Up To The Neck - Harry Potter fanfiction

[elen_nare]

Title: Up To The Neck
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: G
Length: 155 words
Content notes: Marauder-era.
Author notes: Written for the "hot water" challenge at fan_flashworks. Fills the "only questions" section of their SBIGTTS: Writing badge.
Summary: What, James wonders gloomily, could the Founders - or whoever it was - possibly have been drinking when they designed this little surprise?

What, James wonders gloomily, could the Founders - or whoever it was - possibly have been drinking when they designed this little surprise?

“Prongs?” Oh, hell, what does he want now?

“Yeah, Moony?”

“Remember when I said this would end with us all up to our necks in hot water?”

“How could I ever forget?”

“Don’t you just wish I’d been right?”

Course I do, but do you really think I’m going to admit it?

Sirius steps in with a snarled, “Why don’t you go hex yourself, Moony?”

“Is that really helping, Padfoot?” How’s the smug git sounding so calm?

“G-guys? M-maybe we could d-drop it and f-focus on g-getting out of h-here?” Are Wormtail’s teeth actually chattering?

Whatever the hell it was they were drinking, James thinks as he wades on through the freezing water, trying to ignore his bickering friends, why couldn’t they have left some behind for the poor sods they caught?

Comments

[learnsslowly.livejournal.com]

Clever! Thank you for posting.

[elen_nare]

Thank you! It's surprisingly hard, writing a coherent conversation with nothing but questions... in retrospect, it would probably have been a lot easier to fill that section of the badge with something more introspective, but it was a fun challenge.

[bluealoe]

What a challenge, to write entirely in questions and almost entirely in dialogue. But you pulled it off. :) I'm still a little confused about what exactly they're doing and what the "little surprise" is. But it's not really necessary to enjoy the story. :)

I like how you had a reference to hot water, then to freezing water. And the line about leaving a drink behind for the others. :)

[elen_nare]

Well, it wasn't necessary to write it in dialogue, I did that to myself :P I'm glad you think I pulled it off!

As to the 'little surprise', the idea in my head was that they were exploring Hogwarts (undoubtedly out of bounds!) and fell into a trap that landed them in a flooded tunnel, hence the freezing water. And now Peter's freezing, James and Sirius are mad that they didn't spot the trap in time to avoid it, and Remus, who was probably telling them from the start that this was a terrible idea and they'd all get into trouble, is relishing the chance to be all "I told you so".

Thanks for reviewing :)