Disclaimer: Nope, I still don't own anything you recognize. If I did, would I really be sitting here writing FF's?
A/N: New chapter up. Sorry it took so long, hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 14: To Hell and Back.
It was almost lunchtime; Remus was to be found in the Library, surrounded by 1st-5th years. Professor McGonagall had asked him to be a tutor in his 5th year, to help the younger students who were struggling.
"Now, do you all understand?" Remus asked the 2nd year students whom he was helping. They all nodded, and Remus walked to the next table, which was loaded with 5th years that were desperate for good grades in their Owls. "No Amanda, that's wrong. Here let me show you," Remus sighed, tutoring was taking up so much of his time. Besides, full moon was coming up soon, so he had that to worry about too.
Remus sat down at a table, and watched the sunlight come through the window, showing a trail of dust floating in the air. The Librarian was sitting at her desk, glaring at the students who dared touch her books. Right then, Carrie walked loudly into the Library, receiving dirty looks from the Librarian (which she ignored), slowly followed by Peter, who had nothing else to do.
"Remus, d'you have a second?" Carrie asked, and sat herself down at the desk where Remus was, which was filled with books.
"Hi Wormtail, Carrie. I think so," he looked around to see if the kids needed help. "Nope, I'm free."
"Well, I was just up in my dormitory, studying my calendar, and I noticed that the full moon is just around the corner." Carrie stopped, Remus nodded understandingly, but grimaced. "Do you think you can help me with this animagi thing?" Carrie said in a lowered voice. "Because I really can't do it." Peter was staring at a butterfly that had just flown through the window. Remus followed his glance, and then looked back to Carrie.
"I'm sorry, not today. This tutoring is taking up all my time, and I have lots of homework to do." Remus pointed to the pile of books on the table and to the pupils he was tutoring. "Why don't you ask James to help you?" Carrie tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, and said:
"James is off with Lily somewhere, probably fighting. Sirius is hanging out with Emily someplace, I didn't catch where he said they were going." Remus nodded, stood up and walked over to a 4th year Hufflepuff who was calling him.
"Jonathan look in the textbook, it has all the answers, if you just read the passage," Remus said and pointed to the boy's textbook. "Sorry Carrie, then I don't know what you could do. The books you borrowed didn't help, did they?" Carrie shook her head.
"Don't worry, I'll hang out with Wormtail instead." She and Peter stood up, waved bye to Remus and walked out of the Library.
Remus checked his watch, and tried to get the pupils' attention. "Ok, it's almost lunchtime. Pack up, and I'll see you tomorrow morning. Bye then," Remus packed his books in his bag, and walked out of the Library, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He made his way down to the Great Hall to get some lunch.
On his way down, Sirius ran into him. "All right, mate?" he asked and pulled Remus up off the floor.
"Yep, next time look where you're going though. Err, where are you going?" Remus asked, watching Sirius' mischievous grin. Sirius' just tapped his nose, and then sprinted off. "Hey, Sirius! Don't do anything stupid!" Remus called down the hallway, but Sirius had already disappeared behind a tapestry. Remus rolled his eyes, and continued walking to the Great Hall.
o.O
Meanwhile in the Headmaster's office
"Miss Evans! What do you think you're playing at? I know you don't like him, but that is no reason to knock him out!" Professor Dumbledore said angrily, with a very disappointed frown on his face.
James was just lying face down on the floor, next to Professor Dumbledore's small round table with a bowl of sweets on top of it.
"Lily, I never thought I'd say this to you, of all people, but you have detention! 9 o'clock tonight, bring your dragon hide gloves," Professor Dumbledore sighed, he bent down to James and rolled him over onto his back. The Headmaster patted James' cheeks, and a second later James' eyes shot open. "Now, Miss Evans I expect to hear an apology from you," Professor Dumbledore gave her a meaningful look. James stood up, he swayed a little, and when his balance became steadier he glared at Lily, and stormed out of Professor Dumbledore's office.
He heard Lily coming down after him, stomping down the staircase.
"What is your problem?" James burst out angrily as Lily emerged from the gargoyle concealing the Headmaster's Office.
"My problem? You want to know what my problem is?" Lily asked.
"Yes, please!"
"So I'm an uptight (and here she said something that she would never said in front of a teacher), huh?" Lily's face was red with fury.
"Heh, I believe I read that somewhere," said a voice from around the corner.
"Sirius, get lost!" Lily yelled, she turned back to James and continued her rant. "So, I open your Transfiguration book and look what I found!" She threw a ruffled note on James' head. He took it and before finishing the first sentence, he turned a dark shade of red.
"I never meant for you to find that!" James said defensively, but Lily raised her eyebrow.
"If that was true you wouldn't have left it on the page I was working on, to parade under my nose!" Lily shot back.
"Well, you shouldn't open notes that don't belong to you!" James said. "It's none of your business what other people write on small pieces of paper." James crossed his arms childishly, and glared at her. He turned his head and was almost blinded by the sunlight coming through the window.
Lily found nothing else to say, so she stormed back up to the Head's Dormitory, knocking a 1st year Ravenclaw off her feet. James helped her up, and ran after Lily. She then started running too, James caught up with her. But slowed down so she'd think she outran him, then turned in through a tapestry which he knew led straight to the Dormitory in a few minutes.
o.O
"Sirius, get lost!" Lily yelled. Sirius pouted, but did as he was told. Besides, he had major plans for today. He ran up to the Gryffindor Tower, into his dormitory and jumped over to James' bed. He started rummaging through his trunk until he found what he was looking for. Grabbing a small backpack, he stashed the invisibility cloak he took from James' trunk, hoisted in onto his back, he ran down again. Down in the Entrance Hall he saw her, standing with her back to him, chatting with a tall blonde Ravenclaw.
"Oy! Hope, get over here." Sirius called, he watched as she said bye to the Ravenclaw and saunter over to him. She grinned and waved.
"Hi, Sirius. What's up?" Emily asked. Sirius smiled and grabbed her arm.
"I have a little surprise for you, and a mission. Come here." Sirius whispered slyly. He pulled her behind a statue. He threw the cloak over himself and Emily, motioned for her to start walking up the marble stairs. She opened her mouth to say something, but Sirius put his index finger on his lips telling her to be quiet. He then took over, and walked briskly towards the third floor. He didn't stop until he reached the statue of the hump-backed witch. Sirius took out his wand and said "Dissendium" and the witch moved. He motioned for Emily to follow him, and he jumped into the hole and slid down the slide. Shortly after Emily slid down. She stood up and bumped her head on the tunnel roof.
"Ow!" she exclaimed and rubbed her head.
"Oh yeah, sorry about that, we'll have to walk with our heads bent. I swear this tunnel wasn't built for taller people. That is height-ist." Sirius said. Emily raised an eyebrow,
"That is ... sorry what?"
"You know like racist, it's height-ist." Sirius explained.
"Right, okay. So where does this tunnel lead to, then, Padfoot?" Emily asked interestedly.
"Well, I was looking over the Marauders' Map last night, and I noticed this tunnel. James must have discovered it and forgot to tell us. Since the map only shows Hogwarts Grounds I had to guess where it leads, so somewhere in Hogsmeade. It looked quite long, so we have a long walk in front of us. So if James asks, we've done our working out for today." Sirius laughed and started walking.
About an hour or so later, Emily and Sirius' backs were aching from walking bent. To make it worse after climbing a gigantic staircase they bumped their heads on the top step.
"Oh I'm going to complain to tunnel builders! I must have lost like a million brain cells already!" Sirius complained.
"Pad, I don't think you had that many to lose anyway." Emily said cheekily.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius barked.
"Nothing, nothing," she replied in a singsong voice. "I think there's a gateway or something like that somewhere." She put out her hands in front of her and started feeling around. "Hey! I think I have it!" Sirius cleared his throat.
"Yeah, that would be my arm!"
"No wonder it was so soft." Emily laughed and continued searching.
"Aha! Got it!" Sirius had his arms above his head his pushed something which looked like a floor tile up and to the side. Light came through the hole. Sirius climbed out of the hole, and lowered down his arm to help Emily up. He took a good look around. "We're in the basement of Honeydukes!" He swung the Invisibility cloak around them.
"And how would you know something like that?" Emily asked sternly.
"Hello! You're talking to a Marauder here. Be quiet, someone might hear us. Up there is where we supposed to go." Sirius whispered and pointed up to a small wooden staircase. They climbed it and ended up behind the counter of Honeydukes. They hurried out, because the Honeydukes' owner was about to walk through them.
They ran to the door opened it and took off the cloak behind a stand, and walked around the shop, in search of sweets to bring back to the others.
o.O
On the same afternoon, a small car was seen whipping through the countryside of Germany. A German woman looked out of her kitchen window, from her house on the farm she and her husband owned, just in time to see the small car hurrying past. In her opinion it seemed the three people in the car were fleeing from something ... or someone. The woman thought nothing of it and went back to cleaning her dishes.
"Mummy, are we there yet?" The little girl, who sat in the backseat of the car, asked.
"No, sweetie, not yet. But please be quiet so your father can find where we're going." The girls mother turned to her husband, she raised her eyebrow at his undeciding expression.
"I just don't think we should go and stay with Edward. He knows what we are! Plus he's one of those "good people" or something. But I know for sure that Edward will rat us out."
"Well then, Charlie. Where do you suggest we go? Why will Edward rat us out?" Charlie's wife asked, her lips pursed.
"I don't know yet. Edward will rat us out because, when I first got my mark I told him. He was horrified, and he goes off and tells Dumbledore and the Minister. I have a feeling, he will tell again if he knows where we are!" Charlie bit his lip and turned a corner.
"What if we send Ivy to Durmstrang?" The woman suggested, and motioned for Charlie to stop the car. "We'll go to Bulgaria, I mean it's close enough for us not to be far away from Ivy, besides no one will suspect it."
"Good idea!" Charlie said, and turned the car and followed a sign to their destination.
"We have to figure out how to catch Potter. That was our first mission from the Dark Lord."
"Oh right. We'll have to find out when their next Hogsmeade visit is! Potter and his friends are bound to go, we could get some more prizoners for the Dark Lord. Madeline, you can sort that out, and I will register Ivy for Durmstrang." Charlie planned aloud. His wife, Madeline took out her wand and conjured a quill, parchment and some ink, then she started writing down ideas as the car sped through more and more country side.
o.O
"So, what do you want to do?" Carrie asked Peter when they walked out from the library, Peter shrugged.
"Walk around, see if there's anything interesting to do," Peter said quietly.
"Sure, let's go."
When they came down to the first floor, they passed a gang of Slytherins standing in a circle, outside a staff toilet, discussing something. One of them looked up, he saw them coming, nudged his friend and nodded towards them.
"Pettigrew!" said the first boy and stepped out of the circle, he placed himself right in front of Carrie and Peter.
"What do you want Xynther?" Carrie said, pushing him aside.
"A lot of things. But 1, don't call me Xynther, my name is Xanthi. I'm not a dumb Hufflepuff, and 2, what I don't want is a half-blood touching me. Besides, I was talking to Pettigrew here, not you." Xanthi wrinkled his nose and sneered. He stepped back in front of Peter and pushed him backwards. The rest of the Slytherins were watching them and snickering. "You owe me Pettigrew." Peter looked puzzled. "Don't deny I helped you. You owe me now!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Peter, stepped around Xanthi and walked away. Carrie followed, looking confused. Peter saw her expression, "Don't worry, they were just trying to mess with our minds," Peter said reassuringly and they kept walking. "Do you feel like going down to the kitchen?" Peter asked.
"Lunch is in 5 minutes, really no point," Carrie said looking at her watch.
"Down to the Great Hall it is, then." Carrie nodded.
They seated themselves at the end of the table, at the back of the Great Hall. A bunch of Slytherins came walking past.
"Oy, Pettigrew! Nice job you did, you owe Xanthi though!" A short 5th year said. Carrie looked up from her food.
"What are you on about?" Carrie said. The Slytherin sniggered.
"Let's go boys," said the tallest, strongest and biggest of the group and led them to their table.
"Ok, Peter, what is going on? Don't you dare lie now, or you're in deep trouble. Why are you doing things for Slytherins?" Carrie demanded. She looked over to the Slytherin table; she turned back and took a sip of her drink.
Peter ignored her and ate some more of his scrambled eggs.
"So, what is you answer? What did you think of that weird painting drinking jelly up on the 5th floor?" asked Carrie. Peter smirked, and said:
"It was pretty bizarre. I mean who would drink jelly?" Peter said. He reached inside his jacket, reached into a pocket and grabbed something; he let go and continued to eat his eggs.
o.O
Lily ran up to the Common Room, she looked up to tell the Fat Lady the password only to see James' face staring down at her.
"You bastard! Stay away from me!" Lily screamed. "Move!" Lily tried to shove him to the side, but he didn't budge.
"If you want a successful shove, you have to put in more effort than that, you know," James pointed out. But this only angered Lily more.
"Don't you dare tell me what to do. Sod off Potter!" Lily yelled. Her face was matching her hair, the Fat Lady looked at the two, her eyes widening every second.
"You hypocrite! You just told me not to tell you what to do, and you go and tell me what to do!"
"Arrgh! You immature arrogant fuc-" Lily started.
"Lily! There are kids around. You're supposed to be setting a good example for them." James cut off.
"I hate you Potter. I HATE you. You're a bastard, and a stalker. I HATE YOU!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs. James felt like his heart had jumped up into his throat.
"You don't hate me. You like me a teeny weenie bit, or you wouldn't have hung out with me in the first place." James said miserably.
"Rictusempra!" James started laughing uncontrollably. Lily watched him, lying there on the floor. "You look pathetic Potter." James struggled but took out his wand.
"Relashio!" he shouted between laughs, he pointed his wand at Lily. Sparks burst out of the tip of his wand, they touched Lily, and she got knocked off her feet. Her landing on the ground was hard; she stood up and rubbed her back. James' laughing had died down.
"Locomotor Mortis!" James legs locked together, he gasped and fell backwards on his back.
"Ouch! That was cold Evans!" James groaned. "Furnunculus!" James laughed at the effects coming from the spell he had cast. Lily sprouted boils on her arms, legs, basically everywhere except her face. Lily screamed.
"Finite Incantatem!" she said, pointing her wand at herself and the boils went away. "You're going to pay for that Potter."
"Oh yeah? Protego!" he shouted at the same time Lily yelled,
"Tarantallegra!" The spell missed. Suddenly Lily was turned upside down, and was hanging from the ceiling by her ankle. "Damn you Potter!"
"You say that just because you can't master that kind of magic. Be nice to me or I won't let you down. Or, wait, better yet, go out with me and I'll let you down." Lily faked gagging. "Fine, you'll have to hang up there then. See you later." James said tauntingly, and started to walk away.
"Potter, I'm going to kill you when I get down from here." Lily screamed.
"My dear child, will you stop screaming." Professor McGonagall said, but saw no one.
"Up here Professor, can you please let me down?" Lily said, her face was red from the blood flow to her head. Professor McGonagall said the incantation to let her down, she stared at Lily as to say 'what were you doing up there?'
"Don't ask," Lily said. "Thank you Professor," and with that she ran off to find James.
O.O
"Do you want to get a Butterbeer?" Emily asked Sirius, he nodded , so they walked off to the Three Broomsticks.
Hours later, they walked outside and saw that it was very dark, Sirius looked at his watch.
"It's 6 o'clock. We should be getting back to school," said Sirius and they began walking towards Honeydukes.
"Stop right there." A male voice said loudly, Emily and Sirius glanced at eachother.
"We have you now, Potter!" Another voice said, this time female. Sirius and Emily turned around to face the voices.
"What are you talking about?" Sirius said loudly.
"Black," the first voice said disappointedly. "Where's Potter?" Emily laughed.
"Do you really think we'd tell you where James is?" Emily said, and Sirius nodded, agreeing.
"And you are?" A woman with curly blonde hair asked Emily.
"Emily Hope, why?" she replied. Sirius stepped closer to Emily, and whispered into her ear.
"They're Death Eaters, take out your wand. There's only four of them so we'll be able to stun them." Sirius took out his wand and hid it behind his back, and Emily did the same. "On the count of three," Sirius said, still whispering. "One, two, three! Stupefy! Stupefy!"
"Stupefy!" Emily cried, the spell hit the curly haired, blonde woman, she fell to the ground.
Sirius had already taken out the other woman and one of the men. Together, they pointed their wands to the last man.
"Stupefy!!" They screamed, but at the same time, the man yelled,
"Ennervate!" Pointing to the curly haired woman, she woke up at the same time the man fell to the ground.
"You two, you little-" But what they were they weren't told, because someone interrupted.
"What in the devil, is going on here?" The owner of Honeydukes shouted. He saw the Death Eaters, three lying on the ground, and one standing staring at Emily and Sirius. "Oh, oh my!" He ran inside to get his wife to Floo the Ministry.
"Ennervate! Ennervate! Ennervate!" The woman shouted, pointing to each of the knocked out Death Eaters. They all stood up, and started running.
"Impedimenta!" Sirius screamed, but the Death Eaters dodged, he hid behind a barrel, and pointed his wand at Sirius.
"Relashio!" Sirius was knocked off his feet and pushed into the wall of Honeydukes behind him.
"Stupefy!" Emily screamed and pointed to the barrel. But the Death Eater had already run away from it, and the barrel exploded. Unfortunately the barrel had some kind of alcohol in it, so it burst into flames. "Damnit! Oh, what's the spell for that again?"
Madam Rosmerta came running out, she must have seen the fire from the window. "Oh my gosh! What happened?" She yelled to Emily, black smoke had started coming out from the fire, and it was very noisy.
"Death Eaters. They got away! They wanted to get James," Sirius groaned from the wall, Madam Rosmerta ran over to him, and checked if he was all right.
By now, the whole village had come outside to see what had happened. The man from the post office put out the fire with a water spell. Emily was staring mesmerized at the fire, but now she ran over to Sirius.
"Sirius! Are you ok?" She kneeled down and brushed his hair out of his face.
"My arm is bloody painful!" He moaned. Madam Rosmerta carefully picked up Sirius hand from the ground. "Arrgh!" Sirius screamed, one of his bones was poking out.
"Sweetheart, you broke your arm. We better get you to Madam Pomphrey." She and Emily picked Sirius up, and led him back up to Hogwarts.
Up in the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomphrey was smearing a green cream on a 4th year Hufflepuff, with a nasty burn.
"My god, child! What have you done?" Madam Pomphrey exclaimed. She left the Hufflepuff, ran over to Sirius and helped him up on a bed. "Well?"
"We, that is me and Emily were in Hogsmeade, we walked out of the Three Broomsticks, and we were walking back to Hogwarts, when four Death Eaters showed up. They were looking for James, we managed to stun all of them, but the last did 'Ennervate' on one of the stunned ones, and she did the same to the rest of them, we tried to stop them but they ran away. The man did a 'Relashio' spell on me, and then I remember just waking up on the ground." Sirius explained.
"The spell knocked him into the wall of Honeydukes!" Emily finished.
"Death Eaters? After the Potter boy?" Madam Pomphrey said. Madam Rosmerta nodded.
"His arm is broken." Madam Rosmerta pointed out, when Sirius screwed his face up in pain.
"Oh yes. Miss Hope it's dinner time, go down have something to eat, and you can come back later." Madam Pomphrey said, motioning for her to go. Madam Rosmerta followed Emily out of the Hospital Wing. The Matron brought a curtain around Sirius' bed, for him to change in privacy. "Do you need any help or are you fine on your own?" she asked.
"I'm fine," groaned Sirius.
"All right, dear I'll go and get the medicine." With that she walked into her office. Sirius undressed and put on the hospital gown on with difficulty, he even had to use his teeth to help him.
Minutes later, Madam Pomphrey came back carrying a bottle. "Are you ready Black?" She pulled back the curtain and poured the contents of the bottle into a glass on his bedside table. It had a brownish green colour, and it was very thick.
"You don't expect me to drink that, do you?" Sirius asked, he looked nauseous and uneasy.
"That's exactly what I want you to do. Come on drink up!" Madam Pomphrey said, handing him the glass with the disgusting contents.
"Cheers," Sirius groaned, dreading the taste. He put the glass up to his mouth and quickly drank and swallowed. Sirius almost gagged from the smell and taste. "Yuck! Pumpkin juice! Tooth paste! Anything! I need a drink," Sirius yelled. Madam Pomphrey conjured a tray with his dinner on, with pumpkin juice and a toothbrush and toothpaste to use later.
"Eat your dinner, and try to get to sleep as fast as possible, because this night is going to be painful. Your bone in your right arm, will force itself back into shape. Bon appetite!" Madam Pomphrey stalked back into her office. Sirius began to dig in to his food. The Hufflepuff opposite to him stared. Sirius noticed and looked up.
"What? Have you never seen a starving person before?" The Hufflepuff looked embarrassed, and bent his head down to his food. Sirius continued eating like a dog.
He finished eating, brushed his teeth and got ready to fall asleep; he had been asleep for five minutes when Dumbledore stormed in. Sirius woke up. Annoyed he sat up and looked at Dumbledore.
"Is it possible to get some sleep in here? I have bones to poke themselves back into place!" Sirius huffed; he shifted his pillow and lay down to sleep again, careful of where to place his broken arm.
Dumbledore had a short word with the Matron and walked over to Sirius' bed.
"Mr. Black?" Sirius ignored him, and pulled his duvet over his head. "Sirius,"
"Go away, I'm not here!" Sirius groaned.
"All right, then. I'll come and talk to you in the morning." Professor Dumbledore suggested.
"Thank you! But please don't wake me up." Sirius yawned and soon fell fast asleep.
o.O
Emily had explained everything that happened at dinner. Professor Dumbledore had later come to her to tell her not to disturb Sirius, because he was a tad cranky.
They were all now sitting in front of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room. Well, all except for Sirius, James and Lily. No one had seen since earlier that morning.
Emily and Remus had started a game of chess, and Peter was reading his Transfiguration book. Carrie was sitting deep in thought, staring into space.
"Have any of you ever noticed that Lily gets meaner and meaner to Prongs everyday?" Carrie asked randomly ten minutes later.
"Huh?" Peter asked. Remus raised his eyebrows and Emily looked up at her weirdly.
"Or maybe it's just me then."
"Actually, she does," said Emily thoughtfully.
"So what are we going to do about it?" Carrie said, and sat up properly in her seat.
"Do about it?" Remus asked. "There's nothing we can do about it, they're going to have to work it out for themselves." Carrie slouched back down again, sulking.
"King to E5," Emily said, continuing the chess game.
"Bad move," Remus replied. "Bishop to F4."
"Oh really? Queen to E8, Check Mate!" Emily said, watching her Queen take Remus' King. Emily yawned. "I think I'm going to go to bed. G'night."
"Good idea, same here. Good Night," Carrie said and followed Emily up the stairs to the Dormitory.
Remus and Peter stayed downstairs, talking. All of a sudden, the Portrait Hole was opened and slammed shut.
James came storming in, tears running down his face.
"James! Where have you been?" Peter called. James, still making his way through the common room, with his head bent low cleared his throat.
"To Hell and back," he said, and ran up the Boy's Dormitory stairs. Peter stood up to go after him, but Remus pulled him back to his seat.
"Just leave him alone for a while." Remus said, calmly. That way if James didn't want to talk about it, he could pretend to have fallen asleep. "We'll go up in about 20 minutes, all right?"
20 minutes later, Remus with Peter following him, walked quietly into the Dormitory, they could hear loud snores from James' bed, who was obviously pretending to be asleep. They got ready for bed, and minutes later James stopped 'snoring' and they noticed he had actually fallen asleep this time. Soon after, so did they.
A/N: Woah, longest chapter so far. I hope you liked it. I'll try to update soon. In the meantime, you know what to do, he he.
Carrie
Xxx