Disclaimer: I don't own anything that belongs to the glorious Gilderoy Lockhart, the handsomest, cleverest, charming and talented man on the planet. I don't own Harry Potter either.

OK, so I haven't updated in a while. School is very tiring and my luck seems to wear out. Of course it all came back last Sunday when I won a free 10 day trip in summer at the beach, all thanks to my PowerPoint knowledge. Yeah, I rock:)

Chapter fifteen: Propono Fama

Everything was like a blur to James as he ran across the Hogwarts grounds. Remus was also running on his trail. His idea was mad, he knew it, but another part desperately wanted closure on the whole matter. Remus was a good friend; he'd give him the choice to stay in the dorm. As for Black and Pettigrew, he really didn't give a damn about them and they were more and a good support if things turned out bad. He spent some time in the Hogwarts library reading easy spell books since he received that awful black letter. However, he was easy pray to a bunch of Slytherin senior years and one or two Death Eaters. As a child he'd leant horrific horror stories concerning the Knights of Walpurgis and Grindelwald from his parents. He'd wished they could go away and leave the good nice people alone. He hadn't known that he would later play a part in the war.

Sometimes he wished that his childhood was normal. Well, since he was a wizard it was impossible to be normal. But at least a childhood like his friends told him about. All his life he was a fugitive. His parents wanted to protect him from evil but it always found them. For the first two years since that day that changed his life, he was constantly moved to other locations. Sometimes he was left without his parents which left him with a broken heart. Finally deciding that no normal house was safe, they brought him to Hogwarts for the summer where the Headmaster of that time, Armando Dippet was a friend of his parents.

He grew used to the castle after a while. Being a child, he was forced to spend time in the Gryffindor common room (his parents' choice) and only left when he was accompanied by someone. In the school year, he moved at a deserted looking house in Hogsmeade. The house looked plain with old couches and beds. Spider webs were everywhere and the steps creaked every time he set a foot in them. His parents tried some repairing charms but the house didn't seem to listen to magic so it remained the same. He wasn't allowed to go outside for the reason that someone might recognize him. Two years later, as James approached eight years, they moved into a great mansion protected against charms and evil. Dumbledore placed all the shielding charms putting some extra improvements to it. That soon became their home and his parents, being one of the most respectful members of the community, had parties giving James the start of the chance to have a normal life.

However, it was too good to be true.

His parents, having full protection on the place, themselves being more than capable wizards, restricted him from going to Hogwarts as he could be exposed to outside interference. He turned eleven without receiving any letter and his parents, sympathetic, taught him some spells. As August approached, their safety was put into danger. A group of six people, presumably friends of his parents, walked into the shield without a scratch and waltzed into his home. They easily destroyed the kitchen, and by the time his parents heard about the attack, they were trying to break into his room. He still remembered that feeling of hopelessness in him when he took out his wand and stared at the door preparing to die. The door never opened. His parents got there in time. They dueled for half an hour and various shades of colors were seen through his door. They managed to get them but because of the effort, his father collapsed unconscious on the floor. Since then his home had been the hospital. Having no other choice, their eyes being brutally open, the sent him to Hogwarts.

And to Hogwarts he went! Despite the fact that he nearly missed the train, he had the chance to meet Remus, and why not, Lily. They were both good friends, although he didn't trust them enough to tell them what was happening in his life.

With a quick glance to see if Remus was still following, they entered the castle.

"Where do you think they are?" James asked Remus as he entered.

"Do you think they're still waiting for the professor?"

James gave a shrug and they left off for the Defense classroom. However they didn't find Sirius there. There were a small number of students left and Lily was one of them. She smiled brightly when she saw them and they went over to her.

"I'm so glad you came back!" she said "It's really lonely here. Not many students think Dolohov will come back so they went on their way. By the way why are you here?" she raised an eyebrow as both of them shared looks.

"We…er…we're looking for Black to give us his…Charms book. We lost it." James explained.

"Both of you?"

"Er…actually, we're thinking that maybe Black took one of the books by mistake so we want to confront him." Remus offered.

"Right." Lily shook her head obviously not convinced, a deep frown appearing on her face "He left a while ago with Pettigrew to the common room. He wanted to complete some assignment he had."

"You asked him where he was going didn't you." James asked not really intending it to be a question.

Lily stated "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Er…you're not going away from here are you?" James asked biting his lip.

"No." Lily sighed.

James nodded "We're going into the common room. See you there I guess."

"Assignment?" Remus laughed after they left Lily there.

James chuckled "Who knows? Maybe he's taken an interest in Madame Sprout!"

Remus grimaced "That's not funny you know. It's sick!"

James still grinning ruffled his hair "Yeah. She is too interested in Slughorn." He said.

He fell silent after receiving a whack in the head from Remus.

As they entered the common room, they immediately spotted Black furiously completing a letter. He wore a grim expression and Peter was next to him sending nervous looks around the room. They were the only ones there however; the majority of the tower had classes.

"What's up Black?" James offhandedly asked sitting on the edge of a couch in front of him. Black looked startled, obviously not expecting company. He nervously folded the paper biting his lip. James wondered for a second what was so important but he didn't really care.

"Mudblood told you didn't she?" he asked taking a particulate interest in his desk.

"Yes, LILY told me." He answered not liking the boy's language.

"Snogged her yet?" Black asked in a cold voice still looking at the darn desk.

"Shut it Black!" James angrily retorted. He was getting tired of the numerous hints others have been giving him about a relationship "Lily and I are just friends."

"What does her hair smell like?"

James swore silently and mentally refused his mouth to say "cherries". Instead he groaned giving Black a nasty hand gesture. He liked Corinne after all didn't he? As much as he started beginning to reach the surface of Lily's mind he was still conscious that Lily was too weird to fancy. Plus it was always fun to watch Lily and Remus, two exact opposites interact and always wondered what would happen if those two got together.

"Smells like hair." James said though he knew Sirius's point reached him.

They sent mental daggers to each other for a while when Remus coughed.

"James?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you forgetting why we came here?" Remus muttered next to James.

"What do you mean?" Sirius darkly asked eyeing both of them "Aren't you here to annoy us?"

"As much as we love to do that," James said in a bored tone "we have bigger things to do."

"Oh?" Sirius asked raising his eyebrow.

"We've made progress." James said pointing to Remus and him.

"What progress?" Sirius asked.

'Is he always this deaf?' James wondered. "Death Eater progress." He explained hoping he'd understand.

"Really?" Pettigrew asked widening his eyes.

"Yeah." James replied uncomfortable not expecting Pettigrew to talk.

"Well, spill it out already." Black grunted.

"Well, it appears Snape wants to become a Death Eater." James said watching Sirius carefully. Sirius made no sign of startle conforming some of James's suspicions.

"Go on." Black urged.

"We were near the forbidden forest; we caught sight of some spell casting and went to see. Snape and a few others were having a talk. Long story short, they'll have a meeting tomorrow in the second floor."

"Isn't that nice…" Sirius mumbled putting his hands before his head, a thing he usually did when he needed to think. "Any plans?"

James shared a look with Remus. "What will come will come" Remus's voice echoed in his mind. "Yeah. I say we crash the party."

"Just like that?" Black groaned annoyed "We're first years Potter. We're not descendents of Merlin either."

"I didn't say it would be simple!" James defended. He was having seconds thoughts about telling Sirius all this. "They're usually about five or six people. I say we stun them as soon as we can. We'll then wait for the Death Eater to come and we'll also stun him."

"Stun me." Sirius said.

"What?" James asked. It didn't bother him the idea so much. Not at all. He just needed to know what was Black going at.

"You heard me. Stun me!"

Shrugging, James raised his wand and muttered "Petrificus Totalus", the only stunner he was capable of learning after having been the victim of it when Black cast it before Christmas.

The spell went out and headed towards Sirius. He didn't look disturbed at all. He raised his wand and muttered something James didn't catch. His spell disappeared in an instant.

"Woah!" James mumbled taken aback.

"There are a few perks of being a Black. I'm one first year so my magic isn't very good. At the meeting there will be Malfoy, Lestrange and a few others you don't want to meet. They all are sixth or seventh year. Still want to play hero?"

"Yeah." James whispered struggling to come over himself. He felt like a fool being beaten by Black so easily.

Sighing, Black picked up his backpack. He searched in it some time, muttering spells in it once or twice. He then picked up a book and threw it to James. Having played Quidditch for quite a time now, James caught it in the air inspecting it.

The book was completely black except for two words silver engraved on the top cover. "Toujours Pour!" Flipping through it, he saw some nasty spells in it. Spells his parents had forbidden him from even hearing about. This was probably the famous Black black book. A pun he enjoyed when he first heard about it but now he wasn't in a state to laugh. It was there, in his hands. If he could give it to somebody, the Blacks would be finally caught and thrown to Azkaban. However, he couldn't do that. Worse, Black was suggesting learning from it.

"If you tell a soul about it, I swear I'll kill you the instant I see you." Black threatened. His threats wouldn't have been so terrifying if James hadn't had those nightmares.

"So…er…you want me to learn from this?" James asked turning the book so all three boys could see the shell of what was a woman but without any bones left. It was a large piece of skin.

"Well, not that." Black said undisturbed by the image. However, both Remus and Pettigrew turned around not daring to see the image. Black came over to James and took the book from his hands. He opened to book at the middle page where the index was located. Looking through them he pointed the page to James "Now this is a winner." He said.

Curious, James flipped to the page. A picture was portraying two men. They were having a pleasant conversation until a spell hit one. He didn't look affected and continued talking. The other man looked upset and hit him. The other retailed and a fight begun.

The spell was called "Gossip spell." From what James read, it made one person tell what he thought of the other person unknowingly to him. This made the other people around him get mad and probably start a fight. While it was similar to the Imperius curse, it was much more different because what the person said was entirely up to him. Although it was a dark spell and banned from usage from the ministry of magic, the penalty to Azkaban was only for two years. The incantation was "Propono Fama!"

"You want to win? We have to even the odds." Sirius explained.

"But what if it doesn't work? What if they only commend each other?" Remus asked.

Sirius raised an eyebrow and a small smile appeared on his lips giving him a charming look "You ever met a Slytherin that truly admired another? If the plan doesn't work I'll personally throw myself in the middle of them and insult Voldemort."

"But…it's dark magic." James said fearful.

"So what Potter? I never took you to be one afraid of Azkaban." Sirius laughed icily falsely interpreting the reaction.

"No Black," James responded in an equally ice tone "it's just that I'm not that fanatic about Dark Arts as you are."

The moment James said it Black's face turned dark, and a mad look appeared. He looked like a mad man stalking his prey before attacking. James took a step back.

"Dark Arts is magic as well; you think that good fights over evil do you? You're wrong. Evil won a long time ago."

Sensing a fight coming up Remus cleared his throat. "Don't you have anything more innocent?"

Sirius turned to Remus, the mad look was still on his face. "I don't see what you care about innocent Lupin. As far as I see, you're just as "black" as I am."

Remus drew back. He couldn't know! Could he? He already felt sweaty and felt nauseous.

It was James's turn to stop a fight. "Black…er…look I want to know as well what's going on in this school but fighting fire with fire won't solve anything this time. Learning black magic just to stop them doesn't make us any better than them. I don't care what you think. I'm not touching this book." He said throwing it back to him. "So much for exposing him" he thought.

He knew the procedure too well. He'd witnessed it first hand. Although black magic could be learned just for curiosity or for a better reason, the feeling of power the caster felt was overwhelming. Once feeling power, not many wizards could turn their back to it. The more the wizard learned, the harder it was to turn their back. It was like a drug. It consumed the will power, making someone dependent of it.

Sirius shrugged "Suit yourself! Peter and I will go through this. Oh and Potter, if you fall I won't come to save you!"

Nodding, James and Remus left the room heading for the library. The two of them spent the day learning and lecturing about different spells.

"I can't get this straight!" James said exasperated shoving the book down.

"That's ok. We don't have to confront them if you don't want to." Remus said simply.

A small smile appeared on James's lips. Remus knew he wouldn't give up the chance for anything. Remus knew that he needed to be reminded of the stakes once in a while. James opened the book once again thinking hard learning the spell. The bat-bogey hex wasn't very hard. It required basic transfiguration and charms knowledge. He knew he could master it but he was doubtful that it would be useful against the Cruciatus curse, and lesser against Avada Kedavra.

"The words go through one ear and exit the other. Bloody annoying!" he exclaimed.

"It's not that hard you know. Bats and bogeys start with the same letter and the have similar lyrism. Both take different sizes and both look nasty. It's a simple matter of animating them."

"Yeah, piece of cake!" James scoffed.

"I don't like how you always want to show off! It's annoying and dumb!" a voice suddenly yelled outside.

"Honestly, nobody can learn with this entire racket!" Madam Pierce sighed.

"What is wrong with you Emily?" another voice asked.

"I'm sick and tired of you, and you know what? I'm cheating on you with Bill."

In a matter of seconds, all the children inside the library and in the halls gathered to watch the scene. A pretty girl with black hair and blonde stripes appearing to be in Ravenclaw was pushing of a seventh year from Hufflepuff. The boy looked pretty much annoyed but the girl looked shocked by something.

"I hate you!" se screamed once again at him then looked around nervously.

"Well, if that's the way you want it we're through!" The boy growled.

Although the girl was crying and shaking her head furiously, she said "Fine!" before running after him.

"Well, that was weird." James observed.

"What do you think happened?" Remus asked

James shrugged "Don't know. Girls I guess. If I ever end up with someone like her please kill me."

"Sure thing mate." Remus said nodding. Going back inside, they saw Sirius and Peter laughing rolling on the floor. Pettigrew's laughs at least were heard in the entire library causing Madame Pierce to scowl at him.

"What's so funny?" James asked.

"Didn't…didn't you see…see that?" Sirius managed to say between laughs.

Fighting back the small smile creeping on his face, James was determined to say anything just to ruin their mood. "Reminds you of home doesn't it?" he asked slyly.

Whatever reaction James expected, it was far off of what went on next. Sirius raised his wand and sent a spell towards James. After a lot of Quidditch practices and hundreds of bludger hits, James listened to his intuition and ducked immediately. It was lucky for him that he did this. If not he would have probably had the same fate as the door behind him had. When James turned around, he saw the door dripping in blood. Reassuring himself that it wasn't his, Remus's or any other's in the room, he looked at Sirius who was smirking widely.

"Blood replenishing spell. Quite an old spell. It was used before the potion was discovered. It was banned after a wizard threw one of these into his enemy's mouth, causing him to choke in blood. It can be quite useful sometimes. Especially when one wizard insults another wizard's family."

"Think it's funny do you?" James asked, feeling head creep in his body "You would have laughed if you saw me all bloody fearing for life." The image of Sirius from his nightmares came back to him and caused him to shiver.

The large smirk didn't go off of Sirius's face however and he simply rose his eyebrow "Relax Potter, I wasn't aiming for your head. Not intentionally anyway. You should however shut your mouth when it comes to my family. I'm tired of reminding you that."

"And I'm tired of spending the room with the likes of you!" James countered back. "Don't you see it Black? You say you're not a muggle murderer. You say that you're just doing things for your own purposes! But it isn't true! You like to play dark tricks on us; you taunt Snape whenever and wherever you feel like it, you boast on being the better flyer, better person, better child but you're just a puppet. Your parents are playing you and you're helping them. Did it ever occur to you that we are all goody, goody for a reason? That evil is just what it's named? Did you ever try to be helpful to other people, to stray away from your family and see the other side, just for curiosity at least? So maybe the dark arts can offer you advantages, but being good offers you also. Evil hasn't won yet Black!" James said turning around and storming out of the library. Remus was on his tail. They passed a couple kissing passionately on the halls. Remus patted James on his shoulder and pointed at them.

"Would you look at that!" James smiled looking at Emily and Bill "they got back together!"