Author's Note: The characters that belong to JK Rowling belong to JK Rowling
Thanks to SilverWind for the help proofreading, and my brother for miscellaneous stuff.
Chapter 9: The Menace of the Metamagus
The rest of the meeting went by with considerable amount of tension. Sirius immediately began to regret having voted for Mary, as she sat at James's side. Allyn had tipped the scales in favor of her, so that now he could be seated near Lily, rather than James. Remus simply watched James's bottled anger expressed on his face, watching Allyn and Lily.
"The next order of business..." He said. "Sirius's chess set." Sirius managed to pull his concentration away from Mary and to the chess set.
"Yes, how shall we get it back?"
"The first the thing we need to know, is who stole it and how." James said authoritatively.
"How could we possibly find that out?" Lily asked.
"Well, I think our first suspect has to be the Slytherins." Remus said. The group nodded.
"I say we spy on them to discover if they did it." James said. Immediately Sirius grew a huge smile, Peter got frightened, Remus thoughtful, Lily antsy.
"Spy on them? Are you sure? They know plenty of dark spells..." James shook his head.
"Not now. Not on their common room. My thought was that we spy on them during breakfast." Mary tsked.
"How do you intend we pull that off?" She asked.
"Very carefully." James said, smiling widely.
"Are you ready, Remus?" James asked. Remus nodded, a smile prevailing through his tired face.
James peeked around the corner into the Great Hall. He spotted the Slytherins eating immediately. He turned to the Ravenclaw table, which was next to the Slytherins'. There he saw Mary Longbottom and Sirius Black, seated (with the help of a few friendly Ravenclaws) with their backs to Lestrange and his cronies' faces, and Sirius wearing silly cotton moccasins. Finally, Lily Evans was in deep conversation about something or another with the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, at the faculty table.
James looked at his watch.
"Timing is everything, Remus." As soon as the flutter of owls poured into the Great Hall, he and Remus set off quickly. At a heightened pace they walked towards the Slytherin table, past the Gryffindor table, where Peter Pettigrew sat "guarding it".
As soon as James and Remus passed the Ravenclaw table, and continued walking past the Slytherin table, Lestrange, Nott, and Snape took notice. Lily ended her conversation with Dumbledore, checked her watch and strolled towards the Slytherin table as well.
Nero Lestrange had just gotten a package from a peculiar snow owl he'd never seen before.
"We get new one's all the time." He explained to his friends.
Remus and James were now walking along the Slytherin table, past their rivals, and down the staircase that led towards the Slytherin common room. Lestrange immediately stood up.
"Where do you think you're going, Pudder?" James and Remus turned around. While Lestrange's cohorts were busy looking at James and Remus, Sirius and Mary leant back until their backs were on the floor, and slid under the Slytherin table, right under Snape and Vedol. As soon as they were under, Sirius took out two handfuls of a concoction created in Potions class; sticky goo. With a dollop on each hand, and each slipper, he stuck himself to the underside of the table pulled his chest up to it. He put on a sloppy stethoscope the group had made, and put the other end to the table.
Mary, after helping Sirius affix the sticky goo, tossed a dungbomb to the end of the table toward which Lily was walking. She intentionally dropped her pen, and as she bent down, the dungbomb Mary had flung went off. She knelt down, coughing, as the brownish smoke engulfed her.
Mary quickly crawled down the table to the smoky area, where Lily smiled at her and took her hand as she got up.
"Why I was just heading down here to the Advanced Defense classroom, Nero. Thought I might sit in on a few of the early morning lessons." James looked at his watch. "But it would appear I've missed them. Oh well." He looked to his left.
"Who dropped a dungbomb?" Nero scowled and returned to table after James and Remus had gotten to a safe distance. No one noticed that one girl had walked towards the dungbomb, and two had walked away. As the janitor sprayed water to get the dung smoke out of the air and began to mop it all up, Nero Lestrange opened the package that the now departed snow owl had brought him.
"Let's see..." Nero opened it up and smiled. "Cookies, as usual. Oh, and a note." He picked it up and read aloud to the group,
"Dear Nero, I hope you enjoy these snacks. Keep up on your chess skills. Love, Mum." Nero frowned.
"What did I tell her about using affection in letters...no matter." Snape spoke up.
"Did that letter say keep up on your chess skills?" The whole group laughed.
"Well, I think I will, with my new found set, don't you think, boys?" They again all laughed. Sirius smiled. That's all he needed, and was probably all he would get in the time. With some difficulty, he detached his hands from the goo, then slipped his feet out of the homemade slippers, still attached to the table. He pocketed the stethoscope and looked at his watch. On his hand he counted down. 4, 3, 2, 1.
With a blast the "cookies" sent to Nero exploded and filled the area with smoke. The entire Hall burst into commotion this time. Without a person noticing, Sirius slipped under Lestrange, and down the stairs behind him. With aide of a few secret passageways, Sirius appeared at the Great Hall entrance a few moments later, a fresh pair of shoes waiting for him.
"Now for retrieval." James said at the next meeting, called early that morning after a midnight Astronomy session. "We have to find some way to get into the Slytherin common room."
"Can't we just tell a teacher?" Lily asked. James looked at her and shook his head.
"Not a chance. Now, we'll of course use the cloak." James said.
"What cloak?" Mary asked.
"I suppose it's time we told you. I've received an Invisibility Cloak. From..." James decided he would spare them the story. "My father." Lily looked at him dumbfoundedly.
"Your father gave you an invisibility cloak?" She asked.
"Well, sort of...indirectly. Don't worry about it. Anyway, it's a very big cloak. About three of us can fit in it. Now, here's the plan. Me, Remus, and Sirius will, under the guard of the cloak, follow a Slytherin to their common room. When one opens the door, just before he or she goes in, Remus will come out from the cloak and distract the Slytherin. Then, me and Sirius will slip past into the common room."
"Then what? Do you think it will just be sitting there? On the table?" James considered it for a moment.
"Well, yeah, it just might be. If need be, we'll break into Lestrange's dorm." James said as if it were nothing. "In the meantime, the girls will distract Lestrange and his friends, and keep him from the room."
The nearly 24 hours later, as scheduled, James, Sirius, and Remus slipped under the cloak and waited outside the staircase that led to the Slytherin common room. As soon as the first Slytherin came by, who happened to be a first-year boy that Remus, Sirius, and James didn't know, they quickly pursued.
Meanwhile, Lily and Mary had spotted Lestrange and his friends on the Quidditch pitch playing Quaffleball, and decided to stake it out.
"Hey, you!" Remus yelled, leaping from the shadows at the Slytherin.
"Who are you?" He asked in a frightened tone, wand raised. James and Sirius sneaked by, holding their breath, through the open door. Once they were by, James poked the end of his wand out and waved it. Remus got it, and simply ran. He had to head back; tonight was the night of the month, after all. They boy, fairly shocked, quickly stepped inside, shut the door, and dashed down the stairs to where James presumed his dormitory was.
"Do you see it, Sirius?" James asked, hushed as he could be.
"No...I think we may have to keep following that first year."
"Fellows! Let's head in for the night!" Lestrange yelled as he, Snape, Nott, and Vedol landed. As they began to walk towards the castle, Lily and Mary began to get scared.
"We have to stall them!" She said. "In case Sirius and James are still down there." Mary gulped, then nodded.
As they walked past the stands, Mary and Lily hopped out.
"Hey, Slytherins!" They immediately took notice.
"What do you want, Gryffindor trash?" Lily took no notice of the insult.
"I want a match. Two on two. Me and Mary versus your best two." Mary quickly grabbed Lily by the shoulder.
"What are you crazy?" She whispered in Lily's ear. "This is what you meant by 'stall'?" Lily pushed her back.
"We don't have to win, we just have to make enough time for them to get out." Mary gulped. Lestrange was laughing.
"Alright, you've got your match! Better make it first to 100 or this game will be over in under a minute!" Lily made a determined face.
"First to 50. And give us brooms." Lestrange chuckled again, and ordered Snape and Vedol to hand their brooms over to the girls.
"Alright. You can take the Quaffle first." Lestrange said, still chuckling. He tossed Lily the red ball as the mounted their borrowed brooms.
"How do you know these aren't hexed?" Mary asked.
"We've just seen them playing, how can they be hexed already?" Mary gulped again. The slowly ascended into the air, though the Slytherins remained on the ground.
"Go!" Lestrange yelled. Mary and Lily immediately shot forward towards the rings. Lestrange and Nott, however, were almost immediately behind them, then below them, then next to them.
"Aagh!" Nott yelled as he swerved his broom towards Lily, elbow raised. She, however, smartly flipped over and Nott went right by. Lestrange charged next, and struck her quite hard, but she had already tossed it off to Mary. She flew as fast as she could, but Lestrange was gaining on her again. She turned to see that she was in range for a shot. She took it,
"No!" Lestrange yelled as the ball passed perfectly through the left hoop. Lily grinned wide and slapped hands with Mary and she held her now quite fat lip.
"Get out of my common room!" Yelled the Slytherin. Sirius had just popped out from under the cloak after James knocked on the door. The Slytherin foolishly left the door open, however, and James easily crept in.
As Sirius dodged sparks sent by the Slytherin, James was searching. It was nowhere obvious, and James began to delve into the trunks at the end of each bed. When he came to the last one, however, it was locked. He noticed the name on it: Nero Lestrange III.
"It's got to be in here...." James muttered under his breath.
Meanwhile, Mary and Lily were fairing much worse on the Quidditch pitch. It was now 40-10, and the next goal would end it for their stall tactics. Lily called a timeout.
"What are we going to do?" Mary asked.
"Yeeaarrgh!" Came a scream. Mary and Lily looked around.
"What was that?" Yelled Lestrange, and he and Nott flew off.
"We've got to make sure they don't go back to their common room!" Lily yelled, and flew after, Mary just behind her.
They zoomed high into the air, around to the Gryffindor tower, near the grounds of the Whomping Willow. Lestrange and Nott were nowhere to be found.
"Aaaargh!" Came another scream. It was coming from the top of Gryffindor tower. Lily and Mary flew up after. They heard a voice as they neared the top. An incantation of some sort. Suddenly, without warning, Lily and Mary were heaved from their brooms.
"Mary! What are we going to do?" Yelled Lily as they plummeted.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Mary yelled, pointing her wand at herself. She shot straight up, and got back on her broom.
"Wingar-" But Lily dropped her wand mid phrase. Mary flew straight downwards, and just as Lily was about to hit the grass, grabbed her and set down softly.
"Yes!" Exclaimed James, after having successfully unlocked the trunk with a simple 'Alohomora'. It didn't take him long to find exactly what he was looking for.
"Got it!" He set the board down and tapped it: as he hoped, chessmen popped out. He shouted for joy again, then sent the men back into the board. He flipped the cloak back over him, put the chessboard under, and for good measure, spilled the contents of every trunk all over the room, and messed up each bed.
"James!" Sirius yelled. He suddenly remembered his friend and raced back into the common room. Lifting up the cloak, he swept Sirius along into invisibility, and out of the Slytherin common room. The Slytherin, however, gave chase.
Though they could not be seen, James and Sirius took every shortcut, raced as fast as they could, and kept their wands out all the way to the Gryffindor common room, where they collapsed into the comfy chairs.
"A lot fun that was!" Sirius said, panting. James lifted the Invisibility Cloak off his body and set the chess board onto the table.
"Oh...I suppose I'll put this in the dormitory." Sirius said, getting up from his chair to put it away. They suddenly heard a scream.
"What was that?" Sirius shouted. They both shot up the stairs to the dormitory, fling the door open to find no one. Out the window, however, they saw some massive figure sweep past. Then two more on broomsticks.
"Who was that?" James yelled.
"We've got to help him!" Sirius quickly dove under his bed and retrieved his broomstick. James did likewise, and shot out the window after Sirius. It didn't take them long to notice that the beast had landed on the roof of the tower. James noticed two figures dropping off the end just as they rose to the top, but concentrated more on the cloaked figure.
"Wands out, Sirius." James reminded him after they landed on the flat rim around the pointed roof. They apprehensively walked around the thing.
In a sudden burst that caused James and Sirius to shout random spells that did nothing, the cloak was ripped to shreds, and an enormous creature expanded before their eyes.
Sirius and James immediately recognized it.
"A Metamagus!" They screamed in unison. It was more frightening then they ever could have imagined. It had two furry, muscular arms with claws on the ends, as well as two long, thin, appendages with stingers on the ends. The body was still cloaked, and its feet were dragon-scaled, and it sported dragon wings and a scorpion's tail. The head was that of a snake.
On sight of them, it expanded its wings and took flight. Sirius and James recognized its hostage as soon as it took off.
"Remus!" He staggered to his feet, and began to crawl down towards James and Sirius. They however, were quickly occupied with the Metamagus.
"Do you remember the spell?" Yelled James as they ran under and away from the Metamagus.
"Des..." Pondered James aloud, shooting sparks at it.
"Desmeta..." Added Sirius, dodging a blast of fire from the Metamagus.
"Desmetus magus!" Yelled James suddenly, firing a bright yellow blast towards it.
"Nice shot James!" But as much as they were thinking it would rip apart in a fiery explosion, one of the gray arms simply shriveled slightly.
The beast took no notice.
"Why didn't that work?" James yelled, firing another of the same spell at the creature, one that missed.
"Dumbledore – desmetus magus! – said that it was a difficult spell! I suppose this is probably quite good for first-years." Finally Sirius and James had climbed their way to Remus's position.
"Remus, are you okay?" James said, kneeling at his side. He coughed.
"Yeah...I think so..." James and Sirius fired a few more at the beast, but it seemed to be doing less and less. The spell was taking a lot out of them.
"We've got to get help!" James yelled. It was too late, however. Someone already had.
"Desmetus magus!" Came a familiar voice.
"Evus!" Remus yelled loudly. The blast issued from his wand tore right through the Metamagus's right arms, ripping them from the still cloaked, presumed human body. The thing realized who it was now up against, and leapt off the tower, allowing itself to fall.
Evus dashed quickly around to the other edge from which the beast had jumped and pointed his wand downward for another shot. When he got there, however, he found that the Metamagus had disappeared.
"Remus, quickly!" He yelled.
"Remus is transforming tonight!" James suddenly remembered, and realized Evus must know as well. Evus climbed up to Remus and set him on his broom.
"Hold on tight!" Evus said, and flew off and down towards the Whomping Willow. James and Sirius followed closely.
"He's transforming!" Sirius said just after having seen the clouds part and the full moon shine down. Remus went rigid and Evus grabbed him and leapt off the broom. As Evus wrestled to keep Remus in control, James dashed forward and poked the crucial knot. The thrashing tree froze, and Evus forced him down there.
"You all must understand something." Evus said, once they had gotten back. He was looking at James, Sirius, Remus, Lily, Mary, as well as Allyn and Peter, who had found the dorm windows open and everyone gone, and had alerted Evus. "Always go to a teacher, or me. Dumbeldore is the greatest wizard alive, it is foolish to ignore his power and go on your own. I'll report this to him immediately. With luck, we'll catch whoever this is." With that, Evus strolled off.
"I'm scared!" Lily said suddenly. She and Mary collapsed to the floor, both in tears. Sirius stepped forward to comfort Mary. Allyn got to Lily first.
"It's okay, Lily...I'm here. We're all here. There's nothing to worry about." Sirius said similar things to Mary. James clenched his jaw and fists. Remus leaned over and whispered,
"Don't worry about that James. There'll be other chances." James shook his head and left the room.
Peter, Allyn, Remus, and Sirius had all gone to bed and fallen asleep before James came back that night, and he wasn't there when they woke up.
"He must've gone out early. Breakfast started an hour ago." Sirius said. Remus nodded, and they all got out of bed and dressed for the day. Upon reaching the cafeteria that morning, however, James was nowhere to be seen. The girls were finishing up their own breakfasts.
"Have you seen James?" Remus asked as soon as the sat down at the table.
"No...why no I haven't. He wasn't in bed when you got up?" Sirius shook his head.
"Well, I'm sure it has something to do with last night." Mary said. The boys all suddenly remembered what had occurred 8 or so hours ago, and looked over at the Slytherin table.
"Me and Mary got up at 6. They haven't been down here all morning." Lily said. Sirius, who had stood up to see, sat back looking somewhat disappointed.
"Do you think it's possible they're not involved?" Lily asked him.
"I couldn't imagine them not being so...I mean, you did see them flying off towards the beast, didn't you?" Lily and Mary nodded.
"Well then..." But Sirius trailed off and began eating his breakfast. After their meal, the group had plenty of time before their first class (and no last minute homework), so they decided to search for James. Lily suggested the library, and everyone agreed. There, however, he was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh, no! Where could he be? It's almost time for Astronomy!" Remus pondered for a moment.
"The hideout!" He said. "You guys get going, I'll look for James there." They all nodded, and left for their dormitory to get their books, and then to the tower.
Remus, meanwhile, headed off to the portrait of Miss Vi.
"Gwabble-Quob." She smiled and slowly slid down to allow Remus entrance. Remus crawled in, and jumped down to the floor. Remus walked around the perimeter lighting the torches, not seeing James. But darkness still covered most of the room, and James could easily hide. Remus then walked swiftly to the center, where there was a semicircle of chairs (at the front of which were two particularly adorned chairs), and lit the trash-can fire, illuminating the center. Still no James. He sighed. Walking over, he sat in the Queen-Throne.
He was looking over the thrones when he heard a faint sound: but he made no change to his facial expression. This was because a moment earlier he had had a thought, a thought that was confirmed by the sound. The Invisibility Cloak. Being quite clever, Remus continued admiring the chairs and began running his fingers across the arm rests. Very slightly, he felt it: on the King-Throne's arm rest he felt the slightest of cool, silky, cloth. The cloak!
And that point Remus ran his finger over his own throne a little more, then got up. He turned sharply towards James.
"Alright, James. Come out now. Astronomy's coming up soon." But James did not want to go. He got up, and walked swiftly to the wall, and began extinguishing the torches. Remus was caught off guard, but after a moment of watching, he bolted for the exit. He pressed his back against the small hole, and held his wand out. But James didn't appear to be making a run for it, for Remus (by the light of his own wand) could see footprints walking through the dust, and small lines in it from the edges of the cloak.
"I'm not leaving." Came James's obstinate voice, finally. Remus smirked.
"Alright. Fine. I'll come back later. With the others." Remus turned and got himself up into the hole, then crept out, knocking lightly on the back of Miss Vi's frame, to tell her he wanted out.
Remus, of course, was able to get away with being late to astronomy, though Professor Marus was highly interested in the reason for James's absence.
As Remus had suspected, James did not show up all day (though he figured that James raided the kitchens for food), and though he told everyone James's whereabouts, they did not go in search of him.
"He can handle himself." Sirius said. "Who knows why he's there-" though he and Remus had a good idea, "but he'll be fine. Let's get to the library." Earlier Lily had suggested that they brush up on their anti-Metamagus skills for a bit, before the meeting that night.
The group had met in the common room before heading down, though as usual they went separate ways and at different time to avoid being caught. James was seated in his chair, with the invisibility cloak draped over the back (making the chair only visible from the front). James said nothing until everyone was seated, and his watch struck 12:48, when he went into his usual opening speech.
"Let the fifth meeting of the Society of Lion's Fire commence, ante diem tria Nonas Februarias, 2721 ab urbe candita."
For hours they discussed the metamagus and what to do about it (though all of them sincerely thought Professor Dumbledore would have both heard about it from Evus, and done something about it). The excitement of the matter kept everyone awake, though all James contributed was the occasional short, affirmative sentence, or a simple shake of the head (which Sirius or Remus verbalized when they saw).
When the meeting finally ended, James escorted Lily and Mary, then Remus and Allyn, to the nearby potions corridor, where they took the shortcut to their common room (for they had discover there was a keyhole, and the key worked). James returned, and brought Sirius and Peter out, towards the passage.
"Psst. James!" Peter whispered. James put his head up and put his hand up to Peter's mouth. He had just seen Professor Marus.
"Who's there?" He said.
"But James...." This time James put his hand on Peter's mouth.
"I said who's there! Show yourself!" Marus said, his tone rising. He walked until he was shoulder to shoulder with the trio, who had shoved themselves as far against the opposite wall as possible.
"James!" Peter whispered urgently. Marus turned sharply towards them. He stared through them, at the wall. At this point, both Sirius and James clamped both hands over Peter's mouth. He crossed his legs.
"I said who is there!" They didn't make a sound.
"Peeves?" Still not a peep. Marus squinted.
"Peeves, you're in trouble this time." He walked off quickly in the direction he came. Unfortunately, they had to follow.
"James, I was trying to tell you I have to go to the bathroom!" Peter whispered as quietly as he could. Sirius smacked his own forehead.
"Alright." James said, and they turned and stopped outside the bathroom. They looked around, and Marus was not to be found, so Peter stepped in quietly.
"So, James...are you alright?" Sirius asked, still whispering.
"I don't know...." James said with a sigh.
"What's the matter? That metamagus?" James shook his head.
"Did you see the way Allyn rushed to Lily's side when she broke down?" Sirius suddenly understood. He nodded broadly.
"I see. Well, that's alright-"
"No, it's not. I know he likes her like I do. And he keeps getting every chance." Sirius forced a quiet chuckle.
"Don't worry, James! She knows what a great guy you are! Come on, you're years off from girlfriends! Don't worry about it. Just do what you can and don't worry about Allyn." James sighed.
"I suppose you're right." Sirius smiled slightly. The toilet in the bathroom flushed. Sirius and James gasped, looked at each other, and Sirius ran into the bathroom.
"Peter, come on!" He grabbed Peter by the shoulder.
"But, I need to wash my hands!"
"No time!" Sirius said hurriedly. He opened the door and stepped under the cloak with Peter just in time for Marus to step around the corner.
"Who's there? There are bathrooms closer to each house dormitory than this, so you must be out after curfew without permission! Show yourself!" He suddenly dashed for the door. James, Sirius, and Peter all ran.
The were outrunning Marus fairly well (he followed the sound), until Sirius and James began to outrun Peter, and the cloak tangled in their feet. Marus saw the three pairs of shoes protruding from nothingness into the moonlight, and shot towards them.
"Get up!" Sirius yelled, and the three were quickly up and running fast again, though Marus was now not far behind. James noticed quickly that they were nearing the passage leading to the Gryffindor common room.
"To the left!" James said, loud enough for them to hear, but not Marus. The group slowly adjusted their path until they were dashing alongside the wall. James held out his wand.
"Everyone, Wingardium leviosa, when I say!" He panted. James poked his wand out from the cloak ever so slightly, and as they passed the brick, tapped it, saying,
"Dissendium!" To his delight, the spell worked, and upon looking back, Marus passed by the pushed brick and the hole in the wall without noticing (neither were illuminated at all).
"Stop!" He whispered. Evereyone stopped running. Silently, they began crossing from the farthest left to the farthest right of the hallway. When Marus closed range, however, they were not halfway, and could not risk him hearing.
"Now!" James whispered. The all pointed their wands at themselves, and shot into the air ten inches or so (or rather, James and Sirius fifteen inches, Peter, five), and James and Sirius grabbed Peter until they were at an even level. Once in the air, and all were holding on to each other, James put his right foot down, and pushed off, sending them across the hall. It was just in time; they made contact with the wall just as Marus dashed by, wheezing.
"Alright." Sirius whispered. "Back to the hole?"
Checking for the key first, they hopped into the hole, it closing just as Marus noticed there were no more footsteps, and begin searching behind him.
"How close was that?" Sirius said, collapsing into a chair in the commons.
"Come on, Sirius, let's get to bed. You never know if Marus knows that passage. Or some other one that leads here. Sirius nodded, and with great effort, lifted himself from the chair, then helped Peter up. They quickly walked up to bed, and equally quickly got into bed.
A moment later, Marus entered the common room.