CHAPTER THREE
THE AFTERMATH
Lyric's PO.V.
When I walked into the Hospital Wing, I muttered the counter curse to the appearance altering spells, and then I looked like myself again. Same pin straight black hair, same dark blue eyes, same pale skin, and same old scar on my face.
"Poppy?" I yelled out, hoping that she wasn't with a patient at the moment. I saw her bustling over toward me and look at me, slightly confused.
"Yes, Lyric? What's the matter?" she asked.
"I kind of need a favor, but it would involve lying to a couple professors." I said, almost positive that she wouldn't go for it.
"What would you need me to lie about, dear?" she asked.
"If any of the Professor ask where Lily Evans, Alice Hinton, Marlene McKinnon, and I were from this morning until lunchtime, can you tell them that we were here, getting curses taken off, curses that were the end result from a prank gone wrong, played on us by the Marauders. Look, I know that this is a lot to ask, but you're the only one that can help us. Please?" I asked, giving her my best puppy dog face.
"Oh, alright, but only this once. And tell your foster father that I said 'Hello', would you dear?" she asked. I nodded, and walked out of the Hospital Wing, feeling a little nauseous about the whole incident.
My foster father's name is Ronald Perry, and he adopted me five years ago from an orphanage in Diagon Alley. Only babies that come from magical families get taken there, and I happen to come from a pureblood family. My family was the Hayden family, a very old family, about as old as the Blacks, Potters, Dumbledores, Malfoys, Hintons, and Weasleys. But, my mother, the last Hayden, had not been married when she was mauled to death by Fenrir Greyback, and for some odd reason, Fenrir hadn't even tried to bite me when he had attacked me, hence why I am now covered in over fifty scars. Don't ask me why he spared me, because I have no idea, but he did, and I'm glad.
I guess that I should explain why just about anybody who meets me will call me Lyric Hidden, and this is because the other children at that orphanage were very cruel people. Almost immediately, they noticed that I didn't like to be noticed, that I liked to stay hidden and so when my foster father came to adopt me, everybody knew me as Lyric Hidden, so that is what is on that form to this very day, even though my last name is actually Hayden.
-X-
Eventually, I got down to the Great Hall, and found that the Marauders were waiting for me. I looked around as discreetly as I could, and noticed that the rest of the Hunters were not there. I didn't have my bag with me, so I could see that they were looking at me suspiciously. I walked over to them, and sat down between Remus and Peter.
"What?" I asked.
"Why don't you have your bag with you?" Sirius asked, looking at me through narrowed eyes.
"Because I only just got out of the Hospital Wing, thanks to you jerks!" I said, doing my best to act as angry as I could.
"What? We didn't do anything to you!" James exclaimed.
"Oh really? Are you saying that clones put Lily, Alice, Marlene, and I in the Hospital Wing?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yes!" They all exclaimed.
"How stupid do you think I am? If you're going to continue to prank me, then I will not help you, goodbye boys," I said standing up.
"Wait, what did you just say?" Remus asked.
"Goodbye boys?" I said, not knowing what was going on.
"That's exactly what Racingshadow said when she left us, every time actually. Lyric, is there something that you'd like to tell us?" Remus asked.
"Yes, actually," I said. They all looked at me in surprise, and then glared at me.
"I would like to tell you all that you are completely insane!" I said, walking further down the table. I heard footsteps behind me, and I looked to see Remus standing there, his cheeks red with embarrassment.
"Lyric, I'm sorry that I said that. I shouldn't have accused you like that, especially because you're helping us try to find them, so I'm sorry." he said, looking me in the eye.
"It's okay I guess, it was bound to happen eventually. So, do you have any leads. And were you kidding about the clones, right? Because if you weren't that kinda makes you sound just a little bit insane." I said, walking back over with him to the other three Marauders.
"But it's true!" exclaimed James.
"Really? I asked, faking bewilderment.
"Yeah, as best as we can figure, the Hunters came into our rooms this morning, blindfolded us, tied us up, and put us in our bathroom, while they ran around the school causing as much trouble as they could, posing as us. We think that they used a polyjuice potion, but we don't really know. So I guess that the Hunters were the ones that sent you and the girls to the Hospital Wing this morning, but I've never known them to harm anybody, they're pranks are usually just funny and embarrassing, or both, but never actually cause pain. What did they do to you four?" he asked.
"Well, they didn't actually hurt us, like you said, they were mostly embarrassing. They turned my hair a weird puce color, and my skin was blue with pink polka dots. Lily wound up having antlers affixed to her head, and her hair turned green with streaks of silver, and her skin was pretty much the same as her hair. Alice was turned completely purple, and Marlene was given beaver teeth, bug eyes, and butterfly wings. All in all, when we looked at each other it was pretty funny, but when you realized that you had also been made to look weird, it made you kind of depressed. Anyway, we spent about an hour trying to get the curses to go away, but they must have used nearly permanent charms, because they took Madam Pomfrey over three hours to get them off of us." I explained, having discussed the curses that each of us sustained with the rest of the girls, in case any of us were questioned about it later, and then the stories would match up. Some might say that we were paranoid, but in a world where everybody is out to get you, paranoia is just being cautious.
"So how did the Hunters get you?" Sirius asked, acting oddly serious.
"We were up in our dorm when they got us, but they looked like you guys, so we didn't really know what to do. So we just kinda stood there while they hexed us, more out of shock than anything else. When they finished, they just ran out and left. Then it was sort of like coming out of a trance, and we realized what had happened, and we tried every spell that we could think of to get rid of the hexes, but they stayed, no matter what we tried. Then we went to the Hospital Wing to get them removed, and like I said, it took us a while." I lied. They all gave me sympathetic looks, which I didn't even know was possible from Sirius or James.
"Why would they prank you though? They don't normally prank any Gryffindors except for the four of us. So what reason did you give them to prank you?" James asked, looking bewildered.
"I don't know! Maybe they heard that I'm going to help you find out who they are and they felt threatened. Maybe they thought that they could scare me into silence." I said, shrugging my shoulders in mock confusion.
"Well, if that's the case, you might want to be more careful with who you associate with. Now, back to our problems. One of the Hunters, I think it was Racingshadow, she said that we know all of the Hunters, we just don't know who they are. Do you have any idea who they could be?" Sirius asked.
"Well, I would say that there is probably at least one in Gryffindor if they were able to get into my dorm, or yours for that matter. And every time that they're disguised, they appear as girls, right? Well, put those two facts together, and the fact that at youngest they're fourth years, oldest seventh years, and you aren't left with many girls, maybe a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty at the most, right? After that, use process of elimination." I said, only later realizing that I probably just gave away some stuff that I shouldn't have.
"I think you just solved one of our problems, what else do you have?" James asked, looking surprised.
"Well, think of chances for opportunity. For a Slytherin, a Gryffindor, and a Hufflepuff you would need the passwords to get into their common rooms, but if they lived in the houses, it would be easier, but it's also not impossible to get their passwords, especially if you have friends in the houses, and I'd imagine that the Hunters would have many friends. After all, you have the passwords to three of them, and for the fourth you don't need a password, you just need to answer a riddle." I said, shrugging.
"So we probably have a couple of houses working together, that would explain why all of the houses have been pranked equally, well if you count us being pranked for the population of Griffindor house. And that could be why they've been able to get into all four of the houses. Lyric, you're a genius!" Remus said, smiling and looking like he was about to hug me. I could feel myself blushing, so I looked down and pulled a turkey sandwich onto the plate that sat in front of me.
"So how do we find out about the others?" Peter asked.
"Do the same thing with the other houses, find out every girl's name from fourth through seventh year, and go from there." I said before biting into my sandwich. I knew that I was getting dangerously close to getting my secret let out.
"So if you know how to find out who they are, how come you haven't already figured it out?" James asked, looking at me suspiciously.
"For a few reasons, actually. One, I haven't really had the desire to find out, they've never done anything to me until today. Two, I don't want to become their prime target in their anger at being found out." I said shrugging, hoping that they wouldn't see through my facade. But they all shrugged as if that made sense, and started eating their lunch while they tried to compose a list of every girl that they could think of that was in that range. I looked around and found my three friends quickly. As quietly as I could, I stood up and walked over to them.
After the four of us sat down, they bombarded me with questions on the information that I was giving the Marauders.
"So do they suspect you?" Lily asked.
"Not at all. They've fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker." I said, smirking.
"Did they ever suspect you?" Alice asked, looking worried.
"Yeah, for all of a minute before I set them straight. I don't think that they'll be accusing me again any time soon." I said, my smirk widening. They all grinned back at me, and we started laughing.
"So who's our next target?" Marlene asked the group. All of us except Lily shrugged.
"You have an idea, Lils?" Alice asked, a grin forming on her face.
"Of course she does, who do you think that she is?" I asked sarcastically. She nudged my shoulder, and I grinned at her.
"So, who are the targets?" I asked.
"Not just the targets, I have the whole prank planned." Lily said, her smirk widening.
"Don't leave us hanging! Tell us!" Alice exclaimed quietly.
"Well... what if we didn't just issue one prank, but issue a war. Us verse the Marauders. What do you think?" She explained.
"That is bloody freaking brilliant!" Marlene exclaimed. We all responded in similar ways, and it was decided, we were going to declare war on the Marauders. The end result would probably lead to having to rebuild the school, but it would be worth it...
…
Lunch quickly ended, and we went to Potions. Potions was one of the few classes that I enjoyed, besides Charms. When we got down to the entrance to the Potions classroom, the Marauders and the Slytherins were already there. A few assorted Gryffindors were also there, but my main focus were the Marauders and Slytherins. Alice had come up with a prank that we would be pulling on the class. The door was finally opened, and out came the pot bellied, long greasy mustache wearing, professor Slughorn. He motioned us to go in, and I shared a glance with Marlene. The brunette winked at me before taking her seat next to Alice in the back of the classroom. I took my seat at the table next to them, and watched Lily sit next to Snape. I could feel my head tilt in confusion before I remembered something, she had to remind him to duck when the time was right. But, that left me without a partner. I was about to ask Marlene and Alice if I could partner up with them, when the chair next to me was pulled out, and a person sat down next to me. I turned to see a familiar blond head sitting down.
"It okay if I partner with you?" he asked. I shrugged, and Remus sat his bag on the ground.
"Alright class, today we will be working on the-" Slughorn said, before beginning a long rant about the amazing wonders of that potion. I tuned him out almost immediately, only listening to the name of the potion before flipping to the correct page in my book, and reading through the list of ingredients. I walked over to the potion's cupboard and grabbed the required ingredients, before walking back over to my table. Remus was re-reading the instructions, muttering occasionally. I placed the ingredients on the table and grabbed my cauldron, before filling it with water. I started cutting up yarrow root, mincing it before throwing the root into the cauldron.
About half an hour passed before the signal was given. I saw Lily drop an empty vile, and Marlene, Alice, Lily, Snape, and I dropped to the ground, as a cloud of electric yellow smoke billowed out of Alice's cauldron, before an explosion of pink slime rained over the classroom, covering everyone except for the five of us. I poked my head out from under the table to see a furious looking Remus covered in pink slime and green powder, with chunks of what looked like garlic stuck to him. I chuckled softly, trying to stifle it with my hand.
"Why aren't you covered?" Remus asked.
"I guess I dropped my knife at the right time," I said, feigning innocence.
"Lucky you," he sighed. Class was let out early so we could clean up, and it wasn't like we could really continue out class anyway, there wasn't a surface that wasn't covered in pink slime. As we were walking out, I shared a smug look with the other Hunters...