The Marauders' Years: Year Two

Chapter Seven

The Worst of Fears

Warning: The following story was being planned out in 2003 -- well before the fifth, sixth, or seventh Harry Potter books were available to me. While the story has absorbed facts from these books as they have been presented, some key elements of the story will still not match up with canon, as it's too late to change some events and relationships. Please keep that in mind.

Characters Contained: The four Marauders are this series' main focus, but a core group of OCs also appear throughout the story. Therefore, it would be wise to read the first installment of The Marauders' Years to better understand where everything is coming from.

Disclaimer: I neither own nor make a profit off of anything from the Harry Potter universe. J.K.Rowling is the one behind the series, y'know.

Status: Ongoing.

Other: This marks the end of the chapters I have had waiting for upload. The next chapter will be half older writing, half completely new material. The chapter after that will be written completely from scratch. I'll try to update at least once a week -- once every two weeks at most. This story will be competing with First Encounters, so frequency may also depend on which story has more readers. Happy reading, all!


Darkness had fallen over the castle by the time the Marauders made their way to the silent hallways outside of the common room.

James frowned, reaching into his bag to touch the invisibility cloak and insure that it was there, ready to be flung over the four of them if a teacher should be heard. He really hadn't planned on getting such a late start, but Remus had suddenly decided that he didn't want anything to do with their newest little adventure, and that had held them up.

Remus's stubbornness hadn't bothered Sirius, of course. James had been somewhat amused to watch Sirius pin Remus's arms and march him from the common room. Now that they were out, Sirius was still standing close to Remus, as if he were making sure the pale boy didn't get any ideas about running back to the common room.

The four walked in silence for several minutes, James only speaking once to warn Peter away from stepping into mid-air when one of the changing staircases suddenly swung away to connect somewhere else. From there on, the boys risked one Lumos-lit wand.

"This the room?" Sirius asked, lifting an eyebrow at the others.

James waited to see if Remus or Peter would answer, but their faces didn't register any recognition of the room in the shifting light of the spell. "Let's just try it," he decided at last, nodding toward the room. "No harm."

"Unless Peeves is in there," Peter muttered darkly, but the other three ignored him in favour of trooping into the room.

Remus lifted his wand high over his head, allowing the light to dimly illuminate the room. Shadows still clung inside the corners of the classroom, but they could all make out the clock now. It would have looked completely nondescript if not for the scattered spellbooks that still surrounded it.

"Now what?" whispered Peter.

"We... see if it's friendly," Sirius replied.

James managed a lop-sided smirk – they were being quieter in the classroom than they had been while wondering the halls where a teacher was more likely to hear them.

Remus snorted. "I'm sure it will be honoured to make our acquaintance."

In reply, Sirius ignored the pale boy and crept toward the clock, his shadow growing and shrinking eerily in the light of Remus's wand.

"We come in peace!" he declared the moment he was a few feet from the grandfather clock.

The clock gave no immediate answer, but after a few moments of silence it trembled slightly.

Sirius frowned. He wasn't going to have a clock dismiss him like that. He had spoken to it, and he wasn't going to take one step outside of the classroom until he had received an answer. And he really didn't care if the whatever-it-was didn't want to answer, because he planned to make it answer.

Before any of the others could object, Sirius jammed his wand through a space in the frame and into the innards of the clock, grinning wickedly as he said, "Lumos."

As before, the clock – or, more specifically, what was inside the clock – reacted immediately to the light. With one last violent shake of the grandfather clock, a dark something erupted into the room and hovered uncertainly for a moment before completing its transformation with a crack!

Sirius's eyes widened as a chilly fog began to fill the room. Within moments a thick, white mist obscured everything – he could barely see his hand when he lifted it up to eye-level.

What was this?

A choked yell sounded off to Sirius's right and he turned, wand out, only to find nothing facing him except the crushing fog.

Worried now, he turned again, but the fog continued to press on his eyes, blinding him to anything that might be going on around him. He could hear things in the fog, though – slight movements, loud thumps. Any one of the many sounds he continued to hear could have been some unknown creature in the fog finishing off his best friends.

"James!" he tried, spinning around once again at a loud thump followed by a grunt.

No answer.

Sirius slowly spun on the spot, staring blindly into the fog around him. Where was everyone? Why weren't they saying anything?

Setting his mouth in a grim line, Sirius tightened his grip on his wand, ignoring how it was now slightly slick with perspiration. "Lumos!"

Sirius was uncertain what had happened – either the wand had refused to cast the spell, or the fog had simply swallowed the small light whole. Whichever it was, the lack of light was making the situation unbearable. He had to find James and the others.

The silence stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. No matter which way Sirius tried to move, there was no end to the fog. It almost seemed as if he had been transported to some other place and that the secure wall of Hogwarts no longer surrounded him. That was what worried him the most. If they were in Hogwarts, nothing bad could happen. But if whatever had been in the clock had moved them…

"James!"

"Shh!" a voice hissed in his ear, and then someone (or something, Sirius thought, feeling slightly desperate now) grabbed his wand hand and forcibly lifted it to point his wand at the fog again. "Riddikulus!"

Sirius blinked and suddenly James was beside him, squinting intently through his glasses as a knife appeared in midair and cut through the fog, revealing Remus and Peter blinking dazedly on the far side of the room.

"Thanks—" Sirius started, but James's attention was already shifting to a spot nearest Peter where a loud crack had just emanated.

Peter let out a frightened yelp, back-pedalling quickly as a beast stepped forth in place of the fog.

At first, James thought it was a lion, but then he received his first clear view of the creature and knew why Peter had flattened himself against the wall, trying to stay as far away from the creature as possible.

It was a manticore – its face was vaguely humanoid, but its mouth was filled with three rows of wickedly sharp teeth. Instead of a lion's tail, it had one of a scorpion that was covered in protective scale plates.

"Bloody hell," Sirius breathed.

Like James had done for Sirius, Remus was rushing to Peter's aid, attempting to edge along the wall toward the smaller boy while keeping both eyes fixed on the manticore's face.

Just as he reached Peter, leaning sideways to remind him of what spell to use, the manticore smiled. Even from across the room, Sirius was confident that the expression was the single most terrifying thing he had seen in all his years.

Faster than the boys' eyes could follow, the manticore twisted its body and lashed out with its tail, hitting the space of wall between Remus and Peter and sending both boys sprawling.

"Peter!" Remus called, scrambling to his feet and trying to still his rapid breathing long enough to get a clear sentence out. "Riddikulus – use it!"

Peter, however, seemed unable to even let out a whimper from where he was on the floor. He simply stared, his attention fixated on the wicked smile the manticore was once again wearing.

As Remus watched, horror-struck, the creature took a few deceptively dainty steps toward Peter, almost casually lifting its tail again…

"Remus!"

Sirius's yell was enough to snap Remus back to reality. Hoping against hope that the boggart wouldn't turn on him next, Remus lifted his wand, put out his lumos spell and managed to get out the riddikulus spell.

The room fell back into the pitch-black of night inside the castle with no lumos-lit wands to keep the darkness at bay.

Remus waited in the dark, praying that the boggart had gone. One moment passed by as he waited, then two. It almost looked as if everything had settled down when a slow, soft light began to penetrate the darkness from somewhere near the ceiling.

For a moment, he froze. Would false moonlight be as terrible as the real thing? Remus wasn't certain, and because of that he bolted, clearing the doorway before the false moon appeared from behind the artificial clouds.

Remus was halfway up the stairs and well on his way to Gryffindor Tower when the other three boys stopped blinking in confusion at the moon and gathered their wits enough to follow.