12 Rosier's Plan
So, both The Marauders and The Slys had plans up there sleeves - James and Severus of course leading those plans. It had reached June - they had just over a month left to stage both plans and get their revenge. Of course, neither group knew anything about the other's plan - Lily would have tipped Severus off on The Marauders plans (they spoke at normal volume in the Gryffindor Common Room, since no one was going to stop a plan against the Slytherins) had she not still been mad at him for calling her a Mudblood. So, she sat quietly nearby them, listening in to their conversation with as much subtleness as she could.
The Slytherins were the first to stage their plan. At the start of July, there was a full-moon, and so Remus was off "ill" again. This was the perfect, and probably only, chance that The Slys would get to stage their act, and so, naturally, they took it. There were two parts to their plan, and the first part had to be done as quick as possible, before the full-moon passed. It had only been known to them that someone in the forest was attacking pupils, and, with Severus' idea and The Marauders' open minds, they had asked Lily Evans (or, more like asked Erin-Lee to ask her) to do something extremely risky for them. Erin, who, naturally being a Hufflepuff, was unbiased towards each group, had agreed to ask her, although Severus had insulted Lily. As it turned out, Avery was on good terms with Erin - apparently, they were cousins, who had gotten along well since they were younger.
"All I'm asking her to do is take something from James' suitcase? An old, moth-eaten cloak, right?" Erin confirmed on the night she was about to ask Lily.
"Yes. Knowing how James has gotten on Lily's nerves in the past year, she'll either do it herself or ask Frank Longbottom to - he's clumsy, but fairly sly when it comes to plans." Avery replied.
"Got it. And if she says no?"
"Then you ask Frank to. Either way, it'll work just fine as long as the person taking it doesn't get caught."
"And how will you make sure they don't?"
Erin had a worried, and slightly confused, look on her face. Avery just smirked.
"Trust me. Tell the person who steals it to put it on once they have it at hand, and come to the Hufflepuff common room - they won't come if they know it's to help us. Tell them to knock three times fast, and once you hear it, get under the cloak and take them back to their dorm. Then you come to our common room, I'll take you back to yours, and we can commence the plan."
"Isn't it all a little too complicated? I mean, couldn't you have done something a lot easier?"
Avery smirked again.
"Trust me. If everything goes according to plan, it'll all be worth it."
Erin did as Avery had instructed her. Lily, it turned out, liked a bit of risk, and did exactly what she was told to, even sneaking into the boy's dorm without anything to cloak her at all. She was just as sneaky as Frank was, and being less clumsy helped a lot when it came to trying not to wake James. She took the cloak and walked toward the Hufflepuff common room. She knocked three times, as fast as she could while still making the sound distinguishable as three knocks. Erin opened the hole and stepped outside. Lily pushed a hand out of the cloak to signal where it was, and got under it.
"So it was an invisibility cloak..." Erin whispered in astonishment, "I wondered why I have to take you back while you're still under this, but now it makes more sense."
"Yeah. Now let's go, before someone notices you're gone too long." Lily replied.
"Right."
They walked back across the turning staircases to the Gryffindor common room, and Mary McDonald, who Lily had asked to open the hole for them, arrived as they once again knocked three times just next to where the portrait of the fat lady was.
"Good night!" Erin whispered as Lily got out of the invisibility cloak and went to the dormitories. She waved to Erin, as the portrait hole closed and Erin set off to meet Avery outside the Slytherin common room.
After Avery had taken Erin back to the Hufflepuff common room, the plan could finally commence. Avery, Rosier and Severus under the cloak (it turned out only 3 could fit, and Mulciber was too bulky, Lestrange not at all interested, and after all, Avery was the only one on good terms with Erin, and Rosier and Severus were the ones to think it all up.
They went into the Gryffindor boys dorm that night. They had a few ideas of what they were going to do, but they started off quite simple - poking James with a stick. After a few prods, Rosier began to blow in his ear, yet still nothing. They decided there was only one thing for this case. Severus got out his wand, and muttered, "Retearo."
As he muttered, he traced, in the air, a sort of cut in James' cloak and skin. It wasn't a thick cut, just a slight one that would sting just enough to wake him up. And, like planned, he did wake up.
"Wha-at?" he groaned, placing his glasses on his face to see who it was. But, naturally, he didn't see anything. Avery then got down on all fours and made some quick, animal-like footsteps, and James looked extremely startled. He arose from his bed, and went over to poke Sirius. Just as expected, Severus thought to himself.
"Hey, Sirius! I think the wolf got in."
"Yeah, so? It's not like- wait, what?"
"Well done, Merlin! Nice to see you're as smart as you look. Come on, let's go check it out!"
"If it is the wolf, are you really sure you want do do this?"
"Of course! It is the wolf, after all. He won't really do anything, right?"
Their conversation was quite confusing. It was as if they were speaking code, saying "the wolf" all the time, but then again, it would make perfect sense for them to be talking about a wolf, especially in this circumstance, after they had suggested during their "who did it?" conversations that it could have been a werewolf. So why would they be talking code if they were making it so obvious what they were actually talking about?
Avery motioned for Severus and Rosier to follow him, and they all left the dormitories and headed for the forest, trying to sound like a wolf on all fours (not very easy with 3 people). They knocked a few things over on the way, sorts of things a wolf would be within reach to knock over, trying to keep the lead but making it obvious which way they were going.
"Come on, I think I heard something this way!" Severus heard James mutter.
"Don't we need your invisibility cloak, James?" Sirius replied, although he didn't seem afraid in his tone of voice.
"Yes, but- I can't actually find it..."
"Strange..." Sirius mumbled to himself.
Once they were out of school, after watching Sirius and James avoiding the teachers roaming the halls that night by hiding behind suits of armor and in empty classrooms, they hid behind a tree. Severus pulled out his wand, stuck his head out from the cloak so his vision wasn't blurred by it (since while wearing it, you could still see it and everything underneath it), and, pointing his wand at the ground next to James, he muttered, "Redondo."
It was quite a dangerous spell, because it was usually used to blow up solid objects, but Severus managed to control it well. James went flying, landing on the roots of the Whomping Willow.
Severus, Avery and Rosier held back their laughter, although it became even harder to when they saw the look on James' face.
"S... Sirius! H-help me! I'm falling in!"
It only became apparent to them that they were in trouble when James fell in between the roots of the tree. Sirius ran to where James had disappeared, and soon, he was out of sight, too.
Avery and Rosier fell right over laughing at James' face, completely unaware of the trouble they could all get into had they been spotted. They had never expected such a turn of events, yet it made scaring Sirius and James all the more fun.
"Come on, you guys," Rosier said, catching his breath and wiping tears of laughter from his left eye, "Wouldn't it have been funny if you hit James' foot with the charm instead of the ground?"
But Avery wasn't ready to leave yet. "One more thing..." he muttered, covering himself back up with the invisibility cloak. "Wait until they get back outside."
He ushered them towards a nearby tree, and they waited for Sirius and James, leaping straight out of the trees roots and screaming madly, before Avery pointed his wand right at Sirius.
Avery cleared his voice as quietly as possible, before beginning to shout the puppeteer's curse, "Lignot-"
A rather horrible sight stopped him. Something that looked like a small, thin wolf emerged from the tree, and ran after James and Sirius. James, quivering, turned to face the awful beast, before shouting, "Petrificus Totalus!" as fast as he could, flicking his wand in several directions. In all of the directions, the trees shook, and several birds resting in them flew out, some even falling to the ground, as if completely immobile. The beast, along with the birds, fell to the ground, unable to move even the tiniest fraction. Sirius and James, realising something (although Avery, Rosier and Severus were unsure of what), quickly picked up the beast and carefully pushed it back down the roots of the tree. Then, looking at each other with utter shock and amazement, they ran straight back for the castle.
"Well that was... odd." Rosier said, looking at the tree roots with an astonished expression. "Well, let's go, then."
"Are you kidding, Evan?" Avery turned to look at Rosier, sniggering slightly, as if he was mad. "We're checking that wolf-thing out if it gets us expelled!"
"Actually, um, Avery? We have the invisibility cloak. The people in danger of being expelled are James and Sirius." Severus added.
"Yes... It is quite odd, actually, that they weren't spotted. Guess Hogwarts is really going down-hill with the security. And with that attack I thought they'd take it all seriously for a change." Avery sniggered to himself.
"Avery? You're acting like you've been at Hogwarts for years..." Rosier said, looking at Avery with a dazed, dumb expression.
"Oh. Yeah, I guess it is my first year... Well boys, we should leave that for another night. Let's just go back to the dorms."
Avery began to walk, pulling the cloak slowly off Severus and Rosier. Not wanting to end up in detention, the two of them quickly caught up to Avery, and they all walked back towards the castle.