(A/N I really like putting the place or the time before I start writing... so I think I'm going to make that a habit. Thoughts? And wow, I can't believe how much I have improved in my own standards... just by writing! Who'd have thunk it! Thanks to everyone who reviewed!)
Disclaimer: I would be extremely happy to take Harry Potter off of JK Rowling's hands... but sadly I do not own Harry Potter. Only this OC and my plot...
Chapter 12 Cover Ups...
Hospital Wing...
"This is preposterous! Five students out of bed! It's ridiculous is what it is!" McGonagall shouted, pacing the room in front of the marauders and Ally.
McGonagall was called down by Filch, the caretaker, soon after they arrived. Filch was intent on a horrible punishment, at least, judging by the evil gleam in his eyes. He seems to be the type of person who enjoys torture... she thought. Ally supposed that, by bringing the Head of House down, McGonagall would be able to dole out a harsher punishment than Filch.
So far, McGonagall was more intent on lecturing them than punishing them. Once Ally and Sirius had walked into the room Filch had called McGonagall, and while McGonagall was on her way to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey had scolded Ally severely and Ally could sense that she would never have a happy hospital visit again.
Ally and the Marauders were standing in a gaggle, looking down at their feet, ashamed.
"I will not allow you to disgrace the house of Godric Gryffindor, because of a lack of punishment! Twenty points will be taken... each!"
"What?"
"That's not fair!"
Sirius and James protested at the same time. Ally agreed with them, didn't McGonagall want to win the house cup? Why would she take away a hundred points? It was a bit superfluous.
"It is absolutely fair Potter, Black! You have shown a total disregard for the rules that were set down for your own safety!"
She turned on Peter and Remus, looking down on them like a hawk.
"I expected this of Potter and Black, but a prefect! Remus Lupin, you should be able to exercise some control over your friends! Or at least refuse to participate in their wild adventures! And Peter! Why would you want to ruin your well made reputation of being such a good boy?"
She finally came to Ally, who was staring intently at the floor, transfixed by a small moth ball.
"Miss Pierce! I expected better from you! What would your uncle say! Such a prestigious family being brought down by their daughter's own foolishness! You wouldn't want to be the black sheep of your entire family, would you?"
"No..." she muttered silently, "So don't take the points from Potter and the rest."
Everyone in the room looked at her and she raised her head to look at McGonagall in the eye.
"What was that?"
"Don't take points off for them."
McGonagall looked at her disbelievingly.
"And why would I do that?" she said sharply, obviously irritated.
"It's my fault that they were out of bed, Professor."
McGonagall looked over at the marauders.
"What? This lot?"
"Yes," Ally looked over at her friends, and winked at them while McGonagall's head was turned, "It was my fault that they were out of bed Professor, you see. I was really mad that I had to stay overnight at the hospital wing, so I convinced them to come down and get me out. They actually tried to convince me not to. But I insisted... and they were afraid to say no, because of my condition."
McGonagall was looking at Ally and the Marauders unconvinced. Ally saw this and continued.
"They took that chance to make a sleeping draught for me, to make me forget about sneaking out, sleep it off. But it took longer to make than they thought, and it was nighttime by the time they came down. By that time I had already snuck out, Sirius split off from the group to look for me... and the rest of them were caught by peeves... That's when Filch caught them... and when Sirius found me, still affected by the medicine."
Ally finished her story, more confidant than she thought.
"So you want me to do... what?" McGonagall said.
"Well, it's obvious that Potter and his group had good intention... and I was obviously wrong..."
McGonagall sighed and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips.
"It's too early in the morning for this..." she mumbled under her breath.
"Alright," she snapped back to reality, "Fifty points, Miss Pierce, for your foolishness, and you four," she pointed to the marauders, "Ten points will be given... for having honorable intentions... no matter how poorly they were acted out. And detention, all for all of you!"
She gave all of them a disapproving look.
"Any other thoughts, Madam Pomfrey?"
"Well," she glared at Ally, "Since you are well enough to run about the castle!" she exclaimed dramatically, "You may go back to your dormitory." she flung her arms up in defeat and slammed the door to her office shut.
"Jolly good," Ally said sarcastically, but she was still smiling. Peter heard and snickered under his breath.
McGonagall glared down at the two of them. Then she ushered them out of the hospital wing and watched them carefully as they walked to the Gryffindor common room.
"Not taking any chances, knowing you all, if I left you alone you'd run around the castle for the rest of the night." she said.
They entered the portrait hole and McGonagall gazed at them as they climbed the stairs to their dormitories. Ally ran up the stairs as soon as she was out of eyesight of McGonagall.
She barged into the room, Lily was sitting on her bed, waiting.
"What happened? Where did you go?"
Ally ran over to the bed and plopped down next to her.
"You won't believe it when I tell you!"
Five seconds later...
"Okay, Al you said that waaaaay to fast, try again."
"Snap! Alright, I'll slow down..."
Five minutes later...
Ally finished her tale, slightly winded. Lily stared at her, dumbstruck, before she was brought back to life. She waved her hands exaggeratedly while she shouted at Ally.
"Why would you EVER, EVER, EVER cover up for Potter and them? What could have possibly possessed you? Have you gone insane? Are you ill?"
Lily placed her hand on Ally's forehead. Ally batted it away angrily.
"No! I'm not insane! This way, we only lose ten house points! You could earn those back in a millisecond Lily! You're the smartest girl in the school, for goodness sake! You're tutoring seventh years!" Lily looked abashed and Ally continued, "One hundred points was a huge blow to our standing for the house cup. Besides, this way, the marauders will be grateful to us. They probably won't even think about asking us what we were doing out of bed!"
Lily contemplated this for a while. Ally waited for her decision.
"Well..." she said skeptically and didn't continue.
Ally sighed and threw up her hands.
"You should have heard the way McGonagall was bashing us! She called me the black sheep of the family! I had to do something to get some respect from the marauders, especially after they heard that comment."
'I guess it was a good idea," Lily concluded, "Even if Potter didn't deserve it..."
"Exactly, if they didn't deserve it, we did, I didn't want to earn back our already well earned points!"
"So what were you up to?" Ally inquired.
"The plan, I was leading them directly to where Peeves was waiting. Used a spell to blow away their cloak, and hid. That was when Filch came by, led by that cat of his."
"Mrs. Norris?
"So I've heard." Lily replied, "Peeves had forgotten about the plan, apparently he likes to get students caught by teachers more than humiliating them, and he started to screech at the top of his lungs 'Students out of bed!'."
"Then what happened?" Ally said.
"I hid; Filch took the marauders away, and then I ran up to the girls dormitory. I would have waited in the common room, but it might've blown our cover if someone put two and two together."
"At least you weren't caught." Ally said, "That would have been more points off... or more points on, depending on how I lied about it."
"Yeah... but we still don't know if they're still planning that party." Lily said
"Yeah... we don't, do we? I still have that detention too."
"Yeah," Lily said, they both lay down on their beds, "Better get some sleep, we've already missed enough as it is."
"Night."
Ally felt drowsy as soon as her head hit the pillow; suddenly she shot up and looked over at Lily.
"What was Peeves planning to do? Before Filch came to the marauders rescue?"
Lily laughed evilly, something rather uncharacteristic of her.
"Tar and feather them."
Ally smirked and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, her dreams full of feathery marauders and a slimy Filch, deducting points from Gryffindor for every feather he had to pick up.
Morning...
Ally and Lily walked down the stairs that led up to the girls' dormitory.
"What do you think the marauders will do, when they see us?" Ally asked Lily, craning her head around to look at her.
"I think we're about to find out." Lily replied and nodded over to where the marauders sat.
They entered the common room, dressed in their Hogwarts robes. Potter's gang sat around the chess board, whispering secretively. The whispering stopped abruptly as soon as Ally and Lily came into view, the marauders heads all looked up to watch them walk out of the room.
'What?' Ally mouthed to Sirius, who just grinned at her.
Ally and Lily headed down to the great hall, being one of the first ones down there. They spoke freely about what had happened.
"Do you think they were talking about us?" Ally asked, loading up her plate.
"Well, it is universal code, that when someone stops talking when you come into the room, they were talking about you."
"Really?" Ally said oblivious, "I really should pick up on these things."
"Yeah, you should." Lily muttered with her mouth full.
Ally looked at her disapprovingly and put on a McGonagall voice.
"Miss Evans! Ten points, for lack of table manners!"
"Sorry," Lily smiled and swallowed.
"S'aright..." Ally said with her mouth full, "My manners are worse than yours."
"Do you think that Potter and his gang were talking about what happened last night?"
"They've probably already talked about it last night," Ally said, "I don't expect that they would just fall straight asleep after that." she licked her fingers as she finished off her piece of toast.
"Probably," Lily said, "Do you think they'll do something about it though? Are they planning something?"
"Knowing them the chances are..." Ally said, leaving Lily to fill in the blanks.
"Yes..." Lily groaned, "Why can't they leave anything alone?" she added as the rest of the school filed into the hall.
The marauders were one of the last ones in. Ally was surprised, normally they were one of the few students who arrived a full twenty minutes before anyone else, to stuff their faces.
"Must have gone to go get their invisibility cloak..." Lily pointed to James, who was carrying his pack, slightly bulging.
As usual, Sirius sat down next to Ally and engaged her in conversation about an obscure and mainly unimportant topic. Breakfast continued to be uneventful. The only indication of last night was the occasional glance by one of the marauders, normally at Ally.
After dinner they had their normal morning classes. Nothing else unusual, sometimes they would stop and talk to a few students, about nothing in particular.
The subject of the previous Death Eater attack hadn't quite died out yet, though. Some Slytherins would glare at her while Ally and Lily were walking to class. Other students would congratulate them and talk for a while. Ally had never received so much attention before and did her best to act humble, which didn't turn out well. In case you haven't seen Ally's acting skills, they are horrendous.
Ally went to her last class of the day, Care of Magical Creatures, the class that Ally had with all four marauders and Lily. Professor Kettleburn taught the class, a stocky man, with a few scary scratches that often persuaded students from taking the class in the first place.
The classes were mainly taught outside, but since it was getting cold, they took shelter in a nearby, outdoor, cabin. The cabin was incredibly spacious on the inside, the ceiling was high enough to fit a giant, and wide enough for a few magical creatures. Professor Kettleburn reserved this cabin for his class alone.
Ally, and everyone else who was taking the NEWTS for Care Of Magical Creatures, was sitting on the wood floor.
"Class!" he said quietly and the students continued talking
"Class!" he said a bit louder, and they continued chatting.
"CLASS!" he shouted and everyone stopped talking to stare at the professor, who was red in the face.
He cleared his throat and continued, barely audible.
'Today, Dumbledore has allowed us to host a few Diricawls." he pointed to a row of small cages next to him. The cages were filled with small birds, resembling ostriches, with such large beaks and bizarre colors that they looked rather comical. What was most odd about them was that they were all huddled in fear in the corner, as far away as possible from the students.
"As you can see, they are terribly afraid of us. Diricawls have an innate fear of wizards and muggles. Since a Diricawl can vanish in a poof of feathers at any moment, they are thought to be rare. For those of you who take Muggle Studies you would recognize them as the 'Dodo bird', thought to have gone extinct, but really just disappeared with a poof before any muggle caught sight of them. However, what is truly unusual about Diricawls is that they allow a few select people to befriend them."
The class had taken to talking again after the mention of the 'Dodo bird'. Kettleburn cleared his throat.
"Class." he said quietly.
"Class!" he repeated.
"CLASS!" he roared. The students quieted down again and he continued quietly and calmly.
"The Diricawls we have right now are very young, only born last week. Children, as you know, are very impressionable. Now can anyone tell me about how Diricawls are impressionable?"
Lily's hand shot up before any else's.
"You might hurt someone one day..." Ally muttered to Lily, out of the corner of her mouth. Lily didn't even flinch, her eyes intent on the professor.
"Miss Evans." he said, as a matter of fact.
"Sir," Lily stated, "The Diricawls take upon them the personality of the people who raise it. Say, a loud person has a loud Diricawl and a quiet person has a quiet Diricawl."
"Excellent, ten points," Ally shot a superior look toward the marauders, who were clueless as to why she was looking at them oddly, "Like Miss Evans said, they take the personality of the person they are around the most. Also, the Diricawls imitates the words used often around them, catchphrases of a sort."
The class had begun chatting after learning that their Diricawls would be like them.
"Mine will most likely be crazy." Ally said.
"I hope mine's as smart as me."
"At least you don't have to worry about your bird being slow..."
The professor sighed.
"Class."
"Maybe I can teach it to read..."
"Class!"
"Do you think they can be taught games?"
"CLASS!" Professor Kettleburn shouted at the top of his lungs, he was panting slightly from the exertion.
"I assume you have all figured out that you will be given a Diricawl." he said quietly again, "The only problem is that, since the Diricawls are so difficult to catch. What with disappearing into thin air and all. Hagrid, the groundkeeper," He nodded over to a large man in the back, who smiled proudly and waved at the class, happy to be recognized, "has been only been able to catch about a few, a remarkable feat, as it were. You will be paired up."
The class groaned. I hate having partners... maybe it'll be Lily.
"I will allow you to pair yourselves up." he said.
The class cheered.
"On one condition..."
The class groaned again. It's always something... Ally thought.
"Now, now," the professor smiled, "Don't be like that, I will give you five minutes to find a suitable partner, than you will come to me for my approval. If you have simply chosen a friend, I will have to break you up. Begin!"
He clapped his hands and everyone stood.
"Listen... Al..." Lily said.
"I totally understand if you want to ditch me, our personalities do clash a bit." Ally admitted to her.
"Oh, good," Lily said relieved, "I don't want a bad grade in this class..."
Oh no, I can't possibly manage to find anyone here like me!
"No, no! NO!" Professor Kettleburn shouted, "Enough magical creatures have been damaged by you two! Find someone else!"
Wonder who that could be... Ally thought sarcastically in her head. Wait a second... I'm even sarcastic in my thoughts... that is so crazy. She smiled happily to herself.
Ally wondered around the class, looking for someone to partner up with.
Too irresponsible...
I hate blondes...
Ew, she is sooooooo mean.
Grrr, I don't want a Slytherin!
Someone tapped her on the shoulder and Ally turned around.
"Perfect!" Ally yelled and dragged Sirius over to the line, "I don't care if you don't want to be partners, you're the only one here that is crazy enough."
"Er—" Sirius said.
"No point in protesting, I've made up my mind!" Ally said and placed her hands on her hips. They moved forward in line a few steps. Then she thought of something.
"Hey," she pointed out, "Why aren't you with James?"
"You mean... you didn't hear Professor Kettleburn separate us?" Sirius said.
"That was you two?" Ally asked, moving forward.
"Yeah," he grinned, "We have a history of 'damaging' certain magical creatures."
"Sounds brutal..." Ally said.
"Yeah," he said shrugging his shoulders, "It's hard to live with the reputation."
"I was talking about those poor animals you have inflicted harm upon!"
"Oh."
They came to be first in line and Professor Kettleburn looked at the two. He sighed and pointed them over to a cage.
"Don't kill it." he said dully to Sirius.
Ally smiled and skipped to the cage, Sirius grinned and followed her. The Diricawl inside looked at the two fearfully.
Ally sat down next to the cage and Sirius followed suit. Soon, everyone was paired up with a person and a cage. Ally looked down the line. Lily was paired with one of the Hufflepuffs that had visited Ally in the hospital wing. Remus and Peter were together, and James was paired with the Ravenclaw chaser he probably knew from Quidditch.
"Class." he said.
"Class!" he repeated.
"CLASS!" he bellowed. The class stopped talking and turned their attention to Kettleburn.
"The most difficult part begins today, befriending the Diricawl. Your goal is to at the least familiarize yourself with it. If you do plan on taking it out, hold it tightly, it may disappear. If you do lose your grip, Hagrid," he pointed to the large man, who once again, waved and smiled, "will round it up for you. Losing the Diricawl will cost you your grade and house points."
As soon as he stopped talking, Ally threw the cage open excitedly, it attempted to run away, but Ally guarded the door and grabbed the Diricawl. It struggled for a while in her hands, but eventually gave up. Ally stroked the bird fondly once it calmed down.
"Didn't you hear his warning?" Sirius said "What if it had run away?" he patted the bird.
"Nonsense! I trust that Hagrid would have caught it." she said.
Hagrid, who had been walking by helping Kettleburn patrol around the class, heard this. His ears perked up and his chest puffed up in pride.
"Whatever," he said, looking down at the bird, which looked back up at him, now a bit curious...
"So..." he said, "About last night,"
Ally sighed. You just have to say something... ruin my time with Spike... Ted... What do you name a bird?
"The rest of the marauders want me to thank you... and all... for that." he said awkwardly, "We don't normally thank people... so this is a special honor."
"I'm sure you never thank people, I'll cherish the moment." Ally said and Sirius laughed, sounding like a bark, the laughter broke the awkward moment.
"Something still doesn't add up though..." he addedas 'Donald' waddled over to him. Donald...Arnold... Leopold...What do you name a bird? It can't even fly!
"What doesn't add up?" Ally asked, watching over 'Chuck'.
"Well..." he said slowly, grinning, "How did you know that we ran into Peeves? McGonagall never mentioned it and neither did anyone else."
"Oh!—well—er..." Ally stumbled.
Sirius' grin grew as she stumbled over her words. Ally saw this and rolled her eyes. 'Paul' imitated her, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"Well, how do you think I knew?"
"Well..." he said grinning and 'Benny' imitated his grin, stretching his face to its edges. How can a bird grin? "I know, that you know, we were caught by Peeves, you know, that I know, that you and Lily know, we have an invisibility cloak. You know, that I know, that you and Lily were following us for some reason. I know, hat you know, we were running from you. And you know, that I know, that 'pig' is the codename for James."
'Cody' imitated what Sirius just said, repeating the words "you know that I know that" over and over again.
"Well," Ally said, thinking, "You know, that I know, that you were going to throw a party. You know, that I know, that you are in possession of a certain 'map'." Ally didn't really know whether they had a map or not, but she drew on what she heard last night, "I know, that you know, it would have been silly for me to spoil Lily's fun with James."
'Ferdinand' was wobbling between Ally and Sirius, saying 'Know you, I know map'.
Sirius smiled at her and then shushed the Diricawl, who seemed rather comfortable with Sirius and Ally.
"Let's agree to apologize, right now, for anything we may do in the future in James or Lily's name."
"Deal, and let's agree to forgive each other for anything we will do in the future."
"Agreed." Sirius said and stuck out his hand.
"Agreed." Ally said and shook his hand; 'Carl' jumped up and poked their hand with his beak saying 'Agree'.
"Well, this class will be the class we can talk about all the crazy things Lily and James do!" Ally said.
"Yeah," Sirius grinned, "Let's just hope they never catch us."
Class was soon over. Sirius and Ally packed up Donald, as Ally had decided on. Sirius didn't argue...because...well... Ally seemed set on Donald.
"It reminds me of that muggle duck character..." she had said.
"Donald Duck?"
She scoffed.
"Of course not! It's probably something more interesting... like Donny a la Duckinator."
Sirius rolled his eyes and didn't say anything. The Diricawl had taken to rolling his eyes, grinning, and poking them with his beak. Often saying things like "Foiled again!" and barking like a dog.
Soon after class ended and Hagrid rounded up the loose Diricawl, then he arranged the cages back into rows.
Ally said goodbye to Sirius and rejoined Lily. Lily was still talking to the Hufflepuff and Ally wandered around, growing bored. She exited the cabin. I can catch up with her later... and she wondered the grounds.
Soon she was near a large stone hut. Wonder who that is... she was about to pass it by when something caught her eye.
In the clearing that held a pumpkin patch, a large Hippogriff stood. It was munching on a small rabbit. It had silver feathers and a golden head. Ally looked at it cautiously and then remembered what her Care of Magical Creatures teacher had told her in France. She stepped forward and bowed low.
The hippogriff looked her over once or twice then it bowed back and turned its attention back to eating. Ally looked around, no one was around. She dropped her bag off and swung her legs over the small white fence that guarded the pumpkin patch.
"Hi." she said softly, trying not to alarm the large animal.
It looked up again, surprised to see her so close. She held out her hand and it bent its head. She reached forward and nuzzled its beak.
"'ello," someone said.
Ally jumped and whirled around. She could've fainted she was so frightened. She looked up at the towering figure before her.
"Er—sorry 'bout that." Hagrid said. "Didn' mean ter scare yeh." he said.
"Oh," Ally replied, "I'm sorry, you took me by surprise!" she smiled at him, "I'm Ally!"
She held out her tiny hand and he took it into his enormous one.
"Rubeus Hagrid!" he said happily, "See yeh like hippogriffs?" he said.
"Yes! This one is gorgeous." she replied and they both turned to gaze at the hippogriff.
"'Is name is Phillip!" Hagrid said proudly, "Found 'im meself!"
"That's a nice name." Ally said.
There was a moment silence between the two. The only noise was the hippogriff chewing on its dinner and the birds. Ally could faintly hear the rest of the Care of Magical Creatures class heading up to the castle. Finally, Hagrid broke the silence.
"So...er—do yer really trust me?" he said sheepishly. Ally looked over to him and smiled at how shy he was, even though he was so large.
"Of course Hagrid, everyone speaks very fondly of you. My friends think you're a sweetheart. And besides, you seem to get along very well with all the animals. It's amazing that you caught all those Diricawls."
Hagrid smiled to himself, blushing.
"Thank yeh,' he said.
"No problem... well," she said, pulling out her wand to check the time. "I've got to get to class!"
"Yeah... bye." Hagrid said, looking out at the black lake.
"See you next time Hagrid!" she said and waved as she ran up the steps to Hogwarts.
He smiled and waved back, watching her figure disappear into the castle.
Ally dropped off her bag in the common room and exited the portrait hole. She ran down the steps leading to the great hall. I wonder what Lily thinks about Hagrid... She entered the great hall a few minutes later for dinner, thinking about the groundkeeper.
Why does he carry around that umbrella? Does he have a wand? Did he go to Hogwarts once? I wonder why he's so tall...
She sat down in her usual seat, between Lily and Sirius. Lily looked at her and mouthed 'What's up?' Ally shook her head and began to load her plate. She ate in silence, something very uncharacteristic of her. Normally she would be talking and laughing. For some reason she was so absorbed in her thoughts, she didn't bother talking to anyone else.
Oh no, she thought to herself, looking up at McGonagall at the teachers table. I still have that detention with the marauders... I wonder what kind of detention she hands out... She stopped eating, felling a bit sick. I never got in trouble with teachers when I was at Beauxbatons. What if I get a reputation? What if the teachers end up hating me, and they fail me because I'm a troublemaker?
Lily looked at her curiously.
"What's up with you, Al?" she said.
"Nothing," she said, still looking at McGonagall, who was talking to Dumbledore.
"You haven't spoken all dinner," Sirius said.
"I haven't?" she asked, "Well, that's weird; I guess I'm just nervous about detention..."
"Don't worry!" Sirius grinned, "I'm sure that McGonagall will go easy on you, being new and all. The marauders on the other hand..."
"Right... I'm being silly." Ally said, "Do you know when it is?"
"Tonight..." Remus said, he wasn't looking well, Ally noted.
"Remus..."
"Later, later." he said, meeting her gaze.
"Right..." she said, "Meet you after dinner," she said.
Sirius looked at the exchange between the two.
"Did I miss something?" he asked.
"You have no appreciation for the cryptic arts..." Ally responded, earning a smile from Remus. The hall fell silent. Ally looked over at Dumbledore, slightly confused because it was very unusual for dinner to be interrupted for anything.
"Student, students..." Dumbledore said. The headmaster stood at the head table.
"I have an announcement to make!"
(A/N Man cliffhangers are foooooooooon. I'm having the time of my life! Sorry this came in so late. I had a performance for my string quartet. GO CELLISTS! Yo Yo Ma ish my homie... Wait! Why should I apologize... it's only been a week or so!)