Right, I've read everything twice and checked my timeline, I'm good to go, even though probably nobody's reading anymore! Also Samrin if you're out there seriously sorry I stopped getting emails for reviews or I 100% would have updated! I'm also realising I've been calling Gargous Karkaroff, no guys the famous death eater and head teacher of Durmstrung isn't teaching at Hogwarts, I'm just an idiot
Twirling the bottle around in his hands, Peter inspected the skull sticker and name tag he'd peeled off the blood red glass, frowning in thought as he lay in bed that night.
"Yeah but think about it Remus, would you turn into a werewolf on another planet?" Peter heard the distant voice of Sirius at the bottom of the stairs and shoved the bottle into his pillow case.
"Sirius I don't und…" Remus started to sigh but was interrupted.
"But it would be a different moon! Like, are you magically attached to THIS moon, or just moons in general?"
"Pads I hope you're not suggesting sending Remus to another planet" James laughed as they burst into the dormitory and leapt onto their beds, James unable to walk the corridors to the head's dorm.
"Pfft, no, I'm not a complete idiot" Sirius started juggling his wand "I'm suggesting we replace the moon"
"Thank God, for a second then I thought you were being a complete IDIOT" Remus laughed, kicking off his shoes and pouring the remains of popcorn out of them.
"Don't worry, I know" Sirius chuckled, picking popcorn out of his hair and throwing it straight into his mouth to the absolute disgust of Remus and James "Who knows what would happen to the tides with a completely different moon, I suppose I'll leave it be"
Peter sighed and rolled over, going over what had happened in the mansion for the millionth time:
"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 round the corner almost too readily.
Once around the corner Peter found a broom cupboard to transfigure back into a human form and peered around the door, immediately bumping into a death eater "I need you" He panted "The others..."
"Yes. You helped the others escape" He growled, drawing his wand from his belt "Do you want to find out what happens to a spineless rat with no other use?"
"No!" Peter collapsed to his knees "Anyone else instead of me... I'm in their meetings... I can... can..."
"The Dark Lord knows what you can do, and it's time to make use of you" The death eater grabbed Peter by the arm, slipping a piece of parchment into his hand as he did "We'll let you know when" He spat, dragging Peter down the corridor, wand pressed to his neck.
Rooting through the pile of food wrappers in his bedside table him hands grasped the now scrunched out parchment and unrolled it, staring at the ink wishing for it to morph into something else
"Alastor Moody"
"Ah my daily Defence Against the Dark Arts torture" Sirius groaned as they all slumped up to the classroom "How I'm not dead I'll never know"
"I have this theory that he enjoys watching you suffer regularly as opposed to the enjoyment of watching you die once" Lily suggested
"Yeah well I think I'd rather be among the dead then around the living here" Sirius muttered as the entered the classroom, recoiling in shock when they found Gargorus stood right inside the doorway.
"I'd be careful what you wish for, Black" He muttered before gesturing for them to join the back of the line of students behind him. This was the first time they'd ever seen anything other than hatred in his eyes, today there was fear. "Class, I've had a request from the Ministry. As unfortunate as it may be, you are the next generation of Aurors and fighters of darkness, so I must equip you for the threats of today"
"He's got bloody Voldemort locked in there hasn't he" Sirius gasped, pointing to the practise room which had more locks then usual keeping it shut.
"Black if you want to find out how unready I am for your bullshit today I'd carry on" Gargorus barely glanced in his direction "Today is a demonstration by trained Aurors" On cue three wizards in ministry robes emerged from the back of the classroom "If you'd like to follow me to the practise room"
After laboriously working off all of the locks from the door, Gargorus waited for the Aurors to take position in the room before leading the class in. When they entered they found the Aurors behind a magic screen, wands drawn.
"INFERI" Gargorus shouted across the class "Are what He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is now using to attack muggle villages. You will have seen them in muggle studies classes portrayed as something called zombies. I can assure you any films you have seen are nothing compared to being faced with a rotting corpse clawing at your ankles"
Dedalus shuffled back "Umm professor is this legal?"
"The ministry has ordered this class be taken to show you the disgusting lengths the opposing side is going to and prepare you for when you face them. Inferi are made by reanimating a corpse using Necromancy. It's being discovered that the dead from the muggle towns He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named destroyed have been raised to join this army. You will face them one day" No-one else had anything to say against the demonstration "Now the Inferi you will see were captured during the last attack to test what curses were most effective"
"That's disgusting!" Lily shouted out "These people deserve to rest in peace!"
"Miss Evans do you think the memory of muggles is as important as defeating the most powerful dark wizard the world has ever seen?" Lily backed down "I thought not, now release the Inferi"
A door at the back of the demonstration room opened and three deformed figures crawled through, before locking eyes on the Marauders and launching at them, clawing at the floor with bloody snapped nails. Immediately the Marauders shot sparks from their wands, surrounding the Inferi in a ring of fire and closing it in on them. Once rendered immobile they shot binding spells at them and levitated them back out of the room.
Nodding at the class Gargorus ushered them out of the room "Always remember that the darkest of creatures will shy away from the light. Homework: practise your fire producing charms and further control of it once conjured"
The class was dismissed early to work on the charm, but Sirius held back, leaning on a desk staring at his feet.
"Black did you miss out on telling some sort of pun while we were in there I just had to hear?" Gargorus sighed, taking a seat behind his desk and signing off a letter to the ministry to confirm the additional training had been completed.
"Umm, actually not, you see, those inferi... who's he using? To make them I mean"
"All recovered Inferi bodies have been animated from Voldemort's victims. What makes you ask?" His brow furrowed as Sirius pulled a chair to the desk and buried his head into his hands.
"I had a... friend. They killed her, but the bodies weren't found. They took them. I'm going to fight these things and if it's her I... I just don't know what I'd do"
"I know exactly what you do. You protect her memory" Gargorus pushed back on his chair and fished out a photo from his desk "My daughter was kidnapped last year, back when I was a senior Auror, they used the imperius curse on her, made me believe she'd come home before using her to try and kill me. When it failed they killed her on the spot. Black, if anyone knows what it's like to watch a loved one try and kill you it's me"
"How did you stop her then?"
"I looked at her and I realised how much Violet would want me to stop her if she could tell me. The same with your friend, what would she say if you froze whilst her inferi killed you?"
"She'd probably punch me for suggesting a zombie could look like her and tell me to man up" Sirius smiled to himself "Then she'd mess up my hair and babble about the biggest load of rubbish for God knows how long"
Gargorus found himself laughing at what Sirius classed as a friendship "Black if you stopped acting like a talking gibbon more often I might not despise you so much"
"Professor I do believe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me" Sirius grinned, getting out of his chair and making his way to the door "You're softening"
"Push your luck and I'll arrange a private viewing of some of our test beasts" Gargorus shouted after him as he chuckled out of the room, furiously rubbing his eyes once out of sight, grinning, and carrying on.
"Two more weeks to go, two more weeks to go, better get studying or you'll be worrying, two more weeks to go!" Lily's watch sung the next morning at breakfast.
"I wish you'd turn that bloody exam countdown off!" James whined, trying to block his ears with bread rolls "I can't stand another day of denial ruined by that watch of torture reminding me of my imminent failure"
"Prongsy, if you fail I'll check myself into Azkaban" Sirius joked, hitting him with a scone.
"You don't have to hit me with baked goods every time you disagree with me" James moaned, spooning up some jam and smearing it onto Sirius' nose.
"Oh so we're onto preserves now!" Sirius motioned to pick up a croissant before Lily snatched it away,
"I'm starting to get the feeling you're not taking these NEWTs seriously" She sighed, gathering up her books and quills.
"No-one could take NEWTs as seriously as you do petal" James laughed, pulling her to him and kissing her forehead "But I'm also convinced you've been ready since second year, now come and do something stupid with preserves or baked goods"
Pondering the offer Lily dropped her books and picked up the bowl of strawberries and tipped it into James' lap "Fools, the berries are the only way to go here, now I'm off to make sure I actually have a future"
"Shame that, because it turns out you're going to have to take on an army of the dead to do that" Remus pointed out, recovering the last of the strawberries before they went near Sirius.
Before Lily could argue that without grades after a war there wouldn't be a life to fight for the owl post arrived, dropping each of them an identical red envelope with an identical message inside.
Members of the flamed bird
Meet on the day seven from the last
In the place where the first of many was planned
At the same time as all
"Ahh look, Moody's written us all a poem" Sirius cooed, dropping his letter to clutch his heart
"Oh that's what it is, I wasn't sure if we were being invited for roast chicken down in the kitchens" Peter looked extremely disappointed.
"Wormtail, I'd be worried if you saw anything else" James slapped him on the back "Now come on, I heard things are going to be blown up in potions" Sirius whooped.
"If I could get a word in at all" Moody slammed his staff into a crumbling post of the Hogs Head Inn, instantly silencing the gathering "You can yap about Quidditch bollocks when there aren't innocent people being slaughtered"
"Yes… Thank you Alastor" Edgar Bones stepped forward "We wanted to congratulate you on the successful mission but more dire news has come from the ministry. Frank?"
"Thanks Edgar. The last attack of Voldemort was on Ministry offices in Scotland" He started to pass photos around the group "Same objective, different methods"
"Let me guess, the raised dead?" Sirius tried to hide his fear with sarcasm as he passed on the photo of an Inferius breaking through a glass window.
"Precisely. Now the Ministry has banned any form of information on these attacked being released to the public to avoid panic, the only way we could justify giving training to our younger members was through an informative Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson for 'future risk" Frank winked over at James, Sirius, Remus, Lily, Dorcas, Marlene, Emmeline, Gideon, Caradoc, and Benjy "However now we need to plan in case of another attack. These Inferi all but wiped out the Ministry of Magic Scotland base, God knows what'll happen if this happens in London"
"But we know what to do" Benjy pointed out "Throw fire at the situation"
"Yes Fenwick" Alastor sighed "Burn down the Ministry before anyone else can take over. Genius" Benjy slid down in his chair.
"Look guys there's some of the brightest witches and wizards in the country sat in this room. Surely there's some sort of controlled fire system that can be implemented to go off with alarms?" Alice piped up.
This is when Lily saw her chance "A fire charm wouldn't work because it's too unpredictable without a wizard there to form and control it, if this is a security system Fire Seeds have a much more predictable flame pattern, if we programme cannons to shoot the seeds in different pattern depending on where the outbreak is then programmable potion sprays are all we'd need to put it out because we'd know where it's spreading"
"And this is why I suggested Hogwarts recruiting" Frank clapped, smiling at Lily. Even Alastor mustered an approving grunt before ordering a fire whiskey from Aberforth.
The Defence Against the Dark Arts class had gathered around Lily to build up her idea using the same logic Gargorus had used for the enchanted spell cannons that he'd used to make a simple broom ride hell; meaning no one noticed Peter had left his chair for no more than a minute.
"We're obviously still experimenting with how to 'deactivate' these reanimated corpses instead on destroying them further" Alastor mentioned "There will come a day Voldemort will find a way to use our dead loved ones against us, and no one can just destroy that" the thought of this made Alastor shiver and take another swig of whiskey.
Everyone resumed discussions before the sound of smashed glass broke it apart. Moody's staff clanged onto the floor, closely followed by the man himself. Crashing through a table and landing in a pool of Butterbeer, bright red foam started to pour out of his mouth.
"He's been poisoned!" Frank yelled, throwing chairs out of the way to rock Moody onto his side and begin shouting spells to try and stop him choking.
"Frank get out of the way" Alice ushered him to the side "Aberforth you need to get me a cauldron, the rest of your leech juice, and that octopus powder. Emmeline, run outside and rip up some nettles, hey Aberforth… ABERFORTH?"
"Yes?" Aberforth panted, throwing the cauldron and jars at Alice
"Tell me that Wigentree is still out back" She pleaded, stopping to rip open the jar of leech juice and splash some into the empty cauldron, chucking in a sprinkle of octopus powder every other splash.
"Of course, how else am I going to protect myself from dark creatures?"
"Great. James, Sirius, take a knife and strip some bark from the tree. I need it carved like a spoon, you head?" Nodding frantically the two tripped over each other running to the back.
Emmeline soon came charging in with the nettles and handed them to Alice who had lit a fire under the cauldron with her wand and begun ripping up the leaves and throwing them in, stirring with the stalks. Finally she fished a vial of wormwood essence out of her ropes and splashed it in right before James and Sirius returned, practically hurling the spoon across the room.
Alastor's wheezes had almost stopped when Alice spooned the potion through the foam into his mouth.
The room stood in silence before he spluttered out another breath sitting up "How long does it take to whittle a bloody spoon?" he spat, coughing up onto the floor.
"What the hell happened?" Fabian Prewett inspected everyone "How did we let this happen?"
Gideon pulled his brother back down into a chair "I'm a student and even I can see we went too big, we need to go more underground. Links to the ministry? We need to rethink"
"You think?" Moody groaned, rubbing his temples and throwing himself into a chair "They knew we'd be here"
Peter breathed a sigh of relief and slipped the bottle back into his robes, trying to rub the smear of red left on his hand "Guys I'm scared" He whimpered to the group.
"Pete it's fine" Lily rubbed his arm "You're safe with us, you saw how quickly Alice fixed it"
"I did" Alice admitted "But that doesn't mean we can afford to protect all of you when you already have the protection of Hogwarts"
"That's not what I meant!" Gideon argued, infuriated with the patronising tone Alice took.
"What are you trying to say?" Marlene stood us "We can't defend ourselves?"
"Of course not McKinnon" Moody sighed "It's not all an attack on your character, I get what Alice means, we need to wait until you graduate"
"But we help" Lily pleaded.
"Just let us shuffle the Order's security with as little people to worry about as possible, ok?" Edgar sighed giving in and rubbing his temples "This was just too close"
Dumbledore sat at his desk tapping out a tune with a knitting needle on the edge of his desk, peering at a letter from the Minister of Magic over the top of his spectacles when he heard the staircase begin to turn.
"Professor?" A voice croaked from behind the statue.
"It's alright Severus there's no-one here to see you" Dumbledore stood up from his chair and moved down the steps to meet him.
"I did it, I helped them escape" Severus appeared, moving the cloak from his face to reveal a cut stretching across his forehead and black eyes "The Dark Lord doesn't respond well to mess ups"
"Don't use false titles, Severus, they only strengthen the false belief" Dumbledore waved his wand over Severus' face, nothing appearing to have happened "You need to keep the appearance of the marks but that should help the pain"
"I don't care about the pain, is Lily safe?" Severus pleaded.
"She is as safe as I can make her, you know I can't pull her out of the Order" Dumbledore turned to stroke Fawkes on the beak.
"No one could ever stop Lily doing anything when she put her mind to it" Severus sighed, but stopped himself getting into a rant about Potter "That doesn't mean steps can't be taken to keep her safe"
"Lily was put on watch in the Ministry take over, I kept my half of the deal, but she's gifted. We need to use her ability"
"That isn't the agreement" Severus punched the table "Do you know the danger I'm putting myself in?"
"Severus you're the one that came to me"
"Because I was under the false impression you were able to take care of a single student"
"I agreed to keep an eye on her if you stopped this ridiculous plan to kidnap four school children"
"Those four school children embarrassed Voldemort, I paid for their stupidity, now you need to repay me. I didn't come to you for weak promises"
"No, you came to me because you have a soul Severus, I will care for Lily Potter to the best of my ability"
"That's not good enough" Severus tapped his wand through his robes getting more and more frustrated.
"It's all I can do" Dumbledore sighed.
"Then you can consider our agreement over until you can give me what I want" Severus spat, moving to take out his wand, Dumbledore swiftly disarmed him.
"Severus, don't do what I think you're doing. Voldemort won't make deals; he can't guarantee her safety any more than I can"
Severus yanked his wand back from him and stormed to the exit "Depends what you offer him"
Guys this was so much fun to write, leave a review to let me know you're still around!
-Mischief Managed