Couple featured: Mary and Reginald Cattermole (set in the Marauders Era)
It was a Friday evening, and Mary was sitting by herself in The Leaky Cauldron. She didn't much feel like company, which was extremely uncommon for her bubbly personality. But the wizarding war had strange effects on everyone. Look at Lily Evans, dating James Potter, the boy for whom she'd sworn eternal hatred. Look at Frank Longbottom and Alice Prewett—Longbottom, now.
Mary sat at one of the barstools, contemplating. She wouldn't get drunk alone, of course, it was wildly unsafe. But she needed something to get her mind off the fifty witches and wizards murdered last night, along with the thousands of Muggles whose names wouldn't appear in the Daily Prophet.
"Anything I can get you?" asked Tom the barman.
She muttered to herself, "Fuck it," and to Tom, said, "I'll have a beer, please." He nodded and shuffled off.
Mary had been sitting alone for a couple minutes when another boy came and sat at the bar, a few stools away from her. When he saw her, he did a double-take and pulled up the stool next to her.
"Mary?"
The girl jumped and turned. It took her a few seconds to orient herself, and when she recognized him, she said incredulously, "Reg?"
He was the last person she'd have ever expected to see at a bar, but she was the last person anyone would have expected to be seen alone at a bar, so she supposed they were both out of their comfort zones. He looked sadder than normal, she noted.
"What are you doing here, Mary?"
"I could ask the same of you."
Reginald Cattermole didn't seem to have any friends other than Mary, at least, she had never seen him spending time with a fixed group of people. Sometimes he spent time with James Potter, but most of the time he was with Mary.
"Last night—" He scrapped the sentence and began again. "I, er, Mary, did you read the papers today?"
She shook her head and balled up her fists. "The Daily Prophet is biased and I can't bear to read their awful lies."
"Oh. Well, did you hear about the fifty witches and wizards that were murdered yesterday?" he said slowly, as if it was very difficult for him to get the words out. His face was expressionless, but there was a great deal of sadness in his eyes.
Mary nodded.
"My mum and dad were…too."
"No," Mary gasped. Tears filled her eyes, and she turned away so Reg wouldn't see her face. But he had seen, and she was horrified to see that tears had filled his eyes, too. His once expressionless face crumpled, and he buried his face in his hands.
Mary didn't know what to say, so she flagged Tom down and ordered another beer. She ordered one for Reg as well.
A few minutes later, the two sipped their beer in silence. Mary's sudden tears turned to tears of fury, and the anger built up higher and higher, until she banged her fist on the counter so hard that their beers toppled. Reg was startled out of his sadness, and looked at her.
"It's just—it's not fair, is it?" she cried. "I—you—your parents, they didn't do anything wrong, except for living, peacefully, they never hurt anyone. Muggleborns like me are hunted down, and we didn't do anything wrong either, except for existing, and that irritates some people so they kill us? It's horrible, it's unjust, it's—"
She was sobbing in earnest now, and she felt guilty for crying when Reg was the one who should have been, but the alcohol had blurred her mind and she wasn't sure she could have stopped even if she wanted to.
Reg wiped the tears from her eyes and awkwardly patted her hand. "Mary, d—don't cry, and yes, it's horribly unfair, I don't even—I don't know what to do. I don't…"
He took a deep breath and said the rest of his sentence quickly. "I don't want their killers to be alive." He paused for a second, and then added, "Is that wrong?"
Mary shook her head. "I'd want revenge too, Reg."
She looked at his face and noticed that he was looking her in her eyes. She didn't break eye-contact.
"Help me," he whispered hoarsely.
She nodded because she needed to do something. She'd wanted to do something for so long, but she didn't know what. Now she finally knew. She put her hand on his and squeezed it.
"We're fighting. Every day we're alive, we're fighting."
Before Mary knew what was happening, Reg had kissed her, and she was kissing him back and everything else was a blur. In that moment, she knew that if they died, they would die fighting, together.