The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

The Minute Hand On the Clock

The Minute Hand On the Clock

There were too many people milling about the Shrieking Shack for the boys to go in, so James and Sirius stood by the fence that surrounded the crooked old house, waiting for the crowd to clear off so they could see if the cloak and Map were inside. Sirius was back-to the shack, leaning against the fence, staring back off down the path toward the village. James was pacing, nervously. Sirius grinned, watching him as he went, and reached into his pocket and shook a cigarette out of a pack, flicking his wand to light the tip and brought it to his mouth. "You've got to chill out, man," he drawled. "Here." He held the cigarette out.

James took a long drag, holding it between two fingers as he walked, his fingers shaking.

Sirius shook a second cigarette out of the pack and lit that one as well. "Ah Prongsie," he said, blowing smoke into the sky, "When did we all get to be such adults? Going on dates and choosing careers and having smokes by the Shack?"

James coughed over the second drag of smoke. "Do you reckon getting grown up gets easier the older you get?"

"I certainly hope so," Sirius said.

"Me, too." James drew a deep breath and leaned against the fence beside Sirius, facing the Shack, staring off at the boarded up windows. Down the fence a ways a couple of third years were looking over, whispering about the supposed ghost that lived within, their eyes wide with excitement, wondering at how they would each react if the Shack began it's shrieking. He looked over at Sirius, whose face was calm as he basked in the fresh air. "It's gonna go alright, yeah?"

"I already told you, Prongs, you've got on the lucky jacket. You're sexy as fuck. I know for damn sure you have confidence. And when you stop trying too hard, and let yourself be... you seem to actually do rather well in talking to her. Just remember not to be an arsehole. Don't try to impress her. Just be the idiot we all know and tolerate."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, anytime."

They stood there for several long minutes, waiting, but every time one group of kids would leave, another would come to stare at the Shack, like a rotating door of wondering eyes. Sirius sighed, "We're never gonna get a fucking break in this."

"Yeah," James agreed. He was just about finished with his cigarette, so he tossed it down and snuffed it out with the toe of his shoe.

Sirius ran his palm over the back of his neck, taking several long drags to completely expire the tobacco in his cigarette before giving it up, breathing out great clouds of smoke while he snuffed his beneath his boot the same as James had done. "Alright, let's go down and get you a table at the Broomsticks and I'll sit with you a bit before Lilith gets there... then I'll see if Snuffles can't sneak 'round the backway into the Shack."

"Alight," James agreed and Sirius put his arm 'round James's shoulder and led him along the path toward the village. James took a deep breath, his stomach churning with excitement and fear as they rounded the bend and the sign for the Three Broomsticks came into view. "What makes the jacket lucky, anyway?"

Sirius said, "Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to, Potter." He winked and ducked ahead to open the door of the pub.

Regulus was walking down the path to Hogsmeade alone. He'd come later than most of the other students on purpose, not wanting to spend the day around Barty Crouch Jr. Really, he'd been hoping he might run into Sirius and James and the other Marauders in the village and perhaps they could go to Zonko's or Honeydukes together or something. He picked his way along the path...