A/N: Hello, welcome back to another chapter. Before you read on I just want to say thanks to Lia for your reviews, I'm glad you're enjoying the story! :)
Saturday 25th October 1976
Lily looked around the unused classroom they had decorated. Her hands were planted on her hips as she appraised their handiwork. They had appointed Frank with distracting Alice, something he was glad to do. They were on the sixth floor and after a few scourgifies and shuffling the remaining desks and chairs to the side of the room had begun decorating. Dorcas had hung streamers flashing different colours all over the ceiling, Lily had just finished charming a birthday banner to show a new birthday message every few minutes and Marlene was setting out the food and drinks they had managed to get from the house elves and a few bottles of alcohol Tobias had sent to Dorcas with the marauders promising to add to the supply. They had finished in good time, they were going to have an early dinner before getting ready in the dorm and then heading to the classroom for 7. The curfew for sixth and seventh years on the weekend was 11, a bit later than it was during the week. Lily, Dorcas and Marlene tidied up, covering up the food with some conjured cloths. They put a locking charm on the door with Lily also adding a notice-me-not charm. Something she had recently learned and they headed to dinner, chatting excitedly.
Alice was looking around the busy classroom happily. The girls had done a great job at decorating it, it wasn't a huge party but those invited were people she actually liked, well for the most part. Owen McCartney and his best friend Hamish McLaggen were kind of dicks but they were her year mates in Gryffindor so she understood why they'd been invited. Besides the other two boys in that dorm were Frank, who she obviously liked, and Jiro Kim who besides being very quiet was generally a lovely guy. The marauders were here. James and Sirius seemingly trying to outdo each other with both wearing flared jeans. Sirius wore a muggle shirt with a huge collar, buttoned low. James had settled on a dark turtleneck. Whilst Remus and Peter were dressed more normally in semi-formal dress robes. The second girls dorm in her year who Marlene swore she invited hadn't turned up. The Ravenclaw Rivers siblings were there, along with a few others in that house Alice was friends with. Nicholas Smith and four other Hufflepuffs were also present along with a few Gryffindor seventh years. There were about thirty people there which was about as much as the classroom could hold.
The girls had got overexcited when they were getting ready and they were all decked out in nice dresses, they had done each others hair and Dorcas and Alice had challenged Marlene and Lily's abilities with muggle make up with their own skill in cosmetic charms and all in all they had been a bunch of very stereotypical girls but it was Alice's 17th! She was allowed. The food was great and the alcohol provided by Dorcas and the marauders had left Alice with a pleasant buzz. The Wizarding wireless was playing loudly and Alice was swaying along with the music when a familiar arm settled around her waist, she looked up into her boyfriends face as he arrived next to her.
"Frank!" She exclaimed, standing on her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek. Frank couldn't resist and turned his head to catch her on the lips instead making Alice smirk as she kissed him. Frank could have proposed to her on the spot when she had walked down the stairs ready to go to her party. She was wearing a dark blue dress which brought out her eyes, accentuated by gold eye shadow as they were. She wore high heels bringing her to a novel height for Frank though she was still pretty small, they did make her legs look amazing though and her dark blonde hair was soft against his hands as he brushed it away from her eyes. Basically, she looked amazing and Frank was doing his very best not to stare at her indecently long.
"I haven't given you your present yet." He told her when they finally broke apart. Alice had received a few gifts throughout the day. She had received a parcel from her parents that morning with a large package of sweets and chocolate and the promise that she would receive her proper present when she was home for christmas. Lily had gifted her a beautiful handcrafted gift, it was a small glass globe containing a tulip which had been charmed to change colours depending on the weather. This morning when she'd unwrapped it it had reflected the cloudy day with petals that were an enchanting silver, the colours undulating as if with a breeze. It had been breathtaking and was a very impressive piece of charms work. Marlene had given her a beautiful pair of pearl earrings and Dorcas an interesting and detailed book on martial magic which Alice just knew would come in handy to prepare her for the auror training she hoped to do after school. Surprisingly, the boys had also come through for her. Sirius and Peter had given her about a kilo of chocolate and sweets in a box that they had carved themselves with lovely, swirling designs and Remus had given her a lovely new quill set. James had also given her some sweets but the main part of his gift had been a painting he had done. He had found a picture that Remus had taken of them near the beginning of the year. It had been taken in the courtyard and depicted a laughing Alice trying to fend off James who had his arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind and was making a horrendous face. James had drawn out the black and white photo and painted it beautifully, he had scrawled a birthday message on the back (Dear Alice, happy birthday you old lady. I hope you like this painting and the photo I used for it. You do actually mean the world to me and I do kind of love you loads. Love Jimbo x. PS. No, you can't tell everyone I drew this, it's still my secret talent.) Alice had placed it on her bedside table fondly before coming down to the party.
She smiled as Frank took her hand and led her to a quieter corner of the room. She looked at him fondly as he took a deep breath. He'd had a few drinks, he could do this.
"So it's kind of a crazy gift." He began, digging into a pocket of his robes for the thin rectangular box.
"And I know we're still teenagers and all." Alice had straightened up from where she'd been leaning against the wall, this sounded serious.
"But this is a really crazy world." Frank held the box in hands that only shook a little. "And I really bloody love you Alice Prewett." Alice beamed at him. Frank opened the box to show her. Alice gasped at the gorgeous silver bracelet. It was made up of tiny links of silver, so closely linked it almost seemed to be seamless. There were two charms attached to the bracelet. One of the Prewett crest and another of a bear- The Longbottom house animal- which held a tiny, delicate Longbottom crest in its paws.
"Frank, it's beautiful." Alice said, staring at it as he gently placed it around her wrist. "It's amazing. I- Is it what I think it is?" Frank smiled at her, revealing his dimples fully.
"It's a promise." He told her, eyes earnest. "That I'm going to marry you someday. If you'll have me…" He trailed off and she scoffed at his lack of confidence.
"Of course I will." She kissed him again, for substantially longer this time. It was pureblood tradition to get someone a declaration of intention gift if you were involved with them but too young or not ready to consider marriage yet. It was a while before they broke apart and both were a little breathless. Frank grinned, planting a kiss on her forehead as he hugged her. Alice smiled into his chest, Frank gave amazing hugs.
"Did you do it?" Asked a slightly drunk Dorcas who appeared next to them. Alice smiled and showed her the bracelet. Dorcas squealed very un-Dorcasly as she looked at it. "Oh it's gorgeous. I'm so happy for you guys!"
"You proposed?" Asked James, who walked up to them with an arm slung around Remus. Frank and Alice rolled their eyes as James winked at them. James examined the bracelet, he clapped Frank on the shoulder.
"You better look after her Frankie." James said, releasing Remus in favour of hugging Alice instead, who hugged him back. "She's the closest I've got to a sister, so watch it." Remus also congratulated them but was soon accosted by Sirius and Peter who jumped on him.
"You two are adorable together." Sirius said to Alice and Frank, stumbling as he slid off Remus' back to join them. Peter soon followed.
"I bet a bag of galleons you two'll get married before you're out of school." Peter announced words slurring slightly.
"The year after." Said Sirius shaking his hand.
Dorcas laughed. "You guys have been betting that bag of galleons for years."
The marauders grinned at each other, they had indeed been betting a 'bag of galleons' since second year but so many bets had been won or lost between them that no one ever opened the bag, it just got passed around accordingly with each boy occasionally chucking in a Knut or a chocolate frog when the mood took them. No one actually knew what was in the bag anymore.
"I believe it's in your possession Prongs." Asked Peter mock pompously.
"You are indeed correct my dear Wormtail. I shall bequeath it unto you once we return to our chambers." James replied, bowing low. Frank's dorm mate Jiro joined them as Dorcas wandered off to chat with Diana Rivers and a few others and they talked for a while longer. Suddenly the music changed and a familiar guitar riff began. James and Sirius grinned and looked at each other.
"We love this song!" Shouted Sirius, clutching James as several people began to dance with renewed vigour.
"Gotta love The-"
"The Mugwumps!" Cheered two familiar female voices. Sirius and James turned in shock to the witches those voices belonged to. Lily and Marlene were cheering, drinks in one hand, the other's hand in the other as they began to sing along at the top of their voices, head banging to the fast-paced rocky song, The Mugwumps being one of the few wizarding bands both the girls liked. James let his head thud into Sirius' shoulder.
"Oh god." He groaned. "She loves The Mugwumps too." Sirius patted him on the back, grinning. Why, oh why, did Lily bloody Evans get more attractive by the day, the year James swore off asking her out. And she looked so good tonight, her black dress made her eyes gleam and she'd done something with half her hair held up by a decorative clip with the other half flowing down her back in smooth waves and- not to be dramatic- but James could literally die happy if that was the last thing he saw.
"Well." Said Sirius shrugging James' head off his shoulder as he began bobbing his head to the beat. "On the bright side, you're now mates so we can dance with them and it's not weird. James straightened up. This was true, he grabbed a shot of fire whiskey from a nearby table, downed it, and with a fiery sigh he began to dance across the room with Sirius as they made their way over to the girls.
"He so still likes her." Said Frank, grinning as James leap frogged over Sirius to land next to the girls and seamlessly joined in with their dancing making them laugh.
"Oh yeah." Said Alice.
"Totally head over heels." Chimed in Remus.
"Worships the ground she walks on." Finished Peter. Alice smiled at the dance circle that had formed around the marauders and the two girls after David, Diana and Dorcas had joined them.
"Now, c'mon." Alice said, grabbing Frank's hand. "I wanna dance." They headed over to the group. Remus and Peter shrugged at each other, clinked their shots together and they too made their way across the room.
The halloween feast passed and October turned into November, rain drenching the castle in sheets almost daily, the normal draughts that rushed through the castle getting colder by the day. The misfit group of Gryffindors had continued to meet every week in the room of requirement to practice duelling, learn new spells and attempt to prepare themselves as well as possible. Another full moon passed with no problems apart from being freezing.
The middle of November found Lily walking into the mercifully warm Gryffindor Common Room, hands tucked under her armpits. She had just had a Herbology lesson in the greenhouses and even through a t-shirt, her school shirt, her school jumper, a hoodie, her robes and a cloak she had been almost frozen to death. She walked in with Dorcas, Peter and Remus. Dorcas immediately went to the dorm saying she needed to get into a hot shower imminently, Peter did the same and Remus made a beeline for the fire with Lily soon following suit. She stood next to Remus by the fire, warming her white hands when Sirius soon made himself comfy on a sofa near them looking agitated.
"You OK, Padfoot?" Remus asked. Sirius huffed, holding his head in his hands.
"Reggie's lost weight." He said quietly, looking at the floor.
"Regulus?" Asked Remus, "your Regulus?"
"Yes, Moony. My Regulus. How many others do you know of?" Sirius replied, fighting to contain his irritation. He sighed.
"I'm sorry." He said to Remus. "I'm just… I'm just worried." Lily's heart clenched sympathetically. She felt she was in a similar boat. The school year had started with Petunia writing to her fairly regularly, a few times a month. Those letters had gradually slowed down. She hadn't heard from her sister in weeks now and despite her mother's assurances that Tuney was just busy with her job and her new boyfriend- Vernon had got up the courage to ask her out back in October- Lily was still worried that her sister was falling back into the old habit of hating her.
"Have you talked to him?" She asked Sirius gently. Sirius turned his grey eyes on to hers, his face miserable.
"No. I can't. He's always surrounded by those assholes, he'd never agree to it." Sirius sighed again, he'd been keeping an eye on his little brother for the last few weeks and had seen him picking at his food. He'd lost weight he couldn't afford to lose, the kid was already too skinny and he seemed paler and more tired than normal.
"It is his OWL year." Suggested Remus, "maybe he's just worried about that." Sirius hummed an acknowledgement but he wasn't convinced. Yes, Sirius and Regulus had grown apart since starting Hogwarts but dammit he was still his little brother! Sirius knew all the pressure from their parents will have fallen on to Reggie's shoulders after Sirius ran away, but they'd always doted on him, it couldn't be that bad. Could it? Sirius stared into the fire, lost in thought. Lily sat next to him, her shoulders still hunched from cold.
"Follow him around." She said. "You marauders are good at that. Keep an eye on him until he goes to the loo or something and then talk to him." Sirius considered the redhead. They'd had their disagreements in the past but he had always kinda liked her, Remus always spoke well of her- and they'd been good friends for a few years now. Sirius knew that she knew better than anyone of some of the struggles he had with his family. Not the whole story of course, but definitely about Reggie. They had even grudgingly become closer by training every week and were in danger of becoming good friends. Lily met his dark gaze, genuine concern in her eyes, almost enough to make Sirius smile at her gratefully.
"You think I should talk to him?" Sirius asked uncertainly. Remus detached himself from the fire and sat on Sirius' other side.
"From what I've seen Slytherin is a pretty high pressure house." Remus said. "Probably even more so with all the Lord Voldemort crap going on."
"And you've never thought that Regulus has ever properly had his heart in it when it comes to all the pureblood stuff." Lily added, thinking of the times she had seen Regulus in various altercations. He'd alway been kind of on the edge, observing but never really joining in. Regulus Black had always reminded her of Severus like that and her heart clenched thinking of her old friend.
Sirius sincerely hoped Regulus' heart wasn't in it when it came to Lord Voldemort but honestly, he wasn't sure.
"Ok." Sirius, finally said, nodding. "I'll try and talk to him." He relaxed into the sofa slightly as Remus and Lily struck up a conversation about a different topic. It wasn't long later that James came down holding a pile of books and parchment, he deviated his course from a table he'd been heading towards when he spotted them.
"Hey, Red." He said, addressing Lily. Lily's hands had finally returned to a more normal colour as she'd warmed up and she gave James a small smile as she acknowledged him. James stopped as he neared them, lowering his voice slightly.
"So you know, the Room." Lily nodded. "I know it's kind of your secret but is it alright if we use it for something." Lily frowned suspiciously looking between the marauders. Remus wore a knowing smirk but Sirius looked slightly confused.
"It's not like I own the place." Lily said. "But what would you use it for?" She was curious. James grinned his familiar slightly crooked smile that always looked irritatingly close to a smirk.
"Something fun." He said with a shrug, his eyes flicking ever so slightly towards his best friend.
Sirius perked up. "This wouldn't be for a certain special someone's birthday, would it Jamesy?" James shrugged again.
Lily frowned slightly. "Well I don't know if telling everyone about it for a birthday would be a good idea James." Lily said, the room didn't work if someone else was in it and if everyone knew about it they would never find a place for their training. James perched on the coffee table, preparing himself to convince her otherwise.
"So I am neither confirming nor denying that it would or would not be used for a party." He began, raising his eyebrows at Sirius who pouted.
"But I can confirm that if said thing was to happen, it would be done in such a way that others would neither know nor be informed of the room's abilities, although they may or may not find themselves in aforementioned room whether they know it or not." Lily knit her eyebrows as she puzzled through his statement while he continued to grin.
"So no one would know they were in the room?" She asked, Remus smirked, James looked slightly put out that she'd understood him so quick but he nodded.
"Basically, yeah." Despite herself Lily was intrigued. She grinned back.
"I mean if you can achieve that where you're using the room but no one knows they're in the room, then I guess go right ahead." James grinned again.
"Excellent." He turned slightly to face Sirius. "Did you talk it out then?" He asked him, motioning his head towards Lily and Remus. Sirius nodded in response and James brightened up.
"Good." He turned to Lily. "Padfoot here didn't trust my heart of gold and was wanting to get some advice from our two much more empathetic prefects."
Sirius frowned. "That's not what I meant." He began, James chuckled and punched his leg.
"I know mate." He said smiling kindly at Sirius. His expression gave Lily pause, it was rare to see such a smile without a hint of a joke in it from the Potter boy. It was a nice change. James smile fell slightly. "As much as I love you I don't actually have much experience with sibling relationships." Sirius nodded in acquiescence and James turned to Lily and Remus, standing up.
"Thanks for helping him out." Taken aback, Lily shrugged, it was no problem. James headed towards a table pointing at his arithmancy homework by way of explanation and rolling his eyes. Lily also had homework and after a few more minutes of light conversation with the boys went up to her own dormitory to make a start.
It was a few more days of monitoring his little brother before Sirius found a good time to talk to him. It was lunchtime and Sirius had sat where he could see the back of Regulus' head. He was half involved in a conversation between James and Alice when Regulus stood up and began to leave the hall, Sirius straightened up, he was alone. Sirius quickly excused himself and followed after his brother at a quick walk, keeping his posture nonchalant. Regulus was about to turn the corner to the corridor of the dungeons boys toilets and with a quick glance around him, Sirius crossed the entrance hall at a run.
"Regulus." Sirius hissed, catching up to him. Regulus span, drawing his wand quickly and pointing it at his brother.
"Sirius?" He asked, confusion and suspicion warring for dominance on his face before he smoothed his expression and he hesitantly lowered his wand. Sirius knit his eyebrows as he looked at him. He hadn't been this near to his brother for weeks if not months and he looked worse than Sirius had thought. He was pale and skinny, cheekbones standing out in sharp relief, with the beginnings of dark circles under his eyes. His normally smooth and glossy hair, just slightly shorter than Sirius' own was tousled.
"What is it Sirius?" He asked.
"You don't look well, Reg." Sirius replied, voice quiet. Regulus shut his eyes briefly, as if in pain.
"And you care, why?" Reggie's voice was sharp and Sirius recoiled. He grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him slightly further down the corridor into an alcove.
"What's going on? Are they making you get involved with stuff you don't wanna do?" Sirius ground out through gritted teeth.
Regulus snatched his arm back. "Why the sudden concern?"
"You're my brother Reggie, I'm worried about you."
"You left Sirius." Regulus said, his voice rising sharply before he brought himself back. "You left me at that party with those people and without a word you disappeared on me." Regulus looked away. Sirius stepped back, shocked.
"You know what it was like for me there Regulus. I couldn't take any more." Regulus did know, all too well. He had spent years being an unwilling observer to his mother and father's cruel and unusual punishments for his older brother. The day his mother had forced Sirius into those horrible metal-lined robes and forced a spiked belt around his waist before subjecting him to a tea party, Regulus had thrown up twice. His mother had looked at him and told him to tighten the belt. Sirius had stood, stoic as always. Regulus didn't want to but what would his parents have done if he hadn't? Would they have come up with an even worse punishment for Sirius? Would they have forced Regulus to do it regardless? Regulus would not put it past his mother to imperio him to hurt his brother. So Regulus had swallowed back the bile and the guilt and tightened that god-forsaken belt as little as possible whilst convincing his mother he didn't care.
Regulus had helped Kreacher clean up the shattered remains of the dining room when Walburga had returned from that stupid party and found the Black Heir gone. He'd had to go through the rest of the summer getting tutoring from Bellatrix who had taken it upon herself to go through the Black Family Library to find and learn as many dark spells as possible in order to 'preserve their heritage'. Bellatrix who had made him watch her demonstrate their 'heritage' on unsuspecting muggles under the pretence of teaching Regulus. Bellatrix who stood to inherit the Black fortune if Regulus was disowned or fell out of favour with his parents, who had lost any dignity in Regulus' eyes the second she bowed down to Voldemort. Blacks did not bow to anyone.
Regulus had spent his summer with his mother who would rage about her disgrace of a first born every day and his father who had locked himself in his study with a bottle of whiskey most every day since Sirius left. The only person he could talk to in that house was the bloody house elf.
"I know you couldn't take it, Sirius." Regulus said, looking at the floor.
"Did they- have they started hurting you Reg?" Sirius asked, anger colouring his voice. Regulus shook his head laughing mirthlessly. "Are they making you join Him?" Regulus straightened up, meeting his brother's eyes. Sirius and Regulus had very similar eyes, although ironically, Regulus' had always been a shade lighter than his Gryffindor counterpart's.
"I have to do whatever I must to bring honour to our family, Sirius." Sirius frowned at the use of one of Walburga's favourite lines.
"You realise that if I am to be disinherited like you, the Black holdings would be passed on to Bellatrix." Sirius wrinkled his nose, they both knew all their money would go to Voldemort if that was the case. "I can't let that happen." Said Regulus.
"I can help you-" Sirius began.
"You can't." Regulus cut him off. He held Sirius' gaze, squaring his shoulders, at his full height Regulus was actually slightly taller than Sirius but Sirius was broader. Regulus had always looked up to his big brother, he was clever, handsome, funny. Even after being sorted into the wrong house and facing the abuse of his family he stood tall. He was his own person, better yet, he was an individual. Regulus had wished so many times that him and Sirius could pack their bags and run away. Away from their family's expectations, from their seemingly hereditary madness. One day Sirius had, he'd just forgotten to take his little brother with him. Regulus couldn't remember the last time he felt like a kid rather than the member of a Most Ancient and Noble House. He looked up to his brother, but Sirius hadn't realised that the second he had left, all of Regulus' choices had been taken away. Self-preservation was one of a Slytherin's most honed instincts and in order for Regulus to survive he was now stuck between a rock and a hard place and Sirius didn't understand. He couldn't because he had never stuck to what was expected of him and because of that Regulus had taken it all on. As long as he was the perfect heir Sirius could live his own life and get away from their parents. And that was one of the only things Regulus could give his big brother.
"Regulus-" Sirius began again. But Regulus stepped away, cutting him off once again.
"I appreciate the concern, brother." He smiled a small, sad smile and Sirius could almost hear his heart breaking. "I'll do what I have to to survive. But Slytherin is preparing for a war and we'll be on opposite sides. Whatever's coming is going to be big and I don't know what I'll have to do."
"You don't have to follow the death eaters, Reggie."
"The only other option is a curse in the night, I'm afraid." Regulus stepped out of the alcove, spreading his hands helplessly. "It's out of my hands." Sirius wanted to protest but he'd been seized by a cold, cold certainty that Regulus was right. He knew first hand the pressure of conforming to the ideals of the darker side of the wizarding world.
"You should contact Uncle Alphard. He's always liked you and him and father had a recent disagreement about mother's efforts to disinherit you." Sirius looked at Regulus in shock, Reggie was helping him. "Save face and forget about me now. Your Gryffindors will look after you." Regulus began to walk away backwards. "You've done it before brother." And with a last heart wrenchingly sad smile Sirius' brother walked away. His parting words pierced Sirius like a knife, the worst part was that there was no trace of accusation in those words, no blame for Sirius finding a place with the lions whilst Regulus was left to the snakes.
Sirius could imagine the situation in Slytherin and in the pure blood faction of the world, everyone would be taking sides, everyone looking for ulterior motives or hidden agendas with every word spoken. Voldemort's supporters were old, powerful pure blood families if Regulus didn't fall in line no one would think twice about punishing him for his insubordination. Sirius had the marauders, who did Regulus have?
A few minutes had passed before Sirius could bring himself to leave the alcove and it was with a heavy heart that he returned to his friends in the Great Hall, ensuring all traces of the sad tears that had wound their way down his cheeks were gone.
Friday 29th November 1976 James looked around the room of requirement with a satisfied smile. They were having a short break after training for about an hour and he was in his usual loose quidditch jersey with a pair of muggle tracksuit bottoms he was very fond of. What could he say? Sirius had inspired him. They had been meeting for about a month now. The nine of them had perfected shield spells, disarmers and stunners and as they were working on non-verbal casting in classes, they were also working on making all their spells they learnt on these Friday nights non-verbal too. They had all gotten pretty proficient in bombarda and had practiced Sirius' suggestion- Anteoculatia- A jinx that made the target grow antlers, this had raised many eyebrows from the girls whilst the marauders had all fallen about laughing when Sirius had demonstrated it on a smirking James. Dorcas' suggestion had been confringo another explosive spell that Peter had particularly enjoyed and today they were about to practice James' suggestion before they spent some more time on spell evasion.
James was magically and physically exhausted. Since Alice's birthday when Remus, Peter and him had decided that Sirius' party should be in the room of requirement they had spent countless nights locking Sirius in the bathroom or out of the dorm and coming up with a plan that got all of their party guests into the room without them knowing they were going into the room. James didn't want other people to know about this room, it was way too valuable for that, but it was also way too good of an opportunity for a kick ass 17th birthday party for his best friend. Thus, they had come up with a complicated and convoluted set of personalised wards and heavily spelled party invitations which held instructions to gain entrance to the room through a small set of stupid tasks which would be hilarious but also misleading. Hours had been spent coming up with the finicky wards and invitations and layering the enchantments on the corridor. James had lost count of the amount of times they had done trial and error to get it right, all underneath the teacher's noses and behind Sirius' back. Many of the invitations had been sent out and the first step was to be set up this evening after they left. On top of this James had been running Quidditch practices each week for their game against Ravenclaw next week and also doing his utmost to keep up with schoolwork. James leaned back on his arms, sighing slightly as he shut his eyes.
"You ok, Jimbo?" Alice asked, plonking herself next to him and handing him a glass of water. James took the drink gratefully.
"I'm just tired." Alice grinned.
"Preparing for Sirius' party just too much for you?"
Her cousin laughed lightly. "You have no idea. And you are getting your invite by the way. Remind me to give them to you all before we leave."
Alice nudged him. "That's a relief, we were starting to think we'd have to crash the party."
"Never." Said James with a grin, sitting for a moment longer before stretching and getting to his feet. "Ready to learn my amazing spell?" He asked, holding a hand out to her, which she took.
"You know, I'm still not sure I believe you about it." James' only answer was a smirk as he gathered everyone around.
"Sirius would you be my glamorous assistant please." James asked as a skeptical Frank and the girls looked on. Sirius accepted with a graceful curtsey, raising a round of laughter.
"Alright." James said, cracking his knuckles as he made a show of rolling his neck out.
"The incantation is Anaticula. And the best thing about this spell is there is no wand movement, just a point and shoot." He aimed at Sirius, casting the spell and a wispy ray of dark green washed over Sirius. "Now stun me Padfoot." Sirius grinned and fired a stunner, except instead of the familiar red spell, a rather confused duck appeared. Looking around it quacked at them before waddling away. James looked very pleased with himself and there was a second of shocked silence before the marauders burst into laughter.
"Every bloody time, that gets me." Peter said, clutching his gut. The girls and Frank soon followed but with a barrage of amused protests.
"No way!"
"What the hell?"
"It actually works!"
"Like an actual duck-"
"Why in the name of Merlin's lacey knickers do you know a spell that does that."
James chuckled as they settled down. "The more powerful a spell the target tries to cast the quicker it runs out." Sirius cast a few bombarda's to demonstrate with the ducks looking increasingly frazzled as they appeared.
"And obviously we don't know what would happen if someone tried to cast an unforgivable, but it works to stop non-verbal spells too." Sirius cast non-verbally before casting another stupefy which worked. James neatly stepped away from the stunner which dissipated against the wall. James looked at the with a bright smile.
"It'll be a good spell to buy you some time if you were in a panic. It's easy to cast too, you just need to clearly imagine a duck coming out of your target's wand and once they break the spell, unfortunately all your cute little ducks disappear." James gestured to a few feathers and a slimy poo that was all that remained of his ducks. These he vanished wordlessly. "Lets practice." He said, still grinning.
"Only you, James Potter." Stated Lily shaking her head in exasperation as she moved to partner with him. They swapped partners and groups around each week so no one got too comfortable with anyone else's duelling style and this week Lily was with James. "You're a big bloody weirdo." James simply laughed as he set himself up to be cast at and everyone began to practice.
Another hour passed and they were all sweaty after dodging stinging hexes from each other for the last 25 minutes and the room smelt distinctly worse for wear after a small army of ducks had appeared and disappeared. James had handed out Sirius' birthday invitations to the girls and Frank as they were leaving and had told the birthday boy off for trying to peek at them.
"You should open your invitations tomorrow." Said Peter, smiling excitedly. "And just follow what they say."
"You guys are being so shady about this." Sirius complained.
"It's a surprise for a reason Pads." Said Remus in reply. Sirius huffed but didn't say anything as James did a last sweep of the room before shutting the door which melted back into the wall. He made sure the girls and Frank had began the walk back to the tower and Peter had taken Sirius around the corner before he reached into his bag and handed Remus two of their bespoke ward stones. The stones were about the size of Remus' fist and covered in painstakingly tiny runes. The werewolf tapped them and partially activated them before carefully throwing both one and then the other upwards where they stuck to the ceiling. In the marauder's experience when using wards and runes for pranking, attaching them to the ceiling was a quick and easy way to make them much harder to spot and deactivate, and embedding a sticking charm into the runes on the stone was a handy way to do so. The two teens sprinkled a few more, smaller ward stones in the mix and then James partially activated a third, larger ward stone attaching that to the ceiling, above where the door to the room appeared, with a small grunt. They had decided on throwing the stones to the ceiling instead of levitating them to reduce the risk of the levitation spell conflicting with the other spells on the stone. Another two stones were set up on the side of the corridor closer to Gryffindor tower with James adding the largest and most elaborately warded stone- the keystone to the configuration. This one stayed on the floor and lined up with the two on the ceiling to create an upside down triangle. Remus then sent a few more enchantments spiralling over the walls of the corridor before James knelt by the keystone, pulling out the piece of parchment on which they had written the lengthy final incantation.
"Ready Moony?" James asked. Remus grinned and nodded, touching his wand to the keystone as well. James touched the keystone and began reciting the spell. Remus shut his eyes, adding his magic and intent to the spell. This was one of the hardest parts of the spell, for Remus' magic to supplement the spell he had to picture the exact same outcome as James so the intent was unified and it had taken many tries and several example drawings by James before they had managed to get it right. Their enchantment was too complex for just one person to cast it. James finished the spell and watched, eyes twinkling as the stone beneath his wand lit up, the other stones lighting in sequence. They didn't remove their wands from the stone, their magic fuelling their masterpiece for several minutes, before the sequence was complete, the feeling of their magic slowly but steadily draining into the stone was unsettling and would've been much scarier if they both didn't know exactly how long it was needed for due to their thorough arithmantic calculations. After four minutes and fifteen seconds both boys sat back with a tired sigh, even more exhausted than they had been before. But it was done and before them, within the section of corridor they had marked off was a gentle river about a metre deep in the middle of the corridor, complete with huge lily pads, exactly as planned, a thin wall of glass seemingly containing the river.
"Stage one. Complete." Remus said giving James a tired high five. They slowly got to their feet and headed back. This party was going to be epic.
A/N: And there we go, hope you enjoyed. I loved writing a scene with Regulus, I've got a bit of a soft spot for him and think he's an interesting character. James' spell with the duck was something I saw on Tumblr, couldn't tell you if it's canon or not but I thought it was hilarious. Please follow or fave if you want to keep up with the story and leave a review to let me know what you thought or where you want this to go, or see it going. Thanks! :)