Chapter Twenty: The Great Pranking War

Now the days were longer, the sun set later - especially this far north - and Remus had until almost ten o'clock at night before he needed to get to the Hospital Wing. As the exams were due to start for the rest of the school the very next day, people went to bed early and the common room emptied out while there was still plenty of light.

Remus made a great show of searching for something, and then announced to the others that he had left his lucky quill in the library and would go and get it. 'It's still light - Filch shouldn't be creeping about yet,' he said. He fled to the portrait hole before any of them could offer to come with him - and made his way to the Infirmary - and was then taken to the Shrieking Shack.

Sunrise should be before 5 AM - so it should prove to be a mercifully short transformation. He hoped he would be back with the others by tomorrow afternoon - he'd just make up an injury, tell them he'd fallen down the stairs on his way to the library or something - and that was why he had never returned.

The other boys waited for him in the common room - but by the time he had not returned by half past ten they were beginning to wonder if something was wrong.

'Should we maybe go and look for him?' Sirius wondered. 'Get the cloak and try and find him.'

'Maybe not - look!' James had gone to the window and was staring out. The great, silver disc of the moon seemed to hang just outside Gryffindor tower. It was unmistakably full.

Sirius got to his feet and went to look for himself. 'No,' he said after a moment shaking his head. 'His mum…'

'Well he hasn't gone to visit her this month, has he?' James said. He earned himself a reproving look from Sirius - but he only shrugged in reply. 'Maybe the timing was just a coincidence … he came back with all those scars on his face. They haven't properly healed even yet … like the ones on his body.'

'But that doesn't mean …'

'Remember when Snivellus cut his face open - Remus's I mean - after the Quidditch match? Madam Pomfrey smeared that orange gunk on him and it healed up like that,' he snapped his fingers. 'So why haven't his new cuts healed … unless they're cursed?'

'You mean … he's going to look that way forever?' Sirius asked

'More or less.'

'Poor Remus. Anyway - even if you are right and he has disappeared to … you know - we're not saying anything. Whatever else is happening, his mum did really die - and you're not upsetting him by asking him personal questions he doesn't want to answer, you hear?'

'Oh alright … spoilsport.'

They headed on up to the dormitory and got into their pajamas and climbed into bed - and then Peter started sniffing the air.

'Pete - if you keep on doing that - I will curse your nose off, mate,' Sirius said.

'Can't you smell that?'

'What?'

'I dunno but it's …' he sniffed again - and then gave an almighty sneeze - achoo!

'Bless you,' James giggled - before his face suddenly seized up, he wriggled his nose and … achoo!

Sirius rolled his eyes, 'could you both just stop... achoo! Achoo! Achoo!'

'What's - achoo! - going - achoo! - on?' James sneezed. 'Achoo!'

'I don't - achoo! - know…' Sirius then proceeded to sneeze ten times straight without pause.

Peter's whole body was shaking as he let out explosive sneeze after explosive sneeze. The sound of them rattled the window panes. 'I think - achoo! - I'm going to - achoo! - die!' he groaned.

They kept on sneezing: their bodies wracking, their noses stinging, their eyes streaming - for ten minutes, until James collapsed weakly on his pillow. 'I think - achoo - we need - achoo - to leave.'

And, sneezing the whole way, they tumbled out of bed and stumbled down the stairs.

…

When Madam Pomfrey escorted Remus into the Infirmary very early the next morning, he was surprised - and a bit alarmed - to see all three of his friends, tucked up in a hospital bed of their own and sleeping soundly. 'What happened to them?'

'Oh - them,' she made a sniffy noise with her nose, 'they came in late last night needing treatment for exhaustion.'

'What happened?'

'They were too exhausted to tell me. Here - shirt off - let's get your cuts healed.'

Still staring at his sleeping friends, he took off his pajama top and sat still while the matron smeared the ointment on the worst of his scratches. Then he took a beakerful of Hippworth's Healing Tincture. 'But - when they wake up - they'll see me!'

'Yes - I was going to ask what you wanted me to tell them.'

'Well - er - I was planning to tell them I didn't go back to the dorm last night because I fell down the stairs.'

She considered his words, 'yes, I think I can make that fly. Here - drink up your sleeping draught, get some rest.'

He did as she was told, Madam Pomfrey bustled off - and then he was out like a light.

When he woke back up again it was to find his left leg had been strapped up and suspended from the ceiling - and his three friends were awake in their beds and peering at him in surprise.

'What on earth happened to you?' James asked him.

He grinned and nodded at his leg, 'fell down the stairs, broke my leg - what on earth happened to you?'

'We don't know - we were in our dorm and then we just couldn't stop sneezing.'

'Sneezing?'

'Yeah - for hours and hours.'

'About ten minutes,' Sirius corrected.

'We nearly died,' James finished up.

Remus was frowning. 'Well, what caused it?'

'We don't know.'

His frown deepened.

'What is it, Remus?' Peter asked him.

'I was just thinking … I remember Lily saying something about a prank - months ago ...something about sneezing pellets - from those muggle books - she said there must be a charm for it. She said … she said she was going to use it on us.'

'That evil, little shrew!' James sat bolt upright. 'She goes on at me for hurting people - and then sends us to the Infirmary half dead!'

'To be fair, mate, you sent her to the infirmary with a pumpkin head … and no eyebrows,' Sirius pointed out.

But James waved a dismissive hand. 'That was nothing - whose side are you on anyway?'

'Yours!'

'Exactly.'

They were interrupted then by Madam Pomfrey coming back into the ward to check on them all. She looked in the eyes of the three boys and made them stick their tongues out and say 'aah' and then declared them fit, healthy and well rested. 'You can get dressed and go, the lot of you.'

'What about me, Madam Pomfrey?' Remus asked.

Her eyes raked over him. 'How are you feeling?' she asked - much more gently than she had spoken to the others.

'Good.'

'Well rested?'

'Yes.'

'Any pain?'

'I'm fine.'

She took out her wand and used it to prod and poke at his strapped up leg. 'Well, this does all seem to be healing nicely,' she said, giving him a wink. 'Yes - I suppose you're ready to leave too.' And she vanished the harness and bandages from his leg and told him to get dressed along with the others.

It was rather awkward for him, as there were no curtains for him to hide behind - and he didn't know how he was going to hide his scars … But just as it was time for him to strip his pajama shirt off, Sirius looked out of the window - exclaimed loudly at something and dragged Peter and James over to have a look.

'I don't get it; what are we looking at?' Peter said.

'There - can't you see it? Right there!'

'No!'

'Oh come on - it's right in front of you… right there!'

Gratefully, Remus pulled his shirt off and threw his robes over his head lightning fast. Sirius' head turned slightly, catching sight of Remus now fully clothed out of the corner of his eye. 'Oh - it just flew away, did you really not see it?'

'No!' James and Peter said.

He shrugged. 'Weird. Are we all ready to go then?'

They headed back up to the common room where James, without a word, threw himself down in front of the fire with his charms textbook and started to leaf through it. 'Here!' he said after about fifteen minutes. 'This is what she did. Evans. And her giggling gang of girly friends.'

He showed them the page where the instructions of how to perform a sneezing spell were laid out. 'She must have sneaked up to our dorm when we weren't looking and laid the enchantment. I'll get her … she'll wish she'd never tangled with James Fleamont Potter.'

He returned to his book, not noticing the way Remus and Sirius had looked at each other and mouthed 'Fleamont?' in surprise.

'Orion,' Sirius said.

'John,' Remus told him. And then they both shoved their fists in their mouths to stop themselves laughing.

'Here we go,' James said in triumph, looking back up. 'This is how we're going to get them all back.' He raised the textbook to show them the charm he had it open on:

A Fantasm of Flatulence

It said. Remus shook his head, 'James - no…'

'I'm doing it! I'll teach her to mess with me.'

'Well - at least do it somewhere well ventilated.'

'What's our first exam?'

'History of Magic,' Sirius said.

'I was thinking of doing it in the History of Magic exam.'

'Well - when she kills you - don't say I didn't warn you,' Remus said.

…

Lily didn't kill him - although by the time her and the other Gryffindor girls had had to flee their exam half an hour early, their faces burning with humiliation and followed by the gales of uproarious laughter from all the other first years - she may well have wanted to. (Especially once James coined the nickname "FlatuLily" - and students across all houses and year groups were discussing the unfortunate upset of FlatuLily Evans.)

Instead - she decided to up the ante, following the old adage "don't get mad - get even."

Remus was just drifting off to sleep when the dormitory door creaked open. His thoughts were becoming all muddled and - even though part of him knew all the boys were already in bed - somehow his half sleeping mind latched onto the idea that this was Peter returning late from the Library, where he had been baking a birthday cake for Professor McGonagall…

It made sense to him at the time.

The whispering and giggling from beyond his curtains just became part of his dream and even phrases like 'yes - even their pants too' and 'don't leave them with anything' didn't trouble him at all…

Until he woke up in the morning, tried to get dressed and discovered all his clothes were missing. Robes, socks, underwear - all gone. The other boys cried out - as they discovered the same thing, and then James bellowed in outrage, as he glanced out of the window and saw a pair of his own underpants billowing from a tree branch like a flag.

'They threw our clothes out the window!' he cried. Remus, Sirius and Peter rushed over to look - and saw it was true. There was every stitch of clothing they owned, spread out on the lawn, dangling from trees - even floating in the lake. And they were left with nothing but the pajamas they stood up in.

'I'll grab the cloak,' James said - but then cried out again in dismay when he opened his trunk to discover what a thorough job the girls had done. They had ransacked every nook and cranny for anywhere clothes might be stashed - and the invisibility cloak had met with the same fate as everything else.

'We're just going to have to … grit our teeth and go and get them,' Sirius said '... Pete - you do it.'

'What? No - way - I'm not going.'

'We'll all go,' Remus said. 'It's early - maybe no one will notice…'

But this proved to be a forlorn hope. They bumped straight into a group of fourth year girls in the common room - who stared at them in astonishment and then started laughing.

'Ignore them,' Remus said between gritted teeth, leading the way to the portrait. Somehow - the hallways seemed to be more packed than usual - with students making their way to and from breakfast - and they all stared and then laughed at the boys running through the castle in nothing but their pjs …

And the portraits all got in on the act too. They were chased from picture to picture by a knight in clanking armour who called out to them in a very carrying voice 'young sirs, young sirs - you have forgot your pantaloons!'

They finally made it to the front door - only to discover it was still locked!

'She did this,' James growled - he had turned bright red and was tugging with all his might on the door handle. 'I don't know how she did it - but she made sure this door was locked.'

'Oh be reasonable,' Remus said, 'Lily can't tell Filch when to lock and unlock the doors; this is just coincidence … really really bad coincidence.'

James only grunted. And the situation went from bad to worse - when they heard a loud cackling overhead - and Peeves zoomed into the entrance hall, took one look at them, his eyes lit up with delight - and he divebombed them.

They scattered. Peeves grabbed James' pajama trousers by the waistband and ragged them down. James poked Peeves in the eye with his wand and ragged them back up. 'Run!' he yelled.

They all fled … but there was nowhere to go - and Peeves chased them right into the Great Hall, where most of the school and all of the teachers were quietly eating their breakfast.

They stood there - blinking and horrified and clad only in their night wear. There was a moment of silence - and then a great tidal wave of laughter. Slytherins stood on their seats to get a better look, jeering and catcalling … And, nearly dying from embarrassment, the boys stumbled their way to Gryffindor table and hunkered down, making themselves as small and unobtrusive as possible.

'Admit defeat yet?' Lily asked them, serenely spreading marmalade on her toast.

'Not on your life,' James snarled, ignoring Snape and Avery who were hooting with laughter and making rude hand gestures at them across the hall.

'Well - look sharpish - Filch is opening the doors, and you can't go to your exams in your jammies. Or your … nightie .' She frowned at the nightshirt Sirius was wearing. He blushed.

'My mum says pajamas are for muggles,' he muttered. 'I'm not allowed them.'

...

'I'm going to shave her head,' James announced - once they had retrieved their clothes, got dressed and taken their Herbology exam. 'That should shut her up once and for all.'

'Mate, don't go too far,' Remus warned him.

But James shook his head. 'She went too far. This is payback. Snivellus won't think she's so pretty then, when her head glints in the moonlight.'

'Her eyebrows grew back in, like, ten seconds,' Sirius pointed out. 'I reckon Madam Pomfrey can fix her up quite quickly.'

'It'll still give her a nasty shock though, won't it?'

'Too nasty,' Remus warned.

'Nah. She wants to play with fire? Well - watch her get burned.'

That night, he crept down to the boys' bathroom - stole one of the seventh year's razors - and then made his way down the boys' staircase, across the common room and started tiptoeing up to the girls' dorms.

He had barely gone three steps when there was suddenly the sound of a loud klaxon going off, and the stairs flattened out beneath his feet, turning into a slippery slope, and he slid all the way back down to the bottom and crashed down on the floor - while the klaxon continued to wail.

As he lay there in a crumpled heap, he heard the sounds of doors opening in both towers and mumbles and mutterings asking what was going on.

People started to appear, girls sliding down the slope - giggling as they came - and the boys crowding down from their own stairs. Everyone stared at him spreadeagled in an undignified heap in the middle of the room.

Lily covered her mouth with her hand when she saw him and started to giggle. 'Didn't you know boys can't come up the girls' stairs?' she asked him in an insufferable knowitall sort of voice.

'You can get up ours!'

'Yes - that's why it's called an advantage.' And she and her friends broke out laughing again, while James flamed an angry red.

'Oi!' Alex Wood suddenly stepped forward. 'Is that my razor?' He nodded at the razor gripped in James' hand and pulled it away from him. 'Get off it, you little twerp.'

Lily had stopped giggling. 'What were you planning to do?' she asked - her eyes flashed dangerously.

'I was going to get my own back.'

She drew herself up to her full height. 'You stay away from me - James Fleamont Potter.' And leaving the whole of Gryffindor laughing at his middle name - she stormed back up the stairs (which had once more reformed into their natural shape - now the threat of maleness had been seen off.)

...

'Can you believe my luck?' James complained back up in his dormitory. 'How is that fair? - That they can get in here and we can't get to them. I'm telling you, men - we'll have to sleep with one eye open from now on.'

But they didn't.

And when morning came, Remus, Sirius and Peter woke up - took one look at James - and burst out laughing.

'What?'

'She - er - she pranked you back,' Remus said, trying to bite back his own chuckles.

'Gave you a taste of your own potion,' Sirius snorted.

James got up - and looked in the mirror - and cried out in alarm as his bald head glinted at him in the early morning sun. 'That little …' he called her every rude word he knew. 'Look at me! I look ridiculous! I look like an egg!'

'An egg with glasses,' Peter snorted.

'Shut it, Pete.'

'It isn't so bad,' Remus said, 'we can grow it back - come on Sirius, give me a hand.' And together, they wrestled him onto the bed, held him still and regrew his hair. 'I mean it's better than nothing,' Remus said - taking a step back and eyeing it up when they were done.

James crossed back to the mirror and stared at himself. 'It's all scruffy,' he cried in dismay, 'and it sticks up at the back.'

'Er - it always looked that way, mate,' Sirius told him.

James peered at himself, ruffled his hair up - and then tried to get it to lie flat. It sprung straight back up again.

'Come on,' Remus smirked, 'Charms this morning and then Astronomy tonight … and I need the whole weekend to try and learn something about Potions.'

…

But James was out for revenge and - on hearing the Astronomy tower had been set up ready for the first year exam that evening and then locked - he worked out what to do.

'You know how to do them, Sirius,' he was heard to wheedle at lunchtime.

'I suppose I do… I'm not doing a permanent one though. I'm not getting expelled over this.'

'No - no - not permanent - just to give them a fright.'

Sirius rolled his eyes, 'alright then. Coming, Remus?'

'Where?'

He was taken to the hidden door that led to the very long ladder, which led up to the Astronomy tower. And together, the three of them scaled it and came out inside the locked classroom.

There were thirty five telescopes all set out ready - and each plainly labelled with which first year was going to use them. The boys read all the name tags until they had found all four Gryffindor girls and then Sirius set to work with his charm.

'What will that do?' Remus asked.

'You'll see,' James grinned - and then they disappeared back down the ladder. No one was any the wiser they had been there.

…

That night, they all made their way up to the Astronomy tower (the proper way this time) and silently took up their places at their telescopes. Professor Azimuth gave them their instructions and then told them they could open their papers.

There was a rustling sound, as 35 exam papers were turned over - and then children started to lean forward to peer through their telescopes so they could record the first star on their star chart.

Lily swivelled her telescope around, fiddling with the knob so she could focus the lens better. She found what she was looking for, smiled in satisfaction and went to fill out her paper. Only, when she pulled away, she was stuck to her telescope. Her eye was jammed against the eyepiece, her skin was attached to the metal - and no matter how hard she tugged - she couldn't get free!

She cried out in alarm - and everyone around her looked up … apart from the other Gryffindor girls, who tried to - but found themselves likewise glued in place by magical means. They all cried out too. By now everyone was looking.

'What's going on?' Professor Azimuth called out, crossly. 'What's the meaning of this?'

'Professor - I'm stuck to my telescope!'

'Nonsense - silly girl.' He went over to Lily and tried to tug her free - but she just screamed in pain, grabbed hold of the telescope and - when he hoiked her backwards - the telescope came with her.

'What? How has this happened?'

'I'm stuck too!' Petra called.

'Me too!'

'Me too!'

'Well, really!' He put his hands on his hips and glowered. 'Miss Bagshott, Miss Goldstein, Miss Lawson, Miss Khan,' he pointed at some of the Ravenclaw girls, 'escort these girls to the Hospital Wing - Madam Pomfrey will have to deal with this. Everyone else - back to your common rooms, we will rearrange the exam for another night.'

Struggling to support the telescopes attached to their faces, and struggling to see where they were going, the girls were led away by the Ravenclaws to the Infirmary - and everyone else packed up their things and headed off, muttering.

'That was brilliant! ' James hissed at the others, as they left.

But at the bottom of the stairs, they met Severus - waiting for them, glowering. 'You think you're funny, don't you?' he snapped.

'Pretty funny, yeah.'

Severus pulled his wand out - and hexed James before he had time to react. James was knocked back through the air and landed hard on his backside. Sirius thumped Snape in retaliation.

'You always go for your fists,' Severus snarled, nursing his jaw, 'like a filthy muggle.'

'Better a muggle than a snot nosed Slytherin slime, like you.'

Snape waved his wand again - and this time Sirius's face was cut open. 'Oi,' Sirius roared.

You need to leave Lily alone,' Severus told them - he was breathing hard - he held his wand out in front of him, warding them all off - but his hand trembled.

'Evans can take care of herself, she knows what she got herself into,' James retorted, climbing back to his feet. 'And she doesn't need you defending her honour - not when you're the kind of scum that would call her whole family filthy for not having magic.'

Severus flushed - his usually pallid skin going an ugly, blotchy red. 'Lily knows what I think.'

'Yeah? And she puts up with it? Then she's a bigger idiot than I thought.'

'Don't call her that.'

James was walking closer to him, his voice had gone soft - but dangerous. 'She doesn't know what you think, Snivellus. I've seen you with her - you don't let her see what you're really like. What would she think of you, if she knew? Wouldn't be so keen to be pals then, would she? Your ideas are foul - and so are you.'

'Petrificus totalus,' Snape yelled - and James seized up and keeled over. The others tried to catch him before he fell - and Snape took that time to flee the scene.

'Slimy git,' James gasped, once the hex wore off. 'Evans is mental to be friends with him.'

…

But whether or not she was mental to be friends with Snape - she was certainly insanely angry by the time she returned from the Hospital Wing. She had gone there late on Friday night - it was Saturday evening by the time Madam Pomfrey had managed to prise the telescope from her face.

The girls returned to the common room - and on seeing the boys quietly revising Potions - she gave a bellow of rage and started beating James about the head with her school bag. 'You lost us a day of revision,' she screamed at him. 'We had all the skin peeled from our faces!'

And they certainly still did look a bit red and raw around their right eyes.

'Gerroff gerroff, you crazy bint!' he cried out, trying to shield himself with his arms as she beat him mercilessly with every textbook she had stashed in her satchel.

'You. Insufferable. Little. Git.' She punctuated every word with a swing of her bag.

James had managed to pull his wand free - and he pointed it at her. 'Get out of it, Evans - or I'll hex you.'

She swung her bag. He fired a hex- it hit her bag and bounced off and smashed into the wall just above where Alex Wood was revising for his NEWTS. Sparks rained down on his head. 'Oi!' he yelled, springing to his feet. 'Stop it - you daft, little bludgers. You might not give a snitch if you fail all your exams but some of us have actual important ones to take.'

He pulled Lily's bag from her hand and glowered at both of them. 'This stops now.'

'Fine,' said James, getting back to his feet. 'If she admits we won - I'll stop pranking her.'

But Lily had gone bright red in anger - 'oh - you wish. We won - fair and square.'

'Did not.'

'Did too.'

'SHUT UP!' Wood roared at them. He was breathing very heavily - like a wild erumpment in the middle of mating season … only more angry. 'Wait here,' he said to them - and disappeared off to his dorm. He reappeared a minute later carrying a golden snitch. Its wings beat feebly against his hand. 'This is an old snitch - from one of my first matches,' he told them. 'The charm is wearing off and it's getting a bit slow. Now I'm going to release it - and the first one of you to find it wins - and we call an end to this nonsense, alright?'

Lily and James both folded their arms across their chest, looked mutinous - but mumbled their agreement.

'Right - I'll release it this evening. Neither of you can start looking for it until after breakfast tomorrow. And if either of you interrupt people's revision time again, I will personally beat you to death with my broomstick - understood?'

Again they mumbled their agreement - and Wood crossed to the window, released the snitch - and then told them all to go to bed.

…

Breakfast had never been eaten so quickly as it was the next morning; Lily hurrying the girls along and James doing the same for the boys. And then - as soon as they were done - they all got to their feet and raced for the front doors, dragging each other back, tripping each other up and falling over each other in their haste to be the first ones out.

'We've got an advantage,' James said, as he led the boys away down the lawn. 'They won't dare go in the forest.'

'That's only an advantage if it's in the forest,' Sirius said.

'Yeah - otherwise we'll get eaten by werewolves, while they're out here getting the snitch,' Peter said.

Remus pretended he hadn't heard. James had gone bright red - and Sirius coughed. 'It's not a full moon - you twerp,' he said. 'And anyway … there's no werewolves in the forest.'

'I heard there was.'

'Yeah? Well you heard wrong.'

'Oh how would you know?'

'I know more than you…'

'Please stop arguing,' Remus said, 'let's just find it.'

But that was easier said than done. They went as far into the forest as they dared. James drove Hagrid wild by invading his hut and poking around, sticking his wand under the bed to check there was nothing there. They walked all the way around the outside of the castle - they scaled walls and scrambled up to the battlements … nothing.

Every so often, they would catch sight of the girls also searching. But they would turn their backs and go and look someplace else.

They agreed to split up - and meet back up after an hour, once they had been searching all morning and already missed lunch. 'We can cover more ground this way,' James said. 'I'll head out to the quidditch pitch, the snitch might feel at home there. Sirius - you go back into the forest - don't get eaten. Pete - you stick close to the castle and Remus you take the rest of the grounds. Synchronise watches … and we'll meet back here in an hour.'

They went their separate ways. Remus did an entire circumference of the lake. He checked behind all the greenhouses, he went back to Hagrid's pumpkin patch, he walked back and forth across the lawn and then … he saw it … a little speck of gold, whizzing by.

It came to a stop … and hovered. Right next to the Whomping Willow.

Remus sighed. Of course it was there. Where else would it be? But … he glanced around very carefully to check no one was in sight … he had an advantage that none of the children who had played roulette had known about.

Once again, checking he was unnoticed - he seized a large, fallen branch and ran towards the tree.

Sensing his presence, it began to creak and groan and lash out. But he gripped his stick- jabbed it at the knot hidden in the roots - and, once it was still, dashed forward.

'How did you do that?' He froze - and turned to look. Petra Linehan was standing right behind him, staring at him.

'Er -'

'How did you make it stop?'

'I - er -'

She took a step forward, towards the snitch. Her face was suspicious. 'You know - there's something funny about you, Remus Lupin,' she said.

'No there's not.' He spoke quickly - too quickly, and he felt himself go red. He was rooted to the spot.

'Yes there is,' she said, taking another step. 'You're always disappearing. You have scars on your face that no one talks about and now it turns out … you know how to control this tree.'

'I - er -'

'What's your secret?'

'I don't have one.'

'Is that a fact?' She was still moving - and he realised - too late - that she was edging towards the snitch. She was distracting him. She didn't care about his scars or his disappearances; she was just trying to steal the snitch from under his nose.

'Hey!' he called out - and launched forward. 'I saw it first.' He dove forward, knocking her hand away from the snitch just as she reached for it. He grabbed hold of her and pushed her away - she grabbed hold of the back of his robes and yanked him back. They stumbled … staggered … and hit against the trunk of the Willow…

Just as it unfroze.

Smack!

They both went flying through the air. He landed heavily on the ground; his ribs felt like they had been crushed; he could feel blood dripping down his face - and hear distant panicked cries - and then everything went black and seemed to fade away and he supposed he was dying ...

A face swam out of the darkness, so it was hovering right in front of him - the only thing he could see. It was his mother's face. She looked very stern. 'Don't. You. Dare. ' She hissed at him furiously. And he had no choice, after that, but to fight his way out of the blackness and struggle to open his eyes.