The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

This Go Around

This Go Around

The owl post arrived while they continued on eating, and James's heart leaped with excitement when he saw Bubo flapping down through the midst of the owls fluttering about from the ceiling of the Great Hall. He held out his arms for the owl and eagerly untied the letter from 'round her leg before she'd even properly landed on his shoulder. He was so pleased to see his father's handwriting on the scroll he'd extracted that he gave Bubo a strip of bacon. He unraveled the scroll and read over the note within - it was just a generic letter, nothing of importance, nothing special, but James swore he would keep it forever, and he read it over several times in a row, clutching it like it was a precious stone. They weren't captured. They aren't in danger. And what's more, Dad's written me himself, so he must be doing alright. He's not laying in dirty straw in the dark and mire like he was last time I saw him. James was so relieved.

Suddenly his finger was nipped and he looked down as a bit of blood was drawn to see there was the owl carrying the Daily Prophet, which Remus had already picked up and shaken out to look at. James stuck his finger into his mouth and reached into his robes for one of the sickles he had in his pocket. He slipped one into the owl's pouch and pulled the finger from his mouth as the owl flew away.

"Anything exciting in there today, Moony?" asked Peter anxiously, looking up from his hash.

"Minchum's scheduled a ceremony to honor Mad-Eye," he said, "Now that he's feeling a bit better."

James looked up. "Wait. Minchum's back?"

All three of them turned to look at him.

"Has been, hasn't he?" said Remus slowly.

"Hit'cha head or something, Prongs?" Sirius asked, a smirk twitching over his lips.

"No - I --"

"All the galleons they gave him are so heavy they've dragged his brains down," Peter joked quietly, smirking into his breakfast.

"Yes, I s'pose that too much attention will do that to a lad," Sirius snickered.

James's eyes met Remus's. Remus's eyebrows etched deeply with concern. James quickly looked away, not wanting to be questioned too much; he laughed, too, and waved it off... He was going to have to get better at pretending he knew what was going on or he was going to be found out - and he didn't know what would happen if somebody knew what he'd done. He only knew that Dumbledore had very specifically told him not to tell anyone. And so he tried very hard not to look Remus Lupin in the eye for the rest of breakfast... which was a good deal harder than it might normally have been, for Remus never looked away.

The day in Hogsmeade was quite different this go around. For one, there were no errant first years sneaking about in their midst, so there was no Oliver Kent coming running after them. James wasn't dressed up because he wasn't on his way to meet Lily Evans at the Three Broomsticks, and Peter wasn't going to be alone wandering about the village aimlessly.

Quite the opposite, it seemed that Peter was actually sort of fitting in better than he usually did, James thought, especially with Sirius, who kept putting his arm about Peter's shoulders and high-fiving him when he might have normally given James a high-five, or put his arm about Remus's shoulders. There was a strange air to it, too, as though there was something between Remus and Sirius that wasn't being spoken about, but acted a bit like a wedge. The pair of them seemed to be on tenterhooks with one another, and Peter was walking a fine line between them, carefully staying out of whatever it was that was keeping Remus's eyes from ever meeting Sirius's and making Sirius talk with a bit of a condescending air whenever he directed conversation in Remus's direction.