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The Marauding Five : Year Six

Chapter 6: Runaway Scheme

  Lily sat up in bed, her eys wide, sweaty and shaking all over. Three nights in a row for one week after the Marauders had returned home for Christmas holidays. The same nightmare. The same cold faces. The empty eyes. The evil snickers. Again and again. It just kept haunting her non-stop.

  'Breath, Lily, breathe. You don't look that evil. Neither does James, Adele, Sirius and Remus. Breathe…' Lily whispered to herself shakily. Eventually, she calmed down. 'It is NOT going to happen. You will NOT be controlled by Voldemort!' With that, she nodded confidently.

  She stared at the window. Silver white moonlight streamed past the luminous curtains. Lily got up and opened the window for some fresh air. Full moon. Remus would be transforming and gnawing in some time. Probably already doing so, torturing those poor trees.

  Quietly, Lily tiptoed to her cupboard and drew her broomstick out. She couldn't sleep, so she didn't quite see the pointless reason of why she should return to her bed and turn like some unrested dead. No harm could come by if she took a short stroll to visit Remus, right? Yep. Lily mounted her broom and kicked off into the dark night.

  The wind whistled in her ear as she flew towards the forest, looking for Remus's usual spot.

  Aruuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

  Bingo! Remus! Lily smiled to herself. She guided her broom (with a LOT of threats and curses, since her broom turn out to be pretty ignorant) into the forest and carefully lay it on the tree. With a pop, she turned into a sleek dragani. Lily flew down gracefully. Just then, she saw a looming dark shadow coming towards her. Lily paused in her movement.

  Something large… something on four… an animal…

  "James?!" Lily growled. "How dare you sneak up on me!!!" The stag stared at her for a short while.

  "Sneak up on you??? Whatever for? As if you can't use your psychic to blast me off five hundred miles away!" James – or Prongs – snorted. "What're you doing here?"
  "Looking for Remus. Thought he might want some friends."

  "Ssh! Keep it low! I think Anne might be with him tonight."

  "Psst! Tinker? Prongs? Lily? James? Helloo…?" a furry voice asked softly. James and Lily whipped around carefully. The panda ran towards them eagerly, nearly bounding past the trees as the branches cracked a little under Adele's weight.

  Woof!

  "Shut up, Padfoot!" Adele hissed. "There's no grim, panda, stag and dragani in this forest."

  "Yikes, sorry," Sirius said, grinning doggishly as drool formed beneath his lips. The others winced as Sirius shook himself and the drool flew over with a splat on his fine black coat. "Hey, where's the wolf?"

  "Why are we all here?" Lily said.

  "Well, I sort of got bored," Adele said. "Thought I should pay Moony a little visit."

  "Ditto," James said.

  "I had a nightmare," Sirius shuddered. "I dreamt that Voldemort asked me to eat a million sundaes." The others raised their eyes questioningly in wonder. Sirius love food. A lot. He would even die for it, if it could be applied.

  "So it isn't a nightmare," James noted. "You're enjoying yourself!"

  "Yeah, but too many's… a nightmare," Sirius mumbled timidly.

  Grarh! Something large, hairy and long jumped out of the bushes suddenly. The four friends, surprised and quite taken aback by the monster, began yelling loudly in their own animal tongue as if a ghost had just scared the living daylights off their life, though in reality none had succeeded yet. After all, the ghosts at Hogwarts are really nice.

  "Wah hahahahahahahahaha!! Haha! Ha ha haaaa!!!" Remus's gruff voice was heard laughing as the werewolf literally rolled over the grass, tickled to the very depths of his funny bon at his friends' pale faces. "Your faces! Oh, help!! My stomach! Gosh! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!"

  "That's not… nice," James said decidedly with a frown.

  "And I thought werewolves howl," Adele said. Remus stopped laughing immediately. The werewolf coughed modestly for a while.

  "Erh, hehe, I'm a record breaker for two minutes, then," Remus said with a slight uncertainty of embarrassment.

  "Ssh!" Sirius hushed suddenly. Everyone turned to him quizzically. "Do you all hear something or… do you hear ANYTHING at all?" Lily's bell beneath her round blue chin tinkled a little.

  "Oh! You mean that. Well, yeah," Adele said.

  "No! Listen. Carefully. It's a shuffling of dry leaves! Listen!" Sirius insisted in a hushed whisper, his ears cocked up sensitively.

  "Well, there's no animals here, not counting us," Remus said nervously. Lily felt a sudden chill in her bones. A chilling, biting, evil presence had somehow swept upon them, blanketing the five friends in its gales of evil.

  "You know," Lily said timidly. "I think that we should run."

  "It's getting nearer," Sirius whispered.

  "Maybe we should run," James mumbled, feeling the cold presence. He tried to budge his hooves.

  "Closer…"

  "C'mon guys, let's go," Adele whimpered. The Marauders pulled their paws and hooves, but in vain.

  "It's coming…" Sirius moaned. They crouched close. Neither of the four animagus dared turn back to their human form, for fear of Remus attacking them. They shuddered in fright, completely stiff and almost studded to the ground. Neither could move.

  And in two seconds, all five Marauders lay, unconscious, in the middle of the blackening forest.

**

  Adeline yawned loudly, stretching herself. She rubbed her violet eyes blearily.

  'Adele, can you help me up?' Adeline called. No answer. 'Adele? Please!!!! I need to get breakfast ready!!'

  Silence followed.

  'Hey, do you intend to starve this morning??? Help me up now, Adele!' Still no answer. And not a sound. Adeline frowned.

  With much difficulty, she turned herself to face her twin sister's bed, wondering is Adele was playing a joke or is ignoring her on purpose. To her surprise, her sister's bed was empty. And made. As a rule, Adele never make her bed. She called it housewife job, and since she isn't a housewife, she couldn't see the meaning to acting like one. That's perfectly reasonable, of course.

  Still, the bed was made. Rather messily, but still made. Probably with magic.

  'Hello? Adele?'

  Hey, her monkey sister might be playing a nasty game of hide and seek with her!

  'Adele Celine Varens, I'm NOT in a mood to play at the moment!!! GET OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!' Adeline yelled. No sound. Adele would usually giggle by now. Adeline did a quick double check at her sister's night table. The slender yew wand laid on the table, along with a pair of just-ironed robes for the day. Somehow, that seem to tell her that Adele is in trouble. Adeline could feel a cold shiver snaking down her spine. She took a deep breath.

  'MOTHER!!! ADELE IS MISSING!!!!! MUM!!!! ADELE'S GONE!!!!!! SHE'S GONE!!!!!!!!!!'

**

"They're gone!" Lily Trenna cried.

"And Heaven knows only where!!!" Sirius Brad wailed loudly.

"I don't see the use of police at all," Remus Pepper scowled. "We're wizards, for Merlin's sake!"

"And witches," Adele Green added.

"Yes, and witches," Pepper nodded.

"Shut up and just find them!" James Chore hissed.

  Rose paced up and down, disturbed, in the living room. The Potters, Blacks, Lupins and Varens (only Celine and Adeline) were staring at her hopefully.

  'I didn't get any vibes,' the lady said thoughtfully. 'And certainly no predictions either, for the past two months.'

  'But they've been missing for more than a day!' Gram cried tearfully. Her eyes were swollen. 'The muggle police said that they might be kidnapped!'

  'Remus said that he'll be fine alone,' Anne sniffled. Romulus placed a comforting arm on her shoulder.

  'Those idiots. Let's just hope that they're alive,' William Evans muttered. 'I can understand if Remus got lost in the forest for a few days – it has happened, yes – but what about the rest of them? They couldn't all be lost at once in the forest, right?'

  'Maybe- maybe- maybe Remus bit them,' Petunia stuttered. 'They- they die, and- and Remus k-killed himself.'

  'Nonsense!' Yvonne yelled. 'They hadn't died yet!'

  'Oh?'

  'How's you know?' Adeline challenged.

  'BECAUSE these stupid pests are still here!' Orion said brightly, pointing at the flustered Maggles with a triumphed expression.

  'But- but they haven't their wands,' Adeline whispered tearfully, fingering her sister's wand. She stared dully at the other four wands on the table.

  'Aye, aye. A wizard should always carry his wand at all times. General knowledge,' Petunia said.

  'Oh, but Lily, James, Remus, Adele and Sirius have powers,' Edward said brightly. 'And with them, I don't think we need to worry much. Um, right?'

  'Wrong, Ed. I'd better get my crystal ball out now, than listen to your flimping theories!' Rose said with a huff, stomping up the stairs.

  'Should've done so earlier,' Melissa Black muttered. The Maggles flew out of the window. Suddenly, everything seemed quiet.

  Everyone stared into their mug of hot chocolate. Gram was still dabbling tears with the tissue. A great mountain of used tissue lay in one corner, and its height is constantly increasing, thanks to Adeline, too. It seemed almost like ages until Rose finally showed up with a misty blue crystal orb.

  'What took you so long?' William asked.

  'Can't find my Divination set. Borrowed Lily's. I swear, she'll have to clean her room as soon as she returns!' Rose grumped, setting it onto the table.

  'IF she returns,' Gram added sulkily.

"Hey!!! Guess what we found!!!"

  'Ssh! I'm trying to concentrate!'

"We found Lily's broom," Brad announced.

"Looks like she left for a midnight fly," Chore said.

  This had everyone's attention. Trenna and Pepper dropped the broom onto the table gently. In bright silver letters, it read "COMET—PROPERTY OF LILY R. EVANS, THE MRDs. TRY TO FLY AND DIE."

  'Interesting,' Petunia commented flatly, wondering how her sister had come by this weird humour.

  'W- where'd you find this?' Gram asked.

"In the forest, new Little Remus's usual place," Pepper said.

  Rose's lips set itself into a straight, prim line.

  'Alright everyone! Into robes!' she called, pulling her wand out. 'It's time we do a spell!'

  'Us too?' Adeline asked, pointing at her wheelchair.

  'You too,' she said firmly, tapping on Adeline's back. She waved her wand, and everyone was instantly dressed in the traditional witchy black robes and pointy witch hats.

  Very uncannily witch-like, Petunia noted. Meaning that they're doing a serious spell.

**

  'Uh, where's this place?' Remus said, blinking to focus his iris. His friends stared at him.

  'We're caught,' Sirius said promptly, nodding at the door. 'Locked in a tower.' He nodded at the stoney walls around them.

  'Obvious fact, Sirius,' Adele sighed. She took the room in. 'For a prisoner's tower, it sure is pretty fancy. They lit the candles for us.'

  'I wonder who brought us here,' James pondered. 'And why. What do you want from us?'

  'I just wish I have a crystal ball, or teacup, or a chalk, or tarot cards!' Lily waied.

  'Whatever for?' Remus asked. 'Divination?'

  'No. The crystal ball's to play monkey with. The teacup's so that we won't be so thirsty. The chalk's the sign an autograph on the walls, which I'm sure will make perfect décor enough. If I have those cards, we can play games!' Lily said brightly.

  'I'm confirmed,' Sirius groaned. 'We should send her to the mental asylum. I mean, we should figure a way to get out!!!'

  'That's easy,' Adele said pompously. 'Move aside.'

  Adele meditated for five minutes before staring at the door, as if daring the door to deceive her and turn into a little tortoise to be stomped on. Nothing of such happened. A little sparkle emitted from her forehead where the miniature burnt scar of a small triangle that marked her as a black mage.

  Flames burst forth and hit the wooden door. Nothing happened.

  Lily yawned. 'It's not use. It's guarded against all sorts of magic.'

  Adele glared sourly and kicked the door. 'Hey! OPEN! Wood's suppose to BURN, not RESIST fire!!!!!!'

  'WAAAAH!!! LET ME OUT! LEMME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Sirius yelled, kicking the door with fiery rage. He stubbed his toes and was soon seen jumping on one foot in pain.

  Remus blinked.

  'Did any of you realize that there's a window here?' the boy said politely – factually – and pointed at the glass window very intelligently.

  'This is a tower, Remus,' James reminded. 'Towers are not suppose to have a window.'

  'How do you explain this, then?'

  'Err… it's a demented tower.'

  Remus twisted the handle and threw the large window open. A fresh gale of night air shuffled in, replacing the choking smokes of the candle flames. 'Aaah! Nice fresh air!'

  '…Why aren't we running away?' Adele asked. 'The window's open, and it's big, and we're not THAT big to get stuck.'

  'Ding dong!!!! It's a tower! It's high!!! We don't know the way home! We don't want to die!' Sirius yelled.

  'Consider being a poet,' Adele grinned. 'You rhyme. A little.'

  'I'm going home if none of you want to,' Lily said, leaning casually at the window. The window's other side. The rest of the Marauder blinked.

  'How…?'

  'Hey, this is not even a tower AT ALL!'

**

  BOMB!!! The spell (potion) Rose and Yvonne tried to concoct burst out of the cauldron in a lovely fountain-like way and dissolved into nothing.

  'Mum, you do know how to make it, right?' Petunia said doubtfully. She was feeling incredibly stupid, dancing around the cauldron, chanting "Ugga-ugga, wig-wig, gigga-gigga, ugg ugg" like some tribal cannibal fool. Not only that, her black witch hat kept dropping over her face and she kept tripping over her extra long robes.

  If those witch hunters ever enter this place, they're in for a huge load of cash.

  'Um, yeah,' Rose said uncertainly.

  'I guess this happens when you put a potion failing student and a bad cook,' Anne sighed.

"Alright, what's this?" Trenna said excitedly.

"Looks like Cushioning Charm to me," Chore said, turning the broom over.

"This?"
"Hmm… Balancing spell. Good idea."

  'You'd seen a broomstick before,' Edward called to them.

"Yeah, but not with these charms!"

  'Primitive,' William muttered.

  'Aaaaah!!!!!' Rose and Yvonne shrieked when the cauldron contents went bomb again, this time drenching both women.

**

  'Magic carpets are banned!' Remus cried as Lily swerved it from the flock of owls.

  'Shut up and be grateful for it!' Lily hissed. 'It's every bit of James's magic and my Psychic to keep it invisible and here, so keep quiet and let me concentrate!'

  'Oh? Every bit?'

  'Alright, not all, but the point is still there.'

  'Yikes! Watch for the airplane!!!!!' Adele yelled as Lily swerved sharply out of the plane's way.

  'When you apply for driving license,' Sirius gasped, 'make sure you don't bribe that examiner, or the hospital will have a lot of patients.'

  In reply, Lily sent him rocketing in the air for five minutes ('Aaaah!!! I apologize!!! My mistake, Lady Lily Evans!!!! Sorry your highness!!!! AAAAAAAH!!! PUT ME DOWN!!!!!') before dropping him onto the carpet harshly.

**

"That, Rose Evans, is the TWELFTH time!" Pepper yelled.

"Can't you get someone else to do it?" Green asked.

  'The instructions stated clearly that a divinationist and a bad cooker should do it,' Rose gasped, her face in black soot.

  'Mum!' Petunia yelled, 'Don't keep messing it up!'

  'Rose dear, why don't you let 'Tunia do it?' Gram sniffled. Rose stared at Gram in horror.

  'NO! I'll try again!'

  'It'll be the thirteenth time,' Adeline sighed.

  'Thirteen is a witch's lucky number,' Rose snapped, straightening the cauldron again.

**

  The dark room was dimly lit by a tiny piece of wax which will burn out in no time. A trembling figure stood before a large, decidedly comfortable, armchair. The fire flickered.

  'What is it, Pettigrew?' the Dark Lord's cold voice asked, fingering a number of papers – parchments – that bears resemblance to tickets. Peter Pettigrew gulped.

  'M-M'lord, I'm afraid they-they- that they have es-es-escaped,' Pettigrew stuttered.

  'They WHAT?! Speak loud, Pettigrew!'

  'They- They have escaped, m'lord!'

  Lord Voldemort narrowed his eyes. 'How?' he asked in a snaky yet dangerous manner.

  'Th-the window, m'lord. They-they-they opened it,' Pettigrew whimpered. 'It-it-it appears that Lucius Malfoy has f-forgotten to-to lock it.'

  'HAVE YOU STUPID FOOLS FORGOTTEN OF WHAT I HAVE AS MY HOSTAGE???????' Voldemort barked in a booming voice, holding out the parchments he held. 'I can burn these!' Pettigrew gulped.

  'We're sorry, m'lord!!! Terribly sorry!' he cried.

  'That is it, Pettigrew. Tell your friends that the Quidditch World Cup Finals ticket prize will NEVER go to your smudgy hands,' Voldemort hissed before erupting in a string of mad laughter. Pettigrew let out a cry of dismay. He dropped to his knees.

  'Please, m'lord!!! Give it to us! Please!!! It means a lot to us! Please, oh please, oh please!!!!!!' Pettigrrew whimpered. Voldemort threw his head and let out another evil string of laughter.

  'NEVER!' He cried. 'MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!'

  'Please, my lord! We- we will do ANYTHING for them!!!! Please?' Pettigrew glanced at the dark lord with imploring puppy eyes. It looked hardly imploring at all, though. Still, Voldemort didn't see it. If he did, he would have tossed Pettigrew to the ends of earth and not see him ever.

  'MWAHAHA!' he laughed. 'I will, but only to the SEMI-finals. You'll have to suffer for being careless!' Pettigrew let his body dropped to the ground humbly, tears in his eyes.

  'Oh, thank you, m'lord! Thank you! You are most kind!'

  'MWAHAHAHAHA! You might not even get the semi-finals!'

  'I- I mean, you are most evil, m'lord!' Pettigrew said hastily. 'Most evil!'

  'Better. HAHAHAHAHAHAGAAGH!!!!' The Dark Lord coughed and choked on his on saliva, just as the candle's orange cap went off.

**

  'Yay! We're home! We're home!!!' Adele cried joyfully, catching a glimpse of Loopy Village's colourful decorations made by the Marauders a week ago. Not one wizard could figure the counter magic, thus is should have to stay until the spell worn out.

  'Ssh! James, stop jumping! I can't control it!!!' Lily growled with difficulty.

  'Yay! Yay!'

  Lily is, of course, being ignored. Her friends were dancing on the magic carpet happily. Sirius was doing cartwheels (it's amazing that he hadn't fallen off) and James and Remus were jumping in a sort of dance. Finally, unable to control any much longer, Lily gave it up and let the carpet fall and smash downwards. Right onto Bluebells Cup.

  BOMB.

  'Yeah, thirteen is lucky, huh? It's the biggest explosion!!!' Petunia screeched.

  'According to the Witch's Weekly, my horoscope says that thirteen's my lucky number!!!' Rose yelled.

  'Uh, that's my unlucky number,' Yvonne said.

  The five Marauders were hardly noticed at all. They stared at each other in puzzlement, a question written on their faces, NOT literally. Weren't their parents suppose to be worrying? After all,  they were gone for a day, nearly two.

  'Er, we're home,' Remus said awkwardly. Neither of the arguing parents and sisters paid him much attention. Or rather, no attention at all. Gram was sobbing in her corner, ignoring everything around her. James frowned.

  'Alright gang,' he said, 'on one, two, THREE!'

  'WE ARE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' the five teenagers chorused loudly. Still, no attention was given. James is becoming tensely irritated. He saw his wand on the table, grabbed it, magicked a microphone and yelled into it with his friends.

  'WE ARE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

  Finally, ,they got their attention. It's not the one the Marauders expect, though.

  'QUIET, OR I'LL TURN EVERYONE INTO A FLOBBERWORM!' Anne screeched.

  Very angered now, the Marauders snatched their respective wands from the table and waved it with a furious flick of wrist.

  Everyone but the Marauders turned into statues. Well, they can still think and see and hear, but they can't move or talk. Satisfied, they grinned happily.

  'We're home, everyone,' Adele said sweetly.

  'And we want food,' Lily said.

  'Hungry,' Remus nodded.

  'Starving,' James said.

  'I'm DYING of hunger!!!!' Sirius yelled. 'ACCIO, FRIDGE!!!'

  A large commotion was heard in the kitchen. Five seconds later, the green refridgerator dropped itself before the five teens and they began emptying it in a great hurry. After filling themselves (approximately fifteen minutes later with an empty fridge), they waved their wands again.

  'We're home, bloated, and quite happy,' Sirius said happily.

  Endings are never as expected, though. Instead of warm embraces, tears, cries and hugs, the Marauders were yelled at, given lectures and, again, grounded.

  Worst of all, Lily and James were caught off-guard by their parents, who immediately smashed Lily onto James and made them kiss. Literally.

  'Phooey! GARLIC!!!' Lily yelled, sticking out her tongue.

  And it's only the start of their Christmas holidays.

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AN: so, for those who had waited for so long [*sniffles*], it's finally up. And in case no one is following the recent steps of events, FF.N had deleted this fic before and I spent a lot of time re-uploading it again. I hate my folders. Labyrinth folders are no more anymore. I have all the chapters in diskettes now.

  I didn't quite manage to get the list of, er, reviewers, nor did I get much to read many of them when FF.N removed it, so… SORRY EVERYONE!!!!! I'm REALLY sorry!!!!!!!!

 Misty, I lied :P I told you three days, and it's only three. Er, sorry!

I hope everyone like this chapter, though it's a little, uh, short…? I don't know.

Review, please?