Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 12

*6th Year*

That summer, the newspapers had been strange. It was almost as though they were trying not to report on the war whilst still having to tell people about the people who had gone missing and the houses that had been found with dead families inside. At the start of the holidays they had had a picture of a muggle household with a strange floating smoke symbol curving above it. Mariya had recognised it as the Dark Mark and had passed the newspaper to her father, who sat next to her at the breakfast table. Mariya had almost thrown up as she realised that this was the mark that was now forever etched into the pale skin of Regulus's arm. His mark was covered by a concealment charm during the school year so she had never seen it in person but he had told her what it looked like in warning, so that if she ever saw it in person she would know to be on guard.

That year the train station was almost muffled. Families had lost the joyful atmosphere that usually surrounded them as they sent their children off for their next adventure and many parents were in tears as they mourned the family members they had already lost, worried that this would be the last time they ever saw their children. That year Mariya was not alone on the platform - though her mother still had to work, her father had managed to take a day off in order to see her off for the year. It was this that worried Mariya most. Her parents loved their jobs and only took days off when they absolutely had to so she could only be concerned that this year her father had come with her. His face was grim and his hair was more peppered with grey than it had been the previous year, they were not natural streaks caused by age but harsh ones created by stress. His dark eyes stared into her pale ones before he pulled her into a warm hug.

"You must be safe, Маша. The world is getting more dangerous by the day and many of your classmates will no longer be trustworthy. Keep close to Regulus - he is a good boy even if his family have a certain level of control over him. You must make sure he too remains safe, I do not know all the secrets that family has, but Sirius left to live with the Potters over the summer so Regulus is the sole heir of the household. You must not let anyone who you believe is tied to Lord Voldemort know about you being an Animagus. Dragons are incredibly rare and they would try to take advantage of your powers, so no flying this year no matter how safe it seems. Dumbledore may not be a good man but he is a powerful wizard and you would do well to stay under his protection as much as possible so I would advise you stay for all the holidays but we can talk about it closer to the time. Я тебе люблю, До побачення." He pulled her into another hug before ushering her up the steps and handing her the trunk.

"Goodbye, I love you." Mariya smiled at her father before he Disapparated. That year she didn't even try to find Remus, knowing that the boy would be with Potter and - after last years debacle - she didn't really want to face the boy. She hadn't told her parents what he had done in the knowledge that her father was friends with Fleamont Potter. She instead sat with Lily Evans and Severus Snape, whom she had become better friends with after she had saved him the previous summer. Though they were not close they were quite happy to let her sit with them for the train ride seeing as she had no-one else to be with.

The year was relatively uneventful as far as the relationship between Mariya and James went. They did their best to avoid each other for Remus' sake if nothing else. James continued to watch Lily Evans like a hopeful puppy and she continued to ignore his advances no matter what he did.

The war only got worse, with deaths littering the newspaper every week and students being pulled out of school to be told about the tragedy that had befallen their parents, or their siblings, or anyone else they cared about. Mariya could only count her blessings as she never received news regarding her parents.

The only bright spot in the year for anyone was Quidditch. It was one of the very few things that had not lost its atmosphere of excitement as the entire school used it as a way to forget reality for a while. Mariya managed to keep her team almost the same as it had been the previous year. Only needing to replace her beaters as both had been in their seventh year. She didn't have any trouble finding younger students good enough to replace them and was pleased by how well the remaining team members received the new players. Though Mariya played as well as she ever had, Gryffindor ended up winning the cup as James Potter - presumable fired up by her comments on him not being very good the previous summer - had upped his game. She couldn't grudge him the win as she knew that it was important to him and, though it mattered to her too, she had won before so a win for him as Captain of the team was crucial for maintaining his good attitude towards her.

Mariya had been able to feel Regulus getting more distant at the start of the year, and so had done everything she could to maintain their friendship. Thankfully, her insistence had got through to him eventually and she got her best friend back, even if they still couldn't be together in public. She was glad of this because, for a while, she had been worried he was truly beginning to believe in the Pureblood ideals and knew that it was a slippery slope. When she had dragged him into an empty classroom to talk one day, he had explained that he was just trying to keep her out of it as he didn't want to put her in unnecessary danger. The look Mariya had given him for making that comment was enough to make him promise to never do it again which she was glad of because she didn't know if she would be enough to pull him back to the right side if he did start to agree with his parents.

Thankfully Mariya had passed all of her OWLs with flying colours so she didn't have any trouble getting into the NEWT classes she wanted. Unfortunately, she found that James Potter was also in most of her classes, having passed all of his exams very well, despite spending most of the year either not in classes or sleeping through them. She could only assume that Remus had taken notes for all of his friends as Sirius had done suspiciously well too.

Speaking of Remus, he had been very confused when he asked the other Marauders about whether or not they had been leaving chocolate for him after the full moons and they said no. He knew it wouldn't be any of the teachers because the chocolate was always kept up to date with whichever flavour was his favourite at the time, and he couldn't see who else it would be, given that no-one else knew his secret. He knew it must be someone from their year as they had been doing it since first year and he didn't know any of the people in the year above him. Deciding that he would just accept the kindness, he didn't question any further and his friends never brought up the matter again.

That was also the year in which they successfully completed the Marauder's Map. It had taken them a slightly ridiculously long time as the charms were difficult to use and Remus was not always available. Eventually they managed to get it exactly the way they wanted and carefully charmed it so that it would take some incredible pranksters to discover it's secrets. It was to be their legacy and they intended to leave it at Hogwarts for the next generation of mischief makers. They had succeeded in adding all the secret passages they knew about but some rooms - like the Room of Requirement - refused to show up. They guessed that this was because it changed too much to be properly quantified by the parchment.

This, along with James' Invisibility Cloak, allowed them to pull as many pranks as they so wished and almost always get away with them. Occasionally they still got caught, but most of the time they achieved their intentions and made it back without being noticed. One strange thing that they had noticed about the Map was that it showed their actual names, even when they were in Animagus form, this made them slightly more careful with their use of it. After all, they wouldn't want some unsuspecting student to come across Peter whilst holding the map, and be confused as to why it was claiming a rat was Peter Pettigrew. Their Animagus secret had to remain just that - a secret - and they couldn't risk anyone finding out about their less than legal ventures. Even if they had done it for a good cause.