Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 11

*5th Year*

Mariya walked out of her Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL feeling content with her performance. She had not found any of the questions particularly difficult and the practical had gone as well as she could have hoped. Her dragon Patronus had shocked everyone as it swept around the hall before landing behind her and fading out of existence. Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail and simple earrings pierced her ears. She could see the Marauders laughing with each other as they walked out of the hall - her guess was that they were teasing Remus about the question on werewolves and she was glad that they were such good friends as to joke about his condition like it wasn't as serious as it was.

She made her way towards the black lake like many of the students. She quickly scaled a beech tree and sat in the crook between two branches, tucking her legs up along the branch. A few minutes after she had made herself comfortable, the Marauders appeared and began to lounge on the ground beneath her. Potter had pulled a snitch out of his pocket and was showing off as he repeatedly let go before catching it. Mariya rolled her eyes as Peter applauded his abilities and almost laughed out loud as she saw James glance over towards where Lily was sitting with her friends before ruffling his hair. They had settled down slightly and Mariya was just beginning to get back into her book when she heard Sirius speak.

"Put that away, will you. Before Wormtail wets himself with excitement."

James flashed his friend a smile, "If it bothers you." And tucked the ball into his pocket.

Though Mariya was enjoying the peace she had up the tree, she couldn't help but call down, "Much appreciated Black. I was concerned Potter was forgetting that he isn't that good at catching the snitch during actual games."

All four boys jumped at her exclamation and James scowled up at her when he realised who had spoken and what she had said.

"What are you doing, Seratova? Spying on us like the Slytherin that you are?" Mariya smiled at Potter's vexed tone.

"Actually Potter I was here before you, so I didn't exactly sneak up on you and - believe it or not - I was quite happy reading my book until you started showing off and disturbing the silence."

The boy's scowl deepened as he determined to ignore her, returning to his seat at the bottom of the tree.

There followed barely a minute of serenity before Sirius spoke again, "I'm bored." and Mariya cast an incredulous look his way at his following sentence, "Wish it was the full moon." She couldn't believe that he would wish that pain on Remus just because breaking the rules gave him a sense of freedom.

Remus clearly agreed with her, "You might." He muttered darkly before he offered his book to Sirius, "We've still got Transfiguration, if you're bored you could test me. Here..."

Mariya was amused by his reply, "I don't need to look at that rubbish. I know it all." As good as Sirius might be at Transfiguration, a little revision was hardly going to do him any harm.

Her attention was fully caught by Potter's next line, "This'll liven you up, Padfoot. Look who it is..."

Mariya craned her neck to see who he was talking about. When she realised that it was Severus she put down her book and her muscles tensed automatically, ready to move. She could see Remus freeze and - though he pretended to be reading his book - he was clearly listening but didn't want to get on anybody's bad side by intervening.

Mariya crouched on her branch as she heard Potter's first taunt towards the unfortunate boy. She knew that she would have to intervene but couldn't really do anything until they actually started cursing each other. This quickly stopped being a problem as - when Severus attempted to retrieve his wand from his pocket James yelled,

"Expelliarmus" And Severus immediately lost any fair chance he had in the fight against the other boy. Sirius was soon to follow James as he used the leglock curse on the Slytherin.

As the two walked up to the boy, Mariya could see a crowd forming and could tell that nobody intended to stop the boys from bullying Severus. Though the taunts were hurtful, neither of the spells they had used on Severus had caused any severe physical damage and so Mariya didn't move.

Mariya heard Snape begin to curse at the two and dropped from her position in the tree, beginning to stride forward as James raised his wand for his next attack.

"Scourgify"

Mariya tried to push his arm away before he could get the spell out but ended up being hit by the curse rather than Snape. She clutched her throat in her hands as she began to choke, dropping to her knees as she ran out of oxygen. She saw as Severus managed to raise his wand enough to cast a spell at James that made his face bleed. She watched Potter immediately turn his wand back towards Snape, not stopping the curse on her as he turned the other boy upside down and let his robes drop around his head. Her vision was beginning to blur but she saw well enough as Remus stepped forward and told Potter to stop hurting her and let Severus down.

Potter reluctantly said the counter-curse and Mariya filled her lungs with precious oxygen as she saw Severus drop to the ground in a heap of robes.

"There you go. You're lucky Remus was here Seratova, Snivellus."

Remus moved over to help Mariya up and she tried to regain her breath in order to thank the boy in question but winced as she heard Snape's shout.

"I don't need help from filthy half-breeds like him."

Mariya glanced up at Remus to see the boy cast his gaze towards the ground in shame. She hugged him tightly before stepping away as Potter pointed his wand at Severus.

"Apologise to Lupin!" He bellowed at the boy.

Mariya marched forward and stood in front of the boy's wand, "There's no point in you making him apologise. You're just as bad as he is." James almost dropped his wand in shock as the girl shouted at him, her cheeks bright red.

"How dare you? I would never call him a - you-know-what!" He gestured to Remus who was still looking at the ground.

"Perhaps not, but you walk around this school like you own it, and teachers never get you in trouble for bullying the Slytherins you target because, secretly, they agree. You act like you are better than everyone else and pester Lily Evans even though she has made it perfectly clear she doesn't like you. You show off with your hair and your snitch when your not even that good at Quidditch. In fact, it's a wonder your broom makes it off the ground with your ridiculously oversized head on it. You disgust me and I don't know why you've got such a big fan club always following you around. You are pathetic and a coward Potter, picking on people smaller than you just to make yourself look good."

With that she stalked off, hundreds of eyes following her as she helped Snape onto his feet and led him back towards the castle. Her words would almost certainly have been water off a ducks back had not James caught sight of Lily Evans nodding her head in agreement from where she sat by the lake. The knowledge that the girl he liked, thought he was the horrible person Seratova had just described was like a poisoned barb in James's side as he turned back to his friends.

"What is it with her?" His expression was still furious but his words contained a certain curiosity as though he truly wanted to know Seratova thought he was like that.

Remus scoffed as Sirius answered, "Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited, mate."

"Right." James replied as he collapsed back to the ground beneath the tree. "I see."