Chapter 2: A Few New Old Friends
"I found it!" Aragorn pulled the now shimmering silver ball from the cold lake water.
"Thanks Talon," smiled Remus as he took it from him.
"Well, now that Moony's precious little--" Sirius paused, "whatever, is found, can we get on with it before a professor spots us?"
"Right," nodded Boromir, "start us off, Prongs?" James nodded.
"I do wish Peter hadn't transferred to Durmstrang, he could have really helped us out," he sighed.
"Get on with it!" prompted Legolas.
Gandalf stared in shock. He knew well enough where he was, but he had no idea how he got there, nor why Legolas, Boromir, and Aragorn were younger and dressed as young wizards.
"This can't be good," he mumbled as he saw the group talking as if they'd known each other their whole lives. Gandalf slid into the shadows of the castle and closed his eyes to open a telepathic link.
"Albus.. Albus..," he sent out the message. No response. "ALBUS!" he mentally screamed.
"Yes, yes, what?" a slightly startled voice replied.
"Guess who," said Gandalf sarcastically.
"…. Conscience?" Dumbledore knew the voice sounded familiar.
"..Guess again," blinked Gandalf as he opened his eyes to scale the castle.
"..Gandalf?… But.. how?.." Dumbledore tried to grasp the situation.
"Perhaps you'd understand better if you woke up a bit," Gandalf suggested.
"Yes," said Dumbledore, "But you don't know much yourself, if I'm correct."
"Not yet," Gandalf mentally mumbled. "Where are you?"
"Oh, just follow the orange spots," instructed Dumbledore as if it were the most obvious thing ever. They were not normal instructions, but Dumbledore had never really been normal.
"I'll put on a spot of tea!" said Dumbledore cheerfully.
"That'd be nice," replied Gandalf before he broke the connection. It took way too much energy to use telepathic links.
Soon, Gandalf found himself outside of Dumbledore's office.
"Acid pop," Gandalf commanded the gargoyle and it sprang aside.
"You got it on your first try!" said Dumbledore as Gandalf entered.
"Indeed, we could always pretty much second guess each other though," he replied.
Gandalf took a seat and sipped from the teacup in front of him.
"So, what seems to be the problem?" Dumbledore asked.
"..I'm here," Gandalf looked at him curiously.
"Well, I can see that!.." Dumbledore dismissed.
"I didn't come alone," Gandalf explained.
"Gandalf, if you don't tell the entire thing at once I'm going to keep deliberately assuming and stating crazy irrelevant theories until you do," Dumbledore said matter-of-factly.
"I can't quite figure it out myself, Albus, I'm not sure how to explain it. I was transported here, along with two humans and an elf. But the humans were adults, now they're mere teens, and garbed as if they are students here! And all three of them are out fraternizing with some of your students as we speak, by the lake, as if they were life-long friends!" Gandalf sipped more of his tea.
"Hmm, now this could prove to be a complication," Dumbledore said absent-mindedly staring at his ceiling.
"Indubitably," agreed Gandalf. "We came here through a mirror, one usually limited to our own dimension and time." Dumbledore took two chocolate frogs from his desk drawer and pushed one in front of Gandalf, who in turn produced two lembas cakes for the both of them.
"So, why did it let you through, you think?" asked Dumbledore, biting off a chocolate frog's head.
"Not sure, but after a bit perhaps we can figure it out," Gandalf mused.
"Perhaps," agreed Dumbledore. "So, you say they were speaking to other students of mine, yes?" Gandalf nodded.
"Three, perhaps age fifteen or sixteen, like my three appear to be."
"What'd they look like?" Dumbledore took a bite of Lembas and grinned. "Delightful! I must have the recipe, Gandalf."
"Yes, very useful stuff, Lembas," he regained his train of thought, "Ahh, yes, they were all male, and bore patches on their robes, the same one, red and gold with a lion."
"Gryffindors," Dumbledore said, slightly amused.
"Yes, whatever—" Gandalf continued, " And, one had long black hair, tidy. The other had black hair, but it was short and messy-"
"Say no more," Dumbledore interrupted, "James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. I don't dare wish to know what they were doing out there this time," he paused. "You say there was only three?"
"Yes, know that I recall, they did mention Peter, said he transferred."
"Hmm, I guess that means that space and time are already collapsing," Dumbledore said indifferently.
"It would seem so," sighed Gandalf as he opened his chocolate frog. "Oh, you're a card!" he seemed pleased.
"I am?.. Oh, why, they must've just added me! I'll trade you a Godric Gryffindor for it," Dumbledore offered.
((A/N:..Let it be known that I had serious ( XD! ) writer's block on this part. I felt bad for not writing in so long, so I pounded it out with little regard for its badness..))
The group walked into the Forbidden Forest without a word to one another. They came to a break in the thick trees after about half an hour. James knelt down and picked up a very old book bound in dragon hide. If anyone or thing had stumbled upon it, they probably wouldn't bother picking it up. The others knelt in a circle around him and one by one put their wand tips to the cover as Remus stood beside a tree and looked on at his friends with slight concern. The once thoroughly solid book became no more than a glowing mist hovering just over James's hand. Remus took a step back as the entire clearing began glowing with pale light. Sirius and Legolas poured their potions over it and everything exploded in light and a snap. When all was dark again, Remus's friends had been replaced with a dog, an owl, a snake, a rather odd looking cat, and a white stag. Remus blinked.
"Okay, you guys can change back now. It worked."
The black dog snarled and advanced on him.
"Sirius?" Remus took a step back. "Come on… change back now…."
The owl flew into a tree and hooted. "This is not funny guys… NOT funny.."
The giant dog took several steps toward Remus, its sharp white teeth flashing.
"Hmm, now, Dumbledore," pondered Gandalf, "You think that perhaps that your students might be doing something dangerous out there?"
"Oh undoubtedly! They're at least trying to do something dangerous… they always are.. they rarely succeed though…" Dumbledore stared off as if in thought..
"Though there was that little incident with the exploding goblets…." He turned back to Gandalf. "Anyway, I'm sure they can't cause too much damage…."
Gandalf quirked a brow.
"Shouldn't we at the very least try to see what their up too?"
"I thought the same way.. their first two years at Hogwarts. But I learned, if you can't beat them, ignore it and totally forget that you ever bothered in trying.. like I said, they can't really do anything really dangerous.."
"Yes, the four of your students perhaps couldn't do a lot of damage, but remember, they now have the help of a lord, a king, and an Elven prince.."
"Right you are.." said Dumbledore amusedly. "Well, a bit late now. I suppose we should just cross our fingers and hope that none of them end up dead!"
"We've obviously done all we could do.." nodded Gandalf before he sipped the last of his tea.
"What am I supposed to do?" Remus asked himself as he sat high in a tree out of the angry dog's reach. "I can't do anything myself.. I might make it worse. But how could it be worst? My friends are animals! I'll be expelled if I tell Madam Pomfrey.. and then they'll be expelled, too.. That is.. if she can fix them. What if they're stuck that way for the rest of they're lives? It's all my fault! I should of stopped them they were doing this for me and now they're animals.." He looked beside him to find the odd looking cat blinking at him. It mewed.
He patted it. "Poor Legolas stuck in this… freaky-lookin' cat body forever.. without human intelligence…" he looked down the trunk at the snarling dog.
"And Sirius.. a mangy, ugly, drooling, slobbering brute with absolutely no intelligence whatsoever." He sighed and turned to look at the cat again but found instead Legolas sitting there.
Legolas snickered. "But Sirius has always been like that, Moony!"
Remus looked down the tree again and watched the dog morph back into Sirius.
"Shut up, Legolas!.." he replied indignantly.
Remus sighed relief as his friends took on their normal appearances once more.
"That was NOT funny you guys.. you scared me to death." Remus carefully slid down the trunk.
"Actually," began James, "I thought it was funny.. how 'bout you Aragorn?"
"Oh yeah, really funny.." replied Aragorn.
"Not exactly something to remember, but still pretty good," said Boromir.
"It would have been great if Legolas hadn't blown it," said Sirius irritably.
Legolas slid easily down the trunk and tossed his long hair back.
"I couldn't resist it though Sirius! I think that insult deserves a point and a half to my score.. which.. makes me two points ahead of you, I believe," smirked Legolas.
"You can have those points, Legolas, you'll need them," Sirius grinned.
Remus looked down at his watch.
"Wow, it's three a.m… We better head back.."
"We have charms first thing tomorrow," shuddered James.
They started to head back for the castle, Legolas and Sirius fell slightly behind.
"Hey, Legolas… how do you make a cat bark like a dog?" he asked as they caught up to the others.
Legolas looked at him suspiciously.
"How?…"
Sirius smiled broadly.
"You light it on fire and it goes WOOF!" He raised his arms in emphasis on the sound effect.
James laughed.
"That's easily two points," Aragorn said decidedly.
"No way is that worth to points!" Legolas argued, "It was just a joke, I couldn't avoid it, and it wasn't a direct witty insult."
"It still counts! I couldn't block what you said back there!" Sirius defended.
The two argued all the way back to the castle, but then both decided to put it off until they got back to the safety of the common room.
"Sirius, you can have your two points, but I think now we need a rule that jokes are not allowed and can only be entered under the 'joke' category and not the witty insult one," Legolas suggested.
"Agreed," nodded Sirius as he plopped onto his messy unmade bed.
"That was a pretty funny joke though, Sirius.." complimented James.
"I bet he's been waiting to use it for weeks," Legolas said bitingly as he sat at the foot of James's bed.
"That reminds me, Ear boy, what was up with the freaky cat thing?" asked Sirius.
"Gee, Sirius, maybe you didn't realize, but we became Animagus about an hour ago, you see, we change into animals.. are you following me?" Legolas said with a voice dripping in heavy sarcasm.
"No, apparently you didn't notice that you weren't in your normal cat form, Ears. You really should pay more attention," Sirius said with that trademark smirk.
"Yeah, I noticed that, too. It wasn't like.. a cat at all. You had really big ears," James said as he sat on the other side of his bed.
"He's always had big ears!" Sirius chuckled.
"My ears aren't big, just pointy, Mutt-face!" Legolas threw a pillow at Sirius's face. Sirius just smiled and put the pillow under his head in place of his arms.
"You two fight like cats and dogs," Aragorn said, proud of his pun.
"Oh, wow! You're right Talon! And it's funny because Sirius is a dog, and Legolas is a cat!" Boromir said, obviously pleased with himself for unraveling such a phrase.
They all looked at him for a moment until James broke the silence.
"Yeah.. well… I'm going to bed--" he paused realizing that Legolas was still sitting there. He stared pointedly at his friend. "I'm going to BED."
Legolas gave him an annoyed look.
"I heard you the first time, I'm not as dense as some of us," he made a sideways glance at Boromir who didn't notice. James just blinked.
"Take a look at MY bed Jim.." Legolas suggested.
James turned and saw Aragorn lying on Legolas's bed, sleeping with his mouth open and noticed the small puddle of drool forming on Legolas's pillow.
Legolas quirked a brow at James.
"Okay.. So.. just.. go to sleep on Aragorn's bed," James suggested.
Legolas pointed at Aragorn's bed, which was occupied by Boromir.
"There is no way I'm sleeping on Boromir's bed," he said stubbornly.
Sirius stood up.
"Lemme get it for ya, Ears," he stalked over to where Aragorn was sleeping. With one swift move, Sirius pulled up the blanket and rolled Aragorn onto the floor.
Aragorn just grumbled and began snoring loudly.
James turned away from Sirius to face Legolas.
"And there's your bed back," he smiled. Legolas smiled too, mainly because he saw Sirius switch Legolas's drooled-on pillow with James's clean one.
"Thanks much, Padfoot," Legolas said as he plopped onto his own bed.
"Oh anytime, Ears," Sirius said with a malicious grin that James didn't see as he shut his curtains.
"G'night guys.." said James as he rolled onto his own bed and slowly fell asleep.
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A/n: Yeah. So ends yet another unntoived chapter of AVIY. Maybe I shouldn't try to make this into a manga. Since nobody likes it, it'd be a massive waste of time.. yeah this is prolly the last chapter you'll see.