fox_confessor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fox_confessor) wrote2010-05-10 04:05 pm
fox_confessor) wrote2010-05-10 04:05 pm
Entry tags:
Fic: These Four Kings (Year One 3/7) Harry Potter
Title: These Four Kings (Year One 3/7)
Author: Dani (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
escribo)
Word Count: 6237
Rating: PG
(Pairings: in the future will be remus/sirius, lily/james)
Timeline: Starting on December 6 (Monday) 1971
Summary: Finding friends amongst pranksters
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended. I've not made nor seek any profit.
one/ two
December 6 (Monday) 1971
Sirius completely blamed his cousin, Narcissa, for the howler that one of the stately Black family owls had dropped onto his eggs before it swept out of the Great Hall. It was already red and smoking, though just delivered, and Sirius had forced a laugh and poked it with his fork. He often wondered if his mother quite understood that what she said in the missives would be heard by the entire school given one of the primary rules of the Black family household was that they didn't discuss family business in front of the unworthy. Looking up and down the Gryffindor table, Sirius knew that everyone who was whispering go on, open it would be deemed unworthy.
It had only been yesterday afternoon that Sirius had signed up to stay at school for the Christmas holidays but he supposed that it had taken less than an hour for Narcissa to see it and owl his mother. The result was in front of him. He didn't need to open it. He knew he would be going home and that, he felt, was punishment enough.
"It's just going to get worse," James said, prodding it with his own fork.
"Let it." Sirius picked it up off his plate and tossed it onto the table where it continued to smoke and shudder, the paper smoldering. Sirius grabbed his fork and a slice of toast, and began eating again. After only a few seconds, the howler rose up, formed itself into an imitation of Walburga Black, her voice booming at Sirius, impossibly loud, and Sirius continued to calmly eat as the words of family duty and honor and respect washed over him. They'd been his lullabies, the fairy stories his mother would have told had it been her disposition. When it was over, when it had finally burned itself out and his mother's voice finished echoing throughout the Great Hall and his housemates had removed their hands from over their ears, Sirius turned to look at the Slytherin table, at Narcissa, at the way she turned and leaned against Lucius Malfoy, laughing at Sirius.
It took him three days to come up with any sort of plan that felt good enough to be called a proper revenge. There were details to be worked out but that was what James was best at.
"Did you find out where their common room is?" Sirius asked James once the confetti of his mother's ire had finally settled and the noise returned to the Great Hall.
"No. I had to convince Malfoy that I got lost on my way to Potions." James stabbed at a potato with his fork and frowned at it. "Don't suppose you could just ask your cousin?"
"I'm sure she'd be happy to tell me after she jinxed my ears off my head."
"I could follow Snape." James and Sirius both turned to look at Peter, surprised that he would think of it much less suggest it. "He wouldn't suspect me, right?"
"Their common room is in the dungeon."
Sirius looked down the table to where Remus Lupin sat alone, reading a book as he ate his breakfast. Remus was their roommate and fellow first year Gryffindor, but the other three boys had found it difficult to talk to him and so he'd been mostly avoided. Not that they particularly had to go out of their way to do so since he spent most of his time in the library. On the rare occasion when the topic of Remus had come up, they speculated that he was Muggle born, which fascinated all three boys who had come from Wizarding families, alternately brilliant (suggested by James) and dim (suggested by Sirius, who couldn't fathom another reason for someone spending so much time in the library), and sickly, which explained his frequent absences altogether from the Gryffindor dormitory. On the whole, there was little to recommend him to any of his three classmates and he often ended up paired with the girls during class assignments, which made him further suspect.
"We figured that, thank you very much," Sirius said, leaning forward on his elbows to see around Peter. "But where in the dungeons?"
"Beneath the lake," Remus answered, finally looking up at Sirius rather owlishly. Sirius thought again that perhaps it was his time spent in the library that made him so pale, and not, as James had suggested, because he was a vampire. Still, Sirius tried to look at Remus' teeth as he spoke, just to be sure.
"How do you know that?" James asked as he pushed his plate away and also leaned forward to gawk at Remus who had already gone back to his book.
"Doesn't matter," Sirius said. "Doesn't do us any good if we don't know where the door is."
"The passages are a bit like a labyrinth. Past our Potions' classroom, there's another broom closet and then a statue of Hector the Horrible wearing an executioner's hood and carrying a scythe. You take the passage on the right and follow it around," Remus said, demonstrating with his hands the twists and turns one would have to make. "There's a long portion of wall there with no portraits before the hall dead-ends. I haven't seen how they do it. There's no place to hide but it's got to be there."
"How do you know that?" James asked again.
"Doesn't matter. Peter doesn't have to follow Snape now and we can use the statue," Sirius said. He reached for another thick slice of toast and licked his thumb before he picked his fork back up. "They have to pass by it, right?"
All three boys look back to Remus, watching as he sat quietly as if contemplating their question. He turned another page in his book, nibbling at the edge of a scone, before he finally nodded.
"So we'll put the dungbombs at the base of the statue and set them to go off as they're coming up to breakfast. That charm will work." Sirius pushed his plate away and sat up straighter in his chair, leaning into James and Peter though speaking so that Remus could hear as well, even though he'd gone back to his book. Sirius had often wondered how anyone could read whilst eating in the noisy Great Hall but then he couldn't remember a time when he had seen Remus without a book.
"There's a better way, though. James has that spell disperser from Zonko's. I saw you with it last weekend." Remus said, setting down his knife and fork but never moving his eyes from off his book.
"Yeah, but what good is that?" Sirius asked, leaning over Peter again to whisper at Remus.
"You can use a sticking charm to put on the statue, facing their common room, and set it to go off as they're coming up to breakfast." Remus carefully creased the upper corner of the page he was on and closed the book before he held it out to Sirius. "Then, when you add a Viridulus hex, they won't see its effects until they come up from the dungeons because it won't show until they're in sunlight."
"A Viridulus hex?" Sirius asked. He took the book from Remus and opened it to the marked page, James leaning in to read over his shoulder. When he looked back up, his eyes were bright. "That's genius."
"And because it's facing their common room and we set it off before breakfast, the Slytherins coming behind won't notice anything out of place. Much better than dungbombs," James added. "I told you. I knew he couldn't just be studying all that time in the library."
"You can set it for any color. It tells you how, but I think that disgusting green, since they love it so much." Remus stood and grabbed his old patched book bag, and took the book from James. He flashed a rare grin at the other boys and Sirius thought that it was the first time he'd ever actually seen Remus do anything that came close to a smile. "I'll copy out the instructions," he said, and then he was gone, back to the library, Sirius supposed.
December 7 (Tuesday) 1971
In the morning, Sirius found the hex written out in a very neat hand on a scrap of parchment tucked into the pocket of his trousers. He looked around but Remus was already gone, his bed neatly made as usual, though Sirius couldn't figure that out either; that's why they had house elves, he reasoned. He unrolled the parchment and found a note at the bottom that said, Be careful. This will take weeks to fade away. All the better, he thought, and hoped that his cousin would be early to breakfast.
December 9 (Thursday) 1971
The first indication that the prank had gone off perfectly was two days later when Theophilus Avery, a first year Slytherin, walked into the Great Hall, his skin turning a particularly vile shade of green when he sat down for breakfast in a patch of sunlight streaming in from the window behind his seat. By the time the bell had sounded for the first class, half of the Slytherins were stained a blotchy green that refused to be rubbed off. By lunch, the entire student population was in uproar--the Slytherins were enraged and the rest of the houses argued about how it could have happened. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day as the professors attempted to return the Slytherins to normal and the students of the other houses were confined to their common rooms or the library since no one would claim responsibility.
December 10 (Friday) 1971
The next day, classes were back in session though many of the Slytherins remained green, including Severus Snape, who came in Potions with his arm, hand, and ear a brilliant shade, like a lizard basking on a green leaf. Sirius poked James in the back and James nearly fell out of his chair laughing, earning them a five point deduction from Slughorn. Sirius turned to grin at Remus who was sitting behind him and Remus bent lower over his book, trying to hide his smile when Snape turned to snarl at James.
"Think it's funny, Lupin," Snape hissed when Slughorn turned his back to write on the chalkboard. "At least the dye will fade away, unlike your scars. I'm surprised your roommates haven't caught something from you already. I do hope it's fatal."
Sirius heard Snape, and turned to watch Remus as he tried to tug down the sleeves of his robe over the map work of lines that crisscrossed the back of his hands and disappeared beneath the cuffs of his shirt. His cheeks were burning red when he caught Sirius staring, and he whispered, a little desperately to Sirius' ears, "They're not from a disease."
Sirius nodded but didn't turn away, wanting to look harder at the lines that traveled along Remus' skin, but Slughorn had turned back and class had begun. Still, he couldn't get the sound of Remus' voice from his head, remembering a time right after Halloween when Remus had come back late and stood undressing in a patch of moonlight streaming in from the window. James had said he'd heard Remus had gone home because his mum was ill but Sirius saw four thin marks against the pale skin of his back, like lashes, and his whole body had stiffened in sympathy. He had resolved to say something in the morning, but Remus was gone before breakfast, like always, and Sirius never let himself think of it again.
He couldn't ignore it now and his hand tightened into a fist now as he stared hard at the back of Snape's head as Slughorn lectured, and then was quick to partner with Remus when it was time to prepare their ingredients. James quirked his head when he found himself with Peter but Sirius shook his head, warning him to say nothing. Remus, for his part, said nothing either, except what was absolutely necessary, and kept his hand out of view when he could. At the end of class, Remus was the first to pack up and escape before Sirius could stop him.
The rest of the day didn't go any better. It had been nearly impossible to sneak back down into the dungeons during the afternoon when they had a free period and James and Sirius had been forced to abandon the disperser behind a suit of armor. They snuck out again that night to retrieve it, serving as lookouts as Peter, being the smallest and least suspect, had gone picked it up but he was now trapped in a tiny alcove, a prefect having run for help when he'd found his shoelaces suddenly attacking his feet as he neared Peter's hiding place. James and Sirius could hear Professor Slughorn's booming voice echoing up from the floor beneath them as he slowly navigated the stairs. "A trap, Narcissa?" he asked. "However did you manage-- Yes, yes. Come along then, Mr. Filch, and we'll straighten out the whole affair."
"He's scared," James whispered. "He's going to get caught."
Sirius leaned forward then, too, and motioned for Peter to run. Peter held up his hands, showing them to be green.
"I should have gone myself," he whispered to James. "If he gets caught, they'll know it was us." Sirius looked around the corner again and groaned. "It's Lupin. What's he doing here?"
"Coming back from the library, probably."
Remus spotted them immediately, and Sirius watched as Remus looked around him to find Peter's round, shining face peeking out from the alcove that barely concealed him. He darted out when he saw Remus, but then immediately scampered back into the darkness. From the stairwell below them, they could hear Narcissa's voice floating up to them and see the great gleaming eyes of Filch's cat as it came around the corner, spotted Remus, and turned around to warn its master. Sirius stepped out then and hissed Remus' name, motioning for him to go. "Just run."
Remus didn't though, just shook his head and turned from Sirius. James grabbed Sirius' wrist and pulled him back when he would follow, then they watched as Remus ran silently down the hall, pulled Peter from the alcove, and took the disperser. He waved his wand over Peter's hands before sending him nearly sprawling with a push to his back toward James and Sirius. Peter took off running and slid around the corner, the voices closer now. Remus only just had a chance to shove the disperser into his pocket and hide his hands behind his back before Slughorn stepped into the hallway with Mr. Filch and Narcissa, her faced still splattered green, following closely behind.
"A first year," Mr. Filch said as he took Remus by his arm and jerked him forward. Grinning wide enough to display yellowed and rotting teeth, Filch grabbed Remus' wrist and raised his sleeve. "And look at his hand. I think we've found our culprit."
"Remus Lupin? I really don't think. Well, empty out your pockets, Lupin," Slughorn said.
Remus pulled his hand from Mr. Filch's grip and dug into his pocket, taking out the disperser and holding it out in his palm. Mr. Filch took it from him.
"Mr. Lupin, do you know what this is?" Professor Slughorn asked, still sounding incredulous that a first year--and this first year in particular--should have been the mastermind.
"Yes, sir."
Slughorn took it from Mr. Filch, turned it in his hand, touched his wand to it though nothing happened. He looked back at Remus, his eyes going over Remus' shabby robes and his patched bookbag. Sirius whispered, "Lupin is rubbish at Potions. Slughorn probably thinks he's too stupid to have come up with something as brilliant as this."
James grinned back at him, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"Perhaps you found this on the floor? Just picked it up?" Remus stood still and silent beneath where Mr. Filch pinned him to the floor with a heavy hand on his shoulder. Slughorn twisted the disperser in his hand again. "Surely you must have seen it earlier in the hands of one of your classmates, yes? Perhaps Mr. Black?"
"No, sir. I didn't see Sirius with it with this week."
"He's lying," Narcissa hissed, raising her wand, and Sirius pulled his own wand.
James put his hand on Sirius' to stop him from hexing Narcissa and giving them away. "Wait. It's McGonagall."
Sirius lowered his wand and carefully looked back around James to see their Head of House sweeping down the hall.
"What's going on here? Horace?" Professor McGonagall's voice boomed, the cadence of her accent crisp as she spotted Remus.
"It appears we've found our prankster, Minerva," Slughorn said, though his voice sounded doubtful. "I'll admit I'm very much surprised."
"Do you know what happened near the Slytherin common room, Mr. Lupin?"
Sirius carefully peeked around the corner again and saw Remus looking small as Slughorn, Filch, Narcissa, and McGonagall all towered over him. Remus let his bag slide to his feet before he answered, defeated. "Yes, ma'am."
"You understand that this is very serious issue. If you are found to be responsible, you'll have to be punished."
"Yes, ma'am."
"With what? Detentions?" Narcissa hissed derisively, and took a step closer to Remus, pushing her green face into his and grabbing his hand hard enough that her fingernails created half moons in the skin of his green palm. "This little beast should be expelled."
Remus stumbled backwards as if she had hit him, his face stricken. Professor McGonagall drew herself up as she moved to stand behind Remus and put her hands on his shoulders. "Collect yourself, Miss Black. I will not tolerate name calling."
"He turned me green," Narcissa whinged loudly, stomping her foot as she screwed up her face in rage.
"But surely a first year who wasn't raised magical doesn't have enough knowledge to do this, Minerva?" Slughorn rolled up onto his heels, bouncing on his feet a bit as he looked down on Remus. "A hex of that nature? It was quite cleverly done."
"I've read all about timing, dispersers and delayed magic and I wanted to know if it would work," Remus said.
"It was Sirius Black. I know it was him. He would know how to do this. Not this--" Narcissa's lip curled in disdain but her eyes flickered to Professor McGonagall as she leaned forward to point her finger in Remus' face. Remus didn't budge, only looked at her impassively, though Professor McGonagall tightened her grip on his shoulders. "It was Sirius Black and when I tell his mother, she'll pull him out of Hogwarts. She told him if he got into trouble just once more this year--"
"It wasn't Sirius who knew about the Viridulus hex, Professor McGonagall. It was me. A couple of Slytherins had thrown my book bag into the lake and I wanted to get back at them."
"He's lying. Look at me!" Narcissa wailed, stomping her foot. Her long blond hair slipped from its clip, falling over her face, and she pushed it back with an impatient hand.
"That is enough, Miss Black. Madame Pomfrey said the effects of the curse are not harmful and will fade in a few weeks--
"Weeks!"
"In the meantime, I will deal with Mr. Lupin," Professor McGonagall continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Professor Slughorn, if you would be so kind as to escort Miss Black to her common room?"
"Of course. Come Narcissa."
"But he's lying."
Professor McGonagal and Remus watched as Narcissa and Professor Slughorn went back down the hall, followed by Mr. Filch. Narcissa turned to give Remus a dirty look before they disappeared down the stairs, and Professor McGonagall's sigh was loud enough to be heard by the three boys hiding at the end of the hall. McGonagall turned to Remus then and bent down so that they were face to face. "If someone is bullying you, Remus, I want you to come to me."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Come along. We'll talk about your punishment in my office."
Sirius and James watched as Remus picked up his book bag and followed Professor McGonagall, waiting until they were around the corner to come out.
"What are we going to do?" Sirius whispered to James.
"I don't know. Nothing for right now." James grabbed Peter's hand and looked at where Remus had made the dye disappear. "How did he do that?"
***
In Professor McGonagall's office, Remus let his bag slide from his shoulder and held it by the straps. He worried a loose thread that was unraveling from the material, hoping that it would last until at least Christmas when his mum could patch it for him again. Professor McGonagall stood silently in front of him, her arms crossed over her chest, waiting, Remus supposed, for him to explain himself. He didn't know quite where to begin, so said nothing. When he didn't look up, she sighed again and went to sit at her desk, turning the disperser over, careful to keep her hands away from the remaining charm. Finally she set it down and folded her hands together but Remus still couldn't bring himself to look at her.
"I want you to tell me the truth, Remus."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I do not believe that you did this by yourself, though I certainly think you clever enough to have worked out the details. I suspect you had help and I suspect that I know their names. But it is up to you, Mr. Lupin, to decide if you are willing to take the blame for this incident yourself or if you would like to confide in me the others involved." Professor McGonagall tapped her finger on the desk and Remus looked up then back down at his hands. "Will you tell me their names?"
"No, ma'am."
"So you're willing to accept the punishment by yourself?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Professor McGonagall sat back in her chair, covered her mouth with her hand, and stared at him long enough that he dared to meet her eyes before looking away again, his cheeks turning pink.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"I'll accept the punishment."
"Then you'll serve your detentions with me. Two weeks. I have a few rare books that I'd like to have copies made for the library and your handwriting is neat enough. Starting tomorrow after dinner, you'll begin making those copies for two hours each night."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And one hundred points from Gryffindor."
Remus swallowed, his eyes flickering up again but then back down to his feet. He had never lost any points for Gryffindor before and everyone would know in the morning that it was him. He could feel his pink cheeks burn red. "Yes, ma'am."
"And please don't think that I will take any pleasure in sending an owl to your parents, Remus."
"My parents?" Remus finally looked up at Professor McGonagall, meeting her eyes for the first time, his forehead pinched in worry.
"I'm afraid so. Unless, I can convince you--" Professor McGonagall paused and leaned forward, her voice more gentle. "Are you sure your dorm mates--Potter or Black, Pettigrew maybe? Are you sure they didn't help you? If they were your friends, Remus, they wouldn't let you take the blame like this by yourself."
"They're not my friends. I don't have any friends."
"Remus." McGonagall's voice sounded very sad and he looked at her for a long time, hating that she pitied him and hating that he'd had to say it out loud. Finally, Professor McGonagall stood and came around her desk and put her hand on his shoulder, looking as though she'd like to say more but deciding, perhaps, that he'd had enough for one night. "All right, Remus. Off to bed with you."
Remus took his time going back to Gryffindor Tower. His thoughts were filled with all that Professor McGonagall had said and what would happen in the morning when the rest of Gryffindor found out he'd lost them so many point. Surprised to find himself so suddenly at the Fat Lady's portrait, he whispered the password and the portrait swung open to allow him to crawl through. James, Peter, and Sirius were waiting in the common room and they surround him when he came in. He looked from one face to the other, even more surprised now that they were waiting.
"What happened?" James asked.
"Is McGonagall going to send letters home to all our parents?" Peter asked, looking worried as he wrung his hands in front of himself.
Sirius pushed Peter out of the way and stepped in front of Remus, his mouth quirking up into a smile, confident. "He didn't tell."
"So what did she do to you?"
"Detention for two weeks and one hundred points."
"Two whole weeks?" Peter said. The most any of the three of them had received so far was one week, and Peter's face clearly showed that he felt two an eternity.
"One hundred?" James yelled, even more outraged than Peter. "For hexing a bunch of Slytherins?"
"And a letter home to my parents," Remus added as he looked down at his feet.
Only Sirius heard him, though, because James was still ranting about the lost points. "It'll be okay, right? Probably just a howler. I've gotten loads of those this year."
Remus shrugged, still intent on the hole worn in the toe of his shoe. He wasn't worried about howlers. He was just positive that his mum and dad would be disappointed, which would be worse than a howler, considering all the trouble Professor Dumbledore had taken to get him to Hogwarts and the sacrifices they'd made to keep him there. He couldn't tell that to Sirius, though. "Your cousin said that if you got in trouble again your mother would bring you home. Was that true?"
"Probably not. My parents don't want me around anymore than I want to be there."
"Oh."
"Is that why you did it, Remus?"
"Avery and Mulciber really did throw my stuff into the lake. Mulciber didn't even get any dye on him."
"You still could have told on us but you didn't," James said, stepping up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Sirius. "We'll get Mulciber back."
"I wouldn't have told, even if I'd known your parents wouldn't make you come home." Remus shrugged his shoulders again, still at a loss, and looked away from Sirius. "I'm really tired. I think I'm just going to go up to bed."
"I thought we'd get caught for sure," Peter said to the other boys as Remus made his slow way up the stairs to their dormitory.
"Yeah," Sirius said, watching Remus go as well, his face troubled.
"All the Slytherins are going to think it was him. It won't just be his book bag in the lake that he'll have to worry about." James leaned against the wall next to the portrait and crossed his arms over his chest.
Sirius hooked his thumbs into his back pockets and huffed out a breath when Peter laughed. "No, he won't," Sirius said. He reached up to swing the portrait open and began to climb through.
"Where are you going?" Peter asked, his laughter falling from him when Sirius turned on him. "We'll get in trouble."
"Then stay here, Pettigrew." Sirius turned away from him to climb through opening.
"I just got out of detention," Peter said to James as James began to crawl out behind Sirius.
"Just stay here. We're not going to mention you, right? You didn't really do anything but almost get caught anyway."
***
The halls were dark and empty as James and Sirius made their way to Professor McGonagall's office. They didn't speak. James was trying to figure out a way to get them all out of whatever punishment Professor McGonagall would serve up and Sirius' mind was occupied by how frightened Remus had sounded of a letter going home to his parents. Sirius was never bothered by such things; even the howlers didn't bother him too much now that they were nearly a weekly occurrence.
When Professor McGonagall answered their knock at her office door, surprised to see them by the look on her face, and ushered them into her office to sit. "Potter and Black. I can't say I expected to see you here. Have you come to tell me something about what happened to the Slytherins?"
"It wasn't Lupin," Sirius said.
"He wasn't the one who hexed the Slytherins," James added.
"And you would know this how?"
"It was us," they said together.
"And why would Remus have told me it was him and that neither of you were involved? It's not like him to lie." McGonagall stood towering over them and both boys looked down at their feet. "Did you ask him to lie for you?"
Sirius jerked his head up. "No! He told us where the Slytherin common room is."
"And about the Viridulus hex. He found it in a book--"
"But we set it."
"The disperser is mine. He didn't even know when we did it." James finished.
"So you all had a hand turning the Slytherin students green?"
"Yes, ma'am, but it was mostly our fault," James said.
"I wanted to get back at my cousin." Sirius bit his lip and twisted in his chair. "I started it. Remus and James were just helping me."
Professor McGonagall stared down at the boys for a long minute before she moved to sit behind her desk. "So, you are both willing to share in his punishment?"
"Yes, ma'am," they reply in unison but then Sirius stood up and leaned across Professor McGonagall's desk. "Just please don't send a letter to his parents."
"Letters will go to all of your parents, Mr. Black."
"I don't care about mine but--" Sirius stopped and looked at James, deciding. For a second he wished that he had come alone. Turning back to Professor McGonagall, Sirius scratched his fingernail into the desk. "I think--"
"Go on, Mr. Black."
"I think they might hurt him, his parents, and I don't want him to get into trouble for it."
"What do you mean?"
"When he comes back from visiting them, like when his mum was sick, he always has cuts and bruises on his body."
"Did he tell you this?"
Sirius looked down at James again but couldn't meet his eyes. This felt a little like betraying a trust that Remus had never placed in him but he couldn't stop, couldn't not try to offer Remus the same protection he often wished he had for himself. Sirius straightened up and stared at a point just past her shoulder and said what he felt he had to as fast as he could. "No, ma'am, but I've seen the marks and I know what--" Sirius stopped and swallowed, looked now to Professor McGonagall and hoped that she understood. "He tries to hide them but I've seen them on his arms and his back. And he has these scars--"
"And that's why you came here to tell me the truth?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Professor McGonagall took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, staring at Sirius, her face clearly registering her shock. She nodded at him once and he dropped his eyes and sat back into his chair next to James. "Okay, Sirius," Professor McGonagall said, sounding quite choked. "I won't send an owl to any of your parents. But you'll need to take responsibility for your actions, both of you."
"Yes, ma'am," James and Sirius said together.
"There will be detention for the both of you, same as Mr. Lupin. Two hours every night for two weeks."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And fifty points." The boys jerked their heads up, their mouths dropping open. "Each."
"But Professor McGonagall." James was immediately on his feet, ready to argue against the great injustice he felt was being levied against them and all of Gryffindor. "You already took a hundred from Lupin."
"To Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, for having the courage to tell me the truth."
***
"She gave you fifty points?" Peter walked backward into the dormitory, his hands spread wide as James and Sirius came into the room. His round, pink face was a mask of confusion and surprise as he looked from James to Sirius and back again and Remus clutched his book more firmly in his hands, not looking up but listening closely. "Each?"
"For doing the right thing," James said, as if he still didn't quite believe it.
Sirius hopped onto the end of Remus' bed and began pulling off his shoes, tossing them beneath his own bed. Remus sneaked a peek at Sirius from beneath his fringe and Sirius grinned at him. "For telling the truth. Ridiculous."
"That probably wouldn't have happened when we blew up the girls' bathroom in the dungeon last month." James laughed as he took a circuit around the room from bed to trunk to chair, stopping when he landed on Remus' bed, nearly landing on Remus' leg and Sirius reached back to swat at James' ankle. James dropped onto the bed, sitting cross legged in the middle, and took Remus' book from his hands to read the cover.
"I should have gone. We probably would have come out fifty points ahead."
"I don't think she would have believed that all three of us had reformed," James said, handing Remus his book back and bouncing a bit on the bed. "I'm hungry."
"So just the two weeks of detention?" Peter asked.
"Two hours every night with McGonagall. Same as Lupin." Sirius hopped down from the bed and went to his bedside table. He dug out a handful of chocolate frogs and then crawled back onto Remus' bed, dumping the candy in front of James before he leaned against the pillows next to Remus.
"And the sure revenge of all of Slytherin once they hear." James reached for one of the frogs and passed the rest around. "At least we don't have to worry about howlers in the morning. Or at least, Lupin and I don't."
"Why?" Remus asked, finally breaking his silence. "Professor McGonagall said she was going to send letters."
"Sirius talked her out of it but Narcissa will send one to Sirius' parents. As always." James held a piece of the candy out to Sirius and waited until Sirius took it before he spoke again. "Is what you said in McGonagall's office true?"
Sirius narrowed his eyes at James in warning to not say anything else but gave him a sharp nod in answer. Remus was already looking from one boy to the other, though, and James flopped onto his back, pushing his fingers through his messy hair.
"What did you say?" Remus asked Sirius, his fingers lighting on Sirius' sleeve, and Sirius' eyes flickered down to where Remus' hand rested, to the scars on his fingers and the back of his hand.
"I took care of it, Remus. Just trust me, okay?"
"Yeah." Remus withdrew his hand and took the candy when Sirius offered it to him.
"By the way, how did you get the dye off your and Peter's hands? I thought you said it would take weeks."
This time Remus grinned as he bit a leg from his frog before it could leap away.
"There's a counter spell?" Sirius asked and Remus nodded. "And you didn't tell Professor McGonagall?"
"She didn't ask."
"Excellent." Peter said, a bit awed as he turned his hand over as if searching for evidence of the magic that Remus has used.
"So we got off easy." James propped himself up on his elbows and smiled at Remus. "We just have to make sure that in the future McGonagall catches Lupin first."
"She clearly has a thing for him," Sirius said in a stage whisper, sending Peter and James into howls of laughter.
They laughed harder when Remus squawked, "She does not!" and elbowed Sirius in the side. They wrestled for a few moments until Sirius managed to capture both of Remus' hands and leaned back against him as if using him for a pillow. Remus was finally laughing, too, once he'd managed to dislodge Sirius and knock him from the bed.
"No matter," Sirius said as he crawled back up onto the bed and bounced on his knees. "We have to make a pact anyway. It's got to be all for one, like in that Muggle book.
"The Three Musketeers?" Remus asked.
"There are four of us." Peter said.
"The Four Marauders, then," James said and stuck his hand out. Sirius immediately placed his hand on top of James and they both looked at Remus. Remus put his hand flat onto Sirius' and they all looked at Peter.
"But what are we pacting?" Peter said as he finally put his hand on top of Remus'.
"We're promising to look after each other," Sirius said, looking first at Remus and then James. "Protect each other. No matter what."
"We'll need to, once the Slytherin's hear about what happened tonight," Peter said, his voice sounding dismal.
"C'mon then. I solemnly swear," James said, and the rest followed together. "I solemnly swear."
continued...
Author: Dani (
escribo)Word Count: 6237
Rating: PG
(Pairings: in the future will be remus/sirius, lily/james)
Timeline: Starting on December 6 (Monday) 1971
Summary: Finding friends amongst pranksters
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended. I've not made nor seek any profit.
one/ two
December 6 (Monday) 1971
Sirius completely blamed his cousin, Narcissa, for the howler that one of the stately Black family owls had dropped onto his eggs before it swept out of the Great Hall. It was already red and smoking, though just delivered, and Sirius had forced a laugh and poked it with his fork. He often wondered if his mother quite understood that what she said in the missives would be heard by the entire school given one of the primary rules of the Black family household was that they didn't discuss family business in front of the unworthy. Looking up and down the Gryffindor table, Sirius knew that everyone who was whispering go on, open it would be deemed unworthy.
It had only been yesterday afternoon that Sirius had signed up to stay at school for the Christmas holidays but he supposed that it had taken less than an hour for Narcissa to see it and owl his mother. The result was in front of him. He didn't need to open it. He knew he would be going home and that, he felt, was punishment enough.
"It's just going to get worse," James said, prodding it with his own fork.
"Let it." Sirius picked it up off his plate and tossed it onto the table where it continued to smoke and shudder, the paper smoldering. Sirius grabbed his fork and a slice of toast, and began eating again. After only a few seconds, the howler rose up, formed itself into an imitation of Walburga Black, her voice booming at Sirius, impossibly loud, and Sirius continued to calmly eat as the words of family duty and honor and respect washed over him. They'd been his lullabies, the fairy stories his mother would have told had it been her disposition. When it was over, when it had finally burned itself out and his mother's voice finished echoing throughout the Great Hall and his housemates had removed their hands from over their ears, Sirius turned to look at the Slytherin table, at Narcissa, at the way she turned and leaned against Lucius Malfoy, laughing at Sirius.
It took him three days to come up with any sort of plan that felt good enough to be called a proper revenge. There were details to be worked out but that was what James was best at.
"Did you find out where their common room is?" Sirius asked James once the confetti of his mother's ire had finally settled and the noise returned to the Great Hall.
"No. I had to convince Malfoy that I got lost on my way to Potions." James stabbed at a potato with his fork and frowned at it. "Don't suppose you could just ask your cousin?"
"I'm sure she'd be happy to tell me after she jinxed my ears off my head."
"I could follow Snape." James and Sirius both turned to look at Peter, surprised that he would think of it much less suggest it. "He wouldn't suspect me, right?"
"Their common room is in the dungeon."
Sirius looked down the table to where Remus Lupin sat alone, reading a book as he ate his breakfast. Remus was their roommate and fellow first year Gryffindor, but the other three boys had found it difficult to talk to him and so he'd been mostly avoided. Not that they particularly had to go out of their way to do so since he spent most of his time in the library. On the rare occasion when the topic of Remus had come up, they speculated that he was Muggle born, which fascinated all three boys who had come from Wizarding families, alternately brilliant (suggested by James) and dim (suggested by Sirius, who couldn't fathom another reason for someone spending so much time in the library), and sickly, which explained his frequent absences altogether from the Gryffindor dormitory. On the whole, there was little to recommend him to any of his three classmates and he often ended up paired with the girls during class assignments, which made him further suspect.
"We figured that, thank you very much," Sirius said, leaning forward on his elbows to see around Peter. "But where in the dungeons?"
"Beneath the lake," Remus answered, finally looking up at Sirius rather owlishly. Sirius thought again that perhaps it was his time spent in the library that made him so pale, and not, as James had suggested, because he was a vampire. Still, Sirius tried to look at Remus' teeth as he spoke, just to be sure.
"How do you know that?" James asked as he pushed his plate away and also leaned forward to gawk at Remus who had already gone back to his book.
"Doesn't matter," Sirius said. "Doesn't do us any good if we don't know where the door is."
"The passages are a bit like a labyrinth. Past our Potions' classroom, there's another broom closet and then a statue of Hector the Horrible wearing an executioner's hood and carrying a scythe. You take the passage on the right and follow it around," Remus said, demonstrating with his hands the twists and turns one would have to make. "There's a long portion of wall there with no portraits before the hall dead-ends. I haven't seen how they do it. There's no place to hide but it's got to be there."
"How do you know that?" James asked again.
"Doesn't matter. Peter doesn't have to follow Snape now and we can use the statue," Sirius said. He reached for another thick slice of toast and licked his thumb before he picked his fork back up. "They have to pass by it, right?"
All three boys look back to Remus, watching as he sat quietly as if contemplating their question. He turned another page in his book, nibbling at the edge of a scone, before he finally nodded.
"So we'll put the dungbombs at the base of the statue and set them to go off as they're coming up to breakfast. That charm will work." Sirius pushed his plate away and sat up straighter in his chair, leaning into James and Peter though speaking so that Remus could hear as well, even though he'd gone back to his book. Sirius had often wondered how anyone could read whilst eating in the noisy Great Hall but then he couldn't remember a time when he had seen Remus without a book.
"There's a better way, though. James has that spell disperser from Zonko's. I saw you with it last weekend." Remus said, setting down his knife and fork but never moving his eyes from off his book.
"Yeah, but what good is that?" Sirius asked, leaning over Peter again to whisper at Remus.
"You can use a sticking charm to put on the statue, facing their common room, and set it to go off as they're coming up to breakfast." Remus carefully creased the upper corner of the page he was on and closed the book before he held it out to Sirius. "Then, when you add a Viridulus hex, they won't see its effects until they come up from the dungeons because it won't show until they're in sunlight."
"A Viridulus hex?" Sirius asked. He took the book from Remus and opened it to the marked page, James leaning in to read over his shoulder. When he looked back up, his eyes were bright. "That's genius."
"And because it's facing their common room and we set it off before breakfast, the Slytherins coming behind won't notice anything out of place. Much better than dungbombs," James added. "I told you. I knew he couldn't just be studying all that time in the library."
"You can set it for any color. It tells you how, but I think that disgusting green, since they love it so much." Remus stood and grabbed his old patched book bag, and took the book from James. He flashed a rare grin at the other boys and Sirius thought that it was the first time he'd ever actually seen Remus do anything that came close to a smile. "I'll copy out the instructions," he said, and then he was gone, back to the library, Sirius supposed.
December 7 (Tuesday) 1971
In the morning, Sirius found the hex written out in a very neat hand on a scrap of parchment tucked into the pocket of his trousers. He looked around but Remus was already gone, his bed neatly made as usual, though Sirius couldn't figure that out either; that's why they had house elves, he reasoned. He unrolled the parchment and found a note at the bottom that said, Be careful. This will take weeks to fade away. All the better, he thought, and hoped that his cousin would be early to breakfast.
December 9 (Thursday) 1971
The first indication that the prank had gone off perfectly was two days later when Theophilus Avery, a first year Slytherin, walked into the Great Hall, his skin turning a particularly vile shade of green when he sat down for breakfast in a patch of sunlight streaming in from the window behind his seat. By the time the bell had sounded for the first class, half of the Slytherins were stained a blotchy green that refused to be rubbed off. By lunch, the entire student population was in uproar--the Slytherins were enraged and the rest of the houses argued about how it could have happened. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day as the professors attempted to return the Slytherins to normal and the students of the other houses were confined to their common rooms or the library since no one would claim responsibility.
December 10 (Friday) 1971
The next day, classes were back in session though many of the Slytherins remained green, including Severus Snape, who came in Potions with his arm, hand, and ear a brilliant shade, like a lizard basking on a green leaf. Sirius poked James in the back and James nearly fell out of his chair laughing, earning them a five point deduction from Slughorn. Sirius turned to grin at Remus who was sitting behind him and Remus bent lower over his book, trying to hide his smile when Snape turned to snarl at James.
"Think it's funny, Lupin," Snape hissed when Slughorn turned his back to write on the chalkboard. "At least the dye will fade away, unlike your scars. I'm surprised your roommates haven't caught something from you already. I do hope it's fatal."
Sirius heard Snape, and turned to watch Remus as he tried to tug down the sleeves of his robe over the map work of lines that crisscrossed the back of his hands and disappeared beneath the cuffs of his shirt. His cheeks were burning red when he caught Sirius staring, and he whispered, a little desperately to Sirius' ears, "They're not from a disease."
Sirius nodded but didn't turn away, wanting to look harder at the lines that traveled along Remus' skin, but Slughorn had turned back and class had begun. Still, he couldn't get the sound of Remus' voice from his head, remembering a time right after Halloween when Remus had come back late and stood undressing in a patch of moonlight streaming in from the window. James had said he'd heard Remus had gone home because his mum was ill but Sirius saw four thin marks against the pale skin of his back, like lashes, and his whole body had stiffened in sympathy. He had resolved to say something in the morning, but Remus was gone before breakfast, like always, and Sirius never let himself think of it again.
He couldn't ignore it now and his hand tightened into a fist now as he stared hard at the back of Snape's head as Slughorn lectured, and then was quick to partner with Remus when it was time to prepare their ingredients. James quirked his head when he found himself with Peter but Sirius shook his head, warning him to say nothing. Remus, for his part, said nothing either, except what was absolutely necessary, and kept his hand out of view when he could. At the end of class, Remus was the first to pack up and escape before Sirius could stop him.
The rest of the day didn't go any better. It had been nearly impossible to sneak back down into the dungeons during the afternoon when they had a free period and James and Sirius had been forced to abandon the disperser behind a suit of armor. They snuck out again that night to retrieve it, serving as lookouts as Peter, being the smallest and least suspect, had gone picked it up but he was now trapped in a tiny alcove, a prefect having run for help when he'd found his shoelaces suddenly attacking his feet as he neared Peter's hiding place. James and Sirius could hear Professor Slughorn's booming voice echoing up from the floor beneath them as he slowly navigated the stairs. "A trap, Narcissa?" he asked. "However did you manage-- Yes, yes. Come along then, Mr. Filch, and we'll straighten out the whole affair."
"He's scared," James whispered. "He's going to get caught."
Sirius leaned forward then, too, and motioned for Peter to run. Peter held up his hands, showing them to be green.
"I should have gone myself," he whispered to James. "If he gets caught, they'll know it was us." Sirius looked around the corner again and groaned. "It's Lupin. What's he doing here?"
"Coming back from the library, probably."
Remus spotted them immediately, and Sirius watched as Remus looked around him to find Peter's round, shining face peeking out from the alcove that barely concealed him. He darted out when he saw Remus, but then immediately scampered back into the darkness. From the stairwell below them, they could hear Narcissa's voice floating up to them and see the great gleaming eyes of Filch's cat as it came around the corner, spotted Remus, and turned around to warn its master. Sirius stepped out then and hissed Remus' name, motioning for him to go. "Just run."
Remus didn't though, just shook his head and turned from Sirius. James grabbed Sirius' wrist and pulled him back when he would follow, then they watched as Remus ran silently down the hall, pulled Peter from the alcove, and took the disperser. He waved his wand over Peter's hands before sending him nearly sprawling with a push to his back toward James and Sirius. Peter took off running and slid around the corner, the voices closer now. Remus only just had a chance to shove the disperser into his pocket and hide his hands behind his back before Slughorn stepped into the hallway with Mr. Filch and Narcissa, her faced still splattered green, following closely behind.
"A first year," Mr. Filch said as he took Remus by his arm and jerked him forward. Grinning wide enough to display yellowed and rotting teeth, Filch grabbed Remus' wrist and raised his sleeve. "And look at his hand. I think we've found our culprit."
"Remus Lupin? I really don't think. Well, empty out your pockets, Lupin," Slughorn said.
Remus pulled his hand from Mr. Filch's grip and dug into his pocket, taking out the disperser and holding it out in his palm. Mr. Filch took it from him.
"Mr. Lupin, do you know what this is?" Professor Slughorn asked, still sounding incredulous that a first year--and this first year in particular--should have been the mastermind.
"Yes, sir."
Slughorn took it from Mr. Filch, turned it in his hand, touched his wand to it though nothing happened. He looked back at Remus, his eyes going over Remus' shabby robes and his patched bookbag. Sirius whispered, "Lupin is rubbish at Potions. Slughorn probably thinks he's too stupid to have come up with something as brilliant as this."
James grinned back at him, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"Perhaps you found this on the floor? Just picked it up?" Remus stood still and silent beneath where Mr. Filch pinned him to the floor with a heavy hand on his shoulder. Slughorn twisted the disperser in his hand again. "Surely you must have seen it earlier in the hands of one of your classmates, yes? Perhaps Mr. Black?"
"No, sir. I didn't see Sirius with it with this week."
"He's lying," Narcissa hissed, raising her wand, and Sirius pulled his own wand.
James put his hand on Sirius' to stop him from hexing Narcissa and giving them away. "Wait. It's McGonagall."
Sirius lowered his wand and carefully looked back around James to see their Head of House sweeping down the hall.
"What's going on here? Horace?" Professor McGonagall's voice boomed, the cadence of her accent crisp as she spotted Remus.
"It appears we've found our prankster, Minerva," Slughorn said, though his voice sounded doubtful. "I'll admit I'm very much surprised."
"Do you know what happened near the Slytherin common room, Mr. Lupin?"
Sirius carefully peeked around the corner again and saw Remus looking small as Slughorn, Filch, Narcissa, and McGonagall all towered over him. Remus let his bag slide to his feet before he answered, defeated. "Yes, ma'am."
"You understand that this is very serious issue. If you are found to be responsible, you'll have to be punished."
"Yes, ma'am."
"With what? Detentions?" Narcissa hissed derisively, and took a step closer to Remus, pushing her green face into his and grabbing his hand hard enough that her fingernails created half moons in the skin of his green palm. "This little beast should be expelled."
Remus stumbled backwards as if she had hit him, his face stricken. Professor McGonagall drew herself up as she moved to stand behind Remus and put her hands on his shoulders. "Collect yourself, Miss Black. I will not tolerate name calling."
"He turned me green," Narcissa whinged loudly, stomping her foot as she screwed up her face in rage.
"But surely a first year who wasn't raised magical doesn't have enough knowledge to do this, Minerva?" Slughorn rolled up onto his heels, bouncing on his feet a bit as he looked down on Remus. "A hex of that nature? It was quite cleverly done."
"I've read all about timing, dispersers and delayed magic and I wanted to know if it would work," Remus said.
"It was Sirius Black. I know it was him. He would know how to do this. Not this--" Narcissa's lip curled in disdain but her eyes flickered to Professor McGonagall as she leaned forward to point her finger in Remus' face. Remus didn't budge, only looked at her impassively, though Professor McGonagall tightened her grip on his shoulders. "It was Sirius Black and when I tell his mother, she'll pull him out of Hogwarts. She told him if he got into trouble just once more this year--"
"It wasn't Sirius who knew about the Viridulus hex, Professor McGonagall. It was me. A couple of Slytherins had thrown my book bag into the lake and I wanted to get back at them."
"He's lying. Look at me!" Narcissa wailed, stomping her foot. Her long blond hair slipped from its clip, falling over her face, and she pushed it back with an impatient hand.
"That is enough, Miss Black. Madame Pomfrey said the effects of the curse are not harmful and will fade in a few weeks--
"Weeks!"
"In the meantime, I will deal with Mr. Lupin," Professor McGonagall continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Professor Slughorn, if you would be so kind as to escort Miss Black to her common room?"
"Of course. Come Narcissa."
"But he's lying."
Professor McGonagal and Remus watched as Narcissa and Professor Slughorn went back down the hall, followed by Mr. Filch. Narcissa turned to give Remus a dirty look before they disappeared down the stairs, and Professor McGonagall's sigh was loud enough to be heard by the three boys hiding at the end of the hall. McGonagall turned to Remus then and bent down so that they were face to face. "If someone is bullying you, Remus, I want you to come to me."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Come along. We'll talk about your punishment in my office."
Sirius and James watched as Remus picked up his book bag and followed Professor McGonagall, waiting until they were around the corner to come out.
"What are we going to do?" Sirius whispered to James.
"I don't know. Nothing for right now." James grabbed Peter's hand and looked at where Remus had made the dye disappear. "How did he do that?"
***
In Professor McGonagall's office, Remus let his bag slide from his shoulder and held it by the straps. He worried a loose thread that was unraveling from the material, hoping that it would last until at least Christmas when his mum could patch it for him again. Professor McGonagall stood silently in front of him, her arms crossed over her chest, waiting, Remus supposed, for him to explain himself. He didn't know quite where to begin, so said nothing. When he didn't look up, she sighed again and went to sit at her desk, turning the disperser over, careful to keep her hands away from the remaining charm. Finally she set it down and folded her hands together but Remus still couldn't bring himself to look at her.
"I want you to tell me the truth, Remus."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I do not believe that you did this by yourself, though I certainly think you clever enough to have worked out the details. I suspect you had help and I suspect that I know their names. But it is up to you, Mr. Lupin, to decide if you are willing to take the blame for this incident yourself or if you would like to confide in me the others involved." Professor McGonagall tapped her finger on the desk and Remus looked up then back down at his hands. "Will you tell me their names?"
"No, ma'am."
"So you're willing to accept the punishment by yourself?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Professor McGonagall sat back in her chair, covered her mouth with her hand, and stared at him long enough that he dared to meet her eyes before looking away again, his cheeks turning pink.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"I'll accept the punishment."
"Then you'll serve your detentions with me. Two weeks. I have a few rare books that I'd like to have copies made for the library and your handwriting is neat enough. Starting tomorrow after dinner, you'll begin making those copies for two hours each night."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And one hundred points from Gryffindor."
Remus swallowed, his eyes flickering up again but then back down to his feet. He had never lost any points for Gryffindor before and everyone would know in the morning that it was him. He could feel his pink cheeks burn red. "Yes, ma'am."
"And please don't think that I will take any pleasure in sending an owl to your parents, Remus."
"My parents?" Remus finally looked up at Professor McGonagall, meeting her eyes for the first time, his forehead pinched in worry.
"I'm afraid so. Unless, I can convince you--" Professor McGonagall paused and leaned forward, her voice more gentle. "Are you sure your dorm mates--Potter or Black, Pettigrew maybe? Are you sure they didn't help you? If they were your friends, Remus, they wouldn't let you take the blame like this by yourself."
"They're not my friends. I don't have any friends."
"Remus." McGonagall's voice sounded very sad and he looked at her for a long time, hating that she pitied him and hating that he'd had to say it out loud. Finally, Professor McGonagall stood and came around her desk and put her hand on his shoulder, looking as though she'd like to say more but deciding, perhaps, that he'd had enough for one night. "All right, Remus. Off to bed with you."
Remus took his time going back to Gryffindor Tower. His thoughts were filled with all that Professor McGonagall had said and what would happen in the morning when the rest of Gryffindor found out he'd lost them so many point. Surprised to find himself so suddenly at the Fat Lady's portrait, he whispered the password and the portrait swung open to allow him to crawl through. James, Peter, and Sirius were waiting in the common room and they surround him when he came in. He looked from one face to the other, even more surprised now that they were waiting.
"What happened?" James asked.
"Is McGonagall going to send letters home to all our parents?" Peter asked, looking worried as he wrung his hands in front of himself.
Sirius pushed Peter out of the way and stepped in front of Remus, his mouth quirking up into a smile, confident. "He didn't tell."
"So what did she do to you?"
"Detention for two weeks and one hundred points."
"Two whole weeks?" Peter said. The most any of the three of them had received so far was one week, and Peter's face clearly showed that he felt two an eternity.
"One hundred?" James yelled, even more outraged than Peter. "For hexing a bunch of Slytherins?"
"And a letter home to my parents," Remus added as he looked down at his feet.
Only Sirius heard him, though, because James was still ranting about the lost points. "It'll be okay, right? Probably just a howler. I've gotten loads of those this year."
Remus shrugged, still intent on the hole worn in the toe of his shoe. He wasn't worried about howlers. He was just positive that his mum and dad would be disappointed, which would be worse than a howler, considering all the trouble Professor Dumbledore had taken to get him to Hogwarts and the sacrifices they'd made to keep him there. He couldn't tell that to Sirius, though. "Your cousin said that if you got in trouble again your mother would bring you home. Was that true?"
"Probably not. My parents don't want me around anymore than I want to be there."
"Oh."
"Is that why you did it, Remus?"
"Avery and Mulciber really did throw my stuff into the lake. Mulciber didn't even get any dye on him."
"You still could have told on us but you didn't," James said, stepping up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Sirius. "We'll get Mulciber back."
"I wouldn't have told, even if I'd known your parents wouldn't make you come home." Remus shrugged his shoulders again, still at a loss, and looked away from Sirius. "I'm really tired. I think I'm just going to go up to bed."
"I thought we'd get caught for sure," Peter said to the other boys as Remus made his slow way up the stairs to their dormitory.
"Yeah," Sirius said, watching Remus go as well, his face troubled.
"All the Slytherins are going to think it was him. It won't just be his book bag in the lake that he'll have to worry about." James leaned against the wall next to the portrait and crossed his arms over his chest.
Sirius hooked his thumbs into his back pockets and huffed out a breath when Peter laughed. "No, he won't," Sirius said. He reached up to swing the portrait open and began to climb through.
"Where are you going?" Peter asked, his laughter falling from him when Sirius turned on him. "We'll get in trouble."
"Then stay here, Pettigrew." Sirius turned away from him to climb through opening.
"I just got out of detention," Peter said to James as James began to crawl out behind Sirius.
"Just stay here. We're not going to mention you, right? You didn't really do anything but almost get caught anyway."
***
The halls were dark and empty as James and Sirius made their way to Professor McGonagall's office. They didn't speak. James was trying to figure out a way to get them all out of whatever punishment Professor McGonagall would serve up and Sirius' mind was occupied by how frightened Remus had sounded of a letter going home to his parents. Sirius was never bothered by such things; even the howlers didn't bother him too much now that they were nearly a weekly occurrence.
When Professor McGonagall answered their knock at her office door, surprised to see them by the look on her face, and ushered them into her office to sit. "Potter and Black. I can't say I expected to see you here. Have you come to tell me something about what happened to the Slytherins?"
"It wasn't Lupin," Sirius said.
"He wasn't the one who hexed the Slytherins," James added.
"And you would know this how?"
"It was us," they said together.
"And why would Remus have told me it was him and that neither of you were involved? It's not like him to lie." McGonagall stood towering over them and both boys looked down at their feet. "Did you ask him to lie for you?"
Sirius jerked his head up. "No! He told us where the Slytherin common room is."
"And about the Viridulus hex. He found it in a book--"
"But we set it."
"The disperser is mine. He didn't even know when we did it." James finished.
"So you all had a hand turning the Slytherin students green?"
"Yes, ma'am, but it was mostly our fault," James said.
"I wanted to get back at my cousin." Sirius bit his lip and twisted in his chair. "I started it. Remus and James were just helping me."
Professor McGonagall stared down at the boys for a long minute before she moved to sit behind her desk. "So, you are both willing to share in his punishment?"
"Yes, ma'am," they reply in unison but then Sirius stood up and leaned across Professor McGonagall's desk. "Just please don't send a letter to his parents."
"Letters will go to all of your parents, Mr. Black."
"I don't care about mine but--" Sirius stopped and looked at James, deciding. For a second he wished that he had come alone. Turning back to Professor McGonagall, Sirius scratched his fingernail into the desk. "I think--"
"Go on, Mr. Black."
"I think they might hurt him, his parents, and I don't want him to get into trouble for it."
"What do you mean?"
"When he comes back from visiting them, like when his mum was sick, he always has cuts and bruises on his body."
"Did he tell you this?"
Sirius looked down at James again but couldn't meet his eyes. This felt a little like betraying a trust that Remus had never placed in him but he couldn't stop, couldn't not try to offer Remus the same protection he often wished he had for himself. Sirius straightened up and stared at a point just past her shoulder and said what he felt he had to as fast as he could. "No, ma'am, but I've seen the marks and I know what--" Sirius stopped and swallowed, looked now to Professor McGonagall and hoped that she understood. "He tries to hide them but I've seen them on his arms and his back. And he has these scars--"
"And that's why you came here to tell me the truth?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Professor McGonagall took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, staring at Sirius, her face clearly registering her shock. She nodded at him once and he dropped his eyes and sat back into his chair next to James. "Okay, Sirius," Professor McGonagall said, sounding quite choked. "I won't send an owl to any of your parents. But you'll need to take responsibility for your actions, both of you."
"Yes, ma'am," James and Sirius said together.
"There will be detention for the both of you, same as Mr. Lupin. Two hours every night for two weeks."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And fifty points." The boys jerked their heads up, their mouths dropping open. "Each."
"But Professor McGonagall." James was immediately on his feet, ready to argue against the great injustice he felt was being levied against them and all of Gryffindor. "You already took a hundred from Lupin."
"To Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, for having the courage to tell me the truth."
***
"She gave you fifty points?" Peter walked backward into the dormitory, his hands spread wide as James and Sirius came into the room. His round, pink face was a mask of confusion and surprise as he looked from James to Sirius and back again and Remus clutched his book more firmly in his hands, not looking up but listening closely. "Each?"
"For doing the right thing," James said, as if he still didn't quite believe it.
Sirius hopped onto the end of Remus' bed and began pulling off his shoes, tossing them beneath his own bed. Remus sneaked a peek at Sirius from beneath his fringe and Sirius grinned at him. "For telling the truth. Ridiculous."
"That probably wouldn't have happened when we blew up the girls' bathroom in the dungeon last month." James laughed as he took a circuit around the room from bed to trunk to chair, stopping when he landed on Remus' bed, nearly landing on Remus' leg and Sirius reached back to swat at James' ankle. James dropped onto the bed, sitting cross legged in the middle, and took Remus' book from his hands to read the cover.
"I should have gone. We probably would have come out fifty points ahead."
"I don't think she would have believed that all three of us had reformed," James said, handing Remus his book back and bouncing a bit on the bed. "I'm hungry."
"So just the two weeks of detention?" Peter asked.
"Two hours every night with McGonagall. Same as Lupin." Sirius hopped down from the bed and went to his bedside table. He dug out a handful of chocolate frogs and then crawled back onto Remus' bed, dumping the candy in front of James before he leaned against the pillows next to Remus.
"And the sure revenge of all of Slytherin once they hear." James reached for one of the frogs and passed the rest around. "At least we don't have to worry about howlers in the morning. Or at least, Lupin and I don't."
"Why?" Remus asked, finally breaking his silence. "Professor McGonagall said she was going to send letters."
"Sirius talked her out of it but Narcissa will send one to Sirius' parents. As always." James held a piece of the candy out to Sirius and waited until Sirius took it before he spoke again. "Is what you said in McGonagall's office true?"
Sirius narrowed his eyes at James in warning to not say anything else but gave him a sharp nod in answer. Remus was already looking from one boy to the other, though, and James flopped onto his back, pushing his fingers through his messy hair.
"What did you say?" Remus asked Sirius, his fingers lighting on Sirius' sleeve, and Sirius' eyes flickered down to where Remus' hand rested, to the scars on his fingers and the back of his hand.
"I took care of it, Remus. Just trust me, okay?"
"Yeah." Remus withdrew his hand and took the candy when Sirius offered it to him.
"By the way, how did you get the dye off your and Peter's hands? I thought you said it would take weeks."
This time Remus grinned as he bit a leg from his frog before it could leap away.
"There's a counter spell?" Sirius asked and Remus nodded. "And you didn't tell Professor McGonagall?"
"She didn't ask."
"Excellent." Peter said, a bit awed as he turned his hand over as if searching for evidence of the magic that Remus has used.
"So we got off easy." James propped himself up on his elbows and smiled at Remus. "We just have to make sure that in the future McGonagall catches Lupin first."
"She clearly has a thing for him," Sirius said in a stage whisper, sending Peter and James into howls of laughter.
They laughed harder when Remus squawked, "She does not!" and elbowed Sirius in the side. They wrestled for a few moments until Sirius managed to capture both of Remus' hands and leaned back against him as if using him for a pillow. Remus was finally laughing, too, once he'd managed to dislodge Sirius and knock him from the bed.
"No matter," Sirius said as he crawled back up onto the bed and bounced on his knees. "We have to make a pact anyway. It's got to be all for one, like in that Muggle book.
"The Three Musketeers?" Remus asked.
"There are four of us." Peter said.
"The Four Marauders, then," James said and stuck his hand out. Sirius immediately placed his hand on top of James and they both looked at Remus. Remus put his hand flat onto Sirius' and they all looked at Peter.
"But what are we pacting?" Peter said as he finally put his hand on top of Remus'.
"We're promising to look after each other," Sirius said, looking first at Remus and then James. "Protect each other. No matter what."
"We'll need to, once the Slytherin's hear about what happened tonight," Peter said, his voice sounding dismal.
"C'mon then. I solemnly swear," James said, and the rest followed together. "I solemnly swear."
no subject