#pranking-masters

@pranking-masters

     Jillian sat with her knees pulled up to her chest in the corner of her ratty old couch, watching the smoke slowly rise from the half smoked cigarette between her fingers. She had smoked a few times here and there when she was younger but she had stopped when Harry was born, wanting to think of his health and be careful around him. But with Harry gone and most everyone she loved dead, why should she care for her health? She had picked the habit back up about a week after James and Lily died, having been too distraught up until then to even remember what a cigarette was. Remus tried to talk her out of it, to tell her that Lily had been so proud of her when she had quit. Her response, as she had so eloquently put it on that cold November day, was ‘Lily’s dead, it doesn’t matter anymore...nothing matters anymore.’

     She often wondered if that statement had been part of why Remus had left, wondered if he had gone away because he didn’t think he mattered to her at all anymore. It wasn’t that she stopped caring about Remus that day, it was the opposite in fact. She adored him so completely, he was all she had left, but it felt so much easier to cut herself off from the world that day. Lily died, James died, Peter died...and Sirius was to blame for it all. And not only had he betrayed their dearest friends, put their god son in danger, but he had killed all those muggles in the process. If he did it at all. No, he had to have done it. The Ministry had been so sure of it, especially Barty Crouch Sr. Well, then again, he wasn’t all there, was he?

     Barty Crouch Sr was a man hell bent on revenge, though she wasn’t quite sure what crime had been committed to make him so hell bent on such a mission. He was a wizard drunk on his power and authority in a time of extreme chaos. Hell, the man had even locked away his own son under the accusations of having been involved in the torture of Alice and Frank Longbottom. God, that was an entire other can of worms she didn’t want to open. Alice and Frank were her friends, and even thinking about them or hearing their names made Jillian’s chest feel tighter. When they had been attacked she knew the world had truly fallen apart, since even the fall of Voldemort had not ended the pain to their people. Damn the LeStrange family. And to think, if her mother had gotten her way, she would have been married to Rabastan as soon as she graduated. Thank Merlin for her rebellious nature. But...it wasn’t that alone that saved her, was it? No, it had been Lily and James, it had been Peter and Remus. It had been...it had been Sirius.

     Jillian swallowed thickly and took another drag of her cigarette, a long one that lasted so long she was surprised the entire thing didn’t burn out. She held the smoke in her lungs for so long it made her chest burn, preferring the physical pain in her body over the pain in her heart and in her soul. She sniffled softly, another tear rolling down her cheek as she flicked the ashes off of her cigarette into the tray she had balancing on the arm of the sofa she sat on. “You were doing so well,” she heard from the corner of the room. Jillian tensed at the sound of the overly kind voice ringing in her ears. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t true, it was all in her head. “You promised me you wouldn’t do this anymore,” the voice said again, a flash of red hair catching Jillian’s attention. She turned her head to see Lily standing in the corner of the room, her arms behind her back as she leaned on the wall.

     “And you promised me you would be safe. Guess we’re both liars,” she said bitterly, watching as Lily sighed heavily and shook her head. Lily always accused Jillian of being the dramatic one, which was mostly true, especially when she and Sirius got together. But Lily was partial to her own form of dramatics as well, she just wasn’t as theatrical about it as Jillian and Sirius were, not even as much as James really. 

     “I didn’t do that on purpose. This, this you are doing on purpose,” Lily said, pushing herself off the wall and slowly walking over to the sofa before sitting on the other side, Jillian not hesitating to take notice of the fact that she didn’t feel the weight in the sofa cushions shift. “Jilly...you have to stop punishing yourself for what happened.”

     “I can’t,” Jillian responded quickly, not daring to look at Lily as she stared at the dwindling cigarette in her hand. “I should have been able to save you. To save James and Peter and Harry...to stop Sirius,” she choked out. “He was my responsibility, just like James was yours. I...I should have been there. It should have been me, not you.”

     “Jilly Bean…” Lily whispered softly before Jillian cut her off.

     “No! It's true. You were always more useful to the Order than I was. Your potions were stronger than mine, you were better with people than me, you were a better soldier than I was...you were smarter than me. And if I was smart like you, you would still be,” she said softly.

     “That isn’t how it works and you know it,” Lily said firmly, causing Jillian to glance over at her. She was exactly how she remembered her. A face full of freckles, hair as fiery as her heart and green eyes as piercing as a sword. She wouldn’t have it any other way. “Even if you had been there, you couldn’t have saved me. You couldn’t have saved James. And Peter, well I wasn’t there for that but if all those muggles didn’t stand a chance then neither did he, so don’t you go feeling responsible for his death either,” she chastised. 

     Jillian stiffened as Lily talked about Peter, his sweet face flashing behind her eyes as she slumped further into the couch. “And as for Harry...well it turns out he didn’t need saving,” Lily said. And even though Jillian wasn’t looking at her, she could hear the smile in her voice. “That little boy made it out of the impossible. And he is going to be the strongest of us all someday. And if you don’t quit smoking, if you don’t take care of yourself and get out of this hell hole for a little while, you won’t be there when he needs you. Because Jill, he will need you. He will need you to guide him and love him, to protect him and take care of him because his father and I can’t,” Lily reasoned. 

     Jillian shifted as if uncomfortable, like she was trying to curl in on herself to keep away from Lily because she thought touching her might make her vanish. “I miss you,” Jillian said softly, barely above a whisper. “I miss talking to you.”

     “We’re talking right now, Jilly,” Lily pointed out with a tilt of her head. 

     “You’re not real. You’re in my head...a figment inside my mind.”

     “Well, of course I am,” Lily said, her smile brightening a bit as she spoke, making Jillian turn her head in confusion. “But why should that mean it isn’t real anyway?”

     Jillian felt tears balancing on her lower lashes before shaking her head, laughing softly. “I hate you,” she said.

     “No you don’t,” Lily responded smoothly. Just like old times. 

     “No...I don’t,” Jillian agreed, leaning her head back on the couch as she watched Lily. “I still miss you though.”

     Lily smiled, knowingly almost, like how a mother would look at a child. “I miss you too.”

     Jillian watched Lily with an ache in her chest, wishing she could just reach out and grab her hand. Lily always had soft hands, she wasn’t sure why she remembered that. Maybe it was because it fit so well with her gentle nature. Just like how she remembered James always had the best hugs and Peter always had the biggest appetite. “Jilly,” Lily said, causing Jillian to look up from her hands to her face. “We aren’t all gone, you know.”

     Jillian sighed and nodded “I know. I don’t mean to push Remus away I just...it's so hard to be a person around him when I worry maybe he blames me too. Even if he did, he would be too kind to say it,” she pointed out.

     Lily shook her head “He doesn’t and you know it. You two need each other, you should call him,” she pointed out. Jillian nodded but didn’t say anything, almost ashamed to know that she was right. Remus wasn’t the only one at fault here, she was too. “And Sirius isn’t dead you know...he can still come home.”

     Jillian flinched at the sound of his name as something tickled her mind, her head shaking “He betrayed you.”

     Lily shook her head and sat up a little bit better “You’ve been in love with him since we were fifteen years old, you know there isn’t an evil bone in his body. It's just me and you here, you can be honest...do you really believe he did it?” she asked slowly.

     Jillian swallowed thickly as her mind fell back to every beautiful moment she had ever had with Sirius, every moment where he had ever made her feel loved and beautiful. Each kiss, every time they made love, the way he whispered in her ear, even down to the look in his eyes when they held each other at night. That man wasn’t evil, that man wasn’t heartless, that man wasn’t a murderer. That man would never betray his friends. Jillian’s lower lip trembled as she shook her head “N-No,” she admitted. “I-I think it just...it’s easier for me to blame him. To say he did it rather than to think he...to think he is suffering in there for no reason. To think you...whoever betrayed you will never be brought to justice.”

     “But do you still trust him?” Lily asked plainly.

     Jillian felt a sense in her stomach that told her the answer to that one clearly. “W-With my life.”

     “And do you still love him?”

     That one was easy. “Always.”

     Lily slowly smiled again and nodded once, standing up from the couch, as if she was going to leave. “Then stop smoking. Because when Sirius gets out of prison, and that stubborn ass will get out, he will need a healthy girlfriend to take care of him. One that will fight by his side to get my son back. It’s going to be a long road, you should travel it with him. I wouldn’t have traveled the road I went down without James. Don’t go down this one without Sirius. Or without Remus. Harry will need all of you.” Lily nodded her head once and turned as if she was walking away towards the hall, causing Jillian to sit up quickly and press her cigarette into the ashtray, moving it to sit on the coffee table. 

     “Lils!” she said hurriedly, standing up but not following her because it wouldn’t do any good. She watched Lily turn around, catching those green eyes again. “What if I’m wrong?” she asked. “What if I’m wrong and he did it and I love him still?”

     Lily smiled warmly, shaking her head as if she had said something silly. “I know you better than anyone. You wouldn’t love a monster. And you adore him. You’re not wrong. He didn’t do this to me. But he is the only person who can help you find whoever did. He needs you, and you need him.” And like that, Lily seemed to fade right in front of her eyes. Jillian felt an ache in her stomach as she whimpered, holding her stomach as she fell back onto the couch, curling her legs up underneath of her. She was crying too hard to hear the front door opening, and even if she had heard it, she didn’t think she would believe it was real at this point considering her dead best friend just came to give her relationship advice. 

By the second shock, he was gone, his mind shut down.  What he didn’t expect was for the procedure to take a bad turn as he subconsciously attempted to apparate away from the trauma.  He disappeared from the room completely, consciousness returning to him half way through a confusing and blurry travel.

Alphard Black was fully conscious by the time he landed on the floor of his bedroom.  The eighteen year old groaned and struggled to get into a seated position.  That was when he saw the wand pointed directly at him.  The boy raised his hands in the air.  “Whoa,’ he exhaled, clearly confused and scared.  “Don’t hex me, please.”

@pranking-masters

Dora was greatly inclined towards big celebrations when it came to birthday's and other special occasions. She knew that she should temper her impulses better but she couldn't resist, she loved getting gifts and showering them on her loved ones and if Remus thought for even a second that he was going to get away without something big for his birthday then he'd gone one too many rounds with Mad-Eye. She put the finishing touches on the cake, a chocolate cake adorned with purple icing that rather sloppily said ‘happy birthday moony’ with a smiley face shakily drawn next to it. She wasn’t the best but she knew what baking from the heart meant to him and this had absolutely been done from the heart. She wasn’t mad keen on the colours but it was difficult to glitz up a cake where brown was the key colour. Chocolate was the one for him though. 

She hummed for a few moments as she examined it, thinking of the best way to get it from the kitchen to his room. She could carry it but the only problem was she was liable to trip over a section of rug, hell, she’d probably trip over a speck of dust. The second option was to levitate the cake but she’d definitely end up tripping if she was so focused on levitating it. That left one other option and Dora smiled, knowing perfectly well that it was the best option. 

She placed a stasis charm over the cake and then bounded up the stairs, holding onto the banister at one point when she managed to trip up  the stairs. When she reached the hallway where Remus’ room was, she stopped, took a breath and then practically bounced up to his door. She rapped her knuckles on the door to match the beats of the happy birthday song. 

//also tagging @pranking-masters because you are the James involved//     She knew she should have stayed in bed, she had some underlying feeling that she would deeply regret it if she got out of bed. But she was way too thirsty, she had to get up. It had been a really long week, James had only just come back to life about a week ago and she was helping him to once more settle into life. It felt so strange, being here without people they loved. They had gotten used to a life after death with the other marauders, minus Peter that is. It was like Hogwarts all over again, they were carefree and happy and all four of them were together. Of course it never felt truly the same without Peter, and there was always that knowledge that they didn’t have Harry with them. But the four of them had each other, like they always had. Of course now, they were separated again. It gave her comfort to know that one day she would see them again, to know that once more they would all be together as a family. But her son had gone his entire life without his parents, and he deserved to see them again. He deserved to get to know them, to be around them, even if he was already grown. 

     She couldn’t speak for James but she knew so well that she blamed herself, she blamed herself for how her sister had treated him while he was growing up and she blamed herself for not being able to raise him. She was trying her best to make up for that now, though she could only do so much. She knew that Harry didn’t blame her, he was a good boy and he understood, but that didn’t make her feel any less guilty. Harry had been gone all day, she hadn’t bothered to ask where he was going considering he was a grown man now, but it didn’t stop her from worrying. James had kept her plenty occupied though, there was lots for them to do now that they were back in the land of living. They had gone to visit with the Weasley‘s for the day and then spent the evening alone breaking in their new bedroom, which was why she was wearing only one of James’s long T-shirts that looked almost like a short dress on her when her son stumbled in through the doors of the home they were all sharing with each other, sex bruises on his neck, his hair is a mess as his fathers upstairs and a fresh set of piercings in his ears. 

     She held the water bottle in her hands a little bit tighter, her eyes wide as she stared at him. He wasn’t a baby anymore, she had to keep reminding herself of that, he was 18 years old, he wasn’t a baby. She had gotten better about reminding herself that he wasn’t a baby since she had come back two months ago, getting to know him as an adult. It was an odd adjustment for sure, since the last time they had properly been in the same room while she was alive he had been only a baby. But they still had a very mother/son relationship, and things were as normal as they could be considering she and his father looked to only be about three years older than him. But because they had been completely aware in their afterlife, they felt as if they were 40 years old, even though they had the youth and energy of people in their early 20′s.

     She stared at him for a moment, her own hair slightly wild, swallowing thickly. She could’ve just turned around and pretended it didn’t happen, as she also could’ve pretended like she had never seen him. It was also completely plausible if she had scolded him for being irresponsible but she reminded herself the kind of things that she and the boys had gotten into at 18, and it helped to relax her. She sighed softly and walked up to him, holding out her bottle of water to him and decided he needed it more than she did. “I saw Sirius in this exact position when he was 18 too,“ she said with smile. “Don’t clean the earrings with alcohol, he said that burned. Use salt water,“ she said, glancing at the bruises on his neck. 

Lyra had meant to travel back, she had always meant for that to happen, but she hadn’t intended to go back as far as she had. She had been frightened and excited at the thought, her fingers trembling slightly as she put the chain around her neck, holding the time turner in her hands. She took a deep breath, eyes closed and spun, counting as she spun. She felt disorientated and she had opened her eyes, the colours blurring around her, shapes indistinct. She had felt a sickness, bile rising in her throat. She had to keep herself from throwing up, she couldn’t lose the contents of her stomach now. 

She had collapsed on the ground, fists clenched, sucking in deep lungfuls of cold, clean air. The next several days had passed in a blur of their own and she had spun so many webs, so many lies, deceived so many people. She didn’t like lying, she wasn’t naturally inclined to it, but it was necessary. She had to keep her secrets, she couldn’t let anyone know who she was, where she had come from and why. In this time, Lyra Carina Rosier didn’t exist, she hadn’t yet been born. Instead, she assumed a new identity still similar enough to her own that the lie was easier to swallow, easier to tell. Lyra Carina Schmidt, a fifth year Ravenclaw (the hat had kept her in her house). She had told Dumbledore that she was transferring from Durmstrang and he had appeared to believe her to an extent but there was a small amount of doubt that she thought she could detect within his expression. He had naturally asked her a lot of questions and she had answered them the best that she could without giving anything away. When he had asked her why she had left, she had drawn on her knowledge of her own beloved city’s fractured history. It felt terrible to use something as awful as this but she needed to do it, she needed everything to be plausible.

She had found it difficult at first, she had to pretend that she didn’t recognise the castle or any of it’s features or teachers. She had managed to pull it off quite well as far as she was concerned. There had been a few wobbly, rocky moments and she always ducked her head, hiding her face with her hair whenever she saw Severus Snape. That had been one of the hardest parts for her, seeing her intimidating Potions Professor as a student, the same age as her. He still had that same look on his face and it gave her the chill’s and not in the good way. The first time she had seen her father, she had stopped dead in her tracks, the breath stolen from her lungs. She hadn’t quite fully planned what she was going to do to change his fate and subsequently her own. There wasn’t much that she could do at least, not until he had met her mother and she had been conceived. If she moved too quickly then she might prevent herself from being born. It was confusing at times, even for her. 

There were a lot of people who had been interested in her, who had asked questions and wanted to get to know her a little. One of the things that struck her was how people were friendlier even if they still seemed a bit wary. She had struggled throughout her whole time at Hogwarts, only finding friends in Slytherin and even then that was limited primarily to Draco and Blaise. She had certainly found it easier in her later years once Luna had joined Ravenclaw. They were both oddities. 

Time had passed and Lyra had integrated herself into the year and had quickly established her excellence and skill in Charms. There was something familiar and heartwarming about Professor Flitwick getting excited about her Charms work, just as he had in her own time. Potions classes were boring, she didn’t particularly like Professor Slughorn. As terrifying as he had been, Severus Snape had been a good teacher. 

She had thrown herself into her studies during the week but during the weekends, she took the time to go for a long walk around the Black Lake and the grounds in the morning after breakfast. Depending on how she was feeling in the afternoon, she would either read or she would go flying. She loved the freedom of flying, she always had done. That morning she had eaten a few slices of toast, drank some pumpkin juice and had wrapped her scarf loosely around her neck and had walked out of the great hall and out onto the grounds. She had slipped her hands into her pockets and sang a little under her breath as she walked, completely oblivious to the prospect of anyone around her. It was early, it was a Saturday and there hadn’t been many other students around and it was highly unlikely she was going to run into anyone. 

It had always been expected that River would be sorted into Slytherin. Her mother had made sure that she knew that that would be her place when she went to Hogwarts, she was expected to spend her years here making connections. It wasn’t what River had wanted, but it is what she would do.

Sitting on the bench she didn’t know where to start with the feast that had been placed in front of them. When everyone else started eating she took the time to look around smiling slightly when she saw her other ‘newbies’ turning to one of them she tried to act confident and put her hand out to shake.

     “It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay” she kept whispering to the little girl in her arms, the one year old clinging onto her. She shouldn’t have taken her, she knew it would look suspicious. What would Lucius say? What would Bellatrix say? She didn’t care, she wasn’t thinking about what the others thought of her. She was thinking of Accalia, thinking of how another minute in that house could have gotten her killed. She didn’t care if she came under fire for leaving with the baby and coming back without her, hell she didn’t care if it got her killed. She just wanted her daughter to be safe, and there was only one place in the world she could think of where she would be safe-with Sirius and Remus. Who else would protect her better than they would? 

     She waved her wand in the air with the hand that wasn’t holding the little girl on her hip, putting her wand back in her cloak when the buildings in front of her began to shift. She was sure whoever was inside could feel the shift, she remembered she used to feel it when she would be inside and someone would come home. The last time she had come here had been the say Sirius had found out about their affair, about their daughter, and that had been months ago. 

     When the building had finally popped out from its hiding spit she held her daughter again with both hands, the tired little girl resting her head on her mother’s shoulder, very ready for a nap. She hadn’t thought about what to do, she hadn’t even packed her a bag. She had just grabbed Accalia who had been sleeping with her stuffed wolf in her clutches and then left. The poor little girl had no idea how close to danger she really was. 

     She hurried up to the door and began banging on it, tears balancing on her lower lashes from panic. “Sirius! Sirius open the door! I need your help! Please, cousin! Its about Accalia!” she shouted, hoping the panic in her voice combined with the baby’s name would get his attention, her eyes moving from the door to the full sky above her. It would be less than an hour now until Remus’s transformation, she only hoped he was somewhere safe. 

“Yeah you really are,” Sirius bluntly replied. “It’s not a bad thing but you’ll drive yourself crazy by worrying about things you can’t control.” Sirius knew he had done enough of that when the war first started, after he made stupid mistakes on the battlefield had watched others die.

“You James and Harry will be okay, you’re safe here. Then after this is all over we can go back to Potter Manor. I’m sure the elves have really missed you guys!”

Sirius’ optimism did absolutely nothing to quell her nerves, but what else could she say? That every night since they’d heard about the fucking prophecy, since BEFORE Harry was even born, she’d had nightmares of her and James dying? Of Voldemort attacking them? That she had never been more afraid of anything in her life? 

Or did she remind him of the fact that it had been three months since Harry’d been born, but longer still that they’d been in hiding? That this was third house they’d bounced around to, just to make sure no one was on their trail. That even though they’d only just moved into the tiny Scottish home ( courtesy of Alastor, a lesser known safe house that he kept, just in case ) it felt like a prison as much as the last? 

“You’re right,” she said instead, forgoing mentioning the scattered thoughts that entered her head. She bounced Harry in her arms gently, bottle propped in his blankets as she fed him, though he was mostly asleep at this point.