Rowing (Open) - Black Lake - 10 June

[Willa Robbins]

Things were going well down at the lake - Willa always felt better outside, and with the laughs and splashes she was exchanging with the other girls, the stress of the exam was fading away. There was nothing to do about it now, anyway, and she needed a break before studying for the next - what better way to blow off some steam than enjoying time with friends? The small group of girls weren't the only ones with that idea, though - the grounds were full of little pockets of friends, and one group drawing the eyes of these girls wasn't awfully far away. The "Marauders," or so they liked to call themselves, were just up the ridge. (But, honestly, marauding?! Like the four of them were - what - roaming around the castle at night discovering all of Hogwarts' hidden jewels and claiming them as their own? The Hufflepuff loved that they were so close, but perhaps choosing a nickname that didn't encourage their more - er - rowdy behavior would've been a better call...)

It was too peaceful of a scene to maintain itself, or so James seemed to think. None in the school were a stranger to his voice - how he got it to project so at matches or just on the daily was puzzling to her - and Willa looked up to see him and Sirius heading towards...

Willa's worried eyes flitted over to Lily, not wanting to believe what she was seeing, but the Gryffindor seemed to have frozen. The boys were targeting Severus, as they did more often than not, and Willa felt a familiar frustration tingling within her. The four had just been enjoying themselves - what had spurred this on? Why couldn't they just let differences be differences and let the other be?

You are a Hogwarts prefect - you've got to do something! she thought furiously, although her legs seemed to have locked alongside her bolder friend's, the waves lapping at her bare shins as she watched the scene unfold. But speaking of prefects - Remus seemed to have caught whatever Lily had, freezing in the middle of his book. Why could none of them do anything about this?! It wasn't as if Sirius and James had power over any of them - they were friends, despite these disappointments in character. But the taunting words kept being carried to them on the wind, and she could hardly believe what she was hearing. How they did this for amusement simply baffled her, and things were undeniably escalating. Something clicked within Lily and caused the girl to charge, taking matters into her own hands. Willa watched with apprehension as Lily and James went through an exchange more volatile than normal, until a word was shouted that finally made the Hufflepuff move.

Oh, Lily...

Mumbling an excuse to the other girls, Willa gathered up her and Lily's discarded socks and shoes with the shouting between the Gryffindors filing her ears; as Lily exited, Willa gave the situation as wide a berth as she could as she ran after the other girl. But she was relieved to see Remus standing as she passed him, to hopefully instill some sort of order in this. But he couldn't do this all by himself, there was too much bad blood...

"Lily!" Willa called in vain, bare feet cold on the stone as she searched for her friend. But the castle was large, and she was small, and someone needed to sort out those boys before things got even worse. So after a bit of running around, Willa went home, hoping that she'd find who she needed. Thankfully Kingsley was around, and she did her best to not be too frantic in explaining the situation. But seeing one of her best friends so upset was making that not the easiest of things. She'd find the other girl later, assure her that no matter how bad this was that it would definitely get better, that it had to, that she deserved much more than any of that...

"Kings - we just - we need to get outside, Sirius and James and Severus are at it and - "

It took no more than that for the older Hufflepuff's face to darken with much more than annoyance; his books promptly were put away and they were on their way back, the girl explaining what she'd seen as they went. And it was with much more than disappointment that she looked upon the scene as they returned - because was she foolish to believe one of these aggressors her friend? She didn't know what to think, and it frightened her.

[Deleted]

"Let's go," he said briskly, on his feet and on Willa's tail within moments. Not like he had better things to do than break up fights - not like his N.E.W.T.s were upon him! But he wouldn't have expected these boys to think of anyone outside of themselves, no, no. As they walked - well, the girl beside him nearly jogging to keep up - he was assured by that Remus was stepping up, but didn't want to leave him alone with this for another minute, and quickened his pace. Appointing him as Gryffindor prefect hadn't been a mistake, and Kingsley still had faith in him - but he had to take more action! Sooner than this! Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall saw something within him, something bright that Kingsley had tried to foster this year as well, but although the boy would do his duties...

Those friends of his would be the doom of him.

From Willa's explanation, he understood that Sirius and James had begun the antagonizing of Severus, which was a longtime frustration to the young man. This had been going on for years with interruptions from professors and Heads, and Kingsley was nearly at a loss. Because what more in the name of all that was good could be done to convince these children that petty fighting would never be the answer? Their world was on the cusp of war, and they were wasting everyone's time and energy by disgraceful displays such as these. The taunting had turned to wandwork, and James had been hurt physically, Severus likely scarred emotionally. Lily had intervened and been insulted - he'd have to check in with her after - and after she'd left, the boys had resumed the fight.

Once they were outside, it took little effort to find the action. Students younger and older had flocked to the scene as if it was some spectator sport, as if they were back in the times when this would have counted as one. His jaw clenched, his wand firmly gripped in his hand - Kingsley was done with this. As he edged through the crowd, a head or more taller than most, and the younger Hufflepuff following behind him, he took in the situation.

James Potter with blood down half his face, wand offensive.

Sirius Black with his shirtsleeves rolled up.

Severus Snape hanging with his feet in the air.

Remus Lupin trying to calm the three.

"All of you," he projected once in the eye of the storm, "are to leave and do something productive with your afternoon. O.W.L.'s aren't done yet, and you should have more respect for yourself than to be entertained by the likes of this. Go." Kingsley eyed the crowd, letting his words sink in, as he tried to hold on to some of his cool. The younger students, most chortling as if something funny had happened, gave way, off to gossip, most likely. Once the area had mostly cleared, he turned to James. "Let him down, Potter," he said tiredly. "And not in a way that will make your punishment for this worse, you understand?" Once Severus was back on his feet, he continued. "I'll be giving an account of this to the headmaster. If you have anything to say in your defense I will, of course, hear it, after you've taken some time to cool off. I suggest you go your separate ways for the day, and take time to think on why we keep having these conversations."

He turned an exasperated eye to each before he let his businesslike affect slide. "I know it doesn't seem like it," Kingsley said, "but you're nearly done here. Two more years and pulling stints like this won't land you in detention for a few days. It'll land you a trial. It could land you a cell. Think - that is, if you place any real value on your lives, and what you want to do with them. I'll be in the study hall for a few hours if you have anything to say for yourselves." With that he was off, hoping that this time his words would have some sort of impact.

[Admin]

To think, this day had started out so simply.

Dorcas had woken up early and done her hair to perfection before heading down to her History Of Magic O.W.L...she thought she did better on it than she had ever imagined she could...and then to lunch where she had laughed a bit with Sirius about the colour of the pudding at Gryffindor table...clearly their final exams were getting to them...and then they were all off to their Defense Against the Dark Arts exam and she was doing rather well, well enough to get an 'E' anyway.

She and her housemates had all started to head down to the lake afterwards, and she noted with great joy, James was closely behind them. She had been harbouring feelings for her Quidditch Captain for a couple months now...from just before her birthday actually...and anytime that he was around she would feel more upbeat, ready to spring to action, to prove to him that she could be lively as well. Doe thought that things were progressing well enough with him, and by the way he kept on glancing over at their group she could only assume that he was feeling the same things that she was.

But then everything became twisted.

The Gryfindor gathered along with the rest of the people by the lake to watch as James and Sirius made fun of Snape. She could practically feel Lily raging beside her, and then the redhead was stepping forward and becoming involved...and James was speaking to her in the voice he had used on Doe when they were alone in the Common Room the other night, which shocked her enough before he was asking Lily out on a date.

A weird feeling shot through her stomach and her mouth dropped open just a little bit. She would have had to be blind not to realize that James had some feelings for Lily, but there had been a part of her that hoped...the two of them always argued and she and James were constantly on the same page...

Please say no, please say no, please say no...

Thankfully, he was turned down, but before she could think of what that meant for them, Snape came out of nowhere and shot a curse at James. Doe gasped when she saw the blood and from there it all happened so quickly. James and Lily arguing, Lily storming off...with good reason, Doe had been telling her for years that Snape wasn't a good person and now he had proved it...Remus interrupting his friends who were clearly looking to continue making fun of the Slytherin, Sirius was readying for a muggle fight, and then the Head Boy was coming over in a huff. She was probably one of the only people who remained from the crowd once he had sent them all off. Despite how much James had hurt her today, she needed to heal that cut of his so it wouldn't become infected.

Kingsley left and she rushed over to the boys, "Here, James, let me have a look at that wound," Doe placed a hand on his chin and turned his face to a better angle before letting go and meeting his eyes, "I can heal this if you let me." She didn't have a lot of experience in healing yet, but there were still quite a few things she was able to do if he would hold still for a couple of moments...

[James Potter]

Snape dangling in the air, blood rushing to bring a spot of color to his wretched gray face, stringy hair drooping towards the grass, was the best way for him to be. Only thing that would make it better, really, would be to put a Silencing Charm on him - that way he not only couldn’t physically or magically fight, but he also couldn’t insult anyone else. Insult - no, worse than. It was demeaning, what he’d called his only friend - did he think sh*t like that went unpunished?

Even if they were being - er - interrupted. At Remus’ low words James stiffened, looking over his shoulder to see his mate. Looking livid. Holding his wand. He gave a tense shake of his head and then the git was speaking and he couldn’t just not retort.

"Nah," James drawled with a coolness he wasn’t feeling, glaring up at the snake, "just easier to do the pants bit when I’ve got you like this, simple as that."

Oh, he could do much more than mock. But he couldn’t show the school what a scumbag Snape really was - even beyond his calling Lily a you-know-what - to act like he did after James had saved his sorry hide, for risk of Remus’ secret not being so secret. He’d intervened then because it’d been the right thing to do - hated the Slytherin and he would’ve been mauled or worse, which by any other means wouldn’t matter, but he wasn’t going to let Remus’ condition turn him into something he wasn’t. It was hard enough for the bloke to accept himself as it was, didn’t need to add the qualifier of "murderous" to "werewolf."

Although his werewolf friend was looking a mite murderous currently...James knew, as they all did, that Dumbledore and McGonagall had put Remus in the awkward position of prefect to try and dissuade them from their usuals. Not that Remus hadn’t earned it - prefects were top notch students, like he was - but the ulterior motive was quite obvious. And maybe the professors knew what they were doing, because making Remus mad was worse than any detention they could throw at him.

But he couldn’t just let Snape down, he couldn’t, not after what’d happened. Lily makes it clear that she’s never going to be interested in him, and then the other guy calls her that?! James was by no means calm or thinking clearly, and while Sirius spoke - and the mental picture, soon to be brought to life, of the two of them fist-fighting made him bark out a harsh laugh - he tried to think of a spell that would help him follow through with his threat.

Before he could, though, the hoity-toitiest of all the land was descending upon them. Kingsley Shacklebolt - most recently Head Boy, previously prefect - had been killing whatever fun of theirs he could find for years. But this - this wasn’t fun. This was vengeance, and one of Shacklebolt’s precious prefects had been verbally attacked, and he was after him?! Eyes locked on the Hufflepuff’s, James let his wand-arm fall to his side, and heard the snake topple to the ground. Shacklebolt’s usual drudgery was had - why why why did he keep having to speak with them? Because he couldn’t mind his own damn business, that’s why! Fuming, James rolled his eyes but pocketed his wand.

But the Head Boy was not done. Was. Not. Done. The lecture continued, and James, still filled with anxious energy, fingers drumming a tattoo on his leg, couldn’t believe it. Be put in a cell for defending himself? For fighting a dark wizard in the making? Yeah. Sure.

He’d be given a bloody medal.

So he gave the enforcer of the peace a sarcastic salute before he went on his merry way. Like he was going to go plead his case or something. Really? If it came to it he would talk to Dumbledore or Minnie - not that buffoon. Before James could do more than turn his eye on Snape, though, his chin was being forced away by - Doe?

The whole situation had so quickly turned from one he was in control of to one he decidedly was not, and it was embarrassing, being told off by a fellow student in front of his whole class. And here his pretty little Seeker was, trying to care for him?

She’s just being nice -

"Everything's fine, Doe," he said gruffly. Last thing he needed was to give the Slytherin the satisfaction of knowing how much the cut was making his face throb with each and every pulse. He took a step towards the git, going for his wand. "You heard him, Snivelly. Clear. Out."

[Admin]

No sooner had she offered her help to him, than James was already removing her hands from him, and speaking to her in such an unwelcoming tone...but was it possible that he was just upset because of Kingsley? Or was it maybe because Lily had turned him down?

While that part of the day was still twisting her stomach in a very unpleasant way, the last thing she wanted was for James to have to suffer more today. He looked about ready to kill, despite her knowing he wasn't capable of something that severe. He gave Snape a harsh word or two, but quite honestly, Doe was finding it hard to focus on anything more that was happening between the two rivals. An idiot could see that the Slytherin had had feelings for her dormmate...the level of intensity in those feelings was something she was unsure of, but something was clearly there on his side.

Yet, James feeling what he was feeling for Lily was brand new information to her. Yes, there had been a few moments when she had thought he might be harbouring something for the other girl, outside of a constant need to prove her wrong during their arguments, but in the past couple of months...well she supposed that the feelings she had gained for her Quidditch Captain had blinded her judgement. Now, he was turning away the help she was trying to give him.

Leave him be if he doesn't want your help Dorcas!

Slowly, she backed away from him, "Right...I'll just," She tried meeting his eyes, but was unsure if he even noticed her, or heard her speaking at all, "...go then." There was truly nothing left to say on the matter. Dorcas pushed her hair out of her face and ignored the feelings raging within her, and went back to where they had been sitting by the lake, before everything had turned upside down, to collect her book bag.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus could barely feel himself standing there, shaking in anger. And he didn't know who he was the most upset with at this point. He was upset with Severus, he hadn't needed to lash out like that. But James and Sirius could have left him alone. Hadn't Sirius done enough damage when it came to Severus at this point? Hadn't James earned enough scars to simply let it go? And then for Lily to get involved, for Severus to even dare use that word towards her. He was livid, his eyes locked on the Slytherin.

It had just been a simply spell, he hadn't immediately tried to harm James and Sirius. But if he'd just let it go, it wouldn't have gone this far. Severus had continued to rile them up, even after Lily had stormed off. And Sirius, well Sirius hadn't listened to Remus at all, instead approaching him with his sleeves pushed up. This was going to get bad and quick, and Remus was a prefect. It was his job to do something about this, wasn't it? But how could he leave his personal feelings aside in this situation, he was too involved to make a good judgement call on what to do next.

Willa had gone running off after Lily, and Remus could hear Daisy's concerned voice behind him where Peter still was. All of the younger students that were outside were watching what was unfolding, and it needed to get under control quick. But the familiar voice of the Head Boy caught his attention, his murderous gaze changing into a blank expression as he looked at Kingsley. He quickly got the crowd to leave, the only ones still hanging around were the ones that were close to the people involved in the conflict.

Kingsley's words were sharp, and Remus felt guilty for not doing something sooner. "Kingsley, this got out of hand. But this isn't James or Sirius fault, Severus drew his wand first. And he used a spell to physically hurt James. My friends...didn't take it that far." He knew it was going to sound like he was just trying to defend them, and in a way he was. But Severus - he couldn't be trusted. "Severus also insulted Lily Evans, he called her..." He couldn't say it, so he simply shook his head.

The rest of Kingsley's words were valid, although unneeded. James and Sirius weren't the kind of people who were going to needlessly attack the innocent. Severus was a special case, he always had been. Everyone knew Severus was fascinated with the Dark Arts, in a way that was uncomfortable. But now was not the time for that.

Kingsley left, and in the moments after Doe was running over to try and help James. He brushed her off, a situation that was confusing to say the least. If Doe could help, why not let her? "James, you need to let her. Or go to the hospital wing. You don't need any more scars because of Severus."

[Deleted]

Severus was pissed. He was pissed at himself because he knew he shouldn’t have said that to her. About her. But then he was also pissed at everyone else because he wouldn’t be in this situation of they’d left well enough alone. Left him alone. But they hadn’t left him alone and now look at where they were. Look at what this group had gotten them all in to just because they thought it was fun to torment people.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, the ‘Head Boy’ for the year, was cutting in. Looking like some sort of savior for the whole thing, as if they really needed one. He really didn’t need help, he could have handled it on his own if given half a chance. He didn’t need a wand to teach James Potter a lesson.

As much as he wanted to give them a reason to realize they shouldn’t mess with him, he couldn’t very well risk it right now. So when he was finally let down, when the whole thing was finally over, he did he only thing he could think of doing. He stormed off. He had his wand and his books, he had tests to study for, and he was not about to risk his exams because of this lot. Not that he wanted to look like James Potter was intimidating him, but he really did have more important things to concern himself with.

[Peter Pettigrew]

Wormtail wanted to say something nasty to Sirius, something so rude it would make even the devil-may-care boy flush. Alas, all of his insults were below par and most of them he had stolen from Sirius himself. So instead he simply glared and mumbled. “I don’t wet myself Padfoot, or wiz on trees like some people we know.” He didn’t have too long to stew on his friend’s comment however. He was soon delightfully distracted by one Snivillus. He stood with his friends and a smile lite his face as Snape drew his wand; oh this would be fun. 

Peter was so caught up in this best mates antics that he barely noticed his beloved coming up beside him until she was clutching at his robes. He wrapped an arm around her and sent his gleeful smile her way. “I’m not doing anything but watching.” He corrected her quietly, his eyes cut to the action still happening before him. It was always fun when James and Sirius took the mickey out of Snape. Way more entertaining than watching James catch a snitch. The mousy boy laughed outright as Snape swung at the air, threatening Jame sand Sirius. As if he could do anything harmful hanging around up-side down. Glancing back at Remus his laugh died a little; Moony looked, well, mad. Angry even. Suddenly Peter felt like a very naughty boy and he wasn’t sure why exactly.

He needn’t feel like that long. Everything was happening and dispersing quickly. Lily was there, her red hair bright in the sun and her face a hard mask. Though it did twitch when Snape’s underpants were put on display; Peter himself was roaring with laughter. And then Snape had cut James, actually cut him, with blood and all. Then, unexpectedly, the snake had said the most awful thing. Peter’s face went from unrivaled joy, to disbelief, to disgusted; he held on to Daisy a little tighter. Inside he was hoping James would do a lot worse than make the Slytherin spit bubbles. He deserved much worst for that insult. And on Lily, whom Peter was sure the slime ball was obsessively in love with.

And Lily! Fierce as ever! Gave as good as she got. Peter found himself laughing again. “I don’t think he knows how to wash anything!” he said to no one in particular, staring off after Evans proudly. Yea, she had turned James down, but she had done that a million times; that did not take away from her awesome come back. Besides wasn’t James seeing Dorcas? Peter could barely keep up. “Ah oh. Head boy.” Peter warned Daisy, tugging her along as he stood behind his friends. Solidarity and all. Though he didn’t say anything, that really wasn’t his strong suit, he was better at moral support. Which he had in spades. Turns out his mates didn’t need it, they had gotten off with a warning and Snape had gotten away. Great. Now what was he going to do for fun. Mischievously his eyes turned to Daisy and wiggled his brows at her. "What are you up to today? No exams so must be up to something interesting. Or someone. "

[Deleted]

Sirius was ready to fight Snape just like a muggle would - he'd show him how valuable he was without a wand in his hand. His eyes shot around the crowd as he prepared himself for a fight with Snivellus and he dazedly saw Willa running into the castle for whatever reason, but he didn't have long to think on it before she was coming back outside trailed by Kingsley f*cking Shacklebolt - Head Boy. He was a pain in their necks for many reasons, but this was sure to be one of the times that would go down in history as the most irritating exchange of conversation the Marauders ever had the displeasure of experiencing. He sighed and looked up at the taller bloke, and stepped back from the heap of trash that James had just let fall to the ground.

A quick exchange of eyebrows with James and Peter and Remus said exactly what he was thinking - Like to see him try to keep us apart after this. For whatever reason, they were usually the ones who got the blame for this stuff, even though Snape gave back as much as he got. Sirius had deflected curse after curse from the git, and that was just trying to walk to classes on a Wednesday afternoon. Shacklebolt darted off back into the school and Sirius turned to his mates, too pissedoff to laugh when James saluted after him. "Always our bloody fault, isn't it? Forget that the git is prejudice all on his own-"

He let James and Doe talk - well more let his best mate brush her off - before letting Remus worry about the well being of their group. In the distance Willa was waving him over and she looked upset. The two of them were just mates, and he was really needing someone to be on their side about this. "I'll catch with you guys later."

[Daisy Hookum]

She had seen Willa leaving as she arrived, but she hardly thought much of it once Peter had his arm around her. Surely Willa was going after Lily, or going to get help. And while Peter assured her he was just watching, she shot him a glare. Watching his friends be cruel to another student really wasn't much better, at least in her opinion. And an uncalled comment, which caused Daisy to stare at the ground. She knew the boys had a thing against Severus, that had been pretty clear in the last two years she had gotten to know them. Especially last year, when two of them had been at odds with each other over it.

Kinglesy was quick to arrive though, and Peter was dragging her along with him to stand behind his friends. Kingsley was giving them all a talking to, with Remus also trying to add some comments in. She did have to trust Remus that the guys hadn't started it, and it was clear to see that James had been hurt. But the Head Boy was off before long, the younger students that had been watching clearing out. She ignored the exchange between James and Dorcas, turning to Peter as he spoke to her. She was familiar with his teasing, and it would have been simple enough to join in. Instead, she detached herself from him and took a step back. "Peter!" She shook her head, exhausted from watching everything unfold. But getting upset with him wouldn't do any good, knowing what had happened. "You have more O.W.L.s to study for, don't you? Let's go work on that and then perhaps we can do something fun." Without waiting for a response, she spun on her heel and headed back towards the castle.

[James Potter]

At the moment, James was too amped up to feel particularly guilty about talking to Doe how he had, running her off like that. He was sure that it would hit later, and he'd be able to swallow a bit of pride to apologize and let her help him out, but this fight wasn't one he could cool down from immediately. He got a bit of satisfaction watching Snivelly back off at his word, but that wasn't enough to bring this to an end. Because now Remus was ragging on him while Sirius muttered about Snape, Paddy leaving their group after a few moments. James winced, applying pressure to the cut with his sleeve, and nodded at Remus, knowing his underlying meaning. Would you stop feeling guilty about that? "I'll take care of it later, all right?" The boy huffed a loud sigh, taking a look around. Most of their audience had dispersed after the Head Boy's arrival, Peter and Daisy were nearly canoodling again, and...James just needed to not be there.

"I'll see you later," he said briskly to Mooney, and was off to grab his bag, shortly en route to the pitch to blow off steam. What he really wanted to do was check in with Evans, but James knew that would only turn into a fight at this point. Even though he'd been in the right, even though he'd helped her finally see the truth of the scum she'd been letting hang out with her all these years. Damn frustrating, to say the least, and beyond that his parents weren't going to be pleased at hearing about this - a fight so close to the end of school, during important exams...he was in for it. From so many directions.

But you don't regret it, do you?

    Not at all.