The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

Let Him Be

James was pouring over the Daily Prophet the next day, Lily looking over his shoulder at the headlines, the photo of the glowing green skull and snake hanging in the dark sky over a small, otherwise quite comfortable looking home. She clutched onto James's arm as he read slowly down the article, his eyes sliding from side to side as he went.

"What is it?" Remus asked from across the table, where he was sitting sandwiched between Sirius and Peter. Peter was shoveling eggs into his mouth hurriedly, and Sirius was eating a fat sausage in a way that was very distracting to Remus, who kept glancing over at him out of the corner of his eye. 

"There was a murder," James murmured as he read through the article, "Death Eaters. Five of them. Attacked a wizard's muggle woman and half-blood baby." Lily leaned her head against James's arm, her eyes sad, staring at the glittering photograph on the paper as James continued, "Killed 'em. The bloke's in St. Mungo's now. Got a bad turn after being administered the cruciatus curse."

Remus frowned. "Who was it? Anyone we know?"

"Osmond Clarke," James read the name slowly.

Sirius stopped with the sausage, letting it drop to his plate. "Did they have a reason for it?"

James shook his head.

"He was married to a muggle," Lily said. "That's the only reason. She was a muggle."

They sat in silence for several long moments, then Remus said, "Like my mum."

Sirius looked at Remus, then back to James. 

James was nodding slowly.

Peter was still eating, though with much less fervor than he'd been doing before James had shared the news. He paused, lowering his fork to the platter before him. "I think I've heard of the Clarkes," he said. "My dad is friends with a bloke named Clarke. Reckon they're related?"

"It's one of the most popular names in Britain," Lily said, shrugging. 

"Like Black is in the wizarding world," Sirius said. "Every other wizard is named Black, practically."

Peter shrugged and went back to his eggs.

"Says Gideon, Fabian, and Moody were there," James said.

"Fucked them Death Eaters right up, I'll bet," Sirius said with a grin of approval.

"Actually, it appears they were nearly killed, and Moody's been treated for curse damages to his nose that's left him - and I quote - 'near to unrecognizable'." He stared at the paper, the ominous words sinking in as he gulped.

They all exchanged ominous glances.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," Lily said, trying to be positive. Her voice wavered slightly. "I mean, surely not... there's ways to repair that sort of injury... with magic..."

"Some wounds can't be magically repaired," Remus said darkly. The scar across his face seemed to gleam brighter as the words crossed his mouth, as though emphasizing his point.

They sat in silence, each imagining what Moody might look like now, what sort of horrible damage had been done. Then Lily said quietly, "Poor Professor Moody."

Sirius shook his head, "Bloody hell. Prongsy, you best not be going on and getting some sort of terrible spell damage done on you like that once you're an auror." He wagged his finger at James, "I mean it. If you go fucking up this brilliant face of yours, I'll hate you 'til the day I die."

Remus looked down at the table.

James chuckled, "Perhaps I should've taken it into account before agreeing to attend Auror school."