Disclaimer: Ok., you know, don't sue me, I'm not making any money.
Author note: I want to apologise for such a long time without updates. I explained everything in my profile, so I'm not going to repeat myself, but I want to say that I really am very sorry for keeping you waiting. This is un-betaed version of the chapter, I hope you won't mind my mistakes too much... Hopefully, proofread version will appear soon.
Chapter 18
For a moment it seemed as though everyone froze. They all stood staring at each other. The first person to move was Snape. He leaped suddenly in direction of his friends and enervated them with single spell. Than he dragged them away, dizzy and confused, not even sparing Harry one last glance.
For a while they all just watched himuntil finally Hermione came to her senses.
"Harry!" she said urgently. "I will deal with Snape, you go and fix everything with them."
She pointed at two Marauders and Harry shuddered at image of trying to explain everything to two hostile boys. It was not going to be easy.
"Harry," Hermione whispered, "do whatever it takes, even if you have to use some knowledge they don't expect you to have, do you understand?"
Harry's eyes widened with realization and he nodded, while Hermione run after Snape.
"You're going to let her go like this?" Ron asked with disbelief.
"No. You go with her, Ron. I'll manage here by myself."
Ron looked at Harry with worry, but the other boy urged him to go and so he followed their friend hastily.
Harry turned and saw three remaining people watching him with expressions varying from surprise to utter hatred. He inhaled deeply as if he was preparing himself for the battle. In a way the confrontation with three teenagers was much more terrifying to him then any danger he'd been through and that was saying something.
"Who the hell are you, Bradley?" James asked in low, dangerous voice.
"Harry? Can you explain this?" Lily added, her voice trembling with suppressed emotion. Harry stared at her for a moment inquiringly and felt wave of relief when he saw that although she was far from accepting, she didn't hate him.
"Lily..." he started slowly, thoughtfully. "Do you..." he wanted to ask if she trusted him, but suddenly it sounded so stupid. She knew him for less then a month and although they became fast friends, she had no reason presume that he really was innocent. He was a parselmouth, after all. And she knew that there were things about him, which he had kept from her.
He looked her in the eyes intently and said:
"Lily, I promise I will explain everything to you, but first I have to make sure that they won't blab about this to entire school. After this I will tell you as much as I can and you will decide whether you trust me or no, ok?"
Lily looked at him uncertainly, clearly not willing to go.
"Why can't you explain everything to as all at once, Bradley?" Sirius demanded, folding his arms on his chest. "Going to feed her with some lies? And afraid we will not be as easy to convince?"
Harry broke his eye contact with Lily and looked at two Marauders with determination on his face, taking a deep breath. However, before he had any chance to say anything, Lily erupted by his side.
"You assume he will lie, without even listening to what he has to say! You judge people unfairly, just because you are jealous!"
Sirius merely snorted at that, but James, seeing as Lily was defending Harry again, started to speak quietly, his voice soaking with anger.
"Fine for you to say that. As if you never, ever misjudged anyone!"
"I don't go around this school hexing people left and right just because they are from different house than mine! Or hating them day after I met them." Lily shouted. Than she saw James expression and she understood what exactly he meant by his words. "You meant yourself?" she asked in disbelief and then snorted loudly. "Honestly, Potter, I am not misjudging you! I had five years to get to know and I assure you, my opinion of you is justified. And your opinion of Harry is not."
James stared at Lily for a while, terrible hurt visible in his eyes. He opened his mouth, but then closed them without saying anything. He turned on his hill and would have marched away, if Sirius didn't grab him in last moment, saying:
"Oh, no, James. You stay here. We are not finished with Bradley yet. And you, Evans, you must have fallen on your head when you were young, really. He is a bloody parselmouth! Dark wizard! Does it ring any bell in this empty head of yours?"
"Padfoot!" James hissed angrily.
"You..." Lily started, her fists clenched as she glared at Sirius furiously. But she didn't have a chance to say anything more, because the Marauder simply took step forward and put hand on her mouth, blocking any sound.
"Look, flower, you will tell me how much you hate me later, now let's listen to pathetic lies that Bradley will produce to explain himself."
At that, Harry snorted.
"I am not going to explain myself to you," he stated simply. He paused for a while, as three teenagers gathered around him watched him speechless after this declaration. "I wanted to say this without Lily, but since you insist on her presence, than I guess it's your problem, not mine. What I want, is that you don't tell about this... situation anyone."
"You are raving mad, Bradley, if you think we are going to keep it quiet for you. Raving mad." Sirius said this with a vicious sneer, as if Harry's words amused him.
"I want you to keep it quiet not for me, but for Remus." Harry replied, hating himself for what he had to do. "I know why he was absent today. If you tell about me, I tell about him, simple."
Harry saw that his words hit the target, as both boys abruptly inhaled. Sirius was first to regain some control of himself.
"I don't know what you are talking about, Bradley. You are mental!" he tried to snort after that, but his voice was shaking and not at all convincing.
Harry had big lump in his throat as he forced the words that came next.
"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about, Padfoot." He emphasized the nickname and hoped that this would work. "I know about his illness. I know about the way you invented to help him. I know everything."
"You son of the bitch!" James erupted and leaped at Harry. It took all his Quidditch reflex to avoid the blow. James almost fell, but turned immediately and started charging at his son like a bull.
"Potter!" Lily shrieked, distressed. "Stop!"
But James took no notice and jumped at Harry again. He punched him in the stomach and Harry gasped as he lost his breath for a moment.
Lily screamed loudly.
Harry pointed his wand at James, but somehow couldn't bring himself to say any curse and would probably get bitten up like a pulp, if a stern voice didn't stop them all dead in their tracks.
"What is going on here?"
They all gaped at Professor McGonnagal, who stood there, with both hands on her hips, her eyes throwing daggers.
"I can't believe it! James Potter! I expected better of you, than to fight in a corridor like this! And you, Miss Evans! You are a prefect! You should have stopped it!"
Lily opened her mouth to say something in defense, but McGonnagal was not finished. "And you Black! Always in the center of every trouble!" Finally her attention traveled to Harry, who was still breathing heavily.
"Mr. Bradley, are you all right?"
Harry nodded, not quite able to say anything yet.
"Very well. You all have detention this evening! And twenty points from Gryffindor for each of you! Fighting like this!" With that she turned on her heels and strode away.
Harry couldn't help feeling that they got away relatively easily. As if she had something else on her mind...
For a moment all four of them just looked at each other, unable to say anything more. McGonnagal's sudden appearance gave them chance to calm at least a bit. It was Harry who spoke finally, sounding really tired know.
"Look, I don't want to fight, ok.? Let's make a deal. My silence for your silence, just like that."
James looked as if he was considering the proposition for a moment. He glanced towards Lily, who just stared at them wide-eyed, clearly not understanding what was going on.
But Sirius had none of it. He took a step forward, his fists clenched.
"You think you will get away with this like that, Bradley? You think you can blackmail us? I swear to you, you will regret this. We are not going to keep it quiet. Remus... he did nothing wrong! And you, you are freaking parselmouth! We SAW you on Saturday! And we know that someone from Hogwarts was involved in the attack!"
He paused for a breath, while Harry's was desperately trying to figure out something to make them believe him.
"Look..." he started. "I- I don't know what to say. I don't want to blackmail you, I just can't let everyone know about this... Can you at least wait? Can we talk about it later?" When Hermione is back, Harry added silently. She would know how to convince them...
"Later?" Sirius asked incredously. "Later! After you run away to You-Know-Who? After you kill another person? Fat chance of that!"
Harry took step back under Sirius' accusatory stare.
"I haven't killed anyone..." he said silently. "I... I know how it looks. You guys have no reason to trust me, I understand that. Let's go somewhere more private, to our dorm for example? I will try to explain everything. If you don't believe me, we will go straight to Dumbledore, I promise. I just... It's really complicated."
James and Sirius looked at each other, unsure what to make of this new proposition. Was it some sort of trap?
Lily saw their expressions and decided to take matters in her own hands.
"I don't know what Harry was on about, but if I understand correctly, it's something very unpleasant about Remus' absences, right? You don't want it public. So I think it would be much better if we did as Harry said, for all concerned".
She took Harry's and Sirius hand, not bothering about surprised looks all three boys sent in her direction and simply dragged them behind her. James followed.
Hermione barely managed to catch up with Snape and other Slytherins.
"Wait!" she shouted, wand in her hand.
"What do you want?" Snape answered warily, too confused by all that happened to actually act in his usual charming way.
"I... have you told them?" she asked.
"What bussiness of yours it is?" he retorted, instead of replying.
"Please, just answer my question!" she almost shouted. In any other circumstances Snape would sneer at her and laugh in her face, refusing to do anything a Gryffindor mudblood demanded. But now... her brother was a parselmouth. Severus just didn't know what to think. Slowly, he shook his head.
"Good." Hermione said and before Severus ahd chance to do anything she shoot stunning spell at Nott. Van Hollen took out his wand and was about to send some curse at the girl, when someone behind shouted: "Petrificus Totalus".
"Ron?" Hermione shouted, turning around. "You left Harry? But..."
"He'll manage, Hermione, he's been through worse. And I was not going to let you stay alone with this git." Ron replied simply. Hermione huffed at the implied suggestion that she wouldn't manage to deal with few Slytherins, but then Snape finally gathered his wits and shoot a disarming spell at her. Her wand flew rapidly to dark haired boy and Hermione lost balance, but Ron caught her in last moment with his left hand. He held her and in exactly the same moment he pointed his wand at Snape and shouted:
"Accio Hermione's wand."
Spell worked and soon enough Hermione was armed again. Ron, however, didn't let her go.
Snape watched them both for a while, suddenly scared of what they wanted from him. He held his wand steadily, ready to defend himself if necessary.
"Snape," Hermione said. "I want to ask you not to repeat what you saw to anyone. I know that it's a lot, but please... It's important." She looked at him searchingly.
"Why should I do it?" Snape asked with a snort.
Hermione watched him for a moment and then spoke.
"We could help you if you help us. For example, with revenge on Potter and Black. We don't like them, you don't like them – we could join our efforts for one, good prank. And to have them leave you alone..."
Slytherin stared at her, clearly surprised by her proposition. However, before he had a chance to answer, Ron suddenly let Hermione go and looked at her as if she had gone mad.
"Are you crazy, Hermione? You are going to trust him with this? He is bloody Death Eater in training! He will tell You-Know-Who, that's what you should worry about, not if he spreads it around the school or not!"
"Ron!" Hermione shouted. "Shut up! Are you crazy, talking about this?"
Snape slowly advanced to them, his wand lowered.
"How... how do you know that name?" he asked uncertainly.
Ron blinked in surprise, not understanding what Snape was talking about, but Hermione elbowed him in the ribs and started to talk, before Ron had a chance to say anything stupid.
"How do you think, Snape?" she asked in a silky voice. "It's rather obvious, isn't it?"
Snape gaped at her, his eyes wide like saucers, but Hermione didn't let him say anything.
"Now, this was to remain secret, so I trust you will not talk about what you witnessed to anyone, am I making myself clear? Our Lord would not be pleased. And by anyone, I mean your friends here as well!"
"Yes..." Snape replied shakily, to stunned to say anything.
"Good. Now go! We are heading back too."
And with that, Hermione turned around, dragging bewildered Ron with her.