Shooting Star

Chapter Seventeen

When I came into the common room, they were all waiting for me. They stood up when they saw me, but nobody tried to come near me. How am I supposed to tell them that their best friend is a Death Eater? I stood awkwardly in front of them. Sirius started to say something but Lily elbowed him and he didn't.
"I'm tired." I said. "I'm gonna go to bed." And I walked out.
Lily came after me after a moment to find me sitting on my bed. When I saw her, I started crying. She sat beside me and hugged me, not saying anything.
"My parents died." I said after a while and stopped crying.
"I'm so sorry, Eliza. What happened?"
"They got in a car accident going to pick up my sister." Why were they picking her up? She's nineteen.
"I'm sorry." She repeated.
"Thank you." I said, picking up a letter that sat on my bed.
Mum and Dad died. Their funeral is this Saturday at the church at ten.
~Natalie Taylor
That was blunt.
Saturday at ten. Okay. I have two days in between and a date Friday night. Okay. I can handle this.
I have tests Friday morning in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts too, though.
I sucked in a sharp breath. Peter.
I started crying again. "I don't know what to do, Lily."
"I'm so sorry." She hugged me again, crying too,
"No. There's something worse."
"Worse than your parents?"
"Way worse than my parents." It's not worse at the moment, but it will be in the future. It's so, so much worse...
"What is it?"
"Peter's a Death Eater." I blurted out, starting to cry again.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. When I used Legilimency on him I saw it. He has the Dark Mark and everything..."
She started to cry harder. "Oh my God, oh my God."
"I told McGonagall, but she said there's nothing she can do. Do we tell Sirius and Remus and James?"
She shrugged. "I don't... I don't know."
I forced myself to stop crying.
"Maybe we should wait until we're done with Occlumency, and maybe one of them will figure it out." She suggested, and I nodded.
"Do you want me to tell the boys about your parents?" She asked, knowing I wouldn't.
"Please."
"All right. I will. Do you want to come down there with us?"
I shook my head. "I'm going to bed."
"All right. Let me know if you need anything. Are you sure you don't want to talk to Sirius?"
I nodded. If I wanted to talk to Sirius, I would.
"Okay... Goodnight."

After the others in my dormitory went to bed, I went down to the common room and sat by the fire.
"Hey." James said, coming and sitting on the floor beside me.
"Hey." I said.
He put his arm around me, and I put my head on his shoulder. "I thought you'd come here."
I didn't want to tell him about Peter. He's James Potter, and everybody wants to protect James Potter. Nobody wanted to let that stupid, happy smile leave his face. "Couldn't sleep." I shrugged.
"I'm sure. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. They're in a better place." I nodded. "It's just weird."
"Yeah, I bet."
"I never answered their letter." My voice cracked.
"You were busy."
"Too busy for my parents? They were busy too, but they still did all that shit for me."
"I'm sure they understood." He rubbed my arm, kissing my head.
I don't want to tell him about Peter...
"You wanna talk to Sirius?" He asked.
"If I wanted to talk to Sirius I would have stayed down here. I came after everyone was asleep for a reason." I smiled.
"Do you want me to leave?"
"I don't care."
"I wasn't gonna leave anyways."
"I doubted you would." I laughed.
I fell asleep, and woke up on the couch, covered with a blanket. James shook me gently. "Good morning, sleepy head." He grinned. "I figured you'd want to get ready before breakfast."
"Thank you." I hugged him as I sat up. "I swear to God, I'll never let Lily alone until you two are married."
He laughed. "That might piss her off."
"I don't care."
I don't want to tell him about Peter.
Lily waited for me and walked with me to the Great Hall for breakfast. I wouldn't look at Peter, and he was talking even less than usual.
"What's wrong, mate?" James asked him.
"Nothing." He said casually.
Sirius kept his arm around me all through breakfast. In charms, we didn't do anything but go over things for tomorrow. Sirius made James move so he could sit beside me. It was sweet, it really was, but it did get a bit irritating.
Most of what made it irritating was that I didn't mind it, and that it was actually comforting. Just having his arm around me, or him sitting beside me made me feel better. I didn't want to feel that way. It was terrifying.
I was told that I could sit out during Occlumency. The professor figured I wouldn't want to participate. What I didn't want was for people to treat me like I'm some delicate flower or some shit. I wanted things to be normal.
"I'll be her partner." Remus said quickly, grabbing my hand and pulling me away. He waited for me to calm down.
"Thank you." I said.
He nodded.
"I don't know how he expects us to take that test." I said after the third or so time. Most of us could do Legilimency, but very few of us, if any, could do Occlumency.
"I think this might be my first failed test." He said, sounding worried.
"Mine too."
The whole class was interrupted when Sirius started beating the shit out of Peter. He tackled him onto the floor, punching him repeatedly. James and Remus immediately went to the rescue. James pulled Sirius off of him, and Sirius spit at Peter as Lupin pulled him off the ground.
James had Sirius pinned against the wall in a second. "What the hell was that?" He hissed, beyond pissed.
"How could you?" Sirius yelled at Peter, ignoring James.
"James, get off of him." Lily said. She was going to have to be the one to tell him. I sure as hell wasn't, and Sirius wouldn't either.
"You perfidious scum." Sirius said quietly to Peter. "Get away from him." He told Remus.
"Sirius, what the hell?" Remus demanded.
Everyone was staring, even the professor.
"Remus, come here." I said quietly.
"James, get off him." Lily said.
"That was a big word." James said appraisingly. "What has Taylor done to you?" He let Sirius go and laughed like nothing happened.
Everyone turned back to what they were doing. The professor was probably just glad no one got seriously injured.
"Come on, Wormtail. You're going to Madame Pomfrey." James nodded his head and left the room. Peter followed.
"Come on, Sirius." I said. "We'll compare notes." I grabbed his hand and pulled him out.
"You've got some catching up to do. Let's go, Remus." Lily said behind us.
"Prongs!" Sirius called down the corridor.
"Shut up, Black." James said.
"James!" I called.
"I thought both of you were better than this." He turned around to face us, Peter beside him. Peter stood half behind James.
"You weren't in his head, James." Sirius said, half pleading for his best friend to believe him.
"I've seen what's in your head, Sirius. I know how you feel. Are you telling me Peter's worse?"
"James!" Lily said.
"That's the only way to get through to him!" James said defensively. "Isn't it, Taylor?"
"Yeah." I agreed. "But that was kind of harsh."
"So's beating somebody up."
"Pete got a tattoo." I said quickly. 
We didn't have very long left at school, just a few months. We were safe until then. Then we could tell James and Remus. There was no need to mess up the rest of their year, and all of their memories right now.
"Sirius has tattoos." James said. "He wouldn't--"
"Sirius has tattoos?" Lily and I asked.
"Oh. Uh, yeah." Sirius scratched the back of his head.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked. I love tattoos.
"You never asked." He shrugged. "Thought you'd be pissed. Shall I continue?"
"It's a bad tattoo." Lily said, getting my gist.
"Really bad." Sirius agreed.
"You kicked his ass because of a tattoo?" Remus asked as Peter gave us grateful looks.
"As we said, really bad." Sirius said.
I got out my wand and pointed it at Peter's face. He flinched, but all I did was fix the damage Sirius caused. "Thank you." He said.
"What's your tattoo?" James asked.
"Not telling." Peter said.
"Leave the kid alone, Prongs." Sirius said. "You wanna go on a walk, Eliza?"
"No." I said.
"Do you want to have the conversation here, then?"
"Probably not." I had no idea what he was talking about. Surely he wouldn't talk about Peter right now.
"Then let's go."
"I don't want to."
"Fine. We'll have it here. Are you okay?"
This was awkward. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" I asked.
"Well, your parents just died, so I assume you're not well. But are you okay?"
"Yes, as I've told you all: I'm fine."
"You nearly broke down because they were trying to give you a break." Remus reminded me.
"I know. But I'm fine now." I wanted to turn this around on him and ask if he was okay, and when he said yes, tell him that his parents are cruel, so I assume he's not well. But I didn't.
"I'm sorry, Eliza, but I don't see how you can be." Lily said.
"Perhaps. But I am. I really am."