DOORWAYS || MARAUDERS ERA

ϟ75: WHEN IT ALL GOES DOWNϟ

"Obscuro!"

Hermione pointed her wand at Phineas' portrait the moment the Black ancestor made his appearance. Harry and Rhea looked at Hermione expressionlessly, too exhausted to talk. It had been a week since Ron left.

A part of them had vanished the moment Ron stalked out of the tent.

"Once again, Granger," the snide voice of Phineas sneered, his eyes blindfolded. "You display a knack for ruining great art."

"You call your face, 'art'?" Harry asked tonelessly.

"Scrawny, emotional teenagers are incapable of discerning impressive art." Phineas said waspishly.

Rhea gave a weak laugh and sat on her bed. So far, Phineas had told them about Ginny, Luna and Neville trying to steal the sword, their punishment, and Dumbledore destroying the ring with the sword. He refused to let anything else slip, but he did try to coax out their whereabouts from them.

Not that he was successful.

But he did make a lovely distraction from the misery surrounding them.

"I must say, it does a great deal of justice to the noble Slytherin house for Professor Snape to take on the Headmaster post." Phineas boasted. Snape was the only other Slytherin Headmaster after Phineas himself.

Rhea bit back a retort. Phineas didn't like it when anyone criticized Snape.

"'Course it does." Hermione said hollowly.

"Now, where is that rude Weasley spawn?" Phineas mused, and everyone froze. "I don't hear the scalawag putting in his two cents."

Hermione's lips quivered dangerously, but she managed to glare at the portrait. Harry pursed his lips and clenched his jaw, the locket dangling off his neck adding to his temper.

"He left." Rhea croaked. "He's...gone."

"He died?" Phineas asked incredulously, as though this was extremely miraculous.

"No, you daft dingbat." Hermione snapped. "He left. He ran away."

"The word you're looking for is 'abandoned'." Harry said bitterly.

Phineas didn't seem put off by the rudeness. "He did now, did he?" he deliberated. "So the Gryffindors are not as brave as we presume, are they?"

"Shut up." Hermione said quietly, gritting her teeth. With that, she shoved the portrait unceremoniously into the bag, effectively silencing Phineas' taunts.

"The blatant disrespect towards the former Slytherin Headmaster is not tolerated, young lady! And where are you nasty scoundrels hiding? It is pivotal that I know!"

╔═══*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═══╗

It had been two days since Petunia joined Vernon Dursley in holy matrimony. James had come back home after the wedding, with a wide grin on his face, indicating that all had gone well.

Apparently, Mr and Mrs Evans adored the hell out of him (though Mr Evans did seem a little hostile initially), and this had annoyed Petunia so much because her parents weren't all that fond of Vernon.

Turns out James and Lily really did manage to annoy Petunia and Vernon to no end.

Mysteriously, while Vernon was droning on and on about his drills company, the champagne present in front of Vernon popped open, effectively drenching James, the Dursleys and the Evans's.