Chapter 7: Don't Mention It

Remus took his copy of the Prophet from the owl's leg before depositing the requisite coins in the pouch hanging from its leg. Not paying attention as the owl flew away, he tossed the newspaper onto the bench beside him without glancing at the headlines.

He'd taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet because it had felt important to stay up to date on the war, especially when werewolves were an increasing target on both sides. However, he had found the morning routine of reading the paper had ruined the rest of his day, so he'd taken to saving it until the evening and letting it disrupt his dreams instead.

Remus had just taken a bite of his toast when a loud huff from Sirius drew his attention to the other side of the table where Sirius was clutching a letter in his hands. James had already leant over to read the letter over his shoulder. Beside Remus, Peter was leaning over the table with his tie dangling dangerously close to his baked beans.

"What is it?" he asked, bobbing up and down like a child interrogating their parents about their Christmas presents.

Sirius looked up from his letter, expression dark. Remus glanced down at the envelope resting on the table and wasn't surprised to see a broken Black family seal.

Clearing his throat, Sirius took on a pompous demeanor, going so far as to straighten his tie before speaking.

"I regret to inform the heretofore gathered crowd that I, Sirius Black III, am no longer the heir to the Black family fortune. That honour has been bestowed upon my illustrious brother Regulus, a far better behaved lad than I could ever hope to be."

The parchment in Sirius' hand went up in flames without his expression changing as he dropped it. The Marauders watched as the letter disintegrated before the flames reached the table. Peter let out a long, low sound almost like a moan at the display.

"I thought they'd already done that," James said cautiously. "It's been two years since they kicked you out. Your mum was already threatening to burn the tree when you walked ot the door."

"Alas," Sirius said, grabbing a knife and beginning to aggressively butter a slice of toast, "I cannot confirm that such a burning took place. I can only assume that it has by now, but at any rate, this shit doesn't have anything to do with that blasted tapestry. They disowned me years ago. The only difference now is they have official Ministry paperwork to keep me from claiming otherwise.

"They're not getting younger, my parents, and they're inbred enough that no one can expect them to live that long. They must be getting scared about offing it and not being able to stop me from turning their house into Sirius Black's Home for Wayward Muggles or whatever they think I'd do with the family fortune."

"Is that meant to be an orphanage or a school or…?"

Sirius waved his toast dismissively at Remus.

"It doesn't matter," he concluded, "because it's never going to happen. My parents have made sure of that."

It was quiet for a moment as Sirius looked down at the ashes sprinkled across the table. Some had fallen in a large bowl of porridge, making it look as if it had been sprinkled with pepper.

Sirius reached out and began ladeling the porridge into a serving bowl, ashes and all. The other boys watched in silence. Sirius didn't look at them as he began eating.

Finally, Peter spoke.

"You don't even like porridge."

One look from Sirius quieted him.

Remus yawned as he walked down the otherwise deserted corridor. It was late, and he didn't have much time to get back to the common room before he'd be violating curfew. He wasn't sure which prefects were on patrol that evening or whether they'd be sympathetic if they found him out of bounds.

He was only one floor away from the Fat Lady when he heard voices around the corner. He slowed to a stop as he tried to listen to what they were saying. The first thing he noticed was the tense nature of the conversation, but he was quickly able to place both voices after that: Snape and Lily.

His stomach tightened with unease, but he stuck close to the wall as he inched forward, not wanting to charge into an unknown situation and make things worse for Lily. Merlin knew she was more adept at dealing with Snape than he was anyway.

"I told you already that it's not your business," she said, voice sharp.

"But I'm worried—"

"You don't have a right to be worried for me, Severus. Not anymore. But it doesn't matter anyway because there's nothing to worry about. I'm as fine as I've always been."

"Potter's getting to you."

Lily let out a short, harsh laugh that pierced through the otherwise quiet hallway. Even Remus cringed.

"Stop talking as if he's brainwashing me and I've lost the ability to think for myself. Potter hasn't done anything to manipulate me. I don't need his help to understand how messed up your friends are. The whole school knows. When I say I despise them, that's coming straight from me and no one else."

"This isn't about my friends!"

"It is though." Lily's voice had turned more sad than angry. "More than you seem to realize. That's what's frustrating, Severus. You keep attacking me for being nice to Potter as if your friends aren't a million times worse than he is. Potter and I aren't even friends, not really, but if we were, I'd be a lot better off hanging around him than you are being around your friends."

Snape didn't respond, and Remus fought the urge to peak around the corner to see the expression on his face. The only thing stopping him was the knowledge that Snape would become angrier if he knew that his and Lily's conversation had been overheard.

"You have patrol," Lily said with all the authority she possessed as Head Girl. "You should have met with Taylor in the Entrance Hall five minutes ago. Go."

Remus heard Snape's footsteps coming towards him, and he rushed around another corner. Being back in the common room before curfew was no longer the priority it had been.

Remus didn't look at the newspaper he'd received that morning until later that night when he'd taken over a table in the corner of the Gryffindor common room with his friends. Ostensibly, they were completing their homework, but Sirius had fallen into doodling unflattering images of his family on small scraps of parchment, which was keeping James and Peter entertained as they suggested possible details Sirius could add. Peter was particularly proud of his idea to have a rotting house elf finger dangling from a necklace around Sirius' mum's neck.

As Remus grew less than amused with the somewhat appalling caricatures, he found himself bored enough to look at the Prophet.

The day's headline was a story about how the Minister for Magic had made a trip to Germany and spoken to the Minister there about something that Remus was sure was meant to be important. To Remus, the event felt more like an attempt at good publicity for the Ministry as the rest of Europe judged Britain for its inability to rein in You-Know-Who, and he found himself merely skimming the article before moving to the next.

When he saw a much smaller headline towards the bottom of the front page, he froze. He had to reread it several times and scan the article itself before he had regained himself enough to look around at his friends as if they had read what he had, but they were still thoroughly engrossed in a rude sketch that might have been of Kreacher or Sirius' father. It wasn't as if Sirius' art skills were in top form even when he was trying to be flattering.

He tapped Sirius on the arm, pulling his attention from the detailed hairs he was adding to the character's nostrils.

"You need to look at this," Remus said.

Suddenly, he had all of his friends as engrossed in the newspaper as they had been Sirius' drawings.

"'Five Muggles murdered in apparent attack'," James read, keeping his voice down as they were discussing one of their pranks.

Remus took it upon himself to read the article out loud for the benefit of his friends.

"'Early Thursday morning, the Ministry of Magic was alerted to the murder of a Muggle family which appears to have been committed by witches and wizards. An investigation is ongoing, but there is speculation among some that the murders were the work of the rising dark wizard commonly known as You-Know-Who, who has been gathering followers for several years.

"'The Ministry reminded us at the Daily Prophet that no perpetrator has been named as of print time, but many view this as a natural progression for a wizard who has been vocal about his plans for ridding the magical world of those he views as unworthy. Though You-Know-Who's previous efforts have centered around Muggleborns and beings such as vampires, many experts warn that Muggles are an easy potential target as well.'"

"Well, I'm surprised," Sirius interrupted, tugging the paper from Remus' hands to inspect it for himself. "What's You-Know-Who want with a bunch of Muggles? His whole shitty philosophy is about blood purity, right? Unless these Muggles had some witch or wizard as a relative, what did You-Know-Who want with them? They were doing what he wanted: leaving the wizarding world alone."

"He's evil, Sirius," Remus said. "He doesn't care about who he kills, so why would he put much stock in Muggles? Why not go after them? Look at the attention it's getting him. He's said a lot of shit about vampires and werewolves before, and that stuff only got him to the second or third page."

Sirius stuck out his bottom lip in thought.

"You think he's angry that he's still under a huge headline about the Minister and not top billing?"

Remus shrugged as he fiddled with a piece of parchment.

"Possibly," he said quietly.

He looked at each of his friends carefully. Their dark expressions made it clear they were imagining the same horrific scenarios Remus was, and none of them could comfort themselves with the false belief that You-Know-Who wouldn't go further than he already had.

Even as he had gone after magical beings, he had been speaking about his hatred for Muggleborns and making it clear to anyone who would listen what his guiding philosophy was. People had still flocked to him, revealing what many of the pureblood families continued to believe despite the illusions of progress espoused by the Ministry.

Remus knew that You-Know-Who had to be attacking werewolves whose stories the Prophet wasn't bothering to cover. Wizarding Britain had been more concerned with You-Know-Who's rhetoric on Muggleborns, finding it the more shocking story. There were Muggleborns on the Prophet's staff; Remus was sure there weren't any werewolves.

He caught James looking across the common room, and he followed his gaze to find Lily sitting and laughing with Mary in front of the fire.

He understood his friends' worry for their Muggleborn friends, especially James' worry for Lily. Remus was worried about them too, but it was often overshadowed with his more selfish fears that he would be the next werewolf You-Know-Who went after. He was the only werewolf anyone knew of who had attended Hogwarts, and Remus had a hard time imagining that You-Know-Who wouldn't learn of his existence eventually.

But that hadn't occurred to his friends, and he couldn't find it in himself to mention it.