The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

Snivellus's Pants

Snivellus's Pants

It had started that morning in the Slytherin common room.

Regulus Black had fallen asleep on the couch after sneaking down to the common room in the middle of the night. He'd had a terrible nightmare. He had crawled under a blanket on the couch and sat flipping through the pages of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, looking at the illustrations as they moved about the pages. It had been calming, watching the fluttering of the occamy feathers and the waggling tail of the crups, and Regulus fell asleep in no time at all, curled up in a ball beneath the green duvet he'd dragged down beside the dying embers in the hearth.

He was smallish for a fourteen year old, and he was slouched down low, and the duvet was exactly the same shade as the fabric of the couch... all factors in why Mulciber, Avery, and McNair had not noticed Regulus Black there when they came down the stairs.

"...quite ridiculous, really, the way he mopes about after that ginger haired little bitch, as though she's worth taking two looks at," Mulciber's voice was rough and sharp and Regulus stirred, opening his eyes, blinking out from beneath the duvet. "Wouldn't have even noticed her at all if it hadn't been for his fascination with her. Tried to give him a treat and what's he do but waste it? He's ingrateful of my efforts, that's what he is... So I've decided, gentlemen, to have her for myself. Just to piss Severus Snape off. Thinks he's so big with the Dark Lord, then let him have his talk... and I'll just fuck his girl."

Mulciber's weight made the couch creak as he sat on the back edge of the arm, grinning.

Regulus stayed very still.

"Today. After the O.W.L.s, I think we'll have our own little... celebration party... what do you lot say?" Mulciber chuckled.

Amycus Carrow's recognizable snicker echoed about the room.

"Meet me in the entrance hall after the exams, we'll follow the little mudblood and invite her along," Mulciber said. There was a pause and upstairs the dormitory doors creaked. "Snape." Mulciber's voice was low, "Shut up about it. No telling what ickle Sevvy-kins will do if he finds out we're planning to take his prize." And Mulciber stood up, the couch creaking again, and the group of them dispersed quickly, leaving Regulus Black to lie, wide eyed and shivering beneath his blanket..

It was after breakfast, when Severus was just leaving the common room, headed to the Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. after having changed into his uniform in his dorm, that Regulus Black caught him by the robes. It took no words, nothing spoken out loud. Regulus stared up into Severus Snape's face and he opened his mind, putting the news of what they'd said before him.

Severus's face was unreadable.

And then he turned and hurried away down the corridor, leaving Regulus behind.

Defense Against the Dark Arts ought to have been Severus Snape's best O.W.L. of them all. But he sat in the Great Hall stealing glances at Lily Evans through the thick curtain of hair that hung from his head over his desk, spilling onto his parchment. He felt sick and queasy in the stomach... a feeling only compounded when he saw Mulciber was stealing glances at her, too, and the images running through Mulciber's mind were terrible... terrible images that made Severus Snape's fingers tighten 'round the edges of his desk in anger. He was so distracted by the horrible thoughts he was seeing that he managed to mess up several easy questions.

He jumped up the moment Flitwick had dismissed them, jumped up and hurriedly packed up his stuff, shoving it roughly into his bag. Lily Evans had not spoken even a single word to him since the incident in the hall - and for that reason, he felt he could not simply go up and tell her what was going on. Instead, he had to watch her, to protect her silently - a vigilante. He swept along behind her, stealth and unnoticed in the crowd, silent and graceful as a bat, sneaking quietly past the Marauders and into the entrance hall, where he saw Mulciber, Avery, McNair, Carrow, and a couple other Slytherin boys snickering, glancing toward the gaggle of girls as they stepped out of the Great Hall together , chatting far too intensely to notice that one among them was being watched...