Platform 9 ¾ was quiet that September. People were cautious, untrusting of the anonymity of the large crowd.
But mainly, everyone was just glad to see each other. Friends hugged tightly and took a while parting from their parents.
Who knew if it would be the last time they saw them?
Emmy spent most of the journey playing exploding snap with Alice and Dory, the music turned up to full volume to settle their nerves.
The summer holidays had been like a dream, an oasis in the middle of a desert, and now they had to fend for themselves once more.
She met Sirius in the corridor leaving the train and he helped her down as they pulled into the station. There weren't enough spaces in the thestral-drawn carriages with their friends so they offered to stayed at the station until the next one arrived.
"Surprisingly warm tonight, isn't it?" Emmy said mildly, plunking down on a bench to wait.
"Nah, it'll be freezing in a minute. The weather never can make up its mind round this time of year."
"You'll just have to give me your jumper then?"
"What happened to the other one?"
"Key word: one."
They were the last two students at the station, there was no one else in sight with only the sharp breeze to keep them company. It had begun to get darker earlier in the past week or so, the sun had just started to set as they spotted their empty carriage trundling along the road up ahead.
Emmy couldn't see the thestrals which she was glad for, but still made her wary of the jolting movement as they travelled up the rocky path.
It didn't help her nerves as she spotted the castle in the distance and flinched. The sight of the battleground affected her more than she'd realised. She cowed away as discreetly as she could, but Sirius noticed. He always noticed.
He wrapped an arm around her and she could see his hands trembling too as he entwined them in hers, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.
"Deep breaths, Ems, ok?"
She nodded but couldn't form words, the knot in her throat aching. Her hands shook, but she clenched them tightly together and calmed her trembling heart.
The journey passed pretty quickly after that and Sirius took her mind off it all completely. She'd missed him the past couple of weeks whilst he stayed at James', it felt so good to be back next to him. Emmy leaned over and brushed her lips against his cheek then across to the corner of his mouth.
A flicker of a smile crossed his features and she grinned into the side of his neck, trailing her hand across his chest to tangle in his hair.
With a swift movement, he'd pulled her on top of him and began kissing back in earnest, hungry for her touch.
She loved being in his arms, the coldness of the night and any fear she once had disappearing like smoke.
For what seemed like hours they were wrapped in each other, neither wanting to stop before they really had to at the doors to the school.
Emmy smirked as Sirius tucked his shirt back in and straightened his tie.
He laughed at the look on her face. Her lips were swollen and he could already see the bruises on her neck from where he'd gotten a bit carried away. He took the clip out of her hair to let it fall down to cover them. She ran a hand through her golden locks and smirked at him.
They had to walk past Professor McGonagall with the first years in the entrance hall, who gave them a suspicious then amused glance as they snuck past, clearly having figured out exactly what they'd been up to from the state of their appearance if not glint in their eyes.
As soon as the two of them sat down, the others went quiet, smirks plastered across their faces.
"That took you two quite some time," mused Alice, "Did the thestrals decide to take a detour?"
"Yep. Yeah, that's definitely what happened," Sirius replied confidently, helping Emmy over the bench to sit down. There was a tense pause.
"Hey Emmy, I wonder why you've put your hair down. You're not trying to hide anything, are you?" crowed Marlene, picking at her nails.
Dorcas snorted loudly, having to turn her face into Lily's shoulder to keep from bursting out laughing as the others sniggered under their breaths.
"Don't know what you're talking about Mars," Emmy replied coyly, grinning at her friend across the table.
The sorting ceremony passed without significance, but there was a new defence against the dark arts teacher called Professor Dumbledore. He was a tall man, with a thick beard and surprisingly dainty glasses. He gave the students a nod, and a twinkle of a smile before sitting back down.
At the mention of his name Lily whispered, "That's the guy people are saying is going to take over from Dippet next year. I recognize him from the Prophet."
"Yeah I've heard they're giving Dippet one final year before he'll be forced to retire. Apparently he's getting a bit senile, there's no other excuse for the security failure last year," added Frank darkly.
They headed up to bed pretty soon afterwards, mood significantly dampened. The common room was quiet that night and most people went to bed pretty quickly.
Emmy and Sirius however, slipped out just before midnight and walked down to the shore of the Black Lake. She slipped her hand into his as they wandered by the water, occasionally stopping to balance on a boulder.
"Have you heard from Regulus recently?" she asked quietly.
"No," he sighed. "He doesn't reply to any of the letters I send to him, though mother's probably been hiding them from him. Now he's working for the Dark Lord, he can't have any association with me. He always insisted he'd never get involved. It's my fault really, I left him there alone," he said, an emotion barely less that agony cross his face. "I should have done more, forced him to leave with me."
"Hey, you did what you could. How many times have you asked him to leave, tried to protect him from your parents? Too many times to count."
"And yet still not enough," he stopped and sat down on the rocks. She curled up next to him.
"It's not your fault, Sirius."
"I should have protected him, Ems," he choked. She was taken aback to see tears spilling down his face.
"You did all you could, Merlin's beard Sirius, you were only fifteen. No one could ever accuse you of abandoning him."
"The guilt- the guilt is never going to leave me, is it?" he asked minutes later.
Her silence was enough to confirm her answer.
"There is nothing I can say that's going to stop the guilt, because you would feel it no matter if you dragged him kicking and screaming out of that place and held him hostage, which is your only other option might I add. He's going to go back to them anyway because he's not as strong as you. He's scared and he's powerless, he thinks this is the only way."
"He's my little brother," he choked.
"He always will be, Sirius," she replied strongly, keeping their eye contact with a hand on his cheek. "Whatever awful decisions he makes, however far apart you get, he'll love you and you'll love him. You don't need to worry about that."
He spoke a minute later, "It's all so fucked up, isn't it?"
She sighed and leant against him. That was one way to put it.
—————
They were both extremely groggy the next morning, having stayed out almost all night, but it had been worth it.
They could have done without James announcing try-outs for the quidditch team the next day. It was all he'd talked about over breakfast that morning and the notice had gone up by lunchtime for that weekend.
They'd have to get some practise in before then, Emmy hadn't been on a broomstick in weeks, never mind actually flying seriously.
Marlene and Emmy headed to the quidditch pitch after dinner to start making up for lost time after the rest of the girls had gone up to bed early.
The Marauders had the common room to themselves by midnight and lounged across the sofas by the fire as they worked on the finishing touches for their map.
"I was thinking, we should probably have code names if this thing gets found by a teacher," said James. "You know how we were going to sign our names on the front? It'll only a take a revelio to reveal it."
"He's got a point," muttered Remus as he pored over the parchment.
"They could be something to do with our animagus forms?" suggested Peter enthusiastically.
"Yeah, I like that. What about Remus though?" added James.
"Could be something werewolf related I guess?"
"What about Howl... or Claws? Oh, I've got it! Moony!"
Remus laughed, "Moony it is!"
"James, what do you think of Prongs?"
"Yeah, perfect! And Peter you could be Wormtail, or Wormy?"
He hesitated, "Well I like Wormtail, I guess?"
"Cool, just Sirius then."
"Mate, you could be the Chihuahua," grinned James, "Do you remember that time in fifth year when Emmy said-"
"Yes, I think we all do."
"The look on your face was priceless," Peter sniggered.
"Okay, thank you. You know, I'd always seen you as a Rudolf, James..." considered Sirius slyly.
"Don't you dare!"
Remus was laughing too, "We should get you a red nose for Christmas, see how long it takes everyone to figure it out. Lily would know in seconds.
"I think you'll find Lily already knows," James replied smugly, "She figured it out ages ago."
"You told her?" questioned Sirius sharply.
"She's only the flipping love of my life, mate. Anyway, she knew we were animagi as soon as I came clean about where we all went on a full moon. She suspected from the moment she found out about Emmy being a werewolf."
"Too smart for her own good," Remus laughed fondly.
"You should see her patronus-"
The door flew open with a loud bang as Emmy and Marlene stumbled in. They were both soaked with rain and grinning ecstatically, giggling as they slammed the portrait closed behind them.
Remus raised a suspicious eyebrow but it was James that said,
"Whatever you did, you better not have got caught. I need you two on the team this year!"
"Don't you worry your pretty little head, Potter," smirked Marlene, "Of course we didn't get caught."
Emmy snorted with laughter, "Just about..."
"What happened?" asked Peter.
Marlene opened her mouth to speak but James interrupted.
"Leave it, Wormtail. I don't think I want to know."
"Wormtail?" asked a bemused Emmy.
Realising what had just slipped out James went bright red.
"It's nothing!"
"Oh come on," begged Marlene, grinning ear to ear.
"Nope, no way," replied James stubbornly.
"You're no fun, Potter."
"Come on, Mars, I need a shower. If we hang around this lot too long they might affect our pranking genius."
They spluttered in indignation. Catching Sirius' eye, she countered his outrage, "Sirius, you know we're better than you."
"Do you even remember that time we slipped aging potions into the Slytherins' morning pumpkin juices?"
"Whilst Malfoy's wrinkles were indeed spectacular, you seem to have forgotten when we charmed the carpets to roll up those Ravenclaws that made fun of Peter's test score?"
They were standing nose to nose by this point, the smell of Sirius' cologne flooding her senses. She grinned despite herself, she loved when they bickered like this.
"Ugh, get a room you two," James called as loudly as he dared. Remus growled lowly but Emmy just winked and took a step back.
"I think we'll be going now boys, it's clear who's won this fight," Marlene said coyly.
Emmy glanced over her shoulder as they headed up the stairs. Sirius was still looking at her with that breath-taking look on his face. She'd have given anything to had stayed in that second forever, but all too soon it was over.
—————
The sun was burning through her eyelids and... oh god. Oh god. The pain was unbearable.
Suddenly Sirius was there, covering her in a thick cloak, holding her trembling body. Her ribs felt like they'd just splintered and she was bleeding heavily from a wound on her shoulder.
He was saying something to her, but the blood kept rushing through her ears. The panic was visible on his face but it felt like she was moving through treacle, she could barely see straight. And then it all came back.
Noise rushed in around her head, and Remus was there and so were Peter and James, helping her up.
She was still shaking half an hour later in the hospital wing.
"Bad night, Miss P. Haven't seen her like this in a long while," said James, wringing his hands with concern.
"I'm alright," Emmy choked out, "S-stop worrying about me."
"Is she being serious? Are you being serious right now?" came his reply.
"N-no, I'm Emmy," she gave a weak smirk as they all groaned.
By the afternoon, she had stopped trembling and the broken ribs had all but mended thanks to a new potion Madam Pomfrey had stocked up on this year.
Emmy spent a long time discussing the ingredients and various side-effects with the nurse in the quiet hospital wing. It had been her first time back since seeing Hestia and Axel there in the days after the Triwizard attack. The space where his bed had been was hauntingly empty.
She wondered how they were doing, she doubted Hestia had left his side since. They had both graduated in the summer and she made a mental note to write to them later.
"I reckon with all this medical knowledge you've gained over the years, you'd fly though a lot of the medic course at St. Mungo's, Emeline. You've got a bit of a knack for it."
"Thanks, I guess I couldn't help but pick up something from the amount of time I've spent in here," she gave a lopsided smile.
It got Emmy thinking on the way back to the dorm that evening with Lily. She was still at a loss as to what to do when she graduated next year, but she could see herself as some sort of healer. They had careers interviews coming up with Professor McGonagall soon, she could mention it then.
In the meantime, they were two weeks into the term already and they had started to get to know the new Professor through his NEWT-level Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. Dumbledore was an entertaining teacher and clearly knew what he was doing as they learnt about the unforgivable curses, banshees and inferi.
During their first lesson he had discussed the syllabus for that year and they'd made a start on non-verbal spells.
Emmy was very pleased to realise she already knew how to perform them, Bellatrix had taught her last year for the Triwizard Tournament and they'd practised for hours in the Forbidden Forest but she stayed at the back of the classroom, occasionally casting a weak spell, but mostly just looking at the class notes.
Dumbledore had been walking around the class correcting people's wand movement and making polite conversation until he reached her.
"Would you show me?" he asked, "I've heard great things about the Triwizard Champions."
But not great enough to save those lives, came the whisper in the back of her head. It had been there for months, so much so that she'd gone almost the whole summer without casting a single spell.
The room went utterly silent. No one had mentioned the tournament since they'd arrived back, anything to do with the attack was taboo and here was the new teacher praising one of the champions.
He cleared his throat and looked around.
"Students, I think there is something I must say to all of you. I, of course, know about the attack that took place at the end of last year. I do, however, think it was a triumph on your part. The magical talent of each and everyone one of you saved many lives that day."
A Ravenclaw sat down heavily in her seat, her whole body shaking.
"You all... are so strong," he said, "The Death-Eaters didn't win, you did."
"He's gone," she mumbled, her friends crowding round. "He died."
"He did," the professor replied calmly, "But there are people here who are alive because of you. What I want to do this year is make you all better prepared, to make you better, faster, more powerful than the Death-Eaters, so what happened last year can never happen again."
For the duration of the lesson, spells flew in all directions, mainly whispered but some managed non-verbal. Professor Dumbledore didn't speak to Emmy again until the end of class to ask her to stay behind.
As the rest of them filed out she neared his desk.
"Ah Emeline," he said, looking up as he stacked some parchment. "I noticed your reluctance to cast any spells earlier, would you tell me why?"
She looked down at her hands, they trembled ever so slightly around her wand, "I... haven't been practising recently."
"And why is that?" he asked quietly.
Her silence was enough of an answer.
"I don't usually ask people this, but will you please fire a spell at me. Preferably combatant, but I don't mind."
"Are you sure? I could hurt you."
"You won't, I happen to be particularly good at defensive magic, believe it or not. You wouldn't have heard of a wizard called Gellert Grindelwald, would you?"
That's when it clicked, Emmy's eyes shot up.
"You- you're the one who defeated him," she breathed.
He gave a smile that wasn't quite a smile, "And with a mere shielding spell at that. Now, come on, let's see how a Triwizard champion fights."
With a flick of her wand, Emmy cast a cautious flipendo at him which he deftly deflected. He nodded for her to continue.
Her competitive edge immediately took over and she shot a stupefy, then a reducto at the professor. He was only fazed by the reducto, not expecting it. But he soon fired a flipendo back at her. She hurried to pull up a shield spell and blurted the words out in panic.
"Ah try again, Miss Lupin," he grinned.
For the next half an hour they practised, only stopping when Emmy had stumbled into a nearby desk, out of breath and dizzy.
"I'm very impressed, truly. There aren't many people who could do that at your age, certainly not in your generation," he said warmly.
"Thank you, sir," she smiled, but faltered when she realised something was trickling down her back. She swore under her breath as she realised the wound on her shoulder had started bleeding again, red soaking through her white blouse.
"Are you alright?" asked the professor, eyes wide in alarm.
"Yes, fine, fine thank you," she replied hurriedly, pulling on her jumper to cover it.
"What on earth happened?"
"Oh, it's nothing, fell off my broom at quidditch practise yesterday," she mumbled, furiously trying to come up with a plausible story.
He looked highly suspicious but didn't push the matter any further.
It had felt good to properly fight again, it was just what she needed. She looked at her wand without fear for the first time in months and felt the magic coursing through her veins again.
"We'll be working on this throughout the year, but I'd be honoured if you would help me with demonstrations and indeed in teaching some other spells that you learned last year to my younger classes?"
"Of course, but only if you think I'd be any good."
"I don't think you need to worry about that at all, my dear," he smiled kindly.
———————
sooooo this is a total filler but i felt it was needed to support the plot and also to introduce a character who will become very important this year. i really hope you enjoyed it, please comment and vote all you like!