The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016

Hexes and Honesty

Hexes and Honesty

The Divination room was hot from the sun, even though outside the window there was snow falling across the window and collecting on the sill's edges. Sirius was exhausted and struggling to keep awake in the heat and low lighting of the room.

He was so tired thanks to the fact that he had lain awake long into the night after Remus had fallen asleep, just thinking, listening to Remus's oddly unsteady heartbeat. He had been trying to remember everything he'd overheard the Centaurs saying back at the start of term and how the prophetic words they'd spoken about Veigler and the Hunter and the mystery Boy had gone. He still was, even now, in class. It was as though his brain couldn't turn off, ever since Veigler had started teaching them ways to destroy werewolves, all but confessing to them he was one himself, Sirius had been spinning the thoughts 'round and 'round, desperate to make sense of it all. But it was still just as vague as it had been when he'd started. Possibly even vaguer.

Peter was talking to him across the little table, but Sirius wasn't really listening, he just nodded and shifted on his cushion.

"You have to try at this, Severus, if you want to get a good grade," Remus's voice was low and angry. Sirius glanced over his shoulder at the table where Remus and Severus Snape sat now. Remus was leaned closer to the table, looking at Severus's greasy face with an expression of imploring desperation. "Maybe you don't care about your grade in this class, but I do, and we're graded as a team and..."

"Look I have enough problems getting bullied around this school without being paired with the queer kid," Severus snapped.

Remus looked like he'd been slapped and he sat back. "I'm -- I -- that -- that doesn't have anything to do with Divination!" he stammered, taken aback. "Even if I was queer, it doesn't change whether you need to do your homework or not."

"Make up something to interpret, like I had to do for half a month while you were injured," Severus said quietly.

"I was at St. Mungo's, and I kept up with my homework," Remus hissed, "You're just being a prat. Besides, it's not as though your little bullying mates are going to call you a puffer fish and whatever else they've come up with for me behind my back."

"Bit of the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?" Severus whispered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus demanded.

"You and your little friends, the Marauders, you lot are the biggest bullies in this school!" Severus replied, rolling his eyes.

Remus snorted, "Have you met the Slytherins you hang about with? Evan Rosier?"

Severus said, "James Potter? Sirius Black?"

"Don't talk about Sirius Black," muttered Remus. "You don't know anything about him."

"I know he's the most selfish bastard that ever walked these halls," Severus Snape growled, "And yes, bastard is the word for him. The Black family would be better off if he'd never even been born."

"Rich seeing as you've been blasted off Mother's family tree longer than I have been," Sirius said, standing up and stepping into the conversation, unable to take anymore of what Severus had to say. Remus groaned and covered his face. "Best get your facts straight, halfblood."

Several people in the cushions around them had turned to look up at them.

Severus sneered, "Better a loyal halfblood than a traitor like yourself with the friends you keep."