Avoiding The Marauders

Falling Apart

I looked at Professor McGonagoll. "What the hell happened?" I didn't mean to yell, it just sort of happened, because in my lap was my best friend and she was lying on me like she never wanted to move again. Like she didn't want to live. Like she had nothing to live for.

McGonagoll's face was scrunched in pain. "We have been informed there was an attack on Melody's family last night."

She didn't have to say anything else because I just knew. I nodded, stroking Mel's hair, and said, "Professor, please leave us."

She nodded and I swear I saw a tear in her eye but I was to busy pulling Mel towards me and rocking her back and fourth. We were silent for a few minutes, I didn't know what to say. What could I possibly say?

Mel looked up at me and I wondered how she could have changed so suddenly, what happened to the girl in the Hall just mere minutes ago? How do I get her back?

"They're gone, Lily," she sputtered. "He killed them," she then tensed and shoved her head, hard, into my shoulder. "HE KILLED THEM!"

I knew I was crying. I'd never met her family, but I knew she had a Mum and a Dad and a little brother: Tom, his name was Tom and he had been five years old and he was dead. Voldemort killed him. I wasn't crying for them, though: Mel was doing that. I was crying for Mel and the part of her that I knew I'd lost, the part of her that would never be the same again.

I cried into her hair, burying my face into it. Hoping that if I stayed there long enough it would disappear, it would all disappear.

I heard shuffling feet and looked up. James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Alice stood at the end of the corridor, completely silent. They stared at me and Mel and didn't have to ask because we all knew. We all knew there was a war going on, we just hadn't thought that it would effect us, because we were innocent. We were young and Hogwarts was our walls of protection.

It just wasn't good enough.

And, so, the said nothing. They did nothing and I just turned back to Mel and hoped that my Mel could come back to me or that I could take her pain, because she didn't deserve it.

None of us did.

***

It was a blur.

I don't know what happened.

All I remember is James' arms coming around me and him pulling me up, off the  ground, away from Mel and me letting him. Me turning to face him, waiting for him to crack a joke, for him to say that it was all a joke, but he just watched me behind his glasses and shook his head. I turned into him and lay my head on his chest and cried for Mel.

Sirius came then, he did the same with Mel, but she didn't fall into him like I had, she just stared at the spot she had laid on and was silent, like she was seeing something that existed only to her.

I remember them taking us to our dorm, not being able to go up the girls ones themselves, the boys went to theirs, and Alice laying her on her bed.

Now, as I blink my eyes open, for a mere second I thought I was in my bed. Then I noticed Mel lying next to me, her eyes shut, her hair tangled, dried tears staining her checks and I knew that it was to good to be true. That it had all happened.

Getting up as quietly as I could, I walked over to the mirror in the corner of the room. My hair was all over the place, my eyes had dark stains under them and they were bright red. Slowly, I made my way over to a sink and scrubbed my face, getting rid of the stickiness on my eyes.

Once I had done that, I checked on Mel again, hoping she could get some sleep. She was breathing deeply and she seemed to be alright. For now.

I opened the door of the dorm and made my way down the stairs, hoping to go to do something that I was meant to do. Like homework or reading.

The Common Room was silent, it was one of the first times that I've not been able to hear laughing and chatting. The life of it was gone. People watched me come down the stairs with somber expressions on their faces, but they didn't talk to me because how would they know what to say? It wasn't even me who had lost my family, but they knew who I was and they knew I would be the second person on impact.

I couldn't take the starring and I couldn't see the others, so I walked and let my feet lead the way and my brain to wonder.

She wouldn't have anywhere to stay now, after school. She had wanted to stay at her parents until she had a job, then to get her own little house. Maybe now we can get somewhere together, a flat? We could share rent, I wouldn't let her be alone. She could stay with me.

I stopped in front of a door, blinking when I realised that I was outside James' room. I had only been in his room once, when I had put dye in his shampoo and he had walked around ginger for a month.

Pushing the door open, I found that all their curtains were drawn. I don't know what time it was, but judging by the lack of people downstairs and the dark sky through the window, it was late.

I knew which bed was James', so I pulled back the curtains silently. He was asleep, his body facing the ceiling, hands sprawled behind his head, his glasses no longer on his nose.

Slipping under the covers with him, I curled up against his side, closing my eyes. He smelt like apples and was soft and comfortable. I remember when I had hugged him just a few weeks ago and felt just as at home as I had then.

And then I was able to really sleep.