The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

The Moment They Would Never Forget

The Moment They Would Never Forget

Bilius turned, aiming his wand in the general direction of a large bush, his ginger hair looking nearly purple under the pale blue of the moonlight. "Watch it," Derek hissed through the dark, knocking the tip of Bilius's wand away from his chest.

"Sorry," Bilius whispered, "I thought you were an Inferius. It's too bloody dark to see anything."

Chriselda said, "Shhh."

The two boys fell silent.

They were in the trees near a field that lined the back of a small muggle farm house in the country, just north of London. The Inferius had been reported not far from there, and the members of the Resistance had spread out across a wide area in hopes of capturing the inferius before they could harm any of the muggles. They could just barely make out the shape of Ted Tonks and Professor Flitwick across the field.

"Did you hear that?" Chriselda asked, her voice barely a breath. She looked 'round at Bilius and Derek.

Bilius listened. "I don't hear anything."

Derek hesitated, then shook his head, "No... No, Chriselda's right. I do hear something."

Bilius turned to cover their backs. "Something like a cursed dead body moving through the trees seeking human flesh to feed upon?" he asked, a nervous twinge to his voice.

Chriselda laughed quietly in spite of herself at the specificness of the question.

"Dunno if that's exactly it, mate, but it's a sound," Derek answered. He raised his wand with his left hand and reached his other back to grab hold on Chriselda's free hand. Their fingers intertwined.

A long, tense moment passed and then a branch moved and Bilius rose his wand high, taking aim, prepared to throw a hex when he realized it was McGonagall whose neck he was aiming at and he quickly lowered his wand.

"Anything, Professor?" Derek asked.

"Not yet," she replied. She glanced back over her shoulder into the darkness where she'd left her search party - a small cluster that included Charlus Potter. "We're going to be spreading out a wee bit more," McGonagall explained, "We want you lot to stay here, guard the muggle home, and send a patronus if you need help."

"Yes m'am," Derek agreed.

"We're not going too far, just over this ridge." She pointed.

"We've got it covered," Bilius said, saluting as though he were in a military.

McGonagall nodded and disappeared back through the trees as nearly silent as she'd been before. They heard a series of cracks through the trees - the party had disapparated - and Chriselda sat down on a fallen log with a sigh. Derek lowered himself beside her, pulling him into him so that her head rested against his chest as they waited in the dark, Bilius standing sentinal.

"So this has been going on nearly all term, has it?" Bilius asked, glancing at the two of them as Derek's hand closed over Chriselda's shoulder, holding her near.

Derek nodded, "Just about. I've been sneaking out after you and Alex had fallen asleep and we'd been meeting down by the greenhouses or in the little shed by the gates."

"And nobody caught on to you, through all of that?" he asked, shaking his head.

"Well McGonagall did, around Christmas. That's why I was put on probation," Chriselda explained, "For seeing a student. It's not technically allowed, you see. But then Derek came of age and he proposed. Once he was of age and we were engaged, then it wasn't such a problem any longer and the probation ended."