Chapter 6: The Four Marauders
Lily was slowly getting used to this new life here in the land of Hogwarts… which she had learned was the very name of the island they were on, not just of the castle itself. She had learned that there were a couple of small towns around here, the village where she lived with the Weasleys was just one of them… but the island was covered mostly in a thick forest.
The Weasleys were kind enough to warn her again and again how dangerous that place was, and how there were many monsters and secrets hiding there. She did her best to put that out of her mind, but it was very hard to do so… that forest was everywhere. When she woke up first thing in the morning and look out her window, she could see the trees in the distance… and if she went outside, or wandered around the town, she would get a glimpse of it no matter where she turned.
She wasn't sure what it was about, but there was something about those dark trees that seemed to be calling out to her, as if they were asking her to come inside and play.
She had fought with every fiber of her being to keep her mind off it, and she was able to ignore for the most part… at least until that day when she found out what really went on in there.
It all started when she was taking a long walk around the lake and she spotted a familiar head of messy black hair running somewhere.
"James?" she called, getting up from her place on the lake, but James was too far away to hear her. She went running after him, but as she ran they came to a tree with swaying branches. She had learned that this was called the Whomping Willow, and it attacked anyone who came to close. She was about to call for him to stop, but he picked up a long stick and jabbed at the trunk and to her amazement, it stopped moving.
James then threw the stick aside and went diving down between the roots and disappeared. Lily blinked and stared for what felt like at least an hour when it was actually a few minutes. What was that? What did James do? It had been such a long time since she had seen him, she wanted to talk to him a little more. She took a glance around, making sure that no one was watching her before she went running off after him.
She cautiously approached the Whomping Willow, careful not to get so close to it that it would attack her. But when she glanced at the ground, she spotted the long stick that James had before. She quickly picked it up, but didn't know what else to do with it… she looked up at the thick branches, like clubs, and watched the arms swinging around in a threatening way. She thought hard about what she saw before… she saw James touch the trunk and the tree stopped moving. So she tried it… she stretched the long stick out and touched the bark.
The tree didn't seem to like that as it swung in her direction, but it couldn't reach her. Ok… so now what? That was when she noticed something strange…
When the tree twisted it's trunk around, she could see that there was a slight gap in the roots, leading to a kind of stone slide. What was this?
She frowned as she continued to try to make her way closer, but whenever she got close enough to see down the hole, she had to jump back to avoid the killer branches. Now she was getting angry, and the longer that she stood there, the angrier she grew. After doing this for about fifteen minutes, she finally lost her temper and threw several rocks at the trunk… but as she threw a particular large rock, it ended up hitting a knot in the tree and to her shock, the tree stopped moving.
She froze, halfway to throwing another rock, but instead lit it fall limply from her hand. Staring around her, her curiosity getting the better of her, she walked forward and slid down on her belly so that she ended up sliding down a steep tunnel and she landed on the dusty bottom.
She eagerly pushed herself up onto her knees and looked around at the narrow passageway. It was dark and she frowned a little, wondering why James would come to a place like this. She was almost wondering if she should just turn back and ask James about it when she next saw him… but her curiosity was growing almost out of her control and she smiled to herself as she went running down the tunnel.
She didn't know how long she had run, only that it had to be close to at least an hour of running down the passageway, but just as she was starting to think that she was getting nowhere she ran right into some kind of pole in the dark. Moaning in pain, rubbing her sore face, she felt around for the thing that she hit and she ended up finding the pole, but it was attached to another pole… and that was when she realized that it was a ladder.
Looking up, still unable to see anything, she pulled herself up and slowly began to climb up the ladder, wondering just where she was now. Up and up she went for the next few minutes until she banged her head into something hard. Rubbing her head in fury, she glared up, and spotted the faint outline of light forming a square in the ceiling. In confusion, she reached a hand up and felt around, realizing that this was wood, not stone—and then that was when her fingers latched onto a metal ring and realized that this was some kind of door. She threw it open, and let out a shriek of shock from the bright light that clouded her vision.
Seeing nothing but bright light, she clung onto the ladder tightly as she forced herself to keep blinking for a few long minutes until she was able to see enough to pull herself out of the hole. She sat on a wooden floor and rubbed her eyes hard until they readjusted to the light and was able to make out where she was. She was in a very old house, ancient one might call it… a battered-looking room with the wallpaper peeling from the walls, dirty stains in the rug that she was kneeling on, and the few pieces of furniture were broken like someone had smashed them.
She looked to the windows where the light was coming from, but most of them had been boarded up so that it was very difficult to see out.
Lily dusted herself off as she got up and looked around the room curiously. She stuck her head out of a door that led to a shadowy hallway, frowning at how she didn't know where she was. More annoyed than afraid, she stepped over a broken chair and went to the nearest window to try and peek out, but she was startled to see that there wasn't anything but green leaves in front of her.
She drew back, confused as to what this was before she looked around, quietly calling for James. Now she knew she saw him come down that passage, and he had to be here. Maybe this was like some kind of clubhouse? She remembered him mentioning to her about him and his group of friends… was it possible that this was where they met up?
And if so, then they would have to be in here somewhere? She spotted some crumbling stairs and went over to it, cautiously climbing up them, and she noticed that most of the house was covered with a thick inch of dust on the floor. But there was a long, almost shiny streak on the floor and the stairs, showing that there had been people here… possibly so often that they just headed straight up to a certain room.
Taking a leap of faith, she began to climb up the rickety stairs and followed the trail through the dust until she reached the top and walked into one of the bed rooms. In this room there was a broken four-poster bed with dusty hangings, but there was a large window there, and unlike all the other windows, this one wasn't boarded up. It was open and bright sunlight was pouring into the room.
Still a little sensitive to light, she walked over and gasped at what she was seeing. She was in the middle of a giant forest, the house standing on a little hill so that the window was just above the treetops, and she could see miles upon miles of greenery all around her. This forest looked old, with tall, twisted trees that reminded her of old men, but their leaves were green and full of life and she smiled as she stared at the scene for a long time… but…
But where was James?
She had her hands on her hips, now getting irritated that she seemingly come all this way just to find out that there wasn't anyone here. But then she noticed what was above her and looked up to see a rope hanging there… attached to a strong chain in the wall, and stretching out so that it reached the trees some distance away.
She frowned at it before her toe hit something and looked down to see some kind of hook there and suddenly it came to her mind what this was.
'This is getting crazy…' she thought to herself. Should she just leave? She picked up the hook and gazed at it and then the rope before she hooked it onto it. If nothing else, she was persistent. So she held on tightly to the hook as she positioned herself onto the rope and counted down.
"Three… two… one…" she whispered and she kicked off. It was faster than she thought it would be, she went zooming along the line with a wild laugh, the wind blowing through her hair and whipping her face. Her robe fluttered behind her like a banner as she sailed above the trees, her feet just barely touching the leaves… but she noticed that she was quickly going lower as the rope started to descend. That was when she realized that she was slowly down, having dragged her feet over the branches too much to be able to go all the way to… wherever it was she was going.
So when it stopped, she was left there, hanging by the hook, and now trapped in the branches.
"Crap…" she whispered, staring around desperately for an answer as to what to do. "Momentum…" she came up with. If she could just get the hook moving again, she could probably go down the rest of the way… which was a good plan in theory.
But as she struggled to get the annoying hook to move, she just kept ended up twisting around and swinging, barely moving more than a few inches.
Now she was in big trouble… she was stuck off the ground, with no idea where she was, and to make matters worse, she was slipping.
No sooner had she realized that, did she lose her grip and she fell with a startled scream. She fell through the branches, her hair and clothes getting caught, as she continued to scream and shut her eyes. She was waiting for the splat to come, but something broke her fall.
With a cry of pain, she landed on something much softer than ground… only she didn't feel any pain… it was the person she landed on that let out the cry.
"Oh, no!" she cried out in panic, turning and rolling off whoever it was. "I am so sorry… James?"
"Oww…" James whispered in a whimper. "That hurt…"
He was lying face-down in the dirt, and when he pulled his head out, he spat out a mouthful of the stuff before he looked over at her. "What the bloody hell were you… Lily!" At the sight of her, he sat bolt-upright. "What are you doing here?"
"I—I saw you come here," she said, "I followed after you… but I kinda fell from the rope up there?"
She looked up at the trees where she could see a Lily-sized hole through the leaves.
"Oh… you followed me?" James said, blinking in surprise. "I… I guess I wasn't as careful as I thought I was and…?"
"Oi! James!" yelled another voice and James jumped to his feet in time to see another boy, about their age, come bursting through the trees with a cheesy grin on his face. "There you are! Do you have any idea how heartbroken I was to see you leave? You could've left a note or something! Some husband you'll turn out to be!"
That was when he saw Lily pulling herself up to her feet and he stopped to see her. He blinked in surprise before he looked to her red hair and a grin appeared on his face.
"Ohhh," he said with a smirk, and he pulled his long black hair out of his face as he approached her. "So this is Tiger Lily…"
"Who?" Lily asked as James was making a gesture of moving his hand under his chin, to get the guy to shut up.
"Oh, nothing," the boy said as he skipped over and bowed, taking Lily's hand in his own and gave it a kiss. "Tis an honor to meet you at last, Miss Lily Evans." He then turned to James and said with an evil grin, "So this is why you ditched all of a sudden."
"Sirius," James said, and maybe she was imagining it, but there was a little red beneath the dirt. But he dusted it all off and when he was done, the red was gone. "I wasn't ditching you. I was coming through her when she fell on me and flattened my face."
And when they looked down at the ground, Sirius burst into laughter to see the perfect imprint of James's face there.
"Best you've ever looked!" he snorted.
"Oh, like you're a looker," James smirked back. "At least I don't need to take an hour long shower in the morning, and spend another admiring myself in the mirror."
"Honestly," Sirius said, rolling his eyes dramatically, "You just don't know how hard I have to work to look this good. Anyway, why didn't you tell us that you were bringing the new girl here?"
"Well, that was supposed to be a secret," James answered. "A secret so secret that I didn't know myself."
"If I may," Lily said, coming forward. "I saw you go through the tree and I was just wondering…?"
"A rebel, huh?" Sirius asked, looking Lily up and down. "I like that…"
"Shut up," she retorted. "I was just curious…"
"Remember what curiosity did to the cat," called another voice and this time it was another boy coming out of the trees. Unlike James and Sirius, this one seemed to be a little more shy… a bit wane. He looked almost sickly with his pale skin and dark shadows under his eyes. But he had a very kind look on his face… and there was a fourth boy… he was easily the smallest one there with a rather mousy look about his features and rather buck teeth.
"Remus! Peter!" James called happily, waving them over, as he put an arm around Lily and went to make real introductions. "This here, is Lily Evans! The rebel girl who decided to come with me to this marvelous place!"
"Wow, you've got guts, sister," Sirius said with a long whistle. "No way I'd get on a broom with James."
"Who… are you people?" Lily couldn't stop herself from asking.
"What?" Sirius asked with a gasp as he had his hands over his heart. "You mean James didn't tell you about us? I'm hurt… I'm so hurt, James."
"Yes, how will we ever recover from that?" the sickly-looking boy asked as he drew closer with the mouse boy.
"Like you boys are worth mentioning," James said with a smirk. "This is Sirius…" he told her as he pointed to the first boy, who took a dramatic bow, "Sorry. I know that he's a rather lot to take in…"
"But that's what you gotta love about me!" Sirius laughed.
"And this is Remus," he said pointing to the sick boy, who smiled politely to her. "And don't worry," James reassured her. "His bark is far worse than his bite."
"That's a matter of opinion," Remus stated with a rather forced chuckle as the others laughed, though Lily couldn't see what was so funny about that.
"And last and least, Peter," James finished up, pointing to the small boy who gave her a toothy smile.
"Oh, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," Peter said in a surprisingly squeaky voice, but he seemed rather nervous to be around her.
"Come on, Pete!" Sirius said in a bored voice, "This can't be the first time you've been around a girl!"
"Does his mum count?" James teased.
"Where are we?" Lily asked, staring around.
"You haven't noticed?" Remus asked in surprise. "We're in the Dark Forest."
"Really?" Lily asked, staring around again, "Doesn't look too dark to me."
"Not in the day," Peter said in a brave attempt to sound as cool as the others. "But at night that's when the beasts come out."
"Which you naturally run away from," Sirius teased.
"But this place is off limits!" Lily said quickly. "No one is allowed here! Only Aurors!"
"True, true…" James agreed, "But why don't we go to our clubhouse and I'll explain."
"Clubhouse?" she repeated, suddenly nervous.
"James, I-I thought that you said no girls allowed!" Peter pointed out but James just waved his hand away as he pulled her back to the trees that they had all come out from.
"I say a lot of things! We can make an exception for Tiger Lily here," he said brightly and Lily was starting to feel more worried than before if that was possible.
But she was patient as they took her along the long walk back to the house that they had come out of and Sirius pulled out a loose board and bowed them inside. She wasn't thrilled at the idea of being back in this creepy house, but she headed to what was obviously once the living room and sat down on one of the only few pieces of furniture that wasn't broken as they gathered around her.
"Allow me to introduce ourselves!" James said, standing up in front of her and sweeping into a bow. "The name's James Potter! Though you probably already know that." He turned to Sirius and said, "And this is none other than the infamous Sirius Black!"
"Infamous?" Lily asked, her eyebrows raised as he gave her a winning grin. "For what?"
"Nothing big yet!" Sirius said, "But you mark my words! One day, I will be a household name!"
"For what? Being in prison?" Lily taunted and Sirius acted as if she had just mortally offended him.
"I'm hurt, Lil's," he said, wiping a fake tear away. "And James here said you were so nice."
"That depends who I'm talking to," she said as the boy, Remus, sat on the couch with her.
"Remus," he said, holding out his hand to her and she shook it. "Remus Lupin. And don't let these guys get to you. They're a bit of a handful, but these guys are harmless when you get used to them."
"Could've fooled me," she answered, suddenly deciding that she liked Remus. He was a bit of a relief compared to James and Sirius, who were now pretending to throw punches at each other. As for Peter, he sat there and watched them both with wide eyes, clapping and cheering them on. She rolled her eyes at how theatrical that they were all being, but as those three were busy, she turned to Remus and asked him, "Just what are you doing here? I thought that this place was off-limits."
"It is…" Remus said with a rather forced smile. "But this house here is a safe place. If you ever get lost in the Dark Forest and its getting dark, you need to come straight here. You'll be safe from any kind of monster…" but then he added under his breath, "Unless it's a full moon."
"Hmm?" Lily asked and Remus jumped a little.
"It's nothing," Remus said, smiling again. "The point is, the forest here is only dangerous at night. We never stay long enough to see what's here. When the sun goes down, we head back through the passage and back onto the grounds. We just head back to our beds after that."
"So… there are monsters, but they're all nocturnal?" Lily asked.
"Exactly," Sirius grinned happily, flopping down on her other side. "It's just the four of us out here. There's not much else to do to be honest. I mean… going to town is fun and everything, but you can only see it so many times before you get bored. Here, there's always and adventure."
"But everyone talks about how dangerous it is!" Lily said, frowning at them all.
"Well, what they don't know won't hurt them," James said, "I mean, it's not like we're doing anything wrong…"
"Not wrong?!" she cried out, getting up to her feet. "This place is dangerous! Day or night! How could you even think of coming here when… when…?" but her voice died in her throat as she looked over to see what was sparkling in the window.
The boys looked up to see what she was gawking at and some of them smiled.
"The first time seeing a Snitch?" James asked.
She stared at it as a tiny golden ball about the size of a walnut came in through the broken glass and fluttered around the room with tiny wings.
"A Snitch?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"Yeah," Sirius laughed, "We let that thing go and try to find it… this little devil is the best hide-and-seek player I've ever seen."
"Look Lily," Remus said, standing up and touching her shoulder so that she broke eye-contact with the Snitch. "I know that it's stupid. But we've been coming here for a long time now and…"
"How long?" she cut in and he shrugged.
"More than a year, but less than a hundred?" Sirius offered and she rolled her eyes at him.
"Please…" Remus begged her, "Don't say anything about it ok?"
"And what if something happens to you all?" she demanded hotly.
"If we do… anything," Remus said quickly, "Then you can tell someone. But… this is like our hideaway. Something that only we know about. And if you keep quiet… we'll show you everything that this place has to offer…"
Lily continued to frown at them all—completely torn as to what to do. A part of her desperately wanted to do what they said and keep this place a secret… but after she promised Dumbledore, McGonagall, and all the others not to cause trouble…?
James must've seen the confusion on her face, for he stepped forward and held out his hand to her. "Look," he said, "I know that it's a lot to take in, but we've got a few hours before the sun goes down, so how about I show you around a little. And then you tell us what you think?"
Lily frowned at him again, but she took his hand anyway. "And if anything happens, I'll make sure that you live to regret it."
"I can live with that," he said brightly as Sirius clapped his hands together.
"Now then, Miss Evans," he said happily, holding out his arm for her to take, "Allow me to give you the grand tour!"
She gave him a shrewd look before she walked on, wondering just what this world the boys had that they wanted to protect.
(Ok, not as exciting as I thought it would be, but I promise that the next chapter will be much more interesting. Hope you liked it anyway… and we might even see a glimpse of Snape next chapter.)