Paper Lillies | A Harry Potter Fanfiction

02

"Get some food in you, you'll feel better."

Mabel held onto Jack's hand with a tight grip. Her head was spinning and her feet were not walking in a straight line as she stumbled into the Great Hall after almost falling out of the carriage, to which Jack lifted her down by her waist to save her plummeting onto the courtyard and smashing her face up.

Jana snickered and wrapped her arm around Mabel, "you klutzy girl! Cannot take you anywhere, eh? Not even started the year and you've fainted and nearly fallen on your face. What's next? You going to get petrified again?"

Mabel stiffened and Jack shot Jana a look. They had vowed not to bring up her petrification from the year before but Jana loved to push boundaries. She continued to laugh it off as they sat down and awaited the sorting ceremony. Once that was over, Dumbledore did his usual speech that was near-enough the same each year except this year, he added on something.

"For the foreseeable future, we will be joined by Azkaban's dementors who will patrol the grounds in order to keep you and I safe. They are not forgiving creatures so do not give them reason to meet you for you will not have a pleasant experience."

Jack squeezed Mabel's hand as she rubbed her head, she really needed water and food. The students and teachers knew alike Dumbledore was talking about Sirius Black, a mass-murderer who had escaped Azkaban prison but he didn't like to say it explicitly. He never seemed to say things explicitly.

"Now, to shine light upon such a dreary array of events, I'd like to introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin."

The man seated between Professor McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid (the Gamekeeper and for this year, Care for Magical Creatures teacher), gave a small wave and a nod of his head, his tired eyes scanning the ground, falling on the Gryffindor table.

"He could use an upgrade on those worn robes," said Jana, clapping slowly, "and what's with the scars on his face?"

"Can we not judge him so harshly? I think he looks lovely," Mabel responded, briefly looking up from the table and joining the eruption of claps for the man. "I have a good feeling about him."

"You have a good feeling about everyone! How'd that work out for you when Draco Malfoy started to pick on Ron Weasley's robes last year."

"Just as you are doing to Professor Lupin now, you mean," sneered Jack, "Give it a rest Jana, let's just eat and go back to the dorms."

The food appeared on the table and like a whippet Mabel snatched up a goblet of pumpkin juice and gulped it down, the liquid barely touching the sides of mouth. Plopping it down on the table, she dug into the feast, ravenous and predatory for anything and everything to line her stomach.

"Merlin's beard, it's not going to disappear this instant! Save some for the rest of us!"

"Shut up, Jana!" Jack placed his hand on Mabel's knee and whispered in her ear, his breath fanning her skin, "when did you last eat?" She put the bone of a chicken leg, now meatless, down onto her plate and shrugged. Jack's heart dropped and he squeezed her knee. "Just slow down a bit, eh? You don't want to throw up. But eat as much as you want. Okay?" She nodded and, chewed slower on some potatoes and vegetables.

Jana looked to Jack who shook his head. He didn't want to hear another word.

When the feast was over and the three were completely stuffed of glorious food, believing nobody could cook food as good as Hogwarts, they retreated to the Hufflepuff common room where Jack hugged the girls goodnight.

Despite being unimpressed by Jana's comments that evening he still wished her goodnight and gave her a big hug. He then took Mabel into his arms, brushing her hair down with his hand and gently squeezing her. "Night, Mabel, get some proper rest. If you need me you know where I am, yeah?"

She nodded, pulling away and smiling at him. "I'll be alright. I always am, Jack. Goodnight."

The girls hurried off up to their dormitory leaving Jack to slump off to the boys' one. He knew she could look after herself but also knew she couldn't. Mabel put up a façade to indicate she was okay, that she was strong but she truly wasn't. He and Jana knew that best after returning to school in second year. She had bruises on her arms and looked sickly thin.  They didn't pry for information but she let slip more than she realised one night by the fire.

It was strange, she didn't realise it was wrong. That being beaten and starved was not a normal upbringing. Mabel's vision of the world blurred that night and Jack and Jana helped to clear the fog. They unintentionally built a creation of raw beauty and happiness and, ever since, tried to protect from the bad within it. They couldn't do much about her home-life but they could keep her safe from everything else.

It was laborious and Jana found herself slipping constantly. Jack followed behind her rebuilding the cracks in the barrier that formed with each slip but it grew harder with each pressing day. Their time was running out. Fast.

"Jana," said Mabel from her bed.

"Mhm?"

"Sirius Black... he can't get us can he?"

"Well he could, but unless he is some noncey rat, I doubt he'd come after us. We are pretty and all that jazz but I'm sure there are plenty of other people he'd rather go after."

"Okay."

"That everything?"

"Yeah, I think so. Goodnight, Jana."

"Sweet dreams, Mabel."