Chapter 10

A Werewolf-induced Party
(Christmas 1976 Part A)
By Pence Auryion

It was three days before Christmas; Pence, Maj, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter were all staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. They were all down at breakfast when the post came. Two grey barn owls came down and landed on the table in front of Pence and Maj.

"I never get mail." Maj said as she and Pence took their letters.
"Oh, lovely…it's from the Ministry." Pence said sarcastically. They both read their letters with disbelief. Maj just put hers down and sat there shaking her head.
"Well Merry-Fucking-Christmas to you too!" Pence said throwing her letter down.
"What do they say?" asked Sirius picking up Maj's letter.
"They want us to send in 50 galleons if we want to stay in the country!" Maj said shaking her head, "Well at least, that's what mine says…dunno about Pence's."
"The same, except if I want to stay registered with Department of Magical Creatures…I have to send in an extra 20! I barely have enough for Christmas presents! What am I gonna do about this?" Pence said angrily.
"Uh…you might not want to worry about that right now…" James said.
"Why?" answered Maj uncertainly.
"Because there's a Satanic-looking owl flying over," James replied as a large, black owl with red eyes swooped down and landed on the table.
"Marin!" Pence and Maj said in unison. The boys stared at them, Maj laughed,
"Marin, the I.W.R.M.'s owl!" Pence took the letter off the bird's leg,
"It's addressed to me and you." she said handing Maj the letter. Maj opened it and began to read it out loud,
"There will be a Christmas Eve party for all I.W.R.M. members held from 7:30 to whenever we all decide to leave, on the 24th. Feel free to bring any close friends. Registration forms will be provided, along with food, alcohol, music, and tattooing."
"Food!" Peter said.
"Alcohol?" Sirius and James said.
"Tattooing!" Pence said laughing. Maj continued,
 "Please have registration number or tattoo ready to show. The map provided will give directions." Maj handed Remus the map, "Hope everyone can make it.
Sincerely,
Kirby
Merritt
#1829
P.S. Do not come on brooms, too many of them were stolen last year."

"Well," Pence said grinning, "I know I'm going!"
"That's fine, but the party is past Hogsmede." Remus said looking over the map, "There's no way to get there if we can't use brooms."
"Well, we can get as far as Hogsmede without freezing…" Sirius said darkly.
"I have an uncle in Hogsmede…he has a car; but none of us can drive." Peter said thoughtfully.
"Actually," Remus said, not sure why he was saying it, "I can. My dad started teaching me a couple summers ago."
"It's settled then!" James said as they all got up from the table, "We'll sneak off to Hogsmede after dinner that night, then have Moony drive us to the party!"
"In the mean time," Sirius said grinning mischievously, "Snape's here for the hols too…" Maj tisked,
"He doesn't look very cheerful does he?" They all looked at Snape who was looked like he was trying not to hex the first year sitting next to him.
"Oh yes," said James taking out his wand, "It's the lack of singing pudding floating over his head that's doing it."
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The next two days went by smoothly. Peter wrote his uncle about the borrowing the car, thankfully he said yes. It was about a half an hour before they all left, Pence and Maj were yet to get ready, and Sirius was upstairs. Just then, he came running down the stairs with no pants on singing a Christmas Carol in French.
"Two things…1. Where are my pants, and 2. When's the full moon?" Sirius asked them as Maj and Pence tried not to laugh.
"You're pants are pinned up on the Notice Board where you left them, and the full moon is tomorrow." Remus said, thankful they were the only Gryffindors staying at school for X-mas.
"On Christmas?" Peter asked.
"Yea…what a present, huh?" Pence said darkly standing up and going upstairs to get ready, followed by Maj.

Sirius pulled his pants on and sat down with his friends. They sat around talking until Maj came down the stairs twenty minutes later. She was wearing black jeans and a dark purple tank top so her I.W.R.M. tattoo was visible. She had her dark hair in low-bunned pigtails. Sirius blinked and grinned as she sat down by him. Pence came down a few seconds later, wearing black, baggy pants and a black tank top. Her hair was left down, and despite the cold, was wearing flip-flops.

They all stood up and grabbed their coats and James's Invisibility Cloak and headed out the door. They were originally going to go through the one-eyed witch statue, until Maj pointed out that Honeydukes would be closed. When they got outside, they realized how cold it was,
"How can anyone stand to be out?" Peter asked as they made their way across the grounds.
"Well," Pence said, "Knowing the I.W.R.M., they'll have some sort of spell around the place."
"Thank God," muttered James.
When the six reached Peter's uncle's house, they walked in and got the keys. (His uncle was at a Christmas party himself.) They went out to the garage and found an old grey car. Remus got in the drivers seat, Pence next to him in the middle, and James in the passenger side. Sirius, Maj, and Peter got in the back.

The ride was going smoothly; Remus hadn't hit anything of much importance and Pence had found a radio station they all agreed on. After about an hour, they arrived at a large field behind an old barn. There was a huge bonfire surrounded by people, and a small stage set up where a local band was playing. They parked the car and got out, instantly becoming warm.

Pence and Maj lead the group up to a boy about nineteen or so,
"Hey Tyler," Maj said waving to him.
"Hey Elyon, Pence," 'Tyler' said nodding at them.
"We brought friends." Pence said gesturing to the boys.
"Cool, you guys can go on in. Alcohol's on that table over there." he said grinning at them.
"Thankya Tyler." Maj said as they walked past him.
"Are all these people werewolves?" James asked as they walked through the crowd of people.
"No," Maj replied, "Probably a little over half of them are though. You can join and not be a werewolf, I mean, I did."
"Now..." Pence said as they got to the table with alcohol, "It's the night before the full moon, I'm having flashbacks from Christmas Eve last year, and I now have vodka. Please, in the morning, remind me of what happened."
"Same here," Maj said picking up a bottle of whiskey.
"I'm glad I'm the only one that can drive…cause I'm going to be the only one sober enough to get us back to school." Remus muttered.
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It was about 2:30, Pence and Maj were (surprisingly) not drunk. They leaned up against a table watching Remus trying to tell Sirius he wasn't a fish, and James trying to convince Remus that he was drunk, and demanded that Remus hand over his keys.
"We haven't gotten any tattoos tonight," Pence said suddenly as Sirius started retching behind a bush.
"Do you wanna go get one? Well, that was a dumb question…of course you do!" Maj said laughing as James ran into a tree.

The two girls walked over to the guy giving tattoos. As he was finishing up on someone else, Pence and Maj discussed what they should get.
"You should get 'I love Vodka' on your ankle!" Maj said laughing,
"I don't think so." Pence replied thinking, "Though getting something on our ankles would be good. You know, with teachers and all…" They sat in silence for a moment before Maj smiled and said,
"I've got an idea!"
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Remus had given up.

He hated to admit it…but it was true.
There's just no hope for two drunken idiots.

"Oi, Sirius…are you throwing up?" James asked bending down to look at Sirius.
"Probably." Sirius mumbled.
"Are you drunk?" James said in a suspicious voice, poking Sirius.
"Probably." Sirius replied as Pence and Maj walked over.
"Hallo there." Pence said sitting down and putting her arm on Remus's shoulder.
"My, you two are looking sober tonight," Remus said carefully.
"Oh, you like it?" Pence said.
"It's the latest thing," Maj said grinning. Remus shook his head,
"Where've you been anyways?"
"We got a tattoo," Maj said casually.
"Oh God." Remus said in a scared voice as Sirius managed to come over.
"Let's see them then." he said flopping on the ground next to Maj. Maj pulled up the right leg of her pants to reveal the word 'Padfoot' written in purple ink, along with a black paw print.
"So, I'm guessing…" Remus started looking at Pence. Just as he thought, she had 'Moony' on her ankle in red, next to a black quarter moon. Remus just sighed, not sure whether to be proud or not.

They all heard a loud thump; they looked over to see James lying on the ground passed out. Maj shook her head and asked,
"Where's Peter?"
"Some girl nameded Sara comed and stealed hims." Sirius said, his word choice making Remus and Pence cringe.
"We should leave soon." Remus said yawning.
"Please Rem, just one more hour?" Pence cried throwing her arms around him. Remus sighed,
"Fine, we'd better go find Peter though…who knows what 'Sara' is doing to him…"

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Remus's watch said 3:30, it was time to leave. Maj and Sirius got in back again, then Peter. James, who was being floated over to the car by Pence, was put on the floor in back. Remus started the car, hoping he could stay awake.

It was about four now, they were halfway to Hogsmede. Peter had fallen asleep, while Maj and Sirius had prominently started making out. Pence leaned up against Remus's arm.
"Tonight was fun." she said quietly. Remus just gave a small smile.
"This was much better than my last Christmas party…" Pence said with a shudder.
"I bet." Remus replied, unable to imagine what it must be like to wake up in a jail cell, not knowing how you got there.
"Mooooony," Pence said closing her eyes, "I'm tired. Wake me up later okay?"
"Okay." Remus said quietly as they rounded another corner.

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They had made it back to Hogwarts a little after 4:30. James was put in a chair, while Maj and Sirius fell asleep in another one, Peter in another, and Pence and Remus on the couch. That morning was Christmas, and Maj woke everyone up around 9:30.

"Presents!" Sirius said rubbing his eyes.
"My God, you sound like a five-year old," Remus said as he stood up stretching.
"How much did I drink last night?" James asked, holding his head in his hands.
"About what I usually do." Pence replied.
"Good God, it's a wonder he's not dead!" Peter said laughing.

After getting woke up, they all went and brought their presents to the common room to open.
"'From Padfoot and Prongs'" Pence read off one of her packages, "I'm scared to open it!"
"Well, if Moony survived five Christmases with them, I'd think it'd be okay…" Maj said putting on a gold bracelet Sirius had gotten her. Pence thought for a moment before bravely tearing off the wrapping paper to find…
"Chocolate!" she said happily, hugging the candy.
"Well you see," Sirius said throwing an unopened letter from his parents into the fire, "I asked James what we should get you, and he said, 'Anti-depressants' so…" They all laughed and continued opening their gifts. Maj picked up a green, unmarked one. As she opened it up, green letters zoomed out of the box and into the air spelling 'Go Back To Your Own Country!" Maj just sat there with her mouth open,
"Who-?"
"Slytherins most likely. I'm guessing this is another one." James said examining an identical box in Pence's gift pile.

"They're just jealous that you have friends and they don't." Sirius said scowling. Pence and Maj smiled as they got up to go to breakfast.