CURSES AND CANDIES - REMUS LUPIN

𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑖𝑣𝑒.

Although Marlene and Narcissa had protested furiously that they should be allowed to come to St. Mungo's with McGonagall and Dumbledore, the two girls had been declined until the two professors had to leave the room because of Marlene's desperate tears to see her best friend because she knew how wrong something was. The Transfiguration professor had wanted to take the Gryffindor with them, but she knew matters could be much more serious than she anticipated.

Even though McGonagall didn't want the Ministry in its current twisted, infiltrated state to get involved, she was scared it might at the disappearance of six students. And the last thing she wanted was to get one of her beloved pupils roped into a mess that hurt would only come of for the Mckinnon.

Dumbeldore briefly lifted the apparition barrier only in his office so that he and McGonagall could get to St. Mungo's to reach their students as quickly as possible. In loud crack and brief whirl of color, the two adults appeared in the bustling lobby of the wizarding hospital.

There were a few startled jumps back from the patients and healers alike as they apparated directly in the middle of the current of witches and wizards, and then forceful blinks as they recognized the headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Can I help you?" a blonde woman with the name badge Millie asked them with a slight frown at their sudden appearance that couldn't mean anything good. "Headmaster?"

Instead of the old man, McGonagall answered.

"We're looking for six missing students of ours, Regulus and Sirius Black, Hollis and Evans Rosier, James Potter, and Remus Lupin?" she asked with a concerned tone. "Have you seen them anywhere?"

Technically, Millie didn't have to answer that question. The boy that had introduced himself as Sirius Black was seventeen, meaning that he was of age and could legally sign them all in confidentially. However, she saw that McGonagall's tone was more than one a professor would take, it was also deeply motherly and concerned for at least some of the names she had listed.

"That would be room fifty five," Millie said, gesturing towards the staircase. "They might be a bit exhausted, professor. I don't think any of them have slept in days."

As McGonagall and Dumbledore went up the stairs, it was becoming clear to them that something was going on here much more significant than they thought. It took less than a minute to reach room fifty five.

When McGonagall opened the door, she felt a dozen sensatioms pass through her mind and body at what she saw.

Hollis was fast asleep on the white pillow with her wrapped right wrist hanging off one side of the bed, the other underneath the sheets. Next to her, Remus look as though he had gone to sleep as well in the middle of reading due to the book in his hand and the way his head was resting on the edge of the bed right next to Hollis. James and Sirius were partially overlapping each other, their heads on the white sheets near her legs as well. 

One thing McGonagall noticed was how close they were to each other, but none of the boys were actually touching Hollis.

All four sixth years looked exhausted and desperate for sleep.

The first emotion the professor felt was relief. Relief that her four favorite students were safe, relief that she had secured their location and they hadn't gone missing for too long.

The second was anger, short followed by curiosity. There could be no possible reason for the four of them to diappaear without a word that would jusity the worry and chaos they had caused. But then again, the Marauders had a knack for keeping secrets.

And then there was the question of where the other two Slytherins were, if not at St. Mungo's. Both older brothers still had to be found.

Right as McGonagall was about to gently wake up her clearly mentally battered and physically bandgaed students, over six figures that were not healers burst into the room with a loud bang that was a harsh contrast to the quiet way Dumbledore and her had made the effort to enter.