Harry Potter and a Marauder Revival
Chapter 4: Moonlight Secrets
Entering into their Transfiguration classroom, Harry was momentarily taken off guard as he eyed Professor McGonagall. Although Harry had seen her the night he arrived in 1976, he did not get a chance to look at her properly as he was too bewildered that he was somehow transported two decades into the past.
Looking now at Professor McGonagall, Harry saw her hair was a much darker brown (rather than the many grey streaks she had in her hair in Harry's own time) pulled into a tight bun as her emerald, green robes, swished softly at her feet.
Harry took a seat next to Remus while James and Sirius sat together next to them; Peter took a seat with another fellow Gryffindor behind James. Harry then saw both Lily and Hermione walk up and sit at the front of the classroom still deep in conversation; Harry heard James give another huff as he eyed the pair of them.
Once everyone had taken their seats, Professor McGonagall spoke, saying, "Now, for this lesson, we are going to pick up where we left off last time, that is the Vanishing Spell. Remember the incantation for the spell is EVANESCO. You will all be given first spare quills which you will practice on, then we will move on to vanishing animals." With a wave of her wand, three spare quills appeared in front of the Gryffindors and Slytherins. "Off you go, then!"
Loud cries of "EVANESCO" suddenly filled the Transfiguration classroom as the students tried with all of their might vanishing their spare quills.
Harry pointed his wand at one of the quills, concentrated on vanishing the object, and said firmly, "EVANESCO!" However, nothing happened. Harry tried again and got the same result.
His eyes wandered leftward and saw that Remus too was having some trouble vanishing his own quills. Harry looked to the front of the classroom and saw, not to his surprise, Hermione had successfully vanished all of the quills already; Lily had one more quill left.
He turned his eyes next to Lily and felt his stomach roll over uncomfortably: sitting next to his mother sat none other than Severus Snape. Harry's blood boiled, remembering how awful Snape had treated him during their short-lived Occlumency lessons the previous year.
Harry then looked over at James and Sirius and saw them whispering to one another, chancing glances over towards Snape. He saw James look over at Professor McGonagall (who was watching a pair of Slytherins practicing the spell) then direct his wand over at Snape.
Harry saw rather heard James whisper "EVANESCO" over towards Snape; the spell vanished Snape's Transfiguration textbook immediately. Snape whipped around and his eyes locked with James, a dark shadow crossing over both of their facial features. For a moment, Harry thought Snape was going to start flinging hexes and cruses of his own over at James and Sirius (both of whom were laughing at their latest act) but instead, he sneered, turned back around and continued practicing the vanishing spell.
"I know what you're thinking, Harry," Remus suddenly said, eyeing Harry warily. "But don't be too quick to judge James and Sirius. James and Snape loathed one another from the instant they first met…Snape actually tried to get both James and Sirius expelled our previous year. Their rivalry can be defined as a continuum that has no limits or parameters…an infinite enmity."
"I wasn't thinking anything bad, I actually thought that was hilarious," Harry told Remus, smirking.
"You did?"
Harry nodded his head in response.
"And what do you have against Snape, Harry?"
Harry thought about how to answer this. He slowly responded, "Lily told me Snape is interested in the dark arts and the dark arts are something that rips people and families apart."
"Are you sure you're not related to James in any way? You look like him exactly aside from your eyes and the scar on your forehead and you seem to have the same beliefs."
Harry laughed once, unsure of how to respond to Remus's statement.
"By the way, how did you get that scar on your forehead? I've never seen a scar shaped like a lightning-bolt before?"
"Oh, there was an accident when I was younger; a piece of glass of some sort," Harry replied, shortly, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going. Remus seemed to believe his story as he merely nodded his head once.
"Okay, settle down; we will now turn to a much more difficult form of vanishing as we will now begin to vanish living animals, in this case, mice. I want you all to do exactly what you did with the spare quills: simply point your wand at your mouse and say 'EVANESCO.'" With another wave of her wand, a mouse appeared in front of every student. "On you go, then."
Harry, not having accomplished vanishing his three spare quills thought it was going to be nearly impossible for him to vanish an entire mouse; soon after trying the spell three different times, he was right. The most Harry did was shift his mouse he was practicing on to the right about four feet.
Remus too seemed to have some trouble vanishing the mouse he was practicing with mainly because the mouse was trying desperately to escape from him.
Over at the desk next to theirs, James pointed his wand at his mouse and said "EVANESCO!" However, the only thing that happened was that his mouse turned completely yellow.
James scowled over at Sirius as he burst out laughing at James' ineptitude to vanish his mouse. "Fine then, Sirius, let me see you try," James said savagely.
Sirius, who seemed unable to control his laughter, pointed his wand (though Harry noted his hand was shaking viciously) and he managed to say between gales of laughter, "EVANESCO!"
Since his hand was shaking so much, his wand missed its target and instead vanished the chair of a Slytherin boy in front him; Sirius burst into more laughter as the Slytherin fell on the stone floor in a heap, throwing Sirius a dirty look over his shoulder.
"Mr. Black, what is the meaning of this, five points from Gryffindor," Professor McGonagall said, storming over to James and Sirius.
"Pardon me, professor," Sirius said, still laughing, as tears poured down his face. "It's just that- it's just that- ,"
"Never mind him, professor, he seems to have swallowed a laughing potion earlier in Potions," James reprimanded.
"Well then, Mr. Potter, make some sort of means to control him and his foolish behavior," Professor McGonagall said, stalking away.
Harry saw Remus roll his eyes and say to Harry, "Those two really have no self-control over their behavior sometimes."
Harry laughed quietly to himself, remembering how Sirius and Remus told stories of themselves along with his father and Peter and their times within the castle walls of Hogwarts. Harry once again looked towards the front of the classroom and noticed Hermione had successfully managed to completely vanish her mouse as she was now talking with Professor McGonagall.
Harry looked over at Lily and saw that she too was able to vanish her mouse. However, what he saw next made his stomach clench: Lily was talking with Snape. Anger started to bubble in the pit of Harry's stomach seeing the two of them talking with one another.
The Hogwarts bell rang loudly, startling everyone in the classroom. "For those of you unable to vanish either your quills or your mouse, practice for homework," Professor McGonagall called out as the Gryffindors and Slytherins nosily packed up their bags and departed from the classroom.
As Harry made his way outside in the corridor, he heard Lily call out, "Harry, wait up!"
Harry turned to see Lily coming up to him, a smile on her face. "I would like to introduce you to someone, Harry. This is one of my best friends, Severus Snape."
Lily moved aside and Harry was instantly transported to the teenage Snape he saw in the pensive his previous year. Snape's oily, black hair was shoulder length as his hook nose was framed against his pale face.
When Snape eyed Harry, his eyes shifted from awkwardness to malevolence. "This is Harry, Lily? He looks just like that git, Potter!"
"I know, Severus, but trust me, Harry is nothing like James," Lily conceded, looking over at Snape with a strong-willed hope in her eyes.
"Well then, um, how do you do," Snape asked Harry, his gaze still speaking volumes of mistrust.
"Er, fine," Harry mumbled awkwardly. He was silently willing for someone to come rescue him as an uncomfortable silence had befallen the group.
Harry then saw Hermione stalk up to him and he smiled widely. "Um, got to go, Hermione and I have some studying to do," Harry said quickly. Hermione turned at the sound of her name, smiled over at Lily and even gave a small smile to Snape as she and Harry departed.
"Thank you for saving me," Harry said to her once they were far enough away from Snape and Lily.
"I didn't rescue you, Harry; I just happened to walk the way you, Professor Snape, and Lily were talking," Hermione replied.
"Hermione, he's not 'professor;' he's just Snape," Harry corrected her.
"Oh, shoot, you're right. I forgot about that. You know before, Lily and I was talking about Remus and I almost called him Professor Lupin," Hermione said, her cheeks flaring a light shade of red at her near hiccup. "But, Harry, do you know what tonight is?"
Harry racked his brain, trying to think of anything however his mind was blank. "No, what is tonight, Hermione?"
"Harry, tonight is the full moon. You know, Professor, I mean, Remus, is going to transform tonight. Didn't you say that James, Sirius, and Peter also have become unregistered animagi?"
Harry then remembered about his father and his father's friends transformations. "You're right, Hermione…I completely forgot about that! But why are you telling me this?"
"Well, I have a plan, Harry, although, I don't know if you are going to like it."
That night, Harry and Hermione sat in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione reading her potions book while Harry was practicing the vanishing spell on a spare piece of parchment.
"Hermione, are you sure about this," Harry asked, not completely convinced of Hermione's plan.
Hermione put down her potions book and replied, "Harry, we're doing this for Remus."
"So your plan is to sneak out tonight after James, Sirius, and Peter, follow them to the Whomping Willow, trick James into telling us about Remus' werewolf transformation just so you can brew him the…what's it called again," Harry asked.
"The Wolfsbane Potion, Harry. It is supposed to prevent werewolves from losing their minds after they transform," Hermione answered Harry's unasked question. "Professor Snape brewed it regularly for Professor Lupin third year."
"And remind me why are we doing this?"
"Because, Harry, Professor Lupin is the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we ever had. Also, he's one of your father's best friends and he just is an all around good guy." Harry nodded once, still unsure of how Hermione was going to convince James to tell them about Remus.
"Of course, you don't have to come along; I can sneak out by myself, you know," Hermione added.
"No way, I'm still coming. I'm just concerned is all."
"Concerned about what, exactly," Hermione asked, one of her eyebrows was quirked upwards.
"Well, after seeing what happened between you and James," Harry answered, not looking at Hermione.
"Nothing happened between James and myself, Harry, what are you talking about?"
"No, I mean at lunch, when you and James started arguing about how he treated Lily," Harry explained, still trying profusely to vanish his spare piece of parchment, although he was still unsuccessful.
"Well, I wouldn't really call it an argument so much so than a disagreement, Harry, but James has to be part of this in order for this plan to work."
"Why not Sirius or Peter," Harry questioned, giving up the vanishing spell and looking directly at Hermione.
"First of all, Peter? I don't think that would work at all. Second of all, Sirius seems like he doesn't like the two of us, or maybe he's just cautious around us, so I don't think that would work either."
"It's strange, actually, because I'm so used to Sirius and Remus refering to each other by their Marauder names yet I haven't heard them call each other by their names once so far," Harry said.
Hermione nodded as she sighed quietly and suggested, "Maybe they call each other their own Marauder names when they're just alone; they don't want other people to know about it?"
"Maybe," Harry muttered, directing his gaze at the fire. "Anyway, it's getting late; I think I should go up there."
Hermione nodded her head, and said, "Well, I guess I'll see you soon then, Harry." Harry nodded once at Hermione and he took off up the stairs to his dormitory he would be sharing with James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter for the remainder of his time in 1976.
Harry climbed in between his covers and listened to the soft breathing of his fellow dorm mates. Harry, however, could not fall asleep; not if he wanted Hermione's plan to work. After all, she did have good intentions.
As Harry tried hard to stay awake, he slowly felt his eyelids flutter down. His mind wandered suddenly when he was instantly woken up: he saw three figures quietly depart from his dormitory; Harry suddenly realized it was time.
As he waited for the occupants to file out, Harry took out his wand and threw his covers off of him. Harry slowly opened his dormitory door, wincing as it squeaked slightly. Harry crept down the steps and into the common room he and Hermione had sat in about an hour before, discussing their plan.
Harry looked around for Hermione and spotted her sitting in an armchair next to a window; Harry walked over to her and saw her eyes were closed. "Hermione? Are you awake?" Harry shook her shoulder slightly as she mumbled something incoherently. Harry again shook her shoulder with slightly more vigor, and Hermione's eyes fluttered open.
"Harry, what time is it," she asked suddenly.
Harry looked as his watch and said, "About twelve thirty; I overslept; sorry about that."
"Yeah, I figured: when I heard James, Sirius, and Peter all come down earlier I had only a moment's notice to hide behind this armchair. I didn't see Remus, though, Harry."
"I think he might already be at the Whomping Willow. Come on, we have to hurry," Harry said. Without thinking, Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and the pair darted out of the Gryffindor common room and fled down the long and eerie corridors of the night castle. Their hurried footsteps echoed loudly off the stone floor and walls as they ran towards the slightly ajar oak front doors of the castle.
"Harry, why would these doors be open," Hermione asked.
"Because Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter have already made it outside," Harry explained.
"No, I mean why would the front doors already be unlocked? Surely, the professors would lock the doors at night, wouldn't they," Hermione asked, trepidation seeping through her voice.
"I don't know but if we don't get a move on, we're going to miss our chance," Harry said hurriedly. The pair fled down the stone steps of the castle, knowing James, Sirius, and Peter would all be under James' invisibility cloak.
Harry and Hermione ran off in the dark, the grass crunching beneath their feet. They ran up towards the Quidditch pitch, the towers of the small stadium thundered against the millions of stars framed against the black, cloudless sky.
A small chill settled in the air as Harry and Hermione skirted around the pitch and fixed their gaze upon the Whoming Willow.
Harry saw three dark figures standing near the Whomping Willow. He noticed the messy hair of one of the figures and deduced it was his father, standing with Sirius and Peter. The three forms of the students were black shadows against the bright moon that hung against the dark sky. Suddenly, Peter's figure shrunk as Harry and Hermione knew he had transformed into a rat.
Once James and Sirius had taken steps closer to the tree, the Whomping Willow sprang to life, its branches flinging wildly into the night sky. As Sirius transformed into a dog, Peter's rat form ran up to the bark of the tree and pressed a knot at the base of the tree. When he did, the branches of the Whomping Willow instantly stilled.
James then walked closer to the tree as Harry wondered why his father hadn't transformed into his stag animagus yet. Just as Hermione had predicted, James seemed to will both Peter and Sirius to go in before him.
As Sirius' tail disappeared, James started to make his way under the tree's roots, Hermione took out her wand and fired a shower of red sparks near James. James quickly took out his own wand and pointed it in the darkness.
Hermione ran out from behind the Quidditch pitch and over to James with Harry quickly following behind her.
"James, what are you doing," Hermione asked innocently.
"Was that you that just shot that shower of red sparks at me," James asked as Harry sensed anger building up within his father.
"Well, Harry and I couldn't see you properly; all we saw was a shadow; we didn't know it was you," she explained.
"Well, it was me. What are you two doing up anyway," James asked irritably.
"We could ask you the same thing," Hermione countered.
"Are you always so condescending? First, you attack me over my relationship with Evans, now you seem to be following me- ,"
"Excuse me, but 'following you'? Why on earth would I do such a thing," Hermione interrupted.
"Well, you certainly haven't explained what you're doing so late out of the castle at night," James retorted.
"Neither have you," Hermione shot back.
The two glared at one another as Harry intervened by saying, "Hermione and I are trying to get used to Hogwarts, that's all."
"And you get used to Hogwarts by roaming about late at night," James asked, his eyebrow quirked upward.
"We were homeschooled, James. We're not used to taking classes in such a huge place," Harry explained, noting how strange it was to call his father by his first name.
James looked uncertainly from Harry to Hermione. "Are you two a couple," he asked finally.
Harry felt his face grow very hot as he noticed Hermione's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "What on earth does that have to do with anything," she asked.
"Well, I know many couples take late night strolls on the Hogwarts grounds," James explained, looking directly at Hermione.
"We just needed some fresh air; some time to think about our transition," Hermione explained. James sighed deeply, looking down at the base of the Whomping Willow.
Hermione noticed this and said, "James, I'm really sorry about before. I didn't mean to intervene on how you treated Lily but it just felt wrong at the time so I thought I should say something to you about it."
James looked surprised at Hermione's apology. He looked directly at her as if assessing if her apology was true or not.
After a full few moments of complete silence between the three students, James suddenly said, "It's alright, Hermione. I just, I don't know how to explain it; it's confusing is all," he finished lamely.
"Well then, what are you doing by this tree," she asked.
James looked uncertain for a moment as he looked from Hermione to Harry.
"Maybe we can help with whatever it is that is going on," Hermione suggested.
James took another deep breath and replied, "I just can't tell you." Harry thought this didn't really matter as he and Hermione knew what was already going on but they needed James to tell them as they were not supposed to know about Remus.
Suddenly, a howl was heard off in the distance. Hermione, taken off guard by the sudden noise, wrapped her hands viciously around Harry's left arm.
As Harry was beginning to lose feeling in his arm, Hermione looked over at James and asked softly, "Was that a werewolf?"
James looked directly at Hermione, his eyes burning with conflicting emotions as he slowly nodded his head, as if it was paining him to do so.
Well, here is the fourth chapter to "Harry Potter and a Marauder Revival!" Thank you all so much for your reviews (both good and bad)! I wish I could answer some questions you have posted in your reviews but some of your questions will be answered in future chapters so try and be patient! Chapter five is a work in progress and will be posted Friday night! Don't forget to review Chapter 4!