I'm sorry for the delay! I've been really busy with school and soccer, and I've gone away the past two weekends. Anyway, thanks for the reviews!
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The Marauders, Lily, and Rebecca walked silently through the corridors, too nervous to speak.
Finally, James broke the silence. "How the fuck did he know it was us?" he shouted, more to himself than to the others.
"Malfoy and Snape probably told them," Lily said, just realizing that they would have gotten caught no matter how successfully they did it, because the teachers were bound to ask Malfoy and Snape who had done such horrible things to them.
"No, that can't be it, Sirius put a memory charm on them right before we summoned the cloak."
"You're so smart," Rebecca sighed, wrapping her arms around Sirius.
Sirius grinned and kissed her.
"Can you please do that ANOTHER time, we're about to be expelled." Peter snapped, rolling his eyes.
"Come on, let's go," Remus sighed, "we better not piss off Dumbledore even more by being late."
When they finally reached the stone gargoyle, Sirius realized that they didn't know this years password, not having gotten into serious enough trouble to be sent to the Head's office yet this year, and kicked the wall in frustration. "He forgot to tell us the new password!" he shouted.
"Bertie Bott's Beans" Lily and James said in unison. The stone gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside.
"How'd you know that?" Peter asked them, confused.
"We're Head Boy and Girl you stupid git!" James said, as he and Lily stepped onto the revolving staircase. The rest of the group followed.
They got to the top of the staircase, and knocked.
Dumbledore opened the door, looking unusually grave. "Sit down," he said when they entered, pointing to six chairs in front of his desk. Once they sat down, he began to speak.
"I seem to remember telling the four of you at the end of last year that if this rivalry between you and Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Snape didn't stop, there would be some serious consequences," he said to the Marauders.
They all nodded, looking at the floor.
"And this year it is worse than ever, now with Ms. Evans and Ms. Newman involved. What you did to them tonight, was far worse than anything you've done to them in the past."
"What they did to Rebecca was far worse than anything they've done in the past! And it was a lot worse than what we did to them tonight!" Sirius shouted losing his temper, "And all they got was a bloody detention! Do you not understand how much pain they caused her? They almost killed her!"
"Silence, Mr. Black," Dumbledore said calmly. "Dark Magic is not permitted in my school, but it was the first time they have done it, and everybody makes mistakes when provoked. Even so, they have detention four days a week for the rest of the year, and the three days they have off will be spent doing the homework and studying that they couldn't do the days they had detention. This year will not be enjoyable for them at all. They are required to leave during the winter and spring breaks, so they will not have any free time for the rest of their time in this castle. I for one think that that's just as bad as being expelled."
"You can't do that to us!" Lily cried, now getting angry too, "They deserved everything we did to them! They killed James' parents, and then they tried to kill Becca. They're Death Eaters!"
"Ms. Evans, that is an unfounded accusation. I will not tolerate that." Dumbledore said calmly.
"Unfounded? WHERE DO YOU THINK THEY LEARNED THE DARK MAGIC? FROM VOLDEMORT!"
Peter flinched as Remus said Voldemort's name, and everybody stared. He blushed and looked down at his knees.
"Will the six of you PLEASE stop interrupting me." Dumbledore shouted, jumping up from his seat.
The Marauders and the girls cowered in their chairs. It was the first time any of them had ever seen Dumbledore lose his temper like that.
"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued as he sat down, now back to using his usual calm voice. "You will not be punished as severely as Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Snape. You will have detention four days a week, but only for the next three months. In addition to that, you are banned from all future Hogsmeade visits, and 100 points will be taken from Gryffindor. Mr. Potter, you are still allowed to be on the quidditch team, but since you will be unable to attend four practices a week, you are temporarily no longer the captain of Gryffindor. The title will be given back to you once you have completed your detentions. I must warn you, that if this rivalry does not end today, every one of you will face expulsion from my school. You may go."
The six of them got up and left Dumbledore's office. Once they were a few corridors away, James and Sirius sighed in relief.
"Wow, we got lucky." James said wrapping his arm around Lily's waist. "We can still go to Hogsmeade any time we want, we just have to be extra careful now. I can easily win back those 100 points at our first match, and I'll still get to be captain for most of the year. It's like we weren't even punished at all."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Lily cried. "We're having enough trouble keeping up with homework as it is, now we have to add in detentions four nights a week? It's going to be impossible!"
"Lily, James is used to balancing homework with detention. Him and Sirius have had it almost every night since first year." Remus sighed.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon enough," Sirius said, taking Rebecca's hand in his. "You guys go ahead, we'll meet up with you in a bit. I have to…er...talk to Becca."
He started to lead her towards an empty classroom, but they had barely taken two steps when an owl swooped in through the open window and landed in front of Rebecca. She took the letter and turned it over.
"It's a letter from the ministry," she whispered," her heart pounding in her chest.
Don't worry," James said in a higher voice than usual, "open it up. It's probably n-nothing bad."
"It better not be," Lily thought to herself. "I don't know how much more bad news we can take.
Rebecca carefully slit the envelope open, and took out the parchment inside. She unfolded it slowly, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Slowly, she opened her eyes began to read.
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Ok I don't want to make any promises that I might not be able to keep, So I'll say this…the next chapter will PROBABLY be up by Saturday night. It might even be sooner than that but I don't know. Please Review! It'll encourage me to write faster lol.