All My Cards are Here - Marauders+Wolfstar+Jily

Chapter 9: something i cant believe

TW - descriptions of past child abuse

Songs in this chapter:
What They'll Say About Us by Finneas
Juliet by Cavetown

Before the day was even over, Marlene pulled the four of the Marauders out of the studio and into her office. If normal Marlene was intimidating, angry Marlene was a force to be reckoned with and she held back no punches.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Marlene yelled. "Leaking a private recording session to your several hundred thousand Twitter followers! Do you know what a legal shit storm this is? Do you have no respect for your team? for me?"

It was brutal to watch Marlene tear into Sirius, for it was Sirius' fault alone. So thorough was Marlene's chastisement that Remus felt sorry and he hadn't even done anything.

"You clearly don't give a shit about any of this if you think this is some kind of fun game that you could do whatever the fuck you want."

There wasn't even any need for the rest of the Marauders to be there. Marlene didn't even glance their way the whole time, but they had a purpose nonetheless. It made this shaming a public humiliation. It's one thing to be chewed out by your manager. It was a whole other to have your closest friends watch in silence.

"Do you not what kind of shit I have to withstand from admin? Do you know how much I have to fight for you every moment just so they give you a chance and this is how you thank me?"

Sirius had tried to defend himself in the beginning, but he shut down fast and hard. Remus doubted he even heard a word Marlene had said since minute five. Every so often, Marlene would ask, "do you understand me, Black? Do you know what all this means?" and Sirius would nod, minutely. His eyes were somewhere else entirely.

"You might think you're hot shit now, Black, but you're so utterly replaceable. If you want this, you better start acting like it."

Marlene slammed her hand down on the desk and Sirius flinched severely, as if he had been struck himself.

"Okay," Remus said calmly but forcefully. "You can stop now."

"Excuse me?" Marlene turned sharply ready to bear down all her wrath on Remus, but Remus was ready to take it.

"He gets it. He fucked up. You yelling at him isn't going to change the past." Remus refused to look away from Marlene's death glare.

"He needs to understand the consequences."

"And those consequences, the ones you haven't already yelled in his face, can be laid out in a professionally worded email. Until then, we are going to go home and enjoy our evening." Remus stood up.

"We're not done here," Marlene said.

"We are," Remus said fiercely. He went to move to the door, the rest of the Marauders, save Sirius, stood up as well.

"You walk out that door, Mr. Lupin, and there will be consequences."

"And I'll be happy to find out about them in an email," Remus said with a sharp smile. He held open the door as Peter and James (who had managed to coax a silent Sirius up and out of his seat) filed out to the hall.

Once they had left, Remus looked at Marlene, "I know he's an asshole, but you might want to consider why someone might run away from home from the one richest families in the country at age 16."

Marlene went to say something but Remus just raised his hand, "I'm not making excuses for him. I'm just saying there are better ways to talk to him about this stuff," and with that Remus closed the door.