Selenophile // Marauders

|73| Christmas - Part I, Sixth Year

17th of December, 1976

Riley sat down on the couch at her own house, all alone. Her mum was at work, working on a serious case. 

She was happy to be home. It had been exactly two days since she arrived, but she still hadn't visited Penny and Ethan. They didn't know she was here, her mum thought that she was hanging out with them today. However, she decided to stay home all by herself, doing nothing fun to pass time. 

She had her ukulele in her hand, mumbling some lyrics as she tried to perfect a song. She had had a couple more breakdowns since her seventeenth birthday. Her mother didn't have a clue, only Lily knew about this. They had gotten closer in the past two years, especially after Lily started to avoid Snape. She comforted Riley about most things.

It was hard to keep secrets from Lily, considering she was always a bit too curious about her surroundings. Riley just wished she was a bit more oblivious sometimes. Remus was a lot like her, but he knew when to leave people alone. He knew how to respect boundaries. 

Although he wasn't nosy for most people, he was in Riley's eyes. Maybe it was because she was more private and reserved than most people. She sometimes felt like an outcast.

Another thing that had happened over the last month was Sirius and Regulus's big fight in an empty classroom, with the rest of the Marauders peeking from the door.

Regulus had taken the dark mark. Riley had never seen it up close before, but she was fine with not seeing it. Regulus forgot to cover his forearm for a minute or two, revealing the dark snake and the skull on his arm. It was the first time Riley had seen the two brothers cry so hard. 

—flashback—

"Reg—" Sirius stuttered as he quickly grabbed his brother's arm. "Wh— What the hell is this, Regulus?" he asked as he tried to calm himself down. 

"Sirius— it's fine, they didn't force me to join—" Regulus tried to defend himself, quickly taking his arm back and covering the dark mark. 

"So you joined with your own free will?" Sirius asked. "Don't come to me with that bullshit Reg!"

"I'm telling you... This doesn't mean I'm bad, Sirius," he said quietly. "Maybe mum and dad aren't as bad as you think—"

"Weren't you there that night, Reg?!" Sirius asked with fury. "Didn't you see them torture me? You begged father to stop and let go of me!"

"Sirius—"

"I tried to protect you, Reggie!" Sirius shouted with his voice breaking. "I thought maybe you wouldn't be like them... Maybe you would have the courage to stand up to them!"

"I couldn't be like you, Sirius! I wanted to, but I couldn't... I'm sorry, I really am—"

"I'm everything that you wished to be... Then why didn't you follow me that night, Reg? Were you scared to let go of your beautiful posh life?!"

"You left me there!" Regulus said as tears rolled down his cheeks. "You left me all alone there! Do you know how hard it was for me to stay sane in that hellish place?!"

"I saved myself! I did everything to save you from their burden too, but you just had to be their favorite, didn't you?"

"Sirius—"

"No! I wanted to protect you from them! Do you want to end up like Bella, being You-Know-Who's sidekick?! Do you wanna go insane like them?!"

"I don't want to be the Dark Lord's sidekick—" Regulus said weakly.

"The Dark Lord?" Sirius interrupted him. "Since when do you call that monster that?!"

"I'm sorry Sirius, please, just give me another chance to fix this—"

"No! You wasted them all, Reggie..."

—end of flashback—

Riley then slowly put down everything and decided to go to her friends' house after all. It was once again a snowy day in Pine Road. She decided to put on gloves to hide her scars so that Penny wouldn't be nosy and ask her questions like a police officer in a questioning.

She knocked on the door of house twenty-three, waiting for someone to answer. The door was answered much quicker than before. Surprisingly, Penny opened the door.

"Woah, is the world coming to an end?" Riley said sarcastically. Penny pulled her into a hug. "You got out of your room on a holiday!"

"Oh, shut up!" Penny said. "I wouldn't have answered it if someone else was at home..."

"Ethan isn't here?"

"Oi!" a voice said from upstairs. "I'm right here!" Ethan shouted loudly.

"Oh really? How come snitches count as decent people?" said Penny in fury.

"What happened here?" asked Riley with a chuckle.

"I'm not a snitch!" Ethan said as he came downstairs. "The amount of times you snitched on me overweighs that one time I snitched on you, Penny!"

"Since when do you two fight like this?" Riley asked as she walked past the two.

"Oh wait— I didn't realize you came—" Ethan said as he stuttered a bit. He hugged Riley, rather awkwardly. 

"What happened, Ethan?" Penny said teasingly. "Do you—"

"PENNY!" 

Right as the three friends walked towards the living room, someone knocked on the door once more. Ethan went up to open the door as the twins' parents entered the house with bags in their hands. 

"Oh!" Mrs. Humphrey said cheerfully. "Riley, dear, welcome back!" Riley just nodded and smiled along. "I was just about to visit your mother to talk to her about something," she said.

"She's a bit busy lately, I think she'll come home late," Riley said. 

"Oh..." Mrs. Humphrey said, "Well, then can you let her know that we are inviting you both for Christmas dinner!" she said excitedly as she out every bag she held onto the kitchen counter. Penny's and Riley's eyes widened as a big smile etched on their faces. 

"We are?!" Penny asked cheerfully. "That's great!"

"I'll let her know, I'm sure she'll be thrilled," said Riley as she tried to hide her smile. 

"Well— that also means that our dear cousins won't be coming, right?" Ethan said, swiveling towards his parents. 

"Who said they weren't coming?" Mr. Humphrey said. "It'll be like a big family dinner, the more the merrier!"

———

A/N: 

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