Marauders Era: Missers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are planning a particularly peculiar prank on the Slytherins. What happens when the joke goes bad and everything is not what it seems?
This is most likely the last chapter for this round; however, I may be doing another, very small part just to wrap things up after this. You know, clear some things up, answer questions, etc… (you know, like a Q + A about the story or anything that I've been asked, and an epilogue of sorts). So please leave a question or comment, or something you'd like for me to write a bit on in the wrap up.
It was really amazing how the Marauders were able to get away with so much.
Without Filch, McGonagall, Dumbledore, or any of the other people that would probably be either patrolling or just wandering around in the halls (as the barmy old Headmaster was most likely doing) noticing the boys, they'd passed through the dark hallways noiselessly.
Almost as if they were simply dark shadows, they'd swept along corridor after corridor; often ducking through passageways that Regulus hadn't previously known existed.
The four of them had even passed Peeves, which made Regulus catch his breath for fear of being caught. Peeves had opened his mouth to start screaming out his usual, 'STUDENTS OUT OF BED, STUDENTS OUT OF BED!' call that was the bane of all night-wandering adolescents at Hogwarts, but James had quickly whispered, "Oi, Peeves, it's us!"
The troublemaking poltergeist had immediately shut his mouth with a soft snap, and then gave a wide smile, tipping his hat and mock bowing as the group passed by. The Marauders had followed suit, bowing so deeply that they were literally bent over, and walking backwards still 'hailing' Peeves.
Once in the deserted Entrance Hall, they'd burst out in hearty yet near-silent chuckles, and crossed to the great double doors that led to the grounds.
James had gotten them to unlock in record time, and in relative silence, before they'd exited the castle. As soon as Peter, in the back of the group, had crossed the threshold, James made a series of complex looking movements with his wand that looked as though they'd been practiced quite often.
The trio of Marauders had then set off purposefully along the grass, Regulus confusedly following close at their heels.
Suddenly, Peter disappeared, and Regulus gave a small yelp of alarm in his shock. Immediately, the remaining two had spun around and trained their wands on Regulus, Remus's pointed at his head, James's directly at his heart.
"Sorry," he muttered, flushing slightly.
James jerked his head towards the massive tree not too far from where they were standing. "Come on," he said, "You might as well transform now."
Regulus took his advice and slowly willed himself to become the great shaggy black dog once more. On all fours, he bounded over to where Remus stood with James as a stag- who towered over them all- and Peter, as a rat was sitting on James's back.
When they reached the Whomping Willow, or, as close to the dangerous tree as they could get without fear of being pummeled, the gigantic stag standing next to him dipped his head and the rat scrambled down the elongated neck to the base of the tree in one swift move.
Peter pressed his small paws to a knot in the roots that Regulus had never noticed before, and the once deadly tree became startlingly docile, the leaves barely fluttering in the cool evening breeze.
One by one, they filed underneath the seemingly frozen branches, and they were in a tunnel, so low that he had to crouch down. Up ahead, Remus was hunched over, and James seemed to be having difficulty moving his antlers through the passage. The only one who didn't seem to be having any problems with mobility in the cramped passageway that was probably just as tall as it was narrow.
After an undeterminable amount of time, they were through and into a room that Regulus was fairly sure he'd never seen before. He'd thought they were going to Hogsmeade, but he supposed that with the Marauders, anything was possible.
Though, he'd had enough nighttime excursions with Bellatrix that he'd been certain he knew the way to get to the village, and everywhere there was to go at Hogsmeade. Apparently not, if this even was part of Hogsmeade village.
There was a sharp ripping noise, followed by muted pops and something that sounded suspiciously like bones grinding together. Regulus was sure that his eyes must be bulging out of his head by now. He'd never seen an actual werewolf transformation, but it was more painful to see than the terrible sight of stumbling across Lucius Malfoy in deep conversation with his own reflection.
Tearing his eyes from Remus's shape-shifting form, Regulus took the opportunity to glance around the room. There were heaps of broken furnishings here and there- a tattered armchair lay on its side, the stuffing leaking out through a series of large slashes. There were chunks missing out of the small end table crumpled in on itself nearby.
With a jolt, Regulus realized that they must be in the Shrieking Shack- the building that had always been 'haunted', the only really haunting thing about it was the purpose it served for a young werewolf struggling to try and blend in with the rest of the magical community.
Regulus didn't know how long it had been, but after a while, the sickening noises stopped and he found it safe to look at the others again. He found the stag, the rat, and a frighteningly large wolf-creature staring back at him.
Nervously, he let out what would have been a cough if he had still been human- a dangerous thing to be around a werewolf- that turned out to present itself as a rumbling bark.
The stag that was James motioned gracefully with his head that they should follow him. He unhooked the latch on the door using his antlers, and they were free to slip out of the shack into the quiet of the night and down into the rest of the village.
As they walked, Regulus looked around. He would probably never get quite used to the sight of Hogsmeade village at night. The lights from the shop window displays lit up sections of the street, every now and again flickering and creating wavering shadows as the four animals passed by.
It really was too bad that he'd have to switch bodies back with Sirius sooner or later, and even more so because he wouldn't be able to tell Bellatrix just how well his brother was doing, because he really was getting quite used to this, and he wasn't sure how well he'd cope with having to go back to Slytherin –and consequently, the Dark Lord- at any time.
Sirius had been looking for Bellatrix all over the castle for the past hour and a half. He'd even searched in the Room of Requirement, though he wasn't sure if Bellatrix even knew about it. Not many people did, but he'd thought it was worth a shot.
He'd finally stumbled across her, literally stumbled, at the top of the Astronomy Tower. His legs had practically given out from underneath him from sprinting all around the castle, and then up the seemingly endless set of stairs, and he'd fallen right next to where she was standing.
"Hey Reg," Bellatrix said in a quiet voice, sitting down beside him and completely disregarding the fact that he was sprawled on the stone next to her.
"Bells," he greeted, fighting to catch his breath, "You okay?"
A sad half-smile twisted her lips, "Yeah, I'm okay. It's fine, you don't have to worry about me."
"Would you, would you still like to go to Hogsmeade?" Sirius questioned, still panting, "It might make you feel better."
At Bellatrix's doubtful grimace, he changed his words, "Or, at least take your mind off of things for a while."
His cousin shrugged, "I don't see why not," she allowed after a short pause, "Shall we?"
The two teens stood together and began to descend the stairs in silence. Neither of them noticed the full moon emerge from behind a group of clouds as they walked away, their backs blissfully ignorant to the dangers that Sirius should have known were lurking.
Surprisingly enough, it seemed that Bellatrix and Regulus also knew about the passageway into the Honeydukes cellar. Bellatrix had whipped out her wand suddenly as they'd been passing the humpbacked witch, and off they'd gone through the passage into the sweet shop.
"So…" Sirius began as they walked slowly through the village streets, "What are you going to do now, if you don't mind me asking?"
"No clue," Bellatrix sighed, shaking her head slowly, "I'll probably just go along with whatever the family wants, now. I'm already in too deep to get out, I think." She sighed again, this time deeper and somehow more saddened than simply resigned. "As are you, probably. We've only been holding off the inevitable, so far."
Sirius looked at her curiously.
"The Dark Lord," his older cousin spat venomously, "Has wanted to meet you for a while now. I'd been saying you were too young, but now that you're nearly of age yourself, that's not working anymore. Hence why I've asked you to fake an illness or something whenever we ask you to come with us to the 'usual spot'- he's waiting for you. Apparently our family lineage and spectacular bloodline make us pretty hot commodities for recruiting." The sarcasm in her voice was so thick it was almost cutting.
Suddenly, Sirius's insides turned cold. Lord Voldemort was after his younger brother, had already gotten to their cousin. And what the bloody hell could he do about it? In despair, he grabbed at his hair and tipped his head back to the sky. When he opened his scrunched up eyes, the light from the moon was nearly blinding, and he lowered his head again.
Wait- the light of the moon- the full moon? Sirius's head jerked skywards again, seemingly of its own accord. Sure enough, the round moon hung overhead in the night, the stars twinkling around it as if they were laughing, 'you're screwed'.
"Bella," he said slowly, trying not to panic, "I think maybe we should get ins-"
His words were cut off by a guttural howl as a werewolf appeared on the street corner barely a Quidditch field's distance from where they stood, frozen. Well, shit.
His knees seemed to lock underneath him as he realized that he could no longer just transform into the shaggy black dog that a werewolf would pose no threat to. The breath caught in his throat, and his vision began to go blurry as the werewolf moved steadily closer.
Apparently, in his werewolf form, Remus could sense that Sirius wasn't able to move, so he was taking his time, ambling closer and closer slowly. Where were Prongs and… well, just Prongs, he supposed.
Bellatrix grabbed his hand, dragging him towards the nearest shop, which just so happened to be Zonko's. Remus had apparently noticed this, and was moving quite a bit faster. He was less than a stone's throw away from them when two large dark shapes jumped in between them from only Merlin-knows-where.
At this interruption, Bellatrix promptly fainted dead away. She would have collided with the pavement had Sirius not been able to spontaneously move his arms to catch her. The smaller of the two hulking figures, 'Padfoot' nudged Sirius towards the door, and turned to drag Bellatrix along while Prongs fought Remus off to keep him away from the two non-transformed humans.
When they'd reached the building and entered inside- it was a wonder that it was somehow unlocked- Sirius slammed the door shut behind him and locked it. The dog in front of them morphed into a very concerned looking Sirius Black.
"Hey Regulus," Sirius greeted his own image softly. His younger brother looked at him before turning to their cousin, sprawled unconscious on the floor.
"Is she okay?" he demanded.
"Physically, yeah, she should be alright."
"Only physically? What happened?"
Sirius was unsure of how much to tell his brother, "What do you mean?" he tried to stall.
Regulus lifted an eyebrow at him, "She's tougher than that. One incomplete attack by a werewolf wouldn't shake her like this normally. Something's going on, and you're going to tell me."
As he'd been speaking, Regulus had advanced forward towards Sirius and pinned him against one of the shelves. Normally, Sirius wouldn't have allowed his brother to shake him like that, but Regulus in Sirius's body was larger and more intimidating than Sirius in Regulus's body.
"She's getting married," Sirius squirmed as the shelf behind him dug into his spine, "To Rodolphus Lestrange. That's what's going on. Oh-" he continued as another thought came to him, "What's this I hear about you spying on me?"
Regulus had the decency to look guilty, "Well, I wouldn't exactly say spying, more just, ah…" he seemed to be searching for a word that would make it sound better.
"Observing?" Sirius offered dryly, "Keeping tabs on, researching, looking after, following, keeping a one-sided friendship, playing hide and seek but the other person doesn't know it? Pick one- I know them all and I've used them all. Doesn't change what it all comes down to, though."
"Yeah, okay, so maybe me and Bella wanted to see how you were doing. There's no rule against it, anyhow."
"You've really been hanging out with the Marauders too much," Sirius smirked.
"Yeah, that or I was sorted into Slytherin for a reason," Regulus returned with a smirk of his own to rival his brother's.
"So…" Sirius said awkwardly, "How have you been? How are Remus and Peter and James?"
"I've been… well. And Moony, Wormtail, and your boyfriend are good too."
"James is not my boyfriend!"
"Funny, though, that you have to keep denying it. I've had to do that several times already- I think I lost count around roughly five thousand," Regulus deadpanned, "and I've only been you for a month!"
Sirius stuck his tongue out at his brother, "Still, it's good to see you again. Though, I think over the past few weeks, I've seen way too much of you, and far too little of myself."
Regulus snorted.
"What? Oh come on, it's not like you can really blame me," Sirius joked, "I mean, look at me- well, you. But it's my body! Or, well, it was."
His brother chuckled. "It's good to see you too."
Sirius held out his arms and spontaneously dragged his brother into a hug. In his mind's eye, he was transported back to the days before the Hogwarts letters, when the two brothers had been closer than Lucius Malfoy and hair gel.
They stood in their brotherly embrace for a long moment, enjoying the memory of the good times in the past. With a final squeeze, Sirius and Regulus released each other and stepped back.
Sirius blinked. He had another sense of déjà vu; he was once again staring at himself. Only this time, he was not staring at the body of Sirius Black, but at Regulus. It felt odd to see the body he'd been living in for a month looking back at him.
"Reg?" Bellatrix's voice rang out shakily, "Where are you?" Both boys glanced at each other, alarm in their wide eyes. Thankfully, though, her eyes were still closed, and she had a hand over her face, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Go take care of Bella," Sirius said, "I'll make sure that Remus is far away. Just bring her back to Hogwarts. Make up something about the stress making her hallucinate, or something. I can't let Remus's secret spread any more than it already has." With a small pang of guilt, he remembered the 'prank' he'd played on Snape. But since it was Snivellus, after all, it was only a very, very miniscule little twinge deep in his gut.
Regulus nodded, and Sirius took the advantage of Bellatrix still being quite groggy to kiss the top of her head and slip out the door. As soon as he'd closed the door behind him, Sirius transformed into his animagus form. Couldn't hurt to be careful for once.
When he found the rest of the Marauders, he tried to push all thoughts of his brother and his cousin out of his head so he could concentrate on being with his best friends again. But no matter what he did, for the remainder of the night, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen to Regulus and Bellatrix.
Little did he know, Regulus was thinking much along the same lines about him at the same moment, though he did have to pay slightly more attention to getting Bellatrix safely back to the Slytherin dormitories.
AN: I know I said that this chapter would probably be up Friday, but stuff came up on Thursday and Friday where I couldn't complete the chapter. So, I'm hoping you'll like this chapter, even though it was written more or less halfway during 'reasonable'/daylight hours, and completed sometime in the early morning hours. Please leave a review with a comment or question of any sort (and I mean ANY. I get bored easily, so sue me.) And stay tuned for the next round- should probably be in a week or so.
-Fiori ^_^