The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Basic Human Rights

Lily sat on the floor in the bathroom, hugging the tiny blanket and boots to her chest. Beside her on the carpet lay the opened box of Tampax. She rocked the empty blanket in her arms, eyes closed. 

There was always next month, she told herself. They'd only just started, after all. Two weeks was barely anytime to have been trying, but it still hurt - even if she knew she was being silly. It was just as though she realized every day she wasn't pregnant yet was another nine months still to go before she could actually hold her Harry in her arms.

She'd been in there, rocking, for nearly an hour, so it wasn't really a surprise when there was a knock on the door and Lily wiped her eyes, tucked the blanket and boots in the trunk, and swept her wand to send the Tampax under the sink before she opened the door.

Dora stood on the other side and Lily apologized, waving Dora on to the loo. "Sorry, was just finishing up," Lily said forced a trembling smile and started to step around Dora, but Dora blocked her.

"Lily," she said, "I - I thought I heard you crying."

That was all it took.

Lily burst into tears and Dora wrapped her arms around her in bewilderment as Lily buried her face into Dora's shoulders. "Oh sweetheart," Dora said, and she drew Lily into the little powder room to the loveseat in the corner, kicking closed the door and holding her as Lily fell apart crying. Dora patted her shoulder and rocked her the very way Lily had been rocking that empty baby blanket and Dora stroked her hair softly. "What on earth is the matter, dear girl?" she asked.

"I don't know," Lily said honestly because as she cried she realized it wasn't truly the baby and the pregnancy she was sad over yet - it was Regulus that was going through her mind, and Regulus she was wishing she could hold and protect and Regulus whose memory kept breaking her heart.

Dora held her until her tears stopped pouring... which was a very long time indeed.

Remus was outside of the advisory office for placement for the summer courses at his university. He stared at the line where he'd written in the elective art class, then re-folded the form for the fifteenth time since he'd been sitting and waiting for his appointment. He looked nervously up at the ceiling.

Why did an art elective feel like such a wild and rebellious thing to do? he wondered. But it really did. It felt frivolous and insane and exciting - just the line of it on the form, nestled among a bunch of courses like "Engaging Young Learners in Defensive Theory", "Administration, Grading, and Curriculum Formation" and "Objective Teaching Theory 2" was "Creative Artistic Expression Drawing & Painting 101".  The course was at the local muggle college, too, not the wizarding university that he normally attended, and counted as 3 credits of Muggle Studies. 

"Remus Lupin?"

He looked up, the severe looking administrative advisor was standing in front of him, the woman who helped him choose his classes each term, and she was holding a thick folder in her arm. "Good afternoon, Ms. Leonard," he said, grabbing up his briefcase and following her into the office, "I appreciate you seeing me."

"I appreciate you coming in," she nodded for him to have a seat at a chair by her desk and he sat as she closed the door with a flick of her wand and went 'round to sit down and started spreading out the stuff in the folder.

It wasn't until she'd started spreading it out on the desk that he realized the thick folder she'd been carrying was stuff about him.

"So tell me, Mr. Lupin, what's been going on? I hear there's been some... discussion... about your attendance this year?"