The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Done It

Done It

The next morning at breakfast, James sat squinting at Remus and Sirius, who sat next to one another and were acting very strangely.

Dora had magicked a pan to pour bacon onto each of the plates around the magically extended table - the Tonks family had joined them - Ted, Andromeda, and Nymphadora. Ted, Andromeda, Dora, and Charlus all intended to go to the Ministry together to witness the results of the election together and the three boys would be in charge of watching Nymphadora again. She was splashing about in a bowl of porridge with cut up raspberries, changing her hair color to raspberry red back to her natural brown over and over again, calling for Remus to look, but he didn't turn, he kept his eyes focused very, very carefully on his bacon and toast.

Remus reached for salt for a serving of eggs Dora's pan had just put on his plate, and Sirius had done, too, at exactly the same time so that their fingers brushed and they both turned tomato red and pulled their hands back. "You go," Sirius said to Remus.

"No," Remus shook his head, "You."

"You," Sirius argued.

James raised an eyebrow. "Bloody hell, somebody just do it already."

Remus's face went even redder and Sirius hastened to grab the salt and poured far too much over his eggs in his haste. He shook it over Remus's too. "There, done it," Sirius said... and a smirk went over his face.

Remus kicked him.

James's eyes narrowed again and he bit his lip, chewing a piece of bacon with a funny, distracted sort of look as he stared at them... Sirius grinned at him and their eyes met as James chewed his bacon and Sirius used his fork to break apart his salted eggs.

"WEYMISS! LOOOOOOOOOK!" cried Nymphadora, splashing her porridge over the tray of her high chair and turning her hair yellow.

"Oh don't, Nymphadora," begged Andromeda, turning to the toddler, "You musn't make such a mess. Oh darling, look at you..." She took up her wand and started to clean up all the porridge Nymphadora had got all over herself and her stuffed rabbit, which sat next to her in the highchair.

Ted chuckled and looked over at Remus, "She seems to like you."

Nymphadora turned her hair a brilliant blue like the blueberry jam that was smeared over Remus's toast, and she giggled.

Remus smiled awkwardly. "Very good Nymphadora," he said.

Sirius and James, meanwhile, were still in the midst of their little staredown...

Suddenly, James's eyes went wide. "SIRIUS I NEED TO TALK TO YOU IN THE HALLWAY!" he said, too loud, standing up suddenly so that his chair bumped into Dora, who was walking over with a cloth to help with cleaning up Nymphadora, and everyone at the table looked at James. "Sorry mum," he apologized, "Didn't mean to get'cha with the chair. Sirius. A word?"

Remus turned to look at Sirius, his eyes wide, and Sirius patted him on the head and grinned, pushing his own chair back and getting up, following as James rushed out of the room.

"Those two seem like they're up to something," muttered Charlus, watching them go, "Always up to something..." He looked at Remus, "You'll need to keep your eye on those two today, be sure they don't get up to no good."

I solemnly swear they're bloody always up to no good, thought Remus. "Yes, sir. I usually do," he said. "It's my full-time job at Hogwarts."

Charlus chuckled.

Through the window came Bubo then, with the morning Prophet tied about her leg and she landed before Charlus, since James was out of the room. Charlus untied the paper and gave Bubo a bit of bacon, and off she went, back through the window. He lifted the paper up and shook it out, "Let's see what's going on todayyy... Can't imagine what they could be covering today!" Charlus winked at Ted Tonks, raising a teacup to his mouth.