AN:
School: Durmstrang
Year: 6
Theme: Ophiuchus
Prompts: 5. Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon (main prompt), 1. Astronomy Tower & 11. Begging.
Word Count: 3215
"It's called the Order of the Phoenix," James whispered excitedly as him, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. "It's not part of the Ministry or anything; it's just a group of witches and wizards dedicated to stopping You-Know-Who."
"Isn't that what the Ministry is trying to do?" Remus frowned, looking up from his Transfiguration textbook he had propped against a pitcher of orange juice.
"Yes, but you know they're rubbish at it," James scoffed. "They haven't caught a Death Eater in months now, and they've never gotten close to You-Know-Who himself. Besides, Dumbledore founded the Order."
"What's that got to do with anything?" Sirius asked, taking a bite of his bacon.
"Dumbledore is the only one You-Know-Who fears!" James replied. "And I overheard McGonagall and Flitwick talking last night, you know, when I was stuck cleaning McGonagall's whole office without magic for detention. They were saying that they need more members."
"But-But you can't be thinking about joining," Peter gulped. "We're only students-"
"We're finishing Hogwarts in less than two months!" James pointed out. "Once we take those N.E.W.T.s, we're done."
"And let me guess?" Remus sighed. "As soon as we finish off the term, you'll be right at Dumbledore's office door, signing yourself up."
"Course I will," James nodded. "We've got to fight him, don't we? I'm not going to just sit by and let You-Know-Who win."
"Well none of us want You-Know-Who to win," Remus replied.
"So are you going to join, Moony?" James grinned.
Remus looked back down at his textbook. "I don't know how much good I'd be…I'm sure many of the Order members wouldn't be too happy to have a w-to have me there."
"That's ridiculous," James said. "Dumbledore's in charge! And Dumbledore knows you're bloody brilliant. He'd never say a word against you joining if you wanted to."
Remus pondered this. "You make a fair point there, mate," he said, showing a small smile.
"So you'll join then?" James asked.
"Well hold off for a bit, will you?" Remus said. "I'm not going to just commit to something over breakfast. But…well, the Order does seem to be our best shot at winning this war. I'd like to give them as much support as I can."
"I'll take that as a soft "yes" then," James said, clasping Remus' shoulder. "What about you, Peter?"
"M-Me?" Peter frowned, nearly choking on his toast. "I-I'm completely useless with a wand, you know that."
"I'm sure there's plenty you can do without being out there in the middle of duels," James reasoned. "They'd find something useful for you to do, I'm sure."
"Well, um, I-I'll sleep on it," Peter mumbled.
"Ah, well, even if you two decide not to join, at least I know I can count on this one, here," James said, turning to Sirius. "Right, mate?"
"Was there ever any question?" Sirius smirked. "I'd leave Hogwarts know and join if they'd let me. But unfortunately, I'd probably have the Head Boy over here giving me an earful about the "importance of a solid education" or something of the sort."
"Glad you know my lectures so well," Remus said.
Just then, a swarm of owls began to flutter into the Great Hall and slowly began to find their way to their respective owners.
"Post is here," James said as his large, snowy owl landed next to him with a copy of the Daily Prophet. He unfolded the newspaper and began scanning the pages. His face fell after a moment.
"What?" Sirius asked, instantly knowing something was wrong.
"Three more murders," James said, rolling the newspaper back up. "Muggles…"
"That makes seven this week," Sirius said darkly. "Do they at least know who did it?" He reached over and took the paper and opened it back up. He looked over the article and shook his head. "Looks to be the work of none other than Bellatrix Lestrange."
"Your cousin?" Peter said.
"No Peter, see, it's a fairly common name," Sirius snapped. "I'm sure it's another Bellatrix. Course it's her, you git! She must've gone and settled down with that Lestrange bloke, I suppose. I'm sure my family was very proud of her; marrying into one of the worst wizarding families out there…"
"Well that's why you've cut yourself away from them," James said. "You haven't had any contact with them in ages now! I'm sure they burned you off of their family tree, so with any luck, no one will ever know you're a part of them."
Sirius didn't respond.
"No one will hold the actions of your family against you," Remus said, closing his textbook.
"Yes, yes, I know," Sirius said quickly, pushing his plate away and getting to his feet.
"Where are you going?" Peter asked.
"Potions class," Sirius replied.
"Class doesn't start for another half-hour," James frowned, looking at his watch.
"I know, but I've got to go try and get the slug brains off the bottom of my cauldron," Sirius said.
"Ah, right," James nodded.
"You two are lucky Slughorn likes you, or you'd have been thrown out of that class ages ago," Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"Right you are, Moony," James chuckled.
"See you guys later then," Sirius said, slinging his bag over his shoulder and heading out of the Great Hall. Once outside of the hall, Sirius did indeed make his way down to the dungeons. However, instead of turning to go off towards the Potions classroom, Sirius turned down the corridor where he knew the Slytherin common room was located.
He leaned against the stone wall, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited.
"Come on," Sirius muttered, looking at his watch. "Hurry it up, will you?"
"What are you doing down here?"
Sirius spun around in shock, only to come face-to-face with a tall, dark-haired girl. She crossed her arms and gave Sirius a suspicious glare.
"Bloody hell, McKinnon," Sirius snapped. "Why are you sneaking up on me like that?"
Marlene McKinnon was Head Girl, and a good friend of Lily Evans. Though she was a Ravenclaw, she had been in classes with Sirius for the past seven years. He always considered her to be even more of a teacher's pet than Remus. In fact, him and James used to place bets at the start of each class guessing how many answers Marlene would blurt out. Since James had started going out with Lily, though, she had made James promise to stop, which of course meant Sirius had no choice but to stop as well.
"I'm doing my rounds," Marlene said simply. "As Head Girl, I'm-"
"Oh, are you Head Girl?" Sirius gasped. "Is that why you've got that giant badge pinned onto your robes? Here I thought it was just the latest fashion trend."
"Funny," Marlene said shortly. "But that doesn't answer my question: What are you doing here? Gryffindor's Potions class doesn't start for another twenty minutes."
"I can be here if I please!" Sirius said hotly. "I'm not doing anything. Now get out of here; I'm sure some second-years are setting off Dungbombs. I'll bet they're just dying to have you spoil their fun and confiscate them."
"I'm warning you, Black," Marlene said. "If anything happens down here, I'll go right to Professor McGonagall and tell her I spotted you here."
"Please do," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "Now bye."
Marlene turned on her heel and marched off back around the corner.
"Unbelievable, she is," Sirius muttered to himself.
Sirius didn't have much time to stew to himself. The stretch of wall in front of him suddenly began to shift, and a second later the outline of a door appeared and a handsome boy with long, jet-black hair came into the corridor.
"What the-" the boy scowled, clearly not expecting to Sirius outside of his common room.
"Morning to you too, Reg," Sirius sneered.
Regulus Black narrowed his eyes. "What do you want?"
"Did you read the papers this morning?" Sirius asked. "Or did our dear cousin tell you personally what she did to those muggles?"
"Bella is doing the work of the Dark Lord," Regulus said simply. "She makes sure that nobody stands in his way."
"I'm sure those muggles were a real threat to him," Sirius scoffed.
"No magical blood was spilled," Regulus shrugged. "Course I doubt you'd know the difference between magical and dirty blood these days. How are those Potters treating you? Biggest Blood-Traitors I've ever seen…"
"You watch it," Sirius said, instinctively pulling out his wand.
Regulus gave an amused smirk as he pulled out his own wand. "Going to curse me?"
"Don't think I won't," Sirius said fiercely.
The two brothers stood there for a moment, wands pointing at one another, before Sirius finally sighed and put his wand away.
"Reg…you can still walk away," Sirius said, his tone softening. "You don't have to do this."
"Walk away?" Regulus repeated, disgusted. "Why would I walk away? The Dark Lord is going to set the Wizarding World back to the way it's supposed to be."
"You can't believe that what he's doing is right!" Sirius hissed. "Our parents-Our parents may have spent your whole life feeding you that rubbish, but believe me, Reg, you're on the wrong side of this war!"
"It's you who's on the wrong side," Regulus said firmly. "I suppose you're going off to join Dumbledore and his Order after this year, no?"
"Regulus, you can still back out," Sirius said. "You're young! You can still get out! You-"
"I see what mother means about you," Regulus sneered, cutting him off. "You really are pathetic, aren't you?"
"I'm not the pathetic one in this family," Sirius snapped. "It's you lot!"
"But you're one of us, aren't you?" Regulus said. "Your side…they never seem to give a second thought to the power of blood, but trust me…it's far more important than you think. Maybe you'll realize that one day."
And with that Regulus pocketed his wand and shoved past Sirius.
Sirius aimed a kick at the wall, curing loudly.
Thick git, Sirius thought angrily to himself.
But even as Sirius tried to push the encounter from his mind, Regulus' words kept circling in his head.
"Come on, let me just copy from you one last time," James begged Remus later that evening as they, along with Sirius, Peter, and Lily, stood around the Astronomy Tower.
"You've had two weeks to finish this star chart!" Remus pointed out. "Why did you wait until the last minute?"
"Because he's an irresponsible moron, that's why," Lily smiled.
"I was too busy being distracted by you," James grinned, winking at her. "How am I supposed to focus on homework when you're around?"
"I'll be sure to make myself scarce, then," Lily said. "With the N.E.W.T. exams coming up, you'll need to focus."
"No, no, I'll make it work," James said quickly. He turned back to Moony. "Come on, please Moony? It's so cloudy out tonight that I can't see half of the constellations I'm supposed to be mapping."
Remus sighed. "Alright, fine, you can copy my charts back in the common room."
"Thanks, mate," James said, relieved.
"You enable him," Lily said, shaking her head.
"Don't think I don't know it," Remus said.
"Can I look at your charts too, Remus?" Peter asked, sifting through the pile of parchment in front of his telescope. "I think I mapped everything here in the wrong spot…again."
"Yes, yes, fine," Remus conceded. "But this is the last time."
"Well then there's no use in us being out here then," Lily said, pulling her jacket tighter around her body. "It's freezing out."
"Here," James said, pulling off his own cloak and gently draping it around her. "Better?"
"Yes," Lily nodded, smiling up at him. "Thank you."
"Come on, let's go back to the common room," Remus said. He turned to Sirius, who was still hunched over his telescope. "Padfoot! Come on, mate, let's go. You can just copy my charts as well."
"Hmm? Oh, I think I'll stay out here for a bit longer," Sirius said.
"Didn't you hear Remus?" James frowned. "He's giving you a free pass to copy. Take advantage!"
"Er, I finished my star charts on my own already," Sirius said quickly.
"Then why do you want to stay out here?" Peter asked.
"Oh, um, I thought I'd just-"
"Merlin, I know what he's doing," Lily sighed, shaking his head. "Hufflepuff's Quidditch team is down in the pitch practicing. I bet you anything he's got his telescope aimed down there so he can gawk at Patricia Meloncamp."
"Nice!" James beamed proudly, earning him an elbow in the rib from Lily.
"Right!" Sirius nodded. "That-That's what I'm doing."
"Of course," Remus said, somewhat amused. "Well, just try to be back in the common room by curfew. I doubt it will happen, but at least this way I can tell McGonagall that I did try and warn you."
"Here," James said, reaching into his bag and pulling out his Invisibility Cloak. He tossed it over to Sirius.
"Thanks," Sirius said gratefully. "Don't bother waiting up for me."
As his friends left the tower, Sirius turned back to his telescope and pointed it back up at the sky. Though it was in fact a bit cloudy, he could still manage to make out quite a few constellations. He let out a long breath as he stared up at Volans, taking in its fish-like pattern.
"You must really be in the mood for lurking around the castle today."
Sirius nearly poked his eye out in shock. He looked over his shoulder and saw Marlene McKinnon strolling out to join him on the tower.
"I am not lurking!" Sirius defended. "If anyone is lurking, it's you. Why are you following me today?"
"Your brother," Marlene continued, ignoring his comment. "He's going to be a Death Eater, isn't he?"
"I-You-You were eavesdropping!" Sirius exclaimed. "What's wrong with you? Don't you have anything better to do than-"
"You still care about him, don't you?" Marlene cut him off. "You must…You were practically begging with him to leave the Dark Arts."
"I don't-He's-He's made his decision," Sirius said. "If he's going to go down that path, then he's as good as dead to me."
"But you're worried," Marlene said softly.
"Worried?" Sirius scoffed. "Worried about what? Look, if he gets himself killed, it's his own fault."
"I'm not talking about you being worried about him," Marlene said. "You're worried about yourself."
Sirius took a step back. "What?"
Marlene didn't reply. She simply stepped over to Sirius' telescope. "What are you looking at?"
"I-Nothing!" Sirius snapped. "I was just doing my Astronomy homework."
Marlene shrugged. "Alright then."
"Look, can you just get out of here?" Sirius sighed. "I'm not breaking curfew yet, so you've got nothing to snitch about."
"Who says I came out here to snitch on you?" Marlene asked coolly, raising an eyebrow. "I happen to come here a lot, you know. I like it out here. Not everything has to involve you."
"Well fine then," Sirius shrugged. He made to look back through his telescope, but he looked back over at Marlene instead. "But what did you mean? I'm worried about myself?"
"You're worried that you're going to somehow go down the same path as your brother and the rest of your family," Marlene said. "The Black family name has quite a reputation…"
"Well that's not who I am!" Sirius said at once, firing up. "I left them! I moved out! I have nothing to do with them anymore!"
Marlene didn't say a word. She simply continued to stare at Sirius.
"But…But I-I can't help but think that it might be inevitable," Sirius finally admitted in a voice hardly louder than a whisper. "That I go-that I wind up somehow getting drawn into the Dark Arts."
He looked back at the telescope. "I really didn't think Regulus would go over to You-Know-Who's side. I-We used to be close…years ago, back when we were kids. We-We used to do, well, this."
"What?" Marlene asked.
"Stargaze," Sirius muttered. "We did it together almost every night before I went off to Hogwarts. We would have contests to see who could find a constellation the fastest, or we'd make up stories about them…it was nice. But um, when I came home for Christmas after my first year, that-that's when Reg started to change. But that's my point! If Regulus got drawn into the Dark Arts…what's to stop me? Maybe blood is more important than we realize. Maybe I'll go and join the Order after Hogwarts only to find that-that I really belong on the other side."
"You want to join the Order?" Marlene asked.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah," Sirius nodded, clearing his throat.
"So do I," Marlene said, giving him a small smile. She stepped closer to him. "Did you know that my sister is a Death Eater?"
"What?" Sirius exclaimed.
"My mother is as well," Marlene nodded. "She turned about five years ago. Took Jane, who had just turned of age, with her. My dad refused to go with them, and he fought to keep me as well."
"I-I had no idea," Sirius said. "I-"
"It's not a big shock really, if you knew my mother's family," Marlene shrugged. "They've always been fascinated with the Dark Arts and have always believed in blood purity. I suppose my dad thought he could change my mum's mind. And maybe for a bit he did. But as You-Know-Who grew more powerful, I suppose she decided to stick with what she knew."
"That-That must be awful," Sirius said. "I-I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Marlene said. "It's not your fault. And it's not mine. But, I used to think the same things you do. I thought that it I might be, well, destined for the Dark Arts because of my mother's family."
"But you don't anymore?" Sirius asked.
Marlene shook head. "My dad…he's brilliant. He told me something…something that I've always kept in the back of my mind. He told me that we've all got both light and dark inside of us. It's the part that we choose to act on…that's who we really are."
Sirius stared blankly at her.
"You're not going to be drawn to the Dark Arts as long as you make the decision to not be," Marlene said. "No matter what sort of blood you have running though you. If you choose to fight against the Dark Arts, well, that's the type of wizard you'll be. It's all up to you."
Sirius let out a soft laugh. "Never thought I would actually hear some useful advice from you, Marlene."
"I don't doubt that," Marlene said. She began to step away from Sirius. "Well, I suppose you'd like to be left alone again. Don't think I didn't see Potter's cloak sticking out from your bag, though. If you're out after curfew, you're still breaking the rules, whether you're invisible or not."
"Wait, Marlene?" Sirius called just as she was about to head down from the tower.
"What is it?" Marlene asked, looking back over her shoulder.
"You-You fancy taking a look at some constellations?"
Marlene smiled, her eyes twinkling ever so slightly. "I can take a break from my Head Girl duties for a bit."