Hindsight

Prelude

Susan Bones checked her watch. Another half-hour to go until the end of her patrol. At least it was almost over. She could not stand spending an hour and a half every other night with Ernie. He was nice, Susan supposed, but his pompousness grated her nerves.

The fifth-year Prefects were supposed to patrol the first floor, which was objectively not a tall order, at least if one was lucky enough to be paired with the Ravenclaws or Slytherins. Susan was not particularly close to Goldstein and Patil, but they were polite and professional, getting the job done. As for the Slytherins, Zabini might be insufferable, but Daphne was a good friend. Susan would try to force Ernie to go with Zabini every time. It was rather fitting, Susan thought, for two of the most pompous people in the school to patrol with each other.

Tonight's patrol was with the Gryffindors, though, and that was like having no partner at all. What a way to spend a Monday night, she thought. Susan cursed Dumbledore once again for making Weasley and Brown Prefects over Harry and Hermione. It had been almost two months since term started, and not once had Susan seen them actually patrol. She knew that they were abusing their Prefect privileges, but she had no evidence to prove it, for she had never caught them in the act. That infuriated Susan, for those two were making a mockery of the very word 'Prefect'.

They patrolled a while longer and shepherded a few first-year Hufflepuffs down the stairs into their Common Room. Every few walks around, they would raid the broom closets. Susan could not understand why people still used broom closets to snog when they knew that the Prefects habitually raided them on their rounds. The Room of Requirement was a far better place to engage in those activities, in her opinion.

The broom closets were mostly deserted tonight except for one seventh-year Ravenclaw pair. Susan pulled them out and sent them on their way with a warning. She knew that some more uptight Prefects were harsher with the denizens of Hogwarts broom closets, but she liked to be lenient. They were teenagers, after all. It was only natural.

When they rounded a corner, Susan suddenly heard intermittent groans and moans coming from up ahead. She and Ernie dashed forward to investigate. The sounds were coming from another broom closet. Whoever was in there had tried to cast a Silencing Charm, but it was horribly done. Instead of preventing all noise from escaping, it simply silenced some snippets of sound while amplifying others.

'Alohomora!' Susan cast, pointing her wand at the lock. The lock clicked open. Susan grabbed the handle of the broom closet door and pulled it open. Her jaw dropped.

Inside were Weasley and Brown. They were both half-undressed and in the middle of a round of copulation. By the bright red colour of their faces and the sweat streaming down their backs, they had likely been at it since their patrol started.

'Get out!' Susan shouted. She felt a sense of vindictive triumph. Finally, she had evidence that these two were doing the very thing that they were tasked to stop. 'Put on your clothes! We're going to Professor McGonagall!'

'You can't do that!' Weasley shouted crassly, 'We're Prefects!'

'Prefects who have been breaking the very rules they're supposed to enforce,' Ernie said with a sneer. 'Come with us.'

The airhead Weasley scowled and reached for his wand, but Susan was expecting it. With a silent Expelliarmus, his wand flew out of his hand and Susan caught it in mid-air.

'You heard Ernie,' she spat. 'Come with us, or we'll make you.'

Weasley looked furious. His face was quickly turning purple. Brown, meanwhile, was trying to look tiny and insignificant. Seeing as he was disarmed, however, Weasley marched out of the broom closet, sneering at Susan, and Brown followed.