The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

The Fifth-And-Also-Fifteenth

The funeral for Regulus Black was an odd affair indeed. Everyone in attendance, save for one, knew that the whole thing was a sham - and the one was the officiating wizard who spoke over it. Sirius Black wore pitch black sunglasses to shade his eyes from view and held tightly onto Remus's arm, careful not to put pressure on the fresh tattoo there. James and Lily's fingers were laced together.

"Why bother having a funeral at all?" Peter had asked. "Nobody but the five of us will be there."

"Because there's loads of eyes everywhere, always watching, Peter," James had answered, straightening Peter's tie. "And the longer we can help Regulus keep up the charade, the safer he will be."

"But Sirius thinks he's a Death Eater now anyway, doesn't he? Why do we need a charade?"

"Because Sirius is wrong," James replied, "And eventually when Regulus comes home and Sirius knows that, he'll be glad that we did all we could to support him."

It felt worse than James had expected it to - standing in the middle of a cemetery, watching a nearly empty casket lowered into the ground. The only thing in the casket had been a last minute add by Sirius. A record - Jazz by Queen. But even knowing that all they were burying was a bit of vinyl, it still made James's heart ache because he knew what that vinyl represented and he glanced at Sirius, who stared straight ahead, absently running his fingers over the still fresh tattoo on his right wrist.

After the soil had been thrown and shoveled back into place over the top of the wood box, the five of them walked shoulder to shoulder back across the cemetery, past a young man who was laying flowers on a nearby grave, and out into the road of Godric's Hollow, and across the street to the Potter House. Sirius took careful, halting steps as he walked, Remus close beside him, and James leading the way into the house.

"That was -- right awful," James murmured.

"Absolutely terrible," agreed Lily.

Remus and Sirius had gone to the living room, and Peter had followed after them, while Lily and James went to the kitchen to get drinks and food for everyone, and a cup of aconite tea for Remus.

"I swear it couldn't've been worse if there was an actual body in that bloody thing," he shook his head, digging through the fridge.

"I mean, emotionally, no," Lily agreed. She poured water into a teacup over the leaves and sent it to float out to Remus in the living room before turning to pull down four glasses from the cupboard. "Do you reckon it made any difference, going through all that?"

"I think it'll help Sirius in some context," James answered. "But as far as helping Regulus with You-Know-Who's rouse - that I don't know. I didn't see anyone there to be spying on us, not that it particularly means anything that there wasn't anyone we could see watching. There's loads of way around that... I think it didn't hurt, at least."

"Well there was one bloke that was there at the end," Lily said, "He was laying flowers at that other grave."

"Yeah, I saw him, too. He wasn't even watching us. I kept an eye on him the whole time he was there," James reassured her. "I think he really was just laying flowers."

Lily had set together a tray of small finger foods and glasses of pumpkin juice and she lifted it, pausing by the counter. "James, is Sirius alright to be going out camping tonight, really?"

"Yeah, I think it'll do him some good," James answered.

Lily nodded and carried the tray out into the living room.

Poor Remus was feverish by this point, his face red and forehead beaded with sweat. Sirius held the tea cup for him because when he held it, the cup clattered on the saucer and the tea spilled into the little dish.