Famous Last Words Chapter 4: Black Veils and Yellow Ducks, a harry potter fanfic

centerFamous Last Words

By Sacred Dreams

For Ginny my Smoothie Sister,

Trinity Day, who, quite frankly, is the best reviewer in the world,

And for Alex. Happy Birthday Love!

I feel compelled to use an author's note to apologize for the strange centering/spacing ff.n has inflicted upon this story. I have no idea what the problem is, but I'm trying something to fix it. If not by this chapter, it will be fixed by the next!

/center

"The first Saturday is always for primping," Lexi informed Lily as Lizzie brought out a big box of supplies.

"But it's Friday," Lily pointed out.

"Since we aren't getting as much as sleep as we did over the summer, we ought to put cucumbers over our eyes while we rest!"

"Don't people usually put cucumbers on their eyes in the morning?" Lily asked.

"Only muggles," Lexi said offhandedly, handing a jar to her sister. "They're backwards."

Lizzie agreed, opening the jar. Using what looked like a tiny fork, Lizzie began pulling cucumbers out of the jar of potion.

"They're seeped in potion?" Lily asked.

"Of course," Lizzie said. "The muggles use plain cucumbers because they don't know any better." The twins giggled.

Lizzie handed Lily two cucumbers, and Lily warily put them over her eyes. It was like putting an ice-pack over her eyes. Lily's eyes were instantly cool.

"What does this do?" Lily yelped.

"Relax, it just cools your eyes to reduce puffiness," Lexi explained.

Lily relaxed in silence for a moment. The cucumbers did feel really good, once she got past the slimy potion.

"By morningtime, our eyes will be puff-free!" Lexi said happily, pulling her blankets up to her chin.

"Puff-free," Lily sleepily echoed.

The room soon fell silent, and all the girls fell asleep.

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It was a very sunny day, Remus noticed, as he walked along the grounds of Hogwarts, so why wasn't anyone but him outside?

Usually, the students of Hogwarts swarmed along the lake when the weather turned warm. So where were they today?

Suddenly, the sun dropped out of the sky and a full moon rose into its place.

"Remus?"

"Get away!" Remus warned, knowing all to well what would happen.

"Remus!"

"Go!" Remus shouted. Suddenly the whole earth shook and Remus' eyes flew open.

"Remus, wake up!" Sirius exclaimed, shaking Remus' bed by the posts.

Remus rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he looked at the clock. It read just after midnight.

"What are you doing?" Remus groggily demanded. "I'm sleeping."

"You were sleeping," James said with a grin, jumping onto Remus' bed. "We woke you up. We have an idea."

"You mean I have an idea," Sirius corrected.

James rolled his eyes. "Just get on with it."

"Well," Sirius started. "James was getting us lost in the castle when I started thinking about the Indians in America."

Remus and James looked at each other.

"In all those muggle stories they have blood bonds to make them best friends. So I started thinking, why should it be any different here?" Sirius looked at his friends, expecting agreement.

"Because not everybody likes to share blood," Remus said, feeling this point was very obvious.

"Well I know that," Sirius said. "So we don't have to be blood brothers! We can be bound by something else, like a secret society! With rules and everything!"

"What kind of secret society?" Remus asked, intrigued.

"Well, a Boys Against Girls society, of course," Sirius responded. "There's nothing else we hate!"

"Eggplant," James reminded Sirius.

"Right," Sirius said. "Boys Against Girls and Eggplants."

"We're not boys!" James exclaimed.

"…We're not?" Remus asked.

"No! We're men!" James said, obviously exasperated.

"Okay, okay," Sirius placated, holding up his hands. "Men Against Girls and Eggplants."

"Well, moms are okay," Remus amended. "And some girls are really nice and smart."

"So?" James asked.

"So they help with schoolwork."

"Right!" James said. "So moms are excluded, and so are nice girls."

"What about the girlfriends we'll have?" Sirius asked.

"Well, they're okay too," James decided.

"Maybe we should change our name to Men Against girls that we don't like?" Remus suggested.

"Well, what kind of girls don't we like?" Sirius asked.

"Redheads," James said immediately. "Like Lily Evans."

"And her friends," Sirius added. "The twins."

"Men Against Redheads and Brunettes and Eggplants," James said. "I like the sound of that."

"So we're the MARBE," Remus spelled out.

Sirius gave him a weird look. "No," He said slowly, "We're the MARABAE. You forgot the two 'ands'."

"They don't use ands when they're making abbreviations," Remus informed Sirius.

"Yes they do!" Sirius insisted.

"Men, men!" James said. "Article 1 of Men Against Redheads and Brunettes and Eggplants is no fighting without a good reason! We'll compromise and be MARABE."

Find it satisfactory, the boys moved on to the next issue at hand: MARABE rules.

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TOP SECRET DOCUMENT

DO NOT LOOK

(ESPECIALLY IF YOU AREA GIRL)

CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

MARABE Code

We, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, hereby announce the formation of a secret society:

Men Against Redheads and Brunettes and Eggplants,

hereby referred to as MARABE.

All members must adhere to the following laws:

Article I: Members of MARABE will not fight unless they have a good reason, such as the following:

a. One member has fraternized with certain redheads and brunettes

b. One member willingly ate eggplant

c. One member lied to more than one other member

d. One member spilled secrets

Article II: Members of MARABE will always be loyal to one another, but don't have to be loyal to anyone else.

Sub-Article II: "Anyone else" refers to other house members specifically.

Article III: MARABE is a SECRET society. Whoever spills the secret will be harshly and most severely punished.

Sub-Article III: You must not divulge the secret, even under pains of death!

Article IV: If any member refuses to follow the rules, they will be kicked out of MARABE and the MARABE headquarters (fourth dorm that members James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin currently live in). They will never be allowed back in.

Sub-Article IV: If a member has a really good reason for disobeying the laws, it's okay. Good reasons will be decided by the rest of the society.

Article V: If any member is captured, the other members must devise a plan to rescue the captured member. All plans must involve the Jelly-Legs curse.

Article VI: If, for any reason, the leader of the club is unable to perform his duties, the man closest to his height will take over. If that person cannot perform his duties, the next closest will take over. It will progress down the line in this fashion.

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MARABE Mission: To remain a secret brotherhood forever!

brbr

Positions:

James Harold Potter: President

Sirius Antonius Black: Master Prankster

Remus Jon Lupin: General Authority of Information and Planning

Sincerely Signed,

James Potter

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

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"Well, that is a good name for secretary," Remus said.

"Looks pretty good, doesn't it?" Sirius said, holding the parchment up to the candlelight. "Aren't you glad we woke you up for this?"

"Surprisingly," Remus admitted. "I am."

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The first thing Lily noticed when she woke up was that her eyes felt different. They felt…littler. And dry.

Lily carefully peeled off the cucumbers, which seemed to have suctioned to her eyes in her sleep. Discarding the now dry vegetable slices on her nightstand, Lily sat up and looked around the room.

A few rays of light had penetrated the curtains, dancing impishly around the room with the rising sun. Lexi and Lizzie were still sound asleep, both laying on their sides. One of Lizzie's cucumbers had fallen off her face, and Lily stifled a giggle. What if that eye turned out to be puffy, and the other wasn't?

Lily put on her slippers and robe and crept out of the dorm room. She had overheard some of the older students talking about house elves (some kind of servant, Lily supposed) that came to tend the Common Room fire in the morning. Lily hoped she could talk one of them into letting her have an early breakfast.

As Lily approached the Common Room, she heard low voices arguing. Upon entering the room, she was shocked to see that James Potter with his friends (Sirius and Remus, Lily recalled) sitting around a table and scribbling on parchment.

James, Sirius, and Remus were equally shocked to see Lily.

Sirius' cheeks flushed and he tucked his feet behind him to keep Lily from seeing his pajama footies.

Their shock quickly turned to amusement when they took in Lily's whole appearance.

"Why Lily," James said quite amicably. "Your eyes are looking especially radiant today."

Lily gave James a thoroughly odd look. "Thanks," She said finally.

"My pleasure, really," James smoothly answered, kicking Remus under the table to stop his snickers.

"Such a brilliant green color, wouldn't you say, Remus?" Sirius added.

Remus barely managed a nod.

"And those long eyelashes," James continued.

"Yes, your eyes are simply amazing." Sirius looked quite smug with himself for delivering such a perfect line.

By this time, Lily was torn between smiling brightly or guessing at an ulterior motive. Luckily, a lengthy inner debate was avoided by Lexi's intervention.

Just like every other morning, Lexi had checked the mirror the moment she woke up. Every morning she would see exactly the same thing: straight hair pulled into a ponytail, sleepy eyes, and the same skin (hopefully without any new pimples). Today, however, was an exception.

A horrifying exception.

Somehow, overnight, Lexi's eyes had shrunk. The skin around her previously lovely eyes had become pruny and swollen, her eyes narrowed to slits. Her eyelashes jutted out at strange angles and—

Lexi couldn't even stand to look anymore. "Lizzie!" Lexi said urgently, managing to keep herself under control. "Lily!"

Lexi flung the curtains from around Lily's bed only to find it empty. It was then that she heard voices from the Common Room.

Not even bothering with a robe or slippers, Lexi flung herself down the stairs.

"Lily! Don't go down there! Your eyes-"

But it was too late. Lily was standing in front of the worst possible people—James, Sirius, and Remus.

Lily turned around to greet Lexi, but stopped in midsentence.

"Your eyes!" Lily exclaimed.

"Not just my eyes," Lexi mourned. "Yours, too."

"My what?" Lily demanded. "But-"

The boys behind her failed in keeping in their laughter and began to, as Lexi described it to Lizzie, "positively roared."

"What could have happened?" Lizzie moaned, pouring through parchments of instruction manuals. "We didn't do anything wrong!"

"What does it say to do?" Lexi asked, frantic.

Lizzie read aloud. "Cucumber Cumulus is a 100% effective way for you to freshen the appearance of your eyes! Our unique, one-of-a-kind potion is sure to deliver the results you want. With .5g of crushed sea dragon scales and 2 grams of authentic pixie dust, Cucumber Cumulus potion is certain to moisturize and add dazzle to your eyes. Simply apply one cucumber to each eye overnight. Not to be used more than once every three days. Please discard after the printed date." Lizzie frowned. "See, we did everything right! Lexi checked the date, I gave each person two cucumbers, and we-"

"Actually," Lexi said in a small voice. "I didn't check the date. I thought you would."

Lily took the jar and looked at the date printed on the side, labeled in swirly print for 20 May of the previous year.

"What do we do?" Lexi asked.

"Well, I suppose we wait for it to go down," Lizzie said. "We'll just wait up here and, you know, play games."

Lexi and Lizzie were appalled to find that Lily had no knowledge of popular Wizard games. The twins quickly taught Lily the rules of a card game entitled Princesses and Ogres.

After 38 games lapsing 3 hours, Lily had to admit that she was getting no better at the game. Lexi and Lizzie had alternately won every single game, leaving Lily with a victory total of zero.

"How do I look now?" Lexi asked.

Lily grimaced. "Not better."

"What about me?" Lizzie asked.

Lily giggled. Lizzie's left eye was swollen worse than Lexi and Lily's eyes. Her right eye, on the other hand, looked completely normal.

"Well you look just as bad!" Lizzie retorted.

"We're not getting any better," Lexi said, stating the obvious.

"What are we going to do?" Lily cried, throwing down her cards. She was losing again anyway.

"Well, we could go see Madame Pomfrey," Lizzie suggested practically.

"NO!" Lexi said vehemently. "There is no way we can go out there! Everybody will see us like this. Everybody will remember us with these bug eyes!"

"Well I only have one," Lizzie reminded her sister. "And we could cover the eyes!"

"With what?" Lexi asked skeptically.

"Well…eye patches!"

"So we should stumble around blinded?" Lily asked.

"Okay, so maybe that wasn't a very good idea," Lizzie admitted. She looked around the room for something to use. "I know!" She cried, launching herself at one of Lexi's dresses hanging the closet.

The dress was black, with a lighter, sheer black material over the skirt.

Lizzie spread the dress on the floor and, before Lexi could protest, ripped the sheer material off.

"WHAT are you DOING?" Lexi demanded, grabbing the material from Lizzie. "That was a lovely dress! You're going to be repairing it, you know!"

"Lexi this is our lifesaver!" Lizzie argued, taking the material back. "Watch!" Lizzie ripped the material into three big squares. She picked one square up and dropped it directly on top of her head.

"Look!" She said, modeling the look. "Problem solved! Nobody can see our faces."

"We'll look like we're in mourning," Lily observed.

"Well, we can say that our grand-aunt died," Lizzie said, tossing Lily a veil. "Put it on and let's go see Madame Pomfrey! With any luck, everyone will be at lunch."

"We can't go out in these clothes and the veil," Lexi said, shocked.

"Why not?" Lily demanded. She wanted her eyes fixed!

"Yes, why not?" Lizzie asked, surveying her clothes. Lizzie happened to think her skirt was quite cute!

"We'll look silly! We have to match!" Lexi said, exasperated. She rummaged through her trunk and pulled out a few long, angel sleeved robes.

"Mum bought these for me when she thought we were going to Beauxbatons," Lexi said. "They look like proper mourning wear."

Quickly, the girls slipped the robes over their clothes.

"Let's go!"

The three girls carefully slinked down the hall and into the Common Room. Pushing a protesting Lizzie forward, Lizzie checked the room for any inhabitants.

Luckily, there were none.

"Okay, come on," She whispered. The three girls crept across the room and had almost gotten to the portrait when it swung open.

"And so I said-" Sirius broke off in laughter.

"Sirius, it wasn't that funny," James protested.

"I said-" Sirius dissolved in laughter again.

"Go on, out with it!" Remus encouraged, ignoring James' glare.

"I said "Why don't you go and-" Sirius stopped in midsentence and cocked his head. "What happened to you?"

The three girls froze, caught in the act.

"You look like you're in mourning," Remus said, taking in the three figures covered in big black cloth.

"We are," The middle one said.

"Who died?" Sirius asked skeptically.

"My cousin," the right one said at the same time the left one said, "My grand-aunt."

"Oh, so your grand-aunt who is also your cousin?" Sirius inquired, rolling his eyes.

There was a pause. "Yes!" The right one said, obviously relieved. "Grand-aunt and cousin…Beatrice."

"Poor Beatrice," The left one mourned. "So young."

"And yet so old," The right one amended. "So old."

James stared. How could they be this bad?

"Are you going home, then?" Sirius asked, having a grand time. "For the funeral?"

"Yes. In fact, we're leaving right now, so if you'd excuse us…" The middle one tried for the portrait, but was stopped by Sirius.

"You poor dear," Sirius clucked, sounding uncannily like Mrs. Potter. "Let me help you."

"Oh no, I…I…" The right one looked around for help, assuming she could see from underneath that veil.

"I insist," Sirius said, refusing to let her argue. "I would never allow a damsel in distress to walk alone! My mum raised me better than that."

Much to the rapidly increasing dismay of the girls, the mothers of all three of the boys seemed to have raised them with manners. All rushed to aid the girls.

"Where are you meeting your carriage?" James inquired gently, all charm.

"Well, um, right outside the main doors," The middle one lied.

In silence, the six walked to the main doors. James insisted upon holding the door open for the ladies to walk through first, although he let it go in time for Sirius to walk into it.

"Where is your carriage?" Remus asked.

"I expect it to be a bit late," The middle one said before the others could speak. "Mother is rather slow."

"We'll wait with you," Remus said graciously.

"Oh no, we insist," The middle one spoke again. "I think Mother would rather see us alone."

"Well, if you say so!" Sirius said cheerfully, only too happy to be out of the cold.

"We'll wait inside for 10 minutes. If the carriage hasn't come by then, we'll wait with you the rest of the time," James said seriously, touching the shoulder of the girl he was escorting. "My deepest condolences for you loss."

Sirius had the courtesy to wait for the doors to swing closed behind him before he began laughing.

"Did you see the looks on their faces?" Sirius howled.

"Considering they were wearing veils, no," Remus said.

"Just imagine the looks! Here they are, obviously trying to sneak off to the hospital wing without being seen, and we give them the most attention! They must be freezing out there!" Sirius could barely get the words out.

"And it was starting to rain," James chuckled. "Listen—it's starting to pour. They'll have to come in soon."

"We have 6 more minutes," Remus said, checking his watch.

"I bet 2 sickles that they come in before then," Sirius wagered, jingling the coins in his pocket.

"3 says they stay out the whole time," Remus said, flashing three silver coins.

"Well 5 says that they come in within 2 minutes," James said.

All three waiting, counting every agonizing second.

"Pay up, men," Remus grinned, holding out his hand.

Grumbling, Sirius and James counted out seven sickles into Remus' palm.

"Let's go get them," Remus said, flinging open the doors. "The carriage still hasn't—"

Remus stopped in midsentence. The girls were gone.

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"What are we going to do?" Lizzie hissed, muffled by her veil. "This isn't going according to plan!"

"You think?" Lily asked. "And you're a horrible liar! You almost ruined it for all of us!"

Lizzie flushed underneath her veil. "Well sorr-ryy."

"We could run along the outside of the school and come back in at the other side," Lexi suggested. "It's closer to the hospital wing than this. And we can't go back inside! Not with them!"

"But it's starting to pour," Lizzie moaned, gesturing to the increasing amount of rain.

"We'll get soaked!"

"It beats getting teased by them!" Lily argued. "We'll never leave it down."

"Do you think they know its us?" Lexi asked. "We've never dressed like this before…"

"But they saw your faces earlier," Lizzie pointed out. "They know we don't want other people to see our eyes. They probably put two and two together."

"And got five," Lily scoffed. "They probably don't realize its us, but we have to keep them from realizing!"

"So let's run around," Lexi suggested. "It shouldn't be that long."

"Okay," Lizzie said reluctantly. "But let's hurry."

The three veiled girls dashed out from under the roof and straight into the path of the rain. After running until the door was out of sight, all three realized they had made a mistake.

"I'm already soaked!" Lizzie announced, water dripping through her veil and onto her face. "And I don't even see the other end of the wall.

"It's over there…a ways," Lexi answered, grabbing Lizzie's arm and forcing to her to run faster.

The three girls were running through the Quidditch field when the rain got to be too much for Lexi.

"This stupid veil! I can't even see through it!" She complained. Slowing down to take it off, Lexi failed to see where she was running and ran straight into a pole holding up the stands.

"Lexi! Are you all right?" Lily gasped, running to Lexi's side and hauling her now muddy form up off the ground.

"Ouch," Lexi said, touching her eye. "My eye really hurts."

"This isn't going to help anything," Lizzie said.

"Well I didn't run into it on purpose!" Lexi snapped.

"Let's just keep going," Lily said, glancing about. "We can go into that door over there."

The three girls closed the side door behind them as fast as possible. Lexi whipped her veil off her head, hand still over her injured eye.

The room they were in was far from the expected hallway. It was some sort of tiny bedroom. The bed was short and fat, a wooden frame with an old mattress that looked to be sagging in the middle.

The whole room seemed to be made of plain brown wood. The floor was hardwood, the dresser and bookshelf made of the same wood as the bed.

The only thing that wasn't wood was the curtains. The curtains were light blue with bright yellow ducks and purple-blue bubbles.

"Who lives here?" Lexi asked, starting to laugh at the décor. Just then, the doorknob began to turn.

"Darn door," A gruff, angry voice muttered. "I have the key right here…"

"Oh no," Lily quietly moaned. "It's that caretaker—Pringle."

"We are in so much trouble," Lexi said a little too loudly.

Pringle began rattling the door. "Who's in there?" He thundered.

"Out the window, quick!" Lizzie cried. "He hears us!" Not waiting for them to respond, Lizzie shoved the window and dove out.

Not about to be caught, the remaining girls quickly followed Lizzie, landing in a heap on the wet ground.

"Run!" Lizzie hissed, already taking off.

The three girls ran for their lives, reaching the door they were originally meaning to enter in record time.

"Take off your robes," Lexi ordered. "We want to look semi normal for Pomfrey."

The girls stripped to their soggy everyday clothes—Lizzie wishing she hadn't wore her new skirt—and entered the door. All three ran smack into Madame Pomfrey.

"Students you—what happened to you?" Madame Pomfrey demanded. Not waiting for an answer, she began shooing the girls into the hospital wing. "These first years," the mediwitch sighed, closing the door behind her.

It was then that Lexi remember. "Lily," She whispered. "I left my veil in Pringle's room."

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After being unable to find the girls for three hours, James, Remus, and Sirius decided to take the matter to Professor McGonagall.

"At least we'll still make them look stupid, right?" Sirius said.

James knocked on Professor McGonagall's office door, having learned its location by heart since the night he got lost.

"Yes?" McGonagall asked curtly upon answering the door.

"We were walking down the hall a few hours ago and saw these three girls in black head-to-toe," James began quite seriously.

"Even veils," Sirius added, nodding.

"It struck as suspicious, so we wanted to notify the authority," Remus spoke.

"Well, that's a coincidence," McGonagall said, closing her office door behind the boys.

James got the feeling that McGonagall wasn't happy to be discussing this.

"Would this be one of the veils you saw?"

McGonagall held a dripping wet black veil on the tip of her finger.

Ah-ha! James thought. They did go through the rain! Remus owes me three sickles!

"Yes it is," Remus said.

"The caretaker came to me two hours ago to report seeing three students jumping out of his window and running away, all wearing black. Before he saw them, one apparently yelled 'Out the window, quick, Sirius.'"

Sirius gaped. "What?" He demanded. "I did no such thing!"

McGonagall gave him a stern look. "Three of you, three veiled students. If you had wanted to get away with it, Mr. Black, you might have tried staying quiet. Instead, you can sat quiet tonight. In detention."

All three shot looks at each other, all thinking the same thing.

Lily, Lexi, and Lizzie would pay.