- CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX -

Pretty as a Picture

"Hi, Evans. Had a good night's sleep?" James, walking past Lily on his way out of the portrait hole, stopped to grin at her.

Lily glared at him. Her eyes had dark smudges under them and her hair lay limp and tangled on her shoulders. "What do you think, Potter?" she snapped, then stalked past without looking at him.

Sirius shrugged and pushed open the Fat Lady's portrait. "That could've gone worse, I suppose," he said, yawning. "Merlin's beard, I'm shattered!"

"Me too," said Remus, who was using Peter as a pole to keep him upright. "I feel like I've been hit by a bus. I don't think I've ever had so little sleep. And it was all for nothing, too."

"It wasn't all for nothing," James told him. "We did find out Filch is a squib. And we got to have an adventure."

"Adventure?" repeated Peter. "Do you really call getting flattened by a tower of desks, chased by a poltergeist and almost skinned alive 'an adventure'?"

James and Sirius grinned at each other. "Yep!"

Peter shook his head and rubbed his watery eyes. "You two are mad," he muttered. "Utterly mad."

"So what are we going to do now?" asked Remus, sitting down at the Gryffindor table between Frank and Alice, helping himself to fried eggs. Mist swirled above them, the outside weather reflected by the enchanted ceiling. "We still don't know what's in that cupboard in the classroom. We don't know what Oden's doing, either."

"Is it worth going back to the classroom tonight?" asked Sirius, over the clatter of his own cutlery.

Peter and Remus answered the question before he'd even finished speaking. "No!"

Sirius laughed and reached for the butter dish. "All right, all right! Keep your hair on!"

"I'm not going out at night again," said Remus in a slightly calmer voice, picking up his fork. "I need to sleep. Anyway, I don't want to get caught by Filch."

"Nor do I," said Peter with a shiver.

"Fine," said Sirius, tucking into some toast. "But how are we going to get more information?"

James sipped his pumpkin juice. "We don't need more information. Peter and Remus are right. We need to do what we should have done ages ago - tell Professor McGonagall."

"Will she believe us, though?" asked Remus.

Sirius and James looked at each other. "Well, she's going to have to if she wants to keep the school safe," said Sirius grimly. "She doesn't have a choice. Either way, she'll have to investigate Oden."

"Good point. But we don't have Transfiguration today."

Sirius laughed. "Remus, we don't need Transfiguration to be able to talk to our Head of House. We can literally just walk into her office and tell her."

Yawning, Remus finished his eggs. "I guess you're... r-right. Merlin, I'm so tired. What do we have first, Peter? Herbology?"

"Yep."

Remus groaned. "I'm going to fall asleep at my tray of soil. I know I am."

"Well, we'll prod you awake," said James. He drank some more pumpkin juice, then glanced up at the staff table. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Flitwick over a copy of the Daily Prophet and a plate of kippers. "When shall we talk to her?"

"Who?" Peter looked wildly around.

"McGonagall, silly. Who else?"

"Oh-" began Peter, but Remus spoke over him.

"Maybe at break? We might not have time before then."

"After breakfast?" asked Sirius. He watched Professor Flitwick swinging his tiny legs under the table.

"Yeah," said Peter. "Let's talk to her after breakfast. We can follow her out of the Hall and say we have something to tell her."

"But will we have time?" asked Remus, laying down his knife and fork, beginning to pick up his bag. "I mean, if we talk to her for more than a minute, we'll be late for Herbology. Maybe we should do it later this evening, instead."

James considered this. Surely waiting a few hours wouldn't do any damage? And it would be more practical... "Oh, all right," he said, standing up. "We'll tell McGonagall later. Let's just go to Herbology - look, there's Evans!"

Peter and Remus seized James' arms to stop him from embarrassing himself. "No. Not - now," panted Remus, as James struggled to break free. "Leave - Lily - for a - bit."

But the hold that Peter and Remus had on James didn't prevent him from shouting. "Hi, Evans! Want to go-? Ow, Remus!" James tugged his friends off him, massaging his arm. Remus, in an attempt to make James shut up, had slapped him.

Her green eyes still puffy and tired, Lily left the Hall without looking at James. She was joined by Marlene and Mary at the huge oak doors. James sighed.

"Come on, you lovesick moron," said Sirius, tugging James after the girls into the Entrance Hall. "Stop mooning after Evans - she's not going to notice you. Not today, anyway."

"How do you know?" asked James, a trace of desperation in his voice.

"Because you dragged her around the castle last night, lost her dressing gown and let her be attacked by Peeves."

They began the walk down to the greenhouses, James watching Lily's red hair as it swung a few paces in front of them, copper-gold in the sunlight. Severus Snape walked behind them with his gang of Slytherin cronies.

Halfway to Hagrid's cabin, Snape called out. "Oi, Potter! What's the matter? You look like someone hit you over the head with a broomstick. Not at your best today?"

Furious, James whirled around. "At least I have a best! What's up with you, Snivelly? Fallen out with your girlfriend?"

Snape stopped dead, a smirk twisting his lips. "Wouldn't you like to know, Potter? What were you doing last night? Sneaking around the castle with Lily, trying to get her expelled?"

"No." James' brow furrowed. Lily must've told him - how else could Snape know? He glanced once at Lily's retreating back before replying. "It's not of your business what I do at night."

"Oh, yeah?" Snape pulled out his wand, but Sirius intervened.

"Yeah. It is. So watch your mouth, Snivellus-"

Snape aimed the wand at Sirius. "Stupefy!" The jet of red light soared out of the wand-tip and streaked off into the distance, narrowly missing Peter.

Peter squeaked in fright and ducked behind James, who had drawn his own wand so fast that his hand was blurred. "Petrificus totalus!" But this spell missed its target too.

Sirius stepped forwards, glaring at Snape while Avery and Mulciber cracked their knuckles. He made to attack them but a scarred, cool hand closed around his wrist-

"Sirius, no! You mustn't hurt them. All of you, stop-"

"Get off me, Remus!" snarled Sirius, trying and failing to throw Remus off. Behind him, James was advancing on Snape.

"You want a duel, Snivellus?"

Remus moaned. "No, don't-"

Snape's black eyes glittered. "Is this a challenge, Potter?"

Still moving, his wand outstretched, James smirked. "If you want it to be. Of course, if you're too scared, I'd happily back out..."

"Scared? Ha!" Snape's laugh was like ice. "You wish! You'll be dust when I'm done with you."

Sirius, still wrestling against Remus, scowled at Snape. "You won't be done with anybody. I'm James' second. Who's yours?"

"Lily," said Snape promptly.

There was a long silence.

Remus let go of Sirius. "Lily?" he repeated, his mouth agape. "You think Lily will back you in a duel?"

"And why wouldn't she, Lupin?"

Remus' mouth gaped as he struggled to find words. "Because... Because Lily... She's Lily! She'd never back you in an unprovoked duel against James!"

"Won't she?" asked Snape. "Then why don't you ask her?"

"Why don't you ask her?" retorted Sirius.

Snape lowered his wand. "All right," he said maliciously, pushing greasy hair out of his eyes. "I will." He turned around to call in the direction of the girls. Lily had almost reached the greenhouses, now. A few seconds longer and she'd be obscured from view.

Mulciber and Avery turned too.

"Lils!" Snape shrieked, as Lily stopped to hold the door open for Mary.

James held his breath. Remus had to be right. Lily wouldn't say she'd defend Snape, would she? Would she? Anxiously, he gnawed his lip, watching as Lily looked up, her long red hair swinging as she turned.

"Sev?" she called across the lawn. Even from this distance, it was clear she was worried. "What are you doing? Is that...? Is that Potter?"

"Hi, Evans!" called James, grinning.

Lily scowled. "Leave Sev alone, you pig-head. Haven't you done enough? I want my dressing gown back by the way, since it was your fault I lost it."

"Technically, it was Peeves' fault," Sirius reminded her. "But we'll get it back for you if you like."

Remus groaned. "Not more night-time wandering!"

But Snape was already shouting across the lawn to Lily and James' attention was focused on him. "Lils, they're threatening to duel me."

"Actually, you threatened us first," muttered James.

Snape ignored this, his black eyes glittering at they searched Lily's green ones. "I need your help," he whined. "You have to be my second."

"Your what?" asked Lily, puzzled. Then she frowned. "If you're asking me to duel for you, Sev, I'm not interested. As much as I want to hex Potter, we'll get into terrible trouble and someone could be hurt."

Remus' face flashed with triumph. "See?" he cried, rounding on Snape.

A dull flush crept over Snape's face. "Shut up, Lupin. Lily, why can't you just-?"

But Lily had flounced off into the greenhouse, with Marlene and Mary trailing behind her.

"I'd take you on any time on my own, Potter," Snape sneered, turning to James. "You might need a second, but I don't."

"Sirius won't need to be my second," replied James, fists clenched. "I'll beat you before you beat me."

Remus and Peter exchanged glances.

"Let's not duel anyone-" began Remus, as Avery and Mulciber stepped forwards.

"Scared, Lupin?" asked Avery, a gold ring glinting on his first finger.

"No," said Remus calmly.

"You should be."

"No, he shouldn't," snapped Sirius. "You're a bunch of cowards and your aim's so bad, it'd be more worrying if you were trying to hit the people next to us. Neither of you could duel us for toffee."

For a few seconds, the boys all glowered at each other, except Peter, who had hidden so much behind James that he was barely visible.

Then Snape lowered his wand. "I don't have time for your silly games," he snarled, already beginning to walk away. "I'm going to Herbology."

"Good riddance!" muttered Sirius, making a very rude hand gesture at the Slytherins' retreating backs. He began to follow Snape, muttering about him to James under his breath. "Stupid git... As if Lily would duel us... Pity we didn't get to attack him. We could've finished him off..."

"Yeah, that'd do everyone a favour," said James, He tugged open the greenhouse door with such ferocity that it bounced back on itself and knocked Peter over. He scrambled to his feet, brushing dirt off his robes and glaring at James. James grimaced. "Sorry, Pete. I didn't mean to."

At the front of the classroom, Professor Sprout had already begun the lesson. "You're late, boys!" she called reprovingly, brandishing a trowel at them. "And you," she added to the Slytherins, who had sulked into place on the opposite side of the room.

"We really need to do another prank on Snape," said James, as they marched up to the castle at break, tired and still smelling of dirt. "After we've dealt with the whole Oden thing, we should fill his bag with notes and turn his hair pink."

"Or we could throw him off the Astronomy Tower," suggested Sirius, shaking dark hair out of his eyes.

"That would work too. Right, where's McGonagall? We've got ages before our next lesson. Let's just go and find her."

"And tell her everything we know?" asked Peter. He was shivering. "Do you think she'll believe us?"

James nodded grimly. "She has to, or Dumbledore could end up dead. If Professor Oden is really working for a Dark wizard, we need to act now."

"I feel like a ninja-spy," muttered Remus, as they arrived in the Entrance Hall and began the long ascent up to Professor McGonagall's office.

Peter laughed. "So do I. Wait, look! Is that- Is that Professor Oden?"

The others looked up. "What?" said James, his eyes darting around the corridor. "Where? Oh- Oh, hello, professor." Sure enough, they had arrived in the corridor outside Dumbledore's office and Professor Oden was hovering right beside the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance, humming to himself and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

He looked up as the boys approached. "Good morning, Mr Pompleberry," he called cheerily, smiling at James. "And you, Mr Braggart... Mr Pepple... Mr Lupin."

"Morning, professor," said Remus, smiling back as broadly as he could. Beside him, Peter was trembling and Remus gave him a nudge that clearly said 'stop acting so suspiciously!'.

Peter made an odd choking noise and squeaked, "How are you, professor?"

Professor Oden beamed. "Oh, I'm very well, thank you. Just waiting around for the Headmaster. I thought I'd pop in and see him while I'm not teaching... But he doesn't seem to be in."

Remus laughed nervously. "That's a shame."

"Quite." He peered at their pale faces. "You don't happen to know where he is, do you?"

"N-No," Peter stammered, backing away and tripping over Sirius' foot. "We don't know a-anything..."

The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor sighed. "Ah, well. I'll just have to keep waiting. Why don't you four go outside for a bit? It's a lovely day and it'd be a shame for you to miss the sunshine."

"Um..." James glanced out of the nearest window. The school grounds were covered in a thick layer of frost and the sky was barely visible through the pearly clouds that stretched for miles. Mist still swirled over the Forbidden Forest and the only 'sunshine' he could see was a small watery patch that poked through a gap above the astronomy tower. Before he'd had time to say any of this, however, Sirius' hand was tugging at his robes.

"Yeah, all right, professor. We'll do that." Dragging the others away, Sirius began to back down the corridor in the direction they'd come. "See you!"

"Bye, boys!" called Professor Oden, waving at them as they vanished from view. They heard him humming to himself again as they hurried away, not daring to slow down or look back until they'd put a couple of floors between themselves and the professor.

Outside the Entrance Hall, Sirius stopped walking. "Well, that was weird. I swear Professor Oden's mood is the craziest thing I've ever come across."

Remus nodded. "I know, it is quite erratic," he said. "One minute, he's forgetful, the next he's silent and powerful... Now he's bouncing on the balls of his feet and singing. What's going on?"

James frowned to himself, looking back at all their encounters with the professor. There was their Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons, there was the incident they'd just witnessed... Then there was the time they'd watched him being tortured... "You don't think he's being bewitched by someone, do you?" he began.

Remus looked at him, his forehead creased. "What, you mean that he could be being controlled?"

"Yeah," said James. "I mean, we know he's being watched by someone because we heard that weird voice talking to him from the cupboard. We also know he isn't widely known to be a Dark wizard or Dumbledore wouldn't have hired him. Also, no one except us has suspected him so far. So what if...?"

Sirius finished the sentence for him. "What if he's not completely evil, but being forced to do the bidding of someone else?" he said excitedly. "What if he's being blackmailed?"

"Exactly!" cried James, just as Remus let out a gasp.

"I've just thought of something! What if he's been put under the Imperius curse? Maybe that's why he's behaving so strangely?"

James and Sirius both beamed at Remus delightedly, but Peter was looking bewildered. "The what?" he asked, scrunching up his pointed nose.

Remus took a deep breath. "The Imperius curse," he explained. "It's one of the three Unforgivable Curses. There's the Cruciatus curse, which was used to torture Professor Oden in that first-floor classroom; there's Advada Kadavra, the killing curse-" Peter let out a horrified little squeak "-then there's the Imperius curse, which forces a victim to be under the control of the person who casts it. It's completely undetectable unless the curse has been cast badly. If that's the case, the person will seem confused or insane - they might even take on a completely different personality to the one they usually have."

Peter squealed with excitement. "But- But that's exactly how Professor Oden has been acting! It all fits!"

"I know!" cried James, dancing with glee. "We've solved the puzzle! Oden's been put under the Imperius curse and he's trying to spy on Dumbledore for some other Dark wizard!" He turned around and began to jog back up the marble staircase, with the others hurrying after him. "Come on! We've got to go to McGonagall! This is it! We've caught Oden!"

Peter checked his watch, the excitement evaporating from his face. "But we only have four minutes to get to Charms," he said. "There's not enough time to go to McGonagall now. We'll have to go at lunch or after dinner."

Halfway up the stairs, James groaned and smacked his forehead with frustration. "Oh, for Merlin's sake! Why did Oden have to slow us down? Fine. Fine, we'll go later. As long as Oden doesn't do anything in the meantime."

"I don't think he can," said Sirius fairly. "As long as Dumbledore's gone, that is. With him out the school, Oden can't spy on him or do anything, can he?"

"Good point," said James. He sighed. "Right. Let's go to Charms. And I want to prank Snivellus too."

They reached the top of the staircase and began to make their way towards the third floor. Snape and Lily stood huddled together outside the classroom when they reached it.

Sirius and James slowed to a halt. "Should we fill his bag with notes or put hair-loss potion in his shampoo?" asked Sirius.

James grinned. "Notes. We can't really do the shampoo thing while in class and I've got loads of scrolls of parchment. As long as Snivellus leaves his bag open, we should be able to pull the prank off. We can get rid of his hair later."

"Okay. Look, I can see Professor Flitwick - the lesson will start in a second. Right, so we're going to draw endless pictures of Snivellus and stick them all over his bag and robes. Yeah?"

"Yeah," said James. He turned around and conveyed the plan to Peter and Remus. "It doesn't matter if you can't draw that well," he told them. "Just do your best and everything will go smoothly. We just need to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Peter gnawed his lip. "What if Flitwick or Snape sees us?" he asked, as the tiny Charms professor let the class into the classroom. They all took their seats and began rummaging around for their books.

"They won't," James whispered back, bent over on the pretext of closing his bag. "We'll be careful."

"Okay." Neither Peter nor Remus looked very convinced by James' planning skills, but they didn't have time to complain. Professor Flitwick, perched on his pile of books, was taking the register.

As quietly as he could, James slid a blank piece of parchment from his bag and began to tear it into equal portions. A couple of members of the class shot him odd looks, but James ignored these and passed the pieces of paper to Sirius, Peter and Remus. When each of them had a stack, he picked up his quill and the top square of parchment, then began to draw.

To his left, Sirius was already halfway through a picture of Snape hanging off a broomstick. James grinned, then summoned up his imagination. What should he draw? Snape being chased by Mrs Norris? Snape being attacked by flying bogies? He began to sketch, frowning with concentration, trying not to mess up, and eventually ended up with something that looked half-decent. Oh, well. He wasn't great at drawing, hut it would have to do. Smirking at the idea of Snape's face when he found his bag full of notes, James folded up the square of parchment and, with a flick of his wand, sent it zooming into Snape's bag.

Snape, hunched over and scribbling down notes, did not notice.

James began on a second drawing and, by the time the bell rang, had done a wide array of pictures, depicting everything from being flung off the Astronomy tower to being drowned in a cauldron full of pumpkin juice.

"That was surprisingly fun," said Remus in a low voice as they left the classroom and headed to History of Magic. He glanced over his shoulder at Snape, who was still completely oblivious to the endless notes in his bag.

Sirius laughed. "I know. I had so many ideas. There was one picture where Snivellus was hanging upside-down from a tree and another where he was eaten by a whale."

"Nice," said James, smothering his laughter with his fist. "I've got some more parchment, so we can continue the prank in History of Magic, if you like."

Sirius nodded. "Might as well. We've got nothing better to do. Listening to Binns is like listening to a violin with no strings. Pointless, impossible and a complete waste of time. I'd rather watch paint dry."

History of Magic, however, turned out to be more eventful than Sirius anticipated. For one, Peeves the Poltergeist seemed to have ransacked the room during break and the chalky remains of swear words still remained on the blackboard. Second of all, they had barely sat down and taken out their books when there was an angry shriek from behind.

Turning, James saw Severus Snape standing by his desk, a look of utmost fury on his face. A crumpled bit of parchment was clutched in his hand. "Oops," James muttered to Sirius as Snape came striding over. "I think he's found one of the notes."

Sirius opened his mouth to reply but didn't manage to get the words out. Snape was shaking his fist in James' face and the whole class had turned to watch.

Heart hammering, James looked up into Snape's livid, twisted face and hitched a grin onto his face. "Hi, Snivellus. Something wrong?"

Snape's black eyes widened with outrage. "Wrong?" he spluttered, thrusting the note under James' nose. "Wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong, Potter-"

Faking a look of innocent surprise, James took the parchment from Snape and scanned it. He recognised it immediately as his most extreme picture - the one of Snape being attacked by a manticore. "Erm, am I supposed to know what this is, Snivelly? Because it doesn't seem to ring any bells."

Hissing and swearing, Snape leant even closer to James' face. He was so close that James could see the veins pulsing in his greasy temples. "Don't lie to me, Potter!" he spat. "You know exactly what this is. You and your nasty little friends-"

"What? I don't remember us doing anything that could've-"

"Shut - up - Potter! You're nothing but an evil, stuck-up, pathetic little toad-"

"Sounds like a pretty accurate description of yourself, actually," said Sirius loudly, tilting his chair back on two legs and looking up at Snape, his features smoothed with arrogance.

Snape made a noise somewhere between a shriek and a snarl, but before he could do anything more than pull out his wand, Lily had stepped between them.

"What are you doing now, Potter?"

James looked up at her and his stomach did a strange kind of back-flip. "I told you: nothing. I haven't laid a wand on Snivellus, except when we were walking to Herbology this morning."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that? I know you're responsible for this note-"

"Oh, yeah?" said James, grinning up at her. "And do you have any evidence to prove it?"

"No," said Lily hotly. "But that's not the-"

"Innocent until proven guilty, then," said James smugly. "Now, excuse me, Evans. I'm trying to listen to Professor Binns and you're interfering with my learning."

Turning on her heel, Lily seized Snape's arm and dragged him away, still muttering dire threats about James under her breath. As soon as she was gone, Sirius snorted with laughter. "'Innocent until proven guilty'. Nice one, mate!"

"Thanks," said James, grinning. "But I guess that's our prank cut short."

Sirius gave a theatrical sigh. "Ah, well. It was good while it lasted. I loved drawing pictures of Snivellus. And he's going to be stumbling across them in his bag and pockets for the entire day."

James sniggered, imagining the exasperation on Snape's face when he realised just how many pictures there were. "Let's do the shampoo thing next," he said, still grinning. "But first we've got to talk to Professor McGonagall." And excitement swelled in his stomach at the action that was soon to come. They'd caught a Dark wizard. A real Dark wizard! Of course, it might be dangerous, but it was still a pretty cool adventure. He imagined telling his grandkids about it in the years to come.

Peter didn't seem to share his enthusiasm. "Are you sure Professor McGonagall will believe us?" he squeaked, twisting his fingers together.

Sirius and James exchanged glances. The grin faded from James' face to be replaced with a look of grim determination. "She's going to have to," he said firmly. "Hogwarts could be in danger."

A/N:

Thank you for reading!