Marauders - Always - Part One

Summer 2015: but wait its also Summer 1993 and where the hell are we Declan?

"I'VE GOT YOU MARGE!" he bellowed.

"VERRRRRRRR-NON!" she was screaming the name repeatedly, though her cheeks and lips had swelled up so much that the words sounded muffled as her face became more and more indistinguishable from the rest of her.

And then the most wonderful moment of all.

All of the kicking that Marge was doing had managed to dislodge her and she tumbled heels over head, a rolling ball of flesh and wind, bouncing twice on the grass before rising up and starting to take flight.

"VERRRRRR-NNNNNNNOOOOOOOON!"

Vernon ran as fast as anyone so large could possibly run, took what must've been a great leap for him (though all high might only managed to nudge him a few inches from the grass), trying to latch onto the woman's hands.

"MARGE!" he cried, "MARGE!"

"VERNON!"

A squash faced dog was barking desperately (Kipper? Was that his name? No- wait it was Ripper!), his whole body trembling with each yap, staring up into the air as the woman called Marge slowly spiraled through the air like a balloon lost by a child at a parade when the strings become broken. She spun and spun, higher and higher, screaming all of the way, the sound of her slowly fading the further away she got.

Vernon was on his knees in the garden, bellowing her name as Ripper the dog continued to bark, and Petunia ran out into the back yard, horror struck and clutching her cheeks in  absolute terror as she stared up into the violet sky as Marge flew away, not much more than a tiny dot on the horizon.

Declan laughed and turned, running manically for the front of the house whose yard we were watching from. "Come on, your moment's about to happen. Around here."

"Wait," I said, "They end up on Magnolia when he sees the Grim - not on Privet."

Declan stopped and clapped his hands, "Yeah it does! This is why I need you, I would've gone 'round the wrong way just now." He turned back and followed me around the back of the house and out onto the cross road of Magnolia Crescent.

I was rendered breathless all over again by the sight of Harry Potter when he came moving down the sidewalk, dragging his school trunk and muttering to himself. I tried to copy down what he was saying, but Declan reached over and stilled my pen, pulling me quickly behind a short row of hedges and down to our knees in the grass. He made a shhh sign, then nodded for me to look.

I peered out.

The shaggy black shadow was slinking over the grass of Number Two's lawn, sliding among magnolias and flower beds, belly low to the ground. Yellow eyes stared through the darkness, staring at Harry Potter. From the angle we were at, we were in absolute shadow while Sirius Black lay in semi-shadow and Harry was in the full glow of the street lamp.

It was so surreal, watching, seeing this play out in front of me.

I remember the first time I ever went to a concert about a billion years before and having this moment of realizing the posters on my walls were pictures of real people, that the band I adored was not make believe, that I was in the same room, breathing the same air. They'd seemed as impossible and fantastic as Harry Potter had seemed not even an hour ago.

But now.

I could have reached out and touched Sirius Black's back, he was so close.

And again I could almost feel the heart ache, could almost taste the tears that stained his doggy face, as though they were rolling across my own cheeks, over my own lips and chin. It hurt so much - seeing that little reflection of the life he'd had once, the life that was now passed.