First Catch
“Get in, Dorcas!!” Sirius cheered as she managed to set the fifth unsuspecting dummy alight.
Since Dorcas finally managed to talk about the night that had brought her mutation to the surface she had felt a lot lighter and her powers had made themself known once again, if not fashionably late, and she now had a greater control over them after only a couple days. She really needed to thank Remus for his advice, and for not running away when she ungraciously burst into heaving sobs in his arms. Now, she felt determination and desperation to find her brother and to make her parents proud. Even if they weren’t known to be particularly open to the idea of mutants, she was sure that if they were here and if they knew who she truly was, they would try to change. Her grief had not disappeared completely; she knew it probably never would. But thankfully she had found people that she trusted to save her from drowning in it.
Turning around to bow to her audience, a wide grin formed on her lips, she was met with more applause and whistles from Sirius, Mary, Marlene and Remus- her usual training squad as of lately.
“Did you figure out what was stopping them from working then?” Mary asked as they packed up, ready to go and meet the others for dinner.
“Yeah. Yeah, I did,” she responded, looking over at Remus who just smiled at her encouragingly. She smiled back.
Suddenly an arm was being slung over hers and Mary’s shoulders and Sirius popped up in between them, “I say this calls for a celebration, don’t you, ladies? Party in my room?”
The girls both rolled their eyes.
“Just as long as you don’t puke on me again. I never did get the smell out of that perfectly nice dress,” Mary said sternly.
“I’ll just puke on Moony instead.”
“Kinky.”
“It really isn’t,” Remus said drily, scrunching his face up in disgust.
As they made their way out of the Room of Requirement, Marlene caught up to Dorcas who was now at the back of the group.
“Not bad, Princess.”
Dorcas’ stomach flipped at the praise as Marlene nudged her arm, “Careful, if you keep calling me that you might end up being my next practice dummy.”
“Hm. I don’t think I’d mind.”
“You are so strange,” Dorcas scoffed, hiding the smile that was threatening to show.
“Thank you. And you do know if I stop calling you Princess I’m going to have to find something else that will most likely be worse, right?”
“How about you call me… Dorcas? You know… my name?”
Marlene grinned, “Oh so she’s funny too. And no- I need something more personal. Everybody calls you Dorcas and Cas is out because Mary stole it.”
Mary turned around and simply flipped her off, causing Marlene to laugh.
“I’m sure you’ll come up with something just as ridiculous eventually. It’s not uncommon,”
“Ouch.”
When they made it to their friends in the Great Hall, Sirius hurried over to where James was entertaining a large group of the younger kids, talking animatedly with his hands and lighting up even more as his best friend came and joined him. Dorcas took a seat next to Mary, Remus next to Lily and Marlene next to Peter.
Remus and Lily both shared a knowing glance before gazing over at their partners with so much adoration it made Dorcas feel overwhelmed with a strange sense of longing. Her eyes moved over to Marlene who was loading food onto her plate whilst chatting with a young girl who had bright green cat eyes enthusiastically. Dorcas loved seeing how close the whole group was with the children who came to Hogwarts and how much they were admired. How did she ever have such convoluted views about mutants? They were just people like the rest of the world; just children.
Eventually everyone sat down at the table, eating and chatting happily about everything and nothing. Everyone seemed to look forward to the promise of booze and music but unfortunately their plans were ruined as Benjy FInwick, another older mutant like themselves, brought a note from Dumbledore.
Remus sighed and passed the note along after reading it, “Briefing in 10. You’re coming too,” he said to Dorcas who nodded stiffly. She hadn’t been sent on any missions yet, having only gotten her powers back a couple days ago. But if Dumbledore thinks she's ready then there’s not much else she could do. Plus, at least it was with her friends and not some random people she didn’t know. It still felt odd to come to terms with, that she had friends once again after feeling like her life was completely over a month or so ago.
“Marauders and Valkyries back at it again, hm?” James smiled, ever the positive ray of sunshine.
“Well, it’s obvious we make a great team. They’d be stupid to not put us together,” Peter shrugged and Sirius slapped his back, almost making him choke on his drink.
“Damn right Wormy. Let's get going.”
Briefing ended up being in McGonnagal’s office and as usual, Dumbledore was not present. Dorcas had not seen him since their meeting and it seemed nobody else had either.
“We have received news of another abandoned warehouse being used by Death Eaters, likely to store weapons. You are to go there and shut it down.”
“Simple enough,” Lily muttered as McGonnagal gave her the coordinates.
Sirius groaned, “And boring.”
“Boring is better than a suicide mission, Sirius,” McGonnagal responded sternly, “There were reports of 4 mutants but by now there may be more so watch each other’s backs and make smart decisions.”
“Always do,” Sirius winked and Lily elbowed him in the ribs making him scowl at her.
“We will,” she corrected with a smile before they left the office to get ready and eventually set out for the warehouse.
_______
Once they were at the warehouse, they decided to split up to look for any signs of movement and exits they or their enemy may use. Dorcas was paired up with Lily and Remus, tasked with keeping an eye out for anyone trying to escape from the back exit whilst Sirius and Marlene were at the front, and Peter, James, and Mary went inside in ‘stealth mode’.
The building didn’t seem very protected which confused Dorcas. They hadn’t seen anyone patrolling outside and they hadn’t heard any trouble over their earpieces from the others yet. She could feel her flames simmering close to the surface as her hands twitched at her sides, her nervousness making the fire feel more unpredictable and antsy than usual.
“Is it bad I was hoping for a bit more… action?” Remus muttered, scanning the area.
Dorcas shook her head, clenching her fists, “I don’t think so… I feel like I need to use up all the energy I have stored up from waiting.”
“At least nobody is getting hurt. Last time was a close one with Emmeline,” Lily said gently, “I think I’ll just be glad when this whole war is over and we can just- live our normal lives.”
Remus nodded but had a contemplative look on his face.
Dorcas cocked her head to the side, “What is it, Remus?”
“It’s just-” he sucked in a breath, “Feels like this is our normal now. Don’t you think?”
Lily just rested her head on his shoulder and he kissed her head sweetly.
“Guys… I think you should come and look at this,” James’ voice filtered through the comms, “the coast is clear. There’s nobody here.”
They all looked at each other, wearing matching perplexed looks.
“You two go in… I’ll stay out here just in case,” Remus said with a nod.
Hesitantly, the girls nodded and followed James instructions on where to go once they got inside. They found him, Peter and Mary, now joined by Marlene in a room with harsh, white lighting that was strangely filled with small beds, arranged in rows against the walls. They certainly weren’t for adults…
“These are definitely not weapons…” Dorcas murmured, “What the heck is going on here?”
“We have no idea. Are we sure this is even the Death Eaters’ work?” Mary asked no one in particular seeing as nobody had the knowledge to answer her question.
“They can’t have been here for long,” Lily murmured, running her fingers over one of the pillows, a focused expression on her face, “freshly bought and washed about a week ago… brought in only yesterday.”
“We need to report this back to-”
“Guys-” Remus’ strained voice came from the comms and Sirius could be heard shouting in the distance, “There are death eaters here- we have two- don’t know how many more-”
Just as everyone looked at each other in panic, the room was swallowed by darkness.
“The fuck- OW-!” James’ shout was followed by the whipping of air as something moved rapidly through the shadows.
Finally coming to her senses, Dorcas brought the fire to her fingertips, setting one of the beds alight and bringing light to the room once again, making the shadows dissipate. Before she could stop to check everyone was okay, however, her feet were knocked from beneath her and she crumpled to the floor, hitting her head on one of the bedposts. Her vision went blurry, but as she looked up she could swear she saw 5 of the same blonde person fighting her friends. Though, their face was still mostly covered by a mask and so she couldn’t be sure.
With a groan she stood up, planning to go to Lily’s aid where the speedy one was tormenting her, but was stopped by something grabbing onto her ankles with sharp claws and making her cry out in agony. Blindly, she shot her flames behind her but did not hear it come into contact with anyone. In a panic, she looked down and her breath caught in her throat as she saw the shadow of a horrific beast, somehow with its hand still wrapped around her foot, dragging her to the floor. With a furious shout, she fired at it, and it seemed to fizzle and disappear. Despite this, she had no room to recover, for when she stood up there was a man with dark hair and a matching mask to the blonde, staring her down with piercing silver eyes. A cold slither of dread ran down her spine but she stood her ground, sneering at him.
“Burn in hell you sick fuck,” she hissed at him. He simply raised his eyebrows, seeming utterly bored by this whole ordeal. His hands tensed at his sides and Dorcas watched as 3 other shadows grew from his own, transforming into the silhouettes of snakes with razor sharp teeth that were rapidly making their way along the floor towards her. She reacted before she could think, letting out the energy thrumming through her body and making the floor around her go up in flames, creating a protective circle where the shadows couldn’t reach. The boy barely flinched, but looked at her with something akin to curiosity instead of the anger she expected. She smirked smugly and shot a ball of fire towards him but somehow he disappeared before it reached him and instead it almost took Mary’s head off, who freezed it just in time and immediately resumed fighting. It was quite hot actually. She resolved to tell her that later.
To the left of her there was a pained shout as one of the many blondes- Dorcas counted 8 this time- was thrown against the wall harshly by Marlene who was breathing heavily with pure fury in her eyes. Where her soft, tanned skin once was there was only rough stone, though you could still make out the shape of her face, especially her eyes which were now glowing a bright, golden yellow. All at once, the other blondes came running back to the one that was now slumped on the floor and seemed to morph back into his body.
“Got one,” Marlene quipped breathily as she slowly turned back to her normal self and her cropped blonde hair flowed freely to her shoulders once again. This was when Dorcas noticed that the other Death Eaters seemed to have disappeared, leaving behind the one currently knocked out in a lifeless heap.
A few minutes later, Remus and Sirius made their way back inside to the group, luckily with no major damage to themselves other than a few cuts and bruises.
“Who’s the dead one?” Sirius asked, staring at the body they were gathered around.
“Not dead. At least I don’t think so,” Marlene hummed, cracking her knuckles.
“One of the Death Eaters who attacked us,” Lily said, though her throat was hoarse and croaky. James stood protectively by her side.
Mary made her way over, crouching down next to him without an ounce of fear, and pushed him onto his back, pulling down his mask to reveal his face.
“Evan?”
“Evan.”
Dorcas and Sirius both looked at each other in surprise.