A/N: Sorry, I have no idea where those wierd symbols came from! But here is one, normal looking chapter!
Chapter 13: The Travieso Storm
JAMES!.
James was violently shaken awake. He groaned, and tried to turn over; away from the voice yelling his name, but the person grabbed his shirt and pulled him out of bed.
"What the hell? Some people are trying to sleep!" James yelled at the person in the dark, over the commotion around them.
"James, you sleep, you die. It's your choice." Sirius yelled to him. It was then he realized what the noises in the background weren't the sound of people partying, but of loud, ear piercing screams.
"What's going on?" James yelled back to Sirius, standing up and shoving his large feet into his boots.
"James, look out the window."
James hopped over to the window, his left foot refusing to fit into his right shoe and pulled the curtain wide.
"Holy shit! The Travieso Storm! James gasped looking into the eye of the storm, only a few kilometers from Hogwarts. The purple cloud was coming closer and closer, the jagered lightning striking out from the cloud in all directions, the mini tornados shooting down onto the ground and following the cloud like a magnate. Snow balls were being shot at as if from a pea shooter, hitting the castle's stone walls and acid rain was pelting down, making sizzling noises as it scorched the grass.
"James, come on! We've got to get out of here!" Remus yelled, suddenly appearing at the doorway, his dressing gown on backwards. Peter hurried over to him and Sirius pulled James away from the window and they all ran down to the common room where a flustered looking McGonagall was waiting for them.
"Right, now is that everyone?" she said impatiently, trying to keep everyone calm. After the prefects all yelled out "Yes Professor!" she allowed herself to continue.
"As most of you know, the Travieso Storm is heading towards Hogwarts. We are pretty sure the magical protection around the walls will hold off the storm, but as no one has ever survived the storm we are taking all the safety measurements to keep the students safe. The Ravenclaws will be joining the Hufflepuffs in their common room. The Slytherins are safe in theirs, and I shall be taking the Gryffindors into the kitchen. Now follow me please!" McGonagall ordered, turning on the back of her slippers and leading through the portrait hole. At the announcement that no one had ever lived through the storm, a first year by the name of Natalie Maddock had crumpled to the ground, her big brown eyes overflowing with tears.
One by one, people stepped over her, more then willingly to get to the kitchen ASAP, not bothering to help her up. A heard of fifth years came by, running and jumping over her. The last one however, noticed her and scooped her up in his arms and carried her through the portrait hole.
The Marauders were one of the last ones to get out of the common room, as they had been late to arrive and were standing at the back of the crowd. They rushed through, Remus sensibly grabbing a box of Gobstones to play while they were waiting for the storm to pass and to get back to bed. That is, if they survived.
It seemed to James that it took forever to get down to the kitchen. He didn't know if it was because they usually took short cuts or the fact that his heart was beating so fast, nearly jumping out of his body whenever the thunder rumbled threateningly.
Up ahead, they soon heard a lot of 'ooo!' s and soon realized they had finally managed to make their way down to the painting of the fruit bowl and McGonagall must have tickled the pear. Everyone stampeded inside; half wanting to get inside for safety, the others wanting to finally catch a glimpse of a house elf.
To their disappointment however, there wasn't an elf in sight. The room was an exact copy of the room above, the four house tables were pushed against the wall and the floor was littered with crimson and gold sleeping bags.
"Professor, where are the house elves?" a timid third year asked her, looking down at his feet as he asked.
It's none of your business Perkins. Now, I have to leave you, I need to help the other professor's with safety measures," she announced, walking towards the door, but turned around at the door and came face to face with a whole lot of faces filled of terror.
Don't worry, just go to sleep. By the time you wake up tomorrow, it will all be over," and on that last note, she left the prefects in charge of the terrified house. James and Sirius grabbed two sleeping bags and dragged them over to the corner.
James slumped in the corner while Sirius sat by his left holding the sleeping back as if not quite sure what to do with it. James sighed deeply banging his head against the wall behind him, "Ow," he mumbled bluntly.
Sirius nodded in agreement although there wasn't really anything to be agreeing about. Remus approached with his own sleeping bag and a slithering Peter who had already managed to get himself stuck inside the blue bag. Where he found that colour, was a mystery to the others. He crawled along by Remus and sat in front of the others when Remus took his seat by James' right.
"I don't think I've ever heard of a magical storm hitting Hogwarts in history," Remus commented breaking the awkward silence between the Marauders. Younger children were still running in the kitchen looking for their friends as Prefects swarmed after them trying to calm down screaming first years and over excited fifth years.
James just grunted at the news, Sirius mumbled something under his breath and Peter yelped at something at the bottom of his sleeping bag. Remus, the positive one, decided to conjure up some candy to return them back into themselves, but after the overflowing bowl appeared, no one gave it a second glance.
Half an hour later, the storm was at its worse, the howling winds, the sizzling acid and the plummeting of snow balls hitting the walls kept most of the students awake in terror. Of course, Peter was the odd one who managed to sleep through it, the others curled up in their sleeping bags in the corner, expected the ceiling to fall in at any minute. James didn't seem quite as scared as the others. Looking at him you would seem a calm face, but his mind was somewhere else, who knows where.
"Oh my God! Lily hasn't come back!" a voice shrieked, bringing James straight back into reality.
"Lily, Lily! Lily, are you here?" Another voice yelled and the first joined in. Everyone's startled heads turned to Isabel and Melody who were standing up at the other end of the hall, searching for their lost friend.
"Have you seen Lily?" Isabel asked them, as she approached them.
"Where was she?" James asked, jumping up from the ground, the sleeping bag falling off him.
I don't know why you care, but she was out walking with Jesse and we both went to bed before she came back. We assumed that she had come back but we couldn't see her through the sea of people so we thought we would see her here, but she isn't!" Isabel broke down at that, Remus putting his arm around her and surprisingly she didn't shrug it off.
"See you," James yelled over the storm, heading over to the door.
"Where do you think your going?" the prefect at the door asked him, looking him up and down with his eyebrows raised.
"Someone's still out there in the storm!" James yelled at him, and the prefect sadly shook his head.
"I am terribly sorry for your loss,"
"No! I don't have time for this, Petrificus Totalus!" the prefect's body froze and fell to the ground like a large brick. James stepped over him and began to run.
-:-
"Lily come on!" Jesse yelled, nearly pulling Lily's arm out of its socket.
"Ow! Jesse, your hurting me!" Lily cried, as he dragged her from the couch and out of the Ravenclaw common room. "Where are you taking me?"
"Lily, the Travieso Storm is about to hit Hogwarts!" he exclaimed as he ran down a staircase, poor Lily being pulled after him.
"The waty storm?" Lily asked, trying to run faster so it wouldn't hurt her arm so much.
"You've never heard of it?"
Lily shook her head as he pulled her around a sharp corner. She could feel pains shooting up and down her arm, but she reasoned that he wouldn't be doing this to her unless it was an emergency. They ran down the Marble staircase, Lily thought they were going into the Great Hall so she turned to go towards it. Big mistake.
"OW!" she screamed, her arm twisting all the way round. She heard her arm make a small 'snap' and a bone popped out from her shoulder at a very weird angle.
Lily screamed, the pain was too incriminating it was hard not to. Jesse clamped a firm hand over her mouth, and with the other one he scooped her into his arms. He carried her down another flight of stares, down into the dungeons. He ran along the dark corridor, Lily's tears of pain soaked his hand. Once he came to this particular one, he opened the door and carried Lily over to a chair. He gently placed her onto it, before doubling back to shut the door. He also put a spell on the door so only he could open the door.
Lily began to whimper silently. Jesse quickly turned around, realizing she was still in a great deal of pain and rushed over to her.
"I'm so sorry Lily! Here, Indolore!" He whispered, pointing his wand at her shoulder as he said it. At once, the pain from Lily's arm disappeared. Lily looked at it. The bone was still sticking out, put the pain had simply vanished.
"What-, what did you do to it?" Lily asked, gazing into his grey eyes.
"I took away you're pain, I couldn't bare to see you like that" he said, kissing her gently and Lily returned the kiss.
Would you like me to pop your shoulder back in? I promise it won't hurt" he said, gently placing his hands on her shoulder, and turned the shoulder gently until they heard the soft pop of the shoulder being put back into its socket.
"Thank you" she whispered "But why are we in here?"
"The Travieso Storm, it's a magical storm, everyone's worse nightmare. It rains acid, mini tornados and shoots snowballs, not to mention the lightening it shoots out as well."
As he listed them off on his fingers, Lily began to panic. She didn't feel her breaths growing sharper and faster until she found it hard to breath. She put a hand to her chest and leant over gasping for air quickly but only seemingly making her struggles worse.
Jesse clamp a hand over her mouth so that she couldn't breath at all. After a few seconds he released her but only for enough time for her to take one breath, "Breath slowly, you're starting to hyper ventilate."
Lily closed her eyes and leant back onto her boyfriend's warm chest, she couldn't think of any other place she would want to be, she felt so safe. She began breathing more calmly and she kept her eyes closed as she did. In her mind things swirled, images of everyone. She hoped her friends were safe.
As she lay with her head propped on Jesse's shoulder, she had a flash back to her last day in Paris. As she lay on the beach looking at the stars, her head propped up in the exact same spot as it had been on James' firm chest.
Her eyes flew open, "James!" She leapt up and ran to the door. She had no idea why, it was as though her body was doing things as if to its own accord.
"He's still out there in the common room. He has to be safe he has to! Do you think he's safe? Remus is responsible, he would take care of the boys. Wouldn't he?" Lily babbled to herself more than Jesse as she rigorously shook the door handle.
"Lily? I'm sure they're fine, but come over here with me," Jesse said soothingly with questioning eyes as Lily gave him a back glance before kicking the door so hard that if it hadn't been magically locked it surely would have been ripped from its hinges.
"Why won't this bloody piece of shit OPEN!" Lily fell to the floor, face in hands, and a new set of tears flowing down her cheeks.
Lily, don't you remember? I cast a spell on it so nothing could come in to hurt us" he said soothingly, rubbing his hand up and down her back.
"Or nothing could get out" Lily mumbled under her breath.
"Sorry, did you say something? I couldn't hear because of the wind," Jesse asked, as Lily pushed his hand away.
"Yeah, I said open this god damn door!" Lily leapt to her feet and pointed to the door, tapping her foot.
"Lily, I can't. If you leave this room, the storm will get you and you'll be killed and I couldn't bare it if you got hurt" Jesse said sadly as he leapt to his feet and placed his arms around her in a tight hug. Lily squirmed inside his arms, looking for a pressure point to make him release her, but every time she attempted to press one of them, Jesse readjusted his arms so they always became out of reach. So Lily decided the one, untargeted pressure point.
"Ow!" he complained in a seriously high voice, his hands rushing to his groin before he collapsed onto the floor in pain. Lily pulled out her wand from the back of her jean pocket and pointed her wand at him.
"Open the door, or I swear to god I'll put you in a lot more pain then you're already in" Lily demanded, and threw his wand to him where he laid squirming on the floor. He released his right hand, fumbled round until his fingers closed over the cold wood of his wand and he raised it to point at the door.
"Destravar" he squeaked and the doors flinging themselves open, banging against the stone walls in a rebound. Lily stuffed her wand back into her jeans and ran towards the door, pausing to take one last look at Jesse and at what she was about to throw away.
"Lily, please" Jesse whimpered "I love you"
"I'm sorry" Lily whispered and ran out into the corridor.
"Lumos" she muttered, her wand illuminating the corridor, and she ran her spare hand along the stone walls so she wouldn't fall. A clap of thunder rocked the castle but Lily kept going. She climbed up a flight of stares, and entered the basement level. She kept running her hand along the wall, but now more because it gave her a sense of safety. Her hand skimmed over the surface of a painting of a fruit bowl, her hand gliding over the grapes, the mandarins and finally a pear.
The next thing Lily realized, was that the wall was moving, her safety line disappearing and instead opening a full lit room with a lot of screaming and scared teenagers. She decided to go and see who was in the room, afraid that if she didn't, she would have missed James.
The room, unfortunately turned out to be quite large but Lily was determined to find him, no matter of the price, even if he shunned her again. She need to see his face, to see that he was alright.
"Oh my god, Lily! I found Lily!" a voice shrieked, before Lily felt a blow of a human body torpedoing at her.
"Melody, you're choking me" Lily gasped, pushing her brown hair out of her eyes and mouth.
"Lily!" she heard another scream, shortly before she was torpedoed yet again, but this time by her friend of different hair colour.
"Oh my god, how did you make it out of the storm? We were so worried!" Isabel cried, finally letting go of her friend and allowing her to finally breathe.
"We came back inside about an hour after we left and went back to Jesse's common room. I fell asleep on his shoulder and woke up when he was dragging me out of the common room and down into the dungeons," Lily explained, conveniently leaving the part out about her shoulder.
"I still can't believe you're alright. Come over and sit with us" Melody laughed, and taking her by the arm and leading her over to the corner to were the Maruders were already sitting. Lily counted them off in her head.
'There's Remus, I knew he would be smart enough to lead them to safety, there's Sirius who looks seriously depressed and I'm guessing the lump at the bottom of that sleeping bag is Peter, but where's-'
"Where's James?" Lily snapped sharply, her question mostly directed to Remus than to the others. At the sound of Lily's voice, Sirius raised his head of the wall and turned to face her.
"Lily, what the HELL are you doing here?"
"Where's James?" Lily repeated, clearly stating she wasn't answering any question until her's was answered.
"He's out in that bloody storm looking for you! So you better explain what you are doing here!"
"He's out looking for me?" Lily whispered and Sirius nodded vigorously.
"I'm sorry, I have to go" Lily announced, turning on her heel and running towards the door, despite the shouts of bewildment and warnings from her friends.
"Where do you think you're going?" the prefect at the door snapped as she tried to push past him.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Lily yelled, stepping over his stone cold body as it fell to the ground. She ran out of the kitchen and into the corridor. She ran through corridors until she finally found the stairs that led up to the Entrance Hall. Without a backward glance, she ran up them, and right across the hall until she reached the big, Entrance Doors.
She could hear the howling of the wind and the sizzling of the rain and could feel the oak doors looking down on her but none of it mattered. None of it mattered if James was out there trying to save her. But now it was Lily's turn to save him. He hadn't deserved her loyalty, but he proved he cared about her when he went out to save her so now nothing mattered.
She took a deep breath, then pulled the doors wide open.
A/N: Hey everyone! I'm sorry I haven't updated for SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO long but I had a tone of assignments, essays ect. Hope you understand. Anyways, another cliff hanger, but it was either that or the end of the story! One more chapter to go! Thanks to Penelope Richmond, blueholly, caramellxkissx, EternalWords, Mrs Claire Potter, SnowPrincess27, WhiteCamellia, BrazilianPrincess, SparklingEyesWithACrazyMind, hermy permy, headoverheels4HP, potterlady4691, crazylily, Isolde Eris, KickAssChic15, Sunny Sammy, Lil Enchantress, Lexy Granger, JP's girl 4 life, Artemis-Bell, Muse Dae, Firewalker32 and xx-I RULE-xx (deep breathing). Thank you ALL for reviewing, sure means a LOT!!!. Love ya all. One more chapter left...hmmmm I wonder what will happen!
PLEASE REVIEW! LAST CHAPTER! PLLEASE!!!
Lol, that didn't sound desperate...
Moonlight Honeysuckle