They were dueling again. Sirius and Bellatrix.
Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: He was laughing at her. "Come on you can do better than that!'' he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.
He saw the second jet of light hit Sirius squarely in the chest. He saw the laughter die from Sirius' face, and his eyes widen in shock. He saw Sirius fall.
Then Harry too began to fall into a piercing cold darkness and yelling Sirius' name he tried to stop himself from his fast decent, but could not. He never could.
Then he heard it, as he always did, Voldemort's cold, mocking voice, "Did you love him Potter? He's not dead you know, I can bring him back. Just—''
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"Harry!''
"Harry wake up!''
Harry bolted up, in a cold sweat, at the sound of his name being yelled. Opening his eyes and breathing shakily, Harry reached for his glasses on the nightstand.
"Harry you o.k.?''
"We thought someone was trying to kill you.''
"Am I so fearsome that you must scream my name in your sleep?''
Putting on his glasses the blurriness went away and Harry saw the Marauders crowded around him looking concerned. From the light that was shining through behind them Harry could tell that it was about a little past breakfast.
Sighing Harry pushed the lingering images of the dream out of his mind.
"Harry are you feeling o.k.?'' asked a concerned James.
Nodding his head, Harry said, "It was just a nightmare.''
Just a nightmare he told himself, because he too needed to reausher himself that it was indeed just a nightmare. And not Voldemort controlling his dreams again.
Looking up Harry caught the Marauders giving each other private worried glances. Instead of feeling comforted by these glances Harry felt angry. Everyone these days seemed to be having these looks on their faces when Harry was near and he especially didn't want them looking at him that way.
Shoving his blankets angrily off him, Harry stood and gathering his clothes said, "I'll meet you in the common room.''
Without a backward glance Harry left the Marauders staring worriedly after him.
"Well that…..went well,'' said Sirius after Harry had stormed out of the room.
Raising an eyebrow and glancing wearily at his friends James asked, "What do you think we should do?''
"What can we do?'' replied Remus.
"We don't know the exact details about what went on when…..the older me died. Only that I was killed by one of Voldemort's followers and I don't think anyone around here knows or would care to enlighten us. So…'' Sirius drifted off with a shrug.
"There's something more to it then that. How did Harry see the older you die when he was supposed to be in school anyway. No one ever said how he ended up where he did.'' James asked scowling at the floor.
"Well whatever happened we are probably going to have to find out for ourselves because I don't think anyone around here wants us to have to much information. Though we might get some information out of Harry's friends.'' Remus said.
"Speaking of Harry's friends, what do you think about that girl? Hermione I think her name was.'' Sirius asked with a crooked smile, hoping that this comment would get them out of their dreary mood. And to his relief it did.
"God Sirius.'' Sighed an exasperated James.
"You do realize that she knew the old you. I think the thought of her being with you would scare her.'' Remus declared.
"Well that was the old me, I'm the new and improved me. And I didn't exactly say that I liked her in that way. I don't even know her. Now come along my faithful followers we have an appointment to keep.'' Sirius said as he guided his friends out of the room and down the stairs to the empty common room.
Picking out some armchairs they sat.
"Now my people,'' said Sirius in a preacher kind of voice, "We have been wronged in a very big way and no bandaged can heal the pain. Now maybe a big lollypop but that's different. This new world has made us apologize to-to, no words can describe the name of 'it' and for that they must pay, every single one. Well, maybe not every single one but enough of them to make them think twice about making us do anything to degrade ourselves in front of the despicable beast.''
"Are you talking about the teachers or the students?'' asked a wondering Remus.
"My dear Remus dose it matter? Every one must know who we are and what we are about. We'll just have something extra special for Snivellus.'' Sirius solemnly stated.
"It must be big, something never done at Hogwarts before,'' James replied.
"Well if it's going to be something as big as it's starting to sound you're probably going to have to talk to Fred and George. I'm pretty sure they can give you a few ideas or a list of things that haven't been attempted yet.'' Said Harry as he walked into the common room.
"We need no help, peasant,'' Sirius said in a self important air, "We are the Marauders and do not need the help of others.''
"Well I was just thinking that since we're going their way we might as well stop by in their joke shop. Besides I'm going weather you guys go with me are not, I would really like to see the shop that I sponsored.'' Harry said as he made his way to the portal.
"Who exactly are these people,'' said Remus suspiciously.
Looking over his shoulder and seeing that the Marauders were following him Harry said, "Their Ron's older twin brothers, and basically they're the pranksters of this time. They also opened a joke shop last year when they dropped out of school.''
"What to hard for them?'' asked James.
"No, they just couldn't stand the person who tried to take Dumbledore's job. I couldn't either but I had no where to run away to.'' Harry said as he made his way to the dinning hall.
"Someone actually tried to take Dumbledor's job away from him?'' Remus asked with a look on his face that showed that he thought however tried this was extremely stupid.
"Yeah.'' Said Harry with a smile and shack of his head.
"Back to the problem at hand," Sirius said, "How do we get whatever it is we're going to get without old Remus seeing it?''
"Somehow I think he wont mind terribly if he sees something we're not supposed to be buying.'' Said Harry as they reached their destination.
"O.k. there's the old Remus eating. I want everyone thinking on what we can do for, what we shall refer to as operation 'Marauders Forever' while we are eating.
*********************************************************
A floo ride later the Marauders and Harry were currently walking some ways behind Lupin and were currently discussing operation 'Marauders Forever.'
"O.k. whatever we're going to do we need to have attacking gnomes.''
"What?'' they all said and turned to look at Sirius.
"Have you ever felt what it's like to be bitten by one of those little buggers?'' asked Sirius defensively, "Now imagine hundreds of them chasing students around the school, jumping out at you from dark corner's. When you run into the restroom where you think its safe 'wham' suddenly you're attacked while you're on the toilet minding your own business. You wont feel safe to go to the restroom for a long time. These gnome attacks will also symbolize the pain we felt while we were forced to apologize to it.''
"Wow.'' Said Remus.
"Brilliant.'' James said.
"How are we going to keep them from attacking us?'' asked Harry.
"Easy Prongslit, we just use a simple charm. Now as for calling the gnomes we can use a summoning charm and they're not that smart so we can easily manipulate their small brains.'' Said Sirius with a smug smile.
"Now I was thinking that we could make the doors open and close every few seconds, sometimes staying closed for up to three hours maybe. And sometimes smacking a student while they do this, perhaps all the Slytherins.'' Remus said.
"Good thinking Remus,'' James said, "For the Slytherin and Snape I was also thinking that they could use a change of color. Above their dorm entryway we could set up a spell that will change their hair scarlet and gold, Gryffindor colors, and for their robes I was thinking pink. The beauty of this is that no matter how much they go back to change their robes will always change. I was also thinking that this could be a little more lasting, maybe a week.''
Turning towards Harry they all looked at him expectantly. Harry was a little nervous, he wasn't really sure that he liked their idea at all but…..it would be hilarious to watch.
Sighing Harry said, "How about making the toilets explode so that the water went up about ten feet high?''
"Yes, good.'' Said Sirius smiling evilly.
"This is going to be something to look foreword to.'' Said Remus.
"We can launch this tomorrow.'' James said beaming, "We'll need to do some of the stuff tonight and the rest really early in the morning. Harry—''
"Hurry up you four!'' yelled Lupin from somewhere way in front of them.
"Operation 'Marauders Forever' is a go as of…ten o'clock tonight.'' Said Sirius in a shifty eyed, secretive voice.
"Now Harry, where did you say this Fred and George were located?'' asked Remus.
Filled with anticipation the four of them ran on, in order to catch up with Lupin who had just stepped into the potions store.