Snap, Crackle, Bang!
Chapter 26
Kagome awoke with a start- panting and in a cold sweat. She had a nightmare, the feeling of floating endlessly in the void haunted her, even a month after being freed from it. The void was something that she had dreamt about a lot before she left Japan, when she did sleep. Kagome put a hand to her forehead, finding that part of her fringe had become plastered to it. Her pulse was still beating erratically, as if her heart was threatening to jump out of her chest at any moment.
And so she sat there for a while, in the dark dormitory, the rest of the girls in the room sleeping soundly while she tried to forget the feeling of desperation and hopelessness that she always associated with the void. It was the feeling that you would never see your family again, that you would forever be lost in an unreachable place- it was a feeling that she would do anything to never experience again.
She wrapped one of her hands around the jewel, holding her only link to the past as if it was a lifeline, despite all the death, pain and suffering it had brought.
She stood up shakily, waking Kitsune, her new ginger kitten up.
"Shh," She whispered to the small cat, trying to get her to stop mewling. Kagome silently got dressed, making her way down to the common room again, wand in hand, using a simple 'Lumos' to light up the dark room.
Kagome crept down the stone dormitory stairs quietly, looking around the room carefully, to check that she was alone. She placed Kitsune down on the couch, and sat down next to her, giving her feline friend some much-appreciated attention.
The incident the previous morning had left her mildly shaken, the feeling of being watched was one that she was familiar with but didn't like. So, Kagome resigned herself to reading during the mornings, and decided that, (on the nights where Remus wasn't a werewolf) she was going to go down to the forest to practice her priestess abilities.
She sighed contently, perfectly happy to sit in the common room with her cat, just reflecting upon what had happened the previous few days. It was strange to her- magical society was so different to her home, and was somehow more similar to Feudal Japan than to her life in modern-day muggle Japan.
Both here and in the Feudal Era, people were judged and discriminated against unnecessarily because of their blood. It was something that horrified her, the thought that somebody would care more about somebody's family than their personality, their actions, was so terrible. Whether it be half-demon or half-witch, people struggled to survive in these two, entirely different, worlds because of who their parents were. The reason that she felt it so easy to relate to Remus' story was because she had watched her friend, Inuyasha, struggle knowing he was half-demon, half-human. He constantly wanted to change who he was, all to be free from the prejudice that came from humans and demons.
Kagome sighed sadly, thinking that Remus must struggle immensely with the weight of knowing that he could transform into a deadly predator, capable of killing anything, or anyone, in sight. To be a werewolf must be incredibly stressful- knowing that should you tell anyone the truth there would be the chance you would become an outcast, hated by everybody for something that you can't control.
She vowed, there and then, that she would be different. That she would not judge Remus Lupin because of what he is, and that she would do her best to make his life bearable. He was a nice boy, helping herself and Lily with the potions homework and yet, he had found an odd camaraderie with two boys who were seemingly complete opposites to him.
Remus Lupin was a nice boy. He didn't deserve what happened to him, and it made Kagome's heart ache to think of what he must have been through.
"You're sure she's completely fine?" Remus asked again, the Marauders having been awake the entire night.
"She's fine, Moony, she's one hundred percent okay." Sirius rolled his eyes, "Kagome won't tell anybody, our secret is safe with her."
"You're sure?"
"Yes!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air, "Merlin, it's fine. We're keeping this whole thing between us, it's okay, mate. We're fine, she's fine. Look, if it'll make you any happier you can talk to her yourself."
"I'd rather not," Remus shook his head, "Who knows what she thinks of me now that she knows I'm a werewolf?"
"She was cool about it, I'm telling you, mate," Sirius tried to reassure him, "She didn't care, she understands. It's all okay, Moony."
"You're just saying that because you want to snog her," James laughed, pushing Sirius playfully, quickly changing the mood.
"Just like you want to snog Evans, eh?" Sirius grinned, pushing him back.
"Come off it, Padfoot," James turned his attention to the glass container full of BilliWigs sat on the floor, "What do you say we set these things free in the dungeons before breakfast, so that they catch the snakes?"
"Sounds great," Sirius agreed with an excited nod.
"You'll have to make sure you can get away from them quickly once you release them, otherwise you could end up floating, too," Remus sighed, watching as James picked up the glass container.
"Don't worry, we'll be quick," James flicked the glass, the thirty-or-so blue insects coming to life, as they flew around the glass container at such a high speed they had just become blue blurs, barely visible to the naked eye.
"Can I come, too?" Peter asked, looking in awe at James holding the container of BilliWigs.
"Sure, Pete," Sirius grinned, pushing their dormitory door open, a creak resounding throughout the common room.
James shushed him with a roll of his eyes, "Come on, mate. We have to be quiet."
"I'm trying," Sirius whispered, the buzzing of the BilliWigs and the doors continual creaking being less than silent.
Kagome stood up immediately, hearing a creak from upstairs, though it seemingly came from the boys' dormitories. Taking Kitsune out of her lap and placing the small kitten back onto the sofa, she took her wand, her gaze fixed on the stairs to the boys' dorms.
Slowly, Sirius Black, followed by James, who was holding the glass container Kagome recognised as the one from Care of Magical Creatures, and Peter Pettigrew came down the stone stairs.
"Oh, hey, love," Sirius smiled, James quickly hiding the glass container behind his back in a half-hearted attempted to conceal it.
"What're you doing?" Kagome sighed.
"Would you believe we're just taking a morning walk around the castle?" Sirius grinned, walking over to open the painting.
"You're taking Professor Kettleburn's BilliWigs for a walk?" Kagome raised an eyebrow, though she was smiling.
"Oh yeah," James laughed, "I think they'll love it in the dungeons, right next to the Slytherin common room."
"Come join us, love?" Sirius asked, his stormy grey eyes meeting her blue ones as he gave her a seductive grin.
"Why? Just so that I can make enemies with the Slytherins?" The Japanese Gryffindor rolled her eyes.
"Oh, come on. It'll be fun," Sirius said cheerily.
Kagome thought about it for a second- on one hand, the idea of unleashing insects on people just because they were different unsettled her- on the other, the knowledge that most of them looked down upon Lily because she was muggle-born irritated her to no end, and she wanted to teach them a lesson.
"Don't worry, love. We'll do all the work, you can just sit back and watch," Sirius grinned manically, "If we're lucky enough Snivellus will be floating!"
She shook her head, "I won't set those things on anyone- unless I know they deserve it. I'm not going to help you set them free in the hope that Severus will get caught in it."
"Fair enough," Sirius shrugged, "I'll see you later then, love."
Aside from that one comment, Kagome noticed that James and Peter hadn't spoken to her. She considered that they were probably still on-edge from the ordeal in the forest, though Sirius didn't seem to be as affected as they were.
The three them snuck out of the common room, quickly making their way down the barren halls towards the dungeons.
"Right," James started, "By my calculations we have about five minutes before people start making their way down to the hall." He set the container down, the small blue insects buzzing obnoxiously.
"Lets release 'em, then," Sirius grinned, rubbing his hands together, pulling the glass lid off the container and haphazardly throwing it to the ground, pieces of glass scattering over the dungeon floor as blue blurs shot out of the now open container.
"RUN!" James yelped, narrowly avoiding colliding with one of the bugs.
People at the Ministry of Magic were bustling around, their auror department being in a state of true disarray. Aurors were apparating in and out of the building, those who came back returned with serious wounds, and were being attended to by healers sent from St. Mungos.
Some of Voldemorts followers had started an uprising in a small town in England, muggles being their main target. The disappearances in that area had been going on for months, hundreds of muggles, witches and wizards all going missing within the same time period as each other.
It had been happening all around the world, though the mysterious attacks in Asia had stopped, the amount of disappearances suspected to be linked to the dark lord and his followers had doubled.
And so, on that early morning, the dark mark floated proudly above the small seaside village near Whitby. Muggles lay on the ground dying, their blood painting the streets of the town red, their screams haunting the aurors that were lucky enough to survive the fierce battle.
Screaming wasn't the only thing heard that morning- laughter from Voldemort's followers, his death eaters, as they watched the muggles that they regarded with such hatred die, their suffering being the ultimate trophy.
Please review, I really appreciate them, they keep me motivated! Thanks to everybody who has reviewed, I love reading them and I like to hear your thoughts on the chapters. I'm trying to (as one of my reviews on chapter 25 recommended) focus a bit on Kagome's transition to and perception of magical society and develop her friendships more. I do pre-write all of the chapters, but I go back in and edit them all before they're published, so your advice is listened to and applied! I'd also like to explain that: Sirius is starting to trust Kagome- all of the other Marauders are skeptical, but when he talked to her she seemed genuinely understanding of Remus' situation, which she is.