Chapter 9: Invisibility Cloak
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.
The Marauders never were, never are and never will be a band of hooligans.
That was the first rule they've established when all four of them made it official last night after the roller coaster ride of secrets, when the three of then dragged Remus back in of course. The wolf and the raven both put their foot down on their law, and the Twins had to obey because Remus was just about ready to call in the cats from the Slytherin dormitories.
They could hear the snarling felines quite clear thank you very much.
They would wreck havoc, that much was a guarantee that came with the Marauder job description, but they would do it all discreetly. Leaving everyone to know it was them but could never catch them in the act no matter how much they tried. Of course, James and Sirius didn't mind detention at all, but Severus point blank refused to even recognize them if they got him into one.
They had a Slytherin in their midst, surly discretion would not be that hard to achieve.
The above sentence was written with no sarcasm involved.
That's exactly what they were trying now, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a castle where everyone was asleep, in the middle of setting up their debut as the mischief makers. It was discretion, if the word could stretch that far. It also served a good testing ground for them to explore the full extent of their abilities, until a better facility or situation came around.
James was extremely jealous as of this moment.
He was currently in the middle of the gigantic Great hall, the house tables all pushed to the side when it's curfew for the students, covered in his heirloom cloak and straining to keep Remus from falling, thirty something feet in the air, who was half dangling off the ceiling.
He gripped his wand tighter in his sweaty hands, ready to fight or flee is a teacher or another wandering student happened to look up and saw the twelve year old doing good knows what up on the ceiling with the moon and the clouds.
Severus had already cast the scare illusions up around the walls outside the library, and was now with Sirius, patrolling the entrance to the that corridor, setting up perimeters while Siri changed his appearance every once in a while for Sev to copy and set up another trap.
So basically between the four of them they had set up a large horrifying and somehow hilarious obstacle course to ward off intruders to the book filled room, giving Madam Pince her well deserved break from nosy students that after 11-17 years still didn't know what 'keep quiet' meant.
What Remus was doing up there was reserved for one person only. And here James thought only Severus was prone to violence. That wolf could be scary as hell some times. James thanked the deities known to mankind, muggle or otherwise for the sometimes part. He just could not live with another Severus Snape.
That poor victim goes by the name Peter Pettigrew.
If James had to give one word to describe someone or put their name under a word definition, sarcastic would be Snape, unpredictable for Black, skulduggery for himself and equinox for Lupin. Somehow.
But for Pettigrew, pester and should-just-go-die would be the fittest.
They boy had taken upon himself to follow James and Sirius at every waking moments. He had to practically beg and bribe Andromeda Black to ward his bed to get some sleep when he actually wanted to sleep and around Pettigrew's consistent whining. For a boy so useless, he has got quite the set of lungs.
Not to mention Pettigrew's continuous attempt to cut into their group and kicking Severus out in the process. His soundest reason for doing that consisted of "But he's a Slytherin!" and "You could do better than a slimy snake!"
Not only did he attempt to move the Marauders, he was also the one whispering in over students' ears about how vile Slytherins were, especially that prat Snape. It didn't work. Pettigrew was a rat, a clever rat if you stretch the definitions. But Severus was a Prince. He had the charisma, the skills, the looks and the standings that Pettigrew could only dream about.
It only painted Pettigrew darker than he already is, and he was still trying.
His attempts only made him slid further up to Remus sacred To Prank/Kill list that no one in the school dared to steal or peak in fear of suspicious injuries caused by either magic or furry animals with sharp claws. It was only with Sirius' surprising acts of responsibility that prevented the use of Pettigrew's blood as a medium for Severus' rare drawings.
But the Marauders were this close to coat Hogwarts' walls with the red of her second murder.
"Alright James?" A voice whispered in his cloak covered ear. It was only though a complete un-Gryffindor bout of will that he managed not to move and drop the still air borne Remus Lupin. He turned his head sharply to his right side and barely caught a flash of that now well acquainted black and violet light.
"Fine, you finished?" He hissed, managing to not sound so startled. In the marauders group Severus and Sirius had it easy. One could practically melt into the shadows and the other could prance around as Filch for the whole day and nobody would even yell "Black!"
Severus could still pudding from McGonagall's dessert plate and she wouldn't even notice the theft until much later, while James was stuck underneath his cloak that he had to share with Remus.
Not that he didn't appreciate the cloak. His father obviously needed it more than he did, catching the rumored followers of a new Dark Lord in secret because the Ministry is filled with a bunch of cowards that couldn't do a cleaning spell with fifty house elves helping a feat of childish endearment James saw so rarely these days, the great Charlus Potter gave the Potter heirloom to his mischievous son. He also told James that the cloak could hide you from anyone, even death itself.
The son smiled then, grinning from ear to ear as his childish hand clutched at the slippery material, happy that he got a present and a good joke from his now so serious father. The father smiled too, and winked. Neither of them realizing how true that statement was until much much later.
It was not until his seventh year, when James used that cloak to sneak into the Dark Lord Voldemort's stronghold with Sirius and Remus, when he threw that cloak around the three of them as they moved into the Prince's rooms, when he stood guard outside with the cloak around him while Moony and Padfoot worked desperately to pry the iron manacles from Severus' thin wrists, that he understood the importance of that invisibility cloak, and power that it gave him.
"Sev?" James whispered. It seemed he was not the only lost in thought, though 50% of the time he had no idea what Severus was thinking. The raven has got to be one of the rare group of people that James couldn't read. He wasn't always a bull-headed Gryffindor, he just acts like one 98% of the time.
"We're finished. Siri already went back to destroy the evidence. I'm waiting for you guys to finish," Severus' magical gleam flared again, revealing half of his face and his left hand, contrasting sharply against the blackness of night, and the tip of his ebony wand.
You OK?" Severus asked. James snorted lightly, resisting the urge to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, not wanting to disturb Remus nor curb his concentration. He had never tried to lift someone before. Only chairs, breakfasts, newspapers and fruits. he really hoped Remus would be finished soon, he would never trust his Charms to save the wolf. The Charms master was the one floating thirty feet off the ground.
"If Remus falls, you promise to catch him? To prevent the breaking of a couple dozen werewolf bones?" He said, a heavy coat of joking smudged over his sincerity. Severus shot him a blank look that quickly turned into a half-hearted glare in about a second. James wasn't sure if there is a potion that could prevent someone from falling, though he knew Severus was probably going to invent one.
"Do you really have no confident in your abilities, James?" Severus sneered slightly, but nodded his consent. In the Marauders, between the four of them, Beast Master was the easiest to manage and master. You only need to look out for irritant animals that wants to make soup out of your fingers.
The lesson's success relied heavily on Potter's abilities. Telekinesis is like wandless magic, but it relies on the user's mind more than the pull of his magical core where you can just poke at it, guide the raw magic outwards, and voila. As pained I am to admit it, James Potter always had a strong mind.
He'll need it if he wanted to survive the war slowly brewing outside. If he wanted to win, and keep him and his brothers away from the sick tongues of grief that threatened to swallow them whole.
If he wanted his prank to work, and Remus to live further than his second year.
The Marauders would never be the same if anyone of them were to disappear.
"James, I'm done! Can you let me down now?" Remus called down from the ceiling, the stars of the night flitted to his nose and poked a small freckle there. Remus blushed in response. James was so surprised at the wolf's reaction and his worse than poor vision that he lost his concentration. And he dropped the twelve year old Beast Master.
From thirty feet up.
"I am sorry, Rem! I told you at least 3 times this morning that twenty times last night that I was sorry." A boy with hazel eyes and messy black hair exclaimed on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, yawning along the way. The person the boy was attempting to wriggle a forgiveness out of coldly turned his sandy haired head to the side, to avoid looking at the boy's half pouting face.
Another boy spoke before Remus could retort, "you did drop him from thirty feet up, I think he does have a right to reservations, especially to you James." It was a boy with a thick boy in his pale hands, bangs of long black hair fell into his eyes as he read while he walked along.
James looked ready to spit fire out of his nostrils. "Severus..."
The fourth and final boy thought this was a good moment to butt it, snaking an arm around James' shoulders, grin stretching from ear to ear that completely failed to look innocent, "Apologies aside, how do you think the school will take our lesson?" Tall and Handsome to a fault, Sirius Black garnered more than enough stares and awws of "so cute" along the way.
James smirked then. Remus went into his scary wolf mode.
"Let's find out," said Severus, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"It won't cause that much disturbance right?"Remus asked with only a small tad of concern in his voice. James snorted while Sirius disguised his laughs in bout of unfortunate coughing fit.
Severus shrugged, "We'll have enough food in our systems when it explodes, I do believe the student body of Hogwarts could last until lunch with an interruption at the end of their breakfast." Sirius and James gave Remus twin sets of its-fine and no-harm-done grins.
"Though with some students present I might need to rethink my calculations." Severus said coldly, throwing a warning glare through his bangs and over his book. The Twins ducked sheepishly, with Remus making no sign of offering any comfort.
Breakfast in the great hall went as well as normal. That meant the Slytherins were discussing politics and their classes, the Ravenclaws adding several more inches to their essays and debating among themselves about today's Prophet, the Hufflepuffs laughing and talking and comparing owls and homework, the Gryffindors eating like there is no tomorrow and discussing Quidditch teams and cups.
Only four students were not whole focused on eating and socializing, because they were waiting for one thing.
When the breakfast for the occupants of the has come to a relative end for the four of them, but not really for the student body, with a signal from Remus, James made his move.
Suddenly, a loud shriek filled the walls, and a short boy with grubby skin and watery eyes fell out of his seat and into the middle of the Great Hall, a few plastic spiders still clinging onto the front of his uniform. A flash of hot rage filled his round face and Peter Pettigrew rose with his wand, small eyes intending to find the culprit for that amateur prank.
Bad idea.
Gather around class, this is exhibit A12, one of the prime examples of not thinking through a situation and forgetting where you are. It usually leads to unexpected and stupid things to happen to you. It also enables your enemy to have a shot at taking you down. Please take down notes as we well have an assignment afterwards. Simmons, I specifically said, barely 10 minutes ago, that we do not put a girl's arm in between your teeth!
Sorry for that interruption.
Green slime exploded from the ceiling, raining down upon the four tables the human anatomies. The younger students shrieked and ducked under the tables, the older ones took out their wands and tried to get the green things off of their robes. No one and nothing escaped the rain.
Except for a rat. Scared and extremely clueless at what the hell just happened, remained rooted to the spot. Helpless and confused. Soon it became a face of shock and denial.
But what are you gonna do. You had your wand out.
When everyone regained the basic sense of pride and dignity, all glares, big and small, were directed to Mr. Pettigrew's direction. The rat gulped when the furious face of McGonagal and Slughorn came storming down.
This incident will forever be recorded under Hogwarts: A History's: Marauders, How Did They Form, How Did They End and Why Did We Became So Scared of them.
This incident will forever be recorded under James' little Marauder's biography book he wrote like an awards chart that he gave to his son when he was due to start at Hogwarts. It was listed under: Why You Should Not Get On Remus Lupin's Badside.
Please, they were just getting started. Having a good time while it lasts.
There's a storm brewing outside, a price one of them must pay before anything can be undone.
I hate Pettigrew. I really really do.
I am sorry for not updating but as the end of the year rolled around, times got busy. The summer holidays in Australia have come and do expect a daily update and a soon to be there sequel. Raven's Flight is the easy going one, while the sequel is the more oppressive one. I do believe I got over excited with the hints. I just love to make my characters suffer.
I hate it when one character have all the mythical magical powers *heir of some house, confusing powers that came with questionable origins etc* and everyone else relied on him to save the day *cough* Harry Potter *cough*. Voldemort is going down, I think, but it will happen with teamwork and some character bashing. We all love to make our characters better or worse than they already are.
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!