Chapter 8: Secret Telling
Warning: This story may contain traces of: OOC-ness, spoilers, tortures, magical spells, AU, swords, powerful spells, badly written but still very awesome duels, family, severitus, spouts of random insanity now and again, rambling author notes and minor character bashing. Engage at your discretion.
THE OTHER WARNING: This author is currently not very busy, bored out of her mind and suffers from severe cases of bad humor. Take the WARNING seriously, just not the author in general.
This is where we step into the quagmire that is AU-TURN-BACK-IF-YOU-MUST.
"So what's the emergency?" Remus asked, his clever mind extremely confused as he followed Sirius to Severus' dormitory that he still shared with no one else but them.
Sirius replied with a smile, "Marauders meeting, we'll probably stay up all night. James is bringing the refreshments."
Remus shook his head, sometimes he doesn't really get what's going on in that mind of Sirius'. He and Severus had gotten into long debates about the capabilities of old magic, Hogwarts and hats, which yielded non conclusion on why Sirius got sorted into the house that prides itself in the intelligence of its house members.
Sirius Black still has a long a way to go before he qualifies and graduates in the intelligence department.
He tapped his wand in the crooked brick next to the tapestry of an eagle standing on a cactus and devouring a snake, the hallway to the left of the Gryffindor common room. It slowly spun open, revealing a dusty passage way lit by ever lasting floating candles.
Sirius checked the corridor outside for any innocent personnel, clucked his tongue and pulled shut the entrance door.
It was pure accident that Sirius discovered the secret passage near the Gryffindor common room after a particular nasty episode from a fifth year Ravenclaw, his left shoulder slammed against the crooked brick, racing inside and pulling shut the door after the older boy knew what's going on.
Discovering that particular passage earned him a high five from James, a bundle of reprimand from Remus and a mouthful of quills when he walked into Severus' mad studying sessions. Then the long journey of secret passages discovery began.
Severus forced him to pay for all the quills in his mouth.
They haven't found all of the passages in the old school named Hogwarts, but they are still in second year, so they have time. Though it was a sad sad day when James Potter found the entrance to the kitchens.
"You are late," an impatient voice sounded behind the moss covered doorway when Sirius managed to push said door open.
It was quite an amusing site to behold. The tapestry of the white doe with a midnight raven was moved to the side to allow the large framed photo Severus allowed for them to decorate, technically, their room. There was a standard four poster bed to one corner, a wooden door to the Slytherin common rooms. A large wooden desk sat in front of the bed, with a small shelf of books and potions right next Severus' trunk.
James was the one that yelled out the impatient call and was now munching on an ice cream while sitting at the foot of Severus' bed, sweets, cakes and cold confectionaries surrounding him on the floor. Severus was watching the pair of them in slight confusion and amusement, a chocolate tart dirtying his elegant fingers.
"So, what are we doing?" James asked, shoving half of the cake in hand into his mouth, slightly muffling his voice. Severus shot him a glare. Remus shrugged and sat in the disgusted Slytherin's chair while he moved to sit on the desk. Sirius plopped down on the bed and stole a treacle tart right under James' cream covered nose.
James glared, Severus snorted, Remus wanted to bash his head against the wall.
"No, really, why are we here?" Severus asked, hands inching towards the vials on his shelved. Everyone here knew by now not to use the word 'serious' whenever possible. They had enough of Sirius' "No I'm Sirius" jokes to last a life time.
Sirius finally pulled off a typical Black family smirk after five months of learning from Andromeda, but quickly grew serious (ha!). "The Evans fiasco has effected us more than anyone had thought. So now we have the first, and hopefully last: Marauders' Bonding Meeting." He swept his arm wide, banging his hand against the bed post.
James snickered, Severus blinked and blanched, Remus still wants to bash his head against the wall.
The three of them that were not included in Sirius' very see-through-able plot shared a glance with each other and simultaneously half shouted, "Huh?"
Dot. Dot. Dot.
Sirius sulked. Then brightened. Then sulked again.
"I'll go first shall I?" Sirius asked and everyone else nodded. By doing so they sealed another promise, of keeping each other's promise and not freak out too much about it.
Sirius took a deep breath and changed.
It was quick, his handsome face morphed into a bear's, then James' chocolate covered ones, the gave himself a silver beard like Dumbledore's and started whacking James in the head with it and finally turned his hair into a much greasier mess like Severus' that reached now to his ankles. After he deemed he had showed off enough, he finally returned to his normal handsome self and plopped back down to the mattress, breathing heavily.
It was James that made the first reaction. He jumped right up from where he was munching on a cream biscuit, eyes wide and shinning. "You're a metamorphmagus?" He half shrieked. Remus again thanked Severus' bright mind and his lucky stars for warding the room.
A pause.
"Yes?" Sirius said hesitantly, posing it as a question than a statement.
James yanked him up, paused for another half a second, whooped at the top of his lungs and started to shake Sirius' shoulders, almost ripping his head off. Muttering about "I'm not the only one", "so awesome" and "now we can prank everyone, even the teachers!"
Remus thought he would have to do emergency operation on sewing Sirius' head back to its original position. He'll need needles and potions and threads. He thinks...
"Are you quite finished with dislocating Black's head from his shoulders, Potter? Remus is thinking about what he would need to sew his head back on, something that I do not want to see nor help," The silky voice cut a swathe through James' ramblings, which of course came to an abrupt stop.
Severus was there, calm as always, elegant fingers picking at the icing of his still uneaten chocolate cake, nonchalant and black eyes blazing with warning and slight fury. Remus was glad for the presence of the Slytherin. He could always count on the black haired boy to dampen the Twins pranking sprees whenever it got out of hand. Remus didn't want to think what would happen if the fourth position was taken by someone else, maybe even that Peter Pettigrew character. He won't be able to hold the Twins back then.
James coughed and dropped Sirius, his almost twin barely missing the half finished treacle tart.
"What is a metamorphmagus again?" Remus asked, confusion and embarrassment swimming in his amber eyes.
Another pause.
"You see Remy, every pure-blood house like the Malfoys and the Blacks and the Potters all have a special ability unique to that house. It's just a matter of when that ability would pop up. It could be a direct scion or a long long long descendent. It's random so those maggot couldn't control who got what," James ended his little speech with a knowing smile.
Remus slowly nodded, "So the Black family's ability was Metamorphism right?" Sirius grinned proudly, his heavy breathing evened out slightly and shoved a blueberry muffin in between his teeth.
"So, who's next?" Sirius asked, "Your deepest secret, only."
Damn
"Not it," he and Severus said simultaneously. Both of them snickered, James spewed colourful language.
Suddenly Sirius was yanked out off his feet, Remus was suddenly sitting on the floor with his chair all the way to the door.. Severus' quill was lifted into the air, tumbling around, flicking against Sirius' head in revenge for the whacking of the beard and finally stopping right in front of James' pulsing hazel eyes. The owner of the quill scowled deeply when all his parchment were floating around his messily organized room.
"Telekinesis, correct?" The scowl on Severus' face did not lessen, James nodded and grinned when the two poor people came sheepishly from where he left them on the floor.
The Slytherin's command was cold and dark, "Put it down." The papers and quill were still floating around the room. James grinned again and everything was returned to their rightful places. All except one.
Severus glared, James grinned, Sirius was watching the commotion like a tennis match and Remus found himself very confused.
James eyes blazed once more before dimming, the thick parchment exploded, rainy broken pieces of paper every where, but none landed on the occupants of the room, nor on the junk foods.
Severus glared harder, James mumbled something about cleaning up later. But Remus doubted that promise.
The third silence.
Now Sirius was the one that jumped up and started shaking James' head off. Severus was too busy glaring at the victim to intervene. Remus knew it was a bit of a futile thing, trying to stop them, but he tried anyway. But Sirius was a good size bigger than James and he looked pleadingly at Severus for help. The soon to be Remus' saviour sighed.
"I'm an illusionist," another glare and a sharp sentence cut right through the Twins' celebration of their new steps of pranking, Sirius dropped James on top of a stack of hard covered books that James summoned just them from the other side of the room.
Severus smiled slightly, his long hair hiding half of his face, "The funny thing is, that we have the heirs of at least three pure-blood families right in this room and I believe everyone has an ability, or a secret." The smile that was warm a minute ago, turn sinister and some other emotion Remus hadn't seen on Severus's face for a long time.
Sirius' eyes turned sheltered, "Wizards are like muggles in this regard, we don't like difference very much. They doesn't like change, either. The rest who are the same will either shun those who are different or they shower them with unnecessary attention."
Remus nodded. He had experienced different. He was a werewolf for Merlin's sake, he didn't want to remember how many so called friends he had told about his problem and they had ran away screaming monster and mommy. The only friends he had before Hogwarts were animals that loved and hated that beastie side of him.
He wondered how would his friends take it when he told them his many secrets, they all had experienced difference, so maybe they would allow him to at least finish this year first. He flited a glance to Severus sitting beside him.
His form flickered with violet and black light.
Remus hesitantly extended a hand to touch Severus' shoulder but his scarred arm went right through the spectre of Severus Snape disappeared in the same dark light.
Cue the fourth pause.
The brick door leading to the branch of secret passages was pushed open, the real Severus Snape came out, along with a bundle of new cakes and calming teas floating behind him.
"How'd you..." James whispered. Sirius was too shocked at the disappearance or that Severus Snape voluntarily brought sweets from the kitchen.
Severus answered with a smirk, "Illusionist. It's easy to look through an illusion, it always have the caster's magical light. If it's a living thing, then some part of it would always have my magical signature, for example the eyes. Illusionists can generate glamours and illusions at will, while others need years of training to do cast what they wanted other people to see."
"So your magical signature is black and purple? Never would have guessed." Severus shot him the glare and James shut up.
"Illusionists were almost always animagi, since transforming to an animal is like casting a permanent glamour that seeps into your body and last how long you want." Severus smirked, dumped the looted goods onto James' lap and sat back down.
So that's why Severus could pop up out of nowhere to dump a vial of stuff onto people's heads, then disappear when the furious victim blinked. It's surprising, to have an illusionist so young and so adapt at his art. Glamour and clones, illusions and tricks, illusionists are widely known as tricksters and mischief makers.
They are not at all incorrect.
But what Remus doesn't understand, was that comment about Animagi.
Could he be?
"Now we have our beloved Remus. What could he be? An elemental mage? A Charms Master? A wandless wizard?" A good natural jest, Remus could hide away his deepest secret under another one.
"I'm a Beast Master," he said, "I could talk and understand all magical creatures and animals. I used to live right in front of a forest so I knew. I always wanted to navigate the Forbidden Forest here," He finished with a slightly week smile, but did not notice the narrowed look Severus shot him.
"Let's grant your wish then Remy! As long as you take us along," Sirius gave a lop-sided grin almost identical to that of James, with only a bit more of darkness and mischief.
The Twins grinned more and relaxed against Severus' had and started to pick apart a fruit pie. Remus relaxed too, his secret was safe for a while yet, even if he had to sacrifice another to save it.
But Severus...
"That's not your deepest secret, nor your most terrifying, is it Lupin?" The cold tone of Severus Snape once again cut a bloody gash across the now relaxed atmosphere of the lone dormitory room. He hadn't heard a voice that cold directed at him for a long time, not the use of his last name as an address.
Remus gulped.
"Tell them Remus," Severus' voice was almost a whisper now, black eyes almost shining with plead. His form flickered with violet light, almost turning from black robes into sharp black feathers.
Remus sighed again, heart constricted painfully as he tried to squeeze the two words out of his mouth, "And, I'm also a werewolf." Then he waited.
The fourth silence was the painful of them all.
But the reaction was not what he expected.
Sirius face planted into a pair of Slytherin pillows, James jumped up for the second time, disturbing a plate of vanilla cookies, ran around the room, whooping at the top of his lungs. Severus smiled too, and stood up. Leaving Remus a confused mess alone with his thoughts.
James whooped again, "I was right Sirius, you own me three galleons. Ha!" Sirius threw the two gold coins at him with vehement aim, James stopped it in mid air with his palm out. Sirius cursed.
"Wait, you took a bet on whether or not I am a werewolf?" Incredulity and hilarity mixed into his shaky voice.
James scratched his head, "Well, we actually took bet on whether or not you'll actually admit it," he said sheepishly. Remus didn't know whether to laugh or cry or sigh in relief or flung a pillow into James' head, or something harder. Preferably something harder.
He looked at Severus for help choosing and support of his revenge, but the dark haired Slytherin's surprise was still to come. He shook his head, bared his shoulders, and transformed.
The black school robes melted into him, his hair fell into his eyes, his midnight eyes remained the same but his pale skin was all covered by inky blackness.
Remus always thought Animagus transformations happen in the blink of an eye, but perhaps Severus was making it deliberately slow for their viewing pleasure.
A large raven with wingspan at least three feet hovered proudly in front of them, exactly where Severus stood mere moments ago, without fully opening his large wings. Black eyes with that odd violet gleam. Sharp feathers glinted in the dormitory light, edges like knife blades, fitting. There was a small circle of white that stood in stark contrast against the black feathers, half hidden by the knife blades.
The bird flew around the room twice, wings scarping against the bed posts and the stone walls, leaving shallow marks against each surfaces. the boys' eyes followed its every move, dumbstruck and mouth open.
The raven circled one last time and shifted. the feathered blurred back into robes, the violet gleam, disappeared, the darkness bled out to show his pale complexion. He smirked when the rest of the Marauders were attracting flies in their wide open mouths.
"Werewolf bite is harmless to animals you know." He leaned back against his desk and pulled out his Transfiguration notes. Remus was still too shocked to process much information through his damaged brain.
Click.
The Clicks were almost a daily occurrence now, something that only the Marauders could hear. It only happened when both Sirius Black and James Potter thought of something that wrecks havoc, breaks rules and makes the teachers wants to roast them over a fire all at once. The road to achieving said result almost always involved at least one of the Marauders.
Poor Severus then.
"Sev..." James started, inching towards the Slytherin with Sirius following close behind, Remus was inching towards the hidden passage door while praying that they won't notice him.
"Can you teach us?" Twin glints of hunger was hard to miss when the two pair of eyes are right in front of you, it was like those muggle traffic light things that could shone through even the heaviest of rains. Severus noticed the danger too late, and he gulped.
Remus just reached the brick door when the twins pounced.
Do you guys even want to have a Harry Potter universe? Like the canon universe. I could, but I also won't. AU is showing its little head right now. It won't effect things as much until they get into Year 5-7, if you count the increase in murderous rages and quiet amusement from McGonagall and Dumbledore respectively, effecting things.
Pay attention to detail, is my advice to all of you reading.
Do any of you have any suggestions on what to call Severus Animagus form? Review please!