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Sirius
Sirius Black was at his own front door when his phone rung. He almost left it, wanting to get inside first, but he didn’t. He wasn’t sure why, perhaps something in him knew it was important. It wouldn’t have mattered; she would have kept calling.
“Marlene?” he asked, propping the phone to his ear with one hand, and unlocking the door with the other.
“Did you hear?” she asked.
He’d got the door open, but paused before stepping in. The tone of her voice was like ice to his spine.
“Hear what?”
“Sebastian’s being let out.”
And then, numbness.
“Sirius?”
“Yeah, I heard you.”
He didn’t know what else to say.
“There was an appeal, “Marlene continued, “not enough evidence, I suppose.”
“Right.”
And then silence. Uncharacteristically, Marlene didn’t break it.
“Have you talked to anyone else?” Sirius asked, after some time.
“Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first.”
“Okay.”
“I think you should come back.”
“Marlene-”
“Please, Sirius. We need to talk this out, all of us, and you know they won’t come back if you don’t.”
Sirius didn’t argue, she was right. She had asked this of him before, and he had always said no. It’s why he hadn’t see his friend in three years.
“We need to know what happened.”
Marlene had said that before, too. ‘We know what happened,’ he would respond, but he didn’t this time. It was a lie, and it was harder to deny it now.
“Okay.”
Peter
Peter Pettigrew drove back to Godric’s Hollow. He could make it in four and a half hours if he left straight from his University accommodation with no stops. It had seemed so far when he was 18, so drastic a move. But now, he felt as though he hadn’t gone far at all.
Marlene had called to tell him Sebastian had been released. She had called Sirius first, she told him. Of course she had, Sirius was the de facto leader, the one everyone would listen to, Peter included. He wished he could say that he still would have come, even if Sirius had said no, but he isn’t sure he would have.
He was almost there. If James were here, he’d tell him to slow down, to take in the view as the M5 crossed the river. Peter drove on.
Lily
Lily Evans was early. Ordinarily, she valued punctuality, but felt it was betraying her in this moment. It was hard to be waiting. After hearing from Marlene, Lily had assured her that she would call Remus to tell him the news, already considering the logistics of transporting them both to Godric’s Hollow by the following evening.
The screen of Lily’s phone illuminated, drawing her attention. It was face up on passenger seat of the car she’d been sitting in since she arrived at the airport 10 minutes ago. A message from Marlene was displayed: ‘Pete’s here, Sirius running late.’
Lily scoffed as she read it. Sirius had a quicker journey than Peter, leaving behind nothing but a bar job he couldn’t care less about, working for money he didn’t need. Remus was getting on a plane for the first time in his life to be there, Peter was leaving his job with an almost five-hour journey ahead of him, and she was leaving school for this. Sirius had no reason to not be the first one there.
She couldn’t express this sentiment with the others. They had defended Sirius Black to her so many times before, she knew what they would say, some variations of ‘there are plenty reasons he could be running late’ or simply ‘this is hard for him, Lily’.
This was hard for all of them.
Once the time ticked over to only 15 minutes before Remus was scheduled to arrive, Lily got out of the car, and headed to the bright lights of the arrival gate, to do more waiting.
Remus
Remus Lupin felt himself relax for the first time since they’d gotten of the phone yesterday evening, at the sight of Lily Evans. She ran to greet him, and looked as though she might hug him when they met. When she hesitated, Remus wrapped his arms around her instead.
“How was the flight?” she asked.
“Oh my god it was the scariest things I’ve ever done,” he said, all in one large breath, “I thought we were going to crash so many times.”
Lily laughed, and he squeezed her tighter. She was much shorter than him, and he’d pulled her to her tippy toes without even realising. He lowered her back down before letting go. Lily cupped his face in her hands and looked up at him with such a warmth that he’d never felt from anyone else. She looked so happy to see him.
“Come on,” she said, picking up his smaller bag, “we’ve got a bit of a walk to the car.”
Remus fell asleep on the drive to Godric’s Hollow. He hadn’t slept well the previous night. He and Lily managed to catch up briefly while he was still awake. At least, Lily told him about starting her masters degree. He had little to say about work at the docks, but he told her he missed the warmer weather of the South.
He awoke as they were nearing Marlene’s house. Remus noticed they were taking a longer route, the one that didn’t pass his old house, but he didn’t say anything.
“Sirius and Peter should already be there,” she said, once she noticed he was awake.
Remus nodded, though was unsure if she could see it.
“Sorry for falling asleep,” he said.
“It’s fine, I listened to my lectures while you were out.”
Remus laughed, and said, “I thought I felt oddly more knowledgeable on the subject of economics.”
A smile broke some of the tension on Lily’s face, but it came back the moment they pulled into Kinder Drive. There was no hesitation as they drove down the street, no slowing down so as not to miss Marlene’s house, no pause as they passed where the Potter’s had once lived. It was as though it was 3 years ago, and Lily made this journey every day, and nothing bad had happened yet.
“That’ll be Sirius, then,” said Lily, as she parked on the street outside of Marlene’s house, and it took Remus a moment to realise she was talking about the Motorbike parked across the road.
Remus couldn’t think of anything to say. He didn’t need to pretend to Lily that he felt the same about seeing Sirius tonight as he did about the others, but they had avoided talking about it so far. He hoped Lily would tell him to get out of the car, because he didn’t think he could do it himself.
Lily turned off the engine and took a deep breath. Reflexively, Remus copied her.
“Come on then.”
Marlene
Marlene McKinnon knew that they had left things unfinished. Putting Remus’ brother in jail hadn’t resolved anything, and it definitely didn’t explain anything. She’d known that from the moment she’d gotten the news almost four years ago. Sitting in this same kitchen, a housephone to her ear, and Lily Evans’ voice on the other end.
“The police just arrested Sebastian, Marlene, they’re charging him with murder.”
The others thought that was the end, but she knew it wasn’t, and she knew that it would one day come to this, even if she had never dared to say it out loud.
Sirius and Peter were already here. They’ve been having a stilted conversation at her dining table when there was a knock at the door, and they both fell silent. Marlene met Remus and Lily at the door.
Lily enveloped her in a hug the moment she opened the door.
“It’s so good to see you,” she said.
“You too,” said Marlene, hugging her back briefly. Then she turned to Remus and greeted him with a smile. It was sincere; she was glad to see him. While Lily looked almost exactly the same as she had when she’d last seen her, Remus looked quite changed. He was still tall and thin, but he had filled out a bit to look less gangly than he had at 17, and the scar across his face that had once been an angry red had paled to an almost silvery line.
She walked them into the kitchen, directing them to sit with the others. This felt monumental, having them all here again, ready to talk in a way they never had been before. Yet it would have been easy, then, to step back into her old role in the group, to be the same unserious, thoughtless teenager she had been. However, she suffocated that urge the moment she was conscious of it. This was it, and she wouldn’t be letting them leave again until they figured out who really killed James Potter.