Chapter Six - All Is Revealed
Marlene was in the Owlery, thinking. She never had much time to herself anymore, what with helping Lily search through never ending piles of books for random spells as well as the piles of homework that teachers were forcing on them. More than once already she had been awake until the early hours of the morning finishing important essays for lessons that day and she was shattered.
Along with the school responsibilities, she had already had a few Quidditch practises, and was constantly worrying about her parents. She hadn't wanted to say anything to Jacob, in case he hadn't realised anything was wrong; it wasn't fair to make him worry as well, one person scared was enough in her opinion.
Curling up in the corner of the room, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to doze off. Merlin knows she hadn't been sleeping well recently, and no one knew she was up here. It wasn't somewhere she normally came, but then again it wasn't somewhere anyone normally came unless it was to post something. And even if someone did come up here, they wouldn't see her because she was tucked around behind a column, letting her sleep in peace.
Then, just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard clattering footsteps on the staircase, and voices echoing up to where she was.
"Do you think they'll have replied yet?"
"I dunno mate, if they'd replied it probably would've come with the morning post, but Achilles could've just been delayed..."
Achilles was James' parents owl, but James didn't really write to his parents that much, and he definitely wouldn't be waiting eagerly for a letter from them; they were too often letters scolding his for James to look forward to them. Marlene sat up a little straighter, and cocked her head, listening in on the conversation. It sounded like Remus was with him, which didn't surprise Marlene - the Marauders were inseparable, even during the holidays it was rare to find James by himself.
"HEY! MOONY THEY HAVE WRITTEN BACK!" James called, peering over the stair rail to Remus, who hadn't raced up the stairs like an excitable child to keep up with James.
"Good," Remus wheezed, reaching the top step and bending over to catch his breath, "But next time, don't run up three flights of stairs. Even being a freakishly strong monster has it's limitations, y'know."
"Oh shush Moony, stop whining and let's see what it says. For Marls' sake I hope it's not bad..."
And their voices faded as they headed back down the stairs and off to dinner, Marlene brought her knees up to her chest and frowned. What did they mean, for her sake? What would they be writing to Mr and Mrs Potter for that could affect her? Nothing that she could think of. and what did Remus mean by 'freakishly strong monster'?
Shrugging it off, she headed down to dinner, her stomach rumbling.
James and Remus were already at dinner, but the letter was unopened in James' pocket. They had been planning to find Lily and read it together, seeing as Lily had also signed her name on the original letter to James' parents, but had been caught by Sirius on the way back from the Owlery, and hadn't wanted to tell him what they'd done before they'd read it themselves.
Everyone was at the table when Marlene slipped onto the bench next to Lily.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late, I was just having a nap."
Lily frowned slightly, "No you weren't, because I was in the dorm just a second ago, and you were not there..."
Marlene smiled, sweating slightly. She didn't want the boys to know she had overheard their conversation; she meant to 'go spy' on them and discover what they had been so worried about. And she also wanted to know why they hadn't told her they were worried, James especially was always very honest and open about who and what he was concerned about. "No, I was sleeping by the Lake, actually, it was quite a nice day," she lied easily.
Lily didn't believe her, but let it slide.
The rest of dinner passed uneventfully, with Remus asking Lily if he would meet her in the Library afterwards for 'Prefect stuff'.
Lily walked into the Library with her arms folded. The way Remus had asked her to come to the Library hadn't sounded like a simple question, there was an edge to his voice. So when she came in, as soon as she had finished eating, she was suspicious.
"What am I here for Remus?" she said, moving to the corner of the Library then scowled, "Potter, what are you doing?"
James smirked, "I have some information you might want, so insulting me and storming off will deny you of that..."
She rolled her eyes and sat next to Remus, opposite James which was probably a mistake. He grinned at her and she scowled even more.
"Just tell me, Potter, before I kill you violently."
Remus sighed and acciod the letter from James' pocket, "We got a reply from Mr and Mrs Potter..."
"YOU DID?!"
Madam Pince glared at Lily, but she didn't see, "What does it say?"
"We haven't opened it yet, we were waiting for you," James admitted.
Lily smiled at that, in some ways - and these ways were few and far between - James was charming. Not that she was ever going to say that out loud. Ever.
Remus ripped the envelope open and smoothed the letter out, scanning it before he read it out loud.
"Dear James, Remus and Lily (James is that the girl you're always going on about?)," James and Lily both blushed and avoided each others' gaze, "We weren't sure ourselves if anything was going on, but if Anna and Daniel haven't written to Marlene, and Mason hasn't been in contact either, you should suspect the worst. James, as you know, your father has a desk job in the Auror department, and they have sent quite a few Aurors out to search for them. We're afraid to tell you that they missed their call in with the Department, and everyone is starting to worry.
Your father is advising you not to tell Marlene as it might affect her school work, and it should be us telling her not you, James, as we've said we'll look after them all if the worst comes to the worst, so don't get any ideas.
Love as always, Mother x"
As Remus finished speaking, Lily looked down, and licked her lips, "So basically her parents are missing and suspected dead?"
James nodded glumly, while Lily squeezed her eyes shut, hiding a tear. The news gave the war a new reality: before the deaths had been people they didn't know, people who were unconnected, but this was different. If it was true, and Marlene's parents and oldest brother were dead, then the war was really here, and here to stay. It would leave Marlene an orphan, with one sibling down too. Remus smiled sympathetically at Lily, and patted her hand which was on the table next to the letter.
James' eyes widened, "Sirius needs to know."
"No he does not!" Lily protested, "/We/ asked, /we/ got a reply, but no one else should know, it's not our secret to share!"
"But Sirius is involved in this, we should all know and-"
"No, James, Lily is right, it isn't our secret, it's not our business to tell people."
James pouted, "He should know! Padfoot is notorious for setting people off and he should know so he can be sensitive..."
Remus snorted, "He can't be sensitive. We're talking about the same person here right?"
Lily stood up, "I'm going. I need to think about this."
Remus smiled, "Okay Lils, see you around. I'll keep this safe, yeah?"
"Yeah, thanks Remus." Lily smiled at him sadly and left the Library, thoughts swirling.
"How come you get to call her by anything other than Lily or Evans?" James whined.
Remus grinned, "Because I'm not an arrogant stuck up idiot who thinks asking her out every second will make her say yes?" he suggested.
"Oi, I resent that."
"Resent it all you like, that's the truth," Remus stated.
Throughout this exchange, Sirius had been in the Common Room playing Exploding Snap with Peter, a tad annoyed that he wasn't allowed to know what James had in his pocket, but a bit relieved that he didn't have to go into the Library and ruin his reputation. Currently however, he was more annoyed that he was losing to Peter - since when did /Wormtail/ become so good at games? Sirius always used to beat him. Then, another small explosion and Sirius lost the game. With a small growl, he leaned back and threw his cards down on the table, "You win Wormtail, well done."
Peter, luckily, didn't hear the irritation in Sirius' voice, and he too leaned back, but grinning in glee. So when James walked in, looking around for Sirius, he knew he was going to have to be extremely tactful when telling Sirius about this new development.
"Umm, Padfoot? Can you follow me a second?" James said nervously, feeling extremely bad for going behind Remus and Lily's backs but in his mind this was right therefore he would do it, no matter what people told him otherwise, that was just James.
Sirius grunted in acknowledgement and got up from the sofa, following James up to their dorm and shutting the door behind him with a thud, "What is it, Prongs?" he said snappily.
"Hey, if you're gonna be like this, I shan't tell you. You need to be sensible about this, mate," James said calmly, having dealt with Sirius in a mood many, many times before.
"What is it then?"
Swallowing his guilt, James started, "Well... Y'know how Marls has been rather... easily upset... recently?" Sirius nodded, "Well, we just found out that her parents have... gone missing, and are suspected dead."
"WHAT?"
"Padfoot, mate, this is why we're-"
"You weren't going to tell me, were you?"
"I wanted to! I'm not meant to be telling you now, I'm not meant to tell you!" James protested, "I shouldn't be here and you're acting like a child!"
"Fine! What good will this news do?"
"We didn't want you setting her off again, like at Quidditch, because it could make everything a hundred times worse, Pads," James said, wincing at what Sirius might respond with.
"So you're saying it's my fault?"
"No, but you can't deny it was you who set her off at Quidditch practise, and she wouldn't talk to you for days afterwards. I'm telling you so you will be tactful, and so you don't mention anything about family that could remind her of the fact that her parents haven't written."
"Fine," he sighed, resentfully.
"And you can't say that I've told you... Evans and Moony both told me not to..."
"Okay, Prongs, whatever."
"HE WHAT?" Lily screamed, pacing the boys' dorm, making Remus jump at the volume of her shriek.
"As I walked in, I heard James telling Siri-"
"Yes, I heard you the first time!" she snapped, then her face softened, "I'm... I'm sorry Remus, it's not your fault Potter told him."
He smiled, used to Sirius' rages and knew they meant nothing and guessing the same went for Lily, "At least Sirius knows..."
She sighed, "Yeah, whatever, but excuse me while I murder his good for nothing arse. I'm sorry, Remus, you're going to be a Marauder down." She stomped down the stairs, her hair looking extremely fiery in the light of the early evening. Remus felt sorry for James, then remembered it was his own stupid fault, and felt a lot better.
"He's down by the Lake, Lily!" he called after her retreating back.
James was lying on his front by the lake, soaking up the last of the sun before the evening drew in, Sirius next to him sitting with his back against the tree using his wand to make spheres of water turn into little models of animals. He looked up when he heard the crunch of gravel coming towards their spot.
"Uh oh, Evans approaching, and she doesn't looked to pleased," Sirius commented, making his little doe model turn back to water from lack of concentration.
Understatement of the year, James thought as he looked up and gulped. Even in the dire (and if Lily looked like that, it was definitely dire) circumstances, he smiled a little at her hair, which was practically crackling with electricity by this point.
"JAMES HAROLD POTTER YOU ABSOLUTE MORON!" Lily screamed, kicking his leg feebly when she reached them, while noticing that Sirius' transfiguration was definitely O level NEWT.
"What? What have I done this time!?" he cried scrambling to his feet and shoving his glasses back on his nose.
"You. Told. Sirius. When we EXPLICITLY said NOT TO!" she said, turning back to James.
He gulped and ruffled his hair for something to do, "I... He needed to know!"
"NO. HE. DIDN'T!" Lily cried, waving her arms in exasperation, "Stop acting like you know what's best for everyone!"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "I am here you know... Okay. Not the time," he said when Lily glared at him.
"Lilypad, dearest, I never actually said I wouldn't tell him," James pointed out quite fairly.
Lily screamed slightly and turned away, "You arrogant, insufferable /git/, James Potter."
"Lils..."
"You have no right to call me anything but Lily: you're not my friend, certainly not a close friend!" And with that she stormed off towards the castle, fists clenched in an attempt not to hit James.
Storming away in a fit of rage did not do much for your sense of direction, and soon she found herself in a part of the castle she used to come to after a fight with James; the Dungeons. She would used to come here to talk to Severus about how annoying James was, and even now they were no longer friends her brain associated getting mad at James to coming down here. Only now Severus wouldn't help her, the Dungeons were the least safe place for a small Muggleborn girl to be. The walls seemed to close in on her, the smell of mould and damp overpowering now she had stopped running, the cold sending shivers down her back.
"Hello there, Mudblood, lost are we?" a voice sneered from the shadows.
She turned round to where it came from, gripping her wand in her pocket tightly, "Who's there?"
"That's none of your business, Mudblood," it sneered again, disarming her non-verbally, her wand flying off into the corner out of reach.
She shivered in the slimy coldness of the corridor and tried to recall the Muggle self defence she'd learned before she knew she was a witch but it was no use.
"JAMES! JAMES HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE!" she tried, deep down knowing no one could hear her, "HELP, PLEASE!" Lily screamed as she was knocked to the floor.
"Sectumsempra!
A/N: So I'm really sorry this has taken so long to get up, and I could list reasons for it but you probably have heard them all before yada yada yada...
One thing, I owe so much to Nonna Nitto. Thank you so so much for your interest in my story, and this chapter wouldn't even be finished yet if it weren't for you, so I thank you! Hope you like the special mention!
For her lovely Review and PM, she got to ask one question about the story/other stories/ etc. which I answered via PMing. So, if you review, you get prizes remember that ;)
-PIAM3 :D