Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
The Marauders Year 1
Chapter 10: Christmas Troubles
"What are you doing for Christmas, Sirius?" James asked. He was lying on his bed, tossing a ball into the air and catching it. He and his friends were relaxing in their dorm waiting for dinner when they would be released from their dorm. The Head Girl, which was a Gryffindor, had declared the four boys on house arrest until dinner. They (meaning Sirius and James) had accidentally set her hair on fire. After putting her hair out, she had given them all detention and put them on house arrest for the rest of the day until dinner. She put all four of them in house arrest because she thought they had done it as a prank and blamed all four of them.
Sirius, who was sitting on the window sill and staring out the window, frowned. "I'm staying here. My mother sent me a letter the other day telling me not to come home for Christmas or Easter. I'm only allowed home for summer."
"Well, you won't be alone." James said.
Sirius looked at James confused.
"I'm staying for Christmas too." James explained, smiling.
"If you're staying for me, you don't have to." Sirius replied, looking at the ground sadly.
James frowned. "Sirius, you my mate. I'm not going to let you be alone for the holidays. And besides think of all the mischief we can get into in an empty school, causing all sort of mayhem that will drive the teachers insane."
"But what about your parents?" Sirius asked.
"My parents said it would be okay and besides they're going to France for Christmas this year." James replied.
Sirius swung his foot gently and hitting the wall. "But don't you want to go to France?"
James jumped off his bed and moved over to Sirius. He grabbed Sirius by the shoulders. "Are you trying to get me to leave so you can be all alone and miserable for Christmas? If you do want to be alone and miserable just tell me and I go home for Christmas."
Sirius smiled and shook his head. "I don't want to be alone. I just don't want to ruin your Christmas."
"My Christmas isn't going to be ruined. Spending Christmas at Hogwarts is an amazing thing my dad said. He said you have to spend at least one Christmas at Hogwarts." James said, before turning to face Peter, who was watching them and Remus, who was lying on his bed and reading a book. "What about you two? Are you staying or going home?"
"My parents said the same thing about Hogwarts so I'm staying here as well." Peter replied.
Remus looked up from his book and frowned. "As much as I want to stay, I can't. I have to go home." He looked at the calendar on the wall next to his bed and smiled sadly. The full moon was during Christmas break. He really wanted to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, but he couldn't say he had an emergency at home and had to leave for the full moon and then come back after the full moon. It would be strange and suspicious.
"Don't worry about it, mate. Maybe next year." James replied.
"Maybe." Remus whispered.
James sighed and sat back down on his bed. "Moving on. We have a prank to plan. At the feast before the students leave to go home, we're pulling the prank."
Remus groaned and sat up on his bed. "Can't we just forget the prank?"
"No. This is a Marauder's prank. We pull one the night they leave and the night they return." James replied, smirking mischievously. He got off his bed and jumped next to Remus on his bed. "It will be fun, Remy. And we can plan the second prank while you at home because we use those charmed parchments that your dad gave us."
"I don't want to pull any more pranks. I've had enough with pranks. They get boring after a while." Remus said, nonchalantly.
Sirius and James gaped at Remus with wide eyes. "Pranks get boring?" James questioned, slowly and shook his head slowly at the absurdness of it. He looked at Sirius, who was opening and closing his mouth as if trying to form words but nothing was coming out.
Peter just stared at Remus. "Now you've done it, Remus."
Remus looked between James and Sirius. "Oh no. What have I done?"
"Remus." Sirius said slowly, standing up and moving to stand in front of Remus. "Pranks never get boring as long as you never repeat a prank. You make your pranks original and something that no one would ever expect. That makes them enjoyable. Pranks never get boring."
James thought for a moment. "With Christmas coming up, I think our prank should have something to do with the Christmas spirit." He turned to looking at the frowning Remus. "Come on, Remy. You did the Halloween prank with not much fuss. This prank won't be like Halloween since it doesn't have to be scary and besides we promised Bilius to make his last year here amazing. And he enjoys the pranks. You wouldn't want to break the promise we made to Bilius, would you?"
Remus glared at James. "I hate you."
James smiled. "Remy, I know you like pranks and want to do this. So, what shall we do for our Christmas prank?"
Remus sighed and started helping them come up with a prank.
A few days later, Remus entered the dorm room to find James, Sirius, and Peter sitting on James's bed with their heads together talking quietly. They were so immersed in their conversation that they didn't notice Remus come into the room.
Remus walked over to his friends. They still didn't notice him standing there. Feeling mischievously, Remus pulled his wand out and pointed it at the three. "Aguamenti." A jet of water came out of his wand and hit the three boys on the bed.
James shook his hand, spraying water everywhere and glared at Remus. "What was that for?"
"Well, you didn't see that I came in so I thought I would get your attention." Remus answered, sitting on his bed. "What were you guys talking about anyway?"
"Nothing." James replied.
Remus raised a brow, suspicious. He narrowed his eyes at them, but didn't comment on it. He had more important matters on his hands.
Sirius fidgeted slightly at the suspiciously look from Remus. "So…uh…did you finish the potion we need for the prank?"
"Yeah. It's ready." Remus replied, distracted.
"Is something wrong, Remus?" Peter asked.
Remus frowned. "Did you guys read the paper today?"
Sirius snorted. "No."
"Did something important happen?" James asked, interested.
Remus nodded his head. "There's this guy going around with a huge group of followers. He believes in blood purity."
"So? Who cares? A lot of pure blood people believe that kind of stuff. What makes this guy so different?" Sirius asked, indifferently. He still didn't see what was so important and why it was making Remus distracted.
"He's actually taking action to achieve pure blood purity. He says muggle-born wizards and witches don't deserve to learn magic. And he hates muggles. He even attacked a muggle village a few days ago. Five muggles were killed and ten were severely injured and had to be sent to St. Mungo's Hospital." Remus explained.
Sirius paled and frowned. "So this guy is completely serious about blood purity?"
Remus nodded his head solemnly. "It seems like it."
"He'll be caught soon. People like this are always caught. Come on, let's get to work on our prank." James replied, wanting to move away from this depressing topic.
A few days later, the four boys forgot all about that man because they were busy putting the finishing touches on their prank that they were going to pull that night.
After getting their prank all set up, the four boys joined the traffic flowing into the Great Hall for the last dinner before Christmas break. They sat down quietly and waited for dinner to begin impatiently. For once, their target wasn't any of the Slytherins.
"Ready Remus?" James questioned.
"Yeah." Remus replied. "Are you?"
"Yes." James said.
Remus looked at the Head Table to see the teachers eating. None of them noticed anything and continued talking to each other and eating. Dumbledore was smiling happily and talking to McGonagall, who for once looked happy. That happiness wouldn't last long.
Sirius looked around the hall and nodded his head. "No one notices anything. Go ahead and start."
James pulled his wand out. He hid it under the table and had it pointed at the Head Table. He whispered an incantation, while waving his wand to activate the potion that was put in the teachers' food.
Sirius took his wand out and waited until it was his turn.
The teachers at the table felt the change immediately. Their bodies glowed a faint purple color as they changed. Dumbledore got fatter and shorter. The professors' hair and skin changed to brown. The professors' had antlers grow out of their heads and their hands turned into hooves.
Sirius took this time to change Dumbledore's clothe to a big red coat, red pants, and gave him a red hat with a white trim and white ball on the end, making him look like Santa.
The students finally realized something was going on and looked at the Head Table in shock. No one had ever pranked all the teachers at once.
Remus smirked and pulled his wand out to do something that wasn't part of the plan. He pointed his wand at McGonagall and muttered a spell make her nose red.
James and Sirius saw her nose turn red, shocked. They looked at Remus, who smirked at them. They had to put their fists in their mouths to stifle their laughter.
After he was finished with that he waved his wand again. "Decurro." He whispered the spell and pointed his wand at each teacher in turn.
After they all had the spell cast on them, Remus muttered another spell for them to start singing at the same time.
Rudolph, the red-nose reindeer
Had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
You would even say it glows.
All the students stared at McGonagall and her red nose. They started laughing loudly.
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"
Then all the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee,
Rudolph the red-nose reindeer,
You'll go down in history!
When the song was finished, the hall burst into laughter and applause.
"Want me to give our name now?" Remus asked.
James thought quickly and nodded his head.
McGonagall stood up and glared at all the students. She changed all the teachers and Dumbledore, who looked amused and annoyed, back to normal before turning back to. "Who did this?"
Remus whispered another spell and started writing in the sky.
That would be us, McGonagall.
McGonagall glared at the writing. "And who would you be?"
And why do you want to know?
The hall stared confused at the writing, even the teachers.
McGonagall fumed. "So, I can give you detention for the rest of your school life."
McGonagall. McGonagall. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Why would I give you our real names? That would be the stupidest thing I could ever do. But I will give you the name of our group.
McGonagall huffed and clenched her fist tightly, making her knuckled turn white. "What do you need a group name for?"
So, the students have something to call us when they discuss our awesome, marvelous, wonderful, astounding, extraordinary, stupendous, miraculous…..
"We get the point!" McGonagall snapped angrily. She looked ready to hex someone.
James and Sirius were red in the face and were having trouble keeping themselves from laughing. They had to bite down on their hands to keep from laughing. Peter was biting down on his lip and was red in the face too. Only Remus managed to keep a stoic expression as he was writing.
You know it's quite rude to interrupt people. Now where was I. Oh yes! Astonishing, incredible, spectacular, fantastic, Pheno-
This was getting too much for the three marauders, so James kicked Remus in the leg to get him to stop. Remus stopped writing in surprise from the kick and rubbed his leg. "Ow." After glaring at James, Remus went back to writing.
-menal pranks. We don't want to make the students go around the school callings us them, it, you, people, persons, blah, blah, blah. So we thought we'd give you our name so you have something to call us by. Something incredible to call us by. Not something stupid like pranksters and tricksters. Those names are boring. So we give you our name:
The Marauders!
Most of the students started talking excitedly about the Marauders. The only students not talking excitedly were the ones who stuck by the rules like goody two shoes, like Lily, and the Slytherins. Some of the Slytherins looked curious, but didn't say anything. The Marauders weren't talking because they were trying not to laugh at the looks on the teachers' faces.
"Were you the ones who pulled the Halloween prank?" McGonagall asked in a calm, strict tone.
Of course. That should have been obvious. I thought you were smart, McGonagall.
McGonagall practically had stream coming out of her ears.
Dumbledore stood up and motioned for McGonagall to stop. "I think that is enough for this evening. Marauders, we will figure out who you are. Be prepared."
Awww. But Dumbly, I was just starting to have fun.
James slammed his head on the table to keep himself from laughing.
Sirius looked ready to explode from the laughter he was holding in. He glared at Remus, who smiled innocently.
I guess we can end this discussion, Dumbly. My colleagues think it is time to end this for the evening, plus they look ready to kill me. So:
Merry Christmas Hogwarts!
Remus stopped the spell and pouted. "Whenever I start having fun, you guys ruin it."
"What happened to the Remus who didn't like pranks? You're disrespecting the teachers." James hissed.
"As long as they don't know it is me, then I don't mind doing this. But when it's me doing it, I'm going to be careful." Remus explained.
For the rest of dinner, the students talked excitedly about The Marauders. The four boys smiled at the attention they were getting, even though no one knew it was them.
The next day, Remus packed up his trunk and said good bye to his friends. He really wanted to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, but knew it wasn't a possibility and that upset him.
This month's full moon was easy for Remus since he didn't have to make up a lie to his friends. But being locked in the basement again was not enjoyable for the wolf after getting roam around a big house for the past three months.
After the full moon, Remus's mom made him rest until Christmas which was two days after the full moon. The day before Christmas, Remus sent Darkwing to Hogwarts with the presents for his friends. Remus wondered how his friends were. He could speak to his friends with enchanted parchment, but he forgot it at Hogwarts.
Remus looked out his bedroom window on Christmas morning at the town. The town Remus lived in was small. It was a muggle a town. They lived here because it was less likely that muggles would figure out that Remus was a werewolf.
"Remus!" Lena called up the stairs to her son.
"Coming!" Remus said.
Remus ran down the stairs to see his mother waiting at the bottom of them for him. "Yes mother?"
"You got some gifts for your uncle, grandparents, cousins, and those friends of yours." Lena explained, pointing into the living room.
"Thanks mother." Remus replied, running into the living room.
Auva watched his son open his gifts happily. "Having a good Christmas, son?"
"It's great. It would be better if there wasn't a full moon during the break, but at least it was at the beginning of the break." Remus replied, opening a gift from his uncle. It was tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. "You guys just don't get that I don't like Quidditch."
Auva laughed and ruffled his son's hair. "The World Cup is one of the best games ever. Your friends love Quidditch, right? They can come with us, okay? And those were expensive tickets. You should thank your uncle. It costs a lot to get them in advance like this."
Remus sighed. "Right. Sorry dad. I'll thank him the next time I see him."
The rest of the day went by great for Remus. It got a lot of presents and chocolate from his friends and family. He even got a gift from Lily. It was a muggle book calledThe Shifter. His marauder friends each got him a lot of chocolate. James also got him a book about pranks with a note saying to read it and come up with new ideas. Sirius got him vials of this potion from a Zonko's that produced smoke when you threw the vials on the ground. They were used to escape tight situations during pranks. Peter got him more quills.
It was after their Christmas dinner that Remus's day turned horrible. He was outside playing in the snow, making a snow man, when he saw a mark in the sky. It was a green skull with a snake coming from its mouth.
"What is that?" Remus whispers to himself.
Remus doesn't get much time to think as he sees men in black cloaks and wearing masks marching towards the village. They were firing spells at the houses, gaining the attention of muggles and they were coming outside to see what was going on.
The men started to attack the muggles with different spells, torturing them. The muggles screamed out in pain. The sky was lighting up with the flashes of lights from the spells.
Auva ran outside to see what was happening after alerting the Ministry for help. "Remus, get inside now." He hissed at his son.
Remus doesn't move. He continues to stare at the men in fear. Some of the men were firing a spell that came out as green sparks. The spell hit the muggles and they hit the ground, dead.
Remus stared in fear at the men. They were torturing and killing the muggles.
"Remus! Inside now!" Auva ordered.
The young werewolf moved back a few steps. His movement caught the attention of one of the men. The man turned to face Remus with his wand raised.
Remus stared wide eyed at the man and froze in his movement. He was scared.
"Avada-" The man started to say.
Auva's eyes widened. He knew that spell. He started to run towards his son.
"Kedavra!" The man finished.
Just as the man finished the curse, Auva jumped in front of his son.
Time seemed to slow down for Remus. He saw the man fire a curse at him, then his father jumped in front of him, staring at his son with love in his eyes, mouthing words to him. The next second, Auva was falling on top of his son with empty, emotionless eyes. Remus fell to the ground with his father on top of him. He couldn't move. He was trapped under his dead father.
"Dad?" Remus asked. Auva didn't reply. "Dad?"
Remus was starting to panic. His father wasn't replying.
The man who fired the spell walked over to Remus and kicked Auva off of him. He pointed his wand at Remus.
Remus stared back at him with wide, scared eyes.
"Sectum."
Remus felt his body be torn up. He screamed in pain and his hands scraped at the ground.
The man smirked at Remus's pain. "Sectum."
Remus screamed again, tears flowing down his face. He the cuts on his body that were appearing from the spell. His blood running down his body.
After using the spell a few more times, the man decided to end it. "Avada Ke…" The man started.
"Expelliarmus." A woman yelled.
The man's wand disappeared from his hand.
"Stupefy!" The woman yelled.
A red spell hit the man and he fell to the ground.
Remus sat up and looked around. More wizards and witches had showed up and were fighting the wizards in black cloaks.
"Are you okay, dear?" A kind woman voice asked him.
Remus looked at her scared, then looked at his dad. Ignoring the woman's question, Remus crawled over to his dad's body.
"Dear, he's dead." The woman said.
Tears filled up in Remus's eyes. "No. He shouldn't be. The spell was meant for me. I'm the one who should be dead. It was meant for me. I'm the one who should be dead. Me. Not him."
"Dear, you have to go inside now. It's dangerous out here." The woman said.
Remus shook his head and stayed where he was, crying on his father.
The woman cast a protective charm around Remus and turned back to the dark wizards to keep fighting. She didn't have time to talk the boy into going inside.
The dark wizards saw that they were outnumbered and apparated away.
The woman turned back to Remus. "Dear, you need to go to St. Mungo's."
"Why?" Remus asked.
"You were attacked. You covered in wounds. It won't be for long." The woman said.
A woman screamed nearby, making Remus looked up. He saw his mother standing in the doorway of her house, tears running down her face. "What happened? Your father told me to hide in the basement and ran outside."
"Mom." Remus whispered.
Lena ran over to her son and hugged him tightly, making him whimper in pain.
A few days later, Remus was released from St Mungo's and went back home with Uncle Kaus, who works as Head of Magical Games and Sports. His uncle had light grey eyes and short brown hair. "Remus, I'm sorry about your father."
"Don't be. It wasn't anyone's fault but mine. I should have ran when he told me to." Remus whispered.
"You can't blame yourself. You were scared. Most kids would have been scared frozen stiff. Your father did what he did because he loved you." Kaus said. He looked down at his nephew sadly. "He wouldn't want you blaming yourself."
Remus clenched his hands into fists. "Uncle Kaus, thanks for the Quidditch tickets."
Kaus looked at Remus strangely. Now really wasn't a good time to be thanking him for something like that.
"I promised my dad to thank you the next time I saw you. I just wish it wasn't on horrible conditions like this." Remus explained. His eyes filling with tears.
Kaus knelt next to Remus and hugged him tightly, letting Remus cry on his shoulder.
At Hogwarts, Sirius stared at the Daily Prophet in shock. "James, Peter, there was another attack."
"By that crazy guy Remus told us about?" James asked.
Sirius nodded his head. "It was on Christmas day in the town where Remus lives."
"WHAT?" James screamed.
"Ten more muggles were killed. Two wizards were injured fighting these darks wizards and Remus was injured and sent to St. Mungo's and his father was killed." Sirius explained solemnly.
James stared at his dinner sourly. He pushed his plate away, not hungry anymore. Peter and Sirius followed suit.
"Poor Remus. And on Christmas to." Peter muttered.
"We're not doing that prank we were planning for the return feast. I don't have the heart to do it anymore." James replied.
"Same here." Sirius said.
The boys left the Great Hall and went up to their dorm to sulk for the rest of Christmas break. None of them had the heart to do anything. They were too depressed.
Sirius kicked his nightstand. "Those bastards."
James clenched his fists until his knuckled turned white. "It isn't fair."
"Nothing's fair." Sirius growled, angrily.
Remus ran to his mother as soon as he got home. He hugged her tightly around the waist. "Mom."
"Remus, dear." Lena whispered and hugged her son back. She fell to her knees as she hugged him, tears falling down her face. "My son, are you alright?"
"Daddy died cause of me. All my fault." Remus whispered.
Lena's eyes widened. "It's not your fault, dear. Don't blame yourself."
Remus cried harder into his mother's shoulder. "Yes, it is. I want to quit Hogwarts. I don't want to go back. I'm not going back. I don't deserve to know magic."
A/N: Please review!
I felt the urge that someone needed to die. And since Remus was the only one going home, it had to be one of his parents. I was originally going to wait until probably around third year to kill someone, but I wanted to do it now. Don't think of that in a bad way. I didn't want anyone to die, but it's a war and people have to die. And it had to be Remus's parents anyway. James is suppose to have the perfect life where nothing goes wrongs. Sirius probably wouldn't care that much if his parents died. And I don't give a damn about Peter's life and I don't know anything about him.
I'll admit this. I was close to tears by the time I finished this chapter.