45 Ways to Make a Werewolf Fall for You
A HariPo fanfiction
by mew-tsubaki
- ^-^3
38: Holding hands with someone you care about
"Tell us! What's happened?!"
Sirius bellowed the words, not giving a flying you-know-what as he smacked the table in the Weasleys' house. Only a few of them were present: Arthur and a broken-down Molly, Mary, Alice and Frank, Lily and James, Peter, Sirius and Remus, Mad-Eye with his bandaged nose, Mundungus, Sturgis, Elphias, and Dumbledore. Yet, with all of them there, it was so, so quiet.
"Tell us," Sirius repeated, his voice panicky.
"You all know what happened when I fought Rosier and Wilkes last week," Mad-Eye stated, pointing to his nose, of which a chunk was missing. "Darned summer sun got in my eye…"
Sirius sat down, unsatisfied that Dumbledore still hadn't elaborated upon his reason for calling this emergency meeting. Remus laced their fingers underneath the table, resting their hands on his own thigh.
A sob tore through Molly, and she couldn't stay in the room any longer. She ran from the room, Ron the tot in her arms… It wasn't as though a baby who was only a handful of months old was going to hear anything of interest, but Molly probably didn't want him in the same room as Dumbledore's next words:
"We have lost the Prewetts."
A murmur settled over the Order members. "Lost?" Mary whispered. "How…?"
"Five Death Eaters, at least one of them Antonin Dolohov," Sturgis said. He looked as though he'd been murdered himself. "Godric, I had been steps behind them…"
Dumbledore's sympathetic gaze fell on Sturgis. "He is correct. Early this morning, the twins and Sturgis were going to meet to exchange messages. However, the Death Eaters arrived on the scene first, and, if it had not been for Fabian and Gideon's valiant shouts, Sturgis would, too, have been lost."
Sturgis held his head in his hands, shaking it. "I should've been there, too…"
Sirius couldn't blame him. Though Dumbledore meant well, his words could've been a jab at Sturge for escaping.
Sturgis did manage to collect himself enough to inform them of exactly what had happened. Apparently he had been able to shoot off one hex. However, Dolohov had thought the spell was one of the twins', and the Dark wizards had proceeded to torture…and to murder Fabian and Gideon.
The straw-haired wizard opened his palm, silent tears running down his cheeks. He clenched his fist. "I better go give this to Molly…" He got up and left, a gold chain dangling from his hand.
All of the Order of the Phoenix members knew that chain. It was attached to Fabian's well-loved gold watch.
Sirius' stomach flipped uneasily at the sound of Lily's quiet cries into James' neck. Peter, beside Remus, looked white as a sheet. Sirius tightened his hand in Remus', and Dumbledore bowed his head in silence.
"Our losses…are too great. I am halting the current missions for the next two weeks."
People only nodded to show that they had heard him and that anything had registered. Mad-Eye even turned away from the sight, gazing instead out of the window of the Weasley Burrow, his lower lip quivering as though he might drop his "constant vigilance" at any second to cry with Mary and Alice and Lily.
Dumbledore backed away from the head of the table. "A word, James, Lily." He motioned for Sirius to follow.
Reluctantly, the Black son left his werewolf at the table and followed his two friends and former teacher outside. They walked across the lawn at the side of the house in silence. When they reached Arthur's shed, Dumbledore strolled in as though it were any other day, musing about the father's unique collection of Muggle items.
Sirius pulled the door shut after them, and Lily hugged James' arm to her, her face stained from her tears ruining her light bit of makeup. Dumbledore flicked his wand, and they all sensed him putting up wards and such.
James watched Dumbledore carefully. "Professor… What aren't you telling us?"
"There has been a prophecy made," he answered. They were the words that practically shattered any semblance of a peaceful existence that James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, and the others might have ever had.
"A prophecy?" Lily echoed. Her blotchy face looked from each wizard to the next, confused. Apparently she had read about them in school but never quite grasped them.
But, for people who had lived all their lives in the magical world, James and Sirius knew exactly how horrid that word was. And, when Dumbledore began to tell them of a story, of a recent hiring of a certain Divination teacher with a rarely-right but unfortunate knack for real foresight, of a prophecy made about two who had "thrice defied the Dark Lord," and of a baby to be born "at the close of July"… The two Marauders' sense of dread only deepened. By then, Lily had grasped the severity of the situation, as well.
"You must go into hiding," Dumbledore told the couple. "No one can know where you are. There will be little contact with your loved ones and with the Order. Voldemort… He has it set in his mind that you are the ones with the correct child."
Lily's protest that Alice and Frank's child would be born at the end of next month, too, died on her lips.
For the first time ever, Sirius saw Dumbledore's armor crack, and the old man held his head, shaking it as he thought. Though when he next spoke, he resumed his normal composure. "The sooner you disappear from his map, the better."
Sirius felt as though he had just eaten something bitter. "Wait, wait… What's this talk of 'two who riced the Dark Lord,' or something like that?"
"'Thrice defied the Dark Lord,'" James echoed. He turned to Sirius. "Turned him down."
"But…" The gray-eyed wizard's face fell. "But he… He doesn't recruit Muggle-borns…" Even as he said it, he recalled early on in their new Order adventures that Voldy had purportedly offered James and Lily the chance to join. But that had been one time. There had been two more?
James appeared to have seen the question written all over Sirius' face. "A little after the wedding," James supplied, looking away from his best mate. "And once…at the end of Hogwarts."
Sirius was shocked. "What? When, how? Who?"
"Bellatrix…and Sev—Snape," Lily said, her voice hardening at the mention of her former friend.
The Black son cursed. "What can I do to help?" he asked their teacher.
"You two will be under the protection of old magic, the Fidelius Charm," Dumbledore explained. "You will need to choose a Secret-Keeper outside of yourselves. Only the Secret-Keeper will know your location. The Secret-Keeper keeps you safe so long as he never spills his secret willingly. If it is all right with you, I will volunteer to be your Secret-Keeper."
"Then…," Lily began, looking as though she had another idea in mind.
"It's obvious Sirius has to be our Secret-Keeper," James finished. He looked back at his friend. "It's got to be you. There's no one we trust more." Lily nodded in agreement.
Sirius frowned. He understood their reasoning…which is why he felt doubtful of their choice. "Professor," he addressed Dumbledore, "if I'm such an obvious choice, don't you think You-Know-Who might think the same?"
"Oh?" Curiosity played in the older wizard's blue eyes.
"Give me a moment with James and Lily?" Sirius asked. After Dumbledore nodded and left the trio alone in the shed, the Black son faced his friends. "I think I'd be better as the red herring," he continued, looking at both of them. "I'm the closest person to you, and I'm pretty capable of handling myself with my magic. However…" He smiled at this point, feeling like a genius. "However, he would never suspect someone nearly incapable of walking in a straight line without flailing." His smile grew into a confident grin. "That's why we should use Peter."
The couple thought for a moment. "Wormy is fairly reliable…," Lily stated.
"Except for the fact that he hasn't really been at meetings," James pointed out.
"You know him, sleeping his days away," Sirius said, dismissing any hint of a qualm.
The couple took a moment before they nodded. "All right. Then Peter it is."
And at least we won't risk Remus knowing their whereabouts, Sirius' conscience told him, and he mentally kicked the idea aside as he fetched Peter. Yes, they told the others that James and Lily were going into hiding, but only James, Lily, Sirius, and Peter knew that only Peter would know where.
So Sirius did his best to ignore his guilt creeping up on him when Remus reached for his hand again, an anchor in their tragic world. It was unreal, to think that the Prewett twins were gone, and now James and Lily had to go into hiding all because of their baby. There was no right or wrong or up or down in this war…
And, then, Harry James Potter was born.
- ^-^3
That seems like the worst cliffhanger ever. "And, then, Harry James Potter was born"—what, is he some harbinger of doom? …oh wait, he kinda is. :O …on the bright side, cameo from ickle Ronniekins! :]
Thanks for reading, and please review!
-mew! D:
2017 note: Dayum. I know canon events and deaths and everything, but each death feels like a punch in the gut, each time. ;w; And, oh, Sirius, how much you will regret your decision… I think Dumbly really thought the Potters would choose Sirius, tho, which is why he went along. But…man.