Chapter 5
Pt. 1 James
After Remus and Sirius leave with Harry, madame Pomfrey walks up to James’ bed.
“I always love it when my patients get visits from their friends and family.”
“They aren’t just my friends, they are my family.”
“I wanted to apologize to Mr Lupin-Black for the behaviour of the nurse at the front desk but I didn’t see him when he was walking out so could you please tell him that I am very sorry. I don’t know what happened after he was publicly disowned, but I can imagine that he doesn't like being associated with that horrible family.”
“Thank you for saying that, the Black family was and still is very horrible to everybody that doesn’t agree with their way of thinking. Sirius had a very hard time in that house and because he didn’t want to associate with the right families, he got disowned. After that, my parents took him in and since then, he became like a brother to me. So yeah, he is my family. Maybe not by blood, but by choice. He probably really appreciates that you apologised for the other nurse so I’ll tell him next time I see him.”
“I think that the way the Black family treats people is just cruel. Your parents have a really big heart for taking Sirius in.”
“Yeah they did, they made sure that their house was open for everybody that needed a place to stay. I used to joke that they might as well register to become a foster home but they thought that that wouldn’t be nice because I went to boarding school, so the children might have the idea that my parents only did it because they were bored. At the end of the day, they were always willing to help somebody if they needed it. They even wanted to get Sirius’ little brother out of that house, but they weren’t able to. The Black organisation was able to make sure that CPS wasn’t going to do anything to take Regulus away. Sirius always used to say that Regulus was a true Black, so I guess that he has his dream life right now, as heir of the Black organisation.”
“I’m sorry to hear that your parents passed away, I have to agree that the Black family and their organisation never fails to give me the creeps. I has a neighbour a few years ago that owed them something, I don’t know what it was but he always told me to never get involved with them. A few weeks later, his family came to his house to collect his belongings and when I asked them what happened, they said that he was poisoned at his work. They knew that the Black organisation was behind it, but they just couldn’t prove it.”
James knew that the Black family has the kind of organisation that would do just that. Two friends of his, Frank and Alice Longbottom, were sent to a rehabilitation centre for the rest of their lives because of it. They both were well known criminal defence lawyers and it was common knowledge that they were against the Black organisation and the very corrupt government.
Everybody knows that the government is corrupt. Bartimus Crouch, the prime minister, has his son, Bartimus Crouch Jr., engaged with Regulus Black. And a lot of the other ministers also support the Black organisation. The minister of economics, Lucius Malfoy, even married Narcissa Black. Everybody assumes that he is one of the reasons that the Black vault never gets empty.
Most people are against the government, but Frank and Alice were very vocal about it. They took every case against the government that was presented to them, losing a lot of them but only because the judge was bribed by the Black family. Because they kept going back and taking a lot of cases, they made a lot of enemies.
One day when they were driving from their office to their house, their car got hit by a truck, leaving them both on the brink of death.
After days of surgeries, they were sent to a rehabilitation centre for an unknown amount of time, leaving behind their son, Neville.
Everybody knew that the Black family was behind the attack but nobody dared to say anything, afraid that they would have the same faith as them.
“I’m sorry to hear that, two friends of mine had the same thing happen to them, a car accident. Luckily they are still alive but they can’t take care of their son anymore.”
“James, I also came here to tell you some unfortunate news, because you broke a lot of bones and you have a very bad concussion, you’re going to have to go to a rehabilitation centre yourself as well. I don’t mean to be nosy or anything, but I know that you’re a single father, I overheard your conversation with miss Macdonald. And because you are the only adult living in your home, you can’t take care of your son, Harry.” She looks at James with a sad expression.
“But madame, my friends can come by every day! They can even sleep at my house if that’s necessary.”
“I’m afraid that that won’t be enough James. I know that you have a career in surfing and because of that, it is very important to make sure that you have a full recovery. If that doesn’t happen, you can get a permanent injury and then you won’t be able to surf again. And that is just if you’re lucky, worst-case scenario, you become blind because you fall on your head.”
“When am I supposed to go to the centre?”
“You can go as soon as tonight but you can also go tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll go tonight, just one question, can my son come and visit me every day? I understand that it is the best for my health that I fully recover, but I would rather quit surfing than not see my son while I am at the centre.”
“Your family can visit you whenever they want, at the centre, you will have your own living space with a living room, dining room, bathroom and a bedroom. The kitchen will be just outside of your space and you will share it with the person that is in the space next to yours. There are also communal living rooms. Besides those things, there is a gym at the centre with a personal physiotherapist that comes twice a week to make sure that you don’t pull any muscles or anything else.”
“Oh that sounds better than I expected, is there by any chance a pool? I know how I sound right now but I’m not even sure if I can swim right now so if there is a chance to swim when my casts get taken off that would be great.”
“Oh you don’t sound weird at all, there is an inside pool and an outside one. Your casts will be put on in a few minutes, is there a specific colour that you want?”
“Is there a rainbow option? My son asked me to take that option if it was available.”
“Unfortunately there isn’t one, we do have the colours of the rainbow plus white, grey and black. Which one would you like?”
“The pink one is fine, thank you.”
“Okay I’ll tell them, do you need anything right now?”
“I’m fine thank you.” He says while smiling at the woman.
“On second thought, would you be so kind to call Remus or Sirius and tell them that I’m going to the centre tonight? I’m sure they can come to pick me up.”
“I’ll call them right away James, another nurse will come and get you in a few minutes.”
As madame Pomfrey walks away James can see that a woman is walking from the bed of the other patient. She looks very familiar to him, maybe a friend of Peter, he honestly doesn’t know.
A few minutes later, a nurse opens the curtains around his bed.
“Good morning Mr Potter, are you ready for your casts?” She asks him while taking the brakes off of his bed.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Because you broke your entire left leg, we will take you to the plaster room with your bed.”
After a couple of seconds, she has finished taking the brakes off of his bed and she rolls him out of the room.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what happened? I haven’t read your file yet so I’m kind of curious.” The nurse looks at James with a questioning look.
“I was training for an upcoming surfing contest during the storm yesterday and I underestimated the size of the waves. A wave washed over me and threw me on the rocks, I honestly still don’t know how I ended up here, madame Pomfrey didn’t tell me who delivered me here but I know that I’m very lucky that someone saw me yesterday.”
This is the first time that James thinks about it, but he really doesn’t know how he ended up here. There was nobody else on the beach when he went surfing. Maybe someone was walking by and when they saw him they called an ambulance.
“Oh well, I think it’s really brave of you to go surfing in a storm. I can’t even surf when the weather is normal, let alone when there is a storm going on.” The nurse smiles and winks at James.
“Maybe you can teach me how to surf when you’re recovered,” she keeps going.
“Yeah hmm maybe,” James says awkwardly.
It’s not like the woman isn’t attractive or anything, this is just a really weird moment to flirt with somebody.
“Okay nurse Johnson, enough flirting for you for today.” A man says to her.
“Hello Mr Potter, my name is Simon Bailey, I’m the person who will be putting your casts today.”
He pulls out his hand and James shakes it. He already looks way nicer than the nurse that was shamelessly flirting with him.
“Is there anything else I can do for you, Dr Bailey?” The nurse asks him, now looking way less friendly and super irritated.
“No there isn’t, you can go Campbell.” The doctor seems just as irritated as nurse Campbell.
She rolls her eyes at Dr Bailey and walks out of the room, slamming the door closed behind her.
“I apologise for my colleague Mr Potter, she does this with every man that she helps.” Dr Bailey gives James a small smile.
“It’s fine Dr Please, call me James.” He smiles back at the doctor.
“Okay James, Today I will be putting a cast on your entire left leg and your left wrist. Madame Pomfrey said that you wanted them in pink, is this the right shade?” Dr Bailey asks James while holding up a piece of fabric in a flamingo shade of pink.
“Yes Dr, this is the right colour. My son's favourite colour is pink, he wanted me to get a rainbow cast but because that isn’t possible I took his favourite colour.”
Every few months, Harry has a new favourite colour. Right now it’s pink, every time he has a new favourite colour he asks Sirius to paint his nails in that colour.
A few months ago, Harry got home after school and told James that there was a dad at the pick up that tolled Harry that he couldn’t wear nail polish. So the next day, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter painted their nails before picking up Harry.
The man never said anything about it again.
So when James saw Harry with pink nails yesterday he knew what colour he should pick as a backup for the casts.
“That’s such a good idea, you sound like a great dad.”
“Thank you Dr, I try to make sure that my son knows that I will always stand behind him and support him.”
“That is a wonderful thing to do James.”
After a couple of minutes, the Dr is done. James’ left leg is now entirely covered in pink and so is his left wrist.
“Right now I have one question, can people write on it?”
“Good question, after a few hours when it’s dried they can. You can come back for your cast on your wrist in about a month and for your leg, we will have to check the healing process before I can tell you when you can take it off.”
“Okay, thank you very much Dr, could you please roll me back into my area? I think it will be a bit awkward to ask nurse Campbell.”
“Of course, I can, just give me a second to take off your brakes.”
A few minutes and a lot less flirting later, James is alone in his area again.
He might not have been able to get rainbow casts, but he will be sure to draw lots of them on the casts.
Pt. 2 Marlene
“Are we going to take walk-ins today or only appointments?”
“Only appointments darling, we have Pandora coming in to do the mural at the front of the shop.”
Pandora is a very good friend of Dorcas. They met during an inter-house party at Hogwarts, Pandora was a Ravenclaw and Dorcas a Slytherin. Pandora is a year younger than Dorcas, but because they both followed the arts program, most of their classes were the same, and they became great friends instantly.
Besides the four houses at Hogwarts, you also have programs. Because Hogwarts is a boarding school for gifted children, the program that you chose was the thing that you excelled in at home.
You have two main programs: sports and arts. In those programs, you have smaller groups that are more specific to your interests. In the sports program, you have the team sports program, the water sports program and the dance program.
When she was a little girl, Marlene loved dancing, she loved twirling across the dance room and the kick she got from getting the choreography right. She loved the outfits that she danced in and the bass from the music that she could feel through her body, the fun hairstyles she got to have and the story that she got to tell with her dancing.
So naturally, when she got accepted into Hogwarts, she applied for the dance program, expecting it to be the same as what she had at home but even better. However, dancing at Hogwarts was mostly focused on how good you were at dancing instead of learning new dance styles. Not everybody experienced the program this way, Marlene knew that for sure. Lily, for example, loved every minute of it. When they were in their first couple years, Marlene used to envy her so much for it.
Lily was like her name, like a beautiful flower that never disappointed. Every time that Lily danced, it looked like the most elegant thing ever, every pirouette was flawless and overall she looked gorgeous. Her lush, auburn hair flowing with every move that she made, her body never looking awkward when she moved and she always knew just how to flex or relax her body to make the dance seem even bigger. She wasn’t just telling a story with her dancing, she was making you live the story with her.
It was like Lily had a fire that always kept burning. When she was practising a choreography or doing a performance on stage, it was like you could see her energy coming off her. And even when she first got diagnosed with cancer, she still had that fire.
Sometimes it looks like she gave her fire to Harry, Marlene mostly sees it when the boy looks at her with those same green eyes. A fire that doesn't want to be put out. A fire that wants to keep going no matter what.
Maybe that fire was what made Lily such a Gryffindor. Every Gryffindor seemed to have it. Well, all her Gryffindor friends have it.
You have James, who for being in the watersports program, had one of the biggest fires in him that Marlene had ever seen. He had a big ego, but a heart the size of the sea to match it.
Remus, whose fire was more subtle, but you could see it every time Sirius was near him. It always looked like Sirius’ fire was uncontainable, coming for a family that didn’t have any fire. But when He was with Remus, he seemed to keep his fire way more contained.
In that way, they were like ying-yang.
Remus had a lot of calm in him and a little fire when Sirius was around and Sirius always let people know that he had a lot of fire in him but calmed down when he was with Remus.
Mary, who has the voice of an angel and a heart to match it.
And Peter, whose fire is more subtle, but every time his friends are around, you can see the sparks in his eyes.
Marlene knew that she didn't want to keep dancing after Hogwarts in year six. That was also the year that she met Dorcas.
Then she finally felt the fire inside of her, burning every time she saw her. At first, it was more like a small flame. But that one flame quickly turned into a fire that burned so bright that she could feel it through her entire body, so hot that it burned when she touched Dorcas.
Before meeting Dorcas, Marlene was convinced that she had to continue her program into her professional life. Scared that she wouldn’t be good at anything else.
But now, she knew that she could become anything that she wanted.
Marlene sometimes silently thanks Pandora for becoming friends with Dorcas. At school, Peter was friends with some people outside of Gryffindor and one of those friends was Pandora.
They were also the ones that set Dorcas and Marlene up. Peter told Marlene that he wanted to go picnicking with her and Pandora said the same to Dorcas. So they both went to the field next to the lake only to see that instead of their friend, they were picnicking with each other.
After that, they became very close and after a year of pretending that Marlene didn’t feel a fire for Dorcas, she kissed her at a party. It was one of the scariest things that Marlene has ever done, not knowing if Dorcas liked her back or not. But after she kissed her back, Marlene discovered that sometimes, Slytherins could also have a fire inside of them as well.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I’ll call her right now to see if she’s almost here,” Dorcas says as she walks to the back of the shop with her phone in her hand.
‘Cresent Moon Tattoos’ isn't very big but the lightning is great so it feels very spacious. At the front of the shop, there is a waiting area with a couch and a couple of chairs. Behind that are the piercing area and the tattoo area is at the back of the shop in a different room.
Dorcas does most of the tattoos because she has been drawing for a much longer time, Marlene only starting when she was in her last year of Hogwarts.
Because of this, Marlene does the piercings so they divide the work equally.
“Pan says that she will be here in five minutes or less.” Dorcas walks back to the front of the shop.
“That’s great, we can start moving the furniture from the waiting area so she doesn’t have to wait when she gets here,” Marlene suggests while walking to the couch.
“Yeah, sure let’s do that.”
A few minutes later when all the furniture is moved, Pandora walks into the shop.
“Hello lovelies, how are you today?” She already has her paint supplies with her.
“Hi, Pan!” Dorcas takes some of her stuff from her and hugs her, “we’re very excited about the mural, how is Luna?”
“She’s great, at the moment she is at daycare because I have quite a busy day today but next time I’ll bring her with me!” Pandora puts the rest of her things on the ground and hugs Marlene as well.
“I love the way you did your hair Pan! Lavender really suits you!”
“Thank you Marls! I thought that just blonde would be boring and Luna’s favourite colour right now is lavender so I thought: why not paint my hair that colour?”
“That’s lovely Pan, can I get you anything to drink?”
“A cappuccino would be great, thank you!”
“Darling, do you want anything to drink as well?”
“A cappuccino as well please.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back with those.” Marlene walks to the back of the shop. Next to the tattoo area, they have a small kitchen with a very nice coffee machine that makes great drinks.
Pt. 3 Dorcas
“How is he?”
At school, Dorcas used to be really good friends with Regulus. They were in the same house and even though Regulus was a year younger, they were in the same friend group.
Since Regulus finished school, he has been more involved with his family. It wasn’t unexpected or anything, but because of it, Dorcas bearly see Regulus now.
They don’t really talk anymore. She thinks that it’s because she comes from a wealthy family that doesn’t support the Black organisation.
It’s not like she supports them herself, but she always thought that Regulus was more than his family. When his cousins used to laugh at her because she failed a test, he would help her study for her next one. Or once, when she told Regulus about how long it took her to do her braids, he learned how to braid afro hair just so she didn’t have to spend all that time on her hair.
Now he is engaged to Barty Crouch Jr. And not like Dorcas hates the guy, but he just gives her the creeps. He is also one of the reasons that she doesn’t see Regulus anymore. Barty wants to keep Regulus’ friend group ‘pure’, whatever the hell that may mean.
Dorcas knows that Regulus is still a good person and it pains her to think that she can’t be there for him right now.
“All things considering, he is doing fine. I gave him some macarons from Mary’s bakery and Luna drew something for him.”
“Oh that’s great to hear, I was really worried when I read the daily paper. I wanted to text him but I wasn’t sure if he would want to hear from me right now, you know, with the whole ‘we can’t talk anymore because your family doesn’t support the organisation’ thing.”
“You know he never actually said that right?” Pandora asks her.
“Yeah I know, but that was kind of the message that I got when he stopped replying to my texts. And I know that it’s all Barty’s fault and all, but sometimes it feels like Regulus also just doesn't want to see me anymore.”
“Unfortunately he is still convinced that Barty loves him.”
“The only thing that that man loves about Regulus is his last name and what that name means. It’s the thing Regulus hates the most about himself.”