Swish and Flick
Severus was sitting alone on a park bench near the Spinner's End. He was early. He had left the house in a hurry to get away from his parents. His mind drifted to the nightmare his 'holiday' had turned into. The first few days had been relatively peaceful. His father was away most of the time and his mother left him to his devices, although she did take time to inquire him about his activities in school. The trouble began when his father arrived home on the Christmas Eve, drunk and staggering and full of rage. He had slapped his wife and abused her. He even tried to hit Severus but that was when he had passed out. Severus was thankful. Next few days were full of rows between his parents, where his father constantly blamed his wife and son for being magical.
Just then Lily arrived and Severus' trail of thought came to a halt. Her cheeks were pink from running.
"Hey, Sev!" She yelled and hugged him.
"Hello Lily." Severus smiled.
"How was your Christmas? Did you get my present?"
"Yes, yes I did. That was very kind of you. Listen I am sorry I couldn't get you anything."
"It's OK, Sev. But are you alright?"
"I am fine."
"Did you complete your homework? Will you help me out in Potions?"
"Of course! Where are you stuck?"
"The Pepper up potion. I think I forgot some of the ingredients. Can I have a look in yours?"
"I'll send you an owl with the complete list. Lily, " he said abruptly sounding suddenly anxious, "Did you read about the attack in Crawley?"
"How would I know?" Lily replied, "I don't get the Prophet."
" A few masked and hooded figures appeared in Crawley on the morning of 22nd and tortured some muggles in the vicinity."
"Did anyone die?" Lily asked in shock.
"No. The aurors arrived almost immediately."
"Oh, good! Poor muggles, they must have been terrified. But who were the hooded people? And why would they harm the muggles?" Lily asked curiously.
"Nevermind. You want to take a walk around here? I am freezing."
"Alright."
Lily was sitting with Sienna and Severus again on the way back to Hogwarts. After a few minutes of idle talk Lily finally asked, "Who were those hooded and masked people you were talking about the other day, Severus? Why do they torture the muggles?"
Severus and Sienna exchanged uncomfortable looks.
"Well, it's kind of their job?" Sienna said, uncertainly.
"What?"
"Lily, they follow the Dark Lord." Severus said in a low voice.
"Voldemort?"
"Don't say his name!" Severus winced.
"Let's not talk about that." said Sienna. Lily huffed at that but let the topic slide.
"Remus!" bellowed James and Sirius as they entered the common room. Remus jumped at that and his parchment slid on to the floor.
"You're back!" he smiled.
"How was your Christmas?" James asked.
"The usual. Mum and dad got me presents."
"Did you like ours?"
"Oh, I didn't open them."
"Why?" Sirius asked, mock hurt.
"Because I figured it would be something mum and dad would confiscate."
James and Sirius grinned sheepishly.
"So what did you get for me?"
"Dr. Filibuster's No Heat Wet Start Fireworks!"
"See what I meant?"
The three boys grinned.
They collected Peter from their dormitory and went down to the Great Hall for dinner.
"Remus, we need your help." said James brightly.
"No."
"That's rude." said Sirius mock offended.
"You are up to no good I can tell that. You won't be getting any of my help." Remus declared.
"But we had this brilliant idea on the way-"
"Move along there, Potter," said an irritated voice behind James.
"Always a pleasure, Evans!" James called back and made room for Lily to sit.
"So, how was your Christmas?" he said turning to look at her.
"The best! Because you weren't in it." Lily promptly replied.
James looked dejected at that. Lily softened up a bit and said, "I'm sorry. My Christmas was good."
"Mine too, Evans!" James brightened up immediately. Remus, Peter and Sirius were sniggering at him.
"So, Remus, we need you to find a spell that pokes people." Sirius continued.
"Pokes people?"
"Yes a spell that pokes people." Sirius enunciated.
"I'm not going to help you with that."
So half an hour later James, Sirius and Peter found themselves in the library to find out the desired spell themselves. Looking around James realised how rarely he visited this place.
"Where do you reckon we should start?" Sirius asked uncertainly.
"You promised me you would help me with the levitation charm. Let's do that first, please." Peter whined. "Flitwick is going to test us next week."
"Alright." James conceded grudgingly.
They found a desk for themselves. Sirius produced a quill and James showed Peter the wrist movements.
Even after half an hour they were with no success. James told him again, "Swish and flick. Like this."
Peter followed him and managed to keep the quill airborne for three whole seconds.
"There you go!" exclaimed his friends in unison and Peter promptly dropped the quill. All three of them looked at it with something bordering on hatred.
"Give it another try, Peter." James encouraged while Sirius gave him a disbelieving look. But try as he might, Peter swished and flicked desperately for the next few minutes to no avail.
Sirius was finally at the end of his patience.
"Merlin's beard, Peter!" He snapped, "Swish and flick, swish and flick, SWISH AND FLICK!"
Terrified, Peter jumped into action, waving his wand desperately and shouting "Wingardium Leviosa" at the top of his voice.
At once several books soared into the air and kept flying to the tune of Peter's wand. Sirius went from exasperated to exited in a matter of seconds and brandished his own wand, swishing and flicking at books at random, waving it in a motion similar to that of a conductor of an orchestra. James was highly amused and joined Sirius a minute later, both of them making the books dance in the air. Peter's books toppled to the ground after the initial excitement was over, but he too stared at the dancing books excitedly. None of them noticed the arrival of Madam Pince, the librarian, behind them until she shrieked at them to get out. The three boys ran for their lives wanting to put as much distance between themselves and the furious librarian. The didn't stop until they were halfway along the third floor corridor, panting heavily, but grinning at each other. There euphoria was short-lived as they heard a faint mewling and a second later Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat appeared out of nowhere. Sirius staggered back a few steps, knowing full well that Filch would arrive any minute now, and fell into what appeared to be a hole in the wall. James whirled around, panicked, when he heard Sirius' muffled "hmph" and scrambled through the hole himself. Peter, however, was rooted to the spot.
"C'mon Peter," James urged him, "you can stay there if you'd rather be caught by Filch." This seemed to bring the desired effect and Peter, too climbed through the hole, landing heavily on the cold stone floor.
"Ouch!" he yelled.
"Sssshhhhh" Sirius hushed him while James lit his wand and made sure that Peter wasn't hurt.
"Look!" Sirius gasped, his eyes alight with mischief. James followed his gaze to see an endless tunnel ahead. His eyes met Sirius' and the same thought seemed to be echoing through their heads. They looked at Peter and grinned. Peter gulped.
"Oh and yes I found the spell." Remus said casually after their fifth game of exploding snap. They were on their way back to London for the summer vacation.
James, Sirius and Peter had told about the passageway that had landed them into the Honeyduke's sweet shop in Hogsmeade. They had returned from there exitedly and planned on visiting again on the next Hogsmeade weekend for the older students. They had dragged along a reluctant Remus who was torn between curiosity and apprehension. Soon they realised that they could not open the passageway without a spell. Unable to return to the library themselves for obvious reasons they had set Remus to the task of finding the required spell.
"You kept that quiet!" Sirius now accused him.
"Well, I found a couple of spells and decided to try them, myself." said Remus as Sirius huffed.
"It sounds so much fun. Why didn't you take us along?" James demanded.
"Because I didn't want you to be banned from other parts of Hogwarts as well." Remus remarked.
"You know what this means, Remus, don't you?" Sirius asked slyly.
"What?" Remus became suddenly cautious.
"You are a rule-breaker too!" James said delightedly.
"It was an experiment." Remus said in a dignified way.
"Sure, an experiment in rule breaking." Peter teased.
"You don't want me to tell you the spell, after all?" Remus gave them a cheeky grin.
After a lot of pleading from James, Sirius and Peter, Remus relented.
"You have to tap the one eyed witch's hump and say 'dissendium'" he explained.
"That's all?" Peter asked as James and Sirius' eyes shone in anticipation.
"I guess?" Not for the first time, in the whole year, Remus wondered what fresh hell of mischief he had unleashed upon Hogwarts.
A/N : We are very sorry for the delay to upload this chapter! Do leave reviews and we'll post new chapters soon! ;-)