A/N: this is a bit of a short chapter, but we're getting into some reaally good stuff in the next chapter.
Thanks to Alisa, my amazing beta reader, and to Azzurrolunali for her sweet comment.
As usual, everything you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling
Enjoy!
/Liz
"Team!" David Marrow called them back to the ground just as Marlene thought it was actually about to start snowing. Despite the layers upon layers of clothes she could still feel the goosebumps on her arms as she dove towards the ground. "Good job guys. See you tomorrow at 8." Shuddering at the mere thought of getting out of bed at 7:30 on a Saturday and not even daring to think about how cold it would be that early in the morning, Marlene headed off towards the changing rooms with the rest of the team.
"Mary." She stopped at the sight of her friend just outside the changing room door. "What're you doing here?"
"Lily's doing prefect stuff, and Alice is…somewhere." She shrugged with a chuckle. "So I thought I'd go see my friend's practise."
"Friend?"
"I don't know, seems appropriate, doesn't it?"
"I guess." It wasn't that Marlene hadn't thought about it, she just hadn't figured out if friend was really the right word. Maybe it was. "It's cold isn't it?"
"You're one to talk. I've been sitting on a cold fucking bench for an hour."
Marlene laughed and pulled Mary with her through the changing rooms and up towards the
castle.
"What're you doing?" Mary stumbled on an uneven patch of grass and almost fell.
"It's freezing, I wanna get back to the castle."
"Then maybe stop trying to kill your mate, and it'll work better." Someone came up behind them.
"Hi, Black."
"Are you last naming me, McKinnon. I thought we'd come farther than that."
Marlene rolled her eyes and threw her arm around him.
"Where's James?"
"Talking to that effing captain of ours. He wants to put in another practise."
"Is he serious? The match is a week away, what if someone gets hurt?"
"Yeah, try telling the two of them that." Sirius rolled his eyes. "You don't need any more practise
though, you were amazing out there."
"Please."
"No, I mean it. You were almost better than James," Sirius chuckled. "Don't tell him that
though."
"You're impossible." Marlene rolled her eyes.
"You still love me though."
"Obviously."
By the time they reached the castle doors, snowflakes had started falling from the overcast sky above and as the wooden doors slammed shut behind them Marlene had to brush the snow away from her Quidditch sweater.
"Have you eaten?" she asked Sirius, making a gesture towards the doors into the Great Hall.
"Yeah, right before practice. Anyways, I said I'd meet up with Remus. I'll see you at that practice James has gotten us into." He grimaced.
Marlene laughed as Sirius raised a hand in goodbye as he went off for the stairs up to the first floor.
"So, dinner?" She turned to Mary once Sirius had disappeared at the top of the stairs.
"What the bloody hell was that?"
Marlene couldn't make out what Mary meant with it and it put her off.
"Sorry?"
"The flirting?"
"What?"
"Come on, it was so obvious."
"I was asking about dinner, not some kind of life coaching."
Mary rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. "Sure, let's eat."
Thankful, Marlene led the way into the Great Hall.
"I just don't get it." Mary caught up with her.
"What?" It was starting to get on her nerves, but she tried her best to not let it show.
"You obviously like him."
"Who?"
"Stop it, you're just making yourself sound dumb."
"Oh right, I forgot you had exclusive rights on that."
"You're being mean."
"I'm hungry." Marlene sped up her pace.
"I'm just saying. It's doesn't take a fucking genius to see."
"And we're back at that again?" Marlene found a seat halfway down the Gryffindor table and started slopping mashed potatoes onto her plate before Mary had even sat down opposite her.
"We are, since you obviously doesn't wanna talk about it."
"And that gives you the right to pressure me for information?"
"It gives me the right, as your friend, to know that you're hiding something."
"I liked it a damn lot better when we weren't friends." Marlene muttered into her plate as she
picked at her food with her fork.
"You don't mean that." Mary sounded genuinely upset.
"No, I don't." Marlene admitted, looking up.
"What're we talking about?" Lily plopped down next to Mary at the bench. "Oh. What's going on?" she added, her gaze travelling from Mary's tight lips to Marlene's absent stare.
"Nothing," Marlene said quickly. "Where's Alice?"
"She's studying."
"Isn't she eating?"
"Her and Frank are taking something to eat afterwards."
"Wait, she's with Frank?" Mary looked up.
Lily nodded.
"Will they just get over themselves and snog already?" She leaned over the table and pulled a
plate of chicken closer to her.
"They're not even going out, they're just friends."
"Friends my arse." Marlene muttered into her goblet.
"Seriously, Lils, how are you not more involved in this?"
"They'll work it out themselves."
"They'll hurt each other doing so."
"That's true. They're both capable of breaking the other's heart."
"If he breaks Alice's heart, I'll kill him." Marlene put her goblet down on the table so hard some
of the pumpkin juice spilled.
"Have you seen the bloke, Marls?" Lily said. "He wouldn't break her heart if his life depended
on it."
"They're going to Hogsmeade together though, right?"
"Dunno." Marlene grabbed a napkin and wiped her hand clean of pumpkin juice.
"Are you still going with Cody?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Just, haven't seen a lot of him lately."
"Marls, who's your knight in shining armour? Black?" Mary smiled.
"I've told you, that was a one time thing, as friends."
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Actually, I think I'll just go by myself," marlene continued.
"That's just sad," Mary said.
"Hey!" Lily straightened up.
"Well you could get any bloke you wanted, so that doesn't count."
"Have you ever been to Hogsmeade without a date, Mary?" Marlene knew Mary wanted her to feel like she pitied her, but Marlene knew she was talking out of her ass.
"I have."
"When?" challenged Marlene.
"In…third year."
"Wow."
"What?"
"That's what's sad, you know."
The sun was shining properly, for the first time in weeks, when they got out of bed that Sunday.
"Alice, are you coming with us today?" Lily asked, tying her hair up.
"Yeah."
"Aren't you going with Frank?" Marlene asked.
"No?" Alice frowned.
"What happened?"
"Nothing," Alice sighed. "We're not even dating."
"Mhm." Mary smiled, reaching for her hairbrush.
"I know what you're implying."
"I wasn't trying to hide it."
Marlene laughed into her hand but stopped when Alice glanced at her.
"Amelia, Elizabeth, what're you doing?" Lily turned away from them. It wasn't that she didn't want to take the conflict; it'd been fine the first time, and the second, but now that they were appearing nearly daily, she was losing interest in the topic.
"I'm going with Jack." Amelia smiled.
"Cooper?" Marlene turned too, looking at her teammate.
Amelia nodded. "He asked me out last night after practise."
"Omg, Amelia, I'm so happy for you." Lily thought Marlene might have rushed over and hugged her, if she'd been more of the hugging type. "It was about time."
Amelia smiled a bit self-consciously.
"You'd think you wouldn't have to snog a bloke for him to ask you out." Elizabeth said.
"What?" Marlene looked from Amelia to Elizabeth. "You snogged him already?"
Lily wasn't really following the conversation. She knew who Jack Cooper was, of course, but he'd always been a quiet bloke and she'd barely payed attention to him on the Quidditch pitch, much less off it.
"Well…it was Black's birthday."
"Oh, right. You were taking forever in the bloody locker room."
"Oh well…" Amelia chuckled.
"Still, that was a month ago, he took his time to ask you out."
"He's shy." She shrugged.
"What're you doing then, Elizabeth?" Lily turned to the blond girl.
"Probably watching those two suck face."
"Sod off." Amelia pushed her friend sideways.
"Why don't you come with us then?"
"Really?"
"We're gonna be a crooked group anyways. Me, Marlene, Alice, Frank-"
Alice coughed.
"-oh you know he's gonna end up with us anyways; then there's Arnold, Dorcas-"
"Potter." Marlene nudged Lily's side.
"Black." Lily retorted.
"As much as I'd love to see how this plays out." Mary walked towards the coat-stand and
unhooked her winter coat. "I'm going to meet Cody. I'll see you guys later."
They were passing by the Three Broomsticks. Cody had suggested they go in, but Mary said she'd prefer to just walk the streets. Now, ten minutes later, she couldn't remember why. Her fingers were frozen and the cold air had found its way through her coat. Still, it was a nice morning. The sun was shining over them and even though the main street was emptier than it used to be, most students having fled the cold, there were still students roaming it, looking at the holiday decorating in the shop's display windows.
"Are you alright?" Cody asked.
"Yeah." She squeezed his hand, absentmindedly looking through the Honeydukes window.
He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. It used to feel nicer. It used to send chills down her
spine. Now, all she could think about was Lily, Alice and Marlene sitting in a corner booth at the
Three Broomsticks, sipping butterbeer, laughing and talking.
"Listen, Cody." She pulled away.
"What's wrong?"
"I need to go."
"What? Why?"
"It's just…I think I need to spend some time with my friends."
"But we decided…"
"I know…sorry."
"You've been spending a lot of time with your friends lately."
"They're my friends."
"I'm your boyfriend." He leaned in to kiss her but she took a small step backwards.
"Marlene's mum passed away. She needs us."
"I thought you couldn't stand her."
"Maybe I changed my mind."
"What? Just because her mum died?"
Mary hesitated. That had been what brought them together in the first place, but that wasn't why
they'd become friends, right? It couldn't be.
"No…"
"Then why?"
"It's personal."
"There's been a lot of 'personal' stuff lately."
"I have a life outside of being your girlfriend." Mary hadn't realised she was raising her voice
until she was screaming. She could feel heads turn towards her.
"Then maybe I shouldn't be your boyfriend." Cody's voice was raised too, almost as much as
hers.
"Fine."
"Fine."
Mary started in the other direction, walking back towards the Three Broomsticks. She didn't want him to call after her, she didn't want him to come up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, she'd never really liked him in the first place and right now she just wanted him to disappear. Still, the romantic in her wanted him to come after her, to sweep her off her feet and kiss her. She wasn't a romantic, but she still hoped for a fairytale ending. It didn't really matter what guy it was, just that it was a guy. Now she was alone again, she didn't like the feeling of that.
The bell above the door of the Three Broomsticks went off and she was hit by a barrier of noise. Happy talking, glasses hitting tables and, somewhere in a corner, someone singing an old Muggle song.
"Mary! What're you doing here?" Lily made room for her on the bench. "Where's Cody?"
"We broke up."
"Oh no…why?"
"He was a tosser."
"That's what I always said." Marlene looked up from across the table.
Mary raised her eyebrows.
"Okay well, not always, but you know."
Mary laughed, nodding.
"I'm going to get a butterbeer." She stood up.
"I'll come with you." Lily followed her.
"What really happened?" She asked, leaning against the bar while Mary handed Madam Rosmerta money for her drink.
"Nothing happened. It just wasn't right."
"Okay." Lily still looked doubtful, but let it go.
"What's happening here?"
"Oh…some of this, some of that."
"Frank's here."
"What did you expect?" Lily rolled her eyes.
"So are the Marauders."
"Don't remind me." She rubbed her temples. "Black was saying something to Marls, and all of a sudden they were sitting around the table, ordering butterbeer for the lot of us."
Mary chuckled before stopping and looking up at Lily.
"Black and Marls, I'm not crazy right? There is something going on there."
"Yeah, I s'ppose there is." She smiled vaguely.
"You know something." Mary took the drink Rosmerta handed her and pointed it at Lily. "Tell me what you know."
"Nope."
"Pleaseeee," Mary asked. "I'll buy you butterbeer."
"I won't tell you."
Lily turned and started walking towards the table.
"Fine," Mary mumbled, adjusted the strap of her shoulder bag and following Lily.
"Potter takes the quaffle, pass to McKinnon, the latest addition to the Gryffindor team, only time will tell if she's got what it takes…" the voice of Bertha Jorkins echoed across the pitch. James leaned forward, flying up beside Marlene. She dodged a bludger and continued seamlessly towards the Hufflepuff goal posts, her lips pressed tight together in. In concentration or fear,
James didn't know.
"Gryffindor scores!"
The stadium echoed with cheers from the Gryffindor crowds. Marlene turned around and smiled
brightly.
"Good job." James mouthed at her.
He hadn't noticed the game had started again until Sirius passed by right beside his ear, James didn't hear his warning until it was too late. The bludger hit the back of his head with a thud and
James yelped out in pain. The last thing he saw before passing out was Sirius forcefully hitting the bludger back towards one of the Hufflepuff beaters.
"It was my fault," someone said, sitting at the end of his bed.
"Don't be silly."
"It was, he was turned around to talk to me."
"I could've knocked it away. I had one job, keep the bludger off you guys, and I failed."
"He'll be fine though."
"Of course he will. He's survived worse."
Right now it didn't feel like it. James' head was throbbing violently. It wasn't the first time he'd been knocked out by a bludger, and probably not the last either, but every time it felt like the pain was new. He peeked his eyes open. The sun was still shining through the hospital wing Windows, so he couldn't have been out for that long.
"James?" Marlene stood up from her place by his feet.
"Are you okay mate?"
"Did we win?"
Marlene got something dark in her eyes, so James could guess.
"The Hufflepuff seeker caught the snitch just after you were knocked out, Shiller lost her focus
and didn't notice it."
"They're not blaming her, are they?" James couldn't imagine the third year seeker getting punished for something that, in one way, had been his fault.
"I think she's doing enough of that herself." Marlene fidgeted with the hem of her quidditch robe. "But she's a fighter."
"Kinda like our friend Marls here." Sirius gestured towards her
"Right. You were amazing out there!" James tried to sit up, but Madam Pomfrey hurried over and
stopped him. James had no idea how, because he hadn't thought she'd been in the room.
"Potter, you need rest."
"Please ma'am, I've rested all the other times I've been knocked out. Can't I just go."
"If you break your leg once, does it not need mending again when you break it a second time?"
"Yes…but-"
"You're staying in bed until I deem it safe for you to leave, Potter." She trotted away and into her office again.
"Well, Potter." Sirius smiled triumphantly as he stood up. "Looks like we need to leave for you to get your rest."
"No, guys!"
Marlene started following Sirius out of the room, smiling at James' dramatic calls for them to come back. Then the door closed and he was left alone as Madam Pomfrey hurried out of her office again and put down a cup with the opaque liquid potion that relieved headache. He took it without hesitation: his head was still throbbing wildly.
"Merry Christmas." Someone came up behind Peter as he was leaving the Great Hall. He turned to see Patrick standing there, arm outstretched and with a packed trunk behind him.
"Er…Merry Christmas." Peter shook the outstretched hand. Their failed hour of tutoring were still fresh in Peter's mind, though it had been months ago.
"I'm leaving tonight, mum and I are going to Bulgaria, so I won't be here for the end of term feast. But I wanted to say goodbye."
Peter was still very confused. He hadn't talked to Patrick since their tutoring, and that hadn't really ended on the terms where you wish each other happy holidays.
"Oh, have fun."
"I think it will be."
"Good."
"Well, I better be going." He picked up his trunk and started dragging it behind him towards the
exit.
"Wait." It was a spur of the moment thing, Peter had no idea why he did it. "Let me help you."
He hurried up alongside the other boy and grabbed the other handle of the trunk, helping him lift it out through the front door and into the Thestral dragged carriages.
"Merry Christmas," Patrick called after him again as the carriage disappeared down the road.
Peter didn't know what to do. He'd been planning on going up to the library to finish off some last minute class work but he didn't feel like it anymore. Instead, he found himself roaming the halls outside the hospital wing, not sure if he was going in. He didn't normally share these kinds of things with the guys, he wasn't even sure if he'd told them about Patrick in the first place, but his head was spinning. Also, James had been complaining about how bored he was every time they'd come by to visit. Taking a decisive breath, he flung the door to the hospital wing open.
"Wormtail!" James exclaimed. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Madam Pomfrey hushed him and James sent a charming smile her way as Peter pulled up a
chair to his bed and sat down.
"I didn't have anything to do, and I thought you might be bored…"
"Out of my bloody mind."
"So I decided I'd come visit."
"Okay, that's just talking crap." James leaned over and took a cup from his nightstand. "What's really going on?"
"Okay…well." Peter didn't know where he was supposed to start. How did you talk about these kind of things? "Did I tell you about Patrick?"
"Don't think so."
"Well, I had a tutoring with him." Peter stopped for a moment. He still didn't like talking about his tutoring with the other guys. They'd never even been close to needing it and the fact that he did made him feel he was so much less than the rest of them. "Back in October. It didn't go too well."
"Wormy, I'm sorry."
"I haven't talked to him since, we didn't really end on good terms."
"And?"
"And when I was leaving lunch, he came up to me, and wished me Merry Christmas."
"That's weird. And you don't know him?"
"No."
"He's not one of your relatives, is he?"
"I don't think so…" Peter searched his mind for any kids at his mum's family gatherings, but
he'd always been the only one. That's why he'd always wandered off to the back of the garden where his uncles had been drinking firewhiskey. "When I saw him the first time, I thought I recognised him, but I don't."
"And you're sure he's not a relative?"
"I might ask mum about it."
"Yeah, do that."
James swallowed down the potion in the cup.
"How're you doing?"
"Oh come on, I'm fine."
"You were knocked unconscious."
"I'm always knocked unconscious."
"It's still scary you know." Peter straightened out the duvet. "You fell off the broom."
"Sirius picked me up."
"What if one time he doesn't? You're the one that keeps us together, James."
"Nonsense. We're a group."
"Of course but…" Peter sighed, not sure how he was supposed to say it. "You're the only normal one of the lot."
"What do you mean?"
"Remus has his 'little furry problem', Sirius is so…broken. He just won't admit it. And I'm not a leader, I'm too stupid."
"I think you're smarter than you give yourself credit for."
Peter smiled, but he still couldn't really believe it.
"Potter. I said no visitors."
"Oh fuck." James buried his face in the covers.
Madam Pomfrey came hurrying across the room.
"Sorry ma'am, I was just leaving a book for James." Peter stood up.
"Well then. Now get out of here." She waved him towards the door.
"Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed when James climbed through the portrait hole. "Thank Merlin."
Sirius hadn't been worried about him, at least not more worried than you usually are when your best friend is knocked unconscious and in the hospital wing, but James' entrance had broken the tense barrier in the room. It wasn't that it was tense, just that no one had talked for so long it felt wrong to do it without any real reason.
They were sitting around the fireplace. Sirius didn't know how it'd happened and thought that it was probably the first time all of the Gryffindor 5th years had been in the same place by choice in a very long time. It was a cold night though, and the dorms had been nearly uninhabitable because of it. Sirius, Remus and Peter had managed to get hold of the armchairs in front of the fireplace and as the common room emptied Marlene, Lily, Mary, Alice, Frank, Arnold and finally
Amelia and Elizabeth had joined them.
"Come on guys. It's our last night here. Let's do something." Sirius sat up straighter in his chair.
"Well…" Elizabeth looked up hesitantly "We could like…play a game?"
"What about poker?" Lily smiled.
"Poker?" Frank asked.
"It's a Muggle card game…hold on." Lily stood. "I'll go fetch my deck."
She returned ten minutes later, carrying a deck of cards as well as a thick woollen blanket she wrapped herself in.
"That's not fair," Marlene protested. "Why do you get a blanket?"
"If you go up to the dorm, you can get a blanket too." Lily told her before she started to explain the rules.
Sirius had always fancied himself quite good at understanding games but now he was sitting with
the cards in hand he had virtually no idea what to do with them.
"Don't you usually bet on stuff?" Mary asked. "Grandpa and dad used to play at Christmas."
"Yeah, but we don't have anything." Lily shrugged.
"We could play strip poker." Sirius grinned.
"Black!" Lily exclaimed.
"What?" Sirius held up his hands in front of him. "It was Prongs' idea! He'd love to see you
topless."
He didn't know if James or Lily looked more horrified and he didn't get a second look before he
had to duck quickly when James made an attempt to hit him over the head.
"Okay so…" Lily took a breath and continued from where she'd been cut off, not looking too bother bothered about what had just happened. James, on the other hand, had gone very red and was fidgeting with his glasses. "Mary, you start."
"I hate this stupid game." Sirius muttered as he lost the third hand in a row.
"Oh poor Siri." Marlene smiled at him from her place on the floor.
"Shut up, you've won every single time."
"Hey, not fair." Amelia protested. "I've won too."
"And I've won nothing. This is just great." He leaned back and watched as Marlene won yet another hand. She jumped up, almost knocking the table over and danced around in circles. Her hair was bouncing up and down with her and her eyes were glowing. She grabbed Lily and Mary by the hand and dragged them up to join her.
Sirius smiled, telling himself he'd be just as happy for any of his friends being happy.
"You think you're lucky now, don't you?" He leaned over the back of his chair to talk to her.
"This had nothing to do with luck, it's pure talent."
"You've never played before in your life."
"What can I say?"
"Beginner's luck. That's what you'll say."
"Marls, are you playing another round?" James asked, shuffling the cards.
"Obviously." Marlene sat down again, her whole face smiling.
"I'm in too." Sirius leaned forward.
"Evans?"
"I'm in."
"I'm not." Alice leaned back, yawning. "If I fall asleep, wake me up before you go to bed. I don't want a bunch of first years to find me here tomorrow."
"Are you okay sitting on the floor?" Frank asked, moving on the sofa to make room so Alice
could sit next to him.
"Thanks." Alice cuddled up in the corner Frank had left free and rested her head against the back of the sofa.
Sirius threw his cards down on the table. "I fucking give up."
"Let's play something else then." Marlene smiled at him. "Like…crazy eights."
"Game on." Sirius leaned over the table.
"Does anyone else get to play or…?" Lily asked.
"If you wanna play with those two, go ahead." Remus said, leaning back against the sofa. Lily laughed and, she too, leaned back.
"Looks like it's just the two of us, McKinnon."
"Are you sure you can handle this?"
"Does it look like I couldn't."
"You did cry," James said.
"Shut up, James, got something in my eye." Sirius shook the hair away from his face and ran his hand through it. Not in the way James did when he was nervous, whenever Lily was around,
Sirius did it like it was a matter of course and it wouldn't even occur to you that there was anything weird with it.
"Let's do this." Marlene dealt the cards between them, one eye on her own cards and one on Sirius.
"You fucking bitch you totally cheated!" Marlene threw her cards at Sirius and, throwing herself over the table she grabbed at his shirt. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down. She wasn't much shorter than him, but enough that he had the upper hand. He was holding her against him as she grabbed for his hair and pulled it out of order.
"Calm down, Marls."
"Don't you tell me what to do!" She fought to get free. "You cheated."
"You lost." Sirius smirked.
"Guys." Lily hushed at them and nodded towards Alice, who was snoring. Not loudly, just
enough that it was audible. She was still curled up on the couch but her head had fallen down and was resting on Frank's shoulder.
Marlene stopped fighting and Sirius let go of her. She slid down next to him in the armchair.
"Isn't that cute?" Mary said quietly.
Lily held up her hands in a heart and started swaying them back and forth.
"Do you think she knows?" Mary whispered, leaning towards Lily.
"How could she? She's sleeping," Lily replied.
Marlene sat quiet and watched as Alice's chest rose and sunk with each breath. She looked to
Frank; he was sitting with his eyes closed but she saw how they opened as James stood up,
making Marlene think he wasn't sleeping.
"They're cute," Sirius whispered. His breath tickled her ear.
She nodded.
"Are you tired?"
Slowly, she nodded again. She hadn't noticed until he asked her, but now all she could think about was how much she'd like to just close her eyes and go to sleep right now. She didn't know what time it was, but it must be long past midnight. The half-moon was high in the sky, surrounded by a clear sky lit up by a million stars. He stroked her hair slowly and she didn't even notice when she fell asleep.
"Lily." James called after her just as she was about to pass through the barrier accompanied by her mum and, to James' dismay, Snape. She turned. She wasn't smiling, but her face wasn't twisted in that scowl he was used to seeing when he interrupted her in something. "Come here."
He doubted she would.
Looking from him, to Snape, to her mother and back to him, she leaned over to say something to her mum before starting through the crowd towards him.
"What?" Her arms were crossed, but she still didn't look angry.
"My family's having a New Year's party…on New Year's eve." God he hadn't thought this through.
His mind had gone foggy and he knew he sounded like an idiot.
"Surprise." Lily almost cracked a smile as she said it, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Well, everyone's gonna be there. Marls, Alice, Sirius, Remus, Peter, so you could come by, if you feel like it." He tried his best to sound like it was no big deal, like he hadn't thought it through carefully all morning.
"Yeah, maybe."
"I mean, mum could come by and bring you along with Apparition. So you don't need to take the train."
"That's alright, I could take the bus." She looked up and pulled a strand of red hair from her face.
James frowned.
"The knight bus."
"Oh." He laughed. "You can take that? I get travel sick." Right. That was a nice conversation topic.
"I'll see. Severus' dad isn't around much, so he might be with us for New Year's."
"Okay, I mean, that's fine." There wasn't any use remarking anything about Snape, unless he wanted to cause a big scene. And considering Lily had almost smiled at him, he wasn't about to do that.
Lily chuckled and looked down at her shoes. "I'll try to come. It'd be fun to see what spectacular things the famous Potter can come up with."
"Oh it's nothing special." James smiled.
"I doubt it."
"Maybe it's a little spectacular."
"Don't blow anything up." She turned and started towards her mum again, before turning. "Oh, god, it's part of the thing, isn't it. You're gonna blow the house up." She laughed, for real this time. It sent butterflies up James' throat.
"You never know." He smirked.
She laughed and walked towards the exit and grabbed at the trolley Snape had been holding for
her. They went through the barrier together. It was just his imagination, he knew that, but he thought she didn't look as happy as she'd done when she left him.
"She said she'd try to come, Prongs, you're acting like she threw herself in your arms and promised to love you forever."
"When did you become such a romantic, Padfoot?"
"I'm not, you are." Sirius grabbed James' arm and dragged him along down the platform.
"Aren't you forgetting someone?"
Sirius stopped and turned to James, furrowing his brows.
"Your brother?"
"Fucking hell, he's 14, can't he travel home alone?"
"Language." Mrs. Potter came up behind them.
"Mia. Do I have to go home?" He turned to her.
"Sirius, if it was up to me, you'd already be living with us, but your mother wants to have you home for Christmas." She sighed and Sirius knew she knew the same as him. His mother didn't want him home, she just wanted to uphold the image of a happy family as long as possible.
When Andromeda had left with her fiance it'd been a tragedy, her parents had been blamed by the whole family. His mother didn't want to be accused of the same, of raising a Muggle lover under her roof. So, as long as Sirius kept a low profile at the family dinners, he'd be forced home for them, but if he put up a fight, he'd be taken care of by his cousins.
"I'll see you boxing day, or however long I can withstand in that house." He grabbed a trolley and lifted his trunk onto it.
Mrs. Potter pulled him into a warm hug. Even wearing Heels, she was almost a head shorter than him and as so her arms closed around his waist.
"You've grown again," she whispered to him.
"It's been known to happen," he replied, hugging her back. His mother hadn't ever hugged him, or Regulus, even before they started Hogwarts. She hadn't been the nurturing type. It was nice being hugged by Mrs. Potter then, and for the first time in a long time he felt bad for his little brother. He didn't imagine Regulus friends parents were the type that hugged their own kids, let alone him.
"Take care of yourself." She ruffled his hair.
He nodded and set off towards the end of the platform in search of his brother.
Regulus leaned on a pillar, surrounded by the usual group of Slytherins. He was laughing at something Mulciber had just said. Sirius couldn't help shuddering, he saw so much of himself in his little brother, it was frightening.
"Reg." He took a step forward. "We're going."
"I'm coming home with Wilkes."
"Mother wants both of us home." He grabbed at his brother's arm.
He pulled away. "Stop it, I'm not a baby."
"We need to go," Sirius repeated.
"Fine." Regulus sighed dramatically. "I'll see you later."
There were two miles to walk from the train station to Grimmauld Place, but Sirius denied
Regulus' request to use the bus. The longer he could prolong the moment before he needed to step through the door of the house that hadn't felt like a home in five years, the better.
"They're family, you know." Regulus broke the silence as they walked up the pavement, dragging their trunks behind them.
"What?"
"My friends. They're our family."
"So is James."
"You're joking? The Potters were removed from the sacred twenty-eight. They're no more
Purebloods than those other morons you hang around with."
Sirius didn't reply. He closed his fists tighter. He wanted to punch him, you shouldn't want to punch your little brother, but right there he wanted to do it so badly. He continued up the street, ignoring the way his heart sped up the closer they got to Grimmauld Place.
"Who was it you were talking to on the platform, honey?" Her mum drove the car down the country road with one hand on the steering wheel, one outside the window holding her cigarette.
"That was James."
"Potter?"
"Yeah."
"He looked nice. He's very handsome."
"Mum…" Lily looked out the window, pretending she didn't hear as her mum went on to tell them about the boyfriend she'd had when she was fifteen. Her parents seemed to have been together forever. They hadn't of course, really they hadn't gotten married until after her mum had gotten pregnant with Petunia, but to Lily it felt like that, and the thought of her mum being her age was something she wasn't ready to hear about yet.
"I know you're saying he's a bugger." Her mum took a drag at the cigarette. "But people change, you know."
Lily nodded absentmindedly.
"Severus, did you have a nice term?" Her mum turned around to look at Severus who'd been sitting quietly in the backseat since they left London.
Lily wasn't sure what he was going to answer. Her mum had been like an extra parent to him since they were nine, how was he going to tell her that most of his term had been spent hanging around with people who'd want to kill her and her daughter if they got the chance?
"Yes, very nice." He'd always been more polite towards her mum than any other adult.
"Potions still going good?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Now potions…that's like chemistry, right?"
"Kinda," Lily replied, saving Severus who looked very confused. "And cooking."
"And you're good at it too, honey?"
"I know, can't cook, excellent in potions, the irony is clear." She rolled her eyes.
The car passed the Cokeworth sign and the landscape opened as they drove up the hill, displaying the rolling hills behind the houses crammed together so tightly Lily had always thought it must be magic.
Severus hesitated before he got out of the car in front of his house. He looked so much smaller here than he ever did at Hogwarts, and Lily's heart ached for him the same way it did for the scared first years that missed home. She'd been told she was too nice, multiple times, and maybe she was. But when someone needed her help she couldn't just ignore them. The car door closed and before she could turn around to say goodbye, Severus was gone.
Her dad. Her dad. Her dad had picked them up from the train. As they made their way through central London towards the Leaky cauldron that was all she could think about. Her dad wasn't supposed to pick them up. He'd been late, of course, he wasn't used to having to pick them up.
Her mum used to do that. Her legs started shaking just at the thought of it. She'd managed not to think about it for so long so when she did, it felt like her whole world fell apart again.
"Come on sweetie." Her dad turned.
She nodded and bent down, pretending to fix something with her trunk so no one would see the tears forming in her eyes. She couldn't cry, that was silly. It'd happened weeks ago, she couldn't cry now.
"Marls, are you ok?" Will had stopped and was looking at her.
"Yeah." She swallowed. "I'm fine."
There was a lump in her throat as she stood up and continued walking.
They stepped through the door at the Leaky Cauldron; it was almost empty, apart from a group of
aged wizards sitting in a booth at the far back.
"Alfred. Hello." Tom the bartender lifted his hand. "Here for lunch?"
"Not today, Tom, I'm just taking the kids through today."
They way he said it, it sounded like they weren't his kids, he was just taking them back to where they belonged. Marlene wasn't sure where that was anymore.
The living room looked like it had done when they left the last time, it was like no one had been in there for weeks. Marlene thought that might be true; her aunt had left right after the funeral and she doubted her dad had left his room much.
She didn't bother taking her trunk up to her room. Leaving it on the living room carpet, she started wandering the house. It was where she'd grown up, she'd fallen down those stairs and scraped her knee, she'd learnt to bike in that back garden, it was on that chair in that kitchen that she'd been standing as her mum prepared Christmas dinner; still it felt like she was walking through a stranger's home, intruding on their personal space. She passed by the door to her mum's office. She couldn't open it. Her mum had always been sitting there, working, when she got home from the Potters'.
The Potters. Maybe that's where she would feel at home.
But she couldn't leave now. Her siblings needed her. Her dad needed her. Who would make sure there was dinner if she ran off?
She was still standing outside the office door, staring at it, when someone placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I miss her too," Mike whispered.
"I can't believe she's gone." The lump rose in her throat.
"We need to be strong," Mike said. "For dad, and Mickey and Ellie."
Marlene nodded. She knew her voice would break if she tried to use it.
"Aunt Edna made us dinner, it's in the fridge." He rubbed her shoulder. "Now go unpack."
He ushered her away from the office door; she was thankful, she didn't think she'd have been able to leave on her own. She grabbed her trunk off the living room floor and started up the stairs where she'd fallen and scraped her knee. Now as she went up, she would've gladly scraped both knees and an elbow to make the pain in her chest go away.