Chapter Four

A quick look at my address book reminded me of the address of the flat Remus shared with Sirius. But when I Apparated there, I found no evidence that anyone had been there for quite a while, since Sirius had been in hiding and Remus had his own mission for the Order. Where could he have gone? I thought of his father's house, but quickly dismissed that. Even if I had known the address, Remus always went out of his way to ensure he wasn't a burden, so I doubted he would have gone there. And then it hit me, with a sick drop in my stomach. The last place he had felt a true part of the Marauders, with all four of them equal in loyalty and devotion to one another.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and spun on my heel. I didn't look, kept my eyes tightly closed for just a moment, because I wasn't ready for the sight I knew I would see. But the cold Scottish night air galvanized me, and so I forced myself to look at the Shrieking Shack, just up the tiny hill in front of me.

Lily had filled me in on the real reason for the screams occasionally heard from it, and all about the boys' monthly exploits, so I figured Remus would come here. But it held a different sort of ache for me. As I stood, staring at the ramshackle building, I could almost see Gid pretending to have his arm ripped off, simply to scare me and my friends. And Gid proposing to me, with our friends coming to celebrate with us. And Gid telling me he loved me for the very first time. Nearly every memory I had of that place included Gid, and just seeing it again drove icy spikes further into my heart.

A flicker of wand light caught my eye, bringing me out of my heartbroken reverie. "You are not here for you," I reminded myself sternly as I forced my feet to move. One step, then another, and soon I found myself at the boarded-over door.

"Remus, come out here," I called. "Or let me in."

I heard a rustle from the other side of the door, then Remus's pale, surprised face was framed in the broken window. "Pet? What are you doing here?"

"I'm bringing you home with me," I stated firmly, focusing all my energy on him. If I let myself slip, even the tiniest bit, the dam would break and I would be in hysterics. And that would do absolutely no one any good.

Surprise quickly turned to resignation, though with a quick detour at pleased. "I'm alright, Pet, really," he started to say, but I cut him off with a shake of the head and a sternly raised eyebrow.

"If you were alright, you wouldn't be here," I retorted. "Now, move back so I can come in." I figured he wasn't ready to go back to my parents'- to my house just yet, but I also knew he needed someone. And I wasn't about to let anyone else I loved fall into that pit of depression I'd found myself mired in for so long, so I simply pushed my way into the shack, causing Remus to take several steps back to make room for me.

"Pet, really, I'm fine," he tried again. "And you shouldn't be here. You just lost Lily, your sister, and I-"

"Just lost your brothers," I finished for him. "I know you love James just as much as I love Lily, and Petti- Peter, too. So, you have just as much right to mourn as I do."

Remus stared at me for a long moment, tightly holding himself upright. Until he crumpled. "I just can't believe they're gone," he cried. "And I wasn't here to-"

Slipping my arms around him, I cut him off again. "You were doing your part to help end this, to help keep them safe," I whispered, feeling my own tears come back despite my efforts otherwise. "You were where you needed to be. And nothing you could have done would have changed anything."

"If I wasn't gone for so long so often, I might have seen something in Peter," he insisted, still with his face buried in my neck. "I might have suspected something, seen something, either to keep him from changing sides or to notice that he had."

That thought broke my heart further, but I couldn't let on. "James didn't see anything, and he saw Peter far more often than you did. There was nothing you could have done differently. It's not your fault, no matter how much you try to put on yourself."

We held each other and cried for a long time. Until several sneezes on both our parts caused us to separate with a laugh. "I think it's time we went back. You're staying with me, and I won't hear a word otherwise," I told him firmly.

Remus grinned and took my hand in his. "Yes, ma'am."

We Apparated back to find that Nic had "found" some firewhiskey. Since we hadn't had any in the house before we all moved out, I highly suspected that he had popped back to his and Danae's flat for a bit, but I wasn't going to push it. The six of us sat around the lounge, drinking and reminiscing about funny stories of Lily and James. Just like we had after Marly and Max were killed. Tears, laughter, and firewhiskey flowed freely, and somehow, through the slight haze of alcohol, I felt closer to my friends, my chosen family, than I had in years.

We all regretted it just a little in the morning, though. I woke with the boys, with very bleary eyes, and everyone else trickled downstairs throughout the morning. Lottie finally joined us around eleven, rather grumpy as she held several envelopes in her hands. "We've been summoned to the Wizangamot tomorrow," she said, thrusting the missives at me, before collapsing on the sofa next to Tina. "Six bloody owls knocked on the window, one at a bloody time. I don't know why they didn't come to one of the windows down here." By the time she finished speaking, we could barely understand her, since she had buried her head in the cushion behind Tina's shoulder. She then proceeded to snore lightly, which we ignored.

"The trial's to be tomorrow, then?" Nic guessed, taking his and Danae's summons from me.

"Sounds like it," I murmured in reply as I handed the rest to the proper owners.

"Eight o'clock sharp," Remus answered softly, eyes moving over the letter. "It'll be the whole Wizangamot, not just a committee."

Nic snorted. "Course not. They've got to make an example, show that they've won this war. And it won't help that Sirius is a Black. Any member with a grudge against the Blacks will be looking to bring them down. It won't matter for most that he's innocent."

"But we'll make sure he's found innocent, Pet," Danae was quick to add. She must have seen the panic rising on my face. I was a bit terrified that they would find him guilty just to spite his family, the ones he wanted nothing to do with. And I knew I couldn't raise both Dudley and Harry on my own. I needed Sirius's help, the way that Lily and James wanted.

"He'll come back," Tina added. She winced away from Lottie's half-hearted swat, then continued, at a much lower volume, "Sirius promised he'd be back, and he would never break a promise to you."

"Or anyone," Lottie hurried to add, pulling out of her darker spot to look up at us. "He's a very trustworthy soul."

A different thought distracted me before I could wonder too much about her odd behaviour. "What are we going to do with the boys?" I asked, slightly panicked again. "We can't bring them to a murder trial!"

A firm knock at the door stopped us all from staring at one another in vague horror. "Keep an eye on the boys, please," I sighed, not sure I was up for yet another surprise.

But when I opened the door to see a gaggle of small redheads, I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me. Or the tears. "Molly," I sighed, taking in my friend (who I hadn't seen in years) and her children, all but the littlest two loaded down with food. She somehow carried both of her youngest and the largest casserole dish I'd ever seen.

"Hello, dearest," she said, ushering her boys into the house like she lived there. She brushed a kiss to my cheek before directing the boys into the kitchen. "Food is the last think you need to be worrying about right now, so I've brought plenty. Oh, Nic, it's good to see you again, dear."

After unloading their bounty in the kitchen, the boys introduced themselves. Or, rather, Bill introduced them all. "I'm Bill, an' this is Charlie, and Percy, and Fred'n'George, and Ron, and the baby is Ginny," he said quickly. "Mum said you used to play with us when we were little."

I could hardly believe that the boy in front of me was Bill. I hadn't seen the Weasleys since… since Molly was pregnant with the twins, and that had been nearly four years. Now, he looked nearly ready for Hogwarts. "I did," I said, smiling through my tears. "You used to love playing with my hair since you didn't see blonde hair very often."

"We're all gingers," Charlie sighed, very heavily for someone his size, making all of us adults laugh.

"Dudley, Harry, would you like to play with someone your size? Or closer to your size?" I asked my boys, who were sizing up the new arrivals a bit shyly.

Apparently, that was all the encouragement needed. My boys took to Molly's like a kitten to cream, and her boys all seemed happy to play together, even for the age difference. Nic and Danae volunteered to take them all up to the attic, though they did promise to make sure it was clean before releasing the horde. Remus, Lottie, and Tina somehow melted away, leaving me alone with Molly. And her tiny daughter, who had somehow managed to sleep through everything. "She's used to it," Molly laughed. "With six brothers, she learned in the womb to sleep through any noise they make."

I laughed, even as I marveled at her tiny perfection. She was clearly only a few months old, but her shock of bright red hair was already several inches long. "She's beautiful, Molly," I sighed, feeling that tug of baby hunger once again. I shoved it ruthlessly down, since there would be no more babies for me.

"Thank you, I quite agree," she said laughingly.

I kept my gaze firmly on baby Ginny. After all, I hadn't abandoned her friendship for four years. "Molly, I'm sor-"

"If you say you're sorry, I'm going to hex you," Molly cut me off, sounding so fierce I couldn't help but look up at her. She fixed me with the look that had always had Gid and Fab muttering apologies. "You have nothing to apologize for, Petunia Evans. You were grieving, and you had so much to deal with. You've done nothing wrong."

"But I did! I cut you-"

"I don't care," she said firmly, in that tone that brooked no arguments. "I don't care, Petunia, about any of that. I just care about you. I don't care about anything other than how you're doing right now."

I burst into tears again, and she quickly gathered me into her arms. Even while still holding Ginny. "Cry as much as you want, love," she murmured, stroking my hair. "I'll be here as long as you need me."

AN: And we have another chapter! With some more characters! I loved writing Fierce Petunia, because she loves with all of her heart and wants all of her loved ones to be happy. And it was nice to have someone truly there for her, who wasn't mourning Lily and James like the rest of them. Yes, Molly knew Lily, but it wasn't the same, and Pet needed someone there for her, just for her. So, we had some good tears, and some laughs, and now onto the trial. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to be handling that, so don't expect a chapter next Sunday. That way, if I do get it out then, it'll be a pleasant surprise! Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to TaylorMade, ReviewerDWJ, SapphireSkys001, and Naynam for your lovely reviews. If you want to read something funny, check out the reviews TaylorMade has left for both stories. You never cease to crack me up, my dear!