DISCLAIMER: Original characters and the plot are mine, as are the
song lyrics. The rest is the creation of J.K. Rowling and as such belongs to
her. ::sobs::
What I would do if Sirius and Remus were mine is another matter
entirely…
WARNING: This is the sequel to my fic Hogwarts: the True Story,
twisted out of a fit of irritation and my several-month-long writer's
block on said story. It does contain multiple spoilers but can be read as a
stand-alone.
The 'old crowd'… ten old best friends summoned to Dumbledore's aid
by Sirius when the Dark Lord returns to power. Together they must unlock
their troubled pasts to be given any chance of saving their future…
The Marauders' Return by Rubii Firestorm
Part 1: Meetings
In the street just outside the smart front gate of 29 Acacia Avenue,
Arabella Figg tut-tutted at her reflection in the rear-view mirror of her
bright red Volkswagen New Beetle, noting that her always flyaway light brown
tresses looked, quite simply, as though she had been 'dragged through a
hedge backwards', as her mother kept informing her in pointed tones.
"Oh well," the plump thirty-three year old sighed to herself as she
put the car into gear. "At least Mum's house is convenient for keeping
an eye on Harry, even though it's so close to my place that I haven't
got an excuse for not visiting her so often! And she really does need to do
something about those cats. And they say I'm cat mad! At least I
can cope with a couple of moggies, but she's got at least half a dozen -if
not more- running wild about the place!"
She took her wand out of her pocket and flicked it at the car's radio to
start it playing at a wizard channel, MagicMusic 101, and also at her hair
to regain it some semblance of order, before pressing her foot on the
accelerator and easily backing out of her parking space to the sound of
Cassandra Warbuck warbling her way through nearly five minutes of
over-emoted tragedy interspersed with clichés.
Cruising through the streets, she was about to turn to a different
frequency when she heard the DJ announce something that made her heart stand
still.
"And now it's time for a blast from the past! It's 'Devil's
Touch'- the massively popular all-girl band of 1977-81 with the
ever-changing name. 'Devil's Touch' split up in November '81 after
the death of their lead singer and co- songwriter, Lily Evans, protecting
her young son from You-Know-Who. Her son was Harry Potter, whose father
James Potter was an International Chaser for England, and, well, we all know
what happened to Harry. Their last ever single, in at number one in a record
six countries at once, was Call Me, Beep Me, a cover of a muggle tune
by a singer called Christina Milian, but we're not playing that today!
Instead, we've unearthed the demo tape of a little-known song that was to
be recorded the day after Lily's death, and so never made it to release: The
Path of Emerald Green. Have a listen!"
My baby went and died today
Was just blown away
In a flash of emerald green
Wish I'd whispered 'I love you' just once more
Wish I'd said 'You're the one that I adore'.
And I can't say that now, that's for sure
Now he's walked down that path of em'rald green
That old, sweet music: Lily's pure voice, Monique on drums, Erin and
Artemis on guitar, Minerva playing the keyboard and herself on the clarinet.
A single tear coursed unnoticed down Arabella's face as she remembered the
six of them, the best friends playing for the world to hear and spreading
instructions from Dumbledore to the international Ministries of Magic at the
same time. Somehow they'd never had time to feel afraid as they dashed
through the countries and battled Death Eaters in their spare fragments of
time. Lily had written this, she recalled, just after Milo Bones' parents
had been killed and Milo had been about to go into hiding with his wife and
daughter Susan. The 'emerald green' had come from the Avada Kedavra
curse being that colour, and Arabella remembered old Luisa Dumbledore
commenting how sad it was that nineteen-year-olds knew what the curse was
like. Monique, she recalled, had collaborated with Artemis to write the
melodies and Erin alone had written the bass part.
Don't know
Where I should go
Should I retrace everywhere we've ever been?
Don't know
Where I should go
Or should I follow his path of emerald green?
Now the group, not just Devil's Touch but their entire friendship group,
the Marauders as they had become known, was sundered: Remus Lupin had spent
eleven years as an outcast before returning to Hogwarts as a teacher and to
help protect Harry Potter when Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban; Monique
James, unable to cope with life in a Britain that condemned her for loving a
mass-murderer, had fled to America and changed her surname; Artemis
Westhaven and her twin Apollo now worked for the Department of Mysteries,
doing God-alone-knew-what with little or no contact with their old friends,
or anybody for that matter; and Milo Bones, his wife Cara murdered five
years ago by Death Eaters, had become virtually a recluse in an effort to
keep his young daughter Susan safe. Meanwhile Minerva McGonagall had turned,
according to popular report, into a stern, solitary old martinet at Hogwarts
and had registered as an Animagus in order to follow her long-dead father in
teaching Transfiguration classes; Erin Seanderson wrote songs professionally
with barely a month going by in which one of her creations or co-creations
did not reach the Wizarding Top Forty Charts and Mundungus Fletcher, who had
never been the brightest brain of their group, had done a good few decidedly
'dodgy' dealings with various miscreants and had several times almost
landed himself in severely hot water, Albus
Dumbledore having to use his own reputation to get him out of
trouble. Arabella herself had thrown herself into her old, Muggle life,
popping back to the Wizarding world only at very occasional intervals,
though she held a subscription of several years standing to the Daily
Prophet and had taken some trouble to get wizarding radio channels on her
home and car radios and also to get her house connected to the Floo network
'in case of emergency' as she put it.
The abrupt blaring of a car horn behind Arabella jolted her out of her
reverie and she shook herself mentally, accelerating sharply to just touch
the speed limit. Suddenly a large black dog dashed out in front of her and
she yelled in surprise, jamming on the brakes with all the power she had,
magic included. She barely stopped in time.
There's something mighty familiar about that dog, she thought
suspiciously, slipping her wand out of her pocket and up her sleeve, just in
case, as she got out of the car.
"I knew it!" she shrieked irately, when the dog looked up at her with
far too familiar, chocolate, puppy-dog eyes. Arabella backed hastily away,
pointing her wand at the dog. "Sirius Black! It's no good looking at me
like that, Sirius, even Monique's accepted you're no good!" At her
words there was a soft 'poof' and the dog transformed back into a man,
holding up his hands to show he was unarmed.
"No, Arabella, she hasn't," he said softly. "She got me out, you
see, and… oh, that's not important, but you have to believe me on this:
I'm innocent!" Arabella snorted disbelievingly and Sirius continued, his
voice honeyed, persuasive.
"Look, it was Peter, he and I switched places at the last moment, I was
far too obvious and Voldemort's got far too many ways of controlling
werewolves; it had to be him! But then he betrayed them… he betrayed Lily
and James. I'll admit that I wanted to kill Peter that night, but I
wasn't quick enough… he cut his own finger off, then fled into the
sewers, blowing up the whole street with his wand behind his back. Then he
became the pet of the boy who is best friends with Harry, and I knew he'd
strike as soon as his Master gained enough strength. I tried to kill him
again, but he escaped- last year. And I got cornered by Dementors in the
Hogwarts grounds. Harry, who'd found out all this from me and Remus, saved
my life, then he and his other friend Hermione helped me escape when I was
imprisoned in the school. I'm not sure how, but they persuaded Dumbledore
to believe me…" In spite of herself, Arabella was intrigued; the whole
story was so hugely improbable that she felt it almost had to be true.
"But, why have you come to find me?" she asked. "Wouldn't your
best bet have been just to stay sheltered by Remus and Monique?" Sirius
sighed.
"What do you think I did? I had to be careful, though: Remus nearly got
the Dementor's Kiss himself when Snape tried to convince Fudge he'd been
sheltering me (he hadn't, by the way: until he saw Peter come up on the
Marauder's Map he was as convinced of my guilt as the rest of you). But
you see, I've come from Dumbledore: Lord Voldemort's returned, and Albus
needs help. I'm to round up all the rest too- all the old Marauders and
old supporters of our cause. Look: I've got a letter from him." He took
a sheaf of yellowed parchment envelopes out of his robes and sorted through
till he found the one with Arabella's name, which he threw to her. She
caught it mechanically, her brain still moving sluggishly with all the
unbelievable information. Automatically she slit it open and pulled out the
contents, a single sheet of parchment. She read:
Dear Arabella,
I am writing to you now of a matter of the
utmost importance, rumours of which you may or may not already be hearing:
Lord Voldemort has returned, at the end of the Triwizard Tournament, which
was reinstated at Hogwarts this term. Four competitors took part: Viktor
Krum for Durmstrang, Fleur Delacour for Beauxbatons, and two competitors for
Hogwarts: Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter. The latter was added by Bartemius
Crouch Jr., long thought to be dead but masquerading undercover at Hogwarts
as a teacher, by way of a complicated plan to deliver Harry to Voldemort in
order to restore the Dark Lord to his body. The plan worked, although Cedric
Diggory was murdered when he got in the way. Lord Voldemort has been
restored to a body. However, the Minister for Magicrefuses to
believe me, and so I was forced to send Sirius to round up your old group of
friends as fighters to help me. You will need a new name however: 'The
Marauders' is too well known as your title. I hope that you will assist
me: we need all the friends we can get in these troubled times.
Please apparate to Hogsmeade as soon as is possible. Enquire for a joke
shop named 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes', run by (as long as you call on
the weekend) identical red-headed twins named Fred and George Weasley. DO
NOT EAT ANYTHING THEY MAY OFFER YOU. I cannot answer for the consequences if
you do, but those who got off lightest were turned into giant canaries. YOU
HAVE BEEN WARNED. However, (and keep your wits about you whilst you are in
that shop, those twins are lethal) the two will show you into the back room
where you will meet your friends.
Once more, I hope that you will assist,
Prof. Albus Dumbledore
She eyed Sirius critically through her spectacles, then drew her wand once
more.
"Verifium!" she muttered, twirling her wand in a complicated
little pattern. A silver tick shimmered in the air over the letter for a
moment before forming, in loopy joined-up writing: Albus Dumbledore.
The critical look faded, and she smiled at Sirius before hugging him.
"Then I apologise, old friend," she said, smiling. "Am I the
last?"
"Just about," Sirius told her, grinning. "And thanks for not telling
about the whole 'Animagi' thing… would have made it a whole lot harder
otherwise."
"I was saving my own skin, as much as yours," she told him firmly,
hiding a smile. "Do you have any idea what Dumbledore would have done to
us? And then there was that Oath we took… I didn't like to break that. I
mean, you hear so many stories…"
Sirius shook his head. "Wormtail got there before you, Ara, by telling
Voldemort. And by the way, as far as everyone except Dumbledore is
concerned, there are only four Marauders- me, James, Remus and
Peter. I thought it was safer- not even Harry knows. He found our map by
the way- got given it by the Weasley twins mentioned in your letter, who
pinched it from Filch. They're rather brilliant, those two."
"How the hell did Filch get hold of the Marauder's Map?" asked
Arabella, startled. "He never found out to work it, did he?"
"Not as far as I'm aware," Sirius told her. "Dear old Snapie-poos
got insulted by it though… according to Harry his face had to be seen to
be believed." He chuckled evilly. "Just as well Moony thought to put in
that extra protection system."
"Are we going to use our old nicknames?" enquired Arabella. "I
always rather liked mine."
"I don't see why not, if we're careful," replied Sirius,
considering. "Not all the time though, Feli. And by the way, I got my bike
back!"
Arabella laughed. "Where'd you park it?" she asked. "I hope you
remembered to lock it properly this time- d'you remember what happened
when those Muggle kids tried to nick it?" Sirius sniggered.
"Yeah- I've never done so many Memory Charms in my life!" he
grinned. "Can you imagine what would've happened if the Ministry had
found out?"
"We'd have been dead meat, Sirius, that's what would have
happened," Arabella informed him as sternly as she could while smiling.
"Which is precisely what we will be if we stand around here gabbing.
I'll just park the car and then I'll follow you, deal?"
"Deal," Sirius laughed before Disapparating.
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