Selenophile // Marauders

|110| The Mirror

Everyone started to leave, Riley watched each of them go one by one. Some of them came to talk to Riley after her speech.

Mary walked next to Riley along with the rest of the group, giving her one last hug before leaving.

"Riley — please just send us a simple patronus, a letter, or even a call if you need anything," she said worriedly.

"I will," said Riley quietly.

"We can stay—" said Sirius.

"You already know the answer to that," said Riley briskly.

Then, she saw the twins come next to them as well. Penny seemed calmer, a bit less shocked. Riley wished she could tell her why she actually died. She didn't like lying to her face.

"Wanna come to our house?" she asked. "Or take a long silent walk in the woods? I'm even okay with climbing to a tree."

"Penny — no." Riley shook her head. "Just go."

"Okay—" said Penny kindly but then went quiet as she heard her brother speak.

"Nah, we'd rather stay—" said Ethan but Penny smacked him in the arm.

"You're not helping, Ethan!" she said angrily. "Wanna fight about respect and boundaries once again?"

"I'm sorry — Jeez," said Ethan. "I wasn't even talking to you! And I won't apologize to you again, I think I apologized to you for a lifetime back in 1976!"

"What's going on?" asked James confusedly.

"Oh, right," said Penny with a chuckle. "Don't mind my idiot brother, he doesn't know anything about respect."

"Can you do the fighting bit at home?" asked Riley silently. But nobody seemed to hear her.

"Why don't we invite Vicky for dinner?" asked Ethan sarcastically. Penny scoffed. "Maybe she'll enjoy spending time with you!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Penny. "That was two years ago and you have absolutely no right to make comments about it!"

"Oh yeah? I won't let you date another girl—" said Ethan mockingly.

"Who are you to decide, Ethan Humphrey?!" yelled Penny. "You have no right to choose who I date!"

"I'm your brother!"

"That doesn't change anything!"

"You're an idiot—"

Riley saw Marlene's face turn angry, Dorcas frowned.

"LEAVE!" screamed Riley angrily. "For fuck's sake, leave! And you," she said and turned to Ethan. "Have you learned nothing?!"

"I — sorry for your loss," said Ethan shyly. Riley didn't react. "But—"

"I swear, even I'm pissed and I have no fucking clue on who you are. Just leave, you're not helping," said Sirius briskly.

"Who even are you?" asked Ethan.

"Does it matter?"

"I just asked!"

"He's Sirius," said Peter. "I'm Peter, and that's Remus, Lily, Mary, Marlene, Dorcas, James... We are friends from school."

"That weird school," muttered Ethan.

"I really don't feel like fighting with anyone right now," said Riley and looked up. "Will you leave or not?"

Penny gave Riley one last hug, then stormed off, heading home. Ethan rolled her eyes and walked away to another direction.

"Who even was that?" asked Marlene. "Fucking idiot!"

"That girl had every right to be angry!" said Dorcas. "I could kill him right here—"

"Don't kill anyone, please," said Riley exhaustedly.

"Are they siblings?" asked Remus.

"Yeah. Twins, actually." She fidgeted with her hands, then looked around blankly. "Thanks for coming, really."

"Wait," said Sirius. "Take this."

He handed a piece of glass, a mirror. It looked like it was a broken piece of a bigger mirror, it looked rather dusty.

But it looked familiar, Riley just couldn't recognize it.

"What is this?" she asked cluelessly.

"Don't you remember?"

"No."

"The two-way mirror," said Sirius. "I have the other piece of it, sometimes I give it to Moony. You can actually talk to the other person who has the second mirror. Quite ingenious."

"Oh," said Riley in amazement. She remembered the summer they spent at the Potter Manor when Sirius gave the other piece to James. She hadn't seen it again, she didn't even remember it. "Thanks," she said with a smile.

***

Riley went home after everything was cleaned up at the funeral. She slowly closed the door.

The house was silent, no signs of movement. She took a step towards the kitchen, taking a glass out of the cupboard to pour water in it. She put it hard on the table, accidentally making it shatter into small pieces.

She sighed, cursed under her breath. She started shaking her hands around, then realized the blood dripping from her palms.

She stepped away from the pieces of glass, looking at the floor tiredly. Instead of cleaning it up or wrapping a bandage around her hand, she just sat down on the floor where the glass hadn't reached.

She slowly ran her hands through her hair, groaning in both pain and sorrow. She was no longer in denial, denying it didn't ease the pain, it just delayed it.

She then covered her face with her hands, rubbing her eyes furiously. Without knowing when or how, she started hitting herself in the face, muttering words to herself.

She stood up so fast, making her dizzy. She hadn't slept properly for the past two days. Then, Riley felt something tingle in her pocket, something poking her leg.

It was the two-way mirror.

She held it in her hands, stood there without doing anything for a minute as she stared into the piece of glass.

Then, she saw something flicker on the glass. It was something moving, it was blurry.

It wasn't something, it was someone looking back at Riley. Sirius Black.

"Oh," said Sirius. "I didn't expect you to use the mirror!"

"Yeah," said Riley. "Neither did I."

"Er — Are you all right?" asked Sirius shyly. "You don't look like it."

Riley hesitated. "N—No. Not really."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Maybe."