Why is the spacing messed up?! Oh, well, sorry!
Back to the PastBy Mrs Grim
Chapter Three
Some dark magic, a whole lot of confusion, and an eerie little town
There was silence for a moment after James spoke. Everyone seemed resigned to their strange fate. They were lost in the middle of nowhere hundreds and hundreds of years before they were even supposed to be born. Surprisingly, Peter was the one to speak up.
"Well?" he asked, looking around at them, "Well?!" No one spoke.
"Are you just going to sit there and WAIT for Slytherin to come and kill us? Are you just going to give up and let him get you? Let a Slytherin beat you?" They stirred restlessly and Snape huffed quietly.
"Well," James started, "this is different." He began to walk off across the infinite plain of sand, "There's nothing here! Even if we tried, we'd probably never get out of here! It goes on forever!"
"Well," Remus said slowly, "There would be a chance if we knew where we were!" He too got up and began to walk around, examining the sand.
Dara cleared her throat, "It seems to me that Peter is right, however. It goes somewhat against our principles to just let this go. I think that we should at least make an effort. I mean, sitting here waiting for Slytherin to put a knife in our backs is really not an attractive thought. But that's just me…"
Snape was staring at the ground thoughtfully.
"Don't move any further," he told them suddenly.
"What?" James asked, startled.
"Don't move anywhere," he said, engrossed in his studies of the surroundings.
"Why-"
"Just don't!"
James shook his head, and found a way to relieve his frustration, "I can't believe we had to get stuck here with HIM," he grumbled.
"Yeah," Remus declared, "And we can't even leave him in the past, either. A great opportunity wasted."
"We could," Sirius said hopefully, "Maybe no one would even notice. They'd probably even throw us a party when we got back if-"
Lily silenced him with a glare.
"Like it or not, he's coming. Maybe he won't be so bad. We ought to give him a chance…" she looked at their expressions and fell silent.
"Right, Lily," her best friend said a bit sardonically, "whatever you say."
They stewed in silence until it was broken by a startled yelp from somewhere in their vicinity.
"What-"
"Who?"
"It's Peter!" Sirius exclaimed, "He's gone!"
It seemed indeed that Peter was gone, although they could still hear him faintly.
Sirius started to walk towards the noise.
"Don't move!!!" Snape fairly shrieked.
"Look, Snape, you may be here, but that does not mean that I have to listen to you."
"Look, Black," he replied in a cold, even tone, "I may not be able to stand the sight of you, but if you're killed we all are doomed."
"What are you talking about?" Lily yelled over to him.
"You Gryffindors really
have led sheltered little lives. It's dark
magic."
They gave his
statement the reverent silence that it deserved. They'd all eat worms before they admitted that he was right,
though.
"Well, you know dark magic!" Dara shouted at him. This was common knowledge. "DO something!
Snape turned around and muttered a few words that no one heard under his breath. The scenery seemed to blur and it slowly faded into another very different landscape. Below there feet was green grass instead of sand. Where, before, there was nothing in the distance, a cliff had appeared perilously close to them. A drop to the bottom would mean certain death.
"Peter!" Lily cried and rushed to the edge.
"If he's dead…" James started, but did not finish. Peering over, he saw that Peter was not dead, but he surely would be in a minute.
"Help!" Peter cried. His feet had found a rock that had jutted out of the side of the cliff and there he clung, 30 feet down.
Fear shone on Lily's face, "Hurry! Let's get him up! Quickly!" she implored.
Sirius put on a look of extreme concentration and conjured a thick rope. Luckily, there were trees in the vicinity. Tying the rope to one, they let the other end down to poor Peter who was somewhat on shock. He was, however, able to hold onto the rope long enough to be pulled to safety. He arrived, gasping in terror, at the top of the precipice. Dara let out her breath.
"Thank goodness!"
"That was very lucky," a voice behind them commented. "Too bad it won't do you any good now."
Behind them, stood Salazaar Slytherin. He looked a little like his portraits at Hogwarts, but he was much younger, probably in his late twenties. He didn't have as many scars, but the look of loathing and that supercilious smile were the same.
"Smart, very smart, I wouldn't have expected Gryffindors to know dark magic." He surveyed them, then he looked surprised as he saw Snape.
"I'm not a Gryffindor," Snape said the word as if it was some fatal disease.
Slytherin looked sad for a moment, "I am sorry that you have to be caught up on this, but so be it." He raised his wand. Before he could so much as start the spell, Snape had his wand out. Before Slytherin could react to that, he was hit with a curse. Slytherin disappeared.
Peter shied away from Snape in horror, "Wh-what did you DO to him?!"
"Nothing much. He simply made the mistake of underestimating us because he has a bloated ego. He'll be back soon enough, though so I suggest we go." The others reluctantly started to move away from the cliff. Beyond that was a dirt road, forests and hills in the distance.
"I meant we should be in somewhat of a hurry," Snape announced, "I don't want to be in the vicinity when he comes back, which could be ay second now."
They promptly picked up their feet and ran like never before. Although James half-expected to turn and see a senile and murderous Salazaar Slytherin, nothing and no one followed them. Soon, they slowed to a walk and took in the scenery. There was a village up ahead soon. It looked warm and inviting, but terribly old fashioned.
"This is just great!" Sirius was complaining, as they entered the little town. "This is the old country! No color photographs, high-tech broomsticks, or joke shops! No joke shops! How people survived here I'll never understand…" (Only Sirius would have had the gall to complain about something like that when being chased by a homicidal madman.)
"We could always teach them a thing or two," James suggested slyly, "Let them in on some good pranks." He and Sirius exchanged devious looks.
Lily and Dara exchanged exasperated looks and burst out laughing.
The boys looked hurt.
"This is a SERIOUS matter," Remus told them, "We have a chance to improve their lives-"
"You can 'improve lives' when we know that we can keep ours," Lily said, "Let's find somewhere to stay for the night. It's getting dark." She paused, "Do any of you have money?"
"Yeah," Sirius said, "Some."
"Me too," James offered, "I hope that they'll accept this money."
"Wizarding money has always been the same, James," Lily informed him, "You should pay attention in History of Magic," she scolded.
"Lily, I see you snoring through that class all the time! The only reason you know all of that is 'cause you stole Binn's notes!"
Lily turned red, "I didn't steal them, I- borrowed them. You're just jealous that you didn't think of it first." She gave him a triumphant smile and proceeded to walk through the door of a little inn, "You guys wait here. No, you may NOT go wandering and getting us all caught! Wait for Dara and I here."
"Lily-" Dara started once they were inside, "I don't think that this is a place that I'd like to spend the night.
The small room was dark mahogany and had the insignias of snakes crawling over the walls. They seemed so life-like that you expected them to start to hiss.
"This gives me the creeps, alright," Lily whispered.
Then a door off to the side opened with an ominous creak.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Meanwhile, the boys were, of course, getting into trouble. They had wandered off down the deserted street. Snape had absolutely refused to go with them. He stood, tapping his foot, by the entrance to the inn wondering what deity he had so offended that he was sentenced to this terrible fate.
"No, no!" Snape could hear in the distance, "Use a long 'a' in the spell. Yes, yes! That's called a prank. Yes, I KNOW it's gross, but you can really wreak havoc with that one! No! No, wait…there's other ones…"
Snape scowled darkly and tuned them out. Just then, there was a faint prick between his shoulder blades. He froze.
"Don't move," the voice said. Snape didn't need to have that warning verbalized to comply to it.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"What a weird town!" James said.
"It gives me the creeps," Sirius said, looking over his shoulder, "We've only seen one other person besides ourselves."
"And you scared him off too," Remus complained.
"I did not-"
"Yes, you did."
"I did," Sirius grinned impishly. "But he looked as if he wanted to leave anyway. What is up with this town?!"
"It's definitely eerie in a strange way…what's it called anyhow?" Peter asked.
No one knew.
"I don't like it here," James announced, "Let's go and see what the girls are up to."
They walked back, breaking into a run and came to a stop at a familiar door.
"This is it, isn't it?" Sirius asked peering at the door, "It looks like it."
"It is," James affirmed.
"Guys," Remus said softly, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure, Remus, unless I'm going blind this is the same door!" James said impatiently.
"James, there IS something wrong about this town! Did you see the houses we passed? All dark and quiet. Each one was dark green or black. And look at this inn!" They looked for the first time at the sign declaring its name.
"It's called the Basilisks' Nest."
They glanced at the door for a second and then threw it open and rushed inside.
Hehehe…cliffie! Fun fun fun… *evil laugh*
OMG I wrote more! And it is quite long for me ; ) Yeah! This occasion deserves a review or two…
Well, I'll have more sometime!
See ya! Review! Thank you all!
Mrs Grim