A/N: Over hundred reviews! Thank you so much people, you comments/suggestions/questions are greatly apprecitated and they encourage me to write. Here's the next chapter, I hope you like it.
Thank you for Shadeirion for his/her suggestion of what to do with Dumbledore. I may use it or something similar, if I can pull it off.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
'Thoughts'
"Talking"
It had been two months since the beginning of Hogwarts' first prank war and the whole school was on their guard. It was Halloween and something huge was bound to happen. Sky had gotten over his boredom and buried himself in pranking, training, experimenting with potions and reading through the school's massive library. He had decided to continue his ongoing quest to find a cure for Lycanthropy and was using a lot of his time on researching and brewing.
He had fallen into a routine where he trained and brewed at night and slept in all classes but Flitwick and Snape's. In Flitwick's classes he stayed awake as Flitwick made everything so fun and interesting, and in Snape's classes only because he loved brewing. In his free time he usually read through the library or planned his next pranks, while keeping an eye on things in the castle.
Flitwick still hadn't found out that Sky was the new agent among the students and today was the day Sky would reveal himself to him. He was looking forward to have someone to discuss things and maybe Flitwick would give him something to do when he was bored.
Sky entered the Great Hall with other Hufflepuffs for dinner, dressed up in a costume as was requested. He had chosen to be a ninja and was carrying his katana and throwing stars with him, which of course were charmed to look like fake.
The Great hall was decorated with pumpkins and spider webs and the school's ghosts were all floating around the room. Sky noticed that many of the students, mostly the older ones and Slytherins hadn't bothered to dress up, even though it was requested by the staff. He concealed a smirk as he thought of his coming prank for those who had refused to dress up.
Sky sat down with the rest of his house and started eating. Only ten minutes after the beginning of the dinner a shriek was heard from a fourth year Slytherin, who hadn't bothered to dress up. Her hair had turned to every possible color and looked like a rainbow and her clothes were transformed to a colorful sheet – a very much like the pillowcase the house elves wore. One by one all the students and Snape who hadn't dressed up had a colorful hair and clothes or were dressed up as something embarrassing. Their voices were also changed to very high-pitched.
The whole hall burst out laughing and started cheering. Dumbledore, who was dressed as Merlin tried to calm them down, but was interrupted by Quirrell, who ran into the hall looking frantic.
"Troll, in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know." Quirrell said and fainted on the floor – forwards. The student's cheering turned to screams of horror. 'Who the hell faints forwards?' Sky thought narrowing his eyes, but had no time to start pondering Quirrell's oddness – he needed to find the troll and make sure that no one would get to the Stone.
Sky started walking quickly after the other students, who were following the prefects back to their common rooms as Dumbledore instructed. 'Yes, tell your students to go back to their common rooms, it's a good thing that Slytherins' common room isn't in the dungeons.'
"Slytherins gather up in the library! It's too dangerous to go to the dungeons." Sky yelled at them disguising his voice, before he shadowed himself into an empty classroom and pulled out the Map.
"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good" he murmured and opened the Map. He could see the students returning to their common rooms – except for the Slytherins who went to the library – and all the teachers, but Dumbledore and Snape, hurrying to the dungeons. Sky cursed out loud as he saw the troll in a corridor just outside the girls' bathroom, where a Ravenclaw first year, Hermione Granger, whom Sky had shared a compartment with, was.
Sky quickly shadowed into the bathroom and cast a disillusionment charm on himself. He saw the troll enter the bathroom and Hermione started screaming in horror. Sky cast a quick wandless stunner towards the girl and then jumped on the trolls' back. He used one of his martial arts techniques – which usually were used to break tile walls in competitions – to break the trolls' skull and it fell to the floor dead, its club falling from its hand. Sky took Hermione's wand and cast the Wingardium Leviosa spell to cover up his tracks. He picked up the Map again and saw Snape come from forbidden third floor corridor. 'I wonder what he was doing in there…Gotta keep a closer eye on him too.'
Sky hid himself in the shadows as the four teachers McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape and Quirrell entered the bathroom.
"Oh my, is it dead?" McGonagall asked.
"Yes, its skull has split in two." Snape said sneering as he checked the troll. Sky couldn't help but notice the blood and a limb on his leg as he walked. 'Must've tried to get past Fluffy.'
"What could've done that?" McGonagall wondered.
"T-t-here i-is a g-girl." Quirrell stuttered pointing at the unconscious form of Hermione.
"Merlin's beard, it's Miss Granger!" McGonagall exclaimed and hurried to her. "Thank Merlin, she's only unconscious. Enervate."
Hermione stirred and opened her eyes looking around with a confused look on her face.
"Miss Granger? How are you feeling?" McGonagall asked.
"Pr-professor McGonagall? I'm fine, just a little dizzy. What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us. We found you here unconscious with a dead troll." Flitwick said gently.
"I-I don't know, I can't remember." Hermione said.
"What is the last thing you remember, Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked.
"I didn't want to go to the feast because one of my classmates said something that made me upset, so I came here. I don't know how long I had been here when that troll entered the room. I remember starting to scream and then everything went black." She said.
"Well, that doesn't explain what happened to the troll." McGonagall said. "Are you sure you don't remember anything else, Miss Granger?"
"Yes, that's it."
"Severus?" McGonagall asked turning to face Snape who had been investigating the troll.
"It would seem that the troll was killed with its own club. The club was levitated above it and dropped to its head, which cracked the skull. The only magical signature I can find belongs to Miss Granger." Snape said sneering before he took Hermione's wand and muttered "Prior Incantato"
"As I thought, the last spell performed was Wingardium Leviosa."
"Y-You mean I killed the t-troll?" Hermione asked horrified.
"Yes."
"Well, that's it then." McGonagall said. "It's better if I take Miss Granger to the Hospital Wing. You shall not be punished, Miss Granger, as you did it on self-defense, but I advise you not to wander around the castle alone." She continued sternly and led her out of the bathroom.
Sky shadowed out of the room to his common room to make an appearance and decided it was time for him to go and see Flitwick.
Meanwhile in Dumbledore's office, Dedalus Diggle was giving his report to Dumbledore.
"I finally tracked him down just a few hours ago and I can tell you that Black doesn't know where the boy is. Hell the man has been looking for him since he got out of Azkaban." Diggle said. "He was in some Muggle tavern dressed in rags, drinking himself silly, probably trying to forget what day today is. Lad needs to get over his guilt and do something productive. He was a good Auror back then, if I remember correctly."
"Yes, yes." Dumbledore said trying to sound like he felt sorry for Sirius for being in such a bad condition. Inwardly, however, he was cheering – At last something good happened. He had been going mad for the past months with all the bad news and the pranking going on, but now everything was getting better. The boy wouldn't be corrupted by Black and Dumbledore's job would be much easier.
"We need to arrange a search for young Harry. Call the old grew apart from Remus Lupin, I have another mission for him." He said and Diggle nodded before leaving the office.
'Yes, I can send Lupin to spy on Black… He will never betray me after everything I have done for him…"
Sky had to wait for an hour before he was free to go and see Flitwick as the teachers were watching over them in the common rooms. Finally the teachers announced that the danger was over and the students were free to spend the last hours before the curfew out of the common room.
Sky shadowed into Flitwick's office and saw to his fortune that he was alone. He decided to have a little fun as he hadn't had a good duel since coming to Hogwarts. He waved his hand over the room and activated all the possible privacy charms that kept even the Headmaster from overpassing them, before emerging from the shadows and casting the Rictusempra charm on Flitwick. Flitwick reacted fast and dodged the spell answering it with a stunner. They danced around the office circling each other and casting spells. Sky decided that he had had his fun and ended the duel by casting the Patronus charm to deceive Flitwick and following it a stunner, which brought the professor down.
Sky walked to the professor and revived him. Flitwick recovered surprisingly quickly and was on his feet pointing his wand towards Sky.
"Who are you?"
Sky smirked letting his hood down.
"Mr. Evans what is the meaning of this?"
"My apologies agent Mars, I haven't had a good duel in a while and couldn't resist the temptation."
"You – agent Shade?"
"It is an honor to meet you." Sky said and bowed to him the Unspeakable greeting.
"Likewise." Flitwick said returning the bow. "I must admit, Ray Evans never even crossed my mind, when I tried to figure out your identity. It is a well thought disguise." He continued sounding impressed.
"Thank you. I've come to inform you of my suspicions and observations this evening regarding the troll."
"It was you who killed the troll, wasn't it? Not Miss Granger." Flitwick guessed.
"Yes, I did, but I thought it would be more convenient to not to draw attention to myself and have Dumbledore breathing down my neck as he's so busy searching for the Boy-Who-Lived." Sky said smirking.
"I quite agree. So what have you found out?"
"There is something suspicious about Quirrell. He is known for his specialty with trolls, so I find it very odd that he would come running frantic to the Headmaster as he could've dealt with it on his own. There is also the strange smell around him and the fake stutter." Sky said.
"He fakes his stutter?" Flitwick asked. "How do you know?"
"It doesn't come naturally to him and sometimes he forgets it. When someone asks something from him, it gets worse." Sky said. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but he didn't stutter at all when he announced the presence of the troll."
"I see. I will have to watch him more closely in the future." Flitwick mused. "Anything else?"
"Yes, I suggest you keep an eye on Snape too."
"Snape? Why him?"
"For one, he is a Death Eater and Voldemort is after the Stone, and secondly he tried to get past Fluffy this evening and got bitten."
"How can that be? He is one of the Stone's protectors and Dumbledore says he was a spy for him during the war."
"The Old Coot says a lot of things agent Mars. I advise you to not trust and follow him so blindly. Maybe then you will avoid being one of his pawns." Sky said. "I shall report to you, if I find something more. Goodnight."
Sky left the room leaving a thoughtful Flitwick to his musings, and shadowed to the Room of Requirement. It was time to continue his daily routine and write a letter to Marcus of his observations. 'Maybe things will start getting interesting now.'
Back in London the months went by quickly with Sirius and Remus continuing their training. Seth, who was their principal trainer, had briefly hinted that they might be allowed to join the active agents and go on missions after the Christmas holidays, which encouraged them to train harder. Sirius and Remus were both tired of the everlasting training an hour after hour and a day after day and they were ready for some change in their lives. Of course they knew that the training would continue even after their trainee time, but the missions would bring a nice change for their routine.
They had also heard from Sky of Dumbledore's plans to track Sirius down and Sirius had conveniently fooled Diggle by pretending to be a drunken ex-convict trying to find his godson. Dumbledore had also gotten in touch with Remus and asked him not so subtly to Spy on Sirius, and Remus of course had agreed. He was to give Dumbledore monthly reports of Sirius' search and inform him right away if he found some clue on Harry's whereabouts. Sirius and Remus had gotten a good laugh after that meeting, thinking of how stupid Dumbledore really was to think that Remus would ever betray Sirius trust.
Now however, it was few days before Christmas and Sirius was pacing in the living room of Lux Manerium. He was nervously waiting for Remus to arrive from the DoM and was all the time checking his preparations. It had been three years since they had gotten together and Sirius had decided to prepare them a nice evening at home with romantic dinner and a lot of chocolate, but that wasn't why Sirius was so nervous. He was nervous because he had decided to ask Remus to marry him and he wasn't sure what he would say.
Sirius knew that Remus loved him and wanted to be with him, but his old insecurities might get in the way of his feelings. Remus had always felt he wasn't good enough because of his Lycanthropy and even though it was better now that he had accepted the wolf, Sirius knew that the insecurities were still there. Sirius himself had never cared about Remus' condition and loved him equally with or without his disease.
He heard the door open and saw Remus enter the house covered in snow. He took off his coat and put it on the stand before walking into the living room where Sirius waited for him with a glass of wine, which he accepted with a raise of an eyebrow.
"What's the occasion?" He asked as Sirius led them to the dining room.
"Don't tell me you have forgotten our anniversary, Remy." Sirius said mock offended.
"Of course not." Remus said smiling and pecked Sirius on the lips. "In fact I have a gift for you." He said and handed him a small box. Sirius opened it and found a beautiful watch inside of it.
"It was my dad's." Remus said and Sirius looked at him with a gentle look in his eyes. Remus' father had died the night he was turned into a werewolf, trying to protect his son and Sirius knew how much giving this watch meant to him as he only had a few things from his dad.
"Thank you Remus." Sirius said hugging him. "I love it. Now let's eat before the food gets cold."
The sat down on the table and Remus looked at the food with a hint of suspicion in his eyes. "Please tell me that you didn't make this yourself, Sirius." Remus said. "You know I love you, but you're really bad at cooking."
"Ah, you wound me, Moony." Sirius said pretending to be hurt before he laughed. "Don't worry, Remus, I ordered it from that nearby restaurant."
They laughed and started eating the food and chatting until they had eaten and moved to the living room for dessert, where Sirius had put up a picnic in front of the fireplace. They sat down on the blanket and Sirius opened the small basket and took out a bowl of chocolate mousse and two spoons.
"Chocolate mousse!" Remus exclaimed happily. "My favorite."
"I know." Sirius said laughing as he watched his chocolate-loving boyfriend almost drooling at the sight of the mousse and handed him one of the spoons.
"Mmmm…" Remus moaned as he tasted the mousse. "I love you Sirius." He said.
"I love you too Remus." Sirius smiled and they ate their dessert sometimes feeding each other until the bowl was empty and Remus leaned into Sirius as they watched the dancing flames in the fire place.
"Remus?" Sirius said after a while turning to look at Remus who was leaning onto his chest.
"Hmm?" Remus answered a bit sleepily.
"Will you marry me?" He asked opening a small box where was a beautiful golden ring.
Remus turned to look at him and Sirius could see the deep love he had for him and happiness but also a small bit of fear in them.
"Y-You want to marry me?" Remus asked his voice filled with emotion. "Me, who have nothing to give you…"
"You have everything to give me, Remus." Sirius said gently taking Remus face between his hands. "Your love and friendship is all I need."
"But, you know that Britain doesn't support gay marriages, let alone let someone like me marry." Remus said quiet tears running from his eyes.
"You're making excuses Remus." Sirius sighed. "I love you Remus, and I want to marry you. Just imagine we can get married without any obstacles that come from the fact that we're both male or your furry little problem and answer me; will you marry me?"
"Of course, I will marry you, Sirius, I love you." Remus said his teary eyes shining with happiness. "I just never imagined someone would want to marry me."
"I love you too, Remus." Sirius said glowing with happiness as he wiped the tears from Remus eyes and slipped the ring into his finger. "And while you're right that we can't get married here, there are a lot of other countries that support gay marriages and where your condition won't be a problem."
Remus smiled widely and kissed Sirius deeply before he snuggled back to his chest sighing contently.
"I don't think I have ever felt this happy." He said.
"Me neither." Sirius said burying his face into Remus hair.
"When will we hold the ceremony?"
"How about summer?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah, summer's good." Remus said. "I want Sky to be there and he can't come from Hogwarts before summer."
"Summer it is." Sirius said. "We need to tell Sky the good news before we tell anyone else, apart from maybe Marcus. He will kill us or prank us to death if he's last to know."
"You're right." Remus chuckled. "He hates it when he doesn't know what's going on here while he's stuck in Hogwarts with Dumbles. We can tell him when we go there for Christmas."
"Yeah." Sirius smiled.
"Happy anniversary, Remus." He said and gave him a lingering kiss.
"Happy anniversary, Sirius."
Nymphadora Tonks was having the worst Christmas possible. Her parents were out of the country and she had had to stay in Hogwarts for Christmas. One of her dorm mates had seen her change her hair color and told everyone that she was a Metamorphmagus and now everyone wanted to see her change her appearances. If she refused they would start bulling her and calling her names, as if she wasn't already having a hard time with her first name. Many times she had cursed her mother for naming her that. Nearly all the girls in Hufflepuff and a few in the other houses were mocking her and she had no friends.
It was Christmas Eve and Tonks was crying in an empty classroom near the Hufflepuff common room, clutching her medallion. Like many times before, when she felt extremely miserable or lonely she would hide in some empty room and reminisce her past. She changed her looks to her original appearance, jet black hair and blue eyes, and thought about her first real family, she could remember.
Tonks couldn't remember how long she had been crying, when a soft voice came from above her and asked:
"You okay?"
She looked up and saw a boy wearing Hufflepuff robes, looking down at her concerned look in his glazed eyes. Tonks remembered seeing the boy in class when Snape yelled at him for not paying attention, even though he did. He just didn't look like he did, being blind. An odd look passed through the boy's face when Tonks looked at him, but she couldn't place it. A moment of silence passed before the boy spoke again his voice barely above a whisper:
"Dora?"
A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me what you think.
IMPORTANT: From now on my updates will be less frequent as I have reached the point where I no longer have chapters already written. I also have exams coming in a few months so I need to concentrate on reading quite a bit, but this does NOT mean that I will abandon this story, I just won't be able to update as often as I have. Thanks.
-Dalnim