On The Hillside

Mali took him on more picnics than he could ever remember being on in his life - and Remus loved it, of course. He liked being outside, especially on a nice patch of grass in springtime. It gave him fond memories of the Hogwarts grounds - arguably the best place on Earth, no matter how long you'd been away from them or the other places you'd seen since then. He sat sprawled out wide in the grass with Mali laying next to him and Theo's shadow falling over the both of them, chatting and munching away without much care in the world. Sort of weird, considering the somewhat heavy topics they were touching on, and the fact that Remus' picnic companions had caused him quite a lot of care and worry over the past year...but the sun was bright and warm, and the grass soft, and everything felt pretty okay right now on their little hillside.

"Of course you can," Remus said automatically, shaking himself out of a cloud-gazing daze and looking down to see Mali sitting up. If she was sitting up, that usually meant she was thinking hard about something; Remus didn't mind, though. There wasn't much at all that was off-limits between the two of them anymore, and Remus liked the way her questions so often caused him to pause and think.

And this one, as he should have expected given where their conversation was going, was quite a doozy. It was one of those things Remus had spent no short amount of time thinking about himself; Mali seemed to have some sort of special gift at sussing those out of him. And at making him feel even more guilty about whatever it was than he already felt. Mali's voice cracked and he had all the urge in the world to put a comforting hand on her shoulder - but Theo already had that handled. When Mali turned to the younger man to question him, too, Remus straightened up and pulled his legs in, resting his hands in his lap. He wanted to get a word in edgewise before Theo - bless him, Remus was really starting to like the man but he had all the sensitivity of a baboon - could...er, give his opinion on the matter. "That was Dumbledore's deal, really - all of it. Protecting the school as well as some of the secrecy around what went on there. When that man told you he would take care of something, you didn't really get in his way. Of course, he'd died before it really started to get bad...," Remus trailed off, picking at the grass. "I suppose we were all sort of wrapped up in our own thing at that point. It's not that no one cared. It just felt like there were more pressing matters at hand. Hogwarts has always been so untouchable, no matter who's in charge." Theo spoke, and Remus turned his head to Mali then, like he was just realizing something and it was leaving a bad taste in his mouth. "Did anything ever happen to you while it was going on?"

Having Theo there and having him show interest made Mali happy. It was like they truly were in this together, not that she was dragging him along unwillingly. It was something special between them, a purpose to bond them together. Mali viewed the whole wolfsbane operation and all the risks involved as her personal penance for what had happened at the hospital but also a way to help a friend and people like him. It meant everything to her that Theo was willing to shoulder some of the responsibility to help her friend (it was no secret that she had a stronger relationship with Remus than Theo did.), that it was important to him because it was important to her. Theo had every reason to quit, to demand that she do so as well or at least stop bringing it around him and his family after Meg was attacked, but he didn't. They just got through it, managed to get over that obstacle and kept on. That was love and dedication and why they should spend the rest of their lives together.

Theo didn't shy away when Mali sought him out for comfort from the subjects that she brought up. The familiar weight of her favorite troll leaning against her back was soothing and grounding all at once. If Death Eaters decided to swoop in right now and start throwing curses she knew that Theo would have her back, literally and figuratively. It allowed for the anxiety that was twisting it's way up her spine to unravel a bit. Not too much, just enough to take the edge off. She listened to Remus, biting back unhelpful and sassy comments such as wondering how you could get in the way of someone who was dead, especially since he died before the Ministry fell and the Death Eaters inserted themselves into Hogwarts.

Mali raised her eyebrows as Remus continued on. "How could you think it was untouchable when the person who you just said was tasked with protecting it was dead? How is it untouchable if there were blo---" Anger managed seeped into her voice and the witch cut herself off, closing her eyes for a second to calm herself down. Once she continued on she spoke in an even, neutral tone. "If there were Death Eaters on staff?" It seemed inconceivable and downright naïve that people--that someone such as Remus could've thought that. He was so insightful and observant. Then again, she didn't see what it was like beyond those castle walls. "Something happened to everyone there." Except maybe the children of Death Eaters... And even then? "Dumbledore did a terrible job even when he was alive. Haven't you heard what Professor Umbridge did to punish students? You think someone who let one of his staff members make children carve words into their skin as retribution for mouthing off was doing a bang up job of keeping his school safe?" Mali herself had quite a few scars, mostly from her misadventures and clumsiness but one very faded scar had a rather peculiar shape.

It wasn't fair to hold Remus responsible for the lack of attention Hogwarts and the vulnerable population inside of it got during the War but he was here and she had a lot of pent up feelings regarding it. Mali just wanted answer and to understand. It changed nothing between them, that's why he was one of the best sort of friends. All she wanted was to understand, which is something she couldn't really grasp when Theo spoke. "But didn't you worry about her while she was there? How could you've not wondered what she was facing with Hogwarts under Death Eater control?" Was Meg really so different back then, that she could let things go unchallenged? Feisty, protective Meg who hid her werewolf friends from the Ministry? The whole 'war' thing and how it changed people was still giving Mali lots to think about, even years later.