A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Forty Four

It was the first Order meeting that they had had in awhile, and Sirius had generously offered up their home for the members to congregate. Remus didn't show up right away, instead he was one of the last members to arrive. Marlene thought it might be strategic on his part; he'd have less opportunity to be ambushed, and nobody wanted to deal with another outburst from Sirius. It was obvious Sirius wasn't happy about his arrival, but thankfully for all parties present he said nothing when Remus walked in through the front door and took a seat on the opposite side of the room next to Peter.

Though Sirius had jokingly referred to the gathering as a housewarming party, it was quickly apparent by the grave atmosphere that followed Frank and Mad Eye Moody's late arrival that something bad had recently transpired.

"Well they got Benjy," Mad Eye said blunt and emotionless. "Blasted to bits by the looks of it. Only been able to find the pieces..."

Marlene truly hadn't been feeling well all day, but at the news of Benjy's unfortunate fate she felt her stomach turn. Thankfully she was already seated, because she was pretty certain she might not have remained upright if she wasn't.

"Thomas too," Frank added. Despite the heavy warning on his safety, he and Alice had chosen not to go into hiding, and Frank was still actively employed with the Ministry. "But we got Rosier and Wilkes."

"Captured?" One of the Prewitt brothers chimed in. She didn't care to pay attention to which one because she had her eyes clenched tightly together and was trying hard to focus on keeping her supper down.

Mad Eye replied gruffly, "Dead. Good riddance."

Dumbledore had been quiet all evening but finally it was his turn to actively engage in the conversation. "When did this happen?" Marlene opened her eyes to see her former headmaster looking contemplative, stroking his long beard as he listened to the ongoing discussion.

"A couple of hours ago," Mad Eye replied. Marlene felt another wave of nausea at the thought of blood and bits of body parts scattering the ground. Mad Eye's magical eye swivelled around the room to look at her, while his other good eye remained locked on Dumbledore. She quickly looked away from him, feeling as though he was suddenly able to read her mind.

"We got an anonymous tip and were ambushed during a Ministry raid," Frank added when Mad Eye did not elaborate. The conversation took off from there and thankfully Sirius kept his mouth shut with any conspiracy theories about Remus.

Later, after members began to depart and Marlene had successfully thwarted Emmeline's attempts to pry information out of her, did Remus approach her cautiously.

He looked terrible; dark circles under his eyes gave the impression that he too hadn't been sleeping well. Though that wasn't atypical for Remus, he looked remarkably more stressed and worn out than usual. Kindly he asked, "How are you doing?"

She smiled feebly at him and did her best to lie, knowing that it wouldn't do much good. "I'm doing okay"

"You know, you've never been very good at lying," he said pointedly, calling her out. The warmth of blood rushing to her cheeks would inevitably give away her guilt to his accusation. She felt the pull of her skin on her forehead as she frowned, feeling frustrated at her inability to fool him.

Instead of denying it she merely sighed and allowed the muscles of her face to relax. "No that is true," she said quietly.

"So how are you really doing?"

"I'm incredibly stressed out, depressed, and frustrated," she admitted. "And I'm damn near exhausted and just really looking forward to going to sleep tonight."