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 10: The Howl of the Moon
For the ensuing months, the group heard nothing of the Metamagus. They hardly saw Evus after the event; considering his class load, he was already preparing for finals. Over time, James accepted Allyn and Lily's friendship more, (though he never planned for a second on allowing them to get together). The teachers grew more intense as the grass began to show through the thinning snow, and buds began to appear on trees (except for the Whomping Willow, of course).
"Easter!" Yelled Sirius leaping off the last step from the castle onto the grounds.
"I can't believe Professor Binns gave us an exam on the last day before spring break!" Lily said, somewhat downcast.
"I'm sure you did fine." James said. "Now come on! Let's enjoy the warmth!" James and the group trotted on the grass, until they made their way to a large, blossoming tree, in the shade of which they all sat.
"So is anyone staying this time?" Lily and Remus said they were, but no one else.
"I'm glad I'll be heading home. I didn't for Christmas, but this time mum and dad said I could." Said Sirius.
"I'm staying, since...my uncle won't be getting sick," said Remus, "and I've got a lot of studies to catch up on.
"I'm staying just for History of Magic. I can't believe my grade in that class!" Lily said.
"A 98%? I feel so sorry for you." Mocked Mary.
"Well, then, why don't you stay?" Asked Lily.
"Pssht!" Mary leaned back on the ground. "You couldn't make me stay here."
"I couldn't?" Asked Sirius, with a fake offended sounding voice.
"Well, you could." She said, a grin spreading across her face. The two burst into giggles. Remus sighed, and rolled his eyes, then leaned back onto the bumpy roots.
Everyone else reclined as well. James's eyes rolled left to where Lily lay, though he couldn't see her. James figured that Allyn's eyes were towards the same person, and he was right. But neither of them knew in what direction hers were tilted.
After everyone (with the exception of Lily) had had a relaxing Easter, there was much studying and hard work in preparation for exams, with little complaining. The first years, minus Fannie Flately, Dhelia Brown, and Sandra Hannet, who hung out with popular second years, had conquered themselves an entire corner of the commons room which they devoted to perfecting themselves for the exams. To no one's shock, Peter dragged them down.
"Wait! What about...how do I move a pillow?" He said suddenly and scared, as they brushed past easy charms they all knew.
"Peter calm down! The test isn't for over two months!" Mary said in response. "We're just reviewing lightly now so it's not so sudden when the test comes up. Don't worry!"
"Peter, Mary's right." James said. "Look at me, Sirius, and Remus. Not even troublemaking duties could get in the way of our studies." Punctuating James's sentence was a burst of whoopie cushions sounding off as a group of third years sat down. "Not that we've completely forgotten about troublemaking, mind you..." He and Sirius chuckled.
"Now, Peter, what was your question?" Lily asked sweetly.
"I forgot how to make a pillow move...how can there be a different spell for moving every little thing?" Lily smiled again.
"That's just the thing, Peter! There's an easy system for it. All you have to know are your Latin roots. Now, Peter, do you remember how to move a person?" Peter thought for a moment.
"Mobili...mobilicorpus!" He said, sounding somewhat proud.
"Right! Now all that that is is a combination of the root to move, 'mobili-', and the root for body 'corpus'. Just replace corpus with the Latin root for pillow. Now we can look that up..." Peter watched as Lily flipped through the pages. He felt a strange sensation come over him, as if he simply wanted for her to keep talking to him and telling him things, and for him to sit absolutely still, and not say a word.
"Lodix." Peter snapped out of his gaze as she slammed her thick notebook shut, and set it down. "So, that would lead us to know that the incantation for moving a pillow is...." She trailed off for Peter to continue.
"Er...mobililodix?" She smiled widely again and nodded.
"You've got it Peter! Now, shall we move on?" Lily said turning to the group. Peter smiled, having understood now, and having a newfound liking to Lily.
"Has anyone gotten this latest Potions assignment? I can't quite get how much dragon-tooth we are to use. Anyone have the equation?" Sirius asked. Peter frowned.
As exams approached, the homework load became unbearably heavy. For others, that is. The Society-members, however, got on quite a bit better than the others, because they did not have to study so much. In fact, because they had gotten so much of the memorization down, doing homework was nearly all the studying they required.
During their meeting that night, nothing was discussed except future troublemaking schemes, jokes were told, and much of their drink was consumed. They went on late into the morning. It was not until all the excitement ended rather quickly, and everyone suddenly realized how very tired they were that they realized how very late it was.
"Oh, my!" Said Remus with a huge yawn. "We all must get to bed. I hope I make it!" The group chuckled, but all agreed. Except James and Sirius.
"Well, I'm wide awake!" Said James, sounding insulted. Sirius concurred.
"I say we venture out for some adventure, James!" James nodded excitedly.
"Meeting adjourned!" He said loudly, smacking his gavel against the arm of his chair. No one seemed to notice, because they were all headed for the exit no matter what James said or didn't say. James and Sirius didn't care; they were already discussing things and putting out the fire and getting the invisibility cloak ready.
"I suggest we venture to the deeper dungeons. I'm sick of towers." Said Sirius.
"I whole-heartedly agree, my good friend Sirius. Shall we go?" James said as if he were discussing a business deal with an old friend, a century earlier.
"We shall, we shall." Said Sirius, keeping up with the joke.
It did not take long for Sirius and James to find themselves somewhere they had never been before. They were careful not to be lost. James led the way, testing every chance for a hidden passage, while Sirius mentally checked their route and made sure they could get back in time to wake up before noon (which left them quite a bit of time).
Soon the duo discovered that these subterranean halls didn't hold any secrets, or, rather, none that they could discover. James and Sirius's luck was so poor that they became very anxious to find something. So anxious, in fact, that they began moving quite quickly down the halls, and around one particular corner.
"Who's there?" Asked some alarmed, cloaked figure. They must have heard the footsteps, thought James. They had stopped just in time to avoid being skewered on the character's wand. They soon figured out who this character was.
"I said, who is there?" Nero Lestrange. And, in fact, Sirius and James quickly heard a few more voices; notably Severus Snape and Nott. Lestrange began walking slowly towards James and Sirius. James put his hand back, until it found Sirius's chest. They slowly walked back, making as little sound as possible, their feet hitting the brick at the same time Nero's did.
Sirius began getting frantic. They needed a way out, because Nero wasn't slowing, and he didn't think Nero would stop and not perform some sort of spell in their general direction. He began looking around quickly, until he saw something James had missed. Putting his hand around James's wrist, he guided him slowly to the side of the hall, while Lestrange remained in the center. Sirius and James slowed and stopped, and Nero walked past them. Sirius bent down, and tapped a discolored brick.
"COME ON!" He thought. "Dissendium!" He whispered as quietly as possible.
"Waagh!" He fell suddenly from under the cloak down a trapdoor. Nero swiveled around on the spot and pointed his wand to where he saw Sirius's head go down the chute.
"Accio!" He yelled. James felt the cold silky cloak flow over his body, and he only stuck out his hand and grabbed it just in time. Nero's spell wasn't highly effective and he managed to keep it from Nero.
"Pudder!" Nero yelled in shock.
"Expelliarmus!" Yelled James. The wand in Nero's hand shot from his hand back behind him. James ducked, having heard various incantations from behind him, wrenched the cloak from Lestrange's grip, and dove into the hole that was beside him.
"An invisibility cloak, eh...well, it appears that we now have the advantage." Nero said one he returned to where Snape, Nott, and Vedol stood.
"How do we have the advantage?" Said Nott dumbly.
"Inside first, Nott." Lestrange turned to the cold stone wall. "Gens de Mortigenae." The wall slowly faded. They one by one disappeared into the wall.
It seemed like no time at all until exam week. Following their bump in with Lestrange and his group Sirius and James still searched for secrets; but now much more carefully, and they restricted themselves to above ground. They still did, however, manage to find a new ones.
"Well, this is interesting..." Lily said during one study session in the commons, the Saturday night before exam week.
"What's that, Lily?" James asked.
"Well, I've been very interested in Metamagi ever since...well, you know. I got Evus to check out a book from the restricted section of the library for me, since he's an advanced Defense student."
"A book on Metamagi?" Sirius asked.
"Yes. And they're dreadfully interesting." James leaned over to look at the book.
"Well, what's it say?" The whole group became interested, except Peter of course, who couldn't bear a second of not studying his brains out for Potions.
"Well, Dumbledore didn't lie to us or anything, but there's a lot of interesting things he left out."
"Like what?" Allyn asked, on the edge of his seat.
"Well...to become a Metamagus is actually a group event. One person is required for each different animal characteristic that is used. Each of these persons must be an expertanimus, which is actually a stage of becoming an Animagus. The expertanimi then partially transform into their creatures. Each expertanimus must have the animal into which it partially transforms present. Then, the Metamagus performs a dark spell that combines all the attributes onto him or herself. The animals are destroyed in the process!" Lily suddenly became very sickened and dropped the book.
"Oh my! That's horrible!" The group concurred. On that note, the group ended all discussion of the Metamagi and returned to their normal studies.
Their first exam was Monday morning at nine, for Transfiguration. The first portion was multiple choice (on which there were a few questions on Animagi) and an essay. The second was the task of turning a rock into a turtle.
"Mine was a boulder!" Yelled Sirius as they left the castle and returned to under their favorite tree. "How was I supposed to turn that into a turtle?"
"Sirius, it wasn't that big!" Lily said. "But I do know that I completely failed the multiple choice." Lily added, turning on herself.
"Lily, Sirius, I'm sure you both did fine." James said.
"Well, that's easy for mister 100 percent to say!"
After lunch was a surprisingly moderately difficult exam in which they were to brew only four different potions. At the end of it, Peter came out feeling as if he may have actually passed.
The next day was two they were all dreading; History of Magic and Defense against the Dark Arts. As much as everyone enjoyed the latter, Dumbledore pressed them a lot during the final week of classes. The group, however, faired well on both.
The final day, Wednesday, was set out to be an easy day; Charms and Herbology, but not an easy night, for that was for Astronomy.
The group breezed through the morning and afternoon exams, in fact, Peter almost did as well as James and Lily on the Herbology test, as it was his forté. That night, however, Peter feared he would get his worst grade.
Everyone was in the class a whole hour before the exam time, and even Remus came 10 minutes early. Professor Marus had them fill out a complicated pattern sheet, then they were all forced to name two stars apiece in an oral exam.
Hmmm, thought James. Next week shall be a full moon.
On Thursday morning, everyone slept quite late, even later than usual after a late night Astronomy session. When everyone finally awoke and met in the Great Hall, there was a decidedly happy note to their discussions.
"Well, I'm glad we're done. But I've never been to a grander school!" Said Remus, who punctuated his sentence by shoving a whole sausage into his mouth. The group agreed and there was much clinking of orange juice glasses. After breakfast the group once again made their way to the tree under which they sat, where everyone exchanged their addresses for summer holiday visits. Then they headed down to the lake to cool their feet.
After much splashing of water and general amusement the group decided to relax again under the tree.
"I wish we could go home now! Too bad the Hogwarts Express has to wait for the third years and above to finish their extra class exams to-" But Sirius's comment was cut short when the tree came into view of everyone. Lestrange and his hench-boys were occupying it.
"Hey, Lestrange!" Yelled James as they neared the tree. "How about you and your friends get out of our spot?" Lestrange stood up, with a smirk upon his face.
"Why don't you make us, Pudder?" Nott, Snape, and Vedol rose also as James came nose to nose with Nero.
"Well, maybe we will. You're a little outnumbered, Nero." Lestrange smiled.
"Numbers have nothing to do with it, James. And you know it." Lestrange rose his wand. Everyone else present did so as well, very quickly.
"Somehow I think you think a little too highly of yourself and your Slytherins, 'Strange."
"Me and my Slytherins could take the entire Gryffindor 7th year class, Pudder." James smiled.
"But can you take me?" He retorted. Nero frowned.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, Potter." Lestrange said, baring teeth. "Just let things happen as they may, and don't get in the way."
"Do you like to rhyme?" James said chuckling. "Is it that time?" He asked mockingly.
"POTTER!" Nero spat. James's smile disappeared.
"Just. Keep. Away." Nero waved for his friends to follow him, and he walked off towards the castle. James watched as they walked off, keeping his eyes on them until they entered the castle and were out of sight.
"Now what could they be up to...."
The end-of-year feast was fantastic. All except, of course, for the yellow and black banners covering the ceiling.
"Ah, another year gone by. How swiftly they do go! The points stand as follows: Gryffindor, two-hundred and eighty seven! (sparse cheering from the Gryffindor table) Slytherin, two-hundred and ninety-nine! (James sunk into his seat and frowned) Ravenclaw, three-hundred and forty-eight! (cheering from the Ravenclaw table) And, Hufflepuff in first place with an astonishing five-hundred seventy points!" The table next to Gryffindor burst into raucous cheering and applause.
"Congratulations to Hufflepuff on winning the House Quidditch Tournament, as well as the House Cup!"
When the time came to board the Hogwarts Express, James was feeling quite worried. He now was sure that Lestrange, Snape, Nott, and Vedol had something to do with the Metamagus. He couldn't pin it, however. And now, Remus would be heading home, alone. James was sure he had two full grown wizard parents, but for some reason, he felt that should Remus be without James, Sirius, and the rest, he would be in greater danger. Once the train was boarded, no one waited a moment to strip their robes off, and relax in jeans and t-shirts underneath.
When it began making its way back to London, time was passed with a tournament of wizards' chess. The starting match-ups were Sirius versus Allyn, James versus Remus, and Mary versus Lily. Once the round robin was at its end (as they neared London), it came down to a single match between Sirius and Lily, as everyone guessed. In the end, Sirius leapt to his feet, victorious.
"Hahah!" He yelled. "I'm the winner!" Lily shook her head.
"You may have won this one, Sirius Black, but overall I'm beating you still, eleven matches to ten." But Sirius kept dancing a very poor jig and yelling. Lily couldn't help but chuckle.
"Well, when we meet at Remus's house next week, that will be the deciding match." Lily said, referring to their commitment to get together at least once a week (to continue their Society meetings).
"But when I win that match we shall be tied and require another game!"
"Silly Sirius. When I win that game I will be up twelve to ten and have beaten you for the year." They scowled at each other. When the train finally stopped, no one could wait to leap off the train and greet their parents for the first time since Easter, except Remus, who had not since Christmas, and Lily, since September the first.
"Well, Sirius, how were your exams?" Mr. Black asked.
"Just fine, Dad." He said with a smile. He hugged his mum as well, and his parents asked the same question of James, who would be riding with them. Once their turn came to exit the magical platform, the walked swiftly through to the muggle side, and to the Black's muggle car.
The first week back at home passed by quickly for everyone, and already it was one o'clock on Friday and time for everyone to arrive at the Lupin house by Floo. When James came whizzing down into the Lupin fireplace, he noticed that Mary, Lily, and Peter were already there. He had no need to duck to leave it; it was as wide and tall as a door in an arch, and James simply stepped out. Just behind him came Sirius, and a few moments later Allyn rounded out the group.
The entire time that Remus's parents were present they couldn't hold back massive smiles and Remus's mother even got teary. James expected that being a werewolf, he had never had many friends.
The group spent most of the time playing Quaffleball, which was do-able because the Lupin house was so far out into the country, and the neighbors they did have were wizard as well.
After Quaffleball the group spectated the long-awaited match between Lily and Sirius; Sirius won to tie the series at eleven victories apiece (and not a draw yet). Sirius and Lily agreed to keep the deciding match until the next meeting, because both would want to spend as much time preparing for it as possible (though neither said it, they both would have liked to have ended it tied, because both were incredibly afraid of losing).
The meeting for the week was held quite early in the day, since the friends would be leaving early because of the full moon. The meeting ended with a somber tone.
"Well, Remus, I hope it goes well." Said James with a pat on the back as he headed for the fireplace, after Peter had left first.
"Thanks, James." Remus said with a smile, though James could sense the worry in him.
With that James nodded and headed towards the fireplace.
"My chessmen!" Yelled Sirius as James hopped onto the marble hearth.
"What's the matter?" Said both James and Mrs. Lupin.
"I've forgotten my chessmen! Oh, no, they always wander off when I leave them places..." Sirius dashed upstairs. James hopped back off the hearth.
"I'll help him search." James said, and he, Remus, Allyn, Lily, and Mary went up after Sirius.
"Be quick, boys and girls!" Said Mr. Lupin, eyeing the skies nervously.
"Now where could they have possibly gone to?" Sirius rhetorically asked, as Remus and James entered the room where the chess had been played (the others were searching other rooms).
"EEEEEEEEK!!!" Came a shriek from downstairs. There was another muffled scream and the blasts of a few wands, but soon it was silence.
"MUM!" Remus yelled, and shot down the stairs, Sirius and James following. When they entered the family room where the fireplace was, they saw Mr. and Mrs. Lupin, bound by some magical force. Looking down, they saw the 16 chessmen, 15 of which were producing a magical force from them.
"MY CHESSMEN!" Yelled Sirius.
"MY PARENTS!" Yelled Remus. Hearing the voices, the one piece not producing the magical field, the king, swiveled around to face them. It simply stood there, while Remus, Sirius, and James fumbled through their brains trying to come up with some sort of spell. They were joined by Allyn, Lily, and Mary. After just a moment, though it seemed like an eternity, they heard a roar from outside.
"What was that?" Screamed Allyn. But his question was soon answered when a full grown tiger burst through kitchen window.
"RUN!" Yelled a few of them, and they shot off in different directions. The tiger was slow moving on the kitchen floor, and everyone made it outside, and onto their brooms. James, however, had left his in Remus's bedroom.
"Help!" He screamed as the tiger made it's way back outside. Remus swooped low and gripped James's wrist with his right hand, lifting him just out of the range of the tiger's swiping claws. But Remus was not strong; the coming moon was no help. James's weight pulled him so far the Remus was upside-down on his broom, and losing his grip. And soon it was lost.
And James plummeted to the ground, towards the tiger, he could think of only one thing.
"Wingardium leviosa!" He yelled, wand pointed at his own chest. He felt like he had hit a wall and bounced, jerked suddenly back into the air. He was falling fast again, however, and the tiger was waiting. Suddenly he saw the open window and remembered a fairly advanced spell, and took a chance.
"Accio broomstick!" And much to his joy, the broomstick came flying out of the window. Though much to his sorrow, it lost steam just out of the window and plummeted, sticking itself into the grass. James put his feet out as they neared the tiger's claws, but Sirius now took a swoop at saving him.
And rescue him he did, though he did not accomplish what he had hoped. Sirius could not grip James's hand in the time he swooped by, and simply knocked him behind the tiger. James dashed away quickly, and Sirius's flying kept the tiger busy. It was not long, however, until the tiger stopped batting at Sirius, and lunged after James.
"Accio broomstick!" James yelled, and the broom took another pitiful lunge towards him. The tiger was nearing.
"Accio broomstick!" He yelled again, a cramp stinging his side. The broomstick moved another few feet.
"ACCIO BROOMSTICK!" He screamed as the tiger neared him, and he neared the broomstick. The stick gave it's best shot so far, and came near enough the when James leapt into the air, James's farthest extended foot landed on it.
As the tiger pounced, James wrapped his other foot under the stick, and shot into the air, his shoe ripped and his foot cut by the tiger's claw. James dropped into the normal broomstick-flying position, and ascended higher into the air. There was a new problem however.
"DRAGON!" Yelled Allyn, fleeing towards the ground as the small fiery winged beast flew at him. Unbelievable, thought James. As he shot in the opposite direction of the dragon, he spotted two new figures on the ground. A massive snake (a basilisk, though he didn't know the name), and a huge scorpion. It suddenly clicked with James.
To the surprise of all in the air, the dragon suddenly ignored the broomstick-riders and landed on the ground. Cloaked figures dashed out from the wood.
"IT'S A METAMAGUS!" Yelled James as loud as he could.
"We've got to stop it!" Yelled the nearest person, Remus.
"No! We can't stop the beasts! We have a spell for the Metamagus!" James said. But Sirius had already begun a nosedive at the group.
"NO!" A volley of blasts came from the group, and the dragon shot fire into the air. Sirius snapped out of his brave and stupid dive, and pulled out of the way, and swooped back into the air.
The sight was grotesque. The four wizards on the ground began to partially morph; James could see the snake head, the tiger arms, the dragon legs and wings, the scorpion tail and legs. When he realized they were about to activate the spell, he couldn't help but watch. Four blasts of light shot from the four expertanimi, focusing on the Metamagus. Light shot from the Metamagus in the center, and in a flash all four animals were dead.
The four expertanimi dashed into the woods, and the Metamagus's wings and arms burst the cloak open.
"I'm going in!" Yelled Allyn. James, Sirius, and Remus quickly shot after him.
"Desmetus ma-" But Allyn was cut off. A hand had sprouted from the scaly chest of the beast, a wand in hand.
"Avadra kedavra!" Came a slimy voice from the beast, before Allyn could finish his own incantation. The green light shot directly at Allyn's chest, and he fell off his broom, limp, to the ground.
"ALLYN! NO!" Sobbed Lily.
"Desmetus magus!" Screamed James, Sirius, and Remus in unison. Unfortunately, two missed, and one blast merely severed one scorpion leg. The beast shot into the air, and the boys had swerve in all directions to avoid the massive tail.
"Desmetus magus!" Came another chorus, this time from Lily and Mary. These were more accurate. Both struck directly at the beast's chest, and it fell backwards, tumbling to the ground. It gave a high pitched wail and thrashed for a moment, but then stopped.
"It's dead!" Yelled Sirius, and everyone flew in at low level to view it. James was first, hovering over Allyn's body. He lifted himself up, so that his feet were on the broom, trying to get a better look.
"JAMES!" Came a scream from behind him. He turned his head to see a beast leaping at him from the sky. Just above
it's head he saw it; the full moon.