Chapter 7: Changes
The summer was over, and the Marauders were on the train. The girls had not joined them this year, but Sirius hadn’t expected them to. Lola hadn’t written to him all summer, and he had a burning desire to see her, but he knew there was no point. Her letters had been replaced with Tara’s, although they did not really replace them at all. He couldn’t help recalling that in previous years, he would know everything about her summer, and yet still long to see her. With Tara, he knew much less about what she had got up to, yet he was in no hurry to find her, or even see her from a distance. He had also been noticing all summer that as soon as he sat down to write a letter to Tara, he was immediately stuck, and the blank parchment mocked him. But he was sure that with Lola, he hadn’t even needed to think about it “ the words simply came. And it wasn’t like he had trouble with his other friends’ letters. It’s different, he told himself, because we’re together. That’s all. It must just be easier to write to friends. That’s all it is.
James was talking animatedly, but it seemed only Peter was really listening. Sirius was a little bored. As much as he liked his best friend, he was sure that his head had inflated a little over the past couple of months.
“This is going to be my year, I just know it,” he was saying, “the Marauders are back “ last year we let things get on top of us, and our reputation started slipping. We’ve spent too long in the Library. Now we know what we have to do, nothing can hold us back.”
“Uh, James,” Peter said, uncertainly, “DO we know what we have to do?” James stared at him. He opened his mouth. He closed it again.
Sirius sighed, it was time for him to take over, “Ok, we did all try and find out what that spell and potion are didn’t we?”
“Well, I tried,” Remus said, “but I didn’t get very far.”
“And it’s not like I could get far either,” Peter stated, “my parents are Muggles, after all.”
Sirius nodded, “Well, luckily, I found the spell. All we need is the potion now.” All heads turned to look at James.
“What?” he demanded.
“Do you have the potion instructions?” Remus asked. James grinned.
“Of course I do, I’m not completely hopeless!” He opened his trunk and dug out a piece of ragged looking parchment. “All I had to do was ask Dad, and he told me. I don’t think he even asked why I needed it.”
The four left the train a few hours later and got into one of the horseless carriages. Just as it was about to set off, someone else jumped in too. It was a small second year boy, who Sirius had a feeling was in Hufflepuff. He had gold ringlets framing his face, that swished and bounced around distractingly whenever he made the slightest movement.
“Hi guys!” the boy grinned, in an unnaturally high pitched voice, “You’re the Marauders aren’t you?”
The four stared at him in disbelief. He was in their carriage. Their carriage. No one got into the Marauders carriage, much less someone they didn’t even know. Remus recovered quickest, “Who are you?”
“My names Gilderoy Lockhart, and I’m your fan! Can I have your autographs? Will you sign my T-shirt?” Lockhart pulled out a shirt that had been customized with ‘I love the Marauders’ written on it. He held out an over the top looking quill, that made annoying tinkling sounds when it moved, and Sirius could only imagine how infuriating it would be during class.
James and Sirius looked at each other, and the corners of their mouths twitched. Together, they picked the boy up, Peter opened the doors, and Lockhart was dropped out. Before Remus had a chance to close the doors again, they heard the ridiculously high pitched voice call, “Talk to you later, then, guys!”
All four boys burst out laughing, and didn’t stop until they reached Hogwarts. Sirius was truly glad he was back with his friends, and forgot about everything that had been worrying him. He was fifteen, and decided there and then that he would no longer be troubled by his feelings towards Tara or Lola.
“Hey Sirius, wake up,” came James’s voice. Sirius was awake anyway, but pretended he wasn’t. “Sirius, I have something to show you. You’ll love it.”
He sat up. “What is it, mate?” he asked, slightly exasperated.
James handed him a mirror. Sirius looked at it, then at James, then back down again. After a minute, he said, “Okay, I’ve tried to think of a way that this could be something worth getting up for, but I really, really can’t.”
“Say my name,” James told him. Sirius merely raised an eyebrow.
“I’m beginning to wonder just what happened to you over the summer, because whatever you did to yourself, it’s made you a little abnormal.”
“Trust me, just say my name.”
Sirius rolled his eyes, and said in the most ironic I-can’t-believe-I’m-actually-going-to-do-this voice he could muster, “James Potter,” and then he yelled in alarm. The mirror showed James’s own grinning face was looking up at him. “What happened?” he cried, and heard it being said across the room, too.
“They’re charmed,” both the James’s told him. The real James turned his mirror upside down, and Sirius’s own face was reflected once again, “It’ll be great for detentions,” James grinned.
“You’re telling me! Where did you get those?”
“It was a present, since I was fifteen in July,” James told him, and Sirius nodded. He often forgot that James was the second youngest of them “ Peter’s birthday was in August, Remus was in May and Sirius’s own was in December, making him the oldest. Not that it mattered to them.
“You know what else this will be good for? Pranks. We can communicate easier if we have to split up.” Sirius lay back and stared at his canopy. “This year really is going to be ours, you were right. Starting from now, we make new rules. We walk in a block, two in front and two behind. If people get in our way, we curse them. Soon, people will learn to move out of our way instinctively.”
“Look out, Hogwarts, we’re coming to get you,” James grinned, manically.
They were running, each of them going over what had just happened in their minds. Sirius grinned in spite of their predicament. It had been so much fun. They had made it rain over the Slytherin table during Lunch. Real, torrential rain, making the boys swear and the girls scream. Everyone else had been completely dry, but Professor Slughorn had seen the four of them pointing their wands at the Slytherins, and had stood up, pointing his finger at them. Before he had a chance to say anything, they had sprinted out of the Great Hall. They were still running, as they followed James, who was the most athletic and the fastest runner. But suddenly, someone grabbed the back of his robes.
“In here!” hissed a voice, and he was pulled inside an empty classroom. No one came in after him, and he had no idea who had pulled him in. Whoever it was lit the end of their wand. He saw that it was a girl who he had seen sitting at the Ravenclaw table, before. She had dark hair that was almost black, and olive skin with a prominent jaw. She was no Veela, but she was certainly not ugly. She extended her hand, “Hi. I’m LaLa, and I’ll be your rescuer today.”
LaLa. It was a strange name, a mix of Lola and Tara, and he wondered if her personality was too. “I’m Sirius,” he said, and she smiled as though she had her own private joke.
“Yes, I know, I’ve seen you before. May I ask who you were running from?”
Sirius shrugged, “We didn’t take the time to check. But someone must have been following us. No way would they let something like that slide.”
She laughed, “What did you do? Was it that bad?”
“I’m sure you’ll find out soon. It’ll be all round your common room by the end of the day, mark my words,” Sirius grinned.
She nodded, and smiled, “That bad? Well, I’m sure you’ll be ok to get back to Gryffindor now. I guess I’ll see you around.”
He nodded, and left her behind. He felt strange. She seemed like a good person, but there was something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Still, he hadn’t the time to think too deeply now. He had to get back to Gryffindor Tower without being spotted.
It was difficult. What he needed was a map, something to tell him where all the Professors were, so he could avoid them. Maybe he could ask Remus if it was possible when he got back to the Common Room. He just had to make sure no one drew any attention to him.
“Sirius! Hi, Sirius!” he stopped dead, and whirled around grabbing the person who had yelled by the robes. It was Lockhart, the boy who had been following them around for weeks.
“I should have known. Who else has such an abnormally high pitched voice? What do you want, why do you want it, and when will you be going away?” he asked, quickly and quietly.
Lockhart grinned, seemingly at ease with being dangled by his robes three feet in the air by an angry fifteen year old, “Great prank, Sirius!” he praised in his annoying high voice. Sirius glared at him, then had a brilliant idea.
“Lockhart. You know how I hate you, but you love me?”
“Yes?” Lockhart asked, breathlessly.
“I want you to help me get back to Gryffindor Tower without being spotted by Professors. Can you do that?”
“Absolutely, Sirius, old pal!”
Sirius gritted his teeth, and dropped him. Unabashed, Lockhart helped him back to the Common Room, checking round corners and signaling when it was clear.
“Does this mean I’m a Marauder now, since I helped you evade capture?”
“Not even the slightest bit,” Sirius turned and left Lockhart standing there, looking alone.
A month later, Sirius walked into the dorm to find it full of purple smoke. Which was an interesting discovery, to say the least. “What on Earth is going on?” he spluttered. He could just make out three figures, who he knew were the other three Marauders.
“It’s the potion,” came James’s voice, “it’s almost done.”
The potion needed to become an animagi had been sitting in their dorm for weeks (after they had bribed the house elves to keep quiet), and they had been adding ingredients as James “ the one with the instructions “ told them. They had tried it several times, as well as practising the spell needed. There had been a lot of unfortunate incidents that had required an inventive array of cover up lies, but now Sirius, James and Peter had mastered the spell, and this potion had been going perfectly for the weeks it had been brewing. Sirius had forgotten that today was the day it should be ready “ it was a Saturday, and he and Tara had been “catching up” in an empty Charms classroom.
“We were just going to come and look for you,” Peter informed him. “We think it should be any minute now!”
“Are you all absolutely sure you know what to do?” enquired Remus, a note of worry in his voice. “Maybe this wasn’t a very good idea.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, man!” Sirius exclaimed, “We’ve come this far. Is it time, James?”
“Yes “ look, the smoke’s clearing,” James whispered. It was hard not to “ they had been waiting for this for so long.
“Together?” breathed Peter, and Sirius nodded.
They each took out their wands, and pointed them at themselves. Once the spell had been performed, they fell into trances now familiar to them, they had practised so hard. They sat for exactly a minute, and then each took a bottle, and scooped some potion from the cauldron.
Sirius looked at it for a moment. It was a deep, shimmering blue, and there was something beautiful, yet ever so slightly sinister about it. He closed his eyes, and downed it all in one go.
And suddenly, he could feel himself changing. He cried out as his back arched, and changed and morphed. He felt fur pushing its way out of his skin, felt his face change. He stared as his fingers withdrew into his hands, turned them into paws. The process hurt, and it took effort not to cry out again “ but he had been expecting this. One of the books they had stole described that the first change would be painful, and after that it would be easy every time.
He was a dog. He sniffed the air, and was amazed how sensitive his smell was. He looked around, and saw Remus looking astonished. He opened his mouth and instead of words, the sound he made was a bark. He saw Remus jump and laugh. Something scuttled across his paws, and he looked down, and saw a rat. Peter or James? A shadow fell over him “ and looking up, he saw a stag. He yelped, but quickly recovered from the shock. James. It had to be. He turned back into a boy, quite easily he was glad to say. He wasn’t entirely sure how he had managed to turn back, he had just thought it, and it happened. He collapsed onto his four poster, exhausted.
“Wow,” Peter said in awe, “that was the most amazing thing ever!”
“I was a stag! Isn’t that so weird?”
Sirius grinned, and sat up, “Well I was a dog. Which is obviously superior to the both of you.” They began bickering for a while. Remus was laughing in relief and happiness.
“When do you next change?” James asked him.
“Exactly a week.”
“It’ll be fantastic!” Peter exclaimed, almost jumping up and down. “Hey, do you know what would be great?”
“If you could snort chocolate from your nostrils?” suggested Sirius. Remus and James spluttered with laughter.
“No,” Peter said, matter-of-factly, “if we had nicknames to do with our animals.”
James grinned. “Hey, that’s a great idea! You can be called Ratty, I can be called Staggy, Sirius “ Doggy, and Remus, Wolfy!” They laughed again, getting slightly hysterical with relief, pride and amazement.
“No, I think Peter has a good point,” Remus announced, sticking up for him. “It could be fun.”
“Well, you think of names then,” James suggested, “Or, we could all try and think up names, and pick the best ones!”
They did as he said, and eventually came up with Moony for Remus, Wormtail for Peter, Padfoot for Sirius and Prongs for James.
“So, what next? We can’t just research for about three years, then it suddenly be over,” Remus said.
“Yeah, and you enjoy the endless hours in the library, don’t you Re “ Moony,” James laughed.
“Well, I will admit that I have become rather attached to the place.” He grinned back.
Sirius remembered a thought he had had, weeks before. A map “ something to tell him where everyone was at any given time.
“Is it possible?” Peter asked, when Sirius explained this.
“I could find out,” Remus said, thoughtfully.
Remus eventually did find a way, and afterwards they spent hours designing, and creating the map, adding little characteristics as they went along “ it insulted anyone who tried to find out what it said, for example. Finally, it was finished. They used it whenever they could, and along with the mirrors, the invisibility cloak, and now the map, their mischief got more and more complicated, daring, and original. Even the teachers begrudgingly respected them “ everybody knew who was behind it, but they had no proof, there was never anyone at the scene. To catch a Marauder in the act became a challenge among the Professors, one that was never fulfilled. They became more infamous every day.
That was how the weeks went by “ with pranks and transforming, OWL revision and boring lessons, Lockhart and occasionally for Sirius, a mysterious dark haired LaLa, who popped up now and then to help him out of a situation or just to say hello. Things between him and Lola were still strained, leaving Tara to have to flitter from the Marauders to her girlfriends.
“I’m getting really annoyed with it now, Sirius,” she told him one Saturday morning at breakfast, while the rest of the Marauders pretended not to listen. Sirius sighed, he wasn’t in the mood. Tara, however, continued, “I mean, why can’t you just make up with Lola? Why did you fall out in the first place? No one’s telling me anything!”
“It’s complicated,” was all he said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“That’s all she ever says too!”
James cut in, “We have to go in a minute, Padfoot. This game could be the difference between us winning and losing the cup.”
It was a Quidditch game that day. “I know. See you, Tara.”
“Sirius,” she said, her voice wobbling a little, “why wont you tell me?”
He looked at her for a moment. Her eyes were round, and glistening slightly. They looked upon him with such sadness that he had to turn away. “Let’s go,” he muttered, and left the Great Hall. James followed him.
“What’s up with you today?” he asked, falling in step. Sirius shrugged. He had no idea. James sighed, but said nothing more.
They played terribly. Sirius was angry with everyone, and the bludgers he hit went ricocheting off in the wrong direction. They were against Ravenclaw, who had seemed to have picked up on Sirius’s anger and were using it to their advantage. Bloody Ravenclaws, he thought, Why do they have to be so damn clever? In his frustration, he hit the next ball he saw with his bat. It was the quaffle, and was now speeding towards the wrong end of the pitch. He swore, and the referee blew her whistle sharply. Ravenclaw were given a penalty, and they scored. He could see the Gryffindor captain “ seeker Toby Johnson in his seventh year “ glaring at him. He scowled back.
They were losing badly at this point, 30-120. He saw James darting around on his broom agitatedly, trying desperately to get possession of the quaffle. Suddenly, from behind, he heard the familiar soaring noise that meant a bludger was heading towards him. He spun around on his broom and hit it with all his might. It hit Toby in the arm, just as he was reaching for the snitch. No one seemed to have noticed that the snitch had been sighted before now. The arm was thrown backwards, causing Toby to topple and lose his balance. He fell on the snitch, and as he fell from his broom, the snitch came down with him. With a thump he landed on the ground, pinning the tiny gold ball with his body. No one moved. For a second that felt like an age, there was silence. Then, Toby moved his arm underneath himself, and it emerged clutching the snitch. The Gryffindor supporters roared in triumph, but all Sirius wanted to do was get as far away as possible. He flew off the pitch, towards the castle, and dismounted at the oak front doors. He went inside, and walked down corridors aimlessly. There was no one around.
“Sirius!” He jumped “ he had been sure that he was alone. He turned and saw LaLa. “You played well,” she told him, smiling knowingly.
He had to smile back, he couldn’t help it. “You’re not bitter because Ravenclaw lost?”
She shrugged, “I’ve never really got why Quidditch was so important to everyone, anyway. I mean, it’s just a game, right?”
He nodded, too tired to argue. He hadn’t even noticed how much the game had worn him out. “I have to get back. I’m sure the whole team is just dying to see me, and tell me just how much I nearly lost it for us.”
She smiled sympathetically, “See you around. And good luck.”
Sirius made his way towards Gryffindor tower. “Oakwood,” he muttered when he saw the fat lady. She swung open and he clambered in. It looked as if a half hearted party had begun, but when he appeared, everyone had stopped and turned to look at him. He looked round. The rest of the Marauders were in a corner. James looked angry with him “ after all, he did care about Quidditch more than any of the four of them “ Peter looked happy to see him, and Remus was smiling encouragingly. Lola, Lily and Tara were in the other corner. Tara was looking at him in annoyance, and he remembered their small argument this morning. Lily was glaring at him, but really, he was used o that. But what hurt most was that Lola was the only person not looking at him at all, but staring in the other direction. He saw that Toby had recovered from his fall, and his arm no longer looked broken, but he was looking at Sirius in such a way that it made him shiver slightly. He began to cross the room towards the Marauders, but Toby strode and blocked his way.
“Black, I want a word,” he hissed, although the whole room probably heard him.
“Funny, that. Come to congratulate me on my excellent flying this afternoon?” He asked, smirking.
“You nearly lost us that game! I’ve half a mind to look for a new beater!” Toby spat, and the room gasped collectively.
“And do you really think you’ll find one as good as me, right before the final?” He enquired, cockily. He strode around Toby, and headed towards the Marauders, leaving him there, twitching in anger.
“You’re a prat, you know that?” asked James. Sirius grinned at his best friend, who despite his best efforts, was forced to grin back.
The rest of the year went by in a blur. They won the final against Slytherin, which meant that all four of their egos were notched just a little higher up the scale. That night, Sirius drunkenly made a bet with James that he wouldn’t be able to get Lily to go out with him that year, and a similarly tipsy James had agreed. So, ever since then, James was asking her out, to no avail, despite Tara’s pleas to the both of them to leave her friend alone. It was midway through their OWLs that the next interesting event happened.
They had been tormenting Snape, when Lily had come over. She and James had fought, before she stalked off, leaving him in a bad mood all day. But it was another encounter that was so important to Sirius.
“Hey!” A voice had called, as he was wandering in the direction of the kitchens, with the half hearted idea that lots of pudding would cheer his friend up. He turned, to see Lola heading towards him. Lola, with her long, loosely curled hair swishing behind her as she walked. Her face looked angry, but as she came towards him, Sirius felt lifted “ No matter what she was about to say to him, at least they would be talking.
“Lola! How delightful ...” he began, but she cut across him.
“What did you think you were playing at with Snape today? Lily’s really upset!”
“Well, yes, Snivelly called her a Mudblood. I would be upset too,” he pointed out, but Lola shook her head.
“No. That really doesn’t bother her. She’s upset because you and James think you own the place, that you can just go around hexing people and humiliating them whenever you feel like it! Well, you can’t and the sooner you realise, the better! And would you please, for the sake of everyone’s sanity, get James to stop asking out Lily? Don’t you people get the message?”
Sirius felt a flicker of annoyance “ ok, maybe it was his fault that James was trying to ask Lily out. He did place that bet, after all. Angrily, he spat out, “Shouldn’t it be Tara telling me all this? Aren’t I beneath you?”
Lola rolled her eyes, “If Tara was here, you would just start using your charm on her until she had forgotten what she came for and was a giggling wreck. But I thought you might actually listen to me,” she told him, and turned away. As she began to walk off, she stopped, swivelled her head around, and added, “You were right on one count, though. You are beneath me.”
And with that, she was gone. Sirius was completely floored. Something in the way that those words had poured from her mouth with such venom had really hurt. “Well,” he muttered, angrily to himself, “Well, if that’s the way it is ...” He turned a corner, only to be confronted by LaLa, who smiled in her mysterious way.
“Talking to yourself?” she asked, smirking a little. Sirius looked at her. She really was quite attractive. She frowned a little, “What? What are you looking at?”
In answer, he grabbed her hand and dragged her into the nearest broom closet, kissing her all the way there.
AN: I am going camping for a few days, so I am sending this before I leave, and hopefully it will be accepted by the time I get back, with lots of nice reviews waiting for me!
Sirius is two timing Tara! Shock, horror, doom! Just in case you are confused as to why, it’s because he and Tara are arguing and stuff, he likes Lola really, but they had a massive argument, and LaLa appears to understand him at the moment, as well as being unknown to everybody he knows. Hey, no one ever said he was perfect! Now, tell me what you thought. Should LaLa (the character, not her namesake) be taken away and shot, or are she and Sirius the ones you think should get together and live happily ever after? Let me know!