The Triplets
Dear Mary,
I’ve been meaning to ask you about your sisters. Given how I feel about Petunia, I’m pretty sure they’re a large part of your life, right? Please forgive me for not asking sooner. I forgot that there were things I’ve yet to know about you, which is a stupid oversight. Tell me all about them. I know they’re triplets already, but that’s about it. Details would be much appreciated! Maybe one summer I’ll get to meet them, you know, and then I’ll have to be very ready. The people that Mary Macdonald loves are of a high esteem for me. I intend to do right by them.
Pass along that message to the girls, won’t you? Tell them that a girl they’ve never met is very excited to one day meet them if their sister carries on writing letters like she does.
(P.S. I’m sorry if this is nosy, also.)
(P.P.S. I can’t help it! I have a striking need to know everything about you.)
Yours with much friendly curiosity,
Lily Evans
---
Dear Lily,
Obviously, the triplets are a huge part of my life. Any descriptor of them has to begin with the fact that they are nearly always looming on my mind, especially in the summer. That might be why I don’t like to talk about them all that much, really. It feels like the topic is so hit on in my mind that everyone else must not want to hear about it either. So right back at you, I’m sorry I haven't told you about them sooner. I want you to know the people I love, too. The triplets are all seven years old, obviously, and along with their looks that is just about where their similarities end. Susan is the brightest of the three, so she talks like she’s the Prime Minister herself. Jane has the most potential to walk away from a conversation without actually hurting someone's feelings (the others have a little bit too much wit for their own good), and she has the voice of an angel. Josephine, bless her heart, is chaos on two feet. I’ve had to chase her up and down the alleyways before, running and praying I might actually catch her. That’s just the surface too! I know you’ll get bored of my yammering about them eventually, but I do suppose you’ve asked for it.
Does Petunia know I exist? From your letters I’d imagine I’d both love and hate to ever meet her.
(P.S. You’re not nosy in the slightest.)
(P.S.S. I’m simply glad this whole knowing thing is mutual.
Yours, with the pleasure of imagining you and the triplets together one day,
Mary Macdonald
Chapter 12: Triplets
Leading up to Halloween, Mary received her first letter from home. She’d been waiting for it since the second week of term, carefully examining each batch of mail for her nondescript, run down owl carrying an equally cheap envelope. Usually, she’d have gotten the first correspondence by now. Her mother, though flighty, was prone to asking for money, of which Mary’s cigarette business had been a healthy provider of. Now, a month in with no word, she began to worry about things back in London.
For all those reasons, she breathed a sigh of relief when the envelope, however torn, finally arrived. She had enough to worry about with all the things that had happened, Lily and her lips that were so often touching hers. It was hard enough as it was to pretend that she was not feeling at all without hiding all the worry that piled on top of it. Could it be like it was during the summer? Could she kiss Lily and tell her of her troubles, too?
She stole away to the dormitories with the note, oddly hoping that Lily would not choose to follow her. If she did show, Mary would need an excuse that didn’t read along the lines of “I am the only one keeping my family afloat.”
Drawing the curtains around her bed, she sat cross legged to read.
Immediately, there was something wrong with the letter. It was right, it wasn’t usual, because the handwriting wasn’t her mothers at all. She anxiously peered at the childlike scrawl and felt deep anxiety rest into the pit of her stomach.
Hi Mary!
This is Susan writing for me, Jane, and Josephine. We all miss you so much!!!! I hope school is good, and maybe you can tell us stories at Christmas? We all miss your stories so so so much, Mum isn’t very good at telling them so much, or remembering them at all. Do you have any money to send? Josie keeps saying you send money to Mum from school usually, so maybe you can send us some maybe soon? Mum hasn’t been herself lately. We’re all ok, but confused. There’s food at school and with the neighbors at night if we seem desperate enough, but money still maybe? Obviously we all love you so much and understand completely if there’s nothing at school either. We are so proud of you and really just want you to do the best you can and be the happiest you can and think of us only a little. We’re happy too, so so so much, only sad when we miss you.
Thank you Mary!!! We’re sorry for bothering you but Mum wasn’t feeling good enough.
Love,
Susan and Josephine and Jane
Mary dropped the letter onto the bedspread in front of her. She let out a shaky breath. So things were getting worse than they ever had been. From what Susan said for all of them, her mother was probably drunk all day long and slept it off for long hours in the evening, collecting just about enough money to get rent paid and nothing else.
The cigarettes were selling, but not quite fast enough to help her sisters in time, at least not enough to profit off of her shares alone. That meant one of two things. Either she had to ask Remus and Sirius for a bigger cut of the money, asking on some excuse like she was strapped for booze or something, or she had to tell someone what was going on and plainly ask for help. In any real scenario, it had to be Lily she begged with. No one else knew anything of London, or anything of her sisters.
Still, she wasn’t sure if she was allowed any more. She didn’t know what their new rules were now, with the kissing. The week earlier they’d been laying in bed, Marlene still out at Quidditch and the rest of the world blanketing silently over them. They’d kissed for so long it was time to come up for air, to breathe and catch a breath. She’d tried to talk about the letters, then. She’d tried to ask about Killarney and the seaside and had come up with Lily’s lips, instead.
Mary, who had zero wisdom to speak of, didn’t quite understand what to do with that response. She couldn’t ask for help now, not when she had even more of a good thing to lose.
Storming out of the room, she went to find Remus, stopping only once at the door to their dormitory by Marlene and Lily attempting to pass by her, an attempt she dislodged with strong shoulders.
“Mary-” she could hear Lily turn to say something, but did not look back.
Let her wonder where she was off to. It was good to create some intrigue, anyway.
***
She stormed up to Remus and Sirius in the common room, their backs turned to the rest of the chamber as they made a stupidly obvious deal in the corner. McGonagall ought to dock a hundred points each with how conspicuous they appeared, their hands furtively forking over the cigarettes in exchange for galleons.
Christ, she’d forgotten about that part. She’d need to exchange for muggle money with the headmaster, which she’d done only a couple of times before. Grimacing tightly, she tapped both of the boys on the shoulder.
“I beg your- Oh hello love!” Sirius turned to her, his angular face flipping into a handsome grin. “We were just in the middle of, you know.”
“I do know,” she replied, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
“Woah there!” Remus objected, backing away after handing over the last cigarette to the kid they were selling to.
“What, can’t stand a little bit of love here and there Moony?” Sirius teased back at him before pulling Mary in for a longer kiss full on the lips. He was getting good at this whole thing, getting good at operating in the role he was always meant to. They both were, really.
“I can’t stand whatever has inspired all four of you to act like this.” He nodded towards James and Lily, the latter of whom had just come down from the dorms.
They were torturing Marlene with their displays of awful affection as the two of them splayed out on the very cushiest couch. Mary giggled through a grimace, watching as James mumbled something into Lily’s ear and gave her a light kiss. They looked like a memory playing out in front of everyone’s eyes, like one day they would be old and this most would be faded but just as bright. Mary was not sure what that made her. A ghost maybe, something could only haunt a happy relationship.
“Ah, you’ll get your chance one day.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it.” They all laughed. Remus could probably have any girl at the school, not that he would ever choose to. He was content, at least it seemed, to dabble in his mischief all alone. That was another trait of his that Mary so admired.
“Wait a second,” Sirius said, “what are you doing here, anyway? We had that deal all taken care of.”
“Sure you did,” she teased with a smile.
“You forget I’m not new at this, not like this prick.” Remus gently shoved Sirius’s shoulder, smiling with a softness.
“I’m a very quick learner, Moony.”
“Indubitably, my good-”
Mary interrupted sharply, “Boys, can we please be serious?”
She knew her mistake before they even got the chance to joke about it, and ignored it in turn.
“Yes, yes, I know he’s always Sirius, but I actually have something to ask you two about.”
Finally, finally, they quieted down to listen. Sirius smiled at her and nodded for her to start. She was shocked that out of all people she found herself being heard by these two.
“I need a bigger cut of the money,” she told them honestly. “If need be, I can maybe pay it back one day, but for now-”
“We’ll figure all that out later, love,” Sirius said firmly, putting a stop to her anxious rambling.
He put a hand on her shoulder and nodded to Remus. They communicated without saying a word, which amazed her. So much had changed over the years they’d been at school together. She remembered back to when Remus’s silence was as harsh as blunt force trauma, when Sirius couldn’t possibly muster up the courage to understand. She did not know what had changed, but something had.
“We will,” Remus agreed. “It’s not like Sirius needs the money.”
“It’s true, I’m loaded!” They both chuckled, quite pleased with themselves.
“So it’s ok?” She needed to be sure, extra sure, that her siblings would be alright.
“Of course, Mary. I’m only in it for the fun, really. And to spend time with our Moony!”
The way his smile curved, she almost could’ve kissed him right there, or at the very least given him a swallowing hug. She wasn’t sure what emotions overcame her, but something about goddamn Sirius Black was becoming a little bit undeniable the more she spoke with him. All that had seemed arrogant and snobbish suddenly revealed itself to be actually quite kind.
Finally, she let herself laugh a little. She breathed a light sigh of relief and leaned into Sirius’s waiting shoulder, letting herself get swept up into the mindless boy talk. They were nice to listen to, the two of them. It took her mind off of things, at least. Around lads she could stand, it was easy to pretend that it was them she enjoyed talking to the most. For whole moments at a time she did not think of James and Lily. It was enough, if only in those seconds, to smell the scent of heady cologne and interject a small objection on the topic of which muggle bands were best (Sirius loved Abba so much he was forced to pretend that he didn’t, and it was possibly the most major struggle in their relationship).
They talked until it really was too late to carry on anymore, until the only other people left in the room were seventh years bent on not wasting these quiet nights they had left. James and Lily were long gone by then. They appeared head over heels for each other, but not so much that they would go sneaking off into the night together, looking for trouble that could find them and make them do awful things. No, James wasn’t stupid enough for that. He kept Lily safe. He was good, and kind, and Mary tried so hard to see that as happiness.
Mary waited until she could be certain that the girls were asleep, ticking by the minutes and insisting that Remus and Sirius stay by her side, even when they became almost woozy with sleep. Only once enough time had passed would she let them go. Only then did she dare to go back to the dormitory; only once Lily was sleeping soundly in her bed, safe from all of Mary’s troubles, did she even think about risking the destruction of what everything might be.