Encounters of the Future Sort

Disappearing Cauldrons is Never a Good Sign

2/3/24 Notes:

Hi all! I just recently rediscovered my love for the Marauders and it's totally healing my inner child, so here we are! I have rewritten this entire fic, and I'm loving every minute of it. If you've read it in the past, I would recommend rereading because I've added lots of new characters and fluffed up the plot a bit.

This fic is dedicated to each and every one of you that has given this fic love over the years. I fully intend seeing it through to the end and giving you all the emotional moments and shenanigans you deserve. Siriusly, thank you :)

~CalmlyErratic (formerly IHaveASiriusObsession)

Timeline:

Takes place before the willow prank and Snape's worst memory, both of which happened in the spring of 1976. That's all I'll give away for now, enjoy!

April 1st, 1976

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. The sun was twinkling through the lofty clouds, casting rays of warmth on the freshly thawed spring grounds of Hogwarts. Most students were outside, lounging along the banks of the Black Lake and enjoying this sudden heat wave.

But if someone just happened to journey up to the school's seventh floor, their nose would detect the foul stench rotten eggs, and their eyes would see through the fog that was consuming the corridor, and they would be led to a room that could be found only if you knew where it was. And in this room, they would discover four boys hovering over a giant, brass cauldron.

"Shut up Moony! We're fine."

"I agree with Prongs—shove it."

"No one cares what you think Padfoot!"

"Ouch, Moony. And I didn't realize words could bruise..."

"Oh—sod off. It's not my fault that you two have some absurd death wish."

James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew had been bickering for the past hour. Each had a curious bubble around their heads to protect them from the horrid smell of the simmering potion.

"Stoke the fire a little, will you Wormtail? Prongs—what's next?" Sirius set a long wooden stirring spoon on a bed of parchment, serving as a makeshift spoon rest, and adjusted his dragonhide gloves. "Your hands are so tiny, Wormy. I dunno how you wear these."

Peter had drawn his wand from the pocket of his robes and murmured, "Incendio." He then held up his hands, inspecting them. "Do I?"

"No, Padfoot just has long delicate fingers." Remus huffed as he eyed the spoon anxiously, his eyes flickering between the thick, murky greenish contents of the cauldron to the spoon rest that was turning an odd, startling red as liquid seeped through the ivory parchment. "Why are we doing this again? This isn't even close to proper procedure..."

"Oh, just relax Moony," Sirius flexed his fingers in Peter's gloves and stretched his arms leisurely. "You did say we needed some extra potions practice for our O.W.L.'s."

Remus rolled his eyes. "I meant you should ask Slughorn for some extra lessons, or something. Not attempt to brew a complicated and potentially fatal potion! You do know that I'm a Prefect and this is exactly the kind of thing I'm supposed to prevent, don't you?"

"But you're here aren't you?" James pointed out, grinning mischievously. He was sprawled over a table, leafing through several different ancient, thickly bound books.

"I'm only here to make sure you don't blow yourselves up," Remus stood in exasperation and began pacing.

"We'd be simply unhinged without your supervision," Sirius mockingly assured.

Remus glared at Sirius, who raised an eyebrow and winked. Remus flushed slightly, crossed his arms, and sat back down, muttering.

"Okay," James checked his watch, "we're getting close now."

"What next?" Peter asked, pinching his nose through the bubble charm. "The smell's getting worse, we've got to be almost finished? We've been working on this for months now—"

"Months?" Remus was alarmed. "Wait, I thought you said—"

"No time, Moony," James was scanning through two of the colossal books, a frown on his face. "In this book, Potions for the Potentially Challenged, it says to add one additional scoop of lacewing flies, but in this one," James studied the second book, "If You Can Brew it, You Can Do It says to add...more crushed bicorn horn? No, we already did that yesterday when we added the unicorn hair..."

"Unicorn hair? Where are you getting these books?" Remus peered over at them discerningly, as though to check their authenticity.

"My father's library," Sirius shrugged. "Nicked them when I left."

"You're in way over your heads," Remus massaged his eyes shut.

"If you care so much about our safety, you should really be the one doing this, Moony. You know the rest of us are all dead awful at potions." James pointed out, turning a page and pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his long nose.

"Yeah, but you insist on being the high and mighty Prefect instead." Sirius shook his head, clicking his tongue in disapproval. "You know, the more I think about it, your position of ensuring safety is truly more of a hazard."

"Safety equals safety hazard," Remus moved a finger in midair like he was solving a complicated arithmancy equation. "Check."

"Okay, we're in a time crunch here so I say we—what did you say again, Prongs?"

"Add the lacewing flies," James nodded. "Just a scoop, Wormy."

"Right," Peter passed the ingredients to Sirius, who threw them in the cauldron.

"Okay good—now stir it three times counterclockwise..." James read carefully. "And I think we've done it!"

The four boys watched the cauldron with bated breath. The thick, murky liquid began to bubble, like boiling mud. James and Sirius beamed at each other and high-fived, Remus let out a sigh of relief.

Then suddenly, despite the steady flame, the potion went very still.

"Um, is that supposed to happen?" Peter shifted nervously.

"No," James hurriedly leafed through his books. "It's supposed to...turn red, I think? No, this one says it's supposed to have a greenish tinge—"

"Great, " Sirius huffed, "we muffed it up. So much for that prank—"

"Prank?"

"Oh hush, it's April 1st for Merlin's sake. Like you didn't know we weren't doing this purely for academia—"

"Hold on," Peter gazed into the cauldron, its contents casting a luminous glow over his bubblehead charm. "I think it's doing something…"

The muddy potion began to vibrate, then whole cauldron began to gently shake.

"That doesn't seem right..." James flicked through more pages.

Remus clasped his hands together. "Well, you tried. Let's call it a day?"

"No way, Moony." James stated firmly. "We've spent way too much time on this to just give up. There has to be a way to fix it..."

"Too bad you're on the outs with Evans, mate, she's Slughorn's red headed prodigy." Sirius considered, stroking his chin. "Well, she's a stickler, anyway. Hey—where are you going?"

Remus had jumped to his feet. "I'll be right back! Don't move!"

• • •

A short while later...

"It needs to be bubbling—"

"Well let's just turn up the heat then?"

"Hold on just let me read a bit more—"

"What is this place?"

Sirius squinted his eyes at this new voice and put a hand to his forehead of his bubble, like a crow's nest lookout on a foggy evening. "Evans?'

James head shot up from his reading and he ran a hand through his untidy, raven hair, as if it was a reflex to hearing her name. Through the thick, vapid air covering the room, three figures approached the cauldron.

Lily Evans had her nose between two fingers. "Well we found the source of the godawful smell, ugh."

"I told you," Remus shrugged sheepishly. He glanced towards the other boys with poorly concealed guilt. The origin of this became apparent when another person stepped out of the misty shadows.

"Snevillus?" Sirius crossed his arms like he'd been mortally betrayed. "Really, Remus?"

Snape glared forcefully, like a giant sulking bat. "Lily, I told you this was a bad idea—"

"She can do what she wants, Snevillus." James glared too, his hand twitching towards his wand.

"Oh shut up, the both of you. You can bicker later—I'm only here because Remus asked me."

"Look, this is beyond me, that thing is dangerous." Remus drew his shoulders back with as much dignity as he could muster, given he was revealing their shenanigans to the Marauder's worst enemy. "Lily and Snape are both the best in our year at potions, and you know it."

Sirius scoffed haughtily.

"We have it under control," James insisted firmly.

"This—" Lily glanced around, her voice nasally from pinching her nose, "does not look under control. Or smell like it, either. You're smoking out the entire seventh floor."

"I think it's steam, actually." Peter offered. "It feels rather moist—"

"It's a figure of speech," Lily said shortly.

"We could smell it from the Library," Severus sneered as he waved his wand to produce a bubblehead charm.

"I can smell you from the—"

"Padfoot!" Remus warned. "It's gone too far, okay? We need to fix it. Or vanish it, or something." He turned to Lily. "What do you suggest?"

Lily waved her wand and produced a bubblehead charm too, inhaling the fresh air. She approached the cauldron and peered over the edge.

"I for one suggest," Sirius began haughtily, pointing his wand at the base of the cauldron, "that we are incredibly capable of finishing this potion ourselves. It just needs a little more heat—incendio."

The flame under the brass cauldron grew and the mucky potion began to bubble.

"There!" Sirius grinned victoriously.

"It looks just like the description..." James ran his finger along a page. "Thick, mud-like, dull green—"

"Er, P-prongs?" Peter stammered, his eyes widening. "It's bright green."

The bubbling potion had suddenly become the shade and consistency of algae and had begun to vibrate oddly again. The base of the cauldron began to shake.

"Er, Potter?" Lily was backing away from the cauldron slowly. "What kind of potion is this, exactly?"

"You idiots! Aguamenti!" Severus flicked his wand and a jet of water shot out of it to extinguish the flames. It didn't seem to make a difference. The cauldron was now vibrating so violently that the stone floor beneath them began to shake.

"Sev, what do we do?" Lily's eyes were wide with fear. "I've never vanished something this temperamental before—"

"It might settle down," Severus stood with his wand at the ready, "I removed the heat so there's no further catalyst. Let's give it a moment."

However, the cauldron continued to vibrate even more violently. The walls began to shake. The fog around them became thicker and dense—with a spectral, syrupy magic that couldn't be seen, but felt.

"I say we get the hell out of here," Sirius suggested. "I take it all back—we don't have it under control, Moony. You were right, okay, now let's—"

The bright green algae potion suddenly turned a vibrant shade of red. Severus went rigid.

"RUN! JUST RUN!"

But it was too late.

2/3/24 Notes:

So again, this entire fic has been rewritten! I prefer posting on a different ff platform now, but I updated all of the following chapters here with the rewrite. I will continue updating on the other platform regardless—this is kind of a little test to see if I should continue to post here. Depending on how much interest it receives, I will! So let me know! And hope you enjoy :)