Black // Marauders

41. Not So Perfect

After an hour and a half of explaining and crying and pacing, Lily took a final deep breath out and nodded her head, "Okay."

"What's okay about this?!" Persie asked, gesturing around as if all of her problems located in the boys Seventh Year Gryffindor bathroom.

"Not a lot, to be honest, Pers." Lily told her, running a hand through her ginger hair and flicking it out over her back, "But that's not your fault. You need to talk to Sirius about this. He thinks-"

"I don't want to know what they told him." Persie commented with regret in her tone as she shook her head, "I'm not telling Sirius what I know. It's best he doesn't know."

"Persie, this will tear you apart if you don't own up. Please. I'm only going to ask you once and I don't want to see you hurt again." She pleaded, kneeling down next to Persie, who sat cross legged on the floor with her back resting against the side of the bath.

"I can't, Lily! I'm not going to take him down with me." Persie admitted, rubbing her eyes, "I'm just so tired, Lil."

"I know. C'mon. It's been a long day for you. Let's go to bed." She decided, standing and holding out a hand for her to pull herself up from, "What time is it?"

"About four in the afternoon. Mind you though, you probably haven't eaten either. Are you up for dinner?" She said, as she wrapped an arm around Persie's to support her, "I'm not hungry. But I haven't eaten for about 36 hours."

"Well that settles it then. We're going for early dinner and then we're going to bed. No buts, Pers. You have to eat or you'll collapse." Lily finished sternly, before Persie sighed in defeat and was willingly taken from the room by Lily's arm, "I wish I would collapse."

They came out into the Common Room and went quietly around the groups of people talking and gossiping amongst themselves. Remus' head darted up and looked in their direction, his hand going towards Sirius' shoulder, before James caught his hand and shook his head, looking over towards Pers and nodding towards the door. Her and Lily scampered out before The Fat Lady looked down on them, "What have you two been up to then? The other paintings have been gossiping an awful lot about you, Potter."

"Why don't you ask those three ugly witches three paintings down? I mean, they're pretty confident they know the ins and outs of my life." Persie retaliated, point at the witches who were huddled around a white marble table with a large bottle of red wine in the middle of them.

"C'mon Pers." Lily said, shooting a glare at the painting as she pulled on Persie's arm and walked in step with her to the Great Hall, "You know, they only gossip because their lives are awfully boring."

"It wouldn't hurt if they were a bit more considerate once in a while though." Persie muttered irritably as they walked into the hall and were greeted with the sight of it being almost empty.

"Ah, Miss Potter!" Professor McGonagall called from the teacher's table as her and Professor Dumbledore stood from their seats and walked over to them.

"I'm fine," She replied, looking up at them as Professor McGonagall began to speak, "Potter, you are not fine. So don't even try to tell me you are. If you want to leave any lesson in the next few weeks you are more than welcome to do so. And don't even think about arguing with me, Potter, because I'm not having it. You are in quite a fragile state of mind as it is, I would assume."

"When's the funerals?" She asked suddenly, causing Lily, McGonagall and Dumbledore all to kind of freeze, before Dumbledore cleared his throat and answered, "Wednesday, Caradoc's, Orion's is on Monday and Fabian's is Tuesday. But I wouldn't assume you would be attending any of them so I never mentioned-"