Author's note: I dislike this chapter. I don't know where it came from, and I don't like
it. So there. Anyway, thanks to anyone who has reviewed, it makes me so very
happy, (you all know I mean hyper) and I'm sorry if I have mucked up with the
chaptering, because I very cleverly got them wrong in the first place, let
alone when I have been typing them up. And, yes, I do know that there has been a weeks (at least, I cant quite
remember, gap), but I've been on holiday, writing more. So stop
complaining.
Emilily
Disclaimer: all characters and place belong to JK Rowling, the plot and
anything you don't recognise belongs to me.
Chapter 10: The Fight
James and Remus were playing wizard chess and Lily
was helping Peter with his homework one balmy May evening. Sirius had
disappeared long before in search of the food they had stashed in their secret
room, and even though he had been gone over an hour they weren't worried; he
had probably fallen asleep there, or been hauled in for questioning about any
of the numerous things they had been involved with recently, like
booby-trapping Headley's cauldron. The common room was quiet; most people were
either studying for their exams or respecting the need of others. In fact,
James and Remus were the loudest there, as they were having an argument about
whether James' Queen was just being rude because she was losing or not. It was
just another evening in Gryffindor Tower.
BANG! The portrait hole suddenly slammed back on its
hinges and Sirius Black staggered in. the entire common room looked at the hole
and gasped in shock.
Sirius had blood streaming down his face from three
cuts, one above and one below his eye and one on his lip. He looked like he
could barely stand up and only managed to struggle over to his horrified
friends before collapsing in front of Lily.
"Siri, Siri, what happened?" Lily crooned, pulling
his head up.
"What the hell do you
think you're looking at!" James yelled at the rest of the room, who quickly
turned back to their occupations.
Lily was using a corner of her robe to mop the blood
off Sirius' face whilst she kept talking softly to him. "It's ok, Siri," she
was saying, "We'll make it all better. Don't worry about what happened, just
relax and it'll all get better." Sirius still hadn't said a word.
"Remus, go and get tissue
and soak it in cold water for me. Peter, go and open the doors. James, help me
get Sirius to your dormitory."
Remus and Peter raced off,
while James and Lily each put an arm around and, half carrying him, helped him
up the stairs to the dormitory, where they laid him back on his bed. Sirius had
still not made a sound.
Remus arrived with the tissue and Lily began to wipe
the blood off Sirius properly. "Listen, Siri," James began, "you're going to
have to tell us what happened, otherwise we can't do anything about it." Sirius
just stared blankly ahead.
"Sirius Black, do you hurt
anywhere other than your face? You'd better answer me, or we'll have to strip
you to find out." Lily said imperiously.
"Everywhere," Sirius said
eventually, "I hurt everywhere." Lily and James exchanged glances. What had
happened?
"Siri," Remus gave it a
try, "does anywhere hurt in particular? Like it might be broken?"
"My tummy hurts. They kept
hitting me there." Sirius said absently.
"Who?" four voices asked
at once, although they already new the answer. Sirius took a deep breath, and
then winced as it hurt him.
"Snape," he said bitterly,
"Snape, Avery, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle and Malfoy!" he almost spat the last
word. He was too preoccupied with his pain to notice his friends' reaction, but
Peter saw it: the looks of fury and
determination that showed on their faces.
"Siri, if you just tell us exactly what happened,
then you can rest," said Lily softly, her voice belying how fierce she looked.
Sirius had been her first friend at Hogwarts, someone she had trusted almost
instantly, and it was tearing her apart to see him so hurt. "Please, Siri!"
James pleaded.
"I was walking along towards our room when they
appeared behind me and in front of me. They'd been waiting for me. And Snape
stepped up and said: 'Hello Cousin Sirius. How thoughtful of you to act as bait
so that we can torment you and your friends.' Then they all started hitting me
and they kept saying horrible things about you all so that I'd fight back, then
they'd hit me harder." Sirius came to a halt, still staring ahead. Impulsively,
Lily reached out and gave him a hug, and suddenly Sirius' calm façade broke and
he burst into tears, clinging to Lily. The look on James' face got worse, if
that was possible, because no one should make Sirius cry. Sirius was so
brave that he must have been feeling really terrible to cry like that. And even
Lily herself looked close to tears, pity and anger shining from her eyes.
When he stopped crying, Lily made Sirius lie down in
bed and pulled the covers up around him, telling him to go to sleep. Within
seconds he had drifted off, to their relief. When Lily looked up from the bed,
James just said tersely: "Our room, now."
******************************
Arriving there twenty minutes later, after having
escaped all the questions in the common room, the four looked at each other.
"They'll pay for this!" Lily and James exclaimed together.
"What can we do?" Peter
asked timidly, in the kind of voice that suggested it was hopeless. Remus
cringed.
"Kill them," was the reply
from both.
"Do the same as they did
to Sirius," James continued,
"Only worse," Lily added.
Neither of them now wore their ever-present grins. They were deadly serious.
"Listen, you two," Remus
began quietly. Both turned ice-cold glares on him.
"Yes?" they said.
"Wouldn't it be better to
tell Dumbledore so he can deal with it? It's pretty serious."
"No," said Lily flatly.
"How are we going to deal
with six boys, two of them huge second years?" Remus tried again.
"So we turn them over to
Headley, who gives them a detention, then fifty points as soon as Dumbledore's
out of the room?" James exclaimed bitterly.
"So you're going to do
exactly what they want?"
"Yes."
Remus sighed. Their minds
were made up, and he was in on it. He couldn't just leave them to get the crap
kicked out of them. "Well, I suppose I'm in then." He said heavily. "But lets
sleep on it first, ok?"
They agreed easily. It was
too late to do anything tonight. Remus just hoped they would feel differently
in the morning. They went back to the dormitory to bed, Lily slipping in next
to the sleeping Sirius.
***********************************
Sleep didn't make Lily and James think again about
getting their revenge, as Remus had hoped it would. Their decision had not been
made whilst in a mad rage, but in ice-calm fury, and they had no intention of
changing their minds. It didn't help that Remus know they were right about
Headly, and they didn't even listen when Remus implored them to think about
Peter, who was too small to be involved in a fight like this.
Having left Sirius in bed, the two set off for the
Great Hall, looking grim. Remus tagged along behind, desperately trying to find
reasons to make them think again, but he came up with nothing.
They ate breakfast in a stony silence. Peter was
rocking, terribly scared of the ordeal to come, but the other three showed no
sign of the horrendous nerves they felt. They didn't intend to get caught, but
if they did…they'd be expelled for sure. All three resolutely put the thought
out of their minds.
When breakfast was over, they got up and followed the
group of Slytherins from the Hall. It was Sunday morning, so there were very
few people around, and nobody noticed the strange route they took.
"Look," James said suddenly, startling them all.
"Peter, go back and look after Siri, ok? This wasn't your idea and you
shouldn't be involved with it."
To his credit, Peter refused. "No." he said firmly.
"I'm Siri's friend too." Remus was glad they hadn't said the same thing to him;
they didn't protect him like they did Peter, they didn't baby him. He was equal
with Lily, James and Sirius, and he had to take the consequences.
They continued to follow
the six Slytherin's until they came to a deserted and little used corridor,
which they hoped was not too deep in Slytherin territory. Lily and Remus
doubled around to the back of it, trapping their enemies, before James called
out.
"Snape! You greasy haired little git!" he yelled.
Snape spun around.
"Yes?" he smirked.
"I want you to know that
what you did to Sirius was unacceptable and you're not going to get away with
it."
"Oh yes?" sneered Malfoy.
"You're going to beat us up, are you?"
"Yes." James answered
calmly.
"You and what army?" asked
Lestrange.
"Us, you ape-like idiot,"
Lily said, stepping out behind them with Remus. The six boys laughed. "Get them,"
Malfoy gestured, "They're only Gryffindor's, they can't hurt you." Crabbe and
Nott jumped at James and Peter, while Lestrange and Goyle rushed towards Lily
and Remus. The next few seconds passed as a blur, but soon lily and James were
diving for a very surprised Snape and Malfoy. They were so furious that the
first two to confront them were now lying groggily on the floor.