Lunch by the Great Lake
“Just tell me what was in the letter.” Sirius was slowly getting on the boys’ nerves.
The Marauders had taken to picnicking outside while the weather was still bearable. A soft breeze covered the Black lake, small ripples cutting across the surface. Remus was teaching Peter a muggle card game, while James and Sirius watched.
“Have you considered the possibility that the contents of that letter were private? Besides, the translation was a bit shoddy.” James huffed, shifting his position on the ground as he avoided Sirius’ glare.
Just as Sirius was about to respond, his eye caught two figures walking out of the forested area that partially surrounded the lake. Speak of the devil and he doth appear. Sirius glowered as Snape grabbed the other boy by the forearm and quickly headed towards the water, pointing at something lapping against the shore. Sirius took a moment to think, from this far, a hex was unlikely to hit.
“Maybe I’ll go ask him myself.” Sirius stalked off without looking back at the Marauder’s beckoning call.
Snape and the Durmstrang boy were crouched down on the shoreline, their backs turned to Sirius and from what he could see, their entire right and left sides were pressed against each other. Why are they always on top of each other? He almost hexed them in disgust, speeding up slightly.
He was a few feet away now, and the boys didn’t even notice, lost in their own little world. Sirius picked up a handful of pebbled rock, making sure he grabbed a few larger stones, and hurled it at his unsuspecting victims.
Snape whirled around, wand in hand. He had a small flask filled with clear liquid in the other. The Durmstrang boy glanced back at the intrusion before shaking his head and muttering under his breath, also standing up to confront Sirius’ nuisance. He was holding his own jar of liquid.
“Is there something that you need, Black?”
“Well, Snivellus, since you so kindly asked, I was only concerned: shouldn’t you be wearing some sort of preventative gear before handling large bodies of water? I don’t think the merpeople would appreciate an oil spill right now.”
Snape shot him a withering look. “Always one to concern yourself over others, is it? I'd advise you to focus less on me and more on finding a way to strengthen your slack grip on the remaining bits of sanity you have left.” A snort. “Find something funny?” Sirius looked up at the Durmstrang boy.
“You are funny.” Sirius wanted to wipe the amused smirk off his face so badly.
“What’s funny are the letters you’re writing about dear old Snivellus!” Sirius was bluffing, since James never confirmed it was about Snape, but the other boy didn’t need to know that. And he was none-the-wiser, because at Sirius’ response, the boy straightened up to his full height. “You read my letter?” Accent laying on thick as he processed his anger. So it was about Snivellus!
The Durmstrang boy stepped forward and looked down at Sirius, he cracked his knuckles and rode up his uniform sleeves in lieu of reaching for his wand; Sirius looked back, the boys were still sitting at the clearing, he really didn’t think this entire plan through. Thrill soon rose to panic and he began to sweat. He took a few steps back, lake water flooding his shoes and creeping up his pant leg.
Before Sirius could figure a way out of being beaten within an inch of his life, he felt intense pain shoot up his leg. He looked down to see a small water sprigglet had bitten him, tiny webbed feet latching onto the fabric and the normally camouflaged scales of the amphibian shimmering vividly.
“Get the fuck off me!” Sirius shook his leg out into the water. He tried to physically pry the animal off with his wand, but the sharp-toothed creature wouldn’t budge. He was quickly becoming lightheaded.
“Somnolence.”
The sprigglet fell from his pant leg and into a deep sleep, Sirius watched as Snape walked up to the animal and kicked it back into the water.
The rest of the Marauder’s had been nice enough to show up sometime in between the entire humiliating ordeal. Snape turned to Remus, “He must be taken to Madame Pomfrey,”
“The sprigglet bite, it’s highly venomous.” was all Sirius heard before blacking out.