Friday 11th September 1981
Marauder Flat, 09:00
Marlene hummed happily as she got herself and Cassie ready. Baby bag with nappies, change of clothes, cream and other baby accessories? Check. Her purse? Check. Both of them dressed? Check. No, wait, she needed socks and shoes on. She took another look at her feet. Better make that boots. She was going somewhere that was bound to be muddy, after all.
Oh, they would have to look into getting Cassie a pair of boots now that she was walking more but that would be for another time. It wouldn't matter if she got her shoes a bit dirty. If she was being honest, she was expecting Cassie to get mucked up to the eyeballs on this little trip. Literally.
Too bad Sirius wouldn't be able to come but there would always be another time.
Humming happily, Marlene pulled on her robes. Or, well, she tried to because Sirius decided to come up from behind her and press kisses all the way down her neck just the way she liked it. Hmmm. Oh yeah. Sometimes she forgot about things like thing because of motherhood and their job. They really needed to make more time for this sort of thing. But not now.
Reluctantly, she pulled away. Which Sirius was not happy about.
"Oh, come on!"
"We don't have time," she tried to brush him off.
"We don't have time this whole weekend," he complained in a whine. "You aren't going to be here for the next twenty-four hours and then we're on different shifts the next day..."
She patted him on the chest with a smirk. "You'll survive."
"Barely."
And yes, there was a pout on his face. Adorable. Which, of course, earned him a kiss which he immediately tried to deepen. She let him do so, briefly, before pulling away again. He nearly pouted again bit she quickly put a stop to that by trailing a finger down his chest. Ah her, there was the smirk she loved so much.
And of course, Cassie decided it was this moment that she desperately needed her mother's attention and tug incessantly on her trouser leg.
Marlene scooped her up, wondering vaguely why she celebrated that Cassie could walk. Be she never stayed where she was put.
"You want all the kisses for yourself, huh?" Sirius cooed at her.
Cassie nodded extremely seriously and pointed at her cheek which, of course, Sirius obliged.
Marlene loved times like this. It was like they were an ordinary family in an ordinary time with ordinary jobs. Yes, in reality they were far from that and, really, she wouldn't have it any other way (except for the whole was bit, obviously) but moments like this were nice to have.
A moment that as A very much interrupted by a Patronus whizzing by in a blur. And only one person managed to get their Patronus to go that fast.
"Multiple attacks going on. Code black. Need all hands-on deck. All leave revoked." Moody's voice came from the silvery creature.
"You have got to be kidding me," Marlene said in exasperation as the Patronus disappeared into nothingness.
But even as she was getting ready to complain some more, she had already set Cassie down on the floor, shrugging off her normal robes and pulling on her Auror ones. Sirius, of course, didn't have to do that because she had already been ready for his shift. But even he was giving himself another once over, making sure he hadn't forgotten anything. There was nothing more annoying than having to rush home to grab something that you really should have remembered. Marlene had forgotten her wand holster once. Her wand holster!
The Patronus had delivered the worst possible news. Okay, she was being a bit dramatic because for course there was far worse news to get but still. Having all Aurors' leave immediately suspended because of a massive Death Eater attack in London near the Ministry was not her idea of good news.
Did the Death Eaters not understand just how hard it was for Aurors to get time off these days? Of course, they probably didn't care considering the fact that they were the reasons the Ministry couldn't afford to give Aurors that much time off these days. Marlene had only managed to get a day but she had really been looking forward to it. She had finally been going to go home and see her family. It was going to be great. The only downside was that Sirius' request for leave at the same time had not been granted. Not enough Aurors, apparently. But that was Las for the course these days even if it had been disappointing.
It had been so long since she had seen her family and, as much as she teased them otherwise, she did miss them. They were close knit, after all, which meant that they actually liked being around each other.
"I'll get to the location and you leave Cassie off with someone?" Sirius said as they moved towards the door. "I'll meet you there?"
Marlene nodded, scooping Cassie up as they went. She screeched loudly, unhappy that she had just been thwarted at cramming herself under the sofa. Her current favourite pastime. Especially when it was time for her bath. The number of times they had had to levitate the sofa in order to retrieve her...
"Who's free, do you know?"
"Chryssie is working and so is Severus," Sirius listed off and then looked around "Where's Peter when you need him?"
He was supposed to be off today. He had taken it off for some reason, claiming he just needed a break. Didn't they all?
"You do know he has a life too, right?"
"Little Wormtail, who would have thought?"
Marlene just rolled her eyes at him
"Dora is working, I think. Not sure what the Academy is having the Trainees do now that they've sat all their final exams but she had to go in today."
"Remus?" Marlene asked hopefully.
Sirius shook his head with a grim look on his face.
"Really injured himself on the last full moon."
Marlene winced in sympathy, feeling bad that they had forgotten about that. Sirius had actually had to drag. Remus to the hospital to get himself sorted out. He had returned with an alarming array of potions that he was obviously still working through.
"Severus then?" She suggested.
"Isn't he working as well?"
"He might not be."
A Potions Apprentice had a weird schedule, it turned out. It was down to those advanced potions which had to be brewed at certain times of the day. Like in the middle of the night. Which meant you never knew when Severus was free. But they had to try.
She sent a quick Patronus off to Severus. With any luck he was just having a research day which sometimes meant he could keep an eye on Cassie. Sure, it meant she was put in a playpen for several hours but that wasn't a bad thing. Severus and Chryssie actually had a lot of toys for her.
If all else failed, Molly Weasley said that she was always happy to take Cassiem something Marlene didn't like doing because the woman had more than enough children to deal with.
The last thing Marlene thought as they both apparated away was that her mother was going to kill her.
Godric's Hollow, 14:00
"You know, we really have to start thinking about Christmas," James said conversationally, flicking through the pages of something on his lap.
Lily stopped what she was doing to turn around and look at her husband with an incredulous look on her face.
"What?" He asked, noticing the look.
"You do know that we haven't even had Hallowe'en yet, right?"
"Yeah, but it's nearly Hallowe'en."
"It's not nearly Hallowe'en, it's not even October yet."
"It basically is."
She rolled her eyes fondly at him.
"James, I know you love Christmas-"
"Adore."
She blinked at him. "Same thing."
He shook his head stubbornly. "No. Adore is far stronger a word."
"Is it really?"
He made a rather explosive outraged noise.
"Of course, it is! I love Transfiguration. I love my friends. I adore you. I adore Harry and Rylli. Therefore, I adore Christmas."
"I'm not sure how I feel about me and the children being grouped together with Christmas," she teased.
"It's the highest honour," he said solemnly, a twinkle in his eye.
She threw a cushion at him.
"Moron."
"Your moron."
"And don't you forget it."
"Never," he said emphatically.
They both grinned like idiots at each other. It was a good day. Harry hadn't got into any mischief, Rylli had slept like a champ and both she and James were feeling incredibly relaxed. They had actually got a bit of a lie in and neither of them were tetchy today. Over the last few days, it had seemed like they were taking turns in doing that. Which was never fun. Especially when you couldn't get away from the tetchy person.
James apparently wanted to take advantage of such a day, hence the bringing up of Christmas. His favourite holiday ever, in case it wasn't obvious. Lily swore that even new students at Hogwarts would know that. James' love of Christmas was quite literally legendary. She wondered if there was still his mistletoe hanging around the castle? Was all of that found? Something to ask McGonagall at some point.
"So, Christmas," Lily said with an eye roll, indulging him.
"We should start planning how we want to decorate," he said with all seriousness.
"We could do something similar to last year," Lily suggested. "It was really nice and that way some of the things will become a tradition."
James nodded in agreement. Holiday traditions were always good. She knew that he liked tradition.
"We'll do some things different too, see if some decorations look better in other places."
"Okay."
At this point it was better to just go along with him.
"Also, did you know that you have this shop that sells absolutely everything from kitchen stuff to toys and even watches! And they have this catalogue with everything in it that you can order from?" He asked in wonder. "Oh! Garden furniture! You said you needed new garden furniture, didn't you?"
Lily just blinked at him in shock as he jabbed at a page.
"Are you... is that... have you just discovered the Argos catalogue?"
She didn't realise they even had one of those things. Where did it come from?
"Oh, is that how it's pronounced?"
"Yeah. Me and Chryssie and Tuney used it to tell our parents, well, it was Santa when we were children, what we wanted for Christmas. Used to get different coloured pens and circle things."
"Cool!"
She shook her head.
"But James, our house is invisible to anyone who doesn't have the secret," she felt like she had to remind him, even though they were in hiding. "How would we get something delivered even if they did deliver?"
His face fell frantically at that. As in, he was actually upset.
"Oh yeah."
Lily felt sorry for him. He had been so excited and she had just burst his bubble. Never mind that she had needed to.
He looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding resolutely.
"We'll just have to wait until this is all over so we can try it."
Lily her amused smile. Sometimes she forgot that he hadn't experienced the things she had and it was so fun to experience these things all over again alongside him.
"Speaking of invis8ble, remind me to ask Dumbledore about my cloak at the next Order Meeting."
Marauder Flat, 23:30
Sirius groaned loudly as the two of them all but collapsed onto the floor. They had just apparated home and he didn't know about Marlene but he ached all over. He didn't think that he'd ever ached this much. His aches had aches. And he was pretty sure that all his muscles would scream if he even thought about moving.
That had been awful. Well and truly awful. The worst he had experienced so far. And he had experienced a lot of awful things. No, this had definitely topped it.
So much death. So much destruction. So little to show for it. He was tired. And not just physically tired. Emotionally. Mentally. Bow much longer could this go on for? They were losing so many people and Voldemort... well, he always seemed to have more. There was always more.
They should probably get up from the floor and at least move to the sofa but the floor seemed more fitting. The floor was always a good place for existential despair.
Unfortunately, that was cut short by a loud knock on their door. Marlene groaned from beside him.
"You get that."
He huffed her. "You."
"Sirius..."
But he was already getting up. "I'm doing it, I'm doing it."
He half-heartedly dusted himself down, not that that did any good. A lot more than that was going to be needed to get blood, muck and Merlin knows what from him. He didn't even want to think what else was staining his clothes. Bette for thinking who was knocking on their door right now. Who even knocked on doors these days?
Wand in hand (He was tired, not stupid), he opened the door. To see his boss.
"Moody," he said tiredly. "Seriously, we physically can't do any more today-"
"You didn't even ask me any questions," Moody started scolding, completely ignoring what he just said. "What if someone was impersonating me?"
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Moody, if someone even thought about impersonating you, they'd probably go up in flames."
He looked far too pleased with himself at that idea. Of course, that didn't stop him from pointing his own wand into Sirius' neck and asking him five separate questions to verify his identity. Five! But what else would you expect from Moody? Thank Merlin, he accepted them.
Marlene had since picked herself up from the floor and got the same treatment. Though, the wand was aimed at her head, not her throat. Maybe it was because she was short. Not that he'd say that out loud again in a hurry. Nope.
"What do you want?" Marlene asked tiredly, dragging herself over to the sofa. "I don't think we even have tea. We were meant to get bits and pieces earlier."
Moody didn't take the seat Sirius indicated, instead standing in the middle of the floor and coughed.
"I don't need any tea."
"What do you need then?" Sirius asked, dragging a hand over his face. "Because, Moody, we're tired and sore and-"
"There's been an attack," Moody interrupted solemnly.
"Attack?" Marlene said numbly. "There was an attack?"
Sirius didn't think they'd be cope with another attack. He knew he certainly wouldn't be any use right now.
Moody gave her a sympathetic look. And actual, sympathetic look. Moody never did that. Never.
"It's not ongoing," he said. "It happened and we weren't even were of it until it was too late."
That had been a line far too often said these days. They really couldn't keep up. He got this heavy weight in his gut every time he thought about it.
"Is there anything we can do?" Sirius asked, knowing that he should at least offer.
"Who was it?" Marlene asked at the same time and they both grinned at each other.
Moody stayed quiet. That heavy weight in his gut twisted.
"Who got attacked?" She asked, her voice vetting louder with each word.
It was more terrifying because she didn't go shrill. It was still an even tone. A demanding tone. One that was asking to be obeyed even though it was being directed at a superior. Something Moody didn't chide her for, for once. Instead, he slowly shook his head.
Her eyes roved wildly between Moody and him, trying to see if she could guess. Sirius himself was getting this awful sinking feeling in his stomach.
He automatically moved so that he was close to her. Wanting her to know that he was here for her. It was starting feel like she would need it.
"Moody," she said warningly, when the old Auror said nothing.
Sirius narrowed his eyes. Just What was he hiding? He had never seen Moody like this.
"I'm sorry, Marlene," Moody said quietly, voice full of regret.
That was the first time Sirius had ever heard him use someone's first name. He didn't like what that meant.
Marlene hadn't said anything, the stunned look on her face frozen in place like a stunning spell had been cast on it.
Before Sirius could ask if she was okay, she fell to the floor in a dead faint. He just about reacted quick enough so her head didn't hit off the floor.
He looked up at Moody who was shaking his head and looking extremely regretful. He had never seen that look before on the man's face.
Now what were they supposed to do?
