Chapter 27: Keep the popcorn out of the Pensieve!

I Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good

The Marauders Oath

Sirius, James, Remus, Severus, and Lily were all sitting at the round table in the Trunk Library Monday night after dinner. Though it wasn't an important detail, he noted where everyone was sitting. Lily had chosen to sit at the place of grace, and James the place of courage. He himself was sitting before Nobilities rune, while Severus was perched before Virtue, and Remus was lounging in the spot reserved for the Humble.

As the antique pendulum clock on the desk chimed eight O'clock James called the meeting to order. He had been forced to attend so many Wizengamot meetings that he argued he had a better handle on parliamentary procedure than the rest.

Remus passed out butterbeer bottles to everyone and Lily produced a large bowl of popcorn which they started reaching for at once, causing Sirius to yelp, "Keep the popcorn out of the Pensieve!" Reaching in and snagging the puff of corn from the liquid and wondering if salt and butter would contaminate the potion within. Everyone shared sheepish grins at Sirius's uncharacteristic OCD.

James not wanting to bang the ancient, probably priceless artifact of a table with the gavel that was in front of him shot up red sparks from his wand to get everyone's attention, followed by a loud bang. "I call the first Official Meeting of The Marauders to Order. It is Monday, October 18th, 1971. You getting this?" He turned to Remus who was taking notes in a large tome, with the name. "Marauder's Grimoire" embossed in the leather. Lily had transformed the plain notebook so that it looked fancy and more like what one would expect a secret society's top-secret information to be recorded in.

Sirius was actually excited about the idea. They had left some things for future marauders, like the map, and the mirrors, but leaving behind a grimoire would be more useful. He imagined that someday perhaps the Weasley twins would find it like they found the map. He fully approved of the idea, as long as it never fell into the wrong hands. Of course, if they kept it in the trunk, that possibility was slim.

Remus finished writing the date and looked at James. "James. This will take all night if you expect me to write every word."

James glared, "Well it's important that we leave an accurate record of our first-ever meeting.

Sirius interrupted. "James, we have a pensieve. So…" He shrugged his shoulders and looked at Remus, "Just the really important stuff should be put in the Grimoire. Stuff that might help future marauders."

He made the suggestion and James growled. "The date is kind of important Siri."

Sirius nodded and looked at Remus, "Make sure you get the date mate." Remus threw his quill at him. Sirius threw it back and Lily and Severus ate popcorn watching the other three like they were in a muggle movie theater.

Finally, James restored order and said, "OK! If you all are finished. I call the first-ever meeting of the Marauders to order! We will begin the meeting with a reading of the notes of the last meeting." He turned to Remus. "Remus. Read the notes."

Remus glared. "If it's the first meeting James, there are no notes, and also no old business. So we can skip those steps this meeting."

James nodded, "So noted. Remus make a note that there were no notes to read as this is the first meeting, and make another note that we had no old business."

Sirius groaned and wanted to bang his head on the table, but Lily and Severus just ate more popcorn snickering a bit. Remus bit between his teeth. "So noted." Writing in the book with a put upon sigh. James tried to look over his shoulder to see what he was writing but Remus hid it with his hand causing James to pout a bit.

"So since there is no old business, I move to open the floor to new business." James pronounced.

Remus spoke up then, "I propose we write a charter, mission statement, and divide club duties, Such as President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Sergeant at Arms, and the like."

James nodded, "A motion has been brought to the floor. Does anyone second the motion?" James asked.

Lily piped up, "I second it. But we should debate it because I don't think those titles fit our group very well. Cause we really aren't dealing with money so what would a Treasurer do? Unless we are planning to start charging admission to the trunk? We aren't planning on charging admission are we?" Before she could get another word in James jumped in again.

"Evans all you have to do is second the motion and then we will open it up for debate." He smiled winningly at her and she sighed, "I second the motion." She muttered under her breath, "Prat."

"I heard that Evans." He winked at her and said, "All in favor?" Everyone nodded, "Motion carried. And now we can talk about it." He shrugged, "It's not exactly how it's done, cause you know…. We should appoint…"

Severus jumped in then, "James. We really don't want to get bogged down in a lot of bureaucracy. Can we dispense with the parliamentary procedure? Or at least tone it down a notch?" Everyone seemed to agree and James huffed.

"Fine." He grinned, "So The Marauders charter? Who wants to write it?" Everyone shrugged and James said, "Excellent. Remmy you can write the charter and Mission statement and next meeting we will vote on it and tweak it accordingly. All those in favor?"

Remus glared at him and Severus laughed. "Well, I guess that is one way to cut through the red tape. Straight from egalitarian to dictatorship in one breath." then made a suggestion, "We should at least discuss it?"

James shrugged, "Well Remus is the best writer among us!" He looked at Lily who was looking a little offended and said, "Of course if you would prefer to write it, Lily, I think your writing style is quite poetic. So…"

Lily threw a handful of popcorn at him, and Severus jumped in before it could come to blows. "Well, perhaps we should brainstorm. What are the Marauders?" He walked over to the map and transformed it into a chalkboard by simply tapping it with his wand. Upon the top of the board the word 'Marauders?' appeared.

James called out, "Pranksters." The word appeared on the board as number one.

Remus called out, "Friends."

Sirius spoke up then, "Gryffindors."

Lily thought for a moment then said, "Animagus Apprentices."

Severus wrote down, 'Students.' He shrugged. But Lily added, "Magical Proteges." She shrugged. "It sounds better.

Severus erased students and wrote in Proteges instead. "At least a few of us are." He smirked.

James looked at the list and said, "Inventors." or "Entrepreneurs."

Remus smiled, "Pack." Everyone looked at him a bit confused and he shrugged, "It's a werewolf thing." Sirius knew what he meant.

Sirius shared a smile with Remus then looked at the list and said, "A force for good."

Lily hummed a bit, "How about study group?" That sounded wrong but it still got put down. Because they would study together.

Severus said, "Secret?"

Everyone stared at the board for a while as their ideas had dried up.

Finally, Sirius said, "Vigilantes."

Lily gasped. "What do you mean vigilantes? Severus don't you dare write that down!" Lily glared at Sirius. "Do you even know what a vigilante is?"

Sirius nodded. "I do Lily." He shrugged, "We might not be vigilantes right now. Right now, we are nothing more than a group of students working together to get the most out of our education. But someday Lily… Sooner rather than later, we will be called on to choose a side and we might have to fight."

He sat back a bit red-faced while his older self just gave a resigned sigh in his head.

James frowned, "My dad has mentioned that there's a new Dark Lord who is trying to resurrect the Knights of Walpurgis." He shook his head, "Dad fought against Grindelwald, and if he seems worried, well..." He looked thoughtful, "He never talks about his work, but mom has been trying to talk him into retiring. She says it's too dangerous. He doesn't do much field work anymore, so I guess he has a point for not wanting to. He's been worried. There have been a lot of disappearances." He looked apologetically at Lily, "Muggle-borns mostly." Severus moved closer to Lily as if he would throw himself in front of a dark lord right there to protect her.

"Who are the Knights of Walpurgis?" Lily asked.

Severus answered the question, "They are a secret society of wizards and witches that formed a thousand years ago. It all goes back to the founding of Hogwarts. You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago. The founders built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution…" Everyone nodded well familiar with this story as even the Sorting Hat sang about it every year.

"A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted at Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school…" Severus was lecturing in full professor mode now, "It is possible that Salazar Slytherin, after leaving Hogwarts, rounded up other witches and wizards who shared his ideals and banded them together to form the Knights of Walpurgis. Or, perhaps the Knights of Walpurgis already existed." Severus added, "They allied with Grindelwald during the war and then sort of fell off the map. Until recently I suppose."

Sirius took a deep breath, "Most of my family have been either supporters of or outright members. I'm a blood traitor as far as most of my family is concerned, except for my grandparents. The Knights of Walpurgis are back and this time, they have allied themselves with a new Dark Wanker who calls himself Lord Voldemort. He even got them to change their names to Death Eaters. There are kids in this school, who are Death Eaters, and kids who are going to become Death Eaters, and there are some who really don't want to be, but are going to be forced into it anyway. I think we can do something about that." He looked at his friends who were watching him with bemused expressions.

Severus spoke up, "So you think we should do what exactly?"

Sirius lifted a brow, "Nothing dangerous, except be vigilant and keep our eyes and ears open. Identify the kids that want out. Expose what we can." Sirius grinned, "We are the Marauders after all. But I think that we are preparing ourselves for the war to come." And Severus moved to the board and wrote. 'Anti Dark Prat' And finally, 'Prepare for War.'

Remus wrote it all down in the grimoire and said, "Lily will you work with me on the Charter? James is right, you do have a poetic writing style."

Lily beamed and the two put their heads together for a bit as they excitedly talked about the wording but were interrupted by James who called the meeting back to order, "I move to end the debate about the charter, and also move that next meeting Remus and Lily will present the charter for approval."

Sirius sighed, "I second it." Giving Remus a commiserating stare as James was irrepressible but adorable. "All in favor?" Everyone agreed to the idea. "So is there any other new business?" He asked.

"Were we going to elect officers?" Lily asked.

Remus jumped in before James could take them down a parliamentary bunny trail and said, "Let's write down the kinds of positions we might have?"

James frowned at Remus but Sirius kicked him under the table. "Fine. How about Marauder in Chief?"

Severus pulled up a new blackboard and Marauder in Chief appeared.

Sirius cleared his throat. How about taking our cue from the Knights of the Round table and not have a leader per se?" He shrugged. "Perhaps Marauders Code, instead of a Marauders Charter? Play to our strengths? Work on projects together? We are equal. So there can't be a leader." He grinned. "So we are… Marauders, one for all, all for one?"

Remus blinked, "That's from the three musketeers." he started writing furiously as if he was inspired.

Everyone quickly agreed that officers would be elected if they found they needed it in the future, Mostly they would just all divide responsibilities on a case by case and volunteer basis.

Finally, the clocked chimed curfew and adjourned with a hasty "Mischief Managed" they cleaned up and headed up to the dorm, and got ready for bed.

Sirius lay awake for a while with a warm feeling in his gut. He had been a spectator more than a participant in the formation of the New Marauders. Yes it was different than it was before, and he had nudged things a few times in the direction he wanted them to go in, but it had, for the most part, been all them. He'd just set the stage. He loved his friends!

He had almost brought up the masquerade ball, but he was afraid to draw his friends into danger. There might be a role for them to play, but he wasn't sure yet. Time wasn't on his side though so the decision would have to be made soon.

He felt a little guilty about setting the Marauder's up to be a group of spies and guardians inside Hogwarts, but he only had to think about the Lestranges, Malfoy's, the Crabb's and Goyles, the Nott's, Carrows, and the Blacks falling to Voldemort, to strengthen his resolve. All of them would succumb to hate and end up becoming terrorists. Unless… things changed.

'Tsk Tsk little human. Tread softly.' said a soft silky voice in his head. Sirius didn't sleep much that night, wondering what he'd done to bring himself to Fate's attention.