A/N: Thank you very much for all the reviews. I was astounded at the response that I got from the last chapter, I am so glad that you all are still enjoying my chapter. As I always I will do my best to respond to your reviews and questions, so please continue to ask me anything- just know that I will do my best not to give too much away.
The only question that I was asked that I could not answer in PM was if the trio would face Voldemort in my story. I will say this- Voldemort will be taken care of. :)
Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
{Parseltongue}
The school seemed to be in high spirits on Friday morning. Everyone had survived their first week of classes. OWL and NEWT students were calm even when faced with the piles of homework that their teachers appeared only too happy to assign them. The great hall was noisy as students prepared for the last day of classes before they had the weekend free. They were also excited about the tryouts that would take place that evening after dinner. The Gryffindors would have the field first, followed by Ravenclaw, then Slytherin, and finally Hufflepuff.
Angus was beaming as he ate scrambled eggs and toast. "We may have a chance this year. Our players from last year play well together and have a bit of experience with each other in the air now. Now we just need a Seeker, a Chaser, and a Keeper. You said that you are good right?" He asked Draco and Harry with desperation filling his wide eyes.
"Oh, they are good alright. You would only have to worry about them pulling stupid stunts and ending up in the hospital wing with the most ridiculous injuries." Hermione took a moment to glare at Harry who just smiled at his sister.
"Blimey Harry, what on earth did you do?" Westley asked the boy with awe. He would do everything he could to stay out of the angry glare that had just been aimed at Harry.
"Well," Draco smirked at Harry. "He has been chased by rouge bludgers and had his arm bones broken, fell from 100 feet, and constantly does dives that no sane person would try just for the hell of it. Take your pick."
"Oy. You were right there pulling stunts with me." Harry tossed a piece of fruit at his brother while Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation.
Their classmates just stared at Harry with wide eyes. The marauders who had been listening into the conversation taking place at the Hufflepuff table turned around to stare at the black haired triplet.
"You fell from 100 feet?" James asked in a whisper, his eyes were wide as he asked the question on everyone's mind.
"Well, I guess it was that far. It was raining really hard so it was hard to tell." Harry just shrugged and speared another piece of fruit with his fork as if he were not talking about falling from a distance that could have killed him. "Was seriously not that big of a deal." He said nonchalantly to the other's disbelief.
"100 feet mate..." Sirius looked at Harry as if he did not understand the concept. Harry just blinked back at the black haired marauder with a small smirk.
"So, Angus, who else is a part our house team already?" Harry clearly wanted the topic to change.
"Well, we have Martin Orpington who is a chaser like me. He is in sixth year. Our beaters are Paul Wood who is in fifth year and Alexander Goshawk who is in Sixth with Martin." Harry wondered if Paul was related to Oliver Wood. Angus continued to talk about the games they had played the year before. Hufflepuff had not won a cup in over a decade and last year they came in third place. Draco made a slight face when the Hufflepuffs explained that it was alright that they came in third place as long as they did their best while playing. Draco would always feel that first place was the only acceptable outcome and who cared how well you did if you lost? You still lost. Hermione just smiled at him and pinched his thigh under the table. After a brief flinch his face smoothed back out to his blank mask that hid his thoughts about losing from those around him.
Classes that day went by quickly. Their last class was History of Magic which was being taught by a living Professor Binns. The trio quickly found out that death had not been a factor in making the man boring. His class was still the most boring in the school and most of the students would fall asleep during the lecture he was giving on goblin or giant wars.
All three decided to continue with their previous study habits for the class and read the book and take notes from their readings. Hermione had once asked a student that had sat the exam and was told that there were copies of old NEWT exams available in the library as study aids. It would have been handy to know that all end of year exams were available in the library as a study aid with all the horrible DADA teachers the trio had gone through in their original life. They would be making use of these study guides throughout the year for their classes and would have to use the HOM tests more than the others.
Hermione had found a handy charm that would copy books in the Peverell library; it had been created by someone in the sixteenth century and kept secret by the family. This charm was one of the reasons that the Peverell family had the largest library in Magical Europe. The sneaker members of the family would copy rare books while visiting other families and add the replica to their own library. After the duplicate was made, there was no way to tell which one was the original book as they were exact copies.
Hermione quickly made use of this charm and copied all the past exams for all of their classes and then made copies for each of them to use to study from. She then charmed the study guides to look like various class book books so that no one would know what they were reading or that she had copied some of the Hogwarts' books. She also copied some of the rarer books in the library before secreting them into her trunk. When Draco had found out he had teased her and laughed for half an hour straight at the thought of Hermione doing something so scandalous.
"Well, we didn't have those." Was the only thing Hermione would in response Draco's teasing. Both boys understood that she loved her books but had never thought she would copy a book without buying it; however, they would never stop her from collecting some rare books, even if they were being copied and not paid for.
While they explored the library with her on Thursday they found out the real reason she was making copies. The siblings found many books that they knew would no longer be available when whey had gone to school. Even outside the restricted section they found books that would go missing. Most had helpful defensive magic explained in them. Books on Wards, Magical Creatures, Spell Creation, Family Histories, Enchanting, and Alchemy were just some of the subjects in the main area of the library that they found books on that would go missing. In the restricted section there were books on Blood Wards, Blood Magic and Rituals, Dark and Gray spells, History of Dark Magic, and Dark Potions. In most cases, whole subjects would disappear completely from the library.
~Thursday~
The trio sat around a table in a back corner of the library under a privacy bubble that Draco had cast. Hermione had books spread out before her as she copied them and placed the copies carefully into her expanded bag.
"Do you think that Dumbledore is the one getting rid of all the books?" She asked sadly as she stroked the cover of a book on werewolves that was fairly accurate and did not portray the werewolves as dark creatures at all. She had read every book on werewolves available in the library when Remus was teaching them in third year and had only found books that portrayed werewolves as mindless killing machines. There were three others besides that one she held in her hands now that provided a much more factual and unbiased opinion. One of the books had even been written by a werewolf.
"I think it is very possible. He would be the only one that had the power to decide what was in the library." Draco explained looking up from a potion book they had pulled out of the restricted section; they had no trouble getting into the restricted section since seventh years had unlimited access so that they could study for their NEWTS. "The Board of Governors has had nothing to do with what is stocked in here for quite some time now as they felt that it was too time consuming to bother with the books at the school. They felt that the Headmaster would do a better job than they would at deciding what should be stocked and what should not."
Harry nodded as he looked through A History of Dark Arts. "I think it is more than possible. I spent a lot of time sneaking into the restricted section, and everything in the library at our Hogwarts depicted Dark Arts as evil and Light magic as good. According to this, Dark Arts was more earth based and took more control than Light magic. Only people that had good control over their magic could successfully cast dark spells without hurting themselves and their magical core. Elemental magic was a big part of that and used to be taught here along with Spell Creation, Enchanting, Warding, and even Dark Arts until it was determined to be evil and illegal under Dumbledore's…reign. It says that Dark Magic is more difficult but that anyone could use it with enough practice and control. This talks about exercising your magic like a muscle. The more you use it the more you can do with it."
"Oh, but Harry, some spells are evil surely? I mean. The Unforgivable are all just awful." Hermione had picked up another book to make a copy as she spoke to Harry.
"There is a chapter on them in this book, hang on, found it!" As Harry skimmed the page his eyes got wide. "Oh."
"What?" Draco asked with impatience.
"Oh." Harry looked up to see that he had both of his siblings' undivided attention. "Well, it says that the killing curse and the Crucio were created by Helga Hufflepuff."
"What?" Both Draco and Hermione whispered in disbelief.
"Yeah, apparently the killing curse was for animals that were to be used for food so that they would die painlessly and instantly. The intent that people are using now to cast it actually damages their core and will eventually cause the person to have issues with their magic; the spell was never intended to be used on humans and the wand motion and incantation reflected that. It says that holds true for most dark spells. If they ae used incorrectly, they cause damage. And she created Crucio to help a patient that had fallen down the stairs of the castle and been paralyzed. It was used to stimulate the nerves until they were able to feel their legs again. He regained full use of his legs in three months of treatment." Harry continued to look at the pages of his book with surprise.
"What the fuck, Harry." Both boys almost cracked their necks at the swear word that had come out of Hermione's mouth. "Why are we not being taught this?" Hermione was clearly upset that their magical history was being hidden from them. Hermione hated when knowledge was destroyed or hidden. The boys had to calm her down when they had found records of the classes that had been canceled in the last few decades. They now understood why there were so many unused classrooms in the school.
"It has to be Dumbledore then," Draco said with a frown. "He is trying to manipulate everyone it to a world of his making. It would explain the passing of those asinine laws and why these books go missing. His wants his own little world of light that worships at the altar of Dumblefuck." His voice was laced with disgust. "I grew up learning about Dark Arts and I didn't even know that information about the unforgivables. I have never even seen those books on Wizarding History. These books on Wizarding Culture and Traditions would be great for muggleborn students but disappear completely and we just found them in the restricted section. They should be in the regular part of the library. Most of the muggleborn students shy away from the restricted section because they have been told that they keep the dangerous books in there. Why would they read a book on our traditions if they think it is dangerous?" Draco ranted while pointing out various books with one hand and pushing his hair back with the other. "I don't even think that I have seen books at the shops at Diagon Alley on some of these subjects. Most may be found in Knockturn though, but the muggleborn are told that it is dangerous to go down there. Most Pureblood families dislike the muggleborns so much because the come in to our society and then replace our traditions with their own; it is pointless because the muggleborns have no way to learn the traditions without access to the books and they won't go looking for the information if they are all classified as dangerous." Draco was panting by the time he had vented his frustration.
Hermione nodded. "I would have loved to read that book on traditions or even that one on politics and laws. It would have made life so much easier for me. And the holidays sound so exciting and profound. I would love to be more in tune with my magic." Hermione was still stroking the books like lost little children.
"Copy them all Hermione." Harry told her with a smile. "We will make sure that the world does not forget and that they find out what a prick Dumbedork is." Hermione smiled at her brothers and finished making copies the books they had on their table. Once she was finished they quickly put the books back where they had been found and made their way back to their dorms. Hermione would place the books in her truck and then update the list of books from their home library to include their new copies. She would be making copies all year but she would get as many as she could. Hopefully, Dumbledore would not have the chance to do so much damage in this timeline as he had in the original.
Draco had a thoughtful look on his face as he walked from the library with his siblings. "Hermione, do we have a copy of the Hogwarts charter at home?"
"I can check," She pulled out her charmed library list that would automatically update to include all books in the Peverell houses with a swipe of a wand and looked through the names of the books they had in the Peverell library. "Yes Draco. We do. Why?"
"Because my dear sister, Peverells have a seat, not only on the Wizengamot, but on the Board of Governors as well. We will need to look into what the BoG should be doing and what powers they have just handed over to Dumbledore because he was the Great Defeater of Grindelwald."
Harry and Hermione traded glances and mirrored their brother's smirk.
After copying down the homework for HOM, which had seemed to take an eternity even with self-study, the trio headed down to dinner to eat while waiting for Hufflepuffs turn for tryouts. If breakfast was loud and rowdy, dinner was insane. Students were shouting at other house tables about how great their team was going to be and how they would win the cup.
The trio noticed that the marauders were not yelling insults to any of the other houses and seemed to just talk amongst the other Gryffindors. They were able to hear Peter trying to egg the marauders into messing with others from their table. They exchanged glances as they watched the rat interact with the others.
"We should hex Snivellus. Right Padfood? It will be loads of fun."
"I don't think so Wormy." Sirius looked like it took a lot of effort to say no to hexing Snape.
"I think we need to lay off of Snape, Peter." James said while playing with his mashed potatoes. Lily smiled and kissed his cheek at this statement. He had managed to surprise her with his maturity he was showing so far this year. He grinned goofily at her while she blushed and continued to eat.
Peter was now frowning at his friends. "He is just a slimy snake Prongs. He is the easiest to prank. The greasy git deserves it."
Remus put his fork down to look at the boy beside him. "We don't want to be bullies Peter. Snape hasn't done anything deserve us targeting him. We went beyond pranking before and were outright bullying him."
"You are only saying that because of the new students. They got in your head and messed with you." Peter wanted to make his friends help him prank Snape as he would never be able to prank anyone alone. "They probably cast a Confundus charm on you."
"They made a comment in passing that made us think for ourselves about what we were doing Wormy, they didn't cast a spell on us. We were acting like bullies." Sirius said with a sad look over at the Slytherin table. He could see his younger brother eating and talking with his friends. He wondered if he had been bullying his brother while messing with the other snakes. He sighed and played with his food as he wondered about Regulus. He had heard one of the students in the hall say that he was going to try out for seeker for the Slytherin team this year. He nodded decisively to himself as he stood up, gaining the attention of his friends. He ignored them as he walked over to the Slytherin table where his brother was sitting.
Peter had a look of sadistic glee on his face at the thought of seeing Sirius hex a Slytherin that Remus noticed out of the corner of his eye while he was watching Sirius make his way to the Slytherin table. The look he was making caused Remus to frown in confusion. Why is Peter looking at Sirius like that? He looks like he wants him to hurt someone.
Regulus tensed visibly as if expecting a humiliating prank or painful hex when Sirius stopped by his side causing Sirius to wince internally. "Hey Reg." He was glad that he was able to speak without his voice cracking with nervousness.
"Sirius." Regulus nodded at his brother without relaxing one bit. Sirius had not spoken to him without insulting him for being a Slytherin since he come to Hogwarts.
Most of the hall had gone silent in preparation of a prank from Sirius and the other marauders. The school had been preparing for whatever the boys had been planning and were prepared for the worst to happen since it looked like Slytherin was the target. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff both seemed to be relieved that the prank the group had been planning was going to be aimed at the Slytherins instead of them.
Teachers were pulling their wands out and sighing in resignation. They would be giving the marauders their first detention within the first week it seemed. The Headmaster was twinkling away as he watched Sirius Black approach the Slytherin table. He just knew that he would be able to use the boy for the greater good in the future
"Look," Sirius shuffled his feet and took a deep breath before looking at his brother. "I heard in the hallway that you were trying out for seeker and wanted to say good luck. You were always good on a boom so I am sure that you will make the team."
The Hall was shocked the wish of good luck from the Gryffindor. Peter was clearly the most disgruntled at the happenings over at the Slytherin table; Remus saw the change in Peter's expression and decided that he would have to think about what was wrong with Peter later. Has he always looked like that? He look upset that someone didn't get hurt.
Regulus stared at his brother in disbelief for a minute before clearing his throat and replying in bewilderment "Thanks Sirius." Sirius nodded and made his way back to his table leaving a very confused Slytherin table behind. Bellatrix made her way to her cousin and sat beside him while casting diagnostic spells under the table where no one could see.
"You are clean. He did not cast a spell on you." She said in disbelief as she looked over at the Gryffindor table. Narcissa was sitting close enough to hear her sister when she said this. All three Blacks continued to watch their cousin throughout dinner along with the rest of their table and many other students around the hall.
Most of the teachers seemed pleased that they had not had to issue any detentions or send anyone to the infirmary. The trio seemed to be the only ones in the Great Hall that noticed that the Headmaster was less than pleased with this new development.
"Maybe he will come home for Yule this year." Regulus whispered while looking over at his cousin with hope.
"Oh, Reg." Bellatrix just patted his shoulder and sighed thinking that it was unlikely Sirius would ever come home. She understood how Regulus felt being abandoned by a sibling. Her older sister Andromeda had just left home and would not return any of her letters because she thought her family was evil for not liking that creep Ted that she had married. Bellatrix shivered as she thought about her sister being married to someone that made her skin crawl when she had met him. Sirius thought the same thing and would probably never change his mind while thinking that Dumbledore walked on water.
"If he came home, Mother wouldn't spend yule crying." Regulus whispered to the black haired girl that was still patting his shoulder to comfort him.
"Anything is possible Reggie." Narcissa whispered across the table. "He wished you luck, and I would have never expected that. So don't give up on him." She hoped that she was making the right choice and not keeping his hopes up only to have them dashed later, but she had seen him moping about the common room since he had come to school because his brother would have nothing to do with him. Things just got worse for her cousin when his brother left to visit the Potters and did not bother coming back last year; he had not even said goodbye. Regulus had been devastated, and his Mother had locked herself in her room for two weeks before the family hid every picture of her son so that she could walk through the house without breaking down into sobs as soon as she saw them. Her cousin's house was always quiet now that it was so steeped in depression. Even her cousin's father would not say much nowadays. He was normally found in his study looking at a family portrait and drinking fire-whisky.
It was quiet enough in the hall for the whispered conversation to carry to the sensitive ears of a werewolf who stared at his goblet of pumpkin juice with wide eyes. What the fuck?
Sirius joined Remus in watching James tryout for the chaser position after securing one of the Gryffindor beater positions. Remus waited until Peter had left the stands in a snit because they still did not want to prank anyone before telling Sirius what he had heard his brother and cousins whisper in the Great Hall. Sirius had a pensive look on his face as he thought about Regulus and his family.
"I don't know Remus. When I was sorted into Gryffindor and not into Slytherin, my whole family stopped talking to me. They didn't seem to want to have anything to do with me. That's why I started going over to the Potter's so much, I had to get away from the silent treatment and the disappointment."
"Um Sirius," Remus looked like he was having deep thoughts as he spoke to his friend. "What if they just did not know what to say to you and thought that you did not want to talk to them anymore. What if they thought that, because you were in Gryffindor, you thought that they were all evil? That is what pretty much everyone thinks we think about the house, and they would be mostly right."
Sirius looked at his friend and blinked as he thought back to the awkward times he spent at home after coming to Hogwarts. He could not remember one time that he had searched out any of his family to talk or spend time with. All he could remember was waiting for them to come and talk to him while he sat in his room thinking that they hated him. "Remus…" Sirius whispered, looking up at his friend for answers.
"Maybe you should write home and see what happens." Remus said. "If they don't answer, at least you tried, right? I know you miss them."
Sirius winced. "I think I might try to write. We haven't said anything to each other since beginning of last summer when I went to the Potter's and just stayed. I am not even sure that they noticed that I was gone." He said sadly.
"It seems like your brother has noticed. You have spent Yule with the Potters since second year, and from what he said, the others have noticed too. He said that your Mother cried. That doesn't sound like she hates you, mate."
Their attention was pulled back to the tryouts when James was announced the chaser for their team. They congratulated him while walking back to the common room. James agreed with Remus that he should try to write to his parents once he heard about the conversation that Remus had overheard from the Slytherin table. He had seen how much it had hurt his friend to be away from his family and feel that they did not love him just because he was a Gryffindor. None of them had ever thought that maybe his family had felt the same way but in reverse. They waved at the Triplets as they passed in the hall.
The triplets smiled and nodded at the marauders as they made their way to the lake to wait for their turn at tryouts.
"I wonder what had them looking so serious." Harry wondered aloud.
"I don't know." Hermione said as she pulled a book out of her ever present bag. The trio quickly immersed themselves in books, momentarily forgetting all about the serious look they had seen on the faces of the marauders.
