This is for the 2017 House Competition held by MoonlightForgotten.

Round 5

House: Gryffindor

Category: Short Story

Prompt: Unforgivable

Word Count: 1222

I do NOT own Harry Potter!

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! HOW COULD YOU?"

Sirius Black looked up to find James Potter and Remus Lupin standing by his bed, glaring at him furiously. The raging voice had come from Remus. They were in their fifth year dorm room. Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were playing Exploding Snap on Sirius' bed. James and Remus had just entered the dorm room. They were both at the hospital wing all day. Remus was at the hospital wing due to spending the previous night as a werewolf. James on the other hand had injured his arm while dragging Severus Snape out of the Shireking Shack to save him from being attacked by a transformed Lupin. His arm had been fully healed.

Sirius had been expecting this double attack. He knew he had screwed up. He didn't visit James and Remus at the hospital as he was too afraid and ashamed to face them after what he did.

"Prongs, you idiot," Sirius scolded as he threw a pillow at James. "Why would you put your life at stake to save Snivellus?" he asked incredulously. "You could have died," he said sternly.

"I hate the bloke, but I never wanted him DEAD," said James, as he threw the pillow back at Sirius.

Peter looked from Sirius to James and Remus with fear.

"I'm not done with you, Black," said Remus with every bit of anger in his voice.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? YOU KNOW HOW I WOULD HAVE FELT IF I HURT OR KILLED SOMEONE IN MY TRANSFORMED FORM," Remus yelled, enraged.

"Moony, I'm sorry," Sirius said apologetically. I was sick of him nosing on us and trying to get us in trouble. He had already suspected you were a werewolf and tried to goad me into giving up your secret. This enraged me and I wanted to teach him a lesson."

"I don't like Snivellus either, but you stooping to attempted murder is just low," Remus cut him off with a biting tone.

"I wasn't trying to kill him per say. I just wanted to teach him a lesson. I thought he would go down there, see you, wet his pants and run screaming out of the shack like a girl and we'd have a good laugh about it" said Sirius who couldn't help hide his amusement at the thought

James and Remus exchanged exasperated looks. Peter began sniggering at the thought of Snape wetting his pants too, but both Sirius and Peter fell silent when they caught James and Remus' glares. They were clearly not even close to seeing any amusement in the situation.

"Padfoot, he would have confirmed Moony was a werewolf and exposed him by that plan," said James disbelievingly.

"The staff would have kept him silent. And it would have stopped him from poking his nose further and figuring out that we were illegal animagi," said Sirius.

"HE COULD HAVE DIED," yelled Remus.

"Moony, I'm really sorry alright. I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't really consider that Snivellus could have been killed and I didn't mean you any harm," said Sirius guiltily.

"What you did was unforgivable. Forget about the consequences of your actions on Snape which clearly slipped your mind, but did you not care about me either? You didn't seem to even think about how your so called "prank" could have affected me and you had no respect for my feelings," said Remus with a clearly hurt voice.

"Moony, please. I'm really sorry," said Sirius, who got up from his bed and tried to stop Remus who was walking away.

"Forget it. You went too far this time," Remus said as he yanked his arm from Sirius and stormed out of their dorm room. Sirius kept calling back to him in vain.

"Prongs, it was just a prank …" Sirius began.

"Sirius, do you even understand the seriousness of what you did? You could have cost a life. In fact, you could have cost two lives," said James in a rebuking manner.

"Two lives?" asked both Sirius and Peter in astonishment.

"But wouldn't it have just been Snivellus who died?" asked Peter.

"No Wormtail. If Moony killed Snivellus, he could have been sentenced to death," said James as he glared at Sirius.

"I didn't think about that," Sirius admitted guiltily.

"Clearly. Remus is one of the kindest people we've ever met and you could have ruined his life. Even if he escaped execution and expulsion, you would have caused him the lifelong guilt of having killed someone," said James.

"I'm sorry. It was really foolish of me. I was just sick of Snivellus trying to discredit us and expose Moony. I wasn't thinking about the consequences," said Sirius guiltily.

"It's not me who needs to forgive you," said James.

"Do you think he would ever forgive me?" asked Sirius.

"He'd probably need some time but he'll forgive you eventually," said James.

"I feel bad about Remus, but it's kind of hard to feel guilty about Snivellus when he clearly went down there to execute Remus," said Sirius.

"What are you talking about? Snivellus has his faults, but I doubt he'd stoop to murder" said James.

"He had theorized what Moony was. He expected to see a werewolf when he went down there. What do you think he had in mind? He was either planning on committing homicide or suicide, and I doubt he's suicidal," said Sirius.

"But ... why would he want to kill Moony? Moony has never done anything to him," said James disbelievingly.

"What better way to get revenge on you and me. He hates us both, and he wouldn't have gotten in trouble as it's legal to kill a werewolf in its' transformed state. He's up to his nose with Dark Magic and we learned how to kill a werewolf in our third year, so he doesn't exactly lack the knowledge or methods of killing a werewolf," said Sirius.

Both James and Peter looked horrified.

"That greasy, no good …" James swore through gritted teeth.

"Professor Dumbledore swore him to secrecy but Professor Dumbledore only has a hold over him as long as he's a student at Hogwarts. He could out Moony the moment he graduates from Hogwarts. That snivelling idiot made that fact clear to me," said Sirius.

"How are we going to stop him?" asked a worried James.

"We need to keep him in constant fear of us," said Sirius.

James nodded in agreement.

Later that night, Remus came back into the dorm room. Sirius tried to apologize to him, but he brushed him off and went straight to bed. He looked at Sirius from his bed. Sirius kept shooting him hopeful and apologetic looks, but he looked away with a glare and ignored him. He knew Sirius was just being his reckless self and didn't think through his actions, but he couldn't bring himself to forgive him just yet. He couldn't help but feel betrayed by Sirius and angry with him for stooping to putting Snape's life in danger. Sirius knew how he felt about his condition and how it would have eaten him up if someone ever became a victim of his condition, but yet he recklessly led someone to potentially be killed by him. Perhaps, one day, he would forgive Sirius' unforgivable mistake, but for now, he would avoid him.

I know that Snape probably didn't intend to kill a werewolf Remus, but it makes sense for James and Sirius to jump to that conclusion.