Charon's Lullaby

Marlene took a sip of her drink. It was radioactively red and fizzy, some brand she wasn't familiar with. Whether this was because it was some Wizarding brand that Potter had bought for the party or some Muggle brand that Lily had bought for the party seemed equally likely to her.

This was the second gathering the Potters' had thrown in the last couple of months for the Order of the Phoenix. Something to do with remembering to keep living, despite the war around them. She suspected that a secondary goal was to promote bonding among the members – after all, people would be more likely to risk their life for someone they cared about.

Marlene took another sip of her soda. She couldn't quite identify what the soda's flavor was supposed to be. Cherry?

Frank Longbottom was cheerfully chatting with Alice and Gideon nearby the fireplace, a massive brick structure that was – as far as fireplaces went – inhumanely clean. Moody was listening to Fabian prattle on about something or other nearby the front door, and Dumbledore was amicably taking with Mundungus Fletcher – the newest Order member – in a corner of the room. Mundungus was awkwardly scuffing his feet against the polished hardwood, and she didn't blame him. Making small talk with their old Headmaster would have been awkward enough, but on top of it Moody's magical eye had not left Mundungus the entire evening; Moody didn't trust Mundungus, and of course he didn't. Moody didn't trust anyone, and Mundungus had been in Slytherin.

She took another sip. Maybe her drink was supposed to be strawberry-flavored?

Potter was standing near the center of the room, his arm around Lily as they talked with Pettigrew. Their expressions looked serious, and Marlene vaguely wondered where Lupin and Sirius were. Maybe the rumor she had heard earlier today about Sirius was true.

Another sip. If she closed her eyes, she swore the drink tasted like melon. Were there red melons?

Alice greeted Marlene with a small smile as she took a plate from the appetizer table Marlene was standing by. In addition to the multicolored sodas that were set out – red, blue, and yellow, with one color for each house – there were large platters filled with dozens of varieties of cheese, crackers, and fruit. She idly wondered what Mundungus thought about the lack of green sodas.

Another sip. No, her soda definitely couldn't be strawberry-flavored, at least not any strawberry she had ever tasted.

Lupin had now appeared and was walking towards Potter and Pettigrew, coming from the direction of the Potters' backyard. Curious, Marlene stood on her toes and peered out the nearest window. Sirius was sitting on the back steps with his feet on the grass and his chin in his hands. Given that he was normally, at the minimum, an active participant in these sorts of parties, it suggested the rumor was true.

She looked back as Lupin joined Potter, Lily, and Pettigrew and began talking with them while wearing a melancholic expression; Lupin had doubtlessly been speaking with Sirius in the backyard and was now recounting his conversation to the three of them. She would have been willing to bet more than a shining Sickle that Potter had tried to talk to Sirius earlier, and she could easily imagine that Potter's consoling words would have been too hard and Lupin's too soft and – from the way Pettigrew was awkwardly snaking his hand around the back of his neck and looking away – she suspected Pettigrew was not going to try talking to Sirius tonight.

Marlene took another sip and her drink was empty. She looked around the room, glancing between the appetizers table, the clumps of chatting Order members, and the window before setting down her cup and walking towards the backyard.

The cold night air was biting at her face as she sat down next to Sirius. His brooding expression turned to one of annoyance as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, but then he returned to staring at some indeterminate point in the distance. "Did Remus send you out here?"

"No," Marlene replied simply.

Most of the trees' leaves had already begun to change color, had already gone through the magnificent rainbow of reds and oranges and yellows until all that was left were muted patches of brown against muted branches. The grass, at least, was still green, and Marlene leaned down to pick a single blade from it. Clasping her hands together, she carefully positioned the blade between her thumbs before bringing it up to her mouth.

It made a wet, unappetizing sound when she blew against it, and Marlene frowned before trying again and getting a sound like an airy raspberry.

Sirius was now looking at her out of the corner of his eye again. "Why the hell are you spitting into your hands? You sound like a dying duck."

"I'm not spitting into my hands," Marlene sniffed, blowing into her hands again before brushing a drop of moisture from her thumb. "I'm trying to get the grass to whistle. My little brother and I did this when we were kids and our goldfish died. We thought it would help his soul cross the river Styx to reach the underworld."

"Regulus was not a goldfish," he snapped, his demeanor abruptly changing.

"I know," Marlene said simply, carefully repositioning the blade of grass between her thumbs. So the rumor was true.

For several moments the only sound was the wind whispering through the leaves, and then – "It was a goldfish, why the hell couldn't it have swam across the river Styx?"

She shrugged. "We wanted to be certain. We were very fond of our goldfish."

Sirius leaned back and crossed his arms, continuing to broodingly stare into the distance. The tip of his nose was pink from the cold, and if the lighting was a bit better Marlene might have thought his eyes were a bit pink, too. "I didn't know you had a little brother," he said flatly.

Marlene had to bite back her initial response that of course he didn't; she made a point to not talk about her Muggle family with anyone from the Wizarding world. Instead she lightly replied, "Next thing you know you'll learn that I have parents."

She had discarded her current blade of grass and leaned over to search for a new one when Sirius continued, "What's his name?"

"Ricky. But these days he fancies himself grown-up – " she affected a posh accent for the last word " – so he wants to be called Rick. Or Rich. Or Richard. It seems to change every week so when he gets finicky about it, I just call him Dick."

Sirius didn't reply, and the only sound was the wind sighing through the grass, small waves rippling across it like an ocean.

"I heard you broke his face," she added after a few moments.

"Whose face?"

She ran her hand across the grass in front of them. "The bloke who told you about Regulus."

"I didn't break his face," Sirius said, wrinkling his nose. "He's a Death Eater – I'm positive of it- so I did try to hex him, but James thought it would make a scene so he so wouldn't let me."

If the circumstances were different, Marlene would have commented that if James Potter was acting as the voice of reason that was a sure sign you had gone off the deep end. Instead she bit her tongue and plucked another green blade, placing it between her thumbs and blowing again. It produced another empty, wet sort of sound, and she plucked yet another blade to try again.

"Regulus doesn't deserve that, you know," Sirius said abruptly, a crack in his voice. "You – whistling to the river Styx – or whatever. He is – was – a Death Eater. That's a hell of a lot worse than any of your goldfish."

Marlene debated saying something about apples and oranges before replying, "I don't know. You never met my goldfish. He was a real arsehole."

The corner of Sirius's lips twitched, so briefly that Marlene doubted he had actually broken his brooding expression. "I thought you said you were fond of your goldfish," he said flatly.

"Well, yeah," Marlene replied, easily faking a self-confident tone. "But that doesn't mean he wasn't an arsehole sometimes."

Sirius swallowed and turned to look at her. She blew against the blade of grass again, and this time it finally produced a melodic, reedy sound that rose into the starry sky.

After watching her for several moments, Sirius bent down and silently picked a blade of grass for himself. Several attempts later he began matching Marlene's whistling sound, and the two of them breathed their reedy lullaby into the night together.

…

A/N: Many thanks to coltishfraxinella for beta-reading! If any readers are particularly curious, Charon is the figure in Greek mythology who ran the boat across the river Styx to reach the underworld.