The Marauders: Year Four

The Headline

The Headline

Valentine's Day was coming up, which led to the usual feeding frenzy in the common room. Sirius and James leaned against the wall, watching it go down with raised eyebrows. "So bloody glad I don't have to deal with --" Sirius waved at the nervous collection of sweaty-palmed boys on one side and giggling peeking-over-their-textbooks girls on the other, "-- all that lot."

"Yeah. Bloody rub it in why don't you?" James said, "Just go on and pour all that salt in the wound, Padfoot."

Sirius crossed his arms, smiling smugly. "You know what you need to do, Prongs, is get your game on," he said. "You need to select a lady and go for it and forget about Evans."

"I know... but just the thought of letting go of her makes me feel sort of empty inside," James said with a sigh. He looked over at the table, where the girls were all sitting. Lily was the only one actually concentrating on her homework. The others were either gabbing about the dates they'd already made or else speculating who would end up going with which boy. He sighed, "I just don't fancy the other girls like I do her. Next to her, they're so... plain."

Sirius grinned, "Maybe you'd rather fancy one of the blokes?"

"That's your shtick," James replied.

Sirius laughed. "Rather, it's a howling fetish, what I've got" he said, eyes twinkling.

James was still staring at Lily.

"Alright mate, what about a girl from another house?" Sirius suggested, "Is there anyone else? A brilliant little Ravenclaw? A goody-goody Hufflepuff?" He smirked, "Maybe you like'em naughty... we pick you up a Slytherin girl down in the dungeons..."

James smirked, "A Slytherin girl?" he laughed, "Is Snape single?"

Sirius laughed, but half heartedly, and he asked ,"So? What do you reckon? Maybe another house?"

"Maybe," James answered, "I dunno."

"We'll get you a date," Sirius promised. Then, spotting Meg Johnson and McKenna Alliston looking over their way, he said, "C'mon, let's go upstairs." He grabbed onto James's arm and hauled him up the steps to the boys dormitory.

Meanwhile, down the path that wound away from Hogwarts, in the heart of the village of Hogsmeade, a great commotion was going up... Flashes of light - red and green both - shot across the main street, bursting windows. A great firework spun out from within, swallowing up the display of Zonko's before smashing into the popcorn vendor's cart and sending kernels of corn into the air to rain over the body-strewn street.

"MORSMORDRE!" bellowed a voice from behind one of the terrible Death Eaters masks, and there was a horrible, shrieking cackle that came from a figure directly beside the caster of the Dark Mark.

The bartender of the Hogshead leaned against his locked door, eyes closed, clutching his wand to his chest... More innocent lives gone... more pain caused by wizards seeking to wield powers that were never meant for them...

FIFTEEN KILLED, MANY MORE MISSING, IN HOGSMEADE AS DEATH EATERS WRECK HAVOC ON WIZARDING VILLAGE, read the Daily Prophet the next morning, with smaller headlines detailing the deaths, including Mr. Honeyduke himself, who'd been setting up his window display for Valentine's Day with chocolate cauldrons, and Madam Rosmerta's brother, Jasper.

The Great Hall was on fire with worry - they'd come so close to Hogwarts! How had it happened? How had He Who Must Not Be Named and his followers been able to sneak in so close, right beneath Dumbledore's nose? Where were the defenses that supposedly kept Hogsmeade (and, consequently, Hogwarts) safe? Where were the aurors? Where was the Ministry? The Resistance? Where where Dumbledore?