Chapter Text
WHATS UP BITCHES UR GIRL IS BACKK. Has it really been 6 years? (Reading my works of 2020 and cringing seems to confirm it).
Visit my favs on ffn and all you'll see is Hermione in Marauders Era fanfics. So it would be the understatement of the century to say that I'm obsessed with the trope. But this time, when I tried reading some of my old favs, I either found them kinda boring and long drawn or immaturely written. (Not to hate on anyone, ofc, just a personal opinion.) soooo we're writing our own baby <3 .
I absolutely frickin love Fabian he's such a sweetheart so he's going to be a major character. Hermione/Fabian included, but endgame is Sirimione. I'm not planning to let the war and horcruxes and everything come up in the first segment of the story, that part will come way later. So get ready for humor, fluff, jealousy, angst, guilt, romance, healing, and a whole lot of marauder chaos!
obviously don't own harry potter, and I'm not making any money out of this stufff pfft
So there we go, The Cost of Knowing. The title is kinda heavy y'all, but it's going to be a fun ride!
Hope you enjoy it :)
25 August 1976.
Diagon Alley
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Diagon Alley was, as usual, bustling with chatter of young students doing their last-minute back-to-Hogwarts shopping. After all, the session started in only a week, and today it seemed that all of the wizarding London had been at once reminded of that fact.
Stalls overflowed with vibrant robes, shimmering wands, and stacks of spell books, while the air buzzed with excitement and anticipation. The familiar clatter of cauldrons and the scent of freshly baked pumpkin pasties mingled, creating an atmosphere that was both magical and comforting.
Perhaps owing to the great weather, parents had agreed to bring their children for a day of lively shopping and preparation.
Soft rays of the sun reached down to cast the alleyway into an almost golden and careless glow, as if the world beneath wasn't quietly rotting...
Down the main alley, to the left corner, a man shut a door behind him, signaling his presence through the incongruously cheerful bell as he did. The tall wizard stood with his back to the door of a dingy little shop called "Diagonally Right".
A small poster beneath the sign flaunted a looped charmed photo of a wizard and a witch closing their eyes and leaning toward each other with pouted lips, before suddenly being interrupted by a sign displaying the shop's name, and forgetting all about each other.
Another small sticker flaunted a limited edition of "All Dangerous Mysteries Salazar Slytherin hid within the Walls of Hogwarts"
Really, how one could fit that much in one poster was a dangerous mystery in itself.
And so was the man who had just entered- a young Rudolphus Lestrange, glancing over his shoulder once before making his way deeper into the shop. Anyone watching casually might have assumed he had come to murmur sweet assurances to the young woman waiting in the dim recess near the shelves.
Bellatrix Black did not look like a woman awaiting assurances.
It was only upon drawing nearer - far nearer than most would dare - that one might sense the truth beneath their hushed tete-a-tete.
"He would not want anyone else to know," the older wizard hissed, pushing a veiled object into the waiting hands of the witch opposite him. Her smile unfolded slowly- it was eager, possessive. The object disappeared beneath her robes with obsessive care.
"The vault is not a safe location. It would be unwise," Rudolphus murmured, not looking at her as he spoke. His eyes flicked instead toward the shopkeeper, who immediately found the polishing of a perfectly clean glass to be of urgent importance.
"Unwise?" Bellatrix echoed softly.
She tilted her head, dark curls slipping forward as her gaze traced the line of Rodolphus's jaw.
"There is gold enough in that vault to bury dynasties," she whispered. "I could lose this among it, and no one would find it incenturies.
Her fingers grazed his collar.
He caught her wrist - not violently, but firmly enough to still the motion -and drew her closer into the narrow shadow between two shelves.
"Careful," he said.
She laughed under her breath - a sound too sharp to be mistaken for affection.
The bell above the door remained silent.
Behind the counter, the shopkeeper adjusted the same glass for the fourth time.
Business is unlikely to improve today,he thought, and did not look up.
0~0
Just a few feet away from the shadows and whispers of the young couple, a young Sirius Black guffawed gleefully as his best mate chased him with an expression that would've got even Dumbledore's wand in a knot.
"Padfoot," said boy growled as he pushed a second-year out of his way, who stared at his running back with an affronted expression. He weaved through the crowd just as carelessly, eliciting a series of "Oi!", "Bugger off!" and "Watch where you're going, lad!" from the disgruntled crowd around.
But James Potter did not care. In the moment, the only thing he cared about was catching the boy running from him- normally his best friend, but right now hisworst enemy- who he felt like throttling.
"Sirius, stop right now! I swear to Merlin, I will hex your arse so bad- you'll be itching for an entire month! Inwrong bloodyplaces!" He hollered, earning another round of "mind that mouth of yours!" from parents around.
He was panting by the time he reached a small opening where the bloodydoghe had been chasing had finally stopped, heaving from the exertion yet not able to stop his breathless peals of laughter from breaking through.
"You want it, eh, Prongsie?" he teased when he saw James approaching, spinning a small box around on his forefinger, holding it out of reach of James, who was still a quarter foot shorter than him.
When James tried to jump for it, Sirius threw it in the air, catching a hold of it in his other hand, juggling it and thoroughly enjoying getting his best mate all riled up over the small gift.
"C'mon, mate, I got to give it to Evans! She needs to realize that I loooooove her," he moaned, giving up trying to snatch it from the raven-haired boy.
"I think she knows that already, owing to you declaring it EVERY DAMN WEEK for the past six years," he snickered, "and so does the rest of the school… you're not exactly discreet about expressing your undying love to her, mate."
James was about to threaten Sirius with another hex that would finish any chance of him raising a family of his own, but before he could, both teenagers heard a loud crack- and what sounded like the grunt of someone falling to the pavement.
It seemed to have come from a part of the road sectioned off by a large arch-like structure. The surrounding area shimmered faintly with a soft lilac glow; it was undoubtedly the side effect of a powerful magical spell, and the boys would have missed it if not for their close proximity.
Sirius slowly slipped the box into his leather jacket. The two shared a concerned look, forgetting their mirth and cautiously drawing out their wands.
Their parents had sent them with only too many warnings about how You-Know-Who's forces were gathering power and becoming increasingly open with their attacks. 'Death Eaters' they called themselves.
Only last month, they had carried out a mass attack in a little Muggle town called Little Whinging. They killed 40 people- 5 of them Wizards. Why they were targeting an insignificant Muggle town was as much a mystery to the Ministry as it was to the Prophet. The identity of the wizards was still being investigated. The bastards had tortured them until they found them of no further use, then bombarded their bodies to pieces.
Sirius shuddered to even think of the horror and the possibility that his family could have had a hand in it. Most of them were as rotten as the Doxies that infested his abandoned room back at his ancestral "home"- of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. What bullshit.
But some infestations were easier to see. The only one he had any hope for was his younger brother, Regulus; the only of his blood he had ever truly cared for. It pained him to see the younger copy of him get so drawn into all this propaganda that his slithering companions were probably stuffing his mind with.
He could see it in the way his eyes had changed over the last year- no longer merely stubborn, merely proud. There had been something else there. A brightness. A fixatedness.
He had seen the same look before.
In his cousin Bellatrix
In his wretched old mother.
And she would be more than pleased to have her son continue the legacy, something her elder one had failed to do. A place like Diagon Alley, bustling with such a large crowd, would only be an ideal location for another mass attack.
Sirius signaled to James to come closer, so their steps were in sync as they slowly walked toward the source of the crash.
As they turned the corner, they heard another pained moan from the victim, who they now could see was a young girl about their age, sprawling on the pavement; her body settled in a shape which looked less like she had fallen, and more like something had intentionally placed her so.
One arm bent beneath her at an unnatural tilt, fingers curled stiffly against the stone. Her knee was twisted inward, as though she had fallen mid-step and never finished the motion. An elbow jutted sharply, wrong against the flatness of the floor. Her hair was strewn across the stone beneath her, and her eyes were closed.
For a moment, neither of them moved. The smell reached them before they could entirely take in the sight.
Metallic. Thick.
Drops of red were splattered all over her frame, but her left forearm was drenched in blood, as if the cloth there had been artistically dyed a different color. The blood reached her hair first- dark strands clinging together, slick and heavy, before slipping over the stone and spreading in a thin, glistening pool around her.
Sirius knelt first. His head swarmed at the immediate assault on his senses, which threatened to overtake him.
He reached out- slower than he'd meant to- and brushed his thumb across her cheek. The motion cleared only a narrow streak through the red, revealing a patch of skin startingly pale beneath it.
"Merlin," James breathed.
Before either of them understood what was happening, her fingers spasmed. Sharp. Sudden.
Her back arched off the stone as if an unseen current had passed through her. A fractured sound escaped her throat - not a scream, but something caught between breath and pain.
"Sirius-" James started.
Her body seized.
Every muscle pulled tight at once, jaw clenching so hard it trembled. Her heels struck against the cobblestone in a jarring rhythm, once, twice, scraping uselessly for purchase.
Sirius found his arm reaching out, but he stopped it, hovering over her arm, afraid to touch. Afraid to make it worse.
Another convulsion hit her - harder this time. Her shoulders jerked forward, spine twisting, hands clawing at the air as though trying to tear something away from her skin.
"There's nothing there," James muttered, panic thinning his voice.
Her amber eyes flew open too suddenly, making the two boys flinch.
But she wasn't seeing them.
Her eyes were fixed somewhere beyond, pupils blown wide, horror marred every inch of her face.
Her body went rigid again.
For one awful second, she lifted clean off the ground — back bowed, throat exposed — before collapsing flat, breath shuddering out of her in a broken gasp.
"James, we need to do something," Sirius heard a voice shakily speak up before realizing it was his own.
He swallowed hard and slowly reached out an arm to her back, releasing a shaky breath when it did not cause her to go rigid.
He pushed his arm beneath her torso, putting his other around her neck, and lifted her as slowly as he could. His eyes flitted to
her bloody arm, which fell limp just beside his head and he was thankful when James tucked it near his shoulder.
"Mum. She'll know what to do," James said grimly as the other nodded and they walked as briskly as they could while making sure their movements did not compromise the girl's precarious state.
As they neared the floo station, James ran ahead of Sirius, relieved to see only two or three people lurking about, and stood such that he blocked their view of Sirius when he entered.
Being seen carrying around a bloodied body through Diagon Alley would be sure to get them under Ministry questioning.
The two boys stepped into one of the fireplaces together, making sure to tuck the girl's legs inside, and James dropped the powder as he yelled, "Potter Manor!" and they were engulfed in green flames.
None of them noticed a small card fall out of the girl's jacket pocket and settle amongst the leftover soot-like floo powder.
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Be sure to leave a review, y'all! I would love to know what you guys think, and if you have any suggestions- be it about the plot or the style of writing, I'd be happy to take it into account!
Stay tuned for chapter 2 *heart*