for rags, part two of secret santa
for tgs, prompt of the day [james potter]
for hogwarts: assignment 2 [career advice - task 2]; insane house comp [screaming]
517 words, by google docs
"What. The. Hell, Sirius?"
Sirius winced as James approached him, walking out of the headmaster's office. He hadn't seen James this mad since—well, since ever. His hair was even messier than usual and his face was a burning red, with a huge frown plastered on it.
"What?" he asked, decided to play the innocent road. He gave James his puppy dog eyes; those usually worked on James.
It didn't.
"Do you know how much shit we're in right now? Do you know how much trouble you've caused?" James gave Sirius a thump on the forehead and he drew back, clutching his forehead.
"Ow!" he said, giving James an indignant look. "He deserved it, the slimy git."
"You're lucky that's all I'm doing," James said, giving Sirius a glare that assured him that James definitely wanted to do more. "I've decided to leave the rest of you for Remus."
"Except Remus won't know about this…"
"This what? This 'incident'? Because first of all, this is way more than an incident, and second of all, I can guarantee that Remus will know." James walked a little bit away from Sirius before sighing deeply and walking back—he was going to start pacing.
"He won't know if you don't tell him." There was a lot Sirius wasn't afraid of—getting in trouble, revealing Remus' secret—but potentially ruining his friendship with Remus? That scared him. "Please don't tell him."
James laughed, sounding a bit on the edge. "You don't want me to tell him? First of all, I'm going to tell him; he deserves to know. Second of all, even if I don't tell him, Dumbledore will. Remus deserves to know who knows his secret." Sirius bit his lip, feeling bad for the first time.
"Snape asked for it," Sirius said, after a moment of silence. James looked him in the eyes, hard. He looked close to tears.
"And that means you almost killed him for it? Why do we even pick on the guy, Sirius?"
"He's a slimy git, James. You know this," Sirius shot back, slightly taken aback by James' change of heart. "He's a jerk."
"No, Sirius, we're the jerks." James took a deep breath, and Sirius could tell that it was shaky. "Lily's right. Oh my God." James sunk down onto the step leading up to Dumbledore's office, biting his lips. "Sirius, we're asses."
"No, we're not," Sirius said, nudging James with his foot.
"Yes, we are," he responded, placing his head in hands. "How'd we even get this bad?"
"We're not bad, James. It's harmless pranks."
"Harmless pranks?" James was back on his feet in a flash, getting close to Sirius. "You almost killed a guy. That's not harmless. And if one of us does something, all of us do it. You ass."
"Well, if you don't want to be 'blamed' for it, then maybe we just shouldn't have the Marauders anymore," Sirius shouted back. "Then we're not a group. The blood's just on my hands."
James took a step back from Sirius, closer to Dumbledore's office. Sirius could see him blink, hard. "Yeah, Sirius. Maybe we shouldn't."
