Authors Notes: This story will now officially have seventeen chapters (so we're past half way) but there will definitely be a sequel but it won't be posted for a while. This is not me skipping out on finishing, I did originally plan to finish the story at the point at which I still plan to, and I've just added something so I can put in a sequel. Das ist all.
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Parseltongue or just the normal reason for italics (accentuation)
Disclaimer: Still don't own the characters. Neither does my cat. Neither does the cyber cookie fairy. Neither does the gay Casanova. Neither does the Grammar Gorilla. Neither do Pinkie or the Brain. Neither do the Questies (you know who you are). Neither does Bill Gates (gee there's a surprise). Nor does Stephanie Plum. Nor does my Duty Manager. Neither does Gjemma's evil boyfriend who dumped her in the nastiest of ways (you also know who you are… we are all plotting revenge you jerk so expect us in full force soon).
Chapter 12
12th October 1977
The three young time travellers and their temporary companion all sat around a small table in the room Dumbledore had loaned them. Naturally, they had immediately taken off the listening charms and whatnot (he's a nice old man but he is nosy), but they had kept the pots of tea and lemon drops that had appeared shortly after the aged leader had left the room.
"Okay Remus, what's going on back home?" Harry started them off, slightly awkwardly.
"Same old, same old." Remus replied in a far too casual tone, "We really need to get you back though Harry. Wormtail or Narcissa or any number of other people on the other side would remember you being here and have doubtlessly told You-Know-Who about it. He hasn't done anything out of the ordinary yet but you can bet your bottom dollar he'll start soon."
"Can you give us any news about our families?" Pansy asked, indicating to herself and Draco.
"Only that they haven't been captured or identified in your parents case Pansy." Remus reassured her, "Mister Malfoy, we know for a fact that your mother is alive and well as she arrived at Hogwarts yesterday to find out where exactly you'd gone. I'm not certain of what Dumbledore told her. Your father, as you know, has not been spotted anywhere by our side since he was broken out of Azkaban along with the others last year so you probably know more about him then we do."
"Thank you Professor." Draco stated calmly, "While we are having a wonderful time here, we really must get back as soon as is possible. We all have roles to play both at school, and in the political realm."
"I know Mister Malfoy, we are working on it. At the moment it looks like you should be out of here before Halloween but there's no guarantee." Remus sighed but then perked up again, "Oh, do you perchance know when the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff match is? It's the next one on the schedule but none of us back home can remember the exact date."
"Ah, yeah it's on the 17th of this month." Harry replied.
"Coolies. I seem to recall you mentioning a Past/Future match that could be held. We figured it would be good if we could hold it some time close to that match so… maybe on the 20th then?" Remus glanced around and received affirmative nods from the two regular quidditch players while Pansy, who couldn't fly to save her life simply rolled her eyes at the subject change, "Alright then, who do you want on your team?"
The two looked at each other.
"Do you want to play seeker Harry?" Draco offered "You'd be in direct competition with your father which would be a fun show plus… even I'm willing to admit that unless we pick professionals, you're probably the best seeker we could get."
"Sure. So that leaves you and Ginny as chasers so we need a chaser, beaters, and a keeper."
"No duh. Ah… Professor? Do they need to be current students?" Draco asked quizzically.
"I don't see why. They just have to be from the future. If you approach the students and teachers of this time with this idea then they're going to go through and pull up the best players from all houses so you may as well just one up them."
"Great!" Harry bounced up and down enthusiastically, "Then how about Oliver Wood for keeper, the twins for beaters and… um, I'm not sure about the other chaser. Draco?"
"How about Blaise? He joined last year and he's pretty darn good. Plus his family is neutral so there shouldn't be too many problems between Slytherins and Gryffindors this way despite our being severely outnumbered."
Harry shrugged, "Eh, me and Gin are practically Slytherins these days, the twins will be okay and Oliver really doesn't fit into any category except quidditch jock."
"… I'll agree with that one. Strait as an arrow though. Pity that." Draco looked wistful.
"Yeah, and after all those rumours I truly had my hopes up."
"Boys!" Pansy finally interrupted dryly, "As fascinating as this turn in the conversation is for us listeners, I think Remus has to go soon."
"Oh… right… sorry about that you two, we just got a bit distracted." Draco shifted uncomfortably.
"I'll see you three later then." Remus said getting up and checking his watch, "Say Hi to Ginny for me Harry." He smirked suddenly, "She's back by the way."
"What? Where did she go? What did you lot-?"
Harry was cut off from his frantic questions as Remus disappeared, still smirking.
"Damnit!" He shouted in exasperation.
"Language Potster." Draco sniffed, tossing his head.
"… Oh you did not just call me that!"
"Save it for later boys," Pansy headed off the argument, "We may need our stamina to put up with one heck of a temper tantrum courtesy of one Ginny Weasley. I don't trust that smirk that Remus had on his face."
"I suppose you're right." Draco acknowledged.
"Come oh companions of champions unparalleled! We must brave the great beyond using all our strength and valour." Harry jumped back into his usual role of class clown with a flare unbeknown by most pranksters. Not many were of his calibre however so they were forgiven.
The three made their rather dramatic exit from the room before walking in a more sedate manner towards their next classes. Silence reigned between them for a while before Pansy finally put forward the question they were all asking.
"How upset do you think she'll be?"
- - - - - - - - - -
"THOSE SELF RIGHTEOUS RATBAG ARSE LICKING SON'S OF BITCHES!"
Draco, Pansy, Severus, and Harry all winced as yet another book went flying across the Room of Requirement. This rant had already been going for fifteen minutes after they had all gathered here following the end of classes for the day and a rather uncomfortable dinner with many still giggling students.
Severus had informed the other three of the morning's events and they had spent the whole day in trepidation of what they expected to be a colossal temper tantrum. This anxiety had only grown as Ginny refused to speak a word through the entire day except to respond to a teacher's specific enquiry.
"PIGFACED CUM EATING JERKOFFS! GOD I CANNOT BELIEVE THE NERVE OF THEM! JUST WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE MESSING WITH?" Ginny gasped once before taking five deep breaths, "Alright, I'm okay now. But I insist on revenge."
"O-of course Gin'. Anything you s-say." Draco stuttered out and they all moved closer together to begin planning.
"We could string them up inside the goal hoops out on the pitch." Pansy gave the first suggestion.
"Nah, it's been done before, plus it has to happen at night if we want full affect for the next day and that leaves too much time for them to work themselves loose." Harry vetoed it, having attempted this before on his two ex-best friends who got out of the situation only three hours later and woke the Gryffindor Golden Boy for early morning Quidditch practice… tied to Ron's broom and directed from below by Hermione in sickening spins that went dangerously close to the castle walls.
"Well, we could put up a screen in the Great Hall and have it project their most embarrassing memories?" Severus suggested unable to resist the opportunity to get the perfect revenge for several unfortunate moments in his fifth year.
"Again no." Ginny sighed, choosing to pass up her own wish for vengeance for practicalities sake, "Some may be to do with things that would be far too humiliating or worse, connected with Remus' monthlies which would be a bad thing to reveal."
"Flaming underwear? Colour blindness or cross-eyed ness? Sticking charms on their socks? We haven't done that in a while." Draco began spouting out some ideas, "Swap their quills with Quick Quoters? Swap their ink with permanent non-instant invisibility ink so they find all their notes or homework blank? An attack of blue geese? Snapper beetles in their food? Piercings in uncomfortable places when they wake up?"
"I vote that regardless of what we do; we definitely do the piercings along with it." Ginny nominated, "But it unquestionably has to be something far bigger then those."
"Undoubtedly." Severus agreed, understanding the want for revenge and deciding this could count as his main grudge settler. Not that that meant he would then consider the marauders his favoured pals, but he wouldn't scowl so much at their approach. He'd probably just smirk instead.
"Undeniably." Pansy added her approval, realizing the injustice with having your hair ruined twice in less then a week along with a perfectly decent bikini. Honestly.
"Indisputably." Draco nodded along with the others. He was a Malfoy and thus understood the indignity that comes from being followed around by an unstoppable Muggle device.
"Indubitably." Harry added slowly, "And I think I know how."
"Well?" Ginny asked eagerly, "Spill mister! We all want to hear this genius proposal of yours."
"Patience is a virtue my dear." Harry patted her on the shoulder in a patronizing manner stolen straight from Dumbledore.
"Harry?"
"Yes Draco my sweet?"
"Just a quick question… when you die, can I have your Firebolt?"
"Oh hush you." Harry scolded in his most 'camp' voice complete with an air slap in Draco's direction, "Well Gin' I was thinking maybe we could begin to make use of some of the products sent to us by your wonderful and sexy brothers, namely the horse costume, the catnip and the squid bate."
"… oooo-kaaaay then. And how exactly were you planning on using those?"
"Well, before I can explain, you should know that this part of the prank will only affect two of them so which ones did you want it to be?" Harry asked but then stopped Ginny before she could nominate the victims, "Perhaps this should be a joint revenge. How about Gin and Sev both pick one of the main victims? Keep in mind, we'll do something to the others as well, it just won't be as big."
"Aaaww! Now this is a tough choice. Sev? Can you go first?" Ginny pouted adorably at her future professor.
"Of course Ginny," Severus stated before smirking, "I nominate Black for victim number one."
"No complaints there." Draco muttered, still sore about his eagle interpretation which Sirius had taken the credit for in the dorm when they knew Harry had been listening.
"Ginny?" Pansy asked the still contemplative girl.
Ginny was silent for a moment before turning to face Pansy.
"Did future Remus tell you what they'd done to me?" She asked.
"No, but he did seem a little saddened that he couldn't."
"Yeah, but what was all that smirking about later?" Draco mused aloud.
"Going from what Sev told us, that matched up with when you were fleeing from the record player resting atop of a double powered super sonic steam propelled monkey explosive tank death mobile of doom." Harry commented to Ginny who glared at the world in general.
"I nominate Remus Lupin as victim number two." She stated matter-of-factly with a decided smirk.
"Okay then conspirators for deeds dastardly." Harry intoned and grinned at them all.
Regardless of evil plots, nasty bigot attitudes, or scary sinister smirking from usually sweet sixteen year olds, Harry was always quick to resume his usual exuberance, complete with bouncing. He struck a dramatic pose which had its effect ruined by the continuous bouncing which made it a hard position to hold.
"We're going to need a bit of planning time for this one so let's aim for the day after tomorrow which will hopefully lull them into a false sense of security considering that so far we've been pretty prompt with our counter attacks. The piercings Draco suggested have to be very particularly placed…"
- - - - - - - - - -
"Sweet Merlin, Lily that was the best plan ever to be created in the history of man and ape kind!" James cried, as Lily smiled shyly at the praise she was receiving from all four Marauders.
"I must agree Lily, it was truly Marauder Worthy." Remus agreed. Usually he was more cautious about going along with these things but he needed to regain some marauder status and as such had fully endorsed and help execute the 'Get Ginny Back for Lily's Hair Disaster' prank.
The other two continued to voice similar praise before James interrupted by clapping his hands together. Sirius and Peter both swung round to face him, succeeding in losing their balance for what must have been the millionth time in their career as marauders, landing bottoms up on the boys' dormitory floor.
"I vote," James began, "That we begin the formal process of inducting Miss Lily Evans as an official marauder."
"Er, part-time marauder." Lily corrected, deciding that she could skip out on the regular perving sessions into the girls' showers and other such crude male practices.
"Um… alright then." James accepted, "Who's with me on this one? Boys?"
"I second it!" Cried Peter, rolling over and sitting bolt upright on the floor with his arm stretched skyward, succeeding in knocking Remus out of his chair in the process.
"I third it." Remus agreed glaring at Peter from his new lowly status.
"I fourth it!" Sirius screeched, starling James enough for him to slide out of his own seat, "But," Sirius frowned, "She will need the marauder name she was asking for."
"Your right I guess," James looked disheartened for a moment as he pulled his knees up toward him to lean against the side of Peter's trunk, "Hmm, how about Bugsy?"
They all shook their heads and as if on queue, they all –Lily included- began spouting off their own suggestions.
"Tiger Lily?"
"Lame Padfoot. How about Velvet?"
"Doesn't really suit her… Firefly?"
"Mmm, possibly, it is pretty. Perhaps I could be Lotus?"
"Er, why?"
"Because of my name everyone always uses flower analogies to describe me but no ones ever likened me to a Lotus."
"It has to fit your personality or 'inner animal'. How about Capriccia?"
"Seems a bit long, but it could work and it certainly suits her. Italian right? Hmm… how about SpongeBob?"
"It could work but I'm having this weird premonition that if we use that one we could be up for a huge copyright case in twenty something years that, while possibly earning all of us a lot of money, would also most likely be very time consuming and frustrating and ultimately would probably take ten years off of our lives."
"The Super Moony Powers at work 'ey?"
"Yes Prongs, my Super Moony Powers can see twenty something years into the future and deliberate over the possible out comes of a nickname. While we wait, they could probably whip us up some chocolate thickshakes."
"I KNEW IT!"
"Prongs… have you ever heard of sarcasm?"
"Shut it Padfoot, I'm gloating."
"Boys!"
The four original marauders looked up from their positions on the floor at their soon to be co-prankster who glared down at them.
"We don't have to pick now you know and really you lot. We are in the middle of a hugely important competition and we just dealt a serious blow to the enemy. Shouldn't you be putting a little more concentration into defence mechanisms rather then attempting to give James here the tongue lashing of his life?"
"Well we should, but this is more fun. Care to add your tongue to the masses Evans?" Sirius grinned up at her wickedly.
She turned her death glare towards the blue eyed boy but was cut off from her sharp retort when Peter fell backward, dislodging the girl from her seat and depositing her on the floor with the rest of them. She lay there for a moment before sighing.
"Is this going to stop soon or will I have oddly shaped bruises indefinitely?" She asked quite calmly.
Remus smiled sympathetically, "You may wish to start habitually casting cushioning charms on yourself."
"HI Y'ALL!" Harry cried out, bouncing into the room with his arms flailing madly in cheerful greeting.
He kept up this jovial salutation for some thirty seconds before slowing. He lowered his arms and gave them all a decidedly confused look.
"Ah… why are all five of you sitting on the floor?"
- - - - - - - - - -
Well, I like this chapter. I feel it is an improvement on the last one. My muse felt sorry for me and has returned from Aruba. Isn't she wonderful? Plus she brought plot bunnies as a peace offering so expect to see some oneshots soon.
A big thanks to Cricket244 for giving me the name of the fic I couldn't find. It was The Return by Leozodiac and was still a fun read. Cricket244 did not tell me what she wanted as a reward (as far as I know, but alerts have been down) but the offer still stands if she lets me know before the next chapter (hint, hint).