Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

21 April, 1978 - Truth

It was a rainy night in mid April when Lavinia didn't show up to the Room of Requirement for the first time since the Easter holidays. The four boys waited for over an half an hour past their usual meeting time before their worry turned into mild panic. Lavinia hadn't missed a single night in over a month and she was usually incredibly punctual, though Sirius suspected that had less to do with her eagerness to meet them or some ingrained quality in her personality and more to do with the fact that the library closed at the same time each night.

"What should we do?" asked Peter, glancing at his watch for what had to be the tenth time in as many minutes.

"We could look for her?" suggested James, stress tinging his voice.

Remus was sitting with his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes. "We don't have the map," he reminded them. "That could take hours."

"She's probably just doing homework," James tried, a point he'd made several times already. "Flitwick did set us a massive essay."

Sirius shook his head, ignoring James. "I should have known this would happen eventually," he sighed resting his forehead on his hands.

"You couldn't have known," Remus muttered. "We don't even know what this is anyway."

Sirius shook his head again and didn't say anything. True, he didn't know what this was, but he had a few guesses and he hated them all. And he should have seen it coming. He'd heard the words people threw at her in the halls. He'd seen the way she tucked her head and pulled on her sleeves and tried to pretend that she didn't care. And he knew Lavinia. When she was upset or angry or having a bad night, she ran. She pushed everyone away and isolated herself. Which, of course, only ever made everything worse, but she didn't seem to care.

"I'll look for her," he said suddenly, ignoring the surprised and slightly cautious looks he got from the others. "I'll check her usual spots and if she isn't there, I'll come back here and we can all go to bed." He saw the others looking frankly hesitant and sighed. "We can't help her if she doesn't want it," he told them gently. "And if I can't find her, that means she's hiding and wouldn't let us help no matter how hard we tried."

Reluctantly they agreed. They all knew it was true. They all remembered the month or so before the Christmas holidays, which somehow seemed an eternity ago, when Lavinia had disappeared both literally and metaphorically. She'd hidden herself so thoroughly that even with the map they hadn't been able to coax her out of her shell.

So Sirius got up without anyone protesting and made his way to the door of the Room of Requirement while Peter, James and Remus stayed there, in case she did eventually come to the Room. Sirius paused with his hand on the door knob, trying to figure out where he should look first. He was determined that at the very least, he would find her and offer her help, just as he had every night of the past December. If she was going to refuse it, then she would have to do so to his face.

His thoughts were interrupted by Remus who had walked to the door as well without Sirius noticing. "Sirius?" Remus asked quietly and the black haired boy jumped a bit in surprise.

"Yeah?" he asked, shaking off his initial shock and focusing his brain on his friend.

"If you find her and she's... if she..." He seemed unable to get the words out, but Sirius understood. Remus, who was calm and perceptive and far better at emotions than any of the rest of them, had been the only person Sirius had told about his suspicions regarding Lavinia's penchant for long sleeves and potions knives in her luggage. He'd taken the information remarkably in stride, simply saying that they should give her every chance to tell them herself and that he had noticed her strange habit of fiddling with the hems of her sleeves.