Hummingbird Effect (Marauders)

Chapter 6

       The headaches, the fatigue, the whispers, defensiveness, and disappearing. It was all starting to piece itself together in Lena's mind as she sat silently on her bed staring in front of her, Peter's wand still clutched in her hand. Thinking back to any past events she could remember, she felt her suspicions practically confirmed. Remus Lupin was a werewolf and his loyal pals had somehow found a way to be with him during his transformations and help out.

      She shouldn't know this though. It's wrong that she does. There was obviously a reason they didn't tell her. They barely knew her. She had only been their so-called friend for a day and now because she had let her curiosity get the best of her she knew their biggest secret and one no one else could ever find out about.

       She wasn't sure how to process all of this. Of course she was going to attempt to confirm her suspicions the next day, but if she did then what? She couldn't tell them, they might think she had been spying on purpose or they might think some other terrible thing that she couldn't even think of. She also couldn't put that stress and trouble on Remus; it'd be too much for the boy.

     So ultimately she decided it would be best not to say anything, at least for the time being. And having solved that mental dilemma, at least as much as she could, she went to sleep for the night.

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     The next morning after waking from a night of restless sleep Lena felt like only laying in bed and not having to see anyone. Even the dorm which normally felt warm and cozy seemed to match her cold and desperate mood that morning.

     She eventually pulled herself together and spent a good five minutes trying to convince herself that everything would go fine.

     Walking through the castle she kept her eyes open for the group of boys, but was not surprised when she couldn't see them anywhere. Although no one else seemed to notice their absence in the Great Hall where she ate a small and painfully thought filled breakfast.

     Slowly other students started to leave the hall to go about their days, but she just sat. Trying to figure out exactly how to go about this, without it going terribly wrong. She took Peter's wand out of her pocket and held it in both her hands. She couldn't lose this, not over something so small. So with that boost of purpose she stood up from her spot at the table and made her way out of the hall towards the place she was counting on the boys being.

     She made it to the hospital wing in no time and didn't hesitate for a second opening the large doors to go inside. She felt completely sure of what she was doing. That was until she saw Mme. Pomfrey walking right towards her. As nice as the matron was, she had always intimidated Lena, for reasons she wasn't even sure of.

     "Miss Hughes, while I am very pleased to see you, I must ask that whatever you need you ask for right now as I am truly busy."

     "Oh, yes. Well I um I came to bring Peter his wand." She stumbled over her words while also reaching to grab the wand from her pocket. She could also see three of the boys laying in beds seemingly sleeping "Pettigrew that is. Peter Pettigrew."

     "Oh well alright then. You can go place that by his bed, but he and his friends are in need of rest so I do urge you to be quick."

     "Of course." she replied quickly and started walking over to Peter's bed, she saw Mme. Pomfrey go inside the curtains surrounding a bed and she was pretty sure she could guess who was laying on it.

     "Lena is that you?" a rough voice behind her says, making her jump a little. She turned around to see that James had woken up and was trying to push himself up into a sitting position. He was struggling to support himself so she immediately went to assist him.

     After a little cooperation and some pain on James' side, he was finally sitting up and only now could Lena see how truly awful he looked. Mme. Pomfrey had done her usual amazing job at cleaning up any visible wounds but the look of pain that was painted on his face completely gave away how bad it was.

     "Merlin. What happened to you guys?" she said as she sat down on the chair beside his bed.Of course she already knew what had happened, but she didn't want to give that away.

     "Well, not every prank goes perfectly." He tried to sound happy or amused or something, he failed too miserably for Lena to be able to tell. His voice also sounded as rough as he looked. Just then a look of confusion crossed his face. "Wait, how did you know where to find us? And why did you have Peter's wand?"

     "Oh, well I found his wand in a corridor and wanted to return it, but I couldn't find you anywhere. So I started asking around and a random second year told me you were here." She kept her voice as steady as she could, so she didn't give away the fact that she was lying.

     James seemed to not be paying enough attention to notice how she almost struggled to come up with an answer.

     "That little weasel, I made him promise not to tell anyone."

     Lena was just shocked enough by his response that she didn't think of anything to say before Mme. Pomfrey walked out from behind the curtain bed and immediately spotted the two of them.

     "Potter, what did I tell you about needing to relax?" She sounded as though this was not the first time this problem had arisen and started making her way over to them. "Lena dear, I must ask that you leave. The boys need to rest, they should be out by dinner so you can see them then."

     "Of course. See you James." Lena said before asking her way towards the door.

    "See you, little Hufflepuff." James called before begrudgingly obeying Pomfrey's order to lay back down.

     Lena made her way out of the hospital wing feeling a little better and now hoping that nickname wouldn't stick. She made her way back to her dorm since she didn't really feel like doing anything outside and had finished her homework earlier out of stress.

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     By the time that dinner rolled around, Lena found herself very excited to see the boys. Although this was odd for her since she had never really had anyone to look forward to seeing, she accepted the feeling with a large amount of joy, and made her way to the Great Hall faster than normal and with a slight skip in her step.

     Upon entering the hall she immediately started scanning the Gryffindor table for any sign of her new friends, and could feel happiness rise up inside her when her eyes were met with three pairs of theirs and saw them waving her over.

     She made her way over to them and sat down on the bench beside Peter and facing James and Sirius.

     "Glad to see you three are feeling better. That prank must have gone terribly wrong to put you all in such a state." She said as she started to put food on her plate. She had earlier decided that it would be more suspicious to not bring it up.

     "Oh it was." James said his mouth still full of food. "Moony really got the worst of it though, poor lad." Lena couldn't deny that he was pretty good at lying; it seemed extremely genuine. She assumed that must be the sympathy he must have for his friend, and while she had thought she might not like being lied to and knowing about, knowing that they were only doing it to protect their friend actually made it completely fine.

     "How is Remus doing?" She really was worried for the boy, she could only imagine what he had had to go through just the prior night.

     "Poppy said he'll be out and fine by tomorrow." Sirius answered and upon looking at all the boys' faces Lena knew she should drop the subject.

     "That's good." Her mind raced for a few moments trying to think of something to talk about, but was luckily saved when Peter spoke up.

     "Thank you for returning my wand by the way, I have no idea where I might have lost it"

     "Oh please Pete, you lose that thing every other day. Remember the day Minnie found it in the Professor's toilets." James spoke up, which then led to a very interesting conversation and the partial group had a pretty pleasant meal.