The Return of the Marauders

Marauder's First Adventure

It was an odd group, sitting in the Shrieking Shack, two boys and two girls; three Gryffindors and one Ravenclaw, but all of them chatting like old friends, though they had only known each other a few hours.

"So if you're not a real vampire, then what are you?" James asked, chewing on a chocolate frog.

"Well," said the girl, who had introduced herself as Mildred Worple, "that's a bit of a story, but if I'm going to be a member of this club, I suppose I should tell you. My grandfather is Eldred Worple, do you know about him?"

"Sure!" Ramona Lupin exclaimed. "He wrote that book, Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires. Pretty good, too!"

Mildred smiled, "Well, one of the things that he doesn't tell you in the book is that to be accepted into the tribe, early on, he had to be willing to actually join a vampire family--marry into one! That took some doing, because in our society, if you're still alive it's like a stigma: you don't have the courage to give up your blood." She chuckled a bit. "Anyway, Grandpa finally found a family that was willing to take him in, and he married the daughter of a minor nobleman, and eventually they had a son, Ethelred."

"So you're Ethelred's daughter?" Sirius asked.

She nodded, but looked unhappy. "Yeah, but it's not quite that simple. You see one of the reasons why offspring of vampires are rarely seen is because the births seldom go right--lots of miscarriages, and even the children who survive never seem to thrive. No one knows why. Anyway, my Dad didn't live more than a dozen years or so, just long enough to father me, really. As for me, well, I'm one of a kind, a second-generation offspring. So far," she said, holding up her hands and shrugging, "no problems." She fell silent, and then Ramona took her hand. "I understand. My Dad's a werewolf." Mildred looked at her quickly, and then smiled. "Cool!"

James took command. "All in favor of Mildred Worple being the fourth Marauder, signify by saying, 'Aye'." There were no dissents, and Sirius put his hand on top of the girls' and his brother slapped his down, too. "All for one, and one for all!"

Sirius spread the map out on the floor and showed Mildred how it worked. "Wow! You guys really have this all figured out!" They watched Argus Filch patrolling the perimeter of the building, while his cat checked his back, in case he missed something.

"I can't believe that guy's still alive," muttered Ramona. "He looks like an Inferi. He was around when my Dad was here as a student, too."

Sirius nodded, wishing they'd brought something more to eat than just candy. "Our Dad says he wants regulations restored giving him permission to whip students."

"Ouch!" Mildred said, looking particularly offended. "They didn't really allow that at Hogwarts, ever, did they?"

James nodded. "My Dad says they did, a long time ago. Our grandfather got whipped once, 'cause he sneaked out to see his girlfriend."

Ramona smiled. "Blimey, that's dedication! I'd think a lot of a boy who risked a whipping to see me."

Sirius and James smiled. "That's what our grandmother said!"

Mildred Worple was watching the passage of Argus Filch and considering. "Well, we could make Mr. Filch our first adventure."

"What's that?" asked Sirius.

Mildred pointed at the map. "Well, look here: he's going to pass by the greenhouses right here in about thirty minutes, unless he changes course. Now, I could lure him into a run towards this wall just by appearing there. In my other form, I could approach the place undetected, 'cause no one else at Hogwarts knows about me except you three. Then, you lot could ambush him."

"With what?" Ramona demanded. "I don't have anything special, and we don't qualify to go to Hogsmeade or Zonko's until Third Year."

The twins looked at each other, grinned evilly, and then produced Dungbombs and a flash-pellet as though by sleight of hand. "Never count a Potter or a Weasley unarmed until you've stripped him naked!" they said in unison.

Ramona nodded. "Okay, that takes care of the ambush, but how do we get back inside the school?"

James gestured at the map. "There's a secret passage right by this old tree down by the lake. It leads right back into the castle to that big mirror on the fourth floor. We ambush Filch, then run for the tunnel, get back into the school, and head for our respective dormitories. He'd have no reason to suspect us."

The New Marauders looked at each other and nodded as one.

Argus Filch couldn't believe it! Straight ahead of him was a student, lounging against the old wall by the greenhouses. That was bad enough, but unless his eyesight was worse than usual, she was smoking a cigarette! Oh, he was going to enjoy this! A double-detention in the first week! "Ha!" he shouted and barreled toward the little slacker, ignoring the pains his rheumatism was causing.

From out of nowhere, a sudden flash caught him dead-on, and then, the unmistakable smell of dung! He screamed and doubled over in pain. Through the spots flashing in front of his eyes, he saw four shadowy forms rushing towards the lake. "Mrs. Norris!" he shouted, and then started to vomit.

"Over here!" James shouted, pointing towards the tunnel, hidden under a hinged rock. They piled in and started charging through the passage, laughing and giggling. "Did you see the way he doubled over?" More laughter. "Puked his guts out!"

The tunnel angled up toward the school, covered over by an occasional cobweb, and then a set of brick stairs appeared before them. They charged upwards, Mildred winging ahead of them, her screeching cry sounding occasionally as she navigated by sonar. James and Ramona had their wands out, illuminating the passage, chattering between each other about future exploits.

They reached the top of the staircase and then drew up sharply, as Mildred was waiting for them, in human form, her face a mask of misery. "We're in trouble!" She pointed, and Sirius groaned: the end of the passage was blocked by a cave-in!

"What do we do now?" Mildred asked.

"Can we climb past it?" James asked.

"Not a chance," Mildred said, pointing at the stones. "It's a complete cave-in. My sonar says it's solid."

"How come this wasn't on the map?" Ramon asked.

Sirius unfolded the map and activated it, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The map appeared, and they riffled through the folds to look at the passage, which appeared clear. "It must show the place as it used to be, not how it is! Back when the first Marauders used it, this passage was clear." He frowned a bit. "We'll have to explain that to our successors."

"If there are any," Mildred said, pointing at a moving nametag. Argus Filch was heading directly for the passage by the lake, with Mrs. Norris right behind him! "He must know about this tunnel!"

"Which means he knows it's blocked!" Sirius said. "We've got about two minutes to figure out a way out of here."

Mildred looked at the rocks. "We could roll these down the tunnel and block it from the other side."

James shook his head. "One could roll down and hit Filch. I just wanted to have fun, I don't want to kill him."

Mildred nodded. "Good point."

"I've got it!" Ramona shouted, explaining the spell she'd thought of.

"I don't think it's strong enough for this," James objected.

"So we all do it at once," she said, pointing at them, "for added strength. Ready?" They all nodded, drawing their wands. Sirius noted that Mildred's was red, probably cherry. Fitting, he thought. "Three, two, one. Tunna Reparo!"

The rocks flew back to their proper places and the cracks sealed by themselves. The way out was clear!

They started to cheer, but then heard a voice from their backside. "I'm coming for you, you little brats!"

They rushed to the mirror, which opened slowly on rusted hinges. Sirius checked the map, and nodded. The hallway was clear. Abandoning all thought of quiet they rushed out the door and stampeded back to Gryffindor Tower. Halfway there, Mildred suddenly remembered her Sorting, and changed form, flitting towards Ravenclaw. They waved goodbye as they ran, and she dipped a wing at them.

"Morphology," they said to the Fat Lady, who grumbled sleepily, but swung forward to let them in.

"Seeya!" Ramona said, and ran up to the girl's dormitory.

James and Sirius hurried into their beds, snickering. The twins looked at each other with a grin, and then fell instantly asleep.

Filch was there at the entrance to the Great Hall the next morning, eyeing every single student who walked in, but not a single one betrayed anything to him. At length he realized he would have to catch the intruders in the act, and slouched over to the staff table for breakfast. Unbeknownst to him, three of the Marauders were so close they could still smell the dung on him! Finishing up their meal, Mildred Worple, at the Ravenclaw table, caught their eye, and nodded toward the door, at which point all of them collected their books and bags and headed out.

Once on the grounds, they laughed and shook hands and hugged. "Brilliant! What's next?"

"Well," said Ramona, still chewing on a strip of bacon she was carrying in a handkerchief, "I was thinking that I've got a full moon coming up next week, so maybe we should meet back at the 'Shack. My grandmum gave me a packet of household spells, and that place does need some cleaning."

Mildred giggled. "Too bad we can't get the house-elves to do it."

"It'd be nice," James remarked, "but they're sworn to serve Hogwarts school, so if Filch or anyone else asked them about us, they'd be honor-bound to tell him, wouldn't they?"

"Well that's out, then," Sirius said. "It's not like James and I have never had to work. Mum makes us do chores all the time."

Mildred shrugged. "Okay. Make sure you know when moonrise is, Ramona. I've seen a few werewolves change before, and it's no fun."

Ramona giggled. "Well, I don't exactly do a full morph, but you'll see. It's just not something I want anyone else to know about."

"Wait a minute!" Sirius objected. "Your dad had animagi to help him out. James and I aren't animagi. If you bit us, we'd become werewolves!"

Ramona shook her head. "I'm not a true werewolf, so you don't have to worry. I'm no danger to anyone." She could see she wasn't convincing him, so she raised her right hand. "I swear to you, I'm not dangerous...it's just not very pretty. I don't want anyone else to see me, okay? But I trust you guys. I hope I'm not wrong in that trust."

"We believe you," James said. "Just tell us when, and we'll meet you there."

***

It took the better part of the evening to clear out the upper floors of the Shrieking Shack, but fortunately, Ramona proved to be the most adept at 'the householdy spells' as she called them. James and Sirius worked at shoring up the house itself, putting shims under beams and pilings and even constructing several supports to help steady the place. Sirius 'borrowed' several tools from Hagrid's hut to simplify things. Then, while Mildred was helping Ramona tidy up one room that she wanted to call their 'command center' the boys went back to Hogwarts and returned with armloads of food.

"Here," said James, unfolding a spare tablecloth onto a rickety table, "one entire ham, just like you wanted! Uncle Ron was right, the house-elves are only too happy to give it away!"

"Good timing," said Ramona, glancing at her watch. "It's only a few minutes to moonrise."

Sirius stepped back, with his wand in one hand. Despite her assurances, he was still a bit nervous about the whole thing.

Mildred picked up a cream-filled éclair and took a bite. "I love sucking the filling out of the these things!" The pastry warped slightly as its insides were drained away.

James guffawed. "Is that your difference? You drink cream instead of blood?"

She glared at him, but finally smiled. "I'm perfectly human, much to the relief of my Mum and my grandfather. Changing into a bat is just a bonus--part of my heritage."

"Any minute now," Ramona said.

They waited, and then it happened. The first thing they noticed, was that the hair on her arms and face darkened, and then got bristly and sharp. Her nose flattened, and then turned a pale gray, but didn't elongate into a full snout. Her ears lengthened into canine points, and grew furry, but never quite achieved the animal resemblance. Her nails darkened, but didn't become claws. A protrusion could be seen at her backside, but didn't quite qualify as a tail; and that was it!

Mildred was the first to speak. "You're right, it's not pretty."

James grinned, "It's actually kind of cute."

Ramona glanced quickly at him, "You think so?" Her voice had deepened, and had sort of a growl quality.

Sirius could see that her teeth were sharper, but again, not quite the wolfish triangles designed for death and mayhem. "You look kind of like one of the characters from a Muggle TV show I saw once." He thought for a moment. "I think the character's name was Eddie."

"The one thing that I do have is hunger!" Ramona said, picking up the ham hock and biting into it. The other Marauders watched her tear into the meat, and at length decided they'd better help themselves or they wouldn't get anything.

Fortunately, once Ramona finished the ham, she contented herself with two flasks of pumpkin juice and three chicken wings. After that she walked over to the sofa she and Mildred had cleaned and lay down on it. She belched once, and the boys laughed. "And this is it?" James asked. "You shouldn't worry. Half the school would pay to see something like this!"

"During Quidditch season we could dress you up with a mane and you could be the Gryffindor lion! You're half the part right now!" Sirius exclaimed

Mildred groaned, and looked around at the growing darkness. She lit a few candles so they wouldn't have to rely on their wands. "You're right, Ramona. They don't understand."

Sirius looked at his twin, but James was bewildered as well. "Understand what?"

Mildred folded her arms across her chest. "Boys live on their notoriety; girls live on their reputation! If she showed this to the school, everyone would know her as Ramona the Freak--the girl who changes every month! Who'd want to invite her to a party, except as the entertainment? Who would want to talk to her? Who would ask her to the Yule Ball?" She glowered at their incomprehension. "None of this leaves this room, understand?"

The boys looked at each other again, shrugged, nodded, and then pulled out the map, and started planning their next adventure.

Mildred rolled her eyes, sighed, and pulled up a chair alongside Ramona. "It's okay, I'm here, and I understand, even if they don't."

"Thanks," Ramona said, and squeezed her friend's hand. A long red tongue came out of her mouth and licked her vestigial whiskers. Then she caught herself and sniffled. "I'm glad you're my friend."

Mildred nodded, smiling, and squeezed the hand in return. "Believe it, girlfriend. For life!"