Thursday 2nd December 1981

Longbottom Manor, 14:00

Frank tried not to groan out loud, even though that would be really satisfying right now. He also stopped himself from banging his head off the wall. Because that would accomplish absolutely nothing except for giving himself a headache. Well, more of a headache than he had now. He called for an elf and he was soon provided with a headache reliever. Ah, that hit the spot. That was good stuff. His headache was already gone. Though, only temporarily, he feared.

His mother and father had just left his office, you see. After a good half an hour of discussion. Well, more like his parents had been talking at him, complaining really. Which was quite impressive considering the fact that his parents disliked the whole concept of complaining. They were of the type that if you found something wrong then you got on with it and fixed it. If you did that then you would have no time for complaining. It was as simple as that.

Except this wasn't so simple. The fact that something had driven them to complain made it not so simple. The fact that the subject of their complaint was his mother-in-law made it very complicated.

Hence the headache and him knowing that the potion would only get rid of it temporarily. His mother-in-law always caused a headache.

You see it turned out that Celia Smith had gotten tired of haranguing her daughter. He and Alice had actually celebrated just the other day that her mother had gone a whole week without hounding them about leaving hiding. Petty? Childish? Yes, to both but honestly, it really was something to celebrate. They had thought it was over and she'd finally accepted what they said.

She hadn't. Oh, no, she definitely hadn't.

Instead, she had turned her complaining to his parents. His parents. She had gone right over their heads, despite them being adults, and complained to his parents. For a long time. On multiple days.

Frank wasn't sure what she hoped to accomplish because his parents fully understood why he and Alice were remaining in hiding. Celia knew this. In fact, considering that they lived in the same house, his parents had also agreed to remain in hiding instead of going to one of the many other Longbottom homes so that they could return to some sort of normality. No, they didn't want to become targets for misplaced Death Eaters. Celia also knew this as well. So, why did she go and complain to them? And so much that they, in turn, complained to him? Like he mentioned before, managing to get his parents to complain was an achievement in itself. Frank wasn't sure if he should be impressed or exasperated. He was leaning heavily on the latter.

Alice was going to be so embarrassed and humiliated when she found out. Did she really need to find out? Was it necessary? Frank didn't think so but he also didn't want to be the type of person who hid things from his wife. Especially since it involved her mother. Even though all it would do was stress her out. He didn't want to stress her out. Or upset her. This news would do both. It was definitely stressing him.

Oh, what was he supposed to do? It wasn't like Celia listened to either of them. If that much wasn't obvious from what she just did, he didn't know what was. Why couldn't that woman just act like a normal person? Why couldn't her husband reel her in? For all the Smiths liked to brag that they were a, quote, "old-fashioned, traditional family with traditional values and family life", Celia certainly didn't seem to defer to her husband at all.

Anyway, Frank shook his head. That was beside the point. What was he supposed to do?

Alice chose this moment to poke her head around his door.

"Why do your parents look so annoyed?"

Frank groaned. "You don't want to know."

Merlin, he didn't even want to know. He would figure out how to explain this to Alice later. Right now, he needed a break. He rubbed at his eyes, suddenly feeling tired.

"Did you need something?"

Alice gave him a concerned look before beaming.

"Yes, do you want to see what your clever son can do now?"

Now that was something that definitely cheered him up.

"Please," he said eagerly.

Marauder Flat, 18:00

"We're really going to do this, aren't we?" Marlene asked, biting her lip.

They had written things down and looked up laws. Cross referenced laws. Checked how the whole process worked and where it had failed. They had done all that and now they were ready for the next step. Which was actually getting it to the Wizangamot.

She couldn't help but be unsure. People like her rarely spoke to the Wizangamot or even communicated with them. She was a McKinnon, after all. Thought of along similar lines to the Weasleys. Which definitely wasn't a bad thing, don't get her wrong. She was proud to be a McKinnon. The... The last one too. She shook her head, not letting her mind dwell too much on that. She didn't allow herself to do that these days. Because if she did let herself think about that sort of thing then nothing would be done. She would spiral and she couldn't afford to do that. So, she wasn't going to do it. Stuff her feelings deep inside, that was the best thing to do right now.

"We have to do this," he said firmly.

"We really do," Dora said, this intensely determined look on her face.

She had fling herself into this work with an intensity that eclipsed Remus and Severus and that was actually kind of scary. Marlene wished that she had been able to do the same, she wanted to be the same, but she just... well, she hadn't been able to. And it wasn't like she didn't believe in Sirius, she Did! Oh, Merlin, she did. And she wanted to know the whole story. There was something definitely not adding up there but when she tried to, she kind of just... fizzled out.

It was like she had no willpower to do it despite really, really wanting to do it. She didn't have the energy. It was all looming over her and she was helpless. It was an awful feeling. It made her feel useless.

Remus ran a hand down his face.

"How are we supposed to go about doing this? We've got our information and what hasn't been done. We're going to look up more legislation but where do we go from there? How do we get before the Wizangamot?"

There was silence. Marlene stared at Remus. They hadn't actually thought that far ahead, wanting to get down what they knew of the situation and the laws that had been broken by not giving Sirius a trial. Between all of their other work, of course. But how did they take all that and get it before the Wizangamot? How had they not thought of this?

"I guess I could ask mum-" Dora began.

But Severus almost immediately shook his head.

"I know she's a solicitor but you know she can't represent Sirius. He's family. You won't be allowed to even get involved too much once we start getting somewhere with this."

"I know that," Dora bit out. "That wasn't where I was going with that at all."

"We aren't even at the point of needing a solicitor anyway," Remus interrupted. "Though, we probably should look into that soon. Get everything prepared."

He was always the most organise one out of all of them.

"Can you all stop interrupting me!" Dora hissed in frustration.

They all looked at her expectantly, pointedly staying quiet. She glared right back at them and then threw her hands up in the air.

"Now I can't remember what I was going to say!"

"Well, does that mean we can start looking for a solicitor?" Marlene asked hopefully.

That meant that all the work would no longer be on them and she wouldn't feel as useless. Like she had to be doing something.

"No, wait! I remember! We should ask mum on how the Wizangamot would process something like this."

Dora looked all triumphant for remembering. Chryssie gave her a doubtful look.

"Would she even know."

"She's had to defend clients in there before, she's very good," Dora said defensively. "She doesn't just work for the lower-level courts."

"I meant has she ever worked on cases involving terrorism?" Chryssie asked patiently. "I'm pretty sure it's a different process."

"Oh. Um. I don't know."

Remus took out a bit of parchment and started making a list.

"We'll have to find that out. And how terrorism charges affect how the process works."

"He wasn't charged, remember?" Dora pointed out in exasperation.

Friday 3rd December 1981

Potions Laboratory, 14:00

"Make sure you have that report in!"

"I will. I will!" Severus called back and then shut the door behind him with a sigh.

Never had he been so glad to leave a Potions Lab before. That was something he'd never thought he'd say. But, in his defence, he'd just spent the last thirty minutes left of his lab session being lectured on why his reports were just as important as his potions. He knew that. He didn't have to be lectured about them. Honestly.

It turned out that the Potions Master you apprenticed under wasn't exactly happy when you had yet to produce any further research to your final project after giving a preliminary plan and analysis of ingredients. Apparently, that wasn't enough. Even though he wasn't on a strict timeline. Sure, the quicker you did all that the quicker you were awarded your Mastery but that didn't mean that you had to be quick. And trust him, he certainly wasn't going to be quick these days.

Look, it wasn't his fault that he didn't have all this free time to push forward on such things. There were other things that needed doing. More important things. Severus never thought that he would say it but those things were more important than potions. Potions would always be there, at least. Sirius might not be. Severus shuddered at the thought.

He really had to stop thinking like that. It was incredibly pessimistic, even for him. Positive thoughts, as Dora would say. Positive thoughts. They were progressing. Slowly but surely, they were progressing. They had next steps lined up. They kind of knew what they were doing. He still didn't like the amount of uncertainty surrounding everything but there was nothing he could do about that.

Maybe focussing more on his Mastery, a bit would actually help him. Potions were logical, followed clear steps. Even experimentation had this sort of order to it. And he could really do with some of that these days.

Chryssie and Severus' Flat, 19:00

Chryssie smiled fondly at her best friend as Dora took a long gulp of her tea and sighed loudly in satisfaction.

"Enjoying that?" She asked in amusement.

It was just a mug of tea after all but she was acting as if it was nectar and ambrosia.

"It's been a long week, okay?" Dora said defensively.

"Yeah, of doing everyone's paperwork," Chryssie teased.

She knew that because of all the court cases for Death Eaters going on that Dora hadn't really been allowed to do much actual Auror work, as she put it. Though she had got to view a lot of trials and learn about the legal side of things which did sound interesting but apparently not to Dora. She wanted to be involved in the actual Dark Wizard catching part of the job but no one was letting brand new Aurors anywhere near the Death Eater hunts. Probably because they didn't want anyone to screw anything up, Healers were the same but not quite as bad. Chryssie had got some experience in Healing people now. Well, helping to heal people. At least she got to use her wand! And she knew far more about Dittany than she ever thought she would. But still, it was more than Dora.

Speaking of Dora, she was looking down at her tea with this thoughtful look on her face.

"This is nice." She commented without looking up.

"It's just tea." Chryssie said, raising an eyebrow

Dora rolled her eyes. "I meant this," and gestured between the two of them. "Us hanging out. Just the two of us. No one else."

No boyfriends. No friends. No colleagues. No anyone. Huh.

"It is," Chryssie readily agreed. "We haven't done this in a while."

"We never seem to have the time."

That was true. Between Order work and actual work work, it was amazing that either of them got to sleep. Being a brand new Auror and a Trainee Healer was not exactly conducive to a social life. Or any sort of life outside their respective buildings, actually.

"We need to make time," Chryssie said decisively.

There was no more Order so that was something off their plate. That meant a little bit more free time. They just had to figure out when both of their free times overlapped. And make sure it was at a normal time of the day. They couldn't exactly spend time together at two o'clock in the morning, could they? Well, they could but that just seemed a bit depressing to her.

Chryssie twisted her engagement ring and smiled slightly as it caught the light. She didn't think that she would ever be tired of seeing that. It was so pretty and, of course, she couldn't help but think of Severus when she did so.

They were going to get married. Plans had been put on hold thanks to... well, everything, but it was going to happen eventually. They were promised to each other. And eventually they were going to be husband and wife. She couldn't wait.

"Do you think you and Remus will ever do it?" She asked suddenly.

Dora looked over and raised an eyebrow.

"Do what?"

Oh yeah, Dora couldn't read minds. It would be pretty cool if she could. Wait. No. That would be creepy.

"Get married."

Her best friend stilled at that statement and she didn't say anything. A minute passed by in silence and Chryssie was starting to get worried. Had she crossed a line? Neither Dora or Remus ever talked about it.

"I don't think so," Dora finally said and Chryssie could have cheered in relief.

She didn't sound annoyed or angry either which was good. Actually, she didn't really sound like anything. Not happy or sad. If anything, she sounded thoughtful.

"Oh."

Chryssie didn't know whether or not to apologise or ask why. She had stuck her foot in her mouth enough for one day, thank you very much.

"It just doesn't seem very us; you know?"

Actually, Chryssie didn't know. It even really understands. If you loved someone so much that you could imagine spending the rest of your life with them then you married them. That's how she understood it and it was what she had been taught since she was very young. And then after that came babies and a proper family. That was how things were done.

Except it wasn't. She knew that now. Two sets of her friends, her family, were together but not married. Both of them had a child. Neither seemed to be in any hurry to get married. And now it sounded like at least Dora and Remus weren't going to get married at All! Out of Marlene and Sirius and Dora and Remus, Chryssie would have put her money on Dora and Remus being the ones who would eventually get married.

Saturday 4th December 1981

St Mungo's 07:00

"You are going to have to make a decision soon."

And without even waiting for an answer, Healer Gibbons walked away, muttering to himself about the next case he was dealing with. It was a busy day today. Chryssie should know, she was on his service. Granted, she had just been relegated to sorting out the potions all of his patients would need today. Collect them, portion them out and even brew them if necessary. It was long, boring work. Even if she did get a chance to brew. She wasn't her fiancé; she didn't get a thrill out of brewing every single potion. And she would much prefer to be dealing with patients, learning more about diseases (Healer Gibbons specialty) and not just what potions they were prescribed.

Technically, it was her own fault that she had been relegated to this task. She knew that. She knew the man would be annoyed at her as soon as he brought it up. And, unfortunately, it was his job to bring the topic up. Didn't mean that she had to like it.

The topic being what specialty she was going to go into. It was time for her and her year to decide. Something most of the others had done. She had not. In case that wasn't obvious. Look, she hadn't exactly had much time to th8nk of such things, not when there were more important things going on! Unfortunately, deadlines at the hospital didn't really care about your personal life.

With a sigh, she rubbed at her head, feeling a headache coming on.