The Marauders: Year Two | #Wattys2016

A Visit from Professor McGonagall

Sirius shrugged, "You know as good as I do, Peter," he said.

Remus tore a bite of toast from his plateful and dunked it into the mug of hot chocolate before him absently. He looked over at James who was watching Lily talk. Remus took a deep breath and concentrated very hard on his food, wondering what James would think if he knew that he and Remus shared the same fascination with Lily lately. Of course, James had yet to admit he fancied her. Remus, however, would have done, had anyone asked. He realized his hand had gone to his wrist without even thinking about it.

Lily looked up, saw him staring, and waved.

The thing about waving to somebody at a narrow table is that the person across from them always insists that it was they who were being waved to. Both James and Remus waved back, but Lily had already turned back to face Frank, who was talking to her. James looked over at Remus in surprise, "Was that to you or to me?" He asked.

Remus shrugged as though he didn't know.

"What?" Sirius asked, oblivious, having been talking to Peter about the timetables still.

"Nothing," James replied.

Sirius glanced between James and Remus and shrugged.

Later that night, the boys were up in the Gryffindor common room by the fire. Sirius, James, and Peter were playing a three-way game of Exploding Snap and Remus was reading through the History of Magic textbook for the coming term. It was an interesting read, and he wished that somebody other than Professor Binns would've been teaching it, as in the right hands the material would be very exciting. He was picturing it as a movie with a lot of action sequences in his head when the portrait hole opened and Professor McGonagall came into the room.

"Good evening Gryffindors," McGonagall's voice, with it's crisp Scottish accent, rang through the room.

Everyone in the common room looked up in surprise. This was the first time in a very, very long time that any of them could remember a teacher having come to the common room. A nervous feeling dropped over the students, as though they were all in agreement that McGonagall's arrival was quite foreboding.

Especially with a face as grave and pale as the one which she wore now.

Especially when she'd come without dressing - already in her tartan pyjama robes, her hair curled atop her head in a loose bun.

"Derek and Alice Bell."

The names hung in the air.

Alice Bell was pale as she stood up, disengaging from the cluster of first years that had gathered around her and Lily, waiting to be shown how to do their hair from a new article Alice had found in Teen Witch. Derek had a similar cast to his face as he got up and left the table where he'd been talking in undertones all evening to Bilius Weasley and Alex Tinnamin about the Quidditch team... They walked across the room and McGonagall said, "Come with me."

Alice let out a wail at the words. "What's the matter? What's happened?" She sobbed, "It's something awful isn't it?" Derek grabbed hold of her, pulling her to him strongly and squeezed her shoulder.

McGonagall didn't deny it, but clearly didn't want to discuss whatever it was with the entirety of the Gryffindor house watching on with horrified expressions. "Come with me dear, we'll have a cup of tea," she said, though her voice cracked.

Alice clung onto Derek and he showed her through the portrait hole, followed closely by Professor McGonagall.

When the Fat Lady had closed once more, silence carried on over the other students in the house. Glances were exchanged among them, nervous fear in each of the on-lookers eyes. Bilius Weasley looked downright sick to his stomach and Lily had tears in her eyes already. "Blimey," said James quietly, "What do you think that's about?"