Chapter Two: In which there is plotting and a meeting with the first counterpart.
"Follow the yellow brick road! Follow the yellow brick road. Follow follow follow follow… follow…" The group stopped singing as soon as they were out of sight.
"Well that was certainly… scary," commented Remus.
"I thought they would trample us for sure if we didn't leave," James squeaked.
Lily let out a laugh. "You lot are a bunch of cowards," she giggled.
James looked affronted. "Come on Evans, you can't tell me those little singing people didn't creep you out even a little?"
"Well, they're gone now, and that's the important thing," Remus pointed out. "Now let's see if we can find a nice place to work things out."
They continued down the path for some time, no longer singing or skipping but walking along quietly. Not long into their journey, they passed an innocent-looking bench sitting on the side of the road.
"Hey, will you look at that? It's like it's here just for us," Sirius cried happily. He ran to the bench and plopped onto it with a grin.
The others paused before joining him, wary of strange happenings in this curious world. Nothing strange happened. For, you see, it really was an innocent bench, placed there carefully by the author so they would have somewhere to sit.
James plunked down next to Sirius and stretched his legs out in front of him. "Ahhh," he groaned. "Feels nice to sit down."
Lily snorted. "You've been walking for what, ten minutes? And you're tired already?" She carefully found a seat on the edge of the bench, as far from James as she could get. Just because he wasn't driving her insane at the moment didn't mean she wanted to give him any ideas.
"Sooo," Sirius began as Remus and Peter joined them on the bench. "Where the hell are we?"
He was met by silence.
"That would be the question," Remus nodded gravely.
"Well, we're definitely not at Hogwarts," Peter put in helpfully.
"No, really?" came the sarcastic reply from James, giving Peter a friendly whack over the head.
"I'm just listing everything we know about this place, starting with the most obvious," protested the shorter boy.
"There is a large population of insane short people about five minutes east of this point," Remus added.
Lily reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out a sheet of parchment, miraculously unwrinkled, and a quill. The quill was one of the new, self-inking variety, very convenient for travel. But it was the parchment that caught Remus's attention.
"What spell is that?" he asked, excited. Before he could get a response, Sirius interrupted.
"Ah! Notes! Good idea." He quickly pulled the paper and quill from Lily's grasp and jotted down not Hogwarts and insane short people. "How do you know it's east?" he asked. "If that's east, you've just put the sun in the north."
Remus nodded. "Weird, isn't it? I used a Point Me spell a while back, to make sure."
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Good thinking," she praised.
"So what else do we know about this place?" asked James, slightly jealous as he wished he had thought of the Point Me spell.
"It's ridiculously bright," suggested Sirius.
"They seem to know who we are," added Peter. At that comment, the others turned to look at him sharply.
"You're right," said Remus. "That's suspicious."
"I heard someone mention a prophecy," Sirius suddenly remembered.
James nodded enthusiastically. "And…replacements?" he questioned.
"That's where they're sending us, right?" Peter asked. "To be replacements?"
Soon the parchment was filled with writing. Though all of the chatter, Lily had watched quietly from her end of the bench, fascinated by their cheerful analysis and focused attention.
James Potter actually looks rather sexy when he's plotting something, she thought. Then she realized what she'd thought, and jumped up from the bench in shock. She had not just thought of Potter as sexy. That wasn't even a word in her brain's normal vocabulary. Where had that come from?
"What's wrong, Evans?" James looked up from the note-covered sheet of parchment in concern.
She felt the faintest tinges of a blush creep into her cheeks as she sat back down and muttered "nothing". James shrugged and went back to his fact compiling.
Moments later Lily was standing again, this time joined by all four of her companions. They huddled together in fear behind their beloved bench.
There were only a few things that could reduce five sixth year Gryffindors to cowering behind a bench, but apparently a scarecrow walking down the road singing was one of those things.
"…could tell you why… the ocean's near the shore… I could—" His singing came abruptly to a halt when he saw the frightened group. He cocked his head. "Did I scare you?" he asked, cheerfully.
Peter nodded nervously for the group.
The strange man of straw broke into a grin. "I can scare people even without a brain!" he cried happily.
Lily looked up at him with concern. "You don't have a brain?" she asked, overcoming her fear and stepping forward.
The scarecrow sighed. "Only straw. You see, I was off to see the Wizard of Oz a few days back, but when we got there, all he gave me was a diploma. I thought I finally had a brain, but I soon learned that things were no different than before."
"How can you talk without a brain?" asked Remus, always the logical one.
Lily snorted. "The same way Potter can, I expect," she answered, and the scarecrow nodded gravely.
"Yes. I suppose so," the straw man agreed. Sirius giggled as James fumed. Oh no, excuse me. Sirius chuckled manfully as James fumed.
The subject of brainless talking was dropped for the moment though, when James elbowed Remus and whispered something. Remus then pulled a large book from the pocket of his robe.
"How did that fit in there?" Lily gapped. She really needed to spend more time with these boys; she could learn a few things.
"Simple shrinking spell," replied Remus, handing the hefty tome to James.
"There might be an organ-growing spell in here," muttered James as he began sifting through the pages. Lily looked at the boys in wonder.
After a few moments, the book was shut with a thud and James looked to the rest of the group. "Well?" prompted Peter.
"Nothing," was the sad response. "But we'll work on it. I did find a charm that will allow us to locate you again if we need to," he told the scarecrow. "If we find anything out, we'll come get you."
The scarecrow's grin looked like it might rip his face in two. "Thank you!" he cried.
James flicked his wand at the man and he muttered some words. Then, "Okay! Read to go?"
"Wait!" cried Sirius. "We should ask him where we are."
The other boys' jaws dropped at how stupid they had been. "Right!" cried Remus. He turned to the straw man. "Where are we?" he asked.
"The Land of Oz, five minutes west of Munchkinland, I believe," replied the scarecrow.
Lily spoke up then. "Do you know of any prophecy? Or know anything of replacements for the wizard" she asked.
The scarecrow shook his head. "The Tin Man and Lion and I were supposed to rule after the Wizard left, but Glinda won't allow it. Goes to show how good my brain is…" he muttered. "Thought she was good. And I don't know anything about a prophecy."
The wizards nodded sadly, with a mumbled curse from Sirius. "Right then. Thanks. And we'll see you around," said James, and the group of five continued down the road in the way they had originally been going.