Operation Cobra
James growled as he chased his best friend through the halls of Hogwarts. Well, it wasn’t really chasing so to speak, more like power walking after Sirius so as not to draw attention to other students that something was wrong. Although Sirius was a Gryffindor, he had some Slytherin tendencies and one of those tendencies was that he hated being seen as weak in front of people. And this little tantrum he was throwing? Definitely a weakness.
“Sirius, wait up,” James called, making sure to keep his voice light and carefree in order to avoid suspicion from the other students, “Wait for me!”
His friend ignored his shout and instead sped up. James winced when he saw Sirius collide with a girl, accidently knocking the books out of her hands. The other boy barely paused to mumble an apology before he was off running down the hall again. James glanced between the girl and his best friend before coming to a decision and stopping.
“I’m sorry about him,” James said as he knelt and started handing her books back, “He’s… I don’t know. Pissed or something.”
“Well, he shouldn’t take it out on the rest of us!” The Hufflepuff snarled as she snatched her last book from James’s hands. She stood and huffed, “Some of us don’t have the luxury of being pissy! We have to deal with our emotions like actual adults .”
The girl stomped off, and James stared after her in confusion. Eventually he shook his head and muttered, “Crazy bint.”
He glanced down the corridor in hopes of seeing Sirius, but he knew the other Gryffindor was long gone by now. James would never be able to catch up with him now, no matter how fast he ran. Not that he actually knew where Siri was. Sirius always had a way of being able to hide and stay hidden for as long as he wanted without getting caught. James wouldn’t be able to find him even if he was literally standing two feet away from his best friend. No, the best thing to do was to head back to the dorm and hope that Sirius would eventually find his way back to the tower.
James shoved his hands deep into his pockets and started the long trek to the Gryffindor Tower. The few stragglers still in the corridors were trying to quickly make it back to their dorms before curfew, but James didn’t bother to hurry. He had too much on his mind.
He needed to have a long talk with Sirius, and he could already tell that it was going to be one of the worst talks they’ve had since becoming friends. Something was going on with Padfoot. And it had to be more than just disliking Emrys. After all, he wouldn’t have tried to kill the poor bastard if he just didn’t like him!
James winced at the thought. That wasn’t quite true, he supposed. Last year with Sniv--
He shook his head. No . That had been an accident. A prank gone wrong. Sirius had not actually meant to hurt Snivellus. It was probably the same with Emrys. He didn’t mean to actually hurt the boy, but it just got… out of hand.
“Well, are you just gonna stand there all day or are you going to give me the password?”
James jumped at the voice and looked up only to realize he’d been standing in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady for some time now. She stared down at him impatiently.
“Well?”
Spurred by the question, James quickly muttered the password, ignoring how the portrait huffed as he walked into the common room. James immediately walked past the few people sitting around the common room and up the stairs to his dorm. He hesitated when he got to the door, his hand an inch away from the doorknob before flinging it.
A startled yelp was the only protest of his treatment of the door. Peter stared at him in shock, clutching his chest as if he was going to have a heart attack. Remus simply looked at him sympathetically.
“He’s not here yet,” Remus said causing James’ shoulders to slump.
“Damn,” James muttered, “I was hoping a dramatic entrance would help startle him into talking.”
Remus hummed sympathetically. “When’d he give you the slip?”
James scowled. “He ran into some girl, and I stopped to help her up. He was gone by the time I looked up again.”
“That’s unusual. He has fantastic reflexes. He should have been able to dodge her.” He paused. “Unless you think he did it on purpose?”
James nodded his head. “Nah, I think it was an accident. He seemed genuinely surprised he hit her. Plus, if he wanted to give me the slip he would have done it another way, something more definite. There was no way he’d know that I would stop and help that girl.”
“Do you think he’s going to come back to the tower tonight?” A hint of concern filtered into Remus’ voice.
James sighed a plopped down on his bed. “I don’t know. Padfoot’s in one of his moods, so there’s no telling what he’ll do, where he’ll go.”
“Well, hopefully he won’t run into Emrys. I doubt he’s going to return tonight after everything that happened. If both him and Sirius are out and about tonight…” Remus trailed off.
“I’m sure it’d be fine. I mean, Padfoot might try to pick a fight, but, as much as I hate to admit it, Emrys doesn’t seem like the violent type. He’d try to avoid a fight.”
Remus shook his head. “Did you see him after tryouts? He was a hair trigger away from beating the shit out of someone. Emrys was visibly shaking with rage.”
James winced. “Fuck. Do you think we should go look for them? Just to make sure they don’t run into each other?”
“I doubt we’d find either one of them. Siri will stay hidden for as long as he wants, and we don’t know Emrys well enough to know where he’d hide out,” Remus said before muttering, “But if you’d have listen to me we might have known.”
“I get it, Moony!” James gumbled.
“I’m just saying that we’ve been really harsh with Emrys. We didn’t even give him a chance.” Remus started to unfold his clothes for tomorrow rather violently.
James sighed. “I know. I know, but… something just feels off about him. And Sirius was so admit about not trusting him. Plus, he’s the freaking Lord Slytherin! Everything just racked up against him, you know?”
Remus stilled suddenly. “You guys knew something was off about me when we first met.”
“Moony, that’s different ,” James tried to convince him.
“No, it’s not. Sure, Emrys might be hiding something, but he probably has a reason for it. And it’s not like we’ve given him a reason to trust us!”
“He can trust us.”
Remus stopped unfolding his clothes and turned to face James, his gold eyes locking onto James’ hazel eyes. “James, when was the last time Emrys even slept in the tower?”
James paused. Wasn’t Emrys sleeping in the tower? Where else would he sleep? “Didn’t he sleep here last night?”
Remus shook his head. “No. nor the night before that or the night before that. James, the last time he slept in the tower was about a week ago and even then he didn’t come in until well past midnight and left around four in the morning.”
“He hasn’t been sleeping in the tower?” James repeated in shock, “He has to come back, though. I mean, all his clothes and books are here, so he’d have to stop by sometime!”
“I don't think so,” Remus said, shaking his head, “When I realized that Emrys wasn't sleeping in the tower anymore, I started watching him and monitoring when he actually comes to the dorms. He can go for days at a time without coming to the tower and still go to his classes in different, clean clothes. I think he smuggled some, if not all, of his things out of the tower.”
“That's impossible. Surely, we would have noticed something,” James said incredulously.
“Well, there is a way you can figure out if he actually moved out of the dorms or not,” a voice squeaked suddenly.
James and Remus blinked before turning to face Peter who had an expectant sort of look on his face. “You look in his trunk.”
There was a moment's pause before James grinned. “I knew there was a reason I liked you, Wormy!”
James quickly scrambled off his bed and headed toward the innocent looking trunk at the foot of Emrys' bed.
“Please tell me you're not actually thinking of breaking into his trunk,” Remus questioned incredulously, “We were just talking about how Emrys couldn't trust us! This is a prime example of that!”
“Oh, come on, Moony,” James said distractedly as he walked around the trunk, eyeing it curiously, “It's just a trunk; it's not that big of a deal. Anyway, it's not like I'm actually going to look through his stuff. I'm just checking to see if his stuff is still in it.”
Remus shook his head and went back to getting his stuff ready for the next day. “I'm telling you this is going to come back to bite you in the arse. If he's anything like me, he…” Remus trailed off when James yelped as soon as he touched the trunk, “...would have warded it.”
“It shocked me!” James cried in shock before sticking his finger in his mouth, “That bastert shoctet me!”
“I tried to warn you. Nobody likes their privacy invaded.”
James settled on glaring at his friend as he sucked on his finger, trying to ease the pain. Peter, on the other hand, was much more vocal. “You have to admit this is weird, Remus! He's clearly up to something! I mean, who puts a freaking ward on their trunk?!”
“I did!” Remus snapped, “I put a ward on my trunk my first year at Hogwarts. I was scared of what would happen if people found out is I was a werewolf, and I didn't trust anybody. Especially you guys since we were always in such close proximity all the time.”
“So, what? You're saying that Slytherin is a werewolf?” Peter snapped.
Remus threw his hands up. “Maybe! Who knows? I'm just saying there might be a reason for him keeping secrets.”
Peter snorted before muttering, “Yeah, like he's going to kill us all in our sleep.”
Remus growled. “We should give him a chance!”
“He's a Slytherin!”
“Last time I checked, his tie was red and gold!”
“He's Lord Slytherin! You can't get much Slytherin than that!”
“Guys! Guys! Guys!” James physically stepped between them, a hand on each of their chests. “No fighting amongst Marauders! We settle our disputes through civilized ways. By pranking the living daylights out of each other until someone admits defeat,” he joked.
“Am I interrupting something?”
The three boys froze, their eyes widening, before they slowly turned around. Sirius Black was standing in the middle of the doorway, arms crossed loosely in front of his chest. A half curious, half amused look played across his face, a drastic change from the furious expression he had had on his face when he left the quidditch field. James winced. He had wanted Sirius to be the only wildcard during this confrontation, but now it looked like he had three. There was no way this was going to end well--for anyone.
“Hey, Padfoot!” James said, cursing the fact that his voice seemed higher than usual, “We weren’t expecting you back so soon.”
Sirius’ brows furrowed as he sidestepped the group and flopped down his bed. “You weren’t? Why’s that?”
“Uh…” Remus and James traded confused glances. James leaned over and whispered in Remus’ ear, “Did I just imagine him running off the field in a huffy? ‘Cause I could have swore that it actually happened.”
“No, he ran off,” Remus whispered back, “Maybe he ran into Emrys? Fight gone wrong equals memory loss?”
James shook his head. “Nah, I think Emrys would want blood for the fight on the quidditch field, not memories. Anyway, Pads wouldn’t go down without a fight.”
“I don’t know… You didn’t see him when Lily started flinging her shoes at him last week. He hid under the couch in the commons for two hours, afraid to come out.”
“Can’t say I blame him. Lily’s shoes are dangerous. I hear she enchants them to--”
“You guys know I can hear you from over here, right?” Sirius snapped, before pouting. “And Moony! You promised not to tell anyone about the shoe thing!”
“Oh, Sirius, you should know by now that there’s no honor among thieves,” Remus drawled with a small smirk.
Sirius looked genuinely insulted. “We’re Gryffindors, Moony; of course we have honor! And anyway, we’re Marauders--pranksters-- not thieves.”
“Look it up in the dictionary, Pads. Marauders means bandits, thieves, looters.”
“All joking aside, Siri,” James sighed, once again stepping between his friends even though the two hadn’t moved from their original positions, “I think we should talk about what exactly went down on the quidditch field today.”
Sirius shrugged at the sudden change of subject. “Well, nothing much happened today. It was just tryouts as usual.”
James eyebrows disappeared in his hairline. “Tryouts as usual?! Padfoot, you almost knocked Emrys off his broom! If a teacher had been out on the field tonight, you would be stuck in a month’s worth of detentions. Hell, they could have forced me to bench you and there would have been nothing I could do about it!”
A scowl played on Sirius’ lips, and he rolled his eyes. “It’s not like they’re going to go easy on him in the games, James. I was just making sure he could actually handle himself when there are more people out on the field than him.”
“That’s not what you were doing, and you know it,” James snapped, “Now, be honest. What the fuck is going on between you and Emrys?”
A snort sounded from behind them. “Isn’t it obvious?” Peter growled, “He’s a freaking Slytherin. Do we actually need a reason to hate his guts?”
“ Yes ,” Remus snarled, “We do . He’s a Gryffindor; we should treat him like one-- not like a, a criminal or something!”
“Please, the slimy snake probably bribed his way into the house of the brave,” Peter shot back, “There’s no way that git actually has any courage. I doubt he’d stand a chance in a fight with any of us.”
The two quickly fell into a loud squabble that made James want to put his fingers in his ears to block out the noise. Instead, he ran his hand through his hair and tried to keep his frustration at bay. It didn’t work very well.
“ALL RIGHT, ENOUGH!” James shouted, shocking the two into silence, “This conversation doesn’t revolve around your opinions on Emrys right now; it’s about why Sirius started the anti-Emrys campaign to begin with. That’s all I want to know right now! We can figure out what to do about Emrys later . Now sit down, shut up, and I swear to god if one of you so much as glares at the other, somebody’s gonna get their arse kicked!”
His friends looked at him in shock, taking a step away from each other. When they didn’t move back to their respective beds, James bit out, “Do not test me.”
Peter and Remus immediately sat down on their beds.
James took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. This was getting crazier and crazier by the minute. He had assumed Sirius would be the only one to be so unpredictable; he had never expect this strong reaction from Peter and Remus. Sure, they had been dropping hints for the past few weeks about what they thought about Emrys, but he had never expected an all out argument between the two. He supposed he should have expected it, though. After all, the verdict on Emrys had already been decreed on the very first day of school before they even truly met the guy. Sirius had been adamant that Emrys couldn’t be trust, and they had all gone along with him because of it. Marauders always stuck together, always had each other’s backs, of course they would choose Sirius over a stranger! But now, James couldn’t help but wonder if they had made too hasty of a decision.
“Ok,” James said slowly, trying to remain calm, “Here’s what we’re gonna do. First, Sirius is going to explain what exactly happened today on the field, and then he’s going to give his opinion on Emrys. Then me, Remus, and Peter will give our opinions on Emrys. Nobody can interrupt the person who is speaking. If we do that, it’ll take us days to get through this. After the person is finished you can asks questions or whatever but only after they are finished! Then when we’re through, we can figure out what we’ll do with Emrys. Does that sound good?”
“I suppose,” Remus mumbled.
“Why do I have to go last? I’m always last!” Peter whined.
“Fine, you can go after Sirius! It doesn’t matter!” James said, flinging his hands in the air.
“You do realize that the last person to speak affects the audience more than the person in the middle, right? People always remember the first and the last, not the middle. You just screwed yourself out of a good deal,” Remus snarked.
Peter’s face turned red, but before he could do or say anything, James started talking again. “So! Sirius, please explain why you hate Emrys so much.”
Sirius opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out James interrupted him. “And it can’t just be because he has the last name of Slytherin!”
“Hey, you just interrupted him!” Peter pointed out. “I thought that was against your rules.”
“No, I didn’t. He hadn’t started speaking yet, so technically I didn’t interrupt him,” James said rather smugly. He turned to Sirius. “Now, you can talk.”
“I love it when you get all bossy, Prongs. Makes me all tingly,” Sirius said with a smirk.
James rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. Sirius pouted when he didn’t receive the reaction that he wanted. “What not even a chuckle?”
James raised an eyebrow and made a point of glancing down at the watch on his wrist.
Sirius growled. “Ugh! Fine!” His voice to a speculative tone. “Hmmmm, let’s see. Reasons I despise the snake... Well, reason number one is that he’s a slimy snake. And we all know that the snakes can’t be trusted! They’re conniving little backstabbers who kick you while you’re down just for the fun of it! I wouldn’t trust him with my hairbrush much less something of actual importance! I mean, what would happen if he found out about Moony?!”
James opened his mouth to answer but his friend plowed on. “I’ll tell you what would happen! He’d get Remus kicked out of Hogwarts faster than you can say ‘Oh, hell no.’ And I don’t think he’d stop there! You’re a pureblood, Prongs; you know how they are. The fact that there is a werewolf at Hogwarts would be splashed across the papers! Remus would be kicked out, and he would never be able to get the jobs he wants because how freaking biased everyone in this goddamn community is!”
While Sirius continued with his miniature rant, James sent a quick glance at Remus to see how he was reacting to his name being drawn into the discussion. The werewolf looked as if he wasn’t sure if he should be exasperated or pleased that one of the reasons Sirius was against Emrys was in order to protect him.
James blinked when Sirius’ voice became more passionate suddenly.
“Plus, he’s practically stalking Lily!” James twitched. “He’s always around her; he practically never leaves her side! I just know that snake is trying to use her for some nefarious reason! You know how those snakes think: anyone who is not a pureblood is beneath them.”
James clenched his fist, his fingernails digging into the palm of his hand.
“And the way he looks at Peter is just weird. He acts like he’s absolutely repulsed by Peter, like he’s worse than the scum on the bottom of his shoe. Hell, whenever he’s even remotely close to Peter, he looks like he wants to curse him! And those…those are the reasons I don’t think we can trust that snake.”
Sirius trailed off almost uncertainly, but James refused to say anything. He saw a flicker of movement where Peter and Remus were sitting, but they didn’t say anything either, obviously noticing the strange tension in the room. Something about Sirius’ explanation wasn’t sitting right with James. It just…didn’t sound like him. James blinked. Oh, so that’s what he was doing .
“I can’t help but notice, Padfoot, that these are all reasons we shouldn’t trust Emrys, not really reasons why you shouldn’t trust him. Somehow, you managed to hit all our sore spots and still make them sound like yours,” James paused before joking, “Unless, you’ve become a saint without us knowing it.”
“What, I can’t be worried for my friends?” Sirius snapped.
James sighed and sat down beside his friend. “Yes, you can, but you shouldn’t use our problems to hide from us. So, tell us. Why don’t you truly trust Emrys?”
Sirius scrubbed a hand down his face. “I just… I just don’t trust him.”
James rolled his eyes and nudged Sirius with his shoulder. “Come on. You’ve got to give us more than that.”
Sirius sent a stony look at James before slumping. “He just feels… off, you know?”
James snorted recalling his earlier words. “Yeah. Yeah, I suppose I do.”
“He… he just… he…” Sirius trailed off in frustration when he couldn’t find the right words.
“C’mon, Padfoot. Spit it out,” James whispered with a small comforting, smile.
“He reminds me off my family,” Sirius eventually said.
James blinked. He glanced up at Remus and saw a shocked expression that he was sure he was mirroring. A quick look in Peter’s direction had James’ lips thinning, though. Peter was looking at him with a smug look playing across his face. James tore his eyes away from Peter and back to Sirius. “He does? Why?”
Sirius shrugged. “He feels dark . And dangerous. Like he shouldn’t be messed with.”
“How can you tell?” Remus asked hesitantly, casting a quick, apologetic glance at James. James’ lips twitched up into a forgiving smile, even though his friend had just broke one of the rules of the conversation. To be honest, he kind of wanted to know the answer himself.
Sirius snorted. “Moony, for the first eleven years of my life, I was surrounded by dangerous people. I just so happened to call them Mum and Dad. I know what dark magic feels like.”
“Told you he was a slimy snake,” Peter grumbled before falling silent when James glared at him.
James eyed him for a few moments before he turned back to Sirius. “Do you know if Emrys has done anything? Should we be worried?”
Remus’ eyes narrowed but James was too focused on Sirius to notice. “Of course we should be worried!” Sirius exclaimed before looking sheepish. “But I’m not sure if he’s used any dark magic here at Hogwarts.”
James nodded, biting back a sigh of aggravation. They needed more than just gut feelings. They needed proof, evidence Emrys was as bad as Sirius claim. Trying to hide his frustration, he plastered on a joking smile. “Got anything else for us, Padfoot?”
Sirius snorted, trying to hide a small smile. “No. No, I’ve said everything I’ve got to say.”
“Good. That’s...um--good,” James stuttered before glancing at his other two friends still sitting on their respective beds, “Ok, who’s next?”
Peter and Remus exchanged glares, each waiting for the other to take the first move. After a few seconds of silence, Remus huffed and opened his mouth to speak, but Peter cut him off before he could. James wasn’t sure if he should feel exasperated by his pettiness or proud that he found the same loophole James had used earlier.
“Well, Sirius just proved my point. Slytherin cannot be trusted! He’s evil, and cruel, and just like all the other snakes we’ve come across over the past few years! Sirius just said that he was using dark magic. Can’t you guys see that we can’t trust him?” Peter asked imploringly.
James nodded slowly before asking, “Is that all you’ve got to say?”
“What else is there to say? Sirius covered it all.”
“Ok, then” James turned to Remus, “Guess it’s your turn, Moony.”
Remus took a deep breath before nodding, a grim look settling over his face. He rubbed his hands together and leaned forward.“So, Sirius, you’re basing all of this on a feeling?”
Sirius looked warily at his friend. “Yes… He feels dark, dangerous.”
“Do you have any proof that Emrys is using dark magic?”
Sirius scowled. “Am I going to have to repeat the entire conversation that I had a few minutes ago? I thought your memory was better than that, Moony.”
Remus held his hands up in surrender. “I was just making sure I had all the facts right, Sirius. I just wanted to be sure.” Remus focused on the boy sitting beside Sirius. “Now, James, I need you to remember something from a while back. I know that’ll be hard for you since you can’t even remember what you had for breakfast, but do try.”
James rolled his eyes at the small smirk playing on Remus’ face. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get on with it, Moony.”
“Back in first year, before we even really knew anything about each other, who was the first one of you three to become suspicious of me?”
“Sirius,” James replied, unsure of where the werewolf was going with this train of thoughts.
“And what made him suspicious? After all, you guys were suspicious of me even before the first full moon.”
James’ eye widened. “Because he said you felt dark…”
Sirius threw his hands up. “Oh, come on, Moony! That was different, and you know it!”
“No, it isn’t!” Remus shot back, “You were wary of me at first because you said I felt dark--that I was dangerous! The same things you are saying about Emrys! You don’t even have any proof that he’s done anything wrong! You’re just basing everything solely on your gut feelings!” Remus leant forward. “The only difference between him and me is the fact that he has the last name of Slytherin. Who would have thought that a werewolf would ever be the lesser of the two evils?”
“He’s keeping secrets, Remus,” Sirius groaned out.
“You’re probably right,” Remus replied calmly, “But everyone keeps secrets, Siri. Even you, even me. And we all feel entitled to our secrets.”
“Are you honestly saying that Slytherin is a werewolf?” Peter asked incredulously.
“I’m saying we’re not giving him a fair chance! We don’t even know the guy and we’ve already past the judgement on him!”
“But we know he’s evil--”
“No, we don’t--”
“He’s dangerous--”
“ALL RIGHT, EVERYBODY SHUT UP!” James shouted, throwing his hands up, “All of you just broke the number one rule of this conversation!”
The three didn’t even glance at James, instead they sank deeper into their bickering. Slowly the semi-civilized discussions James had started became a screaming match. James growled and tried one more time. “Guys, come on! No fighting!”
The three boys continued to ignore James, causing him to growl. He muttered to himself, “That’s it.”
James shot off a silencing charm at Remus before reaching over, grabbing Sirius’ and Peter’s ears, and twisted . James smirked at the high-pitched yelps the two boys emitted. He twisted their ears a little harder, forcing them to their knees. “Are you guys done, now?” James asked calmly.
Immediately, the two Marauders on the ground started agreeing, their words overlapping each other. Remus simply nodded his head energetically.
James hummed to himself. “Are you sure? Do you think you can actually handle a civilized conversation? Because if you’re going to act like children, I’m going to treat you like children.”
Only after they agreed for a second time did James let them go. Sirius and Peter immediately scurried away, both rubbing harshly at their ears.
“Why’d you grab our ears?” Peter whined.
“Yeah, I’m calling favoritism,” Sirius grumbled, “You almost ripped our ears off, but you only sent a silencing charm at Moony? Guess we know who your favorite is.”
James rolled his eyes. “I only have two hands, you know! Plus, Remus was further away, so you two idiots were the ones stuck with the sore ears.”
“Still…” Peter complained.
James rolled his eyes again. “Anyway… Do you guys wanna know what I think of Emrys or do you just want to go back to your bickering?”
The three muttered their agreements as they each went back to their respective beds. James waited until they were all seated and silent before beginning. “I know you’re not going to like what I’m saying, but I think all of you are at least partially right.”
“ What ?!” The three asked in unison.
“You all have good points! I mean, Remus is right. Emrys may very well have a good reason for keeping secrets and always being so sneaky. We don’t know the guy, and we haven’t even tried to give him a chance.” Remus sent a smug look at a scowling Peter over James' head, but James cut him off with his next sentence. “But Sirius is also right. Emrys is keeping secrets from us , and Sirius says he has a certain darkness about him. That he’s dangerous . If this was any other time, any other place, I wouldn't be so quick to judge, but look around, Moony. We're in the middle of a war; nobody can be trusted. Especially those who usually fight for of the opposing side.”
Peter sent a smug look at Remus.
“But with that being said,” James continued, “I still think something has to change.”
Peter snorted. “Yeah, we should stay away from the little creep even more.”
“Actually, I was thinking the opposite.”
Peter and Sirius looked at James as if he had grown another head. Remus, on the other hand, had a pleased look on his face.
“I think we should give him a chance. I’m not saying we should become best mates with him or anything, but I am saying we should try to be nice to him or at least tolerant of him. We know absolutely nothing about him! He could be good, or he could be evil, but I think we should wait until we actually know what his favorite colour is before we decree him as the next dark lord.”
“And what if he is the next dark lord?” Sirius growled.
James smirked. “You know what they say. Keep your friends close…”
“And your enemies closer,” Sirius finished with an almost malicious grin.
“You have to admit we would learn a lot more about him if we tried to be nice to him,” James said.
“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” Remus said speculatively, tilting his head thoughtfully.
“Slytherin sure is as annoying as a fly,” Peter grumbled.
James ignored him. “So, what do you say? We initiate Operation Cobra?”
“Operation Cobra?” Sirius asked, “What the hell is that?”
“You know,” James said uncertainly, “The plan to get close to Emrys? I thought Operation Cobra was a good name since he’s a Slytherin and a cobra’s a snake…”
The group was silent for a moment, before the quiet was interrupted by Remus chuckling. Within minutes, the entire group descended into a fit of giggles. When the giggles eventually faded, James asked again, “So, what do you say? Yes or no to Operation Cobra?”
Tension suddenly filled the room.
“I vote yes,” Remus said eventually.
“Well, I vote no!” Peter argued, “I don’t think we can trust the snake. It’s too dangerous.”
A look of frustration passed over Remus’ face, but James interrupted him before he could do or say anything stupid. “I vote yes. We need to know more about Emrys, and I think this is the only way.”
The three turned toward Sirius. He stared down at the floor, his head resting on his hand. James huffed quietly when he failed to read his friend’s face. It was completely blank, devoid of any and all emotion. The tension seemed to build in the room until, finally, Sirius straightened up. “I vote…” He paused and took a deep breath. “Yes. Which is completely against my better judgement.”
“What?!” Peter cried in shock.
Sirius shrugged. “What can I say? They convinced me. Bastards.”
Remus smiled slightly. “Thanks for giving him a chance, Siri.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Moony. It’s not exactly you I agree with,” Sirius warned, “I agree with James. It’s better to keep your enemies close, where you can keep an eye on them.”
The smile on Remus’ face faded.
James turned his attention back on Sirius. “You do realize, Pads, that you’re going to have to apologize to Emrys. You know that right?”
Sirius face went blank. “No. Not going to happen.”
“You have to, Sirius. I think you pushed him past the breaking point tonight. You’re going to have to apologize to him, if you even want to get close to him.”
“I was doing what was best for the team,” Sirius grumbled, crossing his arms.
“Well, then explain that to him.” He paused before tacking on, “But nicely.”
Sirius glared at his best friend before flopping down on his bed. “Fiiiinnnnnneeeee.”
“Ok…” James said, trying to keep from laughing, “Since we now have a plan of action, I say we all go to bed. We need to be at our best and brightest if we want Operation Cobra to work! Now, chop, chop, everyone! If we go to bed now…” James glanced down at his watch before muttering, “four hours to sleep before breakfast. Just great.”
The boys got ready for bed before they muttered their goodnights. James sighed in relief as he sunk into bed. Today had been so long , but maybe…maybe tomorrow would be better. He had a feeling that everything would turn out okay in the morning. James feel asleep quickly, relishing the warm feeling of hope.
James growled to himself as he stalked down the halls of Hogwarts. He had wanted to get to the Great Hall early so Emrys wouldn’t be able to sneak in and out before they got there, but noooo ! Sirius just had to get into an argument with the mirror when it said his hair was looking a little frizzy today! James huffed. The only person he knew who could get into a fight with an inanimate object.
“Hey, wait up, Prongs!” Remus called as jogged up to his friend, leaving Sirius and Peter to linger far behind them.
James slowed his steps, causing Remus to send him a thankful smile. The two were silent for a moment before Remus began to speak, “I just wanted to say thank you.”
“Thank you? For what?”
“Convincing the others to give Emrys a chance.”
James glanced at the werewolf out of the corner of his eye. “You do realize we’re not doing this entirely out of the goodness of our hearts, right? It goes both ways. He could be good, or he could be evil. We don’t know, and we need to fix that.”
Remus shoved his hands into his pockets. “I know. I know. I just wanted to give him a chance. I don’t know what I would do if he was trying to be good, but we never gave him the chance. You guys gave me a chance when no one else would. I just feel like we should do the same for him…”
James sighed and stopped. “Remus, you have to realize that not everybody is good. Some people are evil,” he paused before conceding, “But for what it’s worth, I’m not sure what I would do either.”
Silence descended between the two friends as they walked into the Great Hall, but the loud chatter of students quickly covered it, though. The two sat down in their usual spot and waited for Peter and Sirius to catch up to them. James winced when he noticed that some of the players on the Gryffindor quidditch team were looking at him warily. “Sirius better be working on a freaking good apology,” James grumbled to Remus.
“We’re talking about Sirius here,” Remus whispered back, “His idea of an apology is throwing money at something until it goes away.”
“What are you two talking about?” A voice asked in front of them, causing them to jump.
“Merlin, Padfoot, don’t scare us like that!”
Sirius shrugged. “A guy’s gotta get his kicks somewhere.”
James and Remus rolled their eyes simultaneously. “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.”
Peter bounded over to the table, his face red and shiny. “I curse whatever god gave you such long legs! I mean, seriously, would it kill you to walk slower?!”
“Just sit down, Wormtail,” James joked, “You look like you’re about to fall over.”
Peter rolled his eyes, but there was a smile on his lips as he did as James had suggested. Soon the group fell into the bantering and joking manner that prevaded through their lives. They laughed, joked, and talked while they ate, ignoring the fact that Remus seemed to scan the room every so often, his eyes never finding what he was searching for until long after they had stopped eating. He tensed before leaning over slightly to whisper to James, “We have a problem.”
“What are you talking about?” James whispered back, making sure not to attract any attention from their friends across the table.
Instead of answering, Remus simply nodded towards the door. Curious, James turned to look before he paled dramatically. There, standing in the doorway like they owned the place, was Hadrian Emrys-Slytherin, standing side by side with Regulus Black, Sirius’ little brother. But what had James worried, though, was the way they looked--a look he, himself, was very familiar with. The flushed faces, messy hair, and rumpled clothes all pointed to it. Suddenly, James noticed something that caused his eyes to widen. “Are--are they wearing each other’s clothes?”
Sure enough, the two were. It wasn’t very noticeable since, but if James looked hard enough he could make out the faint red line at the bottom of the jumper Regulus was wearing that signified it as a Gryffindor jumper.
“We can’t let Siri see this.”
Sirius blinked and looked at them curiously, obviously having heard the sentence. “See what?”
Remus and James’ eyes widened. “Nothing! Nothing at all!”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Come on, guys. It can’t be that bad,” he said before turning around. He froze when his eyes landed on his brother, every muscle in his body tensing.
After a moment’s pause, Remus and Sirius moved at the exact same time. Just as Sirius shot up from his seat, Remus flung himself across the table, sending plates clattering to the floor, and grabbed onto the back of Sirius’ shirt in order to keep him from moving. James cursed and quickly jumped the table and grabbed Sirius as well. “Come on, Padfoot. We need to get out of here before you do something stupid. Remember Operation Cobra? Don’t do something you can’t come back from.”
“He slept with him!” Sirius ground out as he fought against his friends’ hold.
“I know, but we can’t make a scene here. We need to go,” James tried to convince him.
Peter suddenly appeared by James’ shoulder. “Red alert. Teacher heading this way.”
James growled. “We’re leaving now .”
Together, the three of them forced Sirius towards the door, ignoring how he fought against their hold. As they shoved him out of the hall, James could only thank Merlin that Emrys and Black had already moved away towards a table; if they had still been standing in the doorway James didn’t know what he would have done. Sirius almost broke through his hold which pulled him out of his thoughts and back to the problem at hand. Quickly, the Marauders dragged their fourth member towards their dorm and away from what could turn into a potential homicide-- James just couldn’t figure out who Sirius wanted to kill: his brother for sleeping with someone he was convinced was using dark magic or Emrys for sleeping with his baby brother.