Selenophile // Marauders

|95| Confrontation, Seventh Year

14th of December, 1977

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Dear Mum,

How's everything? I hope you're alright, everything is fine out here. Classes are fun this year, some complicated spells are taught but I managed so far.

I'm gonna be honest I kinda regret deciding on staying here. But I can't really change it right now, people are leaving today. My friends are staying here though, I'm not alone. Though I don't think I would mind being alone, they tried adopting our professor as a cat for ten days...

I hope you're doing fine. Lots of love,

Riley.

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Riley sealed the envelope and gave it to Ollie. She turned around, but there was someone there.

"Stop creeping up on me!" she said to Lena. Lena just grinned.

"You always get so angry when I creep up on you, so no, I'll keep scaring you," said Lena and took a letter from an owl. Riley rolled her eyes and tried leaving the owlery. "No, don't leave, you might wanna see this letter."

Lena opened the letter fastly. It was neatly written in cursive letters, stamped by the initials "G.T."

"My lovely death eater dad is sending me letters," said Lena mockingly. "He thinks I'm so good at keeping the letters as secrets, he doesn't know I throw them in the garbage after shredding it into tiny pieces. Oh, I'm having so much fun, Spade."

Riley read the letter Lena was holding.

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Lena Thatcher,

You will come home for the holidays. I cannot tolerate any of this nonsense anymore. You will face consequences if you do not come here today. I've talked to a teacher, she said she would try to make the changes. Absolute rubbish.

This letter is meant to be kept confidential, if a word gets out and anybody outside us knows what we are planning, you will be in grave danger. I hope you are getting close to convincing the mudblood.

See you today,

G.B.

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Lena laughed as she read the letter, Riley stared at it in horror.

"How can you act so... calm?" asked Riley. "He's threatening you, that's not all right! And what if someone actually finds these letters you tore apart and mends them back together?"

"Nothing happened for the last three and a half months. I get a letter like this each week, I can imagine him writing this thinking that I take them seriously, what an idiot," said Lena. "Have you thought about the plan?"

"Yeah," said Riley quietly. "I've talked to Dumbledore too, he seems pretty motivated for this. I don't get it though."

"I thought you were smart, Spade," said Lena. "Which part do you not get?"

"Hey! That's not what I'm talking about!" said Riley. "I meant how Dumbledore actually wants me to be a sort of spy in the death eaters."

"No, I'm the spy in them. I'm the mole. You are going to be the person who actually takes action," said Lena enthusiastically as she started tearing the paper apart into two. "You'll give us more time to fight back, you'll save lives!"

"I need to go," said Riley.

"Okay, Spade. But keep in mind that you still haven't talked to your boyfriend about him joining a hate group to kill no-majs and their kids," said Lena with a smile. Riley sighed. "Just make a mental note about it, y'know, not that it's important —"

"I really need to go," said Riley and left the owlery, going to the Great Hall. People were leaving for Christmas Break. There weren't a lot of people staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, except for the seventh years. They wanted to stay at school for their last Christmas as students.

She knew Ralph was not going to stay at Hogwarts. Perhaps it was because his father didn't let him. It broke her a little, but she hadn't talked to him properly all year anyways. They had gone to Hogsmeade a few times, Ralph wasn't acting any different. But what Lena said really made Riley think if there were something wrong.

"Ralph!" she called as she saw the boy leave the hall with his trunk. "Ralph!" The boy turned around and waved awkwardly. Riley ran next to him.

"Were you gonna leave without — y'know — saying goodbye?" she murmured.

"I thought you'd be, er — there!" he said as he pointed at the exit.

"Why would I be there?" Riley asked quickly.

"I — dunno," he said. "I really need to go."

"The train doesn't leave for another hour, Ralph," said Riley as she raised an eyebrow. "You've been trying to ignore me all term. Why?"

"I haven't been ignoring you —"

"No, you have!" said Riley a bit more angrily. "Is something wrong? Something you're hiding?"

"No, why would you even assume that?" said Ralph.

"I'm not assuming, Ralph, I know you're hiding something!" said Riley angrily. "So why not tell me right away so I don't keep 'assuming' things."

"I'm telling you, Riley, there's nothing I'm hiding!"

"No, there is, I'm sure of it!" said Riley. She couldn't tell him she knew about his father, it would make people suspicious of Lena. "First, your dad is yelling before you board the train, then you avoid me — but why? Aren't we supposed to share our problems with each other?"

"Since when are you saying these? You think these weird promises are bloody useless. Since when do you care about me this much?" asked Ralph as his voice got sharper.

"Wh — since when do I care about you?! I've cared about you since forever, Ralph Sherman, believe it or not!" said Riley. "Do you even know how many times I tried talking to you after that day in the station? Of course, you don't! Because you talked to me how many times this year, again? Like five times in total... I've been worried, all right?"

"It's none of your business, stay out of it!"

"I've been staying out of it for almost four months! Yet you never let me in!"

"Because I couldn't! I didn't wanna hurt you, Riley!" said Ralph.

"You didn't wanna hurt me? You hurt me by keeping it hidden, and you still are!"

"All right, let me tell you what he meant at the platform that day then, Riley," said Ralph in fury. "He told me to stay away from muggle-borns, he told me to stay away from you. Are you happy I told you this?" he asked. Riley felt her heart beating fast, she took a deep breath.

"But you wouldn't understand," said Ralph with a frown. Riley glared at him angrily. She wanted to yell at him, she wanted to hex him.

"I wouldn't understand?" she asked sarcastically. "Wow, Ralph Sherman, why would I not understand?"

"Because you're a mudblood is why!" Ralph yelled loudly.

Riley blinked. She took a small step back.

"Y— " she stuttered. "You go be with a pureblood then, be in a respectable relationship with someone as loathsome as you."

"I didn't —"

Riley turned around, she tried getting out of there as fast as she could. She didn't look back, she just walked away.