Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

30 October, 1981 - Hiding (II)

When Sirius told Lavinia that the Potter's had asked him to be their secret-keeper, her reply was simple, an answer to the unspoken question, a choice she made so he wouldn't have to be the one to ask it of her. And the reality was that it was an easy choice. Painful, to be sure, but easy at least in the sense that she did not hesitate, not for a moment.

Honestly, she didn't want to leave work, not at all. She didn't want to step away from the good she knew she could do in the ward and she didn't want to leave her friends there on their own, but for this... for this she would do so in a heartbeat. The ward could function without her and had done so for more than a year before she'd shown up. They would be fine and they would understand that where she was needed right now was at home, protecting a secret that was worth too much to even risk the short exposure that came with apparating to the hospital.

The truth was that Lavinia was prepared for this, at least as much as anyone could be prepared to give up half their life at a moment's notice. But she'd expected for some time now that eventually things would reach a point where going properly into hiding was the only viable solution. And if Sirius was secret-keeper for James and Lily, then anything and everything had to be done to keep him safe. To keep the Potters safe.

There was a heartbroken sort of gratitude on Sirius's face when Lavinia simply smiled and informed him that she would tell Mr. Hayes during her next shift that she would need to take an extended break. In that moment, Lavinia knew that he hated to ask this of her, that he didn't want to see her give up everything she had worked for. But she knew also that even if she hadn't offered it so freely, he would have brought it up. For his best friend, for the safety of his godson, he would have asked. For all the same reasons that Lavinia would always have said yes.

Their decision to go into hiding seemed to Lavinia to come none too soon, as well. Barely three days after Dumbledore had cast the Fidelius Charm on the Potter house, news came that Marlene McKinnon and her entire family had been slaughtered by Death Eaters. That night, the atmosphere in the little house by the sea had gone from its usual tired and vaguely stressed to something hollow and aching. And yet no one had cried.

Perhaps they were all just too tired for tears, or perhaps they were beyond crying at this point, inured to it simply because this war had already cost so very much. The silence felt somehow worse than tears and sobbing, like they had all tucked their grief away into little corners of their hearts and souls because there wasn't room for it anywhere else. Like the world had fallen apart so much that death was just a fact of life. That the brutal murder of a woman and her family was expected. Normal, even. It made Lavinia feel rather sick.

A week or so after that, Dorcas Meadowes, who had been so integral to the Orders efforts, was found and the conclusion was that Voldemort himself had killed her, a piece of news that had sent shockwaves through all of them. The idea that the Dark Lord himself had started hunting people down... it set everyone on edge.

Two weeks later, Gideon and Fabian Prewett were killed and the destruction they were found in, along with the bodies of multiple Death Eaters, said enough about how hard they'd fought. Back to back to the very end.

Another week and Edgar Bones, his wife and their two young children were killed. And that was when Lavinia cried.

Not for the faces or names she had known, albeit briefly. Not for the terrible murders of innocents that had been building up for so long now. No. It was for those two children. An eight year old girl and her six year old brother who had been mutilated almost beyond recognition by what could only be claws. And for their mother who had bruises on her arms and wrists that, according to the Order member who had brought the news, suggested she had been held by hand rather than magic. And Lavinia had had a good guess whose hands those had been.