Chapter Fourteen

A/N: I do not own any of the characters with maybe the exception of any names you don't recognize (i.e Nick Graham, Amy Pratt). Everyone else has at least their surname belong to JK Rowling if not their entire existence.

*ducks incoming projectiles* okay, okay! I know it's been a while! In my defense...I have no defense. I'm going to get better about updating regularly but real life has been a bit of a challenge for me.

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James paced the length of the shady spot he had claimed while he waited for Sirius to get back. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten about Lily and her parents. Lily lost her family, same as James had and yet it was his sisters the other prefects were looking to honor.

Shaking his head, he knew what the marauders would have to do. What he would have to do.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Remus and Sirius running back toward him. Normally he'd be slightly startled by how quickly it took Sirius to get back to him but when you calculated the secret tunnels and the fact that Sirius had been dying for the Marauders to pull something again, James was merely impressed.

"James, Sirius…said…you…wanted…to…talk?" Remus asked, panting all the way.

"Sirius, how fast were you running?" James addressed Sirius, knowing the fur ball had a bit more energy than the rest of them due to his animagus form. Sirius shrugged but from the glare Remus was giving him, James had to assume it was pretty Merlin damn fast.

"What's up, James?" Remus asked again, after taking a few minutes to regain his breath. James ran a hand through his hair.

"Wait," James said, distracted by something. "Why aren't you at the Prefects meeting?"

"Because the fleabag dragged me off as I was making my way toward it," Remus told him. "Why aren't you there? You're Head Boy—you and Lily should be leading the meeting."

James sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Lily told me that the other prefects wanted to set up a memorial for my sisters. She also said that I didn't have to be there if I didn't want to."

"Nice of her," Remus said with a small smile, knowing how hard it had to be for James to talk about. "But what does this have to do with me?"

James took a deep breath and looked over at Remus. "Look, I'm not an idiot. I know a lot more of the muggleborn students have lost friends and family members because of the Dark Tosser and his Slytherin cohorts. Where's the memorial for them?"

Remus looked taken aback and then thought for a second. "Are you proposing…?"

"It won't be a prank, but I think the Maruaders should do something so everyone remembers all the victims of this war." James told him. "If we forget the muggleborns, we risk something like this happening again."

Remus nodded. "It'll take some research but I think we can handle it. Peter won't be much help—you know how worthless he is with keeping a secret."

"Remus, can you get started on the research?" James asked. "Sirius and I need to head over to the pitch for Quidditch practice. We'll meet you in the library afterwards."

"Sure thing James," Remus told him and put a hand on his shoulder. "This is a good idea."

James watched Remus walk off back to the castle and then turned to Sirius, who looked extremely nervous.

"What?" James asked.

"How bad is practice going to be?" Sirius asked him. "The last time we talked about your folks, you ran us all ragged in the rain."

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess I never did apologize for that. I promise, practice won't be that bad. We're still in first place for the cup so unless Hufflepuff wins their game tomorrow, all we need to do is beat Ravenclaw next week and we're in the clear. I just don't want us resting on our laurels."

"Oh, but I love doing that," Sirius barked out a laugh as the two raven haired boys walked down to the pitch. Sirius stopped for a minute upon reaching the locker rooms. "Er, does the rest of the team know about practice today because I thought that was tomorrow after the Hufflepuff/Slytherin game?"

"What makes you say that?" James asked, having already pulled off his shirt. Sirius handed him the practice schedule.

"That."

"Fuck me," James groaned, looking at the schedule. "How did I get the dates mixed up?"

"You have been distracted lately," Sirius shrugged. "Plus your head boy duties would take a lot out of you."

"That's no excuse," James sighed and quickly got his shirt back on.

"It's just Quidditch, James," Sirius told him and chuckled at the death glare James shot him. "Yeah I know. But honestly, right now, there're more important things."

James nodded and the two of them walked back to the castle. They decided that since they had free time, they'd go join Remus and help with the research. There, they saw a strange sight—the rest of the quidditch team sitting next to Remus in the library.

"What's going on?" James asked as he sat down. Amy looked over at him as best as she could from the piles of newspapers. The poor girl couldn't help being short but James had to wonder which one of the chasers had piled the papers as high as they did.

"We found Remus here when Frank remembered that he should start studying for NEWTs," she told him. "Oddly enough, we saw the stack of newspapers before we saw him."

"He hasn't said what he's been looking for," Frank told him and James shot Remus a small smile. The Hogwarts Population was notorious for failing to keep secrets. If they were going to pull this off, it was important…no, you know what, screw it. James was tired of keeping secrets—he'd been keeping one all year long and it'd done nothing but give him insomnia.

"Gather in," James said and everyone huddled around him. "In a few weeks, there's going to be a monument for Katie and Amy. Lily told me about it."

"However, we feel that it wouldn't be right for the muggleborns to go unrecognized as people who have lost loved ones in this war," Sirius added. "They're the ones Voldemort's followers are going to go after, they're the ones who's family will be innocent bystanders."

"That's why Remus is going through the papers," James said, taking control of the conversation again. "To see if any of the names of our classmates are in there."

There was a pause. "So, you guys are going to create your own memorial?" Frank asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Pretty much," Remus nodded, not looking up from his paper.

Frank looked at the rest of the team and then looked back to James. "How can we help?"

"How many people do you know?" James asked.

"A fair few," Frank shrugged. Being from a pureblood household, Frank would be fairly knowledgable about a large number of the pureblood students. "James, we're all Gryffindors though. We're not going to know everyone—especially the ones in the other houses."

"Most of us are purebloods too," Amy chimed in. "We won't know the muggles who have lost their lives."

James pursed his lips in thought—he hadn't considered that. It was then that his seeker raised his hand sheepishly, as if he was ashamed of what he was going to say.

"What's up Nick?" James asked.

"I'm half blood actually," Nick Graham said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Dad's a muggle."

"Really?" Amy asked, looking up from the copy of the Daily Prophet she was holding.

"Yeah," Nick nodded, as if relieved they weren't going to attack him. "Dad found out about the whole You-Know-Who thing from mum a couple of years ago. Mum was actually going to move us to the States but dad convinced her to let me finish my schooling at Hogwarts."

"Sounds like your dad would have been one of us if he was a wizard," Frank told him.

"Nah, dad would have been a Puff," Nick said with a chuckle. "He's been sending me copies of the muggle papers that mention any odd attacks. Does anyone have any contacts with the DMLE who could match?"

James tried to look anywhere but at his team. He knew where his dad kept the copies of his case files. His dad always kept a copy in a safe at home in case there was an attack on the Auror office.

"Seriously? All you well known pureblood families and no one has a contact at the DMLE?" Nick said in astonishment.

"We're kids, Nick," Adam said gently. "Besides, if we did have those contacts, they could potentially lose their jobs if we ask for that information."

Sirius looked over at James, unsure as to whether or not they should say something. Sirius knew about the secret files as well—and had less of a filter as James did.

"Let's start with what we know," James chimed in, taking control back of the conversation. "Nick, can you get those copies of the muggle papers your dad sent you? We can compare the Prophet stories and see if any of the names match."

Nick nodded but then looked hesitant, something James noticed.

"What's wrong?"

"Can I talk to you in the hall, James?" Nick asked. James, slightly taken aback, nodded. The two of them let the library and went into a small alcove nearby.

"What's up, Nick?" James asked.

"I haven't heard from my dad in a while," Nick told him. "Mum said that he was visiting family for a couple of weeks but no one's heard anything. I'm worried James."

James frowned, knowing that a missing muggle would just be brushed to the side by any investigating auror.

"Hey, it'll be alright Nick," James told him, hoping his voice sounded sympathetic and not like he was comforting a friend who'd lost a family member. "I bet he's just lost track of time. Why don't you run up to your dorm and grab those newspapers your dad sent you? We could use them to compare to any reports in the Prophet."

Nick nodded. "Good idea James. I'll be quick."

James watched as his seeker ran off to the dorm to grab the muggle papers. As Nick cleared the corner, James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. There was no way he could ask anyone in the Auror office to look into it. They were all busy themselves, fighting the Death Eaters.

But the look on Nick's eyes, that was the look of someone who needed closure. It was as if the sixth year knew that his father was dead but needed to know for certain.

Letting out a sigh, James lifted his head. "Affy?"

"Master James called for Affy?" The aged house elf asked.

"Wow, didn't think that would work," James told him, slightly impressed with his family's house elf. "Can you get a message to Dianna Phelps? I need to talk to her."

"Yes, Master James," Affy nodded and James sighed once more as the elf disappeared. He honestly hoped Dianna would look into Nick's father's disappearance but in all honesty it was a long shot. With all that was going on in the Wizarding world, a lost muggle (even one married into a minor pureblood household like Nick's mother's) would fall to the wayside.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, James made his way back to the library where he couldn't help but smile at the sight of his Quidditch team and friends hard at work. Amy was pouring through newspapers like she was being paid to do so, Frank and Sirius had sheets of parchment and seemed to be writing down names as Amy read them off. Remus had somehow found a bulletin board and was pinning up the sheets of parchment as Frank or Sirius completed it. Adam and Will, on the other hand, were pouring over books to come up with the spells to make the monument.

"What have we got?" James asked, walking up and sitting down between Frank and Sirius. Sure it wasn't a prank but there was something that felt good about getting into mischief again.

"A hell of a lot of parchment, that's what we've got," Sirius told him with a small chuckle, despite the seriousness of the task at hand. "James, Frank and I have counted at least fifty students in Gryffindor alone who've lost relatives. How big is this monument going to be?"

"We'll worry about that when we need to," James told him. "Nick's getting the muggle papers now—by the way, we need to count the halfbloods too. They're likely to have muggle relatives affected."

"I think we're going to need more parchment," Frank said, looking at his diminishing pile. "Merlin, this is going to sound bad but I didn't think it was as bad as this. Dad's been saying that the Auror department had everything under control."

"Well, and this'll sound really bad, but to the purebloods, the muggles don't matter," Amy chimed in, her soft voice dampened by all the papers around her. "By the way, Sirius or Frank, I've got like twenty more names here."

"Bloody hell," Adam swore.

"Hand me a piece of parchment," James said and pulled out his wand. "I'll duplicate this one so that way we have a steady stream of replacements."

This would be a lot of work but it was something that should have been done ages ago. They were going to fix that.