fatal love

Chapter 56

March bled into April, and April bled into May, without much happening. The Marauders celebrated James and Remus' birthdays, with Sirius getting James a broom-upkeep kit, and Remus one of the old, more expensive books he'd seen him eyeing on their last Hogsmeade visit.

The four of them used the relatively quiet months, and the free time they had now they were just waiting for an electrical storm, to raise the frequency of their pranks. They didn't do anything big, because they were still on thin ice with McGonagall since the plates debacle, but they enjoyed slipping stink pellets into unsuspecting Slytherins' bags or casting subtle Jelly-Legs Jinxes in crowded corridors.

Annoyingly, there still hadn't been an electrical storm. Sirius, James and Pete were all saying the incantations everyday, setting alarms to make sure they didn't forget, but it had been going on for so long now, it felt like it would be never ending. Remus had had to suffer three more full moons on his own, and none of them were easy. Every month he was let out from the Hospital Wing, he seemed more exhausted than the month before, moving more tenderly. It hurt to see.

Sirius also slipped away at some point most weekends to go and see Benjy. He tried not to think too much about this when he wasn't actually doing it, because it gave him a whole load of weird feelings that he'd rather not examine. Excitement, yes, and always a thrill at the rebelliousness of it all. But also a lingering feeling of guilt, not just that he was hiding what he was doing from his friends, but that he was doing it at all.

Outside of Hogwarts, things weren't quiet at all. Jenkins was facing mounting criticisms from the Wizengamot at her inability to deal with Voldemort or the Death Eaters, ever since the vampire attack in February. There had still been no Death Eater arrests, none at all since the war started. And the effects of Voldemort's continued success were beginning to show inside the school as well. Lots of the Slytherins were much louder than they used to be about their views on blood purity, and slurs like mudblood and half-breed were becoming more and more commonplace.

Sirius remembered cursing Rosier, way back in First Year, for calling Remus that. He couldn't do that anymore - there were simply too many people using those words now, as if the war had made it acceptable. And it had, in a way.

Of course, Remus wouldn't put up with any of it. He didn't curse people, like Sirius would have, but he would tell them to fuck off, rolling his eyes, and walk away without looking back. Remus could let things like that bounce off of him. Sirius had asked him how he managed to stay so cool one day, and he had just replied "why should I give a shit what blood purists think about me?"

Sirius always cared. He was constantly having to physically hold himself back from starting duels in the corridors, or going up to Reg and screaming in his face, or using some of the curses he'd learned at home on Snape or Rosier. But Remus could just move on, and go back to talking about whatever prank they'd been discussing.

James always got angry too, but Sirius was starting to realise that James' anger was different to his. James would get righteous, and rant about how all the Slytherins would get what was coming to them, how the Gryffindors had to support each other, how everyone had to stick together, be united against blood supremacy. Sirius wanted to get angry like that, it seemed like the right way to do it. But when he got angry, he felt vindictive. He wanted to dish out the punishment himself, and he didn't really care if that made him as bad as the people they were fighting. He restrained himself, mostly, but the urge was there.

So perhaps, given the state of the country, it wasn't that surprising that when May began, it began with Jenkins being ousted. As usual, the whole school got the news at the same time, when the morning papers arrived.

WIZENGAMOT VOTES TO REMOVE JENKINS, REPLACE HER WITH MINCHUM

Last night, a faction of the more liberal members of the Wizengamot, spearheaded by Seraphina Bones, forced a vote that removed Jenkins from her position as Minister for Magic, and replaced her with Harold Minchum.