The news that James Potter's parents had passed away, along with some Ministry folk, raced through Hogwarts as soon as term resumed. The stories on how they had died varied, with the majority drawing back to there being a newly appointed Minister of Magic at long last. After that, however, the stories went awry, and strayed far from the truth.

Severus knew exactly what had happened to the Potters. It had been described to him in explicit detail by the very perpetrator. Anton Windstrum, Severus' Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, had really been a Death Eater. The thought amused Severus to no end.

But Severus didn't care about the death of the Potters, not even in the slightest.

News had travelled to Spinner's End, before the end of the break, that Mr and Mrs Evans had been mugged, killed in the street.

It had been shocking, and devastating for Severus to hear. He had been so tempted to make that short trip to Lily's house, to see her, comfort her. But he knew that she wouldn't want him to, as much as it pained him to admit. So he had kept his distance.

He wasn't sure what he'd do when he saw her at school. Poor, poor, beautiful girl. He knew she would be a mess, and longed to help her, for she would certainly need his help. But she wouldn't want it, so he could not give it.

How cruel was the world to stop him from helping her when she would surely need him dearly?

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"Oh, that's good." Lily cleaned the meat off a bone, and picked up the next one. "So good."

Alice looked at her amusedly. "Glad to see you've got your appetite back."

"Being an orphan makes me quite hungry, I've found." She ripped meat off with her teeth. "'Tuney disagrees, but what does she know?"

"Well," said Alice, smiling warmly, "I'm quite glad that you and your sister have finally made up."

Alice and Marlene had visited Lily over break, when she was still at the bottom of an immensely deep hole of sorrow, and she could tell they'd been incredibly relieved to see her this morning so buoyant.

"I'm not sure if 'made up' is entirely accurate," said Lily, "but she doesn't seem to hate me anymore, which I could not be happier about."

"And if you're happy, then that's all that-" Alice frowned. "Where's Marlene?"

Lily moved on to the next bone. "Take a guess."

"With Black? Already?"

"Mhm."

"Merlin." Alice sighed, then asked Lily quietly, "Do you think she'll call off her engagement? To the rich bloke?"

"William?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know," said Lily, pausing her feast. The rest of the Great Hall was fairly empty by now, as lunch had started well over an hour ago. She grimaced. "I really hope she does. We can only keep encouraging her, I guess."

Alice nodded. "She should not marry someone just because her parents tell her to."

Lily shrugged. "I won't pretend to understand Pureblood culture. You'd know better than I whether or not Marlene sees that as an option."

"Yeah." Alice looked sad. "I don't think she does."

They ate quietly for a little while. Eventually, Lily finished her meal and held out her hands. Alice waved her wand, and all the grease and little bits of food vanished, leaving Lily's hands spotless, as though taken from under a tap.

"Alright," said Lily, clapping, "now I need to find Potter."

Alice nodded sadly. "You've heard the news?"

"I have. I don't know what on earth the odds are that this could happen to the both of us within the same week, but I need to see him. As soon as humanly possible."

"He might not even be here. He wasn't on the train."

"Neither was Black," said Lily, "but that one's already managed to make himself quite busy. No, the two of them must have Floo'd here. He'll be around." Lily stood and started walking.

"Happy hunting," Alice called after her.

Lily tapped two fingers to her temple in salute.

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Sirius and Marlene looked up at the ceiling. They lay, side by side, on the floor of one of the castle's many secret passageways, one that Sirius knew only someone privy to the secrets of the Marauder's Map could find.

Their hands were intertwined.

"How are you, really?" Marlene asked. "I know you viewed them as your own parents."

"I'm… coping."

She turned her head to him, cheek touching the hardwood floor. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She leaned forward and kissed his nose. "Good."

"You know, I only ever saw Mr Potter cry once." The ceiling was blank, but Sirius looked up at it like a canvas. "It was the night I ran away. My dad had slashed me up. Cuts all over. Then he got tired of flicking his wrist, so he curled his fingers and made do with his knuckles."

"Fucking bastard…" Marlene's voice was soft, filled with venom and a struggle to comprehend the horror.

"My worthless House-elf, Kreacher, had cleaned my room and found pictures, taken in Fourth Year, of me with a Muggle girl. A nice girl. Catherine. Not a girlfriend by any means, but a decent snog."

Marlene snorted, and stroked the back of his hand with her thumb.

"The beating came soon after. It's funny. James told me, a few weeks into our First Year, after I described to him what it was like at my home, he told me to pack a bag. Pack a bag, and at Christmas break you're moving into mine. I knew he meant it. It meant the world. And though I didn't take him up on it then, my bag had been packed since that day. In my room, under my bed. So when my old man was finished imparting his lesson of blood and bruises onto me, I grabbed that bag, and the next thing I knew I was on the doorstep to Potter Manor."

"That must have been so hard to do."

"It…"

Come with me! Regulus, come with me!

I- I don't-

Reg!

"It was hard, yeah. I wish I could say otherwise, but it wasn't an easy decision to make."

"It was the right one, though."

Sirius smiled. "Yeah." His thoughts swirled upon the surface of the ceiling. "So Mr Potter cried that night. I had expected fury, expected him to break down my family's front door and bring his wrath down upon them. Instead, when he opened his own front door, and looked at my bruises and cuts, he snatched me up and held me in his arms the way Orion Black never had. Rubbed my back and cried with me. For me. My father had told me men never cry, never show weakness. We are not sentimental or tender. Everything I know about what it means to be a man, I learned from Fleamont Potter."

"He was a great man," said Marlene, her voice soft.

"Yeah. And the next day was when I glimpsed the fury. After they'd settled me in, gave me a room, made sure I was okay, Mr and Mrs Potter led a team of Aurors into Grimmauld Place. Mrs Potter wasn't even an Auror." He let out a bark of laughter. "But I heard she was fierce. Slapped my mum clean across the face. My father was arrested. Beaten by Mr Potter in a duel that, according to the stories, lasted a matter of seconds. Mr Potter dug up a variety of charges against him, that had been stacked up over the years, as child abuse alone would barely have gotten the man a slap on the wrist. Not a Black, at any rate. My dad wasn't sentenced to many years, but we all suspect he'll die in Azkaban."

"He deserves to," she said quietly.

"Yeah." Sirius grimaced. "He deserves a lot of things."

"You deserved better. To be born into a family who loved and valued you. You deserved a happy home to grow up in, and I wish so much that you could have had it."

"I got it, in the end," he said, smiling. "Not for long, but it was precious, and I'm grateful for it." After some seconds, he turned his head sideways, looked her dead in the eye. "And what about what you deserve from your parents?"

"Sirius…"

"Respect, and the freedom to be with whomever you choose."

"Let's not do this now. I don't want to fight."

"I want to be with you Marlene. I really, really care about you."

"And I really care about you-"

"But you're engaged," he said bluntly. "And only you have the power to change that."

"I don't have the power to change it!" He'd upset her, he could hear it and see it on her face. She turned so she was facing him completely. "I've told you a million times! There's nothing that I can do, and you have to accept that!"

"Marlene-"

"End of discussion." She rolled back, faced the ceiling again. Then, in a softer voice, "Drop it, Sirius. At least for now. Alright?"

He took a breath, tried to roll all his frustration into that ball of air, and let it out. "Okay."

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Lo and behold, Lily found James in the library of all places. His head was down, his quill working furiously. He only looked up when she sat across from him, and his eyes widened.

"Evans..." He dropped his quill. "I heard about your parents. I'm so, so-"

"And I've heard," she said, louder, "it's something that we have in common."

He looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "It seems fate has a sense of humor, to have us orphaned together."

She nodded, lips lifting. "We really get to share the experience, don't we?"

"We do." They held each other's gazes. James' eyes were soft. "How are you finding it?"

"Devastating. Crushing. You?"

"About the same, really. But life goes on."

Lily looked at the textbooks and parchment before him. "So it does. I see you're making yourself busy?"

"Quite."

"It's most unlike you. James Potter, willingly abiding in the library? It certainly must be the end of days."

"These days, Evans, I've been thinking the more unlike me something is, the better."

That caught Lily off guard. "What do you mean?"

"With the utmost reluctance, I've decided to grow up, Evans. It's what my parents would expect of me."

"Grow up?"

"We're almost in our seventh year, and it's time I started acting like it. I need to take my studies seriously, spend my money wisely. My future, and the legacy of my family, now sits squarely upon my shoulders."

His expression was sombre, as though his mind was made up about something incredibly complex. Lily snorted. "Potter, you're an idiot."

"What?"

"You already have changed. Plenty."

"It's not enough-"

"It's more than enough. You're kind and brave. Funny and caring. You now take your studies seriously, and you've started tutoring the younger students for goodness sake! You've matured, and people have noticed it. They've started looking up to you, and not just as someone they think is cool, but as a leader. You're quite possibly the most popular boy in the school-"

"Quite obviously, rather," he mumbled.

"And apart from some residual arrogance," she gave him a look, "I find myself struggling these days to criticize you in even the slightest way."

James rested his chin on his palm and looked at her intently. "I've decided to stop pranking, and to make a conscious effort to break less rules."

Lily shrugged. "You've barely done any pranks at all this year to begin with. And if you want to break less rules, I'm the last person who's going to complain. I like those ideas. That aside, you need to go easier on yourself, Potter. Accept that you're good enough as you are. A year ago? Perhaps not. But right now, there's not a thing about you that I would change."

He was smiling now. He lifted his chin from his palm and closed his textbooks, rolled up his parchment, stuffed it all in his bag. "Come on, Evans. Let's get out of here."

She grinned. "You're convinced?"

"Yeah, you've sold me. If I am to keep being myself, we have to leave the library at once. This place makes me nauseous."

"What do you have in mind, then?" She fell in beside him as they walked from the library.

"Not sure. I'll leave it up to you."

Though she found his resolution to improve himself laughable, for she could think of very few ways now to improve upon the messy haired boy walking next to her, Lily was also reminded that she'd made resolutions of her own over the past week. "Potter?"

"Yes?"

She bit her lip. "Let's break some school rules."

He raised his eyebrows. "Evans, have you listened to a word I've said?"

"Of course. But I think getting up to some mischief will be good for you. And I've been thinking, lately, of exploring my as yet untouched mischievous side. Because I never have, really. It will be good for me. We both win."

"Evans," James said, frowning but looking amused all the same, "I get the feeling that you're going to be a bad influence on me."

She nudged him. "Oh, what is the world coming to?"

A few other students walked through the corridor. One in particular, walking in their direction, was awfully familiar to Lily. With his greasy black hair, sallow skin, and hooked nose, Lily realized it had been quite some time since she'd last met eyes with Severus Snape. As he approached, she looked at him intently, holding his eyes with force. But he looked back at her with cold aloofness, then looked away as simply as though she were a passing cloud, before he passed the two of them and was gone.

Lily and James walked on in silence for a few moments, before James spoke up. "I think he's looking quite handsome, if I'm being honest."

Lily snorted, and a thin layer of unease and sadness, forming within seconds inside her, shattered and cascaded down. She smiled and shoved him. "Shut it, Potter."

"I'm only saying, Evans, I might have misjudged him. That pasty skin really brings out his eyes."

Lily shook her head. James had been right in saying there were parts of him that hadn't fully changed yet, but she reckoned she quite liked those parts. She could recognize them now as the parts that had drawn her to him when he was still an arrogant little sod in the first place.

"And the hook of his nose, Evans, it's so charmingly curved I might hang my coat on it!"

They were the parts that made her laugh.

"Not to mention his hair. Oh, his hair! He-"

"Alright, Potter," said Lily, forcing herself to be at least somewhat stern. "Insults disguised as compliments are still mean."

"I was wondering how much you'd let me get away with," he said, grinning at her.

"As entertaining as your sarcastic wiles are, one does get bored of them quite quickly."

"Bored?" He looked scandalized. "Are you sure you don't mean enamoured?"

"Quite sure, yes."

"Well, I don't believe that." He then paused for a moment as they climbed the stairs to the third floor, before looking at her inquisitively. "So what's brought this on from you?"

"What?"

"Exploring your 'as yet untouched mischievous side'. What on earth could motivate you to do something as well belated and common-sensical as that?"

"Common-sensical?"

"Yes, Evans, to invoke common sense."

She raised an eyebrow. "Right. Well, I've made it part of my grieving process. I'm going to take every excuse to chase my own happiness, whatever that might entail."

"Sounds exciting."

"Oh," she bit her lip, "I'm excited. Where are we going, anyway?"

"Right on cue," said James.

He stopped walking abruptly. They were halfway down a corridor, and Lily looked both ways, utterly bemused.

"On cue for what?"

"Hush, Evans," he said softly. He was looking at a statue with a weird glint in his eye. "You're about to learn something that very, very few students who've ever roamed these corridors ever did."

"And what's that?"

He looked at her. "Enforcing the rules. Bringing order. Making sense out of madness. In short, the jobs of the Prefects and teachers. All of it is obsolete."

"Erm..."

"Hogwarts is a place of chaos. Mischief, mayhem, madness - they might as well be the school motto! This castle is alive, Evans. It wants us to break the rules, craves it even."

"Potter, I have very little clue what you're talking about."

He tapped his wand to the statue. It was a one-eyed witch, hump-backed and hunched over, grotesque to look at. "Dissendium."

With a creak, the hump slid open, revealing a short slide descending into darkness. Lily stared, wordless.

"Leads to Hogsmeade. One of the fastest ways to get there. But this isn't what I meant in saying this is something very few students will ever learn. It's the fact that Hogwarts is a place in which the rules were made just to be broken. That is one thing, if nothing else, that I've learned at this school. In fact-"

He stepped up to the statue, got his legs down the slide, and plummeted into the depths. Lily didn't hear the rest of his sentence. She gasped, looked left and right again down the empty corridor, completely taken aback. She stepped up to the statue, peered down.

"Potter?"

Her voice echoed the slightest bit, but she could make out no other sound. She shook her head and stepped back. Then she gritted her teeth and stepped forward again. Slowly getting her legs down the shute, she sat there for a moment, looking around the corridor. With a trembling heart, she realized that this was her life now.

She let go.

Air hurtled past her face, and the darkness became a tangible force pressing against her until suddenly there was nothing and then there was light, and the breath left her lungs as a pair of arms received her and pressed her tight into the chest of James Potter before she could register reaching the end of the slide.

"In fact," he continued, his wand held up and shining with blinding light, "Hogwarts is a place where we should learn to break the rules." He looked down at her, their faces closer than they'd been in weeks. "Magic is inherently chaotic. Learning it in a controlled environment is ludicrous. It thrives in the murky depths of madness. I've broken the rules over the years in such a dedicated fashion because to me, that's what being here is all about. Prefects and rules are an outside observer's attempt to reign in this castle's desire to procure and cultivate brilliance."

He pulled away then, and, still holding his wand aloft, linked arms with her and began to walk. Around them were the dusty walls of a tunnel, and she was glad he'd linked their arms, as she wasn't a great fan of the idea of being lost or trapped down here.

Their shoulders brushed as they walked, and James continued talking. She looked at him from time to time, enjoying the passion he displayed.

"It's something that very few people will discover. The moving staircases don't play tricks on us just for laughs. The will of this castle aligns with the will of those within it. I genuinely believe that. Have you ever been to the Forbidden Forest, Evans?"

"Not without teacher supervision," she said.

"Because it's forbidden, right?"

"Well, and it's dangerous."

"It's not-"

"I've heard there are all manner of dangerous creatures. Banshees, werewolves. Not exactly alluring for me."

James hesitated. "Okay, you definitely shouldn't go anywhere near the forest. But my point is, it's there for a reason. It serves a purpose, just like every other little detail all over these grounds."

"Sure."

"And it saddens me when attempts are made to snuff out the will of this castle. Now Dumbledore, he gets it. If anyone understands this castle, and what it wants, he does."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Of course. He's the head authority figure, sure, but he understands how important it is to let Hogwarts be Hogwarts. Let the will of the castle be carried out. It took Sirius, Remus, Peter, and I years upon years to discover all of Hogwarts' little secrets, and I still suspect we've missed a few. Not many, mind. But perhaps one, maybe even two. And that thought exhilerates me. The saddest thing in the world would be for every secret of Hogwarts to be laid bare." The tunnel twisted and turned, rose and fell, and the two maintained a consisent pace as they walked. "But what we do know took us an immense amount of time and hard work to discover. And Dumbledore knows all about it."

"All about what?"

"Our efforts to learn it all."

She frowned. "What?"

"Back in second year, when Sirius and I discovererd that Remus is… Remus is an interovert, we-"

"Took you a while."

"Yes." He cleared his throat. "It took us a year, but once we realized he was introverted, all four of us suddenly became somthing akin to brothers. It's a long story-"

"I'd love to hear it."

"Too long. But once we all came together, we set about traipsing around the castle, learning as much as we could. And as you'd expect, we ran into Dumbledore a fair few times. At least in the earlier years."

"He knows about your Invisibility Cloak?"

James frowned. "How do you know about that?"

"You showed me at Christmas."

"Hm." He looked annoyed with himself.

"Wish you'd held onto the secret?"

"Well, yeah. Much less fun when someone knows. Particularly a Prefect."

"I'll try to forget it."

"Please. Now, when we ran into Dumbledore, rather than punish us for breaking the rules, he actually sat us down and educated us!" She looked at him, and he was grinning. "Everything I've come to understand about Hogwarts is from Dumbledore. He really, truly understands it. He even showed us some techniques we could employ to increase our chances of stumbling upon passageways like this very tunnel. It's all about understanding the castle, and it's art, Evans. It's beautiful art."

She looked at him carefully. "If you feel so strongly about this, then why stop? Why do you want to start obeying the rules and act responsibly?"

James hesitated. "Because I think I've had my fill. Maybe it really is just because my parents died, but I think there's also a duality to the way Hogwarts throws chaos at us. It's designed to improve us, make us better witches and wizards. And, in time, it will make us grow."

She stared at him, once again at a loss of words for the ways in which James Potter's brain worked.

"And far too few people will ever understand that."

Eventually, they emerged from the tunnel into the cellar of Honeydukes. Lily had been alarmed to realize that they were essentially breaking into the sweet shop, but James hushed her quickly, and they kept low and quiet as they snuck out of the shop and onto the quiet Hogsmeade street.

"Fancy a butterbeer?" James asked, as they walked aimlessly down the cobbled street.

Lily smiled at him. Their arms were still entwined. "Sure."

The Three Broomsticks was near emtpy, and no one spared James and Lily any second glances. They were still in their Muggle clothes, after all. The two found an empty table near the back, and when James returned from the counter with two full glasses of butterbeer the teens clinked them together and knocked them back.

Lily kept an eye on James as she drank. These past few weeks hadn't been easy, and she had every reason to believe the weeks ahead would remain relatively dark. But it was nice to have a light, irremoveable and decidedly irreplaceable, that she knew would be by her side every step of the way.

She smiled against the glass on her lips.

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With the Snitch caught and the Quidditch Cup presented, James flew down to the stands and found Sirius first.

"Nicely done, Prongs," said Sirius, thumping him on the back. "What was your personal haul, ninety points?"

"Just about. I missed a few easy ones, but we did alright I think."

"Another Quidditch Cup under your belt is more than alright, I reckon." Sirius paused as a third year stopped to congratulate James, then grimaced. "Just one more, and then we're done."

James nodded, looked out towards the Quidditch pitch. The grass, the hoops. The stands, and sky. "This is the second to last Quidditch Cup I'll ever compete for. We're getting old, Padfoot."

"That we are."

"And things are changing at a startling pace."

"Such is the way of things. Regardless of whether or not we're ready, or whether or not we want it to, life will, as resolutely and unforgivingly as always, move on."

James clapped his best friend on the back, and together they looked at the sky. He knew they were thinking of the same thing. The same two people. "Life goes on."

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Blinding, searing, bubbling agony. "Get away," Remus screamed.

"Hold his arms," James muttered.

Sirius grabbed Remus' arms, held them tight, while Peter held his legs.

"You don't understand! It's coming!"

"It's okay, Remus," said James, holding a damp cloth to his forehead. "It's going to be alright."

"It's going to kill you!"

"You say that every month, and every month we-"

"Argh!" Remus slumped back, felt his eyes roll back into his head. He couldn't see anymore. Felt the wall against his head. The Shrieking Shack's walls were thin, the paper peeling in places from claw marks, dented all over. He tried to speak, tried to warn them, but couldn't find his voice.

There was a monster inside him, and it was coming.

He heard James sigh, and fall back. "I hate seeing him like this."

"Yeah." That was Sirius. "This is my least favorite part, every month. Seeing Remus' composure, his rationality completely drained from him, it's…"

"It's awful," said Peter.

They didn't understand. It was coming.

"At least he doesn't have to do it alone anymore," said James quietly.

Sirius hummed. Then, "Oi, Prongs, what's going on with you and Evans? Are you not together?"

"We've reached an understanding, I think. Neither of us really know where we're at, but it's nice. At least for now."

"That actually sounds alright. With McKinnon, I don't know how much longer I can-"

Remus screamed, roared, felt his voice crackle and split, higher and higher until he was howling, howling at the roof, the sky, howling at the moon as his skin split and tore, agony engulfing him and-

"Here it is, boys," said James. "Get ready."

-the sprouting of claws, fangs, hairs, his jaw popping and dislocating and relocating, his joints grinding against each other, bones churching, growing, his gums splitting and gushing blood that tasted so sweet on his tongue, and he howled and he howled and he-

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The sunlight streaming into the Common Room through the window fell onto the side of Lily's face, warming her up as she read her book. Opposite her, Frank and Alice cuddled on a chair. Some of their friends found the two nauseauting, but Lily could never help herself from finding them sweet together.

"Have you heard from Petunia recently?" asked Alice.

Lily nodded. "We've decided to go ahead and sell the house. Neither of us would feel quite right living there. Not without Mum and Dad. It's best that we sell it."

"That can't have been an easy decision to make," said Frank.

"It wasn't. But I'm glad we got there."

"And I'm glad your relationship is in a position where the two of you can make any decisions together at all," said Alice.

Lily smiled at her. "Me too."

She went back to her book then, and Frank and Alice returned their attention to each other. They whispered, and Alice giggled, her hand on his chest. Try as she might to be annoyed, Lily could only be happy for the two. To find someone, care so deeply for them, and have that feeling returned, could only be something to be celebrated.

She looked out the window, toward the sun that seemed to twinkle a little bit extra, just for her. Of course she had that someone. But, at least just then, she wasn't in any sort of rush.

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Marlene put a hand to Sirius' cheek, her eyes narrowed. "Where did you get these cuts?"

"The Forbidden Forest," he answered truthfully.

"How?"

"Frolicking."

"Does it have anything to do with why James was in the Hospital Wing this morning?"

"Was he? I didn't know."

"Mhm."

"He seemed perfectly healthy to me."

"Okay, Black. Be mysterious."

They were in a broom cupboard, but simply sat against the wall and held hands. Of late, there had been much less sex and much more talking, and as unbelievable as he might once have thought it, Sirius found that he didn't mind at all.

"So what happens to Potter Manor?" she asked.

"James owns it. Bizarre to think about, but I can see him being a very good master of the house."

"And you?"

"I talked about it with him. I'll want to move out at some point in the future, though I'm not sure when. I might have to take up a job, as my folks obviously don't send me any money. James is vehemently against the idea. I think in his mind we were going to live together until we were old men fighting with our walking sticks."

"I think that's incredibly sweet."

"It's incredibly James."

"So where do you think you'll work?"

"No clue. Honestly, I might not even have to. Did I tell you about my Uncle Alphard?"

"The cool one, who the rest of your family hates?"

"The very same. He's the only adult in my family I have a positive relationship with, and I'd always suspected that I'm one of the only family members that he gets on with too. I got a letter from him the other day. He reckons he's dying."

"Oh, that's awful, Sirius."

"Nah, he's been threatening to die for the past ten years. This time I think it's real, but I've long since made my peace with it." There was a small grin on his face. "It won't be easy, especially with all that's happened, but it was a long time coming. He wasn't looking great the last time I saw him. I want for him to go out before it gets worse. He's the sort to prefer holding his head high right through to the end, rather than kick and scream his way to his deathbed. Anyway, he says I've got a hefty inheritance coming my way. He seemed quite vindictive about it, too. He knows how much it will tick off my mother."

Marlene laughed softly. "I'd love to meet him."

"He'd love that, too." Sirius paused then, and turned to look at her. She met his gaze, and held it. Sirius chewed on his words before he uttered them, felt their weight, their implications, and their consequences. "I love you."

She froze.

"And I'm sorry, Mar, but I can't wait anymore. I want to be with you."

"Think about what you're saying," she said quietly.

"Marlene-"

"Think about what you're saying!" Her eyes were thunderous. "You're asking me to break off my engagement with William!"

"Well, do you love him?"

"I…"

"Then why in the world would you marry him?"

She glared. "You're a Pureblood too. You know full well how little of this is my choice."

"All of this is your choice! Mar, how can you let your parents decide this for you?"

"I'm doing it for my parents. For my family! A lot of money is involved, and it's bigger than you and me!"

"Do you love me?"

"What?"

"I love you. Do you love me?"

"I-It doesn't matter-"

"Of course it does! What are we doing here, Marlene?" Sirius gestured between them. "What is this? If you're set on getting married to another man, is this just a tiny bit of fun? A prelude to your marriage? Something that was never going to be serious, and has no meaning?"

"No!"

"Then why-"

"Yes."

Sirius froze. "What?"

Marlene stood. Sirius stood with her. Her eyes were wet. He reached out, and she moved towards the door. "It has to be nothing. I don't want it to be, but… I'm getting married Sirius, and that isn't going to change. I thought you understood that."

"I did. But I can't accept it anymore. It would be too painful. I love you. It's a need, it means anything less is physically painful for me!"

Tears pooled now in her eyes, but still didn't fall. "I know." She opened the door, and light spilled into the broom cupboard, dispelling the darkness and musty air and whatever fragile, special thing that had resided within that place, drifting out and thinning and vanishing into the air. "This was always going to have to end at some point, and I think we've reached that point."

"You're really doing this," Sirius said quietly, not believing the words.

"I'm sorry, Sirius. But that's just the way it has to be."

The door closed after her, and he was left alone in the darkness. Empty.

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Weekly chapters are back!

..

hopefully