𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 || marauders era

¹⁹⁷¹ the mediator

"TRAITOR IS A better word." Sirius countered, folding his arms over his chest in an attempt to look far more intimidating. Of course, it didn't work. Marlene rolled her eyes at their dramatics which only prompted a scoff from Sirius. "See what I mean." He said, waving his hand about as if it solidified his point.

"I do see what you mean, Sirius. How could you do this to us?" James gasped, picking at his bacon before shovelling it in his mouth.

"I didn't do anything, it's not my fault that you can't stand up for yourself." Marlene shot back, an amused smile on her lips.

"Yeah, you can't stand up to a girl." Sirius snickered to himself, earning a whack to the arm. The boy with the black hair cringed at the contact, gripping the sore spot on his arms.

"Neither can you." She replied, pointedly. "Besides, why does Adelia being a girl suggest that it's worse?" Marlene added watching as the two boys looked between themselves rather panicked. Luckily for them, a yawning Peter arrived beside them. "Morning, Pete."

"Hello." He replied groggily, almost face-planting the food as he climbed over the bench to sit down. The boy looked around the spread of food, reaching for the orange juice and pouring himself a glass before returning to stare into oblivion. He was obviously trying to wake himself up again.

"What do you think, Pettigrew? Is Marlene a traitor for her betrayal? The only answer is yes by the way." Sirius initiated the same conversation again, simply not ready to let go of the fact that his ego had been bruised.

"Are they always this dramatic?" Peter let out a yawn, sipping his drink without a care in the world. He just wanted to go back to bed. Remus had been in and out of bed, tossing and turning, and shivering rather loudly all night that he had barely got any sleep.

"Pete!" Sirius said in disgust. "Peter is a traitor." He told his friend, turning to face the bespectacled boy. "There's no one we can trust." He huffed, earning a soft giggle from James.

"Hey, Potter!" Someone called from another table, causing Marlene to lookup instantly. She knew who it was and didn't want the situation to escalate.

   "Ignore him, James. You know how he plays victim so easily." Marlene reminded him, earning a nod from the boy who was focusing on his food.

"Where's Lupin? Did Dumbledore finally pick up the courage to get rid of the loopy sod?" Snape teased, this time he had back up. They were third and fourth years, Antonin Dolohov and Corbin Yaxley. Both gave the girl the creeps. Especially now as the two boys stared at her with smirks, it wasn't the first time they'd tried to intimidate her.

"Piss off, greasy git." Sirius said, mumbling the last bit which earned snickers off the other three. He hadn't even turned his attention to the Slytherins, just continuing with his breakfast. After all he'd been heckled by them since they arrived for not being in Slytherin like the rest of his family.

"We came to get you, actually. Narcissa needs a word." Antonin spoke up, his arms crossed against his chest. Even though Severus was completely riled up by his comment, the older boys didn't care - showing that they didn't really care for him, he was more of a working project.

And without another word, Sirius was on his feet and following the two older Slytherins. The three looked to at each rather concerned, he talked very little about his family but they all knew how much he didn't like them. Yet, he did everything at their beck and call - probably afraid of making things worse.

"Why are you looking at me like that." Severus sneered at Peter, to which the small boy was equally disgusted at his present.

"It's like stabbing someone and wondering why they're bleeding." Peter retaliated between mouthful of breakfast, waving his waffle around as he spoke. "You do the math, if that's not too difficult for your tiny wizard brain." He fake smiled, sipping his pumpkin juice. That caused Severus to go off in a huff as Marlene and James laughed in shock. They both liked Peter but he wasn't like that around people he didn't know, he must've been so tired.

"Now on the subject of Remus, he never came back from the Matron last night. Should we go check up on him?" James replied, looking between the two of them. The other boy simply shrugged but Marlene was questioning what could be wrong with him.

"Do you think he's got the Hong Kong Flu? I wouldn't be surprised if it was back again." Peter said, scraping the last of his syrup up with waffle.

"What's that?" James asked with a frown, looking towards Marlene for some help. Though he was a very smart lad, his parents had forgotten to raise him with insight to the muggle world. They'd lived in Godric's Hollow which had been an all wizarding town up until recently so it probably slipped their mind. So while James got to play on his new broom, Peter was stuck watching the muggle news with his mother and his sisters. It was rather helpful.

"You know dragon pox," Peter quizzed the two, get immediately nods. "Like that but not that bad. Actually it's not really like that at all. It is contagious though."

"Oh Merlin, Marlene. What if we have Hong Kong Flu!" James panicked in a whispered shout, he'd lost his great Aunt to Dragon pox and he wasn't about to be next.

"If he has it. It came around last year during flu season but it wasn't as bad here as it was compared to Berlin." Peter spoke, giving the bespectacled boy some relief. "They had body's piled up in the underground, quite sad actually."

"Or maybe, just hear me out-" Marlene butted into the conversation before James would get too overwhelmed. "He may just have bad allergies."

"Allergies, yeah. More sensible and would occur frequently like Remus' illness." James added, agreeing with the blonde. That's probably because he'd like to believe the none contagious version over the other.