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About Bleeding Time


On the way down to breakfast in the Great Hall, Meg Johnson pushed past Lily in the corridor, McKenna, Carly, and Annalee close to her side, Annalee glaring back at Lily with a sneer as they went.

“Do you know what’s wrong with your sister? She was glaring at me this morning for no reason.” Lily asked Marlene McKinnon when she and Emmaline Vance ran into her on the fifth floor landing, where the Ravenclaws and Gryffindor paths merged.

Marlene raised an eyebrow, “You haven’t heard.”

“Heard what?”

Marlene looked at Emmaline.

Emmaline said, “Meg Johnson and James Potter broke up.”

Lily tried very hard to keep her face straight. “Why’s that?”

Emmaline’s voice lowered, “They were fooling around, if you know what I mean, and -- and he said your name instead of hers.”

Lily’s mouth twitched as she held it as straight as she could. “He… he did, did he?”

“That’s what Meg told Annalee, who told me,” Emmaline said. “Yesterday morning.”

In the Great Hall, Frank waved for Lily to sit with him and Alice at the end opposite of where Meg and the other girls were and Ali whispered, “Did you hear?”

“Marlene and Emmaline have just told me,” Lily replied.

Alice raised an eyebrow at Lily suggestively as Frank grinned at her, too.

“What?” Lily asked.

“Are you going to talk to him about it?” Alice pressed.

Lily said, “Talk to who? To James?”

“Of course James!” Alice replied.

Lily flushed, “I doubt very much that James Potter will want to discuss such a thing.”

“Lily, don’t be an idiot! He loves you.”

Lily busied herself by smearing jam upon toast to avoid Alice’s stare.

“And I know you like him.”

Lily looked up, a flicker of panic in her eyes. “Shut it. I don’t. I - I don’t.”

Frank snorted as Ali smirked. “C’mon Lily, even I know you do!” Frank said.

“Even a blind man can see it,” Andy Woodhouse intoned from the other side of Frank with a smirk.

Frank grinned and thumped Andy on the back, “You bleeder,” he laughed, “Always with the blind jokes.”

Andy grinned.

Lily’s face was hot. “You’re mental, the lot of you.”

Alice nudged Lily, her eyes sparkling, “C’mon, Lil. Just admit it that you like him.”

Lily stared at her food as Alice continued to prog and persist and finally, unable to take anymore, Lily hissed, “Okay. So I like him. I like James Potter! So what?”

A look of surprised triumph flickered over Alice’s face. “Wow,” she said, “You’ve actually said it.”

“Yes, I actually said it, are you happy now?” Lily asked.

Alice’s smile grew, “Yes, actually, I am quite happy about it.”

“About bleeding time,” agreed Frank.

“I totally saw it coming,” Andy said. Frank punched his arm, laughing, and Andy grinned again.

Lily said, “Please - just - just don’t tell anyone else. Please.” She looked a fair bit desperately between them.

“I’m not telling anyone,” Alice said, “But you need to be telling James yourself.”

Lily’s voice dropped, as though the Fates might not hear her if she whispered, “I can’t.”

“Why?” Alice challenged.

Lily said, “I’ve told you before. I’m a jinx… I’m bad luck. James has had a rough enough go of it without me making things worse.”

Frank laughed, “And what? You think you telling James Potter you like him is going to make him have bad luck? Answering every bloody prayer that he’s ever said you think is bad luck?”

“You don’t understand Frank,” Lily said, “When I like people… things… things happen to them. They turn on me or they’re injured or they die.” She shook her head, “I don’t want to hurt James Potter. I’ve hurt him enough by being a horrid bitch to him for five years. He deserves better. He deserves somebody who’ll take care of him and treat him right and be able to love him without bringing about bad luck.” She looked away.

Frank shook his head, “Are you mad, Evans? You can’t hurt somebody just by liking them.” He rolled his eyes. “You aren’t a jinx, it’s madness to think that you could possib---” he stopped midsentence.

“Frank?” Alice looked at him and saw he was gazing toward the door of the Great Hall, so she looked, too, and she gasped.

“What is it?” Andy Woodhouse asked.

Frank’s hesitation to answer made Lily swivel about in her chair.

James Potter himself, speak of the devil, had just come through the doors. His trousers were wrinkled, his shirt only half tucked, Gryffindor tie loose about his neck. His glasses were sitting crooked upon his nose, which was a bit swollen as though it had been nearly broken and on his jaw was was rather deep gash that cleft over his right cheek. He walked with a bit of a limp and his rolled up oxford sleeves revealed a dark bruise on his left forearm. He walked calmly to the table and sat down.

Lily looked at Frank. “You were saying?”

“Bloody hell,” Frank said. Then, louder so James could hear him, “Oi, Potter, what happened to you?”

James looked over, “What?”

“You look like death warmed over, mate, what the hell?”

James looked down at himself, then back to Frank, “Oh - this? ‘Tis but a scratch!”

“You arse,” Frank laughed.

Alice looked at Lily. “It’s a coincidence, Lil. It doesn’t mean anything,” she hissed.

Lily shook her head, “Alice. It means everything.”




Dougal McGregor died peacefully, in his sleep, on Sunday in the morning.

Although Minerva wasn’t by his side, she never left the hospital. She sat in the waiting room down the hallway, tucked away from the sight of Lydia McGregor and the two McGregor children - girls, nine and seven years old. Sirius Black sat beside her, wishing he could do something until finally the Reverend Malcolm, who had gone to give Dougal a final blessing upon request of Mrs. McGregor, returned with a sad, pale expression on his face that had told them it had happened.

It was that afternoon, back at the Reverend’s manse, when Minerva McGonagall told Sirius he had to go back to Hogwarts. “You’ve classes to attend,” she reminded him. “And yeh can tell Albus I’m in need of a leave until after the holiday.” She handed Sirius a rolled parchment.

Sirius held the parchment, “Are you alright, Minnie?”

“I will be. But I’m needing some time.”

Sirius nodded.

“Thank you, Mr. Black, for your chivalry. I am most grateful for it, and for you.”

Sirius’s cheeks warmed. “I owe you more than I could ever repay you, Minnie.”

She pet his hair. “You’re a good boy, Sirius.”

Sirius smirked. He thought fleetingly of telling her exactly where he’d gotten the dog the day before, so she could be in on why her words were so funny to him, but he knew he couldn’t. One day, he thought, perhaps. But not today.

“Let me get you back to Hogsmeade,” Minerva suggested, “And I know you can make your way to Hogwarts from there.”

“I certainly can, darling.”

They went outside and Sirius shrunk the trusty motorbike (Minnie shook her head at this - only Sirius Black would think to shrink a bloody motorbike to keep in his pocket for emergency use!) and she took his arm and with a CRACK! they disapparated from the yard of the Reverend’s manse and appeared in the yard of the Shrieking Shack, out of sight of the village. She dropped his arm and looked at him for a long moment, then - just as he was about to say something, an apology for what had happened, most likely - she said, “Now go - back to Hogwarts straight away. No dawdling, Mr. Black. And do extend Mr. Lupin my apologies for having borrowed you for so long. I offer my gratitude.” And she disappeared with another loud CRACK!

Sirius sighed and walked ‘round the house to the door and let himself into the Shack.

There was droplets of dried blood on the floor.

Sirius closed his eyes, feeling worry shiver through him, and he ran for the trap door.




Remus was in the hospital wing when Sirius got up there, breathless from having run all the way from the shrieking shack. Bandages were wrapped about his left arm from his wrist to his elbow. Sirius hurried through the ward - despite Madam Pomfrey calling for him to stop. He reached Remus’s side, “What’d you do??”

Remus said, “It’s not so bad, really. I got a little moony is all.”

Sirius shook his head.

“What’s another scar, really?” Remus shrugged. “In the scheme of things, it doesn’t seem like one more is that much to worry about.”

Sirius stroked Remus’s cheek.

“Where were you?” Remus asked.

Sirius went to answer when Pomfrey cleared her throat, “Out of this ward. It’s not visiting time and you jolly well are familiar enough with the rules of the hospital wing by now, Mr. Black, seeing as I have one of your lot in here on a near daily rotation.”

“Aw c’mon, Poppykins,” Sirius drawled, “All the more reason why you should make the exception for us!”

“Out!” she chased him toward the hallway, shooing him along, “You can come back later. For now, only injured persons may be in the Hospital Wing.” And with that said, Madam Pomfrey had ushered him into the corridor and pulled closed the door.

Sirius stared at the door for a long moment, then, with a sigh, he drew out his wand.

Madam Pomfrey groaned when the door opened again, “Mr. Black, please, do not make me get your head of house up here to -- Bloody hell, what have you done?”

Sirius had a black eye and blood falling from his nose.

“I’m an injured person,” he announced, “Now may I go in and talk to my Moony, please?”

Madam Pomfrey shook her head in disbelief as she ushered Sirius back into the ward to the bed next to Remus Lupin and deposited him there, “You little toadstool, going about purposely hexing yourself, absolutely ridiculous, inconceivably juvenile…” she was muttering under her breath.

Remus stared at Sirius in disbelief as he was forced to sit down in the bed and she went to get her wand and some potion to heal the damages Sirius had done.

“You idiot,” Remus muttered.

“I had to talk to you,” Sirius said.

“Your face better not be ruined or I’ll be really pissed at you,” Remus declared.

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be! Bloodying up your perfect face like that --”

“I mean for missing the moon,” Sirius answered. “It was an emergency. It was Minnie.”

Remus looked surprised then worried, “Professor McGonagall? What’s happened to her? Is she alright?”

“Yeah, she’s alright, it’s just --” Sirius paused as Madam Pomfrey returned and Remus looked worried as he watched in silence while Pomfrey fixed up Sirius’s nose and smoothed some balm over his face to make the bruising less severe. She sighed, shaking her head and wiping her palms on her apron, heading back to her office. Sirius looked over his shoulder and watched Pomfrey sit back down at his desk, then he hurriedly climbed over onto Remus’s bed, his face glistening with the balm, and he said, “It’s the most heartbreaking, romantic thing I’ve ever heard in my life, Moony…” and he proceeded to tell Remus the entire story about Faere Dhu and Dougal McGregor and what he had learned of the life of Minerva McGonagall.