Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

5 July, 1995 - Reminders (II)

The following days were very, very strange ones for Lavinia. She'd expected that, of course, but it didn't make the reality of it any less disconcerting. Because the reality was that nothing at all had changed. The papers reported the other Champion's death as a tragic accident and announced the discontinuation of the Triwizard Tournament. Miriam and Heather applauded the decision and Lavinia had sat silent, listening to them point out that they had always said it was foolish and what a ridiculous concept the Tournament was in the first place.

Jasmine had been very quiet as well until their Thursday afternoon tea was wrapping up and the young girl had said quietly, "Dumbledore doesn't think it was an accident."

Miriam and Heather had both gone very quiet at that, neither of them seeming to know what to say. Lavinia had merely watched Jasmine very carefully for a very long moment before she had said, as gently as she could, "Dumbledore is usually right."

It had been the only time in the week and a half since Dumbledore had visited the house by the sea that incident had been brought up. Lavinia hadn't pushed it. She knew she couldn't afford to do so in public because it simply wouldn't do to look too sympathetic to Dumbledore, especially in front of the hit wizards who would likely be on the lookout for Dumbledore's supporters before too much longer. And she hadn't brought it up behind closed doors because... well because of a lot of things.

First and foremost, she hadn't really had the chance to. She'd seen her friends only in passing in the week that had passed since that rather awkward afternoon tea and when those times had occurred, Lavinia hadn't at all wanted to bring the tension of the war into the conversation. Which was selfish, she knew and she would have to be honest with them eventually, but right now... right now she was clinging to this bit of normalcy like it might be a lifeline. Like if she let go of it, she would fall into that pit of stress she could feel building in her stomach every day.

Besides, she reasoned, fully aware that she was merely trying to justify her actions, it wasn't like they didn't know what Dumbledore said about Cedric Diggory's death. They certainly did, thanks to Jasmine and thanks to Dumbledore's few more outspoken moments.

Plus, Lavinia had been honest with Dumbledore when he had come by the house. She would do nothing to convince them. She would give them the facts she knew, would tell them that the war was real. And that was it. Because they needed to choose from there. And she knew she could and should have told them more, and she would, when the time came. But at the moment, she had little to add.

So she did her best to move through her days like nothing in the world was wrong. Like everything really was continuing as normal and the only out of the ordinary thing was that Albus Dumbledore had finally cracked. And even that she avoided having outright opinions on. In the ward, she became quiet, passive, merely a woman doing her job as she kept her eyes and ears peeled and did her best to pretend Elias wasn't giving her strange looks anytime she didn't contradict the hit wizards when they discussed Dumbledore's supposed madness the Ministry had begun touting.

When she wasn't at work, however, Lavinia and Remus and Sirius prepared as best they could for the reality they knew to be true even if the government was too terrified to acknowledge it. Or rather, Remus and Sirius prepared. Lavinia waited. She was, as they all knew, already where she needed to be. She was eyes and ears and a wand that could perform healing magic they would need when the time came. And before that time... well. Before that time, she waited for her friends to have to leave her behind. Just as they had last time. Only this time... this time Lavinia rather thought she understood far better than she had before. Not that she thought that would make it anymore pleasant when they did eventually go.

And, as it turned out, when they went was in the middle of the following week while Lavinia was at work, something she was rather annoyed about. Remus, she had expected to be gone because he had left the previous day and didn't expect to come home until at least the weekend. But Sirius had disappeared without anything more substantial than a quick note of explanation left behind. Not that Lavinia was particularly interested in knowing what spells Dumbledore decided to cast on the old Black house, nor did she particularly want to spend any time at all in said house, but the result of it happening in the middle of the day was that she came home to untold days spent alone with no warning at all.