“No one invited me, either,” added Peter, taking real offence.
“And a good thing too,” decreed James. “We wouldn’t have wanted anyone getting hurt!”
“Absolutely not!” agreed Sirius, clapping James on the back.
Jocelyn and Remus exchanged grins. Lily rolled her eyes.
“I’m sure I could handle a couple dozen Death Eaters if you can, Potter,” she said in a crushing tone, but she grinned at him to show she was joking. “And if I couldn’t you could always rescue me.” She batted her eyes at him. “Oh, James!” she squealed in a high-pitched, overly girly voice. “My hero!”
Everyone laughed.
“Any time, oh lovely Lady Lily,” James replied grandly.
“No thanks,” answered Lily coolly.
“Actually, I didn’t do much,” James admitted after a moment. “It was all Sirius’s doing. If he hadn’t come when he did and disarmed all the Death Eaters…” he trailed away, unwilling to finish the sentence.
Sirius flushed.
“It was nothing,” he mumbled. “Those Death Eaters couldn’t have been too bright or very well trained to not know the mass disarming spell. That’s Dark Magic 101.”
“It frightens me that you know all this,” Lily told him frankly.
“Didn’t you listen to anything I told you about my family?” Sirius questioned. “We were Dark Arts University!”
“I know, I know,” said Lily, holding up her hands in surrender. “I’m just saying….”
The fluttering of wings suddenly filled the Great Hall.
“Mail’s here,” James announced obviously.
A black owl fluttered down next to Sirius. Sirius and Jocelyn stared at it for a moment, and then their eyes met.
“No!” Sirius whispered, paling.
“What’s up?” questioned James, looking concerned.
But Sirius didn’t answer. He had opened the letter and was reading it, his face going whiter with each line. When he reached the bottom of the letter he threw it down, swearing loudly. James picked it up and looked questioningly at Sirius, who nodded slowly. Jocelyn and James leaned together to read it.
My dearest cousin,
My master informed me early this morning of your little run-in with some of his servants. If you are feeling cocky about your victory, be warned! We are still more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Even inside your precious school with your Mudblood-loving fool of a headmaster you are not safe. Our spies are everywhere. Remember: when my master and I come for you there will be no escape. Say hello to Adhara for me.
~ Bellatrix
James swore. Jocelyn had gone as white as Sirius.
“What did she mean by ‘Say hello to Adhara for me’?” she asked shakily.
James, meanwhile, was mutilating his ham.
“This is “” he said jerkily, slashing the meat “ “all my” “ slash “ “fault!” “ slash “ “If I hadn’t” “ slash “ “been there” “ slash “ “you wouldn’t” “ slash “ “have had to” “ slash “ “fight them” “ slash “ “and no one” “ slash “ “would be in this” “ slash “ “situation!” “ slash. Remus, apparently afraid James might start attacking actual people, grabbed James’s wrist and gently removed his knife from his hand.
“Don’t be stupid!” growled Sirius. “How were you to know they were going to be there? How were any of us to know?”
Lily was looking around at all three of them, thoroughly perplexed.
“What’s going on?” she asked them.
Remus glanced down at the letter in front of James. He only had to read the signature to understand.
“Sirius got a letter from his cousin Bellatrix,” he explained.
Lily frowned.
“So?” she said. She didn’t understand what could possibly be so upsetting about getting a letter from one’s cousin.
“Didn’t you listen to anything I told you?” Sirius bellowed at her. “Bella’s not what you’d call a warm, friendly person to be around! This” “ he waved the letter in her face “ “isn’t just a nice little note to say hello!”
“It’s a threat,” Remus translated, because Lily still looked confused, “because of last night.”
“What about last night?”
Jocelyn groaned and buried her face hopelessly in her hands. James clenched his fists. He finally understood why Lily could frustrate Sirius.
“Bella’s not happy that we sent some of her murdering pals to Azkaban!” he shouted. “Is that clear enough for you?”
If the shocked expression on Lily’s face was any indication, it was.
Sirius and James strolled around the grounds together after breakfast in silence. Sirius was thinking.
What were the Death Eaters doing in Hogsmeade last night? he asked himself. And why were they after James?
Sirius frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to him.
Or… were they after James?
Sirius thought back to the night before. The Death Eaters hadn’t come out of the shadows until James had gone outside. And yet…
What if it was a trap to lure me, Remus, and Jocelyn outside. They know we’re his best mates…. But then, why wouldn’t they have just attacked us as soon as we’d arrived?
Sirius’s frown deepened. He felt as though he were screwing up his whole brain in concentration.
Remus and Jocelyn made a fairly easy getaway, so they can’t have really been after either of them. It seems obvious they were after James because they attacked him. But they might have attacked him knowing I would come help him, and so it was really only to lure me outside. But why would they be after me? Actually, why would they be after either of us?
Sirius thought back to the letter he had gotten from Bellatrix that morning. It had been addressed to him and hadn’t even mentioned James, which probably meant “
“What are you going to do about Bellatrix?” asked James suddenly, interrupting Sirius’s thoughts.
“What can I do?” growled Sirius angrily. “I’m here and she’s “ well, I don’t even know where she is,” he said hopelessly.
James gave a wry smile.
“Too close for comfort, and yet too far away to take care of,” James observed. “Bit ironic, wouldn’t you say?”
“Bit ironic, yeah,” agreed Sirius.
“We’ll need to work out a plan, then,” James reasoned. “Put our heads together. You know what they say: ‘Two Marauders are better than one!’”
And that, Sirius reflected, completely forgetting about the Death Eaters, was a fact that no one could dispute.
Transfiguration class on Monday was the best class Sirius had had since he’d come to Hogwarts. He wasn’t sure what made it so wonderful. Whether it was passing notes to Jocelyn, or transfiguring his desk perfectly on the first try, or goofing off with James. Probably it was all of those things combined. Mostly, though, it was simply the feeling that everything was back to normal. Professor McGonagall smiled for the first time in weeks when she saw Sirius and James were no longer taking notes.
“Black! Potter! Pay attention!” she reprimanded them, but everyone could tell she was actually quite pleased. In fact, she was so pleased with Sirius’s pig that she gave both him and James the night off homework.
“You have quite enough to be getting on with,” she said coldly, but they both caught the twinkle in her eyes, and the reason for it.
Wow, this fighting with James stuff really pays off for you! ~ J.B.
Sirius read the note Jocelyn had passed him, then looked over at James. He had too much pride to reply. At least, not with the answer he was thinking. Which was that he liked being on speaking terms with James far too much to risk their friendship again; not even for a reprieve from homework for the rest of his life and all Outstanding N.E.W.T.s.