Stars ➯ Marauders Era

An t-siathamh bliadhna - Toraidhean

"Of course, Mr Black. But we were smart enough not to be caught," Dumbledore responded, his eyes twinkling.

"I don't understand that either," piped up Carina. "Not to sound arrogant or foolish but.... no one should have known that Sirius and I went, I was exceedingly careful with my charms in school and we didn't even use enough magic outside to have been able to be tracked."
"It seems, Miss McGonagall, you may have been, as I hear the expression is, ratted out by one of your roommates," Dumbledore told her. Carina was left dumbfounded. None of the girls would do that. Not unless -

As Carina's jaw dropped, Sirius grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She collected herself as Dumbledore finished up his speech.
"Well, if this is all, I don't see anything serious enough to warrant expulsion, however I shall leave your punishments up to your Heads of House. That will be all." As they turned to walk away, all sullenly shuffling away, Dumbledore called out to Carina.

"Except for you, Miss McGonagall. Your mother has requested to be in charge of your punishment, and Professor Flitwick has accepted this. She wants you to come to her office at seven o'clock sharp. Oh and bring Mr Black with you."

He dismissed them with a nod. Quickly, Carina scurried from the room, before bursting into tears in Sirius's arms.

It was free period so he took her down to the kitchens to get a cup of tea and maybe a cake, as they had missed breakfast for that meeting.

While Sirius calmed Carina down from her hyperventilating state, the house elves rushed around her, fetching exactly what she and Sirius wanted with a "yes, Miss, ok, Miss." or a "we can do that, Sir, thank you, Sir." as the couple requested things from them. The house elf that Sirius knew Carina had a fondness for, Wiggy, stayed by her, holding a plate with some biscuits on it.

Tea did calm Carina a little, and as she took deep breaths, trying to banish worry from her mind, Sirius held her hands and told her stories about his childhood. He had visited France as a child, and could still speak the language. He promised to teach her, and take her there one day. He told her why he was so good at Astrology, how all of his family were named after stars and he was surprised he didn't have a cousin with the same star name as her. Carina had, of course, heard most of it before, but Sirius continuously talking to calm her down, did in fact work. She appreciated the effort he went to to keep her feeling safe and secure with him. Closing her eyes, she squeezed his hand before standing up off of her stool.

Thanking the house elves kindly, Sirius and Carina left the kitchen with a few little paper bags full of pastries. They dashed up stairs and around corridors to the Room of Requirement. Sirius had an idea in mind, so she let him request the room to become what he wanted and open as he wished it to. The other boys were already hanging out in there so Carina and Sirius were just joining them. But Sirius had changed the landscape. It was a small garden-like space, warm despite the true chill of September that was in the air and softly lot with sunlight, in spite of the room being indoors, with not very large windows.

"A picnic!" Peter exclaimed as Sirius and Carina emptied all of their bags of tarts, biscuits and cakes into the little blanket in the centre of the group. Things seemed normal; Sirius just held her in arms, her head resting on his knees as he sat on the blanket, next to James, who joked and carried on as normal. Peter was just as excitable as normal, chattering away carelessly, and just seemed ecstatic that his favourite raspberry tarts had been brought. And sitting by Carina was Remus. He smiled and laughed with the others, but his eyes met hers, asking if she was ok, searching for any pains he could help to fix.
"Carina..." He began but she cut him off.
"Hush, Mr Older-Brother-Complex. I'm ok." She sat up, brushing a few crumbs off of her school skirt as she did. Her next words came out as a whisper. "Sometimes, I let things get to me. And I shouldn't. But that doesn't mean every time I'm upset, you've got to rush off to find whoever's responsible and punch them, or something. I'm a big girl, I can handle myself. And that goes for all of you idiots."

She leant back down onto Sirius's lap and closed her eyes.
"Let me enjoy this. I've only got a little time left before my mother kills me."

"I can't believe you'd be so.... Reckless to do such a thing! You... You could have died!" Minerva slammed the Daily Prophet of the day down onto the desk in front of her. Across the front page were the emblazoned faces of the four Muggles and one Wizard who had been killed near Edinburgh by the Death Eaters.

"I doubt you even had any safety precautions in place. And of course, you went with Sirius!" She exclaimed, finally acknowledging the boy's presence as he awkwardly stood, head down at the back of the room. "You could've gotten the both of you killed! Sneaking out in the first place was dangerous, and stupid, enough - going all the way to Edinburgh though?! I can't believe a daughter of mine would think so little about her actions! What were you thinking?"
Minerva's voice never raised above normal speaking levels, though her accent grew thicker as she grew angrier. She was less of a shouter when enraged, more a silent fury. You would always know if you had done something wrong though. Always.

Carina had to resist the urge to cry again, as her eyes prickling as they began to well up. Crying would win her no favours, not with her mother. The best thing to do was admit defeat and say -

"I'm sorry." Those were the only words she could manage before she started to crumble into tears.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

A/N so if you are up to here, you may have realised several chapters have been unpublished from after this. I normally just do my editing in one sitting and that is that but I decided the chapters after this needed some more work. I'll try and edited them quickly so I can finally get the new chapter up as well. Thank you for being patient with me still, despite my awful lack of updates lol xx