James apparated first in the alleyway behind King's Court in Bakewell, immediately followed by Lily, who caught his arm as she tripped forward. James steadied her carefully. A moment later there was a third CRACK! and a great cacophony as several rubbish bins tipped over and a cat hissed in behind James and Lily. They turned about to find Sirius laying in the tumbled-down silver bins, covered with splatters of sauces and fragments of leftovers from the muggle patrons meals.

"Rubbish," he muttered, cursing. Then, realizing he was indeed sitting in rubbish, he laughed and his grey eyes twinkled in the corners. "Literally."

James rolled his eyes and stepped over with his hand offered out to pull Sirius up to his feet. "Great job, Pads."

Sirius beamed. "Ten, ten. Perfect score. With bonus points for flair," he replied. "I see neither of you made quite so grand an entrance. I'm a shoe-in to win the gold."

"Well every Death Eater here to London is aware we're in this back alley now, thanks to your most graceful apparating," James said.

Sirius's playful smirk slid away and he joined James and Lily as they moved quietly down the street, leaving the bins as they were, the black cat Sirius had scared off already inching her way closer, back toward the delicious temptations of the leftover fish and chips that had been tossed.

The square at the end of the alleyway was quiet, though not uninhabited. Muggles were going about their everyday lives, coming and going from the pub. A street vendor across the way had a cart full of pretty cut flowers and roasted nuts and tiny gift wares that only tourists would be interested in - baby spoons and thimbles, bracelet charms and miniature Union Jacks on tiny sticks. He stood a few feet away from his cart, puffing a cigarette, sheltered against the stones of an Inn.

James glanced at Lily and Sirius, keeping his silence, then stepped back into the alley. "What d'ya reckon?" he whispered. "I don't see anybody from the Order - or any known Death Eaters about...?"

"No one can fake Fawkes though, can they?" Lily inquired. "He's Dumbledore's patronus and his only, isn't he?"

Sirius said, "Perhaps everyone's inside."

"It's a muggle pub," James pointed out, "If they're inside, they can't be talking about what's going on. Perhaps we have the wrong place?"

Suddenly a dark shadow passed over the mouth of the alley, and there was a man in a long coat and a hat pulled low, walking quietly toward them, his hat pulled down across his brow, setting his face into shadow. James pushed between Sirius and Lily, so that he stood facing the man, blocking the two of them, and drew his wand from his holster. "Stop there," he commanded, his voice resolute.

The man stopped. "Potter, you best put that thing away before you blast someone's eye out," came a gruff voice.

"And he's only one to spare, mind you," came a more flippant one, as a second, much narrower, taller figure appeared behind the first man. There was no mistaking this one's identity - the moment the moonlight hit his hair, it lit up brilliantly ginger and his smile gleamed across his face. Well, there may be some mistaking him, as James couldn't tell which of the twins it was - Gideon or Fabian - but it was certainly one of the Prewetts.

"Prewett One," grunted Mad Eye Moody, "Bloody get back under the charm, unless you want us all to be outed!" He turned with a fierce look at what must be Gideon, who waved, then ducked backward, out of the alley and.... completely disappeared.

"Awesome," whispered Sirius, grinning ear-to-ear with approval.

Mad Eye turned back to look at the three of them. "C'mon, we've a lot to go over and you're the last to arrive of who we honestly expect to come." He lumbered off toward the end of the alley, reaching out a hand as though holding up the flap door of an invisible circus tent, and waved his wooden cane for them to hurry past him.

James glanced at the other two, then hurried forward, leading the way.

A spell had been cast to protect a row of small tables that sat in a row along the left side of the square, in front of a breakfast cafe which was closed for the evening. Stepping through the edges of the spell, they were suddenly able to see these tables and the people seated around them - the Order members, including Dumbledore.

"Come in, come in, sit down," Dumbledore greeted them, waving his arms to an empty table to his right.

James, Lily, and Sirius took their seats. Lily and Sirius looked most nervous - this was their first Order meeting, they hadn't sat in on something like this before with Dumbledore and the Resistance on hand. Lily reached under the table and found James's hand, squeezing it tightly in her fingers. James squeezed hers back.

"Where is Master Lupin?" Dumbledore asked, looking at Sirius specifically.

"Uni, he had his first classes today. I left him a note so he knows where to find us," Sirius replied.

"Very good," Dumbledore nodded. His eyes glanced over James and Lily. "To catch up our newcomers... We have intelligence from one of our men on the inside of Lord Voldemort's movement that there are plans tonight to begin an assault on the freedom of muggles. The followers of Voldemort have chosen Bakewell because of its proximity to both Scotland and England, with plans to use it as a base in a more accessible place than the Great Northern Woods, nor Iceland, at the village of Fallengunder. Our intelligence says that these men are armed with newly made vials of Werewolf Venom, and they have been instructed to turn or kill every man, woman, and child they meet."

Lily gasped and covered her mouth in horror. James's eyebrows knit in concern and Sirius looked to James. "You said that R--" he stopped himself from saying the name, and amended, "That our... contact... got the werewolf venom."

"He did," James replied, "He told me he did." James looked to Dumbledore. "They can produce venom that quickly?"

"An entire army of wolves, Potter, they can produce it in a single full moon," Moody said grouchily. "Use your mind, Potter, use your mind."

James flushed.

Dumbledore nodded. "Their supplies may be limited, which may be why they've been instructed to turn or kill." He paused. "We in the Order are the only ones who will stand between Voldemort and these muggles. The Ministry has refused to send Aurors on official duty to aid us as they do not believe that our contact among Voldemort's Death Eaters can be correct. They say this is a decoy. Officially deployed Aurors are on full alert, but not in present company."

"That's why Fabian isn't here," offered up Gideon, who was seated now a few tables away, beside Dorcas Meadows. "On official duty." He held his fingers up in little quotations about his ears as he said the words.

James shook his head at the idiocy of the Ministry. "What a load of bullocks that is," he said. He looked at Lily and Sirius, who looked equally disturbed by this statement. "Right gits, thinking they know better than the greatest --"

"Shh!" Dumbledore hissed and he held up his palm to stop James in his sentence.

Silence fell among the Order. Moody, who stood against the wall where he'd beckoned James, Lily, and Sirius from, looked about, his magic eye spinning about in his socket in a dizzying manner. He looked then toward Dumbledore with his good eye and he motioned with his thumb -- up.

Dumbledore looked up toward the sky, which was clear to be seen through whatever protective charms Dumbledore had set upon it. The stars sparkled from amongst swift moving clouds. He nodded, then whispered, barely above a breath, "As discussed..."

Sirius was about to ask what had been discussed, but in a wave of his palm, Dumbldore had disappeared.

Lily's fingers tightened on James's hand. 

There was a sharp, clear tone - a whistle - and James looked to see Gideon and Dorcas, waving them toward the Muggle pub door, and the three of them got up and scrambled from their table, rushing across the street to where Gideon and Dorcas stood. "We're to clear the pub and protect the muggles inside. Protective charms and the lot."

James nodded.

Sirius looked up toward the roof. "But if the Death Eaters are here now... oughtn't we be fighting them?" He had a fierce look on his face.

"Our objective tonight is to save the muggles that live here," Gideon said. "And try to keep the Statute upheld. Voldemort's goal here is to shatter the statute and either enslave or murder them. Understand?"

Sirius nodded, "Yeah but --"

"Then you'll do what Dumbledore's assigned you to do, Sirius," Gideon said, rather sharply, in a tone that made them all realize suddenly that the funny, light hearted Gideon Prewett was indeed a fully trained Auror and actually quite powerful indeed - a force to be reckoned with. 

"Oh it's getting foggy," Lily whispered, looking around the square.

"Dumbledore's work," nodded Gideon, "He's creating a cover so that the Death Eaters do not see the Order members movements. The hope is that we can secure all of the muggles and create a safe forum of the square before they make their move against us."

"Hope in one hand and shit in the other ... See which one fills up first, am I right?" Sirius quipped quietly to James.

"C'mon," James said, ignoring Sirius and pushing his way into King's Court quickly. "We've got muggles to protect."

"I can smell their blood," Greyback whispered, antsy. He crouched behind a large chimney, his long limbs folded about him like a spider on a hunt. He breathed in the scent deeply, the nearly metallic ring of the scent of blood seemed to course through him and made his mouth water with desperation. "Gods alive, can't I at least eat that one over there? That stupid peddler? Ain't nobody going to miss him."

"The Dark Lord's instructions were perfectly clear," Bellatrix Lestrange replied, her voice pitched to the closest she was capable of a whisper. He set the misinformant and they've taken the bait. We just need to wait until they come into the open... and then... we descend upon them, just as the Dark Lord commanded!" 

Greyback growled lowly, eyes narrowed with annoyance. Bellatrix was all the worst bits of her mum, he thought, though the pain of Druella's passing still hurt him to think about. He snapped his teeth toward the street, watching the peddler shuffle about his cart lazily. 

 One by one, the little businesses and houses around the square were made safe by Order members. Wands were raised and protective charms whispered, the homes were made impenetrable, their windows set with false views of a lovely starry night. Large glass windows in bakeshops and other shops were made unbreakable, the patrons of the pub set under a spell that would keep their glasses from emptying so that they wouldn't want to leave King's Court, the perimeter protected, the door way sealed and the windows impervious and set with the same starry night view as the homes. 

The fog in the square was terribly thick, and when James, Lily, Sirius, Gideon and Dorcas emerged from King's Court it was to find themselves stepping into a dense, grey, soup-like air that blinded their eyes and seemed to envelope each one of them immediately. "Blimey," James whispered, "I can't see a thing."

"You never can, four eyes," Sirius cackled - his voice disembodied somewhere to James's right.

James could feel Lily's hand in his, but couldn't see her but for a shadow in the fog.

"With all this bloody fog," Sirius complained, "How are we supposed to know if we're getting atta--"

He didn't even finish his sentence. 

The sing-song voice of Bellatrix Lestrange seemed to permeate every wisp of the dense fog, mocking Sirius, "How will we know when we're getting attacked? How will we know?" She cackled evilly.

Sirius lashed out aiming his wand about as he turned, trying to decipher which way the voice was coming from.

"DISSEMINEBULA!" Dumbledore's voice broke through the dark and the fog seemed to recede very suddenly into a vacuum, disappearing all at once so that the scene in the square of Bakewell was quite clear. 

The Death Eaters had descended from their hiding places, hundreds of them... and the Order members were surrounded.

"Do you know, cousin?" Bellatrix Lestrange, with her oddly jerky movements, wild hair, and darkly painted lips stood mere steps from Sirius, a look on her face as though she were speaking to a child. "Do you know that you're being attacked now?" She raised her wand. 

Sirius raised his own wand, "And do you know, dear Bella, that you're about to die?"