Chapter Forty Seven
Lily was trying to convince Sirius to hand her the strawberry jam when the post arrived and, before she’d even had a chance to open it Cassie had asked to borrow it.
Finally James snatched the jam off his friend and handed it to her. “Why?” Lily asked as she opened the paper with one hand, using the other to spread the jam on her toast as quickly as possible in case Sirius decided to grab it back.
“I just wanted to actually read the news for once,” Cassie replied and Lily paled as she saw one of the headlines.
“What happened?” Alice asked.
Lily stared at the newspaper for a minute, her eyes clouding over, before answering slowly and as airily as she could. “Oh nothing, just another attack. I’ll tell you about it in a minute.”
“So can I have your Daily Prophet?” Cassie repeated.
“Well I haven’t finished it yet, have I?” She began to read it slowly, breakfast forgotten as she focused on every article before turning the page at a glacial pace.
“God you read so slowly!” she complained. Lily looked up and paled even more as she saw McGonagall standing behind Cassie, her thin lips pressed even tighter together than usual. “Jones, could you follow me please?” she asked quietly.
Cassie’s eyes widened and she shot a panicked look at Lily, who smiled weakly, hoping that it looked reassuring, before she followed McGonagall. As soon as Cassie was out of earshot she slumped forwards in her chair and sighed, shivering in her thick jumper. Everyone was looking at her with concern, and the salt shaker which Sirius had bewitched to sing extremely out of key only minutes before had stopped, leaving them in a crushing silence. “What happened?” Mary asked.
Sirius glanced from Lily, who was still clutching the newspaper, and to where Cassie had disappeared with McGonagall. “No,” he said simply. “No that’s not…”
“What’s not?” Peter asked, leaning in from where he was sitting and nearly dropping his bacon. “I don’t understand.”
“Yeah me neither,” Lily said sadly as she turned The Daily Prophet and showed everyone, eliciting a ripple of horrified gasps.
“Oh no,” Alice murmured. “I can’t believe it. Oh Merlin that’s…” Remus gazed into his cereal as if it could reveal the secrets of the universe and stirred it slowly while Mary stared mutely at Lily.
“That’s not fair,” Sirius spat, slamming his hand on the table. “Those- those utter… bastards!”
“Watch out Sirius,” James mumbled, “you’re going to break something.”
“Damn right I am!” he cried, drawing a number of eyes to where he was sitting. “They’re going to pay for this.”
“How, Sirius?” Lily asked. “What can we do while we’re here? Being angry isn’t going to do anything; we have to help Cassie. Her parents were just killed, after all.”
He shrugged mutinously and glowered, managing to make even sullenness seem attractive in the eyes of some of the Hufflepuff girls who were giggling behind him. “It might take a couple of years I suppose… Maybe I’ll wait until I’m in the Order.”
“That’s the spirit Padfoot,” James said.
When they left the Great Hall Lily and Sirius headed up to the Gryffindor tower and, when they arrived there, they sat down to wait wordlessly for Cassie. When she arrived Lily sprinted over to her. “Are you okay Cassie?” she asked, realising only after she said it that it was the stupidest question she could have chosen to ask. She grabbed her in a hug and led her over to the sofa. “Here, sit down,” she said. “I’m so sorry,” she continued, her arms still wrapped around Cassie. “I am so, so sorry.” Cassie buried her face in the crook of Lily’s shoulder and they sat there in silence as tears trickled down Cassie’s face and soaked into Lily’s jumper until Lily sighed and extricated herself. Her place was instantly taken by Sirius who pulled Cassie into his lap and Lily whispered, “I have to get back to lessons but I’ll be back in an hour and I’ll stay with her for the rest of the day,” to him. He nodded, knowing that she was tactfully giving them some time alone; the knowledge that she was coming back was comforting too because he didn’t understand how he could help. Nothing he said could bring Cassie’s parents back and he had no comparable experience - after all he detested most of his family and would love to be really rid of them.
Every one of Cassie’s friends worried about her as the days and weeks went by; the death of her parents had sent shockwaves of fear rippling through her circle of friends, both because they were scared and unable to help their friend and because the war was closer to home than ever before. No longer did they feel as if they were safe and it wasn’t uncommon to see seventh years writing daily letters to their family. Their terror pervaded their houses and the school, no matter how hard they might try to hide it, and Lily stumbled upon - or was involved in - numerous hushed conversations about ‘after school’. The Marauders seemed to contain more pent-up energy than everyone else put together and they prowled the corridors restlessly, their hands ready to fly to their wands. The whole school felt like it was holding its breath, waiting for the final thing which would push it over the edge and send the world crumbling to the floor. The seventh years could barely focus on anything apart from getting out at the end of the summer, and they hurried through the corridors as if they rested on the brink of an enormous precipice and with one wrong step they would go tumbling over it, falling into nothingness.
“I wish we could do something,” James cried in an agony of agitation as he banged his head against his Potions essay. “I want to fight! I want to help!”
Sirius nodded and huffed. “I want to know what’s going on. None of the teachers will tell me anything - I even tried sweet-talking Professor McGonagall, Professor Banks and Professor Freye but I could get anything out of any of them!”
“Prophet’s useless too,” Remus sighed. “They'd rather not report anything unless they really have to. You can bet that they wouldn’t have said anything about Cassie’s parents if they hadn’t been Aurors.”
“You’d think they would have wanted to cover that up,” James said. “After all, who wants to know that Aurors that powerful and well-known aren’t safe? If they can be attacked then anyone can.”
“Yeah but the Prophet never actually said that it was Death Eaters,” Peter said.
“Yeah they just said that they were the victims of ‘a vicious and unprovoked attack’ or something,” said Sirius. “As far as the Prophet’s concerned that could be a Quintaped… Nah I don't know… a lot of time the Prophet probably isn’t telling the whole story but at least they give us a slightly better picture than we would have otherwise. I think it would be worse if they didn’t report anything at all… I bet the Ministry wants to put pressure on them to stop reporting it.”
“I don’t know,” Remus replied, “they keep using it to publish tips on how to stay safe… At the moment it seems like the Ministry wants everyone to know as much as possible… I mean, the Ministry seems to be doing all it can and all the Aurors are working with the Minister…Imagine if Death Eaters got into the newspaper though…”
James shuddered and said, “It’d be horrible. It’s bad enough as it is now with people spreading rumours alongside what the Prophet’s saying… If we only had rumours… I hate not knowing what’s happening. It’s been getting worse for years; you know my parents told me that stuff’s been happening almost as long as we’ve been alive… Back before Dad retired, when he was still working as an Auror, I remember him talking to Mum about the laws they were pushing through and all of the alerts they developed. I mean there’s so much stuff which is classified now and the Minister’s secrets have secrets. I think Dad always disapproved of that because he used to tell me what was happening - well what he could anyway…”
“Or maybe him and your Mum realised that you would find out somehow anyway so they decided to save themselves the trouble,” Remus suggested with a chuckle.
“Personally I’m in favour of Moony’s hypothesis,” Sirius said. “Your parents are used to dealing with politicians and criminals - not even a Marauder is a match for them.”
“True,” James agreed.
“Yeah especially your mum,” Peter said, “she can be bloody terrifying when she wants to be and I still don’t understand how she knows half the stuff she does. It’s impossible to do anything in your house without her finding out in about ten seconds.” James burst into uproarious laughter and slapped Peter on the back. “Merlin she’d love to hear you say that!”
One fairly sunny morning Remus awoke to his three friends beating him mercilessly with pillows. “What are you-" His mouth was slapped with a cushion and he spat it out of his mouth before curling up under his sheets and shielding his head. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Waking you up so we can celebrate!”
“There’s nothing to celebrate.”
“Oh don’t be like that Moony!” Peter cried as James and Sirius stopped pummelling him and gasped in shock, electing instead to stand over his bed looking like someone had just died. “Nothing to celebrate?” they shrieked. “Who are you? Why are you our friend?”
“Because seven years ago we ended up in the same boat and I wasn’t clever enough to stop talking to you. Then you started following me and I couldn’t escape,” he mumbled.
“False,” Sirius proclaimed, “I think you’ll find that it was you, my dear Remus, that started following us because we were - and still are - imbued with a level of cool which you can never hope to attain.” Remus laughed from the little cocoon he had formed for himself and said, “Really?”
“Are you questioning our coolness?”
“Yes.” Sirius let out a painfully loud shriek which was far too close to Remus’ ear. “You will pay for that!” he shouted as he began to hit him repeatedly with the pillow again.
“Stop Padfoot,” James commanded with a wink, “we can’t kill the birthday boy before he’s even had breakfast. Come on, we promise we’ll be nice.” They hoisted him off the bed and dumped him on the floor, shouting at him to get changed quickly or they would lose their patience.
“I don’t even have first lesson,” he moaned as he pulled his robes on. “I could have slept in for another half hour.”
“Cry me a river,” James replied as he tapped his wand threateningly against his palm. “Birthdays are worth giving up your lie-in. We’re up, so you’re up.”
“It’s my birthday! If I want to lie in then I should be allowed to!”
“Now now Moony,” Sirius said, “let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It might be your birthday but that doesn’t mean you can have everything your way.”
“I hate you all.”
“That’s more like it,” James replied as they pulled him downstairs.
Their usual seats at the Gryffindor had a number of brightly wrapped gifts on the table in front of them and Remus smiled, glad that his idiotic friends had dragged him out of bed that morning; he had never expected to get that many presents and James and Sirius knew it, high fiving each other in secret when they saw Moony’s face. The most obvious proclamation of their love, however, was saved for the arrival of that morning’s post and they were all but jumping around in their seats with excitement.
“That’s for you Sirius,” the unfortunate boy said as he glanced at the bright red envelope which landed in front of him and flicked it across the table.
“Not it’s not,” Sirius replied as he picked it up, “it’s for you Moony.”
Remus fixed him with a piercing stare and laughed incredulously. “Padfoot, I’ve never been sent a Howler.”
“Well now you have… It’s got your name on it.” Sirius chucked it back at him as the corners began to smoke. “I’d open it pretty quickly if I were you,” he said before returning to his cereal.
The offending letter dangled in front of him, pinched between his thumb and forefinger and smoking angrily. Sure enough - despite the fact that Remus couldn’t quite believe it - it was addressed to him and, more than used to embarrassing scenes in front of the entire school courtesy of his friends, he shrugged; it wasn’t as if he had enough time to get out of the Great Hall before it opened itself anyway so he slit the envelope open with a sigh, preparing himself for the onslaught which he had apparently unknowingly brought upon himself.
“Our dearest Moony,” the letter yelled as it hovered in front of him, surprising him with the aggression with which it shouted, “we just wanted to let you know that we love you very much. As it is your birthday we have a little song for you. Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Moony-“ Here the letter gave his name rather more syllables than was necessary and he winced at its passion. “Happy birthday to you!” He was laughing and yet stunned by the combination of shouting and singing which the Howler managed, turning the song into a kind of chant. Remus cringed away from it and wished he could bury his head in his hands and go back to bed. “We know that you are a quiet fellow who prefers work to the noble pursuits of the Marauders but we felt like we needed to let you know that we appreciate you anyway! And that I love you almost as much as I love my beautiful girlfriend Lily Evans from James!” James’ interjection in the Howler was met with hoots of laughter and three simultaneous slaps; two were from the other Marauders - “You ruined it you idiot!” Sirius cried - and one was courtesy of Lily, who had flushed bright red. “Anyway we know you probably hate this but… Oh well it’s done now, you’ll just have to get over it!” Opposite him Sirius was choking on his cornflakes and Peter was desperately trying to help him whilst also laughing and Remus sighed. “Don’t forget that I love you lots Remus! Your noblest and best ever friend James Potter! No I’m his best friend Prongs you idiot! No you’re not Padfoot shut up! Both of you shut up you idiots! Shut up Wormtail! Oh crap, look what you’ve done James, the letter’s still bloody going isn’t it? Hey actually this is all your fault Padfoot you dumb-” With that the letter tore itself up and crumbled onto the table, dusting his porridge with a sprinkling of ash.
“Thanks guys,” he said as the students all turned back to their breakfasts, some with tears of laughter still streaming down their cheeks, and the silence which had fallen over them as they listened to his Howler was lifted once more. “I loved the argument at the end,” he continued wryly as he tried to scoop the ash off his breakfast.
“We found out afterwards that you can change them,” Peter sighed, “but it was too late. And then when I suggested it James said, ‘No don’t touch it, it’s bloody funny.’ Well you know what they’re like so…” He shrugged and Remus laughed again. “Yeah, I know what they’re like.”
As the days grew steadily warmer the atmosphere inside the castle became oppressive and the students began to spend more and more time outside. By the Easter holidays even the changeable Scottish weather had become pleasant enough for them to spend time outside without worrying about freezing solid; with the freedom to think which the fresh air afforded them and the refreshing change which it offered the students were able to breathe properly again and begin to focus on their exams. Cassie too emerged from her state of empty despair and left the relative gloom of the castle; she stepped, blinking, into the sun and smiled for the first time in weeks. When Lily, Mary and Alice saw her begin to look at the world with interest in her eyes they grinned and grabbed her in an exuberant hug, nearly crying in their happiness at seeing their friend free of her grief.
“Just in time for N.E.W.T.s,” Mary sighed, massaging her temple as she clutched her cardigan tightly around her shoulders and flicked idly through her Transfiguration book.
“Maybe I’ll just drop out and marry someone rich who can take care of me forever,” Lily muttered.
“Don’t let James go then,” Alice said. “He can support you for about five lives.”
“Yeah but then I have to marry James,” she replied, making them all double over with laughter.
Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay but this is quite long so hopefully it makes up for it! Just a warning, updates might get slower because I'm moving slowly and inexorably (kind of like a glacier) towards my A2 exams and they're... somewhat important for getting into uni and not failing at life so I have to actually work!!
All I'm saying is please bear in mind that I haven't given up on this and that it WILL get finished at some point (and it should be a maximum couple of months break, not five years! If it does look like it's nearing five years please feel free to bombard me with angry messages!)
Anyway as per usual please share, vote, comment etc.!