Seventh Year

VOLDEMORT STRIKES ONCE AGAIN – KILLS A PUREBLOOD FAMILY

Written by Althea M., a seventh-year student at Hogwarts

It should come as no surprise that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, has struck out again and killed more people. What may come as a surprise, is that he killed a pureblood family when he is supposed to be a champion for the purebloods. If he can kill the same people he is claiming that he is trying to protect, what makes any of us safe?

In the past week, Voldemort has killed multiple Muggle-borns and Muggles, and recently in the past few days struck out at a pureblood family. Eloise, Nathaniel, and Mathias Selwyn were enjoying a nice peaceful dinner at their home in a Muggle neighborhood when Death Eaters and Voldemort burst in. Mathias, 7, was killed right away. His parents held on a little longer, but were outnumbered and died soon after. The Selwyns had proclaimed their support for Voldemort, but in the end, that didn't matter, did it? Because they ended up dying anyways.

A pureblood – Aubra Shafiq has also gone missing and many think Voldemort is responsible for her disappearance. It is feared that she is dead.

There is no doubting that Voldemort is dangerous, but if you stand by and do nothing it will only get worse and you could become the next casualty. Something needs to be done and it has become clear that you can't just stand by passively and watch it happen; take an active role. He needs to be stopped.

Christmas break rolled around and Althea had never felt more excited for something in her life. It seemed like it was finally going to be a relaxing time. Althea finished wrapping Remus's present and sat back on her heels. An article she had written about Voldemort had recently been published by the Daily Prophet, and she knew that she was going to eventually get a lot of backlash for it, but for now she was going to remain carefree and enjoy the break. Many of the Death-Eeaters-in-training, weren't at school anyways. They had gone home to their parents. So, for now, she was safe.

"Althea, are you ready?" Lily asked, sticking her head out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her head.

"Yes, but it seems that you are not." Althea answered amused.

Lily rolled her green eyes, "I will be in a minute. Look, Thea, this is the first holiday where I don't hate Potter. He still is fairly annoying, but I don't hate him."

"Well I should hope not, the two of you are dating." Althea answered amused. "You know, I never really thought that you would give in to him and agree to go on a date." A smile pulled at her lips, "The two of you are kind of cute though."

"Shut up," Lily muttered, her cheeks flushing.

She ducked back into the bathroom to finish getting ready and Althea rolled her eyes, picking up Remus's present and heading downstairs. James was sitting on the couch, his unruly hair messier than normal and his leg was jiggling up and down nervously. As Althea came down the stairs he turned to look at her and a frown crossed his face when he realized that she was not Lily. Remus, on the other hand, beamed upon seeing his girlfriend dressed festively in a red dress with white fur trim, and a Santa hat perched precariously on her head.

"I come bearing gifts," Althea said, walking over and sitting on the arm of the chair Remus was sitting in. He wrapped his arm around her, his hand curving protectively over her hip.

No one would have ever suspected that they would be a touchy-feely couple, but they were. Whenever the two were together they couldn't help but touch. Remus's present rested in Althea's lap, and Sirius raised his brows.

"I only see one gift." Sirius said, eyeing the one in her lap.

"Look under the tree," She said jerking her head toward the Christmas tree in the common room. "There's a gift for each of you underneath there." She glanced at Peter, "I got you a gift too, Peter."

The chubby boy smiled shyly, his cheeks blushing red. The other Marauders headed to the tree to find the presents that Althea had mentioned, but Remus remained where he was sitting, looking at his girlfriend curiously.

"Where's my present?" He asked, smiling a little mischievously.

"Right here," she said, handing him the neatly wrapped gift. She glanced at him, "Merry Christmas, Remmy."

"Merry Christmas, Althea." He answered just as quietly. "Where's Lily?"

"Still getting ready. She wants to impress James."

Remus shook his head, "She could wear a trash bag and James would think she was the most beautiful girl in the world. Honestly, has she forgotten how long he has been enamored with her, for?"

"Probably," Althea said with a snort. "It's not like he asked her out nearly every day."

"Oh, certainly not," Remus agreed thinly veiled amusement mixed with sarcasm in his voice.

"Exploding Snap cards," Sirius said, dryly. "You shouldn't have."

Althea just smiled, wrapping an arm around Remus's shoulder as she watched her close friends open their presents. She felt some sort of satisfaction when Sirius saw that there was also a flask of firewhiskey and he had also received candy, while James had gotten a new broom, some Chocolate Frogs, and a Muggle board game, and Peter had received some Muggle comic books and a lot of candy.

"Thanks Althea," Sirius said, waving his firewhiskey bottle and the silver flask in the air. "Best Christmas present, ever."

"You're welcome," Althea answered with a dip of her head.

Althea found that she quite enjoyed the Christmas festivities, much more than she had thought she would. It was nice to spend a quiet, relaxing evening with her friends and not have to worry about homework or going to class. It was a welcome change, and one she found would be very missed when life more or less returned to normal after the holiday. Althea yawned, curling her body into Remus's, her cheek resting on his shoulder as she watched an inebriated Sirius flirt with a few naïve looking fifth years. Remus's chest vibrated as he chuckled, and she looked up at him curiously.

"Lily and James are stuck under the mistletoe," he whispered to her, and she turned her head to see that indeed the two were stuck under a pair of mistletoe. The mistletoe in the castle was charmed, so you couldn't go anywhere until you kissed the person under the mistletoe with you.

Lily huffed, crossing her arms, her cheeks flaming red as she looked anywhere but at James who had an infuriating big grin on his lips. He grabbed Lily's face and pulled her toward him, pressing a kiss to her lips. Many of those watching expected Lily to recoil in revulsion, but she did the exact opposite. She threw her arms around James's neck, eagerly kissing him back. Althea snorted, unable to hide her laughter and she buried her face in Remus's shoulder looking away from the two snogging.

"I wish that we could do stuff like this more often Remmy," Althea whispered.

"Me too." Remus answered his voice quiet. "For now, we have found peace, but it won't last much longer, I fear. The Slytherins will do something to mess this up or You-Know-Who will. And for whatever reason, I have this sinking feeling in my gut that says our group will be the hardest hit."

"I feel that way too," Althea murmured. "Lily is a Muggle-born, and I might as well be with the amount of Muggle blood flowing through my veins. You're a half-blood, and so is Peter. The only purebloods are James and Sirius, and they've both been labelled blood traitors. Those reasons alone give the Death Eaters enough cause to strike out against us."

"We shouldn't dwell on these sad topics," Remus swiftly changed the subject. "We should talk about what we want to do once we've graduated."

"I'm not quite sure, to be quite honest with you. Maybe write for the Daily Prophet? Or become a spell-inventor, or maybe an Auror." She glanced up at Remus to see an amused smile playing on his lips. "In other words, I have absolutely no clue. All of these jobs sound cool and amazing, but none of them have truly stuck out to me."

"I understand that. I have a multitude of jobs that interest me but many of them I cannot do because of my…affliction." Remus said.

"Remus," Althea sighed.

"It is true," he maintained fixing her with a stern look. "You may see the good in me, but the rest of the wizarding community would not."

"I know that. However, that doesn't mean I like it when you speak like that." Althea returned swiftly. "Now, shut up and kiss me."

Remus just shook his head fondly, a smile on his lips before doing as she had asked.