Chapter 173: The War: Autumn 1981
Summary:
This is it, guys...
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
I loved the words you wrote to me
But that was bloody yesterday.
I can't survive on what you send
Every time you need a friend.
I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them - but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care.
I don't want to change the world
I'm not looking for a new England
I'm just looking for another girl.
Nobody knew who had killed the McKinnons, and nobody knew why. There were theories, of course; the most logical being that with Danny and Marlene in the Order, they were simply an obvious target. Some people wondered if it was because of Marlene's connection to James and Lily - because she'd healed James. Others thought she'd made too much fuss about werewolf rights at work.
In the end, none of it mattered, not to Remus. Why try to make sense out of something so senseless?
Due to Danny's previous celebrity status, the murders were front page news. There was a huge picture of him in the Daily Prophet, from his Cannons days - broad, sunny face, robes billowing. No scars. A smaller picture of Marlene which must have been taken for work, because she was in her uniform. Promising young Healer, Mylene McKinnon according to the misspelt caption.
Yasmin was not mentioned at all, though Sirius told Remus they were found lying beside each other, and their fingers were still touching.
"Remember in third year," Sirius said, in the days that followed, "We all thought you two fancied each other."
"Yeah." Remus replied, monotone.
"She was a better beater than me. Wish I'd told her."
"She knew." Remus said, with a sad smirk.
Mary was not heard from for a long while. Marlene's death hit her harder than anyone - they had been practically inseparable since they were eleven. Remus remembered how annoying he used to find them, before he figured out that girls were just people too.
He remembered her quiet patience, her bouts of fiery passion. The petition to remove the Whomping Willow when she was just thirteen, because someone had been hurt, and Marlene could never stand to see anyone hurt, not if there was something she could do about it. If any one of them had it in them to change the world, it had been her. But no more.
* * *
Another September rolled around, and as always, Remus was reminded of his childhood, and Hogwarts. The scent of parchment, new ink, leather book bags and sealing wax. A sense of fresh beginnings; of change. How can it have been a full decade since he first arrived at King's Cross, scrawny and angry and neglected?
So much had changed since then. He had become a man. He had learnt more than he ever thought possible, achieved things he had never dreamed of - his horizons had been expanded again and again, by education, and magic, and friendship, and love. He wasn't completely different, of course. Remus didn't kid himself; his temper hadn't really gone anywhere, nor had his proclivity to repress bad feelings, only to lash out when things got too much.
