For three, long, days, James had been confined to a hospital bed, drifting in and out of consciousness - dream and reality morphing into one. Eventually, he arose, clear-headed, (though a bit confused as to where he was) and found that everyone – Sirius, Peter and Remus – had been saved. The most relieving news of all was that his parents were alive, waiting to be visited on the fifth floor, where St. Mungo's long-term patients were kept. On his second day in the hospital, James was visited by Alastor Moody, who came into his room by wheelchair.
James was shocked to see that where the Head Auror's right leg had once been there was now only a stump. Moody told James everything he remembered about the morning of the attack on their department – the chaos, curses flying off the walls, classified documents scattered everywhere – and then, he did his best to break down the condition James' parents were in.
"Your parents are older than me," Alastor explained to James. "With the injuries, they've sustained they won't be capable of returning to work on the team." It was impossible to imagine a world in which his parents were not Aurors - as they had been James' entire life.
"Your father has lost his arm, your mother lost a lot of blood due to a nasty curse she was hit with. The Healers say they're lucky just to be alive—"
"You can't know for certain they won't recover to full strength," James was still in denial. He had never known his parents to be quitters, they were resilient, the strongest people James knew in this world, it was impossible that a few injuries could be the end of a lifelong career.
"There's no chance they'll recover to full strength, that is what the Healers say," Moody stated as a matter of fact.
The news was impossible to process. James had imagined his parents dead or alive but never had he pictured that their lives might be forever altered by the events of one day. He spent the rest of the afternoon, once Alastor Moody left, an anxious wreck and barely touched his dinner when it arrived on a tray that evening. After final check-ins, James lost his patience and snuck out of bed (feeling like a child up past bedtime) tiptoeing towards the stairwell in his blue striped hospital pyjamas.
He found his parents two floors up at the end of a long, fluorescent-lit corridor. The door to their shared hospital room was slightly ajar so that James could stand and watch them from a distance before they noticed he was there. His father was asleep on his side, turned away snoring as his mother, sat up in her own bed beside him, knit while she hummed to herself. James relished in the sight for a few seconds, thankful to see his parents alive and together, before he cleared his throat and entered their room. Caroline Potter dropped her knitting, mouth falling open in awe.
"Am I dreaming?"
"No," James couldn't help but smile, relieved to find his mother still looked herself – despite her thinner, paler appearance. Any black which had still remained in her hair the last time he had seen her was gone, replaced by a dark shade of grey, but still, she was as warm and cheerful as ever.
"Come here baby," she ushered him over, her arms open for a hug. James had dreamt of this moment a thousand times while held captive, but he had not prepared himself for the overwhelming rush of emotion he would feel once he was actually in his mother's arms again. Tears trailed from the corners of his eyes as he held on tightly to her.
"What the hell happened?" she asked, rubbing circles into James' back as he lay with her, feeling like his five-year-old self, desperate for his mother's comfort.
"I wanted to go home, to see if you guys were there," James explained, his voice thick with emotion as he forced himself to recall that fateful afternoon. "When we got into the house, we heard voices and I thought…" his eyes clenched shut as he remembered the hope which had washed over him and then, quickly being replaced by terror.
"Before we knew it there were six of them…"
"Oh, my darling…" his mother squeezed him tight. "I am so sorry. I'm so sorry for everything you've been put through."
"They didn't want to kill us," James went on, recounting his horror. "They wanted us to join them…"
"What?"
"Voldemort, he was there…" his mother grew rigid, pale with fear, her hands gripping him tightly now as if James might simply float away. "He told me you were dead. He said…" James trembled, overcome with nausea simply at the memory. "He said that they already had people working for them on the inside."
"He's lying…" His mother was suddenly pale with fear, more scared than James had ever seen her.
"What if he's not though? What if someone put in the same situation we were, who did have information to share, cracked?"
"That's not for you to worry about, James," his mother's face was serious, her tone heavy. "Leave this to the experts."
"What about you?" James couldn't help worrying. "Alastor Moody told me that you and dad are planning to retire."
"It's time," his mother sighed with resignation, "our health has made it impossible to continue as we once did." Perhaps noticing the distress in her son's face - Caroline reached out, stroking James' cheek like she did when he was younger. "We're fine. We are all going to be just fine." She smirked and added, "though I might be better if my son were not constantly throwing himself in the face of danger."
"I'll do better," James insisted, making a promise he knew he would never keep. "I'll be smarter, make safer choices."
His mother laughed, well aware of his talent for trouble.
"It won't be long before you've finished school and you can make your owns decisions," she reminded him. "It's only a few more months of freedom you really have. You won't realize how lucky you are right now until it's over."
"I know," James nodded, desperate to make his mother proud (for once in his life). "I'm going to do better mummy," he leaned down to kiss her cheek, "for you."
While the rest of their friends were downstairs in the Great Hall for dinner, Alice and Frank took full advantage of the vacant boy's dormitory, drawing the drapes around Frank's bed for intimacy. Since their reunion at St. Mungo's they'd barely had a moment alone. Between Marlene's breakup, detention, and the Marauders' recovery, the whole world seemed to have been put on pause.
Except amongst close friends, Alice and Frank had kept their reunion quiet and avoided any public displays of affection to put off school gossip for a little while longer. It was hard to keep their hands off of one another, especially after such a long time apart. All Alice wanted to do when she was near him was touch him, to grasp his hand or cling to his arm and feel the warm touch of his skin against her own if only to remember that he was hers. This was her man.
It turned out that craving physical affection and actually being physical were in fact, two very different things. Not until they were finally alone, and beginning to undress before each other for the first time in months, did Alice feel herself overcome with insecurity. She was unnervingly conscious of every part of her body, every roll of skin and slight blemish, and the fact that Frank had spent months shagging the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts.
"Can we…" they were making out, cuddling on Frank's bed, but despite how long she had wanted this Alice could not enjoy the moment. "Frank... I need to stop..." she pulled away from him, drawing her knees towards her chest protectively.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes," she lied before realizing and shaking her head instead. "No…I just…" she felt like her head was about to explode. "It's not you…I just…I don't feel very…sexy." Just saying it out loud made Alice's cheeks burn with embarrassment. She turned away from Frank, but he put his hands on her shoulders, squeezing softly. Slowly, he put his hand around her waist and turned Alice around to face him.
"Talk to me."
"I can't stop thinking about you and Cecily," Alice finally admitted, filled with shame. "I keep picturing how much better she must have been…"
For months Alice had lived in self-loathing, hating herself for everything she'd done to the person she loved for the sake of some physical satisfaction. It had made it difficult to love her body. All she could do was picture Cecily Turner in her place, on the same bed, a thin, blonde, bombshell in comparison to frumpy, plain, Alice.
"Oh, Alice…" Frank was staring at her as if she had just said the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "For a smart person you can be quite daft sometimes." her jaw fell open. "All I ever thought about when I was with Cecily was you." That confession blew Alice away. "I love you, Alice. You hurt me more than anyone ever has and yet I love you so much I still found a way back to you." He drew her in closer, pressing his forehead against hers. "You're mine," he whispered, kissing the tip of Alice's nose.
"I love you." Merlin did she ever. She loved him more than she ever had before and sitting there, tangled up together, Alice could not believe that she had ever thought for a moment that was meant to be anywhere else. "Frank," Alice said after a long silence, spent simply holding one another. "There's a question I've been wanting to ask..." Alice's nerves suddenly returned.
"Ask me anything."
She looked into his eyes, taking a deep breath, and dove off the ledge. "Will you marry me?" Frank was shocked. "I know we've only been back together three days, and the last time we were engaged it blew up in our faces-"
"I was going to ask you," he blurted out, stunned. "I had a whole plan, a new proposal..." Alice could not help but laugh, leaning in for a kiss.
"I don't need elaborate plans," she reminded Frank. "I only want you."
"Only me?" he asked, a grin quickly spreading from ear to ear. Frank leaned over and pulled open the top drawer of his bedside table from which he withdrew a familiar, velvet ring box.
"You saved it?"
"Of course I saved it," Frank flicked the box open proudly, revealing the familiar green gemstone in the middle.
"Oh, Frank..." Tears spilt down Alice's cheeks as Frank placed the ring onto her left hand for the second, and final, time. "Let's just do it now."
"Okay, now you're losing it," he teased as Alice shook her head, full of gusto.
"We could do it," she insisted, "when we go on our Hogsmeade trip this weekend-"
"You mean tomorrow?" Frank gawked, the colour draining from his face.
"We could just tell our friends and get Don to let us use the private room," suddenly Alcie was alight with ideas, overcome with joy at the prospect of marrying the only boy she had ever truly loved.
"You want to get married in a pub?" Frank was much more hesitant about the whole thing. "What about our parents? My mum will be furious if we get married without her there."
"We could have two ceremonies," she suggested hopefully, certain any wedding Augusta Longbottom had a hand in would be planned to her liking alone. "One for them and one for us."
"Us," Frank repeated, slowly warming up to the idea. He wrapped his arms around his fiancee, smiling happily, everything he had ever wanted right there in his arms. "Alright," he finally agreed. "If you really think we can pull off a wedding tomorrow I will happily marry you anywhere you ask me to." he kissed her, Alice smiling as their lips met.
"I just want to be your wife," she didn't care how soppy she sounded. "I want to spend every day of the rest of my life waking up next to you and making up for all the pain I've caused you." He took her face in his hands, holding it, smiling with such adoration that Alice felt she could melt beneath his gaze and she knew at once that she would never be alone again.
Lily convened the first Prefect meeting in two weeks, having slacked on Head Girl duties while she dealt with a missing boyfriend. Now, with all the boys safely returned, it was time to live life "normally" again. Without James by her side, Lily stood at the head of the long table where all the Prefects had gathered and answered questions about student detention slips, curfew rules, and patrol schedules. The meeting was no more than thirty minutes in total and yet, the whole event felt terribly draining. As everyone cleared out of the room, Lily busied herself preparing the Patrol Board for the next week, ignoring the outflow of students. With her back turned, she did not notice one, lanky, dark-haired boy who remained.
"Lily…" his voice broke her concentration. She looked over her shoulder, stomach-lurching when she recognized Severus. He stood halfway across the room; eyes glued to the floor.
"I never got a chance to wish you a happy birthday…"
Lily had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "Thanks," she answered shortly, turning her back in the hopes that it would encourage Severus to leave.
"I didn't know," he started – as if Lily had asked him for an explanation.
"I don't care." Her patience was wearing thin. "Either way, you're one of them."
"You don't know what you're talking about. Voldemort is not evil—"
"Oh, piss off!" Lily could no longer take it. She faced her old friend, arms crossed, looking towards him with nothing left but contempt. "You're talking about a man who would gladly see people like myself dead."
"That's not true! They want you, Lily – Voldemort doesn't care about your blood—"
"Do you hear yourself?" she was in disbelief. "You sound like a bloody lunatic!"
Before any further arguing could ensue, the pair were interrupted by the most unlikely person – James. Returned from St. Mungo's, he appeared in the doorway, the colour draining from his face the moment he recognized Severus, standing in the middle of the room alone with his girlfriend.
"Great," the latter hissed, arms crossing against his chest defensively.
"What's going on here?"
"Severus was just leaving," Lily snapped, her voice cold as ice. James gladly stepped aside, letting Severus scurry away so that he and Lily could be alone/
"What was that?"
"He's a brainwashed looney trying to convince me Voldemort is some kind of hero," Lily spoke about a boy she had once loved like family as if he were nothing more than a crazed man shouting obscenities from a street corner. She rounded the Prefect table to embrace her boyfriend, wanting to discuss Severus Snape no more.
"He was there you know," James told her once they'd done a healthy amount of reconnecting, "Voldemort." They sat across from one another at the table, the tension in the room palpable. Something had shifted between them and Lily could tell just from the way he held himself that James was not the same boy he had been the last time they had been in the castle together.
"He tried to recruit me. They all did, they had different tactics, each of them..." James shuttered at the memory sending a shock of guilt through Lily's system, though she had nothing at all to do with what had happened to him. There was not one thing she could do to ease the pain of what he'd been through, no words to solve the trauma nor the nightmares she knew from experience would come whether he liked it or not. The only comfort she could offer was the feeling of her hands within his own and eventually when he began to tremble with tears, she pulled her chair towards his and wrapped her arms around him, letting his head fall against her chest.
"You're safe," she did her best to soothe him. "Everyone is safe."
"It's all my fault," the words came out thick and blotted with tears. "I forced the boys to go, I'm the reason we got captured, the reason why Marlene got dumped, the reason two people died…"
"You couldn't know," she stroked his messy hair, running her fingers through the back of it. James soaked her sweater in his tears, overcome with grief. "You weren't thinking straight, were grieving and you were scared and you thought that your parents were in danger."
"I behaved like a child," James snuffled, slowly calming down. He sat up, rubbing tears from his bloodshot eyes.
"You acted like someone with a great amount of compassion. You can't sit still when the people you love are in danger." Lily leaned in, sharing a wet kiss with her boyfriend. "I think I might be able to relate to that feeling."
"You saved my life," James shook his head in disbelief, forehead coming to press lightly against Lily's as they stared into one another's eyes, affection pulsing between them, and (on Lily's end at least) gratitude for their reunion. "I'll never be able to repay you for what you've done."
"I can think of a few ways you might make a start…"
Things were not "normal," and Lily didn't know if they ever would be again. Could she and James ever do the things other teenage couples did? Would they ever lay beneath the stars without a worry in their hearts as they pointed out the constellations? These days it seemed unlikely.
Everyone in the castle seemed to be distracted by the Marauders' safe return. James, Sirius and Peter arrived at Hogwarts on the same night, captivating the attention of all in the Gryffindor Common Room, and provided Mary with the perfect opportunity to sneak out and visit Reg. Between the Marauders' abduction, her friends' surprise rescue mission and Marlene's break up, there hadn't been time for Mary to tell anyone about her own news. At least, that was the excuse she used every time her failure to tell Emmeline about her relationship arose.
Part of Mary relished in her time alone with Reg – sneaking off to a vacant part of the castle and hiding beneath a stairwell together where no one could find them. Mary loved a good secret, but she could see that it was beginning to eat Reg alive. He was used to honesty, open communication, and public affection. That was how he'd been raised – not with the cold, remoteness Mary was used to.
"I wasn't sure you were going to show," Reg admitted, alight with relief when Mary crawled underneath the staircase to join him.
"I don't think anyone even noticed that I left." Mary kissed him on the cheek before sitting down on the stone floor beside him. "Everyone's distracted by the boys' return."
"They're all okay then?"
She nodded, though "okay" was debatable. How, Mary wondered, could anyone be okay after a week in captivity? The boys had endured their fair share of physical trauma but the emotional stuff…well, Mary knew from her own experience that it was much harder to overcome.
"I hate that you went after your friends and left the castle without telling me," Reg averted her gaze as he spoke. "If anything happened to you..."
"I knew I would be safe; I had Frank and Emmeline with me. Besides, we were only going to the hospital—"
"It doesn't matter." It was the most heated Reg she had ever seen Reg. "I worry about you, Mary, a lot, like, all the time. If we're really going to give this relationship a shot you need to include me, in all areas of your life." She had no trouble reading between the lines.
"You're upset that I haven't told my friends—"
"No," Reg took a beat, correcting himself. "I feel like you're embarrassed by me. I'm just…Amos Diggory, all over again." His cheeks turned rosy red at the mention of Mary's last relationship.
"You are nothing like Amos, nothing at all." If only he could see just how different how was in her eyes, how special. Mary was not embarrassed to tell her friends about her relationship, she was afraid. Terrified, in fact, of all the things that might go wrong and the many, many ways she could wind up with her heartbroken.
"Reg I've never done this before," she confessed - embarrassed by her inexperience.
"Neither have I."
She met his gaze, swallowing hard. Mary was scared that he would figure out how damaged she was and leave her. Reg was perfect – well raised, emotionally stable, intelligent - Mary was a disaster compared to him. She had a friend group plagued by drama, her family life was a mess and she had no career trajectory...
"I don't want to lose you," Mary finally said out loud. "You're one of the only good things I have in my life."
Reg, who often struggled with physical affection, reached out then, cupping Mary's cheek, and drew her face to his for a kiss.
"I'm not going anywhere," he promised, both of them smiling as they drew apart. No one had ever made such a promise to Mary, no one had ever cared enough. She had spent her entire life desperately seeking her mother's approval and then searching for her father, and now, when she'd least expected it, she had found love and acceptance in a shy, slightly odd, ginger-haired boy.
They stayed there, underneath the staircase in the North Tower, for two hours and neither would have left were it not for curfew. Mary was used to her interactions with boys being purely physical – cuddling, kisses, a shag. It was nothing like that with Reg. He cared to hear about her day, he wanted to know every story about every birthday he had missed up until that point and what Mary's favourite season was. He wanted to know every stupid, mundane detail about her, and she felt the same way about him.
By the time they stood up – their butts numb from sitting for so long - Mary did not feel the anxiety she usually did at their parting. Typically, it was a long, uncomfortable journey back through the castle, struggling not to touch, but this evening was different. Mary felt light as she strolled towards the main staircase, reaching for Reg's hand. He looked at her, surprised, and she smiled, simply nodding at him as if to say, this is exactly where I want to be and I don't care he knows it. They parted ways at the stairs with a kiss, Reg going towards the basement as Mary began her journey upstairs to Gryffindor Tower, spending her time trying to decide what she would say when she got to the top and faced Emmeline. How did she want to finally confess her biggest secret to her best friend?
Upstairs, she found Emmeline already in their dorm room. She was in bed, her strawberry blonde hair piled on top of her head, reading a romance novel she had received from her parents for Christmas. She looked up, fair eyebrows rising when the door opened and Mary stepped through, a sheepish expression worn upon her round face.
"Where have you been?" Emmeline put her book down in her lap.
"With Reg," Mary finally admitted; a weight lifting off her shoulders.
It took moment for Emmeline to figure out what her friend was trying to tell her, her jaw-dropping in astonishment.
"All those tutoring sessions?" she smacked her forehead. "I am an idiot. Of course, of course." Finally, she looked up, meeting Mary's gaze, eyes alight with excitement as a smile built across her face. "This is amazing. I set you up on that blind date and you threw a fit about it."
Mary chuckled - both with relief and at the memory of her first "date" with Reg. She had never felt more relieved than she did that evening, the truth finally out in the open. Emmeline patted the spot beside her on the bed and drew the covers up so that Mary could join her, the pair of them cuddling in together as Emmeline insisted Mary listen to her read out loud "the most romantic scene ever."
Despite all of her anticipation, the truth about her relationship with Reg had changed nothing in her friendship. She and Emmeline were solid. In her, Mary had discovered a kindred spirit, someone else who understood what it meant to go at life alone. She rested her head upon Emmeline's shoulder, inhaling the scent of her lavender face cream and realized that it had begun to smell like home.
These days Marlene never wanted to get out of bed. She lay there every morning, stubborn as a mule, and waited until one of the girls – usually Mary or Emmeline – threw the covers off of her and forced her downstairs to the Great Hall for breakfast. On this particular morning, Marlene roused on her own and rolled over, eyes springing open in horror at the thought that she had already slept half the morning away.
She was half-dressed, her hair a tangled, unbrushed mess, when she realized, with a chuckle, that it was a Saturday morning – explaining why her friends had allowed her to sleep in. Calmer now – Marlene finished getting dressed, brushed out her hair and made her way downstairs, hoping breakfast would still be on the table when she reached the Great Hall. Usually, Saturday mornings were her favourite – an excuse to sneak out and visit Henry - but this particular Saturday would be difficult as Marlene realized, near the bottom of the staircase, that it was a Hogsmeade weekend.
The Common Room was quiet and so she expected to find it empty but, rather, in the middle of the plush, red, couch she discovered Sirius Black sitting alone. His gaze was miles away as he stared off into the flames sprouting up out of the fireplace. His long hair had been clipped to his ears, and while he looked healthier than he had the last time Marlene saw him, even sitting down she could tell that he had lost quite a bit of weight.
It was difficult not to simply stand there, on the bottom step, admiring him from afar, thanking Merlin for his survival and the fact that he was still a living, breathing human being. Of course, the moment of gratitude did not last when Marlene shifted and Sirius heard her, gazing back over his shoulder, grey eyes widening.
"It's you." That was all Marlene could think to say, facing him once again.
"It's me," Sirius nodded, watching her closely as she came off the stairs and approached him, her hands tucked behind her back so that Sirius could not see how badly they were shaking. "The Healers, they said that you brought me in—"
"I apparated you to St. Mungo's is all," Marlene lied, her stomach in knots. "It was nothing." Did he remember more? She studied his face for a moment, searching for any sign of doubt, but there was nothing. Just as she expected – their confessions to one another behind her childhood home were remembered only by her.
"You still got me out of that hell hole." Sirius looked into her eyes, the corners of his lips upturned, and for a moment Marlene thought he might admit to knowing more than he let on. "I don't remember much but I…" the colour began to rise in his hollow cheeks. "I remember your face."
"I apologize for that," Marlene quipped, trying to lighten the mood. He wouldn't break his stare. It made her want to turn around and hide, to run back upstairs and climb beneath the covers again.
"Are you kidding? It was the best thing I'd seen in days."
"Well, that's a low bar, you had some rather subpar company."
That got a laugh out of Sirius – despite the morbid circumstances. He patted the cushion beside him, Marlene swallowing back her nerves before she joined him.
"Lily told James and James told me," Sirius blurted out, averting his gaze now, "about you and Henry." They sat in awkward silence for a few seconds before he added, "I'm really sorry."
"I love him." Sirius stiffened at the intensity of her statement. "I'm going to get him back." It was what she had been telling herself since returning to Hogwarts, the only thing which kept her from completely losing her mind and giving up on everything and everyone around her because of the ache she felt in her chest every time she remembered that she was alone and it was entirely her fault.
"He'd be an idiot not to take you back."
"He's a better person than I am." Marlene's shoulders drooped. "Much better."
"Oh, I don't think that's true." I'm a cheater Marlene thought, her stomach sinking, and now I've lied to you too. She would never tell Sirius the truth – not about their moment in the snow nor the declarations of love they had both made to one another. Ever since we were kids…he had said that. He had admitted that all along, the taunting and teasing was all the source of a crush…
"You're the most selfless person I know," Sirius told her, clueless as to what she was hiding from him.
"You must not know me very well then." Marlene struggled to comfortably accept any compliment that came her way.
"I disagree," Sirius' eyes lit up before he added, "I would wager I know you better than anyone else in this world."
