Chapter Text
“Remus?” Lily asks as they’re packing up from one of their study sessions, “I’m starting to run a D&D campaign, would you want to join in?”
“Who do you have already?” Remus hums after a couple seconds of consideration.
“Marlene said that she’d try it. You can invite Pete. And when I was talking to Marlene about it in one of our classes, the kid that sits in front of us, I think their name is James, asked if they could join. They also asked if their boyfriend and their boyfriend’s brother could join, and I said that I was fine with it.” Lily hums and stuffs all of her things back into her bag, “I’ve got their number and they said that they’ll let me know on their boyfriend and his brother, but as of right now, them and Marlene are the only people we know for sure are coming. Mary might pop in sometimes.”
“Yeah, I’ll do it.” Remus nods, “Just let me know more information when you have it.”
“Will do.”
Lily Evans
Hello everyone!
This is the official group chat for our D&D campaign that I’m starting. Please go around and introduce yourselves!
To start, I’m Lily Evans, she/her, and a lesbian. I’ll be your DM
Remus Lupin
My name is Remus, he/him. Gay
Peter Pettigrew
The names pete, he/him. Aroace
[unknown number]
Hello, my name is Regulus, he/him as well. I’m gay.
[unknown number]
Hi!
I’m James!
They/them
Bisexual, and I’m dating Regulus.
Marlene Mckinnon
Marlene, she/they. Lesbian
Regulus
You’re dating Dorcas Meadowes, aren’t you?
Marlene Mckinnon
u kno her?
Regulus
She’s a close friend of mine, yes. She has told me of her partner before.
Marlene Mckinnon
sic
[unknown number]
Hello!
Im sirius, regulus brother
Any pronouns work but i like masculine terms
Lily Evans
I think that’s everyone that’s told me they can join.
My girlfriend, Mary, will be joining occasionally but not consistently and everything about her will be relayed through me, so I didn’t think to add her.
We’ll have a session zerp at some point soon where I introduce anyone of us who hasn’t played the game and we make characters for ourselves, but we’ll need to spend some time talking about our schedules.
Also, James, Regulus, and Sirius.
If you don’t mind, may I ask your last names so I can put you in my contacts properly?
James
Potter!
Alos
why do you need our last names for our contacts?
Marlene Mckinnon
Bc shes boring and puts our full names as her contacts
Regulus
You’ll have to do without it for Sirius and I, we don’t tell people our last names.
Lily Evans
For safety reasons?
Regulus
Without getting into it, we don’t associate with our family and therefore don’t enjoy using our last names.
James Potter
You guys also just like to keep up your
‘Mystique’
Sirius
You didnt need to call us out
And with that, the group finds a first date for their session zero and they have good enough chemistry, though Regulus and Remus are relatively quiet since they’re around a bunch of new people and Lily decides that she pities Regulus for his company in James and Sirius -- she learns that they were friends first, which is how James and Regulus met and it was years of hating each other and snarky remarks before they finally got their shit together, Sirius’ words -- but she can’t deny the fond way that Regulus smiles at the two of them.
The next several sessions, Regulus and James can’t make it because they’re busy and have tests, work, and schoolwork to do whenever the sessions are made so they work with Lily and Sirius to find a way to get them back into the story. In the meantime, everyone has been reaching out to each other and figuring out backstories and intricate details on their relationships and getting closer themselves. Sirius and Remus start a relationship of some kind and Marlene gets invited more often to the hangouts with Dorcas, Regulus, and their friends, and Remus, Pete, James, and Sirius find themselves quick friends.
~~~~~
“Do any of you know the legend of the Forbidden Forest?” Mary asks, hunching over the table and gesturing to the forest visible on it.
“I mean, everyone is warned as children to not go into the Forbidden Forest,” Marlene hums, “It’s also part of the name.”
“Not just that,” the girl shakes her head, “There’s a legend that’s common around the Grimmauld area.” She take out a quill and circles the area of the forest that she’s talking about, “There’s a ton of documentation of people seeing a vision within the forest, both in their dreams and if they tread too far into the forest themselves, that’s considered a curse to some people and a blessing to others.”
Sirius hums, “The Curse of the Damned.”
“You know it?”
“I grew up in that town, of course I know it. The King and Queen are the type of people that try to pretend that it doesn’t exist, attempting to label the people that see it as town crazies. That’s why it’s called a curse in Grimmauld.”
“Other places call it a blessing, though.” Remus hums, “I’ve heard of it from my family.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Pete asks, “What’s the curse- or the blessing?”
“There’s statements upon statements of people seeing two figures and a beast through fog or mist. One taller person, believed to be a king, and a shorter person, oftentimes people call them the king’s wife. No one has been able to describe just what the beast is, but it walks on the side of the shorter person. Those are the only consistent descriptions, sometimes the shorter figure has long hair, sometimes it's short and curly. Sometimes the taller figure has unruly hair and other times it’s tame. Sometimes people see them with crowns on their head and often people will see the taller figure holding a sword at their side.” Mary explains, pulling out several pieces of parchment that have some of the transcripts of books that she’s read. Usually they don’t see the figures in full, like I said it’s foggy enough that it’s usually only a guess that it happened in the Forbidden Forest and the vision of the people is alway blurry, like they’re not actually there.”
Remus nods, “Where I’m from, when people dream of them, they consider it a blessing. They believe that it will bring them good fortune and luck, they believe that they’re being blessed by a King or by a God because visions of them are rare.”
“And it’s a curse in Grimmauld for several reasons,” Sirius adds, “First of all, if you tell someone that you had this vision, they’ll likely tell someone higher up and the person will be exiled or executed. If you’re not, it’s bad luck in my village to be visited by someone that is not their rulers. They’re being cursed by the people that threaten to overthrow the monarchy.”
“Spooky.” Marlene hums.
“Most people seem to think so.” Mary nods, “Which is why I’m asking something of you guys.”
“Do you want us to figure out who it is in this vision?” Remus asks, furrowing his brows, “These people are just believed to be visions, how do we know that they exist.”
“Because I’ve been reading things and I think it may be a prophecy.” And that grabs the group’s attention, “Think about it, the main demographic of people that are seeing it are residents of Grimmauld, where the Blacks rule with an iron fist so it’s possibly a prophecy that is showing people who will overthrow the government and change Grimmauld for good. Not to mention, a lot of the people that have been getting these visions are known to be clerics, people who can present prophecies.”
“So you want us to stop the prophecy from happening?”
Mary shakes her head, “On the contrary. I’ve just found a description of the shorter figure from the vision.” She pulls out a scroll of paper and shows it to the table, there’s a passage underlined in ink, “They turned around and this person claims to have seen them clearly, for the first time. First of all, that could imply that the prophecy is getting close to being fulfilled, the vision is getting clearer and clearer with every vision that people have of them. Second, the person that was described…” she gestures to the inked passage.
”The passage reads out ‘But the shorter figure, they turned to me. They made eye contact with me, although they did not smile or make any face at me, remaining neutral. Their skin was pale and they had freckles dusting their cheeks. They had short black hair that was curly and ended just around their ears with silver hair jewelry decorating certain curls and weighing them down. The reason that I use neutral pronouns instead of the typical ‘she’ as people use to describe this person is because they struck me as masculine. A sharper jawline, higher cheekbones, and broader shoulders than a female. They also wore a gentleman’s suit of black and dark green with silver jewelry. What struck me most was atop their head was a prince’s coronet, although there was no diadem on the taller figure’s head, and it was remarkably similar to the coronet that the King and Queen of Grimmauld have recently revealed to be their son, Arcturus Black’s, future crown when he is of age to wear it.” Lily reads out, clearing her throat and taking a drink of water.
“Doesn't the description sound remarkably like Crown Prince Arcturus Black?” Mary asks, “Also, this only happened after Prince Arcturus’ birth, meaning that the visions started to clear out after his birth, implying that he’s one of the people in the prophecy, that he’s going to be the person that takes over. Not only that, here’s another account of the vision that was made just after his older brother disappeared from Grimmauld, officially making Arcturus the Crown Prince. They describe the same coronet.” She slides yet another document towards them, and Remus is quick to pick it up.
“So, this might be Arcturus Black,” Remus nods, “What does that mean to us?”
“I want you guys to travel to Grimmauld and speak to Arcturus Black. Learn about him, learn who he is and how close he is to taking over the throne. Ask him if there are any clerics that have given him a prophecy that he will one day rule and if that’s the reason that the Blacks have been trying to pretend that the visions don’t exist.” Mary hums, “Don’t raise the alarms and try to get Prince Arcturus to work with you guys, but you must figure out if there is a known prophecy. It’ll be extra good if you learn of any possible lover or guard of Arcturus Black that might be part of the prophecy as well.”
“And what do we get out of this?” Marlene hums, leaning back in her chair and throwing her feet on the table and some of the parchments spread around it, “I’m not sure what talking to a Prince is gonna do for us, and you should know that I only do shit like this for money.”
“You will get money,” Mary smiles, tilting her head just a bit, “First of all, the King and Queen are absolutely rich and, if you’re sneaky enough, you can likely take things from their vault. But there’s also a group of philosophers in hiding that are looking for the facts on this. They’re fascinated by the visions and the idea of the prophecy, so they’ve set out a bounty for anyone that can truly get all of the facts straight. I want to be that person.” She slides another parchment in front of them, one that has some of the information that Mary has given them and underneath a large sum of gold that is being offered.
Remus hums, looking over it, “I’m assuming that this group is where you got most of this information?”
“It’s a group associated with the one that your family is a part of, Remus. They’re a branch of researchers that have spent their time studying prophecies and the Forbidden Forest.”
“So they’re somewhat dependable, then.” Remus nods, “I’m alright with it. Sirius, how would you feel about going back to Grimmauld.”
“As long as we’re not there for long,” Sirius shakes his head, “I don’t mind.” Marlene and Pete both agree to the task that Mary has given them, she tells them the time frame that she wants this done in, and the group splits up, Mary going to work behind the bar once again and the party leaving the tavern -- The Three Broomsticks, their favourite tavern in all of Hogsmeade -- to get ready for their new adventure before setting off.
”Alright, I just want to say, that since Regulus and James are able to come next time,” Lily starts, putting a pause in the game while Mary rushes off to grab a couple drinks, “I’m planning on doing most of the traveling tonight, if you guys don’t mind staying longer, and we’ll really be getting to Grimmauld next time, that way Regulus and James can be more included.” Everyone agrees to what Lily said before Mary comes back and they resume their game.