Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

8 January, 1996 - Devil's Snare

Lavinia bid Jasmine goodbye with what was admittedly a rather heavier heart than usual. This was in part due to how quickly she'd gotten accustomed to coming home after work to the girl's rambunctious and bright presence and in part because Lavinia knew perfectly well that for perhaps the first time since she'd started school, Jasmine wasn't entirely looking forward to her return. Actually, the girl had spent almost the entire evening before she left ranting about Dolores Umbridge in terms vehement enough that even Remus, who hated the woman on principle, looked a bit thrown off.

Lavinia had watched with some amusement as her friend struggled, clearly torn between agreement with Jasmine's points and a general distaste for any quite so ardent dislike. Personally, Lavinia rather thought Jasmine might have a point. Not that she herself was about to completely hate the woman. She disliked her, certainly, but having never met her... well. It seemed wrong to irrevocably hate someone she'd never met before.

Sirius probably would have told her that was silly and that given what they both knew of Umbridge, hating her was a perfectly reasonable reaction but... well. Sirius had always been the less forgiving of the two of them.

So, with Jasmine back at school and the house now rather depressingly silent, Lavinia had found herself hoping for a just a short time during which things could be normal. She wouldn't have complained, of course, if the things disrupting her normal were good things but... well, given the state of the world that seemed like a bit much to hope for. So she stuck with hoping for what was safer and more reasonable.

Perhaps predictably, it didn't last. And that was if you even considered it to have begun in the first place, which Lavinia honestly wasn't sure she did.

The normal shattered with a bang only a single day after Jasmine had left and from there, it seemed, it just kept falling apart more. Or at least, it felt that way to Lavinia, who later came to view those blissful evenings over the holidays as the calm before the storm. Like one last breath of peace before it all started crumbling again.

The first part of the storm came, rather unexpectedly, in the form of Miriam. And she was crying. Red faced and crying. Lavinia honestly didn't know how to respond when she opened her front door to this particular sight and it occurred to her in that moment that in all the many years she'd known this woman, she wasn't actually sure she'd ever seen Miriam cry. If, that was, you didn't count happy tears.

"Mir?" Lavinia asked hesitantly, her concern growing as Miriam just stared at her with bloodshot eyes and red cheeks, looking rather shell shocked.

Miriam didn't answer. Not that Lavinia needed an answer right now because, recovering herself slightly from the surprise of seeing Miriam like this so out of the blue, she reached out and pulled her friend across the threshold, closing the door behind her before guiding the other woman to the couch, trying to show away the something like panic growing in her head in favor of the calm she was certain her friend needed right now. Miriam, for her part, still seemed utterly shocked and just stood there until Lavinia pushed her shoulders slightly, forcing her to sit.

"I'm going to make you tea, Mir," Lavinia informed her friend gently, surprising herself with how gentle her voice managed to be through the worry. "I'll be back in just a moment, okay?"

Miriam glanced at her and nodded slightly, which was all the confirmation Lavinia needed. She hurried into the kitchen, setting the kettle to boil with a wave of her wand and grabbing a mug, her mind racing. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what the hell had happened. It must have been something bad, for Miriam to be so... well, so out of it, really. ANd on top of what it was that had happened in the first place, there was also the question of why Miriam was here and not with Kama. Not that answering that question was really Lavinia's first priority right now because it seemed to her that first and foremost, she needed to calm Miriam down and find out what in Merlin's name had happened. Because something had happened.