Chapter 5
"How are we going to tell him, Prongs?"
"We'll just have to come out with it."
"Pads you know that won't work. We have to be gentle with it, and make him understand that this is for his own good."
"What if he turns us in, though?"
"Don't be stupid, Wormtail, Moony would never."
"He would though! Remember when we were going to shave off Even's hair and Moon told Prongs?"
"You were going to do WHAT?!"
James' yell not only made the other two jump, but also made everyone else in the Library look their way.
"Quiet!" snapped Madam Prince.
The three boys nodded and lowered their heads once more and continued to whisper.
"What do you men you were going to shave all of Even's hair off, Wormtail?" James whispered viciously.
"Well…" Peter said nervously, "It was just going to be a prank, and Moony said he told you and you said you would kill us if we tried."
"It was mostly my idea though," Sirius said hold up his hand in defense when James' narrowed eyes turned on him. "It's not like we did it though, so calm down will you?"
"Calm down? I have half a mind to-"
"What are you guys doing?"
Sirius, James, and Peter all looked up and faced their sandy haired friend. Remus had his eyebrow raised at his friends and he sat down cautiously, as if moving too fast would cause some sort of explosion.
"Ah!" James said sitting back in his chair grinning at his friend. "Moony. So glad you could make it today. Mind if we take a walk?"
"I just got here, Prongs, why would I want to leave?" Remus said rolling his eyes.
"Got some business to discus with you," Sirius said to him before leaning in and whispering, "Some business about a certain furry little problem."
Remus' face suddenly went completely emotionless. He nodded at his friends and turned without another word of the matter and walked out of the library with the other three closely following.
Even though his face gave nothing away, Remus was breaking on the inside. He knew the day would come when his friends realized how truly horrid his condition was and they wouldn't want to be anywhere near him anymore. He couldn't blame them though, seeing as how he never really expected them to stay with him for this long. However, it would be a lie to say that he wasn't a bit disappointed. He really thought James, Sirius, and Peter accepted him for who he was in spite of what he was.
The four boys stepped into the Gryffindor common room and headed up the stairs without looking at another soul. They walked into their dormitory and made sure that Frank and Dean weren't anywhere to be found before casting a muting charm round the room.
"Right," James said putting his wand down and sitting on his bed facing Remus, "We need to talk."
Remus sighed sadly. "It's all right boys, I understand. I know I'm a monster and I don't blame you for wanting to be done with me. It's been a good run, but lots of friendships come to an end sooner or later and-"
"Are you stupid?" Sirius laughed.
"What the bloody hell makes you think that we're just going to give up five years of friendship just because you wolf out every month and pee on trees?" James smirked.
"Yeah," Peter said, "That's not what we were going to say at all."
Remus was shocked, but relief flowed through him all the same. "So what's this all about then?"
The other three boys shared a look before Peter led Remus to his bed and sat him down. "You see, Moony my dear man, over the summer I found a book."
"Not just any book," James said grinning.
"That's right," Peter said, "Not just any ol' book you see. As you well know, my gran loves Transfiguration."
Remus nodded confused.
"And well this book is all about Transfiguration."
"Okay…" Remus drawled out.
"And as I was flipping through this book, I came across something very interesting."
Remus sighed a little irritated. "Is there a point to this already long story?"
"We're going to become Animagi." Sirius beamed happily.
Remus sat there on his bed and stared at his friends before bursting out laughing. "Yeah… haha… right! Oh… oh that was a good one you guys. Ahaha… I thought you were going to tell me something serious for a minute there."
The other three boys waited patiently for Remus to get all his chuckles out before speaking again.
"Oh we're not kidding," James said. He turned and motioned to Peter for him to bring the book.
Peter went to his trunk and dug around until he pulled out a large brown book made of leather and weird writing on the front in some kind of different langue. When Remus saw it he stopped laughing immediately.
"Whaa…"
"You see, Moony ol' pal," Sirius said, "We adore you dearly, and as nice as it is for us to be there for you before and after your transformation, you always say how lonely you feel afterwards so we thought it would be better if we helped you out a little more."
"I- you- help me out- no!" Remus yelled jumping up from his bed. "Are you all mad? Do you have any idea how dangerous, let alone stupid, that would be? I could kill you! Or worse yet, I could bite you!"
"Not if we're in animal form." Peter said flipping through the book until he reached a certain page. "'While in the form of an Amimagus, the witch or wizard will have all the makings of an animal while still maintaining the mind of a human. This means that all other creatures will see the witch or wizard as nothing but another animal.' See? You're not even going to know it's us!"
"That doesn't mean that I won't bite you!" Remus yelled.
"Pete, read the next page," James said calmly.
Peter turned the page and skimmed through it until he found the passage. "'Because there has been no known recording of an animal being infected by any viruses known to infect man, while in Amimagus form the witch or wizard is said to be completely safe to any infections known to come from the bite of a Vampire, Acheri, Arachnes, Buruburu, Changeling, Davea, Kitsunes, and or Lycans.' Any other questions?"
Remus stammered. "B-but… you… and…. You can-can't!"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "And why not?"
"Do you know how long it would take? Not to mention that if something went wrong you'd be horribly disfigured. And- and what would you even turn into? Because there might be some animals I don't like or something. The answer is no boys!"
James chuckled. "It really wasn't up for negotiation, Remus. We're going to do this whether you like it or not. We already figured it would take a while, so we'll probably be done with it sometime after Christmas. We're not going to be disfigured because we aren't going to get anything wrong, and as for you not liking the animals we turn into… well we'll just have to see when the time comes now wont we?"
"I'll report you!" Remus said in a last act of desperation.
"Nah," Sirius smirked smugly, "See I don't think you will. You love us just as much as we love you, Remy, meaning you wouldn't send us to Azkaban for just trying to help you."
"But I would if it was to help you!"
James frowned a little and sighed. "Look, Remus, we're Marauders and that means we look out for each other, not matter the risks. We do things we don't like to help one another out, because we're friends and that's what friends do. You can report us if you really want to, but even if you do we'll find some way to escape and we'll go through with this anyway. Because, like Sirius said, we really do love you and it hurts us to see how much you hurt every month. I know you're scared that it's too dangerous, or whatever hogwash you're spouting, but sometimes the highest risk is the best bet."
Remus opened his mouth again, but closed it once more. There was no point arguing with these three. Once they had their minds set there wasn't any changing that, and Remus knew it. James' word was final.
The sandy blonde boy stared at his friends once more and took in their looks of absolute certainty and stubbornness. They were doing this for him and that was that. They all knew what would happen to them if this plan were to fail, but still they were going to do it because they had complete faith in their werewolf friend. So it was about time he had complete faith in them as well.
Remus sighed. "I don't like this idea. Actually no, I hate this idea. It's stupid and reckless and you're all going to get yourselves killed. I should go report you to Dumbledore right this very second."
"I feel like there's a 'but' coming on here." Sirius said smiling.
"But," Remus said slowly, "I guess I couldn't stop you even if I tried so I might as well make sure you don't kill yourselves too fast."
The other three boys whopped in joy and tackled the young werewolf on his bed hugging and messing up his hair and placing sloppy kisses on his cheeks.
"Get off!" Remus yelled but he was unable to contain his smile.
"Okay Pete," James said sitting up and snatching the brown leather book from the small boy, "Where do we start?"
~9999999~
"How long are you going to say mad at me?" Clara asked Jenny for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "I told you I didn't tell them anything! The only reason they know is because they just happened to be there."
"I'm not mad about any of that, Clara." Jenny whispered back to her friend before adding the next ingredient to the cauldron. "I just don't understand some things."
Clara groaned loudly causing some looks to fly her way, four boys in particular. "I've explained everything to you at least a thousand times by now. What do you still not understand?"
"Why didn't you tell me after this happened?"
"I said that one. I didn't tell you because it didn't seem of importance at the time and I had other things on my mind, like not getting expelled for attacking Snape."
Jenny gave a side-glance to her friend before nodding. "Okay I can accept that. But still…"
Clara huffed in slight annoyance. "Still what?"
"Why didn't you use your powers against Lestrange?"
Clara hesitated. Should she tell Jenny that she didn't want to kill someone in the middle of the corridor with all these people around? No. That would be a bad idea.
Clara leaned in to her friend real close and whispered. "Wasn't it you who said not to make a name of myself this year, what with my father and all? What do you think people would say if Lestrange wound up seriously hurt or something? I just couldn't take the risk… so I didn't. That's all there is."
Jenny nodded and went back to brewing while Clara watched her closely.
Having her friend not trust her made Clara feel very unsettled. She and Jenny had never really had fights that were not forgotten in a day or so, but this was different. Any other fights they had maybe had once or twice were never about Clara and her so called "Gift. " Actually it was more of a curse than a gift. A great and horrible curse her mother left her as a new born.
"You're staring." Jenny said flatly.
Clara blinked and sighed. "That's because you're doing the potion wrong. It's two counter-clock wise stirs, five clock wise stirs, and then twelve diagonal stirs."
Jenny looked down into the caldron. She hadn't even been paying attention to what she had been doing. The sliverish grey color that was supposed to be at the there was replaced by a mustered yellow color with splotches of brown and black.
Jenny sighed and without another word handed the ladle to Clara, who, as it so happened, was ace at Potions along with all her other classes. Sometimes Jenny wondered why Clara even befriended her in the first place. They didn't even like one another in the begging… or at least Jenny didn't really fancy her too much.
"Are you going to steal my custards?" came a small voice from the doorway.
Jenny turned around and saw a girl that looked around her age, with long wavy hair and beautiful blue eyes, standing there with a slight smirk on her face.
Jenny frowned. "I am a member of the Ryals family. We do not need to steal something so pathetic as a custard."
The girl raised her eyebrow. "So you steal those whom are less pathetic than a custard? Like a dish maybe."
Jenny scoffed, heat rising to her face. "The Ryals family has more money than a childish little girl that you could possibly understand. We need not steal a thing when we can buy our own. How dare you insinuate such things!"
The girl laughed and held up her hands in mock surrender. "Whoa there, Ryals, I was just kidding. The whole custard thing is from a book I just finished reading called, 'Alice in Wonderland.' Take whatever you're heart desires, this isn't my house anyway."
It was Jenny's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Then why are you in the kitchen."
"Why are you?" The girl counted with a laugh.
Jenny narrowed her eyes. "I demand you tell me your name."
The girl sighed. "I suspect you're my age, meaning you'll be on the first train to Hogwarts this September. If you can learn some manners by then, I might just tell you."
And with that the girl walked out of the kitchen and back to the party.
Jenny was sitting alone in a small compartment on the Hogwarts Express reading her new copy of 'Alice in Wonderland' and thus far she quite enjoyed it. She was so captivated by the book she didn't even notice someone come in and plop down on the seat in front of her. When Jenny peered over her book, she came face to face with the same wavy haired blue-eyed annoying girl she'd met at the Malfoy Manner.
"Hi again," the girl said.
Not feeling up to an argument, Jenny sighed and closed her book. "My name is Jenifer Ryals. You are."
The girl barked out a laugh. "I was kidding about the manners thing last time we talked. But if you must know, my name is Clarissa Hathaway, and I'm you're new best friend."
"What makes you think I need you for a friend?" Jenny challenged.
The girl looked confused and did a quick sweep of the compartment with her eyes. "There is no on else here."
Those six words cut Jenny deep. There was never anyone there… except for this girl.
"Alright. You can be my friend," Jenny said emotionlessly before going back to her book.
Clara smiled. "Wicked."
"SLYTHERIN!" Jenny watched closely as her new friend Clara walked towards the table filled with clapping students looking genially upset.
She waited until it was her turn to go up and put on the strange hat. When it was lowed onto her head her mind was filled with a strange voice.
"Interesting, interesting. I see you are quite brave, you might do well in Gryffindor… ah but you are far too mischievous for that… No defiantly not Gryffindor… Very smart, maybe… No. Not a Ravenclaw either. And you have far too much raw nerve for Hufflepuff so the only logical choice is… SLYTHERIN!"
Jenny smiled to herself as she walked to the same table her friend was sitting and took the seat next to her.
Clara, who had her head on the table, looked up through her arms and smiled at Jenny.
"Wicked!" she exclaimed. "I hoped we'd be in the same house but I wasn't sure if we would be. This is going to make being best friends so much easier."
Jenny laughed and turned to watch the rest of the ceremony.
"-and I swear that- Hey! Are you even listening to me?"
Clara's voice snapped Jenny out of her thoughts long enough for, "What…?" to escape her mouth.
Clara rolled her eyes. "You didn't hear a word I just said did you? What were to day dreaming about anyway? Was it a boy?"
It was Jenny's turn to roll her eyes. "Yeah. Sure."
Clara laughed. "It was wasn't it? Who is it then? I know you hate Slytherins, and you think Ravenclaws are prats, so it has to be a Gryffindor. Right?"
"What about the Hufflepuffs?"
Clara snorted. "You hate them more than I do, the bunch of bloody goody-too-shoo brats. So it's a Gryffindor, yeah?"
"Sure."
"It is Remus?"
Jenny snorted so loudly it caused various looks to be casted her way. She blushed and looked down at her hands.
"It is!" Clara yelled excitedly.
"Ladies!" Professor Slughorn snapped. "Is there a problem back there?"
"No profess-" Jenny tried but was interrupted.
"There absolutely is!" Clara said as she held up a finger to the potions master. "Yeah Horace in a second." Then she turned back to Jenny. "I can't believe you haven't told me this before!"
"Clara-"
"I mean I was already shipping the two of you together but still!"
"Miss Hathaway-"
"Oh you two would be so cute together! You'd have the most adorable babies and I bet he'd be a beast in bed. Not to mention he's super nice and sweet and has a wicked sense of humor-"
While the whole class was laughing Jenny was blushing.
"Professor, if I may?" Jenny said and Slughorn nodded knowing what was coming next.
Jenny stood while Clara was still ranting and raving and moved her hand all the way back and lashed it out at the back of Clara's head.
The whole class erupted as Clara rolled around on the rolled on the floor clutching the back of her head howling in pain. Even Jenny was forced to giggle a little.
It was in that second, while she was watching her friend make a fool of herself as she always does, that Jenny realized how much she truly cared for Clara. She loved the idiot.
~9999999~
"He's going to kill us if we don't get her to him by Christmas." The pudgy bald man said to his tall lanky friend.
"It was your idea to leave such an important task in the hands of children. Now you're afraid of what effect that will have on the rest of us? Unbelievable."
The bald man sneered. "My son is perfectly capable of bringing the bitch to the Dark Lor-"
The lanky man grabbed his pudgy friend by the throat and pulled him real close.
"That 'bitch,' as you called her, may just be the most powerful witch in history. She can control the dead, you blasted bastard. Not only that, but she can do so much more! She can change winter into summer, night into day, death into life! This girl can topple countries in a matter of days, and the whole world in a matter of months. And all of this is before she comes of age and reaches her full potential. Do you know what that would mean for this oncoming war? Our Dark Lord would have more power than anyone that dared oppose him! He'd win in a matter of hours with her on his side."
The bald man tried to retract his face but the taller of the two held it tighter.
"His Greatness has blessed us with this opportunity to prove to him what loyal friends and servants we can be, and you have handed that opportunity to a fifteen year old boy and his group of insolent prepubescent idiots. What in the hell did you think he was going to do when he found out that your son couldn't retrieve the girl? Throw you a party? Of course he's going to kill you, you blundering baboon."
The bald man jerked his face away and glared at the other man.
"What do you suppose we do then, if you're so smart?"
The lanky man thought for a while passing back and forth down the dark cold ally way of a small building in the middle of Hogsmead.
"Lets see…" The lanky man said mostly to himself. "Where would she be secluded and far enough away from Dumbledore that he wouldn't be able to hear her scream…?"
The man thought for a moment more and then smiled.
"Doesn't your son have a Hogsmead trip in three weeks?"
The bald man nodded.
"Perfect! We'll Imperius her there and make her come to us."
"Won't her friends miss her?"
The lanky man laughed joyfully. "By the time anyone knows she's missing it'll be too late. She'll already be in the hands of the Dark Lord and he'll do with her what he wishes."
The bald man laughed as well. "Great! I'll send word to Evan immediately."
The lanky man nodded and watched as his friend called upon his owl and quickly scribbled down words on a piece of parchment he'd been carrying around. This plan was going to work- no. It had to work.
If not… The men could kiss their lives goodbye.
Hi there, everyone! So there you have it! Someone is going to try and kidnap Clara…. Or are they? Who knows… you'll just have to wait for the next chapter. Also there'll be a re-appearance of a character I completely forgot about until I was looking back at old chapters, so that'll be nice.
Right, well, send me ideas of what you think should happen (I love different opinions on things.) And tell me what you thought of this chapter (the ending was a bit rushed…. Sorry) and…yeah.
Thank you ever so much for reading!
~Aggie~