Chapter 82: Boring Life
"Don't you find that life is just so boring??" Peter asked the other Marauders. It was just another of those Monday evenings after dinner.
"Life is never boring with Sirius around." Sirius declared.
"Wormtail, this is one thing you gotta admit that it's true." Remus laughed.
"Moony understand me the best." Sirius grinned and started doing handstand by the wall.
"Are you trying a new stunt in using the quill??" James joked as he looked up from his Herbology homework.
"That's a great idea. Let me try something." Sirius accioed his quill and parchment over with his left hand holding his wand and his right hand supporting his body weigh by the wall.
"Why not we compete to see who can stand with their hands the longest??" James suggested. "By the wall, of course."
"I will definitely lose." Peter said grumpily.
"Wormtail, you gotta try it then you know." James said comfortingly.
"Besides we've got decent muscles around with all those exercise we've been doing."
"Loser fetch dinner from kitchen for all of us."
"Didn't we just have our dinner??"
"Did we??"
"SIRIUS!!"
"Oh ya, we did. Make it supper then."
"That's better."
"Let's start in the count of three."
"Wait, warm up first." The Marauders stretched their arms and legs a little with some light warm up exercises, which they usually do before their quidditch practice.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Up." With a flip, the four Marauders were leaning against the wall supporting with only their palms.
"When shall we have our next shopping trip??" Samantha asked her roommates.
"How about this weekend??"
"Another typical Hogsmeade weekend."
"That's like the furthest place we can hit during the school year."
"Shall we explore somewhere further??"
"What are you suggesting??"
"Like going beyond the village??"
"To the trees??"
"Or the lake??"
"I don't mean that."
"Then??"
"There might be another village around or something??"
"Then it wouldn't be one of those magical community."
"Muggle life isn't all that bad."
"That's true."
"So shall we go exploring??"
"In fact, I rather not."
"Why??"
"Not that I'm being paranoid of goody-two-shoes, but curiosity do kills the cat."
"Cats have nine lives."
"What if they already used up eight of them??"
"Why isn't anyone giving up??"
"Because we never say die."
"My balls are intolerably itchy."
"Then you give up and go fetch supper for us."
"No way."
"Padfoot, give up."
"Prongs, I'll never lose to you."
"Wormtail, you still ok??"
"Not – much problem."
"Did someone timed how long have we been in this position??"
"I did."
"How long??"
"About forty-five minutes so far."
"Not going anywhere with Remus today??" Lily asked Stefanie. The two girls decided that they need a breathe of fresh air away from the stale dormitory after two hours of homework.
"Where can we go anyway??"
"Like the shack??"
"What??"
"Don't think I don't know."
"So what do you know??"
"Everytime you said you two gonna study in the library, the truth was you two went snogging in the shack."
"That's not true."
"Two weeks ago you left me in the dorm and said you went to the library with Remus, in the end when I went to look for you in the library, you two were nowhere to be found."
"Well."
"Well, of course I went to ask the guys where Remus was. They were totally honest with one another."
"Alright, we did go to the library. Then we went out for a short break."
"Two hours isn't exactly short."
"You timed??"
"I estimated."
"I see."
"So where's Remus tonight??"
"No idea."
"He's you boyfriend and you don't know where he is??"
"I supposed the guys are together in their dorm."
"Pay them a visit??"
"Is that an excuse to go and peek at James??"
"I don't peek at James."
"Alright, look at James."
"You look at James too."
"Whatever you say." Stefanie waved her hands to stop Lily from defending herself. "Let's go to the guys' dorm."
"What are you guys doing??" Lily asked the moment they stepped into the sixth-year boys' dormitory.
"H-handstand." James said, looking at the inverted Lily and Stefanie at the doorway.
"We noticed. But what for??" Stefanie bent down to look at Remus.
"Challenging one another." Remus replied with some difficulty.
"So you guys are challenging see who falls off first??" Lily winked at Stefanie.
"Don't try anything." James warned Lily.
"What can we do anyway??" Lily replied innocently, smiling. Stefanie returned a look of understanding.
"We're just going to sit here and watch you guys." Stefanie laughed.
"That simple??" Sirius questioned.
"Of course-" Stefanie replied with a pause. "Not!!" The two girls chorused.
"No!! No!! No!!"
"Yes!!" The two girls grabbed a quill each and started tickling the guys' faces.
"Ahh!!"
Let's walk deeper into the forest. Sirius, the black dog raised his right foot and pointed at a dark and gloomy path somewhere in the midst of the Forbidden Forest. It was another full moon day where Remus had transformed into a werewolf.
This place seems so infinite. I thought we had covered every nook and cranny inside. James moved forward in his four long legs, trotting slowly and carefully.
Peter scurried in between James and Sirius in fear of something might jump out from nowhere. Every month, they would explore new areas, made new discoveries, and this month, it was no exception.
There!! Remus, in his werewolf form, ushered the rest of the animagi to turn left. Something is not right.
This place seems so familiar. James ambled around the empty plot of land wondering when he had been here before.
Sound. People. Sirius stopped in his track and quickly signaled to the other three Marauders to run into hiding. Swiftly and quietly, they hid themselves behind some bushes and tree trunks. Sirius pushed Remus to the ground and pinned him down and at the same time keeping watch at what was going to happen.
"Why did Master always hold his meetings in the middle of the night in the middle of the forest??"
"So that no one else would see him??"
"Why didn't I think of that??"
"Because you're too stupid."
"How dare you scold me stupid??"
"Aren't you?? This is pure commonsense."
"I have commonsense, mind you."
"I wonder how did Master get you to be one of his Deatheaters."
"Because I'm capable."
"Yeah right."
"Sshhh."
Deatheaters. James watched the black cloaked figured appearing one after another from the different parts of the forest.
Deatheaters meeting. Remus looked at the massive gathering of black figures. The werewolf part of him wanted to jump up onto the Deatheaters out there, but the small humane part of him knew that would be very wrong to do something like that.
Should I go out and join the rest?? Or should I stay?? Peter looked around in a dilemma. Master had not asked me to attend this meeting. Did he know that I would be here to listen as well??
This is really no good. The population is so big!! Sirius looked with his eyes wide open, hardly believing himself that there were actually so many Deatheaters around gathered together under the nose of Dumbledore.
"Welcome, once again!!" An elevated black-cloaked figure called out in the midst of the group.
"We need to tell Dumbledore immediately!!" James stood up, bringing his point clear to the rest.
"But that would bring us into trouble." Peter squeaked.
"What happened in the forest would bring the whole magical community into trouble." Sirius said sensibly. "I'm with Prongs for this."
"Moony, what do you think??"
"Wormtail is right about that. I really don't want to cause you any trouble. It's all because of me that is why you guys are illegal animagus. And we had explored the forbidden grounds." Remus said tiredly. It was dawn and Remus and transformed back to Remus, the Homo sapiens.
"We don't care about getting in trouble or not. What happened last night was big trouble to everyone out there!!" James insisted.
"I say we should tell Dumbledore the truth. He needs to know." Sirius pointed out. "We probably get some detentions or whatsoever for exploring forbidden areas."
"Being illegal animagi is far beyond school rules. It concerned imprisonment in Azkaban. And getting into trouble with the Ministry is not very pleasant especially since your parents were directly involve in the Ministry."
"We tell Dumbledore, but not the Ministry. I'm sure Dumbledore can solve this problem without leaking the fact that we're animagi." James said confidently.
"Let's hope so." The totally worn-out Remus replied.
"Let's get back to our dorm before anyone notice that we went missing."
"Then when are we going to tell Dumbledore??"
"After Pomfrey fetched Remus to the hospital wing."
"Where are the guys??" Lily asked Stefanie as they ate their breakfast silently. It was another of those typical Wednesday and most students were suffering from mid-week blues.
"Last night was full moon." Stefanie reminded Lily in a low voice.
"Oh."
"Let's drop by the Hospital Wing before our first class." Stefanie suggested. They were one of the few early birds who were in the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Sure."
"Professor, there's something we need to tell you about." James' admitted. The two guys had headed down to Dumbledore's office after their short nap in their dormitory.
"What is it regarding??" Dumbledore raised his brows in surprise.
"This had happened last night." Sirius started.