Daylight Robbery

“Stand and deliver!” Sirius shouted, shoving the barrel of his pistol in through the open window of the carriage. No matter how many times he had said the words, and he had said them a lot, it always brought him a sense of joy. The dramatics of it all, the flair. It was like he was playing a part, that of the dashing highwayman, saying a line he had practiced time and time again.

Of course, this wasn’t a part. The dashing part was quite true, he could admit that, and he had practiced those words many times before the first time he had ever uttered them. It wasn’t a pretence though. Sirius Orion Black was a highwayman.

Currently, he and his gang were committing their second robbery of the week. It hadn’t been planned, they hadn’t lie in wait for a passing carriage to come down the long and often empty street, not like they usually would. This one had come as a surprise. They had all been settled in for the evening, preparing for a well-deserved rest after a long day of gambling and drinking, the usual affairs of the day, when Pettigrew had ran shouting towards them, screeching about carriages.

It hadn’t taken long for them to understand that a set of three carriages were slowly making their way down the quickly darkening road, the inhabitants of such carriages clearly stupid, to be travelling so late in the evening, and hopefully very rich. They had gathered, split themselves into groups, and prepared themselves further down the road, ready to stop them in their tracks. It helped, having horses that were unencumbered by large carriages, luggage, and people, and they were all able to get into their regular positions relatively fast, considering how little time for preparation they had. Their horses were tied up a little ways away, far enough to be out of the way of any potential danger, but close enough for a fast escape if needed.

The sky was fading from a clear blue to a burnt orange, the setting sun making the perfect backdrop. Pounding horse shoes could be heard from up ahead, as well as the rattle of wheels making their way through dirt roads. Closer and closer they had gotten, the anticipation from the group tangible in the air. Sirius enjoyed this, the thrill of it all. To his left Severus crouched, looking utterly bored at the situation, like he would rather be doing anything else than this right now. That seemed about right for him. He looked across the road further down at the others, hidden by the trees and the underbrush. James had hidden himself behind a tree, and so he couldn’t see his reaction to anything. In fact, he couldn’t even remember what tree James was by, he was so well concealed. Barty returned his grin, and Dorcas and Marlene were always much too engrossed in each other to take much note of what the rest of them were doing. Sirius was just grateful they could tear themselves away from each other long enough to concentrate on the job when he needed them to.

He saw them not much later, the dark brown wood of the carriages blended well with the dimly lit area.

Sirius tensed at the sight, preparing himself for the attack.

One more minute.

Forty seconds.

Thirty.

The first carriage was just passing Barty, Marlene and Dorcas.

Twenty.

The first carriage was just passing by James.

Ten.

The first carriage was just coming up to him and Severus.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

They all leapt from their places, each well practiced in what they had to do.

Severus pointed his gun at the driver of the first carriage, who instantly pulled up on the reins, narrowly missing hitting the man aiming for him. Severus didn’t falter, keeping his eyes solely on the driver.

The other carriages, now held up by a similar situation also stopped, and Sirius was able to proceed.

“Stand and deliver!”

The barrel of the gun through the window.

“Your money or your life,” he finished, following his gun to peer into the window.

Inside of the leather seated carriage sat two people, a man and a woman. They both appeared calm despite the situation.

The man was young, about his own age, and quite tall, his head very nearly touching the top of the carriage, forcing him to have to hunch down slightly to fit. Dark brown curls framed his face, equally as dark eyes stared back at Sirius. Small scars peppered his lightly tanned skin, some large and some small. They didn’t detract from the fact that the man had a beautiful face, soft and welcoming. Not right now though, currently his face was very hard and quite unwelcoming honestly.

The woman, his wife perhaps, was slight, and also quite pretty. She had long hair so blonde it was almost white, and though it was hard to tell from this angle, in this lighting, he thought her eyes were probably blue. She didn’t interest him nearly as much as the scarred man did however.

“Is this really necessary?” The man asked, his face betraying not even a flicker of emotion.

Sirius wanted to laugh in response. It was rare that someone said anything to him in the face of his pistol. Mostly he got lots of ‘yeses’ and ‘right aways’. Never had someone asked him a question before.

“Do you value your life?” Sirius replied, levelling the gun at the man this time, lest he decide to give him more trouble.

“I suppose.”

He supposed?

At this Sirius did laugh, surprising himself.

He could hear noises from the other carriages, and though he didn’t look over, not wanting to look away from the man for even a second, he was assured by the lack of screams and shouts of pain that things appeared to be going well for his friends too.

“Do you suppose that I will kill you, if you do not hand over your money and any jewellery on your persons?” Sirius asked, growing impatient. One of his biggest rules was to not spend too long on a robbery. The longer it lasted, the less control they had. Whilst it was unlikely anyone would come down this road any time soon, it wasn’t worth the risk.

The man did not reply, and Sirius found that wanted him to, to reply to him.

“Did no one tell you should not travel so close to dark? There are dangerous characters about this late,” he told him, and though it couldn’t be seen underneath the cloth masks they all wore around their noses and mouths, he smiled anyway.

“And you are one of them?” The man’s face didn’t change, but Sirius could have sworn that perhaps the man was teasing him a little.

“So I have been told,” Sirius considered the man's accent, trying and failing to place it. He hadn’t been many places recently, and except for those of his friends, and the patrons at various drinking establishments, he didn’t meet many new people. Not anymore. “They do not have highwayman in.. where exactly are you from?”

The man appeared exasperated at the question, like the question, more than the robbery, was an inconvenience to him.

“Scotland,” he replied, and didn’t say anything more on.

Sirius’s smile widened under his mask. Scottish, that was it.

The woman gave a small gasp, as Severus came to her window. Sirius trusted that the driver had been dealt with already. The lack of a shot was a good sign that no one had been injured during the process.

He had been so wrapped up in his conversation with the Scottish man, that he had quite forgotten she was there too. There was no need to change his focus to her however, as he knew Severus was capable enough.

“Your ring, sir. And any coins you might have too. If you would be so obliged,” Sirius told the man, getting back to the matter at hand.

The man twisted the ring from his index finger, and dropped it into Sirius’s waiting hand. Sirius promptly pocketed it, choosing to check it later on, not wanting another dropped jewellery incident. The last time Barty had stolen jewellery, he had taken five rings from a woman partial to wearing all her jewellery on her person, and had dropped them all instantly. Instead of the swift getaway they had hoped for, they had had to hold the woman’s carriage up for an extra fifteen minutes, whilst they searched the dark ground for the misplaced rings. Never again had Barty been allowed to be the one to take jewellery of any kind from anyone, and a new rule of instantly storing any gains away the second they were received was instated.

Reaching into the pockets of his coat, the man pulled out a small pouch containing a hefty amount of coins, and shoved that too into Sirius’s hand, quite forcefully one might add.

Nearby he could hear the sound of running, and knew that his companions must be finishing with their targets. He looked through the carriage windows at Severus at the other side and nodded once. Time for them to go.

“Well, it had certainly been a pleasure meeting you, Mr..,” Sirius waited for the man to fill in the gap in his knowledge, and was met with a hard glare in return. Of course.

“Goodbye, Sir Nameless,” Sirius said, winked at the man, and without stopping another beat, turned and ran into the thicket of trees that surrounded them, following after his gang.

The Marauders.
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Back at their camp, they all sat by the dying light of the fire, quietly recounting the encounter to each other. It was much too late to survey their wares now, everyone much too tired, and the dying light not enough to see by. If the jangle of his pockets were anything to go by though, the group would be able to afford a night or two with a proper bed and a proper meal tomorrow. That was if they didn’t gamble away their share before nightfall however.

Sirius sat peacefully, listening to snippets of conversation.

Dorcas and Marlene were huddled into each others arms for warmth, discussing the beauty of a red-haired girl and a mixed-race girl in the carriage they had. Barty and James were both reporting their experiences with rapidly louder expressions, of the blonde man that had shared a carriage with the two women Barty had helped hold up, and of a raven-haired man who had been alone in the middle carriage that James had seen to. Sirius couldn’t tell who was more enamoured.

Severus and Peter sat in silence, Peter observing everyone else, whilst Severus pretended to sleep. Sirius knew he was pretending, due to the lack of snores from his direction. Sharing a forest floor with these people kept one in tune with their sleeping habits, and Sirius was a light sleeper.

As the chatter died down, and the moon hung high in the sky, Sirius thought about the man in the carriage. He fiddled inside he pocket with the ring, slipping it carefully onto his own ring finger where it fit perfectly.

It was quite a shame, he thought, that he would never see those eyes again.