PhoenixSong.net :: A Harry/Ginny Fanfic and Fanart Archive

Author: pottervader

Story: Harry Potter and the Prophesized Six

Part: 23: Consequences of a prank

Rating: Teens

Setting: AU

Status: WIP

Reviews: 18

Words: 5,843

Updated: February 4, 2008, 6:48pm

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23: Consequences of a prank

Disclaimer: This story was made without any intention of profiting from it. Only the original characters and the plot are mine. The rest of it belongs to JKR.

A/N: Hey, everyone! I’m sorry for the long wait with this chapter. I had little time to write after Christmas. Hopefully, you’ll like this chapter. Oh, the prank on Ti was inspired by the one the Weasley brothers did on Harry in Jeconais’ story “This means war!” which I absolutely loved. Enjoy the chapter. I hope I don’t take too long with the next one.

Ti ran up the main staircase to Gryffindor Tower as fast as he could. He angrily brushed aside the tears forming on his eyes, random thoughts whirling in his mind.

That was so humiliating… How did they do that? I can’t believe they did that to me….. I thought they were my friends… They’re obviously siding with Rose… Draco never did anything like that to me…

He finally arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady.

“My goodness,” the Fat Lady said, staring in surprise at him, “What are you doing wandering around like that? How did you get out here anyway? You certainly didn’t pass through me.”

“Never mind that,” Ti said angrily, “Just let me in!”

“Well, I was just being concerned,” the portrait said, looking disdainfully at him.

“I don’t care,” Ti said, “Just open up!”

The Fat Lady glared at him. “Password?”

“Fine,” Ti shouted. “Simba!” He entered the common room as soon as the portrait flipped open and ran up to his dorm, ignoring the sniff of disdain from the Fat Lady. He quickly put on some clothes and finished packing his trunk. He didn’t feel like eating now and just wanted very much to get on the train.

When he managed to get his trunk down the staircase, he heard the sound of shouting outside the entrance to the Tower.

Bugger! I don’t want to see anyone right now.

Resigning to the fact that he’d see whoever it was when he opened the portrait hole to leave, he pushed the portrait open. He was surprised to see Draco outside arguing with the Fat Lady.

“Hi,” Draco said. “I saw what happened in the Great Hall. I just wanted to see if you were all right.”

“How can I be all right?” Ti asked bitterly. “I’ve just been humiliated in front of the entire school by my so-called friends.” He started walking down the corridor toward the staircase, dragging his trunk. He suddenly felt the weight shift and looked to see Draco lifting the other end of the trunk.

“I thought you could use some help with this thing,” he said.

“Er, thanks,” Ti said. “I wanted to get to the train before anyone else. Maybe I can lock myself in one of the compartments.”

“Why don’t you join me, Ti?” Draco asked. “We could share a compartment together.”

“You really mean it?” Ti asked. “I mean, you want me to share a compartment with you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Draco said. “I know I chased you off the first time you rode the train years ago. I’m sorry for that. I’d really like us to be together today on the train ride back to London, seeing as we won’t see each other during the break since we don’t know where you and Sirius live.”

“Oh, yeah,” Ti said. “Yeah, you don’t. Um, okay. I’ll join you on the train.”

“Great,” Draco said, smiling at him.

As they descended the stairs, they saw James coming up towards them.

“Mr. Malfoy,” James said, nodding his head to Draco before turning to Ti. “Ti, I was just coming up to see how you’re doing?”

“What did you expect, Professor?” Ti asked coolly. “How do you think I’d be after being humiliated in front of the entire bloody school?”

“I’m sorry that happened, Ti,” James said. “No one should have that done to them, no matter if some people think they deserve it.”

“It’s funny you’d think that way, Professor,” Ti said. “I’ve heard you did similar things to other people when you were here years ago.”

James flushed. “Look, I’m not proud of some of the things I did when I was a student. But this is different. I’m not happy you hurt Rose by breaking up with her but I’d never condone something like that.”

“Maybe you wouldn’t but apparently THEY thought otherwise,” Ti said. “Now if you’ll excuse me and MY BROTHER, we need to get to the train station.”

He pushed past James who didn’t stop him and started walking down the stairs. Draco didn’t say anything and let him alone, for which Ti was grateful. They soon arrived at the Entrance Hall. Several trunks were already beside the doors, ready for the house elves to take them to the station. They left Ti’s trunk with the rest.

“You go on ahead to the train station,” Draco told Ti. “I still have to get my things and I can’t really let you into the dungeons.”

“Right,” Ti said. “Okay. I’ll see you there.” He headed out the doors to the grounds. Draco watched him for a few seconds before heading down the stairs to the Dungeons.

*******

Harry stood just inside the doors of the Great Hall as he watched Ti exit the Entrance Hall doors and Draco walk down to the Dungeons. Ginny was standing right behind him.

“Harry, shouldn’t you go after Ti?” Ginny asked him.

“Not right now, Gin,” he answered her. “He looks pretty upset. It looks like even Dad couldn’t talk to him. I hate leaving him to Draco but I doubt he’d be receptive to even me right now.”

“I know what you mean. That was one of the most awful pranks I’ve ever seen. I can understand it if he doesn’t speak to any of us for a long time.”

“I just hope it won’t be that long. Whatever happened between him and Rose, he’s still our friend. I just wish Ron, George and Fred hadn’t succeeded with their prank.”

“I feel the same way, love. Come on. We’d better get our stuff so we can get to the train ourselves.”

“Yeah, we’d better do that.”

Harry and Ginny went back to Gryffindor Tower and their respective dorms to retrieve their trunks. Once they had, they headed out of the Tower, ignoring Ron and the twins when they passed them just outside the portrait hole. After dropping off their trunks at the Entrance Hall, they headed out of the castle towards Hogsmeade and the station.

They got on the train and found an empty compartment near the back of the train. Rose, Neville, Hermione and Maggie soon joined them. The Potters and Hermione talked about seeing their younger siblings again especially since they hadn’t been able to go home to celebrate said sibling’s 2^nd birthdays.

Just as the train hooted its horn to signal its leaving the station, the compartment door was opened by three arguing redheads.

“We should have been here ages ago, Ron,” one of the Weasley twins said, “if you hadn’t taken so long to pack.”

“Well, Fred, I was busy with my part of the prank last night so I wasn’t able to pack,” Ron said as he closed the compartment door behind them. He turned around and found the rest of the compartment’s occupants glaring at him. “Oops! Hehe, um, yeah, sorry, won’t mention it again.”

He nervously sat down beside Hermione who slid down the seat a bit further from him. Ron sighed and sat back, sulking.

The compartment was silent for a good ten minutes as the train got underway. Finally, Rose spoke up.

“All right, I suppose it’s time to tell the rest of you what happened when Ti and I broke up.”

Harry quickly put up strong locking, silence and repelling charms on the doors of the compartment.

Rose nodded gratefully to him before continuing. “Before I start, I want you guys to remember that Ti has been treated better by Draco since the beginning of the year than he’s ever been before. It’s made him a lot happier. However, I overheard something on the morning of the day we broke up.” She told them about the conversation she had overheard between Draco and Pansy followed by her confrontation with Ti, leading up to his breaking it off with her.

“He broke it off just because of Malfoy?” Ron said. “What kind of a reason is that? We should have done something better on him.”

“Ron,” Rose exclaimed, “he was upset, okay?”

“Why should he be upset?” Ron asked, confusion adding to his anger. “From what he’s said in the past, that’s the way Malfoy’s always treated him. He needs another lesson to show him his mistake. I suggest we hang him by his balls from one of the windows of Potter Manor.”

SMACK! The sound of the slap echoed in the compartment and the other males winced in sympathy.

“Hermione,” Ron cried, placing a hand against his injured cheek. The red imprint of Hermione’s hand was clearly visible there. “What the hell did you do that for?”

“You shut up right now, Ron,” Hermione said, “or we’re through. Put yourself in his shoes. Suppose it were you and one of your brothers, say Percy.”

Ron scowled. “Don’t mention that git’s name. I’d be more than willing to prank that bloody idiot.”

“All right, not Percy then,” Hermione said, sighing. “What if Charlie or Bill had made fun of you all your life then suddenly started to be nice to you? Wouldn’t you be grateful for that?”

“But Bill or Charlie would never do that,” Ron said.

“Just pretend, Ron,” Hermione said, clearly exasperated. “What if Fred and George pranked you everyday for years and always got away with it then one day, they stopped with the pranks and even treated you nicely? How would you feel if someone told you they’re just pretending to be nice to you before they do something really nasty to you?”

Ron thought about it for a moment. “I guess I’d really be upset. Of course, I’d be more upset at the twins than the person who warned me.”

“Well, that’s probably because their pranks are more embarrassing than harmful,” Hermione said.

“Well, for your information,” Rose said, “in Ti’s case, Draco was always hurtful and mean to him. All Ti has ever wanted was to be treated like a real brother by Draco. It seemed like it was coming true since the start of school this year. To think that it all wasn’t true would be devastating to him.”

“So to keep it from coming true, he denies it,” Harry said.

“Exactly,” Hermione said. “He doesn’t want his dream shattered so he refuses to believe us. He’s so upset that he lashed out at the person who suggested that his dream was not really coming true.”

“Wow,” Neville said. “That’s really heavy.”

“So do you think Malfoy’s just pretending to be good to Ti?” Harry asked.

“He might be,” Hermione said. “But he and I had a small talk earlier in the week.”

“You and Malfoy talked,” Ron asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier? He could have hexed you.”

Hermione snorted. “Oh, come on, Ron, I doubt he could get the drop on me with all the training we’ve been doing. Anyway, he called out to me last Monday while I was coming from the library while the rest of you were at the Quidditch pitch.” She told them of the conversation she had with Draco.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Ron said, “Don’t tell me you believe him, Hermione.”

“Well, I think we should at least give him a chance, Ron,” Hermione said. “It might help us get Ti back.”

“Do we really want Ti back?” Ron whined.

“Ron,” Neville said, “you don’t want him around because he’s the closest any of us have come to beating you in wizard’s chess.”

“That’s not true,” Ron protested. He stopped for a moment as the others were giving him skeptical looks. “Well, he still hasn’t beaten me. Does anyone know where he is anyway?”

“I think I saw him in one of the compartments near the front,” Neville said. He scowled as he added, “I think Draco was in there as well.”

“You see,” Ron said, “there’s the proof he’s working with Malfoy. We really ought to prank both of them”

“That’s it,” Ginny exclaimed. She quickly whipped out her wand and shouted, “Chiropterus mucus!”

Ron screamed as bat-shaped bogeys came out of his nose and started flapping around his head and attacking him. “Ginny!” he shouted as he clawed at the bogeys.

“You prat!” Ginny said, “How can you say that? That stupid prank is the reason he’s with Draco. He thinks all of us were in on that. He’s already been avoiding us. You just made it worse. Whatever he did to Rose, he’s still our friend. He just made one mistake. That’s no reason to turn on him.”

The twins moved away from Ron as they warily kept an eye on Ginny and her wand as if they were afraid she’d hex them too. After all, they had been in on the prank with Ron. The others just kept still and watched Ron trying to get rid of the bat bogeys.

Finally, Harry said to Ginny, “That’s enough, Gin. I think he’s learned his lesson.”

Ginny turned to Harry, defiance in her eyes for a few seconds before she turned back to Ron and cancelled the spell. She then sat down stiffly beside Harry, eyeing Ron carefully as he lay on the floor catching his breath.

“Fine,” Ron said. “We won’t prank them.” He turned his head towards Ginny, and asked, “Happy, now?”

“I would be happier if you and those two,” she pointed with her thumb at Fred and George, “hadn’t pranked Ti in the first place.”

Ron grunted. He wiped the remains of the bogeys from his face then gingerly got up and sat down beside Hermione.

“All right,” Ron said, “I’m sorry for that, okay?”

“It shouldn’t be us you’re apologizing to, Ron,” Rose said. “It should be to Ti.”

Ron sighed. “I guess you’re right.” He then pointed at Fred and George. “They should apologize as well. They’re the ones who came up with stuff we used to prank Ti.”

“Why you…” Fred said.

“…lousy tattletale,” George said.

“You’re the one…” Fred said.

“…who decided…” George said.

“….what to do to Ti,” the twins finished together.

“It doesn’t matter who did what in your little scheme,” Ginny said. “It was petty and cruel, so all three of you will apologize to Ti or I’m telling Mum what you did.”

Ron, Fred and George’s faces whitened at the threat. Their mother had as much affection for the former Malfoy scion as she had for Harry, Hermione and her own children. She would skin them alive if she found out the kind of prank they had pulled on Ti. All three nodded dumbly, afraid to speak.

Harry then released the spells on the doors. Fred and George mumbled something about finding Lee Jordan before quickly leaving the compartment. The rest of the compartment’s occupants settled down for the long ride back to London. Neville, Maggie and Rose started a game of Exploding Snap while Harry and Ginny sat cuddled together watching them. Hermione pulled out a book to read and kept a distance from Ron who sighed and settled back to watch the countryside slip by.

The sun was low in the west when the train slipped into King’s Cross Station. Harry saw that there were a lot of Aurors visible on the platform. It seemed Fudge was finally thinking of the safety of the students.

The students started disembarking as soon as it slid to a halt. Harry and his friends stepped on the platform and started to look for Ti. They spotted him ten feet away from them, slowly walking towards Sirius.

Ginny gave Ron a significant look. The tall redhead sighed and walked quickly after the younger boy. Harry and the others followed to make sure Ron kept his promise. The twins passed them and caught up to Ron.

“Hey, Ti,” Ron called.

Ti turned around. His eyes widened on seeing who had called his name. “W-what do you want?” he asked, clearly fearful though he didn’t back away from the three tall redheads.

“Um, we just want to say we were wrong to do that to you,” Ron said, looking down at the ground.

“We were just upset over …” Fred said.

“….your break-up with Rose,” George said.

“See, she’s like a sister to us,” Ron said. “We really don’t like to see our sister hurt like that.”

“So we wanted to give you…” Fred said.

“….a little payback for that,” George said.

“But, now that we thought about it,” Ron said, “Maybe we did too much.”

“Yeah, that prank was…” Fred said.

“….totally overboard,” George said.

“So we’re very sorry for doing that to you,” all three Weasley boys said together.

Ti looked uncertainly at the three redheads. “Give me some time to think about it,” Ti said. “It was one of the most embarrassing things to happen to me. Not even Draco did something like that to me.”

“All right,” Fred said.

“We’ll accept that,” George added.

“Speaking of Draco,” Ron said, “I can’t believe you broke up with Rose over that git. He’s not worth it, Ti.”

“Why not?” Ti asked. “He’s my brother.”

“He may have the same parents as you do,” Ron said, “but he hasn’t treated you like one before. What makes you think he wants to now? Rose told us everything and I agree with her. He’s up to something and you’ll only get hurt.”

Ti glared angrily at him. “That’s not true. He’s been good to me for the last six months. Whatever Rose thought she heard, she was wrong. He’s changed. I thought you’d be happy for me like real friends would. I can see I was wrong.” He turned around and started to walk away.

“Ti, wait,” Rose said.

Just then, Sirius came up to them. “Sorry I’m late, Ti. I had to change some nappies.” His face screwed up for a moment in disgust. “Who knew babies could make such a mess?”

“That’s all right, Sirius,” Ti said. “I’m done here. Can we go now? I can’t wait to see Sam and my new sister.” He started walking towards the barrier.

“Sure,” Sirius said. He turned to the other teens. “Hey, guys. I’d like to stay a bit but someone seems to be in a hurry.” He seemed to notice the tenseness of Harry and the others. He looked at Ti’s retreating figure for a moment before looking back at them, especially Rose. “Is something wrong? Rose, anything going on I should know?”

Rose sighed. “I guess it’ll come out anyway. Ti broke up with me almost two months ago.”

“What?” Sirius exclaimed. “Why? Did you two have a fight?”

“I guess we did,” Rose said. “Dad already knows. I’m a bit surprised he didn’t tell you. Um, you’d better go after Ti.”

“Huh,” Sirius said. “Oh, yeah, um, I’ll talk to you guys later.” He took off after Ti.

Rose turned to Ron, glaring at him. “Thanks a lot, Ron. What possessed you to say that? You’ve just made it worse.”

Ron sighed and his shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry. I just wanted him to see how wrong he is about Malfoy.”

“Ron,” Hermione said, “I thought you’d agreed with giving Draco a chance.”

“What?” Ron asked, “And give him a way to get at us? No way. I don’t trust him, Hermione.”

“Fine,” Hermione huffed. “Be that way. I see my parents over there. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” She moved away from them, not bothering to say goodbye to Ron.

“Ow,” Ron said, having felt a hand slap the back of his head. He turned around to find Ginny glaring at him. Ginny’s impending rant was stopped by the arrival of Molly and Lily.

“What’s going on here?” Molly asked. “Ginevra, why did you slap your brother’s head?”

“Because he was being a git, Mum,” Ginny answered, still glaring at Ron. “He almost had another argument with Hermione right after he tried to pick a fight with Ti.”

“For Merlin’s sake, Ronald, why did you want to fight with Ti?” Molly said. “He’s such a sweet boy.”

“Sweet boy, my arse,” Ron muttered before continuing in a louder voice. “That sweet boy broke up with Rose, Mum.”

“Oh my,” Molly said. She pulled Rose into one of her famous hugs. “That’s too bad, dear. I’m so sorry.” She looked at Lily. “Did you know about this, Lily?”

Lily nodded. “I’m afraid James told me about it, Molly.” She moved to hug Rose. “Are you all right, sweetie?”

“Yes, Mum,” Rose said, returning her hug. “I was a bit sad for a while after it but Hermione and Ginny were a great help. Your letter also brightened my day last week. I’ll tell you all about it when we get home.”

Molly and Lily greeted and hugged the others. As they greeted and hugged the two Longbottom siblings, Maggie whispered something in Molly’s ear.

“They did what?” Molly exclaimed. Her eyes narrowed as she turned her gaze to Ron and the twins, who gulped.

“I’ll deal with you three when we get home,” Molly said. “Let’s go, now!” She turned to Ginny and her expression softened. “You can go with Harry if you want, Ginny.”

“That’s okay, Mum,” Ginny said. “Harry and I can talk anytime. However, I have a few words of my own to say to my dear brothers in private.”

“Ginny,” Ron said, “wasn’t that bat-bogey enough?”

“Not after what you just did,” Ginny said, glaring again at Ron.

“All right, all right,” Molly said. “Let’s go, you three.” The twins collected the four Weasley trunks under the stern gaze of their mother.

Ginny kissed Harry goodbye and hugged Rose before following her mother and brothers out the Barrier to the Muggle world.

Harry watched them go before turning to his mother. “So, Mum, how are we getting home?”

Lily pulled a small box out of her handbag. “We’re taking a Portkey.” She led her two children out through the barrier to a secluded corner of the station. A few seconds later, the three Potters felt the pull on their navels that accompanied Portkey travel, appearing a couple of seconds later in the entry hall of Potter Manor.

“Harry,” Lily said, “can you please bring your sister’s trunk to her room? Rose and I need to talk.”

“Um, sure, Mum,” Harry said. He cast a Locomotor Charm on both trunks and guided them through the living room and up the stairs to the second floor. Meanwhile, Lily and Rose sat down on one of the couches in front of the living room’s fireplace.

“All right, sweetie,” Lily began, “you can go ahead and tell me what happened between you and Ti. I really thought you were happy together.”

“We were at first, Mum,” Rose said. “It changed when we got back to Hogwarts after New Year.”

“How did it change, Rose?” Lily asked.

Rose sighed. “Whenever we were together, all we’d do was snog. I liked it at first but then that’s all he wanted to do. He didn’t want to talk or have any kind of fun like we used to.” She looked uncertainly at her mother for a moment before adding, “He even tried to feel up my skirt once.”

“What!” Lily exclaimed. “I never would have thought Ti was the type to do that.”

“It’s all right, Mum,” Rose said, looking down at the ground. “He apologized when I slapped his hand away. He mumbled something about Sirius that I didn’t understand.” Rose didn’t see her mother’s eyes narrowed on hearing that. “He didn’t try it again. Then we had a bit of a fight after that last Quidditch game because of what he did.”

“Is that why you broke up with him?” Lily asked, “Because he tried to protect you from those Bludgers?”

“No, Mum,” Rose said. “He was the one who broke up with me.” Rose told her everything about Ti and Draco, including the conversation she overhead and the argument she had with Ti which ended their relationship and Hermione’s conversation with Draco.

Lily sighed after hearing everything. “I’m so sorry, dear. I really don’t know what to do about it.”

“There’s nothing much to do about it, Mum,” Rose said. “I realized a week before we broke up that what I felt for Ti was only friendship. I just want him to be my friend again. But I’m not sure if we can be.”

“Why won’t you?” Lily asked. “Just give him time to think about it. I’m sure he’ll realize what a mistake he made.”

“I don’t think it’ll be that easy, Mum,” Rose said. “See, Ron, Fred and George decided to punish him for me and pranked him this morning. Somehow, they managed to Portkey him into the middle of the Great Hall just after he’d taken a shower. Just about everyone laughed. He was so humiliated that he ran out of the Hall as fast as he could. We managed to convince the three to apologize but then Ron had to make a comment about Draco because Ti spent the train ride back with him. So he’s now angry at us again.”

Lily shook her head. “That’s too bad. Let me talk to Sirius. I doubt Ti’s told him anything about what happened. He might be able to find a way to cool him down.”

Rose shrugged. “I guess it’s worth a try. Can I go up to my room now? I’d like to unpack before dinner.”

“Okay, darling,” Lily said. She watched her daughter go up to her room. She sighed and used her wand to light up the fireplace, preparing to make a firecall on Grimmauld place.

*******

Sirius managed to catch up with Ti outside the barrier to the Muggle world. Ti ignored all of Sirius’ inquiries about why he broke up with Rose and insisted they get back to Grimmauld Place as soon as possible. Sirius led him to a deserted alley outside the station and Sideapparated them to the front steps of 12 Grimmauld Place.

Ti looked impatient as Sirius searched his pocket for the key to the front door. “Hurry up, Sirius. I want to see Sam and Elizabeth.”

Sirius grinned as he found the key and inserted it into the lock. He laughed as Ti ran up the stairs as soon as he opened the door, and said, “Slow down, Ti, before you trip on something.”

Ti looked back and grinned. “No way, Sirius, I’m not as clumsy as Tonks. So where are they?”

Sirius laughed again. “They’re in the master bedroom. Go on, I’m sure they’re excited to see you.”

Ti hurried to the mentioned room. Sirius followed at a more sedate speed. When he reached the room whose door was ajar, he saw his wife lying in the middle of the room’s large four-poster bed, instructing Ti on how to properly hold the tiny bundle in the boy’s arms.

“That’s good, Ti,” Sam said, beaming at her adopted son as he held her daughter. “Yes, hold her that way. Watch the head. She can’t hold it up yet so you have to support it.”

“She’s beautiful, Sam,” Ti said, running a finger gently down the baby’s cheek. The baby looked up at him with a look of wonder in her dark brown eyes. There were a few wisps of dark hair on her head. “Hey, Lizzy, I’m your big brother, Ti.”

Sirius grinned. “That’s it. That’s the perfect nickname, Lizzy, great thinking, Ti.”

Ti shrugged his shoulders and grinned back. “It just came to me.”

They spent several minutes cooing over the baby before Lizzy suddenly let out a piercing wail.

“What’s wrong with her?” Ti asked worriedly as he handed her back to Sam.

“Oh, I think she’s just hungry,” Sam said, loosening the shoulder of the nightgown she was wearing.

Ti’s eyes widened as Sam bared one breast and guided her daughter toward the nipple. “Um, I think I’ll just go unpack now.” The boy quickly left the room as a blush colored his cheeks. The door closed behind him as Sirius laughed.

“Don’t laugh at him, Sirius,” Sam admonished. “He’s probably never seen breasts before. I doubt he’s gone that far with Rose.”

Sirius sighed. “He’ll probably never go that far with her. I just found out that he broke up with her about two months ago.”

“Oh, dear,” Sam said. “That’s too bad. Why did he break up with her?”

“I have no idea,” Sirius said. “He wouldn’t talk about it. Let’s give him a few days. Maybe he’ll tell us then. Anyway, I’d better start on dinner since you’re busy right now; otherwise, I’ll probably go hungry.”

Sam threw a pillow at him as he exited the room. He descended to the first floor. Just as he passed through the living room, the fireplace flared green. Sirius grinned as he recognized red haired woman who stepped out of the flames.

“Lily,” he said, “what a surprise. What can I do for you?” He drew back in surprise as Lily Potter glared at him.

“Sirius Black, what the bloody hell have you been teaching Ti?” the redhead asked sternly.

“What are you talking about, Lily?” Sirius asked.

“I just had a talk with Rose,” Lily said. “It seems that Ti tried to feel up her skirt a couple of times. You wouldn’t happen to have told him how to, did you?”

Sirius gulped. “Well, uh, I just told him about some of the techniques I used to get some action from the girls I dated when we were at Hogwarts.”

“Sirius,” Lily said, “what were you thinking? He’s only thirteen! He doesn’t need to know things like that yet.”

“Now, hold on, Lils,” Sirius said, “That was over a year ago. It was just part of some of the stories I told him about my years at Hogwarts. How was I to know he’d remember all that?”

Lily shook her head. “Well, it doesn’t matter now since he and Rose broke up. However, I think you need to know why they broke up.”

Sirius offered her a seat on one of the couches in the living room. He listened as she told him everything Rose told her. When she was finished, he was incensed.

“I knew it.” Sirius said. “Draco’s playing Ti! I just knew something was off when Ti got that chess set from Draco for Christmas. How the hell can Ti believe him? He’s been abused by him all his life.”

Lily sighed. “I think Hermione had it right. He still wants Draco to treat him as proper brothers so badly, he’s not willing to listen to anyone tell him it might not be as he wants.”

“Well, I think I should straighten him out over that,” Sirius said, rising to his feet.

“Sirius, you have to be careful what you say to him,” Lily said. “He might not listen to you either.”

“Yeah, well, he’ll have to listen to me,” Sirius said. “I’m his guardian now. Thanks for telling me all of this. I’ll take it from here.”

Lily sighed as she rose to her feet. “Just talk to him calmly, okay?” She waited for Sirius to nod before Disapparating home.

Unfortunately, as soon as Lily left, Sirius’ anger returned. He stomped purposely up to Ti’s room. He forewent knocking on the door and just went inside to find Ti was putting some of his robes up. Before Ti could even sense that he was in his room, Sirius lay into him.

“How could you be so stupid?” Sirius shouted. “Didn’t those years with Draco teach you anything? He just can’t be trusted.”

Ti jumped in surprise before turning around to face Sirius. Ti’s face paled as his mind registered Sirius’ words. His face then turned red with anger.

“They just had to tell you, didn’t they?” Ti said. “They shouldn’t have said anything. They just don’t understand what it’s like. None of you do.”

“What don’t we understand?” Sirius asked. “How it is to have a brother who hates you and abuses you? Oh, I understand that very well. Regulus may have been younger than me but he was my mum and dad’s favorite since he took in all that bloody pureblood crap they tried to stuff down my throat. If they caught us fighting, they’d punish me and let him off with a few words.”

“Draco's no longer like that,” Ti said. “He’s changed. He’s better now.”

“Bullocks,” Sirius said, “Bad eggs like him and Regulus don’t change their ways.”

“No,” Ti said. “You’re wrong!”

Just then, Sam walked in the open door. “What is going on here? Why are you two shouting at each other? I just put down Lizzy for a nap. You’re going to wake her up.”

“It appears the reason Ti broke up with Rose was because she overheard Draco telling Pansy that he hadn’t really changed,” Sirius said. “He’s still the same bigoted, lying git.”

“No,” Ti shouted. “You’ve all got it wrong. He’s really changed. We spent the ride back from Hogwarts together, just the two of us. We had a lot of fun playing Wizarding Chess and Exploding Snap.”

“Yeah, right,” Sirius said. “If he’s changed for the better, why doesn’t he try to spend some time with Harry and your other friends?”

“Friends?” Ti asked, “What friends? The same friends who pranked me this morning, making me appear in the Great Hall naked except for a towel?”

“Oh dear,” Sam said. “They didn’t!”

“Oh yeah,” Ti said. “They did, though only the three Weasley boys admitted to it. Your godson just sat there, then he didn’t even try to see if I was all right. Some friends they are.” He shouted the last part.

At that moment, a loud wail sounded from a short distance away. “Oh great, now you’ve done it,” Sam said. She hurried out the door.

There was a few seconds of silence before Sirius spoke up again. “Look, Ti, I don’t think Harry had anything to do with that prank. He’d never do anything that embarrassing to you, even if you broke up with Rose. Beat you up a little maybe but definitely not a prank like that.”

“Believe what you want to, Sirius,” Ti said, sitting down on his bed, “But I don’t want to have anything to do with them anymore.”

“What are you saying?” Sirius asked.

“I want out of their little group,” Ti said. “I am not a Marauder anymore.”

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