The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Agrafo Again

"He'd dead, Lily. Sirius went and saw the body!"

"I didn't feel him dying, Remus, he can't be. I know I would have felt it!"

"You said yourself just now, just a moment ago, that you felt something and then it just -- went away. That going away? That going away was him dying, Lily. You must have stopped feeling him because he stopped feeling what you were feeling from him."

"No, that's not -"

"LILY! He is already in denial. He doesn't need you making it worse. You have no idea how long we've struggled through Sirius's depression with this blasted Achyls. You have no idea. It goes back to fourth year --"

"I have no idea? Remus! Who do you think held him crying when you broke him in fifth! Me and James are the ones that took care of him all that term!"

"When I broke him?! Lily - he told Snape about me! About my furry little condition! He betrayed me!"

"He didn't intend to!"

"Oh so now you're on his side?"

"I'm not taking sides, Remus! That's not even what this is about, alright? It's about Regulus."

"It's about the fact that Sirius is in denial! He went and saw the body - hesaw the body, Lily. He saw it and he still denies that it's Regulus!"

"If Sirius says that wasn't his brother's body then I bloody believe him, and the fact that the magique amore corroborates the theory --"

"Which it doesn't as you said you cannot feel him now!"

"-- then yes, in this instance, I am taking Sirius's side."

Silence fell over the living room. Lily and Remus stood facing one another, each standing on either end of the coffee table, their hands on their hips. Peter sat awkwardly in the center of the couch, swallowing back anxiety and looking from one to the other and back again, his face pale and wide-eyed. When the silence fell, he continued looking between them, waiting for one of them to continue on. When neither did for several beats, he said, "Well, are you lot quite finished now?"

Remus sighed and Lily crossed her arms.

"Because it's really foolish, your fight is. And it isn't fair to Sirius! Only James has this right, going in there and just comforting him. You - you claim to be working love magic and yet you're out here fighting. And you - you're his bleedin' husband! But who is in there and being what Sirius needs? James is!" Peter was red in the face with anxiousness for speaking up, but he couldn't help himself. "Regulus was all our friend and maybe some of us are better able to process stuff that's happened than others of us, sure, but denial is a regular part of grief - if you all recall - and it's not fair to expect Sirius to process it all in just a few hours! Really, you lot, just - just - just shut up!!!"

Lily and Remus both looked abashed. Lily looked down at her feet and her arms fell from her chest to her sides, while Remus closed his eyes, frustrated with himself.

"Peter's right," Remus said.

Lily nodded, too choked up to speak.

"Thank you Peter," Remus added.

Peter nodded. "I'm sorry I got cross with you. I just - I think it was rather inappropriate."

"It was," Lily agreed. "I'm sorry, Remus. I'm sorry, Peter."

"I'm sorry, too, Peter," Remus paused, "And sorry to you, too, Mrs. Potter."

Lily smiled sadly and walked 'round the coffee table, wrapping her arms around Remus. "I don't think I've ever truly fought with you before."