Alexis got this really worried look on her face and I knew that she was going to tell us the truth. I don't know how I knew, but I did.

"They said I shouldn't tell you," she seemed to be half speaking to herself, "but you deserve to know. You're trusting me, so I should trust you in return."

She took a deep breath and began. "Nearly everything I've told you about me is true, I just...left out certain details. I don't plan on telling anyone else this, ever, and this information should be kept quiet. I wasn't born in France. I've never been to France. I was born in Godric's Hollow and have lived my entire life in Britain. I went to Hogwarts. I was in Gryffindor. I'm the youngest Seeker in a century. I've fought Tom, his Eaters, Dementors, dragons, merpeople, sphinxes, Acromantula, basilisks, and giants. Teddy is my godson. My parents died when I was about fifteen months old. I never met them, except what Dementors have forced me to hear. My parents died in 1981."

There was silence. I was shocked. She was from the future? Did she know how dangerous it was, for her to be messing with time like she was? Wait. She said her parents died...James was dead.

From the paleness of James' face he'd realised it to. Here was Alexis, his daughter-who-was-older-than-him-who-was-also-his-defense-professor telling him that he was dead in only a few short years.

Lily had also gone white and I knew she'd finally come to the conclusions we'd come to.

"I was sent to my magic-hating aunt and uncle, where I lived for ten long, miserable years with no knowledge of magic. I got my first Hogwarts letter about two weeks after my cousin's eleventh birthday and the now infamous boa constrictor event,"

"I want to hear about that," said James firmly.

"Alright, I'll tell that story later. As I was saying, I got my first Hogwarts letter and my uncle burned it. He tore up the next few hundred and then, when about fifty letters started pouring down the chimney, we left. Two days later, Hagrid comes to get me, tells me about how my parents really died and magic and Voldemort. Then we went to Gringotts and eventually I got on the train to Hogwarts. I became the youngest Seeker in a century, and I wrestled a mountain troll. That's an activity I don't recommend. Then there was the whole Philosopher's Stone thing with Tom living in the back of my then defense professor's head. Eventually, Tom and I met and we kind of accidentally killed Quirrell. Then there was summer and the levitating pudding incident,"

"Another story I want to hear," James said.

"Okay. After that incident, I got a warning from the Ministry about magic and my aunt and uncle put bars on my window. I was let out twice daily to use the facilities, but other than that I was left alone. Then I was rescued and spent the last bit of summer happily. Then there was the whole Chamber of Secrets/Basilisk incident and I went home for the summer. After that, the worst prisoner Azkaban contained within its walls escaped," she said the last bit sarcastically.

"They escaped Azkaban?" gasped Alice in surprise.

"Yes, the prison isn't actually that well defended. I don't think we should be putting Death Eaters behind bars, I think they should be sentenced to the Veil, but I'll give you my 'prisons-are-some-of-the-worst-things-to-use-during-war-time' rant some other time. I also don't think he was the worst prisoner of Azkaban. I'm pretty sure that Bella Lestrange was worse." She glanced between me and Reg. "I hope you don't mind if I kill her," she said flatly. "I owe her for killing a good and loyal friend."

"Go right ahead," said Reggie. "As long as you don't kill Cissa or Andy we don't have any problems with you eradicating the insane members of our family."

"I liked Andy and her daughter," said Alexis and I was momentarily confused before I realised that this daughter had obviously not been born yet, "and Cissa and her family finally realised I was right all along, so I promise that I won't kill them on purpose."

"I'll take it," I said. I knew accidents could happen in war.

"Anyway, the prisoner escaped and they all thought he was after me. Of course, no one saw fit to actually tell me that," she went on to tell us about her school years and I could understand why she was here. It sounded like most of the people she'd come to call family had died.

"Alexis," said James, "I - I'm glad you came here. If you hadn't, things would have been terrible. You may not have any family left there, but we'll be your family here."

Everyone nodded earnestly and Alice yelled, "Group hug!" We all collapsed in and started hugging each other.

I was amazed at how close all of us had gotten. It was like we were meant to be working together, to become each other's family.

Telling them about my past went better than I thought it would. I thought there would be a lot more yelling and disbelief.

Though I was questioned, I managed to avoid the issue of Peter by saying that he'd died shortly after Hogwarts, which was true. The Peter they knew had been long dead.

After I told them about the funny stories I'd left out, we started working on our projects. I pulled out some parchment and began to write a list of battles and raids that I knew the Death Eaters had pulled. I thought for a moment. The next raid was tomorrow night - too soon to do anything about, the gang wasn't ready yet. But the one after that was in a month. I thought and then nodded. That would be the perfect place for the SA to make their debut. It was the battle where the Prewetts had died and I did want to save them. There were a lot of minor Eaters involved, but no members of the inner circle, which was lucky. I started thinking about how we would let the Eaters know they had a new enemy to worry about.

I thought and I knew what we needed. The Eaters had a Dark Mark, and Dumbledore had a Light Mascot (Fawkes), so we needed a Grey Icon.

I called Reggie over. As soon as he sat across from me, I told him my idea and he immediately pulled out a new piece of parchment and began drawing.

"What do you think of three animals, one to represent Light, one Dark, and one as a blend of both?" he asked.

"I think it'll be perfect, but no werewolves, okay? We don't need them guessing that one of us is a were."

"Right," said Reggie. "I'll have some designs done for Thursday."

"Keep it in shades of grey, since it's the Grey Icon," I told him.

He nodded and I dismissed the SA shortly after, since curfew was approaching.

On Thursday, we took votes on the designs Reggie showed us for the Icon. The one we decided on was a Shadow Phoenix on the right (they were really rare and really powerful. Some people thought they'd died out), a grey drackon on the left (they were also rare and powerful), and in the middle was a panther that was done in grey so dark it was almost black.

After they picked it, I started laughing. When Edgar asked me why, I said, "my main Animagus form is a panther."

"Well, then it's perfect," said James brightly. "It represents you, and us."

Time passed, as it usually does. I finished the uniforms for the group and their fighting skills were really starting to shape up. I hadn't yet got Alice her pistol, but I was working on it. At our meeting on the Wednesday before the raid (which was on Saturday), I said, "Guys, I think you're ready. I'm going to take you on a raid on Saturday. There shouldn't be any members of the Inner Circle there, but there will be a lot of minor Death Eaters. Their target is to kill Gideon and Fabian Prewett. We're going to prevent that, and maybe they'll come work with us."

Edgar grinned. "If we can get them working with us, that'd be really good. Amelia says they're two of her best."

"I know, that's why I want them. The more fighters we have on our side, the better. Anyway, I finished our uniforms, I'll get them to you before you leave. We'll start training while wearing them because it will be better if we get used to moving in them now, then having to adjust on the night of."

"Will we be wearing stealth or combat?" asked James.

"Combat, there will be only a little stealth on this mission. Luke, go over your ward-breaking skills and make sure Remus and Lily both know the basics as well. They're bound to have put up Anti-Apparition and Anti-Portkey wards. Now, tonight we'll be doing some training outside of the castle. I'm going to teach you to Apparate silently."

I took the gang out of the school to the house I'd bought during the summer. The house was a modest two story building that had been abandoned when I'd purchased it. I had bought two elves (via Gringotts) named Dobby and Winky who were working on repairing the house. Surrounding the house (I was going to call it Lone Willow because of the lonely willow tree in the front yard) was a beautiful meadow. The meadow was perfect to teach the gang to Apparate.

"Where are we?" asked Lily, looking around.

"We're in the meadow outside of my house, Lone Willow," I said. "I can't offer you any hospitality, because the house was abandoned when I bought it and my elves are still cleaning it up. It should be done by summer, and I'll adjust your portkeys to have my house as a location when I can. Just in case."

After this, I began explaining Apparating and how to do it silently. About an hour into our lesson, each of the gang had it down. I was so proud of them.

Returning to Hogwarts with our Portkeys, I dismissed them early after giving them their masks and vests.

((A/N: Sorry this has been so long! I hope to be in more of a routine now. I have up to the end of Chapter 16 written, and am working on Chapter 17. I hope to have this finished for the New Year, even if it's not all updated, but I've got a crazy busy schedule this year – it's my grade 12 year and life is just insane. So we'll see.

Thanks for all those who have favorited/followed/reviewed and please continue to do so!

And, just in case you couldn't figure it out, the bold stuff is from Serious' point of view and the not bold is from Alexis'.))