Disclaimer: Anything, anyone or anywhere that you recognise belongs to JK Rowling. All I have are the OCs.
Chapter 10: Together (Part II)
A week later, Lola entered the Room of Requirement as Sirius had requested, to find him already there, holding the end of a rope. The rope had a loop on the end, which was around the neck of a bad tempered llama, currently chomping it’s way through a curtain. It had a ginger coloured wig on. Sirius was grinning at her.
“Sirius, you have ten seconds to give me a very, very good explanation,” she told him, folding her arms, and fixing him with a penetrating stare.
He wasn't phased, but continued grinning madly while he divulged his plan.
When he finished, she slapped her palm on her forehead, and groaned. “Is there anything I could say that would be able to talk you out of this?”
The llama snorted, as if laughing at her question, in all it’s absurdity. Of course, it wasn’t laughing at all, but with a mind as vivid as hers, she took it as that anyway, and scowled at it.
“Of course not!” he laughed. “Now, hush-hush a moment.” He took the hand mirror from his pocket and said, “James Potter.” He waited until his friend’s face appeared, before speaking again, in a choked voice. “Prongs mate, something terrible has happened. Stop eating that cream pie and come to the Room of Requirement.”
“All right.” James nodded, sounding wary, and disappeared from the mirror.
“Remember, act very distressed,” Sirius told Lola, adjusting the llama’s wig, and pinching it’s cheeks. It snorted all over him. “An extraordinary likeness ...” he muttered to himself under his breath, but Lola heard anyway, and whacked him on the arm.
A minute later, James appeared, slightly out of breath. He had obviously ran from the Great Hall.
“What happened? Why does the room smell like farms? And, most importantly, why is that thing in here?”
Sirius adopted a solemn face, before saying, “Prongs ... Prongs, you see, Lily was in the corridors, when she got in a bit of ... well, a bit of a duel with Snape.”
“Oh my gosh, is she okay? I thought she was with Tara today?”
“She was, and Tara is fine. She, uh, got him with a ... a bubble charm, it knocked him right out. But it’s ... Lily, she ... Prongs, Lily was turned into the llama.”
“WHAT THE HELL??” James cried. Sirius was unsure whether or not he had believed him. The llama began sniffing James’s hair, ruining what would be a dramatic moment, had it not been so utterly ridiculous.
“And the thing is, the spell is permanent.”
James whirled round to face Lola. “Is that true? It’s permanent? I’ll kill Snape, the ba “”
Lola cut him off quickly, stammering, “Yes, James, it’s permanent. Lily ... Lily is stuck as a llama.” She was putting all her energies into not bursting out with laughter. However, it became too much, and she had to quickly disguise it as sobs of distress.
“That ... that’s ridiculous! Is that even possible? How could he do this? I’ll kill him! We’ve only been going out for a week, and he bloody turns her into a llama??” James was getting very red in the face, but Sirius and Lola had gone pale.
“You ... You’re going out?” she stuttered.
“Well, we were going to tell everybody on Saturday, and make a party of it! But now ...” he gestured towards the creature, which snorted, and moved away, disgruntled at all the attention.
Sirius checked his watch. Lily and Tara were going to turn up any minute, as he had arranged. His plan was going horribly wrong. James was supposed to be so aggrieved by the girl he loved being tragically transfigured, that he would start proclaiming his love for her, when she and Tara would turn up, she would hear that he loved her, and he would be so euphoric that he would go up and kiss her, and she would realise that she loved him too. While they were occupied, Sirius and the others would smuggle the llama away “ at their own risk, it had so far proved to be most violent when forced to travel anywhere “ and James would forget all about it.
He began to realise, as Lily and Tara entered, just how stupid he really was. They were already going out. And James was looking from the llama to his girlfriend, with an odd expression on his face.
No one spoke. Even the llama stopped making heaving noises to turn and look at the girl it was supposed to be impersonating.
“I think,” Lily finally said, slowly and clearly, “that you all have a lot of explaining to do.”
Christmas came and went, and after ruthless mockery at Sirius and Lola (despite her protests that she had no idea what he had been planning, and couldn’t stop him anyway) about the “Gerald Incident” “ for that was what Remus jokingly named the llama “ it was soon forgotten about, except for the occasional argument between the four boys whose turn it was to feed and clean poor Gerald, who had grudgingly taken up residence in the Room of Requirement.
Sirius was walking down the corridor, with the intention of heading to dinner. It was the first week of the new term, and he was thinking about the night ahead “ it was a full moon, and they had been planning on going into Hogsmeade. He looked forward to it. As he was thinking about this, he wasn’t particularly looking where he was going. Which is why it surprised him so much when he was almost knocked to the ground.
“Watch it!” he barked, turning round. He saw the retreating figure of Snape. “Oi!” he yelled. Snape stopped, and turned to look at him, his lip curling.
“Yes, Black?” he asked, loathing in his voice.
“I said, watch where you’re going, Snivellus. Washed your underwear lately?” he taunted. Snape whipped out his wand. “Hey, come now, let’s not be hasty,” Sirius said striding towards him. “You and me, we’ve not had a chat in a while, have we? How’s the Grease-Buster-Challenge coming along? I hear it’s a tough one.”
“Keep talking, Black, maybe one day you’ll say something intelligent.”
“Now, now, Snivellus, brains aren’t everything! In fact, in your case they’re nothing.”
“At least what I do have is not wasted on pathetic school boy jokes,” Snape spat. Sirius was getting more and more angry by the second.
“You know, everyone has a right to be rude, ugly and foul, but you, Snivelly “ you abused that privilege.”
Snape sneered. “Tell me, Black, how is your dear friend Lupin? Has he been ill lately? Or is it his Mother this time? You know, I’m surprised the whole family isn’t dead yet, they always seem to have some kind of disease ... But maybe that’s just because they can’t afford to keep themselves.”
Suddenly, Sirius got an idea. “Do you want to know where goes? Do you really want to know?” He was advancing threateningly towards Snape, who sneered in answer, but couldn’t quite cover up the eagerness in his eyes to discover the truth. “Well, why don’t you slither along to the Whomping Willow just as the moon comes up. Touch the knot with a stick or something, and you’ll find a handy, handy passageway. Then you’ll see!” He turned, and walked away, smiling triumphantly.
Later in the evening, Remus had gone away to transform, and the rest of the Marauders were waiting to follow. Sirius was telling them about his encounter. When he had finished, Peter looked impressed, but James looked shocked.
“You told him? You TOLD him?” he cried, his hand automatically stretching towards his hair, and running it’s way through, causing it to stand on end. It was not, as some thought, a way of showing off, or a sign of arrogance, but a habit when he was nervous, or stressed.
“Yep. So if we don’t hear from him in a while, you’ll know why,” Sirius laughed.
“You idiot!” James cried. “He could get bitten, or he could DIE!”
Sirius shrugged. “I don’t see a problem with that.”
“Well what about Moony? Did you think about that? Imagine what it would do to him! Knowing that he was responsible for another life that had been destroyed, or even taken away! He wouldn’t be able to live with himself!”
Sirius’s mouth fell open with the realisation that James was absolutely right. He was an idiot. Before he could do anything, James had turned and ran away, heading towards the Entrance Hall, and the Whomping Willow. Sirius and Peter followed behind.
They arrived just in time to see James dragging Snape out of the passage. He must have ran faster than he ever had before to catch up with Snape, and be pulling him out just as they got there.
“L-Lupin’s a “ a werewolf!” Snape was stuttering. “A werewolf! He “ he’s a “”
“We know what he is!” James snapped at him, throwing him on the ground. “Now you’re going to go away back to your hole, and you will never think of telling anyone this! Ever!”
But Snape wasn’t listening. He stood up quickly, his eyes darting around. “Does Dumbledore know? Does he? Because if he does ... I’ll tell everyone! You be warned, I’ll tell them all about Lupin’s condition, and how you sent me to be like him ... even to kill me! You’ll all be expelled!”
The three of them leaped on Snape, and began hitting him, until his yells for help aroused Professor McGonagall, and she was able to drag them away. Snape was taken to Dumbledore, who made him swear never to tell anybody. The Marauders weren’t expelled, they were merely given detention for a months time, and had fifty points taken away from Gryffindor.
After that, the Marauders and Snape simply avoided each other. Their “war” of around six years was over, and no one had come out the winner.
There was a Hogsmeade weekend on Valentine’s day, and the seven of them planned on all going together. However, once they arrived and went to get a drink in the Three Broomsticks, Lily and James snuck away together, and three of the others had disappeared to buy some more butterbeer. They had been gone for fifteen minutes, and were no where to be seen. Only Sirius and Lola were left.
“Do you think,” she began, “that they may have left us alone together on purpose?”
“Because it’s Valentine’s day and they think we should get together? Of course not,” he said, grinning.
She laughed. “Original lot, aren’t they?”
He smiled. “Yeah. My plan may have been insane, but at least it wasn’t boring.”
She grinned at him playfully. “Yes, but there’s a chance that theirs might actually work.” She stopped, when she saw him looking at her, surprise in his eyes.
“Let’s walk,” he said, and she agreed hastily.
They made their way up the road, neither saying anything. Sirius’s mind was racing. Did she mean that? Was she hinting, or did she not mean to even say it? IS there a chance that after seven years, I might ... I might ...
They reached the Shrieking Shack.
“Do you really think the plan could work?” he asked. She turned and looked at him.
“Do you want it to?” she breathed.
He smiled, “Don’t you already know the answer?”
She laughed. “Of course I do ...”
Meanwhile, hiding in the bushes, were Remus, Tara and Peter.
“This feels so wrong,” Tara whispered.
“Ssssh!” Remus hissed, trying to stop himself laughing.
Peter gasped and pointed. Sirius and Lola were kissing, and Remus grinned. “About time,” he muttered. “Come on, Padfoot will murder us if we’re found out. Let’s go ambush Lily and James.”
As they scrambled away as quietly as possible, Sirius and Lola broke apart, and smiled. Sirius glanced over at the three retreating figures and laughed. “I know where the others went.”
Lola looked over, and laughed too. “Spying gits,” she mumbled, before leaning in to kiss him again.
“Wait ... We ... We’re not doomed are we? I mean, can you see pain and misery in our futures together?”
“Would it stop you if I did?”
He grinned, and leaned closer. Just before he kissed her again, he muttered, “No chance.”
The news of Sirius and Lola finally going out spread around the school like wildfire. Not everything was rosy though. More and more reports or murders and disappearances were in the Daily Prophet every day. Everybody knew what was happening, and they all knew who was behind it. Yet somehow, worried as they were, the terror of the outside world didn’t effect the Marauders, Lily, Lola or Tara. Four of them were so in love that the others were sickened. Two of them were slowly developing their own feelings for each other. And Peter was happily oblivious.
They hardly ever saw LaLa any more. They heard rumours that she was slowly working her way around the male students of Hogwarts, blinding them with her looks and mysteriousness, using them, and moving on to someone else. Whenever they did meet, she would make a biting comment, and move along. After a while, they just began to ignore her.
Lockhart too, seemed to have got over his love of the Marauders. One day, when they were revising for their NEWTs outside by the lake, he wandered up to them. The four boys looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
“I’d just like to say,” Lockhart began, in a surprisingly deeper voice than they were used to, “that I am resigning from my place as a Marauder. I know we’ve had some good times, but frankly, I think we have grown apart. Besides which, you will be leaving at the end of the year. I should start getting used to being alone now.”
They looked at each other. “Um, Lockhart ... You never were a “”
“We’ll miss you,” Remus cut James off quickly. “We’re very sorry that you’re leaving.” He glared at the other three until they agreed.
Lockhart sniffed, and brushed away a tear. “Farewell,” he said breathily, before turning and walking away. After a respectable amount of time, they burst out laughing, and couldn’t stop rolling around in their mirth for around five minutes.
On their graduation day, the impending war was forgotten completely. They had been attending Hogwarts for seven years, they were all confident about the NEWTs they had sat, satisfied that they had done the best they possibly could.
The Marauders had decided to deliberately get their beloved map confiscated. Their reasoning being that when pranksters came to Hogwarts who were worthy enough to find it, steal it, and find out how it worked, they would be rewarded with something to help them in their endeavours.
Dumbledore was finishing his speech. Lily and James were sitting very close together, each leaning on the other for support. Remus and Tara were discreetly holding hands, but no one had noticed this. Or if they had, they pretended not to. Peter was kicking his legs around under his chair, a little bored of all the talking. Sirius had his arm around Lola, and none of them “ save possibly Peter “ wished they could be anywhere else, or with anyone else.
Finally, they were able to stand up, take off their hats, and throw them high into the air.
AN: Aww, a nice happy chapter. The phrase “Calm before the storm” doesn’t come to mind at all does it? *Shifty eyes, shifty eyes*. Now, I need around three very minor characters (only a couple of lines each) so the first three people to review, who aren’t in it already, get to be in chapter 12! As long as you leave your real name at the end, of course. Oh, and only put your name if you won’t get offended by what I write “ it won’t be TOO bad, but just in case. So, get reviewing! :D