I feel like I owe you an apology for disappearing, I have A-level exams starting next week so I won't be here for a couple of months, SORRY!
"That may have been the best thing I've ever done" Lily gasped as they burst into the Head Student's common room after running the entire way back from Hogsmeade and collapsing onto the sofas.
The Order had been held back by the Minister to form a link between them and the Ministry, making it official. Occultus and the other Death Eaters had been given a Dementor kiss as quick as possible once they'd arrived at Azkaban and the Minister, newly paranoid about everyone around him, had launched checks into everyone's background.
"Better than going out with me?" James grinned cockily and sliding over to Lily.
"No I'd have to say that's one of the worse, you won't leave me alone now" James pouted and rolled onto his back looking at her with puppy eyes "I'm only joking" She laughed, pulling him up and planting her lips on his.
"Seriously? We are sat right here" Remus sighed "Stop rubbing your happiness in our faces"
"Yeah" Sirius mimed throwing up.
"Come on guys how old are you, six?" Lily raised her eyebrows at them "Shouldn't we go find Peter now?"
"I'm not going to go and look for that wimp" Sirius announced to the shock of everyone else.
"Sirius don't be like that, it's not his fault" Lily argued, trying to make eye contact with him as he stared straight up at the ceiling "Not everyone's trying to be the hero of the world"
"Fine. We'll find him" He huffed, leaping up "I just expected more from a Marauder"
Peter sat around the corner from the kitchens surrounded by Slytherins, constantly peering around anxiously for the Marauders and wringing his hands.
"We shouldn't be doing this here" He muttered, trying to catch the eye of any of the person talking.
"We didn't stay at Hogwarts to listen to you, rat" Wilkes spat at him "We're here to feed information to the others and that's exactly what we're going to do"
"But there's no way we're going to get out of here without being noticed!" Peter accidentally spoke louder than intended and looked down biting his lip straight away. Shoving his head up Wilkes growled down at him.
"We're meeting Snape in Hogsmeade in half an hour. Now. You could come with us, or just your hands will come, which do you prefer?"
"I'm coming" Peter whispered, being dragged to his feet and shoved towards the door.
"HEY!" Peter spun around at the sound of James' voice as he ran towards them with Remus, Lily, and Sirius and breathed a sigh of relief. While the others were readying to confront the four of them Peter collapsed to the floor in tears.
"Thank God you're here" He wept, letting Remus drag him off the floor and carry him away and James confronted the Slytherins.
"Did we hurt your little puppy?" Evan Rosier mocked as Peter limped away "Well I have bad news for you…" Wilkes elbowed him in the ribs before he could finish and gave him a threatening look "He isn't very good at accents…"
"Brilliant" James squinted in confusion at the three of them before walking off, dragging a fuming Remus behind him. Wilkes punched Evan in the stomach for almost blowing the cover and dragged him out the door.
"What did you hear?" Wilkes asked as soon as they stormed around the back of the forest in Hogsmeade.
"We're out of the Ministry" Severus muttered, climbing up off a rock and stretching after waiting all afternoon.
"What do you mean 'we're out?'" Evan frowned as he flicked his wand between his hands "Occultus has been influencing the Minister for years"
"Yes well it turns out the Order aren't just planning in the Hogs Head" Severus mentally slapped himself for the millionth time for spending all of his time hiding out in a broom cupboard in The Hog's Head and only catching the meeting straight before the attack "They crashed a Ministry meeting, chucked them out, Occultus and the rest of them are in Azkaban"
"Shit" Wilkes cursed, kicking the building behind them "Tell the Lord to let us at them, there's nothing more we can do here"
"Actually that's why you're here, we managed to 'convince' a worker at the Three Broomsticks to find us the list of members, you'll be interested to know which dear friends have joined" Severus pulled out a crumpled up piece of parchment and threw it over to them.
"Pissing Marauders" Wilkes ripped the parchment in two over James' name before tossing it back "They'll be in the lake by tomorrow"
"No" Severus quickly interjected "He wants them alive. They defied the Lord when they broke into Malfoy Manor and he wants it seen to that they get an… interesting end"
"You want Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew, and Evans?"
"Not Evans" Severus burst out, making Wilkes raise his eyebrows at him "I mean, she's clever, and of use to us, we need her to join when she leaves" He stuttered out an excuse.
"Right... Just the Marauders, on it"
"Guys we haven't done anything fun in ageeeessss" Sirius moaned, slapping James in the face as he rolled over at the top of the staircase they were hiding from Charms on.
"Pads we broke into the Ministry and convicted four major Death Eaters four days ago" Remus pointed out, rolling his eyes as he looked up from the work he was doing out of guilt.
"Exactly my point Mooners, four whole days and nothing to show for it other than some first years who now smell like eggs" James sniggered at the memory.
"Moony I'm afraid he has a point, those Slytherins got too close to Wormy the other day, they're too cocky" Sirius tugged the book out of his hands and gave him puppy dog eyes "I'll let you pull the lever"
"As worried as I am about the fact that you came up with a plan that quickly, Potions is killing me. Yes!"
The four Marauders stood in a circle on the spiral staircase up to the Astronomy tower securing the last net to the stone walls with Zonko's Super Sticking Spray chuckling amongst themselves.
"I have to say Prongs I didn't think we'd ever come up with another use for these plastic balls after 'The World's Largest Ball Pit' in the Great Hall" Sirius marvelled as he chucked one up and head-butted it into the net.
"I just figured, why not hit them with every last bit of prank kit we have left, I mean I'm not having any sixth years discovering the prank cupboard after we've gone. They won't understand the great responsibility that comes with it"
"Prongs you're not Spiderman" Remus laughed shaking the remains of the flour onto him from above.
"Don't ruin my dreams" He fake cried, shaking his head to get the flour out of his freshly washed hair "Low blow Moony" He sulked.
"Oh my God they're coming" Sirius giggled, grabbing James' wrist and dragging him further up the staircase "Ready with the lever Moony?"
"As always" Remus held the lever tight, taking in the honour of starting off a Marauder prank.
The four of them were too busy watching as the Slytherins started walking up the stairs, so none of them noticed the hatch up to the classroom opening with Wilkes sneaking down onto the stairs behind them, waiting for the commotion of the prank to distract them.
At last the lever was pulled, showering the stairs below with a rainbow of plastic balls,taking down everyone in their path.
"Marauders!" Evan yelled up shaking his fist, before he could shout more abuse at least one hundred eggs, rotten from their long time sat in the cupboard, fell from another net, one landing right in his open mouth, making him fall to the ground choking on yolk.
When the screaming was at its loudest Wilkes jumped down the stairs and shouted a curse at the Marauders exactly on time with the flour tumbling down. James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter fell onto their faces wrapped in ropes before they could appreciate the wet and dirty Slytherins fall to the mercy of their stink bombs and boil potions they'd once spent a whole christmas holiday making up.
Sighing at their immaturity Wilkes shot a spell at the string linking the nets together, sticking it to the wall before more could fall.
"Get up you babies" He yelled down at the Slytherins who hand just begun to crawl up the stairs, still choking on flour and eggs, every now and then slipping on another stray plastic ball and sending everyone else down like dominoes.
The Marauders managed to laugh some more at their prank before Wilkes growled at them to shut up and shot a knock out curse at them.
James woke up dazed and confused on a wet, cold stone floor, the air reeking of congealed blood and sweat. The smell pierced his nose and shocked him into consciousness, making him aware of the tight manacles digging deep into his wrists.
"Guys!" He called out, choking because of how dry his throat was, rolling off his face and pushing himself up against the moss ridden wall behind him. A quiet moan came from the opposite side of the room before the sound of chains rattling echoed over to James.
"Pads?" He peered into the darkness desperately waiting for his eyes to adjust.
"Prongs, this better be a fucking joke, we better be in the dungeon by potions or so help me" Sirius growled, kicking the floor in front of him.
"I hate to burst your bubble but I doubt there's blood in the Hogwarts dungeons…"
"Not exactly a bubble" Remus called out from his left "I don't think there's any circulation in my hands"
"OH MY GOD WHERE AM I?" Peter started shouting from James' right "PLEASE GOD HELP ME"
"Wormtail shut up!" James rattled his manacles over the top of his shouting "Are you stupid? I doubt we want our loving captors to know we're awake" James heard the sound of Peter sobbing.
"Seriously though where the hell are we?" Sirius broke the awkward silence left by Peter's crying.
"Hang on…" Remus fumbled about of the floor, rolling over so his hand was wedged under him, allowing him to slide the lighter from his pocket "I've still got this from the final stage of the prank"
"Dammit I bet we'll never get those sparklers back now" Sirius cursed.
"Yeah, definitely not important right now" Remus raised his eyebrows before flicking the lighter on, lighting up his face and a patch of the room around him.
"I hate to be the pessimist but I'm not seeing a way out of this" James sighed, tugging at the chain keeping him bound to the wall "I mean it's not like we can just morph our way out is it?" James sat looking confused at the mocking look Remus was giving him before he realised "Well that's embarrassing isn't it?"
"What, forgetting that you've been an animegus for the past six years? Noooo" Sirius laughed, suddenly becoming a shaggy black dog and running over to James licking his face.
"Piss off Pads" James shooed him off and turning into a stag turning to look at Remus.
"Look guys unless you want to sit here until the next full moon I'm stuck"
"Dammit" James morphed back into his human form "Look we'll be back for you, ok?"
"Not if it stops you getting out you won't" Remus shushed over the start to James' protest "Prongs if you come back for me and end up getting caught yourself I'm going to personally kill you before anyone else gets the chance"
Shaking his head at Remus and patting him on the shoulder, he turned and peered around for Peter "Wormy we're going to need you to get out of here"
"Yeah, yeah, already on it" Peter turned back into a rat and started pawing the edge of the room, finally dragging a rock from the corner and wriggling through a crack in the stone.
After a long wait sat in a triangle around Remus in silence a door finally cracked open, making the three of them recoil back at the blinding light.
"Getting used to dungeons are we?" Peter mocked, helping them up off the floor and pulling them out into the corridor "I'll go check to find any exits" He morphed into a rat and charged off around the corner almost too readily.
"Who do you think's behind this?" James asked nervously and they waited.
"I think we both know the answer to that, and we're dead men walking" Sirius sighed.
Before James could try and look at the bright side Peter was dragged around the corner by someone dressed all in black, a wand pushed up against his neck.
"Brilliant! Our guests have woken up" He smiled with almost black rotting teeth before shoving Peter at them and raising his wand to all of them "I've got some people who'd love to see you again"
Voldemort stood at the head of the table, eyeing up the Death Eaters that sat around it, smelling the fear that betrayed their toughened faces.
"What do you mean, they've found Occultus?" He growled, making eye contact with every single one and clenching his fists, shooting a curse to the side and knocking chunks of the wall everywhere "You let us get outed by a bunch of worthless Mudbloods?"
"They caught us off guard" A Death Eater who hadn't been called out by the Order called out, shrinking in his chair as Voldemort's icy eyes met his.
"You should never have been off guard" He spat "This is war, not playground fun"
"Yes, my Lord, I understand" He muttered, digging his nails into his palm above where his mark flicked up.
"No. None of you do. Get up" Voldemort let him get halfway around the table before forcing him to his knees with the Cruciatus curse "You watched as your brothers in war were disgraced"
"There was nothing I could do, my Lord, please they had evidence" Tears rolled down his face as he bowed down in front of Voldemort, nails dragging along the wooden boards as he tried to fight the fiery curse running through his body.
"If there's nothing you could do then you're of no use to me" Voldemort snorted, jabbing his wand into the man's forehead.
"Please" He whispered before a flash of green cracked through the room and he fell face first to the ground as the other Death Eaters watched in shock as Voldemort killed one of their own.
"Who else thinks this is a game?" He growled at them and everyone turned away to avoid eye contact "Brilliant. Now someone bring me the prisoners, I have a score to settle with them"
The four of them were still being dragged down a corridor when James spotted a flash of black, greasy hair through a door they passed. Realising who it was his senses quickly switched on, he flicked Sirius in the ear and nodded to the guys knees, then did the same to Remus and Peter.
"NOW!" James shouted and Peter dropped to the ground, the Death Eater stumbled forwards, and hands fumbling at his belt for his wand, Sirius and Remus each kicked the back of one of his knees making him collapse onto the stone floor before James came in and kicked him between the shoulder blades forcing his head down.
"Grab his wand Pads" He ordered, already on his way back to room.
"Got it officer" Sirius retorted, yanking the wand from the Death Eaters belt and hitting him with a stun and wiping his memory.
James peered around the door to find Severus sat on his own in a dark room hunched over what looked like a map. Bursting in James grabbed him by the hair and tugged his face round to look at him "Hey old friend" He grinned "Guess who's going to help us get out of this crap hole?"
"J-James?" Severus gasped, looking around desperately for a fellow Death Eater "What are you doing here?"
"That's what I'd like to know Snivellus, where the hell have you brought me?" Remus, Sirius, and Peter were just running up behind him, wide-eyed at who was sat in front of them.
"Only where you deserve to be" He scorned, slowly reaching for his wand which was lying on the table, only Remus got there first and held it above him "You're in my mother's family home, the House of Prince"
"Should have known you came from dirt" James threatened, throwing back his head and flicking his own hair from his face "Where are our wands"
"I have no…" Severus tried to argue before seeing how pointless the situation was "In here" He sighed, opening the draw and handing them over, Sirius punched him in the stomach after taking them from him.
"What is it with you people and resorting to violence" Severus sighed.
"Do NOT talk to me about resorting to violence you slime ball" James spat, wiping off his wand and checking it hadn't been damaged in his fall earlier "Now you're going to get us out of this dump"
"Sorry I forgot joining some stupid order excused you of the seven years of bullying you put me through" Severus shot back before they all had their wands pointing at him, sighing he gave in "If you head back to where you were kept but turn right before heading down the stairs there's a back door which faces the woods" James nodded, taking it all in before they heard shouts coming from the corridor where the Death Eater had been found confused and without his memories.
"Brilliant, more running" Sirius sighed, giving Severus one last glare before following James and Remus out the room, Peter panting after them.
"YOU!" Karkaroff shouted after them, sparks shattered around them as they skidded around the corner, Sirius morphing into his animegus to track their past steps and leading them down the maze of corridors before they finally burst out of the door. With the Death Eaters how on their hills James also turned into his stag and sent Remus and Peter on so he and Sirius could distract their pursuers.
The Death Eaters didn't see the stag and dog until they were biting their ankles and charging away deeper into the woods out of sight.
I need to apologise again, there's just SO MUCH to do, hope this makes up for it, don't forget to leave a comment, would love to know what you think about their run ins with the Death Eaters because they're so much fun to write
- Mischief Managed