Hey, alright so I forgot to comment on a review I got. Right now the year is 1981, but I think they reviewed for the Christmas chapter, that was 1980, the year Harry was born. So I'm not wrong in my time line, Voldemort attacked October of 1981, so the Marauders do have a year to spoil Harry basically. I do thank you for the review but Harry wasn't like 3 months when his parents were killed, he was over a year old.
But thanks to Rachel, Kinelea, sirius-lover-1, cestari, Mella deRanged, Jade-Jaganashi, Fanciful Sovereign for the reviews and thanks to everyone who has read my story. I don't own Harry Potter, I wish I did, but J. K. Rowling owns it.
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Things settled down a little bit after the attack on the Ministry. There was a new Minister, Millicent Bagnold, who went about things as the old Minister had done. Dumbledore had warned the Order that while Voldemort had failed in one major attack, he would not stop and the next time he hit, it would be big. He would make sure this time it didn't fail.
The full moon came and went, Lily and Harry watched from the bedroom window as Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs ran around the grounds, playing and tackling each other to the ground. Padfoot and Moony, both canines ran around for hours, and then they both attacked Prongs. Wormtail just sat and watched, being a rat he couldn't do much, though Prongs did come over and flipped him with his antlers.
The morning after, Lily got up and freed Harry. She ate alone that morning, knowing that the Marauders would not be up until at least noon. Remus would be weak for a few days but he would be fine. She sat and read the Daily Prophet when the portrait of Jonathon Potter came up yelling for James.
"What is it Jonathon?" Lily ran to the portrait.
"Professor Dumbledore needs James, Sirius and Remus to come to his office. Beauxtons has been attacked!"
"Tell Dumbledore they will be there in a few minutes!" Lily told the portrait and then ran upstairs to go wake her husband and friends.
Ten minutes later they used Floo Powder to go to Dumbledore's office. The three men were all tired looking but resolved to go help Dumbledore. Sirius and James stood between Remus and made sure he didn't trip or anything, he was still weary from the transformation.
In his office, Dumbledore sat at his desk waiting for them. He looked weary and heavy with age.
"I thank you for coming. Beauxbatons has been attacked and it seems Voldemort put charms on the gates so that none can enter."
"Why would he do that sir?" James asked.
"Think of all those parents who don't know if their children are alive," Dumbledore said solemnly. "It was his way of creating more chaos and if anyone did make it out alive after the attack, if no one can get in there, they might still die."
"And how are we going to get in there?" asked Sirius.
"When the war became, the Headmasters of each school created Portkeys for the other schools. We promised each other that in the chance that their school was attacked, we would do all we could. I didn't know of this attack though."
"We are with you sir," James told him and he grabbed hold of the Portkey as did Sirius and Remus.
With the familiar pull behind the navel, they appeared at the front doors of Beauxbatons. The school, as James saw it looked smaller than Hogwarts. The grounds around it were all burned, but James was sure that before the attack it had been nice and welcoming. The doors were another story though, they weren't there. They were in pieces where the doors should have been. Dumbledore didn't look surprised. The Marauders looked at the pieces of doors, it was foreshadowing to what they were going to see.
"Let's go," Dumbledore took out his wand and the Marauders followed suit.
They went inside, right inside the doors was a body with white hair. His wand arm was outstretched and he was laying on his stomach. Dumbledore rushed over to him and turned him over.
"It's the Headmaster," Dumbledore bowed his head. He checked for a pulse but he knew there wouldn't be one. The Marauders stood by watching. Dumbledore looked at the dead face of the Headmaster. Dumbledore stood back up, he seemed reluctant to go though.
"Let's go sir," James put a hand on Dumbledore's shoulder. "I know he was your friend."
"We fought together against Grindelward." Dumbledore nodded. "He was a fine man, a great fighter and a respected Headmaster." They looked at the Death Eaters in the area. "He didn't go down without a fight." He took a few steps back. "Let's go look for any children who are still alive, it is what he would want."
They went down the hall. Dumbledore knew his way around the school. It was a sickening sight, Death Eaters, teachers, older students were all dead in the halls. Most of them had their wand hand outstretched, they fought until the last second. Looking at the children, James thought of Lily and Harry. He hoped they never would have to see anything like this.
They were going down a hall of classrooms when James thought he heard a noise coming from inside one of the classrooms. He stopped and listened. It was soft noise, like whispering. The others stopped and turned to look at him. "James."
"Shhh." He told Sirius. He kept listening. He heard it again. There was a classroom door to his left. He walked over to it and found it locked. He unlocked it with his wand. Sirius, Dumbledore and Remus came over and went in after him. The room was empty, James discovered as his eyes scanned the room. There was a closet in the back though, and its door shook a little bit. James walked over it to slowly and quietly. He knocked on the door softly and at once the whispering stopped.
"I'm not going to hurt you," James said in a calming voice. "I'm going to open the door now."
He grabbed the handle and opened it very slowly. As the door opened, someone inside gave a little scream. "My name is James Potter." He opened the door more widely. There stood two children, a girl and a boy about 16 years old.
"Hello, are you hurt?" James asked.
Sirius, Dumbledore and Remus came up behind him.
"You are safe now, no one here will hurt you," Sirius said calmly.
The two teenagers came out of the closet with 5 smaller children clinging onto them.
"Il… he told us to hide en here, when le men came," the boy stammered in a mixture of French and English.
"A man in black," the girl said.
"A man in black told you to hide in here?" James looked back at Dumbledore.
The two nodded, "Il was nervous, et he spoke softly."
James went over to Dumbledore, "A Death Eater it sounds like helped them. How could that be?"
Dumbledore shook his head, "I don't know, I don't have a spy in the ranks right now. It doesn't make sense."
"I know," James looked back at the children. "I say we keep looking to see if this mystery Death Eaters has left any more surprises."
"Children," Dumbledore spoke to them. He pointed his wand at a table and food appeared. "Please stay here, and eat up. We will be back to get you."
They nodded their thanks and the Marauders left with Dumbledore. Back in the hallway they looked at each other, what Death Eater would help them?
They wandered around the school for hours. Dumbledore directed them to the 3 towers where the students lived. They found 5 more groups of students, who were told to hide. In the towers they found about 150 students dead. That was the worst for the Marauders, the innocents in the world, the ones who did not know what actually happened in war. They were just children, not even of age, unable to defend themselves.
They were near the Charms classrooms when Dumbledore heard muttering. Thinking it was another group of students they went in slowly and quietly, as to not startle them. But inside, they found not students, but a teacher on the ground, laying in a puddle of her own blood.
They knelt by her and checked for injuries. It was obvious she had been hit with the Cruciatus Curse a few times. She had also been physically beaten.
"The students…" she whispered. Dumbledore put bandages around her leg and arm. "They… they took them."
"Took them… who, where?" James asked in her in a hurry.
"Group of Death Eaters… no idea where. You must… save them," she closed her eyes a few times.
"Is she going to die?" Sirius whispered to Dumbledore.
He shook his head, "I'm sending you to St. Mungo's in England." He told her. He looked at the Marauders, "I always keep one of those on me." He forced a newspaper into her arm, muttered a word and she was gone.
"I thought you couldn't do stuff like that inside schools," James looked at Dumbledore. "Aren't there wards and stuff."
"Wards can be moved," Dumbledore smiled at them. "And then of course replaced."
"I knew there was too few students in this school," Remus shook his head. "We have to find them."
"If they are still alive," Sirius sighed.
It was late when they left. As they stood at the front doors, they saw people coming up the grounds.
"Ah they must have gotten through the wards," Dumbledore smiled.
"Sir, why didn't we help them get through?" James asked.
"The children come first. I promised both Headmasters that I would use the Portkey is make sure the children were all right. If I spent time trying to get through the wards, well I don't know how long that would have taken me."
"You got through the wards a the Ministry in about 5 seconds," Sirius said.
"Ah yes, but those were done in a hurry," Dumbledore pointed out. "I'm sure he spent time doing those wards. I'm sure he wanted to trick me, he never knew about the Portkeys."
The French Ministry workers came up to them.
"The survivors are in the hall," Dumbledore told them. "One of the teachers I transferred to St. Mungos, good day gentlemen."
Dumbledore took the Portkey back to Hogwarts. James, Sirius and Remus walked to the gates and disapparted back to the Potter Mansion. They didn't talk as they made their way to the Mansion, what was there to say? They had just seen hundreds of dead people, who fought until their death. They had seen innocent children dead in their dorms, innocents, little children, if they all made it out of the war with their sanity, it would be a miracle.
In the house Lily greeted them at the doors. James hugged at her once and she didn't ask what they had seen. Instead she pointed at a letter that bore his name. James took the letter and opened it. He didn't recognize the handwriting.
"I know here the students from Beauxtons are. Come to the Leaky Cauldron this Friday at 8:30am. I will be in the back reading the Daily Prophet, wearing black robes and drinking tea. Come alone, tell no one about this. Don't be late."
James put the letter in his pocket and just smiled at them who had been watching him read the letter. He couldn't wait until Friday to hear what this man had to say. Of course it could be a trap, but he would worry about that when it came.
