I own nothing of the marketing empire birthed from J.K.Rowling's fevered genius, and get nothing from this save the brief satisfaction of favourable reviews…
Harry Potter and the Forgotten Shards
Chapter 8
Remus was in shock.
It was two days since the Full Moon, and he still hadn't recovered his wits.
Harry and his friends were animagi, and like his father and Sirius before him, Harry had done it so that they could accompany Remus during the full moon.
That really wasn't all that shocking. He'd given Harry the Marauder's Guide to the Animagus Transformation himself. He'd expected Harry would take the opportunity, and was gratified that Harry would want to accompany him.
Remus had actually travelled to Hogwarts at this time specifically so that Harry would have easy access to him during the Full Moon, since he had discovered a few days before that Harry had succeeded.
He had always known Harry was powerful, it really wasn't that much of a stretch to imagine that Harry could have a magical animagus form. After all, he did manage a corporeal patronus in his third year.
But this. It was beyond his wildest dreams. It was incomprehensible.
There were six students at Hogwarts, all of whom were substantially more powerful than Dumbledore himself. The equal of Merlin, or well on their way towards that power.
It was inconceivable.
But true.
Snape had been having a pretty good night. He had already taken sixty points from Ravenclaw, and twenty from Hufflepuff. Now all he needed to make his evening complete would be to find Potter out in the halls.
He paused, he had heard a faint scraping of leather on stone. He looked up the offending corridor. It lead past one of the lesser known secret passages. Potter? I couldn't be that lucky. Snape quickly slipped down the new corridor, cloak billowing ominously behind him.
The door at the other end was slightly ajar. His eyes narrowed, as he sped up. Just before he reached it he stopped completely. What was that? He could have sworn he'd just felt something. No matter.
He threw the door open suddenly, and screamed.
A blood-curdling scream of terror echoed through the halls of Hogwarts, from the tallest tower, to the deepest dungeon. Accompanied by the most terrifying bellowing roar.
A massive black dragon was sitting just on the other side of the door. It looked severely pissed off, and it let forth with an almost white-hot gout of flame and roar of anger that echoed around the school.
The door swung shut, leaving a severely traumatised Severus Snape nearly naked in the hallway. His clothes reduced to ashes, his hair scorched, his body covered in soot.
Which is where he was found a little while later by the Headmaster and Mr. Filch.
Most of the school huddled under their blankets. Except the Gryffindors. They were all out of their beds and pouring out into the halls wondering what that could have been and does Harry know what that was?
Harry and Neville looked clueless and shrugged, more than happy to return to bed with the rest of their house when Professor MacGonnegal herded them all back into the common room.
Noone even gave them a second look when Hermione gave Neville a clip upside the head while Ron shook both their hands, before they retired to their respective dorms.
Except MacGonnegal, who watched them with narrowed eyes.
Albus was at a loss. This was the finest prank he had seen in his life, and he had no idea how it had been achieved.
He needed to know how it had been done. He was watching Hagrid, who was looking at the scene of the prank.
"No question about it then, Hagrid? There really was a dragon here?"
"Aye, though I'd wan' teh bring a speshlist in teh be sure."
"I'll ask Mr. Weasley if he can spare us some time, I understand he's back from Romania for the week."
Hagrid nodded.
Charlie was on his knees in the hallway. The smell was right. The distance between the claw gouges in the stone floor of the corridor…everything pointed towards there having been a near fully grown Hebridean Black in the hall.
The only problem was…the doorways at either end were too small to fit a dragon through.
He stood as the headmaster approached. "No doubt at all. You had a genuine, Hebridean Black here." He laughed at the headmaster's look of confusion, "And a very angry one at that."
"What makes you say that, Mr. Weasley?"
He indicated the two doorways. "The only way they could have got the poor thing in here is by a powerful portkey. Which would have upset the dragon, no end. Explains why it shot flames at Snape." Charlie shrugged. "Sounds like someone cast a flame-freezing hex on him first though." He was chuckling at the idea, and very impressed at the lengths someone had gone to for a simple prank.
Albus nodded absently. How did they get a portkey into here without me knowing?
The night of the Full Moon:
The phoenix latched onto the slowly recovering werewolf and the two of them vanished in a burst of flame.
They reappeared in a clearing, deep within the Forbidden Forest. Remus lay panting, the pain from the transformation slowly fading. It was less than previous times, the calming touch of the phoenix had eased the transformation.
He examined his surroundings, they were alone.
Harry was perching on a nearby tree branch, his phoenix form, with it's bronze and crimson plumage fading to black at the wingtips, and the brightest emerald green eyes, seemed to light up the clearing.
It appeared to Remus, that Harry was in a high good humour. Then the werewolf's heightened hearing caught the faint sound of wings beating.
The phoenix warbled something soothing, and took to wing, flying up through the canopy, above the treetops.
Remus figured that the other five were on their way, had they all assumed avian forms? He doubted that would sit well with Hermione, whose fear of flying on a broom was well known. He settled down to await Harry's return.
The sound of something rather large passing down through the canopy startled Remus into alertness. It was shortly followed by the return of Harry and another bird, a large Raven. It's arrival brought with it the rather pungent scent of ozone.
The phoenix warbled at him again, sung to the raven, and made a much louder melodious cry of in the direction the noise had come from.
He was answered by a rather piercing cry.
Remus was nervous, the wolf was well bound by the potion, but it was the Full Moon and the instincts it lent him were never more present than now. There was something wrong, he couldn't smell what was coming.
Then he realised, Harry must have planned it this way; the wind was at his back blowing towards the noise. They could smell him; he wouldn't be able to smell them until they were right on top of him.
He heard a somewhat familiar sound…deer hooves…as a reindeer stepped out of the darkness into the Full Moon-lit clearing. The doe looked at the Phoenix, the raven, then him.
Then it bared its fangs.
…
Fangs.
On a deer.
Remus very nearly bolted. Only the calming influence of Harry's phoenix-song stopped him from fleeing.
It was a good thing that Harry was still singing when the next of the six appeared, sliding out of the shadows with all the grace of one of the most powerful predators in the magical world.
A griffon.
A full grown male griffon. Three metres long and weighing in at a quarter of a ton, the massive predator was an incredibly intimidating presence. It's wings were furled on it's back, as it stepped up beside the deer, who playfully nipped it on the shoulder. Both turning their attention towards Remus.
The sound of beating wings was heard overhead as a Pegasus came to a perfect landing beside Remus, leaning down to sniff at him, before nudging him, and nickering to herself.
The phoenix warbled again.
The griffon slowly approached Remus, allowing him time to get used to the idea, Remus caught the griffon's scent finally and began to relax, he recognised it.
Realising this, the griffon circled around, and stood beside the werewolf, before sitting on top of him.
Remus growled his indignation, then whined in fear as another shape descended into the clearing.
A dragon.
The analytical voice in Remus' head was telling him that it was a full-grown Hebridean Black, in the peak of health. The wolf was also telling him the same thing.
The Griffon wouldn't let him go free though, until the dragon had landed, taking up most of the clearing.
The dragon's head snaked out and sniffed at the werewolf, it's breath hot in Remus' face. Then he realised, this was the final member of the group.
All six were present.
…
All six were magical animagi.
…
The phoenix was singing again, and the griffon had released him. He watched as the reindeer sprang over to the griffon, nudged him with her head, then turned and ran off, with the griffon in hot pursuit. They were playing tag.
The dragon yawned and settled down.
The two birds flitted down and perched themselves on a couple of the dragon's horns, the phoenix still singing.
Still watching the dragon, Remus was caught unaware when the Pegasus gave him a solid nudge and cantered off into the forest. Remus, realising that he was It, took off into the forest in search of one of the other three.
Remus thought back. Despite the initial scare, it had been the most fun he had had since before the Marauders had broken up after graduation.
They had escorted him back to the Shrieking Shack, and departed before dawn. Except for the two birds, who had stayed with him until he returned to his human form.
Hugs had been exchanged, before the students returned to the castle.
Remus agreed to visit them at the castle soon.
It was the weekend after the 'Dragon of Hogwarts' story had hit the Wizarding World.
Remus had spent a melancholy day, remembering his friends, alternately celebrating and mourning them. Finally able to find a little peace with them.
The next generation of Marauders had taken up their legacy.
Now Remus was standing in the Chamber of Secrets. Recently renamed 'The Marauder's Lair' by the six youths gathered before him.
"Mr Moony acknowledges the acts of the supplicants as being worthy of the true Marauder's and bids you come forth and present your case for admission to our hallowed ranks."
Harry stepped forward, "We thank Mr Moony for his time, and bid him remember that before him stands the Son of Prongs, Godson of Padfoot, and a Marauder by birth."
Remus nodded, "Indeed, and has the Son of Prongs a form of his own?"
Harry shifted into his Phoenix form, and back into his own.
"Very well, Mr Moony bids welcome to Mr Scorch, and asks that he present the case for his friends."
Harry thought for a moment, shrugged and grinned, "Mr Scorch would like to introduce his friends, all closer to him than blood family, all of whom have followed him through to the very gates of death itself. They are worthy, by right of deed, for it was through their skill, wit, planning and genius that Snivellus was once more the victim of a Marauder's prank."
"A worthy feat, Mr Scorch, for pranking Snivellus was high on the Marauder's list of priorities. Now, have they forms of their own?" Remus was revelling in his role now, and had not even skipped a beat at Harry's veiled reference to Sirius.
Veiled. Heh.
The other five spread out to gain enough space to shift forms, spending only a few moments in animal form before gathering again in human form before Remus.
"Mr Moony concedes that they do indeed have acceptable forms, and am pleased to welcome the next generation of Marauder's."
"Mr Scorch would like to remind Mr Moony that he has yet to name some of the new Marauders."
Remus almost laughed, Harry had sounded so much like James in that moment. "Very well, Mr Scorch." He looked down the line.
"Mr Moony would like to welcome Miss Vixen, Mr Pride, Mr Scales, Miss Thunder and last, but certainly not least, Miss Lightning."
Hermione was chuckling. "A student of the classics are we, Mr Moony?"
Remus laughed, a pleasant joyful laugh. Soon joined by the laughter of the rest of the group.
"I don't get it." Ron complained. Which only set everyone off even more.
Remus looked around at the happy, smiling faces. "I only wish Padfoot could have been here to see this day." Only a hint of sadness remained in his eyes. "He would have been so proud."
Everyone nodded, muttering agreement.
"Now, Miss Lightning would like to bring up some new business."
All attention in the room was on her.
"Miss Lightning believes it is time to remind the school just who the premier pranksters really are. Miss Lightning seems to remember a certain pair of twins gaining a fair reputation for pranking while they were here."
"Mr Scorch suggests that perhaps a pre-emptive strike against them might be on the cards?"
"Miss Vixen quite agrees, a warning salvo up their nose is definitely called for."
"Mr Pride wonders if Miss Vixen is still upset with his brothers about a certain cat's fur turning blue over the Summer."
"Miss Lightning would like to remind Mr Pride that they did the same thing to him the Summer before that."
"Mr Scales thinks we should consider perhaps an alliance with said troublemakers. The pranking could very easily shake the Wizarding World if we did."
The entire group paused to consider the ramifications.
"Miss Thunder would suggest that we first fight and then team up with the twins, after proving our primacy."
Everyone was nodding.
They paused when Dobby brought refreshments, then they got down to some serious planning.
Neither the Weasley twins, nor the school, were going to know what hit them.