evergreen • remus lupin

96. the order

february 3, 1978

Now that it was the new year and they were coming back to school for one of the last times, the marauders finally felt like they were in the home stretch of their school career. 

One last semester before they were thrown into the real world. And with the war tensions rising, not everyone was too eager to leave the protection of Hogwarts. 

Sirius' new thing was adding 'last' in front of everything now. 

"This is the last time we board the train after Christmas break"

"This is the last time we get off the train after Christmas break"

"This is the last January 20th of our school career"

It was sentimental at first, but now everyone wanted to drive his head through a wall. 

And now January was over, as Sirius had reminded them and everyones moods had shifted to studying. People spent hours in the library, sometimes staying over night. 

Students carried eye bags around more than ever, and exams were still months away. 

Then one day while studying Selene Remus, Lily and Peter were in the library when a seventh year Ravenclaw approached their table. 

"Um hey, Professor Dumbledore was asking for Lily, Remus and Peter for something, can you guys come with me?" She asked nervously glancing at Selene. 

Remus furrowed his brow in confusion, shooting Selene a look to see if she knew anything about this. She just returned the look of bewilderment. 

"About what?" Lily asked, also confused. The girl glanced around, picking at her fingers anxiously, 

"I really can't say here" she looked around again. The library wasn't crowded and the people that were there, were all buried deeply in their own books, without a care to the conversation happening. 

"It's okay, you guys can go, I'll meet up with you later" Selene smiled falsely

"Are you sure?" Remus asked

"Yes, if the headmaster wants to see you, you should go see the headmaster" she nodded. Remus still looked at her cautiously, to see if her expression changed. She rolled her eyes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

"Go" she nodded. 

"Okay, I'll meet you later" he said shooting her a sad grin before gathering his books and leaving with Lily, Peter and the Ravenclaw girl. 

After they disappeared around the corner, Selene let her smile drop. What did Dumbledore want with them, and not her? 

She tried to keep studying after that but couldn't help her wandering mind. She found herself reading the same sentence over and over again before she finally just shut her book and left the library. 

She actually walked back to the Slytherin dorms which was something she hardly did nowadays. She put her books up in her room which was perfectly clean and untouched, giving the correct impression that no one really lived there. 

They hadn't filled Narcissa's old bed with a new person so the room just lie vacant. She put her books on the nightstand and collapsed on the bed still consumed by the thought of what the hell Dumbledore wanted with Remus, Lily and Peter. 

Usually if one of the marauders, or one of their "groupies" (as Sirius so offensively put it  when referring to Lily and Selene) was speaking to the headmaster it was regarding a prank or series of such that went too far.