The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Attitude

The Attitude

When Remus stepped into the dormitory, it was empty. He stood in the doorway a moment, trying to decide where to go and look for James when he heard a sniffle and he realized that the center of James's bed was curved in.. and he walked over and put his hand on what appeared to be empty air. James was there beneath the invisibility cloak, crying. At Remus's touch a gasp of air escaped him and Rey felt James shake with the tears. "Aw... Prongs," Remus whispered and he started to pull the cloak away.

"No don't, please," James choked the words, "I just want to be invisible right now."

Remus sighed. "But --"

"Please."

He patted James's back, "Alright." He stayed sitting on the edge of the bed though so his back pressed to James's side. He could feel James shaking every now and then with tears and unreleased sobs that trembled through him, but he never said a word.

When Sirius and Peter returned a few minutes later, Sirius looked about the room, "Where's Potter?" he asked as he stepped inside, frowning.

"I haven't seen him," Remus replied. Then, silently he mouthed, We're being invisible right now, and pointed to the air behind him meaningfully.

Sirius nodded, his eyes softening, then went and sat beside Remus, feeling James's weight and warmth behind him, too, and he put his hand on James's back also, but without saying anything at all. Peter joined them, sitting on the opposite site. Together they all waited silently.

Lily tried to apologize to James a couple times, but he would duck away the moment she turned toward him and his mates were no help - not even Remus, who could barely look her in the eye. Sirius flat out refused to talk to her and Peter would look timidly about and maybe give her a hullo if none of the other Marauders were around, but that was about it. And news travelled fast. The whole of Gryffindor seemed to know exactly what happened and they all seemed quite keen on taking James Potter's side over Lily's - even Alice and Frank.

"He's always fancied you so," Ali said sadly, "Poor boy..."

She felt so very alone - and that feeling was only compounded when she snuck out to see the stag later that week and he wasn't there. She sat in the woods alone, crying, because even her beloved stag was gone from her side. She would've done anything to feel the deer kisses about then, and she sat on the log, her palms to her eyes, crying in the dark.

Regulus Black sat at the Slytherin house table, staring at Maryrose Jenkins over at Hufflepuff. She was talking with another boy - a Hufflepuff - and he felt a jolt of jealousy burn through him. He looked down at his dinner plate and pushed his peas about with his fork. He would like to be a Hufflepuff, he thought. They had it so easy... They got to be themselves, they got to be kind to everyone, and, most importantly to him right that moment, they got to sit by Maryrose.

"Are we feeling things?" Severus Snape whispered, suddenly sitting down across from Regulus, carefully placing himself directly in his line of sight of Maryrose. "Really, I don't recommend it - it'll only end up poorly." Severus picked up his fork and started collecting food from the serving platters around him.

Regulus shifted on the bench to look over Severus's shoulder.

"I feel like you've been avoiding me, Regulus."

"Maybe I have been."

"So you've given up on your quest to protect your mind, then?" Severus's voice was low so that his words would be lost beneath the boasting voice of Evan Rosier along down the table.