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Fight on the Dungeon Stairs


It took James just about three minutes to realize he was sorry for being a prat toward Sirius and to decide what he ought to have done was told Sirius about his meeting with McGonagall in a more detailed fashion, rather than stewing about it and worrying all on his own. He sighed and got up, picking up his Transfiguration book and tossing it onto his bed, hoping the bent up pages would work themselves out eventually. He grabbed his invisibility cloak and jogged down the steps, slipping out the door without any questions from Remus or Peter He had to find Sirius.

James ran down the stairs, keeping a listen out for Sirius’s loud voice - he couldn’t have gotten too far from the common room, James hadn’t waited that long to come after him - but Sirius seemed to have disappeared. It was quite frustrating.

He was all the way down to the second floor before he did hear voices and though one of the voices did sound an awful lot like Sirius’s, it took James only a moment to realize it was Sirius’s brother, Regulus, and another boy. James quickly swept himself into an alcove and out of the way of their path down the corridor, the invisibility cloak covering him up.

“...so he’s staying at my place back in London,” Regulus was saying, “Kreature was telling me loads about it, says he’s been serving him while he’s there. My house elf! Serving the Dark Lord!”

James held his breath to keep from making a noise of shock. Voldemort was staying at Sirius’s house?!

“That’s cool,” said the second boy. They’d just turned the corner and were standing in the pale torch lights before James. The second boy was also a first year - James recognized him from the sorting, though he couldn’t recall the straw-haired boy’s name.

Regulus nodded enthusiastically - it was eerie to James how similar to Sirius he looked - “Kreacher’s been very busy because the Dark Lord has a lot of things for him to do. Mother and Father have, too. They’re trying to find all the blood traitors, you see, and the world’s just lousy with them.”

“With blood traitors?” the second boy asked.

“Oh yes,” Regulus replied. They’d passed James now and were continuing on down the corridor. “And it’s very bad because wizards have royal blood, see. We’re meant to be rulers over the muggles. If the Dark Lord had his way, all the muggles would be like House Elves. It’s the blood traitors’ fault that things aren’t in their proper place, see, and so he needs to fix it. But it’s because of bad wizards like that Potter man…”

James had been going to stay where he was and just let the two little Slytherin brats go but then he heard his name and he sprang after them. If Regulus knew something about the Dark Lord’s plans for his father, perhaps James would overhear it and he could run and tell McGonagall… He scurried as quietly as possible after them, keeping to the wall to stay out of the way. It was nearly time for everyone to be in their common rooms by now anyway, the boys had to be on their way back to the dungeons or else they’d end up in Filch’s grasp.

James caught up just as they were reaching the moving staircase and luckily managed to hitch a ride on the same sweeping set of stairs.

“...but the house is unplottable, so it’s been very hard going at it,” Regulus was still saying.

“And what do they do when they catch a blood traitor?” the second boy was asking.

“They punish them, of course,” Regulus said off handedly. The way he said it, James got the impression that perhaps Regulus was under the impression that the Dark Lord was keen to serve time outs to those who crossed him, rather than a killing curse. Regulus continued, “They need to learn their rightful place. Their heads aren’t screwed on just right, see, so the Dark Lord teaches them a lesson and they’re smarter for it.”

The other boy nodded, “They need to learn somehow. Makes sense. My dad punishes me when I don’t do things right. Sounds like the Dark Lord plans to be sort of like the father wizard and teach everyone right from wrong and help everybody and stuff, yeah?”

“Sort of, yeah,” Regulus nodded.

“It’s sort of brilliant, then,” the other boy said. “And we can help?”

“Yes, of course, we can gather information - loads of information - just by being observant about the school. I talked to Avery, you know, the seventh year? I told him we was interested in joining the Knights and he said we were welcome and to start now in collecting information to pass to the Dark Lord that’ll prove we’re really going to work hard to help.”

They’d reached the bottom floor by now and James followed as the two of them slunk along the corridor and down the grand staircase, headed for the doorway to the Slytherin dungeons. There was a faint echoing from the Great Hall - sloshing water, the slap of a mop, and Argus Filch muttering. James crept extra carefully along behind them, afraid his footsteps would echo and give him away. He couldn’t stop following now, with Regulus talking about the Slytherin students involvement in the Dark Lord’s plans. He was repeating the information he’d already learned in his head… Germaine Avery was in on it, there was something to join called the Knights, and they were collecting information that they were giving to the Dark Lord somehow… Did they have new double-sided mirrors? Or had they found some new way to communicate with the Dark Lord now?

“I’ve got a quite excellent bit of information to pass along when the time comes,” Regulus boasted, “And the Dark Lord will really love me for it when I give it to him. I’ll be instantly made a Death Eater and I’ll be his very favorite one, too.”

“You do?” the other boy sounded very impressed, “What is it?”

Regulus looked quite excited and they paused there in the doorway of the dungeons. He looked about to make sure they were quite alone and listened for Filch for a moment, to be sure he was still muttering to himself in the Great Hall. Regulus lowered his voice so that he was practically listening and James had to lean in closer himself in order to hear him. “I’ve got a whole stack of letters sent to my brother, Sirius, by his friends… including letters from the Potter boy, sent from his home. It includes the address to the place, which may not be very helpful as I doubt he’s their secret keeper, but there’s other stuff, too. There’s names of people in the Resistance in there and there are letters from a mudblood, too - that Lily Evans girl in Gryffindor. Plus… I know things about his friends that would make your skin crawl to hear.”

James’s stomach knotted up.

Suddenly there was a great crashing sound and Sirius had leaped out of the dark in the tunnel leading down to the dungeons. He landed a top his brother, pegging him to the flagstones. The other boy looked on with wildly shocked eyes for a moment before dashing toward the Great Hall to get Filch. “Petrificus Totalus,” James shot the spell after the second boy, stopping him from getting Filch, who had apparently somehow missed the commotion in the hallway, for the sound of his mop was still echoing out into the hallway. James tugged the invisibility cloak off and rushed to Sirius’s side.

Sirius was straddling his brother’s chest, holding Regulus’s arms to the floor. “Give me my letters,” he snarled.

“No,” Regulus replied.

Sirius released one of Regulus’s hands, leaning back so the boy’s slapping and grabbing was useless, and pulled out his wand. He aimed it right for Regulus’s face. “I’ll hex you, Reg, don’t think for a second I won’t.”

Regulus glared up at him. “I couldn’t give them to you even if I wanted to, I haven’t got them with me.” His eyes shifted to the tip of Sirius’s wand, “And besides, you wouldn’t dare.”

Sirius pressed his wand into Regulus’s cheek, “You think I wouldn’t but --”

“I’d tell Mother.”

“I’m not afraid of Mother.”

Regulus laughed, “Yes you are! I heard you crying in your sleep when you were at home over summer. Whimpering and whining - oh mummy, daddy, why do you hate me?” Regulus imitated in a high voice.

Sirius’s eyes flashed with violated anger. “I don’t say that!”

“In your sleep, you say a lot of things,” murmured Regulus. “I know about the wolf.” Sirius’s wand arm was shaking, keeping it aimed at Regulus’s face. “You’re weak,” Regulus snapped. “If you were going to hex me you would’ve done it by now, so get off me.”

There was a sound as Filch finished up his mopping and they could hear his shuffling gait as he started toward them, dragging the bucket and mop. James checked his watch - it was after time they should’ve left the halls. Filch was probably on his way to start his rounds.

“You can’t tell anyone about my private stuff,” Sirius hissed, leaning closer to his brother, letting the wand fall away from his aim. “You can’t. You don’t even understand. You’re in way over your head.”

Regulus whispered, “Are you going to make it worth my efforts in keeping my mouth shut then?”

Sirius glowered, “How?”

Regulus shrugged, “I’ll think of a way and let you know… hopefully it doesn’t slip before I come up with something…”

Sirius looked truly concerned. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Would I?”

“You’re weak, too,” Sirius snapped, “If you were going to - you would’ve done already.”

“Or would I?” Regulus asked slyly. He smiled, “Perhaps I was just waiting for the right time so I could get something from it in return?”

Sirius hit him. His hand came across Regulus’s face and Regulus used the opportunity of having both of Sirius’s hands free to flip them over and the next thing they were rolling and they’d spilled down the dungeon stairs, over something wet that sank into Regulus’s robes and crunching over broken bottles and thundered down to the foot of the steps, where they hit the far wall and fell into a sort of wrestling match. Filch was about to come through the door by now and James ran down the steps after them, leaving the other boy alone on the floor in the Great Hall. James tugged the invisibility cloak on over his shoulders, hoping it would make him invisible from behind, and he hurried to where Sirius and Regulus were. “We gotta get out of here,” James said, grabbing Sirius’s arm, “Filch is coming.”

James pulled Sirius out of the fight, dragging him down the hall.

“Don’t you bloody say anything!” Sirius hissed, fighting against James’s grasp.

Regulus’s voice was even as he stood up, bleeding from the corner of the mouth, “Perhaps I tell the Dark Lord tonight and tomorrow your wolf friend is expelled and your Potter friend’s house is nothing but smoke and ashes and your mudblood girlfriend is serving the Dark Lord his drinks and supper in a toga like a house elf?”

Sirius’s shock was such that James was able to purchase a good bit of space between the brothers, headed for the steps that would lead out of the dungeons, their feet crunching over broken glass. Sirius’s voice was a bit defeated as he snapped, “What do you want from me?!”

Regulus grinned. “I’ll let you know, brother, in good time.”

James got the cloak over them and pulled Sirius away while Filch was inspecting the other boy’s stiff body in the Great Hall. He dragged him along up the stairs and they were all the way up, almost to Gryffindor tower, before James turned to look at Sirius. “Your brother’s a real blighter.”

Sirius’s jaw was set, angry tears in his eyes.

“What the bloody hell were you doing in the ruddy dungeons?” James demanded.

Sirius took a deep breath, “Getting potion ingredients.”

“What for?” James demanded, “You aren’t going to make more Draught of Change are you? You need to make sure you can even take more of that stuff before you go making it again. It might do something awful if you take too much of it, you don’t know.”

“Right, I don’t know because I’m a ruddy idiot, I s’pose, right?” Sirius snapped, “You didn’t want anything to do with it earlier because I don’t do it right, remember? So why don’t you butt out now as well?”

James shoved Sirius against the wall. “I just helped you, if you don’t remember.”

“You could’ve helped me force him to give us back the letters or something instead of hauling me off!” Sirius yelled, shoving James back so that he stumbled and nearly hit a suit of armor. “You realize that little toerag could go to the Dark Lord and give him all our secrets at any time? Just a click of his fingers and our filthy house elf is here and collecting all the information he needs to go and tell the Dark Lord everything! About Remus and Lily and your Dad! And you pulled me away before I could stop him!”

“You weren’t hexing him, he was right, he was just mocking you!” James shouted.

Sirius looked so angry he could’ve popped. He turned and stormed toward the portrait hole, not wanting to look at James for even another second.

Sirius and James didn’t talk for the rest of the evening. Upon their return to the dormitory, James went right to bed and kept his back turned to Sirius’s bed. Sirius did the same, keeping his back to James as he laid in bed, seething and worrying long into the night.




James had funny dreams that night. He was in the Forbidden Forest and he was walking through the darkness, in the form of a stag. He had been walking miles and miles and miles in his dream, and the Forbidden Forest was seemingly unending, until suddenly it did end and he was in the field behind his house and there was a terrific thunderstorm hitting, purple-white electricity tearing holes in the sky. He walked and walked but he couldn’t see the house through the rain and then there was a horrible fog he was prancing through. The fog was filling his senses, choking him, and he coughed and suddenly he realized he was a human again, but the antlers were still there, and he was running and getting nowhere and the fog was turning to thick black smoke and there was fire licking the edges of his vision. From some place in the smoke he heard his father calling him, but he couldn’t tell where from and every time he turned toward the voice, it seemed to come from somewhere else, punctuated by a trilling, high-pitched laugh that seemed to echo - Lord Voldemort’s laugh, like from that night in First Year, when his manic laughter had filled the trees… “Dad!” James bellowed, “DAD!”

He sat up in bed so fast that he managed to spin himself out of the bed and onto the floor, smacking his head against the nightstand. He curled himself into a tight knot, hugging his knees to his chest as there was a general sound of movement around him in the dark, followed by the lights in the room coming up and soon Remus, Peter, and Sirius were all looking down at him with wide eyes.

“Are you alright?” Sirius asked, concern outweighing his anger with James.

James shook his head.

“He’s broken his glasses,” Peter observed.

It was true, James had knocked the frames from the nightstand in his fall and landed on them and crushed the glass to a billion pieces. Remus took them up, “Reparo,” he said, tapping them with his wand and the pieces flew back into the frame, good as new. “Here you are, mate, put these on.”

James took the glasses, hands shaking, and shoved them up onto his face.

“It’s okay,” Sirius said, getting down on the floor beside his friend and looking up at him, “It’s alright. Whatever it was was just a dream… You’re alright, mate.”

James shook his head, “My dad. My dad… Voldemort was there -- and there was fire… and he was calling me and I couldn’t find him, there was so much smoke and the thunderstorm was so bloody loud and my horns… Blimey the horns were so heavy, I couldn’t find him, you know? But Voldemort - and he was calling me - I could’ve helped, I didn’t...” James was blubbering.

“It was a dream,” Sirius said.

“Good luck to Lily mucking through that one in Divination,” whispered Peter.

“I’m not bloody telling Lily about my nightmare!” James shouted and he hucked a pillow in Peter’s direction.

Peter dodged it. “Woah! Don’t be angry with me!”

Sirius grabbed James’s hands, “Here, c’mon, let’s go downstairs.” He looked at Remus and Peter, “We’ll go downstairs.”

Remus nodded, “C’mon Peter, we can go back to bed.”

“But I want to help,” Peter whined.

“I don’t think we can, mate,” Remus said quietly, “Let Sirius have a go. C’mon.” Peter frowned and watched as Sirius pulled James up to his feet and draped him over his shoulders and led the way down the stairs to the common room.

“I thought they were fighting, though?” Peter asked, confused.

Remus shrugged, “Sometimes that’s how it works with mates… there’s stuff that’s more important than the fights so you just… sort of make up, I guess.”

Peter shrugged and crawled back into bed.