Ch. 39 - Fractures and Bones

June

Alastor stood so quiet and still that nobody else in the clearing dared disturb him with chit chat or side conversations. Not that Mad-Eye was the picture of pep, but it was rare to watch him wait patiently rather than get right to business. At three past nine, Remus watched Alastor tap on his pocket watch with his wand, genuinely unsure if this was a stalling tactic or if he was just trying to get the damn thing to work. "I'll cut to the chase," he grumbled, his eyes still fixed on the watch, which he began to wipe with his sleeve. "The Bones family is dead."

Though no one had been conversing, somehow, the clearing grew more silent.

"The Bones...f-family?" Alice stuttered, gripping her rounded stomach.

Lily's hand flew to her own bump, which had swelled up in recent months.

"Edgar...Phoebe...the ki-..." he choked on the word. His eyes did not leave his watch.

After that, nobody said a word for some time.

Until:

"Caradoc. Benjy. Gideon and Fabian. Dorcas. Now Edgar and his whole lot!" shouted Sturgis. "And how many of them have we blotted out? Two?"

"We have several in custody-"

"You obviously don't have enough of them in custody, Alice!"

"Sturgis is right," Sirius agreed with clenched fists. "Maybe it's time we started hunting them one by one like they are us. An eye for an eye."

"Sirius," Marlene gasped, surprised by the vindictive suggestion.

"That is not the answer," Lily argued.

Voices began to raise as an argument broke out over the group. Sturgis and Frank were getting dangerously close to a brawl.

"SILENCE!" bellowed Dumbledore. Everyone quieted themselves immediately, waiting for him to speak some words of wisdom or encouragement. No such words came. "...I have thought on this a great deal," Albus began in a much more tranquil tone. "We all knew what we were getting ourselves into when this conflict began."

He paused momentarily, looking around the group to meet the eyes of each member - each soldier - many of them his former students.

"I have decided, that while I still fully believe in the cause we are fighting for, it would be for the best if we take some time away from the battlefield if possible. Time to regroup. Time to heal. We will take this time to decide how to move forward effectively. In the meantime, I would advise everyone to conceal themselves and their loved ones."

"That's cowardly," Sturgis fired back, which earned him looks of horror from the rest of the group. It was not often that anyone opposed Albus.

"It's a precaution, yes. Cowardly, no. I am simply growing weary of having to bury our friends, aren't you Sturgis?"

Sturgis cast his gaze down at the ground and didn't say anything else.

"Patronus communication functions regardless of the recipient's location, and we will still meet. Should the need arise, we will fight. But I have humbly accepted that, for now, we are on defense, not offense." Dumbledore concluded his speech and looked around the group again. It felt like a defeat, but they knew he was right. "Go home. Make plans to keep yourselves safe. Hold those that are dear to you close, and don't take a second for granted."

Gradually, members of the group began disapparating cheerlessly away from the clearing. Remus followed Albus out and back towards the castle to discuss his next "business trip," with Sirius' eyes following him closely.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Marlene asked. "We don't know the extent of how well they can track us down."

"I don't know," Emmeline muttered distractedly, unable to think of anything but the Bones children's faces.

"Maybe we could stay with my parents for a wee while," said Marlene, answering her own question. "Do you and Remus have someplace?"

"My mum's too far, and I doubt he'd be willing to go to his parents'."

"I for one am not leaving my house," James declared indignantly. "If Mulciber or Avery want to try their hand with me, I would welcome it."

"Don't be daft, Prongs. Ed was one of the best wizards in the Order, and that didn't help him in the end," Sirius exhorted with surprising spite.

A disheartened silence fell yet again.

"Where's Peter been? I haven't seen him in an age," Sirius remarked, changing the subject to steer the conversation in a less grim direction. Peter hadn't come to the meeting. Peter hadn't been around much at all as of late.

James sighed deeply. "He's terrified, poor sod. You know how he gets. I don't think he's really left his house since he heard about Doe. Probably still won't; not when he hears about Edgar."

"We've been to see him a few times to check on him," said Lily.

Emmeline smiled at her. "That's nice of you guys. Remus has been meaning to visit, but Dumbledore's kept him pretty busy."

Sirius, who had felt a deep-seated uneasiness about these absences ever since Remus missed the battle at the port, could not hide the hostility from his face. "He's been gone a lot then, has he? Remus?"

"Well, yes...why do you say it like that?"

"Sirius, leave Emmeline out of this," Marlene warned him quietly.

"...Leave me out of what?"

"I just think it's a bit odd that he's been gone so much, that's all I'm saying."

Emmeline was taken aback by his rancor. "...Remus has been risking his life to get helpful intelligence to Dumbledore. Does something about that not sit well with you, Sirius?"

"It doesn't sit well with me that he's acting in secret behind all our backs."

"To help keep us safe."

"Okay, that's enough," James urged. He was ignored.

"Do you even know what he does when he's gone? Hmm? Where he goes? Who he sees?"

"I don't have to know because I trust him," Emmeline declared. "And so does Dumbledore, and so should you."

"Trust has to be earned, and forgive me for blaspheming, but Dumbledore's not omniscient. He can't know for sure what Remus does when he's away - he just takes him at his word."

"Knock it off, Padfoot."

"Oh, cut the shit, James! You know as well as I do that he's been acting strange!"

"What the hell is wrong with you? You're supposed to be his friend!" Emmeline shouted.

"Friends don't keep things from their mates!"

"They do if they're ordered to!"

"You don't find it strange that as soon as Remus starts leaving for long periods of time, all of the sudden the death eaters are carrying out well-planned assassinations!?"

"Sirius!" hissed Marlene.

Emmeline's jaw had dropped. "How dare you-"

"How long before one of us is next?!"

"That's enough Sirius!" James commanded, stepping in front of him before he could get another word in edgewise.

In turn, Sirius backed himself up, not wishing to fight with James. Marlene held Emmeline back from lunging for Sirius, but could not hold back the daggers she was staring into him.

"This is exactly what they want!" Lily exclaimed. She stepped into the center of them, supporting her swollen belly with her hand. "This insidious distrust is going to tear us apart, which is precisely how they want us: paranoid and alone."

Emmeline pushed herself out of Marlene's grasp, her expression shifting from animosity to anguish. "Lily's right," she conceded.

"That's how they get to us," Lily continued. "We're easier to pick off when we're isolated."

James looked from his wife back to his best friend. "Look, we're all scared-"

"I'm not scared," Sirius retorted. "I'm just not letting my feelings get in the way, not like the rest of you." With that, he turned and stormed out of the clearing.

"I don't know what's gotten into him, I'm so sorry," Marlene apologized before taking off after him. "Sirius, wait!"

Emmeline and the Potters stood stunned where the other two had left them, feeling the strain of a fracture in their group.

"He doesn't mean it Em," James assured her, though he was really assuring himself. "He's just upset about my parents..."

In the midst of her anger, Emmeline registered this comment, and what it meant. She came down off her temper. "Are they...oh James, I'm so sorry, I hadn't heard." It made a bit more sense now: Sirius had run away from home and moved in with James' family at the age of sixteen. He considered Euphemia and Fleamont to be his mother and father more than his own biological parents. In the midst of a war, it seemed silly that they should lose anybody to Dragon Pox.

"Thank you, Em. I know it doesn't excuse him, but…"

…

Remus was supposed to leave the next day for another one of his "business trips." He came home from his meeting with Dumbledore and immediately went up to bed, a bit earlier than usual. Emmeline wasn't sure if he was preparing for the lack of sleep he would incur on his next excursion, or if he was still catching up on sleep from the last one. He had been perpetually exhausted and in a great deal of pain ever since Dumbledore started sending him on these missions. Without the potion to aid his transitions, his body was having to battle the symptoms of Lycanthropy unmedicated, and now that Remus was older, the effects were more severe. He never once complained; but Emmeline was observant. She noticed him wincing with every small motion, saw how he rubbed his tender joints and took his time with getting up out of bed, even on days he was far from the full moon.

And this made her all the more angry with Sirius. He would never understand just how much Remus put himself through to help their cause. Nobody would. Frankly, Emmeline knew that she could never fully understand it either, try as she might. She had chosen not to tell Remus about her altercation with Sirius, as she knew it would hurt him terribly and that they wouldn't get to resolve the matter until after he returned home anyway. She hated the idea of Remus constantly thinking about Sirius' disdain throughout his entire time away.

A short while after he'd gone up, Emmeline joined Remus upstairs. Finding him already asleep, she pulled a quilt over him and sat down on her side of the bed with a book, trying to take her mind off of what Sirius had said. It made her restless. When Marlene had suspected her of disloyalty six months ago, Emmeline could understand why - the timing of her return to the Order had coincidentally lined up with Voldemort's return from the East, and she had mysteriously disappeared for several months prior. This was different. With the exception of that horrid prank in school, Sirius and Remus had never had a falling out like the one Sirius seemed to think they were having. Emmeline hoped that this was all merely due to a toxic combination of Fleamont and Euphemia's deaths mixed with the horrors of war weighing heavily on all of them. If she was being pessimistic, she worried that a rift was forming among the Marauders.

A knock at the door woke Remus and put Emmeline on high alert. She lifted her index finger to her lips before setting her book down on the bedside table and exchanging it for her wand. Remus followed suit, standing up off the bed and brandishing his own wand. While it was doubtful that they would be so polite as to knock, if the death eaters were making house calls, they needed to be prepared. They both descended the stairs, wands at the ready. "Go around the back," Emmeline whispered, and Remus tread quietly out the back door to see who had come knocking from the side of the house. Meanwhile, Emmeline cautiously approached the entryway, choosing not to look through the peephole lest a killing curse come through it straight into her eye.

"It's me. Please open the door."

"It's alright, it's just Sirius," said Remus, coming back inside.

Begrudgingly, Emmeline opened the door a crack to peer out at Sirius with a less than friendly face. Sirius, on the other hand, looked utterly somber and was holding a bottle of elderflower wine.

"...I am scared," he admitted repentantly.

Softening her expression, Emmeline opened the door fully and embraced him.

"I am so incredibly sorry," he apologized into her shoulder.

"I heard about Fleamont and Euphemia."

"Yes, it's…" She felt him swallowing the lump in his throat away, and he said nothing further about James' parents. "Can you forgive me for saying those horrible things?"
"...I don't think I'm the one you should be apologizing to," said Emmeline, turning back to Remus. Remus looked at the both of them, confused.

Sirius wore an expression of both guilt and cautionary affection. " Alright, Moony?

"Alright...Did I miss something?"

"Just me being an arse."

"What else is new?"