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Thanks: Annmarie Aspasia, The Fifth Marauder, Smile Neumann
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Chapter 12
The four house tables had been submerged into one over the night and James and Sirius were forced for the first time ever, to eat opposite Snape. "I've kind of gone off my food now." Sirius said watching Snape pour himself another glass of pumpkin juice. "Ah well, at least he's dressed for the occasion!" Snape was draped in long, velvet black robes with a very high collar they were surprised wasn't choking him. Upon seeing this, Sirius and James had collapsed into audible laughter; the cloak was no doubt a gift from some withered ancestor or something…
"What did you get as a Christmas gift then?" Snape shot at them as they sat down, still in hysterics.
"I'd love to see his face if I told him," James muttered.
After breakfast they decided to put the invisibility cloak to some use. They spent the morning creeping round after Snape either performing numerous severing charms on the hem of his robes, so they were now somewhere round his knees or enchanting statues of armour to howl with laughter or wolf whistle as Snape passed them. It was quite something to lurk invisible while Snape pulled the heads off a dozen statues, desperately trying to find the source of their outburst.
"Over here Snivelly!" Sirius shouted. Snape turned wildly but seeing nothing raced down the marble staircase and towards the dungeons.
"We could get into the Slytherin common room like this couldn't we," James said thoughtfully.
"Ah, who wants to be in Slytherin company? All we'd find is Lucius Malfoy giving a long lecture of the correct use of a greasing potion then demonstrating on Snivellus I expect." Sirius said casually, pulling himself out from under the cloak.
Little happened over the next few days and before they knew it, the rest of the students had returned. After a long rant from Peter about his Christmas James and Sirius decided to tell them about their trip into the forest. Remus was puzzled upon hearing about the conversation James and Sirius had overheard in the forest but an exasperated Lily Evans who was listening curiously to their conversation told them they should read the newspaper more.
Though Sirius had snorted at the idea of sending away the order form Lily had handed him for daily copies of the 'Daily prophet' James couldn't help thinking that maybe it would be useful to hear what the rest of the world were saying on the subject of 'funny disappearances' that were widely rumoured around the school.
"Have you been to Dumbledore?" Lily asked them sounding slightly concerned.
"What's it to you?" Sirius said rudely.
"Well," Peter said speaking for the first time since Sirius and James had told them their news. "I think you're making a bit much fuss about this, it doesn't really sound that shocking to me…"
"Oh no Peter, not surprising at all! I mean, all that happened was we heard some green monster telling all their plans to a backwards human in the heart of one of the most dangerous forests around here I expect." Sirius said sarcastically. "No, can't think what all the fuss is about…"
"So you're for telling Dumbledore?" James asked him.
"No," Sirius said, "I just don't think this is the sort of thing we should forget. I mean, it's quite important and maybe useful."
"Yeah, like a piece of jigsaw puzzle!" Peter piped up excitedly.
"I wonder how big the puzzle is though." Remus said darkly. He had been staring at the flames in the fire but he looked up now, "it could be any size couldn't it? If there is a puzzle at all… Which I expect there is. We could have one piece out of one thousand we need to find, or we could have one piece from a puzzle of five pieces. What's for sure is though, we will find more."
James thought he was the only one watching Lily but as her emerald eyes looked up at them again she was not gazing at James, but at Remus. Then she smiled and getting to her feet, climbed the girls staircase up to her dormitory.
"Clever words Lupin," James said coldly, looking at Remus. "Very clever. Lily Evans clever in fact."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus looked sharply at James for probably the first time ever.
"Oh nothing," James said, sinking lower into his armchair but next morning Remus' words proved to be strangely accurate.
"Here," Lily handed Remus a copy of the Daily Prophet at Breakfast. "It's mine but I've finished with it."
James leant over to see the newspaper. "What funny disappearances?" He asked frowning.
"You're so behind the times," Remus said. "Didn't you know? Wizards and muggles alike are vanishing everywhere. There was something about Dolohov over Christmas. Still hasn't turned up, though the ministry is still searching for him. They say it's the work of a dark, powerful wizard."
"Yeah, so it says," James said reading the article about a young wizard called Nott who had vanished the previous day. "It says the ministry is not sure whether they are vanishing under their own accord, being controlled by the imperius curse or being forced to leave some other way…"
"Look at this," Remus said, he was reading some five pages into the newspaper and quickly opened the page fully. "Salazar Krimpton has been sent to Azkaban for the use of the imperius on three humans. It says he has refused to answer any questions and denies all blatant evidence against him…"
"How stupid is that?" Sirius said grinning. "First the idiot's thick enough to get himself caught by aurors then he goes and denies everything! Haven't they tried veritaserum?"
"They tried," Remus said reading on. "But Krimpton refuses to let them near him with it. He says he will commit suicide if they do and that will make him completely useless so they're very scared to do anything. He's serious about it too…"
"Not planning on solving the case on your own are you?" Severus Snape had arrived, he too was clutching a copy of the Daily prophet.
Sirius told Snape to 'go away'. Snape remained his ground glaring at them, "I know more than you do." He said.
"Yeah, prove it?" Sirius said still eyeing him with great dislike.
"No." Snape said. "I think I'll let you work it out on your own." He swept out of the main hall, robes billowing behind him.
"Git," Sirius said. "He only came over to gloat. I bet he doesn't know any more than we do anyway."
"I don't know," Remus said thoughtfully. "He gets on rather well with Lucius Malfoy doesn't he?"
"Sort of thing he'd do though isn't it, hang around seventh years…" Sirius said still watching Snape out of site.
"Malfoy will know a lot though won't he? You know the company he keeps," Remus said thoughtfully.
"Let's wait until something else happens before we jump to any conclusions though." James said.
"Like there are any conclusions to jump to…" Sirius said laughing.
"Well, there might be." Remus said. "Let's just wait." So the next week passed just as a normal week. Though Snape had taken to walking with a bit more bounce in his step and had taken to sidling past them in close company of Lucius Malfoy or Rodolphus Lestrange. Also, Sirius' nickname had changed. During a Defence against the dark arts class with Professor Quibly in which he, James, Sirius and Peter had been trying to master patronuses secretly while the rest of the class attempted a simple shield charm Sirius had announced that the paws of his shaggy dog had grown yet larger.
"You wish," Peter said dully. "You're just showing off that you can do it and I can't."
Sirius glared at him. "No, look they're much bigger!" He insisted. "It just keeps vanishing before I can see properly…"
"Whatever Padfoot," James said casually, vanishing his stag as Professor Quibly headed their way.
It seemed the nickname had stuck because Remus and Peter both refereed to him in this way at least once that day.
"How about you Pettigrew?" Sirius said grinning as they headed to Herbology.
"Wha – what's wrong with Peter?" Peter asked nervously.
Remus laughed. "That's not fair!" He said. "How come I'm Moony and he's Peter?"
"Don't worry, we'll think of one," Sirius said as the four of them entered the greenhouse to be greeted by a new selection of fascinating plants. "I hate Herbology," Sirius said grumpily. "When's this ever going to be useful in life?"