Friday 19th November 1981

Marauder Flat, 16:30

Marlene hummed as she sorted out dinner for this evening. It was to be for three, for a change. Well, it was normally three but things weren't normal so there was now normally two, her and Cassie (and she didn't like that fact, by the way) but now there was three again. For tonight anyway. Did that even make any sense? Merlin, she was rambling, even in her head. Back to the point. Severus was here, researching. Apparently, the Marauder Flat was now research central. Which was pretty apt, now that she thought about it. Chryssie wasn't because she was on a late shift tonight. She thought it was only fair that she fed him. That's what her mother always taught her. You feed your workers. Of course, farmhands were different than people doing research for you but maybe they weren't really so different. Either way, Severus was getting fed. She didn't think that he'd get himself food otherwise, not when he hadn't made a noise in the past hour and a half and she'd actually had to go check that he wasn't unconscious.

"Food's ready," she announced only to get no response. She liked her head to the loving area and repeated herself. "Severus! Food!"

It was only when she clapped her hands that she got his attention, he had been glaring at a piece of parchment.

"Huh?" He said, looking around in shock like he'd forgotten where he was.

"Food," she said, holding up the tray.

"Oh, I'm not hungry," and he made as if to go back to researching.

"Ah, ah, ah. You work. I feed. Drop the parchment."

"But-"

"Food."

"But-"

"Do you want to pass out from hunger and have me drag your sorry arse to St Mungo's?"

"No," he grumbled, standing up and brushing parchment scraps off him.

The whole place was starting to smell like a library with the number of books and parchment they were going through. Did you know just how many archaic laws were still in place in Wizarding Britain today? Too many. And they were all interlinked with each other. It was horrendous.

Thankfully he did actually sit at the table and helped her dish everything up. Cassie was given a plate of gravy and mashed potatoes which was probably a mistake but oh well. Hey had all made the decision not to discuss any research over dinner, it was too depressing, so they had a somewhat relaxed meal. Severus did glare at Cassie once or twice when she offered him a handful of sludgy, gravy-soaked, mashed potatoes.

It was so funny watching Severus interact with children. He simply didn't like them that much. Sorry, he didn't like their messes. At all. He liked children. His friends' children anyway, or so he said. Other children were little monsters, apparently. Though, Cassie might get on that list if Severus noticed the gravy dripping onto his robes.

"Thank you," Severus said in that quiet way of his once the plates were cleared and the washing started with a flick of the wrist.

"No problem," she replied with a shrug. "It's easier for me to cook for more."

The consequence of growing up in a big family. Her mum had always wanted all hands-on deck over the holidays and that tended to not just include immediate family. Friends, neighbours, workers and all sorts came for food and company.

"I made some for Chryssie for you to take home," she added. "So, you actually eat."

Those two were either so busy with weird working hours (Chryssie) or research and experiments (Severus) that they forgot to eat. Which was not a good thing. Hence the pushing of food onto them. Merlin, when did she become her mother?

17:30

Neither of them wanted to sit around and do nothing - Marlene had had enough of that, she was still "on leave" from work. Not that it was voluntary but whatever. And of course, they were going to feel restless until they got this whole mess with Sirius sorted out. So, she put Cassie to bed and they both got back to trying to figure things out. Dora and Remus were to join them in an hour or so to do the same.

Marlene didn't know what to think anymore. She knew there was no way that Sirius would ever betray James and Lily. The very thought was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous and everyone should know that. But what about Peter? He was... he was, well, gone. Marlene couldn't even think of any other word. Too much of that had happened already, after all. And Sirius had possibly been the cause? It made no sense at all. Peter was a Marauder, just like Sirius. They were family. You didn't... you didn't do that to family.

But Sirius wasn't a... he wasn't a murderer. That was what they were trying to prove, weren't they? Well, technically they were trying to prove he wasn't a traitor. Which he wasn't. Definitely wasn't. That much Marlene was sure of. And he wasn't a murderer either. That thought had a little bit less conviction behind it and she immediately quelled that traitorous thought. No. Sirius wasn't like that. He wasn't.

She scrunched up her face in an effort not to cry. No. No crying. No more crying. She'd done enough of that. Into her pillow. At night. So, Cassie wasn't disturbed. Tears didn't do anything except waste time and she wasn't going to waste time.

"Hi, hi!" Dora said happily, walking through the door.

Remus came in behind her, holding a sleepy looking Teddy. Thank Merlin. A distraction.

"Hi-I," he said tiredly, giving them a little wave and then snuggling back against Remus.

"Put him in with Cassie," Marlene instructed, glad to now have something to do, even if it was just playing host. "She's out for the count."

Severus didn't even look up from his parchment, though Marlene could see a splatter of ink on the end of his nose. There were probably some on his fingertips as well. That's what always happened when he got into researching, he wrote too fast for his quill to keep up.

"Nice to see you too, Severus," Remus joked, running his hand through Severus' hair as he walked past.

Severus jumped at that, finally realising that there were other people in the room that required his attention.

"I'll get you for that, Moony!" He called after him, only to get shushed by Marlene.

Had he not heard that Cassie was out for the count? But Remus was also laughing and Marlene froze, expecting a wail from her daughter but it never came.

"I'd like to see you try," Remus retorted as he came out of the bedroom. "I out baby monitoring charms on them, by the way. They won't hear a thing."

Marlene breathed a sigh of relief. Thank Merlin for that. Why hadn't she thought of that? Was her brain really that frazzled these days?

"Moody told me to give this straight to you," Dora said, handing Severus a scroll, now that he was aware of his surroundings. "Said it was something to do with Sirius."

Marlene frowned at it; it was still bound up tightly.

"And you didn't l9ol at it?" She said accusingly.

Sure, she would want to know everything to do with her cousin?

Dora glared at her and she looked so like Sirius that Marlene actually recoiled.

"It's not addressed to me and Moody said to make sure Severus was the one who read it so that it didn't directly involve Aurors," she said sharply.

"Sorry," she muttered, looking away from her with a bit of shame.

She hadn't meant it to be that accusing. Not really. Deciding that focusing on Severus was a better idea, she watched him open the letter. It was quite long. They were all watching him now, not know what to expect.

Remus made an amused noise and looked at Severus with some amusement on his face.

"What?" He asked defensively.

Choking back a laugh, Remus said, "You do realise you have ink on your nose, right?"

"What?" Severus scrubbed at it with his palm and frowned when he saw blue on it. "Dammit! Every time!"

They all laughed at him, which didn't improve his mood any.

"I need to start using muggle pens," he grumbled.

"Pretty sure you'll have the same problem," Dora said cheerfully. "They use ink, don't they?"

All she got was a glare in return. Marlene was impressed je didn't throw something at her but then again, he got pretty engrossed in that letter again. They all just kind of stood around and watched him. There was nothing better to do than wait.

"Stop staring," he told them, not looking up and then when no one replied, "Seriously, j can't concentrate if you're staring. Shift it."

Marlene rolled her eyes but gestured for them all to go to the kitchen. Severus still would be in their line of sight but they wouldn't be hovering.

Even though he didn't ask them to, they conversed in whispers as he read. And read. And read. And read. Was the letter really that long? Severus wasn't a slow reader, was he? That was more Remus. Just as she was about to ask what was taking him so long, he looked up. It was like they all held their breath.

"You do realise there's no trial."

Marlene was confused.

"Excuse me?"

"Sirius." Severus shook the letter. "He's in Azkaban."

She groaned at him, not liking to be reminded of that particular fact. Even when it was the only thing she could think of most days.

"I know that."

Yes, it came out biting. But it was Severus' own fault for saying something so stupid. And she hated that sentence. Sirius on Azkaban. It was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It was bad enough that she had to think about it, she did not want to bear it as well. That was just doubly bad.

"There's no trial noted on his paperwork."

"What?"

There's no way that she heard him right. No trial on his paperwork? As if. Marlene held her hand out for the reports.

"There's no trial on any of these," Severus repeated, shuffling through the parchment one last time before handing them over to her.

"Are you sure you're reading there, right?" She started flipping through them herself.

It was a valid question even though he huffed at her. Legal documents were horrible to try and understand and she'd been put through a course to learn how to read them when she was at the Academy. And she still found it difficult. So, of course Severus was going to find it hard.

"I know how to read them," he said defensively. "There's nothing about one there."

Marlene was starting to see that Severus was right. She stopped flipping through and carefully scanned each page for the text she was looking for. It wasn't there. Not on this piece or this piece. Or even this piece.

"A Trainee probably effed up and didn't note it down or something," she said dismissively.

Trainees were known for screwing things up like that. Trust her, she had made a mistake or two herself like that. It was embarrassing. Thankfully not on a court document, though. She was just trying to ignore the twisting in her stomach.

"Dumbledore wouldn't let that happen," Dora said, shaking her head.

"But it did."

"Maybe it was a mistake?" Dora asked hopefully.

"He's the Chief Warlock of the Wizangamot," Severus pointed out. "I doubt he makes a mistake like this. If anyone could do it, it would be him."

"And he hasn't," Remus said heavily in realisation, shaking his head.

"No. He hasn't."

"But why?" Marlene asked.

She had wanted it to come out all angry and indignant but instead it came out rather sad. Everyone else looked how she felt. Confused. Upset. Sad. Angry.

"I guess it's because," Dora began and then paused to swallow heavily like the thought pained her, "because he doesn't know Sirius is innocent."

"But that doesn't mean lock him up with no trial," Severus said hotly. "A trial is meant to determine if he's guilty or not. Only a guilty verdict can send a person to Azkaban."

"And he never got one " Marlene said slowly.

Although her voice was quiet, it was that deadly sort of quiet. The type that you could hear fury burning in every word.

"No. According to Mo- this letter, he did not."

They all fell silent at that. Just how exactly where you supposed to respond to that sort of news? Marlene was too busy trying to process what that all meant. No trial?

"Everyone else is getting a trial," Dora said suddenly.

They all turned to look at her.

"What?" Marlene asked in a deadly calm voice.

Dora gulped at the look on her face but she was also furious.

"Everyone else. They're getting a trial," she repeated. "That's why I haven't been doing much at work. All the more senior Aurors are involved in the trials."

"All of them?"

She nodded quickly.

"Of course, not for any high-ranking ones," she said quickly. "Of those we've managed to catch, still only three, by the way, their trials are taking more time to arrange. More evidence to process and everything. But there's a whole bunch of stupid, low level Death Eaters that have been caught and are being prosecuted. A good amount of mid-tier ones as well."

"They're all getting trials?" Marlene repeated in this low, deadly sort of voice.

Longbottom Manor, 18:00

There it was. His target. His goal. The best place ever. Where there was excitement and fun and all sorts of adventure. Places he'd never been before. And he now had a chance. It was open. He was free to do as he pleased. Maybe even go down the stairs, which he was never allowed to do. He had complained loudly about this but to no avail. No one ever put him near them. But this time he would get himself to them. He could do It!

Neville frowned as he moved slowly across the floor, tongue sticking out in concentration. Why were two feet slower than crawling around? Mummy and daddy moved so quickly on two kegs, why couldn't he? It wasn't fair. Maybe He couldn't do it... No! He could. He really could. He just had to keep going.

One foot, then another, then another. He was walking, walking, walking! Walking was so fun. And he could walk an awful lot now, he realised. He didn't think he'd ever walked this far before; someone always picked him up before he could or he fell. But he still hadn't walked far enough! Why was it so far away? It had it seemed that far when mummy had him in her arms! That wasn't fair. He had little legs!

He would be much faster on his knees but be rejected that idea almost immediately. Mummy was always saying that he was such a big boy now. And he was. A big boy. Not a baby. Babies crawled. Big boys didn't. No. He wasn't going to crawl. He could walk perfectly well. Even if it was slower, it didn't matter because he was a big boy. And big boys walked.

So, he kept walking. Slowly but surely. He nearly fell a bunch of times and actually fell once. Just once. On his bum. It didn't hurt. It was annoying though; he was wasting time!

Then suddenly his feet left the floor and he was suddenly at a height.

"What are you doing, sweet boy?" Mummy cooed at him.

Neville didn't say anything and instead he made granny motions at the door.

"Are you trying to escape? Are you trying to escape?" She cooed at him.

Normally je liked that voice, it made him feel happy and safe, but right now he had more important things to do. Like the fact that he was no longer in control of his own body and was being brought away from the door! He kicked his feet and made an annoyed noise. This wasn't Fair!

"No escaping for baby Neville," he was then told.

"Big!" He told her.

Not a baby. Big boy! She had just said that earlier. She should remember.

"You aren't a big boy! You're just a little baby boy."

"No baby!"

"Yes baby!"

She even gave him a big kiss at That! He didn't want a kiss! He wanted let down. Now! He wiggled and struggled to try and get free but that only got him scolded and held tighter. A wail demonstrated his frustration quite nicely. But that didn't get him anywhere either. His mummy called for someone, using that voice she used for the strange, big-eared creatures, and, sure enough, one appeared. Neville pouted. That meant he was going to be brought to his room! Where there were no stairs!

"-getting cranky so I think he needs a nap," mummy was saying.

"No nap!"

He didn't want to sleep! He wanted to play! Of course, he was ignored and was promptly handed over to this person with big ears. There was a funny feeling around him and then he was in his room.

"Master Neville being sleeping now," he was told as he was out behind bars.

Neville rattled at them, not happy with his situation at all.

"Sleeps, Master Neville!"

He didn't want to sleep! But, as usual when he couldn't sleep, this nice music turned on. It was really nice music. It made his body want to flop down so that's what he did. Oh, his cot was comfy.