Disclaimer: Any characters, places, things, animals, or ideas that you recognize belong to JKR. In other words, it isn't mine.
Dedication: To Lori, my cousin who updated her fic, and thereby got me guilted into writing. Her name on here is IheartHP95, and you should all go check her stories out!
Chapter seven: Helping
Over the next few weeks it became clear that Lily was right. Their responsibilities would have to extend beyond simply telling students. She started spending one or two hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights sitting with Melissa. In theory she was helping the girl with schoolwork, as her grades had dropped sharply following the death of her mother and younger brother, but in practice, she spent just as much time listening to the younger girl talk, and helping her get back on her feet.
On a Friday three weeks following the attack Lily was sitting in her dorm room working with Melissa on a project for Slughorn. After the first session in the library Lily had decided that the dorms were the best spot for her to work with Melissa.
Lily and the younger girl had only been in the library for about ten minutes when Melissa began to talk about her mother. She had only gotten a short way into that before she began to cry. Lily had been uncertain at first of what to do, but decided that a good place to start was telling the younger girl that she was not doing anything wrong, as Melissa was apologizing for her breakdown as she cried.
Before she could Madam Pince swooped down on them. For a moment Lily was worried that Pince was going to kick them out and yell at Melissa for making noise, and getting tears on her textbook. Lily prepared herself to yell back at the older woman, but it was unneeded.
Pince swept the twelve year old into her arms, telling her that everything was fine, she had nothing to be ashamed of, and she still had lots of people who loved her. Lily could do nothing but look on in amazement. When Melissa's tears had stopped, and she seemed calmer, Pince helped her find several books to read, telling Melissa that "this one was my favorite when I was just a few years older than you were. My mother was killed by Grindelwald, yes, the one Dumbledore defeated. It's about a lovely young witch who has a few problems of her own."
After that Pince had suggested that Lily take her young friend down to kitchens, even telling her the way to get in by tickling the pear. Lily had obeyed, listening to Melissa chatter about how nice Madam Pince had just been and how Melissa had always thought that she was kind of scary, but that today she had been so nice, and were they really going to the kitchens?
It was later that night, just a few minutes before closing time, when Lily returned to the library. She went up to the desk rather shyly, and said, "Madam Pince?"
The librarian's back had been turned to her as she sorted files of some sort, but at the sound of Lily's voice she turned. "Yes, Miss Evans?"
Lily could have sworn that the woman was looking at her differently, as if Lily impressed her. "I wanted to thank you for helping Melissa. I didn't really know what to do." Lily was mildly terrified, she had never thought of the old librarian as anything but intimidating, and occasionally unreasonable about books.
Pince's eyes seemed to be reading Lily's soul as she said, "You'd have managed. But I thought that all things considered you might be able to use a bit of help. Like I told Melissa, I was only a few years older than her when my mother was killed. I had a hard time. But she'll be fine, she's a smart girl, I know. Don't look so surprised. I watch students study, and you can tell which ones are serious about it. But Lily," she paused.
"Yes?"
"It might be wise not to work here. Melissa needs someone to talk to at least as much as she needs a tutor. And even if it worked out today, she won't really want to have other students watching her cry. And Ravenclaws can be most unreasonable when you make noise while they study. I'd suggest your common room or dorm."
This hadn't occurred to Lily. "Yes, thank you. I don't really know what to say." And it was true. She had never imagined that Madam Pince of all people would have hidden depths.
"Now, it is time for me to go to bed, and I believe that you have a patrol scheduled." Pince gestured to a chart hanging on the wall where prefects could check to see when they had duties if they had forgotten. Lily nodded and turned to leave. Just before she reached the door Pince added, "If you think that it would help anyone else to talk to me, bring them here."
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James' approach was a little bit different. For a week following the attack he excused Mark from Quidditch practice. On his first practice after James asked him to stay late at the end.
"Look, James, I know that I missed a few bludgers, I was distracted when I should have been paying attention to the balls, it won't happen again, it's just that I…"
"James sat on the bench in the locker room waiting for Mark to finish, and as he voice trailed off he said, "Mark, do me a favor."
Mark's eyes widened, and he looked terrified, as if he though he was in a great deal of trouble. "Yes?"
"Stop apologizing. Look, if you hadn't missed a bludger or two, or ten, I'd have been shocked. The fact that you only missed one is a testament to how good you are. Anyone in the world would have been distracted in you position."
Here James paused. He knew that he had to word this carefully, if he was going to achieve his goal. He was not really very good at talking to people, and helping them with their feelings. That was Remus' territory. But this was important, so he was going to try anyway.
"I know that you haven't had a very good week or so. And that isn't something that's likely to get a lot better anytime soon." He noted that Mark's face was turning white again and hastened to reassure him. "Mark! I'm not going to kick you off the team, so stop worrying. Remember what I said a minute ago? If I was you, I'd have missed all of the bludgers, you only missed a couple. You did a good job today."
"But what I wanted to talk to you about is that, um, look, mate, if you want to talk or something, I'm here, you know? You don't have to deal with this alone. So yeah."
Mark looked like he was struggling not to cry. James just waited silently, hoping that it was the right thing to do. Finally, Mark seemed to feel that he was ready to speak.
"Thanks James. Thanks a lot. That's really good to know. Thanks."
"No problem. Hey, do want to go for a bit of a fly? I don't think anyone else is using the pitch tonight."
Mark's face lit up. "Yeah, that'd be great."
The two exited the locker rooms, mounted their broomsticks, and rose into the sky. They flew lazily, without purpose, simply rising and falling. This was what James loved most of all, simply flying for the pure joy of it, rather than with the goal of winning, or having to worry about scoring goals. As he glanced over at Mark he could not help but think that Mark felt the same way. He hoped that flying would help the other boy.
The two of them fell into a pattern of flying together after practices. At first they were always silent, but as time went on Mark started to talk to James about his classes, and James simply listened as the two teens flew figure eights.
Eventually Mark started to tell stories about his dad. At first he talked about learning to fly, then about what they did during the summers. He talked about how much he missed him. James simply listened. They didn't talk about the post-practice flights during any other time, because somehow, it just didn't seem to be necessary.
Occasionally James would make a comment, agreeing with the statements Mark still sometimes made about teachers, even sharing a story of his own once or twice. James paid no attention to the tear-streaks on Mark's face, pretended that they weren't there, or that they simply from sweat, because that was the only thing that he could think to do, and it was what he'd have wanted.
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After those first two there were more. Three weeks later Lily was called out of Ancient Runes to speak to a third year and a sixth year. They were brother and sister, Anthony and Rachel Sparks. They had already been sent to a classroom, so that they could both be told at once.
When Lily reached the room she knew from the looks on their faces that they already knew what was coming. Rachel was the older, and she asked a simple one-word question. "Who?"
"Both of your parents. They were at home. The funeral will be on Friday."
Rachel nodded, then closed her eyes as if fighting back tears. "Okay." Anthony began to cry, and his sister held him. To Lily it seemed as if she was clutching him, as if he was the only thing stopping her from drowning.
She wished that there were something easy that she could do that would fix it, something that would make it better, easier. At the same time she got the feeling that there was nothing at all in the world that could possibly fix this. So she stood there with them, as they cried, simply waiting.
Eventually they calmed and Rachel looked up again, still not really releasing her hold on her brother. "What do we need to do?"
"Nothing. As I said, the funeral will be on Friday. You will be excused from classes until then, and on Monday you will resume them. You won't have to make up the work. For the moment you will stay at Hogwarts, naturally. Rachel, I will need to talk to you about living arrangements at some point, however for the moment it is not an issue. If either of you need any help don't hesitate to come to me. Even if you just need someone to talk to. James too."
"Right." Rachel nodded, as she had done throughout Lily's speech. It seemed as if she was still trying to comprehend what had happened. "Is it okay if we go back to the common room?"
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"James?"
James was sitting in the common room reading a chapter from his Muggle studies textbook, when he heard Lily's voice. "Yes?"
"Can we talk?"
"Sure," James said, agreeably, and gestured to the seat next to his.
But Lily shook her head, and said, "Is it okay if we go take a walk while we do this? We probably should do it where everyone can hear." James nodded, intrigued, and stood to follow her.
They walked in silence for a few moments before Lily began to explain what it was that she wanted to discuss. "I know that you've been flying with Mark."
"Yeah, yeah, I have. Is that a problem?" James was rather confused; he couldn't really see where this was going.
"No, not at all, actually, I think that it's really great. I've been talking with Melissa too. But we've both talked to others now, and so have the other prefects." James nodded. Recently attacks had been increasing.
"Well, I was sort of thinking about it, and I think that we need to find a way to help all of them. We've both been talking to a few people, and I know that some of the other seventh year prefects have too, but We can't get to everyone, and even if we could, we aren't necessarily going to be the best people for them to talk to."
James nodded, seriously. "Yes. I know exactly what you mean. I knew Mark already, and I was able to help him, but I can't just take everyone out and start flying with them. That won't work. But they all need help like that."
"Exactly. So I think that we should form a sort of group. We and the other prefects can all work together, and we can try to figure out who could help them best. Maybe form small groups of similar people and have more than one person meet at once."
James was excited. This was a way that he could really do something to help these kids. "That sounds like it could work. How did you think of this?"
"Actually, I didn't, not really. You remember Rachel Sparks?" He nodded, and she continued, "Her parents died about a week ago. Today she came to talk to me. She seems like she's been coping pretty well, but she's worried about her brother. He's been sort of listless, I guess, and she had heard about what you'd done with Mark and was wondering if Anthony could join you. I said that I'd talk to you about it."
James said, "Yeah, absolutely, I'll see if I can talk to him tonight."
"Great. Any way, I asked her how she was doing, and she told me that she'd actually been talking to Amy."
"She's the Hufflepuff seventh year, right?" asked James. Lily nodded. "So what made her think to go talk to her?"
"That's the neat thing. I guess that Amy used to dance before she got to Hogwarts, and so she started teaching one of the Hufflepuffs whose mom had died, sort of as a way to calm down, and as a distraction. Rachel danced too, and she'd heard about this, so she decided to go see what it was like. It's been really great for her, I guess. I think that the important thing is probably not just that they're doing something they enjoy, but that they can talk to someone who will listen."
"Probably. So are we going to have a meeting with the others?"
"Yes, it seems like the best thing to do. I'll talk to the other seventh years. Tomorrow will be fine, right?"
"Yeah, but let's get the others too. They might have some good ideas too."
"Fair enough. I guess that that's it then."
"Yeah," James agreed, nodding. "I'm going to go talk with Anthony." As he turned to go, he found himself wishing that the two of them could continue to walk together, talking comfortably.
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They got their system up and running and it worked fairly well, much to Lily's joy.
Meanwhile their studies continued, and this year they were more important than ever before. This year their grades could change what they did after school. Also, the whole year seemed to have a kind of finality to it. It was an ending just as much as it was a beginning. Though they would be starting their lives as active adults in the wizarding world Lily felt like she was losing something. Hogwarts had been the first place that she'd really fit in, because she had always been different from her muggle peers. She was sad to leave it behind, and threw herself into living the year with great gusto.
She loved her classes and her friends. Right now they were working on a project for muggle studies relating to the holidays they had been studying. The class had decided that their project was going to be based around Halloween. It had been Sirius' idea to do a Hogwarts wide trick-or-treat. Instead of being on Halloween, which had passed by long before, it was to be on the last day before Christmas break.
Instead of going to different houses in a neighborhood, the students were going to go to classrooms within the school. Each student was working on something different. Lily was helping all of the students from various houses with their costumes, as was Henri. It had been decided that no one was to be allowed to get any candy if they did not have a costume, and so there was a great deal of demand for their help. James and Sirius were also arranging for there to be a competition for best costume, so each student was required to at least help in the design if not the making of their costumes.
There were also other people working on making sure all of the classrooms got candy and others working on decorations. There was even a group researching muggle party games and music for the dinner following the trick-or-treat. The event promised to be a great deal of fun.
Lily hoped that the celebrations would cheer up some of the students whose parents had been killed.
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Author's note: I'm really sorry about how long this took. I would promise that the next update won't take as long, but since that doesn't usually work out for me, I won't. I'll try to do better though, really. This chapter is really long if that's any consolation. Thanks to anyone who is still reading! If you review I promise I will respond.