Author: evansentranced
Summary: Dumbledore dishes out the punishments, and the rewards. Remus reacts and Lily knows.
Disclaimer: I made a song! "I'm not J-K-Row-ling! Bugger off you scalawag! Bugger off, bugger off!" :grin:
James let out a sigh of relief as they slipped through the doors to the Entrance Hall and slammed them shut. He could faintly hear Moony howling in what could only be disappointment out on the grounds, and leaned his forehead against the wall, trying to even out his breathing. Snape stood nearby, staring at the doors. He blinked suddenly and turned around, heading for the staircase.
"Snape, where are you going?" James yelled after him. He'd thought Snape would want to head back to the dungeons and recoup after such a harrowing experience.
"I'm going to the Headmaster," Snape practically snarled at him from halfway up the steps. "If he doesn't know about that…creature, he's going to."
James shook his head. "He knows, don't worry about that."
"But does he know you know?" Snape asked calculatingly. James' head shot up and watched Snape's lip curl into a triumphant smirk. "I thought not. I'd like to know his opinion on what happened tonight, actually."
He did an about-face and continued climbing the stairs, James hot on his heels.
"D'you hear that?" Peter asked. Sirius perked up and listened for a moment. Something was howling.
"Moony," he breathed hopefully. He dashed to the window and stuck his head out, listening carefully. His face split into a grin as he listened carefully to the howling. It sounded regretful.
"Peter! He's not eaten yet! Listen to that howl!"
Peter listened. "That's great, Sirius, but you know James and I don't get it like you do."
"That," Sirius said gleefully. "Is a sad howl. A 'Where-did-my-food-go?' howl. A 'He-got-away' howl!"
Peter grinned. "You're lucky, Sirius."
"We all are!" Sirius said happily. "No Azkaban for Sirius Black tonight! No sir!"
"Would one of you please tell me what's going on?" Lily asked tersely from her seat on the couch.
"No one's dead! That's what's going on!" Sirius was twirling in circles, his fists raised to the heavens. "Snape is alive! I can't believe I'm so happy!"
"You were worried that you'd killed Snape!" Lily asked, sitting bolt upright and staring at Sirius in shock. "What exactly did you do! And why did it involve howling on -" Lily looked out the window. "-On a full moon? Who is Moony?"
Peter and Sirius looked at each other, each thinking the same thing.
Crap.
Lily had always been a smart witch. Give her five more seconds and she'd have it figured out. They needed a distraction.
"Peter cheated at chess!" Sirius blurted out.
"What!" Peter cried.
"I've seen you do it before, Pete!" Sirius said accusingly. "He cheats at everything!"
Lily was staring at Peter, wide eyed. "You did, didn't you?"
Peter flushed red. "Well, I…erm…you see, the thing about that is…"
"I knew your knight wasn't supposed to be there!" Lily exclaimed triumphantly, rushing back to the chess board and staring at it.
Peter glared at Sirius, who shrugged.
"Ha!" Lily crowed, moving his knight back to its proper place. "Now, while we're waiting for James to get back, we're going to finish this game properly!" Peter walked slowly back to the table like a prisoner to the gallows. "We'll need a judge to make sure it stays fair," Lily said pointedly. Peter flushed again. "Where is Remus, anyway?"
Sirius froze, watching as Lily's eyes widened and darted to the window.
"Moony," she whispered. "Oh, Remus…" She looked to Sirius and Peter for confirmation, and they nodded helplessly. "And Sirius, you told Snape to…"
She trailed off, staring at Sirius. Then she stood slowly and walked back to the couch where Peter had left James' shoe and picked it up.
"Sirius Black you complete and utter…!" She rounded on him with a glare and wielded the shoe menacingly. Sirius cowered. "There are no words for what you did! I can't believe you…!"
Sirius winced as the first blow fell right between his eyes, but aside from a yelp of pain, said nothing. He truly did deserve this.
A half hour after they made it inside, James stood next to Sirius and Snape in the Headmaster's office, feeling inexplicably as though he had done something horribly wrong. Snape had gone straight to the headmaster from the Entrance Hall, and Sirius had been summoned from the Gryffindor common room immediately.
Sirius had a large bruise along the left side of his face and was holding his ribs tenderly. James wasn't sure where he'd gotten his injuries, but couldn't feel overly sorry for him, not even when Snape accidentally-on-purpose elbowed him in the side.
Dumbledore watched them all, absorbing everything he'd been told so far.
"So to my understanding," he said thoughtfully, "Mr. Black here told you to go to the Whomping Willow, an order which you obeyed, despite your rivalry."
Snape nodded, although he looked highly displeased with the wording.
"At which point Mr. Potter here," Dumbledore nodded to James, "followed you and warned you of the danger, after which he helped you escape."
Snape nodded again, glaring at a paperweight on the desk.
"And you say you desire punishment for both of them?" Dumbledore asked, a note of incredulity in his voice.
Snape didn't say a word, switching his glare from the paperweight to a particularly flamboyant quill.
"I am going to list the crimes committed, and give punishment by the dictates of our school rules, if that is alright, Mr. Snape?"
Snape appeared wary, but nodded slowly.
Dumbledore smiled slightly at him. "For being out of grounds after hours, all three of you will have ten points taken from your Houses."
James could hear a strange sound coming from Snape now. He thought it might be grinding teeth.
"Mr. Black," Dumbledore said gravely. Snape rallied admirably and fixed his black eyes keenly on Dumbledore and Sirius. "You provoked another student into nearly harming themselves, and risked the lives of three of your classmates."
Sirius was as pale and shaking like a leaf.
"I-I'm sorry sir, so sorry!" he said urgently. "I never meant for it to happen, I wasn't even thinking! I- you have no idea how guilty I feel! It'll never ever happen again - I don't even know why it happened this time!"
"It happened this time," Snape interjected angrily, "Because you wanted me dead! Professor, he nearly killed me! I want him expelled!"
"I don't want him dead, sir, I swear! I didn't mean to tell him about Remus, it just slipped out!"
"Oh, of course, it wasn't attempted homicide, it was a slip of the tongue!" Sarcasm dripped from Snape's words. "Now I believe you!"
"Mr. Black, Mr. Snape, both of you, be silent!" Sirius and Snape both shut their mouths. Dumbledore stood up and surveyed them all.
James stayed silent and looked down at his shoes. Shoe actually. He only had one. The shoeless sock was covered in grass and bits of twig. Quite interesting, really…
"Mr. Black, I do not believe that you meant to kill Mr. Snape," Dumbledore said, ignoring the slight sound of incredulity from Snape. "And you seem truly remorseful for your crime."
Snape glowered and opened his mouth to interrupt, but Dumbledore raised a hand.
"You did, however, seriously endanger another student with your thoughtless words and actions, and must be punished. You will have three months detention and two hundred points will be taken from Gryffindor. You will also be on probation for the remainder of the school year. Do not take this second chance for granted, Mr. Black, it will be the only one you receive."
Sirius nodded quickly, and James gripped his arm bracingly. He looked like he was about to sink to the floor in relief. No expulsion and no Azkaban could only be a good thing in Sirius' mind, James supposed.
Snape wasn't done yet, though. "He nearly killed me, Professor!" he reminded them angrily.
"He gave you a choice, Mr. Snape," Dumbledore said gently. "He gave you information, incomplete as it may have been, and you made the decision that precipitated tonight's events. He was wrong in giving you that information, and he has been punished for it."
Snape looked away mutinously, and his glare darkened. James realized after a moment that Snape was glowering at his shoeless foot.
"Mr. Potter, your part in this must be acknowledged as well."
James looked up in surprise.
"You saved Mr. Snape's life, and as grateful to you as I am sure he must be, I feel that such a noble and courageous action requires that I grant you at least one hundred points to Gryffindor," He smiled benevolently down at James and Snape, who appeared to be holding back some kind of vicious urge. "Don't you agree, Mr. Snape?"
A vein began throbbing slightly in Snape's temple as James watched. He had the feeling that he probably shouldn't ask for any payment of Snape's life debt to him any time in the near future. Snape might explode and then the debt would be void.
Snape nodded stiffly. "My life is…very valuable to me," he said with some difficulty.
"Precisely," Dumbledore said, and suddenly turned grave. "I must ask one thing of all of you. I would like an oath from each of you that you will not speak of what happened tonight with anyone who is not already aware of the situation."
James and Sirius agreed and made the oath immediately. They would never have told anyone in any case. Dumbledore turned to Snape expectantly, and at his grudging nod, beamed at them all.
"Wonderful!" he said. "Now, Mr. Snape, please stay behind. Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, please return to your common room immediately."
James and Sirius left the circular office and rode the staircase down to the gargoyle in silence. When they stepped out into the hall again, Sirius turned to James and said, "James, you know I didn't mean for this to happen, right? I'm not a murderer. You know that, right?"
James looked at the desperate look on Sirius' face, and remembered how he'd spent the entire summer in horror-filled shock after he found out about Bilius Weasley's death.
"I know, Sirius," he said finally, and Sirius' face split into a relieved grin. "But that was really stupid of you, telling Snape about the Willow."
"You think I don't know that?" Sirius groaned, holding his forehead with his hand. "Remus is never going to speak to me again because of this."
"He will," James said, privately thinking that Remus would have every right not to. "You know how forgiving he is."
"I dunno," Sirius said unhappily. "This is really serious. He's not just going to forgive and forget."
"At least you understand that," James said helpfully. "And you're not being immature about it. You'll grovel at his knees for the next year or so and he'll forgive you eventually. You'll see."
Sirius nodded, rubbing his bruise with a slight wince.
"Where did you get that?" James asked curiously, leading them to a shortcut behind a tapestry.
"What, is there actually a bruise?" Sirius asked in concern.
James nodded. "A very large and purple one."
"Lily and Peter did it. Peter did this one, and Lily," Sirius lifted his shirt slightly to show a very large, very red shoeprint across his torso. "Did this one."
James whistled slowly. "Why? She doesn't know about Remus…" Sirius looked away guiltily. James' eyes narrowed. "Sirius? She doesn't know about Remus, right? Tell me you didn't tell her about Remus."
"I didn't tell her about Remus." Sirius recited dutifully.
James stared suspiciously. "Now tell me Peter didn't tell her about Remus."
"Peter didn't tell her about Remus."
"Now swear it."
"I swear we didn't tell her about Remus."
"Good," James sighed. They'd reached the Fat Lady by now, and James gave the password. "So if she doesn't know about Remus, why did she hit you with a shoe?"
Sirius paused before climbing through the portrait hole. "I didn't say she didn't know. I said we didn't tell her."
James' mouth dropped open.
Before he could pull Sirius back and demand an explanation, there was a cry of relief from the common room.
"Sirius! James!"
Lily came dashing over to them, Peter in tow, and hugged them both. Then she slapped Sirius over the head with a familiar shoe. Sirius winced, but took it.
"Hey, that's my shoe!" James said, only slightly distracted by his hug.
"Oh, is it?" Lily asked, looking down at it in mild surprise. She handed it back to him, and he put it back on, twigs and all. "You don't mind if I used it to beat Sirius a few times, do you?"
James sighed. "What exactly do you know?"
Lily's eyes darted to the dormitory stairs, and she whispered, "Remus is a werewolf. And Sirius, the stupid idiot that he is, told Snape how to find him in his werewolf form, which would have gotten Snape killed. And you went out there and saved him."
James wished he could play dumb and deny it all, but somehow he knew it wasn't going to work. Lily had never been the gullible type, after all, and she certainly wasn't stupid. And besides, there had been a touch of admiration in her voice when she had mentioned his part.
"How did you find out?" he asked dutifully.
Lily bit her lip. "Sirius and Peter were talking about someone howling sadly, and it all kind of just fit, then they confirmed it."
James glared at Sirius and Peter, both of whom looked suitably guilty.
"You won't tell anyone, right?" he asked hopefully. Lily shook her head firmly.
"Of course not!" she said. "It's not my secret to tell."
James could have kissed her, if he didn't know that she'd probably take his shoe back by force and give him bruises worse than the ones on Sirius.
"Good," he said happily. "You're in the know then. Remus won't mind, I don't think…" He raised his voice slightly for the benefit of any eavesdroppers. "We'll have to tell him immediately, when he wakes up tomorrow. You can come with us to visit him in the hospital wing. He came down with a terrible case of the flu, you know."
Lily nodded, suppressing a smile. "The poor boy. I'll have to bring him some chocolate."
James grinned. "He does love his chocolate."
The next morning, Sirius, Peter, James and Lily all visited Remus in the hospital wing. Matilda had wanted to come along when she heard Remus was sick, but Lily had told her that she needed to talk to Remus about the prefect duties he was missing, and would only be a moment, so Matilda agreed and went to breakfast instead.
"Remus?" James asked tentatively, peeking around the curtains that screened him off from the rest of the room. "You okay?"
"I'm alright," came the tired reply. Remus sat up slightly and smiled wanly. "Something happened last night, didn't it?"
"I'm sorry."
"Sirius?" Remus asked curiously, peering through the gap in the curtain. "Was that you? Come in here. What happened?"
Sirius stepped in, followed by Peter and Lily, who smiled hesitantly at Remus and waved.
"What is Lily doing here?" Remus asked in confusion. "Guys, what happened last night?"
"How to explain?" Peter inquired of the ceiling. James cut in before he could say anything else.
"Sirius should. Explain, I mean."
All eyes turned to Sirius, who was perching timidly in a chair next to Remus' bed.
"Uhm…well it's like this…" he started, twisting the sleeve of his robe nervously. "See, I had to get a potion so that James and his head wouldn't explode, and Snape was there, and he was talking about you, and I got so mad and I didn't even think, and I told him to go down to the Whomping Willow and he actually did, and James pulled him back before anything could happen and I'm so so so sorry, and when we got back, Peter was beating me with a shoe, then Lily figured out everything, and then she beat me with a shoe, and I have lots of bruises and detention for three months and probation and Dumbledore took a hundred points off Gryffindor if you don't count what James got back and I'm so so so so so so sorry and you have every right to hate me forever, but please please don't!"
He hunched his shoulders and stared at the floor, waiting for Remus to start yelling at him.
Remus stared at him with wide, betrayed eyes.
"You told Snape about me?"
"I'm sorry."
"You nearly let me kill Snape?"
"I didn't even think…"
"Obviously."
Sirius glanced meekly up at Remus, who didn't look angry. He looked hurt and betrayed, which was almost worse. Sirius looked miserably at his shoes again, and Remus turned away as though he couldn't even look at him just yet. He looked at Lily instead, who was watching quietly.
"So you know everything?"
"Yes," Lily said with a hopeful smile.
James, who was just out of her vision, put his fingers to his head, mimicking antlers, and shook his head, mouthing, "Not everything."
Remus nodded, as much at Lily as James behind her. "And you won't tell, right?"
"Your secret is safe, Remus," Lily said cheerfully, avoiding looking at the slumped figure that was once Sirius Black.
Remus smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Lily. You don't know how much that means to me." He also avoided looking at Sirius.
A/N: If you look back, all Sirius actually did was tell Snape how to get into the Whomping Willow. Snape was the one who used the information, which is what Dumbledore told Snape. The whole 'choices' gambit. Sirius was punished for his choice in telling Snape, and Snape suffered for his choice in actually doing something a hated enemy told him to. Rather stupid of him, actually, but his own decision. And about Sirius doing something so rash and stupid, and being so regretful later…well the Black family has quite a history of madness, don't you think? Review and tell me if you think. You don't know how long it took me to write this chapter. It's done! Huzzah!