Hey everyone! I'm back! I hate the class I'm in and I'm separated from all
my friends and I'm going mad but I'm trying to update every week. It's just
that I have a lot of work AND I can't write at school because they don't
want us to bring disks anymore because of viruses (grrrr...). So I have
less time to write, but I want you all to know that I'm doing my best to
keep writing!
Thanks to all my reviewers. (*sniff* you all hold a special place in my heart) ^_^
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Chapter 4:
Harry, just like the marauders, had a gigantic grin on his face, watching a very alive professor Binns motionless at the sight of his students floating around in the air, most of them still suffering from giddiness the Billywig stings had provided them with. The professor simply stayed there, behind his desk, mouth half open, eyeing a sight he wound probably remember for the rest of his life . . . alive *and* dead.
"G . . . ge-get down! All of y-you!" he said finally after the last Ravenclaw's feet left the ground. "Y-you! Blackins! Lupard! H-help them!"
Sirius and Remus looked at each other for a moment, knowing their teacher was referring to them, even though he hadn't quite said their names right, like he always did.
"I should maybe get professor Cortaine!" James suggested, pretending to look worried.
"Y-yes! You do that!" Professor Binns mumbled, eyes still fixed on his floating students.
James tugged on Harry's robes and both quietly walked out of the classroom, supposedly getting their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher that of course, they weren't really intending to find.
They peacefully walked down the empty hallway towards the nearest staircase, that they used to get to the fifth level.
"When they see that we're not coming back, Binns'll send Sirius and Peter to get someone while Remus accidentally opens a window," James said, grinning. "All we have to do now is create wind. We'll see the rest of the students floating away like balloons and we'll have the rest of the morning off since the teachers will need a couple of extra periods to reassemble the students."
Harry smiled seeing his father laughing.
"But the students . . . they can't go too far, can they?" he asked.
"Nah. They won't pass the Quidditch field, but are still going to go pretty high," James answered.
"But . . . what if the effect wears off while they're still in the air?" Harry asked anxiously.
"Impossible," Prongs said. "The teachers have time to realize students are floating around, have a speech with Binns to know what's happening, walk outside, inspect the sky, get their brooms and start dragging people down. It's quite funny actually. They're going to tie the students' feet to the ground with rocks until the effect stops, around lunch time."
"How did you figure out all of that?" Harry asked, amazed to see something the Weasley twins hadn't come up with before.
"Sirius had the idea of using billywigs, I had the idea to use it on the students in class, Peter had the idea of opening the window and Moony did all the research to make sure everything was going to work perfectly."
"I've never seen anything like it," Harry mumbled.
"Yeah, but you've never seen the Marauders!" James joked. "But anyhow, here is our window, so we'll simply give a light breeze when Sirius gives us the signal."
They waited until Sirius appeared at the other end of the corridor before performing a couple of spells and quickly see students flying out the window, trying to catch on to something in their way, screaming and laughing at the same time. Soon enough, they were joined by Peter and Remus who also enjoyed the sight for a few minutes.
"So . . . we just gave everyone the morning off," Remus said solemnly. "We are heroes."
Padfoot patted his friend's elbow, pretending to hold back a few tears.
"Yes," he repeated. "We are heroes."
"JAMES POTTER!" a female voice barked, making them all jump three feet high.
The Marauders turned around to see a very furious looking Lily Evans storming in their direction.
"If you're looking for Silvia, she just flew a kite towards the Quidditch field," Sirius said, smiling.
"Do you idiots have any IDEA that what you are doing could be dangerous?" she yelled.
"No, I made sure everything was going to work," Remus said quietly. "But how come you're not taking a flying lesson with the others?"
Harry and Peter smiled and turned back to Lily to see her reaction.
"I didn't sit down!" she yelled. "But when are you going to grow up? Can't you see that even if you planned everything, something could go wrong? What if a student didn't get seriously pricked and lost altitude quicker that the others? What if someone was allergic? What if someone had a too strong reaction? Don't you know that if you get pricked by a Billywig one too many times, you can float forever? Why can't you use your brains? Why can you just stay calm? WHY?"
"For fun," Peter suggested.
"FUN?" Lily yelled, harder than ever. "FUN to see people scared out of their wits?"
"They're not scared, they're laughing," Sirius mocked.
Lily was now literally fuming. Before Sirius could truly react, Lily pulled out her wand that she had been holding in her pocket and pointed it at him.
"IMPEDIMENTA!" she yelled, making him get knocked off his feet and slam into the wall.
"Are you having fun, Black?" she asked, smiling slyly.
"Oh, you're going to regret that, Evans," Sirius said dangerously.
"Yes, well the next time you do something like that, you're the one that's going to regret it, just like you, *Potter*," she hissed, quickly walking away and disappearing down the hallway.
"James!" Sirius yelled, now himself looking angry. "You could have stopped that spell!"
James reddened and looked away.
"But I couldn't throw a spell at *her*," James said, annoyed.
"And you couldn't watch your best buddy's back," Sirius replied, crossing his arms.
Prongs made a sound, and ruffled his black hair once again, which only seemed to make Sirius roll his eyes. Padfoot turned around and started walking away, ignoring Remus and Peter that were trying to hold him back.
Harry shook his head and sighed.
"I'll go talk to him," he told his father, himself turning around and starting to run behind his young godfather.
~~~
Harry took much time to find Sirius, seeing that he was constantly using secret passageways and never slowing down.
Finally, Harry caught up with him not too far from the library.
Sirius was simply standing there, hands in his pockets, looking out one of the windows. Harry walked up to him without a word and stood beside him.
"Harry, you might think this is an odd question but . . . have we ever met . . . before?" Sirius asked without looking at him.
Harry stared at him quizzically.
"N . . . no, why would you think that?" he asked uncomfortably.
"You just . . . I don't know . . . you just seem kind of familiar, but in an odd way," he said. "You're like James, but so different at the same time."
Harry turned to Padfoot and took a good look at him. His skin was darker than how he remembered it to be in the future, and he guessed it was Azkaban that made him loose his colours. His eyes, instead of being black as he thought they would have been, were of a dark blue shade. He was well built and strong looking, unlike James who was rather on the small and skinny side. His hair was just as long and as black as Harry knew they were, but instead of looking joyful or rascally as he used to be, he looked kind of sad.
"You know, it's the first girl James really pays attention too," he said neutrally, still looking out the window.
"You . . . you don't like Lily?" Harry asked.
"Well . . . it's like if she's bringing James and me apart, in some way," Sirius said. "I mean, we were like brothers and now . . . I don't really know . . . we're changing."
"Don't worry about it," Harry said, somewhat sadly. "You'll be friends to the end, I can promise you that."
Sirius smiled and looked in his direction for the first time since his arrival.
"You really are something, Harry," he said, making his friend smile back to him. "Well . . . I'll go find James."
Harry watched him go with no intention of following him.
~He probably needs to talk to him alone,~ he thought, walking in the opposite direction.
He headed to the library and started walking through the aisles, staring at the book titles absentmindedly, head tilted on one side. He walked slowly, hands in his pockets, a modern-day song playing through his head. He started humming the tune softly to himself, thinking about how great everything was doing.
He was in the fifth aisle of bookshelves when he nearly had a heart attack: he was reading the titles, halfway through the letter C when he saw two green eyes staring at him through the bookshelf, from the sixth aisle. He jumped backwards, eyes wide open, ready to reach for his wand when he recognized those eyes as his own . . . in fact, it was his young mother, Lily, that was staring at him from the other side of the bookshelves. He could only see her eyes but Harry could see in them that she was smiling.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," she said. "I'm hiding from Sirius and the others."
Harry simply stared.
"I hope you don't think that I'm going to hex you," she joked. "I know you weren't really in that horrible joke of theirs. I have the impression that they just pulled you in. And anyhow, you don't seem to be like them."
"I don't?" Harry asked, a bit surprised.
"Well . . not yet," Lily said calmly. "But you still have that remarkable resemblance to James," she added dreamily.
"You're not the first one to tell me that," Harry said sympathetically, still staring at her eyes, his heart trembling at the thought that he was talking to his own mother.
"But I'm serious Harry," Lily continued. "Be careful with them. They can really get dangerous without even realizing it. I wouldn't want you to get hurt."
"Yes mom," Harry unconsciously whispered.
He reddened and she started laughing.
"Don't make fun of me!" she laughed. "I'm serious!"
Harry smiled sadly.
"Well . . . I'm gonna have to go . . . see you around Harry," she said, disappearing under the bookshelf.
~~~
Harry found the Marauders a while later, and quickly saw that James and Sirius weren't in conflict anymore. In fact, they seemed to have forgotten everything that had gone wrong between them and were talking merrily about the Quidditch matches.
"I'm seeker for Griffindor, you know," James told Harry proudly. "I've never lost a match and never had a good opponent. And my father always gets me the best broom. I have a Nimbus 666! T'was named like that because you really ride like a devil on one of those things. Super fast and super agile."
"Did I tell you that it took an eternity before McGonagall realized that three students were flying right outside her class window," Remus said. "Johnny told me the look on her face was priceless."
Their conversation was interrupted by Professor Dumbledore who came to them by behind.
"Sirius, James, Remus and Peter," he sighed. "Could I see you in my office please?"
The Marauders followed the headmaster, smiling, and so not looking like culprits at all. Harry spent the next free hours alone until, like Sirius had predicted, the students that had flown away were brought back down to earth around lunch time.
Harry heard that the Marauders were punished for their 'lack of common sense' and had to clean flooded toilets for the rest of the afternoon. They all came back exhausted and their night outing was cancelled.
~~~
It was nighttime but Harry couldn't find sleep. His hands behind his head, he stared at the ceiling, smiling. The Marauders were sleeping soundly, James on his right, Remus on his left followed by Sirius and Peter. Turning his head, he could see his father's things laying on his bedside table. He could see an old watch ticking slowly, A miniature snitch floating around in a small glass container, A Quidditch book, pictures, notes and other things he liked inspecting, repeating to himself that they belonged to his father.
Moony looked awful, having headaches that pulled him out of class nearly every day, and Harry knew just why: the full moon was approaching, and he was wondering if the Marauders would tell him immediately that Remus was a werewolf. He didn't think so, knowing very well that they wouldn't open a secret like that to a new friend they barely knew . . . in fact, he was surprised they were becoming friends so fast. They had already told him about the invisibility cape and the Marauders' map and they had already invited him to join them in a night excursion.
He rose his head a little and eyes Sirius' still form, hidden under a mountain of blankets a few metres away. Sirius was with him, and so he was happy. He could see the changes every time he looked in a mirror. His eyes had regain their vividness, he ate better and felt great, mentally and physically.
A bit farther, he knew a traitor was sleeping. Peter looked calm, sleeping like a baby, completely tangled up in his covers.
~He harmed Sirius,~ Harry thought, frowning. ~But he's innocent now . . .~
He let himself fall back in his pillow and was ready to fall asleep again, when something ticked in his head. Something was missing. Something was wrong.
And then he remembered.
"Where's the TimeTwister?" he whispered out loud, getting in an upright position.
Only silence answered him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Things start going wrong in the next chapter . . .
Please review!
Thanks to all my reviewers. (*sniff* you all hold a special place in my heart) ^_^
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 4:
Harry, just like the marauders, had a gigantic grin on his face, watching a very alive professor Binns motionless at the sight of his students floating around in the air, most of them still suffering from giddiness the Billywig stings had provided them with. The professor simply stayed there, behind his desk, mouth half open, eyeing a sight he wound probably remember for the rest of his life . . . alive *and* dead.
"G . . . ge-get down! All of y-you!" he said finally after the last Ravenclaw's feet left the ground. "Y-you! Blackins! Lupard! H-help them!"
Sirius and Remus looked at each other for a moment, knowing their teacher was referring to them, even though he hadn't quite said their names right, like he always did.
"I should maybe get professor Cortaine!" James suggested, pretending to look worried.
"Y-yes! You do that!" Professor Binns mumbled, eyes still fixed on his floating students.
James tugged on Harry's robes and both quietly walked out of the classroom, supposedly getting their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher that of course, they weren't really intending to find.
They peacefully walked down the empty hallway towards the nearest staircase, that they used to get to the fifth level.
"When they see that we're not coming back, Binns'll send Sirius and Peter to get someone while Remus accidentally opens a window," James said, grinning. "All we have to do now is create wind. We'll see the rest of the students floating away like balloons and we'll have the rest of the morning off since the teachers will need a couple of extra periods to reassemble the students."
Harry smiled seeing his father laughing.
"But the students . . . they can't go too far, can they?" he asked.
"Nah. They won't pass the Quidditch field, but are still going to go pretty high," James answered.
"But . . . what if the effect wears off while they're still in the air?" Harry asked anxiously.
"Impossible," Prongs said. "The teachers have time to realize students are floating around, have a speech with Binns to know what's happening, walk outside, inspect the sky, get their brooms and start dragging people down. It's quite funny actually. They're going to tie the students' feet to the ground with rocks until the effect stops, around lunch time."
"How did you figure out all of that?" Harry asked, amazed to see something the Weasley twins hadn't come up with before.
"Sirius had the idea of using billywigs, I had the idea to use it on the students in class, Peter had the idea of opening the window and Moony did all the research to make sure everything was going to work perfectly."
"I've never seen anything like it," Harry mumbled.
"Yeah, but you've never seen the Marauders!" James joked. "But anyhow, here is our window, so we'll simply give a light breeze when Sirius gives us the signal."
They waited until Sirius appeared at the other end of the corridor before performing a couple of spells and quickly see students flying out the window, trying to catch on to something in their way, screaming and laughing at the same time. Soon enough, they were joined by Peter and Remus who also enjoyed the sight for a few minutes.
"So . . . we just gave everyone the morning off," Remus said solemnly. "We are heroes."
Padfoot patted his friend's elbow, pretending to hold back a few tears.
"Yes," he repeated. "We are heroes."
"JAMES POTTER!" a female voice barked, making them all jump three feet high.
The Marauders turned around to see a very furious looking Lily Evans storming in their direction.
"If you're looking for Silvia, she just flew a kite towards the Quidditch field," Sirius said, smiling.
"Do you idiots have any IDEA that what you are doing could be dangerous?" she yelled.
"No, I made sure everything was going to work," Remus said quietly. "But how come you're not taking a flying lesson with the others?"
Harry and Peter smiled and turned back to Lily to see her reaction.
"I didn't sit down!" she yelled. "But when are you going to grow up? Can't you see that even if you planned everything, something could go wrong? What if a student didn't get seriously pricked and lost altitude quicker that the others? What if someone was allergic? What if someone had a too strong reaction? Don't you know that if you get pricked by a Billywig one too many times, you can float forever? Why can't you use your brains? Why can you just stay calm? WHY?"
"For fun," Peter suggested.
"FUN?" Lily yelled, harder than ever. "FUN to see people scared out of their wits?"
"They're not scared, they're laughing," Sirius mocked.
Lily was now literally fuming. Before Sirius could truly react, Lily pulled out her wand that she had been holding in her pocket and pointed it at him.
"IMPEDIMENTA!" she yelled, making him get knocked off his feet and slam into the wall.
"Are you having fun, Black?" she asked, smiling slyly.
"Oh, you're going to regret that, Evans," Sirius said dangerously.
"Yes, well the next time you do something like that, you're the one that's going to regret it, just like you, *Potter*," she hissed, quickly walking away and disappearing down the hallway.
"James!" Sirius yelled, now himself looking angry. "You could have stopped that spell!"
James reddened and looked away.
"But I couldn't throw a spell at *her*," James said, annoyed.
"And you couldn't watch your best buddy's back," Sirius replied, crossing his arms.
Prongs made a sound, and ruffled his black hair once again, which only seemed to make Sirius roll his eyes. Padfoot turned around and started walking away, ignoring Remus and Peter that were trying to hold him back.
Harry shook his head and sighed.
"I'll go talk to him," he told his father, himself turning around and starting to run behind his young godfather.
~~~
Harry took much time to find Sirius, seeing that he was constantly using secret passageways and never slowing down.
Finally, Harry caught up with him not too far from the library.
Sirius was simply standing there, hands in his pockets, looking out one of the windows. Harry walked up to him without a word and stood beside him.
"Harry, you might think this is an odd question but . . . have we ever met . . . before?" Sirius asked without looking at him.
Harry stared at him quizzically.
"N . . . no, why would you think that?" he asked uncomfortably.
"You just . . . I don't know . . . you just seem kind of familiar, but in an odd way," he said. "You're like James, but so different at the same time."
Harry turned to Padfoot and took a good look at him. His skin was darker than how he remembered it to be in the future, and he guessed it was Azkaban that made him loose his colours. His eyes, instead of being black as he thought they would have been, were of a dark blue shade. He was well built and strong looking, unlike James who was rather on the small and skinny side. His hair was just as long and as black as Harry knew they were, but instead of looking joyful or rascally as he used to be, he looked kind of sad.
"You know, it's the first girl James really pays attention too," he said neutrally, still looking out the window.
"You . . . you don't like Lily?" Harry asked.
"Well . . . it's like if she's bringing James and me apart, in some way," Sirius said. "I mean, we were like brothers and now . . . I don't really know . . . we're changing."
"Don't worry about it," Harry said, somewhat sadly. "You'll be friends to the end, I can promise you that."
Sirius smiled and looked in his direction for the first time since his arrival.
"You really are something, Harry," he said, making his friend smile back to him. "Well . . . I'll go find James."
Harry watched him go with no intention of following him.
~He probably needs to talk to him alone,~ he thought, walking in the opposite direction.
He headed to the library and started walking through the aisles, staring at the book titles absentmindedly, head tilted on one side. He walked slowly, hands in his pockets, a modern-day song playing through his head. He started humming the tune softly to himself, thinking about how great everything was doing.
He was in the fifth aisle of bookshelves when he nearly had a heart attack: he was reading the titles, halfway through the letter C when he saw two green eyes staring at him through the bookshelf, from the sixth aisle. He jumped backwards, eyes wide open, ready to reach for his wand when he recognized those eyes as his own . . . in fact, it was his young mother, Lily, that was staring at him from the other side of the bookshelves. He could only see her eyes but Harry could see in them that she was smiling.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," she said. "I'm hiding from Sirius and the others."
Harry simply stared.
"I hope you don't think that I'm going to hex you," she joked. "I know you weren't really in that horrible joke of theirs. I have the impression that they just pulled you in. And anyhow, you don't seem to be like them."
"I don't?" Harry asked, a bit surprised.
"Well . . not yet," Lily said calmly. "But you still have that remarkable resemblance to James," she added dreamily.
"You're not the first one to tell me that," Harry said sympathetically, still staring at her eyes, his heart trembling at the thought that he was talking to his own mother.
"But I'm serious Harry," Lily continued. "Be careful with them. They can really get dangerous without even realizing it. I wouldn't want you to get hurt."
"Yes mom," Harry unconsciously whispered.
He reddened and she started laughing.
"Don't make fun of me!" she laughed. "I'm serious!"
Harry smiled sadly.
"Well . . . I'm gonna have to go . . . see you around Harry," she said, disappearing under the bookshelf.
~~~
Harry found the Marauders a while later, and quickly saw that James and Sirius weren't in conflict anymore. In fact, they seemed to have forgotten everything that had gone wrong between them and were talking merrily about the Quidditch matches.
"I'm seeker for Griffindor, you know," James told Harry proudly. "I've never lost a match and never had a good opponent. And my father always gets me the best broom. I have a Nimbus 666! T'was named like that because you really ride like a devil on one of those things. Super fast and super agile."
"Did I tell you that it took an eternity before McGonagall realized that three students were flying right outside her class window," Remus said. "Johnny told me the look on her face was priceless."
Their conversation was interrupted by Professor Dumbledore who came to them by behind.
"Sirius, James, Remus and Peter," he sighed. "Could I see you in my office please?"
The Marauders followed the headmaster, smiling, and so not looking like culprits at all. Harry spent the next free hours alone until, like Sirius had predicted, the students that had flown away were brought back down to earth around lunch time.
Harry heard that the Marauders were punished for their 'lack of common sense' and had to clean flooded toilets for the rest of the afternoon. They all came back exhausted and their night outing was cancelled.
~~~
It was nighttime but Harry couldn't find sleep. His hands behind his head, he stared at the ceiling, smiling. The Marauders were sleeping soundly, James on his right, Remus on his left followed by Sirius and Peter. Turning his head, he could see his father's things laying on his bedside table. He could see an old watch ticking slowly, A miniature snitch floating around in a small glass container, A Quidditch book, pictures, notes and other things he liked inspecting, repeating to himself that they belonged to his father.
Moony looked awful, having headaches that pulled him out of class nearly every day, and Harry knew just why: the full moon was approaching, and he was wondering if the Marauders would tell him immediately that Remus was a werewolf. He didn't think so, knowing very well that they wouldn't open a secret like that to a new friend they barely knew . . . in fact, he was surprised they were becoming friends so fast. They had already told him about the invisibility cape and the Marauders' map and they had already invited him to join them in a night excursion.
He rose his head a little and eyes Sirius' still form, hidden under a mountain of blankets a few metres away. Sirius was with him, and so he was happy. He could see the changes every time he looked in a mirror. His eyes had regain their vividness, he ate better and felt great, mentally and physically.
A bit farther, he knew a traitor was sleeping. Peter looked calm, sleeping like a baby, completely tangled up in his covers.
~He harmed Sirius,~ Harry thought, frowning. ~But he's innocent now . . .~
He let himself fall back in his pillow and was ready to fall asleep again, when something ticked in his head. Something was missing. Something was wrong.
And then he remembered.
"Where's the TimeTwister?" he whispered out loud, getting in an upright position.
Only silence answered him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Things start going wrong in the next chapter . . .
Please review!