Amelia Clare Bones is exceptionally fair (_feathers) wrote in linia,
They stood in the silence and Susan watched Sirius. He looked pained. Good. She hoped those names ate at what was left of his soul. She took the map, not saying anything. She wasn't giving it to Ginny. She was fairly certain this was a set-up of some sort. She fingered the edges lightly, then tucked it in her robes.
She was confused by his words, visibly so. She swallowed hard, "It's my battle too." She wanted to ask - ask so much more than that, like why give her the advice at all, it almost seemed genuine. Their ideals, distancing word, the continual push to suggest that he wasn't as black and white as he came across. The hesitancy at speaking about harming students. Her head was full of questions.
But there was something she wanted to ask first, something she needed to take care of. "When corporal punishment comes," she said softly, looking up at her professor, "will you forgive Ginny's detentions? It was my idea, I talked her into going with me, it wasn't her fault. I'll take whatever whippings and whatever else follow from it, but she shouldn't have to."
Okay, so it was a favour really. And not for a stupid, brave reason. It wasn't reckless, she'd thought about it for a while, and all the implication. There was no way he'd forgive them both, and they both knew Ginny would find other ways of receiving detention. Stay out of trouble meant 'don't say anything about anything ever,' and while she might cower in front of her classmates, Ginny never would. Adding double detention, whatever that meant, torture and then some - well, none of it was right, and none of it was fair, but at least this solution evened out the board a bit more.