Disclaimer: The Harry potter series belongs to J. K. Rowling. The only profit I gain from this story is the enjoyment and experience of writing it.
Thanks to Whisper in the Dawn and wingnutdawn is now betaed.
-Chapter 9:To a Not So Bright Future -
He felt his Aunt tense beside him and when he glanced over at her. he saw she had a deep frown on her face. He quickly followed her glare across to the approaching figures.
"Did they dislike each other at the beginning or did I accidentally cause it?" Dudley thought as a wave of panic wash over him. A dozen of horrible scenarios sprung up in his mind, most of them consisted of the end of the world.
His Aunt huffed causing Dudley to focus on reality once again. Lily grabbed Smith's hand and dragged her past the approaching boys down to the greenhouse. His Uncle smirked and called something at his Aunt's back, which he didn't catch but only aggravated his Aunt more.
As the group neared, Longbottom stepped forward and greeted his Uncle though he seemed reluctant to do so.
"Hello James, it's been awhile." Said Longbottom with a forced smile.
"Yeah it has. Was your mother upset that you didn't get into Gryffindor?" His Uncle asked though with the smirk on his face it was obvious he didn't care.
Longbottom frowned, "No, she wasn't because Hufflepuff is just as good as Gryffindor."
"Are you bonkers! Who would want to be a wimpy puff when they can be in brave Gryffindor!" Sirius snorted backing up his Uncle.
Dudley frowned, the way they were acting reminded him of himself and not in a good way. Longbottom tensed and tightened his hands into fists. Reaching forward Dudley placed his hand on Longbottom's shoulder. "We should head down to the greenhouse." He said calmly hoping to prevent a fight from breaking out.
"Running away, PUFF?" Spat out the shortest of the group as he stepped forward. He was a short pudgy kid with mousy brown hair. It was obvious that he was trying to impress Sirius and his Uncle.
"Come guys, classes are about to start." Said the kid in the back of the group that hadn't spoken until now. Dudley eyes swept across to the speaker. He was tall with light brown hair and a few scars scattered lightly across his face. Even though he had never met him in person Dudley know that was Remus Lupin. "Teddy Lupin looked quite a bit like his father at this age. Except Teddy usually has bright blue hair which he had taken a fondness for after he found out that his mother had preferred bubblegum pink for hers." He thought as he studied Lupin. Dudley had met Teddy a few times when he had visited his cousin. "Lupin is also a werewolf…" This thought floated into his head and for several seconds he had no idea what to do. But then he dismissed it, "..After all it's none of my business."
"Oi, Puff what's with your hair colour anyway? Did a spell misfire causing it looks like complete rubbish." Said Sirius completely ignoring Lupin.
"Leave him alone!" Snapped Adrian glaring.
Dudley had to suppress his anger knowing that if he showed it things would only get worse. Taking a few deep breaths to try to relax. "How do you get rid of bullies?" He thought thinking back to his own time as a bully and decided that he would at least back off if his target stood up for themselves. So stepping around Longbottom his body slipped seamlessly into his defensive stance though it simply looked like he relaxed. "I don't remember anyone asking your opinion on my hair. And in all honesty I couldn't care less what you thought about it." He commented lifting his shoulders and hands in exaggerated shrug. "So how about you three," waving his hand at his Uncle, Harry's godfather and their foolish follower, "Leave us alone so that we aren't late for class."
"You can't just order us around." Growled his Uncle taking a threatening step forward.
"It wasn't, it was a very strong suggestion."
Sirius shifted forward." Ooo is the little Puff trying to scare us." He mocked with an amused grin at his Uncle who returned it with one of his own.
Adrian let a growl and lunged forward but Dudley threw an arm out stopping him. Longbottom had also hissed irritably beside him but didn't move. Dudley couldn't stop himself from realizing the irony of the situation. "A bully is being bullied." "Nah, not trying to scare you…Just asking you lot to leave us alone." He said coolly watching both of them twitch with annoyance when they couldn't get him riled.
"HERBOLOGY IS STARTING!" Someone shouted, effectively ending the group's stalemate. As they all headed off to the greenhouse.
-(After Class)-
After Herbology was done, Dudley slipped away and headed back to the castle. Earlier he had asked Bones where the library was, so now having a better idea where to go. After getting to the entrance hall he crossed it and climbed the Grand Staircase. Then he kept going up until he finally reached the third floor. He then headed down the corridor to another pair of large double doors. Stepping into the library he realized that finding the information that he was seeking was going to be even harder than he thought. The library was gigantic with thousands of books on thousands of shelves. He had a feeling that it would take him a while just finding the right section. Shaking his head he picked a random direction and with crossed his fingers walked off. He didn't find what he was looking for during his meander through a small part of the library. But he found out that there was a ton more wizarding literature than he ever thought there could possibly be.
-(Some time later)-
He leaned back in his chair as he watched the front of the Transfiguration classroom. He had arrived early since he had been in the library and skipped lunch. Kids were starting to filter in glancing curiously at the cat that was sitting on the teacher's desk. He had been wondering about the cat too but had waved it off as a wizard thing. He glanced out the window to his right. The classroom was on the ground floor of the castle. From the window he could see across to the forest. There was a large willow tree in between the castle and the forest. The classroom started to buzz as kids filled the room. He didn't pay them much attention having other things on his mind.
At the moment he was trying to decide if he should send a letter to the Prewetts to ask about the daily prophet or if he should leave it alone. He would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit curious about it. But as far as he could remember Harry had never mentioned the Drakes or that incident. There was a light thud as someone set their books down on the table. Glancing over he saw Snape standing next to the table looking a little unsure of his decision. Dudley nodded in greeting before turning back to the window. Then there was a clatter of footsteps as Longbottom and Adrian showed up and claimed the seats in front of him.
"We almost got lost, but luckily we ran into an older student who told us the way." Longbottom said breathlessly. "Where is Professor McGonagall, isn't class supposed to start in a minute?" He asked after some hurried introductions with Snape.
Dudley shrugged and resting his chin on his hand. He studied the cat that was patiently sitting on the desk. The cat was a silver tabby that had markings around the eyes that looked like square spectacles. He had the distinct impression that the cat wasn't quite a cat. But before he could figure out what that feeling meant the cat stood up and jumped from the table. In mid-flight the whole body transformed into Professor McGonagall. There were gasps of awe throughout the class.
After that demonstration she went straight into a lecture about what transfiguration was. Dudley soon found himself for the first time in his life taking notes… very complicated notes.
Their task for that class was to try to turn a match into a needle. Snape was the only one out of the class to be able to make a difference to his match.
After class Dudley quickly packed up his things and was planning to head back to the library. Snape, Longbottom and Adrian followed him out of the classroom as he left.
"You know what we should do since we have some free time before supper.. We should explore the castle!" Said Adrian as he darted in front of them when they were heading down the Grand Staircase. Both Dudley and Snape gave him blank looks, while Longbottom looked interested. " I'm sure that there must be dozens of hidden passageways in this place that no one knows about! So what do you chaps say, are you ready to search the great unknown?" Adrian continued excitedly with a wide grin on his face.
Dudley sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose and Snape snorted, unimpressed by Adrian's antics. Longbottom on the other hand looked just as excited as Adrian of the prospect. "Even though I've already done some exploring and am planning on doing some more. I don't really feel like babysitting these two…" Dudley thought. "I have something to do…" He said aloud hoping that they wouldn't get curious.
Adrian was frowning as he asked in disbelief, "What could you have to do that is better than exploring the castle?"
"Things." Dudley said slowly with an amused look at Adrian's increasingly exasperated expression. The snickers of amusement from both Snape and Longbottom didn't go unnoticed by either.
"Well, at least you two are coming with me right?" Said Adrian turning his attention to the two.
Snape looked surprised with his inclusion, but quickly hide it. "I'm meeting with Lily." He stated calmly.
"Lily Evens? We met her at Herbology. She can come too if she wants." Adrian persisted, reluctant to let Snape say no as easily as Dudley.
Dudley took the opportunity to step off the moving staircase that they were on to another in mid motion. Then trotted down that one and through one of the many door onto the floor with the Hufflepuff 's common room. He went down the corridor with the giant fruit portrait and climbed into the common room. Dropping off his class books he changed into some regular clothes for comfort. He wanted to leave the wand behind but he knew that even a wizard at his age wouldn't likely leave it behind. Digging through the black compartment he found what he had hope to find. A holster designed for carrying a wand. Attaching it to his belt he slipped the wand into it and covered it up with his shirt.
After that he headed back to the library to continue his search. Two hours later he was bored out of his mind from looking through the seemingly endless books. Sighing he slumped down into one of the chairs that were scattered around the place. He currently was in the dragon section that was connected to a dozen of other section about magical animals. "This is going to take a while…" He thought miserably to himself. "But the problem is that I can't do anything to speed it up, since I can't recruit someone else's help. I have to do this by myself…" He tiredly ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Which means that I'll be spending more time than I thought here. And that means that I need to actually do the classes..." The thought of doing any sort of school work was not very appealing to him. Smelting had been a breeze because he never had to do any schoolwork. He and his gang had just bullied other kids to do it for them. He found it somewhat ironic to suddenly find himself back at school and refusing to think of that as an option.
-(Author Notes)-
Note this is a work in progress so I will be doing a bit of rewrite latter. But I'll give everyone a heads up when the change happens so you guys don't miss anything. The rewrite is just to make sure there isn't that many plot holes and they will only be bits and piece (hopefully).
What did you guys think of Marauders? Too much on the bullying side? I am still trying to get a good feel for their characters and character development.
Thank you everyone that has reviewed up to this point and please continue to do so.
To Moi: Thank you for your review. It definitely got me thinking about the different aspects. And it is always cool to see what other people think about the story. I've also been thinking about your suggestion and I probably will but won't post anything for a while cause life right now is pretty chaotic and still have a lot to work on this fic. As far as the werewolf stuff goes he will be thinking it through more later, he didn't now cause he still hopes to be gone soon.
So… I've been busy with stuff… And the updating took a while... But I am working on background and plot so don't worry too much if I don't update for a bit cause that doesn't mean I gave up on the story.
