metanoia

Chapter Seventy-two

"Look who it is, if it isn't Alex back from the Hospital Wing," Sirius sang happily, waving at the blonde as climbed through the portrait hole while he jumped onto one of the many couches in the Common Room. She sat between Remus and Dorcas, pulling her knees to her chest as the phantom pain of her new scar throbbed. Sirius noticed the twisted face she made, deciding to try and make her laugh to take her mind off it, "Did you hear the Snivellus got the rest of the school year's worth of detention for carving you like a Christmas ham." 

Alex politely smiled at the wild haired Gryffindor laying on the couch beside the fireplace, folding her hands in front of her, "Sirius, there are approximately 171,476 words in the English dialect, 47,156 obsolete words, and yet there are no amount of words in the universe to describe how badly I want to beat you upside the head with a chair for bringing it up."

"How do you possibly know that?" Remus gasped, choking on his laughter.

Alex looked away from Sirius, who's puckered face resembled that of a baby sucking on a lemon, to look at her cousin, "How do I know what?"

"How many words there are in the English language," James repeated, stifling his laughter.

Alex shrugged innocently as she pulled the blanket from off the back off the couch and wrapped it around herself, watching Kingsley and Frank descend from the staircase and join the group of their friends in the Common Room, "When I was six, I got bored and I memorized the dictionary. It was the only book in the house I hadn't read yet."

"Hey, I know this is an odd and random question," Kingsley started, listening to Frank and Marlene talk about how long it took for her forearm sleeve took to heal. "How many tattoos do all of you have? I know that almost all of you have them, I'm just curious."

Marlene sat up happily, ready to show off her many tattoos and adjusting her clothing to display them accordingly, "I have my phoenix. I got the Gryffindor emblem on my shoulder. Then this is my flower sleeve, Charlie did a lot of it and she added the astrological signs of me and all my siblings." 

"I only have one," Remus announced, earning murmurs of agreement from Peter and James about their matching tattoos with their Animagi. And the Prewett Twins also relayed the fact they only had one tattoo a piece, the tattoo being the matching Phoenixes they got with Marlene and Letti after their first Order Mission. 

Alex raised three fingers, not giving any effort to show Kingsley her three tattoos that all had a deep and personal meaning to them that she didn't care to explain. Letti also raised three fingers, pointing at each of them, "Three: my phoenix on my back, a howling wolf on my shoulder, and lightning on my thigh."

"What's that date mean?"

Letti looked down at her thigh, struggling to formulate the sentence that it was the date she became a werewolf and couldn't manufacture a lie fast enough. Sirius saw this hesitation and quickly sat up and pulled his shirt over his head, "This one's my latest piece, it actually hurt. I guess it's because it's on my ribs. They each did their initials with Charlie's help. Then my lion on my right arm, Canis Major and Leo constellations, and then a quote in Latin."

"I don't know how all of you got these tattoos, I definitely couldn't. I absolutely hate needles, if I were to try to get one I'd probably faint," Frank admitted, shivering at the thought of even going near a needle.

Kingsley turned to one of the only Hufflepuffs in their group, trying to include her in the conversation, "What about you, Meadows? Do you have any tattoos?"

Dorcas looked up from her hands that were intertwined with her girlfriend's, shaking her head and causing her hair to fall out of her ponytail, "No, I don't care much for tattoos. I was taught as a kid that you weren't to mark your body, to be grateful for what it does for you as God's given you."

"I didn't know you were religious."

The Hufflepuff Keeper shrugged, more aware of the feeling of her St. Anthony's pendant against her chest, "Despite the many contradictions my life has against the Catholic church,  I believe that God is in everything. That he put us here, in this War, in our lives for a reason. To help those around us."

 "You believe that God put us here, in the midst of this War, for a reason?"  

"Is it that far fetched to believe that there's a higher power out there that placed our souls in this moment in time? To help people, to try and save the world from the Wizarding World's version of Hitler?" Lily asked, having had similar thoughts and feelings about God and being in this World to Dorcas.

Sirius stared into the fire, considering what Dorcas and Lily were saying about a higher power and fulfilled a pre-planned destiny that it decides for you and lays out for you. Remus began picking at the hem of the blanket Alex shrouded herself in, knowing that he didn't believe in God or destiny but free will.

"Right, God put us in a War where half of us are being hunted down and killed for being different. If God had a hand in his, why hasn't he himself smited Voldemort himself? Why leave the fate of the World to a bunch of freaks?" Lisette scoffed, taking out her anger about how God didn't save her from becoming a werewolf, or being orphaned at such a young age that she couldn't even remember what her parents looked like, or being recruited to fight in a War that is trying to kill her for things she can't even control. "Witches and magic is a big no-no in the Bible, so why would he leave it to us and not fix things himself?"

"Religion is weird man," James dryly laughed, wiping the lens of his glasses with the end of Lily's shirt.

Peter couldn't stand the silence, it left him to his thoughts and fears about this War. He cleared his throat, staring at the fire and avoiding the eyes of his companions, "What if even if God put us here to help, we're on the wrong side? That we'll die in the process."

"Do you really want to be on the wrong side of history, just to save yourself from a death you might not even suffer?" Alex asked, meeting his eyes long enough for him to understand that she knew why he was asking.

"I'd rather die than be a Death Eater," Sirius  growled, thinking about the countless times in his childhood his parents would try and convince him to join the ranks. "If I die fighting in this War, trying to give our children a safe world to grow up in, then I'd say it was worth it."