The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Merlin's Beard

Merlin's Beard

Sirius held Remus's hand as they couched with James and Lily Evans at the end of the hallway from the gargoyles. They watched as Fabian and Gideon informed the gargoyles of Dumbledore's fondness of pepper imps and the stone giants moved aside to let them pass.

"Seriously, Dumbledore? Pepper imps?" Sirius made a face, "Bloody disgusting those are."

"They taste like cimmanin," commented James, "How can you not like those?"

Sirius snorted and James's incapability to say the word cinnamon correctly, even stone cold sober, and pulled his head back 'round the corner, standing upright in the hall. "Alright, so we give Thing One and Thing Two a few minutes to get in the office there, then we go tell those stone beasts about the pepper imps, get under the invisibility cloak --"

"Padfoot, we're not eleven anymore, we're not all going to fit under that thing," Remus pointed out. "The cloak barely covers me alone anymore..." He reached for it from James, swept it about his shoulders and looked down, "Look at that. An inch of ankle."

"What the fuck did you go and get tall for, Moony?" Sirius demanded, shaking his head. "You've ruined everything with all your bloody... tallness..."

"Oi, it's not his fault you're a smurf, Black," said James.

Lily stared at the cloak, she'd had very limited encounters with it and it was still utterly fascinating to her. She watched the silvery fabric ripple as Remus handed it back to James and James chucked it over his elbow and looked back 'round the corner again. "We need to choose an ambassador."

"It ought to be me," Sirius said. "Seeing as I'm the sneakiest of us."

"You're also the clumsiest," Remus pointed out. "I've been up there the most, maybe it ought to be me."

"With an inch of ankle showing? That's brilliant," Sirius said.

James and Lily looked at one another.

"It should be me," Lily said. "Of us all, I'm the one that's been in trouble the least and is therefore the least suspicious to find up there. If I get caught, I can just say I was looking for Dumbledore and since I'm a prefect there are loads of reasons I could've been looking for him."

"Excellent idea, Evans," Sirius agreed, trying to be nicer to her because though he really did think she'd acted horribly before, he really hadn't meant it when he'd called her a bitch and he felt like he needed to make it up to her a bit.

James hesitated in handing her the cloak. He was about to say but what if you get a detention, but then he realized he shouldn't care so much what happened to Lily Evans - after all, she didn't care what happened to him so... so why should he... and... he was trying to get over her and all and... He looked away as she took the cloak that he reluctantly held out for her.

The boys watched as Lily walked down the hallway to the gargoyles and stood before it - "Pepper imps," she said clearly - and the gargoyles moved aside. Lily looked back at the three boys' heads sticking 'round the end of the corridor, took a deep breath, and swung the cloak 'round her shoulders, disappearing from sight.

While they stood there in the corridor waiting for The Lilly Report, they faced one another and Remus looked at James, then back to Sirius and cleared his throat, nodding to their mate. Sirius looked at Remus for a long moment and Remus raised his eyebrows meaningfully. Sirius took a deep breath, "Oi, Prongs."

"Padfoot?"

"I uh... if I made you feel pathetic or whatever... it's just that I didn't mean to or anything, I don't think you're pathetic for liking Evans, I mean... for a girl, she's good looking and whatever." Sirius was squirming. He looked at Remus like a little kid - the eyes clearly asked Do I have to?