The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016

Talking Back

Talking Back

"I told him it was a bad idea, I knew it was, oh bloody hell I knew something would go wrong putting those firecrackers down that toilet. Why didn't I insist he stop? Bloody hell." James was muttering to himself, sick to his stomach, as he ran up the stairs, wringing his hands all the way. He arrived to the gargoyles in the fifth floor corridor and started pacing, continuing on in his muttering until Sirius and Dumbledore arrived several minutes later. Dumbledore waved his wand before he'd even reached the gargoyles and they didn't even bother asking him for the password but leaped out of his way, revealing the door.

Sirius looked at James, tears were pouring down his face and James frowned. It was really bad, then, if even Sirius Black was crying like that. James wondered what Dumbledore had said as they'd climbed the stairs, if anything at all. He pictured him and Sirius living as muggles out in the world. At least they'd be expelled together, he thought. If he had to go through struggling through life living as a muggle, there was nobody he'd rather suffer through it with than Sirius Black. Even if it was his fault they were being expelled in the first place.

They reached the office door at the top of the tower. Dumbledore waved his wand again to open that door and ushered them both inside, pointing to the chairs facing his desk and the two boys sat. Sirius kept his eyes on his shoes. James watched Dumbledore, though, who went across the room and stared out the window for a moment, rocking himself on the ball of his feet.

Finally, Dumbledore turned around, his face unreadable beneath his thick beard. James nudged Sirius and he looked up, his face stained with tear tracks. He swept his palms over his cheeks, trying to smudge them off. Dumbledore stepped behind the desk. "I'm not even going to ask how you managed to get a sack full of firecrackers into the school in the first place," Dumbledore said quietly, "I am well aware that the students have managed to get a good many of the things on Filch's strictly forbidden list through the doors. For the most part, I tend to look the other way as Filch's annoyance with such things is much stronger than my own. However --" Dumbledore really emphasized the however, " -- I should like to know what exactly possessed the pair of you to flush them down a toilet?"

James looked at Sirius, then back to Dumbledore and he said, quite diplomatically, "Well, they were heavy, sir, and we were trying to run away from Filch and we had to get rid of them."

The headmaster sat down in his chair at this and stared at them. "So you flushed them down a toilet?"

James murmured, "We didn't know what else to do..."

Dumbledore sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked up finally and he said, "How many firecrackers?"

"Seventeen," whispered Sirius.

"Seventeen firecrackers!" Dumbledore murmured, shaking his head. He paused. "What, may I ask, were you doing out of bed, wandering the corridors, carrying about seventeen firecrackers to begin with?" James and Sirius looked at one another but before they'd figured out how to answer, Dumbledore asked, "Does this have anything to do with the Slytherins having hexed Remus Lupin?"

Unable to hold back at this, Sirius said, "YES! And if you're going to expel someone it ought to be Evan-bleedin'-Rosier for THAT, not us for a MISTAKE!" He pointed at the headmaster, standing up, on a roll now, "You sit here in your high tower watching over everything, you say, and you step in when it's - it'sconvenient for you to, but there's a lot going on out there and honestly a couple firecrackers would serve them right for the bloody hate they go splashing about! We didn't mean to clog up the toilet. We meant to blow up the bloody Slytherins for calling Remus a puffer fish and written faggot across his back. You're as bad as he is if you let him get away with having written those slurs across Rey's back! You pompous old gay hater!"