The Deep Breath

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December 1976

Abraxas died in early January of 1976. Cedrella hadn't quite known what to do with that. She'd noticed his health had been going downhill more than could be accounted for with their potion, but she'd thought that he would eventually seek the aid of a Healer. Evidently, the man's delusions had extended further than she'd suspected.

His heir, Lucius, was going to be interesting. It had become clear over the last year that while the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree, Lucius had sufficient variations on Abraxas' theme to be far more of a thorn in the Alliance's side than his father ever was. Lucius was in most ways an ideal Slytherin. Cunning, ambitious, and ruthless. He was also nearly as clever with words as Dumbledore. Worse, Lucius was now making plans to marry Narcissa as soon as the year mourning period was over. Dorea had managed to meet with the girl, and she was not suffering under blackmail, potions or spells. She genuinely was in love with Lucius.

Cedrella supposed there was no accounting for taste. That said, Dorea had layered Narcissa with as many protections as she could manage, both with and without Narcissa's knowledge and approval. If Lucius ever hurt her, or tried to potion her against her will, they'd know post haste, and well ... at that point, Lucius' days would be numbered.

Though it was through her that they had learned a vital piece of information. In response to the new fashion trend of short sleeves combined with the penalties for bearing the Dark Mark, Voldemort had actually begun to remove the Marks on his already Marked followers. He was immediately re-Marking them, but putting the new Marks somewhere that would remain unseen unless the person bearing it was either naked or wearing truly scandalous clothing.

Lucius had, apparently, undergone that process just days after Abraxas' death, due to his new high-profile place in the Wizengamot. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could *legally* do with the information. It wasn't like they had a chance in hell of passing a law allowing for strip-searches in an effort to find Dark Marks. That said, there was quite a bit they could do unofficially, and both their husbands and the Ladies Black made plans to ensure that, in future, any Death Eaters they left behind at the various raids would have the newly-hidden Marks exposed to the world.

As for Lucius, the first time he did something they could kill him for, they'd take no mercy. Unfortunately, either Lucius or Voldemort were canny characters. Lucius had either never been required to perform Dark Arts spells or had had the wit to 'clear' his wand before entering the Ministry, as Dark Arts spells would show up in the wand check that was a requirement to enter the Ministry building.

Lucius was one of several people who, at least among the Marauders, had a 'kill if possible' tag on them. Not every Death Eater did - just those that were the most dangerous, whether due to combat skills or other factors. They were the ones most likely to either buy their way out of Azkaban or cut an unholy swathe through those that stood against them.

Other than Lucius' ascension to Head of House and a gradually increasing number of attacks on Muggles, Muggleborns and Halfbloods, the first half of the year had been quiet. The only other matter of note had been the kids completing their OWLS. None of them had gotten less than an EE on any of the tests. Now though, looking back on the last half of their OWL year, Cedrella realized they had been rather ominously silent and subdued. And in retrospect, she understood why.

It was one thing to play 'pranks', especially under the anonymous aegis of the Marauders. Even if they got caught, anything that could be dismissed or explained away as a 'prank' would at worst earn them detentions and lost points. Anything too blatant or nasty though, and they'd run the risk of getting expelled, which, without having passed their OWLs, would result in snapped wands and, at least in Lily, Severus, and Remus' cases, bound magic and obliviation. There wouldn't even have been anything the elder Marauders could have done to spare them that fate.

But, having passed their OWLS, their wands would not now ever be snapped, regardless of what law they broke, nor would their magic be bound and themselves obliviated of all knowledge of magic's existence. That didn't mean, of course, that they would not face dire consequences if they went too far or were caught, but at least they wouldn't lose their magic. Protected from that fate ... well. Let it be said that the younger Marauders were now playing for keeps in Hogwarts.

Especially Severus.

Cedrella had mostly forgotten that James and Sirius had had to talk Severus out of Sorting Slytherin. He was so quiet, so studious, it was easy to think he'd always been destined for Ravenclaw. But these last few months, she had been reminded rather sharply that Severus was, at his heart, as Slytherin as they came.

Worse, Severus had few people he cared about - and those few, he guarded jealously. At the very top of that short list was Lily. And certain Slytherins had *dared* to harm her. Granted, the students responsible for the most recent attack were now out of Hogwarts, having been seventh years at the time of the attack, but ... well. They hadn't been the only ones to target Lily in some capacity. They'd just been the most vicious about it. And Cedrella had the uneasy notion that Severus would catch up to those of Lily's tormentors that had graduated prior to the beginning of Severus' vengeance at some point in the future.

It had become blatantly apparent that Severus had kept track of everyone he'd ever so much as heard say a cross word about Lily. Those that were still in Hogwarts had, over the last few months, found themselves under siege. There'd been an epidemic of kids in the Infirmary suffering from humiliating spell or potion effects that no one had ever seen before and had no idea how to treat.

That not one of the kids so afflicted had the faintest idea how they'd been attacked spoke either to Severus' ability to sneak about and generally avoid detection, or just how effective he'd been at cowing and/or blackmailing them to silence. Hells, the only reason Cedrella knew that Severus was behind the attacks was that Remus wasn't an idiot, had put two and two together to get four, and had written to all of the elder Marauders during the year, worried about what Severus was doing and the odds of Severus going too far.

The whole thing worried Cedrella more than a little. While she applauded avenging wrongs done to someone you cared about, Severus was ... well, particularly vicious and thorough about it. It spoke to the kind of mentality that could and would bend itself to the Dark Arts in a heartbeat, as many of the spell and potion effects skirted the edge of Dark Arts without quite going over.

It was pretty clear the only constraints on Severus' morals and sense of vengeance was Lily herself, and what she would tolerate being done to others in the name of defending her. Not for the first time was Cedrella grateful that if Severus was going to allow someone to be his conscience, it was Lily he was trusting with that responsibility. She had a good heart and strong morals that would both prevent her from taking advantage of Severus' loyalty and ... suggestibility, for lack of a better description, and prevent Severus from going too far in the name of defending her.

Cedrella didn't know if it was an effect of the abuse Severus'd suffered or not, but ... there were things about him that worried her. His lack of concern with right versus wrong and his definitely cruel vindictive streak being the biggest worries. Even with Lily, the other young Marauders and the Elder Marauders intervening, Severus was far too willing to get very, very nasty. The idea of what he'd have been capable of under less ideal circumstances - or worse, what even this better off Severus would be capable of if Lily or any of Severus' 'acquired' family was badly hurt (or worse, killed) ... well that almost scared Cedrella. And considering what she'd lived through in her lifetime, that was saying quite a bit.

The fact that Severus had, insofar as the young Marauders knew and the elder Marauders had observed, shown zero interest in anyone romantically speaking was also worrying, if less so, and for different reasons. That had become a concern in the last few months mostly because James and Lily had, according to Remus and Sirius (who found the whole thing hysterically funny, it must be said) begun to get very awkward with each other and giving each other 'looks' when the other wasn't looking. Sirius and even Remus had begun to at least moon after various people they liked, if they weren't actually dating, both by their own admissions and according to the observations of the other young Marauders. Severus had not.

Cedrella had been a bit worried at first that James' burgeoning interest in Lily (and vice versa) would cause problems with Severus. For one, Lily was, as Cedrella had noted, effectively Severus' conscience and he was very attached to her. Having her attention elsewhere for any reason had had the possibility of causing problems. Cedrella had also been inclined to think that if Severus was going to show romantic interest in someone, it'd be Lily, and thus he might resent anyone who showed such interest in her as well. Thankfully, those worries had not come to pass. Severus was (again, according to Sirius and Remus) fully aware of the situation between James and Lily, and was apparently more amused than anything else.

Cedrella had no idea why Severus was so uninterested in romance or sex. She just hoped that he was a late bloomer and that he'd get there eventually. A life alone was not something she'd have wished on anyone short of Abraxas. Though it must be said that Severus *was* very quiet, private, and Slytherin by temperament, so it was entirely possible he had a girlfriend and was just keeping the relationship private.

At any rate, Severus had been going through Slytherin House like a dose of salts, with a healthy side course of various folks from the other Houses. But he hadn't exactly been alone in his pursuit of rough justice. The rest of the Marauders had gone on the warpath as well.

The end result had been the elder Marauders being called to Hogwarts three times since September in response to one or another of the kids having little to no mercy on a bully in very public fights rather than the more subtle and anonymous pranks of previous years. One such incident had involved ALL the younger Marauders in a (for a given value) no-holds-barred firefight versus the entirety of the seventh year male Slytherins. The kids had caught the Slytherins red-handed in the process of ... importuning (to put it nicely) ... a third year Hufflepuff girl (who just so happened to be a Muggleborn). The other two cases had involved one or more of the kids hexing the living hell out of some idiot bigot pureblood non-sexually attacking a Muggleborn.

Needless to say, the elder Marauders hadn't had a problem descending on Hogwarts like nesting dragons protecting their clutch when Dumbledore had summoned them. Especially the first time - which hadn't been the near-rape incident - and Dumbledore had tried to pull his usual bullshit. Fortunately for Dumbledore, not even he was willing to ignore a case of near-rape on his watch, and he'd disciplined the perpetrators. Though it must be said, not nearly as severely as Cedrella would have liked. Though she was woman enough to admit to being a bit bloodthirsty. Dumbledore had, in that case, called them to Hogwarts mostly due to having had the parents of the perpetrators descending on the school in an attempt to prevent their children from being punished. Dumbledore didn't like the elder Marauders *at all*, but even he knew that the six of them had their uses - the fact that not many people were willing to risk going to war with the entire Alliance by offending just one of them being the biggest.

The other two times, Dumbledore'd called them in in an attempt to remonstrate with both them and the kids, trying to get them to agree to his worldview, wherein everyone deserved umpity million chances to change their ways, to the detriment of the decent, law-abiding - or at least not-committing-capital-crimes - segment of the population that the irredeemable monsters were victimizing. Yes, some people could and did change. Cedrella wasn't about to contest that. The problem with Dumbledore's ideology was that the folks inclined to change their ways rarely got into the deep end of the trouble they'd dipped their toes into, and generally weren't involved in it for very long. The real hard cases - the ones that raped, killed, and tortured for fun - they were *never* going to change, and trying to give them chances to do so just gave them more time to add victims to their lists.

The Marauders, kids and adults both, had rather obviously been deaf to Dumbledore's entreaties, subtle and not-so-subtle threats. At this point, it really didn't matter if Dumbledore expelled the kids. They could and would get private tuition to pass their NEWTs. As all of them were still underage *and* they'd been defending someone who'd been attacked, nothing else could or would be done to them legally. As for the adult half of the equation, well ... Dumbledore had little to no leverage against them, either. Thanks to the Alliance, Dumbledore had lost virtually all of his influence in the Wizengamot in general, though he did still retain influence over some of the more gullible or easily influenced Light-side Family Heads and various individuals from a number of Families.

All that said, Cedrella had a bad feeling that the situation at Hogwarts was an indicator of incoming trouble in the world at large. Kids were, generally speaking, less temperate and patient than adults, and more inclined to doing stupid things. That said, for the most part, they only went as far as they figured they could get away with, so the fact they felt so comfortable as to hex other kids in full view of multiple witnesses was not good news. Clearly, they thought they would, at absolute worst, have powerful backup keeping them clear of the consequences of their actions.

Cedrella had a very bad feeling that Voldemort and his followers were on the verge of a big move, somewhere, and that as a result the war, which had been fairly desultory and predictable up to now, was about to get very, very ugly.