Chapter 3
"Ugh. I can't believe this, why did I even bother hanging out with you guys in the first place. If I'd have just stuck to my usual business that day in third year, we wouldn't be in this mess." grumbled Kingsley as the four original Marauders plus Cassie and Kingsley stumbled through the Forbidden Forest under James' invisibility cloak. It didn't really do much, considering it was draped over their heads and only covered down to their waists, so there were six pairs of legs without upper bodies wandering the forest. Sirius made a puppy-dog whimpering noise.
"Aww, Kingsley, you don't really mean that do you? Has two years of busom friendship done nothing to melt your black black heart?" he asked in a theatrically miserable voice. Kingsley elbowed what he thought was Sirius in the gut.
"Hey!" exclaimed Remus.
"Oh...Sorry, Remus. Elbow Sirius for me?" Remus nodded and elbowed behind him, getting the job done for Kingsley.
"Oh, suuuuuuure. Gang up against your best friend." grumbled Sirius. Remus shrugged.
"Kingsley's a good friend too. He doesn't try to feed me doggy treats." Remus pointed out as they kept walking. James snickered. Cassie cocked her head to the side under the cloak.
"Why would you try to feed Remus doggy treats, Sirius?" asked Cassie curiously. This immediately shut the boys up. They had yet to induct Cassie into their circle of secrecy, purely due to the fact that they didn't know her all that well yet. Cassie was pretty cool, but she hadn't quite proved her trustworthy...ness, in terms that Sirius would use. And so the boys tended to skirt around Remus' furry little problem.
"Well, it's just a thing..." Remus began but was interuppted by James.
"...so you'll understand in the grand scheme of things..."
"Were you there at the time?" Kingsley cut in.
"Twenty seven!" exclaimed Sirius.
Cassie looked thoroughly put off asking anymore of this. She just shrugged and kept walking.
"So, Sirius are you sure you know the proper path to Hogsmede without going through the Hogwarts gates and being spotted?" as they all walked around a rather large log, wary of the fact that it may be hollow and something might be hiding inside.
Sirius nodded. "Yeah, I've got the Floo we need to get to that place in Yorkshire all set up in the Hogs' Head too. Old Abe got it set up for us in the blink of an eye. It's just down that path there." He said pointing to a rather foreboding grove of trees that blocked out the rather bright moonlight.
Peter whimpered. "Are you sure we have to go through there, Sirius?"
"Yup." he replied. Peter whimpered again.
"The price of fame." he cried. James reached forward and pat his head.
"Oh, Peter. You're the manager. You're not even going to be famous." he stated. Peter whimpered even louder.
"Shh! Peter! You'll sick a werewolf on us!" hissed Cassie in a loud whisper. Everything went eerily quiet and the six of them continued their walk to the Hog's Head in silence.
When they arrived at the Hog's Head, Aberforth Dumbledore had the fire burning brightly and every last patron cleared out, even the loyal drunks who never left the bar unless completely neccesary. It wasn't very hard to imagine the infuriated look on Rosmerta, the young barmaid's face when they all came wandering in after being shooed out of their usual haunt.
"Abe!" exclaimed Sirius after they pulled off the cloak and James shoved it into his bag. Aberforth gave the six of them a bemused look, apprasing, and rough.
"Where are your instruments?" he asked darkly. "If this is a scam, Black, that fire won't be green when I throw you in it." James quickly opened his bag to reveal a drum set, a bass, two guitars and a mike stand shrunken down to an extremely tiny size. "Alright. Get in the fire, I'll be here when you get back."
"The Raving Roonspoor!" cried James tossing the Floo Powder into the fire. He jumped in. The rest of the band and Peter followed. After the swirling warm sensation, they all landed with a thud in the back of a dark, seedy looking pub packed with people speaking in thick Yorkshire accent.
Peter stood up. "I had the owner reserve one of the bathrooms for us, come on." The band followed, trying not to be seen as they made their way to the bathroom. Once they got in, James opened the bag again and pulled everything out, sending their instruments out onto the stage at their normal size again. Then, the boys pulled everything out stuff concerning their appearance out.
"Alright guys, gotta be flashy, remember the outfits I had made for you?" he asked. "Where are those."
Remus grimaced. "Yeah...about that Peter...The only one who seemed to enjoy the idea of a purple sequin jumpsuit was Sirius...for some reason. We kinda decided to do stuff on our own." Peter looked extremely put off now.
"But...But..."
"Peter" Hissed Kingsley. Peter sighed and folded his arms.
"I'll be with the manager at the back, have fun." he said simply. At the moment they were getting dressed in the outfits they'd be wearing, it was nothing extravegant. James was wearing a black leather trenchcoat hanging open to reveal the two abs he was exceedingly proud of, a pair of ripped up blue jeans and black hightops. Sirius was wearing knee high black boots with his kilt and a black T-shirt. Cassie was wearing wearing about seven layers of shirts and a frilly pink skirt as well as about a million bangles on her wrists. She wasn't wearing any shoes either. Remus was wearing a black tank top and red pants with suspenders hanging down around his legs along with black sandals. Kingsley was wearing a white button up shirt with his Griffindor tie and a pair of green camo pants that were so baggy that they'd have looked like a skirt were they not tucked into his black trainers. They all seemed satisfied with this and had dubbed them their 'band' costumes.
"Mask time, guys." said Kingsley taking out what appeared to be a black pen. They'd agreed to do eachother's masks after reaching an understanding as to what they wanted, and they'd all sworn that they'd follow the designs given. James walked over and Kingsley started drawing on his face, he drew devil horns on James' forehead and then moved it down, around, over his nose and filled it in when he was finished. "Say the colour James."
"Red." The drawing on his face became a red mask that resembled the top half of a devil's face. He grinned. "Do I look awesome, or do I look awesome?"
"You look like a dickface in a devil mask, now do me." said Sirius stepping foreward. James rolled his eyes and drew a mask that looked sort of like a black butterfly with pointy wings over his eyes. This continued with Remus wearing a mask that resembled bat wings, Kingsley wearing a silver mask that looked similar to a white line over his eyes, and Cassie wearing a mask that looked sort of like what was around a raccoon's eyes except for the pointy long triangles running down her cheeks at the ends.
"Come on, guys. Lets get out there!" said Sirius excitedly. Remus stared at the stage as they headed out of their 'dressing room'. He was dying on the inside with terror. Thankfully he was only the bassist. Only the bassist? Why were bassists so damn unimportant!? Then again...He allowed himself to drift off in hopes that he'd forget about the packed crowd that had filled up the club.
As Cassie took the mike, some guy tossed a wad of twenty notes at her and yelled: "Show us your tits!" Cassie took the twenties and shoved them down her shirt.
"Not likely, and you're not getting these back!" she called back. "And if any of you douches ever try that again, I will come down there and kick your asses." The boys rolled their eyes. They'd expected stuff like this to happen, after all, who was going to take a bunch of kids in masks seriously. Surprisingly this was followed by a bouncer coming and taking the offending money throwing idiot away. "Alright, we're the Marauders and...this is the first song in our set." The guitars were charmed to play properly without amps. Kingsley strummed the first few chords and they were off.
"Oh, make me over
Im all I want to be
A walking study
In demonology
Hey, so glad you could make it
Yeah, now you really made it
Hey, so glad you could make it now
Oh, look at my face
My name is might have been
My name is never was
My names forgotten
Hey, so glad you could make it
Yeah, now you really made it
Hey, theres only us left now
When I wake up in my makeup
Its too early for that dress
Wilted and faded somewhere in hollywood
Im glad I came here
With your pound of flesh
No second billing cause youre a star now
Oh, cinderella
They arent sluts like you
Beautiful garbage beautiful dresses
Can you stand up or will you just fall down
You better watch out
What you wish for
It better be worth it
So much to die for
Hey, so glad you could make it
Yeah, now you really made it
Hey, theres only us left now
When I wake up in my makeup
Have you ever felt so used up as this?
Its all so sugarless
Hooker/waitress/model/actress
Oh, just go nameless
Honeysuckle, shes full of poison
She obliterated everything she kissed
Now shes fading
Somewhere in hollywood
Im glad I came here
With your pound of flesh
You want a part of me
Well, Im not selling cheap
No, Im not selling cheap..."