Chapter 23 – Times Are Changing (part 2)

A/N: Content/trigger warning for blood and violence throughout the majority of the chapter. If you don't want to read it but want to know what happens, there will be a chapter summary at the end :)

Sirius and Peter were on their way to detention. In Sirius' case, it was his second of the day, having already served one that afternoon with McGonagall, who was unrelenting in his punishment after the incident with Snape. This time it was because he and Peter had been caught drawing rather unsavoury doodles in their muggle studies textbooks, which the professor had apparently found distasteful, rather than hilarious (which they were). It was slightly irksome that they had to spend the evening sitting in silence writing lines, when they could have been in the dorm waiting for James' return, or playing exploding snap with Remus. The castle was largely empty as they made their way down to the first floor; most people having eaten their fill at dinner and returned to the common rooms for the night. As they sped down the stairs to the second floor though, the sound of laughter filtered through the corridors towards them. Having no interest in whoever was causing trouble, Sirius fully intended to ignore the sound, until it was punctured by what sounded horribly like a scream.

"What was -?" Peter asked, turning towards him, but Sirius had already bounded down the remaining stairs to the second floor, heading towards the source of the commotion.

He stopped when he saw the Slytherin boys at the end of the corridor. They were hunched around in a group, saying things that Sirius couldn't quite make out, but their tone sent chills down his spine. He recognised his brother first, standing at the back of the group with Rosier, staring at the older boys, who were advancing on someone who was pinned against the wall.

"Is that Mary?" Peter asked, clearly panicked as they watched from a distance. Mulciber was at the front of the pack, his wand hovering over Mary as he laughed, and it wasn't until he raised his wand with the clear intention of casting another spell that Sirius noticed the sickening sight of blood on Mary's robes.

"Expelliarmus!" Peter called out, and all of a sudden everything was in free fall. Mulciber's wand flew out of his hand before he could finish his curse, and in unison the five Slytherins turned toward them. Snape scowled, eyes full of rage, and Dolohov immediately turned his wand on Peter, blasting out a curse that would easily have hit its mark if Sirius hadn't grabbed Peter by the shoulder and hauled him out of the way. Then he was running towards Mary, who in the moment of inattention from the Slytherin's had slid down the wall, holding the gash in her stomach. He didn't stop running when he reached her; the fury was too raw as the seventh years stood staring at him, one wandless and the other clearly shocked by his nerve. He collided with Mulciber at speed, knocking both of them to the ground with a thud, and it wasn't until Peter's hex knocked Dolohov to the floor next to them that Sirius stopped punching him. His knuckles were bruised and painful, and his ears were ringing so loudly that he barely heard the commotion of a teacher arriving until he noticed Regulus and Rosier running for the end of the corridor, their robes swinging around the corner before Dumbledore had a chance to speak. He was pulled backwards off Mulciber by some invisible force, set upon his feet, and he gazed with some unbidden glee at the blood pouring from the other boy's nose.

"What is happening here?" Dumbledore demanded, keeping him and Peter away from the remaining Slytherins with his spell. "Who did this?"

The headmaster was angrier than Sirius had ever seen him, and there was a white hot fury in his voice that once again alerted Sirius to the severity of the situation. Sirius bent down beside Mary, who reached out and gripped his robes.

"I need to get her to the hospital wing," he said at once, wrapping one arm around her waist and attempting to steady her as she got shakily to her feet. "He attacked her, look. If we hadn't stopped him –

"It's true," Peter put in, nodding desperately, "it looked like they wanted to kill her!"

Snape looked hesitantly at the headmaster, pulling Mary's wand out of his pocket as if it was some kind of peace offering. Dumbledore took it with a frown and turned to the seventh years, who seemed unsure of whether or not they should argue.

"It's easy enough to see what the last spells you cast were," he told them, holding out his hand expectantly, "hand over your wands and we'll discuss this in my office. Sirius, please do get Miss MacDonald to the hospital wing."

There were cries of outrage from the three boys, but Sirius didn't stick around to hear them complain. They weren't far from the hospital, and he was eager to get Mary there as quickly as possible. He knew that really she hadn't lost that much blood, not in comparison to the wounds he saw on Remus every month - but a sense of dread had pooled in his stomach, where the fury and fear had curdled into something much worse. He'd though, hoped, that these sort of things didn't happen outside the mad ramblings of his parents. Clearly, he'd been wrong.

"Go out to the grounds and fetch Lily," he instructed Peter. "I'll get her to Madame Pomfrey."

Mary was conscious, but she wouldn't describe herself as alert. From Sirius' grip, the grey ceilings above were a blur and she couldn't really tell where they were going. At one point, she thought they must be going up stairs because with each step a jolt went through her. Her bloody robes were sticking to the long gash down her torso and with every movement they rubbed painfully against the wound.

A door creaked as Sirius pushed it open with his back, and when they entered the room everything looked whiter. She didn't realise why until she was put down on a bed and Madam Pomfrey appeared in her field of vision, with Sirius hovering anxiously nearby.

"Miss MacDonald?" she said urgently. "Mary? Do you know where you are?"

"Hospital wing," Mary replied groggily.

"That's right, and I'm going to make sure you walk out of here good as new. Here, drink this - it's a blood-replenishing potion."

Madam Pomfrey steadied Mary's hand as she drank the thick red liquid. "It tastes like cough medicine," she said, then, "Oh, everything's less fuzzy."

"It's fast-acting," Madam Pomfrey explained. "Now Mr Black, perhaps you ought to leave, as I'll have to take off Miss MacDonald's shirt to close the wound."

"It's okay, I've seen it before."

Mary scowled at him. "Seeing as you just carried me here, I'll let you off for saying that." To Madam Pomfrey, she added, "I don't mind if he stays."

"Very well." She carefully used her wand to split what was left of Mary's shirt down the middle.

"Oh." Mary looked down at the wound for the first time. "That looks bad. That looks really extremely not good. Am I okay?"

Madam Pomfrey smiled reassuringly. "I've seen much worse, don't you worry. You're going to be fine. Now, do you feel able to tell me what happened or shall Mr Black explain?"

Mary explained everything while the cut was numbed, washed, and closed up. Looking at the cut made her feel sick so she talked to the back of Madam Pomfrey's head, but Sirius didn't seem squeamish at all. He perched next to her on the bed and didn't even seem to notice that he had her blood all down his front.

When the wound was dealt with, she sat up with Sirius' help so that Madam Pomfrey could take a look at the injury at the back of her head. Now that she'd relived what had happened, she couldn't help replaying it in her head, and as the initial shock faded she found herself crying.

When Madam Pomfrey went to her office in search of some more potions, Sirius squeezed her hand. "I wish I'd got there sooner."

"I wish I hadn't picked a fight with them." Mary tried to wipe away her tears, only to realise her hand was covered in blood. Frustrated, she hit the mattress beneath her with her fist, which just made her feel childish.

"It wasn't your fault," Sirius said, handing her a box of tissues from the bedside table so she could wipe her hands clean. "The bastards who did this are the ones who should be regretting what they did, not you."

"I know, I just... Actually, no, you're right. I was right to stand up to them. Now they won't get away with all the things they were saying about muggleborns, and everyone can see exactly how awful all those pureblood extremists are. I mean, God, I've been saying Snape's a prejudiced dick for years, even when we were on civil terms because of Lily. Not that he did anything, but - well, that's the point. He did nothing. He just fucking stood there while I-" Her voice broke and a few more tears slid down her cheeks. "I hate them. All of them. The Slytherins can all just go to hell."

She had expected Sirius to agree with her, and when he said nothing she turned to look at him, moving as little as possible because Madam Pomfrey's numbing spell was beginning to wear off and everything ached.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said eventually, looking up at her with a strange expression. "I've heard that shit they spout all my life but I never thought that - even my brother was there. It's disgusting. I can't believe they did this to you."

There wasn't much Mary could say to that, so it was a relief when the doors burst open and Lily, James and Peter hurried in. Lily ran straight over to Mary's bed, her expression swinging between worry and rage as she took in Mary's injuries.

"Are you okay?" Lily demanded, not quite as kindly as she hoped for. Anger at the situation Peter had described had got to her rather more than she'd intended, and now all she wanted to do was run after whoever had done this to her friend and teach them a lesson. "That's a stupid question, sorry," she clarified with an attempt at a smile, "how are you?"

Mary tried to smile back and failed even more dismally than Lily. "Well my head is killing and I look like someone tried to dissect me, so I could be better."

"Don't say that," Lily sighed, calming slightly as she took the seat that Sirius vacated for her. "Seriously, you're going to be okay. I will personally make sure that Dumbledore does something about this, they should be expelled." She patted Mary's arm gently, scared to touch her too much in case she made the injuries worse. "I know you're scared," she pressed on when Mary didn't answer, "but they're wrong. We have just as much of a right to magic as they do, they're just some stupid extremists looking for a bit of power."

"They won't get it." James added. "We'll talk to Dumbledore and make sure that everyone at school knows they can't get away with using dark magic, or hurting people because of their blood status."

Lily nodded eagerly, but all Mary saw was Sirius' expression from where he was hovering behind them, staring at the back of James' head with a look that quite clearly told her he didn't think anything they said would make a difference, not in the long run.

Mary was inclined to agree. Still, she squeezed Lily's hand and nodded at James, managing a small smile before Madam Pomfrey returned from her office holding a bottle of a purple potion. "I just had to add the finishing ingredients - sleeping potions work twice as fast when they're freshly brewed." She poured a glass and handed it to Mary. "Drink up, now. By the time it wears off, you'll be fully healed."

Mary nearly protested that Lily had only just got there, but there were some things that even her best friend's presence couldn't make better. Hoping that she wouldn't feel so awful when she woke up, she downed the potion and within seconds was sound asleep.

Chapter summary for anyone who skipped the blood and violence: Sirius and Peter come across Mary being attacked by the Slytherins, and naturally they fight back until Dumbledore arrives and breaks them up. Sirius takes Mary to the hospital wing while Peter goes to get Lily and they talk about pureblood extremists. When Lily and James arrive, Lily is furious and James says they'll talk to Dumbledore to make sure the Slytherins responsible are punished.