We won.
The Quidditch practice that James had been making us do instead revising for the most important exams of our lives payed off. We won the match and with that, the last Quidditch Cup that we would ever play for, James winning on his last day of Captain, telling us all he would give it to Gabi Warren when he left, but obviously not telling Mason Goldstein this news. If we continued the same way then we may have won the House Cup too.
"No funny business," Lily told the boys as she saw how many points we were awarded for winning and for winning the Quidditch Cup, "I want to win the House Cup one last time." James seemed to want to adhere to this rule too, and Remus and Peter weren't too much of a problem, it was only unruly Sirius we were worried about. I had tried to convince him multiple times but apparently he thought it wasn't 'cool or fun to be boring'.
Currently, the whole of Gryffindor seventh year were studying in the common room, with this came books everywhere, people casting spells left and right, and the occasional scream of frustration or spurt of tears when someone got something wrong. Alice seemed to be very prone to doing this and after the second burst of tears, many of the girls and Peter were surrounding her, all giving comforting words, trying not to break down ourselves in the process.
The time came for all of the seventh year students to gather outside of the Great Hall, mentally preparing ourselves and others for the first theoretical exam. "Good luck Nea, I believe in you." I turned to my side, stupidly expecting Gideon to be there, it was an odd thought seeing as he left Hogwarts last year but he was the only person to ever call me that. Instead, I turned to see Milo Ravens, grinning with his thumbs up. It felt weird.
"What did he call you?" Mary asked, noticing how he used Gideon's old nickname for me but not wanting to distract anyone from exam preparation, I brushed it off, saying he just called me my name. Even though my mind was distracted, I tried to focus on the exams that I was walking into, the first exam was Potions and this subject was hard enough even without a distraction. It would be very important to get as many NEWTs as I could.
The Potions exam lasted one hour and a half, adding an extra five minutes for papers to be collected and everyone to be dismissed so by the time the seventh years had exited the Great Hall, we all left to our respective common rooms to do some more revision for the Potions practical in the afternoon and to talk to our friends and compare answers or try to cheer each other up.
"I just know I did terribly," Peter said unhappily, slouching into an armchair and resting his head on his hand. This was the time that I half expected the other Marauders to be boastful or joking with him, telling the boy of their achievements and how they think they did. However, much to my surprise, they sat around him, half comforting him and half trying to help him forget about what had happened. It was a small improvement but it was worth it, seeing them all happy.
"Who wants to go to the Lake and relax there, we deserve it after the stress we've been through," James suggested, he was currently sat with Lily, both of them holding hands as the red head looked rather stressed. The majority of the seventh year Gryffindor group agreed with him, willing to get fresh air and sunshine on their skin, and with that, we were all sat under the tree we always sat at by the Lake.
"Has anyone else had any thought about the whole Dumbledore request?" Marlene asked the group, a question which I was definitely intrigued to the answer, I myself was having struggles on whether to accept. With this, the group of Marauders looked sheepish, like they had done something they didn't want to own up to and I immediately knew what they had done. Without discussing it with anyone, they had signed up.
"You didn't agree did you?" I asked them, I knew the answer but was also willing to hear them out or listen to whatever they had to say. It seemed with what I had asked, Lily suddenly seemed very keen on hearing her boyfriend's answer, Lily was also having doubts about the safety of the entire operation. "We might've but only because we want to help with what's going on, and my parents have joined so I figured why didn't I," James said nonchalantly.
After his statement, Lily suddenly began interrogating him and the two stood up, taking their conversation elsewhere, the other three Marauders looking guilty. "James can't get the blame, I roped him into it," Sirius said quietly, but not quietly enough so that I didn't hear him. I knew that I couldn't be angry at him for wanting to do something and that I wasn't his mother, but I was still annoyed he didn't say anything and at the fact that he dragged James into this too.
Remus coughed awkwardly, it seemed that everyone had heard him, and so, the werewolf said, "Why don't you girls go ahead, me and Sirius will follow behind.. and Peter too." With this, we got up, with the exception of the Marauders and intended to go to the Potions classroom that we would be using for our practical exams. I heard loud talking and knew that behind us, Sirius was either getting a grilling or he was defending himself.
The Potions practical was over fairly quickly, as each person went in - it was alphabetical order and three at a time so myself, Peter and James were all fairly close to each other - we were asked to brew up two different potions, one of the draught of living death, the other a cure for the very same potion. If you knew the potions and their ingredients then it would be over faster but for some unsuspecting students, they took a long time in the room.
"I still need to talk to you about the whole Dumbledore thing," I told Sirius as I walked past him with Alice to the kitchens to get her a cup of hot chocolate, she was in desperate need of something warm and filling. I heard the grey eyed boy scoff but I took no notice, bringing her down to the kitchen corridor, around a corner and then tickled the pear on the portrait. It seemed as if Alice had never been this way before so it was a good chance to show her around.
Once she had the cup in her hand and we was leaving the kitchens, Alice thanked the house elves about fifty times before she stepped out of the room and up the stairs into the main hall again. Alice was too nice for her own good so perhaps showing her that house elves work in the kitchens and cook everything for us was not the best idea. However it did help her nerves, giving her something to do and someone to talk to.
"Right then, when did you do it?" I asked Sirius, I didn't want to argue with him, I just wanted to ask a few questions to him about the whole situation. It seemed, on the other hand, that Sirius did think this was an interrogation because he started to act very defensive and he stood up from his seat, cracking his knuckles. He told me, "It was the next day after he asked us, I thought about what I'd told you I had decided that I wanted to do it."
I remembered what he had told me, he had said about wanting to live peacefully and to get rid of all of the horrible people that were going to be out there forever unless we stopped them now. I had accepted that he would do it eventually whether it was now, when we graduated or further in the future, he would want to fight, he always did. The only other question I had was simple, "Why didn't you tell me?"
He seemed stumped on this question, as he had no answer, I had also heard enough and so, I stood up, wanting to go to dinner and eat something to get rid of the empty feeling I had acquired after the potions practical. As I had stood up and taken a few steps, I heard him say, "I didn't tell you because it was an irrational decision and I didn't want you to have to deal with my emotions too."
I turned back to face him, telling him, "Sirius, it's my job to deal with your emotions. But it's also the other way around and we'd better get to dinner so that I don't get emotional for tomorrow's exam." I had brushed off the conversation, sometimes it was better to do so than to dwell upon it but I knew that whilst everyone was asleep, I was going to overthink, and I was also going to make an irrational decision.