I woke up the next morning. Remaning glowing embers had seen to me not completely freezing to death, but I was stiff to the bone, sore, and snotty.
I had passed out during the burning, my father had told me that sometimes, if it was a particularly powerful wizard who had died, those there for the burning could become physically overwhelmed and it could cause trauma to the body. Sure enough, my nose had bled, and as I started to move, I could definitely feel a collection of bruises on my body.
I straightened up and checked my watch. McGonagall would be picking me up in an hour. As I stretched, all my bones and knuckles popped and cracked. I walked back up to the house without looking back at the burned stake. I washed my face clean of blood and ate some stale bread with cheese then gathered up my staff, wand, and bag of schoolbooks, getting ready to walk out to meet McGonagall.
She seemed concerned when she saw me, I must have looked a mess. I hadn't showered or changed since I came here, so the smell must have been one thing; human bonfire. I imagined I looked rather pale, too, and my hair probably looked even more matted than it felt. It's extraordinary how quickly one can deteriorate.
I took her hand and she apparated us to Hogsmeade. I wish I could have stayed there for a while longer, but I knew it would do me no good to dwell or wallow. Of course, I could have received more time off school had I asked for it, but I had already missed a few exams, and now seemed like a good time to lose myself into schoolwork. Still though, I didn't want to go back. My mind was arguing against myself for a good while as I walked beside McGonagall.
"Miss Heatherstead. Olimpia?"
I startled, and looked up at McGonagall, who looked more concerned than ever.
"I asked if you would like to ride a carriage up to the castle."
"Oh," I said, chiding myself for being so absorbed in my own mind I'd tuned out McGonagall, "Actually the weather really is quite nice, can't we walk?"
That wasn't a lie, the sun was warm and high up in the sky, I bet the grounds were full of students who were enjoying the weather. I planned to just slip past them as unnoticeably as possible.
"If that's what you prefer." She said, and we continued walking down the picturesque streets of Hogsmeade down towards the Hogwarts castle.
I allowed the sound of several birds chirping and singing to distract myself, and looked around at the plants growing along the path. Common daisies, foxgloves, and blackberries as well as magical plants like fluxweed. I picked some of all of them, eating some blackberries, picking petals off of daisies and putting others in my bag to put in a glass of water later. It was strangely comfortable to walk alongside Minerva McGonagall along a sunny british countryside lane, picking flowers and humming sotfly to myself. She didn't seem to mind our slow, meandering progression. I even saw her smile at a blackbird in a foreboding way that reminded me that she could turn herself into a cat
However, the castle drew closer and closer upon us, or rather, we drew closer and closer upon the castle and my feeling or dread to return snuck up in my throat like heartburn. I didn't want to answer questions about where I had been, I didn't want to return to Lily, or Septima, or Sirius.
To my surprise, I felt McGonagalls hand on my shoulder, and I looked up at her.
"I've got to back to Hogsmeade to deal with some business, so I'll leave you here if that's alright, I imagine you can find your way back from here, it's just around the corner."
"Yeah, that's fine McGonagall. I hope this business goes well." I didn't really know what to say, but that felt wrong. Oh well.
She smiled a sad smile. "You might want to head right up to the showers, though. You look awful." Her face twisted with humor.
I laughed in spite of myself, grateful.
She left, and I continued forwards, around the corner. What was happening there left me speechless.
There was a whole group of students closer to the water, with one in the centre of the crowd. Being hung upside down, their robe revealing parts of the person I could imagine they did not want displayed in front of an audience.
As I walked closer, I could hear cheering and jeering. I realised it was Severus who was being hung upside down.
Levicorpus was a very popular spell at the moment, but usually in a joking way, humorously. This seemed like more than that. And if Severus was the one being jinxed, that probably meant-
"Okay, who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"
James.
I saw Lily running through the crowd, shouting at him.
Despite wanting nothing more than to run towards the castle, away from what was going on down by the lake, I had to go down. What the hell were they thinking? It was disgusting.
I tried to get through the crowd, but people kept pushing me and I felt my temper rise up like a flame inside me. I brought my staff down to the ground with a thump and the people around me were pushed away as if there had been a small explosion.
As I walked forward, I felt all my frustration and sadness from the past few days rage inside me.
Complying to Lily, James let Snape down, none of them having noticed me yet.
Snape got up, brushed off his robes, and though I could hardly hear him, still standing a few meters away, I thought I heard him call her a mudblood. I gasped, and walked closer, grasping onto my bag and staff. Then, Sirius sprang forwards, attacking Snape, who promptly pulled forth his wand which he had retrieved and pointed it at Sirius.
Before I knew what was doing, I had leapt the last few feet forward, planted my staff into the ground, a few sparks erupted from where they met, and said in a deadly calm, but carrying voice, "I think that's quite enough."
I forced the two boys apart by use of magic, and they fell to the ground.
Severus got up quickly, sent me a dark, scared look and hurried away, muttering under his breath and pushing past people in his way. Sirius, too, got up and walked towards me, eyes flashing with anger.
"Who do you think you are, stopping me from defending our friend? Or does loyalty not matter to you?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Sirius. This is stupid, you could all have got hurt." I defended myself, startled by his rage, but he interrupted me.
"What, you don't think I'm a match against Snivellus? Another friend you're disloyal too then. Maybe you just understand how friendship works."
"Sirius, I-" I could feel tears begin to fill up my eyes and I tried to grab onto his shoulder, my anger quickly transfiguring back into sadness.
"Shut up," he spat, and I winced, "I suppose this who you really are. Disloyal, Slytherin scum! Go run after him, I bet he'll take you."
I stared at him in shock, and he shrugged my hand off his shoulder.
"You don't mean that." I whispered, and I could already see the hurt and regret in his eyes.
"Oi, how dare you talk to Olimpia like that!" James had arrived, and to my horror, he raised his clenched fist and swung it at Sirius' face, hitting his cheek.
Sirius spat again, and wiped some blood off his face, seethed for a moment more, then walked away.
James called after him, "It's time for you to get that fucking head of yours out of your arse."
Sirius didn't turn around, but held up his middle finger.
"I'm so sorry, Ollie. Sirius didn't mean anything of what he said." James said as I held ice against his bruised knuckles. We were in the room of requirement, sitting on a soft sofa by a window.
I looked down, "I know he didn't mean what he said. He just said it to hurt me."
James looked at me with raw sympathy plain in his eyes, "He'll come around you know, he'll apologise."
I smiled weakly at him with tears in my eyes, "I hope so, James."
I told him why I'd been gone for the past few days. He was quiet. I was glad, because I didn't know what I would do if he tried to comfort me or told me he understood. Because no one could possilby understand.
The next few months, the marauders lived separately despite sharing dormitories. James hardly went up to the room if he could avoid it, and we often spent nights together in the room of requirement often punctured several times a night with me waking up from a nightmare and crying as he held me and told me it was just a dream. The marauders had basically split up. They still met up for every full moon, but James told me that even then, they didn't seem to be able to find anything to say to one another. One time, not too long after I'd come back, Sirius had apparently tricked Snape into following after them without the others knowing. I remembered James coming back that night, furious at Sirius' stupidity. Otherwise, Sirius spent his time with various lady friends, apparently having split up with Veronice. Remus spent a lot of time with Lily, Peter tried to stay on top of his schoolwork, and James and I found solace in each others company.
A/N
I'm so sorry, I hated writing this chapter but, well, every friendship has rough patches. This part was really built up on when Remus told Harry Lily was there for him in times when no one else was.
Anyway, two chapters in one day isn't bad, eh? Thank you so much for over 500 votes, that's amazing
Lots of Love,
21stCenturyMarauder <3