The Untold Story

Chapter 11: The Marauders

September 6, 1971

"Snape!" a snobby pureblood voice Severus recognized as Lucius Malfoy, called out as soon as Severus stepped into the Slytherin Common Room.

Severus paused to compose himself before replying, "Yes, Malfoy."

"You will accompany me as I seek out some acquaintances. Drop off your backpack and meet me outside." Lucius ordered as he headed out the door.

I am not your house elf, Severus thought glumly. However, he had given his word and Malfoy was his only hope of ever gaining any acceptance or influence within Slytherin.

"Whom will we be meeting?" Severus questioned as he rejoined Malfoy in the Hogwarts dungeons.

"I will have a chat with the Prewett Twins about the consequences of messing with Slytherin."

Severus silently followed Lucius as he led the way.

"Prewett."

"Malfoy," two tall red haired boys said. They stared irritatedly at the blond. "What do you want?" one sneered.

"My, my what hostility." Lucius drawled. Severus watched the older students cautiously. "Your trick was quite clever. However, you might want to watch your backs from here on out."

"What are you going on about, Lucius?" The other twin asked calmly.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about Fabian." Lucius hissed. "This ends now or you will pay."

"Oh, you mean the prank." The other twin smirked. "That was quite clever don't you think Fab?"

"Yes, quite Gid. It's such a shame that the credit for that wonderful display of magic doesn't belong to us." Fabian said sorrowfully.

"Who?" Lucius asked.

"Are you asking or threatening?" Gideon tilted his head questioningly.

"Both." Lucius said smoothly.

"He's threatening us, brother." Fabian said with a sigh.

"I figured that on my own fab-ulous." Gideon stuck his tongue out at his twin.

"When you're done bickering, please do tell me which Gryffindor I need to hex." Lucius pinched the bridge of his nose irritably.

"No thanks. Good luck finding the culprit on your own cousin." The twins said simultaneously as they turned away.

"They're your cousins?" Severus asked bewildered once the red headed twins were out of sight.

"Probably since all purebloods are related, although clearly they got off on the bad end of the gene pool." Lucius sighed when he saw Severus blink. "We're not cousins. As if I'd be related to a group of red headed blood traitors."

Severus looked away and chewed his lower lip thoughtfully.

"If I ever find out which reckless Gryffindors plotted this vapid prank, I will impair their ability to due so in the future."

"How do you know that the prank was performed by Gryffindors?"

"Have you see any other dimwitted, reckless, jobless students at Hogwarts? The uses they find for their wands..." Lucius trailed off as he disparaged Gryffindors.

Severus shrugged casually, and paused before replying, "I have been thinking..."

"Good, used that head." Lucius stated in a pompous tone tapping on Severus's head lightly.

"Well, it's obvious that whoever pranked us didn't use magic."

Lucius lifted his eyebrows in a half-incredulous, half-questioning glance as he asked "How do you know that?"

"It must require a lot of magical skill and probably a very advanced spell to turn the hairs of all Slytherins to scarlet. Also those Prewett boys said that the 'wonderful display of magic' didn't belong to them. They never actually said they didn't do it."

Lucius stared at him in a seemingly more respectful and different light. "You have a very acute, deductive and observational mind. You will go far."

Severus didn't reply but he could not help but feel a bit proud. This was the first time someone other than his mother and Lily complimented him. In his opinion, Lily and his mother's compliments didn't count because mothers and best friends were supposed to say you were smart even if you were as dumb as a brick. He allowed himself a small smile as he day-dreamed about his perfect future with his mother, Lily, and lots of power and money.

Lucius then proceeded to say, "So when you say it isn't magic, you don't think it's a charm or a spell. Those aren't the only forms of magic."

"Yes, I meant to say it probably isn't a spell or a charm."

Lucius looked thoughtful as he asked, "So what type of magic do you think the perpetrators used?"

Severus, in all honesty, hadn't really thought that deeply. He had been more concerned about his friendship with Lily and did not really consider the prank worthy of his consideration.

"I don't know…" Severus mumbled.

"Two pieces of advice: First, never mumble. It is unfitting of a member of the Noble Slytherin house. It shows that we lack confidence which our enemies can use to their advantage. Second, never admit that you don't know something. It is a display of weakness." Lucius offered sagely. "You might not know what magic was used, but I am confident that a potion was used to compromise our food."

Severus took note of Lucius's advice and was surprised to realize that there was a potion to change hair color. His mother only brewed healing potions and he always thought of them as wizard drugs. He also could not help but admire the slyness of whoever "poisoned" the Slytherins. To him, that seemed to be a more Slytherin move than a Gryffindor one.

"Don't just stand there...we need to find the antidote to whichever potion may have been used and then take revenge…" Malfoy trailed off as he started walking purposefully back to the Slytherin dungeons.

Neither of the boys noticed that a small quiet mousy boy, who had a knack for going unnoticed and therefore learned to be very observant, had overheard their entire conversation.

Peter Pettigrew was not a very remarkable attention-drawing boy because he was in manys ways just average. However he knew a lot of things that weren't meant for his ears because unlike the average man, Pettigrew listened. Peter ran towards the Gryffindor tower as fast has his short legs could carry him.

"Bravehearts" Peter impatiently said to the Fat Lady and rushed passed her as she swung open.

"Oh my! Be careful, sweetheart." she called after him in her sing-song voice.

"James, Sirius...they know and they are planning their revenge!" Peter yelled startling James and Sirius who were both trying to out balance each other on one foot and waking up a napping Remus.

As Sirius fell sideways, James grabbed the leg of his bed for support and said, "Oi, calm down, Pete. Who? What? When?"

Peter muttered, "sorry" as an awake but tired looking Remus pulled Sirius off the ground. "Snape and the tall snobby blonde guy he hangs out with..."

"Malfoy." Sirius supplied.

"Yeah so Malfoy thought Fabian and Gideon pranked the Slytherins but they said they didn't. Then, Malfoy asked who did it and threatened them if they didn't tell him. But then, Fab and Gid being awesome got away and Malfoy started telling Snape how we were all stupid and reckless. Snape, then told Malfoy that whoever did the prank must have used a potion because using a spell would be too hard. Malfoy agreed and said they must get their revenge but first they are trying to find an antidote."

"Snape is such a git." James said.

In conjunction with James, at the same moment, Sirius muttered, "Severus is such a potions genius."

James turned to glare at Sirius, who questioningly said "Jinx?"

"Why do you even think Snape is okay? He is a git." James stated firmly.

"If I may interject, he isn't too bad. Also, Sirius is his defense partner and you don't even know Severus, James. It isn't good to judge others." Remus calmly replied.

"Thank you, Remmy. May I call you that?" Sirius asked politely.

"Whatever." James said as Remus nodded to Sirius. "Siri, you need to stop talking like a pureblood snob. It's not May but September you idiot so say C-A-N, can."

"Yes, sir" Sirius mockingly replied as he did a grand pureblood bow.

"Guys we have a more pressing matter on hand." Peter fearfully reminded them.

"It's going to be okay, Pete. They don't know who did it and really all they realized is that it was a potion and Andromeda already knew that." Remus said as he slung his right arm over Peter's shoulders.

"Andy won't tell anyone. I am her favorite cousin." Sirius confidently stated.

"Exactly, so they won't know it was James and Sirius. Also, why are you afraid? You didn't even do anything."

"Yeah but they are my friends. We are friends, right?" Peter asked insecurely as he looked at James and Sirius questioningly.

"Of course, Pete." James said easily.

"You too Remmy, my brave defender." Sirius announced grandly as he pulled Remus away from Peter, closer to himself. "Les Trois Mousquetaires - Un pour tous et tous pour un."

"The Three Musketeers - One for all and all for one." James translated.

"You read?!" Remus exclaimed incredulously.

"I thought you didn't know French." Sirius said.

"I only read worthy books and The Three Musketeers is one of the finest books ever written by a wizard." James stated.

"Wait, what? Alexandre Dumas was a wizard?!" Peter exclaimed.

"As if my family would own any muggle books. Dumas is a direct descendant of Davy, a very prominent and noble French wizarding family. His grandfather was a squib and had a child with an enslaved African lady. However, Dumas's father, who was also a wizard, was never accepted by the Davy family so he decided to use his mother's last name: Dumas." Sirius said in a monotonous tone as he stared off into a point in empty space.

"Wow, I never knew that. I mean I knew he was a wizard but I didn't know he was mixed race or a Davy." Remus said astonished.

"Yup, you're welcome. At least all that memorizing my mother forced me to do is not naught."

"Sirius, how do you even know so much French?" Peter asked.

"They are one of the original French families that accompanied William the Conqueror." James stated. He sighed as he saw the confused look on Peter's face and continued "It's a long story, Pete. We can have a 'tell all, family night' later."

"How do you know that?" Sirius demanded as he turned towards James.

"Two reasons...In case you didn't notice, I am heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Potter. Also, my mother is a Black."

Sirius paused for a second and mentally seemed to go through the Black family tree."Dorea Black?"

"Magic."

"Cousin, she must be as amazing as Aunt Cassie! Why do all our good women marry out or not marry at all?"

"As awesome as it is to see you guys go off a family rebonding...I think we should focus on what we would do if Slytherins execute their alleged revenge plan." Remus stated bring them back from the pit of pureblood family and history lore.

"Oh yeah, we just get them back. We are Gryffindors and we always fight the good fight together. One for all and all for one." James idealistically touted.

The three other boys nodded. Then, Remus's stomach growled, making the boys realize they were late for dinner. Like most boys their age, food, they decided, was priority number one and they headed down together as one. They could not have known that their friendship would one day be as immortalized as that of The Three Musketeers.

AN: Thanks to jdybsl for following us! Also, thanks to geekymom for being a consistent reviewer/supporter. Please review and leave comments!