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The Future


Lily Evans ran through the castle. People looked at her like she was mental as she went by, her red hair flying out behind her as she went. “Miss. Evans! There will be no running in the corridors!” came McGonagall’s sharp voice after her at one point, but she didn’t slow and McGonagall couldn’t very well go after her, carrying the little goat with the Hufflepuff tie still knotted about it’s little neck…

James Potter seemed to have disappeared. She’d looked everywhere - in the common room, the Great Hall, the Trophy Room Passageway, the courtyards, the owlery, the little cove where the boats were docked… every single place she could think of. Finally, frustrated, she sat down on the steps and held her head, thinking. There had to be some place in the castle she hadn’t looked…

If only there was a way she could see exactly where people were in the castle.

She sat up. “Of course. Bloody hell. Of course.” She got up and ran for the common room. “GIANT SQUID!” she shouted at the Fat Lady, who swung open for her, and Lily bolted across the room to the stairs to the boys dormitory, rushing up them.

“Oi, you know this is the boys dorm side?” Jackson Maw demanded as Lily shoved by him on the stairs.

“Is that why it smells like gym socks?” Lily retorted, rolling her eyes, not slowing down to engage with Jackson.

She’d been wondering how she would figure out which door was the one that housed the Marauders, but she had no problem with it. The door had been etched with lettering in the same messy way that the compartment on the Hogwarts Express had been. The Marauders of Hogwarts: Key Purveyors in Magical Mischief Making (by appointment only please), the lettering said. She shook her head - how could they be so bloody destructive? That door was probably a hundred years old, and there it was, all graffitied upon - or into, rather, carved like a tree.

She shoved the door opened.

The dormitory was an absolute mess. She cringed at a pair of boy shorts laying on the floor and all the dirty clothes spilling over their desk chairs and trunks. Only one corner of the room was neat - and she guessed it was Remus’s as the messiest thing there was a stack of books. “Bloody hell,” she gasped as she gingerly stepped her way over the mess of things to the desks, where they’d left papers laying about, sketches and notes and all sorts of things...

“If I was one of the messiest boys in the world,” Lily murmured, “Where would I keep a map?” she shifted papers on the desks aside, sifting, searching… Then she saw something quite curious and paused in her searching to lift up the parchment.

It was one of Remus’s drawings. It was of the castle, from across the Black Lake, the sun rising up over the trees… the detail in the castle itself was incredible - right down to the grain of the stones that made up the castle walls, little windows, some colored in dark and others in soft yellow pencil. But the curious part of it was the foreground. For on the edge of the Black Lake, the subjects of the drawing was Remus himself from behind, and three other figures. Animal figures. It was like looking at a scene out of Snow White, Lily thought, her eyes moving over the animals that surrounded Remus in his drawing… a rat sat on his shoulder with a long, curling tail… and a shaggy black dog at his hip, upon which his hand rested in the fur, and beside him, standing tall, with large antlers that stretched into the sky, was a stag.

Suddenly there was a loud THUMP! beside her and Lily jumped, dropping the parchment onto the desk. A broken chair leg had just fallen from the ceiling and landed on the floor beside her. Lily clutched her heart, “The bleedin’ idiots!” she gasped, looking up at the now empty ceiling.

But the falling piece of furniture - or piece of a piece of furniture, rather - had put her mind back on track for what she was really there for. She did, however, take the drawing and fold it up, putting it in her pocket for later… She turned and carefully pushed open the boys trunks, not daring to poke about too much, using the handle of James’s broomstick to move the shorts from the center of the floor so she could get to Remus’s side of the room… and that’s when she spotted it, just a tiny corner of the parchment, sticking out from beneath his mattress.

“Thank Merlin, I don’t think I could take another second in here,” she murmured, tugging the Marauders Map out from under Remus’s mattress and turning for the door, “Disgusting boys. I mean, honestly, that’s what the laundry hamper’s for… and - oh my God - I don’t even want to think about where that has been,” she added, noticing that James’s quidditch things were laying across his bed, including a protective jock cup. She shuddered and hurried for the door.

Lily rushed out of the common room and to the little flight of stairs that she and Remus often used for chatting and she pulled the Marauder’s Map from her pocket and opened it up, looking over the castle’s outlines, overwhelmed by all the names walking about. Somewhere among all the hundreds of names clustered about on the Map was James Potter. Lily never would’ve believed she would spend so much time - and face such harrowing things as that bloody dormitory - looking for Potter.

It took her several minutes before she spotted him, and she creased her eyebrows.

What could James Potter possibly be doing in the Divination tower?




Sirius’s fingers only just barely caught the third step. He hung there, heart racing through his chest, the werewolves snapping and jumping, trying to bite at his ankles, which dangled only just above their reach. His arms shook with the effort of hanging on and he carefully moved so that he was at least holding onto one of the rails of the bannister, giving him a bit more grip. He looked down as Greyback paced, calculating, and Remus’s wolf form lunged and launched itself up, eyes wild with hunger, desperately trying to grab hold on Sirius.

“It’s me, Remus, it’s me, Sirius,” he said. But the wolf still salivated, seeing only a morsel to eat.

At least he was alive, Sirius thought. He might be a wolf, but he was a living wolf. He struggled to grab onto the next rung of the banister up, fancying that he might pull his way back onto the steps and out of the basement… Then Remus jumped up as hard as he possibly could and his teeth clamped around Sirius’s shoe. Panicking, Sirius kicked off the boot and it fell to the ground, the werewolf still attached, hitting the cellar floor with a thump and a whimper from the wolf. “Sorry, Rey… Can’t keep your mouth off of me, can you?” he said, entertaining himself with his own chatter as he worked at switching rungs still, “I’m understanding your aversion to slobber a bit more than I usually do… though I’ll tell you now, I make a much more attractive canine than you do, mate… And you’re going to be owing me a new pair of boots, by the by...”

He’d managed to grapple onto the second run, raising himself up a good six inches. Which was very fortunate because now that Remus Lupin had figured out how to leap up as high as he had a moment ago, he was doing it every few seconds, springing up like a bloody jack-in-the-box from hell, but still falling short thanks to the extra ground Sirius had gained. If he’d stayed where he’d been, the wolf would’ve caught onto his ankle by now.

Greyback was still pacing, staring up at Sirius with hungry eyes, but much more patiently than Remus was… somehow, Greyback’s patiently staring eyes were even more unnerving than the clapping of Remus Lupin’s jaws just inches from his sock-covered toes...

The only thing for it was to keep pulling himself - one rung at a time - toward the door...




“Protego horribilis!” It was Alabastar Jackson that recovered first from the energy blow that had leveled the entire order. He ended up on his feet first, a cluster of the others at his feet reorienting themselves, and he put up the shield charm quickly, his wand arm extended so that the charm would cover all of them.

Druella Black laughed, “Is this the best the Resistance has to send to save Sirius Black? Twelve teenagers with a shield charm?” She looked over them with a high nose and a smirk that quivered about her lips. “A load of children against the most powerful wizard that ever lived?”

“And are you the best that Voldemort has to offer?” Frank Longbottom asked as he pulled Ali Prewitt to her feet and offered a hand up to Marlene McKinnon as well. He looked Druella over and shrugged, “I mean, honestly, seems like he could do better.”

Druella hissed and she sent a curse at Frank that hit Alabastar’s shield, sending a repercussion all the way up his arm to his wand, but not breaking the spell. The curse rebounded and Druella ducked it, the sparks hitting the door of Kreacher’s cupboard, which cracked down the center.

Peter stepped forward. “Where does that door go? Where’ve you just thrown Sirius to?”

Druella glanced over her shoulder at the darkness that was the open doorway. “Just to my furry little friends,” she replied and her eyes glowed happily at the panic on Peter’s face. “Well, to our furry little friends, really. Or do you all not know about ---”

“LANGLOCK!” Sirius cried, leaping up from the basement door suddenly, waving his wand to silence Druella before she could expose Remus Lupin’s secret and she choked on the words as she spun about to look at him in shock. “Expelliarmus!” Sirius shouted and Druella’s wand flew from her hand and clattered to the floor by the door to the basement. They both dove for it quickly, fighting over it as they each clamped onto it. Druella flattened Sirius quickly, kneeling upon him so that he was pinned to the floor and she leaned over him, grabbing for the wand that he held high over his head and then, with a grunt of exertion, he chucked it down into the basement. “There, now your bloody boyfriend can play fetch,” Sirius sneered.

Druella’s eyes flashed.

The Order members leaped into action, running forward to help. Jasper Odair quickly used the incarcerous to tie Druella’s hands behind her back and Harry Warbeck helped Sirius up to his feet as Frank Longbottom looked on, “Bloody hell, that was pretty intense. But we’ve done it, you lot!” Frank put a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Good job, Peter.”

Peter smiled, “I know! Amazing, isn’t it? And me - leading! Without any help from James!”

“James.” Sirius turned suddenly and bolted for the stairs.

Peter looked warily at the others, then rushed after Sirius, followed by Frank and Ali as Alabastar Jackson and Jasper Odair continued on with binding Druella Black. “Sirius?” Peter called, running up the steps after Sirius, who stepped over the broken door of the library, desperately looking around, looking under things and behind the curtains, under the desk, running for the floo…

“Sirius?” Peter came to a stop just inside the doorway, Frank and Ali directly behind.

“I gotta find his body, I won’t leave him here,” Sirius was frantic.

“Find who’s body?”

“James’s.”

Frank, Ali and Peters faces all went quite pale. “What?” breathed Peter, “What do you mean find James’s body? James didn’t come - we - we couldn’t find him.”

“He was already here when I got here,” Sirius explained, though even as he said the words… he realized how impossible that was… “He was… he was here…” He pointed to the carpet. “He was… dead…”

Peter looked ‘round at Frank and Ali, then back to Sirius, “But --”

“I don’t understand it, either, Peter,” Sirius said. “But I know what I saw and then - when I tried to grab onto him… he… he went up in smoke… and…”

Suddenly the door closed behind Ali, making her jump and squeal as she banged into Frank’s shoulder. Frank turned about but there wasn’t a soul there, the door had simply closed of it’s own accord it seemed.

And then there came that laugh… that low, horrible laugh…

Peter’s eyes were wild as he looked about, recognizing the laugh. Frank and Ali backed up into Sirius and Peter’s backs so they formed a square, each facing a different way, each with their wands drawn…

“Homenum Revelio!” Frank shouted, and there was a shivery sort of light by the door… an apparition of sorts… silver in the dark… “What the bloody hell is that?” Frank breathed, terrified.

And the apparition came closer... slowly… clutching a cane… and Peter’s heart sped up in his chest while Sirius’s very nearly stopped as the lot of them stumbled backwards. “Oh my God, no it’s impossible,” breathed Ali Prewitt.

“Mopsus… sees… all,” breathed the figure. More than ghost, but less than human, Sirius shivered just looking at what Kostos Mopsus had become.

“You... you’ve killed James Potter!” Sirius accused, his mind reeling, trying desperately to figure out what was happening.

“Murderer!” yelled Peter.

“No…” breathed Mopsus’s figure.

“Liar. I saw him. I saw him right here,” Sirius snarled.

“What you saw…” said Mopsus, “...was the future.” And he turned, lifting a small glass ball. “The prophecy has been sealed. The killer is known. James Potter will die at the hand of the Dark Lord!”