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Decompressing


Remus woke up over a day later.

Ned Veigler had fallen asleep on the stool by his side, his head leaning against a small pillow he’d propped against the edge of the table. Remus stared at Veigler’s sleeping face and felt a rush of gratitude toward the man. He’d never been so scared in all his life as he’d been back there at that cottage in the woods… He only vaguely remembered fleeing the little house and the run through the trees… what he remembered of it was Ned’s grasp on him and the whispered promises that they would be okay if he’d just hang on…

Remus struggled to shifted his weight, but, with his back stiff and shoulder sore, it was a challenge to do it, and Ned woke at the feeling of the movement, looking up. “You’re awake,” Ned said thankfully.

Remus smiled weakly, “I’m awake,” he said with a nod.

“Thank Merlin,” murmured Ned, then he reached up and he helped Remus move gently, getting him sitting up and magicking loads of pillows behind him to lean against. “There we are,” Veigler said as Remus sighed in relief.

A woman with short salt-and-pepper grey hair approached suddenly, someone Remus didn’t recognize, since he’d slept through any introductions that may have been made. She carried a bowl of broth that Remus could smell was like a beef stew. “I’m Tina Scamander,” she introduced herself as she stood beside the bed, stirring the broth with a spoon, “I’m Newt’s wife.” She dipped the spoon into the broth and brought it to Remus’s mouth.

They told him how it was that he’d ended up here, and how Newt had stitched his shoulder back up, and how Dumbledore had decided that Remus should spend the summer with them to stay safely tucked away in the briefcase, where Fenrir Greyback couldn’t find him. “You’re safe here,” Tina promised. “There’s not a thing that can hurt you here.” She gave him the mirror that Sirius and James had left behind. “Your friends told us to see to it that you got this,” she said.

Remus stared at the glass, stared at the reflection in it of the room in the Shrieking Shack, and he waited everyday for the face of Sirius Black to appear within it.




WIZARDING WORLD OVERWHELMINGLY DEMANDS SUMMER ELECTION TO APPOINT NEW MINISTER FOR MAGIC
Following all of the attacks and subsequent happenings from the weekend, and most recently Tuesday’s attacks in the chamber of the Ministry, the wizarding world has overwhelmingly demanded a summer election to appoint a new Minister for Magic. Madam Minister Eugenia Jeninks’ poll numbers have exponentially dropped in the past year as the forces behind He Who Must Not Be Named has increasingly grown in strength, seemingly right beneath the Ministry’s nose. Attacks have more than doubled in number in the last twelve months, the death tolls rising everyday, and arrests have dropped to a record low.
“We have to take action!” Harold Minchum announced Wednesday, announcing the rearrest of convicted murderer, Druella Black, who has been transported to Azkaban Prison, where she awaits the Dementor’s Kiss for the mass murders conducted at the Ministry. “We must be ready for more strikes like this against the Ministry for Magic and the Wizarding World. We must stop V - - - - - - - - -.” * (Editor’s note: While Harold Minchum used the proper name for the one they call the Dark Lord, the Daily Prophet prefers to refer to him as He Who Must Not Be Named or else You Know Who.) Many prominent members of the wizarding community have already put forth names for the running parties.

Not surprisingly, the clear forerunner is our second-in-command auror Harold Minchum, who humbly denied being solely responsible for the arrest of Druella Black, citing efforts of young aurors, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, whose bravery was subsequently recognized by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. However, the magical community has already embraced Minchum, and pins reading Minchum for Minister have already begun surfacing at Diagon Alley. Minchum also holds a strong following among politically minded students at Hogwarts. Other names that have been put forward include: former Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore (who has already refused the nomination twice before), prominent school board governor Vanessa Bones, and the head foreign defensive delegations officer to the Egyptian Magical Congress of Sorcery (EMUS) Adom Tutman.
Official nominations will be announced in the coming week, with emergency elections held on Monday 4 August 1975.





James polished off his Minchum for President button and stuck it to his robes. Even if he was just going down to the kitchen for breakfast, he felt he needed to be sure the message really drove home to his parents, who would be voting on 4 August. He breathed on the clear glossy surface and buffed it with his sleeve. Sirius came in the room, leaning against the door frame, his hands jammed into his pockets. Dora had set up the guest bedroom for him and made quite the effort in making it as nice as she could, hanging some of Charlus’s old Gryffindor pennants about the room and magicking the duvet to a lovely maroon and gold. Despite having his own space, Sirius had still snuck into James’s room each night and James continuously woke up to find Snuffles the dog curled up on the end of his bed. (“I don’t understand - that bloody dog has been gone for over a month now and I’m still finding its hair everywhere!” Dora had complained.)

James looked up from messing up his hair on purpose - tilting his head forward, running his hands all through it violently, and standing up right again to see if it was all standing on end or not. “Hey mate,” he said, greeting Sirius.

“Hey.” He watched James continue on with the hair.

Sirius had been strangely quiet for Sirius in the past week since everything had started. Decompressing was what Charlus had called it. Sirius needed to mentally unpack everything that had happened to him. ”It happened to me, too,” James had said, but even he knew that it had all happened a lot more to Sirius and Remus than it had to him or Peter or any of the other members of the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius was sore all over, his muscles still tense, still waiting for something more to happen… but after Druella’s arrest at the Ministry, things had gone eerily silent from the Dark Lord. But even without retribution, there was just so much for Sirius to process…

As he stared at James, he couldn’t help but think about the vision that he had seen - of James Potter’s dead body, the details returning to him even more horribly… It was returning echos of the vision that had driven Sirius to James’s room all these nights. Horrible nightmares of standing between dead bodies that lined the dark hallways of Number 12 Grimmauld Place had consumed Sirius’s brain so that every night he found himself running down a long, narrow, horrible corridor with his mother’s portrait looming behind him, her house elf heads cackling t him, having to climb over body after body - the body of his father, of James and Peter and Remus, of Dumbledore and Moody and the Prewetts and Frank Longbottom and Ali Prewett, of various members of the Order and people he didn’t recognize, people whose faces he didn’t have names for, but to whom his soul reacted… and Sirius worried and worried whether he was seeing the future again, whether Mopsus had embedded a horrible gift… and Sirius didn’t want it, if he had.

“You alright?” James voice cut through the thoughts Sirius was having.

Sirius nodded. He was turning the bottle cap the Niffler had given him over and over in his palm, a motion that had become a sort of nervous habit in the last few days. He couldn’t help but feel that the bottlecap had some significance, that the Niffler had given it to him for a purpose, even if she was just a Fantastic Beast. Surely there wasn’t a meaning to the bottlecap? Was there? Sirius didn’t know. All he knew was that he felt a deal of comfort holding it.

“We can talk if you need to, anytime,” James reminded him. “You’re my best mate, Sirius, and I hate seeing you upset like this.”

“You’re my best mate, too, James, but,” Sirius shook his head, “I really don’t want to talk about it. I’ll be alright. In time, I’ll be alright.”

James nodded.




Dear Potter,
I just wanted to write you and check in and see how things are going, how Remus is, if you’ve heard from him and --



Dear Potter,
So I didn’t really get to talk to you much after we were up in the Divination Tower and I wanted to thank you for everything you did, it really meant a lot to me that you hugged me like that and I --



Dear James --



Hey James --



Hey Potter --



James
James Potter
James Charlus Potter
J. C. Potter
J. Potter
Potter
James
J A M E S
Potter Potter POTTER
Lily Potter
Lily Jane Potter
Mrs. James Potter



Lily stared at the parchment she’d been doodling on… and her face turned red. She wadded up the pages and threw the whole clump of them into the rubbish bin. What the bloody hell was that? She stared at the trash bin in horror, as though the pages balled up inside were possessed by Voldemort himself... She got up, retrieved the pages from the bin and her wand from the bedstand. “Incendio,” she whispered - just for good measure - and watched it burn.


Dear Sirius,
How is your Summer? How are things going? I heard you’re staying with James. You must be really happy. Maryrose said James was really excited about it. I’m happy for you. Have you lot heard from Remus? I know he’s safe, but that’s all that I’ve heard about it. Do you know where he is? I’ve worried about him. If you can, tell him to write me.
I miss all four of you. Even James if you can believe it.
Funny what missing Hogwarts will make you feel.
Do have a lovely summer,
Sincerely,
Lily





James stared at the envelope, addressed to Sirius in Lily’s handwriting as he untied it from Bubo’s leg. He turned it over and saw a little wax seal holding it closed, pressed with the image of a lily flower in it.

He ran his finger over the hardened sealing wax and wished a letter like that would have come with his name on it instead of Sirius’s