minnow // sirius black

twenty-six

26 : graduate

By early December, I'd had another vision. It was an attack on a family of five, the mother and father both being Muggle-born, and their children all being magic. Their oldest was only 7, and the youngest was an infant.

Dumbledore insisted that he go with a few of the Aurors that were staying in the castle for the next few weeks, and I relented.

I told him where the home was, with as much detail as I could, and he was off.

He sent me a note when he came back that simply said they got the family out of the house. I was relieved.

I told the others about my early graduation a week before the break, and it was an understatement to say that they were furious.

"You waited until the week you take your exams to tell us that you are graduating six months before the rest of us?" Lily was the most frustrated, and when I tried to explain why, she got even more upset. "What, did you think we'd send a letter to Voldemort to tell him you're leaving?!"

She stormed off, furious and hurt, while James and Sirius just stared at me sadly.

"You cannot be serious," Sirius said, shaking his head just the littlest bit. "You could have at least told me."

James walked away with him, and I huffed.

Remus raised his eyebrows, watching the others as they walked away from me.

"You'd think that they'd realize that they only have a few more days with you at Hogwarts, and would want to spend it with you."

"I don't think any of them understand logic, honestly."

So it was just Remus and I, for the next week. James and Lily started openly showing affection, holding hands and hugging in the hallway, but they were both adamantly ignoring me. Sirius only talked to me when he came to my room the night before my first exam day and crawled into my bed.

He didn't say much, simply telling me he loved me and holding me to his chest.

So Remus and I spent a lot of time together, as James was also giving him the cold shoulder since Remus had taken my side, and Sirius was avoiding me during the day, so he was avoiding Remus too since he didn't really leave my side much.

"How's Hope and Lyall?" I had asked one day, and Remus frowned.

"Dad's alright, but Mum isn't feeling well."

"Are you going to stay with them over Christmas?" I asked, rubbing his shoulder. He had mentioned that his mother was ill a few months ago, but he didn't want to talk about it then, nor now.

"No, I'm still going to come to your house for the break," He rolled his eyes, smiling. "Can't get rid of me that easily."

"Dang it," I joked back. "I would really like to meet them, Remus."

"Maybe at your wedding."

"My wedding?"

"You know you and Sirius are going to get married before you're 20," Remus snorted. "Probably sooner."

I didn't reply, instead taking a moment to actually think about marrying Sirius.

Remus and I spent the entire day leading up to my first exams studying for it. The first day would be Care for Magical Creatures, History of Magic and Herbology. I was confident I'd pass Care for Magical Creatures, and I wasn't worried about Herbology, but it was so hard to pay attention to Professor Binns as he droned on and on. I had spent an insane amount of time reading, and rereading, every magical history book I could find in the library.