Chapter 31.

The next two and a half weeks were absolutely glorious. Resplendent. Unequivocably the happiest Beth had been in quite a long time.

And then January 12th happened.

Beth stayed there until the second of January, as originally planned. The unplanned addition of having a person stealing her breath away in dark hallways was unexpected, but certainly not objected to. Sneaking into her room late at night and daring her not to make any noises was unexpected too, as was her victory in finding out that he was louder than she was.

The days that followed that initial conversation were full of adventure, him constantly whisking her off to go explore some city or go sledding down some obnoxious hill or drink and dance themselves into oblivion at some club. He was still extremely cautious with her, making sure she stayed out of clear view of any potentially threatening presence, and on more than one occasion had stiffly stood and announced they had to leave. But each time he did, he'd grab her hand tightly and guide her to safety, and Beth would be moved by his fierce protection—even if she still thought she could take care of herself.

The day before New Year's Eve, he'd taken her to a swanky, overpriced hotel that had lobster on the room service menu and a piano player in the lounge. People addressed them as "sir" and "miss" and carried their bags to their room for them. There was a turn-down service and robes that felt like silk with the hotel's name monogrammed on it. Chocolates were left on their bed.

And the bed. Beth had made him pause his attentions and ministrations so she could sprawl out on the bed and fully appreciate the softness of the sheets. It had taken a full five minutes before she'd been ready to continue. When she'd looked up at him to let him know, he'd eaten all of the chocolate.

"How did you get a booking for this hotel the night before New Year's?" she'd asked him later, both of them bundled up in the dream-inducing comforter. "It seems more like a 'make a reservation three years in advance' kind of place."

He wagged his eyebrows. "I blew the manager."

She never did get the truth out of him.

On New Year's they'd been inseparable, dancing and laughing and both drinking far too much, but they were crashing at James and Lily's place right down the road anyway, so who cared. At one point, Sirius bribed the person in control of the music to play "Unforgettable," and though all the other couples had protested at the sudden change of atmosphere, Beth and Sirius swayed slowly together, lost in the memories that surrounded the song and the happiness surrounding them.

When the time changed to midnight, he pulled her into a broom closet and took her breath away.

They'd woken up with killer hangovers the next day and somehow sprawled out on James and Lily's living room floor. That's when she realized that the man she'd lived with for a month had known how to make an exceptionally greasy and delicious breakfast and had been holding out on her. When they felt less like death, he'd made it up to her in an equally delicious way.

Yes, the two were happy and content and thoroughly satisfied, more so than ever before, and Beth thought that she'd never love anything more than she loved the date December 27th (except maybe the person who made her love December 27th).

The others were a little harder to convince.

Beth assumed correctly that a long conversation about how this was all going to work would happen. They'd had to all but pull out a business plan discussing it. Beth was going to leave January 2 as had been planned. She still had one semester left of school, and that was priority number one. In the meantime, Sirius would continue using portkeys to come visit her.

That had been the first objection.

"You can't just leave whenever you feel like it," Lily had pointed out. "People will start to get suspicious about you leaving all the time."

"Then we continue doing what we'd been doing," he'd explained. "I'll come down with Prongs one day, Wormtail the next—"

"You can't go every day," Remus had said. "People will start to get suspicious."

"Okay then, not every day, but anytime someone comes down—"

"You can't do that." James had rubbed his face. "People will start to get suspicious."

Sirius raised his hands in defeat. "Then what are we supposed to do, oh wise ones?"

"That's precisely our question," Lily had said.

Beth had looked down at her hands.

Eventually, they came to the agreement that once a week someone would come to visit her under the guise of her still being their contact in the US. Sirius would be able to go every other time so long as the visits stayed consistent with the rest of the group. Not ideal by any means, but certainly better than depending solely on letters, and much better than trying to do everything long-distance.

When he'd taken her hand in his, she couldn't help the blush that followed.

When Marlene had found out, she'd taken Sirius aside and talked to him for an hour and a half. When they'd finally come back into the living room, Sirius had pressed a kiss to Beth's forehead and asked her if she wanted to get dinner. She had a feeling that he would never tell her what they discussed during that time. What she got instead was Marlene coming over to her before they left, gently grabbing her arm, and saying with absolute sincerity and a soft smile, "I hope you guys are very happy together."

Sirius had whisked her away after that, but Beth had found herself smiling in return.

Lily had pulled her aside one afternoon when Sirius had left with James. They'd made lunch together in awkward silence, both uncertain with how to continue, before Lily had finally spoken.

"The last time you tried this, it didn't work."

Beth had taken in a deep breath. "That won't happen this time."

"How do you know?"

Beth looked at Lily and smiled, thinking about all of the conversations he and she had already had, all of the promises they'd made, all of the places they'd gone, and the one thing that reverberated through everything. "This time, I love him. I won't let it not work."

Lily had regarded her for a long moment. "You know," she said, bringing her sandwich over to the table, "that's almost exactly what I told Sirius when I told him I wanted to get back together with James."

Beth's eyebrows had wrinkled in confusion. "Get back together? Did you guys break up?"

"Did he not tell you about that?" Beth had shaken her head. "It was about two months in. Things were going great, and I don't know, I panicked. I think it was because I knew what I was getting into, I knew that he was going to be it." Beth had sat down in the seat next to her as Lily had smirked. "It was only for three days, I think. Maybe less. But I was miserable and James was miserable—of course—and I decided that I hated it. I hated not being with him. I hated seeing him sad. One time, we ran into each other in the library and I had to run back to my room to keep him from seeing me crying. Sirius saw me before I made it past the common room though. I told him that I wanted James back and that I loved him and I wouldn't let it not work."

Beth had smiled. "And now look at you."

Lily had looked down at herself. "Yes, barefoot and pregnant, quite literally." Lily rested a hand on her stomach, rubbing it gently. "I'm sorry for being so—oh, what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Concerned?"

"I was going to go for 'rude,' but thank you for being kind." Lily's hand had frozen in place, and she'd looked up at Beth. "It's probably going to take me a little while to fully be okay with this. Though, I guess it's not me being okay with it that matters, but Sirius being okay with it." and he seems to be pretty okay with it if the past couple of nights have taught us anything."

Beth's cheeks had flushed deep crimson.

"Just—don't hurt my friend again, okay?"

"I don't intend to."

All Remus had further said was, "James has a wife, Sirius has a girlfriend, Peter has a girlfriend—what do I have?"

"Enough chocolate to last you through this heartbreak," Beth had teased.

Remus had kissed the top of her head. "You're absolutely right."

When the time came to drop Beth back off at the airport, only Sirius had come.

"I've got something for you," he'd said, pulling an object from behind his back.

Beth had flipped it over and stared at it. "It's a mirror."

He'd nodded. "So that you can see the same picture of beauty I see."

Beth had looked at him incredulously. "Really?"

"Merlin, no. What do you take me for, some kind of romantic? No, look at this." He took the object from her hands and snapped something apart, revealing a second, separate mirror. "You just saw the two mirrors were joined together, yes?"

"Yes."

"It's supposed to be symbolic. These two mirrors are joined together."

Beth had given him an unimpressed look.

"Forget the symbolism," he'd said. "Look into the mirror, say my name, and tell me what you see."

Beth had followed his instructions and had promptly gasped. "I see you!"

He'd leaned in close to her and lowered his voice. "Don't you just love magic?"

"Can we—"

"We can talk and see each other anytime we want. James and I used to use these so we could talk when we were in separate detentions."

She eyed him curiously. "You were put in detention so frequently that you came up with a device to talk to each other?"

"What are you implying here?"

Beth had simply laughed and reached up to hug him. "Thank you," she'd said, rubbing a hand down his back.

He'd held her tightly to him in response, his face leaning into her neck, his breath tickling and teasing her skin. "It'll come in handy on those lonely, cold nights too, and then we can—"

The things he'd whispered into her ear made her squirm.

She'd leaned up and kissed him, reminding herself all the while that they were in public and couldn't make a scene. He didn't seem to have a problem with it though, and leaned into the kiss, grasping her tight against him and lifting her off her feet. She'd pulled apart, thrilled at the grin he gave her. "I love you."

"I love you."

He'd kissed her again as he set her back down, a hand coming up to cup her cheek affectionately. "I'll see you soon," he'd promised against her lips.

She hummed in response. "Not soon enough."

Yes, things had been quite happy indeed for those two and a half weeks. Even in classes, Beth had been happy. Her professors were almost all ones that she'd already had, and her same group of friends was in each class. Even David—who, yes, was sitting several seats away from her—smiled at her as a greeting when she'd entered.

The mirrors worked wonderfully, too.

Yes, for those two and a half weeks, life was glorious. Resplendent. Unequivocably the happiest Beth had been in quite a long time.

And then January 12th happened, and everyone was reminded that life still moved on.

Sirius walked into the boisterous room, glancing around for an empty seat.

"Over there," Peter pointed over his shoulder. "By Marlene."

Indeed, to Marlene's right, there were three empty seats. Next to her were Lily and James, Caradoc Dearborn sitting next to him. On the opposite side sat Benjy Fenwick, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Molly's brothers Fabian and Gideon Prewitt, Edgar Bones, and Dorcas Meadowes. He absentmindedly smiled at the fact that they arranged themselves so that he, Peter, and Remus could all sit together. Talk about a preceding reputation. The three of them walked in and took their places, Sirius taking the seat next to Marlene.

"What are we talking about?" he whispered low to her.

"Pregnancy cravings," she whispered back. "Remind me to never get pregnant."

"I haven't really been wanting anything sweet," Alice said, a hand cradling her stomach.

"Really?" Lily exclaimed. "Not at all?"

Alice shook her head. "I've just been craving anything with carbs. I've eaten more potatoes in the past week than I have in all my life. And bread." Her eyes widened at the thought. "So much bread."

"There's a bakery by our house we visit at least three times a week," Frank said, throwing an arm around his wife. "We have toast—oh, what would you say, five times a day?"

"At least."

"We have toast?" Lily laughed.

Frank rolled his eyes as if the answer was obvious. "It's homemade bread. Of course, we're having toast."

Alice placed a hand on the table, her eyes suddenly very serious. "We got sourdough the other day."

Frank audibly groaned. "That sourdough bread is ambrosia. We'll have to bring some in next time."

"Are you kidding? We're not sharing any of that. They can go find their own sourdough bread." Alice threw a pitying look at the others at the table. "No offense."

"We're going to try ciabatta next."

"Who said we were going to try ciabatta next? I never agreed to that."

"It's the next logical bread to choose."

"What about—"

Dorcas leaned in over the commotion and broke off the discussion. "What have you been craving, Lily?"

"What hasn't she been craving?" James mumbled under his breath.

"He's right," Lily said. "I've gone through pretty much everything." She leaned over the table. "What'd I ask you to get me the other day, Sirius?"

Sirius grimaced at the memory. "A dill pickle and strawberry yogurt."

Edgar Bones made a disgusted sound. "What, together?"

"I dipped it into the yogurt, yes."

A collective groan at the concoction circulated the room. Lily, bless her, made no move to try to justify her cravings, simply shrugged her shoulders. Sirius could have sworn, however, that Alice's face seemed more contemplative than disgusted.

"Molly had a better one," Fabian added. "You ready for this?"

"Which time?" Sirius asked. Marlene hit his arm in response.

"First go around, with Bill. Ready?" The room got quiet, and even Sirius found himself waiting in anticipation. "Salmon and ice cream."

At that one, even Lily and Alice pulled a face.

"What kind of ice cream?"

The room grew quiet again at Peter's absurd question.

"What kind of ice cream?" Gideon repeated in wonder. "What, you think it'll sound better if it's chocolate instead of vanilla?"

Peter shook his head. "Molly Weasley is a food genius. If she says it tastes good, then I believe it."

"She was pregnant, though," Benjy added. "Her opinion's kind of null and void at that point, right?"

"Oh, I resent that!" Lily exclaimed, which was quickly followed by her husband, which Alice and Frank quickly chimed in on, and Fabian and Gideon felt the need to further argue.

Overall, the best way to describe it was an utter calamity, and Sirius relished every second of it. It wasn't often they were all able to meet up like this, and usually, the circumstances for doing so were far less than pleasant. Today, for example, was going to be spent analyzing the attack that happened only days ago. Seeing everyone, though, especially while no one was being sent off on some mission somewhere, was always a treat, even if the reasoning behind the meeting was bittersweet.

Marlene nudged his arm, bringing him back to reality. "How's Beth doing?"

Sirius smiled. "She's good. Got back safely and started classes this past week."

"When do you get to see her next?"

"Originally, the plan was next Thursday, but now I don't know."

She rolled her eyes. "Thank Voldemort for that."

"He's on the Christmas card list already."

Marlene smirked.

"She appreciated you coming over and talking to her, though. Couldn't stop talking about it. Hasn't stopped talking about it."

"Remus said she overheard Lily and me talking. I felt bad." She shifted in her seat and looked at him warily. "Did you—" she leaned in closer to him and lowered her voice— "tell her about… us?"

Sirius shook his head. "I think someone else did."

"Who?"

"I'm not sure." He looked over to the person sitting to the left of him. "Probably Remus."

The person in question looked up at the sound of his name. Marlene scoffed sarcastically. "Of course it was Remus."

"What about me?"

"You're a snitch," she teasingly accused.

Remus shrugged. "Not the worst thing I've been called. What for this time?"

"Did you tell Beth about Marlene and me?"

"I think she picked up on it when you picked him up and left a note that was vaguer than Ernest Hemingway's writing."

"Wow," Marlene pressed a hand to her heart. "What a zinger. I'm as vague as Ernest Hemingway."

"That is the only thing to strive for in life."

Marlene nodded earnestly.

"Anybody could pick up on it." Remus sat back in his seat, lounging his legs out under the table. "You two aren't exactly quiet about it."

"That's because we aren't exactly quiet."

When Marlene held out her hand, Sirius high fived it without looking away from Remus.

"Watch it," Remus warned. "You're a taken man."

"And I'm a besotted woman," Marlene sighed heavily, then craned her neck past Remus. "Maybe Peter and I'll have a go. What do you say, Pete?"

Peter looked up. "What's that?"

"Want to have a torrid love affair?"

Peter choked on his water. Remus obligingly slapped his back.

A soft but firm voice came into the room. "Thank you all for meeting me here." Everyone immediately sat up a little straighter, abruptly finished conversations, and focused on the old Headmaster. He placed papers down onto the table, assuming the position at the head.

Sirius leaned over to Marlene. "You can't tease him like that," he whispered to her. "He'll think you're serious."

"Who says I'm not?" she whispered back. "Alicia Haskins said he was the best sex she'd ever had."

"No."

She looked up at him inquisitively. "Oh?"

He shook his head. "Imperius Curse."

Marlene had to feign a cough to hide her laugh.

"As I'm sure you all know by now, there was an attack right outside of Cardiff in a local pub." Dumbledore passed a copy of the Prophet around the table. "Right now, we're looking at ten people dead and 23 people injured."

"Do we know who exactly instigated this?" Gideon asked.

"Not yet." Dumbledore took his seat with a heavy sigh. "We'll need to reach out to the contacts in the area, see if they heard anything. Benjy and Edgar, I'm going to send you two out to investigate."

"Oh, I can't," Edgar said. "My wife and I have that—"

"Oh, right." Dumbledore looked down at a piece of paper. Without realizing it, Sirius held his breath. He knew exactly what that paper was. Dumbledore had looked down at that paper multiple times, determining who hadn't been sent out recently, who was good enough to go. Finally, Dumbledore looked up. "Dorcas, will you go in Edgar's place?"

Dorcas offered a small smile. "Sure." Dumbledore nodded in response and wrote down something on the paper.

"Sir," James said, "do we know how many of the people involved were muggles?"

"All of 'em."

The entire table turned to the room's entrance to see Mad-Eye Moody shuffling in. The gruff-looking Auror took his place at the other end of the table, rubbing his leg the second he sat down. "Pardon my tardiness, Albus."

"Did you say all of them?" Lily asked, her voice dripping with concern.

Mad-Eye nodded his head. "Constant vigilance. Doesn't just apply to us."

"Did you just come from there?" Caradoc asked.

"Aye," he said, leaning forward on the table. "They're calling it a gas leak, though anyone with eyes knows the kind of damage that was done was more than just a gas leak."

"Those poor people have no idea what's going on," Lily murmured. Sirius saw James rub her arm consolingly.

"At least it's just muggles though, right?"

The entire room went quiet at Peter's statement, heads turning simultaneously to look at him. Sirius went to respond, but James beat him to it. "What did you just say?" he asked scathingly.

Peter shook his head. "No, I mean people will hear about this and see that it's getting worse and want to help."

"And we should rejoice because at least they were just muggles?"

James's voice was getting louder.

"We didn't lose anyone," Peter tried to further explain, but James was standing now, his fury radiating off of him. It was seeping deep into Sirius' soul, and he couldn't stop the icy glare he gave to Peter. "We still have people on our side."

"At the expense of innocent lives?!" James yelled.

"We're a dying breed. Am I supposed to be sad that none of our people died?"

"They are people," James yelled, pointing out the door. "Just like you and me. What if it had been Beth there?"

"Who's Beth?" Caradoc asked.

Sirius finally brought his attention away from Peter. "She's our contact in America," he said before anyone else could intervene.

"The United States, there's more than one country in 'America,'" Remus commented.

"Shut up."

"She was that friend at the wedding, wasn't she?" Caradoc asked as Lily gently pulled James back into his chair, murmuring words of comfort to him. Sirius nodded. "Is she a squib?"

"No."

"But she knows about all this?" Caradoc motioned to the paper.

"Yes," James responded coldly. "That's why she's our contact."

"She's a muggle, and technically works for the Order?" Caradoc eyed Dumbledore questioningly. "And you approved this? With the number of attacks that have been happening solely against muggles?"

"What are you implying?" James threw in before Dumbledore could respond. "That because she's a muggle she can't do anything?"

"No, I'm saying we're putting your friend in unnecessary danger. We've essentially painted a target on her forehead."

"Gentlemen, enough." Mad Eye's commanding voice ended the argument immediately, though James was still clearly seething. Sirius looked over at Peter, who was slinking back into his chair. For being in Gryffindor, the man certainly cowered in front of power a lot. Perhaps it was good, though. He could use a good scare to put him in the right direction.

"Right now is not the time to discuss our prejudices or our thoughts," Mad-Eye continued when the conversation finally ended. "We need a plan of action. Now, what I propose is that I take a few of these strapping young men and start going into the fire. Straight to the source, straight to where we know there is activity and unleash hell."

"You want us to go to war?" Dorcas asked.

Mad-Eye stared directly at her. "We are in a war."

Marlene scoffed. "And only the men can fight?"

Mad-Eye squinted his eyes. "You feel up to dying, McKinnon? Or will that worry your pretty little hairdo?"

"Alastor, please," Dumbledore interrupted calmly. "Remember that you have trained and are paid for this. These people here were students only years ago. They have volunteered for this. They don't have the same expertise and practice as you do."

Mad-Eye sat back in his chair.

"The best way we can do this is through strategy," Dumbledore said. "We need the people who have gone out and investigated the most to be the ones coming up with these plans, alongside our good friend Moody, of course. With our combined efforts, we can—and will—put an end to this, and we will protect everyone in the process, including—" he looked directly at Sirius— "our contact in the United States."

Sirius often wondered if Dumbledore was a seer. The way he looked at him made him almost certain that he was. Sirius brought his head down, focusing on his interlocked hands.

"With that being said," Dumbledore looked down at the same piece of paper, "Alastor, James, Gideon, Sirius, and Marlene, if you will stay back, we'll talk about potential places to relocate our friends. Dorcas and Benjy, leave straight away, find out as much as you can. I'll leave word of when you can come back. Everyone else," he gazed over the room fondly, "stay safe, and thank you for coming."

The room immediately filled with quiet conversation as those who could leave stood up and pushed in their seats. Sirius looked over towards Peter once more, whose head was staying down.

"Why didn't he ask me to stay?" Remus asked him quietly. Sirius brought his attention to him. "I've gone to more places than you have."

"Not recently."

"That's not my fault," Remus sighed as he stood up. "He hardly ever assigns me anywhere."

"Then ask him if you can stay."

"I'm not going to—" Remus lifted his head towards the man at the front of the table, then shook his head. "It's fine. I've just always been the smart one of the group, you know?"

"Well, obviously he would have asked you to stay if he thought you were needed."

Remus' face contorted into an expression Sirius had never seen him make before. Sirius had a sinking feeling that he might have said the wrong thing.

"Did you need something, Remus?" Dumbledore's voice was genuinely concerned, but Remus reacted as if he was being forcefully dismissed.

"No, I'm just headed out, sorry."

Lily was standing at the door, an arm outstretched to him. Remus took it and walked out with her. Sirius was still dumbfounded.

"Why wasn't Remus asked to stay?" Marlene asked him.

He kept looking out the door. "I have no idea."

Beth sat down on her couch with an exaggerated sigh. She was already tired. One week and one day into the semester, and she was already ready for a break. She glanced over at the planner sitting on her coffee table before her. It seemed to practically whisper to her, reminding her of the everything she had coming up. She reached over and picked up the pillow sitting on the other end of the couch, laying it across her face. Maybe if she couldn't see it, it would go away.

She picked up the corner of the pillow after a moment and peeked out from under it. It was still there.

Drat.

She knew what the source of her tiredness was coming from. Sirius and she had spent the past several nights talking to each other through the mirror. Usually, it was about nothing of importance at all. Last night, for example, they'd spent the entire time discussing who in their group was the corresponding member of the Beatles. The reason why it had taken all night was that Sirius simply refused to believe that he was John Lennon and not Paul McCartney.

"There's nothing wrong with being John," she'd said. "He wrote 'Imagine.'"

"Yes, but John was married to Yoko Ono, and you're definitely not Yoko Ono. If anyone is Yoko Ono, it's Lily."

"You're only saying that because James is the only one who's married. Lily didn't disband you guys."

"So you're saying you're going to?"

"Well, you're planning on spending a lot of time coming to visit me, aren't you?"

He'd shook his head. "I refuse to be John."

"It doesn't matter if you refuse to be, that's who you are."

"But—"

And that had been their entire night. Beth had loved every second of it.

Officially being in a relationship with Sirius (again) was such a wonderful feeling. She loved looking forward to hearing from him, loved hearing the words I love you coming from his lips. It was so much more wonderful than the first time they'd tried this, so much more freeing and joyous knowing that there was absolutely nothing standing in between them. She bit her lip as she tried to contain a smile from erupting. She couldn't remember a time she had ever been this happy. If only they could see each other more often.

Almost on cue, a knock sounded at the door. Beth's heart leaped out of her chest in anticipation. She quickly bounded over to the door and threw it open, and her mouth dropped open in absolute surprise.

"Remus!" she exclaimed.

He turned around to face her, a nervous smile on his face. "Hi."

"Hi!" She opened the door for him and hugged him close. "What are you doing here?"

"I have to meet up with my contact, of course, make sure she's up to date on everything." He pulled away from her and stuffed his hands into his jacket's pockets. "Is this a bad time?"

"No, I just wasn't expecting anyone," she said, shutting the door behind them. "And honestly, I never once thought that you would be the first person to come visit me."

"Well, I talked you through some situations. I was rather hoping you'd be able to return the favor."

Beth looked him up and down. "Is this a tea, coffee, or wine situation?"

"Coffee."

She nodded and turned to the kitchen. "How many scoops?"

"Six."

Beth winced and turned around, seeing her friend sitting at her dining room table. "You're sure you don't just want wine? That coffee will be strong enough to stand on its own."

He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "I'm being ignored by my friends and the establishment I work for."

Beth nodded her head. "Six scoops it is, then."

He asked her about her classes as she prepared the coffee, presumably wanting a distraction. She filled him in on her studies, which classes she was already dreading, her upcoming assignments, and capstone project. She told him about the awkward encounter she had with David when he asked how her holiday went and she responded with, "I have a boyfriend." She told him about the meeting she already had set up with one of her professors because she couldn't find the book she needed, and how she was worried that he would insist she share one with one of her classmates.

"So if one of you is going to live with me this semester," she said, bringing him a cup when the coffee was finally ready, "I'd like at least a two-week notice."

"I'll see what I can do." He took the cup and sipped it, then pulled a grotesque face. "God, what is this?"

Beth held up her hands. "You told me to put six cups in it."

"This is nasty, you shouldn't ever do this."

Beth sighed and grabbed the cream and sugar from her kitchen, then set them down in front of Remus. He took them both eagerly and quickly dumped what she was sure was nearly all of the sugar she owned in his cup.

"So what's going on?" she asked as he did the same thing with the cream.

He recounted everything that had happened as he stirred the contents together, tasting it occasionally to see if he needed to add more. "It's not like I have to be included in everything," he explained when his cup was finally the way he wanted it to taste. "It's just that up until now, I've been included in everything. I don't know." He blew on the hot liquid before taking a long drink. "Sometimes I think people are still worried about me."

"You mean with you being a—" She let the sentence hang unended, but he caught on to her drift and nodded once. "Well," she continued, "I can tell you with absolute sincerity that out of all of my werewolf friends, you are my favorite one."

Remus rolled his eyes. "How dreadfully kind of you."

She let him sit there for a moment, his attention solely focused on the cup in front of him. She wondered if all those times he talked to her, she looked this glum. With a definitive sigh, she leaned up against the table towards him. "The way I see it, there are only two options for you."

He rolled his eyes. "Options? Really?"

She shrugged. "It worked for me. Maybe it'll work for you."

"And what are these options?"

"Option one," Beth held up her pointer finger. "You deal with it. You let them make progress without you, and stop complaining."

Remus shook his head. "You're dreadful at this. You have to ease into it. Make me feel good first."

"Coddle you?"

"Absolutely."

"Next time."

Remus sighed. "Fine. What's option two?"

She gave him a small smile. "Fight back. Make your voice heard. Be the incredibly charming and intelligent man we all know and love." He tore his gaze away from her, but she could see his cheeks tinged with color. She pressed on. "They'll only respond to you when you give them something to respond to."

He nodded and took a sip of his overly sugared coffee. "I know."

"If you could go in there right now and give them something, what would it be?"

"I don't know. Right now the focus is still on finding safe places to relocate people."

Suddenly, everything clicked in Beth's mind as she remembered the report she'd read in the paper this morning. He hadn't given her specifics about why they had had the meeting, only that one had occurred. "Oh, this is because of the attack in Cardiff, isn't it?"

Remus looked at her in awe. "How'd you hear about that?"

"Are you joking? You literally trained me to do this. Read reports and know when I was being lied to."

"Oh, right. I just didn't think—"

"What, that I was actually listening to you, the person teaching me?"

"Something like that," he chuckled, reaching into his jacket pocket. He pulled out something and began unfolding it. "So if you look here—"

Beth laughed loudly, causing him to pause. "Did you just pull a map out of your jacket?"

He shrugged. "You never know when you'll need one."

"No, you never know when you'll need a condom. A map is something entirely—"

"Anyway," he cut her off, stretching it out in front of her, "if you look here, this is a map of every place Voldemort has attacked. But see, there isn't really a pattern to it. We thought maybe that he would simply go down the line, but he's zig-zagging all over the place."

"He's smart."

Remus looked up at her. "How so?"

She pointed down at the map, tracing her finger over the spots marked. "If he was going straight down the line, you'd be able to anticipate him. It'd be too easy."

"But the thing is, he's not attacking the entire city. He's targeting one specific area and opening fire. Even anticipating him, we still wouldn't know what part he was planning to attack, and there's hardly enough of us to monitor every area in the city."

"So don't move people to the city."

Remus paused, and she looked up at him in question. "Don't move people to the city," he repeated as if testing the words on his tongue.

She nodded. "Look, the majority of these attacks have happened in densely populated areas. Places where it's a little more common to have a disaster happen because there are so many people living there. Plus, places that are densely populated get more attention. A disaster in Chicago is going to get more attention than a disaster in Plainfield."

"Where's Plainfield?"

"Exactly. It's all for attention. You attack a densely populated area, you instill fear in everyone. You attack a town no one's heard of, it ends up in local news. Less of an impact."

He took another drink of his coffee. "So what should we do?"

"Move them to the country? Spread them out so that they're not all condensed in one area, tell them to get used to the normal way of life, and keep their heads down. If you spread yourselves out, there's a chance for fewer casualties." She looked down at the map, her brow furrowing. "Although, what happened right here? This isn't a big city." She pointed to a spot on the map.

Remus swallowed hard. "Luncarty," he whispered. "They attacked there just before James and Lily's wedding." Beth looked at him, shocked to see the amount of sincerity sitting heavily in his eyes. "Lily was there three weeks before it happened. She was scoping out the area for this very reason, and the attack made it unusable. That's when we decided to up the security. That attack," he placed his finger on the map, "is why we told you everything."

Beth lost her ability to breathe for a second as she processed the words he just said. "Oh," she said quietly, her finger gently tracing the spot.

He nodded tersely, then took in a deep breath. "Which is part of the thing that worries us," he said, looking back down at the map. "When they attacked, there wasn't a population of wizards living there. That one and this last one have both been entirely muggle."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "Do they give you a list of everyone?"

Remus shifted in his seat. "It's not exactly what I'd call pleasure reading."

Beth shook her head. "There's got to be a reason why he's attacking one specific area. Maybe the place means something to him or someone there knew him?"

"There's only one problem with that logic."

"What's that?"

"None of us are exactly pen pals with Voldemort. Makes it a little bit hard to know what was important to him and what's not."

Beth shrugged. "Well then, I don't know what to tell you. I stand by my theory, but you know a lot more than I do about all of this."

"It comes with living in the middle of it," he said, draining the rest of his coffee in one gulp. "I'll look back over the details and see if anything stands out."

Beth took his cup and brought it to her kitchen sink. "I'd offer to help, but I think I'd only hinder you."

"Possibly," he agreed. She quickly washed the cup out and reached for the towel sitting to the side. "Want to go get dinner?"

Beth paused in surprise, then turned to look at the clock. "Dinner?" she asked dubiously. "What are you talking about? It's 3:30 in the afternoon."

"It's 8:30 back where I am. I'm hungry."

Beth finished drying the dish, then set it back in the cabinet. "Then go home and eat. They must be freaking out, wondering where you are."

"Nah," he protested. She came back around the corner, finding him picking up and dropping the sugar on the spoon repeatedly. "No one will really miss me."

She felt her heart clench at his casually spoken words. "Remus—"

"Joys of being an introvert," he explained with a forced smile. "No one really notices when I'm gone."

"I'd notice."

He smiled again, this time a smidgen more genuine. "Yes, but you're here," he said, finally looking back up at her. "It'd be weird if you didn't notice I was gone."

Beth laughed, then crossed back over to the table. "Go home."

He shook his head.

"Go home before Sirius finds out you came to visit me before he did."

"Ah, bugger," he said, dropping the spoon with a small clink. "What if you break things off with him and date me instead? Then I could stay and it wouldn't be an issue."

Beth shook her head. "We tried that once. You ended up setting me up with Sirius."

Remus scrunched his face. "I'm rather awful at that, aren't I?"

"Exceedingly. But, you're an excellent wingman."

"Ah yes, that's exactly what people want to be known as," he said as he stood up and popped the collar on his jacket. "I'll throw it on my résumé straightaway." He reached down and took her hand, placing a quick kiss on it. "Thank you for the disgusting coffee."

"You asked for it that way."

"Remind me next time to just take you up on the wine offer."

Beth smiled as he moved towards the door. "Tell Sirius I said hi."

Remus stopped and contorted his face into utter shock. "Absolutely not."

"Oh, right." She jokingly smacked herself on her head. "Tell James I said hi."

"Are you joking? That'd be even worse."

"Tell Lil—"

"Beth, really."

She contemplated her options. "Peter. Tell Peter I said hi."

He snapped and headed towards the door. "That one I can do."

A/N: Gotta move on with the plot, my friends! The next chapter is filled to the brim with disgustingly sweet moments between Sirius and Beth, though. That's right, friends, we're skipping to Valentine's Day.

I wanted to make sure that there were some good friend moments in this chapter. Marlene, I promise you, very much respects this relationship and will not do anything to try to destroy it. It'll be hard for her to just suddenly disappear, though, especially since they're both in the Order, and it will be hard to suddenly decimate a relationship that has been years in the making.

Peter, on the other hand...

Stay safe my friends, and keep those hands washed. Let's see how much of this story I can crank out before quarantine is over, yes?

As always, thank you to nimblescrivener, particularly on your guidance regarding who Sirius would be if the Marauders were the Beatles.