fatal love

Chapter 55

After the vampire attack, the rest of February passed quickly. James had a fantastic Valentine's Day, and had taken to large and public displays of affection, and was often found snogging Florence in between lessons and after school. Remus had had a good Valentine's Day too; he was always secretive about any cards he got, but Sirius noticed that he got quite a few that year. Nothing compared to the amount Sirius himself got, but nothing to be embarrassed about either. Of course, Remus refused to engage with any of the girls who fancied him, the bloody martyr. Pete, on the other hand, looked rather downtrodden at his lack of attention from girls, but Sirius thought that was probably a problem of his own making. He always got so nervous around girls, and so never even spoke to any outside of the Gryffindors in their year.

Sirius' Valentine's Day was a stressful one. He played the part he had to, flirting with any of the girls who spoke to him, but his priority the whole day was avoiding Benjy. He didn't think Benjy was the type to do any romantic gesture, especially considering that they weren't actually dating, but he couldn't take that risk. The idea of anything romantic with a boy, or anything beyond snogging really, still made him feel sick and itchy. Luckily, Benjy didn't do anything, and the day passed without incident.

It was a couple of days later, when all the Gryffindors were in the Great Hall together at breakfast, when Lily got a letter from her parents, causing her to pull a face.

"Have you heard about Thatcher?" she asked Remus.

"What about her?" Remus garbled around a mouth full of food.

"The Tories've chosen her as the next party leader."

"Really?" Mary asked, leaning over. "That's cool - we might get a female PM."

"Not her," Remus frowned. "She's the one who took milk out of schools, lots of kids in the village needed that. Fucking awful, she is."

"She'll probably never even get elected," Lily sighed. "Awful person or not, we'll never elect a woman as Prime Minister."

Remus snorted. "Is Britain more classist or more sexist?" he asked sarcastically. "Find out at our next election!"

Sirius couldn't follow the conversation from there, as Remus, Lily and Mary talked about Muggle politics. He probably knew more than anyone in the Hall when it came to Wizarding politics, but he'd only just learnt the names of the muggle parties - and what parties even were.

He tried to listen to what they were saying, though. Both Remus and Lily seemed to dislike the Thatcher woman, and they were two of the smartest people he knew. If both of them didn't like her, he figured she was probably bad news.

February ended with a grim incident, just as it had started with one. The full that month was on the 26th, and it was a bad one.

Remus had managed to tear his stomach open, and was stuck in the Hospital Wing for three days as Madam Pomfrey healed him. He regained consciousness after one day, and tried to put on a brave face when the Marauders visited him, but it was obvious how much pain he was in.

Sirius knew that they needed an electrical storm, and soon. Remus had been right; as he was getting older, the bad moons were more and more common. Eventually, they would catch up to him, if the Marauders didn't get there first.

It was incredibly frustrating, and was making Sirius quick to anger. James and Peter were much more rational, and kept reminding him that getting angry wouldn't make a lightning storm come any quicker. Well, obviously Sirius knew that. But knowing that didn't make him feel better about how he was stuck, unable to do anything but wait, while Remus was in danger every single month.

March began with a Quidditch Match against Ravenclaw. Gryffindor continued their winning streak, and were already ahead on points when their Seeker caught the Snitch. Luckily, Sirius had had no reason to target Benjy during the match. He would have, if he'd had to, but it would have felt weird.