Disclaimer:
This is my interpretation of the Marauders life at Hogwarts. I am planning on doing all seven years, but for now this is year one. I hope you enjoy it.
All rights belong to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 11 - Solving a mystery
School continued and winter faded away. Spring took its place and the days were steadily becoming warmer and brighter. Students started spending more time outside absorbing the sunlight, but with the coming of Spring, the end of the school year was looming closer and with that the shadow of exams started showing its face.
Lily and Severus have slowly begun revising together as well as working on perfecting the wolfsbane potion. Even James and Sirius had started keeping up with their homework and Remus' Christmas gift proved to be quite useful and helpful.
However, the school year couldn't end without horror striking. Two weeks before the exams started Remus was searching the common room full of panic, "Where is it? Where is it? It can't be gone. I'm sure I still had some left. No. No. No. Where is it?" he mumbled to himself as he looked beneath tables and chairs and in the book racks and even in the fireplace.
"Remus, what's wrong?" James asked.
"Nothing. Nothing." Remus replied.
"It doesn't look like nothing." Sirius answered.
"Seriously guys, it's okay. Go back to revising. I'm okay with searching alone." Remus replied.
"Are you sure? We'd be more than happy to help you. Actually, we could use the distraction." Peter said.
"No, no, no. I've got this." Remus smiled, "You three need all the time to revise you can get."
"Well, alright then." Peter said and went back to practicing some spells for Charms class.
Remus went up the stairs to the boys dormitory and spent the entire day up there. Every now and then people heard something fall from that direction but the three boys silently agreed not to go interrupt Remus unless he asked for their help. He clearly needed to be left alone.
When night fell they had to go up to the dorm and when the entered the found Remus crying and shaking in the corner.
"Mate, what's wrong?" Sirius asked, "You have to tell us. This is clearly important."
"It's gone." Remus sobbed.
"What's gone?" James asked.
"I can't tell you." Remus said through the tears.
"Then don't tell us. But at least let us take you to Madam Pomfrey to give you a calming drought." James said
"I don't need a calming drought." Remus said, he took a deep breath, "I need it."
"Do you think it was taken by whatever has been making other things disappear around the school?" Peter asked.
"Perhaps." Remus answered.
"Where would we find it?" James wondered, "where do we even start looking?"
"I would suggest the astronomy tower." Kingsley spoke up and the other four jumped.
"How long have you been standing there?" Sirius asked.
"Long enough." Kingsley replied, "When the portrait of the Fat Lady disappeared she was found again after Professor Strauss heard her screaming from one of the abandoned rooms up there."
"How do you know all this?" James asked.
"The same way I know you're going to go up there as soon as you think I'm asleep." Kingsley replied, "But this time, I'm coming with you. I want to know what's been taking everyones' stuff."
"Alright then, we leave when the common room's quiet." James said.
The five stayed up a few more hours and once they were convinced that everyone had turned in for the night, James took his invisibility cloak and the five of them went down to the common room. They were nearly out the secret entrance when a voice asked, "Where exactly do you five think you're going."
"Lily? Why are you still down here?" Sirius asked.
"Well, I wanted to study star patterns, but now I'm wondering if an adventure with you guys might not prove to be more educational." Lily answered, "So, where are you going?"
"We're going to the astronomy tower." Peter answered with a smile.
"Peter." James hissed.
"What?" Peter asked.
"Well then, to the astronomy tower it is." Lily said and led the way out the hidden entrance.
The six of them didn't really fit beneath James cloak but they still threw it over their heads and walked with their feet and lower legs visible but the rest of them gone.
"An invisibility cloak?" Lily exclaimed with delight, "This is so...so...cooler than cool."
"Keep your voice down." Sirius said.
"We may be pretty much invisible but we can still be heard." James added on.
They continued walking and they were getting close to the tower, when a cat walked right by them and then sped away.
"Oh no." James said.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Mrs. Norris. It's Filch's cat. He's going to get Filch and then we're going to get caught." James said.
"This is a problem." Peter said.
"Do I hear the voice of one of my favourite students?" a voice above their heads asked.
James pulled the invisibility cloak off of them, "Peeves! You couldn't have arrived at a better time. We need a favour. We need you to lure Filch away from here."
"Oh, a chance to anger that nasty old squib...I'm on it." Peeves sped away throwing down light bulbs and portraits and laughing loudly all the way.
"Come on." James urged the others.
The group rounded the final corner and climbed the last stairs to the astronomy tower. They started looking around the different rooms up there and all of them seemed to be pretty much empty. Well, except the one in which they have class of course. But other than that there wasn't a trace of anything.
"I don't get it. There's nothing here." Sirius said.
"Kingsley, are you sure the story about the Fat Lady wasn't just a rumour?" Peter asked.
"Positive." replied Kingsley, "I went to ask the Fat Lady for her account of the tale and she remembers waking up in the night when her picture was being removed from the wall and being carried up to the astronomy tower."
"Did she see anything else when she was up here?" Lily asked.
"She said she saw a few trinkets of different kinds. She didn't know if they were part of the collection of lost things people had been talking about but it likely was. Spell books, cauldrons, even various items of food." Kingsley told the group.
"I wonder…" Peter said. He walked into the room and once he'd crossed the middle, he disappeared, "Guys! You've got to see this!"
The other five headed after Peter and what they saw was beyond belief. This side of the room was littered with so many things from top to bottom. Stacks of books, cauldrons, brooms, wizarding robes, even wands and potion ingredients and a few owl cages stood just beyond the center line of the room.
"Oh my goodness." Lily breathed.
"It has to be some type of concealment charm." Kingsley said.
"How did Professor Strauss find the Fat Lady but not find all of this?" Remus asked.
"Maybe the portrait fell or slipped past the line and that's how Professor Strauss found it." Lily suggested.
"Yeah perhaps." James muttered.
"What? Please don't tell me you think Professor Strauss is the thief." Lily said.
"Well, evidence would suggest she is." James replied, "I don't want to believe it but it's not impossible."
Suddenly they heard a soft humming coming from behind them. When they turned around a tiny figure with wings was making its way towards them.
"Is that a...fairy?" Lily asked.
"Yes it is." Kingsley replied, "And I don't think it's friendly."
When the fairy crossed over the border line and saw the six students she started flying around in panic, letting things drop from their tall stacks. "What are you doing here?" she shouted from behind her hiding spot.
"I think the more important question is why did you take all this stuff?" James said.
"Because I want it." the fairy replied.
"Guys, doesn't that voice sound familiar?" Kingsley asked.
"Yeah, like Professor Strauss." Peter answered.
"Go away!" the fairy shouted.
"Professor Strauss, is that you?" Lily called up.
"Yes." the fairy came out of her hiding spot, "That is what you call me here. My real name is actually Sabilinetina."
"Professor…" Lily began and was cut off by the fairy throwing an hourglass from one of the towers, "Sabilinetina, why did you take all this stuff?"
"I already told you!" their professor shouted, "I wanted it! It's mine now! Go away!"
"Pro...Sabilinetina, we have to return these things to their rightful owners." James said.
"No!" their professor shouted, "It's mine! It's mine, it's mine, it's mine! Go away!" She threw a cauldron at them and they dived out of the way just in time.
"Sabilinetina, please, this isn't right." Remus tried to reason.
"You foolish little kids! You don't know anything do you? I found it and now it's mine." she said.
"No, you took it. It doesn't belong to you." Lily said.
A high pitched shriek split the air and Sabilinetina threw another dozen objects at them. Sirius got hit in the head by a quaffle and was knocked out.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Lily tried to body bind the fairy. The shriek was heard again and she knocked a book of one of the towers.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Kingsley yelled and directed the falling book away from them.
"Sabilinetina! Please, why do you want these things?" Lily called up.
"You don't get it!" she yelled down, "You can't see it! But I can! I know what's coming and I know that if we don't take what we want and what we need we won't make it."
"What are you talking about?" James asked.
"Open your eyes boy! Look! Things are changing! Everything is changing!" Sabilinetina shouted.
"How do you mean?" Lily asked.
"There's a darkness coming. One that almost none of you will survive." Sabilinetina said, "Leave now! Leave while you still can."
"We can't." Remus said, "This is wrong."
The fairy shrieked her high pitch screech again and flew straight into a tower of stuff and knocked it over. Objects started spilling down and would have landed and crushed them if not for…
"Protego!" Peter yelled at the top of his lungs and his wand pointed steadily up. He had not expected the spell to work, but it did!
"Well done Peter!" Lily praised.
"Alright, now what?" James asked.
"What if we all try to hit her with the body-bind spell at the same time?" Lily suggested.
"Worth a try." James agreed.
Lily, James, Remus, Peter and Kingsley raised their wands and shouted as one, "Petrificus Totalus!" The spell hit their former professor and she tumbled to the ground where she lay unconscious.
"Maybe we should go get Professor McGonagall?" Lily suggested.
"Come on." James said.
"There you are! Students out of bed!" Filch came running in, with Peeves trailing behind him desperately trying to get his attention, just as Lily and James had exited the concealed area. Filch walked past them to see where they had come from. When Filch saw the mess he smirked, "Oh, Professor Dumbledore will hear about this."
Filch picked Sirius up and slung him over his shoulder, then he led them out and towards the entrance to Dumbledore's office. "Ugh, where is that gargoyle?" Filch mumbled.
"I knew there was a Gargoyle there." James whispered to Remus.
"Sherbet droppings." Filch said and the wall vanished as a spiral staircase started growing upwards. The group climbed up and entered the office.
"Oh, Filch, what brings you here at this hour?" Dumbledore asked.
"Students out of bed. Students who have been stealing things and hiding them in the astronomy tower under a concealment charm." Filch answered, "I demand they be expelled!"
"Now Filch, let's hear what they have to say." Dumbledore looked at them expectantly.
"Well, Remus lost something important tonight and we had to get it back." James answered.
"And the portrait of the Fat Lady told me that when she got stolen she was taken to the Astronomy Tower." Kingsley added.
"So we went there and when we walked over the midpoint line in one of the rooms, we saw all the stolen things." Peter said.
"And then Professor Strauss came in, only she wasn't Professor Strauss, she was Sabilinetina, a fairy who had stolen everything and hid it up there." Lily continued.
"And then she started to attack us when we said we need to give the things back to their rightful owners, so we had to protect ourselves. So we fired our own spells at her. Sirius got knocked out in the process." James gestured to Sirius who was now lying on Dumbledore's office floor, "But we caught her in a body-bind spell, she's probably still up there in the tower."
"Right." Dumbledore said, "Filch, will you please go and find Sabilinetina and bring her to me. I shall deal with this. Also call for Madam Pomfrey to take Sirius to the hospital wing. The rest of you, go to bed. We shall talk about this later."
The five students made their way back to the Gryffindor common room and Filch set off in the opposite direction, taking Sirius to the hospital wing.
"You know, we could always sneak back later and find the thing you're looking for." James said.
"I wish, I saw it during the fight. It was knocked down and destroyed. Best to just leave it at that." Remus replied.
They walked the rest of the way in silence.
