good things fall apart • sirius black

Everything's changed

There was a meeting going on in the Gryffin's home on the Monday morning that Ellie was due to return. A meeting that the four boys had been shut out of and forced to stay in the Library for. Of course, they'd tried to sneak in under the Invisibility Cloak, and tried to stand by the living room door to hear, but they'd been caught every time.

The trip they'd taken to Diagon Alley to buy all their news books and robes, had gone smoothly, but more because Euphemia had ushered them around as fast as possible. New Quidditch robes and gloves were also needed by the two black haired boys, and everyone had to replenish their stash of sweets and chocolate too. The only thing missing from the day had been Ellie, but there was nothing anyone could've done about that.

Remus had the largest pile of books to carry that anyone had ever seen, having decided to carry on all of his O.W.L subjects for his N.E.W.Ts after receiving high grades in everything, and also because he needed new novels too. Both James and Peter had dropped Muggle Studies after getting the easy grade, and the smallest Marauder had also dropped Divination (though that had been less of a choice seeing as he barely scraped an Acceptable). As for Sirius, he was also carrying all of his subjects over to N.E.W.T level, for even in Ancient Runes he'd gotten an Exceeds Expectations. He had no doubt Ellie would be doing the same as him.

The four boys were all moping about waiting for the beautiful girl's return now - Remus sifting through the shelves of books, James throwing his snitch around, Peter tracing the patterns on the rug as he sat on the floor, and Sirius pressing keys absentmindedly on the piano. Ellie should've been back over an hour ago, it was pushing lunch time and Cyrus had said she'd arrive before the afternoon, but there was absolutely no sign of her.

That was, until the doors to the Library pushed open.

    "SHE'S HERE!" James cried unnecessarily, throwing his arms up in the air.

However, the girl that had walked in, was definitely not who they were expecting. They were greeted by a blonde, and all four boys froze immediately, beyond confused. Striding into the room, the girl smiled brightly at them all, chuckling at their bemused expressions.

    "I didn't think you'd be so ecstatic to see me Potter." Marlene McKinnon exclaimed, moving swiftly to slump on the sofa opposite James.

    "Not you." He grumbled, "Cubby."

    "Ah, is she not back yet? I expected to stumble across her snogging Sirius' face off."

    "Why are you even here McKinnon?" Brushing off her comment dismissively, Sirius crossed the room casually to sit next to James.

    "I've signed up." Marlene replied simply, "The meeting's just finished and Mr Gryffin said that you lot were all in here so I thought I'd come and show my face rather than chat with all the oldies instead."

    "You've signed up for the war effort?" Peter squeaked.

    "To fight Lord Voldemort, yes."

Over summer, the Gryffin's home had opened its doors to an organisation formed by Dumbledore himself to hopefully fight against the dark rebellion. As the only pureblood family to have been targeted by Voldemort and his Death Eaters so far, Cyrus was the first person Hogwarts' Headmaster had turned to for support. Of course, he was on board immediately, and from there, Dumbledore continued to recruit trustworthy witches and wizards that would be able to contribute. The numbers were small at the moment, but as Marlene displayed, people were willing to fight, and that's all they needed.

Not much action had been able to take place yet, for they were still in the early days of discussing what exactly was the best way to combat such dark forces, and in the numbers which Voldemort was gaining almost daily too. Aurors had been recruited secretly for their skills, but also so they could pass over information about the goings on in the Ministry too, for things had really gone downhill in two months.