The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

Magique Amore

Sirius lay on the bed, staring moodily up at the ceiling.

"You feeling better?" the door had creaked open very slightly and James had stepped through tentatively.

Sirius grunted.

"Really, the way you're acting, you'd rather think taking a bath was some sort of torturous punishment," James chided, closing the door behind him. He jabbed his hands in his pockets and raised an eyebrow. "A bit of a scrub never did anyone wrong - you're not Snivellus after all." The smirk that trembled over James's mouth lingered.

Sirius sat up suddenly. "You've not seriously come in here just to mock me for my - my flea dip, have you?"

James laughed. "Would it honestly surprise you if I had?"

Sirius eyed James in mock judgement before he could hold back no longer and let out a low, barking laugh. "Bugger me, Prongs."

"That's not my job, mate."

Sirius grinned wickedly.

James threw himself onto the bed wrongside up so that his feet rested on the headboard and his gangly figure stretched to the footboard. He folded his arms behind his head.

"Well, get on with it," Sirius demanded.

James said, "I've been thinking about your idea you had at lunch about this whole Veigler situation."

"Hm?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Throwing the mutt a bone, are you?"

"Not at all. I just think you're on to something with the werewolf thing. We know Moldyshorts is keen on building himself an army of them, of any one marginalized, really... Funny seeing as how prejudiced he is that they agree to go along with them..."

"Even faked, hypocritical acceptance is something precious to people who haven't been properly loved before," Sirius interjected.

James's eyes met Sirius's for a long moment, and he hoped that Sirius could see in them the assurance that he, James, properly loved Sirius. Whatever his dad and mum had been to him over the years, whatever the dark wizards had done to him... James hoped Sirius truly, deep-down in the dead of night knew he was loved.

Sirius's eyes closed and he smiled a moment, then opened them with a cockeyed smile that was complimentary to a dampened eye.

Yeah, James thought, he knows.

"My point is that it makes sense, what you said about the werewolves and the connections between Anne, Marjorie and Ned." James paused, chewing on the thought flickering in his mind.

Sirius nodded slowly, understanding. "It makes sense but with Ned gone the continued campaign doesn't. Like why take Marjorie if it wasn't to draw Ned to them?"

"Precisely."

"Who else would react to Marjorie being taken?" Sirius asked. Silence fell over them as they each considered the question.

Lily sat in her seat at Uni, lingering over putting up her quill and parchment as another student spoke with the professor. When the other student had left, Lily slung her bag onto her shoulder and approached the desk slowly. "Professor?"

Her professor, Mr. Laurie, a short, fat man with dark curly hair and perfectly round face, turned about to face her. In his abrupt turn, the magic he'd been conducting to clear off the board backfired and the eraser burst with the chalk dust, spraying it out in a cloud that exploded in his face. He had chalkdust on his glasses and when he took them off, round circles of skin was left exposed. He blew out, expelling dust from his lips.