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The Muggle Murderer

Ollie Kent was the only second year that came down Friday evening to the big table in the common room to study. Lily was there already, with a bag of a muggle candy called Smarties that she was pouring into a bowl for the first years to share for their first night of homework time. Remus had passed Ollie on the stairwell, rushing to get his books to join them. Ollie stood awkwardly at the end of the table, watching Lily for a moment. He cleared his throat and she looked up. “I know I’m not a first year anymore but… I can still come to homework, yeah?” he asked hopefully. It was the closest thing to a routine that he had left - especially with how down and inconsolable Wally was over Liam Harding’s death.

Lily smiled, “Of course you can, Ollie.” She held the bowl out to him as he sat down and spread out his stuff. “Do you want some Smarties? I reckon you’re one of the only ones I won’t need to explain them to. I think most of the first years are purebloods this year.”

Ollie shook his head, “No thanks… I don’t like the candy shell, it tastes funny.”

Lily laughed, “I’ll remember that next time I bring a snack.”

Ollie smiled.

Danae Weiss, Madeline Finch, Janis Darrens, and Gwen Nox came down the stairs together, carrying their books, still wide-eyed about the luxury of the common room. Lily smiled at them and waved around the table and Remus arrived next, and he had a regular chocolate bar tucked in his shirt pocket and shared some with Ollie. Some of the first year boys came down snorting and goofing off, arguing over whether or not Professor Slughorn was really a fat warty toad that had been transfigured to look like a person or not - Lily looked about - they had all but one of the firsties. “Where’s Edgar?” she asked.

“Says he ain’t comin’,” answered Hermann Bolster.

Isn’t coming,” Remus corrected his English.

Lily scowled, “Why?”

“Dunno,” Hermann said.

“There was a person talking on the wizard radio about his brother,” said Coby Jenner quietly.

Micah King nodded, “He was real upset.”

Remus and Lily met eyes. “I’ll go,” Remus said, pushing himself back up from the table. He handed the rest of his chocolate bar to Ollie and said, “Reckon you can put that in a safe place for me?” he winked.

“Oh - the safest,” Ollie replied, grinning and taking the bar.

Remus jogged off up the stairs.

Lily sighed. “Alright - so… how are you lot liking Hogwarts so far?” she asked, looking ‘round at the seven first years with a smile.

“IT’S BRILLIANT!” shouted Christopher Castle - so enthusiastic that he managed to tip over backwards off his stool and they all laughed at him as he scrambled to get back up.

Ollie stared down at his parchment. A year ago - that enthusiastic reply could’ve been Liam Harding’s. A year ago, things were such a lot different. He wished Wally would come downstairs… or even Dexter or Darcy - but they’d gone outside to practice at flying with Dexter’s new broomstick and Wally had tucked himself underneath the bed and refused to leave…

Ollie sat, wishing he was back in first year again with all of his friends in one piece. But he felt like they’d all left him. Even Wally.




Remus stood outside the first years’ dormitories for a moment, staring at the door before he finally raised his fist and knocked. A quiet voice called, “Come in…”

The first year dorm was still clean in that new-and-not-yet-their-own-space way that he recalled the Marauders dorm had been once many, many, many moons ago… for about three days, anyway, before Sirius had unpacked his trunk on every available surface of the room. “Clean,” he commented.

Edgar Odair was sitting on his bed, hugging a pillow. He didn’t answer, he just watched as Remus waved his wand to move one of the desk chairs into the gap between beds and lowered himself into it so he was sitting beside Edgar.

“Sorry, I have to sit, I have bad knees,” Remus explained as he set himself down and rubbed them. Full moon was a week away.

Edgar said, “Whatever’s necessary.”

Remus stared at him a few minutes and Edgar stared down at his pillow. Finally, Edgar looked up, “I know, you want me to come down for homework… I know, the other kids all went and they told me I had to ‘cos you lot said so and all that and --”

“The homework group’s for your own benefit, you don’t have to do it. It’s just something Lily and I do because we care about you guys and we’ve been first years, we know how it feels and we want to help you guys out. That’s all. You don’t have to come to it if you don’t want to,” Remus replied. “We would like you to. That’s how we get to know you first years.” He smiled.

Edgar said, “Jasper is a prefect.”

Remus nodded, “Yeah. He was.”

“He is,” Edgar corrected. “Jasper is.”

Remus nodded again, feeling bad. He hadn’t meant that Jasper was - he’d meant that Jasper was a prefect. Edgar looked down at the pillow again.

“Coby Jenner mentioned you were upset about a radio show?” Remus murmured.

Edgar blinked back tears. “They called him the muggle murderer, Jasper Odair.” He looked up at Remus. “Jasper’s not a murderer.”

“I know, I’m sure whatever happened was a mistake,” Remus replied.

It was on the tip of Edgar’s tongue to tell Remus Lupin what happened.

But then Remus continued, “My friend’s dad is working on being an advocate for Jasper. Mr. Potter volunteers at the Ministry as a rights activist for muggles and muggle-borns. It’s one of his many, many jobs.” Remus smiled. “He also helps to sell Sleekeazy, and make new formulas of it and stuff James says, but that’s a family business. He’s very, very smart and he cares a whole lot and if he’s anything at all like James is then once Mr. Potter gets his mind set on something, he’ll never give up no matter how hard it gets, and he’ll see to it that things are set right for Jasper.”

Edgar looked miserable.

Remus reached over and squeezed Edgar’s hand gently. “You’ll see. Nobody will be sent to Azkaban that doesn’t deserve it.”

Edgar swallowed back the truth, too scared to say it. It was him, Edgar, who deserved it.

“You know, if you wanted to, you could write to Jasper and I could give it to James to send to his dad and Mr. Potter can bring the letter to Jasper.” Remus smiled hopefully, “You could tell him all about your first day at Hogwarts.”

Edgar looked at Remus. “I could?”

“Yeah, absolutely. I know Mr. Potter would be happy to bring a letter to Jasper.” Remus smiled.

Edgar scrambled up from his bed and rushed over to his desk and grabbed some stationary out of Christopher Castle’s stationary set, which had been left opened on the desktop, and snatched up a quill. He didn’t have his own stationary set like the other boys did - he had only the few galleons that Jasper had saved from his summer job to buy the things he needed for school… Jasper had been hoarding every penny for them to get their school books and it had been only just enough for those and a pair of second hand robes.

Quickly, Edgar set to writing a letter, balancing the stationary on his knee.

Remus stood up, “I’ll let you have some privacy while you write. But when you’re done, bring it down to the common room and I’ll be at the homework table. You’re welcome to join us.”

“Thanks Remus,” Edgar said. And he meant it. Writing to Jasper meant the world to him. He wondered if Jasper would be able to write him back, if that sort fo thing was allowed. He hoped it would be. Jasper was Edgar’s world.




There were more muggle attacks that day.

Some of the Death Eaters had gone into a department store, fully dressed in robes and masks made to look like a skull, and they had walked through, waving their wands and exploding mirrors and mannequins, shattering display cases of fashion goods and expensive perfumes. One of them had spotted a shop girl, trying to run away, and he’d levitated her up into the air, let her skirt fall over her hips and spun her about ‘til she was sick and he’d floated her along, her under garmets showing as she cried and begged him to let her down… and when he’d finished his grand parade through the shop with the other Death Eaters, teasing and torturing the poor girl the entire time, he finally killed her with a jet of green light and left her laying on the shop floor.

They left all the muggles they killed, all together in a pile. And they set the Dark Mark over the store and they disapparated, cackling loudly just as the aurors of the Ministry for Magic arrived - just as Fabian Prewett shot a stunner at them - but they were gone.




MEMBERS OF THE MAGICAL COMMUNITY CALL FOR JUSTICE!
Members of the magical community cry out in fear again this afternoon as more attacks against muggles have been reported. As the attacks become more frequent, the Ministry comes under heavy fire from it’s citizens. “Why haven’t they caught anybody? Why are they so inept? We ought to fire all the aurors, they’re all incapable of protecting anybody! For now it’s muggles they’re killin’ - next it’ll be witches and wizards. Living in fear of the Dark Lord like this - not knowing where he is and what he’s doing - it’s almost worse than if he was in control! Minchum needs to step up and stop these attacks or else resign!”
Meanwhile, Minchum vows to see to it that muggle-killers are brought under strict punishment of the law. He vows that the aurors will not sleep until they have found every Death Eater, until every innocent life lost is avenged.
“Do not forget that we are not completely empty handed. We hold in custody a notorious muggle-murderer already!” reminds Bartemius Crouch, who is currently the acting head of the Magical Law Enforcement Department at the Ministry for Magic in the continued absence of Alastor Moody. “We will see to it that the message is clear - the Minister and the Ministry and the Aurors do not bow to the threat of fear. We do not cower. We fight to apprehend those who have done harm and we will continue to see to it that justice is served and each and every perpetrator of the laws protecting muggles and wizards alike shall be severely punished for their crimes.”
In light of recent attacks and outcries of the magical community, the Ministry of Magic has set a court date for the trial of the muggle-murderer Jasper Odair for 9 September.





“That’s the day after the full moon,” whispered Sirius, looking at his wrist in the Great Hall at breakfast the next morning.

James stared at the paper. Lily hadn’t come downstairs yet, so she didn’t know they had set the date. He was so nervous over it that he couldn’t even stand to eat the bacon that crowded his plate. Peter was stealing it one strip at a time as discreetly as possible.

Remus was reading about the attack at the department store on a separate bit of the Prophet’s pages, shaking his head as his eyes roved over the article. He looked near to tears. “This is so wrong. It’s all so wrong. Those poor muggles...” His mum had been a shop girl once, he remembered her telling him about spraying samples of perfumes on tiny bits of paper for people to smell. It didn’t pay well, Hope had said, but a smile had lit up her eyes, But every morning I got to have the ladies at the cosmetics counter put my face on professionally. It was glamorous. It made Remus sad to think that perhaps this shop girl had thought the same thing - that her job was glamorous… until Death Eaters tortured her.

Sirius rubbed his arm nervously, looking over Remus’s shoulder at the sketch of the masked death eaters that had been used to accompany the article and he shivered.

Orion had had one of those masks.

He glanced across the Great Hall and saw Regulus Black sitting at the Slytherin table. It was the first time he’d spotted Regulus - and what a coincidence that it happened to be as he thought of Orion Black. He stared at his brother for a long moment as Regulus ate his breakfast… and when Regulus looked up, their eyes met and Regulus stared back.

Sirius lifted a hand to wave to him sort of.

Regulus looked around the uncrowded Slytherin table… and waved back.

Sirius looked away.

Across from him, James looked even sicker, if that were possible, and he sat up straighter… Lily Evans had come into the Great Hall. James pushed Peter down to make room on the bench to entice her to come over and it worked - Frank and Alice were there beside Remus across from James, something he’d started the year off making sure of was part of the daily sitting arrangement so that Lily would want to sit next to him. She sat on the bench and James folded the bit of the Prophet he held quickly and reached to adjust his tie at hi throat, making sure it was on straight as Lily took up some toast and raspberry jam.

“Evans,” James said.

“Potter.”

James shifted uneasily. “Jasper’s court date’s been set.”

Lily paused in her application of jam to her toast. She glanced at the folded paper in James’s lap.

“It’s 9 September,” he told her.

She licked her lips, then held out her hand for the paper.

James gave it to her.

Lily unfolded it and read the article James had read - the one where Barty Crouch vowed to bring severe justice to offenders and Lily covered her mouth and tears filled her eyes and she whispered, “They’ve practically sentenced him already.” Her voice shook. “It isn’t fair.”

James looked down at the table, at the empty plate before him - Peter having stolen the last strip of bacon. He felt so bad for Jasper, so bad for Lily… He sighed.

“Fuck the Ministry, they’re arseholes the lot of them,” Sirius announced, “Especially that Bartemius Crouch bloke -- he can piss off.”

Lily never would’ve said the words, but she felt exactly the same.

Remus said, “Your dad’s still working with Jasper, right, James?”

James nodded. “Mum mentioned it in her letter yesterday. He wasn’t there to write me because he’d gone to the Ministry again to visit him. He’s the only one allowed to see him, so he visits as much as he can so Jasper isn’t alone.”

Lily whispered, “Your dad’s so kind.”

James nodded.

Remus dug in his pocket. “Here. Can you send this to him to give to Jasper? It’s a letter from Edgar Odair, the first year.”

James nodded again, “I’ll send it with my owl to them later today - after Sirius and I get out of detention.” He paused. “Speaking of which, we’d better get down to the paddock before we get a detention for being late to our detention, Padfoot.”

“Fuck. I forgot about detention. Do we seriously have to paint that ruddy fence?” Sirius looked annoyed.

“That’s what Kettleburn said,” James shrugged.

“Well…” Sirius sighed, “At least I got a bit of practice painting things when we were at Fallengunder.”

“Reminds me, I gotta write to Professor Veigler,” Remus said.

James stood up and he put a hand on Lily’s shoulder as she was re-reading the article again, angry tears in her eyes, “Are you alright, love? I’ll skive off the detention if you need --”

“I’m okay, Potter,” she replied quickly, looking up at him. “Go get your Tom Sawyer on.”

James stared at Lily. So did Remus and Peter. Only Remus laughed.

“Tom Sawyer? American literature? Troublemaker has to whitewash a fence after getting into mischief with his best mate, Huckleberry Finn?” Lily said, then, with a sigh.

“Bloke’s name is Huckleberry?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow, “That’s a name, that is. Terrible. What parents would do that to their child? Bloody hell.”

“Nevermind, it’s a muggle book. Just go…”