Mastermind

Nobody puts Baby in the Corner

Take my advise: Enjoy this chapter. Take every word of happiness I give you and enjoy it. Maybe there aren't too many things happening, except an unnecessary amount of foreshadowing, but it will be the last bit of happiness for a whole while.

Warnings: referenced bullying (Snape + the Marauders)
Discussion of dead parents (Effie)
Referenced Child Abuse
Minor America bashing - because that is one of my biggest hobbies and I deserve it

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So wear me like a locket around your throat
I'll weigh you down, I'll watch you choke
You look so good in blue, you look so good in blue
Nobody puts Baby in the Corner – Fall Out Boy

Regulus waits with Remus and Peter near Dumbledore's office. Lily, Mary, James, Sirius, McKinnon, Mulciber, Avery, the Carrows, Snape, and Dorcas are upstairs with the headmaster, Slughorn and McGonagall.

Remus is pacing. Regulus is leaning against a wall. Peter is sitting on the ground, playing with his hands.

"I'm just going to say it," Regulus cuts through the silence, "It was hot."

Remus stops and stares at him.

"What? It was and I'm tired of pretending it wasn't."

"For how long did you pretend? Thirty minutes?"

"Yes, it was torture."

Peter looks up at them. "Do you think they'll throw them out?"

"No, of course not Pete," Remus says and sits down with him, "Prongs and Padfoot only tried to protect our friends. They can't expel them for that."

And Dumbledore needs them for his stupid Order. Regulus thinks and balls his hands into fists.

"And the Slytherins?" Peter asks.

Remus looks up at Regulus.

"Doubt it. Their parents have too much influence. They'll get some detention, that's it." Regulus says with a shrug.

With a churning noise, the ugly Gargoyle at the wall in front of them steps away, giving a view of a spiral staircase leading to the headmaster's office. Regulus quickly slips behind a statue.

Avery, holding a tissue to his nose, and Mulciber, the right side of his face red and slightly deformed, walk past them, sneering at Peter and Remus. The Carrow siblings come running after them. When they are gone, the rest comes downstairs as well, short of Lily and Snape.

Sirius lets himself fall against Remus. "Those stupid fuckers only got detention. They should've been fucking expelled."

James' face is still tight with anger. He is still wearing his Head Boy badge, though.

"I'll fucking kill them," McKinnon hisses, "They better sleep with one eye wide open. I'll burn down that entire dungeon!"

Dorcas looks at her from the side.

"They got almost as much detention as the rest of us," Mary growls, "What is this shit, really? How's that fair?"

Lily and Snape now come down the stairs as well. He looks at her again before rushing down the corridor without another word.

Regulus emerges from behind his hiding spot.

"What are you doing here?" McKinnon glares at him, "Your friends went that way."

"As much as I enjoy pretending otherwise, that idiot over there is still my brother, I think I have a right to be here."

"Oh, Reggie, you came because of me?" Sirius grins at him.