.:September 23, 1975:.
.:Mid afternoon:.
.:Top of Gryffindor Tower:.
"Come on Moony! It's one little water balloon! What's the worst that'll happen?" a whine sounds.
"The worst that'll happen?" Moony asks, "Oh, you could overbalance and end up tumbling to your death while missing your target in the first place. Now Padfoot, get away from the edge before I have to do something drastic."
Padfoot grumbles, but moves away from the edge. Smirking slightly, he tosses the water balloon over his shoulder and over the edge of the tower.
"I thought I told you not to throw that over the edge of the tower?" Moony asks, raising his eyebrows at the black haired teen.
"But I didn't throw it over the edge of the tower," Padfoot replies, "I threw it over my shoulder and it just happened to go over the edge of the tower. I never meant for that to happen."
"Uh-huh. Forgive me if I don't believe you."
Sirius smiles, "Aww, come on Remmy, you know you believe me!"
Remus merely gives Sirius a look. Shaking his head, the amber eyed Marauder looks over the grounds, giving his eyes a rest from the book that he was reading. They were waiting for James to finish with Quidditch practice before they begin with Watercolor Happy Hour. Watercolor Happy Hour was the nickname for prank 394, and was one of the more time consuming ones. As he looked across the lawn, Remus spies something that seems rather odd on the school's immense lawn. Something was stumbling around on the grass, moving rather slowly.
"Hey Sirius, do you still have your Ominoculars on you?" Remus asks.
Sirius pulls his bag over and hands them over to Remus, who focuses on the thing on the grass below. It's Michelle Anderson, a third year Hufflepuff. She looks rather pale and has something that looks oddly like blood on her shirt.
"What'cha see Remmy?" Sirius asks.
"Look at that." Remus points to where Anderson is stumbling around.
Sirius looks where Remus is pointing to and adjusts the magical binoculars. After a few moments, he frowns and hands them back to Remus.
"Well that's a little odd. Doesn't she have charms right now?" Sirius asks.
Remus frowns at him, "And you know this how?"
"Regulus is in the same year. I keep up with where he's at. He has charms at this time with the Hufflepuffs," Sirius explains.
"Ok, that's definitely less concerning than other reasons why you would know that."
"And what are you implying with that statement?"
Remus shakes his head, "Nothing like that. It's just that you're known to have…slightly less than legal ways of finding out your information. Well now, what's this?"
Sirius transfigures a rock into a pair of binoculars and focuses on the Hufflepuff again. There are a couple of teachers running out to her. Frowning the black haired boy focuses the binoculars on the people who are running toward her.
Filch, Flitwick, Mercer, who is the current Defense teacher, and Slughorn meet the girl and start talking to her. Mercer places a hand on her arm and that's when it happens. The girl slowly turns her head to face Mercer, but when she does she looks at him for a moment before biting him.
"The hell?" Remus snaps.
Sirius frowns at the outburst, but manages to watch the scene. Mercer pulls away from the girl and seems to be cursing like crazy. He's also pulled out his wand and has it aimed at the Hufflepuff. That's when he twitches and falls to the ground. Flitwick scurries over to the fallen staff member and checks to see what's going on when Mercer lunges at the tiny Charms teacher and bites him. Flitwick backs away and soon starts twitching violently.
"What the hell is going on?" Remus mutters.
"Focus on the girl," Sirius says, "See how she's just started munching on Filch's leg? And look at the odd color of her skin."
"That almost looks like the same color skin that an inferi would have. Except-"
"Except inferi don't turn living people into other inferi," Sirius finishes, nodding.
Remus pulls back, eyes wide, "I think I know what this is."
Sirius nods, "I think I know too. The only problem is I don't think that this is caused by Voldemort."
"It could be. That would be unexpected from him."
"True."
A scream cuts off their conversation and the boys look at each other before paling. They stand and take off at a run. They were somewhat lucky that they knew all the passages in the castle, because those people who had seen what was happening were panicking.
"So who do we find first?" Remus asks.
Sirius pauses to think, "I want to say James, but we can wait a little bit. He has a broom at least and will be able to stay out of the way of those things. Let's go to the library and find Evans. She should be able to help us."
"Yeah," Remus says before chuckling slightly, "Funny enough, the two of us had a conversation about what we would do in the case of this ever happening."
Sirius shakes his head and turns right, emerging from the passage right in front of the library entrance. Without pausing, the two boys plunge into the library, ignoring the librarian and heading for the back tables, knowing that Lily Evans would be back there studying.
"What is going on? Why are you running?" Lily asks, her eyes narrowing, "Remus, don't you and Black have a class right now?"
Remus shakes his head, "Not important right now. You're going to think that I'm crazy, but remember that one night we were sitting in the common room talking about-"
A scream sounds and the teens look at each other before grabbing Lily and taking off at a run.
"What the hell are you doing? Black, Remus, let me go!" Lily snarls.
Sirius rolls his eyes, "Evans, shut up."
Her eyes narrow and she looks like she's about to yell, when Remus places a hand over her mouth and points around the corner before leaning in.
"Carefully look around the corner, and don't make loud noises," Remus whispers in her ear.
Lily nods slowly and peers around the corner. She sees some students stumbling down the hall. When a seventh year comes out of the bathroom and sees the other students, she screams. The students turn to her and attack, biting her and tearing her flesh away from her bones as though she were the best t-bone they've ever had.
Lily pulls away from the corner, pale as a ghost.
"Come on, we've gotta move," Sirius says, "They're coming from the other side of the hall too."
The Marauders pull Lily into a secret passage and start heading down.
"This leads down to the dungeons," Remus hisses.
"Severus!" Lily says, "We need to get Severus!"
Sirius is about to snap, but rolls his eyes, "Fine. Whatever. But I swear to Merlin, if he slows us down, I'm tripping him."
Remus chuckles slightly.
The three Gryffindors move as quickly as possible while still being silent. Though after a while, Sirius looks at Remus and taps his shoulder before making several hand motions. Lily is about to ask what they mean when they smack the back of each other's heads and cast a silencing spell on their feet.
Lily nods in appreciation then takes off at a sprint. They could hear the screams from the other students more frequently now and knew that they didn't have long until they were the ones who were being hunted.
"So, what are we running from?" Lily asks.
Remus turns to her and frowns, "I'm sure you already know Lily. You're not the smartest girl in our year for nothing."
"But this can't be happening. Those can't be what I think they are. Those things don't exists."
Sirius gives a low chuckle, "Why the hell not? When you were ten did you ever think that magic existed?"
Lily huffs, "Yeah, but that's magic. Those are zombies."
.:September 23, 1975:.
.:Mid afternoon:.
.:Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch:.
"James! James, look at the entrance to the pitch!" one of the beaters yells.
James looks toward the entrance of the pitch to see a couple of people shuffling in. Right as he's about to fly over and ask them what they needed, Boyer gets hit by one of the bludgers.
"Roberts, go find out what they want, I need to see to Boyer," James says, flying toward their keeper. She's whimpering slightly and has a face full of blood, "All right Boyer, where'd you get hit?"
"Nose," She says, pulling her hand back. A gush of blood comes forth.
James wrinkles his nose and pulls out his wand, "Episkey! There. That should work until you can see Pomfrey."
A yell of pain echoes through the grounds and causes all the players still in the air to look toward the entrance. They turn in time to see Roberts being pulled from his broom by the people who had come in and they start to swarm him.
"What in Merlin are they doing?" James mutters.
Boyer shakes her head, "Don't know."
Lent and Vickers, who was filling in for Sirius because he was on probation from too many detentions, fly over to James, their bats hanging by leather wrist leashes. Their eyes are wide and they look terrified. Once they reach Boyer and James they start talking over each other.
"QUIET!" James shouts, "Peaks! Smith! Get over here. Smith, I don't care if you're about to catch a thousand snitches, get over here!"
When Peaks and Smith arrive, James glances toward where the group of people had been to find that they'd moved. Hazel eyes glancing all over the pitch, James doesn't find them until he looks directly down. The group was crowded beneath the flying players.
"The hell?" he mutters, then turns to his beaters, "Ok, one at a time, what happened?"
Vickers speaks first, "I followed Richards, I was curious. I wanted to know what they wanted. When we reached the group, I noticed something was wrong with the people, they were too pale and didn't seem to realize what was going on. When I turned to tell Richards to stay on his broom, he'd already landed. He asked them what they were doing here and they attacked him. I-I just kind of sat there. Jerry flew over to find out what was going on and he pulled me away."
"Why'd you pull him away?" James asks Lent.
"Because," Lent says, "They look like inferi."
The six teens fall silent at this and glance down at the group below them. The people, inferi, appear to have calmed down and are just aimlessly walking around. That's when James notices the red robes with the people.
"If they're inferi," James says, "and I don't doubt that they are. Then why is Richards wandering around with them?"
Lent looks down and when he spies the red robes his eyes grow wide, "I-I don't know. That shouldn't be happening. Maybe You-know-who managed to find a way to have inferi be created by the touch of another inferi. That could work…I guess."
James frowns. He wanted to panic. Merlin knew he was too young to deal with this, but as the Quidditch captain he was supposed to keep a cool head. Inferi were dead bodies reanimated to do a Dark Wizard's bidding. They require a lot of magic, but are extremely susceptible to fire. Right as James prepares to suggest that they go down and torch them, Lent flies down on his own, his wand out.
"Lent! Wait!" James shouts.
When Lent is within distance he casts a spell and tries to get the inferi to stop or run away or something. Instead one of them reaches up and grabs Lent's leg before giving it a pull. Lent grabs his broom handle so he doesn't fall off and yells out in pain when the inferi bites him.
"Stay here!" James shouts. Flying toward Lent, he casts stupefy and a bludgeoning hex. The Bludgeoning hex causes the inferi to let go and James escorts Lent back up with the group.
Lent grits his teeth, "Damn inferi!"
"What kind of inferi would bite a person though?" Boyer squeaks.
James shrugs, "If they were directed to, then they could. Inferi don't have a lot of use other than biting and ripping people the shreds. They're more of a scare tactic."
Lent opens his mouth to speak up when he starts twitching and coughing up blood. He looks up and his face is pale and sweaty.
"Come on Lent, let's get you in the stands. One of us can then fly off to the castle and fetch Pomfrey and Dumbledore," James says. He reaches to grab Lent's shoulder when the boy shudders again and falls perfectly on his broom, making it so that he hovered in place.
"Get back," James says. His instinct, the one that he uses when the Marauders are sneaking around at night, the one that tells him exactly where to be for an interception in Quidditch, the one that helps him in the mock duels that the Marauders have in one of the abandoned classrooms, was warning him against helping Lent. The other Quidditch members look at him like he's crazy, but James shakes his head.
"But James-"
"No, leave him alone. Something is about to-"
Lent gives another twitch before he sits up on his broom. He hovers in the air as though unsure of what to do.
"Jerry?" Vickers asks.
Lent hovers for another moment before flying right at Vickers and biting him. Vickers yells and pushes Lent away far enough to pull out his beaters bat and swing it at the boy. The bat makes a solid crack against Lent's head and Lent freezes before tipping sideways and falling off his broom. The remaining players look away, but still hear the thud of Lent's body hitting the ground. Vickers pulls the lanyard off his wrist and throws his bat away.
James, on instinct, grabs the bat as it's flying past him and holds onto it, "Alright, we can't just hover here all day. Let's fly toward the school and find a teacher to tell. The sooner we get an adult on this the better."
"Why not land?" Peaks asks.
Boyer turns to him with raised eyebrows, "Did a bludger knock your brains, or are you naturally that stupid? Look down! We won't be able to land to save our bloody lives!"
"It was just a ruddy question! Why do you have to get so offensive that someone suggests something?" Peaks shouts back, "Is it because you don't want someone going against Saint Potter?"
Boyer turns a bright red, "You idiot! I just don't want to die today, thank you very much!"
Peaks gets ready to reply when James gives a shout.
"Can you two please leave the sexual tension for another day?" he asks, delighted in how much the two blush, "Thank you. Now come on. We need to reach Dumbledore's office. I suggest we go through the window, no knowing how many of those things are on the grounds."
The rest of the team nods and Peaks and Smith fly with Vickers between them. Boyer takes up the rear and James takes the lead. They fly over the pitch and start over the grounds toward the castle. The Quidditch team is halfway there when Vickers starts to cough up blood.
"Come on Vickers, hold on. Just a little farther," James calls over his shoulder, dread filling him. That was the same cough that Lent had before he turned into one of those inferi. When he hears another cough James turns around in time to see Vickers fall against his broom handle twitching and coughing up blood.
"Damn it!" he mutters, "Get away from him!"
The warning comes a second too late as Peaks is tackled by the inferi and they both fall to the ground.
James winces before turning to the other two, "Are either of you bit or touched?"
They shake their heads. James nods and heads toward the castle again. Screams are echoing toward the three players and they stay in a tight formation, their eyes keeping a look out for anything that may attack. When they reach Dumbledore's office window, James pulls out his wand and casts alohamora on the window. It pops open and they fly through the narrow space, James and Smith barely fitting through the frame.
"Where's Dumbledore?" Boyer asks.
"He's probably gone to deal with what's going on," Smith says, "Should we stay here or should we go downstairs?"
James frowns, ideas running through his head. He knew that Dumbledore's private quarters were located above his office, and that the only way into them was through the office. The only way into the office was through the gargoyle. And since the inferi didn't seem to speak then they should be safe here.
"We'll stay here. The only way for those things to get in would be through the gargoyle, and you need a password for that. They won't be able to get in regardless of how many times they run into it," James says. He pulls off his quidditch robes and sets them on the chair he usually sits in when visiting the Headmaster, "If the Professor isn't back by tonight, and we haven't had anyone come get us, then we'll just sleep here."
"And why are you going to stay here rather than in your dorms?" Phineas Nigellus asks.
James turns to the portrait and smiles, "Hey! Phinny!"
Phineas narrows his eyes, "I'm going to kill my great-great grandson for teaching you that. Now answer my question."
"Well there's a problem with inferi in the school-"
"So burn them."
"We tried that," James says, "And that didn't work. It's weird. Plus they turn a person into an inferi just based off of a touch or bite or something."
"Impossible!" One of the other portraits shouts.
James shrugs, "I don't know what to tell you, but that's what happened. We've lost over half of the Gryffindor Quidditch team because of it."
Some of the portraits shout out at that and James smirks.
"I doubt that it matters if you have a Quidditch team or not!" Phineas snaps.
Burnsmore, one of the lesser known headmistresses, turns to him puzzled, "And why would you say that young man?"
"Because," Phineas sighs, seeming as though the whole world was being stupid, "If these things are on the grounds what makes you think that they aren't in the castle? What makes you think that there's even going to be a school to play Quidditch for?"
"But-"
"Think, you infernal woman!"
"Why I never!" Burnsmore huffs.
Phineas rolls his eyes, "For once young Mister Potter is showing some intelligence by staying in the Headmaster's office."
James frowns, knowing that he was just given a compliment and given offence at the same time. Damned Slytherin.