Author's note: Merry Christmas! I can't think of anything for Marauders Four at the moment. Sorry. It might take quite long for yet another update. And my beta had gone somewhere to celebrate Christmas, so there might be some mistakes with the grammar. Hope you won't mind that.
JK Rowling had announced that the sixth book would be released 16th July 2005, ain't it great?
Last of all, enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Eight
An Exchange
Madam Hooch and the rest of the Gryffindors were rushing towards the Whomping Willow, where James was. Sirius was right next to the flying instructor, his wand was out though he barely knew any of the spells yet, but one might come in handy anyway. Peter was close behind Sirius, his face was a little redder than usual from the running.
Madam Hooch finally came to a halt, and the rest of the Gryffindors also stopped, many of who were panting. "Tell me, Mr. Potter, who did that?" she inquired.
"Sni – I mean Snape," said James quietly, "Severus Snape from Slytherin. Sirius can witness that."
Sirius gave a nod. Madam Hooch took their word in. "Snape! Mr. Snape! Where are you?"
The Slytherins hadn't bothered to rush to James and waste their breath only to attend to a blood traitor. No, they were strolling as if they were beside the lake on a Sunday afternoon, enjoying the sunlight and the soft breeze.
When Snivellus heard his name being called, he looked mildly surprised. "Yes, Professor?" he asked politely, which was totally unlike him.
"Detention for a month, Mr. Snape, attacking each other with spells is not allowed in the air when flying," said Madam Hooch coolly. "Class dismissed!"
The lesson had ended a bit too soon, James thought, ruffling his hair again to make him look as if he just had a flight on his broomstick. Sirius and Peter soon joined him, strolling back to the castle.
"Are you sure you're all right?" asked Sirius, concerned. "The castle's wall is hard, you know."
"Yeah I'm all right, it just hurts a little in the head," said James, and Sirius was relieved. "Anyway, guess what I've discovered?"
"What?" asked Peter.
"I've found a tunnel!" said James.
"That's not very unusual, is it?" said Sirius. "I've read before, once somewhere, that Hogwarts has all kinds of tunnel for quicker traveling within the castle and for emergencies that would lead to the outside."
"Nah," said James, "I don't think that tunnel would be led from Hogwarts, I think… I think it would lead into Hogsmeade!"
"Where's Hogsmeade?" asked Peter.
"Hogsmeade," began James, "is a place where there's a lot of shops to see. There're Honeydukes, the sweets shop, they sell all kinds of wizarding sweets! Acid pops, ice mice, sugar quill, chocolate frogs, fizzing whizzbees, bertie botts Every Flavour Beans – "
"And there's Zonko's, prank shop," said Sirius, cutting James short and waking him up from his sweets' dream, "pranks and stuff, Dr Filibuster's wet start fireworks, Dungbombs – "
"AND," continued James, to prevent Sirius rattling on,"the Three Broomsticks, which is a great place for students to chat and enjoy a huge tankard of foaming butterbeer which the taste you would never forget and always like, that kept you from ordering again and again."
"Sounds fabulous," said Peter.
"However, only third years and above are allowed into the village," said James sadly.
"Just two more years to go then," said Sirius.
A month had whizzed past and the first years all had adapted to the castle's weird environment. The lessons were far more interesting than normal muggle lessons and also far more difficult. Most of the first years had found themselves a partner in crime, or small groups, but not Remus Lupin.
Young Remus still couldn't find himself a mate to share his problems with. No. He wouldn't tell him his problems. They would all be frightened away once he did. He did have a friend though, that was Lily Evans. But it seemed that she was soon drifting away from him towards her own Gryffindor female friends. Remus supposed that this was normal; after all they were only eleven year olds.
But still, it felt so strange to be eating alone in the Great Hall, walking through the corridors by himself and no one else. He longed to be involved. He wanted to be useful, to help out anybody. He wanted to have a friend whom he can trust with his life. But – who can that be? He had no idea…
Meanwhile, James and Sirius were having serious problems with their studies. Peter reckoned they were plotting something for the near future. Halloween was approaching in a few weeks time. Those two Gryffindors certainly seemed capable of doing better than now. Professor McGonagall was obviously furious with them when they had failed to hand in their homework for the third time.
"This is the third and last time, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black," said Professor McGonagall. "It would be detention the next time!"
Sirius and James didn't seem to be affected by Professor McGonagall's words. The two of them packed their bags and strolled out of the classroom.
"How about some Dr.Filibuster's No Heat Fireworks?" suggested Sirius to James in a small whisper.
"And where are we going to get that from?" replied James.
"Ask one of the third years or above to buy for us," answered Sirius.
"That's too risky," said James, shaking his head in disagreement.
"Or we could sneak into Hogsmeade," said Sirius.
"You know one of the passages?" said James, his eyes gleaming.
"No," answered Sirius shortly.
"So how?" said James, not noticing whom he was walking towards. "No pran – ooops! Sorry!"
He looked up, his brow rising.
It was Snivellus with one of the Slytherins.
"Look where you're going!" said Snape, brushing his robes.
"Snivellus, is it not?" sniggered James.
"Severus Snape," said Snivellus.
"Oh," said James.
"Don't you dare," said Snivellus, he plunged his hand into his robes and pulled out a wand.
"Oh – I'm soooo scared!" joked Sirius. "And what are you going to do?"
"Not here," said Snivellus, "there're too many teachers around."
"How about a duel?" suggested Sirius. "Tonight?"
"Sure," said Snivellus, "at the empty charms classroom, and we'd see who wins!"
"Deal!"
Remus stopped in his tracks. He heard what they were saying. A duel? But they were only first years! That sounded absurd… Severus Snape indeed wasn't somebody to cross. There was a rumour spreading around that he was knew more spells than even the Seventh years although Remus wasn't sure where he heard it from.
The day of the full moon was drawing closer and closer. He shuddered at the thought.
James and Sirius had eaten their dinner hurriedly and shut themselves in their dormitory for the discussion of the duel, which would be later.
"Some of the good charms we could use?" asked James.
"The disarming spell," said Sirius at once. "That's pretty good."
"The Levitating spell perhaps, yes," said James.
"And the leg locker hex," said Sirius.
"Why are you discussing about spells?" asked Peter, who had just entered the dormitory and disrupted their discussion.
"'Cause we're only first years," said James. "'Need some planning."
"I've never heard of a wizard planning for his duel," said Peter and both of them knew that he was right.
"About time," said Sirius, getting to his feet.
The two of them were looking around every now and then, their wands held steadily in their hands. It would never be good to be caught by Argus Filch, the caretaker, because whether if you're out of bounds or not, he'd surely find an excuse to get you into detention. James never knew why he detests the students so much. Maybe he's a squib, he thought.
"Coast is clear," whispered Sirius as the two of them tiptoed towards the charms room. They peered around. Where was Snivellus?
"So you're here, finally," said a voice. James narrowed his eyes. There was Snivellus, the Slytherin, his wand raised up high, pointing directly to James. "DESAUGO!"
James and Sirius immediately separated, running in different directions to dodge the spell.
"So where is your second, eh?" shouted Sirius, from a corner of the classroom.
"I don't need a second," Snivellus smirked. "STUPEFY!"
A jet of red light shot out from Snivellus' wand, heading for Sirius, whose mouth was opened in surprise. It hit Sirius squarely in the chest as Sirius gave out an unexpected "Oh!" and he froze, his eyes clearly shocked, and hit the cold floor with a loud thud.
James' brow was furrowed, Snivellus was surely more powerful than he expected. He was absolutely sure that he knew more spells than the first years all added together. At this point, James had already lost Sirius as an aid, what can he do?
"Am I missing some point of fun at here?" a voice said, amused.
Read? REVIEW!
Author's Note: I've decided to make the end a place for answers, questions or anything from the reviewers. And really thank you all of you for reviewing! You all rock!
the fifthmarauder: sorting songs are indeed hard to write, soI don't intend to put another one in the rest of the story except if there is something major going on. I'm glad that you're interested, continue to read!
brenngt14: thank you so much for each and every review you've submitted at the end of every chapter! Well, Snape is not really that bad, is he? He does seem bad now, I'vegot to made him to. hehe There's more about Snape, hopefully, in the future chapters when he joined the DEs.
Fornax: I do agree that Remus rocks! He is almost perfect, isn'the? Poor Moony... he had to suffer so much.
Chpip: I'm glad you read the story! Poor Moony again... but Remus does seem a lot tougher than we thought he would be. He had lost all his friends within one night and survived twenty years. He is a werewolf, the thought is saddening, but he is really strong.
Well, that's it. Please stick to the story! There're more to come!
