Accio Evans

Chapter 42: Tied Hands

Recap: James receives a letter from his father, explaining briefly that Marlene had been arrested but she had now been released, he and Sirius are very confused. Sirius makes to send an angry owl to Marlene to demand what is going on but is stopped by James who knows Marlene will need time. James explains to Lily the intricate family tree of some named Purebloods as well as his own. Jessica is pulled from Potions class and receives news her mother's body has been found, she runs and hides in the room of requirement to grieve. Her friends find out the news from her two brothers who run into Hestia and Alice on the way back to Hogsmeade to apparate home. Her friends are very worried about her. Sirius then receives an unknown letter; it is from Marlene and details her arrest and the events previous. James lets slip about the Marauders Map and Remus suggests they look in the Room of Requirement, the others disregard his idea but Remus goes anyway and finds Jessica there. She is grieving but holds a letter in her hand, she has been offered a position as the Holyhead Harpies reserve seeker, Remus is ecstatic, as is Jess, although she wishes she had her parents to share the news with.

He wasn't sure how she did it, but even after she had cancelled her subscription to the Daily Prophet, she always managed to get her hands on a copy. This time the name scrawled across the top was so illegible that even James couldn't read it, this time there was no-one to blame. As Lily's eyes scanned the pages laid out across her Head Girl desk, her eyebrows lifted, so much so that if this carried on, they'd end up in her hairline. James studied her for a moment before interrupting; her auburn hair fell in huge curls that cascaded around her shoulders, her green eyes glittered as she read the printed word but her shoulders had sagged, her body language showed her depression, life inside the castle may not have been too bad for a muggle born witch, but life on the outside was completely different; the house tensions that simmered uncomfortably inside the castle were nothing compared to the world outside, in which instead of throwing dung bombs, they threw curses and instead of getting detention, you ended up dead... James wasn't very good at reading upside down from across the room, but the word death stood out clear as day, and it wasn't hard to work out why.

"Please don't read that." James begged, leaning back in his chair, the paperwork in front of him discarded. Lily's eyes lifted slowly from the page to James' face, seated behind his desk. She gave him a disapproving look before returning her eyes to the page. Merlin she was stubborn James mused, with a small smile and a shake of his head.

"Fine." She breathed, pushing the paper from her reach a moment later. The confusion was evident across James features.

"What?" he questioned his tone disbelieving.

"I don't want to read it any more. It's all about people dying and people going missing and it's horrible." She concluded with a sigh. "There's a small write up about Jessica's mum though," she added "not very flattering, so I won't elaborate." James sighed, they'd expected so much. Jessica had been informed of the death a day previous and was still in the hermit phase of denial; she'd been curled up in her bed all day and had missed a whole day of NEWT classes, her friends had brought her the work, but they were very doubtful she'd even look at it. She'd emerged this evening, just as James and Lily were going to fulfil their paperwork in the Heads office looking slightly perkier than she had before, but even that wasn't a great improvement. She had however, happily accepted the food they'd smuggled out from the Great Hall during dinner and munched on it enthusiastically.

The Head students fell into silence, the situation with Jessica's mother had highlighted that even prominent Purebloods were not safe from the prejudicial wrath. Lily worried for James' safety, would he be safe around her? If he was seen with her? If Voldemort found out that James was in love with her, would he target James? She'd voiced her concerns once, late at night on a patrol round the seventh floor corridor, James had laughed and brushed them off, deciding that his heritage as a Potter would make him a target anyway, an old, rich and influential Pureblood family who have a fondness for muggles? Easy targets. Although Lily had calmed slightly at that, she was still immensely worried, part of her told to let go of James, allow him to be safe, but the selfish part of her brain refused, she loved James so much, she couldn't imagine life without his warm embrace, the way he'd look at her and make her knees wobble or the way he kissed her as if she was the most precious thing in the world, it made her head spin just thinking about it.