Two Deaths Too Many
Nearly all the members of the Order of the Phoenix sat silently in the home of Edgar Bones, waiting rather impatiently for the others to arrive. It was the middle of the night in the middle of snowy January and they had all been awoken by Patronuses bearing the announcement to get to Edgar’s home as quickly as possible. Obviously something had happened and no one wasted any time in hurrying to Edgar’s. They were all in their night clothes. Some were slumped in the uncomfortable chairs around the dining room table, while others had curled up in the two armchairs, praying to catch a few more winks before the others arrived.
“Does anyone know what this is about?” James asked before breaking into a heavy yawn. He was seated on the floor, leaning back against the couch where Lily sat and Remus slept, slumped against the couch arm. Lily, her motherly instincts taking over, took one of the pillows and gently pulled Remus’s head up and slipped the pillow between his head and the arm. The full moon had only been the night before and Sirius had had every intention of sneaking out to go to the meeting alone, but he had been caught by his roommate, who insisted on coming along.
James hoped someone else had gotten a more detailed message than he had. Unfortunately, no one else had.
“Did I miss anything?”
James looked around to see Remus had woken up and was looking around the room with half opened eyes. James shook his head. “Nope, we’re still waiting for the others to get here. Go back to sleep; I’ll wake you when they get here.”
There was no time, however, for Remus to fall back asleep, as there were several cracks announcing the arrivals of those they had been waiting for. Dumbledore, Moody, Dorcas Meadows and Benjy Fenwick entered the room, all looking grim. Moody, Dorcas and Benjy also looked hurt. There was a trail of blood dripping down the right side of Moody’s already considerably scarred face. Benjy was cradling his left wrist delicately and Dorcas had a limp now. Gideon and Fabian instantly got up from their seats at the dining room table to let the two sit.
“What’s happened, Albus?” Elphias Doge asked the moment the four had settled themselves. The man seemed to pale when he caught the furious and upset look on Dumbledore’s face. Dumbledore rarely ever became so visibly upset. Something awful must have happened.
“We’ve just returned from the McKinnons’,” Dumbledore informed them gravely. It was only then that the others noticed that Marlene was absent from the assembly. No one had found that strange, or ominous, until now.
“What did you find?” Sirius asked from his seat beside James on the floor. He hoped nothing that happened to the woman.
“The Dark Mark was over her house,” Dorcas burst out, tears streaming down her face. She paused a moment to collect herself and then went on. “The Death Eaters got them all “ Marlene, her husband, her little boy.”
The silence that fell over the group was a heavy one. Marlene hadn’t been an old woman by any means. She had just gotten married only four years ago, given birth to her little boy Julian just two years before. She couldn’t be dead. The woman was a fighter. No one could imagine her dying so easily.
“The whole house was destroyed,” Moody barked furiously. Never had any of them seen him so mad. “The Dark Mark was over what was left of her house. She didn’t go down easily.”
“How could they kill them all?” Alice breathed; her eyes were wide and red. She didn’t understand it. Mr. McKinnon and the little boy hadn’t done anything to the Death Eaters. How could they kill a little boy?
“We think they used the two as bait to get to Marlene,” Benjy spat, utterly disgusted. “From the looks of her husband… they used the Cruciatus Curse on him, a lot. The little boy…” Benjy’s voice caught in his throat. He couldn’t even begin to describe what Julian McKinnon had looked like when they stumbled upon him. That would draw out a mother’s rage, no problem. Marlene was dead. They knew there was no chance they would all make it out of this war, but Marlene? It just didn’t feel real.
“What do we do now?” Lily asked quietly, her eyes red.
“How about we find the ones who did it and make them pay,” Sirius suggested hotly. Death Eaters had killed Marlene’s whole family! It wasn’t enough that they just got her; they had to go after her son and her husband. What kind of sick extremes would they keep going to so they could prove their point?
“And how are you going to know who it was that killed them?” Benjy questioned shortly, shifting in his seat so he was facing Sirius. “None of us was there when it happened; we have nothing to go off of. Not their behaviours, their spell casting techniques, no voices. How do you suggest we fight them?”
“So we let them get away with it?”
“Calm down, Padfoot,” James advised under his breath. It wasn’t going to help anyone if Sirius lost his temper.
“We will not let them get away with this, Sirius,” Dumbledore told him calmly. Only Dumbledore could be so calm when everyone around him was verging on hysterics. The Headmaster was upset; they knew this despite the fact that he masked it so well at the moment. “We will be investigating. Alastor has already begun this.”
Moody nodded fervently. “Any Aurors here are expected to help,” Moody warned them all darkly. “That includes trainees,” he added with a glance to Sirius, Alice and Frank. “Any Death Eaters we find, we learn what we can from them. Odds are there were plenty of them involved in this. Outnumbering Marlene was one of the only ways they could ever kill her.”
Two days later there was a quiet funeral service held for Marlene and her family. The Order was present, both as friends and as colleagues. It was unbearable to sit through. There were her family members, sobbing uncontrollably, trying desperately to understand why this fate had befallen the woman and her family. One witch, Marlene’s mother, lost control completely when she saw the casket of her grandson, little Julian McKinnon. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter felt uncomfortable there. They had no doubt admired the woman and could safely call her their friend, but they hadn’t been nearly as close with her as the rest of the Order was. They had just wanted to pay their respects.
It was a relief when the service was over. The boys and Lily could escape the crying family after telling them how sorry they were. They were only lucky that no one was in the right mind to ask how they even knew Marlene in the first place. They weren’t sure they could come up with a sufficient excuse on the spot, at least not one that anyone would believe. They weren’t nearly old enough to be schoolmates of hers. It was awful that they had to do this, go to the woman’s funeral. Even worse, they had to go to the funeral of her husband and her son at the same time. It seemed that Voldemort would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
Moody’s idea of investigating their murders turned out to be more difficult than he had originally planned. He was ruthless at it, going to any lengths to find out what he could, but there were no living witnesses of the attack. Marlene’s neighbors hadn’t heard anything, which made Moody consider that a Silencing Charm of some sort had been placed around the house or the victims. Moody liked to think that the charm had been placed on the victims; it would make everything more painful for them. Sirius, Frank, Alice and the other Aurors that were part of the Order worked alongside the man, hoping to find something that would aid them, but all their searches proved fruitless.
Despite their determined attitudes, it seemed that Marlene’s murderers would get away with it.
“How’s Healer training going?” Sirius asked his best friend one day in the middle of February. They had been on a walk through Hogsmeade when it started snowing violently, forcing them to duck into the Hog’s Head for cover. They now sat at the bar where Aberforth Dumbledore greeted them with an indifferent grunt and dropped two mugs of butterbeers in front of them.
“Brilliantly, actually,” James said, glad there was truth to his words. Healing came naturally to him and his father was extraordinarily helpful whenever he had questions and didn’t want to bother Healer Smethwyck with them. “Smethwyck says it’s just a matter of weeks now before I’m no longer a trainee.”
Sirius sipped his drink. “Lucky, I’ve got years to go before that.”
“Well you did want to be an Auror.” James shifted on the stool, taking another gulp of his butterbeer. “So… err… I need some advice.”
Sirius raised a curious eyebrow. James sounded unnaturally serious and uncertain. This should be interesting. “What about?”
“Lily and I… we’ve been going out for over a year now and I was thinking of…”
“Spit it out, James.”
“I want to ask her to marry me.”
Sirius choked on his butterbeer. Swallowing with great difficulty, he coughed for a moment before turning to his friend with a grin plastered on his face. “Really? That’s brilliant, mate!” It was about time. James had been in love with the woman since he was fifteen and now that they were finally in a good place, why shouldn’t they get married?
“Yeah, but I don’t know how to do it or when.” That was what James was stuck on. He knew he wanted to marry her; with the way things had been going in this war lately, there probably wasn’t that much time to think on it. He just didn’t know how to do it. He didn’t want to make it some overly romantic gesture. Lily wouldn’t go for that and it wasn’t him either. Hell, he had been nervous and completely unromantic the first time he kissed her. A wedding proposal was much more serious than that.
Sirius considered his friend’s question. From what he knew of Lily and just how much she loved his best friend, James could just catch her in passing and ask her to marry him like he was asking her if it was going to rain. He didn’t think James had to make any sort of big deal about it. “Just… feel the moment, I suppose,” he suggested with a shrug of the shoulders. “I’m sure however you pop the question, Lily will love it.”
“I guess you’re “ what?” James was distracted by a faint muffled voice coming from inside his pocket. The only thing he had in there aside from his wand was his two-way mirror. Sirius had the other mirror, but Sirius was sitting right there and obviously wasn’t using it. Pulling the mirror out, he was surprised to see Remus’s frantic face had filled the glass. Sirius must have left it at home and Remus found it. “Moony, what’s wrong?”
“Death Eaters in Diagon Alley!” Remus hissed, knowing that James and Sirius were out in public and he couldn’t risk being overheard.
“What?” Sirius and James snapped at the same time.
“Everyone’s on their way; get there now!” And Remus’s face disappeared from the mirror.
Sirius and James gaped at each other. This wasn’t the first time Death Eaters had attacked Diagon Alley, but it just seemed so strange for them to do it in the middle of February. Diagon Alley was a bustling street during the summer when students were heading back to school and needed to get their supplies. In the dead of winter, it wasn’t nearly so busy, save for the mothers who came with their small children and the shop workers. Then again, they knew they should have been grateful. There were no students to get caught in the crossfire this time.
Sirius and James couldn’t risk dragging Aberforth out with them; it would look far too suspicious for the barman to run out with two customers he was not supposed to know very well. So, as James threw some gold on the counter, he gave the man a knowing look that clearly told him something bad was happening and, if he could, to find out what was going on. James and Sirius hurried out of the pub and into the streets before Apparating to Diagon Alley.
When they appeared, chaos was already ensuing around them. There were explosions and jets of colourful light from the wand fire. There were screams filling the air. Smoke had already begun swirling about and, what was worse, it looked like the Death Eaters had recruited the help of the Dementors. These must have been Dementors outside of Ministry control. James and Sirius didn’t think there were any like that. The cloaked beasts were gliding through the cobblestone street, looking for prey.
This wasn’t good. With Dementors around, whoever they got too close to would relive their worst memories. What if some had particularly horrible memories? James and Sirius were reminded of their third year when they had tackled the Boggart in Handlin’s class. When James faced it, it had turned into a Dementor and Remus had passed out from it.
They all had terrible memories now… Who was to say they wouldn’t do the same if they got too close?
James and Sirius wasted no time in pulling out their wands and rushing into the fight. They could see the rest of the Order, already fighting, some already horribly wounded. But there was something different about the energy with which they fought “ it was unlike anything they had seen so far. It could only be attributed to them wanting to get revenge on the people who killed Marlene and her family. There was a loud shattering of glass as a spell shot through the window of the Apothecary, quickly followed by the sound of hundreds of glass potion bottles breaking, the pieces flying in every direction. James and Sirius instantly ducked and covered their heads to avoid getting cut.
There was no way they were going to manage to stay together in this mess. “Be careful, alright?” James said to Sirius, who nodded before they both broke off in different directions.
The shouting was ear numbing, the spells blinding. Sirius ran quickly, having spotted Peter in a situation with a Death Eater that looked like it could only end badly for his friend. At first Sirius thought it was just because the Death Eater was too strong for him, but on second look that wasn’t the case. Why wasn’t Peter fighting back? The spells his friend threw were childish ones, ones that first years threw at each other when they wanted to duel. They were nothing anyone should throw at a Death Eater, a bloody Dark wizard. It was only when Peter finally ran that Sirius focused his attention elsewhere.
There was a Death Eater fighting with Benjy Fenwick and Benjy looked like he couldn’t win this fight. Sirius rushed forward to help the man, but was thwarted by a Death Eater who had set his sights on him. “Bugger,” Sirius hissed. This was going to be a long day.
A green jet of light soared over James’s head and he nearly fell to his knees as he ducked to avoid it, the light instead breaking through the window of Eeylop’s Owl Emporium, the glass ricocheted everywhere and one of the owls inside the shop dropped to the ground, it was dead. James couldn’t help but gape at it; that could have been him. He tried in vain to block out the shouts of pain and surprise around him, fearful that one of them might belong to his best friends. So far he hadn’t seen any of them and he was terrified that something would happen to one of them.
The Order already had one death, they couldn’t stand another one so soon and James wouldn’t be able to take it if it was one of his best friends.
“Stupefy!” he shouted and a stream of red issued from the tip of his wand, flying towards a Death Eater who had been advancing upon a little boy who seemed to be crying for his mother, completely unaware of what was coming at him. Merlin help the person who decided to hurt a child. The Death Eater dropped to the ground, clearly not expecting an attack from that direction, and James took the opportunity to run to the little boy.
“You can’t find your mum?” he asked hurriedly, trying to seem kind and friendly. For all the child knew, James could have been one of the bad guys, even if he wasn’t wearing a mask. The frightened boy shook his head, emitting a squeal of terror as another spell shot over his head. James saw that they were standing in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies and he said, “Get in there and stay there, don’t leave until this is all over.” The boy didn’t waste any time in doing as James said.
Merlin he hoped the boy would listen and not go running for his mother.
“James!”
James spun around and saw, with vast relief, that it was Lily running towards him. Her hair was disheveled, her face was covered in soot and her robes were torn in places, but otherwise she appeared to be unhurt.”Lily, what started this?”
Lily shook her head. “No one knows! I was at work when I got the message to come here, not that I needed it, I heard the shouts.” The Daily Prophet office was in Diagon Alley after all, but whoever had sent her the message must not have known she would be at work. There was an explosion from somewhere down the alley. “This is bad, James.” The way Lily said it indicated the worst, indicated that not everyone was going to get out of this fight alive.
“I know,” he said quickly, knowing that he had a very important question to ask her and it couldn’t wait any longer. “And, just in case I don’t get to ask you later, would you marry me, Lily?” And he ran off, spotting Remus trying, and failing, to fend off two Death Eaters at once. Lily just stood there, her mouth hanging open. Did James just propose to her?
She didn’t have the time she would like to dwell on that. The next moment, the window display behind her collapsed and she ran after the masked figure that did it.
“You Death Eaters must be really tough!” James spat angrily as he shot a spell at one of the Dark wizards dueling his friend. “Two on one? That’s a fair fight!” He aimed his wand at the Death Eater and shouted, “Rictusempra!” The spell hit the figure dead in the stomach and he doubled over, cackling hysterically as the spell relentlessly tickled him, so much that he couldn’t breathe properly. “Mate, you’re bleeding.” There was a trickle of blood coming down from Remus’s hairline.
“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt,” was all Remus said before throwing a spell at the Death Eater he was battling. The spell successfully tossed the masked figure off his feet and down to the ground where it looked like he was suffering from multiple electrical shocks. Remus barely had time to marvel at the effect that spell had before he was distracted by a short shout from behind him. The Death Eater James had hexed was over it and had dragged James to the ground.
Apparently Muggle dueling wasn’t out of the question.
“Come on, Peter, you have to fight!” Sirius urged his friend, who seemed he would rather run than stay and battle these people. On the one hand, Sirius couldn’t blame him. It was beyond terrifying to be in this situation. On the other hand, these were the people who had murdered Marlene and her family, had murdered countless other people, including Peter’s father, and they weren’t going to get away with it. But Peter was barely giving it a try at all. He was a talented wizard, much better than what he was showing. What was his problem?
“I am fighting, Sirius!” Peter shot back, sending a Jelly Legs Jinx at one of the Death Eaters. The spell went wide, however.
Sirius so desperately wanted to say that Peter wasn’t trying, but he bit his tongue. Peter had been far too touchy lately and anymore comments on his dueling abilities would only worsen that. But, honestly, something had to be done and Sirius was taking matters into his own hands before Peter got himself killed. “Petrificus Totalus!” The Death Eater who had been battling with Sirius stiffened into a board and fall backwards with a satisfying thud on the cobblestones.
“I can defend myself!” Peter suddenly snapped, rounding on Sirius.
“Yeah, you were doing a real good job of it!” Sirius shot back. Was Peter seriously about to tell him off for defending him? If that was the case, he wasn’t having it. Merlin forbid he defend his friend. But Peter said nothing else and merely hurried off, whether to fight some more or to run and hide, Sirius didn’t much care right now.
There were dozens of shouts as the ground rocked beneath their feet, sending Madam Malkin’s store front collapsing, wooden splinters shooting everywhere, at anyone within reach. There had been so many explosions already, so many things destroyed, no one was about to think twice until someone shouted that someone had been caught in that. But no one had time to clear the debris, not when the Death Eaters weren’t relenting. It didn’t matter to them whether or not anyone was crushed by an entire storefront. In fact, they probably reveled in it. They may have killed someone else.
The spells continued to fly. People were running without any knowledge of where they were going, just trying to get away from the disaster. The Order of the Phoenix couldn’t run and had to help those who had to while trying to protect themselves at the same time. Some of the Order was already down for the count. Dorcas had broken her ankle and was trying to fight while balancing on her good foot until Elphias, who was bleeding heavily from his arm, stopped her and dragged her to safety. Gideon and Fabian both were knocked unconscious and had been rescued by Edgar Bones before the Death Eaters they had been battling could finish them off. Things weren’t looking good.
Until all the Death Eaters Disapparated, the Dementors fleeing along with them. No one could quite figure out why, but it didn’t matter. They were gone and, for the moment, Diagon Alley was safe.
There was barely an inch of the cobblestone street that was not covered with some sort of debris “ shards of glass, splintered wood, human blood. The civilians that had been caught in the battle all had similar looks of disbelief on their faces, as if they could not believe that they had made it out. James noticed the little boy he had forced into Quality Quidditch Supplies was being carried off by his mother and a surge of relief swelled within him. At least he had helped to save one mother from the pain of losing her child.
There were others who weren’t so lucky.
“Sweet Merlin,” James whispered, utterly sickened, when he saw a little girl lying on the ground. There was barely a mark on her and he knew she was the victim of a wayward Killing Curse. He didn’t want to be there when her parents showed up and he instantly hurried to find Dumbledore. Dumbledore could handle a situation like that. Not James. James was only eighteen; he didn’t know how to break that kind of news. When he found Dumbledore, it was by what was, he supposed, Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor. The store was charred from flames.
Most of the Order was already there. He could see Sirius sitting on the ground, nursing his arm, which was horribly bruised. Remus sat beside him, a handkerchief he had gotten from somewhere pressed against his head, red already badly staining it. Peter stood beside them, looking shaken and soot covered his robes, but he appeared to be unhurt. James’s eyes sought Lily; the sight of her would quell the storm raging in his stomach. She came up beside him just when he began to panic because he could not see her.
“Don’t you dare run off on me like that again,” she hissed furiously in his ear. He asks her to marry him and then runs off like that? What was he playing at?
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t leave Remus to fight two Death Eaters at once,” James hissed back defensively. He couldn’t let his friend get hurt like that, and those Death Eaters were mental. The bruise blooming on his cheek was proof of that.
Lily’s tone softened. “I know. I was just scared.”
The two continued to take in the injuries their comrades had suffered. Gideon and Fabian were just coming around, looking horribly dazed. Edgar Bones stood close beside them, ready to help them if they needed it. Dorcas’s ankle had been healed by Elphias, who had bandaged up his own bleeding arm as well.
“I’m going to see if I can do anything to help,” James told Lily, pulling out his wand and kneeling down beside Gideon to see if his head injury was worse than they might know. He had never been so grateful for his Healer training.
“Albus,” Elphias piped up suddenly. “Where’s Benjy?”
All the Order that had been called to fight was there, except Benjy Fenwick. He was always there when the fight ended, ready to aid his fellow Order members if they needed it. It was unsettling to see that he wasn’t with them right now. He had been there; there had been several Order members who had seen him. But not for a while now. “Emmeline, Sturgis, Frank, Alice, come with me,” Dumbledore ordered. The other were injured and needed to rest, and those who weren’t hurt could help them.
The five set out to find Benjy, though the only problem was that they couldn’t begin to think of where to look. There were the dead that hadn’t been claimed yet still lying on the ground, something that was sickening to see, especially to the newest Order members. Frank walked with an arm around Alice, who was deathly pale. Dumbledore knew they were going to have to deal with the family of the dead soon. He would, anyway. He wouldn’t put that responsibility on the rest of the Order.
They soon found themselves near the ruins of Madam Malkin’s. The collapse… if anyone had been under that, it would be a miracle if they survived, let alone survived intact. “Professor,” Frank said slowly. “I was over here when this happened… someone said that there was someone caught under this.” The fear was evident in his voice. Benjy was missing. Without thinking, Frank hurried forward and began throwing the debris aside. It wasn’t long before he was joined by the others; even Dumbledore was furiously trying to see just who it had been that suffered the collapse of the store.
It was only Alice’s shriek that alerted them to the answer.
She had stumbled upon a hand. A single hand. And not too far from that hand was half of a wand, a wand that was only too familiar to them all.