The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

Finally Coming in Handy

Finally Coming in Handy

James sat on his bed playing with the new snitch from the locker rooms. Sirius was laying on the next bed, his palm splayed over his chest, staring at the ceiling as James snatched the snitch from the air and held it in his fist. The little silver wings flapped wildly and he turned it over, looking at the pattern etched into the gold. James sighed and sank into the pillows, letting the snitch go and watching it buzz about above his head, zipping left and right, trying to decide which way it wanted to go to get away. He rolled his neck so he was looking over at Sirius. "Padfoot?"

When Sirius didn't reply, James rolled onto his stomach so he was facing Sirius and let his arms hang over the side of the bed. He stared across the gap between beds, and said, "Are you lot planning something stellar for my birthday?" he smirked, "To make up for landing me in detention for it?"

Sirius didn't respond.

"Padfoot."

Still no answer.

"I was thinking," James said, "April is coming. April Fool's Day." He grinned, "Remember you said you had an excellent prank you'd been meaning to tell me about for it? We ought to begin planning, don't you think? Want to work on that now?"

Sirius looked over at James.

"I'll get the Map and some parchment, and..."

Sirius shook his head, "Not right now, Prongs."

At least he'd said something. James counted it as a triumph.

"Alright," he said, "But soon, yeah?"

Sirius nodded and closed his eyes.

Next morning, at breakfast, Sirius was pushing about his eggs with his toast when a letter plopped onto his plate, dropped by Adolf, the Black family owl. He stared at the tight script on the front of the envelope, his jaw tightening. James was turned, talking to Frank Longbottom and Remus was carefully watching his food, avoiding Sirius as much as Sirius was avoiding him. Peter was the only one that noticed. He looked from the letter up to Sirius's face. "Ooh, unlucky it landed on your breakfast, mate," he said.

Sirius reached for the letter and shook off the catsup that had stuck to it. "I wasn't hungry anymore anyway," he murmured, and he wiped the envelope with his napkin.

Suddenly Lily reached over and took the envelope away. "No," she said, and she shredded the envelope up into tiny confetti bits, letting it rain down over a bowl of congealing oatmeal, which she then stirred it into and pushed aside, effectively completely destroying the letter. She looked at Sirius, "She's not allowed to hurt you anymore." Her words were firm.

Remus's eyes rolled up to peek across the table, then back down to his plate.

"Who isn't?" squeaked Peter.

Sirius got up without a word and walked out, which was what got James's attention. He whirled around, "Sirius?" but Sirius was already gone. He looked at Lily. "What'd you do to him, Evans?"

"I didn't do anything," she said.

James sighed and grabbed his bacon from his plate, and he got up, pulling his bookbag with him... "He say where he was going?"

Peter said, "He got a letter and Lily ripped it up and he left."

James turned to Frank and Ali, "See you lot on the pitch," and back to the others, "And you in class..." he turned away from the table and hurried out of the Great Hall. He was on the stone staircase, nearly to the second floor when Lily caught up to him. "What're you doing?" he asked.