Fight on the Dungeon Stairs

30.2K 1.4K 3.7K
                                    


Fight on the Dungeon Stairs


It took James just about three minutes to realize he was sorry for being a prat toward Sirius and to decide what he ought to have done was told Sirius about his meeting with McGonagall in a more detailed fashion, rather than stewing about it and worrying all on his own. He sighed and got up, picking up his Transfiguration book and tossing it onto his bed, hoping the bent up pages would work themselves out eventually. He grabbed his invisibility cloak and jogged down the steps, slipping out the door without any questions from Remus or Peter He had to find Sirius.

James ran down the stairs, keeping a listen out for Sirius's loud voice - he couldn't have gotten too far from the common room, James hadn't waited that long to come after him - but Sirius seemed to have disappeared. It was quite frustrating.

He was all the way down to the second floor before he did hear voices and though one of the voices did sound an awful lot like Sirius's, it took James only a moment to realize it was Sirius's brother, Regulus, and another boy. James quickly swept himself into an alcove and out of the way of their path down the corridor, the invisibility cloak covering him up.

"...so he's staying at my place back in London," Regulus was saying, "Kreature was telling me loads about it, says he's been serving him while he's there. My house elf! Serving the Dark Lord!"

James held his breath to keep from making a noise of shock. Voldemort was staying at Sirius's house?!

"That's cool," said the second boy. They'd just turned the corner and were standing in the pale torch lights before James. The second boy was also a first year - James recognized him from the sorting, though he couldn't recall the straw-haired boy's name.

Regulus nodded enthusiastically - it was eerie to James how similar to Sirius he looked - "Kreacher's been very busy because the Dark Lord has a lot of things for him to do. Mother and Father have, too. They're trying to find all the blood traitors, you see, and the world's just lousy with them."

"With blood traitors?" the second boy asked.

"Oh yes," Regulus replied. They'd passed James now and were continuing on down the corridor. "And it's very bad because wizards have royal blood, see. We're meant to be rulers over the muggles. If the Dark Lord had his way, all the muggles would be like House Elves. It's the blood traitors' fault that things aren't in their proper place, see, and so he needs to fix it. But it's because of bad wizards like that Potter man..."

James had been going to stay where he was and just let the two little Slytherin brats go but then he heard his name and he sprang after them. If Regulus knew something about the Dark Lord's plans for his father, perhaps James would overhear it and he could run and tell McGonagall... He scurried as quietly as possible after them, keeping to the wall to stay out of the way. It was nearly time for everyone to be in their common rooms by now anyway, the boys had to be on their way back to the dungeons or else they'd end up in Filch's grasp.

James caught up just as they were reaching the moving staircase and luckily managed to hitch a ride on the same sweeping set of stairs.

"...but the house is unplottable, so it's been very hard going at it," Regulus was still saying.

"And what do they do when they catch a blood traitor?" the second boy was asking.

"They punish them, of course," Regulus said off handedly. The way he said it, James got the impression that perhaps Regulus was under the impression that the Dark Lord was keen to serve time outs to those who crossed him, rather than a killing curse. Regulus continued, "They need to learn their rightful place. Their heads aren't screwed on just right, see, so the Dark Lord teaches them a lesson and they're smarter for it."

The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016Where stories live. Discover now