Chapter 139

Bad News

"Apparently the Ministry feels the need to 'evaluate Hogwarts teachers." James rolled his eyes, his tone was mocking. Sirius gave a sarcastic grin in reply as he half threw his trunk into their usual compartment.

"I wonder if this is our fault," Remus replied allowing Sirius to take his trunk as well. The pup was more gentle with Remus' belongings then he had been with his own much to the prefect's relief.

"I doubt it. They just want to look like they're doing something productive. People are going crazy about security and the rising threat of the Death Eaters and dark arts. They're so close to declaring war over it that they have to look like they're doing something to prevent it." James explained shaking his head. His father had been complaining about since Decree number one hundred eighty-five came out a couple weeks ago. The new Minister of Magic, Harold Minchum, had made a snap decision once he realised the school year was beginning soon and it left half the ministry in a frenzy to carry out the decree. It called for more than just an evaluation of the teachers but private interviews with a number of students as well.

James severely hoped he wasn't part of that number. He didn't have time for silly things like that he was quidditch captain and an animagi-in-training, and a fifth year to top it all off. He had OWLS he didn't have time to study for this year. He didn't need some ministry idiot asking him pointless questions for hours at a time.

"I hope they evaluate the teachers in class. I want to see McGonagall's reaction to that!" Sirius gave a laugh.

"Evans! Hi. How was your summer?" James called completely ignoring Sirius' reply and almost knocking Peter over in his enthusiasm to wave at the pretty red-head.

"I've got more important things to do then put up with you." She replied, not bothering to even look at him.

"You've got some kind of prefect meeting, yeah?" He asked forcing himself into her line of sight and looked at his watch. "A bit early don't you think? Not trying to overcompensate for anything are you?" He teased enjoying watching her face scrunch up in anger.

"And how would you know, Potter? If you're planning on some stupid prank..." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion and the hand on her shoulder bag/purse thing (he hadn't the foggiest what it was supposed to be) balled into a fist.

How he loved that fire of hers!

"Me! I'm offended, Evans. How could you possibly believe I would do such a thing..." he started before allowing her to interrupt.

"Don't even go there, Potter. You and I both know..."

"To Remus," he finished causing her to hesitate in her insult.

"Excuse me?" He could tell she was having trouble preventing herself from glancing at the werewolf in question.

"I wouldn't want to embarrass Moony like that. Not on his first day, what kind of friend would I be then?" He asked not concerned in the least about the shade of red said friend's face was turning.

"Potter, you're not funny." She continued to glare at him.

"Now who's being rude? She doesn't believe me." He turned to Sirius who shook his head in disbelief, tossing something scarlet into James open hand. Remus' face matched the colour of the badge the stag was now holding.

"How did you...? Give it back," Remus reached out but his words were little more than a mumble so James ignored him.

"Oh, don't you feel bad. Didn't think I'd have proof, did'ya? Not so impossible now is it?" He teased her, her face shifted to a different shade of red as she looked at the badge.

"I didn't say that," she defended her eyes moving to look at Remus as though to assure him she'd meant nothing of the sort but in doing so she finally got a proper look at his face.

Her glare deepened as she returned her gaze to James, ripping the badge out of his hand, her expression returned to the fiery one she gave him every time she caught him doing something wrong.

He didn't have long to enjoy it, though as that same fire led to her punching him in the gut.

"For your information, that isn't at all what I meant." She turned away, her long red hair flying at the intensity of her movements and walked right over to Remus. Raising her voice now that she was talking over Sirius' howling laughter she continued. "I think Remus will be a brilliant prefect and if I find you, or anyone else for that matter, teasing him over it you'll have to deal with me. Got it?"

She glared at the rest of the Marauders, as though daring them to argue. He took James whining as conformation, and Sirius' uncontrollable laughter as unavoidable, so she ignored his lack of an answer.

She pinned the badge on Remus' robes in its proper spot. "As for you," she said sternly causing Remus to straighten up as though he was being scolded. "You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You should be proud of this badge, you worked hard for it, especially while having to deal with this lot all the time. I don't want to see you hiding it in your trunk anymore, got it?"

Her voice had become tender and soft. It was a tone James had never heard from her before, and it was one he found he preferred even over her fury. It was an odd thing and he was determined to pretend like he'd never heard it before.

He was James Potter! Quidditch captain and cup-winner, animagi-in-training and resident genius. He was not going to go to mush over Lily Evans' 'tender voice.' It just wasn't going to happen.

"Yeah, okay." Remus agreed, more to please her than anything, no doubt. His cheeks were still pink but the rest of his face was a more natural colour.

"Good." She nodded at him, back to the stern voice before dragging him off to the meeting with her. Leaving the three boys behind bewildered. She acted as though they were being mean. The marauders teased each other all the time and Remus was tough enough to take it.

James looked at Sirius who shrugged it off tossing the last of their luggage into the compartment.

"Oh, I wanted to find Kathy and Andrea, let them know I'm captain. Wormtail, you'd better get that Potions essay done before we get there. You won't want to do it later." he reminded the chubby marauder. "C'mon Padfoot, let's go find your girlfriend."

"Excuse me." Sirius stopped as he moved to follow. James gave a laugh.

"Please, you've been talking about her all summer." James rolled his eyes walking away from their compartment.

"I have not," he argued following, leaving Peter on his own.

"You so have. Waking me at one in the morning to complain about the broad."

"That never happened."

James laughed, throwing open a couple compartment door to find his quidditch team. "You don't remember? You did it like once a week."

"I did not. You're lying." Sirius was pouting as James opened another compartment door, this one containing one of the occupants they were looking for.

"Yo, Kathy." James greeted with a smile, Sirius choosing to stand in the doorway seemingly looking for someone. James managed to avoid laughing at him but it was a close call.

"You got the badge then? I wondered..." she greeted with a nod, noticing the captain's badge on his robes. "I thought maybe with your lack of attendance last year you'd be disqualified, but as I didn't get the badge and you and Keth are the only other quidditch members with any amount of actual skill or, in Keth's case, interest in in the game and he's a little young still."

James gave a cocky shrug and looked at Sirius whose attention was back on the occupants of the compartment. "I guess she decided I was too good to lose."

"Or..." Sirius started rolling his eyes, "and most likely, she knows that making you captain will ensure your attendance because you're obsessed and semi-responsible?"

"Semi-responsible? What do you mean semi-responsible?" James glared at his brother who gave him a sarcastic look.

"Well, it's good to know you two haven't changed at least," Kathy said with a restrained smile. They both gave her identical confused looks.

"Why would we be any different?" James asked. He didn't like the way she was looking at them. It triggered a warning in his brain, something bad happened, really bad.

"Everything's different now," she replied looking away from them out the window at the raindrops streaking across the glass.

James scooted closer, concerned now.

"What happened? Is your family okay?" she looked back at them, surprised by what must have been ignorance on their part.

"You didn't hear? Don't you read the Prophet?" she asked looking from James to Sirius and back.

"Not anymore. Moony does while we're at school, but during holidays they tend to end up lining the bottom of his owl's cage without being read. Dad usually tells me anything important anyway," he gave her a nonchalant shrug but it was half-hearted. As she spoke her face turned from one of surprise to heavy regret and the sorrow only one who'd lost a loved one truly understood.

James having never so much as lost a pet, couldn't begin to fathom the depths of her feelings. But that, of course, didn't stop his blood going cold at the expression on her face.

"He didn't tell you about that fight in Diagon Alley?"

"Mentioned it a couple times, that's not really his division, he's not an auror. Said someone died, though." James looked back, he'd heard about it a couple of times actually. Moony's dad had mentioned it too. "You're talking about the first one right. Not the one where the shop caught on fire?"

James' dad had managed to keep the marauder's involvement in the werewolf attack out of the daily Prophet, much to all their relief, but people still knew it happened and there had been word of new restrictions on werewolves coming into place soon.

They weren't so excited about that.

She nodded at his explanation and took a deep breath before forcing words out of her mouth.

"Andrea came across Bellatrix Black in Diagon Alley," she started, Sirius opened his mouth to comment but she was talking quickly wanting to get the explanation over with as fast as possible. "You know they can't prove Black killed her mother, no one really is willing to try, y'know how they are. But it really was obvious. Y'know how Andrea can be, she has a tendency to fly off the handle when adequately provoked. Well, she confronted Black, even fired the first shot."

She paused either out of breath or perhaps just wasn't strong enough to go on, but she didn't have too, both boys knew exactly what she was going to say.

"And Bella ended it..." Sirius finished slowly. James looked over at him, his face was white, the blood draining from it in horror. She nodded, looking at the floor now.

"Then the one who died..." James was haveing trouble truly grasping what was being said. He had no experience with death, not really, that false alarm with Remus last year had been the closest he'd ever come. Losing people, friends, family, that kind of thing happened to other people, people like Sirius and Remus. Andrea is, was, his friend, and that, by definition made her invincible.

"The worst part is that since she attacked first Black can claim self-defence and no one is going to make any attempt to disprove her."

That seemed to be the last straw for Sirius as the slamming compartment door startled the occupants and the hound was no longer among them.

They both looked at the compartment door longer than necessary.

"They never made up, did they." She looked back at James not so much asking a question as making an observation.

"I don't even know if he's forgiven her or not, Kathy. He hasn't so much as mentioned her all summer." James shook his head. He'd been teasing Sirius when he'd claimed Sirius called him in the middle of the night to talk about her, it hadn't been true. The only time Sirius called in the middle of the night was his sporadic rambling when he was trying to distract himself from the heavy thoughts living will a family like that tended to cause. Padfoot never talked about what really was wrong, but he didn't have to. James thought it was a pretty safe guess.

"I should probably go talk to him. Are you okay?" he asked standing up and looking back at her, one hand already on the door.

She looked away, back at the rain-smeared window. "She was my best friend. My earliest memory is meeting her. My parents work all the time, y'know, and I don't have any siblings. She and I were inseparable as kids." She told him smiling at the memory, James hadn't actually known anything about her family. He'd never cared enough to ask, and deeply regretted it. "Her cousin taught us to play quidditch together, I've never played without her. I seriously considered resigning," she admitted, "but Sirius just got banned and Keth's still a rookie, that just leaves me and you. I couldn't do that to you."

He gave her a grateful smile. "I appreciate that. It's going to be hard enough to teach four new players without having to do it by myself. If it is really bothering you, though..." he sighed, he didn't want to say it, but he also didn't want her to feel obligated to stay or the team.

"It's fine. I need to move on with my life, she's gone, but I'm not. I'm not going to stop living just because she's not here now." There was a determination in her eyes that he respected.

"I'm glad," his hand pulled the compartment open. "I'd best go find Sirius now."

"Yeah, tell me if there's anything I can do to help."

"Thanks, Kathy. Same to you," he said and hurried out the door. Sirius wasn't hard to find, he hadn't gone very far. The compartments were all occupied so he'd hidden himself in the short stairs leading to the exit of the train. He leant against a door watching the countryside whiz by out the window.

"That looks comfortable," James was being sarcastic, of course, it didn't look comfortable at all, yet he assumed a similar position across from the pup. He didn't lean against the door, fearing that his weight might be the deciding factor in causing it to burst open and throw them both down the hundred foot drop between them and the open lake that had replaced the fields and farms.

"How's Kathy?" he asked glancing up.

"She seems alright, she's pretty tough." James' gaze didn't leave Sirius and he didn't try to hide it. "You're still mad at her, aren't you?"

Sirius looked up, "Kathy?" he asked sounding confused, James gave him an irritated look. "Oh, Andrea, right." he didn't feel like skirting around the question. He'd had learned last year that avoiding the subject and hoping he'd come around to talk about it on his own didn't work.

Sirius gave a ground and looked back out the window. "If I wasn't before I sure am now. Stupid arse went and got herself killed."

"It wasn't very clever, was it. Attacking a death eater in the middle of a crowded street. I knew Andrea had a temper but she really didn't handle losing her mum very well at all." Someone passed them hesitating when she saw the two of them crammed in a doorway, a third year by the look of it. James waved her off and she left looking relieved.

"Of course it wasn't clever. Only a complete duffer goes up against Bella by themselves. Even I wouldn't do it without a place to hide afterwards."

"That's only cuz your mum would kill you if you did," James replied with a small smile Sirius returned it but it was forced.

There was silence for a moment. James didn't want to force conversation and Sirius didn't seem inclined to say anything else. Instead, Sirius continued to stare out the window at the ground, now a large forested area sped by trees blurring. When Sirius finally did speak his voice it aws so quiet that James almost didn't hear him.

"Completely pointless wasn't it."

"How so?" James asked though he thought he knew the answer.

"She didn't accomplish anything at all. Bella's not dead, not in Azkaban, not even significantly injured. She hasn't rallied anyone to take up her cause, she hardly had a cause to begin with. All hatred and revenge." He paused still not looking away from the window. James didn't respond, just listened, glad Sirius willingly opened up. It would have never happened last year. "What good did it do, really? Nothing at all. Just upset her friends. Nothing won, nothing gained. Bella hasn't learned her lesson, on the contrary, I heard her laughing over that exact same fight at one point over the holiday. I was a little distracted by the fact that my own mother had just used the imperius curse on me but..."

"She did what?!" James interrupted, he'd intended to let Sirius keep talking but that drew the line. Black had used an unforgivable on him? That wasn't something to just drop on him like that. Sirius jumped at his raised voices but the pup didn't look surprised when their eyes met, Sirius finally having looked away from the window. "But... that's illegal! Can't you..."

"What? Tell on her? James, Bella just killed someone in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street do you really think anyone cares that a Black just unforgivabled someone?"

"But... She..." he sighed at the look on Sirius' face, Padfoot was right, of course, and that made James furious. "What did she make you do?"

Sirius pointed at his hair, confusing James a little it seemed like such a silly reason for something so extreme. Sirius must have read his mind because he explained.

"It wasn't about the hair, really. I think she more wanted to see how much of a fight I'd put up."

"That makes it sound like she's plotting something." James looked him right in the eyes. He'd heard people (girls in particular) comment on how stony Sirius' eyes were but James didn't see it. There was too much warmth in them for that, more like smoke rising from a fire then stone.

Sirius hesitated before answering but he didn't turn away like James expected him too.

"She told me that if I didn't get my grades up before the end of term she'd force me to transfer via imperius curse."

James stood there, stunned by what he'd heard. "She can't do that! Dumbledore wouldn't allow it."

"What's he gonna do? Drag me back?" Sirius snorted his eyes rolling.

"If he had to."

"What does he care if I don't come back? All I do is cause him trouble." Sirius looked back out the window, his body was tense and his eyes were angry.

"That's not true, and you know it."

"If you say so, James." Sirius was looking everywhere but at James, he glared at a few passing kids, probably second or third years, stared at a spot of ripped wallpaper, out the window, everyone except the person he was speaking to. It annoyed James, but he didn't complain just telling him this must have been difficult for Sirius. The pup liked to pretend he was the least emotional of the Marauders, but he just cared too much to really pull it off, anyone who bothered to pay a reasonable amount of attention could see that.

"It doesn't matter, anyway. "James said; me, you, and Moony, I mean happened to be kinda brilliant."

"Well yeah, but being brilliant didn't exactly help us last year," Sirius argued pouting a little. James shrugged off Padfoot's concern showing off just how little he was worried. It wasn't an act either, they'd find a way. "Last year we didn't have Moony. And we're nearly done anyway.

"We also have OWLs this year, you're quidditch captain, and Remus is prefect, and I'm taking an extra class."

"You're dropping divination to do it."

"Divination didn't require any actual effort," he argued but looked more relaxed. No matter what Sirius said James could see his confidence rubbing off on the pup.

"We'll be fine." James didn't bother to argue instead he pushed himself off the wall and pulled Sirius out of the enclosed doorway throwing a hand over his shoulders. "C'mon, we've got more important things to worry about."

"Like what?" he asked, sceptical amusement on his face.

"Like planning our start of term prank of course!" James was almost bouncing as he pushed Sirius in the direction of their compartment.

Sirius, however, wasn't as excited. "I dunno, Prongs. I'm not in the mood for it."

"What?! C'mon, Padfoot, we gotta! Everyone will be expecting it." James whined. He understood of course, but it didn't do any good for Sirius to dwell on Andrea's death now. Mourning was a natural part of the healing process, but it was usually best done in privacy and the Hogwarts express wasn't exactly known for being private.

"Yes, because I'm well known for caring about what's expected of me." Sirius rolled his eyes. James couldn't see him do it as he was still pushing Sirius from behind but he could tell from the pup's body language.

"Padfoot!" James whined louder even pouting a little. Sirius groaned but allowed himself to be dragged to the compartment.

James let go of Sirius to open the door, ready to push the pup inside when he saw two little brats in their compartment, they had to be first years. Everyone else would have seen the names on the trunks and known better than to stick around.

"What do you lot think you're doing?" James asked as Sirius pushed himself into the compartment.

The two kids blinked at them for a moment before one of them spoke. "Hi, is this your stuff? We were wondering whose it was." She sounded friendly but neither of them really cared that much.

"Uh, yeah," Sirius replied as though it was more obvious then the chudley cannons were going to lose the championship this year. "Our stuff, our compartment. The real question is what you're doing in it."

The one that had spoken was responding to their blatant hostility and it made James want to laugh. She stood, fists clenched and eyes narrowed like she thought she was intimidating. It was adorable. "Your compartment? Who do you think you are exactly? Everywhere else was full and there's plenty of space in here, there's only two of you!" She defended, her friend was trying to calm her down, he looked frightened by the idea of her starting a fight with two fifth years.

James and Sirius looked at each other, the latter rolling his eyes while the former was still holding laughter behind his smirk. In perfect sync, the two Marauders raised their wands and bodily flung the two brats into the hall, their trunks and things followed closely behind. Sirius did take the time to gently place a horribly ugly owl in its cage out the door which James thought was amusing.

The aggressive little girl jumped up, knocking a trunk off her and causing a chuckle from Sirius.

Sirius' mocking laughter must have been the, last straw for her because she made an attempt to leap at him.

The only thing that stopped James from vexing her unconscious right then and there was the boy wisely holding her back, trying to to get her to calm down and stop yelling threats at them.

"Is there a problem?" they heard a hesitant voice they all turned to see Remus approaching, hands in his pockets, and shiny prefect badge still pinned to his robes. James noticed the first year girl's eyes flash right to his badge.

"They kicked…" she tried but James interrupted her. Remus wasn't an idiot, he could tell what was going on and James wasn't interested in her whining. Moony wasn't going to do anything anyway. "Nothing to worry about, Moony, they were just leaving."

"Clearly," Remus answered, he looked for a moment like he might make an attempt to tell them off but it only lasted a moment. Instead, his eyes were weary as he watched the girl glare at all three of them with absolute loathing in her eyes as though he was expecting to have to hex her himself.

"Have you seen Wormtail? I thought he was doing some homework." Sirius asked out of the blue, bored already by the kid's antics.

"I thought I saw him chatting it up with a couple of girls back there," he said pointing behind him, "I thought you might have dared him or something."

The boy had finally managed to convince his friend to find a new place to sit, her face still red but she wasn't so much glaring as sticking her nose up at them. James wanted to tell her it was too late to pretend she was above caring but Moony wouldn't have liked that.

Sirius laughed, "Not me, you? He looked at James who realised he was still talking about Peter.

"Nope, not even I'm that cruel." James laughed both first years, their trunks, and that ugly owl were gone now, so He led the way back into the compartment. "C'mon, Moony. We need to tell you something."

"Will it take long? The head boy and girl says we've got to do rounds every so often," he asked but followed them in without an answer.

"It's important," Sirius answered for him shutting the door behind them and putting a muffling charm on it and the rest of the compartment.

They repeated to Remus everything Kathy had told them. Remus hadn't known Andrea well, they'd never really even talked, but that didn't make much difference. James and Sirius had known her, and that was enough for him.

"She never managed to move on," Remus said sadly, shaking his head. "Greaving is natural and healthy, but allowing it to turn into hatred and letting that hatred consume you until you even abandon common sense..."

"It was stupid," Sirius added arms crossed and a stubborn look on his face. "Stupid and pointless."

"I won't deny it, Padfoot. But you have to understand, she didn't do it to accomplish anything. It was pure hatred that made her fire that first shot. Nothing good can come from anger like that. 'Hate begets hate, violence begets violence"

"You got that from a book, didn't you?" James asked smiling.

"Not this time, Martin Luther King Jr."

"Never heard of him."

"Why am I not surprised."

"Wasn't he that guy on the Japanese Quidditch team?" Sirius asked looking at James rather than the person he was actually asking.

"He's an American muggle."

"Oh... Not a Japanese quidditch player then?" He asked more as a joke than anything.

"Not likely."

They joked and laughed the rest of the way to Hogwarts station but James kept an eye on Sirius. The pup was subdued for sure. His smiles were forced and he didn't talk as much as usual. But he seemed to be handling it well, he was allowing himself to feel, rather than holding it in until he exploded causing a similar event to last year. James decided, with amusement, that they had finally properly trained their puppy.

The subject of Andrea's demise wasn't brought up again until James himself returned to it.

He held Sirius back as they climbed out of the horseless carriages and towards the castle until all the other students, minus a few sleepy looking stragglers, had left them. He'd waved Remus and Peter, who had looked sheepish indeed when he saw everyone had gotten back to the compartment before him, on to the castle so the two marauders were alone.

"What we overheard Dumbledore and McGonagall talking about last year." he started pausing before explaining properly, "This Order, thing. Do you really think it's an army?"

Sirius shrugged surprised by the sudden mention of something they hadn't spoken of in months. James wondered if he'd forgotten until now. James almost had. Andrea's demise had brought it back into his memory. "I dunno, but they talked about fighting, didn't they? What else would it be?"

"Well, I was thinking..." James started but Sirius finished.

"You want to join."

James looked at Sirius square in the eyes. "She didn't deserve to die, she was angry, yeah, but that's no reason to kill her." He was more determined than he'd ever been in his life, surer than he'd ever been. "We've got OWLs this year. It's supposed to be some sort turning point for us."

James had rolled his eyes when his mum had droned on over the summer about fifth year being the beginning of a wizard turning into an adult and his father slapping him on the back telling him it wouldn't be long before he was a real man, but now, now he was wondering if there might not have been some truth to it after all.

Sirius just silently nodded, and James responded the same, thinking about the future. His parents wouldn't like it, it was dangerous and stupid.

"Perhaps it wasn't what she was aiming for," James said his face solemn and his gaze never wavering from Sirius' own. "But her death wasn't completely worthless... We'll make sure of it."

Sirius looked at him, contemplating his words.

"Yeah, we will."

A/N) Man this chapter took so long to write. I kept wanting it to go one way and being unable to find a way for it to do so and then I'd cross out a whole bunch. ERG! It wasn't fun but I think it turned out alright regardless. Sorry about the wait, this is a long one that I struggled with A LOT!