The sinister man spat a mouthful of blood on her black boots, causing her to dig the tip of her Ash wand deeper into his skin. The sides of his lips curled up his face, his beady eyes dancing with hers.

 “Make no pretense,” Meredith snapped Sirius out of his daze from her authoritative voice, “I will help bring back my sister, but don’t expect anything other than that.”

 “Never.” Sirius jibed, a smirk embroidering his chiseled features. Meredith glared at him, her eyes turning to slits with merely the tint of hazel.

“So it is something?” At this, Remus started smiling in spite of himself. He chuckled at the satisfied expression Meredith wore as she surveyed them.
 
He began speaking before James could open his mouth, “Yes, alright, we need to talk to you.”
 
She sighed. Meredith browsed the length of the page before folding The Prophet over and looking up at them attentively, “You were saying?”

Remus was close – very close – to discovering the thing she had wanted to tell him for so long. But she knew she couldn’t tell him, that she wouldn’t make it any easier for him. She sat very still, waiting for him to continue. But he didn’t, at least for some time. 

"May I have a word, Ms. Crawford?"

He had delved into her pool of memories, known her innermost fears and nightmares, known the moments where her heart was lacerated, and experienced it re-growing over scars. She had handed him the key to her soul along with her pensieve, and being behind him in such close proximity to everyone else made her feel naked and vulnerable.

 She looked up thankfully at a sound by the front of the room, expecting to see a tall wizard command the attention of the room with his mere presence. Instead, her eyes were met with a shockingly familiar head of red hair. The second she had realized who it was, Meredith couldn’t keep her eyes from her. Even though she wasn’t facing Meredith’s direction, she could still make out the steady face beneath the gentle waves of locks cascading across her shoulders. 

Meredith and Lily’s eyes met, still both smiling at the ridiculous scene they had just witnessed. Their eyes locked for longer than a moment, but eventually the humor within them dropped, and their expressions hardened. Slowly, they looked down from each other’s gazes. The awkwardness resumed. Lily bit her lip, wanting to interrupt the painful silence, but without one clue of what to say.  

 “You looked a little like a zombie for a minute there.” Marlene indicated at her with a spoon. Meredith shot her a cynical look, “Thanks. That's exactly what I need to hear before going on a first date, that I look like the undead.”

 “I’m not surprised the Death Eaters are having such an easy time picking us off. Wizards lose focus at their homes or walking down the street - never fully attentive. That’s how they got Marlene Mckinnon,” he threw in tactlessly, barely noticing the change in Meredith’s features...

        “Well I don’t see why they’d want you out of Hogwarts,” James announced, “It’s just about the safest place right now, what with Dumbledore being Headmaster and all.” Alice tried to suppress an eye-roll at his tactless manner of speech, but couldn’t manage to do so.

“Not for me,” Mary mumbled, fumbling with the letter in her hands.

“Remus, what is it?”
 
“I guess no one’s told you, have they?” he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment to avoid seeing her inquisitorial stare.
 
“No, they haven’t,” she responded without much cadence to her tone. Remus didn't respond for a moment, leading Meredith to prompt him further, “Has something happened?…”

It didn’t take her much longer than a minute to lock eyes with a jeering Thorfinn Rowle.  She heard the rhythm of her pulsating heart in her ear as her sights narrowed on him, feeling fury rise further within her as he raised a glass of pumpkin juice up to her in a toast. He sipped it slowly, holding her eyes in his as he savored the sweetness of the juice gushing onto his tongue.  

 “Hey,” she managed, her voice barely above a whisper. Sirius didn’t move, but she could interpret the shift in his breathing well enough to know that he’d heard her. Still, he didn’t respond.