Sirius got up and left the room behind McGonagall, James and Remus followed. McGonagall lead them along the corridor, then up the moving staircases, onto a small landing, and finally they reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office.
"Pademelon" said McGonagall, and the large gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office jumped aside.
She ushered the three boys onto the spiral staircase. They all waited with baited breath as the staircase wound up to Dumbledore's door. They hopped off the stair case and McGonagall knocked on the thick and ancient looking wood.
"Come in", Sirius heard Dumbledore say from within.
McGonagall opened they office door and Sirius, James, and Remus went in. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk with his fingertips pressed together in thought.
"Take a seat", the old headmaster said, and he nodded at three chairs before his desk.
James sat in the middle, Sirius sat down on his left, and Remus sat on his other side.
"I wish to know what happened to Miss MacDonald", said Dumbledore quite calmly.
"She was hexed by a group of Slytherins", started James, "The hex was obviously dark magic and it-"
"Madam Pomfrey has informed me of the circumstances, Mr Potter", Dumbledore interrupted, "I want to know what any of her torturers might have said to any of you, how you managed to save her".
"Well, I heard some screaming, which turned out to be Mary, and we ran over to see what it was", explained Sirius, "They were hexing her and she fell unconscious about the time we reached them. I sort of, stood in front of her, to protect her. Remus and James helped. And then I sort of, um, had a confrontation with Walden Macnair".
"By confrontation I assume you are implying that you hit young Mr Macnair?" asked Dumbledore.
"Well, I-", Sirius started to reply.
"Yes, he did", said Remus, and Sirius shot him a mutinous look, "Butit was effective in keeping them away from Mary".
"As I was saying", Sirius began again, "After that the other two took off and then the rest of the Slytherins watching just kind of left. Then I carried Mary up to the hospital wing".
"Did any of them say why they did this to Miss MacDonald?" inquired Dumbledore.
"Well, Macnair said something", said James, "It was awful though, he called Mary a Mudblood".
"He said Professor", stated Sirius through clenched teeth, "that he was putting a Mudblood in their rightful place".
McGonagall gasped from near the doorway and muttered, "Disgusting".
"Do you know who else was involved?" questioned Dumbledore.
"The three were in seventh year", said Remus.
"Macnair, Avery and Mulciber", listed James.
"There were no doubt countless others from the same house, who merely watched the event occur. I am afraid I see no reason to punish them without punishing the whole of Slytherin house. After all, we cannot tell which of them were there or not", the old wizard said, "But as for the three students in question, I will see them in a minute and decide their punishment. For your heroic acts, I will award each of you fifty points. You may leave now".
Sirius sighed and heaved himself out of his chair. He, James and Remus left through the doorway and headed back to their common room. As they passed the windows, Sirius could now see that the grounds were glistening with moonlight. He didn't know how long they had been waiting in McGonagall's office but it seemed a fair while.
When they stepped through the portrait hole, they saw that no-one had gone down to dinner yet. Immediately they were swarmed by people wanting know what happened to Mary.
"What happened?"
"Who killed her?"
"She's dead? How come no-one told me?"
"Did the Giant Squid really kill the Slytherin bullies?"
"Hi, I'm Bertha Jorkins. By the way, is it true that they were arrested by Ministry Wizards?"
"SHUT IT!" Sirius yelled at them all, "Don't you think we've already been asked enough?!"
"Yeah", agreed James, "Anyway, I don't know why you're asking us, since half of you seem to think the Giant Squid saved her".
With that, Sirius, James and Remus stalked up to the dormitory. Peter was lying on his bed, reading a magical comic book, complete with moving drawings.
"There you guys are", he squeaked, "What happened to you?"
"Nothing Wormtail", said Sirius dismissively, before lying down on his four-poster bed and drawing the curtains around it.
"Peter, don't you listen to anything-", James sighed, "Mary MacDonald was attacked."
"What happened Wormtail", explained Remus, "Is that three Slytherins were bullying Mary, and they used a very nasty hex on her. Luckily we got there in time to help her. She is going to be okay, she just needs a while in Mungoe's."
"Oh yeah, she'll just nip off to the hospital for a bit", said Sirius with great sarcasm from behind his red curtains, "She'll be all fine and dandy after some trauma therapy".
"Sirius there's no need to be like that", said Remus.
Sirius blatantly ignored him. He was feeling very peeved after the episode with the Slytherins, plus he was still tired. He rolled over onto his side, facing away from his friends.
"But why did they do it?" asked Peter.
"Well isn't it obvious?" said James impatiently, "Because she is Muggle-born, and they hate Muggle-borns. Honestly, what Macnair said scared me".
"What did he say?" asked Peter, now looking worried.
"They called her a Mudblood for a start", said Remus.
"You want to know what they said Peter?" said Sirius darkly from his bed, "That they were doing us a favour! That they were putting a Mudblood in their rightful place".
James, Remus, and Peter fell quite. Sirius heard shuffling as Peter shifted uneasily on his bed.
"Who were the Slytherins?" asked the small boy.
"Macnair, Avery, and Mulciber", James rattled off the names.
"What's Dumbledore going to do about it?" Peter queried.
"Expel them, hopefully", James stated.
"It looks like that's what will happen", conceded Remus.
There was another silence, before the sound of the three friends leaving their seats on their beds.
"Padfoot!" called James, "You coming down for dinner?"
No reply.
"You sure?" he said in a silly voice, "Yummy din-dins! Your going to miss ou-"
"Just sod off" Sirius said, "I'm not hungry anyway."
##
The rest of the term passed in a blur. Mary had not yet come back from St. Mungo's. The fifth years took their O. and the seventh years had their N.E. . Sirius and James had rather lot of fun telling the fifth years stupid things that would help them pass. One very gullible boy believed Sirius when he said to carry a bag of troll's toenails in his pocket for the exams.
The day after Mary was attacked, her parents came to the school to collect her things before taking her to Saint Mungo's. Being Muggles they were taken to the hospital by Hagrid. It turned out that Macnair, Avery, and Mulciber lost seventy points each for Slytherin before being expelled. This made Sirius and James quite happy, there was no chance Slytherin could take the house cup from them now.
All the sixth years of the correct age took their apparition test. Sirius, James, Remus all passed, even though they wouldn't be able to Apparate until next year when they were seventeen. Peter failed, he accidently Apparated into a muggle house, and was chased out by an old lady with a rolling pin, much to the amusement of his three friends.
Soon the time came for the last day of school, and that evening, the end of year feast. Sirius wasn't looking forward to the holidays. After ignoring his mother's howler, he knew he was in for it. Sometimes, if he behaved himself (which happened rarely), his mother would let him stay at the Potters. While this does seem uncharacteristically nice of her, she did enjoy having Sirius as far away as possible. The only reason she would ever make him come home or get grounded was because she wished to cause him anguish, no matter how little.
So, Sirius finished packing his trunk with a sigh. He had been quite depressed of late, with the prospect of having another summer with his dreadful family. But he tried not to show it.
"There", said James, shutting his trunk happily, "Now all that's left is to burn these".
Sirius looked up as to see his best friend holding the pair of puffenskein covered socks that his mother had given him. With a flick of his wand, James made the socks disappear in a burst of flames. Sirius let out a bark of laughter.
"That would have to be the only good things those socks have done all year", he chuckled.
"Yeah, well, I'll just have to tell mum I lost them in the wash", said James slowly.
"Guys, if you don't stop mucking around, you're going to miss dinner", said Remus as he poked his head through the door.
"Oooooh, dinner!" said Peter excitedly, "I hope they have some of that chocolate treacle like they did last year. That was amazing".
"Really Peter, wouldn't have thought you liked it", said Remus sarcastically.
"No, the way you were stuffing your face, I thought you would have rather eaten slug repellent", smirked Sirius.
Sirius and James pulled on their cloaks and left the dormitory with Remus and Peter. They headed down to the Great Hall.
Plain banners with the Hogwarts crest on them hung from the enchanted ceiling, which displayed a calm night sky with a sprinkling of stars. Sirius knew that the decorations would transform themselves as soon as the winning house was announced. Sirius sat down with his friends, near to the Prewett twins, Frank and Alice, as well as Ariella and a sullen looking Kass. Slowly, everyone had filed in through the great oaken doors and seated themselves down. Dumbledore finally got up to announce the house places.
"Good evening to you all", he smiled out across the Hall at the anticipating faces of the students, "I hope you have all had a brilliantly fantastic year. I will of course let you enjoy this marvellous supper once I have announced the places for this year's annually house cup! Well, down to business. In fourth and last place we have Slytherin house".
The Slytherins cheered half-heartedly for the sake of appearances. Sirius and James booed loudly, to the disapproval of Remus.
"In third place we have witty Ravenclaw!" continued Dumbledore, everybody clapped politely, "Hufflepuff have worked hard for second place- which mean that Gryffindor takes the house cup!"
Sirius felt immense pride and happiness explode inside of him as he clapped and cheered with the rest of Gryffindor. The other houses shouted congratulations, except Slytherin, who all had very sour looks on their faces.
"We won, we won, ha haha ha ha ha", chanted Sirius and James, in the direction of the Slytherin table.
The banners above them made popping noise and the Great Hall suddenly exploded with red and gold. Streamers of crimson and scarlet as well as yellow and gold floated down upon everyone. Sirius looked over and saw Regulus sitting with his arms folded, appearing as though he wanted to set the streamers on top of his head alight.
Gryffindor celebrated at their table with the magnificent food. After everyone in the hall was full and sleepy, Dumbledore sent them off to bed.