Love You In My Mind // Sirius Black

Chapter 45

Since it was our first ever meeting, we kind of just stood there and let the older members do the talking.

Sometime during the meeting, somebody had conjured a desk, and it hadn't taken long until it was buried beneath parchment.

I was surprised by how much information the order members had already, just by observing and spying.

Seeing them so active really motivated me that this war could actually be over soon.

My friends and I just watched when all of the wizards talked about Death Eater meetings, Voldemort's possible hiding places and suspected plans for the future.

When new patrols had been assigned and the date for the next meeting had been arranged, the room cleared out.

But since Professor Dumbledore had asked all of us new members to stay behind, now we just waited for him to talk.

We didn't have to wait long. Daedalus Diggle hadn't even left the room yet when Dumbledore already walked towards us.

"Again, I'm happy that all of you are brave enough to join this order. Thank you."

"Thanks for asking us to join," James replied politely. "It's an honour."

Wow James. That's one way to butter Dumbledore up. He did realise that we were out of school, right?

"James, you do realise that we're not at school anymore, right? You don't have to crawl," Marlene asked him with a mocking smirk on her elegant face, and my jaw dropped.

I immediately closed it again, but still - she'd taken the words right out of my mouth! How creepy had that been?! Could she read minds??

I mentally facepalmed. Of course she couldn't, the others at Hogwarts would've noticed that immediately. And she and Sirius would've gotten together much sooner, because she would've known about his feelings for her from the start.
And she wouldn't be so nice to me, considering she'd know that I was in love with her boyfriend.

Yeah, no, Marlene couldn't read minds- but it was still crazy that she'd said almost exactly what I'd thought.

"Shut up, Marls," James mumbled. "I'm just really happy that I'm able to help wherever I can."

"That's true," Lily agreed, nodding. "The more stand up against that maniac, the better."

Dumbledore nodded. The usual glint in his blue eyes wasn't visible. "And I absolutely agree with that, Miss Evans. But in order for this to be as safe as possible, I need to teach you something."

Sirius sighed, and I suppressed a grin. It was very obvious what he was thinking. 'I thought I was done with school', or something along these lines.

"Oh, Mr Black, I think that you might actually find this really interesting," Dumbledore agreed with a small smile, which was barely visible beneath his beard. The sparkle in his eyes had returned. "I suppose you're all familiar with the Patronus Charm?"

We nodded collectively. While we'd never practiced the actual spell, we had still talked about its use and how it worked with Professor Nostar.

"Very well. Though I assume you've never tried it, have you?"

Now we shook our heads, and somebody murmured a quiet 'no'.

Dumbledore nodded again. "I want you to learn it. While we might not face Dementors on our search for Death Eaters, it is an essential way of communication for the order. It can't be intercepted, you see? It's much safer and quicker than letters."

"But isn't it just a protection charm?" Lily asked curiously. "How is it supposed to work for communication purposes?"

"The conjured corporeal Patronus can be sent to a certain person or location, and speak whatever it's been told to say," Dumbledore explained.
"In order for this to work, however, one has to be able to produce a corporeal Patronus, that's essential. Making the Patronus speak is very easy, in comparison to the actual spell."