Here's another one, two days in a row! Hope you enjoy; not sure how long this writing-streak's going to last.
Slytherin must have a staggering amount of magic, has it recovered from the timetrip already?
Well, yes he does, all of the founders did. His magic was upset at being jerked around but remained mostly normal even when traveling through time. It was the surrounding magic that was busy trying to deal with this time-intruder and the massive amount of magic that had poured in from the other time, when Hogwarts was trying to save Harry. If that makes any sense. If that's what you were asking.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
:Mindspeech:
-Parseltongue-
Chapter Sixteen: A Gryffindor Foolishness
Harry apparated back into Hogwarts in a flash of dancing rainbow lights and promptly fell down. In front of no less then five watching eyes.
"It has been a while since I last did anything like that," he felt it was necessary to explain that out loud to both himself and the students that were watching him open-mouthed. He stood up and brushed himself off, looking at his own torn, bloody, and filthy robes with disgust. It was not the sort of image he would like to present to anyone, much less Gryffindors. Ah, well, it was too late now.
"Hey, Sev, would you happen to have my wand?" He asked hopefully to the only other Slytherin there, who seemed to be in the middle of a fight with Potter and Black, while Remus and Lily appeared to be trying to break it up.
"You're early," His friend stated, tossing him his wand, which he caught easily and proceeded to start casting cleaning and cloth-repairing spells on himself and his cloths, "If you had given me a little more time, I would have gotten rid of the Gryffindors."
"No, it doesn't ma-" He was cut off as a black blur rammed into his stomach, clawing her way up his torso and newly repaired shirt to his shoulder.
-Apologize,- Serphenia, or, rather, Bast, hissed into his ear, -to your friends. Now.-
"Um…I'm sorry?" He offered meekly to a calm Severus and a Lily who was looking alarmingly like Mrs. Weasley at her angriest. Bast hissed angrily in his ear and dug her claws into his shoulder. Harry gave her a pitiful look and she leapt gracefully off of his shoulder, stalking haughtily down the hall.
"Where have you been?" Lily shouted and Harry cowered, wondering if all redhead mothers (future mothers? All mothers?) shared the ability to both terrify you and make you feel immensely guilty.
"Um…elsewhere?" He presented in the same meek voice that he had used before but Lily paid him no mind, continuing to rant.
"We've all been worried sick about you for the last couple days, no, last couple weeks! You barely show up in class, you don't even talk to us…" Lily continued to list all of his wrongdoings, "Everyone was worried about you! Even Potter was worried about you."
"Don't be silly," Harry interrupted, "Potter hates my guts."
"Which just goes to show how much everyone was worried! And then you just apparate to where we are, which is supposed to be impossible in Hogwarts and you try to say 'I'm sorry'?"
"Um…I'm sorry?" Harry repeated meekly. Lily's eyes flashed but before she could say anything else, Harry cut in, "I was called away for something important. Family emergency," Which was the truth if he stretched it far enough, "And I could only get back just now so…"
Severus's raised an eyebrow and filed that information away for later. Evan looked like was telling the truth, or at least a half-truth. That meant that Evan's family was somehow connected to the Dark Lord, whether they belonged to the Death Eaters or had been killed by them.
Sirius snorted from behind him,
"That's a lame excuse."
"It's true," Harry stated, his voice icy.
"Your family is dead," James spoke up, "Dumbledore told us."
"My mother is dead," Harry repeated flatly, "And the muggles tried to take me away from the magical world. That is how I arrived here. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some things I need to take care of."
"Evan Harrison!" And Lily's voice was filled with the authority that definitely belonged to a mother, "You are not leaving until we get this whole mess sorted out."
"Yes, mother," Harry said, sarcastically yet not. Someone laughed, though Harry wasn't quite sure who it was.
Lily smiled in a sweetly dangerous way and said,
"I think that's enough. You can take them away now."
A hole opened beneath their feet and Harry, Severus, Remus, James, and Sirius all fell down…down…down until…Whumph! Their fall was broken, oddly enough, by a large pile of pillows, mattresses, and other soft things. Harry bounced a bit and then shot to his feet.
"Hey, Lily, come on! Be reasonable!" He begged.
"And don't leave that room until you start talking to everyone again!" And with that there was a sort of slamming, as if a door had closed, and there was a ceiling to the room. Lily was no longer there.
There was laughter in Harry's head and he immediately realized who was responsible for the sudden attack.
"You! You traitor!" He yelled angrily, "I was the one who helped…" 'build you' was what he had in mind but he remembered that he was being watched by, not only Severus, but Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs. Wormtail was, strangely enough, missing and Harry was grateful that he didn't have to stay for what would probably be a long time with that particular Marauder. "Let. Me. Out! C'mon, I have rights, you know. I helped so I get so and so control, right? So come on, let me out?"
The castle replied with an amused sounding thought about how the room that they were in was Helga's room and so Salazar had no control over this particular part of the castle. Looking around, Harry realized that he was, indeed, in the Room of Requirements.
"Fine, be that way. But when I get out, I'm going to prank you so bad that…" He paused. How would you prank a castle? "That you won't be able to tell the difference form the Slytherin and Gryffindor common rooms. Or the Hufflepuff or the Ravenclaw. Or the Great Hall from the Astronomy Tower from the Dungeons from the Lake."
"And why," he continued ranting, "Didn't you force her to join us, huh? She's the one who wants us to get along, right? So she should be the one here!" The castle listened, seemingly unimpressed by his logic. :Well, how about this, then. I have rights to the passages outside of this room. Therefore I can change them to lead to this room.: It all sounded nice and logical, as loopholes usually did, and the castle couldn't think of an answer. Harry grinned, "Glad you agree."
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked at the same time as James said, "Who're you talking to?"
Harry ignored both of them and merely walked across the room, and, touching the wall, hissed something in parseltongue. Sirius was about to angrily demand that Evan explained what he was doing when Lily ran into the room. She made a surprised sound and started to turn around to where the door was but it was gone and momentum carried her into James, who had been standing just a couple more inches to the right just a moment ago.
"Well then," Harry said, satisfied, "Now that everyone's here…"
"What do you want?" James asked, getting up and helping Lily to her feet, "Whatever it is, leave Lily out of it!"
"…What did you want us to talk about, Lily?" Harry continued, ignoring the other Gryffindor.
"Um," Lily started as everyone turned to look at her, "You weren't talking to anybody and you were always fighting with James and Sirius so…"
"You did this, Lily?" James asked, surprised.
"How long does this spell last?" Harry asked her calmly.
"A week."
Harry raised an eyebrow,
"Isn't that a bit excessive?"
"What spell?" asked Severus, who hadn't said anything since they fell into the room.
"We're stuck in this room for a week. Lily's free to go, since I've yet to add her to the spell, and I won't unless someone else would like to. Oh and by the way, Lily, you'll have to bring us some food and drinks or we might die from dehydration at least. I'm pretty sure all of us could go a week without food but it might be unpleasant. Anything in this room is just an illusion so…"
"Right," She said, "I'll bring some food and drinks from lunch."
"Might be easier to get them directly from the kitchens," Harry continued thoughtfully, "the house-elves would be able to bring the supplies directly here. I think. At least, it was a house-elf that showed me this place, so I think it would be reasonable."
"You mean we're stuck here with Lupin, Potter, and Black for a whole week?" Severus interrupted angrily.
"Yeah, something like that," Harry said absently. Neither James not Sirius looked pleased with this fact. Severus was seething.
"But I don't know how to get to the kitchens, Evan," Lily protested, "Is it even allowed?"
"Sure it's allowed," James protested, "If you can find it." He then proceeded to give her instructions, pleased that he had a chance to show off his knowledge of the castle, especially to Lily.
"How long is it until the full moon?"
"Five days," five voices replied at the same time. Remus, James, Severus, Lily, and Remus looked at each other suspiciously and then at Evan, who had asked the question.
"Oh damn, that means my potion's going to be ruined," he sighed, "Oh, well, I'll just do it some other time." He checked his watch, "Lunch break's over, by the way, Lily. You'd better get to class and make some excuses for us. See you later!" He called to her retreating back after she had said some quick 'good-bye's. Sirius had tried to get through the door that Lily used to leave but couldn't so he wandered back to his friend and flopped onto a random mattress gloomily.
"There is no potion," Severus said flatly.
"Yes there is," Harry protested.
"Not that I know of."
"I'm brewing it in my trunk."
"Your trunk does not have any secret compartments and, even if it did, why would you brew a potion in your trunk, where the magic could affect it, if you could just as easily find a perfectly good room somewhere in the dungeons?"
"I wanted to," Evan said crossly. In fact, he was brewing a potion in his trunk that probably would be ruined…in his own time. He knew that trying a potion of its nature in a magical room was disastrous but he could hardly just make it out in the open and pretend it was his potions' homework, as he might have been able to do at the Dursleys. For one thing, the poison was way above his level and highly dangerous (so it was something that probably wouldn't be taught at Hogwarts) and, for another, he had a fellow classmate, possibly even the second (now third) best in his year sleeping in the same room as him in a house that belonged to a potions' master. Yes, he knew of some secret passageways but it was a highly violate potion anyways and he didn't want to harm the old house. And it had nothing to do with the moon cycle but he had never said that it did.
"You know about Remus," James stated flatly.
"I know some things about him, yes," Harry said, internally smirking. Who did James think he was talking to, a Gryffindor? Don't answer that, he snapped before his mind could make a sarcastic comment out of it, "He's got light brown hair and amber eyes, is a slight chocolate addict, a Gryffindor, one of the Marauders…"
"You know what he meant!" Sirius interrupted.
"I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," Harry answered evenly.
"But you do have an idea?" Remus asked quietly, before the other Gryffindors resorted to physical violence.
"Aw, Remmy, you ruined my fun with the Gryffies," Evan pouted, "Fine, fine, yes, I might have an idea what sort of secret you're talking about. But," he added, "I'm still not going to say it."
"Which means he doesn't know," Sirius supplied.
"Maybe I does and maybe I don'ts," Evan replied in the sing-song tone that house-elves usually used and stuck his tongue out at the Marauders. Sirius growled at him.
"Sirius," Remus sighed, "Don't attack Evan. And Evan, don't provoke Sirius. As you know or at least have guessed, I'm keeping a secret from you." He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, closed it, took another deep breath and said, "I'm a werewolf."
"Well, I'm glad we got that cleared up, then," Evan said brightly, "Now I wonder, Hogwarts, darling, could you get me some books. And don't ask, you know exactly what I want to research. You're the one who got me into this whole mess to begin with. And don't you dare even think about fate. It was your fault." The last part was said in a petulant tone. None of the others even bothered asking who, or what, he thought he was talking to.
"That's it?" Remus asked incredulously, "You just learned that I turn into a bloodthirsty monster once a month which, incidentally, happens in five days, when we'll all still be here and I could kill you…" Severus personally agreed. Evan, incidentally, did not and he cut his friend off mid-rant.
"No you won't."
Remus blinked,
"Pardon?"
"You couldn't kill me if you tried," Evan stated, "I'm un-killable. Seriously." Sirius opened his mouth to say the 'No I'm Sirius' joke but then, apparently thinking it would be better not to, closed his mouth again. "Anyways, this room is built to adapt to our needs. If you don't want to kill us and we don't want to be killed, there definitely shouldn't be a problem. Or we could have you transfigure us into animals. It really doesn't matter."
"How can you just make him sound so…harmless?" Severus asked, annoyed at his friend's apparent disregard for danger. Then again, ever since that night, Remus had terrified him. Being attacked by a nearly full-grown werewolf did that to a person.
"I had a werewolf friend back home," Evan said slowly, "Well, not quite a friend, more of an acquaintance…he was my father's friend so…I didn't really get the chance to know him very well but he was nice. Almost got myself attacked by him once but…I was careless. Everyone got away from that unharmed, though, so it was fine."
"Fine?" Severus asked incredulously, "You call being attacked by a werewolf fine?"
"Not attacked by him," Evan corrected, "Nearly attacked by him. He ran off after a second. I had a friend's dog with me and he was large and very protective. Anyways there was more of a distraction when my friend's pet rat freaked and ran off." He paused, "I can't stand rats." The Marauders exchanged meaningful looks.
Severus wanted to argue more but hearing about his friend's life before Hogwarts was interesting to say the least. Evan had never opened up about it before.
"Now, then there was the time I was attacked by a basilisk," His friend continued, his eyes gleaming with mirth.
"A basilisk?" James shouted and everyone looked shocked.
"Just kidding, just kidding. I'm a parselmouth, remember? Most snakes wouldn't want to attack me anyways. Even a basilisk wouldn't try unless it was under the control of another parselmouth."
"That's not something to joke about," Remus said, frowning.
"But what I wouldn't give for some of that venom," Evan sighed, "It's impossible to find, even in Knockturn Alley." He glanced at the Marauders and added unconvincingly, "Not that I would know. And I heard even the shed skin's really good for battle robes. Not that I would need any. If I'd ever met one, I would ask." Maybe he could try getting some from the Serphenia of this time. If he had time he would try it.
There was an awkward silence, Evan's parseltongue abilities not yet having been discussed and then the Marauders, or the three present, started talking to each other, conveniently far away enough that it was impossible for Severus and Harry to hear.
"So," Harry said to his partner-in-crime (or at least prank wars), "You up for a game of exploding snap?"
It was another hour or two before the house-elves arrived with food (which Harry thanked them for and asked them to bring them food the next day too) and a good half-hour after that before Lily arrived and promptly began lecturing Evan again, her argument apparently fueled by the time she had had to think in class.
"So sorry that I managed to get myself caught by Voldemort, mother, I'll make sure that it doesn't happen again." Evan muttered sullenly and a bit too loudly.
"Voldemort?" James asked, all of his distrust towards the Slytherin rushing back, "What were you doing with him?"
"We just chatted about ruling the world and killing off all muggles over a nice game of gobstones. His house elves make some wonderful tea."
"I thought it was a family emergency?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you? He's my mother's second cousin's great-aunt's husband's niece's adopted son's childhood playmate."
James looked shocked,
"You're joking."
"Yes, I am," Harry said, "His house elves make absolutely nasty tea. But something to drink does sound nice." And a cup of hot chocolate appeared in front of him, "Oh that looks wonderful."
"Evan," Lily said calmly, as Harry drank the hot chocolate, "What were you doing with Voldemort?"
"Just a little bit of torture. Don't worry," He added at Lily's shocked expression, "I was the one being tortured and he didn't even hurt very much. Had some weird idea that I would be of some use to him as a servant, since I'm a Parselmouth. Pretty soon he'll realize that another Parselmouth would probably be a threat and come to eliminate me. But don't worry," he took another sip, "I'll probably be gone by then."
"Gone?" Severus asked, surprised and perhaps even a bit betrayed by this new information.
"Yes," Harry paused and some whipped cream appeared in his drink, "I've done the calculations and I've got a month left to live…" he paused and drank another sip, "in the Slytherin dorms. Then I'm packing up and I've gotta go. Family reasons."
"That's the excuse that you gave when you were captured by Voldemort," Severus said flatly.
"Yes, but I could be talking about the same family reasons or different ones. Did you know that Salazar Slytherin was distantly related to Godric Gryffindor?" The Gryffindors blinked and shook their heads. "And Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are also distantly related. Don't you find that strange?"
"Who are Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy?" Severus asked.
"Nobody," he laughed, "It's really Harry Malfoy and Draco Potter. And they don't exist."
The others were giving him strange looks. He smirked at them. Lily hit him with a pillow.
And of course that meant war.
Nearly an hour and approximately four hundred pillows later (courtesy the Room of Requirements), five pillow-forts had been made, three had been invaded, two had been attacked and raided until there was not a bit of white fluff left, and a sneaky spell (courtesy of one Evan Harrison) left all of the occupants but himself and Severus violently allergic to feathers (though the spell did no more than make them sneeze) for about ten minutes, during which the pillows rapidly disappeared one-by-one (as Evan and Severus were doing their best to stop the pillows from disappearing). In the end, all six of them were lying on the floor (now conveniently made of springy mattresses) breathing heavily from the sneezing, thinking, and pillow-whacking.
It was an hour well-spent.
Eventually Lily had to leave to study, after many attempts to do so in the prankster-packed room, and the two Slytherins were lounging on a pillow/mattress castle reading a book on time travel (Evan) and potions (Severus). The marauders were bored. And bored pranksters could be dangerous. Just because pranks were funnier and more embarrassing in front of large audiences didn't mean that they always had to be played in public. Especially if the pranked party were pranksters themselves. And both sides were equipped with cameras (transfigured from whatever they happened to have in their pockets, instead of supplied by the room, so that they would last). Remus had tried to sit to the side and study but was dragged into it anyways.
When Severus tried to ask Evan about a potion that seemed to be misnamed or, at least, wildly misspelled, it came out as a mewing noise. Evan raised his eyebrow. Severus did not try to say anything else but silently pointed out the mistake in the book and Evan wrote down that he thought that it was supposed to be a Babbling Beverage, rather than a Beautification Potion. Severus roared randomly which made them both jump before glaring over at the Marauders.
Sirius immediately fell in love with a mirror, babbling at it how much he loved 'her' and the snitch James had been playing with exploded into silver and green paint, leaving Remus to clean up the mess as James tried to wipe his face off. Severus gave Evan an amused look and Evan wrote that it was Severus's turn to prank next if the Marauders chose to retaliate. Severus started thinking of ideas.
Evan was not overly surprised when he started humming a random song,
"But I don't even know this song," he complained. Or, at least, tried to complain. It came out gibberish: "this but I song know even don't!"
"Tahw?" Snape, too, seemed to be having language problems. Narrowing his eyes angrily at the Marauders, he tried to say something else, "Siht si llesp epyt tahw?"
"I hell know if," Evan said, smirking at him, he, at least, seemed to understand the spell cast on his pranking partner, "Prank badly. Them please."
Severus gave him a blank look, still not understanding what he himself was saying,
"Ti teg t'nod I."
"From it learn cousin my," Evan said, "Of sort. Writing try." At least Evan was easier to understand, just a little scrambled up. He tried writing 'Will this really help?' and it came out 'Pleh yllaer siht lliw?' After staring blankly at the words for a minute, he tried writing 'Pleh yllaer siht lliw?' and it came out 'Will this really help?' The words were backwards. And if he tried to say them backwards it should come out English, albeit with a horrible accent. But accent didn't matter as much as many wizards thought it did, intention and confidence enough should make it come out at least half-right. And he didn't really care if his spell ended up strange, as long as it didn't backfire and that would only be with a broken wand.
He would get the Marauders back for this.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx
Harry's 'confused' lines are:
"But I don't even know this song!"
"Hell if I know." "Please prank them. Badly."
"Learnt it from my cousin." "Sort of. Try writing"
And Severus's 'backwards' lines are:
"What?" "What type of spell is this?"
"I don't get it"
'Will this really help?'
'Pleh yllaer siht lliw?'
Hope you liked it! More soon but not for at least another day, since I'm not going to be able to touch my computer tomorrow.
Also, some of you might think (I sure did) that Evan/Harry/Salazar was behaving a bit…Gryffindor…in this chapter. Well, there is the chapter title and…Notice that he did not once get questioned about his parseltongue abilities. Instead, he steered the conversations towards pranks and such while maintaining a silly attitude.
Please review!