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After the meeting, Magenta immediately went to the kitchen to the house elves and diverted food for the marauders. She knew many of the house elves personally. At first the elves were shocked that she wanted so much food, but it was not unusual that the individual houses liked to order extra food for parties. After a little lie that there would soon be a study party in the dungeon, she got the food. Packed full, it was difficult to sneak back to the Room of Requirement unnoticed.
Just outside the door, she was spotted by two Gryffindors. "Hey, what are you doing with all this food?" one of them asked her.
"Well, we're stockpiling food for the big party. But only invited guests are allowed," she said with a wink.
"Of course," the other said and pulled his friend along.
Magenta waited until they had disappeared around the next corner and then went to the marauders. As they entered the room, Lily and Tonks here rushed to help. "Yes gosh, how were you able to get all that so quickly?" asked Lily to her.
"Oh, it wasn't that difficult. You just have to know what to say," Magenta said, beaming with delight.
Meanwhile, Melania tried to recruit new recruits for the Rebels. But she was met with rejection. Many wanted nothing to do with it. Some were afraid it would bring their families into the inspectors' sights, or that the house arrest imposed would be extended. Others saw it as a childish group and preferred to fight with the adults. Melania wanted to tell them that they were also fighting with adults and that they were not just any wizards, but the marauders.
But she said nothing. They had all promised that only Rebels should know that the Marauders were with them. It was the strongest argument for joining the Rebels, but she was not allowed to use it. Thus she had succeeded with none and her task had failed. But she did not bury her head in the sand. She would find more members. In time there would be volunteers. You could see from Katelyn that some needed more time.
James trained the Rebels with Remus and his grandfather. He taught them new spells but also battle tactics he had learned from his father. Dominique and Elizabeth were involved in a heated duel.
"Aguamenti," Elizabeth shouted and a great surge of water shot towards Dominique. She just managed to conjure up a large shield in front of her so that only single splashes came on her clothes.
Elizabeth fired the next spell straight after it. "Ascendio," and Dominique flew into the air. But Dominique's "Depulso" knocked Elizabeth against the nearest wall.
The latter had to recover from the impact and Dominique came back to the ground. "Is that all you have to offer?", Dominique provoked her opponent.
Immediately Elizabeth fired a knockdown spell at her. Dominique was swept off her feet. Before either could launch another attack, James Senior intervened.
"That was already very good. Dominique wonderful parry technique. Elizabeth more variability in your attacks, a bondage spell would have been an advantage here. You had her well cornered already," he gave as a helpful hint.
While the others trained, Scorp and Rose sat in the back of the room. Rose wanted to push her healing skills further and needed a training object for that. Scorp had volunteered immediately.
Lily had already shown Rose some moves and spells, but when Melania came in with the food supplies, she left the two teenagers alone to help put the food away.
Rose continued alone, applying a dark, sticky concoction to Scorp's arm. "Ouch, that burns," Scorp said painfully, pulling his arm away.
"Oh no, did I hurt you? That's not supposed to burn at all. Oh God Scorp, I'm so sorry about that. I must have done something wrong when I touched it. Wait," she reached for a cloth. "I'll wipe the mixture off for you." She reached out again and removed the sticky something. The skin underneath was flaming red.
Rose dipped the cloth, after the concoction landed in a corner, into a bowl filled with cold water and placed the cool cloth on his arm. "It should be better in a moment."
Scorp relaxed and closed his eyes. "Yes, that feels good." Especially as Rose kept gently stroking along his arm. "I keep thinking about our afternoon together at the lake."
"You mean that very special afternoon?" asked Rose, knowing directly what Scorp wanted to address.
"Well you know, the one afternoon where we studied undisturbed," he continued to try.
"Oh you mean that one. I actually only remember Al texting us then." She giggled softly.
Scorp groaned. "Yeah, sometimes being friends with him is a curse."
"Oh come on. He didn't even notice," she defended her cousin.
"He often doesn't get it. But anyway." He cleared his throat and came closer to her. "I had thought we would repeat this soon and pick up exactly where we had been disturbed."
A slight flush of red settled on her cheeks. But before she could reply, Lily came running up. "Scorp, what happened to your arm?"
In between classes and studying and Colin and Elizabeth kept roaming the castle, keeping an eye on the inspectors who were still in the castle. They didn't attract much attention as Elizabeth mainly stayed near the dungeons and Colin in the upper area. At one point Colin was asked by an inspector what he was always doing here. But since the library was also close by, Colin had a suitable excuse ready.
But they could not pick up anything interesting. The inspectors continued to look for the marauders. But they had no clues as to where they might be, and continued to grope in the dark.
The door to the Slytherin common room slammed shut and Katelyn turned around. "Ah Colin, it's you," she greeted him.
"What's that supposed to mean? Were you expecting someone else?" he asked snubbed and sat down with her. They were alone in the common room. The main body of Slytherins were already in their rooms.
"Oh nonsense. I was just startled. I thought everyone would be in their rooms by now."
Colin stared into the crackling fire. "No, was still out in the castle."
"Were you able to find out anything?" she asked him tensely.
"Pah, they don't say anything. Just in a bad mood and stomping around noisily." Colin was not enthusiastic about his task. He had imagined it to be more exciting. "Have you heard anything from your friends and acquaintances?"
"I went to the Owlery earlier and sent off all the letters. I'm afraid we'll have to wait a long time for answers, though."
"Why is that?" asked Colin.
"Many are imprisoned. Few remain and they are under house arrest. Their mail is checked daily. I don't know how freely they are allowed to write."
"So we won't succeed here either," said Colin, hanging his head.
"Oh nonsense. We'll wait and see. Maybe a letter will come. Maybe one of the inspectors will spill the beans. Who knows?" Katelyn said, encouraging him.
The following day, Maxym trained with James. She had had enough of babysitting the Slytherins and needed to improve her skills.
James fired a spell at her first, "Immobilus!" But Maxym managed to parry and it failed to have any effect.
They both stared at each other, waiting for one to make the first move.
"Reducio!" Maxym was tired of waiting for James. James deflected the spell and fired the next one straight at them. Maxym dodged it expertly.
James Senior and Sirius watched the fight with great interest. Both opponents were evenly matched, taking advantage of every gap they could find. It was rare to see young wizards and witches possess such a level of skill.
"These two aren't bad," Sirius said, unable to take his eyes off the fighting.
"Harry has trained his son well," James praised his son.
"And young Malfoy? I thought she was raised by Muggle parents."
"Apparently she's been taking private lessons until now. Guess her father wanted to prepare her for everything."
"Can't blame him. Being a half-blood in a pure-blood family doesn't make it easy." Sirius spoke from experience. His blood status had never been cause for debate, only his behaviour and actions. He didn't want to imagine what Maxym still had ahead of him.
"Ventus!" fired Maxym and James just about managed to save himself with "Protego."
Before Maxym could strike the final blow and book the victory to her account, Al came running in.
"You won't believe what I just experienced and saw." Al was out of breath and propped himself up on his knees. Maxym and James interrupted their training and came up to him, along with James Senior and Sirius.
"Take a deep breath first," Maxym said, leading him to the table. Remus came running up with a glass of water and after Al had taken a sip and could manage half-complete sentences again, he began to narrate. "I've been with the Headmaster all this time, hiding in a corner of his office with my cloak on."
"Very risky," Remus remarked, but Al waved it off.
"Wasn't half bad. The cloak is perfect for missions like that. But it was a good thing I was there, because dear Professor Longbottom had a visitor."
"From inspectors?" his brother interrupted him.
"No!" Al gave him an annoyed look and continued. "The head of the Daily Prophet came, Ramsay Wash. He wanted an interview from Longbottom. But the professor didn't even pay any attention to him. Wash didn't let up, though, and kept bombarding him with questions."
"What kind of questions were they," Sirius probed.
"Many, mostly related to Hogwarts. How he plans to keep the school running? Whether he will follow the Ministry's rules and also control the pedigrees and blood status of his students? What he will do with the pureblood students and whether they will be expelled from Hogwarts?"
"Get expelled? They're bloody students," Remus fussed and Tonks put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. She had overheard the last part of Albus' narrative.
"But our Headmaster just stared him coldly in the eye and said that everyone who comes to Hogwarts is welcome. Every student has a right to the education and he will not deny anyone anything. Blood status and pedigrees are not important to him. They weren't in the war against Voldemort and they won't be now. But if he, Ramsay, doesn't want to print that, then let him print "No comment". Because he'll never say anything else." Al stroked his forearm lightly. "That speech gave me goosebumps," he whispered.
"The only question is how long the professor can withstand the pressure," James Senior predicted.
"What do you mean, grandfather? He's the Headmaster and he makes the decisions about Hogwarts, not the Ministry." James Junior looked at him questioningly.
"You're right about that, but if the Daily Prophet is already asking him such questions, the Ministry will have already put pressure on him," his grandfather explained to him.
"But that is not for you to worry about. You must now go back to the castle and be seen. It's noticeable when you're gone for so long," she admonished Lily, manoeuvring the teenagers towards the door. Left behind were James Senior, Remus and Sirius.
"You know what this means?" Sirius glanced around the room.
"I'm afraid so." Remus wasn't thrilled with his friend's idea, but they couldn't put it all on the kids.
When the castle had quietened down, every student was asleep in their beds and no one was wandering the corridors, the door to the Room of Requirement opened and three figures stepped through.
James, Sirius and Remus looked around and when they couldn't catch sight of anyone, they slowly crept down the corridors to the Headmaster's office. The inspectors were out in the grounds tonight looking for them, so they were free to move about the castle.
With their wands drawn, they slipped into the office. The headmaster had also gone to bed and they stood alone in the room.
"We should first look in the secret stash where the children had found the lists and notes," Remus whispered, already running to the window sill. Sirius went to the shelves and when Remus lifted the planter, the flap opened.
"There's nothing left in here," Sirius said and disappointed, they closed the secret compartment again.
"Here! What's that?", James pointed to a wooden figure on the mantelpiece.
Remus walked over and examined the object. "It's enchanted."
"Why is that? And how did you find it?", Sirius asked his friends.
"It drew attention to itself. Like I was hypnotised by her," James explained.
"Why would there be a figure here to mesmerise you?" asked Sirius the crucial question.
"To distract you from something," Remus muttered. He put the figurine back down and released the spell with the help of a counterspell. Next to the figurine stood a withered plant. Unusual for the headmaster. "Why is this plant withered when all the other plants are perfectly tended?" Remus pointed.
"Probably because the Headmaster never had the plant in his field of vision. The statue has always captivated him and distracted his attention," James surmised
"But why?" Sirius bent over the plant with Remus. "Is there something in the ground?"
"Shh!" Remus put his index finger to his lips and pulled it out of the ground. Again Remus took the charm off the object so they could talk again without being disturbed.
An ear emerged. "A long ear. That's what the Weasley brothers had in their novelty shop," Remus enlightened James Senior, who looked at them both in confusion.
"A novelty item?" James was sceptical.
"Why is this lying here? And it's not connected, so it's useless." Sirius tried to turn away.
"Doesn't have to be. Yes, it was originally a joke item, but it may well be that someone has refined the spell." Remus sank into thought, mulling over wild theories.
"Guys, if it actually overheard everything, then whoever has the other ear knows we're here. We should get out of here as soon as possible."
Remus pocketed the ear and the three friends left the office. On their way back to the Room of Requirement, they luckily remained undetected and arrived safely at the women's house.
"You didn't break into the Headmaster's office, did you?" asked Lily, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes we did, darling. And that was a good thing. It turned out he was bugged," James justified their actions and Remus took out the ear.
After the five of them had sat down at the table and the men had told them how they had come by the find, Tonks and Lily eyed the ear.
"And what if the inspectors heard you?" Lily suspected evil.
But Sirius merely shrugged. "Then nothing will happen, they suspect us on the grounds anyway. But they don't know we're here. So it's business as usual."
"Lily's right, it was bloody dangerous." Tonks agreed with her friend.
"Yes, but now we know the Headmaster was bugged, we were able to remove the ear. Now the inspectors have to place another ear first. That takes time." James didn't understand why their actions were wrong.
"And why is he being bugged and by whom?" Lily looked challengingly at her husband.
"I'm afraid we don't know, but we can ask if one of the children can find out how many ears went over the counter and who they were sold to. Maybe someone noticed," Sirius suggested.
"And the why is easy to explain. He has a close connection to Harry and the Headmaster of Hogwarts. He's in the spotlight," Remus added.
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