A Sirius Unicorn
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.
Author's Note: If absolutely anyone out there is reading this, PLEASE REVIEW! IT CAN BE MY EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT:)
Chapter 7. Do As the Wizards and Witches Do
"Guys, please say something!" She begged. A single silver tear found its way onto her plush armchair as all three boys stood up.
They all immediately rushed her and Athena found herself unable to breathe at the bottom of a three-way Marauder sandwich. The immense show of caring only made Athena's tears increase. After many moments, the boys all disentangled themselves from her. Although, Sirius took longer than the others and gave her a playful snuggle as he stood up. She returned his gesture with an equally playful but painful kick to his shin. Sirius just laughed.
Once they had all regained their composure, James broke the silence and said, "Guys, I think we should allow Athena the privilege to become the fifth Marauder and the only girl in our exclusive club." Sirius immediately concurred, as did Remus.
"Joy. So how do I get initiated?" Athena said in mock sarcasm.
"By receiving a sacred nickname of course!" Sirius exclaimed.
"The guidelines are, it has to be related to your animal and it has to be somewhat vague. We can't go around calling you 'Unicorn Girl' afterall." Remus stated. He seemed to be feeling much better and was reclining in his puffy red armchair.
"How bout 'Horsy'?" James asked Athena. What shocked her, was that he seemed to not be joking.
"You can't be serious!"
"Of course not, that's my name!" Sirius had to duck as armchair pillows were flown at him. "Ha! All three of you missed!" WAP! Athena's second pillow hit Sirius directly in the face.
"You were saying?" She asked innocently.
"Maybe your name should be something like 'Naggie'." Sirius said sticking his tongue out at her. Athena didn't give into his childish behavior, and implored to Remus and James, "Any other suggestions?"
"How bout 'Silver'?" Remus asked. "I mean, that's the first thing I thought when I saw you in the forest. In fact, I was a little afraid of you at first, because I thought you were actually made of silver."
Athena thought about it. It did kind of have a simplistic charm to it, and it did describe her. The real her. "Sure, Silver it is!"
They all cheered madly and congratulated her. Sirius kept shouting, "Hi Ho Silver!" or something, but it didn't matter. She was now a Marauder.
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They had all decided that a celebration was in order, so James and Sirius led the way to the kitchens. Athena was amazed at the giggling fruit and at the number of House Elves. She had never seen any before this.
After eating their fill of sweets and butterbeer, Remus broached the subject they had all been avoiding, what to do about Peter?
"Well, we have to at least talk to him and find out what's going on." James said as he propped his legs on the table and put his hands behind his head. "I mean, we've been friends with him for years now, and he's never betrayed us. He's been annoying, clingy, ignorant, and clumsy; but never malicious. How do we even know that there's something wrong?"
"You said it yourself Athena, all we've got to go on is your word and your Unicorn instincts. Not to say there isn't some rationality in your claim. I've sensed something off about him lately as well. But then again, when is Wormtail ever really 'with it'?" Remus interjected, his logical tone resounding through the dim of the busy House Elves.
Sirius could only nod his head at James and Remus, due to the six pumpkin pastries he was attempting to stuff in his mouth.
"I know guys, and both of you could be entirely right. The only thing I know for sure, is that there's something he's keeping from us." Athena said as she watched Sirius struggle to swallow and not choke on his pastries.
Sirius finally finished and said, "I hate to be the one to suggest it, but how bout we spy on Wormtail?"
"You know Sirius, that's not actually a bad idea!" Remus said standing up. Sirius stuck his tongue out at him. It still had food on it. "Ewww SIRIUS! How many times have I told you not to show me your chewed food, that is so gross!"
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Since it was the weekend, they all decided to start their espionage that day. They agreed that it would be best to take shifts and follow at a distance with James' invisibility cloak concealing them.
James volunteered to do the first shift and had headed off toward the Gryffindor Common room to pursue Peter, leaving Sirius, Remus, and Athena to do whatever they wanted. The next shift would be Remus in two hours.
After much protest, mainly from Sirius, the group headed to the library.
Remus had suggested that since Athena had to eventually confront Voldemort, she had better research him more thoroughly. She had told both of them everything she had seen in Dumbledore's lesson and they now knew of the Horcruxes.
"So, we know that he split his soul into seven pieces," Remus began, writing on a sheet of paper as he spoke.
"Dumbledore assumes that two are the heirlooms of Slytherin that I saw in the pensive. A locket and a ring." Athena said as she began thumbing through a 1940's yearbook.
"One of the Horcruxes has to be Voldemort himself." Sirius added as he looked over Remus's shoulder at the list he was making.
"Another Horcrux has to be the Hufflepuff cup he took when he murdered that woman." Athena said, referring to the memory she had viewed in the pensive.
"Alright, that leaves us with three Horcruxes. You said Dumbledore thought that one of them might be something of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor's?" Remus said, writing furiously on his parchment.
"Yea, though that doesn't help us much. He also said that it doesn't have to be inside an inanimate object. It could reside in an animal, or even another person for all we know." She stopped flipping through the pages and exclaimed, "Oh, I found him!"
She walked over to the desk Remus was using and laid the yearbook before them, pointing to a moving picture of a young man with neat black hair and pale emerald eyes.
"That's Tom Riddle? Is that what Voldemort looked like?" Sirius exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yep, he was a rather handsome bloke." Athena said, earning a playful swat from Sirius.
Remus began reading the caption below Riddle's picture. "Tom Riddle, Head Boy 1944-45 school year, Slytherin, top of his class, and tied Albus Dumbledore, for the most NEWTs ever earned by a Hogwart's student."
"Wow, someone was a little golden-boy! Are there anymore pictures of him?" Sirius asked, already scanning the rest of the yearbook.
"Not that I saw, but we really need to start researching the Horcruxes that we know of. Voldemort can't be defeated until we get rid of the other six parts of his soul." Athena said glancing back over at Remus's parchment. "I'll start with the locket and ring since they go together. Remus, you take Hufflepuff's cup. And Sirius...umm..How bout you research Gryffindor's artifacts?"
The boys nodded and they each headed to the Hogwart's Founder's section of the Library, where Athena grabbed several books on Salazar Slytherin, Remus a large tomb on Helga Hufflepuff, and Sirius a stack of Godric Gryffindor books. The three spent the next two and a half hours reading and jotting down notes quietly in the back section of the library.
Madam Pince nearly fainted when she went to check on them and found Sirius actually researching. Remus and Athena just shot each other smirks at the innocent shrug Sirius gave the confused librarian.
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It wasn't until an agitated and panicky James dragged them out of the library that they remembered Remus was supposed to have switched with James thirty minutes ago.
"I'm so sorry Prongs, it's just that researching the Founder's was really fascinating." Remus apologized as they all struggled to keep up with the long-strided Quidditich Captain.
James said nothing, he just continued to walk in what appeared to be the direction of the Room of Requirement. Sirius, picking up that something was wrong, said, "Prongsie dearest, did you discover anything?"
"Shut up Sirius, this is important. I don't want to say anything until I know we won't be overheard." James hissed this in a low and deadly voice. He seemed truly livid at the moment. Sirius knew not to push James when he was like this and oddly followed James's order.
Once the four of them were all situated in the Room of Requirement, and the door had been locked with a Colloportus spell, James turned to Athena and said, "You were right."
For a moment, no one said anything. Then James continued, "I found him by using the Map. -We never told you Athena, but we've made a map of Hogwarts and the grounds that shows where everyone is at all times...Anyway, so I followed his to the dungeons. He was continuously looking around, seeing if anyone was watching him. Stupid git probably never even thought of the cloak. He knew the password to the Slytherin Common Room, and I entered right behind him. By the way Paddy, the password is Black and Potter are Gits."
Sirius and James exchanged small smirks at this and Sirius jotted down the password for future pranking. "Once we were inside, he was met with Snivelly, Regulus, and Narcissa. He told them he had something very important to reveal to the Dark Lord, and then they told him to use the usual method and he went to the fire and flooed somewhere. I think he said something like "Riddle Manor" but I couldn't quite hear. I stayed and overheard the three of them talking about how disgraceful it was to have someone like Peter in their ranks, but then Snape pointed out that even rats have a purpose. By sheer will-power, I managed to make myself get out of there without waiting for Wormtail to return so I could kill him. He's a Death Eater. And it's been right under our noses."
James finished and no one said a word. Looking at the three boys, Athena was filled with mixed emotions. On one hand, she had revealed a traitor to them, on the other however, she had made their young, carefree lives crash all around them.
James began to softly cry and put his head in his hands.
A single crystal tear escaped Sirius's gray eyes and ran down his handsome face.
Remus sighed and looked drained as he rested his head back against the chair.
"What are we going to do?" Athena asked in a quiet voice to the grieving boys.
"We're going to do as we've always done." James said as he wiped away his tears.