Betrayal Of Promises
I think I should give up the ghost (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
Payback will take shape in the form of itching powder. They’ve set it all up throughout the week, perfected all the details to perfection. All but one. “What are you doing here?” James freezes with his cloak in hand and a definitely entirely guilty look on his face at the sight of Ursa already inside their room, sitting on Sirius’ bed, the one that barely gets any use anymore
“What were you doing?”
“I… We… Us…” James has never been a good liar and he probably never will be
“What were you doing?!” Sirius counters, shoving past James and slamming the door shut “This is our room, you can’t just walk in whenever you please”
“How did you get past our wards?”
“Child’s play really”
“What? No, they’re not. It’s magic advanced beyond newt-level, Fleamont taught us how to do them”
“And he’s never had to really hide anything. Honestly Siri, I’m a bit disappointed, you should know Reggie and I used to play who could get into more restricted sections at parties, but then again you were usually too busy causing a scandal, you should see the places he got us into. But the question still stands. What were you four morons doing?”
“None of your business”
“Say that to Jamie’s face. Now I’m only gonna ask one. more. time.” she bops James nose with a cheery face that doesn’t match the threat in her words “What were you idiots doing?”
“He has a date with Regulus, What do you think he should wear?” Peter squirms and she smiles at him
“Really? you think I’d fall for that? Also, definitely not that”
The door swings open with a casualness that has Peter glancing around to be sure all the marauders are present, they are “You're late" Regulus growls at James "Great. You’re all here.” he grumbles and leaves the door open behind him “Go away” he slides his hands behind James’ neck and pushes him onto the bed. He seems to forget he was even holding the cloak, too focused on holding Regulus instead.
“This is our room. Why don’t you go to yours?”
“And preferably not do that” Sirius flaps his hands between their mouth to stop them from meeting again
“Can’t” Regulus grumbles against Sirius’ hand “As much as I’d rather not have to see your ugly face, Barty refuses to leave our dorm, he’s been insufferable. Thank you so much for that” he says the last bit to his twin
“You’re welcome” she winks at him, smug
“You’re welcome for what?” The furrow of confusion between James’ brows is adorable and Regulus wants to kiss it. What has James Potter reduced him to?
“She vanished his cock” he says with a wicked grin
“She what?!” he jumps back and shields his crotch on instinct
“He annoyed me” she shrugs
"Not arguing that he didn't have it coming" Regulus grants
“Wait! Your bruises… Barty was the one that—”
“Of course not” she rolls her eyes and Sirius eyes harden
“So it was Snape”
“Snape?” Regulus sits up straight like a spring
“What did you do to Snape?” Ursa grinds and Peter reevaluates their odds of survival, they’re slim
“It was him” he takes Ursa’s question as confirmation “He deserved it.”
“I guess Dorcas was right, vanishing someone’s bits is far worse than anything we could come up with”
“Deserved what?” Ursa asks through clenched teeth and Peter hides behind his friends just in case, he doesn’t want to be in the path of her rage.
“Nothing” they squeak in a definite something way.
“Stonzi! Tutti voi!” Idiots! All of you!
“So… it wasn’t Snape?”
“No, you brain-dead moron!”
“Dorcas said he wouldn’t leave you alone! We were trying to help you!”
“Can’t you see that every time you try to help me you make things worse?” she rubs her temples “Oh, I should kill you”
“It was an honest mistake, we had good intentions in mind” James tells her
“The honest mistake was your birth”
“Okay, he made a mistake, but there’s no need to be so harsh” Remus takes a step towards her in their defense and she rolls her eyes at him.
“Oh trust me, I could be much harsher”
“¿Cómo haciendoles entender lo que realmente acaban de hacer?” Like by letting them understand what they just really do? Regulus mutters and she silences him with a look
“Why was Snivellous chasing after you?”
“Do you honestly think he’s the only one? I’m gorgeous and as far as people know until recently I was single for the first time since I hit puberty” and he’d finally stopped chasing her. Something that would soon start again thanks to them.
“Not to mention humble”
“If that’s the reason he chased you then it should’ve stop once you're dating Peter, right?” Remus studies her, sensing the lie in the air. None of the boys know about snivellus' crush on Lily better than he does
“It did. But he’s my potions tutor and after your little stunt I don’t think he will anymore. I’ll have to actually study reading books like a commoner”
“I can tutor you” James offers
“Salazar, I want to hurt you” she takes a deep breath like making a physical effort not to cause them genuine pain “Your hair looks flat by the way” her eyes narrow on her brothers and she stalks out of the room with a loud bang
“That went great” Peter sighs
“At least we all still have our cocks” James reminds them before taking a little peek but sure enough, it’s still there
“For now” Sirius shivers
"Good. Now that that's settled, go away" he slides his hands back around James' neck and down his middle
"What did you say to her?"
“Not to vanish James’ cock, I enjoy it too much”
“That’s not what you said”
“How would you know? You’re a simple bilingual” he speaks the word bilingual like it’s a slur
“Oh my Merlin, I just realized I’m the only monolingual in this room” Peter gasps and Regulus looks at him with genuine disgust. James pinches his side and smiles at Peter
“There’s nothing wrong with it Pete, it’s normal, and you can always learn another language if you want, you can learn Welsh with us!”
“And see that judgemental face times two?” he nods to Regulus who’s still appalled by the thought of someone speaking only one language “No. Thank you, I’m good”
“Stop it! What did you say? I know you said something about the truth. What’s the truth, Regulus?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about”
“Can’t you at least put a little effort into your lie?!”
“If I tell you she’ll only get angrier and I for one am smart enough to not want her mad at me. I would’ve thought you’d learned that lesson by now”
“Go fuck yourself!”
“Your friend’s already got that covered”
“You little shit! You’re gonna tell me what Snape did!” they end up in a brotherly scrabble the other three debate if they should stop them. Sirius ends up sitting on a pouty Regulus “Talk” Sirius barks the order and Regulus narrows his eyes on him before spells and hexes start flying, that’s when the other three decide to step in. Protection and disarming spells join the soaring hexes across the room and the door creaks open, startling them all into statues. A rogue spell hits the wall next to Regulus and they all turn to face Kingsley standing where the door used to be. He shuts his eyes in defeat and takes a long, deep breath that sounds a lot like a sigh. It isn’t the first time he’s cursed his luck for being housed alongside the marauders. He closes the door and walks out with his head hung low.
I think I have had my fill (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms, in your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
Sirius & co poked Snape. Ursa chain smokes until her lungs curse her for it and the sun sets in front of her, behind the lake. It’s cold but her temper is still hot, her head stuck on the alluring thought of punching her brother where the sun doesn't shine, or better yet, all his friends but him, he’d hate that a whole lot more.
She fights back against the urge to plot and connive an according punishment for their idiocy. She focuses on the cigarette in her hands, the smoke traveling up and down her trachea, holding it in her lungs until they feel like they’re about to explode.
She casts a spell to get rid of the cigarette stench and walks directly towards Snape’s room. Avery is on his way out and lets her know Snape is in the shower. She sends him off with a smile and takes to snooping through Snape’s drawers. She finds what can be called a Lily Evans Wank shrine on the top drawer, a pile of pictures –both of muggle and wizard type– of her, conveniently next to socks and hand cream. Some of the photographs have white stains on them. Not creepy, disgusting or messed up at all.
She can’t resist herself, she casts a spell so next time someone touches them it’ll turn into a picture of Dumbledore, she adds a delaying spell so it’ll catch him mid act. If she’s lucky he’ll come to the sight of that long, old beard.
She shuts the drawer and opens the next, this one’s boring, nothing but school books. She skims through the titles until “checkpot” she finds Severus’ potions book, the one scribbled on the margins. She duplicates it, shrinks it and hides it in her pocket. She closes the drawer and it looks intact, exactly how she found it. She moves on to the next.
It’s in the bottom drawer of the dresser that she finds his stuff on dark arts. She scans through them, they’re basic, just dipping his toe in, it’s things her family taught her and her brothers before they were even legally allowed to have a wand, but there’s one thing that catches her eye. Something complex and far worse than she expected. Theory of dark magic. Of course it’s basic for the original families but on Severus’ hands… It’s scribbled with his own notes, he’s learning to do his own spells. She shrinks and pockets that bit.
She reads through the rest of it, to really know where his knowledge is at, there might be some truly horrific dark spell hidden behind all the harmless crap. She spreads it out on his bed and makes herself at home as she reads it, cross legged and at ease in his bed.
He comes out a long time afterwards with a towel secured around his waist and turns to his drawers without raising his eyes “This should be an r, not an l” she pipes up and he turns so fast his towel almost falls and he clutches onto it
“What are you doing here?!”
“Just reminding you what we talked about”
“I didn’t do anything” he grinds his teeth so hard the muscles on his jaw throbs
“And you won’t”
“Then maybe I should remind you things are different than when we talked”
“Yeah, you’re right” she finally looks up from the scraps and books on dark arts and meets his eyes, the faux sweet smile drops and any trace of it vanishes “I don’t have anything to lose anymore” he holds her gaze but doesn’t move an inch, instead he holds onto his towel tighter. She gets up and takes the handle “Incendio” The scraps and books of dark arts turn to ash. She extinguishes the flames with ease, smothering them under her control, quelching any emotion. She smiles at Snape and with a tooth-aching sweetness says “Goodnight” she closes the door behind her and stays up all night going through his notes on the potions book, landing on the doodle of a porcupine and smiling, not as bad an artist as you’d think. Actually that’s not true, the dirty artist is a trope and his hair makes it seem like a much better drawer.
Gather up the lost and sold (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms, in your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
On October third the Marauders are ready for Severus’ revenge. They targeted the whole Slytherin house to make it less conspicuous but Snape doesn’t even glance their way. They rack their brains wondering if maybe he doesn’t think it was them, that was the point after all but still, Peter can’t help the nagging thought creeping up the back of his spine: Ursa.
Dorcas walks up to them after Defense Against the Dark Arts claiming she’d tell them everything about Ursa’s little bruises because “When I told Ursa I was pissed about what happened with Marlene the cunt laughed and walked away, so now I’m telling you all her secrets– that’s probably why she doesn’t tell me most of her secrets, that girl has so many secrets”
“What happened with Marlene?” Peter cuts off her rambling
“She told me to ask her out, knowing fully well she’d say no to anyone who asked her out. That bitch’s a horrible friend, did you know?” she huffs and Sirius snaps them back to the matter at hand, Barty and Ursa’s fight, so she fills them in. Sirius is rabid. Remus reminds him he’d probably react just as brutally if he were in Barty’s spot. Sirius flinches like he’s been burnt because he did that once. With Snape.
“I didn’t mean—”
“It’s fine”
“Sweetheart, I told you I forgive you, that’s not what I meant”
“Ooh, I’m missing part of the novella?” Dorcas beams, giddy, anger for her ‘bitchy friend’ suddenly forgotten “What’s going on? Are you two banging already?” Sirius turns to her with big broad eyes and Remus’ tan hides most of his blush but it’s still there “Not yet I’m guessing? Even after your loud, kind of embarrassing, love proclamation in the great hall?”
“Thank you, Dorcas, we’ll see you later” James cuts in before the other two hotheads get a chance to lash out at her.
“Rude—” Dorcas scowls at him but gets soon distracted “Oi, Pan! Where are you going?!” she chases after the blonde who just spotted Lily
“Ursa knew Marlene was gonna say no when she told me to ask her. She pretended to care while setting me up for disappointment” Peter breathes, he didn’t expect or believe much from Ursa, but he finally understands why Sirius is so weary about her, because she didn’t have a reason to do this to him, nothing other than her own wicked entertainment
“Pete—”
“It’s fine. That actually makes more sense, I couldn’t understand why she cared in the first place”
“I’m sorry”
“Sirius, don’t apologize for her. It’s not your fault, you’re not responsible for her actions” he takes off before he has to deal with any more of Sirius’ puppy eyes, let his boyfriend deal with that.
Peter finds what he’s looking for quickly “Hey doll” he calls to Ursa in the hallway
“Hi pet” she loops her hands around his neck in greeting
“Can we go somewhere to talk?” he asks, sounding like he’s about to break up with her, and she digs her nails into the back of his neck in scolding, but she nods and follows him outside away from prying ears. They reach the gardens beside the lake before he speaks “What did you do to Snape?”
“That’s why you dragged me here? Everyone probably thinks you’re breaking up with me”
“Maybe I am.” he grinds out the words “What did you do to him?”
“What makes you think I did something to him?”
“It was you, wasn’t it? I know it was you. You did something to him. He didn’t even look at us. He always at least suspects us. So what did you do to him?”
“Why do you say it like that?” she pouts at him and his scowl turns into a full-on glare, her smile only grows in response “and why would I tell you?” she bops his nose and his hands ball into fists. He finally understands how she drove Sirius into literally torturing her.
“I know you were messing with my head when you told me to ask Marlene out. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”
“You wouldn’t have if you kept your big noses to yourself” she lets her charade od sweetness shatter and it crumbles on top of Peter, suffocating him
“What?” her words startle him so far it fumbles his anger for a moment, but that only makes his grip on it tighter when he has it back
“Oh, come on, you’re not as dumb as you look.” she says and turns to walk towards the forest, simply assuming Peter will follow. He does follow her, but only to cuss at her and confront her. But of course she knew that, she expected that “Do you really think I’d tell Dorcas if I didn’t want you to find out? She may be lots of things, but discreet isn’t one of them”
“So what? This is a punishment? For what? What did I ever do to you?”
“This isn’t a punishment, silly. You wouldn’t have to ask if it were a punishment. Trust me, you’d know. This is just a reminder, that even if I pretend, I don’t actually care about any of you and I can shatter each and every single one of your pathetic, miserable lives and dreams whenever I feel like it”
“Guess you’re not pretending to be nice anymore” for some reason he starts laughing. He doesn’t know why it’s so funny to him
“I don’t have to anymore”
“Not very professional of you though, is it?” he smiles bitterly “We’re supposed to pretend we’re together. People are supposed to believe we’re in love, but now I can’t even stand the sight of you.”
“You’ll get over it”
“I look at you and all I feel is disgust. I can’t even understand how I ever thought you were beautiful”
“Guess you’ll have to start working on your acting skills then, or Regulus and I can go back to Grimmauld place and, you know, your best friend loses the love of his life, and your other friend loses both his little siblings and the only real family he has left. Your choice.”
“You’re the worst person I’ve ever met”
“Well if you’re surprised by that, then, that’s kind of on you”
“Are you shitting me right now?”
“You know I’ve literally tortured my own brother, right? And unlike my feelings for you, I actually sorta care about him”
“I thought you were logical! I thought you had a reason to do things, but this makes no sense! Why did you do it? What was the reason?!”
“What do you think? That I’m a dumb evil villain who’s about to go on a rambling monologue explaining everything?” she furrows her brows at him like she’s genuinely baffled by him “What I am, though, is not interested. Goodbye” and with that, she simply walks away and Peter’s anger has nowhere to go, nowhere to escape but himself because what had he been expecting? Why is he surprised by this? They warned him about her, Sirius warned her. Peter warned himself and he still feels like she crept up on him.
Worst part is he did. He kept his guard up and she still managed to hurt him, he still didn’t see it coming. He won’t see it coming. Even with eyes wide open he won’t see it coming the next time, and he knows there’ll be a next time, he’s sure of it.
Gather up the pitiful (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms, in your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
James finds Ursa outdoors, sunbathing in the biting cold with Emma Vanity. He feels their warming spell when he gets closer “Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?”
“Always” she beams up at him radiantly and dutifully hops up, straight to her feet. She buttons up the bottom of her shirt and shrugs on her sweater as she follows him. She casts a silencing spell around them quickly and sighs “Go on,”
“It was my fault, I wanted to prove to you that you don’t always have to do everything yourself, that you can depend on us”
“You made it worse.”
“I know. I wish you’d taken it out on me rather than Peter but— you wanted space. I didn’t realize that before but now I do, you told us to leave you alone and I should’ve respected that, and for that I’m sorry. Not that I’m justifying what you did or think you should ever do it again. I just— I’m not giving up on you, alright? I’ll give you your space, I won’t bother you for a whole month, but know that I’m not giving up on you, okay? I won’t give up. I’m here, and I’ll still be here if you don’t want your space anymore, you can depend on me. I know we went about it wrong but you can, you don’t have to do everything on your own” Ursa doesn’t say anything to that, doesn’t even look at him “Alright, that’s all I wanted to say,” now that it’s all been said and he’s just standing there, along with her in the biting cold, he has time to feel the awkwardness of the situation, he scratches the back of his head “Okay, I guess I’ll see you around. Bye. I’ll— I’ll talk to Pete, he’ll come around soon” he waves at her as he walks away
“James,” she finally looks up at him with a gentle warm smile dangling on her lips “thank you”
“Any time” he tips his head and keeps on walking. Her smile vanishes into a clenched jaw and rolled eyes as soon as his back is turned. Stupid, annoying Gryffindors.
What seems impossible (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms, in your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
“I’m sorry Pete” James tells him when they’re finally alone in their dorm, it’s just the two of them and a werewolf
“It suck that you were right” Remus pats his head with all of the awkwardness of his however-tree-tall-height that boy is
“I know”
“I’m sorry that I wasn’t” James agrees with his arms in a hug around him but Peter really doesn’t need it
“It’s fine. At least you’ve finally given up on your delusion of befriending her. I’ll gladly take the hit just for that”
“What? Give up? No, I’ve just started to make progress. I meant you were right when you said we should’ve let her deal with it. She’d told Sirius not too long ago that she didn’t want us to meddle and we went and did just that, even if I didn’t think of it as meddling at the time, now I can see why—”
“James, what the hell are you on about?”
“No, I’m just— looking back I think she was asking for us to give her some space in a very emotionally-repressed type of way and we went and did the exact opposite—”
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me” Remus rubs his temples with a sigh
“James, you do understand she’s been doing Merlin-knows how many things we don’t know about just to hurt us this whole time, right? Not for a real but just to have something to punish us with in case we ever step out of line”
“I know, but she also talked to Snape for us, to make sure he didn’t retaliate. Reg mentioned she’s a bit of a control freak, I think having an ace up her sleeve to ‘control us’ with makes her feel safe”
“Her messed up psychological damage doesn’t make it okay for her to go around making people her collateral damage!”
“Understanding why someone does something and justifying it is not the same thing” James argues
“No, but when it comes to you, it is. Because you think if you’re can understand why she did something then you can change her, you think you can fix her but I’m sorry, she’s broken, not bent, and you’ll only end up cutting yourself with her shattered edges while trying to glue her back together” Peter spits the words out at him and Remus, ever so comfortable with feelings and emotions, takes a step back and away
“Thank you so much, now all I’ll be able to think about when I listen to mirrorball is Ursa. That was my silent-crying song!” James whines, genuinely just whines and all the frustrated anger seeps out of Peter because fuck does he love that idiotic man, he just laughs.
“You know,” he says a few minutes later, when the conversation’s moved on and Remus is no longer uncomfortable. Just for him Peter makes it uncomfortable again “as much as I hate that she’ll definitely hurt you, I kind of respect your stubborn ability to not give up on people. Also good to know you’d forgive me if I ever screw you over?”
“Thank you…?”
“You’re welcome. And don’t worry, I don’t have any current plans to screw you over”
“You mean screwing Regulus?” Remus teases
“Hey, I’m not the one who thought of him while I wanked” Peter chuckles and James gasps in horror
“That’s the last time I try to make you feel better,” Remus grumbles and since he’s been thrown under the bus, he’ll drag Peter down with him “he wanked to the thought of Satan”
“I know,” James nods “I don’t understand why they keep insisting on making him hotter in every sculpture, talk about temptation”
“James— what the hell are you talking about?”
“Le génie du mal,” he says in the worst accent they’ve ever heard “and his baby brother”
“Again James, what?” Peter frowns at him and James lights up
“My parents are helping me plan a small trip to Belgium during Christmast break to surprise Reg” he says for explanation because he’s smart but shit at communicating it
“Oh” that explains it, it’s Le génie du mal is definitely something Regulus told James about
“I’d invite you guys too, but I want to snog him in front of Lucifer and I don’t think Sirius would like that very much— but Moony, you and Pads can have your own little romantic getaway”
“Or you could just make use of Prongs’ empty bedroom while he and Regulus are away”
“That sounds cheaper, I’m going with that”
“If you’re looking for cheap then I’m sorry to break it to you but Sirius Black is not the one” it’s in that exact moment that Sirius decides to parade in through the door. He’d been hanging out with the girls, as is evident by the makeup on his face. He freezes when he sees them and shuts the door slowly. He fidgets and stares down at his left foot, circling the edge of the carpet
“Moons?” he says in a quiet, shy little voice “What do you think?”
Remus, mouth dry and suddenly raspy, can only manage to reach for Sirius “I’m guessing he likes it” James chuckles and Remus nods enthusiastically “a lot” James translates and Sirius beams up at Remus, then Remus’ lips are on his and he’s being lifted off the ground. He wraps his legs around Remus and Moony walks them over to his bed.
They don’t even notice the other two leaving, might’ve even forgotten they existed for a moment
“Oh, King,” James stops him halfway up the stairs “might want to give it a minute” Kingsley glares at him and stamps back downstairs without a word.
In your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms (don't hurt me, don't hurt me)
In your arms