Friday 13th November 1981
Marauders Flat, 10:30
Marlene hated this. She hated this. She hated this. She hated this. Had she mentioned that she hated this? Because she did. Hated this, that was. In case you hadn't understood that by now. Because, obviously, there was absolutely nothing to like about this whole situation. Not even a little bit. Not even a minuscule amount. Everything was bad and dark and depressing and hopeless and it was like they hadn't won at all. No celebrating. No wonder. No sign of relief. It was like it had never happened.
And, let's be honest, it kind of was like that. Security measures were still firmly in place in public areas because of rogue Death Eaters with no master. Which was terrifying because they were chaotic. Unplanned. Unrestrained. Desperate. Nothing that you wanted wielders of Dark magic to be. But they were. And the Auror Department was having to deal with that. In a way, it was like nothing had changed. Apparently.
Not that she would know. First hand, anyway. Forgive her but her mind was just a little bit distracted. Just a little bit. Sirius was in Azkaban. Azkaban. There had been nothing they could do to stop that and they had only found out Because of Kingsley! Dumbledore hadn't even been the one to tell them. It had been Kingsley. Kingsley. And there was nothing wrong with the man or anything but Kingsley? Didn't Dumbledore realise how much of a slap in the face that was?
Azkaban. Azkaban. Where criminals went. Sirius was no criminal. He wasn't! It was just... No one was listening. No one was trying to figure anything out. They were trying to get through things as quickly as they could. Catch the low hanging fruit that weren't even supposed to be fruit in the first place! If this was a way of showing that the government was in control of things then they were doing a piss poor job of it.
Marlene scrubbed a hand across her face. No tears. There would be no tears. There was nothing to cry over. It was a misunderstanding and it was going to be untangled. Figured out. Sorted. Fixed. In that order.
She wasn't even allowed to be at work to distract herself. Moody had put her on leave to sort things out. Allegedly. It was probably some of that but also trying to smooth things over in the Department. Whatever. All that she cared about was that she had nothing to do, no work to distract her all of which left her alone with her thoughts Which was not a good thing.
Since when had been being left with your thoughts a good thing? Never, that's what. She didn't need to be aware of them any more than strictly necessary. Because the only thoughts she was having was bad thoughts and negativity was not something she needed right now. None of them needed it.
"It is taking forever!" She said and it came out as a whine.
Merlin, she sounded like Cassie. That was weird. Oh, she didn't like that. Being compared to a toddler was never a good thing. Even if you were the one doing the comparing. And the toddler was yours. Still not good. See? This is what happened when she had nothing to do.
Severus looked over at her from his position crouched over the coffee table (since when did they have a coffee table?) and frowned. Somehow the Marauder Flat (could it even be called that now that there were no Marauders living here?) had become the centre of operations. Every room was in use. Except, you know, Peter's. But that was whole other story.
"We can't do this quickly," Severus said in exasperation
"And why not? It needs to get done!"
Severus sighed heavily and even pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Dealing with the Wizangamot is not something you can go blazing through like some sort of Gryffindor. It requires careful handling and finesse."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me, Marlene. We have to be careful about this. We can't afford to make mistakes."
"And you think that I'll make a mistake."
That was a statement, not a question. And she didn't like that he thought like that. She wasn't stupid. She could do things right.
"Yes," he replied without reservation and before she could complain he added, "if You rush things. If you do things without a plan. We. Need. A. Plan. A good one. An airtight one."
Marlene opened and closed her mouth a few times trying to think of a good counter argument but could think of none. An angry sigh left her, annoyed at herself. Why did Severus have to make so much sense? It wasn't fair.
"I can't just sit around and do nothing, Severus." She said instead.
Because she couldn't. She would go crazy, well, crazier, if she kept on doing nothing. Anything would do. Seriously. She winced. Nope. She couldn't even think of that word. Too similar. Merlin, she was a mess.
He sighed heavily and Marlene realised he looked very tired. She felt a small pang of guilt at that knowing that she was the cause of at least some of it but she shook it off. She couldn't worry about something else right now. She didn't have the capacity for it.
"I'm not asking you to do nothing."
"You are!"
"I'm not," he said so firmly that she didn't retort. He took a deep breath. All I'm asking for is that you work with me."
Work with him. Work with him? Seriously?
"Work with you? You literally just told me the other day that there's nothing I can do because I'm too close to the situation!"
"You are," Severus said impatiently like she was the one who wasn't making sense. "Which is why you won't be involved in any of the correspondence. They'll just dismiss it as a hysterical girlfriend or something. And I know you aren't," he said quickly with a glare when she bristled. "But that's how the Ministry will think and you know it."
She did. She did know that. She didn't like it though. This wasn't good. Not even a little bit.
"What can I do then?"
She didn't want to sit around and do nothing. Sitting around and doing nothing meant that she was going to be alone with her thoughts. Which was not a good thing. Never was. Especially not these days. Ber thoughts were far fo4m good thoughts. Like Dementors had taken all the good ones away. Like they were probably doing to Sirius. She choked back a sob. No. No. No. No. She couldn't do this to herself, she couldn't. No. No. No. No.
The grin on Severus' face immediately made her uneasy. It wasn't normal for him to have a grin on his face. It looked weird.
"Make yourself comfortable," he said and then stepped to the side.
There were books behind him. A stack of them. As well as multiple scrolls. How long had they been there and how had she never seen them before?
"Reading? You want me to read?" She asked dumbly.
"Research," he corrected. "I want you to research. Or help me research, really. Laws. Law Enforcement. History of Azkaban. Everything in between."
"That's a lot," but she moved closer to the stack of books.
"It is, he agreed. "Hence why k said get comfortable. Find a spot and start reading. Make note of anything that might possibly help Sirius."
Nodding, she grabbed two of the books and a fresh piece of parchment. Taking everything would just overwhelmed her. Just seeing Everything overwhelmed her so she'd have to go to her room or something.
She glanced over to Peter's room. Or was it his old room now? They had sealed it shut. Locked it up. They weren't using it. They weren't even going to use it. Peter was another reason why she didn't want to be alone with her thoughts.
Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter. What had happened to him? What was his part in all of this? He couldn't be dead like they said, could he? Blown to pieces, just like that? Sirius doing that? It didn't make sense. Especially the finding no other body parts except for a finger. It didn't make sense. Which they had made a note of with this massive question mark beside it. They were missing something there. Hey just didn't know what. Marlene felt like it was something important and the others agreed to an extent. She just didn't know why Peter was so important to all of this. Sirius would not have done that to Peter. He wouldn't have. There was no way. Because it was Peter. No one wanted to hurt Peter.
Oh, it was all so confusing. Except for the part that Sirius was innocent. Because he was. He was. He was. That much she did know. Sirius Black would never do something like that. He wasn't capable of it. Not betraying his closest friends, his family. Not murdering innocent muggles. None of that.
They had to get to the bottom of it. Which meant saving Sirius. She sighed heavily. Which meant research.
Saturday 14th November 1981
Dursley Home, 08:00
Harry wasn't happy. He wasn't happy at all. He had been waiting such a long time, the sun had come and gone lots and lots of times and mummy and daddy hadn't come back. Where were they? He didn't like the hiding game anymore, they had to come out and say "Boo!" and give him hugs right away. He wanted a daddy hug where he couldn't see anything except daddy's clothes or a mummy hug where he got lots of kisses. He hadn't got any hugs since he came here. He wanted hugs. Lots of hugs. And kisses too but sometimes kisses were annoying and hugs never were.
So where were they? It had been long enough if you asked him. It was time for them to come out and be together again. It was that easy, didn't they know that? They just had to come out.
Or maybe he had to go find them? Was it his turn? He had t thought of that. Frowning, he got to his feet and started toddling across the floor. Where could mummy and daddy be? They were big and wouldn't fit in all the places je did. They didn't fit under the big chairs like he had found out when daddy had wanted to catch him. Harry had won that game until mummy made the chair float.
"Harry," the woman (Aunt Tuna he thought she said she was called) scolded him. "Stop getting into places."
Into places? He was already in a place, wasn't he? He didn't understand.
Harry found himself being removed from the floor and soon he was in the air. But he wasn't flying around like when he was on his broomstick or like when daddy pretended, he was a snitch. This wasn't nearly as fun.
"Mummy? Daddy?"
Maybe He was being brought to his mummy or daddy? It didn't matter how he was brought there as long as he was with them.
"No."
Harry's lip wobbled. No. He didn't like that word. That word meant that he wasn't going to get what he wanted and be really, really wanted this.
Tuna made this scary face at him so he went quiet. He didn't like that face.
"Why can't you stay on the rug like a good boy like my Dudders."
Dudders? Another name? There were a lot of these other boys who all looked the same to him. There was Dudders, Duddy, Duddy-pie, Duddikins. Dudders also got called sweet boy but Harry thought that he was sweet boy. Mummy always called him that. Duddikins got called little man by Uncle Vern. It was a lot.
Harry didn't know what to think. But at least it was someone nearly the same size as he was, Dudders and Duddikins and Duddy-pie were all bigger sideways than he was but that didn't matter because they were all still small like him. Maybe they could play games while he wanted for mummy and daddy? Would he like the same games as Cassie?
Longbottom Manor, 14:00
"Honestly, Alice, you would think that you would at least be able to visit by now."
"Mother, we've been over this."
"I am aware bit I am still not happy with your explanation."
"Well, I'm not happy about the whole situation either but this is to keep us safe so I really can't complain."
And she definitely wasn't going to complain. Did she want to get back out in the real world and out of Longbottom Manor? Yes, because no matter how big her home was that meant nothing when you could not leave it. But she understood Frank's hesitation. Voldemort may be gone but a lot of his followers weren't. Particularly the big ones. The most dangerous ones. The Lestranges came to mind and then she shuddered at the thought of them. No, she definitely did not want to think of them.
"It has nearly been two years, Alice."
Alice didn't understand her mother's need to use her name with every other sentence but it was vetting annoying. Especially when she was exaggerating like this.
"It's barely been one," Alice said with an eye roll.
"Don't take that tone with me!"
Alice tried hard not to sigh. This was going to be a long floo call.
Azkaban, 19:00
Sirius huddled in the back corner. It was as far as he could get away from the bars and the bars were where they were. And that was a good thing. Well, not really good because there was nothing good in here but it was the best of the worst, of that made sense.
He couldn't do anything else. Couldn't plead his case. Demand answers. Demand to see someone, anyone. Dementors didn't do any of those things so there was no point.
Peter. Peter. Peter. Peter.
That's all he could think about. All that he would allow himself to think about. Because thinking of anything else... well, let's just say that it wasn't good.
Peter was the reason for this. Little Squirmy Wormy. He had done this. On purpose. He hadn't been found out and tortured about what he knew. He had given them up. Given up James and Lily. Sirius knew that much. Because why else would Peter have reacted the way he did? Why would he have, Sirius swallowed heavily, why would he have blown up the street in an effort to get away? To hide? Yeah, he'd seen the rat slip down the drain. Just about, but he had seen him. Just like the little rat he was. How ironic. Oh, the Animagus process knew more about Peter than they ever would. The world was definitely laughing at that one right now. Well done.
He almost laughed at that. Almost. It came out as a weird noise and as soon as he let himself feel something even vaguely good the Dementor that prowled the corridor came over to him and took the feeling away. He shuddered. If this was what one of the upper levels were like then what were the other, higher security ones like? Actually, technically he was in the middle somewhere right now as far as he could tell. There were people above and below him. Probably more people above. It was not a nice feeling. But this was Azkaban for you. It wasn't supposed to be nice. Sirius shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts. He couldn't think too much about his current situation or else he really would go mad. He needed to think about something else.
Peter. Peter had betrayed James and Lily. Peter had betrayed them all. And for what? Glory? Really? Did he expect to be given that? Power? Sirius didn't know. He didn't understand. He didn't understand. Why Peter? Peter was supposed to be the safe option. He was the one who was supposed to protect them. To be that one.
Maybe He had been bribed? Threatened but not tortured? A hopeful thought but Sirius couldn't help but have it briefly before it was snatched away. No, he couldn't have done any of those things. He couldn't. Because he had blamed Sirius. He had blamed him. His friend. His brother. Without hesitation. And now Sirius was here and Peter was somewhere free and living his life.
A wave of hopelessness washed over him.
Peter had finally mustered up the courage. Finally. Today, right now, he was going to get out of these sewers. Temporarily. For food and then he was going to come back down. He was going to get food that wasn't rubbish or mouldy. Fill his stomach up properly.
The exit was right there. He had explored it the other day and daylight had definitely streamed out the other end and the air was fresh. Actually, the brief bit of air had smelled weird because he wasn't used to the cleanness of fresh air and the absence of foul smells. It had been weird. But he was going to smell it again. Be out in it.
He was both excited and scared. Which was irrational because he was going to remain a rat which was much safer than him being a human. And it was going to be at night (the exit actually helped him tell the time now) so even fewer people, if any, would see him. Just a few more hours. Or maybe even less. He couldn't tell the exact time from the sunlight.