Marauding and Puzzles
It was George that had tackled me. I started laughing.
"Mischief, Trouble, what are you two doing here?" I asked.
"Well." Started Fred.
"Dear Phoenix." Continued George.
They continued going back and forth.
"A little birdy told us."
"You were ungrounded."
"So we have come to kidnap you." They finished together.
I smiled at them. "Well let me tell dad so he won't send a search party."
"Where's the fun in that." They complained together.
"I just got off grounding don't want to get grounded again. And George next time you decide to tackle me I will hex you." I said.
"That was Fred!" Fred said.
"No, it wasn't Fred." I said smirking.
"Dang it!" George said. "How does she and Aria always know! Even our parents can't tell us apart." He complained.
I snickered earning glares from them both. "That's mine and Ari's secret. Pity I don't think you two will ever figure it out." I smirked evilly as I headed towards dads office.
"Hey dad I am leaving with the red headed terrors. Be back for dinner." I said. Smiling at his nickname for them. He would never admit it but I think he was secretly fond of the Weasly twins.
"Ok I will see you for supper. Tell Mrs. Weasly I said hello and keep her terrors in line this year." He said.
I laughed. "I will, bye dad."
"Bye Eli." He said.
Fred and George were standing by the fire place when I came back. They each took a hand full of floo powder and shouted the burrow.
After they were gone I followed after them. I came out of the floo into the Weasly's living room. I smiled I had always loved spending time at the burrow. Fred and George were waiting for me.
"Come on Phoenix, Shadow should be here soon." Fred said.
I went up to the twin's room it was as messy as ever. There were plans and papers everywhere. Pranks that they had done. Items they wanted to make for their joke shop. The twins dreamed of opening a joke shop. They were really genius. Their invention ideas were amazing. With the help of Aria and I their dreams would come true I was sure. Arias original marauder information, my potions skills, the twin's inventive ideas it was going to be amazing. Aria walked into the room as I sat down on one of the beds.
"Hey Shadow!" The twins called.
"Hello again Ari." I said.
Aria and I shared a look then threw up a silencing charm. "We have much to discuss with you Mischief and Trouble." I said.
"First let's have the Marauder meeting then we will discuss the other things." Aria said.
Fred and George exchanged looks. "Ok." They said together smiling deviously.
"I think we need to really ramp it up this year." Fred said.
"I agree brother dear." George added.
"What did you two have in mind?" I asked.
"Well I think for one we need to do more than one prank. We also need to make the pranks bigger." Fred said.
"So we were thinking to start off with some never ending fireworks at the feast." George said.
"After that I think that we can put a potion in all the professor's food that makes them sound like animals." Fred added.
"Oh, and we can make glue and feathers rain down in the great hall!" Aria enthused.
I smirked evilly. "What if we gave everyone a less potent and legal form of veritaserum! Everyone would be spilling their darkest secrets!" I said
"Sounds like my kind of year!" Fred said whooping.
Aria wrote down all the ideas. "Now is there anything else? Any other ideas?"
"Yea. First, I think we should meet with Remus to discuss adding Hogsmead to the Marauders map. I also think that we should talk to him about making one for each of us." I said.
"That would be amazing!" Fred said.
"Great idea Phoenix." George added.
"I think Remus would help us." Aria said.
"Perfect! We also need to continue our Animagi transformations." I said. Maybe this would be the year we completed them.
They all nodded their agreement maybe just maybe this wouldn't be such a bad year after all. "Now onto another matter." I said.
Aria and I exchanged another glance. "We found out why everyone is freaking out." Aria said.
"We know…. Sirius Black!" The twins said.
Aria and I both glared at them. 'WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US!" We both shouted. Making the twins roll on the floor laughing.
"Oi! Gred!" Fred said between laughter.
"Yes Forge?" George asked between laughter.
"They speak twin!" They said together.
Aria and I couldn't help but laugh to. After a few moments laughter died down and then Aria and I hands on hips glared at the twins. The twins sniggered.
"Think" Fred said.
"they are" George continued.
"secretly twins?" Fred finished.
Aria and I rolled our eyes making laughter break out again.
"Ok, ok." Fred said turning serious.
"Were sorry, but we couldn't risk telling you over owl." George said.
Our anger dissipated. "Your right. OH! Another idea lets create a parchment that we can write notes to each other on like a two-way mirror! You would write the person's name and then the message and it will grow warm to tell the person they got a message." I said.
The twins looked at each other. "BRILLIANT! Why didn't we think of that?" They said at the same time.
"Now enough getting off topic." Aria chided.
"Yes, there is something else we need to do." I said.
"What is that?" George asked.
"We need to investigate what happened that Halloween night and find out if Sirius Black is innocent or guilty." I said.
"WHAT?!" The twins asked shocked.
"HOW?" George started I held up a hand.
"I will tell you what happened. Just be patient." I said.
I launched into the tale of me running away and finding Sirius.
"WOW!" The twins said.
Aria spoke up. "I am going to tell you all what I know about it." She said.
She told us everything Remus had told her. Sirius being Padfoot and akin to brothers with James. She told us of the fidelious charm and of course her father was James and Lily's secret keeper. Then she went on to tell about Peter Pettigrew or Wormtail cornering Sirius and getting blown up for his efforts. He died as well as twelve muggles.
"He never got a trial though. They never saw a need for one." She concluded.
A silence fell over the room. We were all thinking about what we had just heard. It seemed pretty obvious but something just didn't sit right with me. If he and James were so close closer than brothers would he really betray him?
"I have a feeling there is more to the story here…. I am not saying its impossible he is guilty, but we need to find out more." I said.
"I think for now we see what he does with his freedom." Aria says.
Fred the said. "We could brew veritaserum or take some from Jamie's dads stores. It would force him to tell us the truth."
I frowned. "I am not stealing from my dad. Besides he is very meticulous in tracking his stores. We can't risk brewing it. If we messed up we could kill him it is to risky." I said.
"So what do we do then?" Aria asked.
"We watch and we wait." I said.
We all agreed and the twins smiled. "Sounds like another fun year!" Fred said clapping his hands together.
I hoped he was right but since when did a school year ever go smoothly. We worked on our animalgous transformations. We were confident we would be able to complete it by the end of the school year. As dinner time approached. Aria and I decided to go home. We said by to the twins I stopped by Ginny's room to tell her I would be by tomorrow. When I got home, dad was waiting for me.
"Hey dad." I said.
"Hello Eli." He said.
"So I was wondering if you thought anymore about going by Eileen Snape?" He asked.
I bit my lip. "I have and I decided that you need to accept me for me. I will however start going by Snape instead of Potter." I said.
"So I can tell Dumbledore to announce it at the feast?" He said smiling.
I nodded smiling as well. We sat down and chatted idly over dinner. "Hey dad."
"Yes Eli?" He asked.
"Do you know of a good legal truth potion?" I asked.
"Why do you want a truth potion?" He asked suspicious.
"No reason just curious if there are any other truth potions. Veritaserum is so heavily looked over and illegal except for use by a potion master or Auror who are trained how to use it. I figured there had to be one for the common people." I said.
"Well there is none that I know of." I deflated at this it means we would have to find one of our own or invent one.
"Thanks anyway dad." I said.
He eyed me suspiciously and I was sure that even if he did know he wouldn't tell me. After dinner, I practiced my French for a while. I headed to bed anxious about this coming school year.
I awoke to bright sunlight shining through my open curtains. I yawn and stretched Athena jumped off the bed meowing. Hedwig hooted from her perch. I fed them both then headed into the kitchen. My father was sitting at the table reading the Daily Prophet and drinking his back coffee.
"Morning dad I am going to spend the day with Ginny. I promised her I would mentor her." I said.
"Ok that's fine just be home for dinner." He said.
"Could I have dinner over there?" I asked.
"Did you ask Mrs. Weasly?" He asked.
"Well no but if she says I can?" I asked.
"I suppose floo me when you know." He said.
"Bye dad." I said giving him a hug and kiss on the cheek. He froze for a second then relaxed.
I arrived at the Weasly house and joined them for breakfast. After breakfast Ginny and I went up to her room.
"So, I want to apologize for last year. I haven't really lived up to my word about mentoring you." I said.
She looked at me sadly. "It's ok I know with the diary and everything it was a really hard year for you." She said.
Her long hair was down to the middle of her back. Her brown eyes bright. She had the Weasly pale skin and freckles. She had a pretty face and body. She was a pretty girl. Her flaming red hair was matched only by her fiery temper. Her temper reminded me of my own.
"Thank you for understanding." I said.
She smiled. "So, what now?" She asked.
"Well, do you need any help with homework?" I asked.
"Sure." She said shrugging.
For the next for hours I helped her with her summer work. I taught her some useful spells I knew such as the unlocking charm and several others that I had gained through my own research. She taught me her infamous bat boogey hex. She was quite known for it among her peers. Particularly any one that bullied her or her friends. She told me about friends she had made. Luna Lovegood lived right down the road and had been her friend since infancy. Luna was in Ravenclaw but she was often picked on because of her eccentric ways. I told Ginny that I would like to meet Luna and perhaps mentor her as well. Ginny agreed enthusiastically. She also told me about Colin Creevy that was a huge fan of mine. She giggled as she told me he had a crush on me. I blushed scarlet and my face felt it was on fire.
I got to know a lot about Ginny spending the day with her. I was glad that I had taken the time to visit her. She really did need a girl her age that she could talk to. She had made a few friends from other houses like Neville and Collin in Gryffindor. Luna from Ravenclaw. Astoria Greengrass from our house.
She was sporty and loved quidditch. She was smart. She was funny. She was cunning like the twins. She was a bit more serious than the twins. She enjoyed a good prank now and then but it didn't consume her life. She told me she was going to try out for chaser this year. I told her to go for it.
I had a lot of fun spending the day with Ginny. I ate dinner with the Weasly's and told Ginny we would have to have a sleep over sometime. She agreed happily. After dinner, I headed home. My father was in his potion lab working. So I went into my room. I decided to check in with Sirius.
He appeared in the mirror. "Hey kiddo what's up?" He said.
"Just got back from the Weasly's." I said.
"Oh and how did that go?" He asked.
"Good Ginny and I had some girl time." I said.
"Was Ari there?" He asked.
"No she went there with me yesterday. The marauders had a meeting." I said.
His mischievous grin was plastered on his face. "So you've recreated the Marauders?" He asked.
"Yep." I said smiling.
He let out a barking laugh. "That's my girls. Listen I got to go I will talk to you soon." He said.
I said bye and replaced my mirror in my desk. I pet Athena for a few minutes then decided to go visit my dad in his lab. I joined him in his lab and he was making some potions for St. Mungos. I decided to help him with the potions and he seemed very happy with this. I decided I didn't mind potions too much. Not that I was going to get my potions mastery.
After I helped my dad with his potions I headed to bed. That night for the first time in a long time I had a nightmare.
I was alone in darkness. "HELLO? DAD? DAD! SOMEONE!" Then I heard my uncles voice.
"SHUT UP YOU FREAK!" He snarled.
"Where is my dad?" I asked.
I heard footsteps then a sudden blinding light made me cringe. I recognized my cupboard. Why was I back here? I wondered. I was broken out of my reverie by a sharp pain as my uncle yanked me out of the cupboard by my hair.
He slapped me across the face. "He left you in our care. Couldn't deal with his freak daughter anymore. He doesn't want you no one does." He kicked me sharp in the ribs.
"Draco loves me my friends love me." I whimpered my eyes stinging. Suddenly they were there.
Draco sneered. "I never loved you. I could never love a useless freak like you." He said. Suddenly he was making out with Pansy.
"NO! Stop it." I screamed through my tears.
Arabella sneered at me then. "My father should have killed you all those years ago. I wish he had." She said.
Aria nodded. "My father missed my childhood because the dark lord wanted you. He should be free ruling along side the dark lord. I hate you!" She said.
Suddenly my father was there a look of pure hatred on his face. "You should be dead instead of your mother. You killed her! It is your fault!" He said.
"Please I didn't I swear I love you all why are you doing this?" I begged as my uncle hit me more.
"You deserve this. My sister died because of you!" Aunt Petunia said.
The all laughed as I screamed and started coughing up blood. Fred and George were there.
"Your pathetic!" Fred said.
"Your no real Marauder!" George said.
"But! You said I was!" I sobbed.
Everyone took turns hitting or kicking me now. I kept begging and pleading which only made them happier.
I woke up covered in sweat and heard my scream reverberating off the wall. My breathing was heavy. I started to sob and my father came running into the room. His wand was drawn. He lit up the room with a lumos and rushed to my side. He climbed in the bed behind me and pulled me to him. I started sobbing harder. He stoked my hair rocking me back and forth making shushing noises.
After I calmed down he whispered. "Want to talk about it?"
I shook my head no. "Sorry woke you." I said hoarsely.
"You can talk to me about this you know." He said.
"I just.." I bit back another sob.
"It wasn't your fault. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. People have nightmares all the time." He said.
"I'm weak and stupid. I deserve to go back to the Dursleys." I said bitterly.
He made me look at him. His black eyes were ablazed with fury. "You are not stupid or weak. No weak person could survive the dark lord three times. No one deserves what those muggles did to you. You didn't deserve that. I don't ever want you to say those words again." Tears stung my eyes as he spoke.
"I love you dad." I said as I clung to him.
He sighed. "I love you too Eli." He said.
It was silent for a moment. "Can you go back to sleep?" He asked.
"Yeah thanks." I said as I yawned.
He kissed me forehead and turned out the light. "Good night." He said.
"Night dad." I said.
I snuggled up with Athena and tried to fall back asleep. It took a while but I finally managed to. I hoped I wouldn't have anymore nightmares.