*12 days left*
"I don't think I can move my legs!" Sirius groaned and curled up into a tighter ball.
"I'm not even sure I'm alive at the moment" James said before realizing how stupid he was and slapping himself in the face.
"Did we finish the list?" Sasha yawned as she woke up.
"Well we did all of one thing" Kara was awake and bouncing about with excitement "But don't worry we've got loads to do today!"
"Kara if you get out that list at any point today so help me I'm going to burn it" Lily threatened as she tried to crawl up the stairs.
"Where on earth are you going?" Sasha shouted after her from the pillow fort she'd managed to make.
"Herbology!" Lily shouted back, making everybody moan as they realized they had to actually go to lessons.
"Fine but we're stopping for donuts and coffee first!" Sirius bargained as James tried to roll him out of bed.
"Sirius you're not exactly being discrete" James sighed as Sirius ducked down under the desk and wolfed down another donut.
"When I hear the calling of the donut I'm not going to ignore it" Sirius shoved another one in his mouth before Lily smacked him in the back of his head and pointed to the front of the classroom where Professor Beery was desperately trying to get everyone's attention
"CLASS, PLEASE" he waved his hands about before the class quietened down "We've got an important lesson today. Everyone needs to be alert and ready"
The Marauders glanced at each other and raised their eyebrows. The dangerous lessons were always the most fun for them.
"Lapimodeti" Beery pulled a veil off a large, spiky plant with a bright orange flower which had petals that formed thorns at its tips. Writhing, snake like creatures twisted out from between the petals "Also known as the Medusa plant, Lapimodeti has powerful venom that turns predators to stone"
Sasha glanced worriedly at the plant which had begun to extend its stems and investigate the greenhouse.
"Today you will each have you own Lapimodeti and must use your text book two figure out how to incapacitate, and extract venom. Does anyone know when we would use the venom?" Lily's hand shot up straight away.
"In its diluted form it can help stop muscle spasms and it's also currently being used to find out causes of paralysis" Lily announced proudly. Even with the Whomping Willow riding she'd squeezed in pre-lesson reading.
"Yes Miss Evans, so as you can see, it's very important we can efficiently extract it. Now, get into pairs, grab a text book, and get extracting" Kara quickly got hold of Lily so she could do all of the work, James and Sirius high-fived in excitement at what they were going to do, Sasha and Remus nodded at each other seeing as their other friends had left them, and Peter was left to go with a Ravenclaw who was dithering around.
"Ok Sirius, no mucking about, I don't really like the idea of being turned to stone" James warned.
"At least your charming good looks would forever be preserved" Sirius pointed out, jokingly stroking James' hair before putting on the gloves and goggles.
"Right, we need to make a cut along the stem beneath the flower" James read out from the book whilst Sirius tried to keep the plant at bay.
"Easy for you to say when you haven't got the stone venom spawn from hell in front of you" He muttered angrily as the snakes tried to attack him.
"Man up Pads" James handed him the knife and watched in amusement as Sirius attempted to pin the flower to the ground with his fingers on each of the snakes. "For goodness sake, we need to distract it with something" he looked around quickly before focussing on the bright red flower clip Kara had in her hair. James snook up behind her, just as Lily had wedged the flower underneath her textbook and had Kara holding it down, and grabbed it out of her hair, running away before she had a chance to kill him.
"Oohhh, look at that!" Sirius took the flower of James and started wiggling it around "Do you wanna piece of this beautiful lady flower, I think she likes you" James didn't have a chance to object to Sirius' plant hook up because the plant had stopped waving about and he could get the knife under the flower.
Peter was stood yawning whilst his partner wrestled with the plant. He'd seen James and Sirius waving a hair clip around seductively having a laugh and clenched his fists.
"How could my 'friends' just forget about me?" he thought to himself before having an idea "Umm, George, I think Professor Beery wanted us to use the thorn scissors on this one, you get them I'll watch the plant"
Once alone Peter took the plant bag and put it over the flowers before crawling under the desk and sliding it next to Sirius and James' feet and taking off the bag. He then took another plant from the front and waited.
"Come on Prongs, you've just got to attach the extracting tubes to the venom fibres inside the stem" Sirius read out from the book.
"Oh, yes, it's easy is it? Well I know another place where I can stick the extracting tube" James glared up from the plant.
"Yeah right, like you'd…. crap" Sirius stood back looking faint "Did someone leave those cactus's lying about from last lesson?"
"Pads?" James grabbed his arm but it felt ice cold. Panicking, James looked around on the floor and found the Lapimodeti under the table. "PROFESSOR, QUICK!" James shoved a bag over the plant and threw it to the side before checking Sirius, who could no longer move.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear" Beery muttered to himself as he checked the tips of Sirius' fingers which were turning grey "Has anyone extracted their venom yet?"
Lily rushed forwards with a vile of venom.
"Of course the Lilypop has" Sirius wheezed through his almost frozen lips. Professor Beery poured the venom into a bowl before adding water, foxglove, and honey. Peter was stood hoping the remedy would fail so he'd have one less torturer. Luckily Beery managed to pour the mixture through Sirius' lips just before they were forced shut with stone.
Sirius collapsed to the floor breathing heavily, his skin still looking pale and grey.
"Why the hell was this just left lying around?" James shouted at everyone, pointing to the Lapimodeti on the side. Everyone stood awkwardly wringing their hands, looking around for the culprit.
"I'll find whoever did this and they'll wish they'd stuck with divination" James glanced over to the group of Slytherins who hadn't left before storming out with Sirius in tow to take him to the infirmary.
Severus breathed in the smell of damp and rotting flesh and shivered as they were marched through the underground tunnel.
"Man up, weasel, you're in a war now" Someone barked at him. He could only see what was directly in front of him through the sharp silver mask that was rammed on his face earlier, and the black robes were ill fitting and scratched him as he walked.
"Severus, get your act together" Bellatrix hissed at him. She'd laughed in delight as they were flung into their new uniforms in the woods next to Hogsmeade, but Severus had missed the warm cotton of his Hogwarts robes and longed for his arm chair next to the fire in the library as the rain started to pelt them. He missed her.
"New recruits" a new voice shouted from the front of the line as they came to a halt "From now on you fight in the name of the Dark Lord, he who will bring justice for everyone tossed aside to rot in the gutter. Everyone labelled as not worthy, or not 'right'. We will defeat the self-righteous bastards, who dare to tell us we deserve the crappy jobs, and the terrified looks in the street. They even dare to tell OUR CHILDREN they don't deserve to live in the same quarters as their 'holy Gryffindor' children. Well enough is enough. Today you'll see there's hope for us, and one day we'll take down their corrupt government."
Everyone cheered at the end of his speech and started applauding the Dark Lord, including Severus. He'd spent his whole life safe, but safe wasn't good enough when people like James Potter were free to bully him, and beat him up, just because of a name, and a house. He saw that it didn't matter that he'd lost everything that he enjoyed back at Hogwarts, he was fighting for an even better future.
The door ahead of them creaked open and they flooded into a dimly lit shack covered in cobwebs where they could hear the traffic passing by outside.
"This is the trainee house. You will remain here whilst we train you in the Dark Arts and equip you for what's coming. Someone will be here to tell you the first plan soon" and with that the Hogwarts recruits were left alone.
"Well if you ask me this is the best day EVER" Bellatrix lay down on the floor laughing with excitement.
"Calm down" Rodolphus sighed, ripping off his mask and leaning back on the wall "You're not laughing your way through the war"
"I'm just so glad to be out of that hell hole of oppression" Bellatrix stretched herself out and smiled. Before Severus could argue she had never been 'oppressed' at Hogwarts the door slammed open and a tall, bulky figure stamped into the room and threw a map and parchment on the floor.
"Your first task from the Dark Lord" he growled "you have a week and a half to plan, hurry up"
Severus was the first person to reach the parchment and opened it up
"Oh God" He thought to himself as he read what he had to do "She's going to want me dead"
"Ok girls, I want to get this one out of the way without any of the guys around" Kara explained to Sasha and Lily after they'd left the infirmary to check on Sirius who was making Madam Pomfrey's life hell by making nonstop, stupid demands.
"Which one would that be?" Lily hoped it wasn't going to be abseiling or ice skating because she wasn't entirely sure the world had stopped spinning since the night before.
"Snogging a stranger" Kara smiled, unrolled her list and pointing at number five on the list.
"Oh dear God, this is going to be the most awkward hour of my life" Sasha put her head in her hands feeling sorry for whoever Kara chose "Fine let's go"
Lily and Sasha followed Kara around while she scoped out everyone in the area "We need to stop this from happening" Lily whispered to Sasha, looking at the worried looks Kara was getting from a group of 6th years as she strutted past.
"Give me five minutes, I'm going to go get something" Sasha winked before babbling the plan into Lily's ear and running out of the main doors.
"Kara?" Lily tapped her on the shoulder before dragging her away from the fourth year sat on the stairs "Number one, definitely not" Lily waggled her finger to the poor guy "Number two, me and Sasha have a better idea. Surely even choosing them yourself makes them less of a stranger, so why don't you let me and Sasha pick someone, blindfold you, and hey ho, you've got yourself a stranger" Lily was finding it hard to keep in her giggles.
"Lily that's a GENIUS idea" Kara clapped, taking off her tie and wrapping it around her eyes "You're definitely going to choose well though?"
"Of course!" Lily beamed as Sasha walked back into the entrance with Fang on a leash "Ok Kara, come here" Lily and Sasha stepped back and watched in glee as Kara's face collided with Fang's and saw the expression on her face go from confused to absolute disgust.
"SASHA!" Kara leapt up and flung her tie to the side.
"I'm taking this as time to run" Sasha glanced in panic at Lily before charging off up the stairs.
Author's Note:
Hi! I hope you're enjoying the chapters, don't forget to leave a review down there to tell me what you thought, I don't want to be writing stuff you don't like! Apart from that,
- Mischief Managed