I can't figure it out- why I'm so Caught up
Got me feeling it- caught up
I don't know what it is, but it seems she's got me twisted
I'm so caught up
Got me feeling it- caught up
I'm losing control, this girl's got her hold on me
Let me go, baby
-Caught Up, Usher
Chapter Five: Padfoot's Grim Surprise
The Christmas break seemed to fly by in a flash. James and Lily were together most of the time. Sirius was off thinking a spectacular prank to try on Snivellus at the end of the year and Remus was getting his sleep as full moon was approaching. But soon, the rest of the school returned and their classes picked up where they left off. That is except for Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, which were about to start. New schedules were being passed around so that DADA could be fitted in.
"I wonder who the new teacher is.." Hazel said, cranning her neck, trying to get a glimpse of the Staff Table. Unfortunately, so were about two hundred other students, making it impossible to figure out who the new face was.
"Well, we'll soon find out. We have Defense Against the Dark Arts fourth period." Lily said, peering over James's shoulder to read his schedule, as her's had not yet been passed down to her. She rested her head on his shoulder as she continued to eat her cinnamon toast. Hazel smirked at the sight. She had said over and over again "I told you so!" to Lily when she told her that she and James were together.
"Fourth period? I'm dying to know who it is!" Sirius and Hazel cried together. Remus rolled his eyes. He looked around the tables.
"I don't believe it, Peter isn't here again!" he said disbelievingly. James grimaced.
"Who cares?" he said through gritted teeth, remembering how mad he was at Wormtail for turning Lily's face green ( which, by the way, returned to normal).
"James, come off it. He's your friend." Lily said, a bit annoyed.
"You even said yourself you resent whoever did that to your face." James pointed out. Lily sighed heavily.
"Yeah, but if it's a Gryffindor, I wouldn't!" Lily protested. James rolled his eyes.
"And you said I'M the most difficult person.." he muttered. Lily stared up at him in shock.
"What did you just say?" she said, startled.
James cussed under his breath and shot a questioning look at Sirius and Remus.
"Go on, James. I think you can tell her." Remus said wisely. Lily looked completely confused as James brought her into the corridor.
"James, what is going on?" Lily asked reproachfully.
"Lily, there is something very important I need to tell you.." James said slowly, not sure where to place his words, "Whatever I tell you stays between us. Hazel can't know, not Molly or Alice or any of your secret hungry buddies."
Lily looked into James's hazel eyes that held the truth to her curiousities, and she nodded.
"Remus is a werewolf." James started. Lily's green emerald eyes seemed to pop completely out of her head.
"Remus Lupin? A-- a--" she glanced around the corridor uneasily and found no one was there, so she whispered the last word, "Werewolf?"
James nodded solemnly.
"That's not the end of it. In our fifth year, the rest of the Marauders, that is Sirius, Peter, and I, finally finished what we had worked on for three years. We became unregistered animagi." James whispered urgently. Lily's jaw dropped slightly as she comprehended everything that seemed to fit together, completing the puzzle of James Potter.
"James? You're not-- James, are you the stag?" Lily said quietly. James nodded and Lily gasped.
"Unbelievable! James Potter, animagi!" she muttered, laughing a bit.
"You swear not to tell a soul?"
"Don't worry. Your secret-- and Remus, Peter, and Sirius's-- is safe with me."
James smiled at Lily, wondering what he had done to deserve to actually love Lily Evans and have her love him back. It certainly hadn't been like that before.
~fLaShBaCk!~
"Potter, get the hell out of my face!"
James sighed as Sirius rolled his eyes.
"We're partners Evans, whether you like it or not, and you have to work with me. You don't want to FAIL do you?" James said slyly. Lily frowned. She gazed around the dungeon uncertainly, as if hoping some angel would swoop down and save her from being forced to work side by side with James Potter. Professor Salandar must hate me for putting me with Potter, 13-year-old Lily thought angrily to herself.
"Let's just get this over with." Lily snapped. James smirked smugly at Lily.
"Don't look at me with that tone of voice, James Potter!" Lily spat. She smirked inside, remembering how many times her Band Director said that to her and her firends. Mr. Nalpak was one of the nicest people she met and also the goofiest. James paused for a moment, trying to work his youthful mind into deciphering Lily's words. After about ten seconds of stressing his brain, he gave up.
"You know, you look really pretty when you're mad at me.." James said absent mindedly. Lily rolled her eyes and thought to herself, "What a wonderful way to start off my third year at Hogwarts. . ."
~EnD oF fLaShBaCk!~
"Is it fourth period yet?"
"No, Sirius." Remus sighed.
One minute later...
"Now?"
"No, Sirius."
Thirty seconds later....
"Now?"
"NO, SIRIUS!"
The five of them were in History of Magic. Normally, Lily would be sitting with Hazel and Molly, but she decided to sit with the Marauders this time. Since James told her their big secret, she felt closer to them, and was even growing fond of Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Okay, so she was a bit cross with Peter for the whole 'green face' thing, but kept it inside herself for James's sake. It took a lot of convincing to get James to forgive Peter.
"Now?"
"Yes, Sirius, it is fourth period." Remus lied. Sirius jumped out of seat, to the surprise of many around him.
"What are you guys waiting for? It's fourth period!" Sirius exclaimed. A couple of the students stiffled giggles.
"Sirius, mate, it's second period." James said, rolling his eyes. His arm was around Lily, who was one of the students trying her best not to laugh.
"But, but Remus you said--"
"Mr. Black, PLEASE sit down. I'm trying to teach a lesson." Professor Binns snapped. Sirius glared at Remus and took his seat,
He didn't ask if it was fourth period all through the rest of the class.
Third period was Charms with Professor Flitwick. Until recently, Professor Flitwick had been the DADA teacher, but when their old Charms teacher, Professor Salsa, retired, he was moved. His aging beard and hair bounced merrily as he came into the classroom and instructed them to pair up with their previous partners. Lily and Remus scooted next to each other, to the dismay of James, Sirius was joined by Hazel and Peter and James sat next to each other awkwardly.
"Today, we're going to be learning a spell that will most likely be on your N.E.W.T.'s. so I advise you to pay close attention. It is much heavier, more difficult magic and isn't to be taken lightly. We are going to learn the Imperslew curse. This curse is not taught to you so you can go around hexing each other," Flitwick eyed James carefully, "It is for self defense. To those oblivious of the magical community around you, which I hope is none of you, the threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is increasing and you have to be prepared for the worst."
The students began to fidget and shuffle uneasily in their seats. James felt Lily shudder at the sheer thought of Voldemort.
"The Imperslew curse can do interesting things to people. It does various things, depending on the characteristics of the caster. It could turn the target into a three eyed toad, it could make them walk into walls repeatedly. I suggest you do it only when your well being is in jeopardy. I do NOT expect you to go around hexing anyone who punches you or sends a couple of sparks at you. I'm talking about the real thing. The real, actual, solid thing. There are people out there who wouldn't mind performing an Unforgivable curse on any one of you. Those are the people you use this spell against, not the guy in your dormitory that won't stop snoring." the class laughed nervously at this.
"We're going to have to do this one by one so I can reverse it very soon after, so no damage is done. Who would like to go first-- Miss Evans, Mr. Lupin, come up, will you?" Professor Flitwick said randomly. Lily and Remus nodded shortly and walked to the front of the room.
"Go ahead, Ms. Evans. Point your wand at Mr, Lupin, yes, just like that, and say the words: Imperslewia." Professor Flitwick said clearly.
"Imperslewia!" Lily said softly. Remus's face turned from calm and curious to a look of sheer pain. He was getting smaller and smaller until he became a tiny little snidget. The class giggled as the new Remus Lupin floated around the room, the size of your palm, in the form of a snidget.
"Incorpsulus!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, pointing his wand at Remus, who happened to be flapping away teasingly above Sirius's head. He landed with a thump, on top of Sirius, in human form.
"REMUS!" Sirius yelled, his voice muffled, "YOU'RE ON MY B--"
"That is enough! Come back up here, Mr. Lupin, it's your turn." Flitwick said, cutting in. Remus rolled off atop Sirius and walked, rather slowly and weakly, to the front of the room. He faced Lily and James looked up intently, with lots of interest.
"Imperslewia!"
Lily's smiling face seemed to deteriorate into something horrible, something monstrous... something furry. Many girls screamed as Lily Evans the werewolf faced them stealthily. She growled deeply and started to walk among the isles, sniffing the students. A powerful wave of emotion passed over her. She wanted BLOOD. HUMAN blood. (A/N I just noticed how dumb that must sound, seeing as Lily never wanted any other kind of blood before (I think. . I hope) so human blood really shouldn't make a difference)
"Incorpsulus!"
Lily screeched horribly as she transformed back into Lily Evans. She licked her lips and suddenly wanted to wash her mouth out to get that desire for human blood that she just experianced out of her mouth. She and Remus awkwardly took their seats.
"VERY nice job, Mr. Lupin, Ms. Evans." Flitwick said brightly, beaming at the two of them. They forced a smile back. It hadn't been very fun to transform like that. Lily wondered if Remus went through that pain every full moon.
"Hmm... How about Mr. Black and Ms. Parsely."
Sirius and Hazel got up and walked briskly to the front of the room.
"Mr. Black, go ahead." Flitwick said, nodding to Sirius. Sirius raised his wand at Hazel, who had gone rather pale.
"Imperslewia!"
No one had expected what happened next.
There was no Hazel Parsely across from Sirius. Instead, their was a blob of a black the shade of James's hair liquid-ish thing.
Hazel had been turned into a puddle of grease. The class burst into laughter as two eyes appeared on the blob and blinked. The blob slithered forward a step. The blob of grease was MOVING! Sirius watched with amusement as it glided closer to him and his expression totally changed as the blob of grease wrapped itself around Sirius's leg and let out a sound that sounded unmistakably like,
"Mama."
Sirius watched with a horror struck expression as the entire class of 7th year Gryffindors fell over with laughter. James was on the edge of seat, his face red from laughing so much and Lily was clutching to his shirt to stop herself from falling off the seat completely. Remus was laughing heartily, his breathing heavy and Peter looked ready to wet himself. Even Professor Flitwick looked like it was taking all of his magic to supress the chuckle crawling up his throat.
"Incorpsulus!"
Hazel transformed back to herself in an instant and looked very confused to find herself hugging Sirius Black's left leg and the class in hysterics around her. She got up stiffly and brushed off the dirt from her skirt. (A/N Dirt and skirt rythme!)
"Imperslewia!" Hazel cried, pointing to Sirius.
WARNING: IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH, SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH
Sirius did not transform into anything. He instead shrieked with pain as the class watched with disgust as his elbow was twisted in the oddest direction and one of the bones came through his skin and stuck out oddly. Hazel looked at it with wide eyes and ran to the back of the room where the trash barrel was and vomited into it. Professor Flitwick bit his lip and muttered the countercurse and Sirius was rushed to the Hospital Wing by his partner.
"Um, Mr. Potter, Mr. Pettigrew, you're up."
Lily watched James intently as he and Peter stood up and trudged up to the front of the room.
"Mr. Pettigrew, go ahead." Flitwick said, eyeing them closely. Peter raised his wand and said quietly,
"Imperslewia!"
James felt something large, slimy and squishy pop out of his rear end. He turned around in circles, trying to figure it out. Then he realized what happened as his classmates started to giggle.
He had a tail.
James was very much relieved when Flitwick removed the tail. It had started to itch. James grinned evily as he raised his wand to Peter.
"Imperslewia!"
Peter Pettigrew shrank smaller and smaller. Then, suddenly, he grew longer and longer. In front of James was Peter Pettigrew the snake. Peter hissed at the class, but none screamed. Peter's fangs were missing and there was no way he could bite anyone. His long, green tail coiled together and he rested his triangular head on the floor. Two seconds later, Peter had fallen asleep.
It was during Alice and Frank's performance did Sirius and Hazel return. Sirius had a sling around his arm and Hazel was a pale, even a bit green. When the class ended and Frank had been turned back from being large, vulture hat, Sirius jumped around with joy, despite the sling.
"It's fourth period!" he exclaimed. Then he paused and eyed them carefully, "It is, right?"
"Yes, Sirius," Remus said wearily, "It's fourth period."
"YIPEE!"
The five of them walked to DADA, James and Lily lagging behind a bit because they were holding hands and whispering to each other, with high expectations on finding out who their new teacher would be.
Quite the disappointment awaited them behind the doors of that Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
"Welcome class, I'm your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lestrange." announced the new professor as the class settled into their seats. Sirius blinked dumbly at the "teacher" in front of him.
"You? Bella?" Sirius choked. James looked up at the teacher with disgust. He, Remus, and Peter had heard horrible things about this girl, but Lily was completely oblivious to the fact the four--maybe only three.. *cough*cough*peter*cough-- people around her detested this woman before them.
"She looks nice." Lily whispered in James's ear. James shook his head in disgust.
"She's Sirius's cousin. A lot of us think she's on Voldemort's side." James said quietly. Sirius and Professor Lestrange had started arguing very loudly.
"That's ridiculus, Dumbledore would NEVER hire anyone accosiated with You-Know-Who, even if it's not definite." Lily said defensively. James sighed as Professor Lestrange docked off twenty points from Gryffindor for "excessive yelling and no respect for the teacher".
"Evil little b**ch." Sirius muttered angrily. "Only taking off points because of what I did when I was eleven..."
~fLaShBaCk!~
"We will always beeeeeeeee one, baby. Cuz you're the other half of my waaaaand."
Young 13-year-old Bellatrix Black was in the guest room of her Aunt and Uncle's mansion, singing a song she made up about a boy at Hogwarts in her high-pitched, scratchy voice.
"And you'll always beeeeeeeeee mine, baby. You better correct me if I wroooooong."
Sirius sniggered. He was hiding in Bella's closet, with a muggle tape recorder in his hands.
"Everytime you talk to meeeeee I know we're meant to beeeeee."
It was very dark in the closet for Sirius. It smelled horribly like his Aunt Ida and his great grandfather's feet, but he knew it was worth it. This would make him the King of the Pranks.
"Boy, you've put a speeeeeeell on me!"
There was a large "boom!" from outside the closet and Sirius figured Bella had just started to dance around to her song and knocked something over. "Either that or she looked in the mirror and it fell off the wall..." Sirius thought evilly to himself.
"Are you that blind? Do you hear me sigh? You're the treasure I need to find."
Sirius wondered impatiently about when this song would end. He had a feeling Bellas voice had popped one of his eardrums.
"Boy you've put a speeeeeeeeeell on MEEEEEE!"
Bella took a deep breath for the big finish,
"Oooooon MEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Sirius let out a sigh of relief as the song ended and Bella skipped out of the room to find something to eat and Sirius was finally able to laugh out loud hysterically and he followed her out of the room some time afterwards, wondering where to go with the prank.
A couple of days later....
Bella and Sirius were outside the Hogwarts Express anxiously, Sirius being crushed by both his and Bella's belongings. It was when they got on the train did things start to get peculiar for Bella.
"Hey, Bella! You've put a speeeeeeeell on MEEE!" sang a girl with bright blonde hair and sneer on her face. Sirius and Bella both new this girl very well, as ot was Narcissa Black. Bella's pale face went a ghostly white.
"E-excuse me?" Bella stammered. Narcissa just laughed cruelly. The next person to come up to her made her go from ghostly white up a bunch of shades to a light pink. Rudolphus Lestrange came up to her and sang in a mock high pitched, scratchy voice,
"Everytime you talk to meeeee I know we're meant to beeeeee!"
Bella turned to her younger cousin stiffly and looked at him coldly.
"Go. I know what you did. Go. Now." she said shortly. Sirius laughed hysterically and wandered off to find a compartment.
It had turned out that Sirius had made about one hundred copies of that tape and sent them out to all of the third and fourth year students. And now, Bellatrix Black wanted revenge.
~EnD oF fLaShBaCk!~
Their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson was mostly lectures on N.E.W.T.'s and how this was their last year of education at Hogwarts and blah blah blah. Bella and Sirius would often make eye contact and glare at each other furiously. Sirius said nothing through the class. His eyes were locked on Bellatrix and were not going to move.
"I disagree you guys, Professor Lestrange seems like a pleasant person." Lily said at dinner. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"And I thought you were SMART." he said. Lily glared at him.
"I am, it's just maybe you got on the bad side of her. I'm sure if you had been nicer to her, she'd be nicer to you." Lily said forcefully. Sirius sighed and started eating the great amount of food on his plate. Remus, who was looking rather peaky as the full moon was approaching in a couple of days, spoke up for the first time in about an hour and a half.
"I'm sure Dumbledore wouldn't hire someone who's a death eater."
"That's what Lily said, but maybe Dumbledore didn't know. Or maybe he knows she's not a death eater." James said skepticly. Sirius didn't say anything about James's guess, just kept eating his food grudgingly. Up at the staff table, "Professor" Lestrange was thinking hard and long about how to lay out her plans. Her thoughts were interupted as Professor Vector offered her some steak tips.
"Oh, uh, no thanks." Bella said in the best honey and sugar voice she could muster. She watched carefully as the half-breed, a.k.a Remus Lupin, looked up and down the Gryffindor table and she wondered if he could be any help to her plan. She then glanced at her watch and realized she should be in the Slytherin common room.
"I don't believe it!" Remus was saying, "Peter isn't here again!"
"He's been acting rather dodgy lately." Sirius said uncertainly.
As the entirely dedicated aouthor of this fanfic, I'm not sure if it would have been good or bad if they glanced over at the Slytherin table. But if they had, they would've noticed that quite a few of the older ones weren't at their usual places either.
Peter shivered slightly as he was led into the dungeons and down a long, dark hallway. Snape was leading him deeper and deeper into the corridor when finally they reached the end.
"Snake snout." Snape said quickly. The dead end in front of them suddenly had a wide hole in it, wide enough for them to crawl into. Snape pushed Peter forward roughly and he entered the Slytherin common room. A group of about seventeen of them were down there, many of them Peter recognized. There was Lucius Malfoy, Antonin Dolohov, Evan Rosier, Augustus Rookwood, and, to his surprise, the DADA teacher, Bellatrix Lestrange. There were many others he didn't recognize, but they intimidated him all the same.
"Here we have," Bellatrix declared, her dark hair bouncing as she stepped to the middle of the circle of Slytherins and Peter, "the followers of the one and only Dark Lord that reside in Hogwarts."
Peter's eyes bugged out and his eyebrows flew up to his hair in surprise. "What have I gotten myself into?" he thought miserably.
"He asked me to come here to unleash our plan. My--ahem--pet," the people around Bella laughed, except for Peter, who did not understand the joke, "Is getting very impatient. He's been begging me for life and I plan on letting him loose very soon."
"We're not going to have a lot of time to discuss this. I still have my teaching duties and the meeting cannot go on without me. So disperse, rebels, and we'll continue with this in two days." Bellatrix snapped.
"Snape, you never said anything about me joining the dark side!" Peter hissed as Snape led him back to the Great Hall.
"I guess it's just a bonus." Snape said slyly. Peter looked at him and shock.
"So I'll be seeing you at the next meeting?" Snape asked as they neared the doors of the Great Hall where everyone was having dessert.
"No!" The word came out of Peter's mouth before he had time to think about them, "I am not going to become a death eater!"
Snape glared at him.
"You may see it that way now, but you'll be crawling back to us soon, Pettigrew. Just watch." Snape spat, rushing into the Great Hall. Peter sighed and walked in after him. He found his friends and plopped down next to Sirius.
"Where have you been, Wormtail?" Remus asked immeadiately.
"Snape held me up before dinner and that delayed me. We got into a duel and I had to go to Madame Pomfrey to get the pig snout he gave me removed." Peter lied. Remus nodded symapethically. Peter started to eat most of the desserts laid in front of him, having missed the main meal.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The next day was one of those rare days that the 7th years didn't get much homework. (Stressing the word R-A-R-E) So, James and Lily decided to put the finishing touches on the dance. The sat in the Head's Room with plans all over the floors and looking up rules in a Hogwarts rule book Dumbledore lent them to find out what they could and could not do. They recieved a letter of confirmation from the Witches Three, saying that they would perform that night. They had worked out the menu with the House Elves down in the kitchen and talked to Filch (though James detested doing so) about where they should hang up the decorations. Dumbledore announced to the school two days after all of this that the dance is going to be held on February 14th. It was now January 17th, which also happened to be the full moon.
Remus wasn't very much like himself that day, as he was every full moon. He kept quiet through all the classes, not even raising his hand to answer a question. He appeared to be lost in thought all that day.
"Fifteen points from Gryffindor, Black, for not cooperating." Professor Lestrange snapped in DADA.
"How is not knowing the answer not cooperating?" Sirius asked, glaring at her icily.
"You know the answer, Mr. Black, you are just unwilling to give it. That will be another five points for back talk." Lestrange said, not even looking up from her papers. "Now, students, get back to your work or you're all getting D's."
The students didn't make a single noise or comment during the rest of the class, not even Sirius.
Now, seeing as it was late into January, the 7th year's N.E.W.T.'s were approaching sooner than they realized. Their first test was in May, only about four months away. Okay, so this seemed like a decade to James and Sirius, but the rest of the 7th years were begining to get a bit stressed...
"Sirius could you get me that quill?" Hazel asked, looking up from her parchment. The 7th year Gryffindors were in the common room, all sixteen of them, working on an essay from Professor Salandar they dubbed the most difficult essay ever assigned.
"I just got comfortable, do I have to?" Sirius moaned. Hazel's hand quivered slightly.
"JUST GET ME THE FREAKING QUILL, SIRIUS!" Hazel screamed, her face turning red. Sirius sighed and lifted himself off the armchair to retrieve the quill laying on a desk across the room.
As you can see, the 7th years were not exactly themselves. A certain Frank Longbottom proved so in Transfiguration class...
"Mr. Longbottom, could you get me that stack of papers in the back?" Professor McGonagal asked politely. The rest of the class was silently working on a writing assignment she just gave them. Frank sighed and quickly brought the stack of second year's papers up to the teacher's desk. She glanced at the first one and said,
"Not, those ones, the ones next to them."
Frank heaved another sigh and trudged back to the back of the class again, and exchanged the second year's papers for the fourth year's papers.
"No, Mr. Longbottom, the ones on the right, not the left. If you would kindly go and exchange them--"
"NO! I REFUSE! I DECLINE! I GIVE UP! NO! NADA! I JUST WANT TO DO MY PAPER!" Frank yelled wildly, taking his seat and throwing the fourth year's papers all around the room.
Frank ended up getting detention that day. But that was nothing compared to what happened down in the dungeons...
Professor Salandar was walking up and down the rows, checking the 7th year Gryffindor and Slytherin's cauldrens to see if they concocted them correcly.
"Good." he said shortly to Lily.
"Good." he said to Remus.
"Good." he said to James.
This went on until...
"Green?" Professor Salandar looked at a paling Peter with disgust, "Your potion is green, Pettigrew. It is supposed to be red. Red, Pettigrew, not green."
And as Salandar continued onto the other students, poor Peter burst into tears.
And as if the pressure from the teachers to study every waking moment of their present life was not enough, everyone was just plain grouchy. This includes one of the main characters of the fanfic, Ms. Lily Evans.
"So, Lily, you want to take a stroll around the lake? There was something I wanted to discuss about the dance." James said casually during dinner. Lily, like many of the other 7th years, had her nose in a book. She put it down stiffly and looked at James in shock.
"You expect me to give up time from studying to just TAKE A WALK? You've got to be kidding! I'm under enough pressure as it is, James, and the dance is all set, I can't even imagine having something else to worry about!" Lily yelled. James was not only shocked at her words, but also her appearance. Her bright green eyes were usually teeming with life. Now, they had large bags forming beneath them and were even a bit swollen. Lily hadn't bothered to do her makeup that morning. Her lips were colorless and her usually rosy cheeks were pale and limp. She was so stressed that she and James moved out of the Head's Room and back into their dormitories. There, they could exchange notes with the other 7th years.
"Lils, it would only take a minute--"
"I don't HAVE a minute, James! Take a look around! All of the 7th years are under this pressure! If I don't study, I'll fail the N.E.W.T.'s, I'll never get a job, my family will disown me, and I'll end up living in a cardboard box!" Lily cried shrilly. James watched with disappointment and a tad of fear as Lily glared at him and returned to her book. He turned to Sirius, who had heard all of the conversation and was laughing to himself.
"Can you believe that? She's so wrapped up in these damn N.E.W.T.'s that she doesn't even have time for me!" James hissed. Sirius collected himself long enough to say,
"Don't worry, it'll be over in.. four months. Beside, we have a Quiddich game tonight! Us versus Ravenclaw."
James sighed happily. If his second love was too wrapped up in homework right now, he could always turn to his first love, Quiddich. But he soon found out even Quiddich dissapointed him.
As James, Sirius, and five other scarlet cloaked students walked onto the field to face seven blue cloaked players, he immeadiately noticed that the entire group of seventh years, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, were missing. Even with everyone's various classes, they had all been assigned about five to seven papers that night and were, no doubt, sacrificing watching the game to make sure they were composed perfectly. James glared at the crowd that consisted of only years one through six. Madame Hooch soon blew her whistle and fifteen brooms rose into the air.
James's heart wasn't very much in it as he scouted the pitch for the snitch. (A/N another rythme! Pitch and snitch!) Just knowing that Lily wasn't out there watching him, not even Remus or Peter, dampened his already low spirits. The oppisite seeker, Carl Chestler, seemed so much more alert than James was. "That's only because he's a sixth year..." James thought miserably.
I'm sad to say Gryffindor lost that match, 150-90. That brought them down from first place to second, only behind Slytherin. James and Sirius trudged back up to the Gryffindor common room, muddy, depressed, and grumpy. They were joined by a disgruntled Frank Longbottom and they entered the common room to thirteen 7th years sprawled on the floor, the couches or a desk. A couple of fifth years were down there, but most of the younger students cleared out of the common room and worked in the library, very much afraid of the seventeen year olds' wrath and grumpiness. No one looked up as the three muddy Quiddich players entered the common room to the scratching of Quills and the frequent sound of papers being tossed around. In fact, there was about a hundred pieces of parchment all over the place, mixed in together. No one even passed a simple glance as the three of them crept to their dormitory and changed into their normal robes, came back down, and started the truck load of homework ahead of them.
"Lily, love, are you done with that History of Magic book Binns wants us to read?" James asked cautiously. Lily stared up at him with red, swollen eyes.
"Take it." she said shortly. James smiled gratefully at her and snatched the book from a pile the 7th years made. It was a bit like a mini-library, you could say. Lily soon returned to her essay on how Saturn effects the wizarding community if it is in the 5th house and if it is in the 6th house.
Days went by without trouble. The 7th years yelled at anyone who made peep while they were trying to study, the teachers gave them a ton of homework, and Sirius continued to get more and more points taken from Gryffindor at Bellatrix's classes.
"Today is a very important class," Professor Lestrange announced, "It will surely be on your N.E.W.T.'s."
Every student suddenly perked up, hungry for information on the N.E.W.T.'s.
"This is a very difficult procedere, so I suggesst you pay attention." Professor Lestrange looked directly at Sirius as she said this. Maybe she looked at him because she knew he would not pay attention. Either that or because Sirius was testing out a toy wand he created while everyone else was studying...
"This is the Patronus charm. You use this charm against what is called a dementor. Dementors are lethal, rotten creatures that can do much worse than kill you. When a dementor gets near enough, it can suck the soul right out of your mouth and you'll become one of them. The incantation is Expecto Patronum. But it takes a lot more than just saying a few silly words. You have to think of the happiest memory of your life and THEN say the words. Just to make sure you guys can defend yourselves correctly, I've brought a little something for you all to practice on." the professor said slyly. With the flick of her wand, she conjured up a rattling trunk. There appeared to be something trapped inside it, hungry to get out.
"Raise your wands and start trying to think of your happiest memory." Professor Lestrange demanded. Sixteen wands rose into the air and Professor Lestrange opened the trunk with the flick of her wand. . .
The students were shocked to see what came out of the trunk. A tall, hooded creature glided out and raised it's scabbed, thin hands. It breathed in and out and a cold breeze swept over the students. It was growning colder and colder and poor Molly fainted from fright. The dementor continued to take deep, rattling breaths as it slowly glided towards the students. Different thoughts ran to through the heads of the students, thoughts and memories that were long forgotten.
"Go on! Say the words!" Professor Lestrange instructed. But it seemed everyone was lost for words and only James could whisper the words,
"Ex-expecto patronum."
A light silver mist came out of James's wand and took the shape of a phoenix. The phoenix, however soon disappeared before it could reach the approaching dementor.
"C'MON! SAY THE WORDS!" Professor Lestrange yelled. James glanced over at Lily, who had gone as pale as a ghost. But when he glanced over at his best friend, Sirius looked set and ready.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" James and Sirius yelled together. A stronger phoenix came out of James's wand this time, and a hippogriff came out of Sirius's wand. They charged through the dementor and it fled, out of the classroom, and to their surprise, out into the Forbidden Forest.
"Nice job, boys. 5 points to Gryffindor." Professor Lestrange said this as if she wished she wasn't. The boys took their seats and glanced around the classroom. Arthur was trying to awake an unconsious Molly, Lily and Hazel were huddled together in a corner, shuddering and twitching, Remus was taking deep, steady breaths, and it looked like Peter had burst into tears. A few girls had also cried and the rest of the boys looked very shaken. It seemed like only James and Sirius were completely sane at the moment.
"Class dismissed. Anyone who needs to go down to the Hospital Wing for treatment may do so." Professor Lestrange snapped. The sixteen of them filed out of the classroom. Arthur helped Molly down to the hospital wing, and was followed by Frank and Alice. Alice was shivering and twitching and looked like she just faced 1,000 dementors and not just one. Hazel, who looked like an escaped lunatic, twitching and muttered to herself, soon followed.
"You feeling alright enough to make it through the next class?" James asked Lily, whose left eye was still a bit twitchy.
"I'll b-be f-fine." Lily stuttered.
"Did you guys hear the voices?" Peter questioned, sniffling through the sentence. The other four nodded feverently.
"I heard when my mum and I got into that horrible row when I said I wanted to leave the family." Sirius said, shuddering.
"I had to relive that memory when I was bitten.." Remus said quietly.
"What did you guys hear?" Remus asked Lily and James.
"It was the oddest thing, because I wasn't seeing the past, I was seeing the future kind of. I was a bit older, maybe somewhere in my late twenties and Voldemort was at my door and I was yelling something, but I couldn't tell what. Then, there was a whole lot of green light." James said uncertainly.
"R-really? My w-was something l-like that, t-too. I was older and I w-was y-yelling at You-Know-Who a-and I was st-standing over s-something in a b-bundle. It l-looked like it m-may have been a b-baby." Lily stammered. They turned to Peter, as if questioning him.
"I saw, um.." Peter wasn't sure if he wanted to tell what he saw. What he saw was the Slytherin common room with all of those death eaters. "Well, I can't very much remember, you know how I have those memory problems." Peter lied.
Remus nodded to show he understood and the five of them reached the Hogwarts gounds for Care of Magical Creatures class.
CoMC class was quite a bore. Lectures, lectures, N.E.W.T.'s, lectures, lectures, healer, lectures, lectures was all Professor Kettleburn talked about. Alice, Frank, Molly, Hazel, and Arthur returned half way through the class. Hazel, looking much more refreshed and less twitchy, stood next to Lily and they conversed in whispers about what went on through their heads during the dementor attack. Frankly, neither of them felt safe on the Hogwarts grounds, knowing the dementor was lurking somewhere in the forest.
Rachy52493 and __Marauder__Girl__, I want to thank you both so much for your constant reviews. You've made me feel on top of the world today!