Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

1 May, 1998 - Preparations

The Great Hall was crammed full of people when Lavinia and Heather reached it and Lavinia found her eyes immediately searching for Remus and Tonks, who had both left the Room of Requirement before Lavinia had arrived. Because that, apparently, was where the passage from the Hogs Head lead, though Lavinia had to admit, she'd never before seen the room look anything like it had today. It had always been smaller when she'd used it and there'd only ever been the one couch, not the smattering of cushions and armchairs and hammocks that had been in there when she'd crawled rather awkwardly from the passage. Not that it mattered, really. The Room could, Lavinia knew, be whatever its occupants needed. And, it seemed, for the past several months, its occupants had been a group of renegade students who had needed a place to stay, not the one lonely girl in need of comfort that she had been.

Lavinia was jerked from this very off topic line of thought by the sound of Professor McGonagall clearing her throat. Really, the sound wasn't loud enough to do much on its own, but the chatter in the hall suddenly died into a tense silence and that caught Lavinia's attention. She pulled her eyes, still absently scanning the tables, to the front to find the professors, headed by McGonagall, and several Order members standing in front of the staff table, looking... prepared. Like they had a plan.

She felt a sigh escape her lungs as she leaned back against the wall behind her and stopped bothering to try to push through the crowds of people as she spotted Remus among those Order members at the front of the room. Of course they had a plan. Remus had known as much. She should have too really, but she hadn't wanted to think about it because... because a plan made this real. A plan made this impossible to escape. And part of her still so desperately wanted to escape it.

"As many of you know by now," McGonagall began, pulling Lavinia's attention once more towards her, "Hogwarts is in danger. You-Know-Who is on his way and the staff and I have made arrangements for students to be seen safely out of the castle. Evacuations will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your house and take your charges in an orderly fashion to the evacuation point."

This was relieving news, at least to Lavinia and she could feel something relaxing ever so slightly in her even as she realized that so much of the rest of the hall seemed to have rather the opposite reaction to the announcement of an evacuation.

"And what if we want to fight?" demanded a boy from the Hufflepuff table. Dozens of eyes, including Lavinia's, snapped to the boy, but while some students in the hall applauded his words, Lavinia's hands did nothing but tighten at her sides. So eager. So foolish. So... so brave. And so predictable as well. Predictable enough, indeed, that Professor McGonagall didn't so much as blink before addressing the student calmly.

"If you are of age," the stern old woman continued. "You may stay." Lavinia's gaze turned back to the teacher rather sharply, studying her face for a long long moment, wondering how the hell she could be so... nonchalant about such a thing. But the more she looked, the more Lavinia realized that the old woman looked... well she looked like she hated that those words were coming out of her mouth. Like the only reason that decision had been made in the first place was because they all knew they couldn't stop them. That they were adults, if only technically. That half of them would just sneak back in and it would be better to keep them organized and paired up with people who really understood that what was about to happen wouldn't be like the textbooks said or the little skirmishes these students had seen. Who understood that too many people were about to face the shock of a lifetime when they realized what they had just signed up for.

It made her throat constrict, looking around at all these students. All these children, really. Children who were putting their lives at risk for a war they should never have had to deal with. A war they had inherited from their parents. A war that was going to cost them.