Delicate | James Potter

2.05

~

Lyall Lupin was dead.

Remus had been pulled from class on Monday morning, no suggestion of what was wrong apart from McGonagall's stern brow. He didn't come back all day, nor the morning after. Sirius reckoned it was something to do with the wolf thing, but he was as worried as the rest of them, maybe even more. They even had Mia Scamander approach - a rare event - asking if they'd seen him, if they'd heard from him, whether they knew if he was okay. She was clutching onto a letter, but didn't let any of them read it and hurried away before she could be questioned too much.

 When the Daily Prophet arrived the next morning, everybody knew exactly why.

Dark Wizard Attack on Ministry Official - Tuesday 12th October

On Sunday evening, the Wizarding World faced yet another fatal attack. Ministry Official Lyall Lupin, head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, was murdered by Death Eaters in his own home. Fortunately, no other deaths occurred and attackers were scared off by a neighbour investigating the commotion. Hope Lupin, Lyall Lupin's muggle wife, is currently in St Mungo's. 

For more information, go to page seven.

And there it was too, plastered on the front page like it had been almost every day this week, a photo of the dark mark. 

"Blimey..." James mumbled, eyes wide.

"Poor Remus," Lily said, putting the newspaper down after reading it aloud to the group of Gryffindors sat around the breakfast table. Marlene looked deeply worried, Mary with eyes a little watery. They were all united in moments such as these, petty rivalries meaning nothing. "It's so sad."

"Well, that's alright." Sirius said, looking a lot less solemn than the rest of them. "He always said he hated his dad. Bit of a git he was."

Mary gasped and smacked him around the head with her newspaper. "Now who's the git."

"You can't say things like that." Lily glared at him.

Sirius shrugged. "If my dad died I'd throw a ruddy party."

"That's nice and all," Lily scowled, venom in her voice, "but it wasn't your dad, was it?"

"Calm down Evans." His eyes widened a fraction.

She shook her head at him. "Whether Remus got along with his dad or not, he's still dead and I can't imagine it being particularly pleasant for him."

Marlene nodded, eyes going over the article again. "Not to mention his poor mum's in hospital. Something's got to be wrong for her to be at St Mungo's. They barely ever treat muggles."

Lily stood up. "I'm going to go write to Remus, check up on him. I'll see you lot later."

Then she left, leaving everyone with dark expressions. Alice couldn't even begin to imagine how Remus felt. She didn't know the type of relationship he had with his dad, but either way losing someone you'd had in your life for so long would be horrible. And, like Marlene said, his mother was probably suffering too.