Semele Perdita

Since soooo many of you have been asking me to do it for a while now, I have gone through and added whose POV it is to all the chapters I believe(tell me if I skipped any) hopefully that will make it easier for you guys to get through. I need to go through and edit some parts of the earlier chapters and definitely re-write some parts, but I will get to that later. Thanks for your patience.

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Semele Perdita

Chapter 15: Melancholy Christmas

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He looked unexplainably relieved at this and he let a small smile permeate his features, lifting several years off his face and assuaging some of my own fears for him.

“Thank you, James. Now go on through, your friends must be wondering where you are. I'll be home soon. I have some things at the office to take care of.” He gave me a small nod and gestured towards the fireplace. I could feel his eyes following me carefully as I stepped forward, throwing my dust into the fireplace and the flames flared up in a sickly green color, painting the bricks around us.

“Potter's Residence!” I shouted and jumped forward, feeling my feet begin to spin forward and the platform around me slowly dissolved until I was completely swallowed by the whirling flames that eventually pushed me through the old familiar gate to my home where the rest of the Marauders were waiting impatiently for me to arrive.

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-James-

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The sun had long since faded beneath the horizon and the stars and half-lit moon were the only light I had as I sat alone on the stairs of the veranda a week after I arrived home. My thoughts had been clouded with worry as I watched my father grow more distant and shadowed every day. His work consumed as it never had before and even the usual cheery countenance of my mum was beginning to show signs of wearing thin. Something was wrong, even the rest of the Marauders were noticing even though nothing was being said.

I'm not sure how long I was sitting there, my head swirling with too many thoughts to comprehend fully, before I heard him come up behind me. I knew instinctively that it was Sirius by the strong feeling of magnetism that always accompanied him wherever he was. I had only witnessed him lose his complete composure a handful of times and most of them were because of his family.

The boards creaked beside me and I didn't look over immediately when I heard him sit beside me with a sigh. Dropping my head into my hands, I threaded my fingers through my hair in a comforting habit. The world, at times like these, was almost too much for me to understand.

The papers screamed with headlines of a brooding war on the brink of breaking out within the wizarding world, with a group of pureblood maniacs leading the movement to wipe out all Muggleborn magic-bearers. Unidentified and shrouded in mystery, a suppressing fear had silently stolen upon the world which I lived in and I was very sure of the fact that something was coming that would change everyone, because this wasn't just a stray band of purebloods on a rampage against Muggles this time. This group was bringing something much darker, much bigger, than anything I could fathom.

“What's on your mind, Prongs?” Sirius finally asked quietly. I heard his light, even breathing beside me and at that moment for no reasonable explanation, I was incredibly grateful that Sirius Black was my best friend.

“What do you suppose is going to happen?” I studied his face carefully as I posed the question that had been bothering since I came home to find the news that had been denied to us in Hogwarts. Until I had found all the recent newspapers, I hadn't had an inkling of how sheltered I had been from the outside world in the castle.

Sirius sighed heavily, staring out towards the faded sky before answering me, “Something big is coming, Prongs. It's been brewing for a few years and it's no good.”

“Why didn't you mention this before?” I asked, the beginnings of anger stirring in with my barely acknowledged fear. Sirius shrugged at that, his eyes dropping to the ground and his hands clasping together.

“Didn't think it would be this big. Sounded pretty normal when it first started; just some purebloods trying to make waves. Nothing too serious, nothing to get too worried over,” he responded with a strange calm. I opened my mouth to retort, but he cut me off before I could say anything. “Yeah, yeah, I know, I was wrong. What else is new?”

Without speaking it out loud, I knew suddenly the topic had shifted into a subject matter completely different than mysterious uprisings.

“That was a long time ago, Padfoot,” I said in almost a whisper as I recalled the events at the end of our 5^th year. From where I was sitting I could see Sirius' eyes flash as he looked up at me with a start.

“Don't lie, Prongs, it wasn't all that long ago. Less than a year, in fact,” he spat out bitterly. I saw his mind working furiously, no doubt remembering every painful detail of that mistake-ridden night.

“It wasn't all your fault, Sirius,” I tried my best to sound fierce in the statement but it came out as more of a strangled whisper again. He broke eye contact with me again, swinging his gaze back toward the horizon with its last few lights straying into the sky.

“Yes it is, don't try to take any of my blame, James. If it wasn't for you that night, I don't want to think about what would have happened,” Sirius contradicted me quickly and purposefully. I couldn't believe he wanted all the blame for what happened that night, after all that had happened after it. Remus had forgiven him, Snape had given us a wide berth, and the Marauders were still strong in their loyalty to each other, even if it was still a bit tense between Remus and Sirius.

In a last ditch attempt to lift that dark cloud that had been hovering in his eyes since we began our discussion, I swallowed hard and muttered, “We could blame it all on Snivellus, you know.”

Sirius gave a short bitter laugh at that and got up from his perch, stretching his arms over his head. I rose, too, and leaned against the outside wall of the house as Sirius continued to stare out into the distance. We stayed this way for several minutes until the far-away chiming of the old family clock announced loudly with its repetitive chimes that it was midnight.

He startled out of his trance and turned back to go inside but not before pausing and nodding towards me, adding a soft, “Happy Christmas, Prongs,” before going inside.

I smiled slightly, a ghost of my normal smile really, and replied softly to the now empty porch, “Happy Christmas, Padfoot.”

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The morning came quickly, with Peter waking the rest of us, as was his custom on Christmas day.

“Come on, up you guys, there are presents waiting to be opened!” he practically squealed. I sent my best glare in the direction of his almost childish enthusiasm, but it was to no avail. Once Peter got into a mode of his it was impossible to get him out of it.

I groggily rolled out of bed and sat up in bed with a yawn. I was soon joined in my room by an equally sleepy-looking Sirius who sprawled across the open space on my bed with a groan and stormy countenance. I could tell he had slept almost as well as I had, which hadn't been very good at all. Remus was practically pushed into the room next by Peter who was the only person I ever remember meeting who was so chipper in the morning.

All of the presents for this year had been piled in a corner of my room and Peter was now distributing them to us with a smile and as he gave Sirius his last one with a bit of a flourish I heard Sirius mutter a distinctive, “That one is mental.” I gave a soft snort at that and Remus sent me a questioning look before turning back to his pile of presents.

Peter finally sat down after making sure everything was in order. He was always the one who made sure everything was handed out correctly before any present-swapping events, especially Christmas. It was almost an unspoken tradition that he was in charge of making sure everyone got what they were supposed to get.

“Well,” Remus started to say once we had all settled. An uncomfortable silence descended on us and I cleared my throat.

Suddenly Sirius sat up with a grin on his face and asked with a jubilant air, “Well, what are we waiting for?” He tore into his gifts with a gusto I hadn't seen in him for almost half a year.

Soon we all caught his spirit, however forced it might have been, and we all dug into our own piles and the paper on them was soon strewn all across the room. I threw aside gifts from aunts and uncles and even a few from my parents until I had made it through the pile. It had been another tradition of the Marauders since 3^rd year that we did not exchange gifts and that our big project of the year would be our gift to one another. Each year we had finished the very last part of the project after we were done with the other gifts. This year was different however, in that we still hadn't come close to finishing it.

It was our most ingenious project yet, besides becoming Animagi for Remus, illegally I might add. The Map, although in early stages would be our lasting imprint on Hogwarts for sure.

We had carefully documented every secret passage way, trap door, and hidden room that we had found onto a piece of paper but we needed a few last charms to complete what we had in mind for it. Although Remus had been working on a charm to help show the locations of people in the castle, he hadn't ever been able to work out exactly how to perform the spell.

That was where Lily Evans fit in as she was the most brilliant witch at Charms that I had ever come across. Not to mention she was very pretty and a bit more sociable than the rest of the Ravenclaws. I could come to like this girl very much if she actually went through with it and helped us. I had never known possible contenders for Head Girl would agree to willingly break the rules.

Of course, that was only a plus.

“Whatcha thinkin' about, Prongs?” Remus tossed a question towards me, looking amused.

I snapped back into a more logical frame of mind, telling myself to quit thinking over the pretty redhead and start thinking more about the Map. Which in all logicality would only lead me to think of her more, but I would tackle that later.

“About the Map, Remus…” I began and all four of us talked of how we would go about getting Lily to do everything we need her to do well into the day.

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Bondariana - that sucks…hope you get around to writing and finish soon, sounds like those are fun.:-D my holidays this year are gonna be May 28- August 22 I think, that's what they usually are, though I'm going to be without internet access July 1-15

Lady Starlight - Lily has some quite interesting experiences coming up soon *wink* good catch on James' observations:-D

classics3 - Well, it will be Potter's Residence for now because they do not live in Godric's Hollow yet. One day when a good name comes up for where they live now I'll change it but generic it will stay for the time being.

Mani12191 - aww I'm sorry about that, I'm so lazy that I just forget to write for SP and get sidetracked doing other stuff. But I am so becoming stricter with myself as I realized recently I have only written 15 chapters in almost 2 years, that's pitiful.

Remus' sweetie - well I hope you won't be confused about POV's anymore since I went back and edited to add all the spots when it changes.

Eschiva - I didn't tell you because I updated at around 1 in the morning before I left for Philadelphia, so there.

Draco's Gurl - a miracle indeed and yes Voldemort will be playing an important supporting role in the future but you'll have to wait and see ;-)