maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

143. tea time

"ANOTHER ONE," said Claudia with a sigh as she put down the Daily Prophet that had, as always, reported another few Death Eater attacks. "When will this stop?"

"Soon, hopefully," said James, who was sitting across from her with a frown as Remus picked up the Prophet and read the new articles for himself.

"One can hope," Sirius spoke. "But honestly I wouldn't be surprised if this goes on for at least a few more years."

"Don't be so negative, Pads!" Said Peter, who had immediately lost his appetite after glancing over Remus' shoulder and reading just a mere few sentences about the horrible attacks.

"I'm sorry," Sirius sighed. "But it's just...I mean, I've sort of seen what goes on behind closed doors, I guess. I mean, not really, but I know what those people are like."

"It doesn't mean that things won't be okay," said James, smiling assuringly at Peter who seemed fairly stressed any time the topic of the war came up. "Things will be fine. Right, Claudia?"

"Right," the girl said, coming back to reality after her mind had completely disappeared after Sirius' words had been said, due to her believing them to be true.

Things wouldn't be ending any time soon. And she knew that.

Yet, she smiled assuringly at Peter just like James did, because she knew that he needed that, and also because she had to hide the way she had previously seemed like she had zero to no hope that things would turn out alright.

"And, besides," said James. "The aurors are catching new Death Eaters every day. If you ask me, they'll be done in no time. We've just got to hang out a little longer. It's not like they've got as many people on their side as we do, anyway."

Remus and Peter nodded, and all three of the boys failed to notice how Claudia and Sirius shared a weary look, because that wasn't true at all and they both knew that.

"I think they're interested in doing everything they can to get what they want," Sirius said quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"There's plenty of Death Eaters walking these halls. Didn't you know that? And there's new people joining them every day."

"I know," said James as silently as he could. "But we mustn't think about the bad things. Think about how many people walking these halls are prepared to fight. If you would look at it from that point of view, things wouldn't seem so dark anymore."

Remus nodded, "He's right. But you are too, Sirius. They're trying to recruit people who haven't even finished school, right?"

Everyone looked at Claudia, who shrugged. "That's the rumour, yes."

"But you haven't been forced into something like it, right?" Sirius asked with a slightly suspicious look on his face.

"Not really, no," said Claudia, who had entirely forgotten to mention the whole Dark Mark situation to any of them either of the two times she had been close to getting it.