#dogstxrsirius

[ofemmevance]

Date: July 6th, 1984 Location: Godric’s Hollow @dogstxrsirius

Emmeline had spent most of the morning unpacking her things into her new room. She didn’t like living out of boxes, and she wanted to be settled as quickly as possible. Natalie had always teased her for unpacking all of her things from Hogwarts the first day that she came home, she just couldn’t stand living in a super cluttered place and not knowing where all of her things were. So the sooner she could unpack and feel like she was at home, the better. And it helped, being busy. She didn’t have time to think about everything that was happening around her, or have time to focus on the past. 

She had lost track of time, and all of a sudden it was the middle of the afternoon and she realized that she hadn’t eaten anything in hours. James had popped in to let her know that he was going out earlier, but she could hear him moving around in the kitchen, so he must have come back. Emmeline walked out of her room and went to the kitchen. “James, do we have any--” she trailed off when she saw Sirius standing in the kitchen, grabbing something from a cupboard.

It was strange, seeing him in the kitchen. She knew that he was James’s best friend, of course, but Emme had never really...talked to him. Which seemed strange now that she really thought about it. Why hadn’t they ever talked? She had always thought that he was...intimidating, even though he had never given her a reason to think that. She couldn’t help but think of Regulus when she looked at Sirius, and all of those unpleasant feelings that she had about his brother came to the surface, even though she knew that Sirius wasn’t his brother. “Oh, um, sorry,” she finally said. “I um, thought that you were James. He’s uh, I’m not sure where he is,” she admitted. 

[perniciouspotter]

Date: June 13th, 1984 (technically the next day, though on the same evening as the party, after midnight) Location: The Flaming Dragon, Late, Very Late, Very Very Late, So late they probably should’ve left already @dogstxrsirius​

​James practically asleep on the table, sitting at a booth with his head down resting against his arms and his eyes closed. He could still hear the dwindling of the party - the last dregs of people left. He’d told Gideon he would make sure he didn’t go home with strangers tonight, but James didn’t even know where Gideon went or if he was even still here. He didn’t know what happened to Marlene after they’d gotten drunk off Quodcup - or where Emmeline took off to during her second disappearance of the night. 

He felt like a failure in that not knowing.

But Sirius was still here. Something James knew because, currently, Sirius’s voice was getting closer to him. They’d been together throughout the night - almost all night. Any time James was with another person, he’d stuck by his best friend’s side like a security blanket. But, about an hour ago, James had slipped from that fun drunken state into something worse where he could hardly keep his head up, incoherent of what was going on and losing track of friends who counted on him.

“‘M jus’ gonna sleep here,” he mumbled to Sirius because the idea of standing right now seemed too exhausting. “‘M fine here.” Caradoc would probably say differently, but what did that matter?

[adarkershadeofalice]

Trowbridge Planning Session

LOCATION: Prewett House DATE: June 21, 1984 @emmaofvanity & @dogstxrsirius & @mfletcher

Alice turned the knob and pushed the door open one-handed because the fingers of her other hand were currently locked around the ear of one Mister Mundungus Fletcher, pulling him down the hallway in her wake like an errant child. Alice flashed a perky smile at the sight of the room’s current occupants turning to face her and her reluctant cargo.

“You’re here already, splendid! Sorry I’m a bit late. Someone was a little bit reluctant about showing-up for the team-meeting. Thought it would be fun to play silly buggers for a bit,” she explained to Sirius and Emma, pulling Fletcher forward and releasing him towards the middle of the room like she was making a longshot with a Quaffle. “Now that I think we all understand the direness of the situation, though, I’m sure we’ll all be quite keen to shape-up and do our best, won’t we?” Alice raised her eyebrows at Fletcher, a silent order to cooperate now.

Alice walked briskly to the table by the window -- the largest object in the small study, although the empty spot on the wall where an enormous portrait had once hung struggled to seem larger by the weight of its absence -- and let her satchel drop onto the scuffed old wood with a weighty thump. She pulled out sheafs of parchment and even a few garishly-colored Muggle map-pamphlets (why they folded their maps like that instead of rolling them like sensible people Alice would never understand, although admittedly it did make it easier to carry them around since one could just chuck them in a bag without taking the time to put them in scroll-cases to keep them from being crushed), tossing them onto the table as she talked.

“Our target, one Sydney Burns, age eleven, is located at a farm about twenty miles outside of Trowbridge, the county seat of Wiltshire. Emma, I believe you’re familiar with the general area. Have you ever been to Trowbridge, or the surrounding lands?”

[perniciouspotter]

Date: June 22nd, 1984 Location: Godric’s Hollow self para/summary feat. @dogstxrsirius

James didn’t know if it was resignation over his situation or just pure whatever that made him decide to just not give a fuck tonight. He had planning in the morning with Peter and Gwen - they all had the mission in two days - and he’d be ready then. But then wasn’t now and, right now, he just wanted to relax.

So he’d asked Sirius to pull out some of the potion-laced herbs that he bought off Fletcher regularly. James didn’t do this a ton with his mate, but he’d done it enough time that it was easy to roll the paper and light the end with his wand.

“Got into with Wormtail,” he told Sirius after they’d both had a few hits, passing it back and forth while sitting on the ground with their backs pressed against James’ couch. Garnet made an appearance, rubbing up against both their legs in familiar companionship before fucking off out the cat door to disturb some mice or something. Rats, James thought. He would go chase some rats. Good cat, he couldn’t help but think a moment later, his anger at Peter clouded his mind.

And, at Sirius’ insistence, he told the story.

Or, what he thought the story was, at the very least.

He told Sirius about how Peter had brought up disappointment. How James saw the way he’d taken the kidnapping and made it about him. How, when James had called him out on it, he’d retreated. “Fuckin’ coward,” Sirius said back with his eyes narrowed angrily, on James’ side.

James wondered if, in all his life, Sirius would be the only one to always be on his side. No matter what. Well, perhaps Emmeline, too. “Yeah,” James agreed, letting the smoke blow from his lips as his pupils dilatating as he looked up at the ceiling through his spectacles, his head back against the couch seat.

“Fuckin’ coward,” he repeated and, right now, there was nothing that could make him think of what this might do to them. Not just him and Sirius - but the group. Sirius was already on the outs with Remus and things had been weird between him and Peter, too. Later, James would realize he was only making things worse. 

He’d tried to hold on tighter to each of them, pulling them back together desperately to keep himself above water. Right now, however, he just passed the joint back to Sirius, the scar on his wrist catching his eye. 

And all he wanted to do was close his eyes and fall asleep.

[perniciouspotter]

Date: July 7th, 1984 Location: Godric’s Hollow @dogstxrsirius​

James had invited Sirius over for a couple of reasons. One, this week had felt more distant between them, despite seeing one another a handful of times, and James didn’t like it. It made him anxious, feel unsafe. Sirius had been his only constant throughout this whole thing and the idea that it could be different made James want to cry. Two, Emmeline. He didn’t know what had happened between the two of them the day before but, by the time James had gotten home, Sirius was gone and Emmeline was quiet... and James knew his best mate. Knew that this whole someone else moved in with him thing probably felt confusing for him.

He grabbed two drinks - simple bottled Firewhiskeys from the cupboards - and cracked both of them open before heading to the living room where Sirius was sprawled out on the couch like he owned it. James fell next to him and handed him the drink. “Nothing up to your specialty, but it’ll do,” he said, clinking their bottles to take a drink. A superstition in the Marauder world - never take a drink without a tap of glass on glass if two of them were there.

James leaned back, looked over at his friend. “We’re good, right?” he said after a few moments, a few drinks, uncharacteristically quiet in his tone. “Like, there’s nothing you wanna tell me?” It wasn’t that James thought Sirius was keeping secrets, but where had he been the last couple of weeks? James had been forced to sleep alone more lately than he had much at all since getting home.

And maybe James, too, wanted to share some of his own secrets. Hestia, for one. That one was burned in his brain, but not in a bad way. She was sexy as hell and she’d been naked in front of him. It had been a good fuck, even if they had yet to see one another since then. Then there was Peter... the non-argument, the knowledge that Sirius was fighting James’ battles for him. A lot had happened and, normally, his best mate would’ve known all of it already. James would’ve known everything about Sirius’ life too.

[adarkershadeofalice]

Minty Fresh Danger

EVENT: The Leaked List LOCATION: Burns Farm, Wiltshire DATE: June 24th, 1984 FEATURING: @helloxhestia incorporating: @emmaofvanity @ofdorkass @mfletcher @dogstxrsirius

After disarming three traps and nearly being disarmed by a fourth, Alice was in no mood to be patient with the fifth one she came across. Her team had found plenty in their searches too, enough so that Alice had lost count of just how many of the vile things had been littered across the farmstead so far. (Hestia would want to know later, she was sure; Alice would just have to hope that everyone’s memory would be keen for the debriefing afterward.) It seemed like overkill, especially when the targets were simple Muggles—and one muggle-born who hadn’t even yet held their first wand—which led her to conclude even more firmly than she had before that these had been set for the Order rather than the family.

(Alice was just glad that her team had come early enough to start disarming the traps before the family found them the hard way—although didn’t farmers start their day very early? So where were they? Maybe they’d already found one, and retreated to the safety of their house? She hoped it wasn’t because they’d already found some traps and perished.)

Her terse warning to Hestia—”Reached Wiltshire site without incident. Triggered a booby-trap on arrival. No injuries. Searching the area. Will update when we know more”—dispatched by her silvery skunk patronus minutes after Emma had almost immolated herself at the hands of a gnomish decoration was seeming less and less sufficient the longer they searched and the more such traps they found...but so far, no one was dead or dismembered, so there was no sense calling for additional back-up and endangering others. Not when there was still every chance that Death Eaters would be popping-out of the woodwork all around the country at any moment. Alice’s team was doing just fine—mostly—so the only thing to do was to keep doing what they were doing and hope things didn’t get worse.

Alice should have taken her own advice and not let her focus drift, but too late—her attention wavered and the spell she was unknotting with her wand snapped loose with an ugly snarl before she could catch it. Alice jumped backwards out of the way as hungry mint leaves suddenly shot-up to half human height and stabbed towards her like jagged steel blades. One of the spears caught her ankle, slicing a thin line through the soft leather deep enough to draw blood with a sharp flare of pain. Alice yanked her leg away, glaring at the razor-edged mint leaves, as she snarled “Episkey!” at herself. The wound closed, leaving a dull throbbing behind; Alice ignored it, knowing the pain would fade quickly on its own and quicker as she focused on other things.

Like the damn mint. Who booby-trapped a bunch of herbs? Arseholes. The sharp-sweet smell of the mint mingled with the coppery reek of the blood they’d spilled. Alice jerked her wand in a brutal cutting motion and the enchanted over-grown mint fell, sliced-off near the roots. She leaned in cautiously and cast a Discernment Spell, checking to make sure there wasn’t more danger lingering in the roots, but the magic came back clear. She gave the bloodstained leaves another glare before limping away to search for the next danger.