Remus was happy to read the next chapter, wanting dearly to see if Hermione could pull off such an advanced potion, and ignoring Sirius and James protest as they complained they still didn't get to have their 'Smarts Debate.' Honestly, Hermione would win that easily anyways.
"Thank Merlin," Remus huffed, "or something far worse could happen."
"So basically torture sessions, of unrealistic proportions," James summarized.
"Why?" All five of them groaned.
"Dumb, dumber, and dumbest," Sirius huffed, the more he heard about this guy the more annoying it got!
"Did you at least do the thing properly," James asked, while grinning over at Remus who refused to look up, "you know, spout random facts, be a horrible liar-"
"Have a really bad habit for turning red in the face," Sirius added on.
"Knock it off," Remus snapped, still without looking up. Harry and Lily could see why, since the little of his face they could see had long since turned bright red at his friends teasing. Remus knew he would never understand why his friends joked about something like this, it was a serious problem that shouldn't be taken lightly, but he had never stopped them with any real force either. Their joking simply meant they liked him enough to mess with him, something he had never thought possible in his younger years.
Still chuckling at their antics, Harry corrected them, "No, I had 'turned' into an actual werewolf at the time, fur and fangs and stuff."
Remus gave Harry a puzzled look and then read on a bit curiously.
"Did you try refusing to do it the other three times?" Lily asked.
"Yes," Harry muttered, it hadn't worked any of those times though because then Lockhart had launched into a detailed account, reading word for word. Harry had decided to do it simply to make the man shut up. At least playing those dumb roles had made the process go by quicker.
"Actually, I don't believe that," James said, quirking a brow. Had this man ever even seen a fully grown werewolf? They weren't the kind of thing you could 'slam' into the ground without getting your head bit off.
"Definitely don't believe that," Sirius cackled.
"What good would that do?" James asked, "That's a charm used to restore Transfigured objects back to their original form. It's most common use is on Animagus' when they get stuck for some reason. It wouldn't work on a werewolf though."
"Why do you know that?" Lily asked, noting his 'most common use' mostly.
"We had to learn it," Sirius shrugged, "for all the times we screwed up our Animagus practice. Came in handy a few times afterwards as well."
"And people believed that," Lily scoffed in disgust. "If it was that easy, werewolves wouldn't even be classified as dangerous. They'd be a class three!"
Harry looked puzzled, not understanding the classification thing, but then Remus said bitterly, "I wish it was that easy," and then kept reading before anyone could comment.
"Really, I want to know how his books are sold without being found in the fictional section," James demanded. "People can't really believe he did that!"
Harry shrugged, he had no answer for that, but he certainly didn't believe it.
"Wait, he actually slammed you to the ground!" Remus asked, not having interpreted that from his prattling.
Harry nodded, saying, "more like he pushed me, then we waved his wand in my face a lot, but he didn't let the 'crowd' lose full sight of him, he stayed on his knees in front of the desk. I fell back behind the desk, happily out of the way. Only time I can remember not being afraid of someone's wand in my face." He finished grinning wickedly.
All five of them looked disgusted that this was even counted as a homework assignment, let alone the horrid prize.
"Oh," James said, "so when Ron said the teacher would have to be really thick, he meant literally."
"Here I thought they were going to try and pull one over on McGonagall," Sirius sounded as surprised as his friend, "now all they have to do is just walk up to him, give him a cheap compliment, and they'll be done with it."
"I'm kind of disappointed," Remus sighed, "I wanted to see them pull something on McGonagall to."
"That was the most useful thing Lockhart did all year," Harry laughed.
Lily sighed in both disappointment and disgust, saying, "really? She's still star struck?"
"This is the girl that's about to do a sixth year potion?" James asked in disbelief.
Harry shrugged, he had no defense for his friend since he and Ron had seen him as a fraud on the first day.
"What on earth?" Remus spluttered in disbelief.
"Doesn't Ron have a ghoul in his attic?" James asked, "I think I'd like to borrow that."
"It might not be there yet," Lily reminded them, not necessarily knocking the idea.
"I'd really like to hear that full story," Sirius said eagerly, "if the wizard populace fell for that, maybe I could use it next time I go to the Leaky Cauldron."
Remus snorted in disgust, not doubting his friend would do this one bit.
"If it's anything like your look," James said to Harry, "then he's even dafter than I thought, and that's saying something."
Harry broke out of his shock at the remembered peacock quill and chuckled at his dad.
"Oh come on!" James and Sirius groaned, not believing for one second that match would get pushed off for two or even three more chapters!
"My Quidditch match was awful," James groaned, "I want another go at reading."
"I haven't gotten one at all," Sirius muttered, sulking.
"How do you keep getting the good chapters!" James demanded.
"Just lucky I guess," he grinned.
"Was he really?" Harry asked in disbelief, not believing much of anything from him anymore.
"If he was," Sirius shrugged, "it wasn't while we were there."
"He'd be ah, a fifth year I think," James said, "so if we just so happened to pop by, we could find out."
"Still doubt that," James scoffed.
"By entertaining them on their long dreary travels with my absurd stories," Remus kept going as if reading that.
Sirius choked and snatched the book away, then smacked his friend with it saying, "Jerk, don't give me false hope that man grew a brain."
Remus took it back, grinning like a fool before really reading.
"Less able my arse!" James howled, "Harry could go and play for England now if he damn well pleased."
"Really James," Lily huffed, "I'm not disagreeing with you, Harry is good, but don't encourage him to drop out of school."
James scowl didn't lessen one bit.
"Prat," all five of them muttered.
"First time Hermione's ever been wrong I think," Lily said sadly.
"I am forever turning to you whenever I want to describe someone," Sirius cackled.
Lily face palmed, muttering something in disgust under her breath.
The boys simply looked more annoyed by Hermione.
"I believe that," James nodded.
"She can," Remus sighed, "I knew a Ravenclaw who mirror imaged Flitwick's signature once, and when Pince did that, she saw it somehow. Kid had detention for a week straight."
"I wonder if that's some kind of magical ability, or..." Lily trailed off, now looking like she wanted to go up there and ask herself.
"Well, we're planning a trip up to the school, you can ask her then," James said.
"Wow, even she doesn't know where every bloody book is in there. Either that, or she had to go all the way in the back," James laughed.
"You gotten any better at that?" Remus asked, "because the last time you tried that, Snape took away a book."
Harry shrugged and said, "well, no one took that book away, we made it all the way to Myrtle's bathroom anyways."
"Why do potions like that exist?" Harry asked in disgust.
"The one about being turned inside out doesn't have a practical use," Lily shrugged, "it's a threat potion more than anything, sometimes given as punishment for a short period of time."
"The ministry is barmy," Sirius muttered, but Lily was ignoring him, and continuing, "the other about the extra limbs sounds like a transformation potion, though since you didn't say the name of it I can only guess at what she could have been turning into."
Harry nodded, slightly agreeing with Sirius.
"Pleasant," Remus shuddered, knowing very well how painful transforming could be.
"Nope," Lily said, "it is not a pleasant process at all."
Harry didn't look very pleased about this.
"Well duh," James laughed, "it's a sixth year potion!"
"I hadn't thought of that," Lily agreed, having mostly thought of the act, "where did she plan on getting the ingredients."
"I don't think you're going to like the answer," Harry said nervously, he only had a feeling after all, but it wasn't a good one.
"Err, what did she mean?" Harry asked.
"It doesn't have to be toenails," Lily said quickly, as Harry looked a little queasy at the thought, "hair is most commonly used, but any bit of them like that will do."
Harry still looked a little green, but nodded all the same.
All four adults spluttered in disbelief, though the boys for a completely different reason then Lily.
"That's brilliant!" Sirius cackled, James and Remus nodding right along. It was high time that slimeball knew what it felt like to get his stuff taken. Hell they wouldn't be surprised if Snape hadn't stolen from Slughorn to make some of his potions in school.
Lily on the other hand practically screeched, "You're going to steal from a teacher!"
"Mum-" Harry began, but Lily cut him off saying, "No. Last year you bent the rules around a few times, and nearly got killed. Now, you are breaking them in half, and for what? Because you think that Malfoy did it? Even if he was, and he blabs it to your face, what would you do? Go to Dumbledore without proof? Harry no, this is one thing I will not approve of. That's even assuming a second year can make the Polyjuice Potion correctly, without the lot of you being poisoned or, or worse or..." she stuttered off as she realized Harry was looking beseechingly at her, and the other boys were giving her pitting looks.
Lily sighed deeply, took several deep breaths then continued in far calmer tones, "I'm sorry."
Harry smiled at once, clearly holding no grudge. Lily continued, "It's just, I hate that you feel you have to do all of these things. I wish you had someone there who would tell you these things. I wish..." she trailed off, then put another stern look on her face and finished, "but I did mean it. I disapprove. I do acknowledge though that these are things that have already happened, so I promise I won't yell again." Then she paused, hesitated for a moment, and added, "about this particular thing."
Causing all of her boys to burst out laughing, James saying, "I love your fiery temper." She smiled weakly at them, before waving Remus on. He had to get his breath back a bit, but did indeed still read
"Ooh," Sirius said, going a little wide eyed, "Hermione daring the other's into doing this."
"It was her idea in the first place," Remus reminded him.
"What's gotten into her this year?" James asked, bemused.
"She's a muggle-born," Lily said in exasperation, "of course she'd be the most worried about this."
All four boys turned to her in shock, then blushed slightly. They hadn't forgotten exactly, but Hermione was just so smart it was a little easy to forget.
"Not going to answer that Lily," James asked.
"No," Lily said, "I want to see if Hermione knows first. It'll make me feel better."
Lily nodded, looking a might bit better. Had Hermione tried to rush the potion by any shorter amount of time, she would have been even more worried.
"Ron's gotten much better at that," Sirius chuckled.
"It's normal to be nervous before any game," James said bracingly, he still had no doubt in his mind Harry and his team would do brilliantly.
"Chipper as always," Remus laughed lightly.
"Excellent sentiment though," Sirius beamed.
All five of them laughed at that.
"Ouch," Remus winced, "does he pressure you before every match?"
"Seems like," Harry shrugged, "but I don't mind."
'Which he should have anyways' James thought, knowing that wasn't anything of use, but he still wanted to be there for Harry in some way more than a vault.
Lily sighed in trepidation, that didn't make her feel any better. She also dearly wanted to comment that this boy took a game far too serious, but didn't want to elicit a joke from Sirius, or even get snapped at for saying this.
She had no idea the boys might have agreed with her in that moment.
The three boys looked very excited to hear this. They felt like it had been ages since they got to hear about a good game, which didn't involve worrying about Harry dying in the middle of the match.
Lily still looked wary, Harry's track record in this game hadn't been that good, but she was willing to relax and hear about this.
Harry was the only one looking on edge. They put this down to the pressure he must be feeling, not knowing why Harry would be rubbing his right arm for some reason.
"Scarhead," Sirius snorted, "I didn't think his insults could actually get worse."
"Most likely," Remus grumbled.
Lily shivered in disgust, hating that mental image.
Remus voice grew very confused at the end of that.
"What?" Sirius asked, sure he had heard wrong.
"Err," James began, but he couldn't think of anything to say really.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Harry sighed, rubbing his right arm in remembrance.
Lily went a little bug eyed, but Remus now read on quickly, knowing by now Harry's bad feelings were usually not wrong.
"One game!" James cried in fury. "I want one bloody Quidditch game that doesn't make me hate the whole bloody sport!"
"Why. Are. You. Being. Chased. By. A. Bludger." Sirius said slowly and distinctly, like he was trying to stop himself from yelling like James.
"I, I've no idea," Harry said miserably, very much wondering the same thing.
Lily put her face in her hands, wanting dearly to cover her ears as well so she didn't have to hear this.
Remus said, "Okay, I officially hate getting Quidditch chapters. Next time Sirius, I'm just going to give it to you anyways."
Sirius didn't look any kind of happy as his friend began in a wobbling voice, the horrid mental image of Sirius being bludgeoned the most prominent thing in his mind.
"Thank Merlin for the twins," Sirius sighed, "they seemed to have noticed the problem already."
"Had enough practice," James muttered darkly.
"Who could tamper with a thing like that?" Lily moaned, her face still in her hands. "I know those are very powerfully charmed. It would take some real magic to pull this stunt off!"
"Thinking it was Lockhart?" Remus asked weakly, "Are we still wondering if he's faking it? I kind of gave up on that after the 'werewolf' incident."
"No, he's still an idiot in my book until proven otherwise," Sirius sighed miserably, "and there's no way Malfoy, or any student for that matter, could be powerful enough to do this."
Stumped and with no leads who could do this, Remus forced himself to continue.
"You didn't put a Repelling charm on them?" James asked distractedly. "That's like the only charm any player's allowed to use, exclusive to the face only of course. Otherwise the rain will blind you."
"No," Harry said, no one had shown him how to do that, perhaps Wood thought he knew how to anyways.
"Well that's just peachy!" Sirius groaned, not even having wondered about the game anymore now that Harry was in real danger of getting hurt. Again!
"I don't care," Lily yelped, "you're much safer being surrounded by them!"
The boys nodded in firm agreement, Remus asking, "why hasn't anyone called a timeout yet? Clearly something's wrong."
Harry sighed in defeat, knowing full well no one called this particular game off.
"Then why wasn't the game canceled," Lily ground out in frustration.
"Because Quidditch isn't canceled, not for anything," James sighed, for once in his life wishing the opposite.
"But it's obvious something's wrong-" Lily still tried, but was cut off by Sirius reminding:
"Same was true of Harry's first game and that broom, and no one called it off then, even if they'd been given the chance. Quidditch just isn't cancelled Lily."
She sighed in disappointment, but stopped arguing the point in favor of hearing how Harry survived this.
"Props for multitasking," Harry laughed, but he was the only one who did.
"Did it follow you onto the ground?" James asked.
"No," Harry said, "but it circled around me, like some bird in the air."
All four of them shivered, hating that mental image, and still unable to come up with a person who could do this.
"That's what he's concerned about!" James yelped.
"I'm really starting to dislike this kid," Sirius growled.
"He didn't notice," Harry said quickly, not liking that mean look that was flickering across their faces.
"Saving my son's life," Lily hissed, only slightly forgiving the comment because of what Harry said.
"Did anyone else notice?" Remus asked.
"Not really," Harry sighed, "I think they noticed a bit more after this time out, but no one stops this game."
All of them looked beyond angry.
"Really!" Sirius yelped, "That's your plan! At least let them pretend to do their job!"
Harry shook his head furiously saying, "No, I could handle it. I did handle it! Mostly," he finished lamely at their astounded looks.
"Harry," James said weakly, "a game isn't worth your head being knocked off."
"I know-" Harry tried to butt in, but Lily interrupted first, "If you do, then why are you so insistent about this?"
"I don't want our team to lose another match." Harry said furiously. "I didn't get a chance at the tournament last year, and if we called a time off it would be over for us again! I handled this just fine and," he sucked in a deep breath as he said with confidence, "I won us the match." Finishing with a horrible wince of pain for having dared to tempt his memories.
The four of them exchanged unhappy looks, but finally admitted there was nothing for it. If he said he could handle it, who were they to argue?
"Least it would be impressive if you pulled off a Plumpton Pass," Sirius muttered without any real emphasis. All of them knew they weren't going to be happy until this nightmare of a game was over.
Remus winced as he read that, not liking that mental image repeated.
Sirius pursed his lips, dearly wishing to agree, but knowing it might offend Harry. If the determined look on his face was any indication, he made a good call.
James muttered mutinously, knowing full well as team captain himself once, he would never have made that call!
"I do not see how this is funny!" Lily snapped in disgust.
"At least you're dodging, who cares how it looks," Sirius muttered.
All four of them shuddered in disgust again, knowing that wasn't going to get any better no matter how many times it was said.
Sirius was far too keyed up to make a comment on that lame joke.
James smiled meanly, feeling a slight bit better at this jerk who was more than likely going to get his comeuppance, and a face full of Bludger if Harry went for it.
"So we were right," James said, trying vainly to change the subject to happier topics, "he's a rubbish player."
"I'll bet Harry never loses a match against him," Sirius agreed.
Remus choked, bug eyed as he spat that out.
Harry was rubbing his right arm in remembered pain and said, "It hurt, I'm not going to say it didn't, but it's just a break. Nothing worse than that."
They nodded, taking a deep breath Remus kept going.
'I don't think I want Harry on the Quidditch team anymore' Lily thought sadly, though decided to keep that to herself since she thought the boys might get mad at her.
Actually, the other three boys did agree. Harry didn't seem able to go a single game without something life threatening happening, it made him too easy of a target apparently.
"It didn't hit," Harry reassured at once, when they all looked ashen.
"Credit for determination anyways," James sighed.
"Not a bad idea," Sirius nodded, using this as a distraction from the idea of Harry's arm dangling useless at his side.
Remus stopped here to shake his head in wonder at his cub. "You can now tell people you can catch a Snitch with one arm tied behind your back," he told him.
Sirius smacked him, hard.
"Ouch, what! You two can makes jokes, but I can't!"
"No," Sirius shrugged, "I just really wanted a reason to smack you back for all the times you've done it to me. Taking away my joke was just a good excuse."
Lily smiled indulgently at them, almost envious of their ability to joke around while being equally as worried. Everyone coped in their own way she supposed.
"How did that work out for you?" Lily asked uneasily.
"I think I lost conscious for a few seconds," Harry shrugged, "I wake back up and it's still raining on me anyways."
Lily nodded, slightly content with that.
"I'm going to laugh if that was all just a dream," James chuckled, his son never ceased to amuse him.
"He's had some vivid dreams before," Sirius agreed.
"Hopefully he'll wake up with a teacher over him, waiting to heal his arm," Lily grumbled, still unpleased with the whole scenario even if her son came away perfectly fine.
"Oh no," Remus groaned, planting his forehead against the book in genuine pain at what could possibly happen next.
"I didn't mean him!" Lily yelped, "I meant McGonagall!"
"Next time when you're hoping for something, be name specific," James grumbled.
"He knows exactly what he's saying," Sirius growled.
"You never seem to though," Remus huffed.
Sirius gave him a confused look, unsure if his friend was making a joke at him or Lockhart, but Remus wasn't going to answer.
"No!" All five of them yelped in real fear.
"That moron can't handle a pixie, I don't want to even think what would happen if he tried that!" Lily hissed.
"With any luck, a puff of smoke will escape," Sirius said, "then he'll make up some lame excuse, and prattle Harry's ear off up to the Hospital wing."
Harry was still rubbing his arm in remembrance, he had a bad feeling about this. He knew one thing, his arm stopped hurting after Lockhart's spell. It wasn't for a good reason though.
The three boys chuckled weakly.
"Why would you take a photo of that," Lily asked in disgust.
"Kid's going to make a great photographer one of these days," Remus smiled, "he's certainly not squeamish."
"That wasn't my point," Harry huffed.
"Because he's a pompous, big headed, arrogant-" Sirius began, while Lily finally cut him off saying:
"Sirius, I'm sure you can keep going for a year, but I want to hear this."
"I really hate agreeing with him," James grumbled, thinking Wood was too happy for the circumstances. You could be happy about winning after all of your players were healed up!
"Whoever cursed that thing, I'm going to curse them into oblivion," James vowed.
Harry wondered why his automatic reaction was to correct his Dad. Why would he want to defend whoever did this?
"Jeez, wonder which team he was supporting," Sirius said vaguely.
"That's not the feeling you should have," Lily said, real fear creeping into her as she wondered what this inept idiot had done to her son.
"Wish it had said the spell he tried," Remus muttered, "because I'd like to use it on him."
"He said Brackium Emendo," Harry offered brightly, knowing full well Lockhart deserved whatever his family was thinking up, though still having an issue with remembering why.
"That's, actually a real spell," Lily said in surprise.
"So why isn't the feeling he's having the right one," James said uneasily.
Lily bit her lip before waving Remus on, trying to figure that out herself
"Well," Lily began again, thinking out loud now, "I know that if you don't have enough magical ability to perform a spell properly it often does the opposite effect. That's why you don't walk in trying to do seventh year spells," Lily explained that part for Harry's benefit, "so if this dolt hasn't built up enough of an ability to perform this spell correctly..." she trailed off, puzzling, "what would be the opposite of mending broken bones?"
"I don't want to find out," James sighed as Remus read on, now a little curious himself, and having an abundance of faith Madame Pomfrey could fix it if, most likely, Lockhart simply broke the bone further. Then of course, he'd just have to hurt Lockhart all the more for prolonging Harry's pain.
"That can't be a good sign," Sirius muttered.
Lily perked up in surprise, perhaps Harry just had a unique reaction to the spell?
"Not a good sign at all," James agreed.
"Tidy him up?" Remus asked, "What does that even mean?"
"Fix his screw up," Harry muttered.
"You remember what happened?" James asked quickly.
"No," Harry sighed, knowing he wasn't going to be able to hold the memory until the book said it, "but I know it wasn't good."
"Did he remove your arm or something!" Lily yelped.
Harry opened and closed his mouth several times, but now that he seemed to actually remember what he saw, he didn't seem able to spit it out.
Remus read quickly now.
There was a muscle twitching in Sirius' jaw as he finally realized what had happened.
Remus looked like he really was going to pass out.
James and Lily refused to react until Remus flat out read.
"He's dead," James vowed. "He is officially a dead man. He-" he spluttered out, most likely to outraged to finish his sentence.
"What I find most interesting," Remus said threw gritted teeth, "is how he managed to switch those spells! You're supposed to stop making those kinds of mistakes at fourth year, at the latest!"
"What spell did he actually use?" Harry asked.
"It's called Ossio Dispersimus," James said, "only used in the most severe crisis, when the bones can't be mended for some reason or another, and you have to temporarily take them out."
"So they will grow back," Harry said eagerly, his family didn't seem that concerned about this.
"Oh yes," Lily said at once, "take a bit of Skele-Gro, and your bones will come right back."
Harry nodded, then still deciding he was curious, asked, "How would you switch spells like that?"
"It's a rookie mistake," James snorted, "but something that can happen when you start learning spells, and then counterspells. If you aren't concentrating on the spell you're intending to use, you can accidentally cause another spell to happen."
"I'm not surprised," Sirius huffed, "that idiot can't focus on anything but his reflection. He shouldn't be trying any spells!"
"Just proves his incompetence all the more," Harry shrugged, "not that anyone should have needed it."
Still furious, but calmed slightly by the subsequent discussion, they were all willing to keep going without shouting death threats, for now.
"Ew," Sirius wrinkled up his nose at the mental image.
"I've never heard of anyone doing that after the age of sixteen," Remus sniffed, "by that time, any idiot can master the concept of focusing on one spell at a time."
"Can't believe Hermione is still sticking up for him," Lily sighed.
"Gross," James grumbled.
Now it was Harry's turn to wrinkle up his nose in disgust at the remembered taste of that.
"What did it taste like?" Sirius asked, he'd never known anyone who had to take it.
"Nothing you'd ever tasted before, or wanted again," Harry grumbled.
"The worst part is, I can't even argue with her this time," Remus sighed.
"Sorry Harry," Lily sighed, "I just don't see him being able to do that. Those Bludgers are charmed especially so that they can't be tampered with. No student should be able to get past that."
Harry nodded, agreeing with his mom's opinion even without the feeling's reinforcing that she was right.
"Sadly not," James wrinkled his nose in disgust, "I had to take some once, Auror training protocol and all, and it doesn't matter who you change into. The stuff is awful."
"Gee, thanks dad," Harry said.
"With any luck he'll get kicked off the team!" Sirius said brightly, finally finding something good about this match.
"Her intentions are good, honestly," Remus sighed, "but if I'm ever told to rest again, I really will smack someone."
James and Sirius exchanged smiles, knowing full well they had never indulged in Pomfrey's rules. They had always used James cloak, and snuck down to see Remus, and they wondered if Ron and Hermione would do the same.
"Ouch," they all muttered, not liking that description one bit.
"Hermione?" James asked, sounding more confused than confident.
"Why would she be there?" Lily asked.
"Because these two knuckleheads were thinking Harry's friends would sneak in to see him," Remus offered, "but I think Hermione doing that is a little odd."
"I think it just proves all the more how much she likes Harry," Sirius snipped, giving Harry a look he didn't understand one bit. Of course Hermione liked him, they were friends.
"Dobby!" They yelped in surprise. "What's he doing there?" Remus added on.
"What's he doing there?" James repeated when Harry looked uneasily around the room, his dad's voice coming out between gritted teeth as he guessed what Harry was thinking now.
"Ah, why are you asking me," he finally said, "I've no idea."
All four of them grumbled a bit, having a really bad feeling about this. The last time Dobby had been around, it hadn't been very pleasant, and they were just as weary this time.
"Wait," Sirius said, "so does that mean, did Dobby have something to do with paralyzing Mrs. Norris?"
"What makes you think that?" James asked.
"He's trying to scare Harry into leaving, I'm wondering if he might have pulled that stunt to keep that going," Sirius shrugged.
"No," Remus said, going a little pale, "but you're on the right track, I think. What if Dobby was trying to scare Harry away from the school because he knew something like this might happen."
"A house-elf knew a cat would be paralyzed?" James asked in disbelief.
"It's not out of the realm of possibilities," Lily agreed with Remus.
"Well then who paralyzed the cat, and is making Harry hear a voice," Sirius asked, throwing his hands up in frustration. They were pretty well into this book by now, and still had no real suspect.
All five of them sighed, letting it go for now.
"Well, guess I was right," Remus sighed, not looking very happy.
"Yes, yes, that does tend to happen sometimes," Sirius scoffed.
"Now I just want to know if I was right about why he did," Remus huffed, ignoring Sirius so that he could read.
"That's kind of creepy," James muttered, find it much less endearing than a girl that was a friend of Harry's.
"It's like he adopted Harry," Sirius nodded. "If Dobby didn't have a family of his own, and Harry was of age, Harry could possibly bind Dobby to his family line."
"Is that really how it works?" Lily asked.
"It's more complicated than just saying it," Sirius smirked at her, "but something along those lines."
Lily huffed, unable to decide if he was being sarcastic, and none of the boys were helping.
"How?" Lily asked in disbelief, "Exactly how powerful are house-elves?"
"Very," Sirius said with a straight face, "they're probably the most powerful magical creature that exist, which is why they were enslaved by wizards so many years ago."
"How were they enslaved if they're so powerful?" Harry asked.
"That's a long, really ugly history on the wizard part," Remus said, "we'll try and explain that later."
Harry nodded in content for now.
Lily winced in sympathy for the poor thing all over again, though honestly thinking she was still annoyed at him being the cause of all of Harry's problems this year.
"Also proves my earlier point," James nodded, "he clearly has no idea how things work if he thought the train was the only way to get to school."
Lily's lower lip quivered in real pain for this creature now, saying, "I feel like an arse. How are there not laws in place to prevent this kind of thing?"
"It's not your fault Lily," James said at once, "exactly how many people are involved in that type of thing, and none of them have said a word either."
"Besides," Sirius shrugged, "I doubt there's anything you could do. Pass as many laws as you like, house-elves belong to their owners. You can't control the way they're treated."
Lily fired up at once, snapping, "Like you can't control the way people treat animals, or their own children! There are laws to prevent that kind of abuse! You see house-elves as less than them!"
Sirius' superior look faltered for the first time. He disagreed with nearly every aspect of his parent's life, but the one thing he'd never had a problem with was their treatment of Kreacher. He was a vile thing, hateful and spiteful to the extreme, to him anyways. So whenever he saw him being punished, never bothering to learn the reasons, he'd had no problems. Never having met any other house-elves besides the ones at Hogwarts, who he'd given about as much attention as the ghosts into their free time outside of politely giving him food, he had no reason to think otherwise about the species as a whole.
Dobby certainly hadn't changed his mind so far, he was being an absolute arse trying to keep Harry out of school. Now, at Lily's words, he suddenly thought of Harry at Privet Drive again, no one taking the time to care what happened to him. Harry had tried comparing his life to Dobby's and Sirius had scoffed at the idea, there couldn't be any similarities, right?
He shook off his feelings and snapped at Remus to keep going, ignoring the curious looks from everyone else at what exactly had him quiet for so long.
"Wow, I kind of forgive him," Remus said sadly, "this is just sad."
James and Lily both nodded, Sirius crossed his arms and said nothing. Surely the elf was just trying to get Harry to pity him.
Harry went a little cross eyed for a moment, hating that feeling of significance that was gone as soon as he tried to understand why.
"His Bludger!" Sirius roared, "he tried to break your head open!"
"Sirius, you said you wouldn't add him to your kill list," Harry said weakly, "whatever he did remember? Dobby's got the right intentions...I think."
This calmed the others, slightly. They were still angry, but they had promised not to take it out on Dobby. He must have a reason for this if Harry said so.
Sirius though, was still furious. He'd only agreed to that because he thought Dobby wouldn't make another appearance, that his worst thing he'd done was make Harry's life even more miserable at the Dursley's, more than enough reason to warrant his fury, but he had given Harry the benefit of the doubt in pitying the creature. Besides, it not being his house-elf, he couldn't do anything about it anyways. Now, he was determined to find out whose elf this was, and silently planning on doing something to the stupid little thing. Maybe not kill him, he'd keep that promise, but he would never take anything threatening his godson's life without taking revenge back.
"What did he think was going to happen when he aimed a weighted ball at your head?" Remus demanded.
"Err," Harry said lamely, he had no response for that.
"So he intended to send you home limbless!" James yelped in disgust.
"I don't care what the elf thinks," Lily huffed, "if you couldn't be helped at the school, you would have been sent to Saint Mungo's, healed there, and then come back to school."
"Like Dad said," Harry shrugged, "Dobby doesn't know how this stuff works."
"That's getting old," James muttered.
"If he answers that, I actually will forgive him," Remus huffed in agitation. Clearly Dobby knew something he wasn't telling.
"Why would that be?" James asked curiously, "people would treat their house-elf's the same without Voldemort being around."
"More of Dobby not having a clue what's going on," Sirius muttered in disgust.
Lily gave him a scathing look. She had thought she'd seen, for just a moment, something pass across his face. Now it was gone, and he looked as surely as any other time elves were mentioned.
"Once more?" James asked in surprise. "When was it opened before?"
"I've never heard of that," Sirius agreed.
"Wish we had," Remus sighed, "we might have gotten more clues where it is."
"Are you lot crazy?" Lily yelped in disgust, "the 'monster' that's supposedly in there doesn't bother you!"
"Nah," Sirius said, "that's probably just fake, to scare people away from finding it. Slytherin might have hide something really valuable there, and I want to know what."
"So here's hoping Harry might find it," James said, going bright eyed for a moment.
"I want to slap all of you," she sighed, rubbing at her own temple. Harry fought back the urge to agree with his mother.
"This elf is weird," James said, "I don't get why that was a secret."
"Well, since we didn't know about it, I'd say it isn't widely known," Sirius shrugged.
"Wonder what happened before," Remus said thoughtfully.
"That's another good point," Lily nodded, "his statues, should protect him. Why is Dobby so freaked over Harry in particular?"
"No good reason," Harry sighed.
"So he knows then," Remus said, raising a brow in surprise.
"Geez, I really want to know who Dobby's owner is," Sirius said, ulterior motives aside, he just knew that this elf's owner would somehow be important for Dobby to be knowing all of this.
"Probably for the best," Lily said sadly, "he clearly couldn't tell you anything, or if he let something slip out he beat the crap out of himself."
"Here's hoping he doesn't come back," Sirius muttered.
Remus stopped right there, glancing up briefly at the others who all looked as scared as he felt.
"A statue," Lily whimpered, "like a human sized statue?"
Harry nodded dumbly, knowing full well he wasn't going to like what Remus was fixing to read.
"Please tell me it was Lockhart," Sirius said weakly.
Remus sucked in a deep breath before reading.
"Him?" Lily yelped.
"On the stairs?" James said with unease, "It wasn't Ron was it?"
"No," Harry said with confidence.
"Stop interrupting me," Remus huffed, "I want to know who it is."
The married couple went silent at the rebuke.
All five of them shivered in disgust, hoping dearly McGonagall was wrong.
"Bloody hell," Sirius groaned.
"That poor kid," Lily whispered.
"Who would attack him though?" Remus asked, running one hand through his hair in frustration, "everyone hates Mrs. Norris and Filch, but who has a grudge against a first year?"
"Maybe it's random?" James offered.
"Or it really is someone against muggle-borns," Sirius said, fidgeting a bit and hoping he was wrong.
"You still can't tell a muggle-born just by looking at them," James disagreed, "so unless someone knew Colin, that shouldn't matter."
"I still want to know how!" Remus asked when it appeared they still had no new leads on the first question. "The only thing that can petrify people like that is a gorgon. I refuse to believe one is getting in and out of that school without being noticed."
They all sighed as they realized, despite a new victim, they had no more answers than before, and in fact more questions.
"My question is, what's the point?" James grumbled, "this can't all just be to scare the students. There must be an endgame to this."
"Let us know if you figure it out," Harry said miserably.
"I thought Dumbledore said McGonagall found him on the stairs?" Sirius asked, trying to distract himself again, "what, did she really fear she couldn't handle whatever on her own."
"Would you want to handle this on your own?" Remus shuddered.
"Do gorgons eat people or something?" Harry asked.
"They're not known to," Remus shook his head, "they're not categorized as beasts anyways. They haven't been known to make any appearance at any congregation of our kind, so very little is known about their habits."
"They're found in Greece," Sirius added, "there's never even been a sighting of them here."
"Now that's interesting," James said thoughtfully, "has anyone ever brought out muggle things to see what happens when a gorgon stairs at it?"
"Don't even think about it," Lily snapped at once, "I don't even want to think of you lot out there trying those kinds of stunts."
The boys all huffed in annoyance, Sirius saying,"I told you Lily would be a killjoy."
"Be nice," James said at once, "she just means she doesn't want to hear about it, because she wants to come. Isn't that right Lily Flower."
Lily looked to the ceiling, as if praying for patience, and Remus took that as his cue to keep going.
Harry felt like he was going to be sick again, but he was learning to control the feeling the more it went on. It wasn't a gorgon, his instincts were sure of this, but he refused to allow another memory to blast him again. They clearly scared his family, so he would just have to wait and see to find out what it really was, and in the meantime, ask as many questions as it took to take his mind off this pain.
Lily was tempted to point out that under normal circumstances, that would have ruined the film, but this was a magically imbued camera so perhaps there were charms in place to protect this? Either way she didn't know cameras that well, and didn't want to delay in pointing this out to the others.
"Well that answers that question," Sirius said, a little disappointed.
"I'm surprised Colin would have still gotten petrified though," Remus said thoughtfully, "after all the only sure fire way to not be hurt by the gorgon's look is to only look at their reflection. I guess looking through a lens wouldn't count."
"Again, something more to test," James grinned.
Lily twitched, and James automatically flinched back like he thought she was going to slap him again. Lily instead smoothed some hair back from her face, exposing a vindictive smile.
"How does he work that out?" Lily asked grumpily, more than sick of this whole school being so vague this year.
"I wonder," Remus pondered, having noted something about a monster within the Chamber earlier, it didn't really add up though...
"What are you thinking Moony?" James asked.
He shook himself and said, "let me finish this chapter, it's only a bit left, then I'll explain."
"That's what we want to know," Lily grumbled.
"Okay Remus, how?" James demanded.
Actual favorite chapter of this book, I tell even though no one asked.