518Plot: The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.
Disclaimer: Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)
Quick note (6/19/10): Same deal with this chapter—just another quick edit. A bit of surface polishing, some fleshing out, etc.. Reread if you like, but fundamentally, it's the same as before (although hopefully less cringe-worthy).
Chapter Two: Wings of Revenge
Once the Rogues had returned to their own compartment and the door was firmly shut behind them, Jamie was the first to burst out, her tone indicating that she was severely distraught.
"My god are we in for some serious embarrassment," she groaned. She plunked herself down by the window and glared out at the passing landscape, as if it were the cause of all this drama.
"Tell me about it," Lily replied, equally frustrated. "Give them a few days and the whole school will have seen that picture. I mean, honestly, did you see our faces?" She shook her head bitterly.
"How could I not?" said Hannah. "We looked like a bunch of disoriented banshees."
Lily slumped into her seat, looking helplessly up at the others. "So what are we going to do?"
"Oh, come on." Regan was smirking now. "That prank was lame. We can do plenty better than that—sticking a moron to the train window? I'll bet Pettigrew was the mastermind behind that one." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, if you're up for it, I reckon I've got an idea." She wiggled her eyebrows; the gesture made her look somewhat deranged, but that was okay, because it was often when Regan got thinking like a crazy person that some of their most brilliant pranks were born.
"Are we talking revenge?" Hannah's face lit up at the prospect. As a rule, her excitement level shot up about ten notches whenever somebody so much as mentioned an opportunity to harass the Marauders. It didn't matter if it was for payback or an unjustified attack—she was all for it.
Regan nodded enthusiastically as she spoke. "Major revenge."
"Well, whatever it is you've got in mind, I'm in," was Hannah's wholehearted reply, but then she paused for a moment to consider. "Well, unless you're planning to offer me up as bait or something. Or make them sing. Oh, dear Merlin, please don't make them sing. My eardrums will never be the same again."
"Agreed," said Lily matter-of-factly. "Okay, Regan, shoot," she said to her dark-haired friend, and she and the others leaned in to the centre of the compartment, listening intently.
Fifteen minutes later, Lily and Jamie stood in silence, practically glued to the wall and watching with bated breath as Regan and Hannah crept along the carpeted hallway and kneeled in front of the Marauders' compartment door. Lily, acting as a lookout, kept her eyes peeled for anyone who might come along and get suspicious (which was very possible, you know, considering the whole flattening-selves-against-wall, crawling-around-on-the-floor look they had going on). Worse still, if that person who came along happened to be a supporter of the other side (and indeed, the Marauders had plenty of contacts in other houses; somehow, despite their obnoxious personalities, popularity was one area where they truly did have the Rogues beat), they might give them away to their targets. That could not happen.
She bit her lip as she saw Hannah slide the door open just wide enough to slide a shrunken camera inside the compartment. (The Marauders weren't the only ones with state-of-the-art equipment.) Through the crack, Lily could faintly hear the Marauders' conversation.
"So...," said a voice that belonged, undoubtedly, to James, "are we really going to use this as blackmail? 'Cause, you know, I get a fair laugh just out of looking at it." She heard a short chuckle; it sounded like he had that horrific picture in front of him as he spoke. Lily had to wonder for a moment if that really was James speaking. Why on Earth would he suggest that they keep the picture to themselves? James had never hesitated to humiliate the Rogues before now. Had he somehow developed a conscience over the summer? She shook off the ridiculous thought. James Potter, arrogant, merciless prankster, with a conscience? She would have laughed out loud if she hadn't suddenly remembered where she was and what she was supposed to be doing.
Keeping an eye on the corridor all the while, she tuned back into their conversation.
"Prongs, you idiot. Of course we are," said the deep, husky voice of Sirius Black. "Wormtail just had his first stroke of genius and you don't want to exploit it to its full potential? What is wrong with you, mate?"
The compartment was silent for a moment or two, and Lily took this time to be briefly amused at the fact that Peter had come up with the prank after all. Then James spoke again, and he sounded as though he'd reluctantly returned to his old way of thinking.
"So... we can obviously get a few up in Gryffindor Tower, but where else?"
Remus was the next to speak, if Lily had indeed identified the voice correctly. "I'm sure Abbott would do us a favour and stick some up in the Hufflepuff common room."
From here, there was an indecipherable buzz of excited discussion as they (presumably) considered various other locations for the blackmail picture. Amidst their conversation, Lily heard the words, "Great Hall", "girls' toilets" and "wallpaper". She felt her stomach tighten as she realised with further conviction what terrible humiliation the Rogues could be in for. She didn't even want to think about what the context of that last snippet of conversation might have been.
"Guys, er..." Peter's rather high-pitched voice interrupted the animated exchange of ideas. "I don't know about all this. I mean, they've probably got a lot of pranks up their sleeves already and—" she thought she heard him gulp, though it was hard to tell "—they're going to get us back bad for this one."
Lily smirked with satisfaction, at least until she heard the other three Marauders burst into laughter. It was definitely an accomplishment to inspire fear so early on in the game—but Peter? He was a total coward. Just about anything could inspire fear in that boy. The rest of them, on the other hand... They had a more conceited attitude toward the feud. Even when the Rogues one-upped them, they refused to admit—even for a moment—that they been beaten. It was one of the many reasons they were so infuriating.
"They're girls, Wormtail," said Sirius in an infuriatingly smug manner. "How bad can they possible be?"
At these words, Lily pulled a disgusted face. It was typical of the Marauders—especially Sirius—to think themselves superior on account of something as insignificant as gender, but it never ceased to annoy Lily. Feeling a renewed sense of urgency, she turned to her friends.
"Hurry up!" she whispered as quietly and as insistently as possible, when she noticed that Hannah had become quite distracted by Sirius's insulting words. Hannah shook her head quickly as if to jostle herself back to reality and hastened her attempts to position the camera; a moment later, Lily received a thumbs-up.
Now for the tricky part, she thought to herself, wincing in anticipation as Regan slowly drew her wand and pointed it at the gap between the doors.
She could see her inhale deeply, preparing herself, and then...
"Apparito avium!"
She spoke the incantation in nothing more than a whisper, and then everything fell silent - but only for a brief moment.
"What the hell?"
Lily could hear angry, confused voices drifting toward them through the compartment door—which Hannah promptly drew shut—and, judging by the tiny yellow feathers that had fluttered out into the corridor (not to mention the mad chirping), the spell had worked. The Marauders' compartment was now filled with a flock of vicious canaries—several dozen of them, at least. Everything had gone exactly according to plan. Lily grinned. Excellent.
"Quick!" Hannah hissed. She ushered them all back into their own compartment as Lily tried hard to suppress the laughter that was rising from her chest. Once inside, Regan pulled the door shut and Jamie, Lily's only rival where the art of Charms was concerned, stood back, brandishing her wand.
"Ostium compegi!" she uttered; with a burst of silver light, a large golden padlock appeared on the door.
Between the four of them, there was a general exhalation of relief. It was comforting to know that the Marauders were safely bolted out of their compartment—that they were on this side and the enemy was on the other, and there was no way those four horrible boys could possibly barge in and start harassing them. If their reaction to the prank was anything like the Rogues' had been, the issue of confronting their assailants would undoubtedly be the first thing that crossed their minds once they managed to ward off the savage yellow birds. Judging by the muffled sounds of panic they could hear from their compartment, however, the Marauders were still in the midst of a full-blown struggle, so even if they could get into the compartment, that confrontation wouldn't be happening anytime soon.
"Hey, I think I can hear something..." Hannah had her ear pressed firmly against the dividing wall and was listening intently, trying to pick out individual noises. Her eyes popped open with excitement as she eavesdropped, and she called out to the others. "Quick, get over here! This is brilliant!"
Lily hurriedly put her own cheek on the wall. In an instant, she could hear the distinct voices again. This time, however, they weren't nearly as smug as before.
"Argh!" she heard Remus cry out in distress.
"It's pecking me!" shouted Peter. "Ow! Somebody help me! MUMMY, HELP ME!"
"Get these bloody things off m—SHIT! THAT HURT!"
Lily laughed out loud at James' desperate voice. There were a few crashing noises here, a few yelps over there, and even a high-pitched shriek, which, Lily decided, could only have come from Peter. In all, this had to be one of the funniest things she had ever witnessed. She could hardly wait until they got the camera back.
The camera?
The camera…
Oh, crap.
"Regan!" she hissed; Regan's head whipped away from the wall at once. "We forgot to get the camera!"
"Damn it! How could I forget?" she practically shrieked, jumping off the seat in a panic and racing for the exit. "Jamie! Lily! Somebody with brains—how do you counteract this locking charm you cast on the door?"
"Did you not learn anything in first year?" Jamie demanded.
"Yes," she said defensively. "I learned how to make the pile of books fly out from under Flitwick's feet. In case you haven't yet been enlightened, it's just slightly more interesting than actually listening to him." Regan shook her head quickly, as if suddenly remembering the pressing situation. "Besides, now's not the time for chitchat, you nerd. Can you do something?"
"Yes—stand aside," said Jamie, and pointed her wand at the apparently impenetrable padlock. "Alohomora!"
The lock exploded quite violently, sending shards of metal into the air around them. Lily shielded her face purely out of instinct, but before they could reach her, the tiny pieces of lock disappeared into soft clouds of blue smoke. Regan, without even waiting for the explosion to die down, bolted out the compartment door.
"If it was that simple," said Hannah, "couldn't the Marauders have just cast that spell if they wanted to get in?"
Lily and Jamie smirked at one another. "Nope," said the former. "That was a special locking charm we had on there. It could only have been opened from one side—this one."
Just then, Regan flew back into the compartment with the camera in hand.
"Great job!" Lily breathed in relief. Unfortunately, she'd spoken too soon—she could tell that something was wrong when a hand closed around Regan's ankle, pulling her to the ground.
"Regan!" screamed Lily, frantically trying to grab her friend's arms and tear her away from James, who was on the floor, pulling the struggling dark-haired girl in the opposite direction. "Let go of her, you idiot!"
"Take the camera and close the door!" Regan cried, throwing the loot from her mission into the compartment. Hannah caught it deftly, but spoke up in protest.
"No, Regan! We can't leave you out there!" But Sirius, Remus and Peter were already advancing rapidly, ready to take the camera, or attack, or do something worse and even more Marauder-like. If they didn't act fast, the results would not be good. Without another thought, Lily took hold of the door and shut it with all the force she could muster.
"Ostium compegi!" Jamie blurted out in a rush, and the padlock reappeared.
Lily fell back into one of the seats, panting. "Well, that just sucks. But at least we got the camera." Then she looked up in alarm as she remembered the purpose of their dangerous quest. "Hannah, quickly! Have you got it?"
"Yeah, just gimme a sec," replied Hannah, who was just as flustered. She reached up to the overhead rack and, with Jamie's help, pulled her trunk down. She then opened it and rummaged through her belongings, in the end pulling out a tray and a small bottle of amber-coloured potion. She placed the tray on the compartment floor, emptied about a quarter of the bottle's contents into it, and turned to Jamie, who was holding the camera.
"You'll probably want to enlarge it first," Lily advised. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the camera in Jamie's hands. "Engorgio."
"Thanks." Jamie reached into the side of the device and pulled out what looked like a small tag. "Here." Hannah took it from her and submersed it in the liquid. The tag began to change at once; it grew to about five times its original size, and a full-colour, full-motion image appeared quite clearly upon it. Lily could make out the Marauders and about fifty ruffled balls of feathers. James appeared to be fending off about a dozen with a potions book, while Sirius was swatting violently at his head, where a pair of particularly vicious birds were pecking at his scalp and plucking out some of his hair; Peter was cowering in a corner, and a large gang of canaries had managed to hoist Remus up to the ceiling and were repeatedly bashing him against it. Fortunately for the Rogues (or at least their blackmailing purposes), all four boys wore comical, frightened expressions on their faces. This picture was the perfect recipe for a boatload of embarrassment. There was no doubt about it—they had outdone the Marauders in this round.
"This is perfect," Lily giggled, but the glory didn't last long. In fact, as soon as she spoke, there was a deafening bang and the door burst open. All four of the Marauders stumbled in, followed by Regan, who was struggling under Sirius's firm grasp on her arms. James and Remus held bird cages packed with stunned canaries, and all four boys wore expressions of rage and were covered from head to toe in feathers and scratches, their clothes thoroughly torn.
"I suppose you think this is funny?" James deadpanned.
"Well, yeah," admitted Hannah, evidently holding back laughter. She turned momentarily to Lily. "And hey, Lils, I thought you said they wouldn't be able to get in!"
Lily shrugged while maintaining a steady glare in the Marauders' direction. "Well, they shouldn't have been able to. Unless they used a really, really powerful explosion charm. But they obviously wouldn't do that, because it could cause lasting damage to the train, which happens to be school property." She gave the boys a reprimanding look and gestured at the door, which had practically been blown to smithereens.
"You want to talk about damage?" said Remus in a dangerously low voice. He pointed at his shredded robes. "I'll show you damage."
"Well, that's what you get," said Jamie, shrugging.
Peter held up a fist and shouted pathetically, "You'll pay for this!"
At this, Lily exchanged a look of silent amusement with Jamie. "We'll pay? Oh, I don't think so. You see, you haven't met my little friend here..." Lily reached back and pulled the photograph out of the tray. She stretched it out and put it out in front of her for the Marauders to see, making sure to keep a good grip on it in case they made any sudden moves to snatch it out of her grasp. All four of the Marauders underwent a transformation from angry to angrier as they laid eyes on the picture.
"You don't know what you're getting yourselves into," growled Sirius, who was glaring at them all. "You'd better pull out while you still can, because let me tell you, it's only going to get worse from here. Hand it over, Evans."
"Oh, we have no intention of doing that," Jamie countered sweetly. "We were going to propose a trade, but..."
"We decided it wasn't worth it," Hannah finished. Ours is much better, as you can see."
"It doesn't matter," said Sirius firmly. "We wouldn't barter with the likes of you anyway."
Lily raised her eyebrows and brandished the picture. "Well, in any case, you can say goodbye to your dignity—in about fifteen minutes, this will have reached every compartment in the train." She drew the picture back and gesturing toward her overfed but nevertheless very competent owl, Griggins.
"Oh no, you don't," James threatened. "Send that out, and we'll do the same with ours. Yours might be more humiliating, but you've got to admit, this is pretty bad. And besides, I'll bet you anything my owl's faster than that feather duster."
"Hey!" said Lily, offended for her owl's sake. "Leave Griggins alone. So what if he's had a few too many cauldron cakes—"
"You feed him cauldron cakes? No wonder he's so fat."
"Shut up, you two, that's not the point," said Hannah impatiently. "I say we just duel here and now. That'll settle it, don't you think?" She whipped out her wand, raising an eyebrow in a challenging gesture. In an instant, Sirius matched it; he was as ready as she was.
Regan suddenly spoke up, having gone unnoticed by everyone until now. "Err, guys? Think you might have forgotten something?" She was still standing with the Marauders, with one of Sirius' hands clasped firmly around her upper arm. Somehow, even amidst his preparations for the proposed duel, he'd managed to forget that he was still keeping her prisoner. All heads turned in Regan's direction.
"Oh, whatever," said Sirius, shoving her back into the group of girls. She stumbled and nearly fell to the ground, but was caught by Hannah just in time. "Now are we going to duel or not?"
"Hell yeah," said Hannah, steadying herself once again. Beside her, Regan pulled out her own wand. On the other side, Peter had done the same, but the remaining two Marauders simply kept a hand in their pockets, ready to act defensively at a moment's notice but not entirely enthused by the idea of launching into a full-blown duel if they didn't have to. Lily decided to mirror this precaution, knowing that she couldn't do anything to stop Hannah at this point, but also knowing that, if she joined in, she would get in serious trouble (and there was no way she wanted to get on the teachers' bad sides when she'd just been appointed as Head Girl. Absolutely no way). She paused with her fingers halfway into the pocket of her robes when she realised it was Potter she was copying from. Again the questions entered her mind: Potter, a role model? As if. She had little time to dwell on this anomaly, however, because Sirius and Hannah were all ready to go ahead with the duel—by the time Lily brought herself focus back to reality, they were already beginning the countdown.
"Alright then," said Sirius dangerously. "Just don't go off crying to McGonagall when I whoop your butt, Milton."
"Oh, you don't have to worry. There's no way in hell that's going to happen, because you're not going to win."
"Oh yeah? Well, we'll see about that. Ready? Three... two... one—"
"Stop. This is ridiculous."
Normally, an intervention like this would go completely unnoticed—or at least blatantly ignored—by Sirius and Hannah, who were so absorbed in their not-so-friendly competition that nothing could stop them from firing a thousand hexes at one another. In this case, however, it was the shock more than anything that made them stop what they were doing and look up at the person who had interrupted them. It wasn't because of the words that had been spoken—it was because of who had spoken them.
James.
Lily, too, had to do a double take. His behaviour had already surprised her today, but this was taking it to a whole new level—he'd just reprimanded his long-time best friend and partner-in-crime, not to mention suggested that duelling was "ridiculous". This, coming from the mouth of somebody who'd spent almost his entire school life hexing unsuspecting students in the grounds? Rich, Lily thought. But... at the same time, it planted a little seed of hope. Maybe.
"What happened to you over the summer, Prongs?" Sirius demanded, lowering his wand arm and turning to regard his friend as if he'd just declared his wholehearted desire to ditch the Marauders and join forces with the Rogues. "It's just a little duel. You've never had a problem with me hexing her before." He gestured at Hannah as he spoke these last words. It was true; Sirius and Hannah had duelled on many previous occasions—on the train, in the corridors, out in the grounds, even in class a couple of times—and James had never done anything to stop them. In fact, he'd always given Sirius his full support. But now...
James looked torn as he tried to find his voice. "Sorry. It's just..." He paused, sighing. "Maybe we shouldn't start things off this early, you know? I mean... we haven't even gotten to school yet, and we're already getting ready to jinx the crap out of one another. We'll have plenty of time for pranks and duels once we get there. But at this rate, it's going to be first year all over again." The collective mood in the compartment darkened at the mention of that very first day on the train, when feud had unofficially begun."So... why don't we just hold off for a while—call a truce?"
Nobody spoke; everybody just stared at the ground and waited for someone else to break the shell-shocked silence. Hannah and Sirius looked annoyed at the premature termination of their duel; Peter looked confused, Remus thoughtful, and Regan sort of impatient—and there was no way Jamie would speak unless somebody else spoke first.
As for Lily... There was a bit of emotional conflict going on in her head right now. It was practically second nature for her to contradict anything and everything that Potter said, mainly because, well... he was Potter. But suddenly, she found herself inclined to agree with him. There wasn't a single part of his argument that she could honestly say was wrong, or untrue, or unjustified... or anything negative, for that matter. He had a point. A strange, never-before-heard-from part of her wanted to speak up and vouch for him, tell the others that he was right. The rest of her screamed that this would be completely ridiculous—that the day she admitted to agreeing with Potter about anything was the day that the universe would implode.
But she couldn't stop herself. Before she knew it, she was stepping forward and opening her mouth without even pausing to think. "He has a point," she said with a shrug of her shoulders. This was met with stunned expressions from most of the others, but she went on anyway. "Well, I think a truce sounds decent. We should just trade—our picture for yours. Besides, we're going to be so swamped with essays in the first few weeks of school that we probably won't have time for pranking—not for a little while, anyway." Lily didn't need eyes in the back of her head to know that Hannah and Regan were rolling theirs; as far as taking school seriously went, the Rogues were divided right down the middle: Lily and Jamie, the overachievers, and Regan and Hannah, both of whom could dream of snagging an O only for their Quidditch skills. It was unfortunate that the only subject at Hogwarts they excelled at was the one that wasn't graded.
"They're right," said Remus, who hadn't spoken until now. "We should get a feel for how seventh year's going to be, and then, when we're all settled in, we can start the pranks." When Sirius looked outraged at the fact that two of his team members were turning on him, Remus added, "Come on, Padfoot. A couple of weeks won't kill you."
Sirius made a disgusted noise in his throat. "Whatever." He reached into his pocket, pulled out the picture, and handed it to James. "You do the honours then, if you're so keen."
Lily hardly noticed Hannah retrieving their own photograph from her robe pocket, but when she gently placed it in Lily's hand, she froze up and stared incredulously at her friend.
"What?" Hannah whispered, sounding a little bit annoyed. "It's not like this was my decision."
Reluctantly, Lily took it from her and moved slowly forward to perform the exchange. She couldn't help but be a tad suspicious—what if this whole newfound-maturity thing was just an act? What if James simply took the photograph, laughed in her face and ran off with both blackmail items in hand? That would certainly be a very immature, very Potter thing to do… She prepared herself for any nonsense, gripping the picture with tense fingers.
But as Lily held out her own photo, he did the same. She put out her other hand; he put his out, too. It was almost... well, awkward. Wait a second—since when were things awkward between her and Potter? For that matter, since when were they anything but absolutely explosive? Their interactions were always effortless, but only because it was easy to hate somebody like him. Awkwardness, however, implied slightly more neutral feelings. Who would ever have thought neutral could be such a bad thing?
Just take it, Lily told herself firmly, and, following her own advice, she thrust out her free hand to grasp the paper. In the process, she mistakenly brushed James's hand with her own, and her breath caught in her throat. The sensation had her paralysed; his skin sent a shock through her, almost as if there were electric currents running off his fingers. Don't be stupid, Lily. That's ridiculous. That's… improper.
Inadvertently, she looked up at him, only to find that he was staring down at her as well. From his gaze, Lily gathered that he was just as confused as she had felt a mere moment ago. She found that it was almost impossible to break eye contact—his eyes narrowed and his forehead creased in thought, while she felt her own expression becoming increasingly puzzled as well. Finally, she was able to let her eyes drop to the picture in her hand and she pulled away, letting go of the other.
"Truce?" Lily proposed shakily.
"Truce," he replied in a voice almost as unsteady as her own.
Lily turned on her heel and stepped back over to the others, realising as she did so that she'd been holding her breath for quite some time.
"Alright, that does it," Sirius announced, unable to disguise the cynicism in his voice. "No pranks until we call off the truce. Thanks a lot, Prongs, Evans."
There was a general nodding around the compartment, followed by more silence. For a while, nobody looked at anybody else. There was no bickering, no physical fighting, no talking at all. Just silence accompanied by an undeniable tension in the air.
This, Lily had to admit, was a very strange start to the year for the Marauders and the Rogues.
A/N: So that's the two-part introduction all done with now. I know these two chapters haven't explained very much, but their purpose was mainly to establish the feud between the teams and introduce the, er, changes that are going to come about in their seventh year. Did I succeed? Is there anything you're really confused about? Any comments, questions, suggestions, criticisms—you know what to do. :) Also, if you're interested, make sure to check out the website I made for this story. There are pictures, profiles, polls—and a bunch of other things, but none of them begin with 'p' and I don't want to ruin the alliteration. I like alliterations, in case you haven't yet noticed. Anyway, the link is at the top of my profile. Make sure to take a look if you have the time. :)
Thanks for reading!
~PrincessEarth