Plot: The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.
Disclaimer: Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)
WARNING (please read): This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.
Chapter Sixteen – Forgive and Forget
The second Rogue meeting of the year was held the night after Lily escaped Madam Prunica's wrath.
They gathered on Jamie's bed while Alice and Rosalie were in the common room working on the Astronomy charts Regan had so uncharacteristically completed an hour earlier (really, she had only escaped to the girls' dormitories to escape Peter as he tried to approach her for the sixth time that afternoon, and had figured she might as well do something productive while she was hiding out up there). They drew the curtains shut, and Lily performed the soundproofing spellwork.
"So," Regan began, rather excitedly, with a hint of malevolence on her voice. "I think we've got a lot to talk about."
"Do we ever," Hannah agreed, though her voice was dark, and she didn't smile.
Lily frowned at her friend's lack of cheer. What had happened to upset the usually cheery Hannah? She hoped it wasn't anything too serious. Lately, she'd been quite concerned about her friend's wellbeing, and this sudden drop in mood worried her.
Jamie, too, was sulking; she played absently with the tips of her hair, eyes downcast. Lily knew this had to have something to do with Remus – but what had gone on today, she wasn't sure. She felt like she'd been missing out on a lot of things lately, what with her mysterious illness (which had just as mysteriously disappeared after her last words to James) and other distractions, she and her friends had been leading separate lives for the past few days. She was glad they had a chance, now, to get together and talk, for the first time since the... incident.
"Who wants to start?" Regan asked, though it was obvious from her jitters and general hype that she was itching to offload something in particular. Either that or she'd simply had a little too much dessert.
"You should," Hannah answered dryly.
Regan eyed her suspiciously. "What's up with you, Han?"
"I'll tell you when it's my turn, won't I?"
Regan exchanged a there's-definitely-something-wrong-here glance with Lily, who nodded almost imperceptibly before speaking. "We have as much time as we need. Go ahead, Regan."
Regan hesitated, and then launched into a heated description of the past few days.
"I can't BELIEVE him! I apologised for hurting his feelings, and suddenly he thinks we're friends. What's wrong with his head? I mean, I always knew it was demented, but this is just... just..." she groaned loudly, throwing her hands up in distress. "I can't cope with it."
Lily laughed lightly. "He thinks you're friends? Really? How did that happen?"
Regan rolled her eyes. "Well, I approached him after DADA, and told him... well, that I misjudged him, and that I didn't fully mean what I said that night when they were eavesdropping. Nothing else. Then he suddenly got the impression that I like him or something." She snorted. "He keeps coming up and trying to talk to me. About homework, Quidditch, anything that strikes up a conversation. Only, I can't remember when we started being on speaking terms. Before I know it, he'll probably be asking me out or something. HOW did I get myself into this? I do NOT remember hiring Pettigrew as a personal stalker."
Lily laughed uneasily, watching Hannah and Jamie's expressions at the same time. She felt like she was trying to keep up their sides of the conversation at the same time as her own, and it was making the whole situation quite awkward. Hannah simply scowled down at the quilt beneath her, while Jamie looked entirely distracted, gazing at the ceiling as if trying to memorise the patterns there.
Lily decided she might as well keep the exchange going. "Uh... sounds like a weird situation, there."
Regan laughed, the sound of it slightly deranged. "Weird?" she stopped laughing, cleared her throat, and looked very seriously at Lily. "I want to kill him."
"I wouldn't go quite that far," Lily chuckled. "Maybe you should just... keep your distance. Make sure he knows that you don't want to talk to him, but don't actually say it to his face. We don't want him all down in the dumps again..."
"Trust me," Regan assured her, "we do. We want him in the very pit of the grimiest sewer in London, buried in a pile of rotting mushrooms. Anything that will get him the bloody hell away from here."
Unexpectedly, Hannah spoke. "At least he respects you, Regan," she said glumly.
Regan threw aside the very concept of manners. "Do you want to tell us what's got you so depressed, Hannah? 'Cause we're all wondering."
Well, maybe not Jamie..., Lily thought; the girl was still silent as can be (even more so than usual). Jamie, however, raised her head infinitesimally when Regan initiated this leg of the conversation.
Hannah grimaced. "I thought it was already quite clear."
"We know you're upset with Sirius..." Lily clarified, "but nothing he's done has every gotten you this down. Did something happen?"
"Yes, something happened!" Hannah snapped, her brown eyes lighting up with anger. "That blast-ended skrewt of a boy decided to apologise."
Lily was confused. "But... isn't that a... good thing?"
"NO!" Hannah's response was furious, making Lily flinch. "That idiot and his twisted mind should be locked up, I swear!" The volume of her voice rose with each word, and Lily was thankful that no sound could possibly escape from the immediate area.
Both Lily and Regan remained silent, afraid they might get Hannah fired up even more if they intervened at all. Thankfully (for the sake of their curiosity alone) Hannah went on without encouragement.
"I'll tell you what he did," she said, laughing darkly and looking at the curtains with a disdainful expression. "He decided to give me a box of chocolates. What could be a better gift for a pig, anyway? Maybe a set of scales, but still..." She shook her head, smiling a dull smile. By now, furious tears were streaming down Hannah's cheeks. Her next words came out slightly choked. "You've got to hand it to him for being so clever."
"Oh, Hannah," Lily said, putting an arm around her friend's shoulder. "You shouldn't let him get to you like that. Besides, he probably didn't mean it that way. I mean, it doesn't sound like a very Sirius thing to do, but maybe he was just trying to be nice."
Hannah shook Lily's arm off, suddenly fuming again. "Black? Being nice? What, are you defending him now?"
Lily drew back, bewildered. "That's not even close to what I was getting at, Hannah."
"Oh, are you sure?" Hannah cried. "Well, I wouldn't be that surprised, with you and James all buddy-buddy and all that..."
"What?" Lily was shocked. What was Hannah talking about?
"Don't act all innocent, Lil. I saw you both this afternoon – smiling at each other. Like you're friends or something."
"I'm NOTfriends with ANY of the Marauders, Han. I don't know what you're thinking."
"Well, you can keep pretending things are that way. But I see the truth."
Lily suddenly remembered Hannah's words of advice, given several days ago. "Hang on, whether or not we're on the same page here, weren't you the one who said you'd support me no matter what decisions I made?"
Hannah simply glared for a minute, apparently stumped. When she spoke, her voice was heated again. "Of course I was. But you can't expect... with everything they've done to us... with all that's happened recently..."
Finally, Lily had had enough. "That's it," she snapped. "I'm sorry, Hannah, but you're being immature. Sirius was trying to apologise, because he was genuinely feeling bad about what he said. I would know – I was right there in the Heads' Room when he got the idea. And one little argument with a stupid boy is no reason to go around sulking and acting like your best friends are conspiring against you. I thought you were better at seeing the bright side of things. I guess I was wrong." She swung her legs around the side of the bed, pulling the curtains open and feeling the tiny jolt of electricity in her fingers as the Muffliato charm was broken. "I need a break from this," she said, fed up, and strode away.
As soon as she was a metre away from the bed, Lily felt almost regretful for her words, and for getting up and leaving like this. It wasn't right of her to walk away from a meeting. It wasn't right of her to yell at Hannah, either. She had definitely overdone the scolding on some level.
But in another way, Lily felt she had done the right thing. She didn't want Hannah to keep sulking like this. She missed her old, more cheerful friend.
Things were changing – that much was clear. A few months ago, Lily couldn't have fathomed the thought of getting into a shouting match with one of the Rogues – even now, she was pretty shaken up about it. But, well... there was more to disagree about now. Lily was a little concerned at how big a role the Marauders were playing in all this. Maybe it was her fault, for being 'buddy-buddy' with James, for letting him throw up a facade when he and his friends were doing so many nasty things to the Rogues...
"Lily?"
Lily whipped around, startled. It was Jamie. She stood a few metres away, having just left the meeting as well. Her arms were crossed, her face troubled – Lily knew there had to be something on her mind, judging by this and how quiet her friend had been for the duration of the meeting. For a moment she wondered if Regan had sent her out here as an attempt at peacekeeping.
"Hey, Jamie," Lily said, and sighed. "Sorry about just then. I just..." She shook her head, then turned away slightly.
"What?" Jamie seemed a little out of it. "Oh, no, don't worry." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she came closer. "I think you're right about all that, anyway."
"Thanks, but I'll bet Hannah doesn't think so." Lily turned and started toward the foggy window. She placed her elbows on the windowsill, propped her chin in her hands, and stared out into the twilight. The moon was full tonight, lighting up the Hogwarts grounds with a sad sort of glow that mimicked the atmosphere inside the dormitories. Some of the trees were rustling lightly in the autumn breeze.
"This year is just getting weirder and weirder."
Lily hadn't even heard Jamie come up beside her. The girl was on her left, imitating her position exactly. Jamie's eyebrows were pulled together, her lips curved into a worried frown.
"Tell me about it," Lily replied glumly.
"Lily?"
"Mm?"
"Do you think Remus hates me?"
"What? No! Definitely not. Why would you think that?"
"I talked to him the other day." Jamie sighed. "He started yelling at me."
Lily was stunned. "Remus yelled at you? But he... he wouldn't hurt a fly!" Indeed, it wasn't at all characteristic of Remus to be aggressive in any way.
"I thought so, too," said Jamie, sadly.
"What exactly did he say to you?"
"Well, I felt bad for ignoring him like that," Jamie began, her frown deepening. "So I decided to talk to him. He just snapped at me and said it wasn't the best time to talk, that all of this was harder for him than it was for me, and that I should just stay out of his way."
Lily's jaw dropped. "What? That's not like him at all!"
Jamie sighed again. "Exactly. So he really must hate me."
"No, don't think that way," Lily told her, shaking her head. "There's something going on here. Something... weird. I can't put my finger on it."
At that moment, there was a sharp crack outside, making both Lily and Jamie jump.
"What was that?" Lily asked, alarmed.
"Look! Over there!" Jamie gasped.
Lily followed Jamie's gaze, and was alarmed by what she saw – the old Whomping Willow, very much alive and thrashing about as if trying to swat a thousand flies with its club-like branches. Only, it could do damage to something much bigger and stronger than a fly with those things. The raging tree gave the ground an enormous wallop, breaking the dirt into crumbling bits and shaking itself before taking aim again. It was worked up about something, becoming incessantly violent in its fury. By the time the tree took its fourth shot, Lily's night vision had adjusted and she saw a figure – and a very human one, too – scurry away from where the branch had just hit. The figure narrowly missed the next hit, ducking out of the way just in time.
Lily didn't even notice when Hannah and Regan joined them at the window, both just as much on edge as they watched the spectacle unfold.
The tree continued to hit at the ground with furious blows, and the figure kept on darting out of the way. That was, until the tree suddenly straightened up and stood motionless in defeat.
"How did it...?" Lily was flabbergasted.
Only now did Lily notice how short and pudgy the figure-with-a-death-wish was. Now two more people – both with messy, dark hair – beckoned to him from near the Whomping Willow's trunk, and he stumbled stupidly forward, disappearing into the shadows. All three of the figures were gone, then, and there was no indicator left of what had just gone on, save for a couple of rustled-up leaves that were still fluttering to the ground. Lily had to wonder if she had imagined the whole thing; her friends' wide-eyed expressions eliminated that option instantly.
There was a stunned silence for a few seconds, broken eventually by Regan. "Did you guys see that, too?"
Lily nodded fervently. "Was that who I think it was?"
"It definitely looked like them," Hannah said, her eyes alight with the same kind of excited suspicion Lily had seen on her face before.
Suddenly, Lily felt very guilty for her outburst in the meeting. She broke up the discussion briefly to apologise. "Look, Hannah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean everything I said before. I just don't like seeing you so upset." She smiled slightly, hoping her apology would be accepted.
Hannah's face had a light in it now that hadn't been there before, and Lily knew that part of her old friend was back, at least. "Hey, don't worry about it," Hannah said. "I was being immature. I mean, the thought of anybody trying to defend a prat like Black... What was I thinking?" She rolled her eyes, and Lily laughed. All was forgotten.
"Sorry to break up this little kiss-and-make-up session here, but did we not just witness the Marauders trying to hijack the Smashing Spruce?"
"The Whomping Willow," Lily and Jamie corrected simultaneously and automatically.
"Whatever," Regan said with a roll of her eyes. "But anyway, what was with all that? I've never seen Pettigrew move so fast. He was like a headless chicken in a meat factory."
They all laughed at this remark – even Jamie, though she still looked a little distracted.
"What do you think they were doing down there?" Lily wondered aloud. "I mean, I know they're troublemakers, but I didn't think even they were crazy enough to go up against that tree."
All was silent as the girls pondered the possibilities.
"Hang on a minute," Hannah said after a few moments, her voice sparking with a sudden excitement and curiosity. "I just remembered something."
She flitted away, opening her trunk and practically disappearing into its depths. She returned a minute later with a large, old book in her hands. As she brought it closer, Lily could see that the binding was an emerald green, and the spine was marked with golden letters.
"What's that?" Regan asked, leaning over Hannah's shoulder to get a better look at it. Lily did the same, and Jamie stood by silently, showing vague interest.
"I got it out of the library a little while ago," Hannah explained. "Thought we might be able to have some fun with it. But now that we've got a case on our hands... well, it might be just the thing to help us out."
Lily drew back from the huddle. "But Hannah, this is a book about animagi."
"Exactly." Hannah smirked conspiratorially. "What better way to disguise than to pull a little shapeshifting act? It's perfect, if we want to figure out what those idiots are doing provoking that tree."
Regan was catching on now, a mirror of Hannah's smile on her face. "It's got to be dangerous."
Hannah nodded. "And very, very difficult."
"Not to mention, we'd be breaking every law in existence." Honestly, Lily wasn't that bothered by the idea.
"We could be expelled," Jamie pondered.
They exchanged sly glances.
"I'm in," announced Hannah, thrusting her hand out into the space between them.
Regan placed hers on top. "Definitely."
"It couldn't hurt." Lily added hers to the pile.
The fourth group member was hesitant.
"Jamie?" Lily asked. "What do you think?"
Jamie paused, thinking for a moment, before sticking out her hand and sealing the deal. "Anything to bust their sorry butts."
Well what do YOU think? Only one way to make your opinion known – leave a review. Or die. Muahaha.
Err... yes. Sorry about that. The next chapter will be up in a week or so. Unless I get some unforeseen time this week... but I doubt it. We'll see how we go.
Sam :)