*Still five days left*
On the other side of the hall Lily, Kara, Caradoc, Marlene, and Dedalus crouched on either side of the door trying to listen in on what was being said.
"Guys?" Marlene called out from the back "Peter's disappeared"
"Forget him for a second we've got to help the others" Lily shushed her down, desperately trying to think of a plan to get them out of there, staring up in desperation "Wait" Lily swung back around the door, eyes wide with anticipation "I have an idea"
"Interesting break out plan" Voldemort sneered, looking them up and down "Run around hoping like headless chickens to find someone and get out without being seen by the mass of enemies"
"At least we're doing something right" James plucked up the courage to shout back, wincing back straight away waiting for the curse to be shot at him.
"Pathetic" Voldemort glared at James, blowing his feet from underneath him, flying him forwards and smashing his face into the ground "Kill them all, apart from the outspoken one. He can watch. Then he dies" James was dragged off the floor to the side of the room by a Death Eater, his head forced to where his friends and his dad were surrounded by the rest of them.
Emmeline was the first forced to her knees in front of Voldemort. Just as he raised his wand a curse flew down from the ceiling, knocking Voldemort off his feet. Before they could react, the Death Eaters were also taken out by multiple curses.
"The hell?" Sirius leapt up off the floor staring at the ceiling in confusion.
"Need help there?" Lily called down from the rafters, the others scattered around her. After climbing up the doorframe and through a window above it it had been easy to get up onto the multiple beams spread across the hall.
"You're a bloody genius" James sighed and collapsed to his knees, catching his breath.
"No time to sleep Prongsy" Sirius warned as they started to regain consciousness. Marlene had grabbed their wands from the floor where they'd been dropped and everyone threw more curses at all of them before charging out of the hall.
"Crap now what" Sirius muttered, looking around as the first shouts and footsteps came from the hall.
"The window" James flew a spell at the large window at the end of the corridor. The whole thing shattered and everyone leapt through it, cutting their arms and legs as they went, falling into a pile underneath it. They quickly jumped up and rounded the corner where their brooms were shoved under a bush.
"Wormtail?" James exclaimed when he found Peter cowering under the bush with the brooms "What the hell are you doing there?"
With no idea what to say Peter just burst out into tears and curled back up into a ball, only getting up when Caradoc kicked him in the stomach and forced him onto the back of the broom.
"Now let's get the hell out of here"
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" McGonagall had the twelve of them sat in Dumbledore's office as soon as they got back that evening "DO YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE?"
"No professor" Lily muttered "We just needed to help"
"NEEDED? YOU COULD HAVE GOT YOURSELVES KILLED!" McGonagall was furious and bright red.
"Yes. Needed" James said quietly staring her in the eyes "I wasn't just going to sit back and leave my dad's life in other people's hands"
"Minerva leave them to me" Dumbledore had just entered the room.
"But Professor…" McGonagall tried to argue to eventually left after glaring at them one last time.
"Professor Dumbledore you need to understand that we…" Sirius started to argue.
"I know Mr Black" He said calmly, taking a seat at his desk and looking at them individually "It may take a whole lot of stupidity to go running to a group of Death Eaters like that with no clue what you were getting yourself into, but it also takes courage, and that's what we're looking for"
"Who's 'we'?" Dorcas asked uncertainly.
"The Order. I trust you've all heard of it being in Defence Against the Dark Arts" They all nodded "Then I'll see you on Saturday"
"Is… is that it?" Benjy stared at him in disbelief "You're not angry?"
"Of course you'll all have detention for breaking about every school rule in the space of one day, tomorrow night with the caretaker. Now get to the infirmary" Dumbledore inspected the multiple cuts running up each of them and they nodded before leaving, breathing out a sigh of relief that he hadn't left them to be murdered by McGonagall.
As they slumped down to the Infirmary they past Sasha who'd been sat outside the staircase to Dumbledore's office since they got there. She leapt up and pulled Lily and Kara into her.
"I thought I'd never see you again" She whispered to them, wincing when she saw she'd hurt them.
"So did we" Kara tried to joke but was too tired to laugh, she didn't have to either when Sasha caught Peter's eye.
"Glad to see you got out ok" She said part seriously, part sarcastically.
"Uhh Yeah." Was all he could say, not wanting anyone to bring up the fact he'd been found crying after leaving them, certain they'd all be killed. Luckily Sasha shrugged it off and they carried on down to the infirmary.
*Four days left*
"LESSONS?" Sirius shouted in disbelief at Madam Pomfrey the next morning "Do I look fit for lessons?"
"Yes actually" Madam Pomfrey pointed out, his arms were completely healed after a cocktail of potions the night before "If you have enough energy to shout, I'm pretty sure you have enough energy to get to a little lesson"
"This has got to be against my human rights" Sirius pouted, hauling himself out of bed and following the others out of the Infirmary.
James patted him on the back and helped push him out.
"It's going to be a long day" he sighed, limping slightly as he walked on the leg he'd cut to ribbons on smashed glass and worried about how his father would be after they'd left him in Hogsmeade at the Three Broomsticks so Rosmerta could take care of him.
"This is it. This is it. This is it" Kara hyperventilated outside Care of Magical Creatures "My last ever lesson at Hogwarts."
"Like you ever cared about lessons anyway" Lily chuckled, trying to make a joke of it.
"Yeah, isn't this your first ever lesson at Hogwarts as well?" Sasha laughed along but Kara just glared at them.
"This is serious guys, I'm going to be stuck in a 'normal' wizarding school in Australia, I mean, who wants to go to a school where you're actually safe? Where there aren't gigantic spiders roaming a haunted forest and a poltergeist stealing your stuff" She whined, stamping her foot on each separate point.
"You know some people would see that as a good thing" Lily argued, putting her arm around Kara and guiding her into the classroom.
"It isn't to me" she sighed, taking a seat on a table of four with Lily, Sasha, and Dorcas.
"Cheer up, you've got your long awaited Quidditch match tomorrow" Sasha pointed out. Kara was going to moan a bit more before Professor Kettleburn shouted for their attention
"Ok, ok, I know it's your last lesson before Christmas but you've got a lot of stuff to get through before NEWTs so we're moving on to the control of Cockatrices"
"Oh God" James muttered, he'd come across a cockatrice when camping with his parents and family friends one year and it wasn't pretty, half of them almost had limbs bitten off.
"Doesn't exactly sound dangerous Prongsy" Sirius pointed out and Kettleburn led them to the pen outside where a barrier separated a group of what looked like roosters with crocodile tails sewn on. Never seeing one before Sirius burst into laughter and started calling to them.
"Oh no! Are you going to peck me to death? Trip me over?" He walked up to them and laughed more "They've taken the crap part of a crocodile and put it on a crap bird" as if on cue a tail flew up and whacked Sirius in the head knocking him over.
"Is it just me, or am I in the presence of the world's greatest animal tamer?" James laughed as he went over to haul him up.
"Viscous little…" Sirius started to shout.
"Ok then" Kettleburn cut in "Now we've had a demonstration of how never to approach a cockatrice"
"Really? I thought shouting abuse at them was the best thing for it" Remus remarked, whacking Sirius with a book for his stupidity when he returned to the class. Sirius looked up to Kettbleburn to see what he said to Remus for interrupting him but he just laughed quietly to himself and continued.
"What Mr Black failed to notice is that a cockatrice isn't just a cross between a chicken and an alligator" He held up a diagram of one of the creatures "It's a rooster, a crocodile, with the body of a dragon, and the temper of one too"
"I think I've already discovered that professor" Sirius whined, clutching his shoulder.
"Man up Pads, you've been through worse" James pointed out, shoving him in the shoulder
Sirius stood moping whilst Kettleburn went over what they had to do, in groups of three they had to round up one Cockatrice into their pen using only the spells and poles given to them.
"Right hand me the stick I'm beating the buggers in" Sirius tried yanking the stick from James who refused on the grounds of possible animal abuse.
"Look it's pretty obvious" Remus pointed to the picture of the cockatrice "Their tails are at least the length of their body, probably more, we could pretty easily tie that up without alerting them"
"Then what? Are you going to drag the spawn of Satan across the entire paddock without it bighting your leg off?" James had already seen how quickly they could move.
"Umm, guys?" Peter called out from behind Remus "You forgot me"
"God sorry Worms, he said three and these two idiots were the shortest walking distance away" Sirius explained patting him on the back "Stuff it, let's do a four, Kettleburn doesn't even care. No-one left behind" Peter smiled weakly and got stuck into James, Sirius, and Remus' ridiculous plans.
"Fire!" Sirius finally shouted.
"Definitely not!" Remus shouted back, snatching away his wand before Sirius could go and do something stupid.
Before Sirius could come up with a stupid idea Lily, Kara, and Sasha were cheering as their Cockatrice landed in the pen and Lily swung the gate shut.
"They can fly!" James exclaimed, pulling Sirius, Remus, and Peter over to where the remaining creatures were roaming.
"I feel like this only makes it work" Remus tried to argue, following James ready to pull a monstrous chicken off him.
James had reached the Cockatrice pen and was circling it, picking out easy prey, before spotting one right on the edge and nodding, running round and getting out his wand.
"Guys, get opposite me, I'll blow it upwards, if it's in the air it's not going to be able to coordinate its tail without losing balance. Then it'll be easy to bar it's path with the poles"
"James that's the most ridiculous plan I've…" Before Remus could argue any more the Cockatrice was in the air, clucking loudly and looking about frantically. Shrugging off the imminent failure, Remus lifted up the pole and guided it towards the pen through the hordes of students chasing wild Cockatrices around the ground.
When they reached the other end Sirius tripped, letting the Cockatrice leave their pole barrier and land on the ground. Refusing to let Lily be able to do something he couldn't do James just leapt forwards, catching it by surprise and shoving it into the pen. The four of them collapsed to the floor panting.
"That's the last time I shove about a bloody chicken dragon" Sirius whined.
"I never thought I'd hear you say that" Remus laughed, dropping his wand down after losing all of the strength in his arms.
"IT'S TIME" Kara screamed as they slumped into the common room that evening.
"Time for what exactly?" Lily asked worriedly, flopping down onto the sofa.
"Duh, the rest of my list!" They simultaneously groaned at the thought of it and joined Lily.
"Oh come on spoil sports, we've still got to abseil, ice skate, Quidditch and osbtacal…ise?" individually slapping them all before running over to the bookcase "And you'll be glad to know…" after shoving it forwards she fished out a tangle of ropes "We continue tonight!"
"Dear God" Remus sighed.
"You know this really seems like a terrible idea" Lily peered nervously over the edge of the Astronomy Tower, gripping the rope she was holding as tightly as possible.
"Oh come on Lils, it'll be brilliant" Kara encouraged, triple checking the straps James had tied around them "Just think of how lucky you are that we only have two ropes and I blessed you with the opportunity of going first"
"Yeah, I'm so lucky" Lily replied sarcastically, holding her breath and heaving herself onto the edge "We're going to die. We're going to die. THIS IS SUCH A STUPID IDEA"
"I feel like you're overreacting" Kara tried to comfort Lily who just death stared her back. Lowering herself over the edge Lily took a deep breath and started to list requests for her funeral. James stopped her before she got to tell them the music and promised he wouldn't let go of the rope from anything.
"L-let's do this!" Kara stumbled once as she looked over the edge and looked at the spikes lining the roof of the building below them.
It was a slow decent which was only compensated for by the gorgeous view of the grounds dimly lit in moonlight. Just as they touched down lightly on the roof they heard Filch down on the ground.
"Who's up there!" he croaked up, peering round to get a better look, Kara and Lily froze in horror, not breathing in case he noticed. They looked up to the tower to see the others had already legged it, so by creeping down the gutter on the other side of the roof they managed to get down and charge around to the main doors to leave.
"This list is going to be the death of me" Lily warned Kara as they leapt up the stairs two at a time.
"I swear one of these is going to go well" Kara promised.
"Well I don't mean to put even more of a downer on your day but we've actually got to meet up with Filch again for detention" Lily edged away from Kara who looked liek she was about to flip out at the thought of it.
"Voldemort will put on ballet slipper and skip through the streets singing kumbaya before I go to a detention with Filch in my final days" She put simply, carrying on up the stairs.
Author's Note
Hi! I don't know why I said hi. Just wanted to say that I always love hearing any criticism, good or bad, about my little story, because I will never be totally happy with it and will always go back and change it. I've never really like the start and a review from moonscape-iron showed me why, so I'm going to be editing the storyline of the first 15 or so ever so slightly. I'm telling you this because it may delay my writing of current chapters so sorry in advance
Mischief Managed