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by hvgwcrts

by hvgwcrts

CHAPTER FIFTY TWO
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-: seventh year :-

── IN WHICH THEY WORRY

. . .

"Professor Dumbledore is trying to send us to an early grave." Lily walked through into the practise room, slumping down onto one of the chairs around the freshly-appeared table - seeing as it seemed to be the legendary Room of Requirement and it fit their every need, new things appeared every week.

The group sitting around the table - which consisted of Tiger, Sirius, Remus, Marlene and Dorcas - looked up at her, the items in their hands slowly being loweresd from their line of vision, moving their focus up to the Evans girl.

"And.. why would that be?" Sirius's eyebrows darted upwards as he let go of Remus's hand from where they were hanging between the chairs. Tiger, who had been a fifth wheel for two of her best friends and her cousin, was eyeing the door that had swung closed behind Lily, completly of it's own accord.

"James isn't with you? Or Wormtail?" The Howell girl asked, Lily following her gaze and looked confused, shaking her head.

"Are they supposed to be?" Lily placed her bag on the table, extracting several books and a folded up Daily Prophet, which looked to be that morning's edition. "Hi Dorcas, good day so far?"

"Yeah, I had Muggle Studies and Arithmancy this morning and they had those little cherry tarts at the end of lunch." Dorcas mused on the events of the previous few hours, elbow resting on the table and a finger pointing around them slowly, dragging over the two boys in particular. "Do you guys actually call each other those nicknames?"

"Oh you bet your arse they do." Tiger sat up, practically slamming her hands onto the wood. "Sorry - I had a sudden energy boost. But they do have weird nicknames."

"I had overheard one of them shouting 'Padfoot' once and I thought it was a joke." The Meadowes' girl looked satisfied, sitting back on her chair as she smiled. "Which one is that then. I'm assuming Peter is 'Wormtail'."

"I'm Padfoot. And you're right, Pete is Wormtail." Sirius shrugged. "We came up with them when were in first year or something - stupid nicknames that stuck." Tiger knew for a fact that it pained Sirius to say this; the four boys were stupidly proud of their nicknames.

"Talking of Peter and James, where are they?" The Howell girl pushed, having not gotten an answer just yet. "Oh - and how is Dumbledore leading us to an early grave?" She turned to Lily once again, attention directed elsewhere very quickly.

Lily didn't say anything, just taking the folded newspaper off of the top of her pile of books, opening it as she stood up, placing it down on the surface, cover facing upwards.

Instantly, Tiger, Sirius, Remus, Marlene and Dorcas were on their feet and pouring over it, hearts twinging as they read the headline and examined the main image.

"There's been four more attacks in the past week. People have died - and the Ministry have no idea what happened or who was involved!" Lily exclaimed, hand gesturing down at the moving photo.

"Except that good ol' Voldy was behind it." Sirius chimed in, eyes flickering around when he didn't get a reaction. "Why does no one ever find my attempts to lighten the mood effective?"

"I do." Remus mumbled quietly, half meaning it and half not. But rather than effective, he found it endearing. And he knew that Sirius would just be all pouty and utterly useless for the rest of the day.

"But Dumbledore wouldn't let us die, right?" Marlene proposed, her almost rhetorical question hanging over them. It seemed way too obvious that Dumbledore was going to try and help them survive, but outside the castle walls the situation was only getting worse.

"I trust him." Sirius was quite confident about it. "I mean - we've all seen his Chocolate Frog card and heard every single story about his defeat of Grindelwald, right?"

"Yeah.. I trust him as well." Tiger put herself forward after her best friend. "Like Sirius said, he's dealed with dark wizards once, so why can't he do it again?"

The door swung open right at that moment and made them jump out of their skin. But it was only James, who sauntered in with his glasses covered in mud.

"We are going to flatten Hufflepuff in March - I am telling you now." The Potter boy came to a stop by the table, palms resting against the back of Tiger's chair after throwing his bag full of practise clothes somewhere into the room. "What's with all the doom and gloom?" He asked.

"More attacks." Tiger replied quietly, reaching to pull James' glasses from his nose and wiped them. "But I trust that you will flatten Hufflepuff."

"And win the House Cup?" James looked down as she patted him on his chest, eyes grazing over the headline of the Daily Prophet. He couldn't help but let a shiver run over his back, but a smile remained on his face as he looked at his girlfriend.

"And win the House Cup." She confirmed without reluctance, before turning to the rest of them. "How about we make use of this time practising, so we know that we won't end up dead in some ditch somewhere?"

But only if they knew.

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a/n
oh how i do love
foreshadowing