A/N: Sorry about the big gap in last chapter where it skipped places.
And thanks tons to PrincessLily (better known as KT) for all her help with the vampireJ
Chapter 8:
And the day (err... night?) is saved... thanks to.......
Lily stood up, deathly pale and glared menacingly at James who vowed that if he somehow got away he was going to kill Sirius. Maybe he would anyway....
"TOM RIDDLE!!!!" bellowed an angry voice, causing Lily to turn around to look at Dumbledore.
"Lils, I'm really sorry about this!" James cried "Stupefy!" He caught her before she hit the ground.
Dumbledore walked over to James.
"I'm sorry James," he said as James jumped, startled.
"Can't you do something Professor?" James asked.
"I can, but it's risky, you must be ready to risk your own life for Lily." Dumbledore looked at James through his half moon spectacles. "Come to my office and we will go into it further.
It was not until they reached the great stone gargoyle that James realised something. "Professor, what happened to the vampire and Voldemort?"
"They fled when I came."
"Why?"
"I do not know."
"Oh, Ok"
By this point they had reached Dumbledore's office, where they found Professor McGonagall waiting."
"Albus! Lily! She's...."
"Been turned into a vampire."
Professor McGonagall looked as though she was about to faint.
"Minerva, run and fetch Filius, he's the only one who can save her now."
(A/N: Filius is Professor Flitwick's first name lol)
Professor McGonagall left the room.
After a moment, Professor Flitwick ran into the room, looking rather puffed. He climbed up onto a pile of books in order to see Lily better, and promptly fell off in shock.
"Well, usually there would be no way to save her."
James fainted onto the floor.
"But, thanks to the magic of Jatyuq, I think I might just be able to. Er... but Mr Potter will have to wake up."
"I can take care of that."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*5 Minutes Later~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
James drank the potion made by Dumbledore and nearly spat it out again. It tasted like overcooked Cabbage mixed with a spoonful of Spinach, but James forced himself to drink it. He felt the potion burn in his stomach, and the burn spread right to the tips of his hair and fingers.
"Right, that should do it." He heard Dumbledore say.
"Enervate"
Lily stood up, de-fanged but weak and pale looking.
"Lily will go to the Hospital Wing, and so will you James" who he noticed was pale and slightly cross-eyed.
After a week in the hospital wing they went back to school, but not before Dumbledore had warned them not to breathe a work to anybody lest there be an uproar that Voldemort returned to the school.
The rest of the term went more smoothly, with only the fact that Sirius was determined to turn Mrs. Norris' fur pink with green stripes, yellow dots and blue stars. He had been caught in the process more than once. As in every day.
Christmas came and went with the Slytherins dressed in Santa suits and beards, which would not come off no matter what they did. Snape, who had been so desperate to get his off he had tried to burn it off, was walking round with a charcoal face.
On New Years Eve, the Marauders planed their most daring prank ever. At 11:59, they hid behind a tapestry in the staffroom and counted down the seconds to midnight.
"5...4...3...2...1..........BLAST OFF!!!!!!!!" Yelled James and pressed the button on the control, which Remus and Sirius had hooked up earlier.
At once a thousand party poppers exploded behind the teachers' chairs, a mountain of confetti poured from the ceiling and all of the teachers' hats exploded with more party poppers and confetti. The Marauders stuck their heads round the tapestry and yelled "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!" and ran as fast as they could back down the passageway towards Gryffindor Tower. There they changed into their pyjamas and jumped into bed just as Professor McGonagall burst into the Common room and up the steps to the boys' dormitories.
"Potter, Lupin, Black, my office, immediately!" she then ran to fetch Lily from the girls' dormitories.
When they got to her office, she spoke to them with thin lips.
"Now, these pranks have gone far enough. Let me impress upon all of you that you may face suspension from the school if it carries on. Letters will be sent to your parents immed..."
The loud noise of someone clearing their throat came from the doorway
Professor McGonagall looked up to see Professor Dumbledore.
"May I speak with them Minerva?"
"Yes, yes certainly, Professor."
She left the room looking satisfied.
Professor Dumbledore sat down at McGonagall's desk and looked stern, though there was a twinkle in his eye.
He waited until she was out of earshot, then opened his mouth and laughed. The tears were pouring down his cheeks. He finally regained dignity and spoke, though there was still laugher in those blue eyes behind the half-moon spectacles.
"Now, the teachers are expecting me to punish you all for that prank, so if they ask you, say you have detention every Friday at 9pm for the rest of the year," he said quietly.
"Why Professor?" asked James.
At this point, Dumbledore dropped his voice even more, so that they had to lean forwards to hear him.
"I have been thinking about that narrow miss with Voldemort Lily and James faced. Do you all know what the magic of Jatyuq is?"
Lily, Remus and Sirius shook their heads, but James spoke "Voldemort said something about you casting a spell on us after we were born..."
"Exactly James... But do you know what that magic does?"
"Nope"
"It creates a bond between you and Lily, meaning that if either of you are ever harmed severely, we will be able to take a little magic from the other to heal you. Precisely what Professor Flitwick did a few months back for Lily."
"But what does that have to do with Remus and me Professor?" asked Sirius.
"I'm getting to that Mr. Black, if you will have patience. You and Remus happen to play a very important part in this. You see, after Lily and James leave Hogwarts in 6 years one of you will need to be with Lily and James every time they leave the house."
"But Professor!" protested James.
"I'm not finished yet James." smiled Dumbledore.
"Oh, sorry."
"Anyway, as I was saying, there will be exceptions. If Lily and James are together, they will not need you to come with them."
James looked strangely pleased about this.
"Anyway, I think you should go back to Gryffindor tower, I hear the party is starting at 3am and it's 2am now, but you didn't hear about the party from me." Smiled Dumbledore again. "I will explain more about Jatyuq next Friday."
The Marauders left the room.
"Hey, let's stop by the kitchens and get some food for the party on our way to Gryffindor tower, and let's invite the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws to come." Suggested Sirius
"Yea good idea, the more the merrier! Except with Slytherins, that is..." laughed Remus. They were all rather hyper for some reason.
They skipped to the kitchens giddily and fetched several cakes and at least 5000 sweets, which Lily made much smaller and put them in a basket.
They stopped at the concealed door to the Ravenclaw tower, behind a statue of a large eagle and rapped on the door. A girl's voice said "Hello?"
"The Gryffindors are having a party in Gryffindor tower, d'you want to come?" asked James.
"Why not? Most of us have gone to bed, so there won't be many anyway,"
she replied.
A moment later, there was a scuffling noise and the door opened slowly.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ten Minutes later they were back in the Gryffindor common room and everyone was jumping around like maniacs, which they were anyway.
At 7:30am the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs decided they had better get back to their towers to get ready for breakfast in half an hour.
At 8am the Marauders walked proudly down the stairs, falling over just in time for Professor McGonagall to raise one eyebrow at them.
The rest of the day went very normally, with another weeks detention, lots of homework and only one, rather sleepy prank. Please don't ask, I'm much too tired to tell you right now. I think I'll go to bed a little earlier this time....
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Anyways, the school year finished with a flourish. And before the Marauders knew it, they were packing their stuff, or rather, stuffing it into their trunks, and James was promising to invite them all to his house in August sometime. They boarded the train, got into one last fight with Snape and his fellow Slytherins (in which Lily got a Chinese burn and a broken arm, James a black eye and a sprained wrist, Sirius only a scratch and Remus, who came off worst of the Marauders, with a broken arm and a sprained wrist. The Slytherins hair was pink and their skin patterned with flowers, which would not wear off for a month, as Sirius had been rather cross when he had cast it, and they were all mortified. Yup, that was the Marauders all right. But the train ride home was much more boring than the one coming to Hogwarts, as they couldn't do much until they got home, as Madame Pomfrey was still at Hogwarts.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
When they got back to the train station James' mum healed them with her wand before crossing back through the barrier to King's Cross Station. They bid farewell and their last memory of each other was James' mum arranging with everybody else's mum that they spend part of the summer holidays with James at his house. And so the first year at Hogwarts went with only a few bumps, and they had a memorable end of year.
(A/N: I ain't gonna write any more until I get 15 reviews! Come on people's! 15! That's only 3 more!)