The Marauders: Year Four

The Metamorphmagus

The Metamorphmagus

Professor McGonagall was talking, but her voice was far-off. James stared at the seat next to himself, where Sirius usually was, and doodled on his parchment. None of the fourth years were doing too good with paying attention to their lesson, even Lily Evans was staring out the window, and Remus was abjectly staring at the grain of the wood desk and Peter was sneaking bites of biscuits he'd stuffed his pockets with, having eaten non-stop since Sirius had left.

"Alright," McGonagall sighed heavily and the change in her tone made all four of the students before her look up, "None of you is concentrating, I know. And I'm not doing much better myself." Indeed, she'd just given them all the wrong incantation for changing a table into a horse. She sighed and waved her wand to close the books open on her desk and fell into her chair, quite exhausted. "There's just been such a lot going on here at the school in the last twenty-four hours, I can't say that I blame you for being unable to study." She shook her head.

Such a lot was an excellent way to summarize the amount of things that had gone on in the hours since Dumbledore's sacking and Sirius's expulsion. It had taken no time at all for rumors to run through the school's veins like poison. Severus Snape's outing of Remus and Sirius had lit the school ablaze. It took no time at all for the Slytherins to start in, snickering and announcing loudly that they'd been right all along... There'd been a general onset of panic among the students, especially the younger ones who had never met Moody before and didn't know he was an alright guy. Honestly, at this point, with everything else the Marauders were facing, the new Headmaster was the least of their concerns.

"What if they kill him?" Remus asked without preface. Everyone knew he meant Orion and Walburga Black. Everyone knew he meant Sirius.

McGonagall's jaw tightened, not liking the thought anymore than any of the four students. "We have to have faith that they won't, Mr. Lupin."

"They locked him up in his room last summer, wouldn't let him out for anything. They barely fed him!" Remus cried, "Orion Black tried to kill him when we got him out. He killed my elf!"

McGonagall looked down at the desk.

"Can't we get him out?" James begged, "Bring him back? We don't gotta tell the Minister. Moody won't tell. Moody's Dumbledore's man."

McGonagall said, "I wish that we could, Mr. Potter, but unfortunately Mr. Black's situation is being monitored very closely by the Ministry for Magic and if he were to leave Number 12 Grimmauld Place he would be in very great trouble."

"He's being tortured there," James said, "Surely the ministry isn't completely heartless."

McGonagall's eyes were sad, "I wish I could say I believed not, Mr. Potter."

"I can't believe they sent him there in the first!" Lily said, "Knowing that they're You-Know-Who's followers!"

"Aye but they don't know that, Miss. Evans," McGonagall said, frowning, "It's the Resistance that's proven the guilt of the Black family time and again and the Resistance is extraneous from the Ministry itself. The Resistance acts under their own orders, not that of the Ministry, and many of the Death Eaters are very high ranking Ministry officials."

"Well so are many of the Resistance members," James pressed.

"Aye... but not as high as some of the followers of You-Know-Who," she said, shaking her head regretfully, "And many of the other side have pockets lined with riches they are willing to lie down to keep the Ministry's eyes turned."