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Getting Sirius


Lily and James hurried through the dark of the tunnel beneath the Whomping Willow, their wands held high. James was trying desperately to think of how he was supposed to attract the attention of Sirius without getting that of Remus Lupin’s as well. He hoped the boys hadn’t decided to leave the Shack tonight as they’d done before… He clutched the parchment they’d torn down from the Fat Lady’s frame in one hand, along with the Marauders’s Map, his knuckles white as he gripped his glowing wand.

When they reached the tunnel, he’d thought of nothing spectacular to do, and so he decided the best thing was to unlatch the trap door and open it just enough to call for Sirius. “Stay low,” he commanded Lily, pointing a few feet away, “Don’t come too close. And if I say run, you bloody run. I mean it.”

Lily rolled her eyes, “You’re being far too dramatic about this whole --”

“Evans. For Remus’s sake, okay? If I say run, you bloody run.”

She didn’t argue when he put it that way and she hovered a couple feet away from where he stood, half up the little ladder that led up into the Shack, his shaking hand on the latch for the door. He took a deep breath, and then pushed it open slowly. The door creaked and moonlight pooled in his eyes as he peeked through the small gap between trapdoor and floor…

“Are they there?” Lily whispered.

“Shh,” James said, sticking a finger across his mouth to quiet her. He looked back up and saw, far off across the Shack, the lumpy form of two dogs laying before the ash-filled fireplace in a small nest of blankets - the grey wolf tangled about in the limbs of the shaggy black dog. A lump rose up in James’s throat and he glanced back at Lily, wondering what she would think of Snuffles… trying to decide how he might warn her… or else warn Sirius that she was there so he could transform before she saw him… But nothing came to mind and he turned back to the two dogs. Please don’t hate me if Evans finds out about you, he thought… Then he called out lowly, “Sirius… Sirius… Pssst. Sirius…”

The shaggy black dog’s ear twitched.

“Sirius… come,” James tried… and he smirked with humor.

Lily rolled her eyes. “He’s not a dog, bloody hell, you can’t just say come and expect a ruddy person to do it!”

James looked over at her, one eyebrow raised.

James had all he could do to bite his tongue.

He turned back to calling Sirius. “Siiiiii-riiiii-uuuuuus.”

The dog looked up, lifting his head from the wolf’s neck to peer through the dark with his grey eyes. The dog looked quite surprised to see James’s face peeking out the trap door and so he got up, extricating himself from the knot of limbs he’d created on the bed of blankets with Remus. The dog shook off his coat on his way over to the trap door… James glanced down at Lily in the tunnel, then said, “Sirius, Lily and I are here.”

The dog stopped.

“Peter’s missing.”

The dog’s eyes flashed to look into James’s.

“We need your help in rescuing Peter.”

The dog looked back at Remus, still fast asleep by the hearth, and he hesitated… then turned back into a person. Immediately, Sirius held up his finger to indicate just one minute and James blushed to see Sirius was shirtless, wearing only his undershorts and he scrambled to snap up his clothes from various places they’d dropped about the room.

“He’s coming,” James whispered to Lily to update her.

After a few moments, Sirius was tip-toing past Remus, his face folded up in a wince, carrying his things, including his leather jacket from the bannister, and he was crouching by the trapdoor. “Watch out, coming through…” He tossed his clothes down, his boots thumping on the packed dirt of the tunnel floor…

“Oh bloody hell, Sirius, you might’ve warned us you were practically naked,” complained Lily as Sirius himself dropped through the trap door and pulled it close behind.

“Sorry, I was sort of given short notice of your presence,” Sirius said, “Otherwise I would’ve brought along a suitcoat and tie…” He was tugging on his t-shirt over his head and carefully arranging his hair just-so again.

Lily kept her eyes covered just the same until he’d gotten dressed.

“Peter’s gone missing you say?” he asked as he shrugged on his leather jacket. “When?”

“Sometime about an hour ago,” James replied.

“So has Frank and Ali,” Lily supported.

Sirius looked concerned, “Mopsus?”

“Gone,” James said holding up the Map. “And furthermore… this was stuck onto the portrait of the Fat Lady.” James held up the mysterious note for him to enter into evidence and inspect.

Sirius’s eyes roved over the parchment quickly. “The Lestrange Manor…” Sirius made a face. “Bloody hate that place.”

“You know where it is, then?” Lily asked.

“Yeah I know where it is… My cousin Bella was married there, the summer before I started here at Hogwarts. They had a horrid ceremony there. So phoney. She doesn’t love Rudolphus, her husband --”

“Blimey, who could love that bloke?” intoned James darkly.

“Well, she’s far too in love with the Dark Lord to love Rudolphus... Bellatrix is a right piece of work. She’s --” But they never heard exactly what Bellatrix Lestrange was as a loud crashing overhead interrupted them and dust from round the edges of the trapdoor rained down them. Lily let out a scream and stumbled backward, falling to her bum in the tunnel. James had jumped back too, though not quite as theatrically as she had done. Sirius laughed. “Somebody’s woken up on the wrong side of the moon,” muttered Sirius, looking up rather calmly in answer to the frantic clawing and growling on the other side.

James held a hand out to help her up, but Lily purposefully struggled to her feet without his help.

“GO BACK TO SLEEP MOONY!” shouted Sirius.

Lily stared at him.

Sirius looked at her and a crooked, mischievous grin slid onto his mouth. “What? Never heard someone tell a werewolf to go back to sleep before?”

“Oh everyday,” Lily answered.

“Should’ve seen us curled up by the hearth just a few minutes ago.” Sirius’s eyes twinkled as Lily’s face took on a confused look. Then, without waiting for her to catch up or even attempting any further explanation to her, Sirius said, “The real question isn’t whether I know where the bloody Lestrange Manor is, it’s a question of how we’re going to get there.”

“Brooms,” James said instantly.

“In this weather?” Sirius asked, making a face, “We’d freeze before we got even halfway…”

“We don’t know how to disapparate yet - and it’s quite dangerous to try without being taught and if you’re caught trying without a license….” James argued.

Lily looked sick at the thought, “There’s the Knight Bus…”

“Too loud…” Sirius complained, “But you may be onto something…” He rubbed his chin, and suddenly remembered --- an idea started to form in his head. A grin spread across his face… a dangerous, scheming grin.

James pointed at Sirius, “And there it is. That’s the look. That’s why we came out here for. See, Evans? It always starts with getting Sirius.”

Sirius’s eyes danced. “I have the mother of all ideas.”

“The mother of them!” James exclaimed, “Do tell.”

“Not yet. I have to check something out first… just to make sure… and then --”

There came more scratching at the door overhead. Sirius looked up. “Moony’s not going to be able to come.” He frowned. “He’s not going to know what’s going on. He’s going to be so confused…” Sirius paused… then looked to Lily. “You should stay here.”

“Yes,” James said, nodding heartily.

“Not this rubbish again. Just because I’m a girl, I’m not ---”

“No - not because you’re a girl - because you and Remus are mates and he needs a mate when he first comes out of a transformation.” Sirius stared at her meaningfully. “He’s going to say a bunch of tosh about being a monster and he needs to be reassured, and he needs to know what’s happening, and it needs to be told to him in a comforting way that I know this one -” he nodded at James, “-- isn’t really capable of.”

“Sounds ‘bout right. Bye Evans.” James grinned.

Lily’s eyes flashed at him, then she turned to Sirius, “So… so what, do I just go up there and wait? He’s not going to attack me?”

“Oh no, no. You need to stay down here until he transforms back… He’s got probably a few more hours of being Wolfy McWerewolf, then he’ll transform… Usually he’s tuckered himself out by then… he’ll fall asleep and transform in his sleep and wake up hours later, but you’ll hear it when he transforms. His bones have been cracking something terrible the last few...”

Lily looked horrified by the thought of being able to hear Remus’s bones cracking. She took a deep breath, “And… and you lot just go off and… fight You-Know-Who… and rescue Peter, Ali, and Frank all alone?”

“What? Don’t you think that we’re enough to take him out? We’re sort of the perfect crime-fighting duo, Evans,” James said.

Lily rolled her eyes, “Two teenage marauders versus the single darkest wizard the world’s ever seen… The duel hardly seems fair.”

“Right, two against one and all,” Sirius grinned.

Lily glowered at him.

Sirius patted her back, “Leave the statistics of it up to me. You stay here and prepare yourself to make my Moony feel better.”

Lily sat on the step with a resigned sigh.

“And I’ll tell you what. If we aren’t back by the time Moony’s a Remus again, you can go to Dumbledore and tell him what’s happened. Just… leave out this bit about being out here by the Shrieking Shack. Ol’ Dumbley doesn’t need to know about that bit.”

Lily nodded. “Alright.”

Sirius turned to James, “And you -- come with me.”

“Where are we going?” James asked, turning to follow as Sirius waved at Lily and started off down the hall at a trot, winding his scarf about his neck a few more loops as they went.

Sirius grinned, “The Muggle Studies Artefact Museum.”

“What in bloody hell are we doing there?” James asked, confused.

Sirius laughed. “You’ll see…”




“You’re mad,” James said, eyes wide.

Sirius was already sliding his palm over the sparkly red paint.

“How do you reckon this is going to help?”

Sirius grinned.

“You dunno what you’re doing,” James said.

Sirius swung his leg over the seat…

“Sirius. Mate. You could get us both killed with that thing.”

He looked over at James.

“How are you even going to get it out of here?” James asked.

“The front doors, of course, how else would we get out of here?”

“Sirius. You can’t exactly go riding off down the halls on that --”

Sirius grinned. “James. Will you trust me, please? I’ve thought it all out.”

James hesitated.

“Prongs. C’mon. You know you want to.”

“Yeah, but --”

“James.”

“But what if --”

“Potter. Get on the ruddy motorbike.”