A/N: Oh my word, chapter 20. That is so crazy. As always, thank you for reading/following/reviewing. My little story has been viewed almost 2000 times and your encouragement and interest encourages me to keep writing! Enjoy the next instalment.
Monday 20th October 1976 Monday evening after school found the group of sullen Gryffindors standing once again outside McGonagall's office. They were to have detention everyday this week as punishment for their actions in the brawl the day before. Lily leaned against the wall mildly annoyed that her no detention streak was now ruined, however she did knock out Brendan so it was for a good cause. The Ravenclaw in question, as McGonagall had informed her that morning had been suspended pending the result of an exterrnal hearing and Lily could only hope she would never have to see his face again. The marauders nearby were cheerfully discussing what they thought their detention might be, those boys had probably cleaned every room in this castle from the amount of detentions they had. McGonagall appeared, looking at them imperiously.
"You will be in two groups for your detentions this evening." She directed, looking rather pointedly at James and Sirius. They definitely wouldn't be in the same detention then.
"Mr Potter and Mr Lupin, and Miss Mckinnon and Prewett. You will be going to the hospital wing to help Madams Pomfrey and Lambert." Madam Pomfrey appeared around the corner as if on cue, ready to escort them.
"And Mr Black, Pettigrew and Longbottom and Miss Evans and Meadowes. I will be escorting you to the kitchens where you will be assisting the house elves for the evening." Sirius grinned, sticking his tongue out at James who had muttered in disappointment. Remus leaned over to whisper an answer to her confusion at the two boys.
"Pitts, the head elf in the kitchens has, for some unknown reason, got a soft spot for Sirius and James. He lets them have snacks during detention, even though he's very unimpressed with seemingly every other student in the school." The boys settled down as the transfiguration professor fixed them with a stare, although Sirius looked entirely too pleased with himself and they split into their separate groups to begin their detentions.
McGonagall watched as they entered through the portrait before striding back to her office. Lily looked around the kitchens, she had visited a few times before and it never failed to impress her. It was a long, low room filled with rich scents from the many cooking pots and warm from the multiple fires that crackled away throughout the room.
"Pitts!" Sirius cried out in welcome as a small, grumpy looking house elf approached them.
"Mister Sirius, you is being naughty again." The house elf replied, looking at him warmly before turning to the others, much less enamoured. "And you is bringing friends with you." Peter, Frank, Dorcas and Lily gave him small smiles and waves. He grunted, running his eyes over them.
"Missies, you can go and help Snuffy with the washing." Pitts decided, pointing Lily and Dorcas over to an abnormally tall elf who was overseeing the washing, drying and putting away of the dinner dishes.
"And misters you can go over there and help Taffy with the breakfast." The students separated out accordingly and got on with their jobs.
They were about halfway through their detention when Pitts stopped watching their every move. For a first detention Lily didn't think it was so bad, she personally found house elves weirdly adorable and had never had much chance to spend any time with them or observe the odd little species. Dorcas was working next to her and telling Lily everything she knew about them, they were interrupted when Frank sidled over. Lily smiled widely at him, on the latest Hogsmeade weekend Frank had hastily informed Alice that of course she was his girlfriend. He'd apologised that he hadn't 'officially' asked her before promptly asking her just that in the middle of the street and Alice had hardly stopped smiling since then.
"Hey girls." He said quietly with a soft smile. "Listen, have you got anything planned for Alice's birthday?"
The girls shared pointed smiles, Alice's birthday was on Saturday. She wasn't a huge party girl so the girls had been thinking they would find an empty classroom and have a small party instead, inviting just the people Alice was closer to. Dorcas had owl ordered the decorations and Marlene had already made contact with the elves in the kitchen to request some party food which they had cheerfully agreed to, Alice knew nothing and the girls intended it to remain that way, it would be a surprise party, it was her 17th after all. They told Frank as much and he smiled wider.
"That sounds great." He went to move away before changing his mind and turning back to the girls, a blush rising on his cheeks.
"I have a present for Alice and I don't know if- well I was wondering- it's just-" The chestnut-haired boy trailed off, wringing his hands, his face red.
"You want to know if we think she'll like it?" Asked Marlene gently. Peter and Sirius were looking over curiously.
"It's very forward of me and I just don't know if it's too soon." Lily's eyes were widening.
"Wait you're not going to like, pop the question are you?" The girls squawked and Peter and Sirius started to wander over. Frank's eyes widened as well.
"No! No. Not that! I- well- sort of?" The girls shrieked again, the elves began giving them funny looks. Frank's face had managed to turn even more red.
"I want to give her a gift to show my intentions." He explained, not meeting their eyes. "It's a pureblood thing." He said quietly, gesturing apologetically to Lily and Marlene. "A promise bracelet, I guess." Lily, Marlene and Dorcas were all beaming at him. "I had one made for her. I mean, I know I want to marry her, she's amazing, but I don't know if it's too big a gift? But it's her 17th, which is really special and I just-"
"Frank." Lily said, squeezing his arm. "I know that she would love that." Marlene and Dorcas nodded, voicing their agreement amidst a few squeals.
"Really?" Frank asked, meeting their gaze at last.
"Of course!" Said Marlene, throwing her arms around him in a rapid-fire hug.
"It sounds perfect." Dorcas said, a wide smile lighting up her face. "And a lot of other pure-bloods do stuff like this way younger and way earlier than you guys, so don't worry about that."
Frank let out a breath of relief, his blush mostly faded. "Thanks, you lot. You better not spill to her!"
"What has got you all riled up over here?" Asked Sirius, putting a few plates away as he arrived.
"Frank's been telling us about his gift for Alice for her birthday." Marlene said, barely containing her excitement.
"A proposal?" Asked Peter with a cheeky grin.
"No." Said Frank, his blush threatening to return.
Sirius smirked. "Are you girls throwing a party? It is her 17th after all."
"Of course we are." Said Lily, putting some cutlery into a large tray.
"You know it's not a party without the marauders, right?" Sirius said with a grin.
Marlene rolled her eyes, "of course you lot are invited, but you know it's only because James and her are so close."
"Whatever you tell yourself, Mar?" Sirius replied, wiggling his eyebrows. "It's my birthday next." He turned to Peter. "You better have a suitably outrageous idea for my party."
Peter grinned. "We do have a few ideas."
"You're November, right?" Dorcas asked.
Sirius nodded an affirmative. "November 30th."
"Oh, Merlin." Said Dorcas, "then it's me in December." They chatted for a few more minutes before Pitts began to walk over to them with a scowl. They swiftly split up again and resumed their jobs.
Thursday 23rd October 1976 A slow Thursday afternoon found Lily settling into her seat in the History of Magic classroom. This was one of the smallest NEWT classes, most people dropped this class as soon as they could due to Professor Binns' incredibly boring classes. Lily however, whilst she couldn't stand the ghost's lectures, thought the material itself was actually pretty interesting and there was a variety of good textbooks she had purchased via owl order. She tended to ignore Binns and do homework from other classes or make her own notes during these classes. Only tuning in if he set them homework. The class consisted of Lily; Diana Rivers; Nicholas Smith- a slightly annoying but generally friendly Hufflepuff; Tristan Murk- a dangerously pale Slytherin who was always very quiet and Lily was half convinced was actually a vampire and finally, and rather surprisingly James Potter and Remus Lupin made up the final two members of the class. At the beginning of the year Lily had been expecting James to either sleep the whole time or be constantly disruptive. He sat fairly quietly by the window instead and had seemed to adopt a similar technique of doing work for other classes or teaching himself from the book, chatting quietly with Remus.
Professor Binns was facing the blackboard talking about the magical restriction movement of the goblins in the 19th century.
Nicholas turned to Diana, grinning slightly. "You would've thought the goblins would've learnt by then." Binns didn't turn as he spoke and the ears of the other students pricked at the interruption.
Diana shrugged, "I admire their determination to be honest."
"Well they don't give up. That's for sure." Nicholas said.
"Well, would you?" Chimed in James from the window. He had his feet up on an empty chair but was watching their conversation with interest. "If someone took your wand away tomorrow, would you not fight to get it back?"
"But Goblins never had wands in the first place." Added an unfamiliar voice, everyone's heads snapped to Tristan Murk in surprise, who had raised an eyebrow and was joining in the conversation.
"Does that mean they're incapable of magic though?" Lily challenged him.
Murk frowned "Well you'd think."
"Hmmm." Said Diana dubiously, "I'm not so sure, have you seen Gringotts? You think they made all of that without some type of magic?"
"The literature does mention instances of Goblins being capable of some form of wandless magic." Remus said, gesturing to their textbook.
"How would they craft magic objects if they weren't capable of magic?" James pointed out.
"I'm sure wizards could charm objects they craft." Nicholas said. James shook his head emphatically.
"Goblins are way too possessive to allow that. I reckon wizards were just too scared of Goblins getting wands and being able to use magic that could potentially be used against them. So, instead they just decided to violently oppose them and suppress them."
"Well I mean they do control all the gold in the wizarding world pretty much." Diana pointed out thoughtfully. "If they had wands, what's to stop them holding people's gold for ransom? It would give them an unfair advantage."
"If we hadn't started the conflicts in the beginning and refused them wands in the first place they would have no motive to do something like that to the wizards." Remus said.
"Exactly." James said with a small smirk. Lily was privately amused at James enthusiasm for their discussion, she would never have expected it of him. They carried on their discussion none of them trying to keep their voices down anymore. Binns wasn't even aware of their debate.
"Plus." Lily added. "As far as we know goblins don't know how to make wands so that's a potential bargaining chip."
"Goblins are pretty violent in nature though." Nicholas said with a frown, "it could be carnage if they ever got wands."
"Or maybe we just made them violent in nature." Diana said seriously.
"Has anyone in the wizarding world ever given the goblins much of a chance to prove them wrong?" Lily asked.
"But have the goblins given us a chance to be proven wrong." Said Tristan, "practically every attempt at diplomacy between wizards and goblins has failed. Gringotts is a precarious truce between us at best." Binns turned back around and the conversation petered off. The students thoughtfully considering the tangent they had gone down.
The rest of the lesson passed fairly quietly with the loud bell signalling that they could leave. The small class found themselves in the corridor at the same time as Mulciber and some of his cronies. Lily stiffened slightly while James and Remus subtly stepped closer to her. Mulciber looked at their group.
"Hey Smith." Mulciber said loudly. Nicholas looked up, surprised to be addressed by him.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Is it true you're a direct descendant of Helga Hufflepuff?"
Nicholas straightened. "It is actually."
Mulciber sneered, "reckon you could prove it?"
Nicholas scoffed. "Easily. What, you want a family tree?"
Mulciber shrugged, a strangely pleased smile on his face. "Don't worry. I believe you." He started to walk away. "Mudblood." He said leering at Lily as he passed her.
"Pillock." James said, glaring at his back.
They made their way into the Great Hall for lunch where there was a strange buzz of whispering. Diana said goodbye to Lily as she joined her brother at the Ravenclaw table whilst the three Gryffindors spotted their friends and found seats together next to Peter and Sirius who was talking quietly to Dorcas. James looked around curiously as he took a seat.
"What is everyone gossiping about?" He asked Sirius who looked eerily grave.
"What happened?" Asked Lily, a feeling of dread starting to build. Dorcas looked at them.
"Lucy Redgrave didn't come back to her dorm last night." She said quietly.
"Owen's little sister?" Asked Remus as he filled his plate. James looked to see if he could see the Headboy in question but he was nowhere to be seen.
"She was found wandering the corridors at 7 o clock this morning." Peter said, his hands flexing anxiously. Lily frowned.
"She was found completely out of it, leaving the corridor to the Slytherin common room." Dorcas said, pushing her plate away.
Lily went cold.
"What do you mean completely out of it?" James asked.
Sirius was shaking his head. "Dazed. No memory of why she was there or where she'd been or what had happened."
"That's both the head boy and the head girl who have had weird things happen to their siblings." Remus said gravely. Lily and James shared a look, the memory of the night they'd found the Head Girl's younger brother under an imperius still fresh.
"Do they think Lucy was imperiused?" Lily asked, horrifying images of what they could have made her do against her will flashing through her mind.
"No one is really sure." Dorcas said, "everyone's getting a bit nervous though."
"Apart from the Slytherins I'm sure." Sirius spat, sending their table a vicious glare. James leaned back running a stressed hand through his hair.
"We need to do something." He said desperately. "Something is happening in this school and I don't like it."
"No one's heard anything from Dumbledore on that defense group?" Lily asked, lowering her voice. The assembled group shook their heads. Lily chewed her lip worriedly, professor McGonagall had informed her yesterday that Brendan would not be returning after his suspension and that after his hearing he had been 'asked to leave'. Lily was slightly bitter they didn't have the guts to outright expel him but it had given her some closure after the incident even if her desire to protect herself had tripled.
"We just need to do it ourselves." James said an odd feeling of guilt settling on him. It wasn't like he was disobeying Dumbledore, the old headmaster had basically given them his blessing at the beginning of the year to do something like this. "I mean, obviously some people in this school aren't afraid of using unforgivables. We have to be able to defend ourselves and others."
"You're right Prongs." Sirius said firmly to the nods of their friends.
"What if we all find two spells each, either a duelling spell or a defensive one. Each of us looks up the technique and we take it in turns to teach it to each other." There were murmurs of assent.
"We should also brush up on the more basic ones." Said Remus. "Make sure we can perform them well too."
"Who will be in this?" Dorcas asked.
"And where and when will we meet?" Asked Peter, looking rather nervous about the whole thing.
"Alice and Mar will want to join." Said Lily.
"Frank as well." Added James, "he wants to be an auror after school."
"Maybe leave it at that for the minute?" Suggested Sirius, looking around with suspicion. "We want to keep it pretty secret."
"We could meet on Fridays? At 7.30?" Said James. "Our detention is at lunchtime tomorrow so that should work."
"We still need a where." Dorcas pointed out.
Lily chewed her lip. "I might know a place."
Friday 24th October 1976 Friday night found the marauders lounging in their dorm before they were due to meet the girls and Frank in the Common Room where Lily would escort them to wherever it was she had in mind.
"Does she really think that she knows somewhere we don't?" Asked Peter somewhat snootily as he polished his wand.
"I wouldn't underestimate her." Remus warned, pulling on a jumper as he shivered slightly.
"I'm excited." Came Sirius' voice from the bathroom. "It feels good to finally be doing something." He emerged. The three other marauders' jaw dropped as they regarded him.
"What-" Remus spluttered, "what are you wearing." He gestured to Sirius' outfit. Sirius was decked out in a Gryffindor red full muggle tracksuit, complete with a gold stripe down the side. Sirius looked at himself admiringly in the mirror.
"I thought it was as good a time as any to finally wear this." James looked down morosely at his own outfit of slacks and a quidditch training jersey.
"I should've thought of that." He muttered with a pout.
Sirius adjusted his hair. "Muggles wear this when playing sport you know." He said knowingly. "It's perfect for duelling. No robes to trip over or sleeves to get in the way. The only thing lacking is it's not very protective." He blinked, struck by an epiphany. "Now if I could get this in dragon hide…" Remus burst into laughter at the thought. James and Sirius had been obsessed with muggle fashion and culture since they were thirteen when they visited Remus during summer and first heard Elton John and The Beatles from Remus' mother's record player in the kitchen. The two pure bloods made a point of wearing muggle clothes or listening to muggle music whenever they got the chance. Peter was looking grudgingly impressed as Sirius strutted across the dorm.
"Why can he pull that off." Peter muttered, put out. They walked down to the common room. Alice intercepted them quickly.
"Ok so- oh." She cut herself off as she took in Sirius who arched an eyebrow. "Interesting outfit, Black."
Sirius smirked. "Why thank you."
A wolf whistle split the air, "looking good Black." Called a seventh year muggleborn girl from across the room.
"And thank you." He called back to her with his trademark smirk and a wink. Alice was looking slightly confused at the exchange.
"Anyway. Lily's going to leave first and wait around the corner in the corridor. Sirius and James you wait one minute then go and meet her. Dorcas and Marlene will leave two minutes after that." She turned to Remus and Peter. "Then you two after a minute and then Frank and I will follow." James smirked at the small blush that appeared on his cousin's cheeks at that. "Got that?" They all nodded. "Ok, now go sit somewhere away from us."
"Is this all really necessary." Asked Peter settling into a chair by a window. "It's very secretive."
"It's kind of exciting though." Chimed in Sirius, eyes bright with enthusiasm. James glanced at his watch.
"Alright fleabag that's our cue." He directed at Sirius, standing up and ruffling his hair.
Sirius slapped his hand away. "Get out of it Potter." He snapped, James snickered in reply.
The marauders were admiring the tapestry depicting some trolls doing ballet as Lily paced up and down, chewing her lip.
"Quite something isn't it." James observed, looking to Sirius with a grin.
"It speaks to me Prongs." Sirius replied, the three other boys laughing at their banter.
"Erm, Lils." Marlene said uncertainly as the redhead paced past her.
"If you didn't have a place you could've just said." Peter added.
"Just give me a second." Lily replied, not unkindly.
She paced past them once more before looking expectantly at the wall. A pleased grin on her features as a door appeared. The marauder's jaws dropped open.
"Are you kidding-"
"This has been here-"
"The whole time-"
"It's not on the bloody map." James muttered quietly, groaning.
Lily opened the door, viciously pleased that she had one up on the marauders.
"Well come in then." She said, eyes twinkling.
The door opened into a large room. The floors were oddly spongy and the ceilings high. A blackboard stood in a corner, one of the walls was lined with bookshelves, another had cushions and training dummies. It was perfect.
"Welcome to the Room of Requirement." Lily said, spreading her arms welcomingly.
"How?" Asked Dorcas, eyes roving over the room.
"Elizabeth Bones showed me before she graduated." Lily replied. Elizabeth had been Lily's peer mentor of a sort from first year to fourth year. They had got along splendidly and still regularly wrote to each other, Lily was even a bridesmaid at her wedding the next year.
Remus hunched his shoulders. "It's a little cold." He observed quietly. Lily looked at him kindly and thought for a second. Suddenly a roaring fireplace appeared in one of the walls. The mouths of the marauders dropped open for the second time.
"What-" Asked Sirius.
"The room becomes whatever you wish it to be." Lily informed them, smiling at the sheer magic of it. Rooms like this were what she was expecting from Hogwarts when Severus first told her about it.
Sirius scrunched up his face in thought.
"If you're the one who opened it." Lily informed him, Sirius cursed disappointedly.
"And how do you summon it?" Asked Remus delightedly.
"Walk in front of that bit of wall thinking about what room you want three times. Then the door appears and voila."
"We so could've used this." James complained, thinking of all the pranks over the years that would've been way easier if they knew about this and of their beautiful Marauder's Map which would be a pain to change if they wanted to add it.
"Although." Peter muttered to him quietly, "it's a bit of a prank if we leave it off the map isn't it." James nodded thoughtfully.
"You've known about this for years and never told us?" Demanded Marlene, slapping her friend on the arm. The Gryffindors gave themselves a few minutes of staring in wonder around the room and giving Lily grief over 'forgetting' to mention the room's existence.
"Alright." Said Alice commandingly, flapping her hands for quiet. "Lets get down to business then."
The marauders volunteered Remus to write on the blackboard as they listed the spells they had all researched including one which, a grinning James Potter claimed would make whatever spells someone cast conjure a duck instead. ("Name a more useful spell." He challenged.) With the marauders input they had a wide variety of interesting spells which they would practice with the girls and Frank throwing in a few more traditional spells.
"Nice." Remus said, looking appreciatively at their blackboard. "First of all though we need to go back to basics."
They decided to split themselves into trios. James and Sirius worked with Dorcas, Alice and Frank with Marlene whilst Remus and Peter worked with Lily. Their agenda for the night was to perfect stupefy, expelliarmus and protego and begin working on bombarda. Alice was nominated as the leader for the night with them agreeing it would be someone else each week.
James' group first worked on using expelliarmus against a non-defending, non-moving target.
"Nice Cas!" Cheered Sirius as James' wand flew into her hand. "Now power it up more." Dorcas frowned. "I've put pillows behind James don't worry." Sirius reassured her brightly.
"Go for it Dorcas." James encouraged, surprisingly cheerful for a target.
"I don't even know how." Dorcas said, wand falling to her side as she brushed her short hair away from her eyes.
"You just gotta feel it." Said Sirius.
"Cheers Black, very helpful." Dorcas said sarcastically.
"Your magic is tied to your emotion." James supplied, "emotion or will plus intent equals a result in basically any spell." Lily who had been listening to their group as Peter used Remus as a target, turned to them.
"Is that true?" She asked.
James looked at her and nodded, "I mean, among a few other things, but that's what it boils down to mostly. Most magical theory texts can be summarised by that." Interesting. Thought Lily as she turned back around.
"Get mad Dorcas." Sirius called, "pretend James is a death eater." Dorcas looked hesitantly at James.
"Go for it." He said, grinning. Dorcas nodded, closing her eyes as she sifted through her emotions. She remembered the fight after the Quidditch World Cup, how helpless she had felt and how she never wanted to feel like that again. Sirius discretely added a few more cushions behind James as she prepared herself, he sensed a belter of a spell coming. James looked steadily at Dorcas, suppressing his urge to cast a shield as she pointed her wand at him. Dorcas' eyes snapped open.
"Expelliarmus." She merely said the words but there was a crack like gunfire as the spell left her wand. James grunted as he was hit in the chest. All the air left his body and his wand was ripped from his hand as he was flung into the air. The remaining Gryffindors startled and looked on as he flew back one metre, then two and then landed three metres away at the very end of Sirius' line of cushions. He landed with an 'oof' and didn't move. Dorcas clutched his wand which she'd caught deftly, shock and guilt on her face.
"James?" She asked tentatively. James' prone figure coughed, he'd been winded and his head was swimming before he remembered to breathe through his nose. He took a few more breaths before he sat up. Sirius had come over and was holding out a hand which James took gratefully. Everyone was silent.
"That was brilliant Dorcas." James said with a rueful grin and you could almost hear the breath of relief they each let out at his response. He rubbed his chest where the spell had hit and glanced down his baggy quidditch jersey, the skin was red and tingly.
"Spellburn?" Asked Sirius, James nodded. Sirius clapped him on the back. "Well I'm glad I added more pillows." The teens converged to discuss what had happened. Dorcas gingerly handed James his wand back.
"Are you sure you're ok?" James smiled genuinely at her.
"I'm fine! That was amazing! You just took a death eater out of the fight!" Dorcas smiled slightly.
"I've never cast a spell that powerful before."
"Overpowering simple spells will be a good advantage if we're against Death Eaters more experienced than us." Said Frank thoughtfully.
"How do you feel Dorcas?" Asked Lily, "do you feel tired or drained?"
"That's the most dangerous things about OP spells." Said James. "We end up using them a lot for pranks and it takes it out of you."
"You do?" Asked Marlene curiously.
"Oh yeah." Said Peter. "You use a normal cheering charm on a suit of armour and it gives people high fives for an hour. You use an OP cheering charm and that bugger is dancing for three days." The others considered this for a moment before Dorcas spoke again.
"I mean it's noticeable that it took more out of me than a normal one would've but I don't feel tired or anything."
"You have to power your spells strategically in a conflict." Remus said.
"Well we can add that in to our training." Alice decided. "We can work on the power of what we cast and come up with how we can use that to our advantage."
"Brilliant." Said Frank, looking at Alice fondly.
"Alright, let's add in some movement now."
And so it went on. In their groups they ran through casting expelliarmus at a moving target. With James, Sirius, Dorcas and Marlene proving quite tricky to hit.
"Stupid Quidditch players." Grumbled Peter darkly as he was disarmed again. They then practiced against each others shields which provided a good opportunity to practice powering spells- both the disarming spell and the shield spell. With overpowered protego's being harder to get through and taking more hits. It turned out that Frank Longbottom seemed to have the strongest shield charm, although Lily provided some decent competition. Next, was a similar practice but with stupefy. They didn't practice this for as long because, as it happens, being consistently knocked out and revived again was pretty exhausting.
"OK." Said Alice, addressing them where they had sat on the pillows on the floor. She passed some waters around that James had kindly asked a house elf for. They were getting tired, the Quidditch players were holding up better than the others as they were fitter but they were getting magically exhausted as well as physically exhausted. It would pay off in the end though. Frank had reassured them that, just like Quidditch practice made you fitter, practicing spells repetitively like this made your magical core stronger. Lily was chugging some water, her hair had long since been put up in a high ponytail to keep it out of her face as she ran around and Remus had finally shed his jumper, his face flushed from the exertion.
"We've got about 45 minutes before we need to get back to the tower." Alice said, grabbing Frank's wrist to check his watch. "And I think Peter will be explaining our first extra spell to us." She looked at Peter pointedly, he scrambled to his feet, scampering over to the blackboard. He was sweaty from their training but his eyes were bright with excitement.
"My first spell is bombarda." He informed them. James shook his head knowingly. Peter had always loved explosions and would try and convince the boys to add one in to any prank he could get away with. "Now I played around with this one a little bit and I feel like in a fight it would be most effective when directed at the ground." He asked Lily if she could make a pile of dirt or something, which she did.
"When it gets fired into the air it's impressive but not all that useful. Erm, you should maybe cover your ears." Peter informed them, they obliged him and he cast the spell into the air away from their group. An orange orb formed at the end of his wand before being flung into the air where it caused a deafening explosion but didn't harm anyone. James had an uncomfortable flashback to the summer when the Death Eaters used a similar spell in the town, however upon Peter repeating the spell James decided they must have used an unknown variant of it when they attacked. The Death Eater's spell had been black laced with orange rather than just orange.
"Now." Peter said, "let me show you the difference when I cast on the ground."
"Hang on Peter." Lily said shifting uneasily, "let's get somewhere a bit safer shall we?" Peter nodded and the group took shelter behind a mound of sandbags Lily asked the room to provide. Once everyone had a gap in the wall to see through. Peter cast his spell. The ground exploded. Some pieces of the earth even catching fire as they were exhumed. Other globs of dirt were thrown everywhere at high velocity a small bit even landing on a surprised James Potter's glasses through the gap he was looking out of. Overall it was quite a bit more dangerous the second time around.
"Isn't that mental." Peter said, grinning, his eyes lit with a mad delight. Sirius laughed at his friend's joy at the explosion.
"Alright Dynamo." Remus said, clapping Peter's shoulder, grinning slightly. "Calm it down." Peter proceeded to teach them the incantation and wand motion for it and they began to practice. Many sound cancelling charms and a few headaches later the exhausted teenagers were getting ready to head back to the dorms.
"Same time next week?" Sirius asked, his hair in complete disarray from their activities but a wide smile on his face. The group gave their assent and decided that they could all make their own way there now they knew where to go. Lily would arrive first and set up the room and then will the door into appearing for them so they just had to knock.
"Before we go." James said, fiddling with his sleeves. "I think getting more people would be great but can we discuss each potential person as just us before we make a decision? I just don't want this reaching the ears of the wrong people." James felt a bit paranoid but they agreed with his idea and in small groups and pairs they headed back to the tower. Each satisfied with their evening.
A/N: So? What did you think? I love the idea of Sirius fully embracing any and all muggle fashion trends and the 70's was quite a time. Thanks for reading! :)