Chapter 26: Bad News
Authors note: how's that for a quick update? I've written the next two chapters already, I've just got to edit them and get them ready to go up which shouldn't take long, I've also written a few snippets for along the way and I'm having such a great time writing those, little funny moments between the Marauders, and there's a very funny (well me and my friend Molly -HI MOLLY! - think so!) moment when Sirius writes a letter to someone… although that's nearer the end of the year. So read and review! Thank you
"Remus!" a female voice squealed, one that sounded suspiciously like his mother, woke James and Lily the next morning. Waking up with a start, James' eyes searched around the unfamiliar room, and for a few moments he couldn't work out where he was, that was until a very groggy Lily rolled into him and groaned, then he remembered. He'd spent the night with Lily after he'd been so worried about his parents.
"Too early." Lily moaned, covering her eyes with her hands, shutting out the light that filtered in from the large window, curtains now drawn, Max had been in early this morning and lit the fire which was now burning brightly and the curtains were tied with gold ribbons, letting light flood into the room.
"Lily its nine o'clock and I'm guessing Remus is here." James said checking the clock beside Lily's bed. Shaking her slightly, James smirked as she took the hands from her face and pouted.
"Fine." She replied sitting up in the bed and stretching her hands high above her head.
"Good morning to you too." James smiled; pulling her in for a much more enthusiastic kiss than Lily was expecting at this time in the morning, but she returned it just as enthusiastically nevertheless.
"Well Good morning Mr Potter." Lily grinned, pulling away. James however kept his hand tangled up in Lily's unruly red curls. Twirling his fingers through her curls, his hand loosened itself from her hair and stroking down her face, his fingers delicately tracing her jaw bone.
"I want every day to be like this." He mused. Lily slipped off the bed with a grin, and pulled her hair up into a messy bun.
"What, being woken up by someone screaming?" she teased.
"No. waking up next to you." James replied, getting off the bed and clasping his hands loosely around Lily's waist. Lily didn't quite know what to say, she hadn't thought about that before, but she wanted that too. James leant down and kissed her nose.
"You're speechless; I would be too if I'd just spent a whole night in bed with me." James added cockily, pulling her closer to him. At that point Lily found her voice.
"Oi!" she giggled, slapping at James' bare chest to try and free herself from his grip. James just laughed and released her.
"Hit me, I don't mind!" he chided sarcastically and Lily smirked.
"Good." She replied, pulling on her dressing gown as James pulled on yesterday's shirt which was still lying in a crumpled heap on the floor.
"Breakfast?" James asked and Lily nodded enthusiastically as her stomach rumbled. Pulling James out the room and down the stairs at an alarming pace, James had to do a double take and make sure that he wasn't with Sirius.
"Remus!" Lily squealed as she opened the door to the dining room to see the third marauder sat at the table in deep conversation with Edward about the properties of some sort of herb which Lily didn't catch the name of. Turning to face the sound of the noise, Remus smiled at the sight of the red head.
"Lils!" he squealed back – making Sirius snort, causing the milk he was drinking to splutter out his mouth and nose. A silent scourgify charm and a disgusted look from Remus cleared that up right away. Lily ran over to her friend and hugged him tight. Pulling away from the hug, James clapped his friend on the back.
"Nice to see you mate." James said, gladly taking the cup of coffee his father was holding out for him, he needed a morning coffee to wake him up.
"You too Prongs." Remus replied, turning round to face Sirius who was shovelling scrambled egg on toast into his mouth at a rate that Lily found quite disgusting, he wasn't eating the food, he was inhaling it.
"Where's Hestia?" Lily asked, spotting her friend was absent.
"She's still in bed." Sirius answered, barely stopping from his inhalation of food to speak.
"Well, not her own bed, that hasn't been slept in." Lily replied, an eyebrow raised.
"Well neither did James." Sirius remarked, causing Lily and James to flush scarlet.
Edward who's ears had turned a startling shade of pink was feeling increasingly uncomfortable, he made his excuses and left the room, only to be replaced by Hestia who as it turned out had been stood outside the door and heard Lily's comment.
"Bless, you've made Edward all embarrassed now!" she chided with a grin. Lily returned the grin and pulled her friend in for a hug.
"You could have come in and stopped me!" Lily giggled.
"But it was funny!" Hestia protested. James, who was still red faced, rolled his eyes.
"It was so not funny!" James whined, dragging his hand through his hair, messing it up even further. Hestia opened her mouth to protest but was cut off by Sirius, who finished eating his breakfast had decided how they would spent their morning.
"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Sirius yelled, and with a flick of his wand the five of them were changed out of their pyjamas and into thick pairs of jeans with woolly jumpers, snow boots and parker coats. Lily smiled as she held up the edge of her scarf, red and gold stripes.
"Nice touch Sirius." James admired.
"I know!" Sirius shouted, his volume gage set to maximum. "Now come on, I want to beat you all at a snowball war!"
Crouching behind the broom shed, Hestia and Lily tried to remain as silent as possible, the snow ball fight had turned into girls against boys all-out war, and they were currently losing. The boys were too good, they knew all the tricks, anything the girls did they had a comeback, even when Lily smushed cold snow into Remus' face, they had a counter attack ready which come in the form of a wet snowball down her back from Sirius, they'd had waaaaaayyyy too much practice at this.
"Right, so here's the plan:" Hestia said after a few minutes of heavy breathing, the boys had chased them all around the garden bombarding them with snowball from what felt like all angles. "One of us is a distraction, then the other comes up behind them, blocking them in, and then we pound them with snowballs!" Hestia squealed, obviously pleased with her plan.
"But you forgot one thing…" Sirius interrupted, appearing round the side of the shed. "We can hear you and that won't work." He beamed, tossing a large snowball between his hands menacingly.
"Rrruuuuuuunnnnn!" Hestia screamed, both the girls turning on their heels and sprinting in the opposite direction.
"That won't work!" Sirius yelled after them, laughing. They thought they were home free but out of nowhere James and Remus popped up and each boy grabbed hold of one girl, James had Hestia and Remus had Lily. Holding them tightly, Sirius caught up with them, a snowball in each hand. The girls screamed and laughed at the same time, trying to wriggle out of the boy's arms, but to no avail.
"Ow!" Remus moaned as Lily elbowed him in the rib.
"Sorry!" Lily squeaked, still trying to wriggle out of his arms.
"Now girls." Sirius chimed, and the girls stopped fighting the boys to listen to him. "You can surrender now or…" he dragged on.
"Or what?" Lily demanded.
"Sshhhh, patience Lily-kins!" Remus chided. Rolling her eyes, Remus giggled, she hated it when the boys made up nicknames for her.
"Or…" Sirius began "you can get a snowball… to the face." He finished with a devilish smirk.
"That's barbaric!" Hestia complained, struggling against James arms, but he was too strong for her.
"Fine, I surrender!" Lily gave in. Sirius smirked, and Remus released his arms; it was only once she was out of the tight grip of his arms that she realised how cold she was. Her coat was covered in splodges of snow, her gloves were wet through from picking up the snow and her fingers felt like icicles inside them. Water dripped from her hair and down the back of her neck; coupled with a wet jumper underneath from Sirius' surprise attack earlier, she was frozen! Even her thick snow boots were so wet the water was beginning to leak in and the numbness in her fingers was creeping down her legs and into her toes too.
"Good. Hestia are you going to surrender too?" Sirius asked, feigning innocence.
"Fine." She pouted. "Fine, I surrender."
"Y'AY WE WIN!" Sirius sand, dancing around much to the amusement of James and Remus, who were both chuckling.
"Can we go inside now? I can't feel my toes." Hestia whined.
"Yeah come on!" Remus yelled, already running towards the house, the others hot on his tail.
Lily hadn't realised how long they had been outside, by the time they had got dried off and settled in the living room with mugs of hot chocolate, it was nearly two o'clock. They'd missed lunch so Max was preparing a try of sandwiches and crisps to fill their empty stomachs which growled appreciatively.
"How was your snowball fight?" Sarah asked, appearing in the doorway, interrupting the grip's conversation about which quidditch team was best.
"Good!" James replied with a grin. "The boys won."
"But you cheated." Hestia complained, crossing her arms in front of her chest and pouting.
"I expected nothing less." Edward said appearing at his wife's side, he put on a smile but it was clear that his mind was somewhere else. On closer inspection Lily realised his eyes were slightly puffy and red, although they'd been concealed well, Sarah's too although the thick red frames of her glasses hid most of the redness.
"You alright guys?" Sirius asked, he had obviously picked up on what Lily had.
"Just…" Sarah started and tears leaked from the edges of her eyes. Sniffing loudly, she allowed Edward to lead her over to a spare arm chair opposite the teenagers, Edward perched himself on the arm, one foot still resting on the floor.
"Marlene McKinnon's parents have been killed." Edward explained. "They were close friends of ours." He added, his voice breaking slightly, he tried to remain strong but he couldn't stop the tears from falling.
"Elijah and Scarlett are dead?" James asked, his voice trembling. Sarah nodded. James went numb, Marlene was a good friend, her parents were both aurors so she understood how James often felt, isolated and alone - a feeling not many children at aged ten could understand, but Marlene did, she had been the only other child of aurors, many didn't live long enough to have any. He leant back onto the couch, his hands on his temples.
"What about Marlene?" Sirius asked, Hestia tensed next to him at the mention of her name but remained silent.
"She's safe for now. She's staying at the ministry." Edward replied, James was relieved, at least Marlene was safe.
"How did it happen?" Sirius asked his voice shaky. The McKinnon's were some of the nicest people he'd ever met, other than the Potter's it was their doorstep he'd turn up on after an argument with his mother and they'd welcome him in with open arms. Both of them were tall and slim, Scarlett had long blonde hair that cascaded down her back in loose waves, Marlene and her looked so similar they could have been sisters. Elijah on the other hand had chestnut coloured locks cut short, although Marlene had his eyes, chocolate brown - the colour of chocolate mousse, Sirius had once observed, that had made them laugh, he smiled smally at the memory. The McKinnon's were from a long line of pure blooded wizards, one of the old families, like the Potter's and the Black's, Sirius couldn't get his head round it, Voldemort had virtually wiped out one of the last remaining all pureblood families, bar Marlene, it seemed ludicrous, why would he kill off 'his own people'.
"A death eater attack, their home was ambushed, they didn't stand a chance, they were outnumbered 4-1." Sarah answered, before turning to sob into Edward's shoulder. Sirius felt sick, he was almost sure his cousin, Bellatrix, would have been amongst those eight death eaters, maybe even his brother, Severus too, but he kept that thought to himself, it's not what the others needed to hear. The McKinnon's were high profile objectors to Voldemort's pure blood regime, and people like that never lasted long; they were also rumoured to be part of a secret organisation, led by Dumbledore himself, to put an end to the killing, although Sirius had no idea how true the rumours were, so Voldemort would have undoubtedly sent his best lieutenant, Bellatrix LeStrange formerly Black, and probably Lucius Malfoy, now married to Bellatrix's sister Narcissa… 'What a wonderful family I have' Sirius concluded glumly. He'd been the only one to turn out 'normal.' He pictured the McKinnon's beautiful home, ruined. The fluffy beige carpets, the cream wallpaper decorated with golden swirls, the family portraits hung around the house, the medals Marlene had won at quidditch camp, souvenirs from their holiday visiting wizards in Prague, all gone, destroyed. Sirius knew if Bellatrix had been there there'd be nothing left, she would have made sure of that.
"Marlene was in the house." Edward added. Sirius felt sick. He held his head in his hands, although he had never really loved Marlene romantically, she was just a fling, it didn't mean he didn't love her, but more as a sister. "She fought of two death eaters, before apparating out; apparently she put up quite a fight." Edward smiled a small smile, and chuckled lightly. "Good old Marlene." He mused.
"I can't believe it." James shook his head. "Not Elijah and Scarlett, they were two of the best aurors, it can't be…" Lily curled her arm around James' shoulders and pulled him as close as she could. Stroking the short hair around his ear, she tried to soothe him. She wanted to tell him everything would be alright, but she couldn't, she didn't know it would be. She hadn't known Marlene very well, but what she did know of her she seemed lovely, last summer before she'd graduated from Hogwarts her and Lily had spent a great number of hours in library talking about what they'd do after Hogwarts, Marlene wanted to be an auror 'Just like my parents.' She smiled proudly, they had obviously meant the world to her, and now they were dead. The whole thing seemed so cruel, even Lily felt a tear leak from her eye. James noticing this wiped it away and kissed her temple. Remus, who up until this moment had been incredibly quiet, suddenly found his voice.
"Thanks for telling us Edward, Sarah." He said, nodding to each of them as he said their name.
"It's okay Remus, you deserve to know." Edward replied, wiping away a tear from his face.
"They were meant to be coming over on Boxing Day," Sarah sobbed. "It was going to be a surprise!" Edward stood up from his position on the chair and helped Sarah to stand.
"We're going to the ministry; I want to see if there's anything we can do to help. Plus I want to see Marlene; she'll be a wreck right now." Edward concluded, before taking his wife's hand and leading her from the room. Sirius let out a long deep exhale of breath. Silence enveloped the room, none of them daring to break it.
The silence was only broken a few minutes later with Max's shouts of "Sandwiches." Something after the new they'd just received seemed like a good idea.
Authors note: I'm trying to keep my story as canon as possible so I'm trying to get all the events from the books/flashbacks etc in here, and in the book when Sirius tells Harry about the McKinnon's being murdered, I'm making that Marlene and her future husband – not her parents Scarlet (don't know why but I love that name) and Elijah (another name I love!) just to clear up any confusion! Although James' parents died of dragon pox in the books, and to me that doesn't seem a fitting way for Emily and Edward to go, so I think I'll change that, but I'm going to try and keep it as canon as possible, so if you spot any mistakes tell me, because if I've changed the plot slightly it's probably accidental! Much love! And sorry for the essay!
PS I've written a couple of one shots – mainly when I get writers block – so check them out! Thank you :D … and it really is bye this time! :P