The Marauders: Year Six #Wattys2017

A Second Thought

A Second Thought

As the sun was setting, the boys were sitting about in the Shrieking Shack, talking and keeping Remus company. Sirius was doing most of the talking, though, and James sat picking at a sandwich. Sirius was on about Mia Black again. "I mean, something had to have happened to all the photos of her, yeah?" he said, "Somebody must have magicked them away. There's no way that this girl just happened to miss getting her photo taken for seven years." He had one of the year books opened on his lap. "And so far I haven't found her in the candid photo either. I started over from their Year One with all the bloody house photos before me and tried identifying each person in every photo of the book. So far, I haven't found a single one that doesn't match one of the photos in the house photos." He sighed. "I'm hoping they forgot to magic away one of the photos, but I haven't found one yet."

Remus said, "If only you put this much dedication into your homework."

"I know," Sirius laughed. "I'd be smart as you, then!"

"Smarter with this much energy spent," Remus murmured. He closed his eyes a moment as a whiff of the roast they were eating caught his nose and turned his stomach a bit. Sirius caught it and closed up his box and pushed his dinner away, not wanting to make Remus sick. "Don't, you need to eat," Remus said.

"I've had enough," Sirius lied.

James closed his box, too, and put his and Sirius's both up on the desk across the room from Remus. Peter was still hungrily stuffing his mouth.

"You're awfully quiet, James," Remus said. "Are you alright?"

"Oh don't mind James, he's pissed at me right at the moment," Sirius said with a knowing smirk.

"Pissed at you?" Remus looked from Sirius to James, "What for?"

James rolled his eyes. "I'm not pissed at you."

"Sure you are, don't be lying now!" Sirius snickered, and turned to Remus. "He's just chapped because I went and told Evans we'd go to the Three Broomsticks with her for a butterbeer tomorrow."

James said, "After I said I didn't want to and he knew it."

"You never said it," Sirius said, "You just said you had to find out what I wanted to do. And I want to have butterbeer with Evans."

"You want to instigate rubbish is what you want," James replied, rolling his eyes.

Remus said, "What's going on with you and her anyway, you've been sort of mean to her lately."

James shrugged, "I reckon we're having a row, her and I."

"She probably has no idea about this imagined row," Sirius plucked a feather from the pillow that was stuck to Remus's head and flicked it away.

"Oh she knows about it," James assured him. "You heard her asking me if I was cross. If she used her pretty little head and thought on it, she'd know why."

"So you lied? You are cross?" Peter asked, confused, "Why didn't you just tell her you were cross?" He reached into the bag he had brought along and produced a licorice wand for Sirius, which Sirius welcomed with an eager face. He also tossed Remus a chocolate fudge bar. Peter also offered one out to James, but he shook his head.

"He didn't say it because he's a git," Sirius replied for James. "And you're just as bad as her, playing this game, Potter you Rotter," he added, wagging the sweet at James as he spoke.

James said, "I'm not. I'm just sick of being used and laughed at... I'm not out to be somebody's replacement Odair. And I feel like maybe that's what was going on. I think maybe she regretted breaking off with him - which Merlin knows why she did it - and she found me, an idiot desperate enough to let her go on snogging me in his place all while being kept a dirty little secret."