Welcoming Feast, Hogwarts
"How was the ride in the Prefect cabin?" Angelina asked her as she joined her friends at the Gryffindor table.
"Exhausting," Marina grumbled and accepted the cup of orange juice Harry handed her. "Don't forget I had to content with Slytherins too."
Why Dumbledore, in his wisdom, had decided to make her Prefect, she would never understand. Her workload was extensive, given the fact that she had every intention to earn herself at least seven O.W.L.s this year – and she had not dropped any of her extracurriculars because her Dad had talked her out of it. Of course, Carmen was even more ambitious and had been named Prefect as well.
Their male partners were their exact opposite: they had absolutely no clue what they wanted to do after school so they weren't stressed out. Yet.
Before anyone could ask her anymore questions, or she had the chance to ask her own, some other students motioned for her to get up. Marina joined them up front for the Frog Choir's opening performance tonight.
Afterwards she hurried back to her seat, while Dumbledore started his usual speech.
"Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts. Now, I'd like to say a few words before we all become to befuddled by our excellent feast.
First, I'm pleased to welcome Professor R.J. Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Good luck, Professor."
Marina whirled around so fast she almost tripped. And indeed, Remus was sitting at the teacher's table, in his less than stellar robes but smiling broadly nonetheless as the hall broke into applause.
She was caught so of guard she could only stare as Alicia and Katie pulled her down on the bench and she gaped at her godfather, who was carefully avoiding her eyes. She snapped herself out of it in time to catch the tail end of the Headmaster's next announcement.
"... has decided to retire, in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. Fortunately, I'm delighted to announce that his place will be taken by none other than our own Rubeus Hagrid."
She joined the rather loud applause, that was strongest at the Gryffindor table. Marina was thrilled for her friend. The man had been expelled from Hogwarts for a crime he hadn't committed, so for him to now get this job was amazing. Of course, some small part of her brain warned her that while one of the best people she had ever known, Hagrid had a somewhat reckless attitude towards beasts.
Care of Magical Creatures would be interesting this year.
"Finally, on a more solemn note, at the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will – until further notice – play host to the dementors of Azkaban." The disgust was obvious in Dumbledore's voice and Marina could only agree.
"Until such a time, the Lestranges are captured, the dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. Now, whilst I've been assured that their presence will not affect our day-to-day activities, a word of caution: dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the ones they hunt and the one that gets in their way. Therefore I must warn each and every one of you: give them no reason to harm you. It is not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving. But, you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times," the Headmaster added and put out a candle with a wave of his hand. "When one only remembers to turn on the light." With another wave, the candle was burning again.
Lunch, next day
It was the bloody first day of the year and already Marina was just about ready to come out of her skin – then again after double History of Magic and double Potions first thing in the morning, who could blame her.
Someone needed to get Binns to move on, or whatever ghosts did, and hire a new teacher. As for Snape... well, that was a lost cause.
After lunch, she would have to endure Trelawney's nonsense – once again she was grateful for her natural ability in Divination, otherwise it would be hopeless.
And for the finale today, she had a double DADA. She was curious what Remus had come up with for the fifth-years.
"You!" Ron Weasley's voice sounded sharply and when she turned around, he was pointing a finger at her accusingly. "You could have told us Divination was bullocks."
"I did tell you," she replied and took in Harry's equally miserable expression. "Divination needs either natural talent – like mine – or a good teacher. And that is something we don't have."
"This is going to blow," Ron groaned. "First lesson ever and she predicted Harry's death."
"She did what now?" Marina asked, amused.
"Apparently, she saw the Grim in Harry's tea leaves," Hermione answered, clear derision in her voice.
Marina could have sworn she had seen Ancient Runes on the girl's schedule – and it was at the same time as Divination for the third-years. How...?
"McGonagall said she picks a student to die every year," Harry mumbled.
"She does," Marina easily agreed and pushed the potatoes over to her brother. "Eat. Take a wild guess who she picked my first lesson."
"Really?"
"Yes. Read it in my palm," she rolled her eyes and loaded chicken onto her plate. "But back to the point: what Trelawney saw was not the Grim."
She really couldn't get more to the point with so many people eavesdropping. Marina, as far as she knew, was the only student with the Inner Eye currently at Hogwarts. Everyone was always fascinated how a genuine seer judged the subject and its teacher.
"Then what was it?" Neville asked from a few seats down, a worried look on his face. Poor boy was awfully superstitious.
"Well, the Grim is a big, black dog," she shrugged and looked Harry in the eyes.
Marina saw the moment realisation dawned. Their teacher hadn't seen an omen of death in his tea – she had seen her Dad.
"But not every dog is the Grim. Dogs also symbolise protection – or a simple warning. And just how does one determine the dog is black anyway? Tea leaves are always black, for Merlin's sake."
The others seemed mollified by that explanation and settled down, now that they didn't need to worry about Harry dropping dead anymore.
Once everyone was suitably occupied with stuffing their faces, she turned to her brother.
"You weren't actually worried, right?" she asked quietly.
"No. But I didn't think of Sirius either," he replied in a whisper.
"Divination isn't for everyone, Harry. I'm sure McGonagall would let you switch, if you wanted."
"I saw the dog in the leaves, you know," he countered. "Besides, you can help me, right?"
"Sure. You'll just have to forgive any outbursts this year. My schedule is packed and I can't fail any of my O.W.L.s. In fact, I even need an Outstanding in Potions if I want to get into the ministry."
"Good luck with that," Harry commiserated. "On another note: did you hear about Malfoy?"
Marina snorted.
"Of course. Only Draco would milk it like this. Idiot deserved what he got for insulting a hippogriff. Trouble is, Lucius is going to make Hagrid's life hell over this."
"Can you do anything?"
"Not really. If I write to Narcissa and she does try to meddle on our behalf, Lucius will get suspicious. And as long as Dromeda and Dad refuse to talk to her, she has nowhere else to go. I can't ask her to risk her life over this."
"You think Malfoy would kill her?
"Well, maybe not himself. Lucius doesn't like to get his hands dirty. You saw that for yourself last year. But one of his Death Eater friends would."
Harry sighed into his lunch.
"Don't worry about Hagrid. He's got Dumbledore on his side. I'm more concerned about Buckbeak, to be honest."
End of day
Everybody was chatting excitedly. For the first time in three years, they'd actually used magic in DADA. Not only that, but they had a teacher who apparently knew what he was doing too. If only they knew.
Marina stayed behind to talk to Remus.
"You couldn't have told me?" she asked once he'd repaired what little spell damage her classmates had caused today.
"Padfoot wanted it to be a surprise," he replied and sat down. He looked entirely too tired.
"Any advice on how I'm supposed to call you Professor and keep a straight face?"
"Can you imagine how it feels to call your Head of House by her first name?" Remus retorted.
"Ugh... no. I'm not that crazy."
But it sure as hell put a damper on her animagus training. She'd reached the final stages but McGonagall didn't want to let her off the leash yet. Marina would have to be very careful now.
October, Great Hall
To anyone watching it was just another day like any other. But when one looked closer, one would notice that the three Gryffindor Chasers and their team-mates were very worried. Even the team captain had his eyes on a fellow student, who looked very bad. Even some of the Ravenclaws were darting worried looks the girl's way.
Marina was well aware that she looked like death warmed over, thank you very much. Remus had even expressed his concern in class when she'd failed at a defensive spell she had mastered under Mad-Eye's watchful eye two years ago.
For almost a week now she'd been plagued by nightmares. But she knew that they weren't just bad dreams; her Inner Eye was warning her about something.
Two days ago she'd been to Hogsmeade, it had been the first weekend after all, and had contacted her mentor in all things Seer. Unfortunately, the woman hadn't been able to interpret her nightly visions any better than she had.
The end result of her recurring dreams and the knot in her stomach had been the rather charming picture she presented now: her hair was nowhere near tamed, she had dark circles underneath her eyes, said eyes were bloodshot and she was crankier than Snape and Filch combined.
The night before she'd had to force herself not to take points from some poor kid that had been walking too loudly for her taste at that moment.
Marina was pretty sure that Remus and Madame Pomfrey had both written to her Dad by now. Good luck with that. Two weeks ago he'd sent her, and Harry, a letter and explained that the ministry had offered him his job back: full reinstatement to Senior Auror.
Personally, she didn't know how he was ever going to trust any of them ever again, but of course he'd accepted; if only to get the chance to go after Bellatrix himself.
At first she'd thought that was what her nightmares were about; that she was simply worried about losing him yet again. But, apparently well aware of that, her father sent her his patronus every night when he got home. And seeing as his boss had allowed him to chose his partner himself – given understandable trust issues – even Marina knew that he would be as fine as any auror was likely to ever be.
Unfortunately, that left her with next to nothing to explain the visions. Asking Trelawney was out of the question; the fraud would spin some horribly morbid scenario out of it – the week before she'd predicted that Marina would lose her first child and never recover. When asked, however, who the father would be or how she would lose it, the woman had focused on another poor student and predicted his future doom instead.
To add to Marina's bad feeling, she'd been able to see something in the crystal ball for the first time; and none of it had been comforting at all.
There was only one thing Marina was absolutely sure about: her visions had to do with Bellatrix and whatever the bloody hell she was up to. And it turned her stomach, even though she couldn't understand it yet.
Hospital Wing, Hogwarts, November 13th
"So much for the Ministry's assurances," Carmen mumbled and squeezed Marina's shoulder.
For her part, she wasn't moving a muscle next to Harry's bed. She still wasn't over the sight of her brother falling from almost forty feet.
If Dumbledore hadn't been there and stopped his fall, he would be dead. A phoenix had burst out of the furious Headmaster's wand and chased the dementors away but the damage was done.
Marina had the awful feeling that she knew exactly what Harry heard when those monsters came near him.
"Can't Dumbledore get rid of them?" Alicia asked, pale like the rest of them.
"Not as long as Bellatrix is free, no," Marina shook her head. "Fudge won't take any chances. And those abominations' effect is worse on people who have been through trauma."
"Making Harry a prime target," Katie mumbled in sympathy.
"Our childhood trauma would have been enough, not to mention what happened with Quirrell and the Chamber," Marina agreed.
"Diggory wanted to cancel his catch. Declare it void," Angelina mentioned.
"He felt them too," Carmen suggested.
"We all felt them," Marina ground out and stood. "Stay with him, okay? I need to talk to R... Lupin."
"What if he's still sick?" Kate asked.
"He's not sick enough not to let me in," she huffed and left the hospital wing.
If her classmates and friends knew that their favourite teacher was a werewolf...
The full moon had squarely knocked Remus out for a few days – it had been one of the worse ones.
Marina was fairly sure that Hermione had figured it out, even though her two best friends had kept their word and not even told her about it. The girl was too smart for her own good sometimes and Snape had certainly dangled enough clues in front of the class.
Harry had been outraged.
Regardless, the moon had been over for two days now so Remus was completely human once again and utterly harmless – well, at least as far as teeth and claws went.
Merlin, she couldn't wait until McGonagall cleared her as an animagus and she could stay with Remus during the worst times of his life.
She knocked at his door loudly after sprinting through half the castle. There was no answer but she could sense him through the door.
"Moony, it's me," she said loudly, grateful that no one was around to hear her use his Marauder nickname.
Promptly, the door opened. He looked awful.
"This couldn't wait, I take it?" Remus grumbled and waved her in.
He was always in a sour mood after the moon.
"Well, considering that the dementors almost got Harry killed an hour ago, no."
He spun around so fast he stumbled over his cane.
"Say again?"
So she told him how Harry had spotted the Snitch and given chase, only to be overwhelmed by a few dozen dementors, and had consequently fallen off his broomstick.
Remus let lose a string of colourful curses Marina was sure he would never have used in her presence under normal circumstances.
"He's still out like a light, the team is with him. Moony, you and I both know that the Ministry won't remove them until my lunatic cousin is caught – or dead. Those monsters are here to stay, for the time being. And they seem to really like Harry."
"You want me to teach him the Patronus," Remus concluded and limped over to an armchair and sat down.
"Yes. I know full well how hard that spell is but dammit, Remus, it's bad enough I have to listen to Mum and Lily dying all the time. And I'm pretty sure that's what he hears."
Pain flashed through her godfather's eyes at her words. Her mum and Lily had been his friends too after all.
"What makes you think he'll want to?" Remus asked and sighed as he leaned back.
"He wants to keep playing Quidditch and he doesn't want to go insane. He'll want to."
November 17th, Great Hall, Dinner
"Still not sleeping better?" Harry asked rather dryly after she'd stabbed a piece of chicken with more force than necessary.
"No," she confirmed and bit back the snarl.
McGonagall had finally let her lose and she was now a fully capable, if not registered, animagus. So was Carmen.
But not even that had been enough to lighten her mood, given that her nightmares were getting worse.
"You need to train more," her brother commented, probably because he never slept better than after Quidditch.
"Yes, well, tell it to the school. We don't have Duelling here and even if we did, other students would be no match for me. Not after I've been training with aurors for so long."
"But you're coming to my extra sessions with Lupin, right?"
"Definitely. I'm still rubbish at the Patronus. I can use the practice."
For the rest of the Feast, Marina was actually in better spirits.
"What O.W.L.s do you need anyway?" Harry asked her while eating his pudding.
"Five ones minimum: Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology and Potions – good times. But I'd like to get Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures too."
"Potions?" Harry repeated aghast.
"Yes. You remember David? His partner, Elias, is pretty damn good at Potions. He tutored us the past two summers whenever he had time."
"What does Carmen want to do after school?" her brother asked, his curiosity piqued.
After growing up among muggles, he obviously had no idea what wizards did for a living.
"She wants to become a Healer. Bianca actually wants to become a full-time tutor and is finishing her Arithmancy Mastery this year."
"Do you... do you know what Mum and Dad did?" Harry asked almost hesitant. "Your mum never wrote about it."
"She did actually, in her last journal. That's the one you haven't got yet," Marina told him. "Lily was going to get her Mastery in Charms and teach. James was getting his in Transfiguration, like Dad, and wanted to eventually transfer to the Office for Animagus Control – they get to teach people how to become animagi in the first place. But they never got that far."
Silence reigned for a few moments and she could feel him fighting the grief overcoming him. Then he forced himself to change the subject.
"Do you have time tomorrow to help me with my Runes homework? I'm totally behind."
Like Marina had said, McGonagall had allowed Harry to switch subjects – though she suspected her Dad had convinced his old teacher to do it.
"Of course. But why not ask Hermione?"
Not that she didn't want to help him but she had her own load of studying to do – Potions was driving her round the bend.
"Ron and Hermione are fighting and-"
He never got to finish because Dumbledore rose from his seat and everybody went silent.
"I have a short announcement to make before we all go off to bed," he announced merrily – but nothing about the old wizard's emotions was merry. "Due to certain... events of late, the Ministry has decided to post a squad of Aurors here at Hogwarts, in order to keep the guards in check."
Oh that was rich. So now they were posting aurors to protect them from the creatures that were supposed to protect them. Genius.
Marina couldn't find it in her to complain, though. Not after what had happened on the Quidditch pitch – and not when she saw that among the squad of aurors entering the hall, were David and Elias.
She twisted to look over her shoulder and met Carmen's grin. Her friend had known about it, apparently.
"I would ask-," Dumbledore continued, "-that the Prefects stay a moment longer to coordinate with our new house guests. That would be all, good night!"
Made sense. Prefects were the only students allowed to roam the castle after curfew, and the aurors would have to know which students to expect on patrol.
Carmen, Marina and the others went over to the aurors and shook their hands – save for Elias and David who got hugs.
"You volunteered for this, didn't you?" Marina asked as David took a step back.
"And if we did?" She just shook her head.
"How's Jenna?"
She had finally gotten the name of his girlfriend out of Ty a few days ago – not that it was any of her business...
"Off hunting treasure," he smiled and his feelings turned all weird.
"She's a Curse Breaker?"
That was what the employees of Gringotts were called; people whose sole mission it was to accumulate wealth for their goblin employers.
David just nodded and then they turned back to the others, coming back to the matter at hand.
But before anyone could utter a word, something fell down from the ceiling – it was only then that Marina noticed that just about no one had left the hall; the students were too curious for that.
Nothing harmful could pass through the castle's protections – put in place by Dumbledore himself – so no one was particularly worried. Marina recognised it as someone's Patronus.
And then the caster's emotions, clinging to the silvery form, hit her full force and her knees buckled. From the corner of her eyes, she saw David and Carmen reach out to catch her but it was too late. She hit the ground and groaned as a splitting headache started pulsing behind her eyes.
She had felt malevolence like that before, only the previous year actually, but both times it had been muted since Voldemort had not been anywhere near human or full strength.
But the Dark Lord hadn't sent the Patronus, which now formed into a snake and slithered towards her. No, there was something else suffusing the ethereal image – pure madness.
Marina knew who had sent it even before the snake opened its mouth to deliver the message.
"Good evening, my dear little cousin," Bellatrix' voice sounded through the entire Great Hall, sickeningly sweet and her trademark cackle behind the words. "Congratulations on freeing that mutt of a father of yours. Perhaps you'll prove smarter than he did. I want what is rightfully mine, dear girl."
An image of a home library flashed through Marina's mind; suddenly her dreams were starting to make sense.
"I don't think I have to tell you what will happen if you refuse me, Marina. You know what happened to darling Rose."
She clenched her teeth, even as Carmen cursed behind her.
"And who knows. With all this time on my hands, maybe I'll put the Longbottom boy on top of my list."
David inhaled sharply.
"48 hours, cousin. 48 hours."
The Patronus dissipated, message delivered.
Suddenly, a lot of people were hurrying towards her. David and Carmen hugged her from both sides, while Elias and the other aurors kept the others – except Remus – at bay.
Marina's head felt two seconds away from exploding and Bellatrix' emotions had left a sick feeling in her gut. Still, none of that compared to the utter horror she was feeling herself.
Bella had thought she could threaten Marina into complying. Little did her cousin know she'd accomplished the opposite.
Because Marina knew exactly what Bella was after – and if the maniac ever got her hands on it, the Dark Lord would rise again. She so needed to talk to her Dad.