Note: As this chapter has a spicier ending, the full work is uploaded on my Archive of Our Own profile: YeLlOWmeLo - Dark Mistakes
After over an hour of being yelled at by the Minister, and having Madam Bones interject on my behalf, I stacked up a pile of paperwork that I would attend to tomorrow. As I moved the papers around, I noticed the draft pamphlet designed to be given to Hogwarts students for career advice. My Intern had obviously left it for my approval as I pulled it out of the pile to look at it closer. I found myself smiling as I remembered the time Sirius had questioned me after my career advice with Professor McGonagall at the beginning of our 5th year at Hogwarts.
"You realise you'll have to work at the Ministry" He scoffed as we walked around the lake. The sun was low in the sky but the air remained warm and smelt like delicate blossoms.
I looked at him frowning slightly "Well, yeah - that's where the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is" I replied after a beat.
"Why do you want to be an Auror anyway? You're smart enough to do anything" Sirius stepped in front of me making me stop instantly and look up at him. His dark hair flopped to one side so carelessly but it looked so amazing. I found myself thinking that he probably didn't even brush his hair this morning.
"I don't know, I just want to do something interesting and make a difference, '' I shrugged. This wasn't the whole truth but I thought if I went down this road people would see how separate I was from my parent's awful reputation.
Sirius' eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something but then obviously thought better. I raised an eyebrow at him and gave him a pointed look.
He looked down and grabbed my hand before taking a breath in and looking me in the eye "Look, I don't think that this is the way to-"
"Meg" growled a voice behind me and I snapped out of my own head immediately turning around to see Mad Eye Moody standing in my doorway.
"You heading to headquarters?" he asked, his magical eye twirling around inside his head making sure no one was around "I'll join you" he said, not waiting for me to answer.
I hadn't, in fact, wanted to go Headquarters tonight, especially after the day I had had. Besides, I wasn't exactly happy with Dumbledore right now and didn't want to have to run into him. I had ignored the owl he had sent, thanking me for defending Harry and assuring me again that my position at the Ministry was safe. After my meeting with the Minister earlier that day, I wasn't so sure that I would even have a position at the Ministry much longer if I kept defying direct orders. Dumbledore knew how hard I had worked to create a completely different reputation from my parents and had worked tirelessly to keep such a reputation after Sirius had been thrown into Azkaban.
"I -" I began but Moody cut me off.
"Look, I found this when I was looking for my spare invisibility cloak" he fumbled in his pocket for a second before producing a photograph and handing it to me.
I looked down at the image I'd just been handed and saw the photo of the original Order. My eyes instantly fell upon Lily and James, sitting next to each other, beaming and waving up at me. Next to James was Sirius, effortlessly handsome and slightly slouching in his chair, squeezing the hand of the woman next to him. She was smiling as though she had no care in the world and I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I looked at my younger self, grief making my chest tight for a life I once had. I quickly blinked the tears away and forced a smile at Moody before passing him back the photo.
"Thought people might like to see it tonight," he said as he stashed it away. I nodded but did not say anything further.
I reluctantly apperated next to Moody on the doorstep of No. 12 Grimmauld Place and he held the door open for me.
We made our way down to the basement and I saw a scarlet banner over the heavily laden dinner table, which read congratulations Ron and Hermione — new prefects.
"I thought we'd have a little party," Molly said as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny entered the room behind Moody and me "Your father and Bill are on their way, Ron, I've sent them both owls and they're thrilled," she added, beaming.
I saw Fred rolling his eyes as I looked around the room to see who else was present. Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and Kingsley were standing around talking and Moody stumped around me to get himself a butterbeer.
"Oh, Alastor, I am glad you're here," said Molly brightly, "Could you have a look at the writing desk in the drawing room and tell us what's inside it?"
"No problem, Molly . . ." Moody grunted.
I watched as Moody's electric-blue eye swivelled upward and stared fixedly through the ceiling of the kitchen.
"Drawing room . . ." he growled, as the pupil contracted. "Desk in the corner? Yeah, I see it. . . Yeah, it's a boggart. . . . Want me to go up and get rid of it?"
"No, no, I'll do it myself later," beamed Mrs. Weasley. "You have your drink. We're having a little bit of a celebration, actually. . . ." She gestured at the scarlet banner. "Fourth prefect in the family!" she said fondly, ruffling Ron's hair as she passed a goblet of wine to me. I thanked her and took a long sip just for something to do. I really would have preferred to have gone home to bed, I felt exhausted and really did not feel in the mood for socialising. Arthur eventually arrived with Bill and once he had a drink in his hand he walked over to me even though I thought I was doing well at blending into the wall as I started on my third goblet of wine.
"I heard the Minister gave you a bit of a hard time after the hearing this morning," he said seriously and I saw Sirius and Remus turn towards us while I forced a smile for what seemed like the 10th time today.
"It was fine," I shrugged like it wasn't anything I was worried about. "I still maintain both my positions at the Ministry." Arthur, Sirius and Remus didn't look convinced "Honestly, it's fine" I continued, looking at each one of them.
"For now" Sirius added frowning "I don't know why Dumbledore made you do that."
"Well, it's not like he could have shown up today now that he has been taken off the Wizengamot," Remus said quietly.
"Someone had to defend Harry" Arthur nodded in agreement.
"Yes, I know that" Sirius said impatiently and frowning at Arthur "but to risk -"
I wasn't sure if it was my frustration of the day or my frustration at the Headmaster that was seeping through to the surface but I found myself readying up for a fight, and unfortunately, Sirius was in my firing line.
"I said it was fine" I snapped cutting across him as I looked at him pointedly "Besides, when did you start caring so much about my position at the Ministry?"
"The other night you were the one stating Dumbledore would end up in Azkaban - you keep defying Fudge it'll be your head on the chopping block not his-" Sirius said to me, his voice rising slightly as he pointed at me.
"Excuse me?" I said incredulously, my voice also rising as slapped his hand away from me glaring at him, "You're telling me not to defy orders-"
Arthur stepped between Sirius and me, clearly sensing the tension in the air.
"Well, I think a toast is in order," he said loudly, raising his goblet, side glancing at us "To Ron and Hermione, the new Gryffindor prefects!"
Ron and Hermione beamed as everyone drank to them and then applauded. I drained my glass still glaring at Sirius until Tonks stepped between us and said brightly "I was never a prefect myself,"
I sighed and looked away from Sirius and watched everybody moving toward the table to help themselves to food.
"My Head of House said I lacked certain necessary qualities." I heard Tonks continue.
"Like what?" said Ginny, who was choosing food from the table.
"Like the ability to behave myself," said Tonks.
Ginny laughed and turned around to look at Sirius and I.
"What about you, Sirius?" Ginny asked.
Sirius looked down at Ginny and let out his usual barklike laugh.
"No one would have made me a prefect, I spent too much time in detention with James. Remus and Meg were the good kids, they got the badge."
"I think Dumbledore might have hoped that I would be able to exercise some control over my best friends," said Remus. "I scarcely need to say that I failed dismally."
I immediately remembered sending my owl to Lily the moment I had seen that blue prefect badge fall from my Hogwarts letter and the excitement I had felt when Lily returned her owl saying that she was the new Gryffindor prefect. I felt the smile slide off my face as I remembered how things had then changed so drastically in our final year. Lily and James had been made Head Girl and Boy but because of Sirius, my obsession with him and other awful intertwining events, I had missed out on being Ravenclaw's Head Girl.
As the night wore on I began to think about leaving when I heard a voice scream "RIDDIKULUS!" from somewhere inside the house. I spun around and exchanged glances with Remus and Sirius before I grabbed my wand from inside my robes and raced after them.
I heard Moody come stomping along behind them and us and I nearly walked into Remus as I looked from Molly to the dead Harry on the floor. My stomach dropped for a second at the shock of seeing Harry's lifeless body before I realised what was going on. I stepped in front of Molly, raised my wand and said firmly, "Riddikulus!"
Harry's body didn't vanish but a figure shrouded in a black cloak appeared in front of it. It turned slowly on the spot, pulling its left sleeve up to reveal the dark mark burnt into its forearm. I swallowed as the hood fell away from the figure's head and I found myself face to face with myself. Her ghostly pale face was almost pearlescent, smiling maliciously as body after body appeared next to Harry's. I didn't even need to look to know that among the bodies was Sirius, Remus, Severus - anyone that I slightly cared about. I swallowed again as boggart Meghana started to walk towards me, her left arm raised, pointing at me. I waved my wand once more and she vanished in a puff of smoke, along with the bodies behind her.
"Oh — oh — oh!" gulped Molly, and she broke down crying, her face in her hands. I looked helplessly at her, my body trembling slightly from facing my own fear.
"Molly," said Remus bleakly, walking over to her, from somewhere behind me "Molly, don't . . ." Next second she was sobbing her heart out on Remus' shoulder. "Molly, it was just a boggart," he said soothingly, patting her on the head. "Just a stupid boggart . . ."
I felt Sirius' arm brush mine ever so briefly and I looked up at him. He was staring at the patch of carpet where Harry's body had been. I hooked my middle finger around his and he looked down at me.
"Just a boggart" I whispered my voice trembling slightly and he nodded but the look of trepidation didn't leave his face.
"D-d-don't tell Arthur," Molly was gulping now, mopping her eyes frantically with her cuffs. "I d-don't want him to know. . . . Being silly . . ."
Remus handed her a handkerchief and she blew her nose.
"Harry, I'm so sorry, what must you think of me?" she said shakily. "Not even able to get rid of a boggart . . ."
"Don't be stupid," said Harry, trying to smile. I looked over to him, I hadn't even noticed him standing there as the boggart had taken all my attention.
"I'm just so worried," she said, tears spilling out of her eyes again. "Half the f-family's in the Order, it'll be a miracle if we all come through this. . . . and P-P-Percy's not talking to us. . . . What if something dreadful happened and we had never made up? And what's going to happen if Arthur and I get killed, who's g-g-going to look after Ron and Ginny?"
"Molly, that's enough," said Remus firmly. "This isn't like last time. The Order is better prepared, we've got a head start, we know what Voldemort's up to —"
Molly gave a little noise of fright at the sound of the name.
"Look, I can't promise no one's going to get hurt, nobody can promise that, but we're much better off than we were last time, you weren't in the Order then, you don't understand, last time we were outnumbered twenty to one by the Death Eaters and they were picking us off one by one. . . ."
"Don't worry about Percy," said Sirius abruptly. "He'll come round. It's a matter of time before Voldemort moves into the open; once he does, the whole Ministry's going to be begging us to forgive them. And I'm not sure I'll be accepting their apology," he added bitterly, glancing down at me and I met his eye wondering what he was thinking.
"And as for who's going to look after Ron and Ginny if you and Arthur died," said Remus, smiling slightly, "what do you think we'd do, let them starve?"
"That's right, Molly" I gave her a small smile as I looked over at her and she smiled tremulously around at us.
"Being silly," she muttered again, mopping her eyes.
After we had made sure Molly was alright, she bade us goodnight, as did Harry. Remus, who looked pale glanced at Sirius and me before he made his way back down to the kitchen with Moody. Sirius and I were left alone in the now silent hallway. I realised that my finger was still intertwined with his and I pulled it away. There was no awkwardness between us, but the atmosphere was tinged with a slight sadness. I looked up at him, noticing that he was still staring at the spot where the Boggart had been.
"Stay with me tonight?" he asked quietly without looking away from the spot.
I had nodded in agreement before I had even considered his request and as he took my hand in his and started to lead me towards his bedroom, the overwhelming urge to kiss him overtook my rational thinking. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards me pressing my lips against his and closing my eyes.
He returned my kiss and I grabbed the back of his neck pulling him even closer to me and kissing him deeper. He broke the kiss as his hands made their way to my shoulders and he looked into my eyes. I was disappointed to see him frowning.
"What are we doing?" He asked quietly.
I blinked and frowned.
"Uh I think it's pretty obvious what we're doing" I smirked at him pushing him off me and continued down the hallway to the bedroom.
He chuckled and followed me but as I turned the handle to open the door, he pulled it closed, turned me around, pinning me up against it and kissed me passionately. He hadn't kissed me like this in years, and I hungrily kissed him back as though my life depended on it. My arms snaked around his neck as he started to kiss down my neck causing me to push my body closer to his. He started to kiss my lips again, his tongue forcing its way into my mouth and he fumbled behind me for the door handle. The door swung open and he pushed me inside as we continued to kiss. He kicked the door closed behind him and I started to unbutton his shirt and ran my hands down his chest. He continued to push me until the back of my legs touched the bed and we tumbled onto it.