Snake in the Nest, Chapter Four
A.N. Votes stand as thus:
Fred/ George: 2
Scabbers (NOT Peter): 1
Luna Lovegood: 1
Sirius Black: 2
Remus Lupin: 1*
James Potter: 1*
Peter Pettigrew: 1*
* this person voted The Marauders. One of Sirius' votes is counted as thus as well.
Sirius awoke, dazed, on a couch in the Common Room. He stretched a bit, and from his left he heard a groan as someone else awoke.
Wait…He shot up, looking around the photo world wildly. Beside him, Remus gazes blearily up, half asleep.
"Sirius… what…" Then his eyes open wide as well, and they share a look of bewilderment.
James and Lily are asleep still, each in their own chairs with utter peace on their faces. Sirius spares a glance at Peter, still darting around the room, then looks back.
Peter is sitting on the floor, and as he watches, a game of Exploding Snap plays itself out, without any of the players there. It blows up, and repeats. Sirius turns to the 'window' where the lookers are shown. Light is streaming in from what he assumes is the sun, but no-one is there.
"Sirius?" He turns to look at Remus. Remus is looking at the window as well, and Sirius realizes they both know that they should be playing cards.
"We can talk… and hear. It was that potion that Cooro spilled all over the photo." Sirius nods. He doesn't want to speak yet, in case it ruins the spell.
"Say something!"
"… Something." Remus tries to glare, but a chuckle rolls out of his mouth, and soon they both are laughing. It has been far long since they'd been able to laugh properly.
Remus' eyes glaze for a moment, before focusing on him once again.
"I can hear in the other photo that was spilled on, but not anywhere else. So it was only these two…" Sirius looks up as another explosion hits Peter's face, silently.
"And it only effected those who were actually here, not Pettigrew." Remus nodded once again. Sirius was about o say something, anything to break the silence that once again surrounded them, when a loud grumble reached his ears.
"How long has it been since we ate?" Remus laughed.
"Forever. Reckon we can get to the kitchens in a photo?"
"Only one way to find out!" They wrote a note for the Potters, should they wake up before they got there, then approached the portrait hole. Sirius tentatively pushed it open, and when nothing drastic happened, he jumped out. Still nothing. The halls were empty, as it had been late at the time of the photo.
"Come on, Moony! Let's go!" Remus climbs out carefully, and follows him down the corridor.
X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_
James and Lily woke slowly, to a soft clicking sound that slowly got louder until James sat up, irritated, and yelled,
"Would you stop that!" Without looking up, Lily smacked his head. A chuckle alerted them both to another presence, and both looked up to see a man, all in white, standing before them. The clicking was coming from a clock.
It was their living room in the 'home' they had in Heaven. But…
"Weren't we in the photo with Pads and Moony?" James frowned, looking around in confusion.
"That is true. I need to speak to you two about that." Lily gestured for him to sit, and he took a place at an armchair.
"The photo you two were in, as you probably noticed, was covered in a previously unknown potion. It will probably never be replicated. It gave the ability of voice and hearing to the occupants. This is a bit of a problem." Lily frowned.
"Why? It's not like the real world can hear us…" The man, who was an angel of some rank, was already shaking his head.
"No, that's the problem. They will be able to, from both photos that were hit." Noticing their looks of confusion, he added, "There was one of just... Padfoot and Moony, was it? Laying underneath." They both nod.
"Now, you two have a choice. You can stay here, and can visit other photos as well, or you can go back to that one. If you do, you cannot leave it until the photo is destroyed." James looks at Lily for a moment, then turns back, opening his mouth to answer.
"You also cannot reveal anything you learned here, about the Death Eaters or the Prophesy, or anything. Anything you know will be revealed at the proper time." He gazed sternly at them. Lily stands up, stretching.
"Well, then let's go. I for one would like to speak to my son, even if I can't tell him much." James laughed, standing as well.
"Yeah! Maybe I can hint at the location of the Marauder's Map…" He grins at Lily's exasperated look.
"What? I won't say it…" Lily can't help but laugh.
The angel looks at them in slight bewilderment, then shrugs, standing.
"OK. Here's what to do…"
X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_
Husky heads upstairs to rouse everyone, and runs into Nana on the stairs.
"Watch it!" She glares at him, wrinkling her nose a bit at the lingering smell of the potion.
"No need to over-react, Nana." She only scowls a bit more, before blubbering out an apology and running back to her room, near tears. Husky stares after her, bewildered.
"Ah… well, she is nearly thirteen, Husky. I believe it has started." He turns around to see Remus standing halfway down the hallway, with Senri behind him.
"What's started?" Remus chuckled again.
"Nothing, nothing… I'll tell you later, it's not important right now. How about breakfast? I'm feeling like French toast, myself." Husky shakes his head a bit.
"I'll be there in a bit; I have to change first. Cooro spilled some weird potion all over those photos we left on the table, so I guess I have to tell him about it, too." Husky walked past, not seeing the contemplative look in Remus' eyes.
He knocks on Harry's door, and listens carefully.
"Come in…" It sounds more like 'klarm pill,' but he takes what he can get and opens the door. Harry is sprawled on the bed, reaching for his glasses even as he slides under the blankets.
"Wuzzit?" Harry asks, a bit more coherent now as he sits up, blinking around the room.
"Erm.. Well, to be blunt, Cooro, and partially me, I suppose, spilled something weird on those photos we left downstairs. Sorry, mate." Husky himself couldn't see a reason to be overly attached to a photo, but as Harry's parents were both dead, he had to concede that they were probably worth more to him.
Harry frowns, not angry, but confused.
"Photos? There were more?" Husky nods, wondering why he'd been stuck with this job. Honestly, Cooro would probably have been a better choice.
"Yeah. There was one stuck to the other. We can't tell what it was; we only noticed it when Cooro started cleaning up the mess. Which is why I smell, coincidentally. Nasty stuff, that potion." Harry laughs a bit, rising out of bed.
"Don't worry about it. There were a bunch in that box; two won't kill me. Besides," he added brightly, "Remus probably has a bunch around! And he can tell us school stories. Or me, I suppose…" Harry taps his chin thoughtfully, before shrugging and beginning to get dressed. Husky leaves quickly to give him privacy, and enters his own room.
They all are sit at the dining room table to avoid the lingering smell of potion, eating French toast. Harry had never had any before, and eats as much as he can. He manages to match Cooro in amount, but nobody can eat faster. A fact that Ron doesn't hesitate to point out.
"We should pit him against Fred sometime. I bet he'd eat him under the table!" Fred, it turned out, was a bit gluttonous, and had never been beaten in an eating contest to date. Even against George.
"They claim that they share a stomach, and Fred just likes to eat more." Nana laughs, a bit harder than the others, and Husky wonders for the thousandth time since they sat down what Remus had been referring to.
Harry turned to Remus, eyes alight with hope.
"Remus… can you tell me what my parents were like in school?" Remus looks up from his plate (where he'd been unconvincingly trying to hide his laughter), and raises an eyebrow.
"You haven't heard from anyone else? Hagrid? Dumbledore?" Harry shakes his head, frowning.
"I know they were Head Boy and Girl. I know that my Mom was good with charms and very kind, and that I have her eyes. I know my Dad was great in Transfiguration and that I look just like him, something that Snape hates. But that's pretty much it." Remus frowns a bit, considering the question.
"Lily was very studious. Top of the class, really. And had a bit of a temper. She wouldn't hesitate to use the hexes she knew if you annoyed her.
"James was a prankster. He loved a good laugh, much like a pair of twins I keep hearing about." He grinned at Ron for a moment, then continued. "He was brilliant, though. I don't think I ever really saw him studying, however I think he did, secretly, to impress your mom.
"He also hated Snape. They hated each other, really. James hated everything Severus stood for, really; Slytherin, anti-Muggle-born, obsessed with the Dark Arts, etc. And Snape hated him, for being pure-blooded and not caring, for being Gryffindor… and for finally seducing Lily Evans, I suppose," he added lastly, an amused look on his face. The others looked at each other, perplexed. Remus noticed, and held up his hands.
"Let me explain. James was very popular. Good at Quidditch, did well in classes, funny, and for a while it went to his head. Lily hated how arrogant he could be, and when he started asking her out, she thought he saw her as a challenge and refused.
"He didn't stop pursuing her for three years. In our last year, he… well, his head deflated a bit, and because they were working together so much as Heads, she grew to like him. Drove her right mad, knowing he'd finally gotten to her…" Harry frowned, looking down. They'd fought for three years? Remus tapped his shoulder.
"They loved each other, Harry, don't doubt that. James just needed to mature a bit, that's all." Husky thought back to his half-siblings in the castle, and how they treated each other. Somehow, he got the feeling they'd never really mature.
Cooro is the one who takes the dishes into the kitchen. Nana washes and Harry dries. It is about halfway through this chore when Cooro calls out.
"Hey, look at these!" In his hands are the two photos. Husky, who had been sitting waiting for the others to finish, looks up.
The one that they weren't sure about now showed a dorm room, messy and uninhabited. The other is what catches their attention, though.
Lily and James are still asleep, and a note is now propped up on James' lap. From where they were, it was impossible to make out a word.
Remus and Sirius are both gone, with no hint to where they could be. But the strangest part is the middle.
Peter is sitting on the floor, playing the same card game over and over. The cards once held by the other players now float around him, laying themselves down alone and exploding. Peter doesn't notice that the others aren't there, and plays it again and again.
Remus looks at the photos carefully, a crease forming on his brow as he considers it.
"I… I have absolutely no idea what is going on here." Ignoring the looks of surprise from the children, he takes the photos and lays them carefully on the table once again, tapping both and muttering under his breath.
"Nobody touch these. I'll have to look at them later, but I'm afraid that until one of them wakes up, or returns, as it were, there is little we can learn." He herded the children out of the room, telling the boys they could practice Quidditch, yes he had extra brooms, and no, Nana, you don't have to, until they were all outside. He didn't tell them the bit he had learned. It was something he would have to think about, even as he watched Harry, as good as his father, if not better, swoop majestically around the trees.
He could hear it still, the faint snores coming from the photo. Even if he wanted to, there was no way to rationalize it. He hadn't spent seven years in the same dorm, with werewolf hearing, to not know that it was certainly James that was snoring.
Which meant he was going mad. Whoever heard of a photo that could talk?
Yes, I'm stretching this as long as I can, mostly because it's rare I have a moment of brain power, so I'm relishing in this one. It's gonna be an interesting next chapter~