Chapter 114

Suffering in Silence

James missed food, or the taste of food really. Everything he ate tasted like mandrake... or more accurately troll sick. He could swear he'd lost weight, and Sirius was visibly thinner if you really looked, all because everything he swallowed wanted to come back up. It was, by far, the worst part of the process. Dark arts, unforgivables, classic whips, and chains; screw all of it, if you want to torture someone make them stick mandrake leaves in their mouth for a month. They'll tell you anything you want to know by the end of the second week. Peter didn't seem to be having as much trouble but James was worried Sirius was going to kill someone. It was bad enough that they couldn't taste anything, they were also constantly hungry because a good half of what they ate didn't stay down. It wasn't even just the taste either, textures of food seemed to change the moment it entered his mouth. It was nauseating.

The hardest part was keeping it from Remus. It was one thing for him to know they smelled weird and didn't want to talk, it was something completely different for him to know that their bathroom breaks usually involved vomiting.

Peter flat-out cried the day they were finally able to remove the leaves, freaking both Remus and Sirius out entirely. The two of them pushed him at James and ran out the door to breakfast only half ready for class.

Of course, the day dragged on as long as it could possibly manage. Potions and charms were a bore, they didn't have to speak in Potions so there was no challenge and they didn't manage to accomplish anything in charms. It would take them a minute to learn concealment charms normally, nonverbally though was a little different.

Defense Against the Dark Arts however wasn't such a problem. Most teachers just put up with their silence, frustrated that they weren't quite able to keep up with the rest of the class but thankful for the peace from the Marauder's usual mischief and more than a little proud that they were taking it upon themselves to learn something new.

Professor Svalinn, however, was happily aiding their efforts, not caring in the slightest if it took them the entirety of two class periods to re-learn to disarm someone, and even encouraged Peter who was still trying to lift a feather off the ground. She wasn't all that good at non-verbal spells herself, but she not only taught them what she did know but she learned more both with and for them.

They weren't the only ones she was doing this for either, Evans had come to class wanting to learn an invisibility charm that Professor Svalinn said she'd never even heard of. Instead of recommending a more common disillusionment charm she learned how to do the invisibility charm with Evans.

No one walked out of that classroom without having accomplished something. Even Wormtail felt proud of himself when the class was over, James and Sirius both agreed that was a miracle.

Today, however, James just wanted to leave. The moment those bells rang they could run up to the Room of Requirement and spit the mandrake leaves out then brush their teeth for an hour. Maybe they'd even be able to taste dinner!

"You're getting distracted again, Potter." Professor Svalinn interrupted, her voice tense. "What is with you two today? Try it again."

James pointed his wand to Sirius closing his eyes and concentrating on the incantation. He felt something happen and opened his eyes excitedly, quickly getting disappointed when all he saw was Sirius' hair on fire...

Sirius' hair was on fire?

Padfoot was going to kill him.

James ran for his life. Sirius didn't need to yell for James to know he was angry, the spells that were flung at him near constantly told him very plainly what his best friend thought of him right now.

The entire room stopped to watch James hopelessly attempt to dodge Sirius' spells, flinging a few back in desperation, he even managed to use a shield charm once which he was bad at, which promptly distracted him long enough for Sirius to hit him causing him to fall to the ground like a valiant hero finally defeated in battle.

That's what he thought it looked like anyway, everyone else seemed to be under the impression it looked more like he tripped on thin air. They were clearly mistaken.

"Brilliant! Bloody brilliant!" Professor Svalinn exclaimed her eyes were bright and she looked about three seconds from jumping up and down in excitement. "Full grown wizards couldn't have pulled off a fight like that."

They both looked at her like she was mad. They'd just made a complete mess of the classroom, pictures broken on the floor their occupants facing some new disaster in some other portrait, and could have hit any of the other students at any moment, and she was grinning like a lunatic. They looked at Remus for some kind of explanation, only to find his smile just as wide.

"You did the entire fight nonverbally," Remus explained, Peter had his mouth open in awe and they could almost see stars in his eyes.

They looked back at each other before Sirius shrugged. "Well, of course, we did. That was the whole point."

No one believed him, but he didn't care because the bell rang right then and the three of them were out of the classroom before it finished ringing. Their bags and their friends left behind, they ran back to the Room of Requirement and threw themselves into the empty room almost before it had a chance to materialize.

James took the animagi textbook out, muttered a spell and let it hover in front of him. There were a few spells to cast on each of them before they could be free of the mandrake leaves but they'd practiced them enough that James didn't really need the book, and only kept it open just in case.

The Room changed, adding a bathroom. Which was good as Sirius was sick the moment he was able to take the mandrake leaf out, but James and Peter managed alright. James thought he'd never get the taste completely out of his mouth, no matter how much he brushed his teeth, and Peter's gums were bleeding long before he finished. It was easily healed before they re-converged in the center of the main room, the bathroom disappearing completely.

"Do we have time to get real food?" Sirius asked he was hesitant to put anything else in his mouth, but was too hungry to heed that nervousness.

"There's a full moon next week, and from the way Moony's been he'll be in the medical wing for a few days. So we will only have to leave for classes, that'll give us some leeway. We're so behind though..." James deliberated he too was far too hungry and a mouth tasting of toothpaste was much better than a mouth tasting of troll sick even if he still wouldn't be able to taste the actual food.

"What if we brought it back here?" Peter seemed desperate, he wasn't used to not having as much to eat as he wanted.

"Or better yet, Padfoot can grab us all something and bring it back," James suggested perking up at the idea.

"I'll be back faster than you can miss me," Sirius said, half out the door already.

"Well, that's not anytime soon." James teased though Sirius couldn't hear him any longer.

"Glad that's over." Peter sighed as he sat in one of the bean bag chairs watching James drop the charm that held the textbook up and dropping into his own chair.

"I never want to see a mandrake ever again: leaves, roots, the bloody word 'mandrake' itself. The whole nine yards." James growled opening the book in front of him and reading.

"I'm dropping Herbology after OWLS." Peter nodded in agreement.

"Me too, Wormtail, me too."

A/N) This feels like a weird chapter to me, I really don't know what it is about it but it feels not right. Is everyone OOC or something? I don't know if you can find anything particularly strange let me know, I think it's my imagination.

On another note, I'm sure everyone expected me to make a joke out of the mandrake thing, so did I honestly. So HA I actually didn't, I'm surprising myself with how deep this month's chapters are going. You guys haven't even seen the worst of it.