- Text Size +
A Visit from Professor McGonagall


“New year, same classes,” muttered James, staring at his timetable in the Great Hall.

“We’ll have new topics next year,” Sirius said around a mouthful of toast, “As well as these. Enjoy this while it lasts!”

More classes?” Peter squeaked, looking up, wide-eyed, “I can barely keep up with just these!” He put down his own timetable, which he’d been looking at over a large bowl of sugary muggle cereal. “Are you serious?”

With a grin, Sirius answered, “Serious is my middle name. Actually, it’s my first, isn’t it?”

James smirked at his mate’s quip as he lowered the timetable, shoving it into his robes pocket and picking up his toast. “You’ve always got a smart comeback, don’t you?” He said, with a roll of his eyes. Then he spotted Lily out of the corner of them, as she was coming in the room, her hair done nicely and his eyes widened, “Blimey.”

Remus looked over his shoulder at her.

“Looks as though she’s maybe used some of your dad’s Sleekeazy Potion, doesn’t she?” Sirius snickered.

Remus turned back to look at James and Sirius, “What?”

James turned red and sat down, “Don’t ask. My dad’s a nutter.”

“The hair smoothing sensation that’s taking over all the wizarding world!” Sirius teased, elbowing James. “If only it wasn’t for the magical beasts alliance keeping him from shaving all the world’s dragons.”

“Nawh, mate,” James muttered, “It’s only the Asian dragons he wants to shave.”

“Oh right, right,” Sirius snickered, “I remember him saying that now.”

Peter’s face twitched, “Sleekeazy - I feel like I’ve heard of it before.”

“It hasn’t been Ministry Approved just yet,” James explained, “It’s still in testing stages but they sell it at a couple shops in Diagon Alley.” He rolled his eyes and, seemingly on instinct, ran a hand through his hair to mess it up.

Sirius laughed. “But soon a bottle of the magic hair potion will be in the bathroom cupboards of every self-respecting witch and wizard with mops like these.” He grabbed onto a bit of James’s hair and tugged to display the sort of mess that the potion would tame. “If you apply it correctly and regularly, of course,” he added, just as Charlus had done in King’s Cross after inspecting his son’s ever unruly hair.

James swatted Sirius off, “Oi, don’t make me hex you, Black!”

“Like to see you try, Potter,” snickered Sirius, wrapping his arm ‘round James’s neck and pulling him in closer so as to mess his hair up even worse with his knuckles as James grunted and pushed at Sirius’s arm.

“Gerrofferme,” whined James.

Lily passed by them, glancing over disapprovingly at their rough-housing, and sat down at the end of the table with Alice, Frank, Bilius, Derek, and a few of the first years. James watched her out of the corner of his eye as she pulled a jar of raspberry jam closer and smeared it on her buttered toast with an excited look upon her face, ignoring the boys.

Finally, noticing Lily’s glances, Sirius let James go and turned back to his stack of toast and eggs with that smirk still shadowed on his face. Free at last, James looked back down at his own toast, avoiding Lily’s green eyes.

“Do you reckon classes will be much harder this year than they were last year?” Peter asked, jumping back to the conversation they’d been having before Lily came into the Great Hall. “Because I hardly remember some of the things we were learning in Charms last term… Flitwick will give us a review, won’t he?”

Sirius shrugged, “You know as good as I do, Peter,” he said.

Remus tore a bite of toast from his plateful and dunked it into the mug of hot chocolate before him absently. He looked over at James who was watching Lily talk. Remus took a deep breath and concentrated very hard on his food, wondering what James would think if he knew that he and Remus shared the same fascination with Lily lately. Of course, James had yet to admit he fancied her. Remus, however, would have done, had anyone asked. He realized his hand had gone to his wrist without even thinking about it.

Lily looked up, saw him staring, and waved.

The thing about waving to somebody at a narrow table is that the person across from them always insists that it was they who were being waved to. Both James and Remus waved back, but Lily had already turned back to face Frank, who was talking to her. James looked over at Remus in surprise, “Was that to you or to me?” He asked.

Remus shrugged as though he didn’t know.

“What?” Sirius asked, oblivious, having been talking to Peter about the timetables still.

“Nothing,” James replied.

Sirius glanced between James and Remus and shrugged.




Later that night, the boys were up in the Gryffindor common room by the fire. Sirius, James, and Peter were playing a three-way game of Exploding Snap and Remus was reading through the History of Magic textbook for the coming term. It was an interesting read, and he wished that somebody other than Professor Binns would’ve been teaching it, as in the right hands the material would be very exciting. He was picturing it as a movie with a lot of action sequences in his head when the portrait hole opened and Professor McGonagall came into the room.

“Good evening Gryffindors,” McGonagall’s voice, with it’s crisp Scottish accent, rang through the room.

Everyone in the common room looked up in surprise. This was the first time in a very, very long time that any of them could remember a teacher having come to the common room. A nervous feeling dropped over the students, as though they were all in agreement that McGonagall’s arrival was quite foreboding.

Especially with a face as grave and pale as the one which she wore now.

Especially when she’d come without dressing - already in her tartan pyjama robes, her hair curled atop her head in a loose bun.

“Derek and Alice Bell.”

The names hung in the air.

Alice Bell was pale as she stood up, disengaging from the cluster of first years that had gathered around her and Lily, waiting to be shown how to do their hair from a new article Alice had found in Teen Witch. Derek had a similar cast to his face as he got up and left the table where he’d been talking in undertones all evening to Bilius Weasley and Alex Tinnamin about the Quidditch team… They walked across the room and McGonagall said, “Come with me.”

Alice let out a wail at the words. “What’s the matter? What’s happened?” She sobbed, “It’s something awful isn’t it?” Derek grabbed hold of her, pulling her to him strongly and squeezed her shoulder.

McGonagall didn’t deny it, but clearly didn’t want to discuss whatever it was with the entirety of the Gryffindor house watching on with horrified expressions. “Come with me dear, we’ll have a cup of tea,” she said, though her voice cracked.

Alice clung onto Derek and he showed her through the portrait hole, followed closely by Professor McGonagall.

When the Fat Lady had closed once more, silence carried on over the other students in the house. Glances were exchanged among them, nervous fear in each of the on-lookers eyes. Bilius Weasley looked downright sick to his stomach and Lily had tears in her eyes already. “Blimey,” said James quietly, “What do you think that’s about?”

“Somebody’s died,” Remus said numbly. For the way McGonagall had looked at Alice - the way she’d offered tea instead of a reassurance that it would be okay - that was exactly what grown ups do, he knew, when there was terrible news to share. As though tea could ever make up to you having to hear that your mum was killed by Voldemort and his followers. Remus’s palms were soaked with sweat and he turned back around to stare at the fire.

Everyone waited. The silence held. James and Sirius didn’t return to the Exploding Snap game, although Peter did make one last move on the board since it had been his turn when they’d all been interrupted. Lily continued on with the first years’ hair styles, but much more somber about it now, and only because they all looked even more petrified than even the older students did, and she thought it might help keep them calm. Bilius Weasley began to pace within the hour, when Derek and Alice didn’t return, and after two hours, when the entire house was still waiting, he announced that he was going to find Dumbledore to see what had happened.

When he returned, some time later, his fists were balled in anger and his face was as red as his hair. He looked around at the curious upturned faces and he announced, “They’ve left the castle, we might as well all go to bed.”

“But what happened mate?” Called Alex Tinnamin.

Bilius said, “Voldemort’s killed their parents.”

A terrified gasp filled the room and Remus felt vomit rise up in his throat and he quickly rushed off to the boys toilet, unable to hold it back. The room seemed to shake with the weight of the words that had come from Bilius. “But why?” Asked one of the first years, a boy named Harry Kensington. “What have they done?”

“Dunno if Voldemort really needs a reason, does he?” Bilius asked with a small shrug. “At least not a good one anyway.”

“What about the Quidditch try outs?” Asked James.

“Really?!” Shrieked Lily, making several of the first years before her jump from the pitch of it. “You hear news like this and the first thing you think to ask is about the bloody Quidditch try outs? You selfish little --”

“Lily - enough,” said Bilius. But he didn’t feel inclined to answer James’s question, either. He drew a deep breath, “Seriously. Everyone go to bed. It’s past midnight and there’s nothing more we can do to help Derek and Alice anyway. Besides, classes start tomorrow. So off with the lot of you.”

Reluctantly, everyone started off to their dorms. Sirius, James, and Peter lingered until Remus had come out of the bathroom, looking quite pale from having been sick, and then they followed suit of everyone else, heading up to their dorms. James looked ‘round at the other three, “I didn’t mean anything rude by asking about quidditch, you know.”

“Maybe it would’ve been better to wait ‘til tomorrow to ask it,” said Sirius, shrugging.

James nodded.

They all got into their pyjamas and beneath their covers, the torches out and the light from the window the only thing illuminating the darkness. They could all hear Remus sniffling quietly in his bed, and the guilt that weighed upon James and Sirius kept them awake, wishing they knew what to say to make Remus feel better. Only Peter was able to drift right off to sleep. It was long into the smallest hours of the morning before Sirius would finally drift off, his hatred for the Dark Lord only magnified by the news.




In the seventh year’s dorm, Bilius Weasley was still awake, still pacing. Alex Tinnamin laid in his bed, staring over at Derek’s empty space. Bilius braced his hands up behind his head as he walked, his stomach just as churned as his brain. “C’mon and go to sleep mate,” Alex said, tiring of the sound of Bilius’s feet on the carpet. “LIke you said, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Bilius sighed. He knew Alex was right, of course he was, but it hurt him to think of going to sleep when some place his best mate was going through such an awful thing. He set himself onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling, still in his robes, too drained to bother with putting on his pyjamas. “This is how it’s going to be now, isn’t it?” He asked quietly, “One by one, the professors pull us aside to tell us that our parents are dead until everyone resisting the Dark Lord is gone, isn’t it?”

Alex pursed his lips.

“Well the jokes on him, isn’t it?” Bilius said hotly, “He kills one generation of the resistance off and the rest of us will join. There’s no stopping us trying to stop him. He can do whatever he likes to try to scare us from fighting him and it won’t stop me. I’ll fight him until I die for the cause if I have to. I don’t give a damn.”

“And I’ll be right there beside you,” Alex answered. “And so will Derek, you know that. Especially after tonight. He’s going to want to be more involved than ever.”

Bilius nodded. “Without his mum there to stop him from leaving Hogwarts, do you think he’ll even bother coming back?”

Alex shrugged, “I dunno, Bil.” He sighed, “I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t.”

“Me either,” Bilius confessed. “I’d leave to fight if I could. Mum won’t hear of it, though. Says if I want to join up when I come of age, that’s fine, but until then I’m a child and all that… They’ve been working on casting shields to protect as many of the muggle homes as they can. Especially after the recent muggle killings Voldemort’s followers have been doing.”

Alex said, “You’d think they would want as much help as possible. That sort of stuff we could do without being in danger, don’t you think?”

“Dunno,” said Bilius. “Isn’t that what the Bells were doing, too?”

Alex shrugged. “My parents aren’t as active as yours and Derek’s are. They’re too afraid to get involved. Hearing about this isn’t going to help that, either.”

Bilius said, “I reckon a lot of folks that were considering it will back out once this news hits their ears.” His voice was bitter.

“Can’t blame them, mate,” said Alex, “Who wants to join up a resistance whose members are targets of the Dark Lord and his followers?”

“Me,” Bilius said thickly.