Dandelions

~47~

In the Gryffindor common room sat Sirius, James, Remus, Marlene, and Lily. "Come on, we have to find something big for this party. Let Harper take her mind off the task." Marlene mumbled as she was going against Remus in wizards chess. "It's her 18th birthday - and I know for certain that she's been in the library trying to find anything to help with the task. Narcissa is even helping her." Lily sighed, sitting up from James since she was laying her head on his lap. Thinking of different things, strippers were shot down instantly, everyone was stumped on what to do. The picture swung open to show a red faced Peter who looked like he'd just ran a mile. "Alright, wormtail?" Sirius asked, getting up to help the boy over to the couch. "Y-Yeah! Of course, anyway's what are we doing?" After filling him in, more ideas flew around till Remus finally yelled a great plan out.

"What if we do something small? You know like do an under the stars picnic with us, Regulus, and Narcissa? During the day we have school so." Agreeing on doing that, James agreed to talk to Regulus and Narcissa but Sirius wanted to tag along with him. "We'll be back." James whispered kissing Lily's head and following Sirius out of the room. They decided on checking the library first as that is where Harper had been residing which meant Narcissa was there helping her. Searching through the library, they found the two girls in the back with large books in their hands. "Well hello dear cousin and beautiful woman." Sirius smirked. "Hi. Narcissa's figured out what I've got to do. I have to race the other champions while spiders try to eat us,
fun right? I don't know what special means." Harper rambled before flipping the page in her book about magical creatures. "It's spiders, how bad can it be?" James asked sitting down next to Narcissa.

"Well, Potter, they're not just little spiders that you
get in your home. They're extremely large and dangerous so we're trying to find some stunning spells that aren't normally used." Narcissa announced before being pulled up by Sirius. James moved closer to Harper and looked through the book that Narcissa was while Sirius dragged the girl out of the library. "We need your help. Harper's birthday is the 13th of February and we're planning it now. Under the stars picnic but Remus think's since you two are close, you should come. Regulus will be invited aswell." Folding her arms, Narcissa looked skeptical of her cousin's unusual nice invitation. "I'll see if I can make it. Lucius will probably want to follow me around as he could never be apart from me for too long. See?" Sirius turned around to see the platinum blonde Slytherin boy walking down the hall with Regulus following. "Just let me know. I'll tell Regulus." Sirius grumbled before walking towards the two.

"Black." Lucius snarled at Sirius who rolled his eyes and grabbed his younger brothers wrist. "Hey! What the bloody hell do you think you're going?" Regulus yelled as he tried to pull away from his brother's grip. "Shut up! It won't take long.. Okay so." Sirius filled him on the plans which he agreed to reluctantly before scurrying away back to where Malfoy stood with Narcissa. Ignoring the group of them, Sirius walked back into the library to get James and Harper but when he got there, they both seemed invested in the work at hand. "Alright Prongs? Rossi?" He asked but received no response from either one. Groaning, he sat down next to his girlfriend and grabbed a book to help find something useful. Narcissa didn't return to help but it didn't matter much as Harper had 2/4 of the Marauders to help her out. "It's getting late, dinner time. We should go." James said holding his hands out for the two to take. "Yeah, sure." Harper nodded before taking his hand and putting the books back.

Walking out of the library, Sirius tried to calm the girl about the task that was coming up not too far away. "Yeah and you're birthdays not to far! Only 3 weeks away." James smiled before walking into the Great Hall where he spotted his other friends waiting patiently for them. "See you after dinner for the Order meeting, gorgeous." Sirius whispered kissing his girlfriends head and departing to the Gryffindor table. Harper walked over to the Hufflepuff table and sat down where nobody else was. She'd received a letter that morning from Amos about how the Ministry is in a bit of a panic due to the fact more and more muggles/muggle-borns are being murdered by Lord Voldemort. Negative thoughts crowded her mind about Lily and her family being murdered just like her mother had. It was all to overwhelming to the point Harper had her head in her hands and was crying silently. She sat there for a good minute crying until she felt two arms pull her into a hug.

She jumped a bit before realizing that it was Regulus hugging her. "Shhh, come on. Let's go on a walk yeah?" He said grabbing her hand and leading her out but not before grabbing some buttered bread for them to snack on. Sirius watched the girl being led out by his brother before he went to stand up and follow them. Remus held out his arm to stop him and whispered, "Reg's got it. She's probably just overwhelmed- you can talk to her at the meeting." Begrudgingly, he sat back down and took an angry bite of his food. Lily looked towards the door then back to Marlene who also looked worried for the Hufflepuff girl. Before 6th year, Harper rarely cried - she always this ray of sunshine even when she was being put down by others. Amos happened then everything from there just went completely downhill for her. "We better make this party bloody amazing." Marlene whispered before going quiet as the others had.

"What's going on?" Regulus asked when the girl finally calmed down. Taking a deep breath, Harper looked at the younger boy and noticed how he looked more worn-down and tired. "Regulus, you look absolutely horrible!" She yelled out taking his face into her hands and looking over everything about his features. Regulus let out a chuckle before saying "I can say the same for you, you look like you haven't slept for days and how long has it been since you last ate?" Harper let out a laugh before pulling him into a hug that relaxed them both a lot. "I'm just stressed. I miss my parents dearly, the second tasks coming up, Newts! I feel like I have no time to do anything." Harper whispered before feeling her chest tighten again. She wouldn't let herself cry so she shook her head a few times and looked back at Regulus. "Eat this. I know you haven't eaten in a bit." He handed her the bread and took a bite of his own before going on.

"Your birthday is in 3 weeks too so that's something to look forward too. I understand if you are to stressed for the summer too.." Harper looked up before slapping the boy in the chest making him jolt backwards. She laughed and said, "You're insnae of you believe I'm not coming with you." He let out a small smile before noticing the whole Great Hall file out including two students he'd known as the other Champions, walking towards them. "Hello Rozzi, we've been called for." Estelle said in greeting while Viktor just grunted a hello. Agreeing to come, she waved goodbye to Regulus before following the two others down the hallway. Before Regulus could slip away back to his friends, Sirius and his group of friends stopped the boy with millions of questions. "Okay - everyone shut the fuck up!" Regulus yelled,
making everyone go silent before continuing, "She's
fine - just overwhelmed. She's with the other champions so wait until she comes back, yeah? Got to go now, but i'll be at her party."

Harper was uncomfortable being around Estelle but she stood on the other side of Viktor so he'd be in the middle of the two. "Nobody called for us." Viktor grumbled before pulling the two into an empty classroom, making Harper's heart race. Why'd they pull her away if nobody had called for them in the first place. "What iz zhis? Why would zue lie?" Estelle bellowed before stomping her foot on the ground in anger. Harper let out a laugh at the girl who's face flushed when she noticed Harper looking at her. "Well ehem.. I have my suspicions that Professor Karkoff is a death eater and I feel like if I win this, I'm winning for them." Viktor spewed out making the room fall into an uncomfortable silence. Harper pushed on by saying "Are you sure? What are the signs?" Letting himself bet comfortable, he sat down in a desk before explaining the reasons. The random disappearing, become skittish when asked where he was, hiding his arm, calling Voldemort - The Dark Lord.

Then it hit Harper like the Knight bus - Peter had been randomly disappearing, getting skittish, and just last week he refused to get changed in front of everyone. He couldn't possibly be one, right?