The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Time Together

Lily didn't much fancy being the bearer of bad news, but she found herself in the position of having two bits of bad news, and two boys who had to hear it. She sighed as she led Sirius downstairs, the Magique Amour book closed once more, and herself no closer to having incorporated James Potter than she'd been before.

And probably just as well, if she was honest, she knew she needed to talk to him about it again before she did it. She just hoped that he would see reason now that he'd given her the argument for why she should be able to incorporate him in his very own words.

"First things first," she said, taking a deep breath. "Remus, there maybe a bit of inquiry at your uni next time you're there... I messed up and accidentally showed up to your class without having taking the potion this morning. Don't worry, I realized quickly what I'd done and I ran out of there, and had you to class just a wee bit late, but I think the professor might've been onto me a bit and he kept asking me questions through the whole class and I reckon he was suspicious when I didn't know half of them, then I was getting flustered and stuttering when he called on me because I knew he was testing me and --" she paused, sighed and shook her head, "I would definitely be prepared for that if I was you."

Remus groaned. "Thanks for the heads up, Lily." 

"How the bloody hell did you forget that you weren't Remus before you went in the classroom? No offense, Lilith, but there's a pretty stark difference between the pair of you."

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Lily said, rolling her eyes at Sirius.

Sirius smirked. "Oh I'd notice REALLY FAST. I can think of one VERY BIG difference --"

Remus flushed. "Sirius. Shut up."

Lily made a face, "Yes Sirius, do shut up."

Sirius laughed.

Then Lily said, "Well the reason that I forgot was that I was --" she took a deep breath, "I was... back at the hospital."

Both Remus and Sirius looked at her with worry in their eyes. "What happened?" Sirius demanded, "Is it you? Are you alright? Oh merlin's bloody kneecaps, where is PRONGS? Is it PRONGS? Where is he?"

"He's at hospital, too, but NOT AS THE PATIENT!" Lily said, grabbing Sirius beore he could go sprinting off to the floo. She took a deep breath. "Sirius, sit down..." She waited for him to be seated, and then she reached for Sirius's hands. "It's mum."

Sirius stared at at her for the span of about twelve seconds, then he flung her hands from his and bolted for the floo. Lily and Remus both called after him, but Remus was too slow from the moon's lasting effects to try at catching him up, but Sirius was already throwing powder out into the fireplace and was gone before even Lily could get to him. 

Remus looked at Lily. "Is it really bad?"

Lily nodded.

Remus closed his eyes. "Damn it. Don't we ever get a break?"

Lily shook her head.

James was helping Dora back into bed after a trip to the bathroom. She was wobbly on her feet, the flintectomy having taken a lot more out of her than normal because of how long she'd let it build up. The mediwizard had shown them the size of the stone they had removed from her brachial stem - nearly a third of an inch in diameter. If she'd let it grow much longer, they said, it might've completely blocked her air passage.

"Careful, mum," he said gently, and he scooped her up so that he was lifting her into bed and laying her down carefully before returning to his seat.

"MUM?" Sirius burst through the door, launching himself across the room to where Dora and James were, his eyes wide and wild. "Mum!" She held out her arms for him and Sirius was up on the edge of the bed and draped into her arms, head against her chest just as he'd once been held by her as a child that very first night, when she first became his mum, what seemed like a million years ago. He clung onto her as she rocked him.