Chapter 4: Whispers of a Nameless Fear

James took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Remind me—why are we here?"

He, the other Marauders and Lily were in the common room three weeks into the school year. It was about 1am on a Friday night. James was making some plans for an upcoming Quidditch match (versus Slytherin), Peter and Sirius were playing a game of exploding snap, and Remus was playing Lily at wizards' chess.

"'Cause we can't or otherwise choose not to go to sleep," Sirius answered smartly.

"You know, call me crazy," said Remus, "but I think we're all a little affected by Professor Loopy."

"You're not a professor, Moony." Sirius smirked.

" Not me, you twit," Remus smacked him across the head. "Lucas!"

"Oh, you mean Professor 'We're-All-Going-To-Die'?" Said Peter, waving his hands and rolling his eyes.

"You may have a point, Rem," Lily said as one of her knights smashed one of Remus's .

"He's been teaching us the unforgivable curses for the past three weeks for crying out loud!" James replaced his glasses.

"You know what we need?" Sirius said pointedly.

"A pick-me-up!" Remus said, catching on.

"A cup of coffee," mused Lily.

"I'll get my cloak!" James said as he rushed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.

"I'll get the map!" Sirius said, following James.

"I'll get my shopping list!" said Peter, dashing behind Sirius.

"I'll stay really CONFUSED!!" Lily yelled after them.

"I'll ...explain all this to Lily."

"All what??"

"All right Lily, you must promise not to disclose this information to anyone! This is a Marauders' secret."

"Oooh, okay!" Said Lily, half-excited and half wondering of she really wanted to know.

" Yeah, well okay: a few years ago, we created this map—NO QUESTIONS—now this map shows exactly where everyone in Hogwarts is and more importantly all of the exits of the castle."

"But... how?!" Asked Lily, almost speechless.

" 'No questions' darling! So, up for a visit to Hogsmeade?"

"This is a bad idea! This is a bad idea! This is a BAD IDEA!!" Lily whined.

"HUSH!"

The five friends were traveling to Hogsmeade via the dark 1-hump witch passageway.

"Ouch! SIRIUS! Watch it!"

"Ow! Oh, mate!! That was my... erm... my wand!!"

"That is SO much more than I wanted to know!" Lily laughed a little.

"Sorry, love."

"Shut up Sirius!!" they all said in unison.

"...how long is this?"

"Just keep walking,"

"Here I come, butterbeer!"

The door to Honeydukes' cellar swung open and they climbed out.

"Woah," Lily said, looking around.

"Cool, eh?"

They walked quietly up the creaky wooden staircase until they came to the door.

"Alohamora!" And with that there was a click as the door swung open.

"Ah! Fresh air!"

"We've missed you so, Hogsmeade!"

"Sure have!"

"We are going to get in SO MUCH trouble!" Lily panicked as she finally realized that they were in Hogsmeade village.

"Realx." James said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "we COULD get in a LOT of trouble, I mean being Head Boy and Girl and all..." He felt her tense under his firm grip. "But we won't," he said quickly.

Lily took a deep breath, taking some reassurance from the fact that at least she wasn't there alone. She followed the others in the direction of the new pub called "The Three Broomsticks." There they took a table in a dark corner in the back. They further concealed themselves by pulling their hoods over their heads.

"Can I get ye fellas anythin?" asked a pretty young witch.

"5 butterbeers please."

"Comin' right up."

"How long have you been violating numerous school rules and perhaps a few ministry rules by coming here, for?" asked Lily.

"Eh, about..."

"twice a month"

"since...what, Prongs?"

"Third year!" he answered proudly.

Lily nearly spat out the butterbeer that had just been placed in front of her. "THIRD?! And you've never been caught?!"

"Well we almost did get caught...In fifth year...but it was by Professor Jackson who didn't teach us at the time, so we pretended we were from Cambodia and that we didn't speak English." Sirius explained.

"and then this other time—"

"Hush! Look!" Peter beckoned towards the entrance to the pub.

"Who is it??" asked Lily with urgency, too afraid to turn and see—

"McGonagall, Dumbledore, Flitwick, and... Lucas."

"What in bloody hell're THEY doing here?!" Sirius asked, lowering his head as the teachers and very headmaster of Hogwarts took their seats at a booth directly adjacent to their own.

"I'd say coming in for a drink..." James said smoothly.

"Hush, listen!"

"You're such a nosy rat, Peter!"

"Just LISTEN!"

"...In Slytherin, he was," Dumbledore's soft and powerful voice.

"Pretty good student, too," said McGonagall.

"So, you're saying he's really into all that...trouble-making?" asked Flitwick nervously.

"No, sir. 'Trouble-making' is what your students do. What this one does is evil," Lucas said seriously.

"Evil? He couldn't be evil..." Flitwick gulped.

"He always took issue with the non-pure-bloods," said Dumbledore.

"But... Isn't he, himself—"

"Yes. That's why he changed his name." Dumbledore explained.

"Poor Tom... So you know he wants to...hurt the ones that aren't pure?"

"And the worst part is he says he'll hurt muggles; innocent, defenseless muggles!"

"That's not the worst part. The worst part is that he has followers."

"Of course, like the Malfoys, the Notts, the Blacks, the Averys... they're shady, they are."

"You really think this he's going to be a major problem?" asked Flitwick.

"No, professor. I know," responded Lucas.

"When he—they—when they do rise to power, our only hope lies in the next generation..." Dumbledore said.

"There are many brilliant minds in that generation." Flitwick said hopefully.

"But," Lucas added, "not all will use their powers for good."

There was a long pause during which the people involved in and listening to the conversation were deep in thought.

"Let's get out of here," Remus said, putting his money on the table.

"Yeah. Shrieking shack?" Sirius put his money on the table too."

Peter and James nodded in agreement and disappeared with a POP!

"C'mon, Lily," Remus said reassuringly as he, Sirius, and Lily disappeared.

"What was that all about?" Sirius thought out loud.

"I...don't know. Something about muggles." Peter answered as he left the room.

"Muggles being attacked." Lily said in a daze.

"An evil wizard," Remus said, "with followers."

"Yeah, followers like my famiy..." Sirius said, his tone changing.

"Don't worry, mate. You're not like them." Said James comfortingly.

"Still—I wish I could... I wish I could stop them... You heard Dumbledore! 'When they rise to power, our only hope lies in the nest generation...'"

"Oh Merlin," said James, "that's us!"

Just as James spoke, there was a crash from what Lily assumed was as the kitchen.

"I'M ALRIGHT!" Peter's voice called from the room, "Just dropped a glass."

"God help us all," Sirius said sarcastically.

They all smiled as Peter came back carrying 5 shot glasses and a rather large bottle of firewhiskey.

"Their hope lies in us," Lily said, getting back to the conversation. "Our hope lies in us... the future, the—"

"Their hope lies in good hands," said Remus, raising an enigmatic eyebrow.

"hm...well we're not going to have much of a future when they find out we're in the shrieking shack, on an un-school-authorized trip to Hogsmeade, drinking firewhiskey... heh..." She smiled to herself then gasped, finally coming to the realization of their reality. "OHMYGOSH!"

"Lily..." Remus warned.

Lily was now hyperventilating, "do you realize this is the most haunted building in Britain and—and—do you have any idea how much trouble we're going to be in?!"

"Don't worry, Evans!" James said, "we're professionals."

"So much for the future..." Sirius smirked.

"It is getting rather late." Said Remus.

"We should go," said Peter, going back into the kitchen.

"Oh thank Merlin!!" Lily said, getting to her feet.

"Okay..." said James, "but first—let's make a promise."

"A promise?" asked Peter, coming back.

"Okay Jamesie, I pwomise I won't cheat on you anymore!"

"Shut up Sirius," Remus rollled his eyes.

"Seriously, Lily's right. We all heard Dumbledore. It's up to us." They were silent as the mood had suddenly changed from worrying whether they were going to get caught, back to worrying about the fate of the future. "Let's make a promise... to defend our world."

"To defend the defenseless." Lily added.

"To not let evil devour the world." Remus said.

"No matter the cost." Said Sirius.

"and to stay on the right side of the war." James said. "No matter the cost."

"A promise." Agreed Lily, Remus, Sirius, and Peter.

Author scowls at the idea of Peter and laughs at the fact that there should really be cheesy Justice League music playing in the background. Heehee. Sorry about the cheesy-ness!!

THANK YOU to all my reviewers! And thanks for being so patient with me! Next chapter should be up soon.

To whitepaw: This is dedicated to you—this whole story—because without your incessant bugging me, I wouldn't have gotten this written at all. Thanks 33333