Madilin VanCourt: A Marauders Fanfic [COMPLETED]

In Which Remus and I Keep Our Chill

I fiddled with the bottom of my skirt anxiously. My eyes were glued to the front of the great hall where Dumbledore was talking with someone from the ministry. "Can you tell what he's saying?" I asked Alice. "How would I be able to do that?" She hissed. "I dunno, read his lips or something, for crying out loud." I retorted.

"Oi!" Whisper-screamed a Ravenclaw prefect. "Cram it." I rolled my eyes at her and Lily whacked me with a copy of the Daily Prophet that she had snuck in. "Oi." I whispered.

"You two need to shut it." Lily said quietly.

I groaned but glanced up at the podium again. The only thing that had changed was that the ministry worker was waving his arms around and gesturing to the crowd of students standing in front of him. Dumbledore looked over at us and gave a small wave. A few kids waved back and the ministry worker gave us all a glare. The few kids that were waving put their hands down immediately and looked down at the floor. The ministry worker smiled slightly at everyone's discomfort and turned back to Dumbledore.

They continued to argue and I shifted uncomfortably in my spot. When we came to to the Great Hall at eleven thirty this morning, we found that it had been emptied of the tables. Everyone made their way into the great hall until we were all standing around waiting for someone to show up. It felt as if we had been waiting for hours when the teachers finally walked into the room.

Still, no one had come to talk with us like they'd said they would. "Could someone tell us why we're here?" Someone shouted from the crowd of students. A chorus of shouting rose up followed that and the ministry worker grew frustrated. Dumbledore gave him a look that seemed to say "I told you so." The ministry dude walked up to the podium and scanned the eager faces looking up at him. He was a pudgy guy, with a bald spot the size of a tennis ball. His eyes were sunken and full of pure hatred.

The old man took a deep breath and said in a monotonous tone; "I am not at liberty to discuss information with students at this time."

Protests erupted around the room and the old git looked taken aback at the backlash he was receiving. He glanced helplessly at the teachers behind him but no one offered any words of assistance. He tried to talk again but the uproar that was filling the great hall was too loud for anyone to hear him.

After about ten minutes of students shouting, McGonagall stepped up. Silence filled the room immediately. "Professor Dumbledore, perhaps you and Mr Harrison can continue your conversation elsewhere. I will stay here to inform the students of what has happened." She offered. The two men left the room and I swore I could see McGonagall smirk slightly. Even she, was glad to be rid of that man.

"I'm guessing there have been lots of rumors going around. I'm also guessing that you have lots of questions." She began. "Truthfully, I don't know where to start. I guess I should start by explaining what really happened last night." She took a deep breath and looked out at all of us with a sad expression.

"Last night the castle was attacked by You-Know-Who and his followers. No one was hurt, it seemed they only wanted to frighten us. It started with the Dark Mark appearing in the sky, next all our alarms started going off. Third, they blew a whole in the side of the castle." She paused for a moment and pursed her lips. During the short amount of time that they were here, they damaged other sections of the castle. I'm sure that any student in Gryffindor heard the explosions, seeing as a couple of them grew close to your common room."

She stopped her speech and everyone turned to look at the corner where most of the Gryffindors had gathered. I hated the looks of pity we were getting so I looked down at the floor.