The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

The Very Official Muggle Guide to What Ferris Wheels Are Really Meant For

"Right, so we agree that was just bonkers, yeah?" James asked after Constance Merriweather had closed the door behind himself and Lily and they'd started walking to the gate in the little fence that surrounded her front yard.

Lily said, "Fishy, for sure. She's obviously had her memory altered." She paused, "Oh but she was such a sweet old woman. James, she felt so much remorse for the things that she's been unwittingly a part of."

"D'you reckon she really didn't know all that time?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, can anybody be that daft?"

Lily nodded, "I know she wasn't aware of it, James. I could feel it." She paused. "I reckon she worked with a team. Sort of like doctors, nurses, and researchers would do in a muggle hospital."

James wasn't sure how things worked in a muggle hospital, but he didn't think much of Mungo's - and thereby the Department of Magical Health Services at the Ministry - for the process they were operating. It was just rubbish. He looked at Lily, who was unlatching the gate, and he thought that if it was someone he loved that had been mistreated like that he would bloody have it out for whoever had done it. Clear the place top to bottom, he would. He shook his head.

Lily said, "I think there must be more to all this than you know."

"To what?"

"To the Anne Veigler/Marjorie Grant case," Lily said. "I mean, clearly somebody's been here that knew she was involved that figured someone else would eventually come to call on Constance. They cleared her mind for a reason. Your visitor at Mungo's must be a key to something that's going on. And whatever it is, they've kept Constance alive for some reason, too. I mean, they could have easily killed her and none the wiser. She's a lonely old woman with nobody in her immediate circle that's around. Do you know anything more about her, besides that she worked at Mungo's at the time Anne Veigler was there?"

James shook his head. "I thought she would just tell us she didn't remember the visitor and that would be the end of it. I didn't expect anything more from this, really. Honestly, the only reason I asked you along was because I wanted to spend some time with you. Seems we don't get to do that as much lately."

Lily nodded, "I know. Being an adult is rubbish, isn't it?"

"Absolutely," James answered. "Golly we used to have so much free time and I never realized it. All that complaining about homework I've done - never realized it was bloody easier to do all that than actual work."

Lily laughed. "Youth is wasted on the young, 'ey Potter?" She winked, then turned to him, laced her fingers through his, and said, "You sound like an old man."

"Maybe I am an old man," he said, "At heart, if not in body."

"Well, I expect there's a lot more to be done in terms of research with Constance Merriweather, but I think rather than worrying on it now, let's use the rest of our free time together, shall we?"

"Yes, let's," James agreed. "Let's do something fun."

"What do you want to do?" Lily asked.

James thought for a moment, then he grinned and he held out his hand. "I know just the ticket."

Lily took his hand. "Lead the way, sir."

James grinnd, wrapped his fingers through hers, and with a crack they'd disapparated away from Constance Merriweather's yard and with a twist of her stomach they were pulled away. Lily always instinctively closed her eyes when she was disapparating and before she opened them again, she was smiling because she could smell precisely where they were. She laughed, "James."

"What?" He was grinning all toothy and lopsided when she opened her eyes and she could see the boardwalk stretching away behind him, the sea stretching off to the horizon on their left. It was sunny and blue, despite the cold wind coming off the ocean. The boardwalk was quiet, not many people were dotting the stretch as there might've been during the summer, but was was rather nice. Even from the distance they were at, she could hear the tinkling music of the carousel and see the spinning ferris wheel way off down the pier. "This was where we agreed to be Friends In Law of Sirius Black," James said, waving his palm at the ferris wheel.