The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Janus Thickey Ward

The Janus Thickey Ward

Charlus Potter was still in St. Mungo's two days after the incident on the staircase, his skin pale and mouth dry so that his lips chapped up from all the smoke coming out of his lungs. The healers tried and tried to stop it, but whatever they did, they couldn't make the fire go out completely. He'd been hit by a particularly nasty strain, and exposed more than any of the other patients had been.

James sat fidgeting in the waiting area, Sirius by his side, flicking through a day-old copy of the Daily Prophet. The headline claimed that Minchum was dropping numbers at the polls as more and more people began to pay attention to his running opponent, Adom Tutman.

Harold Minchum's ways have been tried, they have been tried again and again and they have failed. If Harold Minchum's agenda is to be so successful, then why is it that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement hasn't yet caught the Dark Lord? As second in command, Harold Minchum's influence is already at work in combating the Dark Lord's power and it has already failed.

Sirius sneered at the paper.

Adom Tutman, on the other hand, has the right idea about how the Wizarding World ought to work. While Tutman may seem to lack experience when compared to the nearly elderly Minchum - whose experience is measured in decades, nearly centuries - it is not to be overlooked that Adom Tutman is less likely to die in office from old age. His ideas are fresh, and he is open to making peace with the Dark Lord in other ways besides all out war...

"Yeah, by bloody joining rank, seeing as he's imperiused by that wanker, Malfoy," Sirius muttered under his breath.

Even as he did it, a shadow passed over him and he looked up and found himself staring into the eyes of none other than Lucius Malfoy.

Sirius stared up coldly.

Sirius nudged James, who sat beside him, kicking the side of his leg with his own. James looked up, too, his eyes nervously flickering between Lucius and the receptionist witch at her desk and all the other witches and wizards in the waiting room.

"Hello," Lucius Malfoy drawled lowly, his eyes moving from one boy to the other. "Pleasure seeing you both." His upperlip curled slightly. "Imagine my surprise, walking through the hall here, and I look over and spot the two of you sitting, unguarded..."

"What're you doing here, Malfoy?" snapped Sirius.

"Visiting a friend." he breathed.

James said, "Didn't know you had any of those."

Lucius grinned, "Oh. I have many. As you know." His mouth twitched with amusement. "Visiting yor daddy, Potter?"

"Sod off," Sirius said.

"I heard his Dragon Pox have gotten worse," he murmured. "Would be a pity if he died."

James glowered.

"Well. You children stay out of trouble... don't go wandering about the hospital, mind..." Lucius glanced about at the other witches and wizards in the room, then looked back and his eyes met Sirius's very squarely. "You wouldn't want to be caught alone in the halls. You never know what sorts of... dangers... lurk." And he walked away.

"I bloody know plenty," hissed Sirius, "It's you, you great blighter."

James looked at Sirius, "What do you reckon he's here for?"

Sirius muttered, "Probably just to spook us..."

"Surely not. He wouldn't come all the way into downtown London on the off chance of bullying us in a waiting room where he couldn't do anything anyway."