You told me you would consider it," Dumbledore remarked, a tired tone to his voice.
He was, of course, referring to the meeting he'd had with me almost immediately after he'd presumably interrogated the three idiots.
"Don't you have a more pressing blonde to talk to right now?" I questioned in response, Cissy still won't talk to me after I'd sent another letter off to Father about the Peacock, idly plucking a sweet into my mouth, my eyes narrowed the slightest at the lack of response from the other. "Ah. You already knew he was involved." I snorted. "So much for Slytherin's showing solidarity- I am presuming they snitched on him?"
"Sirus-"
"Don't Sirius me. I said I'd consider mercy if you considered actually giving them a worthwhile punishment." I waited for a single beat, not budging my gaze from the other's. "Hint: Detention, for attempted murder, is not a worthwhile punishment."
"And going after their family's welfare is?" Dumbledore responded, raising an eyebrow in the process. "Harold Minchum's political career won't recover from your father's speech, Johnson's family will never have the chance to fully integrate themselves into this country now and Mulciber Snr's-"
"The same Mulciber that showed up to cheer on Tom Riddle's quest for teaching?" I remarked without a missed beat, watching as Dumbledore briefly hesitated, his eyes widening the slightest. "Didn't you call them his 'dear friends' or am I misremembering?"
After a moment of indecision and hints of wariness showing through his face, the headmaster let out a tired sigh. "You are a remarkable child, Sirius. But I fear what a cold heart might do to you in the future."
"Your fears are noted." I shrugged. "But honestly? I am more afraid of what a soft heart might result in. Because if you're anything to go by, then I don't want anything to do with it."
"Having mercy is not a weakness, Sirius."
"Is that what you told yourself every time Gellert Grindelwald's name popped up in the paper four decades ago?"
Confusion filled the man's expression at the words, the magical trinkets flying around and moving around the office slowing down as the headmaster's expression changed. "I don't-"
"It was mercy that prevented Grindewlwald from using your sister's death against you. And it was mercy on yourself that stopped you from interfering and finding out... After all, the killing curse doesn't really work without an ounce of hatred behind it." I stood up from my seat. "And I don't know about you, but I don't think Gellert ever felt remotely anything towards Ariana- A small part of you on the other hand resented her for forcing you to take care of her, didn't you? For giving you the responsibility you never wanted any part of."
The magical trinkets had stopped dead in their tracks, floating ominously in the air as the headmaster's expression seemed to twist through so many different ones, hints of anger, defeat, self-loathing, and even pity for whatever reason filtered through before a passive expression took over.
"Tell me, headmaster... How many lives did that mercy cost?" I waited for a single beat for an answer that never came. Sighing, I shook my head and started pacing a few steps before the man's desk. "And that's not even touching on the fact that you knew, from day one, that Tom Marvollo Riddle was a little shit hell-bent on chaos. It was mercy from you that gave him a chance-"
"He was a child-"
"And look at where he is now! And you sure as hell didn't need a prophecy to know that fucker was going to try to become a dark lord!" The two of us fell into a momentary lapse of veryuncomfortable silence as I refused to budge my gaze, stopping myself from pacing further. The air palpable as the man's expression warred with itself.
After a brief moment, I let out a sigh and shook my head. "Word of advice- We're not muggles. Show a muggle child mercy, and the worst thing he can do is throw a tantrum, and probably stab someone or something. Show a magical child one that, and the worst thing he could do is limitless. We all literally carry weapons of mass destruction- And you really need to start seeing that before some dumbass decides to set off a fiendfyre in the castle or worse."
"...Sometimes, it is so very hard to see you for the child that you are..."
I blinked, somewhat in bemusement at the words before shrugging after thinking it over. I don't exactly sound like a kid. "I don't really treat myself as one, it's hard to do that when a shit show of a past and future have been ingrained into your head." I remarked briefly turning my gaze down towards the desk, before momentarily closing my eyes. "The thing is though, I might not be able to change the past, but I can sure as hell change the future." I took in an unneeded breath, before raising my gaze back up to lock into the headmaster's eyes. "And as well-meaning as you might be, I am not going to let you get in the way of that. You say I am wrong to go after their families, but as far as I am concerned as long as the amount of people saved in the long run is more than the amount of those hurt, I won't lose a wink of sleep over it."
"...Yet, your actions will only result in their families turning desperate- into-"
"If they decide to run to You-Know-Who, then they can do it without any resources to back them up because make no mistake headmaster, Mulciber and Malfoy in particular, were set on their ways."
Understanding, for a brief moment, finallyfiltered through the man's eyes at my words.
"Those two, we're in a collision course with becoming Death Eaters- Hell, Malfoy was going to be his right-hand." I let the words hang in the air for a moment before my gaze idly turned to take in the timepiece on one of the office's walls. "If that's all, I do believe I have first-year Transfiguration to go disrupt so... Unless there was something else you wished to speak to me about, I'll be on my way."
Dumbledore seemed to hesitate for a brief moment as he scoured my expression before he opened his mouth and asked me the last question I'd admittedly expected.
"What would you have considered as a worthwhile punishment? For what they did?"
I blinked once, taken back.
"Well, Azkaban's out of the question, all thing's considered-" I ignored the way Dumbledore's expression twitched, his thin-lined lips straining the slightest. "And killing them's somewhat medieval so..." I shrugged. "I would've been fine with using them as target practice for the Killing Curse for Alice's house and year. Kinda like a magical Russian roulette if you think about it."
Dumbledore's face turned completely passive as he just stared at me for that one, his expression and eyes unblinking or changing. "That is very barbaric, Sirius." He deadpanned after a moment.
"Fine, make Alice's year miss on purpose then." I compromised, not remotely changing the headmaster's opinion on the matter.