Author's Note:
Can I just say how happy it makes me seeing on my email 'new review: Messing with Feeling' I have a little weep of joy to myself – not sounding strange or anything. It lets me know that even if my little story will never be as popular as some of the greats, there's still some people taking notice – thank you
"Hey, Sash, are you coming to Hogsmeade?" Lily tried to sound cheerful as she tugged on Sasha's sheets whilst holding a hot chocolate.
"Murghff" She replied. Checking to see if she was alright Lily pulled the cover off her face to reveal her tear stained face,
"Oh Sash" Was all that Lily could say as she wiped away the stains. "Are you sure you don't want to come?" another weird sounding noise from Sasha showed she wasn't.
"Ok then, take care" Lily tucked Sasha back in and placed the hot chocolate on the bedside table, then checked her reflection in the mirror – come on it was the first time she was going to Hogsmeade with James – before running down the stairs to meet James and the rest of the gang.
"Lily, you look…" James took in her image as she emerged from the staircase wearing a blue dress with white flowers, a thin brown belt, cream flats, her hair lightly curled. "Amazing"
"Why thank you!" She beamed, twirling jokingly.
"She better, we spent three hours this morning picking that out!" Kara moaned before getting slapped in the arm by Lily.
"SIRIUS?" James yelled up the stairs.
"Calm down calm down! I'm coming!" Sirius jogged down the stairs with a smile of his face, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Kara 'prettied up' for the first time. She was wearing a white dress with a lace floral pattern covering it with a peach bow tied around her waist with peach flats. A massive blush spread across her face.
"Uh. Hi Kara" He muttered.
"Sirius this has gone on long enough for goodness sake" James whispered into his ear.
"James if you say anything I'm going to kill you" He whispered back.
"Sooo, let's go!" James tried to change the subject, and they set off out of the castle, James and Lily hand in hand.
"So, where are you two love birds going?" Sirius teased. "Madam Pudifoot's?"
"NO" James and Lily chorused before looking at each other and smiling.
"I was thinking more Zonko's?" Lily suggested, James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius stared at her open mouthed.
"Where have you been all my life?" James smiled at her.
Before Lily could answer a massive riot came charging down the streets of Hogsmeade. Screams and shouts echoing from down the alley. The group of Ravenclaws were tackled and one of them got punched in the face. More shouts made it almost impossible to be heard.
"Who are...?" Before Remus could finish his sentence he was knocked to the side and James was smacked in the face, a wall of screams bounced off the shops and rang in their ears as a loud bang was heard.
"WHAT THE HELL?" James shouted over the noise looking around in a panic.
"WHO ARE THEY?" Remus screamed at the gang, closely avoiding another one knocking him over, whilst another caught Kara in the arm as they charged past.
"GRAB THE GIRLS" James yelled to Remus and Sirius.
"OK, JAMES YOU TAKE LILY, I'LL TAKE KARA, REMUS LOOK AFTER PETER!" Sirius shouted back.
"Hey!" Peter started, but his feelings were ignored because Remus, James, and Sirius all grabbed the hands of the person they were covering after and ran off.
"What's going on?" Kara shouted over the noise surging through Hogsmeade.
"I don't know!" Sirius yelled back attempting to drag her away from the danger.
Reams of people wearing black robes and silver masks were charging down the streets of Hogsmeade clutching big staffs and torches.
"Where are we going?" Kara persisted.
"Somewhere where we're going to be safe" Was all Sirius could say while he tried to figure out the quickest way to the Marauder's safe place.
"Wh…" Kara began to ask before one of the crowd turned around and noticed who she was.
"You are a Shaw?"
"Uncle Alphard?" Sirius looked confused into his uncle's eyes, the uncle that was supposed to be on his side. Confused over what to do next, and with a crowd gathering around them he punched Kara in the head, knocking her unconscious, and then threw Sirius to the floor, whispering sorry into his ear before he ran off.
"KARA!" Sirius dragged himself up, grabbed Kara and held her in both hands and ran down a nearby alley, then around the back of the houses. From there he stopped for breath, and then continued to carry Kara to a cave where the Marauders always hung out when they went to Hogsmeade. He carefully placed Kara down on the floor of the cave, using his jumper as a pillow.
"Kara, can you hear me?" Sirius stroked her arm as he sat desperately next to her on the cold cave floor. After getting no response he examined her face closer to check if there was anything wrong, there was a gash on the side of her head. Ripping a long strip from the bottom of his shirt Sirius dabbed at the cut with a tissue in his pocket then wound the strip around her head. After checking again if she'd wake up and getting no response Sirius sat next to her and held her hand.
"JAMES?" Lily shouted from behind him, looking over her shoulder worriedly. "JAMES, WHERE ARE WE GOING?"
"THE SHACK" He yelled back, desperately looking around for an escape route before Lily spotted a gap.
Pulling James round the corning of a shop and jumping over a wall they narrowly avoided getting run down. They finally came into the clearing looking out onto the shrieking shack, but instead of staring in shock like most people do they quickly leapt over the fence and charged down to the door. Just before James flung it open they heard a cackle from inside.
"There's someone in there" Lily whispered. Resisting the urge to make a sarcastic comment about it clearly just being a pigeon not a person he nodded and slowly pushed open the door, the laughing got louder.
"We should go" Lily tugged on James' sleeve.
"We can't, this is the quickest way back to the castle, and this could be important" so instead of running away they crept down the hallway and hid behind a door so they could hear what was being said in the next room.
"What are we going to do now? There's no way we're going to be able to get into the school" A voice asked.
"Oh shut up, we're only here to show that we have power" A low, dark sounding voice snapped. "We want all of these lowly idiots to see that we can strike anywhere, any time before this gets interesting.
"What about the girl?" They heard a thud coming from the room, as if a person had kicked the floor in protest following that were some desperate wails of terror.
"There's only one option, she knows too much. Shame. She had potential. Avada Kedavra!" Silence.
"Oh God" Lily gasped, having to bight down on her sleeve to stop her from shouting out again.
"Now let's go, we have work to do" The footsteps that followed came worryingly close to James and Lily's hiding place but luckily continued out of the door. When they heard nothing for a couple of minutes James and Lily crept out from behind the door and ran through the room the two people had just been in.
"Oh" James said weakly putting his hand up to his mouth. A worker from Dervish and Banges lay motionless on the floor.
"We can't do anything" Lily closed his eyes and dragged James form the room, down the long winding corridor, and finally out of the base of the Whomping Willow. Natural reflexes made James touch the spot which rendered it completely still just before a branch came thundering down onto them.
"Children!" Slughorn came charging down the path towards them "Oh my God you're OK, quick quick come to the Great Hall the head teacher's making an announcement to everyone" He was too panicked to even notice where they'd just come from.
Most of the students had been ushered back from Hogsmeade completely unharmed when the teachers realized what was happening, but there were a lot of empty spaces at the Slytherin table and some missing from the others.
"James, I can't see any of the others" Lily looked around frantically just as Peter and Remus came panting through the door.
"We… ran… so… much" Peter gasped before passing out on the floor.
"Is he alright?" A concerned teacher walked over.
"Oh, yeah it's just Peter" James explained and the teacher walked off apparently satisfied with that answer.
"If I can have your attention, please" The booming voice of Dumbledore rang through the Great Hall.
"I know this is a time of fear, and chaos, but I need all of you to calm down so that me and the teachers can help those who are missing, and know that as long as I am here you are safe. Sadly as a result of today's events trips to Hogsmeade are otherwise cancelled" A wave of groans ran through the hall "And until further notice all students are required to stay in their assigned common rooms. That is all"
James, Lily, Remus, and Peter traipsed up to the common room worried about what had happened to Kara and Sirius.
"Who saw them last?" Remus asked the group as they sat around the fire.
"All of us, just before they ran off" James looked mournfully into the fire as he tried to comprehend the loss of his best friends "Why did we have to go and split up!" he punched the chair in anger.
Lily sat next to him and put her arms around his shoulders "Because it was what was best at the time" she soothed, kissing his forehead.
"Well it wasn't good enough" He continued to sulk.
Kara woke up in a daze with a pounding headache, the floor beneath her was uncomfortable and rock hard.
"What on earth?" She started to say as she attempted to get up but dizziness took over and she fell straight back to the ground.
"It's Ok, Kara, it's Ok" Sirius had stayed by her side the whole time.
"What happened?" She asked drowsily.
"We were attacked" Sirius replied solemnly.
"And the others?" Kara started to look worried as the memories slowly came back to her.
"I don't know. Lily and James disappeared and I saw Remus and Peter heading for the gates"
Kara put her hand up to her head and felt material, then looked over at Sirius whose shirt had been torn at the bottom.
"Did you…?" Kara asked gesturing at Sirius' shirt.
"Mhm" Sirius confirmed.
"But that's your favourite shirt!" Kara exclaimed, surprised at Sirius' generosity.
"I did it for you" Sirius was immediately embarrassed by what he had just said so he quickly added "I would have done it for any of the guys"
"The guys. Right" She sighed, the silence following it was painful "So, umm, should we be getting back?"
"Uh, yeah, things died down a bit an hour ago" Sirius got up and wavered for a bit – he'd been sat on the floor in the same position clutching Kara's hand for hours.
"An hour ago?" Kara looked shocked "How long have we been here?"
"A couple of hours" Sirius replied meekly "You looked too weak to move, I'd already checked you for breathing and serious bleeding and you didn't look like you were going to die so..."
"So you sat here with me for hours just so you didn't hurt me?" Kara looked over at Sirius who was sat hunched up embarrassed.
"Uhh, yeah?" He said uncertainly.
"That's just…" She started.
"I know, completely sad" Sirius murmured, regretting even answering the question. Kara, on learning this new information, got up and walked over to Sirius, kneeling down next to him.
"No, I think that's the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me" She smiled at him, leaned over, and kissed him. They then decided it was Ok to return to Hogwarts.
In the common room the next week everyone was gathered around Marlene McKinnon who had a letter from the newlyweds Molly and Arthur Weasley.
"What does it say?" Everyone was asking eagerly.
"It says that they're happy to tell us that they've just had their third son, Percy, and there's a picture attached" Marlene told them as she held out the photo.
"That's one ginger baby" Sirius laughed.
"And Arthur's just got a job at the ministry! He says if any of us would like to tell him the use of a ladle it would be much appreciated" Lily laughed at this, what was it with wizards and being transfixed with anything Muggle that didn't really make any sense? She remembered showing Sasha and Kara a diablo once and them both being totally in awe of it.
Everyone at Hogwarts had been trying to act as if everything was normal and nothing had just happened, everything was changing too suddenly at Hogwarts. Parents were pulling their children out of school, and those who didn't think they'd make it through the wizarding war had just given up going full stop and it had only been a week.
When everyone had settled over the baby news Sasha walked through the door of the common room and a hundred eyes were suddenly on her as she walked with her head in the air trying to look cool and collected. Kara had only just got out of the hospital wing and on seeing her friend she leapt off her chair and hugged her.
"How did it go?" She asked worriedly. After a long pause Sasha suddenly yelled.
"They let me off!" Everyone cheered and got up to hug her.
"Now let's go and teach those slimy gits a lesson" Sirius rolled up his sleeves and prepared to storm down to the Slytherins and punch their lights out.
"Don't Sirius, I got let off with a warning, any more trouble and I'm a goner" that stopped Sirius dead in his tracks so he just turned and hugged her with everyone else.
"Fine, only for you though" he sighed "How on earth did you wing that?"
"I guess with the war and all they had more things to worry about" She beamed, ever the keen observer she said "Is there something going on between you two?" after seeing how Kara and Sirius weren't making eye contact, waggling her finger between Kara and Sirius, they quickly leapt apart.
"Us, no, what? Never, the idea disgusts me!" Sirius babbled quickly his face going bright red.
"Yeah, me and Black? I couldn't date my best friend" Kara still couldn't make eye contact with Sirius.
"Of course, of course" said Sasha, totally unconvinced.
Authors Note:
I'm not going to lie I've been annoyed with this chapter. It just wouldn't go right so rather than spending the next week tinkering with it I've just gone with it. I'm pretty proud of some parts, but others I think are best left to the imagination.
Please don't forget to comment Nothing would make me happier after sitting through final days of lessons and rubbish teachers then seeing some comments from you lovely people. With that said:
-Mischief Managed