You might want to open a tab of Google Translate. Chock full of Latin, this chapter.

Latin and War

Riley watched with amusement as James and Sirius tickled the squid's tentacles, floundering around in the water. Riley and Peter were sitting contentedly on the squid's head, while Remus was sliding around.

"Tu similis pueri titillationem te?" she asked, and realizing the squid couldn't respond, spoke again, "Unum adipiscing enim sic, duo spargit enim non."

The squid raised one tentacle, and splashed a stream of water into the air, then put the tentacle back underwater. As she watched her two raven-haired friends treading water, she remembered something from first year.

"Here, I'll hold the lantern," Riley said, taking hold of the lantern on a long stick that lay in the front of the boat. James and Sirius sat in the middle, and Remus sat in the back. Once every first year was in a boat, they magically began floating across the water.

"You know, in Hogwarts: a History it says that there's a Giant Squid in this lake," said Remus.

"Really? I'm reading that, but I'm only on page ten, thanks to some people," Riley said.

"A Giant Squid? That sounds awesome! Hey, James, let's look for it!" exclaimed Sirius. The two boys began leaning over the side of the boat, to the right.

"Guys, don't lean like that, you'll tip us over," said Riley, putting her hands on the sides in a desperate attempt to steady the boat.

"Relax. We're careful, we will-" but what they would do remained a mystery, because at that moment, the boat promptly capsized. James and Sirius fell outside of the boat when it tipped completely upside down, and Remus managed to swim to the boys' side.

"An nescitis in primo anno nostrae navi armata duas et mare cecidit?" she questioned, and the squid raised its tentacle again, splashing once.

"Te fecit? Quia etiam armata perlustratis parte conari te," She could tell the squid did not know that, and it ran a tentacle gently over the heads of the two boys, who laughed and rubbed the tentacle fondly.

"Scitis plura facere," she murmured, and laid on her back. Peter looked at her inquisitively.

"What are you saying to him?" he asked.

"Just having a conversation with him," replied Riley.

"He can't talk,"

"He can splash,"

"Huh?"

"One splash for yes, two for no. You know, maybe we could teach him Morse Code,"

"How would we do that?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Remus, who had joined them on the squid's head.

"Teaching the giant squid Morse Code," replied Riley.

"Why?"

"So we can communicate,"

"It may be possible, but it will probably take a long time. Why don't we ask James and Sirius about it?" Remus questioned. Peter nodded, and slipped down to the side of the squid.

"Padfoot! Prongs! What do you think about teaching the squid Morse Code to communicate?"

"Why the hell not?" called up Sirius, grinning.

"Black! Language! There are first years around!" yelled Lily, who was sitting on the grounds with Mary, Alice, and Snape.

"Right-o, Evans!" Sirius shouted back, saluting her, "So, shall we get started?"

"What?" asked James.

"Are we going to teach him?"

"Right now?"

"Sure!"

"We don't have the book, Pads," explained Riley, and Sirius frowned as he and James joined them at the squid's head.

"Phooey. Well, why don't we ask someone to go get it?" James asked.

"I have a better idea. OI! PREWETT!" Three heads went up, "NOT YOU, ALICE! TWINS! CAN YOU DO THE SUMMONING CHARM YET?" hollered Riley over the grounds.

"YEAH! WHY DO YOU ASK?" Fabian called back.

"SUMMON MY MORSE CODE BOOK, PLEASE?"

"SURE THING!" Gideon yelled, and she saw the two raise their wands, both saying the spell, and a few minutes later, they saw the book zooming down the grounds, barreling into the twins, and Fabian sent it flying over to them. Remus grabbed it with his dry hand, and Riley took it from him, slid down the squid, and swam over to the shore, holding the book up. Once she reached the pile of their stuff, she grabbed her wand and tapped it against the book.

"Impervious," she muttered, and testing it, flicked a droplet of water at the cover, which merely slid off, not even leaving a trail of drops. She put her wand back, and dived into the water, swimming back, and grabbed a tentacle, and the squid helpfully pulled her atop its head.

"What'd you do?" asked Sirius, looking at the book.

"Impervious charm. The one I did on Jamesy's glasses," she replied, handing Remus back the book. He flipped through it carefully, and laid it on the slick surface of the squid's head.

"This must look very odd," Peter mused.

"Mm?"

"Five third years, sitting on the giant squid, reading a book," he elaborated, and Sirius chuckled.

"Well, we're the bloody Marauders. When have we not looked like total loons?" he asked.

"Alright, back on track. I'm going to try and explain to the squid what we're doing," Riley said, pulling the book into her lap.

"Wait, hold on a second. I've been meaning to ask you this. Do you speak fluent Latin?" asked Sirius.

"No. Mum made me take Latin at the community center for four years, and I retained a huge portion of it, but I've been studying it some more ever since the last time we did this, so I could be able to talk to the Squid," answered Riley.

"D'you think you could teach us?" James requested.

"Sure," she replied.

"There's a lot we're packing into this year," laughed Remus. As Riley, James and Sirius raised their eyebrows in confusion, Peter decided to elaborate for Remus.

"Animagus transformation, new classes, Riley, you're doing four new classes, the Marauder's notebook, pranks, and now Latin," he chuckled, "We're going to be busy."

"If we weren't busy, we'd get bored. And when we get bored, we get buttloads of detention," replied Sirius.

"True," conceded Peter.

"Hush, you lot," Riley said. She racked her brain for a few translations, and began speaking in Latin.

"Sumus ad experiri et docere vos hoc dicitur Morse Codicis. Donec alphabeti seriem taps verba faciens sic possit. Quid tibi sum istud?" One splash. "Magna. Nunc, brevi sonum est a dot, et a diu sonum est a offendas. In punctis, experiri et a vivos adspargo cum crinis, et signavi, facere magnum adipiscing," One quick splash, one big splash. "Quod bonis. Nunc, a." She pointed to the a in the book, and gently tapped a dot and a dash onto the squid's head, which it repeated with splashes. This continued, with the five going around in a circle to do the tapping. By the time they had gone through the entire alphabet, reviewed it, and began relaying short words from the squid, it was nearly noon.

"Good Godric, I'm starved. What say we go shower and get lunch, and pick this up again next weekend?" suggested James, and they all agreed.

"'Iens ut manducemus. Nos veniam retro mox, aut hoc sabbati vel dominica," They said their goodbyes to the squid, and swam back to shore, grabbing their wands and cloaks, putting the cloaks around their shoulders, and went back up to the castle, quickly walking up to Gryffindor Tower, saying the password, and going up to their dormitory.

"Niger lacum," Sirius said slowly, enunciating, brows furrowed in concentration.

"In gigas lolligo vivit in nigra lacus," said Riley.

"In gigas lolligo vivit in nigra lacus," repeated Sirius, and grinned.

"Now, tell me what you just said,"

"The giant squid lives in the Black Lake,"

"Nice,"

The five Marauders sat at the Gryffindor table, making their way through lunch, while Riley was carefully teaching the others, a Latin book on the table next to her plate.

"Nos ad Remus domum aestate," Peter said, after swallowing a bite of his sandwich.

"For two idiots, they pick up fast," laughed Remus, gesturing to James and Sirius, who scowled at him, and Sirius threw a roll at him. Remus ducked quickly, and the roll fell to the floor, next to the Hufflepuff table, and Riley got a sudden idea.

"You know boys, I don't think we've properly begun the year," she drawled absentmindedly, twirling her fork between her fingers.

"I like where you're going with this, Haze," Sirius said, smirking. He picked up a large piece of chicken, and hurled it amongst the Ravenclaws, where it hit a fourth year in the face. The fourth year looked around for the thrower, and glared at the Slytherin table, where most of them were snickering. She grabbed a handful of mashed potatoes and flung them at the back of Evan Rosier's head. He whipped around, grabbing a bowl of peas and flinging the contents across the Hall. Meanwhile, the Marauders were throwing random food in every direction, and people were retaliating in all directions, every inch of the Hall getting covered in food, and the few professors sitting at the table trying to stop the madness. The fight continued for a good ten minutes, until Professor Dumbledore walked into the Hall, accompanied by Professor McGonagall, and he calmly flicked his wand, causing all the food in the air to freeze, before disappearing.

"50 points from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin," he announced, and a collective ground rose from the students. The first day, and they were all already in the negatives.

"Guess we'd better turn up the charm for Minnie on Monday, earn a few of those back," muttered Sirius, and they chuckled.

"Sirius, your 'charm' would likely get us into the negative billions," pointed out Riley.

"O ye of little faith. She loves me,"

Some of you may have thought the title implied the war between Voldyshorts and everyone else. BWAAHHAHAHA! No. I'm not doing that in this story. I would have no idea how to do that, despite angst being my best genre. Plus, I couldn't stand to hurt my characters. Having Riley's grandma die was sad enough for me. So, no Moldy Voldy. Anyway, I am trying to fire chapters out of my brain, because I will be leaving in about a week for camp, and will not have Internet. I will try and get one out before then, but those of you who were here around the time I went on a two week cruise, you know I did not update for about a month that time. But I have come up with a cure for writer's block! Reviews! The more, the quicker the recovery!

UPDATE: Just realized that I did not, in fact, upload this chapter. Sorry. I leave for camp tomorrow, and I will work on writing the chapter while I'm there, and try to update when I get home, but it may be a bit late because I'll be really wiped out.

Yesh... Do it. REVIEW! MOO-HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Listening to: Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons