Chapter 7

It was too much to expect that the Slytherin contingent would leave the Marauders alone, and they were having a meeting to compare notes on various research about Remus when Sirius held up a hand. They had convened in an attic room with water tanks and a few long-forgotten student trunks which made convenient seating, and Severus had known the banishing spell to get rid of all the dust, and James had found his way into the school kitchens and had made nice at the elves to get indigestible pastries with jam and cream, so all was perfect.

"What?" said Severus, testily, having been about to launch into his efforts with rune carving.

"Rats," said Sirius, laconically, moving with easy grace to the side of the room. He reached swiftly behind a water tank and yanked out Avery, who patently did not know the dust banishing spell.

"What a dirty object!" said Petunia.

"It looks like Avery…" said James,

"And it smells like Avery…" added Sirius,

"But no pure blood like Avery would demean himself to be covered in dust, when the spell to get rid of it is so easy," said Severus. "Even if he needed his house elf to do it for him, being too feeble to do it himself."

James opened his mouth to protest that he hadn't known the spell, and shut it again. This was about humiliating Avery, not worrying about who knew the spell.

"It must be someone disguised as Avery," said Sirius.

"Well all that dust and all those cobwebs are an effective disguise of anyone," said James. "Ooh look, spiders all over his robes!"

Avery yelped in some consternation; he was not fond of spiders.

"We need to brush him off," said Sirius, doing so with more vigour than was strictly necessary, being more akin to a light beating.

"We need to shake 'n'vacc him," giggled Petunia.

"We can shake him with the jelly legs jinx and the tarantallegra curse," said Severus, suiting actions to words. Avery danced on wobbly legs, sobbing with frustration and terror.

Severus cancelled the jinxes.

"All right, Avery, we've let you know what we think of sneaking little spies," he said. "And we could do a lot worse to you but we aren't incipient death eaters."

"Incipient? You been swallowing dickers again, Sev mate?" asked Sirius.

"Hush, Siri, it's a good word," said Lily.

"I eat dictionaries for breakfast with thesauruses for dessert," said Severus. "I found it when I was looking up something else in a spell book I didn't understand, okay? And it was a jolly good word."

"Yeah, though I can think of other good words to suit Avery and his kind," said Sirius.

"Sure you can, but there are ladies present," said James. "Sev, you weren't going to let him go?"

"Seven on one is a bit despicable, really," said Severus. "Or even the few of us who actively did anything. Hell, with Unsavoury Avery, any one of us on him is an overkill. I thought we might send him back to Mulciber and let him moan that we didn't want him spying on us."

"Oh no, Prince, please, he'll hurt me!" whined Avery.

"Then grow a pair and hurt him back," said Severus. "One more jinx to help you on your way, it will wear off in under a minute," and he waved his wand in a complex pattern with the words "Hevea vulcandum spherico!"*

Avery became a rubber ball, and Severus kicked him out of the attic door and down the steep steps where he might he heard bouncing and howling as he did so.

"Neat jinx," said James.

"Thanks," said Severus.

"Wait, you made that up?"

"Sure I did. I was reading a treatise on transfiguration by shape and material, and it looked jolly interesting. It's only his outer layer that's rubber, I didn't mess with his organs, so don't look at me like that, Lily."

"Well, you know what Madam McGonagall said about human transfiguration," said Lily.

"It isn't, not as such," said Severus. "It's just a topological rearrangement with an exterior change because if I kicked him downstairs without changing his robes and outer skin to rubber, it would break bones. This way he's bruised and unhappy but not seriously hurt."

"Oh, ok," Lily bit her lip. "I guess you did think it through fully then."

"I did."

"Well we bow to your clever arse," said James, kow-towing floridly.

"Idiot," said Severus. He knew fine well that if James or Sirius had been capable of inventing a spell they would not have considered protecting the boy with a rubber exterior; but maybe Lily having a go at him, and his explanation might be a step to making them less thoughtless.

"That was funny, especially as it won't really hurt him," said Remus. "And as you were so rudely interrupted, Sev, shall we have the cream buns now and then you report?"

"Good idea," agreed Severus.

"I already had mine," said James.

"Oh well, you can watch us eat ours," said Sirius. "No, Petunia Evans, don't you dare share with him; if the greedy toerag couldn't wait, there's no reason for him to get more."

The meeting proceeded smoothly after this, and Severus demonstrated how he was improving his stone carving. Lily had written an essay on the magical effects of the moon, covering its effect on various plants as well as on werewolves.

"I reckon if you can get the amulet ready by the apogee, the dark of the moon, which is around the twentieth of this month, it should protect him more," she said. "It'll be there to help him resist the effects every day as the moon waxes."

"Good one," said Severus. "I've a few days in hand, I'll do one more practice one, and then the real one. Remus, have you been practising chanting the runes?"

"I have," said Remus. "And actually I found it calming and helped me to focus right from the first when I rejoined school after my, er, return to normal. I think I'm going to chant the runes daily anyway."

"If it helps you, that's all good, mate," said Sirius, punching Remus' arm lightly.

The sequel to this was when Lily and Petunia came round a corner to hear screams coming from a classroom. There was also Lucius Malfoy's brutal laugh.

"We can't do this alone," said Lily, tight faced. "You go find the others; I'll see if I can find a teacher."

Petunia nodded and sprinted for Gryffindor tower. Lily set off towards the main hall, and almost ran into Argus Filch.

"Oh Mr. Filch, am I glad to meet you!" she said. "Malfoy is torturing someone in a classroom, and my sister and I couldn't handle him on our own!"

"Well, I got the technical authority," said Filch, reluctantly, "And that Prince boy made me some rune stones to help with basic cleaning spells, but I ain't sure …."

"Petunia is getting the others," said Lily.

"Ar, well, in that case, I'm game," said Filch. "Flogging's too good for that little snot-nosed piece of filth."

"I'm not sure I actually disagree with you," said Lily. "This way, sir."

Lily and Filch arrived at the classroom first, where Avery was stood upon a table, his robes tied up about his neck while Malfoy led Mulciber and other first year Slytherin in casting burning hexes at his legs.

"Merlin's beard!" cried Lily.

"Caught you redhanded, you little creeps," said Argus.

Malfoy whirled around.

"There's only the squib and the mudblood; get them!" he cried. "Incendio!"

Lily was glad of the shield charm Severus had taught her, and as soon as she had one to protect herself, she cast one on Argus Filch too. The door next to her was burning merrily, however. The first years were not as adept at curses as Malfoy was, and there was a knot of them who hesitated to cast any spells at a member of staff. Mulciber was not amongst the number of the reluctant, and Lily had no compunction in copying what Severus had done to Avery in casting the jelly leg jinx and the tarantallegra curse. That was one opponent largely nullified, for dancing wildly on wobbling legs made his aim rather wild. Lily ducked as a rather nasty curse struck the wall and a bit of masonry came crashing down beside her.

And then there were curses streaming over her shoulder, and Malfoy was being hit by a weird selection of curses that left him giggling wildly and dancing in mid air as slugs poured out between giggles.

"Hands on your heads, the rest of you," said Severus. "Madam McGonagall is on her way."

"And has arrrrrived," said the Scottish witch. "Aguamenti!" A stream of water from her wand had the fire under control. "My goodness! How did ye manage tae do that tae Mr. Malfoy?"

"Tickling curse from me," said James.

"Slug vomiting curse from me," volunteered Peter.

"Tarantallegra from me," said Sirius

"And I levitated him, and added 'verticalis' to 'Wingardium leviosa', said Severus.

The junior Slytherin had by now got their hands rapidly on their heads, except Mucliber, who was wobbling about wildly, and Avery, who had collapsed into a heap, sobbing.

"Please, Madam McGonagall, I think there are some of them who were threatened with the same if they didn't join in," said Lily. "They weren't casting very enthusiastically at Avery, and they didn't attack Mr. Filch and me."

"Perhaps, my dear, you'd be good enough to point them out."

"David Greengrasse, Emmeline Urquhart, Abelard Cooper and Dawn Cuffe," said Lily.

"Very well, you four may take Mr. Avery to the hospital wing, and wait for me there," said McGonagall. "Mr. Mulciber, Mr. Crabbe, Miss Bulstrode, I will see ye in my office… dear me, a most uncomfortable set of jinxes. Who was rrrresponsible for breaking bits off the castle?"

"That was Mulciber, but he might have been casting at me, and his aim was off," said Lily.

"Indeed! And can ye reca' the incantation?"

Lily frowned.

"I thought it was something about fringes."

"Would that be 'confringo'?"

"Yes, Madam McGonagall."

"The blasting curse! Well just as well his aim was disrupted!" McGonagall was shocked. "Mr. Mulciber, you and Mr. Malfoy will be accompanying me tae see the headmaster."

"Reckon if we get to the hospital wing we can subvert those reluctant Slytherin before McGonagall gets there," said Severus.

"Sub… you said what?" said James.

"Subvert. Turn to our side. Gain recruits in the fight against bullies and death eaters," said Severus.

"Isn't defeating them enough?" asked Sirius.

"No of course it isn't you poor prune," said Severus, tightly. "We have a golden opportunity here."

"He's right," said Lily. "They were reluctant and Avery is not happy with Mulciber, and if we offer an olive branch, on the lines of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', and offer to stick up for them, we can stop Malfoy turning them into death eaters."

"I don't suppose Malfoy will be in school much longer, he'll get expelled," said James.

"Actually, I don't think he will," said Severus. "I bet he goes by the maxim 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. And while Malfoy is in school, he's under some kind of control, not out there running riot. The death eaters are getting bold, they have been leaving the bodies of tortured muggles where people can find them. And the ministry is doing nothing."

"And in a couple of years' time, Malfoy is going to be out there with my darling cousin Bellatrix, who enjoys torturing people, along with her husband and brother-in-law," said Sirius.

"More runes," said Severus.

"You're taking verbal shortcuts again," said Petunia.

"Yes, but you know where I'm going," said Severus.

"Yes, you mean reversing what your granddad did for me, and limiting his magic, don't you?"

"That was the idea," said Severus.

"We'll never manage to do it," said James.

"We will if we stalk him in that invisibility cloak of yours and nab him on a visit to Hogsmead," said Severus. "Drag him into the Shrieking Shack, since we know full well it's not haunted by anything except Remus, all of us masked, and we tattoo him."

"It's … it's not very nice," said Lily.

"Lily, do you really think that your parents are going to be safe, after all we've done against him, once he's adult and free of the wand restrictions? Because I don't suppose for one moment that he's going to feel any compunction about killing them, and messily too," said Severus, roughly. "And that leaves us with a need to neutralise him one way or another. I don't want to damage my soul by killing him. Putting a magical restraint on him, however, to turn him into a squib, means he's unharmed and yet of no worry to any of us."

"Actually, Sev, it's brilliant," said Sirius. "I know there are magical restraints which do the same thing, hand cuffs and collars. They use them to restrain prisoners who are dangerous, in the Wizgamot. I think they stop werewolves turning voluntarily as well."

"Who'd want to?" Remus shuddered.

"Evil gits like wassisface who bit you," said Peter.

"Greyback," supplied Remus.

"Yeah, him."

"Right, Sirius, that's your project to find out about," said Severus.

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Library work?" suggested Severus, sarcastically. "Failing that, you could pretend to your father that you've stopped rebelling, and ask him about your position as heir in the wizgamot, and ask him about how dangerous criminals are restrained. In more detail than you know."

"Oh. Okay," said Sirius. "I hate my family, you know, especially my mother."

"Well use more mustard," quipped James.

"I know, Siri, but this is to help rid the world of people like your family," said Severus.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that," said Sirius.

"And maybe if you show more respect to tradition, you might be able to stop your little brother joining the death eater types of his year," said James.

"If I cared."

"He's your brother; I don't have any siblings. I'd give a lot for a brother, to take care of and help," said James.

"Huh, you wouldn't want mine, he's a sneak and a blood snob."

"He'll grow out of the first and the second is your parents' fault and we can break him of it," said Severus.

They had reached the hospital wing by this time, and were ready to reason with Slytherin children.

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* Hevea, the rubber tree, vulcandum, which must be vulcanised, spherico to a ball