Harry Potter

Marauders In 1997

Chapter Nine: The Return

Disclaimer - I own nada de JK

Authors Note!

PLEASE DON'T HATE ME!! heh great way to start this off eh? Well I'm sorry it's taken me forever to update when I promised you all I'd update asap if I got 20 reviews... although I didn't get 20 reviews, I had to update before I was drownded in guilt! But I just hope you guys all like this chapter!

Dedication

I am dedicating this chapter to my new bird who was brought home today. Everyone, meet my green and yellow parakeet, Tib!

XXX

"Alright mousekateers, I'm in charge, so you all have to listen to me," Sirius grinned, whipping a few strands of his shaggy hair out of his face. "If you find one of these hosecrows, you let me know right away!"

Neville raised his hand. Sirius grinned, "That's what I like to see, a follower respecting his leader, yes Neebettle?"

"Erm, first off I think they're called, um… horcruxes, not er, hosecrows, and secondly my name is… Neville, not Neebettle." Neville corrected him timidly.

Remus let out a low laugh, a smirk spread on his face. Sirius glared at Neville, "I'm watching you, Longbooty! You're on the top of my stupid smart alecs list and – shut up Remus, you're right behind him!"

Remus rolled his eyes, "We're not going to get anything done with you in charge. I don't know if this Harry really knows who you are. If he did, he surely would not put you in charge.

"You're just jealous because he likes me more, Moony. Besides, if you stay on my good side, I'll give you credit when I find those hose crows." Sirius said jokingly.

"I don't think we'll find the horcruxes," Neville stated sadly, ignoring the others' hard glares.

"Why don't you think we'll find them loonybutt! What makes you think we're so inferior to the other groups!" Sirius asked indignantly.

Neville blinked back anger at Sirius and explained his reasoning. "When we were put into groups, Hermione's face—it looked so doubting. It was like she didn't think we could do it, that there was something wrong with our group."

"Well, besides me this group is pretty strange, I mean there's you, Neville… must I say more. Then there's Moony. The fact that he spends 89.5 of his time in the library tells you everything. And there's still that little blonde who doesn't say much, but when she does it doesn't make sense." Sirius said listing off his group members.

Luna looked up from her magazine she was intently reading, "Just because you're the leader doesn't mean that you can be mean," she stated simply as she turned the current issue of the Quibbler upside down and continued reading.

Remus stood up and stretched, "'Fraid she's right mate. Now let's get going; the other groups are probably already searching."

Neville nodded and stood, "Let's prove Hermione wrong and be the first ones to find a horcrux." Luna peered over her magazine a small smile lit her features.

"Hey Neebettle, I give the encouragement, not you. But well said—let's prove that lass wrong! You with us Luna?" Sirius said, grinning over at Luna whos nose was still deep in the pages.

"Yes I am and I know just were to look," Luna replied withdrawing form the article once again as the group gave her bewildered looks. "Harry told us that the horcrux would be somewhere where Voldemort felt an attachment to."

Remus looked at her thoughtfully and then seemed to nod to himself. "Alright Luna, lead the way." He told her ignoring Sirius' bewildered look.

"I'm the leader, you can't just unthrown me, you'd have to vote or something. Yea you have to vote, it's my new group rule." Sirius informed his annoyed followers.

Remus shrugged, "All in favor of demoting Sirius as leader, and letting Luna take the reins, say I."

"I." Remus and Neville said in unison. Luna merely smiled and answered, "That'd be nice."

Sirius frowned, "Well it doesn't matter anyways cause my vote counts as four, so HA I've out voted you!"

Remus groaned, but ignored Sirius' fuss. Luna nodded and pointed to an old tapestry hanging on the south wall of the hallway they were gathered in. It had a picture of Salazar Slytherin with a snake curled around his feet.

"That is a picture of one of the founders of Hogwarts, as I am sure you know. But not only is he a founder, but Salazar is also one of Voldemort's ancestors. Do you understand?" Luna questioned, looking around the group.

Remus slowly began to smile and nodded his head. "You're brilliant! There's probably something under the tapestry, a door, a keyhole…"

The group walked toward the tapestry, Neville stepped forward and pulled it up slowly, revealing what was hiding underneath it.

XXX

"My feet hurt!" Lily moaned as she trudged behind James and Peter with Sam by her side. "Can't we stop for just a second?"

James rolled his eyes, "Suck it up Evans, we've got a mission to do, and we're not resting until we complete it, got it?"

"No," Sam and Lily retorted in unison.

"You wouldn't be so tired it you were in a sport," James called back at the girls. "It's your own fault for being lazy."

Sam huffed. "There's only like one real sport at Hogwarts and that's Quidditch. Neither of us are ever going to join Quidditch."

"Then stop complaining. I want our group to be the one to find the first horcrux. Now, look for things that Voldemort would cherish."

"We have been looking James," Peter spoke up. "We've been looking for almost two hours, and I think we're just going in circles."

"We're not going in circles, because I know this school like the back of my broom." James prompted, "Now look alive!"

"He's acting more and more like Sirius every day. It's a shame really." Sam let out a sigh and held a stitch in her side.

"Well if we're looking for Vo… he-who-must-not-be-named's things, shouldn't we know what sort of things "he" liked?" Peter questioned as his eyes scanned the perimeter.

James stopped in his tracks. "Yeah… well, we know Voldemort was a Slytherin… that's it!"

"What?" The other three asked.

"I know where to look follow me!" James shouted excitedly and took off at a sprint down the hallway.

"POTTER, YOU STOP RUNNING RIGHT…" Lily gasped for air as she took off running and screaming at James at the same time. "Nooow… oh god, can't breath…" She slowed to a stop as Sam caught up to her.

"Maybe we should look into joining a sport?" Sam whispered also breathing deeply. "But it's not just us girls that are out of shape," Sam giggled as the two girls watched Peter waddle quickly in the direction James had gone.

Lily released herself from her hunched position and began to walk slowly down after the two boys, Sam at her side. "Never. I am never going to join Quidditch."

"You're so stubborn, you'd probably be good if you got into shape." Sam encouraged her friend. "You can go out for the sport, there's no law that says girls can't play, even though all of the team is consistently guys."

"Potter." Lily stated emphatically. "Potter is the law that prevents me from joining Quidditch."

"Nu-uh, James has been trying to get you to join since his first day on the team." Sam argued, "Don't you be all stubborn."

"No, Potter told me that he knew he could make me join." Lily replied defiantly.

"Lily you're stupid, you're not joining just because Potter said he could make you join?" Sam asked exasperatedly.

"Well, yea." Lily smirked.

"That's idiotic and immature Lils. Be bigger than James and just join the team, boot him out of his place as Captain."

"Are you telling me I should prick his head with a needle and let a little of his ego drain out," Lily giggled imaging actually doing literally that.

"If you can find a strong enough needle," Sam laughed. Then she looked up. Lily followed her gaze.

"Speaking of the egoistic prat," Lily groaned. "I feel a lecture coming on."

"Ladies, what's the hold up?" James asked as he approached the two friends. "I just made an important discovery and you're lulling around back here. Show a little enthusiasm!"

"Woo-hoo…" Sam let out a wimpy little cheer.

"Pathetic," James said, shaking his head. "Now hurry up and follow me!"

"OH NO. Last time you said that I almost killed myself trying to keep up with you. We walk or I'm not coming." Lily argued, glaring at James.

"Well, you sure are turning out to be a valuable member of the team. Where's your spunk? Where's your energy?" James tried to edge the girls on.

"Back in 1976," Sam smirked.

James rolled his eyes, "Oh, you're funny, really hilarious." The three walked in silence until they reached the dungeon doors.

"Nu-uh, you are not getting me to go down in that creepy, nasty, slimy, place. I'll just wait up here with Lily. We'll be look-outs." Sam replied glancing uneasily at the stairwell.

"Worthless," James stated as he grabbed the girls arms and dragged them all the way through the dungeon to the Tapestry that covered the Slytherin common room.

"Behind here lays the answer to the missing horcrux of Hogwarts." James said mysteriously. "Once we enter, we'll have to be quick and silent."

"You're not serious. We are not going in there, Potter. What happens when we get caught? What will we tell them?" Lily questioned, her eyes wide.

"Take out your wands…" James responded. Lily gulped back her fear as James whispered something to the curtain. It slowly began to draw up, showing a door swinging open to a green and silver room.

"Welcome to the Slytherin common room girls! Stay on your guard. We don't know how smart these Slytherins are, but if they're the same as the ones back in our time, we're in no trouble." James whispered slipping though the door after Lily and Sam.

"I'm sorry to say that you have found yourselves in quite a lot of trouble."

The three of them whirled around to see who had spoken. In front of them stood a tall, muscular man. He was wearing billowing black robes that matched his curtain of slimy, dark hair. His white face was twisted into an unpleasant grimace.

"So nice to see you again, James Potter." The man murmured, his wand fixed directly on James' heart... "I think it's about time we got even."

XXX

"There was Marvolo Gaunt's ring, but that was destroyed by Dumbledore." Ron listed off one of the horcruxes.

"And the Tom Riddle's diary was destroyed by Harry in his second year when I was captured." Ginny added.

"Slytherin's locket…we're not sure if that one was destroyed or not. We still have to look into that one." Harry sighed, looking over at Hermione to see if she had anything to add.

Hermione was sitting in one of the red chairs in the Gryffindor common room. Her face was puzzled as she stared off into space.

Ginny went up and tapped Hermione on the shoulder, causing her to jump. "Hermione? Are you alright? You seem distracted."

Hermione hesitated as if she were unsure if she should tell them the truth or not. "I'm worried about the other groups. I honestly don't think they've had enough experience to handle a task like this."

"All they're doing is searching the castle, nothing can hurt them unless they fall down the staircase," Ron tried to comfort her.

"It's not the searching I'm worried about. Harry, you said it yourself. When you and Dumbledore discovered the locket's hiding place, there were deadly traps that you probably could have been killed from. In fact, you probably would've died if Dumbledore had not been there to drink the potion or cast the fire spell."

A somber look crossed Harry's face at the mention of the potion. The look disappeared as quickly as it had come, but it was long enough for his best mate to notice it.

"We'll cross that conflict when we get there, Hermione." Ron assured her. "The groups will do fine. They were to report to us if they found anything at all."

Ginny nodded in agreement with her brother, "We'll stay here and try to figure out what the horcruxes might be and where they might be hidden, and the others will do their job."

Hermione sighed, "It just seems a little unfair. They've been out for three hours now. If they haven't found anything yet, maybe we should go find them and tell them to turn in for the night."

Harry shrugged, "You could try but James and Sirius seem to be against each other. They're racing to see who can find the horcrux first. I doubt even you could get them to quit."

"You know, I never really realized where you got your stubbornness from until I met your father and your mother two." Ginny smiled, "It's no use telling anyone to quit Hermione, no one's going to stop."

Hermione sighed lightly. "Everyone's risking something huge here. Everyone's life is on the line."

"There are some things more important than living," Harry stated quietly. "Dumbledore understood that…and so do I."

"Don't talk like that mate. You're not the one who's going to lose. You can face Vol… Voldemort and you can win." Ron patted his friend on the back uneasily.

"Well…we've gotten way off topic. We're no use to the others if we don't figure something out." Ginny spoke up trying to break the tension was strangling them all.

Hermione's eyes widened suddenly. She quickly stuck her hand in her pocket and withdrew it, holding a small beeping device in her hands. "It's Sirius' group. They've found something!"

The others all rushed to Hermione's side to read the message Sirius had sent.

"Group One. Luna's just discovered something about a Slytherin tapestry and we're going to go check it out, we'll let you know what we find when we lift the curtain."

Hermione stared blankly at the message for a minute. "Are they, CRAZY!" She cried, throwing her arms in the air. "How do they know it's not some trick, or trap!"

"Hermione, this is one of your over-reactive moments." Ron said, "Take deep breaths, they'll be find, seriously, have a little faith."

"Still not word from James' group though?" Ginny questioned Hermione as she pushed Ron aside. She was avoiding the possible fight that was bubbling in Hermione.

"No, a little while ago James sent me a message about wanting people on his team who weren't so out of shape, nothing really important." Hermione laughed lightly.

"You don't seem to be to worried about that group, think they'll find something?" Ron questioned watching Hermione's face.

"Maybe, I'm not entirely sure, oh wait!" Hermione jumped as the beeper went off again in her hand. All four of them peered down at the message. It was from James' group.

"Dungon… your choice to come, or leave your friends."

Hermione glanced up at Harry, "It sounds like something's gone wrong… they wouldn't mess with us, would they?" It was more of a question than a statement.

Harry felt his stomach sink as he realized what the group had done. Horrified, he looked up at his friends' pale faces as he whispered, "They broke into the Slytherin common room."

XXX

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Not much to say here, it's the weekend so I'll get working on the next chapter! Just like to say Tib's doing great in her new home, but she's scared to death! LOL, enough about my bird, hope you enjoyed the chapter!!

MuchLove,
FFX