Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize as someone else's.
A/N: I realize that I had Ron and Hermione as kinda boyfriend/girlfriend earlier. I'm going to start continuing with that.
White.
Sirius and Cadance saw nothing more. When they orbed in, they slammed into a white floor. They looked up and saw a white wall and a white ceiling. They got up. "Where do we go now?" asked Sirius.
"This way," said Cadance. She pointed down a corridor. They walked down it. The only sound was that of their boots hitting on the white floor. Eventually, they came to a white door. Inscribed across the top of the frame were the words: Thgil folic nuoca siereh.
"Shall we go in?" asked Sirius.
"You first," said Cadance. Sirius went forward. Cadance was close behind. She was clutching his arm.
"Scared?" asked Sirius with his hand on the doorknob.
"Just a little," said Cadance.
Sirius took his hand off the doorknob and turned around. "Now wait a minute. You fight countless amounts of demons yet you're afraid for what's behind this door?"
"I'm not all that fond of White Lighters and if you would read what's written above the door you'd know that behind it there's a whole council of them," said Cadance.
Sirius stepped back and looked at the writing. "I can't read it. I don't understand Spanish," he said.
Cadance rolled her eyes. "Spanish. Right. Let's just go in." She clutched his arm again. Sirius opened the door and they walked in.
The door led into a white room and seated at a white table in white chairs were seven white-robed people; four men and three women. They were the White Lighter Council; the Powers that Be.
"Who are you?" asked one as he jumped to his feet.
"I'm Sirius Black," said Sirius. "And the crazed maniac behind me is."
"Cadance Dumbledore," finished another council member. "I can tell by your eyes. Only a Dumbledore has eyes as blue as yours. You can't be Albus and young Jennifer has more sense than to steal a White Lighter's powers."
"You certainly know how to dish out compliments," said Cadance still clutching Sirius's arm.
"Now Mr. Black and Ms. Dumbledore," said a council member. "Why have you graced us with your presence?"
"My godson," said Sirius as he took a step forward. "He's hurt bad."
"We are aware of Mr. Potter's condition," said the first council member as he sat down again.
"You have to help him," said Cadance.
"As Head of the White Lighter Council," said one of the women. "I must say that we don't have to do anything."
"But Harry is meant to defeat Lord Voldemort. If he dies the whole wizarding world is in trouble. No one else has the power to do it," said Cadance. "Now I don't like any of you at all. You've sent White Lighter after White Lighter to try to get me to follow orders. I never learned. So ordering us out right now isn't going to do you much good. Maybe you should just dispatch Harry's White Lighter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We're not leaving until you agree to help us."
"You have been a thorn in our side ever since you were a little girl," said the Head White Lighter.
"Thank you," replied Cadance. "Now are you going to give us what we came for?"
"Absolutely not," she said.
"Listen," said Cadance. "You have let a lot get taken from me. I have never asked you for anything. I accept that you all suck and don't live up to your job of protecting people. And I never asked for any pay back for what got taken from me. Well now I am. I want what you owe me for making me lose so much."
The Head of the Council nodded to the White Lighter on the end. The White Lighter stood up and walked briskly out of the room. "We will grant your request. My fellow councilwoman is fetching the two White Lighters that you seek."
"Two?" questioned Sirius. "We only need Harry's."
"But of course. Mr. Potter has two White Lighters," said a Councilman. "He has needed a lot of help over the years. He's not the only one. At one point it took five White Lighters to keep track of you and your. mischief, Cadance."
"So I'm the biggest nuisance to this council?" asked Cadance.
"To put it frankly, yes," said the Head White Lighter. "You don't follow orders, you break rules, you have no respect for this council. A good portion of the White Lighters got together and agreed not to work with you any more. Now the only two that will keep track of you are the same two that Mr. Potter has."
"YES! I WIN! I'M THE MOST ANNOYING!" exclaimed Cadance. "All those years of breaking rules have finally paid off!" She realized that she was still hanging on to Sirius and let go.
"You mean you've been trying to annoy us?" asked a Council Member.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it trying. Being annoying comes naturally for me. I did learn from the best, after all," she said throwing a sideways glance at Sirius.
Then, they heard footsteps coming down the hall. They turned and looked at the door. The door swung open. Cadance grabbed onto Sirius arm again. The councilwoman that had left led in two white-robed people.
"JAMES! LILY!"
"SIRIUS! CADANCE!"
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
"What are you doing here!?" exclaimed James.
"I suppose we should ask you the same question," said Sirius.
"We're White Lighters now," said Lily.
"I suppose this is my punishment for having issues with White Lighters," said Cadance.
"What are you doing here?" reiterated James.
"Is there something wrong?" asked Lily seeing the worry in their eyes.
Cadance and Sirius exchanged a look. "It's Harry isn't it?" asked James.
The Head White lighter stood up. "Go now to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You have exactly three hours and then you will need to come back up. You are not to leave Hogwarts. This is a one time only thing so don't expect to be going down to earth all the time," she said. "And Cadance? No funny business. We're watching you."
"Oh I'm shaking in my little Auror boots," said Cadance rolling her eyes. "Let's go."
In a swirl of white lights, the four people disappeared.
.and reappeared in the Hospital Wing. Cadance finally let go of Sirius's arm as Lily and James ran over to Harry's bed. They grabbed each other's hand and they each put their free hand over Harry. White Light emitted from it. Harry's eyes fluttered open.
"Mom? Dad?"
Lily and James just smiled at their son. Cadance waved her hand and two chairs appeared for Lily and James to sit in by Harry's bed. "You've just been given three more hours with your son," said Cadance.
Sirius and Cadance left the Hospital Wing. They headed toward Dumbledore's office. "I'm beginning to fell sorry for disliking White Lighters," said Cadance. Sirius snorted.
They reached the Stone Gargoyle. "Lemon custard," said Cadance. The Gargoyle sprang aside. They walked up the stairs and opened the door. Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore were still talking to Malfoy. Sam, the White Lighter, was in the corner in a chair.
"Where's my powers?" he asked.
"Hello, Sam. How are you? That's great. So nice to see you," said Cadance. "Chill. I have your powers." She held her hand out and the white bead of light emitted from it. Sam touched it. Thank you.
"Is there any particular reason that you're here?" asked Dumbledore. "We're a bit busy at the moment."
"Oh, this is important, I assure you," said Cadance.
"Mr. Malfoy, you can go back to your Common Room," said Dumbledore.
Malfoy practically jumped out of the chair and ran out of the office.
"Whatever is so important that you couldn't wait to tell me about it?" asked Dumbledore.
"James and Lily," said Sirius.
"What about them?" asked McGonagall.
"They're here," said Cadance.
"Here?" asked McGonagall.
"Yes," said Sirius.
"Right now?"
"Yes, right now," confirmed Sirius.
"Ghosts?"
"White Lighters," said Cadance.
"White Lighters?"
"White Lighters. Harry's White Lighters to be exact," said Sirius.
"This is a strange turn of events," said Dumbledore.
"They were granted three hours on earth," said Cadance.
"But it's more like 2 hours and forty-five minutes now," said Sirius.
"We'll give them an hour or so with their son but I would like to speak with them," said Dumbledore.
"I think we all would," said Sirius.
"Someone should go to the Gryffindor Common Room to tell the Gryffindors that Harry's. alive," said Cadance.
"So he's alive then?" asked Dumbledore.
"He has two White Lighters with him," said Cadance. "I would think that the answer would be obvious."
"Oh, she's got you there," said Sirius.
"Shut up, Sirius," said Cadance.
"Shutting up," said Sirius.
"Cadance just go tell the Gryffindors that Harry's alive," said McGonagall. "We don't want you two to start fighting again."
"Oh, didn't we tell you? We made up again," said Cadance resting an elbow on Sirius's shoulder.
McGonagall shook her head and rolled her eyes as Cadance left the office. Cadance was walking towards the Gryffindor Common Room when a hand clamped over he mouth and she was dragged into the shadows.
"Charlie! What are you doing!?" exclaimed Cadance when her mouth was uncovered.
"Shhh!" whispered Charlie. "You pissed off a Death Eater, you know that, Cadance?"
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" whispered Cadance.
"I came back because I forgot my cloak and Ron told me that he had just heard Malfoy tell those stupid friends of his that his father was pissed off because Dumbledore contacted him about the Quidditch incident. He's here now. Apparently, Malfoy told his father that you tried to get him expelled. He's pissed and looking for you," whispered Charlie.
"I'm not scared of Lucius Malfoy," said Cadance.
"I'll put that on your tombstone," said Charlie. "Now, you're coming with me."
"The only place I'm going is Gryffindor Tower," said Cadance as she moved to leave the shadows where Charlie had pulled her.
"Well that's where I was planning to take you anyway," said Charlie.
"You're crazy," said Cadance. "You know that, don't you?"
In reply, Charlie picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.
"CHARLIE!"
"Yes?"
"PUT ME DOWN!"
"I will when we get to Gryffindor Tower," said Charlie. Cadance was kicking and fighting him all the way. He said the password to the Gryffindor Common Room and the Portrait Hole swung aside. He carried her in and dropped her on the couch.
"Charlie, what are you doing?" asked Jen from over the book she was reading in the armchair in the corner.
"Committing a felony," said Charlie.
"A felony?" asked George who was listening across the room.
"I'm Cadance-napping," said Charlie as if it were obvious.
Cadance got up and smacked Charlie on the head. "Owwwww!" he exclaimed. "What was that for?"
"Being a Cadance-napper," said Cadance. "You're a bad, bad man."
"Do you want to see how bad I am?" asked Charlie. "I can throw you out of that window there."
"You wouldn't dare," said Cadance.
"I thought you liked being a projectile out of an open window," said Charlie.
"Only when there's a lake below me," said Cadance.
"You're both weird," said Jen. "And where have you been, Cadance. I snuck out of the Common Room earlier to find you but I couldn't."
"Sirius and I borrowed. BORROWED, NOT STOLE. a White Lighter's powers and orbed up there," she said indicating upward, "and we talked to White Lighters and we found out that I'm really annoying to the Council."
"Congratulations," said Fred. "You've finally achieved what you've been aiming to do since you were, like, nine."
"Thank you," said Cadance. "And I hope that you've all been behaving because McGonagall's on the rampage."
"We've just been sitting here worrying about Harry," said Ginny. Most of the Common Room nodded in agreement.
"Oh! I forgot to tell you! The reason that Sirius and I went to see the Council was because we wanted to get Harry's White Lighters and we did so now he's alive and awake," said Cadance. "But you can't go see him now because his White Lighters are with him."
"What difference does that make?" asked Ron who had stood up and was making for the Portrait Hole.
"Well, don't you think he ought to have some time alone with them?" asked Cadance.
"Why?" asked Hermione.
"Oh. That's the best part. They're his parents," said Cadance. "So now I'm going off to do Lord knows what until my uncle will let us go disturb them."
"No you're not," said Charlie.
"Yes. I am," said Cadance and she waved her hand and froze Charlie. "Give me a five minute head start then unfreeze him, Jen."
And with that, she raced out of the Common Room and ran into her classroom. She sat at her desk and started working on her lesson plans. Charlie walked in grinning evilly. "Hello, Cadance," he said.
"Oh that was so not a five minute head start!" exclaimed Cadance.
Charlie went and stood behind her with his hands on the back of her chair. "You're an annoyingly sneaky person, you know that," he said.
Cadance was about to reply when the door to her classroom was kicked (yes, kicked) open. Lucius Malfoy strode in very angrily. "Dumbledore. I want to talk to you," he said.
"Really? That's odd because I don't really want to talk to you," replied Cadance.
"You tried to get my son expelled," said Lucius.
"Yes I did," said Cadance her hand slid into her pocket and closed around her wand. just in case.
"Nobody expels a Malfoy," he replied narrowing his eyes at her.
"Well maybe someone should," said Cadance. "What your son did was totally uncalled for."
"He was just playing the game," replied Malfoy.
"That's the point. They were just playing a game," said Cadance.
"It was an accident," said Lucius.
"It was deliberate. You weren't there so you wouldn't know," said Cadance. "Although, you would know that he was supposed to say that it was an accident. You were the one who told him to do it, weren't you. You and Voldemort knew that Aurors would be guarding the Pitch so Death Eaters couldn't attack but if your son were to knock Harry off of his broom it could look like an accident."
"Prove it," said Malfoy.
"I won't be able to do that unless your son confesses," said Cadance. "But watch out. Death Eater."
As soon as the words left Cadance's mouth, Malfoy had pulled out his wand and pointed it at Cadance. But both Cadance and Charlie were just as fast and they both had their wands out as well. "Just get out of here, Malfoy," said Cadance as she stood up. Malfoy lowered his wand and turned around. Both Cadance and Charlie lowered their wands. Malfoy turned on his heel and raised his wand again as soon as he knew their wands were down. He sent a blast their way. Charlie grabbed Cadance and threw her to the floor, landing next to her. The blast left scorch marks on the wall behind them.
"I told you so," said Charlie. They both got up, but Malfoy had gone. Cadance waved her wand and the scorch marks disappeared. "So are you going to report him?"
"No," said Cadance. "I couldn't without reporting myself. I did provoke him, after all. It's a good thing that Jen unfroze you early though. Thank you."
"No problem," said Charlie. "That's what I'm here for. You know, I have less excitement at work even when one of the dragons are loose."
"Shutup, Charlie," said Cadance.
* * * Twenty minutes later, Cadance and Charlie were walking to the Hospital Wing. Lily and James only had about two hours left on earth. Cadance and Charlie were going to see them. They also wanted to see how Harry was doing. They walked into the Hospital Wing. "Did you miss me?" asked Cadance.
Lily and James looked behind them to see Cadance and Charlie standing there grinning like Cheshire Cats. "Cadance Dumbledore and Charlie Weasley, you've just had a bit of an adventure. You both have that look in your eyes; the one you both get after pulling some prank," said Lily. James jumped out of his chair just in case they did the old exploding chair trick.
"You bet they had an adventure," said a voice from the doorway. Sirius and Remus were walking into the Hospital Wing. It was Sirius who had spoken. "Dumbledore just told us that you two just had a run-in with Lucius Malfoy."
"Now, how did he know that?" asked Charlie.
"It's one of the mysteries of life," said Cadance. "Just like how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop."
"Three!" exclaimed Sirius.
"Sirius, were you born this weird or did that just come with age?" asked Harry.
"The world may never know," answered Remus.
"You're all nuts," said James.
"Thank you," said Sirius.
"I think Jen just said the exact same thing to Charlie and I a half hour ago," said Cadance.
"Why am I not surprised?" said Lily.
"Actually, Cadance, I believe that she called you weird, not nuts," said Charlie.
"Actually, Charlie, I believe that the statement that she made was directed towards both of us," argued Cadance.
"It couldn't have been because you're the only weird one I see here," said Charlie.
"Do you wanna take this outside?" asked Cadance.
"Sure," said Charlie. He grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder again. "The Cadance-napper strikes again!" he exclaimed while carrying a struggling Cadance out of the Hospital Wing.
"And to think that Albus raised her," said Lily.
"I think he did a pretty good job," said Sirius.
"You have to think that. She got you out of Azkaban," pointed out Harry.
"I'm only saying that she grew up to be crazy, outgoing, and argumentative instead of wise and good-natured," said Sirius.
"I'm wise and good-natured in my own way!" called Cadance from the hallway.
"Cadance, what are you doing?" called Remus.
"Sword fighting!"
"What a peaceful solution to their argument," said James.
"I think that the people from Star Wars call it aggressive negotiations, dear," said Lily.
"So how are you feeling, Harry?" asked Sirius.
"Fine," said Harry.
"Well you won't be once you see your O.W.L.s. They're sitting in Dumbledore's office. The Ministry just sent them over. They're hard," said Sirius.
"Thanks, Sirius. You're really reassuring," said Harry.
"What were you doing looking at the O.W.L.s?" asked James suspiciously.
"One just kind of fell off Dumbledore's desk and I, being the courteous person that I am, picked it up. I accidentally looked at it," said Sirius. "I'm shocked that you would accuse me of purposely looking through private papers from the Ministry."
"I'm sure Cadance will sneak a copy and secretly feed the Gryffindors the answers during class," said Remus.
"Things are always hectic when she's around," said Harry. "On our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class she told us to duel each other and she sat there with this amused look on her face. And yesterday she and Cati Nuperson flooded the Common Room during a prank war with the Weasley twins. Then they jumped out of a window and into the lake to escape McGonagall's wrath."
"Flooded the Common Room?" asked James. "Amateur."
"James, Sirius, the rat, and I flooded the entire Great Hall as our 7th Year end of the year prank," said Remus.
"Only they suffered McGonagall's wrath because they needed the detention to break the former detention record," said Lily.
"What other stupid things did you do when you were in school?" asked Harry.
"They tried to blow up the dungeons so they wouldn't have to take their potions finals one year," said Lily. "And they predicted Professor Trelawney's death once."
"And don't forget all the stupid things we used to carry on conversations about," said James.
"Like why there are no girl Jedi," said Remus. "And if the Brady Bunch were stranded on a desert island, who would they eat first?"
"Bobby. He's so pathetic that he never won a trophy," said James.
"No way," said Remus. "It would be 'Marsha, Marsha, Marsha', to quote Jan. She's the most egotistical of all of them. They'd get tired of listening to her sing her own praises."
"Uh-uh," said Sirius. "You're both wrong. They'd eat Alice first because she's not family."
"He's got a point," said James.
"Yeah, but if they were smart they'd ask her how she should prepare herself," said Remus.
"Do you see what I put up with?" asked Lily to Harry.
"I pity you, mum," said Harry.
"Just add Cadance in there and you've got a circus sideshow," said Lily. "What with these three discussing a carnivorous Brady Bunch and Cadance jumping up and down trying to hit her head off the ceiling."
"She only did that once," said Remus.
"Yeah," agreed James. "Then I told her that if she jumped on the bed she'd get higher."
"What happened?" asked Harry.
"She fell off of the bed, hit her head on the floor and forgot that she wanted to hit her head off of the ceiling," said James.
"We were responsible babysitters," said Lily.
"Well," began Sirius. "At least now we know how she got so." He paused to think of the word.
"Crazy!" finished Cadance from the hallway.
"Exactly. She just hit her head one too many times," said Sirius.
"Thank you for clearing that up for me," said a voice from the doorway. Dumbledore was standing there. He walked into the Hospital Wing.
"Wait a minute. You were not standing there a second ago," said Sirius. "How did you do that?"
"Sirius, you're an idiot," said James.
"I thought that we already established that a long time ago," said Sirius. "In our first year right after we all got sorted and I threw that dung bomb at the Head Table."
"And it hit Professor McGonagall in the head!" finished Remus.
"I remember that!" exclaimed James.
"And so does Professor McGonagall I'm sure," said Dumbledore. "Lily, James, it's so nice to see you again."
"That's an understatement!" called Cadance.
"How come we don't hear Charlie calling stuff in to us!" called Remus.
"You didn't kill him, did you?!" asked Sirius.
"No! I'm just kicking his butt and he's too mad to talk!"
"What!" exclaimed Charlie. "That's a load of."
"Charlie! Watch your language!" exclaimed Cadance.
"She's been spending too much time with McGonagall," said Sirius.
"Ha! I win!" exclaimed Charlie.
"Shut up, Charlie."
Cadance and Charlie came walking back into the Hospital Wing. "That was fun," said Cadance.
"You two are lucky Professor McGonagall didn't catch you," said Dumbledore. "She'd skin you alive. Especially after what Cati and you did to the Gryffindor Common Room yesterday."
"Oh c'mon! Don't tell me that you didn't find that amusing," said Cadance.
"Oh I found it quite amusing. Professor McGonagall, however, did not," said Dumbledore. He turned his attention to Harry. "Well, Harry. I don't see why you should have to stay the night in the Hospital Wing. I'll converse with Madame Pomfrey about having you discharged instantaneously."
"Quick! I need someone who speaks Dumbledore to translate A.S.A.P.!" exclaimed Sirius.
"He said that he's going to talk to Madame Pomfrey about having Harry released immediately," said Cadance.
"Oh."
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore," said Harry.
"Don't mention it, Harry. You're all healed so there's no reason for you to stay anyway," said Dumbledore.
"That's good. That means I'll get out before Madame Pomfrey shoves any medicine down my throat," said Harry.
"I'll tell you a secret," said Cadance. "The medicine; it doesn't do anything. I've done extensive study on the topic."
"Give me a break," said James as Dumbledore went off to find Madame Pomfrey.
"Give me a break! Give me a break! Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar!" sang Sirius crazily. (A/N: Thank you, Pheebs.)
"Okay," said Lily. "No more sugar for you."
"Hey, I just got a crazy idea," said Sirius grinning evilly.
"I'm surprised that your brain was a able to formulate an idea at all," said Lily.
"Oh, that's good. Can I use that sometime?" asked Cadance.
"Sure," said Lily.
"Hey! Doesn't anyone want to hear my idea?" asked Sirius.
"We're listening," said Remus.
"Let's all go torture Snape!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed James. "Let's go torture Snape!"
"I'll pass. I have to work with that man and I don't want to be caught by Minerva," said Cadance. "The last time I pulled a prank on Snape I was able to beat your detention record and she's so mad right now that I wouldn't put it past her to give me more detentions even though I don't go to school anymore."
"Well, I'm in," said Remus.
"What do you say, Lils?" asked James. "Let's take our son for an adventure Marauder style."
"Well now that you put it that way I can't refuse," said Lily.
"I know that's why I did it," said James.
"Why did I marry you?" asked Lily.
"Because you love me," said James.
"Oh yeah, I forgot for a moment," said Lily.
"Well try not to forget again," said James.
"I won't, dear," said Lily as she kissed him.
"Ewwwwwww," said Sirius and Harry at the same time.
"Get a room," said Cadance. "Okay, I'm going to get as far away from you as possible before I get blamed for pulling the prank on Snape. If you're on the run from Minerva, go to her office and jump out of her window. The lake is right below. It's the best get-away plan. Meanwhile, I'm going to go and keep up my title of 'Most Annoying to the Powers That Be' and plot against them."
"Yeah, or you can just come with me so I can kick your butt in sword fighting again," said Charlie.
"You wish," said Cadance.
"You know, the lake is right below this window, too," said Charlie.
"Uh oh," said Cadance as she bolted out of the Hospital Wing.
Charlie ran out right behind her. "You're going into the lake, Cadance!"
Dumbledore walked in just as Charlie was running out. "You're all clear, Harry. You're free to leave any time you feel ready," he said.
"I'm ready now," said Harry jumping out of bed. He found that he was wearing clean robes.
"What are you planning to do with your remaining time together?" asked Dumbledore.
"Uh. Sirius'll tell you later after we're gone and when McGonagall's not around to kill him," said James.
"Shall I go warn Severus?" asked Dumbledore.
"But that would ruin our fun," said James.
"He's probably already expecting something anyway because he knows you're 'visiting' for a while," said Sirius.
Just then the door got kicked open and Charlie was carrying a struggling Cadance in over his shoulder.
"Can someone open the window? My hands are kind of full," said Charlie.
"Allow me," said Sirius as he darted to the window.
"Sirius!" exclaimed Cadance. "Sirius! That's mean!"
"Hmmm. To open the window or not to open the window; that is the questions," said Sirius.
"And the answer is open the window," said James.
"James!" exclaimed Cadance as Sirius opened the window.
"All right, Cadance. Say 'Charlie Weasley is the best' and I won't throw you out of the window," said Charlie.
"Uncle Albus! Please make him stop!" exclaimed Cadance.
"I thought that you liked going swimming," said Dumbledore. His eyes sparkled.
"Charlie, if you throw me out of that window I'll hate you forever," said Cadance.
"No you won't," said Charlie. And with that he threw her out of the window. She hit the lake with a loud splash.
McGonagall was in her office when she heard the splash. She got up from her desk and walked over to her window. She opened it. "Cadance Rose Dumbledore! Evacuate the lake immediately!"
She looked over and saw Charlie laughing and leaning his elbows on the windowsill. "Charlie Weasley! What did you do?!" she asked.
"Sirius was the one who opened the window!" argued Charlie.
"I hate you, Charlie!" exclaimed Cadance as she pulled herself out of the lake.
"No you don't, you love me!" he called down to her.
"You jut wait until I get my hands on the both of you!" called McGonagall.
"What did I do?!" asked Cadance from the side of the lake.
"Don't think that I didn't know that you and Charlie were sword fighting! You don't have to be Albus to be all-knowing!" she answered.
"Minerva, I assure you, I am not all-knowing," said Dumbledore. He came to the window and leaned forward a bit to see McGonagall.
"What on earth are you all doing in the Hospital Wing?" asked McGonagall.
"Throwing Cadance out of the window," said Charlie. "And we're visiting with Lily and James!"
Lily and James went to the window. They leaned out as well. "Hello, Professor!" called James cheerfully.
"James! Lily! How are you doing?" asked McGonagall.
"Just fine. And you?" asked Lily.
"I'd be better if Cadance and Cati would stop pulling pranks and if Cadance and Charlie would stop being utterly noisy. Basically if Cadance would just sit quietly and act sane."
"But being sane is vastly overrated!" argued Cadance from 20 feet below.
"Cadance! Get in here and dry off before you catch a cold!" called McGonagall.
"It's 80 degrees out here! How can I catch a cold?" argued Cadance.
"NOW!"
Cadance gave her a mock salute and marched inside.
McGonagall shook her head and turned back to Lily and James. "How long are you staying for?"
"About another hour and a half before we have to beam back up to the mother ship," said James.
"Well, you have fun. And don't let me catch you playing any pranks on Professor Snape!" she exclaimed. She went back into her office.
"Let's get out of here before Cadance comes back up. She'll be really mad," said James starting for the door. All of the sudden, the door swung open and Cadance was standing there.
"I'm going to kill you, Charlie," she said calmly.
"Uh oh," he said. Cadance proceeded to chase him around the Hospital Wing. James motioned for them to leave before Cadance remembered that they had something to do with her unusual ejection from the castle.
Half an hour later, James, Sirius, and Remus were heading towards the dungeons. "So what prank are we going to play?" asked Sirius. "And why did you have Lily and Harry stay in the Great Hall?"
James just smiled evilly. "You'll see," he said. "Lily knows what to do." They reached the door to Snape's classroom. "Here's what I need you to do."
Outside of the deserted Great Hall, Lily and Harry were standing waiting for the plan to be put into action. "So he'll go in the door and all we have to do now is sit back and watch," Lily explained. "Do you have the Invisibility Cloak to hide under? You can't be seen by Snape or he'll probably give you detention."
Harry nodded his head. They hid behind a suit of armor while they waited. "Let's hope that they can get behind the Head Table before Snape gets in the door otherwise they're going to be in deep shit," said Lily.
"Watch your language, Lily," said Professor McGonagall as she walked pass the suit of armor. She walked about five feet then stopped and turned around. "Lily, what on earth are you and Harry doing hiding behind that suit of armor?"
"Playing hide-and-go-seek," lied Lily.
"When Cadance was nine years old she came to Hogwarts," began McGonagall.
"Oh no! Here it comes! It's a lecture!" exclaimed Lily. "Five Galleons says that it's about how she's not stupid and she knows that I'm lying."
"When Cadance was nine years old she came to Hogwarts," began McGonagall again ignoring her. "I spent a good portion of my time watching her pull pranks, starting when she first stepped onto the grounds and ending. actually it never ended. Anyway, I caught her millions of time. And she would always feed me some fake story. Do you know how many times she told me that she was playing hide-and-go-seek?"
"I was right," said Lily. "You owe me five galleons, Harry."
"Please step out from behind that suit of armor," said Professor McGonagall. "And that wasn't a request, it was an order."
Just then, Charlie went running by with Cadance in close pursuit. "Cadance Rose Dumbledore, don't run in the hallways!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall as she took off in the direction they had taken.
"Remind me to thank Cadance and Charlie later," said Lily to Harry as they got under the Invisibility Cloak to avoid any other situations like the last one.
Two minutes later, Sirius, Remus, and James went running through the doors to the Great Hall. Snape came running behind them. The split-second before Snape set foot in the Great Hall, James, Sirius, and Remus dove behind the Head Table. The second that Snape stepped into the Great Hall he began to rise off of the floor. He floated a full ten feet in the air and just stayed there. Lily and Harry took off the cloak and went to look without going inside. They pretended to act surprised at the site before them as Snape cursed out the three Marauders.
Then, Cadance and Charlie came running down the hall. Cadance ran right past the hall without even looking in but Charlie stopped dead at the sight inside. "Time out!" he called. Cadance stopped and backtracked to where Charlie was standing next to Lily and Harry.
"Whoa! How did you get Snape to laugh?" she asked.
"What?" asked Lily giving her a confused look.
"You got him to float up in the air like that," said Cadance. "Don't you have to laugh uncontrollably to do that?"
"What are you talking about?" asked Charlie.
"I saw it in a movie once," said Cadance.
"No, you see," said Lily. "James, Remus, and Sirius cast a spell on Snape and then lured him to the Great Hall. Meanwhile, I, with Harry's help, put a charm on the Great Hall so that whenever it detected someone with that particular spell cast on them, a Hover Charm would be activated. The area behind the Head Table is a safe zone."
"So, how do they get back out here if they can't step out of the safe zone without rising ten feet off of the ground?" asked Cadance.
"That's a very good question," said Lily. "I suppose we'll have to deactivate the Hover Charm."
"Won't that make Snape fall ten feet to the floor?" asked Cadance.
"Uh oh," said Lily. "JAMES HARRY POTTER! YOU DIDN'T THINK THIS ALL THE WAY THROUGH DID YOU!?!"
"Umm. no, dear," said James.
"HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET SNAPE DOWN!?!"
"I don't actually know," said James over Snape's cursing. James, Sirius, and Remus started all talking at one time trying to figure it out.
"Are you going to let them sit there trying to figure it out?" asked Cadance. "Or do you want me to get him down?"
"Would you?" asked Lily rubbing her temples.
Cadance waved her hand and Snape floated to the ground. Lily performed the counter-charm. Snape proceeded to call the three Marauders names that I wouldn't dare repeat in this fic. They, however, were ignoring him and laughing so hard that they had to hold onto the Head Table to keep from falling over.
McGonagall came walking up to the Great Hall. She tapped Cadance and Charlie on the shoulder. "Okay. I think that some explanations are in order. You see, I caught you two sword fighting. Now you're supposed to be running and hiding to escape my wrath. Did you forget that part?"
"I called time out!" argued Charlie.
"Ha! I beat the system!" exclaimed Cadance. "Someone else pulled a prank and I didn't get caught for it!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Lily.
"When I was in school, whenever someone else would pull a prank I would be around for some reason and I would be the one who got caught. But a pranks was just pulled here and I didn't get caught," said Cadance. "I beat the system!" And with that she took off down the hallway.
"What a loon," said Charlie as he watched Cadance race down the hallway.
"There is no way that she's related to Dumbledore," said Harry shaking his head.
"Maybe the crazy gene is recessive in Albus and unusually dominant in Cadance," offered Lily.
"Perhaps that's it," said Dumbledore. "You're just clearing everything up for me today, aren't you?"
"Professor Dumbledore! What are you doing here?" asked Lily looking nervously into the Great Hall where Snape was still cursing out the three Marauders, who were still laughing at him.
"Cadance came running down the hall screaming about beating the system," said Dumbledore. "I just headed in the direction that she came from and I knew that I would find." his voice faltered as he looked into the Great Hall, "this."
"Just for the record," said Charlie. "I had nothing to do with this. And surprisingly neither did Cadance. We were just running from Professor McGonagall. oh that's right. Excuse me. TIME IN!" And with that he went running off down the hallway. McGonagall took off after him.
"Please excuse me for a moment," said Dumbledore. "I think that Professor Snape needs to get acquainted with a silencing charm before he traumatizes any innocent first years that might happen to walk by." He walked into the Great Hall and waved his wand. Snape's mouth continued to move but no words came out. This sent Remus, James, and Sirius into another fit of laughter.
"Give 'em the ol' maturity lecture, Albus," said Lily.
"Shutup, Lily!" said Sirius. "You know that you were just as much involved in this as we were!"
"Prove it," said Lily grinning wildly. "Come on, Harry." Then she lowered her voice and said, "Let's see what other mischief we can make."
* * * Unfortunately it wasn't to last. With only a half-hour left on earth, Lily and James sat down with Harry, Remus, and Sirius in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. "That was the most fun I've had in ages," said Sirius propping his feet up on one of the desks and balancing on two legs of the chair.
"Us too," said Lily. "It's not much fun up there."
"What do you do up there all day?" asked Remus.
"Nothing. Just wait to be called. And watch our son," said James as he took a seat on a desk. Lily sat next to him.
"You didn't see that one time when I was in my second year and Ron and I crashed a flying car into the Whomping Willow, did you?" asked Harry.
"Oh yeah," said Lily. "No driving until you're sixteen."
"I can live with that," said Harry as the door opened and Charlie and Cadance came in, closing the door behind them.
"Shhh! We're not in here," said Cadance.
"Still running from McGonagall?" asked James.
"No, we're just running for the hell of it," said Cadance sarcastically. "Of course we're running from McGonagall. And at this rate we'll be running all night."
"Why don't you just let yourselves get caught?" asked Sirius. "What's she going to do to you when she catches you? Give you detention?"
"No, it's like a game. Only three more hours of this and then we win and she stops chasing. We never lose," said Cadance. "So we're going to hide here for as long as possible."
"Hey, I just had an interesting idea," said Sirius. "Lily, James, you should go yell at Petunia and Vernon."
"Why?" asked Lily.
"I don't know. Just threaten them a little. Tell them if they don't treat Harry good over the summer you'll come and rip them to pieces," said Sirius.
"There are three things wrong with that plan," said James. "One; we're under strict orders to stay here and I don't want to listen to another lecture. Two; White Lighters are pacifists and therefore we can't rip anyone to pieces."
"Pacifists! You can't fight or threaten or vanquish?!?" exclaimed Cadance.
"Yeah. That's generally the idea be Pacifism," said Lily.
"Oh you poor people," said Cadance. "That's not right."
"What's the third thing wrong with my plan?" asked Sirius.
"You're free so Harry isn't going back to the Dursleys," said James.
"Wrong!" said Cadance. "Sorry. Thanks for playing."
"What do you mean?" asked Lily.
"They wrote to Dumbledore and told him that they're his guardians so he has to send Harry back to them," said Charlie.
"I don't want to go back, but I guess I don't have a choice," said Harry.
"Sucks, don't it?" asked Cadance. "Don't worry. I'm formulating a plan to get him out of it. I actually already came up with one but Sirius and Remus put their foot down on it without even hearing it."
"That wasn't very open-minded of them," said James.
"Hey, she told us that it involved and manticore, some rope, and crawling through the Dursley's ventilation system," argued Sirius.
"And a flying car. Don't forget the flying car," said Cadance.
"Where were you going to find a flying car?" asked Lily.
"The Whomping Willow probably," said James.
"Okay, okay. New plan. We can just go in and kidnap him," said Cadance. "Come on, Charlie. You're a kidnapper."
"Uh. Cadance? It's not kidnapping if I come willingly," said Harry.
"Shutup, Harry," said Cadance.
"Oh, oh! I have a plan," said Sirius.
"Your plans get us in trouble," said James. "Need I remind you about the 'Halloween exploding candle' incident? We were got detention for two weeks and Filch was scraping pumpkin off the walls for weeks."
"So? It was still fun," said Sirius.
"For who?" asked Remus
"Whatever," said Sirius. "Do you want to hear my plan or not?"
"Not, but I think you'll just tell us anyway," said Lily.
"We can tell the Dursleys that Harry died," said Sirius.
They all stared at him blankly. "Actually," said Cadance. "That might work."
"How do you explain to Dumbledore that Harry's not at the Dursleys?" asked Remus.
"Lie," said Sirius.
"No, he'll see right through it," said Lily. "Why don't we tell him that Petunia and Vernon exploded?"
"But that's lying," said Cadance. "Anyway, knowing our luck he'll probably send a fruit basket or something to their son offering his condolences and we'll get a letter from the Dursley's and we'll get busted."
"I have an idea," said Harry. "How about if I just go and not complain about it so we don't have to lie to anyone?"
"That is the stupidest idea I've ever heard," said Sirius. "But I guess that's what we have to do."
"You can't beat the system," said Remus.
"That's not true. I beat the system this afternoon," said Cadance. "Oh, oh! We can blow something up!"
"How would that get Harry out of going to the Dursley's?" asked Sirius. "Unless you blow up the Dursley's house."
"It wouldn't but we'd feel a heck of a lot better," said Cadance.
"Oh that's right. Taunt the pacifists with non-peaceful solutions to problems," said James.
"Sorry," said Cadance. "At least now I know why you White Lighters never show up to Death Eater battles."
"Still haven't resolved your White Lighter issues, Cadance?" asked Lily. "That's okay. Neither have I."
"I'm sorry, but your bosses scare me," said Cadance.
"They're a bunch of old people sitting around in blindingly white robes," said James. "What's so scary about them?"
"I have no idea," said Cadance.
"Women," said James shaking his head. Lily pushed him off the desk. They were laughing over this when, all of a sudden, there was a swirl of white light and the Head Councilwomen was standing in the middle of the room. Cadance grabbed Charlie's arm. "And here's the boogieman now," she said under her breathe.
"Time's up Mr. and Mrs. Potter," she said.
"It can't be," argued Lily. "Just a few more hours, please."
"I'm sorry," she said. "But my word is final."
"You don't sound so sorry," said Cadance. "You're a mean, mean person."
"Am I?" she asked.
"And you're scary, too," said Cadance.
"Scary? That's something I've never been called before," she said.
"Maybe not to your face," said Cadance.
Just then the door opened and Professor McGonagall came in. "Found you! You two are in. who's that?" she asked pointing at the Head Councilwoman.
"Beelzebub," said Cadance.
"No. Really. Who is it?" asked McGonagall.
"Our boss," said James.
"Same thing," said Cadance.
"Ms. Dumbledore, your mouth has gotten you into trouble with us more than once. If you make one more comment, I'll be forced to."
"You'll be forced to what?' asked Cadance. "What are you going to do? You're a pacifist, remember? I, however, am not."
"Cadance, you better leave before you do something we all regret," said Sirius, who noticed that Cadance's hand was heading for her wand.
"I'm not leaving," said Cadance.
"Charlie," said Sirius.
"All right, Cadance. You know the drill," said Charlie. He once again slung Cadance over his shoulder.
"This is really getting old," said Cadance as Charlie walked out of the classroom.
"Don't go far," said Lily. "I have a feeling we're going to have to say good-bye."
"Okay," said Charlie as he closed the door behind him.
"Please," begged James. "Just a little while longer. Please."
"No," she said. "The deal was three hours. And now they're up."
"But you don't understand," said Lily. "Our son."
"No, Mrs. Potter. You don't understand. Contact with this world is forbidden unless in extreme circumstances," she said. "I thought that we were going beyond the call of duty by allowing you to heal your son. But granting you three hours on top of that was most generous."
"And we're very thankful for it, but can we please just have a little more time?" asked James.
"No," said the Head Councilwoman. "That time shall not be granted to you. Now say good-bye and we'll be off."
Then, the door opened and Dumbledore walked in with Cadance and Charlie right behind him. "Look!" cried Cadance joyfully. "We found the voice of reason!"
"Cadance, you've never found the voice of reason," said Charlie. "That's why you're so argumentative." Cadance punched him in the shoulder. "Ow!"
"Do sit down," said Dumbledore smiling sweetly to the Head Councilwoman.
"No," she said. "There is no reasoning with the Council."
"But you must see reason," said Dumbledore.
"No," she said. "And if the two White Lighters don't come with me now, Mr. Potter will be assigned a new White Lighter."
Dumbledore turned to Lily and James. "You better just go with her," he said. "There's no reasoning with this woman."
Lily and James turned to Harry. "This isn't exactly good-bye," said Lily as she and James hugged their son. Then they hugged each of their friends in turn.
"Let's go," said the Councilwoman. She snapped her fingers and she, Lily, and James disappeared in a swirl of White Light.
"So." said Cadance. "Anyone up for a rebellion?"
"Yeah! Let's rebel against the White Lighter Council!" agreed Charlie.
"It'd be, like, an intergalactic rebellion, too," said Remus.
"How star wars of us," said Sirius.
"I forbid you from starting any international rebellions," said Dumbledore.
"Darn," said Cadance. "And it would be so easy to kick their little pacifistic butts, too. They couldn't fight back." She thought for a moment. "Can we form an alliance with a Dark Lighter and have him kick their butts?"
"No," said Dumbledore.
"Oh, that's smart. For an alliance with Voldemort's biggest supporters," said Sirius sarcastically.
"Well, Harry," said Dumbledore. "I suppose you should get back to the Gryffindor Common Room now. Your friends will be worried, as they haven't seen you all afternoon."
Harry nodded then headed for the Gryffindor Common Room.
* * * Later that night, after dinner, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the Common Room talking with Ginny and Jen. Fred and George walked in. "We just got caught by some of those Aurors who are supposed to be protecting us."
"That sucks," said Jen.
Fred and George sat down on the couch. "So who do you think is the hottest girl Auror who's protecting the school?" asked Fred.
"I like the brunette," answered Lee.
"No the blonde's cuter," said George.
"Ron? Harry?" asked Fred. "What do you think?"
They looked at each other then said, "Cati Nuperson."
"Excuse me?" asked Hermione.
"But if you were protecting this school, it would be you. Definitely," said Ron.
"Good boy," said Hermione.
"Nice save, Ron," said Harry. "You don't want to get your girlfriend mad at you. Especially when it's Hermione. She pays such close attention in class that she's mastered every curse and charm that we've ever learned."
"Speaking of curses and charms," said Hermione. "O.W.L.s start on Tuesday after lunch. Professor McGonagall said that it's all written out. There are no practical exams."
"Great," said Harry sarcastically. "Just what I wanted. To sit in a room and write for three hours. Fun, fun, fun."
"Oh, c'mon Harry. We'll do fine. What with all that studying Hermione made us do these last few weeks," said Ron.
"What about those Anti-Cheating Quills they're giving us? I'm beginning to think that these professors don't trust us," said Jen. "It's shocking."
"If you study, you don't have to cheat," said Ginny.
"I hate it when you're right," said Jen.
"Well, what about you Fred? George?" asked Hermione. "You're taking your N.E.W.T.s. Did you study?"
"Of course," replied Fred.
"While everyone was crammed into the library because they thought is was quiet when in fact it was noisier, Fred and I studied in the almost-empty Common Room where it really was quiet," said George.
"It's true," said Jen. "I walked in two days ago and they were studying. I almost dropped dead from shock."
* * * On Tuesday.
"All right," said Professor Flitwick. "You have six hours to complete your O.W.L.s. At the end of that time, I will collect your test booklets and you will be allowed to leave. Begin now."
Harry opened up his test book and began writing. He breezed through Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Potions took him the longest. "Who the hell cares what happens if you mix spiders legs with the powdered horn of a bicorn and the blood of a turkey?" he thought as he quickly wrote down an answer.
After six hours, Professor Flitwick finally stopped them. "Okay," he said. "You're all free to go."
"That wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be," said Hermione as soon as they were outside the classroom.
"Whatever, Hermione," said Harry.
"Well, I didn't spend the whole weekend studying for nothing," said Hermione.
"I think I failed the Potion's part," said Ron.
"You and me both," said Harry.
"Come on," said Hermione. "It's almost dinner time. Let's just go to the Great Hall."
They went into the Great Hall and took a seat. There were only a few people there. They were mostly fifth and seventh years who had gotten done with their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s.
"You know," said Ron. "There is one good things about taking the O.W.L.s. While everyone else is taking their finals this week, we'll be doing nothing."
"That's right," said Harry. "You won't have anything else to worry about for the whole summer. I, on the other hand, have to spend the summer with the Dursleys."
"Look on the bright side Harry," said Ron.
"What bright side?" asked Harry.
Ron thought for a second then said, "I can't see one. I was just trying to cheer you up."
"As much as I appreciate it, stop trying to cheer me up. You're not doing a very good job," said Harry.
At this point, the rest of the students and the professors were starting to file in and dinner began. Ginny and Jen came and took a seat next to Hermione. Jen proceeded to bang her head off the table.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Ron.
"We just had our Potion Final," said Ginny.
"Failed?" asked Harry.
"Yep," said Jen picking her head off of the table. "I just wanted to rid myself of the memory of the experience of being locked in the dungeons with Snape for three hours."
Finally, dinner was served. They all began to pile food on their plates when George said, "Oh my god. Next week is the last week of school."
"That finally dawned on you, Einstein?" asked Angelina Johnson.
"It's our last week of school EVER!" exclaimed George. "After this we're going out in the real world!"
"Well, you knew that you had to be released into the wild someday," said Jen.
"And someday is in two weeks!" exclaimed George.
"George, calm down. You're making a scene," said Ginny.
"I will not calm down! I don't want to go out in the real world! I want to stay here forever!"
"You'll be away from Snape," pointed out Ron.
"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" exclaimed George.
"Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say," said Ron.
* * * "Welcome back, Order," said Dumbledore addressing the Order of the Phoenix two days later. "First, things first. For those of you who were assigned to protect Hogwarts, I have just been informed that if the alarm would go off, signaling a Death Eater attack, you are not to leave Hogwarts to go and fight the Death Eaters. Bob Reynolds feels that it might be a decoy fight to draw Aurors away from Hogwarts so that they could attack it with no problem. Next, as I'm sure most of you have been told, we were lucky enough to have a brief visit from Lily and James. They are White Lighters now."
"Yes, we all heard from Sirius and Remus," said Arabella. "And about the unreasonableness of the Council."
"Unreasonableness?" asked Cadance. "Is that a word? Did you make that up?"
The rest of the meeting was spent discussing what they should do if there was another attack on Hogwarts.
"We have been lucky so far," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort has not attended any attacks so far. But the next time, we might not be so lucky. And the attack he attends, might just be one at Hogwarts." And with that, he closed the meeting.
* * * The next day, towards the end of dinner, the alarm went off. Cadance looked at McGonagall strangely. "A bit early for Death Eater attacks, isn't it?" she asked.
She and McGonagall got up and ran to get on their Auror robes and Apparated to the Auroring Department. They found out where to go and Apparated there. There were a lot of Death Eaters. More and more Death Eaters were appearing by the minute.
"I don't get it!" exclaimed Cadance. "Where do they all come from?! How can Voldemort find so many stupid people on one planet!?!"
The Death Eaters were strong and surprisingly well trained. After six hours of intense battle, it appeared as if the Aurors were losing when all of a sudden, the Death Eaters disappeared. The Aurors looked at each other strangely. "What happened?" asked one Auror aloud. "They could have killed us all but they retreated."
"Don't question a miracle," said another. "We better go report back to the Ministry."
Cadance looked around her. Only about half of the Aurors who had started the battle were still alive. Only a few Death Eaters were dead. None of the Aurors were uninjured. Cadance spotted McGonagall coming towards her. "What the hell happened?" asked Cadance.
"I have no clue. Let's just get out of here," said McGonagall.
About ten minutes later, Dumbledore was hurrying into the Hospital Wing. Cadance and McGonagall were sitting on one of the beds holding icepacks to their heads. "What happened?" he asked. One of the sleeves on McGonagall's robes was torn and there was a bandage across her arm. Cadance's head was bleeding.
"I think we got our butts kicked but I'm not really sure because I hit my head," said Cadance.
"Are you two all right?" he asked.
"Just peachy," said Cadance.
"What happened in the battle?" asked Dumbledore.
"We were losing then the Death Eaters just disappeared. They could have flattened us, but they retreated," said McGonagall.
"That's odd," said Dumbledore. "It must have just been a distraction of some kind. I better go and check with the Arabella to see if anything suspicious happened here."
Madame Pomfrey came bustling in announcing that they were fine and that there was no reason for them to spend the night in the Hospital Wing, since it was just some cuts and bruises. Dumbledore walked with Cadance and McGonagall to their Common Room. They went in to go to bed and Dumbledore continued on to talk to Arabella Figg.
* * * The next morning, most of the students were celebrating because Final Exams were over. Fred, George, and Lee were all discussing their End-of-the-Year Prank. They couldn't agree on what to do. At the Head Table, Cadance and McGonagall, sitting on either side of Dumbledore, both had their heads down on the table and were sleeping, as they hadn't gotten much last night.
Then, a wizard in white Auror's robes rushed in and walked quickly to the Head Table and to Dumbledore. None of the students or the other Professors paid him much notice, though McGonagall and Cadance might have, had they been awake and alert.
The Auror leaned in and whispered something to Dumbledore. His reaction was one that nobody present had ever seen from Dumbledore before. "WHAT!?" he exclaimed. At this Cadance and McGonagall's heads popped up. Cadance screamed and clutched her chest taking deep breaths.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she asked. At this point, every head in the Hall was turned toward Dumbledore.
"I want this castle searched from top to bottom immediately!" Dumbledore told the Auror. "Go down to Hogsmeade and get Arabella Figg. Tell her to get her Aurors up here immediately. Teachers, will you please follow me to the staff room? Students, do not leave this Hall."
The teachers followed Dumbledore out of the Hall and into the staff room. They took a seat at the table. "What's happened?" asked McGonagall when they were all settled.
"Peter Pettigrew escaped from Azkaban some time last night," said Dumbledore. "The guards at Azkaban said that he was talking of seeking revenge at Hogwarts for weeks. He could have come here."
Dun dun dun. Mwahahahahahahahahaha
A/N: I realize that I had Ron and Hermione as kinda boyfriend/girlfriend earlier. I'm going to start continuing with that.
White.
Sirius and Cadance saw nothing more. When they orbed in, they slammed into a white floor. They looked up and saw a white wall and a white ceiling. They got up. "Where do we go now?" asked Sirius.
"This way," said Cadance. She pointed down a corridor. They walked down it. The only sound was that of their boots hitting on the white floor. Eventually, they came to a white door. Inscribed across the top of the frame were the words: Thgil folic nuoca siereh.
"Shall we go in?" asked Sirius.
"You first," said Cadance. Sirius went forward. Cadance was close behind. She was clutching his arm.
"Scared?" asked Sirius with his hand on the doorknob.
"Just a little," said Cadance.
Sirius took his hand off the doorknob and turned around. "Now wait a minute. You fight countless amounts of demons yet you're afraid for what's behind this door?"
"I'm not all that fond of White Lighters and if you would read what's written above the door you'd know that behind it there's a whole council of them," said Cadance.
Sirius stepped back and looked at the writing. "I can't read it. I don't understand Spanish," he said.
Cadance rolled her eyes. "Spanish. Right. Let's just go in." She clutched his arm again. Sirius opened the door and they walked in.
The door led into a white room and seated at a white table in white chairs were seven white-robed people; four men and three women. They were the White Lighter Council; the Powers that Be.
"Who are you?" asked one as he jumped to his feet.
"I'm Sirius Black," said Sirius. "And the crazed maniac behind me is."
"Cadance Dumbledore," finished another council member. "I can tell by your eyes. Only a Dumbledore has eyes as blue as yours. You can't be Albus and young Jennifer has more sense than to steal a White Lighter's powers."
"You certainly know how to dish out compliments," said Cadance still clutching Sirius's arm.
"Now Mr. Black and Ms. Dumbledore," said a council member. "Why have you graced us with your presence?"
"My godson," said Sirius as he took a step forward. "He's hurt bad."
"We are aware of Mr. Potter's condition," said the first council member as he sat down again.
"You have to help him," said Cadance.
"As Head of the White Lighter Council," said one of the women. "I must say that we don't have to do anything."
"But Harry is meant to defeat Lord Voldemort. If he dies the whole wizarding world is in trouble. No one else has the power to do it," said Cadance. "Now I don't like any of you at all. You've sent White Lighter after White Lighter to try to get me to follow orders. I never learned. So ordering us out right now isn't going to do you much good. Maybe you should just dispatch Harry's White Lighter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We're not leaving until you agree to help us."
"You have been a thorn in our side ever since you were a little girl," said the Head White Lighter.
"Thank you," replied Cadance. "Now are you going to give us what we came for?"
"Absolutely not," she said.
"Listen," said Cadance. "You have let a lot get taken from me. I have never asked you for anything. I accept that you all suck and don't live up to your job of protecting people. And I never asked for any pay back for what got taken from me. Well now I am. I want what you owe me for making me lose so much."
The Head of the Council nodded to the White Lighter on the end. The White Lighter stood up and walked briskly out of the room. "We will grant your request. My fellow councilwoman is fetching the two White Lighters that you seek."
"Two?" questioned Sirius. "We only need Harry's."
"But of course. Mr. Potter has two White Lighters," said a Councilman. "He has needed a lot of help over the years. He's not the only one. At one point it took five White Lighters to keep track of you and your. mischief, Cadance."
"So I'm the biggest nuisance to this council?" asked Cadance.
"To put it frankly, yes," said the Head White Lighter. "You don't follow orders, you break rules, you have no respect for this council. A good portion of the White Lighters got together and agreed not to work with you any more. Now the only two that will keep track of you are the same two that Mr. Potter has."
"YES! I WIN! I'M THE MOST ANNOYING!" exclaimed Cadance. "All those years of breaking rules have finally paid off!" She realized that she was still hanging on to Sirius and let go.
"You mean you've been trying to annoy us?" asked a Council Member.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it trying. Being annoying comes naturally for me. I did learn from the best, after all," she said throwing a sideways glance at Sirius.
Then, they heard footsteps coming down the hall. They turned and looked at the door. The door swung open. Cadance grabbed onto Sirius arm again. The councilwoman that had left led in two white-robed people.
"JAMES! LILY!"
"SIRIUS! CADANCE!"
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
"What are you doing here!?" exclaimed James.
"I suppose we should ask you the same question," said Sirius.
"We're White Lighters now," said Lily.
"I suppose this is my punishment for having issues with White Lighters," said Cadance.
"What are you doing here?" reiterated James.
"Is there something wrong?" asked Lily seeing the worry in their eyes.
Cadance and Sirius exchanged a look. "It's Harry isn't it?" asked James.
The Head White lighter stood up. "Go now to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You have exactly three hours and then you will need to come back up. You are not to leave Hogwarts. This is a one time only thing so don't expect to be going down to earth all the time," she said. "And Cadance? No funny business. We're watching you."
"Oh I'm shaking in my little Auror boots," said Cadance rolling her eyes. "Let's go."
In a swirl of white lights, the four people disappeared.
.and reappeared in the Hospital Wing. Cadance finally let go of Sirius's arm as Lily and James ran over to Harry's bed. They grabbed each other's hand and they each put their free hand over Harry. White Light emitted from it. Harry's eyes fluttered open.
"Mom? Dad?"
Lily and James just smiled at their son. Cadance waved her hand and two chairs appeared for Lily and James to sit in by Harry's bed. "You've just been given three more hours with your son," said Cadance.
Sirius and Cadance left the Hospital Wing. They headed toward Dumbledore's office. "I'm beginning to fell sorry for disliking White Lighters," said Cadance. Sirius snorted.
They reached the Stone Gargoyle. "Lemon custard," said Cadance. The Gargoyle sprang aside. They walked up the stairs and opened the door. Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore were still talking to Malfoy. Sam, the White Lighter, was in the corner in a chair.
"Where's my powers?" he asked.
"Hello, Sam. How are you? That's great. So nice to see you," said Cadance. "Chill. I have your powers." She held her hand out and the white bead of light emitted from it. Sam touched it. Thank you.
"Is there any particular reason that you're here?" asked Dumbledore. "We're a bit busy at the moment."
"Oh, this is important, I assure you," said Cadance.
"Mr. Malfoy, you can go back to your Common Room," said Dumbledore.
Malfoy practically jumped out of the chair and ran out of the office.
"Whatever is so important that you couldn't wait to tell me about it?" asked Dumbledore.
"James and Lily," said Sirius.
"What about them?" asked McGonagall.
"They're here," said Cadance.
"Here?" asked McGonagall.
"Yes," said Sirius.
"Right now?"
"Yes, right now," confirmed Sirius.
"Ghosts?"
"White Lighters," said Cadance.
"White Lighters?"
"White Lighters. Harry's White Lighters to be exact," said Sirius.
"This is a strange turn of events," said Dumbledore.
"They were granted three hours on earth," said Cadance.
"But it's more like 2 hours and forty-five minutes now," said Sirius.
"We'll give them an hour or so with their son but I would like to speak with them," said Dumbledore.
"I think we all would," said Sirius.
"Someone should go to the Gryffindor Common Room to tell the Gryffindors that Harry's. alive," said Cadance.
"So he's alive then?" asked Dumbledore.
"He has two White Lighters with him," said Cadance. "I would think that the answer would be obvious."
"Oh, she's got you there," said Sirius.
"Shut up, Sirius," said Cadance.
"Shutting up," said Sirius.
"Cadance just go tell the Gryffindors that Harry's alive," said McGonagall. "We don't want you two to start fighting again."
"Oh, didn't we tell you? We made up again," said Cadance resting an elbow on Sirius's shoulder.
McGonagall shook her head and rolled her eyes as Cadance left the office. Cadance was walking towards the Gryffindor Common Room when a hand clamped over he mouth and she was dragged into the shadows.
"Charlie! What are you doing!?" exclaimed Cadance when her mouth was uncovered.
"Shhh!" whispered Charlie. "You pissed off a Death Eater, you know that, Cadance?"
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" whispered Cadance.
"I came back because I forgot my cloak and Ron told me that he had just heard Malfoy tell those stupid friends of his that his father was pissed off because Dumbledore contacted him about the Quidditch incident. He's here now. Apparently, Malfoy told his father that you tried to get him expelled. He's pissed and looking for you," whispered Charlie.
"I'm not scared of Lucius Malfoy," said Cadance.
"I'll put that on your tombstone," said Charlie. "Now, you're coming with me."
"The only place I'm going is Gryffindor Tower," said Cadance as she moved to leave the shadows where Charlie had pulled her.
"Well that's where I was planning to take you anyway," said Charlie.
"You're crazy," said Cadance. "You know that, don't you?"
In reply, Charlie picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.
"CHARLIE!"
"Yes?"
"PUT ME DOWN!"
"I will when we get to Gryffindor Tower," said Charlie. Cadance was kicking and fighting him all the way. He said the password to the Gryffindor Common Room and the Portrait Hole swung aside. He carried her in and dropped her on the couch.
"Charlie, what are you doing?" asked Jen from over the book she was reading in the armchair in the corner.
"Committing a felony," said Charlie.
"A felony?" asked George who was listening across the room.
"I'm Cadance-napping," said Charlie as if it were obvious.
Cadance got up and smacked Charlie on the head. "Owwwww!" he exclaimed. "What was that for?"
"Being a Cadance-napper," said Cadance. "You're a bad, bad man."
"Do you want to see how bad I am?" asked Charlie. "I can throw you out of that window there."
"You wouldn't dare," said Cadance.
"I thought you liked being a projectile out of an open window," said Charlie.
"Only when there's a lake below me," said Cadance.
"You're both weird," said Jen. "And where have you been, Cadance. I snuck out of the Common Room earlier to find you but I couldn't."
"Sirius and I borrowed. BORROWED, NOT STOLE. a White Lighter's powers and orbed up there," she said indicating upward, "and we talked to White Lighters and we found out that I'm really annoying to the Council."
"Congratulations," said Fred. "You've finally achieved what you've been aiming to do since you were, like, nine."
"Thank you," said Cadance. "And I hope that you've all been behaving because McGonagall's on the rampage."
"We've just been sitting here worrying about Harry," said Ginny. Most of the Common Room nodded in agreement.
"Oh! I forgot to tell you! The reason that Sirius and I went to see the Council was because we wanted to get Harry's White Lighters and we did so now he's alive and awake," said Cadance. "But you can't go see him now because his White Lighters are with him."
"What difference does that make?" asked Ron who had stood up and was making for the Portrait Hole.
"Well, don't you think he ought to have some time alone with them?" asked Cadance.
"Why?" asked Hermione.
"Oh. That's the best part. They're his parents," said Cadance. "So now I'm going off to do Lord knows what until my uncle will let us go disturb them."
"No you're not," said Charlie.
"Yes. I am," said Cadance and she waved her hand and froze Charlie. "Give me a five minute head start then unfreeze him, Jen."
And with that, she raced out of the Common Room and ran into her classroom. She sat at her desk and started working on her lesson plans. Charlie walked in grinning evilly. "Hello, Cadance," he said.
"Oh that was so not a five minute head start!" exclaimed Cadance.
Charlie went and stood behind her with his hands on the back of her chair. "You're an annoyingly sneaky person, you know that," he said.
Cadance was about to reply when the door to her classroom was kicked (yes, kicked) open. Lucius Malfoy strode in very angrily. "Dumbledore. I want to talk to you," he said.
"Really? That's odd because I don't really want to talk to you," replied Cadance.
"You tried to get my son expelled," said Lucius.
"Yes I did," said Cadance her hand slid into her pocket and closed around her wand. just in case.
"Nobody expels a Malfoy," he replied narrowing his eyes at her.
"Well maybe someone should," said Cadance. "What your son did was totally uncalled for."
"He was just playing the game," replied Malfoy.
"That's the point. They were just playing a game," said Cadance.
"It was an accident," said Lucius.
"It was deliberate. You weren't there so you wouldn't know," said Cadance. "Although, you would know that he was supposed to say that it was an accident. You were the one who told him to do it, weren't you. You and Voldemort knew that Aurors would be guarding the Pitch so Death Eaters couldn't attack but if your son were to knock Harry off of his broom it could look like an accident."
"Prove it," said Malfoy.
"I won't be able to do that unless your son confesses," said Cadance. "But watch out. Death Eater."
As soon as the words left Cadance's mouth, Malfoy had pulled out his wand and pointed it at Cadance. But both Cadance and Charlie were just as fast and they both had their wands out as well. "Just get out of here, Malfoy," said Cadance as she stood up. Malfoy lowered his wand and turned around. Both Cadance and Charlie lowered their wands. Malfoy turned on his heel and raised his wand again as soon as he knew their wands were down. He sent a blast their way. Charlie grabbed Cadance and threw her to the floor, landing next to her. The blast left scorch marks on the wall behind them.
"I told you so," said Charlie. They both got up, but Malfoy had gone. Cadance waved her wand and the scorch marks disappeared. "So are you going to report him?"
"No," said Cadance. "I couldn't without reporting myself. I did provoke him, after all. It's a good thing that Jen unfroze you early though. Thank you."
"No problem," said Charlie. "That's what I'm here for. You know, I have less excitement at work even when one of the dragons are loose."
"Shutup, Charlie," said Cadance.
* * * Twenty minutes later, Cadance and Charlie were walking to the Hospital Wing. Lily and James only had about two hours left on earth. Cadance and Charlie were going to see them. They also wanted to see how Harry was doing. They walked into the Hospital Wing. "Did you miss me?" asked Cadance.
Lily and James looked behind them to see Cadance and Charlie standing there grinning like Cheshire Cats. "Cadance Dumbledore and Charlie Weasley, you've just had a bit of an adventure. You both have that look in your eyes; the one you both get after pulling some prank," said Lily. James jumped out of his chair just in case they did the old exploding chair trick.
"You bet they had an adventure," said a voice from the doorway. Sirius and Remus were walking into the Hospital Wing. It was Sirius who had spoken. "Dumbledore just told us that you two just had a run-in with Lucius Malfoy."
"Now, how did he know that?" asked Charlie.
"It's one of the mysteries of life," said Cadance. "Just like how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop."
"Three!" exclaimed Sirius.
"Sirius, were you born this weird or did that just come with age?" asked Harry.
"The world may never know," answered Remus.
"You're all nuts," said James.
"Thank you," said Sirius.
"I think Jen just said the exact same thing to Charlie and I a half hour ago," said Cadance.
"Why am I not surprised?" said Lily.
"Actually, Cadance, I believe that she called you weird, not nuts," said Charlie.
"Actually, Charlie, I believe that the statement that she made was directed towards both of us," argued Cadance.
"It couldn't have been because you're the only weird one I see here," said Charlie.
"Do you wanna take this outside?" asked Cadance.
"Sure," said Charlie. He grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder again. "The Cadance-napper strikes again!" he exclaimed while carrying a struggling Cadance out of the Hospital Wing.
"And to think that Albus raised her," said Lily.
"I think he did a pretty good job," said Sirius.
"You have to think that. She got you out of Azkaban," pointed out Harry.
"I'm only saying that she grew up to be crazy, outgoing, and argumentative instead of wise and good-natured," said Sirius.
"I'm wise and good-natured in my own way!" called Cadance from the hallway.
"Cadance, what are you doing?" called Remus.
"Sword fighting!"
"What a peaceful solution to their argument," said James.
"I think that the people from Star Wars call it aggressive negotiations, dear," said Lily.
"So how are you feeling, Harry?" asked Sirius.
"Fine," said Harry.
"Well you won't be once you see your O.W.L.s. They're sitting in Dumbledore's office. The Ministry just sent them over. They're hard," said Sirius.
"Thanks, Sirius. You're really reassuring," said Harry.
"What were you doing looking at the O.W.L.s?" asked James suspiciously.
"One just kind of fell off Dumbledore's desk and I, being the courteous person that I am, picked it up. I accidentally looked at it," said Sirius. "I'm shocked that you would accuse me of purposely looking through private papers from the Ministry."
"I'm sure Cadance will sneak a copy and secretly feed the Gryffindors the answers during class," said Remus.
"Things are always hectic when she's around," said Harry. "On our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class she told us to duel each other and she sat there with this amused look on her face. And yesterday she and Cati Nuperson flooded the Common Room during a prank war with the Weasley twins. Then they jumped out of a window and into the lake to escape McGonagall's wrath."
"Flooded the Common Room?" asked James. "Amateur."
"James, Sirius, the rat, and I flooded the entire Great Hall as our 7th Year end of the year prank," said Remus.
"Only they suffered McGonagall's wrath because they needed the detention to break the former detention record," said Lily.
"What other stupid things did you do when you were in school?" asked Harry.
"They tried to blow up the dungeons so they wouldn't have to take their potions finals one year," said Lily. "And they predicted Professor Trelawney's death once."
"And don't forget all the stupid things we used to carry on conversations about," said James.
"Like why there are no girl Jedi," said Remus. "And if the Brady Bunch were stranded on a desert island, who would they eat first?"
"Bobby. He's so pathetic that he never won a trophy," said James.
"No way," said Remus. "It would be 'Marsha, Marsha, Marsha', to quote Jan. She's the most egotistical of all of them. They'd get tired of listening to her sing her own praises."
"Uh-uh," said Sirius. "You're both wrong. They'd eat Alice first because she's not family."
"He's got a point," said James.
"Yeah, but if they were smart they'd ask her how she should prepare herself," said Remus.
"Do you see what I put up with?" asked Lily to Harry.
"I pity you, mum," said Harry.
"Just add Cadance in there and you've got a circus sideshow," said Lily. "What with these three discussing a carnivorous Brady Bunch and Cadance jumping up and down trying to hit her head off the ceiling."
"She only did that once," said Remus.
"Yeah," agreed James. "Then I told her that if she jumped on the bed she'd get higher."
"What happened?" asked Harry.
"She fell off of the bed, hit her head on the floor and forgot that she wanted to hit her head off of the ceiling," said James.
"We were responsible babysitters," said Lily.
"Well," began Sirius. "At least now we know how she got so." He paused to think of the word.
"Crazy!" finished Cadance from the hallway.
"Exactly. She just hit her head one too many times," said Sirius.
"Thank you for clearing that up for me," said a voice from the doorway. Dumbledore was standing there. He walked into the Hospital Wing.
"Wait a minute. You were not standing there a second ago," said Sirius. "How did you do that?"
"Sirius, you're an idiot," said James.
"I thought that we already established that a long time ago," said Sirius. "In our first year right after we all got sorted and I threw that dung bomb at the Head Table."
"And it hit Professor McGonagall in the head!" finished Remus.
"I remember that!" exclaimed James.
"And so does Professor McGonagall I'm sure," said Dumbledore. "Lily, James, it's so nice to see you again."
"That's an understatement!" called Cadance.
"How come we don't hear Charlie calling stuff in to us!" called Remus.
"You didn't kill him, did you?!" asked Sirius.
"No! I'm just kicking his butt and he's too mad to talk!"
"What!" exclaimed Charlie. "That's a load of."
"Charlie! Watch your language!" exclaimed Cadance.
"She's been spending too much time with McGonagall," said Sirius.
"Ha! I win!" exclaimed Charlie.
"Shut up, Charlie."
Cadance and Charlie came walking back into the Hospital Wing. "That was fun," said Cadance.
"You two are lucky Professor McGonagall didn't catch you," said Dumbledore. "She'd skin you alive. Especially after what Cati and you did to the Gryffindor Common Room yesterday."
"Oh c'mon! Don't tell me that you didn't find that amusing," said Cadance.
"Oh I found it quite amusing. Professor McGonagall, however, did not," said Dumbledore. He turned his attention to Harry. "Well, Harry. I don't see why you should have to stay the night in the Hospital Wing. I'll converse with Madame Pomfrey about having you discharged instantaneously."
"Quick! I need someone who speaks Dumbledore to translate A.S.A.P.!" exclaimed Sirius.
"He said that he's going to talk to Madame Pomfrey about having Harry released immediately," said Cadance.
"Oh."
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore," said Harry.
"Don't mention it, Harry. You're all healed so there's no reason for you to stay anyway," said Dumbledore.
"That's good. That means I'll get out before Madame Pomfrey shoves any medicine down my throat," said Harry.
"I'll tell you a secret," said Cadance. "The medicine; it doesn't do anything. I've done extensive study on the topic."
"Give me a break," said James as Dumbledore went off to find Madame Pomfrey.
"Give me a break! Give me a break! Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar!" sang Sirius crazily. (A/N: Thank you, Pheebs.)
"Okay," said Lily. "No more sugar for you."
"Hey, I just got a crazy idea," said Sirius grinning evilly.
"I'm surprised that your brain was a able to formulate an idea at all," said Lily.
"Oh, that's good. Can I use that sometime?" asked Cadance.
"Sure," said Lily.
"Hey! Doesn't anyone want to hear my idea?" asked Sirius.
"We're listening," said Remus.
"Let's all go torture Snape!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed James. "Let's go torture Snape!"
"I'll pass. I have to work with that man and I don't want to be caught by Minerva," said Cadance. "The last time I pulled a prank on Snape I was able to beat your detention record and she's so mad right now that I wouldn't put it past her to give me more detentions even though I don't go to school anymore."
"Well, I'm in," said Remus.
"What do you say, Lils?" asked James. "Let's take our son for an adventure Marauder style."
"Well now that you put it that way I can't refuse," said Lily.
"I know that's why I did it," said James.
"Why did I marry you?" asked Lily.
"Because you love me," said James.
"Oh yeah, I forgot for a moment," said Lily.
"Well try not to forget again," said James.
"I won't, dear," said Lily as she kissed him.
"Ewwwwwww," said Sirius and Harry at the same time.
"Get a room," said Cadance. "Okay, I'm going to get as far away from you as possible before I get blamed for pulling the prank on Snape. If you're on the run from Minerva, go to her office and jump out of her window. The lake is right below. It's the best get-away plan. Meanwhile, I'm going to go and keep up my title of 'Most Annoying to the Powers That Be' and plot against them."
"Yeah, or you can just come with me so I can kick your butt in sword fighting again," said Charlie.
"You wish," said Cadance.
"You know, the lake is right below this window, too," said Charlie.
"Uh oh," said Cadance as she bolted out of the Hospital Wing.
Charlie ran out right behind her. "You're going into the lake, Cadance!"
Dumbledore walked in just as Charlie was running out. "You're all clear, Harry. You're free to leave any time you feel ready," he said.
"I'm ready now," said Harry jumping out of bed. He found that he was wearing clean robes.
"What are you planning to do with your remaining time together?" asked Dumbledore.
"Uh. Sirius'll tell you later after we're gone and when McGonagall's not around to kill him," said James.
"Shall I go warn Severus?" asked Dumbledore.
"But that would ruin our fun," said James.
"He's probably already expecting something anyway because he knows you're 'visiting' for a while," said Sirius.
Just then the door got kicked open and Charlie was carrying a struggling Cadance in over his shoulder.
"Can someone open the window? My hands are kind of full," said Charlie.
"Allow me," said Sirius as he darted to the window.
"Sirius!" exclaimed Cadance. "Sirius! That's mean!"
"Hmmm. To open the window or not to open the window; that is the questions," said Sirius.
"And the answer is open the window," said James.
"James!" exclaimed Cadance as Sirius opened the window.
"All right, Cadance. Say 'Charlie Weasley is the best' and I won't throw you out of the window," said Charlie.
"Uncle Albus! Please make him stop!" exclaimed Cadance.
"I thought that you liked going swimming," said Dumbledore. His eyes sparkled.
"Charlie, if you throw me out of that window I'll hate you forever," said Cadance.
"No you won't," said Charlie. And with that he threw her out of the window. She hit the lake with a loud splash.
McGonagall was in her office when she heard the splash. She got up from her desk and walked over to her window. She opened it. "Cadance Rose Dumbledore! Evacuate the lake immediately!"
She looked over and saw Charlie laughing and leaning his elbows on the windowsill. "Charlie Weasley! What did you do?!" she asked.
"Sirius was the one who opened the window!" argued Charlie.
"I hate you, Charlie!" exclaimed Cadance as she pulled herself out of the lake.
"No you don't, you love me!" he called down to her.
"You jut wait until I get my hands on the both of you!" called McGonagall.
"What did I do?!" asked Cadance from the side of the lake.
"Don't think that I didn't know that you and Charlie were sword fighting! You don't have to be Albus to be all-knowing!" she answered.
"Minerva, I assure you, I am not all-knowing," said Dumbledore. He came to the window and leaned forward a bit to see McGonagall.
"What on earth are you all doing in the Hospital Wing?" asked McGonagall.
"Throwing Cadance out of the window," said Charlie. "And we're visiting with Lily and James!"
Lily and James went to the window. They leaned out as well. "Hello, Professor!" called James cheerfully.
"James! Lily! How are you doing?" asked McGonagall.
"Just fine. And you?" asked Lily.
"I'd be better if Cadance and Cati would stop pulling pranks and if Cadance and Charlie would stop being utterly noisy. Basically if Cadance would just sit quietly and act sane."
"But being sane is vastly overrated!" argued Cadance from 20 feet below.
"Cadance! Get in here and dry off before you catch a cold!" called McGonagall.
"It's 80 degrees out here! How can I catch a cold?" argued Cadance.
"NOW!"
Cadance gave her a mock salute and marched inside.
McGonagall shook her head and turned back to Lily and James. "How long are you staying for?"
"About another hour and a half before we have to beam back up to the mother ship," said James.
"Well, you have fun. And don't let me catch you playing any pranks on Professor Snape!" she exclaimed. She went back into her office.
"Let's get out of here before Cadance comes back up. She'll be really mad," said James starting for the door. All of the sudden, the door swung open and Cadance was standing there.
"I'm going to kill you, Charlie," she said calmly.
"Uh oh," he said. Cadance proceeded to chase him around the Hospital Wing. James motioned for them to leave before Cadance remembered that they had something to do with her unusual ejection from the castle.
Half an hour later, James, Sirius, and Remus were heading towards the dungeons. "So what prank are we going to play?" asked Sirius. "And why did you have Lily and Harry stay in the Great Hall?"
James just smiled evilly. "You'll see," he said. "Lily knows what to do." They reached the door to Snape's classroom. "Here's what I need you to do."
Outside of the deserted Great Hall, Lily and Harry were standing waiting for the plan to be put into action. "So he'll go in the door and all we have to do now is sit back and watch," Lily explained. "Do you have the Invisibility Cloak to hide under? You can't be seen by Snape or he'll probably give you detention."
Harry nodded his head. They hid behind a suit of armor while they waited. "Let's hope that they can get behind the Head Table before Snape gets in the door otherwise they're going to be in deep shit," said Lily.
"Watch your language, Lily," said Professor McGonagall as she walked pass the suit of armor. She walked about five feet then stopped and turned around. "Lily, what on earth are you and Harry doing hiding behind that suit of armor?"
"Playing hide-and-go-seek," lied Lily.
"When Cadance was nine years old she came to Hogwarts," began McGonagall.
"Oh no! Here it comes! It's a lecture!" exclaimed Lily. "Five Galleons says that it's about how she's not stupid and she knows that I'm lying."
"When Cadance was nine years old she came to Hogwarts," began McGonagall again ignoring her. "I spent a good portion of my time watching her pull pranks, starting when she first stepped onto the grounds and ending. actually it never ended. Anyway, I caught her millions of time. And she would always feed me some fake story. Do you know how many times she told me that she was playing hide-and-go-seek?"
"I was right," said Lily. "You owe me five galleons, Harry."
"Please step out from behind that suit of armor," said Professor McGonagall. "And that wasn't a request, it was an order."
Just then, Charlie went running by with Cadance in close pursuit. "Cadance Rose Dumbledore, don't run in the hallways!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall as she took off in the direction they had taken.
"Remind me to thank Cadance and Charlie later," said Lily to Harry as they got under the Invisibility Cloak to avoid any other situations like the last one.
Two minutes later, Sirius, Remus, and James went running through the doors to the Great Hall. Snape came running behind them. The split-second before Snape set foot in the Great Hall, James, Sirius, and Remus dove behind the Head Table. The second that Snape stepped into the Great Hall he began to rise off of the floor. He floated a full ten feet in the air and just stayed there. Lily and Harry took off the cloak and went to look without going inside. They pretended to act surprised at the site before them as Snape cursed out the three Marauders.
Then, Cadance and Charlie came running down the hall. Cadance ran right past the hall without even looking in but Charlie stopped dead at the sight inside. "Time out!" he called. Cadance stopped and backtracked to where Charlie was standing next to Lily and Harry.
"Whoa! How did you get Snape to laugh?" she asked.
"What?" asked Lily giving her a confused look.
"You got him to float up in the air like that," said Cadance. "Don't you have to laugh uncontrollably to do that?"
"What are you talking about?" asked Charlie.
"I saw it in a movie once," said Cadance.
"No, you see," said Lily. "James, Remus, and Sirius cast a spell on Snape and then lured him to the Great Hall. Meanwhile, I, with Harry's help, put a charm on the Great Hall so that whenever it detected someone with that particular spell cast on them, a Hover Charm would be activated. The area behind the Head Table is a safe zone."
"So, how do they get back out here if they can't step out of the safe zone without rising ten feet off of the ground?" asked Cadance.
"That's a very good question," said Lily. "I suppose we'll have to deactivate the Hover Charm."
"Won't that make Snape fall ten feet to the floor?" asked Cadance.
"Uh oh," said Lily. "JAMES HARRY POTTER! YOU DIDN'T THINK THIS ALL THE WAY THROUGH DID YOU!?!"
"Umm. no, dear," said James.
"HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET SNAPE DOWN!?!"
"I don't actually know," said James over Snape's cursing. James, Sirius, and Remus started all talking at one time trying to figure it out.
"Are you going to let them sit there trying to figure it out?" asked Cadance. "Or do you want me to get him down?"
"Would you?" asked Lily rubbing her temples.
Cadance waved her hand and Snape floated to the ground. Lily performed the counter-charm. Snape proceeded to call the three Marauders names that I wouldn't dare repeat in this fic. They, however, were ignoring him and laughing so hard that they had to hold onto the Head Table to keep from falling over.
McGonagall came walking up to the Great Hall. She tapped Cadance and Charlie on the shoulder. "Okay. I think that some explanations are in order. You see, I caught you two sword fighting. Now you're supposed to be running and hiding to escape my wrath. Did you forget that part?"
"I called time out!" argued Charlie.
"Ha! I beat the system!" exclaimed Cadance. "Someone else pulled a prank and I didn't get caught for it!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Lily.
"When I was in school, whenever someone else would pull a prank I would be around for some reason and I would be the one who got caught. But a pranks was just pulled here and I didn't get caught," said Cadance. "I beat the system!" And with that she took off down the hallway.
"What a loon," said Charlie as he watched Cadance race down the hallway.
"There is no way that she's related to Dumbledore," said Harry shaking his head.
"Maybe the crazy gene is recessive in Albus and unusually dominant in Cadance," offered Lily.
"Perhaps that's it," said Dumbledore. "You're just clearing everything up for me today, aren't you?"
"Professor Dumbledore! What are you doing here?" asked Lily looking nervously into the Great Hall where Snape was still cursing out the three Marauders, who were still laughing at him.
"Cadance came running down the hall screaming about beating the system," said Dumbledore. "I just headed in the direction that she came from and I knew that I would find." his voice faltered as he looked into the Great Hall, "this."
"Just for the record," said Charlie. "I had nothing to do with this. And surprisingly neither did Cadance. We were just running from Professor McGonagall. oh that's right. Excuse me. TIME IN!" And with that he went running off down the hallway. McGonagall took off after him.
"Please excuse me for a moment," said Dumbledore. "I think that Professor Snape needs to get acquainted with a silencing charm before he traumatizes any innocent first years that might happen to walk by." He walked into the Great Hall and waved his wand. Snape's mouth continued to move but no words came out. This sent Remus, James, and Sirius into another fit of laughter.
"Give 'em the ol' maturity lecture, Albus," said Lily.
"Shutup, Lily!" said Sirius. "You know that you were just as much involved in this as we were!"
"Prove it," said Lily grinning wildly. "Come on, Harry." Then she lowered her voice and said, "Let's see what other mischief we can make."
* * * Unfortunately it wasn't to last. With only a half-hour left on earth, Lily and James sat down with Harry, Remus, and Sirius in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. "That was the most fun I've had in ages," said Sirius propping his feet up on one of the desks and balancing on two legs of the chair.
"Us too," said Lily. "It's not much fun up there."
"What do you do up there all day?" asked Remus.
"Nothing. Just wait to be called. And watch our son," said James as he took a seat on a desk. Lily sat next to him.
"You didn't see that one time when I was in my second year and Ron and I crashed a flying car into the Whomping Willow, did you?" asked Harry.
"Oh yeah," said Lily. "No driving until you're sixteen."
"I can live with that," said Harry as the door opened and Charlie and Cadance came in, closing the door behind them.
"Shhh! We're not in here," said Cadance.
"Still running from McGonagall?" asked James.
"No, we're just running for the hell of it," said Cadance sarcastically. "Of course we're running from McGonagall. And at this rate we'll be running all night."
"Why don't you just let yourselves get caught?" asked Sirius. "What's she going to do to you when she catches you? Give you detention?"
"No, it's like a game. Only three more hours of this and then we win and she stops chasing. We never lose," said Cadance. "So we're going to hide here for as long as possible."
"Hey, I just had an interesting idea," said Sirius. "Lily, James, you should go yell at Petunia and Vernon."
"Why?" asked Lily.
"I don't know. Just threaten them a little. Tell them if they don't treat Harry good over the summer you'll come and rip them to pieces," said Sirius.
"There are three things wrong with that plan," said James. "One; we're under strict orders to stay here and I don't want to listen to another lecture. Two; White Lighters are pacifists and therefore we can't rip anyone to pieces."
"Pacifists! You can't fight or threaten or vanquish?!?" exclaimed Cadance.
"Yeah. That's generally the idea be Pacifism," said Lily.
"Oh you poor people," said Cadance. "That's not right."
"What's the third thing wrong with my plan?" asked Sirius.
"You're free so Harry isn't going back to the Dursleys," said James.
"Wrong!" said Cadance. "Sorry. Thanks for playing."
"What do you mean?" asked Lily.
"They wrote to Dumbledore and told him that they're his guardians so he has to send Harry back to them," said Charlie.
"I don't want to go back, but I guess I don't have a choice," said Harry.
"Sucks, don't it?" asked Cadance. "Don't worry. I'm formulating a plan to get him out of it. I actually already came up with one but Sirius and Remus put their foot down on it without even hearing it."
"That wasn't very open-minded of them," said James.
"Hey, she told us that it involved and manticore, some rope, and crawling through the Dursley's ventilation system," argued Sirius.
"And a flying car. Don't forget the flying car," said Cadance.
"Where were you going to find a flying car?" asked Lily.
"The Whomping Willow probably," said James.
"Okay, okay. New plan. We can just go in and kidnap him," said Cadance. "Come on, Charlie. You're a kidnapper."
"Uh. Cadance? It's not kidnapping if I come willingly," said Harry.
"Shutup, Harry," said Cadance.
"Oh, oh! I have a plan," said Sirius.
"Your plans get us in trouble," said James. "Need I remind you about the 'Halloween exploding candle' incident? We were got detention for two weeks and Filch was scraping pumpkin off the walls for weeks."
"So? It was still fun," said Sirius.
"For who?" asked Remus
"Whatever," said Sirius. "Do you want to hear my plan or not?"
"Not, but I think you'll just tell us anyway," said Lily.
"We can tell the Dursleys that Harry died," said Sirius.
They all stared at him blankly. "Actually," said Cadance. "That might work."
"How do you explain to Dumbledore that Harry's not at the Dursleys?" asked Remus.
"Lie," said Sirius.
"No, he'll see right through it," said Lily. "Why don't we tell him that Petunia and Vernon exploded?"
"But that's lying," said Cadance. "Anyway, knowing our luck he'll probably send a fruit basket or something to their son offering his condolences and we'll get a letter from the Dursley's and we'll get busted."
"I have an idea," said Harry. "How about if I just go and not complain about it so we don't have to lie to anyone?"
"That is the stupidest idea I've ever heard," said Sirius. "But I guess that's what we have to do."
"You can't beat the system," said Remus.
"That's not true. I beat the system this afternoon," said Cadance. "Oh, oh! We can blow something up!"
"How would that get Harry out of going to the Dursley's?" asked Sirius. "Unless you blow up the Dursley's house."
"It wouldn't but we'd feel a heck of a lot better," said Cadance.
"Oh that's right. Taunt the pacifists with non-peaceful solutions to problems," said James.
"Sorry," said Cadance. "At least now I know why you White Lighters never show up to Death Eater battles."
"Still haven't resolved your White Lighter issues, Cadance?" asked Lily. "That's okay. Neither have I."
"I'm sorry, but your bosses scare me," said Cadance.
"They're a bunch of old people sitting around in blindingly white robes," said James. "What's so scary about them?"
"I have no idea," said Cadance.
"Women," said James shaking his head. Lily pushed him off the desk. They were laughing over this when, all of a sudden, there was a swirl of white light and the Head Councilwomen was standing in the middle of the room. Cadance grabbed Charlie's arm. "And here's the boogieman now," she said under her breathe.
"Time's up Mr. and Mrs. Potter," she said.
"It can't be," argued Lily. "Just a few more hours, please."
"I'm sorry," she said. "But my word is final."
"You don't sound so sorry," said Cadance. "You're a mean, mean person."
"Am I?" she asked.
"And you're scary, too," said Cadance.
"Scary? That's something I've never been called before," she said.
"Maybe not to your face," said Cadance.
Just then the door opened and Professor McGonagall came in. "Found you! You two are in. who's that?" she asked pointing at the Head Councilwoman.
"Beelzebub," said Cadance.
"No. Really. Who is it?" asked McGonagall.
"Our boss," said James.
"Same thing," said Cadance.
"Ms. Dumbledore, your mouth has gotten you into trouble with us more than once. If you make one more comment, I'll be forced to."
"You'll be forced to what?' asked Cadance. "What are you going to do? You're a pacifist, remember? I, however, am not."
"Cadance, you better leave before you do something we all regret," said Sirius, who noticed that Cadance's hand was heading for her wand.
"I'm not leaving," said Cadance.
"Charlie," said Sirius.
"All right, Cadance. You know the drill," said Charlie. He once again slung Cadance over his shoulder.
"This is really getting old," said Cadance as Charlie walked out of the classroom.
"Don't go far," said Lily. "I have a feeling we're going to have to say good-bye."
"Okay," said Charlie as he closed the door behind him.
"Please," begged James. "Just a little while longer. Please."
"No," she said. "The deal was three hours. And now they're up."
"But you don't understand," said Lily. "Our son."
"No, Mrs. Potter. You don't understand. Contact with this world is forbidden unless in extreme circumstances," she said. "I thought that we were going beyond the call of duty by allowing you to heal your son. But granting you three hours on top of that was most generous."
"And we're very thankful for it, but can we please just have a little more time?" asked James.
"No," said the Head Councilwoman. "That time shall not be granted to you. Now say good-bye and we'll be off."
Then, the door opened and Dumbledore walked in with Cadance and Charlie right behind him. "Look!" cried Cadance joyfully. "We found the voice of reason!"
"Cadance, you've never found the voice of reason," said Charlie. "That's why you're so argumentative." Cadance punched him in the shoulder. "Ow!"
"Do sit down," said Dumbledore smiling sweetly to the Head Councilwoman.
"No," she said. "There is no reasoning with the Council."
"But you must see reason," said Dumbledore.
"No," she said. "And if the two White Lighters don't come with me now, Mr. Potter will be assigned a new White Lighter."
Dumbledore turned to Lily and James. "You better just go with her," he said. "There's no reasoning with this woman."
Lily and James turned to Harry. "This isn't exactly good-bye," said Lily as she and James hugged their son. Then they hugged each of their friends in turn.
"Let's go," said the Councilwoman. She snapped her fingers and she, Lily, and James disappeared in a swirl of White Light.
"So." said Cadance. "Anyone up for a rebellion?"
"Yeah! Let's rebel against the White Lighter Council!" agreed Charlie.
"It'd be, like, an intergalactic rebellion, too," said Remus.
"How star wars of us," said Sirius.
"I forbid you from starting any international rebellions," said Dumbledore.
"Darn," said Cadance. "And it would be so easy to kick their little pacifistic butts, too. They couldn't fight back." She thought for a moment. "Can we form an alliance with a Dark Lighter and have him kick their butts?"
"No," said Dumbledore.
"Oh, that's smart. For an alliance with Voldemort's biggest supporters," said Sirius sarcastically.
"Well, Harry," said Dumbledore. "I suppose you should get back to the Gryffindor Common Room now. Your friends will be worried, as they haven't seen you all afternoon."
Harry nodded then headed for the Gryffindor Common Room.
* * * Later that night, after dinner, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the Common Room talking with Ginny and Jen. Fred and George walked in. "We just got caught by some of those Aurors who are supposed to be protecting us."
"That sucks," said Jen.
Fred and George sat down on the couch. "So who do you think is the hottest girl Auror who's protecting the school?" asked Fred.
"I like the brunette," answered Lee.
"No the blonde's cuter," said George.
"Ron? Harry?" asked Fred. "What do you think?"
They looked at each other then said, "Cati Nuperson."
"Excuse me?" asked Hermione.
"But if you were protecting this school, it would be you. Definitely," said Ron.
"Good boy," said Hermione.
"Nice save, Ron," said Harry. "You don't want to get your girlfriend mad at you. Especially when it's Hermione. She pays such close attention in class that she's mastered every curse and charm that we've ever learned."
"Speaking of curses and charms," said Hermione. "O.W.L.s start on Tuesday after lunch. Professor McGonagall said that it's all written out. There are no practical exams."
"Great," said Harry sarcastically. "Just what I wanted. To sit in a room and write for three hours. Fun, fun, fun."
"Oh, c'mon Harry. We'll do fine. What with all that studying Hermione made us do these last few weeks," said Ron.
"What about those Anti-Cheating Quills they're giving us? I'm beginning to think that these professors don't trust us," said Jen. "It's shocking."
"If you study, you don't have to cheat," said Ginny.
"I hate it when you're right," said Jen.
"Well, what about you Fred? George?" asked Hermione. "You're taking your N.E.W.T.s. Did you study?"
"Of course," replied Fred.
"While everyone was crammed into the library because they thought is was quiet when in fact it was noisier, Fred and I studied in the almost-empty Common Room where it really was quiet," said George.
"It's true," said Jen. "I walked in two days ago and they were studying. I almost dropped dead from shock."
* * * On Tuesday.
"All right," said Professor Flitwick. "You have six hours to complete your O.W.L.s. At the end of that time, I will collect your test booklets and you will be allowed to leave. Begin now."
Harry opened up his test book and began writing. He breezed through Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Potions took him the longest. "Who the hell cares what happens if you mix spiders legs with the powdered horn of a bicorn and the blood of a turkey?" he thought as he quickly wrote down an answer.
After six hours, Professor Flitwick finally stopped them. "Okay," he said. "You're all free to go."
"That wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be," said Hermione as soon as they were outside the classroom.
"Whatever, Hermione," said Harry.
"Well, I didn't spend the whole weekend studying for nothing," said Hermione.
"I think I failed the Potion's part," said Ron.
"You and me both," said Harry.
"Come on," said Hermione. "It's almost dinner time. Let's just go to the Great Hall."
They went into the Great Hall and took a seat. There were only a few people there. They were mostly fifth and seventh years who had gotten done with their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s.
"You know," said Ron. "There is one good things about taking the O.W.L.s. While everyone else is taking their finals this week, we'll be doing nothing."
"That's right," said Harry. "You won't have anything else to worry about for the whole summer. I, on the other hand, have to spend the summer with the Dursleys."
"Look on the bright side Harry," said Ron.
"What bright side?" asked Harry.
Ron thought for a second then said, "I can't see one. I was just trying to cheer you up."
"As much as I appreciate it, stop trying to cheer me up. You're not doing a very good job," said Harry.
At this point, the rest of the students and the professors were starting to file in and dinner began. Ginny and Jen came and took a seat next to Hermione. Jen proceeded to bang her head off the table.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Ron.
"We just had our Potion Final," said Ginny.
"Failed?" asked Harry.
"Yep," said Jen picking her head off of the table. "I just wanted to rid myself of the memory of the experience of being locked in the dungeons with Snape for three hours."
Finally, dinner was served. They all began to pile food on their plates when George said, "Oh my god. Next week is the last week of school."
"That finally dawned on you, Einstein?" asked Angelina Johnson.
"It's our last week of school EVER!" exclaimed George. "After this we're going out in the real world!"
"Well, you knew that you had to be released into the wild someday," said Jen.
"And someday is in two weeks!" exclaimed George.
"George, calm down. You're making a scene," said Ginny.
"I will not calm down! I don't want to go out in the real world! I want to stay here forever!"
"You'll be away from Snape," pointed out Ron.
"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" exclaimed George.
"Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say," said Ron.
* * * "Welcome back, Order," said Dumbledore addressing the Order of the Phoenix two days later. "First, things first. For those of you who were assigned to protect Hogwarts, I have just been informed that if the alarm would go off, signaling a Death Eater attack, you are not to leave Hogwarts to go and fight the Death Eaters. Bob Reynolds feels that it might be a decoy fight to draw Aurors away from Hogwarts so that they could attack it with no problem. Next, as I'm sure most of you have been told, we were lucky enough to have a brief visit from Lily and James. They are White Lighters now."
"Yes, we all heard from Sirius and Remus," said Arabella. "And about the unreasonableness of the Council."
"Unreasonableness?" asked Cadance. "Is that a word? Did you make that up?"
The rest of the meeting was spent discussing what they should do if there was another attack on Hogwarts.
"We have been lucky so far," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort has not attended any attacks so far. But the next time, we might not be so lucky. And the attack he attends, might just be one at Hogwarts." And with that, he closed the meeting.
* * * The next day, towards the end of dinner, the alarm went off. Cadance looked at McGonagall strangely. "A bit early for Death Eater attacks, isn't it?" she asked.
She and McGonagall got up and ran to get on their Auror robes and Apparated to the Auroring Department. They found out where to go and Apparated there. There were a lot of Death Eaters. More and more Death Eaters were appearing by the minute.
"I don't get it!" exclaimed Cadance. "Where do they all come from?! How can Voldemort find so many stupid people on one planet!?!"
The Death Eaters were strong and surprisingly well trained. After six hours of intense battle, it appeared as if the Aurors were losing when all of a sudden, the Death Eaters disappeared. The Aurors looked at each other strangely. "What happened?" asked one Auror aloud. "They could have killed us all but they retreated."
"Don't question a miracle," said another. "We better go report back to the Ministry."
Cadance looked around her. Only about half of the Aurors who had started the battle were still alive. Only a few Death Eaters were dead. None of the Aurors were uninjured. Cadance spotted McGonagall coming towards her. "What the hell happened?" asked Cadance.
"I have no clue. Let's just get out of here," said McGonagall.
About ten minutes later, Dumbledore was hurrying into the Hospital Wing. Cadance and McGonagall were sitting on one of the beds holding icepacks to their heads. "What happened?" he asked. One of the sleeves on McGonagall's robes was torn and there was a bandage across her arm. Cadance's head was bleeding.
"I think we got our butts kicked but I'm not really sure because I hit my head," said Cadance.
"Are you two all right?" he asked.
"Just peachy," said Cadance.
"What happened in the battle?" asked Dumbledore.
"We were losing then the Death Eaters just disappeared. They could have flattened us, but they retreated," said McGonagall.
"That's odd," said Dumbledore. "It must have just been a distraction of some kind. I better go and check with the Arabella to see if anything suspicious happened here."
Madame Pomfrey came bustling in announcing that they were fine and that there was no reason for them to spend the night in the Hospital Wing, since it was just some cuts and bruises. Dumbledore walked with Cadance and McGonagall to their Common Room. They went in to go to bed and Dumbledore continued on to talk to Arabella Figg.
* * * The next morning, most of the students were celebrating because Final Exams were over. Fred, George, and Lee were all discussing their End-of-the-Year Prank. They couldn't agree on what to do. At the Head Table, Cadance and McGonagall, sitting on either side of Dumbledore, both had their heads down on the table and were sleeping, as they hadn't gotten much last night.
Then, a wizard in white Auror's robes rushed in and walked quickly to the Head Table and to Dumbledore. None of the students or the other Professors paid him much notice, though McGonagall and Cadance might have, had they been awake and alert.
The Auror leaned in and whispered something to Dumbledore. His reaction was one that nobody present had ever seen from Dumbledore before. "WHAT!?" he exclaimed. At this Cadance and McGonagall's heads popped up. Cadance screamed and clutched her chest taking deep breaths.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she asked. At this point, every head in the Hall was turned toward Dumbledore.
"I want this castle searched from top to bottom immediately!" Dumbledore told the Auror. "Go down to Hogsmeade and get Arabella Figg. Tell her to get her Aurors up here immediately. Teachers, will you please follow me to the staff room? Students, do not leave this Hall."
The teachers followed Dumbledore out of the Hall and into the staff room. They took a seat at the table. "What's happened?" asked McGonagall when they were all settled.
"Peter Pettigrew escaped from Azkaban some time last night," said Dumbledore. "The guards at Azkaban said that he was talking of seeking revenge at Hogwarts for weeks. He could have come here."
Dun dun dun. Mwahahahahahahahahaha
