Whoops. I just realized I've been forgetting the Disclaimer. So, here goes. Anything you recognize belongs not to me, but to the great J.K. Rowling. She is superior and is actually getting paid for her writing! I'm not, in case you were wondering. That should do it for the rest of the story--I hope.
Chapter Eight: So Spill Again
"So, Remus, what's the big deal? Why call a meeting—without Peter?" Sirius asked, bouncing up and down on his bed. He reached under his bed, pulled out a tin of filched food, and proceeded to stuff himself accordingly. Sirius definitely wouldn't be able to survive for six hours without eating—Remus knew from experience that any time longer than two hours got him whining.
"Well, you see, it was something Ginny said," he hedged.
"Well, spit it out, Moony," Sirius pushed.
"It had something to do with you, Sirius," Remus muttered. "A lot to do with you, you know?"
"Okay, Moony, this is getting old. Just tell us what Weasley said and we can be finished." Remus took a deep breath.
"So, guys, do the words Sirius, Azkaban, and Wormtail ring any bells?" Remus said slowly.
"Say that again," Sirius commanded, sitting bolt upright.
"How about I give you a full quote?" Remus said pointedly. "'Sirius was just out of Azkaban my second year, and we thought he was trying to kill Harry. But he was really trying to get at Wormtail.'" Sirius's jaw dropped. "Sirius!" Remus exclaimed, Sirius's wide-open mouth providing him with an all-too-obvious image of the food he had been eating. Sirius's atrocious manners were legendary--unless you knew him, and then it was just disgusting.
"Me, in Azkaban? Forget that, me, trying to kill Harry? And what does getting Wormtail have to do with anything?"
"I think it's time the Marauders used their secret entrance to the girls' dorm," James said mischievously.
"Oh, Prongs, you're not still on about that stupid stick of wood, are you?" Remus protested fruitlessly.
"Mr. Padfoot likes Mr. Prongs's plan," Sirius said, and Remus shook his head, but went along with his friends' choice. What could he do to stop them?
James kicked the piece of wood that would allow him access to the girls' dormitory and hopped up the stairs, encouraging Remus and Sirius to follow him.
"Mr. Moony would like it noted that he is progressing under protest."
"Protest noted," Sirius said. "Now move before I fall down the stairs."
"7th year," James read. "This is them, men. Okay, let's go," he opened the door and walked in nonchalantly, followed by Sirius, who smiled at the room, and Remus, who was currently red with something at least akin to embarrassment.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP HERE?" Lily yelled. "How did you get up those stairs? Why did you feel the need to come up those stairs, and have you ever done it before?" She looked like a veritable McGonagall, with her expression and all.
"No," Remus stated, his blush fading, but his ears were still red. Hermione was reminded of Ron. She giggled until Ginny elbowed her in the side, effectively shutting the brunette up. "First time it's happened. I told you not to, Prongs," he scolded. "She'll get Professor McGonagall up here and we'll be in deep trouble."
"So let's ask our questions and leave," Sirius suggested.
"Okay, main interrogation subjects—Hermione and Ginny. Please have a seat, ladies," James said formally.
"What do you want to know?" Ginny said defeatedly.
"Everything," Sirius said shortly.
"Starting with whatever come first," James added helpfully. "I'm suddenly not so sure we can trust you," he said diplomatically. "So, shoot."
"Well then," Ginny said, "I guess you could say this starts about thirty years ago, with a certain boy named Tom Marvolo Riddle. Smart boy, never broke any rules as far as his professors could tell.
"However, this wizard was a known Parselmouth, and opened the Chamber of Secrets—It'll be important later, trust me—and then left an imprint of himself in a diary. This wizard would go on to have servile friends who could never do enough for him. He would have a serious aversion to Muggles—although he was a half-blood himself.
"Now let's switch to this time. So, Tom Marvolo Riddle—or as you may have figured out by now, Lord Voldemort—is already out killing Muggles and Muggleborns, as part of his 'reign of terror'. The next person that will come into the picture whose life will touch yours is a woman named Sybill Trelawney. She is the great-great-granddaughter of celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney. She makes a prophecy. Now, I—happened to overhear—the prophecy's contents. Something along the lines of Harry has to kill Voldemort or Voldemort kills him. It was all on Voldemort.
"'Born to those who have thrice defied him'—that's you, James and Lily, or Frank and Alice. 'Born as the seventh month dies'—it's both Harry and Neville—Neville Longbottom, Frank and Alice's son." Lily's eyes widened to epic proportions and James just gaped at Ginny. "So, three months after Harry's first birthday, October 31, 1981, you're under the Fidelius Charm, James and Lily, and you've changed your Secret-Keeper from Sirius to Peter for confidential reasons. I think it was because Sirius was afraid someone would go after him first, being James's obvious choice and he'd spill the secret—under torture of course. Peter has been a Death Eater for a year—or maybe even longer—now—"
"WHAT?"
"Just let me finish. And he gives your location to Tom—pardon me, Lord Voldemort. On the 31st, he comes to your house—and not for tea, either. He kills James first—" the room gasped— "And then Lily gives herself up for Harry. Voldemort tries to kill Harry, but the Killing Curse rebounds on him because Lily sacrificed herself for him. Harry lives. I think at this point, Sirius found James and Lily and was, you know, checking for pulses, et cetera—and then he found Harry.
"So, Sirius comes out of the house carrying Harry, and then Hagrid says that Sirius can't take him, that Dumbledore wants Harry to go to his other relatives. They still think Sirius was the Secret-Keeper, you see, and that he has been spying for Voldemort—don't get all protective, I didn't think anything, I was barely born at that point.
"So Harry is bundled off to the Dursleys'—Pardon me, he goes to Petunia and Vernon Dursley's home, where they decide to keep him in a cupboard under the stairs."
"Why would you keep a boy in a cupboard?" Lily asked. "Of course. It was the magic, wasn't it?"
"Yes," Ginny said shortly. "So he spends the next ten years there with his enormous cousin Dudley—I swear he's the fattest kid you've ever seen. Around his eleventh birthday, he starts getting letters—the first ones were addressed to 'his cupboard' before the Dursleys got scared of social services or whatever those Muggles call it and moved him to another room in the house.
"So, Hagrid eventually has to bring him his letter because the Dursleys keep burning them. Then he takes Harry to buy his things—on his birthday, imagine that. He has to tell Harry his family history because he's been told that you two died in a car crash—and he knows nothing about Hogwarts, his godfather, Remus, or anything—even Peter. Especially not Peter. I mean, the bloody git's presumed dead—
"Right. Peter. Getting back to Sirius. Right after your death in Godric's Hollow, Sirius is having some troubles. As you can very well imagine, Sirius is a murderous rage. He tracks Peter down. Then Peter starts framing Sirius for being the Potters' Secret Keeper. He cuts off his finger, blows apart the Muggle street with the wand behind his back, and disappears. Sirius, the only wizard that was currently there, was obviously the guilty one—to the Ministry and Barty Crouch Senior, anyway.
"So while the Aurors show up and haul Sirius away, he's just laughing. Talk about stupid. Barty Crouch throws him straight into Azkaban for life without a trial. Only problem—he's innocent. You know dementors? Yeah, those tall ugly things that have no fashion sense, that guard Azkaban? They can only suck out your happy thoughts. 'I'm innocent' isn't exactly a happy thought, especially when you're an innocent man convicted of killing thirteen people with one curse stuck in Azkaban for life, no questions asked—only there's the fact that only twelve people died and the man didn't do it."
"So Sirius is locked up by Crouch. What happens next?" Remus asked shakily.
"He's there for twelve years. Harry's had his first and second years at Hogwarts. Do you want those stories now, or do you want your stories? They pick up at Harry's third year."
"Our stories," Remus said decisively. Sirius nodded, shaken.
"So, right, second year—Harry's third, and Hermione's and Ron's too." Ginny smiled. "Well, as you know, Remus was our Defense professor. He saved the compartment we were all in—Neville, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and me—from a dementor. Don't tell Harry I told you, but he fainted because he was hearing Lily scream when, well, Voldemort showed up."
"He kept asking who screamed," Hermione remembered.
"Sirius Black had broken out of Azkaban that summer—"
"But no one's ever broken out of Azkaban!" the Marauders yelped. "It's supposed to be impenetrable!" James continued.
"He was the first, but not the last. Getting on with the story. He'd seen Peter—with Ron somewhere—I think while we were in Egypt. So he was mumbling in his sleep, 'He's at Hogwarts, he's at Hogwarts.' So, they all think he's after Harry, because they've made it out that he's a Death Eater who was up for promotion with Tom—Voldemort, that is—and he's trying to be the next Dark Lord.
"You two didn't even tell Remus you switched Secret-Keepers, so he hates Sirius with a vengeance. No joke. Harry gets the Marauders' Map from Fred and George—I'll bet he'll try to get it back to you. He sees Pettigrew on it. He finds out Sirius's secret—as does Remus, here, and they're all set to turn Pettigrew in and get Sirius's freedom. You offered Harry a place to live with you," she informed Sirius. "Once you were free and all. But there was a little catch," she said guiltily, looking straight at Remus. "You see, well…how do I put it?"
"A certain glowing orb came to visit you," Lily said matter-of-factly. "I'm not an idiot, and I already told you I know."
"Well, I was thinking of a nicer way to break it to his overprotective friends, Lily dear," Ginny said in a mock-cheerful voice.
"How long have you known?" Sirius spluttered.
"Since third year," Lily and Hermione chorused, while Ginny responded, "Second year. Continuing with the story.
"So Pettigrew got away and rejoined his master—doesn't that ending stink—and Sirius was a fugitive once more.
"Fourth year was pretty dull until Voldemort rose from near death, then fifth year Harry thought he had to rescue Sirius from torture in the Department of Mysteries, but it was a lure. Then Sirius came, and his cousin—another Azkaban escapee—sent him through this veil in the Death Chamber. That was how he died," she finished lamely. "Harry completely lost it."
"Wow. So I died," Sirius said typically.
"SIRIUS!" the group yelled.
"Merlin, Padfoot, we've all practically had our deaths laid on our heads—that are currently spinning wildly from all this information, and all you can say is 'So I died'," James said in annoyance. "Lily and I die at twenty-two. You at least get to thirty-seven."
"But you see, now that isn't going to happen, because you won't make Peter your Secret-Keeper," Hermione explained. "And if we go back through it, Harry won't fall for Voldemort's lure—because he knows what it was. He won't have to, anyway, because Harry's dead set on killing Voldemort before he kills any of you, or tortures Frank and Alice into insanity—" she looked at the startled faces around her. "Whoops," she whispered. "I was not going to say that. I really was not going to say that."
"Insanity?"
"That's about right. They don't recognize anyone and have no power of speech." Ginny looked sadly toward Alice's empty bed.
"Well, that's definitely not happening," Lily said with conviction.
"Tell me about it," Ginny replied. "Harry better kick his butt into gear if he's going to kill Tom before Tom kills any of you."
"The Room of Requirement's still here, right?" Hermione asked suddenly.
"And why wouldn't it be?" Ginny responded.
"Room of Requirement? What's that?" Sirius asked.
"Very special room, nothing important, you know," Ginny pretended to wave him off a little carelessly.
"Well, why don't we check it out?" James asked. "I think it would prove interesting, Mr. Padfoot, Mr. Moony. Do you agree?"
"Anytime," Sirius said carelessly.
"Now's better than never," Remus consented wearily.
"Well, let's go then," Ginny said brightly.
Please forgive my short attention span, and my reuse of chapter names. I love this chapter, even if it's just because Ginny has big long speeches. Isn't it funny? Luv, LysPotter