Chapter 9: The first frontline of the war.
Lily picked up her things quickly to get out of the dungeon when Potion was over. She did not want to talk to Potter (who was still hanging on Marlene) nor to Black and even less to Pettigrew. She walked past them behind a small Ravenclaw group and quickly went back into the Hall to take the stairs, turning the corner of the corridor as the marauders emerged into the Hall too.
She climbed a few steps, saluting the two Hufflepuff Prefects she crossed, before turning right, heading to the Hospital Wing. She had missed Remus during Potions. Potion was probably her favorite subject along with Charms, but a double class, without Remus, was always longer and much more boring.
She walked almost to the end of the Hospital Wing, where there was a bed a little apart from the others, the curtains half closed. Mrs. Pomfrey was saving this particular bed for Remus, to make sure he could rest if there were other students at the same time.
He was alone, sat in his bed, reading a book, some chocolate papers were dragging around him. He looked more tired than usual and he had a new scar on his neck, quite big, which disappeared in the collar of his pajamas. As she knew him, he would hide for weeks because of this scar.
-How are you? She asked, as she sat down at the end of the bed to look at him. He smiled at her softly as he laid down his book.
- I've seen worse. He replied calmly. -But I've seen better too. He laughed, before grabbing his last piece of chocolate on the bedside table, still looking at her. -Tomorrow I should be better. And you, how are you? He asked, looking at her. -You do not seem very well.
She shrugged her shoulders, telling him everything was fine. She remained silent for a moment before finally seeming to step on her pride, opening her mouth, seeming to weigh the words she was going to tell him.
-In fact… she replied frowning, looking frustrated at herself with what she was going to say. -I was wondering... if Potter was all right... He's... I don't know, he's not as his usual self. What?! She exclaimed when Remus burst out laughing, hiding slightly behind his book.
-Sorry, it's just that, it's very funny. He laughed. -He's fine, do not worry.
-I am not worried! She said, outraged.
-No, of course you're not. Remus continued, still making fun of her. -It's just… well, a lot happened this summer, and his head is full of it, but he's as his usual self.
-Oh no, he's not. She answered firmly. -Since when Potter became so cold and distant? He, who's always laughing with Black and making stupid jokes, and fun of people. I asked him where you were this morning, when he arrived in Potions class, he barely looked at me and he replied that you were elsewhere...
-You said you preferred the giant squid to him, I mean... I would probably have the same face as he has right now looking at you, if it was I who had been told that. He said with a slight tone of reproach trying to catch his cup of tea.
-What do you mean? Lily asked, taking the cup and giving it softly to him.
-Well, he'd decided to leave you alone. That is what you wanted, right? Remus bent his head, trying to capture Lily's emerald gaze, which refused to look at him. The werewolf grinned, but it was barely perceptibly, taking a sip into his cup of tea, the herbs taste that Mrs. Pomfrey was putting inside to help him get back on his feet was simply disgusting. -It's not easy for him these days, you know Lil', he's in a lot of things…
Remus sighed, as Lily persisted in not responding him, and he shook his head, resting his cup of tea to look at her, a little more seriously. He loved Lily, and he knew James so well, he knew how much he could be insistent and how he was behaving when he didn't have what he wanted, but, sometimes, he found Lily unfair with him. She had always refused to listen to him, always refused to hear anything from him, and she had made fun of him on more than one occasion when he had made a fool of himself, trying to impress her.
-I heard, that his family was in the heart of the attacks on the Death Eaters of Who-Know-Who, since his father is Head Auror … Lily finally told him, finding the silence uncomfortable. -And that... The other Pure-blood families were mad at Mr. Potter for having snatched the Black heir from his house.
Remus nodded slowly, looking around for a moment, wondering if he should tell her what they had heard at James' house this summer. After all, she had a right to know, he told himself. Everyone had the right to know what was happening outside Hogwarts' walls. -We heard some things this summer... he said, raising his eyes to look at her.
Lily frowned. -What kind of things, Remus?
-It seems that… Professor Dumbledore his bringing together the most powerful witches and wizards he knows, to form a kind of an army against Voldemort, something like a resistance ready for battles…
-The Order of the Phoenix, those who will be part of it, will be sent to fight the forces of Voldemort in the frontlines to put an end to this war. Said James instead of Remus. He had just arrived at the Hospital Wing with Peter. Lily looked at them taking seats near Remus's bed, Peter had brought him some chocolate. Marlene and Sirius were missing.
She sighed internally, saying to herself that she should have gone to the library if she'd really wanted to avoid them, after all, it was normal that they were there right now, since Remus was stuck in his bed.
-Sirius went to get you something to eat from the kitchens. Peter said to Remus, before turning to James and throwing him a piece of chocolate, offering one to Lily. -Alastor Moody probably would be the first general of the organization, that's if we understood correctly. Continued Peter. -Dumbledore must stay at Hogwarts, so, he will not be able to deal with the resistance in the foreground.
-They try as much as possible to hide what's going on outside from us, but we're going to get out of here some day. Remus said with a wave of his hand, to show the Hospital Wing's walls -And if we don't know what's going on, we will have no chance of survival at all...
-Voldemort is more powerful than Grindelwald ever was. James added gravely. -People are even becoming afraid to say his name. He shook his head. - People are disappearing, especially muggles and Muggle-borns, all over Europe at an alarming rate, and most of that, magic creatures are beginning to choose their side, students are too.
Lily looked at him for a moment as he messed up his hair and pulled out his glasses to wipe them off on his robes, responding to a question Remus asked him by a simple shrug. He still wasn't used to it. She remembered the funny face he had made when she'd saw him at the beginning of last year, in the Hogwarts Express, with his glasses on his nose for the first time.
He had furiously looked away from her and had them removed quickly when he'd saw that she was looking at him. She had laughed with her friends, and he had made a funny face, Sirius had then gently patted his shoulder to comfort him. He had always thought she had made fun of him, because of the glasses, but she had laughed at him because he was so embarrassed to wear them when it was suiting him pretty well.
It wasn't necessary to say that James wasn't bad looking at all, quite the contrary. But sometimes, she felt like it was all he had for himself. Although he was probably the most gifted student of all Hogwarts, he was always spoiling this aspect of himself into a stupid prank, bewitching those who were on his way simply because he could do it.
Mister Quidditch Captain, mister did you saw me, the way he was always messing up his hair, playing with that stupid Snitch that he had stolen from the Quidditch pitch and all this incessant 'Hey Evans', made her want to run away whenever she was near him.
She knew, however, that there was probably no one as sincere as he was in the whole castle. James Potter was someone who lived by an honor code, a true Gryffindor, and he would never hesitate to move skies and earth to help you if he cared about you and you where in some trouble. She knew all that, she also knew that he had more good than bad within him, but it was hard to believe it when he was only showing you the worst of himself.
-How can we join the Order? Asked Lily, getting out of her thoughts to hear the end of their conversation. -Who's already in it?
James laughed, as he put his glasses back on his nose, Sirius finally arriving, his arms loaded with food for Remus. -I don't think you can just get into Dumbledore's office and tell him; Professor, please, we, mere sixteen years old students, we would like to be part of the Order of the Phoenix, because we want to fight the Dark Arts and we want to put an end to the reign of the greatest Dark Wizard that history ever known. He raised his eyes to the sky when she glared at him.
-The McKinnons are already part of it; I don't know if Marlene knows, James's parents have been working for Dumbledore in secret for a while already. Peter told her, looking at James in a way that clearly says; she has the right to know. -The Aurors, under Moody's tutelage, will also fight and we heard Mr. Potter said, that Kingsley Shackelbolt was sent under cover for missions as well.
-The problem. Continued Sirius, who joined the conversation as if he had been there from the beginning, while setting Remus so that he could eat comfortably, -Is that we don't know, who is on whose side. From our, so protected within this castle walls perspective, nothing seems that terrible, but believe me, the Pure-Bloods are starting to make their moves. Most of the Sacred Twenty-Eight are on Voldemort's side obviously and...
-The Sacred Twenty-Eight? Lily interrupted, turning to him, not understanding what he was talking about. -What are the Sacred Twenty-Eight? I never heard of that.
-Probably not. Officially, it's only the register of pure-blooded families. Remus told her. -It is a list, unofficial, but taken seriously by its twenty-eight families. Somewhere, between the years 1920 and 1930, an unknown source wrote a list of twenty-eight pure-blood families purer than one another and called them; The Sacred Twenty-Eight. He nodded at Lily's rolling eyes. -It's nothing very exceptional, but most of the families on this list get a certain pride out of it.
-I can confirm, my mother was annoying us with it all the time. Sirius mocked, dropping himself onto Remus's bed, next to Lily. -Behaves like the worthy heirs you are, you have the honor of being part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, you belong to the longest line ever sent to the same house, we are related to Salazar Slytherin be worthy of it!
-You're in that list? And are you really from Slytherin's family? She was surprised, not understanding how she could learn all those informations that she had never heard anywhere, only today.
Sirius shrugged. -We're on the list, yeah, but I strongly doubt that we are related to Slytherin in any ways. My parents always liked to show off, but we have no proof of that and I would be very surprised. The descendants of the four founders of Hogwarts have relics, that went down from generation to generation, and we have none, yet my mother loved to collect mythical and dangerous artefacts. Believe me, it wouldn't had taken a long time for it to be in a showcase at home if she had a Slytherin relic, so she could have show it off to everyone.
-And you two? She asked as she turned to James and Peter. -Are you on that list too? She knew that Remus could not be on the register, since her mother was a Muggle, she turned to Peter, also asking her the question, realizing she had no idea of where he comes from, nor did she know if he was a muggle-born like herself.
Peter simply shook his head, telling her that his parents were both wizards but both from Muggle families, so he had no chance, like Remus, to be on this list. She turned again to James who had remained silent.
-My family is not part of the Pure-Blood registry. He said simply.
- But... Everybody knows that you're a Pure-Blood, that your whole family has been for generations, it is written everywhere, in all the books, all the registers, I mean... She raised her hand, tending to explain his idea without being misunderstood or offensive to him. Everyone knew that James's family was a very old Pure-Blood family, she had often heard other students mentioned that he was, like Sirius, part of one of the oldest wizards bloodlines still remaining, so she did not understand how he could not be in this kind of register.
She also knew that her father, Fleamont Potter, highly skilled in potions making, had invented the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion long before he became head of the Aurors office. She knew it had been sold in astounding quantities and that it was still sold throughout all Europe even today.
-Potter is a common surname throughout Muggles. He replied. -The other Pure-Blood families have never really recognized us to be truly Pure-Blooded, since we do not marry between cousins to ensure the lineage.
-You see what happens when families reproduce between themselves only. Mocked Sirius pointing at himself. -Inbreeding can create a lot of problems, especially on the physical aspect but it can created mental illnesses too. Fortunately for me, I've only got some mental disorders. He said before bursting into his barking-like laughter, stopping when he saw Remus's reproachful glare.
James shook his head, not seeming to find what Sirius had said, funny at all, before turning back to Lily. -And then, if you wanna know, my grandfather, Henry Potter, sat at the Wizengamot in the 1910s and he publicly opposed himself to then minister for magic, who prevented us, wizards, from helping Muggles in their First World War. My grandfather was very pro-Muggle, which earned us the exclusion of this pretty list. Said James.
- Anyway, we don't even know who made this list, probably one of Grindelwald's fanatic at that time, because more than half his known, like Sirius's family, to like a bit too much the Dark Arts. Remus told her. -According to what we had deduced from it, it was probably a list of Dark Arts's allies that was exposed to the open, and then transformed into the Sacred Twenty-Eight to look good.
-But, to be part of the Order of Phoenix, one does not need to come from a certain lineage, in any way. Said Peter. -All it takes, is the will to fight, and try as best we can, to save our world from an era that could be more than dark if we lose the war.
-I know, but the will the fight isn't enough, you must know how to fight, you must be gifted, at least a little. Lily replied. -I strongly doubt that Dumbledore will take any of his students into his own army simply because that student has the will to fight. Unprepared children are in no way sent to battle against powerful dark wizards.
-You think we're unprepared children Lil'? Sirius laughed, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. -Find someone better than James in transfiguration, than Remus in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He looked at her as she said nothing, knowing very well that it was obviously difficult to find better pupils throughout the school. -Find me someone more gifted than you are in Potions, better than me in Charms!
-I'm better than you in Charms. She laughed as he gave her an outrageous look.
-Oh no! You're excellent, but never as much as me, try and challenge me in a duel using nonverbal spells. She rolled her eyes as he laughed. -And then, we'll watch over Pet', he said, turning toward the latter, winking at him. -Dumbledore will have no choice, we will by far be his best elements.
Lily looked at him, doubting that Professor Dumbledore will ever welcome them in his army one day. Did she really want to be part of some asset send to the war's frontlines to fight the worst wizards? It was a decision not to be taken lightly since your life would be at stake, on a thin thread that would threaten to break at any moment.
Fight dark wizards who would not hesitate to torture you to death, kill you or do you unimaginable things to get any little information that might seem useful to them in their ascent to power. The deaths, the disappearances were repeated in the newspapers and it was worse and worse every day. Somebody would have to stop all if this.
If they did not do it, who would? She thought. If they wanted to protect their world, protected their loved ones, they would have no choice but to unite and fight bodies and souls to protect all of them, to protect the world from the chaos in which it was slowly diving.