"-We might be expelled or thrown in Azkaban," James finished for him. "We've heard it before, Remus."

"Yet you still seem to have an extremely blasé attitude about getting found out," Remus pointed out.

At that point, Peter interrupted. "When do we start brewing?" he asked tactfully.

"As soon as the cauldron arrives," Remus said.

Sirius felt the days jolt past as though they were the seconds of a particularly loud clock and every tick struck an immense beat against his heart. They'd started with twenty seven days, which had gone to twenty six, which had jumped to twenty… and now they only had eighteen days to brew the potion and figure out how to become animagi for real.

He felt helpless, weighed down, burdened by the idea that it wouldn't be done in time and that Remus, once more, would have to go through the agonising transformation that Sirius had endured the full moon before. He didn't want that to happen – he couldn't let that happen. They were so close to transforming, yet it was still dancing just out of their reach, and nothing had every frustrated Sirius more.

The more time that passed, the more Sirius worried that they wouldn't make it. It had been a tall order to begin with – becoming Animagi by the next full moon. As the time slipped past them, it was starting to look more and more impossible. Every time he saw Remus, he was reminded that the werewolf was counting on them to get this done.

And that wasn't the only thing that was burdening him when he thought of Remus.

He'd tried, for the past two days, to forget what had happened the last time he and Remus had been left alone in the dormitory. He hadn't been very successful in forgetting, but he'd tried harder than he'd ever tried in his life.

Regardless of his attempts, however, he couldn't manage to erase that moment from his mind. Sometimes it was all he could think of; Remus's lips on his, their bodied lying against each other, the adorable look of surprise that had defined his face when Sirius had first leaned in.

And it terrified him. He didn't know what it meant. He didn't know how it made him feel, or how it was supposed to feel. He certainly didn't know what to do about it. He'd always assumed he was straight… and now even that assumption might be wrong, if his uncertain feelings for his best friend were anything to go by.

And he was finding more and more that, while facing the great unknown, the most pleasant solution was to hide under his sheets and pretend that nothing was wrong. By not acknowledging that the kiss had happened, he'd avoided an argument, an embarrassing situation and, most likely, a conversation about his feelings that neither of them particularly wanted to endure.

But he was starting to wonder that, if avoiding uncomfortable topics really was such a brilliant solution…

Why did thinking of Remus make him feel like he'd been stabbed in the heart?

"Yeah, and then McGonagall showed up in the middle of Care of Magical Creatures and pulled her out!" James whispered to his friends in conspiratorial tones. "I mean, it's Mary MacDonald, so she obviously didn't do something wrong or anything like that. Something serious must have do you think it was?"

"I think what's happened is that you're being a nosy git again, Potter," said a very feminine voice from behind him. Remus couldn't help but smile at Lily's tone and buried himself in the newspaper that had just arrived – partly to hide his grin, and partly because he didn't want to be involved in the upcoming drama.

"I'm not being nosy," James said indignantly. "I'm… concerned."

"Yes, you seem incredibly concerned, gossiping behind her back," Lily said coldly.

"Well everyone's talking about it," James protested.

"That doesn't mean you should be!"

"Lily," Remus said, finally interrupting. The humour had left his face – and not because he was trying to hide it. "Leave it."

This instantly fired her up. "Why, because he's Potter and he should be exempt from all rules? Because he hasn't shown a decent trace of morality ever in his life?"

"No," Remus said quietly. "Because it's in the paper."

At those words, Lily deflated. The Marauders, on the other hand, exclaimed a simultaneous, "What?"

"Meredith MacDonald, Ministry of Magic employee, was attacked and killed yesterday morning in her home in Belfast," Remus read out. "Aurors were at the scene almost instantly, but so far no one from the Ministry has spoken about the incident. However, witnesses at the scene confirmed sighting the Dark Mark above the building. The Dark Mark is the recognised sigil of the rebel group known as the Death Eaters, who follow a man known to the world as 'Lord Voldemort'." Remus scanned the paper for a moment, looking for more relevant material. Then he added, "And then it just goes on about Death Eater attacks becoming more frequent, and how the Ministry are beginning to take steps to combat the situation."

"Her mother's dead?" whispered James.

"I hope you're need for gossip is satisfied," Lily snapped at him.

James actually managed to be annoyed by this. "How was I supposed to know what had happened? If I had, then I wouldn't have been treating it like it was just some person getting caught snogging behind the greenhouses."

Lily rubbed her face tiredly. And then she did something that took all of them by surprise. "You're right, I'm sorry," she said, sinking into the seat beside James and pulling a bowl of cereal towards her. "I didn't mean to snap. I've been up all night with her. Her home's destroyed, and they couldn't get her to her aunt's until this morning."

And James, despite the fact that this situation was something he'd been wanting for years, looked terrified at the prospect of holding a regular conversation with Lily Evans. "Have you… erm… considered just going to bed?" he suggested. "I'm sure McGonagall wouldn't mind, given the circumstances."

Lily shook her head. "No, I don't want to miss class," she said. She opened her mouth to say something else but, at that moment, Remus spread the newspaper out on the table, creating a loud noise and upsetting several plates of food. "Look," he said to Sirius excitedly, temporarily forgetting that there was a great rift between them. "At the bottom."

He pointed to the last paragraph on the article about Meredith MacDonald. Sirius began reading it. "The reasons Mrs MacDonald were targeted are unknown, although speculations have arisen in the time following the attack. Sources have revealed that, as well as being in a high-up position in the Ministry, Mrs MacDonald was also a valuable member of the Order of the Phoenix. These rumours have yet to be confirmed by-"

Sirius looked up from the paper, frowning. "So what?" he asked.

"It's them again!" Remus exclaimed. "The group Brad was talking about. They keep showing up in the newspapers too – never as a main feature of an article, just pieces like this, tacked onto the end of a long piece on Death Eaters."

The blank look on Sirius's face remained and James sighed. "I think what Moony is trying to say, Padfoot, is that, once again, this Order have cropped up in a report about a Death Eater attack. And while the paper isn't revealing anything about them-"

"It's what they aren't saying that's important," Lily interrupted smoothly, successfully finishing James's sentence. "What?" she asked defensively as four pairs of eyes turned to look at her.

"Not exactly what I was going to say," James said, looking slightly amused. "But close enough."

"I still don't get it," Peter said.

"This Order keep showing up in all these important articles," explained Remus. "Always only ever mentioned, as though there was more information that was relevant but it's been cut out. If they're important enough to be mentioned, why is there never anything more about them? Why do none of these articles say what the Order is?"

"There's an awful lot being hidden from the public eye," Lily continues for him. "And you have to wonder why, don't you?"

"Well, they're a secret order, aren't they?" Sirius pointed out. "The keyword there being secret. They don't want too much being known about them."

"Or the media don't want everyone to know about it," Remus added. "And when I say 'media', I mean whoever is controlling the media."

"The Ministry," Lily said.

"Why wouldn't the Ministry want people to know that there are people out there fighting him?" Peter asked.

Remus shrugged. "Because they don't want to admit they're not doing anything?" he suggested. "It doesn't really matter why they're being hidden from sight, or who's hiding them. The point is that they're out there and they're doing stuff."

"And if they're the people fighting Voldemort, they're who we need to join up with," James said.

The other four just at him with no small amount of surprise.

"I think you're jumping the gun a bit there, mate," Sirius said dryly.

"I thought that's where this conversation was heading," James said defensively.

"I think it was," Remus said, "but not that quickly…"

"What's jumping the gun?" Peter asked.

"Muggle phrase," Lily said distractedly.

"Muggle Studies is the only class Sirius pays attention in," Remus added. "Who would have thought he'd actually learn something in his six years at Hogwarts?"

"Anyway," James interrupted, bringing the conversation back on track. "The Order of the Phoenix. By the looks of it, they're the people we should be joining, rather than the Ministry."

"I doubt they'd take school children, though," Lily said. "We're not even of age. We'd have to wait until after we left."

Remus wondered where this 'we' was coming from. He and Lily were friends, of course, but the red-headed girl couldn't stand James and Sirius. Why had they suddenly become a group of five?

Remus was too tactful to ask. Sirius, however, wasn't. " 'We', Evans?" he drawled. "I was under the impression that you'd rather be trampled by hippogriffs than join forces with us."

"Oh, I would," Lily told him brightly. "But seeing as we're on the same side, planning the same plans, joining forces makes logical sense. And I'm also speaking for Mary, don't forget."

"Mary?" James asked, surprised.

"Yes, her mother was in the Order and, before her death, she was very interested in the fight against Voldemort. Provided that hasn't changed, she'll definitely be on board with everything said here." Lily stood up from the table, surveying the four Marauders with unreadable eyes. "By the way, we're late for class."

Remus leapt up from the table. In the excitement of the conversation, he'd completely lost track of time and had failed to notice that, one by one, the hall had emptied as everyone else headed off for their lessons. "I hate being late," he said, grabbing his bag as dashed out the door.

"Bye, Remus," an amused James shouted after him as the other three slowly and casually extracted themselves from the table and gathered their possessions with a deliberate slowness.

"I hope they get a detention," Remus muttered to himself.