Disclaimer: I don't own the amazing world of Harry Potter and some of the stuff I write might be unconsciously stolen from good books I read.
The chapter that you have all been waiting for!
Chapter 5:
Puellae:
-: Perdie! Calm down. We're going to make the car explode if you get any more excited! And if this excitement is about making friends with the marauders, then you need to get rid of it now because the chances of you making friends with them are the same as the chances of them making friends with two Hufflepuffs! :- Bella (Miss Figg) is driving us to Kings Cross Station and Perdie is about to wet herself with excitement because she wants to become a marauder even though I keep telling her that they wouldn't accept girls even if we had stuff to offer them. She woke up at one this morning and that woke me up too, because, even if we were on the opposite sides of the world to each other, we would get up and go to bed at the exact same time which is very unfortunate for us because my internal clock makes us stay up and hers makes us get up at, at the latest, six every morning. Her excitement has been rubbing off on me all day, which means we've both had red hair (and I don't mean Lily Evans red, I mean pinky red) all day and I spilt all my cereal down my top this morning because of it.
-: Well, they might and Sirius seemed to like us in Diagon Alley. He might put in a good word for us, and it's not like our powers aren't going to give us an advantage, plus, knowing the future might help, and, because of you, we're both really smart. :-
I sighed. There's nothing like arguing with your mind-reading sister on a Tuesday morning when you're extremely tired because she woke you up at one and then wouldn't let you get back to sleep and even though she got up at the same time as you, somehow, she isn't even tired and it doesn't help if she can persuade you to do almost anything on a good day anyway.
-: Perdie there is absolutely no chance of them becoming friends with two Hufflepuffs and I can counteract all of the reasons you just gave me. Reason one: Sirius flirts with as many girls as possible to spite his mum. It doesn't mean that he actually likes us if he does that. Reason two: See reason one. Reason three: Our powers won't count for us unless we know how to control them extremely well and even if we do, it will be hard to stop out hair from going yellow if we change into someone for a prank like your hair did when you tried to trick me into thinking you were mum, not that it would've worked on me anyway. Reason four: You are not to tell anyone about what happens in the future no matter what, don't try and interrupt me you can say what you have to say afterwards. And lastly, reason five I'm muggle smart, not wizard smart, and even if I was, they have Remus, Sirius and James for that. I'm done now. :- And somehow, after all of that, my sister still has an argument.
-: Fine, I'll counteract your reasons. Where did you even learn that word because I definitely wouldn't use it if you didn't? Anyway, one, Sirius was talking to us, just like he talks to his friends, before he started flirting. Two, see above. Three, we cancontrol them, and I wasn't only talking about being metamorphmagi, and, even then, not only pranking. Four, I was talking about names and certain secrets, and seers tell people about the future so we can just pretend to be seers, so long as we take divination in third year and excel at it, which won't exactly be hard. Five, you study so you will be wizard smart, and its only Remus that's patient enough to organise prank spells and I'm sure that he wouldn't say no to our help, add that to him 'visiting his mother' and our raw power, I think we should be able to get rid of your power/smarts argument. :- How was she able to do that. Sometimes I don't think we share everything, such as an iron will or the best debate skills in every universe, which I think is very unfair, especially when you consider the fact that we argue enough to get us in trouble at least once a week.
"Girls stop arguing and get out. We've already been parked for a rather amusing ten minutes, which is how I know you're arguing because one of you, Perdita, I think, has been so jumpy with excitement that I thought you were going to cause an atomic explosion together." came Bella's voice from the front, but Perdita had somehow used accidental magic to silently apparate us out of the car which was very inconvenient as well as funny because there were muggles all around us but they probably thought that it was a trick of the light if they saw it at all. We grabbed two trolleys and started to load our trunks and owls out of the car and on to them. We were slightly late and the train was almost leaving as we got on. From a compartment near the door, I heard an argument brewing that I remembered from the sixth book and Perdie's face lit up.
-: Don't you dare. :- I threatened, but she ignored me and sprinted to the compartment before I could stop her. She flung open the door and said aloud;
"Oi, you two. Stop bothering this nice girl and, err, greasy thing, and come and sit with us."
"Not you again. If I were your sister, I would've committed suicide by now." Came the harsh reply from Lily, while she cast a sympathising glance in my direction, however the reply from Sirius was extremely different.
"I remember you two. C'mon James. They'll be far better company than Greasy Git and Ginger here."
"Don't insult her." This was said by two people at once and a wand was pointing at Sirius's head.
"Oooo, got yourself the pick of the boys already. C'mon. If I spend any more time in Greasy Git's company, I think it might start rubbing off on me." There was a shout of 'Tarantallegra' and a flash of light and Sirius's legs started jerking uncontrollably.
"I think that we can fix this, don't worry, just get him into a different compartment." Perdie said, and she and James half carried, half dragged him into the opposite compartment where one rather large and two very let down looking boys were sitting but we didn't pay much attention to them because Sirius's legs were speeding up. The large boy moved onto the same seat as the other two so we could lay him down and stand back.
-: Puell, I'm going to need your help for this. :- Perdie said and I knew exactly what she wanted us to do.
-: 3... 2... 1 :- "Finite incantatem" We said with our wands pointed at Sirius and before anyone could stop us we had cast it. It was stupid. It wasn't going to work. It was going to all go wrong and we'd get expelled for practising magic on a student before we even get to Hogwarts. It... worked! Without any side effects as well.
"Phew, it worked. And it's surprisingly good for our first proper spell, not counting the other ones because they weren't done with our wands." Perdie sighed with relief, which was a big mistake. Sirius started shouting about spells gone wrong and all the consequences it could have while James (and Perdie, once she realised what they were) started laughing about them. I took a look around to see who the other boys were and groaned. They were the other marauders and a boy that looked remarkably like Remus, but with a lot less clothing covering up his body and without the scars that I knew were on Remus's. I groaned. Once Perdie and James had stopped laughing and Sirius had finished his rant, Perdie also looked around and her face lit up, just like the more confident looking Remus' had when he realised who we were and I suspect it was because he heard Perdie's rant in diagon alley too.
"We're..."
"No need to tell us who you are. You're Wolfy Mcwolf Face one and two and the one currently trying to catch his chocolate frog is Mr Peter Pettigrew. Also, the two boys that look like our brothers but aren't, are James and Sirius." The five boys in the compartment looked at Perdie in shock because of her rude statement and Remus started stuttering.
"No, not that: your names. Remus and Romulus Lupin. Lupin means wolf and Remus and Romulus were raised by wolves. Don't tell me that you two have never noticed that before." Perdie replied, rolling her eyes before he gave himself away.
"We haven't, but how did you know our names and the other thing? And since you know ours, I think we deserve to know yours." Romulus raised his eyebrows expectantly and a bit defensively and protectively. Perdie replied with only a split second's hesitation.
"We're slightly clairvoyant and we know a lot more than just your names and darkest secrets but don't worry: even the secrets you don't know yet are safe with us. And our names are Perdita and Puellae Semper Simul." There were two bursts of laughter from the black-haired purebloods. "What?" I asked. They looked at each other and James said
"I'll explain. Your names are Latin. Perdita Puellae Semper Simul means Lost Girls Always Together. So, if you know our darkest secrets, do you also know Greasy Git's and the Slytherin's and the professor's."
"Well, yes but they are extremely private and we don't know all of the professor's secrets, only the headmaster's and we're not going to tell you them, but we have other things to offer, such as this." Perdie said and I was grateful for her not spilling everyone's darkest secrets, for now, but very ungrateful that she just metamorphed into a giant, black, hairy spider that took up the whole floor and made Peter jump up onto the seat that he had previously been sitting on and scream which made two prefects, one of which looked like liked Molly Weasley/Prewett rush into our compartment. The Gryffindor one sent a petrificus totalus charm at my sister which was right on target while the Slytherin one joined Peter with James and Sirius rolling around on the other seat laughing.
-: How long have you been practising that? :- I asked sceptically.
-: Only every time I tell you that I'm going to the toilet and take ages in there. :-
-: I thought you were just pulling extremely ridiculous faces in front of the mirror. :-
"Please undo the spell." I pleaded with the Gryffindor prefect. "That's my sister!" The prefect frowned but did that anyway and Perdie changed back leaving Sirius and James room to roll on the floor while laughing. Surprisingly, the Gryffindor started sniggering at the Slytherin, who I now recognise to be Lucius Malfoy.
"This isn't to be mentioned to anyone, ever." Hissed Malfoy in a threatening tone and he was answered by four massive grins from the Gryffindor, Sirius, James and Perdie accompanied by promises that they won't mention this moment to anyone but Malfoy didn't hear the 'this'. He stalked out and the Gryffindor quickly whispered.
"The charm to make things bigger is engorgio. It works on living creatures and you have approximately six and a half hours until the feast which usually lasts at least an hour and a half including announcements. The headmaster doesn't mind as much if the disturbances are after the feast than before it." Then she left.
"I like her!" Sirius, Perdie and James announced at once. I rolled my eyes. Of course, Perdie would be like them. She had been leaning towards them for years while I had been leaning more towards Remus. She even calls me Lupin sometimes, in an insulting tone, even though I know that she's only messing about because her all-time favourite character (this universe's wizard?) is Remus Lupin.
"Does anyone know why he was saying that stuff about Angergio or whatever it was though? 'Cause it sounded like she was trying to get us into trouble, and if we lose points for our house on the first day then no one will like us and we'll be losers" Came a meek voice from the direction of Peter.
"Of course." replied a much more confident one coming from Sirius. "He wants us to practise the engorgement charm on Perdita so that she can transform into a spider at the end of the feast and we can make her gigantic and we can keep our promise to the Slytherin Git number ten quadrillion and everyone will still know about his fear of spiders and it will be utterly chaotic. Engorgio" The last word was said with his wand out and pointed at Perdie. There was a loud bang and, just before Perdie was hit with a stream of flames, there was a blur of colour which ended up with Perdie sitting in Remus's lap on the floor beneath a hole through which a jumping person with black and green robes that was hopping about as if they were covered in hot coals that no one could see.
I stared wide eyed at Sirius but no one paid any attention to me because Sirius, James and Peter were all staring at Remus with their wands out and I gulped.
"How in the name of Merlin did you do that." demanded Sirius but before I could do anything, Perdie and Romulus had stood in front of him.
"It doesn't matter how: it only matters what he did and he just saved my life and your soul and sanity and freedom. How did you go so wrong with a simple engorgement charm anyway? And Perdie, please can you be a literal life saver and either show him how to do the spell or be the spell caster in this prank." It was the least subtle change of subject since Perdie said that she was tired at bedtime (which is the only time that she is definitely not tired every day and that's not a lie because I would be able to tell if it was) because our mum was asking why there was a blanket of dog fur covering her actual blanket when Perdie got a stray dog that she claimed looked like Sirius Black's animagus form (a more accurate description would be it looked like a chocolate-coloured hairy toast rack aka it looked nothing like Sirus) and brought it home, but he took a hint and went along with it.
"Why do you trust her more than me? I was just a little overenthusiastic and it turned out brilliantly. That person that got hit once came up to me and Reggie and stopped us leaving the family gathering to try and get some of Andie's refillable colour changing nail varnish that she said we could borrow for a prank, so we could fill some balloon bombs with it." He made a puking motion and Perdie looked thoughtful. It was her prank idea face. I read her mind and she was thinking about making a really complicated and almost evil potion based on what Sirius had just said.
-: Don't you dare. :- I said in what I thought sounded like a threatening tone and I added an extremely threatening glance as well, just to be safe, but she only gave me a mischievous grin that I knew meant that she was going to mention it to the marauders later if they stayed friends. I smacked my head and everyone looked at me.
"Sirius, Puell will show you how to cast the spell now."
-: I don't know it. :-
"Oh." came the very disappointed reply from my twin and she explained why to everyone.
"I-I know it." came a voice that was even meeker than Peter's.
"Brilliant, can you show me, please." Perdie smirked (luckily no one else saw it) because she knew that Sirius wouldn't have said please for anyone but Remus: not even James in seventh year would be able to get a please from him. Remus showed Sirius how to do the wand movement and corrected him when he tried on a quill and did it a bit too extravagantly again.
"All right, everyone on the seats and legs off the floor." Sirius announced once he had got it right three times in a row. "Engorgio!" Perdie ducked before it could hit her.
"If you're this enthusiastic for every prank that you do, I'd be surprised if any of them worked. Let me transform first." She transformed and Sirius cast the spell again. This time it hit her and she started to grow bigger and bigger until we all had to evacuate the compartment and Remus had to look in his book to see how to stop her from growing.
"Draw a slanted line downwards with your wand and say stop to stop the enlarged object from becoming any larger or if you want to shrink said object draw a v shape and say reducio." Remus read aloud. Sirius performed the first spell perfectly and Perdie was squashed up inside the carriage in a lot of pain but no longer growing.
"Shrink her. She's in a very painful position and she can't change back." Everyone stared at me. I wondered why but then I remembered that it was the first-time that any of them had heard me speak. The Gryffindor prefect from earlier came to see why I was shouting and saw that we were in the corridor instead of a compartment. When she saw why, she shrunk Perdie and allowed her to change back to our usual form. After a cheeky grin from the prefect, we all went back to our seats and spent the rest of the journey up to the arrival of the snack trolley talking about pranks that we had done and playing exploding snap and muggle card games that Perdie, me and sometimes Peter introduced the purebloods and the two Lupins to.
When the snack trolley arrived, Sirius saw that Remus and Romulus didn't have any money for lunch so he got everyone to give them something. Sirius, Perdie and I gave them each a chocolate frog, Peter gave them each a pumpkin pastie and James gave them each a sugar quill and liquorice wand which Remus instantly spat out. It turns out that he had somehow enchanted Romulus's wand while no one was looking and it made his entire body start flashing each of the house colours four times each until it wore off. This started a mini-prank war that came to a brutal end when a firework got set lose around the train and ended up in the compartment full of Slytherin seventh years behind us who tied us up and left us under the seats so Perdie and I had to try to get a bit smaller in order to wriggle out and untie everyone. From then on, we played bean boozled with a spare box of Bertie Bots until the train pulled into the station.
