The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

Serious Sirius

"Sent to wake me?" She asked, "By who?"

"The Potter boy and his friends," the house elf said, "They is finding Libby in the common room, miss, and they is telling me to come and tells you to come to sees them in the common room, by the fire, miss." Libby hobbled foot to foot. "I is been stoking it, miss, so it is warm for your toesies." He smiled up at her, wide yellow eyes quite pleasant once you got past the shock of how huge they were compared to the rest of Libby's face.

"Thanks," Lily said, and she rolled to the side, putting her feet into a pair of bunny-eared slippers and tugging her pale pink bathrobe 'round her shoulders. Libby disappeared with a crack. Carefully, Lily snuck down the steps to the common room, where she found Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus, sitting 'round the fireplace, looking very serious.

"What's all this?" She asked.

Sirius motioned for her to have a seat. He was the only one standing. Remus and Peter were crammed side-by-side on the couch, James opposite Lily in the other overstuffed chair. Sirius took a deep breath once she'd been seated and cleared his throat. "Okay, I know we've had a row between us this afternoon about this idea that Lily had for what we could do with the mirror, but --"

"We're not still on that ruddy topic, are we?" Groaned Remus, "Sirius, c'mon now mate. You can't have thought this all the way through. There's no way you're serious."

"As serious as my name," he replied. Sirius said, "Guys. this idea is crazy, yes, I'll be the first one to admit it's crazy, but that's exactly what might make it work. It's really a brilliant idea, given us by the brilliant Lily."

Lily stared wide-eyed at them, "I was joking when I said it. It wasn't a real suggestion."

"Nonetheless, it is brilliant," Sirius said.

Peter twitched, "You're going to be killed if you even try it."

"I won't," Sirius said, "None of us will. We're going to stun him before he could even get half of the killing curse off his mouth."

Remus said, "Sirius, we are First Years! Our magic is not as powerful as his. Peter can barely do the stunning spell. Even you can resist it."

Peter turned pink.

"That's why all of us - as many of us as possible - stun him all at once. The combination of all our stunners will be enough!" Sirius said.

James said, "And his guard will be down, he won't be expecting it, remember." He looked around at them, "Guys, this can work, Sirius is right. We could be famous! Famous for saving the entire world. Don't you want to be famous?"

Lily said, "Of course it's not don't you want to save the world, it's all about being famous and feeding your ego. You're willing to risk your life and all the lives of everyone around you for being famous!"

"I said we'd be saving the world, too," James said, "Famous is just what we'd get out of it is all."

"I don't want anything to do with it," Lily said, standing up, "Or you, at all," she added, looking into James's face. "You're all mad if you do it." She looked at Remus, "And you know it." With that, she stomped off up the stairs to the girl's dormitories and a moment later her bedroom door closed.

James wouldn't have said it to the others, but he was quite relieved that she had gone. That meant Lily Evans, at least, would be safe in the Gryffindor common room - protected. Something very deep in James's stomach was glad for that.

Sirius's voice shook only slightly as he said, "I'll do it alone if I have to. If you lot don't do it with me, that's fine, it's up to you, but I'm going. I can't not give it a go. I feel like... like this is my destiny. It's what I'm meant to do. But we've got better odds of it working for every additional stunner that's shot at him. Me alone -- that really may not be enough. I don't know. But I've got to try."

Peter's wide eyes moved between the other three boys nervously, shifting from one to the other to the other.

"I'm with you, mate," James said solemnly.

Remus was rubbing his forehead, "Oh bloody hell," he groaned. "This is a terrible... awful... ridiculous... stupid idea." But even as he said it, his tone gave in. He looked up at Sirius, "Fine, alright. I'll help."

Sirius ran over and clapped his arms 'round Remus in a hug.

All three of them turned. "Peter?" Sirius asked.

Peter's face twitched. His lip quivered. His spine shivered. He very much did not want to go anywhere near the Forbidden Forest - not to mention into it to summon the Dark Lord. He didn't want any part of it, either, and he wished he had the nerve to say so, as Lily had. He felt very much like he wanted to cry as they all three stared at him. Peer pressure squeezed his heart nearly out of his chest, however, and he squeaked, "Alright... okay, yes. Okay."