Disclaimer : All characters belongs to J. K. Rowlings, minus professor Tralatong, whose name belongs to the creators of Farscape. All were kidnapped in the dawn, and are not used to make money. They will be returned when I'm done.
See, don't own so don't sue, unless you're interested in my teddy bears collection...
Besides this work will contain people out of character since I am definitely not JK Rowlings, and some strange sentences since I'm French. Not to forget it's an AU... No Peter, and Lily is the fourth Marauder. Still here?
So, on with the show...
Chapter 12 – Awakening, surprising revelations and the final prank
Sirius blinked. Seing the light pouring from the window, he sighed, sat in his bed and yawned hugely, stretching his sore muscles.
"Ah, dear boy, at least one of you is awake. We were concerned when young Lily ran to us with the news of your accident, last week."
Sirius turned towards Dumbledore. "Accident? What do you mean?"
Dumbledore paled a little "You don't remember? In the potion classroom? Young Mister Lupin was working with the help of Mister Mac Connor on the de aging potion. You were there with your husband, James Potter and Lucius Malefoy..."
Sirius cut him "Yeah! Narcissa came, she insulted us, tried to curse us. Malefoy helped, he was hiding in from her. The cauldron tipped over us, we slipped on the floor... Are the others all right?"
Dumbledore reassured him "Yes, they are. I think I'm going to retrieve Professor Tralatong to have a word with Miss Black. You are all excused from class today." His eyes twinkled as he saw Sirius quickly making his way towards Severus' bed before leaving.
He stopped by Mrs Pomfrey's office to let her know that one of her patients was awake, and she confirmed her diagnosis. Apart from the unnatural sleep, the six teenagers were only suffering from bumps and bruises, resulting from their meeting with the floor.
A few minutes later, Narcissa exited the Headmaster's office, shaking with fury. "How dare he! A month worth of detention with Filch! I'll show him! This old fool!" She stalked her way towards the Slytherin Common Room.
In the infirmary, Severus and Sirius were kissing, Erwan was sitting on Remus' bed, craddling him between his arms and legs. Lucius was combing through his hair with his fingers, quickly tying them in a ponytail while glancing towards James, who was still hapilly snoring.
"Seems like Jamie didn't heard the waking call." Remarked Erwan.
"Finally I'm not the last one!" beamed Remus, making everybody laugh. "I mean it, you're witnesses, he won't be able to tease me, now..." the rest of his sentence was swallowed by Erwan's kiss.
"Maybe we should call this 'eagle' you're always speaking about to wake him up..." proposed Severus.
"You only proposed that because you're eager to know who he is" pointed Sirius.
"Guilty as charged. What can I say? I'm curious!" shrugged Severus.
Lucius quietly moved to the door, locking it before making his way back to James' bed. Severus frowned. Sirius put his arms around his waist and drew his body to rest on his chest "Relax" he kissed his neck.
Malefoy looked at them and smirked to Severus "So, Severus, allow me to introduce myself, I'm 'eagle'. And now, I'd like to kiss my fiancé, if you don't mind." This said, he went to James,who was extending his arms towards him like a little kid and then did just that, kissing.
Kissing seemed to be a contagious disease because soon each teenager in the infirmary was involved with his significant other.
The peace was shattered when Lily and Madam Pomfrey banged on the door, requesting entrance.
During the next full moon, if one was to pay attention, he could see the strangest thing : two wolves, a red fox, a big black dog, a bear and a stag with an eagle perched on his antlers were frolicking in the forest or just running around each others on the lawns.
Life was good for the pack, playing pranks on the unsuspecting students and faculty, never leaving any clues pointing to them, and, more than one time, Filch nearly suffered from a breakdown, being the most obvious target.
The group was opposed by Narcissa, always trying to impose herself on Lucius, even when he made his disinterest clear by kissing James in front of her each occasion he got. Narcissa was not deterred in her pursuit of Lucius, and she took every occasion to try and break his couple. When during the last year she realised her attempts were thwarted by the whole group, she began to hate all of them. She allied with Mac Nair, Avery and Nott, helping them to obtain and kidnap their obsession, Sirius. Fortunately, he used his love portkey to came back to Severus' side, an event which increased the Slytherins' hate towards the Marauders, Lucius and Severus even more.
It was during their Graduation Fest than the 'Animalia Prank' took place. Being one of the elements that had drawn their little group together, it was only fair that they reserved it for a great occasion.
Lucius, Severus and Erwan had brew the potion. Sirius and James had befriended the House Elves, ensuring their cooperation.
The eve of the D-day, Erwan and Lily bewitched the armours in the one of the corridors to dance the tango, forcing Filch to go and fetch Dumbledore for help. As soon as they saw Dumbledore passing the corner they were hiding behind, they ran to his office and knocked on the door, which was opened by Remus, who had been conveniently speaking with the Headmaster about his future when Filch appeared.
The three quickly scanned the parchments on Dumbledore's desk, looking for his end of year speech. When they had found it, Lily quickly duplicated it and she and Erwan exited. The gargoyle had just stepped back in place when Dumbledore arrived.
"Oh, Professor! We were looking for Remus, he said he had an appointment with you." Lily said. Erwan nodded. "Is it already over? We must have missed him..." se mused.
Dumbledore smiled to them "No, he is still in my office, I had to leave for a while to undo quite an interesting dancing charm which had been placed on the armours in the Ravenclaw corridor. But we were nearly finished." He opened his office's door and motionned to Remus "Mister Lupin, it appears that your friends are looking for you. Go with them, we'll resume this conversation later today."
"Yes, thank you sir." The three teenagers took their leave. When they were outside, Remus sighed deeply. "I thought he had caught you, what happened?"
Lily shrugged and sat on the entry stairs. "The gargoyle had just closed when Wolfie and I saw him appear. What a scare!"
"We were lucky Redfox here can think fast, my brain cells are still frozen." Remus smiled "They must already be in our room, let's go!"
They ran towards the unused potion laboratory they had find with their map and claimed as their own. Lucius and Severus were waiting for them before completing the last stage of the potion which could not be done more than two days before use. They quickly grouped around the parchment, one of them reading the speech in a Dumbledore imitation to time it.
"The potion will take effect an hour after absorption." Severus reminded them.
"The ceremony is right after lunch. Let say fifteen minutes for everybody to go outside ad sit. And if we want it to begin after this sentence," Lucius pointed at a phrase on the parchment "we have to give everybody the potion fifteen minutes before the end of lunch."
"Mission accepted! All the troups to report, sir!" chirped James in the doorstep with a salute before entering with Sirius.
Lucius grabbed him and kissed him. "The instructions are to give the potion to the House Elves, asking them to put it in the pumpkin juice fifteen minutes before the end of lunch. Now, help us to bottle it. We'll go to the kitchen after."
"Aye, sir!"
Everybody laughed.
"By the way, the cue is 'Another year has passed at Hogwarts, full of surprises', we wouldn't want you to be the only two humans standing in our little zoo, now would we?"
"Waa, Lucius, such confidence you have in me!" wailed James.
Lucius shook his head. "Shoo, grab your vials and head to the kitchen." Everybody obeyed, minus Sirius and Severus who had voluntered for cleaning duty during which they were hoping to stow some snogging away.
Everything went according to plan. The potion was delivered and drank, the pupils, teachers and familly members gathered outside and Dumbledore began his speech.
He had just finished the sentence Lucius had called clue when the first student transformed. At once the whole student body scrambled away, panicked. The professors frowned, the families began to comment and Dumbledore stopped speaking.
The students were turning one by one or by groups in all sorts of animals. The Marauders exchanged a smirk before transforming in their animagus forms.
After a few hours spent running after panicking students-turned-animals, the teachers finally managed to corner each and every student with the help of the spectators, and to retransform them to their normal state.
Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling madly turned towards the Marauders. "It was a good one, one I'm sure can evidently not be traced to you, but a good one nonetheless. I must add that I am glad it was your last year!"
Two years later James and Lily were killed, and Godric Hollow destroyed. The only one alive was Harry, a one year old toddler. The few evidences found pointed towards Lord Voldemort.
Lucius has taken the head of his familly, Narcissa at his side. They were gifted with a son, Draco.
Severus began the youngest Potion Master ever, always living with Sirius, who was promoted to Auror captain. Remus took Samuel Snape on his offer and became a lawyer, while Erwan became a medi-wizzard.
And The Sale came to its end, before the beginning of its sequel, 'What a mess!'
