Thanks so much for all the reviews everyone! They were really great! I'd
just like to say that I am soooo sorry that I haven't updated for a while,
I've been bombarded with heaps of maths homework and since it's not my
strongest subject (and far from favourite) I've been pre-occupied with that
for most of the time. I'd just like you to also know that this chapter is
late because I've actually started writing another fic that isn't posted
yet, it was a 'in the feeling' thing, so yes, my time hasn't completely
gone to waste. Well I'll stop my yabbering and get onto the fanfic!
~*~Mystical Dreams
Chapter 12: Suspicious discovery
It took Lily and James exactly fifteen minutes to realize that they were indeed alone on the snow covered grounds of Hogwarts, and by that time, it had started to snow and was getting thicker by the second. James had given up with his come backs when he had tried to move his feat and then realized that they, and every other part of his body, were slowly becoming numb.
Lily had danced back up to the castle with a smile plastered on her face from winning the fight out; however, when she found that she couldn't open the heavy doors to get into the warmth of the castle, she wasn't feeling as content.
James trudged after her, shaking his head at her madness. She was currently banging on the doors and pushing them as hard as she could.
"Evans, what the hell are you doing?" he asked as he came up behind her.
"I'm trying to-" she yanked the handles, "get-the doors-open" she said out of breath.
"Well obviously" he rolled his eyes, "Why aren't you using your wand?"
"Your best buddy still has it!" she said exasperatedly, as if it was all his fault (which was partly true).
"Here, let me try" he said pushing her aside.
James held his wand up to the doors and said a spell that would hopefully reveal what charm had been used.
They both waited in silence for a while, but nothing happened. James pondered as he touched the wood with his fingers, his other hand mussing up his hair.
"Well?"
"McGonagall cast this spell" he stated grimly.
"Oh really? Telepathic are you now Potter?" Lily asked irritably.
"No, McGonagall and my wands are just very much alike" he stated, "I can tell by the way the spell's cast"
Lily mimicked him childishly as she looked around and the fast falling snow about her.
"Try Alohamorah"
"Evans do you really think that a Professor would use a charm that could be counter cursed by a first grader?"
"Well it's worth a try, I don't know about you but I don't want to be stuck in this freezing soon-to-be blizzard while everyone else is inside sitting in a squishy armchair next to the warm fire!" Lily snapped, her teeth chattering together.
James ruffled his black hair in consideration.
"And stop doing that! It's annoying!"
"I can't help it, it's a habit" he said defensively.
Lily snorted, "Yeah, whatever"
"Look, I've got a better plan, it'll get us inside quicker, but you'll have to let me blindfold you"
"What?! No way! What do you think I am, crazy?!"
"Do I have to answer that. . ."
"Oh shut it!"
James didn't have enough time to argue, if they didn't go now he wouldn't be able to find the entrance to the passage through the snow.
"Oh fine, but you'll have to promise not to tell anyone about it or I'll have to put a memory charm on you, and you know how they're not really my expertise"
Lily couldn't really care where they were going, she just wanted to get into the warmth before she got frost bight.
She rolled her eyes, "Oh fine, just get us inside without killing me, Ok?"
"Hey! I'm the one doing the favor here! Stop snapping at me!"
"It's a habit" Lily said smugly.
James sighed and started to walk along the side of the castle, trying to find some shelter from the snow close to the tall stone wall. Lily gave one more longing look at the large wooden doors and then begrudgingly followed suit, hoping she wasn't making a big mistake.
They walked around to the back of the castle in silence. Lily had to stay close to James so she wouldn't lose sight of him in the thick snow falling about her and when he stopped abruptly she bumped unintentionally into his back.
"Watch out!"
"Well at least give me warning when you're going to stop so suddenly!"
James rolled his eyes, "Come on, help me move these dead branches aside" he said indicating to the leafless bushes in front of him.
Lily looked at him suspiciously but obliged all the same, thinking of the warmth of the burning fire in the common room.
When they had pushed their way through the tangle of twigs into a small clearing both of their robes were slightly torn and Lily had several scratches that had dug underneath her flimsy gloves and onto her hands.
"Oh, I can see how this was the easier way" she said sarcastically as she fell almost ankle deep into the snow.
"Oh quick your whining, we're nearly there" James said as he plundered on towards the stone wall in front of them, "And I never said it was easier, I just said it was quicker then just- Oh bullocks!" James' hand had been feeling around the bricks on the wall when he had come to the very bottom near the snow.
"What?"
"The entrance is under the snow"
"Oh, well isn't that lovely, you can't tell me that you dragged me all the way here in the freezing cold to realize that we can't get in!"
"I didn't drag you here; you came of your own accord, you could have stayed if you wanted" he pointed out.
"Well here's what I get when I trust James Potter!"
"I can't control the weather Evans! If it hadn't have snowed then the entrance wouldn't be blocked!"
"Well you should have thought of that, shouldn't you?"
"I never think before I act, you know that" James said as if stating the obvious.
"Urgh! You're so annoying!"
"I know, it's part of my charm" he said flashing her a grin.
Lily was just about to burst out with another witty remark when James held up a hand to silence her.
"Look" he said, becoming serious, "I'm going to have to do something that might tend to freak you out so I can move this snow without us both getting frost bite from trying to do it ourselves" James said cautiously.
"And what would that be?" Lily asked distrustfully, her sharp green eyes boring into him.
James sighed and ruffled his hair, "Well I guess there's no use stalling" he muttered, and with that, he closed his eyes in concentration and within seconds had morphed into a large, noble looking stag.
Lily gasped and fell over, startled.
She had, of course, seen Professor McGonagall turn into her animagus form, and Annie had demonstrated it to her as well but they were both small animals, a cat and an owl, but this stag standing in front of her was huge!
Lily backed away slightly; they had touched slightly on the topic of Animagi in transfiguration, and she had read a little about it in books, but she couldn't be sure that James was fully himself in the stags mind.
The stag rolled its hazel eyes and they seemed to twinkle in mirth, if that was possible for a stag.
Lily scowled at it.
"You could have given me some warning"
She new that he could understand her; Andromeda had told her that they were able to understand human speech as they still had most of their human brain inside of the animals body, they only had an animal instinct, which now, when she came to think about it, must be the reason why Sirius tended to eat so much like a dog.
The stag shrugged its large shoulders and turner around to face the wall. It dug its hoofs into the snow and started to scrape it away until the dirt was visible underneath.
Lily watched in fascination until she heard a twig snap behind her, she turned to find a small squirrel running through the bushes back the way they had came, when she turned back around she found James standing in front of the wall grinning.
"Done!" he exclaimed as if nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened.
"Finally" she said, trying to look bored so he wouldn't catch on that she was actually very intrigued.
James reached down and tapped one of the bricks third from the bottom with his wand whispering "Procarnot" softly enough so that Lily wouldn't hear.
The wall became transparent; it was like looking through water onto the other side.
Lily's mouth fell open and she stood there gaping at the small doorway.
"What did?-How'd you? How'd it?"
"Jeez Evans, you need to get out more!" James said as he walked through the silvery wall.
"Wait!" Lily yelled, and, afraid of being left behind she plunged through the wall as well.
James just laughed at her as she came stumbling through it onto the other side.
The snow and dead bushes could be seen as a blurry mass through the liquid- type wall, but she could also make out the bricks in the picture, as if a reflection in a glass window.
Lily looked around where she was now standing. It was some sort of stone passageway. Very spacey, she had to admit. Not at all the sort of secret passage she would imagine, but it was still slightly drafty, even though she couldn't see any other opening other than the one she had come in by.
James tapped one of the transparent bricks, third from the bottom again and whispered the same spell and the blurry snow and bushes on the other side disappeared to be replaced with the original stone wall.
"Lumos" James whispered as everything went dark, and his wand lit up to submit a small glow. Lily did the same.
"How'd you know to do that? I mean, how do you know this is here?" Lily asked, in despite of herself, in awe.
"I'm a marauder, what'd you expect!"
"Yes, but how did you find it?"
"Am I to understand that Lily Evans is interested in something to do with a marauder?" James asked in mock disbelief.
Lily growled at him but he was not perturbed in the slightest, he wanted to make best out of this situation and drink it all in.
"Yes or no Evans?"
"It's my duty to know, as a prefect"
"Puh! I'm shaking in my shoes" he said sarcastically, "Plus, Remus knows, and he's a prefect, so you don't have to"
"I can't trust Remus anymore! He's a total law breaker too!" she said, making sure she put emphasis on the law part.
"Yeah, well he can't help it, now can he?" James said spitefully.
"Oh. . .yeah" Lily said a little guiltily.
"It's still really dangerous, what you do though" Lily said, "You know that don't you?" she then asked; not at all too shore what the answer would be.
"Of course I know it's dangerous! He's a werewolf for Merlin's sakes!" James replied, "But trust me Evans, Sirius and I are big enough to take care of it, sure, there are near risks, but he never gets anyone, and that's what matters"
"You know as well as I do that that's a load of bull" Lily said dangerously, "Sirius says that doesn't he? It's just like him James! You know better then that, I know you do! If one of you ever got seriously hurt Remus would never forgive himself, and don't look at me like that, I've known him just as long as you have and I know that his personality doesn't like to be bowed down with guilt!"
Lily was even surprised she had just said what she had, and it showed as she clapped her hand over her mouth and murmured something incoherent behind it.
James, however, didn't reply quite the way she was expecting. He sighed as he looked at her; his eyes were sad and far away.
"He's my friend Evans, you don't get it, when I found out what he was I wasn't afraid, I wasn't repulsed, I felt guilty, I thought it was my fault, somehow I wasn't making it better, Remus is a great guy, you couldn't find anyone nicer then him, you really couldn't. He doesn't deserve to live this sort of life so I want to do everything I can to help him. If turning into an animal with him once a month makes his life easier then I would do it every night, I would live as a stag if it meant it would all go away. When we're with him he's himself, he isn't a werewolf as such, and he's so much just a normal wolf . . ."
James ran his hands through his hair.
"I don't know if I am explaining this too well" he stated a he lent up against the stone wall.
"We don't do this to be rebels Lily, no one knows about it except for us, with the exception of Miria, you and Annie more recently. We didn't do this for another one of our stunts and we didn't do it to show off, we did it because we wanted to help him. Before we turned into animagi he would come back from full moon so battered and bruised and torn apart, mentally and physically, that he had to stay in the hospital wing for at least three days. He used to kill himself when he transformed. When he found out that we knew, Peter, Sirius and I, he almost had a heart attack, the look on his face was so horrified and panicked that I thought I'd never get it out of my mind. We're the only friends he has ever had, and we stuck with him, even when we knew what he was. He lives off that, and I just don't want to let him down. You have to understand that we all know it's dangerous, being cocky is how we handle it, but if breaking the law is what I have to do to keep Remus alive; I'll do it a million times over"
Lily stood silent, thinking over what James had said. She knew it was true, knew she couldn't deny against anything he had said. And for once in her lifetime, she knew he was sincere.
"There's more to you then I ever could have imagined in my wildest dreams James Potter" Lily said, and a slight ghost of a smile appeared on her face for a moment, as she turned to start down the tunnel.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" James asked as he jotted out of his reverie and jogged up after her.
"I thought I had had you worked out from day one. I was wrong" Lily stated, looking straight ahead.
James spluttered; he was at loss for words.
"Y-you-did you just admit you were wrong?!" he asked amazedly.
"Yes, I did, clean out your ears" Lily said simply, trying hard not to look at him as a burning redness started to creep up her cheeks.
"Evans you're blushing"
"I am not!" Lily said indignantly.
"Oh yes you are! Lily Evans just admitted she was wrong and now she's blushing! The sky must be falling!" James exclaimed as he danced around.
Lily found his sudden change of mood slightly off-putting.
"Alright, don't rub it in"
"Why not? That's what we do; it's in the unspoken rules"
"What unspoken rules?" Lily asked, annoyed that he had caught her.
"We're not supposed to talk about them Evans, that's why their called unspoken"
"Right" Lily said as she turned towards a fork in the tunnel.
"Your ears are as red as you hair" James observed.
"Which way?" Lily asked.
"What? Oh, right" James said, breaking his gaze away from her.
They walked on for a couple of minutes longer, James silently chuckling to himself at the redness on Lily's face.
"So, how did you find this place anyways?" Lily asked again carefully.
James ruffled his hair in consideration.
"Well taking to account that I've just told you more then I've ever told any of my girlfriends-"
"Wait! You talked in between all that snogging?" Lily asked incredulously, she just couldn't help but slight him.
"That's a bit off-hand Evans, when you're the one who wants to know"
"Sorry, I can't help it, it's a habit" she drawled.
James glared at her.
"Ok, ok, sorry, keep going"
"Yes, as I was saying, since I've told you more then I've ever told any of my girlfriends. . ."
"Yes" Lily urged him.
"You'll just have to become my girlfriend to find out more"
"James!" Lily cried exasperatedly.
James laughed to himself as he backed away when she tried to hit him on the arm.
"See, we're already on first name terms"
Lily growled, and slumped her shoulders in frustration.
"If you thought about it, you'd figure it out" James said as they walked on.
"When you run around the same place every full moon you have to find something that no one else knows about" he said simply.
A dawning look of understanding spread over Lily's face and she was just about to say something when James clapped his hand over her mouth.
Lily twisted around furiously but as she turned James put a finger to his own lips to signal for her to be quiet and lifted his hand away from her.
He then walked over to a wooden door in the stone, one of which Lily hadn't noticed, and pressed his ear up against it. Lily followed his lead and soon enough she could hear two people talking in low whispers.
James unbolted the door with ease and opened it a creak to see who was talking.
The door was positioned behind an old book case, but they could just see two figures through a space unfilled by the ancient novels.
The speaker standing closest to them had short blond hair and very profound and pointy features, the other had greasy black hair and beetle eyes.
"Snape and Malfoy" James stated in a low whisper.
"Where are we?" Lily asked.
"Slytherin common room. . . I think"
Lily's face turned into a surprised expression and she was just about to say something but James held his hand up to silence her and pointed towards the two students.
"When did you find out?" Snape asked in a curious tone.
"A couple of weeks ago, Rookwood informed me"
"And how many have you both collected so far?"
"Collected? You make them sound like toys"
"I didn't mean it that way" Snape said irritably.
"So how many are there?"
"Twenty so far"
"And who else are you going to ask?"
"My girlfriend, Narcissa Black, he-"
James leaned in a little closer to the book case; he knew that name only to well.
"Black?!" Snape spat out the name.
"Yes" Malfoy said coolly.
"As in Sirius Black?"
"She is his cousin, yes" Malfoy stated.
"Well what would you want with them?"
"Dear, dear Severus, all those dark arts books you read and you don't even know one of the most famous pure blood families"
"Sirius Black isn't one of my favourite subjects" Snape said bitterly.
"Well I'll just let you know that Sirius and Andromeda Black are lets say, the white sheep of the family, so to speak" Malfoy said dryly, "The Black family are as pure as the Malfoy's, their lineage traces back even further then ours. . .They had to produce some bad spawn along the line"
James gritted his teeth, he was reminded with sudden force how much he hated Malfoy, almost as much as Snape himself.
Snape nodded understandably.
"I'll be informing Narcissa, and her sister Bellatrix, they are both Andomreda Black's sisters, and also Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and Regulus Black"
"Regulus?" Snape inquired.
"Sirius' brother"
"Do you really think that wise?" Snape asked, "He might leak to Black"
"You need to take your greasy nose out of a book once in a while and listen to natural human conversation" Malfoy stated, "Black ran away from the his family, slammed the door in his mother's face as I'm to understand and ran off to live with the filthy blood traitors; the Potters"
James made a low hissing sound under his breath and this time it was Lily's turn to shoot him a warning look, however, his eyes were transfixed on the two young men standing on the other side of the bookcase.
"Regulus is loyal to his family, and Narcissa has assured me that he has been acting up to standards with no troubles at Durmstrang"
"And how can you be sure that Andromeda Blacks two sisters won't leak to her?"
"Are you contradicting my girlfriend Severus?" Lucius asked dangerously.
"No" Snape said quickly, "its just woman are very gossip orientated" he explained lamely.
"You need to get a life" Lucius muttered as he rubbed his brow.
Snape wasn't at all perturbed by Lucius' bitter remarks towards him, he was used to people saying such things, and he didn't want to get on the bad side of the Malfoy family, they would be a tough enemy.
"No, I assure you, they won't leak a thing; all of the Blacks don't want anything to do with the two disowned blood traitors"
Snape nodded.
"I can understand why they don't want anything to do with them, filthy disrespectful-"
James had had enough, he wanted to go and curse both of them to oblivion, and he actually made to grab his wand. Lily saw what he was going to do and grasped his arm. James knocked his elbow against the wooden door and a dull thump echoed through the silent room.
"What was that?" Snape asked as he whipped his wand out and skimmed the room with his eyes.
Lucius did the same thing but drew slowly closer to the bookcase where Lily and James were now both crouching, holding their breaths in silent anticipation.
James' wand hand was twitching furiously as he tried to prize it free of Lily's grip in the cramped space.
"It was probably just a house elf" Snape stated as he lowered his wand.
Lucius turned around to face him, and in that moment Lily took the chance to pull James back into the stone tunnel and force the door closed silently behind them.
"Stupid, bloody, greasy, sodding piece of-"
"James shutup!" Lily hissed, "They'll hear you!"
James subsided to muttering some choice words under his breath that were just as colourful as Lily's had been.
Lily listened intently as she pressed her ear up against the door but she heard nothing from the other side. She didn't know if this was a good or bad thing and started to get increasingly nervous.
She walked more urgently back over to James who was gripping his wand tightly in his hand, silently fuming. Suddenly, to both of their surprise, red sparks started shooting out of the end of it.
"Put it down!" Lily exclaimed, trying her hardest to be quiet.
She grabbed his wrist and dragged him further down the tunnel, when she felt they were out of ear shot she almost fumed at him.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you never to hold your wand when you're angry?!"
James jabbed his wand back into his robes.
"Grimy gits!" he stated angrily, "I should've given them a piece of my mind!"
Lily ignored his ravings and set her mind on other things.
"So, she has set them up with beautiful pure blood boyfriends after all" Lily muttered.
James caught onto what she was saying and ruffled his hair in reflection.
"Course she has" James stated, "To keep the family blood stream pure and untainted" he mocked.
"I see you've been well educated on all this pure blood stuff too" Lily commented dryly.
"Yes but difference being, I come from a pure blood family who don't want to put a decree to the ministry to allow muggle hunting"
Silence followed for a moment as they kept walking along the tunnel.
"They were talking about. . . collecting people" Lily said as she thought back.
James was oddly silent for a moment and his face was impassive, Lily could tell he was hiding something.
"What, what is it?" she asked.
"I'll explain when we get back and tell Sirius, I'm sure he'll think this all very interesting. . ."
~*~
Sirius gave out a hollow laugh from his seat near the fire in the warmly lit common room.
"Wonderful, respectable Regulus, I'm sure dearest Mother and Father will think he's a right little hero for getting involved with his older cousins doings" he said bitterly.
"Merlin our families predictable" Andromeda muttered as she ran a hand through her raven hair, "Narcissa and Malfoy, what a perfectly ingenious match, I'm sure my Mother was positively delighted with herself"
Sirius grimly nodded his agreement.
"I'm sure Malfoy and Snape had a lot of lovely and heart warming things to say about us" he stated, not at all bothering to cover the hatred in his tone. Sirius was like that, he was blunt and to the point, and often spoke his mind.
"Don't know about them but James' language was pretty colourful" Lily stated amusedly as she sat, warming her frozen hands in front of the fireplace.
Remus smirked half-heartedly; that's something they had all picked up from some of Sirius' more. . .rather disgusting talents.
"So what do you think they're up to?" Miria asked.
"Probably something foul beyond all reason if it includes the Malfoy's, Blacks and Snape" Sirius commented as he started to pace the room in a very Remus-like fashion.
"Malfoy mentioned the Lestrange's as well, and Rookwood" James said grimly.
Remus whistled, "That's one hell of a party"
"Do you think it'd be anything big?" Lily asked, "I mean they said they were collecting people"
"Well they said they had twenty so far, right?" Sirius asked.
James nodded.
"It can't be too serious I guess; most of them are pretty young, I mean Regulus is only in third year" Sirius reasoned.
"But still. . .Rookwood, you know the people he hangs around with, and he's out of school" James said.
"What would they do though, in this group?" Miria asked.
"I don't know, plan muggle hunting parties, secret conspiracy theories, over-take the whole world because they think they're royalty" Sirius said this meaning for it to be a joke, but somehow a solemn silence fell over the group. The truth was this could be entirely possible for all they knew, there were still enough powerful pure blood families to do such things. . ."
It was James who finally broke the silence.
"You know, I've noticed Snivellus sneaking around more the usual lately, namely around us actually, and the forbidden forest"
Remus' head shot up as he heard James' words.
"What?!"
"Sirius and I saw him walk in there on the first day of school, I believe Lily was there as well. . ." James left the sentence going, looking slyly over at Lily.
"But I thought you were just-"
"Think again"
"Well you're always making stuff up like that! How was I supposed to know you weren't lying when you said you saw him go in there?!"
Remus put his hand up to silence James from retorting and spoke directly to both of his friends.
"Why didn't you tell me about it?"
"Well we didn't want you to get troubled and all" James mumbled as he looked down at his feat, "We knew you'd get edgy if Snape was lurking around the places we go at full moon"
"It's probably nothing to do with us anyway" Sirius said, trying to calm the anxious expression creeping on to Remus' face, "Now we know that something's going on with this group-thing"
"What if that group thing has to do with us?" Remus asked quietly.
Sirius opened his mouth and closed it again, he knew that was a valid point and couldn't really argue with it, however, it seemed that Andromeda could.
"But why would they want to know stuff about you guys, I mean, most of them don't even go to this school, and if I know my sisters, they won't want anything to do with us" she said waving her hand to indicate she was talking about herself and Sirius, "The pure blood families have 'disowned' us" she said mockingly.
"But still, do you think he would have picked up on the markings?"
"No, no one looks at trees that intricately" Sirius said shaking his head.
"Padfoot, they were pretty big"
"And normal animals don't go around carving S's into bark" Remus pointed out.
"You've lost me" Lily stated as she listened to them discuss the matter.
"Sirius marks an S on the trees in the forest that we have gone past with his claws so we don't get lost when we rout off a path" James explained, "We didn't think anyone would notice since no one really goes in there"
"Still, Snivellus wouldn't have gone off the paths, from the reputation that it gets, he knows that heaps of dangerous creatures are in there" Sirius justified.
"Wait!" Lily said putting her hands up, "Stop and rewind! Didn't Malfoy just tell Snape this today?"
There was silence as the others considered this.
"See, it probably just has nothing to do with us!" Sirius declared, "Snivellus is probably just being Snivellus and is snooping around in other people's business"
"Maybe" Remus said uncertainly, "I still think we should follow him next time we see him going near the forest though"
They all nodded in agreement. Everything went silent until Mira asked a question out of the blue.
"Why did Regulus transfer to Durmstrang?" She enquired curiously.
Andromeda and Sirius exchanged looks for a moment as Sirius stopped pacing.
"Because of me" he said simply. This earned a confused look from Miria and Lily.
"What exactly did you say to your mother before you ran out?" Lily asked slowly.
Sirius gave another short laugh.
"Only that I hated them all and that they're a pack of obsessed, infatuated sodding cowards" Sirius pondered a little on this, "With some choice words such as your lovely vocabulary in between" he added as an after thought.
"Oh, then I can see why she was just a tad angry" Lily said sarcastically.
"Look" Remus reasoned, "It's nearly time for dinner, and we don't want to make this put a damper on Christmas, so let's just forget it and come back to it later on shall we?" he asked, he didn't particularly want to procrastinate on it at the moment.
They all nodded, they knew they could analyze it further later.
Dinner was enticing, with the great hall decorated in giant Christmas trees and fairies flittering around the table while the steaming hot turkey and pudding and many other of Hogwarts' traditional Christmas feasts filled their stomachs.
The marauders suspected that Professor McGonagall had deliberately seated them on the end of the table, farthest away from Snape and Malfoy, and to Sirius' horror, right next to Gwen, who, as time went on they realized was a very confident little girl, with a wit to match Lily's, not at all like her shy older sister.
"Ahh! Gwenavier Tenesky I presume" Professor Dumbledore said as Gwen sat down in between Sirius and her sister, Monique.
"Yes sir, but you can call me Gwen" She said as she stuck her hand out.
Dumbledore shook it; his eye's twinkling in mirth.
"Yes, I've heard a lot about you"
Gwen's eyes grew big.
"If it was from Gideon and Fabian Prewett Professor, it's not true!" she said quickly.
Dumbledore chuckled.
"Oh don't worry; I know much about the Prewett twins that they don't think anyone knows"
At that moment Gid and Fab skidded into the hall.
"Someone say our name?" Gideon asked as he marched up to the table and took a seat next to Professor McGonagall.
"Shove over Gid, I want the spot next to my favourite Professor" Fabian said charmingly, pushing his brother out of the road.
Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes.
"And just when I thought we'd have a peaceful Christmas. . ."
"Nah Professor, that was ruled out when we signed to stay" James said as he reached for a chicken wing.
"By the way, thanks for the Christmas present" Sirius joined in, "Very. . .different" he wrinkled his nose.
"My pleasure!" McGonagall said happily.
"What?! I thought I was your favourite student!" Fabian said with mock hurt.
"No Fab, you only think you are" Gideon stated.
"May I enquire as to what the present was?" Dumbledore asked.
"Detentions" Sirius stated.
Dumbledore laughed, "Ah Minerva, you never fail to amuse me"
The deputy headmistress wrinkled her nose "Yes, that is my aim in life" she said dryly.
"Lighten up Prof. McG, it's Christmas" Fabian said, slapping her on the back.
"Err, but these detentions" James started, "They're not to be taken tonight. . .are they?"
"No!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, "Why would I want to supervise a detention on Christmas, dear Merlin boy I didn't know you thought I was that much of a hum bug"
"Well you never can be too shore, that's what I always say" little Professor Flitwick piped up.
"Can you pass me the potatoes please Miss. Black?" Dumbledore asked.
Andromeda floated them towards him but as they were floating over Sirius' head he quickly swept out his wand and, under the cover of the table, made the plate tip and crash into Gwen's lap, steaming potatoes and all.
Gwen jumped out of her seat in a flurry, mash potato covering her purple robes.
"Sirius Black!" Professor Sinistra exclaimed.
Sirius looked up innocently.
"Don't think I didn't see that!"
"Honestly Sirius, I would have thought better of you, picking on a-"
But Professor McGonagall bit back her words as Gwen, with one swift movement of her wand, made a meat pie splatter right in his face.
"Miss Tenesky!"
Gwen poked her tongue out at him as he was about to round on her but as he picked up a chicken leg to throw he found he was suddenly holding onto a frog.
"Urgh!" He quickly let go of it.
The table erupted into laughter, and even the two Slytherins snickered.
"That's enough!" Professor McGonagall stated, putting down her wand.
Dumbledore, however, didn't say a thing; instead he sat, watching while his eyes twinkled with mirth.
"Scourify" Professor Sprout said the spell and Sirius' face and Gwen's robes were food free instantly.
Gwen however, refused to sit down next to Sirius again and Sirius poked his tongue out at her.
"Oh for Merlin's sake!" Monique muttered and moved over to sit next to Sirius while her sister took her previous spot next to Miria.
A cold gush of wind flowed through the hall as the doors to the entrance hall opened and snow fluttered in towards the table and a large bulky form stepped into the firelight.
"Sorry I'm late Professors" Hagrid said, taking off his large moleskin coat and bustling over to the table, "As I was walking abou' the forest doin' tha' er. . .Job, yer told me ter do Professor, I foun' some strange markings in the trees, rather shaped like S's"
Sirius choked on the meat he was chewing on and down from him Remus dropped his fork on his plate with a clatter and James, Lily, Miria and Andromeda all stared at him as his hacking cough grew worse, though James, who was sitting next to him, made no attempt to help him, so Monique, the only person at the table not transfixed by the reactions this had gotten from the group of Gyffindors rolled her eyes and used her Ravenclaw intelligence to whack Sirius on the back hard.
Once Sirius had spat out the piece of turkey he had stuck in his throat everyone was looking at him expectantly, Hagrid looking very confused at that.
"Was it somethen' I said?"
Sirius was extremely red in the face, which was a major contrast to Remus, who was as white as chalk and James, who's face had once again, become impassive. But in all the silence of wonder, no one noticed one of the Slytherins eyes boring into the Sirius' triumphantly, but when Sirius did, in fact look his way he quickly looked away, but Sirius new better, and started to become particularly uneasy.
James watched this exchange in silence and then looked over at Dumbledore, who was looking over at Remus, his thoughts unreadable.
"No Hagrid" he suddenly said calmly, "I believe it is normal, the centaurs like to leave their mark on the trees, it means Saturn, they think it brings good luck"
"Oh" Hagrid said perplexedly, and sat down at the end of the table.
All the Gryffindors breathed a sigh of relief and Remus' face started to regain colour to it, but James could still tell he was dodgy, which was well shown when he leant over and tapped his friend on the shoulder and Remus nearly jumped ten feat.
"You alright mate?" James asked softly.
"Y-yeah" Remus stuttered.
Sirius elbowed James and gave him a warning glance and McGonagall looked their way.
"We'll talk about it later" he muttered out of the corner of his mouth
James nodded.
"- And when Mars and Saturn align it forces the dark creatures of Jupiter to-"
Professor McGonagall groaned; she hated Professor Releeny's lectures about Divination, which, in her opinion, was the most pointless and in-accurate magical subject created. She leant over to Fabian and muttered.
"I'll excuse you from the first day of homework if you create a diversion"
Fabian brightened considerably and nodded his agreement, then followed to whisper the proposition to his brother, who proceeded to inform the marauders.
Within minutes the hall had gone pitch black dark, all of the floating candles on the roof had blown out and ghostly noises could be heard coming from the entrance hall, then, in a wave of glory ten flying suits of armour came crashing into the spacious hall, hollering various re-arranged Christmas songs (thanks to Peeves, who had enchanted them to do so as soon as the Christmas holidays had began) and sprinkled holly over the tables occupants.
Albus Dumbledore smiled, chuckling to himself as the other students and teachers looked about in curiosity and the marauders and Prewett twins laughter filled the hall. The Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress had never been so relieved to have seen one tremendous prank.
~*~
Woohoo! That's done! Did you like it? I know I'm focusing a lot on Christmas, but it only comes once a year, and its fun to write. My next chapter will be a humourous one, I'll give you a preview: The marauders and three Gryffindor girls play a game that implies them to tell a secret that the rest don't know. . .James gets turned on, Remus put down, Miria and Andromeda extremely embarrassed, Lily does something rebellious and Sirius. . .nearly gets killed. . .by Andromeda! And what is Peter's deep, darkest secret, and why the hell did he entrust it with Sirius?!
Ok, I hope that helps you to want to stick around! Here are my thanks to my ever so faithful reviewers (I can't thank you enough, but I'm sorry, I won't reply to everyone, not unless it's a direct question): Agloechen, Musicstarlover, queenofdespair216, emily, Queen Catrihara, Tanja J Potter, Biddett da Pigeon Stalker, justshroomin' and a reply to:
Star of the North: I'm glad you kept reading, but yes I know, I really do need to update more frequently, but life always seems to get in my way *waves fist at life* I try my hardest to update more frequently, and I'll keep trying, please hang in with the fanfic, I have the next chapter all planned out and it's well on it's way.
Thanks everyone *hands all giant cookie* make sure ya drop in a give a review! See ya's next chapter!
~*~Mystical Dreams
~*~Mystical Dreams
Chapter 12: Suspicious discovery
It took Lily and James exactly fifteen minutes to realize that they were indeed alone on the snow covered grounds of Hogwarts, and by that time, it had started to snow and was getting thicker by the second. James had given up with his come backs when he had tried to move his feat and then realized that they, and every other part of his body, were slowly becoming numb.
Lily had danced back up to the castle with a smile plastered on her face from winning the fight out; however, when she found that she couldn't open the heavy doors to get into the warmth of the castle, she wasn't feeling as content.
James trudged after her, shaking his head at her madness. She was currently banging on the doors and pushing them as hard as she could.
"Evans, what the hell are you doing?" he asked as he came up behind her.
"I'm trying to-" she yanked the handles, "get-the doors-open" she said out of breath.
"Well obviously" he rolled his eyes, "Why aren't you using your wand?"
"Your best buddy still has it!" she said exasperatedly, as if it was all his fault (which was partly true).
"Here, let me try" he said pushing her aside.
James held his wand up to the doors and said a spell that would hopefully reveal what charm had been used.
They both waited in silence for a while, but nothing happened. James pondered as he touched the wood with his fingers, his other hand mussing up his hair.
"Well?"
"McGonagall cast this spell" he stated grimly.
"Oh really? Telepathic are you now Potter?" Lily asked irritably.
"No, McGonagall and my wands are just very much alike" he stated, "I can tell by the way the spell's cast"
Lily mimicked him childishly as she looked around and the fast falling snow about her.
"Try Alohamorah"
"Evans do you really think that a Professor would use a charm that could be counter cursed by a first grader?"
"Well it's worth a try, I don't know about you but I don't want to be stuck in this freezing soon-to-be blizzard while everyone else is inside sitting in a squishy armchair next to the warm fire!" Lily snapped, her teeth chattering together.
James ruffled his black hair in consideration.
"And stop doing that! It's annoying!"
"I can't help it, it's a habit" he said defensively.
Lily snorted, "Yeah, whatever"
"Look, I've got a better plan, it'll get us inside quicker, but you'll have to let me blindfold you"
"What?! No way! What do you think I am, crazy?!"
"Do I have to answer that. . ."
"Oh shut it!"
James didn't have enough time to argue, if they didn't go now he wouldn't be able to find the entrance to the passage through the snow.
"Oh fine, but you'll have to promise not to tell anyone about it or I'll have to put a memory charm on you, and you know how they're not really my expertise"
Lily couldn't really care where they were going, she just wanted to get into the warmth before she got frost bight.
She rolled her eyes, "Oh fine, just get us inside without killing me, Ok?"
"Hey! I'm the one doing the favor here! Stop snapping at me!"
"It's a habit" Lily said smugly.
James sighed and started to walk along the side of the castle, trying to find some shelter from the snow close to the tall stone wall. Lily gave one more longing look at the large wooden doors and then begrudgingly followed suit, hoping she wasn't making a big mistake.
They walked around to the back of the castle in silence. Lily had to stay close to James so she wouldn't lose sight of him in the thick snow falling about her and when he stopped abruptly she bumped unintentionally into his back.
"Watch out!"
"Well at least give me warning when you're going to stop so suddenly!"
James rolled his eyes, "Come on, help me move these dead branches aside" he said indicating to the leafless bushes in front of him.
Lily looked at him suspiciously but obliged all the same, thinking of the warmth of the burning fire in the common room.
When they had pushed their way through the tangle of twigs into a small clearing both of their robes were slightly torn and Lily had several scratches that had dug underneath her flimsy gloves and onto her hands.
"Oh, I can see how this was the easier way" she said sarcastically as she fell almost ankle deep into the snow.
"Oh quick your whining, we're nearly there" James said as he plundered on towards the stone wall in front of them, "And I never said it was easier, I just said it was quicker then just- Oh bullocks!" James' hand had been feeling around the bricks on the wall when he had come to the very bottom near the snow.
"What?"
"The entrance is under the snow"
"Oh, well isn't that lovely, you can't tell me that you dragged me all the way here in the freezing cold to realize that we can't get in!"
"I didn't drag you here; you came of your own accord, you could have stayed if you wanted" he pointed out.
"Well here's what I get when I trust James Potter!"
"I can't control the weather Evans! If it hadn't have snowed then the entrance wouldn't be blocked!"
"Well you should have thought of that, shouldn't you?"
"I never think before I act, you know that" James said as if stating the obvious.
"Urgh! You're so annoying!"
"I know, it's part of my charm" he said flashing her a grin.
Lily was just about to burst out with another witty remark when James held up a hand to silence her.
"Look" he said, becoming serious, "I'm going to have to do something that might tend to freak you out so I can move this snow without us both getting frost bite from trying to do it ourselves" James said cautiously.
"And what would that be?" Lily asked distrustfully, her sharp green eyes boring into him.
James sighed and ruffled his hair, "Well I guess there's no use stalling" he muttered, and with that, he closed his eyes in concentration and within seconds had morphed into a large, noble looking stag.
Lily gasped and fell over, startled.
She had, of course, seen Professor McGonagall turn into her animagus form, and Annie had demonstrated it to her as well but they were both small animals, a cat and an owl, but this stag standing in front of her was huge!
Lily backed away slightly; they had touched slightly on the topic of Animagi in transfiguration, and she had read a little about it in books, but she couldn't be sure that James was fully himself in the stags mind.
The stag rolled its hazel eyes and they seemed to twinkle in mirth, if that was possible for a stag.
Lily scowled at it.
"You could have given me some warning"
She new that he could understand her; Andromeda had told her that they were able to understand human speech as they still had most of their human brain inside of the animals body, they only had an animal instinct, which now, when she came to think about it, must be the reason why Sirius tended to eat so much like a dog.
The stag shrugged its large shoulders and turner around to face the wall. It dug its hoofs into the snow and started to scrape it away until the dirt was visible underneath.
Lily watched in fascination until she heard a twig snap behind her, she turned to find a small squirrel running through the bushes back the way they had came, when she turned back around she found James standing in front of the wall grinning.
"Done!" he exclaimed as if nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened.
"Finally" she said, trying to look bored so he wouldn't catch on that she was actually very intrigued.
James reached down and tapped one of the bricks third from the bottom with his wand whispering "Procarnot" softly enough so that Lily wouldn't hear.
The wall became transparent; it was like looking through water onto the other side.
Lily's mouth fell open and she stood there gaping at the small doorway.
"What did?-How'd you? How'd it?"
"Jeez Evans, you need to get out more!" James said as he walked through the silvery wall.
"Wait!" Lily yelled, and, afraid of being left behind she plunged through the wall as well.
James just laughed at her as she came stumbling through it onto the other side.
The snow and dead bushes could be seen as a blurry mass through the liquid- type wall, but she could also make out the bricks in the picture, as if a reflection in a glass window.
Lily looked around where she was now standing. It was some sort of stone passageway. Very spacey, she had to admit. Not at all the sort of secret passage she would imagine, but it was still slightly drafty, even though she couldn't see any other opening other than the one she had come in by.
James tapped one of the transparent bricks, third from the bottom again and whispered the same spell and the blurry snow and bushes on the other side disappeared to be replaced with the original stone wall.
"Lumos" James whispered as everything went dark, and his wand lit up to submit a small glow. Lily did the same.
"How'd you know to do that? I mean, how do you know this is here?" Lily asked, in despite of herself, in awe.
"I'm a marauder, what'd you expect!"
"Yes, but how did you find it?"
"Am I to understand that Lily Evans is interested in something to do with a marauder?" James asked in mock disbelief.
Lily growled at him but he was not perturbed in the slightest, he wanted to make best out of this situation and drink it all in.
"Yes or no Evans?"
"It's my duty to know, as a prefect"
"Puh! I'm shaking in my shoes" he said sarcastically, "Plus, Remus knows, and he's a prefect, so you don't have to"
"I can't trust Remus anymore! He's a total law breaker too!" she said, making sure she put emphasis on the law part.
"Yeah, well he can't help it, now can he?" James said spitefully.
"Oh. . .yeah" Lily said a little guiltily.
"It's still really dangerous, what you do though" Lily said, "You know that don't you?" she then asked; not at all too shore what the answer would be.
"Of course I know it's dangerous! He's a werewolf for Merlin's sakes!" James replied, "But trust me Evans, Sirius and I are big enough to take care of it, sure, there are near risks, but he never gets anyone, and that's what matters"
"You know as well as I do that that's a load of bull" Lily said dangerously, "Sirius says that doesn't he? It's just like him James! You know better then that, I know you do! If one of you ever got seriously hurt Remus would never forgive himself, and don't look at me like that, I've known him just as long as you have and I know that his personality doesn't like to be bowed down with guilt!"
Lily was even surprised she had just said what she had, and it showed as she clapped her hand over her mouth and murmured something incoherent behind it.
James, however, didn't reply quite the way she was expecting. He sighed as he looked at her; his eyes were sad and far away.
"He's my friend Evans, you don't get it, when I found out what he was I wasn't afraid, I wasn't repulsed, I felt guilty, I thought it was my fault, somehow I wasn't making it better, Remus is a great guy, you couldn't find anyone nicer then him, you really couldn't. He doesn't deserve to live this sort of life so I want to do everything I can to help him. If turning into an animal with him once a month makes his life easier then I would do it every night, I would live as a stag if it meant it would all go away. When we're with him he's himself, he isn't a werewolf as such, and he's so much just a normal wolf . . ."
James ran his hands through his hair.
"I don't know if I am explaining this too well" he stated a he lent up against the stone wall.
"We don't do this to be rebels Lily, no one knows about it except for us, with the exception of Miria, you and Annie more recently. We didn't do this for another one of our stunts and we didn't do it to show off, we did it because we wanted to help him. Before we turned into animagi he would come back from full moon so battered and bruised and torn apart, mentally and physically, that he had to stay in the hospital wing for at least three days. He used to kill himself when he transformed. When he found out that we knew, Peter, Sirius and I, he almost had a heart attack, the look on his face was so horrified and panicked that I thought I'd never get it out of my mind. We're the only friends he has ever had, and we stuck with him, even when we knew what he was. He lives off that, and I just don't want to let him down. You have to understand that we all know it's dangerous, being cocky is how we handle it, but if breaking the law is what I have to do to keep Remus alive; I'll do it a million times over"
Lily stood silent, thinking over what James had said. She knew it was true, knew she couldn't deny against anything he had said. And for once in her lifetime, she knew he was sincere.
"There's more to you then I ever could have imagined in my wildest dreams James Potter" Lily said, and a slight ghost of a smile appeared on her face for a moment, as she turned to start down the tunnel.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" James asked as he jotted out of his reverie and jogged up after her.
"I thought I had had you worked out from day one. I was wrong" Lily stated, looking straight ahead.
James spluttered; he was at loss for words.
"Y-you-did you just admit you were wrong?!" he asked amazedly.
"Yes, I did, clean out your ears" Lily said simply, trying hard not to look at him as a burning redness started to creep up her cheeks.
"Evans you're blushing"
"I am not!" Lily said indignantly.
"Oh yes you are! Lily Evans just admitted she was wrong and now she's blushing! The sky must be falling!" James exclaimed as he danced around.
Lily found his sudden change of mood slightly off-putting.
"Alright, don't rub it in"
"Why not? That's what we do; it's in the unspoken rules"
"What unspoken rules?" Lily asked, annoyed that he had caught her.
"We're not supposed to talk about them Evans, that's why their called unspoken"
"Right" Lily said as she turned towards a fork in the tunnel.
"Your ears are as red as you hair" James observed.
"Which way?" Lily asked.
"What? Oh, right" James said, breaking his gaze away from her.
They walked on for a couple of minutes longer, James silently chuckling to himself at the redness on Lily's face.
"So, how did you find this place anyways?" Lily asked again carefully.
James ruffled his hair in consideration.
"Well taking to account that I've just told you more then I've ever told any of my girlfriends-"
"Wait! You talked in between all that snogging?" Lily asked incredulously, she just couldn't help but slight him.
"That's a bit off-hand Evans, when you're the one who wants to know"
"Sorry, I can't help it, it's a habit" she drawled.
James glared at her.
"Ok, ok, sorry, keep going"
"Yes, as I was saying, since I've told you more then I've ever told any of my girlfriends. . ."
"Yes" Lily urged him.
"You'll just have to become my girlfriend to find out more"
"James!" Lily cried exasperatedly.
James laughed to himself as he backed away when she tried to hit him on the arm.
"See, we're already on first name terms"
Lily growled, and slumped her shoulders in frustration.
"If you thought about it, you'd figure it out" James said as they walked on.
"When you run around the same place every full moon you have to find something that no one else knows about" he said simply.
A dawning look of understanding spread over Lily's face and she was just about to say something when James clapped his hand over her mouth.
Lily twisted around furiously but as she turned James put a finger to his own lips to signal for her to be quiet and lifted his hand away from her.
He then walked over to a wooden door in the stone, one of which Lily hadn't noticed, and pressed his ear up against it. Lily followed his lead and soon enough she could hear two people talking in low whispers.
James unbolted the door with ease and opened it a creak to see who was talking.
The door was positioned behind an old book case, but they could just see two figures through a space unfilled by the ancient novels.
The speaker standing closest to them had short blond hair and very profound and pointy features, the other had greasy black hair and beetle eyes.
"Snape and Malfoy" James stated in a low whisper.
"Where are we?" Lily asked.
"Slytherin common room. . . I think"
Lily's face turned into a surprised expression and she was just about to say something but James held his hand up to silence her and pointed towards the two students.
"When did you find out?" Snape asked in a curious tone.
"A couple of weeks ago, Rookwood informed me"
"And how many have you both collected so far?"
"Collected? You make them sound like toys"
"I didn't mean it that way" Snape said irritably.
"So how many are there?"
"Twenty so far"
"And who else are you going to ask?"
"My girlfriend, Narcissa Black, he-"
James leaned in a little closer to the book case; he knew that name only to well.
"Black?!" Snape spat out the name.
"Yes" Malfoy said coolly.
"As in Sirius Black?"
"She is his cousin, yes" Malfoy stated.
"Well what would you want with them?"
"Dear, dear Severus, all those dark arts books you read and you don't even know one of the most famous pure blood families"
"Sirius Black isn't one of my favourite subjects" Snape said bitterly.
"Well I'll just let you know that Sirius and Andromeda Black are lets say, the white sheep of the family, so to speak" Malfoy said dryly, "The Black family are as pure as the Malfoy's, their lineage traces back even further then ours. . .They had to produce some bad spawn along the line"
James gritted his teeth, he was reminded with sudden force how much he hated Malfoy, almost as much as Snape himself.
Snape nodded understandably.
"I'll be informing Narcissa, and her sister Bellatrix, they are both Andomreda Black's sisters, and also Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and Regulus Black"
"Regulus?" Snape inquired.
"Sirius' brother"
"Do you really think that wise?" Snape asked, "He might leak to Black"
"You need to take your greasy nose out of a book once in a while and listen to natural human conversation" Malfoy stated, "Black ran away from the his family, slammed the door in his mother's face as I'm to understand and ran off to live with the filthy blood traitors; the Potters"
James made a low hissing sound under his breath and this time it was Lily's turn to shoot him a warning look, however, his eyes were transfixed on the two young men standing on the other side of the bookcase.
"Regulus is loyal to his family, and Narcissa has assured me that he has been acting up to standards with no troubles at Durmstrang"
"And how can you be sure that Andromeda Blacks two sisters won't leak to her?"
"Are you contradicting my girlfriend Severus?" Lucius asked dangerously.
"No" Snape said quickly, "its just woman are very gossip orientated" he explained lamely.
"You need to get a life" Lucius muttered as he rubbed his brow.
Snape wasn't at all perturbed by Lucius' bitter remarks towards him, he was used to people saying such things, and he didn't want to get on the bad side of the Malfoy family, they would be a tough enemy.
"No, I assure you, they won't leak a thing; all of the Blacks don't want anything to do with the two disowned blood traitors"
Snape nodded.
"I can understand why they don't want anything to do with them, filthy disrespectful-"
James had had enough, he wanted to go and curse both of them to oblivion, and he actually made to grab his wand. Lily saw what he was going to do and grasped his arm. James knocked his elbow against the wooden door and a dull thump echoed through the silent room.
"What was that?" Snape asked as he whipped his wand out and skimmed the room with his eyes.
Lucius did the same thing but drew slowly closer to the bookcase where Lily and James were now both crouching, holding their breaths in silent anticipation.
James' wand hand was twitching furiously as he tried to prize it free of Lily's grip in the cramped space.
"It was probably just a house elf" Snape stated as he lowered his wand.
Lucius turned around to face him, and in that moment Lily took the chance to pull James back into the stone tunnel and force the door closed silently behind them.
"Stupid, bloody, greasy, sodding piece of-"
"James shutup!" Lily hissed, "They'll hear you!"
James subsided to muttering some choice words under his breath that were just as colourful as Lily's had been.
Lily listened intently as she pressed her ear up against the door but she heard nothing from the other side. She didn't know if this was a good or bad thing and started to get increasingly nervous.
She walked more urgently back over to James who was gripping his wand tightly in his hand, silently fuming. Suddenly, to both of their surprise, red sparks started shooting out of the end of it.
"Put it down!" Lily exclaimed, trying her hardest to be quiet.
She grabbed his wrist and dragged him further down the tunnel, when she felt they were out of ear shot she almost fumed at him.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you never to hold your wand when you're angry?!"
James jabbed his wand back into his robes.
"Grimy gits!" he stated angrily, "I should've given them a piece of my mind!"
Lily ignored his ravings and set her mind on other things.
"So, she has set them up with beautiful pure blood boyfriends after all" Lily muttered.
James caught onto what she was saying and ruffled his hair in reflection.
"Course she has" James stated, "To keep the family blood stream pure and untainted" he mocked.
"I see you've been well educated on all this pure blood stuff too" Lily commented dryly.
"Yes but difference being, I come from a pure blood family who don't want to put a decree to the ministry to allow muggle hunting"
Silence followed for a moment as they kept walking along the tunnel.
"They were talking about. . . collecting people" Lily said as she thought back.
James was oddly silent for a moment and his face was impassive, Lily could tell he was hiding something.
"What, what is it?" she asked.
"I'll explain when we get back and tell Sirius, I'm sure he'll think this all very interesting. . ."
~*~
Sirius gave out a hollow laugh from his seat near the fire in the warmly lit common room.
"Wonderful, respectable Regulus, I'm sure dearest Mother and Father will think he's a right little hero for getting involved with his older cousins doings" he said bitterly.
"Merlin our families predictable" Andromeda muttered as she ran a hand through her raven hair, "Narcissa and Malfoy, what a perfectly ingenious match, I'm sure my Mother was positively delighted with herself"
Sirius grimly nodded his agreement.
"I'm sure Malfoy and Snape had a lot of lovely and heart warming things to say about us" he stated, not at all bothering to cover the hatred in his tone. Sirius was like that, he was blunt and to the point, and often spoke his mind.
"Don't know about them but James' language was pretty colourful" Lily stated amusedly as she sat, warming her frozen hands in front of the fireplace.
Remus smirked half-heartedly; that's something they had all picked up from some of Sirius' more. . .rather disgusting talents.
"So what do you think they're up to?" Miria asked.
"Probably something foul beyond all reason if it includes the Malfoy's, Blacks and Snape" Sirius commented as he started to pace the room in a very Remus-like fashion.
"Malfoy mentioned the Lestrange's as well, and Rookwood" James said grimly.
Remus whistled, "That's one hell of a party"
"Do you think it'd be anything big?" Lily asked, "I mean they said they were collecting people"
"Well they said they had twenty so far, right?" Sirius asked.
James nodded.
"It can't be too serious I guess; most of them are pretty young, I mean Regulus is only in third year" Sirius reasoned.
"But still. . .Rookwood, you know the people he hangs around with, and he's out of school" James said.
"What would they do though, in this group?" Miria asked.
"I don't know, plan muggle hunting parties, secret conspiracy theories, over-take the whole world because they think they're royalty" Sirius said this meaning for it to be a joke, but somehow a solemn silence fell over the group. The truth was this could be entirely possible for all they knew, there were still enough powerful pure blood families to do such things. . ."
It was James who finally broke the silence.
"You know, I've noticed Snivellus sneaking around more the usual lately, namely around us actually, and the forbidden forest"
Remus' head shot up as he heard James' words.
"What?!"
"Sirius and I saw him walk in there on the first day of school, I believe Lily was there as well. . ." James left the sentence going, looking slyly over at Lily.
"But I thought you were just-"
"Think again"
"Well you're always making stuff up like that! How was I supposed to know you weren't lying when you said you saw him go in there?!"
Remus put his hand up to silence James from retorting and spoke directly to both of his friends.
"Why didn't you tell me about it?"
"Well we didn't want you to get troubled and all" James mumbled as he looked down at his feat, "We knew you'd get edgy if Snape was lurking around the places we go at full moon"
"It's probably nothing to do with us anyway" Sirius said, trying to calm the anxious expression creeping on to Remus' face, "Now we know that something's going on with this group-thing"
"What if that group thing has to do with us?" Remus asked quietly.
Sirius opened his mouth and closed it again, he knew that was a valid point and couldn't really argue with it, however, it seemed that Andromeda could.
"But why would they want to know stuff about you guys, I mean, most of them don't even go to this school, and if I know my sisters, they won't want anything to do with us" she said waving her hand to indicate she was talking about herself and Sirius, "The pure blood families have 'disowned' us" she said mockingly.
"But still, do you think he would have picked up on the markings?"
"No, no one looks at trees that intricately" Sirius said shaking his head.
"Padfoot, they were pretty big"
"And normal animals don't go around carving S's into bark" Remus pointed out.
"You've lost me" Lily stated as she listened to them discuss the matter.
"Sirius marks an S on the trees in the forest that we have gone past with his claws so we don't get lost when we rout off a path" James explained, "We didn't think anyone would notice since no one really goes in there"
"Still, Snivellus wouldn't have gone off the paths, from the reputation that it gets, he knows that heaps of dangerous creatures are in there" Sirius justified.
"Wait!" Lily said putting her hands up, "Stop and rewind! Didn't Malfoy just tell Snape this today?"
There was silence as the others considered this.
"See, it probably just has nothing to do with us!" Sirius declared, "Snivellus is probably just being Snivellus and is snooping around in other people's business"
"Maybe" Remus said uncertainly, "I still think we should follow him next time we see him going near the forest though"
They all nodded in agreement. Everything went silent until Mira asked a question out of the blue.
"Why did Regulus transfer to Durmstrang?" She enquired curiously.
Andromeda and Sirius exchanged looks for a moment as Sirius stopped pacing.
"Because of me" he said simply. This earned a confused look from Miria and Lily.
"What exactly did you say to your mother before you ran out?" Lily asked slowly.
Sirius gave another short laugh.
"Only that I hated them all and that they're a pack of obsessed, infatuated sodding cowards" Sirius pondered a little on this, "With some choice words such as your lovely vocabulary in between" he added as an after thought.
"Oh, then I can see why she was just a tad angry" Lily said sarcastically.
"Look" Remus reasoned, "It's nearly time for dinner, and we don't want to make this put a damper on Christmas, so let's just forget it and come back to it later on shall we?" he asked, he didn't particularly want to procrastinate on it at the moment.
They all nodded, they knew they could analyze it further later.
Dinner was enticing, with the great hall decorated in giant Christmas trees and fairies flittering around the table while the steaming hot turkey and pudding and many other of Hogwarts' traditional Christmas feasts filled their stomachs.
The marauders suspected that Professor McGonagall had deliberately seated them on the end of the table, farthest away from Snape and Malfoy, and to Sirius' horror, right next to Gwen, who, as time went on they realized was a very confident little girl, with a wit to match Lily's, not at all like her shy older sister.
"Ahh! Gwenavier Tenesky I presume" Professor Dumbledore said as Gwen sat down in between Sirius and her sister, Monique.
"Yes sir, but you can call me Gwen" She said as she stuck her hand out.
Dumbledore shook it; his eye's twinkling in mirth.
"Yes, I've heard a lot about you"
Gwen's eyes grew big.
"If it was from Gideon and Fabian Prewett Professor, it's not true!" she said quickly.
Dumbledore chuckled.
"Oh don't worry; I know much about the Prewett twins that they don't think anyone knows"
At that moment Gid and Fab skidded into the hall.
"Someone say our name?" Gideon asked as he marched up to the table and took a seat next to Professor McGonagall.
"Shove over Gid, I want the spot next to my favourite Professor" Fabian said charmingly, pushing his brother out of the road.
Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes.
"And just when I thought we'd have a peaceful Christmas. . ."
"Nah Professor, that was ruled out when we signed to stay" James said as he reached for a chicken wing.
"By the way, thanks for the Christmas present" Sirius joined in, "Very. . .different" he wrinkled his nose.
"My pleasure!" McGonagall said happily.
"What?! I thought I was your favourite student!" Fabian said with mock hurt.
"No Fab, you only think you are" Gideon stated.
"May I enquire as to what the present was?" Dumbledore asked.
"Detentions" Sirius stated.
Dumbledore laughed, "Ah Minerva, you never fail to amuse me"
The deputy headmistress wrinkled her nose "Yes, that is my aim in life" she said dryly.
"Lighten up Prof. McG, it's Christmas" Fabian said, slapping her on the back.
"Err, but these detentions" James started, "They're not to be taken tonight. . .are they?"
"No!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, "Why would I want to supervise a detention on Christmas, dear Merlin boy I didn't know you thought I was that much of a hum bug"
"Well you never can be too shore, that's what I always say" little Professor Flitwick piped up.
"Can you pass me the potatoes please Miss. Black?" Dumbledore asked.
Andromeda floated them towards him but as they were floating over Sirius' head he quickly swept out his wand and, under the cover of the table, made the plate tip and crash into Gwen's lap, steaming potatoes and all.
Gwen jumped out of her seat in a flurry, mash potato covering her purple robes.
"Sirius Black!" Professor Sinistra exclaimed.
Sirius looked up innocently.
"Don't think I didn't see that!"
"Honestly Sirius, I would have thought better of you, picking on a-"
But Professor McGonagall bit back her words as Gwen, with one swift movement of her wand, made a meat pie splatter right in his face.
"Miss Tenesky!"
Gwen poked her tongue out at him as he was about to round on her but as he picked up a chicken leg to throw he found he was suddenly holding onto a frog.
"Urgh!" He quickly let go of it.
The table erupted into laughter, and even the two Slytherins snickered.
"That's enough!" Professor McGonagall stated, putting down her wand.
Dumbledore, however, didn't say a thing; instead he sat, watching while his eyes twinkled with mirth.
"Scourify" Professor Sprout said the spell and Sirius' face and Gwen's robes were food free instantly.
Gwen however, refused to sit down next to Sirius again and Sirius poked his tongue out at her.
"Oh for Merlin's sake!" Monique muttered and moved over to sit next to Sirius while her sister took her previous spot next to Miria.
A cold gush of wind flowed through the hall as the doors to the entrance hall opened and snow fluttered in towards the table and a large bulky form stepped into the firelight.
"Sorry I'm late Professors" Hagrid said, taking off his large moleskin coat and bustling over to the table, "As I was walking abou' the forest doin' tha' er. . .Job, yer told me ter do Professor, I foun' some strange markings in the trees, rather shaped like S's"
Sirius choked on the meat he was chewing on and down from him Remus dropped his fork on his plate with a clatter and James, Lily, Miria and Andromeda all stared at him as his hacking cough grew worse, though James, who was sitting next to him, made no attempt to help him, so Monique, the only person at the table not transfixed by the reactions this had gotten from the group of Gyffindors rolled her eyes and used her Ravenclaw intelligence to whack Sirius on the back hard.
Once Sirius had spat out the piece of turkey he had stuck in his throat everyone was looking at him expectantly, Hagrid looking very confused at that.
"Was it somethen' I said?"
Sirius was extremely red in the face, which was a major contrast to Remus, who was as white as chalk and James, who's face had once again, become impassive. But in all the silence of wonder, no one noticed one of the Slytherins eyes boring into the Sirius' triumphantly, but when Sirius did, in fact look his way he quickly looked away, but Sirius new better, and started to become particularly uneasy.
James watched this exchange in silence and then looked over at Dumbledore, who was looking over at Remus, his thoughts unreadable.
"No Hagrid" he suddenly said calmly, "I believe it is normal, the centaurs like to leave their mark on the trees, it means Saturn, they think it brings good luck"
"Oh" Hagrid said perplexedly, and sat down at the end of the table.
All the Gryffindors breathed a sigh of relief and Remus' face started to regain colour to it, but James could still tell he was dodgy, which was well shown when he leant over and tapped his friend on the shoulder and Remus nearly jumped ten feat.
"You alright mate?" James asked softly.
"Y-yeah" Remus stuttered.
Sirius elbowed James and gave him a warning glance and McGonagall looked their way.
"We'll talk about it later" he muttered out of the corner of his mouth
James nodded.
"- And when Mars and Saturn align it forces the dark creatures of Jupiter to-"
Professor McGonagall groaned; she hated Professor Releeny's lectures about Divination, which, in her opinion, was the most pointless and in-accurate magical subject created. She leant over to Fabian and muttered.
"I'll excuse you from the first day of homework if you create a diversion"
Fabian brightened considerably and nodded his agreement, then followed to whisper the proposition to his brother, who proceeded to inform the marauders.
Within minutes the hall had gone pitch black dark, all of the floating candles on the roof had blown out and ghostly noises could be heard coming from the entrance hall, then, in a wave of glory ten flying suits of armour came crashing into the spacious hall, hollering various re-arranged Christmas songs (thanks to Peeves, who had enchanted them to do so as soon as the Christmas holidays had began) and sprinkled holly over the tables occupants.
Albus Dumbledore smiled, chuckling to himself as the other students and teachers looked about in curiosity and the marauders and Prewett twins laughter filled the hall. The Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress had never been so relieved to have seen one tremendous prank.
~*~
Woohoo! That's done! Did you like it? I know I'm focusing a lot on Christmas, but it only comes once a year, and its fun to write. My next chapter will be a humourous one, I'll give you a preview: The marauders and three Gryffindor girls play a game that implies them to tell a secret that the rest don't know. . .James gets turned on, Remus put down, Miria and Andromeda extremely embarrassed, Lily does something rebellious and Sirius. . .nearly gets killed. . .by Andromeda! And what is Peter's deep, darkest secret, and why the hell did he entrust it with Sirius?!
Ok, I hope that helps you to want to stick around! Here are my thanks to my ever so faithful reviewers (I can't thank you enough, but I'm sorry, I won't reply to everyone, not unless it's a direct question): Agloechen, Musicstarlover, queenofdespair216, emily, Queen Catrihara, Tanja J Potter, Biddett da Pigeon Stalker, justshroomin' and a reply to:
Star of the North: I'm glad you kept reading, but yes I know, I really do need to update more frequently, but life always seems to get in my way *waves fist at life* I try my hardest to update more frequently, and I'll keep trying, please hang in with the fanfic, I have the next chapter all planned out and it's well on it's way.
Thanks everyone *hands all giant cookie* make sure ya drop in a give a review! See ya's next chapter!
~*~Mystical Dreams