This chapter doesn't include as much as I had hoped, because if it did, it would be too long. This gets some part of it, but not a lot. It just clears up some stuff, introduces some new characters, and reintroduces Ariel Silvershay.
NOTE: I used Ariel in my other story, Invisible Barriers, but these two stories are not related. Ariel is technically not the same person, I just like her name. ^_^ She is a different person, with different looks, a different personality, and different problems…
Also: There's a quote from Tamora Pierce here. It's not direct, but it's basically the same. A big yellow digital banana and special recognition to anybody who picks it out, and tells me in their review! ::pointed look::
Chapter 4: In which four C's are discovered (curses, chases, catastrophes, and compatibility)
James dropped like a log to the floor and curled up into a ball, rocking and twitching with pain. Sirius, Remus, and Lily looked on, horrified.
"We never put that curse in there," whispered Sirius in a trembling voice. He sank down to the ground, apparently in a state of shock.
James's whimpers of pain tore at Lily's heart, and she rushed to his side. His face was drawn and white with pain, his eyes and jaw clenched shut, as he rocked back and forth on the ground.
"Sirius! Remus!" Lily cried, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes as she threw her arms around James, partly in an effort to keep him still and partly due to some compelling urge she did not understand. "Do something!"
Remus glanced at Sirius, saw that he would be no help in his condition, and decided to take matters into his own hands. He was about to dive onto James and help Lily restrain him, because he could not think of any other useful thing to do, when he noticed that the bouncing ball was suspended in the air by an invisible air, twitching exactly like James. It was as if they were mirror images of each other.
Frowning, Remus tried to recall what Professor Kopf, the DADA teacher they had had in their sixth year, had taught them about symbolism magic. Symbolism magic was where one object was used to represent another, a fairly well-known example being a voodoo doll.
"A Substitution Spell cast on an object with the essence of another object (called the original) will render that object a substitute. Any spell, action, or physical damage done to the substitute by the spell-caster will be relayed to the original. The spell can only be broken by the spell-caster, but it will also be terminated if the substitute is destroyed. Substitution Spells are extremely difficult to trace, hence they are favored by those who wish others harm, namely Death Eaters. It seems too good to be true, doesn't it? A perfect tool for murder— a tidy way to blow up objects— often impossible to trace back to the spell-caster— If it was that good, people would be murdered and things blown up every minute. We humans are fickle and temperamental; we often react without thinking once we are seized by a passionate emotion, such as anger. However, our natures have been provided for, because Substitution Spells are complex and intricate, and if they are not cast correctly, the effects are often fatal to the spell-caster and possibly those around him. It takes a fully-trained wizard with extreme power to cast a proper and effective Substitution Spell. It is like the Killing Curse, but perhaps more serious. If you stood up and shouted "Avada Kedavra!" at me, I would probably get a nosebleed, or at most, be knocked unconscious. However, if one of you so much as tried a Substitution Spell right now, there is a 99% chance that you would be killed, though there are some of you here," Professor Kopf said slowly, swiveling his head around to pin Lily, James, Sirius, and Remus with a steady, beady-eyed gaze, "who could pull it off, I imagine, with the training you have now." He knew the three boys often snuck into the Restricted Section of the library under Mr. Potter's Invisibility Cloak to pore over advanced books for hours at a time (he would not so much as bat an eyelash if one of them stood up and performed a flawless Substitution Spell right now, even though he had not and would not touch upon the tedious procedure), and Miss Lily Evans— with her natural talent, brains, and power, she had enough potential to do anything she wished. These four, together, once they became fully-trained, could very well be unstoppable in whatever task they wished to fulfill; he only hoped it would not be to further the ambitions of the Dark Side, but being Gryffindors, as he himself had once been, hell would freeze over before one of them became a Death Eater. "Voldemort is particularly known for his flawless command of Substitution Spells…" (A/N: For those of you who have read one of my other stories, Invisible Barriers, there is a hint in this paragraph about the ending of Chapter 16. Chapter 17 should be up soon, but I haven't finished it because I've been working on this story. I don't know if you will see the significance of the hint, but let me tell you I was pretty surprised when I read my reviews, because of your guesses… Oh, if your guess of the body changes, tell me in your review. If you're right, I'll give you a cookie. ^_^)
Remus froze. Voldemort? Holy shit! But then again, he couldn't be in Hogwarts— or could he?
"Remus, for God's sakes, do something!" Lily's tearful cry yanked him back to his senses. He had to destroy that wretched ball to stop the Substitution Spell, but how? He paused, trying to think of a spell.
"Remus, dammit, what the hell are you doing? This is clearly Dark Magic, and you're one of the top students in DADA!"
"Lily, I know I have to destroy that ball, but I don't know what spell to use! It's like my brain has gone dead! Help me think!" cried Remus, about as frantic as Lily as he racked his brain for a spell he had enough power to cast.
"Shit," Lily muttered. She let loose with a passionate volley of curses. Remus winced— Lily hardly ever swore out loud.
Suddenly the stream of words halted. "Remus, there's one curse I remembered reading about that blasts apart small objects. What's it called?"
Remus smacked his forehead with his palm. "Of course! The Reductor Curse!" He reached inside the fold of his robe for his wand, but—
"Crap! Lily, I left my wand in the dormitory!"
"REMUS!"
"Here, Lily, you have your wand, right? I'll help hold James, and you Accio my wand, okay?"
"Can't Sirius do something? Anyway, what is Sirius doing?"
They both stole a glance at Sirius. He was curled up on the grass, hugging his knees to his chest, pale and tight-lipped from shock. "He's in no condition to do anything, Lily," said Remus quietly.
"No shit, Sherlock," snapped Lily, trying to act strong and using anger as a shield to hide her pain. "What are you waiting from? Get over here and help restrain James!"
Once Remus hurried over to do her bidding, Lily whipped out her wand, pointed it in the general direction of the seventh year Gryffindor boys' dormitory, and shouted, "Accio wand!"
A wand came flying through the air to land in Lily's outstretched palm. "Here," she said, handing it to Remus.
Remus, panting with the effort of restraining James and not thinking clearly, gasped, "You do it."
"Remus! Remember third year when I tried to use your wand? We're not compatible! My wand's not good with curses, and besides, I don't know the spell. Quick, just switch places with me and blast that cursed ball to hell and beyond!"
"Oh, fine."
Three seconds later, Remus had the wand pointed at the little ball, which was rolling and twitching in midair. "Reducto!" he shouted.
A blast of light burst from the end of the wand, skimmed the surface of the ball, and made a hole roughly the size of a soccer ball in a rosebush, making the pixies chatter angrily.
"Damn your aim!" Lily shouted. "Try again!"
The second time resulted in another hole and another heartfelt curse from Lily. Finally, the third blast of light hit its target, and the ball exploded.
James abruptly stopped twitching from pain. He lay on the grass, panting heavily from exhaustion. Remus and Lily leaned over him, faces creased with worry.
Finally, with some prodding, James cracked open an eyelid. Two faces swam blurrily above him, but the sight of one of them invoked a warm feeling deep down inside. "Lily?" he whispered.
Remus snorted, though inwardly, he was pleased (it was time these two got together). "What about me, James? I'm here too, you know," whined Remus, trying [but failing] to sound wounded. He sniffed, pretending to be hurt that James was only noticing Lily. "Fine, James. I can tell you only have eyes for your ladylove. I'll just leave you in peace, shall I?"
Remus started to get up, but James laughed weakly and reached out a hand to stop him, silently wincing at the pain that shot through his body from that simple movement. "I'm sorry, Moony. Hello to you too, then. Now will one of you please tell me what happened, and explain why I feel like I've been kicked and beaten all over?" He tried to sit up, gritting his teeth as daggers of pain sliced through his body. Lily noticed this, conjured a fluffy down pillow, and pushed him back down.
"You really don't remember, James?" asked Remus.
James closed his eyes and knit his brows together, trying to remember. His hair was sticking out at odd angles all over his head, making him look so adorable that Lily couldn't refrain from running her hands through it gently. When Remus raised an eyebrow at her, his brown eyes dancing mischievously, Lily realized what she was doing, blushed hotly, and quickly withdrew her hand.
Remus was about to slyly say something when James opened his eyes again and said slowly, "I don't remember too much. The last thing I recall is that wretched little ball exploding."
Remus grinned wickedly. "And do you remember why the ball exploded on you? Tsk tsk, James. You shouldn't have missed it."
James frowned. "It wasn't my fault. I was frozen from shock because Sirius said I— REMUS!!!" This time it was James's turn to blush as he muttered something unintelligible under his breath, carefully averting his eyes from Lily's gaze.
Remus couldn't help it— he started laughing. Both James and Lily were turning red at an alarming rate, and they were trying so hard not to look at anyone. They were just too alike to realize they liked each other— or maybe more than 'like'…
"Remus. Remus. REMUS!" James gave an exasperated sigh when Remus kept on laughing and bore no sign of hearing James call his name.
Lily grinned. "Let me." She leaned over and smacked Remus soundly on the head.
"Ow!" Remus stopped laughing and rubbed his head. "What was that for?"
"Moony, you got up to the part where the stupid ball exploded. Stop laughing and tell me why I hurt so much. What happened next?" asked James impatiently.
"Umm…" Remus gulped and looked uncertainly at Lily. There was no other way to say it. "The ball performed the Cruciatus Curse."
Whatever color James's face originally had disappeared, and he turned a pale, deadly white. We never put that curse in there," he whispered, half to them and half to himself.
"I know," said Remus simply— no further words were needed. If his mind was clear about one thing, it was that James and Sirius weren't stupid enough to put illegal curses in the ball. "The ball looked like it was under a Substitution Spell."
"Substitution Spell? That thing Professor Kopf talked about last year? But who could do that? Not many people have access to the ball, and it takes a lot of training and power to cast one that works and doesn't kill you."
"Peter," a cold voice hissed softly. Lily, Remus, and James jumped. Sirius had come up behind them without noticing.
"What about Peter, Padfoot?"
"He did it."
Everyone stared at Sirius incredulously.
Remus stood up and laid a hand on Sirius's forehead experimentally. "Are you feeling okay, Padfoot?"
Sirius brushed off Remus's hand angrily. "I'm serious!"
James smiled weakly. "We know you are."
Sirus turned on James, black eyes glowering. "I AM NOT JOKING!" he shouted, loud enough so that some first years walking outside turned around to stare at him. Sirius noticed this and gave them the middle finger, and they ran off. "How many people have access to the programmer?"
James sat up and looked at Sirius. "Peter's our friend and a fellow marauder. Why would he do such a thing? You know, Padfoot, I think you just have a special grudge against Peter."
An uneasy silence filled the air. James firmly believed in Peter's innocence, and he glared at Sirius. Sirius firmly believed in Peter's guilt, and he glared right back. Remus was starting to follow Sirius's logic, but his opinion was still divided. Lily had never liked Peter, and agreed with Sirius that this incident had something to do with him (though she didn't believe a weak, pitiful thing like him could cast the spell), but since it was none of her business, she kept her mouth shut.
Finally, in a frigid, brittle voice, James said, "But how would Peter do it? We all know he doesn't have the power or knowledge to perform advanced magic."
Sirius matched glare for glare and tone for tone with James. His voice was even but deadly and patronizing. "Maybe he had help. Honestly, for Head Boy, you're awfully slow, Prongs."
Remus looked nervously from Sirius to James. This was getting out of hand. He didn't want something like this to tear apart a friendship that had survived through thick and thin for more than 6 years. He coughed loudly, breaking the silence. "Can I have my wand, Lily? It's over there."
Wordlessly Lily handed it over to him, her eyes still locked on James and Sirius, as if expecting one of them to leap for the other's throat in any second.
When Remus was pocketing his wand, he suddenly noticed something— different— about it. He brought it out again, examined it quickly, then exclaimed, "This isn't my wand!"
"No shit, Sherlock," said a dry voice a little distance away. "It's mine."
Everyone whipped their heads around to stare at Arabella Figg, who was leaning casually against a tree with a half-grin on her face and amusement dancing in her black eyes. Her mouth twitched as she took in their wide-eyed stares and the damage around them.
"Well hello to all of you too," she muttered sarcastically.
Sirius recovered quickest. He blinked, then said, "Hello, Bella darling. That's your wand? The one Remmy's gawking at?"
"It's Arabella, not 'Bella'," she snapped. "'Bella' is some blond, empty-headed Hufflepuff." Two passing Hufflepuffs (with blond hair, too) glared at her, and Arabella flashed them her renowned 'what's-your-problem' look. "And yes, that's my wand."
Hearing that, James's mouth twitched into a slow, devilish grin that made Lily's heart turn over and beat three times faster. "Remus and Arabella, sitting in a tree," he began to singsong, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love—" he paused, grinning cheekily when Arabella glared at him and Remus drew his wand (or rather, Arabella's wand).
Sirius caught onto what James was doing, and momentarily forgot that they were mad at each other— right now, they had one common goal, which was to tease Remus and Arabella. "Oh Remmy, no need to show the wand. We know you and Bella are compatible, no need to flaunt it. When's the wedding, Moony? And can I be Remus Jr.'s godfather?" Sirius then took off, running down the lawn and laughing like a maniac, with a bright-red Remus and a fuming Arabella behind him in hot pursuit.
Only James and Lily were left, sitting on the grass. He leaned over, a wicked glint in his eyes, and whispered something in her ear. Lily turned red, slapped him half-heartedly across the face, and started to get up. James laughed, pulled her onto his lap, and brushed his lips gently across hers.
A camera flash went off from behind a tree.
~*~*~
(A/N: Obviously Lily and James are a couple now. I'll let you guess what he whispered into her ear. ^_^
I'm a horrible "James and Lily are going out" kind of writer so I'm not going to make a fool of myself, and skip most of that stuff. Just a few notes: 1) Sirius and James decided to forget their argument, 2) No one told Peter anything, 3) They are boyfriend/girlfriend now, and the whole school is ablaze with gossip. Got it?)
~*~ Around one week later ~*~
One night, the dreams started. A ghostly apparition visited her and whispered in an eerie voice, "A force stands around you/ Protect you they try/ But the Dark shall triumph/ And the animals shall die." The apparition reached towards her, and then Lily woke up, trembling beneath the covers.
She paid no heed to her nightmares, and Lily told no one, lest they should think her mad.
The second night, the whispered words became less cryptic, not even rhyming, but Lily still did not understand the meaning. "A shield protects you/ Their lives they will give for you/ But if you really love them/ Stay away…" (A/N: Okay, I know the messages were corny, and you're probably thinking 'cliché', but bear with me, ok? The dreams were necessary for the plot, and I know I'm a horrible poet, no need to rub it in)
The messages continued to come, night after night, basically saying the same thing. Lily didn't know what the messages meant, nor did she care. She was happily busy with her schoolwork and Head Girl duties, and she spent most of her free time either with her own friends or James and the Marauders, with the exception of Peter.
One night, Peter came up to her and boldly said, "I don't like you" in a tone that implied she was supposed to actually care.
Lily didn't, not in the least. She looked down her nose at him and replied coolly, "Trust me, the feeling is mutual, Pettigrew."
Peter looked disappointed that Lily wasn't groveling at his feet and tearfully asking why he didn't like her and what she could do to change his mind. "But I'm James's friend."
Lily snorted. So this was the approach he was going to take? "Amazing, isn't it? I don't know how James became associated with the likes of you. Poor Jamsie."
Peter glowered. "I'd slap you, Evans, but I don't slap girls."
"I'd slap you, Pettigrew, but I don't slap girls either."
"You calling me a girl?"
"I did, but now I've changed my mind. Calling you a girl is an insult to the female race. Talking to pathetic "its" is wasting my time. Goodbye, Pettigrew, and I sincerely hope I will never have to see your ugly face again." As Lily turned to walk away, a strange feeling began to gnaw at her, so she slipped her hand beneath her robe and wrapped it around her wand.
Her hunch was right. Three seconds after Lily had begun to walk away, she heard Pettigrew shout, "Petri—"
He never had a chance to complete the spell. Lily dodged the thin beam of light, whipped out her own wand, and said almost lazily, "Pugnare Incantatem Mecum!" It was a spell Lily had found and memorized in her third year from an Advanced Charms textbook in the Restricted Section of the library that would cancel a spell another person had cast if your magic was stronger than that of the other person's.
A jet of light shot out from the tip of Lily's wand, intertwined itself with the beam of light from Pettigrew's wand, and effortlessly snapped it in half. Normally, there would be a fight between both people's magic, which could go on for a long period of time, but a quick death like that signified a great difference between her power and Pettigrew's. Lily smirked, then added in a cool, disinterested voice, "Only losers and weaklings would attack a person whose back is turned." With that, she walked away.
~*~*~
This time, the dream was different. Lily was crouching behind what looked like a solid wall of people. She felt safe, loved, and secure. Suddenly, the first person dropped to his knees and began to writhe and moan with agony, One by one her protectors fell, until only three were left. They seemed to be revolving in the air, suspended by an invisible force. Lily gasped— it was like a nightmare, but not as frightening. James seemed to change back and forth from human to animal, with a speed and smoothness that made it look like he was always somewhere in between the transition, and beams of green light flew around him. Sirius was constantly shrinking and growing, looking like a rising and falling mass of dark matter, and there was something hovering above him, something resembling a midnight-black cloak and hood. Remus, however, was the scariest of them all— he was so blurred that Lily could not make out his features, but his head was thrown back and he was growling as he ripped something to shreds, spraying blood all over him, and he was enclosed in shining waves of moonlight.
As frightening as they were, Lily knew them, and she clung to them even as an invisible hand wrapped itself around her and tried to pull her away. When she would not go, a burst of light blinded her, and James, Sirius, and Remus collapsed to the ground. Smoky-grey wisps of fog— their souls— rose from their motionless bodies.
A ghostly white apparition, the same one that had been haunting her for many nights now, appeared, and began to tear apart the souls. Tears ran down Lily's face as screams echoed through the chasm. Then, the apparition turned towards Lily, and she screamed, feeling herself plummeting into the depths of the bright red eyes. "Come to me…"
~*~*~
James was deep in tranquil sleep, dreaming about himself… or what looked like himself. The boy flying on the broom had the same messy black hair—James's love and pride— and an identical blissful expression on his face to the one James wore whenever he was flying. However, there were differences. The boy had green eyes, and an odd lightning-shaped scar on his forehead…
A piercing scream split the night, causing James to tumble out of bed, become tangled in the scarlet-colored curtains, and hit his head on the floor. He cursed, rubbing his head, and picked his way out of the mess.
James was about to crawl back into bed and convince himself the scream was from a nightmare when he saw Sirius and Remus jump out of bed and grab their wands. If they heard it too, then the scream wasn't from a nightmare, he realized. Someone had really screamed.
Suddenly he realized why the scream had sounded so familiar. "It's Lily, guys!"
"Geez, any louder, Prongs? Wake up the whole dormitory and tell them about our assignment, why don't you?" said a bleary-eyed Sirius sarcastically.
But James was gone. He already had his wand out and was racing down the stairs, clad only in his baby ducky boxers but not noticing, much less caring.
Sirius and Remus looked at each other, glanced at Peter's bed to make sure he was still asleep, and were about to follow James when on second thought they grabbed their robes and quickly donned them. Sirius then raced out the door, but Remus (the ever-so-sensible Moony) hung back, grabbed James's robes, and brought them with him.
Sirius caught up to James at the door of the seventh year girls' dormitory. James glanced up at him, raked his hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration, and explained, "The stupid door's locked with a very powerful Locking Charm. Must be Evans's doing, as she's the best in Charms. I can't break it."
"It's recent, then. Last night I was still able to sneak in and out." Sirius grinned. "Who do you think made them scream this morning?"
"Apparently Evans thought whatever you did was my doing, because she switched the syrup with magicked ink, and I ended up with ink all over my food." James started to laugh, but he suddenly stopped and shouted, "Sirius, why the hell are we having this conversation right now? Lily could be in danger, and what are we doing? Thinking about the pranks we played! For—"
"Whoa, James, keep your hair on. I'll kick the door in, and we can explain it to Dumbledore later, okay? I haven't been taking karate over the summer for nothing! Here comes the talented Sirius Black Belt!" He started to bow, but stopped when James glowered at him.
The two of them were so wrapped up in their own little 'conversation' that they didn't notice Remus behind them, James's robes slung over one arm and his wand out in the other. Remus grinned and began to mutter a powerful countercharm he had read about to unlock the door, making sure he timed each word correctly.
Sirius backed up and took a running start. Just as he was flying through the air at the door, Remus finished the countercharm and the door swung open, causing Sirius to fly into the room. They heard a loud thump, a yelp of pain, and a muffled growl of outrage; James arched an eyebrow at Remus, who in turn put on his best "Who, me?" look.
They were about to succumb to whoops of mirth when a low, dry sob (not Sirius's though) reminded of why they were awake at such an ungodly hour in the morning. James and Remus drew their wands and rushed in.
~*~*~
James ran into the room to find a sheet-white Lily clutching at her blanket and whimpering, her green eyes wide and terrified. Arabella Figg was kneeling on the bed, holding Lily against her and rubbing her back while talking in a calm, soothing tone.
Arabella saw James by the door and abruptly stopped, just stared at him, an unreadable expression flitting across her face.
James noticed this and was about to open his mouth to snap something sarcastic [about whether he had suddenly grown two heads or not] when Remus appeared behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. James turned around and was about to snap at Remus too when he saw Remus holding his robes. It was then that reality caught up to James— he was in the girls' dormitory wearing nothing but a pair of baby ducky boxers. He turned red, muttered something inaudible, and slipped into the robes somewhat self-consciously, causing the corners of Arabella's mouth to twitch.
Rather belatedly, Lily noticed that Arabella's attention had been diverted. She glanced up, saw James, and turned even paler, if that was possible, and began to tremble uncontrollably.
Arabella glanced down at Lily, worry etched on her face. For some reason, the sight of James seemed to frighten Lily even more. Why? Shouldn't the presence of one of the school's most powerful wizards, who also happened to be her boyfriend, comfort Lily? Arabella supposed it had something to do with her nightmare— she had been unable to coax anything out of Lily other than the broken phrases "monster" and "red eyes".
Suddenly, out of the corner of their eyes, they saw Ariel Silvershay collapse onto her bed, sobbing, and yank the curtains shut. Sirius, on the ground by the foot of her bed, looked as if he had just awoken from a trance. What in the world was going on?
~*~*~
Sirius had rolled a good distance on the floor after flying rather ungracefully through the door, and had smacked his head on the leg of a bed. He rubbed his injured body part, growling and baring his teeth at Remus (which made Remus laugh even harder). Suddenly, he found himself looking up into the silver-blue-green gaze of Ariel Silvershay, and he gulped, all of a sudden feeling very vulnerable.
Ariel was one of Lily's best friends, along with Arabella Figg. She had shoulder-length strawberry-blond hair and silver-blue-green eyes that seemed to bore into your skull and read your thoughts whenever she turned that piercing gaze towards you. No one knew whether she could really read people's thoughts or not— no one even knew if she was completely human.
She was petite, quiet, and she always wore an impenetrable "poker face"— completely impassive but sometimes with a small smile playing on her lips— unless she was around her close friends. She excelled at Herbology, and seemed to know the entire plant kingdom, magical and nonmagical, inside out. You were her fiend if you were not her enemy— her logic was as simple as that. It sometimes worked out to the person's advantage, but God help you if you were on her shit list.
Sirius had fancied Ariel before, but he had never gathered the courage to ask her out. He didn't know why she affected him that way— he normally had no problem asking girls out (though most girls made it easy by simply throwing themselves at him). She was nice to him, and she laughed at his pranks (even when she was the target— she would retaliate immediately using her knowledge of plants), but it was impossible to read whether she liked him or not. She had been deemed 'hard to get' by all the other boys (only God knows how many of them had tried to penetrate that armor but failed), and she had never gone out with anyone as his girlfriend, including Sirius.
Sirius had 'given up' and gone out with other girls, but he just couldn't forget Ariel. She had inadvertently claimed some special place in his heart, but he didn't know exactly what…
Sirius didn't realize that he had been unconscious until Ariel unstopped a vile under his nose, and the putrid scent made him sneeze and nauseous at the same time. "What the bloody hell is that shit?" he yelped.
Ariel frowned mockingly and jabbed a finger playfully at his chest. "Tsk tsk. Such language in front of a lady. It's called wakeflower, and it's used to revive people who faint—" she grinned, "—like babies."
"I did not faint like a baby!" retorted Sirius indignantly. "And no flower ever smelled like that!"
"But it does," replied Ariel, eyes widening ever-so-innocently. She jabbed him again, and began to laugh. "Sirius Balck fainted!" she whooped as she poked him on the nose. (A/N: On his nose, not up his nose).
Sirius caught her hand and brought it to his mouth, baring and snapping his teeth mock-ferociously. His dark eyes danced as he lowered his head and licked his lips, causing Ariel to squirm when she realized the implications.
Originally his intentions had been only to bite her in a 'friendly sort of way', but suddenly, something inside of his changed. The tousled strawberry-blond hair… the surprised, innocent look on her face… those captivating blue-green eyes with bright flecks of silver…
Not quite aware of what he was doing, Sirius brought Ariel's finger to his lips and kissed it, nibbling gently. Her breath caught in her throat when he raised his eyes to hers— his eyes had become fathomless pits of darkness. But they seemed glazed and unfocused…
Suddenly, in a voice unlike Sirius's own, he said, "As handsome as he, as fair as ye be, you shall never be free, till you come answer me."
Ariel jerked her hand back and stumbled blindly to her bed, tears threatening to spill over. She yanked the curtains around her bed and buried her face into her pillow, sobbing. Why me? she asked herself silently. Whenever I feel myself falling, it happens. Must my heart be torn to pieces again and again? Why won't it let me be?
Sirius snapped out of his trance and found the curtains pulled shut around Ariel's bed. The muffled, heaving sobs coming from inside tore at his heart and made him want to go comfort her, even though the rational part of him knew it would be the stupidest thing he had ever done (considering the fact that it must have been him who did something to get her like this). Slowly, he got to his feet, to find everyone in the room staring at him, a myriad of odd expressions on their faces. What had he just done?
~*~*~
Remus came out of his little niche and looked at both of his friends. James looked troubled and anguished, and Sirius appeared confused and hurt.
Slowly, he opened his mouth and voiced the unspoken question in the minds of every person currently not scared out of their wits or sobbing their heart out. "What in Merlin's name is going on here?"
Suddenly, another head appeared in the doorway. "Yeah, what the heck just happened? And why are there boys here?" Kayla Martin, another Gryffindor seventh year girl not well-liked by Lily, Ariel, and Arabella, asked haughtily. However, when she recognized the Marauders, she smiled sweetly, and said in a suggestive tone, "Oh, it's you three." Kayla flashed the shivering Lily a contemptuous glare. "Did our little Head Girl get scared by a ghost? Or was it one of your ingenious pranks?" she asked in a saccharin sweet voice, conveniently forgetting that it had been her who screamed the loudest that morning due to Sirius's work).
Arabella interrupted before Kayla could keep flirting and make them all throw up. "What have you been doing till 2, Kayla?"
Kayla looked down her pert nose at Arabella, and answered coldly, all saccharin sweetness forgotten, "It's none of your business."
Arabella smiled with no trace of sweetness or warmth, making it seem as if she were baring her teeth instead. "Good. Let's do it your way. You mind your business and go away, and I won't ask where you've been doing what."
"But this is my dorm too. I have a right to know why the Marauders are here at this time—"
Arabella gave Kayla an icy stare. "Like bloody hell you do. Bugger off, bitch."
"Really, Ara, must you swear?" asked another voice. Talia Montague's head emerged from the adjoining bathrooms, frowning. She had been friends with Lily and Arabella before, even though she was a bit too conceited and a goody-goody-two-shoes, but when Lily became Prefect in their fifth year and not her, their camaraderie became hatred and jealousy on Talia's part. "Though really, what happened here? We'll all be in so much trouble if Professor McGonagall turns up. You are all so irresponsible and immature—"
Arabella glared. She had once had the patience to endure Talia's constant "oh, why are you all so stupid" speeches, but it was long gone. "Honestly, must you be as much of a bitch as Martin? Bugger off, both of you!"
Talia started to say, "Watch your language!" and Kayla was about to draw her wand when Arabella whipped out her wand and shouted, "Dormirus Totalus!"
Both girls dropped to the floor. Sighing, Arabella flicked her wand and deposited each of them into their respective beds. "They wouldn't shut up and go away," she explained, as everyone's mouths were hanging open, "so I just made them fall asleep to get them out of the way. Someone remind me to wake them up tomorrow morning. And do close you mouths before you attract flies."
Remus snickered. Count on Arabella's sarcasm to lighten things up.
"Anything the matter, Lupin?" asked Arabella sweetly, a little too sweetly for any wise person's comfort.
Remus was wise. He fidgeted, then turned to Lily and asked, "You okay, Lily?"
Unable to speak, she just raised her terrified eyes to Remus and nodded numbly. She couldn't erase the image of Remus howling with blood all over him from her mind— the image was the exact opposite of the Remus she knew, the gentle, kind, intelligent Remus. What did it mean?
"Okay, then." Remus looked around, then said, "James, transfigure a piece of paper or something into a cup of hot cocoa for Lily, and let's leave. We should all get some sleep now."
James and Sirius started to protest, James's face full of concern as he looked at Lily and Sirius's face full of confusion and pain as he looked at Ariel's closed-off bed, but Remus let James do his bit of Transfiguration, the proceeded to grab a handful of each of their robes and firmly drag them out of the girls' dormitory.
Once they were out of hearing distance, James whirled on Remus and demanded angrily, "What was that for?"
Not to be deterred, Remus answered in a low voice, "Are you blind, James? Didn't you see that our presence was scaring Lily even more? Once we saw that she was safe, we should have left instead of stand around and keep making her tremble like a leaf whenever she laid eyes upon one of us."
That shut James up. He remembered Lily's pale face, her wide, frightened eyes, and her uncontrollable trembling when she saw him. It hurt. Why was Lily afraid of him?
"Who's that standing around by the girls' dorm?" a sharp voice demanded. Professor McGonagall appeared by the stairway, clad in a magenta and gold brocade dressing gown, yawning faintly and glaring out of bloodshot eyes. "It's past two in the morning! Detention for all— oh, it's you three. What happened? Was it—"
James, Sirius, and Remus nodded. "We heard her scream, so we grabbed her robes and wands and ran here. She had a nightmare, and a pretty horrific one too, judging by her state of mind when we first saw her," explained James. He glanced at the others, and decided to tell the whole truth. "She's okay now, I think. We left her with Arabella Figg. I think we might have been in her nightmare, because she looked even more scared when she saw us. That's why we left."
Professor McGonagall fixed the three of them with a surprisingly steady gaze for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. Go to sleep, boys. You have another busy day ahead of you tomorrow. I will report this to the Headmaster tomorrow morning, there's no need for you to do so." She started to turn to walk back up to her room, but she suddenly stopped and added in a soft, emotional, very uncharacteristic-McGonagall tone, "Thank you boys. I must admit that before, when Professor Dumbledore first informed me of his decision, I had some doubts. But now I know why— he was right to choose you."
Inwardly, the Marauders beamed with pride, for stern Professor McGonagall was not known for being free with praise. She prided herself— and made sure everyone knew it— on the fact that she praised only those who truly deserved it.
Their joy was short-lived though, when a cold, sneering voice met them up the stairs to their own dormitory. "Care to fill me in on some things, my dear fellow Marauders?"
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Yay! Chapter 4 is done! I have only started to write Chapter 5, but it might not be up for a while, because I really have to work on my other story, Invisible Barriers. I'm going to say 100 reviews for the next chapter, but let me clear some things up— when I ask for a certain number of reviews, it doesn't mean I won't post until I get those reviews. It's just an estimate for how much time I need to write and type the next chapter. Sometimes my estimates are good, and sometimes they're off. So…
Review! Even though '100 reviews' is just an estimate for the next chapter, I can be persuaded… ^_^
=^.^= Merlin's Quill
PS- Did anyone catch the Tamora Pierce quote? I'll give you a hint. It's from the Immortals quartet, book 2.